#They have the only braincell in all of India

[luxshine]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: RRR (2022) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Alluri Sitarama Raju/Komaram Bheem Characters: Alluri Sitarama Raju, Komaram Bheem, Sita (RRR 2022), Jenny (RRR 2022) Additional Tags: Dragons, Shifters, Dragon Borns, Ram is a fire dragon, Bheem is oblivious, Angst, canon complaint, Misunderstandings, Secret Identities Series: Part 7 of DRRRagon!Verse Summary:

Ram discovers the true secret that Akthar... no, Bheem was keeping.

Bheem is shocked to realize that Ram was working for the British all along.

Neither is in the right space of mind to figure that there must be something more that they're not seeing.

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

south africa but i've never been there also i'm drinking

HELLO MAGGOTS this is the good omens mascot here hello hello. my psychiatrist just spent today telling me how I won't be able to be out in college when it starts in May and I'll be misgendered etc etc it's all a good time. So my solution:

My darling cousin @imchronicallyonlinesowhat (the one who thought Sir Terry Pratchett looked like Sudha Murthy, was a kindly old woman and was married to Neil Gaiman because their book cover fonts were similar, OG maggots know the PAIN) who lives in South Africa asked me to make a South Africa post. FYI, she's moving to Australia for college, so you can be assured I shared my Australia posts with her she is SO prepared she won't say marmite instead of vegemite and she knows the Wibbles are inherently sexual. SOUTH AFRICA (I've only had a teeny weeny bit of cheap ass wine so far):

There a lot of white people there it's ineffable. There are enough of them there that my cousin regularly talks about not ever marrying someone who doesn't have some masala.

Afrikaans is a gorgeous language. I thought my cousin was showing me her Afrikaans notes once. She wasn't. It was her English notes, she just has the most illegible yet neat handwriting in the world.

They don't say yo but they say YOH and it sounds very much like a bass drum.

People at my cousin's school pump their hands in the air while saying jesus-jesus.

There's a trio of white boys that rule the school kind of like a genderswapped mean girls. They all look the same haircut-wise, they're Catholic and they're called the Triumvirate.

I'm realising here that my knowledge of South Africa is limited to cuzzy's school. But the wine is shit and I promised my blood-relative so I am continuing.

The books are fucking expensive and so everyone has to pirate shit. This sounds like the US.

Everyone is TALL. Like VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY TALL. The standard of height is insanely different from India. TALL.

If you don't have a last name you're going to get into legal trouble.

The no hat no play rule applies here as well as Australia apparently.

The wine cost like 2.5 dollars in USD if my conversion rates are correct, it smells like battery acid and tastes of rotted grapes. Nothing to do with South Africa, it's just that I cannot remember a single other thing about South Africa other than it's a country in Africa that's presumably in the South.

My braincells are already frying. For my cousin's sake, I'm going to compile all my Australia posts here so that she knows what to expect! Australian maggots your continent is about to be graced with the Good Omens Mascot bloodline. Notably the one with the Sudha Murthy fuck up so that's doubly fun. @howmanyholesinswisscheese, @im-a-sentient-magic-carpet, @madfangirlontheloose @obsessed-sketches @drconstellation and any other Aussie maggots be prepared and welcome her.

Toot Toot Chugga Chugga by the Wiggles is an Ineffable Husbands Song

Deaths in Australia in 2015, an ask

VEGEMITE IS NOT MARMITE, another passionate ask

Pt I Australia but I've never been there

Pt II Australia but I've never been there

Oh I hate cheap wine. @imchronicallyonlinesowhat I hope you appreciate this, blood of mine. I'm such a great cousin.

[bellessimaa]

No but hear me out, Kanthony in India could be quite the story.

Anthony Bridgerton in a kurta! Him seeing Kate in a saree or lehenga because lets face it, the man will lose whatever braincells he had left and simply disintegrate.

The only problem with the writers trying to send Kanthony away to India is the timing of it. Edwina is already married and Kate is with child. After the trauma of Hyacinth’s birth, nothing on earth can convince me that Anthony Bridgerton would willingly let his wife take a hazardous six month journey back to India. Tha just doesn’t make sense.

Another thing that does not make sense woth the timeline is that, if Edwina made a match in India, it must have been while Kate and Anthony were on their honeymoon and I’m sorry but how on earth do you expect me to believe that Kate would miss her little sister’s wedding?

It is all tempting me to write again, something like a fix it where Kate and Anthony embark on a journey to India, because Edwina is supposed to get married, maybe to someone from the maharaja’s court because why not?

Kate leaves for India, but with her endearing, besotted husband who worships the grounds she walks on. They come to India and they do all the things that we are craving to see on screen (Anthony in Kurta? Another sneaky, playful haldi ceremony in the privacy of their rooms? Another mehendi ceremony because ofcourse Kate will have Anthony’s name sneakily written on her hands in hindi? Vexing one another? Potentially some old suitors of Kate, just to make Anthony sweat? Her taking him to all the spots of her childhood, just the way he did in Aubrey hall? Babymaking? Recieving the happy news firsthand?)

Anyway this list will never end. I dont know if we would get a spin off or not, but I might just get around to writing this.

[racingliners]

F1 Re-Watch 2013: Round 11 - Belgium

The section of the season watch through I've been most looking forward to, Seb's nine consecutive race wins. At the time as a returning fan it didn't really sink in how much of a big deal it was at the time... I was just happy to see Seb win 😅

I believe this is going to be a Sewis podium too so a very nice added bonus!

It feels wild that Alonso and Raikkonen were still genuine title contenders at this point... then brat Seb showed up and said fuck your title hopes

Listen when Seb wins 9 races in a row it's sexy and never been done before, when Verstappen does it I hate it. I know I'm very biased.

ANYWAY, starting grid: Lewis pole and Seb P2 🥰, Jenson P6!!!! Hell yeah!!!! ...Jev P18 and Dan P19 😭 starting grid whiplash returneth

ah so it was a wet/dry quali which explains stuff a bit

Tyres were mediums and hards for this race

[Formation Lap]: The traditional mad dash of mechanics to get back to the garages (let's go lesbians let's go!)

"There's a McLaren with some very hot rear brakes" don't (it's Jenson's car)

[Start/Lap 1]: Lewis hold the lead at the start!

JENSON'S UP TO 4TH!!! STOP THE COUNT!!!!!

nevermind SEB TAKES THE LEAD!!!!!!!!!

Jenson tries to go round the outside of Rosberg but it doesn't stick

holy shit what a sequence of corners

[Lap 2]: And Seb already has a 1.4 second lead, #JustSebThings

Alonso tried to get past Jenson but doesn't have the speed

and the Lotuses have done the old switcheroo

Top 5 is: Seb, Lewis, Rosberg, Jenson and Alonso

[Lap 3]: Seb's lead up to 2.9 seconds 🏃‍♂️💨

"Just save your tyres" Rocky already telling Seb to slow down a bit

[Lap 4]: Oh the sight of Jenson running a race in P4, I have missed it so 😭😭😭

...nvm Fernando just got past him

it was nice while it lasted

man the replay of the start, Jenson just shot off the line

also more than a few cars had lock ups into La Source

[Lap 5]: while the start was replaying Webber got past Jenson for 5th

and yet another overtake happing right before Les Combs

[Lap 6]: And Alonso is into P3, also getting past Rosberg into Les Combs

Ted thinking Red Bull might try the one stop, since it's only a couple of seconds faster than the two stop

(I legit find a lot of this stuff fascinating I could listen to a whole TED Talk about it)

[Lap 7]: No I'm still not used to hearing GP over a Force India Team Radio

and an update on Sewis watch: Seb's lead is now just over 4 seconds

eesh lots of break dust coming off Raikkonen's car

that does not spark joy, it brings nerves

[Lap 9]: Webber and Rosberg having fisticuffs over 4th

and Raikkonen with his potentially dodgy brakes is up into 8th

Frankly if I saw a car leaking break dust at every corner, I'd give it a black and orange flag. RIP to the FIA but I'm different (and have braincells)

Seb passing 2000 laps leading a race 🥹 that's my boy!!!!!

[Lap 10]: Massa and Hulkenberg make their first stops

Seb's lead over Lewis holding at 4 and a bit seconds

[Lap 11]: Jev also makes his first stop

Perez getting a pen for supposedly forcing Grosjean off the track... you know when Crofty and Brundle say it's bs that it's bs

[Lap 12]: anyway, Lewis makes his first stop for another set of mediums

replay of the Perez/Grosjean incident, it was not a pen, FIA been clowning since the dawn of time

[Lap 13]: Rosberg also makes his first stop

[Lap 14]: Alonso and Webber make their pit stops

damn I was too late to make my pit stop shuffle joke

*70's disco music plays over the tannoy*

Cut to a very nervous Anthony Hamilton at the back of the Merc garage

and Seb makes his first stop, he's on the mediums so will have to two stop

[Lap 15]: He comes out in P2

*deep breath* JENSON IS IN THE LEAD!!! STOP! THE! RACE!!!!

Making a mental note to watch some Jenson/Lewis/Seb podium races. The ultimate dream podium for annoying people (me).

And Seb takes the lead just before the bus stop chicane

[Lap 16]: "It's all just playing beautifully into the hands of Sebastian Vettel" Inject it into my veins!!!

And another overtake into Les Combs, with Rosberg passing Grosjean for 5th

Jenson is yet to stop, hence his high track placing, the 2013 McLaren was sadly not that good 😭

[Lap 17]: and a Seb fastest lap for F1 bingo

Raikkonen has stopped, unclear if his brakes are still leaking break dust

[Lap 18]: And Jenson finally makes his first stop, interestingly onto the hards

So he could one-stop, it would depend on tyre life as to whether or not he makes it work

good grief cars briefly going three wide before going into single file up Eau Rouge, will people please THINK OF MY NERVES

[Lap 19]: Top 5 is currently: Seb, Alonso, Lewis, Rosberg and Webber

Oh, Force India on Sauber fisticuffs

[Lap 20]: Seb sighting!!! Man I miss the old glossy RBR livery

He's also 7.8 seconds ahead of Alonso

"What have Ferrari or Mercedes got to throw at him? [Seb]" Nothing. Let him cook.

[Lap 21]: Oh god there was more tyre failure during the build up to the race apparently. Please no I'm not strong enough.

Rosberg and Webber continue to scrap over 4th

[Lap 22]: and just like that we're at half-race distance!

Replay of Jenson getting past Grosjean (who's yet to stop) for 6th

[Lap 23]: and as I type that in pits Grosjean 😅

[Lap 25]: lol I got too enthralled in just watching the cars go round, but right after Ted said he'd told by Lotus that Raikkonen's brakes were now fine, he retires with a brake failure. Talk about commentator's curse

[Lap 27]: And in comes Lewis for his second stop, he takes on the hard tyres so will be good to the end

[Lap 28]: A FOUR CAR FIGHT INTO THE BUS STOP??????

welp, and out goes Di Resta. Someone punted into him, absolutely no idea who

we went from midfield spice to midfield violence in 0.2 seconds.

[Lap 29]: Alonso makes his second stop under the yellow flag

Jenson's in 4th!!!

[Lap 30]: Webber makes his second stop

You know an incident was messy when it only comes up with the corner it happened on screen as opposed to the drivers in volved 😳

Also it is so wild hearing Andrea Stella over Fernando's team radio when he's McLaren Team Principle now, oh what is the passage of time

[Lap 31]: Anyhow, in comes Seb for his final stop, he had a big enough gap that he retained the lead

"If Button's tyres don't fall off the cliff, will he get McLaren's first podium of the year?" Being a Jenson fan from 2013 onwards was rough 😭

[Lap 32]: But he is in third for now, with Lewis being the first car behind

and cut to Jenson's on board!

and *this* is how you do a chrome silver livery, iconic af

"We think we can go back to Plan A?" so a one stop I'm guessing

[Lap 33]: But there's Lewis getting rather close in 4th, gap currently two and a half seconds

Current top 5 is: Seb, Fernando, Jenson, Lewis and Rosberg

[Lap 34]: and as I say that Webber is really close to the back of Rosberg

[Lap 35]: And there go McLaren's podium hopes, Jenson makes a second stop for a set of mediums, he comes out in 6th

Oh the replay of Jev's pass on Hulkenberg for 11th 👌

That's my two time FE champ 🥹

[Lap 36]: Webber chasing down Rosberg for 5th

[Lap 38]: and still chasing down, I got too enthralled by the cars going round to type again

[Lap 39]: ayyy Dan and Jev are up to 11th and 12th 🎉

in our various battles, Webber is stuck behind Rosberg, and while Jenson is catching he's not catching by enough

[Lap 40]: 🚨5 laps remaining klaxon!🚨

[Lap 41]: Seb update: he's still leading 🥰

and Dan gets past Perez for 10th

[Lap 42]: and one again Rocky tells Seb to slow down right after he set fastest lap 🤣

Brat Seb once again being a menace

[Lap 44]: Final lap!!

I keep on getting enthralled by the cars just going around the track they're all very pretty

Might also be because it's currently after quarter past 11 at night as I type this

"Bring it home, stay away from the kerbs" Rocky is physically on the pitwall but mentally hitting Seb on the head with a cardboard tube

[Finish]: and SEB WINS IN SPA!!!!!! 🥹

Alonso P2, Lewis P3, Rosberg P4, Webber P5, Jenson P6, Massa P7, Grosjean P8, Sutil P9 and Dan P10

ahhh Seb's 31st win, in which he matched Nigel Mansell on the all time win record 🥹😭 and once Fernando congratulated him he went over to say well done to Lewis, I'm fine 😭

Apart from a couple of flash points, the race didn't feel super eventful. Honestly it felt like I was watching a Free Practice session at times, it had those vibes 😅

Next race - Italy!

[rataltouille]

GEOMETRY OF THE HOLY MOON (1 AM): A SHORT STORY

GENRE: surrealism, literary fiction.

POV & TENSE: this little space is not enough for how wild the form is so i talk about this later!!

SETTING: a small desi village, 1924-25.

TONE: dreamy, unsettling, melancholic.

THEMES: faith vs reality, how people perceive others and how they perceive themselves, grief dealt the wrong way.

AESTHETICS: the splash of water on a quiet night, thick clouds obscuring the sky, rippling the moon’s reflection on the water. the intensity of a garden in spring, the emptiness of a dying town, the suffocation from being singled out. hands grazing lightly but never fully held. a lingering sadness behind your laugh. believing in things you shouldn't believe in. putting faith on a starless sky.

STAGE: completed first draft, 4085 words.

LOGLINE: a young boy, surrounded by loss, claims to talk to god. the story follows him and his conversations with this god, all while his village spies on him as he weaves his way around the two most crucial and lonely years of his life.

LITERAL LOGLINE: on today’s news let’s talk about a small backward town that hates sad little boys who worship god, even though the place is lowkey a cult!!

CHARACTERS:

THE SUMMER BOY: he’s around thirteen, and he’s very emotionally attached to his past. he lost his family at a young age to an unstable force, so he spends his time talking to himself. he’s a quiet, demure and sweet person, always willing to help others. he’s outwardly oblivious and sees only the good in people to a point where he doesn't understand when they’re trying to do him wrong. but! considering how the story [like a lot of my others] has themes of perception vs reality, it needs to be said that he isn't all that innocent. he’s rather impulsive and rash, never afraid of hurting himself [and thus accidentally harming others].

A GOD: is he real? do we even know if he’s an actual god? a very elusive figure despite having a lot of screentime. he’s a surprisingly humanised character and arguably the one with the most empathy. he has a soft spot for the boy and the two have a deep bond which is not common for a human and a god to have. you don’t get insight to what the other gods are like, but they’re implied to exist. this story has a very messy and hazy view towards religion and godhood and their nature towards humanity, and this vague figure, a dreamlike character, is proof enough of that.

THE VILLAGE: okay so in general these people suck. the village consists of, well, the village, but they’re very fluid in the way they appear in the story? as in for the most part they appear as a collective, a unit. one character, the summer boy’s “friend”, is somewhat separate considering he’s a pretty important character. it’s very hard describing this unit of a character but essentially they’re the main antagonistic force and they hate the protagonist for seemingly no reason.

WHAT GOES DOWN:

sometime around this time, the boy chances upon meeting his “god”, this being who lives up in the clouds and whom he talks with often, except you don't know if this god is real or not. that’s one of the recurring themes of this story: what’s real and what isn’t. it’s :) a fun time :) for sure :)

essentially Things Happen And It Only Gets Weirder. i cannot even try describing what happens because it’s all very spoilery but let’s just say that this is a very sad story but not even in a “this makes me cry” manner, but rather in a “this is so fucked up wtf why”. the prose of this is very, very hazy and thick, in a manner that’s both smooth and suffocating. there’s also a lot of moon and water imagery which we love. i love the atmosphere + the setting—colonial india— as it’s a subtle but key element to the plot.

FORM:

OKAY YES be prepared for the true colours of how unhinged i am. i apologize for the form brainrot.

POV: so in this story i really said “what if it had all three of the main povs... jk jk... unless 😳😳” and then proceeded to use all three povs. you’re probably wondering, how did i do that? WHY did i do that? and my answer to that is: 🙂

the first-person pov: the summer boy narrates in first person. his pov takes up about 40% of the story, and this is where we unlock family backstory + how he feels about the various forces playing into his life. he’s an extremely unreliable narrator and he knows it; his narration oscillates between very naive and very self-aware, and this effect is pretty disconcerting. the summer boy is kind of a walking contradiction and we love that conflict.

the second-person pov: a god narrates in second person. his pov takes around 20% of the story, and his scenes all involve his conversations with the boy. his pov is extremely detached, and suspends belief because he seems awfully made up. there’s an edge to the prose in his narration, where you know that something's off, but you can’t exactly pinpoint what.

the third-person pov: the villagers narrate, either as a collective, or as an individual figure, in third person. they take up the other 40% of the story, and there are so many different people and differing opinions with this, and every time we read a third person excerpt it’s a different person, and this is mostly used to add onto the different ways in which the boy is perceived. this is also where the structural part of the form gets really wacky.

STRUCTURE: if my story isn't told in vignettes is it my story though /j. gothm is told in vignettes, each one between 50 to 500 words. the first and second person bits are normal-ish vignettes, with straightforward narration. the third person vignettes, on the other hand, are super assorted. we have a lot of epistolaric sections— there’s a letter, a folk song [which was found around the summer boy], and most of the conversation is told as just plain dialogue without tags. there’s also a phone call transcript, and finally some normal chunks of prose. what am i doing wtf.

also to add onto this the story is told non-linearly. 😀 the only thing that keeps me from going insane is the fact that there are chronological tags before most vignettes [also the manner in which they're tagged differs from pov to pov. for example a few of the third person conversations are marked just as “sunday” or “thursday”, while the summer boy’s narration is marked with the full date and year]

in all this clownery i completely forgot to mention what the tense was [the way everything else was so complicated that i forgot tense was a thing lmao] and good news!! it’s the only sane thing about this story!! it’s told fully in present tense. thank everything.

AN EXCERPT:

okay i’m once again not sharing much because this will be submitted to litmags 🧞

[The boy is scrawny as always. He carries an air of diswant— even death had rejected him when the plague killed only his grandmother— but walks like he doesn’t notice. He smiles at them, jitters, and wipes his hand across his knees. Blood comes away in thin, translucent lines. He saves it on the kerchief he keeps tucked in his shirt, careful to dirty the cloth even more. The villagers scrunch their noses in disgust; who knew how old and rotten the kerchief was, or how long it had carried blood like the unwashed sword of a warrior?]

also by the way this excerpt is in square brackets because it is a third-person interjection in a vignette that is otherwise first-person [at this point...]

SPARE THOUGHTS:

this was inspired by a conversation i had with my grandfather, where he was telling me about how people used to sing songs to the skies, as a way of devotion to a specific god. he used the [loose translation of] the english word “yearning” to refer to the emotion the singers would invoke, and that sparked the concept of a disillusioned young boy who talks to the moon as a way to please the god he’s in love with. it’s a very softly disconcerting story and once again deals with the theme of “perception vs reality” which if you know me and my work, is the theme i’m forever obsessed with.

i really like how this turned out? the atmosphere is exactly how i wanted it to be, and there’s so much i have to add on as i edit and i’m really looking forward to that. this is also the only short story i’ve written where i knew which litmag i’d love for it to be published in? like i never write things with publishing in mind, but for some reason while writing this story it occurred to me that it would be a perfect fit for this specific magazine and i love that. anyway if you’ve made it through the post till here,,,, bless you and your braincells. and that’s all for today!!

[rein-ette]

If you still fancy a drabble prompt, I've always seen Canada and England having a very warm and comfortable relationship- if it interests you, maybe a prompt could be one going to the other for advice about something?

It does indeed interest me, thank you for the prompt! I've had a bunch of Mattie-Arthur scenarios swimming around in my mind for a long time, so I'm glad to have a chance to put one of them down on paper. As always, this was supposed to be a "drabble" but magically lengthened itself the more I thought about it -- I don't think drabbles are supposed to have historical notes.

"Come in."

Matthew shifted his pile of papers to his other arm and pushed through the door of Arthur's office. Inside, the fading afternoon light illuminated the rich mahogony floor and danced on the spines of the hundreds of books that lined each wall. Remembering the excitement he felt when he was first allowed to peruse these shelves, Matthew couldn't help but smile softly to himself.

Arthur himself sat at his desk, one ankle propped up on his knee as he stared idly out the window. Matthew could just barely see a white trim of bandages that peeked out from underneath his collar. That dimmed his smile. It had been more than two years now since the war had ended in Europe, but Arthur still looked as gaunt as he did during the days when engines still roared over London and — though Matthew had not thought it possible — even more exhausted. The worn smile Arthur offered him said as much, and Matthew pushed away a twinge of guilt.

Arthur jerked his chin at the seat in front of his desk and Matthew sat, stacking his documents in a neat pile in front of him. Instead of immediately going through them, however, he gazed worriedly at his old guardian.

"How are you feeling?"

Arthur sighed and shifted in his seat, dropping his leg and turning to face Matthew. He stared at the ancient, ink-stained wood of his desk for a while, and Matthew could almost see the warring emotions on Arthur's face as his desire to be honest fought with his lingering instinct to conceal and protect Matthew from the worries that plagued him. But because they were past such pretenses, he finally murmured, "Tired."

Matthew hummed sympathetically in response. There wasn't much he could do or say to change that, and he expected the reports he brought would only exhaust Arthur further. So he merely asked, "Are you remembering to apply the salve twice a day?"

Matthew flushed a little when Arthur rolled his eyes at him good-naturedly, realizing he was fussing like Arthur was his child, instead of the other way around. Thankfully, Arthur spared him further embarrasment by only answering a tad dryly that yes, he was actually capable of following simple instructions. Matthew mumbled out a reply before deciding that he might as well get on with what he was actually here for, knowing Arthur had never been one for small talk. Clearing his throat, he slid the top half of his stack of papers across the desk.

"They sent you a copy of Lord Mountbatten's plan, I think with annotations, though I haven't gone through the whole thing. And this part is the proposal for the national flag. Also," he pulled a cream letter from the pile and passed that over as well, "India asked that you be there personally, in August," he finished.

Arthur hummed and rifled through the papers. Matthew couldn't quite read his expression. After a few moments, he stacked them again and placed them to the side, with the letter on top. "Thanks. I'll go through them later."

Matthew nodded. "And here I just summarized the letters and stuff from the others. I've left them back in the box, in case you wanted to read them yourself. There's not too much going on really. That you don't already know."

"Yes. Thank you. This is a great help, Matthew, truly."

"You're welcome," Matthew murmured, and watched Arthur scan the notes before setting them aside as well. His eyes traced the shadows underneath the other nation's eyes, before dropping back down to the cotton bandages around his neck. He wondered if Arthur was sleeping at all.

"Is there anything else I can do? I'm heading back to Ottawa next week, but if you need me to take over some stuff for a bit, I can stay longer —"

"No, no, it's fine," Arthur cut him off. "Like I said, I'm just a little tired, that's all. But all this," he waved a hand at the documents , "isn't anything new."

Matthew frowned. "Isn't it?"

"Hmm?"

"I mean, I know the paperwork isn't new, but, these," he drew a breath, "reforms, and the war, of course. That's — I mean. No one's, you know, had to deal with that, before."

Arthur frowned, and traced a finger along the edge of his desk, before sighing, "No, I guess not." He turned again to look out the window behind him. After several long moments, he said, quietly, "But it's not entirely unexpected, either. I just—" The corner of his lips jerked down, and for a moment it seemed as if he was almost in pain. He drew in a breath, and said, "It's just. Difficult. That's all. To—but." He stopped again, grimaced, as if at his own ineloquence. Finally, he said, slowly, as carefully as if he was embroidering the words onto the air between them, "The world is changing. Let us not stand in the way, lest they make us out to be fools."

Watching him struggle, Matthew found himself at a loss as well. Never had he imagined that Arthur — sharp-tongued, quick-witted Arthur, who could neither be bullied nor silenced, who could quote from more books than Matthew had ever read — would be scrambling for words. But then, as he watched Arthur's shoulders curve in towards himself like Matthew had seen a thousand times before in another stubborn, sandy-haired nation who also seemed to have endless words but never quite the right ones, he knew what he needed to do.

Smiling again, Matthew stood, drawing on Arthur's arm so he would turn to face him and said, "I think you need a hug."

Unnecessarily Long Notes are Unnecessarily Long

I didn't state the specific setting of this scene, but the timing of the historical events mentioned means it has to have been sometime between June and August of 1947. Despite the fact that Mattie says "not much is going on", my lord, a lot was going on in 1947; hence why Artie is doing his best impression of the walking dead. Besides the Indian and Pakistan independence movement, officially achieved in August 1947 which is alluded to (Mountbatten, or 3 June Plan, was the precursor to the Indian Independence Act of 1947), Europe was also going through complete social upheaval. To mention just a couple highlights: Germany was in such ruin it was said to have returned to the Roman ages, Britain was rationing harder than ever despite the war having ended, and of course Mr. Truman and Mr. Stalin were gearing up for the Great Showdown. A quote I like which captures the feeling of the time is from H.G. Wells: "[where] other civilizations rolled and crumbled down, the European civilization was, as it were, blown up." [quoted by Tony Judt, Postwar]. Also directly concerning Arthur was the issue of Palestine, which as we all know was and is contentious, to say the very least.

Arthur's attitude to decolonisation is...complicated. Clearly I went with a softer view here, but certainly not all (or even many) British held the view in 1947 that the Empire should be decolonized at all. Hence Arthur during this time was probably a raging hypocrite and, if he wasn't already, at least 50% psychologically unstable. However, I allowed Arthur a little dignity here, in part because he's 2000 years old and as such should have a tiny more perspective than us humans, and also because the weakness of the Empire was much more evident to those in government and the army. Even if it wasn't popular opinion yet, anyone with half a braincell could see that every day Britian didn't decolonize was costing them more than they could afford. Additionally, Britain did decolonise much, much faster than all the other powers and in a relatively peaceful and orderly manner, though what ensued in the countries they left behind was neither. I should also add that Matthew is not the most objective of narrators either -- Canada, despite being a former colony, was still strongly Anglophilic, especially right after WWII. Still, I hope ya'll won't begrudge Arthur a hug.

[ghostfilesbish]

Hullo!

🐉Zodiac Sign?

🌌Chinese zodiac?

💅Do you wear makeup?

🔮Any advice you would have given 10 y/o you?

🌅Are you a morning or night person?

🎃Favourite holiday?

🎗Are you religious?

⏰what time is it currently for you?

🎭What would your answer be if ANYTHING could be a religion for 🎗?

HEY COLE<3

🐉Zodiac Sign?

Cancer✨

🌌Chinese zodiac?

I just found this out, so thank you for that. Tis' monkey. (idk what that means, I'll google it later)

💅Do you wear makeup?

No I don't, I have acne and even before that I never did until I was going for a family function, which included compact powder and lipstick (which I'd sneakily remove later coz I hate the way it feels)

🔮Any advice you would have given 10 y/o you?

Already answered in the previous ask❤

🌅Are you a morning or night person? DEFINITELY a night person, it's the only time I feel like I can breathe and not feel bad about it, and I get to relax alone and just exist in a thin space between fiction and reality, just me and my thoughts.

🎃Favourite holiday? Christmas and probably Pongal, also maybe Eid?

🎗Are you religious? This is a bit complicated. The definition for "religious" is believing in a certain religion and subscribing to its faith, which I don't, despite being born and raised Hindu. I believe in God and pray to them everyday, but I don't personally believe in religions because all the gods are the same for me and religion (for me personally) is something man-made to bring like-minded people together and intertwine them with faith and similar beliefs and virtues and fears, but over the years I kinda cannot help but feel negatively towards religion because of the news and India, so yes I beleive in God and pray to one, but I'm not religious.

⏰what time is it currently for you? Umm, it's exactlty 9:57pm.

🎭What would your answer be if ANYTHING could be a religion for 🎗? I didn't get this question sorry, I'm really losing braincells, but I'm guessing you're asking me what I would do if anything could be a religion? Well, if anything could be a religion, then ig as long as there anre't any riots and discrimination based on whatever the fuck they wanna do, I don't mind

Thanks for asking Cole, ly<3

[kunrengui]

UwU I'm all yours

I'M GOOD BUT EVEN EXHAUSTED CANNOT EXPLAIN HOW EXHAUSTED I AM!

I'M ALSO HAVING VACCINATIONS FOR A MONTH AFTER THE 16TH AND THE SCHOOL ARRANGED A PARTY ONLY FOR 11TH GRADERS ON THE 15TH'S EVENING!!!

How are you tho? and what have you been up to?

WOW THAT SOUNDS FUN MY SCHOOL IS VERY VERY SELFISH WHEN IT COMES TO MONEY SO NO PARTYS IT'S ALL ABOUT THAT SMEXY NEET AND JEE EXAMS EVEN THO IM NOT EVEN PLANNING ON DOING MEDICINE OR ENGINEERING-

I'm actually in Dallas TX rn and we're visiting a few friends of my dad here because they've been asking us to visit and this trip was 17+ years overdue. We won't be going to any public places because COVID so :/ but so far I'm having fun! and hopefully the rest of the trip will be just as entertaining!!

Online classes are rEALLY exhausting for me since I'm not in India right now and the time zone difference is horrid so I stay up till like 5 a.m. listening to classes with half a braincell. I'm like 90% sure I'm flunking my upcoming exams but atleast I have an excuse lmao

ALSO YAYYYYY YOU'RE GETTING VACCINNATED?? IS THAT WHAT YOU MEANT?? IF YES THEN 💃💃 BECAUSE NOW YOU'LL FEEL A LITTLE BRAVER WHEN IT COMES TO COVID AND SOMETIMES THAT PSYCHOLOGICAL CONFIDENCE IS ALL WE NEED TO BEAT COVID, IN THE EVENT THAT SOMEONE DOES GET IT.

[yourdarlingfaux]

lol more asks cuz why not

(u dont have to answer if u dont wanna but idk u did say multiple are okay)

Is there a ship you no longer ship and why?

rant about any ship you love but feel like you don't talk about enough

(ok this aren't listed question) is there any pairing you think is better as a friendship?

if you could rate all your hetalia ships from 1- how ever many you have( 1 being your favourite) what would that list look like?

if you could go to the wedding of one of your ships- which ship would it be? and why

which ship is the most chaotic?

what would your ships be like as parents?(you can do one ship if you want or mulitiple)

anddddddddddddd

give a description of your ship/ships in a nutshell, so like what is their dynamic basically like

oof sorry about so many askssss

l do be curious tho

Dude omg please don't be sorry look you are SPOILING ME with these thank you very much I crave attention lmao

⚜ Is there a ship I no longer ship? Why?

Hm.... there’s none that I can think of! So if I ever dropped shipping something it’s probably because I forgot! :p

I would be putting FrUK/USUK here but I was never really avid about them to be no longer shipped and I still like them on occasion

⚜ Rant about any ship I love but feel like you don't talk about enough

Spaus!!!!!! Spain and Austria!!!! I talk about Fraus but Spaus??? Nationverse Spaus??? They had the same thing going except.. a very different energy. These are two men who married while still trying to find where they fit in the world, they fought wars against each other, they were not perfect in any way, but they were husbands, and they always respected each other as such. Human AUs, same thing, they weren’t perfect, they had to grow so much to get to where they are, and often times they'd go DAYS without speaking to each other, but they'd still sit down and chat with their music, Spain on the guitar and Austria on the piano, sometimes they wouldn't play long, but just a few notes and strums exchanged served as a reminder that when they're ready to talk again, they're both ready for each other

Omg wait brain juice FLOWING Hungary x Belgium.... it’s always been hard for me to like them bc of the ship name (for some reason??) but I’ve been thinking about it and I just... wow...... Horse knight woman(? Woman debatable) and a woman who smells like chocolate :) mm.. that’s a vibe

Also I have very very VERY few Ideas on this but Belarus x Seychelles SLAPS in the most positive way 

⚜ Is there any pairing you think is better as a friendship?

Hmm, I’m gonna have to go with USA x N. Italy!! I love them together a lot but I have a hard time seeing them actually being in a romantic relationship :0

Also Estonia x Finland! I think they’re good friends! MAybe tried some intimate stuff in the past but Finland moved on from that and Estonia, in my hc, discovered he’s hetero/aro ace! Which in this case just means Ukraine pretty--

⚜ Rating all my favorite 2p/Hetalia ships from 1-5 because I have way too many ;,)

Hetalia ships in order of how much feeling I have for them when I look at the list

France x Austria

France x Russia

France x Turkey (gee haha I wonder who my favorite character is)

Cuba x Canada

Germany x England (more in human aus tho :) )

Honorable mention!: Romania x Prussia

Honorable mention #2!: Netherlands x Canada

Fav 2p ships in order of how often I think of/write for them

2p France x 2p Austria (wow! shocking!)

2p Sweden x 2p Finland

2p Germania x 2p Ancient Rome

2p Russia x 2p China

2p Germany x 2p Italy

Honorable mention #3!: 2p Egypt x 2p Turkey x 2p Greece [ETG trio]

⚜ If you could go to the wedding of one of your ships- which ship would it be? and why

2p Ancient Greece and 2p Ancient India! I’ve never written them ever and 2p Ancient India is barely a figment of a character but holy shit!!! They would have an amazing wedding!!! No expenses spared and absolutely extravagant!

Or 2pSufin! Cool wedding! Small and cozy because they both have sensory processing issues and it’d just be a very comfortable place to be! :)

⚜ Which ship/s are the most chaotic?

Romania x Prussia (if you can’t imagine why this would be.... I don’t know what to tell you)

Prussia x England (two tired overworked punks)

2p Greece x 2p Japan (half their dates prob consist of running from p!gs for being caught spray painting places that are queerphobic or xenophobic and the others are spent in libraries and museums)

2p Italy x 2p HRE (two kids who don’t know what emotional regulation is)

⚜ What would my ships be like as parents?

Ok! I’ll start out with the ones that I’ve already given children :)

2p Ancient Greece and 2p Ancient Rome (Famous AU): They..... they really tried... they tried so hard to work out their issues for the grandkids, but of course in the end that never works.. they raised the Italy brothers after an accident happened that left them as orphans. Eventually, Melita did leave Cassius, but she also left the grandkids to be looked after by him, and she continued to be absent until the kids were in there mid-20's. Cassius tried his best with what he had, but his best wasn't healthy and was too much self projection because he didn't want them to be hurt as he was, but it backfired, it backfired a lot.

2p Germania and 2p Ancient Rome (Famous AU): Cassius was there to help Berinhart help raise Roland the moment Roland was turned over to Ber's custody, like, that very night. Though Cassius wasn't always present because he was still "with Melita" at that time, but once he was responsible for his own grandchildren, that did start changing in "getting the kids together for socializing" so they could start seeing each other more. Berinhart is a good parent, well rounded and knows how to motivate positively for even the most mundane things

2p Sweden and 2p Finland (most AUs): They adopted two kids: Jack (2pSealand) and Kurt (2pLadonia). Tobbe’s not the best with getting along with children but he’ll be damned if he’s not going to try his best to be with Vaito to raise them with him. Tobbe makes the meals and teaches them to cook and how to clean up after themselves and Vaito teaches them how to clean up bigger messes so Tobbe doesn't have to look at them. Kurt and Jack are in good hands :)

2p France and 2p Austria (however this is only in my Genshin Impact/2ptalia crossover au): François isn’t really interested in a kid of his own and didn't know Roland "had" a kid until he went back to Roland's hometown with him, it's not that Roland didn't talk about Nikki, it's that he never mentioned that he was actually the one raising them until Roland left to travel the world, which left Nikki with Berinhart. François is glad he doesn't have a complete parental role with Nikki but he will fight tooth and nail if harm ever falls on them. And Roland loved taking care of Nikki because they're a founding just as he is but he just didn't feel like he was prepared or good enough to be a good parent for them.

⚜ A description of my ship/s in a nutshell / My ship dynamics in a nutshell

I think I have a wide range of ship dynamics ranging from:

Total of 1 braincell combined and they share it like the three fates in Disney's Hercules (Prussia x America namely)

Socially stunted smol and socially stunted tol

Classy gossip partners apparently

Homophobic bigot because of Unresolved Catholic Trauma and woman who thinks that All woman are bisexual (too niche? It's 2pRome x 2pAncient Greece in human AUs)

I have too many tbh, I don't prefer one type of ship over another so I really can't put all of them here-

Person who's experienced way too much trauma at a young age x person who had a lot of different trauma at a young age and are doing their best to help each other recover (2p France x 2p Austria)

[sauveteen]

Was there any inspiration behind writing stuck together? I love this series with all I've got I wouldn't mind you talking about how, where, why you wrote every word that you wrote I'm not even exaggerating i-

hi first of all thank you so much for this question we love it TONS!! okay i’m going to break it down now, so: (also wish i could put everything under a cut but my laptop’s dead s DEAL WITH A LONG ANSWER)

the why (the inspiration):

fair warning lmao this is going to get real emotional real quick so if you’re not the one who asked this then i’d probably just skip it wjsjjsn but basically stuck together (or at least part 1) was something i drew completely from my life. i don’t know if i can call it love because i was 16 and a stupid bitch (being a year older hasn’t changed that but uh) but i was completely head over heels for one of my closest friends, and i was stuck in this rut where we weren’t moving forward and we weren’t moving backwards and it was just.. maybe it was me. like shawn and nadine, we had the conversation where i told him pretty much one of my biggest insecurities (that i’m never going to find someone, blah blah) and he convinced me that i wasn’t as unlovable as i made myself out to be. in retrospect, maybe he doesn’t believe all that he said, maybe he only said because his friend was hurting and you do what you can to console people. but i led myself to believe that maybe he liked me too. maybe he did, who fucking knows? but i’ve literally always, always been one of those.. friendly girls? like girls you could only be best friends with, never date? for so fucking long i thought maybe something would happen, maybe he’d like me back. and then i was over at my best friend’s one day, lying next to her, jokingly peeking into her phone because that’s what best friends do, and i saw that she was texting him, and i realised that i was... alone, in this fantasy of mine. where only him and i existed, no one else, no other girls. and i know it’s unhealthy to compare yourself to others, especially your best friend, but my best friend is the prettiest fucking girl i know. the fact that i’d never amount up to her just... hit me like a ton of bricks. i started noticing how close those two were, how cute they looked together. realised that i never stood a fucking chance, because even if that guy and i shared the same braincell and had the same humour and choice in literally everything, when it comes down to us teenagers, looks fucking matter. i realised that despite knowing him the best and being the most obvious fucking choice i wasn’t even in the consideration, and i can’t blame him for that.

i wrote part 1 on a whim. i poured my feelings and sadness out into these two characters that basically paralleled my own life, because nadine told shawn to get with the hot girl, and i told my friend to try with my best friend. i never knew stuck together would go absolutely anywhere, but writing it was therapeutic in a way that i didn’t realise until long after.

okay. emo time over. that’s the inspiration, yeah. i tried not to get too heavy but KWJSSJNS (also just for the record, close guy is now of my best friends. they’re still together, and they’re the cutest couple around, and i wouldn’t have it any other way)

obviously @bluerroses had a major major involvement in the direction this story took, after i asked her if she’d like to cowrite the story with me once i was about to start part 2. this is what she had to say about the inspiration:

so when i was writing like flirting and banter, i took a lot of it from my own personal experience. like when we wrote the ft scene in part 2, a lot of that was taking from my own personal feelings, how i would flirt, and taking nadine’s characterization that you had already created and just melding the two together. and shawn, someone who always knows when to call her on her bullshit, would know that, of course, if she’s picking up his facetime call, she feels guilty for ignoring him, and he tries not to make her feel too bad by humoring her. the tone is light throughout the whole thing even though he’s worried and it’s really because he knows when to push her and when to not, you know?

here’s the how:

co writing with grace is easily the most fun i had, ever. discussing ideas and going back and forth (especially about whether we gave them a happy ending or not — grace had laid down a condition that she would only write it with me if i agreed to a happy ending. @ anon who wants an alternative sad ending, we’re looking at you) made me SO FUCKING EXCITED. we thought of all the cutest platonic shit we could and then just smashed them out into word docs. i would write my parts, grace would write hers, we’d. go over and edit each other’s stuff to make it all coherent and fine tuned. i think cowriting came really naturally to us because we were already really good friends before stuck together, and got even closer after

the where: india and the united states? lmao

time zones were tricky but we managed. especially because either one of us would wake up to the other having written some bomb shawnadine content so, you know

stuck together is so fucking close to my heart it’s unreal. thank you so much for this question anon, truly. @bluerroses and i appreciate it so much

[cahmilo]

Hello!!!!!!! just want to know, who/what is your inspiration to keep write fics? U are some of the only fic authors I know that consistently still write for carlos and camilo

love from india💚

the secret is to just keep thinking about carlos and camilo tbh 💗❣️

there are just times where im minding my own business and my brain goes "what if theres a modern au where camilo accidentally calls a wrong number thinking that its carlos but instead another voice answers"... and thats where the magic begins 🤓🤓🤓

and with how my mind works i think im still gonna keep writing abt the two of them until i lose all my braincells but for the meantime it goes BRRRR with so many ideas 🤓

oh and also a big help is to have friends that are just as fixated on ur interests so u can act crazy w them LMAOO