#destiny is weird y'all

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Endurance 1

Warnings: this fic will include obsessive behaviour, possible non/ducbon, bullying, and other elements which may not be specifically triggered. Please be cautious in continuing on to the story.

Character: Walter Marshall

Summary: A fellow gym go makes your workouts even more taxing.

Please reblog and leave some feedback, preferably in a reblog but you can always drop by my asks. I always love working in y'alls ideas with these AUs so I am so excited to hear from you.

As always, take care of yourself <3 be kind and be patient. Love you.

No tag lists. Please review my pinned and bio for guidelines.

You come out of the changing room and peek at the wall mirror as you pass. You admire your new bubblegum pink leggings and polka dot top. It’s a bit out there but you’ve seen neons in this place that make your retinas burn. Besides, you’ve never been shy when it comes to fashion. It’s not just your passion, it’s your job. 

It’s late enough that the bodies there are far and few between. You prefer the nights when the gym feels like a ghost town. The air is quiet but not stagnant.  

Your water bottle swings on its handle from your hand as your bouncy steps keep in time with the boppy music thrumming in your earbuds. Your workout mix is a nice blend of retro and contemporary bass hits. You catch yourself humming and stamp it down. Sometimes, you forget other people can perceive you, not that there’s many around to so.  

You find an empty mat. They all are. You put your bottle down and start your stretches. Your late night sessions help clear your mind though it never really stops. In your mind, you’re seeing pleats, seams, and ruffles. 

Your body moves without thinking. It’s all muscle memory. You’re no gym rat, you don’t go that hard, just enough to loosen up your muscles. Your note overly swoll as the young ones call it. You’re fit enough for a light jog and the stairs don’t leave you winded like they used to. 

After your stretches, you slurp loudly from the straw of your water bottle, walking with it still between your lips as you head for an elliptical. You can just let the repetitive motion take over. You pop your lips off the tub and slip the bottle into the little plastic holder on the side of the machine. 

As you climb up, you see another figure across the floor. The man sits on the end of a weight bench. For a moment, it looks, even feels, like he’s watching you. From there, you can’t see very well. You don’t wear your glasses in the gym since you lost a pair to a hungry leg press. 

You can make out dark hair and his burly form. Hazy but wide enough to clock. Most people around here are stacked. You’re too casual for all that. And you like a piece of tiramisu with your Friday lattes. 

You pick your speed and start to climb. You cling to the machine and rock your head to the music. Once more, your throat vibrates and you have to remind yourself to stop. You can’t help it, you love Destiny’s child. Does that date you? For someone working in fashion, you can’t ever risk that. 

You zone out, vision blurring as you let your body do the work. The sweat speckles and slicks across your skin. Damn, you might just be bootylicious after this work out. 

Your fitbit rumbles and you look down. You’re in the zone. You keep going until you hit thirty minutes and slow down. You cool off for ten minutes and swipe up your bottle, sucking on it greedily as you head back to the mats. 

You swing out your arms and stretch your legs in slowly lunges. You bend forward, touching each toe with opposite hand, lingering with your ass up as you brace your hips. A sudden clang has you standing straight so fast you nearly topple onto your butt. 

You throw out your arms to catch your balance as you let out a pathetic, ‘woah-oh-oh'. You look over at the man as begins reps with the heavy dumbbells. You’ve never gotten above the tens. His blue eyes flash in your direction and you give a sheepish smile. 

You don’t want to seem weird so you return to your stretches. Arms up, lean to one side, then the other. You hear a strange rumble, like thunder, and look over at the man as he continues to work his traps, staring at you. You could even call it a glare. 

You tap your ear bud as you face him, “sorry?” 

“Do you have to make that noise?” He snarls. 

Your brows pop up. We’re you humming again? Oops. 

“Sorry, I didn’t realise I was,” you smile and before you can tap play, he scoffs.  

“Typical,” he grumbles as alternates to biceps. 

He’s built. He’s arms are bigger than your head. Probably. You don’t think he’d let you compare for scale. You drop your hand without tapping. 

You get down and extend your legs in front of you. His breaths underline your movement as you bend one leg over the other and push your straight arm against it as you twist. As you do the other side, facing him, his gaze flicks over again. 

“You put more time into choosing that outfit than you do working out,” he shakes his head. 

You blanch. Oh wow. You must have been really out of tune if he’s that grumpy. You give a tight-lipped smile and keep going. He’s not the first grouch you’ve dealt with. Your editor is a chronic miser. 

You straight arms and legs and bend to touch your toes. You then pull your arms back and plant your hands. You lift your pelvis and torso and lean your head back, raising yourself in a straight line as you hang your head back. 

“Form is off,” he mutters. 

You lower back down and look at him again. 

“Oh, uh, do you have any tips?” You ask curiously. He grimaces. You push your shoulders up and tilt your head, “well, if you think of any, I'd be happy to work on it. I’d hate to hurt myself.” 

You get to your knees and groan as you push yourself to your feet. He tuts as gets down to plank, still gripping the weights. He lifts the left and puts it back down, then the right. You watch him for a minute, impressed by his strength. Your wary of lifting too much, you don’t trust yourself. 

“You think your cute,” he sneers under his breath. 

“Um, sometimes,” you hover across from him, “I just thought you might know more than me--” 

“Of course I do,” he puffs between lifts. 

“Mm, okay, well, I’d love to learn--” 

“They got trainers for that,” he snips as he finishes his reps and puts his knees down. 

“Right, um, sorry to bother then. I was only... asking,” you turn and grab your bottle. 

You flip the top up again and slurp. You get to the bottom, sucking air loudly up before giving up. He huffs and stands with the weights, slamming them back on the rack. 

“Do you have to make so much goddamn noise?” He stands straight and turns to you, crossing his thick arms. You stop short and part your lips. 

“It’s empty, I didn’t--” 

“It’s not the only thing’s that empty,” he taps his skull, “go back to the mall, girl.” 

You scrunch your nose, “you don’t have to be rude, mister.” 

“Honesty is a gift,” he snorts. 

You pull your chin back. You didn’t mean to annoy him and you apologised already. You’re a nice person but you don’t appreciate his tone. 

“Well, if I’m being honest,” you put your hands on your hips, “you’re not very nice.” 

He chortles as a crease forms in his forehead, “and you’re not as cute as you think.” 

“What does it matter what I think I am?” You challenge, “I didn’t ask you.” 

“No, you just float around like some airhead and disturb everyone else,” he accuses. 

You peer around, “there’s no one here.” 

He drops his arms and lifts his chin. He steps forward and you waver, just a bit, put off by his size.  

“I’m here,” he says. 

You blink. What does that mean? 

He takes another step and you stare at him, necks and cheek burning. His words strike an epiphany. It’s just you and him. He’s a lot stronger than you. 

Another step and you put your hands up, “mister, you better not come any closer.” 

He scoffs again, “or what? Are you going to cry?” 

You pout and shake your head, “no, but I... I could scream. Or bite.” 

He shakes his head, “what do you think I’m gonna do, girl? That’s what you do, isn’t it? Make yourself the victim. You need the attention to make you feel special.” 

He’s getting closer. 

“I said stay away,” you project your voice as best you can, “I’m not afraid of you, mister.” 

He chuckles and tilts his head. He stops, just a step away from you, “aren’t you?’ 

Your eyes meet his and you stand trapped in the snare of his glower. His blue eyes are deep and fiery, his chiseled face is framed by dark curls and a thick beard, and his chin is cleft handsomely. He’s fearsome, a bear in man’s flesh. You’re no more than helpless hare. 

You back away and his mouth slants in triumph. He’s won. You turn and gulp, gripping tight your bottle as your sneaker squeaks loudly. You scurry away, buzzing with adrenaline. 

“That’s right, you run away, girl, run as fast as you can,” he calls after you, “not very, I’m sure.” 

You keep a brisk walk as you hurry towards the locker room and push inside. Your heart is hammering and your breathless as you reach your locker. You put the bottle on the bench and clutch the sides of your head. You’re dizzy as you try to get a rein on your frazzled nerves. 

You thought you left the bullies behind in high school, over a decade ago. In that second, you’re right back in your teenage years. Your eyes sting with tears and your stomach churns with humiliation. That glimmer of insecurity creeps back into you. 

No, no. You’re an adult. You’re a grown woman. You have a job and a life you love. You’re nothing they said you were. You proved them all wrong and you will prove that butthead wrong too. 

#walter marshall #dark walter marshall #dark!walter marshall #walter marshall x reader #drabble #series #gym au #au #night hunter #endurance

[titanelite22]

Look, if you don't like Mean Girls (2024) then that's fine, no one is holding you at gunpoint. However, the constant hate is seriously getting tiring. (TW For Body shaming, Eating Disorders For Point 2 Part A, Point 4 and the TLDR)

1) The people who were groaning like Minecraft villagers in the cinema every time they would sing confused me. It was stated that it is a musical movie and it is based on the musical. Do y'all not look at what you're going to watch before you watch it? That's not the fault of the creators, that's your fault.

2) Some of y'all need to leave Reneé Rapp ALONE.

2A - The body shaming that she experienced when the trailers were released was seriously disgusting. Let's keep two things in mind when it comes to this topic:

• Reneé has openly said that when playing Regina for the musical, The costume designers would change the sizing of her clothing without her knowing, and she was constantly body shamed. This led to her developing an eating disorder.

• The body standards back in the '00s were unrealistic and toxic. Rachel McAdams, from what I can see, is a naturally skinny person who probably doesn't put on weight as easily as other people. Now, if she was to gain a bit of weight, she would indeed be called "plus sized" back then. A "plus sized" model on America's Next Top Model, for example, was a size 6... Yeah, exactly.

Beyoncé was called fat back when she was in Destiny's Child (She's spoken about it, and there are probably even articles), which is crazy because she was slim. Very slim. And remember Dreamgirls? She lost weight for that film too, using very unhealthy diets and she didn't need to.

2B - Y'all need to stop lying to yourselves and saying that Reneé isn't a good Regina George - You just prefer Rachel McAdams' Regina George. Reneé did amazingly and she has an amazing voice and one of the strongest vocal performances. Reneé has been playing Regina George for years for the musical. Rachel McAdams herself even gave Reneé her blessing, saying that she can "do no wrong" and that she can't wait to see her on screen. She even introduced Reneé on SNL. I feel like some of you are trying to live out your Mean Girl fantasies, and you need to get a slap back to reality.

2C - "Reneé Rapp needs media training". When I first saw this, I thought that she was saying some extremely offensive things. Then, what do I see? Her calling out bad service from a business... People do it all the time, why is it different when she does it? Is it because she's a celebrity? I didn't see a problem with what she said at all. Reneé also has a very random train of thought from what I can see (Terrell even points it out on his show), but it's never anything to cause outrage about. It's just things that make you go "Oh! Ok lol".

3) "Why is Janis a lesbian in the 2024 movie? Isn't the whole joke that she's Lebanese?". Let me start by saying that while the joke was implied, Regina did not that this was the reason. Regina said that Janis started to get "obsessed" with her when she started dating Kyle (And it was probably more like Regina was more focused on her boyfriend and not much on her best friend, hence Janis probably asking Regina to spend time with her and Regina finding it "weird" because she's so self-absorbed...) and so she assumed that Janis is a lesbian. If the whole Lesbian/Lebanese joke was clearer, they would've had Regina state that Janis told her that she's Lebanese (Lesbian).

Secondly, Just because Janis kisses a boy at the end of the film doesn't mean she's not a Lesbian. For starters, there are things in the Musical that are changed from the original movie, and the 2024 movie is based on the musical (and Janis doesn't speak to Kevin at all in the musical. Correct me if I'm wrong). On top of that, there are many who later on realise that the sexuality they believed themselves to be doesn't fit them. For example, Reneé was Bisexual before she realised that she was a Lesbian. She's dated guys, does that suddenly mean she's not a Lesbian? No... Now, stop complaining about Janis being a lesbian in the 2024 film 🥱

4) The complaints about lines being changed/songs being cut e.g. "I never weighed more than 115" to "That filter you use looks just like me". Reneé was bullied and body shamed during the musical, why do you think they changed that line? I've seen quite a few people like "It's not even that offensive" like hello? Let's use our brains!

I do agree with the complaints about songs being cut (e.g. Meet The Plastics) and I do agree that Tina Fey's speech about girls respecting each other should've been added due to Tina Fey herself saying she wanted to reduce the amount of slut shaming in the musical. I feel like it would've added a lot of impact (I don't think the scene was in the musical. Once again, correct me if I'm wrong).

My Thoughts On The Film:

• It was visually pleasing in my opinion, the dance numbers were really nice, beautiful cinematography and I think the cast was well chosen

• I wish that they had chosen actors that could sing - Avantika did a good job as Karen, but her singing was lacking. Same thing with Angourie Rice. People may not think it's a big deal and fair enough, but I just think that it stands out when you have her in the same film with Reneé and Auli'i.

• The soundtrack was amazing, but I wasn't a fan of some rearrangements. However, I can understand why they may have done it with Stupid In Love.

• A lot of funny jokes, and it was fun to watch

TLDR;

• You're allowed to dislike it. However, the constant comparisons to the 2004 movie and the constant complaints about minor things is starting to get tiring. Like oh no, Janis is a lesbian? YAWN, move on !

• Stop bodyshaming Reneé. Y'all are genuinely nasty individuals for doing this and you'll be the same ones preaching about Mental health and being kind to people... I hope she doesn't listen to any of you assholes.

#mean girls #mean girls 2024 #angourie rice #avantika vandanapu #tina fey #00s #tw disordered eating #tw ed diet #body image #movies

[for-a-longlongtime]

Songs and musings in the Key of Peña-Rockford

(Those gun holsters have me all fucked up. Seriously.)

I warned y'all about how obsessive my hyperfocus can get, right? Damn ADHD. The choke hold (all the puns intended) that this fic idea has on me is unreal, haha. But all of your comments and encouragements about this Rockford Pena WIP are making me so happy and relieving some of the stress I feel about writing it - thank you! I don't have another snippet to share just yet (so I hope this post isn't too much of a cock tease), but since I always love to read about character thots and writing processes (e.g. the extra posts by @mysterious-moonstruck-musings about her Destiny & Deliverance series, and @gracieispunk with her White Lotus posts), I figured I'd post a little update with some musings and songs I'm associating with this fic.

My Spotify currently is curated by @sin-djarin, who somehow knew just the right songs that relate to this WIP. Particularly these three tracks are on constant repeat. Going back and forth with her about little things that come up, or question ‘why this and not’ has been so much fun really. It makes me giddy because it turns the fic into something collaborative rather than just something from the inside of my brain, you know?

Whisper - Morphine

I included this track the other day already with the WIP snippet; it’s sexy and slow and that bass line really gets to me, then the saxophone ups it even more. @sin-djarin sent me several Morphine songs (I have to admit that somehow I wasn’t familiar with them) but this one stands out. The push and pull that’s happening in the lyrics is also delicious, and a lot of it feels like it’s coming from Rockford’s POV about Javi - that’s all I’ll say about it for now.

A Perfect Twist - Mike Patton

This song has an exuberant, rather bombastic vibe to it that I would’ve never associated with anything related to Peña. Although, those lyrics... they are definitely about brat taming.

I'll bend you over my knee Let's see what you can take You're never gonna break

And I'll squeeze that noose a little tighter Breathing like a snake How much can you take? You're never gonna break

And I'll turn those screws a little tighter You can hardly wait You're never gonna break

Just one more twist of the pliers Got you on the brink How much can you take? You're never gonna break

There’s something about the dizzying tune and pace that somehow evokes the noir-like Rockford vibes in the Merge Mansion clips, laced with liquor and cigarette smoke and things spinning kinda out of control.

Wait who said Masquerade Mansion? 🎭

In relation to these two?

Shhhh let’s pretend you didn’t see that. Keep your eyes wide shut. 🎭

Broad Daylight - Gabriel Rios

This is the only song that suddenly came to me re: this fic, and I was all… the fuck is this. I like the song, it's catchy, but it just didn’t make any sense to me with regard to Javi and Tim. The only thing I could think of in relation to the track was maybe a vague reference of Peña getting caught up with Los Pepes, things that were done in the dark and shouldn't come out in the daylight:

Back in the old days, tight like a fight Used to hang with the devil in the broad daylight

But still, it puzzled me. I think something in one of the Morphine songs musically led me to Broad Daylight, weird as that may sound. After way too many replays of that song (and @sin-djarin joking about 'what are those Polaroids Tim has on Javi?', since the song mentions polaroids), the relevance of the song finally clicked with me;

Look at you shaking you can't find his plight Got you scared of ghosts in the dead of night While you're making up stories trying to make it ok He'll be bringing them in to let them out and play In the broad daylight

We'll see how it goes from there.

At some point, there's also going to be a bit of Marcus Pike in the fic (pancakes!). I have to be honest - I don’t really read a lot of Marcus!fic, so I’ve been trying to figure out how he fits in and some of his character traits etc. But the wonderful @secretelephanttattoo was very quick to offer me some insights about Marcus that I needed! Go read it here.

TBH, I had absolutely not planned to write anything about Peña any time soon, because why I love him in canon and in the many fics I've read, I didn't exactly feel like I had a good enough handle on writing something about him that has some plot rather than just fucking. But then this fic idea popped up. If there's anyone who knows him really well, it's @goodwithcheese (you'd better be reading her incredible new story Paranoid Heart about Javi!). So I dropped some questions and fortunately she was totally up for some character chat right here, which is really helping me figure out some things. Thank you babe, and I hope more people will contribute thots to your 1K Celebration Confessional about their sins!

Also, I've been trying to put a time and place to the fic, but I've decided to not get too hung up about that because it's really not literature but Fic/Porn With Plot. It doesn't all have to make sense. But in case you're curious, I'm leaning towards this taking place in the US in recent enough times that smartphones are a thing.

Age wise, I'm seeing Tim Rockford as being 48/50 years old probably. Javier is about 40, 41 years old - just to give you an idea of 'which Javi' I'm looking at, I've got a sense of him as he is in Narcos S2 around episode 4-9, after Carillo is murdered, and Berna takes him to see Judy Moncada.

Reader insert (I know, I haven't spoken a lot about her yet!) is probably about 40 years old too. And finally, Marcus Pike is give r take about 37 years old, which corresponds with his Mentalist appearance.

BTW, I came across an edit that had all of the Tim Rockford bits from the ads without the additional stuff. A whopping total of 48 seconds. Man, I hope that Pedro is aware of how fucked up he has us about Rockford with less than a minute of his acting. Even my wife said 'I would totally watch a show or movie based on this character' when I played the Merge Mansion ads for her.

Finally, here's a video of Pedro talking about "real fantasy fullfillment in terms of getting to immerse yourself in an experience" and how he "loves being a detective, that's fantasy fullfilment for me" re: the Merge Mansion event day.

*hits replay*

Say 'fantasy fullfillment' one more time? Respectfully.

Like I said, I hope he knows how fucked up he has us all about Rockford. I sure am glad he did these ads and whatever he got paid, it sure wasn't enough.

---------------------------------------------------------

Updated tag list (comment if you want to be added, or if I added you by accident!) based on folks who commented/reblogged on the prev posts:

@sin-djarin @legendary-pink-dot @imalrightllama @secretelephanttattoo @rhoorl @mysterious-moonstruck-musings @trulybetty @goodwithcheese @linzels-blog @rifflovesjoey @maggiemayhemnj @magpiepills @youandmeand5bucks @morallyinept @5oh5 @missredherring @avastrasposts @anavatazes @imaswellkid @pedrit0-pascalit0 @angelofsmalldeath-codeine @survivingandenduring @boliv-jenta @prolix-yuy @sheepdogchick3 @inept-the-magnificent @northernwindd @alltheglitterandtheroar @readingiskeepingmegoing @txlady37 @rebel-held @alwaysmicado @heareball @clawdee @covetyou @bellsbluebrd @alltheglitterandtheroar @axshadows @casa-boiardi @bastardmandennis @stealyourblorbos @chronically-ghosted @katw474 @beabliss @nerdieforpedro

I don't know why some usernames don't seem to link when I try to tag them, btw. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this?

#wip #pedro pascal characters #Javier Peña #Tim Rockford #Marcus pike #inspiration #javier pena fanfiction #tim rockford fanfiction #marcus pike fanfiction #reader insert #javier pena x you #javier pena x you x tim rockford #javier pena x reader #narcos #narcos fanfic #narcos fanfiction #tim rockford x you #tim rockford x reader #tim rockford x reader x javier pena #merge mansion #merge mansion smut

[theidiotwhowritesthings]

INEVITABLE [6]

din djarin x female!reader

warnings: language, discussion of the slave trade, past trauma, some canon violence, mentions of murder

word count: 2,040

Summary: It was like fate or destiny had planned from the beginning for you to be on the run from the law. With the words ‘I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold’ adorning your rib cage you always wondered what was worse: Knowing you were bound to being wanted or realizing your soulmate was a cursed bounty hunter. You had a mission to finish and no bounty hunter, soulmate or not, was going to stop you.

[a/n: i'm sorry this is on the shorter side, it was supposed to be longer, but i didn't want to leave y'all with nothing today]

[previous][next]

06: PARTNERS IN CRIME

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"i don't trust easily, so when i tell you i trust you, please don't make me regret it." -unknown

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Tatooine’s suns were only just beginning to rise when the three of you prepped to leave Boba Fett’s palace. You stood outside in the already hot air watching as Mando strapped supplies to the speeder bike. Grogu ran circles around the speeder as Fennec stood with both the father and son chatting. 

“Early morning is my favorite time of day on Tatooine.” Boba’s low voice rumbled as he came to stand beside you. Initially, you had been worried that the daimyo would be stuck up or intimidating, but Boba was nothing of the sort. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He was Mandalorian. You had a very strong suspicion that if you were to cross the man you’d find him more than intimidating. However, as a friend to his friend, you found him nothing but pleasant. Boba had a calming energy about him that almost naturally put you at ease. “Seeing the suns cresting over the Dune Sea is quite the sight.”

“I bet.” Your arms were crossed over your chest. “I kind of wish we could’ve stayed longer.” The words tumbled out of your lips before you could run them through your mental filter. You shrugged. “Sorry. I’m not trying to mooch another night off you, I swear.”

Boba chuckled. “I did not take it that way in the slightest. You are always welcome here, little one. We’d be more than happy to open our doors to you.”

“Thanks.” You glanced at him. “It’s just weird. There’s not a lot of places in this galaxy that I’ve liked enough to stay for longer than 24 hours.” It was the truth. All the places you visited, not a single one of them felt like a location you’d like to linger at. Usually, you were raring to go⏤ to get to the next place. Here though, you could see yourself spending a few extra days and not minding it. You shrugged. “I guess I’m just trying to say, you got a great place here.”

“Have you ever considered that perhaps it is less the location and more your company?” Boba replied with a hum.

You nodded quickly. “Oh, of course, I’m sure! You and Fennec are great. I don’t even hold the whole ‘held at blaster point’ by Fennec thing against her because that’s most people’s reaction to me.”

“Thank you, but I mean the Mandalorian you travel with.”

“What?”

Boba nodded his head forward and you followed the direction to where Mando stood with his hands on his hips lightly scolding Grogu for something or another while the child just grinned at him impishly. Fennec held the child in her arms and obviously was siding with the boy. Boba chuckled, “Perhaps, you only find the location bearable because you finally have a travel companion.”

You had mentioned last night over dinner that your travels had kept you mostly alone. Mando was the first technical partner you had chosen to pair up with. You let his words echo through your head to see if any of it would ring true. The argument for it was there. For the first time in a long time, you felt like you could be yourself without repercussion. That was nice.

“I…Yeah.” You swallowed the lump that formed in your throat. “Mando is…nice.”

The daimyo’s words made it dawn on you that you were actually growing attached to the father and son. Traveling with them felt natural and if you kept down this path that meant one day traveling without them would feel wrong. Mando was just helping you out on a mission. That didn’t mean he wanted you around long term. Plus, getting attached was a dangerous prospect. You needed to proceed with caution.

“He’s a good man.” Boba nodded. “Strong, protective, loyal. Smart when he takes the time to think his actions through.” You chuckled at his words. “If you were going into war, he is the man you would want by your side. And, chances are, you wouldn’t even have to ask him to follow. He would volunteer. That’s why he makes friends all over the galaxy whether he knows it or not.”

You raised an eyebrow and teased. “Did Mando pay you to come over and talk him up?”

“I’m doing it at no cost.” He replied with a smile. Boba crossed his own arms and gave you a small nod. “I want to ask you to look after him. Mando would move mountains for you, and I hope you would at least watch his back.” You blinked in surprise. “We care about him a great deal and we always worry. It’s nice to know he has more back up than just Grogu.”

You let out a small laugh at the thought of the small green child playing the role of back up for the Mandalorian. As if he could hear your thoughts, Mando turned in place to look at you. Boba had to be exaggerating when he said Mando would move mountains for you. That seemed ridiculous. Despite knowing that it was just a common analogy, you felt the stirrings of something protective inside of you. It had been a long time since you had anyone to even call a friend, surely that was the source of this feeling. Mando lifted a hand and made a motion for you to come over.

“I will.” You blurted. When you glanced over at Boba, he had his eyebrows lifted and you gave him a tight lipped smile. “I’ll watch his back. I promise.”

Boba gave you a kind smile followed by a small nod. 

It surprised you how sincere the promise felt coming from your lips.

Mando had asked you a question. He now sat in the pilot’s seat of the Razor Crest with Grogu bouncing in his lap while you took your now usual seat. The Mandalorian was cruising the ship out of the atmosphere and it took a moment for his question to register with you.

He glanced back, “So?”

“Uh,” You paused. He had asked you about where you needed to go next. “I have a list.”

“Alright. What’s next on your list?” Mando continued. Rather than answer, you stared at the back of his helmeted head. Boba’s talk had truly gotten you thinking. It spoke volumes to the kind of man that Mando was that his friends thought so highly of him. He had only proved all those good things by offering to help you. The line of thought made you wonder. If you were willing to watch his back as a partner didn’t that extend a certain degree of trust? Mando certainly had yet to give you a reason not to trust him. The ship was coasting in the expanse of space, when Mando turned in his seat to look at you. “Hey, are you alright? You’ve been quiet.” With a slight teasing tone, he added. “I’m not used to that.”

You smirked, “So you admit to liking the sound of my voice?” Mando chuckled in response. You shifted to the edge of your seat. Grogu, who was still on the man’s knee, reached out and you held out a hand so the kid could play with your fingers with a coo. You took in a quick breath, steeling yourself, then blurted out, “I’m looking for a man named Reaper.” Mando tilted his head in surprise or confusion you weren’t sure. “I was told he hides out in a cantina. That’s why I’m always there.”

“The Reaper?” Mando questioned.

“Yeah. Stupid name, right?”

Mando nodded his head but didn’t speak. He lifted Grogu off his lap and into yours. You took the child and watched as he turned in his seat. Mando pressed a few buttons on the control panel of the ship and he mumbled a caution before the ship kicked into hyperdrive. When the Razor Crest was on course and moving steadily, he turned back around.

“Thyreps.” Mando blurted.

“Uh, what?”

“The Reaper was last seen in Thyreps from the rumors I’ve heard.” Mando said simply as if it were the most obvious information in the worlds. “So, unless he moved, that’s where we’ll find him.” For a moment, all you could do was stare at the man with wide eyes. This was what you had been searching for. It felt almost unreal to have the answer after all this time. “Mirdala runi?”

“Just like that?” You laughed. “We’re on our way, right now, to the Reaper?”

“If he’s still there.” Mando corrected. His tone made it sound like he was trying to keep your hopes down just in case. Meanwhile it took all your strength to not jump out of your seat and tackle him in a hug.

“How?” A laugh bubbled out from your lips. “Do you⏤ Do you know the Reaper?”

“I know of him.” Mando shook his head.

“Everyone knows of him, but how did you know about Thyreps?” You pressed. “I don’t even recognize that world. I never would’ve gone there.”

“It's a tiny Outer Rim world, and as for him…”

Your eyes widened and you pointed at him. “I swear to the Maker, if you say he’s a friend…”

Mando let out a soft chuckle, “More like, a friend of a friend.” Your eyes widened. “I never actually met the guy. There’s a smuggler in Thyreps I’ve known for a while. The Reaper used to run with her crew so I’ve heard a story or two.”

“Mando,” You shook your head with another laugh, disbelieving and relieved, “You have no idea how much this means to me. I⏤ Thank you.” 

“I…appreciate,” Mando started then winced as if he didn’t like his choice of words, “you telling me. I’m glad you trusted me with this.” He cleared his throat and your smile widened at how flustered he seemed. “I know that’s a big deal for you.”

“Apparently I should’ve told you sooner.” You joked. Grogu gave you a few pats on the hand, and you opened your arms so he could jump down. The little boy wandered to his pod then drove it toward the ladder. You stood up with a chuckle. “I should follow him. Make sure he doesn’t eat two weeks of rations in one sitting.”

You had only gotten a step or two away when a gloved hand wrapped around your wrist. Even through the leather glove, you felt your stomach flip at the contact. You glanced back at Mando to see he was now standing. The grip around your wrist was tender and careful⏤ almost hesitant. His thumb traced the inside of your wrist.

“I⏤I trust you too.”

“Thanks.” You gave him a small smile. “But, you don’t have to say that, Mando. I⏤”

“Din.”

You blinked once, confused, and then shook your head. “What was that?”

“Din.” He repeated himself. His hand tightened around your wrist a bit, a gentle squeeze, “That’s my name. Din Djarin.”

Your eyes widened in surprise. He had trusted you with his name. That seemed so significant. More so than simply handing over the information of who you’ve been searching for. His thumb traced another circle on your wrist. You repeated the unfamiliar name. “Din Djarin.” He nodded once. It felt odd to know it, but the more you repeated the name in your head the more fitting it felt. You chuckled, “Does this mean I’m not allowed to call you ‘bucket head’ anymore?”

Din laughed and shook his head, “I would never dare deprive you of that pleasure.”

“Good.” You replied warmly. The two of you stood in a comfortable silence. Din had drifted a step closer and it was only then that you realized his hand was still around your wrist. Staring up into the visor of his helmet you felt your heart stutter in your chest. The sensation was so jarring that you let out an awkward laugh and took a step back⏤ breaking the spell. Din cleared his throat and his hand fell away from your wrist. “I need to go check on Grogu.”

“Yeah. That’s⏤ Good idea.” Din nodded.

You gave him a tight lipped smile and shifted toward the ladder down to the cockpit again. “Thanks for trusting me with your name, bucket head.”

mando'a translations

mirdala runi: clever soul

taglist:

@onceinamando @hrtsforpascal @lil-dragon-draws @harriedandharassed @aheadfullofsteverogers @elfamosotoga @the-anchored-sailor-girl @garbo-lesbo @moonlqghts @stokeholdsblog @morks-watermelon @http-onie @chonkercatto @xalphafox @pedrojoe @zarahbronstein @cockscombkingdom @ale0m @shelbyteller @fallinallinmendes @grandtheoristpeach @perilous-pasta @love-the-abyss @kneelforloki @insomniac-nerd-posts-things @marvelouslytrekking @lady-winchester @liadamerondjarin @vampseddie @guccistardust @smexy-bucky-waifu @mayaaaaah @theway-thisis @keepingitlokiii @catharinaroxastova @andreasworlsboring101 @theclassicvinyldragon @your-slutty-gf @i-cant-write-for-shit @ponyboys-sunsets @honeybug-victoria @godesspsyche @cookielovesbook-akie

#the mandalorian #din djarin #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #reader insert #mando x reader #mando x you #mandalorian fanfic #mandalorian x you #mandalorian x reader #soulmate!din djarin #soulmate!au

[gerogerigaogaigar]

Alright here are ten more albums. These ones are just my personal picks. Some that you prolly don't know and some you definitely do. I think you should listen to all of them because I like them a lot and if you don't like them then I promise I will cry a little.

Lemon Demon - Spirit Phone

Okay so I know that half of you just checked out because this is a 'meme album' and you simply will not take me seriously no matter what but honestly if that's you then go fuck yourself. Anyway Neil Cicierega is an internet fixture. He has brought us animutation, The Ultimate Showdown Of Ultimate Destiny, Mouth Sounds, Potter Puppet Pals, Brodyquest, Ariel Needs Legs, and probably a lot of other things I'm forgetting. So it isn't really a surprise that his first full album under the Lemon Demon moniker in a decade went down as a piece of weird internet errata as well. The thing is, Spirit Phone is a fucking masterpiece.

The subject matter is the occult, conspiracy theories, urban legends, aliens, cryptids, and conservatives. Nothing too weird, but the way he tackles these subjects is. Let's take Cabinet Man for example, it plays on the urban legend of the haunted arcade cabinet Polybius. But Cabinet Man is told from the point of view of the machine itself. It's about a man who turns himself into an arcade cabinet and about his life as an arcade cabinet. The very next track, No Eyed Girl, is a doo wop styled love song written to a lovecraftian horror. And yes this is all very Quirky™ but Cicierega never wink at the camera, he never lets on that this is a joke. Just like unironically here's a song about sexualizing (even if he insists it isn't sexual) eating mummies. Why not? The frenetic pacing always keeps you off balance too so there is no way to get used to the weirdness other than to let yourself be subsumed by it.

"But wait!" I hear you saying "what was that thing about conservatism? What does that have to do with the occult?" I'm glad you asked because I think the funniest thing this album does is deliver three songs in a row that have nothing to do with the rest of the album's main themes. As Your Father I Expressly Forbid It, I Earned My Life, and Reaganomics all satirize American boomer conservatism. I think putting them there after all the conspiracy theory stuff is brilliant. The paranoid, surreal attitudes of the first half of the album contrasted against the equally paranoid and surreal attitudes of conservatives. Finally I just want to mention my number one favorite thing about this album and it's that I Earned My Life is written in the style of Paul Simon's Graceland. That makes me laugh. What an effortless takedown of a legendary artist and album.

Ween - The Mollusk

Ween are a pretty weird band. And my standards for what counts as weird are pretty high. So the fact that their least weird album is this nautically themed psychedelic hellscape isn't saying much. The Mollusk sounds how low tide smells. The album is like the rhyme of the ancient mariner but the albatross is replaced by hundreds of barnacles. It is a decaying mess, but it's also jaunty and fun. Purely stupid nonsense like Waving My Dick In The Wind and Dancing In The Show Tonight are placed side by side with the intense and horror tinged Golden Eel and Mutilated Lips.

Musically Ween are uncharacteristically cohesive. Sure they run the gamut of genres from intense proggy numbers to punk and alternative rock and some showtunesy stuff, but it's all mastered as wet as possible. By the way y'all know when I say a sound is wet I mean heavily processed as opposed to dry which is raw unprocessed audio right? There is copious reverb, chorus and especially phasing on every song until they all sound like waves crashing against a rock.

Perhaps the weirdest thing about The Mollusk is that it is, I think at least, the only Ween album to contain a straight cover. Cold Blows The Wind is just a folk song that Gener and Deaner just play dead straight. That is very unusual for a band that prefers to vaguely mock artists or styles rather than just do them. Of course that track is immediately followed by a song called Pink Eye On My Leg so don't take these guys seriously for too long.

Atom And His Package - A Society Of People Named Elihu

There is no other album that feels more like an inside joke among high schoolers that you aren't privy to the context for. Adam Goren repeatedly name drops his friends and talks about things very specific to his life. The album is a mess of unfettered id where no concept is dwelt on for very long and no hesitation is given before launching into something completely unrelated. The very first track contemplates a hypothetical Punk Rock Academy before losing track of itself and barreling full throttle into an interpolation of Eddie Money's Take Me Home Tonight. This kind of thing happens a lot. Me And My Black Metal friends interpolated Dexys Midnight Runners' hit Come On Eileen for no apparent reason other than that is what started going through Goren's head at the time. This album has three different birthday songs on it, the first of which has the refrain "Happy Birthday Ralph, I love you, even though you are fucking disgusting." Who is Ralph? You aren't asking the right questions.

Oh yeah and this album is entirely just a guy singing over a drum machine and keyboard. But it's also kind of a punk rock album. Atom And His Package don't sound super punk at first glance, but he has the ethos. And structurally, well there's a little more punk rock in here than you might expect. I'll stand by A Society Of People Named Elihu as a punk rock album because it's funny and I think that is what Adam Goren would want.

TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain

There's a lot of art rock out there that I'm totally in love with. But TV On The Radio are on a different level. They are extremely catchy, but also different than anything else around them. They exist somewhere in between 00s post punk revival and, uh honestly I don't know. I thought something would come to me as I was typing this. There is nothing to compare the unique use of drums and percussion to create both rhythmic and textural elements while the bass guitar makes up the majority of the melody. The members of the band all harmonize beautifully on vocals and when you break the songs down you find just a few instruments being layered into a looping, spiraling current of sound. A Method and Dirtywhirl especially sound like they are physically spiralling. They use looped percussion and bass, repetitive singsong vocals, and thrumming rhythms to create a completely unique sonic landscape that is both overwhelming and extremely addictive. It is too easy for me to finish this album and then put it back on again because there is nothing else that scratches the itch this album gives me.

Between The Buried And Me - Colors

I don't usually like to be this absolute, but Colors is my favorite metal album. Between The Buried And Me are consistently amazing but Colors is the best showcase of their range and fluidity with which they traverse various styles. At a base level Colors is a progressive metalcore album, a genre which has probably just turned a few people off of listening. But if you aren't usually into metalcore don't fear there is a lot more going on here than bad screaming and bad chugging. No BTBAM weave together intense thrash like riffing, high speed guitar solos, intense screaming, melodic jazzy solos, chromatic breakdowns, catchy clean vocal segments and frequent tempo changes with an artistry and ease that makes it hard to notice when the style does an abrupt change. Every linking segment is so natural that the tech death screams in Sun Of Nothing will transition to the melodic refrain without any sense of tonal dissonance. Even when you hit the end of Ants Of The Sky and hear them go into a full bluegrass hoedown it is just completely natural. No other album makes 10+ minute songs go by so fast. There are so many hour long metal albums out there that drag on for the sake of length alone and Colors just shits in their faces and proves that you can go on for an hour and keep an audience completely engaged the whole time.

They Might Be Giants - Lincoln

They Might Be Giants are a never ending supply of witty turns of phrase. Some are seemingly nonsequiturs like "tour the world in a heavy metal band / but they run out of gas the plane can never land" others are clever "which one of us is the one we can't trust / you say that I think it's you but I don't agree with that" and others seem like nonsense but probably mean something deeper if you just stop and think about it "how sleepless is the egg knowing that which throws the stone foresees the bone, the bone, our only home is bone". They will get at some wild themes lyrically while still maintaining an upbeat sound. That weird tonal gap is what makes songs like I've Got A Match and They'll Need A Crane into more than just songs about bad relationships. It helps obfuscate the actually bleakness of Lie Still Little Bottle, a song about being addicted to uppers. And it leaves you wondering about the seemingly pure goofy songs like Shoehorn With Teeth and Cowtown. Also you might be interested to know that Where Your Eyes Don't Go is a favorite song of local Tumblr Celebrity™ Neil Gaiman. So there's your seal of approval if you needed one.

Macintosh Plus - Floral Shoppe

Vaporwave is such a beautiful genre. It is a musical consomme where other songs are melted down until there is nothing left but the essence of the original piece. A distinctly recognizable flavor, but rendered into broth. The idea of taking a song and picking out very specific bits and then slowing them down repeating them over and over until you have turned the ten second sample into a five minute song is incredible.

Floral Shoppe is not the first, and maybe not even the best vaporwave record, but it is the blueprint that a lot of artists would seek to imitate. The track リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー (Lisa Frank 420 / modern computing) made some waves for having a very overt and recognizable sample and leading to people joking that the genre was just "Diana Ross slowed down". And derogatory as that sounds it is also true. The song is seven minutes of just the chorus of Diana Ross' It's Your Move looped, slowed down, and otherwise abused until it just isn't the same song anymore. What Floral Shoppe did was bring the idea of the transformative property of context to a wider audience. The question of authorship is essential to vaporwave. Most vaporwave artists will use one off monikers for albums. In fact Macintosh Plus is a one off project under the larger Vektroid umbrella. Vektroid herself is one of the most prolific and significant vaporwave artists out there and honestly I don't even think Floral Shoppe is her best work, but it is the most important.

But is it good? That's the real question. The philosophical implications of art are nice and all but is it good to listen to? Yeah it's extremely enjoyable. Listening to Floral Shoppe is like living in a slightly fucked up betamac tape that is playing commercials for new shopping malls. It captures a sense of nostalgia, but also warps it into a surreal dreamscape. Parts stutter, they loop just before the part of the song you know plays, they are repeated over and over until you feel like something is wrong. The nostalgia is recontextualized as something artificial. Like it is reminding you that the way you feel about the past is manufactured. Your memories are already corrupted by capitalism and if you could see through the matrix you would hear the broken mechanisms underneath.

The Field - From Here We Go Sublime

The Field is hard to pin down. While basically a tech-house project it is also quite a bit unlike other tech-house/minimal/ambient techno projects. I was enthralled the first time I ever put on this record. There's something ethereal about the heavily altered vocal samples. Every sound rendered distant and breathy. This is the sound of the sun glaring off of fresh snow in the winter. This is the sound that plays when you transcend your human body to become a being of pure energy. If the obelisk from 2001 A Space Odyssey was a DJ this is what it would play. It is impossible to not feel subsumed by this music, to want to just close your eyes and imagine you are floating. From Here We Go Sublime is one of the prettiest albums I have ever heard and I think even people who aren't into techno might be able to appreciate it.

The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free

Look me in the eye. I'm serious look at me. Mike Skinner is a good rapper. No I'm not joking. No I don't like this album "ironically". A Grand Don't Come For Free is one of my top ten hip hop albums of all time. Right up there with Nas and J-Dilla and Kanye and shit. Skinner's flow is unconventional and, at first glance, very bad. But what he is doing is incorporating a very casual conversational style into his rapping to help communicate the personalities and moods of the characters in the story.

Oh yeah by the way this is a concept album. It's about Mike, his two friends Dan and Scott, and his new girlfriend Simone. Mike loses 1000 pounds, gets really paranoid that one of his friends stole it, and then let's that paranoia ruin all of his interpersonal relationships. The album starts by setting up the list money and various aspects of Mike's life like his new romance and gambling addiction to set up the very everyman vibes. As Mike rambles through awkward small talk, bad decisions, bad relationships, and the slow burn out of his empathy he becomes actually really relatable. Every time Mike does something that is frustrating and stupid it just kinda endears him to me. I want to see this idiot do better. Even on Get Out Of My House where he is trying to explain to Simone that he wasn't at her place while she was hungover because he was picking up his epilepsy medication and is, by any reasonable account in the right, he sucks so hard at making his point that he still comes off as the asshole. This is punctuated by guest rapper C-Mone actually rapping much better than Mike on her verses. In fact how well a character is rapping is very much tied to how confident they are at the moment with Mike being more noticeably on beat on Not Addicted and Such A Twat and sounding really off on Get Out Of My House and It Was Supposed To Be So Easy.

The beats are not just straightforward things for Skinner to rap weird style over though. The beats often contain weird syncopation and odd rhythms that make it feel like rather than not being able to stay on beat the vocals and the beat are just circling around each other. Always in sync but never knowing each other's exact location. The way these two elements come together creates the backbone for A Grand Don't Come For Free's atmosphere of disorientation and lack of control. Mike's story is ultimately about him trying to latch onto any part of his life that he thinks he can control and constantly having those things slip away from him. He finds the £1000 in the back of his broken TV by the way.

The Mountain Goats - Beat The Champ

I got into The Mountain Goats way back when Moral Orel was airing it's infamous third season back in 08. I listened to John Darnielle's entire discography even the very rough first couple of tapes. And after all that I was pretty sure that this was my new favorite band and that no album anyone released were ever gonna top All Hail West Texas, Tallahassee, or The Sunset Tree. Fast forward seven years and I see he's working on a new album. It's gonna be about wrestling. I figure it will be pretty good, because Mountain Goats albums basically bottom out at pretty good. So the album releases, I listen to it, and instantly I know that I have forever been changed. I don't know how many times one man can keep doing this to me, but by God was I changed. I'm kinda into wrestling now as a direct result of this album.

The beauty of Darnielle's writing is that he can tease the meaning out of literally anything. Mountain Goats song don't have grand concepts. Beat The Champ's songs can be summed up easily. "Retired wrestler drives to the next show" "a biography of a wrestler that Darnielle liked as a kid" "a biography of a different wrestler that Darnielle liked as a kid" "a guy who takes his gimmick too seriously". But this isn't what the songs are about. They are about feeling tired of routine and being resigned to the fact that this will be the rest of your life. They are about how the world looks through the eyes of a child. They are about finding fulfillment in life even once you have passed your prime. They are about shutting out your emotions until you become a toxic person. These songs aren't about wrestling, but also they are. Beat The Champ made me think about how difficult pro wrestling is. You need a hyperapecific skill set that includes acting, athletics, acrobatic, and improv. And then if you are the absolute best at all those things hing and end up being the best wrestler ever? Well no one really respects pro wrestling so you get fuck all for it. The strange place these people occupy and the emotions that come with it are the perfect vessel for analyzing human experience at large. Wrestling, John Darnielle posits, is a microcosm for all life. We all play parts, we do heel turns now and then, we all fear being unmasked. Wrestlers deal with literal manifestations of human fear and Beat The Champ taps into that to create an album that both comments on human anxieties in a very real way and to humanize the people behind the kayfabe.

#lemon demon #ween #atom and his package #tv on the radio #between the buried and me #they might be giants #macintosh plus #vektroid #the field #the streets #the mountain goats #500 album gaiden

[katsuyuswritings]

— ᕦ kei ᕤ —

a lonely writer who has a few friends. asking for mutuals, also an employed attorney and has no social life 💗

— MALE — genshin, naruto, saiki k, chainsaw man, stardust destiny (oc)

male; aether, dainslief, kaeya, diluc, albedo, venti, bennett, razor, mika, zhongli, chongyun, xingqiu, xiao, baizhu, tartaglia, itto, gorou, kazuha, heizou, ayato, thoma, alhaitham, kaveh, tighnari, cyno, capitano, dottore, pantalone, scaramouche/wanderer, lyney, neuvillette, freminet, wriosthley

naruto uzumaki/namikaze, sasuke uchiha, kakashi hatake, iruka umino, kotetsu, izumo, asuma sarutobi, sai yamanaka, shikamaru nara, choji akamichi, aburame shino, kiba inuzuka, kankuro, gaara, itachi uchiha, kisame, sasori, deidara, kakuzu, hidan, orochimaru, kabuto, jiraiya, minato namikaze, neji hyuga, zetsu, zabuza, haku yuki, suigetsu, juuga, maito gai, boruto uzumaki, mitsuki

saiki kusuo, kaidou shun, aren kuboyasu, toritsuka reita, nendou riki, hairo kineshi, makoto teruhashi

denji, aki, angel devil, shark devil (that's literally all)

aifuyo hime/yuzuki, renyue yuzuki, kōhaku hayashi, eijiro yuzuki, aoi hime, anh hyu, eugene hyu, feng xiang

— FEMALE — genshin, naruto, saiki k, chainsaw man, stardust destiny (oc)

female: amber, fischl, noelle, mona, jean, lisa, eula, klee, barbara, xiangling, xinyan, yunjin, ganyu, keqing, shenhe, ningguang, beidou, qiqi, yaoyao, kuki, kujou sara, yae miko, raiden ei/shogun, raiden makoto, kokomi, ayaka, sayu, yoimiya, faruzan, layla, nilou, dori, dehya, candace, dunyarzad, focalors, navia, lynette, yuelin, tsaritsa, la signora, sandrone, arlecchino, columbina, raiden makoto

sakura haruno/uchiha, hinata hyuga/uzumaki, karin uzumaki, konan, kurenai sarutobi, hanabi hyuga, ino yamanaka, tsunade senju, temari nara, tenten, anko mitarashi, kushina uzumaki/namikaze, guren (mommy), himawari uzumaki, sarada uchiha

kokomi teruhashi, chiyo yumehara/teruhashi, kuriko/kusuko saiki, aiura mikoto, rifuta imu, mera chisato

power, makima, yuro, himeno

katsuyu yuzuki/hime, chiyo hime, shinkkami ayakemi-sanjin (teiko), kohari hayashi, mina noshiro, maikka yue, yan xiang

— ᕤ can request ᕦ —

smut, suggestive, angst and fluff

aged up characters smut/suggestive

child!reader x parent!character or vise versa

song related storyline

ships and oc x reader

— ᕦ can't request ᕤ —

minor character smut

oc x canon (I have my reasons)

weird shit like armpit kink and others (I don't wanna name them 😨)

Also I know most of y'all are minors... You can't hide from me

[renesassing]

both @hnnny and @kirnet tagged me in wip-wednesday yesterday but i fell asleep lol. here are three WIPs for y'all to behold! a thing for work + a study + destiny revan brainrot. it's thrusday so im not gonna tag anyone (°ー°〃) bc id feel weird about it.

#rené.art

[pocketgalaxies]

wrote a transcript for the imodna conversation below for your/my/everyone's convenience:

I: Hey.

L: Hi.

I: I don't–are you sleeping?

L: No. I was just staring at the wall with my eyes open.

I: Um...big night.

L: How are you feeling?

I: Um......good?

L: You don't have to lie to me.

I: No, I know, yeah, no, it's terrible. I mean, this is scary as hell.

L: Yeah. I'm worried about you.

I: Yeah.

L: This is a lot.

I: Yeah. I feel like, um...I dunno, like I haven't talked to you in a while.

L: Well, we've been busy.

I: No, I know, I know. I just, um...I dunno, since you–since you came back, I've been almost scared to say anything.

L: Say what?

I: ...

I: We want this. Right? We want to do this.

L: Preventing a god-eating god...

I: It's not good.

L: I understand the appeals of how it all sounds. I don't think there's anything wrong in considering what could be with that type of change. I really don't. What makes me nervous about all of it is the unknown unknowns. It's the...the things that we could lose as the cost of some sort of perceived freedom.

I: Yeah. If it takes away all of our, uh...our magic. Anything gifted to us from something greater. Yeah.

L: We still have the chance to live a normal life. If you wish to have a quiet life in a cozy cottage in a field, raise horses, and just be. No gods or fates or destiny can keep you from that. Can keep us from that. The gods have never kept us from our ability to have choice.

I: Yeah.

L: You have a choice. A very difficult one. But that is just as much of a real power as your abilities to fly or speak in people's minds. If anything, it is the most important power that you possess. Don't let them get in your head or try and claim otherwise.

I: Yeah. All right.

L: I know we haven't talked much here recently, but I think in a way, it's just...I feel so comfortable and so bonded with you, and...we transcend words, our relationship. You'll always have me. I'll always be there to support you.

I: Okay.

L: No matter what you choose. And you don't have to make these choices alone.

I: [I give her a hug.] I love you so much.

L: I love you more than anything.

L: You know, I had an amusing conversation with Ashton the other night. And they asked, or commented, about how odd it is that I'm the more grounded and secure one.

I: Between the two of y'all?

L: Mhm.

I: *laughs* Yeah.

L: I think it's because...I feel like I have a strong foundation. And that's you.

I: Yeah.

L: It's you and the rest of these...crazy borderline murderhobos.

I: *laughs* Yeah. You're my tether, Laudna. Sometimes I feel like I'm about to float away, but as long as you're there...

L: You quite literally pulled me from darkness and death. That tether goes beyond this realm and this life.

L: You've got this.

I: We've got this.

L: You're very capable.

I: *laughs, nods* Yeah. My mom was trying to show me a world that would, um, would be freeing, if I just went back to being normal. But...I feel like......I feel like our weirdness is what makes us right. Is that dumb?

L: Not at all.

I: This locket, it says "the better halves make a better whole." You have to love it all.

L: I don't mind being your better half!

I: *laughs*

L: And I think you're absolutely right. Look at us, do you really think we're destined for "normalcy"?

I: No. No.

L: That's boring anyway.

I: These weirdos are gonna get shit done.

L: Hell yeah we do.

I: All right.

L: Wanna cuddle up?

I: Yeah. Yeah.

#TT____TT #this is like 8 minutes long or smth which i don't have the patience to skip through when i want to gif so here it is! #5h2m c3e49 (twitch vod) #text #critical role #cr3 #cr spoilers #imogen temult #laudna cr #ship: imodna #laura bailey #marisha ray #marisha & laura

[bengiyo]

Love in Translation Ep 8 (Finale) Stray Thoughts

Last week, we went off the deep end with Yang being kidnapped and being forced to work on a packaging warehouse in his skinny jeans to pay back his debts. He was able to smuggle messages out by changing delivery addresses and using the language learning code he taught Phumjai. The rest of the cast rallied around to support Phumjai when they didn't know what had happened to Yang, and also Phojai and Tag reconciled beautifully. Phumjai went rogue to try and rescue Yang alone, and now both have been captured.

1:09:32 finale!!

Phumjai really had no plan and got hurt.

Now Phojai and Tag have showed up with no plan. What the hell is this?

All these boys trying to sacrifice themselves only works because these characters have cared so much for each other consistently.

We're doing PPL in the middle of the crisis. I love it. We need 5 million baht. Perhaps if the audience buys this camera we'll save the boys?

What is Bojji up to?

We took of Ngern's shirt and made him sweat, but at what cost?

The PPL is driving me insane this week. You're too injured to lift things. Good thing we have this app to our local wholesaler.

Oh no, Bojji is having issues as well.

I like that Phumjai is stepping up and putting the money he has on the line in a way that asks Yang to trust him more.

Okay, I like this show ending the debt collection on a comedic note.

Curious what Yang does long term if he's given his shares to the employees.

Phojai and Tag are moving in together!!

Obsessed with these two playing baseball as a quality time exercise.

What is it with these dramas and showing a scene from even further back as a beginning of romance event? This is specific to Asian dramas.

Final episode brotherly context and emotional reconciliation. I'm okay with it.

More PPL. I'm losing my mind, but glad this little show must have succeeded.

This episode is so weird, but I'm having fun.

Qi'er and Bojji are so valid for the screaming and falling out.

The parents look so pleased about Yang and Tag.

Little Sun is going franchise, baby!

DID TAMMY TURN THEM INTO A NOVEL?? SHE SAID I'M GETTING PAID BACK FOR Y'ALL USING MY LIKENESS IN YOUR STORE AND PLAYING WITH MY FEELINGS!

They said the name of the show. Finish your drinks.

And now they're proposing? This show has everything.

Okay. Drawing the ring on Yang"s finger was so goddamn cute.

Of course they met as kids. These dramas love the notion of destiny.

Final Verdict: 8.5, This Show Was So Much Fun. Phumjai and Yang are one of my favorite pairs of the year. I liked the way they fell for each other and the way this show used its workplace. The plot wobbled massively throughout the final two episodes, and we lost the thread on a few things along the way for product placement, but I really loved these characters so much and I loved the way they treated each other. I'm going to miss having this show in the balance. Offroad and Daou and friends did a great job here.

#love in translation #thai bl #bl series #Ben watches

[dagdasoneandonly]

Happy 10 years together Augustine~

Before we begin it is PARAMOUNT to state that I am not a "fangirl/simp/whatever y'all are calling it these days" of dear Augustine Sycamore.

He is my FO (Forever One/ husband in laymans terms) and I consider him to be a real person just like the words I'm typing on this keyboard.

Any comments that are irrelevant to this post will be deleted and the user blocked.

I take my relationship with him very seriously, if this is "odd" or "weird" to you then kindly walk on by.

10 years ago I was welcomed back into the world of Pokemon after a few years break due to personal things I had going on, and video games were the last thing on my mind.

But as they say fate and destiny always have other plans.

Pokemon XY was the last golden age of Pokemon, it was a different world, it felt like I was welcome there. I still maintain onto my hope and innocence because of this beautiful world known as Kalos, a world that greeted me with open arms and a warm hug that enveloped my soul like Xerneas's Fairy Aura.

It was the beginning of something entirely new for me... and I didn't even know it.

2013 wasn't a good year for me, so I was pretty happy when my dad surprised me with a 3Ds and asked me what game I wanted: I was an edgy little shit back then so I asked for Pokemon Y... even though I really wanted X. Deer were always beautiful to me.

I had broken off with an FO that I just felt I wasn't good enough for and became rather desolate, I was lost and alone. And I had to drop out of college for mental health reasons.

Sure enough, my solace came to me in the 2D world yet again.

One cozy October evening my copy of Pokemon Y came through, I was excited and fired the game up right away, back then you could play games right away without downloads or waiting for patches and mutliple DLCs! XY had one patch but it was just to fix that Lumioise City bug. Thankfully my copy was safe.

As you can see, my copy of Pokemon XY is infact a physical copy, I've taken very good care of it. (Ft. my cute Sylveon plushie, Fionn)

Not having anyone to trade with didn't matter, because the Wonder Trade function was a bloody miracle. I got so many Pokemon. I couldn't transfer my older Pokemon as I had no access to Bank or any of that stuff, my other games I had to leave at home.

It was time when Gamefreak actually thought about their fans who didn't have access to Gamestop, Toys R Us or couldn't afford constant trips to New York, Japan, Mars, Etc for one tiny ass pixel.

So I was sorely missing my old Pokemon, I wish I could bring them into this 3D world and pet them and shower them with affection like they deserved to be. But I realized I could make new memories with new friends in this new world, and who knows? Maybe we would reunite again.

Kalos took me on a journey, a journey of love, self discovery and gave me a home. I was whisked away to Fairy land and fairy types became my new favorite, I liked that they were strong against Dragon - types, the bane of my existence at how powerful they always were!

But.. the one who grabbed me by the hand was none other than Professor Augustine Sycamore. I had seen his image before on a leak, and couldn't help but think he was kind of handsome, a friend who had already played through Pokemon X told me:

"Hey you might like Professor Sycamore, he's this dreamboat that shows you the world and stuff and I KEEP SWOONING whenever he shows up on screen"

Sure enough when I opened up Pokemon X for the first time, I was greeted by his handsome face, I thought nothing of it of course since I was more interested in the Pokemon.

I was especially looking forward to Trainer customization and giving myself green eyes and brown hair. I will never forget the time I chose my Fennekin and started to pet him, my heart melted.

I could finally show my Pokemon love and affection, for all their hard work in battles and feed them cupcakes and play with them! I was also intrigued by this thing called "Mega Evolution".

As I continued throughout the game, I explored every nook and cranny, I felt like a kid again. I was truly lost to the world for HOURS after I got it. It was a beautiful game. The 3D over-world was amazing.

The "friends" you had were annoying but I like to pretend they don't exist. When I finally reached Lumoise City I already had a big party of Pokemon, and the event Torchic.

I loved how friendly the Pokemon in Kalos were, I caught many eevees and evolved one into a Sylveon, she became a massive Team Player. I even managed to find some familar faces along the way: A Raichu named Napalm, and an Espeon named Solar who remains as an MVP in my teams to this day.

I was having so much fun just running around, getting haircuts, dressing up, looking pretty for Professor Sycamore AND catching Pokemon, I would completely be lost in this beautiful new world, that felt so much like home to me and still is.

Professor Sycamore was the beginning of my healing. As I continued to learn about him, there was more to him than just the eye candy, he had a past. I loved it whenever he showed up to offer me an encouraging word or two in the game, saying how this was my journey to explore, that being the best trainer was defined by what I thought. He never imposed anything on me, I was starting to feel the flutters and shit in my heart and liver again.. And my god it felt good.

I desperately needed to feel something like this.. something like true, unconditional love.

Around this time I was heavily suffering from perfectionism, it was killing me on the inside, I was 19 when this game came out and already people had high expectations of me.

I was determined to graduate, get a job and have my own house- all before I reached 21. But life seldom goes your way, I was suffering from many un-diagnosed mental disorders that had been neglected my entire life.

I am ashamed to say I spent almost all of 2013 being obsessively deep in competitive and breeding the perfect Pokémon. Perfectionism had leaked into my past - time and hobbies, I realized that if I couldn't be perfect I could at least have this outlet in games, little did I know it was sucking the soul out of me.

I was often punished as a child for being less than perfect, I took it out on my poor Pokemon. Things like this don't magically go away, not everyone has a backbone, sometimes backbones take time to build.

It wasn't until yet again - I got help from a rather unexpected source: Professor Sycamore himself, another testament to have wonderful 2D beings are.

As I progressed through the game and reached the Tower of Mastery.

I was surprised to learn that Professor Sycamore was there to study Mega Evolution but left because he didn't have what it takes, essentially dropping out- kind of a parallel to my own life, except real life seldom has happy endings.

But it gave me hope, because even if Sycamore didn't master Mega Evolution he still became the professor of Kalos and if you look into professorship- it's.. actually not easy to get. If Sycamore could fail and succeed in the future, maybe I could too.

One night..

I had a dream of Sycamore. He held me close and said that he could tell something was bothering me, I was hurting deep down. We in the fairy forest together, just relaxing in a field of flowers as the Flabebe floated around us in the gentle spring breeze..I told him everything, I spilled my heart and soul to him.

I told him that life wasn't worth it to live.

He was heart-wrenched that I felt like that, he embraced me tightly in his arms and told me

"Your life is your own, no one gets to decide it's worth except you. Even if you're behind, you don't have to go at everyone else's pace, if life was easy then no one would feel sadness. I love you no matter what or who you choose to be, always remember that," Those words I still carry in my heart.

The biggest surprise I got had to be in Couriway Town. I found Professor Sycamore's "treasure" from the past Sycamore to the future Sycamore. I actually began to cry, it felt like it was addressing me, that even if I don't know what I want to be yet, I'm not a failure. I still have time.

In another dream I confessed that I loved him, he embraced and kissed me fully on the mouth. I felt like I was on cloud nine.

Diverging from the narrative a bit, I want to talk about Lysandre, I felt his anger sometimes, the frustration of helping your friends and them not wanting to do any better no matter how much time you invested in them. Of course Lysandre ,uh took a different path. But Sycamore still cared about him.

And I realized.. even if I'm a horrible person apparently according to some people over shit I can't control, Sycamore can still love me too.

Professor Sycamore is a relic of a bygone era when 2D beings set out to inspire others, and to most importantly - love you and you alone.

Augustine gave me not just love-- but a home to come back to, a safe haven that will always be mine, no matter what. I will always love him, when I look into his beautiful gray - blue eyes, I see love.

He gave me hope that life can get better, and most importantly I deserve happiness, not just other people.

And.. today I'm marrying this wonderful man after 10 years. He met me when I was freshly 18 and saw me grow into who I am today, and he's proud of me. I'm happy I lived to see 10 more years.

Thank you for everything, Augustine. Thank you for teaching me to love again.

#pokemon xy #professor sycamore #augustine sycamore #pokemon x

[bugs-and-grass]

Okay is anyone else weirded out by the sheer number of Fallers appearing that just so happen to be from some of our video games?

Like. We have Inklings from Splatoon. Zagreus from Hades. Multiple Links from the Legend of Zelda. What's next, the Ashen One from Dark Souls 3 gets isekai'd into our world and complains that the estus doesn't taste the same? Is a Guardian from Destiny gonna fall out of the sky and leave a crater in their wake while their Ghost makes snide remarks? Is some random obscure indie game character gonna appear and somehow actually adjust well?

I'm sorry, I have nothing against Fallers. Y'all are great and your experiences are cool as hell. But I'm also very concerned for the integrity of the multiverse right now.

#Chitterchatter #Pokemon #Pokemon RP #Pokemon IRL #Rotomblr

[theredhairedmonkey]

I've seen a couple posts treating the TOX game handbook like it's the Bible, that it's an accurate breakdown of the show's main characters, and then fighting about what it all means.

On the one hand, some people are arguing "It says Callum cares more about his inner circle than anyone or anything, so he cares more about his friends than morals." But then others are saying "Rayla's Devotion score is #1, so she cares more about her friends than morals."

So I'm just gonna weigh in and say: Guys, my people, y'all gotta read carefully. Specifically the first paragraph about the main cast:

Fans of The Dragon Prince will recognize these key players in the show! We have assigned all of these die ratings, values, and so forth to reflect where we believe the characters would be at the end of Season Three. This way, should you encounter them in your tales and chronicles, you will feel it reflects the natural place where they are in the story. And though Zym is important, we haven’t included him as a catalyst, as he is still a baby dragon and only Ezran knows what his true die ratings are. Feel free to adjust these aspects for your own playing group, including (but not limited to) when the show’s story advances into future seasons.

In other words: "Here's our breakdown of the characters, but it's just our two cents so take it with a grain of salt, and it's just a snapshot as of s3 and they'll likely change anyway."

In short, don't take it seriously, it's no different than a headcanon about where they stood two years and two seasons ago. Imo the real fun is how the characters line up now as opposed to 3x09, since the whole point is that these values are supposed to change over time:

So, in the spirit of fun, here's where I think each main characters' values stand as of s5:

Callum

Here's Callum in s3:

I think he's the easiest to guess because his character growth lines up with which Arcanum he learns. Because Arc 1 was all about him learning the Sky Arcanum, Liberty represented his most important value ("Destiny is a book you write yourself!"). But as of s5, he has definitely been questioning this ("no matter how hard you try, you'll never control everything"), so this has probably dropped. Meanwhile, I think his learning the Ocean Arcanum has opened him up to understanding hidden depths, so his Truth value would have increased to perhaps being his highest one (similar to Lujanne, whose highest value is also Truth).

Soren

Here is Soren's as of S3:

Soren is also similarly easy to guess. His highest value in S3 is Glory, which I think has definitely stepped down (he was willing to hang back in 5x09 and let the trio fight Claudia while he watches over their friends). Instead, I think his Justice value has shot up, especially in light of his standing up for Elmer ("He deserves dignity!"). By the end of the season, I think his highest values are Justice and Devotion.

Rayla

Here's Rayla in S3:

I think, if anything, Rayla's Devotion score is maxed out, but her Justice score has gone up. Rayla is now even more devoted to Callum than ever, centering everything she does around him and trying her best to be his closest companion. But she's also prioritizing stopping Aaravos over her family, so her sense of Justice is higher too. She might still prioritize Callum over their mission, just not over anyone else.

Ezran

Here's S3 Ez:

Ez is probably the hardest to map, just because he hasn't had many moments of introspection or clear moments of growth. But if I had to guess, I think his sense of Liberty has grown somewhat, especially in light of Soren telling him he should have moments to be a kid lest he "grows up weird."

Claudia

And last but certainly not least:

Like Ez, Claudia's change is kinda hard to pin down mainly because she's remained pretty consistent throughout. If she has changed, she has become even more devotional (representing a dark antithesis to Rayla), while her Liberty score has likely dropped. She is, at least for now, chained to the path she is currently on.

Conclusion

In short, neither mine nor the gamecock author's opinions are authoritative, so YMMV here. Let me know what y'all think, but feel free to disagree and, most importantly, have fun!

#tdp #the dragon prince #callum #ezran #rayla #soren #caudia #rayllum

[angel-of-hunky-doryness]

The Conflicts of Disney's Hercules (Part 3): Hades vs Zeus

Brother vs brother- talk about a tale as old as time, huh? From Cain and Abel to Hamlet and Claudius to the more modern examples of Mufasa and Scar to Thor and Loki, what's not to hate about about two brothers at odds with one another? Well technically its more of an angsty, brooding guy who's had it up to here with their perfect golden retriever brother getting the throne, daddy's attention, and/or the girl. While our bootiful no-thoughts head empty golden child becomes intimately aware at the last possible second of their brother's treachery as they're falling into your proverbial wildebeest stampede.

That's right y'all.

May I present to the surprise of no one.

THEM:

Finally we come to the conflict that sent the proverbial Sisyphean boulder into motion that is Disney's Hercules.

Part I: And now a word from our IV pound sponsor:

Before I begin my analysis on the relationship between Disney's Hades and Zeus, I thought I would provide a bit of background to the established canon Disney presents us. Mind you, dear reader, we have the 1997 film and the Hercules animated TV show (1998) to look towards. However, there are minor conflicting information between the two, but as always, the movie is always more canon than what the TV show gave us.

Zeus is older, Hades is younger. Weird I know.

But I'm gonna go out on a limb here and support Disney on this one. Because while in the grand scheme of things Hades is most definitely NOT the youngest child of the siblings in Greek Myth, there is a small technicality that cements Zeus' authority to rule over his older siblings as if Zeus was the firstborn child this whole time.

That technicality being: Kronos

Kronos gets the big bag prophecy/curse from Gaia that one of his children will overthrow him like he did with his dad, so Kronos starts baking his cake and eating it too.

Hades was the first male born (hestia is traditionally firstborn but patriarchy or whatevs) so that also made him the first to be swallowed by Kronos. Thus, when Zeus freed the rest of his siblings, Hades was the last son to be up-chucked since he was ingested first - that made Hades the last "born."

And this "second birth" of Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Hades, and Hestia is what cements the order of authority in the 6 siblings hierarchy. Therefore, Zeus was made firstborn and had full authority to claim the sky if he so desired.

But Zeus was a chad in those days and still gave his brothers a chance to draw lots and all that b/c even he saw how unfair the Fates had been to his brothers. Yet still, destiny favored Zeus and Mr. High and Mighty got the kingdom with a view.

Which is a perfect segway to the next set of rules I'm working with here:

2. Zeus is a good guy.

Okay, I know it hurts to accept this, buttercups, but we have to muscle through it. The version of Zeus that we got in Disney's Hercules is a sanitized, lovable goofball who loves his son, his wife (is that allowed?), and his brother who's going through a phase.

BTW I would like to draw attention to the fact this is the first time in an adaptation of greek myth where Hera is Hercules' bio mother. This is clearly outlining to the audience- hey! Zeus is faithful?

So Zeusy's worst flaw (infidelity, Don Juan, insatiable sexual appetite- pick your poison) has been erased. That's wild, but we have to accept this to better understand the context of Hades vs Zeus. We have to establish who has morality in this equation. Earlier parts of my Hercules Conflicts series had obvious good guys vs Hades, but for this one I have to build it up because of the history of these mythological figures.

However, before I roll into it, I would like to dig on Mr. Thunder Dunder Head once.

This man violated the Geneva Conventions doing this to Danny DeVito:

Talk about some Zeus ex machina- yeesh.

Part II: And Then Along Came Zeus

With the introduction out of the way, now we can talk about the central conflict that kickstarted this movie into gear.

From the get-go, Hades establishes that he doesn't reciprocate his brother's affection. What should've been a good ol' fashioned family reunion turned into a neon flashing sign that Hades is very uncomfy around his brother. Hell, even when Zeus is trying to be friendly he ends up ordering him around.

And I don't think anyone's mentioned this before, but doesn't it seem like Zeus is just as touchy-feely here as Hades is with those beneath them? It makes me wonder if Hades learned this behavior from Zeus.

Now, we also get the idea that Zeus is clueless. Not just to how Hades is purposefully keeping him at arm's length, but also to how the other party guests, the gods, get very quiet and passive aggressive the second Hades showed up to spoil the party.

And you better believe this three-minute scene is the basis for this entire post. And there is a lot to digest here.

First off, we get Hades' motivation, his goals, and the receipts. You better believe this babe is writing in his little black burn book as soon as he gets back in his chariot.

From Zeus, to Hercules, to the rest of the gods, home boy has a lot to update after popping in after a long time. And I hate to be that guy, but a show of hands on who felt more sympathetic for Hades here?

Like I've mentioned in Disney's Most Sympathetic villain post already, but Hades' villain entrance is not intimidating in the slightest. If anything, it quickly establishes that Hades is kind of a loser in these circles.

To recap, while on Mt Olympus for two minutes Hades is:

Manhandled by his older brother

Manhandled by his nephew (ok i get this one, he nearly hurt a baby, those are spikes after all)

Ignored. Nobody but Zeus makes eye contact/or acknowledges him. More than likely this is b/c they can't stand the guy and out of respect for Zeus they've elected to just ignore him and hope he goes away.

Zeus gaslights him - yes, the guy who gave him the underworld job is telling him to slow down and live a little. That's like your boss gives you a crap load of work and comes by to ask you why he never sees you take time off. I will die on this hill that's positively diabolical.

And lastly, Hades gets laughed off the mountain.

Not once in this entire film did Zeus ever check up on Hades after this. Not to apologize, not to make up for lost time, bring up an opportunity for a party you could come to, or perform a wellness check. That would've been so hilarious seeing Zeus pop into the underworld and the entire scene is just Hades shenanigans of trying to cover up evidence of his plot to murder this guy.

Although to be fair, Myth!Zeus had the same issue!

BUT to Myth!Zeus's credit, he made an attempt to improve his brooding brother's mood. And he did it in the worst way possible by immediately fixing him up with Persephone. So you really can't say that Myth!Zeus isn't trying.

Now since I've bashed Zeus I will give him some credit on his first scene. Hades isn't there to stay and chat, he's on a recon mission. And he evades all his brother's attempts at conversation. He cuts bolt boy off, uses humor as a defense mechanism, and he deflects every time Zeus tries to get cozy. Why?

Homeboy found out a new godling was born.

And the way the movie presents Baby Hercules- from Zeus being awkward and kind of scared to hold him- I get the vibes that the writers are making Zeus out to be a first time dad.

Yeah, apparently we're ignoring Athena, Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Bacchus, Hermes, Hephaestus, etc

Wild I know, but there is a purpose to it.

@persephoneflowerpetals made a very interesting blog post about this particular aspect that deserves a look and got me to thinking.

So not to steal their thunder, but Hades showing up to Hercules' Amphidromia (ancient greek family festival where newborn babies are given their name in front of their family & friends on 5th or 7th day of life) was for him to see who his competition was - whether or not Hercules sided with Zeus or not when Hades' own uprising happens.

And by not siding with Zeus, I'm talking about Hercules having his own type of uprising and usurping his father as all the previous kings had done before him.

Which is really cool! It's taking the Lion King/Hamlet story from a different angle. The nephew is just as much of a threat as his father if not more.

You see age doesn't really factor for Greek gods (Artemis was born minutes before her brother and she helped her mom deliver him & the food of the gods aged baby godlings quickly) so it's a very smart move for Hades to see what he was up against very quickly. Hell at this point in time he had no idea he just needed to wait 18 more years for his uprising.

And that's why Hades was more concerned about the sunspot than his own brother. It could very well be that he wouldn't be fighting Zeus, but Hercules for the ownership of the Olympian throne.

This puts Hercules on equal footing with Zeus in terms of level and power and establishes why Herc is the main protagonist- not Zeus.

Hell, if anything, Hades knows from experience that posterity can easily overtake the previous generation. He did that once despite the odds being stacked against him and his siblings even though Gospel Truth claims Zeus stopped the Titans on his own.

Part III: Olympus is That Way

The Titan Jail break will never not be funny to me. We see 5 giant Titans stomping around in the woods, the seas, the fields, cities, etc in what I am assuming is about sunrise?

You mean to tell me there wasn't a single person- or god, we have to remember there are gods in this universe that didn't want to- I don't know- let Zeus know what was coming? I mean it's not like Poseidon would know they were freed from their underwater prison, or Apollo as he's driving his chariot- it is a bit cloudy after all, or any others to notice their cities with mortals actively praying to them are under a massive attack.

Horses were killed, Poseidon. Your descendants. My sibling the horse girl is very disappointed in you.

Now I know this is touched upon in my series Hercules Conflicts Part II, but it does merit a mention since ultimately it is Zeus' fault / laziness that the Titans were able to show up on their front doorstep without anyone realizing until too late.

And Zeus is absolutely torn apart when he realizes it was his brooding baby brother who gave him the ol' Judas Kiss.

I couldn't find the gif of Zeus' realization face that maybe what his brother was going through was not just a phase. However, just like Mufasa before him, bolt boy realizes too late of his brother's treachery.

And what's the last line, Hades delivers to Zeus:

Oh?!

Is- is Hades bitter about the job Zeus gave him? Of being ordered around while the rest of the pantheon got to play around and have some fun?

Jokes aside, but Hades' whole plot, all his animosity and antagonism towards Zeus came because of the lot he was given by bolt boy over here. And while Hades does call Zeus his greatest rival it's because Zeus put him in that position in the first place.

Zeus created his worst enemy.

It's like one of my profs commented once in my classes back in my uni days. The oil spill that happened in the Gulf of Mexico didn't happen because of one mistake. It happened because of several mistakes, several oversights, several safety overrides for the sake of not losing money were made over a period of years that eventually lead to a disaster that no longer could be ignored.

And that is ultimately what became Zeus' fatal flaw in this movie.

His negligence.

We can blame the other gods for not being as committed as well, but it's like Hopper says in bug's life:

Zeus is at fault for his brother's betrayal, his son being turned mortal, and the mess the Titan's left in their wake.

So at the end of the movie when the Muses deliver another absolute banger, the system doesn't change. Things go back to the way they were just minus the one guy at the bottom most rung of the cosmos' ladder.

If change is to happen it starts at the top.

Not to end this on a downer- although we all know how screwed this world is after the credits roll, but I am happy to report, dear reader, that change does happen.

It's small, but it's still resounding.

Hercules chooses not to join his father. Just as Hades predicted in the opening scene if you go along with my theory from earlier in this post in Part II. And this wasn't even with the assistance of prophecy, it was because Hades knew his brother too well.

Zeus has a very exclusive club atop Olympus and he would never let someone like Meg, despite all that she's sacrificed and redeemed herself for. Because Meg is a representation of Hades here. Something I was very vocal about in Part 1 of my Hercules Conflicts Series.

And before you argue, remember, Zeus is the one who told Hercules that only gods can live on Olympus. Bolt boy knew Hercules was about to ask for a freebie for her, but his stance was made very clear on the matter.

So, Hercules refuses. Hades was proven to be correct.

Now, Hades just didn't know why Hercules would defect. And Hercules goes back to being a mortal because of Hades. Because Hades put Meg in the right place at the right time. Sure, it's because of Meg that Hades loses. But Hades got someone to realize Olympus isn't all its cracked up to be.

Through mortality.

The very aspect Hades himself represents as lord of the dead and god of the underworld.

Maybe Hades did win after all.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading!

Till next time, my dear readers

~Angel

#disney #disney hades #disney hercules #disney megara #disney villains #my rambles #greek mythology #greek myth #hercules #zeus #disney zeus #hades #disney persephone #disney movies #hercules 1997

[weird-al-song-tourney]

CW: Epilespy, flashing lights in the Everything You Know Is Wrong music video, please be careful!

Yeah I'll post this one a bit early too. Bad Bitches Era let's gooooo

'Weird Al' Yankovic Song Tournament

The Bad Bitches Era Round 4

DON'T DOWNLOAD THIS SONG

Music Video

Team 'Don't Download This Song', Your Mascot is:

A Red Gem from the 'Spyro The Dragon' games.

EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG

Music Video - CW: Flashing Lights, if you're epileptic, I'd recommend using the second link to the non-animated upload, be safe, thank you to @ponysongbracket for messaging me about this, that was my bad for not putting up a warning beforehand. Sorry about that one, I am an idiot & I forget things like that sometimes. Thanks for giving me the reminder bud. Stay safe y'all.

Safe Music Video

Team 'Everything You Know Is Wrong', Your Mascot is:

Dendy from 'OK KO', but she is dripped out as a Wumpa Fruit from 'Crash Bandicoot', if you're wondering why, this was an image I made myself for use in my other bracket blog, but I decided to use it here because I had it on hand & it's very weird so it fits right in. Besides if this song is to have it's mascot, the mascot should be something that makes zero sense in it's own existence.

#mod toasty #weird al tournament #weird al #weird al yankovic #al yankovic #tumblr tournament #tournament #tumblr polls #the weird al show #bracket #dont download this song #spyro the dragon #spyro reignited trilogy #red gem #music video #vintage #ok ko dendy #dendy #wumpa fruit #crash bandicoot

[greatwyrmgold]

Lately, I've been reading Forge of Destiny, and while I think it's pretty good, I'm not going to talk about why today. Instead, I'm going to talk about something weird that I found interesting: The remnants of a text-to-text adaptation.

For those who don't know, the Forge of Destiny I linked is not the original version. The original was a "quest" on Sufficient Velocity. For those who don't know, quests are kind of like multiplayer choose-your-own-adventure stories; the author writes a chapter, the players vote on what happens next, the author writes another chapter.

You might not be able to tell if I hadn't told you that; Yrsillar has done a good job of adapting their story to a different format. Most significantly, the chapters have been broken up and merged, so that the chapters end at dramatically appropriate moments and not a decision-points.

But if you know what you're looking for, you can still see many of those decision-points. Perhaps the most obvious was in one of the early chapters, when Ling Qi (the protagonist) is looking for a seat and notes four fellow disciples with empty seats near them.

In the context of a normal novel, these characters would be one of three things: Important characters who our heroine will soon get to know, colorful set dressing, or a Chekhov's Gunman pretending to be set dressing. But they aren't, really. One of them is Qi's future roommate and friend, one of them leads a training group that Qi befriends but drifts away from, and the other two are too prominent to be set dressing but still incredibly unimportant characters. (One of them is technically a minor antagonist in a conflict that Qi doesn't seem to care about, the other is an even minor-er antagonist in that conflict.)

In a quest, though? That's the author pointing to a bunch of characters and asking who y'all want to hang out with. Which is why Qi hangs out with the guy who knows Qi's third- or fourth-best friend instead of the girl who ends up being her closest friend and ally. The players hung out with Han Jian at first, but later decided they'd rather focus on other characters. But without that context, the decision to focus on a tertiary character in chapter 2 makes little sense.

There are plenty of other instances of these visible decision points, usually times when Ling Qi clearly and explicitly contemplates two or three courses of action she could take. In an ordinary novel, a character thinking like that indicates that they're conflicted over which course of action to take (whether because they don't know what they want or because they don't know how to get it), but Qi does that kind of thing even when her actions or words in that scene are more consistent with making the decision quickly and sticking to it.

(There are also other marks; times when Qi said she'd think about something when the ambiguity wasn't needed, minor details that the players probably voted on got a bit more attention than authors would usually pay them, that kind of thing. I'm just trying to give an overview, not an exhaustive list.)

I'm not saying this as a criticism—like I said, I'm not sure people unfamiliar with the story's history would notice anything was off. It's like looking at an anime character running in place while talking and thinking "This probably looks better as a manga panel." Normally, that bit of adaptational jank isn't worth talking about.

But normally, it's not a text-to-text adaptation. Nothing about how Forge of Destiny was presented has changed, only its context. But even here, adaptation can leave scars. And I think that's interesting!

#forge of destiny #adaptation

[destinyc1020]

They didn't miss anything Destiny they just want to stick to a narrative that Zendaya and Timothee cannot be friends. The question is, why some Tomdayas are so insecure about a possible friendship? Z has been in a relationship with Tom now for over 7yrs, and Timmy is and has been with Kylie for over a yr., what is the fuss about? are people that insecure to have Zendaya near another man? what do you think will happen exactly? They both claim to be friends so who are these people to claim they are not? how do you know they are not? Yes Timmy mentioned the apartment situation back in 2020 in the interview, but some of them act as if we didn't see their interaction at the Oscars, all the sightings of Timmy and Z together while filming Dune, they were hiking together, him getting on the same Jet as Z in Paris, him at Darnell's birthday party, they walked in one after the other at Beyonce's concert and we now know Beyonce had a meet and greet for VIP before the show. Timothee could have listed any of these occasions, but it doesn't matter because people will stick to their own version of reality.

Yea, I don't see the big deal on EITHER side honestly. Those who are pushing a bosom buddy scenario lol, and those who are pushing a "just work acquaintances" angle. 🥴

To me, REAL Tomdayas aren't threatened by Zendaya having male friends. Like you said, Z and Tom have been dating for like 7 years. They've known each other for 8 years. Like.... let's get real here.

Plus, Z has had male costar friends for YEARS! Do y'all forget about Kamil?? 🤣😅 Geez lol....

Like you said, they're both in rlshps with other ppl. Idk why some ppl make the Timmy/Zendaya FRIENDSHIP so weird. 😕 That goes for both sides. The weirdos who try to ship them all the time, and the ones who act like they must be enemies. 🙄

As you mentioned, all the stuff you brought up sounds like two ppl who are genuine friends of each other. It's GOOD to have great friends in this industry coz it can be cutthroat, backstabbing, phony, and even lonely at times. 😔

I just don't get the overthinking honestly.