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absolutebl · 1 month

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Top 10 Best BLs on Gagaoolala

My Beautiful Man AKA Utsukushii Kare

Japan 2021

One of the most Japanese BLs to release in the last decade, as weird and as messed up as any 2000s yaoi: emo af and hella warped, entirely true to itself with no attempt made to modify its POV for modern sensibilities or current BL fandom. It used seriously old school problematic and kinky tropes, like whipping boy, for a truly uncompromising piece that also manages to hit up themes of communication, consent, and self acceptance. It’s a wonderful BL but uniquely dirty and harsh, in the best possible way - Japanese cinema, uncompromising.

I lost my ever loving mind over the ending. This show won the Grand Prix “My Best TV Award” at the 16th Galaxy Awards.

Minato's Laundromat AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry

Japan 2022

A classic age gap romance where a high school student pursues the man of his dreams (who runs a laundromat). This BL is so steeped in yaoi nostalgia, not to mention a classic romance arc, that it will overload some, but those of us who love this genre for its DNA will adore it. It made me very happy because it did everything I want a BL to do - there’s not much more I could ask of a show than this. It’s the closest Japan has come to perfect live action yaoi since Seven Days (and I never make that comparison lightly).

Squee watch-along here.

My Ride

Thai 2022

Thai BL grew up with this pulp (the first ever to make my end of year top 10). It’s a truly lovely and special little show featuring the extremely rare pairing of sunshine/sunshine (AKA a cinnamon roll couple) plus mature explorations of relationships using one of the softest, sweetest, and most innocent friends to lovers vehicles. Kindly, overworked doctor meets broken-hearted motorcycle taxi driver in an “other side of the tracks” slow burn romance. The support cast is excellent, making for great friendship groups and family dynamics. With honest queer rep that adds to, but doesn’t impede, the story, and genuine conversation about the nature of class, wealth, and classism, not to mention communication, honesty, and respect for boundaries, you can’t go wrong with this show. In other news, I am a sucker for a single dimple.

Takara & Amagi AKA Takara-kun to Amagi-kun

Japan 2022 I gnawed on my knuckles and squealed a lot with this BL. Reserved cool kid who must learn to communicate to keep the tiny disaster nugget he’s madly in love with. It is beyond charming: soft and gentle, packed with cuteness and high school angst, thirst, & yearning. Was there plot? Not really. Was it emotionally tense and paced well enough for me not to notice? Absolutely. Did I enjoy the hell out of it? Oh yes.

Kiseki: Dear to Me

Taiwan 2023

The plot is totally ridiculous and slightly unhinged, but that’s normal for Taiwan. It involves all the tropes under a very casual framework of gay mafia gangs + food = love. Absolutely every character is queer. There’s a gum-ball machine of cameos, elder gay rep, great chemistry from all pairs, and a KILLER side couple. As a result Kiseki is a poster child for Taiwanese BL, and I happen to love Taiwanese BL. Bonus? They also managed to END IT WELL, which we cannot expect from Taiwan.

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho

Japan 2023

This style of live action yaoi really only works from Japan. Basically: boys who fell in love in college end up living together but both are so repressed they actually don't realize they're in love. It's higher heat than we usually get from Japan's HEA stuff, and that part is also very well done, but it leaned into the "why don't they just talk for fuck's sake?" trope which is only exacerbated into undiluted frustration by the fact that they're already fucking. It's great, but watching requires more patience than usual, even for Japan.

Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku

Japan 2023

A lonely salaryman and talented cook gets accidentally adopted by a college kid and his little brother. I was always gonna love this show if they stuck to the manga (which is very dear to my heart). And they did, paralleling it almost exactly. It’s a quiet & cozy little parable of found family alleviating loneliness. Possibly too slow for some but definitely high up there for me as the best of what Japan can do with softness (like Restart After Come Back Home). It’s only flaw (if I dare say such a thing) is that it is not really “romantic.” Lovely & sweet but the romance beats are being used to build a family relationship, not just couple intimacy, but that's OK with me. This is a very safe show for anyone to watch.

Step By Step

Thai 2023

This was Thailand’s answer to The New Employee, and everything I loved about that show I loved about this one. This office romance between a stern boss and sweet subordinate felt more authentic to cubical work than previous Thai BLs of this ilk. That authenticity added tension to the narrative and its characters development (how novel). I also really enjoyed the charming side characters and the brothers' relationship to each other (although I could have done without that brother's side BL).

Long Time No See

Korea (Strongberry) 2017

Catfishing assassins on either side of a turf war who fall in love not knowing they are on opposite sides. Or do they? Suspenseful plot, good fight sequences, mature characters, hot sexitimes and even hotter beating the shit out of each other and kissing while covered in blog (this came from KOREA?), plus an HEA. One of the hidden gems of the BL genre.

About Youth

Taiwan 2022

A truly lovely little coming of age high school BL with a classic YA low drama but high angst and an earnest depth. I didn’t even mind the singing, and that’s saying a lot. A weak seme/uke dynamic but tons of BL tropes (both rare in a high school setting but common for Taiwan) makes this one feel both sweet and colored by real world authenticity and grit.

Some of these shows ALSO appeared on Viki or iQIYI, but these BLs will appear only once on these round up posts (here for Gaga), not on the other platforms top 10.

(source)

This list updated Spring 2024, not responsible for cool stuff that aired on Gaga (or was taken off the platform) after that date.

This is part of a series more here:

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yellowbunnydreams · 5 months

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The Blood Runs Thicker ~vampire!William Afton x F! Reader~

~Yes yes, you read the title right. I'm that maniac who is going to write about a slightly more perverse maniac than usual. This was slightly inspired by stumbling across some of the ancient parts of the FNAF fandom and fanfics in general (Remember Vincent and his toast?), and that weird period in fanfics when everything was either set in the apocalypse, adoption fanfics or vampire tagged. And I saw that and went 'what if our favourite murder man got the vampire treatment?' So here we are! May write more to this, but I just wanted to write something different and potentially a bit humorous and dark in places compared to 'Bunny Ears'.~

Tag-List; @ruh--roh-raggy

CW:Minors DNI, (18+ ONLY), Female Reader, legal age gap (Reader- 20's, William - 50's), acts of violence, biting, knifeplay, blood, blood-drinking/licking, vomiting/retching, mention of dead children, anaemia. The suit stays ON

You weren't entirely sure why you had taken on the job at Freddy Fazbear's pizza, but you supposed it was a little bit of your morbid curiosity that had driven you to a place like this.

You were too young to have grown up with Freddy's, but you knew of the dark rumours and mysteries that surrounded the place and the company that had tried to sweep it all under the rug repeatedly. Missing children, presumed dead, whispers of haunted animatronics, a killer in a mask who evaded capture and death repeatedly no matter how many times he was burned to the ground. It had piqued your interest, so when you had seen the ad in the newspaper for a night-guard at the old location, you couldn't help but jump at the chance.

Shining your flashlight around the main dining area, you swore that shadows moved on their own accord in the dingy room. Clearly once a place of joy as prizes remained unclaimed in the prize counter, birthday hats lined the tables on faded confetti patterned table-cloths like they were simply waiting for the party to turn up despite the thick dusty cobwebs that strung between each of them. Even the spiders had long since passed away.

Heading back to the security office, you plopped yourself down into the office chair, hearing it creak slightly as your weigh settled into it. Wheeling over and throwing on the breaker to get the security system up and running according to the instructions that had been left for you. The woman in the careers office where you had gone to express you interest seemed shocked when you'd agreed to take the job.

'We have to legally disclose that there have been...disappearances...with the previous guards.'

But something had called you there, and you weren't going to ignore that siren song of curiosity.

Flicking through the monitors, you noticed that one of the animatronics had moved its head slightly, looking towards the camera instead of straight ahead. A smile quirked at your lips as you looked at it.

"So maybe you're not so worn down after all this time after all." You murmured softly, wheeling over to the door and checking the corridor for any signs of them moving towards you yet, but spotting nothing of the sort. Humming quietly as you pushed yourself back to the monitors. Pausing as you saw that all three of the main stage animatronics had turned their heads towards the camera instead, lifeless eyes boring into your soul as your hands hovered over the controls.

"Are you trying to talk?" Whispering to air as you felt a chill creeping down your spine. Almost as if you were being observed, although the theory was ridiculous and you knew it logically. Head tilting as you looked at the animatronics, trying to figure out what made them suddenly pay attention.

The sensation of being watched grew stronger, making you turn around to confirm to yourself that you were alone in the tiny office. Seeing nothing but dust and faded posters from the hay-days of Freddy's that had remained miraculously intact after so long. Checking the cameras again, you noticed that the bear had moved off of the stage. How it had done so silently was anybody's guess, but you assumed it wasn't natural, whatever it was. Looking down the hallway again as you wheeled yourself over, you could see two white pinpricks in the darkness, slightly taller than you thought the bear was perhaps. But you hadn't exactly measured them in case you had to compare by animatronic height and eye colour to determine who was knocking at your door.

"Alright, so Freddy's coming to play with me." Voice soft as if it would disturb things that weren't there should you speak any louder. Checking the monitors again, noticing that the other three seemed to be moving about a bit more, moving through various places in the restaurant as if searching for something. Looking closer however, you realised that they weren't quite searching, rather, the way they positioned themselves, it was like they were trying to move away from something you couldn't see.

Where there more ghosts than you had heard from the stories? You weren't sure, but looking back down the hallway, your heart pounded uncertainly in your chest as you noticed that the eyes were closed in the dark. Barely lighting enough to notice a slight flicker to them as they stood on the edge of the darkness ending at the end of the hall. Almost as if it was afraid of the light.

Glancing back at the monitors, you frowned as you counted four animatronics on the screens. Freddy and Bonnie looking towards the cameras, Freddy's head tilted slightly and mouth partially open as if to say 'look at me'. Your eyes flickered back to the hallway, back to the monitors. You were staring at a fifth, one you hadn't seen and that had moved as silently as the grave, approaching when you weren't looking.

Motion at the edge of your vision forced your eyes away from those piercing silver ones, watching the light catch the glint of something metallic at around mid-thigh for the thing at the end of the hall. Confusion written on your expression before it moved a little more, revealing the long thin edge of a blade in the light.

It felt as if your pulse suddenly stopped as your body froze up in fear. More so than the thought of animatronic monstrosity coming to kill you, this thing was too human, too real.

Leaping from your chair, you slammed the door shut as you saw the thing moving towards you quickly. Screaming slightly as the weight slammed into the door and made you slide across the floor despite all your body weight pressing against it. Hearing something like a low growl glitching out on the other side of the wood as it seemed to crash into it again. Your boots sliding across the tiled floor as you desperately threw your weight against it, panic making bile rise in your throat as you struggled to breathe whilst adrenaline set in.

It stopped throwing itself against the door, and you wondered if it had gone. Before the part of the door next to your head exploded in splinters, making you scream in shock, another punch coming through and finally revealing a glove-like yellow hand. The fingers all too articulate as it reached in and started to grab for you, forcing you to move away and release the weight pressing back against the door.

Finally, you were forced away from the door and it slammed open, hearing the wood crack as it slammed into the edge of a filing cabinet. Your eyes wide as you remained on the floor, breathing heavy as you watched a yellow rabbit standing in the doorway. The white eyes boring into you, seeming to flicker over your face with a low chuckle as it watched your fear. The knife in it's right hand twirling around with some skill as it stepped slowly towards you, menacingly.

You decided in that moment that you weren't going to die in a corner like a coward.

Yelling, you managed to push yourself to your feet, launching your much smaller size and weight against the thing's stomach, hearing something like a grunt and then a sickening click of metal before the sound of it ripping through something soft. The rabbit suit doubling over in pain as an electronically mixed scream ripped from within, lacing over the very human one from within the suit. You didn't want to know what had given way as you managed to shove it to one side slightly, writhing your way past it and into the dining room.

The other animatronics were nowhere to be seen, and you were grateful for that as you ran for the front doors, trying them and swearing that they were locked. Your keys in the office where the screams had stopped. You weren't turning back however, and you turned around, searching for your next exit. Spotting a corridor with the 'fire exit' sign faintly lit up over it, sprinting towards it as if it was your last hope.

Until a searing pain erupted in your thigh, making you scream and fall harshly onto your stomach and shoulder, grunting as you hit the floor and knocking the wind out of you. Looking at your leg, you saw the knife sticking out of your thigh, hilt deep and you swore you could feel it scraping your femur as you tried to weakly move the leg. Hand hovering around it as you wanted to pull it out but you knew it would potentially bleed you out if you did.

Looking up, the yellow rabbit stalked towards you, you noticed one of the pieces of its ear was missing, giving it an oddly lopsided look, and the fur around the muzzle had somewhat worn and decayed, leaving a permanent grin on it's face.

"Well well, aren't you a pretty sight for sore eyes?" It's distorted voice chuckled, wheezing slightly as you noticed that blackish-brown staining had started to seep onto the suit from the bottom of the torso, whatever you had heard snapping inside clearly striking flesh and making it bleed.

"Please, please don't." You begged, still trying to crawl away and screaming as it moved unnaturally quick again, grabbing onto the knife in your thigh and pulling. Tears streaming down your face as you sobbed, feeling the adrenaline mixing with so many other things in your body as you tried to beg for your life. Only eliciting a chuckle from the rabbit as it looked down at you, crouched besides your weak body as twisted the knife, making you see stars of pain as you cried out again.

"Oh but I was just getting started. It's been a while since anybody's run from me. You've really made me want to hunt, but you did hurt me." It spoke darkly, pulling the knife from your thigh and making you cry out, hands automatically moving to the wound and trying to stop the bleeding. "You know, I think you punctured a lung, you little brat." You could hear the wheezing more clearly now that it was closer, that sickening sucking, crackling sound that you instinctually knew was the sound of death.

"We'll die together then." You laughed bitterly, spitting at the suit before you heard the laughter rising from it's chest. A full blown laugh that glitched out the voice box inside and made it double over itself eerily before the person inside the suit was wracked with coughs, watching bloody spittle coat the teeth of the suit as the person inside clearly wasn't joking about you taking out their lung.

"Oh sweet thing, if only it was that easy to kill something like me. You've just picked how I'm going to kill you instead, that's all."

You shrieked as one of the heavy knees planted into your thigh, crushing your fingers beneath the weight, feeling the warmth of your own blood blooming against your jeans and the fabric of the suit, making your fingers slick with it. You watched it toss the knife to one side as it forced you to lay on your back, your breath being restricted by the heavy weight of it's hand on your throat as the other hand worked on ripping your blouse open on one side. Exposing your shoulder to it. Confusion running through your woozy, adrenaline overloaded mind before its hand adjusted on your throat. Forcing you to look the other way by gripping your chin and exposing your neck and shoulder to it.

Clicks could be heard from just above you, and as the weight bore down on your smaller body, you whimpered. Feeling sudden warm breath against your neck before a slick tongue ran up the side, making you squirm uncomfortably as your hand weakly struck out at the suit. Hearing a chuckle next to your ear as you swore you felt the brush of stubble against the sensitive skin of your jaw.

"It's nothing personal, you understand don't you? I can't help myself when I have something so pretty to eat right infront of my face." The voice was no longer distorted, but rather deep and gravelly, sending a cold chill sliding down your spine as suddenly your enemy was all too human, too alive. Heart pounding wildly in your chest as you still continued to fight. Hands scrambling for purchase, your one free leg kicking out and trying to catch anything to maybe force the crushing force off of you.

The breath was back at your throat, the feeling of stubble brushing your throat, hearing an animalistic snarl before the hand on your chin moved to cover your mouth. Filling your nose with the scent of old fabric and faintly hot pennies as searing pain flared down your shoulder and neck. Making you scream into the hand as you felt the hot wetness against your skin, almost like the man in the suit had his mouth clamped down and was biting into your shoulder. A sucking sensation against your skin, head feeling light and eyes beginning to roll back before the weight suddenly lifted from your body. Allowing you to suck in desperate breaths as you struggled to orient yourself with what was happening.

Retching, you heard retching and more clicks, the shuffling of fabric. Trying to sit up, you managed to prop yourself onto your elbows before you collapsed onto your side instead, able to faintly make out in the dim lights of the restaurant as the man in the suit knelt by your side. Retching as he clung to his stomach. The rabbit's head sat up on a table nearby and what you could now see was a glove discarded onto the floor. His fingers in his mouth as if he tried to dig the taste of you out of his mouth, prompting a weak chuckle from you. His eyes snapping over as he growled lowly. Baring bloodied teeth, his canines perhaps longer than you would have thought, but your vision was still swimming.

He crawled over to you, picking you up and making you groan despite the fact he kept you sat on the floor for the most part. You could sort of make out features as you struggled to focus your eyes, seeing a masculine face and the dark hair around his mouth, now smeared with red. He shook you harshly, making you weakly whimper.

"What the fuck did you take? You taste disgusting!" He hissed, making you furrow your brows and chuckle despite the fact that you wanted to close your eyes.

"I....I don't think humans are meant...to...consume...human blood." He shook you again, making you groan as your eyes rolled back and he shook you again, fingers digging into your shoulders with bruising force as you felt his tongue run against your neck again. Shuddering at the feeling before you heard him spitting.

"You're fucking anaemic? Great, my first victim in two weeks and I get the anaemic with the bad diet."

"Hey!..." You quietly protested, brow furrowing more as you still tried to fight against the insinuation that you were somehow lower quality than his other victims.

"Hold on, little stupid blood-bag. I'm not going to let you go to waste, you have to pay me back for the fucking lung." The voice growled and coughed again, making you feel the warm splatter across your face as he didn't bother to cover his mouth. Feeling the arms slip under your body and your head span more as you seemed to be lifted up. Groaning and going limp as you felt tired. Too tired to keep your eyes open, and cold suddenly too.

The rhythm of his steps made it all too easy to close your eyes however, and you didn't remember anything else as you laid in his arms life a bloodied sacrifice to some old-god.

#springtrap #springtrap x reader #steve raglan x reader #steve raglan #william afton #william afton x reader #william afton x you #william afton smut #fnaf movie #fnaf x reader #vampire william afton

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pitifulbaby · 1 year

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damn shoes

summary: being pregnant and putting on shoes don’t usually mix well.

pairings: Steve Harrington x Pregnant!Reader

warnings: pregnancy, uhhh its pretty fluffy ngl

a/n: hello! so i haven’t written for the stranger things fandom though i’ve been in it for many a years, so this is a first! plus this is the first time writing in quite sometime, so it might be a little rusty. but i do hope you enjoy! 1.1k words

Pregnancy was, in theory- weird. Growing another human from your own body. Said human living inside your womb for nine months, completely moving each and every organ in your stomach to make room. The ‘morning’ sickness that was actually all day sickness that would be triggered by the most random things. Things you once enjoyed eating suddenly became the worst, and yet enjoying such an odd combination of food.

But it would be worth it in the end, the endless mood swings, back pains, the kankles, the tossing and turning during the night struggling to find a comfortable way to sleep. The past nine months would seem like a piece of cake the moment you would be able to hold your baby in your arms.

But as of right now, the only thing that you could think about was the fact you couldn’t see your damn feet. Even as you were seated on your side of the bed, sneakers by your now sock clad feet- it was still a struggle to see them. Somehow, by some miracle you managed to put on your socks.

With a sigh you tilted your head to the side, watching the sunbeams as they entered through the slits of the blinds, creating little slivers of light against the carpeted floor. The sun had risen only a few hours ago, the summer sun creating overbearing heat that somehow felt even worse now that there was a human being created from your very body. The day ahead was gonna be a long one, shopping for baby furniture.

Just the thought of that made the fact of the matter even more real. In only three and a half more months your family of you and Steve would add a member. A teeny tiny member at that. Placing your hand on your bump you let your eyes look toward your sneakers. But soon your brain was fumbling over the fact that, how did you manage to put on your socks but not your shoes?

You had tried to put the shoes on while they were already tied, but that didn’t work. The ties were too tight and once you untied them to retie them, place them back on the ground and tried again- only for them once again to be too tight. And when you untied them and slipped them on, you couldn’t lift your leg high enough or lean down far enough to reach and tie said laces. And honestly you were too tired to try anymore ways. The pain in your lower back worsening each time you bent over, and over, and over. With a pout and a groan you rub your eyes with the palms of your hands, taking a break and trying to figure out how to put on your damn shoes, letting your hands fall back to your lap before once again- glaring at the black and white sneakers.

“Is there a reason you look like you are trying to shoot lasers out of your eyes at your shoes?” A voice rang out through the once quiet bedroom, with his hands on his hips- which was his usual stance, and towel slung over his shoulder was none other than your husband Steve. With a tilt of his head and leaning more on one side, causing his hip to jut out, he sends you a smile.

Replying with a huff you simply shrugged your shoulders. “If I glare at them enough, maybe they will magically levitate onto my feet.” You say simply, lip jutted out. Steve rolls his eyes with a quiet laugh, “Next time Henderson is over, you two aren’t allowed to watch Star Wars again.” He decides, taking the dish towel off of his shoulder and placing it onto the dresser before stepping towards where you sat, kneeling on one knee in front of you. “Dustin will have a field day when I tell him you think ‘magical levitation’ means Star Wars.” You said, your pout from before turning into a small smile.

“Is that not what they do?” He questioned, voice a little dramatic in hopes of making your smile wider, “The force is an energy field.” He once again rolls his eyes at your words, “Energy fields, magic- same thing.” He brushes off with a shrug before placing his left hand on your knee and letting his right hand cup the side of your face.

You let your eyes trail to the hand on your knee, reaching out and twisting the wedding ring on his finger that matched your own. “What’s going on, honey?” His voice was softer and more quiet than before, tilting his head to try and catch your eye. “I can’t put my shoes on, I tried everything and everyway.” You responded, cheeks flushing in embarrassment at the confession, sniffling to try and will the tears away.

It felt embarrassing not being able to put on your sneakers!

As Steve felt your cheeks heat up he rubbed his thumb against the apple of your cheek, “Hey,” He cooed, you only responded with a huff, moving your hands to rub at your eyes with a pitiful, forced laugh. “It’s embarrassing, m’sorry.”

With a shake of his head that you couldn’t see, Steve was soon pulling your hands from your face, letting your hands fall to your lap once again as he now placed both hands on the sides of your face, leaning in closer with a small frown. “There is nothing to be embarrassed about, not with me.” Steve promised, words hushed and sincere. He then presses a kiss to your forehead, then leaned back.

He soon was grabbing your left shoe, holding it in his hand. “What are you doing?” You questioned, he hummed in response, placing a kiss to your knee before lifting your leg up a tad to slip the shoe on. “Skydiving,” He replies, which in turn causes you to laugh at his dry tone.

Your eyes were soft as you watched him tie your shoe, finding it adorable and endearing that Steve Harrington still had to use the bunny ear method to tie shoes. After the left shoe was on and tied he moved to the other shoe, repeating the previous actions before he leaned forward to speak to your stomach. “Listen, I get it, you gotta grow before you come out, but give your mom some slack.”

Before he can say anything else, said baby is kicking right where Steve had placed his hand. “I know you can hear me!” He says through a laugh, which in turn causes you to laugh. He then tilts his head back to look up at you, the way the light hits his eyes makes them look more golden than usual, the more you stare the more it reminds you of the sun shining through the blinds that you were looking at a few moments ago. After a moment that feels too long, you are pressing your lips to his.

Maybe not being able to put on your shoes was a good thing...

#steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #stranger things imagine #stranger things imagines #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington imagines #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington fanfiction #stranger things fanfic #stranger things fanfiction

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cha-melodius · 8 days

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HAPPY 100 FICS / 1000 KUDOS DARLING

Could I please get Firstprince at some sort of pet store?

💜💜💜💜

(HAPPY BIRTHDAY CRICKET!!!! This is the fill for your fandom fest request of firstprince at a pet store. Thank you for being such an excellent doc gremlin and wonderful friend, I hope this fic brightens your day!!)

The Hazards of Unsolicited Toy Advice

(T, 2.2k, read it below or on AO3)

There’s a staggeringly gorgeous man loitering by a display of chew toys.

The sight of him momentarily brings Henry to a complete halt, which confuses David. He reaches the end of his lead and looks back at Henry with his head tilted, clearly wondering what could have interrupted their usual pilgrimage to the elaborate collection of bones, pigs’ ears, and various treats that make this store worth going out of their way to visit. Unfortunately for David, Henry needs a moment. He knows he’s being kind of weird, but surely he can be forgiven. It’s not every day one comes across the personification of pure sunlight in a pet store.

The man doesn’t seem to notice Henry’s watching, thankfully. His full lips pout thoughtfully as he pokes idly at a few toys, picking them up and putting them down again without much intention. A few dark curls fall forward over his forehead as he props one hand on his devastatingly narrow waist, perfectly emphasized by the way his tailored button-down is tucked into navy chinos that hug a truly perfect arse.

David chuffs softly, pulling Henry out of his reverie. Right. The beautiful man looks like he could use some decision-making assistance, perhaps. Henry will take whatever tiny opening he can get.

“If you need some advice on toys, I have some experience,” Henry said, only realizing the way it sounds once the words are out of his mouth.

Unfortunately, the beautiful man does not miss the innuendo. He looks up at Henry, warm brown eyes fringed by the longest eyelashes Henry’s ever seen flashing with mirth as his face breaks into a grin and, oh, if Henry was in trouble before, it was nothing on this. The man’s entire face lights up, nearly blinding in its brilliance, and Henry’s stomach swoops.

“Do you, now?” the man returns as his lips settle into a smirk. He looks Henry up and down, and Henry doesn’t think he’s imagining the interest in his expression.

Henry’s cheeks are heating, but he holds the man’s gaze. “Yes. David is a bit of a connoisseur.”

The man’s eyebrows shoot upward. “David? Is that your…”

“My dog, of course,” Henry says, gesturing toward where David is sitting obediently at his feet. “He’s got quite the collection.”

“Dog named David, ok,” the man mutters, laughing a little to himself. “Does he have a favorite?”

Henry reaches out and plucks a rubber toy shaped like a duck and hands it to the man. “This one is probably his first choice.” At his feet, David makes a noise of interest, and Henry glances down at him. “You have this one at home, Davey.”

The man turns the toy over in his hands, but before he can say anything an employee walks up and hands him a plain brown paper bag with the top stapled shut and some numbers written on the side.

“Anything else, sir?” she asks.

“No, that’s it. Thanks,” the man says, then looks at Henry and lifts up the duck. “Thanks for the advice.”

“Yes, well, if you need any further toy suggestions, we’re here regularly,” Henry manages to say, and it sounds like just as much of a come-on as he means it to.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” the man replies, smirking, then heads off to the front of the store.

~~~~~

Henry runs into the beautiful man again a couple weeks later, standing in the same place as last time. He’s wearing a t-shirt and jeans today with his curls combed and tamed, and is no less stunning for it (though Henry’s always been partial to curls). Today, Henry is slightly more prepared; he’s thought about—ok, fantasized about—running into the man again. This time he’s getting a name, at the very least.

“So, was it a success?” he asks as he walks up to the man. Warmth blooms in his chest at the look of recognition that takes over the man’s face, though it’s quickly followed by a furrowed brow.

“What?”

“The toy. Did your dog like it?”

“Oh. Yeah, definitely,” the man says, bobbing his head a little. “Any other suggestions?”

Henry lets his gaze skim over the toys until he sees the plush strawberry David’s been favoring lately and picks it up, but the man shakes his head apologetically. “No soft toys.”

“A penchant for shredding them apart?” Henry guesses.

“Hard to keep clean,” he says, wrinkling his nose.

“Always an important consideration for any toy,” Henry agrees sagely, only for the man to raise his eyebrows again. It seems to happen with alarming regularity. As does the way Henry’s cheeks heat. He clears his throat and picks up a rubber toy with numerous large holes punched through it. “What about something like this? You can put treats in these for a bit of a challenge.”

The man looks at the toy consideringly before taking it from Henry. “That one could work.”

“I’m Henry, by the way.”

The man opens his mouth, only to be interrupted by another employee with a brown paper bag. After accepting it, he looks back at Henry. “Well, thanks again, Henry,” he says with a little wave, leaving Henry decidedly unsatisfied with the outcome of this encounter.

~~~~~

“The toy with the holes was a hit.”

Henry turns to see the beautiful man approaching him this time. He’s already got his brown paper bag clutched in one hand this time, and his other stuffed in the pocket of his jeans.

“That’s good to hear,” Henry replies, smiling. At his feet, David starts wagging his tail, apparently having by now decided that the man is a friend. “You’re back again.”

“Turns out you have good taste in toys,” the man says, shrugging a little.

“You’re not the first person to tell me that,” Henry says without really thinking about it, and the eyebrows shoot up again. Henry coughs. “I mean, dog toys.”

He does not mean dog toys.

The man grins wickedly, like he is not fooled. “Well, be that as it may, I thought I might try my luck a third time.”

Henry thinks that it’s about time that he tried his luck, actually. “How about, you tell me your name, and I’ll give you another suggestion,” he counters.

“Oh, I wasn’t aware this toy advice came at a price.”

“Too steep for you?”

“Nah, that’s a bargain, sweetheart,” the man replies. “I’m Alex.”

“Alex,” Henry echoes softly, tasting the name on his tongue, and Alex’s lips part slightly. “And what about your dog?”

It seems to take Alex a moment to parse his question. “Oh, Miss Piggy. She came with the name. I adopted her from a friend of a friend that was trying to get rid of her.”

“That was good of you.”

Alex shrugs. “She’s low maintenance, and it’s kind of nice to talk to someone else in my empty apartment. Not that she talks back.”

Henry tries to suppress the little thrill of hope at the fact that Alex doesn’t live with anyone. “I understand,” he says. “David isn’t much of a conversationalist, but he’s an excellent listener.”

“How long have you had him?”

“Since he was a puppy.”

“So you chose the name David,” Alex says, a touch incredulously.

“I did,” Henry confirms. “It’s after Bowie.”

Alex blinks, like he’s re-evaluating something. “Oh. That’s cool.” He crouches down, which of course makes David start squirming in desire to get to Alex, but he stays sitting next to Henry’s feet. “He’s very well-behaved. Can I pet him?”

“He’d like that.”

Alex reaches a hand out to scratch behind David’s ears, which David immediately presses into, his tail thumping rapidly on the floor. “Who’s a good boy?” Alex coos, and Henry honestly counts himself lucky that Alex’s soft smile is directed at David instead of him; he might not survive it. But then Alex looks up at him in his current position practically kneeling on the floor, and Henry comes very close to shuffling off this mortal coil right then and there anyway.

“So,” Alex says as he stands again, brushing his hands off on his trousers, “what kind of toy advice do I get for my name?”

Henry very nearly suggests some quite different toy advice in response to that question, but manages to bring his brain back online at the last second. “Well,” he says, picking up a tube-shaped rubber toy, “if she liked the treat toy, then this one is a similar idea.” He holds it out to Alex, but he doesn’t let go when Alex grabs the other end. “I have another request.”

The eyebrows go again. “This is an expensive toy.”

Henry shakes his head. “Not a price. But I’d very much like to take you to dinner, if you’d be interested.”

The dimple in Alex’s cheek deepens and he drops his gaze before looking up at Henry through his eyelashes. Christ, but this man is lethal.

“I’m interested.”

~~~~~

Alex tugs Henry in by the front of his jacket as he backs up against the front door to his flat, and Henry wastes no time before sealing their mouths together again. At the end of their first date, Alex had dropped him off outside his building and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of Henry’s mouth; it had been utterly lovely, but Henry has to admit he’s very much enjoying this, the conclusion to their second date. Alex’s tongue in his mouth and the cut of his teeth, Alex’s hands grabbing onto his waist, Alex’s thigh pressing in between his.

“You wanna come in, baby?” Alex asks in the gaps between their kisses.

The endearment makes something warm settle in his gut, and he grins against Alex’s lips. “Thought you’d never ask, love.”

They stumble through the door, and despite the fact that Alex has now attached himself to Henry’s throat, Henry finds himself distracted, listening for the tell-tale sound of claws on the hardwood. Nothing comes, though. Perhaps Miss Piggy is a heavy sleeper?

“What’s wrong?” Alex asks, clearly noticing his inattention.

“Sorry,” Henry says, shaking his head. “I was expecting your dog.”

For some reason, that makes Alex look down and bite his lip, and when he finally meets Henry’s eyes again, he looks decidedly sheepish. “I, um. Don’t have a dog.”

Henry blinks at him. Opens and closes his mouth. “You don’t?”

Alex shakes his head. “No.”

“So you let me suggest you dog toys…”

“Because when a ridiculously hot guy wants to talk to you about dog toys, you talk about dog toys,” Alex says, a little helplessly.

It’s honestly hard to be anything but insanely flattered, but he still doesn’t quite understand. “So all of that about adopting Miss Piggy, and the toy reviews… it was all made up?”

“Oh, no, it wasn’t,” Alex says, nonsensically. Then he takes Henry by the hand and leads him into the living room, where there’s a terrarium set up along one wall. Amongst the water dish and a fake-rock hut, Henry spots the duck, and the toy with the holes, and the tube, which has the head and tail of a small brown-and-tan-patterned snake sticking out of one end. “Miss Piggy is a snake,” Alex tells him. “A western hognose, to be specific. Hence the name, I guess. I was in the pet store buying frozen mice for her the times I saw you. I did adopt her from a friend of a friend who didn’t want her anymore, and she does like the toys, as you can see.”

Henry bends down to get a closer look at the snake, who has big eyes and a little turned-up snout. “I never thought a snake could be cute,” he says, unaccountably and unexpectedly charmed by the small creature.

“She’s a drama queen, is what she is,” Alex says. When Henry looks at him questioningly, he explains, “When they feel threatened, they either pretend to be a viper or play dead. Turn over onto their back, tongue hanging out and everything. She hasn’t done that since right after I got her, though. I think she’s happier here.”

Alex gets a kind of soft, fond smile on his face as he talks about the snake, and Henry can’t help but be ridiculously charmed by that, too. He takes a step closer to Alex and slips his arms around his waist, pulling him in and pressing a kiss to his temple, and Alex’s smile widens.

“What was that for?” he asks.

“You care for her,” Henry says simply. “It’s endearing.”

“Of course I do,” Alex replies. “How could you not love that face?”

“Mm,” Henry hums in agreement. “I suppose this means we don’t have to worry about her waking us early in the morning to go outside.”

Alex’s eyes sparkle as he turns in Henry’s arms, looping his own around Henry’s shoulders. “You planning on spending the night, baby? What about David?”

“Is it terribly forward if I said I already arranged to have someone take care of him tonight?” Henry asks, biting his lower lip.

“Not any more than what I was gonna ask you,” Alex says, smirking as his fingers play idly with a flippy piece of Henry’s hair.

“Which is?”

“Well, y’know, I wanted some advice.” He leans in close, until his lips are brushing the angle of Henry’s jaw, and murmurs, “On a different kind of toy.”

Henry doesn’t need to be asked twice.

#rwrb #red white and blue #firstprince #rwrb fic #rwrb fanfic #firstprince fic #firstprince fanfic #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor #my fic #chamel's fandom fest

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cellarspider · 2 months

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Spider's Big Prometheus Thing: Index Post

Being a list of all the posts produced in the course of this inexplicable project of mine. This post will be updated as more entries are added, on days when I remember I made an index for these.

All entries will have at least a minimum level of citations for where to start looking for more facts on a subject. Be aware that there's also hidden rambling and bonus facts in the image alt text.

0. Introduction

Setting the scene, including my background, my intent, and where this movie is going.

1. Opening

Expectations, landscapes, and aliens.

Rambles: DNA, whether aliens would have it, and why it doesn't look like a pale bacon ladder.

Alt-text rambles: nano-bubbles.

2. Discovery

The Isle of Skye is gorgeous, the movie attempts to establish its themes, and why it had already got my hackles up. Rambles: how cool ancient and pre-modern peoples were, the implications of humanoid figures in European cave paintings, and misplaced lions. Alt-text rambles: seriously, Skye is just so cool. Erich von Däniken and modern publishing royalties are not.

3. David

We meet the loneliest android, and his fandom of choice. Rambles: I go nuts for a paragraph over Proto-Indo-European. Alt-text rambles: Help me remember a dude's name, that time Ron Perlman saw Sigourney Weaver do something so cool he forgot to act, and a Coronation Street conspiracy theory.

4. Humans (Derogatory)

We meet the human crew, and analyze why they're a mismatch to the movie's established expectations, and what subgenre they fit in most. It isn't the one the movie seems to be aiming for. Rambles: 50s B-movies and their Men Of Science, modern movies and their quietly suffering scientists. Alt-text rambles: inconsistently moist characters, Idris Elba's christmas tree decorations.

5. Pseudoarchaeology (Extremely Derogatory)

We meet Old Man Capitalism, poor logistics, and how the movie began to really lose me through dropping in some racist pseudoscience tropes. Rambles: more logistics (of alien bioengineering), historical art styles, what the world was getting up to in the 600s CE Alt-text rambles: Linguistics, more ranting, the life and extraordinarily ornate death of Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal. Rants: the existence of writing, people who don't look like you can still think, stargazing and how conspiracy theorists don't understand it.

6. Roads

Poor firearm safety with Chekhov's Gun, when movies move too fast, atmospheric chemistry, and the moment I began to yearn for blood. Rambles: First contact protocols, why 3% CO₂ won't kill you but it will make you weird, my personal experience digging up a Roman road. Alt-text rambles: the logistics of securing items in moving craft, linguistics, atmospheric science, colorblind-friendly diagram design, swearing about orology, and cursing the crew for their fictional crimes against archaeology. Rants: Why they should've stayed in orbit, and my impassioned defense of historically significant transportation infrastructure.

7. Masking

The bit that made most people realize these characters were idiots. Featuring an attempt at themes. Rambles: NASA's policies on biological contaminants Alt-text rambles: Benedict Wong having nothing to do, helmet design, driving on dusty track, the tiny overlap between archaeological horrors and Minecraft, the CDC's excellent captions on men sneezing. Rants: Nominating a man for the Heinrich Schliemann Archaeology Award, all these people are catching space covid

8. Ghosts

Comparing the Engineers to their series antecedents, and I develop a slight soft spot for the geologist. Rambles: Set design in Alien, how carbon dating works. Alt-text rambles: Adventure games, GET DOWN MISTER PRESIDENT, I get very excited for Dune: Part Two, the archival devotion of people with rare blorbos.

9. Dignity

Personal, professional, social, and media context for the treatment of people's remains. Rambles: Personal experiences around the archaeological discovery of human skeletons, professional codes of ethics, movies that handle dead bodies better by being more crass about it. Alt-text rambles: None, the main text gets full focus this time.

10. Atmosphere

How intertextual imagery is overused, how the one major character arc is developing, and a whole grab bag of miscellaneous shambolic events. Rambles: How tourist-breath can destroy artifacts, and a deleted scene Alt-text rambles: Whether explaining mysteries is always the wrong decision in fantasy, the usefulness of helmets, Mass Effect's loading screens, please someone give me more recommendations for things where Giger creatures aren't all bad, and how cultural variation in gestures can make you look like an asshole. Rants: they aren't done desecrating the dead oh boy it's just gonna get worse

11. Decontamination

How to present an audience with events that make no sense, how to do it eerily, and how Prometheus does this by accident. Rambles: NASA's Apollo 11 quarantine policies Alt-text rambles: How 2001: A Space Odyssey put on a cosmic lightshow, how traditions are faked for political and social power in Midsommar, confusing lab equipment, robot arm safety, the use of camper vans in space exploration, umarell behavior, and robot horror movies. Bonus text rambles: pressurized gas cylinder safety, and how the cargo of one truck apparently tried to join Roscosmos. Rants: Laboratory safety

12. Shocking

Mary Shelly would not be proud of them. Rambles: Which home electrical appliances their tomfoolery is equivalent to. Alt-text rambles: Semiotics and Alien, reuse of props and art department equipment, the cast's inability to look at things, how the first chestburster scene intelligently incorporated spontaneity, and I completely lose my mind over a single computer readout, finding out in the process that the Engineers are close cousins to the common house mouse. Rants: I didn't think that "don't stick electrical plugs in people's ears" would be something that needed to be said, but here we are.

13. Family Tree

A soothing ramble about some of the cool bits of my job. Rambles: How evolution has made some vertebrate blood white or green, how genomes are sequenced, and how to determine the relatedness of species. And more. A lot more. I love my job. It's so cool. Alt-text rambles: How Nickelodeon slime was made, how hecking tiny molecules are, why blue-tongued skinks have blue tongues, my review of Dune: Part Two, how hard I worked to not turn Gene Wilder into a jumpscare, lots of enthusiastic explanations of DNA sequencing techniques, the aesthetics of the machines wot do that for you, how "snip" no longer sounds like a verb to me, and how I started out as a computational scientist.

14. Cheers

David poisons a man, and how his character arc ties into christian-influenced existential dread. Rambles: series continuity, gnostic theology, Ridley Scott's beliefs. Alt-text rambles: How to ruin petri dishes, Vickers' questionably carbon-based existence, the game of Operation, hand doubles in filming, how the funniest possible misidentification of an early church figure is wandering around the internet, the cool genders of suit actors, gnostic Archons, and the Engineers as Sophia. Rants: Holloway seems unaware that archaeologists study dead people, Ridley Scott is his own biggest problem.

15. Unworthy

The movie does something I'm not going to joke about. Don't read this if you're having a bad day. Big content warning for Holocaust imagery.

16. Intimacy

Your asexual commentator grapples with Hollywood's terrible track record on romantic and sexual chemistry. Rambles: Why we don't say an archaic-looking species is "older" than another, how religious scientists do what they do Alt-text rambles: the human family tree, Abbott and Costello, pitcher plant cultivars, the creative possibilities of a Buddhist version of this movie, and Stephen Still's lack of accordions. Rants: I've never been a boyfriend but I'm pretty sure that's not how you do it

17. Threat

Prometheus takes a hard turn into old slasher movie tropes. Rambles: A movie trailer that gave Wee Spider the screaming heebies Alt-text rambles: The age rating of Prometheus, a spontaneous X-Files crossover AU, Pitch Black, how likely it may or may not be that the images in the post will get flagged, critter behavior, insufficient EVA suit design, and the content balancing I take into account when selecting screenshots. Rants: This movie does not seem to know what it is. Alt-text rants: Ditto, focusing on characterization.

18. Flames

"Mac wants the flamethrower!" Rambles: I wandered off in the middle to watch a 40k comedy video, does that count? Alt-text rambles: More content-balancing, what kind of very English critter David appears to be, dune buggy design, Star Wars: The Old Republic is worth your time, Dune: Part Two is worth your time, an extremely long ramble about integration of CG background elements, and Oblivion memes. Alt-text rants: Movie color grading and lighting, undercutting scares.

19. Stars

The movie shows how good it can be when no dialog is involved. Rambles: The movie Contact and how Prometheus could've learned from it. Alt-text rambles: How I estimate large numbers from a still image, a brief Baldur's Gate 3 appearance, the set design and staging of a room made for giants with squishy computers, the use of color to make a cohesive scene, facts about Uranus, visual intimation of threat, VFX wizardry, practical FX wizardry, Michael Fassbender's wordless acting.

20. Expectant

The movie shows how good it can be when character choice is removed from the horror. Rambles: the inspiration and place of chestbursting in Alien movies, the continuing religious symbolism in the movie, the clunky dialog, how to build or undermine tension, and the good blending of practical and CG effects, and how tiny creatures of the ocean manage to be more uncanny than horror critters. Alt-text rambles: reading details the prop department never meant for you to see. Alt-text Rants: the return of the head-exploder and the first sight of actual PPE, slowly mangling a plot point's name until it has been thoroughly folded, spindled, and mutilated.

21. Underdelivered

The movie shows how terrible it can be when horror doesn't build tension. Rambles: Contortionists in horror, hillbilly horror/hixploitation movies. Alt-text rambles: Resident Evil 7, Dead Space and "strategic dismemberment"

22. Hubris

The movie tries to do some themes again Rambles: my ineffable desire to genetically sequence ditch weeds, Left Behind Alt-text rambles: Brad Dourif's commitment to the bit in The Two Towers, nigh-invisible wheelchair product placement, the Fallout series in general and the upcoming show in particular, praise for an epic-length critique of Left Behind, Robert Zemeckis' bizarre quest to mocap everything Rants: This movie does a terrible job representing both religiosity and atheism

23. Informed

Exposition is delivered, and plot points try to knit together. Rambles: The Silent Hill movie, Pacific Rim Alt-text rambles: Pyramid Head's secret unclothed backside, demanding environmental enrichment for scientists, greebling, Tumblr's favorite shitty copper merchant Rants: What could've been done instead of an exposition dump and daddy issues Alt-text rants: these people and their interior design are tempting fate and testing my patience

24. Inscribed

I go rogue and ramble about constructed languages and cuneiform for an entire post. Guest appearances from Klingon pop music and a delightfully eccentric Assyriologist. Rambles: All of it. Alt-text rambles: the self-awareness of conlangers, fingernail length, Schleischer's Fable as a warm-up for the next section, my primary conlang derangement, speculation about whether cuneiform was legible for the blind, my beef with the cowards at Lucasfilm for refusing to use Star Wars' coolest letters, my love for Warframe's Grineer, going into far too much detail about redesigning Prometheus' Engineer script, and finally, the many crocodiles of ancient egyptian hieroglyphs. Rants: None/all of it

25. Judgement

We discuss some of what the movie doesn't. Rambles: Fiction and morality, Blade Runner, biblical allusions the story could've made and doesn't Alt-text rambles: Lance Henriksen's insane career, the paintings of John Martin and a surprise George Washington, Rutger Hauer's effect on Blade Runner, my tentative plans for the next essay series. Rants: Germs, old man makeup. Alt-text Rants: The characters are reading ahead in the script again, the half-assed Engineer writing system continues to hurt me

26. Awoken

I go bananas over PIE. Rambles: fix-it fic for this damned movie, PIE, how to avoid PIE, how to analyze PIE, and my personal alternative to PIE. Alt-text rambles: calculating how long the Engineer's overslept, their potential spiritual kinship to Moominpapa, behind the scenes photos of the suit actors, Prometheus rants in the days of LiveJournal, the game Hades, how hard it personally is to get PIE right, the linguistics nerdery of the Hittite empire, and watermarks. Rants: how the movie fails its premise and hurts my soul with linguistics

27. Shortcomings

The characters, and movie, fail to get their message across to someone bent on their destruction. Rambles: David's confused religious symbolism, Star Trek Alt-text rambles: My desire for fanfic, behind the scenes photos, what other critters the Engineer's suit actor has played, the naming of Australopithecines, crash-proofing a movie set, alien gender, Gandahar and how French animated SF in the 80s was awesome, Scorn and its expert consultation from a cenobite, and Doctor Strangelove. Rants: the assumptions of the human characters, I go from trying to be measured to actively spiting the writer for his take on thoughtful SF Alt-text Rants: Del Toro is the only one who gets me, the movie has forgotten its main character just had a major surgery, one last rant about how terribly unsafe the Prometheus was as a ship, before it becomes definitively not a ship.

28. Momentum

It's the bit where she doesn't turn. Rambles: How to fix the dumbest thing we've seen in a hot minute, Edge of Tomorrow and feeling Tom Cruise's fear, how the dead thing is never really dead in horror. Alt-text rambles: How hard it is to find the most catchy song in We Love Katamari, more behind the scenes pictures of my blorbos, Friday the 13th Part IV, bad braille, and trilobites. Rants: I mean how can you not when the movie forgets how space works? Like, the idea of 3D space as a concept? Also, a particular rock earns my ire, and my ranting about interior designs on ships finally pays off.

29. Dissonance

The ending of the movie, and its tonal incoherency. Rambles: Protagonist-centric morality and lack thereof Alt-text rambles: Star Trek TNG, green blood, caecilian teeth. Rants: shallow christian themes, sequels that could have been, Shaw's confusingly deployed robo-racism Alt-text rants: sequel disappointments, inadvisable post-caesarian activities, how the hell do you fit that much 'burster into one chest, biological plausibility in alien extend-o-mouths

30. Justification

A breakdown of a post-release interview with Ridley Scott, explaining some missing details. Rambles: Gnosticism again, Mesoamerican and European human sacrifice and the exoticization of shared cultural practices, and a hearty book recommendation. Alt-text rambles: Icelandic volcanoes, The Collector (2009), Stephen Speilberg's War of the Worlds and how scaring the shit out of someone isn't necessarily the job of a horror film, the Tollund Man, unique cultural practices, Hello Future Me, and my opinions on what we've seen of Alien: Romulus. Rants: Ancient peoples weren't stupid, an unexamined christian-centric worldview, an unexamined christian-centric worldview, I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGh

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pastafossa · 6 months

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I keep having this weird feeling. Like, Netflix DD was/is my favorite series ever. My favorite fandom. My favorite story. It has my favorite characters, arcs, dialogue, cinematography, fight scenes, themes. It's helped me process and heal from a lot of shit, thanks to how I related to Matt. In short: the amount of love I have for it knows no limits. You all know this. Obviously. So when it was abruptly canceled in 2018, I was just gutted. And sure, I joined the SaveDaredevil campaign, but in truth, I kinda thought... that was it. It was over. I remember, viscerally, that sinking feeling. I knew I'd always love it, and I'd continue to follow Charlie through his other works, but after a year or so it just felt like it was clear it wasn't coming back. I either needed to move on, or find a way to allow me to spend more time in that universe even without the show - clearly I chose the latter, ending TRT's hiatus in 2020 when I had more time to write fic. But I cannot understate how I did that with the full knowledge that DD was over.

That went on for years.

Years of nothing.

Years of a tiny fandom on life support, grimly holding onto our love with the barest of fingertips, reblogging and writing for anyone still around, including ourselves.

Years of sweet interviews where the cast would mention DD, little scraps of dopamine and nostalgia that kept us warm.

Years where there wasn't much hope, but we loved it anyway, we did, we still did, even as we understood why people moved on.

What we loved was dead, but we picnicked on its grave anyway.

If you'd told me, at any point then, that one day as we sat on that grave, Matt's hand would come bursting up through the soil right through the center of our memorial devil cookie tray, I'd have given you a whole lotta side eye. Because that's what this feels like. We laid this series to rest, and now Matt's here covered in grave dirt, and he has promptly sat down to eat our memorial cookies with us like we didn't spend years mourning his death.

It's such an odd feeling. Suddenly there are new things to buy! New appearances! New gifs! New interviews and shows and old fans coming back and new fans coming in and new fics being written, and con events and behind the scenes clips, and this whole time I'm floating in this bright haze because this was all gone, it was all dead, you were dead, I wrote for you because I missed you, because I wanted to keep you alive, and now you're here again.

I have no idea what to do with this feeling. But it makes me very, very happy.

#daredevil #pasta thoughts

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celaenaeiln · 5 months

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it’s a me a 12 am anon . my girlfriend and i had a discussion abt how odd it is that the fandom views and stereotypes the batfam like

dick is romanian and has more fem related traits and somehow it translates into him being a dumb womanizer or just an annoying mother hen?

jason grew up in the streets, i think its popular to hc him as hispanic? idk but jts odd how ppl do that and also think hes an angry heartless brute

cass gets that “badass asian dragon lady” archetype (tbh im not sure what it is but my gf is passionate abt it so like im confident she’s right)

tim?? somehow ive seen wasian hcs for him but the boy is autistic right? somehow a stereotype i see for him is like “weird and socially awkward but super smart” which . i dont think thats right .

steph is adhd right? i think? also falls into the dumb “waffles r my only personality trait” stereotype and uts just a tiny bit odd dyou see it?

damian (and by extension talia) gets done dirty a lot i think i dont .yeah

nyways sorry its been a while <3 would llve to hear ur thoughts n opinions

hey again!!

Batfam fanon is...not great. And it's things like this that remind me why I kinda avoided this fandom until I couldn't.

Dick

Dick is Romani and is canonically more feminized but the dumb womanizer thing is really getting on my nerves. First of all, he's one of the smartest characters, ever. The comforting thing about Dick is that he never loses.

The reason I love reading Dick Grayson runs is because I can read about his thought process, the way he analyzes, how he single-handedly solves crime like it's nothing.

Batman (1940) Issue #703

Secondly he's not a womanizer. He literally has a mental break down at the thought of dating or even kissing someone he isn't in love with. He's never, ever, ever going to sleep with someone he doesn't have atleast some level of romantic attraction to because he feels it's inherently wrong and canonically frowns upon that behavior when others do it.

The mother hen thing - I gotta admit is kinda accurate. He really loves his family and friends and takes care of them really well. He always makes time to sit and listen to all of them with all their problems and helps them solve it so that's fine.

Jason

The hispanic thing - what the actual heck. Literally why? Jason's "hispanic" fanon background along with Tim's "asian" background comes from a wider problem where society has become disillusioned by the same ethnicity for all characters and wants for diversity and representation in the media. I actually do believe in greater representation but not here. When people make Jason hispanic due to his street backstory, they're attempting to diversify canonically white characters but accidentally reinforcing and perpetrating damaging stereotypes about particular ethnicities. Because his background has drugs, poverty, and crime - you want Jason to be Latino? Can you possibly make things worse? And Jason being an angry heartless brute. Not even adding to the stereotype, Jason was not like that. Jason originally started off as troubled but excited kid. He was happy about fighting criminals and having a home and getting food. As he grew older, the more criminals he fought, he came to a realization that people weren't going to change which is when he started getting more violent and angry with them. He didn't do it because he was some sort of psychopath, it's because he cared a lot about the effects these criminals were having on innocent people. Because he can relate. His anger has nothing to do with his supposed "hispanic" background which is still - ?!?!? Why is this even a thing.

Cass

I don't really have anything to say about Cass being that archetype because tbh I kinda think of her like that too. She's exceptionally good at fighting, she's chinese, and she's the strong and silent type. I'd love to hear more about what your gf thinks about it though.

Tim

Again about Tim being Asian. No where near as damaging as Jason being classified Hispanic but also why? He's asian because he's smart? Because he's good at computers? C'mon the stereotype is boring. Isn't it exciting when you watch a movie or show and the Indian guy isn't an IT specialist? Or when the Chinese girl has neon highlights and loves partying? Or when the Japanese girl is rocking combat boots? The best way to appreciate diversity is actually letting ethnic characters have diverse personalities and talents. On a side note, there is not nearly enough celebration of already canonically diverse characters like Roy's navajo heritage or Jessica Cruz's latina one. Isn't it ironic how we're making racialized characters based on stereotypes because we believe there should be more diversity but ignoring canonically ethnic ones. Literally noone talks about Cass connecting to her Chinese side or the fact that she has dyslexia but we're readily jumping on the Asian Tim Drake train.

Autistic Tim Drake I can see where they're coming from because Tim sometimes has a hard time connecting to people. Like he sometimes misses social cues. And to be fair this theory actually has more credibility than some other ones because I don't know if I'd pass that off as awkwardness. But it also may be due to lack of human interaction. Tim's parents left him alone for long periods of time which he gleefully used to track robin and batman at night. I don't have a problem with this one because Tim may actually be inadvertently written as autistic at times so I guess it wouldn't be that far off canon.

Steph

People with ADHD are typically impulsive, don't focus on one thing for too long, and have a lot of energy which is very much like Steph.

Batgirl (2009) Issue #10

But mostly she just has a sense of humor. Which - like the case with Dick - because of course people can't be multifaceted, fandom generally takes for stupidity.

She's not dumb, she's just fun. I guess the waffle thing is because of human beings' pathological need to classify everything into categories and fanon likes to run with dumb blonde for Stephanie which really ticks me off. People can not be a gloomy avenger and still be smart. She solves her crimes and has a laugh while doing it and still pulling off the -

Batgirl (2009) Issue #12

Damian

Where do I start. What is even happening to him? Not in fandom necessarily but canon. What is DC doing???

#rant post #dick grayson #nightwing #jason todd #red hood #tim drake #red robin #cassandra cain #black bat #stephanie brown #batgirl #damian wayne #fanon vs canon #cl 12 am anon asks #thanks for the ask!

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lovingdabeessss · 1 year

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CAN WE- *trips and falls over literally everything* CAN WE PLEASE

Talk about just how much Yang LOVES Blake

Yang loves this girl SO MUCH she made sure she ate she made sure she relaxed and rested and was feeling ok and was sleeping regularly yangs such a caring person she would’ve done a lot of this just cause they were teammates but she FELL for her and she fell so hard and All she wanted to do with those feelings was to do nice things for Blake with the only thing in return of just being around her

And then Ad*m comes in and fucks with Blake’s head and cuts off her favorite persons arm and Blake leaves Yang in a way she KNOWS Yang will be upset about that she purposely did so Yang would h a t e she says she wants her to hate her because of self destruction and self worth issues trying to punish herself and you know what??? After all that work to get Yang to be angry with her she’s NOT

girl spent two seasons trying to turn her crippling depression about Blake leaving into anger AND FAILED Blake left her after she LoST AN ARM in an attempt to save Blake (not Blake’s fault I love u) and she fully left immediately after with no explanation no note nothing thinking she doesn’t matter to Blake that Blake doesn’t care about her at all and Yang can’t find it anywhere within her to be really truly mad at all she makes eye contact with Blake when they reunite and yangs eyes are just only full of love and surprise

Have y’all- LISTENED TO ALL THAT MATTERS??? I’m im crying I’m crying just thinking about it I AAAAA

ITS JUST A SONG ABOUT HOW BLAKE COULD DO LITERALLY ANYTHING TO HER AND SHED STILL LOVE HER AND SHES SO UPSET ABOUT IT

SHE KNOWS BLAKE IS GOING TO HURT HER AGAIN BUT SHES SO DESPERATE TO JUST BE N E A R HER THAT SHE LETS HER IN SO QUICKLY

andANDAND AND yangs very touchy-feely right? She gives a bunch of hugs and stuff?? Maybe but she like historicity NEVER lets anyone touch her really no one can touch her on her bike not even Neptune in jr’s club she hit anyone who tried to touch her that weird bandit that worked for raven couldn’t she sent him out the door bouncing

But whenever Blake touches Yang like initiates the touch her eyes are immediately like 🥺🥺🥺🥺 like she’s so SOFT it doesn’t matter the situation the barn when fighting Adam whatever she just she MELTSSS on the spot instantly even just EYE CONTACT kills her on sight locking eyes with blake belladonna brings this girl down so quickly she’d do anything she said

Blake says she’s not stoked about arresting Robyn?? You wanna commit a war crime and tell her everything because we can do that if it makes you feel even a tiny itty bit better I love you so much

She cares so much about what Blake thinks of her that when atlas is fully going to hell she goes “you think she thinks less of me🥺🥺🥺” SHES SO WORRIED ABOUT IT she just wants Blake to like her she loves her so much she’s so worried what Blake’s gonna think of her

She’s SO SHOCKED AND NERVOUS AND HESITANT AND SOFT DURING THE CONFESSION I LOVE HER SHE NEVER EVEN THOUGHT IT WAS AN ACTUAL POSSIBILITY THAT BLAKE MIGHT LIKE HER BACK A N D WANT TO BE WITH HER

It’s so late it’s now morning im so sorry rwby fandom if my words make no sense

#rwby #blake belladonna #rwby bumbleby #bumbleby #yang x blake #blake x yang #yang xiao long #rwby volume 9 #THE BEESSSSS #AAAAAAA #so many emotions

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