#guide for what the links go to:

[sauriandoc]

CALL ME LOVER

I’LL TAKE YOU FOR A DRINK OR TWO

[raycatzdraws]

ribbonwood

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

One thing about Lu Guang is that. He actually really likes hearing Cheng Xiaoshi say that he cares about and trusts him

[bonefall]

it is healing to come onto this blog and see basic respect for diasbility after being in other corners of the fandom and reading the words “snowkit could never be a warrior because he wouldnt know what anything is. he wouldnt even know what a clan is because nobody could explain it to him” said in full seriousness

Im..... That statement is so ableist I cannot even imagine the worldview you'd need to have in order to come up with that.

They really think the only way anyone learns anything is through verbal-speaking-words-noises? No one has ever observed something before? Not even once?

This is beyond touching grass, this person just fell out of the fucking Jurassic Period when all they had was ferns and stegosaurs.

I just...

OH YES. I remember my first day of Society Lessons as a hearing person, where the everything was explained to me. Via Audiobook. FIRST they spoke and said, "you are standing on the ground." It was a life changing revelation, and the world began to spin.

But it did not stop.

THEN they said, "there are fingers on your hands." The sensation of flesh and bone crackling into existence is indescribable, but I did not yet know pain, until they told me, "that hurts." I began screaming immediately.

And yet... it continued.

They explained so much. Chairs. Tables. Walls. The sky. Frogs. Ionizing radiation. Breathing. I was told all of it, in one sitting, and only then did I understand. Only when my ears were bursting with normal hearing knowledges, did they begin... my final test.

A strange wall-chair-finger emerged from the sky-of-the-wall, stood on the ground several times, until it was in front of me. A second one came behind it, this one slimmer. The audiobook gave these things names;

Human. Father. Mother. Door. Walking. It was completely impossible to know what these things were until that very moment.

I watch a human dip a hook into water and produce a fish, and I recall my Society Lessons where they called that "fishing." I am decked in the face by a nefarious hooligan, and I have only the audiobook to thank when I know I have been "punched" by a "bad guy." It was only the magic of verbal-speaking-words-noise that made me understand that there are "other people" and that they "do stuff."

Sometimes, even, in "groups."

Before the Society Lessons Audiobook, I knew nothing. I was pure, innocent, uncorrupted by concepts such as "parents" and "door." I am grateful every day that there is no such concept as "being shown things" or "simple logical reasoning" or "looking."

Blessed be those amongst us who escape the horrors of the Society Lessons Audiobook. I pray that you never learn what anything is. Be free! Free as a bird, which also knows nothing and famously cannot learn. 🤗

DEAF/HOH FOLLOWERS I'm losing my mind do you want me to bump a 'Hearing Disabilities Herb Guide' to the top of my priorities? Something you can use to bludgeon whackadoodles like that. This is ridiculous

Obviously not a MEDICINE guide but like; common causes of hearing disability in clan cats. Accommodations for hearing loss vs congenital deafness. Actual difficulties of not having that sense Clan-by-Clan. Debunking of misconceptions like... not being able to learn APPARENTLY.

[psychopomp-namine]

fixation so real I am about to enter my "the curtains are fucking blue" era of link click analysis, but I need yingdu to finish airing first before I can even feel confident about why I think every season of link click features someone wearing a yellow and blue jacket (i.e. the way cheng xiaoshi, the twins, and xia fei are foils of each other and how their character arcs when they wear the yellow and blue jacket are a small scale representation of the overarching story of shiguang, which are represented by, you guessed it, yellow and blue)

(and of course, the way shiguang, xiaochen, and veifei are foils of each other, etc etc)

but anyway. I'll be patient and wait for yingdu to finish or else I'm probably just clowning around here. but I am thinking many thoughts and have written many words in the drafts.

[staytrueblue]

you shouldn’t have to pay money to learn about spirituality and faith

[injeolmiyaps]

do you ever do a practice round so bad you get whiplash from your own case

[waitineedaname]

beloved tumblr mutual...... i see you post all the time about the show(?) with the pretty long hair men...... but dear lord what is it about. ive tried to piece it together but i just cannto understand. help me. help me beloved tumblr mutual. i need to know a vague summary !! :)

this series is always difficult to summarize concisely, but I will do my best!

the long hair prettymen series you're likely referring to is Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/MDZS/The Untamed! it was originally a BL novel series, but it was also made into a wildly successful live action drama (The Untamed) which was my avenue into the series! it's about the rise and fall of Wei Wuxian, an extremely talented cultivator (sword wizard) who goes from celebrated war hero to reviled necromancer. the series opens with his death and then resurrection 13~16 years later. it's about necromancy and the horrors of war and politics and reputation and the rumor mill and family and sacrifice, but it's also about what if the class clown bad boy and hall monitor valedictorian were madly in love with each other. it's also about one kid having a shit ton of uncles. it's great! I cannot recommend it enough, it's truly a delight to read and watch, even when it's supremely corny. the creator does a fantastic job of balancing humor and tragedy, and the characters make me want to eat drywall

however, the waters may be muddy, because recently I have started posting about another long haired prettyboy series, which is Scum Villain's Self-Saving System! it's another novel series by the same author as MDZS and I'm only halfway through it, but I'm having a great time. it's about a dude getting isekai'd into an absolutely horrible web novel that he obsessively hates, and he gets thrown in the villain's role. it's hysterical, and also has been shredding my heart periodically. but it's mostly very funny, and I'm obsessed with the characters. everyone in this series needs serious help, they're all fucked in the head

[biitchcakes]

THE SPIDER-WOMAN && THE SHROUD .

(** Fair warning, this is a bit of a long post due to pictures**) To start off, the way they first encounter each other is just so perfect ⸺ Max just flat out VULCAN NERVE PINCHES her while she's at her receptionist job. And the fact it works. It's Spider-Woman's weakness and that's simply just hilarious to me.

Then after meeting each other properly ( he breaks into her house while she's in the shower ), he stays the night on her couch. In the morning, she wakes up to find him cooking her some breakfast. . . 🥺🥺

❝ Ms. Drew ❞ just tickles me coming from him idc.

I Love The Way They FLIRT.

❝ If you're embarrassed to hold hands ⸺ ❞ actually teasing her rn. Can't believe he took her hand after using it to blast someone please.

AND IT !! WORKS !!! This is what she's thinking in that moment.

No comment really this is cute af ❤️

Read this as you will :))) U ask me, it's because he would Blush A Lil. Also I just. . . ❝ Mr. Shroud ❞ ❝ Ms. Spider ❞ 😌🖤

Literally INSISTS on taking her out for steak and wine !!! Could have suggested anything else but that's the first dinner he thinks of. ( truly tragic they didn't draw them out to dinner and there's a time skip instead 😔 ).

While they are waiting for their targets, he listens to her and tries to Ease Her Woes for over an hour. . .

❝ See you in the dark, babe. ❞ GIGGLING !!! Needs someone just as melodramatic as her.

One of those SHIELD agents, for the record, is Jerry LOL.

I MEAN COME ON.

A long time later, when Jessica basically fkin dies, she requests Magnus wipes the memories of those who knew her. They all remember her in some form, though vaguely, distantly. . . But Max just KNOWS. . .

:') 🥹

Look, I gotta include the bit below bc I love the way he gd throws himself off the roof without second thought because he sensed her ghost.

❝ anyway she was gone by the time the lovesick fool saved himself ⸺ ❞

I mean ⸺

After a hellish battle with Morgan Le Fay, he and the rest of the present Avengers are able to help save Jessica Drew's life. And there he is. . . Holding Her Hand. . .

Below is unfortunately the last time they are seen together for a looong time ( fkin 1984 to 2023 !! 😭 ). And it's just so damn adorable.

Her powers are gone at this time, they start to come back at a later date. Yet still such confidence in her !! Love him !!

Dr. Strange is watching this whole thing from afar, and the comment he makes about them, I ⸺

ME TF TOO STEPHEN !!!

The most recent time they've been together was pretty Bare Bones flirtation wise :(((( given the Dire Situation™️.

But we do have this. . .

It's just so soft. . .

[coffinbutch]

Submitting to magazines has made me so judgemental of some submission calls. Sorry, you want this in 10pt Garamond? Do you have any idea how tiny that is?

[pocketramblr]

I love reading the old Nintendo's players guides, both because of the lovely art but also because you get fun lore things like "For the first two games, Hyleans are effectively filling the same role as the Zonai for the rest of the Hyruleans", and "Nevermind we know we said in Adventure of Link that that Zelda was a different princess than the one in the first game, but they're the same person now! Unlike this other Zelda, or this other other Zelda, who are still different."

[volfoss]

im really sorry we are about to be on me being annoying about game of thrones lockdown for like. a while. so sorry

[askbensolo]

Journal Entry #44: roller coaster.

I returned to my senses when I heard the door open and a bag get set down. “Ben! I got those cookies that you like from the—oh.” Then I heard a chuckle and felt her sit down on the floor next to me.

"Ben...what are you doing with your face on the ground?"

I didn't say anything. It was like I couldn't. Too many thoughts were spinning wildly around my brain, except they weren't even developed enough to be thoughts. I shook my head.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't tell you," I muttered, because I thought too hard about what it would be like to marry you and panicked for two hours was too difficult to tell her.

"Well...okay. But at least sit up, silly." She put her hand on my shoulder and shook me a little.

I obeyed and sat up, not wanting to make eye contact. In that moment, I found her terrifying: all five-foot-one of her.

She sat quietly with me for a moment.

"...Is this about...you and me?" she asked finally. I shrugged, which she correctly interpreted as an affirmative.

"Ben, I...I think we should talk."

I covered my face and shook my head, feeling like I was about to implode. "Please. No."

"Ben...I hate to see you get all upset over nothing," she pleaded. "I want you to know I don't expect a single thing from you. You were right, that we'll always be friends, and I know you can’t force feelings you don’t have. I've accepted that you don't like me—"

I tore down my hands, revealing an anguished expression. "Well, I've accepted that I maybe kind of do, which sucks, because now I have to think about what our future would look like together and I don’t think I’ve ever thought about anything so serious in my entire life."

She blanched. She had been standing on her knees, but she slowly sank down onto her heels in shock.

I couldn't tell what she was feeling. Shouldn’t my confession have made her happy? But she looked about as confused as I was. Maybe even a little scared, too.

"...You're joking," she said finally.

"Well, I don't know if I'm right or not, but I'm not trying to be funny," I told her.

She looked like she didn't know what to say. We stared at each other.

And then...tears started welling up in her eyes. She shook her head. Two fat droplets spilled down her cheeks, and she started doing that imaginary knitting thing with her hands.

"Hey...don't get all excited, Fan," I said, embarrassed, catching her hands up in one of mine. Her hands were so little.

"How am I supposed to not get excited?" she asked quietly, her big eyes dripping diamonds that glittered like stars. "I've always loved you."

I didn't expect those words to make me dizzy, but they did. She looked at me, for a moment...then collapsed into my arms and absolutely lost it, sobbing like a baby.

I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight.

“Listen…I’m scared,” I admitted, fully aware she might not have the mental bandwidth to register what I was saying. “I’ve…I’ve never thought about being with someone that way. I’ve never thought about what that would mean, or what it would invite into my life, or the challenges it would involve. I mean…everything could go horribly wrong. We work pretty well as friends, and I guess as housemates, but as anything else—who knows? We could end up being way in over our heads and totally unhappy.”

“Well…I’m scared too,” she snuffled. “I mean…goodness, Ben, I just told you. I was okay with you not liking me. I didn’t have anything to lose. But now...I have everything to lose. I didn’t even love Deirak the way I love you, and it was still so hard when I said goodbye. What am I going to do if I lose you?”

“You’re afraid of something ending that hasn’t even started?” I teased her weakly, rubbing circles on her back.

“Well…you’re afraid of starting it, when there’s every hope in the galaxy it’ll end,” she said miserably, in a dumb, mopey little way that made me chuckle in spite of how anxious I felt. I rocked her back and forth for a moment, then gently lifted her head off my shoulder and held her at arms length so I could look at her.

A loose dark hair had gotten plastered to her wet face. I picked it off.

“Look…I still don’t know if I’m in love with you,” I told her.

“Well…I still don’t know if I want you to be in love with me,” she said, laughing softly and wiping the heel of her palm against her eyes. “You should have just stayed the way you always were: handsome and charming and thoroughly unattainable, so that I could have gone on admiring you in silence forever, and never had to risk anything.”

“Well…you shouldn’t have made me dinner, and you shouldn’t have had coffee with me every morning for a month despite hating caf, and you shouldn’t have let me walk in on you dancing like a moron,” I replied softly, pushing my fist against her shoulder playfully. “I mean, please. You’re too cute for your own good.”

“Cute like a loth-cat? Or cute like a girl?”

I flicked her cheek with my thumb and index finger. “Oh my Force, not this stupid thing again.”

She giggled, her wet eyes sparkling.

My hand stayed hovering over the side of her face as I looked at her, and I let it rest on her cheek. She smiled and leaned into my hand—maybe she was part loth-cat after all.

My thumb poked at the corner of her mouth, and I looked at it for a second. Thought about it.

Nah. No way.

“Don’t kiss me, Ben Solo,” she said seriously.

“I wasn’t going to,” I said, annoyed that she had noticed. “Ew.”

“You looked like you were thinking about it.”

“Yeah, thinking about how it would be gross,” I said, which was true. “Hey—we’d be perfect for each other, you know. I have a pathological fear of physical intimacy, and you’re a prude.”

She squinched up her nose to keep from smiling and smacked her hand lightly against my face. “I am not.”

“You’re twenty-two and you’ve only had one boyfriend, who you never kissed once in the two years you were together,” I teased.

“You already know I want my first kiss to be with the one I marry,” she said, rolling her eyes at me and smiling. Her hand went on top of the one I had holding her face—it felt weirdly electric. “That was one of the first conversations we ever had, wasn’t it? When you took refuge in my hut while the others played spin-the-saber. Ironic of you to make fun of me for never having been kissed, since you’re twenty-three and you’ve never been with anyone at all.”

“Yeah...until now,” I said. “Possibly.”

“Possibly,” she echoed softly.

We looked at each other, our smiles fading. The uncertainty of the whole situation came creeping in again.

“…We should probably just…stay friends until I go back to Ryloth,” she said finally. “And then...figure it out after that. I don’t know if we should…date as housemates.”

I frowned. Until she went all the way back to Ryloth?

She picked up on my troubled look. "...What?" she asked.

“Well, it's just...you’d be so far away," I said. "We would barely see each other. I mean...I’m not crazy about starting things right away either, but if we were to…y’know, date…wouldn’t it be easier to start while you’re right here?”

She blushed. “I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to be living with my boyfriend.”

I took my hand off her face. “But…you’re living with me right now, aren't you?"

“Yes, but you’re not my boyfriend right now.”

“Yeah, but...what would change if I was? Why would it be inappropriate then, if it's okay right now? I don’t understand.”

"Ben, don't you remember? Even before all of this happened, I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate for us to live together—"

"Yeah, I know you weren’t sure about living here before, but you changed your mind, right? ‘Cause you’re here. And you’ve never brought it up again till now…”

She looked like she was about to say something, then stopped.

“I…I just don’t want to be living with a man until I’m married,” she repeated, embarrassed.

“But that’s what I’m saying, you’re literally living with one right now,” I repeated, frustrated.

“Yes, but you’re not my boyfriend right now,” she repeated, flustered.

“No, but I’m still a guy, and you’re currently living with me, and that’s not what you said,” I repeated, annoyed. “You said, ‘I don’t want to live with a man’—”

“But you’re not my boyfriend,” she said again.

“Fannie. You’re just saying the same thing over and over!”

“Well…so are you!”

We both giggled tensely at the same time: a weird kind of laugh that was 0% mirthful and 100% awkward and uncomfortable.

“Look, I was under the impression you already decided you were okay with living here, because here you are,” I said. “I’m not suggesting we like…start sharing a bed or anything. I’m still expecting that you’re gonna move out in the fall so you can go back to doing your thing. All I’m saying is, for the summer, we could just keep things exactly the same—”

“But they wouldn’t be the same, because we’d be dating,” she said.

“What would be so different about us dating from the way things were two weeks ago?” I asked impatiently. “You were already living here. Sleeping on the couch. We were hanging out all the time. Making dinner together, watching movies, going out on the weekends—”

“Yes, but everything was different, because when I agreed to move in, I saw you as a brother,” she said, looking stressed.

“But you didn't just see me as a brother,” I argued. “You said you always liked me.”

“Yes, but you didn’t like me, so nothing was ever going to happen,” she said, anxiously doing the knitting thing with her hands again.

Happen? I let go of her. What did she mean, nothing was ever going to...happen? Like...something that would make it inappropriate for us to live together?

“Wait,” I said, looking at her. “What are you afraid would ‘happen’?”

I looked at her expectantly. She couldn’t answer. Or wouldn't. Was she trying to say something bad would happen? Like...I would try to do something bad to her? Like…I would try to violate her? Or something?

“What?” I stared at her. “What, are you afraid we would, like…have sex or something? Do you think I'd try to have sex with you?”

“Ben. Do not talk about us having sex,” she said, shocked, her face red. But she didn’t deny it or try to correct me, and that really, really bothered me. I didn’t think that was what she was thinking…but what was I supposed to think, when she wasn’t giving me any reason to think otherwise?

“Well, you’re the one who’s thinking about that, apparently,” I said, starting to get worked up. “Really? Me? With everything you know about me, that’s something you’re worried about? Why, just ‘cause I’m a guy? Who do you think I am? You really think that I of all people would try to take advantage of you like that?”

She shook her head, her eyes all big.

“Then what are you trying to say?” I snapped. “Because if it’s not that and you’re thinking about something else, I would love to hear it! What is this, a guessing game? I mean, come on! Give me something to work with here!”

She wouldn’t talk. She would only stare, her eyes wide like twin moons. Usually, her big eyes were cute, but right now they were both pissing me off and scaring the hell out of me.

A minute went by in total silence. Then two. I know, because I counted the seconds. I waved my hand in front of her face. “Uh, hello?” She didn’t blink. Her eyes began to cloud up with tears, but she still wouldn’t speak.

Why the hell wasn’t she talking?? My heart started pounding and all my thoughts started speeding up inside my head and my hands started shaking. I started panicking again. Things had been okay and then for a second they’d been better than okay and now they were worse than they’d ever been. This was hell; we were in hell right now.

Suddenly, everything just felt so terrible and I couldn't take it anymore. I stood up and yelled and kicked the leg of the coffee table.

That seemed to wake her up.

She jumped to her feet. “Why are you so mad that I said I wanted to wait till I moved out before we started dating?” she asked, glaring at me. “You’re the one who said you weren’t sure about dating at all. Why are you suddenly all in a rush?”

“I’m not!” I shouted. “You’re the one who apparently thinks I’d try to sleep with you if we started dating right now. Do you know how physically sick that makes me feel?“

“Ben, I never said that.”

“Well that’s how I interpreted it, since you wouldn’t tell me what you actually meant, and I asked you—like, twice, and you didn’t kriffing correct me!”

“Don’t swear at me!” she yelled back.

“I’m not swearing at you, I am swearing in general!" I seethed. "There’s a difference!”

She glared at me, but didn’t say anything. I waited for her to open her mouth and use actual words like a grown-up, since apparently she’d finally gotten in the mood to talk, but no words ever came. I threw my hands out to my sides.

"Well? Are you gonna say something, or what?"

She didn’t. Just stared at me with those big brown eyes like daggers.

“Oh, so we’re back to this now,” I said sarcastically. “Cool.”

Her eyes were boring holes into me and it was like being on fire.

I turned and shouted and slammed my fist against the wall. “Cool! Just ignore me, I guess! I don’t get what’s happening right now! You’re not being you! You’ve always been so great at communicating and now you won’t kriffing talk!” I body-checked the wall and yelled again. RIP my neighbors.

Fannie’s eyes flashed violently. The same way they had when she told me she hated her father.

“No, I’ll tell you something, dumbass,” she blurted angrily. “We shouldn’t kriffing date.” Then she grabbed her keys and stormed out the door.

I had never heard those words come out of her mouth before. And right after she’d told me to watch my language. I was so shocked, there was a split-second where I laughed out loud. And then a ton of other emotions barreled into me like a space freighter crash-and-burn, and I slid down the wall on my back and ended up crumpled in a heap on the floor with my head in my hands.

What the hell was that? Nothing like that ever happened when we were just friends. Are we still friends? Because if that’s what it’s like to be more-than-friends…I’d pretty much rather just die.

[mishtershpock]

.

[plumadesatada]

All hail ask culture, may she come back from near-death!! How has your day been so far? Gimme one bitching point and one nice thing!

babe!!! yes YES help me with my crusade!

gonna answer this about yesterday (bc today I'm freshly woken up)

bitching point: so. I work in IT. my actual job description is testing and being a help desk for NEW systems being implemented. pay attention to that "new".... because one else at my company does! they think I'm google! "hey so X program closed on me without saving how can I recover what I was working on?" "I need new lines on this excel table can you come over and insert some" (I wish I was joking) "ummmm outlook isn't showing me my calendar" (this one happens once a week. to the same person). I feel like goddamned sisyphus.

one nice thing: I TOOK MOM TO THE THEATER LAST NIGHT FOR HER BIRTHDAY. There was a production of Cyrano and it. was. bloody FANTASTIC. mom fell asleep in the intermission and I bullied her for it ("claims to love theater" etc) after I woke her up and the second bit resumed. afterwards we went out for beer and ummmm what do you call them in English? calamari rings, fried. it was a GOOD night

[neobastard]

I wanna play neopets again but I don’t wanna be overwhelmed with new stuff/features. I haven’t gone on there in 7+ years. Do you have any tips for returning players?

my number one tip is to use jellyneo's dailies guide and information pages, you don't have to do everything listed there every day but it's a good way to decide what you do and don't want to accomplish on the site.

make goals as well, do you plan to collect avatars? buy stamps? train a battledome pet? having a long term goal is a good way to avoid getting overwhelmed because it limits how many new things you have to learn.

there's only really two (formerly three) things i would consider to be "mandatory" for every player: receiving your daily bank interest, and trudy's surprise. i used to consider daily quests to be one of them but uhh. yeah.

other than that, my main form of advice is that neopets can be as robust or as insular as you want it to be. as a kid i only really used to play the flash games and go to one or two shops to feed my pets, my experience with the site was very limited and it was only when i got older did i branch out into stuff like gourmet foods and minmaxing battledome stats. you don't have to do everything on the site, just take it slow and reacquaint yourself with the site before you jump into things like food club.