#i also get the impression that in this universe

[liesmyth]

I'm always thinking about how G— was an engineer. A damn good one: the sole engineer of the cryo project, good enough that of all the ten billion, the FTL project chose him to inspect their work, back when the project was still a pipe dream. He was a man from an immigrant family in an underprivileged area who became arguably the world's best engineer, which is impressive in its own right, but it gets me thinking... Pre-Resurrection, John says they can't grow food on Mars (and for all John's unreliability, that's pretty believable, given that the high perchlorate concentration in Martian soil is one of the big obstacles to carrying out a sustained Mars mission), and as silly as this might sound, the engineer and scientist divide is real, and of all the nerds that John resurrected, I can't imagine it was the artist or the contract lawyer or the medical and chemistry experts that made the Mars installation viable. Gideon made a House out of it, and one that accepts recruits from across the Dominican system! "Saint of Duty" is said to fit him, evident in his loyalty and commitment to the Cohort and fighting the Resurrection Beasts, but I have to wonder, how much of that was his commitment to making shit work? I can't shake the image of a couple million people awaking to a ruined world, and someone had to get the other Houses settled, figure out spacecraft and space habitats using what little supplies they have left, and what better candidate for that than the man who canonically engineered spacecraft twice?

ANON I love this so much. You're SO right, and you put into words something about G1deon and John's shared background that I've tried to articulate for a while. In the very first chapter, John says, "It wasn’t that they didn’t have the money for a bigger team; we were simply the only ones capable of what they were asking."

This was an incredibly elite team. They were a brilliant bunch of hyperspecialised nerds. And, like, among John's squad, A- and M- and everyone else started out as colleagues — very smart people he probably met in academic circles, where being smart was kind of a prerequisite. It was their research that brought them together to begin with.

G1deon, though! He was John's friend growing up. John knew his grandparents. They spotted each other spare changes for snacks!! Then John went on to Dilworth, then to university and then overseas, and G1deon had his own (probably different) academic path, and maybe they only stayed vaguely in touch, but when it was time to look for an engineer that could help them build spaceships constructed to provide life support to the whole of humanity for centuries — and G1deon was the guy for that.

The fact that two boys from similar underprivileged backgrounds individually made huge breakthroughs in their chosen fields, and got to work together on a project that was meant to save the world... I bet at the time it felt like a miraculous coincidence. I think they thought, if they'd made it that far, that they could do anything.

(yet another layer to the tragedy of what happened etc etc. G1deon torn between John and P—. John stopping G1deon's heart)

Thank you so much for all your thoughts about the Mars space installation, also — I wonder how long there was between Mars becoming the Second House (founded by G1deon! he and Pyrrha did the bulk of the work!) and the institution of the Third House, which doesn't have a named founder and might very well have been a shared project built on the blueprint of what G1deon set up. "the man who canonically engineered spacecraft twice" — my god I love this so much. It's G1deon emo hours today

#this ask PUNCHED ME IN THE GUTS ty for my life #g1deon #gideon the first #tlt thoughts #ntn #ask #anonymous #tlt #tlt meta #ONE THING though is that I don't think we're meant to interpret G1deon as being from an immigrant family but rather native #it's not spelled out in the books so it's all headcanons #but pasifika G— is where I'm at personally

[daenerysstormreborn]

Time to ramble. I’m thinking about the way Arya and Sansa fans seem to get into this debate about who was more lonely and neglected in Winterfell. Which is kind of funny because then the arguments get totally reversed when debating other aspects of the characters. But anyway. The general arguments seem to be:

1. Arya was clearly the neglected outcast. This is clear in the meta narrative because of her connection to Jon and the fact that she doesn’t look like her true born siblings. The more direct evidence comes from the way Sansa and Jeyne teased her, the harshness of Septa Mordane, and Catelyn’s exasperation. It can be inferred that Arya feels a sense of insecurity wrt to her family ties as she wonders if her own mother would want her back after everything that happened. It can be assumed that she was a bit of an outcast based on her disinterest in the things expected of her as a girl, and we see the way many characters look down upon non-conforming women and girls in-universe. Sansa, on the other hand, receives praise from her mother and the septa and has two named close friends in Winterfell. She happily conforms to what is expected of her as a highborn girl and we can assume she would fit in in Winterfell.

2. Sansa was clearly the neglected outcast. This is clear in the meta narrative because she is the only one to lose her direwolf, which is the family symbol. The more direct evidence comes from contrast with Arya, whom Sansa observes can “make friends with anybody,” seemingly in contrast to herself. Ned agreed to kill Lady despite knowing she was innocent and indulged Arya’s interest in swordplay whilst being unenthusiastic about indulging Sansa’s interest in tourneys. Arya is demonstrated to be beloved by Ned’s men in a way we do not observe with Sansa. We can assume that Sansa didn’t feel like she belonged because of her interest in sothron culture, something none of her siblings share. Arya, on the other hand, is extroverted, makes friends easily, is northern in appearance, and has no interest in sothron culture, so we can assume she fit in in Winterfell.

I actually don’t think a lot of the points in the two arguments is mutually exclusive. We also have to remember POV bias. Arya doesn’t reflect on Any friends her age she had at Winterfell (I am not including Mycah because I am under the impression they became friends on the way to King’s Landing), but Arya is not one to reflect and reminisce. Sansa notices that Arya can make friends with anyone, but she doesn’t experience Arya’s inner world. What does Sansa mean by making friends? Does she see Arya having fun and being at ease talking to anyone and feel envy, since she herself feels like is performing, always minding her manners, when she’s socializing with most people? Could it be that Arya is friendly but struggles to find long term close friends like Jeyne and Beth, attributing this disparity to Sansa’s “ladylike” interests? Could it be that being teased by Sansa and her friends and scolded by Catelyn and Mordane has made Arya assume that other girls wouldn’t be interested in close friendship with her, causing her to be friendly but keep a certain distance? (**please note I am not trying to make a case for nlog Arya. I think keeping a distance because you assume you’ll be rejected is different and does not require that she looks down upon other girls, because there is no evidence for that here**)

I don’t have a good conclusion I just think it’s interesting that this is something that gets debated because the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. We can’t know because we get very few flashbacks and the story picks up when their normal lives in Winterfell end. I can’t speak to George’s intentions but if we pretend they’re real people I’d speculate that both would have felt misplaced within Winterfell at times, envying certain traits about the other

#asoiaf #valyrian scrolls #valyrianscrolls #arya stark #sansa stark

[nico-di-genova]

Prompt?? Request?? Idk what this is but it’s been stuck in my head and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it!!

——

Frat boy au where lance is super straight passing and acts really frat bro-y. But it’s Outside POV from another person in the college who assumes he’s probably homophobic and doesn’t treat women well/ all that stereotypical frat boy stuff. They complain abt fratboys all the time to their friends too and it’s this whole known thing in their friend group. Then they see him get into this super fancy car with a hot older man (nando ofc) and is like what’s up with that. Person keeps trying to ironically figure out if lance is part of the mafia or some other mystery. Turns out he’s in a loving relationship with his sugar daddy nando (person sees them kissing at a gay bar one night, among other things 😏) and after that they’re like damn wtf and have a change in perception of lance and can’t shut up about it and tells everyone “did u know lance is gay?!!” Other shenanigans ensue.

Bonus if they become friends in the end and lance tells them all the different ways and places nando fucks him.

I need you to know that this has unlocked something that I have been talking with my irls about for literally a month now. I will write this whole thing for you, but right now please enjoy this snippet and some Lore ™.

Also this may be so uniquely specific that no one will enjoy it, but I need everyone to know this has been my secret passion project for weeks now.

Logan absolutely despises group projects. He especially despises them when he’s partnered with perhaps the worst possible group of people you could be partnered with on an assignment that is responsible for a quarter of their grade. Other than the girl sitting to his left, her blonde hair pulled into a high ponytail, spreading out notes in multi-colored pen and highlighter, their table is the least inspiring of the lot. For one, there’s him, who had barely passed elementary calc. last year and was on his way to failing macroeconomics this semester. But it’s the two sitting across from him that instill a particular sort of dread.

“You going to Rusty’s tonight?” one of them asks, Esteban, tall and lanky and slumped so low in his chair that Logan can almost touch his feet even though he’s clear on the other side of the table.

The other one, Lance, broad and just as long as his friend, shrugs, “I don’t know, man. Getting kind of bored of it.”

Logan watches as Lance takes off his backwards cap long enough to ruffle at his hair before sliding the hat back down onto his head. There’s Greek lettering embroidered along back for some fraternity Logan doesn’t know the letters of, but is sure they’re assholes, nonetheless. He’s seen the way Lance strolls into class enough times, backpack slung over one shoulder, if he even bothers to bring it, his phone in the other. He wears his AirPods during class, which easily outs him as the elitist snob he is – the type of student who’s here partying on daddy’s dime, who wouldn’t know what the term ‘work study’ meant if it ran him over with the  bike Logan knows Lance keeps in the University Village parking lot. Logan couldn’t afford off-campus housing, but he knows Lance can, the bike is always parked in a resident spot.

The girl beside him shifts her notes closer, he turns his attention to her, so he doesn’t have to hear Lance recount his exploits at the local bar that is known for serving underage undergrads.

“You took all of these?” He asks the girl, mildly impressed. Her handwriting is neat, so neat it almost looks unnatural. She’s color coded them, bolded certain words and underlined others. Logan is suddenly ashamed of the chicken scratch in his notebook that’s tucked beneath his arm.

For those that don’t know, Florida Gulf Coast University is a school in Fort Myers (in south Florida, on the opposite coast of Miami). Their big draw is being “close” to the beach, realistically it’s like a 30 minute drive.

They typically attract local kids on scholarship, or rich northerners who are just looking for an easy education. But they do offer a unique golf management degree, and their claim to fame is that they’re sometimes decent in the basketball department (like 1 time in 2015 but they just will not let it go). They also somewhat have a reputation as a party school (tho I think Miami definitely more than them).

Being built predominantly around preserved land, FGCU also has a big “eco-friendly” outlook. So lots of walking paths, a course called colloquium that all students have to take, and the one everyone dreads because you have to walk through the swamp for part of it. Lucky for Lance, he would have attended during the COVID years, and thus could avoid the swamp walk because all courses were virtual.

He’d probably be a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, the Jewish fraternity on campus. They’re lowkey, but also kind of throw the best parties, off-campus of course because FGCU doesn’t have official fraternity or sorority housing. In this world Lance has definitely drank jungle juice from a trash can with a nozzle cut into the base. He is aware of the existence of “Saturdays are for the boys” flags, frat boy Lance is something that can be both repulsive and endearing.

He has a car, but most the time he opts to take his bike places. Fernando first runs into him when he’s in his bike gear actually, which, you know, hard to resist that. Plus, picture Fernando being Lance’s backpack. Please envision it, it’s a very important image. It’s definitely happened in this universe.

Strollonso beach dates??? Yeah, 100% happened here too. One of the reasons Lance even ends up at FGCU is because of the beach, so you know his ass is there most weekends. He forgets sunscreen frequently, Fernando is used to applying aloe to his back after they’ve spent a long day on the boat. He probably has that sunburned warmth to him like 24/7. He never forgets his sunglasses though, so he also maybe has raccoon eyes.

Oh yeah, and Logan, being a South Florida boy, probably would have attended FGCU too. His tinder profile unfortunately probably does feature a photo of him holding a fish. Just Florida boy things.

Anyway, this maybe is nothing. But if you want to talk more about this au please feel free to message me/send an ask. And I will 100% be ready to ramble more about this ultra specific fic. A chapter coming after keep to the line this weekend maybe.

#I have so much to say about this #literally I have notes upon notes that I’ve been building with my friends #we are so sure in another universe he went to fgcu #we know it in our bones #strollonso #strollonso fic #strollonso college au #lance stroll

[mocafrio]

Empty Hourglass

Character(s) | Lilia Vanrouge

Pairing | Lilia x GN!Reader

Summary | “I miss you more than I remember you.”

Tags | Angst, grief, reflection

Warning(s) | Mentions of death

You were here, you were there, you were everywhere.

Lilia was impressed by your persistent existence in the back of his mind. Hiding slyly in the crevices of his consciousness, akin to pesky dust within bookshelves, waiting for the right moment to jump and send him back to the reverie of the days the both of you once shared many years ago.

A bitter feeling always lingered in his chest after waking up from those peculiar dreams you had given him. Somehow, it ached whenever he realized you weren’t here anymore.

And why was that?

You were one of the lucky ones—he thought once. Only a handful of people had managed to stay in his circle, and that circle also had other little circles in it. You stood on the closest line to him. So close that even after you were gone, he could still feel your faint heartbeat along those lines.

Of course, as decades went by, eating his leftover memories without protest, he eventually forgot your face, your voice, and your entirety.

But the feelings he held for you were for eternity.

It was strange.

The fae was never the one to dwell on the past. Everything goes on. Lilia fully understood how different his lifespan was from other ordinary beings, including the inevitable long life he’ll live alone for many years to come.

He didn’t think of it as a curse until you breathed your last breath.

Lilia experienced countless encounters and departures throughout his whole life. All he treated with the same level of sentiment, as easy as saying ‘hello’ upon crossing paths with someone and saying ‘goodbye’ before going home. Sure, he’d let others enter his circle, but they only managed to get close on their own accord. And most of them would stop halfway from receiving the key to the home of his heart—not like any of them would care anyway. He didn’t think of it too much, though. He could care for himself as long as he could remember.

Being alone was as natural as the air Lilia breathed for hundreds of years. He was used to it.

Until one day, you came along. Before he could give the key to you, you already had it in your hands all this time. Catching him off guard like a summer storm. Gently removing the bricks of his wall, his home, and his heart. Then, his world shifted like no other.

Did he loved you too much that the universe was sick of it and took you away?

As Lilia walked along the shoreline, the chill breeze grazed his cheeks, and soft sand seeped through his feet. He watched the sunset slowly being pulled down by the horizon.

He had so many words left unsaid to you.

Staring off into the distance, he wondered if somewhere, out there in the skies, you were watching him right now. Would you be proud of the person he has become today? Would you give him praise for how he lives now? Would you still love him the same?

You were more than just a memory for him.

You were everything.

Suddenly, he froze in his tracks, staring at the ground, appalled. As if lightning just struck him dead.

What was your name again?

✧ Inspired from this post

✧ This fic is also posted on AO3

「Reblogs, likes, and comments are appreciated .｡.:*♡」

#MocaFanfics #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #lilia vanrouge x reader #lilia vanrouge #twst lilia

[writing-for-life]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN DREAM'S HAIR USED TO BE WHITE!! oh my god. i just saw your post about killala and i have now perished. thanks for breaking my heart.

but also hi!! i'm relatively new to the fandom and it's a great place to be. i haven't finished reading all the comics yet but i'm curious to know:

what do you think are the main differences between TV!Dream and Comics!Dream? i've heard so many people claiming that he is incapable of changing, for instance, and though the show does convey his overall rigidity pretty well, i'm not getting the vibe that he's immutable.

also!! it's clear that he feels a lot. which is always funny to me when the corinthian is like yo, try this and maybe you'll feel something for a change but like. he does!!! or i get the impression that he does. he probably feels too much if anything?? all of it simmering just beneath the surface, barely contained. how would you personally analyze his relationship with his own emotions?

i hope all of this is coherent enough for you to answer lmao, i saw your post about enjoying being asked sandman questions two seconds after i woke up and barged into your inbox. hope you have a lovely day!

Thanks so much for the ask, and welcome if you’re new(ish) to the fandom! 🤗

I’m sorry I broke your heart—much more heartbreak to come I fear if you haven’t read the comics yet, so I’ll try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible.

I am one of those people who believes the differences between comics!Dream and show!Dream are actually not as big as they are made out to be where it matters, and you will definitely find people who disagree. At the end of the day, we all read it through our own lens and will never be fully objective about it.

The main difference I see is that they filed off the rough edges of the comics a bit to make a new audience sympathise more. It’s very hard to do that with a character who is basically in full arsehole mode for most of the first 40 issues or so, and even then only slowly begins to come out of it (although we can obviously see glimmers of what lies below the surface at the beginning of the comics, too, but it’s far more subtle than in the show). I’ve worked in musical theatre for a over decade of my life and understand a bit about bringing the written word to stage/screen, and some things simply don’t translate well from book to stage/screen, and you have to change it. So my personal opinion is we get a more sympathetic Morpheus and certain changes so the audience can do exactly that—sympathise off the bat. You will lose an audience pretty quickly if they don’t care about the protagonist and the universe he moves in, and you can’t be as nuanced about it as you can be in a written work. We’re talking about streaming services thinking about profits here, even if people don’t want to hear it.

Also: The more you sympathise with a character, the deeper the emotional investment and the more you feel, even if it hurts.

Having said this, I don’t think Morpheus is incapable of change, and I never got where that idea comes from. His biggest flaw is that he believes he cannot change (and even he has moments when he admits he might have). In the introduction to Endless Nights, Neil Gaiman says that he was once asked to describe The Sandman in twenty-five words or less, and famously, it was this (you might have heard it):

“The Lord of Dreams learns that one must change or die, and makes his decision.”

And I think some people might have wrongly taken that for an either/or thing. I don’t want to say too much at this point because I don’t know how much you know (if you’d like spoilers or already know how it ends, let me know, I’ll happily expand on it). Only so much:

He is capable of change, also in the comics. Very obviously so. But just like he denies he has his own story (which also isn’t true), he denies he can change. Or at least he thinks he perhaps cannot change enough (it’s actually hard to write about this without giving everything away, help! 🙈).

As for his feelings: He does feel, but again, it is something he pushes down and will deny himself. Until it bursts to the surface and breaks through, and when that happens, it’s usually with, well, let’s say varying results, and that’s putting it mildly. Personally, I’d say he has problems relating to his feelings, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel. Quite the opposite in my view. He holds the collective unconscious—all unprocessed feelings and whatever else floats around in that collective mess, and it’s exactly what he says to the Corinthian in that famous scene: he needs to keep a lid on it and keep that lid firmly closed so all of it doesn’t consume him. But that also means denying himself the feelings that are linked to his own personhood (if you want to call it that). There’s Dream of the Endless, and then there’s Morpheus. And while they’re one and the same and inseparable, Morpheus is also the “point of view”. The character, the person, if you will. And deep down, he craves that personhood so badly. Out of all the Endless, he is the only one who basically collects names because they mean having something beyond his function, which is also mirrored in what he tells Death in “The Sound of her Wings”: he wants something more. He is the only one whose realm is populated with sentient beings (yes, I know Despair has rats, but I think you get my drift). He is desperately lonely and struggles with it. He seeks connection yet denies it to himself. That’s not someone who doesn’t feel.

I don’t know if this answers your questions at all—I was doing the wild “spoiler-free” dance 🤣 But please let me know if you want me to go a bit deeper, I love talking about this stuff.

You can also have a look at my metas if you haven’t already. The headers pretty much explain what they’re about and what spoiler-level to expect, but none of them are truly spoiler-free I guess:

Again, thanks so much for encroaching on my inbox, and feel free to follow up if anything was left unanswered.

@dreamaturgy ask answered

#the sandman #sandman #dream of the endless #morpheus #sandman meta #ask answered #send asks #sandman analysis #sandman character analysis #sandman comics #the sandman netflix

[destinysbounty]

Yo what if you went off about s3, it'd be cool

The love triangle, the quick tech development, whatever you want, I wanna know what you think

(I saw you in the tags of that post, please gimme the analysies. pretty please)

The entirety of my thoughts on Ninjago's technology are long and vast and complicated, and I could probably make a full video essay on just that topic alone. But for the sake of simplicity, and also because I'm too lazy to write a 10k-word essay with screenshot evidence on why Ninjago tech isn't actually anachronistic, I'm going to just focus on the season 3 issue for now.

Now, one criticism that often gets lobbed at Rebooted is the matter of the technology. How did Ninjago suddenly become a hyper-futuristic technoscape in the span of what couldn't be more than a year? At first glance, I can understand how that might feel unrealistic. I used to feel the same way! But it actually makes total sense when you realize that this technology probably already existed, if only in a beta form, for years before s3 started.

But wait! If the technology already existed in some form, then why wasn't it used? Why did Ninjago only become a cyberpunk dystopia during s3??

The answer to that question is something that sounds like a no-brainer, but should probably be said anyway: just because a technology exists, doesn't mean it is democratized. That is to say, just because a society has made certain technological advancements, doesn't mean everyone in that society can actually access those advancements. Look at any country in our contemporary world - richer and more industrialized communities typically have better access to cutting edge developments, whereas more rural communities may not even have reliable internet access. Even Ignacia, which is one of the most rural communities we've seen in the entire show, was depicted as having landlines and telephone poles in the very first scene.

Moreover, it's reasonable to assume that robotics and digital technology has existed - and fairly advanced - for decades in-universe.

My evidence? The creation of characters such as Zane and Unagami. Both were invented roughly 40 and 20 years pre-canon respectively. Coding, and especially programming an AI like both characters are classified as, requires the existence of a computer. Which means that computers existed as early as the Serpentine War. (Unless Zane is the product of magi-tech, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Especially since Zane's original body also has other functions that, to my knowledge, wouldn't be possible without programming. For now, I'm proceeding under the assumption that Zane was created purely with technology.)

For these reasons I would argue that certain technologies, and in particular digital technology, have existed in-universe for a lot longer than we might think at first glance - but due to what appears to be some very extreme wealth disparity, technology has only recently become more widely accessible within the last few decades.

Think about it. Most human settlements we see are fairly small and rural, except for Ninjago City. Ninjago City is the only city we've seen on-screen in the entire series (with a few small towns here and there, but it's mostly just villages). And even then, the cost of living in Ninjago City itself is astronomically high. There's clearly something funky going on with this country's distribution of wealth.

With that in mind, it makes total sense that the tech we see in s3 was at least in development a lot earlier than anyone might realize. It's just that it was too expensive and exclusive for anyone in the general public to actually use it.

Now, let's look at this in the context of Rebooted.

Imagine you're a multi-millionaire tech mogul and the CEO of a very powerful tech company. The city is in shambles in the wake of an apocalyptic battle against Lego Satan. You take this opportunity to spearhead the reconstruction efforts. On top of being an impressive PR stunt, this is also great for business as it presents you with the perfect opportunity to populate the city wholesale with your own products: flying cars, holographic floating streets, AI vending machines, elaborate VR and AR setups, mechanical spider wheelchairs, the whole nine yards. The government probably even writes you a big check to make this process more accessible to your consumers - I mean, to the citizens of your the shiny new corporatocracy you may or may not have stumbled into creating. Whether or not you employed lobbyism to get this check is neither here nor there. After all, this is for the greater good! And to finally seal the deal that this city has become a Borg Industries outpost, you rebrand Ninjago City to New Ninjago City. This isn't just a city anymore, it's a corporate asset. It's an ad campaign. It's a way of life.

This also explains why all the tech mysteriously vanishes after s3 ends: supply and demand. A robot apocalypse is, among other things, bad for PR. I don't wanna think about the existence of a Lego Stock Market because that will hurt my brain, but a robot apocalypse is definitely what I would classify as a "black swan event" (an unpredictable crisis that severely disrupts the stock market). The company starts faltering financially because of all the public backlash, people stop buying and investing in their tech, their stocks start to crash, and Borg Industries has to roll back on their infrastructural monopoly. And so the technological status quo is (mostly) restored.

The theme of s3 isn't "technology bad" - at least, it shouldn't be. If you're as brainrotted as I am then the theme of s3 instead becomes, "maybe you shouldn't let one sole company have a total monopoly on your society's infrastructure because they might accidentally start a cyberpunk dystopia". And that is a...disturbingly apt moral for our current day and age (cough cough Amazon).

...can you tell I've been listening to The Fine Print by Stupendium on loop for too long?

#sorry this took so long to respond to! #i have a lot of thoughts about ninjagian technology but most of them are haphazard and unorganized #so it took me a while to properly sort my thoughts in a way that was comprehensible to anyone other than myself #ninjago #ns3 #ninjago rebooted #ask #destiny post

[decepti-thots]

something that is very interesting rereading early MTMTE is that the comic is actually very much written with the assumption a ton of its readership are specifically pre-existing IDW comics readers, which can sometimes be difficult to remember because of the fact that a lot of people wound up coming onboard to MTMTE from outside the fandom in the end and now it has a reputation as an entry point as a result. this manifests in a couple ways throughout the first couple major arcs. one obvious one is that the Overlord stuff functionally makes it a sequel of sorts to Last Stand of the Wreckers, at a time no direct sequel was planned. but my favourite is that there's a kind of narrative trick the comic pulls with the leadup to the payoff Remain in Light gives us for Magnus.

the Magnus we get in early MTMTE is not the Magnus we get in earlier IDW comics. he's very exaggerated; where phase one Magnus is a by-the-books stickler for not so much as bending rules and someone we see struggling to maintain that sense of moral uprightness in the face of the war and the people around him being far less dedicated to staying on the straight and narrow like him, it's completely turned up to eleven in early MTMTE. phase one Magnus would not be doing endless doorframe audits, or throwing people in the literal brig for crooked badges. but this doesn't necessarily register as a change in character so much as a change in genre. MTMTE is also a dramedy with heavy emphasis on the comedy side of that in a way no other IDW comic is, and the shift in Magnus' characterisation therefore feels like 'well in THIS genre, that's what that archetype is like', rather than a diagetic shift in character. even if you come to MTMTE straight off those prior comics, it is very much a 'roll with the genre shift' thing rather than a 'hm. Magnus is acting… weird' thing. you let it go.

there are a couple indications this might not be the case early on. Rodimus especially seems to be under the impression that Magnus is acting uptight even for him, with his insistence on waving it off like 'he needs to relax, Swerve can you get him to chill on Hedonia because my guy is REAL stressed' and the like. (this makes sense- Rodimus is the person on the ship who has actually been directly interacting with Magnus regularly pre-MTMTE.) but it's not super obvious and not heavily emphasised.

which makes the eventual post-Overlord and RiL reveal, which is that Magnus has in fact been acting weird because he's having a breakdown that has largely gone unremarked upon by his shipmates, really really good. Magnus has not been doing doorframe audits because he's the comically uptight second in command acting as straight man for genre purposes; Magnus has been sending Rodimus a million memos a day and losing his shit over nothing because as someone whose entire identity as 'Magnus' is rooted in a wartime role he escaped into, he's been having an existential crisis now the war is over and he has no purpose and doesn't know what to do because he never expected to have to play that part in peacetime. the entire time the genre shift was somewhat obfuscating the fact this characterisation was a thing that is in-universe relevant, which also then reflects back on the fact Rodimus is like. hm. probably should have noticed that, now I feel like an asshole for not realising. (the scene where he and Rung discuss those unread memos, post-Overlord.)

it's a small thing, but it's a really effective misdirect for the payoff Magnus gets in RiL that reads a hell of a lot more clearly on reread and rewards that chance to revisit the early issues with that knowledge. of course that wasn't just a gag, of course he's actually slowly losing his shit slightly, he cannot go five seconds without making it clear he is Stressed As Hell. but until you get to that actual reveal, there's just enough room for the comic to let a reader assume it's, you know, we're in a comedy now, we need a hilarious straight man, and Magnus is it. it's great! all the stuff MTMTE pulls to simultaneously obfuscate the Magnus/Minimus reveal while also making it feel completely reasonable on reread is great. really good use of reader bias there.

#idw #meta #ultra magnus

[1lostsoul0fishbowl]

In lostys universe, Gare and El are long distance during some of their college years.

Do they ever have any big fights or miscommunication during that period?? Any conversations about what their future together will look like as the years peel away to adulthood? Just curious 🥰♥️

Still loving that greatmage lore 💜🩷

Ohh girl this made me think A LOT. because my first instinct was to be like “noooo my pookies never fight!” but that’s completely unrealistic. So I dug deep and came up with a few ideas… and of course it got really long so I’m putting it under a readmore…

- I think their biggest fights would be about money, but not in the typical way a young couple fights about money! In both Next Time I Fall and Lost and Found I alluded to El and Kali getting large settlements of “hush money” from Hawkins Lab, and at the end of Next Time El even suggests to Gareth that they use some of that money to get married. But it’s the late 80s and I’m sure Hopper had repeatedly impressed upon Gareth the importance of The Man Being The Breadwinner and the need to Properly Take Care Of His Daughter, so Gareth wouldn’t feel right about letting El pay for anything.

Finally El sits both Hopper and Gareth down one day and tells them look, Chrissy helped me find this super cute house and I can easily afford it so I’m gonna buy it. Gareth, you’re welcome to live there with me if you can get over your pride about it. And Dad, you need to mind your own beeswax. (Will taught her that phrase, and he almost chokes trying to hold back his laughter when he hears her repeat it.)

- Another thing I can imagine is the long-distance thing just wearing on both of them (they’re cuddly koalas and they can’t stand being apart for too long) but I could see that manifesting in different ways. For El, I think insecurity would be something she’d struggle with; especially if school interfered with time they wanted to spend together, she would feel neglected and get a little pouty about Gare thinking his work was more important than her. And I can imagine if he got impatient or exasperated about that, her mind would immediately leap to “you don’t love me anymore?” She needs a lot of reassurance after everything she’s been through.

But this, I think, would probably lead to Gareth never wanting to speak up about his own needs or problems, because he does truly want to be that steadfast source of reassurance for her, but also sometimes he feels a little resentful, as if she doesn’t trust him enough to keep loving her even when he’s irritated. And then that makes him wonder if she feels that way because of everything with Mike, and he gets pouty thinking she’s comparing him to Mike. Oh, kiddos.

- I imagined all of this coming to a head one weekend when Gareth wasn’t planning to come home because he was exhausted and had a ton of work to do, but El getting upset with him and kinda giving him a guilt trip about it until finally he gives in and says okay fine I’m coming. But he’s so tired that he ends up falling asleep behind the wheel and getting into a minor accident, which naturally freaks El out, and I think that would lead to a very deep heart-to-heart talk where they both end up resolving to communicate more honestly about their needs, and trust that their relationship can withstand temporary separation when needed.

- On a much happier note, conversations about the future!

I know a lot of people headcanon El as wanting tons of kids, but for some reason I imagine that pregnancy would be total body-horror for her. (Maybe I’m drawing that from my personal life? Lmao) I do believe she’d want a family of her own though, and I think she and Gare would have a lot of conversations about fostering and/or adoption to help troubled kids. And there’s a lovely fic that was gifted to me about the two of them preparing to welcome their first foster child.

I think they’d want pets, too— I imagine them going to an animal shelter just to look around, and El overhearing an employee saying “nobody will ever adopt this one, these dogs are monsters.” She instantly demands to see the monster dog, and of course it’s not a monster at all, it’s the cutest tiny little pit bull puppy, and El and Gare instantly fall in love with her and name her Bosco since she’s chocolate brown. 😊

I think El would have a lot of trouble deciding what she wanted to do after high school, as far as more schooling or a career or what, and they’d have a lot of discussions about that.

And of course they’d talk about traveling— there’s so many places they both want to see, and experiences they want to have for the first time together. Also I think it would be super cute if they went to Wales with Granny and Granddad Emerson to visit relatives and friends there. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

This got way longer than I thought it would lmao but thank you so much for asking! I always love sharing my ideas and headcanons with you! 💕

#ask losty #losty headcanons #greatmage #el hopper #gareth emerson #two schmoopies in love

[seabird-bard]

about to do a luca wordvomit sorry sorry

i just saw someone saying that luca was "queerbaiting" or like. an example of writers/executives being to afraid to write queer romance, and while that may or may not be true (given the context, like how maybe a year after that film came out those pixar employees wrote that one letter) i actually think that luca is impressive and impactful because it isn't a romance-- it exists within a pre-romance, and because of that, it hits that much harder.

also they aren't canon just because kenna jean harris made fanart of them but that's another conversation. back to my actual point:

viewing luca through a queer lens, there is SO much to be found that is immensely relatable to the queer experience-- primarily, what it's like to grow up gay. you have the concerned, fearful mother; you have the supportive relative and ally friend; the bullies, the mentor-- and more importantly, you have that one person that absolutely changed everything.

i'm not going to say that this is a universal experience-- everyone's journey is different. but i am going to say that this is something that is incredibly common, even more so within queer media-- and luca is just another example of this. no doubt about it-- alberto's presence in the film is one that is both vital to the plot and to the allegory that the story presents.

it's almost common to joke about life-ruining/world-altering homoerotic friendships in online queer spaces. that's probably why the film was so relatable to a lot of queer people, myself included. not only that, but the way the characters are written-- when i joke about this film being the pixar fish version of "call me by your name" i'm not actually all-the-way kidding. this film, i feel, is so intertwined with queerness and the experience of growing up queer that it's really difficult to look at it and go, "okay, but they're not gay."

THAT BEING SAID. they shouldn't have been canonized. like, ever. that would have ruined the allegory luca presents. purposeful or not, whether the writers really did want to make them a thing, they shouldn't have been. i'm really glad they're not.

i'm not saying that every queer story ends in heartbreak. but i am saying that it's common for those pre-teen/teenaged formative experiences-- the ones where you're young and inexperienced and unsure because what if dad found out? or mom? those stories, those connections, they are almost bound to break your heart.

luca paints a picture of a story just like that. luca has a deep fascination for something that's forbidden. he takes a chance, befriends someone-- alberto, who's already crossed over into this other land-- and falls in love with all of it. he goes to great lengths to hide this from his parents. when they find out, they try to send him away to a place that will try to permanently change him and his perception of what he actually wants, so he decides to run away with this other, braver person instead.

they go to a town that's unwelcoming to a fatal extent. they have to stay hidden to survive. they make a friend-- but they can't even trust her, at first, since her father is one of the people that wants their kind dead. i could go on and on and on-- the point is, this all reads queer. allegorically, or within the film itself.

and the ending, the goodbye-- it's bittersweet, because this is something they're not ever going to be able to replicate. this has changed all of the characters, internally, in every way-- but especially the main two. it always gets me choked up, because i know that feeling. and a lot of other queer people do, too.

basically, they're not REALLY gay, but aren't they? when you watch luca as a queer film, everything gets so much worse, because the "what-could-have-been," or even the "what-could-be" becomes so glaringly obvious and beautifully awful. and it's GREAT. why would i want them to be boyfriends within the story itself, when what we're presented with already is so much more complicated and gut-wrenching, especially when you contextualize it with the time period? why would i want fanon luberto to be canon when canon luberto already fucking slaps?

tldr: luca and alberto are only kind of gay. the vague platonic-ness of the nature of their relationship plays to the strengths of the story itself. i am absolutely obsessed with this film

sorry if some of this is a little incoherent i refuse to proofread byebye

#pixar luca #luberto #THIS TOOK SO LONG WHAT THE HELLL #anyways read if you want i just needed to put this somewhere #i have a lot of feelings about this film </3

[sunsestart]

I FINALLY MADE MY RISE!USAGI DESIGN!! But it's actually two Usagi designs because I thought it would be funny to have both Miyamoto and Yuichi in rottmnt

Imagine it pls

#PLSSS I NEED THEM BOTH IN RISE #LIKE #MY IDEA IS BASICALLY #MIYAMOTO HAS ACTUALLY BEEN TO A LOT OF DIFFERENT TMNT UNIVERSES AND NOW HE'S MAKING HIS RISE APPEARANCE #And there's this little guy who is apparently his descendant #and then we have Yuichi who has NEVER met the turtles or traveled to a different universe this way #AND HIS ANCESTOR IS HERE TOO #(but he's not actually HIS ancestor because this is a different version of Miyamoto than his own) #soooo #their interactions would be sooo funny lmao #also Leo and Yuichi are going to hate each other at first #but they'll get along aventually #I can imagine everyone thinking Miyamoto is like SOOOO COOL and awesome and stuff #especially Leo who would probably try to impress him and fail miserably #Yuichi would make fun of him and then try to impress Miyamoto himself andddd you know the rest of the story- fail miserably as well #they're both losers #anywaysss #enough rambling #here are the tags #rottmnt usagi #usagi miyamoto #usagi yuichi #yuichi usagi #miyamoto usagi #usagi yojimbo #usagi chronicles #samurai rabbit #usagi

[dustteller]

I think modern au Zhu SHOULD be the lesbian best friend trope to Ouyang except that its because this man is her pet project and gODDDAMIT she's gonna FIX him she's gonna MAKE him be BETTER she's going to SOLVE EVERYTHING and he will RESPECT HER (she is actively making him worse). She has a whole complex about it and everything. She has based a part of her identity on dragging this man up from his toxic funk and is fully convinced that if she tries hard enough he will eventually come to his senses and be an equal participant in this relationship. They have a terrible wonderful toxic loving codependent relationship that's neither a romance nor a friendship nor a rivalry but a secret fourth thing.

Predictably, this does not go well. The character arcs would be Zhu learning she can't fix a sinking ship and letting Ouyang fail by himself, and Ouyang learning to not be a shit person, actually, and coming out of his bubble of self-centeredness and working on himself instead of unloading his emotional labor onto the people around him. And they should both get to develop a healthier relationship with each other than what they had in canon bc queer solidarity is great and its even better when it's in the shape of some weird bullshit some gay people built out of the corpse parts of heteronormative romance (affectionate and completely unironic)

#brought to you by me thinking about the last half of HWDtW and how Zhu interacts with Ouyang post-betrayal #well. interacts with the concept of Ouyang. he kinda (spoilers). #she was unhealthily attached to Ouyang and honestly I think she deserves an universe where her whole deal is reciprocated. #but only AFTER i put them in a fully self sustaining terrarium jar and sic the emotional isopods on them. #that part comes first bc my personal entertainment is CLEARLY the most important thing here guys #the radiant emperor #my thoughts #zhu yuanzhang #OHHH AND ALSO i think Zhu and Ouyang should get to have their weird little gay relationship #while their partners stare in accepting horror. #ma would be supportive bc she knows how important this impressively awful man is to her girlfriend #but rest assured she DOES NOT like him. she will (very politely) bitch about him to Baoxiang and then feel bad about it #she shouldn't feel bad tho bc Ouyang deserves it and Baoxiang repeatedly reminds her of this fact #eventually ouyang grows on her. #kinda like the bowl of mold in the back of the fridge you've developed an emotional attachment to. #he shouldn't be there but now she feels bad about evicting him into the trash! #(she feels significantly less bad about evicting him into Esen's appartment) #Esen has even less of a clue what's happening with Zhu and Ouyang. #he just knows that Zhu is important to Ouyang and also is 90% sure that they fucked at some point. #30% sure that they are still fucking but he grew up around Baoxiang and Ouyang #he has learned Not to Ask! he does Not Want to Know! #and anyways it's none of his bussiness who his bestie/person that he wants to adopt a horse and grow old with/hot roomate is fucking! #its not his problem! he is not invested! he is not going to think about it! there is no reason to think about whos in Ouyang's pants! #he is not thinking about anything involving Ouyang's pants at all! much less about the inside of Ouyang's pants! #and since hes not thinking about it bc theres no reason to think about it then he cant have a problem with it :) #so he wont ask!

[casual-atrocities]

and remember kids, trolling queerphobic servers is a team sport

#linked universe #lu #conservative server saga #i got banned pretty fast #but i did actually manage to get in 3-4 messages #even with slow mode #most impressive are the ones who get banned before even saying anything #but also 2 of my friends have been going for quite dome time #even got as far as staging a fake gay awakening between each other #fake only because one of em is actually aroace #fun times #gonna be posting updates in reblogs <3

[tmae3114]

Thinking about the people who remember before the Reset and it's very funny to me that it's like

Cysero is a glitch in reality, unbound by its rules. Safiria is an impossibly ancient, incredibly powerful vampire. They were both present in the frozen moment of time between versions of reality. Kordana is a mech AI who survived it unchanged. Lock & Key are a bit unclear but either survived it unchanged or had surviving data when they achieved sentience. Kathool is an eldritch abomination driven further mad by awareness of it.

And then there's Jack, who was sealed in a moon and literally just missed it happening

#Dragonfable #It is SO funny to me that Jack remembers pre-Reset and also DOESN'T KNOW THE RESET HAPPENED #Jack Crescent FULLY thinks he's just on some random planet #Remthalas isn't on the list bc it's unclear how much he knows re: the Reset given The Circumstances #and I didn't really get the impression he knows much about what the universe was like before #just awareness that things keep Changing that he couldn't fully articulate?

[cowardstiel]

dads were really onto something when they popularised talking at the tv. really enhances the viewing experience

#i will yell at the tv characters like they can hear me!! don’t go in there girl!! #also #if like me u get bored watching 90% of supernatural then simply boo and cheer the cast as their names pop up in the opening credits and yell #their names in a bad dean impression and it’ll be fun. bobbayyyy!!!! sammayyyy!! also just boo annoying characters (sam) lol #jarad padalecki BOOOOOOO jensen ackles [crickets] ……….. misha collins WOOOOOOOOOOOO #it makes it feel better too cos it’s like the universe knows i disapprove of my own choice to watch it #my post

[rosenbergamot]

im writing an au where scar wasnt one of the founding members of boatem and just Pops up one day w his huge wagon, disturbing the very foundation of the village with his salesman grin, and initially it seems hes trying to start an industry there but hes really just running from his fucked up past and trying to make a living and let me just say that NOBODY in universe is enjoying this (he is getting rocks thrown at him by the boatem crew)

#its also just like an alternate universe in general #im imagining he did some very shady deals and now he is being hunted for sport #but he just cant resist the urge to try and sell something to people so hes like “wanna buy my. crystals” to boatem #and theyre like boooo tomato tomato #when he gets nervous he just starts selling shit its in his nature #he doesnt even mean to at this point like hes trying to make a good impression but he just tore down trees with his wagon by accident #bro ruined their farms and they are NOT pleased about it and he is sweating bullets and they are throwing rocks at him #i hate boatem i try to live there and everyone throws rocks at me and screams leave white boy leave #anyways eventually he gets two boyfriends bc they realize Ah. Hes just got many things wrong with his brain. thats actually very attractive #we r at like 6500 words with this. still first chapter territory #bashing head on wall i am not immune to writing new fics about gtws #rosie talks #hermitblr

[aceghosts]

for the one-word writing prompts!

“unforeseen” for hunter x albert pls? (lmk if i didn’t do this right 😭)

Thanks for sending this one in! It's been sitting in my drafts for a while, but I didn't feel confident until posting about it until now. Also, gonna tag @sstewyhosseini. (I hope it's okay that I'm tagging you; I just know that you like them.)

[Prompt List]

Summary: On a mission in a tiny mountain town, Wesker encounters an unforseen complication, BSAA Captain Hunter Delaney.

More of the BSAA Agent! Hunter AU.

Words: 1053 words.

Content Warnings: Canon Typical Violence. Mentions of Death and infection.

AO3

The cold winter winds howl through the tiny, remote town, yet Wesker is unbothered by the frigid air. Ever since his rebirth, he no longer feels the sting of the cold or heat, a benefit on missions like these. The winds blow again, catching the tail of his black wool coat, fluttering in the wind. He moves forward in the snow with purpose, the frozen, white ground crunching beneath his feet. Wesker does not worry about being seen; most of the town’s inhabitants are dead or infected. They prove no threat, clearly the products of rudimentary science. He already thinks of the way the virus could be improved, perfected.

“Captain,” Wesker raises a blonde eyebrow at the sound of the unknown woman’s voice, “Do you think we’ll find anyone alive?”

“Unlikely, Natasha,” the ‘Captain’ replies as Wesker ducks into an empty house. He stays close to the window, allowing him to listen and catch a glimpse of the possible annoyances. “I think we’ve stumbled upon a fucking ghost town.”

“Don’t know that I would describe these as ghosts…” A man replies, cheekily.

“Really, Patrick?” Another man chimes in, his voice deadly serious.

“Oh, come on Arthur,” Patrick whines, “We need a little humor in this situation. What do you think, Kevin?”

“Uhhh…,” Another team member says, presumably ‘Kevin’, glancing between two members as the group moves into his field of view, “Shouldn’t we focus on the mission?” Glancing out the window, Wesker makes out a group of five: three men, one woman, and another person. While observing the group, Wesker spies a familiar emblem, gritting his teeth. The BSAA…. an eternal thorn in his side. Or rather, Christopher and Jill were a thorn in his side, the rest of the BSAA too weak and ineffective to deal with someone like Wesker. The only reason Christopher and Jill even presented a threat was due to his training, during their S.T.A.R.S. days. If anything, the BSAA only gave Christopher and Jill more chances to annoy him.

“Wait,” one of the members seems concerned, the Captain by the sounds of it, as they sniff the air, “I smell someone.”

“That isn’t freaky at all,” ‘Patrick’ mumbles under his breath.

“Do they smell infected?” ‘Arthur’ asks, as the other members raise their guns, preparing for an attack.

“I….,” The Captain sounds unsure, sniffing the air again, “I don’t know. I smell cologne, and the scent of something else. Can’t put my finger on it.” They sniff again, smirking as they add, “Also, I smell shitty body spray. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Patrick, are you trying to fucking kill us with that shit?”

“Hey!” Patrick exclaims, slightly hurt as Kevin laughs beside him.

“I think he’s trying chemical warfare on the zombies, and we’re just caught in the cross fire,” Natasha teases in while Arthur shakes his head.

“Can you smell anything else?” Arthur asks, trying to get the group back on track.

The Captain sniffs again. “Nothing else besides what we’ve already encountered.” Fascinating. He glances out the window, locking on the Captain’s figure, broad-shouldered and tall. Jet black hair falls to their shoulders in shaggy waves, and their skin is deathly pale, covered in freckles. Wesker notes the long scar across the bridge of their nose and another large, jagged scar on their lip. He briefly wonders how the Captain came to be so scarred. Bioweapons, perhaps? Most didn’t escape without physical or emotional scars. “Listen, come on out. We’re not here to hurt you; we’re here to help you.” As a show of good faith, the Captain holsters their rifle, holding up their hands to show them as empty. How could Wesker resist when the Captain was asking so sweetly?

He opens the red door, all guns training on him as it creaks open. Stepping forward, He meets the Captain’s eyes, delighted by the muted green color and the hint of something darker that dwells within. Stopping several feet away, Wesker smirks. “The BSAA…What brings an organization like you out here to this little village?”

The Captain and Arthur share concerned glances. “There’s been an outbreak in this village. Would you know anything about that…?” The Captain is fishing for his name, but they’re going to have to do better than that.

“An infection,” He plays innocent, his voice thoughtful, “I would not know anything about that, Captain….”

“Hunter Delaney.” How fascinating. Ironic that the captain of a BSAA squad should share a name with one of Umbrella’s infamous creations. He lets out a low chuckle as they raise a black eyebrow, confusion clear on their face. “Is something funny?”

“No, Hunter,” He enjoys the way their name sounds, enjoying, even more, the slight shiver that runs over Hunter, “Nothing funny at all.”

Hunter’s eyes narrow, staring into his black sunglasses as if they’ll find the answers hidden there. A moment later, their eyes widen in horror as recognition dawns on them. Hunter steps closer to him, placing themself between Wesker and their team. “Arthur, take the team and go. I’ll catch up with you later.” Do Christopher and Jill tell tall tales about their dear old captain? Is Wesker the boogeyman that looms large over the BSAA?

Arthur nods, motioning for the team to follow his lead. Sighing, Wesker cannot allow any of them to leave. What a shame. He was having such a nice time talking with Hunter, and now, it’s all over. He dashes forward towards Hunter, a black blur against the stark white snow. As he reaches them, his hand stretches toward the collar of their olive-green jacket, preparing to toss Hunter about. Maybe, he’ll make them watch their teammates die, before having a little fun with them.

Hunter sidesteps him, far quicker than any human could, before throwing a punch with their left fist. They connect with his stomach, knocking Wesker backward and just barely knocking the wind out of him. Landing on the snow, his sunglasses fall away, and several strands of blonde hair come loose. Quickly getting up to his feet, Wesker finds Hunter smirking at him, ready for the next attack. “That all you fucking got, asshole?”

Excitement floods Wesker, now extremely curious about Hunter Delaney. What an unforeseen, yet interesting complication. “You have no idea what I’m capable of, Hunter. Perhaps, a demonstration is in order.”

#Kate writes #the hunter fic tag #Hunter Delaney #OTP: Love Me Mercilessly #Resident Evil OC #RE OC #Biohazard OC #Albert Wesker x OC #albert wesker #I guess you could call this Hunter and Wesker's first meeting #and in every universe Hunter is destined to think he is an asshole upon first impression #I should probably point out that one of Hunter's abilities is enhanced senses which is both a blessing and a curse #Also this was supposed to be short-like 100 to 200 words #and uh this one kind of got out of control #anyway enjoy Wesker being an asshole and Hunter being thoroughly unimpressed #it was also nice to write Hunter getting along with their team #and not their main universe where everything is kinda shit from the start