#so i just rambled about what i wanted to and connected it tangentially to the ask

[cmyksky]

I have my fair share of criticisms for Sky lore, but I can't quite empathize with some of the things people say about it. Forgive me if this results in me sounding like a prick; this is my opinion, and nobody is obligated to agree with it. Ramble under the cut.

One such idea I can't get behind is that nothing/very little is confirmed; this is a game that relies on conveying ideas nonverbally, aside from some introductory/game mechanic stuff. I think a line has to be drawn when deciding that something is "unconfirmed" just because the game doesn't hold your hand and tell you "Hey, this is what happened" with a narration/cutscene sequence.

Tangentially related is the idea that Sky cannot be understood without supplementary material from outside the game. I do agree that some things would be harder to grasp or deduce, such as dark stone specifically being a source of conflict in the kingdom. However, I think Sky makes quite a few obvious points. If you breeze through the game without pondering it very much or paying attention, then sure, you miss a lot. Sky is fairly linear and cyclical, but there's plenty you can easily pass on your first few runs. But let's think about a few things that we can make connections between through the game alone, because I find it a bit surprising that some people don't think twice to pick up on the themes.

Your flame is the key to everything in the game: activating mechanisms, helping spirits, burning darkness, and so on. The Elders also take your flame in every cutscene in various ways. Elders have entire temples dedicated to them; the flame must be very important for these authority figures to accept your offering. The entire game beckons you to follow the light, and light creatures guide and assist your journey (pun unintended). I don't have to mention the title of the game, right? And yet, why do we see some spirits guide these creatures while others trap and kill them? Why do we free caged mantas from the forest temple and encounter a "light miner" in one of the most somber realms in the game? Why do we see war waged against these creatures? I personally do not believe it requires much complication to guess that the ancestors wanted their power and exploited them as a resource.

The game starts with our birth/rebirth, with dawn, with simple mechanics and architecture. The game ends with our death, with night, with the grand pinnacle of the kingdom and the worst of the destruction. We see joyful, carefree spirits who connect with light creatures and live in peace. We trudge through polluted waters and sludge-clogged pipes, relive memories and view murals of spirits dying and fleeing from dark creatures and war.

And no, I'm not saying I've never been disappointed or that the game should be immune from criticism simply for its format or intent in terms of player experience. I have been left wanting more, and I have oftentimes wished the devs would give at least some spotlight to the kingdom’s destruction outside of the base game and a handful of seasons/seasonal quests. I can't help but wonder why TGC wants to keep a long-lived, dedicated fanbase without giving us the deeper lore that we want! And yet, I feel like many of the criticisms I observe are skewed by burned-out players or simply exaggerated due to frustration. Hope this coheres; I just like contemplating this game's lore.

#pulselog #I wouldn't be writing if I didn't want to see more from the lore myself #but these are my two cents #does anyone suppose their lore focus was going more into the two embers rather than the game? #not that I think it's unreasonable to want to focus more on their series #it's just something that occurred to me after reading about how it's been in production for two years now #sky cotl #sky: children of the light #thatskygame #these aren't my full comprehensive thoughts on the matter but they suffice to get the idea across

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

hello sex witch

this might be long and ramble a bit but i’ll try to keep it succinct. 

so i’ve always thought that the concept of polyamory and having multiple partners sounded nice in the abstract, i don’t really date a lot so it hasn’t come up but i figured it was sort of a thing that most people would be open to or like the idea of (like me). this was until today when i saw someone objecting to the notion of being in a throuple or polyamorous relationship. i didn’t know that was a thing people did. i just thought we all wanted to date lots of people if given the opportunity. the fact that the other people in the couple were a man and a woman didn’t deter me. i’m now considering the fact that i might not be quite as heterosexual as previously assumed. 

when i considered sexuality before it was always a clear cut “yeah girls because i know i like girls” and also maybe that sex with dick seemed sort of weird, but upon further consideration it might just be that i think all sex is sort of weird. 

and now i’m not sure what to do about this, i don’t think that experimenting with people is right because i would feel so shit about it because they’re people and also the fact that i have some strong anxiety about sex in general. someone seeing my naked body makes me feel a little sick. and also i’ve never had sex so don’t really know how sexual attraction is supposed to feel or what i would do with myself if the occasion (sex) was to arise. i feel sort of similar / the same when thinking about sex with both men and women. 

i’m unsure if it’s all a desire for close male friendship or if i might be a little gay. 

tldr i might be polyamorous and attracted to men after a good 19 years of staunchly Not Thinking About It. would appreciate advice or help. 

i guess this isn’t as much a question as more of a asking for advice. this might not even be in your wheelhouse considering the sort of tangential connection to sex. sorry if not

hey anon,

boy, this one is a real buffet. it's legitimately very hard to decide where to start with this, but I'm going to do my best.

let's get this one out of the way first and foremost: if you're into guys that's totally fine. love that for you. if sex with men is something you ever want to explore I would encourage thinking bigger than the stigma that's currently associated with "experimenting." it has a very dehumanizing connotation, but there's no reason that trying out a new kind of sex has to be a cold or impersonal experience! it's fine to approach someone, either via the apps or in real life (honestly! the latter is better!) and be up-front about what your interests and intent are. people have sex without intending to form long-term partnerships all the time; it's literally fine and a thing that many people enjoy doing. so, like, this is my endorsement for respectful, mutually-informed experimentation lmao.

but hey, listen: I don't think that having sex with men is actually, like, a pressing issue for you, based on everything else you've told me here. it doesn't sound like sex is really a huge part of your life, and honestly that's great! it doesn't seem like sex would be great for you right now! can I point to some reasons why?

i think all sex is sort of weird

i have some strong anxiety about sex in general

someone seeing my naked body makes me feel a little sick

[I] don’t really know how sexual attraction is supposed to feel or what i would do with myself if the occasion (sex) was to arise

all of these are, like, perfectly fine things to feel, and also they are pretty good indicators that it's probably for the best that you're not having sex right now. genuinely I do Not do this lightly, because I have a whole thing in my FAQ about not wanting to tell other people their orientations, but has the possibility occurred to you that you might not experience sexual attraction at all? you can like people of all kinds of genders but not want to have sex with them.

let's maybe just take sex off the table altogether while we explore this "maybe you're a little gay" thing, alright? because it seems like that's just going to stress you out a needless amount. what if instead of thinking about having sex with guys, you give some thought to dating guys, forming romantic connections, doing things together that aren't having sex. would you date a guy? I mean, hell, would you date a girl? would you date anyone? does that sound good to you? it's nice to actually interrogate these things; the worst thing that can happen is that you get to know yourself a little more clearly.

you can date and love people without ever having sex with them. does that sound fun for you?

this is the most important thing: you're not under, like, any obligation to figure this out immediately or even soon. take your time, you know? there's no correct timeline for this and self-discovery is perpetual.

also hey listen this one isn't, like, bad and I'm certainly not addressing it as a problem but PLEASE I have to know where you grew up that you didn't realize that most people are actually not polyamorous. are you perhaps the spawn of the greater Seattle area polycule?

#sex edventures 2023

[henrysglock]

This post is going to be rambling and speculative to say the least, but...You guys would tell me if certain types of gates had 2 ends in different times/locations (like a wormhole of some kind), right?

Like if, say, El opened the 1979 gate to Dimension X in Nevada, and that opened something to Dimension X in Hawkins in 1959, that might explain the supposed presence of monsters in TFS.

Then what about 1983? Could the 1983 gate in Hawkins have opened something in Nevada around 1953? Is that what's so special about Nevada in the 50s?

Was there a gate in Nevada in the early 50s?

(An aside, because I have to: Richard Brenner ran HNL from 1954 to 1971. Martin Brenner seems to have been there since 1959, and was in charge by 1983. Just...shrimpresting to me. Martin Brenner...you aren't a nepo baby by any chance, are you? Asking for a friend.)

And with that...you guys would tell me if Dimension X existed outside of space-time, right.

Like okay, running with the 1979-1959/1983-1953 Hawkins-Nevada theory. Henry didn't shape the Shadow until post-1979, but we do see him drawing it, fully-formed, in 1959.

If Dimension X exists, theoretically, outside space-time...then could it be possible that a young, pre-1959 Henry met post-banishment Henry via a gate in Nevada in 1953-1954?

[cocks gun] Hey Henry, in an attempt to change your fate/escape HNL ("Something that would change everything"), did you retroactively give yourself the Shadow?

Which, if it's retroactive, might explain why ST1 Jopper et. al. don't immediately connect TFS to ST1. TFS Henry may or may not be flayed, but that may not have gone into effect until 1983-1984. Thus the adults don't connect it, because it technically hasn't happened yet...or to this version of them specifically.

See: Stranger Things Day Discrepancy #1

If this all ^^ is the case, but Henry doesn't ultimately change his fate, then instead of finding the Shadow post-1979, Henry would reunited with it.

He's been known it for over 25 years. He's been flayed, and it sounds like it likely wasn't a pleasant experience, given the way VR Henry reacts to the Shadow as compared to Canon Henry:

Canon Henry reaches out to the amorphous Shadow and shapes it. VR Henry rejects it immediately. VR Henry wants the Shadow to go away. Canon Henry beckons the Shadow and shapes it.

(If there was a Henry who already had control of the Shadow, it might also answer the question of who the hell is manipulating it in the VR trailer...but again, it's speculative.)

This all might also answer a long-standing question of mine: How the hell did Will know that closing the gate would work?

Will gets flayed in 1984, and he's only flayed for a few days. In fact, he's really only possessed for about a day...and supposedly, no one has ever seen anything like this before, so it's not like anyone suggested it to him.

This means Will figured out how to cut the connection with the Mindflayer in less than a day, while under extreme duress.

Which sure, you could hand-wave it as hive mind stuff...but what if there was someone who already knew how to cut the connection? Say...someone who may not have been the primary target anymore? [Smash-cut to 4.06 Brenner: "Well, well, it looks like we have a new winner"]

Tangentially, it's so interesting to me that Will would have morse code memorized so well that he can use it under such insane duress, something that only Hopper, who's father was a WW2 vet and who was once military himself, recognizes in ST2. Will doesn't show any proclivity towards morse code until this point, though. He could have used morse in ST1 to talk to Joyce/Hopper in full words via the lights, if he knows it this well! But he doesn't.

That leads me to ask—Who do we know that:

is heavily associated with the Shadow/Dimension X

may been possessed/flayed in the past

may have experience neutralizing the Shadow

had a father who was in WW2

is around Hopper's age/is of an age where knowing morse code would be common

(The answer should be glaring, let me know if it's not)

What more did El have to learn about Henry via NINA? What was the truth Brenner meant for her to see/was withholding from her? Why does it feel like certain characters have been scapegoated, and that we may have had a man on the inside (or rather...the other side) this whole time?

Tangentially related speculation re: Will, the lights, and Henry under the cut

It makes me wonder, again, about Stranger Things Day Discrepancy #2:

If Will's messages don't count, then why does this set of messages count? Is Will even in the real Upside Down at all?

See: Stranger Things Day Discrepancy #3 and #4

(I know at least my group of friends has been thinking that Will's UD isn't the same as Nancy's or Vecna's since...forever)

And if Will isn't in the UD, then who is? Who's blinking the letter-lights, and why is that considered the first message from the Upside Down?

Why is TFS, a story about Henry, considered "the origin of the Upside Down"...

and not ST1 Mothergate/Will's disappearance?

Who made the letter-lights blink quickly, rather than the slow, glowy way Will does it with the white lights? (See also: The slow glow when the other kids touch lights in the UD/the LiteBrite)

Which program has been shown having kids with powers quickly blink lights on and off with their minds?

So again...why does it feel like we've got a man on the inside?

#spoiler tagging just in case...but I really don't know shit about fuck aakjdfsdjk #tfs spoilers #st: tfs #time loop theory #This isn't even touching on Vecna/the other timeline. This is just Henry and the Shadow... #Hey Brenner...is Soteria built to repress Henry's powers or the Shadow...or both? Answer quick. #''It wasn't supposed to end like this'' I'm sure it wasn't! #Which...this path would further support the 4 guys/2 Henries 2 Edwards thing

[theminecraftbee]

okay hi so. i binged all of your magical girl scar tag (the chrono tag works for mobile if your tumblr opens an in-app browser) and.

i'm thinking about impulse.

more specifically i'm thinking about team zit—we know impulse isn't too plot relevant, is really only tangentially connected to it through the support group and pearl's connection to grian, but.

team zit.

maybe impulse has been playing games online for a while, has made friends with these two nerds—the teknician and something worm-related for zed?—over a game a decade old, has dragged them into other games and been dragged into voice calls and maybe it's odd that he knows everything but also nothing about his two best friends and.

maybe at the support group, when talking about reclaiming a sense of identity or just talking to these people he's found a community in, he talks about these friends.

maybe he laughs and cries a little while telling stories about fun sessions and running jokes and maybe this spurs others to talk about similar stories, stories he pays more attention to because he knows how these stories end, he was part of the late-night raids that they came from.

and maybe it takes him a bit, takes a few too many cases of "this can't be a coincidence but it's also the biggest one he's ever seen", takes a purposeful slip-up of an inside joke that he's never mentioned for him to be sure that somehow, some way, he's found himself in the same support group as his oldest pair of friends.

(and they laugh about it, after, and maybe the three of them never really get used to calling each other by their names and not their usernames, but they finally get to go bowling with each other, and maybe this is the biggest coincidence they've ever known but they're glad for it.)

and maybe i should write fic instead of rambling in your askbox, but hey. maybe i wanted to know what you had planned for them before putting my own thoughts out into the great unknown.

OKAY THIS IS REALLY CUTE THOUGH. they know each other as online friends and just have no idea they all also live in the same city as each other because it. it just never comes up. so them all being in the support group is very fun i'm a big fan of it. later, he starts getting ribbed about how he shared his irl information with pearl and gem before them, come on impulse. very cute concept

#answered #citrussly #magical girl scar

[gayelectro]

*grabs you gently* tell me about your self ships, if you’ll like!

EEEEEEEEEE, I LOVE TO RAMBLE, THANK YOU!!! 🌈

I guess I can talk about how I came around to self ship to begin with?

I did have lots of casual "flings" and crushes for sure in my past, but I never really self shipped. I end up crushing on just about any character that my wife writes with me in RPs or even characters that my ex-fiance would write back in the day! I started dabbling in the idea of actually self shipping with Hypnopotamus and Big Mama from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back when that was airing. (Think around 2018 to pre-pandemic 2020.) We usually just wrote one off dates or misadventures and there wasn't much more than that. I also kept it very private too, too shy and worried about people being mean.

I think that started getting me comfortable with actually writing myself with a fictional character. What are my traits? How do I act in a relationship that doesn't start online first? All things to really figure out about myself!

And I also had a brief little "I can fix him" moment with Emperor Nefarious from the new Ratchet and Clank game. I think the character's design is really hot, but to be honeeeest, he's a pretty flat character with hardly any screentime in a franchise that I only have a tangential connection to. This resulted in a short fizzle, I just couldn't make it last with just so little. So I realized that what I was looking for in a self ship was a lot more than just initial magnetic attraction, it had to be more substantial.

And then I ended up falling head over heels for Bull Armor!

It was slow at first. His introduction into the plot of the show got me invested to begin with. But even so, then I was like "psssh, there's no way I can find Leaguers attractive though". I love robots and all, but Leaguer proportions are still strange. They're so chibi and yet they all also loom over most humans. Yet inevitably though, something clicked and I was just doomed.

Everything about him and his story just compels me. The way that he's so kindhearted and gentle, yet it never comes into question how powerful and strong he is. How trauma impacted his every waking day after the accident and getting to see him heal from it and make lifelong friends. And his resume is accidentally so long in the weirdest ways, and yet it works! Former (but diagraced) pre-championship football runner and quarterback, robot nurse, soccer goalie for the World Championship... Also he's bull themed, fuck it, as if he didn't have enough going on!

(Art by @/pixlezq )

I love him! He's really the only character I truly consider my "F/O". My wife writes Bully for me and we've got a bunch of plotlines and a whole timeline of our relationship and a couple silly AUs and just lots of cute sappy shippy stuff!

Something I really like about shipping with him is that I think he'd find the way humans function to be fascinating and genuinely beautiful. I'm constantly smitten with the idea of him loving me even more as I age, because humans transform and grow in ways not attainable by robots. I've never thought "I want us to grow old together" before about a fictional character, so it feels extra deep and special that he brings that out in me. I feel more excited about entering what some people disparagingly refer to as "twink death"-- I'm getting hairier and fatter on testosterone and I think it rocks. And I think that a lot of that confidence comes from obviously not just my own joy at how my body is changing, but also because I can imagine he'd be in love with it too.

(Art by @/thebeardedladyofthelake )

Overall, I love this guy! Plus it feels like just the human/robot relationship in the context of the Shippu! Iron Leaguer universe has such an endless array of questions to answer! I feel like we'll never run out of stuff to write about us. Plus, it just makes me happy when I'm stressed.

#long post // #Buruburi #original Buruburi content #magicalmousey

[akuma-homura]

I know this will likely never be like, touched on, but I am thinking bout the Project Sekai world, and, like...

...So, like. In that world. It's clear the Vocaloid program and such still exists. the Cryptons as programs exist.

So. When did Sekai start popping up?

(a bunch of rambling, a bunch of questions in my head. posing questions so I can start theorizing and making headcanons, I suppose..........)

Did it take a while after Miku came out? When her popularity grew, something something that attention to her and by extension the rest made them 'come to life' / 'come into existence' , and somehow create the power to create what's basically pocket dimensions built from peoples feelings?

Did they only gain self awareness and become what they currently are Between Sekai after Miku's popularity grew? Or...

Specifically, were Meiko and Kaito aware and '''existing'''' before Miku came out? Or were they not yet, and instead 'came into existence' after?

Did Miku and the rest of them come out in the same periods of time that they did in real life? Have they been around that long, and as such, have these weird god-like beings only actually existed for the past decade or two? Or have they been around longer than real life?

It was a fan translation, but I'm thinking about how Luka felt that the abandoned Sekai she visited could have been abandoned for a long, long time--- which. Really is vague, and what's considered a 'long time' depends-- a decade _is_ enough time for 'a long time', but I guess I also just can't help but wonder if ''sekai'' have existed for longer.

(now that I think that though, it has me wonder if that sekai came from someone who was a fan since Miku came out, just... their creative ventures didn't turn out.)

I feel like there's probably some sort of cultural thing to account for here too, but I'm not... well versed in like, japanese folklore and beliefs, and what comes to mind I don't actually remember Enough Of to confidently think about.

Also, if they're connected to technology-- HOW connected to it are they? Obviously, the original programs need to be on computers. What would happen if there was a blackout? If the world suffered an apocalypse and tech didn't work anymore, or was few and far between? Would they stop existing? Would they /die/? I don't think people would forget about them, if humanity was still around-- hell, I know I wouldn't, but... 'they' wouldn't be able to sing anymore.... as programs.

Also, the joke with WxS Miku using all the swords in that one trick where KAITO was in the box, plus a couple of... twitter comics, did have me morbidly wonder: Obvious, the virtual singers don't age. From what we've been told, the Sekai continues to exist no matter what-- even after the creators death.

But. Can the Virtual Singers in them get hurt? Can they /die/? What are they even made out of? How would it look if you seriously hurt one? If one got seriously hurt? Would they bleed? Would it be like-- just pixels instead, as if they were a mass of pixels?

Back on the Sekai... obviously we've been focusing on the kids, but. I would think that the Sekai wouldn't only show up for teens, right? Like I would imagine / hope it could happen to adults too.

Thinking of adults, tangentially-- technically, I wonder how many people could be brought into a Sekai? I have no idea if it's been brought up, this feels like one that probably would have, but like... there's the main group, what if someone wanted to bring in someone else unrelated to the group (but still a friend, or something) into the sekai? That's possible, right? Or... if someone else ends up clicking on Untitled...

Ah... I lost my train of thought and forgot what else I was going to say / wonder... but. Yes.

#[ ;text ] #project sekai #teru's sekai rambling

[cwritesfiction]

Heya! For STS (but kind of tangentially, because I'm actually very curious about this): how has the querying process been for you? Any tips for someone (me) who's preparing to query for the first time in a few months? I'm crossing my fingers for you & Under No Illusions!

It's been...wild? This query round has been wild.

I'll toss some things here and put the rest under a cut:

Part of the querying process is deciding how you will vent. I'm a big fan of running my mouth on discord

After you start sending queries, you WILL find a typo. It's inevitable. And it's ok

Querytracker is a blessing and a curse

Everything. Is. Slow. My fastest request came after 12 days. My slowest request came after 151 days.

I'm sure you already know this but it bears repeating a thousand times for everyone who's ever queried anything ever: rejections on queries or submissions do not mean your book was bad. Good stories get passed on all the time for many reasons, sometimes just because of sheer volume.

Okay, here's my long querying ramble. Not advice! Just a description of how querying has gone for me specifically.

Context: This is my second time querying. The first story I queried was enjoyable and had a lot of good, but it had some big plot problems that I tried to patch when I should've just started over. For that round, I sent 64 queries and got 3 requests (one being a partial that got bumped to a full...so maybe 4, depending on how you count.)

Under No Illusions was a much stronger story with a much better query. I've sent 53 queries and gotten 8 full requests and 3 partial requests. As I type this, I have two pending queries and three pending submissions. I'm not sending any more.

Here's why:

Querying, for me, takes a lot of time. I talked a little about it here. I'd rather spend that time working on my next project because I think that's more likely to connect me with an agent, since...

I'm pretty sure Under No Illusions is done. The tl;dr is agents have complimented the story's premise, humor, and characters, but more than one person has commented on how difficult it would be to market because of the characters' ages (they're 18, in their first semester of college.) I'm well aware there are other YA books with college-aged characters - I comped one! - but they're still a risk, especially for a debut author.

Here's the wildest query response I received: It was a pass. She said she wished she could offer because she enjoyed the story's humor; she just wasn't able to build a large enough submission list. And then she asked if I had anything else she could read, complete with a brand new submission button on query manager. Basically, a free full request for whatever I wanted to send.

But...I've been working on an adult rom-com. And she only reps YA. RIP.

Anyway, the fact that that particular agent (who runs a long-established, reputable agency and has a respectable client list) couldn't build a submission list for No Illusions means I doubt anyone else will be able to. And that's okay! Like, it sucks, but it's okay. I think it's good to know when to call it quits. There's nothing saying I can't use No Illusions (or its parts) for something later. That's literally what I'm doing with my current WIP - I took a concept I botched in my first novel attempt and now, I'm doing it justice.

Feel free to ask if you have any specific querying questions! I'm not an expert by any means but I can share my experience!

#querying

[bsaka7]

i did finish the fic!!!! gave me the like “omg what do i even do with these feelings now” hahaha it really is such a masterpiece!

the character foils were everything!!! obviously pierre and esteban at the core but even the relationship of pierre and charles compared to his with esteban, pierres career compared to estebans, pierres family etc etc it all interacts to create such a wonderful picture of who they are and how they have… become who they are??? like even from the beginning, when theyre karting together and estebans first feelings are “i want to win and i want to be in the kart but hes going first :(“ and that… changes but never really goes away because its important to him and the little moments that show their diff upbringing too like… pierre asking for like. snacks for instance, and not having that fear of being rude and having something taken away from him that esteban has, like his interactions with pierres family made me want to scream because like. the cautiousness and politeness like so so so real

estebans ENTIRE relationship with crying. AGGHHHH!!!!!

and pierre not understanding why he cant separate on and off track but like. estebans put his whole self into it in a different way to what pierre has, and just exactly what its like to be kind of. insular and awkward as a kid because that DOES follow you, his difficulties fitting in with his peer group etc etc

the playing COD together made me 😭😭😭 😭 ESPECIALLY when pierre was like dude was that ur mum??? and its like. in my head ratatouille flashback pierre and estebans parents. AND ESTEBAN ADDED TO THE GROUP CHAT AND HES LIKE… im inside now :) UGHRJFJ SOBBING

omfg and all the unsent texts when pierre got demoted… esteban im literally reaching thru the screen to make u press send sorry anyway. beautiful beautiful beautiful fic thank u so much!!!! mwah!!! <3

Thank u!! This is long so under the cut haha

ahhh that's amazing to hear 😭😭 I love when writing makes me feel like that so it's an honor to be able to do it for u!!! I'm really glad I was able to flesh out that world in a way that felt real!!! I was sort of debating whether to tag this fic as a bildungsroman or not (obv I didn't) because I didn't know if there was enough character change/on loss/psychological focus... like they grow up but i wanted to keep that raw competitive core and also keep the elements of - Pierre's parents saying they tried to protect his childhood, but he moved away so young. Esteban saying he grew up quick. Etc. like you said - 'insular and awkward'. the stuff about crying (este talking about crying after getting scratched from Australia 2019 testing with merc. It destroys me). It sneaks up on u. You never escape that!!! And if you do, you have to work for it!!!!

the triangulation of Charles/pierre/esteban is like. Everything to me. I need a proper messy love triangle. i need Charles pov on the whole thing. the way Charles is. he's in a different league than them and he knows it but he wants to be loved anyway...

i think also capturing how people interact with each other online is - hard. i literally just sketched out a Cinderella story au with @nicotineteeth lmao and i keep thinking about it like. about the idiot by batuman. how can you know someone so well online and not know how it will flesh out when you meet each other. can you talk past each other without realizing it. obv here - and in most of my fic - i try to stay in the present but even with relationships like that. i feel like saying things you mean in text is. almost even worse. that was the only scene in this whole fic where both pierre and esteban weren't there and i was honestly debating it but like that's a connection too. ok sorry to ramble about something so tangential haha.

I really appreciate ur message haha. Screenshotted and saved!! I'm very glad you enjoyed my little fic and I really enjoyed hearing ur comments!!! ❤️❤️

#When i was a kid meeting my friends parents was always agonizing because I wanted them to like me and wanted nothing to do with them... #I was. A weird kid lmao. And probably also a weird young adult. #Idk like writing the fic was. Harder than normal. Maybe #But like I feel like so. Many of the comments r leaving me so raw #Like you guys r seeing so. Many things that are true but I didn't intend #And it's just. Idk. Crazy #Like yes I do love esteban. Yes he has a messy relationship with tears. Yes putting racing first closed him off to navigating things well #Idk you guys are. So insightful. It's. Wow. It's really special. #I've written a lot of fic but the response to this one is #Honestly unreal. I really can't even say how honored I am by it #I expected maybe. A third of what I've gotten like. Wow. And I've been so read. #Ask #Anyway #Next up... Fantasyfest #Then maybe yukierre cuz I have promised myself ill write it #Then 10million more. Pierresteban

[daemondaes]

@glowneon​​ said:  💋 + from leigh, who rolls her eyes and steps in to bring their lips together, kissing cherry deeply for a long moment before pulling back. a beat of time passes. "...you were talking way too fucking much."

Send “💋” to kiss my muse out of nowhere.

    “...Really?” Cherry blinks slowly. The tips of her fingers brush against her lips, where she connected with Leigh just moments prior. “Huh. Didn’t think I was rambling.” If she was slightly out of breath, it wasn’t from talking until her lungs were empty so much as she hadn’t had the chance to refill them before Leigh halted her tirade. 

    A tinge of pink crept into her face. She felt foolish, partially for her lapse in ability to read the room, and partially for how she’d been silenced. “Y’know, we’re not animals. Humans use words. You could’ve said ‘Cherry, shut up!’ and I would have shut up! Maybe. I was actually about to get to the most important part—”

    Ordinarily, this would have been the point that Cherry began a new rant, perhaps only tangentially related to the previous subject. For now, her fingers curled into fists, both placed before her mouth to childishly guard it. “I wanted to tell you that, um...uh...oh. You made me forget what I was gonna say!” Which was, arguably, the point. 

    Her eyes narrowed. “Next time I get tired of listening to you, you’re getting tongue.” Forming the most egregious gate, her hands parted as if on hinges to reveal said tongue. She waggled it from side to side for emphasis.

#glowneon #x. CANDY FROM A STRANGER. #short and sweet 😌 #or just disgusting. cherry's disgusting

[shadowsong26x]

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! (Prompts optional but encouraged.)

Yes, all four. XD

Lol, fair enough XD

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

Hm. The main thing that comes to mind that isn't something Specific (or like a kink/smut thing which...I don't read a lot of smut fics anyway?) would probably be amnesia plotlines [she says, fully aware that that's a key part of one of her own original verses].

I guess it's not so much the idea of amnesia in and of itself, and more the way it tends to be used in fics, especially in a shipping context, it gets weird and uncomfortable and while I'm generally super into H/C tropes, something about the way amnesia storylines tend to play out just. Does Not Do It For Me.

Oh, omegaverse, I guess. Have never really understood the appeal of that.

Not a fandom trope, exactly, but the obligatory arc in team-based properties where everyone's fighting each other? Hate that. No thank you. Most of fandom also tends to hate those arcs though, lol, so it's mostly a thing I have to deal with in canon.

I'm also generally not into soulmate AUs, unless it's something baked into the structure of the fandom from the beginning (i.e., lifebonds in Valdemar) but there are exceptions to that (sometimes SW, particularly BSG).

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

Lately I seem to be invested in surrogate parent/child dynamics a lot? Or actual parent/child dynamics but involving adoption or otherwise connecting later in life rather than Raised From Birth.

Also, most whump/H/C tropes, though I tend to be picky about who gets hurt.

I tend to get invested in characters with Complicated Loyalties and/or Alignments, as well.

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

Several people I follow seem to be very invested in some very aesthetically pleasing C-dramas/Chinese dramas, so I tend to reblog those even though I have No Idea what's going on.

OFMD and WWDITS pop up on my dash a lot--I'm not interested in watching them for genre reasons, but I enjoy the enthusiasm of the people on my dash for them.

Also Batfam/DC comics stuff.

Those are the big ones, I think? Especially in terms of things I probably won't ever get into directly.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! (Prompts optional but encouraged.)

Lol, you left it so open-ended where do I even go from here XD

Uh, okay, a blitz through some of the things that have floated through my head lately:

I've been thinking a lot about Zarek lately, actually, for a variety of reasons (including a backstory/character profile fic that I swear will materialize someday). Watch him also take on a bigger role than I planned in The Other Battlestar, lol.

Also thinking about adaptations, and what makes a good one vs. a bad one; both because the Les Mis brainrot is still strong (I still need to do my rewatch of the 2012 movie, maybe this weekend), and in talking about the WoT TV series with my dad (he doesn't like it, thinks it takes things too far away from the source material; I agree that it's doing some Very different things to the point where it's borderline a different story at this point But the touchstones I like are still strong enough for me, even with the Heavy nostalgia goggles)

Crossovers! Crossovers are a lot of fun; there are still a handful of BSG/SW crossovers I want to write someday, plus the BSG1 crossover AU outline I started...like...two years ago, lol...

Always sort of in the background thinking about redemption arcs/morally grey characters and/or storylines (see above re: complicated loyalties and alignments being a Thing for me, lol). I haven't written anything on the subject in a while, but sometimes go back and reread old essays.

...there's more, I'm sure, but that's what's popping into my head as having been fairly Present lately XD

Ask me a question!

#asked #answered #tigerkat24

[demonboyhalo]

Ranboo did tell techno about the dream voice and knows that Phil Tommy and Niki don’t like Dream so if Techno does break dream out that’s the extent he’s going to go. Like that’s it. He’s not putting his friends/family in danger

that's v true anon! when talking with Wilbur about who was capable of redemption, Ranboo avoided answering about Dream by basically saying "well i don't hafta deal with him do i? since he's in the prison and all" - which gives me the impression that Ranboo knows just enough about what Dream has done (to just clingy duo or the server at large, either works) to not at all agree with breaking him out. if/when that happens, it's possible Ranboo will leave the Syndicate. He might become unadvisedly closer to Wilbur bc he's lost a lot of his support system, he may seclude himself Snowchester to guard Tubbo and Michael, he might even actively hunt Dream down since the Council has told him not to stand idly by!

However: those are just Ranboo's possibilities, and he's not the only player here. We also need to consider what Dream might choose to do. Everything i'm about to write is based off my belief that he's still obsessed with Tommy. So! While Dream hasn't been outside for months, i think he's aware enough of Ranboo to know that he's someone Dream should get to if he wants to...hurt/befriend/manipulate/whatever-the-hell-his-plan-is with Tommy. that kid cares for his friends, doing smth to them is the best way to get to him. Now what exactly Dream will do is debatable, there's infinite ways to go about gaining that leverage...but here's 1 off the top of my head :P

The Enderwalk state. Ranboo has already stated that while Enderwalking, he never has/isn't going to harm Michael or Tubbo (idr the exact wording, but c!Ranboo loves them at all levels of consciousness and that's v sweet!) The thing is though, we still don't know what's going on with the Dream voice and smile. It's possible that as soon as Ranboo meets Dream, that weird things immediately start happening. Durability on his netherite decreasing too fast, having more levels/blocks than he should, losing chunks time, etc etc.

Or, maybe Dream will seek Ranboo out at one of his homes, a silent threat through the simple fact that Dream knows where he lives, and then offer him something. It could be a gift, a deal, a threat, a code word - it could be anything, but whatever it is could intermingle with the Enderwalk state. It might subconsciously influence Ranboo's actions, or even more likely, consciously linger in his thoughts and mess with him that way. The fear of Dream's possibilities, and compensating for what he could do, can be it's own form of struggle. When it comes to what Ranboo will do after the prison break, I think it could just be that he won't have a choice on whether or not he wants to get involved with Dream, because of the Enderwalk state.

but this is just one theory, and i don't know NEARLY enough about Dream's connection to Ranboo to say anything for certain, and i havent rewatched the lore streams in a while. maybe in a complete 180, the Enderwalk will even end up helping Ranboo fight against Dream in later plot lines, who knows!

#long post #dreamwastaken #tommyinnit #ranboo #mcyt #dream smp #dsmp #tommy innit #dsmp analysis #<<i've never known when to use that tag but ig im starting today #i got this ask like an hour ago or smth but i don't actually know what post prompted the ask #so i just rambled about what i wanted to and connected it tangentially to the ask #sorry if this was more bang for ur buck than u expected anon lmao

[sylph-feather]

Title: Ectoplasmic Fossils

Summary: "Actually, Dad?  I wanted to be a paleontologist."

Prompt: Prompt is the same as the summary. Prompter is gaunttwister, team halfa. 

Wordcount:  2453

Notes: Can you tell I was a dinosaur kid.....

For a Danny in familiar world, his first positive thought after becoming a ghost and learning ghosts existed (after, of course, a litany of terror), was as follows: imagine the new world I could explore. He considered this while staring into the swirling portal that lead to places unknown, and in his mind he compared it to the vast and beautiful unknown of space.

This Danny, in this less familiar universe, was less impressed by the portal itself; of course, he was in awe of it from a technical perspective, but nothing that deeply riveting, that personal spark of exploration— not from its wrought metal or whirling green center, that is. No, this was his thought, in replacement of the other spark: if ghosts exist, what things have been made ghosts over the years? What old life could be discovered? 

Danny, you see, did not desire to explore space in this universe. No. He was fascinated by paleontology. Star books were replaced by compendiums of dinosaur species, models of rockets and stations replaced by scientifically accurate models and bones, diagrams of ships replaced by diagrams of feathery, toothsome things. You get the picture. 

Where these obsessions came from… who was to say? Why one fixation over the other? Did this Danny latch onto his parent’s obsession with the dead and translate it into this, rather than translating it into the more vague idea of exploring the unknown? Or was it as simple as an exposure to different things; a cartoon with scientifically inaccurate dinosaurs rather than a ridiculous sci fi premise, or perhaps watching Jurassic Park too young rather than Star Wars…? The child’s mind is prone to flights of fancy that stick— that’s the  the final conclusion, no matter the exact cause of specifics. 

Regardless, his parents engaged in it; provided him with aforementioned objects— models, posters, etcetera— and generally encouraged his interests. The most annoying was when they tried to sell him on ghosts by using dinosaurs as a sort of bribery; they talked of the possibilities of discovering undocumented species and anatomy with the ghost forms of creatures from long ago, a sort of tempting what if, to lure Danny to their side. 

Up until today, when a portal had electrocuted half the life out of him, Danny didn’t believe it. 

Sam, Tucker, and Danny were all reclined in Danny’s bedroom— all fully human, though Danny still felt a bit… simultaneously charred and charged, which he supposed made sense given he’d just been fried by a nasty shock (to put it lightly). 

His two friends were sending him worried looks— also sensible, given not half an hour ago Danny was significantly ghostier, and significantly panic-ier. Now, though, while Sam and Tucker sent each other concerned glances to communicate wordlessly, Danny was simply considering the possibilities. Gooey species of jellyfish and slug-like creatures that hadn’t been preserved! Confirmation of the placement or use of bones, especially controversial ones like the hollowed crest of the Parasaurolophus or the gastralia of many beasts! Behavior that could only be guessed at via anatomical features! The degree to which feathers coated their body! Colors! 

...And so on and so forth. It was all enough to bring a wide grin to Danny’s face— which was a bit creepy given he’d just died. 

“Dude,” Tucker grimaced, snapping Danny out of his reverie, “are you, like, coping well—“ 

“We have to go into the Ghost Zone,” Danny cut him off with excited urgency. 

Sam blinked at him owlishly. “Now? Why?” 

“Not now, I guess, necessarily,” Danny brushed off, filled with excited energy. His eyes were shining when he turned them to his new friends— “imagine what ancient things we could find as ghosts.” 

Tucker facepalmed and groaned. “Of course the first thing you’re thinking of is dinosaurs.” 

Sam eased a bit, brushing off her initial assumption that Danny had some weird, ghostly pull to the green portal. “Well, at least you’re seeing the bright side,” she huffed sarcastically. 

Danny crossed his arms in a pout. “I’m not just thinking of dinosaurs.” No, he was thinking of other eras of ancient things too, of course. 

Tucker shot him a look, but broke it with a laugh and didn’t prod further. 

  xXx

  It was, of course, a disappointment when the first ghosts that came through were too formless to tell what they had been, if they were anything but raw emotion. It was an even bigger disappointment when the first fully-formed ghosts were largely human-shaped. With the exception of dragons— which Danny definitely did not count— there was nothing that bore any resemblance to extinct creatures. 

On top of this, Danny had sort of let go of the go find dinos in the Ghost Zone NOW mentality, because… well, despite insatiable curiosity, he didn’t know his way around the place at all. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, or if he was even expecting it to be easy to begin with, but going into a directionless green abyss where orientation did not exist… well, needless to say that Danny knew he could not find his way to whatever ancient beast ghosts were there, if they did even exist in the first place. And he certainly didn’t want to risk his life knocking on doors of who-knows-what, or drifting around ghostly islands in the middle of who-knows-where. And that’s not even touching that technically Walker wants his arrest for a reason Danny only sort of remembers because it was so dumb. 

And so, for the first handful of months of his existence as a halfa, Danny contents himself with theorization. It’s hard to think too much about dinosaurs anyways, because it’s hard to think too much about anything— despite being a teen and thus being prone to sleep deprivation, the ghost fighting combined with high school has lead Danny to a new level of exhaustion, one that he is still adjusting to. His grades hurt for it, as do his passions. 

Slowly, though, he does adjust— enough to be confident to go in the Zone, and enough to have actually smart thoughts without his brain fizzling out. 

In the moment where Phantom and the Red Huntress found themselves in Skulker’s lair, Danny was largely scared and exasperated at alternating points. It wasn’t until that situation was… resolved (and thank goodness both hunters didn’t pulverize him) that Danny was slapped with a marvelous idea of tangential connections.

Skulker is a hunter. The Zone’s greatest hunter, he claimed, though Danny didn’t know if he believed that much. Still. The point still stood that it was a reasonable bet that Skulker was into rare and dangerous prey, if his arsenal and his fleet of pelts were anything to go by.

All this to say that Danny thought that maybe, just maybe, Skulker would know about dinosaur ghosts. That miniscule spark of hope was enough; Danny felt he deserved to see what he’d always so desperately wanted to see after the thought of dinosaur ghosts entered his mind as a believable thing. 

Danny had to ask— even if there was a high chance Skulker didn’t know or did know but wouldn’t tell, and the fact that asking Skulker was at great risk of being at best, involved in their typical scuffling, and at worst, captured. Danny only had dinos on the brain, though, and maybe he wasn’t awake enough to consider the full consequences of the impulsive thought. 

So he enacted his plan as a teen enacted anything: rashly, suddenly, and without much forethought. Even calling it a plan alone was generous; all the half-ghost did was float into the Zone in the general direction of Skulker’s island, foolishly calling out to Skulker as he floated through. Naturally, he came prepared— not with weapons, or maps, but with a bag containing his phone, a journal, and his comprehensive dinosaur book… just in case he did end up seeing any. 

The mechanical suit showed his flaming mug quite close to his island. Bright, solid green eyes blinked, and Skulker— who had not had the time to pull up hs egotistical Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter speech in his shock— said in a surprised tone, “don’t you have other things to do?” 

Danny did. He did this in favor of an important English essay on 1984 that he had— Danny had tried wrapping his mind around thought crime and contradictions, and once he put the book down he immediately decided I can think on all that and, I’d much rather find dinosaurs. So here he was. 

Skulker shook himself out of that surprise, and levelled a laser that popped out of his arm at Danny. “No matter! Prey is prey, and you are good prey!” 

“Wait!” Danny barked, confident enough (and strange and out of place enough) to give the other ghost pause, making Skulker lower the laser just slightly, a modicum of movement to say go on, or at least indicate curiosity. “I want to see dinosaurs,” Danny said authoritatively, simply. 

Skulker stared, weapon still whining slightly. His slightly slack jaw and slumped arm just screamed huh? 

And thus began a ramble— “I’ve always wanted to see dinosaurs, and once I realized ghosts existed, I figured ghost dinosaurs had to exist, right?” Not waiting for an answer, Danny ploughed ahead. “And I thought of all the ghosts I’ve met, you seem like you maybe, hopefully know where any ghost dinos are, with the whole hunting schtick—“ 

Skulker cut off Danny’s rambling with honesty: “I’m not sure if I should be amused, flattered, or honored, ghost child.”

“As long as you’re not violent?” Danny said slowly, tipping his head, still assessing Skulker as though to try to suss out whether he was a threat still or no 

Skulker himself was still trying to figure out the answer to that question— did he want to be a threat, want to hunt Phantom? Or did he want to pause and take a moment to indulge the bright, sparkling curiosity in his eyes…? 

Skulker gave an awkward cough, a sort of choked harumph sound. He started slowly, unsurely, “I suppose.” He added hurriedly— “to reward you for being such good prey.” 

Danny huffed. “Way to make it weird,” the halfa grumbled— but he wasn’t able to keep up a petulant persona for long, because the excitement shone through too brightly to conceal. Because dinosaurs. “That means you know where to find them?” Danny’s voice was approaching something that could only be described as a squeal. 

Skulker once again paused for contemplation, because those islands were one of his prized hunting spots… the dinosaurs regenerated (as most strong, full ghosts did), but they still were a great joy to hunt. Among the dinosaur-ridden chunks of land, there were also significantly less interesting hunts— the cambrian period areas, for example, didn’t have much that provided a very thrilling chase… they just sort of scooted around. Then again, it was clear the ghost child cared not for the hunt, so Skulker supposed he could share. 

Skulker made a gruff noise, internally considering that of course he would hunt down the halfa anyways, and Danny didn’t regenerate like full ghosts— so it wasn’t like he had to share for long. Granted, it wasn’t like a hunter to lead prey into anything but a trap, but Skulker didn’t have much to argue against that thought, so he just… didn’t think about it, justifying it with a vague “honor” tangent in his mind.

To answer the question after much internal debate on sharing, his own softness, etcetera, Skulker simply said, “yes, I know where to find them. Follow me.” 

The halfa was lost in excitement, doing flips in the air and going on a ramble that the mechanized ghost utterly drowned out as they jetsetted through the Zone at rapid speed. 

I could skewer him right now, Skulker thought over the whine of his jetpack. The thought had no heat to it, though, especially when Skulker took a pause to look at the exuberant teenager. 

It wasn’t long to consider thoughts of said skewering, anyways. The Ghost Zone was a strange place; once someone had been somewhere and knew the way, the green abyss would fold out of its own way to get them there again when they wanted it. Skulker had long stopped questioning it, if he ever questioned it in the first place, but Phantom was quite in awe of the quick travel, and the way their scenery had subtly compressed then stretched into a new horizon around them as they flew— only now was he realizing the complete change in surroundings. 

Skulker just hovered and watched as those luminous green eyes darted from unfamiliar door to unfamiliar door until they settled on the main attraction: a vast set of islands, incomprehensibly expansive and swirling around each other in a compressed way special to the Ghost Zone’s laws of space.

Danny’s eyes widened, and he let out a sound of pure, concentrated excitement. “This is it,” he said, and it was partially a question but mostly seemed to function as a statement to convince himself. 

Danny shot immediately to the nearest island, a chunk of land covered in a swampy rainforest and thick ferns. From the brush, a large thing burst forth, chittering and cawing. 

Danny took in the huge, feathered raptor— feathers of blue and green, as with all ghosts, but otherwise so… different. It was so different, seeing it in the… well, not flesh, ectoplasm, but the point still stood. Danny hovered above that island, frozen with awe, and the creature stared back at him with eyes that were not slit and were observant, and it clicked its lizard-like mouth around its sharp teeth and flared its feathers with some degree of fright… and Danny could think of nothing better than that moment of pure, extreme joy and awe and sheer wonder. 

Skulker saw all that on the teen’s face and thought again, this time with heat: I could skewer him right now. Their little agreement was over, the debt of providing a good chase repaid, and now it was time for the halfa to become prey once again. A laser charged up—

Beep, beep, beep. The laser cut off with the notification, and Skulker gave a surprised grunt. 

Danny made a noise. “You scared it off,” he groaned, but even that couldn’t get him down, because he went plummeting off towards the fern forest with a joyous laugh. 

Gorilla feeding time, Skulker’s suit informed him in the meanwhile. 

“No,” he barked uselessly, already jetting away, “I thought I’d gotten rid of this—!” 

The last thing the mechanical ghost saw was Phantom, plunging into the underbrush, crowing with laughter, dinosaur dreams fulfilled.

#phic phight #phic phight 2021 #phicphight21 #phicphight2021 #dp #danny phantom #phic #my fic #my writing

[saint-miroir]

Thank you for 50 followers! (and other notes)

As of last night, I realized that I now have 50 followers. I am appreciative to everybody who has taken the time to follow this page and look at my scans. I actually had a blog I deactivated a few months ago called moon-spiral-heart that had managed to accumulate a bit of a following, but was struggling with my mental health and deleted it rather impulsively. I do not intend to do that again and hope to stay for good this time around.

One thing that worries me is both variety and consistency, even if those seem to be contrasting issues. On one hand, I want there to be variety in what I post. I feel that I have a tendency to post about some of the same series a little too often. I contemplate whether I have posted too much Cyberteam in Akihabara content, for instance--at least within the short span of time since I’ve created this account. That’s why I try to make an attempt to diversify the magazines that I post from, as well as the series I select to scan. I don’t want there to ever be too much of the same thing out of concern for oversaturation.

However, on the other hand, I want there to be some  degree of consistency. I wonder if my content is too “all over the place”, for lack of a better way to put it. Sometimes it’s content about old dating sims. Other times it’s shoujo magazine scans. Then it’s just the usual newtype/animage/animedia, etc., etc., scans. All of these are of course tangentially related. They almost all have some connection to anime/manga, but I still wonder if its too inconsistent. it makes me wonder what it is that makes people come to my blog. What is it that attracts different people? What if it’s too much of one thing, or too much of everything?

Perhaps I am overthinking this. I feel that posting anything that I personally find to be interesting should be of the utmost importance, but I still want to “curate an experience for others”, so to speak.

Anyway, I deeply apologize if this ramble has been meaningless, but it’s something that has been on my mind, so I felt like sharing.

Thank you again for following and just taking the time to browse my blog. I am very grateful and hope that I am able to post more of interest in the future.

#personal #thanks to everyone #not just talking in the tags this time

[crystal-moon-101]

Y and U? For the unnamed ask?

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?: I familiar with shows like Troll Hunter & Miraculous Lady Bug through a friend of mine, and I have been meaning to get into them, just a little busy and have a lack of energy 😅. I am also familiar with Yugioh (At least the earlier series), mostly because of the abridge and because I’m really into Season 0 stuff, as it’s more my kind of thing.

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites: Given you gave me three, I think it’s only natural for me to pick from The Secret Generator 10 trio, as I always up to talk about these three and what they mean to me. Of course, they’re hardly perfect character, but they all are special in their on way for me, and I thought I’d discuss why.

Rex: My favourite out of the three, with his show being my all-time favourite. Development, interesting background, mystery, angst, tragic, fun to watch, mostly consistent, amazing powers, and gets so much found family stuff going on, he hits a lot of marks of what I love to see in a character, and the same does do good enough of a job with him. Rex is a character that plays well with the concept of being a child soldier, having amnesia, and being the key to the larger story at hand, and the show still treats him like a real person, living and breathing, and not just a means to screw over every time they want to plot to work. 

He has many layers to him, at the start seeming like a cocky, daredevil, rule-breaking and rebellious teen, who you sometimes question he understands the weight of what is happening to the world and himself, but then you learn that he does understand, so much more than he lets on. While he is naturally charismatic and a jokester, you can tell he often puts up this mask of joy and playfulness just to make a dark world around him feel a little lighter, along with hiding how alone and scared he actually feels. Because well, who wouldn’t be when placed in a role like that? He knows very well he has powers tied to saving the die, even if he doesn’t fully understand them. He knows the danger the nanites and EVOs pose, but also knows the danger that humankind can pose if they’re not willing to listen to reason. When things do get tough, he knows when to cut the crap and be serious. He’s someone who knows the world isn’t black and white, even if he hates to admit it at times.

While we didn’t get to see much of it, I’ve always seen Rex as a part of three worlds. He works closely with normal humans, like Six and Holiday (As normal as you can be at Providence), and he understands how scared the world is, how scared every day people are that any second they or someone they love could turn into a monster and go on a rampage. And sometimes that hurts for Rex is that he often tries to connect to this part of the world, because he knows he was once part of it, and he thinks it can make him happy, but the obstacle blocking him is that he isn’t human anymore, and that many people are scared of him, even if he saves them. And yet despite all the harsh things people have said or done to him, Rex always comes back to be the hero, because he knows he can help and that there are people that need his help, and it’s commendable that he’s willing to put aside those issues to save the day, even if he doesn’t get a thank you out of it.

His second ties are, of course, to his EVO world. It’s interesting that, at the very start of the show, Rex use to have this view that everything EVO was wrong, most likely something he picked up at Providence, despite being one himself. He’s hesitant around them, and while he’s not one to kill, he’s often quick to think they’ll be a danger. And while he can be right about that most of the time, he does start to learn it’s not all that it seems. His Hong Kong friends, Circe, Breach, even someone like Biowulf eventually. He even eventually learns that, while he’s not normal, he’s not a bad person for being something not human. And it’s an interesting thought that while he’s one of the most human-looking EVOs, he can be considered one of the most dangerous, even more so than EVOs that look like overgrown monsters. His ties to the EVO world are what make him start to see the world isn’t black and white.

And then his third ties, kind of, are to his nanites and history. Despite how human looking Rex is, and that he is an EVO, he’s very much something different to both sides, a middle ground thanks to his connection to the nanites. It’s always fascinated me that something about him, out of anyone in the world, he has this tie to nanites that no one else has. That can be explained by a number of things, but I also like to think it’s also because of the person he is. I mean, you get someone like Black Knight who got similar powers to him, but you never see her have a level connection with them like Rex does. And that can be explained by poor writing, but again I like to tie it back to who he is as a person, and how the nanites have evolved to be around him. And with how long he’s been tied to him, they just feel like a natural part of him, even if he may reject it sometimes. And to have him be once part of the past that involved how the nanites came to be, it adds a whole another layer to this boy. I will admit the writing can get to him at times, sadly, especially around season 3, and we don’t get certain answers to question about him, but he’s still a great character in my eyes, with so much potential for the stories and ideas you can play around him. I respect him for his hope for wanting to do things a better way, and yet knowing that sometimes you have to do the hard and logical things to do good, even if it’s not easy to do. I could ramble on more, but I got to move onto the next one. 💙

Zak: Ah, my sweet cryptid boy, have season 2 gave you crippling anxiety. Zak I would say, out of these three, is the most consistent with his writing. He’s still the same cryptid loving, cool kid, with a passion for his job back at the start of things, but he also grows in a believable way over time, especially when learning what he really is. The twist with making Kur adds such a spin on who he is and how he feels in a great way that I love, because he was someone who was building up to be the hero of the story by everyone around him, only to learn that the supposed villain he was meant to fight was himself. I think one of the interesting things that The Secret Saturdays does is that it never really answers the question if destiny is real, and if Zak is meant to kill all humans. It’s a question left up in the air, and while there seems to be facts that say otherwise, the idea that this boy could kill all humans makes people scared or eager, making everyone say that his destiny is real, even if there is no proof. And because of this, it makes Zak fear and believes that it’s real too, that he is bad just by simply being Kur’s reincarnation, even if he hasn’t done anything that makes him bad. And yet, as easy as it would have been for Zak to just accept this, he doesn’t, he still plays the hero and goes out of his way to help those that need it. Because whether or not destiny is real, Zak is willing to fight it, and that makes a noble character. And while we don’t get clear answers about destiny and Kur, many of us get to play with the idea of what it means for Zak and this world he’s in. I personally thing that Kur’s history is more complicated than him being ‘evil’ as I’ve written before, but Zak is his own character, his own person, and it’s fun to see who he is, how he reacts and how he grows. I also love that, while he’s pitched as one of those classic kid/teen boys during the 2000s action cartoon eras, he does things you wouldn’t expect. While he can get into fights and combat and have fun with it, if he knows the fight endangers someone or a cryptid, he will always take it seriously. Like when they found the cryptid fighting ring, he was always disgusted by it and keeps repeating the notion that he wanted to stop it as soon a possible, even hating to have to put Fisk into the fight just to stall and get info. He clearly as a loving passion with cryptids and the world he’s in, and is always out there looking to see more to the story than others may see. He’s not quick to label someone as a monster unless he’s 100% certain that’s what they are.  And his family relationships are just golden, I love the Saturdays. It’s adorable how, instead of calling them pets, he treats Fisk, Zon and Komodo like his siblings. He respects them as equals, and while he can argue with them, he’s willing to listen and understand that they have their own needs and wants, and the four of them are always by each other’s sides. Drew and Doc, being one of my favourite couples of all time, have different relationships towards Zak, but both love and respect him very much. Even when they find out Zak is Kur, not once do they ever turn their back on their own child, and do everything they can to help him see he’s not a monster. Zak clearly looks up to them, and it’s great to see the growth they have by letting Zak spread his wings, and stop trying to be over-protective with him. And, of course, Uncle Doyle is great, in that he’s always respected Zak, even if he’s a child. He’s willing to be level with him, and push him when he knows Zak needs it, and the fact that Zak was the one in the family to be so quick to have him join is just so well done, as he never had a doubt that Doyle could be a better person. Zak love the world he’s in, and the beings and secrets that lay within it. Despite how it might push and hurt him, he’s often willing to get back up and show who he really is, that the labels that people put on him don’t define who he is. Despite how his world turned upside down with one sentence, he’s doesn’t give up.🧡

Ben: Oof, right...*Cracks knuckles* Time to get into the more iffy ones of the trio. Right away, I have no trouble saying that Ben has a lot of issues and flaws as a character. I have no issue denying that he can be an ass, and has done many dumb things. However, I’m not one to hate or fault characters when it’s the writing that screws them over. Because at his concept and core, the person he was meant to be, Ben is quite an interesting character. He’s not the standard hero with a cape, he’s very much flawed, can sometimes be a jerk and cocky often, and has been shown to be young and naive. But that doesn’t make him a bad person, in fact he adds an interesting element to the normal hero archetypes. When written well, he’s quite fun to follow and has quite the concept to play around with. Despite his outgoing and witty outside, Ben does go through a lot of crap ever since he got the watch. His teen years and parts of his childhood are mostly just dealing with the foes he’s made, and the troubles that comes with being the main hero of the galaxy, which is defiantly not an easy task to take. And yet he does it, he goes through all the dangers just to help people and the worlds around them. He’s often willing to stand back up and crack a smirk because he’s not one to give up. He sees hope, he sees potential and light beyond the darkness, and he wants to give others the chance to see that. And while his cocky nature can get in the way when written wrong, I do think it’s a trait that makes sense. People across the galaxy praise him since he was young, which can cloud his judgement, it’s a natural flaw that fits him as a character, and it has been shown he acts this way to hide how scared he really is. Cause I mean, with all that he has to fight, it is actually quite a struggle, so it is amazing to see just how much he takes and never backs down. He’s not a boring character to watch, he’s not a perfect hero that gleams in a golden light, he’s flawed and hows so many issues to tackle, but have a noble and bold side to him that you can respect. He’s been shown to bring people up, to teach and to guide, to take on the hassles of others just so they can get by in life. And while he does like the praise he gets out of it, you know deep down he does this because it’s good to just do good, even if it doesn’t benefit you always. He could have easily given up the watch and hand it back to Azmuth, but he never does. And his connection with alien and the watch have always been a personal interest with me, even if canon doesn’t delve much into it as they should. The thing with Ben is that he’s perfect for the watch, because he has no problem shaping into another being. And while it’s still Ben underneath, he does change parts of himself for the time being. And the reason he’s fine with this is because he sees life and potential with all the aliens he can be. He sees the different powers they hold and wants to show just what they can do to help, what the galaxy could build if they worked together. It’s funny that the omnitrix was build for peace purposes, and while Ben took it a different way than what Azmuth wanted, he found a way to make it work. I know other characters wouldn’t be able to handle the watch like this the way Ben does, even Albedo proves this by how he acts with his aliens, seeing them as nothing but tools while treating himself as the higher being, while Ben accepts what he turns into, and understands what makes certain aliens special.  Sadly, Ben is a tragic character when it comes to the poor writing and constant switch in series, as Cartoon Network can’t seem to understand what to do with him. But that does make him a fun character to work off of and write, and I’ve seen some amazing things in the fandom with what they’ve done with him. So I've seen hated Ben, because I often see his as wasted potential for the character he could have been, and he does have great moments that are canon that I love. 💚

#I did not mean to make this long #Whoops! #But I hope some of you enjoy my essay about these characters I love #Got too much to say lol #my answers #Ben 10 #ben 10 alien force #ben 10 ultimate alien #ben 10 omniverse #ben tennyson #ben 10 ben tennyson #generator rex #generator rex rex salazar #rex salazar #GR #the secret saturdays #secret saturdays #zak saturday #the secret saturdays zak

[slightlyrebelliouswriter23]

helloo so from what i understand, you’re bi right? if so, how did u know you were bi? cause i am very lost bc sometimes guys are hot but rarely ever the ones actually in my life, but most girls are just so pretty, and idk if my head is omg pretty or omg pretty🥵

hi there, lovely! i do indeed identify as bi. 🥰

i actually figured this out in the most on-brand way possible, and that was by reading a book wherein the main character figures out they're bi. i identified with many of the thoughts that led them to this realisation, and after some consideration, i decided it wasn't just the thoughts i was identifying with. it was the identity itself. (this is hard and takes a lot of introspection and asking yourself "why" and "what if" and "would i" over and over again, but it'll feel more natural to ask these things the more you do it).

but my sexuality is actually a lot more complicated than that. i've identified as demisexual for a lot longer than i've identified as bi. which is probably why it took me so long to really parse out my attraction to more than just men. i don't experience attraction the way most people do.

i didn't identify with the "normal" teenage experiences of getting flustered by the popular kids just because they were pretty, or getting worked up over a celebrity i didn't know much about. i can count on one hand the number of boys i had a crush on in high school, and most of them were people i was already on friendly terms with before i realised i liked them. i don't get butterflies in my stomach when i look at pretty strangers, and though i can appreciate and acknowledge their beauty, it doesn't make me want to like...... bone them lmao.

even now, openly bi as i am for 3ish years, i still question myself. am i actually attracted to women or do i just appreciate their aesthetic beauty because we're (typically) socialised to put more effort into our appearance than men? do i want to be with a woman or do i just want to be her? being someone who 1) has never been with a woman and 2) doesn't experience instantaneous attraction, no answer is easily wrested.

but this line of thought is also part of the bi experience, i'm told, so it doesn't feel wrong, just confusing sometimes, and i just try to remind myself that the questioning is good. it is so, so good. because it led me here, to a place where i'm more confident and comfortable with myself than ever.

my advice to anyone questioning their sexuality is first to remember that you don't ever have to identify as anything if it doesn't serve you. labels are there if you want them and if they help you feel more connected to yourself. they are less labels, really, and more tools to help you see yourself, to help other people see you (if you want them to).

and second, remember that you can ALWAYS change your mind. sexuality is fluid, not static. we're not things to fit into neat little boxes with labels about who we'll sleep with or who we'll want to plan our lives with, wrapped up in a pretty bow forever. we're messy and nebulous and ever-changing. even the cells in our body dictate that we are entirely different people every 7 years, so why would our preferences remain completely unchanged?

so i think "bi" works for me now, but maybe in ten years i'll feel more connected to "pan" and maybe ten years after that they'll have come up with some other word that i'll feel more aligned with. and maybe i won't, who knows? only me, whenever i get there.

anyways, nonnie, sorry for this tangential ramble. i hope this helped even a little. and i'm wishing you much luck and love in wherever your questioning takes you ❤️❤️❤️

#rip this was longer than intended 💀 #anygayyyssss #happy pride 🌈 #lgbt #bisexual #demisexual #asked and answered #nonnie #personal

[stillness-in-green]

I saw speculation on this going around & I’m curious to get your thoughts on it: where do you think Geten’s story might be going in the future, & do u think it’s possible Dabi will kill him? I saw ppl talking about Dabi’s noted distaste for him & how the PLF seems more of a temporary alliance in the LoV’s mind (Compress’ noted rejection of the name in his thoughts, Dabi’s use of Skeptic against his will, etc), & w/ AFO back in the picture they theorized Dabi may get his quirk & kill Geten.

Okay, so, it took me a while to grapple with this one, and in the end, I'm going to have to break my reply up into two parts. Because you asked a very simple question, anon, and my answer to the question you actually asked is pretty simple (if characteristically rambly)! But you also provided a bunch of contextualizing information about what prompted your ask, and I have a lot to say about that contextualizing information, stuff that is only tangentially related to your actual question.

Note that some of this is going to get pretty salty, but I assume you wouldn't have brought a Known MLA Stan a question like this if you didn't want at least a bit of that. Most of the salt will be in the second part, though! This first part is pretty safe!

So, to answer the actual question: I don't have a lot of solid thoughts on where Geten's story is going, because from the looks of the way the series as a whole is going, it may well be that the MLA’s story is already done. I have previously expressed concerns about the current status of the MLA mainly because of all the speculation that Horikoshi is trying to rush to get to the ending, and if Hori’s rushing the ending, I don’t know that I’d bet on Geten coming back at all. In fact, given what I can guess about the scenario, I’d kind of rather he not.

The thing is, the MLA have always been far more relevant to the League than they have been to anyone else in the cast. They’re Tomura's victory spoils; their plot beats were established to connect to the League, not the heroes, the students, or even All For One. There’s just no personal connection there, and lacking a personal connection, all they’d do is be fodder for background fights to fill page space and give the side characters something to do.

And there’s just no drama in that! Not even any tension! We've already seen the MLA characters beaten--first by the villains, and then by the heroes. Hell, we've seen Re-Destro beaten three times!(1) Based on how the raid went, there are maybe three people in the entire MLA that present a credible threat--Hose Face, whose name we don’t even know, Re-Destro, who has a repeatedly-illustrated weak point in the form of his new legs, and Geten.

While I definitely think Geten could give any of the students save Deku a run for their money,(2) what would be the point? Who would he be slotted in to have a dramatic fight with? Geten hurt Cementoss, but he didn't kill him, and none of the students are uniquely close to Cementoss anyway. Geten has never personally offended or harmed any of the kids directly. There was a time people theorized that Shouto's end game boss would be a combination of Geten and Dabi, but with the PLF scattered, that looks less likely.

From the other side of things, Geten himself has no particular beef with the kids. If he'd been on the front lines to witness the opening moments of the battle, maybe he'd have a bone to pick with Kaminari, Kinoko, Juzo, and particularly Tokoyami, but it took Geten a bit to get to the front; he has no particular way of knowing about those four, and at the moment, he certainly has more pressing matters on his mind.

Geten's primary interest, when it comes right down to it, is Re-Destro. He talks a big game about the MLA's goals, but when the pivotal moment comes in Deika, he bails on the battle that was assigned to him to try and help RD instead. He claims that pure strength is to be valued above all else, but his loyalties don’t change when Gigantomachia bats him aside like a fly or when Shigaraki proves himself to be An Strongest. Even up to Jakku, Geten is still concerned solely with Re-Destro. With no real reason to pit RD against the kids, there’s no reason to throw Geten against them, either.

The only person Geten has an established rivalry with is, of course, Dabi, but getting the two of them even in the same vicinity again is going to require breaking the MLA leaders out of jail, which clearly isn't a priority of AFO's, and he's the one running the show right now. Would Shigaraki bother? He might, particularly if RD, Trumpet and Geten all get shipped to whatever Tartarus Lite Mr. Compress and Machia are likewise bound for. But if the story is headed to its conclusion, is Shigaraki ever going to get that option?

Is AFO the final boss? If so, it doesn't seem to leave much of an opening for the MLA to become relevant again, because, again, the MLA are all about Tomura's victory, Tomura’s ascendant arc as a villain, his status as a hero to other villains (namely RD). If Deku "saving" Shigaraki from All For One is going to magically resolve all of Tomura's issues with society as a whole, because hey, at least this kid is a good person, so his society can't be so bad after all! (GAG), that doesn't seem to leave much room to get into the myriad issues with society that all of Tomura's followers have. Frankly, the only thing the MLA has to offer Deku right now that's remotely relevant to his current goals is Re-Destro's starry-eyed explanation about why he's fallen so hard for Shigaraki, and Spinner is better suited for that role on basically every level.

So that’s all been one big if. The other alternative is the ending I'm hoping we get, in which Deku and Shigaraki join forces to put an end to AFO, only for Shigaraki to thank Deku cordially and then get right back to destroying things because, surprise surprise, Midoriya Izuku being a good person doesn't absolve Hero Society of all of its many, many sins. Then I can see there being room for the MLA to return. At that point, not only is there RD’s devotion to Shigaraki on offer, but also the MLA’s ideology of Liberation, what it is, what it offers, along with, for example, more on whatever Harima Oji’s complaints were about heroes, more on what has to change systemically to satisfy Shigaraki’s grudge. That’s a story the MLA can meaningfully contribute to, and therefore a story in which Geten and his quirk supremacist beliefs are more likely to be addressed.

However, I’m not optimistic that we’re going to get that ending, and until we find out whether Shigaraki will be satisfied with being rescued from AFO (if, indeed, he survives the process at all), or whether he and his compatriots’ societal issues will be left by the wayside, I’m not yet prepared to spend a lot of time theorizing on how the MLA’s role in it would look.

As to the specific question of Dabi killing Geten--honestly? I think that moment is past. While I said earlier that Dabi is Geten’s only established rivalry, that is frankly being more generous than their relationship actually warrants. After all, we haven’t seen them interact since Deika, and literally the only time one of them has so much as thought of the other in that period was Dabi grumbling, “That icy punk sure knows how to let loose,” after Geten’s big wall of ice attack allows Tokoyami to get away with Hawks. If their continued animosity were going to be a plot point, and especially if Dabi were going to murder him in cold blood eventually, Horikoshi should have shown us the two of them antagonizing each other as co-lieutenants of the Violet Regiment.

At this point, Dabi has made his big play, revealed his identity to the world. I think he's pretty locked into the Todoroki Drama now; he has bigger concerns than going back and winning a grudge match against Geten. Also too, given the point he's trying to prove about the strength of his/Endeavor's flames, would he even want Geten's quirk? If he were to get it, would he get the "evolved" version or just the basic one?(3) Because given the precedent set by both the mechanics of Monoma's Copy and AFO's comments about Jeanist's Fiber Master, I'd be inclined to think the latter, and Geten's ice powers are way less badass without the temperature control, especially for a dude trying to wield them in concert with flames of the temperature Dabi uses.

From a narrative standpoint, Geten has already been punished for his hubris with a personal defeat, the humbling of his leader, a loss of pride in his organization, and then a second, much more damning defeat and subsequent capture at the hands of heroes. Dabi taking his quirk and killing him at this point would just be kicking--indeed, killing--him when he’s already down. It doesn’t feel like karma; it just feels malicious.

That said, in the rather dubiously scaffolded scenario that the MLA gets free and finds their way back to the League and AFO/Shigaraki takes Geten's quirk(4) and Dabi accepts it, would Dabi then kill Geten with it?

…I mean, maybe? Do people think that Dabi is that much of a sadist? Because it would be the act of a sadist, to murder a kid who's almost certainly younger than he is and might even still be a teenager, one who has just been violently stripped of any ability to defend himself, all out of a desire for petty revenge over a months-old slight--a slight consisting of Geten parroting rhetoric he learned from the weird cult he grew up in, and which Dabi has very possibly been working with Skeptic long enough to know is maybe not all that accurate a characterization of the cult's ideals anyway!

And that brings me to Part 2. ---------------------------------------

(1) Four, if you count the clone’s destruction.

(2) Even 1-A's two remaining powerhouses don't present any more of a threat to Geten's ice than Dabi did, and Shouto will only give him more of it to work with. Their advantage over Dabi is that they can both sort of fly, which might well tip the balance--one of Geten's major advantages is his ability to manipulate ice from a considerable distance away, farther away than Dabi's flames can reach, but flying opponents deprive him of that advantage. Now, Shouto's flying is fairly unstable, so I suspect Geten is more maneuverable in the air, but his maneuverability wouldn't save him from Bakugou, the human equivalent of the anger-powered jetpack.

(3) Set aside the Doylist explanations about anyone who stole Geten's quirk getting the version the audience already knows purely out of laziness, forgetfulness, or authorial fiat.

(4) And look me dead in the eye and tell me Geten would just let Shigaraki Tomura or anything currently inhabiting his body just casually stroll up and lay hands on him without protest. Not to say I think AFOmura couldn't do it, but doing it in a "cool," dramatic way would probably involve some lightning movements we have not seen him make thus far.

#bnha #stillness answers #geten #meta liberation army #dabi