I Think “Mastermind” Could Have Been A Stronger Episode If The Trial Focused On The Fact That Stolas’

Another "Guess that Artist" game in Haunting Heroes discord server. This time drawing fanarts for fics with less than 10k hits on ao3.

I chose amazing IRIS Log #1548 by @deadchannelradio!

Love this fic. "As buddies" got me. Hilarious and absolutely worth reading and then rereading twice. Or trice.

@arzuera thanks or hosting the game! @serxeri thanks for tormenting me! i won tho.

Spoke to a gen z person the other night and apparently the young folks don't know about the very legal sites from which you can access public domain media (including Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and other Victorian gothic horror stories)?

Like this young person didn't even know about goddamn Gutenberg which is a SHAME. I linked to it and they went "aw yiss time to do a theft" and I was like "I mean yo ho ho and all that, sure, but. you know gutenberg is entirely legal, right?"

Anyway I'm gonna put this in a few Choice Tags (sorry dracula fans I DID mention it though so it's fair game) and then put some Cool Links in a reblog so this post will still show UP in said tags lmao.

Anybody else ever think about how convenient it was that Micah, Scorpia, and Mermista were chipped in S5? You know, before the Best Friend Squad, Best Girl Entrapta, and Catra landed back on Etheria?

No seriously, how CONVENIENT that it was those three specifically that couldn’t interact freely one-on-one with Catra once she, the Best Friend Squad, and Best Girl Entrapta touched back down on Etheria. Catra caused Angella to be trapped between two dimensions, treated Scorpia like sh*t, and conquered Mermista’s kingdom. And yet Micah and Mermista never got to interact with her, and Scorpia just seemed to insta-forgive at the end of S5. Well, that’s not TOTALLY true, after being de-chipped Mermista looks around and sees Hordak and Catra and is like “So we’re just ok with this?”. The most reasonable question EVER.

So much was lost because Catra was not able to properly interact with these three (not to mention Glimmer only got to really interact with the father she lost at a young age RIGHT at the end). We see Catra apologizing to both Adora and Entrapta (not GOOD apologies where she acknowledges all she’s done against them and sincere remorse for her actions, but apologies nonetheless), but she never really does this with anybody else. She kind of tries with a chipped Scorpia, but the latter is chipped so that doesn’t go anywhere, and by the end she never even finished he apology before Scorpia hugged her.

No complicated feelings, no confrontations, no visible grudges being held (except for Perfuma in that one episode). But why, you ask, am I insisting upon this? Catra still apologized, or at least tried to, in Adora, Entrapta, and Scorpia’s cases. She doesn’t even really know Micah and Mermista anyway!

That’s kind of the point.

Catra only tries to apologize to those who she personally knew, she doesn’t actually acknowledge to harm she’s done to people outside of them. She never apologized for Angella, never apologized to Bow for all the things she did to him, heck she didn’t even try to apologize to Frosta for “ruining Princess Prom”. She just let Adora tell the others that she jumped sides and that she was cool now. And nobody really batted an eye (except for Perfuma in that one episode). Part of why Catra’s so-called redemption arcs sucks is because she’s barely made to really be confronted with all the bad she’s done, and try to atone for it.

Because she hurt EVERYBODY in the Princess Alliance in some way, and she doesn’t even offer a small apology? I know why Mermista and Micah especially were chipped, it’s because those two could hold a GRUDGE. We saw it with Mermista and Entrapta, and we saw it when Micah just glared at Shadow Weaver when he was saved by her. But of course, Catra’s “redemption arc” mostly revolves around ADORA, as does everything with her, especially because Catradora was shoved into S5 and they were sprinting to make that goal. You know, despite how that goal made no narrative sense, especially because before S5 Adora didn’t seem to have any romantic feelings for Catra, but that’s something for another time.

Anyway, Catra was barely made to acknowledge any wrong she had done to the supposed love of her life and the only two allies she had in the Horde. So it really doesn’t surprise me that she wasn’t made to acknowledge the wrong she did to everybody else (except Shadow Weaver, Catra didn’t have anything to apologize about there) by the writers. Catra was handled with kid gloves, and meanwhile Entrapta did NOT get that luxury.

I’m not saying Entrapta didn’t do anything wrong, but geez did the princesses hold more of a grudge for her than Catra. With some ableism splashed in there too, yikes. And yet, Entrapta actually worked on herself and did her best to atone. She risked her safety trying to get the location of Horde Prime’s ship, she tried to be more sensitive to other’s feelings. She fixed Mara’s ship so they could travel to space, she found a way to de-program the chips, she even visibly reined in her love and fascination for tech in order to get those chips off. Meanwhile, what did Catra do that showed that she was making a change to the Rebelion? To prove she was trying to atone?

The most she does is let them slip by without detection from HP’s forces, and that’s not even her doing, it’s MELOG’S!

Tl;Dr: Catra’s redemption was hastily done and poorly written. Nowhere can that be more found than the fact Micah, Scorpia, and Mermista were not able to confront her with their grievances and make her realize the affects she had on other people BESIDES those in her personal life

A drawing I did of Adora back in January

Banished

jason todd x fem!reader

aka jason misses his girlfriend

warnings: extremely mild angst, he’s just mopey (he’s fine)

Jason sits slumped over the kitchen island, head lying in his crossed arms. His now soggy cereal disregarded after barely a few bites.

Dick’s been rummaging through the cabinets for the better part of twenty minutes while Tim has sat atop of the nook table shoving donuts in his mouth for the better part of thirty.

Damian trudges into the room, past them and onto the nook bench, taking out a knife and beginning to whittle away at a block of wood.

He glances at Jason with a scowl. “If you’re going to be so miserable, can’t you do it in your own home?”

Jason just grunts.

He wishes. You and Bruce had conspired to trap him at the mansion for the week so he could heal from injuries sustained during the last mission without risk of him suiting up and sneaking away from you in the middle of the night.

But it’s not even the fact that he’s basically being babysat that’s got him so disgruntled. He secretly wouldn’t really mind it at all if you were here too. But you were dead set that the manor was too far out of your way for work, so you’d stayed behind. A lose-lose for Jason.

“He’s just mad his girlfriend kicked him out,” Dick teases, swiping through the fridge.

Tim snorts from the doorway, “Me too. He’s a lot more depressing on his own.”

Jason keeps his head down as he blindly reaches for the spoon in his cereal and chucks it at Tim’s head.

Tim catches it without thought, continuing, “A lot more irritable, at least. Why isn’t she here?”

“She’s gotta work,” Dick says, scanning through the pantry.

Damian peeps his head up from his project. “But Todd has a rather large supply of less than legally obtained money, does he not?”

“Yeah, but she said she wants to pay her own rent, I think,” Dicks hums, finally giving up on his quest for a snack.

Damian pauses.

“So she wants to live in a tiny apartment?” He asks, a mixture of confused and horrified.

“Watch your mouth,” Jason mumbles.

“It was a genuine question!” Damian protests, face screwed up.

Jason finally lifts his head up, turning to his little brother with a raised brows. “And I’m genuinely going to break your nose.”

It’s an empty threat, maybe. But it was enough to shut Damian up anyways. Jason turns back to his cereal and swishes the bowl around.

Dick rests his arms on the counter across from Jason and speaks lowly. “You know, it is just a few days. She’s coming back.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Jason was never one for showing his feelings—let alone talking about them.

He misses you, plain and simple. Dick could see that much clearly, though the longing looked unfamiliar on Jason.

Bruce lingers in the hallway, just past the island, listening.

He’ll admit (to himself) that he’s worried about Jason. It’s been three days and Jason has yet to show a crack in this demeanor. And while it’s not uncommon for him to stow himself away, there is something quite wrong with the way he hasn’t countered his brother’s jabs at him or teased them.

And while he could do without the blatant threats, he’s proud to hear his son defending his girlfriend, even over trivial things. It’s one of the few moments where he feels like he did right by him as a father.

And now here’s his son, caring about someone else more than he cares about himself. Someone who’s a good person, no less. It had been your idea to trick Jason into staying at the manor, you were scared that he would push his body past its limit when you couldn’t do anything to help.

Bruce knew you didn’t feel great about basically banishing him for the week but he could see that you just wanted what was best for Jason. He could see it so clearly. Maybe Bruce could never have been a perfect father, could never have given his son everything he needed despite having more money than he could ever use. Maybe he couldn’t help him, even now.

But you could.

Bruce peers around the corner, leaning up against the doorframe.

He watches Damian give up on carving at his block and start into the leg of the table.

He watches the bickering that broke out after Tim grab the last glazed donut, which was apparently the only thing Dick could possibly fathom eating.

And he watches Jason.

As Jason’s phone lights up on the counter next to him. He glances down at it with a frown before his face absolutely lights up.

He scrambles to pick the phone up and starts typing away. A quiet action that catches the attention of all of his brothers.

He types and types, waits for ten seconds for a response and types and types again—smile on his face.

The Waynes didn’t need to be the greatest detectives in the world to know who he was texting.

✨ reblog fics or face the block button ✨

A compilation of resources

Hi guys, sorry for spam-posting this morning: I have over 2000 drafts and needed to get these posts out so I could put them in order, in order to make this post.

FOOD

5 ingredients/45 minutes recipes

Apple chai caramel cider

How to make cookies in a mug

Edible plants catalogue:

Homemaking, gardening and self-sufficiency resources that will not radicalize you:

RESOURCES FOR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH AND SUPPORT

Toothbrushes you can use while in bed!

Hey, person who's feeling overwhelmed by life!

How to do hard things

Reality statements for interpersonal effectiveness

In case anyone else is having a bad night

Stretching advice

Learn the Beck Columns with Cassandra Cain!

READING RESOURCES

Public domain websites

Bookshop is in the place!

Reading sites

Ao3 cheatsheet

Support your local library

Study time!

WRITING RESOURCES

Disability writing guide

On villains with tragic backstories

On carrying children

Some writing resources

Ref recs for whump writers

Writing dialogue

Writing characters with Schizophrenia

Writing advice ("crime")

Taking emotional intelligence in account!

Non tragic backstories

Useful geographical descriptors for writers:

How to say "it hurts"

You don't need an agent

GRAPHIC ARTS RESOURCES

Anatomy help

Hot artists don't gatekeep

SURVIVING THE DIGITAL HELLSCAPE

Resources for staying safe online

Escape the discord generative AI

Stop NCII

Back-up your tumblr blog

Fuck ads

Fuck your paywall

Fuck your paywall, science edition

MISCELLANEOUS

Dealing with the worst case scenario

Supporting native artwork

Correct your misconceptions!

Free classes!

Small ways in which you can support science!

Care packages

There we go! Hopefully some of those help make your life easier.

…You know what could’ve been cool? If Vassago had ACTUALLY looked like a pirate, and if he were Octavia’s mentor.

Like, for a character who supposedly should look like one, Vassago does NOT look like a pirate. Which is disappointing, Viv really could have gone all in and made that guy a pirate stereotype. Like, where’s the peg leg, the eyepatch? Where’s the frilly cravat? Where’s the pirate hook? Where’s the oversized captain’s coat and pirate hat with long, elaborate feathers? Heck, you could have made one of those feathers be from Andrealphus, and Vassago put it in his hat because he LOATHES Andrealphus, and beat his a** once. And he makes sure to wear it because Andrealphus HATES it.

Actually, why is Vassago a red macaw? Why not a green parrot, I feel like when you think ‘pirate’ you picture a parrot, especially a green one. I don’t know, sounds like a missed opportunity. And hey, you still could have put stars on his outfit.

As for being Octavia’s mentor, maybe Vassago could have taken pity on the fact that until recently, she’s never had formal lessons in her potential duties regarding astrology. And yeah, Vassago might not occupy the exact same space, but it is said that he can divine and tell summoners of past and future events apparently. And you can use the stars to do the latter, so he could at least reach her something in that.

Really, if we’re going with the Goetias being nobility, Octavia SHOULD have a couple private tutors to guide her in potential duties and proper etiquette. Since she’s the spare and all, honestly now that I think about it did either Stolas or Stella get her something like an etiquette teacher? She’s going to need one since she’s slated to take over Stolas’ position in (assumedly) less than a year. I think Stolas started recently teaching her through the book (she probably should have started a couple years ago), but he can’t do that anymore, so…

Anyway, like I said, could be cool if Vassago took pity on the girl (since Vassago is apparently good-natured) and started overviewing her lessons on her duties in astrology. Or maybe, she’s having trouble navigating through the Goetia social expectations and stuff and he decides to not leave her to the sharks. Idk, might have been better than just having him be a Stolas hype man, despite the fact that Stolas not having any friends other than Blitzø that one time is supposed to be important. And yet here’s a guy who definitely seems to like him somewhat, could Stolas not have been friends with him?

Listen.

EVERYBODY knows (or should) that you DO. NOT. STOP. in Vidor, Texas. 

It’s best to just run out of gas elsewhere. Whatever you do, black folks, DO NOT STOP IN VIDOR, TEXAS. 

There’s a good chance you’ll get lynched or just come up missing - and I’m not joking.

also do NOT stop in Harrison, Arkansas!!!! (relatively close to OK and MI) a nazi town with a BIG KKK organization.

Reblog To Save Life

Times are troubling and hard right now-but never forget, your Beet loving Grandmother loves you very very much and wants you to be safe.

And for you to eat your vegetables.

Original comic by Rasenth