#also @ the person who was binge-reading this last week

[morganbritton132]

Hi, I binge read the entirety of your EMTTS and i absolutely love it! I wanted to thank you for your dedication and for how much you made me laugh. It's really great to find a saga that's funny and also gut-wrenching and written by someone who's a) very talented and b) clearly loves the characters and makes them very well rounded even in little snippets of life. So thank you!!

I also can't stop thinking about the initial "is Dustin a person or a dog" confusion and how much it reminds me of that episode of B99 where everyone's asking subtle questions to their coworker to understand if Kelly is his wife or dog, like "did you two go on any nice walks recently?" and i can see someone like David trying it and failing

Thank you so much for so many kind words and I’m glad that you’re enjoying the series because I am too! (Also, super impressed you got through it because it’s a lot!). I love that cold opening of Brooklyn 99 and it was the inspiration for that tag.

Also, I love the idea of the first-year teachers trying to figure out if Dustin is a person or a dog. That’s brilliant!

And what’s funny is that David’s not even wrong in this situation.

He is like 99% sure that Dustin is the name of Steve’s brother, but he’s been wrong about literally everything else, so this debate continues into its third week at their table in the teacher’s lounge.

David argues, “I’ve heard him refer to Dustin as a kid.”

“People call their dogs their fur babies all the time,” Marissa argues back. “He’s had that dog for a few years, right? Certainly not a baby anymore so, kid.”

It is not helped by the fact that none of them have any memory of ever hearing Steve address his service dog by name. They’ve heard him call him ‘buddy.’ They’ve heard him say ‘c’mon, pal.’ There was even an unenthused ‘Ozz-some’ last week when Ozzy alerted Steve to an impending seizure during his lunch break.

Have any of them thought of looking at the dog’s collar? No.

They haven’t even considered asking a student.

They are in the middle of this debate when Steve comes into the teacher’s lounge to refill his coffee mug for the third time that day. If he notices that the room goes quiet every time he walks in, he doesn’t make any indication of it when he smiles tiredly, “Hey, guys.”

They murmur their hellos and give each other significant looks, daring the others to ask the important questions. No one asks. No one actually says anything until Steve yawns.

“Long night?”

“Yeah, definitely. Dustin had me up ‘til two in the morning,” Steve yawns again. He doesn’t notice how everybody perks up at that. “Poor guy gets so anxious this time of year.”

“Oh, really?” Marissa asks, giving David a look that says ‘see, dog.’. “Because of the homecoming fireworks?”

Steve hums in agreement and shakes his head like he sometimes does when he’s shaking a memory loose. He’s speaking more to himself when he adds, “I think I’m going to take him to the park after work. Get some fresh air, some exercise. He’s been cooped up for too long.”

“Anyways,” Steve says with a smile, tipping his coffee mug to them. “Gotta get back to grading papers.”  

[auroreliis]

Batfam would have to do research on my special interests if they want to win me over fast but also the thought of super serious Bruce and Damian watching/reading jojos bizarre adventure is really funny to me

Absolutely they would. For you, they would binge every show, play every game and read every paragraph of a book just to have something in common with you. They would all do it for different reasons, but in the end, you would have to listen to them outnerd you.

Bruce's regard for your interests is wholesome. He genuinely wants to know what makes you happy, what you do in your free time, what you could talk about for hours. In order to be able to listen to you talk for hours, he surrounds himself with your interests. You like this artist? He buys a few of their most popular albums. This game is entertaining to you? He either tries it out or watches you play it. There's this film you're excited about? He watches it with you.

Although most of your interests are different, he does actually find himself enjoying anything you enjoy. Perhaps it reminds him of you.

Dick has this one fear. He believes that no matter how persistent he is, if you aren't reciprocating his clinginess, the two of you will grow apart eventually, so he never leaves you alone, even when you beg him to. It isn't really a secret, as he makes it quite obvious, but he hopes you will one day embrace him as he embraces you. You probably get sick of him and tell him how boring he is, which shatters his heart completely.

Now he has to figure out a way to spend time with you, but he needs to make sure you are also enjoying his company, lest you hurt him with your cruelty once more, so he researches every last fact about your interests, be it an activity, a game, a book, a person, he knows everything about it. Dick doesn't want to make it obvious that he only found out this information the night prior, so he cautiously needs to start a conversation.

He most likely waits until you are occupied with your interest before walking up to you, "Hey, is that _____? Wow, I used to be obsessed with it as a kid, I'm suprised you even know it, it isn't that popular and it's quite old." He pats your head and sits down next to you, grinning as you start rambling about it to him. You are actually talking to him. It worked.

Jason is careful when sharing his interests with you. He needs to preserve his reputation as your cool older brother and usually people don't share his interests, so when he finds you reading a classic book, he seats himself nearby, waiting for you to finish reading. Once you're done, he makes sure you enjoyed the book before fanboying about it. You immediately notice how much of a nerd he is. He also recommends similar books or ones he thinks you would enjoy as well. In the end he pulls you into so many fandoms that you stop listening when he recommends books. You've already got like 40 more to read.

Tim does not have this problem. The moment he knew you existed, he educated himself and has kept up with your interests ever since. "Just in case", or ,"Just because", he said, typing a summary of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. "I might as well", he takes notes while binging One Piece. This guy is clinically insane. Fortunately for him, he can now start conversations with you very easily, since he knows everything about your interests (and everything else about you).

Side note: If you refuse to spend time with him even after he did all that for you, the following outcomes are possible:

Either you pity him and spend time with him or Dick tries and fails to guilt trip you, only to end up forcing you to spend time with poor Tim who was awake for a whole week just to impress you (Tim frantically nods along with anything Dick says).

Damian takes great pride in having things in common with you, so as soon as he notices you being fond of something, he surrounds himself with it. You have a favourite colour? He creates a few painting with specifically that colour. You like a certain animal? He will try to adopt one. Damian would, of course, never admit it to you, but he desperately wants you to notice that you two have similar interests (As in, you have an interest and he pretends to also like it just so you maybe talk to him).

If you don't talk to him, he will become more aggressive with his attempts of having you notice him, perhaps randomly coming into your room to paint, claiming that the lighting there is better. Or he asks Bruce to adopt a certain animal during dinner. His attempts are obvious to you, but he doesn't know that.

Cassandra wouldn't really need to share interests with you. She's always close to you anyway. While she does speak to you every now and then, she is perfectly comfortable with sitting in your proximity in silence. However, if you ever asked her to, she would research anything you need her to in order to rant or ramble to her. As long as she has her eyes on you, anything is fine.

Stephanie immediately goes to Tim for help, knowing that he went insane and made a bunch of summaries and notes. First, she makes fun of him, then she apologises, because he threatened to take the notes away, she then complains about how much there is to read before finishing the essays Tim wrote, giving herself about a week. Steph then talks to you as if she didn't go through all that trouble just to have a topic to talk to you about.

Dick told Barbara all about his shenanigans. She even helped him figure out what you're interested in, even researching about it herself. She isn't as intrusive as the others, instead waiting until the moment is right, not wanting to scare you away or overwhelm you. Perhaps if you're alone, she'll come up to you and start with small talk, only really mentioning your special interest if it's involved somehow. Overall, she is the least feral of the bunch (in this situation, at least).

[junnieverse]

LOVE TROPES WITH ➳ ZEROBASEONE

➙ what love trope you are with zb1

pairing: zb1 x gn!reader

genre: fluff

warning: lowercase intended, not proofread, may have gotten carried away with a few of these (I'm sorry), yujin's trope with the reader is PLATONIC!!

a/n: if you guys would also like me to make one of these a full oneshot, please don't be scared to send in an ask!

🖇️ — 성한빈 ; SUNG HANBIN !

↳ love at first sight

making your third trip of the week to your favourite cafe, you sit down nearest the window quietly admiring your barista crush as he smiled at a customer making his drink

sung hanbin had been your crush ever since you moved to this city and his family's cafe being the closest one to your school, you had frequently visited it to study or grab a drink before a lecture

he was absolutely perfect to you. he was sweet, funny and had the prettiest smile

"Here's your order (y/n), good luck with your studying," hanbin says placing down your favourite drink and dessert which had been your go to order

"Hey Hanbin, would you like to go see a movie with me sometime?" you courageously ask as your heart beat quickens in anticipation

showing you his lovely smile, he looks down with a blush before nodding, "Sure, I would love that."

🖇️ — 김지웅 ; KIM JIWOONG !

↳ roommates to lovers

moving to a new city for work was a whole hassle but luckily you were able to find a great place to rent out

since you couldn't afford to live alone just yet, you had settled on finding a space with a roommate and that's how you met kim jiwoong

you had both agreed to keep your distance and 'live separately' but after a night in, downing ice cream and crying over your stupid ex who just broke your heart, the last person you expected to comfort you was jiwoong

ever since that day, you'd both grown even closer, from mornings making breakfast while dancing to songs blasting through the speakers to late night weekends where you both cuddled up and binged your favourite kdramas and movies

over that time, you realised that you were starting to see jiwoong as more than just a roommate and friend of yours

mustering up the courage, you finally let your feelings known to him while you both were watching a movie and before you could even comprehend what you'd just done, you felt his lips on yours

🖇️ — 章昊 ; ZHANG HAO !

↳ tutor x student

your grades had been plummeting as of recently and you knew you had to get a tutor before you could potentially lose your scholarship

it had been a few weeks now of being tutored by hao after your professor recommended him and you could already see your results getting better all thanks to his help

over the time of him helping you, you had both became good friends who would often hang out even out of your tutoring sessions

despite having bloomed a wonderful friendship, you ended up falling for him too, who wouldn't though, hao was pretty much everyone on campus' dream boyfriend

"Staring isn't very nice y'know, but because you're cute I don't mind." hao says lifting his head up pushing up the glasses on the bridge of his nose

clearing your throat awkwardly you look down in embarrassment, "I-I was not staring, I just thought something was on your face," you excuse going back to reading the notes in your textbook

"So this new restaurant just opened up a couple minutes from here, wanna check it out together?" he brightly asks diverting his attention away from the book he was reading.

"Oh sure, I can invite-" you started off by saying before you had been abruptly cut off

"I was thinking maybe just the two of us... a date if you'd like?" he shyly admits scratching the back of his neck

🖇️ — 석우현 ; SEOK MATTHEW !

↳ best friend's brother

yes you absolutely loved being with your best friend and going over to her house, but oh did you also love seeing her brother there too

what had started off as a you waking up to find your head laid on matthew's shoulder after falling asleep on him the night before watching movies with him and his sister soon turned into a huge crush

everytime you'd go over to see your best friend, matthew was always so sweet to you, making conversation and offering to make you and his sister food or drinks and those little gestures made your heart skip a beat

your best friend didn't know about this crush you had on her brother and quite frankly, you didn't know how she would handle the news either. to be fair it's not easy having to imagine your best friend cuddled up with your brother and making googly heart eyes at him

but ofcourse she was your best friend for a reason, she knew when something was bothering you and you knew you had to come clean

"Wait, you have a crush on my brother?!" she accidentally yells out loud standing up in shock as a second gasp was heard from the door

there matthew was red faced in embarrassment for not only hearing the person he likes, likes them back but also because he felt bad for overhearing this private conversation

you felt like you could dig up a hole and bury yourself in it, but the universe works in mysterious ways, because in the end you got to be with the boy of your dreams

🖇️ — 김태래 ; KIM TAERAE !

↳ fake relationship

a small situation where you wanted all your friends to stop bugging you about being single had someone turned into this huge one where you were now somehow in a fake relationship with your friend taerae

you didn't want to involve him and he didn't want to be involved either but you had panicked after lying to your friends about having a boyfriend and taerae somehow managed to be around at the time and you pointed to him

being the good friend that he was, taerae did agree to help you, so long you gave him the other ticket to the concert you both wanted to go to in exchange

you would both walk hand in hand and show public displays of affection and everyone believed you both, but at some point it all felt like it was becoming too real and you were actually falling for him

during the course of this fake relationship you got to see so many sides of taerae you never got to before and it all brought butterflies to your stomach

it was the night of the concert and taerae came over to pick you up as you both headed there together, the music and performances were all so amazing and you were happy to be able to share these memories with your 'boyfriend'

during an interval, the performer announced a crowd kiss cam and deep down you were praying it wouldn't land on you and yet somehow in a crowd of thousands, you and taerae landed on the big screen

you hadn't kissed taerae ever despite this fake relationship just out of respect for him but for once you wanted to be selfish and follow your heart

you suddenly held onto his shirt pulling him closer and kissed him and never in your wildest dreams did you expect him to kiss you back as the crowd cheered

🖇️ — 沈泉锐 ; RICKY SHEN !

↳ holiday romance

vacation time was definitely your favourite time of the year, you could relax, unwind and discover new places

and during your holiday trip, you ended up meeting ricky shen and it all felt like a summer dream to you

you had been out shopping and ricky had mistakenly bumped into you making you fall across the street breaking your glasses which happened to fall too

"Oh no, my glasses!" you yell as your voice cracks looking at the broken pair of glasses

after profusely apogising multiple times, having been too focused on your glasses you finally look up at the culprit and your eyes immediately widen stunned at his beauty

you're soon pulled out of your thoughts as ricky waves his hand in your face "Hello? I was asking if I could pay you back for the damages. I feel really bad."

no matter how much you refused, ricky insisted on paying you back and you soon gave in giving him your number

"Hey, it's Ricky, I was just calling to ask when we could meet up to replace your glasses? And maybe I could take you out on a date to make up for it too."

let's just say your date was nothing less than being perfect, he was a gentleman and your beach picnic date watching the sunset was all you could think about

🖇️ — 김규빈 ; KIM GYUVIN !

↳ best friends to lovers

you and gyuvin had been friends for as long as you can remember, both your mom's even had pictures of you running around hand in hand wearing diapers sort of long

you knew everything about him and he knew everything about you... well he didn't know about your insanely huge crush you had developed on him

it all started after you asked out your old crush and gyuvin went out his way to buy you gifts and food to cheer you up and him comforting you that way pulled at your heart strings... he no longer was just a best friend in your eyes, you wanted more

"BRO GUESS WHAT?! I HAVE A DATE THIS WEEKEND!!" gyuvin excitedly yells bursting into your room as he laid on your bed next to you

you immediately sit up upon hearing the news and your heart drops, "W-WHAT?! Oh wow, that's amazing Gyuvin!" you feign excitement trying not to break down.

your friends had been encouraging you to confess to him for the longest time but you were so afraid of ruining the lifetime friendship you'd both built

on the day of his date, you rushed over to his house as he was about to leave stopping him in his tracks

"Oh hey (y/n), here to wish me luck on my date?" gyuvin playfully mentions as he smiles but it quickly drops as he notices your sad expression

"I know I should've done this earlier but I couldn't bring myself to do it. My feelings are all over the place and everytime I think about you going on this date I feel sick-" you ramble as gyuvin tells you to slow down confused at your sudden words

"I like you okay? And I have for years now but I was afraid of losing you if I admitted this but just reject me now and I'll get over it," you say with a heavy heart, not hearing him say anything you look up to him to find him smiling ear to ear

"I like you too dummy."

🖇️ — 박건욱 ; PARK GUNWOOK !

↳ academic rivals to lovers

"1st place once again, Park Gunwook." you whispered reading the list of top learners for the semester as you'd placed in a close second

it was pretty infuriating having to constantly compete with gunwook, it was like a game of ping pong where the first and second place spots would bounce back and forth between you both

for as long as you could remember, it had always been a competition, it was just unfortunate that the person you were competing with was extremely attractive and kind, he made it hard to not like him

"Huh- guess you're not 1st this time, better luck next time." gunwook says appearing next to you as he looked at the list

"Wait! Let's have a bet. If I place in 1st for our next test, you have to... carry my school bag around everyday for the next month!" you offer pridefully as gunwook raises his eyebrow

"Okay then. But if I get 1st place, you have to go out on a date with me." he says leaning in closer to you as he bent down to whisper the last part before he walked away leaving you too stunned to speak

(a/n: 'the woman was too stunned to speak'... I'm sorry I just had to, you would too-)

🖇️ — 한유진 ; HAN YUJIN !

↳ tom and jerry

yujin, despite being your lovely friend, was as you enjoyed to call him "an annoying fly around you"

you both were flies to each other if anyone had to see it, constantly teasing and making fun of each other

his love language was being the annoying friend and he lived for making fun of you

he wouldn't admit it but you know he has a soft spot for you, no matter how much he annoys you, you're his best friend (don't tell gyuvin though)

"Would you love me as a worm?" you ask yujin shortly taking a break as you studied together

"That's if you'd even make it out alive, I might accidentally step on you." he answers cheekily as he ruffled your hair

no matter how much of a 'headache' he was, you still kept him around because he was funny and that was good enough /j

[meowufff]

This is my first actual post on Tumblr ever so pls bear with me. Also, English is not my first language so pls excuse any mistakes I make :)

So, this whole thing here started just as a joke bc I was curious if anyone else was feeling constantly tired all day no matter how long I sleep. But it all somehow escalated a bit and I may have started hyperfixating on it so well, now it actually became a little survey.

I also wanted to mention that I only asked the artist in my little Tumblr bubble, which is mostly tmnt content, so my results are mostly referring to tmnt artists.

In total, I asked 143 people if they could remember the last time they woke up and just felt actually rested for more than half of the day.

I probably could have been more specific with my question but again, I did not actually planned to let it become so big. Personally, for me being rested means, having a clear head, no headache or foggy mind without consuming any caffeine.

So out of 143 people, 100 answered me and I tried my best to sort all of the answers after the criteria “good-sleep-schedule” and “bad-sleep-schedule” and also noted when exactly they last felt actually rested into either the last days, weeks, months, years or “???” when they couldn’t remember or didn’t mention anything specific.

And let’s just say… it does not really look good. Out of 100 people, only 18 have an actual good sleep schedule. Out of these 18 people, 13 felt really rested in the last days, 2 in the last weeks, only one person in the last months and 2 in the last years.

Out of the 82 of people who have a bad sleep schedule, 10% lastly felt rested in the last days, 11% in the last weeks, 11% in the last months, 30% in the last years, and 38% couldn’t remember or didn’t specify it.

While reading all your answers I came to realize being sleep deprived is not just bc any of them thought “Oh it would be really neat to stay up till 4 am!” or smth like that.

A lot of the artists who answered me mentioned that they have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep due to stuff like insomnia, chronic pain, other issues, or children (yeah, ok, there was just one who had a child but still).

While analyzing I mostly referred the situations to my own experience with going to sleep or rather not going to sleep...

I usually don’t have problems falling asleep but trouble actually putting my stuff away and going to bed bc I don’t want to end the day or just don’t want to go to sleep (don’t ask why, I have no idea why I am like this). While having these “episodes” I often doodle smth, binge reading some fanfics, or watch whatever I can find on the internet until I’m just falling asleep or can convince myself that it is 3 am and I really should go to bed now.

So, my personal theory about why sleep deprivation is so common among Tumblr artists is not bc they do art all night. My theory is that a lot of people who have trouble falling asleep due to insomnia, pain, or other issues are filling the time until they hopefully fall asleep with their art, doodles, writings, or whatever their creative minds can bring up, to help the time pass.

In total that would mean that not all artists are sleep deprived but more that a lot of people who have trouble falling asleep do a lot of art or creative stuff in general.

Something I could also imagine is, that if they start doing art while waiting for sleep, they start to concentrate a lot on creating more and start procrastinating sleep even if they actually get tired bc they wanna do art and fuck up their non-existing sleep schedule even more but that could also just be me projecting here.

I know that is probably no kind of big revelation but for me it was kind of surprising to see how many people here are as sleep deprived as me and due to what reasons.

I’m not going to preach to any of you to get that problem solved or smth, I have no right to tell you what to do and would be a major hypocrite so instead I really which everyone to get some kind of good sleep schedule one day and the joy of waking up and feeling completely rested at least thrice per week.

I absolutely love all your art and thank you a thousand times for helping me with this spontaneous survey!

I would love to hear your opinions on my theory and conclusion so pls don’t be shy and feel free to point out any mistakes I may have made or tell me your own theories :D

Also, if my question is still sitting in your inbox, feel free to answer! I’m gonna keep ma big ass excel table so I can edit all the results anytime. And maybe, one day, I'm gonna continue this survey and go into more detail but for now I need to leave it like this.

Ok, that's all I got

BYE!

Thanks to all participants

@abbeyofcyn @angelpuns @beannary @bulbabutt @camilieroart @cementgeek @cheesyescapade @cokowiii @easterartist @frosteaart @gemini-forest @happyfoxx-art @heckitall @hellishgayliath @holy-sweetsour-milk @icepopcider @idiot-mushroom @iscreamkitty @kovalitics @laseralligator @lieutenantbiscute @matchstique @mightyanxiety @miiukkaa @mr-doodles @pezhead @probably-not-a-rutabaga @pumpkster @sad-leon @sassatello @sewercrocodileart @sheep-turtles-and-pizza @signanothername @spectra-bear @stephuart @tangledinink @tapakah0 @tasenwiththerobots @tblsomedoodles @thegunnsara @triona-tribblescore @turrondeluxe @valen-timez @vangh17a @wraenata @zinovi768 @debb987 @dianagj-art @goatedgreen @indieyuugure

[bakubunny]

I’ve been binge reading all your works. I love them 💕

I also wanted to make a request: head cannons or a small little Drabble it can be SFW or NSFW which ever you prefer for:

Bakugo and a shy super polite partner.

Of course only if you feel up to it. If not that is perfectly fine. THANK YOU.

thank you so much! 🥺 i appreciate you.

i love the idea of katsuki x shy polite partner so here we gooo. i kinda went a little hard on this one 😅 hope you don’t mind that it’s longer. 💜 bunny

this idea says “katsuki meets eijirou’s soft spoken office assistant” to me so i’m running with it.

say he meets you at whatever agency eijirou works for because he’s stopping by to grab lunch with a friend. by the next week, he’s making all kinds of excuses to stop by and interact with you because you’re at the front desk every day. but it’s never more than a polite hello/goodbye, asking for eijirou, etc.

eijirou picks up on it faster than katsuki can register his feelings aside from, “yes, i think she’s pretty. now fuckin’ can it, kiri.”

eijirou does not, in fact, ‘can it,’ as he asks because katsuki rarely takes a romantic interest in anyone. it comes out over a week later that katsuki doesn’t even ask you about your day because he’s convinced he’ll scare you off with his abrasive personality.

eijirou with the help of mina has been putting out feelers to get to know you. katsuki comes up in conversation; you turn a little pink and mention that he seems polite, but he’s sure around often.

one thing leads to another, mina invites you out for drinks and he’s there.

you’re suddenly stranded at the bar with this pretty blonde who’s hardly spoken all night with the biggest rbf you’ve ever seen while his friends get wrapped up in something nearby.

you catch his scent as he tosses back the rest of his drink before ordering another (because he’s nervous as hell and pissed at his friends); he smells like fire and burnt sugar and cinnamon and wow, just looking at him makes you feel a little too warm.

the conversation starts out painfully awkward. you’re trying to remain polite and katsuki’s trying to not make an ass of himself. eventually he makes an angry, snarky comment that gets you to laugh quietly.

maybe it’s the liquor or the fact that you look so pretty when you’re blushing and your laugh sounds so sweet, but he finally breaks just slightly with a bit of a grin. thankfully (for everyone’s sake), that’s the little boost of confidence he needs and the night goes well.

you being the ever polite and shy person you are, are just as bad as he is at this whole “dating” thing. yes, you’re absolutely smitten with this guy, but you convince yourself he’s “just being polite” when he gives you his number and walks you home… when he makes more of an effort to talk to you… asks you how you like your coffee… when he drops something off for you the next day…. and when he invites you out to lunch, you assumed he meant with eijirou… y’know, to be polite instead of leaving you to eat alone.

you almost reach the cafe entrance before saying, “i know kirishima is on patrol today. will he be meeting us here?”

katsuki stops and grabs by the wrist. he’s far too close for comfort when you turn to face him. he’s trying so hard to keep calm despite his frustration, wondering if he’d misconstrued the last few weeks.

“hang on. what do ya think we’re doin’ here? no, he’s not. ‘s kinda the point,” he spits out.

“i-i’m sorry, i thought you asked me out to lunch to be nice or something,” you reply with a nervous smile.

he gives you an incredulous look and his brows furrow. “no, i’m not-… fuck it.” katsuki takes you by the face and kisses you. “how’s that for bein’ nice? d’ya get what i’m tryin’ to do now?”

some less sfw hcs because i want to

katsuki tries to temper himself around you in general, but especially in bed because he’s not exactly gentle the majority of the time.

he thinks it’s cute that you get shy and flustered so much, but gets impatient at times and takes initiative when he can tell you’re being hesitant.

eventually he learns to appreciate and even crave nights with you that are soft and loving or slow and lazy. and you eventually buck up the courage more than once to remind him that you like his personality… including how rough he can get.

katsuki learns pretty quickly how difficult it can be for you to just tell him what you want, especially if it’s something new. he forces himself to show patience and doesn’t tease you about it… most of the time.

[cowboybeepboop]

Through the window

“Fuck you”

“Baby thats what youre gonna do”

Pairing: Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw x fem!reader

Genre: smut

Word count: 2214

Summary: Late night self pleasure turns into more than self pleasure.

Warnings: p in v, mainly porn with some plot, disgusting words for clit cause it got a little awkward at 1 am, use of vibrator, age gap (like three years), major daddy issues, kinda some Voyeurism, roughness from Bradley but with sweetness, praise kink, hair pulling, getting caught.

A/N: Literally just me writing this while sobbing to Shawn Mendes songs, also I wrote most of it while sitting out in front of my school 💪😩💪 I’m a fucking vibe. I don't know if there's like a big fandom on here anymore considering Top Gun Mav has been out for a while now but yk who cares. Also lowkey have been binging Harry Potter and the last of us so maybe I’ll write some of that later. Not proof read like ever

Bradley has been your built-in best friend, being Mavericks daughter means that you spent the majority of your childhood eating dinners with Carole, having Carole brush your hair and tuck you into bed. Carole Bradshaw became your adoptive mom, she taught you to cook, bake, sew, she helped you with your homework and made sure you knew your worth.

Mav was hardly ever around, he put his heart and soul into being a better person so that Goose wouldn’t be disappointed in him, this being said he forgot about the responsibility of actually taking care of his child. But you never blamed him for it, maybe it’s because when he was there with you all he ever wanted to do was cuddle on the couch watching your favorite films. Sometimes he would come home and lay his head on your lap and you would brush and braid his hair.

So, because of your sometimes absentee father, Bradley filled in. He was there with Mav for every milestone, kindergarten graduation, elementary school choir concerts, he even took time from his busy schedule to come to your highschool graduation.

Which makes your sexual attraction to him all the more disgusting, he basically was your stand in father, even though he was only 3 years older than you. But when Maverick finally realized he had a responsibility to spend more time with you, Brad stopped being like a father figure and more like an older friend who you had the hots for.

Bradley hasn’t been home for months-or longer, you totally haven’t been counting, and it totally hasn’t been exactly 8 months 3 weeks and 5 days. He isn’t planning on coming back any time soon, at least if he is he hasn’t told you, which is why you’re stuck pouting with your face between your hands as a few people purchase drinks from the bar.

You work at Penny’s bar, The Hard Deck, which is lowkey awkward considering your dad used to date her. But nonetheless she treats you like her own daughter. The only thing you dislike about working with her is the fact that she scolds you when you flirt while working, it's understandable but makes you want to roll your eyes.

Maverick walks in with a small smile on his face, sitting down at the bar in front of you, “How’s your day Y/N?”.

“It’s pretty good Mav, Penny might want to talk to you though,” winking at him you walk away, heading in the direction of the dart board.

“Hey boys, need a refill?” you smile sweetly, tapping your heel against the wooden floor softly.

“Thank you, baby girl,” Hangman smirks as he hands you the empty bottles, “you know which tab to add it to right?” he nods toward Coyote.

You give a small nod and head back to the bar to grab two more beer bottles, you add the total to Coyote’s tab. He lost in darts, even after covering Jake’s eyes, one more night and you don’t think you’ll be able to withstand his charm any longer.

“Y/N it’s time for you to clock out, if you want to beat the rush and get to your date on time,” your eyes light up.

“Thank you Pen!” you smile gathering your things before clocking out. “See you tomorrow evening.” Penny nods at you, smiling at you softly as you rush out of the door.

__________

Hours have passed along with another failed attempt at online dating. Both things have led to you lying in your bed holding your breath as you imagine what it'd be like if Bradley came home and surprised you.

It started off innocent, him holding your waist close to him, the heat radiating from his chest as you sucked in a deep breath. Basking in his mahogany, sandalwood and vanilla musky scent, it made your knees weak, your eyes roll into the back of your head.

Your body felt hot, like you were boiling from the insides out. Squeezing your legs tightly together to keep your panties from soaking your bedsheets.

While biting your lip you carefully open the shoebox hidden underneath your bed, grabbing your bright pink bullet vibrator. If your dad came home, you’d know, so locking the door wasn’t a big priority.

Sucking in a deep breath you relax against your plush mattress. Licking your lips you spread your legs being gentle while unbuttoning your shirt, being slow with each button to build up the tension.

Once you finally peel off your blouse, you throw it to the side of the room before leisurely unzipping your skirt. You’re starting to become impatient, every part of your body is aching to be touched by Bradley’s calloused hands.

“For fucks sake,” a soft whine escapes your parted lips, squeezing your eyes shut you begin roaming your hands all over your body. You squeeze the soft part of your body, moaning Bradley’s name as you do so.

Spreading your legs, you pull down your panties, running a finger through your soaked lips. Once you find the bundle of nerves you start rubbing soft and steady circles into it, this causes your hips to jerk a little while your eyes roll back.

You wrap a hand around your neck putting a comfortable amount of pressure on it, soft moans spill from your lips as you push your hips up begging for more friction. You press the smooth button, listening to the faint hum, you press down two more times. The soft hum from before has become more intense and slightly louder.

Let’s be honest, masturbation is nothing compared to sex. Especially the sex you’ve been dreaming and lusting over since age 16.

A soft smile forms on your lips as you press the rough tip against the hood of your clit, your muscles all tense up while your breathing stops for just a second. It sounded like a rock or something else small had hit your window, after waiting for a few seconds you decide it's probably nothing and press the vibrator against your nub.

You bite down on your lip harshly, squeezing your neck roughly. Sadly, you have a shitty toy because desperate times call for desperate measures so there isn’t much more it can give. Removing the hand from your neck, pushing two fingers into your pulsating hole.

Unbeknownst to yourself, there was now a visitor in your room, one who snuck in from your open window. Hiding in the dark corner next to your window, a hand clasped against his mouth as he absorbed the sight of you desperate and needy begging for more.

“Bradley harder!” you moan loudly, as you pick up the pace of your fingers,your back arching. Cum spills from your pussy, you sink back into the mattress, sighing discontentedly.

“Oh, Sweetheart.” the familiar voice rings through the now silent room. You instantly throw your hands over your chest and squeeze your legs together tightly. “If you needed some help you could have just asked for it.” Bradley walks out into the middle of your room, staring down at you with darkened eyes.

“B-bradley, when did you get in here?” you try to play it cool but sweat is forming on your forehead as you rapidly cover up with a blanket, eyes shifting to the window.

“Do you mean, how much did I see? Or rather how much I heard?” He raises his eyebrows with a smirk, you nod as your cheeks turn a deep red. “Not much, just you pleading for me to be rougher, is that really how you like it princess?”.

“Bradley! Shut up,” you cover your face with your hands while trying to figure out the best thing for you to do now. “Look, I didn’t know you were stopping by. I’m sorry that you, uhm, that you saw what you saw.” Your voice cracks while you barely take a breath, his shoes clack against the floor as he makes his way to you.

The dip in the bed being the sign that he’s next to you. “Y/N, I really don’t care.” He pries your hands off your face. “I know you didn’t know I was coming into town, because it was a surprise.” He sucks in a deep breath, “I just didn’t know I was the one who would be surprised.”

The room fills with silence, just your accelerated breathing and the ticking of your alarm clock. “Hey Brad… Can you please leave?” you push your face into your knees.

Bradley licks his lips, “I think I have a better idea,” he runs a finger down your spine while pressing kisses into your shoulder. Your body relaxes into him as you sigh quietly, he pulls your face from your legs “Look at me, my pretty girl,” you slowly open your eyes while avoiding making eye contact,

“Darlin’ I want you to look in my eyes,” biting your lower lip you look up at him innocently, his hands move to cup your cheeks and pull you into his face. “Fuck, you’re so hot,” he grips your neck and leans into kiss you.

You move onto his lap while tangling your fingers in his hair, he groans into your mouth before pulling back. Bradley pulls away from your lips and moves to kiss your neck, using his body to push your back against your bed. You gasp as he explores your body with his mouth, calloused fingers pinching your nipples.

Arching into him you moan loudly as he pushes a finger into your throbbing pussy. “You like that?” his voice low and seductive, using his thumb he presses your nub softly. Bradley presses kisses all over your stomach, groaning at the sight of you so needy under him, pre cum leaks from his tip as he grinds against the bed.

“I need you right now, please,” you grab Bradley by his face and pull him up. Kissing his lips passionately while grinding down on his fingers.

“Oh what a needy little slut you are, huh?” He pushes two more fingers into you, “is this what you needed? Or is this a little more up your alley.” He smirks while wrapping a hand around your throat, applying ample pressure.

“Fuck you,” you groan, lips parting as your chest heaves, gasps pouring from your mouth.

“Baby, that's what you’re gonna do,” he taunts, Bradshaw has had enough. He finally lays down and pulls you onto his stomach, his hands massage your thighs as he lifts your hips up.

“Bradley wait,” your hands rest on his chest, “ condom, left middle drawer”. He leans over grabbing the small golden wrapper, ripping it open with his teeth, fumbling with the latex as he squeezes it over his tip.

“Thanks for reminding me princess,” he tucks your hair behind your ear, “now ride me babe,”.

Lining your hole up with his tip you begin to lower yourself down on him, moans leave your parted lips. He furrows his eyebrows, hands moving up to cup your breasts, you sink down on his length, wincing at the uncomfortable stretch.

“Fuck, good girl,” bradley groans, his shakey breathing fills your senses. You lift your hips slowly bouncing on his dick, he grabs your ass squeezing roughly. Your hands explore his abs as you use his body to steady your own.

Your eyes squeeze tight, body tightening up around him. Twirling your fingers into your hair you grasp the strands pulling at his roots.

Bradley flips the pair of you over, his eyes dark and dominant as he hovers over you, his hips thrust into yours at a steady pace. He lowers his head to suck on your erect nipple, one hand wraps around your neck squeezing just enough to slow your breathing.

Your arms wrap around his neck as you pull him to you, kissing his lips passionately, your nails dig into his back. Bradley presses his middle finger into your clit, rubbing rough circles into it, while trying to hold back moans you bury your face in his nape.

His thrusts become sloppy, bradleys hand tightens around your neck causing you to arch into him, he leans down sucking dark hickeys into your neck. “Darling, I’m so close,” the sound of skin slapping fills the room as you nod in response.

“Me too Bradley,” you whine quietly. Bradley uses his middle and pointer finger to rub sloppy circles into your sensitive nub, causing your body to jerk forward and your eyes to flutter shut, soft moans fill his ears.

He runs his hand through your hair pulling your head back. Bradley throws his head back in pleasure, you begin to tighten up around him drawing out a long groan. “Rooster,” you chant his name, “more, please I need more,”, he complies with your desires and angles your bodies so he hits even deeper.

Hugging your body close to his, he thrusts a couple more times before you cum around him, Bradley slows down as he cums. His body jerks softly, “Thats the best welcome home present ive ever gotten love,” he whispers into your ear.

Your bedroom door opens, revealing Maverick, “Get your clothes on and meet me in the living room,” his stern voice shakes you to the core.

Well shit

[millysastroblog]

✨Solar Return Chart 2023✨

#Birthday Edition 🥳

Hello Hello guys ,I am so happy to be back on track with my Solar Return Chart Series. In the last couple of weeks if found myself to be inspiered by my last Solar Return Chart 2022 that changed my life. So I thought why not share my knowledge and experience for this year since my birthday is today 🎉🥳🥳🥳🥳! Some might wonder how is it possible to experience the manifestations of a SR Chart so soon. For me personally my SR Chart gets activated 3 months prior to my actual birthday.

So let’s start.

✨SR ASC in Virgo:

Oh boy, since the past 3 months my daily routines have been a bit more chaotic and stressful becuase of work and school. I am very busy at work trying to get my task orderly and efficently done. Since SR ASC Virgo has been activted, i feel less emotinal but more analytical, perfectinistic and focused on what needs to fixed and done. Recently i have meet so many different people through my working enviroument that i have help with diffucult or complicated tasks, trying to be the one who carrys the heavy load . My anxiety has increaed out of no where like I get nervous and anxious about the smallest things like attending social gatherings puncutal, my work projects, school, about how I handle my health etc. Speaking off health matters. I try to balance it out with meditations, mindful eating, healthy diets, Yoga etc.

✨SR ASC ruling natal 5th house:

Thankfully I have the SR Rising placement connected to the my natal 5th house ruler and it's surely not boring or draining. It's more of a lighthearted, fun, relaxing energy .that gave or still gives me the opportunity to explore my creative pursuits like a hobby, engaging in things that bring me joy. And interestingly in January I started this Astro Blog. I found writing and reading to be one of my main passions additionally with dancing,cooking, binge watching shows, singing, and yoga .The 5th house also represents children the past couple months i have been bonding with my little sister like crazy, i literally just want to spend every hour of the day just with her. Sadly i haven't had experiences around dating or the romantic sector, maybe it will happen later on, who knows ?  #hobbys, creativity, fun

✨7th house stellium (Sun,Mercury,Neptune) :

Ummmhh love? Relationships? are things I think about frequently. Lately I started to reflect on my past destructive behaviors in my past close connections/relationships and how I used to sabotage them because of my unhealed wounds . Having a 7th house SR Chart Stellium doesn't always determine that someone will be in a relationship but I surely have the desire to connect with different types of people. I have this inner craving to form healthy close bonds and heal from past traumatic relationships . I am kind of still processing my last close connection which i ended 6 months ago thinking about what i could have done better, why i did it, do i regret it, Will i ever be ready for a relationship? and so on.... but I still have hope of finding my soulmate. # life commitment

✨Moon Libra in the 2nd house:

With Moon in Libra the need to have people around me is two times intensified since Libra rules the 7th house. One thing I can definitely say is that my finances (personal income) is fluctuating like ebb and flow. I earn my money normally through my job but I spend huge amounts of it recklessly. It's the emotional impulse that drives me very loose and irresponsible because I feel ( moon) like doing it, but I do gain little finacial gains out my regular income out of know where though. #money honey

✨Chiron, Venus, Jupiter in the 8th house ruled by Aries:

Ohhh god, the packed 8th house....luckily its in Jupiter and Venus which defently helped me with gaining money from other sources like people. Venus showed me how to see beauty in things that are underneath the surface and not tangible. I truly want to have passionate romantic lustful relationship where I can share so many undiscovered, hidden parts that hopefully will be received with acceptance and understanding . Jupiter ummmm... my libido is on skyrockets at this point. Sry to mention it but it's true. Chiron in this house will assist me in healing the ugly and nasty parts about sexual matters, money and deep intimate connections that i am scared and deeply ashamed of. 

✨Mars in the 10th house ruled by Gemini :

Now this is one of the most intense SR chart placements because I possess mars in the 10th house natally. Ahh again with work my career path is right now very intense, my workaholic nature comes even more out, like a crazy uncontrollable working machine. Lately I have been questioning if my career path is the right one, or if I would want to switch into another department where I can express my truest passions and talents. I haven't had conflicts with bosses or people at work yet but with my mother since she counts as an authority figure which is from a natal standing point nothing knew, but just 10 times intensified. 

✨Saturn in the 6th :

Ohh boy boy work work work literally the only thing that pops up in my SR Chart for this year. So Saturn as we all know represents hardships and restrictions and lately I have been very lazy lacking, energy and motivation for my daily activities .I just feel drained and burnt out from my working life. But the positive thing about Saturn is that it sheds light on certain patterns that are not useful or productive for us. In my case it would be how I overindulge in unhealthy habits like binge watching shows everday, overeating, procrastination and the list goes on. Saturn in the 6th house has had subtle impact on my physical health with constant neck and back pains :(

✨Uranus, North Node in the 9th house :

Now with Uranus in the 9th I have been also traveling a lot of course for work purposes, visited new different places and had interesting experiences. But this is a very disruptive and chaotic energy while traveling long distance or for longer hours, I tend to be so nervous and all over the place losing my cool when I misse my plane or train. I look forward to plane multiple trips for this year :)

✨Pluto in the 5th house:

Pluto made me create an obsession with my hobby’s like posting Astro content. As I mentioned before children can be a huge part , deciding whether I would want to have kids in the future or not at all. This placement gave me introspective and insightful moments about myself who I identify as, what makes me happy and what my passion and talents are.

You guys probably know my entire life story through this Solar Return Observation 😅. I hoped this kind of helped to see how a SR Chart can manifest in real life situations.

Down below there is a question about if you guys might want another Observation from my chart from last year because that is when I can spell some interesting facts and predictions since it lasted a whole entire year.

Im just going to enjoy my birthday and wish u guys a beautiful blessed day 🥰!

[myheartalivewrites]

20 questions for fic writers

Hey @cha-melodius thanks for tagging me in this!

How many works do you have on ao3?

23

What's your total ao3 word count?

329,905

What fandoms do you write for?

RWRB and A Marvellous Light (The Last Binding trilogy). I've been thinking about writing for We Could be So Good by Cat Sebastian since I read it last week. I loved it so much I binge read 3 other books by the same author straight after, and then turned right back to WCBSG. Book rec for everyone who's not read it!

Top five fics by kudos:

Deep Blue

Just Like That.

Oxford Days

In His Wildest Dreams

A tie for fifth! Have One (On Me) and Tumbled Down and Tangled Up

Do you respond to comments?

Yes! Unless they're a bit dodge lol

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

This is the question that reminds me I've done this game before hehe. I'm only interested in happy endings so this is hard to choose, but Don't Wanna Be A Fool For You is quite angsty and ends just as they're getting over the angst, so I have to go with that.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I always write happy endings, BUT, if I must choose, I'm gonna go with a non-RWRB fic here. in your room, like a temple is an epilogue of sorts to A Marvellous Light, and it makes me SO HAPPY to have written this settled future for Robin and Edwin.

Do you get hate on fics?

Not usually, though I did get a couple of annoying comments on my first threesome fic from people who thought their own vision of monogamy for Alex and Henry was something they had to come and tell me about 🙄

Do you write smut?

hahahahhaaaaaaaa yes

Craziest crossover:

Never done one

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No! Someone did ask me about translating Deep Blue but I don't think they've followed through with it. I'd love it though

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No

All time favorite ship?

Alex and Henry

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oooh, I don't have any WIPs on ao3 to feel guilty about. What sits on my hard drive is between me and my atheist god (also me)

What are your writing strengths?

Yikes, ok! Here are things I like about my writing: I like the way I write smut that's super emotional AND super hot, and all the different ways I've come up to make smut scenes different from each other (because writing them can sometimes feel repetitive from my perspective). I like the way I play with rhythm in sentences and build tension in scenes. I like the way I build emotional and sexual tension in a piece overall. Please no one drop into the notes to tell me they disagree 😂

What are your writing weaknesses?

I CANNOT come up with external obstacles! Whenever I'm trying to plot something out and I'm trying to come up with BIG PLOT REASONS to keep people apart, my brain just freezes. I love internal obstacles, the emotional reasons why people choose to do the things they do, but as for external things to move the plot along (think Jeffrey Richard leaking emails, Queen Mary telling Henry how to live his life) I'm just... ultimately uninterested in them. Which is fine if it's a choice, and I love a lot of writing just like that, but I wish my brain could at least TRY.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Like it.

First fandom you wrote in?

RWRB

Favorite fic you've written?

Haha good one. Changes all the time. Current fave: Paper Chains, I think (a personal stab to my heart how much it's underrated). I tried something new for me with the structure, and I think the emotional punches hit so hard, I'm so proud of it. Or maybe the new one for RBB, called Foxden Park. Coming soon!

No pressure tags (and sorry if you've already done this and I've missed it!): @thesleepyskipper @firenati0n @welcometololaland @inexplicablymine @sparklepocalypse

@onetwistedmiracle @tintagel-or-cockleshells @historicallysam @cultofsappho @14carrotghoul

@suseagull04 @magicandarchery @itsmaybitheway @porcelainmortal @anincompletelist and anyone who fancies joining in! 😘

[yumeka-sxf]

A chronological analysis on Twilight and Yor - Season 1 Wrap-Up

*This is a wrap-up post for my Twiyor analysis series. If you missed the Introduction/Part 1, click here*

----------

As some of you may know, I'm fairly new to the SxF fandom, having only started watching the anime in October of last year. But it didn't take long for me to become hyperfixated enough to binge the manga, start my own blog, and develop ideas for analysis posts.

I've always enjoyed meta writing for my favorite fandoms, and SxF is definitely one of those! While I like many things about the story and characters, the Forgers overall, especially Twiyor, are my favorite thing about it, so I wanted to focus my first analysis posts on them. During my early months in the fandom, I found lots of good analyses and was impressed by the amount of talented fan writers out there. But rather than write random stand-alone posts, I wanted to express all my thoughts in chronological order. I eventually came up with the idea for this post series in December of last year, and after spending a solid month of writing during most of my free time, I finally felt I had enough to begin posting on a weekly basis.

Now that I've come to the end of the season 1 posts, I want to express my sincerest thanks to everyone who read them, especially those who left nice comments and reblogs. Even for those of you who only left likes, I appreciate it! I pay attention to the notes on my blog and it always makes my day to see the same people interacting with each new post every week. It's especially gratifying when I see a new person come along and leave a like on each post in order, one after another! In the many fandoms I've been in over the years, I always write for myself and my own enjoyment first, regardless of whether other people will enjoy my writing too. But it's nice to know that other people can also appreciate how I interpret things.

So here's what's going to happen with the post series going forward…

Since I want to continue keeping the posts as manga spoiler-free as possible, I won't start releasing the next batch of posts until season 2 airs (it's scheduled to air in October). I'll most likely release part 19 and onward towards the middle or end of season 2's run. I already have a good idea of what manga chapters will be adapted and will get them queued up beforehand.

On that note, I did end up having to tag a few of the season 1 posts for manga spoilers. I tried to avoid it as much as possible; I only discussed manga spoilers if I felt not doing so would be a disservice to my analysis. However, once season 2 airs, all but part 18 should be safe for anime-only fans! (I'll go back to those posts and remove the spoiler tags)

At some point during or slightly before season 2's airing, I plan to reblog all of my Twiyor analysis posts in order. If I can get the timing right, I hope to reblog part 18 (the last season 1 post) right before my start date for the first season 2 post. I'll probably do the reblogs just a few days apart before doing weekly releases again when I get to the new posts (for the reblogs, I'll be using the hashtag "#reblog for season 2 hype")

I don't have any other big analysis posts planned until then, with one exception…I do plan to write a post about Anya. I originally wanted to include her in the chronological series, but since her character arc is simpler and more straight-forward compared to Twilight's and Yor's, I didn't have nearly as much to say about her and figured it'd be best to talk about her in a separate post. Not sure when I'll release that post but should be sometime before season 2 as well.

Guess that's all for now! Thank you again to everyone who read this post series and I look forward to more compelling discussions in season 2!

[ariays]

An important message:

Hello fellow YA book lovers and YA/Teen TV shows enthusiasts,

I am here to recommend you a show and book series that is soooo good but is criminally underrated. 

It’s called Lockwood & Co.

They recently released the series on Netflix. So if you have any spare time and nothing to do during the weekend, I’d suggest you to give it a try. It’s a very binge-able and easy watch. Very entertaining for everyone from all walks of life. Unlike other teen shows out there that claims to target young adults, this one is very family-friendly. You can watch it with younger kids or with your parents without having to worry about any inappropriate scenes coming up.

You might think it’s cheesy or childish from your first impressions of the poster or trailer/teasers but let me assure you that it’s not. It’s a fun action/adventure story that has a lot of heart and the accompanying soundtrack is AWESOME. 

If this post manages to reach you or if the show did reach your radar but you are still hesitant about starting it, please do give it a try. This week is a crucial week as its the last week of tracking that would help determine on whether the show can be renewed for a second season. 

For those of you who like a little bit of romance in your shows, this one has a great subtle ‘blossoming relationship’/slow-burn romance between two characters. It’s very subtle so if you prefer no romance, it shouldn’t bother you. But if you like romance, those subtle scenes will make you crave for more. It also has a trope, which is personally my favourite, the found family trope. 

At the same time, I would also like to recommend the original book series which the show was adapted from. It is a five book series written by Jonathan Stroud. The first book was first published in 2013. It was actually during the heyday of BookTube but sadly, this series seemed to have slipped under BookTube’s radar. Even today, I don’t think I have ever seen any popular Booktubers talking about it. Which is so unfortunate. Because this book series deserves the same hype and love as Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.

So if you are a book reader and is looking for a new book series to read, I would highly recommend this series. It’s fun with great humor and just purely enjoyable. 

So please give it a try! Also binge the show by this weekend if you can! & let me know your thoughts!

[douglysium]

Episode 13 TMP Quick Thoughts

Housekeeping and Prologue

Hello, this is Douglysium and you might not know me as that guy who wrote over 100 pages of analysis on the Eye (which can be read on Tumblr here (https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/735599414228484097/the-relationships-between-the-dread-powers-the) or Google Docs here (The Relationships Between the Dread Powers: The Eye- Knowledge is Fear and Ignorance is Bliss)) or as that guy who wrote an article on the Extinction (which can be read on Tumblr here(https://douglysium.tumblr.com/post/717929126195003392/what-would-avatars-of-the-extinction-be-like-a) and Google Docs here(​What would Avatars of the Extinction be like?: A TMA Speculation)). Suffice to say I might be a bit of a TMA fan. Also, spoilers for TMP up until episode 10. You can read my ramblings on the last episode here (Episode 12 TMP Quick Thoughts).

However, Protocol offers a very unique opportunity and experience for me because I didn’t actually get into TMA until after it was over and I binged all of it. So this is my first time experiencing something even remotely similar to what the original TMA fans probably experienced when waiting for each episode week by week and slowly having to put everything together with the limited information they had. So I decided to throw my hat into the ring since this might be my only chance to do something similar. However, I’m working on some longer form TMA content so I can’t spend as much time on these articles giving a bunch of super detailed thoughts. I will try to keep these short and that inevitably might mean some could have questions about why I think or predict certain things and in those cases I would probably recommend you read at least some of the two articles I mentioned above to get a better idea of where I’m coming from. This also means I won’t be giving you a play-by-play of every single thing that happens in the episode so I encourage you to listen to or read them yourselves and feel free to comment if you feel something is important.

These reviews are probably going to end up focusing mostly on the Entities and their manifestations as they are what I have thought about the most and spent the most time interpreting and there’s been a lot of… interesting theories floating around about how the Entities are manifesting that I want to go over.

Finally, I’m just going to say it right now, spoiler warning for all of The Magnus Archives. I know that Jon and co said one could start with Protocol and be fine, and while that’s probably true, media like this tends to be made in conversation with or take into consideration what came before it in the irl chronology in order to connect them. While I’m sure you could skip The Magnus Archives, I don't really see the point of skipping over it when we are already getting characters from TMA showing up in TMP in Protocol. So to me it’s pretty clear that if we want to understand the full picture of TMP and all the things it is trying to say then we can’t just try to pretend TMA doesn’t exist or scrub it away. Just because you could understand what’s happening without the context in broad strokes doesn’t mean you're getting all the nuances.

These articles are meant to be quick and short so sorry if there’s typos and if I don’t address every possible question or possibility. I don’t want to repeat myself too much in this series outside of the prologue so be sure to skim some of my other articles.

Episode 13 “Futures”

We start the episode by overhearing the date between Sam and Celia that had been planned previously via Sam’s phone. They talk about how weird it is to have a night job and Celia reveals that she knows a lot about Sam’s personality thanks to Alice, and Celia continuously makes Sam blush (which is apparently not very hard). When asked by Sam if Celia explicitly asked Alice about hims Celia says “Just doing my due diligence.” After Celia goes over Sam’s personality traits Sam asks “So who do I talk to to get a complete list of your flaws?” to which Celia responds “No-one. I’m mysterious.” This response is probably because Celia is most likely from the TMA universe given some evidence in the previous episodes (so it’s very likely that there’s not a lot of information on her to find) but I also wonder if this is some sort of foreshadowing or allusion to something. Is all the stuff Celia reveals to Sam in this episode simply a lie to get Sam to talk? Whether or not Celia genuinely cares about Sam or is being any level of honest is still very up in the air.

Sam says “Hmmm. Well jokes aside we should probably just get all of our baggage out on the table now. It’s risky enough dating at work without adding bombshell revelations to the mix.” Celia reveals that she has a 1 year old baby named Jack. A name that was actually dropped in episode 11 “Marked” when Celia said “Hold on, Jack, I’m on my way.” after mysteriously waking up near a motorway. So there is evidence to suggest that Jack actually does exist in at least some form, since there’s no real reason for Celia to mention Jack while talking to herself. Well, unless she’s aware that something / someone was listening to her at the time anyway. Celia says that she has no idea who Jack’s dad is and “...I had a couple of wild years after I moved here. It was a really weird time for me, but somehow I got lucky enough to come out of it all with him.” I wonder if Celia’s move refers to hopping universes somehow or literally just moving. If Celia does actually turn out to be from the TMA universe I wonder how long she’s been in the Protocol one. I’ve already made the point previously that time can get a little wibbly-wobbly with multiversal travel in TMA based on what we have seen. So exactly when Celia ended up in this universe would be up in the air and I don’t know whether or not she would have shown up in perfect tandem with the Entities (especially since she could have simply tried to follow them through the gap sometime after they left the TMA universe). I wonder if Jack was somehow kidnapped or being used to blackmail Celia?

Sam unloads some of his own baggage and reveals, at least partially, why he is so interested in the Institute. Sam has not told his parents that he has bailed on his previous job. As a kid Sam was tested and was dubbed “gifted” so his mom and dad started enrolling him “in every “enrichment” program they could find.” However, when they tried to enroll Sam into the Magnus Institute, the organization apparently didn’t want him despite Sam’s status as a gifted kid. Sam notes that they were the first organization to not want him and it seems to be the point where his luck took a turn for the worse. “Didn’t get into Oxford, so I went to Nottingham. I graduated but I missed a first by one mark. Then I went to work at a legal firm. I was there for years, hoping they’d eventually sponsor me for a law degree.”

Eventually Sam had a breakdown due to stress which led to an “incident” at work. He freaked out during a presentation and “After that they “encouraged” me to move on and I did. Six unemployed months later and I took a job at the O.I.A.R.” Sam also explains that he and Alice hooked up at Celia’s behest: “Yeah. Uh Full disclosure, we dated at Uni and stayed in contact after. I did my best to help her through her parents’deaths but after that we pretty much dropped out of touch. According to her she dropped me a line about the job after “the most pathetic vague-post she had ever seen”.” “Now she’s a friend. An insufferable, obnoxious know-it-all friend but yeah, just a friend.”

Celia asks one final question, a question we have all been waiting for, “The cases, at work. Do you think they’re real?” Sam says “I… don’t know. I hope not. You?” and Celia says “I'm pretty sure they're real.” to which Sam asks for some wine. Celia once again seems to be certain of a suspicious amount of accurate information.

I wonder if Sam is telling Celia the full story since it seems like Sam’s background is missing a potentially more supernatural element. I remember one of the teasers of Protocol implying that Sam had a supernatural encounter, and having a breakdown while giving a public presentation sounds like something that could be right up the alley of an Entity like The Eye in relation to being watched and judged. So does the fear of living up to the expectations of other people as a gifted student. In TMA Jon played dumb before eventually admitting that he believed most of the statements he heard were real but was afraid of actively admitting it out of fear of whatever was listening. So I wonder if Sam, and even Alice, also suspect that the cases are real but are in some sort of denial or trying to play dumb. Considering that Colin told Sam in episode 7 “Listen mate. If you’re going to get this worked up over a weird email you’re going to freak when you see the real stuff.” and he correctly identifies that electronic devices are being used to monitor people, I wouldn't be surprised if Colin does believe or suspect something supernatural is occuring.

We cut to Gwen confronting Lena about Bonzo and Gwen asks if the events of the previous case happened because of the information she gave Bonzo. Lena says “Yes. Whatever horrible case you read, it happened.” This response is pretty interesting because it is basically Lena confirming that every case actually happened (which shouldn’t be a surprise for the audience). Lena doesn’t specify “the Bonzo case happened” she just says “Whatever horrible case you read, it happened.” As if, no matter what case Gwen read, they all would have been equally true or valid. There’s little to no chance of a case being false / fabricated or Gwen being mistaken.

Gwen asks if she is responsible for the Bonzo case and Lena says “To a degree.” Gwen starts demanding answers and Lena tells her to sit before we get some very tasty exposition. “The world is full of opposing forces, some benevolent, most not. In order for the wheels to keep on turning, all these forces need to be monitored and balanced. That is where we come in.” To me, this points to the idea that if the Fears are still around then they probably are still broken up by at least some people into various categories and factions. The idea that the Entities can be “balanced” off each other is almost identical to the philosophy of Smirke from TMA. Someone who believed that it was possible to achieve a state of harmonious balance with the Entities, only to later realize that this was an incorrect assessment with the emergence of a new Power.

Some might argue that Lena is implying that some Entities revolving around more benevolent emotions exist but I'm not 100% sure that’s true. If it was, I'm not sure why Lena would say “We are… managing the “bad guys”...” and nake a point of saying most of the “opposing forces” are not benevolent. I mean maybe they are out there but at the very least they are outnumbered by the fear based Entities (so much so that I would say we haven’t seen them if they do exist) and the OIAR seems to manage the fear related ones.

This also makes it sound like the goal of the OIAR is to keep the various Entities in check. In TMA some Entities often clashed and their various factions would often interrupt each other’s rituals in an attempt to get ahead. The OIAR might be taking advantage of this in order to keep any one Entity from pulling ahead. For example, if someone noticed that The Eye and Stranger often had an antagonistic relationship then they might be inclined to send someone or something aligned with The Stranger to deal with a manifestation of The Eye in order to take advantage of an aspect of the relationship. We have seen this sort of thing done in TMA, such as when Gertrude disrupts a ritual of The Buried by throwing someone touched by The Vast into it or when Jon disrupts the Dark’s Extinguished Sun by staring at it. While it is true that all the Entities are required for a successful ritual it does seem apparent that whichever Entity actually has their ritual pulled off rules, or is the dominant force of, the subsequent Change. For example, The Eye’s ritual did bring all the Entities into the universe but The Eye was watching over all of it and seemed to be in charge. Additionally, those aligned with The Stranger, such as the NotThem and Breekon and Hope, seemed quite miserable due to the fact that the Entity they were tied to thrived off of mystery and the unknown. In MAG 092 (Nothing Beside Remains) Jonah tells Jon “We thrive on ceaseless watching, on knowing too much. What we face is the hidden, the uncanny, and the unknown.” In MAG 165 (Revolutions) Not-Sasha says this in regards to The Eye’s Post-Change world “Do you know how it feels? To be – anonymous? And yet known! To have all the sweetest dread I can create tainted by the relentless gaze of that damned Eye. I’ve suffered enough.”

So it’s possible that even if something like the Anglerfish did get dragged from TMA it might still not want another Power to win. Also, an Entity like The Web still might be at play and trying to prevent an Entity from setting off its ritual until it's own plan is ready. We also know that people like Jared Hopworth weren’t interested in conducting a ritual for The Flesh, even though others aligned with the same Entity were, so it’s possible there are people and monsters that do not care for any sort of ritual succeeding either way.

GWEN

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

LENA

“And yet it is the only explanation you’re going to get for now.”

GWEN

“So what? We’re the bad guys?”

LENA

“We are… managing the “bad guys”..”

LENA

“(cont. returning to her desk) There should be an email in your inbox. We have another external that needs assignment. It’s quite urgent.”

Lena’s refusal to give Gwen straight answers could just be some sort of security measure until Gwen proves herself trustworthy but it also rings familiar of how Jonah purposefully refused to give Jon certain answers about the Entities and what was happening until the moment was right for his plan. In MAG 092 (Nothing Beside Remains), Jonah explains the reason he killed Leitner: “[Sighs] Of course, Detective. So. For the avoidance of any doubt. I killed Gertrude Robinson because she intended to destroy the Archives. And I killed Jurgen Leitner because he was… an unnecessary complication. Likely to tell John too much, too early.” So something similar could be happening here and Lena is purposefully not giving Gwen all the information as part of some sort of plan or process.

The case for this episode takes the form of Darrien filing a complaint about the Zorrotrade App to their customer supportline’s answerphone. The bot tells Darrien that all the operators are busy and that they should leave a message and Darrien begins to explain what happened.

“(intense) Listen you thieving bastards, I want my money. I don’t care about your “suspicious activity” bollocks, I have burnt my entire life to the ground for this stupid bloody app and now you owe me my goddam money. So, you can either pay up or I drop a line to the Ombudsman and tell them all about your little “Projection” trading, see what they make of it.” “You can’t just take my money, lock me out of your app, and then expect me to roll over. I’ve been a user for years. Hell, I’ve probably invested more via this poxy little program than everyone else put together and what do I have to show for it? Eh? You owe me.”

Darrien rambles about how they worked hard for the money and if losing the money is some sort of punishment they don’t deserve it. While Darrien’s colleagues go to uni Darrien decides to “make bank” and take out their entire student loan and go straight to shoring using the Zorrotrade app. According to Google, “shorting” is short for “short selling” and “is a trading strategy where investors speculate on a stock's decline.” Darrien stuck with the app since it had just launched and even powered through its “first janky interface, your weird background checks, all those damn glitches but I stuck with it because unlimited Margins and Deposits was pretty sweet. Made some quick cash shorting failing startups then used that to broaden into Crypto, leveraged some EM ETFS, scraped up a few pennies then started to go long on a few obvious winners like Omni and Sparkhub for some hedging. Easy peasy.” Darrien eventually accrues enough money to become the one in their friend group to be buying all the good stuff “And sure, money can’t buy you love, but you’d be amazed what personal trainers, high end surgery and hair plugs can achieve on a speccy little finance nerd.”

Darrien continued to make good money until “I got cocky and I bet against the big man himself. I shorted Dantex hard in 2020. Stupid, really, but the whole Zurich thing had wiped a bunch out of my portfolio and I got a tipoff from one of the lads. So I went all in. And no, I don't blame Zorrotrade for that. But it was a bad time. I remember I was sitting on deck with Oli, watching the sun set in the Riviera and I was ready to close up shop. I grabbed my phone and started messing with the settings looking to settle up. That was when I noticed your new: “Personal Projection Short Selling” feature. It was disabled, buried under advanced lab settings and covered in disclaimers without any explanation but it still grabbed me. I had no idea what it was and there was nothing about it online”

Darrien makes mention of a slider with the warning “These settings are experimental and 

may not function as intended, user discretion is advised.” but insists that this does not justify what Zorrotrade has done to him. Because Darrien was basically broke and had nothing to lose, they flick the experimental slider on and “a new dialogue window opened with two words: “Investment Amount”. Bear in mind that at this point I barely had a pot to piss in. So I put in my last few grand. Why the hell not?” The app took Darrien’s money and they carried on drinking until they passed out at around 4pm. Oli eventually kicks Darrien out for making a mess in his guest cabin but Darrien notes “let’s be honest, we didn’t really get on anyway. He dumped me at the dock with nowhere to stay and told me he’d send me a bill for the TV.” Signifying that Darrien most likely broke a TV in a drunken stupor.

After being kicked out, Darrien tries to call some other friends but Oli had told a group chat that Darrien was broke and the group “always knew I’d “end up back in the gutter eventually.”” As Darrien begins writing a “proper” response their phone dies and, since they were borrowing Oli’s charger previously, they did not have a way to charge their phone.

The call cuts out and then Darrien reconnects saying “Yeah, I know I'm going long with  this, but tough. You can just shut up and listen.” which I just thought was funny. I assume the message just got cut because it was too long and Darrien had to tell the story over the course of two messages. Darrien later gets robbed as they explain “So it turns out that stepping off a yacht, alone, in some pissant fishing dock in the arse end of nowhere, in the middle of the night with a thousand dollar case and a lost look on your face is a good way to get yourself mugged. They took everything. The case, my watch, my jacket, even my shoes. But not my phone. Dunno why, it’s like they didn’t even notice it. Kicked the hell out of me, though. Talk about rock bottom…”

Darrien eventually manages to get their hands on a charger and contact the British Embassy. “They told me to go online for an emergency travel permit and it was as I was applying for it, that I saw a new email ping up from my bank app. “Deposit received” I opened it and got as far as “remaining balance: one hundred thousand and eighty three pounds, twelve pence“ before I was back on Zorrotrade reading a notification: “Congratulations! In recognition of your change in circumstances, you’re Personal Projection Short Sell has now been paid in full. We hope you invest again soon!”” Darrien concludes that while they were drunk they had somehow bet against themselves and because Darrien lost all their money and stock they were rewarded for it. Darrien figures this is a bug but handwaves it as being a problem with the app instead of their fault for abusing the loophole. From their perspective they earned / deserved the money.

Darrien admits that they knew it was probably a fluke and should have quit but “Only, that’s the thing with money. It multiplies, especially when you’re good at finding loopholes.” They even say that they should’ve been more concerned about how the supposed loophole even worked but “the wheels were already turning.” They realized that they might be able to short against their own life and then purposely injure themselves in order to go positive and make a profit. “And no, it wasn't fraud. I’ve checked and there’s no regulations about it or anything, so like I said: your app, your problem…” Darrien begins testing this loophole: “Nothing huge. I bet a thousand quid then picked a fight with the biggest stranger I could. It cost me a tooth but… four hundred profit. A good return but it didn't cover the dental bill to get it properly fixed. I tried again, this time betting 10k before renting a car (with insurance) and crashing it into a tree at speed. That messed my leg up pretty badly and I got a faceful of glass but I also got 50k profit. That was more like it. I spent a few weeks breaking myself, and sabotaging my life, in various ways, and by the end I'd banked a cool mil. It was just so liberating, so addictive, literally cashing in my misery into cold, hard cash. So as the sun set over the harbor I opened the app again and dug straight through to the Personal Projection Short Selling box: “Investment Amount” One million pounds, ‘You Only Live Once’ right? Again, the little ping and the tick. Then it was time to go for a walk.”

Darrien then picks a cliff that is about an hour and a half’s walk away. They also hope that the cliff isn’t tall enough to kill them when they jump off of it. On their way to the cliff they made a few phone calls. Darrien called their parents to tell them that they never loved them and that they hope they die horribly, they go onto the previously mentioned group chat and talk about how they slept with each of the member’s partners (even when they hadn’t) and “Then it was on to my socials publicly declaring my affiliation with every messed up ideology and psychopath I could find. I ran out of time before I could confess to robbing orphanages to buy drugs but I think I made my point.”

“Then I got to the cliff. It felt much taller standing at the top. There was a surprisingly chill wind blowing across the edge, driven upwards from the sea and that coupled with the sheerness of the drop gave me a moment of vertigo. I hesitated. Was this really worth it?” Then they jump off the cliff and when they come to: “I woke up here at l’hopital Jean-Marcel, 2 days later. Apparently, I was in a medically induced coma since they found me. One leg was amputated and the other is full of pins. Cracked spine in two places, ruptured spleen, 6 broken ribs and a cracked skull. Every second hurts. But when I woke up I couldn’t be happier. I was alive sure, but more than that I was rich, properly rich, untouchably rich. Everything was going to be okay” A bunch of people crowded Darrien as they woke up but they just demanded their phone so they could check the Zorrotrade app for their money (it’s possible that many thought Darrien attempted a suicide). 

“I braced myself, looked down and there it was. Almost fifty million. But… there 

was a tiny symbol to the left of the figure. A minus symbol. And then I saw your notice. “Your payment has been suspended due to suspicious account activity including potential insider trading. Official bodies have been notified. Please repay your outstanding balance or prepare for Personal Adjustment.” That was twelve hours ago and no matter what I do I can’t seem to get through to anybody. So yeah, I need my money. I didn’t do anything wrong I just… used a loophole, that’s all. You can’t blame me for playing the system. Besides I’ve got nothing left. Nothing. So just, give me my goddamn money.” We then get

DARRIEN

“Oh, right. Darrien Laurel. Account number 428813.”

ANSWERPHONE

“Thank you. You are being transferred to our adjustments department. Click.”

There is something on the other end of the phone. It clearly isn’t human. Metallic insectoid chittering grows louder.

DARRIEN

“H- hello?” The chittering grows even louder. DARRIEN drops the phone.

DARRIEN

(cont.) “Oh god- what!? Nurse! NURSE! Darrien screams.” The call ends.

It’s definitely weird hearing Darrien actively get jumped mid statement. It’s also interesting that whatever is on the other end of the call doesn’t seem to respond until Darrien gives their full name and account number. I wonder if this “adjustement” is killing Darrien, dragging them somewhere, or literally controlling / reconfiguring them somehow. Well Darrien show up again in a kind of Michael Distortion or Anglerfish type situation? It could also be something else entirely.

If I were to view this through the lens of Smirke’s 14 I would say that this statement has a lot of similarities with The Desolation and The Web for a lot of the same reasons I gave when going over episode 9 (Rolling with It).

People mistakenly assume that The Desolation is just the fear of fire when in reality it is the fear of loss and destruction, and it has manifested as bad luck in the past, such as in MAG 37 (Burnt Offering) after Jason North disturbs a site that was used by the Cult of the Lightless Flame in an attempt to curse Gertrude (you can read my full explanation of all that stuff here (Episode 9 TMP Quick Thoughts)). We have also seen The Desolation connect to the loss of belongings such as money. In MAG 089 (Twice as Bright) when Jude Perry says “Then it was simply a matter of forging his signature on a few documents implicating him in some very illegal transactions to get his assets stripped from him. Oh, and burning down the new house, of course. And with each act of glorious, hateful destruction, I felt my god’s love embrace me, consume me, give me life. Any feelings of pity or mercy I might have had for the poor woman I fed from were cauterised.” Notice how she mentions stripping someone of their assets to appease The Desolation. So the connection to the connection to The Desolation would come from the fear Darrien has of losing their money

The connection to The Web is much simpler. Darrien is basically gambling (even if they are cheating in the end) and they note the process as being addictive. We know that The Web has a strong association with addictions. The transcripts also describe the noise at the end of the statement as being “Metallic insectoid chittering” which could relate to something like a weird spider or bug but it’s hard to be sure. Darrien does mention that they were miserable and expresses fear of going too far or messing up, so fear is definitely still present.

There’s also The Buried, an Entity that doesn’t just relate to the fear of being stuck or not having enough space literally but also metaphorically. Meaning it can relate to the idea of being trapped or stuck due to crippling debt.

The case also has some themes of The Slaughter (with Darrien getting stabbed and then picking fights) as well as The Vast (when they jump off the cliff). You could also argue The End since Darrien seems wary of accidentally killing themselves.

We cut back to the OIAR and Alice walks in on Sam who is a little drunk. I wonder if he’s drinking to cope with the realization that the cases could be real. Alice teases him for a bit and Sam says “It’s just- I get that you might not love the idea of me seeing Celia, but… I just think we should keep things a bit more… professional now. You know?” Alice is clearly hurt by this but is clearly trying to cope with jokes and sarcasm. 

SAM

“Alice wait.”

ALICE

“What.”

SAM

“I just don’t want things to get weird…”

ALICE

“Then you’re in the wrong line of work.”

SAM

“Yeah. 

SAM

“I’m sorry”

An odd comment from Alice. I wonder if she is referring to the weird occurrences in the cases or the nature of many of the people who work in the OIAR. Does the OIAR attract weird people? It isn’t unheard of for Entities to tend to attract people with certain traits or personalities more than others.

Alice tells Sam “But if you ever ask me to be professional again, I'm going to have to take a shit on your desk.” and I wish I could say with confidence that this was just a joke and not a threat. I can see why Alice might be a little hurt by Sam asking to be professional because he is basically saying they should stop talking during their long tedious boring office job right after he went on a very personal date with another coworker. Not to mention the fact that Alice clearly cares about him and even went with him all the way to the ruins of the Magnus Institute.

Sam once again asks Alice if the cases are real. Alice asks if it really matters and Sam says “Yeah, kind of! If we’re working for the Men in Black or covering up ghosts or whatever then shouldn’t someone go to the press or…” to which Alice responds “Okay, a) You’re drunk, b) You can’t prove anything and c) you signed the official secrets act in your onboarding.And I know all your school friends say treason's “bussin'” and “fire”, but it won't look good on your CV.” before stopping Sam’s interjection and elaborating “Look Sam, you really want my opinion? Sober up and stop trying to make an impact. Just do the job and take your pay.” Basically, Alice is telling Sam not to try to be the big hero. I makes me wonder how certain Alice is that the cases aren’t real or if she just thinks whether they are real or not doesn’t matter because she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it anyway, so she just works off the assumption they are not.

SAM

“And what, just ignore what’s going on right under my nose?”

ALICE

“(heading off) Pretty much. Keep it professional.”

SAM

“(incredulous) I’m sorry?”

ALICE

“It's ok when I say it.”

SAM sighs and goes back to work.

I can’t 100% tell if Alice telling Sam to “Keep it professional” is her way of getting back at Sam or if she is more so getting at the idea that she is using it in a different context for different reasons. Maybe both.

Why Smirke’s 14?

I’ve seen more and more people asking why people such as myself have been deferring to, or even adamant about, Smirke’s 14 still being applicable, and to be honest I don’t think I’ve done the best job actually sitting down and explaining all the logic in a cohesive way. Considering Lena mentioned balance and opposing forces in episode 13, and how that rings similar to Smirke’s original philosophy of balance among the Entities, I figured now was a good time to mention it.

A mistake that I think a lot of fans make is that they assume the Entities sort of invented fear or are the reason fear exists when this doesn’t seem to be the case. For example, The Extinction and The Flesh are not the reason the fear of global warming / advancing technology and being butchered / consumed / disfigured exist. They merely feed on, and sometimes exacerbate in specific target people, already existing fears and concerns. In MAG 200 we get “Then came minds that knew it differently. They grew slowly, over the millennia; inch by inch they found new things to dread. The fear of their own end, of the things that lived in the darkness, became a fear of the darkness itself. And as they grew to know what it is that they saw, to give it names, and struggle at learning, so too did they learn to fear that their eyes might deceive them, or show them too much. And as they learned to know their friends and kin, so too did they learn to fear the unknown figure, the coming of the stranger, and the silence when they were alone. And when they found fire, that bright ignition of home and hope and progress, the thing that was fear gorged itself on a newfound terror once again.” This fits in line with what we know about the Entities. Generally speaking, what usually happens is once a fear of something becomes great or common enough on a mass scale an Entity will emerge to feed on it. As I’ve mentioned before, these Entities are all parts of a bigger whole but it helps to think of them as specialists. Each Entity specializes in tracking down and consuming specific types of fear, sort of like how different parts of our body have different purposes and can be made out of different tissues and materials for different reasons. Saying the Entities are the only reason various fears exist would be like saying the only reason animals have meat is for carnivores to eat them. In reality, animals started developing various tissues and meats before certain creatures evolved to take advantage of the resource.

The closest we get to the idea that one or more Entities created a fear from scratch is “Once upon a time there was fear. Old fear. Primal fear. A fear of blood and pounding feet, a fear of that sudden burst of pain and then nothing. And that fear was nothing. Went nowhere. Knew not what it was. Then it became. Or perhaps it always was and simply entered. But fear was here and true and was itself, and it hungered. It wished to know more. It wished to feel more. It wished to be more. And to those things that hurried through the grass, that shivered through the night in their burrows and their caves, because they knew the dark held flashing talons and shining eyes, they fed the fear. It was blunt and it was simple, but still it was solid enough to satisfy. And the thing that was fear was sated and content.” However, while some parts of this are ambiguous, such as whether or not the fears were born attached to the TMA universe, the way it’s phrased makes it sound like what most likely happened is the fear of being hunted caused the first ever Entity (The Hunt) to come into existence. This line says that the primal fear “went nowhere.” It would have gone nowhere because nothing was feeding on it but “Then it became. Or perhaps it always was and simply entered. But fear was here and true and was itself, and it hungered.” Suddenly an Entity manifests from or because of that fear and begins to hunger it. Once again, even in the beginning, the cause and effects are existing fears birthing new Entities.

It’s also important to mention that the Entities couldn’t always manifest in the physical world. It is stated “And as the things that were fear hovered at the edge of the world, the flowing horror of these minds nourished them, swelling some and withering others, pushing and pulling the shattered, swirling mass of terror into ever newer and undiscovered forms. And something else began to happen. Some minds did not simply recoil from them and feed them. Some seemed almost to call them, to court them, to hunger for them in return. Minds that saw the faces of the things that were fear, and were compelled as much as they were repulsed. Whether or not they knew what it was they did, they called out. And they were answered. Time is different for fear, and it cannot be said exactly who was the first to open themselves and be filled with the power of terror. A hermit, huddled in a pitch black cave through winter, who emerged and brought the depth of night with him wherever he trod. A pestilent chieftain who found her breath sloughed from her body and rotted whatever it touched. A warrior driven from their village, who found their face as smooth and shifting as the sands of their home. Which came first does not matter, the unseen gap was bridged, and the thin veil between the world that was and the things that were fear had been torn, ever so slightly. And with this tear, they grew stronger, bolder, pouring themselves into the world and creating monsters. Long things that wore you like a suit, smiling things that stripped you from your bones, unseen things that watched and watched and watched and never left you. And with each new creation, each new servant, the Fears reached further and fed the things that made them. And with this newfound power came greed. The hunger for more, the unformed, unfocused, but impossibly huge desire to exist. To join the minds that gave them shape and purpose, and finally drink their fill ‘til they were one and the same. They had no concept of how, or when, or even why, but they needed it. They needed it.”

The Protocol universe seems quite similar to the TMA universe in that it closely parallels ours in many ways. Many of the cultures that exist in our universe exist there, such as the UK and various countries to name a few, and many of the common fears seem like our own. Even if the Entities are recent additions to the Protocol universe a lot of the fears that gave birth to, and sustained, them would presumably still exist. The fear of being butchered for The Flesh, knowledge and being watched for The Eye, the unknown for The Stranger, violence for the Slaughter. etc.. These aren’t completely alien and distinct cultures or worlds here but places that closely mirror or resemble our own. So a lot of the fears would be the same which would mean basically all of the sustenance for the existing Entities would still be there.

While this does address the various categories this does not address Smirke’s 14 specifically, so let’s talk about that. I’ve seen a lot of people under the impression that Smirke somehow caused the Entities to organize themselves into the various categories we see characters throughout the series using but I think this gets the cause and effect of the Entities backwards once again. Smirke is only one guy and not only is he just one person but a majority of the people didn’t know the Entities existed, much less anything about Smirke’s categories. There weren’t a lot of statements were a victim got jumped by say a creeping figure in the dark and surmised “ah this must be related to the ghost that attacked Jan last week as a manifestation of The Dark.” To most people most supernatural events would be brushed off as delusions and the ones that weren’t wouldn’t usually be immediately assumed to be related without due cause. Even in the Post-Change world there were plenty of victims who seemed unaware of the full scope of the Entities and Smirke’s categories. At best Smirke’s categories would affect the manifestations directed at people who were aware of them but most people are not fully aware of these categories. So overall Smirke’s categories would have been but a drop in the metaphorical ocean that is collective fear.

Smirke made the categories based on patterns and behaviors he had noticed in the Entities and their manifestations. Some manifestations seem attracted to the same kind of emotions, or others clash because sometimes they are fighting in an attempt to bring out two often contradictory emotions. The weird spider people are more likely to work together with other weird spider people but they are more likely to fight the weird destructive burning people. So on and so forth.

For a clearer example of what I mean I would point to the various artifact books. The so-called leitners. The leitners didn’t just start popping into existence so that Jurgen Leitner could collect them. Rather, they already existed which prompted Jurgen to look for them and store them in his library before it was subsequently attacked and destroyed. The Entities did not change their entire general behavior on a global scale because one person found a book, Leitner just wrote his name in existing books. Likewise, what Smirke was at least trying to do was note already existing behaviors and manifestations and find commonalities between them. It wouldn’t be super different in concept than any other of the numerous pattern based categories humans make. For example, we divide animals into things like fish, mammals, birds, reptiles, etc.. These categories are usually based on shared traits between these animals but even they are not perfect categories or little boxes. Every mammal gives live birth… until it’s a platypus. How we divide up animals are just made up human concepts to note various patterns and differences. You could also use colors as an example like Gerard does, we assign names and categories to various colors, we even have things like primary, secondary, and complimentary colors, but in reality all colors are just all pieces of a wider spectrum of electromagnetic waves.

Smirke also mentions weird dreams in MAG 138 (The Architecture of Fear) when he says “Did I ever tell you about the dreams? I’m sure I must have. I would dream about them, you see, as a young man, long before I devised my taxonomy. I would find myself in nightmares of strange, far-off places: a field of graves, a grasping tunnel, an abattoir knee-deep in pig’s blood. I believed then, as I still believe now, that these places I saw were the Powers themselves, expressed in their truest form, far more entirely than any “secret” book can claim. And if, as I came to believe, the Dread Powers were themselves places of some sort, then surely with the right space, the right architecture, they could be contained. Channeled. Harnessed. So yes, hubris. Not simply in that, I suppose, but in believing that those I brought into my confidence shared my lofty goals.” Which might imply one or more Powers were trying to communicate with him directly.

Jon does make a point that Smirke’s system is not flawless and it is often subjective as he notes in MAG 183 (Monument) in response to Martin saying he shouldn’t have a domain because he’s not an Avatar “It’s just a word. A word used by… fools like Smirke to try and sort everything into neat little boxes, to reduce the messy spray of human fear into a checklist: Human, avatar, monster, victim. Only now, now there’s a binary. There’s finally a clear dividing line and, well, I’m sorry you’re not happy with which side you’ve ended up on.” Jon also mentions that the domain that appears in the episode is “Dead? Yes. Very much so. This place is… an homage, shall we say. A monument. To him and those like him, who tried to… categorise the world with themselves at the centre. In so doing, constructed the architecture of its suffering.”

However in the next episode, MAG 184 (Like Ants) Jon says “The whole place would collapse and then, without The Corruption’s influence, I think The Buried would flow in to fill the gap.” to which Martin retorts “I thought you said Smirke’s Fourteen was a load of bull?” before Jon explains “I said it was limited, and draws artificial borders, but it does have its use when it comes to conceptualising these things. Regardless, I’m pretty sure we’d be left somewhat… entombed.” This fits in with what Gerard says about the Entities in MAG 111 (Family Business) “And like colours, some of these powers, they feed into or balance each other. Some really clash, and you just can’t put them together. I mean, you could see them all as just one thing, I guess, but it would be pretty much meaningless, y’know, like… like trying to describe a… shirt by talking about the concept of colour.” Using the color example again, technically all colors we see are just varying wavelengths of light but responding to someone asking “does this look red to you?” with “red, blue, purple… what’s the difference? They’re all the same” isn’t that helpful. If I were to put it another way, imagine trying to go through your life without using any units of measurement. Someone asks how far away a country is and you have to explain it to them without any standardized unit of measurement. It’s certainly possible for some but most people would find it even more obtuse, arbitrary, and unwieldy than even the equally made up standardized units of measurement like kilometers and miles.

However, these categories are not clean, they can be nebulous, and people may organize them differently. In MAG 167 (Curiosity) it is noted that a previous Archivist, Angus Stacey, tried to come up with his own categories: “Angus had been too keen to learn, too ambitious in his academic legacy. He had had grand plans to revise Smirke’s Fourteen, and, in doing so, burned through his resources, his luck, and ultimately all but one of his assistants.”

At the end of the day I think what Jon and TMA are saying is that yes the Entities are kind of incomprehensible and that very incomprehensibility means that the only way many people can process what they are and why they act in certain ways is by dividing them into categories. Jon also points out to Gerard that fears can vary depending on the culture and person and Gerard responds with “A lot of them, yeah, but others are deeper than that. And when our fears change, so do these things. But it’s not quick. Gertrude reckons they’ve basically been the same since the Industrial Revolution. She and my mum both liked to follow Smirke’s list of fourteen.” Which makes sense, most people don’t want to die or be stabbed. Gerard’s comment also makes it sound like other people might categorize the Entities differently but he also says “I always think it helps to imagine them like colours. The edges bleed together, and you can talk about little differences: “oh, that’s indigo, that’s more lilac”, but they’re both purple. I mean, I guess there are technically infinite colours, but you group them together into a few big ones. A lot of it’s kind of arbitrary. I mean, why are navy blue and sky blue both called blue, when pink’s an entirely different colour from red? Y’know? I don’t know, that’s just how it works.” The Smirke’s 14 aren’t as specific as some people make them out to be and can actually be quite broad and sweeping categories.

So with that in mind, I think Smirke’s fears are a lot more helpful and generally applicable than people give them credit for. And I mean, Smirke was onto something since he does seem to be one of the people that came up with the Entities’ rituals in the first place. Upon hearing about an attempted ritual for The Dark he realized every Entity probably has a similar ritual. As he says in the statement of MAG 138 “So many have abandoned us, casting about for rituals that I helped design. In my excited discussions with Mr. Rayner, I perhaps extrapolated too much from his talk of a grand ritual of darkness. The Dark, I thought, was simply one of the powers, so it stands to reason that each of them should have its own ritual. Perhaps they already did, even before I put pen to paper.” Once again implying that ideas about The Dark and rituals for the Entities to react to possibly existed before Smirke and he was simply collecting / noting various patterns and similarities. He may simply have been the most recent or well known person to put these thoughts together but not necessarily the first. Even then, Smirke wasn’t completely right because while his theory about balance was technically right in the sense that you need a ritual to summon every Entity into the universe for one to work he seems to have tied each ritual too closely to a single Entity (which luckily caused them to fail until Jonah worked out the issue).

Smirke does ponder if he brought the Entities into existence when he says “Fourteen powers, with their opposites and their allies, each with an aim no more or less than manifestation. Apocalypse. Apotheosis. I wonder, did my work bring about these dreadful things, or – did I simply develop the means by which they can be known?” But I don’t think he’s the sole reason they exist and I’m more inclined to say that he developed “the means by which they can be known”. His categories allowed others to try to understand the Entities and what they want in a manner that was more digestible. In MAG 200 we see Jon walk through the birth of each of the Entities and interestingly The Web seems to have identified itself as being at least somewhat distinct from the other Entities even if it does identify the other Entities as parts of itself: “But there was one, the part that some would call the Spider, that had been given a gift beyond all its brethren. The minds that feared grew suspicious of their own schemes, of connections and consequences, and over time these suspicions became threads, then webs, then nerves that granted the Spider, the Mother-of-Puppets, the Hidden Machination, a mind of its own; to plot and plan and draw its own connections, its own conclusions. Wheels, within wheels within wheels… It would not, could not tell its other parts, for were they even able to understand such things, which they could not, to trust, to share in such a way ran counter to its very essence.”

We also know that the Entities used to be more harmonious but then began to clash and warp as more fears came into existence: “And as these tiny, strange minds grew and learned, they did something new. They began to take their thoughts, their instincts and their horrors, and they crystallised them. They gave them sound and form and shape to share them. And as they did the thing that was fear felt itself began to tear, to crack and fracture along a thousand unseen fault lines. It bled and warped and multiplied, and could no longer see itself as once it did. It could never be whole again.” Funnily enough, this implies that language probably has a big part to play in the manifestation of the Entities but it seems like a general thing as opposed to Smirke singlehandedly fracturing a nigh primordial being with a checklist of vague categories. The invention of language created new ways to transmit and think about fear. Languages that we know probably also exist in the Protocol universe (such as English).

So how does one reconcile The Web distinguishing itself from other parts? Well, I would use Leitner’s example of a large body. In MAG 80 (The Librarian) Leitner says “Imagine, you are an ant, and you have never before seen a human. Then one day, into your colony, a huge fingernail is thrust, scraping and digging. You flee to another entrance, only to be confronted by a staring eye gazing at you. You climb to the top, trying to find escape and, above you, can see the vast dark shadow of a boot falling upon you. Would that ant be able to construct these things into the form of a single human being? Or would it believe itself to be under attack by three different, equally terrible, but very distinct assailants?” Well, the thing about a body is you don’t have complete control over all parts of it. Your iris will automatically contract or relax when exposed to light, your body may have an allergic reaction to something that won’t harm it, your nails and hair will continue to grow so you must cut them, etc.. So The Web is still kind of an amorphous blob and a part of a greater whole but it’s a sentient blob? At least sentient in a way conventional humans can more easily understand.

This is all to say that I think Smirke’s categories are kind of less impactful on the Entities than people give credit for while also being more useful than people give them credit for. I’ve seen people wonder if the Entities blended together when they went through the gap in reality and while that’s possible, if we use Gerard’s color example, the Entities might be closer to wavelengths of light. So it might just be like shining a light through a hole. Sure the light might look like white light sometimes but at the end of the day all the colors of the rainbow are still in there somewhere. I think people get too hung up on Jon saying the categories are bogus while ignoring the times where he admits their merit or finds them convenient to use.

There’s always the chance that I could be wrong, I admit, but I don’t think people give Smirke’s categories enough credit. It’s possible that the people in this new universe use different categories or divide the Entities up differently but that wouldn’t necessarily mean that say The Desolation just no longer exists. Just like me switching from meters to feet as a unit of measurement doesn’t literally change distance. All I’ve done by doing that is just change my point of reference for what’s happening, and the distance is still the same.

Also, from a narrative perspective, while the categories CAN be obtuse and limit one’s understanding (while this might seem reductive to say) the fear categories are a major part of TMA’s identity and what help make it unique from a lot of horror. I’ve seen people who don’t like the Fears and wish the categories didn’t exist (and arguably they missed Jon’s point about arbitrary lines) but at the same time most horror I’ve come across doesn’t really have the various Entities like TMA does. I would go as far as saying that it helps set TMA apart from a lot of other stuff at the end of the day. But, like I said, who's to say that the people in the Protocol universe don’t have their own categories and dividing lines or things didn’t get shaken up at least a little.

However, I think some people are also getting too caught up on previously established manifestations of the Fears. It feels like some people have a long checklist of things like “fire, dirt, ocean, cameras, etc.” and just go through that list looking for things to checkmark. If something isn’t on that list they assume that it must be a new Fear or breaking all the known rules. But remember what Leitner says in MAG 80 when Jon asks “What about bones? Does one of them manifest with, with bones?” “You’re thinking too literally. Examining the physical categorisation, but ignoring the meaning of the thing. What are the bones? In the Distortion, your “Michael”, the structure of a skeleton, an established reality in your mind, is twisted and warped into an impossible form. But in other cases? Are they a symbol of slaughter and butchery? Are they the familiar made wrong? Or are they simply part of the messy, physicality of flesh?” It’s not so much as what the Entities manifest as but why. The Entities can manifest as seemingly just about anything as long as it generates their respective fear. The Vast often manifests as the sky and storms but The Spiral manifested as a storm to torment Michael Crew. Almost any Entity could manifest as needles or what have you in the right circumstances depending on what the focus is. It’s important to focus more on what the fears embody generally and not just tunnel vision on the physical manifestations. The Stranger is the fear of the unknown and mystery for example, not simply just the fear of clowns or circuses. In this way, reducing The Stranger to “the circus one” can be inaccurate despite the relation. The Desolation is the fear of loss and destruction, so while it can be fire it can just as easily hypothetically be a natural disaster like a tornado, earthquake, or even a swarm of locusts destroying your crops. It could even be a bank draining all your assets.

That being said, the reason why I think Smirke’s 14 is still at least somewhat applicable is because none of the cases we have gotten have really been anything that Entities haven’t done or couldn’t do before. This is already long enough so I’m sorry that I can’t go through each of these in extreme detail but RedCanary seems Eye related, Arthur sounds like the Anglerfish, the case in episode 2 is one of the most Flesh statements I’ve ever heard, the case in episode 3 reeks of The Corruption, the case in episode 4 is music that can make people fight each other (probably The Slaughter), the case in “Personal Screening” seems like The Eye again, Needles is a bit unclear to me but considering someone tried to stab them The Slaughter wouldn’t be unlikely (but Enttiies like The Flesh are possible), the case in “Give and Take” sounds like a manifestation of The Stranger, episode 8’s case resembles The Lonely, Episode 9’s case sounds like either The Web or The Desolation, Mr. Bonzo sounds pretty in line for what we’ve seen in regards to The Stranger, whatever “deep” is calling out to Gordon in episode 11 sounds the most like The Buried (The Buried is even referred to as the “Forever Deep Below” in TMA which would relate it to “The Deep” Gordon is talking about. There’s an argument for The Vast too but considering all the graves and the desire to bury things in them I’m more inclined to assume Buried), and episode 12 is just Mr. Bonzo showing up. If you want my full thoughts or have any specific questions you can check out the respective articles here (TMP Quick Thoughts Archive).

There’s one Entity I haven’t mentioned though. That’s The Extinction. The Extinction is sort of confirmed to exist but it’s a bit unclear. In MAG 175 (Epoch) Jon says “Of course it was real – A-At least in the sense that – it was a thing people feared. Whether it was strong enough in its own right to be considered at a level with Smirke’s Fourteen, or – whether it was on its way to getting there, I – maybe. This sort of thing is always muddy.” Whether or not The Change allowed the Extinction to gain enough fear to fully emerge is still unclear. There’s an argument that The Extinction was possibly sent back to square one since it seemed like Jonah didn’t need to involve it in his ritual so it’s possible it didn’t emerge in time. But, like I said previously, a lot of the fears that started giving birth to The Extinction in the first place within the world of TMA probably still exist in Protocol.

Then you have to consider the possibility that other characters or monsters may have been dragged with the Entities to the Protocol universe. If something like the Anglerfish or any number of other beings tied to the Entities got sucked into the Protocol universe it would not be impossible for them to introduce the already existing categories to new people. Likewise, they might still have many similar alliances and biases, a being that identified itself as being a part of The Stranger might still tend to dislike The Eye.

As mundane and unsatisfying as my answer might seem, my reasoning basically boils down to “I have yet to see any conclusive evidence that would prove to me this isn’t Smirke’s 14 and The Extinction” and “All of the stuff we are seeing is stuff Smirke’s 14 did or could do to begin with.”

Conclusion

This was an interesting episode but it still leaves some stuff up in the air. I wonder if the alchemical symbols will tie into the OIAR’s goal of balance? [Insert quote about equivalent exchange]. Will Celia betray Sam or side with him? Does she actually like him or just see him as easy to read and are both Sam and Celia being completely honest or not telling the full story (they are probably still hiding some things I think)? Which External will Gwen meet next? I hope they are more talkative and explanatory than Mr. Bonzo. Why did Mr. Bonzo kill that groom anyway? Was the groom aligned to an Entity or organization?

If you want to check out any of the previous articles you can do so here- TMP Quick Thoughts Archive.

[tare-anime]

Fullmetal Alchemist

Welp, finally I read this manga.

So very late, yes I know, but this and that happened and I've finally able to binge read this amazing 10 years work (2001-2010) in a little more than a week.

Tbh, the first book was mostly world building and kind of slow paced, but starting from the last half of second book.... I can't stop reading.

Wow. Just wow.

As a reader who usually has to wait a week or two between each chapter, being able to read a series from start to finish in a week is quite a different experience, tbh 🤣🤣 I need two days to take a breath and comprehend the story. There must be details that I missed that I need to reread.

Overall, the highlight of this series is the impecabble characterizations and the growth of each character, and character dynamics.

And not only Ed and Al as protagonists, or Winry, Roy, Izumi as the closest support characters but also the people around them up until the minorest characters. I love Scar, Barry the Chopper, the Homonculus, and even the main antagonist Shadow in the flask.

All of them get their moments to shine. All of them got their share of development, and most important, all of them got to do something in the plot!

The world building and plot also been done amazingly. From the current timeline, up until events in the past, and all loose ends being tied up in the end that give me the most satisfactory endings. It is still an open ending, but at the same time the epilogue feels enough.

And of course, this manga contains so many amazing female characters, and each one of them is so badass. They have their strength and weakness and impact to the people around them.

My favorites mommies.... Izumi Curtiz and Olivier Armstrong.

OmG!!!! Especially in these badass moments??? 🛐🛐🛐🛐 My Queeeennn!

Of course, I will always love black haired beauty with knives. LanFan my beloved 💖💖💖💖

And last but not least, Granny Pinnako!

I mean, this person has been there, and will always be there through sweet moments and sorrows. Supporting Trisha and Hohenheim, Ed and Al, Winry. She stands strong for them. She is there when these people needs some strong hands to steady their wobbly legs. And pushes them to carry on with their life.

That is.... one amazing woman right there!!

As far as pairing ships, being a TwiYor fan I am, I've always been bombarded with Royai fanarts (and I'm not complaining). Yes, I noticed the tragic pasts, the relationship, and how supportive Royai can be (and it is quite similar to TwiYor in a way), but I think for FMA, I lean more to Ed and Winry ship.

Don't get me wrong, I love both ships.

But seeing Ed and Winry grow from little boy and girls, do their share of hardships, realize their feelings, and finally voice their awkward proposal. Auugghhh!!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰

My favorite moments for these ships are:

Yes yes, I will still love angst and hurt/comfort whenever I go 🤣🤣🤣

Oh, other ships that I like: LanFan and Lin, Izumi and Sig, May and Alphonse, Mr and Mrs. Hughes.

All in all, what an amazing series. I'm glad I finally able to read this 🥰🥰🥰🥰 and will do a reread while waiting for the next spy x family chapter.

[biggreenneatbox]

Bumbleby Big Bang Post #2

...okay, so full disclosure: this isn't an official second BBB post from me. Clickbait-y title is clickbait, and I do apologise.

We are only supposed to have 1 story entry per person per year, understandably to not overload one's self with too many projects, and not only have I already uploaded on 13th December, but the last post was yesterday, Christmas Eve 2023, by the incredible pugoata.

Even then, this subject was discussed rather at length within the BBB Discord Server little over a month ago, even as a silly little idea a few people threw around. As per the rules of the Big Bang:

"Do not discuss your BBB ideas in the server, or in public, at all"

As this was indeed a BBB idea discussed within the server, it cannot be entered officially as a story.

But from the simple question posed "What would it look like to write a Bees Story from a perspective other than the Bees?", that stupid idea was in my head. And then due to a mental health nosedive, I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands, and a crazy idea in my head to follow through with after that brief talk.

And thus, 3 weeks later, this. Despite waiting until Christmas Day itself to post, it is not itself a festive story. Just wanted to put that out there before expectations were formed.

I held off posting so that everyone could enjoy the fruits of everyone who worked on their BBBs' labour, but now with that buffer out of the way, I'd give you something for the next couple of days worth of binging. I thought I'd also offer out to anyone who wanted to give it a shot:

Any artists who want to draw part of this story - so long as you credit this story as the inspiration, you have my full permission to do so!

So behold, my second (albeit unofficial) story written for this year's BBB:

The Diary of The Bumbleby

"The Diary of The Bumbleby (or: The near comprehensive written chronicle of how basically everyone on Remnant was aware of Yang and Blake's romantic feelings for one another before Yang and Blake themselves were)" - by Weiss Schnee - Chapter 1 - FeugoFox42 - RWBY [Archive of Our Own]

All images were made by me using the website Hero Forge for custom D&D Miniatures, as I cannot really art properly but I wanted there to be something for people to look at that could be thrown together fairly speedily.

There are the rest of images below the cut that should appear in the story (hopefully 🤞), but it does contain minor spoilers within, so proceed with that knowledge at your own discretion.

Yang Calabrone (née Xiao Long)

Blake Calabrone (née Belladonna)

Maid of Honour Ruby Rose, and Best Woman Weiss Schnee

Blake's Bridesmaids: Ilia Amitola, Sun Wukong, and Nora Valkyrie

Yang's Bridesmen: Oscar Pine, Lie Ren Valkyrie, and Jaune Arc

Parents of the Brides: Ghira and Kali Belladonna, and Taiyang Xiao Long

Wedding Officiant and mother of a Bride, Raven Branwen

Ring Bearer Extraordinaire and the Bestest, Fluffiest Boy on the face of Remnant, Zwei

Wedding Stylist and Wedding Photographer respectively: Coco Adel and Velvet Scarlatina

Maître d’: Old Man Shopkeep

Qrow Branwen and Winter Schnee

Guests (in no particular order): Flynt Coal; Neon Katt; Fox Alistair; Neopolitan; Fiona Thyme; May Marigold; Emerald Sustrai

And finally...

...yeah, you're gonna have to read the story to know what the fuck that is about

Please, enjoy this random crack fic, and Merry Christmas!

[witchlingcirce]

List 5 things that make you happy, then send this to the askbox of the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals and followers! :)

AHHHHH yes I would love to answer this question!!!

1. Listening to music!!

Recently I’ve been really getting into music, I think it’s because I’ve had so many assignments lately but still. I listened to Billie Eilishs new album today, SO GOOD!! I’m not usually a Billie fan, but I’m so obsessed with this album. I’ve honestly been getting into Chappell Roan lately as well!

2. Journaling

I started to journal again this week (I’ve been so busy with assignments it’s impossible 😭) but doing it again makes me so happy, and honestly let’s me express my feelings in a really healthy way. It also lets me yap without bothering my friends.

3. READING

I’m a massive reader, and I haven’t been reading as much as I used too (I read 141 books in 2021, I will never peak like that again.) recently I’ve been rereading the shadowhunter books, I’m up to city of lost souls!! I’ve always been wanting to read some classics (I say read but really audiobooks). Currently listening to The castle Otranto and I’m also going to be starting persuasion soon!

4. Watching TV series

I’ve really gotten back into watching TV shows. I’ve definitely been watching a lot of Kdramas. But I’m also planning on binge watching house of the dragon soon, season two is coming out soon and I am SO EXCITED. Literally been waiting for this the moment the show finished. I personally really enjoyed the segment of the dance of the dragons in fire & blood, so I’ve really been liking the show (except for someeeeeee criticism)

5. PINTEREST

I just love Pinterest. I think everyone likes Pinterest!!! I don’t think this is something that needs to be expanded on! Pinterest is love, Pinterest is life 🙂‍↕️.

TYSM FOR THE ASK CUTIE PIE ❤️❤️❤️

[66sharkteeth]

Hey there, 66! Hope you're doing great. I have been going through your account for the past few hours (this reminds me of that one time I stayed up till 2 am as I appreciated all the artworks on your Instagram) so I know you've heard this several times, but I wanted to say it myself too: your work is wonderful. Believe me, I absolutely love it!

I found City of Blank years ago, during its first season. I read it all, and was quite impressed with the concept, intrigued by the plot, and in love with the characters. But before the next season started, I dropped out of reading Webtoons completely, as far as I remember. Long story short, I revisited Webtoon recently, read a few episodes of City of Blank, and was hooked. Yep. I binge-read the entire rest of the episodes in... three to five days?

So I want to commend you on your amazing concept, beautiful and eye-catching art, plot that keeps me reading late into the night (and at the dining table, between my studies, every single chance I get), the characters (really, they're very well-written — please don't doubt that — and unique, with different stories and personalities, I just love them), and the themes too (incorporated nicely, and it does make me wonder what it means to be a human). The way you write grey characters is one of the best things in your story, I feel.

(I feel like I should give you specific examples of what I like, but I have a tendency of talking too much, as you can see, so this will get way too long, I think... and sorry about the already huge chunks of text. but I hope this make you feel happy somehow)

Alright, now onto my actual questions. They're actually not related to the webcomic itself, since I really can't think of anything interesting... But your story is really good, so here are some queries I have about writing in general.

Do you have any tips for thinking of ideas? About concepts, plot, whatever; how to really get your brain in that mode, you know.

How do you create such vibrant characters? My characters are so similar... there are at least three pairs of nearly-identical characters. And how do you make them flawed yet still so likable?

They are pretty general questions, my apologies. It's just that, you know, since I'm getting to interact with the creator of one of my current favourite stories, why not learn something from them? You can just answer with your personal processes or whatever, I just wished to know how you do it.

I'm really looking forward to the next episode (but take your time, I'm okay with waiting). Pretty sad that this is the last season though. I'll miss it. Could you maybe tell me the estimated date of return and how many more episodes we'll have? Just a rough idea will do too.

That's all. (At this point it'll come as a relief to you 😂) Have a wonderful week ahead, lots of love, and know that there are lots of people who genuinely enjoy your work, you adorable shark! ❤️

(also, don't know why I'm telling you, but this is my first ever interaction on Tumblr with literally anyone) (cool site, I like the easy formatting)

(If you've read this entire thing, thank you. Did I bother you too much? I hope not.)

Hey there! Gonna do my best to answer this since it's been in my inbox for a while, but apologies if it's not the most coherent as my head's still in a bit of a fog from a cold.

First off, thank you for the kind words. I remember they made my day when I first got this ask, but they made it again as I'm waking up w/ a throbbing head ache and coughing my lungs out from the NYCC 2023 Con Crud™.

Anyway, gonna answer your questions the best I can, especially because I'm not entirely sure what the best way to answer these kinds of questions are-

Do you have any tips for thinking of ideas? About concepts, plot, whatever; how to really get your brain in that mode, you know.

I think one thing I like to shape a lot of my concepts around is making something unordinary ordinary. I've talked about it before, but one of the inspirations behind blanks is shadow people, like the ghosts. They're so horrifying and creepy to me, and I thought it would be neat if I made a world where the most creepy and scary thing to me was just...super ordinary and mundane. Like a world where you go into your living room and you're like "Man, that shadow person is still standing in front of my tv. How obnoxious."

A lot of my upcoming ideas kind of focus around this concept too. What if we lived in a world where demons were just every day citizens that went to work and school with us? What if we lived in a world where nobody feared death and was excited for it? What if we lived in a world where half the population was in prison? I can't say every single story idea I have falls into this, but I'd say a lot of them do and I find it's often a kick off point for a lot of my ideas.

How do you create such vibrant characters? My characters are so similar... there are at least three pairs of nearly-identical characters. And how do you make them flawed yet still so likable?

Do I make them likable? Sometimes I can't tell when I look at characters like Lyss haha. Because I think she's a victim of how I write characters, which is just... I dunno, write them like they're real people. Everybody is mad at the decisions Lyss made but... I'm sorry. I'll forever die on the hill that everyone are hypocrites and 90% of people would have done the same thing in her shoes. Only a flawless, benevolent, and frankly kind of stupid, person would have just...let Rex go in those circumstances, evil other half be damned. He was still a danger who proved he couldn't control himself, and the same way you'd probably report your best friend who was driving raving drunk after he just smashed into someone, she reported a dangerous person. Even if people hate her for it, I wrote what any person would have done in that situation. And that's how I try to write all my characters, for better or for worse. A lot of Rex's stupid decisions are dictated by his anxiety and depression, and I know from firsthand experience how being in that state of mind can influence your decisions and overall outlook on life and the people who love you, despite what you may think. I guess my advice is just to give them human flaws. A lot of people don't like Nia because she's manipulative, but I write her as a character who 100% practices what she preaches. Yeah, she "gas lit" Rex into joining Blan Corp, but she also 1000% believed it was the best thing for him.

Desmond probably comes off as the more "flawless" characters, but his own self-loathing and... catholic blank guilt is a big part of what pushed Rex away. In the time when Rex was questioning and hating himself for being a blank, why would he ever go the one person who hates himself for being a blank more than him? When he could go to the person (Nia) who celebrates him being a blank, and reminds him he can be loved for being one.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. Hopefully that gives you some to chew on.

[ichijager13]

Teach me how to be loved

Chapter XIII

Heaven is a place on earth with you

Pairing : Eren Jäger x reader, past relationships: Reiner Braun x reader, Jean kristein x reader

Characters: Eren Jäger, Annie Leonhart, Pieck Finger, Reiner Braun, Jean Kristein, Carla Jäger, Sophie Jäger.

Tags: Unhealthy coping mechanism, unhealthy relationships, childhood trauma, physical and verbal abuse, self-esteem and trust issues, domestic violence, implied/ referenced cheating, and a touch of sweet, lovable, and non fuckboy Eren Jäger

This fic is brought to you by Lana Del Rey’s songs

Masterlist, AO3,  Playlists: Reader’s POV, Eren’s POV

A/N: Heeey! I'm sorry for taking so long to update the story, things are a bit crazy at work. I promise I’ll make it up for you as soon as possible.

Also thank you so much for reading and supporting my works.

Ichi  ❤️  

Your Friday nights became more serene and pleasant after you started dating Eren. Depending on your mood and the weather you’d either spend the night indoors watching a movie or binge-watching a series or go out on a night date.

For tonight, you planned a movie night.

You stood in the middle of your living room, eying your preparation with a satisfied grin. Everything was in place and you still had an hour before Eren arrives. So, you decided to jump into the shower.

You were pulling your hair in a messy bun when you heard the door. You risked a quick glance at the mirror to see if anything needed to be fixed before you get the door.

The woman that stared back at you didn’t look like anything you were familiar with. She seemed happier, smiling from ear to ear.

Happy? Don’t lie to yourself, we both know he’ll run as fast as he can as soon as he discovers who you really are,  the voice at the back of your head scoffed.

You took a deep breath and screwed your eyes shut in an attempt to chase away those dark thoughts.

Opening the door, you were met with the green-eyed man. You always find yourself wondering how he always manages to look handsome no matter what he was wearing. Like tonight, he traded his fancy suits with a black sweat vest on top of a white cotton t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts but still looked as ravishing as always. He looked outrageously handsome.

When your eyes finally met, he granted you with one of his bright smiles, those that never failed to make you feel the urge to squish his cheeks and pepper his face with kisses, before he stepped inside your apartment. You returned his smile opening your arms for him.

“It’s been a long week,” he murmured against your ear. “I missed you,” he added pressing his forehead against yours.

“I missed you too,” you responded caressing his jawline before your lips met. the kiss was soft and sweet, he always took his time to savor and take whatever you had to offer.

“You look beautiful,” he spoke before he caged you in and captured your lips for another kiss.

Unsure if it was his proximity and the feeling of the plush of his lips caressing yours or the unexpected compliment that made your heart pound against your chest. Either way, you loved it and wished for it to last forever. You wanted to remain in his arms for the rest of your life. So, you kissed him back and for the first time in years, you found yourself addressing a prayer. You prayed whoever was ready to listen to keep him by your side and never make you experience being abandoned again. You prayed for this feeling to remain unchanged.

Who are you fooling? We both know you are not meant to be happy. Happiness has no place in your life. He’ll hurt you. Just like the others, he’ll grow sick of the pathetic person that you are and leave you.

Wanting to silence the monsters in your head, you combed your fingers with his chestnut hair and deepened the kiss. Eren was here, holding you, kissing you and that’s all you needed to think about for now.

“What did you pick for tonight?” he inquired when you finally broke the kiss.

“Sweet November,” you replied following him to the living room. “What did you get this time?” You peeked into the paper bag he brought. “Oh, I love those.” You beamed when you saw his mother’s cookies.

“She made them for you,” he replied smiling.

“Really? Tell her I said thanks,” you responded shoving one cookie into your mouth before taking a place next to him on the couch. He idly wrapped an arm around your waist as you rested your head on his shoulder. “It’s one of my favorites,” you voiced when the movie started playing.

Half an hour later, he picked another cinnamon roll before he asked, “Those are good, where did you get them?”

“I made them,” you answered. “I remembered you mentioned you love…” you stopped midsentence when he crashed his lips against yours. The kiss was filled with something you couldn’t name, something you never experienced before this instant.

He tasted like cinnamon and cheese cream, a combination that earned a moan from you.

“Don’t do such adorable gestures without a warning,” he spoke in a deep voice. “Not if you don’t want my heart to explode,” he followed pulling you against his chest as you both laid down.

You buried your face in his chest indulging in the warm embrace of your boyfriend.

You were still finding it hard to believe that you and Eren were together. Because sometimes, it feels like all of this was nothing but the product of your wild and sick imagination. That, Eren never existed or that whatever you were having was just a mirage.

He is real, and he’s going to hurt you. They always do.

You fisted his shirt and squeezed your eyes shut, conjuring the voices to stop torturing you. you begged them to let you enjoy this moment.

Feeling his hand rubbing your back softly, you released your grip and pulled away. “Are you alright, love?” he inquired, genuine concern visible in his voice.

You nodded. “A little cold that’s all,” you lied.

He reached for the blanket behind him and wrapped it around you. he pressed his lips to your temple before looping his arms around you. you looked up at him before nuzzling his neck.

A soft smile broke through your face when you remembered the time he asked you out on an actual date.

It was a Saturday morning, Eren awakened to the feeling of you scratching his scalp gently. He released a satisfied sigh before he pulled you on top of him.

“Morning, beautiful,” he greeted in his raspy morning voice. His pet names never fail to make you feel giddy and smile like an idiot.

“Good morning,” you replied before your lips met.

A dozen minutes later, he cleared his throat, “So, are we ever gonna go out on a real date or are we just gonna keep on doing this?” his hands cupped your face before he asked, “Let me take you on a date.” his thumb traced mindless curves against your cheek.

After what felt like an eternity for him, you muttered an okay.

You left a couple of open-mouthed kisses on his neck and you let out a muffled thank you before you brought your attention back to the movie.

You watched the movie in silence except for the few times you commented or laughed about a scene.

In the end, he nestled his face in the crook of your neck and left a trail of soft pecks when he heard you cry.

You remained on the couch cuddling and talking about your respective weeks and your plans for the next one.

“When will you show me your painting,” he asked between two kisses.

“Not before I finish it.” your response made him groan.

“I might be able to help, give you some ideas,” he argued.

“You do remember what happened the last time I let you in?” you looked him in the eyes.

“That was not my fault,” he huffed.

“You spilled paint all over the place, how come this wasn’t your fault,” you pointed out.

“You shouldn’t have placed it there,” he shrugged.

“Besides, you’ll only distract me when I’m working.”

“No, I don’t,” he gasped.

“Yes, you do. you always… No, Eren… Don’t… Don’t tickle… Eren…” Your giggles filled the silent room and made Eren’s heart thrust against his chest.