#Also the stuff I mentioned is already being legally handled

[aceoflames]

Of course my family is talking about p*dos as if they're a part of the LGBTQ+ community or we support them at all

Then when a member of the LGBTQ+ community points out how BS it is and that it's just p*dos dragging the LGBTQ+ community's name through the dirt they say "No but they do support it!" without any examples or evidence that ISN'T literally a p*do talking about it

[nite-puff]

I don’t think Taka has ever shot a gun. I believe you have to be over 20 in Japan to even get a license to use a gun, not to mention the tests and fees associated with it. And with how strict Japan is about gun usage for civilians, I don’t think it’s feasible to even think that Takaaki would’ve been able to train him at the police department’s shooting range (if they even have those located in the city and not further out in the countryside). If they did it illegally and in secret, I don’t think that would’ve sat well with Taka’s morals.

If we’re going with “the DR cast in America” then I can definitely see him learning from his dad.

It was really interesting to think about the concept and whether or not he would! Tell me more about your training headcanons!

Yeah, we kinda went over the logistics of Takaaki being able to train Taka considering gun laws and stuff like that. But I’m considering letting it slide since dangan is already so detached from reality, even before the tragedy, what with the hypnotism, brainwashing, and super complex robotics in what is most likely the early 2000s-2010. Also how there is a member of his class that knows how to use military weaponry despite being the same age as him. So hey, we’ll just say that Takaaki was able to train Taka how to use a gun legally and safely.

There’s been a lot of people under the initial post saying that Taka does know how to use a gun but has never actually shot one before, and to that i say… i mean, sure, i guess, but not really. Because it’s really not that smart to only teach someone the mechanics of gun with the full intention of teaching them how to use one without actually, y’know, using one. Especially if Taka is only meant to use this information in a high stakes situation like extreme self defense. So I do think Taka has handled a gun before, but never outside of their training. If that’s what people meant by “he’s never shot one before,” then i agree.

I don’t have that many training headcanons because, granted, i don’t know that much (if anything) about gun training. But here’s a few:

- Taka has only known how to use a gun for about a year. He’s no expert. He just knows the basic background info (like safety, how to hold one, the specific parts and what they do) and how to simply aim and shoot.

- Because of how Takaaki is disliked at the police station, they don’t use their shooting ranges for training. Mainly to keep his coworkers off of Taka’s back. They used an abandoned one near the outskirts of their town, one that was always fairly empty outside of some teens looking for a place to hang out very sparsely. It’s some sort of strange father-son bonding time between them considering the reasons why they’re doing it in the first place.

- Yes, Taka does know how to use a gun and has shot one before during training, but would absolutely let his nerves get to him if he ever had to use one in a real situation. That’s why he never actually has plans to use one in any situation, no matter the stakes.

- I guess the only bit of humor that could come with this concept is Taka having the knowledge and experience of using a gun. I imagine him bringing up his training one day for whatever reason and his classmates doing a double-take. Like he was the last person they thought was capable of knowing how to use one. They act a little more hesitant to misbehave and are more cautious around Taka. He’s at first happy with the change, but becomes devastated once he learns why they’re acting differently. He’s so genuinely offended that any of them thought that he would actually resort to that level of violence as a form of punishment.

I guess I’ll use this to open the door for more people to share their headcanons on the matter. :)

[esamastation]

Sooo apparently, there is an article called "Funerals and Politics of Gender in Early Renaissance Florence" that talks about how prostitution was basically made legal in order to combat the rampant homosexuality in Florence and encourage men back to a woman's bosom, and I needed you to know this immediately.

Oh I already knew. Florence even had actual officials handling it - Ufficio dell'Onestà. Office of Decency, I think. I even mentioned them in one of my fics, though it was just a one off line. I read actual academical history texts for Authenticity, sometimes, and the stuff that went on in Florence is fascinating X3

Also homosexuality was supposedly so common in Florence (or ended up on public eye so much) that it ended up being a used descriptive term for it elsewhere. Florenzer, or something like that.

(Personally I think it might've been a bit of a Florida Man situation, where the way certain things were published to the general citizenry made it seem like Specific Things of Certain Nature just happened more in Florence than they did elsewhere, but no, there's been gays everywhere always, most people just tried to hide it more. Don't quote me on that, though, I have no idea really.)

Anyways, history is fun sometimes.

[foster-the-world]

Aw, man

Last night the district wide school board meeting turned into a debate about Israel. With some claiming the DOE is not doing "enough." Apparently enough means they haven't yet written a email condemning the kidnappings in Israel? With claims they would have already sent a letter if it was black people. I guess the district is waiting on a legal team to approve language. So it should go out today or tmrw. Not good enough for these people. I don't get it. The DOE did send a letter condemning racism and it doesn't do shit to protect my kids. We are still in the most segregated school system in the nation. I am 100% confident the man claiming they "would have already done it if it was black people." made sure his children were in the majority white schools. The anti-racism letter didn't change his desire to segregate his children so why would a anti-semitism letter help jewish students? Writing a letter condemning the kidnappings in Israel is not going to protect my kids one bit nor help the children who were kidnapped. Our district has migrant children pouring in every single week. Let's talk about how we can support them. Letter or no letter I do not care.

I left that meeting to go to our schools PTA meeting. We did spend a good amount of time talking about how we can help the new migrant children who started at our school last week. Apparently 1000 more children entered the district on Friday - set to start next week. My 2nd graders class got three more students last week. Rebel's 1st grade class got two more students. We've been working on our Spanish at home and making sure the girls include them. I'm so glad we are at a school where we teach the kids to welcome their new friends. I have no doubt the uniform, clothing, coat drive will be fully funded - even though we have a school full of low income parents who aren't exactly rolling in the dough.

This morning I'm talking to the Principal about the clothing/Halloween costume drive when she gets a text message and looks horrified. Apparently a lower grade kid told their teacher they can't be around them because they are Jewish and their Mom told them Jewish people are dangerous. So fucked up. Poor baby being taught that hate and poor teacher having to hear it from a student she pours her hard work into.

I'm not really worried about my girls hearing shitty things. As mentioned they are tough and can handle themselves. The toughness does mean they can be jerks but also means they wouldn't hesitate to fight back if someone says shit like that to them. People have said other shitty things to them and they returned with the 6yo version of "go fuck yourself" and were indignant more then hurt. *Obviously they didn't use the f word. They have a solid group of friends in their class who would know to defend them. Although we are going to have a talk about what to say if someone talks negatively about Juduism or if they hear someone say anything racist/prejudice/etc to themselves or any of their friends. We've had the general talk before but probably need to be more specific on the Jewish side of things. Every year my husband and I bring Hanukkah celebration stuff to their class. Everyone is always very receptive. Last year Bee's teacher was Jewish. They've generally had at least one jewish family in their class - although that dwindles in the older grades. We live two doors down from the JCC - so they go to classes there so do get to spend time around Jewish children regardless. This semester they are taking an art class there and we go to the shabbat dinners sometime.

Bee has a Ukrainian girl in her class - well her grandparents are from Ukraine. So Bee came home last year talking about how people are murdering babies "as soon as they come out" in the Ukrainian war. Now this year her little friend is from Israel - so she comes home with more horror stories he hears from home and interprets into six year old language. The world we are giving our children is not okay.

[star-vibing-prompts]

Random shit I had or others had said as prompts.

Warnings: Swearing, Mentions of sus, dark humor(probably), dark themes(also probably), Sensitive topics

----------------------------

"Motherfucker is high on cat nip at the top."

"Imma just kick this fish then-"

"Let me sleep with you!"

"STOP CREAMING YOURSELF"

"Let me throw your child!"

"I smacked a bad guy's booty."

"That was a good ass slap!"

"Give me all these delicious batteries!"

"Everybody died in this family!"

"I JUST SHOT HER BODY WITH MY GUN-"

"I DIDNT EVEN KNOW I HAD BALLS STILL!"

"I got stuff on my neck!"

"Be honest, am I hot?" "I'M GAY-"

"IMMA WHIP OUT MY BEANS ESSAY"

"Not the duckussy"

"Already sus gonna hide in the ooc"

"Okay I got my happiness, bye"

"I like me some Among Us"

"Can someone hold me please"

"[Name] stop searching. I wanna search something up to on him!"

"IS HE WRITING A FANFIC OML"

"I KNOW BUT WHEN I LAUGH I SOMEHOW CHOKE ACK-"

"You're more grosser than I am."

"Ohh~ Hee got the rizz~"

"OKAY BACK TO CRYING"

"I love dying screaming"

"IM CRYING WHAT DID WE JUST WALK IN ON???"

"I will slap myself if I say something sus"

"Let her scream lmao."

"Being force to talk by a 14 year old"

"Such a beautiful break up"

"STOP RIZZING ME"

"Anyway does anyone want to get slap by me?"

"Damn she hot"

"THE FUCK WOMAN???"

"DAMN I AM A LONELY BITCH"

"Actually *SHITTING* himself would be pooping. *PISSING* himself would be peeing."

"Why did you eat mah stick?"

"STOP EATING POOP???? WHOS POOP EVEN IS THAT???"

"I- Wha- ho- ...MY BRAIN CANT HANDLE THISI-"

"I think u just pissed him up even more"

"And why are you creaming [Name]?" "Damn tell me how you really feel about the cream jesus"

"One of them is: What the fuck is going on at this point and why am I still here for it?"

"I just love killing people!"

"I want to fuck Optimus Prime."

"Allergies are kicking me ass"

"I would've given you some but you didn't talk fast enough /j"

"[NAME] PLEASE I BE SILLY"

"I SWEAR ON [NAME] IT AINT ME"

"Why is [Name] robbing [Name2]"

"Enjoy your last peaceful moments"

"You were the chosen one"

"Then speak it"

"And [Name] just set himself on fire"

"I feel like I am being judged now,,,,,bye." *disappears*

"The shame has already been done there is no going back"

"My mom used to buy me robux before she mcfucking died"

"I BROKE MY STICK"

"THEY DONT KNOW WHAT GOES ON BEHIND CLOSED DOORS"

"My gaydar told me"

"What the fuck are smiley fries."

"Rice with beef broth because we have no chicken"

"Anime cat girls are canon within Spongebob now."

"The Cat Has Ingested The Wall"

"Split dat chicken wingg"

"Oeuur... digs chicken wing out of the carpet"

SHRIEKS AND BREAKS IN THROUGH A WINDOW

"They have been bestowed the name [New name]"

"I love the fumbling with the remote"

"Literally vibrating in my chair, I’m really excited for the game"

"That's so sad imagine someone hated you so much they wouldn't even spend more than 5 bucks to hire a hitman"

"Bro's gonna be willing to die after that"

"FLOOFY AND GOOBER"

"I wanna invite them for tea and crumpets

The best type of relationship"

"ILL FORFEIT ALL MY LEGAL POSSESSIONS TO HIM"

"Like damn dude you don't need THAT much eye liner"

"This is so emo"

"My dude needs to look fabulous"

"WHAT A GOOBER ! FOOLISH LITTLE FELLOW"

"OMG ITS MY KID"

"LIL GUY IS SPEEDY ASF"

"They got a little too silly"

"ITTY BITTY"

"They just need to put some ice on it"

"Aww noo they spilled the cranberry juice" :(

[elfyaoi]

hiii im here to spread some interesting stuff ive learned by rewatching s1 of tiger & bunny on netflix for the first time. i think most people who are watching t&b now have already seen s1 before it got netflixed, but for anyone who hasnt seen it before or if you’re recommending it to someone: do not watch season 1 of tiger & bunny on netflix. 

both the movies and s2 are perfectly fine as far as i can tell, but the way netflix handled moving s1 onto the platform sucks. i love being able to supporting the original work, but if you are watching tiger and bunny for the first time you are missing out on a good amount of information by watching the netflix version. i see plenty of people talking about the removed advertisements which yeah, sucks, but the series still makes sense without them. its also the most obvious alteration.

no what im talking about is the after credits scenes, which i haven’t seen mentioned at all. tiger and bunny has a plethora of scenes that take place after the ending, often with vital information for the beginning of the next episode AND for the rest of the series. netflix has cut these scenes almost completely and without discretion. 

like i mean out of the 25 episodes, only one of the after credit scenes is actually included. literally, if you watch it on netflix you are missing content and context for parts of the entire series.

im not sure if hulu also did this, i also dont have hulu anymore to check if t&b is even still on there, but i recommend looking elsewhere for the first season if you haven't seen it before or are looking to watch the full thing unedited. it sucks that the one form of legal streaming there is at the moment just kinda mangled the series to throw it on the platform before they made the second season. i love this series so i want people to be able to see it in its full glory. added bonus, if you watch it elsewhere you get the logos i guess.

[quirkle2]

POKEMON AU????????? yes yes please tell more I am already invested amazing stupendous yes good

WIGGLES IN MY SEAT im gonna ramble abt it under the cut cuz it might get long (edit: it'sfuckign long). so sorry if i end up talkin abt it for way longer than anybody cares for (edit: i absolutely did) VEIAUGV

it's sort of a world where the concept of pokemon is settled into it more realistically. not saying it's super realistic or anything like that, i just mean certain aspects abt the traditional pokemon world is changed to reflect what i Think it would probably look like irl

there's still magic, bc a lot of pokemon moves can definitely be considered magic. i don't rly care abt the whole like,, "omg this move would end humanity omg most electric pokemon let out the volt equivalent of like a small refrigerator omg the very concept of evolution is fucked and an evolution would kill everything within a 5 mile radius Probably but that's just a (game) theory" i do think that stuff is fun to think abt but for the sake of everybody Living i kinda ignore a lot of that GVIYEAGA

THERE'S,, a lotta little things abt trainers in this au that i've thought abt !! first of all u have to be 18 to be a pokemon trainer. this 10 year old child is not handling this 11 foot tall dragon. and most trainers do not have 6 pokemon !! raising pokemon is a fuckin Task, and i sorta equate it to like,, being a zookeeper and trying to train lions and tigers to obey u. it takes a lot of effort to train even one animal like that; now imagine ur taking care of and training six. that's,,, usually too much for the average person GVIYAEGV not to mention,,,, fuckign expensive

most trainers ofc start w one and usually get at least one more somewhere along the journey, but a lot stop there ! that's still a lot of work, and everybody deals w work and stress differently, so a pretty solid chunk of trainers stick to loving and training their one or two buddies

a lesser chunk of trainers make it up to 3 pokemon, an even lesser amount trains 4, and even lesser percentage trains 5,, u get it. wars in particular has 5 pokemon on his team, and another herdier at home that's simply one of the tamer, pet-like pokemon people have.

on the more realistic side of things, trainers can get hit w moves, and it's not like a Oh Haha They Got Shocked and They're Smoking like in the animes or anything. it Hurts and it's very dangerous. pokemon training in general is dangerous as all hell, not just bc the obvious caution it takes to train a team, but also just bc most of the time trainers are out in the wild ,, yaknow. training. and being in the middle of the wilderness isn't the safest thing, especially when there's wild pokemon everywhere

on the more boring side of things, i think every trainer is legally required to have a pokedex. pokedexes here do a bit more, including basic phone features and emergency stuff cuz This Is Dangerous yaknow. also yes the pokedex Can run doom somebody's already tried it

uhhh more boring shit so sorry but im mentally ill abt the boring logistics of this. every trainer is issued an id card and u can see wars' in my drawing ! the back of it is the typical trainer id from the games, but the front is fancy and quickly gives info abt the trainer themselves

they r color coded !!!! different colored pokeball symbol on the card for the number of team members they have :) red is 1, yellow is 2, blue is 3, bronze is 4, silver is 5 (wars !!!!!!!!), gold is 6. the more important figures in the pokemon world (gym leaders, league winner, elite four, champion) have a black colored card to quickly tell people Hey Im Fuckin Good (hint hint legend has a gold id card >:])

the league competitions r prolly split into categories ?? like,, there's a league category just for trainers w one pokemon ! and then there's the typical 6-pkmn team category, and everything in between. it seems a bit unfair to let somebody w 3 pokemon go up against somebody w 6, especially given the fact that some people have Jobs they need to go to . training is a side-hobby for most people (not to mention a lot of people straight up can't afford it). so the league splits them all up into different challenges. (not quite sure what would happen if the winner of the 1-pkmn category tried to challenge the champion ...... maybe there's champions/elite four/gym leaders for each category !!! that'd be cool i think)

^ just bc people r shitty and dumb sometimes, there's prolly a stigma around people who only have one or two pokemon, but i like to think the Good, Nice trainers know otherwise. just bc u can train more pokemon doesn't mean ur immediately Better. yes, a trainer with 5 pokemon versus ur 2 will Probably win, but it's not rly abt that ? pokemon is abt bonds and all that mushy shit. respectful trainers will know that the 2-pkmn category champion is not Worse than the 5-pkmn champion. they r very, very different things, when u get into it

side note on that i feel like the 1-pkmn category would be strangely popular in this world. it's a 1v1 ? u only have one buddy w u, so covering ur weakness is very hard to do i'd think. idk i don't play online competitive GVIAEYGV AND ALSO, abt the categories being different ? in a competitive sense, a team of 3 is going to be WILDLY different in terms of strategies and plays than a team of 6. u have to think much differently

also im not totally sure abt this part, still kinda thinkin on it, but people who Aren't trainers still have pokemon at their side, and im wonderin abt the laws of that . similar to the law of like,, not being allowed to have a Fucking Leopard in ur living room, i feel like having super dangerous pokemon would be,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,not good <3 GVEAIYVGA i wonder how they'd fix that problem,,,

i debated on like,, they have pkmn in a tier list ? of like,, how dangerous they can be. and maybe if it's just a household pet, it'd have to be in This Tier (points at overly complicated graph) to be able to house that pokemon. and what abt like,,,,,,, pokemon that get Way more dangerous w their evolution ? they'd be in a different tier, surely. maybe they legally have to hold an everstone ?? i don't fuckin know GVEYAUGV

oh lastly i am very fond of trainers actually Asking a wild pokemon if they want to be caught. Not doing that and just catching them against their will seems like straight up imprisonment to me VGIEAGV so i think that's generally a good courtesy. if u Don't do that when catching a wild pokemon then everybody kinda thinks ur a ://////////// trainer

wait i lied that wasn't the end imso sorry GVIEAYGV the Bad Group in this world are actual criminals who aren't stupid and Will fuck u up. the end

[bushido-jack]

Hello everyone! It’s been, uh, a while! Much longer than I initially said my hiatus would be! My god, SO much longer. A LOT of stuff has happened in the 9 months I’ve been away, and a few have been potentially life changing. Content warning, this post will talk about COVID and mention a death in the family. Don’t read if this is content that upsets you.

TLDR; I’ve had quite a few significant life complications that have taken precedence and prevented me from engaging in my hobbies, and maintaining this blog, and while I can’t promise consistent activity from now on, I am determined to break the hiatus and get back on here to write! After all, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! (Of course, Jack could never be the dull one around here but Sharkie very much was. I know this joke isn’t funny just let me get it out) I’ve even commissioned a promo along with some fresh new icons that will be coming soon to kickstart my break from hiatus and into some semi-regular activity!

So first off, right around the time I made my last few posts, I got COVID a second time, and this time it really messed me up. It has left me even more disabled physically AND mentally, and my stamina in both is nothing short of abysmal. I got severe long COVID that I’m still battling with, and it made functioning in any way a monumental task. I’m almost positive I have some minor brain damage. My already bad lungs and chronic pain got worse, my mental health dipped extremely badly (I developed some new OCD rituals that have made typing a nightmare unfortunately) and I was trying to survive all of this while keeping a job that was extremely physically demanding. I’d already had to quit a previous one due to my disability and a lack of understanding that pushed me much too hard, and I really wanted to keep this one because I actually had training and a certificate in that line of work. Unfortunately I was forced to quit my second as well due to my stamina being severely reduced by COVID making it so that I could no longer handle a day of work without at least two days of recovery, as well as long term damage to my body from work itself that I was not comfortable with continuing to sacrifice for my paycheck. (most significant and the ones that have affected my return to writing have been significant tinnitus, carpal tunnel and tendinitis, lung damage, and even more brain fog, this time due to fatigue and constant sensory overload). Not long after I recovered from COVID the second time, my Uncle also got COVID and unfortunately passed away. It was sudden and traumatic and for a good while all of my emotional energy was spent with my family and trying to help my aunt who suffered a severe emotional break from the event. And during all of this, ever since the day I made my hiatus post, I have been struggling with some severe burnout in pretty much every category imaginable. I have been dealing with severe autistic burnout which has affected me since December and made recovery that much more difficult, as well as creative burnout that has prevented me from drawing or writing much since even before last December. That burnout plus the overwhelming exhaustion from overwork and physical and mental health issues has made it so I have barely drawn anything in over a year, and I haven’t written consistently for around a year. Along with those challenges, I haven’t had much time to engage in my hobbies as I’ve been working towards independent living, which as a disabled person is a nightmare of an obstacle coarse. In some ways this effort has necessitated my hiatus as well as the overwork I’ve done to myself in order to have enough credit and money to become independent legally. I’ve gotten pretty far, but until I’ve got everything in order I may still be struggling on finding a consistent and healthy work and hobby balance. But that’s where something came to help refresh my creativity a little bit. I got a new muse, funnily enough connected to Samurai Jack! I started checking out Lupin the Third while I was going down the rabbit hole of influences and references that appeared in the Samurai Jack show (and also trying to research the existence of the Japanese dub for Samurai Jack) and got hooked on the treasure trove of an animation history foundation block it is. As someone interested in pursuing a career in animation and loves old cartoons (shocking.) I was drawn into the old 60-70s originated show like a moth to a flame. Soon after watching a bit I found a great muse to help me recover from burnout without abandoning Jack, and in fact supporting him due to the fact that there are clear inspirations and references within Samurai Jack to Goemon Ishikawa XIII. While I allowed Jack’s muse to rest so as not to push him to the point where I didn’t enjoy it anymore, I decided to switch over to him for a while. By now I have reached a point where I’m in a place to bring back Jack and rp them both, and I may even do crossovers with them! Thankfully not everything personal has been gloomy: in a purely positive update, I dyed my hair pastel lavender like I’ve wanted to do since I was in middle school! This is something that’s helped lift my spirits a lot so I thought I’d share. If I ever do a mun day I may share, my entire face not included.

[3rddimension]

I had a thought recently about the reasons WHY they hide their relationship. Some of them seem obvious: they enjoy the privacy and intimacy of the public not knowing, they don't want external pressures on the relationship, they don't want it to affect Smosh's content, they don't want it to diminish their own individual accomplishments at Smosh...

The darker conversation that I don't hear people talk much about is SAFETY, specifically Courtney's safety. I think this is something we as Shourtney shippers all need to think about:

Courtney has already mentioned a stalker, one she's taken legal action against. It's maybe implied that this stalker was a Shourtney fan. What exactly went down is unknown, but it speaks to a larger issue that women and fem influencers face: PARASOCIAL PREDATORS.

The Christina Grimmie situation quite literally rocked the influencer world (if you're not familiar with the story, I highly recommend watching a video on it or something). It was the biggest warning to every woman and fem in media that there are people who watch them that could become SO parasocially obsessed with them, who become SO entitled and disillusioned over a person they watch online, that they are willing to do dangerous things to try and actualize that.

Amouranth, a huge Twitch streamer, has talked about being stalked, how someone literally tried to come to her house, how awful it was. I can't remember the full details, so sorry if I misspeak, but I think part of the story that she didn't talk about was how when rumors started circulating that she was married, it likely tipped this person over the edge and drove them to try and come to her location.

Another example of this is Alanah Pearce (former Funhaus member, huge figure in the gaming industry). She had someone form a parasocial relationship with her and cyberstalked her every move, and she goes into good detail everything this person did. The thing was, when it became known that Alanah was in a relationship at the time, this creepy bastard FLIPPED and got even more unhinged. If this person had been even an iota more deranged, who's to say they wouldn't have tried to find her in person?

That's the dilemma women and fem face in media. It gets SCARY. Courtney's already been stalked, and it makes me think that person might have found out they were in a relationship and couldn't handle that their parasocial girlfriend was taken. Does Courtney really want to open the floodgates to EVERY one of her parasocial creeps who could freak out and do something potentially worse?

Something to consider 🙏 as always, keep it respectful, call out shitty behavior, police each other, and live your own lives. Nothing about the people you watch online is THAT serious; you don't have any sort of relationship with them beyond you giving them ad revenue and them saying goofy shit to a camera. Appreciate Shayne and Courtney, appreciate the idea of a cute relationship between these two humans, and move on with your day. Much love ❤️

Damn, that’s a long one friends! I always think that the external pressure would be the main reason why they don’t want to go public. They’re both basically the face of Smosh and all the eyes will be on to them instantly if they gone public. It will create so much pressure to both them and it might even break them all together.

Also, I do think they tried to at least let the fan know with something like the selfie that got deleted on early 2022 but i’m not sure why they decided to just deleted it. Maybe it’s accidentally post on public instead of closed friends only? Or they just want to stirred the fans a little bit and delete it after? Who really knows tbh. lol

But other than that. Your point on safety and parasocial stuff is pretty much spotted on and I hope that it will not happen again when they decided it’s time to let everyone know. No matter tomorrow or 1-2 years or whenever. Because this is real life and not a TV show. We basically growing along with them and they’re both just normal people working 9-5 job. They have up and down just like the rest of us. Treat them (and everyone) with empathy and kindness.

[talenlee]

The All of 2022 Wrapup

New Post has been published on PRESS.exe: The All of 2022 Wrapup

In January, I wrote out a plan for the year. In that plan, I described types of articles I was going to make, and kind of like ‘caps’ on the types of subjects I would write about. I also promised to watch more anime, which was like a threat, I guess. I also mentioned the eventual Avatar update, that would serve to bring presentation on a lot of platforms in line.

Knowing that, then, how’d I go? What were the good bits, the pieces of 2022 that I think, now, you should go back and check out (and I will go back and check out myself when I’m browsing the blog looking for ideas I want to further expand on).

Big, long-term projects included a daily Magic: The Gathering card, released at first on a twitter account every day, and now being posted on Mastodon and Cohost. Those got a set of summarising posts. I also did a podcast with Fox about watching all the Disney Animated Canon movies, which we called the Disney Animated Canonball.

It was also at the start of the year that I stopped using an add-on for the blog called Jetpack. Jetpack let me do things like find out how many hits each individual page was getting, and that formed the basis of what I then, at the end of the year, would list as the ‘most popular’ stuff. It was useful to see what you thought was good here, rather than just what I liked, in hindsight. It sped things up. But I’m not using Jetpack any more, and that means that instead… I had to go through all the articles I wrote, and ask myself ‘hey, is this good?’ and ‘why would someone wanna read this again?’

Which means we’re going to look at a lot of links here.

This year saw me do a lot more to revise my world setting of Cobrin’Seil, with a lot of articles that reference or examine other elements of the setting. Back at the start of the year, I spent some time thinking about two ‘standard’ D&D cultures I dislike, the Dwarf and Dragonborn, and the problems of just ditching them wholesale. This led to the creation of two Cobrin’Seil specific cultures, the Dio Baragh and the (Cobrin’Seil’s Version Of) Dragonborn. I also looked at the Halfling, a culture that I originally wanted to discard because of its weird semiotics, but a friend was able to crystallise around a meaningfully interesting idea.

Being as I am a stickler for the question of ‘what’s with all these people-like-people and why are they different,’ I also wrote more about the human-like creatures of the setting. I wanted to look at the Elves and address the question of ‘why are these sub-cultural groupings all able to breed with humans,’ and finally wrote up a breakdown of the types of Elf creatures, and how they relate to one another. It was so big I did break it into a pair of posts on a weekend though.

This kind of thinking got me on a thread about ‘outsider’ cultures, though: the Orcs, yes, but also the way that D&D has a whole collection of orc-like things, as humanoids that exist Over There that don’t have a meaningful reason to be differentiated from orcs or goblins or kobolds. You know the list, the Bugbears and the Bullywugs and the Hobgoblins and Grimlocks and so on. Since I’d already defined the Orcs as having a pretty distinct culture, complete with muddy biological differences due to their relationship to raiding other cultures and the debt you owe to the dead, I eventually decided on the idea of the ‘Urd’ to explain the general forking tree of ‘non-human humanoids who do not relate well to the humanoid coalition.’ I want to expand on this a bit more, since it lets me play with one of the themes the setting does have regarding Deep Time, which is ‘back in history, people were even bigger assholes than they are today.’

Oo, and I also wrote up an article about the way legal power is handled in the Eresh Protectorates! I’m really glad I did that article because it both was an interesting exercise in accounting things that were ‘known’ in the setting, and doing it presented all sorts of fun, complicated and extremely annoying grey areas that players could wind up running around in. Since legal systems are the byproducts of countries, and Cobrin’Seil is a setting with multiple ‘country’ level things laid atop one another, that got me thinking about ways to document it — and that led to the realisation that I’m terrible at maps.

Finally, I also dedicated some space to present, in public, the Themes for the Knightly Orders of the Eresh Protectorates — which was something like four thousand words of just mechanical information and some setting details.

My ongoing examination of 3rd Edition D&D, in both its versions, gave me a lot to work with. I go into the garage, I pull out one of my 3rd edition books, flip it open to a random page and see what that asks and if it’s interesting. It’s a good, ‘completed’ form of the game to look at as a time capsule for an earlier time in gaming (just like 4th edition).

I spent a lot of time in my reflecting on 3rd edition thinking about ways the game fails the players. There’s the badly made Challenge Ratings system, the implicit racism of the weapon categories, the way that somehow worlds with gods that had feelings couldn’t really conceive of any use for Love, and I dedicated a bit of time to the weirdly anti-sex, consent-ignoring Book of Exalted Deeds.

There were a few character archetypes that 3rd edition let you play with. I looked at the Complete Books’ set of full-blown classes, and whether or not they were good (almost always, no). I showed you the basics of my own 3.5 class, the Adherent, which I still intend to put up on DriveThru at some point. I talked about the way that 3.5 made the fighter weaker and the Wizard stronger, the Supermount melee combatant that ran around biting people, the strange questions presented by the Soul Eater and its coincidentally contrary example the Ur-Priest, and the absolutely busto class, the Archivist.

In a more general ‘why do D&D worlds be this way’ I looked at the worldbuilding around alcohol, and assumptions made by teenagers making D&D worlds who do not, in fact, know anything about alcohol, one of the most broken (good) 2e swords interacting with one of the most broken (bad) systems of half attacks, the first time I heard the idea of ‘magepunk’ coalesced into a meaningful idea, and the strange mythological question of whether or not dragons can shapeshift into people.

4th Edition D&D got plenty of articles, but my favourites start with an article about how the Mount Rules in 4e were a step down from 3rd, and also, spent a lot of time not being hot garbage. While I was complaining about things being Not Good Enough from the edition change, I also complained about the Elan, a heritage of sexy weirdoes who were mangled by psychic outsider energies.

From there, though, I mostly looked at 4e in terms of offering ideas for how to run worlds, and ways to build within the space of those worlds. I talked about how 4e rules let organisations be more meaningful without necessarily being more powerful, about how to view a Warlock’s relationship to their patron, the ways you can consider the monster types for encounter design, variant class rules and the ways they both do and don’t fail the player, and of course, in Pride Month, an ongoing joke about memes about bi people, this time expressed as ‘dodge roll or die.‘

I did write about a bunch of my OCs, which I need to be more comfortable calling them. Particularly, I was proud of the writeups for Trancer, where I talk about the challenges of making trans characters and getting over the ‘but what if I do it wrong?’ impulse, Tideward where I just indulge in raw lovecraftian horror monsterboy, The 49th and her absolutely eyewatering build, Robyn Hoodie examining the mechanics of Traps and the social expression of heroism in the Rogue Isles, and Wild Hare, because she was inspired by fanart of an anime character wearing Megan Thee Stallion’s clothes.

I didn’t know it was the 30th anniversary of Star Control 2 this year, which meant that my decision to do a number of articles on things in that game was just a happy coincidence? I looked at the Androsynth (and the way their story went wrong), the Dnyarri (and the way they remind me of Emet-Selch), and then, veered into Star Control 3 to talk about the Clairconctlar, and how you get to play an Abortion Rights Chad in-setting.

While we’re talking about big sprawling games, though, I did a week focused on Final Fantasy XIV, a game I think I will always be able to complain about but which I also, again, keep playing, because I like playing it. Weird how that works. I did a writeup of one of my characters, Karash; I looked at the way the game depises alting, one of my favourite MMO practices; and I did a How To Be focusing on a character entirely because a friend loves her, and how when it comes to that character you’ve sort of got to invent your own material.

What if you follow me for my insights into Magic: The Gathering and its relationship to custom design? I did a piece on designing Partner cards, which need to advance the game and develop the play experience in interesting ways. I did another piece about my reactions to Neon Dynasty, which I still can’t believe exists. I also finally wrote up the idea of Inflexible, a designer problem we need to address.

Academic stuff this year? Oo, I talked about the way that objects carry their ideologies in them, which is something building on the work of Ian Bogost in Alien Phenomenology. I talked about the basics of Mythologies by Roland Barthes, because the man started with a whole conversation about Pro Wrestling. I also talked about the challenge of demarcation, a very real problem that I have to deal with when we’re looking at unfalsifiable experiences. I talked about how materiality of objects lets us share them and NFTs suck ass, and about the idea of the ‘blorbo’ and how they convey fundamental values about the entity just as being implied to being a thing to have.

There are some articles I think of as engaging to write; longer form ones that were worth digging into and which I knew would take some time to explain and which are worth reading as stories unto themselves, stories I find satisfying and interesting. This year, I did a bunch of those, and I think of them as ‘treats’ to have saved up to get a chance to write about, even if they’re on grim topics. These are articles that haunt me throughout the year, while I try to build up to finding the right time to work on them, to express them. Here’s a list of my favourites this year:

I wrote about my findings from a year of Not Being Subscribed To A Bunch Of Things

I wrote about Agent Garbo, the best Nazi Spy who never existed

I wrote about the way that phones have always been changing throughout our lives and the implication there’s a ‘normal’ way to behave on them is weird

I put together a long form version of a twitter thread about America, as explained by a non-American

I grappled with the way that the Buzzfeed Unsolved ghost hunting show gets worse and worse the longer it goes on

I reflected on what it meant to lose the Queen

I dug in deep on the story of Sodafunk, figuring that a year later, the realities of the situation would shake out, and the personal pettiness that got me interested

I revisited Baldur’s Gate 2 as an avenue for romantic characterisation and made fun of Anomen a lot

I also had some posts about single, specific things from media that weren’t the kinds of things you’ve got as major categorical sets on the blog:

I am somehow, an internet resource trusted on The Blacklist and maybe I’ll have to finish watching that show to find out how sensible that is

I talked about how Star Wars is a universe about owning stuff

You know the show Victorious? Well I’ve never seen it

What about the shipping opportunities in Ranma 1/2?

I looked at a favourite ship from the game Life Is Strange

There were major changes in World of Warcraft‘s historical content and people got weird about it

Iori Yagami is one of two articles I did this year about King of Fighters stuff

I got really into a Bible story this year now I had it reframed by a great lecturer, culminating in ‘oh those two dudes were fucking, right?‘

Oh oh and an article about Bleach – Kenpachi and Yachiru!

I also did a bunch of stuff as it related to representation of gender in media, and even as I say this, man, I should write more about how weird it is that Tali is straight, but anyway:

The transgender Azurills

The Au Ra and colonial views of gender

Care Bears’ trans elephant

Acid Storm, the genderfluid transformer

It’s strange to consider that there are articles I have here that are definitely just about behaviour that, in hindsight, is largely just on twitter, and everyone who’s left twitter seems to agree is bad, and should not be encouraged:

Don’t Buy Corporate Pride Shit

Google Slides Is Pretty Good

The Failing of Dunkology

Culture Not Found

Finally, we get down to the last two types of article, which are misc and heavy. I wrote about how I dislike the Fairy type in Pokemon. Because I love Ettin, I wrote about the way that Mass Effect’s culture of Asari are pretty much just sexier versions of D&D’s awful Beholders, because they both reproduce in the same fundamental way. I reflected a few times on the ways I relate to getting chores done, with a look at Thresholds and Habits.

I wrote a poem this year? About how I’ve learned about the behaviour of my dog, and the things that makes me realise I don’t understand about myself. Finally, I did go in on Alex Jones, and my sourcing on that, and the grim reflection on how I tried to escape one name, and wound up at another name that’s just as grim.

That’s it, that’s the year.

You made it.

If you didn’t make it, and you’re reading this, that’s really impressive and I’d like to hear more.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#2022Wrapup #Wrapup

[doodlingraka]

Your sketches is so beautiful!! I love Lockwood and co too, but I just wondered if I could ask which book/scene is shown in the drawing where luce, Lockwood and holly are all in the taxi together? And again your work is… I have no words! Thank you so much for reading this and I hope I haven’t caught you at a busy time! Xx 😊

Hello, thanks but pease don't send me anonymous messages, I can't reply privately if you do. That pic is an invented scene it originally had its own caption but it was deleted and put in a sketchdump.

Anyway I am seizing this opportunity to tell a few things, hope you won't mind.

I had a big problem of reposters, thefts and plagiarism which made me stop sharing LW art at all. Not sure it worked because I still get reactions for stuff I did ages ago, but I have never dealt with something like this before and I am very confused on how to handle it. Dealing with this had a learning curve, I used to share anything I did with a caption explaining the context (some pics had sense only associated to other fan content or discussions). I thought it was a thing between me and a dozen people here, not that it was reshared elsewhere so I used to share piece by piece then delete and reshare in a sketchdump. Sometime people did fanrt of my fanart I thought it was fun and flattetring! I had no clue it would take these proportions.

Being an adult and a published author I avoid engaging in internet fights, nor I have the time to persecute all the abuses of my work. This doesn't mean I don't see stuff and I don't get very upset. I took a tour on pinterest and I am frankly baffled and disheartened by the comments under nonsense pics asking explanations to the reposter (guys, really?) who didn't even care to put a caption or a link to my sites. I had people using my art or my designs for commissions, merch and even ...a couple of serious things I can't mention without starting a legal action against them. It was honestly crazy.

Some who actively exploit my designs (not even crediting) DMed me asking to drop my take on Scarlett and Browne and not even realizing how self entitled such request might be - I believe that's made with no malice, just not understanding the extent of the damage this is doing to me. I wish people realized than when assuming my designs are the default, no credits, that's the franchise slowly acquiring my work without paying a cent for it. I am beyond disgusted from what is happening and way too much in the industry and aware of copyright laws to make money out of it without the original IP owner's explicit consent (Stroud's). If i could go back, I wish I had never shared my fanarts online but now I can't even take it down because it was reshared all over the place and having it on my sites is the only prove I am the person behind the designs currently used (which were never bought\acquired by the franchise anyway).

My hope is that the show will bring up an original charismatic design so far from mine that everyone will follow them and I can restart actually having fun and engage with this fandom as I used to. So the conclusion is, I can't stop the flow because the damage was already done but if you aren't a total asshat CREDIT me as the source, or if you like my work and want to support me please require for credits to be added. You can also tip me on ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/doodlingraka

---- EDIT: also, to be clear, that’s not a witch hunt not me making up stuff, there are a few elements who aren’t in the books who clearly tell when I am the original source of a design. I am referring to artworks who undoubtly feature them, sometime with a whole pose included.

[corysmiles]

Part 2 of the SBI rust g/t prompt! :]

----

2 days later, he returned.

Once again, it took Tommy all the self control he could muster not to hug wilbur with his hand when he saw him. Wilbur chuckled and sat down, closer to the giant, he found.

Most of the visit, and the one that would follow, had Wilbur looking through old scientific researches, noting down important info in his book, and talking to Tommy.

And everytime, Tommy brought his hand to Wilbur's head and did what he would later call 'mini cuddles'.

"You like doing that stuff, do you?"

"Been so long since I had a proper hug. My mom used to do that kinda stuff when I was younger."

Wilbur widened at the quiet, hoarse voice.

"... Oh?"

"Yeah." Tommy added, and goodness, he sounded so young. "It was nice... I miss it."

"It's... probably not easy to get a good hug in your conditions." He tried lightning the mood.

"... you're right."

Shit.

That was... very awkward.

Wilbur didn't know how to handle that.

"... I really miss it."

He groaned internaly. What was he supposed to do??!?!? He was very glad when he got away from his house, and disasters kept happening so he didn't have to worry about family dinners. How was he supposed to deal with a kid that missed his parents?!

"Well, um..." he tried, not having a clue where this was going. "At least you're..... not.... alone?" Wonderful start, Wilbur. "I'm keeping you company if that's anything..."

Silence drew out. It was really, really, awkward.

"... Yeah." Tommy nodded ever so slightly. "... Can I try to hug you?"

Wilbur's breath got caught in his throat.

A hug. As in, close to his chest. As in, carried by the giant. As in, a good dozen feet away from the ground with little to no freedom of movement....

Oh hell no, he thought.

"Suuuuuuuuure?" He replied.

Tommy smiled, and he tried offering one back. "Just be careful, please." He added.

"Okay." He said.

Then, a hand thrice his size came for him. He closed his eyes as fingers wrapped around him like a blanket and he was brought off the ground.

He felt movement until a fabric, which he deduced was a shirt. He was softly pressed against it as the hand rubbed against him.

That... was.... weird. Weird was a good word to describe it.

Slowly, he brought his hands in front of the mass in a pitiful attempt to embrace it. It probably looked comical.

He felt Tommy's second hand coming and cupping the first. It... didn't feel awful. Weird, sure, but not awful.

After a few minutes that seemed an eternity to the human, he was brought down to the ground. When he saw the giant's expression, it had a smile on it.

"Thank you Wilbur."

"..No problem."

The rest of that day was spent reading the documents and doing lighter conversations with the teen.

---

3 days, 2 days, 2 days, 2 days, 3 days, 1 day, 3 days, 1 day, 2 days, 1 day....

Turned out, there was a whole fucking lot of papers to read.

But Wilbur didn't mind going back to the Dome every other day.

And he didn't mind the company there.

But he was determined to finish his researches today.

Which made Tommy's more often intervention particularly annoying today.

"So, they messed up with like, nuclear shit?"

"No, no. The nuclear testings were 4 years prior to that, I told you already."

"But then how come the researches were public after this one??"

"They kept it to themselves, Tommy. Couldn't risk other countries knowing about such a thing."

"Well that's dumb."

"I'm not gonna be one to judge. Can I continue reading now?"

"Mmhh, I don't know, you've had your head stuck in the paper since you came."

"Tommy."

"Okay, okay. Geez."

"Thank you."

He read in silence, a small satisfaction building inside of Wilbur with each page closer to the end.

And he was really glad Tommy wasn't in a too rambly mood today. Sometimes, he would tell stories of when he was younger, or elaborate on random thoughts. It was nice and a wonderful occasion to know the teen better. Not to mention, the giant was very endearing. But today, all wilbur needed was calm and silence.

And he got silence.

As time went by, though, he felt eyes more and more insistant looking at him.

With a small grunt, he looked up and saw the face almost 5 time his size (could be more, he wasn't sure himself.) Looking indeed at him like he was trying to read his soul.

"What's up?" He tried not to be too aggressive in his tone. There was only 10 or so pages left.

"You know I was like you before."

A beat of silence. Then confusion.

"... what?"

"Finish your reading and I'll tell you about it. You want it done today."

Wow. Way to be passive agressive.

"... I..." wilbur sighed. "I can take the papers back home and study them there." He sighed, putting the small little pile down. He wouldn't get much sleep, tonight, would he? "What do you mean, you 'were like me'?"

Tommy smiled at Wilbur, though its joy dissapeared as quickly as it came. Melancholy or nostalgia perhaps.

"I used to be... you know... small." He used his hand to illustrate, having his thumb and pointing finger about the size of Wilbur apart.

".... Heh?"

"Yeah." He chuckled at the confusion. "I wasn't born like that."

The natural question followed.

"Then how...?? How did you get like that?"

Tommy looked almost sad as he said. "Well, what are the papers about?"

Wilbur frowned. He looked at the papers, and his book, and back at Tommy.

What are they about?? Well, obviously, about the incident that resulted in humanity's downfall and the mutation of a ton of-

Oh.

Mutation of-

"... you're a... mutan?" He tried. That sounded weird on his tongue, but that was the only word that applied.

"Victim of a bunch of weird radiations. It almost sounds like a movie speech if you present it right."

Wilbur only looked at him, mouth agape.

".... Huh."

Tommy chuckled humourlessly. "Yeah. I know.

It kinda fucked up everyone."

"Well... I feel like, in those circumstances, it gives you advantages of some kinds." Wilbur reassured.

"... mh. Not that great when I can't have a house that fits me, but..."

Wilbur looked around. "... the dome fits you."

"For now. I'm only, like, 16. I don't know how big I'll get."

"YOU'RE 16 YEARS OLD??!?!?"

Tommy tried really hard not to burst out laughing at the absolute shock. Hand rushing to cover his mouth.

"Mh-hm." He nodded, repressing his wheeze.

"Holy shit you're a FUCKING CHILD!!??!"

"I'm a teenager."

"YOU'RE A FUCKI- OH MY GOD."

Wilbur paced around the room as Tommy giggled in small bursts that vibrated through the brunette's body.

"A child. A child who turned into a fucking giant. And he's my neighbour. What the fuck. What the actual fuck."

"I thought you figured out, since you always call me a child."

"Everyone my younger by at least two years deserves that nickname- I knew you were young but holy shit-"

"Well, I'm almost a man if you take the old legal system."

"Yeah,right" he scoffed "the legal system that surely applies 8 years or so after turning into ruins- Wait."

Wilbur paled and he looked into giant blue eyes.

"... How long have you been alone?"

The silence covered the room like a suffocating mist.

Tommy's throat was tight, he tried a few times, opening and closing his mouth as nothing came of it. And his eyes were teary as he replied.

"Well... 8 years or so."

Oh.

Oh.

Oh goodness.

SOBS THIS IS SO GOOD

I love Wilbur being so shocked that tommys a kid but damn 8 years is so sad :”(

(Also here’s part 1)

[kaylathekittykat225]

Carnival Ride of Horror // Steve Harrington x Reader

Carnival of Horror // SH

Warning/s: Cursing, laughing at inappropriate times, (very minimal) mentions/implications of abuse/stalking (just wanna warn, its super small but just in case!)

Word Count: 3.5k

Hey guys! It’s been a bit since I’ve written, lemme tell you, life has been kinda crappy and its just a little less crappy now! So I decided to start pecking at the keyboard again and this is what came of it! This lovely person requsted this work and I just got around to starting to really write because I had a free week. Anywhoodles, it’s good to write something again and I hope yall enjoy it!

Again thank you for this idea @seraphiiii

omg i came across your post about writing ideas in my feed and got so excited to see both steve harrington and young justice in the tags lmao. but i think a steve harrington x reader where reader and him go to an amusement park and reader is terrified of the rides so he’s like comforting her throughout them and encouraging her but also laughing (in a good natured way obvi) about how scared she is and stuff? i think that would be so cute!!

Here’s my Masterlist.

Enjoy.

-----

“Stevie, when we agreed to have a date night away from the kids, I didn't think we would be going into a mass of more kids.” As he pulled the keys out, you stared at the bright light shining machinery that had been set in the middle of a field outside the city. The annual summer fair had finally made its way to Hawkins, and it had left a buzz in the air as everyone planned when they would go, talked about what rides had come this year, who their ride buddy would be; it had been all the kids had been talking about for weeks. They put a day together the coming weekend to go as a group and they planned to drag Steve and you along on the off chance that they needed an “adult” to allow them on the rides.

Funny how they assumed either Steve or you knew how to adult.

“Cause I thought it would be a nice change from us just watching movies or having dinner.”

“Oh, so dino nuggets are no longer date-worthy for you.” Steve almost took you seriously, but he saw the grin that has graced your lips at your own comment. He relaxed a little knowing that you weren’t upset with his idea for date night, but he had always wanted to kiss someone at the top of a Ferris Wheel, and he would do anything to get you to the top of the rotating ride.

“So, you’re not mad that I chose here for tonight?” You shook your head and pulled at the door handle separating the two of you from the outside life.

“Of course not Stevie, I just thought it was an interesting choice.” The smile you chose to have was one that hopefully convinced him that you were okay with where the pair of you were going, even if you weren’t happy with the choice.

You can be happy with the idea of going to a carnival as long as you don’t go on-”Cool, so what ride do you want to do first?”

“Shit.” The world slipped out before you could stop yourself as Steve finished paying for your tickets and asked what you had said. “Nothing just kicked myself. Um…” You looked around frantically for something to do that wasn’t flashing brightly and spinning faster than the legal highway speed. “Let’s go over there!”

Steve followed your hand as he saw you point towards the stands of games that were rigged and way too fricking expensive, but he would do it for you. “Alright, starting out with some games I see, I like it.”

The two of you ran through a few of the games, most of them where Steve got way too into it and you had to step between them as he tried screaming that he deserved that stuffed bear/pony/cat/fish, because he almost had it every single time. He did beat out the basketball one, one of the last ones the two of you did on that strip, bolstering his confidence just enough to get him into a cheery enough mood.

“Alright! We played some games, and let the crazies test out the rides so I’m pretty sure they won’t break down on us. Which one should we do first? They got a drop tower, or how about the pit viper swings? Or, or, or how about we…” The night had been going enjoyable up until Steve turned to the rides you had managed to distract him from and pointed at the glowing and fast-moving monsters.

“How about we do the haunted walk over there?” Steve followed your pointing finger with a quizzical look, he hadn’t really taken note of the scary attraction before, never thought to really look to it with everything else going on. “I bet it won’t even be scary to us after everything we’ve been through right ha.”

You took off with a dry laugh without waiting for a response from him; his cries were head behind you, but the haunted house looked better than anything else around you. “Y/N.” He called you again, but you walked faster. By the time you got to the stairs leading into the building, you were practically running up them to get into the dark house with smoke billowing out of it.

“Y/N!” Your name was the last thing you heard before diving through the door and physically bumping into one of the scarers dressed as a zombie. He seemed nice, breaking character enough to ask if you were okay before you had already turned the corner and left him behind too.

Twisting and turning, you didn’t pay much mind to the screaming witches, zombies, skeletons, or anything that happened all around you; over the music and screaming, you could vaguely hear your name, giving you an indication that Steve followed you.

Not too far in, you found a quieter corner with only a couple cobwebs around it where you quickly ducked back into and tried pressing yourself into it deeper, hoping to watch Steve walk right by you.

Why the hell were you running from your boyfriend? You gained a sense of logic for a second where you paused. Why were you running? This was super childish of you and really had no reason. All Steve wanted to do was go on a few rides and you were being selfish and completely ruining what was going to be one of the few evenings you didn’t have to babysit the kids.

As the guilt started to swirl with your desire to not be found, you didn’t notice as the Frankenstein in the room had taken notice of you hiding in the corner and started to tromp over to you. “Hey, miss, you can’t be hiding in here, you gotta keep moving.”

“I’ll be out in a second, sir, let me just-” “You can’t be here-” “If you give me a second, I will leave as soon as I can-” “Miss you have to leave-” “Give me one dan minute-” “Y/N!”

Among all the screaming the Frankenstein and you had been doing was your name being called by a third and new voice along with a hand clasping onto your shoulder. Looking to the hand, you saw the unmistakable outline of the man you were hiding from. “There you are babe, why were you running off.” Just looking at the Frankenstein’s demeanor, you could tell he went into defense mode suddenly.

“Were you hiding from him miss? Are you okay? Do you feel safe?” The painted man moved to step between you and Steve in an attempt to separate you two.

“Whoa, whoa buddy, back off. She’s my girlfriend, chill out.” Steve tried stepping around the man o little success.

“Oh, your girlfriend? And she’s running from you? I don’t think this is looking very good for you, buddy.” The two were shooting back and forth at each other, getting chest to chest, and starting to cause a larger disturbance that started o be heard over the music and background scream noises. More workers it looked like started to slip into the room and try to get the two men to quiet down, going so far as to begin threats of throwing them out of the haunted house.

You were pulled away from the situation before being pushed away and into the next room, looking like it was on its way to the exit in the next two or three rooms: your destination.

-----

“Y/N?” His voice finally chirped up next to you as Steve took a seat next to you on the grass at the edge of the carnival. “You okay?” When he saw you sitting over here, he had quickly jogged over and took her in as he did so: sitting with her face pressed into her knees and arms wrapped tightly around her legs as she kept herself in as tight of a ball as possible.

You didn’t respond at first, only moving your head to look up at your boyfriend, the person you have embarrassed tonight and most definitely pissed off with your childish antics tonight. “I’m sorry.”

“Whoa what do you have to apologize for? I’ve been worried about you and wanted to make sure that you are okay.” His hand found its way to your back and began rubbing circles into your shoulder blade.

“I was really childish today and you didn’t deserve it, all because I was scared of the stupid rides.” Your words may have been mumbles, but he heard every word clearly.

“Hold on. Babe, did you say you were scared of the rides?” Your small and timid nod was enough for him to understand. “Why didn’t you tell me? I never would have brought you here if I knew that!”

Swallowing the thick feeling in your throat, you looked up at him and saw the disappointment and hurt in his face and that hurt. “Because you were so excited about it, I thought I could get through it and do at least one or two with you. But as we got closer, I guess my nerves got the best of me and I just...ran. Like a stupid child.”

“Hey, hey, hey, no.” Steve quickly shuffled to kneel in front of you and grabbed your hands, holding them in his own and your legs fell down to where you were now criss cross apple sauce. “I’m not gonna force you to do any of these rides if you don’t wanna. If you want to just go home, we can make this a movie night if that works better for you.”

“No, Stevie,” His mouth quirked up at this name. “You already bought the tickets; I don’t want you to waste the money you earned because I’m a scaredy cat.”

Steve took a second to think, racking his brain on how to salvage what has been an eventful evening. “How about…” He paused again and just stared at you with you staring back at him, waiting to hear what he wanted to say. “You can say no, how about we try a few rides, to try and get you on some. If you don’t like riding after one, we can go home, and you can at least say you did it.”

Mulling this idea over in your head, your eyes shifted from where your boyfriend sat in front of you to the bright and joyous scream filled rides were. “I suppose they don’t all look so bad.” You murmured to him, staring particularly at the giant Ferris Wheel that turned, a small memory from early on in your relationship popping into your head. Steve had mentioned a few times that his dream date would be to take a girl up on a Ferris Wheel and cuddle her and kiss her when they got to the top.

“Okay, we can try a few.” Though shaky, your voice was a little stronger this time and you gave Steve a small smile.

“You sure?” A nod. “Okay, I’ll let you choose which one we go on, okay?” Another nod.

Together, the two of you stood to your feet and approached the hustle and bustle of the carnival grounds again. “What did that Frankenstein do to you? I hope he didn’t get you in trouble or anything.” You asked as you laced your hand with Steve while the other went to hold onto his arm, squeezing it slightly as you got closer to the machines and your stomach growing heavy again.

“Oh him, he didn’t do much, just tried scaring me when he though I was some creep chasing you.” He chuckled at the short story, glancing over to you as you took in the carnival for really the first time, looking for something that didn’t freak you out. “How about we start with those spinning pods over there? All they do is spin around and if you want it to, we can make it spin on the inside too.”

Following his finger, you saw what he was referring to as it did spin around, the four small egg things with windows in them were spinning on the main machinery but also appeared to be spinning on their own. As you got closer and apparently joined the line, you could see inside one of them a group of middle school boys cackling as they pulled on the weird center disk that kinda looked like a pizza pan. “Yeah, we can give it a try.” The shakiness in your voice had come back and your grip on Steve tightened.

“Hey, you got this I’ll be right here with ya.” He returned the squeeze to your hand and fishes through his pocket for two tickets to hand over at the entrance. “Up ya go.” He mutters as he helps you up the three stairs leading into the egg ride thing you were entering before he stepped in behind you and took his place next to you. You were already holding a death grip on the center console when the door was shut, and Steve sat next to you. “You know what this is?” He asked gesturing to the disk you were holding onto with the vice grip.

“Something for me to hold onto?” You shocked yourself with how violently your voice was shaking as you heard something start to rumble around you. “Oh, shit its moving.” Steve let a quick chuckle out before he stopped himself and tried explaining the center console would cause the pod thing to spin. “Fuck no! Don’t you dare make this thing spin.” Bloody murder was not even near definitive enough of how much you were screaming.

“Babe, babe calm down, it’s fine! I promise, ha!” In comparison to your screaming, Steve seemed to be having the time of his life as he laughed; at least he wasn’t making the ride spin. “Babe, babe, babe, I’m so sorry I’m laughing, I promise I didn’t mean to, but you were screaming so much! And it was hilarious!” Steve held onto his sides as he nearly fell out of the pod and waited for you to follow his laughing self. When you didn’t step out, he turned back around and saw you still had your hands clenched very tightly to the metal plate, your eyes wide and your lips pursed together. “Sweetheart, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad about the rides, do you wanna go home?”

Hearing him soften up got you to finally look at him and slowly let go of the wheel. “N-n-no. I’m…” You paused to catch your breath and steady your voice. “I’m good, I just don’t know if I can do any more of these kinds of things.” Taking his hand, you pulled yourself up and stepped out from the ride and have yourself a few seconds to remember how to use your legs.

“You okay?” You nodded at him and gave a shaky, but okay smile. “You sure you wanna do another one? Cause we can go-”

“No, no, I can do…” The carnival really did have more rides than just ones that wanted to make you die, but none that really made you want to jump on them. “Can we do the carousel? I know I can do that one at least, my mom took me on them enough as a kid to be desensitized to those ones.” Steve looked over and saw the carousel that was filled predominately by smaller children, but if you wanted to do this and it was because he bought the tickets, he couldn’t make her do something else.

“If that’s what you wanna do, then we can do the carousel all night long, babe.” You nodded at him and followed him as he took your hand and the two began the walk to the carousel.

The carousel ride was much less curse filled, thankfully. You and Steve had found a pair of horses sitting side by side and the two of you quickly claimed them. Like you had said, you did get to enjoy this ride due to having done it before and you were able to just chat between the two of you, talking about how the kids were cute, how excited you were to take the kids to the park and not have to rides. It was a fine ride, definitely better than the last one.

“You ready to go home, babe?” Steve turned to you with a smile on his face. Getting you to ride two of the rides was honestly enough for him, plus, he knew Dustin would ride all of them with him later, with you waiting at the end for him.

You were about to agree and leave this eventful evening behind you, but you saw what Steve was standing near and bit your lip. Should you do it? Could you do it? “Actually, I wanna do one more.” He gave a quick quirk of his head before he followed your eyeline and turned around.

“What? Babe, we don’t have to do that, you have been through enough today and you were great, you don’t have to prove anything.”

“But...you have been wanting to do it, you told me about it one time.” You responded a little shyly as you confessed that you were doing it back of what he told you that one time. “I just...I really want you to be able to do it.”

“You...you remembered?” Steve was kind of shocked that you remembered him mentioning it, he had told that to girls in the past, but none of them really went out of their way to think about it, hell, even to remember it. “Are you su-”

“Steve, yes, I wanna do it with you.” The grin on his face was immaculate and contagious as one grew on your face as he quickly took this well and pulled you towards the line to the Ferris Wheel and dug around in his pockets for another round of tickets.

As it went around, you felt your stomach grow heavy again when you finally saw how high it got and had to calm yourself down without causing another scene. “Come on, babe, looks like ours is up.” He gently tugged on your hand and pulled you into the seat next to him before the handlebar was lowered and locked in front of you. “And here we go!”

The squeak that left your mouth was nothing but surprise and terror as you clung onto the bar for your life, your knuckles turning white with the sheer force you were holding on. “It’s really stupid you know that the only thing holding us back from falling to our death is this small bar and it’s really stupid because was if I was reall-holy shit this is really tall!” You finally removed your hands from the bar and moved to press yourself in Steve.

You could feel him trying to stop himself from giggling as he moved his arm to wrap it around you. “You can laugh you know; I really don’t care. I’m the coward of an almost twenty-year-old who’s scared of a carnival.” A chuckle did come through as the ride kept rotating and you slowly moved closer to the bottom.

“I’m not laughing at you, babe, but the noises you are making are fricking hilarious.” His voice still held the chuckle as he pressed a kiss to the side of your head, and you responded with another squeak of shock as you started rising again.

Making it to the top again, you were waiting for it to hit its peak and for the relief of lowering the cart to begin, but instead there was a shudder before the ride stopped. “What’s going on, what’s going on, why are we stopped? Oh god we are about to die, fuck, shit, I don’t wanna die.”

“Babe, calm down, someone below us is getting off so they had to stop the ride for a bit. Remember when we had to get on? Same thing probably happened to someone else.” You nodded your head and just stared ahead to the tops of the trees you never thought you would have seen.

“It’s...it’s not too bad up here.” You finally mutter after a few beats of silence and getting your bearings. “I wouldn’t want to stay up here, but it does look nice.” Steve hummed in agreement and pulled you a little closer. “Hey Stevie?”

“Hmm?” He responded looking down at you.

“Thanks, tonight was fun.”

His face broke out into a grin again at your thanks. “Of course, thanks for giving a few of these rides a chance.” Smiling up at him, you sat a little straighter and caught his lips with your own, the two of you humming to the other that you were happy with your evening.

Though it was not as long as Steve would have wanted to stay in that moment with you (the ride started again and you broke away with another shriek), but he wouldn’t have traded that moment for anything else in his life.

[shijiujun]

i feel kinda bad for shl cos all the fans of hyx and spl are blaming shl since their dramas are being delayed :(

LMAO I really don’t get that altho i can see that the timing might be a little back to back, and i’m not a SHL-only stan by any measure but:

For HYX especially,

Firstly it was already having problems since the end of last year with censorship and review. This is mostly due to the reason that 2ha is a pretty big fandom and is the cult fave in the danmei industry - what this means is that there are three types of fans basically right, (1) Normal fans who love the novel + show (2) Those who fanatically love the novel in some extreme ways haha (3) Those who hate it and/or are HYX-onlys - so you get it all in a bag. 

The first type of fans is definitely the easier ones to deal with, but unfortunately in big fandoms you get a lot of (2) and (3). It’s not something that’s exclusive only to 2ha/HYX but because it’s a cult fave, and a controversial one at that, problems definitely arise.

(2) are the ones who head down to the filming scenes, take photos and footage despite crew telling ppl not to do it, not to sneak around filming sites and definitely not to leak photos or footage. They do it anyway. Yeah sure of course it’s a couple of photos every few weeks or a tiny video every few weeks but word gets out. They’re inevitably hurting the show and the fandom with their actions, because shit trends on Weibo really fast, and the censorship committee (not just for the film industry or shows) is always lurking on the site to catch any sign of you know, hate speech for the country etc. and more. Not related, but the point is that social media is watched very closely. It’s not a myth or an exaggeration, you really just got to be careful, and HYX is a show that, despite not having been broadcasted, has consistently trended on Weibo over the last few months. Not always because of leaks, but yeah, HYX is in everyone’s faces. Fans themselves put a fucking huge spotlight on the show BEFORE we even have any content at all, and of course this isn’t enough to like create huge trouble for the show but then we have-

(3), which I believe creates the most trouble - the thing is 2ha and meatbun who wrote the book, has a long line of haters and antis, way before HYX came into the picture. I shall not go into details of how I’ve seen some big accounts on Tumblr here spit vitriol at the book without even reading it just based on the content/trigger warnings and playing the morality card (and I think most ppl who’ve followed me for a while know just what I think about that). Like this was way before any footage or leaks or even HYX being a thing came about - as a cult fave it has its share of haters, and this share is a huge. There are those who get off on their moral high grounds XD and I think especially these ones are the most troublesome, all they have to do is report that HYX is immoral, bad for culture etc. etc. hahaha and yeah the censorship team is always ready to step in on reports, especially on BL stuff.

And of course the larger part is the change in censorship processes - honestly even way before SHL came out in end Feb, HYX was no closer to getting passed by the review committee than it is now. Maybe yes, SHL scenes may be now used as reference for comparison but seriously? People are deluding themselves if they thought pre-SHL HYX was going through the review process smoothly and only hit roadblocks after. I mean, we’ve all seen the leaks, some of them are truly like god-tier scenes that may be hard to explain away. It’s not like they can repackage the script especially because they have to submit everything to the review committee.

I mentioned this in a post yesterday but how SHL passed reviews is due to the fact that they didn’t have to submit a full script. They only had to submit a partial script, and that makes a world of difference. Basically a team, under these requirements, can repackage the script to include the more het looking parts even I feel, and of course some heavy misdirection by the team, it could work. Now that you have to put an entire script up for scrutiny.. I mean, it’s hard. This is just a game of probability.

And the last reason I think is still Tencent. Honestly, I’ve never seen a huge ass MNC like this handle a show this terribly.

1. No control over leaks - This is honestly the dumbest shit to do

2. Terrible crisis management response time - When fans leak footage, it’s standard and practical business sense to control it IMMEDIATELY. They shouldn’t just leave it up to the crew to put up notices and as the company that owns the rights to the show, it’s up to them to possibly threaten legal action as well. Basically a sterner stance would have helped a lot, but Tencent is a motherfucker of a company who only cares about free marketing and publicity without any considerations over impact to the show itself 

3. Terrible at communicating with fans - Seriously, I’ve never seen a company or team that’s been this bad at confirming delays etc. and providing updates about a show. I understand that it’s mostly due to them not wanting to affect the review process or create more chaos within the fandom but lmao Tencent allowed the hype to build so much and then goes absolutely silent at crazy rumours. I mean we had to find out about a delay from Cai Bao, their cat mascot, like??? In a really veiled and poetic message that didn’t outright say the word ‘delay’ like damn these ppl have a lot of time

As for SPL,

Lol we don’t know anything about this show. We don’t know if they took out or left in the Yifu part that would supposedly make it less gay or whatever, we don’t know anything about how gay it should have been or could have, so this one might be a tad more ridiculous. I mean none of us have seen any good leaks, and we haven’t seen any of the script, we got ZERO idea about this. Maybe they really went hard on the bromance, how would any of us know hahaha so all the more it’s like people have zero basis to go on, to say that it’s because of SHL. Seriously, everyone’s shooting in the dark.

Technically if laws didn’t change last Feb, I think SPL/WIK should have been passed in the same way as SHL did, but it’s just inopportune time for them.

===

- So tl:dr HYX already had tons of problems, that I doubt were going to go away just because SHL didn’t air, honestly. For SPL, it’s really hard to tell what failed the review, because none of us know what’s going on in the script.

No one cared about SHL, even I only realized the show was airing on the day itself and then made a rec post after I watched the first 4 eps. And if it truly was anything to do with SHL, I’m telling you that the first thing the censorship committee will do is basically shut SHL down, get Youku to take it off sites etc. until it’s reviewed again etc. etc. That hasn’t happened yet, at least not before HYX and SPL were stalled.

===

ALSO!! Don’t have to feel sorry for SHl fans hahaha I’m telling ya a lot of us definitely weren’t OG SHL or TYK fans, seriously! All the bigger accounts I see on Twitter are a combination of CQL/SHL or MXTX/SHL, SPL/SHL and I am personally 2HA/HYX/SHL. The fight is all out on Twitter HAHAHAHA but it’s not that bad, we’ve all got practice. Seriously WHO ACTUALLY is an SHL only stan I’ve honestly not seen much?! HAHAHA the point is we’re all yelling on behalf of SHL as a cross fandom fan, easier for us to do so as well. We’re talking about 2ha/HYX/SPL/Priest dedicated accounts that delved deep into SHL championing for no-nonsense in the space hahaha

[yoitscro]

HOMESTUCK RAMBLE

The most troubling thing about the Sarah Z situation is that everything felt like damage control, tactical intimidation, and knee-jerked censorship. Right off the cuff of Hussie’s patreon message*.

(*Does anyone ever notice how Hussie only talks to the fandom when some kind of trouble eventually boils over, usually pointing a finger in one direction, versus addressing things earlier or addressing things period? Such as him having the power to speak against the actual anti queer jargon toward his employees prior to them leaving when things got worse? Or him mentioning the concerns of HS2 that people only found out through word of mouth and were reasonably upset about, such as them getting rid of the content warnings, or the fact that Hiveswap Act 2 was released without credits?

Would certainly make me less irritated if I didn’t know that that message is probably going to be one of his only few that he chooses to write and not mention other things, such as the returned antagonism toward fans. 

But this is also the same guy who continues to write passive aggressive messages in his comic and game scripts that calls everyone else a loser for still being mad about the racism and ableism. (Seriously, Psycholonials is just a vague post in game form and it’s chaotic as fuck to do things like using riots (racially prominent a year ago) in the toned environment of 2020 as goofy plot points. I thought we were suppose to do BETTER after Skaia Net.)

Idc if he’s not apart of WP anymore. Even then, he certainly left a lot of baggage for other people to handle. It’s incredibly irresponsible.

Anyways.)

Those journals have existed forever. Whether right or wrong, they have. They’ve gone unaddressed despite being known for existing. A big name youtuber giving an auditory version that doesn’t take up all the video probably shouldn’t have been the reason that fans finally got some kind of answer, and it’s blatantly transparent that it was to protect the IP from having it’s name tarnished. As if Homestuck doesn’t already have issues that it refuses to acknowledge after a decade that everyone else has talked about.

I can imagine that some kind of NDA was keeping them from talking about Hiveswap to their kickstarter backers, but the convenience of that expiring once Sarah said something gives me an inkling that the people who’ve actually stuck around to support Homestuck could’ve heard sooner. Not to mention that before this big blowout, people just wanted to know that the game was being worked on period. There was actually no NDA preventing that communication.

People wonder why there’s such a rift between WP and the homestuck community, and it’s stuff like that. The fact that Hussie only comes down to address damage when it piles up to a breaking point, rather than earlier. The fact that if you have one criticism, friends or associates of the people who write their favorite characters will maul you in the name of whatever marginalized group they happen isolate you from.

And at the end of it all, it’s almost like some big, surface level moral, because no one cared 3 days after Sarah’s video. Everyone treated it like usual youtube commentary essays about troubling developments and moved on.

Instead, now, still, everyone cares about the fact that an opinion video about Homestuck was getting legal threats during 4/13. After years of a troubled relationship with it’s fandom, this was the last thing they needed to do. I’m trying to wrap my head around what the favorable outcome was here; to look GOOD?

I can’t even imagine what this stunt looks like to other studios and IP groups. I wonder if Homestuck is secretly blacklisted at this point because so much bad behavior has been normalized instead of having a healthy blend between criticism and sympathy.

BC again, a transphobic bigot sending death threats bc homestuck “isn’t what it use to be”, and responding to that rightfully, isn’t the same as someone thinking that more jarring post-canon content and execution of things like toblerone wishes suck some, and figureheads deciding to insult minors, stir character drama, and call other bulk criticisms from the queer community homophobic or transphobic. That in fact loses support, money, and causes infighting, actually.

I’ve never seen a fandom decline in stable activity as hard as 2019-2020 Homestuck.

This is the part where I say that my caliginous crush from wanting to see this IP improve itself flares up from time to time, but is starting to die down knowing that, unless there’s a massive overhaul on how things are run, things aren’t changing...seriously. There are things HS can do even without Viz Media’s overbearing presence, but it doesn’t want to. Starting a feud on your holiday wasn’t one of those things to do, maybe, actually.

I think it’s telling that it’s actually bad enough that I usually refrain from talking as much as I am now, because some part of me knows that some ex WP member, or a friend of one, is reading this and potentially sharing it in whatever snotty chat to once more emphasize how evil of a person I am for saying what everyone else is thinking, lmao.

I think that if anyone wants to pride themselves in not being “terminally online” and in fandom, they should refrain from putting their hands on a story that’s literally embedded and literally about it’s fandom. Go join a private discord instead, or try a different franchise. Maybe have some self awareness. Just a thought.

Anyways, the trust is tainted. The fallout has been followed by quiet, and the current members are reshaping the ground of this community before the weeds eventually rear their heads again.

[xhanisai]

My scattered heart and mind, Revolves around you tonight

AO3 / FFN

Summary: 

 "Ple-eeeeeease, Nino? Certainly, you must have some caffeine-fueled beverage hidden somewhere! You're the best drinks supplier I have! Anything with caffeine or sugar would do! Those super strong energy drinks you gave me were literally lifesavers and if you have anything that's even half as good as that, I will give you a hundred- no- two hundred salted caramel macarons! I'll even crush up some pecan nuts and mix it with the fillings, just the way you like it!" . Nino was fucking sold.

A.K.A 

The fic where Marinette wants a super strong caffeine beverage, Adrien wants her to be healthier and Nino is just a slut for macarons.

And Alya is the powerhouse of the group.

RED MOON - KARD Pairing - Adrinette Prompt - 'Energy drinks'

~(x)~

.

.

.

"Nino. I need a stronger batch. ASAP." A wild, sleep-deprived Marinette slammed her hands against the boys' desk, not even twitching a brow when the duo flinched from the sudden impact. The blonde of the two composed himself promptly, a flash of concern quick to plaster on his face as he took in her dishevelled appearance whilst the other boy simply gaped as if she's grown two heads. Or that might have been so much tamer compared to what he just concluded. "What the hell!? Marinette, that brand is the most strongest out there and even I barely managed to get my hands on them- and jeez dude, it hasn't even been a week and you're already immune to it!??" He leaned in closer, eyes quickly glancing around to see if anyone else was paying attention save for his cautious seatmate and then lowered his voice to a whisper. "Not to mention it's not exactly legal in France!" The betrayed, heated warning look he received from his appalled best friend on the side caused him to shift away from him by a tad, whistling innocently whilst Marinette scrutinised them both with glazed eyes. "Quoi!? Nino! I thought Alya managed to stop you from giving her any more of that crap! That stuff isn't good for your health at all!" Adrien then swivelled around to face Marinette, not knowing what to do with his hands other than wildly gesturing them around. "And you! You were supposed to start easing yourself off those energy drinks and get more rest." He decided to grab her hands with his, squeezing them with good measures as his brows remained furrowed, hoping to get his point across if his words weren't enough for the sweet girl. "Look at you, you can barely stand."

"I know, I tried. But even after sleeping decently, I get stupidly tired and exhausted even just by staying awake for only two or three hours." The designer sighed, completely unfazed by the boy's touch as she was far too drained to comprehend anything properly- everything still hazy and dreamlike in her vision currently. Had Adrien not been so anxious over her state, he would have cooed at how adorable her pout was. "It will take time, I know. That's why Alya advised that you drink some water whenever you feel sleepy or at least eat something nutritious like some fruit or vegetable sticks. They will help." The model's tone softened, thumb rubbing comforting circles on the backs of her hands and eyes full of nothing but adoration and affection. "You have been doing that, right?" He was met with a shy, guilty look from her. "Marinette..." He tutted disappointedly, eyes narrowed further as she continued to avert eye contact, cheeks blossoming with her standard sakura hue that he spotted whenever she noticed he was nearby. Pushing that stray thought aside, he beckoned for her to sit down by him on the shared seating, practically sandwiching her between him and Nino as he ruffled through his bag for something. "I've got some vitamin water with me that's really good for you and also doesn't taste like rubbish- lemme find it-" "It's okay- you shouldn't waste it on me. Unless it's stronger than the drinks that Nino gave me, I'll probably pass out on my desk regardless," Marinette's protests were left unheard, her expression twisting from a genuine bashful look to one equivalent to an angry kitten the minute she made eye contact with the drink bottle Adrien fished out of his bag. "Oh no...not that..." "Yes, that, Marinette." Adrien pushed the healthy concoction into her hands and then clasped his fingers around hers anew with a determined gaze. "Just because it doesn't have any caffeine or added sugar in it, doesn't mean it's not good-" "Nino, please tell me you have a can of Monster on you? I'd even settle on a Red Bull. Anything but that lemon flavoured water thing he's trying to make me drink!" The bespectacled teen almost caved in to the bluebell puppy eyes. However, the sight of his best friend's warning death glare behind her was much more persuasive and he'd rather not deal with the crafty blonde's wrath should he give in Dupain-Cheng. The last time Nino triggered Adrien's wrath was when he ate the model's share of the Dupain-Cheng's freshly baked croissants by 'accident' at one of the class' many picnics; his delicious drinks were somehow swapped with vile tomato juice and his luxurious crisps and hearty sandwiches were magically replaced with tasteless prunes and bloody cabbages. And Nino fucking hates cabbages! "N-Nope. Sorry dude...I had the last can this morning...hehe..." He wasn't prepared for her crestfallen expression and almost scrambled to tell the truth instead because nothing is more monstrous than making Marinette Dupain-Cheng cry! Thankfully, Adrien grabbed her immediate attention, reattempting to get her to drink the healthy juice much to her dismay. 'I'll let you handle this one bro. It's the least you can do after almost scaring me shitless with that glare of yours.' "-You don't need to drink the whole thing. Have a few sips and you'll feel so much better-" "No." "Please?" "No." "Come on, don't be so stubborn-" "Oh, I'm stubborn? M. 'Drink the damn flavourless juice' guy???" Marinette finally pushed the bottle back into Adrien's hand, scoffing and facing Nino so that her back was towards the deadpanned model. Nino couldn't help but quietly snicker at the clear frustration that was plastered on the usually composed teen's face and how he clutched the bridge of his nose. The Moroccan boy admired the French-English's boy's persistence. "Mari...it's not flavourless. It has subtle flavours of lemon and orange and a hint of mint- something you should be able to taste unless those energy drinks have already destroyed your palette." Resorting to drastic measures, Adrien leaned his chin on her shoulder, fluttering his lashes and mustering the cutest, sweetest kitten eyes he could ever manage. "Just one sip? That way you won't pass out on your desk? I promise?" Had Marinette not been sleep-deprived, she would have faltered right away. Heck, she would have faltered the minute that Adrien offered her the drink, happily gulping down the whole bottle just to appease him despite her strong distaste against the flavour. Too bad for him, she's severely sleep-deprived. With a soft flick against Adrien's forehead, earning a surprised mewl from him, Marinette leaned back towards Nino, hands clapped in a praying motion and eyes glittering with unshed tears. "Ple-eeeeeease, Nino? Certainly, you must have some caffeine-fueled beverage hidden somewhere! You're the best drinks supplier I have! Anything with caffeine or sugar would do! Those super strong energy drinks you gave me were literally lifesavers and if you have anything that's even half as good as that, I will give you a hundred- no- two hundred salted caramel macarons! I'll even crush up some pecan nuts and mix it with the fillings, just the way you like it!" . Nino was fucking sold. His stomach rumbled delightfully at the idea of those delicious sweets, his hunger and greed for the goodies overtaking what little rationality he had left and even powered through the nightmare that was Adrien's death glare as the blonde repeatedly gestured to refuse the offer. The little dignity he had left was what stopped Nino from drooling on the spot as he clasped his hands over Marinette's. "Really!? Two hundred!?" All the teen could see was the Goddess that was the bone-weary Marinette, her presence like the sun and Adrien's pestering logical thinking like a shadow being whacked away. Nothing will get in between Nino and those macarons. "Yes! That's what I said!" "With extra, extra pecan nuts? And that cute drizzle of caramel on top? A-A-And whipped cream on the side?" "Absolutely~" Just as Lahiffe was about to agree to the deal, his vision was suddenly filled with red, courtesy to his disgruntled best friend pulling the tip of his cap forward as he leant over the girl. "Adrien!? Dude!? What was that for!?" Nino hastily fixed his hat back in place, his scowl nowhere near as effective as the fashion mogul's son's, the taller of the three placing his hands on Marinette's shoulders whilst still behind her. "What was that for? Oh, you deserved far worse. Look at the state she's in- ya think she'd be able to make two-hundred macarons like this!?" As if to emphasise his point, Marinette simply blinked back, almost nodding off to sleep. Nonchalantly, Adrien placed her on his lap, pressing her face into his chest and wrapped his arms around her, all the while glowering at Nino- which should have been a comical sight for the latter had he not known the consequences to evoke such annoyance. "Of course I don't expect her to make it right now. Just down the future..." "A future where she'd be so much more knackered and exhausted cos a certain someone won't stop giving her that heart-attack juice like an idiot-" "But Adrien! Macarons...MACARONS." "You can go buy them from her parents like the rest of us-" "B-B-But...handmade Marinette macarons, Adrien!" "THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN MACARONS-"

"Ehem."

.

All of a sudden, the blood that was flowing through the duo's veins was replaced with icy dread and incredible fear from the sound of a certain,

familiar

angry voice. Adrien couldn't help but gulp, holding Marinette tighter and leaning back, away from the person up at the front.

.

"What's this about Lahiffe supplying Marinette the bad juice behind our backs?"

.

One could describe that at that moment,

Alya's

figure was looming and filled one's soul with

horror

from the way that fire blazed in those hazel eyes and how her voluminous hair practically floated behind her out of rage.

.

Though, no one was more fucked than Nino Lahiffe.

.

"You reap what you sow, buddy..." Was the last thing that the pitiful teen heard from his best friend as he was mercilessly hauled away by his girlfriend, his wails of help and apologies falling on deaf ears...

.

.

.

~(x)~

A/N: Looks like someone's grounded from super penguino for a good while :D Lemme know what you think in the comments!