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inklessletter · 1 year

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It's a love story (baby just say yes) Chapter 3

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Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 4

After coming back to Hawkins, Eddie could notice that Steve’s mood was, well, not strange, but there was definitely something going on. He was quieter than usual, and the week after the trip, Steve didn’t stop by Eddie’s as frequently. And honestly, when he did, he seemed to be far away.

Something was bugging him, but as far as Eddie knew, there were a number of possible issues there.

There was the Robin and Nancy thing.

There was the fact that Steve got drunk and made out with a guy whose name he didn’t even know.

There was also the fact that in the middle of the night, after they went back to the hotel, Steve actually slithered in Eddie’s bed at some point and they woke up entangled with each other.

It could be all of the above.

It could be something different.

But Eddie wasn’t going to risk addressing it, especially the Robin and Nancy issue, because he wasn’t sure if Robin actually had told him or not. Eddie could wait until Steve was ready to open up.

This is why Eddie felt butterflies in his stomach when he made Steve smile after two weeks. And it was something silly, just a suggestion, really, to keep him busy if he was up to it. Eddie told him that now that Christmas was coming closer, it could be fun if they could make their gifts instead of buying them.

“I love the idea,” Steve said, smiling to the void.

“Yeah, it can be fun.”

“Don’t get me wrong, Eds, I can’t do shit, I’m not creative nor do I have skills for anything,” warned Steve with an amused expression.

“That’s not true! Give yourself some credit, man. I’ve seen you doing some cool stuff!”

“Yeah, I’m not ripping off any interdimensional monster again, thank you.”

They both cackled. They shouldn’t, though, but they both have accepted that laughing at that life threatening situation was a trauma response.

“I didn’t mean that, you moron. You—” Eddie thought his next words. “You bake like an angel, for example.”

“Do I?”

“Yeah! I can’t get over the birthday cake you made for Dustin a few months ago. That was me thanking whatever god there is up above to be alive to taste it!”

And even if the tone was light, the words felt heavy. The realization that they could have not been alive to do such a simple thing. To bake and eat.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do, and thank you for having this idea ten days before Christmas,” Steve said, with a mocking tone, “but I think it is appropriate. That—that our gifts are just us giving each other a little bit of time, no matter the results.”

It was a silly suggestion.

It was supposed to be.

But now, after Steve’s words, it felt loaded.

“In the end, time is all we have,” Eddie said, low and full of fondness.

Steve smiled softly, lifting his gaze and locking it in Eddie’s eyes.

“So that's all we have to give.”

Eddie’s lips trembled for a second, and muttering mentally a silent “fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck” Eddie looked away, clearing his throat.

And like that, Steve stood up, stretching his muscles, and with an easy expression he left Eddie’s room.

“I’m going home,” Steve announced from the bedroom door. “I think I’ve got some shit to do and it’s due Christmas.”

That’s why Eddie was perched in his bed, with his guitar in his hands, and a notebook next to him, learning Steve’s favorite song. If it weren’t because he’s seen Steve a thousand times mindlessly singing it whenever it was on the radio, Eddie wouldn’t have paid it any attention. It was just another pop song, one of many.

But the song was a fucking nightmare.

At first he tried to imitate the synth sound, the rhythm, but Eddie loathed it. Then he tried it out on his sweetheart but it was way too different, almost unrecognizable. And he wanted Steve to like it.

He needed Steve to love it.

And maybe it was so difficult for him to get it right because it was for Steve.

God, why on Earth did I have to open my fucking mouth?

A soft knock on his door interrupted Eddie’s train of thoughts.

“Hey kid, can we talk?”

Eddie looked at Wayne, nodding.

“Yeah, of course. Something wrong?”

Wayne sighed and entered the room. He took a seat in the bed next to Eddie, who was starting to worry.

“I need to tell you something, boy. D’you remember Charlie Jones?”

Charlie Jones was an old friend of Wayne’s. He was originally from Hawkins, but he got out about five or six years ago.

Eddie nodded. “He okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, good old Charlie is still kicking. So, I called him a few days ago, but I didn’t want to tell you anything until it was a sure thing,” Wayne looked Eddie dead in the eye, and Eddie left aside the guitar. “He got me a job at the workshop, Eddie. And he can take you up, too. He can teach you. He knows you, and he doesn’t listen to any shit. He still has some brains in him. He knows you wouldn’t hurt a fly, he knows you’re smart and pick up quick,” Wayne said, wetting his lips for a second.

Eddie froze.

“But—But Charlie is in Maine.”

There was a brief silence. An intense one.

“Yeah, kid.”

Eddie took a deep breath, his mind going a mile a minute.

Maine.

That was a shit ton of miles away from Hawkins. That was not just a ride away. That was several days on the road. And Eddie was not stupid, he knew how much of a blessing this opportunity was for them.

But he could not ignore the feeling of his heart sinking, and sinking, and sinking.

“T—That’s—fuck—Wayne, that’s great news,” Eddie said, voice shaky, “b—but I thought we had some money from the government, and it’s not imperative going back to work right away, I—”

“Kid, we’ve been doing nothing these past few months. Nothing, Eddie. I need to work, I’m not made to be—Eddie we’re hiding in here. We have no future here in Hawkins, kid.”

Eddie tried to interrupt him, but suddenly all his words were stuck, with something he already knew, but it was devastating to face.

“You have no future here, son. You’re too young, you’ve been through so much. You need a chance, and I think this could be it. This is a way out, a helping hand. Kid, now’s the time, now that you still have nothing that ties you to this town.”

Eddie closed his eyes, and a very specific face came to his mind.

He wiped quickly the tear that fell down his cheek.

Eddie looked down, at the pick of his guitar still in his hand, and he heard Wayne sighing.

“Oh, boy.”

“So you are—um—telling me that we’re leaving? D—Did you take the offer right away?” Eddie asked quickly, because he definitely did not want to have that conversation with Wayne.

The older man took a few seconds to answer. “I accepted my offer. I couldn’t accept yours, because you’re an adult. I needed to tell you first. You need to agree to it.”

You’re an adult now.

“Thank you.”

“Son, I need you to know that the hush money won’t last forever, and you’re not going to find work in this shit hole—”

You have no future here.

“Okay—”

“—and I really, really want the best for you. But you need to decide.”

You need to decide.

“Can I think about it?” Eddie asked, still looking at the pick.

Wayne put a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah, of course, kid. But I’ll need an answer before the end of the year. I’m leaving in January.”

So you I don’t have that much time, after all.

Eddie nodded.

After a few seconds Eddie spoke again.

“I’ll tell you something soon, ‘kay?” Eddie sounded strained.

Wayne set a hand that felt too heavy on Eddie’s shoulder, and gave him a gentle squeeze. Eddie still didn’t look at him.

And before he knew it, he was alone in his room again.

***

The time flowed differently for Eddie since that evening. He knew he had something really important to think about, something to decide.

Yet all he could focus on was Steve’s song.

He still hadn’t decided how he wanted to perform it, but whatever he did it felt—shallow. And that was wrong.

Eddie needed for it to be the most meaningful song he’d ever sung.

It was on the third day when he started paying attention to the lyrics, not the music, and it was when it hit him.

That song was not meant to be a dance hit, because those lyrics were not made to be buried under the synths.

Those lyrics were meant to be the protagonist of the song.

The true form of that song should be a ballad.

It should be a ballad, because what was written was no more than a love confession.

And he needed it to be real.

If Eddie wanted or not for Steve to pick up his feelings through the song, he was not sure. It was absolutely terrifying.

But he’ll say it anyway.

***

Definitely, time was being wonky like that for Eddie. On Christmas Eve Eddie and Wayne had a nice dinner that the older man prepared. It was nothing fancy, but it was full of intent.

Wayne prepared Eddie’s favorite meal; the one that he made the first night he went to live with his uncle.

The previous days had been kind of tense at home, because whether Eddie decided to go or to stay, he would have to say goodbye to someone, and Eddie was nowhere ready for it.

Wayne was kind like that to not mention it on Christmas Eve.

They put on some ugly ass sweaters, they had a nice meal, they exchanged gifts.

Eddie got Wayne a new set of gardening tools, since the last few months he’d been invested in it.

Wayne got Eddie a few books he wanted.

And then, they went to bed, but Eddie didn’t fall asleep.

The acoustic guitar was staring at him. Expecting. Waiting to be used.

It was near one in the morning when he jumped off the bed and put on some warm clothes and stepped out the door.

Eddie was not surprised when he saw Steve’s maroon car parked in the entrance of the building. The butterflies in his stomach, however—those were rioting.

Steve stepped out of the car, and even from afar, Eddie could see the steam shaped breathing of him. It was freezing outside. He took a few steps forward and met Steve halfway.

“What are you doing here?”, “Where were you going?” they both asked simultaneously.

They both grinned, and waited for the other one to talk.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Steve broke the silence first, looking at the floor.

“Me neither.”

Another silence.

“Do you—Do you want to go somewhere?” Steve asks.

“Yeah. Yeah, I do,” Eddie replies, breathy, shaking.

They both went inside the car, Steve started the engine and they drove off.

It was warmer inside, but Eddie could not stop shaking. He felt giddy, and uneasy, and he could feel Steve in the same mood.

Eddie looked at Steve while driving, a small voice in the back of his head, reminding him that maybe he won’t have many chances in the future to observe him. To really observe him.

So he did just that. He looked at him, unashamedly, as if he wanted to imprint the image of Steve in his brain forever.

Eddie looked at the perfect, fluffy hair that did not go through a routine before going out, in a beautiful, warm chestnut, crowned with some strings of gold, as if he was royal.

His skin, also warm, covered in moles that he tried to count more times than he was comfortable admitting.

And he wanted to kiss every single one of them.

His very expressive eyebrows, now kind of furrowed, right over two big, doe hazel pupils, that made his core tremble every time they locked in his eyes.

The bridge of his nose, so flawlessly sculpted.

His mouth. God, his mouth.

It was an impossible, wishful thinking, but Eddie felt like he would be gone, dragged by the wind as if he was made of salt if he didn’t get to kiss him at least once.

He knew he would have to apologize to his own body every day for the rest of his life if he kept using it as a prison for all the love he had stored for Steve.

All those brand new, unused kisses, rotting in his lips.

All those unspoken words, with no air in his lungs to be shared.

All those itching caresses, locked in his skin, with nowhere to go.

Eddie was a cursed temple.

A graveyard of love.

Unfit for the living.

God, he needed to tell him.

Steve parked the car somewhere in the woods, somewhere familiar. Eddie honestly didn’t know how they got there, especially when Steve unfastened his belt, but he still gripped the steering wheel.

“Are you okay?”

Steve took a deep breath, and then looked at Eddie. “I know we could risk losing our fingers, but—a smoke?”

Eddie nodded, with a smile.

They both got out of the car, and sat on the cold hood of the BMW. Steve lit a cigarette and after taking a deep drag, he passed it to Eddie. He took a hit, trying not to focus on the remaining wetness of Steve’s spit on the filter. Eddie waited patiently until Steve spoke.

“Robin told me,” he said, simply. “She told me you knew.”

Shit.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It was not your place to say.”

Eddie passed the cigarette back to Steve. “Still, I’m sorry.”

There was another silence, that, again, Steve broke.

“Is it shitty of me that I don’t know how to feel about this? I mean, yeah, I’m glad for them, but—I just—I’m not sure if I’m okay with it.” When Eddie didn’t speak for a full minute, Steve continued. “I told you what happened between me and Nancy, I told Robin back then, too. It didn’t end well, and I don’t mean our relationship. No, I mean that she fucked me up. And—and yeah, I am now grateful because that made me who I am now, but she fucked me up. I’m past being angry and bitter at her for what she did to me, but now it’s Robin who’s on the spot, and I don’t—I don’t like it. I don’t fucking like the idea of Nancy having the chance of breaking her heart so unapologetically as she broke mine. I do not want to see Robin reshaping her whole identity because it just doesn’t fit with Nancy. I just—I just don’t.”

Steve took another drag, and Eddie could see Steve’s hand trembling as he carried the cigarette to his lips.

“You know that doesn’t have to happen.”

“I know,” Steve passed the cigarette to Eddie. “I know. I’m worrying over nothing. I should be glad for them.”

“You know, you’ve grown up, but Nancy has too,” Eddie said, softly, earning a look from Steve, with pursed lips. “I’m sure she won’t make the same mistake twice, there’s a limited number of awesome people she can let go.”

Eddie felt bold enough to actually run his fingers through Steve’s hair, pushing it back. Steve smiled.

“And even if she’s a jerk again, Robin has you to tell her that she’s perfect the way she is.”

Steve sighed, and looked to the horizon again, sad.

“No, she doesn’t. She’s in Chicago, and I’m here. I can only do so much.”

And it—god, it felt like if the words slipped Eddie’s mouth before he thought about them.

“Why are you still here?”

“What?”

“In Hawkins, I mean,” Eddie said. “You—you could be anywhere. You could be in Chicago with her. Or in New York, or Cali. You could be in fucking Brazil if you wanted to. Why are you still in Hawkins, Steve?”

Eddie really wanted to know. He wanted to know what tied Steve to this godforsaken town that has brought nothing but trauma and loss and hurt.

Eddie’s heart was thundering in his chest, so loud, he was sure that Steve could hear it.

It took forever for Steve to answer.

“I can’t go. I can’t—the kids.”

Well, fuck.

“We don’t know if—”

“The gate is closed, Steve. The danger is gone. The fucker’s dead. It’s over.”

And in a whisper, Steve said: “We don’t know that. We thought that before.”

“Steve—”

“I have to be here. I have to protect them.”

“It’s not your problem, Steve. It’s the government’s problem. It has always been the government’s problem. You are not responsible of fixing their fuck ups.”

Steve huffed a laugh.

“That’s not what I do. I keep them alive, because the little shits will meddle every damn time, and I did a shitty job last time, because some of us almost didn’t make it,” Steve said, stepping off the hood. “I need to be here. I can’t leave, Eddie.”

Eddie said nothing for a full minute. He just stared at Steve, and he stared back. Eddie threw the roach of the cigarette, that consumed between his fingers.

“Steve, you know that the kids will be here for a couple of years more and then they will leave, too. They’ll set off to college. I know you want to keep them safe, but—sweetheart, you can’t put your life on hold. You—fuck, Steve, you deserve to live your life.”

Eddie stood, too, in front of him, and the hug came natural. Steve buried his face in Eddie’s neck, who could feel how cold his nose was. Eddie buried his naked, reddening fingers in Steve’s hair. Eddie could feel him shaking, gripping him tight.

“Shit, Steve, you’re taking the babysitting way job too seriously for not even being paid for it,” Eddie said, lighter, softer. Steve huffed a laugh in his neck. He could feel the shaking breath of Steve, and Eddie knew that he was crying.

“That’s who I am, aren’t I?”

“Well, that’s part of who you are. You are much more than that.”

“Am I? Because, to be honest, I don’t even know who I am anymore.”

Eddie pressed his lips against Steve’s hair, mindlessly.

“It’s okay not to know. You’re nineteen, Steve. You are still figuring shit out. It’s okay, sweetheart,” Eddie separated the lips from his hair as he felt the hug tighten. “But yeah, you’re much more than the babysitter. You’re much more than Nancy’s ex, or Robin’s platonic soulmate. You’re way much more than just my friend.

“You are caring, and you’re full of love, did you know that? The kids adore you, you adore them back. You—shit, Steve, you’re a protector. And not only that, you are funny, and witty, and know what buttons to press to rile Dustin up (and believe me, we all love it),” Steve laughed again. “Stevie, you are smart in ways no one else is. You are brave. Selfless. You are kind of a bitch sometimes, but we all love it, I swear.” With another laugh, Steve lifted his head to look at Eddie, who kept talking. “You are the true Batman.”

He said it with a mockery tone that earned an eye roll and a soft push that ended the hug. Steve wiped his tears and sniffed, looking at Eddie.

“Steve, you are not plain. You are layered. You are allowed to be angry, to not like Robin’s relationship and to be glad at the same time, you have the right to feel the way you do. You are allowed to be all of this and more.” Eddie didn’t know how his voice became so soft again, it was absolutely involuntary, as the tender, lingering look, locked in Steve’s hazel depths. “Whoever you are, Steve, does not depend on your role in other people’s life.”

Eddie could see that Steve wasn’t breathing.

“What I need you to understand, Steve, is that no matter what, you are enough,” he said, and Steve’s face flinched for a second, “even if you haven’t realized it yet.”

It took Steve a couple of minutes to react. He opened his mouth once, twice, three times until some sound came out.

“Thank you, Eddie.”

Steve took a step forward and held his hands.

Eddie looked at the joined hands, not daring to look up to meet Steve’s gaze. He needed not to. If he met his pupils one more time, he would do something stupid.

Like staying.

He didn’t know when he had decided exactly that he needed to go with Wayne, but it felt so clear now. There was charged electricity in the air, that secret Christmas night in the woods becoming a ball of romantic energy with nowhere to go.

Every word that left his lips that night was an utter truth.

Steve needed to find himself, but so did Eddie.

Steve was not only someone taking a part in someone else’s lives, he was his own person.

But so was Eddie.

Steve needed to figure out his future in Hawkins, at least, for now.

But Eddie had no future there.

Because, yeah, that precise minute seems the prelude of an amazing love story. He can feel Steve’s energy too, but then what? Steve was not willing to leave Hawkins anytime soon, and Eddie just had no future there. Even if they managed to make it work between them, even if the money wasn’t a problem. What was Eddie going to do with his life? He couldn’t work there, no one would hire him, not anytime soon.

It was doomed.

All this love, buzzing, trapped in his skin, in his lips, in his bones, begging him to lift up the chin and close up the gap between them.

A kiss dying to be born.

And Eddie, the god of his own misery, bearing death in the tip of his tongue.

I choose to hold it until it breaks me.

Until it shatters my heart in such small pieces they can’t cast a shadow anymore, you bright little thing.

I choose to leave.

Eddie wanted to tell him that he was going to figure it out. That he would meet someone that made him happy. That he would manage sometime soon to be comfortable in his own skin. He wanted to tell him that he knew he was going to be the most awesome father to ever exist, because he knew first hand how much love he had to give, and that his kids would be lucky to have him.

He wanted to tell him that he loved him, and he would keep loving him until the sun that kissed his mole covered skin imploded in the sky.

And ever after that.

But he didn’t say any of it.

He just said, in a strained, small voice, “your hands are freezing.”

And with that, all butterflies in his stomach dropped dead.

Steve mumbled, “shit, this reminds me—wait.”

He let Eddie’s hands go, and went to the car. Eddie was using every cell in his body not to crumble. In a second, Steve was again in front of him, holding a gift.

“This is, um, this is your Christmas gift. Merry Christmas, Eddie.”

Time is all we have to give.

Eddie smiled and took the poorly wrapped, soft gift.

“Gee, thank you. Can I open it?”

Steve nodded.

Eddie ripped the wrapping paper, and what was inside was a neatly folded, really soft, striped black and red, wool scarf. Eddie smiled.

“Did you really make this? It’s so cool!”

“Well, it is supposed to be warm,” Steve said, unfolding it and putting it around Eddie’s neck. It felt as soft as it looked. “I think I made it a bit too long, you're gonna need—wait.”

Steve put it around Eddie’s neck three more times, and it was still long. Eddie laughed.

“Shit, I think it was too long, but hey, look,” Steve showed him both ends of the scarf. “I gave it pockets, so you can stick your hands if you’re cold.”

“This is amazing, Steve. It must have taken you hours. I didn’t know you knew how to knit.”

“I didn’t,” Steve said. Under Eddie’s gaze, he clarified, “I learnt to make this.”

Eddie didn’t know what to say, but he knew what to do.

It was long enough to be used for both of them, so he adjusted it, and put it too, around Steve’s neck, who smiled at the gesture.

“It’s warm,” Steve said.

“Indeed it is. It’s—shit, Steve, this is amazing. Thank you.”

“No,” Steve said, low voice, “thank you. For everything you said. It—it means the world.”

Eddie tugged a bit of his end of the scarf, pulling a smile from Steve.

“I can’t give you your gift just yet. It will have to be tomorrow, if that’s okay. I don’t have it here, I didn’t expect to find you at one in the morning at home.”

Steve cackled a bit, sticking his hands in the pockets of the scarf, meeting Eddie’s.

Their fingers intertwined, but they weren’t looking at each other.

“I can wait.”

#stranger things #steve harrington #steddie #eddie munson #ficlet #stranger things fanfic #fic #angst and fluff #its a love story baby just say yes #steve x eddie #eddie x steve

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popculturebuffet · 4 months

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Top 20 Animated Episodes of 2022 Part Deux: The Top 10

... and continued. If you missed the first part of this list check it out bellow

TLDR: I do a yearly ranking of 20 diffrent episodes from cartoons I saw this year, split into two parts. This is part Deux, with the top 10 and we're in an intresting spot as this year we had TWO reinging champions.

See Invincible won the 2021 list.. but then sat out a year to produce season 2, making sure it was as good as possible then splitting it right in half like a kit kat bar when it was clear it wouldn't be ready in time and Amazon was panicking from the strike. So it wasn't around when Owl HOuse won last year's gold, leaving both shows to defend the crown. And with Owl House not reaching the top 10 in this utterly stacked year of animation, will Invincible live up to it's name again or get splattered in blood? Either way you'll have fun finding out under the cut.

Unmarked Spoilers for all non pluto or non pilot series bellow. you been warned.

10. Winter King ( Fionna and Cake Season 1, Episode 6)

I was once just like you Didn’t know what to do Had all those bad feelings and schemes My poor heart in a chill Till through sheer force of will I was able to fashion my dreams

While Fionna and Cake was good across the board, this episode was far and away my faviorite for a lot of reasons. So for those less familiar with this mini, Fionna and Cake, the genderswaps of Finn and Jake, had their world's magic disappear when the Ice King was finally freed of the crown and returned to the normal guy he was. With an interdimensional audtitor with a grudge against the duo's real creator, Prismo, on the warpath, F and C travel with Simon to find him a new crown, unaware of what the crown actually does to people or the problems Simon's actively avoiding.

This brings our duo to the realm of the Winter King, a seemingly perfect simon: He's charming, handsome, kind and conquered the crown when Simon couldn't, turning his ice kingdom into a delighful rankin bass style "Winter Wonder World". Helping his charm is the sliky voice of Brian David Gilbert, an internet musician who i'd only heard of through his halloween tinged abba cover album, but who made me an instant fan with just how much he kills it, from the deligthful tone, to his response to Cake wanting the two simons to make out being "Don't think it hasn't occured to me!"

The king is seemingly perfect, the charming handsome dream man Fionna wanted and someone to help Simon. But we soon see something's.. off. Marciline is absent, replaced with an ice version of child Marcy, the Winter King's entirely forgotten betty, not moved on but simply considered her an afterthought. He's nice enough to assume he just may of forgot and maybe that's at leat a little healtheir than simon trying to summon her while she's fused with a demon god, but it's nice little seeds that sprout later.

We then get what clinches this episode both on this list and as one of the best adventure time's had franchise wide: Candy Queen. Turns out in this universe PB is the one trying to kidnap Ice King, a hilarious turn that is still treated as fucked up as it should be.

WE get a nice song from both: the jolly and breezy winter wonder world from Winter King which would be great on it's own.. but is then nicely topped with fluff from it's counter piece.. baked with love.. a delightfully written love song beautifully sang by Hyden Walch, whose unrecognizable otherwise, taking to this deranged version of bonnie perfectly and the design for both kingdoms is great: the enchantment yet coldness (literal and figurative )of the winter kingdom and the deranged mess the candy kingdom's become. We also get a nice subpplot with Gary and Marshall in the main world as Fionna, emrbacing her power fantasy, chops through this world's counterparts to gary's little pals he made.

The twist is excellent: through the kidnapping and Candy Queens plan to put them in a giant blender, it's clear something's VERY wrong with how Winter King treats Bonnie. Instead of the understandable frustration our bonnie had.. .Winter King just wants to abandon her and shrugs off Simon's genuine want to help her. To Winter King she's a seeming annoyance.. to Simon in one timeline she's his step daughter and something had to go VERY wrong for her to end up like this. Not only that having BEEN in her position, he can't stand to see her like this.

Thankfully while Winter King wins... Fionna trying to kiss him shorts out his crown and kills him

Turns out this Simon was evil, happy to strike the faustian bargin needed to keep himself sane by pushing it on Bonnie, something our Simon, for all the breakdown he's going through now, would never even CONSIDER. Fionna is left questioning herself, while Simon.. feels validated. Also Bonnie hits on Fionna. Neat. But Simon assures Fionna it's not her fault, his variant was just a wad. I'ts a wonderful episode with a great twist, and two fantastic songs, all baked with love.. but thankfully not an anquatrian and a frosty winter's dick.

9. Zero Day (My Adventures With Superman, S1, Episodes 8 and 9)

" People have told you to fear Superman because he's different from us... but we humans are capable of causing hurt and pain, too. Because of greed. Because we want to punish those who don't look or act like us. Because of fear. But we're also capable of greatness. It's what we choose to do that matters. Superman has made his choice. It's our turn, Metropolis... It's time for us to save Superman."

As comes up on here often, I'm a massive comics nerd and while I lean towards marvel, I still dearly love DC. So after a drought of animated shows from both, it really warms my heart that this year brought us a heaping helping from both: The inventive, engaging and creative Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur which sadly didn't make the list this year by a hair, and the beautifully animated, well done, long overdue My Adventures with Superman.

My Adventures with Superman is a welcome return to big blue and his first solo cartoon since Superman the Animated Series, 23 years ago. Yes... really. I was shocked too. While superman's cropped up plenty for his stint as a deadbeat dad who came around in the end in Young Justice, to his assorted DTV films including the stellar Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen, not to mention shows for other parts of the superman mythos in the late 2000's with the stellar Krypto the Superdog and one of my all time faviorite superhero shows I really, REALLY need to give a through look at, Legion of Super Heroes. If you would be at all interested in that please, let me know. Anyways we also had Conner and Kara each be a key part of a teen superhero show with Young Justice and Dc Superhero girls, but for some reason DC Just.. had zero intrest in making a JUST superman show. Maybe it was fears that it'd be hard to equal Superman TAS, maybe they just didn't give a shit about one of their greatest characters in comparison to that bat money, maybe they felt they peaked with his brave and the bold guest apperance wearing the super pope hat. I hope it was three but it was definitely 2.

So while the announcment of the now Amazon Prime-bound Batman; The Caped Crusader wasn't a suprise, this show wasn't: A dc show that wasn't an action comedy, focused around superman, with an intriguging anime art style. And while the show shifted to Toonami, it still proved to be an all ages delight, with Season 2 already on the way and hopefully many more.

My Adventures takes us back to the start of Clark's career.

We have.. a LOTTTT. See i've gotten into the man of steel again lately.. and to my shock clark has had at LEAST five diffrent origin stories in the main dc comics: the original in the golden age, the man of steel reboot in the 80's, the mini series superman birthright by mark waid got retconned into one in the early 2000's and then in the late 2000's Geoff Johns overwrote THAT with Secret Origin, which was then rendered non canon with the new 52 which brought us Grant Morrison's take, which was then swapped for Secret Origin again and...

With many an alternate universe, film, series, and breakfast cereal box recounting it. It's been done so many times that in their excellent All Star Superman, outer god grant morrison simply reduced the origin to one page.

Simple beautiful and compact.

So it's a daunting task to ONCE AGAIN tell superman's early years. My Adventures freshens it up by, much like Legion of Superheroes, focusing on a clark who while knowing he's some form of alien and having some control of his powers, is much less experinced and in this case is still slowly gaining them as the series goes on, the latter ala smallville with clark gaining his heat vision, x ray vision and super hearing over the course of season 1, as well as finding out he's bullet proof. This is a clark who is DEEPLY insecure that he's an alien, terrified the world will reject him, and trying badly to be normal... yet still throughly superman even before he puts on the tights as we first see him as an adult not able to go about his morning without stopping to get a cat out of a tree or help someone simply because that's who he is.

So the show naturally puts him with his oppisites: fun kind of conspiracy theorist Jimmy Oleson who semeingly brushes off his best buddy constantly breaking their apartment, only to cleverly reveal later that no , Jimmy knew, he was just being nice about it, and Lois Lane, here a scrappier, hyperactive go getter who badly wants to go from intern work to actual journalism and will bust down any door she has to. Lois helps clark see he can't hide his whole life , but also puts pressure on him as while Clark and Lois have instant, adorable as hell chemistry, Lois is supscious of superman and thinks he has some motive or something for not knowing where he comes from or why he can leap tall buildings in a single bound. it's this push and pull that makes the series, and it's wonderful. WE even get a better version of what Invincible tried to pull off with the secret identity thing in season 1 with Lois being mad clark hid from her, but with a shortned timespan as lois knew for a few days and TRIED to get clark to open up without outright telling him, then when confronting him had to jump off a building to get clark to come clean. Classic lois move, love it. And the rift isn't piled all on one side: Clark is right to be afraid Lois will out his secret , while Lois is right to want someone she's dating to not lie to her and has deep seated issues with lying thanks to her father. The quickly make up, go out and things are seemingly fine.

But while this romcom played out, another arc played out: a shadowy goverment orignization had it's tech stolen, and said orignization hates Superman for some reason. Said org.. is task force x

It's a weird choice.. but it works: Waller and Sam Lane hae long been super paranoid, said Lois Dad fits this orginzation perfectly, and adding slade in there as an oprative workas as he'll work for any amount of money and give him a mech suit and he can fight superman. Wish it wasn't skull shaped but outside of parasite , silver banshee and mxy this series has an issue with villian designs.

Point is they co-opt the villians into the suicide squad without using that name because

and after a season of build up we get zero day, the climax of the season.. not the finale which serves more as an epilogue. Waller and Lane..actually get superman after an episode of him being strung out from getting super hearing which is hilaroius at first but gets worrying as his drive to SOLVE EVERYTHING instead of take a nap, and to stop task force x before they hurt more people, instead leaves him captured. I'ts here the bomb gets dropped: another kryptonian, who waller and lane weirdly think is clark despite how he looks and how they NOTICE he's weaker when they fight him thanks to good ole xenophobia, invaded. And while i'm sure we'll get some swerve where Jor El wasn't part of this, especially since the end of the season hints at zod, it's still a neat idea to have Kypton as possibly an expansions it empire under braniac. Krypton's never really been portrayed in a purely positive light since the silver age,scientfically advance but societally flawed and willing to ignore their bigger isssues till it blows up in their planet.

So clark is left spiraling as Waller is left wallering, unhappy the general wants to consider objective facts and not let Professor Ivo, one of the various rogues captured who blames superman for his company failing instead of throwing a guy out of a window then trying to murder superman to fix his company's dire finacial straights, especially since said company was about to toss his ass out anyway. So whe does what waller always does and .. sets up the rest of the criminals including ivo to escape so she can take over.

This leads to the best sequence of season 1. For starters Lois encourages clark, pointing out "He is a person not a weapon" and she made his life better, helping her gain persecptive, love and everything she could want just by being the kind, noble jacked man he is. WIth that Superman goes to help, while Jimmy comes up with a brilliant way for them to help him as while Clark does his best against his first giant monster, with ivo having a beautiful evangellaion and godzilla inspired giant monster form now and easily the best design of the season in both this and his original human form. It helps that while the other villians aren't bad, simply needing more color in their costumes and maybe more that aren't just "we got this tech off the back of a truck', Ivo is the most fleshed out, a narcisit who belivies superman is less because he's an alien, he's in the right and everything bad happening to him is superman's fault, when all clark did was stop a guy from trying to kill him. He's a borderline luthor stand in if Luthor weren't the guy getting him coffee, and his selfishness perfectly clashes against clark's pure selflessness: Clark REPEADTELY asks ivo to please stand down or just hurt HIM since he's the one he's mad at. Clark is such a good guy he genuinely can't fathom someone being so souless as to attack people simply because it FEELS good.

Anyways Jimmy's brilliant plan: As a nice chekov's gun Jimmy has a vlog series, flamebird, where he rattled off his conspiracy theories and earlier in the episode it went from only watched by 4 people and hate watched by steve lombard to make his own shitty content, to watched by most of metropolis since Jimmy got sweet footage of Clark during his manic episode. Jimmy uses his platform to ask metropolis for help, with Lois giving the beautiful speech above, really summing up who superman is.. and what he can do as Jimmy NEEDS metropolis to save clark: Since Ivo is getting bigger by draining power from the city, Jimmy wants them to turn it all off, every person, an act that will not work if only a handful do it and that requires a LOT of trust to pull off.

The result.. is one of the best scenes in superman canon. ONe that shows what superman is supposed to be and what he stands for: Clark, after a season of feeling alone even with a girlfriend and a best buddy, after a season of self doubt and pain and after two episodes of hearing everything only bringing him MORE stress.. hears all of metropolis as EVERY ONE OF THEM he can hear gladly helps out and puts their absollute faith in him, as every light goes out.. and Metropolis saves superman. Clark is reminded why he does this: Because people need him.. and when he needed them most.. they were just as selfless. It reminds me of what's easily one of the best superman lines in comics.

It's something people forget about why superheroes are here: They aren't here to rule us, they can't change the world alone, their not gods nor should they be seen as gods. Their just people doing their best to inspire people and fight the crimes that the law can't or very often WON'T, to help people in a way they can't. To catch them when they fall. And in return.. they can catch superman when he needs them, with no expectation they would.. but every thankful they do.

With Ivo on the backfoot Clark uses his x ray vision and when asked what he is he gives one answer before snatching ivo out of his monster cocoon thing

"i'm Superman"

Your damn right he is.

8. Episode 8 (Pluto)

"Professor.. will we ever cure hatred?" Pluto.. was a true masterpiece, taking one of the greatest comics of all time, a detective story retelling of the Astro Boy staple "The Greatest Robot On Earth" that fleshed out the 7 strongest robots in the world.. as they were slowly wittled down to one, questioning the nature of ai, humanity and more while it did, and making it into a beautifully animated nearly 9 hour mini series. Not hyperbole, this is a LONG series and thus while I could sum up the season of superman.. this is a bit of a taller ask as while both stories are good, pluto is fucking intricate: practically everything pays off, but it's a very long story and this is it's climax. I highly recommend checking the series out yourself. It's just hard to really talk about this series without spoiling it and while spoiling other shows featured here won't mostly wreck the experince and you were warned etc, talking about the ENDING of a well crafted murder mystery with a LOT of well executed twists and a teddy bear I didn't quite understand... I just can't.

So best I can say without too many spoilers, Episode 8, they seriously shoudl've given these titles, is a masterful conclusion as Atom, our astro boy here using his original name in both versions, must save the world, while trying to wrestle with the pit of hatred inside the young mechanical wonder boy. It's a moving finale with lots of payoffs, final awesome moments from Micheal Pollock in his finest roll and SunWon Cho who absolutely kills it as robot serial killer brau who gets one hell of a sendoff. If i'm being short.. it's because i'd rather not spoil the entire series. THe image itself is a bit of a spoiler, and it's really hard to talk about ANYTHING in this episode without it being a big spoiler. Except keith davi'ds in it and steals every episode he's in as Atom's creator Dr. Tenma. A truly stunning finale to a truly one of a kind series. Go watch it, it's worth the LONNNNG binge.. but maybe pace yourself. I didn't have time to by the time I got to it and it is a LOT, but damn is it worth it.

7. Godspeed

"Where there's Life, there's hope"

Another one that might be short, and another excellent pilot. I backed Godspeed for a simple reason: Olan Rogers was making it. For those who don't know him, Olan Rogers is the creator of Final Space, one of the best shows of the 2010's (Really need to make a list of those at some point), which was cut short thanks to Warner Bros Discovery changing hands and just.. not giving a shit, along with another show Olan was working on that sounded neat.

Olan was horribly screwed over by the industry and no one would've blamed him for taking a break or focusing on finding a way to finish final space at least. Instead he decided to not only launch a whole new series but worked tirelessly with Warners to FINALLY get SOMETHING out of them, so not only are we getting a conclusion to final space I intend to buy eventually, hopefully before they go to print and I simply.. can't anymore, we're also getting something brand new from him, a lot of the same flavor of final space, paticuarlly it's darker years, but with a bold new art style and entirley financed by viewers like us. I backed this purely because I trusted olan to make something good, and had no diea what this would be as I should've followed the updates closer.. but I was blown away by what I god and gladly backed him AGAIN for the full series campaign and can't wait to see what he does with it. Every cent went into this pilot, and every cent was worth it.

I won't spoil this one as a lot of it is more of an experince but the short version: A mysterious orb is slowly destroying earth rendering it an unihabitble wasteland with most of it's people dead, with the best they can do being sending a bunch of people up into space to hopefully return for them. Bee, a young woman played amazingly well by Bryce Charles, member of team starkid and upcoming voice actress whose been in a lot lately and shows just how much talent and depth she has in this roll. Bee gives up her ticket so a woman's son can go, and two years later finds herself wondering for suplies with Karooke robot and attempt to make this short not 100% bleak, Bowie, played by Rogers. I can't spoil much else but it's a truly heartbreaking short as Bee tries to hope in spite of it and may just find one last sliver of it from her uncle, played by VA legend troy baker. We also have some nice cameos towards the end and a setup that's too good not to see where it goes.

Godspeed is breathtaking, showing the devstation wonderfully and showing just how bleak things are, how hope's dwinlding and just how much this one shot means to Bee. If you haven't watched this, go do so now, i'ts only 24 minutes and i'ts well worth your time and the start of what could be the best sci fi epic in animation. Godspeed to you.

6. Exes and Oohs (Helluva Boss, Season 2 Episode 3)

"No big deal but i've usually boned half the people in any room i'm in"

Helluva boss had a pretty weird year with the most episodes it's ever released, including the long delayed season 1 finale that turned out not to be an entirely throaway special that got delayed because shockity shock, the lawyers who tried to keep Kesha to a contract with her rapist also don't want her fans to be happy or let her produce anything ever and got the episode delayed till her legal nightmares FINALLY ended. Still a great performance from her. But fan reaction this year has been hit and miss, with some finding season 2 the shows best, and many tired of the pacing even if they like certain episoders. Me i'm in the middle: I DO think season 2 is a progression in quality, joke writnig and character stuff in places, but does have VERY weird pacing I can't fully justify and might not make any sense till season 2 is almost done, and even then that's not a guarnteed, with who or what get sspotlighted and which characters get focused being pretty random, with two moxxie and millie episodes and two blitzo episodes in a row and nothing for Loona. So as a whole Season 2's messy.

That said.. indvidually? Most of season 2's output this year was good iwth only one episode (Unhappy Campers) being a disapointment and evne the okay Western Energy still being a lot of fun, and the other four being instant classics. So while the show is in a weird place. it also gave us two of it's best episodes period, both of which made this list. Even a shaky season of a good show.. is still a GOOD SHOW. and will still give you out and out classics.

This one came to us early in the year and was a shoe in for the list the whole time. It's my favoirite episode of the show with only the episode above it on this list topping it in quality and it's still #1 in my heart. It's packed with jokes, great character stuff, and one of the series best characters and manages to add another villian to the already crowded rogues gallery who feels ENTIRELY necessary and fresh.

So the setup is simple at first: a mysterious person wants IMP to go talk to them about a job, with Blitz reluctant since they usually don't do in hell murders but willing to hear this person out. What upends everything.. is that this person is MOXXIE'S. FATHER. Crimson. And by meeting him we instantly get 80 gallons of insight into who moxxie is.

Crimson.. is a monster. Easily the vilest person introduced in this show thus far, and given we've had supremacist cowboys, absive spouses willing to murder their ex, and later in this season get Mammon, who is VERY close in terms of douchebaggery it's saying a lot. Crimson is a controlling, selfish, abusive monster who only brought Moxxie back to try and steal his money and get some more from someone else, and every second Moxxie's with him at first, Moxxie is deeply scared and uncomfortable with only Milie really noticing it as Crim hides what a monster he is behind closed doors> he'l only be an ass to you if he THINKS he can't control you the other way or dosen't care to be nice to you.

Moxxie's hestiancy is well warranted as Crimson has brought back Chazz, Moxxie's ex.. and MILLIE'S ex, a hilarious reveal that naturally pisses Blitzo off. Chazz... is the main reason this is easily the shows funniest episode, an energetic obnoxious himbo who has usually slept with half the room, has a big dick and will tell you about it and gladly tries to sleep with every member of the main cast present in the most hilaroius way possible, setting up moxxie's old room with 80 pictures of himself and a dope as fuck 90's rnb sex jam, trying to sing to millie only for her to play a game of knife to the throat as she utterly hates him and ALREADY TRIED TO KILL him when learning he abandoned moxxie on a job, leading to Moxxie's current job, and Blitzo who rejects it at first till he can find out what he likes, with Chazz making the best eyebrow raise to the fourth wall like a goddman looney tune before he tries and Blitzo.. eventually caving because he offered to ell him what his faviorite couple likes only to regret it because Chaz is really bad.

Naturally.. this is all a scheme. Chazz is faking being rich to get back with Moxxie, and Crimson tries shoving them together. Crimson's biphobia is truly chiling too: he refuses to accept moxxie isn't gay, and gets downright scary when cowing moxxie into it. Thankfully Moxxie eventually decides to stand up to his dad, refusing to go along with this farce, deeply loving his wife, but seeing Moxxie this close to going along with it because he's that scared of Millie ending up like his mom and the montage of just how abused this poor guy's been.. it puts so much in context. Why Moxxie desperately wants Blitz's approval, why Blitz hitting on him freaks him out so much beyond just.. Blitz normally not being very good at this unless your a very horny owl man whose just as awkward.

Millie also gets to shine as Moxxie gets hit from behind so crimson can just.. force the wedding, Chazz hits blitz with a shovel and i'ts up to Millie.. who after episdoes of not getting a ton of spotlight and being out of focus here for plot reasons, gets to shine brighter than a supernova as she gets a badass sequence TEARING through every non crimson and chazz mobster here, a brutal and awesome sequence that ends with a gloroius delceration of "THIS ASS IS MINE' and Millie assuring her husband she can protect him, Blitzo happy their all now weiner cousins and chazz sadly dying offscreen. I hope he comes back as a big dicked ghost as this episode was amazing. Also there's dicks in the walls, hilarious.

5. MAMMON'S MAGNIFICENT MID-SEASON SPECIAL (ft Fizzzaroli) (Helluva Boss Season 2, Episode 6)

I have wasted time I have seen my use I have packaged and sold every part of me Suffered a lifetime of abuse

I have lost myself I have worshipped at your feet And here I am, standing on top of the world With some bitches to defeat

I've played the game I've won it all They've screamed my name They bought the doll I've seized the day Now I'vе got one thing left to say-ay-ay

Fuck you! Here's my two minutes notice Fuck you! Time to quit and smell the roses Say goodbye, while I look you in the eye and say "Fuck you!"

Yup it's a two fer, with Helluva once again reaching the top 5, and I look forward to the day when it reaches the top. Still it ended the year with a jaunty music video.. afte rending the episodes of the year with one of it's best, most ambitious, and gorgeous eps yet, building a momentum from the previous episode Oops that hopefully carries into 2023 as we get TWO vivinziepop shows at long last with Hazbin Hotel airing just WEEKS from now.

MMMS , because i'm not typing that entire thing again is a lower deck episode, focusing on Fizzaroli. It was a mild gamble as while the character was always popular and expoded in popularity after Oops fleshed him out, so it wasn't like fans WOULDN'T want this.. but it was still another episode with Blitz as one of the only main characters (and in this case the ONLY main character) present, right after another, with fans already vocal (some VERY douchiely so who should rethink their life decisions and not harass viv because they don't like a cartoon show, thank you), that Loona and Millie weren't getting as much screentime as they should. The last part i'll hold judgment on as the season isn't over and this batch did bear out a millie episode. not the series best, but she was easily the best part of it, so it still had something, but needless to say if this episode didn't bring it as hard as it ended up doing, it would've made the hatedom the series is getting even worse.

I applaud viv and brandon for.. genuinely not giving a shit about that, with this episode even tackling fan entitlemnt, and just making what they wanted as the results are delicious.

While Oops shed light on fizz, his healthy relationship, why he and blitzo hated each other and the sweet mending of said friendship, giving Blitzo a complete win for the first time all season, MMMS focuses on his career.. and how deeply unhealthy it is. Fizz is a GOOD entertainer, interacting with his fans happily, and ther'es a reason he was good.. but by winning Mammons clown pagent he ended up exploited, nearly burned out and understandably creeped out by the sex robots. Fame can be good.. but MMS dosen't sugarcaot the explotation, body dismorphia, pressure and creepy fans that come with it, with one stalking ozzie both as a teen and as an adult.

Fizz loves his job.. but it's hard, something I feel comes from experince as Vivinne has had to deal with a LOT of bullshit in the making of this show, with many a fan calling her out for stuff they don't even know, with it getting pretty bad when episode 8 was delayed, especially since we now know she likely LEGALLY coudln't say Kesha was in the episode and that's why, not to mention other shit like people who don't like this show deciding to try and prop up other shows as competttion.. despite viv supporting most of those shows herself and said shows creators wishing they would knock it off. It's that kind of entitlement you see a lot.

There's a LOT to dig into with this one I will more next month as i'm doing a Fizz special for @brotoman-exe, but it's gorgeous, and Fizz's slow breakdown as both his best friend and boyfriend DESPERATELY try to get Fizz to see how Mammon's treating him is well done, with the catharsis of both Ozzie asusring fizz that no, he'll always be loved, and Ozzie telling Mammon to fuck off, topped off with Ozzie gladly revealing their relationship publicly when Mammon makes the mistake of trying to leverage that. We also get some great guest spots as Micheal Cusak is hilaroius and deeply creepy as mammon, switching from comedic asshole to really creepy manipulative abuser easily and effortlessly, while Faye Mata is great as the Twins.

There's also a fuckton of great music as this is a full on musical, with the fun and ominus "Juggling is Cool" from my boy Tom Cardy, the hot as hell Klown Bitch which lives rent free in my head for reasons... sexy fish reasons moving on.

We then get the adorable love song Crooked, letting James Monroe Ingleheart once again serenade us and the glorious Two Minutes Notice. Alex Brightman gets to go his hardest this episode, flexing his dramatic muscles before letting his musical ones free in his third number on the show and a well earned one that's gorgeous to look at as it is to hear. This episode is fantastic, worth a watch and I look forward to talking about it again soon.

4. Ramona Rents a Video (Scott PIlgrim Takes Off Episode 3) "You were afraid? Good for you! All I wanted was for you to see me! "

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.. is a slow burn. The first episode is speedrunning the first volume so we can get to the twist, and the second, while fun enough, is mostly there to let you process what just happen and wonder WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SERIES... before that feeling gets even WORSE when Matt wins against Gideon in what you assumed would be an easy victory for the latter. Their needed setup, but both leave you, by design off your axis and wondering if your going to like this show.

Ramona Rents a Video.. is where you end up loving it as it becomes clear both what the structure will be, what the goal was, and what taking Scott out of the picture REALLY does: it puts ramona as the lead.. and makes it so the exes don't HAVE to die and can instead get closure.

The episode picks up from the end of the last one: Ramona gets the sense scott's alive and to my joy instead of having an episode or two of people thinking she's just.. still in mourning... she gets proof off screen right away: Someone dragged scott into a vegan portal, and the question now is who, and also how and why, with Ramona as detective.

It also gives us the best version of Julie. While Julie was around in the first episode, this one fleshes this version out and begins her climb to the top, starting with captalizing on something the other 2 versions didn't: the fact she's apparently the ONLY person Ramona's really talked to since she got into town. In the movie, this is just kinda glossed over and Julie gets her one scene then fades into the mists. It's a great scene, and leads to a lot more bleeped swears that entirely suit her here. In the comics... she was worse than satan and it was easy to buy she talked to ramona for like five minutes for clout and Ramona dodged her once she realized she was evil incarnate.

This julie is just as bitchy as the comics.. but instead of being an alpha bitch, she's just generally an assshole and a funny one at that, being in disbelief anyone cares about dating Scott this much and gladly dishing on his friends, quickly taking Stephen and Young Neil off the suspect list as one's too panicky and the other thinks a sleep paralysis demon wrote his screenplay.

This leads Ramona to Kim, who after an adorable drum session with knives that has a lot of big sister energy, as opposed to the shipping from before which.. no no please not again on, goes to work. We get the short version of her and scott's story, and the most kim pine we get all season, which is sad, i'm an admitted Kim pine simp and that still holds fast, but it gives her at least way more than the film and she still shows up plenty on the side. I do wish Kim had stuck around as Ramona's partner in crime, her best friend/future throuple partner who could serve as the watson to her holmes... a refrence I only use in lieu of columbo because columbo worked alone.

The real meat though is Roxie. Mae Whitman gets a second crack at the character and is once again bifuriously excellent as the little lebsian gremlin, giving her a bit more comedic range than the film allowed, being clearly impulsive, having no self awarness, and a lot of violence, basically the best version of the movie version, while having the deep history with ramona of her comics counterpart. Roxie wants ramona back, then wants to kill her leading to a truly epic fight across the video store and then video tapes, with some great animation as the tapes are given that good ole vhs fuzz. We also get a nice meta gaga as kim rewinds an attack to give Ramona another shot and Roxie stomps out of there and kills the remote. It's comedic and shonen goodness.

What brings it up this high though is WHY roxy is so pissed: we finally find out how Ramona left and get a far more modern take on the characters feelings: Before Ramona , both times, called her a phase, something so horrifcally dickish to call a former romantic partner, wether you turned out not to be bi or pan like you thought you might be or not, that it was wisely left out. Instead Ramona just.. left when she was ready to without saying anything, and we see why Roxie's been so pissed off and why her comics version was so resentful beyond the facepunchingly douchey comment: Ramona just.. moved on like she was nothing, just "a phase", and she just wanted to be acknowledged. Ramona is forced to do what Scott did in the comics, and reckon with her shitty behavior, realizing

And giving a genuine apology. Also props to mae whitman who utterly crushes roxie's painful reveal and Mary Elizabeth Winstead who nails the return.

The two reconcile and while they aren't freinds with beneifts or back together, their friends. ALso Roxie makes out with Kim and I really think they should give it another shot. This was likely Kim's first bi experince and as a bisexual, it can be hard to recognize that side of yourself and she might of had some performance anxiety. Roxie wanting to make out with hollie then departing to the hamster dance though is gold, and I want a spinoff yesterday with her and todd. Give us that mae whitman brandon routh buddy comedy, you cowards. It's an excellent episode that sets the tone for the rest of the series and looks good doing it.

3. Episode 6 (Pluto)

"It's imitation, but it'll become the real thing eventually, like it did for me. Look at me, these are my real tears.... my Atom is dead"

Once again I can't really go into this too deeply as Pluto is a mystery show and it slowly being unravled is the main draw. What I can say is that this episode is excelent as our lead robot Geischt finally finds out where Pluto is, WHO pluto is, and WHY pluto is.. but when the time comes all he's learned about himself, all he's learned about pluto.... he can't pull the trigger. It's a wonderful episode about choice, with Jason Vande Break giving his best performace as Geischt.. is just done with this job and impliclty, how he's been treated, trying to retire despite his bosses trying to strong arm him into continuting, not wanting to continue the cycle of hate and just.. move on with his life... which tragically.. jus twon't be possible. I'ts a beatufiully animated episode and the series high point, with the finale getting very close to it. I once again which I could say more, but it's something that i'd rather not ruin for those who haven't experinced it. A true masterpiece well worth a look.

PS: We also get a REALLY good scene with Keith David, one of the best i've ever seen with him. God I really need to review this series in full some day.

2. It's Been A While (Invincible, Episode 4)

"This is how you should've felt on earth"

Yup here we are again. Once again a major Nolan episode of invincible is the only episode from the show to make this list. Didn't plan it this way, and if I had I would've had it in #1 again.. but Invincible simply didn't win the honors this year and has every chance of snatching them again this year.

It wasn't for lack of trying though as it's Been a While was an excellent mid season finale and one of the shows best, compressing the bulk of a full volume of comic into a sublime hour.

While Nolan is gone for the first half of season 2, he's far from forgotten as the damage he's done has left a massive impact on Mark and Debbie, Mark being desperate to prove he's not his dad even though it's obvious to anyone who isn't projecting on the boy (The Immortal) or deeply, deeply paranoid to begin with (Cecil), that Mark will never be his father. Meanwhile Debbie has deep Trauma over it, can't really talk to many people about it, and goes around wondering how much of her life is a lie.

So naturally when Mark sees Nolan after his dear old dad pulled an elaborate con to get mark here to save his new bug empire, Mark.. hugs him. He's still his dad after all and this is still one of the comics best moments. But I like that right after.. Mark changes gears entirely. He's happy for a second.. but then the rage bubbles forth. While Nolan wasn't great in the comics, here the guy used mark as a battering ram to murder countless people, killed a guy to prove a point, called his mom a pet (granted that was also in the comic but Mark actually calls him out on that here), and then nearly beat him to death while at one poing happily saying "I can always make another".

So Mark tells him fuck you, gives Nolan his two minutes notice then plans to fuck off back to earth despite Nolan pointing out he has no idea how to get back. To his credit and to show he's changed a little.. Nolan offers to give mark a ship back and is patient with him, showing that his kindness to his son, wasn't all there and that despite trying to throw himself in a black hole after... Mark's words really DID get to him on some level.

Still thigns aren't great not helped by Mark finding out that SUPRISE, Nolan has a second wife and SUPRISE, Mark now has a baby brother. I knew this stuff was coming, comics guy, but how they handle the reveals is solid Since they don't have an end of issue cliffhanger for the Oliver reveal, they have mark give a loud "what the" cut it off with the title.. then let him finish with a fuck. Beautiful.

Steven Yuen.. is always great in this show and deserves all the praise, but this is one of his best performances of the season so far, where you can just feel the pain and disapointment and how.. done Mark is. He has a life back on earth, he's tried his HARDEST to move on from Nolan. yet as much as he wants to peace out.. he can't. The viltrumites are coming, they will leave this world a crater and kill Mark's brother for not being up to their eugenics standards. Mark, unsuprisingly makes the noble call: He's going to stay and fight.

What follows is a tense game of cat and mouse as Nolan INTENDED to have a whole ass training arc, readying mark for as long as it took to fight against other viltrumites, and push his powers to new heights. Sadly the writers decided

So three Vilturmites arrive, and while Mark bonds with his step mom and brother getting them to saftey, finding out the the Thraxians age rapidly so Nolan moving on this fast was simply the culture and not him forgetting Mark and Debbie existed, but accepting they probably didn't want him back and evne if they did he coudln't go back without leading more Viltrumites home.

Mark gets his first fight with one.. and it goes POORLY. Mark simply isn't used to both using his full strength AND fighting to kill, leaving Nolan to do most of the heavy lifting. While Season 2's SLIGHTLY eased up on "mark gets pummled constantly", it's never going to go away and especially not when he's far out of his weight class again. It's a brutal fight as Mark.. REALLY can't win this one and only gets minutes of repreive.. and it's only to look at all the bodies the viltrumites piled up.

It's here we get the best scene, a spirtual followup to "You dad, i'd still have you. ". Nolan once again angrily thrashes about, even putting mark in a chokehold. Which is still better than last time.

Nolan.. simply can't process WHY... WHY DOES THIS HURT. He's supposed to see the Thraxians as inferior, supposed to not care.. it's all his viltrumite "surivvial of the fittest" indoctrination coming undone. It adds layers to why he didn't just.. settle on earth too: not only are we seeing the consequences if he had with the viltrumite kill squad, but the viltrumites facist supremacist mindset made it impossible to fathom there was anything ELSE, despite that else clawing at nolan. And even now, having left his post, having moved on with his life.. he still can't shake it.

Mark.. cuts through it all with 8 words "This is how you should've felt on earth". That this change isn't an abberation Nolan shoudl've repressed.. but who he should be. Who he was before he made the choice ot go through with killing the guardians and cemented himself as part of the empire. Mark isn't offering full sympathy here, thousands are dead because Nolan didn't have this ephinay here, but it clearly hits: NOlan's life was a lie and he needs to accept it.

The following fight is brutal, with NOlan supporting mark but pointing out the obvious: he HAS to fight to kill or he dies. And it's nicely clear that Nolan.. dosen't want to loose his son. And seeing the dead around him gets mark to rally and they almost win.. but it simply isn't enoguh. Mark collapses.. and wakes up to find more viltrumites with one offering an ultimatium: take his dad's job.. or they'll do it for him and millions were die. There isn't an option three.. though NOlan hints at one by asking mark to read his books.

The b-plots are also excellent with Debbie finally coming to terms with what happened and telling Cecil to fuck off, and Atom Eve hitting her low point. Please, god get her out of that house. It's Been a While is an excellent episode and a solid mid point for season 2. But while it was close.. it couldn't top the #1, an episode that lived in my head ever since it aired LAST january.

The Rise of the Chroma Conclave (The Legend of Vox Machina S2, EP 1) "Here me insects! you live out of mercy! Fight or flee and you forfeit that mercy! A new age is upon you: The Rule of of the Chroma Conclave!

Legend of Vox Machina season 2 was excellent, managing the daunting task of essentially being part 1 of 2 as the Chroma Conclave arc was essentially too massive to adapt into one season fairly well, giving the cast as a whole more focus, and ending on one hell of a cliffhanger... with Season 3 NATURALLY being the first one not to air in January.

Granted we're getting Hazbin Hotel and Amazon's hyping it to shit as they should, so it's not all bad.

Still the show was good and while the season was excellent... it started with it's best episode, an episode that set the scale of the threat our heroes were facing, set the tone, and has lived in my head since it aired. In 30 some minutes, the Vox Machina team delivered a tense epic that raised the bar for what the show could do visually, already a damn high bar in itself.

Rise of the Chroma Conclave picks up from the end of season 1: Dragons have arrived in emon and for those of us not familiar with DND, with showrunner and writer of this episode Brandon Auman quickly showing off just how POWERFUL four adult dragons are and how horrifying their effects can be. The king of Emon gets bathed in acid breath, many are frozen, burnt or melted, and the kingdom, a bustling city state, is reduced to cinders with it's people trying desperately to flee their new dragon overlords.

As for our heroes.. their forced to run like hell and hope they surivive. They try their best at points, but Grogs usual charge in and hope it works.. gets him bodied bad and left without weapons, while the team's attempt to reuse the illusions that helped them beat Brimscythe... fail horribly as Raishan turns out to be a skilled sorceress. These dragons.. can use MAGIC, so their not only incredibly powerful naturally but have more tricks up their sleeves. Our heroes are outgunned and this episode makes you feel every minute of it. Their goal isn't to win, it isn't to get vengance for Emon, the only home most of them have had... it's SURVIVIE. The first two thirds of the epsiode ar ea game of surivival and while there are one or two jokes, it's still one long nightmare. The pressure dosen't ease off as everything burns or worse, and there is no safe harbor till our heroes FINALLY get to Greyskull Keep to heal Gilmore and house some surviviors.

Then just to sell how fucked they are... the Conclave arrives THERE and it becomes a desperate scramble to get back to whitestone before they all die, with half their refugees dying before they can. OUr heroes are only BARELY able to get to a town that's just barely recovered from it's own nightmares.

This gives us our last act and the problem for our heroes: How do they beat 4 dragons, all powerful, half of them clever, and all of them out of their weight class, with Scanlan peacing out. It takes the others showing him just how much good they did for whitestone to snap him out of his usual "fuck this i'm out" response, and to see they have to do this.

The how: get help at the biggest city left. Gods help them.. as they don't have much else on their side.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully while this year's better than the last... it's animation's just as good.

#invincible #legend of vox machina #critical roll #superman #my adventures with superman #pluto #helluva boss #godspeed #fionna and cake

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sunbathingleaves · 10 months

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Do not settle near portals. Your children will become strange and corrupted inside

This is a continuation on my other post about portals. The first post was more of an introduction on how portals work in my verse and this one connects the protagonist with the lore established there. Timeline might change.

There are two very interesting news headlines related to portals in the game: the first one is about how portals cause "fast aging and obsession with baking", clearly referencing grandmas, and the second one is in the tile, mentioning corrupted children. When I first got the headline about portals causing an obsession with baking I remember joking that this description applies to the protagonist too. But after a while I also got the headline about the way portals affect children and I couldn't stop thinking about this. I mean what better way to describe the protagonist if not "strange and corrupted inside"? Aside from fast aging every other effect applies to him as well. What if he was influenced by some sort of portal as a child?

While naturally generated portals can appear randomly, occasionally the fabric of reality is particularly weakened in a certain spot leading to multiple portals to appear in an area over time. This can also cause stronger portals to appear, and while they are nowhere near as powerful as the man-made ones they might be able to slightly alter their surroundings. A place affected by this can quickly become an environment for all sorts of unnatural creatures, creatures that exist alongside humanity even if humans don't realize it (or in rare cases, would realize but won't accept it). After all, it's the only chance for them to predict where another portal would open.

These beings, and many others, are the remains of a past era, when gods would still interact with humanity, magic was encountered at every corner and interdimensional creatures would cross over into our world at will. But those days are long gone now, humanity has isolated itself in a small bubble, preferring the predictable and boring modernity over the dangerous chaos of the wider universe. With humans slowly cutting their world off from magical sources or any other powers, the creatures that depended on these energies either ran off to other dimensions, were successfully killed or were trapped here and were forced to hide and adapt to a world where they were no longer the top of the food chain, slowly withering away powerlessly.

This is why when a small crack in the fabric in reality appeared in a sleepy suburbia multiple weird beings were already there to take advantage of it. It was the third tear in reality that happened in the area in a few decades. The first one happened 50 years ago and it was a milk-seeping crack that appeared in the sewers. This lead to multiple kittens to gather in the neighborhood. Only a few years later a small portal formed in the changing room of the local mall. It was too weak to affect reality, only rarely someone more sensitive to it's otherworldly energies would have an uneasy feeling of being watched. Not exactly the feeling you want in a changing room and it led to all sorts of accusations being thrown around. Soon after the portal opened, a nice old lady moved in the neighborhood. The Grandmatriarchs were looking for a portal that would allow them to connect to the 'outer universe' in the hopes that they could go to another place to gather their strength back and then return to devour this world or at least to leave it for good if the first option was not possible. But the portal was too weak and unstable and in the end it was impossible for them to open it further. So the old lady remained there to keep watch in hopes that another portal will appear.

And then three decades ago, finally another portal opened in the same neighborhood. In the yard of one of the houses was giant, really old oak. High in the tree, between it's branches, a small invisible crack formed. Only marginally stronger than the last, it still couldn't truly affect the neighborhood. Standing in the yard you might feel uneasy or have feelings you couldn't name or explain, see silhouettes with the corner of your eyes, hear whispers or someone shouting in the distance etc. Like the other portal, it was too weak to allow the Grandmatriarchs to communicate to other dimensions, but it was strong enough for them to redirect it's focus. The best they could do was redirect the portal to the cookieverse to slightly enhance the baking abilities of the only grandma that remained behind.

But if someone was to spend enough time very close to the portal, or even unknowingly interact with the crack (after all, the portal is too weak to actually teleport someone and it's otherwise invisible and intangible) they might get affected by it. Adults are generally safe but kids can be very vulnerable to it's influence due to their still developing minds and energies. Eventually, a family moved in the house, and after the wife got pregnant and gave birth to a healthy boy, the husband happily decided to build a tree house for their child in celebration. When the child was 5 he started playing in the treehouse. "Do not settle near portals, your children will become strange and corrupted inside".

By the time the boy grew up and discovered the small stream of milk in his kitchen the portal was long gone. But the damage was already done. It's impossible to tell how much of the Baker's character was influenced by it, it was probably the reason for his casual acceptance of the supernatural and possibly his baking obsession. But his cutthroat drive towards success and his needless cruelty are harder to explain. And so is his constant wish for more. But regardless of where you place the blame, a small quiet suburbia and a loving family with doting parents are hardly the origins you would expect for such a terrifying monster.

I decided to settle on "the Baker" as the protagonist's name going forward since it's the least meta name used by the community, and I could see this being used as his title in-universe. Also, hopefully this doesn't come across as an excuse for the protagonist's action in the game. I wanted this to be more of an explanation on how he jumps straight from baking cookies into dealing with eldritch abominations without batting an eye. His personality has nothing to do with this, really.

#both the protagonist and grandmas being associated with portals is an idea I'll come back to at some point #I'll also have to write about the history of magic and why it went into hiding #cookie clicker #cookie clicker lore #cookie clicker headcanon #also posted on reddit #copied from there

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moralitas · 2 years

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oh the possibilities of Ulatra4kHD hanging out with the other characters...

Sticks and Ulatra4kHD going interdimensional trash hopping

Rouge being Ulatra4kHD's cool aunt (okay...everybody is Ulatra4kHD's family now) and her teaching sonic to be a master thief so he can steal cookies

Surge and Ulatra4kHD are trying to see who could stand electrocuting each other the most and plotting murder

Sally is growing white hairs while stressing over Ulatra4kHD recklessness

Amy giving Ulatra4kHD baking and hammer lessons and plotting murder

oh...I wonder what Ulatra4kHD would think of Boom!eggman

Sticks would throw Wachowski for a loop so BAD but in a good way! The moment she tells him he needs to flap his arms like a chicken to ward off the mole people he's like "oh shit lemme get flappin!!"

Considering Surges current character arc she would fight Wachowski on sight. I think him realizing her electricity hardly affects him is so FUNNY I want more 'lil shit Wachowski'

Is he a cute kid? Absolutely. He's also a kid lmao. He would 100% hit it off with Rouge. I subscribe to the headcanon thar Rouge and Buck are besties so her bestie in a littler form? Oh she spoils him rotten. He gets everything he wants.

Amy adores him, but doesn't push too much. Man I really wanna know how the movie Verse will handle her character bc that really will determine so many things. For the time being Wachowski is just amazed at seeing more people like him. Hedgehogs no less!

And Wachowski does meet boom!Eggman in my fic. But I think he'd be super wary. Def treat him as an enemy at first, but the other BD (especially Scarfz') reactions will definitely inform and change his reactions

#love tjinking about this boy son #sonic the hedgehog #blue devils au

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somethingmuchmuchworse · 10 months

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It’s summer. The classes aren’t yet in session, and you decided to sneak away for a small interdimensional vacation. You’ve tasked your mom to make sure Loki is taken care of. You made sure no one will be expecting you at any meetings for the next week. You paid an exorbitant fee to have a cab drive you to the Greyhound station at 2 A.M., sticking to deserted streets as much as possible, and going backwards the entire way (AN: do not attempt this at home). It’s ok. Money won’t be an issue soon. Once there, the cabbie counts the cash, gives you another disbelieving head shake, and off you go. The world sure looks the same, and the moon looks the same, but has it shifted its position in the sky? You enter the check-in area and look around for a clock. It is 1:12 A.M. It worked? Just in case you search for another clock, and that one too shows just a bit past 1. You are giddy with excitement, and quite, quite nervous. Well, no turning back now. You have no baggage to check, and the ticketing and security screen all pass in a blur. Now comes the wait. You didn’t actually need to be at the station that early, but getting someone to drive you backwards during busy daylight hours was as impossible as it was unwise. Right, Robbie! Gotta let him know at least the time shift worked. You pull out your phone, but find you’ve been logged out of all your accounts, and when you attempt to log back in, you’re universally greeted with “email or password are incorrect.” Well… you don’t exist in this world, so you suppose it makes sense. You didn’t anticipate this though, and now you begin to really worry. What if he isn’t there? What if this isn’t even the correct world? You rummage through your backpack and pull out the hefty tome of 1Q84. You attempt to read, but you are too distracted. You pass the hours occasionally pacing across the terminal, occasionally attempting to read, until finally you recall you could read the “local” news! You Google New Orleans, and, to your relief, find stories about the Lobos' downfall. Finally, mercifully, the boarding call for your bus echoes. You climb the steps and plop near a window, your backpack on your lap. As the bus moves along the slowly waking streets of your city, you attempt to notice anything different. Somehow, before you know it, you’re sound asleep. You wake, because someone is gently shaking your shoulder. It’s the bus driver, who informs you you’ve reached your destination. The bus is otherwise empty. Slightly embarrassed, you thank her and rush to the door. And there he is, looking a little anxious. He’s holding a bouquet of white chrysanthemums with one decorative sunflower conspicuously placed in the middle. Decorum be damned. You ignore the flowers and go straight for a firm embrace. Robbie emits a small noise of surprise, before, first awkwardly, and then with conviction, returning the hug. He even places a little peck on the top of your purple head. “It worked” you sigh in unison. You’re both a bit awkward and giggly. You have to look waaay up to look him in the eye. It is hellishly hot. Robbie calls an Uber and you’re soon at his apartment complex. As he leads you to his door, you notice bullet holes in the walls. Ever the gentlemen, Robbie holds the door open, and you enter, instantly sighing in relief at the cool air. He got that air conditioning unit after all. Everything about the day feels surreal, but stepping into this apartment, which you’ve seen so many times on screen, takes the cake. You resist the urge to run around looking at everything. Robbie puts the flowers in a vase. “Are you thirsty? I have juice and sparkling water? I also baked you some cookies.” [...]

It is evening, and the two of you sit on Robbie’s patched-up couch, a bucket of kettle-corn on his lap and your head on his shoulder. “Are you sure you want to do this?” you ask, and he nods. You press “Play,” and the opening sequence of “Renfield” starts rolling.

#mildly mortified #🌻💜🦎

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talkingperson · 2 years

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boys, bands, and brothers

Imagine being Eddie’s sister and best friends with Max

Warnings: language, mentions of death & PTSD, drugs,

a/n wow this is the first thing i’ve ever written and i am SCARED

also not my gif !!

- the munson household was never much of a household

- it was more of a safe place to hangout when you had nowhere else to be, not to mention it’s not a house

- you were as close to your brother as siblings with a 5 year age gap can be, and the trailer was the only place you two were ever really together

- but once you turned 14, you and eddie had more in common than ever before

- you both liked the same music, same clothes, and of course dnd

- by the summer before your first year of high school, the two of you were stuck like glue

- and then the mall fire happened

- that was when things in hawkins really started to change, and you with it

- so many people that you and eddie had grown up with were all gone so suddenly

- you felt guilty, like you should have done something, or do something now

-but its not like you were close with any of them

- you barely even knew them for hells sake

- and then max and susan got a trailer right across from yours and you REALLY felt bad now

- because of course they were one of the families at the center of all this and of course they were still grieving and of course you had to do something

- so what better way than to claim eddie your baking assistant and make them some “welcome to the trailer park! ill make sure my brother doesn’t crash into your home while he’s high off his ass” muffins? brownies? cupcakes? cookies

- your plan was perfect, but conversations during woodworking never went over well

- “i cant bake with you tonight! you KNOW i cant bake with you tonight! i’ve got some major campaign planning to go over with hellfire”

- “you’re really telling me you can’t postpone for one night to help our new neighbors feel welcome??”

- “that’s exactly what i’m telling you y/n. the campaign is set to begin in less than a month and the enemy encounters aren’t even ready yet”

- looking him right in the soft brown eyes that you share, you let out the gentlest, most heart-wrenching sigh you can muster and mutter “okay, ill just figure out how to make them myself”

- turning back to your birdhouse you can’t contain your grin as you hear him mumble “shit”

- “this is the one and only time i will postpone hellfire for you, got it?”

- “what if i was dying?” you deadpan

- “okay obviousl-” “what if i was asked to read a declaration at the white house? what if i discovered an interdimensional monster?”

-“don’t make me revoke my offer lady frostshine”

- the cookies turn out... decent

- besides a few flour mishaps and eddie chasing you around with an egg yolk for 10 minutes, the two of you were ready to put your baking skills on display

- rapping on max’s door with one hand, you held the plate of misshapen cookies in the other, while eddie stood behind you with the biggest shit eating grin plastered on his face

- “why do you look like that.”

- “like what?’

- “can you just be normal?”

- “never.”

- the door opens, and both your heads snap towards the sound

- before you know it, you and max have spent almost 6 months at each others houses, sitting together at lunch, talking about boys and teachers and the new iron maiden album and (after quite a while) older brothers

- by the time she started opening up to you about billy, you had completely forgotten he was the reason you took those cookies to her in the first place

- the anniversary of his death was creeping up faster than you could keep track of, but for now you were determined to have the best spring break ever with max

#eddie munson #max mayfield #platonic #stranger things season 4 #stranger things #eddie munson x y/n #max mayfield x y/n #first writing #platonic eddie munson

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starlightgirl242 · 2 years

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Details for the Starcatcher/Alien GF Story

Lore and Ideas for @junothewolf.

The Story Behind it All

Every evening, of every Friday, at exactly 10:15 PM or 11:15 PM, Boyfriend, on planet Earth, heads to bed to dream about flying around in space. Exhausted from one rap battle after another, the blue haired teenage boy walks into his room to plop himself into bed & dozes off until he has enough energy to bounce back for his next interdimensional adventure with beloved partner, Girlfriend.

However, when he opens his eyes, he’s no longer in the warm embrace of the fresh, soft, and smooth sensation of the mattress and sheets of his bed. Instead, he’s now floating around in a tank filled with a nutrient-rich liquid. He noticed that on his face is a mask that’s attached to a ventilator and on his torso are electrodes with wires connecting to a mirror-sized monitor, displaying his body temperature, blood pressure, heartbeat, and breathing rate.

The artificial intelligence within the unknown area does a full body scan on BF, and as soon as it’s finished, welcomes him back to the Star Catcher, a self-made rocket ship created and used by Boyfriend to fly through space and collect stars, space trinkets, and many other intergalactic valuables. After he emerges from the cryosleep chamber, Boyfriend proceeds to get himself dressed, grabs his metallic oxygen backpack, and puts on his space helmet, (that’s decorated with a golden star sticker, mind you), to begin his interstellar journey.

(In case if you’re confused, Boyfriend is within a rocket ship in outer space due to astral projection. Because of this, there’s a high chance that Girlfriend is in space with AP as well.)

Alien Girlfriend’s P.O.V.

On her home world, Alien GF and her extraterrestrial royal family are hosting the annual Crystal Moon Festival, a special event celebrated in her extraterrestrial culture.

It celebrates the end of the collection of Moon Crystals, shiny gems from the moons of various planets. The Crystal Moon festival features baking and sharing of space cakes and pastries, a meal with Alien Girlfriend and her royal family, visits from intergalactic friends and relatives, gift giving, a jubilant dance party, and a meteor shower viewing show where interplanetary beings make wishes upon multiple shooting stars and witness the beauty of the marvelous meteors making shiny streaks of light in the evening sky.

At that time, it was during the meteor shower viewing party that Alien GF noticed a glimmering blue star and proceeds to make a wish upon it. She haven’t told anyone at the festival about the special wish that she made, but her biggest desire is to have a sweet & good hearted partner to make beautiful memories with her.

After the meteor shower is over, Alien Girlfriend starts to yawn and uses her teleportation powers to head back home to her extraterrestrial royal palace. She begins to levitate from the living room to her bedroom. The moment she arrived at her room, Alien GF changes into her nightwear and heads to bed, hoping for her wish to come true.

But, unbeknownst to the extraterrestrial princess, the star that she had wished upon isn’t a star at all, but a different object from beyond the stars is going to make her wish a reality.

Space Boyfriend’s P.O.V.

Space BF is flying around through the cosmos, looking for planets to explore. While he kept his eyes on the front window, Space Boyfriend begins to reminisce about his interplanetary adventures with his siblings. To him, those memories will be remembered by Space BF for decades to come. While he’s driving, he spotted a pinkish purple planet from a few miles away.

Thinking that there will be interstellar treasure on that specific planet, Space Boyfriend packs the essentials, (a water bottle, various snacks and treats, clean clothes [in case of his current clothes got filthy and ripped], hand sanitizer, extra pairs of protective gloves, a sleeping bag, a first aid kit, a camera, a flashlight, and, of course, his space helmet), in his metallic backpack to prepare himself for his upcoming trip. Space BF double checks everything, including the oxygen levels in his metal backpack, to make sure that he haven’t forgotten something. With the essentials packed, Space Boyfriend is ready for his expedition to the particular pinkish purple planet.

His mind has enough energy for his next space adventure, but the rest of Space BF’s body says otherwise as he starts to yawn. Exhausted and requiring a short nap without any trouble, Space Boyfriend thought that it would be ideal to activate the Star Catcher’s autopilot while dozing off into a safe slumber.

Unfortunately, due to low energy levels, Space BF didn’t realize that he accidentally activated the gravity engine instead. At first, Space Boyfriend notices the gravity engine’s button being turned on, but he simply brushes it off. So, Space BF lies down on his seat and closes his eyes as he falls asleep.

However, he’s in for a rude awakening, both literally and figuratively, as the alarms from the Star Catcher begin to blare out, causing Space Boyfriend to wake up abruptly and tries to pilot the ship while it’s falling down, hoping to regain control and land safely on a nearby planet. But, the speed of his spaceship has reached the point of no return & Space BF shuts his eyes and winces as he prepares to brace for impact. The Star Catcher enters the atmosphere of the pinkish purple planet and crashed on a patch of land, within a forest of extraterrestrial flower trees, destroying it. For the most part…

Fortunately, Space Boyfriend survives the crash & his items, (his metallic oxygen backpack and his space helmet), remains intact during the impact. But unfortunately, from the crash, Space BF has received 3 broken ribs, a fractured right foot, & several bruises, cuts, and scrapes on his limbs and torso with torn threads to boot. But, that doesn’t stop him from his interplanetary escapades. Space Boyfriend adapts to get a grip on the new alien terrain while searching for a way off-world, (and hopefully, a healer for his injuries).

The Story’s Giant & Tiny Method

During his hunt for otherworldly goodies, Space Boyfriend encounters a foliage of colorful & fascinating berries and fruit. As soon as he takes a bite of some alien fruit, its sweet, tangy taste positively melt onto his tongue.

Most of them simply have fragrant aromas and pleasant flavors, while others have a special effect on Space BF, (for example, a light cyan ice fruit gives him ice breath and a bunch of luminous yellow berries cause his stomach to glow). But not one of them can heal his wounds.

After eating a lot of special extraterrestrial fruit and berries, Space Boyfriend noticed a bush with shiny pink crystal-like berries, left untouched by unknown hands.

Thinking that these pink berries will heal him, Space BF begins picking them one by one until he had 10 of them in his hand. He popped the pink crystal berries into his mouth and starts chewing them, hoping that they will heal him for sure. But instead, Space Boyfriend was suddenly shocked as he began to realize that the alien world around him was beginning to grow. A couple of moments later, after he had settled down, he came to the understanding that, rather than the planet growing around him, the opposite was, in fact, the truth. He had shrunk down to the size of a mouse.

Ideas for the Interior of Alien Girlfriend

Given her extraterrestrial physiology, it would make sense to have her insides grape colored. In her mouth, her tongue can be glittery and she’ll have a glowing, star shaped uvula.

And the special destination will have the same grape colored walls and the liquid within that destination, can heal up any injury, including broken bones and open wounds (in the form of a glowing & sparkling blueish purple liquid inside).

#fnf starcatcher #writing inspiration #monday night munchin #It was at this moment I knew #i screwed up

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call-me-strega · 3 months

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Potential Contestants for the Inter-Dimensional Bake-Off

My inter-dimensional bake-off prompt has got a lot of attention so here is a rough draft list of people I thought might be good (or funny) choices as potential contestants for the bake-off:

Alfred Pennyworth (DC Comics)

Lunch Lady (Danny Phantom)

Mr + Mrs Cake (My Little Pony)

Gary Prince (Fiona and Cake/Adventure Time)

Dylan B. Hollis (real life-YouTube/TikTok)

Brock and/or Cilan and/or Mallow (Pokémon anime)

Molly Weasley (Harry Potter)

Ice Bear (We Bare Bears)

Tom and Sabine Dupain-Cheng (Miraculous Ladybug)

Sanji (One Piece)

Brie Malik and/or Heath Nguyen (Gormet Hound webcomic)

Tiana (The Princess and the Frog)

Peeta Mellark (The Hunger Games)

This is in no way a final list. I also don’t know how many people I would or would not be including if I wrote this, but they are all of the people I have been able to think of so far that are good at baking. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

#dc x dp #alfred pennyworth #danny phantom #interdimensional bake-off #to celebrate Danny’s coronation #ghost king danny #alfred is a good baker #crossover #who should be included?#fictional bakers #or reals ones but they gotta be talented and/or funny #taking suggestions

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timekeepertwister · 1 year

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TBD Subject Record: C/A-95

Name: White Lily Cookie

Subject Classification: Ancient

Subject Type: Cookie

Allegiance: Unknown, assumed none

Origin Timeline: PET-K

Known Abilities: High Intellect, Dark Moon Magic, Communication with (and medium control of) Nature, Magic Drawn from Soul Jam

Status: Unknown

Pronouns: She/Her

Availability for Inquiry: No

Last Update of Subject Record: February 27th, 2023

🥖 Baguette Cookie’s Audit: Requires Decryption of Bracketed items. Send your decryption proposals to the ask box to expedite decryption. Decrypted by Croissant Cookie. Trainees and Employees should refer to this TBD Subject Record as a reference to what any given Record should look like when fully decrypted.

Canonical Image:

“Forbidden Curiosity”

Date: [The Late 19th Century] - 4/30/1939

Locations of Interest: Blueberry Yogurt Academy, Witch’s House

Once a friend of the other Ancients, especially so with Pure Vanilla Cookie, her curiosity often got the better of her in some of the most peculiar subjects imaginable. Sometimes, it would cross boundaries never meant to be crossed at all, especially in one case where everyone but one Cookie at her old magic academy was turned into a spirit. The one holdout, the professor of arcane geology, ultimately reacted differently to this dimensional magic, resulting in a slow mutation into a chimeric curio of sorts because of their own research in other arcane minerals. This catastrophe uncovered a subconscious dimension between time and space which would ultimately be dubbed the “Lilywhite Space” in remembrance of the Blueberry Yogurt Academy’s most intelligent student that happened to cause such an unforgettable disaster.

Even with her academy years behind her and after she reconciled with the academy’s student and professor population, she still hungered for knowledge. On April 30th, 1939, also known as the Night of the Witches, she would seek the “Tower of Sweet Chaos” to inquire about the reason for Cookiekind’s creation, to which she saw the Witches [eating Cookies] to her horror. One misstep off the table landed her into a cauldron of [Ultimate] Dough and placed back into the Oven out of one Witch’s own curiosity to twice-bake, which gave rise to Dark Enchantress Cookie.

Current Whereabouts

Her current status is unknown, as all witnesses to the events of the Night of the Witches were silenced either out of fear or [Attacked by Dark Enchantress Cookie’s armies]. Many high-ranking Cookies like Pure Vanilla Cookie and [Clotted Cream Cookie] say that Dark Enchantress Cookie and White Lily Cookie are the same entity, but our best lead suggests that she instead survived the Oven’s heat, albeit badly burnt, and was subsequently whisked away by a hooded and winged figure that resembled a raven into a portal. Further counterpoints suggest that she was still present for the end of the Dark Flour War in the year [1945] in the Vanilla Castle before vanishing again during the final battle alongside the other Ancients.

Triangulated interdimensional signals suggest that she’s fled back to the aforementioned “Lilywhite Space” she uncovered, but sightings have been reported by [GingerBrave’s party] that she still roamed the physical plane of Earthbread for a while before disappearing again… just as Dark Enchantress Cookie appears again in the deepest vestiges of the old Blueberry Yogurt Academy.

A recurring witness from the Saint Pastry Order, who wishes to remain anonymous for their own safety on penalty of [being crumbled by the Shadow Sisters] if they would be found out, has also come forward to verify several of these claims. As such, their TBD Subject ID will not be printed on this report. They cite recurring nightmares involving what White Lily Cookie has seen on the Night of the Witches and suggests a possible way to contact the hooded/winged figure seen within these dreams, often accompanied by figures [named Dark Amethyst Cookie and Moonlight Cookie]. The witness’s dreams never saw White Lily Cookie and the hooded figure in the same space. It is unknown if White Lily Cookie exists completely on the physical plane at all.

#cookie run #cookie run au #white lily cookie #cookie run kingdom #crk spoilers #operation: time twister #tbd subject record #decrypted

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yuugisbarber · 2 years

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YGO cooking/food headcanons

Yugi: I don't think he'd have the worst diet, he'd eat a fruit and a veg. But I can see him having a "gamer diet" and living off energy drinks, instant ramen at times and making a lot of quick, easy, tasty meals and not being much of a cook outside of that. His fav food being burgers also makes that a go-to. 100% has a taste for fast food. He's too focused on dueling. But he'd probably bake for fun with his friends or something.

Anzu/Tea: Probably the healthiest of the yugi gang. Being an aspiring dancer would probably have her eat pretty clean. Working at Burger World also makes her crave fast food less because she smells it all day. I think she'd be a pretty good cook (her bento in Dsod says it all) and always be looking for new cute bento ideas and healthy recipes. She would treat herself to pretty cakes and drinks from Cafe's around Domino. The type to post pictures of her instagrammable food.

Joey: King of weird food combinations. The most daring eater of the group and would eat almost anything if you "bet he couldn't" Would probably do spicy hot wing challenges. likes junk food, but his fav foods being Curry rice and steak and shrimp make me think he appreciates a comforting home-cooked meal more than anything. He doesn't cook much. makes a sandwich, some rice with an egg, and simple things like that when he needs it. He just thinks things taste better when others make it for you.

Tristan/Honda: Down to do the hot wing challenges with Jou and probably the kind of person that eats as much as they want and surprises everyone by how they're able to stay slim. Not much of a cook either.

Seto: (Talked about this on the server with @nenya85 and a couple others. I think his is the most interesting)

He has an interesting relationship with food. I think it would be very black and white. Either eating like a king with his filet mignon and fancy sauce, or... shakes. I see him having a lot of protein shakes, protein bars and other pre made health food like that throughout he day because he can't be bothered with having a proper sit-down meal with how busy he makes himself. But eventually some staff like Isono would come by and say something like "Mr. Kaiba, you haven't had any solid food in 2 days now.. please eat something substantial."

He'd be a bit of a food snob too, being really choosy about ingredients and quality. I think DSOD Kaiba would shift to being more of a health nut, bulking up and being really healthy to be stronger for all the interdimensional travel he plans on doing, and for facing off Atem (or impressing him ;))

I only see Seto trying his hand at cooking is for family time with Mokuba or to compete at something with Atem (lol) or even cook for either of those important people in his life.

Atem:

Being a Pharaoh, he would of course love to eat deliciously. He loves a big, grand meal that's presented nicely with a lot of variety. Probably loves fruit. However, also on account of being Pharaoh, he hasn't had to lift a finger to feed himself EVER. so his first experience with "cooking" is Yugi's instant meals lol. Yugi's habits rub off on him and he can make a nice ramen, but he's a bit hopeless with cooking other than that. But he is a fast learner, I think once he got the hang of modern supplies and recipes, he could be a good cook. Down for a cooking competition with Kaiba any day of the week once he feels confident enough. He'd probably be interested in fruit arrangement and try to cut fruits in fancy shapes.

#yugioh dsod #prideshipping #yami yugi #pharaoh atem #kaiba #seto kaiba #yugioh #yugi mutou #ygo #yugioh headcanons #headcanons #fanfic ideas

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another-tmnt-writer · 4 years

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You Fell From the Sky - Part 2

Leonardo x Reader

Author: Admin Mo

Summary: After falling from the sky and landing literally in the arms of your favorite turtle, it takes some adjustment to live in another reality, but with the help of the leader in blue, you’re getting used to it.

Note: Let it be known that I wrote the first part of this before I knew reality shifting was a thing, but now that I know it is……let me tell you, I am tempted…

Warnings: None?

Word Count: 1.6k

It had been three weeks. Three whole weeks living in the lair. You were over the moon. Honestly, it was spectacular. However, after three weeks without a phone charger (you’d been using it very, very sparingly and had it turned off most of the time) your phone was now at one percent. So, you popped into the lab, where Donnie was at the moment.

“Hey Donnie?” You asked tentatively, standing in the doorway.

“Oh, hey (Y/N)! Can I help you with something?” He asked, his voice friendly. He looked up at you, giving you his full attention from whatever he was working on.

“Um, do you have a phone charger I can use?”

“Of course!” He pulled open a drawer on his desk that was absolutely filled with charging chords of every time, meticulously organized with twist ties. “What kind do you need?”

“iPhone.” You said.

He reached into the drawer and handed you a ten-foot chord. “Here you go.”

“Thank you!” You smiled. “What are you working on, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I don’t mind!” He scooted over to let you see his screen. “I’m working on figuring out how to open an interdimensional portal right now. Sorry it’s taking me so long.”

“Don’t be sorry. This is literally groundbreaking work. You’re a genius, but I definitely didn’t expect you to do it overnight.”

“Well that’s reassuring.” He chuckled. “I’ll keep you posted. Don’t want to keep you here any longer than we have to.”

You knew he was kidding about the last bit, but your heart sank a little when he said it. You liked being at the lair. You liked spending time with the guys. Sure, you wanted to go home at some point, but you wished it didn’t have to come so soon.

“Thank you, Donnie.”

You left the lab to find Leo lingering just outside. He looked concerned, his arms crossed, head tilted, blue, blue eyes focused on you. “You okay?” he asked softly.

You nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

“No reason. You just seemed a little down.” He answered. He stared at you for a moment before remembering, “Oh, April is here. She brought you some more clothes.”

“Awesome. Thank you so much.”

“Don’t mention it.” He shrugged, leading you back out to the living room, where Mikey was ranting about something to April and Casey while Raph listened and shook his head.

You stared at each of them for a long moment, absorbing. Megan Fox and Stephen Amell were standing like twenty feet away from you. It was overwhelming to say the very least. “Holy shit…”

“Hi! You must be (Y/N). I’m April. This is Casey.”

“Hockey puck has got a bit of a chip on his shoulder, but he means well.” Raph elaborated.

“This is so insane.” You laughed, smiling at them. “It’s incredible to meet you. The boys…told you where I’m from, right?”

“Yeah, they did.” April nodded. “That must have been quite the jump.”

“It was. I’m still…getting used to it, I guess.”

“Well, take your time.” She nudged Raph playfully. “They take some getting used to.”

“Hey!” Raph scoffed, nudging her back. “Ya took some getting used to yourself, O’Neil.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much.” Leo said, his eyes sparkling. “I think you’re fitting in just fine.”

You ignored the way your heart raced when he said it, replying with a smirk, “I agree.”

***

It was later that night. You were in the kitchen, baking with Splinter’s permission. He was in his room drinking tea and the boys were out on patrol. That was the other thing. Every time they left, you felt empty. You knew they’d be fine, but there was always a little bit of worry nagging in the back of your brain. What if they…weren’t?

So: stress-baking. The recipe of the evening? Chocolate chip cookies. They were a classic you were sure the boys would like. Your hair was up in a messy bun and you had some tunes playing from your phone. You scooped out the balls of cookie dough, setting them in careful rows on the pan before sticking them into the hot oven.

You baked for a few hours, rotating trays until you had a batch big enough to feed four hungry mutant turtles, their father, and yourself.

You switched off the oven, and right as you did, you heard their voices echoing through the tunnels until finally, they entered the lair.

“Good night?” You asked hopefully.

“Better now, angelcakes.” Mikey winked and then stopped in his tracks when he saw the steaming pile of fresh-baked cookies. His eyes widened and he gasped excitedly. “Are these for us?”

“Yep.”

“Wow, she bakes, too, Leo.” Raph teased, reaching for a cookie in time with Donnie.

“Thanks, (Y/N),” said the turtle in the purple bandana.

“Of course.”

Leo went in for one last, still reeling a bit from Raph’s comment, his cheeks rosier than usual. He said softly, “Thank you for doing this.”

“Thank you for letting me crash here. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without you guys finding me when you did.”

“It’s the least we could do.” Leo insisted.

“Alright, quit yer flirting. Let’s all go watch a movie or something.” Raph insisted, walking out towards the TV. The rest of you followed, and of course when you and Leo went to find seats, the only two that were left were right next to each other.

You settled in, blushing a bit. Raph had a smug smirk on his face.

“What?” You challenged, causing him to chuckle.

“Nothin’.”

As it got later, it also got colder, and you soon found yourself shivering the slightest bit, wishing you’d thought to grab a blanket before the movie started like the rest of the guys had.

“Are you cold?” Leo asked.

Instead of telling him you weren’t like you wanted to, you nodded. Without hesitation, he pulled half of his large blue blanket onto your lap, letting you share his warmth. As if you weren’t blushing enough before, he just had to be a gentleman and fluster you even further.

“T-thanks.” You could have punched yourself for stuttering, but Leo didn’t seem to mind. He still kept a polite distance from you, his leg a good few inches from yours despite the blanket that was draped across you both.

You were quiet for the rest of the movie, and when it was over, Raph went to work out, Donnie retreated into his lab, and Mikey went to his room to scroll through TikToks on his phone. That left you and Leo sitting awkwardly under the large blue knitted blanket you were sure Raph had made. Maybe it had been a Christmas present or something. You weren’t sure.

“Not to give you déjà vu, but I’m sorry about Raph.” Leo chuckled. “I asked him to stop, so of course it only got worse.”

“I really don’t mind.” You told him, meeting his clear blue gaze. “That’s what brothers do, isn’t it?”

He laughed. “Yeah, I guess it is. Do you have any siblings?”

“No, unfortunately. I’m an only child. Grew up with my aunt because my parents couldn’t be bothered to actually parent.”

“Mmm.” Leo hummed, nodding.

“I guess that’s probably why I latched onto the idea of you guys so much as a kid. I liked the idea of a sibling bond like that. Working together as a team. Having a built-in group of friends to hang out with.”

“It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but we do work well together.” Leo agreed. “When we’re not bickering, that is.”

You were quiet for a moment, mustering up courage before you said, “He’s right, though. Raph, I mean.”

Leo stared at you, his eyes widening in half-realization. “What…how…what do you mean?” His voice cracked when he asked it, his heart pounding.

“Well…Leo, I’ve had a crush on you since I was fifteen years old; I doubt it’s going away anytime soon.”

He looked at you in shock, pretty sure he’d hallucinated what you just said. All he could reply with was a shaky, “On me?”

You laughed. “Yes, Leo. On you. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same. I’m not even supposed to exist here.”

“I do. Feel the same.” He blurted. His statement was quick, but it was firm. Carefully, he took your hand in his large, green, three-fingered one and he was reminded just how different the two of you actually were. He was about to let go, but you squeezed his hand reassuringly. He laughed at himself, slightly embarrassed to be floundering in front of you, but it was out of his control. “I’m sorry, I’m new to this.”

“That’s okay.” You smiled, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear.

“I promise I’ll do my best to make you happy. Just let me know if I’m doing something wrong. I’m learning, after all.” His thumb rubbed the back of your hand. “And I know that…at some point you’re going to have to go back. But…I’m willing to make the most of whatever time we have.”

“Me too.” You nodded. A yawn slipped from your lips. It was getting late. You wouldn’t be surprised if the sun was already up. “I think it’s about time I got to bed.” You told him, standing up and setting the blanket on the couch.

Since you’d been there, the boys had created you a makeshift room of your own in one of the giant pipes in the wall, a little one with your own mattress and some bedding Raph had whipped up for you.

Leo stood up too, towering over you as soon as he did. You stood on your toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Leo replied, smiling at you like you’d put the moon and stars in the sky with your bare hands. “See you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.” You echoed, walking off towards your pipe, a new kind of warmth swirling around in your chest.

#leonardo x reader #leonardo imagine #leonardo #leo x reader #leo imagine #leo #tmnt #tmnt imagine #tmnt 2016 #tmnt 2014

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