#I legit the other day remembered I had tumblr and I was like oh I wonder whats going on on there 💀

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

Breaking down the comics: BEMIS. Part 1

READING THINGS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO! 

Alright, I covered "Age of Khonshu" and honestly was so incensed that I had to make a post talking about it. 

So let's get this other bread (and burn it). 

A lot of new Moon Knight fans have heard the cry when asked what to read and where to get started. And true fans everywhere agree: DON'T READ BEMIS. 

And there are long posts and screams and sobbing about why not to read it that come out to "It's so bad!" 

But there are the curious out there. They want to know why it's bad. They want to know what happened. And...well... 

It spans a few issues. I…I was foolish and thought “I can do this in one go! How long can this take? I don’t want to spend that much time on BEMIS.” ….I forgot that doing one of these usually takes me the better part of a day to cover ONE issue. 

I’m going to break this up into Four (fuck you Tumblr) parts and cover both volumes instead of a post per issue. I don’t want Bemis to take up that much space so prepare for a few VERY LONG posts. 

Let's ruin my month! (AKA: Watch me slowly descend into blind rage). 

Marvel Legacy: Moon Knight. 2017. Issues 188-200. 

Part 1: Crazy Runs in the Family.  (Issues 188-193) Published: November 08, 2017

Written by: Max Bemis

Art by: Jacen Burrows

Editor: Jeff Youngquist 

Let's start with: 

WHO IS MAX BEMIS? 

Oh my god he's in a band. He's the lead singer for the rock band "Say Anything". 

My level of disappointment just doubled. 

According to his bio: He was raised in a 'strong Jewish environment'. His grandparents survived the Holocaust. All this has inspired his music. 

(I can't even begin to tell you how much actually looking up who he is has made me ten times angrier). 

In 2013 he started to write comics. More importantly, he wrote for characters that suffered different mental health issues. ('Polarity' at Boom! Studios about a hero with bipolar disorder). 

He then ended up at Marvel. 

For his personal life: He has bipolar disorder and self medicates with drugs (Marijuana). 

He also self identifies as "A Jew who is also a Christian", which he considers a "New age, metaphysical view" on religion. 

Good. Great. Fantastic. Now I know who this man is and I hate him even more. 

What's even funnier? Apparently his music fans ALSO hate him because he's "a sanctimonious hypocrite". 

Seriously, there's a whole Reddit page on why he's a terrible person. I'm not going to site any sources because I can't fact check a lot of those claims and maybe they are false or maybe they are true. I'm not here to slander a life. I'm here to talk about Moon Knight. 

I’ve procrastinated enough. Let’s go…. 

We open on "Ravencroft Asylum". Good start. 

We see a Doctor Emmett talking to a patient in a locked cell that's stylized like a prison interrogation cell. 

"You say remembering your youth is like looking through a layer of Jell-O. Were do things become lucid? When did you become yourself?" 

(I already hate it). 

"I learned who I was in the army, that much is clear." The patient responds. 

"I get it. The army. The incident. Aside from the physical, what did you walk away with on the day you hurt them?" The doctor looks at the files. 

And the patient is hesitant to speak on it, but he tells her that "In the army, I learned that there is a God." 

He talks about how he saw God 'in his fire' and that non-believers, atheists, skeptics, and all that are wrong. How they can't understand how big God is. 

(And now I remember when I first read this how uncomfortable this first issue made me.) 

"They weren't very nice to me in the Army, but why would they be? I had to show them I was more devoted, more significant than they were." 

I'm going to put a pause on this right here after just two pages. There are some Trigger Warnings that need to be discussed real quick. 

I grew up in the deep south and I’ve legit heard talk like this in real life. It’s terrifying. 

I knew a lot of 'born again' Christians who tried to 'save my soul'. 

This comic is going to get VERY uncomfortable for anyone that has had to deal with religious trauma. Just putting it out there. Skip if you can't handle any sort of religious trauma like excessive God Talk, Cultish behavior, Come to Jesus moments, or severe Antisemitism. 

On top of the religions issues, this comic is also going to have significant mental health mishandling. We’re talking about abuse from Doctor figures, use of improper terminology, abuse of the mentally ill, and severe discrimination. 

OH and misogyny. Let’s not forget the misogyny. 

This comic run also gets very…disgusting. I had many moments when reading this that legitimately turned my stomach. There is going to be depictions of self mutilation, gore, suicidal acts, and violence. 

I AM GOING TO CENSOR THINGS. I will not blur images, but I will NOT be posting any of the comic pages that depict any of these violent, shock value, images. I’ll give a brief rundown of what’s going on and tell you that there is an image that I am going to skip. I’m telling you guys, these two runs were disgusting and curdled my stomach many times. Especially issue two. 

So…Those are your only trigger warnings. 

Let’s continue. 

So now we see a narration by Dr. Emmett. 

It is not going to paint a good light on Dr. Emmett. 

She's in her office at night going over files. 

"Sometimes, this job is guiltily fun... To be frank, patient 86 is @#%$ FASCINATING. He attributes his pyromania to a leap of faith. Conversely, I might argue that it was the fifth canteen full of force-fed urine that inspired him. 

Sometimes I get him so fully that it's like I want to have a beer with the guy. 

He wears self-delusion with so much dignity. I wish I had that level of resolve, that I could stop fixating on the...SPECTOR conundrum.

I'm just a failure of a doctor, left without a shell-shocked dissociative bipolar to shove away in a box. 

In any other instance, I'd dial this one in. It's just that one nagging thing. 

Lunatic joins the army. Said lunatic freaks out and ends up spiritually reborn in a near-death experience. 

Sound like anyone you know?" 

OH GOOD. GREAT. I just... Deep breath. Deep breath. 

We’re going to play that angle. Woman psychiatrist/psychologist falls for her feminine desire to get with her patient. She can’t be expected to uphold her standards as a doctor or her doctor patient relationship. She has to dream for that exciting patient. She plays it off as wanting the award winning famous patient that makes her career into something amazing but because she’s a woman she has to play the dreamy sighing “Oh look how amazing he is!” role. And of course she’s after Marc. She can’t have Marc, so she finds this other patient that has a similar start of PTSD military based trauma and she’s going to fail to help him because she wants him to be like the other guy. 

Not to mention she's using outdated terms like "Shell Shocked". 

A term coined in WWI when for the first time, the world witnessed large groups of men coming back from war after encountering new aged weapons never dealt with or seen before. 

Then she calls him Bipolar and links it to his Dissociative disorder. 

I don't have a degree in psychology, but I do have a special interest. From what I've seen in the OG early comics by Moench, Marc Spector is not Bipolar. He does not exhibit episodes of mania followed by deep periods of depression. I'd go further into it, but trust me... He has a LOT of issues, but Bipolar was not one of them to start with. 

In fact, after Schizophrenia, Bipolar was one of the most commonly misdiagnosed mental illnesses. A lot of people with DID were misdiagnosed with Bipolar disorder because of the way the symptoms presented in many cases. You didn't have another person in your brain, you were just exhibiting mania and now you're depressed. 

ANOTHER THING to take issue with! 

This comic is coming DIRECTLY on the heels of Lemire's run. In that run, it was the first time we dealt with Marc's official time in the army and his dissociative states. 

We saw Marc wandering through the desert, dissociating and dealing with Khonshu issues. 

The off handed tick about "Lunatic joins the army. Said lunatic freaks out and ends up spiritually reborn in a near-death experience." 

1. The army did not lead to a Near-Death experience for Marc Spector. He joined the Mercenaries and was killed when his conscious got the better of him and his leader shot him for trying to save someone. 

2. A doctor of psychology should NOT be using terms like 'Lunatic'. 

3. Marc didn't 'FREAK OUT'. He had several dissociative episodes that ended up with him being discharged. 

4. Marc was NOT 'spiritually reborn'. Depending on who is writing and how Khonshu himself is being depicted... An ancient god revived him as his avatar. This is not converting him in any sense of the word. Marc Spector may have issues with his Jewish beliefs and upbringing, but he is still very Jewish. He was NOT 'spiritually reborn'. He was brought back to life to act as Avatar and Marc took this to being Moon Knight, vengeance, paying for the pain he caused, and trying to be a better person. To be a different person. To be anyone except Marc Spector. Jake and Steven took this to just mean that they wanted to help people. 

So... Yeah... Now we move on to the title page. 

This is going well. We can already tell that Bemis either just didn’t read the Lemire run and got the cliff notes, or he just didn’t care and only took away bits without understanding the actual story it had to tell. 

ON THE TITLE PAGE. Ohhhhh man you guys. ON THE TITLE PAGE. 

Every title page has a little blurb explaining who the character is and what's been going on in previously connected issues. This way, people can pick it up and just go without having to dig through old comics. It's also a good reminder for people like me, who have shit memories and have forgotten what's going on after having to wait a whole month for the new issue. 

I honestly have no idea who writes these blurbs. Sometimes you'll get the same blurb that lass for YEARS. (see Bendis run and how that carried over for runs and runs). 

"Marc Spector. Steven Grant. Jake Lockley. Each a distinct personality of one man vying for control. Spector, the original personality, has asserted his dominance and fights to retain that control. But years ago, as a mercenary, Spector died in Egypt under a statue of the Moon God Khonshu. In the shadow of the ancient deity, Marc returned to life. From then on, Marc took on a new aspect in honor of Khonshu, dedicating his second life to fighting crime as....

MOON KNIGHT". 

I want to fight someone. I don’t know who. But I want to fight someone. Whoever wrote this… This is what Marvel took away from the Lemire run. His beautiful run that for the first time, really dealt with Moon Knight’s mental health struggles. That said “They have dissociative Identity Disorder. They are a system. They have learned how to work together. They have found peace in who they are.” And whoever wrote this blurb went “Nawh, but Marc is the dominant and original personality and he’s in charge now!” 

Editor in Chief: Axel Alonso

Chief Creative Officer: Joe Quesada. 

Ah... These guys. These guys are to blame. We meet again Quesada... 

 Alright. We now see Dr. Emmett at some party (birthday party? They're all wearing party hats but they're clearly eating dinner and one guy is wearing a kippah and someone else is wearing a top hat and one guy is wearing no hat. I... I don't even know. This is all a disaster at this point.) 

The group is laughing about things and Dr. Emmett is day dreaming about Marc Spector. 

"Marc, my former patient. And this new one, patient 86. Traumatic experiences in the middle east. The similarity is brazen. Was there something in Marc's experience that patient 86 could..." 

Her thoughts are interrupted as one of her colleagues takes a jab at her. "Still stuck on the hooded leotard guy?" 

She snaps to defense and they tell her to let it go. That she can do better than 'that loser'. 

Back at home, she's angry. Moon Knight is not a loser in a leotard. 

And we see her shrine. Yeah... This is healthy. 

Oh good. Back at work she's dealing with patient 86. She's attempting to explain how his brain works to him. 

Get ready for some grade A psychology here people. 

She explains that on one side of his brain is chemistry and the other is "Personality. Socially ingrained behavior. I want you to see the distinction." 

He asks her that the fact that he's murdered people should label him as insane. 

She disagrees. "I'm not sure the fact that you're a murderer proves anything about your nature." 

Hmm. 

She goes on to explain that "So many have been clinically impared by their unique brain chemistry. They needed help. We failed them. Imagine hearing audible voices that told you to eat a person. These people needed treatment." 

And she points to cases like Sam, Gein, and Fish. 

Yeah... Because Gein needed treatment. I'm just gonna... Just gonna.... ARGH. 

"You developed bipolar disorder during your early adulthood. Moods fluctuating from mania to depression to utterly convincing delusion. Compounded by the traumatic childhood on the street, in state homes, and juvie that you barely recall. None of these things were your fault. Nor what happened in the desert." 

Okay, they're just throwing out things at this point. They're just going to start listing off the sterotypical bad childhood leads to a bad kid and trauma things. 

She then goes on to tell him that she understands what he did. That it was not his fault, that he was looking for something to control and fire was his answer. Not to mention God. "None of these symbols are inherently harmful. I've seen the power of symbolism redeem one of my patients who was literally split apart by trauma." 

oh no. no no no no...That's not how... ARGH. 

"Imagine what it could do for someone who was ready to receive help. Bipolar disorder, when tempered, can produce intense inspiration and creativity. I want to help you." 

And she adds "Kurt Cobain" to the list. 

I'm just going to... To sit here... quietly raging. 

Alright, so now we see Dr. Emmett walking through the Egyptian exhibit at the museum. 

"If Egyptian Mythology worked for Spector...It could work for my mysteriously nameness patient." 

HOW IS HE NAMELESS?! HE WAS IN THE ARMY. They KNOW where he was stationed, they know what unit he was in, they know the trauma he faced and bullying, and they know the group of people he killed! OF COURSE THEY ARE GOING TO KNOW WHO HE IS. 

"As I stand in front of the statue of Khonshu, Marc's main squeeze, I have a very important realization--Marc Spector may be legally insane... But he was never crazy at all. 

Is every priest who hears the voice of their lord crazy? Every shaman? The damn writers of the constitution, invoking god on every page?

Marc manifested the meaning of this icon. His dissociative identity disorder simply brought it more vividly to life. 

He needed an emblem of his inner bedlam and his innate need to protect victims. And the god of these qualities--Khonshu--came to him literally." 

THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS. He didn't get DID out in the desert. He's had it since he was a very young boy! He didn't go to Khonshu to try to make sense of it! His DID didn't 'bring it to light'. It didn't make him hear the voice of god! 

So she decides to pick out a god for her patient. 

Cause that's healthy. 

She considers Osiris, Horus, ....Imhotep... 

But of course she stops at Ra. 

You know what's really getting to me right now? This so called Ivy league doctor that clearly has no idea what she's doing, has zero ability to draw the line at doctor patient relationship, her obsessive tendencies, and pushing her obsession onto another patient. 

Furthermore, when you look at Patient 86, you do see a man that recognizes that he did something wrong. That he needs help and is in a place to try to understand how his own brain is working. We see him clinging to her words and trying to understand where she's going with her treatment. 

She explains that Khonshu is Ra's son. 

"I explain my understanding of the two gods' dynamic to 86. Some of it comes from established myth, some from Freudian interpretation." 

FREUDIAN. THEY ARE GOING FREUDIAN. This is a no Freud zone. 

"Amon Ra represented the burning, blazing emblem of masculine virility that is the sun. In many cultures, the sun stands for the sovereignty of masculinity --logic and raw power. But in the New Kingdom of Egyptian lore it was his Adopted son Khonshu who was described as "Greatest God of the Great Gods." 

(Nope. There was a brief Khonshu cult where they briefly played at worshiping the Moon instead of the sun. This was later put down and Ra resurged as the leading deity again. And it certainly wasn't the 'New Kingdom' path to look at him as the greatest of the great). 

"Khonsu of the moon, a universal symbol for the redemptive power of insubordination--femininity and sensitivity. The Ras of this world resent becoming passe. It makes them angry. And they burn harder to spite their own impotence. Established society can't accept change. Can't accept that the old ways don't work anymore." 

Oh good. Misogynistic teachings. Just what he needs. 

"Something happened to you when you were young, dropped you into a sea of lost children. I believe what you're hiding from yourself was most likely some form of abuse." 

She asks him to try to remember and he does remember abuse from the people in the army but also as a child being abused. 

Now we have the utmost breach of doctor patient confidentiality. 

"Finally, I reveal the tale of Marc Spector to 86. How a confused mentally unstable boy drew on the figurative power of the Moon to justify his nature. 

Marc's transformation into the hero called Moon Knight...A role model for the bewildered. 

I pass along all my endless research and documentation of his life since he was under my care, as well as several well-regarded books considering Egyptian mythology." 

AHHHHHHHHHH.

"And madly enough, patient 86 gets it. It clicks in him. He sees how Spector, like him, was not just insane, but was truly immersed in a living myth. It was never the moon's fault that it shone so brightly." 

Now we see Dr. Emmett having a nightmare. 

She sits in a large empty and white office when she's suddenly attacked by mummies. 

Moon Knight shows up to save her and rips apart the mummies. 

But wait, it's not Moon Knight! 

JESUS. I don't know why that reminded me. But this patient is purposefully drawn to resemble the white Christian version of Jesus. So that’s another contention I have with this comic. 

I’m also 90% certain that that cat wasn’t white a few pages ago… 

Alright, back at the asylum, we see a changed patient. He's more confident. More thoughtful. 

She tells him he needs to be present and not dissociating into the void. She wants to continue his 'traditional therapy' as well as his "...studies." 

He tells her that he knows who he is now. 

She tells him that even if "the allegory of Khonshu brings you resolve, you still need medicine. You still need therapy." 

"So, it's just a story now? I suppose Ra never let his wrath rain down on his errant son? That everything you taught me was an illusion?" 

Suddenly she's back peddling. Saying she didn't teach him that. It's not what she was trying to get him to understand. 

He asks her to leave. He has things to think about. 

I mean, honestly what did she think was going to happen? 

She has a patient that believes that he has been touched by the divine and has become godly. So she has given him a god that is involved in FIRE, the thing he is associating with god. She's basically given him a path to his own displacement!! 

She FINALLY realizes that she can just go to the military hospital to try to figure out who he really is. 

At the military medical facility, she talks to another doctor. 

"I don't say this a lot about multiple murderers, but... If you're asking what I thought of the man, I'd have to admit he brought nothing but warmth to this place." 

And that's the thing. He's a quiet and pleasant man. Introspective and not really possessing his own unique personality. He accepts what is put on him. A sort of trauma processing and self defense. 

The doctor then explains that patient 86 signed up for the army under a forged alias. Okay. So that explains why they don't know who he is... But they could call him by that name instead of just 86. 

While she's there, another patient runs up, having overhead who they were talking about. 

He screams about how he was there and he saw what happened. 

"We all know the truth. It was impossible. They had him tied up. Naked. How could he have possibly started that fire? No matches, no lighter. I know what he--" 

The orderlies show up and of course pull him away. 

At the same time she gets an emergency message from her own asylum telling her to get back there right away. 

She gets back to find 's room covered in blood. 

Her response? 

"How could this be? Was it all for nothing? As a doctor, I believed I could make a difference. But again, I am just at the whim of the raw, elemental power of insanity." 

NO. You most certainly are not at the whim of the power of insanity! THIS IS YOUR JOB. Your job is to help people who have mental health issues! Being a doctor in a mental health institution is HARD. You have the lives of people at their most vulnerable in your hands! 

So what happened? 

Another nurse tells Dr. Emmett: "We found him like this and immediately restrained him. So nobody else besides Nurse Hayworth could be hurt. ALso... There was no other way to retrieve her nose." 

Cool. We're going Hannibal Lecter now? For dramatics? For shock value? 

I'm not going to show you the comic picture here. I hate it. It hurts to look at. It's disgusting. It's clearly done for shock value. 

But we see  wrapped up in a restraint jacket with blood all over his face. Behind him he's drawn RANDOM vaguely Egyptian hieroglyphs in blood. 

She asks him why he did it. 

"When I revealed myself to her... She didn't believe me." 

Dr. Emmett is confused. She thought he was a kind and compassionate man who had a terrible upbringing and didn't know who he was. 

He tells her that she should know who he is since she taught it to him. 

"Khonshu." She answers. Because she's an idiot. 

"Khonshu is nothing next to me." 

He bursts into flames, igniting the whole room. 

"I wanted to speak to you before I go, but...I'll have to take leave of you now, Dr. E. Whatever made me the way I am is irrelevant. You brought me purpose. You showed me that I am--and always have been--A God." 

"Dear Lord. Amon Ra." 

He tells her that Khonshu is going to bow to him even if he has to crack his spine and so on and so on.... 

He leaves the hospital, leaving the doctor to die in the flames. 

We see flashes of his past where he set fire to his abusers as a kid and again in the army. Fire caused by his own mind. 

"He was always meant to become this. And now I know what trauma robbed him of his memories. Sometimes the sun gives birth to a bright brilliant Moon, changing us for the better. But sometimes it consumes us... And we burn, it becomes all we can see." 

We cut to a shot of the hospital being on fire and emergency services there. 

Look! They found a survivor in the flames! The commentary between the paramedics is disgusting. And the casual way they move to treat the survivor is also just disgusting. 

We get to see the survivor and it's Dr. Emmett. Completely burned up but still alive. Again... shock value and I'm not going to show you the image here. But it's bad. 

She is laughing and yelling about how she believes. 

We see 86 walking away from the hospital down the road, happy, and also naked. I honestly don’t know why this became a thing in comics with naked guys all over the place. It’s obviously used as a way to elicit some sort of reaction from the reader. One of disgust, something to laugh at, or just “Oh no! The man is naked now!” I hate it. 

Then we get a few pages from Khonshu. A recap on Marc's story. 

It's not told right. But I will forgive it because it's told from Khonshu's point of view, and that asshole probably sees it this way. So... I suppose I'll turn a blind eye to how wrong the story is here. 

You would see it as Marc begging, wouldn't you, you stupid pigeon. 

"He became...A hero. He used my powers to fight crime. To find redemption. It only cost him his mind. You see, the criminals aren't the only thing Marc Spector fights. He also fights... 

"The voices in his head. Marc Suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder." 

I've said it before. It stopped being called Multiple Personality Disorder YEARS ago. This is lazy writing with no research. And coming off of Lemire's run, this is just insulting. 

Also calling it 'voices in his head' is just outright pitiful. 

"But given time, he has managed to make peace with those voices. Including mine. No, together, we are... MOON KNIGHT." 

And that's the end of the issue. 

We get an afterward from the author. 

It angers me beyond words. 

"Writing Moon Knight (not "a book like Moon Knight" or "Writing such a huge project for Marvel"...Writing Moon Knight) is a dream come true. I couldn't pick a better place in the Marvel U to inject my passion into, and it is the pinnacle of everything I've worked towards as a writer. 

Anyone who treats a superhero comic as an easy paycheck needs to check themselves and realize why they're our most prevalent modern myths. Thank YOU (and my fam at Marvel) for letting me write this, supporting my previous work, and allowing me to make comics with someone as esteemed and talented as Jacen. 

I only ask that if you enjoyed this somewhat bizarre issue, keep reading this book. I want to enjoy it with you. Maybe we can claw away at something horrible together. 

It will not, however, be pretty.  

-Thanks, 

Max Bemis." 

We also get an afterword by the artist, Jacen Burrows that notes that they are following in the wake of legends like Smallwood and Lemire as well as Ellis and Shalvey who worked hard to re-awaken Moon Knight after it's cancellation (see Bendis). They note that they are working to tell a new and defining chapter in his character and a thought-provoking, intense, and scary note in Marc Spector's life. 

I'm going to go punch a wall now. 

NEXT ISSUE! #189! 

Here we go… issue two… Let’s get this…moldy… bread. 

We open on... NYC Subway. We see a happy dude driving the subway car. As the car rolls into the station, a large man steps into the cab with him. 

"Happy to have made it to Friday? The stench of your jubilance is offensive. But you're right to rejoice. Today you learn the truth." 

He touches the driver's shoulder and slowly a blue beam over takes him and his eyes turn blood red and start to bleed. ...I'm not posting a picture. 

"Tell me what you've learned by knowing me. I'm living in you now." 

The driver starts to stammer and talk. "H...H..Humanity is perverse. Genocide is the comeuppance we deserve. There is no creator. Undebatable. Love is a contrivance. Undebatable. The white house is the death star. Twitter is a virus. And when the nukes raze everything we know...Only a fool would claim it wasn't our destiny." 

Yeah... The large man calls himself "THE TRUTH" and has the ability to send these visions into the people he touches. It makes the driver hate everything and he starts up the car again, out to spread the truth. 

We are back to Khonshu narrating. 

"My name is Khonshu. Moon God of Egypt. I'm here to tell you a story about a mad vigilante named Marc Spector. Our tale finds us here, on a standard night for Marc, who, when dressed in all white and donning a cape, refers to himself as Moon Knight. 

Marc has spent ten minutes decorating this bar with the blood of these drug dealers and slavers. The cacophony of snapping collarbones and pit-pattering plasma is like whale songs to him. 

As the thud of a man being literally punted across the room sounds, Marc Spector is grateful for his life. 

For the privilege of serving me. Khonshu, protector of travelers in the night. 

You see, Marc Spector is crazy. But in the context of my blessing, he is, well...A 'Super Hero'." 

I overlooked it before, considering it comes from Khonshu's narrative and Khonshu WOULD see things differently.... But I can't. I can't even attribute this to Khonshu. This is just tripe bullshit. 

We're going to start fast forwarding here because... It just keeps going on like this. The old bird just doesn't shut up. He carries on for three pages and there is a LOT of text there. 

We see Moon Knight beating up a bunch of guys to a bloody mess. Then we move down to see a bandaged up Marc heading up to his VERY run down, grungy, apartment building. He waves hello to some old lady behind the glass that runs the place. 

He tells her he'll have the rent for her in the morning. 

Khonshu again calls Marc having just recovered from a 'personal crisis' and taking his problems more seriously, like his struggle with 'multiple personality disorder'. 

Khonshu boasts about how hard it is to live with a demigod in your head and that Marc has learned to 'live with his lunacy and wield it like a weapon'. 

We see Marc ironing his Moon Knight outfit while watching TV. 

Khonshu AGAIN talks about how Marc has learned to use his three distinct identities and that therapy has let him come a long way. About how Marc came to him begging to have his life saved and now Marc is his 'earthly champion'. 

"Or perhaps he was a space cadet whose psychosis was triggered by being shot up and dried out in the baking middle east sun. Your call." 

THIS IS WHAT YOU GOT FROM LEMIRE?! THIS?! How...How... HOW. 

We now see Marc passed out in bed. 

"Marc is ready to become someone else." 

Yeah so… We got him ‘becoming’ Steven. Who talks to Khonshu. Sure. Fine. Whatever. Khonshu calls him Narcissistic and decadent. 

FIRST OF ALL. Oh. You did NOT just come for Steven Grant. Oh we are going to have words now. 

Steven Grant is a beautiful wonderful man who has dreams of charity, peace, and living the perfect life that he was EXPECTED to live as a child under his father’s role. He’s the ideal son he was supposed to be, but he keeps his eyes on what’s right and what’s wrong and has STRONG moral opinions. He takes care of the body because he HAS TO. Marc isn’t going to do it. If it wasn’t for Steven, they’d turn into a walking festering infection with broken bones and starve to death! Steven keeps them alive and HEALTHY. He is the epitome of the one that gives because he believes in living a good life as a good person. 

Oh. Now you're gonna come for my boy Jake?! YEAH. YOU BETTER AVOID DISCUSSING HIM FOR NOW. I’LL BITE ANYONE THAT COMES FOR JAKE. (spoilers: I know exactly what he does with Jake later and I am furious). 

Alright. Back to Patient 86, or RA as he's going to be called later for a bit. 

We see him in a homeless shelter getting soup. He talks to various homeless people, prostitutes and druggies in an effort to locate someone. There are heavy implications in some of these images that he 'did things' to get the information he wanted. I’m not going to post them because of the nature of the way these people are being depicted. 

Back with Khonshu and Steven. He's at some business meeting. He's made them a lot of money. Everyone is happy and celebrating. Apparently Steven goes to struggling companies and makes them VERY wealthy. 

He's decided to donate his portion of the new wealth towards his "Lunar Lives" charity fund that feeds the displaced youth of New York. 

Steven shrugs saying that money is boring and he finds it fun to toss it to places where it doesn't belong. 

Sure, we'll go with that version of Steven Grant being a kind and charitable man. 

The party is interrupted by news reports that a subway conductor committed suicide by crashing the car. The survivors of the crash are now apparently acting strange, "self mutilating" and acting violent towards the aid workers trying to help the scene. 

Steven slips away from the party. 

Moon Knight time. 

But first, we go back to RA. 

He's found the person he's looking for. He's guarded by thugs. After a little encounter, Ra sets fire to one of the thugs and heads up to meet the man. 

Back at the subway crash, we see chaos as rescue workers try to put out the fire, help the injured, and deal with the ones that are suddenly acting violently. 

And Khonshu is still going. It's an interesting choice. I'll give them that. Having Khonshu narrate instead of hearing at ALL from the Moon Knight system. I suppose it gives them bigger leeway when it comes to the unreliable narrator because Khonshu WOULD see things differently. An excuse to not depict Marc and the others correctly? 

....But it still does swing widely and miss far too often. 

"Quite familiar with all the things that make men weep and soil themselves, Marc Spector felt at home in these derelict tunnels." 

We see Moon Knight walk past the crash and into the train tunnels. 

"After too much time confined in a white room, the odor of dead rat fart and fungal growth actually calmed his busy brain. He was in his element-The inspector holmes of king fu madmen." 

See, this is where it falls flat. If Steven is dealing with the business aspect, Marc isn't going to care about that room. 

And again we get ANOTHER jab at Marc being 'insane' and liking the disgusting things and being more at home in dank and terrible places. 

Perhaps Marc is more at home in sewers (there was a sewer man) than Steven or Jake... But it has nothing to do with his mental state. It's because, as Moon Knight, he isn't above things like that. He's not the perfect clean hero that Captain America or Iron man is. He's the man of the people that puts himself down there in the lowest parts because it's where he's needed. 

Moon Knight rightly is able to look at the scene of chaos at the crash site and deduct that it's a psionic attack. 

"Historically, he had found telepaths to generally be meek characters using their sway over the mind as compensation for physical frailty. Like sexually feeble men with muscle cars." 

Unnecessary jab. 

Now, as much as I dislike this art style, it's a choice and there is SOME merit to it. Look, here's a nice page. 

Here’s a badly cropped version. I like the way they drew Moon Knight in the first two panels with the play of the light and shadows. That big angry dude down there is the Truth guy. And I cropped it there because under him is a bunch of guys he’s shown the truth to who are writhing on the ground, bleeding from the eyes and shouting terrible things. 

Moon Knight goes in swinging and lands a few blows, trying to know him out to release the affected people from his psychic attacks. 

The guy is pretty big and he takes the hits easily. 

He manages to grab Moon Knight by the neck and starts to use his abilities on him. 

So what truth does Marc see? 

"I'm a mad circus clown... This is all for myself. There is no Moon God. Just another...Sick... Delusion..." 

I...honestly can see Marc having that issue. It's an issue he's had before where he thinks this is all his own way to keep being violent and that Khonshu is just a product of his need to justify what he does. 

Marc snaps himself out of the psychic attack by punching himself in the face. 

And I forgot that Bemis has decided that Marc Spector is a masochist and he loves it. 

Literally, it has Moon Knight yelling "Ghhh. I #@$% Love it!" 

He attacks the Truth again, slicing him up with his crescent darts and landing blows. 

The Truth remains standing. 

Moon Knight decides to look inward for help. 

"Not having a lot of luck here, Fellas. Khonshu's more of a talker and this guy's power set is the real deal. Grant's useless...Doubt the Truth is looking for stock tips." 

(I forgot that Bemis considers Khonshu to be his own version of an Alter without being an alter? That he just lives in their head.) 

UGH. Yep. Here we go. This is what he's done to Jake. 

"I'm gonna need..." And Moon Knight lets out a scream of rage as Marc steps out and tells Jake to "Do your worst." 

Apparently... Bemis has decided that Jake is the wild card, violent, unpredictable, and brutal. Worse than Marc for some reason. That Jake is the powerhouse of hits... 

I honestly has no idea why he went this route when MARC of all people has always been the one to be the guy that doesn't go down and always hits back. It just makes no sense.

What even. 

Jake comes right at the Truth, spits a tooth in his face, then challenges him. 

"You want to step into Jake Lockley's mind, you gigantic freak? I @#$% Dare you.

You met Marc. Marc's disturbed as hell. Now imagine that he took all the worst parts of himself and let them fuse into a living person. Now go ahead and taste MY truth, you leech." 

I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO SAY ABOUT THIS. 

DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY. It’s not making people out of things! You don’t go “Well I hate that I burn all the cakes so I’m going to make this person my cake burning person!” ALSO Marc isn’t that bad either! Marc did terrible things, but Marc is also the hardest on himself! Marc could burn a cake and then use it as proof that he’s the worst person in the world! And Jake ISN’T a bad person! Jake is a good kind loving man with friends and a good heart and I’M SO ANGRY RIGHT NOW. 

And the whole time, you see ghostly Marc off to the side looking less than pleased at the situation and reminding Jake that "You're not allowed to kill him, Jake." 

And the Truth pulls away in pain. 

"Dear God. The things...The things you've done."

WHAT?! WHAT DID JAKE DO?! DRINK HOT COFFEE AND BURN HIS TONGUE?! DID HE PLAY BALL WITH ONE OF THE LOCAL KIDS AND MISS THE HOOP!? DID HE DOUBLE PARK HIS CAB!? 

Truth is still reeling. "He has no idea...Does he? You blind him to your foul actions! I'll tell him, you fool! I'll tell him about..." 

and Jake cuts Truth off by shoving two crescent darts into his eyes. Yeah...they got an eye thing in this run. I'm not a fan. 

Jake gives the body back to Marc, who instantly wants to know what Truth was talking about. 

He chastises Jake for his actions and tells him that he's going to get a talking to about this later. 

And Marc makes a bad pun about "The Truth Hurts" over the unconscious Truth. 

Khonshu and Steven shake their heads at him and Marc claims to be the funny man. 

whoopy doo. 

With the Truth gone, the afflicted people seem to be recovering now. 

Back at RA's part of the story, he finally makes it upstairs to to see the guy he's been looking for. 

Oh. Oh no. I forgot about this. I totally wiped it from my mind. 

We see someone sitting at a chair. Ra tells him that he's been put here to destroy Khonshu.......

"As a manifestation of his father, Ra, I am offended that he continues to breathe and spread his gospel of dissent through a foul Avatar. A HEBREW, no less. I want your help to end Marc Spector." 

I'm... I'm going to take a minute here. 

I want to make a few things Very...VERY clear. 

I don't care who the fuck is writing this, how they were raised, or where they stand with things now. 

This is not okay. Not in a comic book, not in real life, and not in any sense of the word. 

We have a figure who is CLEARLY styled to look like a Jesus figure that believes he is the Egyptian god Ra. We have him out to destroy Moon Knight because 1. He works with Khonshu and 2. He is a 'Hebrew'. 

This is just disgusting. 

And to put it in a comic. Where people of all ages read it and think that it's okay. 

Maybe you had some teen or young adult that was identifying with the bad guy. It happens. They see a bad guy that came from a bad situation and they root for them or fantasize what it would be like to burn things like they do. And they start spitting hate like this. Violence towards Jewish people. You are giving them permission to hate a people too. To blame them. To look at them as inferior. 

Or maybe you have a young naive kid that has never heard talk like this before and suddenly "Hebrew" becomes a slanderous hateful word. Congrats. You've just turned that kid into always associating that word with bad and disgusting things. It's only a step away from becoming antisemitic in their life. 

I just... I can't. I can't even begin to tell you how much this is painful to see. To see Marvel allow this as a company. A company founded on Jewish people. To see Moon Knight as a comic, based around a Jewish system that was originally designed to be about dealing with trauma and hate and pain and finding a way to get better and continue to find the light in the dark. 

Anyways... Back to the comic...

The man behind the chair is eager to take down Marc Spector, but he knows it takes more than a man. So Ra sets the place on fire to show off his skills. 

The man stands up, impressed. 

Oh look... It's Bushman.

A very poorly drawn Bushman that BARELY makes it past the caricature of an old racist cartoon black man. And it only gets worse from there. And as much as Bushman is the bad guy and used to (USED TO) be Marc's biggest enemy... This version of him only goes downhill from here. And we've moved on from antisemitism to racism. 

fun times for all.... 

Oh good. This issue is done. 

Can you tell I’m regretting this decision yet? 

You know what? I’ve got a question for you to think about! We can all get mad at Bemis. We can point at his horrible story and all the terrible things he wrote about (and boy howdy are there more and they get worse as we go on)... But what about the art? 

As MacKay said “Art can make or break a comic”. You can have the most beautiful story in the world and then have it drawn like shit. So who decided to make everything gory and bloody and shocking? Who decided to make Bushman into…THAT? Did Bemis say “I want you to make him look like this” and then pull up a 1940s comic? Or did Burrows make this call all on his own? Are there really two people to blame for these comics? Can we be angry at the artist too? 

I’m already pretty pissed at the editors that let this happen… But who drew this? 

Jacen Burrows started working with Warren Ellis in 2000. Ah... That explains some of the gore. 

Also illustrated adaptations of Alan Moore. Yup. That explains the gore. Those two have very specific styles that usually translate into a lot of gore. 

Oh yup. He's also worked a lot with Garth Ennis. 

So we've got three of the four most graphic big name comic writers there. This explains a lot. 

I don't have much on his personal life, or things that would show WHY he drew things this way... Perhaps it was direction or perhaps it was choice. Looking at some of his other works, they don't all look like this. So who knows? 

NEXT ISSUE! #190! 

I don’t want this bread. Send it back. I want different bread.

You know what? Why even bring Bushman into this? 

This is a move designed to pull the old fans back in and to elicite "OH MAN" emotions from people. And it is not done well. 

Bushman started as the big bad. He was the one that worked with Marc as a mercinary and the one that killed him. He's shown up a few times over the years, putting fear into Marc as Bushman threatened his friends. Then Marc killed him (and cut off his face). 

So why bring him back? He's done. Marc has burried this particular thing of the past. He's a memory of a ruthless and brutal time. 

And what they do with him here is just... They mock him. They make that memory into something grose and shameful. 

You'll see in a bit. 

So the next issue opens on some look backs at Moon Knight through the ages. We've seen this before. Other one shots and annuals have touched on the other Knights of Khonshu. 

This time we see it through Ra's eyes. 

"And so it has been since the days the gods themselves walked the earth. Ra and Khonshu, vengeful father and errant son. Warring for the very soul of the world, reborn again and again through earthly avatars. And in every instance....Ra is humbled. Shamed." 

....Did Bemis even do mythological research? Is he just going based on "Ah yes, the sun and the moon!" 

I'm no Egypt mythology expert, but I can tell you this... Khonshu (or Khonsu as it's really supposed to be spelled) is the son of Amun and Mut. Amun and Ra used to be two different gods but eventually merged into Amun-Ra when two big cities rose to power. He was then attributed with being the king of all. 

Khonsu is often depicted as a child! He's drawn with a side-ponytail, which is the "sidelock of youth" and depicts youth in ancient art. 

At first Khonsu was incredibly violent. He absorbed other gods' powers by eating their organs. Eventually, he was changed to a mellow god of Time, Measurement, and prosperity. 

As I mentioned before, there was a brief period when a popular city worshiped Khonsu as the superior god, but it didn't last and Ra was put back in power when that city fell. 

So Bemis clearly didn’t do any research into how the story originally goes. I’m not surprised. 

He babbles almost incoherently about Karma and balance and how Khonshu always wins because the Sun God failed to find a proper Avatar. 

He says Ra is here to break the cycle and bring order back to mankind. Because mankind needs discipline and order. 

"I'm not like those who came before me. I'm not like you, victims of Khonshu's pride. I was born with the flame within me." 

So apparently this is a big speech to some henchmen. Or just a bunch of guys looking to get revenge on Moon Knight? Unclear. 

Ra's speech done, who is now known as the Sun King, Bushman gives his own speech. 

He admits that he now lives his life dealing crack and isn't at his best. 

"Marc Spector...Scares the crap out of me, simply put, I don't want to die again. I wouldn't come near Moon Knight with a ten-foot pole at this point, but with Sun King's determination and power?" 

He tells them that with Sun King's fire, they can take down Moon Knight. 

Sure. 

Back to Mr. Spector himself... We see him meditating and holding a little talk with Jake. 

Still we get Khonshu's narration: 

"The inside of Marc Spector's head is a picturesque, violent landscape touched by Egyptian mythology, Judaic folklore and Fragments of his past." 

I have so much I want to argue about with this that I don't even know where to start. 

So we see an abstract headscape here. Marc has Jake in a boxing ring and is beating the crap out of him. 

He's angry at Jake for keeping things from him and he wants answers. 

And here we get a childish depiction of their argument that holds no research and insulting implications.

It's supposed to be funny. It has a certain charm to it that a much much younger me might have found agreeable, but older me has learned a lot and it just makes me tired. And upset at the character assassination that has been happening to my good buddy Jake. 

I'm also upset at the implication that Jake is just 'a piece of Marc'. The parts Marc didn't want. 

So they continue to fight while Khonshu and Steven watch. Steven is upset at their fighting and tries to get them to stop. 

Jake takes a bad blow. "Look, Steven is the wealthy benefactor. Khonshu is our connection to the bigger picture. You're the voice of reason. And I deal in the grimy leftovers. You BUILT us this way." 

I hate it. Marc didn't BUILD them. He didn't sit down one day and decide to make other people to hold things! It also depicts Khonshu as being an altar. 

While I've often toyed with that idea, it's always been clear from day one that Khonshu is NOT another aspect in their head. There IS a good chance that they have someone that has been formed as a fictive or even a persecutor in the form of Khonshu... But that's an argument for another day. For the sake of this review, Khonshu himself has always been an outside force! 

ALSO. Marc. Marc Spector. The voice of reason?! How do you get a character SO WRONG that you are writing a whole comic book for? When has Marc Spector EVER been the voice of reason? 

Jake puts Marc in a sleeper hold and threatens to "put you to sleep" if Marc doesn't chill out. 

"It's not your fault that your mind ended up like this. All we can do is embrace the crazy and let you move on with your life. Which means you need to trust me, Marc. Capiche?" 

I have always been a huge fan of the implication that because of their unique mental health issues, DID, and dealings with Khonshu, along with repeated trauma and death, that the Moon Knight system has the ability to surpass expectation and use these things as secret weapons. The number of times people have attacked them mentally and just been destroyed is amazing. I love it. 

THIS. This I hate. "Embrace the crazy". This is clearly the message Bemis got from Lemire's run. That they went through all that so that they could be crazier and use it as a wild card. NO. Just no. 

Anyways, Marc and Jake make up and relax while Steven hugs Khonshu in the background in celebration. 

We now to go the Sun King, who is knocking on a door to a fancy looking house. 

And who answers the door? Marlene Alraune. 

For those that don't know, Some time after Moench left Moon Knight, Marlene also left them. When Moon Knight picked up again for the Houston run, Marlene came back, but it was a rocky relationship. She left them again, saying she couldn't be with them for her own health. 

Sun King poses as a charity drive door to door person and while Marlene is getting her check book, he notices a picture on the wall. He freaks out and calls in Bushman. 

Marlene is famliar with Raoul Bushman. He's the man that killed her father, after all. The one that killed Marc and started it all. 

Bushman notices the picture and taunts Marlene. 

He calls her a damsel-in-distress. This has never been the case. Marlene has NEVER been a damsel-in-distress. As much as I harp on her from the old days, that girl could take care of herself! Half the time she was the one rescuing Moon Knight! 

So to see her passive and not knowing how to fight or take care of herself? No. 

We head back to Moon Knight, who is fighting a bunch of "disabled gentlemen", most of which are missing arms and legs and the such. It's implied they work for Bushman and Moon Knight is to blame for their missing pieces. hmm. 

While fighting, he gets a phone call. In typical "My ex" fashion, the caller ID says "Do NOT pick up, Psychopath! Let it go!" 

Hm. 

He answers. Khonshu is not pleased by this but Marc can't help but answer. It says that Marc is still obsessed with her. 

He's super happy to hear from her. 

Marlene tells him that she's missed him and wants him back in her life. 

She attempts to warn him, telling him that maybe it's best if he didn't come over, but Sun King is there and puts the squeeze on her. 

Marc is far too eager to go meet up. 

I'M GOING TO PUT A PAUSE ON THIS FOR A SECOND. 

This is something that has bothered me for AGES and this is the run that started it. (Bemis. Always blame Bemis. But there is also another writer that messed it up too. I'll get to that MUCH later.) 

Moench originally wrote that Marlene was in love with Steven. 

Jake was incredibly indifferent to Marlene. ANy time they interacted, he treated her as a friend, but was more interested in headint to Gena's. Jake was not into the fancy rich life and how she wanted to live. 

Marlene hated Marc Spector. Marc was violent, had a dark past, and was involved in her father's death, her brother's death, and various other tragedies. 

If Marlene was going to do anything, it would NOT be Marc. OR JAKE. It would be Steven. In the whole Moench run, she always insisted in calling them Steven. She wanted them to just be Steven and give up the other lives. 

BACK TO THE COMIC. 

We see a flashback of Marc and Marlene on a raft. 

"From the first time you saw me? Huh. Even though I was some mercenary who hadn't showered for a week?" 

BULL. SHIT. The first time Marlene saw him, he was working with Bushman and had imprisoned them all, then her father had been killed. The first time she spoke to Marc I'm pretty sure she either told him off or he was dying and she was happy because she thought he'd killed her father. 

He's telling her the story of when he had to kill his own brother. (he's not telling the story right). Then he talks about his dead girlfriend and other trauma from his past. 

What makes me mad is that this is conceivable. We have Marc Spector (Marc, not the other two) talking to Marlene about his past, his trauma. It’s possible that over time she could have decided to get to know Marc. That she realized that Marc is not just a murdering scary man and made peace with the fact that she needs to know him if she wants to be with Steven. It’s possible that she got him to open up and tell her his trauma and what made him what he is now. It’s even possible she started to date him too. I can get behind that! It’s growth for BOTH Marc and Marlene.

And I wish this was how it was done. How it was left. I wish that they had this growth. That Marc and Marlene could become closer. That he and Steven learned to trust one another so much that they learned to be with Marlene and share. But this isn’t how Bemis does it. 

We are back in the now and Marc shows up at Marlene's with flowers and a suit. 

He tells her she looks great. He really thinks they are getting back together. Denial is a land that Marc Spector is king of. 

And Sun King is standing in the dining room waiting for him. 

Sun King pretends to be Marlene's boyfriend who has been living with her. 

He tells Marc that Marlene told him all about how he was Moon Knight. It's not like this is a big secret. Marc was only mildly into secret identities. He wasn't very good at it. 

And Marc isn't taking this well. While Sun King pretends to be a guy that's with Marlene, he then starts to talk about how someone else has been 'getting with Marlene.'

He tells Marc to ask Jake Lockley. 

And in the inner world, Marc is a giant monster pissed off and turning on Jake. 

Not how that works. But sure. Why not. Also, let’s propagate the notion that DID promotes distrust in the system and that there’s an evil alter that goes around doing things behind their back like this. 

AND THIS. This is disgusting. 

She claims to have never stopped loving him and was so desperate for him that she got with Jake?! Not the same person! You don't get a hankering for Marc and go for Jake instead!

And then the notion that Jake came to her telling her to keep it a secret?! 

And then telling them that Jake was never "warm". That Jake has evil in him and he just didn't stand up to Marc?! 

WHY IS JAKE The EVIL ALTER!? He isn't. Jake Lockley is a loving kind and caring man. He goes to Gena's every day and asks her how her kids are doing. He feeds the homeless. He makes friends with the people on the street. 

And she tells Marc that she tried to break it off with Jake but it was too late and she couldn't do it alone. 

And that's when Bushman shows up. 

Yep. There’s the daughter. And the fact that she calls him “Uncle Jake” and not “Dad” despite the obvious implication that Jake has been in her life for a long time… 

Maybe they were trying to protect her from the Moon Knight curse but not letting people know she was his daughter… But still… 

Her name is Diatrice. She has pink hair. 

This is the ONE thing that came out of Bemis that is kinda okay. 

It isn't till MacKay gets his hands on her that I actually started to like her. She's a force. 

I admit, change scares me. And I've been jaded by the "We have to introduce a child to keep it interesting!" concept that show-runners and authors seem to have. I was also so incensed by Bemis' terrible writing that I took the stance of HATING Diatrice when I first saw her. 

But it was bad writing. And give her to a good writer and she can do such wonderful things. 

When Jed MacKay got to put her in a story, she was smart, she was fiesty, and she embraced her dad. More so, he embraced her. 

Amazing what happens when someone does something not for the shock value. 

And now we move to the next issue. Good. Great. I hate the art. I hate how weepy Marlene is here. Old Marlene would have been pissed. She would not have put up with this shit. She was smart. She would have found a way to warm him. To do something. I honestly can’t tell if this is misogynistic or just BAD writing? Maybe both? 

Issue #191.

So the cover is the famous picture of the farmers. It's supposed to depict family homesteading life. 

In the real picture, it's not well known, but it is the farmer and the daughter, NOT his wife. Just a little art knowledge there for you. 

So we are back to Khonshu narrating. 

I don't even know what he's narrating. Something about gods and the power structure of gods and his moon battle against the sun. Something about the moon representing mythical and birth and creation and then sun representing the psychopath and the ground and humans. 

Not even mythologically correct in...ANY culture as far as I'm aware. At least none of the one's I've read about. Maybe in some. I don't know. But I doubt very much if there is, Bemis knows about it. 

He also starts talking about evil and angels and devils. Dude has got his theology mixed up. 

Also, Marc should be a bit more upset about seeing Bushman here. They have...HISTORY.

(There she is. There’s the Marlene I know and care about.) 

So everything is on fire. Marc grabs Diatrice and gets her out. 

He tells Marlene to get out. She just stands there DESPITE THERE BEING A SLIDING GLASS DOOR BEHIND HER. 

He tells Diatrice to go find a place to hide, he has to go help Marlene. 

She asks him if he's crazy because you're supposed to run away from fire. 

He just looks at her before going back inside. 

Marlene is still standing there with a sliding glass door directly behind her and fire in front of her. I don't even.... 

Marc calls out Raoul Bushman while he fights the henchmen. 

"You're such a %$#@!!!" 

Roul shoots him in the shoulder. Marc doesn't care. He knocks the gun out of his hand and slams his face into the wall. 

Sun King sets Marc on fire. Marc strips down to his skivvies and throws his burning pants into Sun King's face. 

Yeah. I can see Moon Knight (especially Marc) doing this. It's a good fighting tactic. It's a good depiction of Marc's talent for hard combat with quick thinking. (See? I can see the good too. Still angry, but there is soooooome good.)

See… It isn’t beneath Marc. This guy pretends to know Marc because of the terrible psychologist and being connected to ‘Ra’. But this isn’t beneath Marc. This is classic Marc fighting. 

So they now face one another. 

"What are YOU supposed to be?" 

"I am Ra's chosen sword. Here to strike you down. I'm the Sun King." 

"....Of course you are." 

"My purpose is to make your death a mockery. In fact, I wouldn't be doing my job if I just struck you down. It's gotta be so tragic that it means something." 

He goes on like this for a hot (LOL) minute. Honestly, Marc's heard it all before. This isn't the first time he's fought a guy with delusions of whatever he's got going on. 

At this point Diatrice shows up again and is pissed off that her swing set is on fire. 

Marc grabs her and makes a run for it. 

He asks her what her name is. She tells him Diatrice and that he already knows that. 

Marc is just caught up in the weird name. 

"Mommy let me change my name to whatever I wanted!" 

Which is super just... Considering she could never even bother to get Marc, Jake, or Steven's name right... Way to go Marlene I guess? 

Marc feels the same way. 

It's at this point that he runs BACK into the burning house holding his child for some reason? There's a note on the wall "We have your queen." 

Well, Marlene's been kidnapped. Not the first time. 

Probably for the best, honestly, considering she couldn't figure out how to use ANY of the exits that were surrounding her. 

Back at Marc Spector's apartment, we find Marc failing real hard at talking to his daughter.

So this means that Marlene told her that JAKE was not her dad and that her dad was a super hero. Meaning she pretty much told her that Marc was her father. 

Look. I know a couple of systems that have children. How they choose to discuss their DID with their children is up to them. Some chose not to discuss it at all until the kid is old enough to understand difficult concepts like this. But they also don’t hide it. None of the systems I know hide it from their children. The kids just learn to recognize the different members of the system, and to them, they are all “Mommy” or “Daddy” because that is the role that they inhabit while present. 

It falls back to the whole “Hold your system accountable” aspect of being a functioning system. It means that they hold each other responsible and they all understand that they have a child and must function as a parental figure to protect and care for their child. 

So the fact the Marlene is telling her that one of them is the dad and not the other… Hiding it from one and that Jake hid it from them. There is a disconnect here that is damaging and insulting. 

So we see her argue with Marc about him not being a super hero. He doesn't look or act like Captain America, he can't fly, and he looks tired and smells funny. 

He declares it was an 'off day'. 

But, it's what I love about Moon Knight in general. He's just a guy. He has zero powers. He's even a bit of an idiot sometimes. He's just a guy out there that takes a lot of beatings and has a lot of trauma that he works out while wearing a mask. 

As they talk, we see Jake, Steven, and Khonshu in the background watching. 

Honestly, fair. I have seen systems be put in situations where perhaps a member they don't really trust yet is present in a situation that could be dangerous to them in general. Perhaps a little is present when they shouldn't be. Perhaps a high trauma holder is present in a potentially triggering situation. Or perhaps a persecutor that has a history is out around a member of the family that they don't trust them to be around. 

You'll have the protectors and gate keepers VERY close by monitoring and ready to step in if need be. 

At least this is true in the systems I've spoken to. Feel free to sound off if you have other experiences. I love to hear from systems about their own experiences and how they handle the family situation. 

So now that they've argued on if Marc is or is not actually a super hero, she asks about her mom. 

He assures her that she isn't going to die because he's going to save her and "seriously hurt those bad guys". 

She asks if he likes Katy Perry. He says no. He asks if she likes Dazzler. 

So they put on a record of Dazzler and have some bonding time while Jake keeps watch. 

We head out to a high security prison to find some guards chatting. 

One of the guards is missing an eye and wearing an eye patch. 

He heads to a cell and asks the person inside to head to the city and get revenge for him. He wants him to kill Bushman. 

Hey look, The Truth guy is back. 

Considering the Truth guy ALSO got his eyes stabbed out... I'm not sure how he's walking around like that without any training or aid or anything... 

Also, this guy was seriously not that impressive as a bad guy. He's just big and has a 'scary' design to him. I'm not impressed by this attempt to make a recurring bad guy. It's just not an impressive reveal of a returning bad guy. 

So the Truth heads out of the jail easy peasy. 

Back in Marc's apartment, Diatrice is asleep and Marc is holding a meeting in the head space. 

You've got Marc, Jake, Steven, and Khonshu on a platform with Cthulhu in the background. I don't know. Do they think that the head space can just conjure anything based on need or emotion? Maybe it does? Maybe it doesn't? I Don't know. 

Apparently this is a recurring thing Khonshu does because Jake tells him "Khonshu... Don't you be giving me that "Cthulhu" Bullshit. Not you." And Steven agrees. "He's kind of right. We can't just use squids to explain all weird things in this world." 

You ready for this? I bet you aren’t. 

Yeah I… I’m gonna… I am not touching this. I don't have the time or energy to sit down and type up a whole manifesto on what's wrong with this page. 

And this is where the now famous line comes from:

Also let’s add some eating disorders to the mix. Why not? Do you have a disorder and feel left out? Don’t worry! I’m sure Bemis will get to that too! Not to mention there is a very underhanded homosexuality jab mixed in with that too! Blink and you’ll miss it, but this is a common way for older shows and media to take a jab at how wrong the GBLTQ world was. Make the villain have some latent homosexual tendencies, usually towards the main hero of the show. 

So now we see Busman, Truth, and Sun King hanging out. 

Truth is following them now, though apprently he sometimes accidentally uses his powers. 

They review a map and discuss where they want to go. 

Bushman tells them about a "Backwards tribe that I 'liberated' before we took over." 

Yeah cause that's... Hmmm. 

They decide to go t that island to start a "new eden". 

Sun King tells Marlene the plan in a gloating fashion. 

"You've gone so far as to tie up a super hero's girlfriend and you're bragging to her about your evil plan. 

You're not profound. You're a linkless wikipedia reference waiting to happen." 

Well, at least she gets that jab in. 

"Perhaps that's so. But I'm still going to kill your child while her dad looks on. Just to prove the uselessness of his cause." 

He tells Marlene he's going to use her to lure Marc to his doom. He also asks Truth to create an army. 

Back with Marc, he is telling her about Frenchie. 

Look, I've always been a big Jean-Paul Duchamp fan. I love him. It breaks my heart that things went the way they did and he eventually left Marc and they had a huge falling out. But I am happy Frenchie found love and has his own chance to be happy. 

Do not bring my poor Frenchie into this world of Bemis.

…I’m sorry, did Marc just describe Frenchie as “A father figure”?! In what universe? Who are these people that think he’s a father figure to him?! 

So Marc has called in Frenchie to baby sit Diatrice while he goes off to save Marlene. 

I'm just sighing right now. Because it's been established that Frenchie is not talking to Marc anymore. He isn't adventuring anymore. 

Frenchie lost both his legs in a mission gone wrong. He fell in love with his PT person and now they run a restaurant together. While Frenchie still misses the adventures, he also is tired of the PTSD and the pain that follows Moon Knight. 

This is just shoddy editing by team Marvel. 

Also this...

And this is how they ended this issue. Cliffhanger dead zombie Frenchie. Why is he in scrubs?

(It's at this point that I realized that Tumblr would only let me upload 30 images and I was going to have to break this up into more than two long ass posts. I'm so very very sorry.)

Part two will be linked very soon. Until then, I'm going to thank you for sticking around this long and hope you finish this rage filled adventure with me.

I'm going to admit that I am biased in not just hating Bemis, but also hating this art.

There are places for art like this. I've seen it utilized well in comics where the nature of the comics stands very well with this sort of art. Punisher Max for instance. For those that don't know, Punisher Max is a stand alone version of Frank Castle that was created in order to depict the ultra violence that Frank Castle is capable of in his search for justice and his never ending war.

The problem is that Moon Knight has gotten a reputation for being incredibly violent and unpredictable. You can probably thank Houston for that, but I'm sure the problem dates back to the 90s (always blame the 90s).

On the one hand, Marc is a former soldier, mercenary, and has anger issues. On the other hand, people have been using the excuse that "He's insane, of course he's going to be violent and unpredictable."

This has, most unfortunately, attracted writers like Bemis to the comic and then recruited artists that are more adept at drawing shocking gore or acts.

And even worse, this has attracted in a VERY specific fan base that reads comics looking for the gore, action, and hyper violence. They pick up an issue of Moon Knight, that has traditionally been based around dealing with mental health, classism, depression, and political issues.

These sorts of readers are easy to spot. They will list issues like Bemis, Aaron, and Bendis as their favorite issues. They will complain that newer stuff is boring or that they can't read the old stuff because it's too chatty. They want the action. they want to see Marc ripping a man's face off and biting out their throats.

Things like this are what goad on the perpetuation of Mentally I'll people being dangerous and scary and untrustworthy.

I'll touch on it more next time, but when we see things like this, it's so important that we don't put up with it. That we tell the big companies that Marvel, DC, and so on that we won't stand for this. That they are the problem. Don't put up with things like this. Don't put up with Bemis.

...Also I just really hate this art style. Every page feels SO static. Everyone is always just standing around grinning at things. Maybe I was spoiled by Bill Sienkiewicz, Declan Shalvey, Smallwood, and Alessandro Cappuccio. These people made even standing still look beautiful and full of life. They knew that sometimes just having Moon Knight standing in the rain could say more than words ever could.

PART TWO HERE.

Let's finish this bread.

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight comics #Analyzing the comics #BEMIS #This is a labor of love/hate you guys #Please it took me so long #It was so painful #I'm doing this for you #We can't just ignore it anymore #We have to understand the bad comics so that they don't happen again #We have to call this bull shit out

[emixion]

Lowkey just stalking you’re acc - but anyways I think it’s really cool that you’ve been in the fandom actively on here for such a long time, I was wondering what were the popular opinions/theories/ships in the fandom while the show was ongoing?

Thank you! I’ve been hooked on EAH since the day it launched and I’m happy to have been on this rollercoaster even if it’s not running anymore.

Man, those first few months of the show before Legacy Day were FILLED with speculation. Everyone was throwing out family headcanons, theories about what happened between Milton and Giles, what the other wonderland kids looked like, if Raven was going to sign or not and who would be on what side by the time Legacy Day came, etc.

Darise was very popular early on and I also remember Brypper having a decent fanbase as well. I shipped Dexven hardcore back then but funnily enough they did not catch on as much until after the show was pretty much over.

It was very Raven vs. Apple. You’ll probably see several old posts of me asking Apple fans to stop insulting people for disliking Apple which…yeah it was very rough. Raven fans were actually a bit in the trenches back then.

OH super funny thing I remember is legit thinking that Apple and Briar were gonna kiss during Thronecoming. Turns out I just had to wait a year or so for Apple to kiss a girl.

And Dragon Games was the first and only time we trended here on tumblr. What an exciting day it was :) I was up super early that morning feeling a little under the weather so I just watched the new season and absolutely SCREAMED.

I have many more stories if people are interested but I don’t want to make this post too long.

#ever after high #asks #eah #mattel

[amywhereyouwant]

Some TOH HCs I wanted to share

There are a LOT of them, so They're under the read more for your scrolling convenience

Luz

-Uses She/They pronouns

-Would watch the entirety of Sword Art Online just to be able to shit on it properly

-Eats way too much Shredded Cheese even though she’s Lactose Intolerant

-Has made a Your mom joke to Willow only to remember she doesn’t have one

-Mains King in Tekken and made a custom attire trying to make it look like the other King

-Screenpeeks religiously in Split Screen Multiplayer

-Predicted Hecazura 2 books into the series, still won’t shut up about it

-Relatively known Digital Artist, her blog probably took off when she started making art of the Demon Realm 

-Hates baking

-Helps Amity bake out of the kindness of her heart(Also seeing Amity enjoying herself is really nice)

-Had a cold once, hasn’t had a Human Realm illness since

-Has SH scars from her depressed period back in the human realm(S3E1), still ashamed over them

-Quotes Memes constantly, only Hunter understands what she’s talking about

-Cracked a rib tripping on a rug on her way to bed

Amity

-Absolutely hates Bugs, like, genuinely despises them

-Does not know how computers work, but still tries to use Luz’s laptop to look up date ideas

-Can and will dress as the most stereotypical Witch ever

-Adopted(All 3 Blight Kids are in my HC)

-Likes to bake

-Does not know how to bake

-Gets sick constantly

-Works out a lot so she can help out with rebuilding the Isles(and also a little bit for Luz)

-Used to apologise a lot for minor things(Pre-timeskip)

-REALLY Bummed she didn’t get to see Titan Luz

-Watched the barbie movie the same day Gus watched Oppenheimer

Gus

-Goes nonverbal when stressed out, uses Illusions and his palisman to communicate

-Cried for hours when he finished the last Cosmic Frontier book, even though it was a happy ending

-Likes the idea of Professional Wrestling, but wishes the fights were to the death

-Quotes Cosmic Frontier as a Vocal Stim

-Dramatically perishes in Matt’s arms on the regular

-Headcanons O'Bayley to look exactly like Hunter just for the memes

-Thinks Human 2D Animation is the most beautiful thing to have ever been created

-Watched Across the Spider-Verse and Begged for Luz to draw a Spider-Suit for him, she did one for everyone

-Got really jealous when everyone else got flapjack tattoos, then he realised he could just make one of his own with an Illusion

-Got insanely mad when he learned about Human Discrimination(“How can you hate someone for something they can’t change? That’s ridiculous!”)

-Watched Oppenheimer the same day Amity and Hunter watched the Barbie Movie

Hunter

-LOVES Dino Nuggies

-Didn’t know Dinosaurs were real for a while until Luz showed them to him, Velociraptors are his favourite because “They’re like Wolves but Lizards!” (They’re not)

-Has a tumblr account where he posts about Wolves, Luz is his only follower

-Definitely has a Fursona

-Kicks Luz’s ass at most video games, except for Halo 2 specifically(I wonder why)

-”Will you go out with me?” “Hunter we’ve been dating for a year” “Oh.”

-Thinks Huggbees’ How it’s actually made videos are 100% Legit and honest

-Made Willow a Flower Shirt to match his Wolf Shirt

-Wears Willow’s Flower Shirt he made

-Imagine Dragons is his favourite band

-Has Epilepsy

-Steals Willow’s dresses sometimes

-Found Nicole Coenen on YouTube, showed her to luz “She looks kinda like Amity!”(Nobody else sees the resemblance)

-Probably plays a LOT of Roblox

-Watched the Barbie Movie with Amity(Luz forced him to)

-Has seen every single vine there is(Thank the Titan for Vine Compilations on YouTube)

-Any kind of facial hair he grows is really patchy so he just goes clean shaven for convenience

-Snuck food during TtT even though he was 100% allowed to eat normally

-Bananas do exist in the Demon Realm, Hunter has just never learned that they do

-Gets visits from the Spirits of the other Golden Guards in his dreams

Willow

-Tackled someone to the ground when they only slightly bumped into Hunter(We stan a protective queen)

-Feeds her palisman doggie treats, nobody knows why

-Filled Camila’s entire back garden with way too many plants during TtT, they’re still there despite not being watered for a while

-Made a Garland made of both Demon and Human Realm plants for Hunter on their anniversary

-Has no real idol/role model

-Happily Listens to everyone else ramble about their interests

-Wears Hunter’s Wolf Shirt

-Calls Hunter “Hun” as a short for his name, started doing it even more after she figured out what it actually meant

-Pranks people she doesn’t like by putting giant Grape Vines around their house

-Held a presentation about plant care for the Gravesfield Gardener Society

-Thinks most Human Sports are boring(Except for Hockey and Roller Derby)

Vee

-Pulls off some crazy ass cosplays

-Knows how to drive Camila’s car perfectly, still has no idea how it actually works though

-Laughed so hard she couldn’t breathe first time she heard Metal Pipe Fall Sound Effect

-Considers Luz to be her Sister, Camila burst into tears and hugged her when she called Luz “Big Sis” in front of her for the first time

-Plays Minecraft on Camila’s home PC, has spent tons of time on Hypixel and built a little shrine for the other basilisks on a private world

-Takes after Luz in a lot of ways

-Is way better at Spanish than Luz, flexes about it constantly(Nobody really cares)

-Had no idea how to tell Masha she was a Basilisk when they confessed to her(Masha knew long before she told them)

-Is really cuddly in Basilisk form, not so much when shapeshifted(“I don’t really feel like it’s myself”)

-Her first kiss with Masha was really awkward, she apologised like 45 times and cried because it wasn’t good

-Steven Universe is a canon IP in the universe, so she got really confused when Amethyst sounded EXACTLY like her

I have no idea why I made this

#the owl house #toh headcanon #the owl house headcanon #toh community #toh #amity blight #hunter noceda #vee noceda #willow park #gus porter #luz noceda

[moonlightdancer26]

im not a massive prongstail shipper (prongsfoot <3) but i've had this headcanon for fucking ever and it just isnt appreciated enough in marauders circles childhood bestfriends with supposedly unrequited crushes its a v popular marauders headcanon that james and peter knew each other before hogwarts, having both come from established magical familes so i just get brainrot about bb james and pete running around and doing all those childhood bestie things like getting married in their gardens and making wedding rings out of paper etc etc and just,,, neither of them realised they were each others first crush? as they grew up they realised "oh,,, oh i like liked him, didn't i. you dont usually marry people you feel completely platonically about." they are both emotionally constipated teenage boys who spend ages stewing in angst going "i loved him, but he'd never love me back D:" even though if they had a single conversation talking about their hisss feelings the problem would easily solve itself. but they dont, and years in the future, everything goes to shit. and peter doesn't realise that james still kept that tiny paper wedding ring

YES YES YES, I always loved the idea of Peter having an unrequited crush on James but I was always kinda hesitant to fully explore the ship, and today I just went fuck it and decided to announce it on tumblr.

I totally believe Peter and James are both the most oblivious mfs to ever exist, so the idea of them both having crushes on each other and assuming the other person didn’t reciprocate their feelings so they kept it to themselves sounds so accurate.

I’ve heard a bit about that headcanon before and tbh it sounds like a pretty interesting one, I’d like it if it was more explored in fics.

doing all those childhood bestie things like getting married in their gardens and making wedding rings out of paper etc etc

lmaoo I used to always do this with my irl bestie (we’re still inseparable to this day) 😭 we were (are) also major Swifties so when Taylor released Paper Rings 4 years ago we were like OMG REMEMBER WHEN WE USED TO- *goes down memory lane.* Imagining baby!Peter and baby!James making them and having pretend-weddings in their gardens legit sounds like the purest thing ever 😭<333

and when they’re at Hogwarts and well into their teen years they both start thinking “yo wait……. maybe I actually liked him” but never say anything about it due to the fear of being rejected or realising the other person forgot about the weddings and paper rings. And when James got with Lily, that was when Peter accepted that he was genuinely in love with James and couldn’t handle the pain of seeing him with someone else, let alone “Evans.” He then started resenting the Potters and kept thinking to myself “what did I do wrong? why didn’t I tell Prongs when I had the chance?” And part of the reason why James agreed to switch to Peter as the Secretkeeper was because he remembered what it was like when they were kids and trusted him fully because of it. Then when the opportunity to betray the Potters to Voldemort came, Peter took it.

and peter doesn't realise that james still kept that tiny paper wedding ring

Y E S. and at one point James gave it to baby!Harry bc his fingers were almost the same size (either baby!Harry had chubby fingers or James and Peter had skinny fingers, we’ll never know), Lily noticed it and asked what it was. James told her it was “just something he put together,” Lily didn’t buy it because the paper weddimg ring looked a little worn out but decided not to say anything.

excuse me while I go sob into a pillow.

#literally crying ugh this has sm angst potential #prongstail #peter pettigrew #james potter #harry potter #hp #ask #asks

[louisisalarrie]

Was that crystabell Riley phone call ever debunked coz it’s the only thing that makes me doubt Larry

OH BOY this takes me back hahahaha. good god, that was a wild time on tumblr.

back in the day, we had fairly legit groupies (often times sleeping casually with Oli/Calvin and 1d’s other friends), who always said that H and L would never pull and always politely decline. They said that if a “groupie” said they’d slept with Harry, that’s how you knew they weren’t legit, because those two never pulled.

Now, im not saying every story we heard from the groupies was true, but the “receipts” we got from some of the ones who weren’t in a trusted friendship with the bigger 1d blogs here at the time, that weren’t trusted by us, often said the most ridiculous things. I’d recommend checking out a bunch of groupie chats here, to gauge a little more about what was going on at this time during the fandom. It was wild.

Anywho, yes, this was debunked. Antis like to use it because you can hear Zayn… but you can’t hear Harry? Why tf is Harry there but dead quiet and not saying anything? Also, of course they’d be aware that phone calls with them would be recorded. It was all just a bit of a mismatched shit show of a wattpad story.

Now, IF this was legit, would Zayn just be using Harry’s name to encourage the girls to come up? Isn’t he himself an international superstar? He wouldn’t need to convince them to come because Harry is there. But it does sound a whole lot like he’s trying to convince these girls which is ridiculous like I wouldn’t need any convincing at all, but these gals would like to think they’re heavily in demand and the boys were just desperate to sleep with them like come onnnnnnnnn.

It was debunked by groupies who weren’t Larries and were actually antis, larries, and some other antis lol. If I remember correctly, we analysed the audio and found that some bits were actually snippets of interviews or the voices had been doctored or faked or something. It was kind of decided somewhat unanimously that it was faked.

But don’t doubt larry because of this shit. People went to some crazy lengths back in the day.

#anon #answered #stunts

[anything-but-predictable]

Do you know how it feels like when you no longer seek for it yet one day, the universe put the pieces altogether and it suddenly makes sense to you. WILD.

That’s how I felt today. Unexpectedly and very randomly, the universe revealed his true identity. Ako naman, nakalimutan ko na talaga sya. I completely got rid of it on the top of my head had I not found his legit tumblr account today.

Pinagko compare ko pa yun mirror selfie na sinend nya sakin versus sa selfie that he posted on his account and damn, I’m sure, I know it’s him, I trust my gut feeling. The apple watch, jogging routines, his profession- architect( I found out that he choose academe over working on site) and that backpack that he uses for work, that can’t be just a replica of his! Same color, same style. Wild. I remember it when he sent me his selfie once (without the face showing) it was a whole body mirror selfie, and today I found him. Medyo feeling detective ako sa part na to HAHA. I enjoyed it!

Apparently, the account he use to send me messages panglandi before was a dummy account, which I already deleted in my inbox. On the other hand, we follow each other dito sa legit tumblr account nya and I’m still cool with that pa din naman. Di naman ako butthurt na bigla syang nag disappear. I was just like, oh okay sya pala yun. Plus, may girlfriend pala sya kaya tama lang na tinantanan nya ko and naintindihan ko naman yon.

Natatawa na lang ako pag naalala ko nun nilalandi ako at tinatawag akong “my lady”. At tinatawag ko syang “my lord” dahil sobrang hooked ko sa Bridgerton series during that time. Oh well, It was fun while it lasted ika nga. Wag ka magalala I’m sure mababasa mo to, I won’t shoot you a message, I want this platform to remain as a safe space for everybody and happy na ko na makikita ko pa din yun updates mo from time to time. 🙂

Wala lang naman, I didn’t even have to lift my finger, the mystery unlocked itself. How wild.

#daily musings #random thoughts #online diary #personal

[jamiesugah]

Shipper Tag Game

I was tagged by @heyholmesletsgo.

1. What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don't care about anymore? Ooh, easy one. Danny and Michelle from Guiding Light. Danny was in the mafia. Michelle killed his brother (when he assaulted her). Danny married her to keep her safe from the rest of his family. They were *chef's kiss*. Probably my first introduction to fandom. There were shipper vids, fics, fan edits. And I mean this was, like, 1998, so it's not like the internet was huge back then. And it's not so much that I don't care in that I haven't thought about them in years. I wonder if there are fics for them on AO3.

2. Which ship would you consider your first one? I'd say Han and Leia.

3. Your first fanfic was about which couple? Trip and T'Pol from Star Trek Enterprise. I do not acknowledge that final episode.

4. Do you remember the first couple you saw fanart of? That depends on how we're defining "fanart". Danny/Michelle had a lot of manips and screencap edits, but the first, like, original art I remember seeing was probably for Ron/Hermione.

5. Have you ever gotten into ship discourse? Dude, I ship Sterek AND Sheith, ship discourse just finds you. But actually the worst for me was when I was in the CSI: NY fandom. People legit hated me there. I got doxxed on LJ. That's one of the main reasons I'm a fairly passive consumer of fandom nowadays. I don't have the energy to deal with that shit.

6. Did you use to have any NOTP or have one currently? Oh I have SO MANY NOTPs. I have a lot of filtered tags on Tumblr. Some of them are ships that squick me out, some of them have annoying or abusive fandoms and that turned me off the ship, and some of them are just I don't like them and don't want to see them.

7. Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read? I was simultaneously reading a SeanWhite (Not Me) and a WangXian (The Untamed) fic.

8. Currently, do you have any OTPs? I mean... Yes?? Have you seen my blog?? SeanWhite and WangXian are the big ones right now but I have so many.

9. Is there any couple that, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting together? Sterek (Stiles/Derek, Teen Wolf) and Sheith (Shiro/Keith, Voltron Legendary Defender). Those fuckers were married, I don't care what garbage "canon" says.

10. Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they are kind of interesting? Not a specific one, but I used to dislike slash on principle because slash shippers treated me like shit when I was in CSI: NY fandom, so I sort of thought they were all like that, and now all of my ships are queer so there you go.

11. Do you have any ship that, in the past, would've been considered normal but now you would be cancelled over? I mean, I think if Sterek and Sheith had been 20 years ago, no one would give a shit, but now the purity patrol polices everything. People are still calling us abusers for those, and those shows ended 6+ years ago.

12. What is your favorite crack ship? I don't really have one, honestly. I have a limited amount of mental energy to spend, so I'd rather focus on my OTPs.

13. What is the couple you read the most fanfics about? Total, ever? I think Merthur, followed by Sterek.

14. What do most of your ships usually have in common? Grumpy is in love with sunshine, sunshine & sunshine protector, usually some variation of that dynamic.

15. What you absolutely hate in a ship? Understanding that this is personal preference and I am not casting judgment on what anyone else ships: ships when there is, like, absolutely no evidence that the two people involved have any romantic feelings for each other. I railed against Leonard and Penny on TBBT for so many years because I'm pretty sure they got them together because they "made the most sense" but in actual canon they were horrible for each other. I have no idea WHY I was supposed to want them together.

I'm not going to tag anyone so if you want to do this, go nuts!

#about me #fandom #i'm not tagging individual ships #i don't want to deal with all that

[stitchthesewords]

HI I WOULD LIKE EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT I ACTUALLY READ THESE CHAPTERS SEVERAL DAYS AGO BEFORE STITCH MADE MAJOR CHANGES TO THEM AND OH MY GOD SHE MADE THEM SO MUCH WORSE THE BOYS JHJKSJKFSJKKJ I AM RATTLING AT MY BARS-

ANYWAY. This was so much better than what I imagined but oh my god. The funny cute banter between Scar and Mumbo that is like barely inches from flirting. The teasing. The little jokes. Scar's fascination with "human stories." His excitement over the most mundane of memories, the minecart ride and the discoveries AND THEN WHAM, HURT!! ANGST!! NO COMFORT!! "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" AND THE RUNNING AND THE SHEER PANIC OF IT ALL OHHFDSHHAH-

Okay. Okay lemme back it up. Man the cute domesticness at the start, the little signs of Mumbo warming up to Grian (my dear readers that scene originally went very different and as good as the original was I am delighted by the change). I still can't get over the mental imagine of "Scar! :D And Grian :|" but he's warming up and he's becoming fond of the bird boy and aaaaaa I love them and they love each other <3 Helping Mumbo do something as boring and domestic as make item frames and just mmmm <3

"We have guns" YEAH WELL GUESS WHAT SCAR THAT'S NOT GONNA FUCKING HELP-

The minecart ride.... you should totally post the whole thing as an aside on tumblr or something, the long 700-ish word version was very fun :) But you summarized it very nicely here <3 I just love Scar tripping as he gets out and Mumbo ZOOMING over to help him, like honey I think you cut some of Grian's hair there LMAO

Just the whole arguing about the chorus fruit. "I'll go first, no I'LL go first you could get hurt, no ME-" Then Grian just fucking peaces out and immediately injures himself SORRY that SENT me I love them so much. I wonder how Mumbo and Scar react to that. "No I'll go first you're accidEEEGRIAN-"

Grian batting Mumbo away from the flame with his wings and Scar floating his staff away LMAO. Mumbo just Causing Problems On Purpose. Grian and Scar fighting to keep him Away From The Torch and him just being like having no self preservation cares BUT THEN TWO SECONDS LATER JUMPING AWAY WHEN THE TORCH GETS TOO CLOSE ON ACCIDENT LMAO. I'm sorry I love him so much, turns out a wet cat is still a cat indeed-

And Grian getting lost in his memories. Like he was in two places at once, in his head and physically (that is such a mood ngl, me every time I walk across my grandmother's farm jkgfdkj). The concern Mumbo and Scar have about him getting lost in thought and Scar's excitement over him getting a little flash of a mundane little memory aaaaa <3

THE ONES WHO CAME BEFORE I LOVE IT. I mean you know me you know I love a good ancestors and city ruins plot. AN ANCIENT MOB FARM KJFJKSJKFSJK at least they get the idea to dig around it. My god Mumbo's immediate "No you are not building a bridge here" and trying to be Intimidating™ and Firm™ and Scar just looking him dead in the eyes and lighting the torch to send him scuttling back like the wet cat he is under his vampirism HJKFSJLFKJSL I LOVE THEM SO FUCKING MUCH also the "I'm not as flammable as Scar says I am" WHY DO I GET THE FEELING YOU ARE LYING MR. JUMBO HUH?? HUH????

Anyway Grian just SEEING the purple light in the distance and knowing it's the Rift and immediately being mesmerized by it, drawn forward. God I want to see that scene from Scar and Mumbo's pov, Grian just running past them and flying and just jkfgkjdkj. AND THEN. THEN THE RIFT????? PUTS HIM IN A MEMORY???? I legit thought for a moment that Grian was remembering his home falling apart and then it just turned out to be an accident and then Mumbo and Scar's voices and words just melded with the memory?? dream?? and he had no idea what was really happening AND ALMOST WALKED STRAIGHT INTO THE RIFT I AM SOOO JKDSJKFJKS

AND SCAR SCREAMING. SCAR REALIZING WHAT'S HAPPENING AND SCREAMING AND GRABBING GRIAN IN POSSIBLY THE MOST PAINFUL WAY SO HE CAN DRAG HIM BACK WHILE THE RIFY TRIES TO EAT GRIAN?!?!?! THE RIFT REACHING OUT FOR THEM AND INJURING THEM??? OR ONE OF THEM IDK HOW MUCH I CAN SAY BC GRIAN IS DISASSOCIATING AND THE FEAR AS HE REALIZES WHAT'S HAPPENED AND THAT THE RIFT LURED HIM IN AND EVERYONE SCREAMING WONDERING WHAT'S HAPPENING AND SCAR YELLING AT MUMBO TO STAY AWAY FROM IT AS HE BODILY DRAGS GRIAN AWAY AND THEY RUN AND DON'T STOP AND THEY JUST RUN AND RUN BECAUSE THEY NEED TO GET AWAY (ARE THEY BEING CHASED TOO??? IF SO BY WHAT SCAR SCRAMBLED AWAY FROM THE HOLE AND MUMBO SEALED IT IMMEDIATELY JKSLK) AND OH MY GOD THEY HAVE CHOSEN THE WORST POSSIBLE OPLACE TO PUT A VAULT-

BUT. The first time, when Grian went through the first time it showed him grassy fields........ it didn't lure him in with a memory/dream IT TEMPTED HIM IN. BUT IT DIDN'T CONSUME HIM THEN. WHAT'S HAPPENING. But god imagine seeing grass and sunlight only to walk through INTO A FUCKING CAVERN. AND THE THOUGHT THAT HE WAS BEING CHASED I AM WONDERING NOW AND I AM. SO FEARFUL. STITCH. S T I T C H. WHAT IS HAPPENIIING EVERY TIME I THINK I KNOW YOU THROW A WRENCH IN IT HHJSDJHJKFSKJ

Anyway so obviously if you could not tell by my unhinged screaming this chapter was amazing and I am DYING holy shit. Thankyou for this it's wonderful <3

HI I WOULD LIKE EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT I HAVE BEEN THREATENED WITH THAT MIDNIGHT UPDATE FOR WEEKS AND IT WAS DESERVED. RATTLE YOUR BARS, YOU CANNOT STOP ME

I am clapping from my glass lil box of emotions though bc have the two of us in our dms last night while we freaked out about each other stories was the most fun I’ve had w writing in ages and genuinely so much joy in my heart. Could not have been a better night. AND YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES I ‘m glad the panic got across. I was typing, VERY fast.

That scene did originally go. Very different. Actually here hold on-

“Well. You don’t have to show us anything then. It’s our vault, and we know you used a chorus fruit to get in. So, we can just do that,” Mumbo said. His tone was a bit colder now and Grian swallowed.

😊 I much much much prefer ‘Grian [neutral]’ I think but man there is something about Mumbo slamming his metaphorical door shut in the original scene too. But also yes the domesticity of storage organization. They’re all so married already its sort of insane.

ITS FINE THEY WERE FINE EVERYTHING’S FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE

I should post the whole minecart scene actually. Not here, I’ll do it later. Shout at me if I don’t do it later klghsdhs But I really love it. I’m like a kid in a candy shop w the redstone mechanics and the minecarts in MC I just. Love. Them. So much. AND YES SCAR TRIPPING which was inspired by the fact that getting into and out of rollercoasters for myself is a fucking time and a half tbh. I love Mumbo using his Vampire powers for like, mundane everyday things like helping scar I am soFT ABOUT IT

Fun fact what you DIDN’T see was the original where Mumbo bit into it – the only reason I changed it is because it was weird having the non-POV character teleport away. The tension of the scene got muddled. Also peacing out w a chorus fruit in the middle of an argument about who should actually use the damn thing seemed like either a very Grian or Scar thing to do anyway sooooo. BUT YES HE JUST. IMMEDIATELY CAREENS ONTO HIS CHIN. Bless his hollow boned ass. They’re all such wet cats.

I picture mumbo as one of those tuxedo cats who just always looks like they are Up To Something. Slinking around. Making a lot of ruckus but then always sitting politely when you go to check on them. Batting at everything and anything. You get the drift. He is. SUCH a wet cat

[Grian would be an orange tabby and Scar would be a tortie, for the record. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.]

One of my favorite like. Bad??? Things?? [Well. Not necessarily always – disassociation and getting lost in your memories can be good for you in certain places for sure] the human brain does is go “Mmm hey there’s this Thing That Happened but instead of thinking about it directly we’re going to make you spiral around it like a bathtub draining and THEN let you remember what it was.” You know? Idk I think it’s a really interesting aspect to like, healing from trauma/how the brain deals with difficult memories. It helps, too, that there’s definitely Weird Magic Things at play too, which is a really interesting way to examine it. IDK one of my favorite aspects of fiction is how we can explode the human condition outwards to utterly ridiculous lengths in order to really peel back the layers of our own experiences and study them and learn from them/how to deal with them. And then the fact that not only is Scar Concerned and Excited but Grian has even attracted Mumbo’s Concern like. Mumbo Jumbo you are not living down the ‘Actually Cares About The Bird’ allegations.

FUN FACT ‘THE ONES WHO CAME BEFORE’ IS SOMETHING I STOLE FROM MY NOVEL- That’s what the people who live in the ‘modern day’ call Human Ancestors [Like, neandertals and homo erectus].  I DO know you love a good ancestor city ruins plot 👀👀👀. I do in fact know this about you. Eyes the recent midnight update. ALSO YEAH ANCIENT MOB FARM DLKGADFG They used to be so much easier to build I miss it. I should go back to alpha for funsies. Also I love mr Wet Cat Jumbo he’s so Scary tm and then he’s not at all in the slightest actually. It’s so funny. Scar has put up with him for so long. TBF He has put up with scar also for so long.

IN HIS DEFENSE, WHICH ONE OF THEM IS LYING TBH. THEY BOTH WOULD CATCH FIRE LIKE MATCHSTICKS LKADFG but also 😊

A little bit of excited to see it again a little bit of lured in. Excited /neg. I guess. Also I too want to see that scene from their POVs so. Uh. We probably will. Rift AU IS self-indulgent first and foremost after all 😊 AND Y E A H I wanted the Rift to get to play with Memories and Dreams in a really funky way for Reasons Revealed Later. I LOOOOOOVE How confusing it turned out to be honest. It is meant to be read as disorienting and not clear when is why is how. BUT THAT SCENE OF HIM ALMOST WALKING IN – I HAVE HAD THAT PLANNED BASICALLY SINCE I STARTED THIS AHHHH

CAN YOU IMAGINE THE PANIC Okay like I didn’t do a lot of description of the room the Rift is in because Grian has got Bigger Fish To Fry and taking time away to describe this MASSIVE PURPLE RIFT IN THE CAVE WALL felt out of place but. Imagine you are Scar. And the Avian you’ve grown fond of who occasionally does work for your lowkey criminal empire is walking towards it and not responding to you screaming his name and you have seconds to act and you GRAB HIM BY HIS WING which is a thing that’s already been shown to be a little bit sensitive [a lotta bit sensitive] and you feel the feathers pull out under your hand but you have to pull him away and as you do TENTACLES OF LIGHT BURST FORTH FROM THE RIFT, REACHING FOR HIM, SEARCHING FOR HIM [their POV is gonna be. Fuked.] AND ITS ALL YOU CAN DO TO GET AWAY BUT THE DAMN THING GRABS ONTO YOU AND YOU CAN FEEL THE SKIN OF YOUR ARM BRUISING AND TEARING AS YOU PULL YOURSELF AND GRIAN AWAY FROM IT I CANNOT BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS SCENE, OKAY? OKAY. AND THEN YOUR BEST FRIEND ALMOST LOVER ISS WATCHING AND ABSOLUTELY TRYING TO GET CLOSER TO HELP BECAUSE, I MEAN, HELLO, AND YOU CANT LET HIM get any closer, you can’t let whatever the hell this is touch him, hurt him, so you start just screaming. And running. Aaaaaugh. AND THE TWO OF YOU ARE RUNNING AND you’ve GOT GRIAN IN YOUR ARMS AND GRIAN IS FUCKING GONE HE’S SOBBING INTO YOUR CHEST AND NECK AND SHOULDER AND YOUR LEGS ALREADY HURT BUT YOU CANT STOP RUNNING AND-- 😊I cannot be normal about this scene okay I CANNOT.

WHAT IS HAPPENING INDEED, MY DEAR BELOVED FRIEND ATHERIX, WHAT IS HAPPENING INDEED.

Thank you for screaming it was a DELIGHT I cannot wait to write the next chapter I am practically vibrating out of my skin about it.

#Asks #Mutuals #Atherix #Rift Asks #Rift AU #Hermitshipping #Mumscarian #<- Implied/Future so I figured I would tag it #G O D I WANNA WRITE CH 3 #BUT I NEED TO GET SOME WORK DONE ON MY EXCHANGE FIC TOO??? #REPLY TO ALL MY COMMENTS ON AO3??? #AH

[burgiethewriter]

Asks for a Fic Writer! 🔆

Tumblr really didn't want to show me this, the fiend, but I was tagged by @randomsquirrel (thank you!)

How many works do you have on ao3?

Oh only about 1,365 (6 if I remember to post another tonight)

2. What's your total ao3 wordcount?

2,676,845 I am very mentally well thank you for asking

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Whatever ones the brainworms are currently wiggling in. So currently it's ffxiv and ffxvi and a little dash of sso

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

Breakfast NSFW Stranger Things steddie. Which is actually the sequel to the second most kudosed one but I guess we're all sluts for domesticity.

Monster in the Bed more NSFW Stranger Things steddie. The lines of kudos emails I got from those two were fantastic.

Sunny-weather Snuggles and now for something COMPLETELY different, SFW mlp appledash. I used to have this little tradition, I suppose, of starting a new '30 day otp challenge' for every ship I liked. Don't think I ever finished one though.

Garden Party which is another SFW mlp fic but this time rarijack (I love their dynamic).

Odd Tattoo NSFW wtnv cecilos, god knows why I gave it the mature rating. I actually had this on ff.net initially, it's THAT old. But wtnv is just that popular I guess (for good reason! Night Vale my beloved).

5. do you respond to comments?

I do now after sitting there making flustered noises for a good ten minutes.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Funny thing about me, I never remember my fics. Ever. Legit I surprised myself one day discovering a stash of estimeric fics that I just. Don't remember writing. I feel like there was one though. It could be Frozen Wasteland SFW ffxiv which is about the bloody banquet at the end of arr which. Yeah. The saddest part is that I never went anywhere with it because then I started sb and met Lyse and um. Yeah.

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Starlight Kittens sfw ffxiv Lyseka I think. There are probably happier endings but that's the one that immediately springs to mind.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Sometimes there are weird 'this is so cringe wtf' comments but hey it's not my fault if they don't embrace the cringe.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

I was called sin mother for a time for a REASON okay. All kinds, vanilla, kink, monster, you name it. Very much into a/b/o and monsterfucking but I keep overthinking it and that kills the mood so fast.

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

[hides the ffxiv/ffxvi one under the bed] I mean yeah. Craziest one was probablyyyyy the Gotham x SSO one. I can't remember what happened but I remember the crossover.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge but it's not like I go looking. Wouldn't surprise me if someone had stolen an sso one though, some of those kids man...

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Again not to my knowledge but I also know that ffxvi is very popular in other languages so honestly I'm waiting for it.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

I swear to god I have but I can't find it (unless Jack posted it??? It was years ago though) but I suppose the Wild West AU also counts? Green-eyed Drake's Revenge was the last one (god I miss that era so fucking much I met some of the best people but also the worst but I just really loved being a part of such a big project).

14. what's your all-time favourite ship?

The answer probably would've been easier before I played ffxvi but uhhhh yeah it's Terence/Dion from FFXVI. Which you wouldn't know from my fics for that fandom (I keep getting distracted by other ships) but like. Canon gays. Hello. How can I resist. Ship that makes me go 'eeee' and then think about for a while after I see it.

15. what's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Haha what unfinished WIPs I don't have those scattered everywhere. I would like to actually finish Frozen Wasteland (linked above) someday but there's also a phoenixflareknight fic that I'm slowly pecking away at but it has no real plot or anything so I don't think I'll finish that. And the aforementioned ffxiv/ffxvi crossover.

16. what are your writing strengths?

Making anything look good, baby. Or so I've been told. Sheer determination? Dialogue maybe?

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

"And where is all of this action taking place?" Shrug emoji. Descriptions.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I think it's fine as long as there's a translation somewhere.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Sonic. I don't think I published any of them though. It's probably better that way.

20. favourite fic you've written?

There are a few that spring to mind but I associate them with an ex-friend so ew but Lost and Found is the ffxiv/ffxvi crossover fic I do have published where I put my character and her sister and the arr-era Scions into the world of ffxvi. I love it and wish it got more attention but maybe the time's just not right yet, idk.

I tag @tiredassmage @trusted-friend-ffxiv and @sso-eden-dawnvalley

#writing tag #I love these things sm they remind me of the good old deviantart journal days

[douwatahima]

tag 9 people you want to get to know better!

thank you @thermoskind for tagging me!

three four ships: look, i tried to narrow this down to three but i thought of these four and got sad at the thought of not including them all so y'all are getting an extra one.

doumeki/watanuki/himawari (xxxholic) - MY BABIES WHO I LITERALLY NAMED MYSELF AFTER!!! listen, my son watanuki deserves to have a stoic but protective boyfriend and a sunshiney girlfriend who hug him lots and help him see he's worth loving. AND my daughter himawari deserves to be loved without fear of accidentally doing harm. AND my son doumeki deserves to be with the people he cares about despite the fact that they're both self sacrificing as fuck. this is the trio of my dreams and i will love them until i die.

satoshi/daisuke (dn angel) - so like...this ship is from a manga that a) isn't popular and b) i would not recommend despite the fact that it had a vice grip on me as a fourteen year old. that being said these two anime boys are truly THE BLUEPRINT against which i compared all other ships for YEARS. like, there was a time where how much i loved a ship could be directly correlated to how much they reminded me of satoshi and daisuke. they were IT. and this ship truly gave us everything! the romeo and juliet parallels of them coming from feuding families!!! the enemies to friends (to lovers in my heart) of it all!!! they are THEE fire and ice ship!!! THEE sunshine one and stoic one!!! literally never talk to me about the canonical dn angel ending i want to believe in my imagined ending where they were allowed to be in love.

nico/karolina (runaways) - this is specifically about the comic book version but the tv show version is also good! i remember reading the first few comics series like...a decade ago and OHHHH MAN these two messy girls really got me. i remember reading the first conversation that implied karolina was a lesbian and becoming the living embodiment of this emoji 👀. and then nico's whole mess of a sexuality crisis after karolina leaves? poetic cinema if i've ever seen it. i spent so many years holding a torch for these two that when they actually got together in the comics in 2018 i legit bawled my eyes out. i read the words "i'm not confused anymore, karrie. i'm not scared. i know what i want" and i DIED. their first kiss has been the background on my phone for nearly five years. they are my everything i am soooo serious.

ed/stede (ofmd) - OH YOU KNOW THE GAY PIRATES HAD TO BE HERE. when i say they rewired my brain that is in no way and exaggeration. i can vividly recall scrolling through tumblr and seeing how much people were talking about this show and thinking "okay but is it really gay or is this just another tumblr thing?" LIKE. I HAD NO IDEA. staying up until two a.m. to watch episodes 9 and 10 and feeling every human emotion all at once is a moment i will never recreate. i could've done anything that night. i could've fought god and won. it's ten months later and i still think about these two every fucking day. i truly can't wait to see more of them. david jenkins thank you for my life.

first ever ship:

arnold/helga (hey arnold) - i was like...seven and didn't know what fandom was yet but i watched every episode with baited breath waiting for these two to get together lmao. the romeo and juliet episode is burned into my brain for all time. when the jungle movie came out and they finally got together after OVER A DECADE of waiting i literally went out and bought a cake to celebrate.

last song:

grace kelly by felix hagan & the family - what can i say? this song is a bop!

last film:

glass onion - listen, i would watch benoit blanc solve murders for another fifty movies and never get bored. also janelle monae i am free on thursday if you are also free on thursday and want to meet up on thursday when i am free.

currently reading:

i'm between books at the moment but the one i most recently finished was lost boy by christina henry. it was genuinely the most five out of ten book i've ever read. like...not bad by any means but so meh i have no words.

my plan is to read the magicians by lev grossman next because i miss those characters more than i can say but like hell am i gonna watch the show again after...all that. i heard the books are worse soooooo we'll see how far i get.

currently watching:

the mayfair witches - i recently watched the first two episodes and i really enjoyed them! i've never read the books so everything is new and exciting to me. i'm looking forward to seeing where this story goes!

currently consuming:

a caramilk bar. ❤

currently craving:

the ofmd season 2 trailer. please djenks i need to see ed again my crops are dying.

tagging:

i feel like most of the people i would tag have already done this so instead i'm gonna do a cop out and say if you're reading this consider yourself tagged!

#facts about me

[wellofhavoc]

i'll never understand people who say tumblr posts about teens who wrote essays on ships and fandoms are fake posts automatically because i can assure you that autistic hyperfixation combined with plucky-teen ingenuity can create many excuses to write about fandom related topics in class

examples below

ALL of my creative writing projects i ever did were "secretly" fanfiction- all of them, i think maybe one wasn't but even that, i'm sure was a reskin of some anime characters i can't remember now. my main muses were star trek characters.

there was one english teacher who actually encouraged open topic papers on things relating to the subject in any way you want (she gave the example of cookies being at a party in one scene so a student a previous year had written a paper on cookies and the history of cookies) so OBVIOUSLY i wrote an essay on shipping after reading romeo and juliet and i only got points knocked off because i didn't clarify why one of my sources (andrew hussie/homestuck) qualified as a good source on shipping quadrants. i also once wrote a star trek fanfic where they visited a planet where the events of animal farm had taken place and the enterprise crew just sort of how to deal with that (i might have this one on a flashdrive somewhere???)

i actually made a board game based on the oregon trail for a class.... and used the torchwood cast as the "pieces" and some of the chance/community chest equivalents would effect you differently depending on the character you were playing (was destroyed by some assholes, but we did get to play it in class, which was fun!)

my US history teacher actually banned me from using star trek characters because i used them as analogies for EVERYTHING (branches of government, representations of different historical figures in power points- we made a fake newspaper once and i called it the "Enterprise Daily" and filled some other areas to make it look more legit like an obituary full of names that mean "red" and of course a spirk marriage announcement) and i actually got sent to the principal's office because OBVIOUSLY i pushed the envelope too far by putting a transparent picture of william shatner over EVERY slide of an otherwise pristine power point presentation but the principal didn't do anything and sent me outside while he talked to the teacher. (i wasn't in TROUBLE, but i was still heavily discouraged from doing that again)

i was on a speech and debate team and literally acted out the sherlock reichenbach fall in a duos category- we never placed, but it was a lot of fun

none of these were an "and everyone clapped!" moment for me and were VERY cringe, but they were still super fun and... honestly a lot of them helped me engage with the material way better than i would have in any other setting. most teachers (save that US history teacher) didn't really care as long as i met the other parameters of the project (see homestuck shipping source not being sufficient) as that's the goal at the end of the day: to meet the standards of the rubric. i only totally bombed on one project, but the teacher let me redo it and the fandom stuff wasn't the problem. teachers don't want to see you fail most of the time. if you ever got a low grade on a project because it had fandom stuff in it, i guarantee you just didn't link it believably enough.

i would be surprised if anyone on this site hadn't snuck their fursona into an art project or an anime gif into a powerpoint or a pokemon into a diorama about the animal kingdom or some fanart into a brochure or- oh- well, you get it

#havoc blog

[pigeonwit]

for the fic ask game: 7 & 18 (praying i remembered the numbers right)

& since no 19 says to tell you about my favorite one of your fics im gonna take that chance to talk about run boy run again 🤷 i jumped on the rbr train a bit after chap 1 was posted and davey in that fic literally consumes my thoughts 😀 whoops. (i could write essays about this fic) chap 4 is gonna be like a national holiday to me you dont even know

also shoutout to vice vermin virtue bc i held off reading it due to an aversion to wing fics & i was so delighted by it when i finally did?? 10/10 as always

sneep :( im gonna cry. you're genuinely such a sweet person and you're always so kind and i just aaAHHHH cause like. you're just NICE for NO REASON and i love it i love it so much. full disclosure i am having a Time at work and i can feel myself going back down to Cynicism Town which i hate, but seeing you take time out of your day to just leave a comment or some nice tags or anything at all it's just UGH it makes me feel Better. people can just be nice!! for NO reason at all!! and you are one of those people and i appreciate that so much!! ok time for the asks

7. What’s a troupe you love to write?

any variation of dislike to lovers. whether its just a general sort of mistrust of each other at first that then grows into a deep and profound understanding of the other (eg livesies javid), a onesided 'i have responsibilities i need to do and i don't really trust you but you seem to REALLY want to stick around me for some reason and oh dear oh no it's working' thing (eg uksies javid) or a full on hatred of each other that forces the characters to confront their own biases, their own fears, their own personal reasons for wanting SO BADLY not to like the other person, only to realize that person understands them so much (eg arcade au or pianist au)... i giggle and kick my feet over that so much.

18. Recommend someone else fic! (And tag them if they have a tumblr!)

i dont like tagging people outright in case it bothers them but 'Long I Stood' by @/stillusesapencil on AO3 :) all while i was reading this fic i kept thinking 'oh okay so this isn't going to end with like everything working out. they're definitely gonna break up but like learn from each other and stuff, it's gonna be that kind of bittersweet thing' - which would've been fine! there is absolutely value in endings like that, i have plenty of fics like that that i love. but i was so so happy to see that that wasn't the case at all for this fic because it MAKES SENSE. there are plenty of fics that do the whole 'life just doesn't work out that way but you can still appreciate what you had when you had it!' ending - which again, i still like if it's done in a satisfactory way! - but the whole point of the fic is that 'actually, your life CAN work out that way. you DESERVE to have the life you want. you are ALLOWED to want that life, and you do not need to expect punishment for persuing it'. i don't cry much over fictional things but i did legit cry a little over this ending. it's just so hopeful and so kind. 'life can be good. you do not need to suffer or sacrifice in order to deserve good things. you CAN have what you want, you just need to be willing to make it work.' it makes me feel a lot better whenever im going to Cynical Town - honestly the more i think about it is a VERY sneepcoded fic. i know pretty much everyone's read it - it's pretty popular - but i just love it so very much so i'm recommending it anyways.

the ask game is here if anyone else wants to throw something out there!

#thank you sneeeep ily sneeeep #my answers are all so long im sorry i have so many thoughts rattling around in here i gotta Spew em out #ask #sneepsnoopboopideeboop

[prettyinpwn-blog]

I saw your post in the Ford tag and gotta say: I have heard stories about the times when Ford was commonly disliked, and I can't imagine living through that 😭 I joined the fandom right before Lost Legends came out, and I only ever came across one blog still posting about disliking Ford. He is my favorite character from any media ever. Welcome back to tumblr, I'm glad you get to experience the fandom finally giving Ford all the love and appreciation he deserves

Come and sit near the fire, youngster. Let old Grandma PiP tell ya stories about the good old days...

But yeah, both Ford and Mabel got lots of angry rants in those days. To be honest, most of them were made out of love for Stan (because Ford did treat him like garbage at points) and Dipper (because people perceived that he gave up way more for Mabel than vice versa).

But it kinda sucked because oh man, here was our theory son finally getting his time to shine. And what was even better is that he was just as awesome as we'd hoped he'd be. We'd always thought he'd be a giant nerd like Dipper but also a badass because of his getting lost in the portal (though we were wrong about some things - like him being the author and not McGucket, what he was doing before he was lost, why he and Stanley fought, that his name was Stanford and Grunkle Stan was Stanley, etc).

He was my favorite character the moment he walked out of that portal and showed his face (well, kind of before that, given much of my blog was posting headcanons/theories about him before he was revealed, but nothing was canon yet so it was all what-ifs - we never knew if we’d actually like him or not until he had screentime). 

And then I get online to see how other people responded... and it was not good. Granted, some like me loved him and many had their minds blown with the reveal, but he got a lot of flack. Even legit anger. I remember thinking, “Damn, I know we all love Stan to bits, but give Ford some slack! Give him time to shine and make it up to Stan.”

To be honest, I think had he had more screen time, especially more scenes from what was described in the physically released Journal 3 and Lost Legends, people would have liked him more from the outset. I’m still of the opinion that the story in the latter half of S2 feels rushed, and as much as I love this show and appreciate the effort put into it, I think Ford suffered for it.

Stan, Mabel, and Dipper got two seasons to shine. He got half of one, and a few episodes of that half didn’t even involve him much or at all (cough Roadside Attraction cough). And what we do see of him is punching Stan, talking about their broken relationship, telling Stan that the Mystery Shack has to go, him giving Dipper a mind control device, him explaining how he worked with Bill, and him inviting Dipper on a path away from Mabel. The few positive scenes we saw were in DDaMD and his heroic actions in the finale episodes.

He gets fleshed out way more in supplementary materials and, upon reading those, I think he arguably can be seen as the best character in terms of growth and depth (though Stan rivals him closely in this area imo).

I would love to do a whole Ford character analysis post at some point soon, because the way they wrote him is worthy of a closer look. He’s heavily flawed, but that’s what makes his arc and story all the more satisfying, and interesting to examine. A flawed character is a good character from a writing perspective, and like you, he’s been cemented as my favorite character in all media ever so far because of it. 

He had an arguably abusive father, deep insecurity and ego issues, pride that shattered his relationships and led him to push people away, made many mistakes, was intelligent but easily manipulated, and had to accept that - as much as he wanted to be a hero - it was Stan who was the true hero... But even so, he found redemption and happiness in the end. He’s still a broken man and still has flaws, but like I said: his growth arc? Amazing. He’s also relatable to me on a personal level because I’ve struggled with many of the above issues in my own life.

I am like 99.99% sure Hirsch will never return to Gravity Falls, but if he does in some form, it would be great to see a mini series or comic or [insert thing here] with Ford as a main protagonist, be it his story between getting to Gravity Falls and being shoved into the portal, his portal adventures, or his adventures with Stan after the main series. I know we’ve seen summaries or hints of these time periods, but man, with how little screentime he got in the show, I think fans would gladly go for it.

I also think it would be great to explore his and Stan’s stories in material that’s allowed to be more adult. Gravity Falls gets away with an astonishing amount of darkness for being a Disney show, but I think something targeted for an older audience would allow for greater delving into these dark aspects of Ford and Stan’s lives, like breaking generational trauma and family cycles, how to mend long-broken familial relationships, reflecting back on major regrets in your life, morality in the face of survival (if Ford’s portal days are ever explored more in-depth), etc. 

But Disney owns the rights so if they’d be up for that... not sure. I’m not saying make it Rick and Morty or Inside Job level adult, but somewhere between the original series and those shows. The fandom is older now, and if Stan and Ford were the protagonists, it’d make sense to age up the target audience, as well.

#gravity falls #stanford pines #deep pip thoughts

[mandalhoerian]

Hey, I don't know if anyone's mentioned this to you before, but I just wanted to say making Vera's color scheme pink (with black) totally makes her super recognizable and iconic, you know? It's a genius character design choice to me because in all of Resident Evil, there's no other character that's "pink," so she really stands out in a fresh way. It's like you filled a gap we didn't even realize was there. Plus, she's got that whole tech vibe going on, which is so cool because she stands out from all the scientists and badass fighters dealing with bioterrorism. I just think she's awesome and the thought put into her design is top-notch! I miss her sm I hope you update soon <3

RAHHHHH ANON KICKING MY FEET GIGGLING THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS ?????? I FEEL SO VALIDATED AHAHAHAH LIKE YES MY EFFORT HAS BEEN NOTICED BAAHAHAH

You didn't ask for this at all but I'm going to ramble ANYWAY. SO

I was extremely particular about making her "recognizable" as you say, like memorable. Because good god RE has so many good female characters who are so unique, and color-coded somehow, honest to god I was like "WHAT IS LEFT IN THIS UNIVERSE I DONT KNOW HOW TO MAKE A DISTINCTIVE OC WHAT AM I GONNA DO"

----- like, I had a friend who knows extremely early drafts of her, and embarrassingly she was a corrupt, snobby, scope-hungry journalist redhead who wore red and dressed like veronica lodge from riverdale 🙃🤐

and then she was korean for a while (this fell after i discovered ashiemochi's so-ah). and then turkish. and then the turkish journalist thing fell AS WELL because i discovered other journalist ocs on tumblr paired with leon and a turkish journalist on wattpad and i was like "oh my god fuck i am scrapping everything" (this idea later got recycled in moth to a flame)

first drafts are absolute hell, as you can see.

i actually dont remember how i got the pink idea. im also like. obsessed with color? i guess. i like to categorize so it's always fascinating when a character/thing is associated with a color/symbol/animal/ and owns it -- like, the girlies in RE -- they made Ashley orange-yellow, sheva purple (kinda? its not as prominent as the others), rebecca pistachio green, alex wesker white, ada cherry red, claire apple red and it just HITS, it could just be a me-thing though. It falls apart at one pointt I know, because how many characters can you color code hahahah (and they didnt even try with the men. they're shades of blue, all of them. or black. bo-ring. they went with the hair and body type for them while the girls got the colors kinda DDJSKDS) -- so take it with a grain of salt, it's just that I love color as a starting and developing point and I cant overgrow it 😭

but like. interestingly there was no pink pink character like you said — apart from moira burton that is who has it in like the hood of her jacket and bracelet and nowhere else, though she is a minor character? i guess in a zombie game franchise marketed to boys majorly in earlier years, they wouldn't really prefer pink LMAO so it was easier to bubblegum chainsaw an OC in since that was a deliberately left alone concept. I was like "mine now" and put a spin to it!!!!! I love that she's just black-pink. It's her whole thing. Such a satisfying thing to me to work with

I'm glad you think highly of this, the opportunity was ripe for the taking and I just went for it! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me!1!!!💕💕💕

EDIT: I FORGOT THE TECH THING YOU SAID IM SORRY. Yeah that was on purpose to further establish her to be her own thing as well. Too much "she's not like the other girls" vibes here AND ITS WORRYING but no she is just like the other girls and is proud of it. I just wanted to explore other occupations DJSDHSJSJKD Legit it started out as wanting to branch out and experimenting how I could incorporate it to RE's story!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN I WANT TO KISS YOU CONSENSUALLY ON THE FOREHEAD THIS ASK MADE MY DAY IM WORKING ON THE NEW CHAPTER CURRENTLY!! Hopefully it will be out this month, you know how long the chapters can get 😭

#an ask for shai #oc: vera kaplan

[xxwritemeastoryxx]

WIP Purge

Where my untouched and forgotten work in progress goes to the trash bin. But before they meet their demise, I figured I'd show you what is being tossed and give my thoughts on them before they never see the sunshine again.

However, if in the future a part of me feels like I can go back to it, this is the post where it will be saved. Unless tumblr eats my tags and I never find it again after this is posted.

ANYWAYS! From what I can tell, no major warnings are needed for what is below the cut. Please note that this is in fact a very long post filled with commentary that is either ramblings, me occasionly giving thoughts in bold mid wip to address things, and so on.

This is mostly for you guys to see what could have been as well as some comedy. If you have any thoughts on these, please feel free to comment on them. I really want to know what you guys think.

Have fun! And thank you for participating in this purge.

Eyes On Me

If I'm not mistaken this had been a request that just fell through the cracks before I had my breakdown. This one was from when I first started attempting to write for MCU characters. I tried going back and rereading and replanning this fic, but everything I tried to do didn't work. So it sat there unfinished. Maybe one day I'll come back and give Druig another try.

I need you to come back to me.

The words may have been rushed and loud to anyone that had been close by but to Y/N she couldn’t even hear them. Her mind blocking out the words in one way or another. Images flashed before her eyes. Ones that she’d hardly recognized but felt oh so familiar to her.

I don’t want to hurt you. Come back.

The words were muffled in comparison to the chaos that echoed within Y/N’s ears. The screams of the scared and injured only gripped the hold on Y/N tighter that it felt like she couldn’t breathe. Death and destruction louder than the calming words that were being attempted to bring her back from the madness that was consuming her.

What Y/N didn’t know was (What didn't she know?!?! Cause I sure as hell don't remember lmao. )

“She’s struggling.” He said as he shook his head. “One moment she’s fine and she can fight it off, but in the next it’s like-” He couldn’t find the right words to explain the battle Y/N would lose with herself. Druig’s mind only comes up with the smallest comparison to Thena that very night in Tenochtitlan.

“As if she is stuck in between the past and the present.” Gilgamesh said with a nod in understanding. “You grow worried with how long she’ll be able to fight it off before you’re fighting her to come back to you.” His eyes landed on Thena as she brought a glass up to her lips and took a drink. “Some days it is as easy as telling her a few words, and other days it takes a while to break through to her.”

They both watched as Y/N and Thena began to toss their heads back in laughter at whatever was said in their conversation. The details were unknown to the men, but it was something that had actually brought a smile to both of their faces. The two women had been close before they all had gone their separate ways.

Thena only ever laughed that hard when Y/N was around. And it was only ever Thena that could ever get Y/N to be still for longer than five minutes. Though over time Y/N had been able to adapt and be content with boredom, it was then that both Druig and Gilgamesh had seen how calm Y/N was.

“What caused it?” Gilgamesh asked a moment later.

“We take trips when she needs them.” Druig began. “Staying in one spot gets to her at times. She chose the destination not knowing what to expect, it had been centuries since she had last visited. When we arrived, we were met with war among the civilians. She killed ten humans before I was able to get through to her.”

I REALLY REALLY loved the relationship between the reader and Thena. I really wanted that sibling relationship between them, and it just sucks that my brain refuses to make this fic work.

—--------

Untitled Shower Thoughts

Legit, if you looked at the doc name it's what the name of it is. I had an idea mid-shower for this particular scene but for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was for. But it was going to be angsty apparently. I don't even know what character was supposed to be used for this one either.

"What changed?"

There was a time that I felt peace with you by my side. I never went without and you showed me what it was like to be loved. But it wasn't me who changed. " She shook her head slightly. "You left. Maybe not physically but you weren't here with me. Together, I longed for the peace we had, the longing hurt. And the days you were on a mission, I felt peace."

For a moment she believed that as she said the words there would be some kind of ache in her chest. Some guilt at falling out of love for him. Some anger at him for leaving as he always did, even when she asked him to stay. All she felt was as if she was talking to an old friend she hadn't seen in a while. He may not have admitted to himself, but Y/N knew he has left long before she even began to feel lonely.

—--------

ONLY WITH YOU

All I know was this was supposed to be a request that I couldn't bring myself to finish before I did a 'reset.' It was going to be one of those 'Everyone lives in the Avengers Tower' fics and I cant remember what it was that made me not want to finish it. Maybe it was the fact that in my notes for this, that this was supposed to be tooth rotting fluff and the tooth rotting stuff I couldn't get my brain to focus on.

When Y/N first officially met Loki, she had just returned from a mission she had been on for the last few weeks. Just like many had, she had witnessed the events of New York first hand. While she hadn’t fought him face to face like some of the others, she had been happy to see the man in cuffs and being taken back to Asgard. And when the news began to spread that the Asgardian would be returning to New York, she was against it. An agreement had been made and she wasn’t the only one who shared the same views.

By the time she returned, the team had already gone through the motions of being on standby for Loki’s arrival. He and Thor had taken up residency on one of the floors of Avengers Tower for a whole week before Y/N returned. And when she met the God of Mischief….

{Insert details things} (What details cause none of it is happening)

In the end, Y/N left with tears of frustration in her eyes. Minutes after leaving the room she volunteered herself for the next mission even though she had just gotten back. Anything to put some space between them after an interaction like that one.

Months had come and gone with Y/N doing what she could to avoid Loki. While at first it had been out of anger and hatred, now it had been mostly for the sake of giving him whatever space he needed. To allow him to adjust to a life not only on Earth, but working to be a part of the Avengers.

Y/N knew this wasn’t easy for anyone. Not when there was an occasional throwing New York in Loki’s face from time to time. Most of the Avengers were on high alert with Loki around. And when he was put on missions, chaos usually ensued when some of them felt as though they couldn’t turn their backs on him. Even Y/N had been guilty of doing the same when they first started going on missions together.

It wasn’t until their next mission together that something seemed to change between the two.

When Y/N woke up in the med bay, she wasn't surprised to see the familiar faces of Natasha or even Steve talking as they sat beside her bed. What she had been surprised by was Loki standing by the entryway to her little sectioned off room. There was a look of relief on his face as he watched her eyes open and watched as her eyes focused on him. He gave her a slight nod of his head before turning and walking away.

“How long have I been out?” She asked a moment later as she ran her hand along her forehead. There was an echo of an ache that was currently making it’s presence known the longer she was awake.

“Almost two weeks.” Steve said as he leaned forward in his chair.

“We weren’t sure how much longer we could take you not being around.” Natasha said jokingly as she laid out the blanket on top of Y/N. “Some more than others couldn’t leave your side.”

“That someone being you?” Y/N asked as she looked over at Natasha with a small smile pulling at her lips.

Natasha chuckled. “Someone actually has me beat.” She noted before looking towards the entryway.

While Loki wasn’t there anymore, Y/N knew exactly who Natasha had been talking about. If she hadn’t seen Loki there when she first woke up, she wasn’t sure if she’d believe what Natasha was telling her.

Y/N’s eyebrow raised slightly. “Really?”

“He only leaves your side when someone else comes to visit you.” Steve added. “I’ll admit when he carried you in, we weren’t exactly accepting of the idea.”

“We had no idea what was going on after your coms went out

I really wish I had finished this one. But I also think the lack of interaction with my Loki fics just depresses me and I think that's a reason that I've kind of stopped writing things for him. Bummer I know.

—---------

Untitled Elijah Fluff

Apparently I can't finish the fluffy things my brain tries to come up with.

For the first time in quite some time, things had been quiet. Threats didn’t come and go as frequently or there was no need to be constantly looking over their shoulders for something that may or may not be coming after them. And for once The Mikaelson family could easily let their guard down and actually enjoy life.

Klaus, Hope and Hayley had found themselves on a family trip across Europe. All of it as educational as they could make it while letting Hope take in other parts of the world. A chance for her to grow and learn things that only HaYley or Klaus could teach her as the hybrids they were.

As for the rest of the Mikaelsons, they stayed put in New Orleans in hopes of making the city better. A chance to unite the factions and make the city thrive in a way that it never had before. And it was working for the most part. Even they knew that not everything would run smoothly while attempting to make things better.Nothing ever more than they could handle in the process. Not when the leaders of the factions were moving to make the same peace the Mikaelsons wanted.

Y/N and Elijah had been lounging in the study. Each of them with a book in their hands. While Elijah was catching up on his reading, Y/N had been reading a grimoire that had been passed down to her. It had been the first time she had actually sat down and went through it.

There was a time Y/N had believed her family had lost the grimoire years before she had become of age. After facing their last threat, Y/N found it among the ruins of her family home. It took her some time before she actually decided to crack open the book and peek at the pages. But once she had, she didn’t regret it.

The pages had been filled with spells and details that she hadn’t believed were possible. Spells such as these ones should be hoped to keep out of the wrong hands. And as she flipped through the pages, she would seal the page with a spell making it only visible to those with the best intentions of using the spell.

But in the last hour, her eyes had been glued to a spell that occupied one of the pages. The design on the page had been intricate. Words covered the page in a language she wasn’t sure she could even pronounce, let alone read in that moment. But it was the images that were drawn on the page that held her attention.

Vines grew up along the page towards the top of it. A handful of seeds drawn as if it had been the one to drop the seeds into the ground that allowed the vines to grow and thrive. Intertwined in the vines had a few different images of life.

Y/N stared at the spell in front of her. She must have read and reread it several times since she had found it. Her eyebrows furrowed as she translated on the page for the millionth time trying to make sure she had in fact translated the spell correctly.

With each word that came out the same each time, excitement rose within her. For each word that had gotten her mind to click in the correct order, it made her heart race. And when she got to the very last word, a gasp passed her lips at the realization of what she found.

"What is it?" Elijah asked from across the room.

He had been watching her for the last several minutes. He had watched as she had been so focused on the page in front of her that she hadn't even heard him speak to her moments before. With every tilt of her head and every purse of her lips as she worked on it.

Y/N's head shot up at his words. The first time she registered his voice in a while. She could see the curious look on Elijah's face and all she could do was smile at him. She couldn't even make the words form that were wanting to be said. She didn't know how to say them without getting anyone's hopes up.

Not with this. Not with the potential to bring a new life into the world. Where loopholes can be had. Someone in her family was crazy enough to do it. She just needed someone other than the love of her life to be the first one to hear it.

She gave him a smile as she got up from her seat, the book closing with her pointer finger holding its place. She walked over to him, before leaning in and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"I promise to explain later." She said before standing straight. "I just need to talk to your sister before anything."

"Freya isn't here." He said with a raised brow as he watched her begin to turn and walk out of their study.

"I never said I needed Freya." She said as she looked over her shoulder at him before leaving the room altogether.

Elijah shook his head and chuckled as he heard her feet pick up as she rushed to find Rebekah. As she did, there was a flicker of hope that ignited within him. If this was the spell he believed it to be, things would surely change around there for the better.

—---

Enchanted

This fic had notes to be a song fic to Taylor Swift. But I have no idea where the hell I was going with this fic. I think reader was supposed to have her memories compelled away and the familiarity of things was supposed to trigger something to remembering her first night meeting Elijah. But once again, I can't get my brain to want to come back to this one.

"You seem rather uninterested to be here." The voice was familiar in a way that Y/N couldn't help but turn around rather quickly, her drink almost spilling over the rim as she turned.

The moment she had turned, there was no recognition of the person who spoke moments before. Even as her eyes wandered over the man before her in the three-piece suit. His brown eyes took in her appearance just as she had, but there was a gleam in his eyes that had screamed at Y/N that he was familiar with her. As if he knew her more intimately than she believed.

She quickly shook the thoughts from her head, before giving him a small smile. "Unfortunately any time I'm dragged to an event such as this one, I tend to grow bored with it halfway through the night. Attend one and you've seen all of them."

That caused a small smirk to pull at the man's lips. The smirk itself had caused something to stir within Y/N, but the source of it all was still buried deep within her. Something that she was questioning more as the minutes passed.

"And what of our hosts?" He asked curiously as he tucked one hand into his pant’s pocket. "I'm sure they'd be worried if a benefactor such as yourself was uninterested in this get-together."

"The Salvatores have the city's best interest at heart." Y/N knew that was a lie. She knew that it was the farthest from the truth. That this party was nothing more than to reach into the deep pockets of the benefactors of the city to ensure their organization was continuously thriving. "My continuous contributions don't mean they are aiming to please their guests once boredom strikes."

The smirk tugged at his lips for another brief moment before it left his lips altogether. The way her heartbeat had quickened had told him she was lying. Even if it was the tiniest of lies, he rather enjoyed that she even disliked the Salvatores' actions in their business.

"What if I could persuade you to turn your contributions to another organization that pull\ their efforts towards what the vampires of the community actually want?" His eyes never left hers as he said the words.

As she took in the words, they held familiarity, as if they had this exact conversation before. A small smirk had pulled at her lips. "And how do you intend to persuade me?"

He chuckled before his attention had been caught by the change of music playing. He tilted his head towards the dance floor before holding his hand out to her. Her eyebrow raised as she observed his hand.

"Give me this dance to provide all the information you need to make a decision. And if you decide to hear more, we can take our conversation elsewhere."

After a moment, she nodded her head before placing her hand in his. "One dance. You better start talking."

A small smirk pulled at the corner of his lips as he began to lead her towards the dancefloor. Once a spot had been occupied, he spun Y/N before bringing her towards him and taking her free hand.

—-----

Untitled Mafia based Series

Let me tell you. I really wanted to dive into another Series with Elijah. But the amount of Series I had going on with that man was bad at the time. So I kind of put it on the back burner and then it never got finished. Maybe one day.

Y/N’s fingers were quickly tapping away on her keyboard. Her eyes watched as each word formed on the screen, making sure there had been no mistakes. The sooner she got this story done, the sooner she could leave the office and go pick up Elijah from the airport. While his flight wasn't due to land for several hours, she was anxious and excited for him to come home.

(Insert the shit ton of space that was in between things)

Y/N leaned against the door frame looking into the study. She watched as Elijah read a book as he sat in his favorite chair. A smile played on her lips just watching him sitting there. They had been through a lot recently and seeing him relaxed for the first time in a while was a nice sight. “Hey.” She said to get his attention.

Elijah looked up from the book, a smile growing on his face as he saw her. “Hey.” He responded back. He closed his book and placed it on the stand by his chair before standing up. “Is everything alright?”

She smiled and entered the room walking towards him. “Everything is fine.” She said with a nod as she stopped right in front of him. “Actually I'd say everything is perfect.” She placed her hand on his cheek. “You are home, we are safe, and we are together.”

Even though Y/N's words made him smile. She was wrong. There was still plenty of dangers that lurked in the shadows. Many of them were on the brink of making their moves and Elijah knew it was only a matter of time before he had to leave Y/N again. In fact it was just a few short days away. A sigh passed his lips as he ran his hand through her hair. “I won't be home for long.” He admitted.

“But your brother can handle this.” Y/N said shaking her head. “You just got back.” Her voice broke at the end.

“I know I did.” Elijah said knowing that his departure would make things worse for Y/N. “But Klaus isn't going to be able to do this on his own.”

Y/N shook her head again as tears began to fill her eyes. “I can't bare the thought of you being shot at again. You were supposed to come home and stay home.”

“I have to do this, Y/N/N” He said placing his hands on her cheeks hoping he could get her to understand. “This is the last time. We take out the Salvatores once and for all and then we will be able to live in peace.”

“What's to stop anyone from picking up where they left off?” Y/N asked worried. “Nothing will change if you do this.”

“Nothing will change if we don't do anything.” Elijah shook his head. “It won't stop. They killed Henrik and attempted to kill me all because Klaus went after one of their properties. What will happen if we leave them be?” Elijah couldn't even think of the possibilities but her had to get Y/N to understand. “If we don't do this now, what is to stop them from coming after the rest of my siblings or even you?” He shook the images from his head as he moved one hand away from her cheek. “I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything happened to you.”

Y/N looked down at her feet for a moment before looking back at him. She didn't want to tell him like this. She didn't want to say it just because he was leaving but he needed to know. “It wouldn't just be me anymore that you'd have to worry about.”

“What do you mean?” Elijah asked with a raised brow.

“I hoped that I'd be able to tell you with us celebrating you were home and staying home,” she sighed slightly. “but you need to know before you leave again. I'm pregnant.”

-_-_-_

“Y/N is pregnant?” Klaus asked as he looked at Elijah.

Elijah nodded. “She was hoping to tell me with a private celebration that I'd be staying home. Instead we started arguing and in the middle of it, she told me.”

“And you wish to be with her instead of being here.” Klaus noted.

“Of course I would.” Elijah said with a nod. “She kept it to herself for a month while I had been recovering in hopes that after everything I had been through it would help keep me from coming back “

“And yet you wanted to come back and help me handle things.” Klaus sighed. “You do realize if they find out about her pregnancy they could use that against us.”

“You think I don't know that? That is all I have thought about since she had told me. Word of this gets to them and it will be her they take next. This child is the next generation for us.”

“An heir to our Kingdom.” Klaus noted. “The Salvatores won't take kindly knowing that.”

“Precisely why I asked her to go stay with her parents. If she is out of the country until this over she'll be safe.”

Klaus shook his head. “Sending her to England doesn't make this go away.”

“No but keeping her out of their grasps for now is all I need.

_-_-_-_-_-_

“How is that wife of yours?” Damon asked as he sat across from Elijah. “I heard she was in England. Is there already trouble in paradise?’

“She is visiting family.” Elijah noted. “We are fine. I would have joined her on her visit but there was business to attend to.”

“Right.” Damon said as he smirked a little. “I only ask because my cousin saw her out while she was visiting as well.” The words alone had caused Elijah to stiffen. “She seemed rather upset about something. not to mention my cousin also mentioned she saw Y/N and her mother walk into a maternity store.”

“You know women these days.” Klaus said hoping to give Elijah a moment to collect his thoughts before doing something he'd regret. “They like to imagine what it would be like by walking through stores.”

My notes had a lot of details. Such as how this would begin along with how Elijah had gotten injured. Yet any time I went back an read through to try and get my brain going, nothing helped.

---------

KLAUS SOULMATE AU

First of all I have no idea how this one hasn't been done, because I absolutely love soulmate AUs. And this is whereit makes me a bit sad that I couldn't finish this one.

"It's her isn't it?" Rebekah said as she came to stand beside Klaus.

Klaus had never taken his eyes off of the woman. His head nodded in confirmation. "It is."

"Then why aren't you down there introducing yourself to her?" She asked. "The last time she had been reincarnated you let her go without so much as a word to her."

Klaus looked over at his sister. "And she lived a long and happy life. The first one she's had in all of the times she'd been reborn. I can't risk it."

"We will keep her safe." Rebekah tried. She knew how much Klaus had wanted to be with his soulmate. But the world was cruel in the ways that Klaus had lost her time and time again.

"Have you forgotten that it always by yours or even our brothers' hands that she dies?" His eyes narrowed at her before returning to looking down at the street.

The woman had stopped at booth with dozens of boquets of flowers. Klaus watched as her eyes looked over the arrangements before a small smile pulled at her lips. Klaus knew exactly what her favorite and a small smile of his own formed as he watched her grab them and pay the vendor.

"This time will be different." She said placing her hand on Klaus's shoulder. "We wont interfere, we wont even speak with her."

"The last time that happened, our brother used her to prove a point." Klaus noted, not taking his eyes off the woman.

"Kol is in a different country, he wouldn't be able to play his games." She wanted to try anything. They were all fortunate to have their soulmates in their life, except for Klaus.

"No." He shook his head. "She'll live a full life this time around just as she had previously."

_____

Untitled Crossover fic

I always love challenges, trust me, I really do and I was ready to take this one full on. But I couldn't figure out how to make this one work. And that also makes me sad. So have a bit of a fic that would have been interesting but will never happen.

Her heart felt like it was hitting aginst her ribs as it beat quickly. The blade of the knife only centimeters away from her neck. Dean hesitating the moment she stepped in the way. She watched as her brother glared at her.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dean's voice raised as he dropped his arm, ensuring the knife was away from her.

"Stopping you." She said as heart calmed in the slightest. But she didn't dare relax. Not right now, not when she needed to make things better.

"Move, Y/N." His voice held finality. He had expected his sister to move out of the way and let him finish this. The fact that she had stepped in moments before his blade would have come in contact with the vampire's neck made his blood boil.

She was protecting the vampire that stood behind her. And it proved to him every horrible thought that had been going through his mind the last several weeks when he couldn't get ahold of her. How vague she was on the phone when she finally did answer.

Y/N should have known better. She knew she shouldn't have kept this from any of them for so long. She should have been honest from the beginning. Not the quick and vague text she sent to her brothers or the vague answers she gave Elijah about her family. But she had pictured doing things differently and this wasn't it.

"I'm not moving." She said as she stayed in her place. Even as Elijah attempted to pull her a step or two back to give the hunter some space, she refused to move. "Let it go, Dean. There's no one to fight here"

Even as she said the words, her eyes shifted over to Sam who had just entered the room. There was a look of confusion on his face as he took in the situation.

"You should listen to her." Elijah's voice was calm. If anything, Y/N could pick up on the slight annoyance in his words.

_____

Untitled Bucky fic

Yeah I have no idea where this one was going. I don't even know what the whole plot was for this. My notes have nothing.

"Trouble in Paradise?"

Y/N shook her head quickly and looked over at Sam. "Um, quite possibly. Bucky has been-" She let out a sigh. "He's closed himself off again and I can't seem to get him to open up this time."

_______

Untitled who knows what.

My brain comes up with ideas but there's some pieces missing apparently because IDK who the reader is gonna be pissed at in this one.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore.” Y/N’s voice raised a little more as she raised her finger towards him. “I made the decision to do this. Maybe next time you’ll actually listen to me.”

Thank you for reading the purge. Remember any comments or thoughts on this would be welcomed. Would you have read these fics? Was I crazy for even thinking of the idea? Or are we glad this is going into the trash?

#WIP Purge #Fics that never got finnished #Unfinnished fics #Here lies the fics dom never finished #abandoned fics #abandoned work in progress #purged fic ideas #if i lose this post in the future we know it wasnt meant to be #untagged post #things that never were

[thejudgingtrash]

Unpopular Opinion;I'd rather have show!Annabeth as a kid with dark hair and eyes. Honestly,the whole "grey eyed blonde Athena kids" was odd in the books,and would be even worse in live action,IMO. While I like seeing fanarts of show!Annabeth with blonde hair and/or grey eyes,I don't see why this detail has to be faithful to the books. Besides,I feel the same about Percy,if to a lesser degree.

Yeah.

Sorry for answering this so late, I’m not really active on Tumblr therefore I tend to forget to check whether or not I’ve received some asks and I tend to take a while for answering them anyways. Also, this is going to get very long and rambly, so prepare yourselves!

My opinion on this whole casting situation and book accuracy is: I legit don’t give a fuck. More than that, I just side-eye people that were freaking the fuck out.

I essentially cut contact with 98% of this fandom (aside from few core groups) and left Tumblr last year because it’s a toxic mess and I try to avoid other PJO related social media branches (with the exception for AO3 for dumping my Percabeth fics, next one coming up soon <3) because they’re more than often even WORSE (!) than this hellsite but I still can’t escape casting news. So it’s incredibly hilarious to see so many people freaking the fuck out over something they have little to no control about.

My wonderful friend @mapendo-c essentially brought it to the point with this post but let me add my two cents to this entire situation:

2020 was hell on tumblr for the black crowd, let’s not act like it wasn’t (it was hell for black people in general if you care enough to remember). From harrassing the black PJO Tumblr side, to straight up lying to us, to doxxing, to us being called slurs in DMs and asks, to receiving open death threats and being sent lynching videos, we had it ALL. Some people that were directly confronted with this shit victimized themselves and fled the scene to this day, literally going out with a bang. Congratulations for that, BTW.

And that was only because a few people started to create PJO artwork that involved Percy of Color. Being more open to otherness. Critizing the white status quo and branching out. Questioning the constant projection onto these characters. That set a chain reaction into other endeavors and arguments but alas, this is already enough babbling. 

The fact that we had over 17 years of artwork and fics and videos and movies filled with Cocaine White Percy wasn’t enough for some of you. No, you had to break the spirits of those that are a minority and do not look like you. All of that shit was so unwarranted and unnecessary.

And then when you got warm to the idea of Token Black Percy (in 2021 might I add), you were delighted to see that he would be indeed white in the TV series as announced in the past few months. But oh wait… What was that?? Is it a bird, is it a plane? No?

ANNABETH ISN’T WHITE.

The whole world just got hit by a big rock and the apocalypse is nearing. The way some of y’all acted… Doing the same exact vile shit that you were doing in 2020 to a twelve year old, because she got the role of her life (so far) in portraying a major fictional character… The fact that y’all lost your goddamn mind without having even seen Leah act is MIND-BLOWING.

The same people accusing the black side of the fandom of likely being aggressive towards White TV Show Percy (before casting confirmation which also — newsflash — didn’t happen) are now the same fucking people freaking out about Leah as Annabeth. Tale as old as time.

I said this two years ago and most of y’all stank bitches proved me right: “Let’s be real: if Annabeth Chase would be black for example with the way she behaves, 85% of the fandom would hate her, cry for Perachel and Percabeth would be the least popular ship. I don’t trust people who are saying the opposite.”

As if anything else was about to happen… if I’m to believe certain Twitter threats and Reddit posts (taken with the biggest grain of salt ofc), some people where close to unaliving themselves because we all seemed to collectively have forgotten that Annabeth stans (this is coming from a core Percabeth shipper, so don’t come for me!) are fucking INSANE. Imagine loosing your shit on a harmless decision like a differing casting choice. Some of y’all need psychiatric help, ESPECIALLY looking at you 

“I can’t be racist, because I’m neurodivergent” crowd!!

I absolutely do not get why people get worked up about this. The minute a live version (aka NOT animation) project was announced, all of you should have collectively kissed the idea of a 100% book accurate adaptation goodbye, just as with the movie version. 

Do I think the show version will be closer to the books? 

Yes. 

Do I think it’ll be a 1 on 1 adaptation? 

Absolutely not. 

The announcement of the blind casting and therefore going for talent approach should’ve cemented the fact that this show won’t be book accurate at all.

How difficult is it to understand for some of you that the image of Annabeth, Percy, the storyline and everything else that you made up in your mind will NEVER be depicted on screen??? This is purely from a logical standpoint. I know Disney has resources and shit but they aren’t infinite. They have to break even eventually. I guess none of y’all have absolutely any idea how the medium of film works behind the scenes. 

Even Riordan’s (as the author with actual authority) initial version is impossible to bring to the screen. Trust me, there will be other things omitted or added to the show. You can either tune in, or don’t. It’s as simple as that. That is the only thing you can influence.

Coming to the next point: do all of these changes even matter?!

Stripping Annabeth and Percy of their default hair/eye/skin color doesn’t really change anything that significantly imo?? 

If you are reducing Annabeth and Percy to their appearance and not the character, what they have as traits and could represent that’s on you, sweetie.

Additionally, most of y’all are ignoring the polar opposite: the nuances and depth Black Annabeth (less so White Percy tbh) could add are entirely forgotten. How they could enrich the story, bring other perspectives in and give in Annabeth’s case the opportunity for black girls that are sexualized and treated like complete shit everywhere else on the planet (anti blackness and misogynoire say hello!) a chance to see themselves portrait in a multi-dimensional character but NOOOOOOOO!

Y’all act as if Californian Dream girl blonde, tall, tanned Anna Bethany “my father went to Harvard and I’m a descendant of Scandinavian royalty and only white people live in Sweden” Chase lives the same life and is equally as oppressed as characters like Hazel or Beckendorf. You know… the little black girl that lived through segregation, got cursed, killed and resurrected and has Hitler as her fucking half-sibling, and the token negro who was one of the very FEW diverse characters in the OG book series that got BLOWN THE FUCK UP as a plot point.

Like GIRL?! (Nella Rose voice:) ARE YOU NOT EMBARASSSSSED?!

I’m not saying that Annabeth doesn’t have her fair share of issues, all I’m saying is SHE’S NOT FUCKING OPPRESSED. Her problems are not the same in comparison to Hazel, Piper, Leo, Beckendorf, Reyna and others. I know white women loooove playing the victim (see: current real world issues where instead of listening to the warnings of black and brown women and people decades ago, they just sat around until they were on the receiving end for once), but no. This is not the fucking same.

Don’t act like it.

“Oh but the dumb blonde stereotype...“

DOESN’T EVEN FUCKING MATTER?!

Not only that, you could use that for show Percy for all that I care now that his actor won’t be forced to dye his hair/wear contacts. Percy gets treated by all fronts like an idiot (thank you, Annabeth), let him be the one proving people wrong about the dumb blond thing.

As if there aren’t other white female (main) characters that you can latch yourselves onto if you feel like projecting. And you still can, because the OG book series is still a fucking thing!! This is all about the show!

Like you, @mrhomerxsimpson have said, the OG descriptions sound unrealistic and would look tacky in the live action. Fanart ≠ real portrayal of characters. Having sparkly glowing sea green eyes would look weird in reality. The focus of Annabeth’s on her gray eyes… this is readable but would likely transfer poorly onto the screen.

And let’s not forget the trashy exotic portrayal of Cinnamon Toast Hazel and Kaleidoscope Eyed Piper. Let’s just let people and characters of color chill for a while. Please.

I’ve said it ages ago and I’m too lazy to look it up but I think that as long as Percy and Poseidon reassemble each other slightly, the show will be fine. And if these people can act. Also important.

Which brings me to my final point/question: How are some of you unable to understand that different adaptations of the same enterprise can coexist and be just fine?

Book Annabeth 

≠

Movie Annabeth

≠

TV Show Annabeth

There is a reason why you can filter the universe (book, tv show, movie, etc.) in which your story is set on AO3 and FFN. Because not all universes are the same!!!

Rowling is trash but as an easy to understand analogy: if you think about the Harry Potter franchise…

is Emma Watson automatically Hermione Granger for you? Is Daniel Radcliffe automatically Harry Potter?

Because whenever I’ve read a HP Fic they’ve NEVER come up in my mind. Emma Watson is Movie Hermione, but she’s not THE Hermione. She isn't any better or worse than Stage Adaptation Hermione. Watson certainly isn’t the Hermione in my head.

Dr. Who is a sorta weak comparison but there are a million different Doctors sooo what??

Can’t you separate different versions of the same medium? The same core story just with different faces for the same role? Am I in the minority with this??

Book Annabeth is Book Annabeth, Alexandra Daddario is Movie Annabeth and Leah will be TV Show Annabeth. And none of that is in conflict with each other.

If you still want to create moodboards and artworks with Surinamese!Percy, Haitian!Grover and Desi!Annabeth, no one’s stopping you!

If you see Aryan, Walker and Leah as the new default and want to create artwork with their likenesses, also fine!

If you want to go all white like Burdge and Viria have over ten years ago… lame and side-eye worthy but ultimately your decision.

If you want to do all of the above, go ahead!

Just chill and wait till next year when the show finally hits before y’all start throwing tantrums, jeez. Oh wait. Too late!

Peace out.

TL;DR: It really doesn’t fucking matter how TV series Annabeth or Percy look like. Their actors need to act and that’s about it. However, I agree that the book portrayals (at least to a certain degree) would look tacky on screen. Also, this fandom is trash. 

Stop being dickheads and I’m out until November or so for my new finished fic.

#pjo #Mel rants #Mel answers #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percy jackson and the olympians #black annabeth chase #walker scobell #leah sava jeffries #leah Jeffries #pjo tv #rick Riordan #hoo #hazel levesque #charles beckendorf #disney #mrhomerxsimpson #percy of color #heroes of olympus #aryan simhadri #pjo fandom