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worldunbent · 9 months ago

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chapter notes - tanuma kaname

a compilation of all of midorikawa's chapter notes concerning tanuma (as of volume 29)

all are from the official viz releases, translated by lillian olsen.

Chapter 3 - Natsume vs Human I wanted a bit of a break, so l did this episode the way l wanted (one can only hope). A lot of stories about exterminating yokai exist, so I wanted to do a story about punishing humans. In chapters 1 and 2, Natsume spent more time with yokai than with humans, so having him make a friend was another one of my priorities. I wanted the reader, at the end of the episode, to be happy that he made a friend (Natsume would blush). So I hope it worked out. I hope I will be able to include stories like this sometimes.

Special Episode 4 - Natsume Observation Log 3 Tanuma hadn't shown up in a while, and I had thought that he and Natsume would have a good relationship by now. But when I started on the episode, I discovered that they were still pretty awkward with each other. I’m used to Natsume smiling and talking about neutral topics, but it was fun drawing Natsume getting flustered and making the wrong decision in a conversation. It's hard to work Tanuma into the plot since Natsume never goes to him when he's involved in yokai business. I cut his bangs to "expand his world view," but people said he looked better with longer hair (l rarely get requests from readers on how the characters look), so l grew them out.

For reference - Tanuma's first appearance:

Tanuma's second appearance:

Tanuma in this Special Episode:

[three panels cropped to show close-ups of tanuma's hair. in the first, his bangs fall over his eyes. in the second, they are significantly shorter. in the third, they are longer again, but no longer blocking his eyes quite as much.]

Chapters 28 - 29 - Reflections I kept missing opportunities to do an episode on Tanuma, because I was afraid I couldn't give him the time and attention he deserves. Then I was assigned a two-part episode, so l knew this was my chance. I feel that Natsume is embarrassed because he wants to get closer, but is just not used to that kind of thing. This time, he found out how it feels to be the one being avoided. These colleagues all know about the existence of yokai, but when he's with Mr. Natori, Natsume wants to take a step forward. With Tanuma and Taki, the difference is a desire to take a step back. I hope I can depict such subtlety. I also realized how fun it is to draw the interactions between students.

Chapters 42 - 43 - Sealed I’ve always wanted to draw the trio of Natsume, Tanuma and Taki hanging out. Before, Tanuma thought he might be a little crazy, but Natsume affirmed what used to be an unstable world for him. Natsume’s existence was basically his salvation, but he realizes that he can’t be much help to Natsume. It's a dilemma he’ll have to keep facing as his friend. On the other hand, I’ve discovered that Taki, who also can’t see but knows Natsume’s circumstances, is delighted at the things she discovers. It’s difficult but fun to draw these three together. I was also happy drawing Taki’s empty house, images of a white ghost flapping in the darkness, and small yokai hopping and frolicking about.

Chapters 49 - 51 - Beyond the Glass Tanuma wants to help and tries to help, but he can’t. The more he tries to take action, the more he comes up against this wall. Natsume gradually realizes that while he wants to talk to Tanuma, it also puts him in a dilemma. Seeing this, Natori wants to say, “I told you so,” but he hopes that Natsume will be able to succeed where he failed. I was also excited that I could draw Sensei/Natsume with expressions that he doesn’t usually make. Natsume is really not very expressive with his face.

Volume 14 (Sidebar Note) When the name and the face fit perfectly as I start working on a character, it usually develops from there as I expect. But Tanuma didn't easily become fast friends with Natsume as I planned. He seems endlessly nervous. He's actually quite calm, but when Natsume's around, he becomes nervous trying to become better friends with him, making Natsume also nervous in the process. He's difficult to figure out. But it's a new experience, so he's fun to draw.

Chapters 57 - 59 - Unchanging Form I came up with this story that would've been an ordinary day for Reiko. It might've been a big deal for Natsume or the yokai, but it was nothing special for her. Natsume started panicking that something precious to him would be taken. You can imagine what a person would pick, but the rules are different with yokai. The scope of possibilities is too big, making it difficult to predict. I had fun imagining what I would take if I were Yew Urn. The Fujiwaras are important to him even though he hasn't been able to tell them everything. Tanuma was the first person in this town he was able to talk to about being able to "see" things, who was able to understand without being able to "see" himself. I hope Natsume will be able to sort his feelings while telling him about the yokai.

Chapters 66 - 67 - Far-off Festival Lights Natsume and Tanuma both want to spend time together simply as normal friends, but the difference in their ability to see is unavoidable. Natsume shared his secret with Tanuma, but Nishimura and Kitamoto still don't know. Tanuma sees that he can't have that relaxed relationship anymore that they can have with Natsume. And Natsume, seeing Tanuma turn pale with every little occurrence, is probably less inclined to ever tell the others. I wanted to see what would happen if they were all hanging out together. I was also happy to finally include the story about Tanuma and Mrs. Ito, but I wish I could've made it longer.

Chapter 74 - The Two Terrors I wanted to do an episode where Natsume takes a different tone of voice than usual, so I picked Shibata, since I consider him to be a semi-regular cast member. There are a lot of stories I want to do, or characters I want to revisit, but this is my first time working on such a long series, so I have no idea how to reintroduce characters and story lines or how to time it. So there are many ideas gathering dust, but I'd like to see how it goes and do another one like this. I also want to draw more of Tanuma, but it's important for Natsume to not go to see Tanuma when there are yokai involved, so it's quite a dilemma. But I'd like to include the idea that they loaf around on those mundane days that can't be included in a manga. It was fun drawing Shibata in a panic.

Chapter 78 - Tsukihigui I wanted Natsume to have different reactions that usual, so I picked a story not in the past or in the present, but a weird in-between. I debated a lot whether to have little Natsume be taken care of by the Yatsuhara yokai or the humans Tanuma and Taki. But upon further reflection, since Nyanko sensei is yokai, Tanuma and Taki would have a different approach to the situation and be more fun. It would've been interesting to go to Natori and have all three of them stare at each other with furrowed brows, but I discovered that whereas Natori would have a difficult time adapting to a situation like this, the students would display steadier nerves.

Chapters 85 - 86 - The Front Noren I wanted to use the premise that the front and back of an object can have different meanings. Such a simple but unshakable fact could be very interesting. I wanted Natsume and Sensei to hang out more with Tanuma and Taki, but once yokai get involved, there's the dilemma that only those who can see yokai should be the ones taking action, so I had to carve up the story a lot. I even wondered if I should depict them relaxing in the hot springs, or whether that kind of thing was appropriate for the occasion. I thought I could get through the scenario quickly while I wrote out the plot with prose, but once I started drawing, I wondered if I could get through it without questioning everything. Natsume has started to get nerves of steel against yokai, but I still want him to be careful when it comes to his dear friends having close encounters with yokai.

Chapter 87 - Natsume in the Moonlight This one was 30 pages, so it was compact, but I wanted to make something that was a little creepy. You know how it's exciting to see a friend late at night, in a different light? This story couldn't be done with Tanuma, who knows Natsume's circumstances. It was only possible with Nishimura, who wouldn't question who the person in front of him was. If Natsume went to visit Kitamoto at night, he'd panic, scold him and send him home. And Tanuma would notice that something was off and cross-examine him. It would get even more out of hand with Natori, causing a domino effect. Though all of them would be fun and exciting. I only realized after the fact that someone who knows about Natsume's circumstances would make things more complicated in this type of story.

Chapters 97 - 98 - A Suspicious Visitor Tanuma, who stands by Natsume, may not be able to see yokai like his friend, but he has his own special abilities that other people do not possess. At the same time, there are things that can never be the same. When I draw Tanuma, I feel like Natsume is trying to close the distance between them for a change. You'd think they'd be great buddies by now, but there's still a bit of awkwardness. It's strange to blame it on Tanuma, but there it is. I'm just happy I got to work on this story, since I've had the idea ever since I drew the illustration for the afterword of the volume where he made his first appearance.

Afterword illustration from volume 1:

[a black-and-white illustration of misuzu in their usual horse-like form and tanuma]

Chapters 103 - 104 - Where Vessels Lie in Slumber* I was so happy to work on a longer story for once. My head starts filling up with what to do next while I'm still working on the current episode when I'm in one-shot mode. But being able to linger on a story arc reminded me of the excitement I felt back when I first wanted to be a manga artist. I still have a lot of storylines I'd prefer not to cut short, so I hope I get more opportunities like this. I've wanted to do this particular story for a long time, but. I feel like it could only be done now because of how Natsume's currently feeling. I hope you can pick up on how Natori and Matoba's relationship changes subtly depending on the situation, and that you get a feel for their solidarity as exorcist peers. It was so fun drawing everything I wanted to include: Natsume's faith in his friends; Natori's belief that he can still offer help even as an exorcist; Matoba, who's sometimes prevented from action because he knows and sees too much; Tanuma, who's surely able to help, but is unable to accompany Natsume; the cats protecting their secret; Nyanko Sensei. And of course there were even more things I wanted to expand on, so I'll take my time working them out.

*The first three chapters of this arc are in the previous volume and there's not enough in the other note for me to include.

Chapter 112 - The Three Pictures and the Peculiar Afternoon Tea You can have the desire to help people you care about, but I think it takes a lot of courage to take that first step to offer it. I can see Tanuma and Natsume fumbling about in this regard, but I feel that Taki would have an easy time confiding in Natsume when she's in trouble. The premise was to have someone appear just as Natsume and friends had a spread of pictures on their table at a cafe. The content changes drastically depending on who shows up, so I simulated a lot of scenarios. It was a good opportunity to think about all sorts of situations.

Chapters 117 - 118 - By Invitation of the Queen "Ghosts in a mansion" is one of my favorite tropes. I feel this chapter made sense because of the usual preexisting flow of the story. I wanted to stuff in more things, like Natsume being intimidated by the room full of women but not getting distracted because Tanuma was by his side. Even in a simple story unrelated to the main plot, having two focus characters meant there were things that only Natsume or Tanuma noticed. It was fun and difficult to work on.

#this one has reference images because i was amused by the retconned symbolically significant haircut #natsuyuu.txt #natsume yuujinchou #natsume's book of friends #tanuma kaname #tanatsu #there might be a couple others where he's briefly mentioned #but these are all the ones i found substantial/interesting #afterwords

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suzy-queued · 6 months ago

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Fic Writers Year-End Wrap-Up

Thank you for the tag, @energievie @sam-loves-seb and @mybrainismelted

1. How many words have you written this year? About 135,000

2. How many works did you publish this year? 6, not counting Out of Nowhere which was complete in January. (That's a 2023 story)

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)? Workhouse Rock, my multi-chap prison/work camp story.

4. What work of yours has the most hits? From 2024? Workhouse Rock.

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected? A Song Only You Can Hear. I figured this AUgust series would get a few eyes on it (I know it's hard as a reader to stick with 31 days of consecutive installments). But a lot of people read it!

6. Favorite title you used. No Sleep 'Til Nashville

7. If you use song lyrics, which artist's songs did you pull from the most? I usually use song lyrics, but I got away from that in 2024. So I guess Beastie Boys is the winner.

8. Pairing you wrote the most for this year? Ian and Mickey, although I did branch out and do some Stede/Ed art from Our Flag Means Death.

9. Favorite pairing you wrote for this year? Ian and Mickey.

10. What work was the quickest to write? Coming Attraction, for the Gallavich Gift Exchange.

11. What work took you the longest to write? Workhouse Rock. It's still in progress.

12. How many WIPs do you have in your docs for next year? The Big Bang story and Big Bang art.

13. What's your longest work of the year? Workhouse Rock, 61,041 words

14. What's your shortest work of the year? Coming Attraction, 3052 words

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you? Workhouse Rock, plus my drabble series The Lord and the Footman.

16. What's your most common "Additional Tags" tag? Alternate Universe (which is a surprise to no one)

17. Your favorite character to write this year? Mickey. Always Mickey.

18. The character who gave you the most trouble writing this year? Maybe Marco from Workhouse Rock, because I wanted to take care to write him just right. OCs are hard to make three-dimensional and interesting.

19. What's one pairing you want to explore next year? More Gallavich, I'm sure!

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most? From this year? Probably A Song Only You Can Hear, because I re-read the entire story every day for the whole month.

21. How many kudos in total did you get this year? 946, plus I'm sure there were works from past years that got kudos in 2024.

22. Which work has the most comments? A Song Only You Can Hear

23. Did you do any collaborative works this year? Yes! I wrote Scary Sweet with @francesrose3 and Then and Now with @sam-loves-seb.

24. Did you write any gifts this year? Yes! Coming Attraction was a gift for @blue-disco-lights

25. Did you receive any gifts this year? I received Heat of the moment from @sickness-health-all-that-shit as part of the Gallavich Gift Exchange. I also got the story fruit by GrandSelfMythology, which was a gift for @deathclassic, but I am claiming it, too.

26. What's your most common category/trope? Enemies to lovers (or annoying co-workers to lovers)

27. What do you listen to while writing? Either nothing or classical music.

28. Favorite work you wrote this year? Workhouse Rock, but I'm also really excited about my Masquerade story.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year? The most recent lines in WR: "Please accept my care. My rebellion. My body. These are the only gifts I can offer you in here. They have to be enough. Please let them be enough."

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year? How much fun it is to write shorter works. I still love the multi-chap format, but smaller works have their place, too. I want to do more of each.

Tagging (or just saying hi!): @gallawitchxx @crossmydna @andthatisnotfake @blue-disco-lights

Happy New Year, everyone!

#Tag games #2024 wrap-up #gallavich fan fiction

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thesconesyard · 11 months ago

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Where the West Begins

29. Jolene

Jim had led them to a restaurant and it was a happy group that sat around the table. McCoy was settled between Scotty and Chekov. The meal was good, but it wasn’t anything like Christine and Uhura’s cooking.

“How do you think it’s going at home?” Sulu asked.

“I’m sure Jaylah is handling everything capably with Keenser’s help,” said Spock.

“Of course she is!” Chekov said emphatically.

McCoy kept a smile off his face, but shared a quick glance with Sulu.

“It’s nice to have an evening in such a place once in a while,” Scotty said, bumping his knee against McCoy’s under the table.

“Lots of fancy ladies to look at,” Jim grinned.

“Look all you want kid, we know where your heart is,” McCoy said with a raise of his eyebrow.

Scotty and Sulu chuckled, while a hint of color climbed Spock’s face. While Jim had admitted to McCoy that he and Spock were together, neither had said anything to the rest of the ranch crew, though everyone assumed as much.

As Jim took care of the bill, everyone made ready to leave, standing up and pushing in chairs. Listening to Scotty joke with Sulu, McCoy’s blood turned to ice as a voice behind him spoke.

“Lenny?”

He stopped breathing, rooted to the spot, not wanting to turn around and face the past.

A hand touched his arm. Delicate fingers covered in a pale pink lace glove.

“Lenny?” The voice was sweet and light, but McCoy knew the poison it could hold.

With his heart pounding loudly in his ears he turned.

“I thought that was you!” A bright face, trying too hard to be youthful was standing in front of him.

McCoy couldn’t find any words. He had never wanted to see that face or hear that voice ever again.

“What are you doing out here Lenny?”

“Jocelyn?” he finally managed. Beside him he sensed Scotty stiffen.

“You’re a long way from home,” Jocelyn said, still smiling at him.

“So- so are you,” McCoy bit out, trying his hardest to be polite and not yell at the woman who had reached into his chest and ripped out his heart.

“Clay and I are moving to California,” Jocelyn replied, just a hint of a defiant look in her eye. “He’s taken a spot with one of the biggest firms out there.”

“That so?” McCoy couldn’t help himself and began to scan the room for the man who had supposedly been his good friend. In a far corner a man raised a hand. McCoy gave a curt nod back.

“You’re the last person I expected to see out here,” Jocelyn continued, looking McCoy up and down. Her nose scrunched a small bit.

“Same,” McCoy said, holding back from snapping the word.

“We’re all set,” Jim said behind McCoy. “Let’s get going? Oh.”

“It’s fine kid, I’ll be a minute,” McCoy said over his shoulder.

“Ok,” Jim said slowly.

“Leonard?” Scotty said tentatively next to him.

“It’s alright Monty,” McCoy told him, not taking his eyes from Jocelyn. He couldn’t help but note she was as fashionable as she always was, but somehow now it was in a showy way, as if she wanted everyone to notice her. When McCoy had fallen in love with her she had been the prettiest girl in town because she had seemed unaware of her beauty.

“Still a doctor Lenny?” Jocelyn asked.

“Yes, some.”

“Oh.”

“What?” McCoy demanded.

“You aren’t much dressed like you used to be.” Jocelyn raised an eyebrow and even though she was shorter than him by quite a bit, he knew she was looking down at him.

“Well, my patients aren’t big time crooks anymore who call themselves lawyers. I don’t have to be all gussied up.”

Jocelyn’s smile stayed on her face, but McCoy could see how it had become a scowl.

“I do honest work that I’m proud of,” he continued before she could say anymore. He straightened and squared his shoulders. “Tell Clay hello. Enjoy California, I’ll be glad to never see you again.”

He turned to begin walking away.

“What a mistake you were,” Jocelyn called at his back. “I married him the second you signed the papers and he’s done more than you ever will.”

McCoy’s hands curled into fists, but he forced himself to keep walking. He would not take her bait and turn around. Outside the restaurant, Scotty was waiting for him.

“The others headed back to camp,” Scotty said quietly as he fell in step next to McCoy.

McCoy gave a grunt as a response, still too angry with his thoughts roiling.

“If ye want to talk…” Scotty trailed off. He didn’t say anymore, just walked beside McCoy.

Somehow, McCoy found that soothing. Scotty didn’t expect anything from him, just offered himself if McCoy needed. Jocelyn had always wanted him to tell her everything, and he had shut himself down to simple answers. But Scotty…

McCoy looked over at the man beside, face lit by the lights of the city. His anger began to melt away. Here was someone who appreciated him for who he actually was.

“Thanks,” he whispered.

“Of course mo ghràdh.”

#where the west begins #sequel to #where the cactus blooms #star trek #leonard mccoy #montgomery scott #scones #another chapter that planned itself as soon as I saw the prompts #it was originally intended to be in the town by the ranch #an encounter on the sidewalk #but with the boys taking the cattle to the city #well it worked out better this way #yeehaw

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cindylouwho-2 · 1 year ago

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RECENT ECOMMERCE NEWS (INCLUDING ETSY), Early May 2024

Welcome to my latest coverage of Etsy and other ecommerce news, early May edition. I am off for a short vacation Monday, so thought it best to get this report out now.

Want to get shorter versions of these reports but more frequently? Become a paying member of my Patreon. I will be adding new resources and content there once I get back from my trip.

Want to get these posts via email? Sign up here.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES

Etsy’s first quarter financial report for 2024 was not great, but that was expected. The real news is that they no longer expect the current quarter to be much better [Tumblr post by me]. Also, they are still planning on changing search.

Canadian shipping service Chit Chats is shutting a dozen offices in 4 provinces, starting April 29 through May 15 [LinkedIn Post by me]. It appears they expanded too fast and have much more competition now than when they first opened, so the additional locations were not very busy. Some may be replaced by drop off points. There is a thread in the Etsy forum with more info.

Etsy CEO Josh Silverman made over $16 million in 2023, roughly the same amount as 2022 [pdf; see page 56]. Almost all of that was stock options. Chief Financial Officer Rachel Glaser made over $8 million, as did Chief Technology Officer Rachana Kumar.

ETSY NEWS

Etsy buyers are receiving emails asking them to rate their recent purchases, as discussed in this Etsy forum thread. The owner of Garden Path Rosaries at Peter's Square Marketplace sent me the screenshot below, which popped up after they clicked the email to confirm they had received the order.

These questions may be connected to details popping in recent reviews, even though the popups and emails say the feedback “won’t be shared with the seller or shown on Etsy.” See this screenshot from Kathie from PillowDetail’s shop:

It’s also possible these review details come from a different test, or even from the act of leaving a review, as some buyers report getting similar options when they leave public reviews. [As is usual with Etsy, they change a lot of things without explaining how any of it works.]

Etsy seems to have deleted most Messages in seller spam folders without any warning, and some shop owners are not happy about it. [The only one I have left is a recent Message that Etsy moved there erroneously.]

Etsy is still promoting its TurboTax discount to Canadian sellers - even though the integration only works in the US. [post by me on LinkedIn]

Canadians no longer need to have a Canada Post Solutions for Small Business account to use Etsy Labels - and the discount for Tracked Packet to the US is very good. [Patreon post by me]

NBC News calls out Etsy for AI crochet patterns that don’t work. While the article blames the images being made by AI, I’ll bet the patterns were too.

Despite this type of criticism over allowing AI items to be sold on the site, Silverman told a recent investors conference that he is still all in on AI in many forms. “Many sellers on the platform are generating content in collaboration with a machine, Silverman said, and a large amount of new item listings are generated in collaboration with GenAI. But given that Etsy is a platform for handmade goods, the boundary between man-made and machine-made required some clarification. “We had some discussions about, is that handmade or not? Does that belong on Etsy? And we decided, ultimately, that it was—in the same way that electronic dance music, the most popular form of music in the world right now, is collaborations between humans and synthesizers,” said Silverman. “I think this collaboration between humans and machines to generate art is actually going to be the next frontier.” He did admit that the search chatbot tested on the app many months back was poorly received. [The article is really worth reading, in my opinion.]

Gift Mode has now launched worldwide [text with embedded video], and gift teasers will soon include videos from the giver. The teasers have been growing in popularity, with 7% of gift orders in March using the teaser.

The Marketplace Trends report for spring & summer is out, and apparently there has been a 266% increase in searches for divorce gifts. Even more impressive is a ”2,159% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for lawn games”. Skim through the whole report if you want to know what is trending up.

Etsy released 2 different “impact goal” posts on Earth Day, which included Reverb and Depop. While you can read a lot more detail in the 2023 Integrated Annual Report [pdf], here are the individual posts:

Environmental impact goals: reduced carbon emissions, on track to be net zero carbon emissions by 2030. “[S]ellers created 108 million listings with circular attributes on the Etsy, Depop and Reverb marketplaces, including vintage, upcycled, used and secondhand items.” The document mentions increasing Disaster Response Grants (for U.S sellers only) and “open source resource guides that help makers access climate-related disaster information and funding.” 2024 goals are listed.

Social impact goals: discusses gender, race and disability representation in its workforce, and funding for “creative entrepreneurs from low-income and underserved communities.”

Related to the environmental impact goals, Etsy published a disaster guide (mostly US-focussed), and put out a (very short) funding guide for US sellers at the same time.

ECOMMERCE NEWS (minus social media)

Amazon

Amazon added over 5 million sellers since 2018, 2 million of them in the US. That's only about 100,000 more than Etsy in the same time period, comparing 4th quarter 2018 to the end of 2023.

There are now Amazon shoppable livestreams on Prime Video and Freevee. “Amazon Live’s FAST channel will feature 24/7 programming from popular creators and celebrities, such as reality TV stars …Brands like Tastemade and The Bump will also host streams to sell their products.”

Amazon drone delivery is ending in California, but continues in Texas and will soon start in Arizona.

Amazon’s first quarter was great, but note that ⅔ of its operating income comes from the cloud services, not ecommerce.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce announced many new features, including more country localization, new builder options, syncing inventory through Feedonomics, and of course, AI.

eBay

eBay is now testing an Explore feature to put together a clothing shopping feed with AI. I don’t have this in Canada yet, but it has been spotted in the US and the UK, and the links in the article do work in Canada. I selected a bunch of women’s options and was presented with a feed that had a lot of men’s clothing, so this appears to work about as well as Etsy’s Gift Mode, which Liz Morton compared it to.

eBay’s sales and revenue were both up slightly in the first quarter, while active buyers were down 1% from the year before.

Shopify

Shopify is reorganizing Support, in part to inject more AI into the process. Employees are worried about possible layoffs.

Walmart

Cart.com is now helping new sellers start on Walmart Marketplace, and is offering multi-channel syncing for existing businesses as well.

All Other Marketplaces

Vinted has turned a profit for the first time, riding the trend of interest in secondhand clothing.

Ruby Lane will be increasing its shop fee to $45 from $25 as of June 1, and will be removing the rebate for listing 15 new items monthly.

Bonanza’s annual Spring sale runs May 8th to 15th. The coupon code sellers must activate is SpringSale2024.

The EU has forced Shein under the umbrella of the Digital Services Act.”The European Commission specifically noted new requirements for Shein around illegal products on its site. The company will have four months to submit a risk assessment report and will need to introduce mitigation measures against “the listing and sale of counterfeit goods, unsafe products, and items that infringe on intellectual property rights.”

Shipping

Labels service Shippo is introducing paid tiers for any businesses printing over 30 labels a month through its service. Anyone printing 30-200 labels a month will be charged $19 monthly; under that is free.

Canadian customers - who are already being charged 5 cents USD per label - are also affected, although we get fewer features and carriers [Shippo just confirmed this via support ticket.] Sounds like there are cheaper options for most of us elsewhere now.

#ecommerce #EtsySellerNews #etsy #microbusiness #cindylouwho2 #EtsyNews

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innocentrowan · 1 day ago

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Okay Now I am Finally Getting to The Movie We Have All Been Waiting For Part 1 (from 0:00:00 to 0:32:50):

1. this movie is about 15 minutes shorter than the last one.

2a. seeing quyhn break out of the ocean is fantastic.

2b. oh my… uma has her! what did i say!

3. new openings text is nice!

4. i like all the new looks but if i had to rate them: copley gets a 5/5 nothing has changed. nicky gets a 4.5/5 looks great but the hair down feels impractical. joe gets a 6/5 looks great and can pull back his hair. and andy has a 20/5 hot women should have mullets. stay tuned for nile and booker style thoughts.

5a. i enjoyed the banter but don’t feel like nile would complain so much.

5b. equally i think joe and nicky fighting over the car was cute and also possibly not the time.

5c. “they are supposed to follow us not catch us” -nicky

6. music is still a banger!

7a. why did we send in the non-immortals instead of having them be chased? or at least put nile with andy.

7b. “do i need to remind you you’re not immortal”

8. boat shooting! nile in a speedboat shooting at people. my girl!

9. andy with a sword is good but i miss andy with an ax

10a. spider-nile for the win! how does she climb that, like filming wise?

10b. niles look: 30/10 like a sexy kim possible. i absolutely love her hair! i think it fits even better than before, she’s also the only one to go shorter not longer.

11a. i love the car chase. i always thought the first one was missing it, but i could do with the noise of nicky’s leg getting roadkilled

11b. kick the motorcycle nicky kick

11c. the cinematography is still gorgeous, it distracted me from watching nicky and joe go into the ocean.

12. nile as spear woman? nile with spear! spear nile.

13. the color blocking at this first set is so interesting. it screams new money.

14a. now is the time for bonding!

14b. “she has tells” joe tries to say as andy covers his mouth! followed by nicky saying “no one can read andy”

14c. the hangovers being the worst part of mortality is fun

15. “who texted?” nicky asks. joe responds “my new boyfriend”

16. side note i believe they might be fighting. like breakup fighting.

17. andy and nile bonding because they are the best! i love andy being happy and at peace.

18a. nile seeing uma is interesting because i truly thought they were separate immortals.

18b. or psychic nile.

19. getting back to quyhn dinging booker.

20. booker glow down! 3/5 looks like a drunk, probably has been drinking to numb the pain the whole time. quyhn 5/5 the red dress, the long cared for hair!

21. i kinda expected booker to start crying having met quyhn.

22. also kidnapped booker! and kidnapper quyhn.

23a. joe and nicky are separating! why are they doing this? my bet is that joe is going to see booker.

23b. love the nile head wrap! the colors are so nice.

23c. nile checking in on nicky makes her involved in the argument and separation

24. i love quyhn’s hidyhole it feels so old and forgotten which probably says something about her mindset.

25. he’s in exile. he’s exiled.

26a. quyhn asking the right question “she’s spoken of me?” “she never stopped”

26b. so quyhn didn’t dream of booker or nile. in fact it seems like they erased that fact from the movie. other than nile’s dreams.

27a. “not much of an exile, if you are dropping in to deliver groceries.” remember when i said joe wasn’t going to be angry this movie. this is what i was talking about. joe tells nile to leave booker for merrick and is the one saying 100 year exile. but now he’s bringing groceries!

47b. also there was an era of old guard fan fics that was just about nile coming to visit booker during his exile. good times.

28. nile disappears for the argument!

29. nicky brings up it was joe who wanted him in exile, so not complete character assassination. then joe said they abandoned booker and i wanted to cry.

29. look at nile being a detective!

30. i do enjoy how much this one jumps around to give the scale of the world. but it feels like we are on a different continent every time the scene cuts.

31. god andy is so hot.

32a. who is andy protecting? a different immortal?

32b. he is behind a red door! (i will have to go into this theory another time)

32c. he knows of quyhn. and he has dreams. an immortal that doesn’t get involved. do joe and nicky know of him?

33a. 2300 years old? also looking good for 43 james!

33b. the new guy is named Tuah and i don’t trust him much.

33c. “one of us” how many immortals are there?

34. Discord? that’s not ominous it’s cheap!

35. the first of your kind that you met doesn’t feel like a big deal if there are as few as we were originally led to believe.

36. (aka 33d) also tuah was born in 275 bc in korea assumably. i’ll need to look into that time frame to know more.

37. copley asking the right question “how long”

38a. andy isn’t the first… wild. because if you read my long texts about the first movie you know i didn’t realize she was the first and thought lychon was until i rewatched that movie for this.

38b. but also how old is old then? and why does it go away randomly? and also uma?

39a. showing quyhn being drowned while discord is watching. i already hate her. what does she consider “such evil”?

39b. he saved andy. i will trust him mildly.

40. she (discord) spent 5 centuries amassing wealth? what does she do with it?

41a. he (tuah) is scared.

41b. i have been spelling his name wrong. it is spelled tuah. i will fix this in post but calling myself out here.

42. andy has been post-immortal for about 6 months. and tuah sounds so very sad about it. (setting this in 2020 or 2021, alternatively settings the first movie in 2024 or 2025)

43. taking tuah with us.

44. back to joe and nicky fighting.

45. yes read andy for not mentioning other immortals! also once more what is the rule about the dreams now?

46. “somethings happened to booker”

47. don’t call her discord.

48. copley asks the right questions all the time!

49. joe gets a phone call and speaks french because booker calls!

50. i’m only 32 minutes in but have made curently 72 different points or 49 actuall points. i am going to split this into three sections after this next scene.

51. in a new space again. always switching places. i’m getting some fatigue from it.

52. booker is waiting on the bench in a facsimile of what he dressed nile in in the first movie. which feels so important and i’ll have to write about it after all of this.

No one wants this but I am going to live text my opinions on Old Guard 2.

#the old guard 2 #the old guard 2 spoilers #the old guard 2 first watch

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missingn000 · 3 years ago

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#gdi just checked the google docs wc and theres like a 99% chance tpg30 is gonna be over 15k words #I WAS SO HAPPY 29 WAS SHORTER THAN EXPECTED AND NOW THIS?#yknow what? whatever. fuck it. i dont care anymore #tpg

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saucy-sassy-sparkly · 3 years ago

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Moments: One

Note: It's here (and about an hour later than I expected to get it up... my toddler did NOT want to go to bed)!

I'm so excited for this little story; it'll likely be 6 parts total, but I have 4 drafted now. I have a general timeline, some of the pictures I use won't be accurate, I'll get things wrong, and I'll omit things that should've been part of the narrative. I hope you can just embrace some fiction and enjoy it with me.

Reader is female, but I've tried to keep her description as vague and I'm trying to be sure to use a variety of types of women in the picture inserts.

Pairings: Chris Evans x Female Reader

Word Count: ~5.5k

Please leave me some feedback, I'd love your thoughts! Happy Thursday!

Moment's Masterlist

One 1997: Killington Ski Resort

They say that you encounter your soulmate three times before you meet them. It may be a short conversation while waiting for a sandwich at a deli down the street. Or perhaps it is as children, playing in a hotel pool on a “once-in-a-lifetime vacation”. It may be a blind date gone horribly wrong, only to have the evening salvaged by a stranger at a bar.

In other instances, the encounters involve no contact: passing strangers on a sidewalk, concert goers in the same row, children at the same playground, and passengers on a train platform.

For some people, those moments are spaced a lifetime apart. For others, mere hours. And for some lonely folks, the introduction never happens; they’re never introduced, they never take the risk, or their circumstances don’t allow for the universe to do its job and put these two souls together.

Those three moments, be they brief moments or a whole evening, can link a couple together forever.

When the sun was up, it had been a balmy 29 degrees today, but now that the sun was quickly dipping below the mountain, the wind picked up and the temperatures were dropping. Chris pulled his goggles off his head and waited for Scott to get to the bottom of the trail. It was Scott’s first outing on a snowboard and it was taking all of Chris’s energy to be a good, supportive coach. In reality, Chris wanted to take off and leave him behind; he could’ve done at least twice as many runs if he hadn’t been waiting on Scott all day.

He saw his dad outside the lodge waving him over and got to him just as Scott appeared over the last ridge. “You guys want to do one more?”

Chris nodded, “I do, I’m not sure what Scott’ll want, but can I go one more time?”

“Sure, we’re going to head back on the shuttle. I expect you both back at the condo in the next 45 minutes.”

Chris agreed and watched his dad and sisters shuffle towards the shuttle that would take them back to the condos. He turned and saw Scott scooting towards him and couldn’t help but laugh. “One more run?”

“Yeah, I think I’ve finally got it.”

Rolling his eyes, he dragged Scott to the lift line. With the sun almost entirely gone now, the line was much shorter than it had been all day. It was the Saturday of President’s Day weekend; an annual tradition for the Evans crew to hit the slopes for the weekend, but they always knew going into it that it would be a crowded weekend with long lines. It didn’t matter though, Chris just loved being outside. At 16, he was also invincible and full of energy. He’d stay out here all day if his parents would let him.

In line, he mostly ignored Scott babbling about what dinner might be waiting for them at the condo; he was too focused on trying to see the girl in front of them. She was around his age, with long hair poking out from under her helmet. Her pink ski jacket and black snow pants left more than a lot to his imagination but with his “sexually active” card newly stamped, girls were just about all he could think about. Her laugh had caught his attention when they got into line; she was giggling at a joke the older man with her had made and since then, Chris hadn’t torn his eyes away from her. He watched the way she threw her head back to laugh loudly, he watched the way she was constantly moving, checking out her surroundings, pointing things out to the man with her; she talked with her hands and Chris found himself straining to try to hear her conversation.

“Chris?” Scott shoved him, making him slide a few feet forward and bump into the man in front of him.

“Sorry,” Chris muttered when both he and the girl turned around. The girl smiled shyly while the man eyed the boys; Chris shot a glare at Scott.

Scott mumbled his own apology and they both turned back around just as Chris punched Scott in the arm, “asshole.”

“I said I was sorry!” Scott yelped, rubbing his arm, “You weren’t paying attention to me, you were just staring at her!”

“SCOTT!” Chris groaned through gritted teeth, glancing to see if she’d heard.

She had. Damn it. She was glancing over her shoulder at the brothers, hiding a smile and blushing in the most adorable way Chris had ever seen. He gave her an embarrassed wave while he felt himself turning red. The second she turned back around, he punched Scott again.

“Ow,” Scott whined, rubbing his arm again. Chris ignored him and returned his mission to staring at the back of her head and hoping that his powers of telekinesis were finally working and he could get her to look at him again.

Up until that moment, when she found out the cute boy behind her was staring at her, all Y/N could think about was how annoyed she was that her cousins and parents had bailed on her and left her with Uncle Chuck. Not that he was bad, he was actually super fun and she had to admit, she was having a good time joking with him. Y/N was the youngest of the cousins but the best skier. She was also the most empathetic. Chuck’s wife had asked for a separation just days before the annual Y/L/N ski trip so he was here with his two teenagers who just wanted to try to steal from the mini bar and try to get drunk without the adults noticing. Chuck was taking his angst out on the slopes and for a while, Y/N hadn’t minded. But now that everyone else was back in the lodge, showered, and probably eating, she couldn’t help but pout.

But here she was, in line at the lift, listening to the boys behind her bicker and trying to keep things light for her uncle. They’d been joking about her dad, Chuck’s brother, for a while– he was an easy target with his bad dad jokes and weird obsession with restaurants that offered more than one style of BBQ sauce. When one of the boys had jostled Chuck, he whipped his head around looking more intimidating than he was. At 6’5”, her uncle’s lumberjack appearance was all show. He was just a teddy bear, but these boys didn’t know that. She was sure he looked terrifying.

Chuck had shot them both a glare and turned back to the front of the line while she kept glancing over her shoulder. The boys were both cute, probably somewhere around her age, maybe a little older. The taller one– the one who’d bumped into Chuck– had been blatantly staring at her during this interaction. She knew she was blushing, but she didn’t care. She liked his attention.

She was still getting used to attention like this. In middle school, she’d been in the smart classes but was always afraid to raise her hand in class. She liked getting lost in a book as much as she liked getting outside and moving. Her body was in constant motion, even when she was reading she was tapping her foot, fidgeting with her hair, or twisting her ring around her finger over and over again. She had her small group of friends who stayed to themselves and had the same Friday every week: Blockbuster, ice cream, and sleepovers.

But now that she was in high school, Y/N was a good little basketball player– good enough to have schools already interested in her as a freshman– and somewhere between the first day of high school and now, she’d noticed boys… and sometimes girls… staring at her. Groups of people she hardly knew came to her basketball games and waited to talk to her after. She was the only freshman on the varsity team and was already a starter; the older girls on the team had taken to her fairly quickly and adopted her into their groups of friends. She wasn’t sure what to do with the attention, but she knew she liked getting it from this cute boy behind her.

Y/N and Chuck boarded the lift, the brothers behind them still squabbling as she and Chuck left the platform. Y/N pulled her gaiter up around her nose and ears to protect her from the rush of cold air on the lift. They rode in silence, both of them lost in thought and at the top of the mountain, they disembarked and headed towards The Jug– both of their favorite trails.

Uncle Chuck slowed, clicking his boot out, “You go ahead, I’ll meet you in the lodge. My sock is all bunched up.”

Y/N nodded and took off, enjoying a moment to herself. She’d been with her brothers, her cousins, or her uncle all day. Everyone wanted to parallel ski or talk on the lift. It was kind of nice to have a minute alone to enjoy the sunset over the mountain. She was in no particular rush, staying off to the side and thinking that Uncle Chuck might catch up to her.

Not far behind her, Chris and Scott were disembarking the lift, headed in the same direction.

“I’ve got this,” Scott assured Chris, “I can do The Jug.”

“Scott, it's a black trail, are you sure? You’re still new.”

Scott was emphatic, “absolutely, I’ve definitely got the hang of it now. This is our last one tonight; tomorrow will be too crowded again. Let’s go!”

“If you’re sure…”

“I’m positive!” Scott whooshed by Chris to the top of the path and around a turn. Chris trailed him, keeping a close eye on him. He watched as Scott took the start of the trail smoothly, crisply moving around a group. He was about 100 yards ahead of Chris and the mountain was getting steep quickly.

“Slow down, Scott!” Chris called, leaning in to pick up speed to be ready to help, “Scott!”

“I’m fine,” Scott yelled over his shoulder, half turning to find Chris. It was in that half turn that he started to wobble. He found his balance fairly quickly but was also picking up speed.

“Scott!” Chris yelled again, moving between people. Scott was starting to flail and struggle to regain control. Chris could see Scott pointed towards the edge of the trail and the woods; he knew that he’d told his brother to drop on his ass if he was out of control, but Scott wasn’t dropping. Chris also couldn’t see the pink ski jacket he’d been staring at was directly in Scott’s path.

“LOOK OUT!” He heard his brother yell; Scott was now leaning backward, trying to fall on his butt but clearly nervous about the impact. It was then that Chris could see her. Panic coursed through him. This was going to be his fault. He’d taught Scott to snowboard, he’d let him go on this difficult slope, he’d gotten lazy and tired of being in charge of Scott so he’d let him go ahead, and now he was going to be the reason she got hurt. Chris started yelling too as he willed himself to pick up more speed.

Her head turned too late; a snowboarder was plowing down the mountain right towards her. Her brain didn’t work fast enough; he was flailing and yelling, trying to slow himself down the steep incline. He dropped to his butt just feet in front of her, “Ohmygodohmygodohmyoooodddddd,” he yelled when he collided with her. He took her out by the ankles, she felt pain slice up her leg as she landed directly on top of him; they slid a few more feet, thankfully going slower due to all of the things they were dragging through the snow, and his snowboard took the impact of a tree at the edge of the trail. They bounced slightly, both of them jostled and tangled.

“Oh fuck, oh my god, oh shit, are you okay? I’m so sorry. Oh god,” it was one of the brothers from the lift line; he kept pushing at her, trying to get them untangled. He kept repeating, “I’m so sorry, I’ve never snowboarded before.” If it wasn’t so painful, it would’ve been funny: they were a pile of neon fleece and polyester unable to fully move their limbs because of the thickness of their snow clothes. Every time one of them moved, it shoved the other, so every time one of them successfully untangled one part of their clump, another thing got stuck together.

“Hold on,” she muttered to him, unable to get up to unclip her boots and therefore unable to get to her feet, “I can’t reach my boots.”

“Here, let me see if I can,” he said, trying to reach around her; she yelped and he immediately stopped. “Oh god, are you hurt?”

Before Y/N could answer she heard, “Scott, you idiot,” the other brother called as he came to a stop beside them. He immediately reached down and unclipped her boots from her skis before offering her a hand, “are you okay?” he asked as he pulled her to her feet and held her shoulders as she tried to regain her balance. She was about to nod when she finally got her feet under her and pain shot through her ankle as it gave out. “Shit,” he said, grabbing her by the waist and holding her. “What’s wrong?”

“It's my ankle. I’m sure it’s fine,” she waved him off before she tried to pull away from him to stand on her own. She winced again and slumped again, his arm quickly tightening around her.

“Way to go, Scott,” he snapped at his brother, who was still now on his knees and trying to stand. “Take her skis,” he said to his brother before turning to her, “I’ll get you down the mountain.”

“What?” Y/N asked and shook her head, “no, I’m fine, I can get down.”

He paused and dropped his head so he could make eye contact with her, “What’s your name?”

“Y/N,” she replied, watching his blue eyes as a smile crept on his face.

“Well, Y/N, I’m Chris. The asshole who tried to kill you is my brother Scott. I’d really like it if you let me take you to the bottom of the mountain and get you checked out with the medics.”

“Seriously, I’m fine, I can just walk down or something,” she waved him off again and started to pull away from him, “thank you though.”

Scott piped up, now standing again next to her and holding her skis and poles, “please? I don’t want you to get more injured. Who are you here with? I can go get them and bring them to you. Or I can get a ski patrol.”

“Or,” Chris offered, “I can put you on my board and have you at the bottom of the mountain safely in no time. I promise you won’t get hurt with me. Do you trust me?” He held out his hand.

Y/N giggled, “Did you just quote Aladdin?”

Even in the fading light, she could see his blush, “maybe.”

“Fine.”

“Really? That worked?” She couldn't help noticing how genuinely surprised he seemed.

“Get me to the bottom safely, please,” Y/N gingerly stepped her good foot onto his snowboard and let him take her weight against him as he pulled her the rest of the way. It took them a minute to get into a comfortable position with her back against him; she was so much shorter he could see over her head easily. He tightened his grip on her, trying to calm his nerves. He’d promised to get her down safely, and now he had to deliver. He took off carefully, holding her waist to keep the weight off her leg and moving them very slowly down the side of the trail. His legs burned from the effort of keeping them slow, holding her upright, and trying to appear much more cavalier than he felt. It took far longer than normal to reach the bottom, and every bounce pushed them into each other making them both tense. By the time they were at the bottom, they were both flustered and blushing from the proximity.

When he was unattached from his snowboard, he turned to her, “why don’t you get on my back. I’ll take you to the first aid station.”

Y/N hesitated. It was one thing to be pressed up against him for the sake of getting to the bottom of the mountain. It was another to climb up on his back, in public, and parade through the lodge. “No, no, no, I can walk.”

He already had his back to her, reaching his arms around behind him. He looked over his shoulder, “we made it this far, let’s get all the way to the finish.”

Y/N was glad his back was to her because she was blushing furiously. She could hardly breathe. His arms around her waist the whole way down, his breath in her ear, his chest in her back… she’d been overwhelmed by his closeness and his touch. He had to be at least 16, a few years older than her, with the most adorable smile she’d ever seen and the brightest blue eyes. This sweet gesture was the most romantic thing she’d ever experienced and she had no idea how to act. She was trying not to let him see how nervous he made her.

He was still waiting for her, his back to her with his arms outstretched, and she heard him call her name softly. She nodded and reached for him while he bent down and she put her arms around his neck. “On three,” he said, leaning down further, “one… two…”

“Three,” Chris said, wrapping his fingers around her thighs as she hopped onto his back. He was sweating profusely from the exertion of a day on the slopes and now from having a cute girl pressed up against him for the last 15 minutes. It was impossible not to notice her little dimples or her blushes every time he made eye contact with her.

Thank God Scott can’t snowboard… Chris didn’t want her to be hurt, but he was excited for a chance to spend a few minutes away from his dumbass brother while he helped Y/N.

“Here we go!” Chris started to gallop into the lodge towards the first aid station.

Oh my God… I started to gallop… like a horse… shit. Chris thought to himself. This is so embarrassing. Oh, God. Oh, but she’s giggling. Okay, I guess I’m galloping now…

The first aid station was at the back of the lodge; he got her there and held tightly onto her legs, not allowing her to slide down his back, “I’m not putting you down until you’re with a medical professional. You’re not walking around on that ankle.”

“Chris,” she meant to whine but hearing her say his name like that made Chris’s heart thump harder.

“I’m serious, Y/N. Not until you’re with someone.”

She huffed a sigh but dropped her chin on his shoulder. He wasn’t sure if he was on the brink of melting into the floor from the overstimulation of cuteness she radiated or if he was grateful for the many layers of protection his snow suit provided from anyone seeing his growing hard-on.

They got her checked in and Chis finally let her slide off his back and onto a cot, but he sat down next to her. “Thanks,” she said quietly, catching his eye and giving him another delicious blush. He noticed she was a little teary-eyed; she must’ve been in more pain than she let on.

“How are you feeling?”

Y/N shrugged, “not great, I’m hoping it isn’t broken.”

“That would suck,” Chris agreed, trying and failing to think of anything to say to her. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t come up with a joke or anything remotely witty. He thought about reaching out to take her hand, but his own were sweating too much. He settled for nervously rubbing his hands along his thighs and glancing back at her. She averted her eyes quickly and they both nervously giggled.

“You really don’t have to stay with me,” she forced herself to make eye contact with him. Out loud, she’d told him to go, but in her head, she prayed he’d stay next to her a little longer. His presence made her feel comfortable.

“Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“NO!” she answered too quickly and recalibrated, “no, I just don’t want you to feel like you have to stay. I’ll be okay. Is Scott okay?”

Chris turned his body to face her squarely, “I’m happy right where I am. Scott is fine.”

“Okay,” she whispered, twisting her hands in her lap and willing herself to say more. God, she was so nervous. The way he looked at her made her pulse race. For as much as her ankle hurt, all she could think about was how dry her mouth was and how much she hoped he’d hold her hand, put his arm around her, or do anything to initiate contact again.

“So, uh,” Chris tapped his fingers on his legs, trying to channel his nervous energy. “Are you from Vermont?”

“No, I live in Maryland.” She said quickly and forced herself to continue the conversation, “What about you?”

“Massachusetts. We come up to ski on President's Day weekend every year.”

Y/N nodded, “we usually stay closer to home but my parents wanted to do something different this year.”

They were both silent for a few seconds, each of them anxiously racking their brains for how to prolong this moment. The door to the examination room opened at that moment and a nurse practitioner came in, “well, Miss Y/N, I hear you took a tumble? Let’s take a look.” She started to pull out her stool and move towards Y/N, “I’m going to take your boot off, okay?”

Y/N sat up straighter and nodded to the NP while Chris jumped off the cot, rubbing the back of his neck. “Can I get your parents? Are they in the lodge somewhere?”

“I think my parents took the shuttle back to the hotel, but my uncle was behind me. I’m sure he’s waiting for me by now.” She winced when the boot slid off, clenching her teeth. Tears formed in her eyes again and Chris returned to his spot next to her. He tentatively put an arm around her; without another thought, Y/N leaned into him and whimpered quietly while the practitioner manipulated her ankle. She looked up at Y/N sympathetically and then at Chris, “were you getting her uncle?”

“Oh, right,” Chris slid his arm away from Y/N. Tears were tracking down her face and he didn’t want to leave her. This girl he’d known less than an hour was now his only concern.

“The guy you were in line with is your uncle, right? What’s his name?”

“Chuck Y/L/N. He’s a really tall guy in a red snow jacket and–” she cut herself off when he came storming into the room with Scott hot on his heels.

“Y/N,” he barked, “are you alright? I heard what happened. This one–” he pointed behind him at Scott, “ –found me.”

“I’m okay, we just got started.” She gestured to the nurse practitioner who was still gently moving her foot and ankle, each time making Y/N wince or yelp.

“Damn snowboarders,” he glared at Chris and Scott before he pushed by Chris and sat down next to Y/N, “think they own the whole mountain. Goodbye, boys.”

“Uncle Chuck–,” Y/N started, looking up at Chris but Chuck cut her off with a stern, “goodbye,” before he started talking to the practitioner and asking questions.

Chris gave Y/N one last look and a wink; Scott apologized for the millionth time and waved half-heartedly before heading to gather their belongings and go to the shuttle. On the short ride from one side of the Killington property to the other, Scott talked the whole way, lamenting and then complaining of his own injury. Chris tried to sympathize with him, and he tried to listen, but he kept thinking about Y/N.

He thought about her all the way through dinner and a round of video games after dinner. He thought about her as he got ready for bed, and he was still thinking about her when he fell asleep. Maybe he’d come back from this long weekend to find that a new student was enrolled at school… Y/N. In his daydream, he was of course the one the guidance counselor called to show her around campus, which led to inviting her to eat lunch with him and his buddies, which led to asking her to go to the mall after school, which led to going to the movies that weekend, which led to kissing her goodnight, which led to…

Y/N however, had spent the rest of the day and well into the evening at the local hospital. The nurse practitioner had determined her ankle was likely broken and had advised her to be taken for X-rays. The emergency room staff confirmed it after several hours in the ER, and by the time it was set and she was in a cast with crutches, it was almost midnight. She was emotionally and physically exhausted. She’d begged and pleaded with her parents not to try to find the boy who’d done it; that it was an accident and they didn’t need to contact his parents and try to “decide how to deal with it.” After a very tearful conversation, her mother had finally convinced her father to drop the subject and let them get on with their weekend.

By the next morning, her mother had profusely offered to stay with her, rent movies and hang out in the condo with her, or take her shopping, but she’d decided to stay in the lodge and read her book with hot chocolate and the roaring fire. Her family left to ski for the day, her parents promising to come back and check on her at lunch. She was trying not to mope and moan, particularly because her dad and Uncle Chuck were still discussing the idea of talking to Scott and Chris’s parents. God, the last thing she needed was them to threaten to sue them. She knew it was all out of care, but both men could be a little overzealous. Y/N was certainly disappointed that Chris lived in Massachusetts and she was in Maryland, but she didn’t want them to stay in touch over a lawsuit.

She’d hobbled to the lobby and settled in front of the fire, and was about a chapter into her book when she felt the couch cushion beside her dip with the weight of a new body. They were way too close; who does that? Who sits down directly next to someone when there are multiple couches and oversized chairs? She peaked out of the corner of her eye and couldn’t help the grin that slid on her face. Chris was next to her, his own book open, and he was casually reading with a giant smirk on his face. He didn’t look at her immediately, instead, he continued to read and flipped the page dramatically.

Y/N continued to grin, knowing she was also blushing and feeling her whole body start to sweat, but she turned back to her book and forced herself to read. Another page in, and she felt his eyes on her. She continued her charade just as he had, and continued to read. He huffed a sigh and dropped his book in his lap to cross his arms. She picked up a piece of hair on her shoulder and twirled it around her finger, hoping it seemed casual and cool, while she finished her chapter. When she was done, she quietly put her book in her lap, picked up her hot chocolate, took a sip, and looked at him over the rim of the mug.

“Oh hey,” she whispered, hoping she sounded cooler than she felt.

“Hey yourself. Good book?”

She nodded and stared at him for a minute, taking in his perfectly gelled hair, his big handsome smile, and his captivating blue eyes. “Why aren’t you out there?” She gestured towards the huge windows next to them.

“I saw you when we left breakfast downstairs. I thought you might need some company today. You know, since Scott tried to kill you. I feel responsible for you.”

“Shouldn’t Scott feel responsible for me?”

“He’s proven that he can’t be trusted,” Chris pointed to her ankle, which was propped on the coffee table. There was a lull in conversation; Y/N was tapping her fingers on the cover of her book. Chris started to reach out to her and pulled his hand back; after taking a deep breath, he tried again and covered her hand with his. “I was also hoping you’d want to hang out with me.”

Words, Y/N. Any words right now. Say anything, you have to say something, oh my god he wants to hang out with you SAY SOMETHING. Y/N’s whole body froze as she stared at his hand on hers and his eyes fixed hard on her face. She had to be the color of a tomato right now. She had to be sweating. Could he feel that? Could he tell she was sweating? Were the tops of her hands as sweaty as her palms?

She settled for a shy nod and another lull settled over them, this one was more comfortable. She spilled her hot chocolate and they traded a few lines back and forth about the snow and how nice the fire felt. Finally, Y/N said, “let’s play 20 questions.”

“Isn’t that the game where you try to guess an object or something? You know like ‘is it bigger than a bread box?’”

She rolled her eyes, “I guess that’s the wrong name, but how about this: we each ask a question and both of us have to answer.”

“I’ll go first,” he agreed, looking around the room before he settled on his first question, “when’s your birthday?”

“April 2. You?”

“June 13. Your turn.” They went back and forth, moving into books and tv shows they watched, how they spent time with friends, and what their hobbies were. Y/N was fidgeting constantly, entirely unable to get comfortable and Chris kept jumping up to help her adjust her propped-up leg.

After Y/N finished telling a story about a time her social studies teacher split his pants during class, Chris’s laughter subsided and he smirked, “who was your first kiss?”

She bit her lip and dropped her eyes, “Kyle Brown. We were in 4th grade. It was the last day of school, he spent all day literally pulling my ponytail, then he kissed me on the bus, got off, and moved away. I never saw him again.”

Chris cackled, “what a chicken. If I was going to kiss you, I’d make sure I’d see you again every day.”

Y/N felt herself redden from the tips of her toes all the way to her hair; at the same time, her heart dropped. He said if he was going to kiss her. Meaning it was a hypothetical statement... Meaning he wasn’t going to kiss her. In this afternoon spent together on this sofa, she’d been convinced he was flirting and was convinced he’d kiss her. She stared down at her hands, trying to force a smile while she listened to his answer.

“Y/N?” He asked after she’d been quiet for a moment. She looked up and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “You’ve been quiet for like a whole minute,” he laughed, “you okay?”

“I’m fine, I should just go back to the condo, I need to take some painkillers,” she started to stand up, reaching for her crutches that Chris thrust at her.

“Let me walk you back, I can help you get your meds and get you settled. Will you be alone?”

“It’s okay, I can get back on my own,” her voice was quiet while she tried to be sure she had everything. “Thanks for sitting with me today.”

“But I–”

She had already started to move away from him and he followed her, navigating around furniture and people; she tried to pick up her pace. She was embarrassed and sad that she’d misinterpreted the time together and even more embarrassed that she’d gotten her hopes up that a boy from Massachusetts would kiss her. It’s not like anything could come of it.

“Bye, Chris,” she glanced over her shoulder and said it as firmly as possible before starting to move again. He stopped in his tracks and just stared at her, watching her walk out of the lobby and into the wind.

#chris evans fanfic #chris evans #chris evans fan fiction #chris evans fanfiction #chris evans fic #chris evans series #cevans #chris evans x reader #chris evans x you #chris evans x female reader #chris evans fluff #chris evans drabble #christopher robert evans #chrisevans

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thevexedvixen · 2 years ago

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WIP Wednesday 3/29/23

wow ok was not expecting to do another WIP Wednesday so soon because i’ll be moving soon so life will get even crazier but.... someone literally went and commented on every single critical role fic i’ve written on ao3 the other day. it made me very happy and i want to write more now. i also feel like i have not been reading enough m9 fics lately. so i have been working on something for literally over a year and i’m mostly just stuck with writer’s block on it but maybe posting the WIP will encourage me to finish it.

it’s a sequel to one of my fics, Courting of the Caleb. it is, according to the statistics on ao3, my magnum opus: most hits, comments, kudos, etc. i’m very proud of this fic and someone gave me a great idea for a sequel, but like i said it’s just been writer blocking the heck outta me. i also have a lot of fear this sequel just won’t hold a candle to the original so that’s the other part of it ;A; because this sequel will be much shorter than the original... plan is for it it to mostly be just a fun lil follow up with lots of dialogue.

i will shamelessly provide another link to Courting of the Caleb for people to reread it in anticipation of the sequel! and now without further ado, the WIP :)

A voice magically fills Beauregard’s ears, telling her, “Hello Beauregard. You are welcome to join us for dinner at Caleb’s house after your work is finished. Yasha is already here.”

Looking up from her book, Beau grins and responds to Essek’s Sending immediately, saying, “Hot boy! Tell Caleb I’m on my way. Unless he’s trying to make that weird casserole again, then I’m dipping.”

There’s no response but Beau doesn’t need one. With one of her friends in town and a dinner invite, she has enough incentive to be done with work for the day. Beau returns her three books and stashes her notes away in her bag before leaving the library of the Cobalt Soul. She does stop by Dairon’s office, knocking on the door obnoxiously and not waiting for a response before opening the door.

“Hey, I’ve got family in town so I’m leaving early. See you next week!” Beau tells them all in one breath and closes the door before Dairon can respond properly.

Dairon waves anyways, not looking up from the work on their own desk.

#critical role #cr2 #critical role fanfiction #cr fan fic #shadowgast #beauregard lionett #essek thelyss #my works #my WIPs #WIP Wednesday

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absandersons · 5 years ago

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What the Fuck Happened to the SPN Finale?

Okay so here it is, my Charlie Kelly style manifesto.

Before I get into it, I recognize that I will look like this to many of you, and that’s okay, I understand:

Secondly, your personal Takes about the writers don’t interest me, I don’t need to hear them. This, as I’ll explain, is going to remain a writer positive blog, and that’s the end of it.

Third, and most importantly: some of what I’m going to talk about is fact, and some is highly educated speculation. I will notate what is speculation, just so there’s no confusion or hot takes in my inbox that I’m a conspiracy theorist or stirring shit up for no reason.

A list of what I’ll be discussing

The episode in regards to the rest of the season

The episode issues: length, editing

Scene placement and speculation of scenes cut

The scrubbing of Jack, Cas, Eileen

Network involvement and general timeline of when things were cut

Misha: theories on where he was, official company line, why we can’t expect to hear anything directly

The silence of the cast post episode (in Misha’s case, mid episode) and what this might mean

Jensen speaking with Kripke about the ending: why it doesn’t mean what you might think (also why kripke remained positive on the ending)

Walker, and why this episode had a major shift

Why the network would do this or get involved

Why the writers of the show simply aren’t the bad guys here, and what I “want” out of this post, since I know it’ll get asked

This is very long and under a cut, but I hope you’ll give it a read.

The Episode In Regards to the Rest of the Season

So, I’ve discussed this already here, but it’s the most obvious thing to me, and that’s the way this episode simply doesn’t fit with the rest of the season.

These people in this room have, truly, been nothing but consistent when it comes to their arcs, especially this season, and the marked dropoff in quality for the finale episode is just too sus to discount to me. Dabb’s whole focus has been character-based. In his seasons, we’ve moved far away from MOTW and bro-codependency, the found family taking it’s place. Does it really sit right to anyone that that was all thrown away in literally the last episode of the entire show?

This is speculation on my part, but as a writer myself, there is no way I would be happy or willing to stamp my name on something that I didn’t think would, at the very least, wrap up the season+ character arcs that I and my team had been crafting.

And before anyone comes in here saying, “well GOT did that!” Bruh. The writing was on the wall for GOT long before the final episode. You could tell that the showrunners just wanted to be done (not only from the plot, but from the fact that they lobbied for a shorter season). Miss me with that, it doesn’t apply here. Andrew has, besides Singer and J2, been with the show longer than anyone. He cares, he is meticulous and detailed, and this ending feels worse than anything Bucklemming has ever written, let alone Dabb.

Additionally, I’ve seen a lot of people say that Dabb was never behind Destiel, that it was all Bobo and Meredith and no one else. That is reductive to the point of insult of the work Dabb has done to get this greenlit. This man did not write the s13 Dean grief arc to be slandered like this. That being said, YES, Bobo and Meredith were the leads on the DeanCas arc this season, but ANDREW IS THE SHOWRUNNER, TO GET EVEN THE CONFESSION APPROVED BY THE NETWORK HE WOULD HAVE TO HAVE THEIR BACKS. AND HE DID.

Finale Issues

So, now that we’ve gotten the fact that this episode doesn’t hit on any of the major themes the show was barrelling towards all season, let’s discuss the fact that the episode is just...weird.

Not only is it shorter than any other episode (I think with the intro and the credits/crew thing at the end, it was around 38 mins), but it was also...idk, 90% filler?

One of the lovely humans in the POLOL server did the legwork here, and broke it down:

This is weird, y’all. Most series finales are LONGER than normal (Lost, SOA, Longmire are the ones I can think of off the top of my head), and for the final episode to be this? I saw more than one person point out that we only really needed 19 episodes, what was the point of 20? AND THAT’S EXACTLY IT? WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS FINAL EPISODE IF THIS WAS ALL WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GET?

It simply doesn’t make any sense, the first half of the episode was rushed, a final monster hunt gone wrong, but in the second half? Nothing really happened? Sam lived his entire life and Dean just drove around. It doesn’t make sense to have all the emotional arcs left unaddressed in an episode that definitely needed some kind of spark.

Here’s the speculation I have: the episode seemingly went through a lot of changes between the initial inception of the final season and when we actually got it, but I think it would have been passable (as in, we wouldn’t be sitting here asking each other why each arc feels incomplete) until the editing room got ahold of it. The only think that makes this episode make sense is network fuckery. Truly, that is the only thing. It explains the weird, cuts, the rushed pacing of the first half followed by nothing in the second half, the double montages of “Wayward Son” back to back, and Dean just...driving around for the last half of the episode.

Scene Placement and Speculation of Scenes Cut

Before I get into this section, the info of the shots in the episode I have come from a source that @occamshipper got a week or so before the finale. She’s talked about this here.

So here’s what Min was given:

1-5: 1 INT MEN OF LETTERS – DEAN’S ROOM Dean is greeted by Miracle

6-10: 6 INT MEN OF LETTERS – HALLWAY/SAM’S ROOM Sam has his routine

D1 1 11-15: 15 EXT FARM HOUSE Establishing

N1 1/8 16-20: 19 Dad’s journal, marker, drawing of masked man in journal.

21-25: 23 INT IMPALA – PMP Driver picks the music

N2 1 3/8 1,2 26-30: 28pt2 INT BARN: A face from the past

28pt3 Sam and Dean say goodbye

28pt4 Shot early for technical reasons, presumably the overhead shot

N2 31-45: 41 INT MEN OF LETTERS – SAM’S ROOM Sam’s alarm goes off D4 1/8 1 46-60: 56 INT N7glasses for Sam, laptop.

So...it all fits right? It all tracks with the actual episode, where it lands, etc. The issue is between shots 29-40 which were apparently “too big to spoil.” Uh. Where are they? And where’s 28 pt4?

After Dean dies, the next scene is Sam burning him, then shot 31, the shot of his alarm going off.

So. Where are those 11ish shots?

PLUS we have the boards, which are scenes we KNOW were actually shot:

As well as scenes for 20 that were shot in 19.

It’s just...weird, it’s weird and again hits on the fact that the episode is so short and like 80% montage.

The Scrubbing of Jack, Cas, and Eileen

So now we have to reckon with the fact that Eileen was last mentioned by Sam after she got snapped by Chuck, Jack’s last mention is that he’s off being God somewhere, and Cas’ last mention is a ~knowing look~ between Dean and Bobby.

I’m sorry, make it make sense:

???????? That’s the end if it? They don’t need to be discussed after this??? It’s just simply not something a writer would do, they would not introduce these characters, these arcs, without thinking there’s going to be some kind of follow through here.

So not only were three major characters (including two leads and both of the original characters’ love interests) completely wiped from the finale episode, it was as though Sam and Dean never even needed them, which just...ain’t it.

So why Eileen and Jack too? Why not just take Cas out of it if they were afraid of the gay? Because, ultimately, the episode went back to Kripke’s original story: just the bros, they only need each other and no one else. They don’t want anyone else, they don’t need anyone else. Easier to go back to something they knew was successful than trust the writers and their audience and take a big leap.

Alex even said he shot for 20 with “some of the guys” here. What happened to that footage?

The complete 180 of it all still shocks me, I still cannot believe that we were essentially at the finish line, and the network just stopped short, and decided to go run another race, at the expense of the arc of this fifteen year legacy show.

Network Involvement and When Things Were Cut

Okay, now into the juicy stuff.

So I’ve pretty well established that network fuckery is clear, but how much did they get involved, what was the original intent?

Well again, we may never actually know what Andrew’s original script was, but I think, at the least, it would involve Dean speaking his truth to Cas and Sam living a life with Eileen.

Now, it seems today, that Misha said that Jimmy Novak was supposed to be in the finale in one iteration of the script, and while initially my brain was like “that truly makes no sense and he’s either straight up lying or telling a half truth,” I think what may be happening is Misha talking about as much as he can right now.

So Jimmy right. Weird as fuck. Why would he been in the Roadhouse and not Cas? My current thought (this is about as reachy as I’ll get) is that Jimmy had no lines, could he have been in the Roadhouse as a red herring, like it said “Jimmy” in the script but it was just Cas in human clothes, a way to get around the network saying Cas couldn’t be in the final scene. Also, you’ll notice that Misha didn’t say that Cas wasn’t supposed to be in the ep at all, just Jimmy in the last scene.

All this to say, there have clearly been multiple versions of the script, getting lighter and lighter with Cas and Eileen as the network pulled further and further back. Remember, Dabb has to get things approved before they get shot, and if the network kept asking and asking and asking to cut Cas and Eileen, he had to find a way to work around it. Granted, I still think that if we had been able to get a Dabb script that wasn’t torn to shreds in editing, it wouldn’t be so bad. It may not be what a lot of us wanted (Dean speaking his truth to Cas and a reciprocation), but doing everything he could to give it to us in subtext or visual clues.

Plus, in all honesty, my man can’t keep his story straight anyway. He said twice in his panel that the Empty and offscreen Heaven ending weren’t his original ending either.

In addition, remember that Jensen did ADR post episode 18, AND said in a meet and greet last weekend that Dean’s reaction to Cas’ confession was “cut down.” (Source here). Many of us clowns got excited when we first heard about ADR, because we thought it would be upping the ante on Dean’s reaction, but I remember being a little sus when it was just crying. My speculation on that is that they cut out Dean actually SAYING something, @winchestersingerautorepair spoke about that here.

The biggest sins were, in my opinion, committed during editing, where the network got too gun shy and sliced the episode until it was nothing but a heartless bro-fest of a finale, not mentioning anything about the other major characters that we all love, and letting the boys just suffer in separation until Sam died and finally joined Dean in Heaven. The editing came by cutting all the major emotional beats between anyone other than Dean and Sam, leaving the skeleton of the story intact, just shorter and less...poignant than it was ever supposed to be.

Misha

We know Misha was in Vancouver, we know he quarantined, but we also know he wasn’t in the final scene, when he spoke about being in the last moment of the show months ago. We were not crazy, he was there, he quarantined, and, in all likelihood (speculation but fitting with the timeline), he actually may have shot something (not much, but something).

I have sources here, here, here, and here showing where Misha was at that time.

Remember, the man was completely open about coming back until they finished shooting (look at this thread). The switch happened, just like everything else, halfway through them shooting.

Please also remember Jake Abel posting his “Where’s Misha” video here. Jake isn’t malicious, he isn’t being nasty here. Misha was there, and everyone that’s trying to convince people he’s wasn’t just...isn’t telling the truth about it.

This is one of the things that makes me really mad, because they’re literally attempting to gaslight people into thinking, “oh we were totally wrong he was never supposed to be there” WHEN HE WAS THERE, WE KNOW HE WAS THERE.

So we’ve already heard from several people (Meghan Fitzmartin, Jay, a PA on the set of 19 (WHO WAS NOT WORKING FOR 20), Misha himself) that this was all down to Covid restrictions. Ultimately, as this post says, we’ve heard FIVE versions of where Misha was. None of it makes sense, but the Covid protocol seems to be the company line that others are repeating.

You may ask: why? Why lie to all of us when we have questions? Why, in Jay’s case, say that we’re all spreading false lies to stir up trouble, when we just have questions and things that do not make sense. Simply? Warner Brothers is absolutely massive. These people have their careers to protect and are likely all under NDAs. They want to work for WB again and don’t want to burn bridges, including Misha. It sucks, but that’s why it’s unlikely that we’ll hear someone come out and say, “yeah we’re lying to you.”

Silence of the Cast Post Episode

So this is...probably the worst part of all this, at least in my opinion.

The guys had all been pretty excited about the end of the show (especially Jared, but Jensen’s panel last week was Jensen as happy and jokey and positive as I’ve ever seen him. He was so excited about episode 18, about what it meant for Dean and for Cas, and I just cannot buy that he would have been that excited unless he thought there was something more in the episode.

Misha live-tweeted the episode, and was watching it with his kids. It’s well known that Misha and the kids don’t watch the show because it’s too scary, and let’s ask ourselves, why would he have them watch an episode that he’s barely even mentioned in?

He also stopped live-tweeting at a very specific point in the episode (Dean’s death) and has not mentioned Supernatural since then.

None of them, not Jared, Jensen, Misha, or even Alex, said anything about the episode for nearly 36 hours, when Jensen posted a salty photo on instagram. It’s just...not what you’d expect for the end of a 15 year show, when the cast and crew are so close to the fans, so close to each other.

My theory? They didn’t know. They thought Misha was, at least, going to be in the episode in some way, and when he wasn’t, they decided not to say anything.

You really think that Jensen “Heller” Ackles would have been so excited about the end of the show last week if he thought Cas wasn’t going to be in it at all? Nah son, doesn’t make any sense.

Even today, in Jared and Misha’s panels, they seemed sad and...more than a little careful, both saying that there were things they couldn’t say, both talking around things that we all have questions on.

Jensen Speaking with Kripke

So this is where a lot of people are getting fodder to take shots at the writers, saying that Jensen hated it from the beginning, but I don’t think so. I actually think I know what Jensen went to him about, and it wasn’t the lack of Cas or the weird pacing or the montages (which I don’t think were there when Jensen got the script); I think it was the manner of Dean’s death.

I know a lot of people were upset about that, upset with how...normal it was, coming off an episode where they literally beat God. I actually didn’t mind it, I thought it was an interesting thematic take to be like: you can be a hero all your life, but sometimes shit happens, and you just die.

But imagine how hard that was for Jensen to read. He would run to Kripke for that, because for him, Dean dying by being impaled by a piece of rebar had to be tough to swallow.

So, why didn’t Kripke say that? Why didn’t he say, “oh well he had a problem with Dean’s death, none of that other stuff was in the script.”

Guys. Why would he get involved? He’s not going to burn bridges any more than anyone else is. He said the ending was good because it’s the easy thing to do, it’s simple, will cause him no problems in his career, and he can just ignore the people trying to engage with him on it.

Walker

Something else to talk about is the major shift this episode had from the rest of the season: the shift from Dean to Sam. I am NOT saying that Sam isn’t important, he definitely, absolutely is, but it was DEAN who really needed to wrap up his arc, Sam just needed to move on, get married to Eileen, become the leader he was always meant to. So what changed? What was with the shirtless scene, the Austin number and random case there, most of the episode being heavily Sam focused, going through his entire life in a montage?

Anyone else notice the 375 Walker promos, or Jared’s little spiel about Walker and how he hoped SPN fans would “come along for the ride.”

It’s...kinda obvious? CW wanted to appeal to who they think the key demographic of SPN and Walker is: rural areas in the South. It would explain a lot, why so much editing, why so Sam focused, the Austin number, the number of Walker promos, all of it.

I’m not saying this is fact, I don’t know that it is, but it is a little suspicious that even in Jared’s panel today, he talked A LOT about Walker and how he hopes SPN fans will watch it.

Why Would the Network Get Involved?

Simply put: $$$

If they think Walker can be the new SPN, and that those crazy SPN fans liked it originally, it’s a lot safer to go with the “original intent” of the show than do something risky (like making one of your two original leads queer).

And? They don’t care. They don’t care that the episode didn’t make sense, they don’t care that all the emotional arcs were left hanging, they don’t care by (potentially) smashing together two of Dean’s monologues (one to Sam, one to Cas) that it came of as...gross. ( @curioussubjects wrote a beautiful post showing how part of that death speech was likely meant for Dean here). They don’t care, they never have, they just want to make their money and move on from the too-loud fandom that fought for representation too hard for too long.

It can’t help but feel insidious, which, honestly, it might be, but it really all comes down to the next cash cow, which, they think, is Walker, even at the cost of the fifteen year legacy show.

The Writers and What I Want

So here it is, all this weird, sus shit laid out on the line. And you know what? To me, there is no way to blame the writers, because they didn’t want this.

I don’t think Dabb and Bobo would have gone ahead with the confession in 18 without thinking that there would be some closure to that arc, they wouldn’t have done that not only to the fans, but for the sake of their own story as well: no writer wants to start something that they can’t finish. (And this applies to both Cas and Eileen).

Here’s a basic rundown of what I think happened: they had a clear arc from 18-20, ending in reciprocation at some level from Dean, Sam marrying Eileen, Hunter Sam as the new Bobby, Dean in heaven with Cas and big roadhouse reunion at the end. Covid prevented a good amount of that. Network had to stare at big gay 18 for six months, got cold feet. Thought about Walker, target audience and alienation of the rural areas if it went full gay. Misha quarantined and likely shot something (not much), he was then cut by execs and went home. They likely added in lines referencing Eileen and Cas to make it clear but more subtextual. They wrap, editing gets it and hacks it to pieces, so we get a shorter episode that’s mostly montages and jarringly bro-centric with nothing else. Arcs are left hanging. Dabb gets episode but it’s too late, there’s nothing he can do. Actors aren’t told so they can continue to do positive PR for the ending, they all found out at the same time we did: hence almost complete silence about the finale.

And you know what? They warned us. I talked about it here, but they’ve been telling us all season that Chuck wasn’t the writer, he’s the network. I don’t think, still, that they thought it would be cut up like this, into something so unsalvageable that it’s been panned by almost everyone, even people who didn’t care much about Dean and Cas.

Finally, a masterpiece can be ruined by editing, and while I’m not sure even the script they ended up shooting on was a masterpiece (due to the network meddling already), but to me it’s blatantly obvious that it’s no one but the network that caused this, that took away closure for Dean, Cas, and even Sam.

So what do I want? Nothing really, there’s nothing we can do, but I wrote this mostly to show people that the writers are not your enemy. In fact, to the people trashing them? You’re doing exactly what the CW wants you to: blame the obvious targets, blame Misha, blame Jensen and Jared, blame Dabb. Scream and yell at them on Twitter and about how the show is ruined because of them. The network keeps their engagement levels high, they don’t get as targeted for their behavior, and just keep moving along.

Just, please, think about who did this, Mourn the show, be angry, but not at the people who fought tooth and nail for this for literal years, not the people who wanted it more than we did, not the people who cannot say anything because of their careers and the NDAs they’re bound by.

Someone is going to spill eventually, but until then, we just have to wait, and continue to be loud.

#my writing #my meta #supernatural #spn #spn finale trash fire #MY MANIFESTO IS DONE

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versadies · 4 years ago

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Can I request Pisces with Jean? Basically what are Jean's thoughts when her timer hits the 1 hour mark before she will meet her s/o?

schedules (hc scenario)

penpal: hope you like this, stay tune for your ningguang req anon <3

prompt: pisces the fish, timer soulmate au

pairing/s: jean x gn!reader

sypnosis: the perfect schedule of jean’s (un)expected day.

includes: fluff

jean has a clean, organized daily schedule.

the first thing she does after getting ready for the day is do a morning run with amber, jogging around outskirts of the city with the pleasant company of the outrider.

next is a breakfast trip with her dearest friend, lisa, who’s happy to eat meals with the acting grandmaster. their frequent hangout is usually in good hunter’s.

of course, her schedule varies depending on the tasks she needs to do. whether it’d be different commissions from her people in need of help, settling documents, doing paperworks, and so on. either way, she always finds herself holding a list of her tasks and checking them off by the end of the day.

then jean comes back to her home and does her laundry by hand, making sure to settle her clothes for later night before changing to her uniform and start her duties as the acting grandmaster.

this schedule goes on for as long as she could remember.

the day repeats itself as usual, first is the morning run, breakfast trip, laundry, going to the headquarters, starts listing her tasks to do tod—

her heart drops when she notices her timer.

this is not a part of her schedule.

“01:29:56”

she blinks a few times, disbelief that her timer is shorter than before. now that she could think about it, she hasn’t taken a good look on her timer for a long time.

what should she do now?

if she will meet her soulmate by an hour, it’ll be difficult to spot them outside of the headquarters during her commissions, where she’s sure there will be a lot of people walking around. how could she identify which one is her destined other?

she can’t exactly postpone her commissions, not when her people are actually in need of help while she’s sitting on her seat dreading about not being able to identify her soulmate when the time comes.

the acting grandmaster felt afraid, afraid of not being able to see her soulmate when her timer goes 0.

she also felt confused, not sure how her day could go. not even her clean schedule could predict how she will meet her soulmate and how things will go.

jean then takes a deep breath, and thinks deeply of what she can do. maybe she could do the urgent commissions and immediately go back to the headquarters just to be safe?

she sighs in defeat and stands up from her seat. it wouldn’t hurt to see how this day will go, right?

it didn’t take long for the acting grandmaster to complete urgent commissions, making sure to often check her timer so she could go to a more secluded area and come across to her soulmate.

however, she got carried away from a certain commission that she didn’t notice how time flew by fast.

“thank you so much again for the help, grandmaster jean.” margaret says with a grateful look on her face. “i’ll make sure to send someone to send a mushroom pizza for you, it’s on the house!”

“that’s very kind of you, margaret. but i can just visit this place during my break and get it myself.” jean reassures the woman, letting out an awkward laugh.

“no no! i insist!” margaret said persistently.

before jean could try and protest again, someone suddenly bumps into her, causing her eyes to widen in surprise and look at the person.

“oh gods— sorry about that!” you exclaimed, looking behind you frantically before running away, leaving jean and a concerned margaret alone together. it wasn’t long before two knights ran pass by as well, chasing you down with no intention of stopping.

“oh my, how rude of them!” margaret exclaims, not noticing how jean slowly stares down at her wrist, her breath hitches at the sight of her timer—

“00:00:00”

the acting grandmaster stares down at the numbers, her heart pacing fast. if you’re her soulmate, then she needs to get to you fast.

“i gotta go margaret,” jean says apologetically before running off to where she thinks you and the knights headed, her heart pacing in excitement and anticipation. it felt like all her worries had disappeared.

you can bet that she’ll make sure to tick off “meeting my soulmate ♥︎” from her list just as she did with all of her tasks.

#genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact fanfiction #genshin headcanons #jean soulmate au #jean gunnhildr x reader #jean gunnhildr #genshin jean x reader #jean x reader #genshin jean #jean x you #jean gunnhildr x you #genshin x reader hcs #genshin hcs #genshin x reader fluff #genshin fluff #genshin soulmate au

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nobodyfamousposts · 4 years ago

Text

My-Crack-ulous: Aku-Maid

In which I am a horrible person...

No seriously. Don’t read this.

For @mermain123, for bringing up the cursed image that started this mess in the first place.

Mermain: i said i was suffering

Mermain: i didn't want you to make the internet suffer

Me: That sounds like the internet’s problem.

Also for @bloody-writes. You know why... ; )

_________________________

Hawk Moth was a supervillain who had been terrorizing Paris for the better part of two years.

But no one could really argue that not all of his ideas have been good. Or well thought out. Or in any way sensible even.

Like the time he akumatized a baby.

Or the time he akumatized a girl to transform people into exact replicas of herself.

Or the fact he keeps akumatizing Mr. Ramier for going on 29 times at this point…

Or the other time he akumatized a baby…

Times that he destroyed Paris. Times that he nearly destroyed the world. Times that he gave people powers that were completely contradictory to the goals of getting the Miraculous he was after by erasing the heroes from existence or transforming them in ways that made the Miraculous inaccessible.

But none of his akumatizations had ever gotten him as much hate, caused as much misery, were were ultimately as pointless as this most recent incident.

Aku-maid.

It was known the instant she was akumatized. As soon as she was transformed, a wave of power enveloped the city. And within that wave, half of the people of Paris were transformed as well.

…the male half.

Her power was to transform all the men of Paris. She didn’t even have a weapon or attack that did it, it just happened almost instantaneously. All men suddenly found themselves changed.

Or rather, their outfits…

“Ah!”

“What the hell—!?”

“I can’t get it off!”

One by one, every male in Paris suddenly found themselves in a much different state of attire. What had just been a normal day full of various styles and appearances had all suddenly become very…frilly.

“WHY AM I A MAID?!”

Much as implied her namesake, the akuma’s power involved transforming whatever any man was wearing into some variation of a maid outfit.

Every man.

All over Paris.

From Andre Bourgeois, who has refused to leave his office to make an official statement…

“ANDRE!” Audrey shouted, banging on the door. “Get out here this instant!”

“But, honey, I can’t be seen like this!”

To Roger Raincomprix, who has tried to continue his normal duties despite the…change of uniform…

“Stop in the name of the law!” Roger shouted, reaching into his pockets in an automatic reaction to try to get his handcuffs. While the dress he was wearing did still have pockets, the only item they procured was a cleaning rag, which was notably less threatening as the suspect in question stared for a moment before deciding to take off.

“HEY!”

And yes, even to…

“I’m a Macrophage!” Adrien gushed happily as he lifted his lengthy skirt to give a twirl.

…even to Adrien Agreste, who was apparently the only one to find anything pleasant about the current crisis.

Nino stared.

“Dude. Seriously?”

“I’ve always wanted to cosplay!”

Nino, having been long-since exposed to his friend’s deep love for anime in its many forms, at least knew what a Macrophage was. But even so, he couldn’t help but feel there was something odd about the way Adrien took to the long pale dress and cap.

Kim rested a hand on Nino’s shoulder. “Just let the guy enjoy this.”

“At least somebody is.” Nathaniel muttered bitterly as he tried to hide as behind his sketchbook. It was a futile attempt, of course, as he at most only covered his face, leaving the red dress, white apron with pockets, and knee-high boots on full display.

“I don’t understand how he can.” Max complained. He tugged at his own skirt in vain, looking at Adrien’s ankle-length ensemble enviously. The skirt was much shorter than he would have liked—reaching a couple inches above his thigh and almost seemed to be defying gravity to stay that way despite his attempts to get it to either flatten or otherwise lower. “I question the design choices.”

“But you look just like Misaki from Maid Sama! And Nathaniel looks like Lizbeth!” Adrien insisted. “It’s totally a cosplay!”

Max just stared incredulously. He was wearing a black dress with puffy sleeves that tapered off just shy of his elbow, white apron, a cap, and thigh-high black stockings and knee-high boots, it seemed Adrien did have a point.

Max, in all fairness, didn’t particularly care in favor of the problems that came with suddenly finding himself in a short dress, heels, and a corset.

“I just can’t peg where Kim or Nino’s outfits are from.” He continued, studying the outfits in question contemplatively. “But give me a little time! It’ll come to me!”

The boys had been having an afternoon hangout session in the park. No girls. No teachers. No Gabriel Agreste or bodyguards to whisk certain teen models away. It was supposed to be a normal non-drama-filled day.

…which was naturally when it became something less than normal and certainly more than drama-filled.

“I think I get why girls complain about this sort of thing now.” Kim said, looking at his shoes. “These heels are kind of uncomfortable…”

“Are you sure it’s the heels and not the flippers?” Nino asked, annoyed.

Sure enough, Kim was wearing flipper-heels. They were black and also had black ankle straps with a little bow on each. This strange footwear did seem to go with Kim’s talent in swimming, which was also emphasized by the ruffle maid swimsuit they matched with.

“Nah, it’s definitely the heels.” Kim insisted.

So this was what their all-boys’ afternoon had come to.

Kim was wobbling on unsteady heels.

Nathaniel groaned and kept his ever reddening face covered.

Max was questioning where they could procure jackets. Long jackets.

Adrien was giggling to himself and asking if they could do a full Cells at Work group cosplay.

And Nino paled, suddenly realizing something.

"Guys. Guys, we have to hide!"

"Why?" Kim asked. "It's annoying, but this akuma doesn't seem really dangerous."

"No, you don't get it!" Nino hissed. "If Alya catches us, we will NEVER live this down!"

Nathaniel looked over the edge of his sketchbook. “Alya wouldn’t actually post pictures of us to the Ladyblog, would she?”

A long pause followed.

The boys paled.

Except for Adrien, who turned to them with a gasp of excitement. “Do you think she would? We could do a group picture!”

All the other boys paled even more, looking downright ill.

And immediately took off running.

Or at least as well as they could with heels. None of them made it very far without tripping, stumbling, or simply struggling to stay upright as they still tried to move away from the area as quickly as the heels would allow.

“But what’s wrong with—?”

“JUST RUN, ADRIEN!”

“Who thought maid outfits with high heels was a good idea?! How can anyone be expected to clean in these things?

“I will never draw high heels on a super heroine again.”

“I can’t breathe! Who created corsets?! What objective does this achieve besides crushing one’s lungs?”

Nino groaned, still running. “I hope Hawk Moth is suffering as much as we are!”

_____________________

If Nino Lahiffe had the ability to break the fourth wall and peer into the events happening outside of his immediate vicinity, he would be happy to find this was actually the case.

And he would laugh.

Oh, how he would laugh.

“Sir…?”

“Don’t.” Came the dark growl from a very unhappy supervillain. “Don’t say anything, Nathalie..."

This was an akuma that impacted every male in Paris. Every male.

…even to Hawk Moth, himself.

“Why did this happen?”

It would appear that even Hawk Moth was not immune to Aku-Maid’s power as he had been similarly transformed. And unfortunately, due to the change, he could no longer access his Miraculous. The Butterfly broach had disappeared, having been transformed along with his outfit.

And his outfit had…actually left much to be desired.

Which was truthfully just a nice way of saying it was ugly.

Really, really ugly.

Normally the picture of stoicism, Nathalie had to pretend to cough to avoid reacting.

“Can’t you order the akuma to undo it?” She eventually was able to ask.

He lowered his head and closed his eyes in concentration. “No. It’s no good. I’ve lost the link!”

His eyes widened and he clutched his chest in a panic.

“Where is the Miraculous?!” Hawk Moth demanded, trying—and failing to pull at the tasteless dress. But as others across the city had already discovered, the clothes were magic and would not be removed or displaced. Not even the frock or the cap he now wore.

“Sir, you were transformed when you changed. It looks like the Butterfly Miraculous was transformed along with you.”

He froze, eyes widening in horror. “But that’s—”

He grasped at the empty place on his chest. Where once had been his lapel and pin now only had ruffles and a leathery texture. His mask remained in place, though it was now fully black except for the openings around his eyes and mouth, which were bordered with a lighter grey color. The material and outfit overall had a shine to it that could be found on any wetsuit.

To put it nicely: he looked atrocious.

To put it bluntly: he looked like some sort of BDSM role-player with a maid kink.

So it was fortunate, perhaps, that no one else in Paris would have to be subject to the sight.

Except Nathalie. Who was probably going to have nightmares.

Or a coronary from the laughter she was trying to hold back.

It was admittedly a bit hard to tell.

But it seemed she was handling the situation a bit better than Hawk Moth, despite the fact that the man was currently unable to see himself or the full extent of the monstrosity he now wore.

…this was probably for the best. Given the man’s fashion sense, there was really no telling whether he would be horrified or inspired, and nobody would want to find out.

“I can’t contact the akuma! And I can’t call it back!”

He moaned, covering his…already covered face with his hands. “I’ll never be taken seriously again!”

Nathalie resolutely held back from pointing out he was barely being taken seriously now.

“It’s…not that bad?” She tried. Not very well, but she tried.

Hawk Moth clutched his head in horror. “Unless Ladybug and Chat Noir can stop this akuma, we’re doomed!”

“Sir, it’s just an akuma that puts men in maid outfits. It’s really not that bad.”

“DOOOOOOMED!!!”

__________________________

The akuma, for her part, was unaware of her benefactor’s misery, too busy enjoying the abject misery of everyone else around her.

Nobody knew just what had set the girl off to get her akumatized in the first place. Her comments about men being “the eye-candy now” suggested an argument. The maid outfits involved suggested what the topic of the argument had been regarding.

To be honest, nobody had actually realized she was the akuma responsible. She did appear fairly normal by akuma terms, dressed in a seemingly authentic Victorian era dress more befitting as an authentic Lady’s Maid compared the frillier, lacier varieties that the men around her had suddenly found themselves in. What would normally have gotten her a few odds looks was mostly ignored in the face of the sudden change. Few even took notice of her dark purple skin or black hair. Or the fan in her hand.

“THAT’S RIGHT! SEE HOW YOU LIKE BEING OBJECTIFIED!”

The yelling…was a bit harder to miss.

It was the first thing that drew the attention of the three girls settled at the cafe.

The second thing was the various cries of horror as several of the men around them suddenly discovered their state of dress transformed into…well…dresses. Of a variety that made the little cafe appear more like a maid cafe than anything.

The third thing was the appearance of a familiar face running down the road, holding up his long white dress to make running easier as he looked for a place to hide.

Marinette stared.

“ADRIEN?!”

Adrien Agreste was running around in a long white and pale cream Victorian-era dress and cap, looking like Cinderella running from the ball. Except a maid.

A quick glance to her companions showed that both Alya and Kagami were similarly staring in befuddlement, so this was neither her imagination or a fever dream.

“Adrien? What’s going on?” Alya asked for everyone.

“It’s an akuma!” He replied, quickly. “She’s putting everybody into cosplay!”

“…cosplay?”

“Yeah!”

“…everybody?”

He paused, glancing around. “Well…all the guys, I think?”

Marinette stared.

“…Just that?” Alya asked, thankfully taking over while Marinette’s brain started to become aware that this WAS Adrien she was talking to. “She’s not doing anything else besides putting guys into…‘cosplays’?”

He blinked in confusion. “I…think so?”

“She isn’t…I don’t know…commanding you or anything?”

“Well, she hasn’t yet. Which, really, isn’t so bad for an akuma if you think about it.” He said with a frown before he noticed the strange look on Kagami’s face. “Kagami, are you okay?”

Kagami made a strangled sound.

“Marinette?”

Marinette pretended to choke on a drink from an empty glass to avoid speaking.

“Can I add to your order?” The waiter came by, seeming unconcerned by the ruckus or the act that he was now wearing a rather cutesy maid outfit the likes of which would be seen in a maid cafe in Japan.

“You don’t seem put off by this.” Alya pointed out, noting his relatively unfazed attitude compared to the panicking of the other men around them…or the gushing from Adrien.

The waiter took it in stride.

“It’s okay.” He replied blankly. “I’m already dead inside.”

“Oh.”

He turned to Kagami. “Do you need anything else, Miss?”

Kagami was still staring at Adrien, blushing furiously.

“I think I have a problem.”

“You mean a kink?”

“A. Problem.” She spoke through gritted teeth.

“Story of my life.” The waiter replied as he refilled her glass of water, either unaware or uncaring of the specific nature of her trouble.

Alya gasped in sudden realization. “Wait! If this is happening here then…” She turned to Adrien. “Where were Nino and the boys?” He blinked, curious. “Oh, they decided to head home. Why?”

An almost sinister smirk formed on Alya’s face. One that would have anyone it was directed at cowering in fear. And strong enough to be felt from several blocks away.

Unbeknownst to them, Nino felt that smirk like a trail of cold fingers down his back, and promptly threw himself into his room and slammed the door shut behind him.

As if she sensed this, Alya slammed several bills on the table and dashed out the door.

“GOTTA GO!”

Realizing an akuma was about, Marinette was right on her heels. She found a nearby alleyway and immediately prepared to transform and face this latest threat.

“Oh my god. OH MY GOD.” She broke down, letting out the laughter she’d been trying so hard to hold in. “He’s a dork! The boy I’m crushing on is a complete DORK who is in to cosplaying! He thinks maid outfits are COSPLAY!”

…or she would be.

“And here I’ve been driving myself nuts with anxiety over just asking him out and he doesn’t even—”

Any minute now…

“Marinette!” Tikki hissed. “You need to stop the akuma!”

“Can’t I just take a picture first?”

“MARINETTE!”

“Oh fine…”

_____________________

Luka didn’t realize anything had happened. He felt a bit off balanced for a moment, and a bit colder, but attributed that to being on the Liberty. So he simply shifted his stance to be a bit more steady and continued playing. It wasn’t until the drum stopped that he realized something was actually wrong.

The look of shock from Mylene and the following shriek from Ivan cemented it.

He spun around, not sure what could have elicited such a cry from his fellow bandmate. And at first, he couldn’t really tell what had happened. Ivan was crouched behind the drum set, covering his face with his hands and trembling in what appeared to be mortification.

Then he noticed the mobcap on Ivan’s head, which he was pretty sure hadn’t been there before. And Ivan’s shirt seemed distinctly…fluffier and frillier than he remembered seeing a few minutes ago. He tried to move closer to offer help, only for his own balance to be off. And when he looked down…

Oh.

The dress was new.

As were the stockings.

And the notably thinner and sleeker heels on his boots.

He hummed to himself, considering the change.

“Akuma?” Juleka asked him.

“Most likely.” He replied.

Mylene had rushed up to their practice stage and to Ivan’s side, even as he moaned for her to not look at him. The poor guy was completely red in embarrassment. Seeing how upset he was, the other three had backed away, leaving Mylene to try to help her boyfriend.

“Luka, are you okay?” Rose asked worriedly, trying to respect Ivan’s need for space while also checking in on their other effected bandmate.

“I’m fine. It was just a surprise at first.” He replied.

It wasn’t every day that you suddenly found yourself in a maid outfit, after all. It was a simple outfit. White off the shoulder puffy sleeves with black frills. A black tube skirt. White apron. And…he reached to his neck where a weight was, feeling a choker.

Huh…

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Honestly, he could be in worse.

Rose seemed surprised at that. “Really? Even with those shoes?”

He looked down at the shoes in question. The boots were his style—surprisingly, given it was an akuma. The higher heels were definitely different from his norm, and clearly what Rose was referring to. In any other circumstances, she would be right.

But...

Luka smiled, shifting his stance and resting a hand on his hip. “Well, someone had to teach Jules to walk in heels. And I couldn’t show her if I didn’t know how myself.

Juleka huffed. “Don’t say that like you didn’t enjoy playing dress up.”

Luka merely curtsied, not only showing off more of his slightly ripped and punk-looking fishnet stockings, but almost proudly displaying his ability to move fluently in heels.

Rose appropriately “oo-ed” and “aah-ed” at his display. Juleka merely shook her head and smiled. Ivan was still recovering from his panic attack and had resolutely refused to come out from behind the drums, despite Mylene’s reassurances.

“So it has to be an akuma, right?” Rose asked.

“If it is, I want a picture or two, at least.” Juleka muttered as she admired Luka’s outfit, mumbling about commissioning Marinette to recreate it in her size. She hadn’t known maids could come in this style.

Mylene nodded from her place at Ivan’s side. “Though it seems rather fortunate if this is all the akuma is doing.”

“We don’t know if that is it, though.” Luka warned. “For all we know, there could be some other ability she has if she catches us. It would probably be safer if we hid out inside until this is over.”

The others agreed. And Anarka, bless her soul, actually came up with a large blanket for Ivan to wrap himself in to preserve his dignity. Then she and Mylene helped the taller teen to safely relocate to inside. Much like Luka, Ivan’s shoes had changed, but he was substantially less able to maneuver in them. And no amount of effort or force on his part could seem to separate the heels from his feet.

Once he and the others were inside, Luka moved to follow. He hesitated, however, at the sound of something landing behind him.

“Viperion? We’ll need your help.”

He turned to see Ladybug standing tall. And was that perhaps a hint of blush on her face?

Oh.

A shame.

It looked like Juleka wouldn’t be getting her pictures, after all...

_____________________

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

He shuddered, backing away from the door as far as possible.

“Ninoooooo…”

It was a fight for survival.

“C’mon, Nino. Just open the door.”

The survival of his dignity, but still!

He’d lost track of the others and immediately rushed home and to the safety of his room. His room, which he could lock and hide away in until this all blew over.

“I have a key!” Came Chris’s voice. “Somewhere…”

“Give it and I won’t take any pictures of you.”

“Deal!”

His room, which his traitorous little brother was willing to allow the enemy entry into.

Under any normal circumstances, he wouldn’t be this desperate. But if Alya caught him like this…

Black dress. Puffy at the shoulder, sleeves that extended to his wrists and were bound by white cuffs. A white smock tied back with a white ribbon. White bow at the neck and white frills along the bottom of the dress?

Oh yeah…Alya would never let this go…

He knew he shouldn’t have gotten into all those anime Adrien pushed him into! So what if the maids were cute? And sure, he’d admit he's had a thought or two of Alya in such attire...

But how was he supposed to know Alya had such thoughts as well? And in the complete opposite direction! Clearly this was the akuma’s magic punishing him!

Nino looked to his window.

It would be a long fall, but it was his only escape.

But would the broken legs be worth it when Alya would soon figure out what he did and be able to catch up to him easily?

Maybe he could try to climb up instead…but in these heels? It was suicide!

“Fufufu!”

…screw it.

He opened up his window, only to meet a new pair of eyes.

Ladybug stared in surprise from her place at his windowsill, a certain box in hand.

“…hi?”

“Oh thank god!” He exclaimed. He took her by her shoulders, half leaning out and half pulling her in. “Alya’s insisting on taking pictures! Please tell me you have my Miraculous with you!”

“Actually, about that—”

“I don’t care! I’ll do anything! Just please—SAVE ME!”

Ladybug looked back behind her to a distant rooftop and the other allies she’d left behind.

The sound of a key jingling could be heard and Nino stared up at her, pleadingly.

Well, she could never resist the eyes…

By the time they’d gotten the door open, the room was empty.

Nino was gone.

_____________________

Six heroes stood assembled.

Ladybug.

Chat Noir.

Carapace.

Viperion.

King Monkey.

Pegasus.

Six heroes.

Five of whom were male.

And…still wearing some semblance of feminine maid-like outfits.

Ladybug wasn’t sure if she should be impressed or worried.

“What the hell?! I thought the Miraculous were supposed to change us into our hero suits?” Nino groused.

Contrary to his hopes and expectations, using the Miraculous had not transformed him into his normal Carapace look, but had rather simply given him a different outfit. The dress itself was green and had a turtle shell pattern, while the apron and waist belts were a brown color. The bowknot around his neck was a dark green and a brown to match the apron. He wore stockings. And to his very limited relief, his shoes were flats instead of heels.

“Well, at least this skirt is longer.” Pegasus said, now wearing a dark brown blouse and bicycle skirt. The skirt went to just above his ankles, for which he was grateful. But this seemed to be countered by the increase of height to his heels.

Plus no corset. The outfit was still fit tightly and not very comfortable, but at least he could breathe now.

“Though I believe we’re getting away from maid-wear now.” Chat said, conversationally.

Pegasus gave him a flat look. “I’m not complaining.”

If Chat had witnessed his earlier ensemble, surely he would understand.

King Monkey, for his part, seemed somewhat appeased with his Miraculous suit. It was a notably more Eastern style of dress, appearing more like robes worn by palace servants. He wore a light brown waistcoat with wide sleeves over a blouse and a wrap-around skirt. It looked heavy, but Kim seemed to have no trouble with it. Maybe it was made of a lighter material…?

And Viperion’s dress was different in style as well. Whereas his maid outfit as Luka had been more punk, this was more sleek. Wearing a green sleeveless dress and white smock, as well as what appeared to be a green corset. The dress had a slit at the sides, giving more maneuverability for his legs…as well as more show, given the appearance of a garter belt and stockings. His shoes were high heeled but including a beautiful snake design that wrapped around his ankles. To finish it off, rather than remain bare, his arms were covered in what appeared to be loose green sleeves that started at his elbows and extended to his wrists.

…maybe a picture or two wouldn’t hurt? Or three? Because the amount of details on these outfits were amazing and she was just brimming with ideas now…

Ladybug broke out of her musings when someone tugged on her shoulder to get her attention.

It was Chat. Chat who, much like the other heroes, as dressed in a fantastical outfit. Though a maid outfit, it was definitely more cat-themed with a giant paw-like gloves covering his hands, a paw print on his apron, and bow and bell on his tail which rang as he shifted.

What material was that made of, anyway? She kind of wanted to give it a feel and see if she could find something to compare it to. Maybe a quick sketch?

Oh. Right.

Akuma.

Maybe if she was lucky, they could finish this quickly so she could rush back home and take notes while she still had the ideas bouncing in her brain.

…maybe someone would have gotten pictures by then…?

“Ladybug?” Chat whispered, snapping her back to reality.

“Yes?”

Chat frowned in concern. “Is the Guardian okay with this?”

Ladybug froze.

“PSST! Ladybug!” Came a voice from a nearby rooftop, drawing her attention.

“Master Fu?”

“Ladybug! Here’s the Miracle Box. Take as many allies as you can and resolve this as soon as possible!”

“Master? Are…you hiding in a box?”

“No questions! Just go!”

“…he’s fine.”

Chat seemed uncertain, but decided not to pry.

“Let’s just split up and find the akuma.” Ladybug said. “But don’t engage until we’re all together!”

With that, the six split into three groups, with Chat and Carapace going one way and King Monkey and Pegasus going another, leaving Ladybug and Viperion searching together with the former trying not to get caught stealing peeks at the latter.

“Is something wrong?” He asked with a smile.

…trying. The key word was trying not to get caught.

“No! Nothing!” She replied quickly. “I’m just…surprised that you can still move so quickly in those heels.”

“I’ve had practice.” He explained, still smiling. He even lifted one leg behind him, managing to stand perfectly balanced even on one leg in heels.

“I…see.”

Part of her wanted very much to laugh. It was the same part that had found this entire day ridiculous. The other part of her was her inner artist at work and really wanted to make a few sketches inspired from the presented outfits. Like Viperion’s sleeves…and those shoes with a snake coil wrapping around the ankle…

“Ladybug!”

Gaah! Focus!

She turned towards the shout to find King Monkey and Pegasus stumbling towards her.

Her fingers twitched. She ignored it.

“We found the akuma.” King Monkey reported. “She doesn’t seem to be doing anything. Just…kind or roaming around.”

“And laughing.” Pegasus added bitterly. “She appears to be doing a lot of that.”

“How’s THAT for ‘doll them up’?” Came a shout from street level. “HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, HUH?!”

As if on cue…

Ladybug and the others peeked over the edge of the roof.

“Has she displayed any other powers?” She asked.

“No.” Pegasus replied. “From what we could see, her power has already been activated to…obvious effect.” He hesitated, resolutely avoiding mentioning his new outfit or the indignity he’d already suffered. “She has only been laughing. And tripping the occasional person while searching for someone in particular—possibly the one responsible for her ire.”

Ladybug nodded. “At least she’s distracted and doesn’t know we’re here. We just need a plan of attack before we try to fight her.”

“No problem!” King Monkey said with a grin as he reached for his weapon. “We can just do a head on attack with our weapons and—”

They stared.

In place of his staff was a broom. A normal cleaning broom.

They sent cautious glances to each other before they checked their own inventory.

Said inventory consisted of a broom, a bucket, and a feather duster.

“I believe that constitutes as a problem.” Pegasus stated worriedly.

“That’s no fair!” King Monkey exclaimed. “Adrien was able to summon a machete!”

Ladybug blanched at that. “A what?!”

Pegasus pushed up his glasses. “I believe it’s a component of his…‘cosplay’?”

“Pfft!” Ladybug covered her mouth with her hand.

“Ladybug?”

“I-it’s nothing!” She replied hurriedly.

Viperion raised his eyebrow at her but didn’t comment.

King Monkey at least seemed to take it in stride.

“Now we just need a plan for attack!”

“With what?!” Pegasus questioned, waving the feather duster in frustration. “Our weapons don’t work!”

“More like our weapons aren’t actually weapons.” Viperion said, considering his bucket.

“I could smack her.” King Monkey offered, holding up his broom. “Maybe your feather duster has dust on it and could make her sneeze?”

Pegasus gave him a flat look.

“I think the broom is the best weapon we have right now.”

“Don’t knock a bucket!” King Monkey commanded, resolutely. “I got one stick on my head one time and it took hours to get it off! Buckets are evil, man!”

Pegasus sighed and rubbed his head. “It concerns me that you’re the second person I know whom that has happened to.”

Ladybug coughed, discretely trying to draw attention off that particular subject lest identities be at risk. “Anyway, I think I have a plan...”

______________________

To be honest, it wasn’t that difficult of an akuma. Especially not with six of them teaming up against it.

Akumaid truly see to have no ability other than the initial one of transforming what any male in Paris was wearing into something embarrassing...unless you were Adrien, apparently. Aside from that, she showed no other power—neither over the clothes themselves or the people wearing them. Well, she wasn’t controlling any of the victims or shrinking the clothing to choke them at any rate...which if you think about it, was rather lame for an akuma in the power department.

The only real disadvantage in battle came in the difficulty the boys had moving freely in their current outfits. And the afore noted lack of proper weaponry.

Their advantage of surprising was ruined by Chat’s bell ringing before they could ambush her, and both Carapace and Pegasus losing balance with their heels and falling over. King Monkey’s outfit, while longer, also meant more fabric to flap about and resist his movements regardless of how light it may have been, so he wasn’t able to get a hit in fast enough before the akuma turned on him and knocked him away.

Chat was able to get a hit in though.

With his…Kitty Wand…

“THIS IS MAGICAL PUNISHMENT!” He shouted as he smacked the akuma over the head.

“Chat. Chat no. Chat why?”

And Ladybug had hopelessly lost her composure by this point and was laughing. Just laughing. Laughing so hard she was crying actual tears as she smacked her own thigh in her struggle to breathe. Viperion was trying to help her stay standing, keeping an arm around her to support her as she half leaned and half chuckled tears into his chest.

“What’s going on? Does the akuma have some power over Ladybug, too?” King Monkey asked.

…

Viperion sighed.

“Sure. Something to that effect.”

Ladybug wheezed.

“LADYBUG!”

“Lu-haha-lucky haha-charm!”

It said something when her own Lucky Charm magicked up a paper bag. With Ladybug still victim to her fit of giggles, Viperion simply put the bag over her face and had her try to breathe.

“A paper bag doesn’t help with out of control laughing.” Pegasus noted as he forced himself to his feet.

“Do you want to try to figure out the Lucky Charm?” Viperion bit out in annoyance, Ladybug still shaking in his arms.

Pegasus coughed and backed away. “No, thank you.”

Ladybug let out another giggle.

“All right, enough! I’ll stop her!” Carapace shouted, reaching for his back. “With my…serving plate.”

His shield.

His precious shield was gone.

“…Carapace?” Ladybug asked.

The newly rendered Turtle Maid sighed and simply threw the plate as he had his shield, not expecting much.

…the plate slice flew through the air at a surprising speed, but missed the akuma entirely. Instead, it sailed past her, hitting a light post.

Ladybug had expected it to bounce, but instead there was a sound of shredding metal as the serving plate actually tore through the lamp post and into the concrete itself.

The lamp post, now detached, tilted and fell over—conveniently on top of the akuma before she had the time to realize what was happening and move out of the way.

SLAM!

It fell on top of her and she hit the ground.

“Huzzah?” Kim asked.

“Well…that’s one way to defeat an akuma.” Pegasus marveled.

“Great. Now can we fix this already?” Carapace asked impatiently. If they took too much longer, someone was bound to catch them.

That someone would probably be Alya.

And that was the last thing he wanted at this point.

“But I kind of wanted to make a sketch at least…” Ladybug muttered to herself, holding the paper bag Charm to her chest.

“LADYBUG!”

She waved her hands insistently. “I’m on it!”

But she could dream…

“MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”

It was with some disappointment that the Miraculous Cure wiped away the outfits of the other heroes, returning them to their original costumes.

“OH THANK GOD!”

“That was…horrible…”

“Corsets were invented as a torture method, I swear…”

“Shieldy!” Carapace exclaimed, hugging the shield in relief. “Never leave me again!”

“You okay now, Ladybug?” Chat asked her in worry.

“I’m fine.” She said, even though she wasn’t really. She felt like she’d missed a chance, even if it was for the greater good. But it would have been an abuse of her power to be taking pictures of the guys in that state and she already felt bad enough for breaking down laughing in the middle of the fight.

In that moment, however, the loveliness of ladybugs that made up the Cure returned from their task of restoring Paris to flow over Ladybug herself before vanishing, leaving her holding an envelope in their wake. Curious, she opened the envelope…

She gasped.

Inside were a multitude of photos of the other heroes. From different angles. In different positions. All of them in their new outfits.

Ladybug bit the inside of her cheek to keep from responding and drawing attention to herself.

…Thank you, Tikki.

Best. Kwami. Ever. “Ladybug…” Carapace said in growing wariness. “What is that?”

“Nothing!”

“Ladybug. That better not be what I think it is…”

She shoved the photos back in the envelope.

“It’s nothing at all!”

“Why don’t I believe you?”

Noticing the stand off, the others approached as well.

“It was just something I was missing, yeah.”

“Then let us see it.”

“Can’t.” She replied, clutching the envelope to her chest. “It’s…Ladybug stuff.”

“Hand it over. Right now!”

"NOOO! THESE ARE FOR THE FUTURE OF FASHIOOOON!”

“GIVE US THE PHOTOS!”

“Wait—did she get any of all of us in a group cosplay pic?”

“NOT NOW, CHAT!”

Unfortunately, that small distraction was all she needed to get away.

Viperion, the only one having been pretty nonchalant this whole time, simply watched her leave and the others shout after her.

“…isn’t she going to take our Miraculous back?”

_________________________

Angela sighed, already dreading what was to come.

It was a humiliating end to an already humiliating week as the former akuma victim had been forced to return to her job to go over the updates for the new Ladybug game with the rest of her team.

Said updates were apparently to include maid outfits for the female heroes thanks to one particular coworker who had decided to work on maid outfits for the female heroes instead of the level he was assigned. It had been part of the reason she had been angry enough to be akumatized.

The fact that he was insistent on shoving his maid fetish into the game for no good reason other than having them be eye candy was the other part.

The images in question that he insisted on bringing featured the three female super heroes of the city: Ladybug, Rena Rouge, and Queen Bee.

But not as anyone had ever seen them.

Instead of their usual hero suits, the three girls were portrayed in sultry, even provocative poses. And most notably, all three were wearing some mockery of a French Maid outfit…as what would be believed by Americans, no less.

They might as well have been the initial sketches of pinup posters.

“You can’t still be serious!”

“Hey, I’m not the one who got akumatized just because I was jealous that someone else had a good idea.” He said bitingly and giving her a pointed look, perhaps still a bit bitter of the aforementioned experience that her akumatization had caused.

“It’s not a good idea, John.” Angela countered. “There was no reason to have the girls be running in maid outfits.”

He shrugged. “We could just say an akuma did it. After all, we did just get an akuma who did exactly that.” He said, giving her another look.

She clenched her fists and was about to retort when their team lead entered the room.

The meeting commenced and she’d been forced to bite her tongue. Each of the team members went over their progress and updates for their contribution to the game. Level design. Enemies. Testing.

And then came his grand achievement. Instead of the level he was assigned, he gave scantily clad designs for three of the eight known heroes.

What effort.

“I was thinking we really need to include something to make our game stand out, so I made some extra skins for the heroes.” He bragged, sending her a smug look. “The appeal would sell plenty of copies.”

“Or the controversy.” Angela muttered back before turning to the team lead and hoping that the man leading their group had more empathy…or sense.

The team lead looked over the designs with an analyzing gaze. Tiffeny, despite the initial impression his name would give, was a rather buff man who took no shit. But was also a guy. Who liked guy things. But did those things include young women in maid costumes?

After a moment, Tiffeny dropped the pictures on the table and looked at John incredulously. “You know, if you were going to base skins off recent events, you could at least have been authentic.”

John stared. “What?”

“It was the guys who were affected by Akumaid. Not the girls. If we’re going to do maids, we need to keep it true to life, just like the rest of the designs we’ve included. We talked about this when we started this project.”

“But it’s what the audience wants!” John argued.

“Do you know who comprises the majority of our audience?” Tiffeny asked. “Girls. Girls, gay guys, and those who are exploring their interests. Guys in the outfits would sell leagues more than the girls.” He started ticking his fingers “It’s different. It’s original. And it’s based in actual events. People would love it.”

“But…they’ll love this!”

“Man, if people wanted to see sexy girls in skimpy clothing, they’d play literally any other game! Or watch porn.” Tiffeny explained. “But what game do you know of has had guys in maid outfits?”

“Well...”

“Exactly. We want to stand out. And we even have recent events as justification. So if you’re going to be wasting time you should be spending on level-making to put people in maid skins, then get those male heroes some maid costumes.”

“But that’s not fair!” John exclaimed.

Tiffeny paused at that. “Hmm…you’re right.”

With that, he turned to her. “You’re good at designing. Make some butler outfits for the girls. Something dashing to serve as a counter for the guys.”

Angela blinked in surprise for a moment before smiling.

“Sure thing!”

“You know…” one of the other workers noted. “While we’re on the subject, I WAS thinking of some medieval armor designs for the girls and princess dresses for the guys.”

“Hey yeah! Like a light green for Viperion!”

“Maybe teal might be better?”

“Ooo! How about…”

Soon enough, everyone seemed to be invested in the new plan.

Everyone that is, except John.

“Lovely!” Tiffeny said cheerfully. “Plan it out and bring the concepts to me later.”

With a new task in hand and John’s pouting to forever be a memory to hold onto, it seemed her day was looking up…

_________________________

“That was some akuma battle.” Marinette said as she slid into her seat next to Alya.

The reporter, however, only looked annoyed. “Ladybug had apparently called all the male heroes and I completely missed it!” She groaned and leaned back in her seat, bemoaning the lost opportunity.

If she’d hadn’t been so focused on tracking Nino for the purpose of collecting blackmail ensuring his safety, she would have been able to catch all of the male heroes in their maid outfits.

Marinette smiled. “You know…I may have a connection…”

Alya gasped.

“No.”

Marinette giggled and slid over her phone with a picture showing.

“NO WAY!” She cried out before staring up at Marinette in shock. “Girl, you have to send me these!”

“Wait—you have what now?” Nino had arrived, initially hopeful that he had avoided the worst of that day only to have those hopes immediately dashed upon arriving to see the two girls sharing what could only have been one thing…

“I have pictures of the heroes in their new outfits.” Marinette replied cheerfully as she swiped through her phone. “Oh look, Nino! You’re in here, too!”

“WHAT?! NO!” He shouted, rushing forward.

Marinette quickly grabbed back her phone and hid it in her pocket with an overly sweet and not at all innocent grin.

“Mari, come on, no! Don’t do this to me!” He begged.

“Don’t do this to ME!” Alya cut in. “You can’t just show me that and take it away! That’s just not fair!”

“Don’t worry.” Marinette assured them. “It’s going where all my blackmail material goes.”

“Wait what?”

“Since when do you have blackmail material?”

“Since somebody started a game of ‘let’s take pictures of Marinette while she’s asleep and post them online’.” Marinette replied dryly.

Nino groaned. “Come on! I said I was sorry!”

“And now I can be just as sorry.” She replied blithely.

Which was to say: not sorry at all.

“Come on! Alya made me do it!”

“It was just in fun! Marinette! Please!”

“Do you want me to beg? Cry? I’ll cry.”

“I’ll pay you! Pretty please! At least the heroes if nothing else!”

“Oh no you don’t!”

“My blog NEEDS this!”

Marinette smiled at the minor chaos she had caused as the normally happy couple bickered with each other.

Sweet sweet music.

“Hey, Marinette!”

And speaking of sweet…

She turned to look up at a certain blond-haired model as he arrived at his own desk. Though he seemed to be a bit distracted by the arguing couple.

“Hey, Adrien!” She greeted, for once with no stutter to speak of.

“Hey, um…are they okay?” He asked, gesturing to the two.

“Oh, they’re fine.” She said, waving them off. “Just…a bit excited over the recent akuma.”

At that, Adrien brightened. “Wasn’t it awesome?”

She nodded, trying to keep her laughter inside.

“You…ah…enjoyed yourself then?”

Adrien shrugged, looking a bit sheepish. “Well, it’s not often I get to dress up in a way that’s ‘silly’. Or in anything that isn’t promoting Father’s brand. And I’ve never gotten to cosplay. So it was…really fun.”

Oh. Ouch. Okay, that one kind of hurt. The poor Sunshine Child…

“You know…” Marinette said, leaning over her desk and smiling at him. “I’ve seen a bit of that one anime you mentioned.”

“Cells at Work?” He asked, brightening up.

She nodded. “Mmhmm. I could make you a jacket based off the lead Red Blood Cell. And if you like, I can keep it so you can wear it whenever we hang out.”

He gasped. “Really?”

“Sure! Maybe you can come over sometime so we can try a fitting. We could even play Mecha Strike.”

Adrien beamed. “That sounds great! Thanks, Marinette!”

She waved him off and went back to full sitting in her seat.

Alya and Nino both became distracted from their arguing by the miracle they had just witnessed.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng had just spoken to Adrien Agreste…and not a stutter to be heard!

“What the heck, girl?” Alya whispered, sliding into her seat beside her friend. “Since when could you do THAT and why haven’t you done it sooner? I could swear I saw hearts in his eyes!”

Marinette shrugged, grinning sheepishly. “After seeing Adrien Agreste in a maid dress, I kind of wondered why I was so scared of talking to him to begin with.”

Alya laughed. “Well, at least something good came out of this, then.”

“You know...more good WOULD come out of this if I had pics of those heroes..."

“Really, Alya?”

“You’re pretty much the only one who managed to get any shots of the male heroes!” Alya exclaimed. “Seriously, how?!”

Marinette giggled.

“Just lucky, I guess.”

________________________

OMAKE 1:

Knock! Knock!

“Felix?” His mother called on the other side of the locked and barricaded door. “Will you be coming out?”

“That depends. Do you have a camera?”

A pause. Which was all the answer he needed.

“Then no.”

OMAKE 2:

Fortunately, in the midst of their searching, the team had managed to find the akuma and her primary target, getting between the two.

“So what happened?” Ladybug asked him.

John gripped his skirt, nervously. “She’s my coworker in developing a new video game and she didn’t like my input.”

“What set her off?”

The guy rolled his eyes. “She’s one of those types who wants to take the fun out of video games.”

“What?” Ladybug blinked.

“Okay, so I wanted to put some maid costumes in the game! It was just for fun! Besides, it would have added a bit of pizazz! Something for the players to enjoy!”

“You could just try making a good game.” Pegasus pointed out. “If you have to rely on a cheap gimmick to get buyers, it may not be a good product.”

"I'm sorry, really! I mean, sure, I'm still going to put it in the game, because who wouldn't want hot maids, but still! That doesn't mean I deserve this!"

The akuma raised her fist and shouted at him. “THEY ARE HEROES, DAMMIT! THEY DESERVE BETTER THAN MAID SKINS JUST BECAUSE THEY’RE GIRLS!”

Ladybug blanched. “Wait…is the game about me?”

Pegasus coughed and looked away. “There have been…rumors, yes.”

Viperion tilted his head. “That seems like a double standard though…since we’re the ones in maid outfits...”

“Not the point, Viperion!”

Ladybug frowned.

“I don’t think I want to help now.”

“Ladybug!”

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rumblebumble22 · 3 years ago

Text

I want to be old, and I explain why

There are a lot of stereotypes about old people. Many of us think they are incompetent and unable to enjoy life, depressed and miserable. But is it true? I did a bit of research and realised that these people are one of the happiest and most fulfilled groups of the world population. It turned out that these people live a calm and joyful life. But why in our world is everyone so terrified of the prospect of becoming older? In my opinion, there are stereotypes which prevent us from seeing aging as it is — a natural process which no one of us can avoid.

Modern beauty industries sell us the idea that only youth is beautiful and only young people deserve love and care. On TV and on the Internet we see attractive models with thin waists, skinny belly and smooth skin. There is almost no representation of old people in the mass media, did you notice? There is only energy, health, and liveliness on the faces of teenagers and young adults. It seems like beauty industries associate these concepts only with youth.

Anti-age. Doesn’t this word sound weird to you? What do surgery clinics and cosmetics companies mean by this word, actually? Does they try to convince us that the laws of nature are wrong and we should turn time back? I think it is ridiculous. It’s like when I am 29, I suddenly wish to be a 12-year-old girl again. Why should I want it? Why anyone should want something like this?

But I can explain how it works. Beauty companies instill women with fear that nobody will love them if they become old. They told us that smooth skin is beautiful, whereas wrinkles and gray hair are ugly. I just wonder, does anybody really believe in that? Because seriously, these companies just make money this way. I searched how much surgery clinics earned on liposuction, botox and facelifting and goddamn, these numbers exploded my mind. Companies make money on women’s fears, and women obediently go under the surgeon’s knife or waste money on expensive and useless creams. Is it actually legal?

After all these horrific facts I found old people’s opinions, where they explain their perception of life. It turned out for me that actually the older we get, the happier we are. Aging has some unique benefits which are unavailable to you when you are young. For example, when you become old you really don’t care anymore what people think about you. You can say what you really think, wear weird clothes or sniff cocaine. It's up to you and your imagination. No one will condemn you as much as if you were young.

Besides, you can relax more. Nobody expects you to join the gym, become a parent or build a career. Why? Because probably you already do some of these things and if you didn’t, who cares now? You are too old to start this kind of serious project. No one can tell you what you should or shouldn’t do, because it’s just not appropriate to tell things like this to old people.

Also, with age time became shorter, so you begin to comprehend life as it is. Stupid problems and unimportant concerns doesn’t worry you anymore. Sunsets, conversations with friends, walks in the nature: all these things become more precious to you. You simply start to appreciate everything around you more and understand that life is a treasure.

Also, since with age you get more skills and understanding of life, you become wiser and calmer. Probably, you have more financial security and free time for hobbies and interests than you had when you were young. Thus, you become more happy and can live as you like.

I think we should give more attention to aging and get rid of our prejudices about old people. Firstly, the despair of aging is simply a lie, and secondly, it’s not fair in relation to old people. Old age might be happier than we actually think, and I am waiting with curiosity for the days when I become an elder.

#aging #aging process #habits #nutrition and aging #female #eldercare #old people #psychotherapy #psychology #opinion #self care #culture #reading

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sorry-i-ship-drarry · 4 years ago

Note

Your writing is so sweet!!! Made my day :) i’ve got prompts if you want some: tag me if you write them i’ld love to see

-hair dye and braids

-« they all think i’m someone i’m not and i feel like you’re the only one that sees me as i am »

Okay this is more of a headcanon (and i got a bit carried away) but: Harry’s love language is feeding people and act of services because that’s the only way he was deemed worthy when he was a child. / Draco’s is gift giving and words of affection because that’s what he got as a child. That makes them perfect for each other because what Harry missed the most during his childhood was material things and being told he was loved so getting gifts and being told he’s loved makes him so happy. Also i can just see him losing his mind after Draco tells him ‘bye i love you’ after being friends for like a day, in 8th year, or bought him expensive gifts. Draco missed acts of service more in his childhood because even though he was told he was loved and was spoiled rotten, his parents would never ever care for him like that. It would have been house elves and then he would have been expected to do everything on his own as soon as he could and had always been expected to care for himself. Like if he forgot a jacket and got cold, his parents would have told him to learn from it so he loses his mind when Harry casually packs an extra sweater for him. His parents would spoil him with expensive things but they would have never spend hours cooking a complicated cake just because he says he misses it but can’t find it in any store (which Harry does because Harry’s Harry) and would only have said to him he should get over it. What makes it even better if that they don’t realise how important the things that they do are for the other person because it’s not a big deal for them.

Firstly thank you so much for your compliment. I loved the idea so much that i poured out everything I could in this one prompt. Here's a little song I heard that fit perfectly well - say you won't let go by James Arthur. For you @iamactuallya-cat ( also I'm not sure what hair dye and braids meant , if it was a prompt I'm sorry, just tell me I'll do that too )

Habits of my heart

" I believe Someone somewhere is made just for you; Love is about finding the missing half, the one person who will complete you "

" and you actually believe that ?" Harry asked as he rowed the boat to the center of the lake.

" If we're going to put the flaws in the idea of love then the whole idea of being in love is flawed Harry but to answer your question yes I do " Draco smiled.

" And do you also believe in love at first sight ?" Harry asked passed Draco the sandwich he had packed for this.

" No, I don't think the man I will end up with will be the same man I fell in love with at first sight. You can have strong infatuation at first sight but love, no " Draco replied with a smile.

" me ? Love just happens. That's all I believe in. I don't believe that there's only person out there for you, I think love is about going with the flow, giving someone the whole of you and them doing the same for you" Harry replied. Harry actually did not know what he thought of love someday's. To him it felt like love was something to be lost one day, like everyone he had lost but then there was love like Ron and Hermione and Ron's family. Maybe love was after all Caring, he used to think.

" and what do you believe ?" Draco asked him.

Harry didn't realise when did malfoy one day turned into just Draco malfoy. When did Draco became someone he created space for at the table or when did he became someone who's anger bothered him very much or when did Draco's Inconsistent behaviour became a problem or when did he became someone he would save the last bite of pizza for or when did he became someone he couldn't study without , he didn't know . Or Maybe he knew it , Maybe it was one of those days when Harry and Draco with their friend's were just sitting and playing games or maybe it was after that one time they celebrated their tied match of quidditch or maybe it was during one of those Muggle studies lessons or maybe it was during one of the hangouts in the school garden or maybe it was after that one time Draco had absent Mindedly said " I'm gonna go now. Bye . Love you ". Whenever it was Harry decided Draco bothered him very much and he wanted to be bothered very much. His appreciation about Harry, his words of encouragements, his support after the prophet wrote something shitty about him or his little scoldings to harry after he got into a fight and his little I love you's In a friendly way made Harry's heart skip a beat and he loved it. He loved it whenever Draco told him that he's much more better than people say or that he deserves all the kindness in the world or that he deserved to be cared for, Harry loved It from the moment Harry and Draco became friend's. Harry adored Draco, the way Draco said that the best thing about Draco was his hair or the way Draco thinks that one of his hand was shorter than the other or how green colour suited him the best, and even if all of it was wrong Harry adored each and every bit of it. Harry never thought he could feel this way about Someone but when after school Harry and Draco remained in touch he knew it wasn't friendship he looked for with Draco, it was so much more. But when Harry had gone through so much he didn't wanted to waste even a single day wondering if Draco felt the same way or not, he asked him out as casually as possible and when Draco said yes, he planned the date just how he knew Draco would've liked it .

It was soon when they developed a habit of showing love in different ways. Harry understood that for Draco love meant showing him how much he loved him by taking them out on a beautiful date and telling him constantly he loved him very much. It was in kissing Harry on forehead whenever he woke up next to him. His love was in writing letter to harry during work . His love was in supporting Harry in his work but telling him how dangerous it is for both of them. His love was in proposing Harry with the most magnificent speech and ring. His love was in making love with Harry and not just casual sex. His love was in dressing up nice for Harry's parties. His love was in words and whispers . That was his love for Harry and harry thought he loved it more than he even loved Draco. He never understood what love meant coming from his unrequited love experience but when he was with draco he understood love was something more than just Caring and it meant an incredible deal how nonchalantly Draco did all of this without having even the slightest idea how much it made Harry fall in love deeper everyday .

And Draco understood for Harry, love was packing an extra sweater for Draco whenever they went for a casual hangout , it was giving him his jacket whenever Draco got cold , it was putting a blanket over him when he fell asleep on the couch reading. To him love was feeding the kids at the orphanage because he knew what it felt like being an orphan . To him love was making a gift for Draco because he loved seeing the priceless smile on Draco's face . To him love was going to every bakery in the world to find that one recipe of the cake loved so much and staying up all night to make it for Draco after 97 fail attempts. To him love was listening to all of Draco's stories . To him love was Washing Draco when he got fractured . To him love was showing Draco off to the world that he was the love of his life. To him love was putting a warming spell on Draco's tea whenever he left for work early. To him love was putting up a nice bath for Draco after he had returned from a stressful day. To him love was folding the corner of the top of the magazine when he felt Draco would've loved that page. And it was his love in simplicity that made it much more meaningful because Harry did all of this out of habit but a habit for Draco. Draco loved how incredibly unaware Harry was of all these things and did this almost everyday. Draco had never known a reciprocated love , he thought affection could only be bought from expensive gifts or eating his favourite food made by the elves. He never knew that love could be more than just dealing with your mistake, or it could be more than just big houses or it could be much more than spoiling himself with shopping or gifts but with Harry he understood that you can learn from your mistakes, you don't have to punish yourself for your mistake you didn't intend to make, he understood with him that love could also be bought in preparing dinner together , he understood it could also be in small house's , he understood that love could also be in people. He understood that when you love, you really do love . He understood love was so much more than just 4 letters, it was the green eyes, the bronze skin ,it was the beautiful laughter, it was the scar on his forehead, it was Harry. Love was Harry.

It drove both of them insane of how less it mattered them both of how they expressed their love but that was the thing about their love . They loved each other so deeply in an unknowing way that nobody could understand. And all of this made them so perfect for each other. Their love wasn't out of a fairy tale but their love was like a story that people would pass on as a beautiful significance of love , a personal story grandparents would share with their grandchildren when asked what love is and the answer would be " love is what they had "

They all said you can't love him or you're not good for each other or that you don't belong together but after being together for 29 years Harry still feels the same way he did when he was 18. Somedays he feel like he's still stuck in time and time never really moved on but it's been long, long time after that first date but even after all these years Harry still dreams of waking up next to Draco.

This happened during one of their evening tea time when they had to babysit for their grandchildren . Harry was just listening to music and Draco was simply reading out to Rosslyn when she asked " how did you know you were the one for each other ?"

Harry and Draco turned to each other smiling.

" I knew it when he saved me on the night of the war. Because despite being enemies for the longest time he still saved me. And when I knew I just knew he was the only one I wanted to grow old with " Draco told Rosslyn with a charming smile.

" they all thought of me as someone I'm not but Draco was the only one who saw me for me and that's when I knew it. I knew it then that he was the only one for me " Harry smiled looking at Draco instead of Rosslyn.

" you guys are still so in love. I want your kind of love " she sighed. Harry took her in his lap and said " you know Rosslyn I believe Someone somewhere is made just for you; Love is about finding the missing half, the one person who will complete you and when you find them, you know it " Harry kissed her cheek softly.

" really ?" She asked curiously.

" yeah " Harry smiled at her and then vaguely looked at Draco who was affectionately looking at them . And to him Draco still looked the man he fell in love with when he was 18 and will be the man he would be in love with when he's 80 because that's his love and this was their love story.

I will cry if this doesn't get notes tbh

Side prompts- request open -

hair dye and braids

Day 6- pinned

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