#also hey look at that even more red vs blue references

[hardygalwrites]

Originally posted to FFN on the 12th of June, 2017

Simply archiving a writing challenge I did back in 2016 up to 2017 and featuring my favourite writing pieces from each week of the challenge here on Tumblr :]

← Week 43 (KO) – Week 45 (BB) →

Cartoon: Transformers Prime / Robots in Disguise 2015

Characters: Smokescreen, Knock Out, and Bumblebee, with appearances from numerous other characters (even ones not featured in the cartoons)

Synopsis: An Autobot Elite Guard rookie, a Decepticon medic turned Autobot, and an Autobot scout turned warrior turned street cop - three very different bots with a wide range of stories to tell. And we are going to spend the next year exploring said stories through daily-written drabbles, be they angsty, humorous, gut-punching, or just plain odd! Who doesn’t love a challenge? (2016 to 2017)

—

Most Painful Loss

A beaker shattered against the wall beside Dreadwing as he entered the medbay.

"I said I wish to be left alone! Can you small-minded troopers not even do that?"

"Doctor."

Knock Out turned from where he had been hunched over a work table. "Oh. Dreadwing." He turned back to the table. "You had better be injured."

"I am not."

"Then get out of my medbay."

Dreadwing sighed. "I understand how your loss must be affecting you. More so, as I have experienced the pain of the one I myself lost."

"Then you must understand I want to be left alone."

Slaggin' Cults

Bumblebee huffed, stepping back from the medbay door. "That'll have to do."

Knock Out eyed the barricade critically. "This, coupled with having only you as a bodyguard? Ratchet doesn't need to worry about me scaring the patients, this whole setup will do the job fine!"

"Well, we can't exactly ditch them, can we?" Bumblebee retorted. "Wait, don't answer that."

Knock Out rolled his optics. "An army of bots hellbent on releasing the Lord of Chaos, and of course you're the ones who happen to have him in a box. Thank you for again making me question why I joined your little team."

Formalities

"I am glad you came, doctor," the council member said. "It helps show just how much things have changed on Cybertron."

Knock Out nodded. "Yes, of course. Though from what I've heard, corruption in the government hasn't changed much."

The council member frowned. "I'm... not sure what you mean."

"Oh, sorry, this is what all formal events involve, yes? A bunch of fine, civilized bots getting together to enjoy the finer things in life, all while pretending not to hate each other." Knock Out chuckled, downing a shot of high-grade. "Even the War can't change what's simply pure instinct, Councilor."

Goodbyes

"If we were on Cybertron, we'd be electing a statue in your honor. ...But I suppose recycling your remains will have to do." Knock Out pat the faded frame - rid of that human slime, of course - on the shoulder. "Out with a bang, as always."

As he prepared to release the body, the sound of approaching pedesteps made him turn. "What are you lot doing here?"

"We wanted to pay our respects, sir," one of the vehicons said nervously.

Knock Out sneered. "Why do you ca-?" He stopped and sighed. Breakdown always had been fond of those stupid troopers. "...Fine. Just... stay quiet."

Medics Just Make You More Comfortable

"C'mon, aren't you supposed to be a doctor?" the mech exclaimed. "Why can't you save him already?"

Knock Out fixed the impatient mech with a condescending look. "Ah, now I see the mixup. Doctors are the ones who save bots, while medics simply make you a little more comfortable while you die."

"You... What?"

"But, I do happen to be both. I alternate between the two."

"So, which one are you now?" the mech asked hesitantly.

Knock Out pretended to give the patient a look over. "Well, after my third examination of your friend, I have concluded that I am currently a medic."

#posting from THE ARCHIVES #365 drabbles challenge #i wrote a decent few drabbles concerning the aftermath of breakdown's death its nice to write the less maniacal sides of knock out #also hey look at that even more red vs blue references #knock out #tfp knock out #dreadwing #tfp dreadwing #breakdown #okay technically breakdown isnt present in any of these featured drabbles but he is important in two of them so it felt wrong not to tag him #tfp breakdown #bumblebee #tfp bumblebee #transformers #transformers prime #fanfiction #transformers fanfiction #HardyGal writes stuff #HardyGal writes fanfiction

[ficsandgiggles]

My New Family

Chapter Six - Peter vs Y/N

Chapter Five

Peter teaches Y/N how to play Mario Kart, only for it to backfire on him, but he knows how to get revenge.

You walked into Peter’s room, looking around at all the pop culture references stuck around the place, they didn’t look cheap, so it was obvious that Tony spoilt him a little.

“Oh, don’t mind all the Star Wars stuff, I’m kind of a nerd.” He giggled and patted the bed next to him. “Come here, I don’t bite.” He encouraged with a gentle smile, watching as you hesitantly sat next to him, looking at the huge tv.

“Have you ever used the Switch before?” Peter asked, smiling fondly when you seemed fascinated by the way the controllers came off either side of the screen. You shook your head in response, taking the blue controller Peter handed to you and fiddling with the buttons on it.

“It’s okay, I’ll show you.” He replied, showing you the basics of accelerating, using items and drifting. You bit your lip and listened to him, it seemed a little confusing, but you hoped to get the hang out it eventually.

“Don’t worry, I’ll start us off on 100cc, it’s not agonisingly slow, but it’s also not super fast.” He reassured, looking over to see that you were trembling a little. You had met so many people recently that the overwhelming feeling suddenly took over you. Peter put down his controller and gently wrapped you in a hug, rubbing your arm in an attempt to calm you down.

“Hey, we don’t have to play if it’s too much, I’m sorry if I’m being too much…” Peter reassured you gently, feeling you slowly relaxed into the feeling before you gave a simple shrug in response.

“Would you like to play?” He offered with a gentle smile to show that there was no pressure whatsoever. But you nodded, thinking that playing would provide a good distraction for you.

Peter nodded and started the race, knowing to take it easy on you since this was the first time playing, he reminded you of the controls and smiled proudly when you seemed to get the hang of it. You poked your tongue out in concentration as you managed to just make it around the corner of a sharp tone, not even realising you knocked Peter off the edge of the map.

“Y/N!” He whined out, giggling as he gently nudged your ribs with his elbow, causing you to flinch and protect your ribs, biting back a smile as you easily drifted around another corner.

“You’re good at this!” Peter complimented, although he overtook you with a cheeky grin, making you whine and pout playfully.

Eventually, the first race ended, and you managed to get fourth place, with Peter finishing second. He looked at you with a grin. “You did great! Let’s go for a slightly harder track.” He suggested, choosing the next track and getting ready.

A few races had passed and you were sixth overall, Peter had managed to get up to second place, but he was more happy that you seemed more confident around him. He then decided to put your new skills to the test, and chose one of the infamous rainbow road tracks available, grinning cheekily at what was about to happen.

You gave Peter an innocently confused look as the race started, poking your tongue out in concentration before immediately becoming frustrated at falling off the track.

“Aw, you were doing so well!” Peter replied teasingly as he managed to get past you, making you whine when he did so. You then paused for a moment when you thought of an idea. You were confident enough to celebrate when you managed to hit him with a red shell or even a blue shell at times, so you decided to show the even cheekier side you didn’t know existed.

Smirking, you decided to sit on his lap, blocking his view of the screen. The young teen gasped and tried to peer around you, only making you lean in the direction he was leaning towards.

“Oh you cheeky little-“ he murmured, playfully angry as he took one hand off the controller in order to dig into your sides.

You squealed and slammed your arms back against your sides, bursting into hysterical giggles as you pulled your arms back too. “HEHEHEHEY!”

“Whaaaat? You’re being a little cheater, so I gotta punish you!” Peter teased, pausing the game to wrap you in a hug and shake into your ribs, causing you to yelp and pull your arms back against your sides.

“Ha! Steve said you were adorably ticklish!” He teased, nuzzling his nose into your neck as he rocked the two from side to side before gently throwing you onto the bed, scribbling into your sides and tummy whilst smiling widely down at you. “He was definitely right!”

You blushed madly, gently placing the controller to the side as you were afraid it would break you accidentally threw it, you refuse to look at Peter’s grinning face as you kept letting out helpless giggles. However, Peter followed you and poked his tongue out cheekily as he continued to scribble into your belly for a bit.

“Aw, this is almost as fun as Mario Kart!” Peter teased playfully, gently pinning your arms up, just tight enough for you to be able to get away if you really needed to. He gently wriggled his fingers above you and slowly moved towards your armpit.

“Are you going to apologise for cheating?” He asked with a smirk, causing you to giggle nervously and gently tug on your arms, simply shaking your head in response. Peter simply chuckled at your stubbornness before gently scratching under your left arm, causing you to squeal with laughter and pull a little harder at your arms.

“Awww coochie coochie coo! You’re so cute!” Peter teased playfully, switching rapidly between each armpit to keep you on your toes, causing you to squeal helplessly and continue to pull at your arms.

“Peheheheter!” You giggled out, blushing as you felt your shirt ride up a little. You remembered Tony doing something weird to Peter whenever his shirt rode up, you were kind of curious about what it was and what it felt like, but the other part of you was nervous about it, so you kept wriggling in an attempt to get your shirt down.

“Aww, why are you so squirmy, hm- ooooh, what’s this?” He asked, lightly wriggling a single finger on the strip of skin you failed to cover. “You know what this means, right?” He asked with raised eyebrows, but his face dropped a little when you gave him an innocent shrug.

Quickly, Peter blew a tiny raspberry onto your belly, looking straight back up at you to observe your reaction. You immediately squealed with giggles and sucked your stomach in. Although Peter’s lips didn’t cover much of your tummy, the sensation spread all of it, but you kind of liked it.

“Ooooh you’re sensitive to raspberries too! So I’m going to ask you one more time Y/N, are you sorry for being a little cheater?” He asked, slowly beginning to lean down towards your stomach again, but watching you for your response too.

You thought for a second, but your stubbornness took over you as you shook your head once more. You had a feeling that you were going to regret it, but that was a risk you were willing to take.

“Alrighty then.” Peter shrugged before blowing a huge, long raspberry on your belly, shaking his head in as he did so. You screamed with laughter and managed to set yourself free from Peter’s light grip, shoving your shirt down as you burst into giggly laughter. You didn’t really regret your decision as you haven’t laughed like this in a long time, but you quickly ran out of breath as you went into silent laughter.

Peter immediately let you go and sat up, rubbing your back gently when you flipped over to lay on your stomach, the occasional giggle still slipping out.

“Well, I guess I know how to punish you whenever you decide to cheat then, what a shame.” Peter chuckled as you eventually sat up and blushed. Suddenly, you threw yourself into Peter’s arms, hugging him tightly as if you were silently thanking him for bringing you out of your shell a little more.

Peter smiled fondly and hugged you back. “You’re a sweet kid, Y/N, all of us are so glad you’re here.” He murmured quietly with a fond smile, giving you a little squeeze before pulling away and handing you the remote again.

“Now, wanna try battles?”

Chapter Seven

#avengerstickle #ticklish!reader #avengers tickle fic series #avengers tickle fic #marvel tickle fic series #marvel tickle fic #marvel tickle #ler!peter

[chaos-in-bright-pink-hair-dye]

hey i'm new to the fandom uhh. what's the general kinda. commonly-known lore. like i know the bare minimum and i would like to know more if that's alright :D thanks!!

Hi and welcome! I hope you're having fun so far :D

But commonly known lore, that's a tough one because honestly there's very little official lore, ofc the music videos are great base followed by the comic(definitely go read it, many of us still ignore the lore from it but it's great starting point) but from there most of us just run completely of the rails.

I have compiled some basics like important characters, main ideas and believes, some resources etc. but probably the best way to learn more is to discover. Look through different blogs, enjoy fanart, read fics, talk to people, this fandom has wide range and no two people have the same version of the world and that's the most beautiful part. And ofc you are always welcome here if you have questions or just to chat! Maybe don't even read all these boring paragraphs and go explore instead if you want. And here's a link to a masterpost by vinyls-and-valentines with even more links. Oh and definitely read the comic before this post if you haven't yet, there are some spoilers here and it will be more enjoyable that way.

There are archives of the twitter accounts which many use as a reference but the posts themselves are kinda incomprehensive and the only important part are some characters that are not included in any other media but I'll mention those later

Besides the main characters - The Fabulous Killjoys often also called The Fabulous Four and the Girl who they hope will save them all we also have:

Dr Death Defying, a radio host and as many believe, adoptive father of every lost kid he finds

Agent Cherri Cola, killjoy as old as the fab four, he's both in the comic and on twitter but his personality completely changes between these two medias, it's wildly accepted he hosts Cherri Cola's poetry corner on the radio

Tommy Chow Mein, runs a shop in the zones - the shop where the Girl finds Party Poison's mask in the comic, he is the seller, wildly overpriced, also robs corpses for anything that's still usable, popular joke is that he and Dr Death used to be married

The Ultra Vs, the gang from the comic, not really that popular since the characters are very underdeveloped, but many people still write awesome fics with them and do them justice, highly recommend if you get tired of the usual fab four stuff at some point, also we hate Val Velocity

Red and Blue, the two droids from the comic, they are girlfriends obviously

Korse (the bald bad guy, a Scarecrow=agent specially trained to hunt killjoys), Exterminators (soldiers with white sacks over their heads) and Draculoids (guys with ugly latex masks, usually believed to be dead people/killjoys that got turned by the mask) if you need bad guys for your fan work these are your people, no danger days fanart can exist without them

Show Pony, the killjoy on roller-skates from na na na music video, believed to be non-binary by many

NewsaGoGO, a character from twitter, also a radio host

DJ Hot Chimp, a character from twitter and a radio host as well

When someone mentions the Radio crew or something in that sense they usually mean Dr Death, Cherri Cola, Show Pony, Newsie, Hot Chimp

Also as you can notice pretty much no one uses the full names they are too long but you'll get used to it in no time

Mad Gear, probably the most popular singer in the zones, has a band called Mad Gear and the Missile Kid, sometimes Missile Kid is an actual member other times it's more of an imaginary concept, here's an EP MCR released

Oh yeah also the desert is often referred to as the zones, here's a map as well. The zones surround Battery City which is run by Better Living Industries, shortly BL/Ind, how the whole situation came to be is explained shortly here. Killjoys are people who escaped the city because of the way it's run (different versions but usually brain washing, propaganda, pills etc.) and obviously BL/Ind is not very happy about that so they send scarecrows, exterminators and draculoids to catch/kill the runaways. Also the city turns souls of dead people into electricity.

Big part of killjoy lore are also their masks and bad luck beads, masks tie their owner's soul to them and so when the owner dies (gets ghosted, dusted etc in killjoy slang) the mask is put into a special mailbox where a deity called Phoenix Witch saves them from being turned into electricity in the city. In many cases she can also return people back to life if she wants to. (also Witchfucker Wednesday is a thing I think you can guess what that's about) Bad luck beads are beads killjoys wear around their wrists and they are supposed to keep them lucky

Forementioned Phoenix Witch and Destroya are deities, both are quite well explained in the comic.

Also people often mention Graffiti bible in their works, that's a book similar to bible created by droids, but when I say book it's more of an idea usually it doesn't have an actual physical form of a book rather some scattered pages at best.

And if you see someone talking about Party Poison's piss kink that relates to hanky code and Party's yellow bandana they wore around their leg

That reminds me of another thing, go wild with pronouns and gender when forming your versions of the characters, some people use he for one character, other use she or neo pronouns for the same character and it's all fine and gender is fake there's only sand but also everything is very gender and everyone is very queer, it's a lot of fun

Some more interesting stuff to look into:

Little list I made with common headcanons (since venom brothers isn't explained people often use it to refer to Party and Kobra)

Dr Death listening Party

Sing outtake version (the story goes slightly different here)

Mousekat episode (Mousekat is presumably a show for kids made by BL/Ind as a form of propaganda. It's also Party Poison's furry head)

playlist of few other interesting videos

#well I hopr this was at least somewhat helpful and that you enjoy your stay #idk how comprehensible it is #and sorry if I'm over explaining stuff idk how much you already know

[omegathetaone]

Welcome to the Omega System ｡･:*˚:✧｡

Hey! We're the Omega System (also known as ΩΘ1/Omega or Theta in short), and we are a self diagnosed traumagenic system. The full DNI list will be written below, however note that we are expressly anti-endo/tulpa as they make us very uncomfortable! Below you will find our DNI list, frequent fronters, sign offs, and more! Please, please give it a read before interacting with us! Especially the DNI list, if nothing else!

This post is subject to updates at any time, so make sure to check here to keep yourself up to date! (Long Post under the cut <3)

The Basics & BYF

We use we/us and I/me interchangeably We are autistic, a minor, and bodily a trans man We are a self diagnosed osdd/did system but we can't tell which kind of system we are even after extensive research (we are leaning towards OSDD-1b)

We are a fictive heavy system We are a masc-identity heavy system The majority of our system is queer

We collectively go by Omega or Theta online. Outside of that we use the body's name (we will not be sharing it here) We collectively use He/It pronouns, so if you don't know who's fronting or are referring to us in general just use those pronouns

We block very liberally

We will delete posts as we so choose. One day you might see it, the next it could be gone. Sorry if this causes any confusion!

We struggle with self-acceptance at times to please be patient with us. We're doing our best to get out of that mindset but it's not an easy process

Don't be afraid to let us know if someone is problematic! If we reblog from someone unknowingly then letting us know would be greatly appreciated so we can block them and correct our mistake!

Boundaries

We prefer to interact with people who are at least 16, so if you are younger than that you will be on thin ice with us unless if we're mutuals.

General rule, please don't refer to us as "plural" or to our headmates as "parts". We don't feel comfortable with these terms.

We are open to most questions about being a system, how our system works, or anything else that might be on your mind! We love answering questions (though don't expect this from other systems online- they don't have to share anything if they don't want to).

Our DMs are open unless stated otherwise. If another system needs someone to talk to or is looking for a system friend, then you can come to us! Keep in mind though- we will stop communication and/or block you if we feel super uncomfortable!

We aren't a roleplay account. Please don't try to roleplay with us unless if it's a fandom thing we agreed to and not "oh you have a fictive of x character!", because it makes us uncomfortable.

Interests

Some Media/Shows/Movies that we really enjoy!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (+ TBB)

Heartstopper

Transformers

Demon Slayer, Naruto, + many more

Detroit: Become Human

Resident Evil (Video Games, not movies)

Subnautica

Destiny (Video Games, both 1 and 2)

Arcane (The Show)

Hades

Red Vs. Blue

Some more obscure ones are...

Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You

In Sound Mind (Video Game)

Firewatch

Some of my other interests include...

The Horror Genre

Cryptids, SCPs, Analogue Horror, and other things of that nature

Music + Composition

Sound Design

Art

Chemistry

History

Geography

Marine Biology

Marching Band (Marching music my beloved)

Learning new instruments (I'm up to 5 now I think)

Writing (I blame fandoms for this)

Of course some of these can vary depending on who's fronting but they are generally pretty consistent? For the most part anyway.

Favorite current songs...

Mayday mayday! by Biometrix

Downfall by NEONI

Outlaw by NEONI

Wonderland by NEONI

Big Guns by NEONI (can you tell we like Neoni?)

E.T. cover by Rain Paris

Beautiful is Boring by BONES UK

THE DEATH OF PEACE OF MIND by BAD OMENS

Underground by Unlike Pluto and 8 Graves

There's more, but the list would be going on forever lol

DNI

You are free to interact if you aren't anywhere on the list below (and if you don't break any boundaries of ours). That being said, DNI if you are...

endo/tulpa or a supporter

transphobe/homophobe/bigot

fakeclaimer

anti-mogai

anti-alterhuman

anti-neo/xenopronouns and genders

transid/transage/transrace

gendercritical

anti-informed self dx

zoophile/MAP/pedophile/proship etc.

anti-semetic

white supremasists/nazis

syscourse

racists of any kind

pro-life/anti-abortion

Anti-Paraphilia recovery

terf/swerf/radqueer/radfem, etc.

Other things to note here:

If you participate in cringe culture, or harass/call other people 'cringe' for doing what they like, I don't want to see you on my blog.

I will block blank blogs because of tumblr bots, so if you don't want that to be you then please make your blog look HUMAN and not a part of that mess.

I do not want to interact with HP fans/stans. Based on the rest of my DNI, the reason should be obvious. If not, just leave, y'all make me uncomfortable.

If you think that all systems have to sign off on every message and/or constantly let you know who's fronting, realize that just...isn't true. We like signing off a lot of posts because that's how we roll, but that doesn't mean other systems have to give you that window into themselves. Hell- we don't have to either if we aren't feeling it.

Once again, don't bring syscourse here. It makes us very, very uncomfortable.

Frequent Fronters

Max (He/It) - Host

Desmond (He/Him) - Co-host

Charlie (He/Him) - Sexual Protector (Kind of? He's our resident romance king)

The Omega System Member Sign-Off Legend

This isn't everyone, but it's the main ones who like speaking on tumblr and social media in general (for the most part)

✧ 🌌 - System tag

✧ 💤 - Max

✧ 💼 - Desmond

✧ 💌 - Charlie

✧ 💕 - Charlie (aka Char)

✧ 📜 - Alexandre (Aka Alex)

✧ 🩸 - Aurelius (aka AZ)

✧ 🎧 - Axel

✧ 🪀 - Chris

✧ 🔪 - Felix

✧ 🌗 - Domino

✧ 🐻 - Harley

✧ 🔥 - Kyo

✧ 🌠 - Sam

✧ 👑 - King

✧ 💣 - Fuse

✧ 🦋 - Kode (Pronounced Cody)

✧ 🐕 - Nick

✧ 🌹 - Nines

✧ 🐏 - Sebastian (aka Seb or Sebs)

✧ 🕷 - Weaver

✧ 🕸 - Xeno

✧ ✈ - Aileron

✧ 🖤 - Vox

✧ 🌧 - Apollo

✧ 💿 - Taz

✧ 🌙 - Soren

✧ 👻 - Talon

✧ 🧊 - Melvin (aka Mel)

✧ 🕊 - Marcel

✧ 🎵 - Liam

✧ 🎮 - Mustard

✧ 🌳 - Aspen

✧ 🌑 - Anakin

Userboxes

(from @/sysboxes)

(from @/sysboxes

(from @/sysboxes)

#osdd #did #did osdd #anti endo #endos dni #dissociative identity disorder #otherwise specified dissociative disorder #new pinned #dni #byf #before you follow #traumagenic system #actually traumagenic #please like once you've read this #system things #intro #userboxes #userbox #Feel free to use the userboxes I've made #just credit/like if you use #reblogs aren't necessary #long post #it's important though #- 🌌

[itsclydebitches]

Was planning on making this my own post, but I thought you would be more suited to discussing this sort of topic. Something I've noticed when it comes to the more prominent/important/strong female characters (Nora, Pyrrha, Penny, Robyn, Emerald, Sienna) is that RT often has the tendency of giving them masculine allusions (Thor, Achilles, Pinocchio, Robin Hood, Aladdin, Shere Khan) as if they are unable to stand on their own as characters unless they have that connection to a male character. 1/3

It is worth discussing! Yeah, I hesitate to call it a pattern just because, as you say, Team RWBY themselves are an exception to the rule  — and as the title characters of the story, they’re a pretty big exception. We also have good women allusions turned into good women characters (Glynda with The Good Witch, May with Maid Marian) and bad women allusions turned into good women characters (Winter with The Snow Queen — I don’t think she was ever meant to enter full antagonist territory, but that’s another post). So it’s not just a matter of saying, “RWBY models their strong women after male inspirations and turns all female inspirations into male characters.” It’s not that simple. But the fact that it’s not simple doesn’t mean there’s nothing there to unpack because I definitely understand the feeling you’re pointing to, anon. Team RWBY feels like it has the most thought put into it in terms of changing up these allusions, specifically when it comes to subversion: the little girl in a red hood who previously needed a hunter’s protection has become the hunter herself, Belle overcomes both her Gaston and the now evil Beast, Snow White extracts herself from her own abusive situation (with a little help from the Dwarves still), and Goldilocks is no longer lost and in need of basic necessities, but can rather punch her way out of any establishment  — like, say, a club. The execution of these themes aside (how Adam was handled, turning Jacques’ arrest into a joke, etc.), there’s a commonality here that works. Or at least, it works for me. Yet when we expand the allusions past our title team, things get... very messy. That’s when we start to hit on these concerns. 

I’d say the problem stems primarily from that lack of thought, not the act itself of turning women characters into men or vice versa. Meaning, as I’ve said in the past, RWBY’s use of allusions is terribly unreliable nowadays, and that’s not just in terms of plot expectations like, “Why did Penny have to become a flesh girl because Pinocchio, but Ironwood didn’t stay good because Tin Man?” It also includes these questions of why these changes were made and what sort of messages they send. As you lay out, why are so many of our heavy hitters  — the most talented huntress, the lightning-immune smasher, the Maiden android, etc.  — based on men? Why are many of the effeminate and “weaker” men  — Jaune the untrained, Ren the emotional councilor, Oscar the kid who wants to talk it all out  — based on women? Again, I don’t intend to sling any hard accusations, but rather to point out what’s likely a subtle, unconscious bias. To provide another example, I’ve seen talk recently about how RT (again, unconsciously) depicts the faunus, where all the good characters have culturally established “good” animal features and all the bad character have culturally established “bad” features. It’s cat ears, rabbit ears, sheep ears, monkey tails, dog tails, and beautifully changing skin color vs. scorpion tails, spiderwebs, bull horns, tiger ears, bat wings, and crocodile scales. Is it a perfect 1:1 divide? No, Ghira has panther claws and Fennec has fox ears, but there’s enough there for us to go, “RT tends to give the good guys cute features and/or features we associate with safe animals, whereas the bad guys tend to get ugly features and/or features we associate with dangerous animals.” I feel the same way here, that there’s a bit of a trend at play, with the caveat that there are more complications simply by virtue of these allusions being, well, complicated. But there’s enough there to make us stop and think, “What were RT’s intentions with this? If they just chose something based on the rule of cool, what might those inclinations tell us about gender norms in America?” Meaning, when someone goes, “Idk, we just thought it would be cool to change this up” there’s a lifetime of media consumption driving that choice. It’s not actually random, but based on whatever has been normalized  — unless you actively counteract that by thinking through what you want the change to do. 

Unconscious biases are always at work. When we analyze something like this it’s often not a matter of saying, “The author is [insert accusatory term here]” but rather just, “The author is falling into expectations, patterns, and normalized decisions based on the culture they’ve grown up in.” Which includes things like thinking, “Well, if this character is based on a male god, she must be crazy strong. If this character is based on a woman fighter, he’s probably more emotional.” Such biases may be driving a lot of decisions because, as said in the past, I really don’t think RT is putting much thought into these allusions, if any at this point. For me, Penny was proof of that  — the inability to see how following her allusion utterly destroyed her character growth  — but even if we don’t agree about Penny, what about Salem? Far from just using her name, this volume gave us a blatant reference to the events of Salem Trails in the 1690s. Namely, the burning of the witch. 

Except references like this can’t just look cool. This isn’t a video game Easter egg with no real connection to the story, it’s a cinematography/plot choice that carries meaning. So what is that meaning? Well, the thing about the women on trail at Salem is that they were innocent. This is what that reference says: “Hey, remember that real life event where women who weren’t witches were horrifically killed because others thought they were evil? None were actually burned, but culturally we tend to think they were. So that’s the image in our collective mind: innocent women on fire.” Except... Salem is actually a witch. Salem is evil. Salem is guilty. Or at least, the questions surrounding the extent of her guilt  — How much responsibility does she hold in comparison to the Gods? How much agency does she still have after the grimm pool?  — has not been acknowledged by the text. Yang just yelled at Salem for killing her mom and Oscar is about to blow her up. This is not a “Question Salem’s humanity” scene, it’s a “Kill the witch” scene... yet it uses an allusion that is contrary to what the moment is trying to achieve. So what are we supposed to take away from this? Do we adhere to the subtext and believe that Salem is innocent somehow, ignoring what the actual text says, or do we uphold the text and in doing so undermine the reliability of every other allusion in the show? If we can’t trust Salem’s, why would we trust, say, Penny’s? 

RWBY’s allusions are all over the place and yes, I think that lack of consideration extends to who they randomly decided to genderbend. There’s no acknowledgment of  — let alone engagement with  — how many of these characters and historical figures were trying to pass themselves off as another gender, nor does RWBY acknowledge how the need to do so feeds into our current and historic assumptions about gender as a whole. Why does the man dress as a woman? To keep himself safe and seen as a non-threat. Why does the woman dress as a man? To gain access to places previously barred from her and to gain the respect she otherwise wouldn’t be afforded. And, of course, in 2021 there’s the expectation that media will include trans characters, GNC characters, non-binary characters, cis characters uninterested in practicing traditional femininity/masculinity, etc. None of which RWBY tackles outside of May, a woman who references a systematic transphobia we otherwise never see in the show. May, as a minor character, is great and I am in all honesty thrilled that she exists in the RWBY canon. However, the rest of the show is built on an anime conception of gender  — combat skirts and bare midriffs in the snow  — while nevertheless engaging with the very complicated question of how you re-imagine canonically/historically gendered people. As a “girl power” show, RWBY has opened itself up to questions like, “Okay, it’s great that you made these four fairy tale girls kickass, but can we talk about making Joan of Arc into a bumbling guy whose presence as a blonde, blue-eyed, sword-wielding man taking up lots of important screen time has generated accusations about this being a male-centered show?” It’s not a “RWBY is horrible for doing this!” issue, but a “RWBY is deliberately playing with gender and marketing itself as a progressive show, so... let’s figure out what these individual choices are actually implying and whether or not we consider that progressive.” 

#rwby #mymetas #Anonymous

[jageshemashftw]

You know what? I’ve never watched Super Sentai before. Let’s just get real into Super Sentai.

Himitsu Sentai Gorenger Episode 1: The Crimson Sun! The Invicible Gorengers!

So the majority of the episode is basically just set-up, but it takes a sort of ‘middle of the story’ approach to the team’s origin story. You know, how they’ll have them already working together, already on their mission, and then later they might have a flashback to how they actually got started.

We do get a broad strokes idea, though. Basically, we got a GI Joe vs Cobra story with a paramilitary organization called EAGLE fighting a terrorist group called Black Cross. (Who’s leader inexplicably looks like he’s from the Ku Klux Klan for some reason)

That alone kinda threw me a bit. I’m coming at this series as a long time fan of Power Rangers, so having the main villains not be monsters and just… people in suits is kinda weird for me. (I mean, they’re always people in suits, but now it’s in-universe)

And these are full-blown terrorists too. Straight up merc-ing crowds of people with uzis and blowing up buildings. Black Cross came to wreck shit and kill people.

Hell, what little origin story we do get for the Gorangers (Is it Gorangers or Gorengers? I can never tell…) shows that they were all the last survivors of their respective EAGLE base getting absolutely slaughtered by Black Cross. Although I kinda have to laugh at the Green Ranger’s introduction. Literally, the only reason he survived the attack was because he was too busy feeding the base’s carrier pigeons. I like to believe he’s actually really low in the ranks of EAGLE but… he’s literally the only one left from his base, so might as well make him a Ranger.

Also, I don’t think the Red Ranger was even a member of EAGLE before Black Cross blew everything up. He was literally just playing soccer outside the base when shit went down and his brother (who apparently was EAGLE’s commander) got ganked. Maybe it was a company soccer game?

(As an aside, I’m probably going to refer to the team by Ranger color for a bit before I memorize their names. Sorry…)

We get a bit of a timeskip where they’re already in the Ranger suits and already know each other. Like I said, we’ll probably get a flashback that shows us their proper origin story, but this is good enough set up for now.

Most of our introductions to the Gorangers proper is them training with their respective weapons before getting an invite from the Red Ranger to get their asses over to a diner called Snack Con.

Blue Ranger has a bow. Yellow Ranger is pulling a truck up a mountain. Green Ranger has a boomerang. And the Pink Ranger has fucking grenades!

Fucking immediately, Pink is my favorite Goranger purely for that level of practicality. Like, guys, you are fighting actual fucking terrorists. Put the bows and boomerangs away and start packing! Pink’s got the right idea!

Also, Yellow pretty much instantly establishes himself as ‘the fat one’ by virtue of eating four fucking curry bowls at once. I feel bad for Blue who has to share a cockpit with him later.

Speaking of Blue, he’s apparently a… cowboy? Like, with the hat and a guitar and assless chaps and everything. Huh.

Apparently, they haven’t been the Gorangers for long, since they’re only just now being shown their base of operations, their Commanding Officer (who’s just a voice on a TV for now), and their vehicles, including some suped up motorbikes and their airship, the Variblune.

I know enough about Super Sentai to know that they won’t get their first ‘Megazord’ or mecha until the third series ‘Battle Fever J’. So the Variblune is pretty much the closest we’re gonna get. But it’s a pretty cool airship. It’s got flame decals, which you know EAGLE command really pushed for because it’s awesome.

So our Gorangers get their first mission: To rescue a school bus full of kindergartners who have been kidnapped by Black Cross for… evil reasons, I’m sure. Honestly, I think Black Cross just seriously felt like being dicks that day.

The Gorangers try to bust into a warehouse where the kids are being kept, but to no avail.

Our fearless Red Ranger remembers that Blue and Yellow are flying the Variblune above them, and gets a great idea to free the kids trapped inside.

Blow up the building.

I think that might be a bit of an extreme response, Red!!

Hey, the logic is sound! They can’t be the Black Cross’ prisoners if their all dead!

Thankfully, I guess ‘Blow up the building’ actually means ‘Use a giant claw machine grabber to punch a hole through the roof and pick the bus up out of the warehouse.’

Thank god Blue apparently understood that better than I did, or else this would have been a much different episode.

So, the Gorangers chase after Black Cross, including one general named Gold Mask who killed Red’s brother, and have themselves their first fight in the actual suits. We also get to see Red’s personal weapon, which is a whip.

I suppose now would be a good time to discuss the morphing sequence.

There is no morphing sequence.

There’s sort of been this running gag where Green tells Yellow a riddle. ‘What sort of lamp can’t be lit?’ And we have Yellow asking the other Gorangers about it, trying to figure out the answer.

The joke kinda gets a payoff in the fight scene where Yellow’s got one of the Black Cross henchmen in a chokehold and demands he tell him what kind of lamp can’t be lit. The henchman’s response.

“It’s so obvious. A trump.”

I don’t get it.

Also, apparently Pink’s got a second weapon… a mirror that she uses to flash light at her enemy’s face to blind them.

Yeah, I would stick with the grenades. Which I didn’t notice before, but the grenades are actually the heart shaped ‘earrings’ that are dangling off the side of her helmet. I would not put explosives that close to my own head, just saying.

The battle ends with the team employing ‘The Goranger Storm’.

Wow, some kinda cool team attack, finishing move. What’s it look like?

They kick a soccer ball around for a bit, kick it at the bad guy’s head and it explodes.

…

…

… Okey-Dokey.

Also, I feel the need to remind you that Gold Mask was the guy who killed Red’s brother. I feel like that should have been a more personal victory for Red, but they just kinda blow his ass up without much fanfare.

So that was the first episode of Gorengers and the first ever episode of Super Sentai as a whole.

All in all, I enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series. It definitely shows it’s age, but that can be both a strength and weakness sometimes. I’m not gonna do one of these for every single episode, but I’ll do one for episodes I feel are worth talking about.

#super sentai #himitsu sentai gorenger #goranger #retrospective #review #shit post

[twdmusicboxmystery]

10x18 - TTD Clues

Okay, let’s talk TTD. Usually I just have like 4-5 talking points from TTD, but there was a LOT in this episode. And, let’s face it. Given that it’s the Leah episode, there’s lots to discuss anyway. But everything in TTD just backs up what I’ve already said. Namely, that Leah and Daryl are NOT soulmates. And that there’s a lot of Beth symbolism and foreshadow here.

So, let’s just dive right in.

1)    Despite Chris calling it a “powerful relationship” in the intro (thanks a lot, Chris), when Nicole Mirante-Matthews, the writer, starts talking about it, it’s much better. She says this Leah thing will be relevant to a lot of things moving forward, including Connie. Which I take to mean that this affected his mindset and will probably change how he approaches things we’ll see in his story. 

She says that these were two lost souls, who happen to meet at a specific place and time and sort of crash together. That specifically suggests that it’s not a long-term thing. It’s more of a rebound and they were both lonely, and that’s why it happened. Then she says that this will affect things “reverberating forward into his present day story, which we’re rolling out here.” Because we understand the Bethyl template, and that Beth will be returning soonish, that just screams Beth to me.

2)    Chris talks about the grave marker Daryl looks at and how it’s kind of a fake out, as many people (who hadn’t read spoilers) would assume it was Leah’s grave. I talked about this Monday, and how it reminded me of the Beth/Tyreese fake out. I got that from TTD. Because I’d already read spoilers, the idea of that being mistaken for Leah’s grave wouldn’t have occurred to me.

And of course if she’s a hallucination, the grave marker may even be Leah’s. 

3)    Chris also mentioned massive time gaps. Now, he’s talking about the six-year time gap in which Leah happened, but still. I felt like the way he said it is to remind us that there are time gaps that have to be explained at some point, *coughs missing 17 days*

4)    Fun fact: the puppy’s name is Carl. Now, I can’t REALLY point to that as a TD thing, because the puppy’s name really is Carl. But I couldn’t help but wonder if THEY named the dog that. And even if not, they still felt the need to mention it here. I’m side-eyeing a little. Only because there are such strong symbolic ties between Carl’s death and Beth’s return. But hey, take it or leave it. Just my TD brain working overtime.

5)    They mentioned the map in the “in memoriam.” So, you know how I said yesterday that Map = Beth. Yeah, they actually treat Map as a lost character here. I’m just saying.

6)    Denise Huth’s pre-taped interview talks about a “lightening” for Daryl. Uuummmm. I don’t want to go into this in too much detail here, but this is part of the eclipse symbolism. Okay, I’ll just run through it super fast, but I’ll probably do a post in more detail later. Beth = sun. In an eclipse, the sun is hidden by the moon. So it’s the “what is hidden” or “what is not seen” theme. Some of the sun’s light is still seen around the edges of the moon (think of that as the symbolism that seeps out) but the sun itself (Beth) is still hidden. Gimple described Coda using the word “penumbra” which is the darkest part of the shadow thrown during an eclipse, and Maggie told Glennin 5x10, “This is just the dark part.” If things are getting lighter, it’s because the eclipse is almost over. The darkest part of the shadow has passed and things are getting lighter. And that’s actually what we see in the eclipse scene with Daryl and Leah. The eclipse being almost over and the sun starting to peek through. So this is all just another way of saying Beth is about to appear.

7)    There’s a point where Lynn Collins suggests that maybe we would have seen a Daryl/Leah kiss if not for Covid restrictions, but the writer immediately corrects her and says it was a creative choice. She sights reasons such as the fans being protective of Daryl and not trying to piss them off too much, but that seems very significant to me. I think they didn’t want to show Leah and Daryl kissing (even though the sex implication is there) because they’re saving that for someone else.

8)    At one point, talking of Daryl and Carol’s fight, MMB mentioned the scene in S2 where they fought over Sophia. Just seemed significant to me that she brought that up, because that’s basically ground zero for the missing girl theme, and the first person we saw Daryl searching for. Now, this entire episode, he’s searching for Rick, and it’s full of Beth themes.

9)    Back to the map. I said Monday I would go back to the opening scene where Carol picked up the piece of the map and put it in Daryl’s bag. I never did. Lol. Sorry about that. I threw a LOT of info at you and totally forgot to go back to it. Just keep in mind that this was probably a foreshadowing, and Map = Beth. And they specifically brought that scene up on TTD and drew attention to it, though of course they talked about it in the context of Daryl and Carol.

The other thing that several people have brought up is that map seems to be destroyed, and then whole again. I suppose I just thought he got a new map when I first watched the episode. Now, I agree with other that the state of the map is one of many ways they were hinting that parts or all of this is a hallucination. And again, they drew attention to the map on TTD.

10) When Chris asked the writer what the inspiration was for Carol’s “strong right foot” story, she got REALLY flustered. Now, that’s definitely TD symbolism. Related to the “missing foot/shoe” symbolism, in my opinion. In fact, if they’re synonymous (we’re just not entire certain yet) then this would definitely be a reference to both Beth and Ezekiel being missing. But anyway. The writer finally came up with how and why she had Carol tell the story of her grandmother. And I’m not saying it was a lie. The grandmother story is much more incidental than the “strong right foot” bit. But I don’t think Nicole expected that question or was prepared for it.

11) They did talk extensively about parallels between Leah and Carol, and I had to chuckle at what was said. They were just doing a lot of back-pedaling. So, first they said they are two completely different characters. Then they said they share a lot of qualities that Daryl recognizes. Then they say his relationship to Leah in the flashbacks is absolutely nothing like his relationship to Carol, both in the present and as it has been for many years. Did you catch all that? It’s their way of pointing out the parallels between Leah and Carol, but also taking care to make sure people know that Daryl and Carol are NOT romantic the way Daryl and Leah are. Lol. This is why I say its kind of the death knell for that ship. But again, why put parallels between Leah and Carol if the romance angle isn’t there? For the answer, read my very long analysis from yesterday.

12) On the “Inside the Dead” portion, it says that the breed of dog they use for Dog is often used for Military and Police K-9 Unites. Yeah, that’s purposeful. I think they specifically chose that breed of Dog to use on the show as Daryl/Leah’s dog, because it both calls back to Grady (police) and foreshadows the CRM (military).

13) Norma’s interview! Yay! This might have been my favorite part of TTD. Because the way he describes Daryl’s arc here makes it clear that it was one chapter of Daryl’s life that is now over. And what he says about Daryl being unable to allow himself to be happy with Leah says to me that he’s still hung up on someone else.

This probably made me happier back when I thought Leah was real. But the other thing is that he specifically uses a Matrix metaphor (the red pill vs the blue pill.) Umm? The red pill vs the blue pill situation in the Matrix is what brought Neo out of the construct and into reality. This is Norman’s very obvious way of telling us that Leah isn’t real. Daryl is in the Leah Matrix in this episode.

14) When speaking of the arm that Leah throws at Daryl, they said something really interesting. My fellow theorists and are still batting around ideas for what the arm symbolism might mean. But MMB called it “dead weight” that Leah was basically getting rid of. And they all agreed that symbolically that was true. So the arm represented Leah getting rid of the dead weight of her past and working through it. Wow. Where to start with this?

If she were real, that just shows that this is all this relationship was. Once she’d worked through her own losses, she wanted Daryl to commit to her, but he couldn’t. Because he hadn’t worked through his. Plus, a relationship built on this sort of thing, as I’ve already described, is never going to last in the long term. But of course, assuming she’s a hallucination, this is really just Daryl trying to work through his issues and shed his past. It doesn’t really work. 

Dead Weight is literally the name of the episode in 4b where the Governor was a MASSIVE Beth proxy.

Shedding one’s tragic past while in a little cabin in the woods, with DARYL, is pretty much the synopsis of Still. So, it just backs up the symbolic retelling of Bethyl.

All right. That’s what I got for TTD. Anyone see anything I missed?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

[medicifm]

*  not  me  actually  writing  an  intro  the  night  before  like  i  always  mean  to  😳  hennyway  hey  biddies  ,  i'm  chloe  ,  im  in  the  snowy  part  of  pst  ,  &  i  use  she / her  pns  .  i’ve  been  . . . . . . .  scouring  the  tags  for  an  rp  like  this  so  im  so  excited  to  bring  this  newish  muse  of  mine  here  !   im  here to  do  the  honours  of  introducing  my  himbo - on - the outside , manipulative - shit - on - the - inside  . . .  oscar  🤡

(  twenty  three , cis  man , he / him  ) ✉ ― hey  babes , have  you  met  OSCAR  MEDICI ?  they’re  working  here  as  THE  HEAD  CHEF  AT  LORENZO’S ,  a  few  villas  down  from  where  you’re  staying  .  you  might  hear  them  singing  ALRIGHTY  APHRODITE  BY  PEACH  PIT  playing  from  their  villa  ,  it’s  their  favourite  song  .  yes  ,  they  hear  that  they  look  like  JACK  GILINSKY  a  lot  ,  actually  -  it’s  really  uncanny  .  their  friends  back  home  in  SYDNEY , AUSTRALIA  say  that  if  they  were  on  a  tv  show  ,  their  trope  would  be  THE  WOLF  IN  SHEEP’S  CLOTHING  ,  how  funny  is  that  ? ✎ chloe , 22 , she/her , pst

𝐢  .

pinterest  |  wanted  plots  |  

𝐢𝐢  .

name  :  oscar  gabriel  medici

age  :  twenty  three

dob  /  sign  :  december  4th  ,  1997  /  sagittarius  sun  ,  leo  moon  ,  libra  rising 

pob  :  sydney , australia

gender / pronouns  :  cis  man  &  he / him / his

career :  head  chef  at  lorenzo’s  ,  full - time  heathen  ,  professional  disappointment  for  mothers  everywhere  .

drinking / drugs / smoking :  yes / more  often  than  he’d  admit / never .  

religion  :  jewish  background  ,  currently  non - practicing .

physical  :  jack  gilinsky  fc ,  dark  brown / black  longish  curls  (  reference  )  ,  dark  brown  eyes  ,  canon  jack  g’s  tattoos  ,  no  piercings  ,  6′2″  ,  175  lbs  ,  lean  but  strong  .  tattoos  a  la  canon!jack  ,  pearly  white  smile  that  he  may  . . .  or  may  not  . . .   use  crest  3D  white  strips  weekly  to  maintain  .  lots  of  burns  &  scars  from  kitchen  mishaps  on  his  hands  &  arms  .

traits  :  hard - working  ,  flighty  ,  intelligent  ,  hedonistic  ,  charismatic  ,  intense  ,  volatile  ,  

other  :  speaks  weird  french  (  aussie  accent  tings  )  ,  tans  easily  but  wears  sunscreen  nonetheless  ,  works  hard  parties  harder  ,  can’t  read  a  lick  of  french  but  spends  a  lot  of  his  free  time  with  a  coffee  &  a  new  paperback  ,  has  a  bit  of  an  internal  vendetta  against  rich  people  (  for  no  real  reason  ,  he  just  doesn’t  like  most  of  them  )  ,  has  ins  with  a  bunch  the  local  farmers  &  visits  them  weekly  ,  pretends  he  isn’t  lowkey  addicted  to  nicotine  administered  via  a  puff  bar  ,  liquor  of  preference  is  tequila  or  red  wine  ,  drives  a  lil  vespa  around  town  for  the  gag  of  it  (  loves  seeing  it  haphazardly  parked  amongst  a  bunch  of  luxury  cars  )  ,  

character  inspo  :  jess  mariano  (  gilmore  girls  )  , gordon  ramsey  🤡 ,  patrick verona ( 10 things i hate about you ) , ferris bueller ( ferris bueller’s day off ) , han solo ( star wars ) .

𝐢𝐢𝐢  .

oscar’s  arrival  was  as  unwanted  to  his  parents  as  could  be  :  a  father  whose  tendencies  leaned  towards  alcoholism  &  abusing  whoever  was  in  arms  reach  ,  a  mother  whose  life  was  more  or  less  spent  at  the  nursing  home  she  worked  as  a  nurse  at  ,  evading  home  .  he  became  a  self - inflicted  loner  ,  preferring  to  do  literally  the  exact  opposite  of  what  was  expected  or  wanted  from  him  .  he  had  a  few  friends  he  ran  with  ,  but  watching  them  all  go  off  &  study  or  prepare  for  university  solidified  in  oscar’s  mind  that  the  non - traditional  route  was  for  him  .  growing  up  by  the  water  ,  oscar  always  felt  more  drawn  to  skip  school  &  head  to  the  beach  than  he  did  obeying  his  parents  wishes  .   

one  of  his  solaces  was  his  grandfather  ,  gabriel  ,  who  owned  an  italian  restaurant  in  a  beach  town  north  of  sydney  .  whenever  the  weather  was bad  &  oscar  felt  like  ditching  class  ,  he’d  head  over  to  his  nono’s  restaurant  where  his  ass  would  be  put  to  work  as  soon  as  he  set  eyes  on  the  restaurant  .  it  was  tough  work  ,  but  challenging  in  a  way  that  fanned  the  flames  in  oscar’s  heart  ,  rather  than  dimming  them  .  by  the  time  he was  a  teenager  he  was  working  in  the  restaurant  everyday  after  school  , an  agreement  between  him  &  his  grandfather  framed  on  the  back  wall  that  stated  that  as  long  as  oscar  kept  from  flunking  out  ,  he  was  allowed  to  spend  as  little  or  as  much  time  in  the  kitchen  as  he  pleased .  

his  absolute  defiance  of  anything  traditional  &  following  the  rules  made  him  unpopular  with  adults  ,  but  lowkey  cool  with  the  girls  .  by  the  time  he  was  sixteen  ,  he  was  losing  his  focus  on  the  restaurant  &  his  grades  &  spending  more  &  more  time  chasing  after  girls  .  his  nono  tried  to  get oscar  to  come  back  &  focus  ,  but  as  always  ,  anything  he’s  asked  to  do  quickly  becomes  the  thing  he’s  running  from  the  most  .

tw  :  death  ,  cancer  .  around  his  eighteenth  birthday  ,  his  grandfather  suddenly  fell  ill  with  a  rare  form  of  cancer  that  took  his  life  six  weeks  after  diagnosis  ,  which  rocked  oscar’s  world  .  he  felt  overwhelming  guilt  that  he  hadn’t  spent  more  time  with  his  grandfather  ,  which  manifested  itself  as  oscar  dropping  out  of  school  a  year  shy  of  graduation  to  commit  himself  fully  to  perfecting  his  grandfather’s  techniques  ,  learning  all  of  his  recipes  (  read  :  pouring  over  dozens  of  handwritten  cookbooks )  in  some  failed  attempt  to  get  back  some  time  with  him  .  oscar  hadn’t  been  close  with  his  parents  in  years  ,  more  or  less  seeing  them  as  wardens  of  a  prison  he  wanted  nothing  to  do  with  .  his  grandfather’s  will  left  him  the  deed  to  the  restaurant  ,  with  an  ask  that  oscar  would  promise  to  act  on  whatever  he  felt  called  towards  ,  rather  than  doing  what  others  expected  of  him  .  to  be  candid  ,  this  whole  situation  crushed  him  .

eventually  ,  he  decided  he’d  had  enough  of  the  stifling  community  he’d  grown  up  in  .  he  sold  the  restaurant  to  one  of  the  regulars  ,  a  wealthy  man  who  he’d  come  to  acknowledge  as  somewhat  of  an  uncle  ;  a  safe  pair  of  hands  who  would  treat  his grandfather’s  legacy  with  as  much  passion  &  respect  as  oscar  himself  would  .  so  he  packed  a  bag  ,  texted  his  mom  that  he  was  going  traveling  ,  &  got  on  a  flight  that  evening  .  he  traveled  all  around  -  first  through  central  america  ,  then  through  europe  ,  throughout  asia  &  africa  ,  &  spent  a  few  months  driving  a  van  across  the  continental  united  states  &  canada  for  fun  . 

eventually  ,  he  started  getting  low - ish  on  money  ,  &  decided  to  settle  in  one  of  his  favourite  places  he’d  visited  :  southern  france  .  he  arrived  in  early  2018  ,  taking  on  whatever  menial  tasks  he  could  while  learning  french  until  he  got  a  position  as  a  line  cook  in  an  italian  restaurant  .  a  few  years  later  ,  he’s  made  his  way  up  to  filling  the  head  chef  position  ,  an  honour  he  takes  with  pride  .  he’s  implemented  many  of  his  own  recipes  while  using  flavours  he’s  learned  from  his  travels  ,  with  ingredients  straight  from  local  farmers  .  he’s  earned  the  restaurant  a  two michelin  star  rating  ,  &  is  constantly  striving  for  more  to  get  that  last  star  (  both  for  his  own  ego  as  well  as  a  secret  debt  to  his  grandfather  )  .

𝐢𝐯  .

ok  but  that  vid  where  gordon  puts  two  pieces  of  bread  on  someone’s  head  &  calls  them  an  idiot  sandwich  ?  that’s  oscar  .  intense  as  fuck  in  the  kitchen  ,  &  best  nobody  catch  an  attitude  about  it  bc  he  will  not  hesitate  to  hand  them  their  ass  on  a  silver  platter  .

another  gordon  reference  :  you  know  how  he’s  the  spawn  of  satan with  adults  ,  but  the  sweetest  ,  most  helpul  guy  with  children  ?  that’s  oscar  with  his  staff  vs  people  he  wants  something  from  .  whether  its  to  sleep  with  them  (  usually  his  first  instinct  to  be  fair  )  ,  their  money  or  clout  ,  or  to  get  into  some  wild  adventure  some  random  resort  staff  wouldn’t  dream  of  getting  into  ,  he  can  turn  on  the  charm  whenever  needed  .

can  go  from  absolutely  demoralizing  someone  in  the  kitchen  to  stepping  out  into  the  lounge  to  schmooze  with  his  friends  or  cougars  who  leave  phat  tips  in  0.2  seconds  .  the  speed  at  which  his  mood  can  completely  180  is  one  of  the  seven  world  wonders  (  last  i  checked  )  .

his  love  language  is  absolutely  acts  of  service  .  catch  him  actually  falling  in  love  once  in  a  blue  moon  &  making  it  his  mission  to  cook  her  extravagant  meals  everyday  .  

the  wolf  in  sheep’s  clothing  label  epitomizes  his  nice  ,  helpful  ,  charismatic  exterior  ,  while  ulterior  motives  &  disdain  for  those  who  grew  up  with  more  money  than  he  did  lurk  beneath  the  surface  . 

he  can  be  MEAN  when  someone  fucks  him  over  or  pushes  him  farther  than  he  wants  -  isn’t  afraid  to  go  for  the  low  blows  or  send  someone  home  with  an  identity  crisis  if  it  protects  himself  .

lowkey  alcoholic  but  he’s  not  ready  for  that  conversation  yet  .  he  sees  it  more  as  perks  of  the  location  &  atmosphere  he’s  found  himself  in  .

also  lowkey  falls  in  love  HARD  ,  like  this  man  is  a  closeted  romantic  but  self - sabotages  all  potential  relationships  before  they  can  get  to  that  point  out  of  fear  he’ll  be  unable  to  live  life  of  his  own  volition  (  takes  a  flaky  philophobic  sagittarius  to  know  a  flaky  philophobic  sagittarius  🤡  )  .  has  probably  only  had  a  few  real  relationships  besides  flings  bc  he’s  afraid  .

𝐯  .

check  out  my  wanted  plots  tag  listed  here  ,  as  well  as  my  pinterest  wanted  plots  board  here  .  here   are  some  other  suggestions  hehe  :

best  friend  /  ride  or  die  :  someone  who  knows  about  his  past  ,  keeps  him  grounded  when  he’s  lk  spiraling  &  wants  to  drop  everything  &  flee  to  some  far  flung  corner  of  the  earth  .

actual  relationship  :  it  was  fast - burn  with  deep  feelings  (  not  them  thinking  they’re  soulmates  after  dating  for  a  month  . . .  pete  &  ariana  type  beat  )  but  completely  unrealistic  .  they  have  their  own  life  ,  he’s  pretty  much  tied  to  the  restaurant  ,  not  to  mention  his  lack  of  sharing  anything  about  his  childhood / life  back  home  .  they  loved  &  cared  for  each  other  ,  but  crashed  &  burned  fairly  quickly  because  of  how  idealistic  it  was  .  they  can  either  be  on  bad  or  good  terms  now  .

hateship  with  sexual  tension  😈

summer  flings  !!

fake  boyfriend  :  he  shows  up  on  her  arm  to  her  family’s  events  where  she’s  expected  to  have  a  partner  .  it’s  not  a  real  relationship  ,  but  her  parents  don’t  need  to  know  that  .  he  plays  the  part  &  satisfies  her  parents  beyond  the  bare  minimum  ,  &  in  return  she  invites  him  to  parties  ,  takes  him  out  on  her  family’s  yacht  ,  etc  etc  .  we  luv  some  symbiosis  

i  can  always  use  more  fwbs  hehehe

squad  :  a  group  of  people  who  do  everything  together  ,  have  a  chaotic  group  chat  ,  have  nicknames  for  one  another  ,  are  utd  on  each  other’s  sex  lives  ,  party  all  night  then  show  up  to  brunch  hungover  together  .  

cat  &  mouse  :  someone  he’s  pursuing  who  isn’t  quite  giving  in  ,  &  vice  versa  .  maybe  it’s  been  going  on  a  few  years  ,  everytime  they’re  in  st  tropez  they  have  this  weird  lil  flirtationship  thing  goin  on  until  she  leaves  ,  they  forget  about  one  another  ,  then  pick  it  right  back  up  when  she  returns  .

confidant  :  preferably  someone  from  a  working  class  background  who  understands  his  plight  of  being  a  worker  amongst  people  who  expect  to  be  waited  on  .

enemies  :  they  don’t  like  his  attitude  ,  &  he  doesn’t  like  them  in  return  .  lots  of  eye  rolls  ,  shit  talking  ,  &  tension  between  their  mutual  friends  .

we’re  sleeping  together  but  we  shouldn’t  be  but  that’s  half  the  fun :  for  whatever  reason  they  became  friends  ,  starting  hooking  up  despite  it  not  being  a  good  idea  (  read  :  he’s  exes  with  one  of  her  friends  ,  her  parents  want  her  focused  on  career  ,  they’re  part  of  the  same  friend  group  ,  etc )  . . . but  now  they  can’t  stop  .  lots  of  stolen  glances  across  rooms  ,  squeezing  past  one  another  in  a  crowded  club  just  close  enough  for  a  quick  touch  to  the  back  ,  quietly  leaving  one  another’s  places  the  morning  after  &  playing  dumb  to  anyone  who  asks  . 

#villasintro #eeeek im hyped !!

[cheshiremadd]

until she falls in love with me

AO3 Inspiration

Interlude: The Ladyblog

Here it is, folks! Last month’s non-akuma video submissions: The Convention Compilation!You guys sent in so much footage; so I’ll be posting a second compilation later in the week. Thanks for your support! - Alya Cesaire, Ladyblogger Extraordinaire

A group of people are down the street from the camera. They are all wearing black and all have blonde hair. The view turns 180 degrees to show Chat Noir. A cheshire grin and a wink, and he turns it back to the group. The camera bobs as he walks towards them. As he gets closer, it becomes clear that every person in the group is in a Chat Noir costume. They range from I-found-this-in-my-closet to well tailored, used-every-reference-image-the-Ladyblog-had-to-offer imitation. One cosplayer turns his head and catches sight of Chat. He waves and calls out, “Hey man, looks like your going to the con, too! Wanna join us?”

Everyone else turns and most wave or call out greetings. “Sure! Mind if I record?”

They all look at each other, shaking heads. The first one responds as he holds out a clawed hand. “I think we’re all okay with that. I’m Bertrand.”

“I’m Chat Noir!” The group laughs.

“Yeah, so are we!” One of the girls says, still laughing. She’s wearing a simple jeans and t-shirt, both black, and a cat ear headband in blond hair that looks more real than wig. “Woah, wicked costume! Are those the ears off Amazon? It’s great to know they actually work.”

The group starts walking again, and Chat follows with his camera. They chatter about which panels to see (Marvel vs Miraculous: What Comics Can Tell Us About Real Life Superheroes and Protagonist? Villain? Goofy Side-Kick? How to Recognize Your Role in Life and What You Can Do About It seem to be two favorites), make bets on what cosplays they’ll see the most of (“I’m telling ya, Bertie, there’s gonna be more Ladybugs!” “Chat’s costume is easier!”), and eventually moves to celebrity sightings.

“Guys, did you see?! Adrien Agreste is coming! He confirmed on Twitter this morning. Says he’s got his costume ready to go and everything!” He hops up and down in his excitement. “Do you think he’ll dress up as Chat Noir? I loved his work on the Ladybug and Chat Noir movie. His portrayal of Chat Noir was spot on! Do you think he’ll take a picture with me?”

“Don’t you mean ‘his portrayal was purrfect’?” Chat interrupted.

The teen smacks his palm to his forehead. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that!”

Amid giggles, Black Jeans and a T-shirt speaks up again. “Okay, but is he a guest? Or a pleb like us? I’m sure that he isn’t going so he can be mobbed by fans, Matthieu.”

“It’s general knowledge that if you go to a convention in costume, people will want to take pictures.”

“It’s general courtesy to ask before you take pictures, and back off if he says ‘no’.”

“Of course!” Matthieu raises his hands in defense. “Of course I’d back off.”

A curious sound, almost like a heavy-duty fishing reel being released and drawn back in, comes over the video. Chat’s slightly awed muttering can barely be heard, “This is one of the best parts of my day..”, and then Ladybug is dropping gracefully on the other side of the multiple Chat Noirs.

“Hi everyone.” She gives a brief warm smile and then turns her attention to the person behind the camera. Her blue eyes are vivid and piercing. “Are you coming or what?” She waits for a moment, expecting an answer. The group trade confused looks. “Look, I know you hate overscheduled days, but I have a lot to do today, and if I don’t follow mine, I will end up disappointing someone.”

The silence continues. Black Jeans and a T-Shirt shifts from foot to foot. Tuxedo Chat wipes her hands on her pants. Professional Cosplayer Chat looks like he’s about to melt from Ladybug’s mere presence. The camera shifts and picks up a muffled snerk that the cosplayers don’t register.

“Uh, ma’am?” Bertrand starts, then cuts off as she looks at him. “...we’re, uh….None of us are actually Chat Noir.” He pauses a moment. “We’re.. cosplayers?”

She stares at him with an amused eyebrow and a barely-there smile. “I know my partner when I see him.” She glances back at Chat, and mischief dances in her eyes. “Alright, fine, but I’m enacting a penalty game.”

Ladybug shifts her weight into a more relaxed position. Brings her fingers to her chin as if stroking an invisible beard. “Hm...I’ll just have to find your Number 1 Fan and see if I can sway her my way.”

There’s a loud gasp. Chat and his camera begin moving to the front of the group.

“Nope! No! Not happening! Sorry, guys, it was fun, but there is NO WAY in HELL that I am letting that happen.”

“I’m sure it’d be so easy, too. She’s a fashion designer, isn’t she? All I’d have to do is show her how fantastic she’d look in red.”

Chat practically chokes. Ladybug looks smug.

“Bug. You have the Ladyblogger. You have Adrien Agreste, and Chloé Bourgeois. Jagged Stone. You can keep your 90% of Paris. But Marinette Dupain-Cheng is mine. You may not have her.”

“Hey! Jagged loves us equally. And it’s probably more like…” She seesaws her hand in approximation. “..78% of Paris.”

“Um…” The camera turns back to the cosplayers, who are wearing a variety of facial expressions. Mouth-gapingly dumbfounded. Disbelief. Confusion. Stars in the eyes excitement.

The feed cuts as they all ask for autographs.

-

"Mommy, look! It's Chat Noir!"

A small girl runs up and hugs him. She has a navy dress, red hair bow, and an orange bag.

“Élodie! You need to ask before you touch.” Élodie’s mom sounds both like she’s said this a hundred times today and like she thinks the scene is adorable. She steps around part of the crowd and into the camera view. Élodie immediately lets go

“Can..can I ha-have a hug?”

Chat Noir looks delighted. His eyes shine and his grin is threatening to overtake his face. He drops to his knees to better accommodate the four year old. “Absolutely!”

She’s squeezing him for all she’s worth, and he’s holding her as if she’s the most precious child in the world. Her mom quietly produces a phone and snaps a picture. She glances at the screen with a small smile. Chat only pulls back when Élodie does.

“You are the cutest Kiki!” Chat tilts his head. He’s still on his knees, at her eye level. “But where is your Jiji?”

Élodie lights up even more and paws for her bag. The black cat plush is proudly presented. Chat takes it, gingerly, and says, “Did you know that cats can talk to one another?”

The little girl nods enthusiastically, hanging on his every word. He lifts Jiji to his cat ears and closes his eyes. Tilts his head. ‘Listens’ for a moment. She squirms, doing a kind of butt wiggle like she can’t possibly contain her excitement.

Finally, Chat nods. “Mm-hm. I’ll be sure to pass the message on.”

She jumps once, twice, three times. Her little hands are clenched fists not quite hiding her mouth. “What’d he say? What’d he say?!”

“He says that he loves you. And also please stop hogging the blankets at night.” His smile turns teasing. “Are you a blanket hog?”

They talk for a few more minutes. She asks him every question under the sun (“Ca-can you really see when the sun goes down? Do you eat cookies? Could you tie up a dinosaur and a tiger?”). She touches his ears and tries to stop his tail from moving. Her last question has him tapping his chest and beckoning Ladybug closer with his other hand. Élodie looks to her mom, who nods and smiles, and lays her head where he indicated. Ladybug slips a hand into his hair and, with what is clearly practiced ease, begins scratching. His eyes droop and close. They stay paused for a moment, until Élodie shrieks with laughter, pulls away to tell her mom giddily, “He purrs, Mommy! Like Jiji!”, then goes back to hear again.

When the little girl and her mom finally go on their way, the cameraperson has scooted close enough to the heroes to catch one final exchange.

Ladybug, who hasn’t taken her eyes off her partner and his tiny fan the whole time, says “Chat, if you ever decide to have kids, you’re going to make the most incredible father.”

-

The previous scene ended with a red faced Chat Noir. And this scene starts with one.

The view zooms out to bring a full view of the dark haired Chat. Her costume is perfect, down to the honeycomb pattern on the fabric. Hair unbound and rockstar teased, blue cat eye contacts, clawed hands nervously twirling her belt-tail. She’s in a convention hall, surrounded by crowds of people. Some are in costumes like her, some in regular clothes.

“Are you livestreaming this?” Marinette says.

“Nope! But you can bet I’m putting it in this month’s submission compilation post. Your work deserves to be shown off!”

“Alyaaa, you’re making me blush!”

Alya laughs, then gasps as a giant space marine moves and reveals the real Chat Noir. “Chat! Chat Noir! Care to share a few words with the Ladyblog?"

He waves and works his way to them. He’s smiling brightly until Marinette turns to greet him, and he stops dead. His eyes widen and his mouth drops open. His face is now very, very red. He waves his hands like he’s trying to get something out and is having trouble, but then reigns them in, covering his mouth with one and putting the other to the opposite elbow.

“That’s, um,” His voice comes out high and squeaky. He clears his throat and tries again. “Wow. That’s wow. How, uh, how did you get the fabric to do that?”

She seems too stunned to answer for a moment. “L-lots of experiments. And practice. I had to do so much research on how fabrics are made.”

“Wow,” Chat says again. His eyes are roaming all over her form, taking in every detail.

“Hey, M, turn around. I want to get a good shot of you two!” The two jump a bit, but do as she asks and line up facing the camera. Standing next to him only exemplifies how exact her creation is.

Alya leads her impromptu interview with: “How long did it take you to make your outfit?”

“Mmm...six months or so, about when the presale tickets went live.”

“So long?” the superhero asks. He’s mystified.

Marinette just shrugs. “I knew that I’d have to work around school and commissions and other stuff, and I wanted to give the project the consideration it deserved.”

“What was the hardest part to recreate?” Alya asks.

Marinette laughs. “Definitely the fabric! I went through so many different types, trying to figure out the best way to get the pattern on right, because it’s just not something you’ll find in a store. I ended up contacting someone that I’d met at a design competition, and they were able to point me in the direction of a company that will print your pattern for you.”

Chat’s eyes widen once more and he pulls out his baton and starts tapping on it. Nino walks up, in a store-bought Chat Noir costume, also holding his phone out.

“Babe! No Adrien?”

Nino glances at Alya, then back down. “He says he’s here, but there’s so many people, it’s impossible to find anybody. Oh, hey, you found Nettie and Chat Noir. HOLY SHIT MARINETTE. That costume is wicked!”

He circles her, putting his phone up, then holds his fist out. She bumps it with a grin.

Chat harumphs and replaces his weapon. “Looks like LB’s already detransformed. I wanted to show off Marinette’s amazing skills!”

Alya laughs. “Ladybug’s right, though. M does look fantastic in red.”

Chat stares at her, decidedly grumpy. The girl in question snorts out surprised laughter. A tall Mad Hatter in the background notices the camera and sticks up crooked bunny ears over Chat’s head. Alya cackles in delight.

“As I told my lady,” he wraps a possessive arm around Marinette’s shoulder, “my Number 1 Fan. Not hers.”

He looks directly at the camera. “Oh, and to anyone still arguing over the position: Look at this” he gestures to her costume “and don’t even bother trying to convince me otherwise.”

-

Dorothée Beranger Yeah, that’s fair... She wore that costume to school the next day and it’s *chef’s kiss*. Also she’s, like, Chat Noir’s biggest defender. Word of advice: do not insinuate that he’s a sidekick anywhere this girl might hear.

Antonin Lamarre I've seen her Chat rants on the Ladyblog! She really knows her stuff!

LuminousPollywog Seeing Chat with that little girl cleared my face, watered my crops, and gave my grades the boost they needed.

miraculousluckycharm13 THAT SOFT LOOK! #LADYNOIR IS REAL --Paradiddle --are we just going to ignore the marichat? chatinette? in the room?

#miraculous ladybug #chat noir #ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #day _ until she loves me #Days

[fandomimaginegoddess]

“She’s got spunk” Yu Yu Hakusho Jin x OC Fanfiction (Part 3)

“Well I can’t promise that, Seeing as you're definitely going to fall in love with me.”  He told her with a wink.

“Get a room you two...” Yusuke said as Kuwabara pretended to gag.

“I think they are cute!” Yukina said walking up to the group holding hands with Olivia.  Along with the rest of Ivy’s friends.

“I agree!” Chimed Sophia, as Kurama then greeted her with a wave and a smile which she happily returned.  She then walked over to stand next to him and made conversation with him while the rest of the group continued to talk. 

“But they really should get a room.  And maybe couples counselling.  Ivy clearly doesn't know how to express her feelings.”  Hiei stated bluntly, referring back to Ivy and Jin.  

“Bitch!  You are one to talk!”  Ivy exclaimed angrily.  “Hey!  What are you doing?!  Put me down!” Ivy said as Jin picked her up bridal style.

“Nope!  It's getting too crowded here!  Besides that!  You said you’d go out with me, remember?”  Jin said with a grin as Ivy blushed.  Jin then took off flying with Ivy in his arms and took them to the part of forest where the two first met. 

As Jin flew them away, Shishiwakamaru could be heard sobbing somewhere in the arena.  

“No!  My chance at true love!  Gone!  Gone with the wind!  Why?!”  he wept.

“Shut up Shishi…”  Sazuka sighed, irritated as Shishi continued to sob silently.

Back with Ivy's friends...  

“So…  Are you two like dating or something?”  Kuwabara asked Oliva and Yukina.

“We are.” Oliva told him while putting her arm around Yukina and pulling her close to her, also causing Hiei to glare daggers at her.  

“By the way, Hiei can we talk to you?” Yukina asked, surprising Hiei who nonetheless agreed and walked with the two women away from the rest of the group.

“What did you two want?”  Hiei asked coldly.

“Go on…  Tell him!”  Olivia encouraged Yukina.  

“Hiei, I know you are my brother...  But I want to hear it from you!”  She pleaded, almost in tears.

Hiei’s eyes widened.  “How…? Who…? How…? What…?” He said at a loss for words.

“Ivy could smell it Hiei.  You can't deny it, we know.”  Olivia told him.

Hiei sighed.  “Yes, I am your brother…  I’m sorry I’m not better…”  Hiei said as he started to turn around and walk away.  But before he could Yukina hugged him from behind.  

“What do you mean?  You are a great brother.  I'm so glad I finally found you...”  Yukina said as a few tears fell from her eyes, turning into gems as they fell.

“...Thank you…”  Hiei said, actually smiling a real smile for what may have been the first time in his life.

“What do you think they are talking about?”  Piper asked Kuwabara.  The two were hiding in the bushes nearby, watching this encounter take place.  

“I don’t know…  But it must be good to make Hiei actually smile.  That or it's a sign of the apocalypse.”  Kuwabara stated, as a shiver went down his spine.  

   Meanwhile, back with Ivy and Jin.

Jin landed in the familiar area of the forest with Ivy still in his arms.  Ivy had been clinging to him tightly without realizing it.  Her arms around his neck and face buried in his chest.  She still had yet to let go or remove her face even moments after landing.  “Well lass, not that I’m complaining but you know you can let go now right?”  He asked her with a smile.  Ivy slowly opened her eyes “I mean if you don’t want to though that's fine with me too!  Like I said, no complaints here!” He said with a big grin and a bit of a chuckle.  Ivy quickly scrambled out of the man's arms and onto her feet.  She fixed her outfit and refused to look at him, her cheeks reddening.  Jin smiled a kind smile at her.  He stepped closer to her and took her chin in his hand and tilted her head to look at him, while he wrapped his other arm around her waist to pull her closer to him.  “Why are you so embarrassed? He asked her, bringing his face closer to hers.

“I-I’m not!”  She protested.  

“Are you nervous?”  He inquired.

“No!” She exclaimed.  

“Then what's wrong?” He asked.

Ivy sighed.  “I don't know…  Maybe Hiei was right about me…  Maybe I don't know how to express my emotions…”  Ivy questioned to herself really more than to Jin.

“Well, that's why I’m here now.  We can work on that together.  We can help each other grow and become better.  That is, if you would like that?”  He told her, and then looked at her with hopeful puppy eyes awaiting her response.  

Ivy thought for a moment then smiled.  “Yes, Yes I think I would like that.” she told him.

Jins ears wiggled with glee at her answer as he then kissed her on the forehead, causing Ivy to blush and hide her face.  Which in return caused Jin to chuckle and gently hold her cheek in the palm of his hand to look at him as he sweetly told her “I promise to cherish you always…”  He said as he looked into her eyes.

“Oh…  You’ve replaced me already Ivy?”  Said a voice that Ivy had not heard in a long time...  

Ivy and Jin looked in the direction of the voice and saw a woman leaning against a tree crossing her arms. She had straight, platinum blond hair cut just above her shoulders, blue eyes with a deep scar over the left one.  She wore a leather  jacket with a red shirt underneath and ripped black jeans and black studded combat boots. 

“Addison…?” Ivy breathed out.

“In the flesh.”  smirked the woman as she pushed herself off of the tree and began to walk towards Ivy and Jin, seeming like a tigress stalking her prey.  

Jin could sense something was off about this new woman and got in front of Ivy, shielding her protectively.  

“Awww how cute.  He thinks he can protect you from me.”  She laughed as Jin glared, the wind around the area beginning to get stronger.  “Calm down Hercules.  I'm not going to hurt anyone.  Yet…  I mean after all, mine and Ivy's fight isn't until tomorrow!” She told them with a wicked laugh as she walked away.  

“Who was that?”  Jin asked, calming down a bit now as the wind began to calm down as well.  

Ivy sighed.  “An old running buddy of mine.  I used to hunt monsters with her.  I met her at a bar in my rebellious years.  Also... She was my girlfriend…” Ivy explained  

“Girlfriend?”  Jin asked, confused.

“Yes Jin, I’m bisexual, also demisexual.  Is that a problem?”  Ivy told him.  

“No not at all.  Just surprised me a bit is all.  But love is love lassy”  Jin said with a smile which Ivy returned happily.  

Soon Jin and Ivy decided to call it a day so Ivy could rest up for her team's matches tomorrow.  Jin flew Ivy back to the hotel and dropped her off at her room.

“Good night lass.  And good luck tomorrow!”  Jin told her and he gave her a tight hug and another peck on the forehead.  

“Thank you Jin.  I will see you tomorrow.”  Ivy said as she walked into her room to see her teammates looking at her with eager eyes.  Yusuke and Kuwabara also wore goofy smiles on their faces.   

“Spill the tea sis.”  Yusuke said. 

“Yeah how’d it go girl?”  Kuwabara asked.

“Stop harassing Ivy you two.”  Kurama scolded as Ivy felt a wave of relief.  “But if he hurt you in any way just let us know and we will take care of it.”  Kurama said grimly.   

“Jesus christ Kurama…”  Yusuke muttered.

“What do you expect?  Ivy is one of us now.”  Hiei stated nonchalantly. The group got quiet and looked at Hiei in surprise.  “What?  Why are you all looking at me like that?”  he asked, annoyed.  

Ivy smiled at him “I always knew you were just a big ol softie!  Well I guess in your case it would be little ol softie!”  Ivy laughed as Hiei glared at her embarrassed, causing her to laugh more.  “I’m sorry Hiei.  But it's nice to know you care about me.   That goes for all of you actually.”  Ivy told the group with a kind smile. 

“Of course Ivy, you are our friend now and there's no changing that!  We got your back, no matter what.”  Yusuke told her, giving her a thumbs up as the rest of the group agreed with him.  

“Aww thanks you guys!”  Ivy said as she went over and hugged them all in a group hug, having to pull Hiei into it with the rest of them.  

“Well we should probably all get some rest.  We have the fight with team Toguro tomorrow...”  Kurama stated after the hug ended.  After he said this the atmosphere in the room changed to be filled with anxiety as everyone's mood got much darker.  Ivy debated with telling the group about Addison but decided against it due to everyone already being worried about their own fight.  

The following morning the team headed to the arena, ready to fight in what would be the toughest fights yet in this tournament.  

The first fight was between Kurama and Karasu.  Kurama started off by using a technique with razor sharp rose petals floating around him in the battlefield.  Karusu was unfazed and began his own attack with his special bomb attacks.  Soon Kurama transformed into Youko Kurama and used a killer plant which at first appeared to have eaten Karasu.  But It was quickly made obvious that was not the case when Karasu started to attack Kurama with another bomb, burying him in rubble.  When Kurama dug himself out he had transformed back into his human self.  Eventually Kurama ended up killing Karasu with a death plant.  

“Winner!  Karasu!”  Juri exclaimed. 

“Bitch what?”  Ivy said, angrily.

“Yeah!  Hey fish girl!  You wanna tell me how a living guy loses to a dead guy?”  Yusuke said, marching up to Juri, grabbing her arm.

“I would appreciate it if you would remove your hand please.”  Juri calmly told him.

“I would appreciate it if you removed your head from your ass!”  Yusuke shouted at her.

“Your friend was down for ten counts!  He lost!  Deal with it!”  Juri said as she turned away from Yusuke, huffily crossing her arms.  

The next fight was Hiei vs Bui.  It was a long fight that almost seemed never ending.  But eventually it did indeed end with Hiei as the victor.  Hiei also chose to spare Bui’s life after the fight.  

The third fight was Kuwabara vs The elder Toguro brother.  During the early portion of the fight, things looked bad for Kuwabara.  But in the end he managed to win and even developed a new technique, a spirit fly swatter.  Which is what allowed his victory to occur.  

“Next fighters to the ring please!”  Koto exclaimed enthusiastically.

“You're up Ivy” Yusuke stated, looking in the brunette's direction.

Ivy made her way into the ring and came face to face with Addison.

An Irish voice could be heard cheering louder than anyone else in the stadium. “Woo!  Go Ivy!  Yeah!  That's my lassy!”  Jin cheered. 

“Your boyfriend sure is obnoxious isn't he?” Addison sneered.

“Watch your fucking mouth.  Only I can be mean to him!”  Ivy snarled.

Jin's eyes gleamed and his ears wiggled with pride.  “Yeah!  That's right!  Only she can be mean to me!” He exclaimed.  

“Fucking masocist…”  Touya muttered under his breath as Jin looked over at him and winked.  Touya shuddered in disgust “Weirdo…”

“Shut the fuck up Jin!”  Ivy shouted angrily into the crowd in Jins direction.

“What kind of relationship do those two have?”  Hiei shuddered in confusion and disgust.  

“Okay that's enough of that!  Let the battle begin!”  Juri announced with a wave of her arm.  

As Ivy was getting ready to attack, Addison pulled out a smoke bomb and threw it at Ivy's feet.  Ivy began to cough and then quickly realized something was wrong.  

“What did you do to me?”  Ivy asked with a glare as the smoke was already subsiding.   

“I evened the playing field.  None of those freakish monster powers of yours in this fight.”  Addison said, pulling out a silver stake.  “Now…  I hope you are ready my dear…”  Addison said chillingly.  Addison then began to make her way towards Ivy who was currently digging in her bag.  Addison was standing right in front of Ivy ready  to attack when Ivy pulled out a blow dart and hit Addison with one of the darts in it.  Addison grabbed her neck where the dart had struck her.

  “You dirty little…”   She growled as she then hit Ivy hard with the back of her hand, knocking her to the ground.  Addison climbed on top of Ivy and began to try and plunge the stake into her chest.  Ivy grabbed onto  the stake to prevent it from stabbing her.  In the midst of the struggle Ivy looked up at Addison and recalled the history the two of them shared together, causing her to ease up ever so slightly in her defense.  Addison took that opportunity to drive the stake directly into Ivys heart.  Killing her.  

“Winner!  Addison!”  Juri exclaimed.

Addison stood up and laughed maniacally.  “I did it!  I finally did it!  After all these years, I killed you Ivy!  Victory is mi-” she started to say but was unable to finish as she began to stagger.  She looked at Ivy's body angrily, remembering the blow dart.  She fell to her knees, clutching her neck where the dart had hit her. “You little bitch…”  She said weakly before she died as well.

“Why isn't Ivy moving yet?” Keiko asked, looking at Shizuru and Boton.  Shizuru started crying quietly and Botan began weeping uncontrollably.  Keiko realized what this meant and followed their example.  They were not the only ones who were upset Yukina was also sobbing as Olivia, Piper, Sophia, and Leon were sitting there in shock and unsure of what really just happened and how to react and process it.   

Ivy's teammates ran onto the area stage.  Kuwabara picked her limp body up in his arms, tears falling from his eyes.  “Ivy!  Ivy wake up!”  He cried, shaking her in an attempt to awaken her.

“She’s gone human.” Hiei said numbly, his eyes beginning to actually well up.  

Kuwabara carried Ivy’s body out of the ring.  It was then that everyone noticed the wind in the arena picking up and getting stronger and stronger almost to the point of a hurricane when all the sudden it just stopped.  It suddenly starts back up again but this time is very gentle and seems to have a sadness about it.

Touya put his hand on Jin’s arm.  “Hey man…  I’m sorry…”  He said in a gentle whisper.  

Jin began crying softly and his friends then engulfed him in a hug as he continued to cry.

“This is fucking stupid…  Ivy didn't deserve that!” Yusuke shouted, enraged.  

Toguro then entered the arena, Yusuke looked over at him and glared angrily “At least I have an outlet for all this anger right now…”  he said cracking his knuckles and entering the arena himself.    

“Begin!” Juri exclaimed.

Yusuke started off by removing his spirit shackles and accessing all of his spirit energy.  The fight went on for a while but in the end Yusuke defeated Toguro by using the last of his energy to fire off a strong spirit gun, killing Toguro.

“That was for Ivy…”  Yusuke muttered coldly.

Then, Koto and Juri both walked up onto the arena next to each other “Winner of the tournament!  Team Urameshi!”  They both chimed.  

A voice then came over the loudspeaker.  “Thank you all for coming to the dark tournament.  I just wanted to inform you that I along with this stadium will be destroyed in 15 minutes.  If you do not wish to die then I suggest you get out now.” Said the voice belonging to Sakkyo.  

“We have to get out of here!”  Kuwabara exclaimed.  

The group began to make their escape but not before Hiei picked Ivy's body up and put her over his shoulder.  

“She was right!  You are a softie!”  Yusuke teased as the group continued to run to the exit.  Hiei just glared in return.  

The group came together with the girls and Ivy’s other friends and kept running to get out together.

The group soon reached a dead end.  

“What do we do?”  Keiko cried.  But before anyone could even respond the dead end was blown open by Jin, Touya, Chu, and Rinku.  

“Just in time!”  Yusuke exclaimed with a grin.  

Jin saw Ivy being carried by Hiei and reached out for her.  Hiei rolled his eyes and handed her over to him.  Jin began to tear up again.  

“Jin!  We don't have time for you to cry right now!  Let's get to safety first and then you can cry all you want!” Chu told him, pulling him along.   Jin was careful not to drop Ivy as they made their escape.  

Finally, the group made it to safety.  The stadium exploded moments after. 

“Oh!  You were supposed to get a wish!”  Botan exclaimed.  

The group sadly looked over at Ivy who was being cradled in a sobbing Jins arms.  

“It doesn't matter…  Those bastards wouldn't have been able to give us what we wanted anyways…”  Yusuke muttered.  

The group later had a funeral for Ivy, laying her on a bed of flowers as they said their teary goodbyes.  

The next day Team Urameshi and friends were getting ready to depart from Hanging Neck Island.  

“Hey!  You fuckers are leaving without me?”  Shouted a familiar voice.  

The group looked over and saw none other than…  Ivy!  

Everyone ran over to Ivy in disbelief and joy.

“You are alive!”  Oliva said happily  “You bitch!”  Olivia screamed at her, slapping her face and then hugging her tightly as the rest of the group quickly followed her example. 

“Well I wasn't until just like 15 minutes ago!”  Ivy told them as she returned the gesture.  

The group then all boarded the ferry and headed for home.  Once they were back in their neck of the woods, they started heading back to Genkai's temple.

“You're welcome to stay here at the temple for as long as you want.”  Keiko said as they arrived at the temple.  

Ivy’s eyes lit up.  “Really?  We can stay here?  Forever?  Hooray!”  Ivy cheered as Genkia threw her hat angrily on the ground and stomped on it before marching inside her home, grumbling under her breath.

“Ignore her…  She will warm up to you guys quickly I am sure.”  Yusuke told the group.  

“That settles it!  We are staying!”  Sophia cheered.  

A few days later Ivy was lounging on the couch in the living room, remembering a certain red haired windmaster.  As she was lost in thought, there was suddenly a knock at the door.  Ivy ignored it at first, wanting to remain in her brain.  But the knocking persisted.  

“Fine!  I’m coming!”  Ivy shouted, annoyed.   

She opened the door to see none other then, Sazuka, Shishiwakamaru, Chu, Rinku, Touya, and… Jin.  They all looked at her in stunned silence having thought she was dead.  That is until Jin felt a wave of happiness as the shock subsided and he embraced her tightly and began rambling on while crying happy tears “You're alive lass!  Oh I’m so happy!  If this is a dream nobody wake me up!  You are alive!”  Jin went on.  

“I’m  happy to see you too, Jin.”  Ivy told him, returning his embrace.  

Jin then eased up on his hold on her and gazed deeply into her eyes and then kissed her passionately.  Surprisingly enough, Ivy actually kissed him back.  Once the two parted for air they rested their foreheads on one another, looking at each other intensely.  

“Ewww gross!  Get a room!”  Rinku said, pretending to gag.  

“Shut up!  Don’t ruin their moment!”  Chu said, smacking Rinku upside the head.

Ivy and Jin then stood up straight next to each other while still holding hands with interlocked fingers.    

“And of course I’m alive!  I never stay dead for too long!  Well at least so far.”  Ivy boasted with a laugh.  

“It's about time you jokers got here!  I’ve been waiting on you nimrods!”  Genkai scolded walking into the room.

“We have all come here to train with Genkai.” Touya said, noticing the confused look on Ivy’s face.  

“Oh are you guys going to be living with us then?”  Ivy asked as Genkai shuddered at the realization that there would be more mouths to feed.  

“We are going to be living together?  Hooray!”  Jin cheered, picking Ivy up by the waist and spinning her around.  

“Hey!  Put me down!  Jin!”  Ivy scolded, but this time for some reason found herself smiling as she did so.  

#yu yu hakusho #yyh #anime #manga #fanfic #fanfiction #writing #imagine #oc #jin #windmaster #reader #scenario

[ironwoman359]

Thoughts on Remus Sanders

So the new video came out and I have a lot of thoughts on a lot of different things, but for this post, let’s talk about our new resident trash man, Remus Sanders, aka The Duke, aka the Dark Side of Creativity. 

Remus’s Role (who or what is he?)

First off, Remus’s ‘Side Title’ as it were is definitely Creativity. He is not simply “Intrusive Thoughts.” That is not his function, intrusive thoughts are a result of his function, an area of thinking that he is responsible for. Like Roman, he embodies Creativity and the Imagination, but unlike Roman, he deals almost exclusively in ‘dirty,’ mature, dark, or disturbing ideas. Sure, the video was about intrusive thoughts specifically, but that’s not all that Remus does. He said himself twice, once in song and once in regular speaking, that he wants Thomas to explore more mature themes in his videos and to be more “realistic” with his creations. So while the other “dark sides” like Deceit and Anxiety (maybe Paranoia?) have different functions than the “light sides,” Remus and Roman are two sides that embody the same trait: Creativity. 

As Thomas said, the Duke and the Prince literally wear black and white, because his relationship with his imagination while he was growing up led to Roman encompassing the “good” parts and Remus the “bad” parts. Both ‘sides’ of creativity are important over all, but Thomas specifically gave Roman, the light, the positive sunshine rainbow unicorn side, more import than the dark, the twisted macabre disturbing side. Hence Roman is a Prince, while Remus is merely a Duke, a lesser rank of nobility. 

Remus’s Goals (so what does he want?)

Like Roman, Remus wants Thomas to create things, things that he can be proud of. And more SPECIFICALLY, he wants Thomas to be remembered, to have a legacy. Roman, you will note, wants this too. All sides, after all, want what they believe is best for Thomas, but they all have different views of what that looks like AND of how to get it. And Remus believes that the darker sides of creativity that he encompasses are the way for Thomas to get that notoriety he craves. Just look at the way Remus talks (or sings) about himself in relationship to Thomas’s content:

“If you really wanna challenge your viewership, then you need to stop limiting me.” 

“If you want the spectrum A-Z you’ll need a little help from me.”  

(in reference to Thomas only wanting bright and happy things in his content) ”Hey Prude, your art is Bad.”

“What will our legacy be? Will you even have one? How about this: you get buck naked on camera and self immolate to Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off! That’ll leave an impression!” 

Remus wants what ever creator/performer wants: he wants to be remembered. But unlike Roman, he holds no reservations about how they get there. 

But Remus ALSO a rather chaotic force in general, and you get the feeling that he really just wants to have fun...unfortunately, what’s fun for him is not very fun for most people, Thomas included. Remus is more like the way many of us characterized Deceit at his first introduction: likely to be cruel for no reason. Because it’s fun! Right?! 

Roman vs. Remus...why?

I have a headcanon that Patton (or Patton’s influence) is largely responsible for the development of Remus and Roman as separate entities, actually.  During their conversation about Just Like Heaven, Patton mentioned that a happy ending “makes good cinema.” And...no, it doesn’t. Objectively, good cinema, good ART is not dependent on whether or not it is happy. Now, whether or not it is happy is certainly a valid indicator of whether or not YOU as an individual like it. But not it’s objective quality. And that’s what has happened with Roman and Remus, anything that Thomas’s Moral Code (again, Patton himself or his general influence) deemed as “bad” or “wrong” got shoved into Remus, while Roman kept all the good parts for himself. 

When you look at it that way, it’s no wonder that Remus spends so much of his time sending intrusive thought’s Thomas’s way. (Yes, intrusive thoughts are fairly common, but not everyone has them, and not always to the severity that Character Thomas does) That’s basically his ONLY creative outlet, as everything else has been given to Roman. And why it makes sense that he is desperate to be more involved in Thomas’s creative process. Intrusive thoughts are all fine and well, but if Thomas isn’t ACTING on them, then Remus is effectively not being listened to, which as we all know is every single side’s greatest source of frustration. 

His Logo (this is a pure guess based on my own theories and observation, but it’s fun to think about.)

It’s been theorized before that the “dark sides” have something animal themed in their clothing and/or appearances. Deceit’s is obvious the two headed snake, and Virgil’s is largely thought to be a raccoon, and if we look closely, Remus seems to fit this theory. His animal is some sort of tentacled sea creature, as evidenced by the thumbnail of the video, his green coloring, and the belt buckle he wears. Some have suggested a squid or octopus, but this IS Creativity we’re talking about here...it could be Something Else. Something a little more...creative. 

“Whoa, you guys are acting fishier than the Kraken’s crack.” -Roman, timestamp 3:43. 

I propose that his ‘animal’ is a Kraken, a giant sea monster known for causing great destruction, killing sailors and dragging ships down into the depths of the sea. Sort of like how our Dear Old Duke seems to take pleasure in being destructive towards both himself and others and dragging Thomas’s thoughts down into the depths of depravity? Huh? Maybe? Imagine a logo similar to Roman’s, but instead of an idyllic castle, it’s a giant sea monster. Perhaps reaching it’s tentacles around a ship? Or perhaps looking a little sleeker and going for something like the Hydra logo in Marvel? I dunno, it’s fun to think about! 

The Rainbow Theory (no, I’m never gonna let this one go)

Remus’s existence, and more specifically, his color palate, only reinforce the Rainbow Theory as being canon. Thomas is Full Rainbow all the time, and each of his sides encompasses one color on that spectrum. You have Red (Roman), Orange (a yet to be discovered “dark side”), Yellow (Deceit), Green (Remus), Blue (Patton), Indigo (Logan), and Violet (Virgil). 

One of the reasons I really like the rainbow theory is that it allows for a sense of balance between Thomas and his sides. I like to imagine it like this: There are three “light” or “good” sides, (Roman, Logan, and Patton) and three “dark” or “bad” sides (Deceit, the Duke/Remus, and an unnamed, Orange party). I use quotes on these labels because arguably, any trait could be used for good or for bad, and no side embodies this more than Virgil. Violet, the odd little shadowling out. The side that is now canonically CONFIRMED to have once been considered one of “the Others,” but who now has an equal seat at the discussion table. The side, if you will, that is the tipping point on the scale between whether or not Thomas is a “good person?” Ah, but that’s a theory for another post ;) 

If you combine the rainbow theory with a color wheel, Remus’s appearance also all but confirms some theories that we’ve had about “dark” sides in the past: they are opposites to/extensions of/foils for a corresponding “light” side. It’s no secret who Remus’s corresponding side is, both he AND Roman are literally both creativity. And what is Red’s complimentary color on the color wheel?

Green. 

While it’s harder to tell who Deceit’s foil is, since the blue/indigo and the yellow/orange parts of most color wheels you look at are more blurred, but I’m leaning towards Logan, the darker blue, the indigo, being the foil to Deceit’s Yellow, and Patton’s lighter blue being complimentary with the Orange Side yet to be revealed, since the light blue is closer to the green and the orange is closer to the red. 

This also solidifies the idea that I have that Virgil himself has no foil. I see some people suggest he could be Logan’s foil, but I honestly think that Logan’s foil is either Deceit or Mr. Orange, and the Patton’s is whoever Logan’s isn’t. Virgil’s trait doesn’t necessarily have a perfect foil...and purple in particular has no opposite color that isn’t already sort of taken by one of the other three “light” colors. But I digress, this post is about Remus, not Virgil. I just like talking about the rainbow theory, I think it’s neat! 

Other, smaller observations (mostly just fun things I noticed/liked about his character)

As much as they are opposites in ways, Remus shares many mannerisms with Roman, from his expressions to his vocal ticks to his gestures. 

Literally less than a minute after he first appeared on screen, he broke out into an entire Disney Villain style musical number. (no really, he appeared at 6:00 and started singing at 6:53)

I sort of mentioned this earlier, but he is not only responsible for the darker parts of imagination, but also clearly things like childish potty humor and sexual innuendo. For THOMAS, this is a “bad” thing banished to it’s own separate side, but for some people, that kind of humor doesn’t cross the line. Joan, for instance, has both a raunchier sense of humor and darker sense of humor at times than Thomas, as holding up a disembodied corpse prop’s middle finger is, yeah, TOTALLY something they would do without Remus’s influence. 

He cannot be insulted through traditional means, as he takes them as compliments. It is only through him being discredited/weakened by Logan’s words that we see him having any sort of negative reaction to the others. 

Again, a point to get more into detail with another post, but he was particularly interested in beating down Virgil specifically, and in ways that seemed less relevant to what was going on like his taunts to the others. Just like with Deceit in the courtroom, he clearly knows Virgil well enough to get under his skin, and he relishes doing so. 

The trash boi does not sit still, if he’s not engaged by what’s happening, he’ll find some other thing to occupy himself with, such as picking his nose or eating deodorant. 

Like Deceit before him, he gets huffy when he doesn’t have his way, and then does his best to just be a general inconvenience (read also: a dick) to Thomas if he can’t be actually listened to. 

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading <3

#sanders sides #sanders sides theories #ts theories #fanders #thomas sanders #remus sanders #ts remus #dealing with intrusive thoughts #long post #longpost #virgil sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #deceit sanders #the rainbow theory #ts spoilers

[goobergamer]

Welcome to the Real World, Chpt. 4/?

Summary: ‘The real world’ is Marine Corps slang referring to civilian life after discharge.

Or, Washington, new and struggling veteran, moves into a duplex where he has a strange and surly neighbor with a penchant for the color red. (Sargington modern war vets AU)

Pairing: Sarge/Washington (Red vs. Blue)

Warnings: Alcohol use in this chapter

First chapter on Tumblr here: (x). Also crossposted to AO3.

Wash is a chronic homebody rapidly chewing through the books on his shelf and the TV shows he can stand to be semi-present for. The phone never rings when he’s there, but he still can’t help and check every morning and night hoping the voicemail light will have come on.

He’s pretty sure he saw a couple of his teammates when he was taken in by the medical team, half-coherent. No one has been in touch since, through his care or discharge. He’s not sure what he expects them to say. Wish you were here, xoxo? Sorry you’ve cracked? (He’s not crazy.) Thanks for compromising the mission, asshole? How could you have fucked up so badly?

Wash isn’t sure. But he thinks he’d take any of it over the dead light and the dial tone.

---

It just keeps getting hotter as they approach midsummer, and one day when Wash steps outside straight into a wall of humidity, Sarge joins him only to suggest that he come inside for coffee so they don’t just up and die on the porch from the weather.

Wash is pleasantly surprised when Sarge gives him a tour of the downstairs space; it’s cluttered, but not a junk pile as he may have guessed. Rather, the home looks lovingly lived-in. A card table is open in the corner of the living room, with parts and tools for some sort of electronics project scattered across it. The TV stand is covered in small piles of DVDs; at quick glance Wash sees serious war documentaries mingling with old family sitcoms.

Of course, it still shows little signs of Sarge’s quirkiness beyond the multiple locks on the door. Despite the gun cabinet standing against the wall with his scarlet beret sitting atop it, there’s a shotgun casually leaned up against the coffee table that Wash only hopes has the safety on. Everything that can come in different colors is red in Sarge’s apartment; upholstery, painted wood, you name it. There’s a strawberry Yoo-hoo balanced on the couch armrest, and Wash halfway wonders if the flavor was chosen to fit the color scheme.

They take their coffee on very red chairs at the very red table in the kitchen. Sarge is polite enough to only harass Wash for two straight minutes about how he takes his coffee (“Washington, without sugar you’ll have no energy to defend yourself!” “Defend myself from what?”) The new location doesn’t change much until Wash asks, “Which way to your bathroom? Is your side of the duplex the same as mine?”

“Flipped. Upstairs to the left.”

When Wash walks into the bathroom, it takes him a moment to register what’s off. At first he thinks Sarge had installed a full-size towel rack above the sink, but after stepping closer, he sees that a bath towel has simply been strung across the medicine cabinet to cover it.

He remembered, Wash realizes. He remembered the mirror.

Something in his throat tightens, almost imperceptibly. It was a small, simple gesture, but an appreciated one all the same, at a time when the world feels minimal in its kindness.

---

When Wash hears a knock on his door early one evening, he only pauses a moment before opening it without the chain in place, having an easy enough guess of who it will be. “Hey, Sarge. Something you need?”

Sarge is leaning against the doorframe all too casually, an atypical grin splitting his face in two. “Washington, when was the last time you went out anywhere?”

Wash pauses for a moment, thinking. “I go running every day? Beyond that, I picked up groceries three days ago.”

Sarge switches battle tactics. “When was the last time you went somewhere to do something fun?”

Wash has a sinking, suspicious feeling he knows the ballpark where this is heading. “...I don’t mind grocery shopping.”

“...Well, that answers that.” Sarge chuckles. He doesn’t seem too surprised. Wash supposes he can’t really be insulted; a serious answer to Sarge’s question would have been ‘on shore leave over a year ago’.

“There’s a legion a couple towns over,” Sarge continues. “A few of the guys I know are catching up there tonight! There will be drinks! General merriment! And YOU are cordially invited!”

“I wouldn’t know any of the people there.”

“I can introduce ya’!”

Wash knows that Sarge isn’t the type to take no for an answer when his mind is set on something. And he has to acknowledge that he has become a hermit in the months since his discharge, to an unsustainable extent. At some point he’ll have to reconnect with the real world. May as well do it with a friend to guide him. “Alright, fine.”

“That’s the spirit!”

They take Sarge’s Ford, a decades-spanning oddity; the truck itself is from the 70’s, but has a new high-tech radio system Sarge says he installed himself. The radio will only tune into an obnoxious polka station from god knows where and which Sarge will claim no fault in his installation process for. The drive is still nice with the windows rolled low, Sarge resting his elbow on the sill as he steers with one hand, Wash turning in his seat so the early evening sun shines down on his face.

They’re quickly hailed by a chorus of both greetings and heckling from a far table when Sarge leads the way into the Legion. There’s one chair left open for Sarge when they approach, but he grabs another one from an empty table and plants it next to his own for Wash, the nearest guy shuffling over to make more space.

“Men, this is Washington,” Sarge announces when they’ve settled in. Wash receives some amicable nods and hello’s from the ensemble; apparently Sarge doesn’t think more introduction is necessary, and neither do they. “Washington, this is Tucker, Caboose, Donut, Lopez, Simmons, and Grif.” There’s a surly element to his tone when he introduces the last one, who seems unperturbed, just offering Wash a late “‘Sup?” before some earlier conversation picks back up.

Wash takes the time to examine the group unnoticed, observing that they look ragtag in more ways than one. They’re all young, younger than Wash, though it's not always easy to tell under the scars; the majority of this group look like they had to physically claw their way out of warzones. Wash can pick out four prosthetics between what he can see of just two of the people at the table, and with the extent of Lopez’s, he might guess prosthetic legs were hidden out of sight too. Grif and...Donut? sport some major scarring visible above the table. Grif’s scars, a layer of patchworks across his cheek and down one arm, look too clean to be from anything in-field; skin grafts, maybe? With Donut’s ear and eye gone, and the side of his nose and lips halfway there, it’s easy to assume that he took something hard straight to the face.

“—Before I can catch whatever gave Private Pinhead that stroke of inspiration, I’m going to get a drink!” Sarge huffs, brushing off a conversation with Grif to rise. “You want something, Washington?”

“Oh, I—whatever you’re getting is fine. Thanks.” Wash reaches for his wallet to offer him payment for the drink, but Sarge has already moseyed over to the bar.

“So, Washington, how do you know Sarge?” Simmons asks, all attention now turning to the new guy.

“He’s my neighbor.”

“Man, that sucks,” Tucker replies, though obviously without true rancor.

“Could be worse. He could live next to Donut,” Grif says.

“Hey!”

“That’s right, has Lopez gotten his insurance pay back after that fire yet?”

“No.”

“Hey, I said sorry, I didn’t think a hair dryer could overheat like that! I guess I’d been doing too much blowing.”

Amidst a chorus of groans, Sarge returns with a pina colada in each hand. “Can’t believe the bartender didn’t card me! They’re supposed to card anyone under forty.”

“And why would they card you, again?” Wash asks as he takes one of the drinks. Sarge’s efforts to convince Wash that he’s some ludicrous age are drowned out by amused laughter from others at the table.

The longer Wash is there with them, the more he feels himself settling into the rhythm of the conversation, becoming comfortable enough to laugh and joke along. By the end of the night, he’s been wrapped up into a number of ridiculous and crazy anecdotes that tell him two things: Sarge surrounds himself only with those that are as insane as himself, and that Wash has had the best night in as many weeks despite his hesitation before he came.

“They’re idiots, but they’re my idiots,” Sarge says fondly in the car on the way home.

“I can see why. They’re good guys.”

“We’re there every week. Just let me know if you want to come along again.” Washington looks at Sarge, but Sarge is cheerfully watching the road as he says it.

It’s an unexpected offer, but certainly not unwelcome as he thinks about the dark apartment he’s about to return to. Remembering the warmth of the rum and the night’s festivities is a strong pull. “I just might take you up on that.”

#wttrw #welcome to the real world #rvb #red vs blue #red vs. blue

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Uchitama 7 - 8 | Eizouken 8 - 9 | ID: INVADED 8 - 11 | Iruma-kun 22 - 23 (FINAL) | BnHA 82 - 83

Uchitama 7

Lemme guess…this is the ve-Yep.

The name of this segment is Ottamake. The ke means fur/hair, but it does seem like it’s referring to Tama otherwise.

For some reason, Bull’s really into cats…

LOL, you can see the cat food right there is a real brand. I dunno how they got away with that.

Hmm, this show has something to say about idol business…and it does it better than some of the human idol shows! That says something.

It even comments on the “graduation” system. Whaddaya know.

Welp, I never thought an anime could pull off this with a commentary on gender presentation, to boot. (It’s not as pervasive as Stars Align’s, but it’s still one of the better ones. I guess I shouldn’t expect it as a norm though.) I thought Kai was a dude though and so Bull’s interactions came off to me as massively gay. I’ve been thinking, maybe he’s pan? Can dogs be pansexual???

Why do I get the feeling Kai is going to be introduced into 3-chome? Update: Doesn’t happen.

This song sounds very idol-like.

Uchitama 8

Aww…I feel like we’re going to learn Nora’s backstory soon. I think it’s going to be real sad.

…Yup, there goes my kokoro. Smol Nora is cute~!

Genki can mean “healthy” as well as “energetic” – the latter is why it’s translated as “spunky”.

Why do I get the feeling Nora’s owner died…?

Oh, smol Nora has a bandaid on his leg.

Let me ask the essential furry question – they hav human ears and animal ears. Which of those sets of ears do they hear with?

Yuuki Kaji does a good job as Nora.

This song’s so sad, it almost got me crying…  

Eizouken 8

This anime is like something from Studio Trigger!

The magic of Eizouken is that you get sucked into the anime they make and never look back.

Tomodachi vs. nakama, I think it is.

Id: Invaded 8

Lately, I’ve been thinking about practical cosplay (everyday wear that also doubles as a cosplay outfit). So basically, I’ve been thinking about Sakaido and El-Melloi II’s outfits a lot, since they’re rather practical while still looking cool. All I’m missing for El-Melloi’s outfit with the red jacket is a black button-up shirt, for El-Melloi’s outfit with the black jacket I’m missing a red scarf and I’m missing a brown button-up shirt for Sakaido’s (although the yellow scarf I got today to get one step closer to two of those isn’t the right mustard colour, it’s more of a lighter yellow).

Also, I noticed it’s (according to the katakana) meant to be “Id: Invaded”, but heck, it’s been ID: Invaded for so long for me, I don’t care either way.

Kiki was born in Fukui.

I always thought Mister Fixer sounded sad and now I think I know why…the bit I remember the most (the line that goes “Mister Fixer” and the bit around it) sounds like the singer is lamenting their life. Now that I see the visuals again after a few weeks (I’d get fatigued if I watched all that Fate/ and still managed to keep up with simulcasts, so I’ve been taking the simulcasts in a few eps at one time), Mister Fixer does quite sound like a crime drama song, but not as much as Thought I Knew (from Stand My Heroes).

I’ve seen images of Anaido and Sakaido in the same well for a few weeks now, so this cooperation bit is no surprise at all.

I believe Fukuda is asking why Narihisago is a –san to her even though they’ve worked together a while.

The words “data profile” are in one corner of the titlecard.

Does Anaido remember who he is in the ID Well? I presume not, but it’s hard to tell since we haven’t had as much time with him as we have Sakaido (not to mention I’ve been regularly filling my head with Fate/ and other things as well lately…so it’s hard to remember).

It’s interesting. Fukuda has the same piercings as Anaido (and even a ring on one pointer finger that matches them!), so he must’ve tried experimenting with…more legal holes, to put it one way…before getting his most iconic one.

Kaeru’s nails are chipped. Hmm.

In #Brake-Broken, which I read the first chapter of earlier (there’s a sample on the Young Ace website), Sakaido notices he doesn’t have a phone with him to call anyone or a licence (because in that manga, he wakes up in a car). It’s likely this will work the same way and Anaido won’t have any possessions on him, aside from the clothes on his back, accessories and the item that was stolen from his wrist/s.

Rings on both fingers…so I should be talking about them in plural. Update: I like how Anaido’s off-the-wall thought processes break up the inherent seriousness of Sakaido’s deductions and utilitarian way of doing things.

Anaido, you grimdark f***er. Update: For trying to eat a dead girl.

Okay, so for the sake of my practical cosplay, I knew I’d need this episode. Sakaido wears a long-sleeve brown shirt with some kind of shirt under that (either brown or black), plus a mustard-coloured scarf. (Note El-Melloi II wears a black shirt under his black button-up shirt, so I went with black as well.) In Brake Broken, I also noticed he wears dark socks (or that could be the leggings) and runners with a lightning bolt on them (I had to make do with generic black runners with a white stripe on the bottom), plus the iconic brown shorts over those (with a triangle pattern)…Why does Sakaido have a scarf anyway, versus Anaido and Miyo who don’t? As much as I like scarves, especially where colder weather is involved, getting a specific colour scarf was a bit of a headache to be honest, since I took 3 trips before deciding on the one I was going to buy (and even then, someone got it before me! The scarf I have now was my 2nd choice). Update: The shorts, leggings and undershirt are black, but I don’t know if Sakaido is wearing any socks or if they’re black too.

Just to note what Anaido has as well (although a coat like that, with the red detailing and flaps, would be hard to find…), he has a blue coat, suspenders, a white button-up top, a string tie (had to google what that was called, although its name is pretty obvious now that I know), black pants (which kinda look like leggings, but they’re not) and leather boots.

Now Sakaido can go into the loony bin…he’s talking to Kaeru.

Is Anaido going in circles? Sakaido caught up real fast…

Um, hey, protip: When stuck in quicksand, try to “float” on it. If you move, you’ll sink into it more. I don’t know how I know that, but I did stick it into my mind for times like this.

Notably, Anaido is about a head taller than Sakaido. Either Sakaido is unnaturally short and Anaido is average…or Anaido is just tall in that way some men are.

Did the bird get to this dude…?

There appears to be a man with a bun facing Hondomachi in the ED, although you can’t tell who it is from silhouette alone…Maybe he hasn’t appeared in the show yet. (Can’t be Matsuoka though. Might be the old guy who’s the head of Kura, actually.)

Update: Is the dead guy Momoki…?

Id: Invaded 9

It’s the familiar ceiling scene from Evangelion! (Okay, I’m kidding, but it’s a similar deal.)

I think the rules of Fate/ are “do it all, until you can no longer do it” (i.e. Everything is the same, until it’s different). It seems it’s the same here too.

Huh? Momoki?

“It doesn’t seem friendly.” – Yeah, and people die whe they are killed…in murder mysteries like this, usually speaking.

I noticed Narihisago’s tie is the same colour as his Sakaido jacket, if not the shirt under that.

Where did the Challenger’s clothes go after he took them off??? Hyperspace??? He wasn’t shown tossing them.

So Kaeru was Asukai all along, huh?

“Look at this.”

“It makes me think about him.” Subbers, that’s two mistakes in less than 1 minute…

I saw a fanart where Narihisago had his arm broken. I didn’t know why, but now I do. Also, TV Tropes is bad if you want to avoid spoilers…I know that already, but I go there anyway sometimes...

“It makes me wanna puke.”

Iruma-kun 22

The anime’s final episode is next week…but there’s already a season 2 in store for next year, so hopefully I survive the coronavirus and sort out all my issues this year in time for it.

Dat OP though. I’ve grown used to it and it’s actually endeared itself to me…which is odd, since I didn’t think I’d like it at first.

Demdol = akudol. Obviously, from “demon”.

Was that…Clara’s mother???  Kuromu’s older bro doesn’t look too bad, either.

Ohmygosh, this is fabulousssssssssss (and hilarious)! I’ve been waiting for this moment for many episodes, as you can tell if you’ve been following along, and I finally got the payoff!

Clara ends her sentence with –akuma (devil), hence the translation is matching it the same way.

Oh my gosh, Ryouhei Kimura (Azz-kun) sucks at being feminine, but that’s exactly what the role requires for this!

If you just pretend Azz-kun isn’t dressed in such an outlandish outfit, he looks really good…! Ayumu Murase does a pretty good falsetto, although you can tell there’s one point where Kimura’s voice gets really manly-sounding for a lady.

“Little imp” – Koakuma.  

Oh! The Keroli family is all cute.

Ooh, Kuromu’s nails are blue. Never noticed that before.

Eizouken 9

Chojugiga are ancient pictures normally depicting animals. As for sepak takraw…

I wonder if Eizouken will tackle the Manabi Line one day…?

That’s a parallel for Comiket, LOL.

“A colossus that no one can see!” – Gridman, is that you?

When did Kanamori meet Asakusa again…?

Kanamori with a bun is cool.

“There is nothing fun about social media!” – Well, social media is fun for me because it’s where I escape reality, but sometimes you gotta be like Kanamori and use it for publicity’s sake.

LOL, the username for the Eizouken is @eizoukenn.

I just realised Mizusaki’s hairstyle is irregular…it’s much longer on on side than the other.

“Mizusaki bump” – I think this references the Colbert bump. (TV Tropes link)

Kanamori – she with the word “gold”…or “money”…in her name – struggles with maths? Wow, that was something to hear. (I guess it’s kinda like me and IT (cybersecurity) – I suck at it because I suck at modulos…or division in short…and even though I can be found on my computer a lot, that’s why I don’t pursue it any longer. I was decent at accounting, but man, I’d be bored out of my brain if you made me do business IT and I have zero skills in games and multimedia.)

“Was it thuggery?” – What’s thuggery? That word sounds funny.

Did you see how Asakusa fell off the tank?

I did CR’s Eizouken quiz sometime in the past and it gave me Asakusa. That’s true, basically. I like thinking up ideas and how cool they are, but because I can’t stop from elaborating on them, they get out of hand and that’s why I have a tonne of dropped projects. (Then again, with how freely I can imagine motion, I could’ve gotten Mizusaki too.) Update: Tried again and I actually did get Mizusaki…whaddaya know.

Id: Invaded 10

People have been comparing this to Minority Report…now I see why.

I almost feel like this is a discussion of euthanasia and suicide as much as it is memory and the consciousness.

Ohh…she remembers! Hondomachi!

You can’t see Muku’s face! Ohh, scary!

Aww, the music really sold this montage. By the way, that sign didn’t say “entrance ceremony”, it said nyuugaku omedetou, “Congratulations on your entry [into school]”.

It…this singer almost sounds like Bruno Mars, but that would be basically impossible, no?

Oh my gosh…when the song swelled, I absolutely cried. That’s rare, man – that’s rare.

BnHA 82

I think the leftmost figure might be Miruko, the rabbit lady. I’ve never read anything about her outside of wiki pages ad other small spoilers, but I roughly know what she looks like.

What does Gentle mean by “Anglaise”? Surely it wouldn’t refer to cream…(crème anglaise)

LOL, Disneyland parades…

Whew…that was dangerous. I almost agreed with Mineta there (to get the festival over and done with).

I swear Midoriya gets together with All Might, just like this, at the end or start of a climactic arc. He did it in the last season of BnHA, remember?

BnHA 83

Hmm…It’s interesting that the author likes to point out who has and hasn’t met Eri. Then again, it’s good for consistency.

LOL, Amajiki my boy…you’re so relatable.

Hmm…amidst the coronavirus concerns…this cancellation business seems quite timely.

Oh! It’s a drone.

For some reason, I thought Sero was drinking vegetable juice…? Eh, no matter. They have vegetable juice in Japan – I remember seeing some on my trip.

Hmm? Gentle is like a phantom thief, I just realised. Mostly harmless, but bound to cause a big stir if he gets his way.

What is Gentle’s Quirk, anyway…?

Work Son…LOL(…?)

Who bets their moustache on this stuff, anyway…? (LOL)

Iruma 23 (FINAL)

I don’t get to see Iruma become evil this season…but he will next season! That visual I’ve been seeing by the original mangaka confirms it!

Marathon - the demon puns are back.

Demonicon =Oricon chart.

Demon Star Platinum…was that…a Jojo’s reference?! *scare chord*

Oh! Maguro (tuna).

Azz-kun being afraid of fish? That’s news to me.

Okay, subbers. Whose idea was it to translate Iruma’s words as “My feels…”…?

There’s a post-credits segment. Keep watching.

Yay! Evil Iruma-kun!...In spring 2021. (I’ve never once been so excited for a character to turn evil than this! I also like how evil Iruma said it’s the “buttcrack” of dawn…but that’s just my immature side showing.)

Id: Invaded 11

“…being taken for a ride!” – Well, you’re in a car, so you’re getting a ride nonetheless. (LOL) I hadn’t heard of the term “being taken for a ride” until…what? 2016, I think? When I was still doing language anaylsis.

Sakaido used Headbutt! It’s…kind of effective? (Writing up these pseudo-Pokémon battles is fun. I should write more.)

“…put a drill to your head…”

“The victims of John Walker’s serial killers…”

I noticed Hondomachi is touching the side of her head which had the hole in it…if I remembered it right.

Is it “the Kura”? Or just Kura?

August 15th is a popular date for anime, huh? It’s in the middle of summer. (Refers to Kagerou Project.)

That ‘who knew you needed to lose something to be complete’ thing…I think I get it, but for some reason I only ever seem to get that feeling when it’s me trying to read asexuality into things (since that’s how I learnt to interpret asexuality), so…yeah, way to go, me.

Wait…Togo visited Momoki’s bedroom?!

Yep, so I was right about that being the side with Hondomachi’s hole.

#simulcast commentary #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #welcome to demon school iruma kun #mairimashita! iruma kun #id: invaded #uchi tama?! uchi no tama shirimasen ka? #uchitama?! have you seen my tama? #Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu Na! #keep your hands off eizouken! #Chesarka watches BnHA #chesarka watches mi-k #Chesarka watches Eizouken #Chesarka watches Uchitama #chesarka watches id: invaded

[calliecat93]

Top 5 Things I Disliked About Red vs Blue: Season 2

When I decided to do this series, I knew it was gonna be hard to do lists for Blood Gulch. Not because I can’t think of anything I like or dislike specifically, but as I said before, BGC is mainly comedic driven. The worst I can say is ‘this isn’t funny’ and critique the earlier production standards. Which that’s kinda mean since they were working with what they had and trying to learn to do the show. As such, I have to reach on Dislikes for these and S2 was a tough one in that regard. I managed to come up with five, but GOD I had to stretch haaaard on it.

But still, I did it. Just remember, take this with a grain of salt. So here we go, Top 5 Things I Disliked About RvB S2.

#5. Doc

If you asked me which of the BGC to write out and never bring back… I’d probably have to pick Doc. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate him, but I’ve also never loved him. He comes off more whiny than funny, and most of the time he’s only funny due to the back and forth with O’Malley. Otherwise, usually… he’s just there. Even here in S2, while having a pacifist medic in a cast where several are trigger happy could lead to some funny stuff, Doc was just an annoyance. The situations he got into were funny, like getting knocked into the Warthog when the Blues unknowingly made it go rogue, but he was literally just there for the ride. Something IDT later season really improved aside form 16 and 17, which tbh I think is stretching it.

IDK, I just find Doc whiny and kinda boring. Even if he’s meant to be the annoying, disrespected nice guy, doesn't Donut kinda fit that slot already? Heck, they both even have the recurring ‘disappear for seasons and then suddenly comes back’ joke. The only times that I feel invested in Doc is when he has O’Malley, which is how he re-entered the plot here. I’m gonna save more about that in the S3 posts, but on his own? Doc just… doesn’t really work and I didn’t really miss him in between the Reds dumping him and him reappearing when O’Malley infected him. It’s also a flaw IDT recent seasons have really fixed, though they are trying. Plus I don’t hate Doc and some jokes with him do work (the gag of his naming made me giggle), I'm just… indifferent. But that’s why he’s at the top of the list since the most I can say is I find him whiny and not as funny,

#4. The Cyborg Subplot

So due to losing Lopez and because he’s Sarge, Sarge decides to turn one of the Reds into a cyborg to do all the stuff that Lopez did. He settles on Simmons. Now in and of itself, the subplot is fine. It leads to a good few jokes, like Grif trying to ruin Simmons’ parts after the surgery or a few gags like Simmons shooting his own foot and of course, faxass. While IDT the season would have been hurt without it, it has plenty of funny bits. Sow hat’s the problem. Well… like I said, cutting it wouldn’t have hurt anything. It kinda is just there to give the Reds something to do during the O’Malley and Tex stuff since otherwise, they’d just be standing around and taking… well, more than normal. Otherwise, it’s only significance plot-wise is Tucker tuning into their frequency, which is important in the finale when he picks up Vic and Sarge’s conversation.

So yeah, the subplot isn’t all that important. But it is still funny, so I don't mind it being there. But nowadays… how much so we see this come up? I mean Grif got mutilated by a tank and got another guy’s body/organs haphazardly stitched on. Simmons, while he possibly gave up those parts to Grif willingly, was otherwise forcibly converted into a cyborg. This… hasn’t really come up again. I mean the only time I think Simmons mentioned it in-show was as a brief joke in S11. Nine seasons later. I don’t think Grif’s side of it has come up at all ever again. Though… considering you can only get so many jokes out of this setup since everyone is always in armor, I do understand why. Though I feel with Simmons’ side at least, they could play with it some more, both comedically and maybe even storywise. But that may be my need for Simmons content talking…

So yeah, the subplot was okay. It’s at Number Four since I don’t hate it and it was funny. I just feel like nothing would be lost without it, especially since it pretty much never comes up again. Maybe one day though, who knows? At least the fanfic writers keep it alive XD

#3. The Caboose Forgetting Church Thing

Okay this is brief, but it does annoy me. During the whole trip into Caboose’s mind, Caboose’s memory of Church gets shot. As such, Caboose forgets who Church is. Makes sense, O’Malley killed the personification of Church in Caboose’s mind, so his mind would forget it. It also explains why Caboose got, well… for lack of a better way to put it, intellectually challenged later on due to having three AI’s in his brain and all the chaos that broke out. But Caboose forgetting Church lasts like… one episode? Maybe two? Anyways, Burnie explained on the commentary that it was just too hard to write out so they did one joke with it, and then just dropped it. Probably for the best... but then we have to figure out how this works in-continuity... damn it.

Really this is only on here because it forces me to try to figure out how this is possible in a show sense. Which yeah I probably don’t need to, but I am a continuity loser who tries to piece together these things. If I had to guess, maybe the memory of Church fixed itself somehow or Caboose was able to recall after being around Church for a little while. But I honestly really don’t know, and trying to think it through hurts my brain. It also did little to nothing either story-wise or comedy-wise, at least we got a few jokes out of the cyborg subplot. IDK, I feel like they gave up on it too soon. But then again this is the saga where they’ll break/ignore continuity for the sake of a joke and that’s just how these seasons worked. Hence why I put it smack-dab in the middle.

#2. Some Holdover S1 Issues

You can tell that there was a mass improvement in terms of production for Season Two. Pacing felt stronger, more was going on, characterizations began to settle in, and they even began to form more of a plot. They clearly had a much better idea of what they were doing now that they got through Season One and I think things like Matt becoming more involved in writing and production as well as Gus moving back to work on the show really helped as well. That being said, not everything got resolved. Most did, but there are still a few holdouts.

Audio mixing is a LOT better, especially when it comes to effects. The filter is still a little distracting, though better compared to S1. Not all the characterizations really set in. Grif and Donut are about 75% there and Simmons and Tucker are probably the least set in stone. The traits are there, like Simmons clinginess to Sarge and Tucker actually showing some competence when forced to, but nothing set in stone. Donut’s also on the right path with his hobbies and tendency to babble into TMI territory, but the voice is still off and his personality isn’t quite there yet. There’s some other, but I’ll touch on it in the Likes list. Some jokes could also still drag, like the whole switch joke where some of Church and Tucker’s back and forth went on a little too long.

We’re clearly making progress, but the mark hasn’t quite been hit. It’s still an improvement over S1 though, the pacing especially. This is nitpicky, but still it’s there. But hey it’s progress, and that is never a bad thing. So yeah, RvB is still evolving here, but the progress bar is loading steadily and trust me, by S3 I think we’ll be settled in… well, for the most part.

#1. Some Outdated Humor

The BGC was made from 2003 to 2007. Obviously, there’s gonna be some stuff that is outdated. Take the graphics themselves for example. Halo has evolved, so the game can look a little outdated, especially when you compare the original footage to the remastered footage. Let's put it this way, VIC is uncanny in the remaster… and is utterly horrifying in the original version. Thank God that the DVD is the remaster and I was spared of looking at that monstrosity. Visuals aren’t the only thing though, some pop culture references can also come off as outdated, like Creed joke in the RL vs Internet PSA. So can some of the humor that shows how stupid we were back only two decades ago.

There are… some jokes that are uncomfortable to listen to. For example, there’s the Grif shaming himself joked by saying he’s a girl and likes ribbons in his hair. It’s not the worst joke and clearly, it isn’t made to offend… but nowadays I think it could look offensive to certain individuals. It didn’t necessarily offend me, but it did kinda make me feel uncomfortable when I first watched it, but it could be me thinking it over too hard. There’s also the casual usage of the R word. Last season it came up a bit, but I noticed it came up more frequently here. Not excessively, but there were quite a few instances where it was treated as a casual curse word. Obviously back in 2004 we didn’t realize this was an offensive term, and I think they’ve even said that they regret the casual usage of it during the early years. You certainly would probably not hear that word used unless maybe to emphasize how terrible a character is, but even then I think they’d be more careful.

Now obviously RvB uses a lot of adult and offensive humor, especially in this era. I guess you can kinda call it the web version of South Park, only RvB has never really resorted to shock humor. It puts it above many, /many/ animated adult comedies in that regard. Still, when you run for this long, you’re gonna have some outdated elements. It’s not necessarily their fault, it just shows that times has changed. Still, it does make some stuff hard to look back on without cringing, and I imagine that the Founders would agree. So yeah… there’s just some stuff that wasn't fun to look back over and S2 isn’t the only offender, but this was where it stood out to me and took me out of the moment. As such, it is Number One.

(Top 5 Likes)

#rvb #rvb reviews #top likes/dislikes

[lexi-the-twilight-dragon]

FATHER’S DAY

The Labyrinth can show you what you fear. Or it can show you what you thought you wanted. (Or, if Tucker’s Labyrinth experience had gone differently)

FANDOM: Red vs Blue. S17 spoilers. RATING: Angst/Alternate Version. WORDS: 1407 CHARACTERS: Tucker, Junior, Donut, Washington, OCs (mentioned)

~.~.~

He’s alone.

Could’ve sworn he was in a group of like a dozen earlier, but none of them are anywhere to be seen. Only his own boots can be heard clacking against the floor of this weirdly empty hallway.

“Hello?”

Empty hallways always seen to elicit that response for some reason, don’t they?

He walks for what feels like an hour before there’s any change in the hall at all, but when there is, boy howdy is there. After a couple of turns, it abruptly stops to view a straight-up, motherfucking black hole.

“Oh holy fuck.” It’s obviously kinda daunting that an instant-kill abyss is right there, but not gonna lie, it looks pretty fucking cool.

So fucking cool, in fact, that he’s completely taken by surprise by the sound of footsteps not far behind him. He hadn’t heard them come around the corner, but they’re not exactly quiet either, which instantly lets him know that whoever it is, they’re way bigger than the average human being.

And when he turns around, he’s right. Behind him is a Sangheili soldier, and a stocky one at that. He may be visibly young, but even a juvenile Sangheili easily towers over Tucker, and this one’s gotta be 6’9 at least. And while Tucker’s decent at understanding Sangheili rank and armor, he can’t tell what this greenish-blue one means.

Then Tucker sees his eyes. They’re not gold, like most Sangheili’s, or even the usual variants of orange or green. They’re a deep, chocolate brown. Tucker brown.

The greenish-blue armor? It’s aqua armor.

“Junior? What are you doing here?”

Junior cocks his head, slightly but sharply. It’s a lot more obvious when his neck is a foot long.

“Well, nice to see you too, Dad, after, what’s it been, seven years? Don’t I even warrant a ‘hello’?”

Tucker’s taken aback a second by the sass. The hostile sass.

“Uh, yeah. I mean, it’s good to see you too, ‘course it is. I just… wasn’t expecting it to be here, you know? There’s uh… kinda some dangerous shit going on right now? With a murderous god-thing running around?”

He barely finishes the sentence when Junior laughs. It’s not a good laugh. It’s halfway to being a scoff.

“Funny,” Junior says, fixing him with a gaze that, even in spite of his human eyes, has the full power of a reptilian Sangheili glare, “It’s almost like you’ve forgotten I’m a war mediator or something. You know, the job where you’re sent to the slap-bang middle of conflicts and hundreds if not thousands of lives rest on your every word? Not to mention your own, because both sides will happily kill you if you fuck up? You think that’s not ‘some dangerous shit’? Because that’s kinda where you left me, at age three no less.”

Whatever Tucker was about to say vanishes in an instant, but Junior is far from done.

“What, you thought I was safe working with the embassy? Don’t you have any idea what kind of shit-show Sanghelios turned into after the war? Holy fuck, Dad, I thought you’d at least have paid that much attention. Was I not on your radar at all? Or did you just assume I was dead after a couple months?”

“What? No!” Tucker’s voice reappears. “I… I was gonna contact you as soon as that Freelancer bullshit was over, like I promised, I just kept hitting obstacles.”

“You’d be referring to Chorus, right?” Junior’s tone drops to something chilling. “That I can understand. But if I got my dates right, that conflict ended two years ago. What were you doing after that?”

Tucker can’t answer.

“Church sent that message straight to my desktop computer from Chorus, why couldn’t you? It didn’t have to be much. ‘Hey Junior, good to know you’re still alive, great work you’ve been doing by yourself for all these years, sorry I missed your birthday seven times, and by the way, you now have three dozen little siblings, and none of them are going to see their father again either’!”

Junior’s started to approach him, slowly but very threateningly, and he backs up without even thinking. It’s only within a step’s breadth that he remembers there’s a black hole abyss behind him. This split-second distraction costs him, because the next thing he knows claws are lifting him off the ledge by his throat.

Junior holds him up so they’re face-to-face, and at this close a distance, it’s much easier to see the tears forming in those all-too-human eyes.

“Did you really not want me all this time?” he says, all the anger and volume gone from his tone, “Is that it? Am I really the abomination Church said I was, and you were just lying to me?”

“No.” It’s not even Junior’s claw that causes Tucker’s voice to drop to just over a whisper. “Junior, that’s not true, that was never true, I swear.”

“Wasn’t it?” Oh god, his voice was breaking now. And so is Tucker’s heart. “What was it you said the second I was born again? ‘It’s not mine’?”

His face, and voice, suddenly harden to scalpel-sharp steel. “Guess I shouldn’t have expected more from you, Tucker. You’ve never been one to think of consequences anyway.”

He straightens his arm, holding Tucker out further from the ledge.

“So what do you think are the consequences if I do this?”

“Junior!”

Junior snaps his head around, and Tucker can just see past him at the group that has appeared in the hall.

“Junior,” Donut repeats, “Put him down.”

Junior turns further around to face them, which puts Tucker back over solid ground, but not by much. If Junior drops him now, he’ll still fall.

“Hmph. Of course. It’s always gotta be about them first, doesn’t it? The Reds and Blues, going off on another adventure. Never mind the family you leave behind.”

“Killing him won’t change that, Junior,” Donut warns, “It only eliminates the chance that he will come back for you.”

“A chance he won’t take,” Junior growls, “He’s never taken it before.”

“That’s not true.”

It’s not Donut who’s speaking now.

“Hi Junior. You haven’t met me before. I’m Wash.” He steps forward from the group. “And it’s my fault your father hasn’t contacted you, not his.”

Junior stops, listens. Lowers his arm ever-so slightly. Tucker feels slightly safer, but slightly confused.

“I was stingy with the communications after Freelancer went down, because I… I was paranoid for the team’s safety. I should have allowed him to call you, but I didn’t. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t try to reach out.

“Tucker,” he turns to the aloft soldier, “Show him the photo.”

“Wh-What?”  Tucker’s mind pulls a blank.

“That photo you showed me,” he clarifies, “The one you show everyone so they know just how proud you are of your son.”

Tucker’s breath hitches. In amongst all this bullshit, he’d almost forgotten about the photo of his boy in his pocket.

He reaches back to grab it, slowly and carefully. If he drops it into a black hole of all things, he’ll never forgive himself. Junior looks back at him as he holds it up.

“This… this is the photo your school sent me, of you and your fifth-grade basketball team. Uhh… one of them was called Elliot, right? And Tyler? And… Quinn, was his name? He was the only one chill enough to smile properly.”

He almost wishes he didn’t have his helmet on, so Junior could see the raw emotion lining his face.

“Junior, I never forgot about you for a second. I failed to keep my promise, and for that, I am so sorry. But you will always be my first kid, and I am so fucking proud of you, and everyone I meet fucking knows it. Okay?”

Junior’s helmet doesn’t cover his face, so the emotion on his is as plain as day. He’s crying, but Tucker knows enough about Sangheili, and enough about his son, to recognize a smile.

He lowers Tucker onto safe, solid ground, and lets him go.

Wash comes up behind, and puts a hand on Tucker’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Tucker. I shouldn’t have deprived you of the right to contact your family. But Junior’s safe. Safe enough to attend school, anyway. He’ll still be alive when you get to call him next.”

“Yeah,” Tucker replies quietly, “I know.”

Junior’s form glitches for a second, before it disappears.

~.~.~

A/N: Was going to do one of these for Grif, Tucker and Simmons, but Tucker’s is the only one that came out kinda decent. I need more Junior in my life. RT is good at editing across media now, can’t they cross over Junior animated in H2A?

(Also I couldn’t help referencing Chain of Memories, sorry)

#Red vs Blue #S17 spoilers #Omphalos/Theogeny #spelled it right this time #Lavernius Tucker #Junior #Franklin Delano Donut #Agent Washington #bringbackjunior2020

[reelybadfnafocs]

Rosemary The Fox

Meet Rosemary (NOT MINE ;))) )

Lmao….I like how you preemptively tagged this ‘Mod Bright’.

EDIT: Sheesh, I’m getting to this way late. I started reviewing this when I was sent in, but I have no clue why I abandoned it. Anyhow, I’ll finish it now. 

Name: Rosemary the (pirate)fox

Oh no……my poor name rule…….*puts head in hands*….Okay but in all honestly I think they’re just having their fun here, I’m going to critique it to my standards but I’m a firm believer in things being alright as long as they make sense in context.

Age: 21 Gender: Female Species: Fennec Fox 

With this reference image I’m a little unclear of whether this is a kind of AU or not, but it seems like she’s meant to be taken as an animatronic despite her being drawn in human forms. Which is cool! I think it’s cool. As such, I’m assuming the age listed is like…her mental age as an animatronic, and/or the age she died at (skimmed ahead a bit and this seems to be a case of ‘possessed animatronic’).

Also specifying fennec fox as a species/design inspiration adds a little bit of flavor here, despite her name simplifying it to just ‘fox’! I think it’s a good compromise between wanting a more exotic species for your OC and wanting a species simple enough for any child to understand.

Sibling: Emily Bunny/Sunny

Is Sunny another name of Emily Bunny’s or is it another person? It. Might be best to clarify this. Children: Stitched the Lion Ragdoll and Patches the Rabbit Ragdoll Height: 5 ft. and 8 in.

As a human or as an animatronic? Either way this probably works out! My first thought is ‘wow that’s a small animatronic’ but honestly it does make sense for her to be built smaller, and it’s been done irl plenty of times. Bio: When Rosemary was alive her name was Orchid Flower. She adopted Leona (Stitched) and Promise (Patches). She wanted children but she didn’t find anyone that she loves that much and back. (I’m assuming this means she wanted children but she couldn’t find a partner who she was willing to have children with. I do like this plot point, though I think it should be expanded upon! I’m not an expert, but 21 sounds kind of young for adoption, and she would’ve had to prove that she’s able to provide a stable life for these children and whatnot. I do also think there are some barriers that single aspiring parents struggle with when trying to adopt vs couples, so that would be something to write about too.) She was helping to design the animatronics for *Sugar Kitty’s Ice Cream and Pizza* and when the animatronics where built, she was showing Shimmer, Taylor and her sister Sunny. They were killed. (Who are Shimmer and Taylor? Who killed them? And how did Leona and Promise die? If they didn’t die with Orchid, what happened to them after her death? Did they go to another foster parent? Otherwise, I think this is a good set-up, and a good reason for Orchid to be at an animatronic restaurant - after all, she was designing the robots, and I don’t think it’s far-fetched for her to want to show people close to her her hard work in real life.) Orchid possessed Rosemary. Rosemary wasn’t intended to be a pirate it’s just that they didn’t have enough money for the hand so they made her a pirate. (I was going to question this but like. Yeah fair. It’s an easier explanation for her hand being missing than anything else, but there were some ways the missing hand could’ve been taken other than the pirate route (for lack of a better example, see Funtime Freddy. Was,, did he exist when this submission was sent in??? When was this submission sent in-)) After two years of opening Sugar Kitty’s was law sued by Fazbears entertainment because of Rosemary being a *Pirate Fox* like Foxy the Pirate fox. To avoid being shut down they kept Rosemary in her “cove”(their were being law sued for that too). (Yeah this makes sense.) She doesn’t comes out her cove except to say hi to the night watch. There was one time where she was repaired and had her left eye and hand. but it didn’t last. (Why didn’t it last? Was it before or after the lawsuit? Did they try to remake her into something other than a ‘pirate fox’? :thinking:)

Overall the backstory is lacking in detail but makes sense in general and has a lot of potential. As for my last point, I can definitely see her being fixed and the public just. Not having a good reaction to her character suddenly changing, so that might be why her being fixed ‘didn’t last’.

Personality: Sensitive/doubtful/ She’s sensitive, gentle but she could get a bit ruff. She’s the type of person that speaks in a sad toned voice. She holds grudges that she will never forget but person she has a grudge against wouldn’t even remember it but she’ll give them multiple changes. She walks around like she’s sad and has a storm cloud above her. She could be bubbly at times but that’s when she's trying her best to contain herself. She sometimes think that she doesn’t have emotions. When ever someone angers her she says all the bad things in her head.    to best summarize it she bottles up her emotion

This section is kind of awkwardly written, but I get the gist. She’s sensitive and gentle but can get rough in certain situations. She’s generally a very sad person and it shows, and she’s quick to hold grudges for things that sometimes aren’t even important. It’s the trauma ™. I think this is a good personality description to start with, but as an animatronic OC I think it would do her some good to write out how she acts around children/how Rosemary (the animatronic) has been programmed to act around children. Has the programming been completely taken over by Orchid’s spirit? Does Orchid work together with the programming? These are some questions that should be considered, I think. Likes: She likes to isolate herself in her “cove”, she likes to draw even though she’s a *lefty* she would tie a pencil to her hook and draw, she likes to sing too, green, blue, flowers, music, plush toys, unicorns(fairytales), she likes to be around the people she’s used to

This is cute. <:) Dislikes: Moving she’s lazy but she might run around, people making fun of her, people whining, hard core gore

Yeah fair, but children are whiny. How does she act around them if she’s in a children-targeted restaurant? Powers/abilities: She has vines that comes out of her back. They only come out when she angry or she actually needs it. But when they come out it hurts her and. When she little angry they’ll only come out a little. But when she extremely angry they’ll come out all the way. But the problem is that most of the time her anger turn into tears. With the vines that has thorns she could extend them. When ever she gets sad thorns would grow on her face starting from under eye patch. They would grow as her sadness would grow. At any time she could summon a veinus fly trap and it doesn’t hurt. When she’s out of control the trap will convert her. When she’s happy or over came sadness roses, orchids or even any pink or red flowers.

How does this work? It could make some good sense with more worldbuilding but we didn’t get the worldbuilding necessary to justify these magical plant powers. Why does Rosemary have these powers? Did Orchid have these powers when she was alive? Is this somehow a part of the robot? Yyeah this should be given more thought.

Think of this what you will

(hey again Mod Bright)

Heheh. Hi.

Anyway, since there wasn’t an appearance section I’ll do some design critique down here-

The neon is kind of really bright! I’m not going to say it’s unpleasant to look at because I’m one of the few that actually quite likes these color schemes, but it feels like as a restaurant design it would be…unappealing to a wider audience. I do like the various alt designs, and I think Rosemary in general just looks super cute. The eyepatch is especially a nice touch! I like the heart. I didn’t get a fullbody of the actual animatronic form, so I can’t pass any judgement on that front, but aside from the neon green/teal I think the colors and outfits/accessories are really nice on the human designs! The pirate design in the middle is especially nice, as all the darker browns balance out the bright hair really well.

Honestly, what keeps me from passing definite judgement is the fact that there seems to be a lot of information and character building missing here that may or may not be present in other places- aka, not the source of this art. For all I know, the things I asked for more elaboration on have already been elaborated on in other posts from this artist!

But with that, I’ll bring my review to a close. Overall? Good character! I like her for various reasons, and I’m intrigued to learn more about her (and the world she’s in, as it seems it doesn’t conform strictly to the rules of the FNAF universe).

-Mod Bright

ps: i. would like to credit this image if possible, since i don’t think the person who submitted this owns this character (if the ‘not mine ;)))’ is anything to go by. i don’t usually have a lot of luck with reverse image searches, though, so if anyone wants to take a crack at it please do!! i’ll edit this post with the artist when i find them.

Thank you, and have a wonderful 2020!

#2 much neon #Mod Bright #Review #submission