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kibbits · 9 months

Note

It’s health scare anon here again (I really should get better identification others then my health issues) with gentle reminder to all to drink water, take your meds, and two burning questions about the BAL!Boys:

1. If it ever became an option (I do mean an option, not that Fazbear would give them one), would they get separate bodies? Would the answer change once they develop their individuality?

2. Is there a BAL!Eclipse? And are they a separate entity or truly both Moon and Sun?

GOD ANON ARE YOU PSYCHIC?! 'CAUSE I S2G THAT "3AM EPIPHANY I AM FROTHING AT THE MOUTH" WAS ABOUT THAT EXACT TRAIN OF THOUGHT (also yes ghfffh i care you but id love another thing to call you ehehe)

Ok so first, very short answers (hopefully) and then the spiral into lore under the readmore!

At first they miiiight? Useful to have 2 of them on stage, but very complicated for lore reasons that are gonna be under the readmore. Its also kind of their gimmick at this point they they're both one/transform on stage. Then in the middle when they're finding themselves aaaaabsolutely not! Panic attack at the mere thought of it honestly their situation is way too complicated at this point. At the end.. I don't think so, nope! MAYBE if like. The option to hop back and forth is there? The option could be fun, but they're comfortable where they are and they'd rather stay together. (I'm not opposed to making art with both for funsies though!) .

There is and isn't : ) It's not a separate entity, for sure. THIS especially is the thought that sparked this whole lore I'm about to drop fkjldgjkl

ANYWAY FRESH LORE! GET YOUR 3AM BREAK A LEG! EXISTENTIAL LORE!

Thanks @eyndr-stories and @lavenoon for helping me ramble it out and get decent sleep kljdgk

So I started thinking about Eclipses in the fandom in general, and how the Sun-Moon relationship is so different from AU to AU.

In Break a Leg!, they don't really have an Eclipse. Or rather-- They ARE the Eclipse, themselves.

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They're not one person, exactly, but they do share a literal brain/processor as well as memory banks. They're one person and two people (and it's very blurry in the beginning).

They're also just. In a constant state of compromise. 'Cause if one of them starts to break the rules they set between them, then the other one's gonna fight them for space and control. They have a lot more leeway/overlap to take over the shared body (the light levels makes the line between them blurrier, but it's still a joint effort) so really all that keeps them in some semblance of balance is, well, the balance itself!

They don't keep secrets from each other-- why would they? Again, they share memory banks! They... can disagree, but not in a fighting sense. They have different opinions, but they know and acknowledge the other's.

I don't know enough about multiplicity and I'm a singlet, but alters is the closest I can think of as to what they are to each other? This is just for comparison's sake, though-- they weren't thought up with this in mind, but I just felt like the comparison was worth pointing out. Especially with the having to compromise, and having an internal set of rules/behaviors they adhere to for the sake of harmony/balance between them.

Or I guess like a Gem Fusion, but with their own voices still?? They'd be Garnet fjklfdl

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So, especially in the beginning, they're one big walking compromise. They are the overlap and the points in common between each other. And the thing they have the most in common? Is their purpose. Their roles. Their scripts.

The individual differences are there, but they're not super acknowledged or important to them (on the inside, mind you). They don't really know who 'Sun' or 'Moon' are, yet, aside from the overlap, so they do everything together-- kind of like they're planning a story together.

They can both be active at any time-- even at the same time, which they do often. The buttons on their chest are speakers so that they can sing duets/harmonies during shows, but they can also both talk at any time, no matter who's fronting. They experience everything together.

Actually, I think 'Sun' and 'Moon' probably swapped a bunch of times before the AU when one was more suited to being an antagonist or protagonist for a story (Previously-Sun does the laugh better, or Previously-Moon does the movement. Maybe both at the same time and Moon puppets the body while Sun does the laugh when it's that character!)

To the point where even they don't know if they're switched or not between the original Sun and Moon anymore. Moon just tends to do villain/antagonist roles better, and Sun prefers the heroes/protags!

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They're like... A Heel and a Face. (idk why i went with wrestling terms?? Basically it's the same concept: two actors, one of which you're supposed to cheer on as a hero and one as a villain)

They're antagonists in a script sense, but they're always on the same page. Literally.

Narratively, they're opposites and opponents. But actually, they're coworkers! They have the same goal: a good story!

There's no virus Moon. Sun is a Hero, but he won't interfere when Moon gets ya if that's what's gotta happen for the story, because he's not a foil or adversary to Moon (or vise versa), their roles are. They themselves are, to quote Garnet, 'a conversation'.

The 'villain' part isn't that Moon is evil, it's that they both struggle with detaching themselves from their identity as their roles.

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The AU is all literally a journey of self-discovery (of the both of them together, of themselves individually) but it's also developing personalities and sentience as an animatronic developing self-awareness? gfjkldjk "FNAF:SB but the AI becomes self-aware."

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SO! In the beginning, Sun and Moon are two people in one-- like, well, an acting crew. Who they are outside of work is irrelevant to them because they're animatronics and they work 24/7, they don't have time to explore who they both are.

But THEN! Y/N comes along. Unwittingly, they play by their (internal) rules, and they set up their own rules in turn-- They compromise with the compromise that Sun and Moon show the outside world, how fun!

And then Y/N gets assigned to them, and they're curious! They start to ask questions about Sun, about Moon. They connect more strongly with one or another with different traits or activities. And it gets the boys thinking. At the same time, the boys are supposed to be learning from Y/N, observing them and expanding that compromise between themselves to, well, that big social compromise of ethical rules and common courtesy flkfgjkldf

So they learn from Y/N, and from all the media they get to see and absorb, and they don't exactly grow apart, but they grow into their own? Like, they're learning to be people rather than machines, but they're also learning to be their OWN people.

And that's a bit scary! It feels less stable! They're very attached to each other literally and figuratively-- they're each other's constants, and they're both seeing themselves and the other change! They also get to ping-pong concepts and ideas off of each other, too, thankfully-- but you see why they wouldn't want to be separated at this point. And they also get a lot less confidant at this point because things aren't how they THOUGHT it all worked.

Eventually, though, they find their footing. They gain confidence in who they are individually, what they like, the differences and points in common between them, and they're secure in that!

So at that point, instead of being... (literally thinking of the equivalent of Daycare Attendant rn) the Actor...? Instead of being The Actor, they are Sun-and-Moon. Individual, but a package deal. Kind of like siamese twins fgkldg

#asks #anon #omg i went. ham on those 2 asks fgjklkldg i need to check if i even answered all the questions #break a leg!au #dca au #loooore

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merryfortune · 7 months

Text

hold your breath and count the days, we’re graduating soon

Written as a gift fic for @katsuballs who won my raffle earlier this year

Ship: Galaxymastershipping | Kaito/Mizael

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal

Rating: T

Word Count: 6,435

Tags: Alternate Universe - High School, Drama, Fluff, First Kiss

September 1st.

Kaito was having a completely average first day of the last of his days. That was his goal anyway. Get in, get out. No one needed to see him, no one needed to bother him. It was really meant to be that simple. Get straight A’s and get the hell out of town as soon as his letter of acceptance from his university of choice came.

Until then, he just had to bite down hard on his lower lip and bear it. He sure wasn’t going to grin and bear it but he was going to white knuckle it. All the insults, all the disruptions, the disrespect between peers and faculty and he would make it out on the other side alive. That is legitimately all Kaito wanted.

The last thing he wanted was a beginning of the year rager.

Partying - and people in particular - were incredibly incompatible with Kaito’s goals in life. He could think of nothing worse than getting wasted, staying up past dawn, and all for what? A hangover the next day? Because there were a couple boys on the high school football team were good at passing the football around between each other? It was entirely an eye roll for Kaito.

It was an entirely different lifestyle and sphere. Same school, sure, debatably the same people but completely, totally, entirely different worlds. With very little overlap to him, hermit king of the mathletes.

And yet.

“You want to come or not, nerd?”

He looked up at this fellow… schoolmate of his. Not a classmate. He was fairly certain this guy was from 3-C whereas he was situated in 3-A and it had been that way for all eternity. Read, last three years. But Kaito recognised him which was the main thing.

An admittedly easy feat because he was quite easy on the eyes. A literal golden child of the school when it came to sports-related accolades. Field and track, football, he did it all and with rather long blonde hair, a firm but slight build, and piercing eyes.

Kaito frowned, “Don’t call me a nerd.” he huffed.

He snatched the piece of paper from this person’s hands. He was taken aback by how it was just ripped from his hands and that caused his pretty face to quiver, displeased.

And now, somehow, against all the odds, two asteroids which were never meant to cross paths and remain forever perpendicular had met.

They didn’t even know each other’s names but their gazes, sharp and discerning, disgruntled on both ends, had connected.

But of course Kaito wasn’t going to go to this party that he had clearly been invited to because he was simply sitting in the vicinity of where it was being planned in the library. He only accepted the piece of paper because he needed to quickly scribble out some notes to himself, nothing of consequence, let alone related to his schoolwork and yet.

End up that party was exactly what he did.

Only because he needed to be out of the house and he didn’t exactly what to be alone. Being alone in a crowd of people was fine but not actually, really, truly by himself. He was a little bit… pent up regarding some things. Kaito knew his Father was doing his best and his little brother even more so but being cast out so Haruto could recuperate in his hospital room, which fit a total of one guest exactly, was a little nerve racking.

So his options were all pretty bland. Kaito could either go to sleep in his bed in his big empty house whilst worrying about his brother or he could go to a dumb party he had been invited to where his senses would be too overloaded to let his anxiety get the better of him. Somehow, the latter seemed like the better option. Which even Kaito couldn’t believe but hey.

No one stopped him when he turned up at the place of the party. No one batted an eye at him, actually. It was as though he hadn’t even turned up in the first place but honestly, that’s how Kaito wanted it. He really didn’t want to be looked at but he didn’t really want to be looking at anyone else either.

He sort of knew the names and maybe he could probably put a couple of those names to familiar faces. All he knew was that things were getting pretty wild. All the usual teenage antics, of course. Dancing on tables, throwing up in the garden, all that sort of thing.

It was really super gross. But it beat worrying himself to death about his little brother in his room alone, Kaito figured.

As he scanned the crowd for something to take his mind off things, Kaito noticed that the blonde haired guy who had technically invited him to this party was here. Which, you know, made sense. It was his party and he wasn’t the life of it, surprisingly.

More like… the chaperone. He looked large and in charge, sure, with some kind of beer can in his hand but he looked like an eagle with how he surveilled his pridelands and was taking stock of damages so far, no doubt.

Through the crowd and the horrible top 40 pop music playing through someone’s streaming service on a speaker, Kaito made eye contact with this guy and given that he was doing all the mingling, saying hello to all his guests… He made no exception for Kaito. He cut through the crowd effortlessly and seemed strangely above it all. Even the music.

“You actually came.” he said.

“Yeah, well…” Kaito shrugged. He bit his tongue before he could say, “I have my reasons.” He wasn’t about to spill his guts to this guy about why he was here.

There was a pregnant pause and he took a sip of his drink. Kaito watched. He slurped it down slowly, still making eye contact with Kaito. That irked him to say the least. He’d never been big on it but this guy’s golden eyes were too much too soon with how sharp they were. Judgemental, being a good word here as well, Kaito felt as he was studied up and down by this jock.

“Real party animal you are,” he said, derisive, “absolute social butterfly.”

“Do you even know my name?” Kaito asked.

“Do you know mine?” he asked.

“...Touche.” Kaito begrudgingly replied.

“Mizael.” he replied.

“Tenjou. Tenjou Kaito.” he said.

“Charmed, I’m sure.” Mizael bitterly responded.

Kaito grit his teeth, “Likewise.”

Then they fell into silence again. Watching the other, waiting for him to do something. The tension was uncomfortable. It was as though they were the only two people in the room and were determined to fill all that empty space with tentative contempt.

“So, like…. Do you do anything for fun?” Mizael asked.

“Not really.” Kaito freely admitted, staring at his shoes.

Mizael huffed and crossed his arms, “The whole goal of hosting a party is to have fun with your guests, you know. You're making that hard. Is there anything you like? Like, I don’t know, do you have a favourite colour?”

“That’s a bit personal, don’t you think?” Kaito huffed. “Why does it even matter to you? Just go hang out with someone else.”

Mizael was blankly not listening. He sighed again, “Do you think cereal goes into the bowl first or do you think milk goes into the bowl first?”

“Milk, obviously.” Kaito replied so quickly, he felt tricked into replying.

But his reply was very much not what Mizael was expecting. He began to sputter, his hand acted independent of him. As though it were an animatronic on the fritz as he tried to grapple with Kaito’s statement. The enormity of it entirely lost on Kaito who stared at Mizael as he had his miniature conniption.

“You fool, you weirdo, you could not be more obviously wrong. It's cereal first, you heathen.” Mizael snapped.

“But then how would you know what the optimal ratio is?” Kaito argued back. He felt his blood pressure spike for no good reason. “Cereal is the main source of sustenance in cereal so why would you not proportionate it to the treat of milk?”

“Because milk is invaluably nutritious in its own right?!” Mizael exclaimed.

“Weirdo.” Kaito spat.

“Motherfucker.” Mizael replied.

“Get a room! Some of us are trying to have fun over here!”

That put Mizael in his place. Surprisingly.

He let out half a puff of laughter and that diffused the tension between him and Kaito. Which Kaito appreciated. Also surprisingly.

Mizael sighed, “I need to cool my head.” he said. “And drink something that doesn’t have alcohol in it clearly. Want to come with?”

“Where?” Kaito screwed up his face.

“To a place I know.” Mizael said.

Now, that should have been a red flag. Stranger danger. Secondary locations were where people got tricked into going and killed for it. And yet, Kaito agreed. He wasn’t exactly taking to the party as well as some of the more natural socialites and party animals. Besides, he was going to be with the host of the party. Surely nothing too bad could happen, so Kaito decided to take his chances with the brisk night air and the cold concrete pavements.

Mizael strung Kaito along about a block or so away from his place to the corner store not too far away. It had a parking lot out the back with shrubbery to the sides and litter in the gutter. The fluorescent lights of the shop itself lit up more brightly than the actual lamp posts along the street; smog covered the stars so they weren’t relevant at all to the situation, Kaito just missed them.

He found himself thinking it would be nice to drink a slushie or two under them.

Mizael had been a gentleman and bought Kaito a drink from inside the convenience store. All the rows and aisles looked exactly the same from location to location. The uniformity of it was oddly comforting and made the sour-sweet shock of how sugary the slushie was all the more confronting.

Mizael laughed at Kaito’s screwed up face as he sucked down some strawberry ice. They also ate some lollies, hard candies and chews and the like. It was actually quite refreshing to be out on the edge of the parking lot, sitting against the yellow, rounded fences and chatting.

They had made some light conversation on the way but now that they were here, it was easier. They were getting through the hard stuff. The who are you, what classes do you enjoy, what do your parents do? All that sort of stuff.

“So, what’s your favourite colour again?” Mizael asked, thinking that he would have better luck this time.

And he did. This time, Kaito replied, “Yellow.”

“Me too.” Mizael said.

“Like really pale, almost white yellow.” Kaito clarified.

“Okay, I'm the opposite. Give me daffodils or give me death.” Mizael laughed.

“I like caramel, too.” Kaito added.

“Like the colour or the candy? Because I have some here.” Mizael said as he offered a mixed bag of hard candies to Kaito.

“Both.” Kaito replied as he reached into the open bag. “My little brother really likes caramels as well.”

“You have a little brother?” Mizael asked.

“Yes, his name is Haruto and…” Kaito wasn’t sure if he should share anymore but when he glanced at Mizael, he didn’t see him as some stuck in the mud jock. Instead, he saw a friend so instead of just remain silent or just straight up lie, Kaito was honest. “And he’s in the hospital. I’m hoping to bring him some more caramels when he can have guests again.”

“Oh, man, I’m sorry to hear there.” Mizael said and he paused too.

That silence made Kaito’s ears prick up. As strange as that sounded but it did. His stomach tightened. He had shared something vulnerable and now it was Mizael’s turn. Then he spoke.

“Is it serious?” he asked. “Because I lost my grandfather recently. He was in palliative care in the hospital, he was so old but it still hurt a lot. I can only imagine what it would be like to be young and to go through that. How old is Haruto?”

“Twelve.” Kaito said and he felt bad. Mizael had it worse with his grandfather and though he was too slow to reply, he did clarify. “Haruto’s really sick but he’s not that sick. It’s just one thing or another with him, starting prematurely, a heart defect, a little bit of everything but he’s a fighter. I’m proud of him.”

“You should be.” Mizael smiled, bittersweet.

Kaito’s heart lurched, “I’m sorry to hear about your grandfather.”

“Thanks.” Mizael said.

The mood turned…. Well, moody, after that and was the best way Kaito could describe it. He really wasn’t good with emotions. Or people. But looking at Mizael, how he seemed bittersweet in the illuminating moonlight mixed with the sharp haze of the streetlight, it seemed they had come to an understanding. It was difficult to say, difficult to share but for a whole minute, Kait could only stare and ruminate and realise, he had a friend.

He wanted to consider Mizael a friend.

But just like that one 80’s movie, come Monday morning of the next week, it was as though those precious moments hadn’t happened at all. Something Kaito should have expected. They came from two very different stratas of the social standing of high school. It was never meant to be anything more fleeting than the taste of sugar on ice.

Or so it seemed, at first.

Kaito had given up by noon, trying to get Mizael’s attention again at school. Their secrets had been shared but seemed relatively safe with another as gossip about sick relatives, dead or dying, didn’t really interest very many people. Not when the juicy stuff was things like who was sleeping with who but Kaito had half wanted to try.

But borders that had long since been drawn were too tight to cross, especially on a whim or even in a classroom, and it's not like very many places around the school could be eaten during lunch. Life wasn’t the west, after all, and real life wasn’t anime, either, and there was no access to the rooftops.

Though today wouldn’t have been a good day for it, even if they could eat on the sides of the school’s courtyard or on the rooftops, it was way too miserable to be outside. Just like Kaito’s hopes and expectations for the day. It started out promising then got steadily more dour as the day wore on.

A perfectly bright early morning turned grey before noon which turned into a drizzle by the afternoon which turned into actual proper rain by the time school was over. And guess who didn’t bring his umbrella?

Kaito thought he didn’t need to. Just like he thought he didn’t need to tell Mizael “see you on Monday” before they had gone their separate ways after their little romp to the convenience store. They’d both gone home after that. Awkward, no real resolution because where was there to go after an exchange of confessions like they had shared together in the parking lot?

Looking up at the sky, on the threshold of the school’s entry which looked out onto the courtyard, Kaito cursed himself. Why hadn’t he checked the forecast? Why hadn’t he done this or that? He sighed heavily to himself as it rained and it poured. There was a lot more that could have been done and shallowly, Kaito took pride in that even though he’d had his head caught up in some kind of social bubble, it hadn’t affected his own studies.

They were just friends. He didn’t know why he felt the need to clarify that to himself and his inner monologue but he did. Likely because this kind of… pining was usually relegated to idiots who sat by the window, looking out of it dreamily. A crush. No, Kaito was simply fascinated by the novelty of having a friend. A novelty which was just like any other trend. It came, it went, and now there was nothing.

Kaito sighed again. He made up his mind. No use crying over spilt milk, clothes would dry and he very rarely got sick anyway. He would just brave the rain like everyone else who had foregone bringing an umbrella this morning because it had been so sunny and balmy.

Kaito tried to step out but something stopped him. A voice, just a sharp yet casual intonation of, “Hey.”

He looked over his shoulder and blinked.

“Mizael.”

“That’s my name, no need to wear it out.” Mizael scolded him.

“Sorry.” Kaito murmured as he stepped back into the shelter of the school’s entryway.

“Forget your umbrella today, I take it?” Mizael asked, he made a half-hearted gesture. “You seem like Mr. Overprepared, if I’m being honest, I thought you would be the kind of guy to bring an umbrella to a drought.”

“I usually am more on the ball than this.” Kaito huffed.

“Looks like we have that in common.” Mizael laughed. It was a puffy, embarrassed laugh which made Kaito realise something.

Mizael was just as empty handed as he was on this downpour of a day, on the edge of the school’s threshold. It made Kaito laugh also. The same sort of half-hearted chuckle.

“But.” Mizael piped up.

“But?” Kaito quirked a brow.”

“Can I at least get you as far as the closest bus shelter? I know we live in kind of opposite directions.” Mizael offered but it wasn’t exactly the world’s most enticing offer as it came accompanied with him lifting up his jacket.

Kaito got the idea of course. They could protect themselves perfectly well from the rain if they just patchworked their jackets together.

“And get a good whiff off your armpits? No thank you.” Kaito replied.

“Ew, gross.” Mizael made a face, his nose scrunched up in disgust far more visibly than the repulsion that Kaito was exhibiting. “As if. Practice was called off so I am fresh as a daisy. Promise.”

Kaito stared unimpressed at Mizael but when he glanced over his shoulder, the other option didn’t appeal to him all that much either. So, he relented.

“Fine.” he said. “Let’s do this.”

“Cool.” Mizael flashed a smile.

They huddled up together and they did their best to make it work. Mizael had such an aura about him that Kaito hadn’t even noticed they were actually about the same height. What they did with their heights was completely different though not irrelevant as their different levels of athleticism became all the more pronounced as they tried to make it through the rain.

With their jackets combined over their heads, they were out of time and out of pace with one another. Mizael could go faster, Kaito was out of breath just trying to keep up. Even when Mizael slowed, it wasn’t much better either because their three-legged race adjacency was impatient and uncoordinated.

The course that it ended up charting was a lot further than the bus stop, too, which Kaito found strange but it's not like he was trying to keep it to that previously agreed upon length, either.

They reached the first bus stop but they kept going, almost as if they hadn’t seen it. They had, of course. They even stopped long enough to read when the next bus was coming and they decided, nah, no, it's too long away and look at the rain? It was absolutely pouring. They were better off to keep going. So, they did.

Leg by leg, hand not in hand, sharing the jackets which were getting battered by the pelting rain. It made Kaito laugh and Kaito did not laugh all that often and Mizael made fun of how he laughed but not in a bullying way. Just that, it was unexpected to hear him laugh. It was cute.

They passed by a second and third bus stop too but they didn’t even blink twice at them. They chatted - and complained about the rain or teachers or homework - along the way before eventually, they ended up in front of Kaito’s house.

Just in time for the weather to clear up, too. Naturally. There was a faint rainbow lost in the haze of pollution far off in the distance, hidden in the sharp corners and vertices of buildings or the soggy foliage of resilient trees. The city smelt and felt sharper now that the rain had soaked what there was of the cement and earth of the blinding Heartland City inner suburbs there were.

“Thanks for dropping me off.” Kaito said.

“My pleasure.” Mizael replied.

They were both dripping wet. Not exactly soaked through to the bone, however. Their jackets had managed to protect bits and pieces of them. The back of Kaito’s head was dry, for example, and Mizael’s forehead for another.

It was awkward but they untangled from each other. Their arms long and janky as they made what should have been an easy task impossible but they managed in the end. They whipped soggy jackets around, wrung them out and made light conversation.

“Do you want to toss your jacket through the dryer?” Kaito asked to be helpful but he was hopeful, too. To get Mizael to stay a little longer.

He must have noticed that little glimmer of wanting even more time with his very first friend because Mizael turned standoffish. He shrugged, everted his gaze from Kaito’s direction. But he still let Kaito collect his jacket out of his arms, folding it up as it wet the middle of his belly as he held it in front of him over his arms, all prim and proper.

“If you want,” Mizael said and he stepped a little bit closer to Kaito, “it's not that cold. I can leave it here, you can dry it off, and then bring me it tomorrow. And I better see you tomorrow.”

“Sounds good.” Kaito said yet he had this odd inkling as he observed these microexpressions of Mizael.

They were all so small and slow, like time had come to a crawl, and yet so fast at the same time. Kaito’s heart skipped a beat as something unprecedented happened. Something impossible.

Mizael leaned in and he stole a kiss from Kaito’s lips.

He had never kissed anyone before. He had never been kissed by someone before and it wasn’t as awful as Kaito had always told himself that it would be. Weird textures, bad breath, terrible technique. Mizael was none of those things as he kissed Kaito and to Mizael’s surprise, and even his own, Kaito kissed him back.

Kaito had never had the urge to kiss someone before. Then again, Kaito had never let himself want to be close to someone. Let alone actually. Yet here he was. With Mizael and kissing him, too.

His heart raced as he sneaked just this graze of his lips against Mizael’s and he swallowed Mizael’s gasp. Right before he went back down onto the balls of his feet as he held on so tight to Mizael’s jacket, even though it was sopping wet. He wasn’t going to be getting it back any time soon.

“Talk tomorrow, yeah?” Mizael said.

“Sure.” Kaito said.

Mizael backed away just slightly and Kaito awkwardly waved him goodbye. He didn’t leave, however. He just watched Mizael turn tail and walk away. Not quite like the kiss had never happened; Kaito could see the corners of Mizael’s mouth in an upward smile, his cheeks scantily coloured red with a smugly embarrassed blush. Not bad. Not bad indeed,

And Kaito in fact felt much the same way.

He had to soak it in. the kiss, the jacket, the rain. He wanted to let it all drip down to the bone, to the soul. He did so for five minutes, not even noticing the time change over and over again from seconds to minutes. It was all a cloud nine moment of sweet and quiet, blissful eternity.

Only alerted by the passage of time when he heard the front door open and his Father yelled for his attention by calling his name.

“Yes?” Kaito said, trying to hide his foolish smile as he held onto the jacket, turning on his heel at long last. But he could feel it tug on his face and twist his expression cheerfully despite his efforts.

“Why are you standing out here? It’s getting cold and dark, just because it's not raining anymore does not mean you won’t catch a cold.” his Father scolded him.

Kaito laughed awkwardly. That was probably true. So he gingerly came inside, his Father holding the door open for him as he passed him by in an inscrutable good mood. One which was not characteristic to Kaito but his Father didn’t feel the need to question it.

Kaito came inside and he was kind enough to not only put Mizael’s jacket through the dryer but the first wash so that it would be clean for the following day. And whilst Mizael was thankful for that, he still got this overwhelming notion that he was never going to get it back. Which was fine. Because Kaito did look damn good wearing it.

Sure, sure, it was a perfect cut school uniform jacket but there were these little foibles that only either of them would notice. The way it was slightly too big on Kaito and even the way he wore it, it was so possessive and savouring in demeanour. Honestly, Mizael found it adorable as he smiled before bringing it.

“You're wearing my jacket.” Mizael astutely observed.

It was still quite early in the morning for school. Seemed like both he and Kaito had had the same idea about this whole jacket thing and maybe just wanted to talk about what had happened yesterday. The kiss was fresh on both their minds and their mouths.

“I am. You don’t mind, right?” Kaito said.

“A little.” Mizael murmured. “What happened to yours?”

“Mistook it for this one.” Kaito lied and Mizael knew he was lying.

Mizael shrugged, “Looks good on you, if a little long in the sleeves. I’m sure it’ll make its way back to me, not like I’m running out of clothes anytime soon. Let alone school clothes.”

“Thanks.” Kaito said.

“So does that mean you're all in on it - on us - being official?” Mizael asked.

Kaito swallowed thickly. It all just seemed so random. The happenstance of entropy, the way they had fallen in with each other to bond let alone for feelings of permanence to take form. Yet even so, he nodded.

“It does.” he said. “I’d like that.”

“Me too.” Mizael said. “So, keep wearing my jacket, it’s fine.”

Kaito blinked and he felt his heart skip a beat as he managed to eke out a reply, “Thank you.”

“You're welcome.” Mizael flashed him a smile and Kaito had a feeling he was never going to get used to it.

Mizael’s teeth were pearly white. His hair was golden blonde, constantly wreathing him in a halo. He was blinded by just the slightest smile, let alone all for him and him alone.

Yet, Kaito had no choice but to get used to it. Mizael, golden boy of the school, darling of the football team, and resume etcetera was now officially his boyfriend and it made for a pretty good honeymoon period, too.

It was strange but over a month, they found themselves in a nice, little sweet spot. They were together but they weren’t overbearing about it. They could be their own persons individually and even together as a couple. They kept it on the downlow, of course. Kaito was a private person and Mizael didn’t want to seem like he was being distractible. They both had their own focuses, their own goals. Sometimes they aligned but more often than not they didn’t since their disciplines were quite different.

And were going to take them to different places.

Like different schools. Even if it was temporarily. So that Mizael can go and play sports ball real good and make the school proud and all that jazz. Kaito should have been hyped for his boyfriend. This was a big game, hence the school excursion, but instead, it was agony. It was absolute torture.

It was a huge opportunity. Two weeks abroad in America, all expenses paid, three meals a day, and travel, all to play football and maybe even get scouted by some of the best agents in the game. Kaito should be happy for Mizael. It was all he could talk about in the lead-up to his departure but Kaito had held on so tight, he didn’t want to believe time was passing at all until… goodbye.

See you soon.

But soon couldn’t come soon enough.

That little month beforehand had been so slow like molasses dripping out a jar but now that they were finally separated, it felt even slower. And there was nothing Kaito could really do except stare out the window and daydream about Mizael, hoping that he was fine. Mobile phones and social media were banned on these sorts of trips, nothing but the best behaviour expected but anxiety ran wild through Kaito’s head, nonetheless.

They say that no news was good news but Kaito didn’t know who they were so he sure as hell didn’t believe it as all his body throbbed with worry. Any number of things could go wrong. From the little - like a twisted ankle - to the massive - like a crashed aeroplane - but Kaito had to keep himself from worrying. They’d been going out for a month and it's not like Mizael had up and died or anything… Though, Kaito was acting like it.

Especially with his coping mechanism but he just wasn’t the type to take separation well.

So, he had taken to not just wearing Mizael’s jacket, but sleeping with it, too. He couldn’t dare to wash it lest it rid the fabric of Mizael’s scent but it was getting less and less each day. Even so, Kaito cherished the original smell of it as a memento of its original owner.

Musk worked up from a hard day’s slog on the football field mixed with the shampoo and conditioner that Mizael used. The scent of his laundry detergent and the food he ate that lingered on it. It all mixed together to make something uniquely Mizael and uniquely comforting for Kaito.

Wearing it, sleeping with it, it didn’t matter: having Mizael’s jacket with him was a blessing that Kaito relished.

Up until the blessed day that Mizael returned from overseas and what do you know? No news was good news and the good news that followed was great news.

Still, Kaito was basically crawling up the walls of his bedroom when alone. He was going maddeningly bored and worried without Mizael and without a scrap of Mizael’s contact with him. Of course, he went even more insane when Mizael finally made his glorious return and what a return it was.

Him and his team had won!

They had done exceptionally well, even. It wasn’t easy, of course. They had to work tooth and nail to earn every single win but they had done it. Whether it was by leaps and bounds or the tiniest margin, Mizael and his team had truly brought pride to their high school in these international leagues.

Kaito couldn’t be prouder.

He also couldn’t think of anything worse than being covered in sweat, mud, and grass stains but hey. If it made Mizael happy, then it made Kaito happy. He was just glad that Mizael had left the sweat, mud, and grass stains in America as when they met up again - at the airport, no less - he was quite pristine. Save for the bags under his eyes and how crumpled he looked from sitting in a tiny aeroplane seat for countless hours.

But Kaito couldn’t be happier.

Mizael was all crusty and tired but perked up seeing his boyfriend. Even from across the airport. It had all the usual hustle and bustle, luggage going everywhere, tourists and nationals going to and fro like ants on a beeline to who knows where. The din covered the conversation as they said hello to each other upon meeting.

Kaito’s heart swelled and he couldn’t help himself. As soon as Mizael was in front of him, he latched on with the biggest bear hug in the world. He buried his face against Mizael’s chest and inhaled his time warped morning breath with a smile. He squeezed the air out of Mizael and he laughed a haggard laugh. They stayed like that for a good few minutes until it dawned on Kaito that maybe… Breaking Mizael’s spine wasn’t a good idea.

Yet Mizael was incredibly charmed nonetheless. As Kaito slowly let go, Mizael’s eyes turned soft and fond.

“You have a surprising cute side, you know,” Mizael murmured as he patted the top of Kaito’s head, “but I actually don’t know how surprised I should be.”

“Huh?” Kaito asked as he recomposed himself.

Or at least tried to. He, himself, had his own reputation to protect and curate. He didn’t need people who didn’t need to know that he had a soft side. Had a vulnerable side. That he was head over heels in love with the school’s jock and all that which entailed.

Kaito leaned back. He didn’t let go but he gave Mizael just enough space to breathe. His hands slid down to Mizael’s waist so they were still connected in an embrace, just not chest to chest.

“I, um, always had a sneaking suspicion.” Mizael revealed. “I used to see you around and wonder what your story was. I actually thought you were quite handsome-”

“Thought?” Kaito picked out specifically with a slight growl. Uncertain whether to be unimpressed or not.

“And still do think you're quite handsome.” Mizael added to placate Kaito. He placed his hand around Kaito’s chin and kissed him briefly. “Scratch that, very handsome.”

“That’s better.” Kaito snickered.

“But let me continue.” Mizael pointedly said and he let go of the caress he had Kaito held in.

“Okay, continue.” Kaito permitted him.

“I think I had bit of a crush on you, before we ever really met. I don’t know what to call it but I knew I wanted to get closer and I did. So now I do know your story. It's not all sunshine and rainbows but I’m glad I can be a part of it. I don’t know what I expected from you but certainly not this.” Mizael said.

Kaito chuckled amiably, in agreement, “Me too.”

“I’m glad.” Mizael smiled. “And, um, whilst I was gone, I really missed you and I don’t think it was the normal teenage pining thing or absence makes the heart grow fonder bullshit. That what we have is solid. I think it's real. I want to continue being here. With you.” Mizael said. He sounded all sappy and yet, sincere in the same breath. His eyes were like starshine with how in-love he sounded. “Can I ask something real quick?”

“Yeah, sure.” Kaito said and his heart skipped a beat. He didn’t want to get too ahead of himself. That the big three words - “I love you” - might get dropped but it's where his mind went.

“What is it that you want to do in the future?” Mizael asked.

See. He shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up so Kaito was glad he had tempered himself. Or at least tried to. Kaito’s lips twinged with the beginnings of a smile as he did that microsecond of soul searching, however, to come up with a reply. He already knew.

“I want to become a tenured lecturer at a prestigious university.” Kaito confessed.

Mizael’s eyes slitted and he chuckled, “Nerd.”

“Jock.” Kaito snipped back without missing a beat.

“But that’s a good dream. It suits you.” Mizael complimented him as soon as the moment softened again.

“Thanks.” Kaito said.

Mizael’s hands moved down Kaito’s body, along the edge of his arm before finding his hands. He held Kaito’s hands firmly at the end of this long, trailing movement and smiled. And even though they were in an airport, with all its hustle and bustle, it felt like they were the only two there.

“I want to see your dream come true, as repayment for how you're supporting me here and now,” Mizael murmured, “and then, I want us to have dreams together. A future together. Where one day, maybe not soon, maybe tomorrow or ten or twenty years later, we’ll have these weird, stupid moments on the lounge watching TV or in the kitchen, slow dancing. Or you know. Something to that effect.”

“It’d be nice, wouldn’t it?” Kaito agreed.

Their movements were small but graceful enough to imitate a waltz. Mizael led. Naturally. He was the one who was far more kinetically gifted but Kaito was trying to wonder where he learned to dance because it didn’t feel talented. A little clunky, in fact. But he didn’t mind. It had his heart racing and spirits soaring nonetheless.

He took a breath and added to his agreement, “Let’s go home because why wait? The future isn’t promised to anyone.”

“Ah, that’s true…” Mizael replied and his eyes darkened. Kaito just knew that he was thinking of Haruto, who was always flickering between life and the opposite. He forced a smile that became a genuine one as he said, “But you're right. Let’s go home. Your place or mine?”

“Yours and let’s stop by the convenience store first, if you like.” Kaito suggested.

“I’d love to.” Mizael replied.

Kaito took the lead and he squeezed Mizael’s hand back. He was looking forward to a bag of chips and lollies as much as the next guy but it was Mizael’s vision for the future that he really wanted. It sounded nice, like a real happily ever after for two high school sweethearts on the cusp of university and who knows where higher education could take them.

But Kaito really did look forward to it. A future where he wasn’t dreading each day, trying to white knuckle through it until it got better but rather, a future that came naturally to him and with Mizael by his side.

#writing tag #mutuals tag #galaxymastershipping #mizakai #mizael (zexal)#<- you would not believe how many attempts it took to write zexal right now #kaito tenjou #tenjou kaito #yugioh zexal #zexal #long post

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something-about-sunflowers · 1 year

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Alright, this might be a long post so, fair warning lmao.

I realize my previous post may sound like I’m doing some deep dive conspiracy exposé or something, just getting out ahead of it: this isn’t that. This is mostly speculation and educated guesses. For the sake of clarity, this is just how I am reading the situation and may not, in fact, reflect what is actually happening (Even though, I’m pretty positive it is).

Disclaimer aside, I’m gonna get into why (I think) Izzy and the real living human beings who are fans of Izzy are getting so much aggressive hate. And why there’s so much inflammatory discourse around the character.

The gist of it is:

1. Its Ship War Bull Shit

2. The Entitlement

3. Silencing And Scare Tactics

4. We’re Not Falling For It

5. As Good Of A Solution As We’re Gonna Get (At Least Until Something Big Changes In Fan Culture As We Know It)

Now, actually Getting Into All That:

1. Its Ship War Bull Shit

Exactly what it says on the tin. I’m not saying and I don’t want to imply that everybody with their own preferred non-Izzy ships are the ones encouraging and participating in this behavior. What I am saying is that a non-zero number of, particularly Blackbonnet/Gentlebeard, shippers (though this isn’t unique to them) don’t like seeing other people ship Izzy with one (or more) of the characters in their ship. The same could be said for other fan favorites/popular ships as well. Jim, Lucius, Frenchie, etc. There is almost always another popular ship that the other party is involved in.

Though this does go beyond shipping as well. The way I see it, even people who don’t have ‘overlapping’ ships (or who don’t have ships at all and simply like Izzy on his own merit) are a target because of association with other fans who do. Whether that is actual interactions with said other fans or only imagined by way of them both being fans of Izzy.

This idea of a zero-sum game where, if people ship Blackhands that means there’s less people who ship Blackbonnet/Gentlebeard! (Or Ouizzy vs Room People, or Sprizzy vs Lucius’ polycule, or Jim/Izzy vs Tealoranges) is a false one. Multi shippers exist. Some people are more than capable of shipping two overlapping pairings with no problems. Sometimes people just don’t ship your ship. Its unreasonable to be mad at a Tealoranges shipper for not shipping Blackbonnet/Gentlebeard, so should it be unreasonable to be mad at a Blackhands/Gentlehands/Ouizzy/Sprizzy/etc shipper for not shipping your preferred ship.

Which brings me to my next point, being:

2. The Entitlement

Hi. I’m someone who is very particular in my ships. I have a handful that I like and I don’t particularly like to see ones that I don’t like, especially if they involve a character I ship with someone else. The difference between me and The Problem is that I am fully aware that my fandom experience is my own responsibility. If I don’t like something, its on me to remove myself from situations where I might encounter said thing. I don’t go into tags for ships I don’t like. I don’t go into tags for characters I don’t like. If I read a fic that deals with topics or ships that I don’t like I simply back out and move on with my day (provided the fic was properly tagged, please make sure you’re tagging your fics properly).

The Problem comes when people don’t take responsibility for their own fandom experience and expect everyone else to cater to their tastes. You are not entitled to other people’s: time, energy, enjoyment. If you are not paying someone, they don’t owe you anything.

I understand it can be frustrating when it seems like there’s not enough content for something you enjoy but there’s an apparent abundance of content for something you don’t but the only person who’s problem that is? Is you. Be the change you want to see in the world. If you think there’s a lack of content for your preferred thing? Go make content for that thing. If you don’t think you have the talent to make content for the thing? Do it anyway. Talent is not inherent and practice doesn’t make perfect but it does make improvements and for every imperfect thing you do make you’re increasing the amount of the thing you like. If you’re not inclined to make then consider commissioning someone. If you can’t be bothered to do either though? You’re not allowed to complain about a lack of content because you are part of the problem.

The entitlement doesn’t do you any favors either. When I joined this fandom I was over the moon for Blackbonnet/Gentlebeard. Now? I only read it if its written by a small handful of people because I don’t/can’t trust that anyone outside of those people aren’t going to be Weird About Izzy (and unnecessarily aggro at me about it). I don’t engage with the content for it anymore because The Problem has made it unsafe to do so. I have no intentions of making any sort of content for it now either. I do not cater to bullies and, for my own sake, I don’t care if ‘innocent’ people get caught in the crossfire. They are missing out on content because of people they are either passively allowing to remain in their spaces or actively encouraging. I am not the only one who has adopted this policy in light of The Problem.

Again, you are not entitled to other people’s: time, energy, enjoyment. If you make your spaces inhospitable for them, they are well within their rights to remove themselves from said spaces and blacklist the community from their own spaces.

Speaking of inhospitality:

3. Silencing And Scare Tactics

This is where the issue really lies. Fueled by The Entitlement, The Problem decides the best way to avoid/discourage content they don’t like is to make it seem like said content causes harm. Basically: ‘Its Problematic!’

This is where the ‘Izzy is racist/homophobic/a colonizer/etc comes from. It doesn’t matter what the canon says. It doesn’t matter if its interpretation or bad faith or anything else. ‘Izzy is a bigot’ is by and large, true or not, a silencing tactic to scare people into complying with the demands of The Problem. Its why ‘and that makes you an apologist/part of the problem’ always follows. Regardless of whether or not the person being told this is a part of any of the groups Izzy has allegedly wronged (for the sake of being part of those groups).

Its why several BIPOC have been accused of racism for being fans of Izzy. Why abuse survivors have been called abuse apologists for liking him.

The average person, when interacting with the fandom, will hear the loudest voices yelling ‘Izzy is problematic and so are you if you like him’ and avoid the topic for fear of coming across as problematic themselves. They won’t bother looking into the accusations because there is a risk in digging deeper and moreso of speaking out. ‘Its Problematic’ is a shield to hide the abuse being thrown at people who would really rather just be minding their own business.

Which isn’t to say its bulletproof, since:

4. We’re Not Falling For It

Which means that we’re being, perhaps not just as loud but, as loud as we can be about it all being Bull Shit. To some this might come across as apologia and ignoring the actual wrongs the character has done, its not. What it is is disputing false accusations towards the character and towards ourselves. Its quoting Word Of God and citing canon and saying ‘hey, this interpretation doesn’t really match up with the themes of the show’. Its poking holes.

Which The Problem doesn’t like.

Which leads to doubling down on accusations towards the fans. ‘Racist/abuse apologist/etc’. Over a fictional character. This isn’t to say that no Izzy fan is (consciously or unconsciously) racist, though the same could be said for fans of any character, just that its not because of association with the character. Personally, I think there is more issue with removing the agency from a BIPOC character and making all their faults be the fault of their white henchman (and all their virtues being attributed to the influence of their white boyfriend), but that’s just me.

What it also leads to is death threats and suicide bait. Which, I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a much worse offense than ‘liking the wrong fictional character’.

The excessive vitriol (the anon hate, the doxxing, the death threats, the outlandish accusations) comes from the fact that we’re doing our damnedest to show that The Problem is an actual problem and they don’t like having the spotlight shining on their bad side.

Which leads me to my last point:

5. As Good Of A Solution As We’re Gonna Get (At Least Until Something Big Changes In Fan Culture As We Know It)

The best thing we can do, until something big changes, is to remove the spotlight entirely. Deplatform the worst of them as we’re able to, which means not debating and not correcting (This’ll be especially difficult for me, I like to argue lol. Though, if you’re like me, you could also make a separate post disputing the argument after you’ve blocked the original poster. Just make sure you don’t mention their name/@ when you do, otherwise you’re just giving them back their platform by giving people access to them again.), and block liberally.

Blocking is a solution to two problems: 1. It avoids the possibility of seeing bad faith takes that you might want to argue with, and 2. It keeps The Problem from having access to you. It also provides you with a way to report The Problem if they do that fun thing they like to do and go around blocks to get to you anyway.

I know I’m probably not saying anything we didn’t already know, but I think its a good thing to remind people (and myself) of sometimes. We’re not The Problem, we deserve to have a space where we can enjoy ourselves in the fandom without harassment, and we have at least some level of ability to make that possible. This is hardly the first or only fandom to be experiencing this sort of issue, but given its the fandom we’re in right now, we gotta do what we can to make sure its a safe one (Which means, anybody who isn’t experiencing this, but who isn’t speaking out about it? Maybe start doing that. Its not just us that need your help, its fandom as a whole. Many voices make changes.).

#the dork is being a dork #izzy hands #edward teach #stede bonnet #jim jimenez #lucius spriggs #oluwande boodhari #frenchie ofmd #there are simply too many ship names for me to tag here so i will not bother #i am tagging other popular characters because this is a fucking psa #hey #if you didn't know this shit was going on in the izzy enjoyer side of the fandom?#now you do #can yall give us a hand with this issue and call it out if you see it?#this is not debating whether or not the meta of 'izzy is a bigot' is a valid interpretation of the canon #AND I WILL NOT BE ENGAGING WITH REPLIES THAT APPROACH FROM THAT INTERPRETATION (FOR OR AGAINST)#where was this essay energy when i was in school lmfao

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female-buckets · 2 years

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Honestly you can’t compare the drama between the WNBA and the NWSL The WNBA has 25 years on the NWSL 10 years that’s the equivalent of like a 25-year-old grown person Vs a 10-year-old kid Lol anyways it’s a very young league with very young fans who are idealistic. But the question you’re always asking is can NWSL fans forgive players for awful characters Yes I know and most likely No.

Anyways you hit the nail on the head when you said that soccer fans really don’t like chaos Vs basketball fans do Love chaos totally different and very interesting.

Yes, exactly. It does seem like the basketball fandom is a little more capable of forgiving and forgetting. That's just different and interesting, not better or worse. I want to clarify again that I wasn't implying one is better or worse than the other. I guess it came off that way and I offended a few people. But that wasn't my intention. But they are different sports with different cultures and different fandoms. And those fandoms do overlap. So it's interesting to me to compare them.

And not just the fandoms. It's interesting to compare the athletes too. They can all relate to each other on the basis of being elite athletes. But a lot of their other experiences are wildly different. I touched on the national teams earlier, but it's a great example. The women's national soccer team gets no love at all from US Soccer. They have to sue their own federation into not screwing them over. But they get all the media coverage and ticker-tape parades. The women's national basketball team gets real love from USA Basketball. But they get an apathetic shrug from US media. They don't get parades or talk shows after winning.

For elite basketball players it feels like a thankless year-round grind that no one sees. But some of those overseas teams pay good and USA Basketball flies charter. For elite soccer players, it's a year-round grind appreciated by a big cult following. But no one pays well for women's soccer and the national team is a legal headache.

Also, as far as influence, female soccer players definitely have more media influence. But due to the way USA Basketball is organized, female basketball players know some extremely influential NBA players. So they have some pretty influential networks, even if that isn't reflected in how much media coverage they get.

Anyway, I just find it interesting to compare the different worlds and cultures of the two sports.

One last thing. I honestly hope the NWSL never gets WNBA levels of drama. I hope NWSL players never have to deal with a murder mystery or hostage crisis. It's awful. I hope female soccer players never have to risk their safety for a paycheck like that. I don't want that to carry into the future for women's sports.

#wnba #nwsl #uswnt #usa basketball

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automaticdata-uoau · 16 days

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So what is this blog anyway?

AKA, "wait how did you find me -- er, I mean, let me explain ..."

This is my blog for a project I'm working on that basically puts Hermitcraft/Empires characters into the world of the UnOrdinary webcomic. Basically a fusion fic in comic form, if that makes sense. I have a bunch of random art etc on my computer that I don't want to clog up my main blog with, so I made a new blog for it.

Some notes:

This is 110% self-indulgent. I'm merging my current obsession with my favorite webcomic, and I'm pretty sure these are two fandom where the only overlap is me. So when I'm coming up with plot points/family trees/ships etc., I'm working from the expectation that I'm the only one I need to please.

UnOrdinary deals with some fantastical ableism, and to not include that in this comic would be ... honestly really difficult? Like a big part of the world building is this messed up system that's founded on people's ability levels. So yeah. The comic will probably call people without superpowers "cripples," but I want anyone who comes across this comic to know that this term is used in-universe to show how messed up the system is and is 2000% not an okay term to use IRL.

Most of the characters are pretty young in this because UnOrdinary's main cast start the series as (and as of writing this, still are) high school students. This means I have a lot of insight into how the hierarchy system works in a high school setting that I kind of want to play with, and I don't want there to be too huge of an age gap between some characters. This means while the content creators are in their mid-twenties to thirties or even older, some of the equivalent characters will be teenagers or early twenties.

A reminder: the characters in this are based on the characters of the content creators, not the content creators themselves. (I actually originally had Grian's character wear glasses, but it felt too close to IRL!Grian and I changed it to create more of a distinction between to two.)

Content warnings for anyone who comes across this: ableism, violence, assault (non-sexual but still violent), blood, toxic relationships, power dynamics, moral ambiguity, exploitation/coercion, death, corrupt government/corruption, fantastical terrorism, needles/syringes, non-recreational drugs (ability amplifiers and ability blockers)

I think I've covered all the bases here, but this is a work in progress, so this may be updated/refined later. I know it looks intimidating, but I want to make sure anyone coming across this knows if there's anything in it they want to avoid.

Romantic ships planned so far: Grian/Scar, unhealthy/toxic Jimmy/Scott, Lizzie/Joel, past Cleo/Etho (divorced)

Possible future ships (no plans yet): Jimmy/Tango, Pearl/Gem

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chainofclovers · 3 years

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Hello! You felt like the only person on the entire internet that I could send this ask to, so I hope it’s okay. I am a huge Hacks person and very much an Ava x Deborah shipper, and also a big fan of Ted Lasso without any strong shipping feelings there. While I’m not into them (and lean Ted x Rebecca but very low key), the intensely negative reaction to Sam x Rebecca just makes me think, “This is why showrunners would never consider canon Ava x Deborah in a million years,” (like take Sam/Rebecca but add audience homophobia into the mix!) and it makes me sad. Tbh, I don’t think there’s any real chance of canon Ava x Deborah, and I get why it would be near impossible to pull off, but it’s just kind of the principle of the thing: are the two ships that different? If anyone can tell me why they are, you can. If they’re not different, how are you able to ship Ava x Deborah (I’m assuming based on seeing your comments on fics). This is keeping me up at night and you’re always so incredibly insightful about fandom stuff generally, and your TL posts in particular have been very measured. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Thank you for this ask, and sorry for the delay! Not sure you saw this post I made recently about the distinction and overlaps between viewing canon and engaging in fannish activities like shipping, but I wrote it in part because of what you sent. Anyway, I would recommend you read that post first because it will at the very least explain why I don’t tend to think of romantic relationships on TV as the result (positive or negative) of investing in ships.

(Also, I am very flattered that you felt I was the only person on the internet to send this to. I find it hilarious that this is the niche space I occupy online.)

It’s probably incredibly obnoxious to start in on my real answer by quoting some Ted Lasso wisdom, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do: All people are different people.

First, not all fans are the same. It’s true that there have been a lot of negative reactions to Rebecca and Sam’s relationship on Ted Lasso, but there are also plenty of people who are enjoying the storyline. (There are also a lot of people who claim TL has no conflict, others who claim TL has turned into a dark shell of its former show-self, etc. It’s a popular show so there are a bunch of people who’ve turned into authoritative critics overnight.) There are people who ship Sam/Rebecca because they’d like their relationship to be end game, there are people who ship them because they’re hot and having fun together even though it likely won’t be a long-term thing, there are people (like me) who don’t ship them but are still enjoying the storyline and characterizations because of the specific moment these characters are in right now, there are people who wish the writers had gone a different direction but are still along for the ride, and there are people who straight-up quit watching the show because of this and might never come back no matter how well the plot is handled in the end/in the larger context of the show. There’s no accounting for why each fan has the reaction they have, but the reactions are far from homogeneous.

Second, not all creators are the same. But! Having spent an unusual amount of time actually learning about the writers on both of these shows (this is the niche space I occupy on the internet), I do think there’s an important similarity between these two very different shows: in the case of both Hacks and Ted Lasso, the writers and creators don’t seem particularly concerned with placating fans, but they also don’t seem interested in jerking fans around with random twists for the hell of it. (We’ve all heard stories of showrunners who have decided to take a plot in a different direction simply because fans caught on to the original plan...as if it’s a bad thing that fans were invested enough to understand what was happening in the storytelling. That is not what is happening with these shows.) Of course people who work on shows want their shows to be successful and to land well with audiences, but both shows are so beautifully written, and the writing shows such a commitment to knowing these characters inside and out. Do these writers want an engaged audience? Yes. Are these writers at the mercy of fandoms? No.

That’s not to say I feel like I can predict what will happen with Rebecca and Sam or with Rebecca and Ted or with Ava and Deborah or with anyone. But the idea that people who write for Hacks would look at the (mixed, lively, and still in-progress) fan reception to the second season of Ted Lasso and choose to do something different with their characters seems very unlikely. In fact, I’m not even that interested in speculating as to whether the ship Ava/Deborah becomes canon (it might, it might not) because Ava and Deborah’s relationship is already a love story and Ava’s bisexuality (and the queerness of many, many cast members and characters) have already shown that the world of Hacks is a world in which queer people are represented.

Third, no matter what dynamics characters have in common, these particular characters don’t resemble each other very much. It’s true that Sam and Rebecca and Ava and Deborah are all in a situation with a significant age gap and an employer/employee power dynamic to contend with. For me, the similarities really end there. Ava and Deborah isn’t just “Sam and Rebecca + homophobia” even if some fans might feel that way. There are so many factors at play. Race. Gender. Money. What the characters are looking for. What motivates them. What ethical concerns they have or don’t have, and how those concerns dictate their actions.

Sam and Rebecca connect anonymously, which means the foundation of their relationship is really different from the foundation Ava and Deborah build together joke by joke, compromise by compromise, unexpected moment of connection by unexpected moment of connection. Sam and Rebecca are both in periods of significant personal change, and their connection and chemistry feel more like a place for some (sexy) refuge than a permanent partnership. No matter what might or might not happen with Ava and Deborah romantically, their relationship evolves over the course of s1 to the point that they truly respect each other’s sense of humor and consider it a shared language--basically the highest compliment these emotionally-stunted writer-comedians could pay each other. It’s true that every person we meet throughout our lives has the potential to permanently alter us, but a major part of the plot in Hacks is Deborah’s slightly subtle admission that she has a shared language with Ava unlike anything she’s experienced since she was with her former husband. That kind of realization really does change a person permanently, and no matter how you feel about Sam and Rebecca, who are two deep, thoughtful characters, I haven’t seen anything nearly that deep or thoughtful about their connection to each other.

Finally, I don’t bring the same mindset to everything I watch. The connection between Ava and Deborah resonates with me as a viewer because it’s a queer connection between two writers. I’m a queer writer, and even if my life is nothing like Ava’s or Deborah’s, Hacks’ focus on queerness and the creative process reaches me in ways that are specifically tied to what the main characters have together. Ted Lasso reaches me in very personal ways too, but that doesn’t mean I have to question my thoughts on Sam and Rebecca by directly comparing those thoughts to my thoughts about Ava and Deborah. The things I want to create as a fan, the things I feel about the way a show is written, my ethical viewpoint on different relationships, the distinction between linear canon stuff and non-linear fan stuff, my own identities and experiences...all of those are at play in what I bring as I watch distinct things.

This response got a lot longer than I anticipated, but I hope it helps in some way. If you want to come off anon I’m always happy to chat about this stuff! (Or feel free to send me another anonymous ask if you have additional questions about this...I'm not scary, though, and happy to chat non-anonymously.) Thank you again for the ask!

#asks #anon #ted lasso #hacks (hbo)#ava x deborah #sam x rebecca #ted x rebecca #fandom things #meta by me #my hacks anon #a lesbian watches ted lasso

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remythologise · 3 years

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Hello! I found your blog via you amazingly summarizing all that's going on with the spn drama. Due to my schedules, rl stuff, some of the arcs that didn't vibe with me, my availability to find a place to watch...the rollercoaster I was used to with this fandom was more me binging it in a weekend to going months to over a year without watching it. I still haven't watched the last season(but with a fandom this big it's pretty impossible not be spoiled so I more or less know what happened) BUT oh great one I ask of thee for more information if you have it...other than being busy and whatnot, I'm not really one to keep up with the actors as well. So could you also maybe do a summary of all the stans? I'im seeing terms I haven't seen before. Who is Kelios(sp?)? Hellions?? probably messed it up but like...I guess what are the name of each legion? Who do they have alliance towards? What was their desires? Que paso?!?!?!?

Hi there! 'Some of the arcs that didn't vibe with me' me emotionally quitting Supernatural in Season 7 after they killed Castiel 😂 Anyway I totally get it, I went through the same culture shock mid-last year when I got back into SPN and tried to find where fandom was at! There's really a LOT of lore and content after 15 years though so I'll just do the broad brushstrokes based on my impressions and personal stereotypes PLEASE remember this is oversimplifying groups and individuals to tendencies and I'm very biased! Also important that there are sub-factions within sub-factions - again, I'm simplifying here!

I've also linked to the 'Super-wiki' in terms of some definitions because the Super-wiki has pages for them where the Fandom-wiki does not. Great introduction actually - only in the Supernatural fandom. There are two Supernatural wikis. One, through curation and twitter activity, supports BiBro/Wincest factions and does not support Destiel users. One is more neutral or Destiel-friendly (I don't know that the Fandom wiki has a personality/social media presence per se). You cannot make this up. There is a factional war... within use of fandom wikis.

Destiel faction

People who primarily ship Dean/Cas, love Castiel and (often, although not always) Jack, and the 'found family' of Supernatural as well as the brothers, and like the post s3 seasons too. Hated 15.19 and 15.20 for killing Dean and ignoring the other characters/narrative arc of the show. Nicknamed 'Destihellers' by the Wincest faction as a derogatory term, 'reclaimed' and shortened as 'Hellers', a nickname they use affectionately to describe each other. See more info on nicknames here.

Sometimes also ship ‘Cockles’ (the ship between Misha Collins and Jensen Ackles) although generally speaking they're more respectful of the wives of the actors than J2 shippers, who are notoriously responsible for... a vast series of insane-fan misdemeanours. Historically most were also good at keeping RPF to themselves and not harassing celebrities with it directly, although recently, particularly with younger twitter fans, that has not been the case.

Sub-factions:

The ‘Desticule’ or ‘Destiel tumblr’ - general grouping of Destiel-shipping tumblr users around 20-30 years old, usually LGBT+, most who came back to the show post-15.18 after leaving it for various reasons including getting sick of the queerbaiting. Funniest bitches alive etc. and responsible for the best text posts you’ve ever seen. Can also start stupid discourse and in-group drama when they’re bored.

'POLOL' - People of Lots of Letters, a discord group (of tumblr and twitter users) that ran on the assumption Andrew Dabb was playing a hugely intricate game of 3D chess to do with gnostic symbolism among other things, and would make Destiel canon. Have since had their own factional sub-wars and fallen apart a bit. Some of their meta was and is good and interesting! Some of it was wildly off the mark. Now generally insist that Dabb/the writers were all pushing for Destiel canon and the network is entirely to blame.

Twitter fans (TikTok edition) - younger fans around 18 and younger who (FOR REASONS BEYOND ME) started watching the show around 2018-2020. Definition of 'stans'. Tend to be very loud and aggressive on twitter when Events Happen, which like. I do get, because they've grown up in a completely different media environment and this kind of Dinosaur Politicking around LGBT+ issues is beyond them. Fancam central. Anyway stream #CASTIEL for clear skin!

Twitter fans (AO3 edition) - older fans around 30+ who kept going with the show but either don't have a large tumblr presence or just prefer twitter. A lot of fic writers, GISH-ers, and BNFs in this group. Some of them are very cool and reasonable in their opinions, some of them act like the younger stans. Some of them too accepting of what happened wrt 15.19-20 in my opinion, because, in contrast to the younger twitter stans, they grew up expecting Destiel to NEVER be canon or respected. 'Can't believe we got this far' etc.

Multiship faction

Multishippers or shippers of things not as large as the two main behemoths . Sub-factions based on shipping, e.g. Megstiel and Sastiel. I don't think these groups are very large though, and seem to have very little influence in the Discourse.

Wincest faction

LARGE overlap with the 'BiBro' faction and their opinions, which I'll get to. Ship Sam and Dean romantically. Often pretend to be BiBros on places like twitter and reddit in order for outside groups to take their opinions more seriously. 'Wincesties' etc. are derogatory nicknames given by the Destiel faction.

Sub-factions:

Multiship fans - ship Sam and Dean but respect Castiel/the 'found family'. Politically overlap with the faction of multishippers, I think. I don't have a lot of insight on this group of people honestly, but I know they exist.

Bronlies - the typical BiBro and 'Wincest' shippers most people think of, twitter user 'Kelios' is one of the would-be ringleaders of this faction - typically tend to be older white midwestern women. Historically have been pretty nasty on twitter (leading to Robert Berens, writer who made Destiel canon, occasionally subtweeting Kelios). Also tend to ship 'J2' - and take it very seriously as a legitimate thing that is really real. This is called 'tinhatting'.

BiBro faction

People who think the show should JUST be about the brothers, love Supernatural s1-3 and everything after it should have been just like Supernatural s1-3. Hate Castiel, Jack, and the 'found family'. Largely loved 15.20. Go to literally any comments section on any Supernatural article and You Will Find Them complaining about how the show should just be about the Brothers. Tend to be older, straighter, and more conservative/Republican (and male) fans. (I am aware that the definition of 'BiBro' used to refer to people who just liked the brothers but there's no definitional difference now in the discourse.) The Wincest and BiBro faction are generally much more wealthy than the Destiel faction (they being younger and more diverse/queer/left-leaning in general) and would be the biggest revenue generators at conventions etc.

Sub-factions:

Reddit bros - literally anyone who visits r/supernatural. Well, that's not fair - there are people who post reasonable opinions on there, but it's pretty rare and they get downvoted a lot. Like to talk about 'toxic Destiel fans' 'ruining the show' and how Dean is a straight man who is straight and could never possibly be gay. Might even think the confession was platonic despite all evidence to the contrary. I'm Not Homophobic I Have Gay Friends, But No Gays on MY Show!

Old Guard - group of older fans who overlap strongly with the Wincest faction, but might not necessarily ship Wincest.

GA faction

'General Audience' - These are the group of audience members that aren't 'online' so to speak; most watch the show on TV as a Casual Viewing Experience (are therefore also sometimes referred to as 'casuals'. Mostly their opinions tend towards BiBros, but they have a vast range of baffling views thanks to being Not Online and usually Not caring about Supernatural that much or thinking that deeply about it.

Sub-factions:

People who simply watch Supernatural on TV and then don't think about it very much after that.

I said they weren't 'online' but that's not entirely true; I'd probably classify people on Supernatural Facebook Groups as GA, along with friends of friends who post statuses about how 15.20 was a neat finale that wrapped up the series.

Conclusion

Supernatural is famously the show that appeals to both Republicans and Democrats, literally All Orientations, so there's a WIDE range of factions. However, most warring online boils down to Destiel vs. Wincest/BiBro - the war that started in Season 4 and has simply never ended. In terms of the 'actors' and their stans, in general, Wincest/BiBro fans love Jared, like Jensen, and dislike Misha. Destiel fans love Misha, like Jensen, and dislike Jared. Of course as with everything, there are variations and this is just a generalisation. But that's the summary of it, from my perspective!

This didn't even get into Sam girls, Dean girls and Cas girls. God. Anyway.

Hope that answered your question, anon!

#for some reason read more does not work on my blog main page now? you'll have to click the permalink #season 17 time for a theme change tumblr has broken this one too much sigh #ask #anonymous #this might be the most controversial thing I've ever posted or I might escape with nobody noticing it. Only Two Outcomes #didn't mention any other factional ringleaders because well #I value my life etc.#unironically who will fund me writing the PhD on supernatural fandom etc. etc.#the graphs. the statistics. the sociological insights #kira for ts #supernatural spoilers #spn spoilers

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adultswim2021 · 3 years

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Ephemera Week (2002)

I really wonder how effectively I’ll be able to do this in 2003. In 2003, Adult Swim started doing the black and white text bumps, where they give max sass and NO EFFS (fucks), so every week had unique content. I definitely don’t have the resources to catalogue every bumper or even come up with a decent “best of”. Ephemera Corner 2003 may look very different. To quote my good friend Zorak, “Brak, do you ever think about the future?”. To this I say, yes. Yes, Zorak, I do.

BROADCAST ANOMALIES AND SPECIAL NIGHTS!

Adult Swim Action (and other stuff) | February 23, 2002

February 23rd was the first installment of Adult Swim Action. Up to this point, Adult Swim aired a block of mostly comedy capped off with Cowyboy Bebop. This was the first formal separation of Action and Comedy. I remember the bitter rivalry between the two fandoms on various message boards I posted on. It really did seem like a venn diagram with almost no overlap; action fans hated the comedy shows (maybe they liked one or two but hated the rest) and the same went for the comedy fans, except most of the comedy fans I knew were devout anime haters.

At the height of my anime animosity an internet ex-friend of mine started a message board called ANIME SUCKS. It was an experience I’ll always remember fondly. At it’s peak it had over 1000 members. All but about a dozen of those members were actually ANGRY anime fans who just stumbled on the board and were FURIOUS at us for being anti-anime, and we’d just act like obtuse dickheads about it. Like, we’d act stupider than they were and just wind them up.

We developed a few tricks to really set somebody off. For example: they’d write an impassioned defense of anime as an art form, and say something like “it’s not all like Pokemon or Dragonball Z”, to which we’d reply “actually those are the only two animes I like”. This really got them. There was a special thrill to just replying “miyazaki is an idiot” to a guy’s 6-paragraph essay about why anime was “good, actually”, prompting an even longer response. It was really fun! We didn’t have to harass people online, they’d just come to us to get abused. I’ve never seen bait get taken so effortlessly. One day that guy just closed the message board, locked everyone out, and disappeared forever.

That was some aside, huh? Anyway, the arrival of Adult Swim Action meant that Adult Swim stopped airing the Thursday night repeats of Adult Swim Comedy, which was a shame. It Also meant Adult Swim’s Sunday night had an extra hour to fill, which they did with Rocky & Bullwinkle and the Popeye Show. People complained. I didn’t. Vintage animation is just a different take on the “adult” label. Besides, I was used to tuning out by 12AM anyway, so even if I didn’t like those shows (I did!) I wasn’t missing anything, really. But yes, if it were a full hour of Space Ghost repeats I guess that would’ve been better.

The Lewis Lectures | May 19, 2002 - 12:45 AM

A repeat of Lewis Lectures? IT HAPPENED! But what was so different about this broadcast of Lewis Lectures? Well, they accidentally scrambled the SAP audio with the default English audio, causing the Spanish soundtrack to play in tandem with the English one. It was bloody well fucked mate. This is simply no longer England.

I remember becoming an Adult Swim completist and taping this, considering it some kind of void in my collection. Part of me wishes I saved the recording, so I could combine it with the inferior YouTube rip currently up and have a closer-to-pristine copy than the one that’s available. But also, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST THIS IS LEWIS LECTURES WE ARE TALKING ABOUT. How much pain can I inflict on myself?

Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law Mini-Marathon | September 15, 2002 - 11:00 PM

On this night they aired a little Harvey Birdman marathon of the 4 episodes. This was kinda baffling, as Birdman had 6 episodes to its name and they’d been repeated into the ground by this point. I guess it goes to show that Adult Swim kinda considered Birdman to be their prestige program. I’m hard-pressed to call any one Adult Swim show “smart” in a way that’s apparent on a shallow level. Birdman is set in a courtroom, animated the most competently out of all their other shows, and involved cultural references in a showy way. Like, Space Ghost having Dave Willis absurdly shout “UP THE CHAIN” in the background of a Space Ghost episode is almost just a weird easter egg. But Birdman? Birdman was name-dropping Hanna Barbera characters the same way Frasier would talk about whatever gay shit Frasier talked about.

They aired The Dabba Don, Shaggy Busted, Shoyu Weenie, Very Personal Injury in that order. I would’ve swapped Shaggy and Shoyu and for Bannon Custody Battle and Death by Chocolate, but that’s just me, I guess.

vimeo

Adult Swim New Years Bash hosted by Carl and Brak | December 31, 2002 - 11:00 PM

Adult Swim officially ended 2002 with this: a night hosted by Carl and Brak in Times Square, watching the ball drop (which was FREAKING MEATWAD!!!!). I remember this night fondly. Unfortunately I can’t find the whole thing, but here’s a single segment I found on vimeo to give you some idea. I think I had it up at one point and Turner very annoyingly had it taken down.

I used to have this massive physical media collection; stuff on VHS and DVD and DVD-R that was meticulously catalogued. I ditched a lot of it in favor of digitizing stuff like this, eternally keeping it on hard drives that I meant to back up but never did. It seems more convenient, but it isn’t. If this were 2003 and I needed to show you this, I would be able to retrieve it from one of my many shelves. I might still have this, but would have no idea where to look for it and it would probably involve me getting in my car and going out to my storage unit and pulling every single box out. I turned it into ones an zeros and stuck it on a nondescript black box that could very well be dead. And now it’s not even on YouTube. Sad? Sure, it’s sad.

PEAK EPHEMERA

(phrase stolen from Grifthorse podcast)

Hey, here are some videos I found on YouTube in case you wanna go down a wormhole of watching old Adult Swim commercial breaks. May the gods of posterity keep them online forever:

February 4, 2002

Spring 2002

June 16, 2002

June 30, 2002

July 27, 2002

August 2002

November 17, 2002

November/December 2002

MAIL BAG:

This ends EPHEMERA WEEK. We’ll do actual episodes soon!

What's the scariest thing you seen on adult swim?

I don’t know if I have a real answer for this. I don’t think I actually get scared by stuff in movies or TV shows. I can’t even come up with a funny answer. Remember the end of that Metalocalypse episode where the little sick girl is dead and her eyes turn into maggots and you hear that screechy voice was like I’M DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!!! I’ll just go with that even though it made me laugh really hard

Ever watch Limmy's Show

I am content just being vaguely aware of Limmy (no, I never watched his show. Seems good).

Please don't do such a big mailbag. I couldn't believe how many r-words wrote inane bullshit to you. Let keep this blog about the real stars: Master Shake, Space Ghost, Brak, Zorak, Meatwad, Frylock, Debbie, Black Debbie, Carl, Sparks, Stormy, Hesh, Moltar, Harvery Birdman Captain Murphy, Dr. Quinn, Paula, Marco, Brendon, Jason, Melissa, The Mooninites, the Plutonians, Peanut, Coach Mc Gurk, Mentok the Mindtaker, Virjay, Antoin, Colby, Trotter, Adair WE ARE THE UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE :)

I can’t believe this IDIOT doesn’t get that by typing such a long message he very IDIOTICALLY contributed to the length of the Maili Bag... LMFAO, what a IDIOT

This is maybe the funniest blog on tumblr. You really think these nasty little cartoons are special, huh?

Hey than-- oh :( Yeah, I guess so :(

would you like master shake if he did the whole thing

I’m sorry what

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #ephemera

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erdariel · 3 years

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Fic writer review, thank you to @enigma-the-mysterious for the tag!!!

How many works do you have on AO3?

17 apparently

What’s your total AO3 word count?

34,868

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

7 (I'm counting all Tolkien-related fandoms as one bc my fics in terms of Tolkien fandoms have a lot of overlap and often don't really fit neatly as either Silm or LOTR specifically so I'm just saying those are one); LOTR/Silmarillion/LOTR stuff, which is honestly like my oldest fandom really, certainly oldest one I still consider myself to be in, BBC Musketeers, Robin of Sherwood (the 1984-1986 tv show), Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series (what I've done with that so far is centered on Herald Alberich from Exile's Honor and Exile's Valor to be specific), Star Trek AOS, BBC Merlin, and Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

A 25th of May (Fandom is Discworld, and I still don't know how that one is my highest by kudos, it's not even good and it's not for the biggest fandom I've written for by any means)

Bloodstains (BBC Musketeers)

Heart of Ice (BBC Musketeers)

First Impressions (BBC Musketeers)

Flames of Fear (Heralds of Valdemar)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I do my best to, although admittedly sometimes I don't do that immediately and then I forget and then I feel too awkward to reply when I remember again a million years later. Anyway, I do it because I love interacting with other fans and talking about my fics and stuff!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't really know. It kind of depends on whether you feel like meta knowledge that the characters will in the future be alright makes the ending less angsty or not? Because like A 25th of May and The Darkness of Moria arguably have pretty depressing endings if you take it at face value with where I leave the characters in the story, but anyone who reads them is going to have the meta knowledge that things will get better for the characters, eventually, and no one's gonna die who isn't dead already, and all that, since Darkness of Moria is pre-canon and 25th is pre-canon to all of City Watch books aside from Night Watch.

But on the other hand if you say that if the reader has meta knowledge of the character's survival/that things will get better for them negates the angst, then those aren't too bad. I would say that in that case, Forest of Death, Bloodstains, and But There Is Silence At My Side are my angstiest endings (idk in what order, I'm bad at picking specific ones anyway) since the first two of those deal with The Whole Savoy Thing in Musketeers, which... nothing that happens in canon makes it less painful or more ok that it happened, and in those fics I purposefully chose not to give the characters involved really any kind of emotional closure, since the angle I took in my fics was one where I felt those issues I brought up weren't really resolved at all in any way until the stuff came up in the actual tv show. And But There Is Silence At My Side deals with grief immediately after the death of several close friends of the main characters of the fic, and since the fic was very brief and set during like, the space of an afternoon and an evening, like just over a handful of hours, it wasn't long enough time to handle the way grief becomes tolerable over time, but instead leaves the characters still in the early stages of mourning.

Do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I mean, I come up with ideas I'd love to write, and I've even started writing a few, but I've never gotten any to a point where I'd begin posting them. Idk about particularly crazy, though both my Musketeers of Valdemar crossover AU and my The Warlock and the Hooded Man are crossovers between a decently popular fairly recent BBC show, and an older more obscure fantasy thing.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really, not that I'd recall anyway and I don't feel like checking.

Do you write smut? if so what kind?

Nah, it's not my thing

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

If I have, no one's told me about it. I doubt it tho, my fics aren't popular enough

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. I've considered translating a few of my own to Finnish for fun, but it seems kinda pointless bc no one would read them in Finnish, so I've never gotten around to.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I'd like to try, but knowing the way I generally work (or rather, don't work) on fics, I don't think it'd be fair to whoever I tried doing it with if I did.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Idk I'm not a huge shipper, really, so like. I sorta like a few but I don't really have favourites and I'm not super passionate about any particular ship.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Like, all of my ones I've started that I haven't touched in months. I'd like to finish them, but who am I kidding. I guess I'm obligated to point out Blood, Shadow, Silver in particular since I posted like three chapters of that before stopping writing it and haven't gotten around to continuing it. I'd like to think I'll come back to it one day, but who am I kidding?

What are your writing strengths?

What fucking strengths? You think I have any?

What are your writing weaknesses?

Like, everything. What in particular depends on the day.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I don't know I've never really done that on a big scale? Idk don't really have an opinion

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I'm gonna take that to mean "first fandom I wrote for using the account I use now" because any other way to take that question I won't reply to. So, within those lines, unsurprisingly, LOTR.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

That's a good question. I sorta like most my fics from the last couple of years, but idk if there's any that I really-really like? The Darkness of Moria is one that comes to mind, and it's not necessarily my favorite personally of what I've written but thinking about it makes me feel good because it seems to be @talvenhenki's fave of my stuff.

Tagging uhhh idk @oncefutureemrys and anyone else who wants to do this because idk who to tag!

#fanfics #long post #writing

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rabbitindisguise · 4 years

Text

Actually I think if writers and linguists are in the words fandom, that means artists and some physicists are in the light fandom, coders and mathematicians are in the numbers fandom, and textile designers and engineers are in the Squares fandom, etc etc etc

So art (regardless of if they're making books, paintings, video games, or a sweater) all benefits in some way from STEM fields. Most people are probably less frustrated that they're in Science™ classes than the fact that they probably want to stick to their Fandom. College courses that have overlapping fields should pay less attention to "whatever art/STEM class they can pass!" and start giving people classes that they would benefit from passing to begin with

Like, honestly, I'm still scandalized that I kept getting recommendations to take the "easiest science credit we offer" despite having 0 interest in repeating the basics I understood already in highschool. If someone told me to join a class on linguistics, rather than generic ~social science credit~ I would have jumped at the chance. Hell, there's dozens of ways to have overlap. I see it all the time with humanities. History courses about art. Art courses coupled with poetry. Why not the science of photography for art AND science students? The physics of cashmere. Math as a language vs code as a language vs English as a language.

Give students more options that don't artificially create a dividing line between the two groups of fields. Even if the above weren't true, this still acts as if I can't understand what a physics major is saying better than someone without any degree training because I was at least trained in Academia Speak. Students lack confidence in the "other" field because no one bothers to give them any in the first place

Anyway this post is just to say that I thought I was A Bad Artist because elementary school art didn't include enough written/scientific explanations for the exercises we were doing. You can create a hundred shaded cubes, if you don't know why you're even doing it the whole exercise is pointless. The idea that you just ~understand~ art through seeing it with your eyeballs centers primarily visual learners (which- ydy! Visual learning itself is rad) and that's why people assume if they can't do it automatically on the first try they can't at all. My ability to reproduce images from complete memory is utterly useless if I don't know how to reproduce images unless it's a cube- without the theory, I don't know that's how sunshine works because I have to be told the big picture stuff first.

On the other hand, I could Words at the first try because that's how I learn about stuff and things, and everything else has to be translated for my brain to get it. Woodshop had the same problem- they'd do a bunch of things and I'd be like "wtf" but if they just said I needed to screw until it was flush without me asking, I wouldn't have needed to ask, and I would just Do the thing. But since I could actually use my personal skills (creativity, memory, zest for life) with writing because I understood it, I have much higher grades in English. I even got praised for it more despite having equal amounts of ADHD at all times. Because the class is accessible to my learning style. If it wasn't accessible, then I wouldn't get compliments, despite having the same amount of so "innate talent" (practiced skills available) either way.

So many people are walking around thinking that they suck at English because they might understand it better through typography or audiobooks and the institution pits us against each other based on what we're naturally inclined towards. Institutions act the only way you can learn about English is through books and like the only way you learn art is through your eyeballs. I'm not "better" than someone that picked up reading picture books when they were older because they didn't have the right glasses to read, and I'm also not better than someone who finds doodling helpful and never got credit for their journal entries because they weren't words even if they were thinking about the text critically.

And like. This applies to fields. No one should be forced to write a book. Not only does that make for dense, incomprehensible texts but . . . remind me again who's reading them? Other STEM people mostly. Why would you do that. You incentivized a group of people to be good at science and nothing else, present them no methods to learn English skills they understand, no wonder they're so bad at it.

That's all on top of their professors not knowing how English works so they apply science logic to language while they also dismiss the field because they're never taught the benefits of reading in any meaningful sense- and even their scientific thinking shows extreme failures of thought because they don't understand even the most rudimentary English concepts.

And some things they think are just flat out incorrect. They believe humanities majors make less (not always) because there's less skill (never) or less capitalist value (blatantly false- look marketing). They think that because they're a STEM they can more accurately assess this information than, say, someone qualified, like a STEM in language related fields- saying things like Latin/English/Chinese is the only language worth knowing, acting like introduction clarity is less important than your graphs, thinking that their work is not conditional on the people that provide access to the materials in the first place.

Holy shit this post is long. Anyway academics should stop judging other people in their fandom, and schools and colleges should make it easier to learn in other fields than the auto fill assumption that because you're good with learning via words, you're going to go into English, and if you're good at learning through seeing things, you're going to go into art.

#personal #academia #elitism #activism #education #accessibility #this also helps people like me that learn from examples #overlap courses often have concrete examples of things they're focusing on #to develop the theory #neurodivergence #adhd #ableism #disability

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theonceoverthinker · 4 years

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If I can make a fair game HC request how about the boys working out together or at the gym. They can do the sit-up and kiss thing.

Hey! Thank you for waiting all day for this one!!!!

Qrow and Clover working out!!! Now, I’m no expert when it comes to serious working out, so this is all gonna be pretty basic, but there are definitely plenty of fun ports to play around with!

Also for...reasons...I’m not including sparring in this. I’ve written a few HC’s about that already, anyways.

So let’s do this!

-Qrow and Clover like going to the gym together, BUT they don’t work out together most of the time. They have their own styles of exercising, and just tend to not overlap in the machines they use. That’s not to say they don’t interact with each other while they’re there, both because of things like the “sit-up and kiss thing” you mentioned and because of something else that I’ll get to in a bit (Suspense -- that’s how I keep you guys coming back here day after day!), but their regimens call for different types of workout routines, and no couple should be together all the time, after all.

-On the topic of the “sit-up and kiss thing,” that’s totally one of the few times they’ll come together at the gym. I’m picturing Clover passing by Qrow as he’s doing some sit ups, asking how things are going. Qrow smirks at him, and brags about his strength, and Clover saunters over, agreeing. He sits by Qrow and the next time he rises up, Clover kisses him. Clower then says “not bad, at all.” Qrow smiles, repeats the action a few more times, and then nudges Clover, jokingly nagging him to get back to work. “Quit slacking! You’re embarrassing me here!” Clover steals one more kiss before obeying Qrow’s wishes.

-Qrow spends a lot of time hanging around the punching bags. Agility and speed are focal points of his workout, as so much of his prowess on the battlefield is a result of his versatility. It’s a lot of punching, kicking, and dodging, as he gets the punching bag out of his way. It’s satisfying -- a simple opponent who sits still, shuts up, and lets him fight as well as he pleases.

-Clover likes lifting weights. He likes the big ones, the small ones, the short ones, the tall ones -- if it can be lifted, he’ll at least try to lift it! Strength makes up a large point of focus in his routine. He spends about half the time lifting weights standing up and half of it on his back with the help of a spotter, one who he socializes with up the wazoo because he’s Clover Ebi! And he loves it. Lifting provides time to focus, and with that focus comes an opportunity to relax in a way he just can’t most of the time. ...It also doesn’t hurt that lifting gives him a nice opportunity to flex, and he and Qrow have a decent enough view of each other from the opposite sides of the gym.

-They do come together when the time comes to get in some cardio, grabbing treadmills next to each other, gossiping about the rest of their gym day, and strapping themselves in for a good half hour. And Buddies, it’s one hell of a ride. Clover and Qrow are super competitive under normal circumstances, but when they’re on those treadmills, just the two of them, it comes OUT. They crank up their machines as hard as they can stand, and move as if their very lives depended on it. They exchange quips, but for the most part, they can barely even hear each other over their hearts thumping in their ears. When the half hour ends, they’re both left leaning against their treadmills to maintain their balance as they read their results. They both win roughly half the time, though I’d give Qrow a bit more of an advantage. While they can both take a loss perfectly well most of the time, whoever loses openly groans for the first few minutes while the other gloats. There’s a bit of the loser sticking his tongue out at the winner and a bit of hair ruffling/self admiration from the winner. They’re terrible, and the gym staff live for it, regularly taking bets on who will win today’s race in the end. Some members of the gym support both men, and some support one as a die hard fan. Qrow and Clover know nothing about this secret fandom they’ve unintentionally created.

-After they’re finished at the gym, they go out for lunch/dinner (I can’t decide between the two). I personally HC that they grab noodles. No matter how you prepare noodles, they’re always a little salty, and after a workout, salt is good for the body. Also, noodles are just super filling! Whoever went fastest on the treadmill pays for lunch/dinner gets treated by the loser, stoking the flames of competition even more!

Tagging @homokinetic @skybird13 @whipped4qrow @mooksie01 @luck-of-the-caw @xwildangel @solitude-of-stars @magneto-is-neato @o0nashipear0o @unfairgamey @doctorrwby @clover-and-co @megan-atthedisco @wash-my-brain @bisexualdisasterqrow @baelonthebrave @doubledexterity

Want to be tagged in future Fair Game HC’s? Of course, you do! So send me a reply, PM, or ask to be added, and I’ll grant your greatest wish! XD

#fair game #rwby #qrow branwen #clover ebi #lucky charms #luckbirds #luck birds #qrover #fair game hcs #Anonymous

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jackjots · 3 years

Text

#2 Roadtrip

Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye 30 Day Prompt

(This spans Episode 2 and half of Episode 3)

Day #2

(I do not own any other characters or place names outside of Shelby St. Ranger, this is just for fun)

The closest library was an hour away. I normally didn’t go that far unless I was going for a big shopping trip, to get more than I could acquire at the town market. But I felt driven, possibly by that unexplained guilt that sank farther in my belly as I brushed my teeth and looked past my eyes in the mirror and into the past, into Ryan Reynolds’ eyes. As bespectacled as they were, they had a twinkle, a conviction, and now that twinkle had been put out.

I drove my Volvo around the curved roads, sliding only slightly into the other lane to simultaneously make sure no one was coming around the bend and to get a better view of the hills that seemed to overlap into the distance. This was the one thing that made me grateful for growing up in the city; I was still awestruck by the scenery. Locals could look at this sprawling gold tinted wonderland and shrug, but I felt humbled and enamored by the beauty of it all.

The road straightened and the hills became smaller and golden, until they flattened into dirt and rows of crops. I turned off the main road and passed the small school, the grocery store, and finally found the library. I’d been there before for my novel research, so I already had a library card. My foray into historical fiction had bad timing with my new lack of access to the internet, as before when I’d just written wild fantasy stories and fanfiction I could just make stuff up or pool from my endless knowledge of fandoms. But actual research for historical fiction in the guts of the sepia toned library that wreaked of mothballs, that was an experience I only found charming the first time. But I was glad of it now as I began my research. I started with books on Connor Creek, taking out my notebook and jotting down little bits of history. There had been two families that founded Connor Creek, one of them obviously the Connors, and also the MacMahons. I found it interesting I hadn’t met anyone with either of those last names. I made a note to visit the cemetery, out of pure curiosity. That’s all this was, I told myself, pure curiosity.

There were only a few books that said anything about Connor Creek, largely they dealt with either the Gold Rush in general and only had a few chapters on Connor Creek. But one book, obviously worn and old, was called “The Tales of Connor Creek”. This one I decided to check out. It was in my casual eye flick through the table of contents I noticed the chapter “The Werewolves of Connor Creek”. I laughed quietly to myself at that, and it had almost made me put the book back, but it was the best they had. And in my research in Norse Culture, their legends had important truths within them, so maybe it was the same here.

It sat on my desk as I tried to work on my book. The day had passed me by in the library, and now the sun was growing heavy in the sky outside and inside I turned on the desk lamp and stared at the screen. This wasn’t writers block, this was writers distraction. All I wanted to do was read about Connor Creek.

After thirty minutes and only a small paragraph of words squeezed out of my mind like water from a sponge, I grabbed the book and moved to the tiny couch I usually ate my little meals I threw together and watched DVDs on my tiny DVD player and TV in one I’d gotten at a thrift store and was still on the floor. Furniture wasn’t a big priority for me. I had a desk, I had a couch, I had a mattress on a floor in my room; I was good.

The book was a bit dry at first, and I skipped through the introduction that described the town as it was when the book was written. I knew it wouldn’t be that different anyway, and flipped to the first chapter. The first chapter talked about the silver mines. It was said that mining had decreased because of one family, the Connors, wanting to keep the town small, while the other family, the MacMahons, wanted more silver and wound up leaving town. Which made some sense, Connor Creek. But the whole idea seemed odd to me. And the town hadn’t been too upset to let their biggest source of income stay largely hidden in the mine? I got up and grabbed my notebook and swiping past many scribbles about vikings, I found a blank page and wrote down the year the silver mine had shut down. More research to do. Maybe I’d go back to the library after the election the next day, or try to cram the book in a few days and then go back.

After a few more pages, where it started to lay out the history of the two families I had already read about, I found myself drifting a little. I got up to make some coffee and realized I’d run out the day before and had forgotten. I hadn’t had any in the morning in my excitement and now my head was starting to hurt as if I’d summoned the caffeine headache merely by the realization I hadn’t had any yet. Sighing, I looked at the clock and realized the market would be closed. I could drive into town really fast, get a coffee from the dead canary, and work on it there. Being around a couple of people (literally like two usually at the Dead Canary) would keep me alert along with the coffee. I’d stay til closing and then come back and try to cram as much of the book into my head as possible. The urgency of doing this was spearheaded by the election the next day. I could even ask around about what was going on with the town council now that Ryan Reynolds was dead. Perfect. I threw on my coat and grabbed my keys, threw the book in the passenger side and drove down my driveway.

I found a place to park and walked into the bar. I was quick to tell Desmond I needed a coffee, instead of my usual beer, and he simply nodded as I went to my corner and put the book and my little notebook down on the table.

I went back to the bar and leaned on it. His interest piqued, as it was odd behavior for me, Desmond turned away from the coffee machine as it lurched into motion and grabbed a rag to polish a glass with. He did so with his eyebrows ever so slightly raised as he said, “Something on your mind Shelby?”

“Yes, actually.” I took a breath, this was not my speciality. “I was wondering if you knew much about the silver mines, and why Miner Mole wants to extract them.”

He motioned with his busy hands over to my table. “Is that what you’re writing about?”

“I wanted to make an informed decision about my vote.” And nothing to do with a murder mystery, I thought to myself. “You don’t have anyone to choose between now.”

“Well, true, but-” I was interrupted by the Sheriff coming in and I excused myself back to my table.

I had the book open when Desmond brought my coffee. “Why didn’t you ask the Sheriff about- hey what do you have there?”

Startled, I looked down and closed the cover keeping my finger inside. “Just learning some local history.”

“How far you get in that book?”

“Not far yet. Just learning about the families that founded the town.”

He nodded. “Enjoy your coffee.” He said and walked away.

I got lost in the history of silver mining and somewhere in there faintly heard the bell a few times, a phone ring in the back, and some loud chatter in the background I was able to shut out, until I had to pee. I tried to go fast, but I got lost in my thoughts and probably spent a few minutes longer than usual. I got back to my table and finished my coffee standing over it. When I put the cup down, I noticed the book was gone. My notebook was still open with what little notes I’d made in it, but the book was gone. I poked my head over to the bar, but no one was there. I looked under the table, and around the other booths. I went over to the bar and looked behind it. I couldn’t see anyone. I walked back to my booth, and there was my book. I cursed under my breath at myself and decided it was time to go back home. I went to pay and Desmond was there cleaning a glass, like he’d been there all along, telling me to have a nice night.

It wasn’t until the next day I discovered that pages were missing.

#tin can bros #30daysofwayward #waywardguidefortheuntrainedeye #fic #fanfiction #deadcanary #werewolves #roadtrip

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gaygoetia · 4 years

Text

Following up on my previous post, I actually think it would be so much more narratively interesting and meaningful if Molly is a version of Lucien without memories rather than a random person that was somehow astral projected into his body or something

People are kind of treating Lucien and Molly as two entirely separate individuals who have nothing in common except for the body they both existed in and while I do understand that, I think having some overlap and shared traits between them would actually be way more interesting.

Given that we're shaped so strongly by our experiences, our personalities are very heavily informed by our memories so it makes sense that losing your memory would totally change your personality.

But while fandom (as well as the characters themselves) tend to - understandably - focus more on the positive aspects of Molly's character, he also had some more negative traits that I imagine Lucien took up to extremes.

Someone wrote some excellent meta on this a while ago (which I can't find otherwise I would absolutely credit them) but Molly kinda had some boundary issues.

He did stuff like invading people's personal space, getting naked or getting his dick out at unexpected moments and flirting with people who were clearly unreceptive. And he actively enjoyed the discomfort these actions caused.

And for the most part all this was relatively harmless BUT you can see how taken to extremes these traits could be very negative (and easily abused if you're in a position of power like say... A Cult Leader)

Also while Molly's hedonistic attitude of living in the present, enjoying life and not letting the past drag him down is in many ways a positive thing - it was also a little selfish.

As Lucien, he had a massive influence on a big group of people and from what we've heard, they were pretty devastated by his loss. It sounds like the failed ritual had pretty major consequences for a lot of them and left them in a bit of a shambles.

But Molly refuses to take any accountability for anything Lucien did because 'that's a totally different person' which - while not exactly untrue - is still a convenient excuse to avoid all responsibilities he may have had or emotional fallout he may have caused.

And you can see in his interactions with Cree and anyone else who knew him as Lucien that he can be pretty cold, manipulative and insensitive when he wants to be.

ANYWAY the point of all that isn't to say that Molly was a bad person or that I disliked him (he was actually my favourite character up until his death and I still love him a lot).

But my point is that even though we don't know a lot about Lucien at this stage, there are hints that he and Molly weren't as different as Molly would probably like us to believe.

And also that Molly had a lot of potential growth that he never got round to because he died so soon and so unexpectedly.

So I think the various versions of Molly/Lucien/Nonagon could be a really fun way to explore the extent that your memories and experiences shape you as a person and inform your sense of morality.

And idk how to end this but this whole story is pretty cool I guess

#critical role #cr #cr2 #cr spoilers #mollymauk tealeaf #disorganised thoughts #my posts #cr meta #I guess

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seddm · 5 years

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One week later

I think that this time, despite the magnitude of what happened in the show, managed to have a mostly non-kneejerk reaction to it, but a week (and a looot of thinking) later, I think I got a better understanding about how and why I feel about this episode, S4 so far, and the show’s future as a whole. Going to make this a bullet-point style list because making a single conversation about all of this would be either too long, or end up feeling disconnected at times anyway. Bad things first, then the good ones to close on a positive note, for a change.

THE BAD

- The thing I always loved the most about this show has been its ability to use individual events and interactions between the characters in almost any given segments, even ones more fillery in nature, as a way to slowly advance the growth of the characters from a pre-established Big Event™ to the next one. This always gave the show an aura of strong continuity despite its storyboard driven and episodic nature, and allowed me to claim that even events clearly facilitated by some sort of plot based compulsion (such as the Truth Cube in Sleepover, or the photo booth in Booth Buddies) were still largely natural, just more flashy ways to push the characters in directions they were already taking.

The first episodes of S4, up to Curse of the Blood Moon, didn’t really do this. They felt heavily more compartmentalized than the usual: S3 ended in an explosive way that seemingly set up all the characters for immediate changes or payoff, but then this current season kinda ignored that. Not completely, because both Moon Remembers and Ransomgram has Marco tell Star things like “rip the bandaid off” and “own up to your mistakes”, which could be clearly applied to the “Tell Tom about the kiss” situation (never mind that she didn’t do that, it was still relevant and her going the wrong way about it was part of the point), but between an increased focus on plot and plot exclusively, and a two parter season premiere that chose to focus exclusively on finding Moon (reasonable decision, really, but it ended up making 40 minutes of show feel a bit empty on the emotions side, in my very subjective opinion), Curse of the Blood Moon seemed to happen a bit out of the blue, especially considering that Star and Marco’s feelings were apparently so strong and so intrusive to justify even Tom being able to see them in the former case, and Eclipsa’s comfort and counseling having been needed multiple times offscreen in the latter. Things that we didn’t see at all in the first 7 episodes, with the exception of Star never reacting to Tom telling her that he knew the kiss with Marco didn’t really mean anything. It’s not a necessarily tragic scenario, especially if the show purposefully wanted to wait for Curse to kick start a new chapter in the shipping of the show, but this bridging between seasons taking one third of the last one felt a bit excessive and largely devoid of sufficient build up to me.

- Kelly / Kellco. Anyone who’s familiar with my blog should know that I always struggle to never insult ships, characters or elements from the show that other people might like. And even now I don’t want to cheapen the value of personal preferences at all, nor tell anyone “No, you can’t ship this!”. But at the same time I have to say that, in the context of the show, these new Kellco developments look (ready to eat back my words in the future, as usual) extremely pointless, and handled badly. Kelly feelings something for Marco, kinda unilaterally liking him, that’s something the fandom has been speculating ever since Lava Lake Beach. They shared an emotional moment over heart break, and then clearly developed a friendship from there, and hanged out more. Kelly’s lines in The Ponyhead Show then confirmed without doubt that she felt something from Marco, but that he seemed to be largely unaware and oblivious about it. Just like you’d expect Marco to be, especially a Marco who spent the previous season focusing on how strong and intrusive his feelings for Star were.

At this point essentially everyone, me included, expected for Kelly’s World to be used as a way to bring up Marco’s unrequited (as far as he knew) feelings once again, to introduce Curse of the Blood Moon. I expected Marco to either go something like “Sorry Kelly but I’m not ready to give up on my feelings for Star” or, at worst, a frustrated Marco who’d have thought and reflected about Kelly’s feelings for him. Instead, out of the extreme blue, we got a Marco who was uncharacteristically all too aware of the situation, going “I don't want these feelings for Star they're getting in the way of other feelings" while being all blushy and then being more than receptive to Kelly’s emotionally confused flirting. Now, if this was reality, there would be absolutely nothing weird in a kid like Marco being dual in his feelings, really liking Star while also being tired about all the pain those feelings have been bringing him for the better part of a year and being receptive to another girl being ready to jump his bones. But this is not reality, and these events absolutely lacked any form of proper build up, they were (wow, I can finally use the word Starco haters have been throwing around for years!) forced. Not entirely, but for a great deal. Jarco had Sleepover and Naysaya providing a strong buildup to the ship revolving around Marco overcoming some personal hurdles; even Tomstar didn’t immediately go for the ship after the well-timed dance in Club Snubbed, but first had Demoncism, giving some sort of basis to the exes getting back together, and Tom and Star had a pre-established relationship and we both knew that Tom still wanted Star, and that Star still had hung up feelings for Tom, if just physical attractions ones (from her behavior in Blood Moon Ball and Mr. Candle Cares, very spread out over the show, I admit). Meanwhile Kellco went from “ok they shared an important moment one season ago and Janna teased Kelly in a holiday special episode but after that their interactions have been nothing but background ones” to “Marco and Kelly lose track of time reading about fighting on a bench, then as the warm hues of the sunset wash over them they fight hand in hand, as one body and one spirit, and the fireworks and music happen and there’s more blushing in a single scene that there has been in the whole show and in all the kisses in it so far”. That’s... very, very, very heavy handed. Very “manipulative”. Especially since Kelly and Marco aren’t even properly together yet I guess, since Marco might have gotten over his feelings for Star (hahaha yeah as if), but as far as we know Kelly still isn’t completely over Tad. So where is this relationship going to go from now? Why does it exist? In what ways it doesn’t shit on what Jarco already taught Marco? How is it going to “end” once Marco inevitably realizes he still feels thing for Star without making Kelly look like a throwaway rag? Obviously I don’t have the arrogance to assume I know how things are going to play out from here on, so who knows, maybe Kellco is going to be part of an important arc, but from where I’m standing, from what I know now, it’s hard not to see it as a hamfisted attempt at going “Haaaa these confused teens, it’s only fair that they get their share of experiences!”. Which is ok, sure, fine, but FICTION ≠ REALITY and things need some kind of build up and reason to happen. If it’s just supposed to be padding to keep the situation in a status quo for a while, “Marco is with Kelly and Tom is with Star and everything is right in the world and they don’t have to think about their feelings anymore” then... bleah.

- This is tangentially connected to both the previous points, and it’s not really THAT bad, just me being a bit nitpicky about a still legitimate direction the show decided to take: by having this constant comparison between THE OTHER SHIPS and STARCO, now stronger than ever after Curse, the former being very casual but also ultimately unrewarding, “we hold hands we blush a little and we are ready to kiss and be a couple”, while the latter being “dozens of life changing events are needed to progress the ship even by little; NOTHING BUT PAIN can ever come out of Starco for the people involved until it’s officially recognized as being completely and utterly full, pure, complete, mature and life lasting love”, can kinda give a wrong message about relationships and teen love, or an annoying one at least. “Hey kids, don't try to actually have fun or be happy with romance, because that's not how True Love™ works. If you actually find it kind of easy to be happy with your significant other, that isn't love!" [quote by @ngame989]. Obviously I’m using a hyperbole for the sake of clarity, and it’s clear that Star and Marco’s relationship is based on finding it easy to have fun together, always. But if we talk strictly about romance and the way the show approaches to it, it’s kinda undeniable that Starco has been nothing but a source of sadness so far, and the only genuine moment of happiness, this one, lasted about three seconds and overlapped with a realization of True Love.

By now I have fully accepted that the show is not going for an early Starco relationship to then show it growing and changing as the two make the first steps together, but that they’re waiting for a “ok we’re both completely sure this is what we want”, and it’s a completely fair direction for the show to take, but it also contributes to this “fetishization” of true love. Still, execution matters way more than the larger brush strokes in this case, so we’ll see.

- The timing. I’m going to talk about why this incoming arc can actually be a very good thing in a moment, but at the same time introducing the idea that the Blood Moon might have forced feelings now, 30% through the last season, when absolutely nothing before that ever referenced of foreshadowed it, and with essentially no references to the Ball throughout the show (last direct one was in Naysaya and it was Tom throwing shade at Marco...), feels kinda jarring to me.

- This is a bit more of a personal note, but not entirely: Star and Marco enter a dance in their memories with the specific goal of “destroying their feelings”. One minute into spending time together having fun without any kind of distraction for the first time in forever, they literally fall in love. Not crush, love. The whole setup of the Severing Stone’s function literally confirms that. What kind of tension can Kellco and Tomstar deliver now that we know that Star and Marco can and will fall in love with each other if given a moment to truly think about nothing but each other and themselves? The endgame was kinda clear before as well, but now it has officially ruined any chance at making other ships feel worthwhile - beyond their value for the growth of the characters involved, obviously. I mean their intrinsic value as a ship / source of romantic drama.

THE GOOD

- Even if I’m not a fan of the timing, I can see a lot of potential in an arc revolving around the question “Are these feelings genuine? Is Marco/Star the person I truly love and want to be with?”. Now, obviously we know that the feeling were genuine and that the Curse didn’t force anything, so it’s not really the answer to the question that matters. What’s important is how they’re going to get to that: by having Star and Marco more or less directly tackle this question in a context where there is apparently no sadness and pain brought from unwanted feelings, some positivity can FINALLY be associated with Starco as a romantic relationship. Obviously we don’t know how things are going to play out now, but if both dorks are now convinced that they are only friends (something that didn’t happen at the same time since early S2) they can enjoy their relationship to its absolute fullest, and see along the way, together this time, that they both want more. I don’t know if one or both of them lied about not having feelings anymore, or if it’s placebo effect, or if the Severing Stone has some lingering after effects. What I know is that these two now feel like they can be completely comfortable around each other once again, while still having all the feelings of friendship that were the base for the romance once already,

and that the last time they had a moment to truly be together with each other and enjoy their feelings to their fullest, they fell in love, like love for real, certified by the Severing Stone taking that moment away as a price.

So yes, we all know the answer to this question already (articulated a bit better by the show’s composer in this post),

- Curse of the Blood Moon as an episode itself is far from being without merits: it opens with a wonderful display of one of the many sides that make Star and Marco’s relationship so adorable, with the duo having a secret cereal date at night without waking up Meteora; shows how in sync and how well they understand each other (yes, this was a set up for the scene but you can’t tell me it’s the curse’s fault, that’s bullshit); it literally had Marco tell us that he likes every single thing about Star and her personality (again, not the curse’s fault. That’s bullshit.), and the dance itself was utterly perfect and pristine and had Starco fun, Starco flirting, and Starco love all happening the moment they could focus on each other and forget about the rest. Also, while I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of Tom having achieved “good boy status” simply by getting slightly better with each episode instead of taking some affirmative action on the nature of his relationship with Star, I don’t mind seeing him helping his friends, at all. Sure, this can contributed to making him feel more “pathetic”, with scenes like the spat on the elevator apparently underlying a lack of compatibility between him and Star compared to her and Marco, as many other scenes before, and that’s the part I don’t particularly enjoy, but the overall journey he went through, that’s good. It should have featured more defining moments of change in my opinion, rather than a simple “little by little always better and gets points for trying”, but it’s still vastly preferable to a world where we can’t get some Tomco bromance moments, and this kind of relaxed situation, as infuriating as it can be at times, could potentially contribute to what I said in the first point, give Star and Marco the chance to understand what they feel for the other in a completely or almost completely positive way.

- This is connected to the first point and not necessarily an objectively good one on its own, more like something that further contributes to feeling like there’s potential for things to develop nicely from her on: the brunt of the romance in Starco fell on Marco for most of S3, at this point Star was less of an active player than him when it came to liking each other. But Star is the Main Main Character, we can’t have that happen. With this new turn of events, with things being “reset” into New Game +, the spotlight moves once again on Star and this time we can finally have the Main Main Character answer the question “do we love each other?”. Obviously Marco is surely going to have a role as well, he’s still a protagonist, but it’s Star’s story before anything else, and this “Free Will and Choices” arc can easily tie Eclipsa / ruling Mewni to Love, and strongly relate to the blonde (ex) princess.

- On the same note of “elements that makes one hopeful about the show’s potential but still don’t really confirm anything about what’s going to happen”, we have this quote from one of Adam’s interviews:

Adam describes Star as someone who is “all over the place” in terms of life as compared to Marco who unlike Star has yet to outwardly reveal his feelings. “But, she’s one of those people who so much stuff is going on for that she doesn’t necessarily, in my opinion, she doesn’t really have time for a romantic relationship. She’s too busy. She’s got a lot of things going on her plate,” he explains. “But, she’s one of those people who, in my opinion–I’m not saying this happens, I’m just saying this is why I like them–I feel like she’s going to be one of those people who is gonna stop one day and have a second to breathe and then dust is gonna settle and she’s gonna look and see through all the settling dust and fog that someone has been there with her the entire time and she’s gonna see Marco,”

and while there’s absolutely no way to confirm this, especially since everything Adam says is always nebulous PR talk that has to be taken with eighty grains of salt, looking at list of episode post-mid season finale suggests that this “dust settling down” might happen sooner than later, the second half(ish) of the season having way more episodes with titles suggesting either Earth things, or a generic downtime for the teens to focus a bit more on their own lives, and a little less of Eclipsa. Obviously there’s still necessarily going to be plot happening, but I can also see how they could be going (strong emphasis on the could) for a journey that allows Starco to finally happen in the series finale in an explosive way, with both Star and Marco being utterly sure that this is what they truly want, and that they love each other, not just like or crush.

Cornonation Doop-Doop / Britta’s Tacos Beach Day / Gone Baby Gone Sad Teen Hotline / Jannanigans Mama Star / Ready, Aim, Fire The Right Way / Here to Help Pizza Party / The Tavern at the End of the Multiverse Cleaved

To conclude and sum up, my greatest issues so far are with the way S4 handled romance and relationships in its first 7 episodes, rather than with the new arc Curse of the Blood Moon apparently set out, or with the idea that the show is almost certainly going for series finale Starco (still kinda hoping for just a little something before that though, with the finale being the true celebration of what they have). It’s not the show I’d have liked the most, but it’s still one that has all the potential, so far, to honor the kind of build up Starco had, and the amazing characters Star and Marco are. But this first third personally disappointed me in a number of ways, and it kinda hinders my ability to fully trust this potential to actually become the reality of a good execution. But “hinders” doesn’t mean I completely lost any hope, and there are certainly dozens of ways to properly pull this off. We’ll see.

#star vs the forces of evil #svtfoe #starco #seddm ramblings #svtfoe spoilers

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