Can we have the 118 really come through for Tommy for something PLEASE?! Like, really thinking about things, I feel so sad for him.

Like, he was clearly pretty close to both Hen and Chim by the time he left the 118.

But then they lost touch, which happens. It's fine. But TWICE Chimney has called asking for help, and both times he immediately came through.

The second time, he was risking his life, and his job if he survived. All for a hunch that Hen had that Bobby and Athena were in danger. He didn't hesitate to help them out. (Thank you Buck for pointing this out!)

It just makes me kinda sad... So yeah, I need him to need help and for them to help out.

And this isn't anything against Chimney or Hen, people lose touch and it's not like he reached out in all that time either. And I'm sure that if he had called them needing help with something they would've come through. It's just something I've been thinking about.

i feel like we may not be happy immediately with bi buck reveal because it's probably related to tommy but to me you gotta do buck and men first and have him be comfortable with the idea of being with a man and experimenting before you get to the in depth realization of oh my god i'm in lvoe with my best friend. maybe eddie needs to have another near death experience so we can get to that juicy stuff. cause every other season one of them ends up in danger, eddie it's your turn boy.

Maybe other people won't be all that happy, but I certainly don't mind. If they do have Buck be bi, I don't care that he'll be with another man - especially if it's Buck realizing his sexuality.

I've personally always felt given who Buck is as a person it would make sense for him to "come out" to the audience by casually referencing a past boyfriend, or hooking up with men, or going to Pride with Hen - that kind of thing. And if Buck HAS been with guys before and Tommy is just the latest I don't mind that either, because either way, Eddie needs to know that's an option with Buck and Eddie can't know that's an option if the audience doesn't know it's an option. While in real life it would make sense that the characters know things about one another we the audience don't see, in a show, the audience has to know things, therefore the characters often find things out with the audience.

However if I had to bet at this point I'd say Buck will be realizing this as a new thing - given the serious conversations it looks like Buck's having with Eddie (and I think I saw others? I don't quite remember) - I think it might be that Tommy is Buck's first guy. In which case, I am delighted.

I remember feeling back in the day that Eddie needed to be with someone after Shannon and before Buck, and I feel similarly when it comes to one or both of them being queer. Eddie and Buck going from best friends to lovers will be the scariest step of their lives. They have so much to lose if it goes wrong. For Eddie and Buck to ALSO be each other's first time with a man? Even MORE terrifying. It feels only reasonable that Buck would try that with someone much more "low stakes" - someone where the relationship can be casual and there's nothing riding on it.

So while others might not be happy, I think it's great, and I don't mind at all if that's the direction the writers decide to go with it.

I wrote these three snippets ages ago, but they work :)

Pairing: Cc!Tommyinnit x Gn!reader

Flufftober 8 - Need A Hand? (Love languages)

You’re talking with Wilbur, waving your hands animatedly in the air, when you sense the shift. It's subtle, like the ripple of a breeze, but it's enough. It tells you Tommy's behind you and definitely about to hug you.

And yup, he does.

Arms snaking around your middle, head resting atop yours. He's warm, like always. You can't help but relax into him. Wilbur, Phil, Ranboo, and Tubbo are the only ones he's this touchy around. You suspect it's because of his whole "big man" shtick.

To your credit, you don’t stop talking. "-It's just bizarre! Who even does that?!"

Wilbur eyes you with amusement.

"Wankers, man." He answers. "Hey Tommy."

"Phil went to get us food." Tommy tells you two, and you can feel his words. 

It's been a long day with a lot of filming. He's probably tired and desperately wanting physical contact seeing as he couldn't be overly affectionate on camera. Which explains him right now. 

"We didn't give him our orders." You point out.

"I told him what you wanted and just hoped he knew what Wil wanted." Of course Tommy knew what you’d get. "What? Wil, why are you staring at me like that?"

To suppress your smile, you try to bite your lip. It's really unsuccessful, and Wilbur gives a small laugh.

"You're a cute couple."

If this had been Tommy at the beginning of you dating, he would've rocketed away. Probably blurt some curse words. But instead, he seems to sink further into you. At this point it must look absolutely ridiculous.

You don’t care at all.

"Next up you have to find someone to date." You tell Wilbur. "Honestly, it's quite sad that we have more game than you."

Tommy snickers. "Yeah, Wilbur. Do you need some relationship advice? Hmm? We're the masters."

"Fuck you." Wilbur bites. "You look stupid."

"And you don't?"

"I-" He starts to sputter.

"Exactly." Tommy huffs, straightening up.

Subconsciously you chase his warmth, leaning back and up just a little. Somehow Tommy notices the subtle movements and takes his spot again.

"How do you deal with him? And… this?" Wilbur asks you.

"Eh. I love it." You blurt.

"...ew." He says, turning away. "That's enough of you two for now."

When Phil comes back with all their food, Tommy's forced to unravel himself from you. 

"Cute, mate." Phil notes.

"Fuck off."

-

"You are an absolute dumbass." You deadpan, backing away from Tommy slowly.

"Who? Me?" He grins back at you, eyes sparkling.

Hell no. Without much thought to it, you turn tail and books it out of there. Within seconds his footsteps are following you, echoing loudly on the sidewalk as you both sprint through the streets of Brighton.

After a second, you realize you’ve wound yourself through the grass park. And, of course, you realize this right before Tommy tackles you and tries to murder you.

Okay, that's an overstatement. He tackled you, yes, but quite gently for Tommy. And when they went down, he made care to be the one hitting his ass on the grass.

Either way, you both get the wind knocked out of you.

"Fuck." You wheeze, rolling onto a patch he isn't occupying.

"Sorry." Is his similarly wheezing response.

Tommy regains his breath quick, leaving you struggling to intake air. Really, it's unfair how fast he regains it.

"I'm going to kill you."

"Hey! We can talk about-" he lets out a yelp when you send an elbow his way, careful it doesn't actually connect.

You move closer to him, and he cautiously tugs you so that youre resting your head on his shoulder. Perhaps with a little too much caution than your elbow warranted.

"You're okay?" He asks, somewhat sheepishly.

"Yeah, fine." You quickly answer, propping yourself up on your elbow to overlook him.

"I swear I didn't mean for us to hit the ground so hard."

"It's okay Toms, I know." 

He still looks mildly worried though, so you press a quick kiss to his lips. Before pulling back and laughing.

"What? What?!" He questions.

"You've got so much grass in your hair!"

You run a hand through it, ruffling his hair to try and get it all out.

"So do you!" He protests, ducking away from your hand.

"I make it looks fashionable, you look like you're about to transform into a blade of grass."

He gapes at you, mock-offended. "How. Fucking. Dare. You."

-

"I look fine right? This isn't stupid?" Tommy asks, frowning at his reflection in the mirror.

You sigh, walking around him to block his sight of himself. He's been staring at himself for ten minutes already, stalling the video. It was technically a prank video, making Tommy nervous as fuck.

"Yes, you look fine. It is stupid, and that's why it's perfect." You tell him.

Reaching out, you help fold and flatten his collar. He holds perfectly still for once, watching you as you fix it. 

Part of you wonders if this is how he'll look when you get married. If he'll wear a similar black tuxedo, the same white button up. He hasn't asked you to marry him yet. You aren’t sure if you care or not. You don't need a ring and some vows to establish your love for each other.

But still. Eventually, one day, you’d like to marry him.

"Perfect." You hum, stepping back. "See?"

"I feel like a kid playing dress up." He scowls.

"Because you are playing dress up, Toms. Come on, you were so excited."

"I know, I still am! Just... what if he doesn't take it well?"

"Tubbo's your best friend. Take it well or not, it'll be fine." 

Tommy nods, tugging on his suit jacket. "Okay. Let's do this."

The Claw is our master.

I've had a few folks in DMs ask me how/why/when my shipping did such a completey 180. It's a fair question. I am, after all, someone who spent the last 2 years fervently Buddie shipping, writing fic for them, doing the same hoping/analyzing/searching etc that everyone else (well...not exactly the same, I've always been skeptical of most of the theories and such because I don't believe in a production's ability to be that sneaky, covert or mischievous).

And yet, here I am. I can't really even pretend I'm still a Buddie shipper anymore. Initially I said sure, I still hope for it. I...can't in all honesty say that now. I've firmly decamped for BuckTommy Land. Is this a recipe for heartbreak if they eventually breakup? Sure, but that's always a risk. No more than shipping a non-canon pairing, anyway.

And there's nothing wrong with shipping a non-canon pairing. People do it every day. Hell, it's practically the backbone of fandom. Obsessing about ships being canon is a one-way ticket to dissatisfaction and sometimes total unraveling. I've seen it happen more times than I can count over 30 years in online fandoms.

But if that's the case, why didn't I stay on Team Buddie? Why did I defect so thoroughly that I'm at the point now where not only do I not think Buddie will ever happen, I don't want it to, because I now want to see something different from those two characters, something I believe we will actually get from the writers.

The answer to that question is: I have no idea.

People ask this like I'm somehow in control of it. I'm not. The Fandom Brain is like The Claw in Toy Story. The Claw is our Master. The Claw decided who will go and who will stay.

Fandom Brain is my master. It decides what I'm going to ship, what I'm going to be fannish about and what I'm not, and when I'm going to stop feeling fannish about something. I have zero say in the matter, I'm just along for the ride. At some point in every fandom I have ever been in, my Fandom Brain has, usually with no provocation, decided "Ok we're done with this fandom now." And nothing I can do will make that not true. I can't force it. I can't cajole it. It just is.

Similarly, Fandom Brain has decided "Welp, we're done with this pairing now. We like THIS pairing now. Proceed." Are there reasons? I'm sure there are.

Is it just that it's a canon pairing? Possibly. There is something very seductive about a canon pairing after so long of looking for crumbs and tiny hints where there (mostly) none to find. But I've shipped plenty of non-canon pairings before.

Is it that I prefer Tommy/Lou to Eddie/Ryan? Absolutely not. I love Eddie, always have. I admit to being slightly more of a Buck girlie, but that doesn't mean Eddie means nothing to me.

Is it the immediate gratification? Maybe. Is it just how the relationship's being written? Possibly. Is it just a mental adjustment for my belief that Buddie will never happen, and Eddie will always be straight? Likely. But that doesn't change the outcome.

So here I sit, just...yep. Sometimes it just be like that. I didn't choose this, it's just what my brain decided was going to work for me going forward. If this goes up in smoke, my brain will choose something else, whether it's to run back to Buddie, or be done with 9-1-1 entirely, or who knows what else?

The good news for any of you who follow my writing is that I'm still working on the next Husbros installment. That universe is removed enough from the canon that it almost feels separate to me now, and I'm still feeling connected to it. Yes, I've written a few short BT fics, but so far I've not had any lengthy or involved plot bunnies for it.

So there you have it. I didn't choose the thug life, the thug life chose me. I don't know if I'd have chosen this if I could, but tbh I'm having a pretty good time with it so far, so. That's probably a big part of the reason.

Hiiii did someone say 9-1-1 and metal???? We should be friends!!

Also please imagine Tommy singing along to Death Diviner by Soilwork

.OH!!!

Or Ice Nine Kills, and then explaining the references/films they're based on! Movie night followed by album listening party?

hi, anon! my messages are always open so please come yell at me about 911 and metal! i need more mutuals in the fandom!

ok, ok. but have you considered tommy singing along to slipknot? or black sabbath?

personally, i like to think tommy listens to mostly 80s and 90s metal bands because he was born in ‘84 (if you’re going off of lou saying they’re the same age). so like metallica, dio, black sabbath, motley crue, probably even gwar. i think he got into newer metal bands from going to festivals or shows when he could and just finding what he liked. and thats how he got into bands like slipknot and motionless in white. but yes to ice nine kills too!

i think buck listens to punk and more alternative music himself. mostly like green day, the offspring, and bad religion. cuz he’s a 90s kid.

i’m sure he’s dabbled into metal as well, probably nu metal. so i think he probably knows some of the songs in tommy’s playlists but most likely not all of them. but if did hear ice nine kills and ask about them cuz the references aren’t too hard to figure out in most of the songs (at least if you’ve seen the movie or read the book).

but also i think that buck hates horror movies. like he’ll watch the cheesy slashers, sure. the classics like the original friday the 13th or nightmare on elm street. but i don’t think he’s keen on newer horror movies, especially after he joined the 118. something about not taking his work home with him. maybe he liked them more when he was kid or teenager but he almost grew out of them when he became a firefighter. i think he feels similarly about war movies too. so ice nine kills may not be his favorite band that tommy listens too, but he still likes the music.

either way i think buck finds it extremely hot when tommy is working out to his metal playlist.

puppy dog eyes joel miller x gn!reader (fluff) synopsis: something jumps out from the bushes word count: 1k warnings: guns, dogs (please be careful when dealing with an unknown dog :D) masterlist | requests are open

    cold fall air falls on the settlement's homes, a breeze wafting through the trees. the sun begins to rise for the morning and it shines brightly on the set dew. most people are still in their homes, and yet besides the people watching the perimeter, one person is sitting on an old wooden rocking chair. you sit cross legged with a blanket cascading off of the front of it. 

  normally you don't like waking up early, but the morning hours in maria's settlement is quite a view. your head leans back against the rocking chair's backing. a soft smile rests on your lips as you listen to the rain-like sounds that come from the swaying of the trees. 

  something interrupts this calm morning, though, and it's the sound of something rustling in the bushes. you look up from the front porch and your smile instantly falls. the first thought to run through your mind is that of a stalker, hiding in the bushes to catch its next prey. 

  you slowly get up from your chair. it'd been a month since you've come across any infected. with the work that tommy and maria put into making this settlement what it is, it was easier to live life. but now your heart is racing as if it could jump out of your chest and make its way out of the area.

  your feet feel the cold wooden panels of the porch while you slowly make your way towards the front door. it creaks just enough to make the thing jump out of the bush. "holy shit!" before thinking, you yell loud enough that joel could probably hear you.

  however, before you can open the door and run in, you notice fur. large ears that appears similarly to human hair. it's wavy and a chocolate brown with white spots scattered around. it's certainly not a stalker, or any kind of infected for that matter, it's a dog. 

  a fluffy dog that you hadn't seen since the infection first took over america. he starts sniffing around, his nose close to the dirt road. when he finally looks up and sees you, his paws stay planted on the ground. much to your surprise his nose starts wiggling as he makes his way over to you. 

  "oh hello little guy," you kneel down, cautious because it wouldn't be the first time you've come across a rabid dog.

  he cocks his head, lowering his body a little as he makes his way onto the porch. the little dog moves a little closer every few seconds. your eyes search him, looking for some sign of infection (fungal or rabies). however, nothing appears out of the ordinary. no foaming at the mouth and no fungi.

  suddenly he stops, and maybe you were too focused on the dog to notice, but the door behind you opened up. joel is standing there with a shotgun positioned in his hands, his feet spread and planted on the ground. 

  "what happened?" his voice is deep and raspy from having just woken up, your head quickly turning to see him. 

  he looks over at the dog and then back at you, his eyebrows raised in confusion, "you yelled 'holy shit' cause you saw a dog? honey, i get that you haven't seen a dog in a long time but that's a little bit-"

  "i thought it was an infected, okay miller? now don't scare him off, look at how sweet he is," you swat his leg, turning back to see the dog had backed away some upon the sight of the gun. 

  you wave your arms a little bit, urging him to come to you. "joel, can you please set the gun inside? it's clearly freaked out and as you can see doesn't have rabies or anything. besides don't you like dogs?" in an attempt to convince him to calm down, you give him an award winning smile.

  he sighs, dropping his shoulders while moving the gun so that it isn't pointed at anything but the ground. joel cautiously sets it back down and rests his hands on his hips, "you're lucky i love you.."

  "oh i know," you give him a quick wink before reaching out for the dog who has quickly returned to be a couple feet from you. 

  he leans forward, getting lower and lower to the ground until he's completely flat. his nose wiggles again as your hand gets a little closer. upon sniffing the air between him and your fingers, his tail starts to wag until it's creating a small breeze. 

  you reach out and pet between his ears, his fur soft but matted in spots. he crawls forward a little more so that your hand can rest on his back. he looks up with his tongue sticking out of his mouth, panting. when you feel the small curls in his fur, it does remind you of your time before the infection.

  a pet dog, a retriever mix of some sort, that stayed with you for years. a part of you hopes he died a simple death, nothing having to do with infected individuals. maybe it would be nice to enjoy something so simple like a pet in this world. a dog who sticks it out with you. 

  "we're keeping him joel-"

  "we are not keeping him, y/n."

  "you wanna keep him too, i know you do. and i know ellie would like having a dog around too."

  "a pet? in this time? plus we already have buckley here, what if the two don't like each other? then what?" joel squats down so that he's level with you.

  you look back at him, a pleading look in your eyes. usually he can keep himself from indulging in those wonderful eyes of yours. but when he sees how your fingers run along the dog's back, or how you give him a lopsided smile to convince him of anything. even the dog was giving him puppy dog eyes.

  he purses his lips, sighing, "fine, but i'm naming him.. and it's going to be rookie."

  "rookie? i'm only agreeing to that stupid ass name because i wanna keep the dog."

We know Wanda loves Teddy (and I imagine she’d feel similarly about David, but at this point it wouldn’t shock me if Tommy’s never introduced them), but how do you think Luna would feel about Monet (assuming the relationship lasts long enough to get to the “meeting the kids stage”) and Billy and Tommy feel/felt about Jericho (I’m sure that happened off panel)?

(I just realized Monet’s sisters are probably younger than Luna because they’ve never seemed to age despite definitely being older than her when they were introduced (and Monet might be their primary caregiver, since they seem to live on Krakoa), so if you have any thoughts on that meeting feel free to share).

Billy has been on page with Jericho a few times. They've definitely met, and even though Billy has never had the opportunity to be super-involved in the magical community like Wanda, my general impression is that he knows of and respects a lot of those people.

Billy and Wanda understand each other very intuitively, and Billy was also a Big Time Wanda Fan™ before they ever met. He would support Wanda being with anyone she likes and trusts, as she obviously does with Jericho, and I imagine that he really appreciates how good this relationship is for her. Tommy, on the other hand, is just very protective, and I think that "family" is a circle that he has a hard time letting people into. It takes time for him to warm up to anybody getting close to his mother or brother-- he's very similar to Pietro that way.

Monet meeting Luna for the first time would probably be really funny, and I hope we get to see it on page someday. Monet is not disingenuous, by any measure, but she is very intentional about her presentation and she has a lot going on beneath the surface. Luna is a precocious child whose superpower is, effectively, seeing through people. Her first impressions are always right, and she's not afraid to make cutting observations. Depending on what she sees and how she voices it, she and Monet will either butt heads, or get on like a house on fire. Personally, I think Monet would appreciate Luna's intelligence and honestly, and I feel like Luna might enjoy getting to spend time around someone from a more... aristocratic background, like her.

So, I've been thinking long and hard to craft the PERFECT SBI AU in order to look very cool and neat.

... That was a blatant lie. I got this idea approximately 13 minutes ago and decided to bother you about it. Hope you don't mind!

-

I have a pet bunny. My family found him abandoned near a Post Office and promptly named him Boxy-Boy. Over the year or so that I've had this little freak(endearing,) I've noticed some really cool facts about bunnies! One being that they are crepuscular.

I feel like it would be an interesting idea to somehow have this effect OSMP!Techno. Maybe he tries to alter his natural sleep schedule in order to be around the other origins more often.

This idea led me down an, honestly, very interesting progression of Google searches. Initially, I was under the impression that avians were diurnal. If they were, I'd talk about bunnyblade staying up too late in order to be around Tommy and Philza. But this idea wouldn't be all that effective because similarly to rabbits, they like the morning.

But the more I type this, I realize this wouldn't JUST effect Techno. If bees are most active around the afternoon, how would Tubbo see Tommy, the chicken bird guy, who is up early morning? How about Niki, who is a fish and is probably awake during midday, (when the water is warmer,) hang out with Wil? Phantoms are nocturnal... AA-

Okay. Okay, I need to breathe. I'm digging a rabbit hole so deep rabbit hybrid Techno is jealous.

Sorry for the long ask, though... Hopefully nobody has sent you anything similar to this, I'd feel pretty bad for wasting your time.

...

What about bird migration?

Wait. Wait. Wait.

Human Techno has a messed-up sleep schedule in order to be around the other origins, and the other origins have to have an intervention to protect the only human in their RANKS.

I need to sleep. Thanks for reading.

When somebody talks to me about just a guy human!techno on the osmp I get so giddy it's like:

And YES, this is a lovely little idea. I feel like Techno would be the guy who would want to maximize time awake with his friends. He wakes up at the crack of dawn and then forces himself to stay awake until past midnight and that goes well for about a week before it starts literally making him sick and the other Origins people have to stage an intervention.

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

The lovely @crestfallercanyon tagged me for this weeks ago, and I haven't been ignoring it - I just didn't get around to it sooner. Sorry!

How many works do you have on AO3? 380 (382, technically, because two are still anon/unrevealed exchange works.)

What’s your total A03 word count? 1,123,214

What fandoms do you write for? Currently, mostly DCU, The Flash and a bunch of tiny fandoms, but I've been writing fanfic for ages, so I went through quite a few fandoms.

What are your top five fics by kudos?

a) cut me open, take my heart (DCU, JayTim, 1744 kudos) b) A Bird in the Hand (DCU, Dickstroke, 1694 kudos) c) Hook(er), Line and Sinker (The Flash, Coldflash, 1586 kudos) d) No Shortage of Blood (Original Works, Starving Vampire/Vampire Hunter Having A Moral Crisis, 1453 kudos) e) Portrait of the Artist as a Middle-Aged Man (Gossip Girl, Dan/Blair/Chuck, 1149 kudos)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I always try to, but sometimes it takes a while to get around to it. /o\

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I have no idea. I used to write a lot of angsty stuff back when I was younger but the older I get the more I gravitate towards fics that leave the characters in a... well, maybe not necessarily in a good place exactly, because I tend to ship a lot of dysfunctional ships and write unhealthy relationship dynamics, but I don't want the characters to feel hopeless and unhappy in the end, so even when they're in a bad situation, they're making the best out of it.

A very old, very angsty fic of mine is Too Close To Touch (Harry Potter, various permutations of Draco, Harry and Hermione). I don't know if it's the angstiest overall, but it occasionally still gets comments so it's fresh in my mind despite having been written almost two decades ago.

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh no, this is similarly hard to answer. Maybe Throw Away the Plan (The Flash, Coldwestallen)? Most of my endings seem to be "the main conflict of the story is dealt with, the ship kisses and things are okay-ish for now". 🙃

Do you get hate on your fic? Maybe once or twice, but nothing dramatic or memorable, luckily enough.

Do you write smut? Sometimes.

Do you write crossovers? No.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yes! Someone copied a few of my fics word by word, replaced the names and posted them as Kpop RPS. D: D: D: I got the author to take them down, but they did it with a lot of people's fics and eventually AO3 banned them.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes, a few! I blanket allow translations, as long as they're credited properly and not posted anywhere but AO3.

Have you ever co-written a fic? Yes, but it was a really long time ago, and coordinating was pretty stressful. I prefer to work on my own schedule.

What‘s your all-time favourite ship? Noooo, don't make me choose. I love so many ships! If I absolutely had to pick one, it would be Tommy/Bubonic from Eye Candy, but it mostly depends on what I'm in the mood for right in that moment.

What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? There's Coldflash BDSM fic based on a long-forgotten Tumblr prompt I would have loved to write one day, but it would be far longer than anything I'm comfortable writing and it's only 'in progress' in so far that I have a few dialogue snippets from it written down yet.

What’s your writing strengths? Character voices and snappy banter, probably.

What’s your writing weaknesses? Plot!!!! As you can see by every fic I've written where the characters get captured or attacked by some nameless villain for nebulous reasons. I always handwave stuff like that because I simply can't bring myself to care about it or put any thought into it. 😅 Sorry!

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? As a reader, It always throws me out of the story. :(

First fandom you wrote for? The X-Files! Mulder/Krycek was teenage Sandrine's first fanfic obsession. (Though technically, I wrote terrible Star Wars and The Three Musketeers fic long before I knew what fanfic was! But I've decided that doesn't count. 😅)

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

(never been) so much at stake (OW, Vampire Moonlighting As A Barista/Exhausted Vampire Hunter In Search Of Caffeine) is probably the best, but The Biggest Score of All (The Flash, Coldflash) has my heart!

I'm supposed to tag people here, and I'm terrible at this, so @waysheswings, @sunherirai, @moriavis, @zeroducks-2, @hithelleth, @elasticella - if you want to do this, consider yourself tagged and if you want to ignore it, pretend I never mentioned your name. And anyone else who sees this and wants to answer, you're also tagged! Yes, I mean YOU. :D

i have the sudden desire to write an ellie/tommy bonding fic like i dont have a spreadsheet full of stories to write/finish first rip

just. tommy man. emotionally open (at least compared to joel), similarly traumatized, and probably longing for the chance to be an uncle again. he watches joel and ellie for two hours together and then decides that yep, his brother adopted this kid, they're bonded like two feral cats, and he has to make sure they don't scratch anyone who comes to close to death.

once ellie trusts him it's pretty much over for joel, tommy tells her all the embarrassing stories joel would never share, they bully him endlessly every time they're in the same room, and ellie feels an even deeper sense of belonging than before.

i feel like tommy would also be her go-to for things she is scared to talk to joel about (because if tommy hates her or doesnt like her she can cope but joel? nope. better check tommy's reaction first) or just stuff she doesn't want him to know but needs help with.

also ellie is incredibly physically affectionate with the people she likes and the second tommy lets her invade his personal space she claims it as her own, not as fully as she does with joel, but well enough for maria to find her napping with tommy on the couch after he showed her a movie joel didnt want her to see (probably some horror/gore/slasher thriller bc she might have grown up in the apocalypse but hell movie ratings still mean something, right?)

just. let tommy be an uncle. i need more of him and ellie bonding thats it thats the whole post. i have a vision and i need to fulfill it.

it's really frustrating how common it is for fics to include steve having been attracted to b*lly as if it's a given when (imo) it's v obvious that any attraction there was one-sided. like b*lly was p obsessed w steve (and that one showers scene is certainly something🙃) but steve always just looks irritated by b*lly or baffled by how much of a dick he is (thinking specifically of that scene where he offers steve a hand up on the court and steve has such a 'wtf' look on his face lol). like we've seen how steve acts around ppl he's into so i don't understand how his constant irritation at even being around b*lly plus his monotone, bitchy comments (like that time he asked b*lly if he was dropped on his head as a child) reads as anything other than steve disliking b*lly. also i wanted to clarify i'm not talking about h*rringrove shippers w this - this pops up constantly untagged in any fic where steve is queer/bi/etc from ppl who (from what i can tell) do not actively ship them. also also all of this analysis is restricted specifically to pre-b*lly's racist ass trying to attack lucas bc anyone that genuinely thinks steve could have been attracted to b*lly after that does not even remotely understand steve's character imo. maybe this is just the natural result of h*rringrove being the predominant steve ship for so long but if all you want is a cheap joke about steve having bad taste in men just say he had a crush on tommy, it would make more sense. this becomes doubly annoying when ppl contrast this w nancy as an example of his good taste in women when we all know how she ended up treating him. i've also seen ppl do this w steve being into jonathan w no effort at setting up them actually interacting substantially which similarly makes no sense to me but it annoys me less bc i like stonathan.

i can definitely see the argument for billy having some sort of feelings for steve, because he is fucking weird around him and oddly obsessed.

but yeah, i don’t see in canon any evidence for steve reciprocating, he kind of always looks like his goal is to be anywhere else.

and it’s weird to just use it as some kind of evidence that steve’s been attracted to boys before, it’d probably be easier to just make some guy up. but like, even if steve thought billy was hot, i think that feeling went away after he beat him unconscious.

i love stonathan, but they definitely require more set up than most people feel like putting the effort in for.

i feel like so many steddie ‘tropes’ are just ways of making fun of steve for no fucking reason. like, they make up a list of men that steve was attracted to, solely so they can mock that taste in men. it just doesn’t make sense.

hi, i hope ur doing well, and that the new year has been kind to you! i remember i saw you come up on my fyp once and i in a mad dash read like half your steve masterlist in one go, and then every few months i'll have the urge to read through all your stuff again, which i do because it's always such a nice experience. my personal favourite is "nobody gets me, you do", because i really love the idea of finding your way back to this person you loved and trusted as a friend and then building something with them when you've come back together, though i also really like "come back to me" because i watched she's too that too many times. I was wondering if that was a series of blurbs/shorter fics you wrote, or if those fics are chapters in a story, or just two versions of a similar concept? and also i was wondering if u were planning on doing anymore (though obviously no worries if not!)? hope you have a nice day!

hi, sweets!! ♥️ 🙈 two weeks in and it's been okay so far, but i'm deffo wearing my seatbelt. really hoping to get more time this year to write 😩

i came up on your FYP?? ahhh, that's so cool! and omg stop it, being someone's comfort fics is like my dream 😭 tearing up over here. i'm so so glad you love reading my things, that's why i write, i just want to connect with people and give them something to escape in!

oh man, those two fics are a couple of my absolute favorites, here's a lil breakdown on both:

💥 NOBODY GETS ME, YOU DO • this is probably my biggest fic in my brain right now that would ideally be posted all in one post ( similarly to @upsidedownwithsteve's camp fics if you've read those! ), but i just haven't had the time to sit and write out the whole story arc and i don't want it to die down like something infinite did. but i love this too with the initial bond, thinking you need something else ( or something 'bigger' – some separation or distance ), and then the slow realization of what's been there all along. i also really love the friction between steve and tommy and really want to dig into / explore that more too. anyway, this'll come someday i hope <3

🦇 COME BACK TO ME • this one was SO FUN. it was a request from the very lovely @carinacassiopeiae – basically king steve making reader fall in love with him on a dare ( a la she's all that FOR SURE ), but wanted more drama and insertion of the upside down universe / higher stakes and that was incredibly fun to write ( dustin cameo and all! ). i really love digging into king steve and that era because it feels so much more complicated and intricate and REAL – makes steve feel human – and unpacking all of his trauma and why he hangs out with these people and how that translates into his other relationships. anyway i could write a LITERAL thesis on this 😵‍💫

okay, but SERIOUSLYYYY, thank you so much for writing this note 😩 i love when people ask me about my writing and want to know more about the process. would you read more from both of these?? or which one feels like you're connecting most with? i would love to expand these universes and give you more ♥️

hope you had a wonderful weekend, bb!!! appreciate you so much! xoxo

Then there’s what everyone else thinks is happening. Let’s start with Sam. He thinks it’s just an exercise to see how his heir think. A way to be pushed to pick an heir or an idea from Techno to help him make up his mind. Tomys comes out the best. Sam probably doesn’t notice that Phil set it up this way. Both of them are narrative foils or like parallels. Both in Stubbornness in listening to other people (Phil and Wilbur respectively). Probably also in personality. Idk I get the feeling that Sam is very fond of Tomys because the kid remind him of his younger self, aka he’s a vague idea of what the kid Sam never had could have been like.

Anyway, depending on how much Techno knows about his students (and he definitely knows about Niki) it!s set up to make the other two look bad. Tomys then looks good. Sam now feels like his decision to bring in a new potential heir has been justified and might stop pushing back against Phil as much. Similarly, now that Tomys is proven to be a decent option and a more favourable future for Wilbur, Phil can start sorta pushing that by manipulating Sam via playing into his ego and how good of a decision it was.

Niki and Quackity might think Wilbur had something to do with it since, at first, it seems like the perfect opportunity to show off their skills while Tomys makes a fool out of himself. Wilbur is there and this is literally what they talked about at the meeting and what Schlatt tried to goat him into.

But then both Quackity and Niki “mess up” (by Phil’s standards) and Tomys comes up out well. While this doesn’t incriminated Wilbur perce. It does make him look like he knew about it and didn’t warn them before hand (even though they might be away he had no option to do so. Either way, everyone always seems to assume he knows everything, which makes it interesting when he doesn’t and I can’t wait to see that play out more. Wilbur not knowing about something while his friends accuse him of doing would be very good angst.

Anyway, I wonder if Niki thinks he knew and is lying / keeping things from her again. [Across the table, Niki’s expression darkened. Wilbur didn’t notice it.] I’m eyeing this. There’s a lot of reasons for he being upset. It probably has to do with Sam smiling at Tomys which proves the kid ‘won’. It’s not necessarily directed at Wilbur, but it probably,y still has consequences for him. She does still look to him to try and see how badly she messed up. She assumes he knows.

(2/3)

-🌲

sam definitely has a soft spot for tomys. it's partly because he's the youngest and sam gives him a lot of leeway for his behavior as a result. he's also older now than he was when niki and quackity were children at the palace (not by much but yknow), and in my mind sam's the kind of guy who gets nicer and more fond of kids the older he gets. and like you pointed out, he sees some of himself in tommy, whereas he never saw much of himself in niki or quackity.

like I said in the previous ask, it wasn't necessarily designed to make quackity and niki look bad but rather just compare the three of them side by side. but then phil was able to take advantage of the answers and twist them to make tommy look like the best option out of the three of them.

while the whole situation definitely doesn't make wilbur look good, I think in this scenario both niki and quackity recognize wilbur probably would've warned them if he had the opportunity. it's not a strict test per se, and yes it looks bad but it's not a huge huge deal. and I will say, niki's darkening expression was not directed at wilbur.

I like where your head is at though!! I love seeing you analyze all the minute bits of these interactions it's so fun for me

foxy, your one fanart made me think of this: how do you think it would go if max + billy and the berman sisters 'verse swapped? like how do you think the story would go for max and billy in the fear street 'verse? what about the berman sisters in the strange things 'verse? what do you think these scenarios would look like? do you think any larger story plots would be effected?

Hello, friend! I have to admit that I had to rewatch the Fear Street movies, so I could paint an at least fairly accurate picture of the scenarios. That's why it took me this long to answer.

Max & Billy (with the same household they have in ST) in the Fear Street universe:

I feel like Max would be a lot like Ziggy in Ziggy's situation (being bullied and all). Billy on the other hand would be almost nothing like Cindy, of course. He wouldn't be there at the camp to help out at home with the money (he's saving up to leave), and he wouldn't be as earnest to do a good job either (he would maybe enjoy giving swimming lessons, tossing people in the lake etc.), he would bully someone else to clean the toilets for example. Their relationship would be just as complicated as in ST, and Billy would pressure Max to behave, just like Cindy with Ziggy, but for slightly different reasons (to save both of them from Neil's anger, and also to keep his job so he could leave). He wouldn't be happy about Nick hanging around Max and he would let them know.

When it comes to the plot, in my mind it could go two ways:

Billy wouldn't be that interested in investigating a stupid urban legend about some witch. His lover of course still would turn into a possessed killer, Billy would kill him (just like Cindy killed Tommy) to save Max. But since the investigation never happened, Max never bled on the hand and became the target like Ziggy, I feel like Billy would just grab a hold of Max and drag her as far away from the camp as he could. And that's it. They would be a bit closer after that, but without the melodrama. They could both help the 90's group to stop the "curse" as grown-ups.

If they would investigate, things would go very similarly. I feel like the ending would be the same, too, because it wouldn't really matter how hard Billy would fight those "ghosts", they would eventually overpower him and wouldn't stop until they would kill Max. Max would be just as devastated to lose him there as she was in ST, but I feel like the "no one believes me" aspect would put a spin on it for her, too, just like it did with Ziggy.

Ziggy & Cindy in the Stranger Things universe:

Cindy is a bit like Nancy. I just tossed that in, it'll come up later. I feel like Ziggy would act out less in this more relaxed scenario (where they don't bully her, she's just the new, slightly weird girl). So she's a lot like Max. Cindy would fit in with the popular crowd and wouldn't really have to try hard. She would probably get a love interest (unlike Billy). Ziggy's and Cindy's relationship would be more like Mike's and Nancy's than Max's and Billy's. Ziggy would be just annoyed that Cindy would try to act like her mom, get her to act more girly and acceptable, but they would generally get along. There would be too much responsibility put on Cindy to care for Ziggy because of their mother's drinking problem, but I think things would get better as the things with the supernatural would get worse. If Cindy were the one to go and investigate where Ziggy is (in s02 when the Billy and Steve fight happens) she would probably be filled in on the upside down stuff. That also means that she would most probably tell them that something was wrong with her when she would get possessed. And they would have a better chance at getting the thing out of her. Ziggy would be more eager (adamant might be a better word) to save her than Max was with Billy. Things of course could go just as bad as it went with Billy, so she could die. In that case Ziggy would be a mess, but not exactly like in her universe, because at least she would be believed by some people in the ST universe. I feel like she wouldn't be as depressed as Max was in this universe because Ziggy had a less complicated relationship with her sibling. If we would swap their families/households, too, I think things would go a lot like they did in canon.

I hope this makes sense. Thank you for the ask! I loved going through these ideas.

Tom Hiddleston and Lily James Talk Justice for Pamela Anderson and Why Loki Works so Well on TV

For “Downton Abbey” alum Lily James, 2022 has been a year of glamour and drama. She took on the role of Pamela Anderson in Hulu’s “Pam & Tommy,” which looked sympathetically at Anderson’s attempt to be taken seriously. Tom Hiddleston’s work is similarly multifaceted in “Loki,” where he plays Marvel’s trickster god, who’s gone from “Avengers” villain to lead of his own Disney+ series; Hiddleston also stars in Apple TV+ historical drama “The Essex Serpent.”

TOM HIDDLESTON: I thought your work was extraordinary. Taking on a real person feels like an enormous responsibility.

LILY JAMES: It’s terrifying, isn’t it?

HIDDLESTON: You want to honor and respect and —

JAMES: I felt like if I came at it with heart, and a total desire to be honest, that was all I could do. I don’t know if I’d do it again anytime soon. I felt that desire to do her justice.

HIDDLESTON: Where do you begin with becoming Pamela Anderson?

JAMES: I just had pictures of Pamela everywhere. And then I had these prosthetic boobs and forehead. It took four hours every day. And during that time, I had a montage of her interviews from the ’90s, and I would learn it like a song. The pitch and the rhythm. She speaks really, really fast. I stayed in her the whole time.

HIDDLESTON: People on the crew, did they ever get to know Lily James?

JAMES: I don’t think so. Nor Sebastian Stan. We really didn’t get to know each other till we started doing press. And the days were so long, 18 hours or so. I find that the Americans are worse with long days than us. I found that so hard. How has that been with you and “Loki”? It was probably long days, getting into him.

HIDDLESTON: Loki’s changed so much over the years for me. I was cast when I was 29, and I’m 41.

JAMES: Credit to you for having let him emerge and grow and shift.

HIDDLESTON: Initially, with the wigs and the costume, I was always trying to break out of the mask. Let something honest come through. By the time we got to the series, Loki’s stripped of all the things that are familiar. Immediately, he’s literally stripped and put in a jumpsuit, and his status is gone. Everyone knows who the character is now. Let’s open him up and find new aspects of him and challenge the character to change and grow.

JAMES: I was reading, which is so exciting, that Loki is the first queer Marvel character.

HIDDLESTON: In the MCU. Back from my early days of researching the character in myths, the identity of Loki was fluid in every aspect. In gender, in sexuality. It’s an ancient part of the character, and it hadn’t emerged in the stories we’ve told. It’s a small step. There’s so much more to do. But the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to reflect the world we live in. Extraordinary character, in a way, to contain so much.

JAMES: I got to watch “The Essex Serpent.” I want to know about that first meeting with Claire Danes.

HIDDLESTON: There is a meeting between my character and Claire Danes’ character, and it’s kind of unusual. It’s 1893 and she’s out on the Essex coast digging around for fossils. She runs into this very faithful and God-fearing community, and I play the pastor.

JAMES: The landscape, it’s so beautiful and atmospheric. Why did you want to do that job?

HIDDLESTON: It seemed very romantic in an old-fashioned way, and yet really earthbound. I just wanted to jump in.

JAMES: Obviously, it’s very different from “Loki.” Is that a purposeful choice you make?

HIDDLESTON: It couldn’t be more different. I read it towards the end of making “Loki.” These characters are all struggling because it’s a time of enormous change. The age of reason is coming, and religion is going to diminish. It’s a psychological, poetic piece, and I loved making it, out on the marshes in Essex.

JAMES: When you are somewhere real and you are out there in the landscape, even if you are freezing cold …

HIDDLESTON: You put up with it. With Claire, I would be a weatherman. I kept pitching that spring was coming, and that U.K. weather wasn’t always this bad.

JAMES: “It’s going to be nice!”

HIDDLESTON: So every day, we’re like, “I know it’s cold and it’s quite wet today, but next week, just you wait.”

JAMES: But you wouldn’t really have wanted the sun. Something feels so brooding and troubling. And if the sun had shone through the clouds, it might have slightly ruined the temperature.

HIDDLESTON: There was one amazing day where the sky and the beach were the same color gray. Claire and I were walking towards the tide, and I said to her, “This is like walking into a Rothko painting.” It was like being on the moon. I couldn’t believe it was England.

Thoughts on Steve in Stranger Things Season 1

Now similar to practically everyone who watches Stranger Things post Season 1, I think Steve Harrington is a great character that has gone through a fantastic arc and in particular his relationships with Robin and Dustin are two of the best friendships in the show. In fact he and Dustin are the second best sibling type relationship on the show after Jonathan and Will. I do have some issues with basically any of his romance as the popularity of him with Billy and Eddie confuse me beyond he’s Steve and he’s popular. But what I wanted to post about was his portrayal in the show’s first season because I feel that a lot of Steve’s fans from the later seasons have gone back to the first season and have whitewashed some of his actions. Now not to say that Steve is that bad in Season 1 but I think the idea that he was always a good guy is wrong. Now most of Steve’s early stuff is regular stereotypical douchebag stuff that I don’t have too much of an issue with even if I don’t think he’s much aside from a douche at first. Like for example, him being a little too pushy with Nancy when he helps her study and we see he has other things on his mind. Like I will call some of this douchey behavior but not too bad behavior since he does back off. Similarly when he shows more concern about being caught underage drinking than Barb missing. I don’t have too much of an issue here either since Steve doesn’t know what we the audience know but if I was in Nancy’s shoes I would still be annoyed by this too, and he still has skewed priorities. Next, we have breaking the camera. Even for someone who loves Jonathan and has Jancy as their ST OTP, I don’t have any real issue with breaking the camera and the confrontation over the pictures. What Jonathan did was wrong and he deserved some punishment for it. While I wouldn’t call it stalking since Jonathan didn’t intentionally seek Nancy or anyone else at the party out to do what he did it was still wrong and Steve did buy a new camera. The real issues I have with Steve both come in the alley scene. The first thing is the public slut shaming that Nancy undergoes since Steve got the wrong idea. The kind that would have probably stuck on Nancy’s reputation a lot more if this wasn’t a show. What annoys me so much about the way that Steve’s fans response to this is the argument “His friends were the ones who sprayed it and Steve helped take it down afterward”. I hate this argument for the main reason that even if Steve didn’t spray paint the words themselves, he is there when they are doing the second message about Jonathan. He was definitely there when it happened and condoned it. Not saying this is unforgivable after all he’s young and angry and people do dumb stuff when they have that combination but also it is no excuse either and him offering to clean it up while the start of his redemption doesn’t really excuse it either. Letting a friend do something bad and feeling bad afterwards is still a sign that you did something bad. Also what he says to Jonathan that sparks their fight, I will give Steve a point here in that he makes Tommy back off so that the fight will be fair and that is where it ends. What he says to Jonathan is really cruel, cruel insults about his family, cruel insults comparing Jonathan to his awful father, cruel comparisons about Jonathan’s loving mom and of course cruelly insulting Jonathan’s little brother, who while still alive to Steve died only a week ago. I don’t think it’s okay to say stuff like that even if you think the guy you’re saying it to is sleeping with your girlfriend. Once again obviously not unforgivable but still wrong no matter the reason for it and Steve recognized it but a lot of his fans seem to forget that Steve realized it was wrong. Well that got away from me, to summarize, Steve Harrington is a great character but it sometimes annoys me how some of his fans basically try to say he wasn’t a jerk in Season 1 since he was a jerk and him being a jerk is what helps with his arc.