#got a bit meta my apologies

[nopoodles]

Show Your Process Tag

Rules: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag others. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Tagged by the ever intriguing @saedoeswriting

I hope npbpdy minds if I go a bit theoretical on this, I have this paranoia about sharing project information too early and hyping people up only to later realise I can't finish the project so I don't want to chat too much about stuff that's far away on the publish-o-meter, but it also feels weird to use a sequel for this, and the inspiration and preparation parts of Merry Arlan: Breaking The Curse were such a long time ago (that book took me 4 years to finish, not including the very first ever draft of it)

Inspiration

Usually inspiration comes from a brief blip of a thing. A "what if" on a story by someone else. A song that builds images in my head. A ride at Disneyland Paris on my honeymoon in 2018 followed by 3 days of my wife being snowed off site and us tellng each other stories wrapped up in blankets to pass the time(okay, that's pretty specific, it's my NTK Pirate Project).

Actually, a lot of my inspiration comes from my wife, she gives me a lot of "what ifs" to follow, encourages me when I start rambling about stories and potential stories. She's said before "Yes, take my ideas and turn them into stories because I don't want to write, I jus want to read them"

Preparation

The most prep I ever did was for my 2021 NaNoWriMo project (current title share is Untitled Space Opera, it's part of the Inter-Planetary Alliance Novels, coming ????), I printed off two different prep booklets and built characters, wrote down scene prompts, gave each character their own theme song. And then I used exactly none of that and just wrote what came to mind. (Have I mentioned lately that I'm a pantser?)

Most of the time "preparation" looks like "I can't write this full thing right now, let me just write this scene I have in my head" and "Do I have anything planned on Tuesday?"

Like, I have a plan to be finished with rewrites of the second Guardian Cadet Series book by 30th June and then spend at least the first week of July (possibly longer) just letting the whims take me where they will. That's prep, right?

Process

I write, majoritively, in order. Except in cases where I've written some kickass foreshadowing and I want to write what has been foreshadowed lest I forget that the foreshadowing exists.

I can write in any format, at any time of day, in almost any situation. If I have an idea, I'm writing it down, even if I'm trying to sleep, or trying to catch the bus, or in the middle of a conversation, or making dinner (am I hard to live with? Probably but I've asked my wife and she said she thinks its cute so that's fine, right?).

I will also write scenes that I don't have a location for yet, just because they come to mind. Draft 2 is for putting the puzzle pieces in order. Speaking of draft 2, I usually write 5-6 drafts before anyone else lays eyes on it, then it goes to my wife so she can translate it out of dyslexic-language and tell me that, while I am getting better with full stops, I still haven't quite mastered the art (semi-colons though, those I get).

Thoughts

Sometimes I wish I was more linear. I see people who outline smashing out books like they're frying tattie scones in a bright kitchen with all the proper utensils. Me, on the other hand, I have a fork because the spatula is broken, and the lights keep flickering off so I have to take great long pauses to stay safe and sane.

On the other hand, I know my process makes the books I want to make. (Poorly lit kitchen, fork instead of a spatula or not, those are some damn fine tattie scones.) Not to mention, I probably wouldn't be able to do it any other way (because I've tried).

I've always been impatient with myself and my output, I have so many ideas that I want to write, being able to write faster would be such a boon because it would mean I could get to them faster. But some things take more time. Spaghetti bolognase and Lasagne (okay, I can't spell, I'm sorry) are made up of mostly the same ingredients, but one takes a lot longer than the other. They're both tasty, they're both of the same value, they're both great. So slow-written books can be just as good as quick-written books too.

Tagging

I'm not sure who hasn't already been tagged in this one but if you happen across it and yu want to do it, tell them I tagged you

#showyourprocess #show your process #got a bit meta my apologies #also this is way long #anyway #tag games!

[standbowed]

@maqias said: For the meta asks!! What changes do you think would be made between your muse as they exist in your head vs how they would be treated as part of canon? And, what headcanons/theories do you believe fandom would invent about your character?

meta asks - if your oc was canon // accepting.

Dialogue and scenes would get cut down significantly (to be expected when you're going from the focus character of an rp blog to a side character in the source work). Also, let's be real: if Hachi and her stand were canonically in Diamond is Unbreakable, Driver 8's abilities would get a way smarter explanation-via-character-dialogue from a character watching it work. Araki is far more comfortable using specific science/terminology as a basis to explain why and how a particular stand works. Tragically I am not science-smart and the best I can do is say "uhhhh Take A Break tickets are debuffs that make you move slower and with less force and Reach Your Destination tickets make you move a little faster and with more force". Araki is built different for having characters explain the principles of physics or whatever involved in a stand's ability, but I'm simply not that kind of girl.

I'd think her characterization mainly gets explored via a series of vaguely meme-able panels of her making nervous or shocked faces in reaction to things, alongside exposition of her people-pleasing and feelings of inferiority/envy via Heaven's Door analysis, but the rest is left to be filled in by fandom interpretation. If she started off as more of an antagonist there would probably be more to work with, alas. But maybe there are a handful of people who like to theorize on what would happen in certain arcs if Hachi/Driver 8 were present instead of just mentioned. I just think it would be funny if people did powerscaling threads on Hachi vs X Character. Could Driver 8 beat Highway Star? Let's discuss (a dozen qrts going "wait, WHO💀💀")

I think she'd be one of many characters who doesn't get a canon birthday during the part's run, so there's some disagreement in the fandom of when to celebrate (people favour August as it's the 8th month, then years later Araki for no particular reason releases some information that gives her a confirmed date of birth which is, well, not that). I think occasionally fans mix up and/or choose to think other, legitimately background characters in DiU with short brownish hair are also Hachi sightings (using Araki's tendency to tweak character designs after introduction as reasoning), so there could be headcanons that spring from these one-off panels (Doesn't that girl with the racket we only see from behind look like Hachi? Tennis club member confirmed? No wait, Hachi works part-time at the Owson's after school, doesn't she? That employee that shows up in the background of a scene has similar eyebrows, though her hair is longer. Maybe the animators didn't know that was supposed to be Hachi?). I also think people headcanoning Hachi as having a crush on whichever character in her age range is the op's personal blorbo is deeply funny. Like they are using the 1-2 panels at their disposal of Hachi looking at any given character as evidence--but the real ones are posting that "It doesn't have to be like this. Hachi has 2 hands" to a raucous 8 note reception.

Closing things out here: not a headcanon but I think it would be funny if a small subset of fandom enjoyed wildly exaggerating canon!Hachi/Driver 8's plot importance/popularity in fandom for jokes. Example:

#maqias #ooc. #thank u for sending in fdkshgkldskhg #i feel like every time i answer one of these i like. maybe KIND OF answer the question a little bit #and then go on to just say whatever i think would b funny about hachi's fandom reception if she was canon. apologies #meta asks. #ppl thinking hachi has a crush on everybody and she gets a popular text post that's like that fuckgign #2010s era zayn malik 'he only got 2 eyes' post i can't stop thinking about it #OP: 'notice how everyone is looking at hachi in this panel but she is only looking at [x chara].' #sb replying on the post: 'she only got 2 eyes' #a lot of my answers to these are maybe putting hachi too far into weenie territory which is. not the case #she DOES rise to the occasion (bravery is doing the thing even if ur scared rather than not being scared at all etc. etc.) #and driver 8 IS a formidable opponent. but she'd be a girl side chara in-canon so i don't think she'd be taken too seriously #by the majority of fandom yk.

[theminecraftbee]

the thing is, having watched none of it yet and mostly working off spoilers so apologies if this is incorrect: my cleo meta in the past is that they wouldn't really want to be the winner. they bond tightly. the "happy endings" they've gotten in the past are things like limited life, where notably, they DIDN'T win, they just died in relatively close succession with the other clockers and got to hang out as ghosts. the series where they got CLOSEST to winning before now is explicitly the one where they have the unhappiest ending, "you hold on until you can't hold on anymore", where they couldn't choose to hurt their chosen soulbond.

and then the one they do win is the shortest series. a goofy april fool's bit. where it's all one episode and they don't have any undying alliances (outside of their forever thing with scott and also their weird thing with pearl, of course, those never go away), where if i'm reading people's spoilers right they don't even have to be the one to deliver the killing blow but a zombie does instead, where they don't have to spend any time alone.

where it all goes so fast that they don't have to think about any of it.

does that not drive you all insane? do you not all see how this is the only way they ever could have won?

like. okay. i mean i haven't watched it yet because today is a migraine day but i have already started going insane don't you all see the potential to go insane about this,

#real life smp #real life spoilers #trafficblr #zombiecleo #me desperate to do cleo meta despite getting motion sick: BUT LIKE DON'T YOU GET IT--

[river-bottom-nightmare]

au where the batkids just sort of,,,,,,invent a new batkid

it starts fairly innocuously, a cowl for someone’s costume ends up the wrong shape or the wrong colour. dick, having dropped by the cave to hand off some evidence or beg alfred for his new potato recipe (most likely both), sees it and his instant reaction is oh my god did bruce adopt another child vigilante? he’s colour-coding us now? fucking splendid

the confusion is cleared up quickly, but everyone got such a good laugh out of it that they keep the new helmet, insisting it belongs to bruce’s new kid ecurb. their vigilante name is Shadow The Dark Lad Blackwing Moron-With-An-Orange-Helmet Batbird. ever so creative.

(bruce doesn’t want to know.)

they collectively design a new costume for him. they convince oracle to help them get ecurb into the system, though it really doesn’t take much convincing, just a bit of dick’s puppy eyes and the utter ridiculousness of the situation that has her cackling. ecurb’s backstory is that he was part of travelling circus in america when he was kidnapped, held as a hostage, and tortured by the joker, during which he learned of batman’s true identity and also How To Fight Good, then was sent to kill bruce but was adopted by him instead. he’s a little older than damian but a little younger than duke, fights exclusively with brass knuckles, and his costume is black with orange polka dots.

(bruce really doesn’t want to know)

they talk about good old ecurb, or batbird depending on the company, amongst themselves all the time. good old ecurb, the only bat fast enough to get cass in rooftop tag. i heard ecurb took on bane with nothing but a water balloon and an empty laptop case and won. well i heard ecurb can get the gotham’s corrupt politicians to apologize to him. yeah, well i heard ecurb’s secretly a meta whose power is to neutralize other metahumans, and bruce keeps him as the ultimate contingency plan.

they talk about ecurb so much that the justice league believes bruce really did acquire a new child. other superhero teams are a little more skeptical, but after several select appearances in which different batkids donned batbird’s armour and were conveniently caught on camera, even they start to believe it. the titans really want to meet this new vigilante who can actually, consistently get dick to sleep. young justice want to fight him. but ecrub’s always undercover, or on a mission, or recovering because bruce trusts him so much, he’s already putting him in charge of the big stuff.

(bruce really really doesn’t want to know)

there are legends about ecurb. photos of him looking powerful yet mysterious, a carbon copy of batman but with orange polka dots. there are stories of the villains ecurb took on singlehandedly and won. apparently the green lantern corps contacted him and he turned them down. apparently he infiltrated the fortress of solitude and now is the leading expert on kryptonian tech. ecurb doesn’t fall off a cliff, he just changes the altitude of his fight. ecurb crashed a plane into a mountain and the mountain apologized to him.

they fake ecurb’s death as part of a plan to save the world. over a hundred heroes show up at the funeral. clark’s heart aches at bruce’s red-rimmed, watery eyes. bruce is two seconds away from collapsing on the floor in disbelieving laughter. ecurb rises from the dead a couple weeks later, no worse for the wear. his new costume now includes orange and pink polka dots.

the bats swear to take the secret to the grave.

#i have no idea where i was going with this #utter crack i swear #i just want them to joke about a new child bruce adopted #and it just. snowballs #kaahkgkaegarehgahe #scribbles from the swamp #batman #batfam #batfamily #dc #batman headcanon #batfam headcanon #batfamily headcanon #dc headcanon

[drconstellation]

The Assistant Book Seller

Edit 1 Dec 2023 - added missing information on the "ribbon pattern."

Edit: 3 Dec 2023 - correct information about middle pattern from creator

GABRIEL: Greetings! I'm Jim! It's short for James, but I don't need to keep telling everyone that. I'm an assistant book seller.

I'm sorry. Before I do anything else, I need to apologize for something I need to write further in. I didn't plan to write it, I just kind of bumped into it and, well, I can't ignore it. So...sorry. It's said. Forgive me for what needs to be done.

Although he arrived with nothing but a cardboard box and Rodney the Stunt Fly, Aziraphale made sure Jim was clothed in appropriate raiment while under his protection. We'll forgive him that he took a step back about, oh, fifty years or so to the 1970's, as Jim's overall look is a nod to the famous old sitcom "Open All Hours." So if he looks a little bit out of place, or, a little bit familiar, even, that's why.

While we are used to seeing angels in overcoats, it's Jim's vest that is the particular feature here. But I will take a moment to comment on the overcoat - not just the colour but its lapels. Aziraphale has obviously given him a colour with an earthly connection and one that indicate that he has bought Jim under his protection, but the lapels look quite neutral, with one up and one down. (Muriel is the same in their Inspector uniform, btw) This is the first indication they are between two things at the moment.

Onto the vest.

There is so, so much work and thought put into this vest! It was a one-off commission for the show, and the creator, Sandy Higgins, has said she is not allowed to give away the final design pattern. I have tried to contact her, and I'm waiting for a reply, so in the mean time I thought I would ask my keen knitter of a sister-in-law about one of the patterns I'm not sure about. "Well, that's Fair Isle knitting," she said, but she knew nothing about the individual line pattern I was interested in. Hmm, I kind of know that already, its in the notes that are guiding me for this meta, but hey, why not do a broader search and see what comes up?

So once I got back home I did. "Fair Isle knitting patterns" hmm...Wikipedia page for starters...what on *earth* is that at the bottom of the page...? YOU ARE. FRIKKING. KIDDING ME!!!!!!!

"See also: Gumbys"

oh ffs

I am so sorry that needs must make me mention Monty Python yet again, but here we are. And we must mention them, because this link is just too...unbelievably, deliciously good.

If you aren't familiar with the Monty Python catalogue, and don't recognize the mention of Gumbys, they were a set of characters that dressed and spoke in a certain way but the main points to take away were they wore woolen vests in the Fair Isle knitted style and their catch-phrase was - wait for it - "My brain hurts!"

I think we've heard that somewhere before?

CROWLEY: When you first arrived, you said you were here because they were planning to do 'Something Terrible' to you. So you remembered it then. Remember it now. GABRIEL: It hurts to remember. My head isn't built for that.

Right. Now we've got that out of the way...back to the serious stuff.

The colours used in the vest are not your typical angel colours. There is a base of angelic off-white and there are some bits of purple for his royalty around the shoulder area - sometimes you need to look carefully for it. Otherwise it is dominated by vintage shades of red and green. Well. Who's an agent of change driven by love, then?

The horizontal stripe pattern is partly to remind us of the classic biblical robes with stripes that ran along them, much like the style of Crowley's black and red robe in the Job minisode, but is also part of the traditional Fair Isles pattern work. And each row only has two colours, but up around the shoulder area we do see purple start to sneak in as a third colour.

On to the incorporated symbols! I'm going to go from bottom to top.

On the lowest two we feature Crowley and Aziraphale. We have Crowley's demon satyr tail from the Good Omens logo on the lowest stripe - the double-headed arrow.

The next stripe is Aziraphale, with a variation of the classic OXO pattern ("hugs and kisses.") The X is meant to represent his angel wings, and the O is modified to mimic the "o" with a halo in the Good Omens logo. I've highlighted all three in the image on the right.

The third row up is a Sumerian Star pattern that represents one of the flowers associated with Gabriel, the lily. They are supposed to represent the purity of Mary, mother of Jesus, as he had one in his hand when he visited her during the Annunciation.

The row above that is what I believe to be a Byzantium pattern, and is included to show "an Angel's ability to be timeless."

The next three rows are still under a bit of a question mark as I write this. I plan to come back and edit it in if I find the answer.

The bottom of the three is the Duke of Buccleuch pattern, "to celebrate the long and necessary contribution that the cottage industry of hand knitted items."

The middle one - ? (perhaps you, the reader, know? It looks like a spiralling ribbon if I stand back, but that isn't sparking any connections, either.)

Edit: @noneorother tells me in a reblog (below) that this pattern represents the shoelace from the magic incantation Aziraphale uses "Banana Fish Gorilla Shoelace." So it is ribbon-like! This then points to the Second Coming, as it the shoelace references the end of the book, and the last paragraph of the book references Yeats poem "The Second Coming" as well as the novel 1984. To me it is then also telling us there is a cycle occurring, or a cycle that needs to be renewed. This fits in with some other clues other meta-writers have been picking up.

Edit 2: Turns out none of that was correct - I heard back from the creator herself and it's actually the double-ended satyr tail pattern again! It just seems to make a bit of an illusion of a ribbon or shoelace.

The pattern below is a modified OXO pattern.

The top one looks like two rams horns facing each other. A hollowed out rams horn can be used as a trumpet, and is known as a shofar in Jewish religion. Gabriel was traditionally known to carry a trumpet.

The ancient meander pattern would be recognized by most people, included as another classic timeless pattern found all over the world. For some it symbolizes eternity and endless flow.

The wheels here appear to be Michael's ophanim wheels, that would have eyes around the rims.

The hourglass is to remind us that time is running out. Memento mori - "Remember that you die." It is a major theme in both series.

Right up high, just before we lose the rest of the vest inside the overcoat, we get a glimpse of a large diamond-shaped icon. I wonder if this is another stylized set of angel wings, like we saw in the Job minisode on Aziraphale's golden collar.

To finish off the outfit, he is wearing dark gray trousers with sneakers! I'm sure that's so he could keep sneaking up on Aziraphale in the shop, haha. His shirt seems a little too large for him and the tie is knotted too high and is not settled along his centerline. It's all at odds with his previous neat and sharp appearance as Supreme Archangel Gabriel.

I'd like to say a big thank you to @aduckwithears for helping me with information on the vest and finding the creator's other social media sites. You can see their two posts about it here and here.

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #good omens analysis #aziraphale #gabriel #jimbriel #jim's vest #satyr tails #angel wings #halos #lily #meander pattern #rams horn pattern #hourglass #memento mori #open all hours #good omens costume meta #monty python #gumbys #my brain hurts! #fair isle

[thebubblesareevil]

Jobs are hard…humans are harder

Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Part 5

Danny was bored, there was no other way to describe it. School wouldn’t be starting for another month and he barely knew anything about this world, which unfortunately meant he didn’t know anyone in this world. No one but Diana that is, and the nice old lady next door who sneaks him candy. Unfortunately Diana spends half the day at work and as such Danny was bored. You can only watch the news concerning meta human rights before you go mad. True she would be home soon, they would have dinner and talk about her day, hopefully with no calls for Wonder Woman.

Danny groaned as he flopped over the side of the couch, trying to come up with something to do. Diana found him like that, half hanging off the couch, asleep, with the news playing in the background. With a chuckle she silently creeped over to the side of the couch. With groceries in one hand, she grabbed Danny by the back of his shirt and lifted. He startled awake as she lifted him to eye level.

“You do know I’m not a cat, right?” She smiled

“Really? I couldn’t tell, you play the part so well.” She snarked back setting him back down on the couch. “I’ve got the ingredients for dinner, wanna help?” She asked.

Danny nodded, slowly rising from his place on the couch. “Sure, what’s for dinner?”

“Spaghetti, grab the cutting board and start cutting the onions for the sauce.” Danny grinned

“Aye, aye Captain!” He said with a laugh. He grabbed his tools and got to work. “So how were things at the museum?”

“Things are going steady, with the new exhibit up and running we are getting an influx of visitors. It’s nice seeing the younger generation taking an interest in history.” Danny paused

“By younger generation, do you mean my age or Mrs. Gertrude’s age?” He asked with a raised brow.

“Very funny, back to chopping you. Garlic is next.” Danny laughed but did as he was told. “Speaking of your age, you turned 16 recently right?” Danny nodded. “There’s a position open at the museum, it’s nothing to hard, just leading a few tours. It may not be your ideal way to spend your time, however it would give you a way to get out and make some friends before school starts. As a bonus, you’d be getting paid.” Danny slowed his dicing.

“It’s better than anything I’ve come up with. But… I don’t know, maybe?” Danny shrugged. “I’ll have to think it over. I’ve never had a real job before, mostly just helping out around the lab. What’s the job? ” Diana gave him a sly grin.

“No pressure, they’re looking for someone to help run the space show. Of course, if you aren’t interested…”

“I’d get to run the space show?!?!?” Danny interrupted “Scratch that, I’d be getting PAID to run the space show?!?!” His face was split in a giant grin. Diana laughed.

“You would be getting paid to HELP run the space show. That means assisting guests, answering questions, doing a bit of clean up and anything else Dr.Scott needs help with.” Danny was nearly vibrating with excitement. “The application is in my purse, which you can fill out After we finish making the sauce.” Danny grinned and got back to work. Between the two of them they managed to get the sauce on the stove in record time.

While the sauce cooked, Diana gave him the application and she walked him through his new information. As they were talking they were interrupted by the news announcing a break-in at a bank nearby. Nothing to draw Diana from helping Danny… until they announced that the perpetrator was Cheetah.

“Danny, I’m so sorry. I promise I won’t be gone long.” She apologized. Danny shrugged giving her an understanding look.

“It’s all good, I can’t t lol you how many times I had to tell run out on my friends because a ghost attacked. I’ll be here when you get back and dinner will be ready. Stay safe, okay?” And off she went. Danny finished up the application, excited at the prospect of getting to tell people about SPACE. Once he was done he turned up the news to see how Diana was doing.

He watched as she fought like a true warrior, no hesitation, not a single motion wasted. The way she interacted with Cheetah though…seemed oddly familiar. The back and forth… there was no way.

He pondered on the thought as he got up to start the pasta. There was no way, right? That seems like the kinda thing you tell someone. It was possible of course, but well... only thing to do is ask.

About a half hour after Danny's "epiphany" the spaghetti was done and Diana was walking through the door. Once the food was served, Diana poured herself a lovely cup of wine. Of course she did this not realizing how much of an utter gremlin her newly acquired cousin was. She had fully settled into her seat, taking her first sip of wine when Danny decided to confront her.

"Are you dating Cheetah?" Diana spit out her wine, coughing as she tried to clear her throat.

"I'm sorry, care to repeat that?" she asked

"I asked, are you dating Cheetah? It's fine if you are, no judgement here. I mean, Ancients know I have some crazy exs, and gender has never been an issue..." He stops as he takes in the look of confusion. "What?"

"How... exactly did you come to that... interesting conclusion?" She asked. Danny shrugged.

"Honestly just the way you guys were bantering. Reminded me a lot about how me and my ex fought, sure she didn't know we were fighting, but I did." He said with a straight face. Diana couldn't help it, she burst out laughing.

"No, cousin, I am not dating Cheetah. Though we were once close friends." she said with a smile.

"Oh, okay then." Danny blushed. "Sorry for assuming."

"All is well, I will admit that among the women of Themascyra such things are commonplace. I too am not bothered by gender." she smiled "Now come, eat your food. I will be bringing you to the museum tomorrow so you can turn in your application. I’ll even show you around where I work.”

“Sounds great! Can we stop by the space exhibit? I wanted to check it out even if I don’t get the job.”

Diana smiled “That should be fine, I don’t actually have work tomorrow so barring another alien invasion we should have the day to ourselves.” Danny nodded and started to take a bite of his spaghetti.

The fork was halfway to his mouth when he froze “What do you mean ANOTHER alien invasion?!”

———————

Danny was practically vibrating with excitement, the meeting with Dr. Scott had gone well, and Danny had to be physically dragged out of the space exhibit by Diana once he realized they had a full section with an interview from a real live Martian! Next on the list to do was checking out Diana's section of the museum, then they would get ice cream like civilized human beings.

As they approached her section the woman at the desk looked up with wide eyes.

"Why Diana what a handsome YOUNG man you've got here, what's your name sugar?" she proclaimed with an obvious wink. Danny blushed, while Diana laughed.

"This is my cousin Danny, I told you about him. Danny, this is Doris, the world's best receptionist, I don't know how I'd survive without her." She said with a smile.

"Oh I'm sure you'd soldier on somehow. How're you like'n the museum Danny? I hear your lookin to work with Dr. Scott." Danny grinned.

"It's great! I turned in my application today and we did an impromptu interview, which I think went pretty well. We were just headed over to check out Diana's new exhibit."

"Oh well don't let me hold you up. You enjoy yourself hun." she said with a smile. The two headed further into the exhibit as Diana explained what it was she did at the museum. The more they explored however the more Danny was quite clearly trying to keep the grin off his face. It wasn't until they were walking to the ice cream parlor that he explained the cause of his glee.

"I just can't get over the fact that you are an ancient greek demi-god, telling people about ancient greek mythos as though it was nothing more than a religion, y'know like a liar. You are being paid to lie." Diana raised an eyebrow.

"It's not technically a lie. Many people worshiped the gods and so it was in fact a religion, I simple choose to leave out the fact that they were real." Danny grinned.

"Agree to disagree, now let's get some ice cream." the two walked through the doors of the unsuspecting ice cream parlor and, after much debate, each ordered a whopping ten scoops of ice cream. Which they then proceeded to eat at one of the tables, in less than 15 minutes, with no visible signs of brain freeze.

(The girl behind the counter might having an existential crisis as this was after the teenage boy talked the fully grown woman out of fifteen scoops. They don't even have fifteen flavors!)

All in all it was a good day.

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

Danny was not having a good day. He was slumped over the table in the break room as Diana patted him on the shoulder.

"Three tours in one morning, with two more after lunch! And every single one had a Jeremy!” Diana quirked an eyebrow.

“A Jeremy?” Danny nodded.

“That one kid who tries to climb on all the exhibits and refuses to stay with the group no matter how many times his chaperone scolds him.” Diana gave him a solemn pat on the back.

“I know of them well, though for me, they will always be Misty. Don’t worry though school will be starting soon and the tours will slow down a bit.”

The timer on Danny’s phone went off and he groaned, taking one last swig of his toxic sludge from his thermos he dragged himself out of his seat. "Yeah, yeah, but then I'll be going to work AND school. I'm so happy I dropped heroing in this world, I don't know how you find the time!" Diana shrugged "I'm gonna swing by the coffee shop in the geology section after work with Travis, you want anything." Diana thought for a minute.

"Call me when you get there, depending on the rest of the day I might get a Frappuccino or solid black coffee with three shots of espresso." Danny nodded.

"Ah yes, the nectar of the gods, you got it!" He said with a grin as he took off. Diana smiled, happy that Danny was finally making friends, before she threw away her trash and headed back to work.

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

By the time the end of their shift ended Danny had found a second wind. The last group of the day had been very well behaved with not a single Jeremy in sight, and all enthusiastic about SPACE! Travis was trudging along behind him in shock as he watched the teen who looked like he was going keel over not even an hour ago, seemed like he was about to start floating. He shook his head in disbeief.

"Danny, my man you are not human." He said not noticing Danny stiffen. "I wish I had your energy." Danny gave him a stiff laugh.

"What can I say? I just really love taking about space. I mean, considering the amount of known extraterrestrials currently active on earth! I can't understand how anyone could not be into space." Travis shrugged.

"Eh, it pays the bills at least." The two walked into the coffee shop, looking at the specials.

"Dude, you're 17, what bills do you have." Travis shrugged.

"I pay my phone bill, plus I'm saving up for my car." Danny nodded accepting the answer.

"Fair enough, hey you go ahead and order. I'm gonna call my cousin and see what she wants." Travis smirked.

"The hot cousin who runs the Greek exhibit? For her I will get all the coffee." Danny rolls his eyes as his phone began ringing.

"Calm down lover boy, she's way out of your league." a laugh sounded from the other end of the phone as Diana picked up. There was a slight commotion outside the café.

"And who is out of his league, exactly?" Diana asks, Danny smirks as Travis frantically shakes his head. Things started to get louder.

"Oh just this girl he's got a crush on, we're at the café. Did you decide what kind of day it is." Diana hummed on the other end, but before she could answer a security guard went flying down the hall. "What the hell!" he shouted. Danny ran over to the guard ready to help him up as Diana frantically tries to find out what happened. Before he can say anything though he feels a pressure against the back of his head.

"Look who's tryin to be a hero boys!" comes the shout from behind, Danny is roughly grabbed by his arm with a gun to his head. He started to shake as the attacker laughed. "Now we don't want any trouble y'hear? We're just gonna grab that pretty rock over there and be on our way."

Danny watches as the security guards point their guns at the thieves as the start to break down, a display on Dunite? Danny looks at the thieves confused. What could they possibly want with a fertilizer? Heck the only reason he even knew what is was is because he got bored waiting for his coffee! Danny flinches as the gunman pushes into his head harder.

"Not so brave now, huh kid?" he says with a smug tone. "This is what happens to heroes." he is practically shivering at this point as the gunman laughs. "Look at this! He's shaking in his shoes." Danny on the other hand has begun repeating a mantra in his head, practicing an inordinate amount of restraint.

'Don't break the human, don't break the human, Don't BREAk the HuMan!'

Danny clenches his fist in annoyance as the gunman continues to blather on about something called Kryptonite? and making his boss happy. He wasn't really paying that much attention, repeating his mantra over and over again. His concentration only broken by the gunman suddenly being jerked away. He turns around to find none other than his cousin standing behind him, sans glasses, in her full Wonder Woman armor with a rather angry look on her face.

It didn't take long for her to disarm and capture the criminals, with a quiet remark about a Frappuccino as she passed by Danny. She turned them over to the police before flying off, only to rush over to him minutes later frantic talking loudly about how worried she was. Travis ran to his side, shaking with fear.

"Are you okay man? What were you thinking! You could have been killed!" Danny gave him a sheepish grin.

"Honestly? I wasn't, sorry for scarring you dude." Diana put a hand on his shoulder.

"Danny? They need you to make a statement, you'll have to speak with security as well before we head home okay?" she asked in a soft tone as if he might break at any moment. And Danny might have believed the concern as well, if it weren't for the hidden mirth in her eyes. Danny nodded along saying bye to Travis before heading over to the police.

It was a full hour of telling the same story over and over again, to different groups before they finally let him go. As they walked out of the museum Danny drooped his shoulders. Diana wrapped an arm around him.

"I know you can handle yourself, grandfather told me that much, but are you okay? That was probably a bit upsetting." Danny groaned.

"That was embarrassing! I could take them all down in seconds, without even breaking a sweat if it weren't for one thing." Diana cocked her head to the side as Danny visibly deflated.

"Perhaps the fact that you don't want to be a hero?" Danny huffed,

"Well that and... you have to promise not to laugh." Danny said with pleading eyes, Diana used a finger to cross her heart in agreement. "I've... never actually fought a human before." Diana snorted "Hey! It's not funny! All my enemies were ghosts, none of which held back by the way. The ghost hunters always used ranged weapons or traps, no real need for confrontation!" he whispered harshly as they made their was down the sidewalk. Diana burst out laughing at Danny's expense.

"It's a little funny, you've got to admit it." Diana fought to calm herself. "If you'd like, I have plenty of experience fighting humans, I could give you some tips on not killing them on the first hit." Danny's eyes widened.

"Seriously?!?!?! That would be awesome! When can we start?!” Diana laughed as they approached their apartment.

"While I love your enthusiasm, I have a meeting with the team tonight, and I am responsible for monitor duty tomorrow morning." Danny frowned as they made their way through the lobby to the elevator. Once inside he spoke up.

"Aren't we supposed to be having dinner with gramps tonight? How's that gonna work out." Diana shrugged.

"I'm sure we'll find a way. I don't think he will accept an excuse of 'not enough time.' Speaking of which, you wouldn't happen to know what's on the menu, I may have a strong stomach but I think ectoplasm is a bit much."

Danny shrugged, "No idea, but it's not like he's gonna serve blob ghost stew or something. I'm sure he'll make something you can eat.

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

Clockwork looked away from the screen showing his grandchildren with a sigh. Slowly he took the pot filled with stew and set it aside...

Perhaps he should defer to the Lunch Lady's superior knowledge on this particular challenge.

@a-salty-sal@impulsiveasshole@meira-3919@alcorbearson@cute6troll@samgirl98@skulld3mort-1fan@addie-lover-of-stories@amercurio@chronicallyonline-fandomwh0r3 @heirxofxtime @gin2212 @thegatorsgoose@wanderer-of-worlds@terzatheunderscorerima@bright-shade@satanicrutialspecialist@mur-ururu@birdie-24-05@ascetic-orange@cyber-geist@thatrandomsarahchick@dr-syko-pharm-4@observerblock23@addie-lover-of-stories@rainybyday@berseid@pastalavistamf@ae-vixrose@sunflowershine03@theauthorandtheartist@ruelukas22@krzys2000@onlyhereforthechaos@stargirl1331@apointlessbox@mewzaque@distractedducky@cutelittlebeanie@unorthodoxdreamers @universallytacowolfbakery @joseph557@ver-444@icedbluesoul@shark-time@milo-l-l @spookytragedyshark@

I think I got everyone, here's a link to the Ao3 version as well

#dp x dc #wonderwoman #cousins #dp demi god au #Danny phantom #diana prince #clockwork #doris just wants to live vicariously through diana #poor clockwork #hes a good cook but he mostly works with ectoplasm these days #part 3

[beelzeballing]

actually i dont think ive posted my thoughts on ofmd s2 overall here yet have i?

ok here goes: i think it had incredibly high highs, and at some parts i genuinely enjoyed it more than i did the first season, episode 6 being peak imo. however, it had equally abysmal lows with some glaring writing-, tone- and pacing issues that all came to a head in the finale.

i once read someone say that, if you ever feel like a finale ruined the whole story, maybe you should take another look at the story. there were most likely cracks and problems all along, and the finale did nothing besides dashing the hope that these would perhaps be addressed later. very rarely do genuinely well written stories go completely off the rails in the finale and ruin the whole thing.

i think this is applicable here in some ways, SPECIFICALLY in regards to edward. good god edward was a MESS this season, and it's so sad because i loved the starting point! the kraken era was absolutely terrifying and iconic as FUCK but... they shouldn't have leaned so hard into the drama and trauma of it all. don't get me wrong, i loved that it did. it's one of my favorite parts of the season and i'm so glad we got it. but if they wanted this arc to work with the overarching plot as they wrote it, they would've had to lighten up the tone here CONSIDERABLY. had they played the kraken era for comedy then sure! edward's bad youtuber apology would've been funny. his fast redemption would've been less jarring. the lack of consequences less disturbing. but as it stands in the show, this arc is too dark to function with the later episodes.

i feel like they wanted to have their cake and eat it too here. they wanted the gritty drama of ed coming off the hinges entirely but also didn't want to deal with the aftermath of such a heavy arc in their silly pirate romcom. be that due to time constraints and budget cuts or because they were simply unwilling to, doesn't really matter in the end. the result is the same either way: a very tonally messy season with some accidentally troubling implications regarding abuse.

and mentioning troubling implications regarding abuse; izzy. my poor, poor izzy... his arc was absolutely glorious. i liked izzy the second he showed up in s1 and i was absolutely EATING this season up in that regard. and i think in this case, they genuinely did fuck it all up in the finale with that one stupid choice:

choosing to kill izzy was the DUMBEST thing they couldve done here.

ive talked about this over and over and over again. ive reblogged so many meta posts. and still i am left absolutely flabbergasted by how stupid of a decision this was. the fridging, playing at the fallen woman trope, killing the beating heart of the season and the character who delivers what is essentially a thesis statement, killing off the character whose arc is about coming to terms with his disability, having him die in edward's arms, comforting him and apologizing after an entire season of finding community and love outside of edward, the absolutely godawful pacing of it all, the extremely easy and obvious solution of just having IZZY become the new captain of the revenge to mirror s1 and hammer home how much he has developed since then in one go... i could go on. and i have. it was a stupid writing decision, completely fucked the tone and pacing of the finale and took away attention and time from things that really would've deserved a better wrap up (lucius and black pete deserved better)

now. the whole prince ricky & zheng plot line... yeah that shit sucked ass, sorry. they bit off more than they could chew here. i honestly think those are the arc words of this season:

✨️ bit off more than they could chew ✨️

right off the bat: i think he was good as a concept. bringing in a foil for stede who just doesn't Get It as stede does could've made for very good comedy and drama (and to be fair there is some of that). but that shit got away from them extremely quickly. nothing about how he's implemented past his first episode works, and i think this is very specifically because he's mostly played as the comic relief in his debut episode. making this completely bumbling fool, who gets his nose hacked off on his first job, the main villain of your entire season is... definitely a choice. idk. he didn't work for me at all.

ok wow mentioning shit getting away from the writers. this definitely got away from me. this was supposed to be a short lil post. well. i guess tl;dr i loved this season but jesus christ there was a lot wrong with it. if you want to hear more thoughts. ask box is open. be my guest. i have more to say so even if you dont ask i might add more to this at some point but im tired and have work tmrw.

#i was going to do shit today and now look at me. #0:18 at night #laying in bed #writing this shit #i havent even eaten. #christtttt #moogsin' #ofmd #izzy hands #our flag means death #ofmd meta #ofmd critical #ofmd s2 #ofmd spoilers #the izcourse #im not tagging any of the other characters cuz i shittalk all of them 😭 #listen i love edward hes my babygirl but this season did him DIRTY.

[antimony-medusa]

"There's just something about that guy that means I don't trust him"

Okay so, Phil has got the wrong read of Sunny. I'm gonna start off with that. He thinks they're a confident unconcerned material girl who is comfortable in the fact that their dad loves them, and potentially he thinks that they're a bit older than they are? Whereas people who have been able to see her one-on-one with Tubbo know that she's quite a bit more shy and insecure and young than she puts on! He's been taken in by the facade they're putting on, and I think that's part of why he is making jokes and comments that don't hit well. To understate how yesterday went. I think he botched the interaction with Sunny in the musuem and I hope someone tells him that, so he can apologize and fix that. And to be clear, as a phil viewer, this does interesting character work with Sunny as a sensitive child and I'm in favour of Sunnymin pursuing this line of lore. I'm staring with my little cube guy watching googles looking for the result when Phil realizes he scared a child, with great interest.

Because when you look at the musum one in context, my read is that was phil pivoting badly from an out of lore discussion into "oh hey I can explain something to sunny, who is confident and centred and knows her dad adores her" and then jokingly tried to explain the tallulah experience, and then we know from Sunny signs later that that went over like a ton of bricks. Mistake. However, when we're discussing it, I think it's fair to not have that understanding of the lore though, and to take a more pointed, villainous read of the lore! Go for it with discussing phil as cold and brusque to people who aren't his family, discuss Sunny feeling all alone in the musuem, fill your boots.

But guys, when you're discussing this as meta, I am seeing a lot of tags that are really really eager to paint Phil entirely and unequivocally as a villain and specifically cruel to children and cruel within the family, and there's an element to that that concerns me.

Phil, the cc, the guy, acts working class. He has an accent from a particular part of england that is traditionally working class, but he also has storytelling cadences and humour styles and attitudes towards challenges that are very familiar if you are from a working class or lower income community. I'm from an entirely different continuent, but the area I'm from is the sort of area that people make jokes about, and the whole way Phil acts as a CC is very familiar to me. (Note: even when he's talking about travel or stuff, he still has the "worked retail for a decade" mentality and pays attention to the staff and stuff and what they're doing, check out the brazil storytelling vod.)

And Phil's cubito, when he's not deliberately making a character like osmp crowfather, tends to have the mannerisms of someone who is working class. Even if you're not from a lower income area, I think most people can clock this, subconciously if nothing else. He swears a lot! He banters and roasts his friends and family but would absolutely do anything for them. He's informal in a very specific way.

Which is why when people pivot immediately into "why is he threatening and bullying children again" and "his wicked is showing", and "oh he's a evil stepfather/cruel stepmother" and "can we kill the child abusers now" I go Oh No.

Working class mannerisms are already stereotyped as especially prone to domestic abuse, among other ills. If you are going "oh something about him just always seemed like he would be cruel to children" maybe— push back on that one?

In the same way that during the election I was going "that may not be the play" about americans who didn't know what it was but something about Forever was just so angry and agressive (and they were talking from a perspective that viewed forever as a person of colour, regardless of how he's perceived at home), you might be talking from a perspective that encourages you to interpret Phil's behaviour with children as especially suspect. Potentially. Consider it.

And again, Phil biffed it in the musuem. That was a misstep that had me (autistic) going "oh no I see how you got there but you can all but see the sims negative relationship marker thing pop up". But I'd ask you at least to consider that it wasn't intentional cruelty, and that people can make social missteps before you jump immediately to interpreting their actions in the worst light possible.

#discourse #fandom meta #qsmp #philza #qphilza

[avelera]

Mostly buried this in the tags of my next OFMD meta reblog down from this post but…. I don’t think Ed is going to apologize for his Kraken era and I don’t think the narrative is going to demand that he does.

I saw a couple posts expressing eagerness for Ed’s inevitable “apology tour” after he wakes up and I just fundamentally don’t think that’s going to happen. I could easily be wrong. But at most I think we might get a few mumbled, shamefaced apologies. If you expect him to grovel before Lucius and the crew, imo, that’s just not going to happen and here’s why:

- the narrative morality of OFMD has NEVER been encouraging its characters to become “good” people. The story is about finding love and acceptance during a midlife crisis. It’s about following your bliss. The highest moral demand it makes of its characters is to be true to themselves, not to become Good People. It’s a pirate comedy. It doesn’t care about murder. It cares about being true to yourself and your desire to be a pirate. Everything goes well when people follow their bliss. It falls apart when narrative defining main characters like Stede or Ed do what they think they should do instead of what makes them happy.

- Emotional pain has always been more important, more impactful, than physical pain in the show. Ed’s bad behavior (to put it lightly) was an expression of his emotional pain. Simply put, the narrative isn’t going to ask him to apologize for his emotional pain.

- Stede, the main driver of the narrative, DOES apologize because his actions led to Ed’s emotional pain (in his mind) and again, narrative pain is weighted more than physical pain in this show. Also, life is cheap, if you’re not a main character. This is still a pirate story. Murder is not treated as a sin.

- Ed is proud. Taika is proud. Both rightfully so one would argue, they’ve accomplished a great deal. Ed’s got a bit of Taika in that, actually more than a bit. It’s clear Taika puts a lot of himself into Ed. My gut tells me that Ed/Taika is just not going to grovel an apology. That’s just not his style. Mumbled self-conscious apologies because he feels he should is one thing. But deep sincere apology tours? Not gonna happen. He won’t abase himself like that (Ed OR Taika)

- The person he arguably hurt most directly, Izzy, hurt Ed IMMENSELY at the end of S1. Arguably more than Lucius, the majority of whose pain came from what happened after he was pushed overboard. But Izzy Ed personally tortured, and he did it because Izzy threatened to murder Ed if Ed didn’t climb back into the suffocating closet of Izzy’s expectations for him. Ed is not going to apologize to Izzy. Izzy got exactly what he deserved in physical pain after the emotional pain he dealt Ed, narratively speaking.

- I’m not talking real world morals, to be clear. Or even what the various Izzy or Ed fans THINK the other deserves, where the fans think the fault truly lies and who owes what to whom.

- What I’m saying is, in the OFMD world where emotional pain matters more than physical maiming, the narrative isn’t going to ASK Ed to apologize to Izzy for maiming him after what Izzy did at the end of S1 and Izzy getting his comeuppance for it. And that’s because they hurt each other equally, emotionally. They’re even now. Izzy lashed out and emotionally destroyed Ed during a vulnerable moment. Ed took his leg. They’re done. The way forward is for them to separate and get their toxicity out of each others life or find a new way forward with new understanding of each other as they become entirely new people after their respective ordeals. But as far as the pain they’ve dealt each other, there’s no debt. They’ve both hurt each other beyond the point of apology being anything but a false display.

Again, I could be totally wrong. Joke’s on me if ep. 4 opens with Ed on his knees crying and apologizing to everyone he hurt. But I just cannot picture that happening. And I don’t think OFMD is the kind of story that will demand it.

#ofmd #ofmd spoilers #ofmd meta #our flag means death #Ed teach

[ladyluscinia]

"What if it weren't like that?"

...or I'd like to propose a different theory of what's going on in Edward's head.

Going into the S2 finale, I feel like there's once again a huge consensus that Edward and piracy are an unsustainable mix, and he has to quit. Specifically after 2x07 he knows for sure, 100% that he wants to quit, and he's pulling away from Stede because he doesn't know how to communicate that certainty to him.

There's a very established meta framework backing up this belief. It's not new, just everyone pointing and saying "look! - the show is affirming us" at the same time. And it does make a lot of points about foundational trauma, the violence of the lifestyle, etc. I don't need to break it down for you. If you're seeing this post then you've seen the arguments before.

The thing is... I'm not actually sold on this read.

Edward is a complicated guy and I love to try and peel back his layers, and I'm not sure that retirement is truly his endgame. And maybe more importantly... I'm not sure retirement endgame is quite the thematic crescendo it's being presented as.

So let's talk a bit about Edward, particularly in 2x06 and 2x07.

---

Edward's Ongoing Depression Spiral

The thing about backsliding - and the Kraken was a pretty monumental backslide - is that even if you gain a lot of ground afterward, you still might not be much further than where you started.

Edward believing change is possible with Button's 2x04 guidance + his & Stede's conversation about taking it slow at the end of 2x05 are both huge steps for a guy that was openly suicidal at the beginning of the season. However, in the grand scheme of things, he's pretty much cycled back to the dilemma he was facing in S1 - continuing life as it was is intolerable, but he doesn't actually have a solid idea of what he wants. "Stede" is not a real, actionable answer.

In S1, this caused him to run recklessly into extremes of vulnerability with Stede because Stede was doing something different. He tried to metaphorically cut loose his entire history - as a pirate, as Blackbeard, as Edward Teach - and become a new "Ed" with no baggage, who was free to live an endless vacation honeymoon with his new boyfriend. And when the consequences of their own actions came crashing back in - an abandoned Izzy, Spanish Jackie, and Chauncey Badminton - Edward's desperate actions to save Stede turned into over-commitment to a guy he barely knows, a reckless plan to run halfway around the world to escape himself, and then a truly disastrous downturn when that blew up in his face.

Wherever you go, there you are - except Edward hates that guy. Edward's only concrete want so far for the new direction of his life is the one thing that's impossible - to not be Edward Teach.

So now, back to contemplating the same unknown future he was trying to chase in S1, the Kraken Era has given Edward new perspective, for better and worse. (I'm gonna link my rambling BlackHands / Kraken Era thoughts from 2x01 - 2x03 just because.) He's learned caution and is dipping his toes in self-reflection - Stede's love alone is not enough to save him, and his self-loathing has been acknowledged. Reckless pursuit of change without growth was doomed - an important lesson both Stede and Edward have started to learn.

Unfortunately, growth requires looking backwards, and if Edward was already disinclined to that due to killing his dad, he's struggling so much worse now that he's got months of fresh atrocities that he absolutely did not need to commit.

---

Drowning in Guilt

Edward's core trauma that he flashes to constantly goes back to killing his dad that night - something notably not associated with piracy. That guilt is the root of his self-loathing, but Edward is a rather troubled grown man with guilt aplenty, especially after the first two episodes of S2.

In 2x05 Edward starts with a CEO scripted non-apology firmly recategorizing all of his Kraken actions as "whatever that nasty dark stuff was that brought us here... it's in the past", and then his discussion with Stede does not involve too much reflection on why this probation is necessary and drops this gem:

"Oh fuck no. Apologizing? Nah. Didn't apologize for jack shit."

However - demonstrating self awareness / growth - he's also clearly projecting guilt and a desire (that's almost too big to look at) to apologize to Izzy for everything, and then he honestly talks with Fang (who he's known for 20 years!) about how he can not be understandably mad at him, after Fang pushes back on Edward's toxic rewriting of Knife Parade. He even learns to sit with himself!

All of which makes the start of 2x06 so layered.

We open with Edward sitting with himself, looking out over the ocean and stewing in guilt - in order: his dad, the storm, Izzy's toe, shooting Izzy, driving the crew to mutiny - and then the conversation that Edward was haunted by all last episode comes to him. He's back in his leathers - playacting the penitent with the onesie and cat bell got old after a day, and he had never truly linked his probation rules with any of his earnest feelings of remorse. Just a necessary performance to appease the crew.

Now he's himself again, as uncomfortable in his own skin as ever, and Edward Teach apologizes for Izzy's leg. He isn't being demanded to apologize by Izzy (no matter how much he may deserve it). Izzy is fully prepared to pretend it never happened despite the evidence of his body. But Edward wants to - needs to for the babiest step toward his own peace of mind - and so he does.

And then he flees from one guilt and accidentally stumbles into another. Stede has so helpfully pulled all Edward's Kraken treasure into one place, and Edward lampshades it:

"Excellent. A reminder of all my guilt. A guilt room."

Now, Stede has a decent idea here. His "poison into positivity" bit is not bad (and it echoes the language Izzy and Edward used - though I think it's a tossup whether Stede heard about that or if the parallel is purely on a Doylist level). It definitely lifts Edward's mood for the day and pulls him out of his guilt spiral for a bit.

Until it comes back so much worse.

Ned Low. Oh fuck the implications of Ned Low.

So here's the thing. People have rightly observed that Edward broke Ned's record intentionally during Kraken Era. In fact, since he makes the comment about "We got a record to break" after the wedding boat aka the last ship he takes, and Ned isn't coming after him for a tie, presumably he set the new record and then proceeded to break it over and over again. Just to rub it in. Just to really piss the sadist off.

And if Edward's attempt to take the whole ship and crew down with a storm at his lowest point was bad, what he was courting by baiting Ned before the season even started was worse. This is a man who would have tortured everyone on the breakup boat to death when he caught up to them, and Edward was passively planning on letting him do it.

Edward knows this.

Poison into positivity just became "oh shit I forgot I'm the most poisonous thing any of these people have ever run into," and he's just getting started. It's hard to shove it down and brush it off and pretend it was no big deal when Stede starts getting the hot poker to the chest.

He doesn't want to kill Ned because he's not worth the poison, but the poison is already here.

When Stede kills Ned, Edward has already spiraled. He's already got a whole narrative in his head about how this is all his fault, how this is his poison, his guilt, his Kraken surfacing to ruin Stede too.

"I'm not a good person, Stede. That's why I don't have any friends," Edward chokes out.

"It all boils down to this - You're afraid you're unlovable," snarls Hornigold's ghost in the gravy basket.

"I hate myself," Edward realizes.

"Don't do it, Stede. Killing in cold blood" - like I did - "you can't come back from that" - like I haven't.

Edward's guilt is projecting all over this scene. He's made some baby steps toward seeing Stede as a flawed person vs mythical mermaid whose love can save him, but the idealization is still coloring both their views. Stede still hasn't told Edward about any of his childhood traumas or deep seated insecurities, and Edward has continuously avoided putting together that Stede is fucked up as well. He's convinced himself that killing Ned Low is a great tragedy that will permanently scar Stede's previously unblemished goodness in a way that is all Edward's fault, and he's sticking to it despite how completely it does not apply.

Reality has never been much good at breaking through his self-loathing before.

Izzy tries to warn him to give Stede a minute, but Edward doesn't listen. And while there's a good amount of concerned boyfriend in that act, I also suspect there's more than a little self-harm. Edward's spiraling about what he's wrought. He shows up at Stede's door already paralleling this to killing his dad. Of course he wants to be in the blast radius.

Apparently, having sex about it.

---

"Bye-Bye" Blackbeard, See You Again Soon

Last season, when Edward's ignoring his past went poorly, he tried to metaphorically bundle Blackbeard and all his traumas up and cast them into the sea. He was "Edward Teach Born-on-a-Beach," and then "No-Beard" who found folding stuff in prison fun, and then he's kissing Stede and getting excited about picking new, cool names for China, because:

"Our old lives would be gone. Dead. Never were."

Edward, babygirl, that is not how that works.

Now, he's actively backsliding down a guilt spiral, just had ill-advised sex a day after the "take it slow" talk that he's already regretting, and he gets up in the morning, pulls on another goddamn robe, and goes to literally bundle Blackbeard up and cast him into the sea.

Babe you already tried this.

I don't think it's a coincidence that disposing of his leathers signals Edward is back to reckless change instead of intentional change. He tries to make breakfast in bed despite never having ever made breakfast before and explains his twine as a panicked decision. The idealization of Stede is back in force - he chooses now to tell him about the mermaid vision - "fantastic," he describes him - and thanks him for saving his life. (Once again, in times of trouble, Edward is the one offering up rosy imaginations for their relationship that swallow him whole and Stede is shoving his recent childhood trauma flashbacks down to be Normal™.)

In the Republic, Edward does avoid becoming straight up jealous of all Stede's positive infamy, but he's also doing his hardcore all or nothing thing again - this time running away from himself toward a grubby, poor, "nobody" version of Ed (or do we think he's gonna try "Jeff" again?). Jackie calls his attention to how his new life direction (as of 6 hours ago) is not necessarily aligned with Stede's, and - rather than doing something as crazy as talking - he mutters "shit" and heads to the docks where Izzy finds him.

For a guy who felt "Fucking great" throwing away his leathers, Edward sounds kind of sarcastic, even if I'm sure he's feeling just as light as he was on that Naval Academy beach. But Izzy - going through his own shit but still trying to be supportive - opened this conversation with a joke about Stede and I suspect thinks they are talking about putting the "Edward retiring to be with Stede" plan back on the table. (Edward could clear this up, but he's still not communicating his emotions to Izzy.) So Izzy encourages him:

"Maybe you should listen to it."

Edward's face falls, he looks back down at the fishing boat, and apparently gets himself a new job. He just needs to go dump his boyfriend about it. They're simply incompatible, you see?

Edward's a fisherman now. He's gonna sit with himself until he finds a better guy in there, just like Fang taught him. (Don't blame Fang for this 😆 he just wanted Edward to stop talking!)

Now there's a lot going on in the breakup scene, but I want to talk about one statement Edward makes (keeping in mind he's already spiraled all the way into his new fisherman identity):

"I don't even know who I am! Alright, I know I don't want to be a pirate, but you..."

Because, see - I don't think the second part of that is necessarily true.

It's not that Edward doesn't want to be "a pirate". That's what he's using as shorthand (and a way to strongly delineate his new career from Stede: "Fishermen and pirates - they're nothing alike.").

What he's not saying is, once again, I know I don't want to be Edward Teach.

And, babygirl, I love you... but too fucking bad.

---

Better Piracy as a Theme

There's a lot of meta around about how Edward views piracy as a kind of enforced toxic masculinity. How his traumas are woven so thoroughly into his Blackbeard career that the thought of continuing as a pirate is killing him. He has to retire. It's the only way he'll truly be happy as "just Edward."

And I question that framing.

Like... Edward clearly has trauma tied up in piracy. His time on Hornigold's ship appears to have defined his (and Calico's Jack's) fairly fucked up approach to casual violence. His time as Blackbeard has enabled his poor impulses, and he is absolutely sick of piracy as he's experienced it the first time we meet him. That's not in question.

But while leaving is one solution, I think change is another.

In the OFMD universe, piracy is not a stand-in for toxic masculinity. Stede, an outsider, describes it as a "culture of abuse" in the first episode, but it's the culture of piracy where we see openly gay relationships, polyamory, freedom of expression in clothing and presentation, the oppressed having power... to treat piracy as inherently toxic is to deny that the culture of piracy is what gave life to Calypso's Birthday party. Our main characters are pirates.

There is a lot of violence and most pirates are very troubled people, but it's not piracy's fault. That's getting the cause and effect reversed. The "problem" with piracy and pirate culture is that the people coming into it and building this community are already traumatized.

As Edward points out to Stede:

"It's usually something like that. It's often family-based stuff."

(Also the problem might be the pirate Captains, lol. I mean, if you start listing the major drivers and enablers of toxic culture... Hornigold, Ned Low, Calico Jack, Blackbeard. Fortunate, then, that the crew of the Revenge is demonstrating that piracy can also be about workers' unions and supporting each other against your shitty boss while operating in a thriving community. He can play nice or get out.)

Oluwande tells us from the start that people don't choose to be pirates - they get forced into it by terrible circumstances in a terrible society. Piracy is the community that accepts the outcasts, but it can't magically fix them. They have to do that themselves, which our crew is showing can be done.

Stede did not swan in with all the answers, but he gave his crew the space and all the confused-yet-well-meant support they needed to strengthen their own bonds and community. Oluwande and Frenchie especially have been really stepping up in leadership positions. Like, the whole plot of 2x05 was showing they have successfully formed a union and that they will operate as a united front against their captains if need arises. It's so good!

They are living that better culture that Stede wanted so bad, and it's not just our crew.

Piracy influenced by the Revenge crew has been shown as helpful and even desirable to chase.

Hellcat Maggie and the rest of Low's crew don't sail off to get new jobs - they are resuming piracy but this time talking about profit sharing. Anne and Mary, our oh so aggressive BlackBonnet mirrors, retired from piracy together like Edward was dreaming of in 1x09, and what "fixes" them is burning it all down and returning to piracy (rejecting Mary's fears) with their love at the forefront of their minds.

Edward wants to leave piracy behind forever because he has depression and hates himself, but the biggest thing he hates himself for isn't even a thing he did as a pirate. He's pushing back on his Hornigold trauma from the moment we meet him - in fact, I have a whole other meta idea I need to pull together after the season about how he has potentially thought he was doing "soft piracy" in spite of Hornigold this whole time - but the guilt he feels about killing his dad is still too big for him to even look at. And that won't go away even if he could cut 20+ years of Blackbeard out of his chest.

He's bored. He was stagnating. He needs to address that knot of self-loathing before it successfully drowns him.

Maybe people are right and he could be the one pirate to find peace operating a bed and breakfast? Maybe he'll follow in Jackie's footsteps and stay connected to the community by running a gay bar or something?

But I also think, maybe, he has a community surrounding him, a home and love on the sea, and a career with plenty of aspects he did enjoy - sailing, fuckeries, luxuries, creative problem solving - and he might just need to join everyone in striving for a better culture?

And step one would be realizing that wherever he goes, he's still Edward Teach, and he's got to stop running from that fact.

#our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd meta #my meta #blackbeard ofmd #edward teach #character arcs #ofmd piracy #ofmd 2x06 #ofmd 2x07 #really wanted to get this one out before the finale because i imagine it's going to either support my theory or cut its legs out #and if it's the former i want the opportunity to be smug 😘 #ladyluscinia

[suzukiblu]

I know it's totally wrong for what you're shooting for but your stories make me feel bad for Clark. All these folks judging him, when as far as he can tell Kon doesn't even want to be around him. And honestly, he's had clones before. No one expected him to mourn when a Bizarro degraded

. . . okay, friend, first off I apologize, because I def got carried away with this response and it turned into a bit of a rant, hah. Please don't take any of this the wrong way or get the impression I'm annoyed by this ask or anything, I just fundamentally disagree with SO many things about how Clark's relationship with Kon has been handled in canon and apparently I had to word-vomit a lot of that out here and now in explanation of why I tend to write Clark as being Objectively Wrong about Kon/how he treats Kon.

A) There's no convincing reason I can think of that Clark should think Kon doesn't want to be around him, and if he DID, why would he have given him permission to wear the El crest to begin with, much less offered him either the name "Superboy" or "Kon-El"? Especially Kon-El, because that's a name that originated from a specifically ADOPTED member of his birth family, and Clark offered it to him while CALLING him family, but also . . . lying to him about having a secret identity? And whole-ass other life??

and also

B) I actually WOULD expect Clark to mourn a Bizarro degrading. That's like his whole deal, in my experience of him across various media: Clark Kent is a person who thinks that every person matters and is undeniably the kind of guy that would be upset by someone suffering from genetically-inevitable degradation. Especially if the people suffering that degradation only exist to suffer it because HE, Clark "I Am Personally Responsible For This Whole Damn Planet, And Yes That IS A Threat" Kent, exists.

Like, Clark always takes way too much on himself. So it doesn't really make sense to me that a dude like that would take one look at a kid with his own face who is actually at best about a month old and just decide "yeah, this person doesn't need me ever involved in their life at all" and STICK with that assessment even through repeated problems, near-death experiences, and straight-up disasters. ESPECIALLY because Clark already knew Matrix, and she was ALSO a genetic experiment who'd been made in his image by someone he didn't have any reason to trust. But he still took Mae to his parents' farm and let her live there pretty much immediately, trusted her with SO many of his secrets and even trusted her living with his parents without, again, having to jump through ANY of the MULTITUDE of hoops that Kon did to earn a similar level of trust, and she eventually started dating literal LEX LUTHOR and Clark still trusted her after THAT!

( I mean, I think everyone thought Lex was his own son at the time or something weird like that, Because Comics, but still! STILL!! )

Shit, Clark still trusted Mae after she had a mental breakdown ON HIS PARENTS and tried to attack him and had a severe enough psychotic break that she thought she literally WAS him! Mae very quickly proved herself to be WAY more dangerous and hostile than Kon has EVER been outside of being directly mind-controlled, but from the jump Clark is way more invested in her and her life and CARES way more about her and her life. And later he responds to Kara just as differently as he did Mae, despite her ALSO debuting as both a more dangerous and more hostile person than Kon. So like . . . there's a bit of a double-standard going there, it kind of feels like? Like, at least on a meta-level. And I'm sure most of it's editorial nonsense and the kind of narrative problems that lie inherent in like . . . what, thirty-plus years of comic history and about eight bajillion different writers and the like, obviously, but it just is REAL hard to justify that behavior in the actual narrative when Clark Kent is meant to be the moral paragon that the entire damn rest of the DC universe is meant to set its metaphorical watch by.

Either way, though, I'm usually trying to write Clark as either sympathetic or at least understandable in his logic, even when it's flawed, so I wouldn't really say it's "wrong" if you feel sympathy for him while reading my writing. Like, I'm not saying he's in the right in those specific fics, but I do still want to be empathetic to his point of view. It is again just REALLY hard for me to explain a lot of Clark's canon relationship with Kon in any way other than "benign neglect due to just deliberately assuming that all Kryptonians are always Perfectly Fine, Thanks due to his own personal issues about what 'Superman' represents", and that's the KIND option.

Long story short, I really just don't care what DC says, It is NOT on the brand-new teenager with zero life experience who Clark deliberately LET put an S-shield-shaped target on their back to single-handedly foster a relationship with the perfect superhero idol that most of the damn world looks up to. I genuinely cannot think of a single significant occasion where Clark ever does anything for Kon that involves CLARK having to put in any kind of recurring effort, but we're supposed to accept that KON has to earn scraps of Clark's attention and the right to be considered a part of his family over and over again--while Clark, again, doesn't have to do anything to earn Kon's attention or the right to be considered a part of HIS family? Ever? Even ONCE??

Relationships are two-way streets, DC! That's just how relationships are, DC!! Otherwise it's just parasocial bullshit or someone taking advantage of someone else, DC!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I really love Clark, I think he's a great character in a lot of fascinating ways and that he is VERY interesting and affecting when he's done well ("you can do anything you want, and all you want to do is help people" HELLO CRYING IN THE CLUB RN), but like . . . come on, DC, what the fuck and WHY?

#confusedguytoo #meta ecetera

[phantom-dc]

Dad Hood - part 10

After a couple hours of screaming and yelling, Tim was very grateful that he put Danny to bed before Jason began his tirade. The kid didn’t need to see his dad and his uncle fighting like this. As he got back to the living room, he wished he’d stayed with Danny.

‘WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, LETTING THAT CLOWN ANYWHERE NEAR MY DANNY!’

Jason was almost as red as his helmet. Tim was worried he’d pop a vein!

‘WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THE KID’S A META! I WAS SO EXHAUSTED I COULDN’T EVEN THINK STRAIGHT!’

Dick was yelling right back. Seems like Danny made it difficult for him.

‘WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I GAVE YOU THE NOTEBOOK WITH ALL THE POWERS I KNOW OFF AND EVERYTHING!’

Jason pointed at the black notebook. Tim had a feeling Dick hadn’t read it.

‘YOU SHOULD’VE- wait, you wrote it down?’

Dick was feeling a bit sheepish. He really should’ve read that stupid thing. As Jason was starting another tirade, Tim decided to intervene.

‘GUYS! I know you’re tired and upset, but can you stop yelling? You’re going to wake up Danny!’

Jason and Dick calmed down. Dick apologized for putting Danny in harms way, but he made sure that Danny was ok. The kid had been more upset that he had to leave the cat behind then about what happened. Jason apologized for not being clearer about Danny and his abilities. He thought the book would be enough, but he should’ve told Dick what information was in it. Sitting down on the couch, Dick asked how their investigation went. Did they get some answers?

‘Well, yes and no. It’s complicated. We did find Talia and she was willing to talk to us. Turns out, she did have a kid about 6 years ago. She had him with Jason when he was recovering from his dip in the Lazarus Pit.’

Tim still felt weird about that. Jason had been way too young then, and it didn’t sit well with him.

‘Don’t give me that look. I was totally out of it at the time, I barely remember it!’ Jason misunderstood Tim’s look, thinking he was judging him, instead of Talia.

‘Since he wasn’t Bruce’s kid, she gave him up for adoption so he could have a normal life. She thought he had a good life, but didn’t keep an eye on him. She has no clue how he ended up in Jason’s care.’

Tim saw how surprised Talia had looked that they even knew of the child.

‘So what else did she say? How do Danny’s powers tie in all this?’

Dick was still curious. Surely they had all the answers now, and with he weekend he had he deserved answers!

‘That’s the part that gave us only more questions. She has no clue.’

Tim had been very disappointed that she had no answers. Talia had even gotten angry, suspecting her father of hunting the child down and experimenting on him.

‘And then there’s the age issue.’

Jason sighed. Damian had been aged up by artificial means, but that needed to be tested. Her father had forbidden her from wasting any of Batman's 'sample' on a test, but Talia had been desperate to make sure her Beloved’s son would be safe. That night she seeked Jason out, she hadn’t actually wanted him, but she needed a sample and he was there and still out of it. So the child had been aged up as well. He should look like a 14-year-old now, not 5!

‘So in short, Danny is Talia’s and mine’s kid. But he is far younger than he should be, has powers with no origin and still no clue as to how he got in my appartement!’

Jason was frustrated. He had hoped for answers, but came home with more questions.

‘I’m not even sure it’s the same kid. According to Talia, he had black hair and blue eyes. It might be a result of his powers, but there is a change we’re talking about a completely different kid here.’

Tim was worried. There were so many things that didn’t add up. What if they were getting 2 different kids mixed up?

As the brothers are talking, the bedroom door opens. Danny walks to the couch and crawls up, snuggling up to Jason.

‘Daddy, I can’t sleep. Will you read me a bedtime story?’

Jason pets Danny’s head. He wonders why the kid always has trouble sleeping. Maybe he wasn’t used to sleeping full nights?

‘In a minute, kiddo. Me and your uncles are almost done.’

Dick has an idea. With the amount of powers Danny tormented him with, maybe he could…

‘Hey Danny? Do you know anything about another Danny? With black hair?’

Danny looks up, sleepy. He thinks for a bit, before a ring of light appears. It splits in 2 and travel up and down his body, turning his hair black and eyes blue. His glow disappears and he looks like a normal kid.

‘Like this, uncle?’

The brothers were looking at the now black-haired boy, still snuggled up to Jason in his Martian Manhunter pajamas and his Wonder Woman blanket. At least one mystery was solved rather quickly. Jason rubbed his temple, before asking for the notebook:

Invisibility

Cryokinesis

Flight

Soul-pulling-out-powers???

Destructive scream

Super strength

(Flying) Superspeed

Photokineses

Shields

Doesn't need to breath (as often)?

Color changing (Camouflage? Different form?)

As Jason came to terms with another power, Dick decided it was the perfect time for a poor joke:

‘I mean, at least we know there aren’t 2 Danny’s going around?’

Jason gave Dick a look that said enough. But before he could tell Dick to buzz off, Danny decided to drop another bombshell.

‘But there are 2 of me! Dani is the best!’

The room immediately went silent. The brothers just looked at Danny. Jason gently shook Danny, praying he didn’t just fall asleep on them after that. He needed answers. NOW.

‘Danny, kiddo. What do you mean. Why are there 2 of you?’

Danny was beginning to doze off. He yawned and answered a bit groggily.

‘I was cloned. Dani is my clone. She is so cool. I’m so happy that she exists. Sometimes I wish that he cloned me sooner.’

Tim immediately followed up on that. Who cloned him?

‘Danny, who is this ‘he’? Who cloned you and made the other Danny?’

Danny puts on his thinking face. He still has trouble remembering things. But he knew exactly how to describe the guy.

‘I forgot his name. But he’s a rich, billionaire frootloop with adoption issues and a creepy lair underneath his mansion. He dresses like a vampire and he wants to get with my mom. I hate him.’

Hearing this, Tim and Dick looked up slowly, not wanting to make any sudden movements. Sure enough, Jason’s eyes were no longer blueish. They were glowing full, Lazarus green.

5 minutes later, Jason was calmy going around his appartement, Dick and Tim following in a panic.

‘Jason, please think about this!’

‘I just want to go talk to him.’

Jason was packing his weapons. Dick was trying to convince him to stop doing that, while also trying not to panic.

‘Seriously Jason, we don’t yet have all the info. There might be a good reason for this?’

‘I just want to go talk to him.’

Tim was very glad he had quickly put Danny to bed. The boy didn’t need to see what was going on with his dad.

‘Jason, please stop packing- Is that a bazooka!?!’

‘I just want to talk to him.’

Dick and Tim were at their wits end. They had expected screaming, anger, violence. The calm way that Jason was preparing a murder was unsettling to say the least. Especially since they knew who Jason was going to kill.

‘Dick’s right, Jason. What if it’s a mistake? Maybe it’s someone else-’

‘ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TRYING TO TELL ME THERE ARE 2 OF THAT FUCKER OUT THERE!?!’

Jason was livid. Tim admitted things didn’t seem good, but things had just been too strange. Nothing made sense anymore!

‘Look Jason, think about it. How could Bruce clone Danny? He didn’t even know about him!’

Dick was trying to reason with his brother. He couldn’t let Jason just try and kill their dad.

‘I don’t care how he did it! He knew I had a kid and he didn’t say anything about it! No, not only that, HE CLONED MY KID AND DIDN’T SAY SHIT! Oh, I knew that things had been going too well, I KNEW IT! I knew he didn’t trust me, that’s why he kept it from me! He didn’t trust me with my own kid, and now my kid has DIED AND BEEN REVIVED JUST LIKE ME! IM GOING TO KILL THAT-’

‘JASON!’ Tim actually slapped Jason across the face. ‘I know you’re furious, and you have every right to be! But we have no idea if Bruce really did all that! And before you start, when has ANYTHING about Danny been straight-forward?’

Jason actually put down his weapons, though his eyes didn’t change. Taking advantage of the calm, Tim kept pleading his case.

‘Look Jason. Things are really weird right now, and I admit, it does sound like Bruce did something he shouldn’t have. So, me and Dick are going back to the Manor. Give us a week to get to the bottom of this, ok? In the meantime, you can take Danny to all sorts of places now that he looks like a normal kid. How’s that for a plan?’

Jason calmed down a bit, the green finally receding. He knows Tim is right. He needs more information. And he can’t interrogate Bruce without strangling him right now. He relents:

‘Fine, one week. You investigate the Manor and I’ll try to get more information out of Danny. But if he did know-’

‘Then he’s all yours, Jason. We promise. Just, stay here and we’ll go. Ok? Bye!’

As Dick and Tim rush back to the Manor, they are worried. What the heck had Bruce done?

First - Previous - Next - AO3

#danny phantom #danny fenton #dc x dp #dp x dc #red hood #batman #jason todd #dad jason #dad hood #tim drake #dick grayson #nightwing #red robin

[deafeninggardenerpanda]

Could you please tell us more about Leon and Carol's characterizations in the Light Novels that you know of? I'm super curious about their personalities since we don't get a ton to work off of in the Forgotten Land game itself! :)

OMG YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS MY BELOVEDS!!!!! okay so the only one with those two in it ive read myself is the samurai novel ofc, and even then ive only read half of that one, but i do know what happens in the fl novels. tho i wont recount too much from that due to the said, i havent properly read them thing. slight spoilers for samurai novel btw so ill stick this ramble under a cut

disclaimer first of all that since the samurai novel is an au, their personalities could be a bit different from the fl novels (dedede and mk are Veryy different for example), but for the most part i think they act just about exactly how youd expect them to!

leon is exceptionally kind and cares a lot about the rest of the beast pack, to the point of being overprotective at times. when elfilin brings back kirby and bandee to their home saying theyre friends leon just gives them an intense look and acts cold to them, not seeming to trust them. when dedede comes over later and accuses elfilin of being a criminal he gets absolutely FURIOUS, but calms down and apologizes after seeing that hes scaring dedede a little by doing so. he acts how youd expect a leader to too, with an aura of dignity and firm but understanding communications with the rest of the pack, and hes able to put aside his own feelings on things for the greater good.

carol in comparison bounces off of him really well i feel. shes more headstrong and emotionally driven and will huff and puff a little over leon's decisions if she doesnt necessarily agree with them, though she relents to those decisions in the end once leon explains his reasoning. but if its not leon making those decisions she doesnt agree with, watch out. just like the game, she takes position of leader when leons not around and when dedede+meta told her she couldnt go off to forgo dreams to save him she got outright aggressive LOL. shes pretty sharp minded and usually the first to speak her mind. also she shittalked dedede i just wanted to bring that up. we love a mean girl

again im only halfway through, but the beast pack as a whole play a surprisingly big role in the samurai novel. i rlly look forward to seeing more of them >:]]]

#leongar #clawroline #asks #jojo-schmo #THANK YOU FOR THE ASK JOJOOOO #i love rambling about these two hrhgkdjfh #leon and carol my absolute beloveds #the novels have really made me appreciate them so much more

[queer-reader-07]

op could you elaborate on the she/her muriel thing. because i totally get what you mean but i find it so hard to articulate why... its just like. mmmmm. canon they/them character. but you wont respect their prns. but then again i enjoy when people get genderwierd w the ineffable spouses. would you respect my prns if you cant even respect a fictional character. is that the same thing. idk.

hi anon! i'll try best to elaborate, but apologies in advance if it comes off a bit... intense?

to give some context to my words:

i am nonbinary

i am afab

my pronouns are they/them

most everyone with the exception of close friends and people on the internet misgender me with she/her pronouns because they perceive me as a woman.

i think the root of it for me is that muriel has no experience interacting with earth, let alone humans, before they're sent down to be Inspector Constable. and because they have no experience with humans, they most definitely have very little context for the human construct that is gender. muriel's pronouns are they/them because those are the default gender neutral pronouns in english. muriel (like the other angels and demons) is referred to with they/them pronouns because, for all intents and purposes, they don't have gender.

whereas aziraphale and crowley (and even gabriel to a certain extent) have interfaced with humanity enough to have developed some level of understanding regarding gender, and possibly even an understanding of what they want their gender to be/be perceived as.

additionally, crowley and aziraphale play with gender in a way that feels very intentional to me.

crowley has canonically, in the show, presented femme. meta writers far more skilled than me have examined how, during the crucifixion scene, crowley is very obviously dressed more like the women in the background than the men. and it's not just in the historical flashbacks that we see crowley's genderfuckery. his modern look is comprised of a combination of femme and masc pieces. he wears a woman's cut waistcoat and his "11 years ago" look features women's sunglasses. all while inhabiting a decidedly man-shaped body.

i'm also just going to remind the audience that crowley outright denies being "a lad" in season 2. he straight up told us he's not A Dude.

aziraphale's genderfuckery is definitely less obvious and some might say debatable. that being said, i would make the argument that aziraphale's tendency to dress and present in a way that results in him being almost universally perceived as not only A Gay Man, but an effeminate gay man at that, is a quintessential example of gender as performance. and i do believe that aziraphale is making a very conscious and deliberate choice to present as a gay man. for fuck's sake he calls himself THE Southern Pansy, he knows what he's doing.

also, i know it didn't actually happen, but we almost got both of them presenting femme in the 60s so like. there's that too.

so, to me, it's ok to fuck around with crowley and aziraphale's genders in fanfic and art and the like because they do so canonically. the book makes it very clear that they are "man-shaped" but not necessarily men, ie they have chosen bodies that are perceived as being A Gender but that doesn't mean they technically are.

whereas muriel does not. muriel doesn't have a concept of gender because they haven't been on earth or around humans long enough to develop one. they are only ever referred to with gender neutral language. so it just feels really gross to me when people choose to she/her them. because to me it feels like saying "well this body that appears woman-shaped to me must mean they are a woman" which is a sentiment i, unfortunately, know all too well.

muriel is a character that is canonically referred to with they/them pronouns, on a major TV show on a major streaming platform no less. so it really fucking sucks to see people disregard that because they "can't remember to they/them muriel" or because they "seem like they use she/her."

to put it bluntly, every single argument i've ever read in favor of she/her-ing muriel has boiled down to "i just can't be bothered to remember they use they/them" and if you can't use a fictional characters pronouns correctly then i have zero faith you can use a real person's pronouns correctly. all i hear when i read those arguments is "i can't be fucked to do the bare minimum of gendering trans people correctly."

and lastly, i know it's genderfuckery when people she/her aziraphale and crowley because they're "man shaped" in the book and played by male actors in the show. but i don't have much faith that it's genderfuckery when people she/her muriel because i can almost guarentee it happens for no other reason than the fact that Quelin Sepulveda is a woman.

#wow that got long really fast #i hope this provided some amount of insight and wasn't too confusing #asks #my asks #answered asks #good omens #muriel #muriel good omens #kind of good omens meta

[cookinguptales]

I was reading your latest meta and it got me thinking, mostly the part about how Guillermo's trigger is being undervalued and I agree but also I think he takes Nandor's shit because he knows Nandor actually values him. Like in seasons 1 and 2 there are times when he thinks about killing him, but all starts to change when Nandor saves him from Topher and then Guillermo's like now I know my master cares for me. I think Nandor was very loving by vampire standards from the start, he's just a little better at showing it now, but the big change is not his behaviour, it's that Guillermo is aware that Nandor cares. The bit in 5x01 about the cute montage or even his smile at the cinema proves it. Like we're supposed to think haha he's delusional how funny, but he's not actually, he knows Nandor loves him even when he laughs at him or is being rude. And while Guillermo has gotten more and more secure in the knowledge of how Nandor truly feels, Nandor doesn't have that... at all. If anything each season gives him more reasons to fear abandonmet, there was always the risk of Guillermo leaving and now there's this new fear of him staying and still not being there for him emotionally. The turning is just the icing on the cake. I think to fix things and to make it work between them eventually Guillermo will need to prove to Nandor that he lives him for him and that he doesn't want to leave him ever. I'm not saying marrying Guillermo will fix Nandor, but I'm not not saying it lol

*looks at her entire body of work on ao3* yes, these are subjects I also think about a lot. lmao

No, you're right, these are things I really love about the show. Like I was saying in that meta post, you really do have to look at Nandor's actions through the lens of vampiric norms. Nandor absolutely does not treat Guillermo well by human standards, but by vampire standards... he's downright eccentric, how into his familiar he is. That comes up a lot, actually. Other vampires are weirded out by how devoted Nandor is to Guillermo.

I mean, just look at how we've seen other vampires treat their familiars, including even other vampires in the same house. They're completely disposable. They have them fight like pokemon. They put them down when they get a hangnail. They keep them in dog cages. They've completely dehumanized familiars because they are glorified food.

Like... maybe even worse than food? Like maybe tainted food. Vampires regularly fall for (and turn) humans, but there's such a distaste for familiars. At least other humans are free, y'know? They don't debase themselves the way familiars do. I think that's what disgusts the vampires far more than familiars' intrinsic humanity. It's the servility. The willingness to sacrifice their own. (Vampire shall not kill vampire, etc.) The fact that they take orders, something that most vampires clearly chafe against.

(Side note: it's so interesting that Guillermo, who clearly wants to be a vampire so he is no longer constrained by social norms, has willingly taken on a role that's even more constrained and submissive for years. That's a whole meta post in and of itself, though.)

But despite the blatant disrespect that vampires have for familiars, the open manipulation they use to keep them in line, the total dehumanization they engage in... Nandor doesn't. He protects his familiar. He plays one-on-one games with his familiar. He confides in his familiar. He does what his familiar says, partially to make him happy and partially because he is willing to acknowledge that his familiar is often right. These are all totally foreign behaviors to most other vampires.

Guillermo does come off as delusional at the beginning of the series, but we quickly realize that he's not wrong. Nandor was willing to sacrifice his life (and the lives of the other vampires) to save Guillermo at the Council. He did apologize to Guillermo and try to make it up to him after letting him down at the club. He did save Guillermo from Topher, even if he wasn't emotionally capable of admitting why. Guillermo was right.

Guillermo, we come to realize, actually knows these vampires better than literally anyone. And that's part of why he's been rewarded with a very strange relationship, for a familiar. It's also why he can see through Nandor's surface shittiness to what lies beneath. (Which is occasionally more shittiness, but is often something much softer.) You're right, his smile at the movies really did speak volumes. He knew why he was there, even if Nandor was being a crab at him.

The only thing he doesn't seem to get about Nandor is how easily he can hurt him. I think he's finally, finally starting to understand how much power Nandor has given him. Like... I remember when Nandor went off to join the cult and Guillermo was like "I guess now I know how it feels." He genuinely had not considered up until that moment how badly it had hurt Nandor when he'd left him. He hadn't considered that he had that power over him.

But I think Guillermo gets it now more fully than he ever has in the past, and I think he'll only get it even more by the end of this season. He knows that Nandor has abandonment issues, but he's never seen the way those issues are attached to him specifically. Nandor always plays it off like he didn't miss Guillermo when he was gone, and Guillermo used to believe him. But he's finally seeing how fucking weird Nandor gets when he's worried about Guillermo leaving him. He started to see it in s4, with the wedding stuff, but he's really seeing it now.

Nandor is upset. He's upset purely and only because he thinks Guillermo doesn't want to be with him anymore. And Guillermo really can't ignore that anymore -- and isn't, for that matter. It's really killing him, I think, to finally realize just how much he means to Nandor right after doing something that will damage their relationship, perhaps irreparably. He's finally putting all the pieces together and realizing that even he didn't see how much he means to Nandor.

Nadja and Laszlo, however, know just how fucking weird Nandor's behavior towards Guillermo is and always has been. They know exactly what Guillermo means to him, though they're a little fuzzier on why. (Though thankfully, they are also starting to see the light.) So they understood immediately what the consequences of all this would be.

I do think that Nandor mostly just needs irrefutable proof that Guillermo wants to be with him. He has been damaged by all the times that people have left him in the past, and he's been even more damaged by all the times Guillermo has left him in the past. I do think a large part of why he won't turn Guillermo is because he's afraid that he'll leave once he no longer needs anything from him. I do think that's why he has such weird, unhinged, possessive behavior towards Guillermo's attention. I do think that's why he concocted an entire fucking wedding.

I don't know that marrying Guillermo would completely assuage his fears, especially considering the way that all of Nandor's past marriages have ended, but it sure wouldn't hurt. lmao. I think Nandor probably wants to be the wife this time, too.

I think he just needs something real and tangible that will make him believe fully that Guillermo will never, ever leave him. And hell, who knows? Maybe that'll be Guillermo being turned, knowing that Nandor might kill him for it, and still sticking around.

#replies #long post #wwdits #nandermo #wwdits spoilers

[barrowsteeth]

Anatomy of a Kiss - 1.05 Friend

[long post + gif heavy meta ahead]

I don’t think we’ve talked enough about Nick and Charlie’s body language during the arcade kiss scene in 1.05. I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently, so I’m going to break it down and would love to hear others’ thoughts!

First, I think we need to talk about how brave Charlie is, once again, in telling Nick that he wants to kiss him. I just…love that he did that? I imagine his confidence has been boosted after their talk, and of course Nick giving him the photo gift, and saying how much he likes him. But even so, our guy knows what he wants and just comes out with it. I love that he has the confidence to say it.

At the same time, Nick seems so nervous about the idea of it at first. We can see him swallow and look down, and his hands are firmly stuffed into his pockets, but he also sees how happy Charlie is, and is also listening to Charlie and taking Charlie's wants into account as he considers it. When I first watched this scene, I had a little thought that he was also trying to make up for the Imogen date a little bit by even considering a public kiss, but I don't think that's really a factor here.

In the next second, we see Nick take a look around and really decide that this is going to happen -- not just because Charlie wants it, but because he does too. I mean, this is a big deal! They've just confirmed that they both really like each other, and they're going to have their first public kiss. And look at Charlie's face! He's smiling, probably not expecting Nick to agree, but he's just being happy.

I know verbal consent in this scene has been discussed before, and it is perfectly done, in my opinion. What I really love about this part of the scene is that for once, Charlie doesn't apologize. He gives Nick multiple chances to change his mind, and Nick is just as determined to let Charlie know he really wants to kiss him too. I think this exchange adds so much to the scene, and even gives Nick a little more time to get excited about the idea of kissing Charlie. In the second gif below, we see Nick's hands out of his pockets and when he says "yeah," his fingers twitch a little. He's ready for this.

And Charlie is so cute and patient and maybe a little disbelieving, but he's also clearly so happy that this is going to happen. I love it when he squares his body before he moves in to kiss Nick. **flails hands**

I don't have a lot to say about the kiss itself except that it's soft and sweet and really just perfection, so let's take a moment to enjoy it. **happy sigh**

This got longer and wordier than I thought, so putting the rest under the cut...

I think the biggest contrast in Nick and Charlie's body language comes after the kiss. They are both completely and obviously caught up in the moment when they separate. Charlie's little double blink is one of my absolute favorite moments in the entire series, as is Nick's breathlessness. It's too much! But then they part, and their reactions are very, very different.

Nick looks around again and shoves his hands in his pockets, back to that nervousness we saw earlier, and Charlie is absolutely giddy with joy and doesn't know what to do with his hands while he giggles to himself. I think both of their reactions are so true to character.

But what always gets me is that in this next part of the scene, Charlie gives Nick a little space to process what just happened. He is over the moon with happiness but can likely see that Nick needs a minute to collect himself. I think this is so important, because it also gives Charlie a minute to himself to be giddy and happy too, without having to consider how Nick is feeling. It's okay to be ecstatic about what just happened! He doesn't need to feel selfish for needing his own time, and I'm so, so glad he doesn't.

And of course, Nick doesn't waste a minute before pulling out his phone and texting Imogen. Honestly, how could he not after the moment he just had with Charlie? I think he understands that this is a no-turning-back moment when he tucks his phone away. And he doesn't want to go back, which is the most important thing. It sets the stage for all of the wonderful moments in 1.06, where he tries to be the best not-yet-official boyfriend to Charlie.

I think we can all agree that Charlie Spring has had the best. birthday. ever.

#heartstopper #nick x charlie #nick nelson #charlie spring #heartstoppercentral #heartstopperdaily #narlie #heartstopper gifs #heartstopper edits #heartstopperedit #barrowgifs #oh look i had a lot of thoughts again #heartstopper 1.05 #random musings #heartstopper meta #meta #long post