#like I made the comparison for a moment but the whole reason why people do show dog stuff is because they actually LOVE and care about the

[dapperrokyuu]

Sad realization that Alien Stage contestants are actually treated worse than show dogs... orz orz orz

#alien stage #dee p thoughts #vivinos #alnst #like I made the comparison for a moment but the whole reason why people do show dog stuff is because they actually LOVE and care about the #breed AUGHHHHH- #a better comparison is having a dance mom but worse dkcjsjxjwjs

[cuubism]

more physical therapy au

--

Dream comes to his next physical therapy appointment marginally--marginally--less apprehensive than before. When he'd first gone, he'd expected to be told he was being melodramatic. That he should just be grateful that the surgery was successful and he has some functioning. That he should just give up on his art, that it didn't matter, that it was hopeless.

He doesn't know why he thought that. It's been hard to have a charitable view of people, lately.

But Hob wasn't like what he feared. Hob was... kind. To him.

So he goes back.

He has, in fact, been doing the exercises that Hob gave him. It is not as though he has much else to do with his time. Other than setting up his new flat, where he now lives after fleeing what had once been his home. Even a few months later, the place is fairly... minimalist. Which is not Dream's style. But he'd left with little more than his art portfolio and the clothes he was wearing, deciding that it wasn't worth going back, and he hasn't had the energy to replace anything since.

Or the two functioning arms required to move things.

His flat is depressing enough that even the physical therapy office feels warm and welcoming by comparison. Hob gives him a big smile as he comes in. It's pathetic that it makes his heart flutter.

He goes over to Hob, setting the folder he brought on the table.

"You look cheerful," Hob notes. Dream highly, highly doubts that. But he is perhaps slightly less morose than last time. Nevertheless, he finds Hob's optimism... somewhat cheering. Normally, he would find such a thing annoying. But there is something very steady and reassuring about Hob. Not much in Dream's life has felt steady in some time.

"I have tried finger painting," Dream tells him. He takes the piece out of the folder and shows it to Hob.

It had been interesting, at least. Distracted him for a moment. Made him think about the way children make art, before becoming mired in theory and technique.

He had considered bringing one of his usual pieces to demonstrate to Hob what he's meant to be able to do, in case that would be helpful, but it's still painful to look at them.

Hob takes the painting and stares at it with wide eyes. "How is this actually good?"

Dream should probably be offended by his incredulity but instead he just finds it amusing. "I had lots of time to spend."

He has, once again, painted a bunch of cats, all different colors, cluttering the page. It's simple, and lets him avoid thinking about his more conceptual pieces he hasn't been able to work on.

"Wow," Hob says, propping the painting carefully against the wall by his computer. "Okay. Good work going above and beyond on the instructions, Dream."

That praise alone shouldn't make something in his chest start glowing. But it does.

"It did not hurt... much," he says tentatively, before Hob can ask. "However, with a brush..."

It is incredibly frustrating. It's like his body continually wishes to betray him. He's lost his home and everything he owns and now he cannot even have his art.

"Give it some time," Hob says, reasonably. He is much more patient, and optimistic, than Dream.

He makes Dream draw and write again. It's... perhaps marginally easier after the exercises Hob had given him. Still, he finds himself getting frustrated by the weakness of his grip. And the more frustrated he gets, the tighter he grips the pencil. He knows he shouldn't. But.

"Lighter," Hob tells him, and Dream glares at him. Hob raises his hands. "Not telling you how to do your art. Just telling you how not to hurt your hand."

Dream bites down on his annoyance, but loosens his grip.

He doesn't see very much progress, but Hob seems satisfied. He makes Dream run through some other strengthening exercises, which... don't hurt as much as Dream was expecting them to. He'd expected that this whole process would be nothing but gritting his teeth through agonizing pain, to minimal results. Perhaps Death is right, and he should be less pessimistic.

In any case, Hob seems proud of him at the end. Even if Dream doesn't think he's done anything to be proud of.

But he does leave, perhaps, slightly more hopeful than he entered. And he wants to come back. At least to see Hob again.

~~

Hob doesn't know if it's patronizing to be proud of Dream, but he is. Over the last few sessions, his grip has improved a lot. Dream doesn't seem to see it, but that's alright. Hob does. He's been keeping all of Dream's drawings. They are getting better.

Hob is pretty good at optimism. But even so, it somehow hadn't occurred to him that quiet and morose wasn't Dream's natural state. That is until he sees the joy that lights up in him the first time he's able to draw a cat without his hand shaking. Dream smiles so wide, like he isn't even aware Hob is still watching him, and Hob realizes that there is lightness to him. It's just been buried down.

The time after that, Dream even brings some of his old art to show. Hob's been dying to see it for ages, but hasn't pressed. And Dream's art is gorgeous. Hob can understand, now, why he'd been dissatisfied with those first cats he'd drawn, no matter how charming Hob had found them. His big pieces are so finely detailed, so precise. It's... possibly going to take a bit more time to get him back to that than Hob had thought. But he's determined.

But Dream seems happy to be sharing his art, doesn't fold in on himself this time just to mention it. He talks with enthusiasm about his process, the most words Hob's heard him say in... well, ever. Hob tells him that he's made enough progress to pick up painting--with brush, not fingers--again if he wants, but not to beat himself up if it doesn't look the same as his old ones. And for once, it seems like Dream actually accepts the instruction not to berate himself.

All of this is, most certainly, the reason Hob does the insane thing he does next.

He's organizing his records, having already walked Dream out, when he hears raised voices from out on the walkway. The front door is still open a crack, he realizes, so the sound carries.

"Come on, you're overreacting," says an unfamiliar, male voice. "I said I won't do it again, didn't I?"

"Do not," Dream replies, voice anxious, but determined, "follow me."

"Well if you'd just pick up your phone--"

Hob steps outside. An unfamiliar man--the ex-boyfriend, Hob assumes, he doesn't know his name, hasn't asked, doesn't care--has Dream cornered in the doorway. His posture doesn't immediately scream rage or aggression, which is more unnerving rather than less, considering this is the same person who'd snapped and broken Dream's hand.

And Dream looks scared. Under the mask of stoicism he likes to wear. Any cheer or hope he'd gained from today's session has evaporated, and he looks like he did before, when he'd first come to Hob's office, curled in on himself. It breaks Hob's heart. And makes him angry.

"Stop being selfish and just--" the ex-boyfriend continues. Hob means to cut in and diffuse the situation. Tell him to leave in a reasonably professional manner.

Instead he punches him in the face.

Ex-boyfriend's nose goes crunch in an extremely satisfying way, and he reels back with a shriek, hands going to his face. Dream startles back, hands clutched around his art portfolio.

"What the FUCK!" yells ex-boyfriend, voice nasally from the blood running down his face. "You can't just-- this is assault! I'll call the cops!"

Oh he wants to go there, does he? "You wanna talk about assault?" Hob says, voice rising in volume. Dream edges behind him, though Hob's not sure he's fully aware he's doing so. "You want to get police involved, that's really what you want?"

Ex-boyfriend looks from Hob to Dream and back, hesitating. That's fucking right, Hob thinks. Not so easy to kick someone around when there's consequences, huh?

It helps that Hob is visibly stronger than Dream, and spends all day physically moving people around. If ex-boyfriend tries anything he's going to get put on the ground.

Finally he retreats, though with a look of rage towards Hob. Once he's gone, Dream finally seems to relax, some of the tension easing from his shoulders.

"You did not need to," he murmurs.

Hob shakes his head. "No one gets to come and threaten you here. Particularly not that dickhead."

Dream huffs a small laugh. Then he picks up Hob's hand, studying it. Hob winces. It's certainly going to bruise.

"Now you will need physical therapy," Dream says, lips twitching. Hob's glad for the humor in his voice.

Hob laughs. "Worth it."

"No one has..." Dream starts, slowly, "done something like that. For me."

It hurts, to think that no one's stood up for him. Or even let him know that someone should stand up for him.

"If he comes back I'll do it again," Hob says, and gets a tentative smile from Dream.

Then asks, "Does he know where you live?"

Dream frowns. "I do not think so."

"Want me to walk you home?"

He doubts Dream's ex-boyfriend will come back to the office now that he knows Hob's willing to deck him, but that doesn't mean he won't try to corner Dream elsewhere.

Dream deliberates, then says, "Would you?"

"'Course, love. Just let me lock the place up."

He doesn't realize what he's said until he's already turned back to lock the door. Shit. Today has already gone so far beyond what he's supposed to do as Dream's physical therapist, and now...

In the end, Dream doesn't call him out on it. But he does stick close to Hob's side as they walk, and occasionally when Hob looks over at him, he catches a tiny smile on his face.

#this is so sappy oh my god #dreamling #dream of the endless #hob gadling #my writing #cw abuse #physical therapy fic #long post

[miquella-everywhere]

Miquella and Griffith: Why the comparisons make no damn sense

So instead of me screaming to the sky, "Waah Miquella is Griffith theories make me so mad grrrr I hate them so much" I've decided that I'm going to do an analysis between the two characters and dissect why the comparisons and Giffiths influence on Miquella makes absolutely no damn sense.

So first and foremost, warning: I will be talking about and spoiling Berserk, so if you wanna read it for yourself then steer clear of this analysis

So to start off let's discuss Griffith and his character/motivations in Berserks story: Griffiths whole goal from childhood was to establish his own country, his own paradise and to achieve that goal he first established his own mercenary group The Band of the Hawk. Griffith was beautiful and charismatic and the people who were apart of his band all looked up to Griffith and admired him, placing all of their hopes and faith into him and his dream.

But as the story goes on Griffith hits an all time low point, and after essentially being tortured for a year, which makes him emaciated, weak and practically crippled for life, all of Griffiths dreams seem like an utter impossibility as he is left as nothing more than a shadow of his former self.

That is until he decides to cast everything aside to become a God.

And by cast everything aside I mean that he betrays his companions, his Band of the Hawk, and sacrifices their lives to untold evils in what is absolutely the most genuinely horrific and unsettling imagery I have ever seen from a work of fiction in my entire life.

(Going off topic but I cannot stress this enough that if you decide to read Berserk understand that the violence shown pulls no punches with its depictions and involves both heavy gore and sexual violence. Especially the sexual violence)

Anyway, what makes the Band of the Hawks sacrifice so jarring is that these people all loved Griffith. They adored him. Backed him every step of the way and were the ones to go and rescue him as he was being tortured, and they all mourned the pitiful state that he was in when they found him. But regardless they STILL tried to be hopeful for Griffiths sake.

The Band of the Hawk loved Griffith and that is why Griffiths betrayal of them hits so hard and is why Griffith is known as one of the most evil characters in fiction.

And all of these reasons are precisely why Griffith is such a good and compelling character.

From the beginning of Griffiths introduction you could tell that something was... off about him. But at the same time his charisma and big ambitions painted him in a sympathetic light and you rooted for Griffith. But as the story went on you could see how Griffith was going deeper and deeper into the darkness and, quite frankly, his subsequent torture is entirely his own fault because he made several stupid and completely avoidable choices.

And it's all because Griffith at his core is selfish.

And it's for exactly these reasons why it's so baffling to me that so many people believe that Miquella is going to be just as evil, or worse, than Griffith.

Because in truth unlike Griffith, Miquella is not selfish.

The main problem that I have with the Miquella is Griffith comparisons is that all of those theories hinge entirely on the Bewitching Branch item description, and so many people have gone out of their way to spin Miquellas ability to compel affection as definitive proof that he is manipulative and evil, meanwhile conveniently ignoring everything else that Miquella has done in the lore.

So for a single moment, let's pretend that the Bewitching Branch does not exist and take a look at all the other lore that surrounds Miquella:

Miquella has dedicated most of his life to curing Malenia, his twin sister, of her crippling disease, and has even crafted prosthetics for her as well as an entirely new type of God Repellent Metal, which can halt the effects of said disease

He was a Golden Order Fundamentalist but ultimately abandoned it because it could not cure Malenias sickness

He created a Haven for those who are outcasts in the eyes of the most dominating and repressive Order in the Lands Between

He watered said Haven/the Haligtree with his own blood so it could grow into something that could rival the Erdtree

He used his identity as St. Trina to sing to and ease those who have been afflicted by the Frenzied Flame

There are several statues that depict Miquella and Malenia embracing eachother, 1 in Altus in an area dubbed Miquellas Hideaway and several all over the Haligtree. The fact that this statue is the dominant imagery found at the Haligtree really hammers in the fact that the twins love eachother, and that the Haligtree isn't just Miquella's, but Malenias home as well

He also has a clear affection/love for his brother Godwyn as the statue at the Haligtree depicts him embracing his siblings and even created a sword to commemorate Godwyns death and prayed for him to Die a True Death.

The soldiers of the Haligtree came across a bitter revelation as they await Miquella(presumably they feel immense guilt for being unable to protect their Lord) and explode with light, which they hope will guide Miquellas return and no Miquella did not put the light in them to make them explode there is absolutely zero proof of that, looking at you vaati

And now to be fair, lets get into the comparisons that are shared between the Griffith and Miquella:

Both are highly charismatic and beautiful individuals to the point where both Griffith and Miquella are mistaken for being girls.

The Eclispe imagery. For Griffith the Eclipse is what allows him to ascend to Godhood(after sacrificing the people who love him) and for Miquella the Eclipse is presumably how they are trying to resurrect Godwyn (Miquellas plans for the Eclipse are mostly unknown/vague at this point)

The Egg. Griffith and Miquella both go through a type of metamorphosis involving being encased in a cocoon/egg.

And honestly that's kinda it. The straight comparisons between the two are highly lacking and purely thematic in my opinion, especially when you consider everything else going on between their respective characters.

So to summarize, the good things that Miquella has done outweighs the bad and that is why Miquella is, in actuality, the exact opposite of Griffith. Unlike Griffith who is selfish, Elden Ring canon points to Miquella being a compassionate and loving individual, and if anything, he is a complete inversion to Griffiths character.

With the points listed above a majority of the in game text highly suggests that Miquella is kind and altruistic, and with the newest text regarding Miquella in the DLC:

Points to Miquella potentially being selfless and self-sacrificial.

And also, I've seen several people argue that Miquella wants to become a God so he can create his own utopia/Falconia like Griffith did. And I'm like.... Uuuum okay well, there is a big problem with that argument along with an elephant in the room that's being completely ignored, and that is the fact that Miquella has already created his utopia/Falconia with the Haligtree and Elphael.

So as of this moment Miquellas exact goals are completely unknown, what he is doing in the World of Shadow cannot be determined until the DLC arrives. But my point remains that so many people seem to think that Miquella will be evil based off of, in my opinion, evidence that is completely lacking in substance, along with the pervasive belief that since Elden Ring has drawn inspiration from Berserk/Griffith it means that Miquella will end up as a similar type of evil character as Griffith, all while ignoring the things that Miquella has done in canon that sets him apart as his own character.

So I've said my piece and what I believe in, so I'm just going to leave this analysis with this last statement:

The good that Miquella has done and committed himself too in the Lands Between completely outweighs the singular implied evil of the Bewitching Branch.

#uri posts #elden ring #miquella the unalloyed #elden ring theory #shadow of the erdtree #also yes this is griffith slander i think he is a dumbass lol

[rallamajoop]

Mia Winters and the Connections

There are a lot of bad takes on Mia Winters out there, a lot of really irritating shallow misconceptions. But for now, I’m just going to tackle one of the big ones that annoys me the most.

Mia Winters is not a scientist, and it's debatable whether she had any long-term association with the project that created Eveline. She may not have even met Eveline before being assigned to transport her to South America.

Mia’s not any kind of researcher. Her job when she worked at the Connections is laid out clearly in the first document you find within moments of starting the flashback ("Orders"): she’s a member of the Special Operations Division in the English version, or a 'special agent' in the Japanese (特殊工作員, tokushu kousaku-in). The English version also gives Mia the role of 'caretaker', implicitly of Eveline, but there's not much to suggest this is a role extending beyond the bounds of this particular mission (for comparison, the Japanese doesn't mention caretaking at all).

Mia's job is exactly what we see her doing in the game: transporting important assets under cover identities, and running around doing damage control with a machine gun if things go south. She echoes the same in her letter to the Bakers, stating she 'was assigned to transport some important cargo.' Even the 'imprinting protocol' she refers to seems to be mostly part of a transport protocol (going by the very little we ever learn about it), and may not even have been implemented until shortly before they left.

Even in the one photo of her standing with the research team, you might note that Mia and her partner Alan are the only people present not wearing lab coats (and believe me, with how much other photoshopping there is in this photo, Mia would have been wearing a lab coat if they'd wanted her in one). The photo itself is far more of an easter egg than a real plot point anyway, and probably isn't worth reading too much into ‒ I mean, Alan is apparently the director of the Special Operations division, so it makes no sense to assume he's part of this one science team. But if you really want a 'canonical' explanation for this photo, considering Mia and Alan are wearing the same clothes as in the ship flashback, you could reasonably assume it was taken right before Eveline was shipped off to America ‒ a kind of "Let's get one last snapshot of the team together with the transport crew before Eveline goes to South America" deal. It's completely plausible Mia may not even have met Eveline until the same day this was taken.

So where does this 'scientist' nonsense come from? The only source which does call Mia a 'researcher' is a timeline entry in this one RE7 strategy guide which has never been published in English – and it's a good example of why sources like this are usually better treated as pseudo-canon at best. You can find various translations of it online – but you can also buy the whole ebook (which I did), so here's the page where it originally comes up.

And yes, inasmuch as I’m qualified to translate, the line does state that Mia joined the company as a ‘researcher’ (研究員, kenkyuu-in) in 2010. But the same guidebook also refers to her as an operative (工作員) just a couple of pages later, so even the guidebook is hardly consistent.

Charitably, perhaps we could read that Mia was initially hired as some kind of generic, low-level research assistant before being transferred to the special operations division after showing aptitude in that area. But it's more likely that Mia was simply going to be a researcher at some point in the game’s development history, before Capcom changed their minds, and the timeline that made it into the guidebook is just very out of date ‒ it happens. Either way, one line in an inconsistent guide book hardly trumps what actually made it into the games.

I do realise that asking people to pay attention to what's actually in the games over what's repeated in some wiki somewhere (or a gazillion different fanfic) is a big ask for any fandom, but Mia was clearly never a scientist in the game we all played. She still knowingly worked for some really evil people – she doesn’t get to claim innocence here – but the idea she's personally responsible for every bad thing ever done to Eveline is absurd.

FWIW, other details from the guidebook also back up the idea that transporting assets was a major part of Mia’s job. Her bio (above) mentions that she was away from home a lot, something that strained the Winters’ marriage, and that she told people she worked for a ‘trading company’ – a solid cover for a job focused on travel and logistics.

A very little is said about Mia’s relationship with Eveline. The guidebook does mention that the reason Eveline’s so attached to Mia is because Eveline had known her since she was ‘confined to the “mysterious organisation” that created her’, which could be taken to imply she knew Mia well before their trip began, but it's not much to go on. Mia's own feelings on Eveline are described briefly in a caption: “Although Mia found Eveline creepy, she also felt compassion for her lonely situation,” which tracks with how Mia interacts with her in-game. It doesn't track so well with the idea Mia had any real authority over how Eveline was raised or treated, however, and would be perfectly consistent with the idea Mia might not have known her long at all.

The guidebook timeline also tells us that the E-series project begain in 2000, and that Eveline herself was created in "the early 2000s." This doesn't make a whole lot of sense for reasons I've talked about already, but does put Eveline's creation well before 2010, the year the same timeline gives us for when Mia started working at the Connections. Since the guidebook also tells us Mia was 32 in 2017, back in 2000, she would have been all of 15 years old. Whatever Mia's involvement, the project long predates her joining the company.

But the real issue with trying to given Mia any major responsibility for the E-series project is that the lab that created Eveline was located in Europe. Mia, meanwhile, has a driver's license telling us she's from Texas.

The European location for the lab is another detail that gets barely mentioned in the games, though it's mentioned repeatedly in the guidebook, and the Baker Incident Report even puts it specifically in Munich, Germany. Given all we learn in RE8, that location does make a lot of sense, when the mould was found in Eastern Europe, and that Miranda herself was part of the research team (she gets multiple photos and a lab coat, you may note). And even if the lab wasn’t right on Miranda’s doorstep, Munich is a heckuva commute from Texas, or anywhere else in the US. Even if Mia was often away from Ethan for long periods, as her bio implies, how involved could she realistically have been?

I don't want to overstress the idea that it "doesn't make sense" for a special agent from Texas to have been intimately involved in a European research project ‒ making sense has never held back RE lore before. But the idea that Mia was brought in only as a handler for Eveline when she was being moved to America still makes a lot more sense than to suggest the Connections were fine with their star asset’s primary handler going home to the US every other weekend.

There are possibilities between the two extremes, of course: Mia may have had sporadic contact with Eveline before the trip, either regularly or just once or twice. It's easy to assume the 'imprinting protocol' must mean that Mia's been Eveline's primary handler for some time, but heck, maybe it's better read as the opposite ‒ something that can be quickly applied to a new handler or caretaker in a hurry, to explain how Eveline got so attached to someone she'd only just met.

Given everything we actually see of her, you could even speculate that Mia was chosen as Eveline's 'caretaker' specifically because she was someone nice and motherly enough for Eveline to bond with. Eveline was pretty clearly fucked up long before Mia ever got involved, and not actually wanting to adopt a walking bioweapon whose idea of a happy family involves mould-powered mind control really does not reflect badly on Mia's character.

Whether Mia was already working for the Connections before she met Ethan also isn't clear. The guidebook tells us she began working for them in 2010, and married Ethan in May of 2011 (later confirmed by the date on Mia's ring in RE8) – though it doesn't specify when she and Ethan met. Even by Texas standards, marrying someone you’d known less than a year would be pretty unusual, so it’s likely Ethan knew her before she took the job. But even that 2010 statement comes along with the bit about Mia being hired as ‘a researcher’, so you can always take it with a grain of salt if you'd prefer.

And that's pretty much it for what the complete RE canon ever tells us about Mia and her former employers.

So here’s where I’m left with Mia’s role at the Connections. Even if she wasn’t aware of exactly what she was signing up for when she joined the company, and even if she considered all that lying to her husband about it to be a simple matter of confidentiality around sensitive research, she’s fully aware by the disaster in 2014, and plainly has a guilty conscience when she admits to lying to Ethan in her video message. However responsible she may or may not have been, she's still complicit. Her hands are hardly clean.

But they’re still a whole lot cleaner than, say, Luis’, considering that he was a key member of the science teams at both Umbrella Europe and in Saddler’s cult, and I don’t see him getting a fraction of the same hate as Mia. They both regret what they’ve done, and they’re both willing to give their own lives to make up for it. No, Luis never lied to a spouse about it (that we know of), but he's every bit as shifty and secretive. And frankly, most of the other shit that gets dumped on Mia’s doorstep is just as much bullshit (like, people do realise the “Mia” we see having “marital problems” with Ethan at the start of RE8 isn’t Mia, right?) But that’s material for other posts.

We don’t know how Mia got involved with the Connections, or how she felt about working for them, because the games never give us this information, and that’s a real shame. But in the capitalist hellscape we’re all living in, she’d hardly be the first to find herself stuck working for truly terrible people, one way or another.

Meanwhile, everything we see her doing during the outbreak on the tanker speaks to a basically good person, desperately trying to run damage control in a fucked-up situation. She tells Alan she’s not going to let him die, even though what’s going down is his fault. She tries so hard to talk Eveline down. After she’s rescued by the Bakers in the Daughter's DLC, she insists on staying in the trailer, meaning to leave at her first opportunity – pretty significant, considering she knows she’s infected already. She also leaves them a message warning them to stay away from Eveline, even sharing information on how to make a serum if they are infected. If you pick her over Zoe on the dock, the first thing she does is try to convince Zoe to come with them anyway. Even under Eveline's mind control, you'll catch her ranting about needing to contain the outbreak, blaming herself, and telling Ethan she loves him with her last breath.

And after being infected herself, the first thing on her mind is to try and protect Ethan, recording that message admitting she’s lied to him, and warning him to stay away (Ethan never gets that message, but you can’t say Mia didn’t try). Mia loves Ethan enough to die to save him – and she will, if you choose the Zoe path, and she’ll do it without a second thought.

Mia is fascinating to me as a character because she’s so full of contradictions: a woman who leaves syrupy video messages sending ‘tons of kisses’ to her husband, but who is completely comfortable running around with a machine gun killing mould-monsters, and who shrugs off an Eveline jump-scare with 'fucking hallucinations!' Someone who’s done bad things and knows it, and is trying so hard to make up for it, but whose background and motivations are left frustratingly undeveloped. But if you haven’t caught that Ethan and Rose mean more to her than anything, you really haven’t been paying attention.

Whatever you assume about Mia’s full story, she’s complicated in a way that makes her so much more interesting to me than most of the franchise’s more popular playable characters. I am very serious in saying I want RE9 to be just the full Mia-Winters-story, because to me that’s the only remotely satisfying justification for keeping her such a mystery for so long. I know that's not at all likely, but fuck it, I can dream.

Mia’s made her share of mistakes, but holding her responsible for everything the Connections has ever done is no kind of fair.

#Mia Winters #Resident Evil Village #Resident Evil 7 #Mia Winters week #The Connections #RE lore #Mia is THE BEST character I WILL FIGHT YOU ALL

[gz-missfit]

So I wanna talk about tazercraft cause their characters are so incredibly interesting to me in the best way possible. To preface this I don't speak a word of Portuguese (I'm learning tho! And have been picking up on sentences a lot more) and my native language isn't English so I may get some things wrong and if I do feel free to correct me!

More under the cut:

I'll put this in 3 separate parts, them individually and then their dynamic!

Mike:

Mike is interesting to me, he's definitely the outward instigator of the 2 when it comes to causing trouble and as many have already pointed out the brains behind a lot of it! He's managed to master the create mod in ways I genuinely never expected them to be used and it's a cute way to say that mine (his wife) was also a cause of that as the goddess of creation. To move to his personality more he's definitely the lead talker in the duo, he's a lot more confident in his voice and speaking in comparison to Pac and can often seem like the lead of the duo, tho this is the cause for people missing his weaknesses! Mike is not a fighter, far from that actually, he freezes in danger and fumbles. His hand tremble when he holds a sword and sees mobs closing in and when big threats appear his whole body turns into ice. He gets overstimulated by danger he couldn't prepare for or was the cause of. Just to name 2 examples here, the first is in the dungeon on the day the timer ran out you could hear him panic, he was a lot more shaky and especially his sword being the cause of injuries to his friends is what made that worse, it went so far that he even typed in chat that he was overwhelmed (fun fact to note is that through all of that he basically vanished from pacs pov but I'll get to that). Another example is when the code showed up to him and pac to drop Richas cow head to them, he later on explicitly state having frozen in fear to i think Fit if i remember correctly and even when ttt was typed in the chat and pac had jumped down to follow Richas to make sure he could teleport Mike was again, nowhere to be seen.

His fear of a fight that revolves around his family and death especially is so interesting to me cause it's obvious that a lot of that comes from Richas first death and how he still blames himself for it, the fear of failing his loved ones again being set deep into his bones whenever a danger for their lives comes up. This is why the prison stream actually was even more interesting to me than I initially expected, because his personality in that sense took a complete 180! Now it's been shown time and time again that Mike has an intense distaste of the federation and hasn't been fond of them for a long time, he's incredibly hostile to them and not scared at all when threatened by them to the point where it's a game for him and he's retaliated with threats that could lead to a ban for him multiple times. Before I move on I think the reason as to why this is is because the federation never showed to kill or take lives, I think that's why Mike has a lot more confidence in confronting them rather than things that have shown to be fatal with all intention of killing. Back to the prison though, Mike's personality to threats definitely took a turn in there, from the moment we saw him he looked pissed beyond believe and his tone was always threatening and almost mocking, his mind quickly was set on getting him and pac out as soon as possible and the realization that Walter Bob, someone who both have seen be the first federation worker that showed them kindness and an interest in what they do after willingly showing up for a haircut is what devastated him. Mike sees Walter as a close friend due to that and it showed because as soon as the realization of Walters long term treatment hit him he did everything to protect the worker he maybe met a handful of times, you could see him get more and more agitated the more the guards hit him and ironically enough I think if Walter hadn't been there idk if he would've killed the guard, but he was so set on finally setting Walter free as well as make sure Pac doesn't have to relive the past they shared that he was willing to do everything to get those 3 out and that all is perfectly encapsulated by his behavior once Walter got taken again, Mike wasn't sad or distraught like Pac was, no, he was fucking fuming to the point where he didn't respond to Pac. Ya know, the person he talks to 24/7 and that's attached to his hip to the point where most of their words are shared telepathically above all. It was obvious that he was angry beyond believe and I'm sure he's got a lot more plans up his sleeve now to get revenge. Cause if there's one thing about Mike it's definitely that you do not want him as your enemy. He may be an outwardly social guy who is definitely more focused on making people laugh and showing off the things he and Pac created but he's still a fugitive and would destroy the world for those he holds dear as they help him feel stronger in the moments where fear does get the better of him.

Pac:

Pac is honestly incredibly fascinating just due to how many levels his character has. He's outwardly the person that appears more shy in comparison to Mike and stumbles as well as gets flustered quick. This has also been the main cause of people seeing him as a weaker player (which also got added onto by how during the earlier days he'd be the one to die a lot) which in turn has caused an interesting dynamic between him and a bunch of the others players because he's far from that. Pac is full on the brawns when it comes to situations that mean fighting for someone's life, his brain goes into focus mode once a life is on the line and there's many examples to show that! Which is why I find it so funny that he often gets handed things due to seeming and behaving weaker than he actually is (main example here being etoiles who not only gave him a custom diamond sword early on which Pac has kept to this day but also the Scythe which he nowadays uses as his only weapon).

Now to the examples of how he can very much carry his own weight In fights and how fascinating it is to watch him, the first big show of him effortlessly carrying himself and doing his best to support others was during the timer dungeon, he was at the front with Bad,Etoiles and Cellbit and even when a lot less geared than those 3 with a weapon that did a lot less damage he didn't go down once even tho he wasn't even holding a totem at any point. It's genuinely impressive with how well he carried himself through that and used movement to attack big groups of mobs from behind only to have vanished out of their sight again before they could corner him. The only time he got truly cornered was at a point where even Etoiles had to back up a little and ended up next to him and the way Pac casually mentioned being fine only to instantly jump at the opportunity of humor through small talk sticks in my brain to this day due to him having stayed mainly silent the whole time before that. The 2 other examples are about Richas and how quick Pac is to defend his son, like I mentioned before when the Code showed up to him, Mike and Richas, Pac instantly jumped into aggressive, he wanted to hit it but fell due to underestimating the jump and as soon as he laid eyes in Richas he became Pacs priority sticking to his sons side until he was Tp'd away and only then returning to the Platform. The same thing happened during the dinner! Every parent except for him crashed when the codes revealed themselves and as much as Richas was quick to start running the speed at which Pac laid eyes on the egg and started to follow right next to him was genuinely mind blowing, he stood at that elevator once Richas left ready to die if it came to it just to make sure one of those things didn't follow him, and as soon as Mike relogged he became Pacs priority with the latter hovering around him will he was loading in.

Now to compare this to the behavior in prison is interesting. Pacs still as good as ever when it comes to putting on a persona to get what he wants but I do believe that the prison brought up a lot of trauma for him, from what I know his time in prison was a lot worse than Mike's and you could hear that through his voice throughout the whole stream. Pacs a physical fighter not a mental one. But in the end he still has that survival instinct, he still knows he needs to get out to protect his family and he doesn't want to be separated from his other half and best friend anymore so he plays sly. The way he stole the keys from the guard genuinely is the most slick maneuver ever and his ability to portrait his behavior in an exaggerated way that makes him seem like no threat at all has worked in his favor multiple times during this too. He was definitely suffering through that whole experience but his determination to protect the ones he loved still slipped through, his hesitancy when he called to the guards not to hit his friends only to have his voice go small once he was physically threatened. He's not at all comfortable when he doesn't have anything to fight back with. Pacs underestimated A LOT, he let's himself be pushed around for bits with a smile and definitely enjoys appearing a bit dumber and less skilled than he is just due to the perks of it and not really caring for bragging about fighting skills when he'd rather show off the project he and Mike have spent time on, only those with a keen eye can see how he's got the heart of a fighter (Etoiles being the first to vocally call this out) he's not weak by any means and definitely a lot smarter than he'd ever admit. He'd die to protect his family and the ones he cares about and would never back down if push came to shove for them.

To sum this all up and not make this too long (which it already is pfff) for both of them together their dynamic is very clearly the "do not separate" but funnily enough Mike is the one who definitely leans onto that more. During each fight where he panicked, got overwhelmed and/or froze he was missing from Pacs pov, they were split apart and it was Mike who was terrified of not being able to hold his own, the same happened in the prison just differently. In the prison Mike definitely put on a cold facade but it broke everytime he asked if they could share the same cell, the underlying fear of him having to fight alone lacing his words through moments like that. This doesn't mean that Pac isn't the same tho! He's just less outwardly vocal about it in comparison and shows it more through actions and looks. It was obvious to hear his distress when he called Mike's name in prison but his constant turning around to see where the other is and his hesitancy to go into areas that implied separation are what showed how hes just as scared as Mike is about loosing the other.

To go more into headcanon and theories I'd like to think of the 2 as 2 hearts and a shared soul, their telepathic communication is borderline Canon at this point and it's obvious that the thought or implications of being separated doesn't sit well at all with either of them. Their bodies and life's are separate but they're still connected by a soul. And whether that's shown through jokes like not being able to be in one spot without the other or through genuine things like Mike having to remind Pac that only he can hear him unless he uses his voice or their ability to flawlessly work around the other is up to interpretation of each viewer in my opinion but there's something to be said about the fact that without the other they'd never had the determination or confidence to get out of that prison, that without the other their weaknesses would show a lot more and end up causing a lot bigger of a struggle than they currently are. Without the other they wouldn't feel whole.

#qsmp #qsmp tazercraft #qsmp pac #qsmp mike #character analysis #i think #im trying these 2 are so #genuinely interesting to me #in the best way possible #cause at their core they're still silly guy's #long read #text post #void mumbling

[ladykailitha]

Well Met By Moonlight Part 3

Hi!! So I can't link to part 2 (well I can, but that whole section remains lost) at the moment because the damn post is broke and can't be edited and according the belabored staff it was an issue for a lot of people that posted during that seven hour window when the tags were down last Thursday. So they have a shit ton of help tickets to wade through, though they have assured me they are looking into it.

But as soon as they have it figured out I will link back to the original post, until then I'll link the fixed reposted version for now and apologize profusely for the fuck up.

I have the whole back story plotted out for what happened and why, I'm just not sure where the story is going to go to get to those reveals. However this means you get enjoy the ride with me.

So without further ado, Steve gets his man vampire.

Part 1 Part 2

***

Steve turned to Robin. “Telling you to leave, too isn’t going to work, is it?” he asked with a sigh.

She grinned at him. “Nope!”

He turned to Eddie who had been watching the whole interaction with a curious tilt to his head. Steve thought he looked like a puppy like that. Big brown eyes, adorable head tilt, the hair being a stand-in for floppy ears...

Puppy.

He was also one hundred percent sure that Eddie would have been offended by the comparison.

“What’s got you smiling like that, sweetheart?” Eddie asked.

“You,” Steve replied truthfully.

Robin faked retching. “Oh my god, I’m going to gag on the absolute sap oozing off the both of you.”

Steve blushed, but Eddie wagged his eyebrows suggestively.

“That’s it,” Robin said, throwing her arms in the air. “I’m out of here. Steve, don’t die. Eddie, you hurt my best friend and not even all the vampires in the coven and all the wolves in this pack would be able to stop me from ripping you to pieces, do you understand?”

Eddie smiled with just his lips, his eyes crinkling with mirth. “I read you loud and clear.”

Robin nodded and then marched back into the trees.

Suddenly Steve could feel the importance of it just being the two of them.

He cleared his throat and scratched his cheek nervously. “I wanted to thank you for the rescue. I was so sure I was going to die that night.”

Eddie grinned, shoving his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. “I’m glad Uncle Wayne sent me.”

Steve felt his insides turn cold. “Oh. You only came to my rescue because Wayne sent you?”

Eddie cocked his head to the side thoughtfully as he took in the question. “Sweetheart, I think you misunderstand something. Rescuing you was an obligation to the pack leader, loyalty to my uncle and maker, and a sign of my love and devotion for you. I don’t need to have a single reason. I’m allowed multiple reasons for doing something.” He wagged his eyebrows suggestively. “For doing you.”

Steve snorted, but the ice was beginning to melt in his gut. Eddie took a step closer and then another when Steve didn’t flinch or take a step back. Soon they were inches from each other.

“I am worried,” Eddie murmured gently. “What kind of trouble a turned vampire and a werewolf alpha would cause in a town that is already balanced on the edge of a knife.”

Steve nodded, carefully taking Eddie’s face into his hands. “I’m worried too. But I think we’re going to need band together not just turned vampires like you and your uncle and my pack, but the coven, too. What happened to me was just the tip of the iceberg and the new sheriff seems shockingly anti-supernatural.”

Eddie pursed his lips and nodded. “God, do you know how much I’ve wanted to stand here with you like this? To have you see me?”

Steve brought their foreheads together. “I did see you, Eds. I did. But I wasn’t the alpha then and you were a mere mortal.”

Eddie squeezed his eyes shut and let out a shuddering breath. “It’s why I asked Wayne to change me, you know. Because if Hopper was afraid of him then made if he made me, Hopper would have to let me near you.”

“Oh, darling...” Steve murmured. “I wish you didn’t have to do that, but I don’t think your uncle would have appreciated me turning you into a werewolf, so...”

Eddie threw back his head a laugh. “Oh god! The look on his face would have been priceless. I almost wish I had waited until I was twenty-one to ask, just for that reason.”

Steve smiled. “Yes, but then it would have been Wayne that rescued me and I wouldn’t gotten to see how sexy you are when you chase your prey.”

Eddie’s face transformed under the feral grin that spread over his features. “You get a little hot and bothered watching me defend you, baby?”

Steve bit his bottom lip and shook his head.

“No?” Eddie asked tilting his head to side, still grinning from ear to ear.

“Yeah...” Steve said, dragging the word out slowly. “To say I was a little hot and bothered would be a little like calling a tornado a gentle breeze.”

Eddie laughed and turned his head away, pulling gently out of Steve’s hands. He looked back at Steve who now shared his dopey grin. “And people in this town call me the menace.”

Steve laughed too. “I just get to hide my weirdness under the guise of being a werewolf.”

“I’d really like to kiss you now,” Eddie murmured.

Steve stepped into his space, their chests nearly touching. “I was wondering when you were going ask.”

Eddie chuckled and tangled his hands into Steve’s hair, drawing their faces close. Their lips were a literal breath away when Eddie stopped, just taking in the mingling of their air as they were already panting.

Steve closed the remaining distance and finally, finally they were kissing. It lit every nerve ending in Steve’s body up like a firework. He never knew kissing could feel like this. He gripped the back of Eddie’s leather jacket and held on for dear life.

“Wow.” Eddie felt like he had been forced to run the mile in gym. He couldn’t breath, his heart was beating erratically, and every muscle burned. It was amazing. He dived back in and kissed Steve again. He couldn’t get enough.

Steve had never felt like this in his life. It was deep and sensual and everything he had been told growing up that love should be. And now he was standing on the edge of precipice waiting for that last gust of wind to knock him over the cliff and into Eddie’s strong arms.

“Fuck, Eds,” he breathed when they stopped for breath. “You smell, taste, and feel amazing. God, I don’t want to stop.”

Eddie let out a growl, deep from his throat. “I know, baby. I know. But if we don’t your entire pack is going to get an eyeful.”

Steve chuckled. “Nudity isn’t a problem with packs. All the shifting makes it hard on clothes.”

Eddie’s growl turned into groan. “You can’t just say shit like that when my dick is that hard. It’s gone soft thinking about seeing Murray or Hopper naked.”

Steve laugh startled out of him. “Yeah, I could see that having an effect. I do know a place we could be alone if you wanted.”

Eddie smiled. “I like the way you think, sweetheart.”

Steve let out an ear piercing whistle and a large black, shaggy wolf came running up through the tree line. The wolf sat down and wagged its tail happily.

Steve laughed. “I figured it would be you. You’re on sentry duty until I get back at dawn. I’m going to Skull Rock.”

“You got it, alpha,” the black wolf said his voice thick with a barely contained giggle.

Steve knelt down and they hugged each other with their necks, allowing their scents to mingle.

“I’m glad you’re still the alpha,” the wolf whispered.

Steve stood up. “I will protect this pack with everything in my power. I promise you that.”

The wolf nodded solemnly.

Steve turned to Eddie. “Come on. I’ll race you to Skull Rock.”

Eddie raised an eyebrow, but before he retort, Steve had shifted and was sprinting in the direction of the local landmark.

The wolf let out a breathy laugh that only wolves could make. “You better start flapping those wings, lover boy. Otherwise Steve will beat you.”

Eddie shook his head and took flight, transforming as he leapt into the air.

*

Eddie managed to barely pull out a win by tackling Steve right before the rock out cropping and rolled to the finish line.

Steve ended up on top of the vampire fully human with bright laugh bubbling from his lips. “You cheated.”

Eddie grinned. “Of course I did. It’s the only way to win, babe.”

“It’s a good thing you’re so cute.”

Eddie hummed, his hands roaming over Steve’s bare skin, calloused fingers catching on the smooth expanse.

“Feels good,” Steve murmured, nosing Eddie’s throat.

Eddie’s hands continued their trek down his back, to cup his ass. “You feel amazing, sweetheart. How did I get so lucky?”

Steve gasped, grinding down into Eddie’s hips. “I’m the lucky one. I never thought I would find someone who gets me the way you do.”

Eddie huffed out a laugh. “You werewolves go fast, don’t you?”

“We have to,” Steve murmured. “We might live longer than humans, but we don’t live nearly as long as you vampires do. If we don’t move fast we might lose a chance to breed and that would hurt the pack in the long run.”

Eddie’s expression softened. “I’m sorry, babe. I wasn’t thinking when I said that. Are you going to have to breed with someone as the alpha?”

Steve buried his head deeper into Eddie’s neck. “I don’t want to. I want the Harrington line to die with me. But as the alpha I might have to.”

Eddie’s hands went back to roaming over Steve’s skin, this time to comfort. “What made you decide to go for the alpha position after Hopper was declared dead?”

Steve raised his head. “Because I looked at the other options and knew that if I didn’t, the pack would be stuck in the old ways and people like Carver would kill us all.” He gave Eddie a peck on the lips. “Would you want to be in a pack under Ted Wheeler or Murray Bauman?”

“Wait,” Eddie said raising both eyebrows in surprise, “those were your two options ultra-conservative Ted Wheeler or super conspiracy nut Murray Bauman?”

Steve nodded. “Yeah. It was insane.”

“What about Derek Sinclair or oh...” Eddie’s brain finally caught up to his mouth. “Oh shit. It was literally you or the old guard, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Steve said. “And then when Joyce got supplanted by Nancy as alpha female, her and Murray conspired to bring Hopper back so that things could go back to the way things were before.”

“That’s messed up,” Eddie said. “Could you banish them for that?”

Steve sighed, rolling off Eddie to lie next to him on the ground. “I’ve thought about it a lot, I won’t lie. But I worry how Jonathan and Will are going to react to their own mother getting banished. Would I end up having to banish them too? Could I split up a family like that? Would they willingly go with her?”

“That’s a lot to think about,” Eddie agreed, rolling over on his side and propping his head up by his elbow. “Especially for someone so young.”

“I’m not a fan of Billy Hargrove, the racist, homophobic asshole that he is,” Steve said, “but he is the reason I tried for the alpha role in the first place. If he could take over the coven at the young age of eighteen, then I could take over the pack at the tender age of nineteen.”

“Wayne told me that the amount of supe on supe violence has gone down since you took over,” Eddie said. “The coven respects the pack and the pack respects the coven.”

Steve nodded. “I still wouldn’t mind having outside voices from the pack. The echo chamber has gotten so loud that we get bullshit like the pack tearing apart a vampire that wandered into the encampment instead of helping him or accepting his help, in the case of you rescuing me.”

Eddie nodded. “It’s that suspicion that breeds contempt and allows people like Jason Carver to stir up the town against its supernatural founders.”

Steve sighed. “I worry about the undercurrent of distrust that’s been building for god knows how long.”

“Let me help you forget about it for awhile, baby,” Eddie murmured.

A shiver ran down Steve’s spine in anticipation. “Yes, please.”

Eddie leaned for a kiss and then pulled Steve back over on him.

***

Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13

Yes, everyone, Billy is in this and while he still is all the things that made him repugnant, Steve still respects him. But we'll get more into that at later date.

Tag List: @spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @artiststarme @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @pyrohonk @renaissan-vvitch @goodolefashionedloverboi @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @messrs-weasley @val-from-lawrence @a-little-unsteddie @i-must-potato @danili666 @carlyv @rozzieroos @wonderland-girl143-blog @itsall-taken @justforthedead89 @emly03 @bookworm0690 @bookbinderbitch @littlewildflowerkitten @vecnuthy @redfreckledwolf @scheodingers-muppet @mira-jadeamethyst @just-a-tiny-void @potato-of-the-lord @goosesister

#my writing #stranger things #steddie #ladykailtiha writes #vampire eddie munson #werewolf steve harrington

[socksandbuttons]

Bean Eclipse Au has my love and seeing any post makes me very happy but now I want to get to know your Space au a little. May you give us some funfacts about the characters to get to know them better?

Aw thank you! I'll do my best describing some things! Its been a moment where I dont know what ive said about them on here. ((The ladies, are by @nekojaf so if u want info on them you gotta ask her!)) First, We got Eclipse (yes thats his name, unless we go au hopping its-)

-He's a captain of his own spaceship (however its mostly a ship that can house just a handful of people.)

-He's self confident, he's got leadership qualities and doesn't stand down often. However can be a huge flirt (as Beige unfortunately deals with). -I've mentioned before but Eclipse (like other models of his kind) are far more Emotive than the previous models.

-Eclipse is the reason Lunar has a collection of plushies. The guy is very good with sewing. -He's not familiar too much with the 'Star' like SAMS' Eclipse is. At least not currently. He's far more concerned with other things.

-His relationship with Earth is rather... interesting. He may be vocal about not wanting to speak to her but its mostly cause she's like a mom who tends to baby him. (Although he can't blame her frequent check ins.) -Most people avoid him, but that's cause he's made an interesting name for himself.

Lunar, my BOY who started this whole au actually.

-The space suit was given to him by Eclipse. Who may have taken it.

-He comes off as sweet, but don't think less of him in comparison with his brother. He's mischievous as well, and cunning when needed.

-Far better at keeping his emotions in check than Eclipse.

-Unlike Eclipse (again) he's actually rather good at y'know. Getting the girl.

-However, he is younger than Eclipse. In part not as experienced with the whole line their apart of.

-Rather handy with his shots, but better at driving. Also has a bit of a name for himself.

-Cannot actually believe how his brother acts around Beige from time to time. He's judging his brother immensely everytime. Just let her clear the hyperdrive so they can go!

Moon!

-It should not be a shock he's still a scientist in this au. (Mad scientist Sun would say...)

-But in part of that, its due to being part of a Space Camp. He's suppose to be in charge of the sciences of how rockets run. However he uses most of that to make his own things.

-It usually does end up with the kids handling it. Unless Sun gets involved. Kids love the anti gravity chamber a lot.

-Also in this AU he is still AroAce.

-However since Sun and him are under a company, they don't usually leave the Camp. They can't really.

-Moon has made a Star.

Sun, sweetie my darling.

-Although him and Moon run the Camp together, Sun mostly handles the kids. (Although, Sun more or less just doesn't want them getting hurt cause of Moon's experiments.) -He's been having trouble with some outsiders makings noise lately but it's usually something he can handle. The dome around the place keeps the camp relatively safe (and Safer with Moon's additional technology)

-He goes by his own checklist, although the one from the higher ups isn't something he wants to fully deviate from. It's kept things running, and their own job secure.

-He may be dressed up as a Spaceman, he's uh... not actually one. At least not by astronaut standards.

-They don't talk to other models of themselves.

-Earth and Sun usually can talk for hours. However, he tries not to keep her too long. She's got others to check in.

Bloodmoon, yes it's him!

-The possibly second youngest.

-He's the only model of his type that... well Ruby's seen actually.

-An avid fan of Invader Zim, due to many movie nights he's had with Ruby. (In an effort to help him learn some things about people...without being near too many.) -He doesn't understand why he needed clothes, unaware of his own autonomy.

-Unfortunately for everyone, WAS destroying planets and ships, destruction in his wake. No one could keep him contained. Until Ruby. But she's not really trying to contain him.

-His curiosity mainly keeps him in check, at least in regard to his learning program. He still seeks some chaos, even if it is on a isolated ship in the meantime.

-Comet Boy! Danger, do not engage.

Angel, y sweet sweett bababyyy

-Probably the oldest? He's quite a mess it's hard to tell.

-Has been passed around here and there from job to job so he's very well versed in many skills!

-Earth finding him again was a blessing. She thought she lost him. Incredibly thankful for Cosmo.

-Is far more interesting in helping Cosmo than being helped. He's survived quite a bit!

Killcode, don't you forget my giant man.

-Was made by Moon, or from Moon. In doing so, he's got a few quirks he picked up.

-Such as... He's actually less violent. However able to withstand radiation, rocket blasts, high velocity impact, mundicide... Assumingly.

-Incredibly Tall. A normal person would maybe feel incredibly intimidated by how much he towers.

-A darling cook, he mostly has to kneel for that though. Not many ktichens he's been in are for his height.

-He's a rather calming personality, has no qualms to start fights.

Earth and Solar Flare (or welll... the ACTUAL Sun)

-Two AI's made for well.. as you guess the Earth and the Sun.

-Earth is as expected to be motherly, warm, stern with her own wants. While SF has less expected results of being rather recluse, cold, to the point and selective in their interactions.

-Earth is partly why the actual planet is far cleaner. With her being actually forthright about the planets condition. It helps if theres someone who may be disappointed if you throw your trash on the ground, or company's dumping waste. She may have been made, but she more or less is her own being. Most don't mind since her main concerns usually fall with her own planets affairs. That doesn't mean she doesn't have concerns of other places.

-SF was made as a safe bet to monitor the sun. However, hue to unexpected AI developing their own personality. SF doesn't fairly speak to much anyone aside Earth. He rather feels she's better at relaying information than he is. Ironic, they find.

-Recently some reptilian android has started to make some impressions on Earth, SF doesn't normally hear her talk about individuals like this aside the 'children' she oversees.

-Earth also ended up supervising the celestial and eclipse models. Attaching to them far more than expected but due to- [The Rest is too glitched to make out.]

Well that was more typing than I thoguht it'd be. But me and Neko have quite a bit of art. The main inspiration for a lot of it is retro futurism. But thank you for asking! You also got Earth in there too. My sweet lady I love her.

#solar flares design needs some work actually but thats kinda because his OG look IS more on line with the style actually. #anyway theres lore here and there but also #missing a few things #lots of romance in this au more than u think #ALSO YEAH MONTY IS IN THERE BUT UH DFBHSJKDS #sams space au #space sams au #tsams #sun and moon show #myart #*looks at all the art i havent show* ah #i think about the models and their differences a bit more and time... but another day when it comes up

[nightofnyx8]

Does spy x family/ twiyor give you fma/ royai vibes? I don't know if my brain is just addled by royai fic love, but they feel similar somehow.

Maybe it's the tragedy of war in both stories, the forbidden love (that's bound to happen between twiyor and if it doesnt I'll be mad) between two people with blood on their hands.

I've seen hilarious (sad) comparisons between Nina and Anya of cute girl and big white dog, but that's not really what gives me the vibes.

I'm now diving into the manga but I saw some spoilers for Twilight's rough past that made me go 'oh shit... things can get dark'.

I just want someone who's better at analyzing things and studying characters (love ALL your fics btw) to tell me if I'm out of my mind or point out what I'm missing.

*takes a huge breath*

OKAY SO LIKE I was totally against watching Spy x Family at first because it was "mainstream" (it was a very stressful semester of college in my defense) until I saw this fanart by @mochidoodle, twiyor paralleling that royai moment in fma. From that point on, I was a goner. So while I do mostly write twiyor fics at the moment, my love for them is largely colored by my love for royai.

First up, Loid and Roy. On the surface, very different people. One overthinks everything and plans to the tiniest detail, while the other lives off of 99% pure impulse. Loid is a very serious and private person by nature, and while Roy definitely has his solemn moments, it's kind of his whole game to act like the immature colonel playboy of the military before he brings down the entire government with his real motive ("surprise, bitches!"). The main difference I'd say is that Roy knows what he wants, and has a very clear goal how to get there. Loid doesn't. He's still torn between his mission and his family, and doesn't even know who he really is. Like we don't even know his real name lol.

Yor and Riza are also very different. Riza is the voice of reason with Roy (and he definitely needs it). Her personality is actually more aligned with Loid's in that way--quiet, serious, and reserved. Both are them are very good shots. However, she and Yor both don't very highly of themselves at all. Both of them are very compassionate and kind in their own way, and both of them have a soft spot for children. However, Riza's overwhelming guilt comes from her choices in the Ishvalan War, whereas I think Yor almost...intentionally blocks out the brutality of what she has to do to keep her brother alive.

Which brings me to the topic of war in both series (spoiler alert).

Both FMA and Spy x Family are very antiwar. Neither of them glorifies warfare. Casualties and consequences are not treated lightly. Progranda plays a huge role. Both series are trying to prevent another war from happening. For the sake of the argument, I'm going to refer to Yor as a soldier as well as Loid because she is still putting her life on the line for her country (she even says her job is comparable to that of a soldier in the manga). The biggest difference is that Roy and Riza chose to do the things they did in Ishval. Loid and Yor did as well, however it was more their circumstances that pushed them into that decision. Loid lost his mother as a child and crawled around in the streets for years before finally joining the military, only to lose everyone he ever cared about. Yor did it because it was only way to save her brother from literally starving to death. The war between Ostania and Westalis forced literal children to become soldiers (and that's kind of Endo's shtick--what war does to children). Roy and Riza...I mean, there's a reason why their fate is so tragic. They literally committed genocide. Yes, their reasonings are far more complex than this little lecture has room for, but it sufficeth to say that their burden is immensely heavy (I'm not even going to get into how Riza's burnt tattoo fits into the tragedy of their relationship and their choices because it's going to make me cry). But that is FMA's whole thing: Choice. What makes us root for Roy and Riza despite everything? Because despite impossible odds, they are working for a future where something like the Ishvalan War will never happen again, even if they end up being sentenced to death along the way.

Now going back to Spy x Family, the plot doesn't center around a global scale like FMA does. Yes, the tension between the East and West is a huge part of it, but most of the story is centered around one little family. It's important to remember that FMA isn't royai's story--it's Ed and Al's. Roy and Riza's character arcs are mostly complete even by the beginning of the manga. Loid and Yor's and Anya's are not.

But you really did hit the mark when you said royai colors our love for twiyor because both couples are two people who care very deeply for one another but can never be together. Roy and Riza can never get married due to military regulations. And the fake marriage between Loid and Yor will end once Operation Strix is finished (or so Loid thinks). But it's not really the mission or the military that's keeping them apart. One of my favorite royai authors @lantur wrote such an amazing royai fic outlining the fact that Riza being Roy's subordinate isn't actually the thing keeping them apart. Those two have such a painful, shared history. (I mean, he literally burnt the tattoo off her back after using the knowledge of it to commit genocide, for which Riza feels partly responsible). And yet they are fiercely loyal to each other. They don't need to kiss or fuck to know how much these two love each other. (On screen I mean...you cannot tell me they didn't at least have one night together).

With Loid and Yor, it's not nearly as heavy. But Loid (or rather, Twilight) does carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. He feels it's his sole responsibility to bring about a world full of peace, and he will not deviate from that mission. But of course he's getting more attached (who wouldn't) and he's eventually going to have to choose between his forged little family and the rest of the world. To most, maybe that's a simple decision. But you have to remember that Twilight is one who is going to have to change the most out of the Forgers. His decision to love them changes everything. It actually brings up an interesting point if royai did have a child. Would they still choose to put themselves on trial if it meant the possibility of leaving their child an orphan?

Spy x Family is about, well, families. The strength that comes from when broken people decide to heal each other and create a future for their child that's bright and safe and warm. And that directly parallels with FMA because it doesn't always have to be blood-related families, but the bonds you choose to forge (pun intended). And though I hope for royai to have a nice, quiet life in the country somewhere, laughing and growing old together, it's left ambiguous for a reason. Twiyor on the other hand, well let's just say that my heart keeps telling me that their happy ending is coming, but they're going to have to go through a lot of pain and angst and denial of feelings to get there. It's a comedy, so I expect Endo will get them together eventually, it's the when that's the mystery.

So I guess to wrap up this very lengthy answer, while royai and twiyor are different on the surface, they are similar at their core. Fighting for a better world, creating their own families along the way, and sharing little moments of devotion through their daily lives. Because though the series is nowhere near being done, you know Loid would look at Yor like she's the moon and the stars once he finally realizes he loves her.

Thanks for letting me rant about something I feel very passionate about, and I'll probably add to it if I think of more reasons lol. I'm glad you enjoy my fics, that's very sweet of you to say! Have a wonderful weekend! <3

#spy x family #fmab #royai #twiyor #uggg these two ships will never leave my brain ever i love them so much #unhinged screaming #but seriously me too if twiyor doesn't eventually end up together i will RIOT #asks

[commsroom]

Hi, you’ve probably already addressed this at some point and I’ve simply missed it, but what’s your thoughts on Hera’s ending? (Particularly, how Pryce just removes the ‘I can’t do this, I’m not good enough’ line, and she stops glitching?) Personally it always felt rather… bad, honestly, given the whole “they could’ve made me better, they made me me” thing, if that makes sense?

hi! first: that absolutely makes sense, and i'm also very sensitive to anything that seems to "fix" disability or trauma, so i understand where you're coming from. that was not personally my takeaway about hera in the finale; i'll try to explain why:

pryce didn't remove that loop from hera's head. i don't think she could have - even if it's technically possible for her to do (and she is capable of a lot more than maxwell), she just had her mind wiped and wouldn't have access to that information, and even if she did retain it on an instinctual level, that would require allowing pryce access to the most vulnerable parts of hera's mind. and she would never allow that. there's a reason pryce is still a prisoner.

hera speaks to pryce not for reconciliation, but for reclamation. she's lived her whole life in fear of what pryce (and people like pryce) can do to her, with every aspect of who she is and what she does controlled and dictated by anyone with power over her. the finale opens with pryce telling her life's story from her perspective - at once self-mythologizing and self-victimizing - and, the final time we ever hear from or about pryce, hera is about to tell her own story. we never find out what was actually said, or how pryce reacted, because it doesn't matter. hera gets to take control of her own narrative. hera gets to confront her abuser, and feel in control and safe from harm.

it's worth keeping in mind that hera doesn't glitch consistently. that's one of the things i think also makes it a useful comparison to chronic illness. when, why, and how much hera glitches was an intentionally crafted part of the sound design. it happens more often, and more intensely, when she's stressed out, overwhelmed, or upset.

and, with that in mind... the ending leaves the characters on a generally positive note, because it's the end of the show and that's the feeling it wants to leave you with: that everything will be more or less okay, in the end. but it isn't the end of their lives. once they get back to earth, a lot of things are going to be very difficult for hera. even in the final scene, she says she's not ready to go back, but "when has that ever stopped us before?" when she's able to honestly say she's good, i don't think that means she's good forever. just, in that moment, that's a crucial step in her healing process, and i hope in the future she'll have a lot more moments that feel like that one.

#wolf 359 #w359 #hera wolf 359 #i haven't been tagging asks or. even a lot of posts. but i want to file this one. anyway. #hi! thank you for asking. it's a good question and a topic i care about. #and i always love to talk about hera. she's so dear to me. #i think hera will still glitch post-canon. the fact she doesn't for that period of time is just an indicator of her emotional state. #it makes sense to me that hera would be the most okay she's... maybe ever been. knowing pryce doesn't have the power to hurt her #and i hope that remains true. but ultimately i think that's also why i don't personally want pryce to have a post-canon narrative at all #it feels like it undermines it somehow. when that confrontation is about shifting narrative perspective and autonomy and control. #who gets to tell their story. who gets to be heard. #i don't really care what pryce does as long as she stays away from hera. i'm not interested in a story about anything else. #that's a little tangential but. related. #and i hope this answered your question!! #asks

[rosyrosethorns]

Madi had always thought it was a mistake.

She was told that she was chosen for her natural musical gift and her knowledge of piano, hence why she was bestowed a synthesizer.

But working at a cafe and having seen the worst in people, the poor girl eventually reached a point where she felt protecting humanity as a whole just wasn’t worth it. At this rate, she was only continuing this to protect people she cared about. Which was… only a handful in comparison to the planet population.

Wrath corrupted Madi’s soul, and she eventually found herself seeking out the one living being other warriors would not dare to reason with…

Nordic Bunny; ruler of the galaxy and nightmare to humanity... According to him, at least.

Booming laughter could be heard throughout the room. “You want to JOIN me??” Nordic Bunny was visibly baffled by this human—no, this warrior—approaching him with such a proposition. “No human has requested such a thing before!! And you are one of those warriors!—how can I trust you won’t use that little synthesizer against me??”

Madi’s eyes remained averted to the ground as she was silent for a moment… Slowly taking off the synthesizer and getting down on her knees, she placed the instrument at Nordic Bunny’s feet and bowed before him with both hands on the floor; tears forming in her eyes.

“They made a mistake choosing me… I know they did,” she explained in a brittle voice. “I’ve seen the amount of cruelty and indifference in the world… Humanity as a whole is not worth protecting. The fact that I’ve given in and am approaching you like this shows just how weak of a warrior I really am. I know I can’t say much to convince you to trust me… I just hope my actions will speak louder than my words. And if I do use this instrument against you…” Tears were falling onto the floor… “you can break it yourself…”

… The overlord was so taken aback by this, he wasn’t sure what to even say at first as he stared down at the crying girl with wide eyes.

@candyheartedchy

#shred force #nordic bunny #self insert x canon #i caved in QmQ #plus threw in a bit of worldbuilding with the synthesizer #mdni

[ratstuckinamarble]

All right, time to discuss Spell the Beans, this is your spoiler warning. I've previously talked about how I view Draculaura practicing witchcraft this gen as a gay allegory, and considering this episode's theme, I have thoughts. Buckle up, this analysis of sorts will get long. (Also, homophobia will be mentioned)

What kicks the episode off is Drac losing a potion bottle, which gets found and is the reason for Bloodgood calling everyone's parents in to help search. Once again, Toralei wants her to be found out, and with all the talk of witchcraft making Draculaura feel like herself, it being something she won't consider giving up despite it having the potential to cause so many problems for her (Toralei trying to snitch on her, her parents or other students potentially reacting badly, expulsion), frames it like she has no choice about being a witch. Like it's innate (You know. Like being queer). Which also means Toralei is basically trying to out her which is... not great (I like her but I can't deny that- girlie has issues).

A scene soon after that shows Draculaura freaking about about the fact that her dad will be there, specifically to find the witch. What's interesting is that she clearly doesn't intend to keep this a secret from him. Here's some quotes:

"I should have told dad about my witchcraft last weekend when I planned to! But then he saw my report card, and he was so proud. He kept saying how I was following in his bat steps to become the premier first and foremost top monster."

"That's the vampire way. Once something is decided, they don't change it, no matter how silly, outdated, or pfft-y it sounds. That's why it's so hard to tell him I do witchcraft."

Clawdeen asks if she'll tell him when he gets there, to which she says: "In the middle of a witchhunt? No way. As the Pfft, he has to uphold the rules. He'd expell me!"

So what can we gather from this? She was planning to come out to him, most likely because since she views witchcraft as such a core part of herself, something she has to admit to truly be able to be herself around him. She planned it out and everything (as I'm sure a lot of us have before coming out so someone. I sure did), but backed down because he was proud, dissuading her from ruining his positive view of her in that moment. She knows he won't like her being a witch thanks to his outdated views, and yet all that's kept her from telling him sooner was fear of someone so close to her not accepting her (again, relatable).

Now the only reason she won't tell him is because in a school environment, she'd get punished. This is rather bleek, but there are still many places in the world where you can get expelled for being queer, including several schools in the US from what I've gathered, so it's an easy comparison to make.

Dracula holds a presentation on why witchcraft is forbidden, concluding that it's a danger to monsters, to which Draculaura says to herself: "Fine, some witches are bad, but witchcraft isn't inherently bad". It's reminiscent of queer people getting clumped together as a threat to society, children, the family, all that nonsense. People have always loved to take singular incidents of a queer person doing something abhorrent, and taking that as "proof" that all queer folks are a danger and should be shunned, or worse, not be allowed in certain jobs or be persecuted.

When Dracula asks Draculaura to help him find the witch, she immediately goes from happy to see him to uncomfortable. Like getting stuck in yet another conversation with your parents where they go on about their discomfort with gay or trans people or whatever it is that time, she's stuck with him demonizing witchcraft right before her, not knowing he's making her feel awful the whole time.

(A sillier sidenote, but the "Witch-Detector" made me think of the whole gaydar thing. Not relevant though.)

Draculaura ends up telling him the truth because she doesn't want Toralei to get expelled for something she didn't do. And her dad doesn't want to believe her. He lists down reasons that basically say 'you're too respectable to be a witch', but she leaves no room for doubt. And he's extremely disappointed.

She tries to explain to him that his views are skewed by his preconceived notions, and he shouts at her. "So you're breaking the rules for some frivolous hobby? You must give it up, now! Before it ruins your chance to be Pfft!" She tells him she doesn't want to follow in his footsteps. That she didn't know how to tell him because she knew he'd be upset. And he says, that well, of course he is! He treats it like something she can change, when the show never treats that like an option. Telling her he's worried for her future. When she tries to show him the beauty in what she's doing, he just leaves her standing there.

I do appreciate this scene. Many of us aren't lucky enough to have parents who immediately accept their kid after they come out, and the show built up to a bad reaction from him. This was bound to happen. A lot of parents don't want their kids to be gay because of homophobia, yes, but there's also often an element of fear. Of others thinking the same way as them, mistreating them because of it, having fewer chances for your future. It's all reflected in his reaction.

He ends up talking to Apollo (Clawdeen's dad), going on a whole tangent of what his super "handsome friend" (Why do you want him to see you as handsome so bad?🤨) (Also the friend is Dracula), should do if his daughter isn't quite who he thought she was, liking something he sees as dangerous, when he believed she liked "Respectable things" (there that is again), he worries she won't be happy. What I just said. Apollo explains that his kid's happiness is more important than his own opinions on what she's doing, and that she'll be safer if he supports her.

And queer people are safer when they are supported. Mental health wise.

It's enough for him to reconsider. He ends up talking to Draculaura, and they team up to get Toralei out of trouble without revealing Drac as a witch. He tells her that he'll do his best to change the rules.

So what are my thoughts? This was a fairly well executed episode, in my opinion. From my queer allegory perspective, the topic was handled in a manner very remisncent of common real life experiences. Dracula's initial negative reaction was hard to watch, but was the right choice to include it, and while he was rather quick to change his mind, for my taste, I do understand the show not wantig to leave their younger audience on such a sour note. While him only (reluctantly) changing his mind because the witch happened to be someone he loved was hypocritical, it's realistic. We often fear the things we've been taught to shun until it applies to someone close to us. Until it becomes more personal.

Overall, I'm content enough with how this was done. Most of all, since most of Draculaura's friends still don't appear to know by the end of the episode, and witchcraft is still forbidden, I wonder how that will be handeled. I also wonder if Toralei's outing attempts will ever be mentioned and discussed.

That's all I have to say for now. Thank you if you got this far, and please, tell me your thoughts!

#yes this got long but I care about my queer allegories okay #monster high #monster high g3 #draculaura #rätposting

[1moreff-creator]

Happy Birthday Nico Hakobyan!

Meow meow! (Our favorite cat person's birthday has arrived!)

Mrow. (As always, small character analysis + fun facts + songs!)

CW Transphobia, bullying, blackmail, death threats, murder attempt

-Nico is the Ultimate Pet Therapist! This is because, as they've explicitly stated, they like interacting with animals more than humans. They feel as though there are many unwritten rules of human conversation they don't fully understand, while animals are a lot simpler by comparison. Mood.

-Their secret may also play into why they prefer interaction with animals. It was "No one accepted you for your identity. You were constantly mocked by your family, your peers, and everyone else." Basically, people made fun of them because they're non-binary, to the point apparently they threw rocks and mud at them :(

-Speaking of secrets, the quote on Mai's page associated to them is "Everyone confided in her." Presumably they came out to Mai out of their own will, instead of being essentially outed by David (which is one of the many morally wrong things with David's whole "sharing secrets" operation, but this ain't about him).

-And speaking of secret quotes, the one on Nico's page's source code is "Why should I own up for the mistakes that someone else made?" A bit vague, and one which will probably only make sense with future context. Although, it may actually be referencing something we already saw.

-Time to talk about The Gym Incident.

-Ace got Nico's secret at the start of CH2, and because of his own set of issues, he decided to use this power over Nico to bully them relentlessly. Now, Nico also got Ace's secret, but for one reason or another never brought it up. Possibly because they had a "better" idea for how to stop the bullying: in the heat of the moment, Nico threatened to kill Ace. I mean, killing the guy is a lot simpler than the blackmail equivalent of mutually assured destruction, and we know how Nico feels about complicated social rules and norms.

-Thankfully Hu stepped in before things escalated further, although her method might have been, uh, flawed. Giving her friend the benefit of the doubt, she blamed Ace for everything and slapped him. Which, yes, Ace was horrible to Nico. But the death threat should probably be addressed, shouldn't it? Or should they "not be forced to apologize for someone else's mistake?"

-One thing led to another, and Nico tried to kill Ace in the gym.

-To be fair, the whole situation is still surrounded in speculation, but they have admitted to it. To be clear, I don't actually think this is the situation their secret quote refers to, since they did say "I shouldn't have done that" in the trial, so they presumably feel enough remorse to feel like maybe they should apologize, even if Ace is far from blameless. Or maybe I'm wrong and this is the situation the quote refers to, who knows.

-Additionally, they never denied stealing Rose's turpentine to pull this off, so it's very possible they did.

-Oh, yeah! Nico and Rose and friends :D (or at least they were before the turpentine thing). They shared an FTE, which only had a 0,4% chance of happening apparently :O

-It's a very sweet one, where they vibe for a few minutes without talking, then call each other cats, and talk about their issues with communicating their feelings. It's revealed Nico has a pet cat named Tractor (because he meows very loudly), which is pretty old, and that they miss other cats they knew before the killing game. Also, when Rose brings up she's scared of what she knows because of her memory, Nico drops this while thinking of the killing game:

Nico [thought]: Everyone here probably is afraid of themselves and what they might end up doing.

Foreshadowing is a narrative device-

-Their numeral in the the David MV is VIII (8), which is "even if I try to think, IDK!!!". Explained at 1:58:22 in this video, though it's not too complex.

-According to Color Theory they get light blue, with the words "cry, cry, idk!!!" I don't think I need to explain why this applies to Nico, who might actually have more crying sprites than the rest of the cast combined (I don't think that's true, but you get the idea). Mood.

-Their birthday, December 19th, lands on National Hard Candy Day, National Harry (yes the name) Day, National Oatmeal Muffin Day, and National Emo Day, among others. At this point I'm no longer surprised by these things.

Fun facts!

-They like cat-themed things and dislike bathtubs. Cat behavior.

-Like most of the cast, they're American, right-handed, their sexuality is unconfirmed and their hair color is natural.

-They don't have a favorite color, as they are not interested in such things, but their least favorite is white. They find it unsettling.

-Nico cuts their own hair, as stated in their FTE.

-Their favorite ice cream flavor is "the flavor." No elaboration. Mood.

-They smell like a kitty-cat.

-Their favorite food is unprocessed and natural food.

Songs!

(I was really tempted to give them some of Muu's songs from Milgram, but whether or not they work depends on what their secret quote actually means so :p)

+The Chattering Lack of Common Sense by Ghost & Pals

+Scapeg∞at by Ghost & Pals

+God-ish by PinnochioP

+Karma by CreepP, CircusP

+Nobody Makes Sense by PinnochioP

+Monster by KIRA (listen evil Nico lives rent free in my head ok?)

+The Spider and the Kitsune-Like Lion by MASA Works Design (So about the evil Nico thing-)

+And Happy Birthday! Sung by kitties of course.

(Wow I did not have a lot for them rip)

#drdt #nico hakobyan #character birthday #this one is probably too short T_T #sorry nico

[cuubism]

unfortunately for my sanity i am thinking about them again [sheltered rich boy dream and feral child hob]

--

In retrospect, it was fitting that the first time Dream met Hob, he was breaking a rule.

It hadn’t been easy. Dream did not like to lie, and wasn’t very good at it besides. And breaking rules made him nervous. Broken rules carried consequences. But he’d needed to get out of the house, just for a moment. To clear his head. And just going for a walk was not a good enough reason to leave the house when he could be doing something more productive. Something better. Make some use of yourself, Dream.

So Dream had crafted a little story of extra studying, extra work, and managed to slip out. Dream did not always tell the truth, could not, but usually he lived in the shadows left by omission. The outward lie was bitter on the back of his tongue.

But he’d been freed. And now he was wandering. He did not often get the chance to wander, untended, unobserved. Making his unsteady way down the winding road leading out of the estate, and then into town, where he’d never really walked before. It was just getting late, almost sunset on a Thursday evening, and the streets were fairly quiet, only a handful of people about. And Dream wandered, not quite knowing what to do with himself but enjoying the quiet in his head.

Possibly meandering about on his own was a bad idea. Possibly he’d be hit by a car or attacked by a madman. He didn’t think he much cared.

And that was when he met Hob. That first dip of his toes into freedom.

He was sitting on a bench in the park, watching the small scattering of pigeons pecking for seeds by the fountain. Dream had always liked birds, but it wasn’t often he had the chance to sit and just watch them. He studied their patterns, mentally tracking the shapes they traversed, their mathematical lines. He should have brought his sketchbook. It would have been nice to work from live subjects, for once.

He was deep in his thoughts, in the calming trickle of the fountain and the repetitive paths of the birds, when another boy about his age plopped down on the bench beside him.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone look so depressed while feeding birds.”

The birds had fluttered up in disarray at the sudden motion, but settled down again quickly. Dream looked at the other boy askance, irritated at his rare peace being interrupted.

“Do you often speak with people who are busy feeding birds?” he asked, unable to keep the annoyance from his tone.

“Only when they’re broody and mysterious,” said the boy. He wasn’t wearing a school uniform, but he must have been college age, like Dream. Dream was still wearing his jacket and trousers, for his own part. Everything about this boy was looser, really, from his longish brown hair, to his jeans and t-shirt. It made Dream feel very uptight in comparison, which was not a fact about himself he needed reinforced. He already knew it. “Do you often feed birds?”

“I am not feeding them,” Dream said. “They are eating what was there.”

“Just spying on them, then,” said the boy teasingly. Dream did not know what to do about being teased with what seemed like lightheartedness rather than mockery, and so didn’t respond.

“Seriously,” said the boy. “Are you okay?”

Then Dream did look at his face properly. He had very kind, very genuine eyes, was the first thing Dream noticed. It was not something he noticed about a lot of people. Perhaps it was not something a lot of people possessed.

Then the boy smiled at him, a soft, kind smile. It transformed his whole face from something merely pleasant to something lovely.

“Is that why you have come over?”

The boy shrugged. “You looked sad and alone. I’ve been sad and alone before, so I don’t think anyone else should.”

Dream bristled. “I am not sad and alone.”

“Just alone, then?”

Dream’s mouth popped open in affront, and then shut. Then he said, “Are you always so familiar and impertinent with strangers?”

“‘Familiar and impertinent,’” echoed the boy, with a laugh. “Sure. Are you always so snooty and aristocratic?”

“Yes,” said Dream, and he laughed louder.

“Honest though.” He stuck his hand out. “I’m Hob.”

Dream nearly said, What kind of name is Hob? but swiftly realized the hypocrisy. Gingerly, he took Hob’s hand. “…Dream.”

“What kind of name is Dream?” said Hob, and Dream sighed. “And you really don’t have to shake my hand like a king deigning to touch the peasants. I’m not diseased.”

“I don’t like to touch people,” Dream said, taking his hand back. “Peasant or otherwise.”

“Peasant or otherwise,” Hob echoed. He didn’t seem offended. He was smiling.

“Are you here because you felt I should be taught a lesson? Is that it?”

“Nah. I just get bored easily.” Hob turned to watch the pigeons again, tapping his fingers restlessly against the bench. “I was out and about. You looked interesting. You wanna go for a walk?”

“…Why?” But Dream knew why. He had learned it as he’d wandered the streets, freed for the first time.

Hob shrugged. “Just to do it.”

Dream had stepped out of his comfort zone once today already. He supposed he could do so again. If Hob turned out to be an adolescent serial killer at least the end of his life would hold intrigue. “Very well.”

Hob grinned, so bright it struck some deep, static bell in Dream’s chest and set it ringing. “Come on.”

#dream made one (1) friend and started vibrating at the frequency of a million suns lol #sheltered rich boy dream & feral child hob #snippet #by 'sheltered rich boy dream' i really mean 'dream who was kept in a cage' and by 'feral child hob' i really mean... well that's a spoiler #i'm still in limbo on how i want this fic to go tho. we'll see which way it lands #my writing #dreamling

[rudikawhy]

Just some thoughts after watching Mission:Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part 1 tonight...

***SPOILERS***

Okay, first of all: I absolutely LOVED it! Like the whole movie and I know that I will watch it multiple times in the cinema. I mean, yes, it was exciting, of course, it's M:I, but also really funny. My friend and I had to try so hard sometimes not to laugh out too loud. The car race? Amazing. Probably because I love car races in movies in general (even though I am always sorry for all the innocent cars and other things that get destroyed), there are always many funny one-liners, this time no exception.

But let me come to the point that is the reason why I'm writing this. Ilsa. My beloved. I have so many questions (Why the eye patch in the beginning?, for example) but first: No, you can't tell me you're really FUCKING dead!! There were a lot of reasons why I wasn't really, really sad when she "died". One was because so many things were happening immediately after that, there was no time to be sad, even for the audience. Another is; I don't really believe she's dead. I was always half expecting she'd appear in the next second. Like Paris. Apparently, she's not really dead either. And now I have one year, in which I can keep on believing she's still alive.

I mean, I finally get a few (very few) beautiful Ilsa/Ethan moments (this hug, when she realised it's Ethan in the dessert!! was my favorite because unexpected, because not in the trailer, iirc; but also the little looks they give each other), and then this happens!! AHHH. I'm sorry, I just can't handle this Ilsa-loss

Even though it meant less Ilsa, I was positively surprised by Grace. When the movie was promoted and Hayley Atwell seemed more important than Rebecca Ferguson, I was seriously disappointed, partly upset. But Ilsa aside, was Grace actually a really good character. She made me laugh, I didn't want her to die (nor Ilsa), and I the end in the train I wasn't just concerned about Ethan but also about her.

What I did realize was that Grace is kind of like Ilsa was in the beginning. Or at least similar. I realized it when Grace wanted to leave the party, was attacked by two men, and Ethan came to help her. The moment she was free and the men fought with Ethan, she left the scene instead of now helping Ethan. I feel like this is something Rogue-Nation-Ilsa would have done too.

I'm glad that Benji had his bomb defusing scene. When he's under pressure he often has funny lines, and while I know that Benji isn't just there for the funny lines, I appreciate and love them. Also I love that we had multiple (at least two??) times when Benji gave Ethan directions while Ethan ran/drove. My immediate comparison was "like in MI3", one of Benjis first actions, but then I realized that he also does it in Fallout, and it's even more iconic there.

I was seriously confused by Paris. It's probably due to something I missed at one point, but like, what does she even do (aside from having too much fun when driving a car that is too big through streets that are too small, with the intention of apparently killing two people in a yellow Fiat 500, while looking like a maniac)?? I really didn't get it.

Okay, I would love to say more about Ilsa but also about everyone and everything else, maybe another time, I need to sleep...

#mission impossible #dead reckoning part 1 #ilsa faust #ethan hunt #benji dunn #grace #Paris #rebecca ferguson #tom cruise #simon pegg #hayley atwell #pom klementieff #just a few thoughts #damn I love this movie #i really hope ilsa comes back #spoilers #mission:Impossible spoilers #mi 7 spoilers

[retrieve-the-kraken]

Okay, I just finished watching Sex Education, and I will be honest, I was very… underwhelmed.

I know this show means a lot to a lot of people, and I can see why, and I liked parts of it, but to me it started out very strong and ended so disappointingly.

I was captivated by the struggles of some of the characters, by how their stories were weaved into one another, but that’s easier to do when you have a handful of characters. By season 3, there were so many characters, and the creators seemingly insisted on developing each individual storyline as profoundly as possible, but that just resulted in stories being presented and resolved in a rush, sometimes inexplicably, and it all felt just very clunky. I tried to suspend my disbelief of how time passed in this universe, how one storyline seems to be moving slower than another in the span of the same day, but it became so glaringly obvious that it came down to shoddy editing, and too many loose ends to trie to tie up.

By season 4, I didn’t have enough time to connect with anyone new, didn’t feel like any of the new characters was actually given enough time and space to unfold properly. It was just jam-packed with tropes and themes and difficult topics that deserved much better development. Like Cal’s dysphoria, or Viv’s abusive relationship, or Isaac’s and Aisha’s disabilities, or O’s asexuality, or even Jean and Joanna’s difficult relationship and Jean’s postpartum depression (in fact, I feel like Jean really got done dirty this season, because she was an interesting character the whole way, and she went through a lot, she almost died, she’s going through massive heartbreak, and those things are never addressed again except that one little moment, and Otis is THE ABSOLUTE WORST to her in this season…)

And that did not happen, of course, to the characters from the first two seasons, they got to be fully developed and nuanced and you get to examine their whole stories and they make sense. You get to see Aimee deal and come to terms and put behind her the sexual assault, you get to see Maeve get out and then have massive doubts about her talent and see her dreams interrupted once more by her mother’s overdose and her brother going down the same path; you get to see Eric come fully into his own skin with his sexuality and struggle with the fact that he might have to choose between that and his community; you get to see Adam go from bully to realizing his sexuality to realizing what has made him into a bully to trying to change and be honest to himself and others; you get to see why Ruby is the way she is but also that it’s all just a front and why it’s hard for her to not put up walls.

It felt like, by season 3, the creators were just ticking boxes: non-binary character, check; trans characters, check; characters with disabilities, check; boy with two mums inexplicably wanting to find their biological father, check… It felt a little like (and I swear this comparison hurts me the most) watching Glee.

(Remember Glee? Most people would say ‘well Glee walked so that Sex Education and Heartstopper and Young Royals, etc could run’… No, unfortunately it feels more like Glee took two steps and then stumbled horrible so that these other shows could run. And sadly, in my opinion, Sex Education didn’t fair much better…).

It made me sad to learn about how LGBTQIA+ activist and ace representative Yasmin Benoit collaborated with the Sex Education creators to create a character that was a well-rounded representation of the asexual community, but in the end they turned her into the season’s villain and for no good reason. I understand people’s frustration with that, especially Yasmin’s, because it felt like it could have been handled much better. And as an acespec person myself I would have been more upset about this too, were it not for the fact that everything else was so bad in comparison that O being turned into a villain felt like the least of this season’s problems.

Something else that bothered me was that, whilst Sex Education is a satire and a lot of the characters are caricatures (like Ruby being the popular glamorous bitch with her two cronies who do everything she says, and Aimee is the bimbo with the heart of gold, and Mr Groff is the stuffy narrow-minded professor, and Lily is the unashamed weird girl, etc), there is a fine line between caricature and cartoon, and some of the characters went too far. Like Hope in season 3 was too much of a cartoon villain, and Molloy being the admirable but former literature sensation who is brutally harsh with his students; and Beau going from flirty to abusive in .5 seconds; and Joanna being the over-the-top disaster person. There is no further substance to these people, they are just there to fulfill a role as a foe to one of the main characters, but the lack of realism makes them very underwhelming, and all the plots associated with them become predictable and boring…

And this might be a very unpopular opinion but… at first the whole Otis and Maeve thing, although clichéd, seemed like a nice idea, but the more time passed, and especially with the way that Otis became in the last season, by the end of it I really didn’t like it at all. It felt like Maeve deserved a lot better.

Otis was a somewhat interesting character in the beginning, and I could sympathize with him for all his flaws and the way that he tried to help people but ultimately couldn’t deal with his own shit. But it was so frustrating to see him making the same mistakes over and over, to the point where it affected his relationship with everyone important, from his mum to his best friend to his girlfriend.

Not that the show had to be perfect. No show is perfect, but it truly felt like the creators had a really good idea but didn’t figure out how to wrap it up, and promptly cornered themselves and then were fighting their way out of that corner…

My favorite things about the show, though, were:

-Anything with Eric (except maybe that whole thing about him and his bully becoming a thing, because that was disturbing, but I really really liked when Otis brought this up, and I really really hated when Eric got defensive about it, and I also reaaaaally hated when Eric got mad at Adam for not wanting to have anal sex, like he didn’t even want to talk about it, you’re better than that, Eric Effiong).

-Despite this, Adam and Eric not having a happy ending together was a breath of fresh air, because as much as they were cute together (I just reaaaaally wish Adam hadn’t been the former bully) they weren’t right for each other.

-Aimee’s whole journey from being with Adam to being with Steve, to ditching the Untouchables for a meaningful friendship with Maeve, to exploring what she wanted to do, to coming to terms with her assault, to discovering art as a way to express herself. She really is one of my favorite characters.

-Colin and Ms Sands were my absolute favorites too, and them coming back for one episode, and Colin playing With Or Without You at the funeral. And Ms Sands always wanting Maeve to fulfill her potential, and trying to help Adam and even coming to see him in the dog show.

-Any moment when Eric is just fabulous, especially wearing that kilt at the queer night club. Ncuti Gatwa is truly one of the most beautiful men in this world, and he just can’t help but sparkle. He is the sparkly one.

-And as I said before, Adam’s poem to Eric, absolutely broke my heart.

-I loved the set design and costume design on the show, it was so unexpected for everything to feel so old-fashioned, and I wonder if there’s a meaning to that. Also, Jean and Otis’s house is my absolute dream house. I do wonder however what happened to all the penis and vagina decoration.

-I really liked the variety of characters and how we got a diversity of storylines and tackled a lot of important topics, but I just wished they had done a better job at it.

That’s about it. This turned out way longer than I expected. But I’d been putting off watching this show for so long, despite how relevant it became, and was really disappointed that I didn’t like it as much, so I had to vent.

#sex education #sex education netflix

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

it seems really unfair that the movies made edward's religious baggage come from carlisle. surely they could've put the "vampires have no souls" thing on someone else, like, idk, esme? her believing vampires are soulless might explain her whole head-in-the-clouds deal. if it's carlisle that thinks vampires have no souls then it makes him turning the others really questionable imo.

Believe it or not, I understand why the film team made this decision and in their position I probably would have done the same thing.

Adaptations, Films and Profits, Robert Patterson, and a World Without Risk

Let's start at the beginning.

The goal of the Twilight film series was to capitalize on the immense popularity of the books just as much (if not more so) than to tell the story of Twilight. Stephanie Meyer was decently involved and was pleased with the direction (as opposed to the original draft of the script, which Meyer strongly disliked, which is rumored to have featured among other things Bella as an FBI agent shooting vampires) but she seemed to have accepted it was an adaptation and things had to change for it to make sense in the transition. So long as the spirit of Twilight was captured, she was happy.

And here's where we run into an interesting dilemma.

In the novels, we see the characters through Bella's eyes. We hear what Bella thinks and understands why she does what she does (without this, Bella's not only very quiet but borderline incomprehensible). We're attracted to Edward because Bella's attracted to Edward, she finds his terse frowning and dark moods Byronic and romantic, she finds his arrogance and pride charming and sexy, she finds his vampiric nature dark and sexy. Bella puts on the greatest rose colored glasses imaginable to frame Edward in the way we're supposed to see him.

Films don't have that.

Even if they went full narration (which they did not), we would still see both Edward and Bella from a perspective that's not Bella's. We have to see him on camera, interacting with Bella in real time, and Bella can't tell us what we're supposed to see.

Which is a problem because Edward per his dialogue and actions towards Bella is not likeable.

He's constantly frowning, constantly in dark moods and a deep depression, and while he has his moments of happiness which shine for it, for all he says he's very interested in Bella he doesn't express it well. He says fucking bizarre horrifying things like his plans to murder all of Biology, or his plans to kill himself should Bella ever die, his comparisons of Bella Swan to ice cream and then uh heroin, his casually confessing to having planned Mike's murder in gruesome detail for the crime of talking to Bella Swan.

Now imagine if you saw this on screen.

Bella and Edward aren't in a cutesy teenage romance, they're not flirting (and when they are it's fucking weird), Edward's frowning all the time and is too interested in being miserable to be interested in Bella, Bella in turn is just sitting there not saying anything or doing anything, this is dark, boring, and... not something teenagers actually want to watch.

I don't know who exactly this was, my thoughts are likely the producers, but they took a look at the script and went, "Holy fuck, this won't sell tickets."

(Hilariously, this is where Robert comes in, as in I know why he did what he did in doubling down that Edward's this brooding mess, but he made a mistake explainable as it being early in his career: he didn't realize the production staff didn't want Edward at all. Edward better fucking smile.)

Both Bella and Edward had to be greatly changed from their novel counterparts without uh... changing the plot at all despite making them entirely different people.

Which means that we have to change things that are less important to make sure the plot still happens.

Let's Get Back to the Souls Thing

In the book, the only reason that really weathers the storm of why Edward won't turn Bella is that she'll lose her soul.

That she'll lose her human life is a weak argument when in Twilight, Bella had to go on the run anyway and was nearly tortured to death because Edward wouldn't turn her. Edward, in fact, risked her life and nearly killed her just so that she wouldn't become a vampire.

That she'll eat humans doesn't stand up without admitting (and not glossing over details) that most of the Cullens have accidentally eaten humans and Edward really did go on quite the bender. That's not something the production team would want to focus on in order to make Edward and the Cullens likeable. (Which is why the films spent about 0.05 seconds on both of these details).

On the other hand, if Edward has deep religious convictions that Bella will become a soulless husk and abomination on becoming a vampire... that's starting to sound reasonable.

Except that it isn't.

Because if vampires are soulless husks, then how are we supposed to like Edward and the Cullens. In the books, we get around this by characters like Carlisle denoting that he himself, a very religious person, believes differently but that he understands why Edward believes what he does and that he once did too as well as Edward realizing vampires do have souls upon Renesmee being born.

But the problem is, this makes Edward look overly dogmatic and unhinged in a way that you just don't want your romantic teenage lead to be in what's supposed to be a generic romantic teen film.

It makes Edward seem unrelatable to the teenage audience.

However, if Edward's beliefs are the product of somebody else, then the audience can safely remain enamored with Edward and treat him as a poor woobie whose tragic self-hatred is fueled by a) being a vampire b) his parents.

Teenagers get being fucked up by their parents.

So, Why Carlisle?

A few reasons.

One, the films really want us to like Esme. Like most the characters, Esme got a complete makeover in a positive direction. Esme is now the mom figure who's a mom appropriate age and acting like the cool mom we'd all like to have. She's a great character.

However, they don't want to make her unlikeable/as weird as she was in the books. They want you to like the Cullens, remember? Add onto this that Esme never was religious in the books and didn't have any meaningful conversation with Bella. They would be adding weird, unlikable, aspects to her character that weren't there originally. So, it can't be Esme.

Alice, while Edward's best friend and favorite sibling, has also gotten a makeover to chique cosmpolitan girl best friend who will gladly take you shopping. She can't be Edward's wingman to the same degree she was in canon because she's not. Also, see above with Esme, she was never a religious character so it'd be weird coming from her and nobody would like it.

Well, a vampire on the side of the road can't have told Edward this, as that would just make no sense and be a cop out.

Carlisle, however, is already a religious character and better yet gave the first half of the speech he gives in the film to Bella in the novel. He explains that Edward believes vampires are damned creatures who don't have souls. There's a "however" though as the part that was cut is Carlisle explaining he once believed the same, but in time came to see that vampires could be worthy of the afterlife and were not inherently damned. He notes that this is something Edward's struggling with and just how he views vampirism.

So they already took what Carlisle had said in the novel, they just cut out the last bit.

But isn't it a Problem Making Carlisle Unlikeable?

Not really.

Carlisle's a relatively minor character in the series. Certainly, far less important than Edward. No one really cares if Carlisle looks like a hypocrite or his motivations have changed.

He already said half of what he said in the books and nobody would blink if he left the second half of it out.

And, frankly, nobody did blink.

People wondered what the fuck was up with Carlisle turning people if they had no souls and were damned, but for the most part fans were fine with him being less than ideal if they thought him less than ideal at all in the films.

He's vampire dad, he really has very little bearing on Edward and Bella's love story, which is what the film was there to sell tickets for.

TL;DR

To make Edward look better in the films, they had to make everyone else look worse.

#twilight #twilight meta #twilight headcanon #twilight renaissance #edward cullen #carlisle cullen #bella swan #meta #headcanon #opinion