#before s2 comes out... let me post this draft

[catricks]

something so [?] about the way reagan and rand sat around on the couch or wherever drinking and being dero together. the way he slouched around in his dressing gown all the time and demanded her attention. And like how despite reagan's misgivings and being like used/manipulated by him and the differences in what tehy cared about they settled into an odd kind of synergy anyway, where theyd both sit back and be weary/pissed about the world, together.

when reagan chose him in the finale and defended him from myc telling him to fix his fucking issues (that was actually pretty funny lmao) how like used to being let down and managing her expectations she was and yet how much she cared about him and looked out for him... like she probably was long past wanting normal parental attention and love from, well, either of her parents . in childhood and probs hasnt expressed that vulnerable need for love from them since then either but it still shows up.. in the way that shes still there for both of them, long-suffering and weary and exasperated and disappointed but still there to manage their issues separately and together. and the way she probably found some comfort in going home at the end of the day and cracking open a cold one w her dad - maybe even felt like out of everyone in the world he was the closest to understanding her. but he never even saw her as her own person.. he felt affection towards her. probably saw/sees her as his cute little kid but thats as far as i think it ever goes. he sees her as enmeshed w him

how not only was erasing orrin from her memory erasing the knowledge of the only real friend she had (as a kid at least) but also putting himself in the position of the person she was closest to. so in the end even the miniscule way she felt emotionally connected/vulnerable w him wasnt even her choice at all

#p #before s2 comes out... let me post this draft #am i overanalysing a mid adult cartoon yes... but why not for fun #long post / #anyways rand ridley 1 leech on reagan's life die motherfucker #theres also the way she probably felt a sense of connection from the way that she prob felt that she understood him too #like from years of watching and adjusting to and picking up on some of his bad habits - the ones that maybe she was like well whats the #point in resisting this small thing #inside job

[that-was-anticlimactic]

how about... and hear me out... we stop reducing cole ninjago’s personality to food?

#literally so sick of it like it isn't even funny anymore #and this is at the fandom more than the show right now #like first of all - cole Clearly had an eating disorder and while that probably wasn't intentional on the writers' parts... #i mean. cole Literally started binge eating after watching his friend explode. come on. he was Never like that before s4. #and like he is Clearly at least a little insecure about it but no let's make jokes about how cole eats all the time hahaha #like the amount of times i have clicked out of fics or refused to reblog art solely because all the ninja are doing their thing and then oh #look there's cole eating cake hahaha so silly not like he's a ninja or anything :D #do better #it just infuriates me Especially since it is CANON that cole stress eats (because making fun of stress eating is so funny... show / fandom) #and he's my favorite character and it sucks to see him constantly portrayed as this food obsessed ninja who has no depth aside #from the 'there's not gonna be cake?' throwaway joke from s2 that Clearly only became a reoccuring thing because the fandom flipped out and #became obsessed with it like Yes it was funny but my God y'all have taken it to an entirely different level and the show bounced off of that #not to say that no one should ever draw or write or mention cole with food but if all you draw him with is food or if he's doing something #with food every time you write for him then you should Prolly take a step back and ask yourself why you're doing that and how you're #portraying cole as a character because he CERTAINLY has more depth than 'i love cake and also junk food tehehe protecc' #this has been in my drafts for a month and i just saw something along these lines on insta so i’m angry and posting it lol #ninjago #cole brookstone #cole ninjago

[drconstellation]

Taking Things At Face Value

This post is dedicated to all those Ninas out there, who are "just enjoying the show."

I have been pondering an problem that had come up for a second time in another meta I'm writing (I left it out of an earlier one for clarity) regarding acknowledgement of identity and faces in S2, but when you keep running into the same road-block, you have to tackle it head on. Then I ran into the exact same problem a third time here, and the beginnings of this meta has sat in my drafts file staring at me for several weeks while I've been doing other things. But finally, finally, the answer has come to me, while being kept awake by a passing thunderstorm at 1.30am.

MRS SANDWICH: You're a good lad. CROWLEY: I'm not actually, either. But thank you.

Let's start with this exchange between Crowley and Mrs Sandwich, after Crowley has led all the Whickber St shopkeepers out of the ball to apparent safety. She calls him a "good lad," and he denies it, but thanks her anyway, and gives her a charming smile. We all know Crowley hates being called 'nice' and the last time he did something 'good' he got dragged down to Hell for punishment, so it seems like an odd thing to happen.

But the thing is, while Mrs Sandwich is complimenting his actions, he is responding about his appearance - that is neither 'good' (i.e. he is a demon) or a male human (i.e. he is an supernatural non-gendered entity.)

At this point you might be going "yeah, yeah, we know, we get that! Move along op..." but this matters, as you soon will see. We should also note that neither Crowley or Aziraphale judge Mrs Sandwich for being a brothel madame (how Aziraphale does not know this when her shop is just over the road from his I will never fathom, but there you go) and Crowley is actually quite charming all-round to his parallel character (prostitution and demons going hand-in-hand - er, not literally. But they went out the door as the vanguard arm-in-arm, though.)

The Metatron turning up at the bookshop in person is the next scene on the cards. Firstly, archangel Michael doesn't recognize him, but Saraqael obviously does.

Now, I know I'm guilty of saying that Michael may have had their memory adjusted at some time, but I'm going to suggest something else at this point. Saraqael knows who this is, because they have just had a fresh reminder from watching the recordings of Gabriel with Crowley and Muriel. And Saraqael is a pretty smart angel, so lets give them some leeway on this one. But for Michael, well, they are in the same situation as Aziraphale. They have only seen the Metatron as giant floating head without a body, so don't associate him with this appearance before them, and also because he has a beard.

Just before you jump on me and say "But he had one in the recordings!" yes, yes, I know. Two things, though, I want to bring to your attention: angels are not supposed to have facial hair,* and he doesn't have any in S1 (I checked!) and he also makes the comment "This calls for much less attention, though." Yeah, well a giant head floating through the streets of Soho would be quite a sight, wouldn't it, even though they had already been treated to the view of Gabriel's royal rear-end. Aziraphale had only met him once before, as a giant floating head in S1E4 who had had to introduce himself, so we could surmise this is Michael's problem as well, even though they were at Gabriel's trial. This is backed up by a tumblr ask/answer from NG as well, where he said "I think because they normally see him as a giant floating head, and not as a little man in a raincoat."

MICHAEL: Um, and who are you? METATRON: For Heaven's sake. And I mean that most literally. You don't know me? Well, uh, what about you? Demon? Do you know me?

Demon. That is what the Metatron chooses to call Crowley in that company, and we know in hindsight that he knows Crowley's name - as does Uriel, and Gabriel. Even Muriel learns it. But they don't use it, at least not in S2.

Even more notable is that the archangels don't deign to him give the respect of using his chosen name at all. He's not not even their enemy at this point - he's beneath their notice altogether, even though they are in the same room. Only Aziraphale seems to acknowledge his existence, instinctively trying to reach out to him as he passes by.

To Nina, people are coffee preferences.

To Mrs Sandwich, they are desires that need servicing.

So then question I had, and that stopped me, was why did both Crowley and Gabriel question Beelzebub about their new face?

It stood out to me because you don't normally make an obvious comment about the change of actor for a character, and to do it twice - !! You can't ignore that. No meta writer should ignore that. There is a trope term for this, actually, called "lampshading," which means to intentionally call attention to an incongruent situation within a story before moving on, but in a show where nothing is an accident, this seems a bit trite to me. Eventually I realized that this was the whole crux of the problem to me - that while we all too readily take things at face value, its not the faces that really influence us, its our internal values.

In the case of Beelzebub, Crowley recognizes the demon, their power, and their identity via the flies without any doubt; he merely comments on the change of exterior appearance. In terms of value, he knows straight away he's dealing with someone dangerous, no matter what they look like. Gabriel, on the other hand, is judging the book by its cover, and because he doesn't recognize the new cover, he needs proof of which demon he's dealing with, or maybe if they are even a demon at all.

"Bravo," says Nina, "Just enjoying the show." She's already seen a few that week, not to mention just in the general flow of life as a shop owner involved with customer service. If you've had any sort of life in a customer service role I'm sure you've got a few stories you could tell of things you've seen or experienced as well! I know I can.

The conversation between Nina and Crowley after Aziraphale walks away is amusing for all the assumptions Nina makes about them based on what she's observed that week, but also because Crowley tells the truth every in every reply to Nina, and yet she still has no idea what he's really saying. But her judgements, based on her experience and values, still manage to drop the proverbial ton of bricks on his head so badly he slinks off to sooth himself with some alcohol while he thinks about it instead of catching up with Aziraphale to continue being the angel's nameless shadow.

This problem with judging people on previous experience and not on who they actually are is everywhere in S2.

It's Ennon treating Aziraphale, an angel he's never met before, as a slut.

It's Elspeth judging Aziraphale on his accent.

It's Mrs H. giving a powerful demon a blistering tongue-lashing because she thinks he's a just simple human black marketeer.

It's Crowley refusing to call Gabriel "Jim" because he believes Gabriel is faking it.

...and so on. These are just a few examples. I'm sure you can spot a few more.

Which brings us back around to the meeting of the supernatural Councils in the bookshop in S2E6 and Crowley's "invisibility" to the other angels and demons gathered there. A demon to the archangels, an arch-traitor to the demons, why would they want to acknowledge him? Once he restores Gabriel, he becomes rank-less and faceless to them because they don't need him any more - its basically an act of celestial racism.

Nina and Maggie don't really know any better, they still think Mr Crowley and Mr Fell are just, well, "partners." OK, so maybe they've been doing some weird shit the last few days manipulating things in the neighbourhood but they're still obviously a couple a group of the two of them in their human eyes - and neither do they seem to care that they seem to be mlm, either. No judgement there.

A number of times I've seen ops say they've been watching GO with family members who are seeing it for the first time, and the family member thinks they are just "close friends." Why? Because they haven't seen S2 and the kiss? Because they haven't verbally said "I love you" to each other? Do they really need to say that to prove their feelings for each other? Is that just your values creeping to the fore?

And where did you get your values from?

Sometimes you need to stop and question why you think what you think. I'm not just talking about religious indoctrination. Some expectations put on us by by society at large can be insidious. Expectations around how gender should act, the life purpose of a gender, your worth to society if you don't meet certain unspoken standards, age-related behaviour, social norms around alcohol consumption, the way they dress, what someone eats, the way they eat it, that you must be seen to be productive, or busy...take your pick for whatever is prevalent around you at the moment and for your culture. Just start by noticing, and being aware.

Yes, it is pointless, because demons and angels all come from the same angelic stock. There was a bit of a disagreement at one point and they split into two groups, and judgemental labels got applied to them. They are both still bureaucratic horrors. Which ever side wins the final battle, humans still lose.

Mortal humans all look the same inside, too, if you take their face and skin away and take the societal labels off them. We forget that about ourselves all the time.

There doesn't have to be any wibbly-wobbly timeline stuff going on to explain things. What ever happened to the concept of Occam's Razor? The simplest answer is usually the correct one. And that was what I realized in the middle of the night - the cliche I had used to title this was the answer. It's about being aware of those ingrained, instinctive, judgmental values that you don't realize you've learnt, and looking past the faces that you meet.

*oh lawdy, I'm giving strength to all of you who want to believe he is a demon then, aren't I? But do demons have facial hair either?

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #crowley #mrs sandwich #nina and maggie #job minisode #1941 minisode #the resurrectionists #aziraphale #beelzebub #gabriel #taking things at face value #lampshading #value judgements #wibbly wobbly timey wimey #occams razor

[lunar-years]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💜

💖 thanks for sending!!

nothing is burning here, my father would laugh: post Man City Jamie-centric, vaguely pre-ot3 episode tag. Never have I felt more compelled to write fanfic than after watching that damn hug!! Also this was my first Ted Lasso fanfiction so it is dear to me :)

Waterfalls: Jamie/Roy focused canon-divergent ot3 between s1 & s2. I'm just really proud of myself for finishing that one because it sat in my drafts half complete for over a year. And then I successfully came back to it and figured out where to take it and got it finished!! Which is big for me.

all your cracked perfection: gen Jamie-centric childhood->canon timeline coming-of-age fic. I like this a little less now that we've met Georgie, because a lot of the fic features Jamie's relationship with his mum but I wrote it before we knew her!! so it isn't totally canon-compliant, but I think most of it still works with canon nonetheless. Mostly this was just really fun to write even though the topic was heavy and I also liked playing around with different POVs in it. I wrote it mid-season in a ravenous Jamie Tartt-induced haze after the Amsterdam episode emotionally wrecked me.

Still, Sometimes,: My latest! Ot3 established relationship, post s3 future fic! This was a behemoth to write and is kind of my manifesto on future royjamiekeeley and how I imagine them maneuvering through life's hurdles together, so I feel very passionate about it!! i also challenged myself by writing the whole thing from Keeley's POV because I find her the hardest to write of the 3 :)

Whatever Our Souls Are Made Of: This is a Stranger Things Jonathan/Nancy soulmates AU! Nobody seems to read fanfic for this pairing so it has like 2 views (/s) but I adore them and had so much fun writing this!! I pretty much never write the classic, trope-y fanfiction AUs, but the opportunity with their canonical matching scars was simply too good to pass up. It was a big challenge but a fun journey.

#I think my ted lasso fics are by and large my best works #but I have a jancy st series that’s still ongoing in the drafts that I’m sure I’ll come back to eventually #I am nothing if not queen of writing for pairings ten people care about #ironically Ted lasso is a much smaller fandom but rjk is probably the most popular pairing I’ve ever written for lol #stranger things fanfiction #ted lasso fanfiction #my writing #royjamiekeeley #jamie tartt #jancy #stranger things #ted lasso #fic recs #in this case self recs! #asks

[spacetrashpile]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let's spread the self-love 💞

tagged in this by @leonstamatis

favorite is such a strong word but.... i'll go for it! trying to avoid recency bias on this one

stop me if you've heard this all before - an empires smp au in which s2 sausage finds the remains of the prison dimension his other half was trapped in, which still contains one of his old friends. i promise chapter two WILL be coming when school stops beating me into the ground.

bring out all the ghosts to life - blaseball/hermitcraft&evos au where pearl, jimmy, and netty are precog trio. this one is also not finished but it WILL BE because i literally have another chapter done already and also i care about these three so much. it will just take awhile because of the aforementioned school beating me to the ground.

the heart knows nothing of your love or of your loss - written in the aftermath of moses mason's incineration just over three years ago now (happy late anniversary!) about lenny spruce and grief and anger. man i love lenny spruce i should finish that draft i have about her.

it's not something that you put to bed - apart of my three part crossover between my friends and i's personal server, perpetuity smp, and secret life. frankly i could've gone for any of the fics in this series but this one is about jimmy's ghost session and his ghost guardian who i had picked out for him A WEEK BEFORE HE ALSO BECAME A GHOST and frankly this one has an extra special place solely for that dodgeball.

men are fools, oh, men are frail - post limited life scene between martyn and the watchers. no one should've ever let me watch evos because it made me worse about the watchers and it shall never be rectified. i LOVE writing about the watchers and i love writing about their relationship with martyn and someone told me in the comments of this fic that i had a good martyn voice in this one and i will literally think about that forever. so. you get it.

and as for my people to tag! @cohnal @waveridden @pixlostinatos @charaznablescanontoyota @theminecraftbee (if you haven't already been tagged. if you have. whoops.)

#space rambles #YAYYY ty for tagging me in this i was hoping someone would #also SUCCESSFULLY AVOIDED RECENCY BIAS by not putting my main titleswap fic on here #but know that i REALLY WANTED TO #i had already put two incomplete fics on here though i had to restrain myself

[thetomorrowshow]

poisoned rats in a pot of grain - ch. 8

Masterlist - Previous - Next

IM SORRY BUT THEY'RE FILMING LAST LIFE S2??? MAYBE???? BRB CRYING

anyway i've been fairly busy!! main draft for this fic is just about completed; the next part of the trust au is ready for posting later this week; i can post the next chapter of scott's backstory any time i want as long as i edit it lol. much love!

cw: implied/referenced torture, onscreen murder (of unnamed character), blood, dehumanization

~

“The plan,” Scott says, hitting the convoluted stringboard with a ruler, “is simple.”

The plan is anything but simple.

In the past seventy-two hours, Mythics has been moved into what solely Scott refers to as ‘witness protection’ (actually into the care of the hero Pearl, who had taken him quite willingly); fWhip has sent out drones that found the precise location of Xornoth’s base rather than vague directions from Mythics (a manor on the edge of the city); and Xornoth has somehow, through entirely illegal and frankly impossible means, become an elected senator. None of them can figure out exactly how that happened.

“fWhip is on bed rest,” Joel pipes up before Scott can properly begin. He waves his phone. “He just texted me. Surgery went well, but he shouldn’t be up for a week at least.”

That’s fine, Scott had expected that. He taps a photo of a hero on the board. “That is why I planned ahead. Lady and gentleman, Blossom.”

-

“No,” Blossom says, smiling apologetically. “I’m a pacifist, Major, you know this. I don’t seek out fights. I just want everyone to get along.”

She shuts the door in his face.

-

“And that is where Pearl comes in,” Scott says, tapping the stringboard.

-

“Yeah, I’ve kinda got my super-hands full?” Pearl says, grimacing. “Mythics isn’t exactly easy to entertain. I’d love to, don’t get me wrong, but he’ll definitely wreak havoc if I leave.”

-

“And that is why we depend on and trust one another,” Scott says, tapping the stringboard. He eyes his two compatriots seriously. “If any of us proves to be a traitor to our cause, we fail.”

“We literally know the plan,” Lizzie deadpans, arms crossed. “We helped make it.”

“It’s still best that we go over this, just to make sure we have it memorized.”

“We wrote it down?” Lizzie pulls a slip of paper out of her pocket, waves it.

Joel sighs, leans over to her. “Lizzie, let him have his action movie moment. He built a whole stringboard and everything.” “First step,” Scott forges on, “is to sneak into the manor. Our best bet for getting us in is Joel—he can make the guards think they heard a sound or something, I don’t really care. He does something to get any guards away, and then we’re in without an alarm being immediately raised.”

“Unless there’s a security system.”

Scott nods to Lizzie. “Unless there’s a security system—and they don’t disable it. That’s why I’m going in first—if I see anything that looks like an alarm or a camera, I freeze it. It’s not foolproof, but hopefully it can keep them off our tail for a couple of minutes so that we can find Gem.”

“Are we sure that Gem’s in the house?” Joel brings up, hand slightly raised. “Like, she could be anywhere in the city. She could be dead. If she’s the fourth member of our party and we can’t find her, what are we gonna do?”

And when I have your little friends, that Gem and that Blossom and the mayor, I will make you watch me torture them.

“She’s alive,” Scott says, shaking off the memory. “Xornoth isn’t interested in killing anyone at the moment. She’ll probably be locked up somewhere, though. Maybe a basement of sorts?” He scribbles basement? onto a sticky note, throws it onto the board under a cut-out of a photo of Gem. “This is probably where we’ll split up—Joel heading off to find Gem, while Lizzie and I look for Xornoth and Solidarity. Of course, things could change once we get there. In the heat of the moment, there’s a million things that could go wrong.”

“Right. What if Xornoth kills us?”

Scott glares at Joel. 

“What if we kill Xornoth?” Lizzie asks. “I know the goal is just to lock them up, but what if something unexpected happens?”

“Nothing unexpected will happen,” Scott says resolutely. “Not in this case. Xornoth isn’t going to go down like that, they’re too powerful. But they won’t want to give up Solidarity.”

Lizzie shrugs. “Not my problem. I’m just here to kill him.”

Scott sighs, taps a corner of the board that reads RULE NUMBER 1: DON’T KILL SOLIDARITY.

“I mean, I’m just here to . . . not kill him. Right.”

Oh boy.

“Right, you all know the rest of the plan,” Scott concludes, rubbing his forehead. “Just . . . no more casualties than necessary, okay?”

“You got it.”

“I’ll try my best, Major.”

This isn’t going to go well.

-

There’s screams coming from the basement.

He can only hear them occasionally, when the door to the meeting room opens for lackeys or official-looking businessmen to bustle through. His master is in constant meetings and conversations now, several seats around the table always occupied by a rotating door of people.

Jimmy’s been here for hours, he thinks, maybe even an entire day. He hasn’t moved from Xornoth’s side, cheek pressed to their leg like the obedient dog he is. When Xornoth stands, leaves the room, Jimmy stays, eyes demurely on the floor, not even processing what others say. The only words worth hearing are his master’s.

He’s been staring at the ground for some time now while waiting for Xornoth, perhaps longer than an hour, when his master finally returns, angry words spewing from their mouth.

“You think you can defy me? This is my city, fool!”

“And—and someone has to stand up to you!”

“Pet,” his master hisses, pulling Jimmy up by the hair. They unclip the leash from his collar, point him in the direction of a rather scared-looking man in a too-tight button-up. “Kill.”

Jimmy dives at him without hesitation, long nails tearing into his face and pulling at his hair. The man screams under him, and Jimmy lets the adrenaline flow as he grips the man’s throat—he doesn’t have enough physical strength to snap his neck, but an accident—

There’s an awful crack and the man crumples, eyes rolling up. Jimmy releases his neck, watches dispassionately as his body hits the ground. Then he turns back to Xornoth, waiting for their next command.

His master is smiling. “Good job, darling,” they purr, beckoning Jimmy close. There’s other people still around the table, Jimmy notices, people now silent, people looking anywhere but at the body behind Jimmy.

Xornoth fixes the leash back onto Jimmy’s collar and he relaxes into the familiar weight, rolling his shoulders back. This is good. He’s done good.

There’s a bit of blood under his fingernails and staining the pads of his fingers. Nothing abnormal. Nothing that should make him want to shake apart.

Xornoth leads him back to their seat, where Jimmy obediently drops to his knees, uncaring of the sharp pain that shoots through his bad hip. He doesn’t feel anything for the body just meters away. He doesn’t look at it. He doesn’t think about it.

He just killed someone. He just killed someone who did nothing to deserve it. He just killed someone because his master told him to.

He’s spent so long not letting his brain catch up to his actions. He can’t start thinking about what he’s done now.

Xornoth’s hand cards through his hair as his master begins speaking, and Jimmy does nothing but lean into it. He rubs the hem of his shorts under his fingernails, clears out some of the blood.

The door opens again, another distant scream echoing through the room. Jimmy chews on his tongue. He’s glad that whatever is happening to whoever that is, it’s not happening to him. He’s good. He’s a good pet. He does what his master tells him to do.

“Pet—”

Jimmy hears the word in the middle of the conversation, glances up a little to see that while his master isn’t talking to him, they’re smirking down at him, something almost . . . triumphant in their gaze. Jimmy rests his head against their lap, stays still even though his hip screams for him to shift just a little bit to the side. He’s a good pet.

His eyes wander out to the side, where only the shoes of the dead man are visible. Why has nobody removed the body? Why is it still here? His first ever intentional kill, committed thoughtlessly, automatically, and now a man is gone like he’d never even been here.

He’s losing his grip, Jimmy realizes, his tremulous hold on the compartmentalization that keeps him sane beginning to slip. He can’t have that, that’s very bad news, he can’t let emotion leak into this part of himself because he’s a good boy. He’s a good pet. He’s good for his master.

He twitches his head, just slightly, as if trying to scare off a fly on his nose. His master doesn’t notice, doesn’t notice that Jimmy’s carefully-crafted delusion of control is crumbling before his very eyes. He hadn’t wanted to kill anyone. He hadn’t thought that would be required of him. He doesn’t want to be here.

You’re fine, he tells himself, careful not to let his lips make any noise. You’re a pet. You can’t do anything that master doesn’t command. You can’t risk the cage.

Because that’s all it really ever boils down to, isn’t it? He’s not a pet because his resistance will hurt others. He doesn’t warn away the heroes of the city out of any actual care for their wellbeing. He only cares about not getting put in that cage ever again.

People file in and out. He doesn’t hear any more screams. His master holds a meeting, then another, then another, and Jimmy sits at his side and doesn’t doze for once, stares at what is left of the blood from the scratches he made down that man’s face.

When he’s finally alone, Jimmy rinses his hands in the too-cold water from the broken sink in the corner of his cell. 

There’s still dark red crusted under two fingernails.

He leaves it.

-

A stakeout reveals that, likely due to Xornoth’s new political position, cars go to and from the manor frequently, a mix of classic kidnapper vans and government vehicles. It might be as easy as driving to the front door, Joel pulling a Jedi mind trick, and then walking right in.

That’s what Scott hopes, at least, jostling on the floor of the white electrician van that Lizzie had somehow acquired.

Joel’s up front in the driver’s seat. Even through the small grate window, Scott can see his knuckles turning white around the steering wheel. Lizzie’s across from Scott, staring determinedly at the floor.

This doesn’t feel like Scott’s typical base-busting. This feels like a shady, villainous operation. Which is sort of what it is, with Lizzie involved.

There’s a huge chance that everything will go wrong. They’re only three people, after all. One of whom certainly wants Solidarity dead, and is therefore untrustworthy. But Scott has to rely on them. He can’t do this alone.

The van jolts to a stop and Scott swallows, balls his hands into fists. This is it.

“This is it,” Joel calls back to them, voice filled with false cheer. “If this doesn’t work out—”

“Please—”

“Lizzie, I love you,” Joel continues, undeterred. “And Major, you’re a prick.”

Scott rears back. “Unprovoked?” he sputters, before Lizzie shushes him and suddenly Joel is rolling the window down.

Scott ducks down, Lizzie following barely a half second later. “Cargo?” an unfamiliar voice requests, and Scott can feel his heart pounding. They’ve done absolutely nothing to protect themselves here. If there’s anyone examining the van with some sort of x-ray vision there’s no way to get out in time. Even if they do, the alarm will be raised and Xornoth will be conscious of their efforts. There isn’t a second try here. They’ve pinned everything on this.

There’s a moment of quiet, too long, a moment only filled with the sound of the idle engine and Lizzie’s breaths. Then Joel’s seat creaks, and the voice says, “All in order. Go ahead.”

The van jerks forward and they’re moving. Scott dares to raise his head a little, catches Joel’s cheeky grin in the rearview mirror.

“Headed to the garage!” he calls back, and Scott bites his lip, his stomach flipping. The first checkpoint has been passed—they’ve gotten in without detection. He ought to be celebrating, ought to be excited. He can’t help that everything feels like it’s about to go horribly wrong.

He hasn’t been this nervous in years. It’s just another fight, he tries to tell himself. You’ve busted tons of bases in your time, including Xornoth’s. It’s just another fight.

It’s not just another fight. This is Solidarity’s life on the line. This is Gem’s life on the line. This is the entire city on the line.

And then they’re pulling into a garage, and Scott has to suck it all up and clamber out of the van.

There’s nobody else in this garage. A black van is parked beside them. There’s a screen door leading into the main part of the house. Shelves of typical garage items line the back wall—spare tires, jacks, rope. Nothing out of the ordinary.

It’s quiet. Not too quiet, not eerily quiet. Quiet like a church on a weekday. An accustomed quiet. A not-to-be-disturbed quiet.

Joel behind him has fixed his mask onto his face, and Lizzie behind him is climbing out of the van, smoothing down her hair. She’s got a canteen strapped to her hip, ready to spit out a stream of water just in case.

“Should we head to the door?” Scott whispers, nodding toward it, but Joel points instead to the opposite corner of the garage. There, Scott notices, set into the floor, is a trapdoor.

A basement.

That’s their first place to check for any prisoners—and somehow, it seems safer to come in through a trapdoor rather than the main one into the house.

Joel takes point, stealing toward the trapdoor and easing it open. Scott follows Lizzie down the ladder, glancing around behind them. This is too easy. A door straight to the cellar? Through the garage? There’s no way they’re this lucky.

It appears that they are, though, because when, unhindered by non-existent guards they begin going through the rooms, the third room they check in the dark basement (which is eerily quiet, quiet in the unnerving way rather than the natural way) houses Gem.

She’s not in the worst shape of anyone Scott’s ever seen, but he rushes to her side as soon as they spot her. She’s chained to the wall, a flickering purple force around her, hair tangled and face bruised. Her eyes are closed, bags beneath them deep and dark.

Even asleep, just by looking at her Scott can tell that she won’t be up to accompanying them for the rest of the mission. He’s not sure what they can do for her, though—she can’t take the van home, seeing as it’s their current escape plan and would alert the manor to their presence. They can’t abandon the mission to help her, that would be consigning Solidarity to his fate. They can’t just leave her here—they can’t do anything, it seems, and Scott’s starting to panic which he can’t afford to do—

“Gem,” Scott whisper-shouts, stuck outside her shields. Gem starts awake instantly, raising her arms to cover her face—until she sees Scott.

“Major,” she breathes, and her entire body visibly relaxes. The force flickers once more, then disappears. Scott shoves himself forward on his knees, pulls Gem onto his lap.

“Gem, it’s so insanely good to see you,” he tells her, trying not to betray any actual emotion. They’re still in the middle of a mission, after all. He doesn’t have the time to let down any defenses.

Gem mouths something. Scott leans forward, ear over her mouth, and she tries again.

“Get out,” she croaks. “Scott, it’s—he’ll come back any moment—they know you’re here—”

Oh no.

Things had been going too well, hadn’t they?

“We’ve been made,” Scott hisses to his companions. Lizzie curses, Joel spins around to face the door.

Gem’s stirring, fruitlessly pulling at the chains around her wrists. Scott takes a link, applies tighter and tighter ice, he doesn’t know the physics behind this move but he’s broken metal by freezing it far too many times—

The first chain snaps, and he makes quick work of the other one, pulling Gem up to her feet. She can stand, surprisingly, shakes out her arms with a pained grunt.

“I’m fine,” she mutters when Scott tries to help her. “I just wanna get out of here.”

Everything is suspicious, everything including how injured Gem had seemed at first to how capable she seems now—how she warned them, but there’s no one nearby—but Scott pushes aside the prickling in the back of his brain and nods to her, continues on his way out.

He’s barely turned his back on her when something heavy slams into him from behind, sending him flying into Lizzie with a loud crash.

The air is totally knocked out of him and it’s a few seconds before he can even see, let alone breathe. When he does manage to suck in some air, he blinks his eyes open—he and Lizzie are on the floor, Lizzie shoves him off of her and rolls to her feet—Scott pushes his aching body up, gasping, only to see Lizzie dive at Gem and take her to the floor. 

He cries out, pain forgotten in adrenaline as he sprints forward—he has to protect Gem, he has to save her—but Gem’s hands go loose from where they’re pulling at Lizzie’s hair as Lizzie slams her head into the concrete floor. 

Gem’s unconscious before Scott can get there, and he goes to shove Lizzie away—that’s Gem, that’s his friend, how could she—but a hold on his cape stops him. He whips around; Joel is there, face white, holding him back.

“Major, Gem—she just tried to kill you,” he says, and Scott doesn’t need to be able to read minds to know that Joel isn’t lying. He glances back to Gem’s lax face, Lizzie dusting her hands off as she stands.

“Thank me later,” she bites out, stepping over Gem to stare Scott down. Scott looks between Gem and Lizzie, trying to work out—why would Gem—?

Joel groans at the same moment that Scott connects the dots. “The other telepath,” Joel grumbles. “They must be here.”

And Scott, still looking down at Gem, knows exactly what’s about to happen. He almost doesn’t want to turn around, as if not looking will make it not happen. But he sighs, pushes a hand through his hair, and turns around.

Joey Graceffa waves from the doorway.

-

Graceffa seems put out, almost, when he gets no reaction from the group. “C’mon, nothing for the richest man in the country?” he pouts, slipping out of his expensive suit jacket. Scott’s lip curls.

He can take Graceffa, easy. He’s known for years that there was something up with him, that he wasn’t just corrupt in that all-billionaires-are-evil way, but in more pressing ways as well. He’d never had sufficient evidence to go after him, though.

Right now, evidence doesn’t matter.

But once again, Joel pulls him back by his cape. “Don’t,” he says lowly, and Scott can feel the power in his voice. It’s not directed at him, not right now, but Scott hasn’t been on the other end of a telepath’s powers in a long time and he certainly doesn’t want to break that streak now. He backs down, lets Joel approach Graceffa.

“So,” says Joel, gesturing toward Gem. “Your work?”

Graceffa shrugs. “Quick and dirty,” he says. “Nothing near what I had going with Mythics. I suppose you would know what happened to him?”

Joel barks out a laugh. “It’s not gonna be that easy, mate,” he says confidently, pressing closer to Graceffa.

And then they both go silent, staring into each others’ eyes.

An entire minute passes.

Scott exchanges a look with Lizzie. She shrugs.

“Is this a straight man thing, or. . . ?”

Graceffa slaps Joel across the face, points at Scott. “How dare you accuse me of being straight!” he gasps dramatically, and there’s something pushing at Scott’s brain, behind his eyes, and he doesn’t like this, he doesn’t like this at all—

Then Joel is slamming Graceffa into a wall. “Both of you, head out and find Solidarity! I’ll catch up!” he shouts, as Graceffa wriggles free of his hold and kicks him in the knee.

Scott doesn’t need to be told twice. He runs, Lizzie on his heels, further down the basement. The basement isn’t too large, quite a bit smaller than Scott expected for a manor of this size, and within sight of the room Gem was in is another staircase. Scott freezes just before it, holds an arm out to stop Lizzie.

“Joey Graceffa knew we were here,” he whispers. “He could’ve alerted anyone.”

“Who even was that guy?”

“Classic billionaire type, and apparently a telepath?” That part is still fuzzy, but Scott’s pretty sure they’ve just left Joel and Graceffa having some sort of telepath showdown. So Joey Graceffa is the telepath, and for some reason, he’s been hanging out in Xornoth’s basement. Scott entertains the idea that Graceffa is Xornoth for about .2 seconds, before dismissing it entirely. Laughable.

Scott leads the way up the stairs, slow and careful. Something still isn’t right about this.

It’s the middle of the day. Sure, they sort of hoped people would be out to lunch, but there’s got to be some sort of staff here, right? And they know for a fact that Xornoth employs some basic muscle, so theoretically there should be any number of thugs around the building.

It’s not right that Joey Graceffa of all people is the only one to notice that they’re here.

But when Scott pushes open the door at the top of the stairs, there’s no one there.

It’s just him and Lizzie, alone in a grand, painting-lined hallway.

The prickling in the back of Scott’s brain has grown to a roar of dread, because this just isn’t right. They shouldn’t be alone in a building that constantly has vehicles shipping to and fro, a building where Xornoth and presumably all of their thugs reside, a building where Solidarity by all rights ought to be.

But it’s just the two of them, and the quiet that had been unnerving earlier is downright oppressive now.

There’s an open doorway to Scott’s right, light spilling onto the polished wooden floor beyond it. Scott looks to Lizzie, who shrugs.

It’s the first sign of proper life that they’ve seen. And if Gem is to be believed, it’s not a secret that they’re here.

Xornoth is most certainly there. It’s also most certainly a trap. But Scott’s not a hero for nothing, and Lizzie’s not a villain for nothing. Both kinds are quite notorious for getting out of traps.

Scott stretches, rolls his neck out, then leads the way into the room.

-

It’s a ballroom, large and grand, all sorts of intricacies decorating the walls and ceiling, but Scott only has eyes for the two figures on the dais at the opposite end of the room.

Xornoth in all their dark glory, resting back in a jewel-encrusted throne. The Canary in full costume (glider wings and musketeer hat included), kneeling at their feet. A chain connects the Canary’s collar to Xornoth.

Xornoth raises a hand, and Scott suddenly realizes that it isn’t just the two of them in the room. There’s a small guard made up of eight or so thugs standing by the door, and it’s barely a second before two of them have Scott by the forearms and two others have Lizzie. Scott struggles, but only for a moment—they’re not attacking him, just pulling him forward to meet Xornoth. He was already planning on heading that way, anyhow.

“Well,” Xornoth says once both Scott and Lizzie are before them. “Here to destroy me?”

And Scott’s seething, because he is here to destroy them. Because Solidarity is right there, chin on Xornoth’s lap. Because they’re finally here, and Xornoth is still acting like they have the upperhand.

When Xornoth removes Solidarity’s musketeer hat and glides a hand through his golden hair, Scott can’t help but yank one of his arms free. A shard of ice shoots down his arm and into the thigh of someone holding him. That person curses, smacks Scott over the head.

Scott curses as well. He needs to calm down. He can’t lose control here, in front of his nemesis, with an innocent’s life at stake. He stares up at Solidarity, searching the little bit of visible skin for any signs of recent injuries, trying to catch the man’s eye. Solidarity isn’t even looking at him, eyes fixed on . . . on Lizzie.

Lizzie’s staring back at Solidarity, face tight. Her hands, restrained as they are, are clenched in fists, knuckles turning white.

What’s visible of Solidarity’s face is expressionless, even as he leans into Xornoth’s hand.

“Nothing to say to me, Major?” drawls Xornoth, lip curled. Scott returns his attention to the villain. “Nothing to say to your . . . brother?”

Brother?

In what? Being powered? 

Maybe it’s some sort of tax bracket thing, Xornoth pleading to his anti-establishment spirit. Even so, it’s weird. Confusing. Probably meant to throw him off. Scott doesn’t like it at all.

“We’re not brothers,” he spits out, “and we never will be. Anything else cryptic to say to me, or should we skip to the part where I kick your demonic butt?”

Xornoth laughs, strange and echo-y in this space. It sends a chill running up Scott’s spine, one that he tries fruitlessly to shake. “Why, why, Major—or should I say, Scott,” they say, and the chill spreads to all of Scott’s body, stealing the air from his lungs.

There’s only two people on earth who know Scott’s secret identity, and neither of them have taken up supervillain activities in the last ten years—unless his therapist has something to tell him. And his therapist is a middle-aged woman named Nora, so it would be more than a little concerning for Xornoth to remove their mask right now and reveal themself to be her.

“How do you—?”

“Brothers, Scott,” Xornoth tells him, one finger idly wrapping a lock of Solidarity’s hair around it and pulling hard. Solidarity doesn’t move. “You’ve forgotten your poor, lonely brother, cast from the home at just fourteen? Surely you remember something of me, you at least stood taller than a toddler.”

No way. There’s literally no possible way that’s true. Scott was an only child. He hates to think of the people who raised him, the place he grew up, but now he casts his mind back, tries to recall any evidence of such a sibling.

There’s nothing. Not even a faint echo of a teenager occupying the house when he was young. No photos, no possessions, no memories.

Xornoth’s probably lying. They’re probably just trying to shake him before the battle, give themself the upper hand. But the fact that they know his name is scary. Incredibly scary.

If they know Scott’s name, who else does?

He’ll just have to make sure to bring Xornoth in alive. He needs answers about this, but right now they’re going to have to wait.

Scott sighs, tugs himself free from the guards easily. “We fighting or no?” he asks, then doesn’t wait before sending an icicle flying at Xornoth. The villain dodges it easily, stands, unclips the chain from Solidarity’s collar (Scott’s blood boils at the sight of it) and places the man’s hat back on his head.

“Pet,” says Xornoth casually. Solidarity’s eyes instantly leave Lizzie, turning instead to Xornoth. “I have some business to take care of with my long-lost brother. Keep her—” they point at Lizzie— “out of my way.”

Scott barely has time to process the words before the Canary leaps at Lizzie, and Xornoth flies toward him.

#empires smp #esmp #empires smp fanfic #scott smajor #jimmy solidarity #empires superpowers au #esh au #mas writes #i find the first part of this chapter so funny #and then the second part hits like a ton of bricks #i hope i did the build up justice!! #not that it's quite over yet #next chapter is... uh... well #idk how to even put words to it #um anyways notice how scott consistently clocks jimmy's movements rather than xornoth's? #or movement that affects jimmy? #that's not a good sign for his focus now is it #sorry for the cliffhanger #would you believe me if i said it was the best place i could find #also when joey appears and there's a pause and then it returns to the same scene?? #that's a commercial break ok #lmk what you think! #love you guys

[empressofthelibrary]

For Bailey: ✨️How did you think her up?

Okay, so. It's the fall of 2015, Thanksgiving Break. I've started my first year at college, and I'm Going Through Some Shit. The transition from high school to college isn't easy, especially since I let Mom talk me into going to a local school, one I don't really want to be at. I opted for a Business major, too, because it felt like the Smart Thing To Do.

In short, I'm miserable and I feel like I'm not in control of a single thing in my life. All the pressure and stress of the holidays and family drama is only exacerbating the situation. Everything fuckin sucks.

And then Eric, my oldest brother, stumbles into a mention of a second season of Young Justice, a show we loved but never saw the end of. Even recording the first season, the timeslot got jerked around so much that we missed half of that. Neither of us had even heard there was a second season airing.

I am desperately in need of some nostalgia and some escapism, so we find it online (🏴‍☠️), hook up my laptop to his tv, and binge it all over the next couple of days.

And then... The s2 finale hits. And I watch Wally vaporize before my eyes. Wally West, my Flash. A character I relate to and look up to in ways I can't fully articulate. I chose my penname in his honor. Yes, this Wally is somewhat different from the Wally in the comics. But that's still Wally. That's still my boy. And he died.

It was, more or less, the straw that broke the camel's back.

Now, remember. It's the fall of 2015. There's not even rumors of a third season yet, not ones I've heard. As far as I'm aware, this show is dead in the water. There's only one way to fix this.

It's also, like, three in the morning and I haven't slept well in... A long while. I'm a little manic. A little closer to crazed than usual.

So, as I reach for my keyboard, I think to myself: "I'm writing a fix it. I'm gonna drag his skinny ginger ass back from the grave. It's comic books, there's no body, he's only soap-opera dead! I'll bring him back. And you know what? I'm gonna do it myself."

Two hours later I'd cracked out a rough-draft of Bailey's first costume on HeroMachine, spitballed half a plot and a few hero-names with Eric, and started working backwards from the rescue to figure out Bailey's origins.

Bailey started out as a self-insert, and in some ways she's still a tool for me to work some shit out. But post-reboot I've tried hard to let her be her own character, to acknowledge and write her having flaws, and to keep things objective. I don't know how good of a job I've done in that regard, but I try to remember that there's a little bit of the author in every character, because that's how they come to life.

#Bailey Adler (oc) #oh god i've had this girl for most of a decade -- almost as long as i've had a tumblr #where does the time GO

[sisterdivinium]

Hello from anon again! Thanks for posting the your handwritten notes 😌

It is in fact a little hard to read but I’m confident that it’s a resolution thing and not at all your fault. As for journaling, eh it’s a toughie when you don’t have your own space. Maybe one day when I am an old decrepit hermit living in the neighbourhood’s infamously haunted house. (It’s me, I’m haunting it.)

PS I’m definitely reading that Dr Superion fic when it’s out. I wish we had more scenes of Mother Superion and her girls. S2 kinda just glossed over all nuns from all the OCS chapters dying. I wish we got 10 episodes just like in S1. We could’ve so much more!

Hello again! First off, you will be happy to know that I have finally finished the draft to your answer, so all I need now is to revise, type it up and add the relevant screen captures :)

People who read my handwriting for long periods of time get used to it eventually (my friend who reads everything I post here before anyone else has read a whole novel written in my hand LOL), but I do think it's a bit tricky despite your charming attempt to be nice to me about it :) Even for me! I've tried focusing on legibility but I think very quickly and I fear losing something if I don't catch it on paper as soon as I can, hence the desperate scribbles!

And I get you, anon, I do. Another reason why I take so long writing stuff down is because I'm constantly interrupted by family. Still, I would be driven to madness without diaries... If it's a privacy thing, have you ever considered coming up with a code to write in? I once stumbled upon this website with constructed languages and scripts and it might offer some inspiration if that's of any help.

As for the fic, it's also coming along! Slowwwwlyyyy, given the circumstances, but surely. I just hope nobody gets too hyped up about it only to get disappointed later! What excites me might not be what excites others, after all.

It's unfortunate that we had less episodes in s2 than s1, but I can respect the story they wanted to tell. Laser-focus on one thing and the others must suffer; then again, it's also thanks to this that we get the pleasure to tinker with whatever has left us wanting more through fanfic, so it cannot be all that negative :) Often, it is suggestion and the blanks left in a work of art that instigate us the most! Would I have loved to see more of Mother Superion? Sure, but you're talking to someone who would gladly watch hours and hours of just her running the convent while nothing of note happens, really. As it is... I only hope we do eventually get a season three or a movie or something that lets the story go on so we can laugh and cry and cheer and love these characters for some time still!

#chats with anon #correspondence #i'd come visit you in the haunted house. just infrequently because i wouldn't want to get in your way. journaling is vital! #before you ask the novel is from a few years ago and i haven't revised it #it won't be looking for a home in a publishing house any time soon #all i can tell you is that its main character is a nun. i wrote it BEFORE i discovered warrior nun lol #i am a cliché yes i know this is why i lean into it instead of denying it haha

[liesoverthec]

OG 911 Character Details from Canon Pt 1

Hi folks! Welcome to my post of character details for fic writers or really anyone who wants to know! All of these details come directly from the show - they’re just things I picked up on watching the show on intense repeat for screen time, so the details are about as canon as they can get. Some of them, like addresses, come from an specific episode, while others are trends I’ve picked up on. If you want a “citation” for a fact let me know and I can provide one if it exists!

I tried to include a good range of information between the 7 main characters, so that it was available for anyone.

I’m going to keep making these posts every time I get enough details collected so you can find them all under “911 canon character details” in the future! I’m committed to rewatching the whole series again for the regulars’ screen time, so I’ll be making more of these posts throughout the summer. If there’s something in particular you’d like to know, let me know and I can keep an eye out for it.

Things I noticed that might be interesting character details, part 1:

Athena and Bobby live at 1810 Fallsgrove St.

Eddie lives at 4995 S Bedford St Apt 403 (Julia made this fantastic post of the layout of Eddie’s house, and I’ve spent my own significant amount of time trying to work it out, so when I say this layout is spot on, I really mean it). (I believe this is more of a duplex situation - ie he has other neighbors attached to his outside walls, but no downstairs or upstairs neighbors.)

(These two locations are 8 minutes apart, which I personally thought was vvvvvv useful if you wanted to have someone rush from one place to another - also makes me think the 118 would be close to that neighborhood.)

Chim and Maddie live in apartment 2B. It’s a one-bedroom apartment, so currently Jee-Yun is sleeping in their room with them. I’ll be curious to know if they move as she gets older or if they magically spring up a bedroom for her - I just know there isn’t one at the moment bc Albert slept on their couch first, and then when he was injured, THEY slept on the couch.

Buck has two bathrooms! There’s one immediately to the left as you walk in his front door, and then one up in the loft, off the platform. Which I thought was a large number of bathrooms for a loft since it’s such a small space, but useful for when Christopher is visiting I suppose...

The hospital they go to for personal stuff is First Presbyterian. They’ve only started featuring its name prominently this season, but it’s the same waiting room and ER they’ve been using since s2, so I’d assume it’s also in the same neighborhood, since it’s fictional.) It’s on Altamont Street.

Given that you can see the Cecil Hotel from Michael’s apartment, I’d assume he either lives on S Spring St or S Los Angeles St. Either way he’s about twice as far from Athena and Bobby as Eddie is, and in the opposite direction.

Alcohol preferences - Athena prefers white wine, but will also drink rose and red, Hen drinks red and beer but doesn’t do it socially as much as everyone else, Chim is p much strictly beer unless it’s a fancy dinner (or tequila if he really wants to get drunk), Maddie prefers white wine, Buck drinks beer or white wine, and Eddie is a beer dude, red wine if it’s a fancy occasion (this is what they choose if they have a choice like at a bar, or if they’re hosting - eg when Athena hosts, EVERYONE drinks white because that’s what she’d choose.)

Eddie does not have the Hildy coffee maker on his kitchen counter - he still has an older model that only makes coffee.

He also likes to decorate in the color turquoise! (Maybe Shannon liked turquoise so that’s what he tends to buy?? That’s your decision, there’s just a lot of it in his kitchen. Also, his laptop case is turquoise!)

Hen gets a new pair of glasses every year. (Which means she’s doing better than me, I only get a new pair when I lose the old ones 😂)

Athena has two big diamond rings, and she wears one on each of her ring fingers (Bobby has good taste). She does not wear her rings while working.

Bobby has a gold wedding band for home, and wears a black silicone ring at work.

Hen wears her wedding ring all the time, and it’s a plain silver band.

Eddie had a gold wedding band while he was married to Shannon, and he wore it while on active duty in the Army (even during the helicopter crash). He is wearing it after Shannon leaves, but he takes it off before he comes to LA. His St. Christopher’s medal is silver with a navy border, hanging on a silver chain.

Chim prefers the short sleeve uniform. He really never wears the long sleeved one.

Eddie likes soft jazz, and will play it in the background during dinner. Idk if it’s his favorite type of music, but he likes it enough to put it on.

Buck has a picture of the ocean (I think? it’s definitely some sort of landscape) in his work locker - no other photos currently. Eddie has also been seen using this same locker.

Everyone has an iPhone and if they have a computer, it’s a Mac (this one is just bc capitalism - the show is sponsored by Apple). Hen has a red phone case, and Maddie has a navy one with gold trim, everyone else’s is super boring black/navy.

Maddie’s contact for Chim is “Howie” in her phone.

In Eddie’s phone, his contact for Buck is just “Buck”.

Bobby is just “Bobby” in Buck’s phone.

Christopher’s current interests are space and dinosaurs. And gaming!

In addition to Eddie and Albert, Chim also seems to like baseball, going off the jersey on his wall.

Every time we’ve seen Buck and Eddie drive somewhere together, Buck has driven and Eddie took the passenger seat.

Both Eddie and the Wilsons have a fireplace in their living room with framed photos of their kids at various ages.

Karen is a doctor! It’s a PhD, so she couldn’t join the team as a medic, but it does make them the future Drs Wilson. Her specialization is something to do w/ physics or chemistry etc, b/c she worked on a project for JPL on Mars, so you can run with that.

Michael is an architect, and David is a neurosurgeon who can help with emergency medicine.

Work masks: Bobby, Maddie and Athena prefer masks with a loop over each ear, while Eddie, Chim, Buck and Hen use the ones with two straps behind the head. Everyone uses the two ear loop ones for personal time.

Buck sleeps with socks on.

I hope the start to this list met up to your expectations, but if you’re looking for more then it will be on the way soon! I just wanted to get this first set out (plus it was looking a little long in my drafts 😂)

Lots of love!

🐝

Tagging: @imaginebuck

#911 fox #9-1-1 #911 on fox #911 canon character details #athena grant #bobby nash #maddie buckley #evan buckley #hen wilson #chimney han #eddie diaz #buddie #bathena #madney #henren #userac #alcohol

[kallypsowrites]

Ok serious question you seem like the best person to ask ( love your blog and your fics btw you got me reading GOT fics when I wanna purge that show from my mind) because you're sort of optimistic but also realistic I think. What do you think we're going to get in S2 in terms of darklina I'm bouncing like a ping pong ball between thinking on the one hand they wrote everything before seeing just how popular it is and leigh was involved and they're building the other ship so how are they gonna give us darklina at the same time but also Ben only signed on bc they promised him a lot of involvement but he spends most of the second book removed from all of them so how are they gonna do that. I need to manage my expectations so in a year or a year and a half when the show comes out I don't get depressed when they give me nothing 🤣. Thank you for your service.

Oh wow! First off, I'm glad you read some of my GoT fics despite being burned by the show (same).

Secondly, I'm definitely an optimistic realist when it comes to Darklina. So I'll break it down for you:

1. We will get a lot more Darklina moments. The show knows, at the very least, that Darklina is the most popular ship. it does numbers every time. For over a month, the last post sitting on the official twitter was a pic of the actors. Even if its not endgame, they'll continue to give them moments with each other because that is the major draw of the show. Yes they wrote the scripts before seeing but TV scripts NEVER stay at the first draft. The studio orders changes. They make edits. TV shows live by appealing to an audience. They fear constant cancelation, especially on Netflix. So even if there wasn't enough Darklina in the initial drafts...they'll stick in more in edits.

2. Past that, as you said, Ben Barnes is one of the main draws and they got him on board with the idea he'd be involved a lot. Sure, he's not there for much of the plot HOWEVER he and Alina have their convenient telepathic bond which means they can bring him in regularly and do a lot of juicy stuff with that. They'll also probably give him non book stuff to show what he's doing while he's not with our heroes which I'm tentatively excited about. Ben will do it justice.

3. Ben himself has always fought for the humanity of the character, and of all the actors, he probably has the most sway over the writing. So his nuance and the way he says the lines is gonna continue to be great.

4. I don't think they're going to kill the Darkling in season 2. People have said that BUT unless they intend to end Alina and Mal's story in two season, I don't think it will happen. Remember that once the Darkling is dead, they're out too. And since there's a six of crows spin off being developed, we know the show doesn't have to rush to get to the Six of Crows content. So I think he's got a solid three seasons ahead of them, as they all do. And then the Crows get to go off an have their own thing (avoiding the curse of the post season 3 cancelation).

Like, do I think they'll actually give us Darklina endgame? No. Not a chance. But they will keep milking Darklina until the finish. They will let Ben give the character more consistency and humanity than he was allowed in the books. And there will be lots of delicious angst. And even if the Darkling's character does go more in the evil direction...Ben is so delicious when he's evil and consider the Lovers to enemies tension???

For actual Darklina endgame, fanfic is the way to go. I won't let myself hope in that. I just want them to continue lighting up that screen for long as the show lasts :)

#asks #lovely anons #darklina #the darkling #aleksander morozova #ben barnes #shadow and bone

[beepboop358]

Victor Creel Theories

(also includes ST movie DNA series: Star Wars)

Victor Creel is described as "a disturbed and intimidating man who is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for a gruesome murder in the 1950s." We know he will be institutionalized at Penthurst mental hospital, where Peter Ballard works, based on leaked on set pics.

There a few possibilities regarding his character:

He could be a former test subject with some kind of powers and a connection to the upside down (which would also follow the even/odd season pattern of a main character being directly involved with the upside down creatures) I think it's highly likely that Victor Creel will be involved with the mystery/danger in Hawkins in some way, and have a connection to the upside down. He could also be disturbed on top of this, and he could be involved in Eleven's storyline this season.

That he is not a test subject and is ONLY mentally disturbed.

He may be related to one of the already established characters. Most likely Joyce, and maybe Terry but it's a stretch.

Before I go any further into that last possibility, I just want to preface that this idea of an "evil father/grandfather with powers" could be a purposeful Star Wars parallel. The Duffer brothers have already paralleled and used Star Wars references a few times in the show:

In Star Wars, Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father, and Palpatine is Rey's grandfather (aka the literal worst guy in the universe). A common theme in ST is abusive/bad fathers - that post here. Interesting...

Palpatine is also Anakin Skywalker's father, so Luke and Leia are both the grandkids of Palpatine as well as Rey is, but it's unclear if they are just force midichlorian related or actually dna related as well but I won't get into that here!

Luke and Rey are both force sensitive (have powers), so are Darth Vader and Palpatine; their descendants (kid/grandkid) have powers, and so do they (father/grandfather) The descendants use their powers for good, while the ancestors use their power for evil. Who has powers in ST? Eleven and Will - and they both already have this idea of abusive/bad/evil fathers: Will has an abusive father Lonnie, and Eleven has an abusive father figure Dr. Brenner "Papa".

So... Victor Creel being the evil/bad grandfather to either Eleven or Will and the evil/bad father to Joyce or Terry, would make a FULL Star Wars parallel to people who are morally good and have powers (Will and El - Luke and Rey), discovering they are the descendant of an evil male figure who also has powers (Victor Creel - Darth Vader and Palpatine)

If Victor Creel turns out to be the father of anyone in the show my bets are it's either Joyce Byers or maybeee Terry Ives.

If he was a test subject, its likely he went "crazy" with some of his powers and the government couldn't cover it up so they declare him mentally insane to get him committed, and he probably goes insane being locked away as well. Personally, I think he may be 001 or an early test subject, when they were still working out the kinks of the program, and I think he does have a big connection to the upside down.

The Duffer Brother's on s4: "In Hawkins a new horror is beginning to surface, something long buried, something that connects everything"....

Now let's get into the possibilities for Creel's storyline/who he could be related to (split into 3 parts).

Part 1: Creel could be Joyce's father

Based on Victor Creel's description as "disturbed" and that he is "in a psychiatric hospital", it could connect him to Joyce's bloodline.

There are several comments in the show hinting to this idea of mental instability in Joyce's family:

s1 ep.5: When Lonnie comes to visit in s1 after Will goes missing, Joyce says to Lonnie "No, don't look at me like that, like how everyone is looking at me, like I'm out of my damn mind" He responds saying "I think you need to consider the possibility that this is all in your head. Remember your Aunt Darlene?" Joyce quickly replies, "No, this is not that."

That conversation, although quick, is very telling. Lonnie is implying that Joyce had an aunt who was mentally unstable - and Joyce clearly knows about her aunt being unstable because she responds to his comment by saying what's she's experiencing is not that (the mental instability of her aunt)

s2 ep.2: Joyce says to Bob, "this is not a normal family", when he suggest moving out of Hawkins.

I used to think Joyce was always was referring to the whole 'my son got stuck in an alternate dimension with supernatural monsters and is now traumatized, and we were sworn to secrecy by the government' thing but maybe she is also referring to her biological family.

s1 ep.2: When they are searching for Will, one of the other police officers, says "Joyce is one step from the edge" and the other officer responds "She has been several steps for quite a while now".

If Joyce is related to Victor Creel biologically, and he did also happen to be a test subject, has powers, or has some other relation to the upside down, this could possibly have contributed to whatever kind of abilities Will has, because he would be a descendant of Creel. But Joyce does not seem to have any powers and neither does Jonathan. If they were related to Creel, it's odd that they both didn't get powers, but Will did. I've always thought Will was born with his powers, like El.

We know almost nothing about Joyce's past, it's never discussed in the slightest in the show, which I feel like is purposeful. We don't know Joyce's maiden name; she doesn't change it back after she and Lonnie divorce. Maybe the Duffers are saving Joyce's backstory for s4 (and possibly s5), like I think they are doing with Will and El's connection. Will, El, Hopper, and Joyce were pictured in a series of 4 tweets posted by the stranger writers, hinting to the main 4 storylines for season 4. My analyzation of this tweet here.

I think it's possible that Joyce's storyline this season could also have to do with her past- not just her searching for Hopper- but also more personal information about her. Perhaps we will see flashbacks of younger Joyce and maybe learn about her biological relatives.

Noah also said this would be the darkest season for Will, so this idea of being the grandkid of someone evil or disturbed could fit into that.

Part 2: Creel could be Terry's father/Eleven's grandfather

The only other person I could see potentially having a biological; relation to Victor Creel could be Terry Ives and Eleven, (because it would complete the Star Wars parallel mentioned earlier) but it's a stretch for several reasons, the main one being that Terry and Becky's father Bill Ives, died in a car crash (year unknown).

So for Victor Creel to be Terry's father that either has to be:

Her adoptive father OR

Her mother cheated and led Mr. Ives to believe Terry was his kid but her father is really Victor Creel, and Becky is actually Bill Ives son (which would explain why Becky has no powers)

Right of the bat it's interesting Terry's father's name is Bill. Bill is a nickname for William (Will Byers full name is William), and Billy's a nickname also for William... Hmmm....

Immediately after El is born, Terry is adamant that Brenner stole her child to use as a weapon to fight the commies BECAUSE SHE HAD SPECIAL ABILITIES - and she's completely right about everything. How does Terry know El had powers immediately after she was born? Because she knows she has developed some kind of special abilities from the experiments as well. When El goes to visit her mother in s2, THE LIGHTS FLICKER, just like they do when the upside down is near, but it's not Eleven controlling it. Her Aunt Becky says it's just the wiring, and Eleven responds: "IT'S MAMA. She wants to talk." And then we see Terry's NOSE BLEED, just like El's does when she uses her powers.

Quick side note about El's biological father is Andrew Rich: (It's revealed in the canon novel Suspicious Minds that Andrew Rich is El's father) He was a college student who got expelled from school due to protesting the Nixon address, making him eligible to be drafted in the Vietnam war, and he died in battle. Terry was involved in the Project MKUltra experiments at Hawkins National Laboratory in College, under the direction of Dr. Martin Brenner, but didn't know she was pregnant at the time. Andrew never even knew Terry was pregnant, meaning she was extremely early on in her pregancy at the time he was sent away, not even Terry was aware yet. It's also stated in this book that BRENNER HAD A HAND IN GETTING ANDREW EXPELLED SO HE COULD SEND ANDREW AWAY. The novel states that Brenner has Andrew drafted because he wants to SCARE Terry, to show her how much power he has over her life. There's definitely some history between Terry and Brenner that we don't know about yet.

If Victor Creel is in fact Joyce's father it's interesting that the powers seem to have skipped a generation with Joyce, and also one kid with the Byers, but if Victor Creel is Terry's father, no generations were skipped in passing down powers. ANYWAYS, this is all just theories and speculation since we have no actual concrete reasons to believe he will be related to Joyce or Terry.

Part 3: The possibility that Creel could be involved in Eleven's storyline this season does not rely on them being biologically related.

**One of the filming locations for this season is the Claremont House, which is RUMORED to be Creel's house and also "Vecna's lair" the new monster for s4 (unconfirmed) This is the house the Hawkins group goes into in the ST4 sneak peek, where they see the grandfather clock striking midnight. If that's true, there's a connection between Creel and the upside down and having powers, which could connect Creel to Eleven. The Duffers: "In Hawkins a new horror is beginning to surface, something long buried, something that connects everything". This thing "that connects everything", could be Creel's storyline (his possible connection to the lab/upside down/person in the show), because Creel's storyline also spans all the way back to the 1950's and before that, so there's our "long buried" part most likely.

Robert Englund recently revealed in *an interview* that his character Victor Creel gouges his eyes out, making him unable to see. Englund also mentions what it's like working with Millie Bobby Brown and talks about the first time her met her, he doesn't mention any other cast members in detail like he does Millie.

He's clearly working closely with Millie's character Eleven.

But why? I think Creel could be involved with Eleven getting her powers back, and her reliving her past. Once the government baddies realize El has no powers, they're gonna want them back. If Creel was in fact a test subject, maybe there is some kind of connection between them, Such as Eleven revisiting what happened to her in her past and how that could relate to her getting her powers back.

Another thought I had was that perhaps the gruesome murder he committed is somehow related to something that ends up impacting in Eleven's life.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whatever Victor Creel's storyline is, it will be an important one, and it will carry somewhat into s5, since he will be a returning character. He is not signed as a series regular, but as a recurring character, which means we don't really know to what capacity he will be in s5. It could be flashbacks mostly, or he could have just as big or small of a role.

Source: indie wire

That detail about eyes being gouged out reminds me of fear street 1666 when the townsmen who was sacrificed to the devil becomes possessed and gouges the kids eyes out. Leigh Janick, director of fear street, is married to Ross Duffer. They both direct and make horror/sci-fi themed series about kids in a small town set in the 80's, who fight supernatural evil with a heavy undertone of queer themes, that are even filmed in a lot of the same locations (the mall, the town streets, etc.) I'm not saying it's the same thing, it definitely won't be. But there's so many similarities between ST and Fear Street, I thought I would mention this as another.

#stranger things #st movie dna series #st4 #stranger things 4 #stranger things season 4 #stranger things 4 spoilers #stranger things season 4 spoilers #stranger things four #stranger things season four #victor creel #joyce byers #st4 spoilers #st4 theory #st4 speculation #Terry ives #eleven #el hopper #eleven hopper #Jane byers #Jane hopper #will byers #Will Byers has powers #stranger things theory #stranger things 4 theory #stranger things obsessed #stranger things analysis #stranger things 4 speculation #stranger things meta #stranger things season 4 theory #st meta

[ladymajavader]

The Mystery of Michael’s Missing Spiral

I know the first rule of season 2 is we don’t talk about season 2 anymore, but this has been in my drafts for nearly 9 months and @lovecolibri expressed a passing interest, which was all the provocation I needed to push this out into the world. Behold - my saltmine post about what tf was Michael’s character arc in s2.

During pre-season 2 promos we were told a lot that Michael would be “spiralling”. There were reports of “misdirecting his anger”

What we saw was Michael picking bar fights, random women and getting drunk in 2x01. Was that it? 

content warnings: I view his relationship with Maria as symptom of the problem, so the following will not be a nice read for Miluca shippers. Also there’s a lot of salt ahead. Let me know if I should add any other tags and warnings.

[Let me just put on my pretensious deerstalker cap and let’s go]

“Spiralling” implies getting lower and lower within the same vicious circle; falling on a curving path; getting quickly worse in a way that becomes increasingly diffcult to control. A short burst of bad behaviour, a quick touchdown to the bottom if you will, would more correctly be reffered to as “acting out”. A week of drinking and fighting does not a spiral make.

Yet it’s indisputable that after a week this behavior ends - Michael cleans up his act to start helping with getting Max back and to be good for Maria. So where are the lower rungs of the spiral?

“Misdirected anger” is even more elusive. Could it allude to Michael simply punching some guy in Wild Pony who did nothing to deserve it? That’s just a tiny transference to let off some steam out of the pressure cooker that is Michael’s emotions at the beginning of season 2. 

Yet after 2x01 Michael doesn’t throw any undeserved punches (Wyatt fully deserved what he got), he’s also rather kind and sweet to people around him without letting his negative emotions affect how he relates to them... except for Alex. 

Alex is the only person Michael is consistently mean to in pretty much every episode they interact. And I mean mean, as in maliciously negative. Even apart from every “breaking up” scene, he makes sure to invalidate their entire relationship as just sex and pain (’tortured lust’), Alex’s importance to him (making clear he was his last choice in 2x04) and even disparaging his character (calling one of his enduring qualities that he used to love ‘just stupid now’). 

[Now let me settle in my pretensious shrink’s wingback armchair]

Michael endured unimaginable trauma heaped upon unimaginable trauma at the end of season 1. And while he acts out in 2x01, a week later he has miraculously compartmentalized and packed it away neatly to be the Perfect Boyfriend and a Good Brother. It’s as if his trauma doesn’t exist or affect him when he’s with anyone other than Alex with whom he’s able to let his emotions out - but also to start processing them when he calls to talk about Walt in 2x09. 

In season 2 he also completely abandons what drove him in the previous two decades - the search for his home and pursuit of knowledge about himself as an alien. Not only does he stop trying to build his spaceship (framed as sacrificing that dream for brining Max back with the use of the genius alien pacemaker), he doesn’t use and train his powers at all the entire season (until 2x11). In season 1 he was the one using his powers most frequently, he had great control and clearly practiced. In season 2, just as Isobel is training her powers, Michael tries to cut himself off from his alien heritage. He’s the only member of the pod squad missing from the training Rosa scene, while theoretically, as the most practiced, he could be the best qualified to help.

And so I present to you my diagnosis:

“misdirecting anger” was Michael bundling up all the pain from everything that happened at the end of season 1 with all the pain connected to his relationship with Alex, channeling it all into anger. Unlike pain, grief, sadness, regret, guilt and shame - anger feels proactive and can be directed outwards. We’ve seen bb!Michael use it to (mis)manage his emotions at bb!Max before, it’s his established crutch and coping mechanism. And in season 2 he directed all of that negativity-turned-anger onto the person who was both connected to all the pain and safe to project onto, i.e. Alex.

 Michael “spiralling” was him denying his wants and needs, hiding his depression, pain and trauma in order to be the Perfect Boyfriend and Good Brother just so that for once he wouldn’t be left behind and could avoid actually processing what happened to him. Hitting the bottom of the spiral was the moment Maria broke up with him, finally driving the point home that this isn’t sustainable.

Or, Michael acting so OOC in season 2 could just be the result of bad writing, twisting his character to hit plot points regardless of his established character traits and motivation or writers (or the Writer Formerly Known as the Showrunner) just intermittently forgetting he ever endured any trauma at all. But Michael’s character arc in season 3 reinforces my interpretation of season 2 as spiralling through repression instead of processing his trauma and completely mismanaging his emotions. After all, it was set up in season 1 that to heal he would have to reopen wounds in his mind... and we saw him doing that in season 3. And what a glorious sight a happy, settled and confident Michael Guerin, facing his fears and doubts head on instead of channeling them into anger and connecting with his alien heritage even if it’s painful, truly is. Anyways, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

#roswell new mexico #rnm discourse #michael guerin #rnm season 2 interpretation #anti Miluca #or at least not Miluca friendly #and in the same vein it's kinda anti Pod Squad #as neither Isobel nor returned Max bothered to probe beneath the surface of the Good Brother #to check how he's dealing with the unimaginable trauma he went through #(while at least Isobel go to talk about what Noah put her through - kinda. ish. and she was offered support) #I guess that's the problem with unimaginable trauma tv characters go through #the show cannot imagine how to bring them through it other than forget about it #Thanks for coming to my TED talk #welcome to the saltmine #call me Wieliczka

[pterawaters]

Ptera’s WIP List

Because I need to keep it straight in my head, lol

Recently Posted

Ready for Each Other - Post-canon A/B/O fic, Stoncy, E-rated, 4k, posted for my @julybreakbingo Flash Bingo Card

Colorblind - Soulmates AU, Noir, Stoncy, T-rated, 1k

Finished but not Posted

My entry for the @strangerthingsbigbang. E-rated, 28k, more info after art claims

In Progress

Phase Shift - Nyctophobia Book 1, aka that original sci-fi book inspired by my Mr. Sandman stoncy series that I’ve been working on for like 2 years. During 2021 I rewrote it from beginning to end, coming up with a 93k draft. I’m punching up the beginning and adding a few elements to the earlier chapters that I thought of during the later stages of the last draft. I’m still thinking about whether I want to try to get it published or if I just want to put it up on Amazon so you guys can get it earlier. I’ll be asking for beta readers soon!

Inertia - Phase Shift’s sequel. Right now I’m working on plotting out the rewrite of this one. I have an old 130k draft, but it’s going to be completely rewritten to bring it in line with the rewrite of Phase Shift.

Overnight - Magnolia Way book #3, from my 90s polyamory sit-com novella series. I finished a second draft and this one is with beta readers at the moment. If you’d like to volunteer, let me know! I’m also 6k into rewriting the first book and working on a few shorts in this universe for my patreon (which is horribly behind, my apologies!)

Big Bang Sequel - I have 12k that I mostly wrote before I wrote the abovementioned stranger things big bang. It needs to be reworked and better pieced together. Probably looking at 25-30k, E-rated when it’s done.

Trickster - This is a Keys/Antwan Free Guy fic that I’ve been slowly working on, where Antwan tricks Keys into a relationship/soulbond. It’s 6k now. Not sure how long it’s going to get before it’ll be ready to post. E-rated.

Restaurant AU - OFMD my beloved! This is a Stede/Edward modern AU where Edward (Blackbeard) owns a gourmet restaurant on the “wrong side of the tracks” and Stede is the former food critic who wants to help him turn Blackbeard’s around. It’s also for the @julybreakbingo

A/B/O Gifts - Steve is an alpha who’s courting Omega!Nancy. Together they decide to court Omega!Jonathan and get him away from the alpha using him. Currently 5k and E rated.

Byersgrove - Jonathan/Billy sequel to this S2 fic where Jonathan can hear all Billy’s thoughts. Currently 1500 words and E rated.

On Hold

Indentured (working title) - This is an original polyam romance/erotica book that’s fully outlined and I’m 38k into the first draft. I lost steam on this one in the middle (like I usually do, lol). Maybe once I get a few more of my original works in a better state, I’ll come back to this one.

Queer Cozy Mystery (working title) - This is only in the concept phase at the moment, but the MC runs a Bed and Breakfast for his mom, and their permanent resident/tourist attraction is an agoraphobic “medium” who purports to speak to guests’ dead relatives. MC and his former-cop boyfriend need the medium’s help to solve a mystery plaguing the B&B. I like the set up and the characters, I just need to work on the mystery plot of the first book in what’s hopefully going to be a series.

Stoncy soulmates AU (working title) - Steve and Jonathan are soulmates, and Nancy is left ‘mate-less after Barb’s death. I’ve been thinking of it as a S1 AU, but I’ve done so many of those. Maybe it’s a college AU instead. Probably somewhere around 15-20k, but I could be way off, b/c I haven’t done an outline yet.

Through the Wall (working title) - Post-college AU. Steve and Nancy live together, and they hear everything that goes on in their neighbor’s (Jonathan’s) bedroom. This one’s much more fun, so maybe this will be the one I do for the big bang, but no promises!

GYWO/Camp Nano progress

Get your words out - I’m at 145k written since the beginning of the year (250k goal)

Camp Nano - I’m at 15k since the beginning of April (50k goal)

#ptera tries to write #ptera's wip list #ptera fic: nyctophobia #ptera fic: magnolia way #reblogs appreciated #and also encouragement #thanks for reading this far!

[thegeminisage]

🎈 ✨ for the meme!

🎈 - what’s a fic that you daydream about writing but haven’t?

ok anon, i have a lot actually so i'm gonna give you a top 5 list:

biggest one is a rewrite of the first fanfic i ever wrote, which was a HUGE 150k novelization of ocarina of time. actually, it was more of a bastardization (we called these adapts/adaptations on FFN at the time, to distinguish them from novelizations which stuck extremely closely to the source material). i had OCs, i killed off canon characters, i brought people back that should have stayed dead, it was a 14yo girl's first fic and a Whole mess...but it was the fic that got me into fic writing and i'll always love it. many years ago i tried to start a rewrite with my current adult-writer skills, but every time i've tried to get into doing that something has come up that meant it got put on hold. maybe one day...

i've had about 5 gazillion dragon age fic ideas but for some reason i only ever wound up posting little kmeme fills that have now been lost to the sands of time. so no PARTICULAR idea for this one, but one day i would be really happy to write and publish a proper dragon age fic, even if i would get crucified for whatever i write bc the dragon age fandom is just like that. idk, i just feel like it's one of the things i was MOST obsessed with that never wrung a proper fic out of me, so it leaves me with a weird unfinished feeling when i think about it that i'd really like to rectify someday.

(vague killjoys s5 spoilers for this one) ok so johnny from killjoys probably isn't actually aro but what if he really was aro. his whole thing in season 5 with the brainwashing and dutch made me NUTS. like does he love her or does he love her, you know? and i feel like if you're aro and you're literally incapable of that particular kind of love then being brainwashed into feeling that kind of love, along with blurring a really weird line to the person you're closest to, would be an extra level of mindfuckery on top of all of the rest of it. idk, i always really liked dutch and johnny's relationship bc it feels like one of the only examples of qpps i've ever seen outside a fanfic, so i'd really really like to just...write fanfic about it. lol

this is a weird one but i think it would be so fun to novelize dishonored. partially because the way they did daud drives me nuts and i feel like i could fix it and partially because i really like corvo. i wrote a little dishonored ficlet once and really enjoyed it, and realized that it'd probably fun to do like 80k in that pov. unfortunately the two big problems are 1. corvo spends a lot of time alone, so it's a lot of really big dialogue-less sections and 2. most of the supporting cast members are not nearly as fun/memorable as emily corvo and jessamine, so i feel like i'd struggle to make their parts interesting at all, let alone exciting. so it'll likely never happen. but i do daydream! tbh, i'd like to do more game novelizations/"""adaptations""" in general...that's sort of what i was "raised on" fanfic-wise and they were really popular when i first got an internet connection, and i started a lot of them when i was younger, so it'd be really cool to just...go back to doing that!

i had such HUGE problems with alec shadowhunters's characterization and his and magnus's relationship at the end of s2 especially re: one of them being immortal, so before s3 aired and made me hate the entire thing i really had dead ass drafted this ENTIRE fixit where alec gets cursed to age very rapidly, exploiting all his worries about a mortal lifespan beside magnus's immortal one and all his fears of looking old next a lover that will be young forever, and in order to break the curse he has to do some soul-searching about the fact that he was selfish at a few key points in season 2. which isn't a bad thing for character development lol but then they like. never address it! made me nuts! it would have alec-centric which is weird because my favorite characters are actually raphael and magnus, but there you go. highly doubt i'll ever give this one a go since i'm Over shadowhunters but it occupied a significant portion of my waking hours for a long time so i'll always be very sad it never happened.

✨ - what is your newest shiny fic idea?

probably triptych #3, actually (the one that goes in a set after to an angel, love and worship are the same thing & broken road). it's an older idea because i had it last year, but it's the first thing i'm gonna work on after envesseled is all squared away. i haven't forgotten about it! i know a lot of new people followed me for deancas content and were probably really excited about it, but envesseled has been waiting since 2012 and we've been writing it since 2013 so that has to come first. i wrote a little about it here (huge major giant spoiler warning for broken road, i highly rec reading that first lol) but one thing i haven't said about it yet is that even though michael isn't in it at all, the fic will talk about him a lot. i wish i could say more, because i know anyone who was waiting on it has had to be VERY patient, but i don't wanna give it all away before it's even started :(

[ask meme]

#liz answers asks #anonymous #ask memes #liz loves writing #oh boy i have a lot of fandoms to tag... #loz blogging #liz plays dragon age #liz watches killjoys #liz plays dishonored #no sh tag on this blog lol #and finally #12:46pm

[kaypeace21]

The theme with “time” this season makes me think of the phrase, “wanting to turn back the clock.” And I then think of Will never wanting to grow up and wanting to go back to the old days of playing dnd in Mike’s basement.

And then I think of Will’s (speculated) reality altering bending powers. So could there be a possibility that Will may use those powers to “turn back the clock”?? Maybe rewrite how things happened? Maybe it would be after Mike’s “death” like you speculated earlier. Since he thinks Mike is “dead” he wants to go back, and that’s what he does accidentally.

ALSO, Hopper tells joyce that he was trying to runaway from his "past" trauma with sara- before he says that line in the letter about wanting to turn back the clock and then saying it's not possible to do so . (And that life life hurts you but eventually you get out of that cave and life goes on ). Similar to Will he wants to turn back the clock to better times, but a part of him isn't ready to accept his entire past/ the tra*uma that comes with that- in order to move on and heal for the future .

Like robin said about back to the future "he's stuck in the past .But he needs to get back to his time which is the future!"

HOWEVER- I DON’T THINK THERE’S ANY REAL TIME TRAVEL!!!!

I’ve mentioned  my time-theory many many many times- in relation to my DID theory.  even if my did theory is completely wrong (aka Will has powers so his alters/split personalities/innerworlds come to life)- 

We also see how memories are explored in a supernatural way in st - it’s not literal timetravel just El using her powers to explore tra*matic memories of others (Terry/Billy so far). Like NO TIME TRAVEL PLEASE-THAT’S JUMPING THE SHARK. I really don’t want it lol. XD I think hopper and Robin's lines allude to the theme that will be addressed: confronting the past/times that harmed you but overcoming it for the future because time goes on 'whether you like it or not '.

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In reference to my time-did theory. Look at the st s4 movie inspirations. In ‘what dreams may come”  a guy explores a heaven like world influenced by a painter’s emotions/created via immagination.We also have the movie ‘inside out’ -which involves “memory islands” (distinct worlds based on a child’s memories) which are influenced negatively by the kid being depressed she moved to California. The characters traveling to these memory islands are constructs of  kid’s mind -and 1 of them also has a guide helping them explore the ‘memory islands’.  Welcome to marwen- has an artist (attacked for being perceived as gay) imagining an abstract world based off his art- where the characters he made experience their own adventures (loosely based off the artist’s trauma). ‘The cell ‘ has characters explore the mind of a guy whose father ab*sed him- and the different alternative fantasy-worlds they explore are based off his memories. The cop exploring these memory-worlds, was also implied to be se*ually ab*sed by his dad . Also,in  Inception a guy says he’s a construct of a guy’s mind ( the guy who created the dream worlds that are like alternate dimensions/levels- also hates his dad). And leo’s character says he needs to help him escape the many different levels of the dream world of the mind. Movies like inception, total recall, the cell, enter the void, wizard of oz, Peter Pan, hellraiser 2, dream warriors, bill & ted’s bogus journey, the labyrinth,and welcome to marwen, all allude to this: because they involve entering simulated abstract worlds usually created/based on happy& traumatic memories/fears. While truman show/matrix are more about realizing your reality isn’t real. While in bladerunner 2044/total recall it has the theme of false implanted memories… probably relating to hopper/el realizing they’re alters of Will’s-and their memories were technically created by him.

Something some DiD suffers have are “innerworlds” .When someone has DID there can be multiple “innerworlds” that are separate from one another (and look very different from one another) .And are usually very abstract worlds that are based on the child’s memories (good &bad) . These worlds are usually created at different times and almost act like alternate dimensions (and the inhabitants -npcs/alters of those worlds usually don’t interact with one another) . So they can almost resemble alternate dimensions like how Scott Clarke mentions “Hugh Everett’s many worlds interpretation.” Russia where Hopper is- is probably one of those innerworlds.

HOPPER THEORY: 

tw:ab*se/r*pe. In s2 Nancy asks Steve how his “grandpa’s time in the war is a metaphor for your life?” And steve compares the mf to the germans in the war. Dr owens mentions Will has ptsd like “ (vietnam) soldiers’, Hopper saying he had buddies like Will . “In the 70s there was a study that compared the post-traumatic stress symptoms in Vietnam veterans and adult survivors of childhood s**ual ab*se. The study revealed that childhood s**ual ab*se is traumatizing and can result in symptoms comparable to symptoms from war-related trauma.” Hopper isn’t actually in Russia -but in one of the innerworlds (after he jumped through the rift of the machine- into Will’s mind). We’ll see flashbacks but also present circumstances of his imprisonment echo Will’s past with Lonnie (if the movies indicate anything)- being starved, guards getting payed in order to let other prisoners  r*pe a gay prisoner (than claim incorrectly because of his sexuality he wanted it) , as well as a gang of sadist men who r**e others and a warden using that as a threat to be compliant , being thrown in a dark room of solitary confinement and starved when they didn’t obey the warden, the warden being religious, etc. And the American soldiers (in Vietnam) in the movies aren’t much better and do similarly horrific acts to civilians like r**e and bragging/ happily k*lling women, children, and the elderly. The drill sergant in vietnam calling them homophobic slurs & women, and chocking one of the soldiers with one hand (like the mf/russian), slapping one for not believing in christianity. Tying up a soldier in a bed , gagging him, beating him and saying “remember it’s just a dream.” Only praising them when good in fire arms.(movies : fullmetal jacket, papillon, shawshank redemption, platoon, welcome to marwen, etc ) . My assumption is flashbacks of his life-  hints about him being an alter -the boxes in the basement are “vietnam” ,“dad”, and “ny” (and these are the memories of his we’ll see).or after escaping the prison he’s stuck in diff innerworlds of memories. And some of the bad characters in said stories will also parallel Lonnie . Like how in  the s4 film ‘peterpan’- the young girl Wendy imagines netherland and the villain -captain hook- is based off her father ( in the movie they have the same voice actors/while in all stage productions the 2 characters are always played by the same actor). Similar to the other s4 film- ‘wizard of oz’ where the wicked witch of the west from the mythical land of Oz (is played by Dorothy’s real life mean neighbor in the real world/kansas).Or in ‘the cell’- all the alternate dimensions of the dream world that were created by a guy with a ab*sive h*mophobic dad -had the same actor play the villain in each very different dream dimension. ”Not sure if they’d use Ross Patridge (actor of Lonnie) in this way . But it would be very interesting if (In makeup) Ross played many negative people in Hopper’s life.  

Also, in  s2, Jonathan mentions Indiana writer Vonnegut- In his book ‘slaughterhouse 5′- Vonnegut begins the story of Billy (William) Pilgrim, a man who has “come unstuck in time”. (time ref of Hopper saying he wants to ‘turn back the clock.’ or’ runaway from his memories.‘It accounts of Billy Pilgrim’s capture and incarceration by the Germans during the last years of World War II (Hopper captured by the russians), and scattered throughout the narrative are episodes from Billy’s life with his dad, and his own wife and kids.Billy is forced to be part of the war and similar things against his free will. The moments start from his childhood when his father throws him in the water to teach him how to swim. He was unwillingly drafted into the war. Later, he is kidnapped by Tralfamadorians  (aliens that are implied to be caused by his mental health issues/trauma) against his will. Therefore, he realizes that this concept is just an illusion.in bladerunner 2044/total recall it has the theme of false implanted memories… probably relating to hopper realizing he’s an alter and his memories are technically ‘created’ . Like in total recall- the bad ass spy is told all his memories: his wife/ years of marriage,  his name, are just implanted memories. And she says “you’re life is a dream.” We also have ‘Arrival’ -the parent’s daughter died young cause of terminal cancer- and the mother later realizes time is also just a abstract construct (a thing she can experience differently than others), but she still finds meaning/happiness in those memories/times.

I also talked about how sarah as an alter could come back and the 2 would explore the “innerworlds” of Will’s mind together (you can read the details there). 

El and Will theory 

I’m thinking of the s4 movies and 1 matrix scene comes to mind that could be an obvious hint to Did (and Will’s importance). Mr smith (the suited calm villain/ who is a literal computer program of the matrix world -cough alter/npc of Will’s) kidnaps/ ties up Morpheus to a chair (like Will in s2), injects him with drugs in the neck ( like s3 steve/ will’s arm in s2).  Then Mr smith says as everyone leaves the room “I’m going to be honest with you. I hate this place, this prison, this reality or what you call it.” (grabs Morpheus’ head and glares) “ I need to get out of here! I need to be free! And this mind is the key.”(referring to morpheus).morpheus also translates to ‘god of dreams’. Also Morpheus was wearing head gear similar to El in s1/Will in s2 . or in 12 monkeys the guy sent to psych ward -starts believing he’s just “crazy” and says “i created a world with those people in it.” “It’s not real .I’m just mentally ill, like you said ” when you know- it is all real,cause of the supernatural angle involved. in 12 monkeys a patient even tells him the fictional world he created would dissappear once his mental health was in order.

Then there’s the El stuff.  Hellraiser 2- has a normal psych hospital, but the basement floor has an evil psychiatrist experimenting on teens to open a portal to another reality. assasains creed/dream warriors -  has the psychiatric facility be similar to the s1 lab with sensory deprivation tanks, cameras, solitary confinement in dark rooms.The doctor experiments on them- and forces a character to go into the memories of another individual (we know El has memory powers).The dr reveals how the character’s reality/whole life isn’t what they think it is (and that the memories they saw with their powers-was their past life and they are that person’s reincarnation) . Aka Will is the host- and El is an alter (alters can see memories of other alters/the host irl-aka billy/terry were also alters ).

In assasain’s creed there’s 2 psychiatrists- one bad / one who is good (but influenced by the bad dr). One dr annoyed at the lack of progress, says about the patient “he doesn’t want to remember his father.” While one dr doesn’t want to rush the therapy/ the other dr wants the patient to go back into his memories regardless of how it affects him. (which could be Brenner & maybe Owens referring to Will’s dissociative-amnesia and not remembering all the ab*se Lonnie did. And Owens not wanting to rush it/hurt el by making her go into said memories …but Brenner not caring.

also other hints : Cough s4 using the movie wizard of oz refs “we’re not in Hawkins (kansas) anymore”-hint at russia. David on instagram posting st stuff and captioning it with and quotes, pretending to be dorothy from the film. Hopper in s1 saying hawkins lab was “emerald city” (referencing El- it’s also why they reference El entering our world in ep 1 and the alice in wonderland song plays) . Murray says about the supernatural “no one wants to see behind the curtain” (what was behind the curtain in wizard of oz-was a wizard aka Will). Or you know right before Will sees the mf for the first time -a clock turns rapidly/ he  has goosbumps at the back of his neck. Which he later grabs/states  are from “memories” he can’t remember that are like a “dream”. 

If i’m right-not sure how much of this may happen in s4 vs s5, though. But I think something like this is possible.  For all we know-Will/El being trapped with Brenner while Hopper escapes ‘russia’ could be how the season ends? The timeline i’m a bit iffy about-tbh.

#stranger things theory #will byers #el hopper #jim hopper #time theory #did theory

[ginkgomoon]

Gavin’s Chapter 26 Parallels- Analysis

This was in my drafts for the longest time, but now since new MLDD chapters are out (and with S2 coming), I thought I should finish this post.

I remember watching this chapter for the first time when it came out earlier this year, noticing parallels about Gavin’s time and behaviour displayed in the STF Observation Centre to other Gavin-related details.

Spoilers of Chapter 26 and future content below.

Gavin’s Encounter Summary

MC, with the help of Shaw and Litton, disguises herself as a man to enter the observation centre to find Gavin and clues about her lost Evol. 

A device for Evol suppression is placed on every test subject in the centre, and she wonders the pain Gavin must be in. 

MC, who? The name’s Mortimer Smith, ID number 134. 

MC is placed with her roommate, another Evolver who lost control of their Evol around the TV tower incident.

He tells her, “as long as you don’t cause trouble and listen to the observers, you’ll get along okay.”

She tries to squeeze out some information about Gavin from him, but learns that it’ll be difficult since they don’t use names to address the Evolvers, but instead codes. 

MC is summoned to "Evol examination" and MC has hope that she might see Gavin. 

She walks down a long corridor with other Evolvers waiting to be examined. 

She fails to notice a shadow in front and collides with a hard, sturdy chest.

Her foot slips and grabs onto the mysterious person’s arm as he holds onto her too.

She’s too embarrassed to look at his face.

She notes that the only thing in her vision was her trembling fingertips on his arms. 

But without looking, she already knows the arms she’s in. 

Emotions build up and she hears his heartbeat. 

She grips his arms tighter as she begins to speak. 

As the observers approach, Gavin finally looks up, his expression turning cold, and they are SHOOK.

He stares at MC for a long time then turns his head to walk on. 

MC lets him walk past. 

Her roommate looks at her in disbelief, surprised that she survived an encounter with “No.7" in one piece, thinking that she was “a goner for sure”. 

She asks if they’re all afraid of him, to which he replies with a nod.

He says that No.7 is more terrifying than Observers themselves, but then retracts his statement. 

Extra: So... has Gavin been having nightmares? :(

Observation Test Centre

The most obvious correlation from other chapters and mentions would be Gavin being named No.7 as his code name, as this number is always associated with him.

This analysis could just end here.

But wait- there's more.

High School

Said to be the “school tyrant” and seen as the outcast, Gavin chose to be misunderstood over conforming to rules- ones that he didn't agree with.

Gavin didn’t have friend groups like everyone else notably did (like MC and her group of friends as they walk down the hallways laughing as Gavin stares googly-eyed from a distance). He had stuck by himself and his own morals like a lone wolf (with his casual but not-so-casual buddy Minor).

MC's roommate: A lot of people that end up here all forms cliques to get along, but he’s always been a lone wolf. And he’s always dealt with anyone who crossed him. Just now you bumped right into him as if you were blind. I thought for sure you were going to get smacked...

Furthermore, Gavin was always the one to challenge authority, whether it would be school teachers or even his superiors later in life. MC stated that Gavin had once fought with a school teacher, but this was probably due to some misunderstanding or that they had existing prejudices against him. 

“No.7! Why are you still standing there!?” 

Observers continue to call out to him, but Gavin ignores them. 

Gavin doesn’t fear that people won’t understand him- he knows that people don’t and won’t, which is also a contributing factor to why he doesn't feel the need to explain himself or his actions to anyone.

But this also is why he also had a rough journey from rightfully staying true to himself. Without any real support system within and outside of school life, Gavin suffered. Luckily, there was Mr Keller who was willing to listen to him. He told Gavin, “since you can’t change what others think of you, you might as well just listen to your heart". This had a great impact on him.

Additionally, Gavin fears for an entirely different reason. In fact, Gavin understands this sort of fear more than MC realises. Gavin was even more willing to throw himself into this mission when MC was gone because he really had no choice but to continue without her by his side. In Perilous Date, MC and Gavin talk about this its the closing moments.

MC: Gavin, you could be in danger at any time... Do you think it's worth it?

Gavin: I never thought about it... What if I say it's my destiny? Would you believe me? Don't worry. I won't put myself in harm's way again. Seeing you cry is just not worth it.

MC: Aren't you scared?

Gavin: I was never scared before when it was just me. But now... I am.

(Meanwhile MC now in the chapter: *crying*)

MC had kept him moving forward- to become stronger with his goal of protecting her, influenced by his father into joining special training in CN Tilted Time R&S. His father used MC again for Gavin to undergo modification to make his Evol stronger in Chapter 15.

Here’s an extra line that caught my eye:

He stares at MC for a long time then turns his head to walk on. She lets him walk past. 

Parallels with their high school moments:

Gavin leans against a tree as he watches MC hurry down the corridor as she clutches a textbook.  -[Boundary R&S]

Special Task Force

Gavin had returned to Loveland City as Special Agent B-7 to find MC at the very beginning.

Even now stripped of his STF title as Captain, he still embodies justice. With his current knowledge of the identities of Evol criminals, he’s even able to find and make good use of them as a distraction in the Observation Centre. 

Gavin’s unapproachability and cold exterior are also highlighted.

MC's roommate: Just now you bumped right into him as if you were blind. I thought for sure you were going to get smacked...

But for MC, he learns from her how to live a more tender life [Spring Festival Date]. For her, he’d live. He’d also help her do anything just so that she wouldn’t have to shoulder anything- even the bare minimum alone. But he hadn’t reflected this upon himself to change- notably seen in Chapter 12-6.

MC: He wasn't like that before when he was with the squad?

Eli shook his head. He opened his phone and brought up a picture, handing it to me.

Eli: He was always like this before.

Gavin's face in the photo was a little immature. Wearing his military uniform, even though he was saluting, there was still an unmistakable look of proud aloofness and unruliness.

New Weapons

After leaving STF, Gavin’s newly appointed code name was NW717. He was able to gain new Evol power by undergoing remodelling experiments. Under NW orders, he snuck into the Observation Centre to find MC, believing that the Evolution Accelerator could lead to some clues.

And no matter what organisation Gavin's under, he’ll always find his way back to her.

This photograph has already turned slightly yellow and has a pretty-looking girl on it. After a while of thinking, I place the photograph next to Gavin’s pillow. Perhaps this way, he can have a good dream. -[CN NW Project R&S]

Emerging from NW, people still were terrified of Gavin, mostly because of his cold aura and powerful Evol, despite his good intentions and his attitudes towards justice. But to MC, he will always Gavin, despite seeming cold and unapproachable to others with this persona. He knows that she’s the one who knows the softer side of him, as the one who he feels is worthy of explaining himself to.

Gavin: You’re the only one I care about, other people’s opinions don’t concern me. -[Go See Him, NW Uniform]

Heart-wrenching reunion after 6+ months of being deprived of each other:

MC: Ga-

Observers: No.7! Why are you still standing there!?

They continue to call out to him, but Gavin ignores them.

He is stunned, his amber eyes freeze then flash with a knowing glimmer. He looks straight at her, his eyes gently caressing her.

Gavin super softly: Don’t cry.

Me: *cries*

Bonus: Gavin's Weibo has 7 beside his name! Additionally, his number in the motorcycle race on the latest date is 7, with his bike having written "B7" and "B7..." displayed.

#MR KELLER #THE DREAMIEST #I love how my format changes every time #mlqc gavin #恋与制作人 #love and producer #mlqc #mr love queens choice #mlqc analysis #mlqc en