#i think it's mostly the POV change. there's music and everything

[djpurple3]

ok. it's amazing how different the energy duncan can have between hanging out with zoey and meeting with rythian actually. he's just kinda pleasant but awkward with zoey but with rythian he's Genuinely sinister. has Duncan changed based on who he's interacting with, or is that just the magic of a POV change?

[starlightandfairies]

Hiii 🫶🏼 I hope you're still up for doing an Elijah request! 🤗 I can't get this man out of my head haha

Soo it would be an idea where they met somewhere in Mystic Falls and immediately felt some bond between them, so it happens that they start falling in love (she's human but knows about vampires) but she's too afraid to get hurt so she also tries not to get too close to Elijah. One night he sees some stranger following her home from the Grill and even starts attacking her, Elijah is immediately there saving her and taking her home with him to treat her wounds (mostly some scratches) and he's just super worried. There she realizes that Elijah would never be the one hurting her and they finally share their feelings with a lot of kissing and cuddles afterwards and he holds her, telling how much she means to him.

Oh I hope this is not too weird at all 🙈❤️

Description: Upon meeting Elijah Mikaelson, the feelings start to come but in fear of being hurt, the reader decides to keep her walls up to protect herself. This changes after Elijah protects her after being attacked.

Warnings: fluff, small angst, physical assault (mild), she/her pronouns, maybe swearing?

*Requests are open, please send through as many requests as you want, check my character list and requesting rules.*

Thanks so much for making this request! I can never get sick of Elijah, this man is always on my mind and please feel free to request again if you wish :) I really enjoyed writing this, thank you again :D

Key: Y/N = Your Name, POV = Point of view

Word Count: 2,125

First Person's POV

Tonight at the Grill was a ‘live acoustics’ night, some of the performers were good and others were quite frankly not that great. Bonnie, Elena and Caroline were off on the next big adventure for the vampiric save-the-day business and while I knew about all the vampires, witches, werewolves and all that extra fun stuff. Besides Matt, I was the only human in the group and somehow I was pushed aside to be kept ‘safe; despite Matt always being dragged into the whirlpool of drama even if he didn’t want to be. 

“The music is wonderful for the atmosphere tonight, don’t you agree?” That voice would haunt my dreams, haunt my every thought, I couldn’t fathom how gentle and warm a voice could sound. I glanced to the side, shooting a polite smile to the impeccably dressed man and nodded in agreement. 

“I do agree, I feel like I’m in like a cute little romance story, the warm lighting and the music-“ I cut myself short, realising I was babbling to a random stranger who more than likely did not care for my ideas and thoughts. 

“I can see how you would see that.” Oh, gosh- those eyes! That smile! This man would haunt me forever, picture perfect and everything I would want in a man. I continued to share a polite smile with the man, fiddling with the straw in my chocolate milkshake and turned myself slightly to face the man a little better. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you…?” Realising that he was waiting for my name, I placed my drink down and took his hand. 

“Y/N L/N” He softly cupped my hand, shaking it and proceeded to share his name.

“Elijah Mikaelson.” I wish I could’ve hidden my reaction better, my eyes went wide, and my smile flattened for a moment before I quickly made sure to continue to be nice and polite. Elijah carefully rested my head on the bar, took a small sip of whatever his drink was and gazed at me with a quizzical look. 

“You know who I am…” His tone was neither harsh nor hurt, Elijah seemed to have suspected my knowledge of his name and he even seemed curious by the idea of my knowledge. 

“I know of your brother Niklaus… Elena told me about you, I think she might have exaggerated a bit. You don’t seem like the antagonist she kinda painted you out to be. From what I’ve heard, you’re the nicer brother… the noble one and I'm sure first glances can be deceiving but… I don’t know- you don’t seem like a bad man.”  He briefly licked his lips, eyes shooting up to the ceiling and seemed to be contemplating his next moves. 

“I suppose you know-“ 

“That you’re a…” I leaned closer to whisper so people passing by wouldn’t hear. 

“An Original.” 

“You don’t seem to be phased.”

“Team doppelgänger has built up my immunity to supernatural beings.” I let out a weak chuckle, cringing internally and turned my focus back on my drink. I wanted to keep speaking with him, I really did want to keep speaking with him but I knew the world that I happened to live in and I didn’t fancy the idea of being bait or hurt as collateral damage. 

“It was really nice to meet you Elijah but I have to go.” He nodded, that handsome smile appearing once more, his actions made me gush and brought butterflies into my belly as he grabbed my jacket and assisted in placing it back on. 

“I hope that you have a good evening, Y/N” 

“Same to you Elijah.” He seemed to have a thought pop into his head, I stopped in my tracks, allowing for him to have the benefit of the doubt and give him the chance to speak his mind. 

“May I have the pleasure of seeing you again?” 

“Maybe… There’s always tomorrow.” I knew I had given myself away, I could feel my heart skip a beat, I’m sure he could hear it, his facial expression didn’t change but I could feel that he knew what I was feeling. 

“Have a good evening,” I whispered, brushing past him to carry on my way. 

+++++++

I had seen Elijah a couple of times since our first meeting, we had small conversations and I tried my best to conceal my heart, I didn't want to get close to this man despite enjoying his presence, his voice and the true appearance of his gentlemanly ways made me fall into a daydream greater than any story or dream I could ever have or read. 

The next time I saw Elijah was three months after our first meeting, as I said we had multiple different meetings and they were all the greatest moments of my life despite how much I tried to protect my fragile heart. I had left my home for the park, I wanted to read outside of my home and get some fresh air away from the stuffiness of my bedroom. I rested the picnic blanket underneath a large tree, I read three chapters of my book before I felt a presence looming nearby, I placed the book to the side and stood up, surveying the area for a figure and jumped in my skin seeing Elijah approaching me. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you, may I join you?" I nodded, smiling at the man, watching as he unbuttoned his shirt and sat down with me on the picnic blanket. He gently picked my book up, staring at the cover with intrigue, I observed him with butterflies growing in my stomach, a blush wanting to form on my cheeks as I continued to drown in what was possibly a huge crush for the Original Vampire. 

"Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi... I'm not sure I've heard of this one before." 

"I doubt you would've, I don't exactly picture you reading a book like this?" He smiled, tilting his head slightly, a deep chuckle leaving his mouth and he handed me back the book. 

"Why is that?" 

"Well... I don't know, I picture you reading older books nothing from the late 20th century to the early 21st century." Elijah briefly nodded in agreement, I smiled proudly at my guess and fiddled with the tassels hanging off of my bookmark. The vampire took off his suit jacket and began rolling up the sleeves of his button-up, I bit the inside of my cheek, begging myself to remain calm and avoid giving away any kind of emotions being revealed. 

"Enlighten me, will you though, please? What's it about?" I cleared my throat, leaning closer to him with joy forming, giddy that he was showing interest in something that I liked and enjoyed. 

"It's the third book in the series, I've read it before, and this one is one of my favourites. Essentially the series is all about control some people have these powers and the leaders are trying to control these people. The relationship of the main characters is what I happen to enjoy the most about it, I love how Tahereh created their bond from..." 

"Why did you stop?" Elijah gently questioned, his face furrowing in concern, I wanted to cringe but I forced the words out before I could let that show. Taking a deep breath, I turned my gaze back to him, scrunching my face up briefly and proceeded to explain to Elijah what was going through my head. 

"Whenever I ramble on to the Salvatores and all that, it's clear that they don't care and I'm not wanting to force that onto you. I'm sorry." Elijah tutted, shaking his head and holding out his hand for me to take. Hesitating for a moment, I finally rested my hand in his, holding my breath for a moment and kept my eyes focused on him as he rested his other hand on top of mine. 

"You do that too often, Y/N, I can see you trying to protect your heart and you have a wide range of information waiting to come out and you shut yourself down because you expect everyone else to do that. I hope you find someone... someone who makes you realise you don't need to do that." 

"Could possibly end up being you, Elijah," I whispered.

+++++

When someone unknown came into Mystic Falls, it was always a concerning event, the vampires were always the most suspicious of strangers and most of the time they were typically right for not trusting the stranger. It was late when I left the grill tonight, Elijah was growing on my mind more and more, and I would be hit with a wave of memories at random moments. 

"Up ahead, there's an alley to your right, walk down it. Try anything-" 

"Okay... I understand." I whispered, complying as I walked a little quicker and turned down the alleyway. I cried out as I was instantly shoved against the wall, my head ached and the world spun around me, I bit back a sob as I hit the ground and hissed as the gravel bit into my skin. I kicked off my heels, not fancying a broken ankle and lept to my feet running towards the street but missed as the man tackled me to the ground and which resulted in blood slightly trickling down my forehead and more cuts forming against my skin. 

It felt like something out of a vampire movie, I heard a whoosh and then a light thud. Elijah appeared, holding the man against the wall effortlessly with one hand and easily compelled the man to walk off and not commit any sort of crime again. I let out a few sobs as the pain sunk in and the adrenaline started to fade away.

Elijah swooped me into his arms, effortlessly taking me to his mansion and rested me down on his obnoxiously large bed. He crouched down, gently cupping my face in his hands, observing my facial features and swiftly disappeared somewhere before running back. 

"Are you okay?" He questioned, focusing on grabbing the things from the first-aid kit to treat my wounds. 

"I'm okay..." I whispered, hissing as he wiped an alcohol wipe across the graze on my palm and watched as he apologised profusely for inflicting any added pain onto me. Elijah was so attentive to my needs, he cleaned the blood and dirt away from my cuts and grazes. Covering them with bandaids, doing what he could to assist in caring for me. It was as he was lingering for a moment, observing my form that I realised that Elijah Mikaelson would never hurt me. He would never cause any harm to me, Elijah Mikaelson would protect me and I knew that I wouldn't need to worry any longer. 

"You wouldn't hurt me..." I whispered, staring at the vampire as he grasped my face and held eye contact with me. 

"Y/N L/N I would never dream of hurting you, you... you're perfect... Y/N you are the epitome of perfect, I haven't met someone as intelligent, kind, sweet, and funny in a long time. Y/N I love you and I hope that you'll allow-" I pushed myself closer to him, carefully cupping his face to kiss the man who had possessed my dreams too often. 

"Elijah, please, never let me go, I can't keep guarding myself-" 

"Shhh, I've got you." He kissed my forehead, pulling me into his arms and pushing himself to lay against the headboard of his bed. I inhaled, holding onto the warm and mesmerising smell of his cologne, I curled into his chest and hummed gently as he rested another kiss on my forehead. 

I felt protected, Elijah was my guardian angel, and he made me feel warm and gooey. Made me giddy and the butterflies a constant swarm in my belly, I fiddled with his hands, staring at the family ring that rested on his finger and glanced to him as he pulled my face to meet his. I hummed as he rested a kiss against my lips, sucking in another deep breath and curling in closer as he strokes my hair, his touch comforting and loving. 

"Can I stay here? Just in your arms? Where I'm safe and with you, you Elijah who looks after me and takes the time to listen and know me?" Elijah's smile made the butterflies come to life, my cheeks flushed red and his simple words reassured me for an infinity of time. 

"Always and forever." 

[asuwumas]

ALL ROADS LEAD BACK TO YOU PT. 3 | 2,569 words (~10 minutes reading time). afab!reader (yukki calls reader "woman", uses she/her pronouns), wild sendo sighting, smoking (cigarettes), alcohol, reader pov, penetrative sex, praise, pet names (gorgeous, treasure)

author's notes: oliver isn't really in this one barring reader comparing him to yukki for the most part. building out my own little messy universe here <33 enjoy!

-> taglist: @qichun @mitsuwuyaa @unriding @rhyzoma -> join the taglist!

the flashing lights of the club have long overstimulated you.

you came out tonight to get away from the demons flitting around in your mind. from that last meeting with oliver, you haven’t really been the same, you’ve noticed. you’re looking at your phone less and less. he hasn’t called. why would he?

sendo met you for coffee not long after when they were in town. without oliver knowing, of course.

he’d been so torn up about it, mostly for you. that was his closest friend, and it’s hard watching him ruin everything with someone that he thought would make him see the light, he’d said.

“so…you wanted me to fix him?” you snort out, reaching for the cup on the table and taking a long sip.

sendo’s face is sheepish. “maybe. i don’t know. clearly i don’t fucking know anything.”

you smile, this time genuine. you want to grab his hand, brush your thumb across his knuckles, but it’s better that they stay in your lap. “i know, sendo. i know. i…i wanted it to work. i wanted to fix him and i don’t think i can.”

he shakes his head. “no. i don’t know if anyone can. you shouldn’t go back, either. scare him. make him think he’s lost you.”

“and what if he truly has?” you counter.

sendo’s expression doesn’t change.

“then he has, and he’ll live to regret it for the rest of his life.”

so here you are now. swaying under the flashing lights, your girlfriends around you dancing to the beat of whatever music was pouring out of the speakers, drinks covered just in case. you knew the ubers were in town tonight, playing against some german team you didn’t fully recognize. there was always a chance that you’d see him out, you know that.

but you don’t care.

if he’d cared, he wouldn’t treat you the way he does. and the sex just doesn’t match up anymore, you can’t keep playing this game of cat and mouse. it’s exhausting. it’s something that you refuse to be a part of anymore—sendo’s right. he’ll regret it, and it gives you a sense of righteous rage that fuels your veins.

you decide that’s enough for the evening, waving to your girls that you’re heading home as you grab your coat from the check and step outside, heels clacking on the pavement as you rummage for your cigarettes. it’s a habit you have yet to kick; but drunk cigarettes don’t count, right?

you spark one as you tuck yourself against the wall of the club, feeling the nicotine smooth out your brain as your eyes close—

—and snap back open as you hear someone ask you a question.

“may i?”

you look to your side, and you freeze.

the man standing before you is not oliver, thank goodness. he’s…smoother. taller. leaner. his wide-rimmed glasses perched on his nose make him look so studious as he smiles sweetly at you, bronze eyes glinting in the streetlight’s glow. he’s wearing pretty plain clothes; nothing that screams that he’s a celebrity.

but you’ve seen him before. you just can’t recall from where. maybe a fashion magazine? he looks like a model.

he blinks at you as your gaze racks across his form, and you cough then, fumbling for your pack. “oh, yes, sorry!” you exclaim, slightly slurred from your drinks as you push one out, the man pulling it out with thin, dexterous fingers. he uses your lighter as well, before taking a drag and then leaning on the wall next to you, looking at you inquisitively.

“so,” he says, his voice like molten chocolate, “what are you doing out here on your own? anyone could snatch you up like this, and you’re far too pretty for that.”

your face goes red with embarrassment as you look down at your heels, tapping the fronts on the pavement as you take another drag. whoa. you’d never been complimented like this before, especially not in public, and especially not by oliver in public. oliver never wanted to go out in public, either; but this man just seems like just that. just a man. a nobody. a quiet one.

frankly? your type.

oliver was an outlier for you in what you usually go for; and it felt nice to be admired. especially by someone who looks so…put together.

“i haven’t found anyone who has struck my fancy.” that’s the answer you settle on for now, almost sending an open invite for more flirtation. you enjoy it, the attention; and while you may be being a little naïve allowing a man who bummed a cigarette off you to sweep you off your feet, he seems different. he looks at you with a genuine interest, not like a piece of meat like oliver.

because that’s all you were to him, it seems.

“is that so?” he answers, “well, what is your fancy, if i may ask?”

your thumb lands in your chin in mock thought, the man chuckling next to you deep in his chest. the vibration; you want to hear him do that more.

“oh, you know. sweet. kind. has their shit together. isn’t just going to stick their cock in me and finish in thirty seconds. you know, the bare minimum.” you almost wish oliver had been that bad—it would make remembering him much less depressing and much more comical.

there’s an electric connection between you two, it seems, especially as the man’s eyebrows raise, smoke trailing from his nose as he listens to you. he doesn’t respond initially, and you’re suddenly even more embarrassed as you tug your coat around you more. this is a stranger, for fuck’s sake! “sorry, that was—“

“no. i like a woman who knows what she wants.”

you blink. “you think i know what i want?”

he smirks. “you just told me, didn’t you?”

“but how do you know that’s not just for tonight—“

"does it matter?”

you blink again in shock. “i—i suppose it doesn’t.”

he watches you digest what he said for a moment, before he takes a step forward into your space. he has that quiet commanding energy that oliver has, but…it’s softer. sweeter. disguised. layered, and you want to pick the layers away. in just this short exchange, he’s managed to peak your interest in, what, five minutes? it took oliver weeks to get you over to see him. weeks of pleading, ignoring, and toxicity to get you to break.

you get none of that. and frankly, fuck it. tonight was for you.

“do you…want to come home with me?”

the man’s eyebrows skyrocket above his forehead, higher than they’ve gone, and you immediately backpedal, tossing your cigarette butt into the ashtray next to you. “sorry, that was—that was desperate, i’m really sorry—“

you go to turn away, but a hand brings you back, gently pushing you against the cold wall behind you. his hand remains on your shoulder, but his other lands next to your face. his expression is dark; wanting. needy. his tongue darts out to lick his lips, and you can’t help but look down at it and back up to his gorgeous gaze.

“no, i’ll go.”

you let out a breath of relief. “whew, okay. sorry. it’s my first night out after a breakup, to be honest. i…i don’t think i want to go home alone.”

the man’s eyes crinkle at the edges. “a gorgeous girl like you should never be left alone like that. i can only imagine the failure you must have gone through.”

you hum, biting your lip.

“what’s your name?”

“kenyu. yukimiya kenyu.”

and that's how you end up bent in half on your sofa, kenyu's slim, long cock bullying your cervix so badly that you know you won't be able to walk the next morning.

you let out the most pathetic moan you've heard in a while from yourself, and kenyu's eyes darken, taking you in. he's truly stunning in the lowlight, LED strips in your apartment glancing off of his sweaty skin in deep purples, rich blues, angry reds, calm greens...it's a morphing picture, one you want to emblazon on your brain after this.

"god, you are truly gorgeous, do you know that?" you hear him say so softly, hands digging into the fat of your thighs as he forces you to bend even more, your knees closing in on the sides of your head. you've never been particularly flexible, but it seems kenyu has managed to make you so relaxed that you barely feel a twinge.

"y-yeah?" you whisper, shakily, breathing getting more difficult the more he presses you onto yourself. you have nothing to say back to him, having stolen all the words you wanted to say earlier when he'd backed you up against your countertop, those thin fingers pushing underneath your shirt and against your soft, warm skin from being wrapped in your coat. his lips had found that sweet spot where your neck meets your shoulder, immediately sucking on it with a precision that shocked you—rather particular of him, instead of oliver who leaped in to devour you with no care how messy you both got.

"yeah," you hear kenyu say as he looks down at where you two are conjoined, before he leans and presses his lips to your own. his glasses are long gone, having been placed somewhere in the kitchen as he'd kissed you so sweetly and sensually, almost as good as he's doing so now. his lips are so soft, tasting of cherry chapstick, cigarettes, and the wine you'd poured yourself as you'd gotten home and shared. you'd only taken two sips before he'd accosted you against the counter, of course, but nonetheless, the richness of merlot is so strong in his mouth that you can't help but groan into him.

the soft squelching noises from your dripping center force yukimiya into letting out a matching groan into your own mouth. "i could stay in here all night," he whispers against your lips, "all night, wrapped up in you and your beauty. what a treasure you are."

it was like he was worshipping you, granting you the sanctity that you had been due. before, with oliver, you had been nothing but a whore to him, really. it was unfortunate—you thought you'd meant more to him, but you doubted him constantly over it, and he'd shown his true colors by not staying. you deserved more than that, you know that. you deserved someone like this, someone like kenyu, who would stop at nothing to make sure that you knew your worth.

tears begin to prick at your eyes and your eyebrows rise in shock. did getting praise really affect you this much? had you really been depriving yourself so much that you felt...

"what's wrong?"

kenyu's eyes are on you in moments—they'd never left, but now they pick you apart as an analyst might, checking for anything he may have done wrong.

it couldn't be far from the truth.

"i..." you trail off for a moment, pausing as you feel his hand move to cup your cheek, before swallowing harshly, "i've, uh...i've never been spoken to like that before. during sex, i mean." you neglect to mention at all, but that's a story for another day.

kenyu's eyes are unreadable. he doesn't seem angry, or perturbed, or negative. he's...a mystery to you, as he's been all night, not telling you who he truly is or where he's from. he only studies you, cocking his head gently to the side, before the purest smile you have ever seen graces his lips, his eyes crinkling at the edges as he lets out a chuckle.

"my, my, you really have been treated the opposite that you should be, eh?"

you blink, the tears welling in your eyes subsiding out of stunned silence, before you splutter out a "huh?".

he laughs, then, his cock snug within your walls twitching as he does so, which rips a whine from you. he thrusts into you then, rocking into you like the ocean, hands placing themselves on the arm of your sofa as he looms over you.

"then i'm going to make sure you know you're special tonight. if you remember nothing else, remember you are worthy of all of this. you are worthy of more. let me give it to you."

and you let him, without complaint. because who are you, to deny a devout worshipper of something they crave?

the next morning comes, and you awaken to an empty sofa.

blankets are wrapped tightly around you, concealing you from the sun streaming in through your windows as you groan, rubbing at your eyes. the headache forming behind your eyes is aching already, as you blindly reach over to the coffee table, squinting at the items on it that you don't recall placing there before.

a tall glass of water. a bottle of advil. and a note, hand-written.

you down the water quickly, taking three pills with it and sighing as the water soothes the ache in your skull, before picking up the note. your thighs feel sore too—everything feels sore now that you've arisen, and you roll your shoulders, sighing at the crackle of the joints as they re-adjust as you take in the note's contents.

had to leave early—couldn't miss my ride back home. wish i had been here to wake you up, but i left water and some ibuprofen there for you. call me? maybe i can stay over properly next time.

there's a number written out at the bottom, and you chew your lip as you contemplate it, scrabbling for your phone in the recesses of the couch.

on one hand, there's several texts and missed calls from a number that you know deep down is oliver. you swipe away those notifications. he's gone, and you can't let him back in. you can't rip yourself apart like that just for someone who will only see you in the dead of night, especially after you'd had a taste of what a real man is like.

if yukimiya kenyu was a real man. it had felt like a dream, in all honesty.

there's more texts, mostly from your friends, one of which was sent mere moments ago with a news link.

girl, look at this link, omg, who tf did u go home w?????

you blink, opening up the message and clicking the link.

you gasp.

there's a photo of you and kenyu standing outside of the bar. he's caught mid-laugh, with your face (thankfully) blurred out next to him. it must've been when he'd asked you what your type was. you can remember it even in your hungover state; low, rumbling, affectionate. just as he'd been the whole night. the headline beneath it is in huge letters, every word cementing a sense of horror in your chest. you'd never been caught by oliver's paparazzi, and the way you two would meet up was probably something to do with that.

Japanese Heartthrob Yukimiya Kenyu Caught Red-Handed with Mysterious Companion

and it turns out, as you read a little bit further, he was a midfielder on bastard fucking munchen.

"shit."

divider credit: @/cafekitsune

© yukimiyum 2024-2025 | disclaimer: DO NOT copy or repost my works, or use my fics for fodder for AI generation training for any reason. translations are acceptable, but please ask for permission first!

[idkwhatever580]

Where did you learn that?! Pt.3

Pt.1 Pt.2 Masterlist

Pairings: Natasha romanoff x reader

Prompt: a few instances when y/n danced on the pole :)

Warnings: stripper pole, seggsual innuendos, mostly cuteness for this one :)))

A/N: these are just some pieces of the puzzle that I couldn’t create into a whole fic.

Y/n’s pov

1

I am feeling a little blue today so I go to my separate room that Tony made just for me.

It has everything my little pole dancer heart requires. And I can come and go as I please.

Sometimes I use it as a show room for Natasha but others I just practice.

And at times like these I go by myself and just go with the flow.

I change into a comfy yet perfect outfit for my pole session. And I warm up with a few stretches and then I go to the pole. I start some slow music and just do whatever my body wants.

After a while I think I want to send it to Natasha. Not to turn her on or anything. Just a pretty video. Since she’s on a mission and I can’t show her in person.

I start recording

Watch this vid :)))

Once it’s long enough in my mind I jump down and send the video to her with a soft smile.

I love sharing these moments with her even if she is far away.

Because it doesn’t even have to be in a sexual manner, the pole just makes me feel so happy and at home.

I can’t believe I ever stopped.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2

I got a brand new type of pole today and I’ve been practicing on it while Natasha trains.

It’s a little harder than normal pole since it doesn’t attach to the bottom of the floor.

So I definitely have fallen a bit. But I keep going nevertheless. And I record every thing I do in case I get it.

After a lot of trial and error I finally figure it out with a few tricks and out something together.

Watch meee!!!

I hop down and make sure the pole doesn’t swing and smack me in the face before I run off.

Then I immediately send it to Natasha.

She’s always so supportive of me. She loves seeing me in the videos I send whether they be sexual or not. She just loves it.

And I love the attention she gives me when she sees them. (Pick me? Only for Natasha 🤷‍♀️)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3

I have been in my dance room all day today.

I have a pretty good set routine. Usually I would train for 5 days a week with one of the days being an all day workout I guess?

But now that I’m back into pole, I have switched out two of those days. The full workout day is now a full pole day. And one of my other workouts is pole.

Sometimes Natasha comes in and she walks in on the perfect moment and I get excited and say

“Oh my gosh natty!”

I run up to her and she grabs me as I accidentally trip a bit.

Maybe being upside down and spinning so much today has gotten to me a little. She laughs and says

“Woah there baby! We wouldn’t want you to get hurt now would we?”

I shake my head and say

“Sorry I just got so excited about this new entry I learned!”

She smiles and says

“Do you wanna show me?”

I nod my head and pull out her chair.

It’s a soft one that is perfect for when she gets a little personal show.

She sits down and I play the music and start.

Watch this pookies

I do the fast paced intro and she ends with a smirk and says

“You know, if you pair that with this dance that you sent me the other day it’d be golden”

I smirk and nod my head. So I redo it but adding the next part in

Watch 😋

I smile after rewatching the recording and I say

“Damn. You could be an instructor. That was good!”

She smiles and says

“I’m not the one who did the damn thing!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4

I wore a skinny red top to my pole workout today and I’m just realizing how good my back muscles look.

So I naturally set up my camera and did some tricks that really show off my muscles to get Natasha going.

Watch

She immediately threw her training stuff down and ran to my dance room. 😝

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: I want moreeee nowwww but I’m gonna post this and possibly make a pt. 4 if I can find anymore. I’m a horrible person I know guys 😭

@ihartnat @lvinhs

[nextstop-fixationstation]

OK analysis time! Matt said that Marcy's affection towards Sasha was more surface level than Anne's, which was described as "complicated." People might assume that this means that Marcy's affection for Sasha wasn't deep, or that their relationship wasn't.

If we're being honest here they weren't presented as having depth to their relationship so much as having acts and services. They're on the level with each other and can interpret each other's needs for a plan but they are lacking somehow when it comes to each other's emotional needs. This is something Darcy touches upon when they say they might not have ever been friends at all, and might be a core conflict between Sasha and Marcy. It's also a good example of why Anne is the actual Heart of their friendship. She connects and makes their dynamic deeper. While Marcy is desperate to keep people together and hates being alone, she admits she lacks a core understanding of emotional intelligence and this is something she admires in Anne. Marcy treats herself as a tool and mostly makes friends by doing things for them and complimenting them. She's kind of the perfect POV character for a journal that gives lore specifically because she's very attentive to things like strengths and weaknesses and team synergy, but isn't necessarily attuned to emotional intelligence. She kind of blocks herself off from feeling certain things too keenly or doubting herself, and masks it using this peppy overachiever persona.

Maybe if Marcy were more emotionally self aware, she would have been even more openly hurt by how dismissive Sasha is of her interests (even though Sasha clearly does like nerdy things), or she would have noticed that her friends don't really care for RP (etc). But in the series what we see is a Marcy so afraid of being left alone that she'll hide every emotion and every hurt aside from what she thinks will make people stay - she delivers compliments, improves infrastructure, says all the right things to earn trust. She's a great twist antagonist! Admitting that her friends don't or can't reciprocate her interests or desires is important to her arc, because it serves as a lesson to her that friendship is more than just doing things together or doing things for each other. Marcy and the others aren't just tools in schemes and plans.

We hear from Anna that Sasha has difficulty knowing when to bring other people to the table, so for someone like Marcy who thinks that she needs to earn everything through acts/upgrades, it makes sense that their relationship remained very surface level. Neither of them pushes the other to see things differently, while Anne does. Anne can acknowledge where people hurt and hurt her, and can acknowledge that this doesn't mean they aren't friends or significant to each other. Anne notes the complexity! It's why she's so compelling.

So, Marcy acknowledging how hurt she is that her friends don't want to do what she wants is significant because she also says, "I believe in you." Love goes beyond the stuff we do for each other. There's a bit of faith, too. What she did isn't right either. Being hurt isn't an excuse.

Darcy isn't just "evil Marcy," the Core is also every temptation for Marcy. Escapism, distraction, perfect friends who go on quests with her whenever she wants. There's a darkness to this kind of insecure attachment that Darcy reveals. Fear of inadequacy and irrelevance. Fear of loss. Fear of change. Fear of what is deeper than skin deep. Maybe my friends will forget me if I move. Maybe I'm just their nerd, just like Sasha's just cool. So their relationship isn't surface level to us, because this nuance is communicated to us through the subtleties of the show's execution. It's a really well acted, well boarded, well written show with fantastic music! It's really amazing!

Sasharcy IS very complicated! But it's complicated because they never dig deeper with each other until it's too late. It's also why it's significant that Sasha is the one to ask, "Can we save this friendship?"

Why is friendship with Marcy so easy? Is it because they got along and there's mutuality here, or is it because they didn't let themselves get any deeper than what was easy? It's so easy for them to just be the controller and the executor.

Forgiveness is hard. Forgiveness takes time. It takes a lot of thought, discussion, and work. Friendship in the long term, deep enough to mean something and hurt when it's gone, is similar. It's not just sentimentality and acts of appeasement.

aaaaand that's what i think matt meant when he was like "marcy's affection for sasha was kind of surface level"! I will admit I was like noooo Matt noooo don't say it was surface level whyyyy but like i had time to think abt it so i'm fine now lol lmk ur thoughts💙

smth i didn't add to my original tweet thread is that i DO find it interesting that marcy appears to specifically empathize with the experience of lonely people who grow up a certain way or doing things a certain way to protect themselves from loneliness. she seems to have an intuitive understanding of people fitting into groups via niches, but is drawn to people who already seem like outcasts as opposed to being able to identify it when someone is surrounded by people they seem to easily connect with. Marcy has this fundamentally insecure and lonely viewpoint that makes her very interesting to read and analyze, and I suspect it also contributes to her popularity. I mean, clearly *I* love her

[my-castles-crumbling]

Ayyy new intro and masterlist!

Intro:

Name: We're gonna go with Cas. Haha, get it? Like, My-CAStles-crumbling? Yeah.

Age: Younger than Taylor Swift, older than Conan Gray. That's all you get <3

Pronouns: They/them/she (But at this point I mean if you use he I honestly don't care.)

queer/demi/pan/I don't even know. Married.

Fandoms: Marauders with a side of drarry.

Ships: Jegulus, Jegulily, wolfstar, rosekiller, pandalily, dorlene, drarry.

Music: Taylor Swift, Conan Gray, Olivia Rodrigo

Writing: I love writing microfics, and my requests are open! I just don't write explicit (hahaha that changed) or xReader.

Fic List:

Note- I am writing all fic ratings. If you are a minor, please take heed.

My Fics:

Clandestine - Rated M - jegulus, background wolfstar - unfinished but currently 32k words - AU-everyone lives/nobody dies/no Voldemort - mostly Regulus's POV as he attends Hogwarts - Trans reggie

Long Story Short - Rated M - dorlene, wolfstar, jegulus, background rosekiller and pandalily - completed - 152k - AU-everyone lives/nobody dies/no Voldemort - A longfic with a long explanation? Basically how hurt/comfort leads to the three main pairings.

Three Hundred Takeout Coffees Later - Rated M - wolfstar - completed - 4.5k - AU-coffee shop/muggle - fluff, love, healing

The Plan - Rated G - wolfstar - completed - 1k - AU-everyone lives/nobody dies/no Voldemort - Wolfstar proposal

Of Firewhiskey and Stupid Speeches - Rated T - drarry - completed - 1.5k - Eighth Year - Hurt/comfort - Pre-Slash

Bad Press - Rated T - drarry - completed - 1k - Eighth year - mostly fluff

Stuck - Rated T - drarry - completed - 2k - Eighth year - hurt/comfort

You Asked For It - Rated G - completed - 1.5k - Marauders friendship mostly - Pre-Wolfstar - Sirius and James and nerf guns

The Deeply Threatening Physical Attributes of Werewolves - Rated T - Marauders friendship with some wolfstar - completed - 1k - James, Peter, and Sirius making Remus laugh

Slow Hands - Rated E - wolfstar - completed - 5k - Sirius realizing he loves Remus, smut ensues.

Whoops. - Rated T - jegulus - completed - 2k - AU-University/Muggle - Regulus is a TA for Professor Monty Potter. What happens when he goes to the Potter Christmas Party?

Mistletoe - Rated G - Jegulus - completed - 1k - James has a plan to finally kiss Regulus.

Warmth - Rated G - Jegulus - completed - 1k - Holiday fluff

Noises - Rated E - Jegulus - completed - 2k - it's just smut, guys

Fic Recs: (All of these are completed)

☆ = has at least some smut , 💔 = MCD, major triggers, or some sort of warning

I'm not putting anything that's pure smut...some of my real-life friends follow me so I don't think I'd live it down. If you want pure smut recs and are over 18, message me.

💔All The Young Dudes - Rated M - wolfstar and jily - 526k - Canon compliant - Necessary read as a part of the fandom, a masterpiece

💔☆ Show Me Everything I Missed - no rating, but I'd give it E - wolfstar - completed - 153k- AU - Remus and Sirius working through trauma - So many trigger warnings, but I really liked it

☆ Sweater Weather - Rated E - wolfstar - 156k - AU - Okay I think hockey is stupid but when these boys play it <3

just lovers (like we were supposed to be) - Rated M - jegulus, background wolfstar, dorlene, and marylily - 321k - AU- no voldemort - fake dating trope - literally perfection

lessen my load - Rated T - wolfstar, dorlene, jily - 73k - AU- Muggle - one of my comfort fics

☆The PB to my J - rated E - wolfstar, background jily - 63k - AU-textfic - we love a good text fic

Across the Hall - rated T - wolfstar, background jily - 41k - AU-textfic - This made me kick and scream and giggle

quite like us - Rated T - jegulus, background wolfstar - 67k - AU-textfic - I just...it's wonderful, perfect, lovely

Best Friend's Brother - Rated M - jegulus and wolfstar - 330k - AU-muggle - such twists and turns I love them

☆ The Barista, the Burglar, and the Sofa - Rated E - wolfstar, background jily- 21k - AU-Muggle/Coffee shop - I just love the concept of this one

my almost lover - Rated T - jegulus - 28k - AU-no voldemort - miscommunication trope

Blue Sheets - Rated T - drarry - 4k - fluff/drunk Harry is an idiot

☆Falling for a Golden Boy - Rated E - drarry - 45k - eighth year- guys it's the weirdest concept but Harry and Draco as characters from Hercules works, okay?

Potter - Rated T - drarry - 9k - Eighth year - Draco's friends make fun of him and it gets adorably out of hand

touch starved - Rated M - jegulus - 4k - soft boys

Inevitable - Rated T - drarry - 11k - Draco and Harry make a "if we're not married by the rime we're 40" pact

💔Like Real People Do - rated T - wolfstar - 37k - AU-coffee shop/muggle - Sirius raises Harry and meets Remus in a coffee shop

☆💔Let's Play Pretend - rated E - wolfstar - 70k - AU-muggle - Sirius raises Harry, Remus raises Teddy, fake dating

Remus Lupin is the Number One James Potter Cosplayer - Rated T - wolfstar - 8k - AU-Muggle - miscommunication trope

This took me an hour and a half...someone please use it lol

[absolutebl]

Given the wide range of BL you've consumed and analyzed. I am curious at your perspective when comparing BLs made/written by men and those that were written by women, in a different direction, comparing BLs directed by men in comparison to women.

If you could have the time and give your perspective in this two sources of BL , that would be great.

Hum, I'm not sure how to answer this. Except in a kind of avoidance way because I question the premise.

I think, in general, in most of the film industry, the original writing has very little to do with the final result, because so many new voices and povs are imposed on it the moment it begins to be adapted. After a BL leaves its author (predominantly female) it goes to script, a writers room, and eventually into the hands of director and team. All those people are different genders (predominantly male). And all of them have a significant impact on the end result.

Sometimes the author has unprecedented influence (mame for example) but that's pretty unusual.

Statistically speaking, the origin IP (whether novel or graphic) is most likely written by a female and the resulting BL most likely directed by a male.

There are always exceptions, of course.

Even putting aside all the other people, mostly script writers, in between the two primaries (which I just don't think you can) it would be statistically challenging to draw any commonalities amongst female directors (since there are so few) or amongst male writers (for the same reason). In other words, we have many many examples of really only 1 of the 4 possible combinations, and all those examples are muddied by the nature of the filming process (not to mention the nature of gender).

In other words, it would be challenging for me to say things are generally preferable in any one version of the pairings.

I have liked BLs written and directed by women, written by a woman directed by a man, written by a man directed by a woman, or written and directed by men (although those last two I would struggle to name any BLs).

However, I have also liked and then disliked BLs from the same general team and combination of genders behind the creatives.

For me, at least, there doesn't seem to be a reliable team or a reliable writer or a reliable director whose BL product I will reliably love.

I would hesitate to place a predictor on my BL taste (or anyone else's) based on the gender of any part of the team behind a BL. That seems..... weird. Especially when queers and 3rd gender etc are involved (and we have always been involved in artistic spaces for as long as humans have existed, I suspect).

But then I feel that way about most entertainment, from music to books to plays to comedy to fashion. I can be a fan of a director's style but not like some of their shows, just as I can be a fan of an actor's performance but not the character they're playing, or a fan of a pair's chemistry but not in those roles, and so forth.

I think what youth and influencers and the internet age has forgotten is that it's okay to admire a creative individual and not slavishly adore everything that they produce. (For fuck's sake though, don't tell them that, you absolute troll.)

Creatives and creative teams also have their own taste, and that may conflict with yours. Especially with newer IP where you might want the same old same old and they need to evolved. Consumers of entertainment are remarkably resistant to creativity, innovation, and change (so oxymoronic) .

It's okay, maybe you'll like their next BL, song, book, painting, performance......

I have no idea how I got here but:

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

I do have some stuff on a queer lens here:

[xmoonlitxdreamx]

hii, I was reading your hcs about fbdo and saw that you mentioned wham rap as Ferris' post-college song. This made me curious to know if there are other songs that you associate with slocamfer, both individually and as a poly triad?

Hmm! There's some songs I associate with the crew, some of them more concretely than others and nothing that elaborate... rn when I draw my fbdo art I mostly listen to this 80s (and some late 70s/early90s) playlist that I put together (I'll put it the end of this).

Answers under the cut bc it's kinda long:

For characters/etc in general, here's some associations I have (unfortunately very Cameron and Ferris heavy, I'm not as good at writing Sloane as some other people are;; working on it.):

Cameron

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love (song and album, especially the song), The Big Sky, Cloudbusting

The Smiths - just like a bunch of their songs but also Please Pleas Please Let Me Get What I Want (of course), Accept Yourself, Asleep

Siouxsie and the Banshees - The Killing Jar, Dear Prudence

The Cure - Boys Don't Cry

U2 - Bad (and misc other 80s U2)

Ferris

Wham! - Wham Rap

INXS - New Sensation

General Public - Tenderness

Prince - 1999

Cyndi Lauper - Money Changes Everything (thematically nothing to do with anything but idk lmao)

The Beatles - Please Please Me (album), any early Beatles ig

Wayne Newton - Danke Shoen (album)

The Zombies - Begin Here (album)

Sloane (kinda haphazard answers sorry)

The Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like, Wise Up, maybe some songs from Bruiseology but idk I mostly associate The Waitresses w an OC of mine lol;;;

Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere, Landslide, Silver Springs

Madonna - Borderline, Holiday

Blondie - Heart of Glass, Rapture (idk sure)

Dolly Parton - I Will Always Love You

Ferris & Cameron

The Smiths - You've Got Everything Now (tbh this kind of a bitter song ig but there's elements I associate with them), This Charming Man (esp Cameron POV), Back to the Old House (not really in my canon but for hc's where they drift apart after high school)

Wham! - Bad Boys

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights (Ferris POV somehow idk)

Pretenders - Don't Get Me Wrong

Sloane and Cameron

Talking Heads - And She Was (lyrically has nothing to do w them but I misheard some lyrics at one point and so now the song means something totally different to me than the real meaning lmfao), Perfect World

Jackson Browne - Somebody's Baby

Sloane and Ferris

The Cure - Just Like Heaven

The Dream Academy - The Edge of Forever (from the fbdo soundtrack, so.)

Echo and the Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar

Prince - Raspberry Beret

SloCamFer

Cyndi Lauper - When You Were Mine (kinda-ish idk. Not really lyrically 100% but it's so 80s sounding and vaguely "poly" lmfao)

Talking Heads - Wild Wild Life

Deniece Williams - Let's Hear It For The Boy (ferslo @ cam lmao)

I think. that's about it. Most of these are kind of just for vibes and not too deep;; and idk sorry again to Sloane......... i will listen to more music.............. I'll also maybe branch out to associating non-80s music with this cast at some point too but idk lol

The Cure - In Between Days

10,000 Maniacs - These Are Days

Playlist:

[ganthritorchic]

Thoughts with some time away from the episodes

With such short seasons now, a show has little to no time to dawdle. I have had two episodes now and well, I continue to not be impressed with murderbot as a show.

I've been reading other's responses, articles to temper my own response and yeah.

All I can say, is that this looks like Murderbot. And that's about it, honestly.

It looks like someone skinned it and put it over their new frame and well... It's a poor fit.

Jurassic Park the book, and Jurassic Park the movie are pretty different and both are great parallel tellings of that story.

Howl's Moving Castle, same deal. Cowboy Bebop and Lockwood and Co were great adaptations of their originating material. Lockwood bc GREAT adaptation choices were made to make the change from book to show. Bebop is an intentional remix and they start right off the top making that clear to you through music and outright visual cues culminating in the end of the first episode making sure you understood that if you weren't just ignoring the blatant in your face of it all.

This LOOKS right. I would not have put a Skarsgard as MB but the acting is more or less fine. The casting is a strong point, where people aren't missing. All Systems Red doesn't feature a great many people (that matter) so all them of not being immediately present and the frankly shit choices regarding relationships and the weird normative treatment of queer relationships and how they actually work in canon was not unexpected but I still sure hate to fucking see it.

I've seen people talk about 'unreliable narration', and how now as a visual media we NEED to see more of the other characters and you are correct! Too bad it's done so shit here. You can make informed, intelligent choices for characters. IDC to see more of Gurathin and much of everything we have seen of him annoys the fuck out of me and I thought was unwarranted, but! It fits the fucking character and engineers in me the same annoyance I experienced the first time I read the book.

The writing and dialogue is either pretty good or incredibly shit, with no in between. Mostly shit.

Characters have been altered but not always in any great/better way. Changing Mensah so strongly right off the bat COULD work out, but here's the thing. MB had been on this bond for awhile. It knows and it's watching all the time, and while this is touched on and it's mostly just exposited at you.

OMG the expositing. Yes the book is fuckin narrated by our POV character but like... You have to do better or decide how you're going to do that. If we're going to have the voiceover All. The. Damn. Time.

Then the missing bits should be there. MB is always monitoring multiple inputs. Bc it is/was its job. I think an excellent way to do more showing instead of all the fuckin telling was missed there.

The book started perfect for a show/movie, in media res. And they picked this weak ass way to start, that completely undermined how Murderbot chose it's name. It's an incredibly weak choice story wise, boring been done before and this entrance was not a good take on it. Also, why origin story in this manner. Boring, not a new take on doing this. If you're going to do it, do it well. Why the stupid "oh I'm going to murder all of them hurr hurr" scene.

PresAux DO come from space!communism that is very different than what the corp rim is, but they're all scientists first and foremost and it's not to say they can't be hippie like, especially to corp rim society.... But this looks like bog standard hippie bullshit you can find anywhere and it's boring, bordering on feeling like that's being made fun of for some reason, in a story where it's very much the better place to be, if you're a human or construct. We do not know that yet and maybe that's the point...? But even then comedy or no, it feels mean for no reason. It detracts.

Same way any of the queer portions. Come on.... The canon lesbian(s--one missing role assigned to another) are now bi(?) which is fine... But now the canon lesbian couple now just HAD to have a dude involved? It feels slimy and in not in good way. I'm not feeling the way MB's gender is being handled--must titillate you with Ken Doll Skarsgard, and the uh... way Gurathin was using it/its in that conversation. There's something to be said about using your visual media to convey it got no genitals, and then it had no more cybernetic parts like it's very clearly explained in the book. Which, is going to make, if there is more, less impactful later on here.

It's not fair to judge it before I have it all in front of me and it's complete, but uh. It's missing some very foundational items or changed them for what appears to be weaker story telling choices, missed the point, or has really made it more difficult down the line for some of my very favorite story and emotional moments. It's not fair to say I don't feel the love for this story like I have felt in other adaptations... But part of that is found in attention to detail and I could have had a little more detail paid to or cared for. It's a fucking novella for Christ's sake to begin with, followed by more. Yes, you'll have to fill in some stuff in translation to visual but... Its pretty lean, you need to put that shit in or it collapses in on itself, hollow.

Like. It's fine if all you want out of it is hurr hurr comedy-ish awkwardness all the time, sure. Maybe it's just a rough start, the specificity of what this series seems to mean for many ppl being very hard to adapt, but damn I got enough stuff to pay attention to already and not enough attention already.

And all this comes across as, is yet more "content" to consume and forget. And I really really did not want that for this series.

[dayseternal-blog]

Hello DAYS8!

If you didn't know this will be the 4th question/rec I will have for you!

I only noticed this on NightOwl's story but I do wonder if you ever made a Naruhina recs centering around stories where it's narrated on Naruto's Perspective?

Now, now don't look at me like that okay? I do love when the story is in Hinata's perspective most of the time but reading fics where Naruto's the one feeling it and seeing the story unfold is a one of a kind thing and I know there's only a few stories or fics you will think of about this one. But I do hope you can find some fics though, I'm kind of craving for such fics these days.

I'm rooting for you to find a LOT hehe! Thank you DAYS8 and....

Please pray for me to finish my naruhina one shot! TT~~~TT Lol!

I hope you finished your one shot! Especially since it's been over a year since you sent this 😅

I don't know what face you're expecting from me? I love writing Naruto's perspective. A lot of other people do, too...

I think you're referring to

"Weird Hinata" by @nightowl27-writer - Rated E, Canon-Divergent AU, One-shot. Naruto thought Team 8 was out on a mission, so why is Hinata here in the middle of the night? And what is up with her new mission gear? How did she get a key to his place? Is she getting naked!?!? Who is this weird Hinata!?

I love that one! If you haven't read these yet, I think you'll love them, too, because they have that "Naruto feeling it" aspect you mentioned:

"Casual Touches" by @lunawrayth - Rated M, Canon-Divergent AU, Multi-chapter, Complete. It's the casual touches that do it.

“Misfired Attempts of an Uzumaki” by Transient Joy - Rated T, Canon-Divergent AU, One-shot. Happy Birthday Hinata! In an attempt to celebrate Hinata’s birthday, Naruto causes havoc along the way. At age 5 he pushes her down a hill, at age 9 he almost poisons Hinata and gifts her weeds, and age 13 was a failure. Can Naruto make it right this time? Or will everything crash and burn in it’s wake?

Chapter 32 from “Between the Trees” by @utsus - Rated T, Canon-Divergent AU, One-shot. NaruHina Prompt: (because it was hot as heck here today) how about NaruHina and bathing suits.<3

“Call Her Mine” by @peppercornpress - Rated G, Canon-Divergent, One-shot. Post-war NaruHina one-shot. Naruto is NOT oblivious in this.

“The Red Scarf” by peppercornpress - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Complete. Just two people who realize how they feel for each other. That’s it.

and not to be conceited, but I think you'd like the ones I wrote if you haven't read them yet:

“Nightdreams” - Rated E, Canon-Divergent, Multi-chapter, Complete. Naruto and Hinata find comfort in each other after the war.

“Tell Me of Forevers” - Rated T, High School AU, Two-shot. Delinquent Naruto is trying to change himself for the better.

Mostly/Only Naruto's POV

“Heart-Shaped Sticky Notes” by the point - Rated T, Canon-Divergent AU, One-shot. Naruto’s life had always been spontaneous, always going and doing something. It’s good, then, that Hinata’s able to give him some stability in the little notes she leaves for him. But one day, there is no note. Suddenly, Naruto’s life doesn’t make sense.

Untitled for NHMonth 2015 Day 5  by @flowerslut - Rated G, Canon-Compliant (?), Short one-shot. Prompt: Laughter.

Untitled for one-wayward-girl by flowerslut - Rated G, Canon-Compliant, Short one-shot. Prompt: Naruto seeks out Hinata after the fight with Pein.

“Flipped” by @cajuncherrybee - Rated G, Canon-Divergent AU, One-shot. In which Naruto is the blushing mess and Hinata is the oblivious one.

“Common Side Effects” by katarinahime - Rated E for a lot of things, Crime/Modern AU, Multi-chapter, Incomplete. Naruto and Hinata, in a struggling relationship, must confront the pain inside before they can love each other.

“Music” from “Naruhina Week 2017” by @hinatamyqueen - Rated T for language, Modern AU, One-shot. It’s Sakura’s birthday, so as per tradition, she gets to force Naruto and Sasuke to do whatever she wants to do.

Untitled by @jadeandonyx - Rated T, Modern AU, One-shot. Prompt: 4. teacher/single parent au + 5. one night stand and falling pregnant au

“The Forever Girl: Naruto’s Story” by @cherryjutsu​ - Rated G, Soulmate AU, Two-shot. The feeling of watching everyone around you grow old and die, while you stay young, is something that can never be forgotten, that is, until love finds you.

“The Ramen Booth” by @chloelapomme - Rated E, College AU, Multi-chapter, Ongoing. Years have passed since her unanswered confession in intermediate school, since his humiliating hazing incident in high school, since blossoming popularity drew their attentions away from each other. Yet time has only sharpened friendship into painful longing, even as their time runs out with the approach of the university fundraiser. Can 7 Minutes in Heaven at a crazy flat party be enough time to clear the air between old best friends?

"In-laws" from "Some Type of Love" by chloelapomme - Rated E, Modern AU, One-shot. "Boy, I'm tryna meet your mama on a Sunday Then make a lotta love on a Monday"

"Thunderstorm" from "With You in the Future" by chloelapomme - Rated E, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. Naruto fought against the odds for most of his life. However, today, he goes where the wind decided to lead him; Hinata’s arms. and "Dirty Little Secret" and "Promises" from WYITF

"August - Cultures/Around the World" from "Still Falling For You" by chloelapomme - Rated T, Modern AU, One-shot. "Diversity is not about how we differ. It is about embracing one another's uniqueness" - Ola Joseph

“Powerless” by bunny-hoodlum - Rated E for a lot of things, like depictions of violence and character death. Multi-chapter, Incomplete. His family’s past can’t be taken at face-value, and it comes clawing back to hurt him in ways that are out of his control.  DELETED FIC.

A good deal of "Postscripts" by WaterRolls is in Naruto's POV - Rated T, Canon-Divergent / Various AU, Series of unrelated one-shots. Mostly humor but will have occasional drama. Slice of life, romantic fluff, family bonding, what-ifs, AUs, angst.

"Permission to Engage" by WaterRolls - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. Our romantic leading man tries to propose, but things just don't go the way he plans.

"Resolution" by WaterRolls - Rated T, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. On a mission with Sai and Rock Lee, Naruto reflects upon his relationship with Hinata, then a brush with death and an encounter with a stranger leads him to make a decision.

WaterRolls writes a lot in limited 3rd Naruto's POV, so go through her profile.

"Lessons" by utsus - Rated T, College AU, One-shot. Prompt: Class president Hinata and delinquent Naruto.

“Chapter 5″ from “Between the Trees” by utsus - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, One-shot. Prompt: Can u do an angst prompt where hinata gets rlly hurt and naruto gets rlly mad and ends up crying in front of the kids? maybe an old enemy please?

“Chapter 6″ from “Between the Trees” by utsus - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, One-shot. Prompt: Can you do one where they are in battle can be sometime before they have kids or after but hinata is close to dying (still survives) and naruto freaks out and tries to help her u know what I mean??

Several one-shots of Between the Trees by Utsu is in Naruto's perspective.

“Day 22: Technology” from “A Love Story Like Never Before” by @journalsofagoddess - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, One-shot. It was the same feeling he always got when she left on missions. He felt useless that he wouldn’t be able to be by her side to protect her from everything and anything. But he was here now and he wouldn’t let anything hurt her. He promised.

"Drunk in Love" by @wickermayne - Rated E, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. Naruto and Hinata's wedding night.

"Fill" by wickermayne - Rated E, Canon-Compliant, One-shot. “I was thinking, Naruto-kun, now that I’m fully settled in, living with you…I was thinking that we should try.”

VulgarAssassin/Wickermayne writes a lot with mostly Naruto's pov, so if you don't already read his stuff, you should! Mostly smut.

“Tainted and Possessed” by cafrye017 - Rated E, Demons/Angels AU, Multi-chapter, Incomplete. Naruto, enslaved by the Sanctified for his Forsaken blood all his life, learns that he holds a power great enough to one day change the system, but he’s not on this journey alone.

“101 Ways to Make Hinata Hyuuga Faint” by Keidra369 - Rated T, Canon-Divergent AU, Multi-chapter, Incomplete. Naruto finds out early on in the academy that he has an amazing talent. He can make Hinata faint! Now he is determined to find all the ways to make her faint. Starts in academy years and ends sometime in their married life.

“Picture Frames” by Forever_in_Your_Heart - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, One-shot. They say it’s healthier to give up, but he is Uzumaki Naruto and he never gives up. (Can’t. He can’t, not this time)

Untitled by @jadeandonyx - Rated T, Modern AU, One-shot. Prompt: 4. teacher/single parent au + 5. one night stand and falling pregnant au

“If You Said You Loved Me” by destiny’s sweet melody - Rated T, Canon-Divergent, One-shot.  Naruto begins to realize he took her feelings for granted and now he’s too late.

“Ravenous” from “NaruHina Month December 2022” by @sessakag - Rated E, Modern AU, One-shot. “Hinataaaa,” Naruto pouted, leaning inside the open bathroom door, “you ready yet? I’m starving!” and "Can You Read My Pain?" and "Turning Point" and "A Drunk Mind Speaks a Sober Heart" and a bunch of others in NHM2022.

Sessakag also writes a lot in Naruto's pov. If I go through linking every one-shot, I'd be here all night.

“Down the Rabbit Hole” by @vegebulsoup - Rated E, Modern AU, One-shot. Despite his protests, Jiraiya takes Naruto out to a hostess club for his birthday and it’s not quite what he expected.

That's a lot and there's way more, but I'm kind of tired now 😅 in any case, if you've read the people who are active here on Tumblr, including my own stuff, you'd find a lot of NaruHina fanfics with limited 3rd Naruto's perspective.

Happy reading!

[phoebe-delia]

Writer Q&A

Thank you to the amazing @hephaestiions for the tag! Read Geets' answers here. I'm going to no pressure tag @basicallyahedgehog @phdmama @smehur and @geesenoises

how many works do you have on ao3?

88 which is NUTS to me

what's your total ao3 word count?

307,944 (which, again, NUTS)

your top 5 stories by kudos?

Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince (T, 7.7k words)

You Are In Love (T, 3k words)

Tongue-Tied (G, 510 words)

this is me trying (T, 12.6k words)

Call It What You Want (T, 2.9k words)

do you respond to comments?

I do my best! There are probably some I've missed but I try to respond to everything. Comments are the best. If you've ever left a comment on anything I've written, thank you so much.

what's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Travelin Soldier (T, 3.6k words) was the first MCD fic I ever wrote. I've probably written sadder things since then, but it hit me hardest of all the things I've written, I think, because it was my first. But I also have to give an honorable mention to I Could Never Rescue You (M, 1.6k words) which is inspired by the musical The Last Five Years. If you're not familiar with the show, it's basically the story of a relationship falling apart but one person's POV is chronological and the other person's POV is reverse chronological. I made Harry much less toxic than the character he's based on in the musical, but the storytelling style and overall theme are similar.

what's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I think I could make an argument for Stars by the Pocketful being the happiest, but most of what I write has a happy ending.

do you write crossovers?

I have! I wrote an SNL AU that I'm actually super proud of. Goodnight, and Have a Pleasant Tomorrow features Drarry as Weekend Update hosts. I wrote ALL the jokes myself based on REAL headlines I saw in the news at the time.

have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not hate, exactly, luckily for me. Someone left an overall nice comment on a fic of mine but said it "Wasn't exactly what [they were] looking for" because they wanted more angst. Which. Fair enough, I guess, but I never understood why they told me that lol.

do you write smut?

No, not really. I do read it and I have massive respect for those who do! Never say never, but for the most part, I keep things rated T or do more implied smut.

have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, luckily.

have you ever had a fic translated?

YES I HAVE!! You can read Just Between Us in RUSSIAN and it's the coolest thing ever!

have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, I haven't yet, but I'm open to it!

what's your all-time favorite ship?

Drarry. No ship has compelled me, inspired me, made me lose my ever-loving fucking mind, changed my actual LIFE as much as Drarry. I thought I knew what shipping was, before. There were ships I liked and supported and projected onto before Drarry, and after, but none of them has had the same grip on me the way Drarry has.

what's a wip that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I try to never say never. But I have an idea that quite honestly is probably meant to be a longfic that I don't think I have the stamina for. Without giving too much away, it involves a trip around the world, There Was Only One Bed, getting back together years after a secret relationship, and stubborn idiots to lovers.

what are your writing strengths?

Idk man lol. I have been told, before, that I can tell a compelling story without a lot of words. I'm also pretty good at banter in dialogue.

what are your writing weaknesses?

I haaaate writing descriptions. I wish all my stories could be dialogue only. Also, I have trouble coming up with endings, both in terms of how a story should end plotwise and what literal words to use lol.

I've mentioned recently that I just got out of a super toxic job that kinda beat the creativity out of me. I didn't write much the last couple years, and when I did I mostly hated what I ended up with. But I'm working on it! I love fic and fandom and writing too much to give up. I hope it makes me a better writer in the long run.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I know a verrryyy little bit of French, but I can't really think of a time I've used it in a fic (that doesn't mean I haven't tho lol). I think it sounds fun tho! I like when other people do it!

what's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

I wanna write more femslash. Pansmione. Ginsy. Linny. Maybe some rarepairs. I've written a couple but not in a long time.

what's your favorite fic you've ever written?

I always say it's TIMT but I'm going to break from tradition and mention a fic I haven't talked about in years. The Door (T, 2.6k) was one of the first fics I wrote, and while it features Drarry it's really a conversation between Draco and his father. (CW for homophobia. it's sort of implied? but also pretty obvious).

[tams-writeblr]

Love in a hopeless Place 26

Synopsis: She was barely grown up, when she stepped into the bar that was the center of Zaun's resistance. The people she met there would forever change her life, and one of them especially. Silco x reader/OC; first-person POV; overall rating: E for Explicit; canon-compliant (though I might make a stretch on the timeline here and there to make things fit my symbolism); age gap! (younger female, older male); 9 chapters; 45k; cis female reader/POV; no beta-reader; completed Chapter ratings/warnings: G for General, no swearing just boring business stuff Wordcount: <1k Author's note: Listen, I'm an accountant myself, and this is a self insert so yeah, we need some boring business talking, okay? It's about the subtext, guys! Comments would be appreciated!

Today's music recommendation: Selena Gomez - Back to you

<- previous | next ->

Act III

Chapter I

Part 4/7

At 11 AM straight the next morning, I opened the door to Vander's realm without knocking.

Silco stood in front of the large window, eyes fixed on the lane below him.

I threw the books on his desk. "My last year's work. I don't think you need me to explain everything to you."

He turned to me over his left shoulder, so that I could only see his gleaming, deformed eye. "I want to hear it from your mouth. Why would I pay you otherwise?"

I sighed and took a seat in the chair on the side of Vander's desk. "The earnings have been mostly stable over the last twelve months. Actually, over all the years that I've worked here. It's enough to pay the two full-time workers and two to four aides, as well as me, and an average salary for the keeper. How many aides we have depends on the season. Summer and deep winter are our best months. Spring is the lowest because of the bad weather. But we have around 75 percent regular customers, so the fluctuation isn't that high. The aides only work on the weekends and if we're booked for a special event, like a birthday or stuff."

Silco didn't interrupt me once while I talked about finances some more, he only sat across from me and looked carefully as I showed him our numbers. Sometimes our glances shortly met, but there was no expression in his eyes.

"You've been doing a decent job here," he remarked as I ended my report. "I want you to continue like this. You'll manage the recruitment of workers from now on. And do something about that down in spring; we can't afford that. Ensure that the regulars keep coming, we can't risk losing those. Pretend that nothing has changed. That head-bartender - Kev - I don't like him, but he seems to do a decent job. And Mimi, she's basically part of the furniture. I want you to do everything so that they continue their work. People are used to them."

"I'm afraid we'd have to hire a new bartender anyway," I pointed out. "Vander did a huge chunk of work around the bar. To operate as before, we need another pair of hands."

Silco sucked his teeth, and I saw his brain working behind his facade. "That would leave the bar with little to no profit."

I agreed. "But I don't think you will stand behind the bar every day of the week."

"Of course not. Despite, I'm not the person, people want to see here. What are you suggesting, accountant?"

I bit the inner of my cheek, quickly weighting the possibilities. "For now, I could let the aides work under the week too. They'd earn a little more than now, but not as much as an additional member. I could ask Kev to work six days a week instead of five, for compensation, of course. And if we're still short on the Saturdays... I could hire another aide. That'd still be cheaper as one full-time power."

"No," Silco decided. "No new aide yet. You can hire new people, should the numbers go up. When we're short on staff, you and Sevika will help out."

"Sevika?", I questioned, high-pitched. "I'm pretty sure she's not who people want to see here, either."

"She can do stuff behind the scenes. Like warehouse work. And she can handle bar fights. That's her specialty, to be fair."

I leaned back into my chair and crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for further instructions or questions.

He mimicked part of my gesture, but gently tapped the tips of his fingers together.

There was a moment of silence between us, as we just looked at each other.

"You don't complain about helping out, yourself?", he asked after a while.

I shrugged. "Been there, done that. When times were desperate, I did help in the past too. Not a great server, but I make a sick Long Island iced tea, if I may say so."

An actual smile crept on his face. "Hear, hear. I guess I got to try this sometime."

I batted my eyes, ignoring the warmth in my face. "Was that everything?"

Silco's elbow came on the desk, and he placed his chin on his palm. "When can we reopen?"

I shrugged as I got off the chair. "If Sevika hadn't been "Not that hard" to my staff, we'd be ready tonight. But unfortunately, Kev has a fracture in two fingers and Mini a black eye. The one aide can't stop crying. Give me a week, I take care that they're fine by then."

Silco clicked his tongue. "Fine, one week. But I want this bar open next Friday."

I nodded, neatly putting the chair back in its place. As I took my books up, he stopped me with a swift movement.

"One last thing."

I looked into his face, careful to leave a stoic expression.

"Do you still live in that dump?"

I was confused. Why would he ask that? That had nothing to do with our work. I still nodded. "Yes, and?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to know."

I went to leave, but as I opened the door, I gave him a second look. "The Landlord has remodeled the bathroom, by the way. We now have showers. And enough hot water for everyone." I didn't know why I gave him those details. Maybe to fuel his visualization.

[the-wip-project]

SloMo WriNo: Instantly Improve Your Writing With One Simple Trick

Want to make your writing instantly better?

Don’t we all?

Promising instant improvement is an easy way to hook eyes, (I’m sort of sorry for click-baiting you— but not too much.) so a lot of writing advice is framed that way.

But is it actually possible?

Generally the advice on those types of posts isn’t anything revolutionary. You’re told to eliminate adverbs/filter words/telling. Or perhaps the advice is additive. You should start using all 5 (or even 6?) senses in every description, do or don’t use certain tenses or povs, change up sentence lengths, use more paragraph breaks, and so it goes.

It’s (usually) all useful advice, especially when applied in moderation. (No one will come and shoot you for occasionally using suddenly or summarizing a scene instead of showing every detail.)

The issues is that a lot of writers (especially beginner writers) are seeking some sort of magic bullet. That one trick that will change everything and magically make you good. (never mind that ‘good’ is far more nebulous and subjective than anyone wants to admit.)

Sadly, once you get beyond learning things like punctuation and when to insert paragraph breaks, there’s not really any single technique that you can quickly apply and immediately lift the quality of your writing.

For the rest, it really takes time. Even if the advice is good, you need to learn when and how to apply it.

As such, there’s only one technique that will definitely make your writing better.

Practice.

Yeah. So boring. The least sexy piece of writing advice. Write more.

But it’s also the simplest. (Not always the easiest, but definitely the simplest!) Writing is not mystic or singular. It’s just like any other art or craft. The only way you get good is by spending time at it. And just like anything else, you’re going to be bad before you can start to get good.

You would never expect to become an accomplished guitarist by spending lots of time listening to and thinking about music, while almost never picking up your instrument to practice. And you will not become a good writer without practicing the action of writing.

It’s a comforting idea that gets bandied around at times, that writing isn’t just fingers on the keys or pen on paper. That it’s thinking and daydreaming and making mood boards etc. While those writing adjacent things are fun and undoubtedly can help you write, they are not writing. They are not practice.

Spending your time doing those things instead of writing do not make you a better writer, and obviously they don’t finish your novel or writing project.

Which is my goal here. To help you finish your project. As such I spend very little time on dispensing advice on plot or prose, and focus mostly on the process of writing.

That’s not to say that I don’t think you should spend time on learning how to write better prose, or how to create compelling characters and plot, those things are important! But if attempting to learn that stuff gets in the way of practice, then it’s counterproductive.

So don’t let the writing advice become the focus of your writing. Apply advice slowly, and don’t overwhelm yourself with trying to fix all your perceived faults at once. (I still have a difficult relationship with punctuation, but I’m learning. Slowly.) If you can, focus on techniques that interest you. Keep things low pressure— fun even?

Yes you want your work to be as good as possible, but also, you’re doing this writing thing because you enjoy it, right? So don’t allow the pressure to be good to stop you from having fun. If trying to apply a certain piece of writing advice is making you miserable, toss it aside. It’s either bad advice, or it’s not the right time for you to worry about it. Above all, avoid anything that kills your joy and makes writing a miserable chore.

So I guess this is my one piece of advice that will improve your writing (process) instantly.

Enjoy yourself, and ditch anything that ruins that joy. You’ll get better at your own pace, as long as you keep writing.

—Maree

Subscribe to my substack to make sure you don't miss a post, chat with me on the WIP Project discord, and tag any posts you make about the challenge with #slomowrino if you want me to see them!

[acaciapines]

for the ask game, answer whichever of these speak to you the most: 4, 5, 11, 14 :D

HI ASH MY LOVE ASH.

oh they ALWAYS speak to me. i answer All. i will not be contained.

4. How many WIPs do you have right now?

actually shockingly few! ever since i finished my big owl house editing pass back in june i've not done a whole lot in terms of projects...and recently i've been playing rain world so instead of writing im playing rain world like 24/7. currently my only main project is the dess raises kris au, and in that 'verse the only thing i'm writing right now is a dess/chara relationship study. i WOULD finish it, but, uh. rain world. (<- guy who is trying so hard not to write rain world fic. i probably wont but also i am always tormented by ideas. but consider i have to tell the story of my slugpup scooter SCOOTER I WONT EVER FORGET YOU--)

5. What's a fic idea you've had that you will never write?

probably countless that i do not remember right now! but digging around through my drafts, i've got a few deltarune daemon aus that won't ever see the light of day...one of them was a fangame where the player played as one of kris's two daemons, and the other was a fic where ralsei was kris's daemon. the ideas from there have basically been repurposed elsewhere--a lot of my kris&ralsei stuff went into various works, and the fangame stuff is being reworked into the dess raises kris au.

beyond that, in terms of things that are actually abandoned and won't be used elsewhere, there are so many daemon aus that i've left behind for one reason or another, though the gravity falls transcendence au is the one that i think was the best...that one postcanon his dark materials fic i was gonna write where lyra and pan return to will's world and cause general shenanigans there with him and kirjava...a vera-centric son of sea foam wings of fire au because vera is the love of my life and i was rereading wings of fire bc i felt nostalgic....oh my god fantasy high SOPHOMORE YEAR FIC, which i tried to start TWICE, once from fig's pov and once from ayda's that was their road trip back home and i have some very funny snippets from...MY INFINITY TRAIN DAEMON AU WAIT THAT ONE STILL GOES SO HARD ACTUALLY. okay drop everything ive ever said the fact that i never wrote my infinity train book two daemon au is a travesty. i was cooking with that one.

11. Do you have specific playlists for writing fics?

sort of! i usually always have at least one or two songs i connect to any given fic, but in terms of what i listen to when actually WRITING, it's changed over the years. i used to put on compilations of video game music--usually utdr, pmd, and then just whatever got recommended to me lol--then i did like. those character playlists people make on youtube? mostly bc they tended to pull from the same pool of songs so it became good background noise lol. now i use the youtube mix or whatever its called for a similar reason--it tends to play the same handful of songs ive listened to a lot, so they dont distract me.

14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?

oh i LOVE this question, and it would be without a doubt my nimona daemon au oh, are you at all like me. nimona itself is obviously both a comic and a movie, and i'd say animated film since the fic follows the movie plot more--i think there'd be a LOT of really cool scenes you could get with that fic. i also think i could make killer animatics based on my fics if i could draw good enough <3 and thats not a joke i have scripts and sketch storyboards and everything. maybe one day i'll finish one of those.

[fallouttboy]

to me, fall out boy has become, and maybe always has been, a love letter to your past selves. love is messy. love is hard. love feels an awful lot like a tsunami and sometimes it’s overwhelming in a bad way, but if the love is there and real, it’s also overwhelming in good ways. awash in the warmth and comfort of a good love yet knowing through experience that in order to feel that warmth, you have to be a little bit cold sometimes. it’s okay. because you know that if your love is truly capital l love, it’ll be warm again, and it’ll come back. that’s fall out boy.

their lyrics are blunt sometimes, cutting to the core on the first slice. the powerhouses of patrick and pete writing in counterpart collaboration: pete brings the words to patrick’s music. patrick knows how to say what pete writes, without words, perfectly. pete could write lyrics for others and patrick could compose for others but together is where their art is most compatible. the swoops of strings in stardust (the record) with pete’s mood swinging, too-deep truth wrapped up pretty in sarcasm and irony lyricism, the brutal honesty of i think ive been going through it, and ive been putting your name to it or love is in the air, i just gotta figure out a window to break out or talking to the mirror, save your breath, half your life you’ve been hooked on death- there is no other way for things to sound as right as they do. composer (patrick)//never composed (pete).

the emotions were palpable through a stream, i cannot imagine how it felt to be there. the band seemed so high in their emotions: the setlist changes, the riffing, the speeches. tonight was about living to see the life you’ve created. living to see the life you’ve been told you’d never have. patrick’s speech about how he deals/dealt with hardcore imposter syndrome, never thinking he’d do much and not thinking he’d ever get anywhere. looking back and calling himself a “fat little eight year old”. i felt the breath hitch of all of the people of the Garden who know exactly what it’s like to be the fat little eight year old, who know exactly what it’s like to feel like you don’t belong and never will. but patrick said it: you belong. he belongs. our fat, eight year old selves belong. and maybe he meant it as a simple statement with no meaning behind it, like saying a baby’s cheeks are fat, but to me it didn’t feel that way. it felt genuine, from the voice of a man who is, at forty years old, finally comfortable in his skin and body. it felt like a love letter to us, the people who are mostly okay now but still have that voice that reminds them that they’re not as small as the others, never have been, not really. and he dedicated the theme for spidey and his amazing friends, a song he composed for disney (!), to that little eight year old. the eight year old who loved spider-man. the eight year old who could never have ever imagined working with/for a licensed spider-man creation, or playing madison square garden, or being where patrick is. he did that for his past self. he did that to say look. you belong. you made it. we made it.

and xo replacing sixteen candles. to the love. to the fucking love. it’s all for love, everything this band does-every word, every note-love never wanted me but i took it anyway. this, paired with pete’s speech that talks about how it’s important to create art, no matter the weirdness, it just shows how much we and the band mean to them. patrick’s reminder of the band hanging all of their rejection letters from record labels on the wall of their apartment back in the beginning of the band, compared to now, sold out at madison square garden; to the love. to the love. to the love.

to bring in get busy living as one of the 8 ball songs is absolutely insane for tonight’s set. not only for the sheer chaos of it, but for the, well, everything, about the lyrics. to me, it’s a queer song. it’s a trans pov song. you like boys like me better, in the dark laying on top of you. not in the light. not where i can be seen. boys like me, the kind of boy who was born with a girl’s body and socialized as a girl, the kind of boy who doesn’t have any childhood photos as a boy, the kind of boy who hopes and prays to who or what ever that one day he will be boy “enough” for you. boys like me, you like “boys” like me. in the dark, without lights, blackout curtains drawn. you can pretend it’s not a dampness you feel against you but a solidity, you can pretend it isn’t too cool and too slick to be real sliding up into and against you. you can pretend it’s not me, then, better in the dark. you don’t see me.

put into context of tonight’s feelings it’s…a lot, to say the least. pete probably didn’t write it with gender fluidity in mind, it was likely a drag on his “bad boy” persona and being more comfortable fucking him when they can’t see who he is, characteristically, rather than through a gendered eye. either reading is tragic though; either scenario involves a party who cannot be seen in an extremely intimate encounter, and the other cannot bear to see them for whatever reason (pain? shame? i’ve always read it as shame of sleeping with someone the same sex as you, and then also someone who is trans, but hey, i’m queer and i could be wrong).

the idea of only being loved for with the lights are off and therefore could be anyone the other person wanted in comparison to the love that was so clearly and fully expressed at tonight’s show is kind of overwhelming in juxtaposition. love that is conditional (lights off) vs unconditional (be weird, create weird shit). love that you don’t know what to do with (through the keyhole i watched you dress//never feeling like you belong). patrick playing his big scoring composition entirely alone, on acoustic, in front of a sold out madison square garden. the whole band playing a sold out madison square garden. there’s that interview from a few days ago where patrick talks about bruce springsteen asking him to take a photo of his (springsteen’s) kids at msg, how patrick was starstruck, and how it taught him “take it (playing madison square garden) seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously”, and i can’t help but think about it in context with tonight. take it seriously (the love, the venue, the fans) but don’t take yourself too seriously (playing a spider-man theme song).

fall out boy is about love. it’s for lovers. it’s for those who want to be loved. it’s scar crossed lovers, forever.

[terraco-07]

So I've noticed something in recent years about media consumption (I know your eyes are probably already glazing over). Well it's probably been a thing for a long time but the idea of waning or waxing popularity with time. I mostly want to talk about waning but for the waxing side I feel like I've always seen it with music. An album comes out, has kind of mediocre reviews or is generally seen as good not great, but a few years later and it's revered as a classic with some of the best songs the artist has ever made. An easy one to point at for that here is Eminem I mean he literally mentions it in one of his songs too, but that aside onto the waning. I've seen this with almost every major popular thing in recent memory but I'm going to hone in on video games and the latest example being Baldur's Gate 3. The way it went from receiving nothing but praise to nothing but criticism. The pedestal it was put on being ripped away by fans right away for any conceivable thing that wasn't as good as it could be. It makes me think that once we start declaring something is amazing, perfect, a classic in the making, that there is going to be an inevitable heel turn on it. Now I can't confirm every corner of the internet (I swear I do touch grass sometimes) just what I see online so anecdotal as this may be I'd be curious to see if others have noticed it too, but I see almost everything that the game received praise for now being given back in criticism. "It was a perfect game the characters were deep and there's so much to do!" Into "The story was really lacking, half the play throughs weren't that good and honestly the characters didn't do enough/weren't eccentric enough." Which I kind of find fascinating. Personally I don't have hard feelings on it, I think the endgame pacing could be tweaked and some more content for Wyll added, but overall I enjoyed the game plenty (200 hours) and then moved along. I find it really interest to see the overall narrative start to slide hard though, the way those little things are not becoming detriments and that Larian need to add x, y, and z things or the game is terrible. I don't think this is exclusive of BG3 either, it feels like something that sort of permeates fandom these days. The idea that when something is so good in the eyes of many there is an inevitable tearing it down as soon as enough people decide it could be better. On the flipside midling games or content that slowly gets better seems to have it's public perception in a better state a few years after the game vs games that came out with incredible reviews and response that just let their finished works be. It makes me wonder if say No man's Sky, Cyberpunk, etc games that people would say sucked on launch but got way better with updates would stack at their peak against a BG3 in fandom eyes. Would those games have gotten the inevitable tear down too? Idk this is all just a ramble I've been watching the slow change from happy to disgruntled within this fandom for a little while now and I just think it's interesting to talk about from a fan pov.