#of course i am absolutely up for doing threads... i have just not really........ started any

[aestherin]

KEEP MY HEART

goal 28: we aren’t a couple

It was mostly your voice that filled the silence between you and the man beside you. Some effort from him was apparent though, as seen with his occasional quips and playful remarks. Truthfully, it wasn’t that he was lazy to retort, or that he had nothing to say. Rather, it was just that he had much more to listen to than tell.

Scaramouche swore he would never tell anyone, but he loved listening to the little parts of you — the little parts of your day, the cute memories you have, all the stories you had for him. He loved reading your daily messages, of course. But nothing can ever compare to how much he loves hearing your voice as you talk comfortably with him.

Your steady footsteps as you continued to freely tour around Scaramouche’s campus came to a stop when you felt a cool fabric suddenly sit on your shoulders. A navy blue varsity jacket with white sleeves.

The representative colors of Scaramouche’s own university.

“Why are you putting your jacket on my shoulders?” You rambled as you walked. “For your information, I am not a clothing rack.”

“You really are stupid.” Scaramouche playfully flicked your temple. “I’m giving you my jacket because it seems you aren’t even aware that you were slightly shivering.”

“Kuni, you’re also stupid.”

“What?”

“‘Giving’ is when you’re handing something to someone without planning to get the item back. You should call it ‘lending’ instead.”

“Who said I had plans to get my jacket back from you?”

“Huh?”

“I want you to keep it.”

“But this is your varsity jacket! You use this in games, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah. But I have lots of those, so don’t worry.” He said as he lightly rested his arm above your head.

That was now the second jacket of his that he asked you to keep.

Matching his footsteps with yours, he came to a halt when you did. “Can we sit there, Kuni?”

Scaramouche’s eyes followed to where you were pointing. It seemed you were talking about the several benches in the wide field located in the heart of their campus. He was about to nod when a certain information he recalled reading on an online thread during freshman year suddenly flashed in his mind.

“Absolutely not,” he frowned as he crossed his arms.

“What?” You whined. “But my feet are killing me!”

“There’s a saying about these benches.”

“Really?”

“Mhm. People say that couples who sit together on these benches will break up.”

“But we aren’t a couple…” You trailed off, seeing Scaramouche’s mood subtly going down due to your words. He always had an honest face.

You cleared your throat. “Well then, just to be safe… Why don’t we sit on the grass instead?”

You see the corners of his lips curve a little.

“Okay, let’s do that then.”

You both continued with what you were doing prior to seating on the field. You talked and talked, and he listened and jested. As much as you loved how genuine of a listener he was, you craved more of his voice and stories.

“I’m actually starting to think this is unfair, Kuni.” You feigned a frown. “Why am I always the one who does the talking?”

“Are you getting bored of me now?”

“What? No!"

“I just… Isn’t there anything that you want to tell me? Open up or talk about or share? Anything at all?” You tried to keep up with his stare. “I just feel bad that I am always the one that does the ranting and you always listen, but I can’t even repay you by lending an ear.”

He avoided your gaze. “You being there for me always is enough,” Scaramouche uttered lightly, enough for you not to hear. Instead, he just let out a deep sigh. “Okay then. It’s my turn, I guess.”

You smiled, thinking he was going to start light.

You thought wrong.

Scaramouche immediately started with how his coach — which was also his mother — was harsher on him than on the other members of the team. Harsh trainings, hectic routines, and high expectations seemed natural to him. You even began to contemplate whether what you’re hearing is still a relationship of a mother and a son, or that of a tenacious coach and her promising trainee.

“She wasn’t always like that though,” he said softly. “Believe it or not, I have memories of when she was so gentle and loving with me.”

“She only started becoming like that when I became firm with my decision of being a soccer player.”

‘But was that even enough for her to change so drastically?’ You thought. Maybe there’s another reason?

“It would’ve been easier for me to hate her if I didn’t have any fond memories of her, don’t you think?”

KEEP MY HEART — scara x reader smau

previous . masterlist . next

TAGLIST I (closed)

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[revelboo]

Would Thundercracker's human friend from Better Open the Door ever be able to convince TC to let them go home? (Their actual home lmao)

Or would he just plain refuse to see reason forever?

Like, he seems reasonable enough, if a bit... Clingy. And lonely. And sad.

I mean, I'd gladly be his friend, and talk about movies with him. But being kept in his room like a glorified pet is a bit much.

He would when the guilt kicks in hard enough, wanting to prove he cares and listens, even if he hates it. That said, he’s absolutely going to spend every free minute he has stalking you from above in his alt mode to keep you safe.

Better Open The Door Pt 15

Thundercracker x Reader

• Drowsing sprawled on him, it’s strange to feel so comfortable. One of his hands on the small of your back and the other on your butt. Resting your chin on him you study that handsome, alien face that’s become so familiar to you. Knowing you’re falling for him despite still being unhappy with him and you’re tempted to ruin it all. Trying to gather up the nerve to ask again, because if he really cares about you, he has to understand he has to let you go eventually.

• Optics brightening when he feels you move on him, he tucks his chin to see you. And you look so lovely sprawled on him, servos flexing on you when you yawn. “Sleep okay?” He asks and you lay your cheek back down against him. This moment. He wants to keep it forever. The way you look waking up in his arms, hair messy and eyes sleepy. “I’m probably not a very comfortable bed, am I?”

• “You’re warm.” Painfully aware of your own nakedness when the servos of one hand slides up your spine and his other hand gently flexes on your butt. And there’s his spike hardening against your hip. “Already? It’s hard to have a conversation when you do that,” you protest. And he smiles crookedly at you, expression almost boyish and not at all ashamed.

• “You have that effect on me,” he admits, cupping your chin and tipping it up. Venting when you lean up on him, mouth brushing his in a much too brief kiss. “Not so fast.” Servos threading through your hair to cup the back of your head, he tugs you back to him, mouth lazily exploring yours.

• Laughing as you break away and his servos lazily comb through your hair, you push up to straddle him and his servos skim up your body and then back down to rest on your hips. Remembering his words from the night before. That he’d said he loved you when he barely knows you. Even if the way he looks up at you is almost worshipful. “Can we talk?” Does he even really understand what love is or is he just fascinated with those love stories he watches?

• Servos wandering to cup soft skin, he rumbles at you. Do you think you really need to ask? That there’s anything he wouldn’t do for you? “Of course.” Servos stroking over you, he wonders if he can bond you. What it would be like to feel you tangled in his spark, touching him intimately. Why are you frowning at him? “Is something wrong?”

• “No, it’s just- It’s nothing,” you say, one of your hands covering his as it wanders and squeezes. And he’s frowning at you now, reaching up to tap a servo against your bottom lip. Waiting expectantly and you cringe. “You know you can’t just keep me here forever. Right? I have family and they must be worried.”

• Expression closing off, he catches your wrist when you start to pull away. Upset with him. Hasn’t he taken care of you? Protected you? “You’re not a prisoner,” he says, voice flat. Empty as his spark constricts. Was it only fragging to you? Nothing more? “I just want you to be happy. Safe.” And if you don’t want him, he’ll let you go. He’ll watch over you even if you don’t want him. Set you free and protect you from a distance as it kills him. You’re everything to him. “Is that what you want? To leave?” If so, he’ll stay as close as he can, let you have your freedom while you can, because as soon as the war starts up again, he’ll bring you back home to him no matter what you want. Can’t lose you.

Previous

Next

[lucius-i-ran]

"Where's the mud, Nico?" 

Nico took a moment of silence to understand if Percy was fucking with him. When he saw the dead serious expression carved onto his friends's face he started looking around, searching for black mold or something similar that might have warranted (almost) perfectly sane Percy to get him one sandwich short of a picnic. 

"What?" 

Percy picked up on Nico's absolute bewilderment 

"When I was little I was obsessed with mud, you know? but you understand that there's is not much to be found in a condo right in the center of New York City, right?" Nico nodded. "Before my mom could understand that she could not leave me home alone, she used to go to work and like clockwork, as soon as she stepped out of the house, I would walk no- run to the kitchen sink. With at least three toilet rolls, a gallon of water, eggs and some undetected 'son of Posidon' magic I would create mud-" 

Nico imagined little Percy, tiptoeing to the kitchen skin, hands deep in his infernal poultice and forced himself to swallow a laugh.

"-Of course, I was a fucking menace but I wasn't stupid so as soon as I understood that if I was to wash that away, the sink would clog and my mom had to phone that smelly brute of the plumber to repair our sink again, I would absolutely go bananas-" 

Nico felt the side of his lips quivered as a less amused, smaller Nico tried to desperately kick a laugh down his throat. 

"-And in my paniked, eight year-old brain-"

"You were eight??" 

Percy was stone cold serious and Nico was trying really, really hard.

"I'm sorry, please keep going" 

"I'm giving you classified information di Angelo, you should be grateful" 

"I am" Oh, he was.

"Anyway," Percy gave him a sharp look "the most brilliant idea I could come up with was to hide it in a random point of the house. And somehow, my mom always knew. She says I had got this panicked, adorably guilty look on my face so she would ask: 'where's the mud, Percy?' " 

"What has this got to do with anything?" 

"I've never had the pleasure of looking myself in the mirror right after hiding the mud, but if I had to guess, I'd say you have the same guilty look in your eyes. So, where's the mud, Nico?" 

And Nico realised just how grateful, truly grateful he was Percy told him about the mud.

It was like it closed a gap between them. Like the first brick for the bridge was placed, the first thread of a connection and Nico was glad Percy had been the first one to wove it.

"If I tell you where's the mud" Nico's voice trembled and he took a moment to decide if it was from the tension or the ridiculous thing he just said "Will you promise me not to be angry at me?" 

"Do you think my mother never got angry when I hid the mud?" 

Nico lowered his head and shook it, tracing small circles in the sand with his hand.

"Exactly, but I was still her son and she still loved me" Percy turned, slightly squinting, the sun hurting his eyes "I'm 98% sure you're not my son, Nico, but you're still my friend. A good one, and I'll still love you." he turned face first into the sun again, closing his eyes, basking in the warmth. "There are worse things that you could do than hiding mud, Nico." that conversation was getting out of hand. "You already did, actually" 

Nico looked hurt "Hey.." 

"You sold me to your father for informations" 

"I was twelve"

"And I've never held that against you" 

"Oh, haven't you?" 

"Point is" Percy shook his head "I'm still here, talking to you. I went all the way to Rome to save your sorry ass, so I can confidently say that what you're about to tell me will not strike a dent in the affection I have for you" 

"Really?" 

Percy shrugged "Sure, I might get mad, but I'll get over it in a couple of days. Weeks if it's really that bad. But I can promise you I won't try to strangle you this time. Maybe" 

They looked at each other. Man, Nico was glad Percy was so.. Percy. Shiteating grin and all.

"I'm scared" Nico's voice got tiny, almost a whisper. 

"Why?" 

"Because. This-" he gestured a flat hand between them "-dynamic that we have is already as weird as it can get. What if this is the breaking point?"

"Nico" Percy's voice got firm and kind of dark all of a sudden. It made Nico feel like he was getting scolded by his father. "The only thing you could say to really get me not to talk to you for at least twenty years is that somehow you managed to wipe blue food coloring from existence" then his voice softened "Besides, I really have to go to the bathroom so you either get this over with or I'm pissing off some tree nymphs and trust me, you don't wanna see that"

In normal circumstances Nico would've rolled his eyes and laughed, but in that moment he couldn't even get something similar to a colic-induced smile to grow on his face.

He swallowed the lump forming in his throat. Or at least, he tried to. 

"The reason I acted the way I did years ago wasn't because of Bianca" Great start, Nico. "I mean- it was, for a while. But then I realised I wasn't angry anymore. Not at you or Bianca, at least, but at myself"

Percy nodded thoughtfully. 

"I didn't hate you" a pause.

"Well.. that wasn't that bad" 

"No, you don't understand, Percy. I didn't hate you"

Silence. 

"I don't get it" 

And Nico had to suppress a curse. How in the earth and heavens below did he ever get a crush on this moron. He felt his cheeks burning with anger and humiliation and Cupid laughing at him, all the way from Croatia. He mentally sent a message to him: kill yourself.

"I- I had- oh gods. I loved you!" 

"I would sure hope so! Do you know how much it takes to go from California to Italy?"

Nico had to channel all of the discipline the nuns taught him in elementary school not to rip Percy's hair out, make a wig out of it, put it on his head and start running around camp screaming  'Look at me! I'm Percy Jackson and I'm oblivious as shit '

He straightened himself up and got to his knees, almost pleading for at least two of Percy's braincells to have a conversation about something that wasn't the nautical distance between San Fran fucking cisco and Rome. 

"For the sake of all that's good and pure, Percy. I had a crush on you! I was head over heels! Smitten! I fell for you. And I carried the damn torch up until last summer!" 

Silence. Nico eased his breath, collected his thoughts and sat back down, just processing how damn stupid he had been.

"That's why I was such a brat. Always distant and- and" he sighed "That's why I kept running away. I couldn't even look at you because it reminded me that I was different. That I wasn't cut out for love. It was killing me" 

Silence.

"I'm sorry. I promise it's all over now, it has been for a while. It wasn't even love probably, just you know-" big, fat tears welled up in Nico's eyes "I'm sorry, Percy" he whispered. 

He let them fall, silently and warm, striking his cheeks. Looking straight ahead of him, all of his confidence and courage leaving his body to find someone less problematic. Someone who wouldn't tie all chances of a friendship to a boulder, put it on his shoulders and dive into the sea to drown with them. 

Percy got up but Nico didn't even dare to take a glance in his direction. He heard his steps getting closer and wished that the son of Poseidon would yell at him or beat him up rather than doing nothing at all. That would kill him.

Fortunately, Percy wasn't Nico and had a secret fourth box in his list of Nico's Coming Out reactions.

He sat. Much closer this time.

He scooted over.

He wrapped an arm around Nico's shoulders.

He held him tight. 

And Nico, that up to that point had been absolutely mangling his lower lip trying to kill his sobs, couldn't help but bury himself in the crook of his neck and cry.

All those years of anxiety ridden nights, of buried feelings and humilation. He let them slide down with his tears, swiping them away with the back of his hand, thinking about nothing but the arms that were embracing him. Welcoming, warm, shielding. Familiar, just like the ones that Bianca used to give him. The ones that now he gave to Hazel.

And it was quiet all over again, occasional sniffling and soft sobbing playing along with the leaves to break the silence. 

They stayed like that for a good ten minutes.

Percy's hold kept steady, trying not to rush him.

Nico eventually lifted his head and immediately getting embarrassed for the wet splotch he left on Percy's shirt. His mind was quick to come up with something to distract him from it. 

"You're not my type anyway"

Percy was the first to yell out his laugh and Nico galdly followed, stopping only when the nymphs nearby peeped their heads through the branches and trunks to check that whatever animals were doing those horrible screeching noises were okay, then rolling their eyes realising they were just two demigods who had officially lost the plot.

They eventually caught their breaths.

"Totally a blow below the belt" Percy 'socked' him in the arm. 

"And I'm totally using that mud story against you"

"Well I'm sorry for you but the egg is on your face. The Stolls beat you to it and found my mother's number, somehow. They got her to spill all the embarrassing details" 

"What do you mean 'got her'? Sally Jackson enjoyed every second of it and you know that"

An hysterical fit of laughter was threatening to break loose but Percy was quick to change the subject. "So who is your type?"

And in real Apollo kid style, Will Solce made his grand entrance off camera, yelling with the might of a thousand chihuahuas: 

"C'mon di Angelo! Three days in the infirmary started five hours ago! Chop Chop!" 

"Yup, definitely not you're type"

[hmhas-00]

Ch. 23

Hit Me Hard & Soft

A/N- Do we ship Billie & Ellie?? Hmmm… (like and rb if you miss Remy lol) Hope you guys are enjoying the book so far! Stay tuned Tues&Thurs for updates and check out my masterlist!

Billie’s POV

The next few days flew by. I almost didn’t even remember what I did all week. Mostly, I moped around, dragging through the day, dodging phone calls or texts messages like the plague.

I overate, burned off the calories in my gym, then ate some more, slept, showered, watched more tv…

The events that transpired on my birthday, or should I say, the night of my birthday, left me feeling so distraught. I felt so embarrassed, so… douchebag-like, for leaving her like that.

That night, I felt like I was going crazy. Maybe I need to go back to therapy again. I mean, am I going to look at girls and see Remy for the rest of my life? That’s ridiculous. She really did look like her, but that’s no coincidence, okay? Maybe I have a type.

Every day is like this. My head explodes into internal rants, just like this one. It leves me in a fog for the rest of the day.

Maybe I should text her. I thought. I need to get her number and apologize. I’ll start with that.

I sit up on my empty couch, tucking my knees into my torso and text my friend Sydney, asking for Ellie’s number.

Some time passes and I finally get in contact with her.

She texts back, and I immediately open the thread.

Ellie: I was wondering if I’d ever hear from you lol

Billie: fuck sorry. i’ve been going thru some shit. it wasn’t fair to do that to you. you were so sweet about it. i’m sorry I ran off like that.

Ellie: I’d love to help if I can 😇

I wondered how she could help. Or if she’d even understand. I guess I owed it to her to find out. Either way, I couldn’t get Remy’s smile out of my mind.

I mean Ellie’s.

Fuck.

I looked back down at my phone, began to type, but couldn’t find the right thing to say. All I know, is I need to get out of the house.

Billie: I’d love to see you again. 🤞🏻

Ellie: Your place this time? 🥴

Tempting, but no. Absolutely not. I’m tired of being in here. And if I embarrassed myself like that again, it’d probably be my 13th reason.

Billie: How about we go get some food?

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

Before I knew it, the day took its course. We didn’t even notice the sun setting from underneath her sheets.

Our breathy voices and bare sweaty bodies needed some air. Ellie rested her face on her hand with her elbow propped up on the pillow, gazing at me as I zoned out.

“Where’d you go?” She took her opposite hand and brushed the stray hairs off my face.

I shook my head, trying to be as present as possible, careful not to fuck this up again. “Nowhere.” My eyes met hers, trailing off to her neck, noticing there were no freckles. They were never there.

I lifted my head off the pillow and kissed her collarbone, tuning out my inner thoughts. I know this can’t be healthy. And probably so selfish of me.

“You’re not gonna take off now, are you?” Her voice uncertain. I felt awful.

I stopped and pulled my face away, looking into her eyes. “No! Unless, you want me to?”

“No, this is nice.” Her lengthy eyelashes pleaded and her arm wrapped around me.

“It is.” I smiled. “I like you, Ellie, I do. I’m sorry if I’m giving mixed signals. My life is complicated right now and-“

Ellie let out a small laugh under her breath and nodded. “I get it. No pressure, really.” She smiled. Her lips were glossy, naturally pink, and especially plump for how much time I spent sucking on them.

I nodded, loving the sound of that. No pressure.

“I mean, how much more pressure can we add, right? We’re literally fully naked right now in your bed.” I joked.

“Whatever you wanna do, at your pace. Even if it’s just this. As long as you take me out to dinner once in a while.” Ellie laughed softly.

“Hey, it’s not gonna be just this, okay? I’m not like that.” I tried to reassure her, not knowing if she really was joking or laughing through the hurt.

Maybe sex was a bad idea. My mind began to spiral again. I shut my eyes, trying to avoid making things weird again.

Okay, maybe I’m the problem.

“Billie, I’m so down to just go with the flow.” She put her fingertips on my chin and tilted my face in her direction. “Are you?”

Her eyes looked sincere and inviting. I just wanted to stop the impulsive thoughts. I quickly wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her back on top, right where I wanted her. She towered over me, close enough for me to let my lips speak for themselves.

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

Weeks went by, and it was finally the end of January. Ellie and I had been seeing each other every day since December 21st. My friends had met her a handful of times and they seemed to like her. She fit right in. There were no problems, except… the elephant in the room.

More so the elephant not in the room. She wanted to know more about Remy.

Who is that girl in all your pictures?

What happened between you two?

Why don’t you talk anymore?

All valid questions. I just didn’t want to open up that can of worms. Because if I did, I’d have to explain more than I care to admit.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved to talk about important things. The deep things. The importantly deep things about her, of course. It was harder to open up about mine. Most things came out as a result of my oversharing. But there were things I didn’t even bring up. And neither did she, actually.

Until a package showed up at my door while she was here.

Well, she was always here. I didn’t mind, though. It meant I didn’t have to sit alone in my thoughts. Plus, she was really cool. Her energy and vibes were great. She made me laugh, I made her laugh. She has a beautiful soul. And she turns me on. She can go all day. It doesn’t matter what time it is, she could keep up.

I digress.

Anyway, the package.

A golden wrapped present at my door tied with a huge gold bow appeared at my door, with a tag that read, “From Remy ❤️”

“I mean, I just don’t understand why you don’t want to open it. I’ll leave if you rather do it alone.” She fidgeted with her fingers. She seemed upset, and maybe I was making it worse.

“I still wouldn’t open it. I don’t want to.” I shook my head, hoping she’d drop it.

“But, why? What happened between you guys?” She insisted?

“Ellie-“

“I just want to know more about you! Is that wrong?”

“No! It’s just not important!” I grabbed her arm, hoping it would soothe her, but it just made her even more upset.

“Not important? You guys were best friends. There’s photos of you two everywhere. Her things are in your room, Billie!” She crossed her arms.

I ran a hand through my hair, wanting to run off and shut down, knowing it would only make it worse.

“Ellie, this is just personal. It’s complicated! Remember we talked and you said no pressure? This is a lot of pressure.”

She scoffed, “Got it. You’re right.” She turned around, grabbing her stuff, heading for the hallway.

“No, don’t go.” I followed, rubbing my face, frustrated and confused. “Ellie I didn’t mean it like that.”

She said nothing, trotting down the staircase.

“Please, just hear me out. I just mean, it’s tough for me to open up. I need some time to just process-“

“Hasn’t enough time gone by? I mean you have no problems fucking me every day. You can do that and still find it hard to trust me?”

Sadly, yes. But I didn’t want to tell her that. I didn’t want to make it worse.

“Of course not!” I stopped her, grabbing her hand and making her face me. “Please, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I do trust you.”

I lied. Sort of. I trusted her with some things. I trusted her in my house, with my phone, I trusted her with other details of my life…

It’s just hard to tell the girl I’m seeing, and trying to fall in love with, that I am- I mean, was in love with my former best friend. That the feelings I’m supposed to feel for her, are so muddled by the image of my former best friend.

“How is this supposed to work if you can’t trust me with everything? You won’t let me in.” She held onto my hand.

Maybe she’s right. Maybe if I let her in, I’ll drop these other feelings, and I’ll feel closer to her. Maybe letting her in will help me get over myself.

I took a deep breath. “Okay.” I nodded. I pulled her hand, leading her into the living room, where the present sat.

She stood next to me as I carefully pulled on the beautiful ribbon bow.

[alteregozowie]

Shoutouts!

So many had sent some for the meme, that I'm just going to do the whole list instead! Cut for length ⏬️

🌈 - aesthetically pleasing:

There are so many of you guys that put the time and effort into creating your blogs aesthetically that it would be a crime not to shout out every one of you! Between art graphics and carrds. You all are wonderfully talented.

@arachnaemboss and @mourningstarred are wonderful examples!

⭐️ - convincing portrayal of canon character:

I think a lot of us have taken canon and molded into our own a lot, but I think the Angel Dusts really nail those characters - @poisonedspider , @arachn0philia , @angie-long-legs . So good! I've seen some Velvettes and Valentinos too that have been a joy to watch and interact with.

💻 - Excellent writing:

My god. Where do I even begin? You guys have made me feel so many emotions when writing it's incredible. @dick-meister I've stated numerous times that he was someone I looked up to when I was getting started, he's just wonderful. @voicesunified has graced me with her presence, her writing is steller, and I'm so fortunate I get to write with her. @radioiaci puts up with my nonsense but he is such a good writer he's incredible. @the-devil-less-known I love their Lucifer so much. @indulgentnine and Velvette you are phenomenal! Oh my goodness, I can't stress enough how wonderful you all are.

🌼 - creative headcanons:

It really is hard to pick specifically from a lot of you, as they are all so very unique and different. And the amount of effort it takes to do something like world building is incredible. I really dig @avispatr 's lore with the Goeita and Paimon, @queen-of-prophecy and her lore with Vine, and of course @more-things-in-heaven-hell with Lucifer and the ruling of Hell. @primordialruin has such extensive Lilith lore it's so interesting to read.

🎙- great to talk to:

@danger-tits-lute and dick-meister are two of my favorite people in the world, I love you guys. @voodoodaaddy who matches my energy a lot, @angelichooves whom puts up with my goofy nonsense at Adaile and Husk, and @rradiio who also matches my unhinged energy and such the supporter. arachn0philia is always a gem, once again, voicesunified who is my biggest art supporter I love you lots hun. more-things-in-heaven-hell is everywhere I am, they're my friend-soulmate~ There are so many I talk to regularly in group chats or DMs, so just know that I appreciate and love anyone who lets me into their circle or friendship. 💕

📚 - nice threads to read:

danger-tits-lute and dick-meister hands down. Always so emotional in whatever AU they are rolling it. It's so neat and I love it. Any of radioiaci's threads. angelichooves, the-smallest-star always has me invested in any story she rolls with Gritt and the crew. I read so much of everything, I love it all.

🏅- well developed OCs:

🎀 - all around kind person:

indulgentnine and @hellsdisneyprincess are absolute gems. They are so lovely, and so freakin' nice. @infernal-matriarch is a sweetheart too and contrary to Valentino, @the-delightful-temptation really is too. @keenie-bopper has been my friend a long time too. @damnedrainbows has been good to me as well.

Some of you have taken your OCs and really pushed the envelope with them and it's absolutely astounding. @copaceticjillybean with Jillian, @the-smallest-star with Gritt and Clem, once again voicesunified with Michael, @cast-you-dxwn with his Michael, @alkasden with Alkas and her characters...like I love them. You all are just so very talented.

😍 - admiring from afar:

Any of avispatr characters, they are so incredible, I read all the threads and interactions with others. I tend to watch from afar a lot, as believe it or not I do get nervous, but I really love to read everything I can, it's fun.

🏆- 10/10 blog/would recommend:

📌 - a staple on the dash:

Probably everyone I've mentioned already and much more!

Everyone I've mentioned. All of them. If you aren't mentioned here in this thread, don't take it personally, because I love and appreciate you all the same. If I'm interacting or talking here, group chats, or dms, believe me, I love you guys very much. 💕💕

[shapelytimber]

Look, social media aus are very dumb but fun to do fklxkdk Illya would make short videos (mostly) about fashion, and Napoleon would be very unsubtle about being a Spy

I am formally apologizing to the uncle fandom for tiktoker Illya Kuryakin, I have no regrets (also @quijicroix is part responsible, being my evil advisor)

Here are the posts in details, and the profile pics :)

[COMMISSIONS]

No process this time, just me yapping for way to long about every choice and refs that went into this dumb au below vvv

Illya is younger than Napoleon (I usualy headcanon him at around 25 and Napoleon 35ish), so I think their use of social media would be quite different : hence Illya on Tiktok and Napoleon on Instagram. Also it's not the 60s so Illya can be like 10% less reppressed :)) but as a debuff Napoleon now has the technology to call him a nerd

Illya's page started as a cover for some affair, but he ended up kinda enjoying doing it in his free time. It's like a hobby for him, a way to experiment with fashion ! It's what made him want to pursue fashion design as a career after his curent spy job. And also I think he gets more and more nervous the more followers he gets, because as a spy having a chance to get recognise in the street is really bad dkdldlos Napoleon teases him endlessly that he became a tiktoker (as he should)-

Did I, at one point in the project, had to scrap the thirst trap idea to keep the fashion nerd vibes ? Yes I did, but just know he uses the "twink" tag :)

• The first post is a ref to the discotheque affair, not the best episode and a great miss for not including a disco Illya outfit, so I made him one to match the other :D

• The second is to the Hot number, but he gets to wear the thrush pattern !

• The third one is what made me do all of this ! Because, if you're not french, you might not know about one of my favorite yearly twitter threads : Met Gala outfits as INSEE graphs by Clara Dealberto ! Don't care about the met gala, but this is very funny :) and such a Illya Kuryakin thing to do kdkdkd

• fourth one isn't fashion related, it's a ref to popart and the "he has Dostoïevski eyes" line that made us laught a lot

• A little Fiddlesticks for the dog post, because it's a banger episode. Plus a nod to he dog expert from it, with whom Illya had palpable sexual tension fkfkfkl I like to think they kept contact ;) (shoutout to this fic (Intensity by AconitumNapellus) who absolutely get the vision, 10/10 guy to "cheat" on your boyfriend with)

• and the final one is a make over because of course it is

As for Napoleon, being older and less invested in this, an instagram made sense. But crutialy, I get such strong modern oss117 vibes from Napoleon (the way he shoots his gun, the goofy faces, the awkward stance everytime he enters a place, the inexplicable in universe rizz...) dkfkldls modern oss117 was a parody of both 60s james bond and older oss117 movies, but I'm now convinced they also whatched some uncle while doing these, it's just so obvious- anyway all this to say, in the second movie oss117 has to pose as a photographer and gets way too invested in his cover (it's his thing don't question it), and at the end of the movie we get to see all the photography he took during his mission..... Let me tell you how hard it was to resist him having an instagram full of blurry women on the street (canon 60s napoleon would have done it I'm sorry)- but what I kept was the pretty "badly" shot pics of random things, tho you sometimes get the odd decent pic taken by Illya. And he gets to be in a duck floatie as a treat and nod to oss <3

• Pinned post is because it became frustrating for him having to respond to people asking him if it was his real name or if he was a far right french man simping for Bonaparte

• first post is not a ref, but if my very sexy flat car was burning in the desert I would take a pic (ft Illya despairing) kdkdkd

• Duck floatie is a oss117 ref

• selfie with a beautiful woman (ft his finger), no ref I just love drawing women

• also Fiddlesticks for the cute Napoleon fox !! And to kinda link the two profiles :)

• and finaly Spy with my face ! He tried taking a picture of his date (I'll let you decide who it was), but oops front facing camera kdkdkdk

Can you tell I had a lot of fun doing this ? I love this show way to much omfg

PS : if you've never seen the recent oss117 movies, you should they funny ! But oh god some jokes are terrible- the first one is the best, minus one gay joke frankly not great. They nail the gay joke in the second one but oh god... They do not always win the 'is our character a piece of shit or is the movie problematic' gamble so be aware of that. And the 3rd one is shit don't bother

PPS : I don't use Tiktok, I tried my best to emulate the feeling of it but be aware I have no idea what I'm doing dkkdld

[cusackswhitehair]

Can i have some stinky pengvin?

Can i have Dratula HCs?

//Desc: FINALLY A DRATULA ASK!!🙏🙏 My day—no, my whole existence is complete, good mornink complete life. Dratula has to be up in the top five of my favorite characters, who could hate such a straight-forward amd honest man. He is Dratula and there is absolutely nothing you can do about that. His halloween animation effects are especially charming, (also I just HEAR how much Vinny enjoyed himself voicing this fine nobleman ) He has never done anything wrong in his life guys…thanks for requesting and enjoy some STRONK headcanons!💪💪 \\

⊱ ۫ ׅ ✧ 🩸 Dratula General Headcanons 🌹 ⊱ ۫ ׅ ✧

————————————————————————————

Dratula — being the overly vigorous man that he is, enjoys a lot of vampire media. He’s got it all and he can ( and will ) tell you all about it, his books, reports about real sightings. His personal favorite are old Dracula films, he wishes to know who Dracula is, sounds like a phony, he only knows Dratula. He held Bela Lugosi’s name on such a high pedestal, that he started to speak with a broken transylvanian accent, which only made him even more…peculiar, and resulted in numerous meltdowns from Froggy. “You are not transilvanian, so quit it!!” “OF COURSE, I AM NOT. I AM DRATULA.” “This is hopeless!”

Insecure about his penguinness, which we don’t speak about ( he just has…lopsided feet, okay?! ) Dratula has tried around a couple different methods to hide his tappy little feet. Shoes were immediately out of the question, no matter how stylish he tried to be, they always ended up looking ridiculous on him. He also went to a particular wise man around the Uncanny Streets, hoping to turn his feet normal. The Shaman only made himself disappear and reappear and it made Dratulas’ head hurt, ineffective.

When he finds an individual worthy of his grace and affection,( easier than you think ) Dratula will bring them rocks as prized presents, hold flippers—uhm! Hands with them and help the person preen themselves, showing his deep commitment to them, like all penguins—feared vampires would.

Speaking of affection, Dratula is highly oblivious to all romantic appriaches or signs, so if you expect him to take a hint or initiate, please don’t. “VHO IS THIS HUNK YOU MENTION NIGHT AND DAY? I AM DRATULA.”

Dratula enjoys a sense of routine and tidiness, the castle of his mind stays unoccupied and neat. He cleans his (absolutely non-suspicious) trench coat every three days otherwise he would start to find it uncomfortable and itchy.

His face of paper can infact be stolen off of his head, not sure why anybody would do that! His face is easily detachable, just a matter of your fingers and the loose-hanging tape. Dratula will find this a mortal punishment for whatever he has done. He doesn’t go blind obviously, and God knows what is under that piece of paper, but he will act like an average person with glasses in a cartoon, basically non-functional without it.

While he does hear people’s thoughts, ( it is unknown how this would correlate with his vampireness ) he will only really hear the one’s that would offend him later, he has quite selective hearing!

To get more and more submerged in the culture, Dratula often reads books from the victorian era, ones that sing about the otherworld and such. The only problem is that Dratula has quite a hard time understanding such documents from that time, he will brag about it nontheless. He also likes to write letters, don’t expect no booty-calls from Dratula! Only a letter through pidgeon post, with an adorable stamp, velvety red seal and golden thread. He really tries in this regard.

Dratula is a rather open book, this attribute of his often turns to a dangerous amount of naivity. It’s not a rare sight that Froggy or Coral Glasses have to drag him out of shady scenarios.

When cold, Dratula will crane his neck in and huddle up against anybody to stay warm, anybody who would let him of course. Froggy is obviously indifferent about it, Coral Glasses’ frame is just too small to lean on. “Y’know…sometimes I just really think, you sure do be acting just like a penguin—“ “VHAT!? A VHAT!? HOV DARE YOU!”

[pikahlua]

Not the same anon, but there was a thread on X summarizing problems with this chapter and how rushed it feels. I think these are pretty valid criticism if I am being honest. [link removed] I really love MHA and I want to enjoy this epilogue, but I really do feel like it is being rushed in some places.

I resubmitted this ask to remove the link. I'm not interested in sending critics flying at someone I disagree with.

The link you provided is for a criticism that is precisely the sort of commentary my blog exists to correct. Why are you guys judging the story based on a bad fan translation??? Is that really what the issue is here? If you're feeling like a chapter is rushed based on Rukasu's rushed summaries or my own disjointed, unnatural-sounding translations or the fan translations that just push along with awkward translations they clearly don't research that well, yeah, I bet it does seem pretty rushed.

Fan translation (left) vs official translation (right)

Some differences are stark and some subtle, but they all lead to totally different readings!

And as for this criticism:

And while I get what Horikoshi was trying to communicate here, the execution is just... Absolutely tone deaf

I don't understand how anyone could say something like they know what the author intended in good faith when they KNOW they're reading a fan translation.

Starting with the 1st page: now, I get Horikoshi is trying to this monologue more for the audience to highlight Uraraka's self sacrificial tendencies similar to Izuku in order to explain her behavior and showcase her flaws. [...] Because, in universe, Uraraka is breaking down with guilt and grief over someone she finally reached/understood sacrificing her life for her, something only SHE knows, and Izuku shows up, ignoring what's going on, and starts "explaining" her flaws and HIS feelings about it all. [...] Now, again, I understand that Hori is trying to communicate to the audience that Izuku has realized Uraraka's flaws and struggles and is deciding to become her support instead.

This reading completely ignores the fact that Ochako doesn't want to open up. Izuku is trying to convince her to! That's what's happening in this scene! He's not "ignoring" what happened with Toga--because he doesn't even know what happened! That's part of why Ochako is so upset!

I've explained before how the western fandom has a bad reading on these so-called self-sacrificial "flaws" Izuku and now ostensibly Ochako have. This is not the first time a character has realized they relied too much on another person's strength and let that person shoulder their burdens alone. All Might acknowledged the same thing with Katsuki after DvK2. I do not think what Izuku is doing here is "explaining her flaws and HIS feelings about it all." My reading of this scene is based on their conversation after she lost to Katsuki in the sports festival. He's saying the same stuff she said to him back to her. He's talking about HIS OWN flaws. He's saying "You are my hero, the way you've been since the beginning is heroic, I admire you, when you're hurting I'll protect you just like you protected me, I won't be a burden by relying on your strength to get you through and letting you handle your pain alone anymore, I'll pull my own weight and be here for you now that you need me, it will be easier to shoulder the pain together." That last part is coming from her UA speech, of course, and I don't know how it could be more relevant to addressing Ochako's pain. "Please open up to me, just like you encouraged me to do." That's what he's saying!

Now, the other criticism this person levies is that using Izuku as a vehicle of exposition is clunky. I don't disagree, but the thing is...this isn't new. This isn't unique to the ending. He's been like this really since chapter 1. I've criticized this before. This isn't a sudden change that makes the ending feel any more rushed than any other part of the story. To focus on this just feels like an attempt by the critic to FIND something to criticize.

I do think there is an emotional reaction at play in the fandom's general response here, but I'm not convinced that the criticism I've been reading actually gets to the heart of what's upsetting people. Something IS upsetting people. Is it BAD WRITING? I'm not sure. In some (not all) cases it seems to be a bad reaction to tragedy or anticlimax. I do also think there are people who have convinced themselves such and such will be addressed, that these two characters will talk about X, etc. etc. and they're panicking that there may not be any space allotted for that in the end, and that's why they feel things are being "rushed." I certainly have some criticisms I could levy at the ending, but I'd like to wait until the ending (the OFFICIAL ending) before I put them on the record.

The thing is, in the end, "what Horikoshi was trying to do" is entirely irrelevant to the final product. If all we do is just argue over what we each think Horikoshi was trying to do, we'll get no where. This was hammered into me in my education, that what an author intended is useless to literary analysis. When I find something in a story that doesn't make sense to me, I take a step back and try to figure out what reading does make it make sense. Sometimes I have to ask others their opinions to puzzle it out. I do appreciate that you sent me this criticism, but I am not yet convinced the fandom has truly identified any concrete issues with the actual writing of the ending as of now. I'm not saying the ending is perfect, just that the problems I see with the ending are very different from what the fandom so far keeps talking about.

[thetrueharmony]

Hello there, citizens of Rotomblr. It is I, the one and only Ghetsis Harmonia. I was told this was the 'place to be' by some of my friends and I couldn't just stay away after being told that, now could I? I believe the pronouns I use are called he/him. And no, I am not wanted in Unova, whoever says otherwise is lying. Nobody likes a liar. I was also told my kids were on here, now isn't that great! I truly hope they've all become less of a disappointment.

Oh and of course, you can't forget my pokemon. I still have my full team, do not worry! Cofagrigus Bouffalant Seismitoad - Osric Bisharp Eelektross and finally, my beloved Hydreigon. - Lenox

Hello there, Hello there!! Im the mod here for this wonderful blog! This is my second time ever playing a canon character, and I haven't touched B2/W2 in years, so Ghetsis might be a little OOC! I will do my absolute best to keep in line with his canon character. I also have my own mix of head canons for him. PLEASE, if you read nothing else down below, read the trigger warnings. That is a requirement if you ever want to set up an event or character connections. You may feel free to call me Alexander or Alex! I really don't care at this point ^^' I go by he/they, and whatever neos you want just not it/its, please! Mun is 16! Ghetsis may be an old man, but I am not!!

ANY INTERACTION IS ALLOWED! Pelliper mail/malice : Allowed

Musharna mail/malice : Allowed, but nothing about nsfw topics

Mystery gifts: Allowed

Magic anons : Allowed In character hate/anon hate : Allowed, encouraged even! Ooc questions : Allowed

ANYONE is allowed to interact here! Whether you're fallers, eery deebys, hybrids, ocs, self-inserts, etc, you are welcomed here! I love any type of interaction.

Please discuss anything offscreen with me beforehand before you do anything. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BOUNDARY.

BOUNDARIES

Mod is 16, Ghetsis is in his early 40s. Suggestive stuff is fine, nsfw is not. Anything that I personally find uncomfortable will be ignored and deleted.

If/When long interaction threads occur, I will only start tagging them with 'long post' after they hit 20. Otherwise, it will be untagged.

Feel free to contact me if you ever wanna set up a relationship with Ghetsis! Always open to more people talking to him!! CONTENT WARNINGS :

Experimentation, Mentions of war crimes, Mentions of terrorism, emotional abuse or manipulation, alcohol abuse, mentions of child abuse (<- very rare), stalking, drugs/drug usage List always subject to change.

[thecircularsystem]

So, I was recently part of a server run by a system as an experiment. A month of chatting with people, but we couldn't mention our origins, and at the end, we had to guess others origins.

Let's talk about it.

[Note: I am just going to be talking about the server, the survey, and a few thoughts about origins here. This is largely fluff and disappointment and bitching about the flaws I saw in the server. I'll be making a proper post about origins later that's not as connected to this.]

So, firstly, I used an alt account in order to participate in the server. My regular discord ID has my system name in it, and I didn't want to make things too easy. I popped in and talked, and I tried my absolute best to make it so obvious that I had a CDD, while also trying to make it obvious that I wasn't just a CDD system. I knew it would be next to impossible for people to guess my origins, so I was just there to have fun.

I knew immediately that I would dislike the server. For one thing, I already didn't really like the server runner -- sorry, if you're reading this, but genuinely, my system has an aversion to you. Not sure why -- don't fully remember -- but it's there and it made me wary. But, bigger than that, I figured out quickly just how poorly planned the server was. It got BIG, fast, and moderators were chosen seemingly at random. I remember a user was picked because the group names were based around food, and their username matched the food their group represented. That... is a very bad way to pick mods. Then there was the 2 minute speaking timer, which had to be circumvented with threads, and the realization that there was a thirteen year old in the server after I had brought up NSFW content... I do not join servers with younger people anymore and genuinely thought the server was 18+.

It was just... very disorganized. So, strike one.

Regardless, it was fairly easy to guess what people's origins were (not accurately, but I'll get into that at the end/in another post) at the most basic level, and who they were, as evidently, nobody else tried to hide their blogs or identities as hard as I did. I shared servers with around half of the participants already, and others were... fairly easy to guess from their syscourse presence. I think the highlight of the experiment was someone from the server contacting me (Circ) and talking about the experiment with me, not knowing initially who I was in the server. Genuine hilarity there.

But, of course, we were there to try to guess people's origins, so I was trying to find out what I could about those in my group. 7 participants in the group (myself included), and... Well, strike two.

Genuinely, this was the stupidest premise for a server in the world. In my opinion, at least. The thing is, all of these guesses have to be based entirely on stereotyping -- the language the system uses, the way they speak, the concerns they have about the community. A system who uses the term "headmates," is concerned about fakeclaiming more than symptoms of plurality, and focuses more on the plural aspect of systemhood than anything else is likely not experiencing a CDD.

Which, in this set-up, means you're endogenic. And that's a problem. But we'll get to that in the next section. First, I just want to mention that I consider this a strike against the premise of the server because so much was banned from being mentioned. It wasn't... formally said to be censored, but even amongst my friends outside of the server, I saw them say numerous times, "It's so easy to guess who X is because it's obvious they have a CDD!" And genuinely, that indicates nothing about a person's origins, spoken as a true CDD mixed-origin system. It's the Fenmere Clause, right? There's always an exception. So to see this sort of culture on never mentioning your disorder, never mentioning trauma, never mentioning your experiences in the system community while being asked to share them... Eventually, I just started censoring myself entirely in the server, cutting out chunks of writing with little brackets saying [Origin Information] or something similar.

If the point is to be able to guess origins, I need to be able to share more than just the stereotyping that people rely on. It needs to be a fair chance.

Then the end came, and... for fucks sakes, that's what sparked this entire post. I had planned to wirte up a post, of course, but lord.

At the end, we had to guess how likely it was that someone "had a CDD, was endogenic, or was a created system." Funny enough, my origins (mixed-origin, fully traumagenic CDD system with multiple created parts AND a dreamway part) weren't listed, not fully. Traumagenic wasn't even an option for those who don't have CDDs.

Now, look, I am a CDD system. I consider that to be my "main" origin. But to only count "CDD, created, or endogenic," you discount one of my parts entirely, one who is one of the most helpful parts. The survey also didn't ask if people had created parts, but if they were a created system, which... I'm not. So that furthermore discounts two of my parts who are created -- and still equally traumagenic.

Furthermore, when asked for clarification, the moderator had... this to say.

For CDD, you either have one or don't (or at the very least it's more cleanly binary than origin), so I asked for the positive For origin, people "testing for purity" for lack of better wording coming to mind usually care about any percentage of endogenesis. And while CDD does not necessarily mean traumagenic, traumagenic is very nearly a subset of CDD

To translate, as that left such a sour taste in my mouth I thought I threw up a little, what this meant was, "Some of the users are anti-endos, and so if you have one endogenic part, most of those users will assume you're entirely endogenic."

...

So, rather than the point of the server being, "Can you guess someones origin?" it became "Can you guess someones origin if I painstakingly make a survey that caters to anti-endo beliefs and erases the origins of members of the server?"

Wonderful. Strike three.

Genuinely, I'm not sure what possessed the server owner to phrase the questions this way. Catering to the anti-endos wasn't the point of the server, and it erases the members origins. There should have been a way to identify what, exactly, you felt each member IDENTIFIED as. If an anti-endo does not believe in endogenic plurality (which, yes, many members of the server did not), then at the very least, they can say that a user identifies as endogenic, or mixed origin, or spiritual, stressgenic, adaptive, quoigenic, OR ANY of the THOUSANDS of origin options out there.

I would've done a multiple choice list of, "Here's what members of your group identify as, based on their intake survey; can you assign each of these labels to individuals in your group?" What was the purpose of an intake survey at all if you ignore the origins to cater to the anti-endos?

I'm not going to lie, I was incredibly frustrated, more than a little mad, and just...

Disappointed. Which, I figured I would be going in.

The thing is, origins aren't guessable in this manner. Nobody in that server could have looked at me and gone, "Ah! Yes, it is clear that this individual is a mixed-origin CDD system who identifies with CDD as an origin while having created traumagenic parts and a dreamway part." DREAMWAY IS A LABEL WE FUCKING MADE UP!!!! It would be impossible to guess unless they heard about me personally.

And that's the reason this type of experiment is bullshit. Sure, you can... hazard a guess if someone has a CDD or is endogenic or is mixed-origin or any of the above. But... You can't know. You can't get it perfectly accurate. Sure, based on vibes you can guess, and maybe you can even guess accurately for the most part.

BUT EVERY SYSTEM IS DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE ANYWAYS. So why does it matter?

It doesn't.

But the system community doesn't seem ready to accept that yet.

All in all, I'm incredibly disappointed in the server and how it went. I enjoyed the conversations we had there, and I enjoyed the company. I'm still enjoying talking there!! Now that origins are revealed, I want to talk about how my mixed-origin parts impact my CDD parts, and how they are CDD parts at the same time. I want to discuss it!!!

I would even hazard to say I made some new friends, and likely a few enemies (someone from my group, not knowing who I was, was even liking posts that were actively libel against me from harassers I have. How fun!)

But the experiment portion of it was an entire, complete disaster. And I think... genuinely, most people expected it to be.

Sigh.

[hobnob2020]

The Veilguard review

Big spoilers ahead for the people that haven't finished the game yet.

So after plugging 70+ hours I've finally completed Veilguard.

This will just be a general overview of how I felt about the game, I'll likely do a separate one for Solas/Mythal and Lavellan and one for a Lucanis romance.

First off I want to say that any negative criticism I had for the game I am reminded of how difficult this game was to get off the ground running in the first place; it experienced multiple layoffs, it pulled the team to focus on Anthem when it failed, the team was reduced, OG writers left and multiple people lost their jobs once their work was complete and lets not forget those that worked on this during a pandemic so I think it's important to keep coming back to this so that we can just appreciate what we had as an end product.

Now the end product itself, did I enjoy it? absolutely.

I've laughed, I've been giddy, I've been angry at times and in those final moments was reduced to tears that reconciliations were reached and it was the end of a very long 10 year wait.

I want to start from the beginning where we welcomed our Rooks because holy moly is the character creator detailed. I mean seriously every single Rook I've seen is a catwalk model 😂

Every faction felt different and the brief history to your character was really well done; I went with a female mage elf I the Crows and I loved being a Crow from the get go; the decision that she made that essentially forced her to leave the Crows because she'd basically f*cked up a mission was really interesting because there's still that tension once she returned with Viago (who I adored BTW, his disappointing fatherly persona against Teia's comfort and protectiveness was just perfect) and it set the course for every Rook wanting to prove themselves.

Briefly touching on the Inquisitors creation I was so happy that this was an early decision and hearing her say "it's good to see you again" was like a stab to the heart and felt like I was being welcomed back home after such a long journey.

Once into the gameplay it's hard to ignore how beautiful the graphics look, Minrathous' design was so unexpected and how the locals were treated makes me wonder how Dorian ever survived 😂

There were certain scenes that just blew me away and made me realise just how far games have come to allow us them; the moment you open the doors at Weisshaupt and see Ghilan'nains massive looming face in the clouds was just breath taking, in fact the two gods in general were very well done and there wasn't enough of them in my opinion.

The animation as a whole was very good and again compared to Origins this game is on a different level of good (hate to compare it to other games but Balders gate is probably the closest contender).

There's a particular scene with Lucanis as a romance where he walks over to you after you basically say you like what you see and that Spite doesn't define him, the way his face moves, the little smile, the way his eyes drop to your lips when you touch him floored me and I think having motion capture for this game definitely paid off.

The mechanics of the game were fantastic and as I've yet to play anything other than my mage I am excited to play other classes and possibly Warrior for the first time across 4 games, although Spellblade ruined a mage for me as I love being able to be upfront in a battle and found it perfect for my Crow mage.

I went with purple Rook for this playthrough as I wanted a charming Crow who had far too much energy and was awkward in the best way possible and loved every minute of it; Bioware has always been very clever at establishing the different personalities and how they affect the world around them. Going into a scene and having your Rook react by themselves depending on their personality makes the character feel real and that we aren't just following the same thread of dialogue.

When you first meet Solas they didn't lie that it would feel like an end game mission, the dialogue was fantastic, his voice actor is just incredible and he has a talent to be confident, insecure, determined and doubtful of his own words all in one and it was very easy to fall In love with Solas during inquisition.

I really enjoyed how the first decision you make as Rook ends with the gods escaping, either Harding or Neve being injured which puts doubts in your friendship and leadership from the beginning, that Solas who we'd believed to be the big bad was essentially trapped and looked like a kitten compared to these evil beings who want world domination, it really makes the player question how are we going to fix this massive mistake that we've created, because it takes the gods no time to get to work whilst we scramble to find a team and cleanse multiple parts of Thedas at the same time aswell as setting up base in the fade where we dig deep into the history of Solas and the ancient gods past.

The companions of this game I felt were individuals in their own ways with their own back stories and present problems but I felt as a whole weren't as good as say the previous game; there was no double crossing mages or people with their own greed and agendas, no hidden pasts like Blackwall which personally fell abit flat for me.

In fact I'd say the only one who had an interesting story was Lucanis after his imprisonment and demonic possession and the struggles that came with it.

I don't think I'll romance anyone else other than Emmrich as the others just don't interest me.

It just felt like you were constantly flitting to the Lighthouse and back to grind out companion tasks in order to gain approval and faction points, there was no option to just have a conversation like previous games instead it was very much on their terms and where you were in the game which was something i really missed.

Still, their personalities were very different and characters like Lucanis, Taash and especially Emmrich stole my heart very quickly.

The banter was top notch quality as per 👌 some of my favourites were from Taash and Lucanis, just being a Crow in the middle of their conversations about capes was hilarious at times.

The voice acting as a whole was very good, I felt with some characters particularly Neve it felt abit flat in moments but Bioware have a knack for finding talented voices; having someone as bubbly and excited as Bellara to the deadpan and slightly blunt at times Taash made for a very diverse team.

Returning characters was always a welcome and there were some surprising cameos such as Isabella in the Lords of Fortune faction.

I know alot of people were disappointed that this game felt limited in bringing over past choices but it needed to make sense; Sera isn't going to return and be found in the deep roads etc, it needed to serve a purpose to The Veilguards story and I'm happy with the ones we did get.

When it came to the three decisions from inquisition yes I was disappointed at first; why are we ignoring who drank from the well, why aren't we talking about Hawke, who's ruling Fereldon, who's Divine?.

I think we need to remember that after 4 games the decisions from little to big are so vast that there's simply no way to fit it all in and satisfy everyone and baring in mind this game is for new players too.

Having this game set outside of Ferelden means those decisions won't carry weight in Veilguard, who is divine won't affect us, where Hawke is doesn't affect us because we know they'll either be in the fade or fighting against the evil.

And yes a codex could of helped address any of this but again, it's a smaller team now at bioware and the focus is on Rook this time around, it's their turn and tbh reading codex' is time consuming when you've got gods to fight 😂

The only decision I really wanted brought over was who drank from the Well because as a Solasmancer he was so pissed at me but I think I know why it was glossed over.

I think having Solas being able to control your Inquisitor would have the issue of consent and violation and as a romance that doesn't feel right, especially given how Mythal basically manipulated Solas and used him as a slave it just goes into uncomfortable territory.

We could also argue that Solas absorbed Mythals essence so all that's left is her memories and the tiny fragment you find in the crossroads so essentially Mythal ceases to exist thus there's no pledge anymore for the inquisitor and that she only needed her help to fight Corypheus, who knows but I'm glad Solas wasn't able to do that to the Inquisitor.

The endgame was amazing, finally killing Ghilan'nain was so satisfying and Lucanis was an absolute bad ass doing it, seeing Solas become the dreadwolf and hearing his pained cries was heartbreaking even if he couldn't stop betraying my Rook 😂.

Forcing you as a player to lose a character despite high factions and hero status was brutal, and I unfortunately lost both Davrin and Assan. As much as I loved them both, it made sense to his character to die in that way, and Harding has so much more to do for the dwarves and titans.

I'll talk about Solas/Mythal and Lavellan on another post but I was very happy with how it ended, seeing the art concept of him making himself tranquil just shows how differently it could of gone, and I honestly expected them to die in each other's arms.

If I think of anything else I'll add it onto this post but yeah, 10 years man and it's over, well not over completely as I'm creating an Emmrich romance as we speak but I can't believe years of speculation and doubt is now in our hands forever.

Yes this game could of been better in parts and blew my expectations away in others but I loved it and I think the negative criticism over characters like Taash, the three previous decisions, crazy solasmancers which bring the team down is so unjust and people need to reflect on themselves as humans.

All I would say to those that critic this game as heavy as they have is to take their time and play it again, you'll find things you missed the first time around, really read the codex', just sit back and understand what the characters are saying, read between the lines and just take it back to beginning of this post, this game very nearly didn't happen and alot of talented people that have given you this game have lost their jobs so please just be grateful for what we do have and pray that this isn't the end of dragon age.

Edit:

The whole Varric thing was probably my least favourite thing about the game, not because he died but it just didn't make sense that Rook didn't know until the very end.

I had my suspicions because he was always tired and going back to bed and something about it didn't feel right.

For other companions to say "oh we thought you knew" was just silly, I could understand Solas using his powers to create an illusion but why not on all the companions because surely Rook at some point was like "Oh i'll take some food to Varric" or "have you been to visit him", without that Rook just sounds crazy 😂

[autism-autobot]

Flower of a Poisonous Seed Part 49:

Part 48:

TW: depression mentions, suicide watch, drug mentions,

"Whatcha doin'?"

"Embroidery. Care to join me?"

"I don't know... Am I allowed to?"

Wukong positioned himself next to Nezha on the couch across the room from Li Jing. He looked at Jing's project and then at Nezha to answer his question.

Nezha: You've been on your meds for two weeks now and have been improving. Maybe it's high time we finally took you off of watch and let you around needles and such.

SWK: *wide-eyed* *gasps* Really? Like, for real life?

Nezha: Yes, Wukong. For real life!

Nezha: I know I've been paranoid about your safety from the start, but I think it's high time I let you take some minor risks.

SWK: WOOHOO!!!!!

Nezha: Don'tgocrazy, please.

SWK: Okay, I won't go too wild with it.

~~~

Jing handed Wukong a threaded needle for him to work with. Wukong suddenly wasn't sure about this.

Nezha: *gently* Well, go on. Give it a go.

SWK: *hesitates*

Jing: Do you require instructions?

SWK: No! It's not that it's just that... I don't know...

SWK: *places the needle in Nezha's hand and closes it* Maybe my safety... shouldn't be up to me.

Nezha: *saddened* Wukong...

Nezha: *scoots closer to him* If this is about... if my thoughts have influenced yours...

SWK: I don't think they did.

Nezha: Wukong, please.

SWK: I don't think this was a good idea.

Jing: Nonsense! You're more than capable.

Nezha: Yes! You have made such improvements, you are ready!

SWK: I think you're missing the point. I... I shouldn’t be left unattended with this thing.

Nezha: Then we won't leave you unattended, we don't have to throw all caution to the wind if you doubt yourself!

Jing: Let me ask you this: Do you think you are going to hurt yourself or others?

SWK: No, I don't think so.

Jing: Do you want to hurt yourself or others?

SWK: No! Of course not!

Jing: There you go, then.

SWK: *pauses for a moment to process*

Nezha: *places a hand on Wukong's shoulder* We don't have to do anything out of your comfort zone just yet. We can supervise you if that's what you want. But I don't want you to live your life in fear.

Nezha: *raises Wukong's chin so their eyes meet* You are not alone in this. We'll make it through this. Together.

SWK: Okay... let's give it a go. Supervised, that is.

Nezha: *hands him back the needle* I'm right here with you.

~Not even ten minutes later~

SWK: Okay, this is really hard without precise control over my fingers.

Nezha: I know my own motor functions have been improving, but I don't think I could do that either.

SWK: How have your hands been doing?

Nezha: They're not in pain, though my grip strength and precision are not what I want them to be.

Jing: And... finished!

SWK: HOW????

Nezha: No way.

SWK: I've only done three stitches so far!

Nezha: Dang able-bodied people.

Jing: *laughs* I'm sorry, I don't mean to show off!

SWK: *blows raspberry at him*

~~~

SWK: So, since I'm allowed near sharp objects, can I help with dinner?

Nezha: Absolutely! It's my turn to cook and I wouldn't mind a sous-chef.

SWK: Yay!

*enters kitchen*

SWK: Why are there so many baby-proof locks on everything?

Nezha: I forgot that my father put those locks on in a failed attempt to keep Macaque from getting into everything.

~~~

Wukong sat on the floor for several minutes trying to unto a cabinet lock that required simultaneous pinching and pulling to open. He wasn't able to open it no matter how hard he tried. Even with his antidepressants, Wukong still tended to cry when frustrated or upset.

SWK: Nezhie! Help me!

Nezha: It's okay, Wukong, your Daffodil will get that for you.

Nezha: *tries to open the baby-proof lock*

Nezha: *can't*

~three dozen failed attempts later~

SWK: Maybe if we tried it together? <3

Nezha: Wonderful idea, my darling. You push down and pull, and I'll push up and push forward.

SWK: Okay! Count of three. One, two, three!

SWK & Nezha: 🎶 Teamwork makes the dream WORK- *slips and accidentally slams heads together*

SWK: Owie! *covers his forehead*

Nezha: Ow. *presses hand to his forehead*

Nezha: Are you okay my dear? I didn't hit you where your head is most sensitive, did I?

SWK: You did, but I think I'll be okay.

SWK: Wanna try again?

Nezha: Sure.

~a dozen more failed attempts later~

Nezha: *yells in frustration* *slams shoulder against cabinet repeatedly* WHY?! WON'T?! YOU?! OPEN?! *yells in frustration*

SWK: *starts crying again*

Nezha: *calms down at the sound of it*

Nezha: Wukong! I didn’t spook you, did I? Are you hurt? Upset?

SWK: *through tears* Upset...

Nezha: Tell me what troubles you, though I likely know the cause, I'll listen. *hugs him*

SWK: *between sobs* Sometimes I can't help but feel useless and weak. Even with all the progress I've made, I still can't open a stupid baby lock.

Nezha: I understand, my dear, I am much the same. But if there is one thing I've learned from both you and my past experiences, it's that one's worth doesn't rely on one's abilities. Able-bodied or no, you are not useless.

Nezha: You, without a functioning muscle in your body, have pulled me out of the abyss and into a better place. Though my therapist has undoubtedly helped me too, you are the one who began this race. And I know you'll be there with me at the finish.

SWK: You did the same for me.

SWK & Nezha: *press foreheads together and share breath*

Nezha: I love you eternally. You are my everything.

SWK: *giggles* And you are mine!

Nezha: *kisses Wukong's hand* Wait here, I'll go get Father to help.

SWK: *blushes* Okay!

~~~

Jing ended up making dinner himself. The Lis helped feed their monkeys with varying levels of cooperation.

Mac: I got it! I can do it myself!

Jing: Oh, hush! You just got your casts off yesterday!

Jing: Was Wukong ever like this?

Nezha: No, my monkey is very well-behaved.

SWK: *happily accepts Nezha's spoonfeeding* Mhm!

Mac: *blows raspberry at Wukong*

SWK: *blows raspberry back*

Part 50:

Masterpost

@weaverpop @istopaskingmemate @ainnur @starrclown @cutvdo @swkbiggestdefender @fruit-fight

[cyberdragoninfinity]

wild dana spotted howling and barking about yugioh arc-v out in the parking lot

oh BOY oh boy it's bout that time again. i can't believe it's been OVER A YEAR (?!?!?) since i last did one of these 'i just finished a yugioh here's my little rambly retrospective about it' posts but we are BACK!!! Finished my first ever watch-through of Arc-V last Tuesday after some 8 months of it putting me through the spin cycle and now as it's wedging itself permanently into my psyche i need to talk about its Everything or i will explode. so LET'S SWING INTO ACTION!!! I'M TAKING CONTROL OF THIS DUEL STARTING NOW!!!

[SPOILERS ahead for this decade old anime, of course]

WOW. YUGIOH ARC-V, HUH. before i started it watching it, I knew two things: A.) every single bit of knowledge I'd learned about it from Duel Links events or otherwise had me so, so, unbeliebable fucking hyped. I was absolutely certain this Yugioh was going to be so full of Danabait and completely fry my brain like an egg on the griddle. I had to physically restrain myself for TWO YEARS to keep from jumping the gun and watching Arc-V before I'd finished all the series before it (a decision I'm ultimately thankful for--Arc-V hits kind of fuckign crazy as a chaser to four other yugiohs.). And also, B.) when people Talk About Arc-V they always talk about it in a Very Particular Way. like. it's hard to describe. I feel like you know it when you see it. There is the full range of human emotion in the way people talk about Arc-V. People talk about Arc-V like its a confusing, malicious specter haunting their living room. And this admittedly got me even more hyped to watch it.

And then I watched it and here I am and I KNOW NOW. I KNOW NOW WHY PEOPLE. TALK ABOUT IT LIKE THAT. FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART: WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT. SLASH POS. SLASH NEG. SLASH SECRET THIRD THING.

Arc-V is a fucking MESS. It starts out SO strong and then it starts setting plot threads on fire and writing conceptual checks it absolutely cannot cash. It falls down the narrative stairs like it has a goddamn death wish. It introduces 342052805 characters and then forgets to do anything with 99% of them. It does things to its girl characters that makes the back half of 5Ds's girl writing failure look like the height of feminist theory. If the stories I've heard about its deeply troubled production are any indication it is some kind of MIRACLE this show got made and aired at ALL. IT'S LIKE WATCHING A CAR WEAVING THROUGH TRAFFIC AT 90 MPH ONLY TO PLOW DIRECTLY INTO THE SIDE OF A PARTY CITY.

and goddamn if I didn't have a FUCKING BLAST watching it. GODDAMN IF I DIDNT HAVE SO, SO MUCH FUN. goddamn if Arc-V might very well end up being my FAVORITE yugioh out of ALL of them when all is said and done. WHOOOOOPSSS!!! 🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴

like. imo Zexal is absolutely from a quality/art direction/narrative/everything standpoint leaps and bounds better than Arc-V. Definitely one of my favorite cartoons I've ever seen period, and most people should give it a shot. Such a beautiful work of art. But Arc-V....... girl they put something In this one. My pre-show hype was absolutely warranted. This show is just one blast of Shit That Makes Dana Crazy after another. Every character absolutely delights me and is my best friend. I'm going to be losing my mind over Yugioh Arc-V for the rest of the year and maybe forever.

As usual I primarily watched the dub, with some sub episodes sprinkled in if I got tipped off about a big change, or just if I wanted to see what was going on back there. (glad I did, of course, for a number of reason--least of all that Arc-V's OPs and EDs are SO fun and so charming!!) (THOUGH SIDE NOTE: THE DUB OPENING SHREDS SO HARD IM SORRY. IT'S UP THERE WITH THE GX DUB OPENING FOR ME. CAN YOU FEEL THE FUCKING POWER!!!!!) Anyway, gotta say, really was blown away by this dub!! It's tied with Zexal for what's imo the 'best' yugioh dub--the majority of the voice performances were just fantastic (truly all the love in my heart for Michael Liscio Jr.'s performances as the yuboys, they all have such unique and charming voices and im OBSESSED WITH THEM.) and having watched some sub eps side by side with the dub it's really cool seeing a dub that genuinely tried to faithfully translate Most of the Original. idk it's just a really solid localization to me!! I loved it a lot!! ALSO IT'S EXTREMELY FUNNY. I SAY THIS ABOUT EVERY DUB BUT IT'S TRUE. there are line reads in the arc-v dub that have me SOBLAUGHING.

anyway. I like to do these little subsection breakdowns in these little retrospective roundups, so let's get into the weeds with it:

Stuff I Didn't Like: loooooooooong inhale through my nose. looks at you with mildly pained eyes. alright. let's get this one over with.

though I did really try to go in as blind as I could/avoid most spoilers with this one, I did inevitably get spoiled by some things from Duel Links, but in the case of. uh. Riley Getting Turned Back Into a Baby At the End. 👶🏼 I AM glad I had that spoiled for me, so I knew it was coming. Because if I didn't know that was going to happen and that clocked me over the head I would have been on the NEWS. I WOULD HAVE BEEN, SO MAD. HEY, YUGIOH: WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 👶🏼👶🏼👶🏼👶🏼👶🏼 WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO RILEY!!!!

"character gets permanently turned back into a baby for Critical Plot Reasons" has gotta be one of my LEAST favorite tropes in anything, it's NEVER GOOD. AND IT'S ESPECIALLY BAD HERE!!! Riley is such a good character, he's got such an interesting arc going on, and THEY JUST RIP THAT TO PIECES. SO RILEY'S JUST FUCKING GONE NOW I GUESS. COOL. ALRIGHT. SURELY THERE COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER WAYS TO DEFEAT ZARC. SURELY. just. good GOD. it was a small miracle to me when this happened like 8 episodes before the end, it was like ripping the bandaid off early, it was like "oh thank christ i got past that. ok well whatever happens it cannot possibly be as bad as the shit they did to riley"

^ (and imo it wasnt. thank GOD. actually let's talk about that)

LIKE. MAKE NO MISTAKE ARC-V'S ENDING IS CONFUSING AND CLUMSY AND SO STUPID AND NOT GOOD. WHY ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH DOES THIS SERIES NEED EIGHT EPISODES AFTER ITS BIG BAD DUEL.WE COULD HAVE WRAPPED THIS UP IN 2-3!!!! it feels like watching Chopped and the contestant has 20 seconds on the clock left and theyre like "i gotta make my whipped cream" like WEEEE DONT NOT HAVE TIMEEE FOR THAT!!!!! WHAT ARE WE DOINGGGG. why are we dueling jack AGAIN. FOR TWO EPISODES. EVERYONE IS YELLING AT YUYA LIKE ALL OF THIS IS HIS RESPONSIBILITY AND FUCKING IS IT??!?!??! HE'S 14. AND THEN THOSE EPISODES HAVE THE GALL TO THROW SO MANY COOL IDEAS ON THE TABLE (Gong fully exploring dueltaining, the Dimensional Highway, etc) AND IT'S LIKE. COOL!! WISH WE COULDVE HAD THIS ANY OTHER TIME THAN THE LAST POSSIBLE SECOND!!! WHAT ARE WE DOINGGGG

BUT all that being said, the way people talk about that fucking last episode I was expecting some genuinely godawful 'zuzu is yuyas mom again like in the manga' tier absolute nightmare scenario. i literally made a secret prediction chart of what insane plot twist i assumed the last episode was going to drop on me.

AND THEN THE LAST EPISODE WAS JUST. FUNNYBAD. just a run of the mill whimper at the end of eight episodes we KIND OF REALLY DID NOT NEED. THE SHEER AMOUNT OF RELIEF I FELT. like absolutely i think going into it completely blind/encountering that ending watching live I would have been pissed, folks are rightfully frustrated with it, but I WAS TRULY. EXPECTING MUCH WORSE. IT ENDS LIKE A FAKE TUMBLR POST. "AND THEN EVERYONE CLAPPED" ASS ENDING. I DO HAVE TO LAUGH

^ YIPPEEEE SIX CHARACTERS HAVE EFFECTIVELY STOPPED EXISTING YAAAAAYY (😬😬😬😬)

ALSO, IN GENERAL. SPEAKING OF. GOD. THE BRACELET GIRLS. YALL ARE SO COOL AND THEN POOR LULU AND RIN DIDNT GET TO DO A GODDAMN THING EXCEPT HAVE WORMS IN THEIR BRAINS!!!! HELL ON EARTH!!!!!! WHY DID THEY DO THATTTT GAHHHHH again!! show that introduces SO many characters, so many FUCKING COOL CHARACTERS, and then does NOTHING with them. Or hits them with PARALYZING NERVE GAS FOR 20 EPISODES. CHRIST!!! WHY DO ARC-V GIRLS SUFFER MORE THAN JESUS. LEAVE MY GIRL ZUZU ALONEEEEE

TO THAT END, ARC-V JUST MAKES; SO MANY CONFUSING CHARACTER DECISIONS. AND CHOICES. why is Yuto just out of the picture for like 60 episodes!!! Let him be Yuya's brain buddy!!! WHY WASNT HE. DID YOU NOT WANNA ANIMATE HIM FLOATING NEXT TO THE DUEL RUNNER??! BE REAL. It's like. GRAHHH In general Arc-V has a pacing problem that is like. Atrocious even for yugioh's bad pacing problems. This series needed to be 400 episodes long. I like the IDEA of a yugioh with a big cast, spending episodes cutting between different groups of characters like some kind of bulky YA fantasy novel, but in practice it got. Real Muddy. RIP Xyz dimension arc you shoulda had so much more to you. And then there's that combined with this way it's trying Really Really hard to ape the themes of the past yugiohs ('dont forget to have fun,' grief/moving on after loss, classism) but it's hitting every damn branch on the way down and just completely fumbling ALL of them, it's not actually doing much to Earn being able to have those kind of themes resonate properly. IT'S SUCH A BAFFLING SHOW. IN THE THEMES DEPARTMENT. AMONG OTHER THINGS. "DONT EVER BE VISIBLY PUBLICLY SAD" IS A FUCKING INSANE MORAL. AND IT TAKES THAT SHIT WITH IT TO THE BITTER END. WHY IS THE FATE OF THE WORLD HINGED ON YUYA MAKING A BABY LAUGH. WHERE AM I!!!!

god. god. ok. ok im calm now. im sure in the coming weeks i'll have more barking about arc-v's various fumbles. but i'll leave it at that for now, i wanna talk about stuff i DID like now lol

Favorite Season/Arc: ok well. this actually is a hard question. um. hrm. LIKE. I'LL GET SHOT BY SNIPERS IF I SAY IT WAS SYNCHRO ARC BUT ALSO

IM SORRYYYYYYYYYYYYY I GOT THAT DOG IN ME (A BACK HALF OF 5D'S LIKER'S SOUL.) and unfortunately I WILL go in there and think about it that hard (the absolutely fucked to hell sociopolitical situation happening in Arc-V New Domino City and how it contrasts with the NDC in 5D's) (one thing about me I love weird fucked up yugioh old people I love those bitchass old centrists apparently governing the entire dimension and doing a piss poor job of it it's just like contemporary American politics!!!!!!) ROGET WAS JUST REANIMATING DEAD PEOPLE AND PUTTING MIND CONTROL CYBERNETICS IN THEM AND WELL YEAH SURE I'LL BE NORMAL GRIP ABOUT THAT. NORMAL. i need to make an arc-v AU Aporia so fucking bad THEN YOULL ALL SEE *talking to empty room*

YES synchro was way too fucking long. but regretfully i love turbo duels and will never not be charmed when yugioh puts guys on motorcycles that have no business being on motorcycles. DAMN I JUST FUCKING WISH YUYA AND YUGO GOT TO ACTUALLY TALK AND MEET IN THE SAME ROOM THOUGH!!!! BUT ANYWAY!!!!

im. kidding at least a little, I actually thoroughly enjoyed like...all of Arc-V's seasons/arcs at least a little (barring a lot of the Weird Post Zarc Duel 8 Episode Dead Zone.) The first 50 episodes really are just peak banger Yugioh, I do love action duels to absolute bits (though Action Spells. Uh. Need Some Workshopping 8| If I See Evasion One More Time Im Gonna Lose It) and the shit especially that first season does with the crazy Action Fields is AWESOME. GENUINELY. GO DUEL IN THE VOLCANO. DO A FLIP. RIDE YOUR MONSTER. it's practically running on Pokemon universe logic i cant NOT love it. And well Fusion Dimension arc does just have a whole lot of episodes that make me go cuckoo bananas crazy. Truly something for Dana in every crevice of Yugioh Arc-V.

Favorite Characters: god I do think like a solid half of why I think Arc-V may be becoming my top fav Yugioh is that the cast is just, really Really fucking good. Like yes so many of them are underutilized but the time we Do get with them really just shows off what delightful characters they all are. Half the reason it took me so damn long to finish was I was having so much fun and was going to miss seeing them!! IT'S GENUINELY HARD TO PICK A TOP LINEUP OF FAVS. THERE'S SO MANY DANABAIT GUYS IN YUGIOH ARC-V. YES EVEN THE SYNCHRO ARC GUYS. LUCAS SWANK I MISS YOU SO FUCKING MUCH.

The Lancers alone are SO good, theyre up there with Team 5D's in terms of Favorite "Main Yugioh 'Friend Group'/Organization". Group of guys who kind of have horrible synergy and only like 3 of them are actually competent. Declan came up with it when he was 13. Funniest group of teenagers imaginable, I love them all. LIKE .YUYA MAY BE MY FAVORITE YUTAGONIST??? IM NOT SURE YET BUT. I DO LOVE HIM A LOT. HE'S A PATHETIC WET PAPER TOWEL AND I WANT TO GIVE HIM A NOOGIE. SLASH POS.

And I mean I'm always gonna be Z-one biased but I do like Zarc as a Big Bad a lot too... damn if I don't love Just Some Guy Has Become God and Is a Huge Tool About It <3 WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE THIS!!!!

ah. but. of course. i'd be remiss if i didn't bring up. Rainbow Carrot Rock Your World.

hey guys. why'd it happen again. why'd the Yugioh Carrot and Company get in my head and completely fry my brain AGAIN!!!!!!!! ORANGE CARROT. PURPLE CARROT. YELLOW CARROT!!!!🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕 YUGO ISNT EVEN MY TOP FAV BUT HE'S IN MY HEART AND IN OUR HOUSE FOREVER NOW. meanwhile i dont want. to talk about what yuri is doing to me. if i think too hard about this little purple freak i'll start going bonkers ballistic chewing my leg off. I like all the yuboys but he is especially. Gripping Me. La Cucaracha Loca. My shithead gay son.

dennis needs his own post he's just. a Lot. may very well be one of the funniest yugioh characters ever. Among Other Things. his dub VA's performance needs to be marked as culturally significant. AND THEY JUST KEPT BRINGING HIM BACK.

IN GENERAL, AS I WAS COMPLETELY EXPECTING, FUCKED UP AND EVIL DUEL ACADEMY REALLY DID ME IN I love you Fusion Dimension kids I love getting sick in the head thinking about card game child soldiers.My Actual favorite Arc-V character may just straight up be Sora..... I just like him a lot. He's got a really solid character arc, his deck rules, he's a little fucker AND an absolute real one. Just 10/10 little guy.

GOD WHAT EVEN IS MY TOP FIVE FAVORITES. UHHHH Okay Sora and Yuri for sure, and Declan, I love Declan. Yugo..... god. GOD IS THE FIFTH ONE DENNIS FOR REAL. I FEEL HIM IN MY BRAIN SO BAD. AAAAUUGHHHH (Runners Up: Yuya, Yuto, GONG MOTHERFUCKING STRONG!!!!!!, Rin my girl my badass mechanic girl IM ON MY WAY. I'LL THINK ABOUT YOU THAT HARD., Riley, Arc-V Aster unfortunately a Dana Guy ever. Why Is He Here. He Didnt Even Go to DA in GX. But all of this is subject to change in coming months as the entire cast continues to hit me with weapons. An honor and a privilege to induct these characters into my Blorbo Hall of Fame)

Favorite Duel: HEY QUICK QUESTION: WHY ARE ARC-V'S DUELS SO FUCKING WEIRD. LIKE. NARRATIVELY. There's like 4352984589 ties and duels that get cut short and DUELS WE JUST NEVER GET TO SEE THE FULL OUTCOME OF ON SCREEN?!?!? WHAT WAS GOING ON THERE. It feels like another symptom of arc-v just desperately trying to bite off more than it can chew 😭 Frustrating!! And god I LOVE the zaniness of Action Duels, but we neeeeeed to do something about Action Spells... GRABBING AN ACTION SPELL SHOULD NOT BE THE CRUTCH OF YOUR WHOLE DECK.........

coughs. anyway. My actual honest to god favorite Arc-V duel is Yugo vs. Celina in the Friendship Cup <3 IVE ALREADY TALKED ABOUT IT BEFORE BUT IT'S JUST SUCH A FUN ONE. It's got some great character moments on both sides, a yugioh girl Getting to Be Cool, the colors are gorgeous, it's SO funny, I just get such a kick out of it....I think part of what I Do like about the Friendship Cup is it really shows this sense of kinetic energy that the WRGP in 5D's really needed. I also really like the Shay vs. Dennis Friendship Cup duel for just going completely off the rails. Blow Up This War Criminal and The Whole Stadium With the Giant Bird Satellite Cannon. DOES NOT GET MORE YUGIOH THAN THAT!!

for all its weirdness Arc-V has a LOT of really fun duels that i enjoy--Shay vs. Sora is beloved for a reason, it also goes hard as hell. So many Season 1 duels are just a goofy blast, I really need to rewatch the quiz show one. For as much of an unnecessary mess as those last 8 episodes are, I DO really like Yuya and Dennis's duel too (THAT GETS REALLY REALLY GAY AT THE END???!?!? ARE WE ALL SEEING THIS.)

Hell even the Zarc duel started making me kind of sick in the head--watching Yuya's friends passing around his pendulum necklace while trying to save him makes me turbo emo WHAT CAN I SAY!!!

Arc-V also has the thing I had with Zexal where there's just some individual episodes that are absolute bangers for me. i love the Prison Break episode, it's fucking INSANE. HIP HIPPO SAID FUCK COPS FUCK THE PRISON SYSTEM!!! I love the episode where Gong and Dennis duel. FOR HOW LONG IT DID DRAG SYNCHRO HAS SOME REALLY FUN ONE-OFF EPISODES which I just really enjoy. Also love when Zuzu and Sora beat the shit out of a pack of cops. Based for that for real.

i do also love Yuri and Yuya's duel. Of course.

Other Miscellaneous Gushing/Shrieking/Losing My Mind About Yugioh Arc-V For Good and Bad and Everything in Between: arc-v arc-veeeeee yugioh arc-fiveeee theres just so MUCH. TO TALK ABOUT. THIS ONE'S GONNA BE IN MY HEAD FOR EONS I FEAR. THINKING ABOUT THE EVERYTHING. The sheer amount of narrative traits that make me specifically lose my mind (in a good way. as opposed to. the babyfication making me lose my mind. in a Real Bad Way :////) that they crammed into this. It's like digging in the treasure chest of elaborate fanfics I was writing in my brain in freshman year of high school. The Sick and Twisted Evil AU Version of Duel Academy. The Trained to Be Weapons Child Soldiers. Mind Control Reanimated Corpse Brain Chip. Alternate Dimension Selves. All of the Split Different Dimension Bullshit. Soul Splitting and Soul Fusion Framed as Fucking Terrifying. It's good I didn't have Arc-V growing up it would have been doing IRREVERSIBLE THINGS TO MY DEVELOPING CREATIVE BRAIN. INSTEAD IT'S DOING THEM TO ME NOW.

(side note, re: terrifying soul fusion: Arc-V is SO FUCKING SCARY SOMETIMES?!?? Like "ohh i wish yugioh was still a horror story" DAWG ARC-V ROUTINELY HAS SOME OF THE MOST DREAD-INDUCING CONCEPTS GETTING FLUNG AT YOU AT 90 MPH. SKIP BOYLE FORGETS HIS DAUGHTER EXISTED AND IT'S ONE OF THE MOST HEARTBREAKINGLY HORRIFYING THINGS IVE EVER SEEEEENNNNN )

The shit Arc-V does with Yugioh's themes of identity, these "when does a piece of yourself stop being you and start being their own person?" "what happens when multiple free standing people are one person" type ideas, you KNOW that makes my Aporia Turbofan ass go CRAAAZYYYY. AND THEN IT HAD RELIGIOUS MOTIFS TOO <3333 YOU'RE ME AND IM YOU AND IT DOESNT MATTER WHO DOES WHAT THE DEVIL WILL COME BACK REGARDLESS 😊💞💞💞

Arc-V takes such bold swings at things and 95% of the time it misses the ball entirely and spins up and out and directly into the fireplace but that 5% of sheer genius and thematic weight hits like a truck. Is Arc-V good? FUCK IF I KNOW. PROBABLY NOT. BUT ALSO YES IT IS. BUT ALSO IT'S NOT. BUT ALSO IT'S SOMETHING SO SPECIAL, AND I LOVE IT. That first like 50 episodes makes for such a good yugioh starter course tbh, the way it goes over different summoning methods and is very engaging and energetic, and then the rest of the show is an 18 car pileup of Card Game War that makes me automatically like DONT. START WITH THIS ONE. WATCH ANOTHER YUGIOH OR TWO FIRST AND THEN COME MELT YOUR BRAIN IN HERE. AND THATS SUCH A WEIRD DICHOTOMY TO HAVE WITH ONE YUGIOH. weird like everything else with arc-v i suppose. :,)

For all the mess and all the madness there truly is so much I love, though. I love the character dynamics, even when the show isnt doing much more with its cast--Yuya and Gong's friendship may be one of my favorite 'yutag and best friend' bonds, it's SO sweet and I'm going to be mad forever that Gong isn't more popular in western ygo fandom. I love the DUEL MONSTERS!! Performapals are SOOOO sillygoofy I have to adore them, the dimensional dragons all kick so much ass I love you Clear Wing my big legless weirdo. I love Shay's increasingly bigger Bird Guns. I LOVE FRIGHTFURS!!!! I LOVE D/D/DS!!!!! SO HAPPY TO SEE THEM ON ESPECIALLY SCREEN AFTER PLAYING THEM FOR MONTHS IN DUEL LINKS. MY FREAKY DECLAN DEMONS. I love the miscellaneous callbacks to past iconic monsters and funky weird AU retrains of the Legacu character's decks. Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend my friend Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend

I also do love that Arc-V in theory is trying very hard to be a celebration of past Yugiohs, but it's also instead being completely fucking insane with its 'tributes.' Oh you like Heartland City from Zexal? It's a carpetbombed warzone now! LIKE... HUH!!! When Lazar showed up at the end of season 2 i SCREAMED. I WANT TO KNOW THE LOGIC OF THESE CHOICES. THEY DONT MAKE ME MAD OR ANYTHING REALLY IM JUST FASCINATED BY THEM. i cant really be too angry at arc-v I'm just. transfixed. at every baffling choice it's ever made. I've really truly never seen a show that's so thoroughly felt like some kids doing a roleplay on a forum somewhere, players dropping in and out and mods not really knowing what to do with the lore anymore as things become more and more convoluted. I watch arc-v scenes and i can picture the text RP in my head, the players' forum signatures and all. It's truly some kind of feat to achieve that inherent vibe, that's for sure.

ok im running out of steam i think... what else. god. Yugioh Arc-V is just.... such a teetering Jenga tower of a show, a complete nuclear meltdown of clumsy writing and fantastic vocal performances (dub and sub) and confused handling of its own lore and occasionally some of the fucking coolest most intense expressions and gorgeous shots of any yugioh

I held out on watching it for so long cuz i just fuckin KNEW it was going to grab me by the brain and swing me into the wall and WELL!!! I WAS RIGHT!!!! SHES A MESS BUT SHES MY MESS BABEYYY!!! IS ARC-V GOOD? MAYBE NOT BUT, BROTHER, I FUCKIN LOVE WHEN YUGIOH IS BAD ❤ ive been a disciple of Bad Yugioh for 20 goddamn years and im not stopping now!!!!! I love you Pendulum summoning you insane busted ass mechanic. I love you all four completely fucked up dimensions. I love that they localized Maiami to Paradise City. I love the little nods to past yugioh things (like fusing with a motorcycle <3 Primo Moment...2!) I hate you Leo Akaba explode and die forever (though 'parent going mad trying to bring their child back' do also go me a little bananas.) I love the kickass shots of Yuya's monsters being set in the pendulum scale.I love Sora's relationship with Yuya and Zuzu. I love every fucked up crazyass expression Yuri makes. I love the sense of character design in this show. I love the Action Duel start chants. I love seeing the Synchro Math again and the Overlay Units and the deeply unsettling fusion hand gesture kids use with Polymerization. I love that third ED thats just the Lancers dicking around in different locations and having fun. I love Declan and Riley's complicated but deeply loving bond. I love when characters RIDE THEIR DUEL MONSTERS!!! AND I LOVE THAT DESPITE EVERYTHING I ALREADY WANNA SEE THESE CHARACTERS AGAIN. THEYRE MY FRIENDS!!!!! THEYRE IN MY BRAIN!!!!! MY KIDSSSSS

I KNOW NOW. WHY PEOPLE TALK ABOUT ARC-V LIKE THAT. AND IM ABOUT TO START TALKIN LIKE THAT TOO. YUGIOHHHHHH!!!!!

[cowboyemeritus]

Day 20

Prompt: Total Power Exchange

Pairing: Frater Imperator/Reader

Tags: total power exchange, oral and vaginal sex, manipulation, blood, murder

Notes: one of the more unhinged things i've written. i don't know where this came from... i promise i am a well adjusted adult

“You would do anything for me, wouldn’t you, agnellina?” You can’t answer him with his cock down your throat, so his fingers thread into your hair, gently tugging you off of him. There’s a small pop! when his tip finally passes between your lips. Kneeling on the floor, you look up at him with wide, adoring eyes, and nod, a bead of drool on your lower lip. How precious.

“Yes, Frater. Anything.” He already knows this, but your admission has arousal curling in his gut nevertheless. Imperator groans, using all the restraint he has to slowly guide you back onto him. He could be forceful, he could skull-fuck you, and you’d take it all without complaint. But his perfect, little lamb deserves better, especially given his plans. He can absolutely be cruel, and take great pleasure in doing so, but for now he must be a fair master. Doling out punishment when you’ve done nothing wrong would only hamper his efforts. He can’t afford to lose his grip on you.

You take him all the way to the hilt, your gag reflex having long since faded away. His hips jerk up into your mouth, but you remain pliant, made to receive him. Feeling almost gleeful, he sighs, reaching for the glass on wine on his desk and taking a long sip. As he does, Imperator eyes the antique, silver dagger resting nearby, and thinks about how easy it would be to slit your throat. His skin prickles, imagining the sensation of your hot blood gushing all over him, soaking into his new suit. It’s so vivid in his mind’s eye that he doesn’t notice the way you begin to shake from the lack of air.

Maybe someday, when you’ve fulfilled your purpose, he’ll lay you down on the altar and claim your life for the Old One. But until then, he must bide his time, stringing you along until he no longer has a use for you. He wonders if you would let him do it. Everyone has a breaking point; he knows this from experience. But you, always so willing to obey, have been the most perfect little pawn a man could ask for, taking what he has to give without question. Maybe you would offer your life to him. Just maybe, you would hold the blade to your neck and do it yourself.

Imperator is brought out of his reverie by the feeling of you starting to go limp. Not once did you try to break for air. He pulls you off of him quickly, letting your head rest in his lap. For a few moments, you don’t move. Once, he would have felt fear. Now, he just watches, silently, until you gasp, body jerking. Coughing and sputtering, you gulp down air, looking up at him with tears in your eyes.

“I’m sorry, Frater,” you say between ragged breaths. Imperator puts on a sympathetic look, though his cock throbs at the sight of your misery.

“No, no, darling,” he coos, wiping away one of your tears. “I was careless. Let us try something else.” He gives you another moment to catch your breath, but quickly grows impatient. “Take off your underwear.” Of course you obey, stumbling to your feet to fulfill his command. You wobble dangerously as you reach under your habit, tugging your panties down and stepping out of them. Imperator nods approvingly, patting his thigh. “Come sit, facing me.” Still swaying, you all but collapse onto him, but manage to straddle his lap. He reaches under your skirt, finding you wet and ready. Your cheeks flush, whimpering from even the most simple touch. Imperator takes his shaft in hand, the other going to your hip as he lines himself up. He watches your eyes screw shut, your mouth hanging agape as he helps you sink down onto him. You moan quietly, starting to ride him just how he likes. He really couldn’t have found a better plaything.

“That’s good, agnellina. Very good.” The praise has you fluttering around him, and he grunts. “It is refreshing,” he muses, “having someone who listens to me for once. I am the head of the Clergy now, and still I must fight for even an ounce of respect.” He thinks of Psaltarian, the College of Cardinals, and his pompous new replacement, blood boiling. “Those bastards, if only they saw what you see in me.” 

“They’re fools,” you spit. “All of them.” As a reward, he angles his next thrust so that it hits that spongy patch of flesh, pulling a delicious moan out of you. “They’ll pay for disrespecting you, Frater.”

The image of bodies, piled in front of the altar, flashes in his mind. Suddenly, he finds his climax, gripping your hip hard enough to bruise as he forces you all the way down, pumping his seed into you. His other hand finds the back of your head, pulling you in for a brutal kiss. When the waves of euphoria abate he lets you go, chest heaving. He takes a moment to savor the sight of you, makeup smeared and lips swollen. What he wouldn’t give to see you covered in your own blood.

He waits for his breathing to settle before speaking again. “You are right, my love.” He’s never called you that before and your eyes light up, the devotion in them stronger than ever. “They will all pay.” He reaches for the dagger. You look afraid, then confused, when he takes one of your hands and wraps it around the handle. “You said you would do anything for me?” With only a little hesitation, you nod. Imperator smiles.

“Wonderful. I have an important task for you.”

[eri-pl]

Yay! I remembered to pick the right blog to post to!

So, I was thinking about Annatar,

probably because of all the gifs and stuff, I wish you all happy watching, but I was thinking about Anntar in the book. Anyway. There's one angle that seems underexplored to me. Long post below cut, no ships except those burned at Losgar. Sorry if you had hopes. ;)

He's more or less openly claiming to be an emissary of the Valar. And he is approaching various Noldor. Especially Celebrimbor (the last* living descendant of Feanor) and Galadriel (iirc banned from returning after War of Wrath per special exception for being an unrepentant jerk? Or am I misremembering?)

\* However, Annatar approaching Maglor on the beach and getting blast away with just a few notes and flying a few miles and landing in mud, is a wonderful image to ponder. Yes, I know, Sauron + duels of song = bad… but Finrod relied on skill, not on infrasound + centuries of repressed rage. :)

Anyway, back to Celebrimbor.

Imagine: Your grandfather rebelled against the Valar, swore a blasphemous oath and died. Your father did the same, but with more mass murders in the meantime. The Valar have rejected your family long, long ago. And now someone comes, an emissary.

How anxious Celebrimbor must have been. A lot depends on what exactly happenned with Celebrimbor at the War of Wrath, what Eonwë told him (probably nothing, he's not a HR guy, he's a warrior, he wouldn't think it necessary to talk indyvidually to that one Noldo, and Celebrimbor was afraid to ask), was he allowed to return (I assume yes, because why not, but he was either too insecure or... idk, hoping to find his uncle?) and so on.

Or maybe it's like with Galadriel: he didn't return after the WoW and believes that now it's too late?

I'm sure Annatar comforts him. (No, you can't return just yet, you have an important task to do here). I'm sure he assures Celebrimbor that the Valar still remember Middle Earth and still remember him. Or… maybe not?

Maybe it's more half-truths? Maybe it's more along the lines of "technically i shouldn't be here, but I pity the Elves who stayed here, and you especially and I chose to help regardless". Maybe it's more of "You have a lot of baggage, and I do have some things that I'm not proud of, but if we work together to fix the world, we both can be forgiven". Maybe a part of Sauron even believes in this.

One way or another, the topic of Feanorian legacy must be an important thread here, and not only in the aspect of "my grandfather was a great craftsman" but also, maybe even moreso, "my grandfather rejected the Valar and Annatar still wants to work with me regardless of that".

Also, I am absolutely certain that, after he opened up more and trusted Annatar a bit more, Celebrimbor at one point asked (probably very indirectly, because that is a really hard question for him to ask), "Is my father in the Halls, or—"

And I suppose that whatever story Sauron came up with, this very well may have been one of the reasons why Celebrimbor did not fully trust him. This is a perfect conversation topic to notice someone lacks empathy and, well, goodness.

But anyway, I really wish someone wrote a fic with those conversations. Especially with Celebrimbor daring to ask about the fate of the Feanorians. And what the Everlasting Darkness even is.

But also about others who stayed in aman or died. About his mother, whoever she was. His grandmother Nerdanel. There would be a lot of questions for Sauron to avoid and slither around.

Or maybe it was somwhat the other way around?

Maybe Annatar, in his kindness of course, asked a lot about Curufin, about Feanor. (Of course not at the start of their relationship, but as they get to know each other better… I assume Celebrimbor did open up enough to talk that). About how Celebrimbor feels, of course, how he is coping and so on, all the emotionally inteligent, helpful questions... What the Darkness is, where did Feanor get this idea, how was he able to craft an Oath so strong, so binding, where to find that power he called upon— How does it feel to be compared to Feanor all the time, how would it feel to finally be equal to him in greatness (Annatar of course can make this happen).

Darkness that binds. Darkness that calls, that never forgets. That gathers and never lets go. Darkness that binds.

Or (hmmm, this is starting to blend into crack territory) at some point of his cooperation with Annatar, among talks of his father and his terrible fate, there came into Celebrimbor's mind a thought of freing him, of freeing all the family. After all, who could invent a way to get someone back from the Void Everlasting Darkness, if not the heir of the House of Feanor?

This… could be an interesting starting point for a fic.

[cressidagrey]

I have been a silent reader for a while and have been following your work since you were posting ACOTAR stories and conveniently enough had become a F1 fan a bit before you switched over to writing for F1. Firstly, I am absolutely in love and obsessed with everything you write! I was just curious about your writing process. When you have ideas for a piece of work whether a one-shot or a chapter for one of your stories, do you write them up straight away and hold onto them until it feels right to post or do you typically write a piece and immediately put it out for your readers to enjoy?! Can’t wait to see what you write next!!:)

Oh wow, this turned into a waffle!

Thank you so much for your lovely message! 🥹💖 I’m so happy to hear you’ve been following my work since the ACOTAR days and that you’ve enjoyed the transition into F1 writing. Your support means everything to me, and I’m so glad you’re loving everything!

As for my writing process,it depends! 

I try to write at least the idea down as soon as they come to me…thought I am not always good at that, so a bunch of them just lives in my brain. But everything starts as a note in my notes app. 

Then, when I have more than one line. Like a chapter or something and I know I actually want to seriously write it…then it’s get it’s own Google Doc. 

For White Horse, I had a bunch of stuff pre written but eventually run out of it and now I write and then post as soon as it done.

For The mysterious Mrs Piastri, I have a bunch of stuff written in first draft mode. That means, that nobody but me would  would even understand it, because it’s just random snippets. 

(To give you a context: I have published around 50k in that universe. My word doc for it is around 60k, which involves bits and pieces that I know I want to eventually publish, but that aren’t done. 

For example: I have a bit half written that’s the Piastri Family Group chat and it’s just Oscar’s family making fun of the whole „married or tattoo?“ thing. In the same one-shot, I have Oscar and Mark Webber texting about the wife reveal. I know that there needs to be something else written to be in that one-shot to make it complete but I haven’t figured out what yet. So until my brain figures that out, it stays in the Google Doc.)

If I have an idea for something that I know will probably just be a one shot, like So High School or A Pawfect Coincidence, I had the idea and then immediately  wrote the whole thing down. So that was pretty immediate. Then of course, I need to go through and like fix typos and grammar mistakes and plot holes etc, but sometimes I miss stuff. I give it like one or two re-reads and then I am done. 

For one-shots it’s much easier, because I don’t need to think about consequences in a way. Like there’s no way that a throwaway line could destroy a future plot point five chapters later. That’s why writing that is far quicker. 

Once you have reached the last third of a long form fic, at least in my experience, I need to be really careful not to let any of my plot threads just dangle or just forget they exist. 

For multi chapter fics, I also need to figure out more stuff before, including how I want it to end 😂 Also just like stupid little biographic bits, like when OC was born, where she came from etc. 

For most one shots I can get away without giving my original character a full CV but for longer form texts I need that, otherwise I change their university or their eye colour or something halfway through on accident. 

And then of course, I have like ideas and drafts of things that aren’t finished, because I can’t get it to gel how I want it to. I am still waiting for an epiphany of how to get it to work. 

(Sometimes it just doesn’t work in the way I first conceived it, and that’s okay too. For example, I had this idea titled Overheard in the Paddock, which is about a deuxmoi - kind of but not really- ish Instagram account. And originally it was supposed to be Oscar x NorrisSister!OC but written from Lando’s POV. And it didn’t work, like at all. Until I realised that I had two ideas in there. So Oscar x NorrisSister!OC got its own word doc, together with two ideas for Oscar x Leclerc!Sister and Oscar x Verstappen!Sister and the Overheard in the Paddock thing is now Carlos x OC but from Alex Albon’s POV, which works much better, I think. 

So tl;dr: I have like a bunch of stuff written in first drafts, but I don’t just sit on thousands of words of publishing ready stories. 

Thank you again for your incredible support and for asking about my process! I hope you’ll enjoy everything I have coming up next, and I can’t wait to keep sharing these stories with you! 💖