#this one was fully without a reference which was probably a mistake

[borfungus]

ok I know I said I’d draw odile but… I really wanted to draw a sweet Bonnie moment with @sharkylass’s Pétronille design :’) happy happy happy ~

[cryingatwindermerepeaks]

Massive massive sympathy re your current pain situation: ive never experienced that (although ive definitely had astma flare ups where having to move even a tiny bit is just way too much) but it must be really hard. As per your doctors order: someone makes fun of Lottie for crying over the tv thing and the rest of the YJ swarm them and throw them out of the window as they deserve bc omg MEAN >:I

Other agere thoughts: -Tai generally being very non confrontational when shes little but then she's colouring in and Lottie makes her go over the lines and Tai just fully slams her to the ground -Also little tai refusing muddy outdoor play when she's feeling fragile bc dirt on her hands is triggering. Also seeing the others make mudpies and being encouraged to join in and getting upset bc the whole eating dirt while sleepwalking thing is RAW for her -Jackie and Lottie absolutely HOARDING anything that can be used as sylvanian family furniture or props. Like Laura Lee sees all the thread has been taken off a cotton reel bc Jackie wanted it to make a table/ bottle caps being taken off still-full bottles/cute buttons being 'accidently' ripped of Jackie's new shirt and very conveniently turning up in her dollshouse.... -Van calling sweets 'lollies' bc of Bluey and getting everyone confused bc of lollies in Australia meaning 'general sweets' vs meaning lollipops other places -Mari colouring in her fingernails with feltpens for nail polish and Shaina asking why she doesnt just use her own nail polish and Mari's like '.....its not the SAME' -Van complaining a LOT when its her turn to drive them all somewhere and then later playing a game with Mel involving pretending to drive a cardboard box car. And like the game isnt even exciting, she's literally just playing that shes getting groceries and getting petrol but she also whines about doing that irl XD

Feel better soon <3 ~yjdrabbles

eeeee ansnsns this made me giggle so much. yeah, defenestration deserved.

Anyway, anyway, i love all of these. Thank you so very much for this it cheered me up plenty! My thoughts:

- Tai is such a mellow kid until she doesn’t feel like she’s in control of a situation, so disturbing her colouring - especially having her make a mistake which she’s very hard in herself about - would set her off immediately. And Lottie, not really understanding what’s going on, just getting up and shoving right back. She isn’t really upset by it at all, and very unaware of the bruise that’s going to pop up tomorrow. Tai and Lottie shoving fights are so funny to me, like they are both so calm but also so violent.

- Tai would hate mud play. Not only is it icky because it’s messy, she also feels so embarrassed about other tai and the mud that she feels like everyone would judge her for playing with mud (even if they have no idea). It also just makes her feel so sick and uncomfortable.

- They would be absolutely insane with the hoarding (i mean, same). Anything small enough will go missing no matter how unconventional and everyone knows if they are looking for something it’s probably in one of the Sylvanian families houses. “And this is Mrs Rabbit and her babies.” “Jackie are her babies sleeping in the lid of my shampoo?” Yes, they are. And Lottie is the best at swiping things without being noticed so they always grab stuff without people realising and she’ll later just hold it up to Jackie super proudly.

- This one made me laugh so hard because i (an australian) had to read this twice before i understood it. People refer to lollipops as ‘lollies’ and everything else is candy? This makes little sense to me but I completely understand how confusing it would be for everyone - I bet she picks up a lot of words which confuse the others and often imitates their accents without realising.

- Mari definitely thinks sharpie nails are the coolest ever. Shauna just doesn’t understand fashion.

- This is so funny. Van having the time of her life playing ‘drive to the grocery store’ after whinging about having to actually do just that this morning. Everyone except Van would find it very amusing. And, when big Van complains about driving she definitely gets many comments about ‘would you prefer it if we bought a cardboard car instead?’ Which she doesn’t appreciate.

[somethingpersonarelated]

Akechi's taste in Literature

I've taken an interest in the books Akechi reads. Obviously from the first time you talk with him, you can already tell what he tends to: psychology, philosophy, and mythos. Also, I read at least a little bit from every text. One of my professors out there is proud of me. I hope. So: let's talk about it!

Ok, but why care? Quick Introduction

No particular reason. I simply want to tinker with his brain. I think it could give us insight on the character! And there's an easy way to dismiss this conversation: Akechi uses books as a way to appear intelligent. I don't think that's wrong per se, but he does express an interest in psychology and philosophy in his third semester Jazz Jin discussions. His thieves den conversations also point to interests in mythos. Use this as a "Annoying Person Bookshelf" if you'd like, I certainly will.

Aristole's De Anima (Mementos Mission - Chapter 3)

De Anima, or "On the Soul" [Leob Classical Library], is an examination of the soul and how it functions within the body. It's pretty dense but easily accessible. On page 15,

"There are times when men show all the symptoms of fear without any cause of fear being present. If this is the case, then clearly the affections of the soul are formulae expressed in matter."

Now, I'm not going to read every book, that would be a huge investment. And unfortunately I am still a university student, so I'll stick to the introduction/first chapters or so. But anyways, to the point of the quote, De Anima tends to get metaphysical. Theory time: Akechi has morbid fascinations with the soul. Not only because he well, kills people, but also messes with the restraints on their heart. I choose this quote because it's a good summary of the kind of body horror someone messing with you in the metaverse is like. It's fear and anger unchained, but it manifests in reality through subway accidents... for example.

Hegel's Dialectics (did Akechi misquote Hegel?) - Rank 1

Look, almost all of these texts are slogs to get through, so I wouldn't blame Akechi for not catching this. Or not reading the 2017 in-universe equivalent of cliffnotes. Note: Dialectics refers to the structure/strategy that Hegel uses, not a text itself. Looking at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy we see that Hegel never makes mention of the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis idea. Rather, thesis-antithesis-synthesis is a pattern in his arguments. These are also projected by people reading his text, so we can't fully be sure he's using this to formulate most of his arguments. So not only has Akechi forgotten synthesis, the "unification", but also the fact that Hegel doesn't talk about this. Did he read Hegel? Probably. Did he retain the information? Questionable. Do I blame the writers for making the mistake? mmmm. Maybe. If you're asking me to guess which book he read, I would estimate it was The Phenomenology of Spirit [Google Books]. And yes, I'm going to say it was just because of this quote on page 9 that just, screams Black Mask:

"The force of the mind is only as great as expression; its depth only as, as deep as its power to expand and lose itself when spending and giving out its substance."

Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin vs Sherlock Holmes (Herlock Sholmes) (P5A)

This book I read because my curiosity definitely got the better of me. Since I've gotten into Persona 5 again, I've been DYING to read this one, but never got around to it. I think this one is also interesting to look at based on how it was represented in the anime, a crow escaping a bird cage. I can say that this doesn't happen in the book, but this is why I think Akechi is self inserting on Holmes/Sholmes here. Holmes is much freer as a person in this text than Akechi, but also in a deep rivalry with Lupin. Their banter is also pretty reminiscent of what they [Joker and Akechi] have, but... with older language. Longer quote, so here's an image in its place:

Edit/Correction: Edogawa Ranpo's Kogoro Akechi Series!

As pointed out by a couple people, we can't leave out this series. (credits to @heavy-metal-papillon) I don't know why my mind blanked and left this out. Because when I was doing research for this post someone had mentioned it. Just by name, it should be obvious why this is here! Here is a part of the preface that explains Kogoro Akechi, Arsene Lupin, and their presence in Edogawa's novels (written by Ho-Ling Wong):

Literature he makes references but doesn't mention (note: headcanon/my opinion)

John Stuart Mill's On Utilitarianism

Because Akechi knows how to flirt, he recommends philosophy to Joker. [Early Modern Texts] In my eyes he definitely doesn't agree with this philosophy (in fact some quotes are definitely more aligned with Maruki's philosophy). Page 8:

"That’s because the utilitarian standard is not •the agent’s own greatest happiness but •the greatest amount of happiness altogether; and even if it can be doubted whether a noble character is always happier because of its nobleness, such a character certainly makes other people happier, and the world in general gains immensely from its existence."

Yes, Akechi reads Freud. Freud's essays: Beyond the Pleasure Principle & The Ego Principle

In an offhanded comment about Personas in the Thieves Den to Ryuji, Akechi says:

I love you Akechi. I will not read Freud for you. My love has limits.

Carl Jung's Two Essays on Analytical Psychology

Okay I'm NOT reading this (a lie, i did. [Internet Archive]) but this was the foundational text on the Jungian Archetype of the Persona as well as addressing concepts such as "the will to power." Going to leave this quote from page 78 for you to munch on:

"Logically, the opposite of love is hate, and of Eros, Phobos (fear); but psychologically it is the will to power. Where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will to power is paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other..."

There's a couple things here that point to Akechi reading this, but ultimately I just headcanon that he wants to reason through why Personas exist.

Generally reads about the casts Personas!

Similarly to how Joker can read about the other PTs Personas, Akechi does as well. Well, if his morbid discussion about Captain Kidd in the Thieves Den is an indicator. Does this mean Akechi is familiar with the Carmen stage opera? I think so. Besides, it's also the smartest move. Akechi (head)canonically reads lovecraft.

Conclusion

Akechi really enjoys psychology and philosophy, and while some of it seems like he's doing it for attention/to appear smarter, he DOES continue to show interest in third-semester/thieves den. I still can't forgive him for reading Freud.

The List (of ones directly mentioned here)

De Anima, Aristotle

The Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel

Arsène Lupin vs Sherlock Holmes, Leblanc

On Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill

Beyond the Pleasure Principle & The Ego Principle, Freud

Two Essays, Carl Jung

The Fiend with Twenty Faces, Edogawa Ranpo

Other notes and headcanons I can't justify giving sections to:

he probably read that fuckass billiards book

definitely stuff on justice. i was just lazy. Some of these texts do cover these ideas, but definitely not all of them

he likes detective novels. he's probably read a fair share of sherlock holmes.

he probably reads adjacent literature to some of the philosophers mentioned (for example: Nietzsche to Jung, Plato to Aristotle)

[hottpinkpenguin]

Can I request a band of brothers imagine please I was thinking a one where her a d dick are In a secret relationship and she wants to come clean to the other men. They get in an argument about it. She feels like he is ashamed of embarrassed. He loves her more than anything so he kisses her infront of everyone and he asks her to marry him. They all congratulate them xx

A/N: another one that turned steamy/spicy before my eyes! great request my dear, thank you! :)

Show It - Dick Winters X Fem!Reader

*This fic is entirely based on the Band of Brothers TV show - no disrespect intended to the true veterans and their families* WC: 1992 Warnings: references to canon-typical gore; non-canon; spice/steam; implied smut

Zell Am See was breathtakingly gorgeous, and all you could do was cry. Sitting on the edge of the dock, that beautiful mirror-smooth water stretching out around you, the Alps rising up through the horizon in front of you like a crown made of stone, your eyes were glued on your lap. Big fat tears dribbled down your cheeks and neck. 

This is foolish, you chided yourself. Pull it together. He is not embarrassed. 

After a year and a half of serving in the Army Nurse Corps, watching men choke on their own blood and holding them down while they got amputations without morphine and cradling their heads while they cried out for their mothers in agony, this was what brought you to your knees? The fact that your boyfriend wouldn’t hold your hand in front of a few soldiers?

Dick Winters was many things, but embarrassed by you was not one of them. After keeping your relationship with the handsome, stoic major a secret since you’d met at Toccoa, you knew his reasons for the secrecy. It was improper, a violation of the Army’s no fraternization policy, and ultimately disrespectful to your fellow service members. And he’d told you time and time again, in no uncertain terms, that he expected the two of you to keep your relationship under wraps until you were both safely back in the States and no longer at the Army’s beck and call. 

Nevertheless, you’d made the fatal mistake of dreaming. Ever since VE Day, you’d let yourself get slack with secrecy. Risking a peck on his cheek in front of an open window. Running your hand along his shoulders as you walk past him in the aid station. Trying to intertwine your fingers with his as he escorted you back to your barracks…

“Y/n.” The sound of his voice tore your thoughts to shreds, leaving them scattered like scraps of tissue paper along the dock. Your cheeks burned with embarrassment, the memory of him gently swatting your hand away as you’d reached for his stinging fresh in your mind. 

“Not now, Dick,” you groaned back, burying your face in your shoulder away from him as he took a seat next to you. 

“Look at me, y/n.” 

You stubbornly turned further away from him, gluing your eyes to the lake. You saw a few of the Easy Company guys lazing on the sun dappled shoreline in their military issue boxers. After so many campaigns in the snow and rain and mud, the warm sunshine and clean air of Switzerland felt like a rebirth. 

“Please.” 

Damnit Dick, you thought as the tone of pleading in his voice finally broke you. Can’t you just leave me be? 

“What is it?” you groused. You let yourself turn halfway back to him, still avoiding looking at him, not sure if you could trust yourself fully yet. 

“You know what it is,” he replied patiently. He knew you were pouting and prone to stubbornness. You wished you were calmer, more mature, like him. But at the end of the day, your passion - which he proclaimed to love so much - came with its fair share of warts. 

You sighed heavily, busying yourself with dragging a stick across the surface of the lake beneath your foot. You leaned your cheek against the knee you had bent upwards, your foot tucked in against you while the other one hung loosely over the edge of the dock. 

“I’m sorry.” You hated how petulant it sounded, but it was the best you could do. You’d probably have to rehash this conversation later, in private. The sounds of men playing football and jumping into the lake around you made you keenly aware that there were eyes and ears close enough to learn your secret. The last thing you wanted to do was have a repeat of earlier, where Dick publicly rejected you.

“No, you’re not.” There was a pressure in his voice, and his words startled you. You looked at him, your brows knitted together in question. He reached out and extracted the stick you’d been idly tracing along the surface of the water from your fingers, lacing them with his. He held up your intertwined hand and showed it to you. 

“I’m the one who’s sorry,” he clarified. His voice was dripping with sincerity, threatening to break you apart. You’d only heard that tone in his voice three times before: the first time he’d confessed his feelings for you the night before D-Day, the first time you’d slept together on a squeaky bunk bed in a half-bombed out house in Carentan, and the first time he’d said he’d loved you in Haguenau. Each moment was seared into your memory like a brand. 

“I’ve been fighting for so long, I forgot what it’s like to be at peace.” He paused, swallowing effortfully with a look of concentration on his face. You were shocked to see the threat of tears in his eyes. You reached out with your free hand to capture his cheek, your touch hesitant at first. He practically melted against your palm, his eyes closing. 

“I know what you thought, when I wouldn’t hold your hand,” he continued softly. “That I was embarrassed.”

“Dick, I know you’re not, I ju-”

“That’s what your heart felt. Maybe your mind told you otherwise, but I know you.” You squirmed slightly. It was true, Dick Winters knew you better than anyone. And the fact that he knew it too felt intimate and tender. 

“But you also know me,” he added. You smiled, demurring slightly as a blush spread across your cheeks. It was true. Dick Winters wasn’t a complicated man, but he was deep. One of many reasons you’d fallen for him was his thoughtfulness, his depth of character, and his bottomless loyalty. You wore your thoughts and feelings on your sleeves, while Dick’s passions had to be dug for like a well. But time and time again, you’d been reminded that the effort was worth the reward.

“You know I love you. I know you know that. But… I’ve been trying to hide it for so long, I forgot the importance of showing it.” 

You nodded in agreement, trying to fight the urge to defend his actions from his own apology. As much as his contrition was soothing your damaged ego, you wanted to reach out and smooth away the worry etched in that little creased line between his eyebrows. Nothing hurt you as much as seeing Dick Winters hurt, even if it was by his own doing. 

“It’s ok, Dick. We made an agreement, it’s for the best. And it’s only a couple more weeks.” Surely the Army wouldn’t keep you here longer than that, not now that Germany had officially surrendered. 

Dick lifted your still-interlocked hand to his lips, pressing a warm kiss to your knuckles. 

“I’m tired of waiting,” he murmured. The heat in his eyes was beckoning you to fall into him. You felt your stomach tie itself into knots and your toes curl under themselves at the suggestions in that gaze. 

Without hesitating, he released your hand and found the back of your neck, guiding you towards him. You practically leapt into the embrace, Dick’s lips finding yours with ease. The intensity with which he kissed you wiped your mind clean of any lingering fears. You’d never felt him take so much time with you. Months of sneaking around taking advantage of stolen moments and darkened corners had conditioned both of you to love each other fast and purposefully. There hadn’t been the luxury of time to laze around in each other’s embrace in Carentan or Haguenau or Bastogne. 

But here, in Zell Am See, Dick’s slow and full-bodied kiss took its sweet time to bloom. You weren’t sure you were going to be able to stay decent much longer. Your heart was beating erratically like a drunk marching band in your chest, and there was a sinful coil of desire beginning to tighten deep inside your gut. You let Dick explore your lips and mouth and tongue, eagerly leaving yourself wide open to this new pitch of passion. 

You weren’t sure how long you kissed him. Moments, minutes, hours, eons. Time felt liquid. 

You would have been content to hover there on the edge of that dock until you died, but the rest of Easy Company had other ideas. A handful of wolf whistles and matching whoops shattered your concentration, along with Dick’s. He smiled against your lips at Lew Nixon’s rousing admonition that “it’s ‘bout damn time!”, which was immediately answered by a loud cheer from the rest of the Company. No one sounded surprised, you realized. All the careful attention to detail you and Dick had put in to cover your tracks hadn’t fooled anyone. Dick realized it too, his face breaking into a sheepish but relieved grin as he pulled back from you. 

“Not so fast, Major,” you teased him, repositioning yourself so that you were straddling Dick’s lap. You recaptured his lips in an encore kiss, eliciting another round of cat-calls from Easy. Dick’s arms hovered on your hips for a moment before he snaked his arms around you, pulling you closer against him. The two of you could barely keep your lips connected with all the smiling and giggling. You sat back with a contented sigh, coming to rest on Dick’s thighs. He cocked an eyebrow at you as his eyes danced up and down your body, squeezing your hips with greedy hands. 

“Now that the entire Company knows, think we can safely kick Lew out for an afternoon without having to come up with an excuse?” you simpered as you tugged playfully at Dick’s tie. Even now, as the rest of Easy was lazing around in their makeshift swim trunks and aviator sunglasses, Dick Winters was ever in uniform. You were eager to change that. 

“I’m sure Lew can be persuaded,” Dick agreed with a mischievous note in his voice. “Although, before we go…”

He tipped you backwards off his lap and into the cold water of the lake before you had a chance to scream. He broke the surface immediately after you. You surfaced with a gasp at the chill of the water and a laugh on your lips. 

“Major, how very unprofessional of you!” you teased with a splash aimed at his face. He only laughed and reached out, pulling you closer. The heat from his body felt too good in the mountain-cold lake to resist, and even if you could have, you wouldn’t want to. You wrapped your legs around his torso and your arms around his shoulders as he treaded water with his arms. The feel of his muscles flexing under your touch was tantalizing. He laid a soft, chaste peck against the soft, wet skin of your throat. 

“How about we get you warmed up, then?” he offered as you shivered involuntarily. You could barely contain yourself at the offer, only able to nod and look at him needily. He swam over to the side of the dock, helping you clamber your way up the ladder in your water-logged skirt. He was close behind you, a hand coming to rest at the small of your back as he strode off quickly in the direction of the barracks. It seemed you weren’t the only one who was excited by this newfound public acceptance of your relationship to cash in. 

“Don’t get my bed wet!” Nixon called after the two of you. 

“Oh, don’t worry Nix, we’re not going to make it that far,” Dick called back, causing you to stifle a gasp at his insolence with the back of your hand. You smacked him lightly on the chest as he wrapped an arm around your shoulder. 

Despite the chill of the air as you and Dick practically sprinted back to the privacy of his quarters, you’d never felt warmer.

[howtofightwrite]

Clothes Followup

Hi there. Professional sportswear outfitter and part-time athelete here just chiming in on how these choices are perfectly believable, in my humble opinion: #1 SHOES "sneakers" is a loose definition. but, if the character is wearing casual/lifestyle "sneakers" like jordan lows, vans, etc., these type of shoes are FLAT (not narrow running shoes). Flat soled sneakers are often preferred training shoes for mixed arts or lifting at the gym. You could wear boots, but you're sacrificing agility. As a female, I can say that a female character likely would not inflict such a handicap as BOOTS on herself. Feet are very resilient and resistant to pain and injury. Being able to move on your feet matters a lot more than protecting them does. PASS #2 PANTS. you are not punching someone's pants while boxing. and have you watched fight club? they mostly wear jeans. they're durable, wick moisture (although it feels unpleasant), and if they're fitted properly, they're not going to get in the way of your agility. Jeans are light armor if you're speaking in tabletop rpg terms. PASS #3 SHIRT. a good tshirt of a decent quality will wick moisture, will not be bulky or baggy, and will move with its wearer. tshirts are not expensive and are the best option outside a sleeveless top or topless for martial arts. Especially if you have boobs. Boxing in only a racerback sports bra is also viable, but a tshirt will provide light protection to the skin, which is a good idea in amateur boxing. If they're WEARING GLOVES, nobody is grappling anyone's shirt so there is no risk of clothes-grabbing violations happening there. If this ring is literally underground, it's probably cold. Clothes can be shed between matches, but it's often more important to be clothed appropriately so as to prevent both overheating and chills. Becoming chilled between fights is a greater danger to performance than getting sweaty is. PASS I also have questions as to the type of boxing gloves being used. Are they full padded gloves? Light knuckle pads? Do the boxers wear headgear? Mouthguards? What areas are allowed to be hit or is it a free-for-all? Maybe you think these details are mistakes, but I disagree. Half my job is punching boxes all day. Hot, sweaty, fully clothed, wearing comfortable shoes. Lots of moving around. If I am going to punch boxes (or faces) for hours, that's exactly how I'd dress. The rest of my job? Literally outfitting people with boxing equipment. Literally selling people clothing for athletics. I am also a footwear specialist. Thank you for taking the time to read this. :) -lilkittay

So, apologies in advance, lilkittay, but you're about to get dragged. This might come as a shock, but I actually have a copy of the novel Fight Club. I just found it wedged between a copy of Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson, and the Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. I'm not going to try to figure out what lead to that sorting peculiarity. The book is exceptionally good, and if you've never read it, it's an easy (if somewhat unpalatable) recommendation. Stick it up there with books like Native Son, or Ivan Denisovich, in that it covers some really ugly subject matter, but discusses a problem exceptionally well. And, in the 27 years since the novel was originally published, it has proved itself fairly prescient. It's not about the violence, it is an excellent discussion on the underlying psychology of toxic masculinity.

Now, the last time I mentioned Fight Club, someone immediately piped up with, “you've lost all credibility.” That's their problem, but I didn't actually define it, and it is a term that gets thrown around without being defined. Toxic masculinity refers specifically to an individual who cannot engage with their own emotions, particularly painful ones, in a healthy way, because they view those behaviors as effeminate. As a result, they respond aggressively and, or, violently. That's the toxic part. You get dumped. Your pet dies. You get passed over for a promotion at work. And, instead of dealing with that in a healthy way. In any healthy way. You go out into the world and try to make someone else suffer. That is toxic.

Unfortunately, Fight Club is not the grown up version of Calvin and Hobbes, though that is an amusing fan theory, and something that holds together better in the film thanks to Brad Pitt's costuming decisions.

I'm saying all of this to point out, the characters in Fight Club have no idea how to fight.

More than that, jeans are not light armor. Motorcycle leathers? Sure, those would be light armor. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're described as light armor in D20 modern. But, the only place I'd expect to see denim categorized as light armor is a game that used, “light armor,” for mage gear, “medium armor,” as rogue's leather and chain, and, “heavy armor,” as warrior gear. Which is to say, yeah, that's not how that works at all.

The problem with jeans as armor is, they're really bad at it. Someone with a crowbar? Yeah, jeans aren't going to do anything about that. Someone with an axe? I've heard about the aftermath, it was not pretty. Against a sword? Nope. Against a knife? Personal experience says the knife will win without issue. In an underground fighting arena against someone driving a shin kick into your knee? Yeah, your jeans may look fine after the fact, but you're probably not using that leg again anytime soon.

But, that RPG comment made something click together a little, so back to footwear for a second.

Why would someone wear boots? Now, personally, I wear motorcycle boots in my day to day life. Not because I'm a rider, but because I find them more comfortable and convenient than normal dress shoes, and so long as I keep them buffed out, they pass for men's dress shoes at a glance. The interesting thing about this is that my heel has a wide, flat, block of wood under it at all times. If it was a matter of life and death, I could probably grind off a significant chunk of my heel bringing a bike to a stop without suffering any injury. Now, I bring this up, because driving 200-300lbs of force behind a sharply edged wooden mallet into your unarmored instep will not improve your agility.

In the real world, armor doesn't work like D&D. There's no equivalent exchange between mobility and being able to soak a hit. (And if you think there's an irony in substituting a term from one RPG for another... well, yeah. You're not wrong.) If you think someone's going to stomp on your foot, bring steel toed boots. What you lose in agility today, you make up for in your ability to walk without a cane tomorrow.

The paradox of humans is that we are both stupidly resilient, and horrifically fragile, at the same time. Now, at this point, I do want to say something genuinely nice to you, even if it sounds a tiny bit condescending. You've never looked at another person as 150-250lbs of ambulatory meat and considered the best way to take them apart with your hands. And you know what? That is a good thing. Embrace that, and don't let go, because never finding yourself in that kind of a place is a credit to you, and the world you've been able to live in.

All of that said, fighting another human being is not a workout. It's engineering. You're looking at an organic machine with roughly the same parts and pieces you have, and your goal is to make that machine stop thrashing around, screaming, and leaking on everything, before it does the same to you. It's not better. It's not worse. It's different, and it comes with different considerations. You don't dress to look good or stay comfortable, you dress to avoid life altering injuries if at all possible.

Competitive fighting does land at a meeting point of these two considerations however. The fighter wants to come out intact, the sponsors want good show, one that will draw an audience. This leads to things like fighting in a sports bra. Yes, it may be the most, “agile,” option, but if you're going to be in a fist fight, a heavy leather jacket, preferably one with fiberglass plates may not breathe, but it will take far more abuse than your body can. (Actually, I think sometimes the inserts are made out of memory foam these days, which should also take a hit pretty effectively, especially against an unarmed foe.)

This isn't a major issue, but it is something to consider, when thinking about the temperature of the arena, it's important to remember that human body heat in a crowded space is somewhat cumulative. So, a room that starts out at around 60 degrees, could easily warm up to a comfortable temperature once the spectators are present. There's actually consistent math for calculating what you should set the thermostat for in an amphitheater when it's unoccupied so that the temperature is comfortable when the seats are filled, but I can't remember the numbers, and can't find it on short notice.

You do bring up a good point, the original Anon did not specify what kind of gloves were used. I assumed those were nominally regulation boxing gloves, but those could be something like the UFC gloves from a couple decades back, that left the fingers exposed while armoring the knuckles. The armor on those gloves allowed the wearer to inflict all kinds of horrific injuries on one's foes. In an event Michi is quite happy to recount, her younger brother almost lost an eye to a skull fracture from one of those during a poorly supervised sparring bout. It's fairly credible to suggest that an illegal fight club might use those simply to excite the crowds with actual bloodshed.

Now, as someone who has worked in shipping, I know full well that sometimes boxes do hit back. However, they are the exception rather than the rule. There's nothing wrong with practicing on punching bags, but boxes aren't trying to break you. At worst, they may just want to take a nap on the floor without regard to whether you're in the way or not. Live opponents? They're looking at you as however many pounds of meat machinery, and trying to end you. Looking good doesn't make their job harder, but armoring up does.

Anyway, like I said to the original Anon, nothing in their explanation was outright wrong. A lot of it was non-optimal, but not to such a degree as to shatter belief. The mistake you're making, and I really do say this with respect, is that you're looking at it like any other physical activity. As I said, combat is not a work out. Combat as a hazardous environment beyond the reach of OSHA. You wear protective gear (if you can) because that protection may be the difference between walking out alive and (basically) unharmed, or never walking again. You wouldn't (or at least, really shouldn't) take a bike out on the freeway at 60mph in jeans and a tees, you really don't want to get in a fight wearing them either.

-Starke

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[themsthenow]

DUDE DUDE DUDE I AM OBSESSED WITH THE STUFF YOU MADE OMFG. the wings and the claws im!!!! im feral rn. holy shit

do you have any advice on where to get started if someone were wanting to make something like that of their own? or just generally propmaking for cosplay stuff, god knows i need to find a way to make wings of Some Form to appease the hyperfixation lol

love this stuff it's so cool holy hell

Wow, hey thank you for the nice words :).

In terms of advice, I'd say just be prepared for random stuff to go wrong.

DOWN SCALE.

Unless you have the wide open space required to house an extra entity, I'd say down scale it and make the wing span smaller, because I literally cannot put these anywhere lol. Me and my friends were measuring them by an estimated version of Tessa's height, assuming she was an adult Australian (160cm) and not a dead child wearing robot. The original wing span ended up being almost three and a half Tessas. Down scaling is definitely recommended.

Then going on to material, I'm going to be honest, I don't really know what any good substitutes for what I've been using. The best thing I can think of would be like cutting up one of those big umbrellas you see in like outdoor seating areas because they are built to be sturdy and light enough to to transport places. The blade part of the wings were made out of cheapo yoga mats, they are not Eva foam(idk if Eva foam is more expensive, but cheapo worked for me), they are some kind of material similar to insulation sheets just slightly thicker, I have the cutting patterns on the blog (the mats are 140x50x1cm) . Springs are something similar to "helical extension springs"(they pull things together, like trampoline springs) the strength of these will vary depending on how and if you downscale the over all project.

The general wing mechanism had to be redone a little bit but the new design is just based off an umbrella. It's good to use when you fold it in that the sections form a square in between the joints as a reference because it makes it easier to translate to the wings when drilling holes. The grey moving bar is on the outside now👇

I'll be reall, this part👆 needs a bit of precision. The two holes at the bottom have to be the exact same distance and stuff as each other so the mechanism works. You could probably find a way to optimise the mechanism but I did not (this was just easier for me at least)

The way all the blade parts go up is kinda cheesing it if you want all individual parts to work perfectly without extra materials. I was tying a string together on the bars and it worked to space the wings as I wanted to.

All in all, I'm going to be making a big ol summary post detailing all the stuff whenever I'm done fully.

Until then, I hope this helps, good luck to you and don't be afraid to make mistakes :).

(it's only a mistake if you give up)

Prop making and cosplay in general are things I probably can't comment on because I have never done cosplay and most of the prop things, I make are made out of random trash I can find that would cost dumb money if you went out to buy it new.

These for example are gutter or house liner plastic that was left over from a building site (gloves were uber cheap) and they were tedious and smelly to cut out and melt over an open flame, but if you want to do this too wear a mask for saftey unless you don't care about your lungs (which you should)

The claws were a lot easier to make. Easy enough that I made two sets (I think I went through the process of making these already)

[kithj]

recently i've been making an effort to go through and play a lot of the games that have been languishing in my steam library (for many years, at this point...) here are my brief thoughts on a few so far:

gone home - this was constantly recommended on my old post about haunted house games. i actually bought this back around when it was first published, 2015/2016. and i think if i had played it at that time, it would have really hit for me. i've discussed birdland here previously and 2015 is around the time i played that game, too (probably my first exposure to interactive text games) and it had a profound impact on me as a younger lesbian who hadn't quite come to terms with my identity yet. all that to say, i recommend this if you're looking for a short, atmospheric experience (i played with headphones and definitely got creeped out a few times) but prepare for a bit of a dated narrative. some of the art was done by E.M. Carroll, a name you might recognize from their viral comics.

TACOMA - this game came out back in 2017, and it's another walking sim similar to gone home and from the same developers, though it has a bit more interaction, namely a mechanic where you "reconstruct" scenes and play through them to extract data. but this one definitely felt dated. not entirely, to be fair, some parts did still feel evergreen, specifically around the discussion of AI and human labor rights... but TACOMA chooses to focus more on "AI rights" in the end, which feels a little silly in this day and age, and in general it's a sci-fi game, so it's a bit more fantastical than what we're seeing now in real time. also there was a magazine i found that had an article referring to "president musk of south africa" which induced a full body cringe from me. E.M. Carroll appears here again and is credited with the character concepts, i really enjoyed their designs of the crew & the crew themselves as we slowly learned more about them and their relationships while moving through the station. it's a little longer than gone home but still pretty short, and i did enjoy it, so i recommend it if you can get over the dated AI depiction. i really liked the reconstruction mechanic, and following the "ghosts" around the station. (if you can't tell, i enjoy games where i get to be nosy and go through people's stuff)

Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk - so i made the mistake of playing this without realizing it was the sequel rather than the first... i don't think it impacted too much but i would probably recommend to play it in order, so play Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk first (unfortunately i don't have this one myself). i find this game kinda hard to review, but i really liked the way the player served as the mc's internal voice, and how the game & its mechanics are utilized and contextualized within the narrative as a way for us, "The Voice," to make choices for her, if that makes sense (there's some fourth wall breaking too, which is always fun; she refers to herself as a VN character at one point). i liked all of this, the art and the writing & the animations, though all in all i'm not quite sure how much of it i fully understood, and this could also be because i played it out of order (or it could just be abstract on purpose). i did also only playthrough once, but i believe there are a lot of possible variations, and it takes a lot of trial and error to see everything. i tried my best to be kind to her and help her out :( however i did like how there wasn't always a "nice" option, just like a real internal voice would work; you aren't always kind to yourself even when you should be...

the next few i hope to get through are Mundaun, Saint Maker, and Sub-Verge :3

[homestuckreplay]

TITLE DROP MOMENT !!!!

(pages 82 + 307)

Today's page HIT, because there's nothing I love more than when stories have patterns and structures, and getting the Rose/Act 2 equivalent of the title card in act 1 is a great example of that. The flash animations aren't beat for beat identical, but they hit almost all the same moments - main character gazing at the sky despite obstruction (beaglepuss, blinding rain), view of what they see in the sky, slow zoom out as main character gets smaller and smaller, exterior shot of character's house.

Rose's flash feels a little more complex and detailed with its storm and meteorite effects and increased shading on the clouds and house, which is probably the author getting more confident with the medium. John gets to see the 'Homestuck' pixel clouds in the sky - which I do think are literally there, because they're not depicted as a computer interface the way every other abstraction is - while Rose doesn't. It could be obscured by clouds, but as the word has been so specifically and uniquely associated with John (despite Rose also being stuck at home) I think that's something that's specifically above his house, just for him.

Wind skims the voids keeping neighbors apart, as if grazing the hollow of a cut reed, or say, a plundered mailbox. A familiar note is produced. It's the one Desolation plays to keep its instrument in tune. (p.82)

Somewhere a zealous god threads these strings between the clouds and the earth, preparing for a symphony it fears impossible to play. And so it threads on, and on, delaying the raise of the conductor's baton. (p.307)

The music imagery in these descriptions and in the act titles is very compelling, especially combined with John and Rose both being gifted musicians. If I'm not mistaken, a piano can be made with reeds that are struck when the keys are pressed, while a violin has strings - so their paragraphs refer to their chosen instruments.

They also fit together really nicely. From Wikipedia:

In some choral works, the conductor may signal to a pianist or organist to play a note or chord so that the choir members can determine their starting notes. Then the conductor gives one or more preparatory beats to commence the music...The beat of the music is typically indicated with the conductor's right hand, with or without a baton.

So the 'note desolation plays' is the one the pianist plays to determine starting notes, and the 'raise of the conductor's baton' is the preparatory beat. John, the piano player, is coded as Desolation, not just someone who is experiencing depression but is actually embodying it, while I think there's an argument for Rose as either the conductor or the zealous god threading the strings? I'm interested in if there will be a moment that feels like the currently delayed 'raise of the conductor's baton' for the story, because if it wasn't the meteor impact at the end of act 1, then what could it be?

I also can't wait for an act 3 equivalent of this. If John successfully convinces TG to be Rose's server player, maybe TG will get his own atmospheric musings and role to play in the symphony. Then again, as far as we know he's not a talented instrumentalist, he's a shitty rapper, so maybe the vibe will be completely different. (As for GG in act 4, I think they play the harmonica).

what does it mean when the characters gaze up at the sky

Rose and John both have misattributed quotes on their pages - Rose's claims to be Charles Barkley, but is actually T.S. Eliot (easy mistake). Both their quotes have strong nature imagery - John's mentions wind and flame, Rose's, plants and rain - and both quotes relate to life/death or proliferation/destruction dichotomies, as well as intense emotions - John's mentions passion and Rose's, desire. Could be some Themes being snuck in here.

There's also a lot of Themes in John and Rose gazing up at their respective skies. It feels like them fully comprehending their situations for the first time, a moment of clarity where they're literally opening their eyes, and seeing a world much bigger and fuller than the ones inside their house. The sky is a vast expanse of unknowns, something not easily traversable by humans without mechanical aids, it's where the gods and the heavens are rumored to be and, for some people, the place they'd like their souls to go after death. Gazing open eyed into the weight of all that at once while the end of the world looms overhead is definitely powerful.

As such, I like that this page came out by itself, and I get to sit with it for a day. Page 82 was quickly followed up by 'Leave a surprise for the mailman' which, firstly, we all need to respect our mail carriers, but secondly is a huge tone shift. That's not bad in itself but I'm glad for the comic to let itself be earnest for a moment before that happens.

I haven't double checked, but this might be our first zoom out on Rose's house, and it's even wilder than I imagined? Entire floors held up on stilts, windows as wide as the walls, a giant waterfall in the basement, three or four different wings plus the observatory tower, and a fucking platform with no safety rails leading across the rocky cliffs? This place is not safe for kids and it definitely isn't up to any kind of code. No wonder Rose expected John to walk across such a narrow bridge to retrieve his dad's PDA. She literally does that every day on the way to school. Also, her mom doesn't have a car despite living in a rural area, and the mausoleum is SO far from the house. What, is someone scared of being haunted by the ghost of a dead cat?

[alenablack]

In Defense of Peter Pettigrew: an analysis

The rat

In all things Peter is considered inferior. He isn’t handsome, or witty, or magically powerful. His biggest accomplishment is his friends. If they’re a blazing bonfire, Peter is a candle in a window. Small, and hardly seen.

The tag along friends

In multiple instances throughout the series James and Sirius are described as inseparable and easy to mistake as brothers. This leaves Remus and Peter as the add on friends, the back up, the followers. The rise of fandom culture has promoted Remus to the same level as James and Sirius in terms of friendship. However canon does not fully support this.

Example one: ‘This was in contrast to the only wizarding photograph on the walls, which was a picture of four Hogwarts students standing arm in arm, laughing at the camera. With a leap of pleasure, Harry recognised his father; his untidy, black hair stuck up at the back like Harry's and he, too, wore glasses. Beside him was Sirius, carelessly handsome, his slightly arrogant face so much younger and happier than Harry had ever seen it alive. To Sirius's right stood Pettigrew, more than a head shorter, plump and watery-eyed, flushed with pleasure at his inclusion in this coolest of gangs, with the much admired rebels that James and Sirius had been. On James's left was Lupin, even then a little shabby-looking, but he had the same air of delighted surprise at finding himself liked and included ... or was it simply because Harry knew how it had been, that he saw these things in the picture?’

Even Harry is capable of recognizing that the real core of the marauders were Sirius & James, and that both Peter and Remus experienced feelings of inadequacy and as though they did not belong; despite being devoted to Potter & Black.

Example 2: 'You say you remember him at Hogwarts, Rosmerta, murmured Professor McGonagall. 'Do you remember who his best friend was?' 'Naturally, said Madam Rosmerta, with a small laugh. 'Never saw one without the other, did you? The number of times I had them in here - ooh, they used to make me laugh. Quite the double act, Sirius Black and James Potter!' 'Precisely,' said Professor McGonagall. 'Black and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang. Both very bright, of course - exceptionally bright, in fact - but I don't think we've ever had such a pair of troublemakers -*... 'You'd have thought Black and Potter were brothers!' chimed in Professor Flitwick. 'Inseparable!'

When remembered by professors and town folks it is Sirius Black and James Potter who are both remembered for their intellect and close connection to one another. Peter and Remus are spoken of less, and often less favorably.

While the marauders were a gang; the truth was they were four children who shared a dorm and formed a bond based upon proximity and a mutual interest in causing chaos.

The stupid and foolish boy

When the motivation for Peter’s betrayal come up the discussion generally revolves around his lack of courage or weakness in character. While an important aspect to contribute it’s also important to factor in how he felt about his place within both his side of the war as well as his place within the marauders. Let’s take a look at some moments that display how he is viewed by others prior to his betrayal.

Example 1:

Peter Pettigrew: "I got the snout shape, the pupils of the eyes, and the tufted tail, but I couldn't think what else —"

James Potter: "How thick are you, Wormtail? You run round with a werewolf once a month —"

Peter’s intelligence is often disregarded or degraded by his friends, despite the fact that Peter was successfully able to become an animagi at the same time as his friends, he is referred to as thick for simply taking more time to decide on his shape. James doesn’t speak kindly to his friend in any flashbacks or scenes we’re privy to; leading to the probability that this was a normal occurrence.

Example 2:

“Professor Minvera Mcgonagall described Pettigrew as a "stupid and foolish boy" who hero-worshipped Sirius and James. She also stated that Pettigrew was a less than average student and was not capable of fighting with Sirius. She was somewhat harsh with him during their years of student-teacher relationship.” (Pulled from the wiki)

This is another occurrence of how Peter was viewed by people meant to support him. If we circle back to the earlier quote by Mcgonagall we can see that she describes Sirius and James in a much more positive light.

Example 3: Peter being chosen as the Potter’s secret keeper. The whole premise of this stems from Peter’s lack of closeness to his friends; he wasn’t considered close enough to be chosen for such a role and therefore would serve as good protection.

What do these examples show us? Even prior to Peter’s betrayal he is viewed in a negative light.

In particular, his intelligence has always fascinated me. How is it that someone who is described as stupid, not magically powerful, or anything more than a follower is able to pull off his betrayal so completely? Not even Dumbledore himself suspected Peter as the spy, while this can be attributed to people’s low opinion of him. How exactly would someone without some level of cleverness keep up such a ruse? How could frumpy, mild mannered, second rate Peter Pettigrew capable of fooling the most powerful wizard alive and the entirety of the order? How could the rat frame the bright admired Sirius Black and murder 12 muggles if he was magically weak?

These complexities are what makes Peter both so fascinating and pitiful. They lead one to believe the general view of him was either grossly misinterpreted or overtly wrong. Was he just a stupid foolish boy who was weak with fear? Or was he a loyal devoted friend for a decade; who protected his creature friend for years, supported sirius through his estrangement from his family, and willing became the secretkeeper to the potter’s despite the target it placed on his back, who despite all this was simply tired of being treated poorly by the people he put first?

Ultimately we’ll never know, but what an interesting character develops from these contrary qualities.

Conclusion

Finally; let’s discuss the betrayal and the events that follow. Was the betrayal of his entire friend group horrific? Absolutely. Was it really that surprising after one dives into the inner workings of that said friend group? I’d said no. Peter is shown to have deep regret for his actions afterwards and in a turn of events helps Harry, but Peter never betrays Voldemort. Even when he is defeated and presumed dead, Peter stays loyal to him. He performs the ritual to bring back Voldemort himself, a magical feat in of itself. What does this say about Peter’s character? It shows both warring factions within himself but also how he is trapped between loyalty and cowardice. Peter is deeply loyal, firstly to the marauders despite their treatment of him, and later to Voldemort despite the fear and mistreatment he experiences.

Would the circumstances of Peter been different if he felt valued by his friends?

Or was he always destined to serve as a traitor?

[99corentine]

How To Write Good by Corentine

THE DRAFTING PROCESS, PART 1/2

Hello, people were interested in some writing tips by me so I, uh, sort of kind of cranked out a writing guide in a few hours. I’m not sure if this will be a very comprehensive or helpful guide but let’s give it a try!

⭐ Starting disclaimers: Please remember as with all things that my method is not necessarily the best method, everyone is different and over time you’ll find your own process.

I write romance, so my advice is skewed towards writing that and I’m not sure how helpful it will be for gen fic. I publish fanfic chapter by chapter to AO3 so it’s also skewed to someone doing the same, not someone writing a full novel they want to get published. 

I’m going to be using GOL HAH DOV (GHD) for writing examples because, well, it’s a finished longfic so it’s as good a reference as any, but obviously GHD is not everyone’s cup of tea. I’ll also occasionally reference Tooth for a Tooth (T4T) which apologies is very far from finished, but the Baldur’s Gate 3 fandom is vastly different to the Skyrim one, so it’s useful to cross-compare them.

Also worth bearing in mind: I have been writing fanfiction since I was about 13, and I’m now 33. That’s 20 years of experience. Do you know what I wrote when I was 13? Hot garbage. Writing is a learned skill that, much like playing a musical instrument or learning literally any other craft, you must put time and effort into to improve.

However although ‘practice makes perfect’ is fundamentally true, that’s also kind of lame advice. So here is what I personally do, which may be helpful in figuring out what you want to do. 

STEP ONE: YOU NEED AN IDEA FIRST DUMMY

Think of a fic idea. Probably you have lots of vague ideas. As I’m trying to turn something from a daydream into an actual writing project, I tend to ask myself these questions:

⭐Who is it about?⭐

Pick your pairing, romantic or otherwise. Think about what you like about the character and what traits you want to emphasise in your writing. If you’re writing about fan character x fan character, what makes them go well together? What causes tension between them?

If you’re writing fan character x original character, do remember that your readers are here for the fan character, not for your OC. There is no getting around this, your OC is not what brings people to the fic. GHD’s Chrysanthe was largely intended as a blank slate, quite literally, I made him an amnesiac because the point of the story was Miraak not Chrysanthe. 

Over time I was able to shape him into something more distinctive (softly-spoken, stoic, paladin-like, secret tricksy side only Miraak brings out, gets more dragon-like as the story progresses) but that was a gradual thing. Your readers will hopefully come to love your OC as you do, but it takes time for them to get invested. I’m very grateful that people did come to root for Chrysanthe – but make no mistake, if the story had no Miraak in it, people wouldn’t be reading it. Your OC is always a vehicle for the fan character.

⭐What are the overarching themes of the story?⭐

A cohesive story has a theme that repeats throughout, and picking one early on will let you write with that theme in mind. As an example, the themes of GHD are:

Soulmates / we were destined to meet each other

There’s no-one else like me / you and I are the only real ones here

One’s a hero one’s a villain

Zero to hero / hero becomes progressively more badass

Redemption arc but the villain is never fully redeemed – for GHD this turned into the repetition of Miraak’s theme he’ll never be pure but for you he’ll try and later Chrysanthe’s I love you exactly as you are

Your own themes might be something like best friends who don’t realise they’ve been in love this whole time or can’t live with you can’t live without you. Tropes count towards this too, so something like soulmates, Modern Coffee Shop AU, hanahaki, all of that stuff is a story theme.

⭐What does this fic do that other fics like it don’t?⭐

GOL HAH DOV was sort of easy mode in this regard because there aren’t many fics featuring Miraak at all, so writing anything was already doing something different. Of those existing fics, I wanted to see more where Miraak was evil and scary, and you should be the change you want to see in the world (of fanfic), so I decided to write it myself. I get a lot of comments on Miraak’s personality, so I assume this is mostly what makes GHD stand out!

I’ll use T4T as a contrasting example, because Skyrim is old and Miraak is niche, but Baldur’s Gate 3 is new/popular and Astarion is a fan favourite. That means there’s a veritable sea of fic about him, so what can you write that will stand out from the many, many other fics out there? It doesn’t have to be the only one of its kind or anything, but it does need to have something special about it.

You’ll want to either go for a strong theme or trope (i.e. soulmates, magical spell curse, we’re both monsters), or change the setting (canon divergence, ‘what if X happened instead?’, or even outright alternate universe and a brand new plot). Personally, I choose to follow the source material but go off-script. I gotta say, nothing makes me sadder than seeing plot and dialogue lifted straight from a game with zero changes made to it. That’s a personal preference obviously, but I think if you write a fic it should strive to do something different to the rest.

⭐Do I have enough enthusiasm to finish it?⭐

This is more applicable to longfic, but you really need to be in love with a story to see it through to the end. Be realistic with yourself, how much free time and energy you have – if you start it, do you think you can finish it?

I have a whole planning process (detailed later) and sometimes I start planning out an idea just to realise I don’t really have the enthusiasm to actually write the whole thing. This is fine! Even just planning is still a writing exercise, and it might spark some different ideas.

Once you have your idea, and you’re confident you’re going to actually write it… then for the love of all that is holy, do not share it in detail with anyone. You can pitch an idea to see if people will be interested but if you go into specifics about story events or certain scenes? You basically get the endorphins from having ‘created’ it, only you haven’t actually created it, and now you’ve had the chemical pay-off you probably never will. Keep your ideas to yourself until you’ve actually written them.

STEP TWO: WRITE THAT DOWN

In terms of writing software, I use Scrivener, which is a paid-for software but is not subscription based (I wouldn’t pay continually for software unless I was reliably writing every day, and sometimes I go ages without being in the mood to write). Scriv’s word processor isn’t the most intuitive thing, but I like its organisation features. This is what a work in progress looks like for me:

That’s essentially a folder (the story) containing a bunch of word documents (the chapters). You could break it down even further and have a chapter folder with each document being individual scenes, then stitch it together later - if writing is a daunting process for you, it’s useful to break it down into small, manageable chunks. You can do this in other software obviously, I just find Scrivener the most visually pleasing.

Set up your writing document, and let’s get to planning what we’re actually going to write!

...Apparently tumblr has a word limit I've exceeded, so I'll write the next bit separately. Here's PART TWO.

[stephensmithuk]

"The probable Liberal candidate for Mid-Devon at the next election"

I thought it might be worth discussing this line in more depth, with some further points about elections in late Victorian Britain, with some reference to the recent one.

Funnily, you can actually got through this largely word by word.

The

While many of them had been abolished, there were still a number of seats that elected two MPs, such as Bath and Devonport.

You still had some "university constituences" where Masters and Doctorate level graduates could vote for two MPs. These would persist until the 1950 General Election.

The UK has pretty much always used the plurality system for General Elections aka "first past the post". Highest number of votes wins. This can result in someone getting in with 34% of the vote, which happened at the 2024 election.

In the case of a two-member seat, the top two candidates got elected. This multi-member practice is still standard for local council elections.

Probable

The UK election period is pretty short. The last election had Rishi Sunak ask the King for a dissolution on 22 May, Parliament dissolved on the 30th and the deadline for nominations on 4 June, a month before the actual election on 4 July.

The Victorians had the actual voting spread over 24 days in the 1892 election; it was possible for a candidate to lose one election, quickly get nominated in another seat and win that one.

Candidates would not therefore be fully confirmed under the formal nomination by their local party, although today the national party has a good deal of control over the process:

However, it is today common place to have "prospective parliamentary candidates" in place before an election is called. This allows them to campaign without becoming formal candidates and being subject to our strict electoral spending rules.

The UK also has its own equivalent of "carpetbaggers", known as "parachute candidates". Party HQ will "parachute" someone they want into a safe or winnable seat, frequently to the at least mild displeasure of the local party. Notable parachutists include George Galloway, Boris Johnson, Margaret Thatcher and Roy Jenkins.

Liberal

The UK had three major parties in 1889:

The Conservative and Unionist Party, generally shortened to the Conservatives or the Tories. Led by the Marquess of Salisbury, the incumbent PM since the election of 1886 gave him an overall majority. The latter is an insulting term derived from an Irish word for "outlaw", but today can be used in a neutral way - the BBC's Style Guide allows it to be used for later references. The Conservatives do not use it themselves formally. The Unionist part referred to their support for the union between Great Britain and Ireland; they had significant support in the (more Protestant) Ulster province of the latter, six of the nine counties of which would become Northern Ireland. As such they opposed "Home Rule" i.e. Irish self-determination in domestic affairs with their own parliament, although Salisbury's government did implement various reforms in Ireland seeking to "kill Home Rule by kindness". They generally favoured protectionism and a policy of keeping Britain out of foreign alliances.

The Liberals: Led by William Gladstone, considered one of our greatest Prime Ministers. Known as the G.O.M. (Grand Old Man or God's Only Mistake, depending on your POV), he had been Prime Minister for the third time during a short-lived 1886 ministry started and ended over Home Rule - he'd forced out Salisbury by a defeat over the matter with Irish support, then had his legislation defeated in the Commons, forcing an election. The Liberals had split over Home Rule, a Liberal Unionist wing aligning with the Conservatives and eventually merging with them. The Liberals favoured increased worker rights and expanding the franchise.

Irish Parliamentary Party: Made up of Irish nationalists (commonly, but not always Catholic) who wanted autonomy and land reform, they were led by Charles Stewart Parnell. Opposed to militancy in the name of Home Rule or even full independence, which was getting quite common at this time. Parnell would foil an attempt to smear him as pro-violence by forged letters claiming he was complicit in a double assassination in Phoenix Park in 1882; he requested an official enquiry and the journalist, Richard Piggott, broke down under cross-examination. Piggott was then sued for libel by Parnell, lost, then fled to Madrid where he shot himself. However, the following year, Parnell was revealed via a divorce trial to have had a long affair with a married woman called Katharine ("Katie" to her friends, "Kitty" to her enemies, the latter being a slang term for prostitute) O'Shea, fathering three of her children and "living in sin" with her. The scandal was huge, with the Catholic Church coming out against him. Refusing to resign, the party split, with the majority becoming the anti-Parnell Irish National League. Parnell married Katherine in 1891, but his health was failing due to stomach cancer and heart disease - he would die in her arms four months later. His minority faction collapsed shortly after.

While trade unions were a growing political force, the Labour Party had yet to really come into being.

Candidate

In 1892, there were 6.16 million registered voters, therefore eligible to run for the House of Common. As is obvious, universal suffrage was not a thing at this point.

This page covers the qualifications to vote and ergo, I believe, run in 1900:

For further explanation:

Of full age means over 21. The UK lowered the age to 18 in 1969, two years before the US did.

Receipt of what we would today call benefits, bar medical ones, meant no vote. Insert your own joke here.

Conviction for corrupt electoral practices also cost you your right to vote. Being incarcerated after a conviction (but not if you are on remand) today also bars you from voting, but this does not carry over after your release.

Alienage means being a foreigner, not being an extraterrestrial.

Looking at this, I believe that both Watson and Holmes would have been eligible voters. Certainly later in their careers.

Peers were and still aren't eligible to vote or run for the House of Commons. Baronets are hereditary knights and therefore not peers.

You could run as an independent candidate, but these winning were pretty rare. Having just two candidates on the ballot paper was not uncommon either.

The secret ballot having been introduced in 1872, voters would now going into a booth or partitioned area and mark their choice with a 'X', the traditional signature of the illiterate. We have never used voting machines here. It would then be dropped into a padlocked metal box.

The ballots would contain the name of the candidate and their residence. It would not have their party affiliation on it. Candidates would have to explain via posters and leaflets who supporters should vote for:

A candidate could not pull out after nominations closed - if they died and weren't an independent, the election would have to be re-run. In 2024, a number of candidates lost their party endorsement due to various controversies at the point it was too late to take them off the papers.

Mid-Devon

Our parliamentary consituencies have names, unlike the numerical districts used for the US House of Representatives.

Redistricting or boundary changes were and are done by independent boundary commissions. The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 created three commissions (England & Wales, Scotland and Ireland) with the new requirement to keep elector populations broadly equal in each seat. Seats were expected to be compact and follow local boundaries where reasonably practical; none of those silly American district shapes here, thank you.

No further boundary changes would be done until 1918.

Mid-Devon is fictituous - I have not been able to find the name of the relevant RL consituency for the area.

Next Election

Barring the period between 2011 and 2022 where elections were fixed or required the Commons to authorise them by a 2/3 vote, the date of the next election is in the gift of the Prime Minister, who must call it within five years of the last election. In 1889, it was seven years.

The PM can ask for a dissolution and new election from the monarch at any time in that period, which is nearly always granted unless there is a viable alternative government available.

PMs generally try to call an election at the best time for them politically; sometimes it's expected, other times it will wrong foot people. The 2024 election being held in 4 July surprised nearly everyone, including many in Sunak's own party.

Salisbury called the election for 4 to 26 July 1892. The results saw the Conservative/Liberal Unionist alliance lose its overall majority, but Salisbury hung on until 12 August when the Liberals and INL collectively defeated the government in a vote of no confidence. Salisbury resigned and advised Queen Victoria to send for Gladstone. The latter, now 82, formed a minority government reliant on Irish Nationalist votes and made another attempt at Home Rule in 1893, blocked by the Lords.

Gladstone would resign the following year on health grounds and Victoria then selected Lord Rosebery to succeed him, basically as he was the only Liberal she liked.

Further notes

The House of Lords and the House of Commons were equal in power at this point; the former could therefore veto bills and block the budget.

Results were and still are announced in public declarations, these days televised. The candidates going up on the stage are privately told by the Returning Officer the results, then told not to show any sign of what has happened as they go up. It's very much poker face time.

Postal ballots are a thing, but they must be returned by close of poll on election day.

The former practice of "chairing", basically a victory parade involving the new elected member sitting on a chair and being carried around the town, had stopped in 1880.

The Oaths Act of 1888 eliminated the requirement of members to swear an oath of allegiance to the monarch, allowing them to affirm instead. This allowed non-Christians to take their seats, as well as those Christians who do not agree with swearing oaths. It is now possible to use any religious text you like when doing the oath or affirmation. However, the allegiance to the monarch bit remains to this day - Sinn Fein, who wish to see Northern Ireland become part of Ireland, refuse to take their seats because of this, while a number of MPs did this bit under protest because of their opposition to the monarchy.

[1moreff-creator]

Happy Birthday Nico Hakobyan!

Meow meow! (Our favorite cat person's birthday has arrived!)

Mrow. (As always, small character analysis + fun facts + songs!)

CW Transphobia, bullying, blackmail, death threats, murder attempt

-Nico is the Ultimate Pet Therapist! This is because, as they've explicitly stated, they like interacting with animals more than humans. They feel as though there are many unwritten rules of human conversation they don't fully understand, while animals are a lot simpler by comparison. Mood.

-Their secret may also play into why they prefer interaction with animals. It was "No one accepted you for your identity. You were constantly mocked by your family, your peers, and everyone else." Basically, people made fun of them because they're non-binary, to the point apparently they threw rocks and mud at them :(

-Speaking of secrets, the quote on Mai's page associated to them is "Everyone confided in her." Presumably they came out to Mai out of their own will, instead of being essentially outed by David (which is one of the many morally wrong things with David's whole "sharing secrets" operation, but this ain't about him).

-And speaking of secret quotes, the one on Nico's page's source code is "Why should I own up for the mistakes that someone else made?" A bit vague, and one which will probably only make sense with future context. Although, it may actually be referencing something we already saw.

-Time to talk about The Gym Incident.

-Ace got Nico's secret at the start of CH2, and because of his own set of issues, he decided to use this power over Nico to bully them relentlessly. Now, Nico also got Ace's secret, but for one reason or another never brought it up. Possibly because they had a "better" idea for how to stop the bullying: in the heat of the moment, Nico threatened to kill Ace. I mean, killing the guy is a lot simpler than the blackmail equivalent of mutually assured destruction, and we know how Nico feels about complicated social rules and norms.

-Thankfully Hu stepped in before things escalated further, although her method might have been, uh, flawed. Giving her friend the benefit of the doubt, she blamed Ace for everything and slapped him. Which, yes, Ace was horrible to Nico. But the death threat should probably be addressed, shouldn't it? Or should they "not be forced to apologize for someone else's mistake?"

-One thing led to another, and Nico tried to kill Ace in the gym.

-To be fair, the whole situation is still surrounded in speculation, but they have admitted to it. To be clear, I don't actually think this is the situation their secret quote refers to, since they did say "I shouldn't have done that" in the trial, so they presumably feel enough remorse to feel like maybe they should apologize, even if Ace is far from blameless. Or maybe I'm wrong and this is the situation the quote refers to, who knows.

-Additionally, they never denied stealing Rose's turpentine to pull this off, so it's very possible they did.

-Oh, yeah! Nico and Rose and friends :D (or at least they were before the turpentine thing). They shared an FTE, which only had a 0,4% chance of happening apparently :O

-It's a very sweet one, where they vibe for a few minutes without talking, then call each other cats, and talk about their issues with communicating their feelings. It's revealed Nico has a pet cat named Tractor (because he meows very loudly), which is pretty old, and that they miss other cats they knew before the killing game. Also, when Rose brings up she's scared of what she knows because of her memory, Nico drops this while thinking of the killing game:

Nico [thought]: Everyone here probably is afraid of themselves and what they might end up doing.

Foreshadowing is a narrative device-

-Their numeral in the the David MV is VIII (8), which is "even if I try to think, IDK!!!". Explained at 1:58:22 in this video, though it's not too complex.

-According to Color Theory they get light blue, with the words "cry, cry, idk!!!" I don't think I need to explain why this applies to Nico, who might actually have more crying sprites than the rest of the cast combined (I don't think that's true, but you get the idea). Mood.

-Their birthday, December 19th, lands on National Hard Candy Day, National Harry (yes the name) Day, National Oatmeal Muffin Day, and National Emo Day, among others. At this point I'm no longer surprised by these things.

Fun facts!

-They like cat-themed things and dislike bathtubs. Cat behavior.

-Like most of the cast, they're American, right-handed, their sexuality is unconfirmed and their hair color is natural.

-They don't have a favorite color, as they are not interested in such things, but their least favorite is white. They find it unsettling.

-Nico cuts their own hair, as stated in their FTE.

-Their favorite ice cream flavor is "the flavor." No elaboration. Mood.

-They smell like a kitty-cat.

-Their favorite food is unprocessed and natural food.

Songs!

(I was really tempted to give them some of Muu's songs from Milgram, but whether or not they work depends on what their secret quote actually means so :p)

+The Chattering Lack of Common Sense by Ghost & Pals

+Scapeg∞at by Ghost & Pals

+God-ish by PinnochioP

+Karma by CreepP, CircusP

+Nobody Makes Sense by PinnochioP

+Monster by KIRA (listen evil Nico lives rent free in my head ok?)

+The Spider and the Kitsune-Like Lion by MASA Works Design (So about the evil Nico thing-)

+And Happy Birthday! Sung by kitties of course.

(Wow I did not have a lot for them rip)

[bluegekk0]

Sorry that this is long, just went on rambling but I need to over explain my questions/senecios.

I guess eventually Lewk will know the full extent of what happened during fpks rule and his hibernation. He would probably notice other bugs try and call him king, see some kings idols here and there(the ones that weren't destroyed by fpk yet), and maybe see Holly's statue in the City of Tears( has the statue been taken down as well?) Anyways I am unsure if fpk or Grimm would tell Lewk that fpk has done something he regrets and that's why he doesn't think he should be king again, or just tells them stories of the infection. My guess is that none of the bugs actually tell Lewk what went on prior to his birth. So when he gets older would he ask questions, or not cause he knows the subject would hurt everyone involved? Then if he does ask the questions, would his family ignore it or answer them? I don't think it would matter as I think he'll find out eventually and he would simply look at fpk in a different light. Not angry with him of course, he had a rough decision to make.

currently he's at such a young age that it's something he wouldn't fully comprehend, so he doesn't know about it as of now. but i definitely think that it won't be kept a secret from him forever, and that once he's old enough, they'll tell him. part of fpk's healing journey is accepting that what happened, happened, that his past mistakes don't define him, and that he has to keep going so that he can make up for his actions. so even if he's deeply ashamed of what he's done and would see the knowledge as a burden, he wouldn't want to hide it from lewk. if there's one thing he learned from his relationship with grimm, is that being honest is key, and hiding the truth from someone will only end up hurting both sides in the long run

so i do think they would try to answer his questions, i can't see them ignoring them or changing the topic. of course, he's very young, so they would have to answer them in a way that would be appropriate and easy to understand for him, but they wouldn't hide the truth, no. he deserves to know what happened, it was a series of events that shook everyone he knows, not just his family, but everyone in dirtmouth as well

would that change how he sees fpk? not by much, he loves both of his dads more than anything, but it would give him more perspective and help him understand why fpk is the way he is. would there be a part of him that sees his father's past actions as cruel? i think so, but i don't think he would be angry with him or hate him for it, at least once he fully comprehends what happened

as for the statue in the city, i think it would remain there, unless fpk asked for it to be taken down (at holly's request, most likely). i mentioned before that i plan for lurien to be the only surviving dreamer who now has a high position of authority in the city, and with his loyalty to the king (well, the one who used to be king, i do think he shows consideration for fpk's wishes to not be referred to as such, but he still holds tremendous respect for him), he would without hesitation do it for him. and i do think it gets taken down later in the au's timeline, which means that by the time lewk is born, it's not there anymore

[miqo-tales]

You got FFIV in my FFXIV

So for anyone that has never played FFIV, I wanna touch on some of the more interesting references to that game in FFXIV 6.1-6.5.

This won't be everything. Just some things that go beyond names.

And tossing it under a cut since there will be some 6.5 spoilers.

Durante

There isn't a character named this in FFIV. Apparently this is the baptismal name of Dante, the author of the Divine Comedy, where the names of the Archfiends (and some other stuff) comes from.

All that said, I'm surprised this character is not called Cecil, after Cecil Harvey, the main protagonist of FFIV. But Durante being a Dark Knight is probably a nod to Cecil, who starts FFIV as one.

Troia

The Fell Court of Troia is named after Troia Kingdom from FFIV, and the music here is an arrangement of Troian Beauty from the FFIV OST.

In Troia, women were the leaders of the government and the soldiers of the army. This is probably why they had Beatrice be the ruler of it in FFXIV, and it's referenced in Beatrice's triple triad card.

And also, in FFIV, Troia kept the Crystal of Earth. And in FFXIV, there you fight Scarmiglione, the Archfiend of Earth.

Hiss Hiss

Speaking of Scarmiglione, after you defeat him the first time and the group is exploring Troia Castle, there's a hissing sound that Varsahn mistakes for someone speaking. That's a reference to Mt Ordeals in FFIV, where occasionally there would be a hissing sound, and Porom would blame her twin brother Palom for it. Turns out it's actually Scarmiglione, who's been following the party up the mountain.

Red Moon

In FFIV, there were two moons. In Troia, you can find an astronomer who mentions that one of the moons is turning red.

The moon of the Thirteenth being red is probably a reference to this.

Lunar Subterrane

Few things here:

Lunar Subterrane is an area in FFIV. But the early part of this dungeon feels more like the Lunar Core area instead.

The music that plays here is not the theme for either the Lunar Subterrane or the Core. Instead, it's Kingdom of Baron from FFIV. Since most of the dungeon takes place in a memory of going through Baron, it does fit.

Lastly, from the name of the second boss, it seems that in the memory, Baron is being attacked by Damcyan. If so, this is the reverse of FFIV, where Baron bombed Damcyan and stole its Crystal of Fire.

Archfiends Reborn

In FFXIV, Golbez summons shades of the defeated Archfiends to stall you. In FFIV, the Archfiends are fully revived by Zemus, and you have to fight all four at once (sort of).

Kain, Jump!

Estinien fighting Barbariccia's shade may be a nod to a mechanic from her FFIV battle. During that fight she'll shift to a different form where she's spinning, and she cannot be hit and will counter any attacks. The only way to stop this is for Kain, the Dragoon, to use his Jump attack on her.

Zero

Zero accepting the Light and becoming a Paladin near the end is a pretty direct reference to Cecil. But there's a bit more to it.

When Zero sees her reflection in the Flood on the First, I think that's a reference to the chamber at the top of Mt Ordeals in FFIV. In there is a room with a mirrored wall. It's also where Cecil becomes a Paladin, and so Zero trying to draw Light into herself may also be a reference to that.

Additionally, Zero winning over Golbez without fighting him feels like a small reference to the battle in that same chamber. After Cecil becomes a Paladin, he's attacked by his reflection, which is still a Dark Knight and represents his darkness. You defeat it by not attacking it.

Zeromus

Most of Zeromus' attacks are named for attacks it had in FFIV (even using the FF2US name of Bio instead of Virus). Most are different, but there is one similarity. Big Bang does big damage to all and gives you a few effects that go off later, and in FFIV, it did big damage to all and gave all characters a HP Drain. Visually similar as well, with lightning bolts striking in multiple spots.

I think at 20% Zeromus shifts to its final phase (maybe 25?). The music changes from The Final Battle to The Red Wings. Not sure why the music change, but Zeromus does turn red, so... maybe?

Additionally, in FFIV, Zeromus also changed to its final phase when under 20% HP. In this phase, it only casts Meteo.

[brooklynislandgirl]

YOUR MUSE'S INVENTORY. [original meme from @treasurechestrpmemes​.]

rules: list the things your muse carries in their pockets or bags in their every day life. (optional: explain their significance.) repost, don’t reblog.

The Nurse Shark || Beth Riley

I. Phone ~ Perpetually at 6-15% battery yet never actually runs out of power. She has the standard apps on it, plus ones she uses for work reference: NDR, PDR, CCN, Epocrates Essentials, Medscape, Pedi-Stat, and so on. Beth does have an Instagram account but rarely uses it. She also has a YouTube channel where she doles out advice on occasion. She isn't fond of social media. She does, however, enjoy having portable music. Her Hanai-Sister Jay is her ICE contact, and the first number on speed dial. The next 7 numbers are various take out places with delivery options.

II. Bone athame ~ This is probably Beth's most important item, one she never forgoes. Over eight inches in length, carved with sigils and symbols of her craft, this is her most unique foci, and also her most personal as it is made from her own bone, stained with her own blood. It was created during her initiation into her tradition with all the seriousness one can imagine. The ordeal was gruelling and is not something she really talks about. Typically if someone sees it, either their circumstances are dire or they've made a very final mistake. If Beth can't wear it openly or tuck it into her bag, she does have a space for it that isn't for the squeamish. Best not to ask questions.

III. A full advanced trauma and surgical kit ~ literally everything she would need to preform surgery in the most inconvenient place possible. And while the kit might actually weigh a full third or so of her body weight, there's still a coincidental effect overhanging it. She received it as a gift from her Hanai-Sister. Beth keeps everything fully stocked with fresh supplies.

IV. Leatherman Raptor ~ Sometimes you need the right tool and quickly. Can't waste time searching through your bag. Which is where the raptor comes in handy for Beth. The multi-tool combines stainless steel folding medical shears, a strap cutter, a ring cutter, a ruler, an oxygen tank wrench, and a carbide glass breaker, for mobile/crash emergencies. V. Her brother's zippo/matches ~ For reasons, sometimes a girl needs fire. VI. Coffee ~ Not exactly carried in her bag, Beth typically is never seen out of her house without roughly 30 ounces of Kona coffee, often time a quad shot vanilla coconut milk or soy latte.

VII. Snacks ~ nuts, seeds, granola, shelf-stable applesauce or pudding, maybe pop-tarts or whatever small and quick thing she can get her hands on. Great for a quick boost to one's blood sugar, and often time the only meal she can manage to get in a typical day.

VIII. Burt's Bees Lip Balm ~ Beth keeps two tubes of it with her all the times, a coconut & pear clear balm, and a tinted lip balm usually hibiscus or red dahlia shares.

IX. A novel or two ~ whatever book Beth is reading at the time. She prefers actual books with pages. She has no preference between paper or hard back.

X. A spare pair of slippahs ~ You never know when you're going to have a flip-flop incident, so it's better to be prepared just in case.

XI. A few travel sized toiletries ~ clean pair of underwear {or bikini bottoms}, toothbrush and paste, hair brush, deodorant. Shampoo and conditioner, moisturiser, soap, lotion, her favourite essential oil perfume, dental floss. XII. Wallet ~ ID, credit cards, debit card, somewhere in the neighbourhood of one hundred dollars in various paper money, half used subway passes, upwards of four half used loyalty cards for Jay's coffee shop, spare car key, spare house key. And three non-slip, tangle free hair elastics {rubber bands}. XIV. Almost comically oversized sunglasses ~ {which can, if need be, slip over her regular reading glasses. Beth does not like contacts. XV. Her work keys/hospital credentials. Because she works. And stuff.

tagged by: the ever lovely Bun who pretends to be in charge of @hxllblazer tagging: Heave-ho, all together {but particularly @kylo-wrecked and @nightmarefuele}

[her-canine-teeth]

Isobel by flower face - notes

pov jackie blue, pov shauna red (not rlly pov but. idk when its abt them)

You’ll never learn to lie

technically she lied to her pretty often so this is just not true. but it fits w the melody idk

say your French goodbye

idk how the French say goodbye. but shes like literlly saying her goodbye here and i think its funny bc nélisse is can french

Stay up in the blue glow, try to rearrange

theyre both staying up and its blue. jackie is trying to rearrange whats happening; she imagines shauna coming outside when, in reality, shauna is going to sleep.

All your insecurity and encyclopaedic rage

by rearranging what happens she automatically has to change what came before; the argument. put it in a context in which shauna is still her friend, still loves her, still comes outside and gets her. still cares for her.

ultimately she doesnt. (cant)

Do you still think you’re a killer?

shauna thinks its her fault

Or that you could be if you tried?

refers to jackie trying to banish shauna from the cabin and therefore out of her life (in a sense), which is p sure as close to killing for them as it gets I imagine. (codependency captial letters)

Always thought that you could do it if you couldn’t see their eyes

she did know that she loved shauna. didn't know how much, didn't know (or wasnt fully aware of).

she might've thought that she'd be able to get shauna to go one day, or to let her go; (she tried to, during the argument. personally i think she can't let shauna go farther than that though.)

as in; she wasnt aware of her codependency, and wouldve said that shes able in any way to cut shauna off but! she literally never thought about that being an option, or a possibility like ever (she literally had their whole future - together - planned out) so. do with that what you will

[talking]

its supposed to be a flashback idk if thats obvious; ties together what both of them think about (the arguing scene); what haunts them, both of them, for the rest of their lives (though Jackies is significantly shorter.)

Do you still wake up reaching for an empty space?

she does probably

Do you start to miss your sadness when it goes away?

jackie stays after her death. shaunas not allowing herself to move on, forever doomed to not only like have ur bff die on you which is honestly bad enough but to see her physically. not bc she wants to in that sense but bc she has to (needs to. cant live without her, though she never really lived all that much with her neither)

Do you wish your parents gave you someone else’s name?

doesnt have much to do with the scene. BUT their names have the same meaning. do you wish your parents gave you someone elses name. do you wish we werent connected from birth. do you wish we wouldnt share such an important aspect of our self. do you wish you never knew me (like you did). do you wish we were never best friends. do you wish we never met.

Do you scratch another line out for the same mistakes?

cheating.

You used to hold your body like a gun

turning away from shauna/rejection (physical. as soccer players their body is like prettyy important to them, and on top of that is their physicality with each other and yk. being teenage girl i guess anywaysss i thinj all of that sorta amplifies to The Body being v v important also for whatever theve got going on GOD i cant think)

Now you give yourself to anyone

(shauna pov but its abt jackie) condemning her bc shes with travis. 'anyone' inn the sense of 'anyone other than me (shauna)' or maybe 'who the fuck is travis' (hes not important. a faceless shadow in a crowd consisting of only him)

Are you right back where you started,

pining over jackie

Or have you found another way?

consuming her completely. without any objections

Sugar rush, a stranger’s backyard, the devil’s holiday

yeah idk

You watch yourself in fragments, amongst the leaves,

'yourself' because. they're one.

And you conclude that you never were much more

Than a reflection in a pool

the power shauan had over jackie; jackie asking herself who she is without shauna. If she is without shauna. if she ever was even with shauna, or not; never more than a reflection of her, a poor imitation, bound to break on the smallest ripple.

Do you still wake up reaching for an empty space?

Do you start to miss your sadness when it goes away?

Do you wish your parents gave you someone else’s name?

Do you scratch another line out for the same mistakes?

Do you still wake up wrapped around an empty space?

Do you only know the good days once they’ve slipped away?

Do you wish that he would call you by another name?

Do you pour another drink out for the same mistakes?