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#IM NOT SAYING I COULD DO BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL WRITERS like i get they have very different circumstances to me n stuff w execs etc
stealingpotatoes · 8 months
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just watched mando s3 it’s great that we TOTALLY had a whole season about din coming to grips with being mand’alor & life without grogu and about dueteragonist bo-katan coming to realise she was only trying to lead mand’alor bc of her sister not bc she thought she was the best leader. and the whole season centred around the theme of accepting who you really are even if you’re certain you’re something else and was about how heroes and leaders can come from anywhere, they don’t have to come from a special bloodline (a sorta thesis against the skywalker saga) and about the uniting power of grief and oppression. isn’t it great we had that instead of a season with no plot 
isn’t it great that there were no mando cameos in tbobf and mando season 3 started with him on a bounty, cringefailing at using the darksaber and stabbing himself but he did the job and got paid in a nubian starfighter (he wanted a razor crest but he’s injured so he doesnt argue much) which he then used to find his covert on the canyon planet. then he revealed to the armorer and paz that he had the darksaber which after some time leads to paz duelling din for the saber (without telling the others bc they dont know din has it) and din wins but its revealed he took his helmet off. he’s made apostate IN FRONT OF EVERYONE (EVERYONE!!) with only one IMPOSSIBLE chance of redemption (nobody can go to mandalore anymore!!) and has to leave and now has nothing — no child, no clan. so he does the only thing he can think to and goes to a green planet we’ve never seen before. he lands safely but still injured from his fight with Paz and not fully healed from the original injury he passes out. and the episode ends with a kid running over and telling another kid to call master skywalker
and sure episode 2 was the fanservice episode but its disney! we have to expect a marketable plushie cameo episode — except of course that didn’t mean it wasn’t plot relevant! din wakes up and we realise he’s at luke’s jedi academy and this is great n stuff we finally get to see luke in his prime teaching a whole bunch of students! and we get to see grogu happy and having fun with his kind (which makes din happy but miss his own covert). luke notices din has a saber himself (despite it being well-hidden — luke can sense it) and din admits he can’t use it and that he doesnt think it even belongs to him while luke shows him saber forms (but pretends its for his own training and not din’s bc din refuses to learn). they have a discussion and din reveals he came here bc he got kicked out and has no way to redeem himself bc there are no mines left and even then the planet’s poisonous. luke spouts some jedi stuff asking din if he’s certain and says blind certainty is the enemies of hope and progress or whatever (setting up the larger theme of identity certainty in the season). luke also points out that if they imps r there then they have to have some way of getting around the environment they caused. inspired and knowing grogu is safe here, din is ready to go redeem himself on mandalore. he says he’ll come to see grogu again and luke makes it clear that while attachments can’t get in front of duty, din is always welcome here <3 
episode 3 of course had din go to the ruins of mandalore to redeem himself, inspired by luke’s words about certainty he goes to the ruins of sundari, where he knows there was once living waters (the other option is the one surviving and imperial-controlled city, but he’s not that dumb). also bc the imps only hang around the cities so that must be where it's survivable. there’s some imperials about the edge of the city (not many) and he does have to subtly fight them but he gets spotted. he wins but he’s panicking bc during the fight his breathing system got hit but then he notices a plant growing. and he realises he’s not dying — the air isn’t poisonous anymore or whatever! so he turns off his failing life support and goes to the city. he explores the city and finds many remnants of mandalorian culture there in the small parts that survived. ash-covered murals, mostly-burnt toys, something that could have once been a palace. he finds a memorial to a duchess satine kryze and thinks huh like bo katan? (because of course the show wouldn’t ignore bo’s motivations) anyway after some slow but meaningful exploring (its quietness eerie, unlike the quietness of the previous stealth section) he manages to make his way below the city. he finds the mines, reads the inscription and then goes in. except of course its no longer shallow and he falls and he falls and he realises well fuck he’s gonna die. his life support got hit earlier and he doesnt have his jetpack he’s going to sink. but then in the darkness, a great looming eye opens and before din knows it, SOMETHING is throwing him out that sinking water. it had to have been a freak current right? he was hallucinating. surely a MYTHOSAUR didn’t just save him… those are all dead, only to return with a new age of mandalore! he shakes his head, ignores it, and collects the water with something new to bring to his people
episode 4 reintroduced us to old fan favourite bo katan in her depression girl era bc din shows up to her empty palace ready to help her take back mandalore… only to find her in a depression pit and— oh my god is she drunk??! she drops that her ppl left her bc she didn’t have the darksaber and din’s looking at the depression pit like. right. bc of the darksaber. he briefly tries to convince her to fight him for it but she’s like no you’ll throw the fight it won’t be true comba— oh no! explosion nearby bc looks like din wasn’t as careful as he thought and the imperials followed him to bo’s place so both of them have to fucking skeet outta there and bo’s home’s destroyed so din’s like hey come on let’s go to my people we can take back mandalore with them or smthn. so they head back to the covert, din reveals he’s no longer apostate and that mandalore isnt cursed it’s breathable + you can successfully walk on the surface now. this is however interrupted by a beast showing up and trying to kill some ppl. it almost kills paz’s son but din kills the beast first in his starfighter. anyway back to the conversation (now within the cave) and din’s trying to convince his clan that they can take back mandalore (with bo as leader) but none of them want to follow her or risk what few numbers they have left. dejected, din and bo make to leave again, but paz follows them out and is like ?? din you literally have the darksaber why didn’t you use it to get at least SOME of them to follow you and din’s like i don’t want people to follow me bc of a legend, if they follow me it has to be bc they want to and paz and bo r internally like wow damn. anyway paz then says he’ll always fight w din if needed bc he saved his son but if he wants the people to follow him they should try get some of the other clans to help so it looks less dangerous. so bo and din leave on their quest. also throughout this episode, we’re introduced to some random civilian in the reintegration program. its implied they worked with gideon and that they’re preparing for something, but we don’t get much more than that. 
episode 5 is the bo episode, this is where we explore her character, have her arc, and ya know really cover her motivations (bc disney would NEVER make it so her motivation is invisible unless you’d seen two other tv shows). din and bo head to where her clan is. they just want to see the clan but they end up being dragged into a b-plot about helping the local pacifist duchess (& duke). din tries to say no but bo-katan says smthn abt diplomacy. this quest initially doesn’t seem plot relevant but throughout bo opens up about her own pacifist duchess sister and she comes to realise how much of this quest has been about trying to live up to satine and not bc she thinks herself the best mand’alor. the thing she said abt diplomacy earlier, she reveals, is just a quote from her sister. anyway they’re finally able to go to bo’s old clan and she, now reinvigorated in accepting and knowing who she is and what she wants (no longer depression girl) challenges axe for leadership of the clan. she wins and in a speech is like we’re gonna retake unpoisonous mandalore by uniting the clans!! most agree but theyre like HOW are we supposed to convince the other clans? and it descends into insane yelling UNTIL a low hum and a black-white light falls over the group. silence falls. everyone looks on. high above his head, din is holding the darksaber (proudly!!) and he’s like we’ll unite them with this. but axe has to constantly be chatting shit and getting up from the floor where he got his ass whipped he’s like really???? you wanna follow him???? he doesn’t even have any mandalorian blood in him!!! and bo makes a great speech about blood doesn’t make a good leader what makes a good leader is knowing when to use your power. and then she’s like he is my mand’alor amen and kneels before him. everyone else follows and din awkwardly stands there still not fully accepting his role 
episode 6 was the great prep episode. we start with din and bo helping and getting a new tribe on their side and heading back to Concordia we realise they’ve got this HUGEEEE war camp of mandalorians!! there are so many clans with them now (except one, which din is really missing)!!!!! this episode mostly focuses on mandalorian culture and them training/ planning and din and bo trying to keep the clans from biting each other’s heads off. but this is interrupted when a small group of imperials try to pre-attack them (like they did w bo’s palace) but the mandos all manage to fight back and take them down, which then leads to a whole speech from din and bo about how mandalorians are all fighting but theyre united now in their grief and with this they can fight the empire. the b-plot of the episode comes back to that random civilian from episode 4 and whoomp turns out their plan was to BREAK MOFF GIDEON OUT OF JAIL!! shitttt!!!! oh no!! he’s back now, that’s gonna make their very decent plan to take back mandalore harder but they dont knowww (irony!)
episodes 7 and 8 were the battle of mandalore, woo! it had to be two episodes because it’s a taking whole occupied planet and not a single base, a pretty damn difficult task that definitely can’t be done by two single clans in like 40 minutes! there’s all those mini tiny bases scattered throughout the planet on the ruins (like din encountered in episode 3) AND more importantly there’s the one domed city that the imperials kept alive as their main base — which means they have to be careful, bc they can’t do any sort of aerial assault or great deal of damage to the imperials without also destroying the one surviving place for them to live. so the plan is smaller strike teams to go the bases plopped around the planet as a distraction and to stop reinforcements to the city while the main force surround the city and take it. the first city team (with din and bo) has to open up all the ports and stuff to allow the HUGE armies to get in. unfortunately this is in the main imp base in the centre of the city so they have to get there. (they’d prefer 2 strike teams but they can only spare 1) MOST of the mini-bases r meanwhile being successfully captured. the strike team gets to the centre to de-activate the port shielding n stuff and GASP! IT’S GIDEON!! FROM JAIL!! and he’s surrounded by fucking MANDO STORMTROOPERS and IN BESKAR ARMOUR oh no!! ambush!! he knew they’d have to go here to allow a full-scale assault! the small strike team at sundari also gets captured bc there were some mandotroopers there (they increased security post episode 3). episode 7 ends on a cliffhanger bc all seems lost and the strike team’s surrounded 
episode 8 starts straight off the cliffhanger and oh no they’re all gonna die gasp WHEN BAM fighting noises elsewhere, everyone’s confused, when paz’s voice crackles over din’s comm like hey bro! BC DIN’S CLAN FINALLY SHOWED UP TO HELP AND THEY WERE ABLE TO MAKE THAT SECOND STRIKE TEAM and in the confusion din & bo’s team take out the mandotroopers, gideon gets away. din and paz and the armorer come face to face and paz calls him mand’alor or smthn bc he’s also accepted it and they’re like woo let’s go now we can fight fr!! din heads to help lead the battle ig but bo’s like nah i have to end gideon for what he did to our planet. and din’s like well he’s wearing beskar armour so you’ll need this and gives her his beskar spear WHICH IS SYMBOLIC BC he’s finally giving up his other weapon and is going to solely use the darksaber!! he’s accepted who he is and is going to lead their ppl!! so yeah instead of having din fight gideon, who he already beat once, bo fights him and its incredibly cathartic. at sundari that strike team who got captured is also not looking great but MYTHOSAUR EX MACHINA COMES AND FUCKS UP THE IMPERIALS THERE (its returned!!). so big battle and gideon’s down and the darksaber DOESN’T get destroyed yay! afterwards they all vibe and they go to the forge and the armorer relights it and they proclaim din mand’alor fr and he accepts it and throne. sure he's still a BIT uneasy (mand'alor the reluctant anyone?) but he's not saying NOO now loll. yayyy!! AND THEN final scene is din returns to the jedi academy like hii thanks for ur advice u were right being blindly certain abt stuff is meh and leaves no room for hope. uh could i show grogu mandalore i promise i’ll bring him right back and it ends on din showing grogu the planet finally bc thats cute and fanservice
anyway isn’t it great this is exactly what happened, it’s all canon and definitely not the stealingpotatoes sequels canon continuity rewrite! 
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theemissuniverse · 6 months
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FLIRTING WITH LIU KANG AND ONE SIDED FLIRTING WITH SHANG TSUNG MK 1 INTROS WITH FEM READER!
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SUMMARY : what the title says. You’re an Earthrealm warrior.
A/N : not gonna lie I’m having writers block so take this lmao
MASTERLIST 1 , MASTERLIST 2
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SHANG TSUNG VS (Y/N)
Shang Tsung : Your beauty holds no bounds
(Y/N) : Your ego holds no bounds
(Y/N) : Do Outworlders speak English? I am not interested
Shang Tsung : And yet you’re here…why?
Shang Tsung : Liu Kang cannot give you a what I can give you
(Y/N) : You do know you’re competing against a literal fire God right?
Shang Tsung : Leave that pathetic God and join me
(Y/N) : You literally got deceived by your titan double. I’m good
Shang Tsung : You are far too beautiful to be with a man like Liu Kang
(Y/N) : And my mouth is producing far too much vomit
Shang Tsung : If you don’t become my queen - you will become my enemy
(Y/N) : I already AM your enemy
(Y/N) : If I didn’t want you in the last timeline- what makes you believe I’ll want you in this one?
Shang Tsung : I can be very persuasive
(Y/N) : Of all the people that could be obsessed with me - it had to be a miserable sorcerer
Shang Tsung : You will fall for my advances eventually
(Y/N) : Stay the hell away from Liu Kang
Shang Tsung : I will. Once you join me
Shang Tsung : You were so close for falling for me in the original timeline
(Y/N) : Don’t remind me of how idiotic I used to be
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LIU KANG VS (Y/N)
(Y/N) : I don’t think I can take much more of that sorcerers flirting
Liu Kang : I will put an end to it, my love
(Y/N) : So I fall for you in every timeline?
Liu Kang : It just means we are destined to be together
Liu Kang : You are the only woman made for me
(Y/N) : You always know how to make my heart race
(Y/N) : Come on. It’d be new and exciting
Liu Kang : While Temperature play sounds intriguing, I do not want to hurt you
(Y/N) : Shang Tsung seems to think he can have me
Liu Kang : *chuckles* I am the least bit worried of that sorcerer
Liu Kang : You are my one and only, (Y/N)
(Y/N) : As to you, Liu Kang
Liu Kang : Are you ready for your training?
(Y/N) : If it ends up with you on top of me then yeah
Liu Kang : I wish to treat you as my Goddess
(Y/N) : You sure know how to turn a woman on
Liu Kang : Shang Tsung’s flirting has grown drastically eye clawing
(Y/N) : You say that as if he’s been flirting with you. I’m the real victim
(Y/N) : Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?
Liu Kang : Your puns are both cute and insufferable
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LIU KANG VS SHANG TSUNG
Shang Tsung : (Y/N) will fall for me eventually
Liu Kang : You are fooling yourself if you believe she would ever want you
Liu Kang : Stay away from, (Y/N)
Shang Tsung : You and I both know that deep down she craves for my darkness
Shang Tsung : I almost had her in the original timeline
Liu Kang : Only because of certain events that had taken its place
Shang Tsung : You call me the villain but you specifically crafted this timeline to make (Y/N) fall in love with you
Liu Kang : I am not capable of that kind of power nor evil. (Y/N) fell in love with me by her own free will as she has done through out other timelines
Shang Tsung : If you want her so bad, why have (Y/N) meet me?
Liu Kang : It was bound to have happen and as I have done every timeline, I gave (Y/N) the choice whether she wanted to be consumed by your greed and darkness
Liu Kang : (Y/N) does not want to be with you, sorcerer
Shang Tsung : If she doesn’t then why does she always end up back to me?
Shang Tsung : (Y/N) will fall for my power eventually
Liu Kang : That very statement proves you do not know her as (Y/N) is not attracted to power and greed
Shang Tsung : If I win, you’ll let me have (Y/N)
Liu Kang : (Y/N) is not a prize to be won
Shang Tsung : Together, me and (Y/N) can rule all realms
Liu Kang : Im sure (Y/N) would be interested in the man that got deceived by his own double
Shang Tsung : I could treat (Y/N) better than you
Liu Kang : Better? You tried to kill her in the original timeline
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fishgirl514 · 4 months
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sonic prime s3 rewrite:
im going to try to fix a bunch of things i was unsatisfied with from the end of the story.
such as the whole “work together” lesson that sonic learned somewhere in the last 6 episodes really vaguely. also im going to fix sonic and shadow’s vague friendship arc. i might also take a crack at fixing knuckles the dread’s conclusion bc he was the most interesting variant lets be honest and he was nearly forgotten. maybe in another post. this is future me talking i spent hours writing this.
im also going to make the “we’re back home” ending WAY longer and actually have there be an emotional resolution for the #notgay “brothers”
and the most egregious sin (imo) of season 3 was the fact that all the worlds just. stayed. and that was it. huh????????
THIS WILL BE LONG AND MIGHT BE ASS IN YOUR OPINION LOL ITS CHILL. IM NOT A SEASONED DAY 1 FAN WHOSE READ EVERY COMIC AND PLAYED EVERY GAME AND KNOWS THESE CHARACTERS BETTER THAN THE WRITERS OR ANYTHING IM JUST HAVING FUN AND SHARING WHAT I THINK WOULD HAVE MADE MORE SENSE
THE SHARDS:
ok first, we have to go back in time a little bit. i think each shard should have been the heart of its respective world instead of just the random place it happened to be sitting in. the shards create the world around them, and whoever holds the shard of a world basically controls reality for that world. the shards are always originally centered on the palm tree of their world (the chaos council found their tree and stole the shard, this is why the tree is so important to the resistance, they need to return it to restore balance. NO ONE IS MEANT TO WEILD THE SHARDS, IT ONLY BRINGS CHAOS. THIS IS A CENTRAL THEME.) when a shard is removed from its world, the world begins to slowly collapse on itself. the more shards are taken the more the WHOLE shatterverse starts to become unstable. THIS is why the shatterverse begins to decay, not just because there was “too many portals” or whatever.
THE MOST IMPORTANT PART: when the paradox prism is fully recreated and brought back to its place in ghost hill, green hill will be restored and the shatterverse will cease to exist. it was created by the shards being split, bringing them back together brings the world back together into one.
sonic does not realize this at first. he finds out the shards are in different worlds and starts trying to find them all to put them back together, saying he needs to recreate his world, not thinking about the logical consequence for the shatter spaces. nine hears this and thinks he could create his OWN world wherever he wants using the power of the prism. he is wrong. (find out why later)
SHADOW:
for the most part, shadow is in the right about everything. his only issue is that like sonic, he doesn’t want to work together. sonic is too impulsive, but shadow is too stubborn. they learn to overcome this together throughout the series. while shadow is stuck speaking to sonic from the void, they are constantly disagreeing on what to do. shadow is being too bossy and demanding that his plans be followed to the letter, and sonic is making split second changes and forgetting to tell him. this at some point nearly ends in a MASSIVE disaster and they both realize they need to get it together. wasting time fighting is part of what caused this mess in the first place- shadow is also slightly at fault here. we do a flashback to the day of the incident and they agree to try to cooperate. it’s a little rocky, but by the end they’re fighting side by side in perfect sync, recognizing each other as valued friends.
NINE:
nine for most of the series can stay the same. an important plot point for me is his insistence that he is NOT tails. however, instead of this being something sonic has to learn is true, it’s something nine has to learn is false. when nine goes to ghost hill and sees the old tails, he’s unnerved by this hollow shell of a version of himself. while he is alone putting the shards back together on the mountain, he realizes that just like the shards are unstable fragments of the paradox prism, the shatter spaces are unstable fragments of green hill. he is a fragment of tails. this sets off a minor identity crisis on top of the realization that he is not supposed to exist. none of the shatter spaces are supposed to exist. that’s why they’re all so out of wack. no place is flooded and ruled by pirates, the boscage maze is a suffocating jungle, new yoke is a dystopian nightmare, and the grim is a lifeless wasteland. they all exist in a fragile state of balance and are already falling apart. they were already on shaky ground but have been on a direct path to destruction since sonic showed up. he still has hope in his ability to make the grim into his own world, but deep down he’s refusing to let himself realize the truth: even with the power of all 5 prism shards the world will continue to decay until they are reunited. nine takes the shards and leaves.
SONIC:
dear god. sonic. where do i even begin.
first of all, i would prefer to see him being a little less chatty and scatterbrained. i think a little of it would still make sense considering the story he’s living through, but in general he needs to be a little more tethered to his old unshakable self until it comes to the really important decisive moments. sonic isn’t an emotionless character, but he just seemed extra…. smushy..? idk this isn’t something i can articulate well ehe XP
i LOVED the parallels and flashbacks from seasons 1 and 2. where did they go??? i go crazy for a good parallel, so i say they keep happening in season 3. obviously. like of all the times to mirror the beginning, it’s the final fight???
i want to have the final battle directly and clearly parallel the fight from episode 1. this way, there can be a Moment where sonic stops to look back at his experiences and make the choice to do things the right way this time. to fix the problem he created he needs to fix his personal problem that created the problem. i want a very obvious scene where he finally finished connecting all the dots lets this lesson sink into his head.
speaking of which, let’s get back to present time and talk about the final fight.
FINAL BATTLE:
nine has all 5 shards kept far apart and protected, but still close enough for him to draw on their power. the world is decaying rapidly and he has to constantly use the shards to ward off the imminent destruction.
sidenote: at some point when nine is trying to pick off sonic, he sends the birds to search the empty space in the shatterverse. one finds shadow’s chaos emerald in the void and brings it out. shadow gets it back from the bird or whatever later. it was so weird that the void stopped being relevant and they just never got the green emerald back.
heading into the final fight, sonic is sad about nine’s betrayal, but he only gives him one chance to give up. when he and shadow confront nine, sonic tells him that the shatterverse is falling apart and no one has a home left to return to anymore. nine hesitates for a moment, he knows there is a chance that even with his enemies gone he won’t be able to stop the decay, but he refuses to give up. sonic knows what is at stake here and he takes it seriously. he doesn’t want to fight nine but he has no choice, besides, nine is hurting his friends, and that’s not acceptable.
sonic still isn’t sure what to do about the moral dilemma of wiping out the shatterverse to bring back his world. after all, wouldn’t that make him no better than nine? but right now there is an immediate threat: nine accelerating the decay of the universe by holding all the shards in one shatter space.
during the final fight (which i would also make WAYYYYY shorter) i would have him try to go for nine himself, thinking that he knows nine best, and is the most well equipped to defeat him. everyone else is on shaky ground with each other as alliances between the different groups, especially with the eggmans, haven’t been solidified. because of this lack of teamwork everyone struggles to fight off the robots nine creates.
sonic stops. he’s seen this play out before, and the stakes weren’t nearly as high. he is the throughline of the whole group so HE has to bring everyone together (“theres only one hedgehog they’ll follow into battle”). He gets everyone to understand that right now they’re on the same page, so they all formulate a plan together to keep the robots away and get the shards back one by one. sonic and shadow fight nine in person while everyone else collects the shards and brings them each to sonic and shadow, who use the power of the shards to help defeat nine. but when they remove nine’s power source, the world starts decaying really fast again. nine panics, takes the shards back and starts trying to fight off the decay, but it’s too much to fight anymore. he falls to his knees in defeat, he knows his goals were always unreachable. at first he lashes out at sonic, but then he stops and just cries.
he tells sonic how he just wanted a place to call home, even though he knew it wouldn’t be possible. sonic says that maybe it’s still possible to restore the shards to their worlds and stop the decay, shadow interjects that they need to bring back green hill, but nine says there’s no point in trying to bring back the shatter spaces. they’re beyond repair, and they were never meant to be in the first place (the others hearing this are shocked and uneasy hearing this). he was wrong to try to destroy everyone’s worlds to make one just for himself, at least sonic was trying to bring back his friends. but sonic comforts him and reassures his feelings and also apologizes for asking him to stop existing. but nine says that’s actually what he needs to do now. the only option left is to restore green hill. they’ll pour all the energy stores they have left into the kraken to get sonic and shadow back to the decaying ghost hill.
sonic tries to object, asking if nine is sure he’s ok with disappearing. nine says he won’t really stop existing, he and all his friends were always with him and always will be back in green hill. nine thanks sonic for always being his friend. here is the big brother hug moment. nonetheless, they all say goodbye (for now), and shadow and sonic head out of the grim.
RESTORING GREEN HILL:
blah blah there’s some debris and maybe they *almost don’t make it* but in the end they just barely get to the gateway in time.
sidenote: instead of shadow needing to go through weird side cracks to get through the gates, he is able to because of the instability of the prism energy not keeping him out the way it did before
shadow is almost blocked at the gateway. he’s pushing through, but the world is falling apart. sonic grabs the shards from him and tosses them into ghost hill so he can pull shadow through. shadow exclaims something about the shards and sonic says he won’t leave him behind. shadow is touched <3 (they’re holding each other desperately this whole scene and when they fall through, this is me making up for cutting the princess carry im so sorry i had to).
they get to the mountain, return the shards, and a huge blast of energy knocks them back. sonic opens his eyes and cue the regular sequence from the final episode. i liked this bit, it was such a relief to see the world put back together lol. after they fight eggman, sonic brings everyone in for a big group hug like he tried to in new yoke and says he has to go find shadow.
sonic asks shadow if he still remembers everything, and he does. sonic breathes a sigh of relief and jokes that he was worried all that friendship building effort had gone to waste, shadow gives him a (very) small laugh. he tells sonic that he may have started this by being himself, but he also fixed it by being himself. sonic whizzes around him asking if that was a compliment, and shadow says it’s just good to be back home. sonic says “it wouldn’t be the same without you. it wouldn’t be the same without ME either” to which shadow rolls his eyes and tries to hide a smile. sonic uses shadow’s shoulder as an arm rest as the two look out at the sunset. sonic says they make a pretty good team when they fight WITH each other. there’s a pause before shadow responds, “yeah.”
the next day goes on like it did in the real episode except shadow is there, and when the gang remarks on sonic’s odd demeanor they also comment on his suddenly improved relationship with shadow. the show ends like it did before with sonic about to explain but interrupted by eggman. life is back to normal, happily ever after the end.
OK THATS IT!!!! i hope whatever few people had the endurance and determination to read all of this enjoyed it, ive been writing it out for hours omgggg i could never write fanfiction i would die LMAO. i had such a clear vision of what i thought this season was going to be that i figured it wouldn’t take too much effort for me to write it all out. like i said before it’s definitely not perfect and i refuse to re read this for errors for 24 hours but i hope you enjoyed ok bye :3
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teatual · 3 months
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hi! hope this is an alright question to ask, but i really really wanted to start adding IDs to my posts and stuff! im worried my IDs that ive done before are too long and detailed, so do you have any tips for ID writing? thank you in advance if you answer this!! =^.^=
QUESTIONS OF LOVE AND JOY
Tbh the biggest bit of advice I can give to anyone wanting to write IDs is that literally any ID is better than no ID even if you think it's too long. Genuinely just give it a shot and the more you do it the more you'll get a feel for it, just like any other skill!
If it's my own post, I start by identifying the type of image ("a screenshot of", "fanart of", "original character art of"), then identify the subject, then a quick verb or adjective about the subject. So
[ID: (image type) of (subject). (Subject) is (adjective and/or verb). End ID]
Yoinking my pfp: [ID: a PNG (image type) of a sticker sheet (subject) of holographic stars, moons and suns (adjective!). End ID]
Everyone who uses IDs will have different preferences for them. U could ask 20 people who require IDs for images about them and get 20 different answers. AFAIK the general consensus is that many prefer brief IDs because screen readers take yonks to read it out? But you do want to make sure you don't miss out relevant context.
IME the most accessible thing to do is write one directly under the original post (NO read more) and in plain text. small text (small text) or coloured text (coloured text) might or might not be picked up by screen readers but is gonna be difficult to read for many people with low vision, which is the main demographic IDs are used for.
uhh what else. There's a difference between an ID (image description under the post) and ALT text (embedded in the html of the image) and there's no single agreement on which is better (see paragraph 2) but sometimes a screen reader will skip the whole post if there's an image with no ALT text. Good practice is to put a very brief (1-2 sentences) in ALT text and the fuller ID under the post, like how my mutual's done it here.
There's more i could probably say but this is quite long whoops so linking some more posts about them for you here, here, here and here!
Also also if you want to make a huge difference to accessibility on your blog you can search through the notes of a post to see if there's already one (copy and paste it to your version if you want a different reblog chain! the writer won't mind!) and tag image posts with no ID as #undescribed or equivalent.
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69dias · 1 year
Text
jjk drabble: tease
a/n: perhaps writers block has killed me for real and I am SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY!!!! i cooked this up on the first hour of a plane to New York and it was originally abt our wonderful liverpool RB Trent AA but alas … jungkook gets the crown. enjoy.
warnings: app control vibrator, fucking in public, voyeurism and slight exhibitionism, slight d/s Dynamics (she calls him sir once it’s whatever), mean jungkook who is also very much a sweetheart, spitting (on da pussy WOAH) … I think that’s it
wc: 1.6k she’s a baby IM SORRY
jungkook is a tease. it’s one of the first things you learned about him, and it’s one of those things that you’ve grown to love, even if — especially if — they’ve been the causes of serious hitches in your relationship. other such things include his competitiveness, the little spirals of self-deprecation, all of them. but most of all, his tendency to tease you.
and though you’ve grown to love it, right about now is one of those times you realize why exactly it caused those hitches in your relationships because if he doesn’t let up in the next minute, you’re ready to go over to where he’s sitting and choke the life out of him.
surely, murders committed a thousand feet above international waters couldn’t have any real consequences, right? 
to set the scene of your predicament, imagine three things: a flight to New York, a vibrator that connects to someone’s phone, and that someone, being jeon jungkook. the tease, who’s somehow managed to find the only way to make a first class flight uncomfortable. 
you swear you’re going to kill him. 
it’s not the fact that it feels bad in the slightest. lush manufacturing is incredible, and the small sparks of pleasure in between your thighs are enough proof of it. the vibrations can go up all the way, pulsing on top of your clit with scary accuracy — a preview of what jungkook promised you in exchange for this insane excapade — leaving you wet and sloppy until just crossing your legs would push you straight over the precipice of the edge, fuck the seatbelt sign preventing you from doing it, or they can be little thrums, mimicking soft kitten licks all over your heat, so good that they leave you arching your back to get a better angle —
no. it’s not that it feels bad.
it’s just that it could feel so much better if he would just let you cum.
but alas, he’s a fucking tease, and he knows you like the back of his own hand, down to the time it takes you to reach the point of no return. you’re sure he can see you, too, with where he’s sitting and how you can practically feel his vision sear into your skin which feels like it’s on fire as is. it practically hurts how close you are, nails digging into the palm of your hand to keep from moaning out loud — or worse, begging out loud.
if only you had the genius idea of a vibrating cock ring more than 30 minutes before leaving for the airport, jungkook would know exactly how tantalizing this felt for you. 
the thing about being in such a vulnerable position, though, is the lack of jungkook’s presence. typically, when he’s beneath you, head caught between your thighs as he eats you out like it’s his last meal, or when he’s holding a toy to your clit until the last possible second, you know he’s right there. it’s the verbal affirmations: I got you, you’re doing incredible, that’s my girl, just a little more, just a little more for me, and the physical touch: a hand on your lower back or his lips ghosting over your boobs or just something aside from the surprisingly soft blanket draped across your thighs.
you pick up your phone to tell him this, to tell him to meet you in the bathroom or whatever he can manage because of the damn seatbelt sign, but it seems like he’s beat you to it.
JK💗: close, baby?
JK💗: look at you. you look so pretty from here.
JK💗: god, you’re perfect, aren’t you? just so pretty and pliant for me.
[__]: im going to murder you.
JK💗: that’s a bit rude, no?
JK💗: you think that’s what a good girl would say if she wanted to cum?
[__]: you’ve lost your mind . im so fucking Close this is unfair 
JK💗: who said i’d be fair? i told you to be good, and you’re really not doing that right now 
[__]: fuck you
[__]: no wait
JK💗: cmon honey. what do we say when we’ve been rude?
JK💗: I can see you reading these, baby. gotta give me an answer.
[__]: please, im sorry.
JK💗: attagirl, sweetheart. you wanna cum?
[__]: yeah 
JK💗: what’s that?
[__]: yes, sir. please.
JK💗: look up, honey. seatbelt sign’s off. bathroom in 2?
he turns off the vibrations right as you tilt your head up to confirm that the sign has, indeed, been switched off. it’s well-earned relief, but the reminder that you’ve been so violently toyed with still covers your inner thighs and you’ve never missed something yet been so happy that it was finally gone before. 
when you turn your head to jungkook’s seat, he’s no longer there, and the small pulse between your legs comes alive again as you realize what’s about to happen when you meet him in the bathroom. 
two minutes is too long, far too long, but you’ve weathered the last half hour of torturous edging which has straight up convinced you that you could fight a war if you so pleased. you sneak a hand between your thighs, pressing ever so softly to somehow fuck the toy against you but it’s really to no avail because jungkook texts you just as you do.
JK💗: cmon honey, coast’s clear.
you don’t think you’ve ever moved that fast in your life.
jungkook, is, as it goes, just as generous as he is a tease.
you think it’s worth it, all of the torture and the feeling of having a high snatched from you so violently right when you’re at the precipice of it, your bitten lips and indented palms being physical proof of the denial you endured for so long —
it’s all worth it, every bit of it. 
because jungkook is beneath you, caught between your legs, licking at your clit, the fabric that’s practically stuck to your skin from the arousal that dripped from you ever since he started the worst foreplay known to man pulled aside. he’s desperate too, and if you were to move your foot an inch to the left to rest on his thigh, you don’t have a doubt that you’d be met with his hardened dick, but you don’t give a fuck; relishing in the fact that he’s getting karma and you’re getting eaten out.
your hands are caught in his hair, pushing him impossibly closer as he tongue fucks you, his own fingers dimpling the skin of your bare thighs as he gives you all the touches you were missing just a few minutes ago. jungkook is big on eye contact, and the soft nipping at your clit is enough of a message for your head to snap down, meeting his large eyes from where he’s kneeling on the floor.
they’re red rimmed with his own carnal desire, pupils blown out as you can practically see how his jaw moves so he can give you exactly what you deserve —
“fuck, fuck, please — jungkook, please.”
he pulls away for a second, and a soft whine of disappointment colors the air at his absence. he doesn’t let you feel it for too long though, opting to plant a kiss on your inner thigh before he speaks.
“shhhh, baby. don’t wanna get banned from these airlines now, do we?” his voice has a humorous bite to it, but the demand from him is clear enough that you know not to disobey, clamping your own hand over your face to not make noise.
jungkook’s mouth on your pussy doesn’t fare better, though, the obscenely slick noises loud even through the faint ringing of your ears as you get closer to your high. he’s opted to just flick at your clit now, one of his fingers prodding at your entrance until you spread your legs like an absolute slut getting fucked in an airplane bathroom to grant him permission.
you don’t care, though, because all you can focus on is his warm mouth on you, all you can focus on is how his thick digit reaches just the right spot inside of you, all you can focus on is the way he slides another one in with ease that should be humiliating but you don’t care.
the coil in your stomach tightens and you know that he’s aware of this because his eyes darken; fingers pumping in and out of you with a renewed vigor and goal — to make you cum.
the previous highs that you were so meanly denied of come back to you, coiling in the tresses of your stomach as you realize how filthy, how risky this whole thing is.
it’s has you biting down on your palm, hips bucking into jungkook’s relentless mouth as he pulls your thighs impossible further apart, pulling away for just a split second to spit on your pussy like you’re nothing but a deserted street.
that does it for you; the dominance and the bit of dehumanization that should be demeaning but it’s nothing other than incredibly attractive. it has the coil snapping violently, tears spilling from your eyes as the vigor of your high finally reaches a climax, wracking through every nerve in your body until you have both of your hands pulled up to your face to stop the moans threatening to spill from your mouth.
he lets you ride his face through it, sticking his tongue out and slapping the side of your thighs so you keep looking at him until you exhaust yourself out. 
the pulsating pleasure eventually dims itself down into a slow thrum that runs through your veins, colored in with a satisfying exhaustion that has you slumping into jungkook’s arms when he pulls himself up with a groan.
he kisses your temple, warm hand rubbing the small of your back through your (his) sweatshirt. 
“that good enough, baby?”
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ettuleo · 1 year
Text
I lied. I don’t like sex. Put your clothes back on. I’m gonna explain how releasing multiple seasons a year ruined voltron: legendary defenders
this was originally a twitter thread but it is truly how i feel about the entire series as a whole. all this to say these are my own thoughts and opinions.
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typically a show takes at least a year or so in production; making sure story lines make sense, characters are able to be developed instead of being flat (which happened to a lot of voltron characters ;-; but the characters are amazing) and to smooth out any wrinkle or hiccups. 
In doing 8 seasons in two years the writers were not given the ample amount of time to smooth out the wrinkles and to give us a fully fleshed out piece of work. Take for example Bojack Horseman. The show ran from 2014 to 2020 and it only had six seasons. in these six seasons tho the writers were able to tell an amply dark story but also giving us in depth backgrounds of the characters and we watched the characters grow and change (for better or for worse). the writers were given time to be able to tell that story and is why Bojack is highly praised. 
the voltron writers were not given the same treatment, instead they were rushed to give us 8 seasons in such a short time (this isnt taking account the poor animation team which was probably being worked to the bone bc its no joke animating tbh). 
Instead of characters that we see grow and change over the seasons, there was only like one person to have a charcter arc (pidge) and the character was hated on because of it. 
Like Lance got barely ANY character arc, he stayed the same throughout the entire show and we really never saw him grow and realize his own potential and no longer be insecure and feel like the seventh wheel of voltron. 
this can also explain why adam was introduced and killed off so quickly, there was just not enough time to even give shiro a proper backstory episode to show him making the decision to go to kerberos. 
Each of the seasons were also short and have little episodes because of the rush. I mean we saw lotor get a redemption arc and then it suddenly is thrown away so that haggar can be redeemed which made zero sense for her character.
if the writers and animators and the rest of the team were given rest time in between the seasons we would of seen an entirely different show (now that can also be false but im sticking to it could of been better) we could of seen each character grow and change and even get backstories for everyone.
i would of loved to see more garrison days of everyone and to see allura's life before Altea was destroyed (plus we could of gotten more fun filler episodes like monsters and mana where we see the characters personalities better).
people hated season eight and rightfully so, i cannot blame them. For lance to go back to farming with his family in cuba which has extremely racist undertones and for allura (the only black character) to be killed off does not also look good either.
allura didnt even have to die and for her to sacrifice herself just doesnt feel right. i understand fully that the show was EXTREMELY popular and the demand to get more episodes was at an all time high, but it was absolutely foolish and borderline amateur hour to rush production.
which is crazy because some of these show runners worked on amazing shows like avatar and korra. i know a lot of people who loved voltron feel betrayed by the eighth season and stopped participating in the fandom overall because of the betrayal they felt.
i feel like now a lot of times we as a fandom forget about this bc its been a few years since the finale and a lot of us rather use our own headcanons and fanon rather than the actual canon because it gave us nothing at all except for amazing characters.
okay to end this rant, the show feels half baked due to the way the production was rushed to get out these eight seasons in two years. if the writers were given the time (which honestly the show would probs still be going on now as we speak in the year of our gods 2022), the show could have lived up to its actual potential instead of being a dumpster fire (i use that lovingly but also not) we would of seen growth and change in characters and a lot of things we hated would of never of happened potentially. 
so yeah, thats my rant on the destruction of voltron. thanks for coming to my ted talk
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ladylynse · 6 months
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Happy Halloween! 👻
For continuing a three sentence fic - I’d love it if you wrote more of the second idea for “file cabinet” or the thermos/drowning fic
Links:
https://ladylynse.tumblr.com/post/728500835869474816/i-went-on-a-trip-down-memory-lane-and-visited
https://ladylynse.tumblr.com/post/185211125716/hi-there-im-feeling-a-little-evil-today-so-how
Happy Halloween, Anon! I think the file cabinet was the more popular prompt with people, so I went with that one even though the temptation to torture Danny further was very much there. The original three sentence fic is copied here, and the rest is under the cut.
-|-
Logically, Vlad knew Daniel couldn’t escape his current predicament without help, and the vultures—incompetent though they could be at times—were capable of handling the simple task of alerting Vlad to the inevitable arrival of Daniel’s little friends.
That didn’t stop Vlad from giving into the urge to pull open the middle drawer of his filing cabinet to make sure the little badger hadn’t woken up and escaped since Vlad had stuffed him in there upon Valerie’s unexpected arrival, though.
Vlad had gotten Valerie out of his hair sooner rather than later, and his newest invention had done the trick in taking care of Daniel since he was still unconscious, but Vlad couldn’t help but feel that the other shoe had yet to drop; he’d won this time, but he still half expected something to explode in his face whenever he opened the drawer to check that Daniel was still there, and he doubted he’d feel otherwise until Daniel woke up and was finally forced to come to the realization that he didn’t have the upper hand.
-|-
In hindsight, Vlad supposed he should not be surprised that the other shoe had waited to drop until the little badger had woken up.
Oh, Daniel still didn’t have access to his ghost powers—Vlad had made quite sure of that—but it seemed that he was far from powerless.
Evidently, lock picking and untying knots had been added to Daniel’s repertoire, and Vlad would have to ghost-proof some cable ties in the near future. Daniel’s escaping the pilfered Fenton Fisher line was less of a surprise than his escaping the purloined Fenton Cuffs (Vlad had wanted to account for the possibility of another ghost helping him as best he could), since Vlad had no idea what he’d managed to use as a lockpick. Sam’s influence, no doubt. Her parents weren’t as high class as they liked to pretend, but Vlad had met them enough times even before moving to Amity Park to be quite sure she’d taught herself how to pick locks in early childhood.
Not that any of the particulars mattered when Daniel, freed of his bindings and his gag and now the filing cabinet drawer, was hurling priceless Packers memorabilia in Vlad’s direction and cursing up a storm while doing so.
“Language,” Vlad scolded lightly. He was intangible and floating just slightly off the ground, and he had a duplicate ready to ambush Daniel before he could grab something else Vlad didn’t want to be destroyed, but it was hard to keep up the pretence of indifference when he could hear something break as it hit the wall behind him.
Sadly, that was the reason Vlad was down to one duplicate.
Daniel scowled. “Says the guy who thinks butter biscuits is a satisfying swear. Seriously, get a better writer. Maybe you can hire the Ghost Writer because your original stuff sucks.”
“That’s not—!” Vlad bit off his protest. Daniel was trying to rile him, but at least when he’d started talking, he’d stopped throwing. Vlad let the duplicate lapse; he didn’t need the headache of splitting his concentration, and Daniel seemed bound and determined to give him a headache. “I’ll be frank with you, shall I?”
“I mean, I guess calling you Frank is a step up from what you usually want me to call you, but….”
Vlad heroically resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Let me be crystal clear. Whether you like it or not, you fell for my trap, and your little friends are going to be more than preoccupied with dealing with my employees. You may have escaped from a drawer, but you have not escaped this room, and you will not escape me. You do not have as many options as you seem to think you do.”
Daniel tilted his head. “You sure about that? Because I think you have it backwards. You fell for my trap, my friends are keeping your employees busy, and now you don’t have as many options as you think you do.”
Vlad shot him a withering look. “Bluffing will get you nowhere.”
“Who says I’m bluffing? Even if you don’t think we saw your setup coming a mile away after all those hints Skulker’s been dropping, Sam and Tucker aren’t my only friends.”
“The ghosts—”
“The rest of my friends are not automatically ghosts. Geez, don’t you stalk me enough to know that? Wasn’t that what all your creepy spy stuff was for? Learning everything about me and Mom?”
Vlad sighed, but Daniel would only keep interrupting. Vlad wouldn’t lose anything by humouring him on this. “I can handle your sister.”
“Okay, one, she’s gotten better, and two, she’s not who you’re missing, so it’s a moot point even if you don’t believe me.” Daniel grinned. “So how about some show and tell?”
The final words were pitched louder and carried an emphasis they shouldn’t have, given the mundane nature of the conversation, which should have been Vlad’s first clue. Or perhaps his second. Third? The first clue he shouldn’t have missed, anyway.
But hindsight is always 20/20.
“I dunno,” said Valerie’s voice above him, clear even above the whine of her charging ecto-gun. “You told me a lot, and this showed me a lot, and I didn’t hear a lot of denying going on where it mattered.”
Vlad slowly raised his hands, though that was more for the show of it than anything else. Half the weapons he gave Valerie wouldn’t work on him, or at least wouldn’t work well—if he could figure out a way to exclude his ecto-signature and therefore being recognized as a ghost, he’d done it—but she wouldn’t know that.
Besides, being shot with an ecto-gun in this form would hurt more than it would a regular human, even though he’d set these sorts of weapons to automatically adjust and downgrade their charge should they ever be aimed at him or one of his duplicates.
“Whatever lies Daniel has been telling you—”
“He’s not the one who’s been lying to me,” Valerie hissed, and as Vlad finished turning to look up at where she was perched at the window entrance she always used, he realized that her weapons were not lit with his ecto-energy but with Daniel’s.
They had planned this.
Daniel really hadn’t fallen for his trap; he’d waltzed into it and turned it to his advantage.
Butter biscuits.
(see more fics)
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buqbite · 9 months
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how do u set up machine translation?
OK SO
First of all, I downloaded a website translator. I use mate translate, a firefox extension. It's an absolute lifesaver for navigating ANY site not in English.
Using that I made an account on Munpia and bought the sctir chapters as I translated. Munpia doesn't let you select text, so I used an OCR website! (Aka sites to get the text from images)
Now the two that I used were imagetotext, which is quite fast, but likes to fuck up and malfunction, forcing me to restart the process a lot. Bc of that I switched to prepostseo, which works well enough, but does require you to do a captcha test every. single. time. And I am SO FUCKING BAD at those that I went half insane.
So what I would do is to take a screenshot of whatever page I'm on, get the text through the OCR and paste it into Obsidian (I make two separate files for each chapter - RAWs and TLed) until I have the whole chapter.
Now, the formatting does get kinda fucked up. While I use the text on Munpia as a reference, I fix up the formatting of the text.
This is where it gets a little complicated: I like to use Azure to translate. It's a service offered by Microsoft, which includes a translator that, in my experience, is a little better than other machines. And since I don't edit the text this has proven to be VERY useful to me.
But setting up Azure is an absolute bitch and a half so I could also recommend Papago. They include definitions of certain words too, which is really useful. You're just gonna have to do it bit by bit.
Lastly? I recommend learning hangul. It's super fuckin fun (to me, but im a huge nerd) and it will help you with understanding when something's mistranslated a LOT.
The translations are pretty.. Well, they're unedited machine translation. But at least you won't have to wait 12 years for all 870 chapters to get translated. I say that you enjoy the process (It's very very repetitive and I highly recommend putting on a show in the meantime!) and just.. well, just have fun.
I've found that I really enjoy some of the descriptions even when they're not the best. And good grammar gets overestimated anyways. Talk to any older immigrant and they'll tell you the most fantastic stories while inventing sentence structures never before seen (Speaking as a child of immigrants here lol)
And gosh even with the translations being fucked up I've still had so many moments where I got so emotional I cried. The author is a wonderful writer and I can't wait to learn korean enough to be able to read the original text
That's all for now! If it sounds complicated, thats because I do NOT know how to keep myself short ^^
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pupkinpumpkin · 8 months
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Bro I was rewatching the Tim Burton Willy Wonka movie (just to get it out here and now, Tim Burton's is my favorite Wonka movie cause I grew up with it, but Gene Wilder is the best Wonka in my eyes followed closely by Christian Borle) and I was thinking of how utterly disappointed I am going to be with the new Wonka movie
Now you may think I'm going to be disappointed because of Timothée Chalamet being Wonka and because it's a cheap cash grab, and you're sort of right about that
Timothée Chalamet is a good actor, but he's not insane enough to play the iconic role as other Tumblr users have put it, and it is most likely a story that has no heart in it, but that's not the main reason I'm upset with it
The original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie is about Charlie, while the 2005 remake Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is about Wonka, so I think it is incredibly insulting that they do not continue this joke and make the new Willy Wonka movie all about Charlie
You think I'm joking but I'm not
I mean, the movie probably has no heart whatsoever, so why not at least make it a shitty sequel and let us keep joking about the mix up? The movie could be about Charlie trying to live up to Willy Wonka's image, balancing work and home life, the stresses of OSHA violations, building a gigantic classist train for when the world freezes over and starting to use kids from the poorest and most overpopulated part of the train to keep it running after all the needed tools have been used throughout the years (go see the Snowpiercer theories on YouTube for that last one)
One could argue that Timothée Chalamet could make a much better older Charlie than a Wonka and he looks slightly like that kid in the Tim Burton version.
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Kinda.
Im actually not all that good at recognizing facial features, so someone can correct me on that if they look literally nothing alike
But the point is, it's a better option, at least to me, than what they have now and will try and do after they (hopefully) give writers and actors what they deserve if they aren't that big of assholes
Literally all they need to do is strike it and reverse it
I'm not saying I want an older Charlie movie, but I at least want to keep the joke running, and the fact it's gonna get ruined for a movie that has a high possibility of being shit is really annoying to me
Anyway, night
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marmastry · 1 year
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Whats your process like when doing Comics? Not only fancomics but also original works like palitaw? Im a big fan of your comics!
Aww that’s really flattering ;w; ! It’s so nice to know some people have read my first one-shot out there. It's the comic that gave me the confidence to pursue this art form just a little bit more too.
These days, I just don't find it exciting to work on one big fully rendered illustration, I often feel like something more could be told if there were interactions or a little bit more context added to it, you know just like in comics? So yea, there's that and also me in my brain who won't shut up about what if there was a this and that, what if it goes this way instead? Just lots of blabbering. My brain has too much room for it (help).
Anyway, let's move on to my process. I won't be giving you a detailed routine of how I do it, but rather how I deal with it.
My secret is that I just take my time.
This goes for many things but tbh I do it more than before because I don't really see myself as a writer, or a comic creator but as an artist with a new hobby trying out something new and unfamiliar. It took me one and a half year to finally start drawing Palitaw because I didn't have the confidence to meet my own standards. It's typical of me to be hard on myself lol but eventually, I realized that doing so won't push me forward so I pushed myself to take time instead. The best part of it is there's no deadline to dread at all haha.
When I work on a draft, I don't immediately finalize it. I just ignore it for a few days or maybe a week. Just enough time to forget what I initially felt about it (including the cringe of a few hours of tunnel visioning to it). This way, I can put myself back into a reader's position before I start making better adjustments.
But Mar, what about my waning interest?
Ok, so listen, I’m old by internet standards and I’ve learned that love and interest won’t be enough to manifest anything. It’s the commitment. When I worked on my one-shots, and fancomics, the feelings of excitement, or grief I felt at the start vanished once I put in the work. Now that I’ve put myself through it not just once but many times, I think I’m getting used to it? I'm honestly sad I gave up on a few drafts now when I reread some of them. It's this feeling that keeps me committed to some of my own very self-indulgent projects these days.
Here' a little compensation for making you read through that. This is what my drafts looks like. They're silly little doodles on a 11 x 16 sketchpad. Big ideas start small, as they say. If something so low effort made me smile, perhaps i should keep at it haha!
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pennyserenade · 4 months
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i saw that there’s going to be a new x-files series developed by ryan coogler and BOOKED IT to your blog!!! what do you think??! how do you feel??!!
first off: i love you omg??? i love that show so much--more than words can adequately express, as i'm sure you're aware--and im honored you want to hear my thoughts about this news.
at first i said that i wasn't going to say anything because admittedly not all my thoughts are great, and i don't want to shit on it before it even gets the chance to prove its worth. i'm not at all opposed to diversity being added into the x-files, or the show being developed by a person of color. in fact that's one of the things i'm most excited for regarding this. the entire time i watched the original show i noticed the startling lack of diversity in the cast, the plot, and the writers room. the original show does suffer at times from being written namely by white men and i think the x-files reboot probably will do better in terms of those things. at least i certainly hope
what i'm hesitant about is the fact that i don't see the x-files working in the modern day. when they did the revival back in 2018 (? i don't remember the exact year because i wasn't there yet, but i think it was around that time) it was obvious that they were all scrambling to make the plots work in the contemporary age. so much of the conflict in the x files is wrapped around the fact that fox mulder cannot prove that the government is doing all of these heinous shit, and that the paranormal and extraterrestrial stuff is real. he never could collect any tangible evidence that couldn't be ruined and he never could garner enough public support even if he did have it to build up to anything reputable before it was. they were always able to discredit him. now he could do that. we live in an age where everyone has a cell phone and an opinion and we can all get things to people faster than the speed of lightening.
but also there's the fact that every one has a cell phone and an opinion. it might not work, not because the characters can get evidence quickly and then, bam, the conflict is all gone, but also because conspiracies aren't what they used to be. we live in paranoid and tired age. our computers track us, companies own our data, and we see more ads in one year than someone in the 1960s saw in their entire lives. since 2020 i've heard the united states government twice confirm the existence of aliens and ufos. and then you've got shit like qanon and the campaigns of constant misinformation and no one is exactly sure what is real and what isn't. put fox mulder from the 90s on twitter or reddit for a week and you've got a terrible mess on your hands. in the revival scully literally tells him, "mulder the internet isn't good for you." much of the same can be said about the entire x-files in general. it simply doesn't have that magic that it did in the 90s when you translate it for the modern day.
my last complaint is the fact that i love mulder and scully so much, and the idea of anyone but these two characters doing the government work they did feels sacrilegious. i don't want other people playing fox mulder and dana scully, and i don't want other people playing remixed versions of fox mulder and dana scully. if they're going to start new i sure hope they start from scratch because these are two characters who are so beloved and cared about. i think it's almost disrespectful to tread on the paths they already walked.
having said all that i do think this reboot isn't without its hope. a lot of what i complained about can be solved with a simply putting this reboot in a different time period. i'd love to see what the an x files-like government sector would like in the '60s, '70s, or '80s. there's a lot to be said about the government in those time periods. it was all rife with reasonable conspiracy and i think they could very well do with making diverse storylines and all of that. i want this to succeed more than anyone. i'm just scared about it lol
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beevean · 7 months
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On the topic of nfcv and its inconsistent; i tend to feel im harsher on nfcv and it's usage of representation since i dont tend to pay much attention to it ( It is good to let ppl see themselves on screen and its important to not fall into harmful sterotypes but it wont make or break a show for me unless its really bad). And castlevania has multiple historical/mythological inconsistencies (Matthias Corvinus rolling in his grave) and could have better representation ofc (the only poc main character i can think of is Ortega the were-lion antagonist from Legacy of Darkness the obscure n64 game). But you know? Cv's half goofy tone from it's origins as a monster smash makes it work w that, plus it's not the main focus. Meanwhile a huge selling point for nfcv has been it's ""gritty realism"" and ""seriousness"", and it's been praised to hell and back for it's "representation", when said rep isn't really good. So, i can be fine w SotN using a funny n completely historically innacurate mummy boss or having an skeleton serpent named Qetzacoatl (even if you can debate how those stereotypes can be harmful like egyptologists having to debunk the mummy curse myths), but the whole Sekhmet catgirl n aztec Orlox parts just makes me roll my eyes bc it will be blindly praised. I fear to be hypocritical here so that's my argument, and apologize for rambling in your inbox i swear this was shorter in my mind-
Pd: Yes Ortega is the og catboy, respect for him
I use this logic for Isaac lol. Yes, he relies on old and potentially offensive gay stereotypes, such as being in-your-face sexual, kinky in a creepy way, and even effectively molesting Trevor in the stabbing scene with his little kiss. And he's the villain contrasted with the more masculine hero. And he dies in the end. Yeah.
But aside from the fact that the game series overall is old-ish so outdated writing is to be at least expected, I don't get the feeling that this is meant to be "representation". And I'm certainly not meant to ohhh and ahhh at it. It is what it is, you know? The story says "here's the antagonist, he's very fruity", and you decide how to take it.
NFCV wants to be praised, and it is praised, for representation, for adding POC and gay people and cultures from all over the world, and it does so in a far less goofy setting that forces me to apply real-life logic to it. It also began in 2017, definitely at a time where writers were asked to pay attention to what the hell they're writing.
CV as a series was born as a love letter to Hammer horror movies, so it's a mishmash of monsters without rhyme or reason. NFCV wants to have a serious, real-adjacent world building, so that's why I ask "why is a Hungarian vampire worshipping an ancient Egyptian sun god"? Why are there Japanese people in Europe about a century before Europeans contacted Japan? Why is your idea of bi representation a threesome turning into rape?
So yes, I do believe that the show, in its arrogance, needs to be put at a higher standard than games written between the 80s and the 2000s. Not that they're exempt from criticism, ofc, I will always complain about stuff like the fridged women. Just... The games don't expect an applause for what they did.
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kiynania · 7 months
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Ranking every ninjago season and why :3
(Yall are gonna 100% hate me for this)
(Spoilers for Dragons rising kinda)
I hate it sm, it literally could've been one of the best seasons in ninjago history, but there was WAY too much filler and was so underwhelming and predictable. Didn't even feel like a Zane season during the second half it felt more like a Lloyd season. ALL of the ninja should've fought Zane + Pixal, and she should've come as well. AND THE FACT THAT ZANE'S TRAUMA WAS NEVER BROUGHT UP. LIKE HUH????? I will forever hate this season with a passion no matter what anyone says.
18. Forbidden Secrets of Spinjitzu
17. Prime Empire
I really can't care for it at all it just feels like the ninjago writers ran out of ideas(which I completely understand, but still) you could literally skip the entire thing and the whole plot line would STILL make sense. The only time I genuinely rewatch this is if I'm THAT bored. Really should've stuck the to idea with Jay's mother running away from something(which they 100% should've done in the first place)
16. Skybound
Before yall come to my house and beat the shit out of me, HEAR. ME. OUT. Kinda the same situation with Prime Empire. You could skip it, and the show would still make sense. It's never addressed after the season, and all of it is just...wack. Nadakkan is a fucking creep towards Nya, like mf BACK OFF. And Jay isn't any better. He's constantly disrespecting Nya's boundaries throughout a majority of the season, and I do NOT understand how Jay fans justify that. And the amount of sexism in it??? I just don't like this season in general and would very much like to stay away from it.
15. The Island
It felt like it was just there for the purpose of being there. It's important to the plot the next season but I felt like that could've been resolved with a little b plot. Ik it's technically not a season but idc. That's it. Nothing else I can say abt it.
14. Crystalized
It had sm potential, but the second half felt so rushed. The first 12 eps were really well paced, but the last 18 felt like a whole other season. The entire ending was rushed, and it was so hyped as well. I was at the edge of my chair waiting and waiting but....nothing. I never really believed that Pixal was gonna die, but I 100% expected Wu to die or SOMEONE to make a huge sacrifice. The original ending wouldn't have been much better bc at that point, there would've been only 2 eps left. AND NO ONE BROUGHT UP THE FACT THAT ZANE DEFEATED THE OVERLOAD. NOT EVEN LLOYD???? "Third time's the charm," MF ZANE DEFEATED HIM THE THIRD TIME FOR WAY LONGER THAN YOU DID AND NOT EVEN THE OVERLOAD MENTIONED IT LIKE WHAT??? AT LEAST REFRENCE IT OR SUM.
13. Hands of Time
To get something out of the way, the animation reminded me of Miraculous Ladybug.(IM SORRY) The season felt odd but in a good way. And knowing that Pixal was in that Samurai X suit makes her personality in s7 10× more funnier. I don't hate it but I don't love it at the same time. It's a 50/50
12. The Pilots
Since it's the start or it all, it's going to get a decent ranking. I really like it and it did just fine for a pilot ep(s) But other seasons are just better :3
11. Master of The Mountain
It's a really nice season to get back at I fricking LOVE the little flashback of Cole's mother. But at the same time it's a bit forgettable.(don't come for me) That's it. :3
10. Legacy of The Green Ninja
One of the classic seasons. It's good enough to make it to the top 10. This was where ninjago was originally supposed to end. Its really nice and seeing Lloyd battle his dad was sad :,) All the episodes are really fun and entertaining but other seasons are just better :3
9. Rise of The Snakes
The first season of ninjago where it all truly started. Much like s2 all the episodes are really entertaining. It's really heartwarming to watch all the ninja grow up and change throughout the rest of the seasons. It's always a classic you can come back to. But other seasons are still just better
8. Possession
It's a really nice season and the pros outweigh the cons but I really don't like Morro(atp yall finna hate me) He's like Kai if his "I'm supposed to be the green ninja" phase never left. His redemption arc was so fricking boring and forgettable that I don't even REMEMBER what happened and i'm too lazy to go back. But the episodes are also really entertaining and a bit funny.
7. Rebooted
TOO MANY PPL DONT LIKE THIS SEASON AND IDK WHY. Okay the love triangle was extremely unnecessary and didn't help progress the plot at all. But all the good really outweighs it. It's the birth of the best Canon ship(which is pretty much all I post abt here) Really entertaining. AND HAS ONE OF THE BEST SCENES IN HISTORY. Ik yall were in TEARS after the last ep.
6. Dragons Rising
It's a really well paced season and MASSIVELY improved from crystalized. THEY ACTUALLY GIVE ZANE A PERSONALITY AND I AM HERE FOR IT. It gives off a really well based story, and it's really entertaining. Ik a majority of Jay fans were upset bc he only got like 14 seconds of screen time if that, but with everything going on and at that point there were 3 eps left. The story pacing would've been extremely rushed, so I'm kinda glad that happened. Nothing else to say.
5. March of The Oni
Really great season. Just really hits you in the feels. Nice season you can always rewatch. I love the Pixal/Cole/Zane interaction in the first ep really funny. The rest of the season is pretty self explanatory
4. Tournament of Elements
This season is one of the best in the show. Like S10 it's pretty self explanatory. Introduces us to a bunch of new concepts. GARMADON SACRIFICING HIMSELF WAHHHHHHH. The only thing I genuinely have a problem with is the Zane amnesia part. I really wanted it to last the whole season like make Zane have little flashbacks bit by bit. That could've been really interesting. The rest is amazing.
3.Sons of Garmadon
SO MANY PPL WHO STOPPED WATCHING AFTER THE REDESIGNS MISSED OUT OMG. It's so good. Good characters. Good villains. Good story concept. GREAT execution. Just mwah. Crystalized kinda ruined Harumi's arc. Like I would've been fine if she stayed dead. HER ARC WAS PERFECT. I love her sm. Also has one of the best outfits/weapons. THE REDESIGNS DID THEM JUSTICE THEYRE SM BETTER THAN THE OLD ONES(don't find me pls.) It's great would recommend :3
2. Seabound
ONE OF THE BEST SEASONS JUST MWAH. Nya's arc was really nice, and her merging with the ocean pulled on my heartstrings istg. HER INTERACTIONS WITH HER MOTHER JUST...*cries forever*
1. Hunted
MY FAVORITE SEASON OMG EVERYTHING ABT IT IS FUCKING PERFECT. The music. The characters. EVERYTHING. Has one of the best intros in ninjago. I love how Lloyd was trying to cope with his friends being "dead" and being so relieved that they're actually alive. The designs are so good. The story progresses really smoothly and just...*chefs kiss*
Okay bye now.
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incorrectfmaquotes · 2 years
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im sure someone has asked you this before already but what are your thoughts on the og fma adaptation
Hi there! Sorry for answering this so late, I was very busy at the time this was sent and when I started getting less busy, desktop version of Tumblr wouldn’t let me open my inbox for weeks, along with other problems.
Okay, so. I’m kinda dreading the responses I might get to answering this question. Because honestly, I really don’t remember that much from the 03 anime and I don’t remember liking it too much. Or at least, I didn’t like it enough to want to rewatch it or even just rewatch some episodes, the way I did with Brotherhood. I watched both of them for the first time when I was like 11 or 12, maybe even 10. Someone did ask me this question in a direct message closer to when I first started this blog (almost 5 years ago wow) and I remembered 03 a lot better then, but I was just reading the little synopsis of it on Wikipedia and the whole time I was just like ??????? And it wasn’t my own opinion on the quality of the plot, I just straight up couldn’t remember any of it.
I think I didn’t feel as hopeful watching 03 as I did with Brotherhood and that’s why it wasn’t my preferred adaptation. It’s less that 03 was something I actively disliked, and more that it just wasn’t the most appealing to my tastes. I absolutely could be misremembering wrong, but I think 03 felt at least a little too bleak or gruesome (maybe both?) for me. But I am slightly more grown up than I was then and maybe I could finally rewatch it with a new perspective and possibly a new appreciation. Though would it really be watching with a new perspective if I don’t remember for sure my old perspective?
And if my opinion still has any value, I do kinda reject 03 being considered the “bad” anime, as I often hear it referred to as. I don’t know if when people say that they solely mean it as shorthand for it being the unfaithful adaptation, or if they think it’s bad on its own, or if they’re saying an unfaithful adaptation is inherently a bad piece of media. Not to say that “unfaithful adaptation = bad work” is an unreasonable argument in general, but I think in the case of 03, when the manga was still continuing and the anime had gotten past that point AND the original author Arakawa had given her blessing to the 03 writers for them to create their own ending, I think some consideration should be allowed. Also, just because 03 isn’t faithful to the whole manga, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its own merits. I don’t know, does this make any sense?
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actualbird · 1 year
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Hi zak! I've been a longtime reader of your original works. Do you have any tips on what pieces to put in your writing folio?
hi anon !!! im very sorry it took me forever to get back to this ask, and doubly sorry if you are no longer in need of tips OTL. still, thank u for reading my original works, thats a pleasant surprise to know!! i havent posted my original writing website here in......a long while, since im the (very slow) process revamping the site HAHA,
but yeah, tips on what put in a writing portfolio!! if ever you still need em or if ever anybody out there can make use of this. all of these based completely on my personal experience of applying to writing workshops and writing jobs, so feel free to take what you think applies to you/would help you, and leave the rest behind
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1 ) in general, put your Best Works. but take into consideration that You are usually your own worst critic, so you definitely could benefit from a second opinion (or many)
so, obviously, you wanna be putting in your best stuff. and thats still the general method that i'd choose, but with the added reminder that a lot of the time, writers can be blind to certain works that they themselves made that other people really liked or found immensely compelling.
this for lots of reasons: writerly self-esteem problems, that odd experience of mostly remembering the arduous Process of writing the thing and less the actual finished product, general blindness to stuff in your own work since you Wrote That (and probably revised it 76439754985 times) so it's just hard now for you to realize the level of skill thats apparent to many others
the opposite effect is also very possible, where you can be Incredibly attached to a work (maybe for sentimental reasons, maybe because the you learned a lot along the way, etc) but other people kinda found the whole work meh.
bottom line: by this point, you know youve got skill in writing. but the skill OF seeing and evaluating your own skill is a whole different animal
reach out to your friends, writing peers, or reading peers and ask them what they think some of your best works are. personally, i think it's good both to ask people who are Also in the practice/study/career of writing, and people who arent, simply because a more diverse set of information is always better than a lesser diverse one. if you want, you can ask follow up questions like "why?", or you can just stick to getting a general pulse check of what is resonating to the people who read your work. because [tv commercial voice] The Answer May Surprise You!
and once you know what resonates with others, you can start chopping down the list with armed with that new knowledge
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2 ) "Best" should not be a catch-all term, cut it up into specific categories and showcase your Best in top categories you want to focus on. this way, you get a folio that's showing a wide range of your capabilities
if i were picking between two applicants, both of which submitted portfolios of their Best fiction works (and theyre both Very good), i would ultimately choose the applicant who gave a portfolio that showed a wider range of what Bests theyre capable of rather than the applicant who submitted 5 really great stories but they all still employed the same techniques/concepts/themes
......if that makes sense?
like, okay, let's assume the portfolio is a fiction portfolio. no specific lit genre limitations or whatever, just, fiction in general.
"fiction in general" is a ridiculously huge field! theres the genres of course, so many damn genres. but what im more focused on is Technique. there are so many ways to structure your plot and pacing, there are so many ways to create your cadence and tone, there are so many kinds of characters and so many ways you can make them clash, so many dang ways to make your story's themes come to light. theres a Lot
so take a portfolio as a chance to show the widest possible range of what you can do, and what you can do Well
let's say you did Tip 1 and coming from that, youve got a list of 15 stories you think would be good for a portfolio. your next step then is to identify which stories are doing the same Thing (whether that be in its genre, structure, themes, etc) and then decide which of those stories showcases your ability to Do that Thing best.
if ive got 3 different stories that are all magical realism pieces using a very subdued tone to communicate the plot's conflict and emotion, then im gonna need to pick just one to put in my folio, the one that did it Best. and then you can go back to Tip 1 and get a second opinion on that if you want, and THEN i repeat with the other stories, this time picking a different Thing-Technique-Structure-Theme-Etc to focus on
basically my point is that a portfolio, ideally, should show different Kinds of Bests. because that is much much more appealing than only seeing One kind of Best
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3 ) you can make as many portfolios as you want, tailor-made specifically for what youre using that portfolio for
this is something i learned after college and when i was applying for various writing jobs. for context, i dual wielded fiction and nonfiction in college. though my degree ultimately/officially went into the nonfiction track, i still wrote a whole lotta original fiction, and when i was applying for jobs, my personal list of Bests included a lot of fiction pieces, as well as nonfiction pieces
but i was applying to all different kinds of jobs, and it would be slightly off-course to submit a fiction piece to a job like Feature Writer For Magazine. additionally, it would be slightly off-course to submit a nonfiction piece to a job like Romance Game Writer
(.....both of those real jobs i applied for and man, sidenote, can you believe i almost became a romance game writer? like, how ironic that is now that im into the fandom i am Currently into. guys. guys i got to the second interview stage of that job. Guys. jdhvfhvfkshd)
anyway, remember how Tip 2 is about showing off a diverse array of what youre capable of? well, dont get Too diverse. always remember the people/organization/etc that you will be submitting this portfolio to, and keep in mind what They are looking for
if youre applying for a sci-fi fiction workshop, submit your Best pieces that do different techniques or things BUT are still within the parameters sci-fi fiction, so they are relevant. if youre applying for a feature writing job, maybe fiction might work, but read the works that the magazine puts out, maybe. get a feel for their style, what they like. like idk , if theyre super into that Anthony Bourdain-esque kinda description of gritty details, then maybe a fiction piece that shows off that kind of descriptive skill can still be relevant.
make a new portfolio whenever the need arises to best adapt to whatever it is youre gunning for
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in summary :
tip 1: Best works but cast a wider net and ask other people because us writers can get tunnel vision sometimes
tip 2: whittle down your list to show different kinds of Bests that you can do, avoid redundancy
tip 3: keep your Bests relevant to whatever the task at hand may be
well....thats all i can think of. i hope some part of this can be helpful to anybody out there. hope youre doing well, anon :")
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quietwingsinthesky · 10 months
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for the fic writer asks!!
5, 9, 13, 15, 29?
hi hi aayo!!
[questions were here]
5. So, a while back, I was spitballing with my friends about Pokemon Black/White & the sequel, because I love those games, those are my childhood Pokemon games, and the story is so close to brilliant I can taste it. It would just need a little touching up, I swear, adjust a motivation here, add some more scenes there... But see the thing is, doing that would take. A While. and I just don't think I have the patience to do a full rewrite of a Pokemon game from 2010 so it'll probably remain an idea.
9. Yes! I do! I try to do a few hundred words a day, every day. Depending on how bad my depression is, I can be pretty consistent about it and get a lot done. And I did manage to do a little today for that nsfw lucifer/raphael fic I'm working on! Let's see here. Ahem. "Waiting, a front of perfect obedience betrayed by how hard he’s clenching his hands together behind his back to keep from touching himself." :) I am. doing things. to luci.
13. It depends on the fic. Some of them, I want to say Last Call and could have been anyone, anyone are good examples, start writing themselves in my head with absolutely no warning, and I have to jump to the nearest thing to jot down the sentences before they disappear forever. Others, like Honey, Don't Feed It, have literally been turned over in my brain for more than a year, twisted and changed until I've gotten a fic I actually like out of it.
15. Sometimes it's a song title, sometimes it's a line from the fic, sometimes it's 'it is 4am when im posting it and ive already typed up the fucking tags and the summary and i am so so tired whats the closest noun i can think of' and then i slap it on there and call it a day.
29. asjklajdksld my first thought was 'oh you know what fine i'll post what i had of that samifer fic before it gets deleted but uh It Is Literally Entirely Porn. so lets. lets go with something a little more PG, yeah? Not exactly polite of me to throw smut at you without asking.
So instead, have this bit from the original draft of my next Sarah/Lucifer/Nick fic that got cut because I switched the pov character from Sarah to Nick for. Reasons.
Sarah has had a lot more time to paint in the last few months. Enough that muscle memory she thought lost has slowly reappeared, making her hand steadier. Her art hasn’t become more neat as a result, but it has grown purpose in its mess. Her mother always wished she’d take after her grandmother and paint lush green forests and pretty meadows, but Sarah’s brushes led her down a different path. Intricate strokes litter the paper, testing to see how close she can bring the painting to the being curled around her spine before it devolves into a jumbled mess. Lucifer is not an easy muse. Sarah hasn’t managed to paint a piece that does her justice yet.
This one is barely recognizable as anything, more abstract than Sarah’s committed to in a long time. A lot of her paintings of Lucifer start somewhere she understands, with Nick’s face or her own, fragmented to better show the angel that lives inside them, openings in the skin like bloodless wounds through which eyes and feathers and teeth peek through. Someone else might find them terrifying. Nick thinks her paintings of Lucifer are beautiful. Lucifer, of course, is flattered and amused. She watches Sarah paint, enthralled the same way Nick mentioned her being the day he built Teddy’s crib. She hasn’t asked for a turn at the brushes yet, but Sarah hopes she does one day, if only so they can see what she’s capable of creating.
Sarah stretches. There’s no satisfying pop to her spine as she uncurls from her art, but in exchange, there’s also no lingering soreness from staying in one position for too long. Lucifer’s grace pulses, buried somewhere deep, utterly content. Sarah shuts her eyes as though she could listen to her.
Instead, Sarah hears a cry from the other room. She lets her head tilt towards the clock on the wall. It’s been a while since she put Teddy down for a nap. Lucifer is on alert the moment the sound hits Sarah’s ears. She’s still not used to the simple fact that sometimes, babies cry, and it doesn’t mean the world is about to end. Impossible to fathom wings flex under Sarah’s skin. Sarah suppresses a chuckle into a small smile and sets her paintbrush down. It rolls to join its brethren of various sizes, the only commonality between them all the teethmarks at the tip where Sarah chewed when she got frustrated or distracted. Lucifer’s wings flap, a wave of power rolling through Sarah’s body that’s asking one question, whether they can fly to the nursery rather than take the minute long walk there. Sarah lets her consent echo back through Lucifer, bracing herself.
Flight is a cacophony. Flight is like learning what it is to be a photon and forgetting again as her body hits the ground, human toes curling against the fuzz of the nursery carpet. Lucifer recovers like they’ve taken a brisk walk up the stairs. Sarah needs a minute more, as though she’s been thrown under the waves at the beach and needs to figure out which direction is up in order to stand. In his crib, Teddy turns his head to look at them, brown eyes seeking his mother, and when he knows she’s there to hear him, he scrunches up his face and starts crying again.
It’s Lucifer that takes them the first few steps to the crib, but Sarah who reaches down and picks Teddy up.
“Hey, hey, fussy,” she says softly to him, “shh, we’re here now.” Teddy cries out one more time, like he’s making sure she’s not going to put him down and leave once he’s quiet. Sarah rocks him.
“We’re here,” comes another voice from her mouth, still hesitant but less than it has been in a few months. Lucifer raises Sarah’s hand to pet a line down Teddy’s forehead. There’s no more than the ambient hum of her grace beneath Sarah’s skin, but between being held by his mother and watched over by his guardian devil, (Sarah’s mouth curls at the thought, and she can’t tell if it’s her or Lucifer reacting.) he quiets. He keeps frowning, scrunched up eyes and a wrinkled forehead. “Hello, Theodore,” Lucifer says, and it’s at Sarah’s prodding that she finally says, “Teddy.”
He’s a baby, Sarah teases, no need to be so formal.
Names mean something, comes the quick counter.
And this one means you love him. Lucifer hums, finger still drifting in absent circles over Teddy’s face. Teddy latches onto it when it’s near his mouth, and Lucifer freezes. Sarah laughs, and with control of her body falling back to her, it comes out without a care in the world. Teddy makes a frustrated noise when she pulls her finger away.
“That’s better than you needing a diaper change,” Sarah tells him. Teddy babbles at her, sounds that are beginning to have more distinct shapes but mean nothing at all. She’s going to have to put him back down to undo her button-up, or would have to, only Lucifer proves for the hundredth time how much easier parenting is with divine power backing them up. Sarah shifts Teddy around in her arms, enduring the tiny beat of an impatient hand against her chest, until she has him comfortably settled to feed.
He seems so small in her arms. He’s growing fast and will continue to for years and years, a prospect both terrifying and exciting.
It’s a short enough walk to her and Nick’s bedroom from the nursery, and she’s careful not to jostle Teddy while he nurses. There, she can settle down comfortably against the pillows, the blankets tucking themselves up around her legs despite her not reaching for them. It doesn’t do much against the ever-present chill, but Sarah doesn’t want that to go away. Besides, they bundle Teddy up warmly enough.
She does wonder sometimes what it’ll be like as he gets older. If his first words will be ‘dada’ or ‘mama’ or something else entirely, a string of syllables that seem like gibberish to her and Nick but mimic the language that Lucifer sometimes speaks to him off-handedly, the one that makes Sarah’s ears feel like they might pop from pressure if she listens for too long, the one that Teddy reacts to with kicking feet and responsive babbling. If one day Sarah will get teachers telling her about Teddy’s imaginary angelic friend who raised him, both those impressed that he could come up with something so elaborate and those worried that the angel in question is Lucifer herself. Maybe the funniest thing Sarah can imagine is if Nick ever takes little Teddy to church and what kind of menace they might unleash with a child who loves the devil like a mother. That, if it ever happens, is a long ways off, and until then, Lucifer is still the secret held between the three of them.
“You think he’ll still like me,” Lucifer says, dipping her hand into the stream of Sarah’s thoughts, welcomed but nibbled at by the fish that think she really should have asked permission first. Maybe a little hypocritical when Sarah has already let her in, “when he grows up.”
There is, always, this expectation of rejection that lingers in Lucifer’s words. A surprise when she finds connection instead that breaks Sarah’s heart.
“You look after him. You sing to him. You feed him.” Sarah looks down at Teddy, who takes his fill and rests his tiny fist against her skin. This caretaking is a communal effort, after all. “Of course he’ll love you.”
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