#also I got these from twitter but they have no source i’m sorry :((

[honest-moth-of-silver-grove]

hcs for all the castlevania boys (trevor, issac, hector, alucard, dracula, godbrand, the judge, varney, ratko & st. germain- i think that's all of them lol) caring for s/o reader on their period. can be modern times or past times whichever u prefer. 💖

A/N: I wish more people would be less disgusted and more understanding when it comes to menstruation. There are still so many myths circulating about it, I’m shocked sometimes. One time a guy on Twitter said he thought women got periods because they evolved to eat meat. And I was like…. Excuse you?? Lol. Anyway, on to the HCs!

Sorry, some are short. I wanted to do longer to make it fair but there were like TEN characters mentioned and my max is supposed to be SIX so some are taking a far back seat. 

TW: Blood, Period Mention (still w/ GN Reader)

Castlevania Boys Helping S/O GN!Reader with Their Period: 🩸

Trevor: 

Is surprisingly resourceful, given the man was a wandering drunk when you first met him.

Not so much in a kind about-it way, he’s very sarcastic and so over the whole thing right after it starts.

But he did have a large family once so he remembers what his sisters and mother went through.

Will cut off strips of his cape for you to use, but expects you to take care of any sort of ‘mess’, he’s pre-occupied cleaning whatever latest monster’s guts off himself anyway

Buys a whiskey but lets YOU drink most of it to help with the cramps (and for him this is the ultimate sign he loves you lol).

Alucard: 

Is unexpectedly awkward for someone whose mother was a doctor.

He’s very knowledgeable but unsure of how to broach the subject, sort of giving you instructions on what to do (as if you made it to the age you did without knowing??).  

And of course, the castle has everything you could need, and if it doesn’t, he won’t hesitate to travel to get it for you. Although he does insist you stay in while he retrieves it.

If you’ve been together for a while, offers to help clean you up in equal parts removed curiosity and bewitched hunger (although he’s comparatively embarrassed about that later part).

Hector: 

Not phased at all. The man’s used to sticking his hands into corpses, why would menstrual blood be an issue?

Isn’t super knowledgeable about it, he’s been alone focusing solely on his needs for so many years, and this was never one of them. But he does try and learn now that he has you.

He sends his most trustworthy night creatures and reanimated pets to go hunting for the herbs and wild medicines you use. On the other hand, Hector orders the more domesticated pets to stay and cuddle/play with you. 

On the days you’re curled up in a ball in bed, he offers to read some of the books he’s been writing as he knows you find his voice very soothing. 

Isaac: 

Fascinated by human psychology and biology from an earlier age, so he’s moderately educated on the subject. 

Blood does not scare him, but he does understand the societal stigma around sharing such a natural cycle with him.

Like Hector, he sends out his night creatures to fetch you whatever you need. 

Ensure you drink enough tea and water to stay hydrated. Also asks that you eat plenty of red meat to help replace some of the iron you’ve lost.

Is one of the few men that requests you stay as active as you can, limiting rather than stopping your regular activities. Movement and keeping your mind occupied should make the days pass much faster, as Issac is a firm believer that self-discipline is one of the most powerful tools of all. 

Godbrand: 

Not grossed out, but ends up grossing YOU out with his enthusiasm about the whole thing

Will of course offer to go down there himself and ‘take care of matters like a man’ - his words, not yours. 

What? For Godbrand, being with a living, breathing, and most importantly, bleeding human are the perks of your relationship. It’s like having a partner and a constant food source all in one!

Will absolutely curse out if not straight-up attack any other vampire who dares to bitch about your mood swings or irritable behavior. And then once you’re out of earshot, he will proceed to bitch about said mood swings and irritable behavior. What? At least he’s gentlemanly enough not to do it to your face.  

Dracula: 

The most caring and respectful king fr

He is super understanding and educated on the subject. In fairness, he’s probably curated half of the books on menstruation within his vast libraries. 

Has the necessary products on hand- strips of cloth, herbs for cramping and pain, teas, and a medieval-era heating pad of his own invention. 

Like Godbrand, offers to pleasure you down there to help relieve some cramps with the help of an orgasm, although he’s much more romantic and poetic when he suggests such a thing to you. And unlike Godbrand, he’s in it solely for your benefit. The idea that he’d get to feed as well is the farthest thing on his mind. 

Literally the most perfect and doting husband to ever walk the face of this earth oh my god.

The Judge: 

Expects you to handle it yourself lol. 

Don’t ask him for advice or aid. If you must seek out assistance, he directs you to another woman or midwife within the town.

Considers it highly inappropriate to discuss such matters, even if you’re together. 

0/10, not very helpful, would not recommend. 

Saint Germain

Knows a decent amount of what to expect and how to aid you should you request it. 

He’s well-educated and very well-traveled, so he’s encountered quite a few different cultural views of menstruation. 

Does, however, expect you to take care of the more messy parts of it.

He will offer you back rubs or make tea, but aside from him being aware of your current condition, he doesn’t change the way he treats you much at all. 

Sala:

Gets high key disgusting with it

Asks if you can gather all your bloody rags in a big bowl so he can perform some satanic ritual with it. (You’re like… Um, no??? Unless you’re cray-cray too, which, if you’re with him, has a fair chance of ringing true.) 

Will tell everyone else in the monastery about it cuz he’s a freak like that.

Keeps reminding you how in your current state, you would be a perfect sacrifice for the Great Lord Dracula… Ya know, because of the blood thing?

Subtly is NOT his strong suit

Varney: 

The entity also known as Death knows your cycle better than you do lol.

Keeps a mental calendar in his head, and starts peppering you with more kisses than usual a few days before your bleeding starts. 

Just really wants to get on your good side. And wants you to recall in the coming days, how sweet he was to you, so you know, you don’t take all your anger and frustration out on him. 

Very little scares him, he is Death after all. But aside from people not dying and Belmont giving him another go, your mood swings on your period scare the hell out of him. 

He’s not a patient man, and by day seven, Varney feels rather demoralized after being encumbered by his partner’s common human condition. 

Begs Ratko for help. Is promptly told to piss off. 

Ratko: 

Doesn’t react, except to tell you that you smell so much better this way. 

He delivers that line in such a deadpan too, you almost misunderstand what he’s talking about.

Admits that he’d be willing to ‘clean you up’, should you find that arousing.

Regards you the same, but does find himself staying closer to you than normal, for fear the other vampires and night creatures around you will find your scent so enticing and try to take what’s his.

Challenges anyone who looks your way longer than five seconds. Partly as a means to protect his claim over you, but mainly because he rather enjoys the combat practice.

[macguffinandco]

Hi - we're on Tumblr now!

I'm sorry, who are you?

We're @sashasienna​ and @jonnywaistcoat​, and we make tabletop RPGs as MacGuffin & Co.!

Tabletop what-nows?

Immersive storytelling games where you and your friends can dive into weird worlds, play fascinating characters and have harrowing adventures!

What, like Dungeons & Dragons?

*sigh* Yeah. Like Dungeons & Dragons

Ok, so what have you made?

Well, we've got a collection of system neutral micro-settings called Odd Jobs - it's eleven small and fascinating worlds to play games in, each with a campaign you can play through in a month. They're not designed for any particular system, so you can play them with whatever game you like!

Oh, and it won the 2022 UK Games Expo award for Best Adventure and was nominated for Ennie Product of the Year. Just sayin'.

We've just released a tarot-themed magical river game called Upriver, Downriver with our dear friend Ella Watts, in which you play the crew of a ship sailing the Great River, either travelling upriver to the mythical Source with it's magic and revelation; or downriver towards the unending Sea with it's freedom and horizon.

We have KER-SPLAT! - a high-chaos, full nonsense cartoon RPG we wrote with Ross Barlow, where the players can't die and the GM can't stop them in a hilarious cascade of silly jokes. Also, not to brag, but this is the funniest RPG rulebook you'll ever read.

We also have smaller games, such as Zero Void - a no-prep one-shot zine game, where you play a bunch of desperate space criminals trying to escape a space station before the law arrives.

Is there any way to keep up with what you do?

Well, following our Tumblr is a great start. We also have a monthly mailing list you can sign up to from our website that will keep you updated on what we do.

We also have a Patreon.

What was that? You're mumbling!

Yeah, like all creators trying to eke out a living, we have a Patreon. If you sign up you get behind -the-scenes updates, small or prototype games, RPG resources, new micro-settings and our monthly TTRPG Gamesmasterclass, where we use our 35(!) combined years of GMing experience to help you run the best games ever.

But what if I want to see your faces?

Then I have great news! We stream boardgames and RPGs every Sunday at twitch.tv/macguffinandco! Jonny also streams videogames every Friday at twitch.tv/jonnywaistcoat, and Sasha steams their Jane Austen Bookclub every Monday at twitch.tv/sashasienna

Sounds cool - where can I find out more?

macguffinandcompany.com, baby!

Wait, so why are you on Tumblr?

Because social media is a nightmare hellscape and it's weirdly the chillest one left. We are on other social sites as well - you can follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook - but this is our favourite.

[summerlinenss]

Sorry to be that person but do you have any sources of the “pro-Palestine content” Taika has interacted with? I keep seeing people talk about him liking posts and I want to believe it but I haven’t been able to find anything.

(disclaimer: as i’ve mentioned before, i don’t condone stalking through anybody’s social media to “get evidence,” so please don’t do that. the only reason i’m posting this is because it’s a question i keep seeing and i’m seriously just so tired of talking about it. and a final reminder that taika hasn’t been on twitter in almost a year now and he doesn’t seem to use instagram on a regular basis, since he’s openly said he really just doesn’t like social media anymore.)

i’m like 90% sure there are more i’ve seen mentioned (i distinctly remember that he liked a video from a comedian who’s been advocating for palestine but i can’t for the life of me remember their name), but these are two that i’ve personally seen online. i’ll link them both here and here (+ screenshots below).

update: forgot to edit this to add another post i came across here a few weeks ago

the previous anon from this ask (who will remain anonymous by request) also kindly got back to me with screenshots of the tweets they came across from his likes between 2018-2021. i don’t have direct links to any of these obviously, but i did quickly scroll back to 2021 just to verify and i can confirm they’re still there in his likes.

and before anyone starts, i’m not calling him an activist for liking social media posts. no one needs praise for recognizing what’s happening is genocide. but labelling him something as serious as a zionist and harassing/wishing harm on him for signing one poorly-worded letter about freeing hostages in october (and i won’t even get into all of the alleged bullshit that went down surrounding those letters) when there is literal proof he has and continues to support a liberated palestine is so senseless.

if people really care about creating change, they can prove it by encouraging others to speak up and save their outrage for the actual zionists openly mocking the people of gaza for their suffering and taking field trips to “israel.”

[cesiscribbles]

Do you think Crowley is still ‘fallen’ in the Hollow Knight world? Of course I know he’s not a demon but do you think he went with the Traitor Lord and then just like changed his king and went to hang out with Aziraphale? How would they have met in this world? (I’m sorry you don’t have to answer this but it’s like my favorite show and favorite game had a baby and I’m very excited about it (Also I absolutely adore your art))

Hmmmm, I don’t think that he is “fallen” in this version. At least not at the point where he happily lives together with Azira. And yeah, he didn’t went with the Traitor Lord an his followers because they got banned for purposely embracing the infection for more power, which he actually didn’t want at all.

Crowley and Azira build their little house at the edge of the map, far away from the source of the Radiances influence in hope they could live peacefully. (This house part especially was inspired by FL0Y4uwu’s version on twitter)

But maybe as a moth Azi had a special connection to the Radiance so she found him afterall and called out to him in his dreams (aka infecting him).

I dunno if this is maybe like the Traitor Lord’s child and the Grey Mourner’s story where the mantis tribe was against their love. Maybe Crowley left his tribe for Azi so the two could be “their own tribe”. A group of two and such XD

I think you could maybe say that Crowley has fallen when Azi died and the desire for revenge has overcome him to even let himself get infected like the Traitor Lord.

And about the “how did they met” I don’t really have a specific HC.

But here are some spontaneous thoughts: I think that Azira felt pretty lonely as one of the last moths and Crowley didn’t really felt like he fit anywhere but they enjoyed each other’s company and eventually more feelings were developed.

Oh maybe Crowley wandered through Deepnest and found a lost and hurt Azira who probably accidentally fell down from the Queen’s Station. Usually the mantises kill everything that comes from Deepnest but Crowley helped the stranger, not sensing a threat coming from the moth bug.

I dunno that was just a spontaneous idea I came up with while writing this XD

[peachjagiya]

https://www.tumblr.com/peachjagiya/761835335033487360/httpswwwtumblrcompeachjagiya7617563913702932

I don’t see where I mentioned that I was a taekooker. I am not and if me saying that taekook would deny if asked if they are dating is what gave you that impression then know that I only used that example because you are a taekooker and not because I am and in hindsight maybe I should have added a disclaimer. I don’t care who you ship neither do I care what your beliefs are but I just thought I should say something about that post because to me, it isn’t right to paint Tae and Jk like that.

Someone in the replies mentioned that a taekooker would only look at the warmth of the moment and not care to debunk it. I’m sorry I didn’t know Taekookers willingly lie to themselves just because a moment feels wholesome. My bad. I assumed some people would be open to corrections. I had read somewhere that taekookers on tumblr constantly correct themselves and don’t act like the ones on twitter and instagram so maybe that’s why I got the wrong idea. My apologies.

For the anon who said something about me debunking or going against what Jk said. Jk said they send each other songs after they make them but he didn’t say they always do because we know that the first people to hear Jk’s “3D” were RM and Yoongi, not Tae, Jk said so himself so would you call Jk a liar in this case or would you also accuse him of going against his words. Even if taekook sent their songs to each other first everytime, that still wouldn’t mean that Tae knew about the process of his album would it?

Don't fret, I knew you weren't a Taekooker. Just that I thought you were for the first few lines and to be fair, on a Taekook blog, thats a reasonable expectation.

Honestly, I'm kind of fed up with the "why would they LIE?" argument.

Firstly, we're not 12. It is not as simple as "SO YOU THINK TAEHYUNG IS A LIIIIARR??" No, I think Taehyung didn't intend to butt into JK's moment. As he says later in the interview, JK is the star here today.

And secondly, I'm sorry but his surprised face during Suchwita is of no shock to me and I'm surprised it is to you. I've witnessed him absolutely poker face his way through a number of situations that ended up being different to the way they were presented so let's not start.

You are a fool if you think they don't twist the truth a bit sometimes or go with the flow of a story that isn't necessarily how it happened. I don't know how you can negotiate a controlled environment such as BTS (or k-pop) and think that there's no such thing as pretending.

Unless there's ample evidence to suggest it was exactly as it seems, you need to take your evidence from all the sources rather than zooming in on one moment as your debunk.

[puckpocketed]

about

deepest and sincerest apologies if you came here because I was posting about one or more of your guys. this is a Sharks blog first and foremost! I do, however, follow a lot of teams. navigation + tierlist below

This is a part-time Australian Ice Hockey League blog that follows the CBR Brave! I take photos of home games when I can, find them under -> #puck!cam Otherwise, feel free to filter #auspuck.

When not LARPing as my local team’s socmed manager:

I write essays about hockey -> #my writing

all gifs i've made filed under -> #puck!gif specific team tags will look like this: #p!gif:[team abbreviation] eg. #p!gif:sharks, #p!gif:wings

transcripts -> #puck!script

gif requests -> #p!gif:req

I also gif my guys and their goals, passing sequences, poke checks, plays that go nowhere, little things I think are super cool -> #puckpocketed details series

I poke around at prospects and produce very unserious vibe checks, filed under -> #puckscouting

I also paint once in a blue moon. watch out!!!!

TIERLIST & politics

Sharks Hockey first always forever ! <3

keeping things light. no enemies only babygirls i havent met!

The most narratively satisfying things are tragedies and tragicomedies!!! All Things Through Her (The Bit)

players aren’t their orgs. If I say I like a team, this doesn’t mean I like every player, and vice versa!!

The narratives are lying to you!!! LOOK PAST THEM. THE HOCKEY TELLS THE TRUTH!!!!!

I love hockey SO much !! Love of the game comes before ANYTHING, including teams!!! Talk to me about strategy. Show me spinoramas and ankle breaking dekes and head fakes and set plays. Talk to me about face-offs and your favourite underrated blorbo.

no seriously please send me propaganda i love propaganda i am a hair trigger away from adopting new guys. i've done it mid-game and id do it again!!!!!!!!!!!

Team rivalries don’t matter to me. My girls are beating the hell out of each other? The beautiful gaeme ...

i’m here for a laff and it truly aint that serious <3

Do Not expect me to have any couth about the CBR Brave!! I keep things light with the NHL but all that doesn’t apply here — I WILL be spiteful and unhinged!! im sorry the sports nationalism got to me!!!

that being said: CALIFORNIA SWEEEP!

housekeeping

hey please dont be weird in the tags of my posts about teams/players i clearly like. yeah even That Team. i don't want to hear about how you hope someone "escapes" or how much you hate xyz player. make your own post.

this is a non-rpf blog. I might lean into the narratives but tbh I’m not into men and don’t get much out of romantic shipping. Nothing against it though! I think everyone should engage with hockey however they like as long as it does no harm to themselves or others. Ride that ship into the sunset my loves we are holding fins 👍

gifs, videos, memes, photos by me will come described with alt text. I try my best as someone who has used a screenreader in the past, but please let me know if I miss anything.

30/07/2024 sources for any media i post will be linked to a live site + using the wayback machine when I can, or just live websites when I can't (in the case of youtube videos). yeah ok i finally gave in @ that one anon calling this wikipedia editor behaviour you are correct and WHAT OF IT!!!!!!!

5/08/2024 - NOTE live website links always precede archive links whether I label them or not. if there is no link 'pair' it means the wayback machine can't snapshot the link i put up. In the case of twitter/instagram and other such sites that require a logged in device to view certain pages i will do my best to grab the direct img link and archive that.

[ link 1, archive link // link 2, archive link ] <- self explanatory, long form.

[ x, x ] <- single source of media, will use for aesthetic purposes on gifsets and formal web weaving. same with: [ x || y // x || y ] <- "//" double slash denotes a new source, x is the live link, y is the archive link.

if a link or source is not immediately obvious I may have: 1) done an in-line link, click any underlined or bold-underlined text; 2) I might have missed it by mistake, please be patient and maybe shoot me a flag about it in my inbox/dms if you want !!! we are all human and I'm doing my best <3

I'm aware this is not the most fastidious archival practice! my goal isn't to be the arbiter of archival standards for sourcing. I don't know how long I'll love hockey or these teams, how long tumblr will be around, but going from here I'd just like this blog to be a place where fans years from now can come back to and not have to do as much digging as I did to source media.

[queenwille]

IDF: Israeli Defense Forces

Defending themselves from what? Displaced Palestinians hiding out in buildings? The children?

Cause last I saw, Palestine weren’t the ones with white phosphorus missiles bombing Israel every other day and wiping out the population,

wait wait wait, let me start at the very beginning- your question about what does israel have to defend itself a is joke, right…? please tell me you did not come in here to waste my time without doing the bare minimum and research something. you owe me that much if you’d like me to take you seriously.

look, idk at which point did you tune into the west’s favorite reality show which is the middle east crisis, but i honestly don’t have the time nor the patience to catch you up in all of the episodes you’ve missed up until now and that’s even if we only focus on the gaza area. what can i say, some of us were just lucky enough to be born into this. others, such as yourself, have the world wide web for free, go wild.

mmm values. that’s the thing, all those spicy stories you’ve mentioned there? y’all know about them, but you people never catch up about how the IDF took them one by one to military trail for misconduct. nah, why should you care about that part? it ruins your whole immature narrative about the bad guys, huh? y’all would rather stick to the pathetic narrative where this is a fairytale where there are big bad IDF monsters and poor little princesses to save. well, sorry, but life’s more complex than that. yep, the good guys can do bad things and the bad guys can actually not be just bad. it’s called real life. not one angry anon, like yourself, has ever asked me, or any other identifying zionist, what we think about any of those morally questionable issues, y’all just keep assuming what we think and dehumanizing us, but somehow we keep being labeled as the bigots over and over again.

i’m glad you’ve mentioned those tiktok dances because those are usually soldiers who don’t even fight in combat and y’all like to attack them online so much. many of them are not even armed. you know which other soldiers were unarmed? the female soldiers murdered (16, one of them by a doctor in captivity in gaza) or taken hostage (7, one rescued, one murdered, 5 still held hostage to this day) on october 7th. shocking, i know, but not all IDF soldiers are armed. did it matter?

me signaling? do you see me giving out random twitter posts by FUCK KNOWS WHO as valid sources? no? so no, i don’t take it as a valid source. sorry, friend. and my best bud al jazeera? besides the fact that they’ve been proven and, i believe, even admitted to exaggerating with their death tolls, they’re funded by the qatari government. i’ll let you google who qatar used to house before israel —— him and who else it supports financially (spoiler: both start with H). other than that, for good measures, when i’d like to give out a source, i usually avoid using, not only israeli sources, but also jewish ones. just looking out for all of my antisemites out there. 🫡

when did i call it an accident? find me one time time i referred to a palestinian death as an accident. go on, i’ll wait. that’s right, i didn’t. there is though, a difference i make between the people massacred on october 7th and people who get killed as a result of war and y’all never seem to like that. don’t get me wrong, i find both to be horrific, but there’s a very clear difference between being gunned down, raped, abused, mutilated, tied down with cables and more to getting hurt/killed as a result of being unfortunate enough to live at an active warzone. i say this btw about israelis who, unfortunately, got killed/hurt from the missiles fired from gaza during this war as well… and soldiers. it’s just not the same, i’m sorry. what happened on october 7th was purely dystopian and the fact that so many of you keep trying to deny/ignore/justify/compare it to anything else, despite hamas (unlike the nazis) not covering even one drop of blood shed or even part of their intentions, is really baffling. even more so in the 21st century when literally everything is at the palm of your hands. it truly is amazing how much you’re willing to ignore just to feed your white savior complex by patronizing and forcing your western white ideology on terrorist organizations such as hamas.

never have i said to mind your own business. i personally believe that it’s important to be informed and get engaged outside of your very own bubble. hell, i’m a SW student who majors in community work/activism. i do have a few questions though. do you do it cause you’re entitled to? i mean, because your taxes paid for it? so like, you paid a ticket for the show and now you deserve in? like when you vote for your favorite singer on the the voice? that’s the thing, many of you come in here, wanting your slice of the matter, while thinking that reading a little on social media is enough. it’s not. be respectful.

[x-on-the-calendar-business]

ryan ross iceberg (tier 8)

tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, tier 4, tier 5, tier 6, tier 7

darkest waters (final tier):

teen ryan’s pimples:

i’m so sorry for this one.

it refers to a set of tweets from twitter user prettynpuunk (i’m so sorry to her for bringing them back up but it’s lore).

honestly these are just so iconic. they will always live in my head rent free

“is is true you have a monster cock:”

this is something a fan genuinely asked ryan once (which is so gross and i hope that person is having a terrible day).

allegedly, it has been said by ryan’s exes that he is well endowed. also, i can’t find a source for this, but i swear that once shane morris said that about ryan as well. according to twitter searches, the rumor of ryan having a monster cock goes back as far as 2009 [i]. there’s another rumor that a picture was leaked at one point (i think?), but i’m not going to search that out. if any of you were around in those days, let me know if that’s unfounded or not.

i think the term “monster cock” comes from a picspam on livejournal, referenced here; however, the picspam itself is no longer available [ii].

edit: i actually did end up coming across shane morris' dm about this

target fruit aisle:

apparently there was an “incident” from teenage ryan in the target fruit aisle, which led to him getting banned from the store. it’s unknown exactly what happened, but it’s theorized that either a) he and his friends were throwing fruit at each other, or b) he knocked over a display of fruit.

he’s not actually GRRIII:

if you don’t know what GRRIII means, you’re too far down in the iceberg.

according to obituaries and genealogy trees, discussed in this livejournal posts and its comments, ryan’s grandfather and his dad are actually named george hammond ross sr and jr respectively [iii]. since neither of their middle names are ryan, that means ryan is technically not the third. he is still the third george ross, though.

pissing on tour bus furniture:

according to a tweet, brendon said in an interview that ryan pissed on tour bus furniture, but ryan said it was an accident [iv]. they say it was hard to tell if it was a joke or not, but it was. it's at 2:40 in this interview.

(thank you to the anon who sent me this video!)

romp movie:

this refers to a phone interview in which ryan says that he and brendon went to see a romp movie, and then they both say that ryan’s other hand was uh…busy [v]. it was also definitely a joke. they talk about it in this interview at 8:55.

(the same anon sent me this video, so thanks again!)

the Q stands for quintessence:

remember ryan’s Q tattoo and the cult theory? we’re back to that. in other pictures from that night, you can see that ryan has things representing the 4 elements: earth, air, wind, and fire. the Q could stand for quintessence, which is also called the 5th element [vi]. so, it relates to spirituality, not a cult.

if you’re interested in reading more about this, you can do so here:

bugs in his ass:

the first line in cape town is “took you in the vineyard a couple hours after i met you.” it’s easy to read this as he took her TO the vineyard, but he says IN the vineyard, implying that they might have had sex in this vineyard. and whilst doing that, ryan probably got bugs in his ass.

he can’t park:

this is another reason why ryan ross is a queer icon.

someone parked next to ryan’s car once (his trans am) and provided this picture:

i think there have been other reports of fans who said he cannot park.

panic! wouldn’t exist if ryan wasn’t playing fisher price in his yard the day he met spencer:

this is self-explanatory, but the day ryan and spencer met, which was when they were around 5-6 years old, ryan was playing with a fisher price toy in his yard. of course, had this not happened, we wouldn’t have panic!, the young veins, high hopes (which would be nice, i think), this iceberg, amongst many other things. it’s the butterfly effect.

personal bit about this, panic! is THE hyperfixation for me. no matter how many others i’ve had, nothing has me in the same chokehold that panic! and ryan ross do. with my panic! phase, it is never a matter of if i will enter it again, but a matter of when. because it will happen. but since that band has been such a huge part of my life, it’s so weird to reflect on this entry and imagine what the world would be like without it.

anyway, it just felt right to end this on a sappy note.

also i want to give an honorable mention to corky b roll. i can’t believe i forgot to include it, especially because it was a HUGE ryan meme when i first got into panic!:

thank you so, so much to everyone for the notes! and thank you to anyone who read any of this, especially those of you who made it through every entry. it really means the world that anyone would take time out of their day to read what i have to say about this man lol

another thanks to anyone whose posts i referenced throughout; your service and contribution to the ryan ross lore will not be forgotten.

and with that, this is the end of the ryan ross iceberg explained.

references:

[i] https://twitter.com/search?q=ryan%20ross%20monster%20cock&src=typed_query&f=top

[ii] https://bandfandom-ref.livejournal.com/134497.html

[iii] https://bandfandom-ref.livejournal.com/71193.html

[iv] https://twitter.com/checkyesjuul/status/1369125668726865922

[v] https://twitter.com/checkyesjuul/status/1456098187416989702

[vi] https://pathetic-at-the-disco.tumblr.com/post/175514546326/was-ryan-ross-in-a-satanic-cult

[shmothman]

This is nothing but I had to write it anyway. Someone please explain memes to this man. Source: I can’t keep up with the kids’ memes either. (500 words)

Clavell’s tentative call of your name makes you look up from your work, losing your place in the seemingly endless excel sheets before you. You blink the strain from your eyes and swivel around to face him—he’s sitting at his desk, hands steepled before him. You’ve seen him like this before: he’s been thinking hard about something.

“Hm?”

“You seem… good with the students,” he starts, and you already know where this is going—your lips start to quirk upwards before he can finish, “would you say that you’re… hip?”

You purse your lips—trying your best not to laugh—and roll your shoulders: you’ve been sitting at the computer for far too long. “I wouldn’t say I’m hip, no.”

He frowns. “But you understand their slang.”

“Sometimes,” you admit with a shrug. “But kids are always coming up with new things that I don’t get.”

“You seem very capable of keeping up with them,” he presses. “How do you do it?”

You give a short, self-derisive laugh. “It’s ‘cause I’m on poke-twitter too much.”

“Really?” He asks, his interest clearly piqued. “That allows you to keep up with the slang?”

You know where this is headed, and you instantly know that you need to put a stop to it. “Sorta, but I promise it’s not worth it.”

“Why not?”

You lean back in your chair with a sigh, crossing your arms behind your neck and your ankles before you. “That place is a hellscape, Clavell. People are, like…” how on earth do you describe the drama of the internet? “…Really mean to each other.”

His brows are knitted in concentration. “Ah,” he says. “Like the cyber-bullying.”

Well, he’s at least heard of that term.

“Yeah, but that’s not even all of it. The stupidest stuff happens on there, all the time.”

He gives a hum of displeasure. “I just want to be able to… connect with the students more,” he says, and you know how he feels. It’s clear in everything he does that he cares about them, that he wants to be able to meet them on as equal a footing as possible. But dear god they’d eat him alive on poke-twitter.

You smile gently. “What did you hear that’s got you thinking about this?”

He puts his head in his hands, his voice coming slightly muffled as he replies: “I walked past a group of boys, and one of them let his Foongus out of its poke-ball. The other three immediately said, ‘uh-moh-gus,’ and then ‘sus.’”

You let out a wheezing laugh that makes you double over in your chair, and Clavell hunches over further.

“What am I missing?” He laments, and you have to take a deep breath to steady yourself.

“Oh god, I’m sorry,” you say, still not containing your laughter well, “I’m sorry.” You finally sober enough to grab your phone from your desk and head over to him, and you know he doesn’t like it when you do it, but you sit on his desk anyway. “Alright,” you say, leaning over to share your screen with him. “This is gonna take a bit.”

A/N: this one goes out to whoever is running the Clavell Twitter account. Also, I’m not on Twitter. But my partner sends me the highlights.

[oleander-nin]

technically still on vacation but I’m stuck in the house for a bit until the storm totally passes. Don’t have much to do though since my consoles and puter are still back at my place. It’s honestly kinda funny, I’ve gotten four flash flood alerts on my phone within the past 24 hours. I am super glad you like both songs though sorry about the spotify thing I kinda overlooked that. I’m also happy you like being talked to because I sure do like to talk.

Anyway I said the next ask will be actually good and even if this is close behind I’ve got krang observations/facts!!

starting with the stuff I managed to gather off twitter

“What happened to the foot soldiers after they had been krangified in the movie, were they taken into custody or killed?

I think they just become Krang soldiers/slaves.”

Raph was real lucky he had his brothers, it sounds like the krang zombie thing is next to totally permanent

“I've mentioned this in a few other answers, but we would have learned the backstory that a Krang ship crashed into the back of the crying Titan and its fuel was the source of the ooze that energizes the yokai.”

This is really neat to me, since it does sorta explain why the krang were able to snatch their mystic powers at the start, at least to me. Plus just them being the origins of at least why yokai are as strong as they are is really cool.

Ok movie stuff yay, typing this as I watch so I definitely didn’t get everything and some of these may just be a tad obvious

Kinda stretching it to start, but the way you can hear genuine fear in Casey jr’s voice and general like mannerisms(?) at the krang starting to get summoned again does such a good job at showing how scary they are before we really see much of them(I know we kinda do but sh)

^ Adding on their intro is so cool?? Like the way I actually freaked when two(?) said it had been ages since she killed anything right after the insane beatdown from krang one, the fact they actually got one of the mcs is also just awesome like.

Moving past the fanboying(hopefully) and going back to the crying titan thing krang one points on that Raph isnt human so it is likely that the krang did cause yokai as a whole to show.

I had something here about the krang zombies but I realized it was wrong so pretend I said something else cool

Everything in the subway was horrifying

not a krang observation but I’m saying it anyway, April goes through it in this movie, obviously everyone does. But girl is human and early on she just gets tossed off her motorcycle and totally ignores any potential injuries

The way krangs two reacts to April melting a good chunk of her face makes me feel like the krang had never actually been injured

I said this in the headcanon yapping thing but now that I’m actually rewatching it, I’m pretty sure I was at least sorta right, the krang parasites goal was to get Leo to kill Raph. Krang one is obviously confident enough that he could kill Leo on his own, and it does generally align with how messed up they are. Right before Leo puts his swords away he does almost slash at Raph who just doesn’t move at all until he takes a step back because almost killed his brother. Probably not canon but it’s more emotionally destroying and therefore cool.

probably obvious but I’m saying it anyway, the reason Leo’s sacrifice came as such a shock was because of the lack of capability to form any sort of connections, the inability to even fathom why someone would act for anyone other then themself is what lead to their downfall

theres honestly not much for me to say here, this movie is awesome but I’m trying not to go “krang armor is sick :0” Because yes it is, but like we all know that. I can talk a *lot* about the turtles and probably April n Casey jr but I said krang and thats probably smarter because I’m stuck on my phone at the moment and typings just a bit more annoying.

-🍰

ooooooooooooo I like these. Very interesting observations/headcanons.

"The way krangs two reacts to April melting a good chunk of her face makes me feel like the krang had never actually been injured" - That's a good point. i dunno what to say to this, but my brain has latched onto it.

There's not much I can add onto any of these(haven't seen the movie in a hot minute tbh), but goodness I love them. Trade brains with me pls

[anubisisms]

what's this about oseman getting backlash? I don't have twitter and I hadn't heard about it anywhere before your post

Oooh anon, it’s been a wild ride over on Twitter the last few days.

Lots of screenshots incoming!

Basically an account that is allegedly linked directly to Oseman posted this a few days back (the og was deleted so I’m sourcing this from other posts), captioned with 'Nick's search history':

Source for the 'offending image' (again, og was deleted so had to find a reply with it. I did see the original post before deletion though so I can verify this is unchanged).

Anyway the post is. Very tame. Actual teenagers probably have way worse search histories. But this content is apparently directly from Alice, which I haven't been able to verify, but the art style, if not from them directly, is a very good mockup.

However, due to the fact that Alice Oseman has consistently said things which have attracted an audience of sex-negatives, their audience is, thus...very sex negative.

And when I say they've said things to attract sex negatives, there is of course the famous criticism of yaoi and BL they've made as 'fetishising' and full of 'toxic tropes' simply for containing sexual content, in addition to the downright bizarre energy of this post right here on tumblr:

Screenshot source

^ This reads to me as condescending at best. (Also female gaze...what). But it works as an excellent example of who Oseman has ultimately attracted to their works - people who agree with what they've said, and who agree that anyone wanting to know about sexual stuff in Heartstopper is weird and 'icky'.

Then the post from the start got uploaded to twitter. Then the discourse started rolling in from these same people:

The source for the discourse quote tweets

Anyways, there are plenty more replies to the same effect, calling Oseman a pedophile, a creep, and accusing them of...basically the same things they once said about BL, yaoi authors and fujoshis.

The general response outside of the enraged fans is that it sucks, truly, that they're being targeted for an absolute non-issue, but again, you reap what you sow. Oseman went out of their way to indicate the space that the Heartstopper fandom occupies isn't safe for NSFW content. And that's fine if you want your space to be family friendly! But to then engage with NSFW content within that space after saying everything Oseman has said is hypocritical at best.

So yes, a soft Alice Oseman downfall is happening, at least among the people in the HS community who think sex is satanic or whatever. Most people like myself don't care much about it - again, fictional characters and fictional sex, who gives a fuck - but what most people find amusing is the real karma angle of it all. Talk shit, get hit and all that jazz.

Anyways, sorry this got so long, but thank you for the question Anon! I hope this helps explain a bit!

[x0401x]

Hi! I've only watched the anime for Tsurune and I LOVED the first two seasons but after reading some of your Tsurune posts it got me curious. How different is the anime adaption from the source material? It sounds like an entirely different thing! I really liked the first season, but apparently it was a disaster? In what ways, if you don't mind me asking? Should I read the novels instead? I'm sorry for so many questions or if you've answered these already

Oh.

Oh, holy shit.

This is not the kind of ask I was expecting to get in the year of our lord 2024.

I’ll start by saying that you’re totally right. It sounds like an entirely different thing because the original work and the anime adaptation are, in fact, almost entirely different from each other. If you ever look for reviews of volume 1 on Japanese sites, the comment you’ll see the most from people who also watched the anime is “it’s so different from the novel that it might be best to just view the two as separate stories”. If I had to estimate how much of the novels was actually included into the animation, I would say 5% to 10%. I’m being pretty generous here.

You’re also right about the first season being a disaster. I remember that when I first watched the first episode of S1, by the moment that the series title came up, I immediately thought to myself, “This won’t sell well. 3k DVD copies, give or take”. And turns out I was wrong. It actually sold around 2.7k, which is even worse than what I had predicted. It did so infamously bad that many fans were worried about the second season before it came out, and some people were being rather foul-mouthed about it, which was a shock for me because you don’t usually see Japanese fans not following fandom etiquette. However, there was much more effort put into S2 than S1, thankfully. There’s also the whole thing with the arson attack, which pulled in people’s interest and support for the series. Overall, it did fairly well, I believe. I would never say that S2 does the novel any justice, but it was light years better than S1. That’s something everyone agrees to, even those who enjoyed S1.

Still, though. Even with S2 being far more successful than S1, that’s technically not so big of a deal, considering S1’s tragic underperformance. The series is known here in Japan mostly because of its association with the arson, but not many people are really into it. I would say that it has a niche audience consisting of 1) people who were already fans of KyoAni to begin with, 2) novel readers and 3) people who practice Japanese archery. As for the overseas audience… barely anyone has ever even heard of Tsurune, be it the anime or the novels. Many people who do know the anime have dropped it by S1, and the reason I see being pointed out the most is that it was “boring as hell”.

Other than this, I’ve noticed something in common when reading comments on S2 from Japanese Twitter. One thing people say a lot (and I do mean a lot) is that they didn’t like S1, but after watching S2, they were able to see that “KyoAni was, in fact, taking this franchise seriously”, so they gave it a second chance. This is meant as a compliment, but although it’s not backhanded per se, it’s kind of underhanded. I mean, who wants to be told, “Thank God you got your shit together this time around”? It’s good that S2 changed people’s opinions on the series, but the fact that it had to be changed speaks volumes about what people thought of S1.

Now, as to whether you should just read the novels, I would say yes. It’s literally the only way to know what Tsurune is truly about. But I have to warn you that, if you loved the anime, you might have to prepare yourself to see the things you loved about it either not being in the novel or taking a completely different turn in it. If you’re able to handle that, then by all means, go ahead and give the source material a try. It’s honestly one of the most unique novels I’ve ever read, and I’ve read just about every light novel out there. The depictions of Japanese archery and Zen go way deeper and you’ll learn much more about the characters, so I’m sure you’ll have a fun time!

[rifki16]

Tadaima, Okaeri Episode Eight Recap :)

Photo Credit: Tadaima, Okaeri Promotional Twitter Account

I think the episode managed to bring all of the existing subplots to a satisfying ending. I don't have anything that I'd like to deeply analyze from the episode. However, I want to bring up three interesting subplots.

[Cont.] Can You Really Escape the Cycle?

In the last episode, as I also have noted in my recap article, Masaki was soothed by Hiromu on his worry that he might not have grown and escaped from the cycle of having a problem and needing to flee away from said problems. The way Hiromu soothed his husband was by reminding Masaki of all the things that made him smiled every time he fell – and be caught by Hiro-san afterward. From that point, Masaki usually has the standing to get back up, be braver, and face the problems head-on again.

My problem with that narrative was whether the behaviour was a manifestation of co-dependency or not. Or maybe, I’m the one who has the hyper-/toxic-independence mindset – as my psychologist and I were doing works on that.

As Masaki and his family headed back to his uncle’s inn, Masaki and his husband got a chance to be alone – *cue the sexy music*. Masaki then said:

“All the things, I never thought would happen when I got together with you, are becoming a reality…, it’s a strange feeling”

Hiromu then answered:

“It’s because you worked so hard”

I know that the context of things in the conversation is not Masaki’s state of mental health. However, I think it’s a good acknowledgment of Masaki’s work. I think it’s a good sign that Masaki and Hiromu are helping each other becoming better people. I hope that Hikari and Hinata can take pride and example of their parents.

To resent or to let go

Just as Masaki and his family arrived at his uncle’s inn, Kazuhiko arrived at the inn as he was invited by his father to meet, officially I suppose, Masaki’s new family as well as straightening out the kerfuffle he made with them. As they were having polite chit-chat in the living room, Hikari suggested to the group that they went outside to see the beautiful leaves – I suppose they set the episode in autumn. However, Hiromu decided not to go out, because it was time for Hinata to take an afternoon nap, and hence He and his daughter preferred to sit near the window as they watched Hiromu’s uncle-in-law, Hikari, Masaki, and Kazuhiko raking leaves.

However, Kazuhiko decided to talk to Hiromu privately before heading outside and helped out raking leaves. Kazuhiko brought a photo album with him as he approached and tried to talk with Hiromu. Side note: his uncle, Kazuhiko, and even Hiromu all pointed out that Hinata really looks like Masaki when he was little, it’s so cute.

They then talked about how it was like when Masaki was a kid, and how he behave during family reunions, just like the one they were having in the episode. Yea, it’s a little bit of a flashback to one of the themes I brought up in episode six or five; Masaki was a sick boy, and he couldn’t really participate playing in the yard with the other cousins.

I know that the scene-setting paragraphs are a little bit long, but we’re now at the reason I’m talking about this theme. Kazuhiko, out of nowhere, asked Hiromu:

“How did you feel about coming here, sir?”

Hiromu then answered:

“This is where Masaki grew up, but it’s also a source of great pain for him”.

Kazuhiko: “I do feel sorry for lecturing you the way I did, but while things may be better on the surface, the fundamental problems remain.”

[…]

Hiromu: “You could say the same things about him being with me. You were right that he [has] suffered a lot because of me, too. Don’t get the wrong idea. We’re not trying to hold grudges about the past. We’re trying to protect those we care about in the present. That’s all. We understand that you have things you won’t compromise on. So[,] we don’t want apologies. Not from you, [or] your father”.

I think it was beautiful to watch the couple, through Hiromu, was trying to move on from the problems of Masaki’s unaccepting family. I think it’s a problem that I, and many ambitious and high-achieving people, have been suffering. It’s very hard to see imperfections, and go along with what is happening and what works. I don’t know exactly how Hiromu and Masaki could eventually adopt this perspective, but I do hope that it can be explained in future. I mean, I have countless sessions with my psychologist, and numerous supposed mental-health experts’ shorts on Instagram and YouTube, yet, it’s so hard for me to let go, especially letting go my idealistic perspectives on any events, and trying to mould any phenomena into what is supposed to be. Perhaps, it is simply because that I have been raised this way which makes it extremely difficult to adopt the letting go attitude.

Parenting 101 with Hiromu

I think Hiromu was getting his fair share of the limelight in this episode. We usually only get to see Masaki most of the times, so I’m happy to see him more in this episodes, and I hope we will see him more in future episodes.

The happy family got a new neighbour, and this lovely new neighbour of an all-female couple owns a dog named Ran-kun. Hikari loves Ran-kun so much as he kept giving his own hand-written letters to Ran every day. However, Hikari was afraid of Ran because Ran was bigger compared to his tiny body. The episode started with Hika-chan being unable to give the letter himself because he was still afraid of the dog. Afterwards, he became quite sterned and looked quite pensive because of what just had happened in the day. Hiromu just arrived home, and he tried to soothe his first-born about his fear of the big dog.

Hiromu, after meandering on about what he feared, asked Hikari why he was afraid of Ran-kun. Hikari said that he was just simply scared of, proportionally, large dogs. Hiromu then answered with the most beautiful answer:

“I don’t think it’s bad or uncool to be scared of things”.

I mean, positive masculinity for the win, I suppose. Hiromu then tried to explain logically to Hikari why, even though Ran-kun is large compared to him, Ran-kun is not a threat or something to be afraid of, after telling Hikari all the good things he could do if he had overcome his fear of Ran-kun. The next day, even though that Hikari was afraid of Ran-kun so much, he managed to pet and even slept next to Ran-kun.

I think it’s a good way of unpacking and taking steps in facing your fears. I’m not a psychologist, however, I think it’s a good perspective in not making fears or worries as something that we avoid outright, but something that we as humans naturally feel, and we as humans have a choice in how we can, healthily, face these fears. I hope that my first encounter with one of my fears could go as well as what Hikari was experiencing, I’m so happy of him and proud of Hiromu. I mean, maybe, had things been different in how I processed my first fear, I suppose I could have handled my worries better now at this stage of my life. It’s a lot of work, but I know that rewiring a lot of horrible imbedded perspectives is doable and something that I know deserves to happen to me.

Watch the episode yall, it’s a very good episode.

[marnz]

since i'm one of those people who watched tsn in 2023 (i was 12 when tsn was broadcasted) so it gave me this weird mixed feeling whenever i read markwardo fanfic because knowing how bad these people actually are irl and not some uwu precious baby but i can't blame fanfic writers in 2010-2011 for thinking zuckerberg and saverin were cool because during that time facebook was indeed cool and the internet was younger at that time too, the fic are good i admit but sometimes i need a moment to rethink why am i reading irl capitalists fanfic, it's so hard to distinguish between tsn and irl material most of the time too and not to mention tsn was just a story written based on irl saverin pov of fb and he was also an asshole. The only fun time to enjoy tsn was probably 2010-2011 because fb was cool, the cast was close and now even the cast of this film probably don't even contact each other anymore despite being so closed in 2010, sorry for rambling i just think it's amazing that people who enjoy tsn in 2010 still post about it in 2024!

well anon. Like I said. You had to be there. Look I love context and you said you were 12 in 2010 so here is some context: yes the internet was younger and yes fb/meta had not destroyed democracy yet but I also think there was more of a sense of hope related to technology, as opposed to dread. A lot of tech and social mainstays had not happened yet, politics were drastically different, Chris Hughes (cofounder of fb & communications guy) helped Obama get elected, people didn’t think global warming was real, society was MUCH more conservative and homophobic, etc., and the internet was the place to be.

when you say the internet was younger I’m interpreting this to mean that FB had not come into its final form yet, which is true, but also it & the internet was such a radically different experience. It felt limitless. You weren’t corralled in as much. You could go anywhere, you could find anything, you could make your own websites very easily, you were not assaulted by pop ups and apps were not mainstream because Apple didn’t launch the App Store until 2008. It was so easy to learn how to code. The operating systems between Apple and Android were SO distinct. Twitter launched in 2008/2009 but wasn’t quite so relevant until idk 2014? Fandom had just migrated from LJ to Tumblr but Tumblr was also hotter with the aesthetic girlies and porn blogs. “The algorithm” didn’t run the world. Yesterday I tried to find an article by searching for it and both Google and DuckDuckGo completely disregarded my request and did not turn up anything relevant. I can assure you that would not have happened in 2011. So there was SUCH a sense of optimism because the internet felt like a social good instead of an obligation that is increasingly privatized, surveilled, constrained, and decayed.

Which is why TSN got made and why there was an interest. It was a source of profound social change. But anyway. FB/Meta has ruined lives and it and all other social media apps that elevate divisive opinions to prompt as much engagement as possible (have you heard of the awful Isabel Fall twitter scandal? I recommend this article) are awful! And yet there’s an expectation of being online because a lot of communities now organize online, a lot of services require being online, etc., fandom has become less centralized/less unified, which is its own post.

Out of curiosity, what led you to watch the film? I do find it fascinating that there’s been a resurgence of TSN fandom. If this article had not been written I would not be posting about it but there’s still a lot of fic being written and fanvids being made to Taylor Swift songs. But it’s fandom devoid of all this context. So it is very strange, because you know what FB and all these people in it will become. I think I would have the exact cognitive dissonance you described if I watched it for the first time last year and tried to read fic. It is SO deeply fictionalized, so much of it is radically untrue, but you as the reader carry the truth in your mind. Which is why I cannot and do not engage with these days. And why I hold TSN in my mind curtained off. I spoke with many ppl from the original fandom yesterday and trust me, no one wants this.

I think, realistically, whatever movie Sorkin wants to make will probably be very good. It’s probably a good story to tell & explore. But I won’t be watching it. I lived that shit

[banqanas]

hi, i recently got into psyfe and i was wondering if you have anymore of their lives /paid translated content that you feel comfortable sharing :)

Hi. I'm sorry but not at the moment 🙇‍♀️

If I watch any new psyfe content that's interesting and feel like it should be shared (like their athletic competition episodes) I'll probably make a different post in the near future 🙌

So instead here's a few places of free contents that you can check out for now:

1. List of FREE and SUBBED psyfe contents from CL

2. @fextsubs also have a few translated psyfe contents up in their blog

3. Psyfe official youtube has subs for their old videos and @ nattarikaaa has eng subs for their interviews in thai

For concerts: fancams from their overseas concerts are all up on youtube/twitter. For concerts in japan, you can check out bili/bili (the chinese site, not eng one)

P.S: I know japan always putting their contents behind paywalls are off putting, I’m really sorry. But I love that psyfe contents gets subbed and I hope they will keep going, so I'm sure their videos needs all the traffic and views from international fans that they can get 🙏

Here's an overview of contents they have in CL premium for reference! Even if something isn't subbed now, they will be subbed at a later time. And CL also releases new stuffs every few weeks, so it’s really worth giving a shot

Also I only follow psyfe casually so I’m sure I missed out on other contents so if anyone has other sources feel free to reply or share!

[puckmaidens]

If I Say It, Will You Respond? - Juraj Slafkovsky x OC

This is for @2manytabsopen as a part of @wyattjohnston ‘s summer fic exchange!

- I’m so sorry for making you wait Kesh, but this story went up and off the rails with Arber’s meddling (as big brothers do 🤣)

The story of Dinah and Jura is one that I definitely struggled with from an intimacy perspective. How do I make Dinah fall for Slaf without feeling like insta love?

Dinah Faye Clark doesn’t regret anything, actually almost anything. She’s gazing at her diploma on the wall, Bachelor’s in Media and Journalism from the University of Montreal.

“Another successful day of work finished. The article on the Habs blueline will go up tomorrow before the draft and hopefully that goes over well.” A soft *ping* goes off and Dinah sees a tweet from the Habs Twitter.

The Montreal Canadiens have the first overall pick for the 2022 draft. Find out more about what that means here. Link Here

Another ping.

The Hamilton Bulldogs are your 2022 Ontario Hockey League champions! They will advance to the Memorial Cup Tournament!

Dinah’s heart thumped as she saw the players raising the Ross Robertson Cup. She sees the Xhekaj jersey and smiles.

Proud of you, big bro. So proud of you, Arber.

Dinah and Arber hadn’t spoken in years, but the sibling bond they share was unshakable across country lines and team switches. When Dinah left for university, Arber stayed and went to the OHL. The first few terms were easy when he was with the Rangers before getting traded.

Everything almost fell apart once he went to the Bulldogs though. Texts were getting lost, calls never making it to voicemail and nights full of tears. They never held it against each other, especially once Dinah graduated and Arber was front row and dead center waiting for her.

Dinah didn’t have both parents, just an Aunt. Having a hands off guardian made her independent and headstrong, from getting on the yearbook and newspaper teams to starting her own blog about the Canadiens before her junior year.

Six years later, she’s a trusted source and media channel for the Habs. What she’s lost in affection and time she’s got back in a supportive network virtually and adventures embedded into her brain. She’s a storyteller, analyst and writer who’s damn good at her job.

When Arber was traded from Kitchener to Hamilton, Dinah struggled with giving space to Arber. Her feelings of being too much to be around drove her into distancing him. The championship brought them back together.

Dinah asked him where his mind was in an interview and suddenly the conversation got deep fast.

Draft Day

”The Montreal Canadiens are proud to select Juraj Slafkovsky from TPS in the Liiga!” Dinah watches the first overall selection stride down to meet the GM, President, and Head Coach of his new team. Her hand flies across her notepad faster than she can comprehend, really.

He’s soft. Teddy-bear like, but not weak.

Dinah dragged her eyes back down to her notes as she waited for the next team to select their draftee.

Someone might say Dinah fell in love that day, but Dinah felt something stronger.

She wanted to tell his story, again and again.

#

1. Juraj’s first game

Mullet Arena is tiny and too cozy, Dinah muses. Everyone seems uncomfortable, too close, intimate in a way that bothered them instead of coming naturally. The warm-ups were starting and as the lights came up Dinah noticed that just right along the opening where the players came out she saw something. It was him getting ready to take his rookie lap. Dinah’s heartbeat got heavy and fast. She got warm although she barely had anything on save for a coat. She couldn't stop staring as he made his loops round and round and the wide oval shape that the ice was. Loop, loop, loop. The sight of him taking his lap on the ice and then heading back off burned into her brain. It was somehow too much but also not enough. She wanted to see more.

2. His first goal

C’mon Juraj, stay on him. You’re almost there, do not let up.

Nearly 12 minutes left on the clock and he’s passing Arizona’s Maccelli and aiming. It misses. The sound of bodies hit the wall ring in Dinah’s ears. The shot is clear this time, now 11:43 left in the second period. He aims, and it passes Ingram. He’s scored his first goal. Jake grabs him first, then Arber and everyone else crashes into Juraj. His first goal has been made and Dinah is watching the ice.. A volcano of feelings screaming to rush out of them as Juraj fist-bumps the lines not on shift.

“His First of the National League, Slafkovsky!” Arber is right behind him, whooping and hollering with everyone else.

After the game ends, Dinah goes to their media availability and records most of the post-game conversation, asking some questions of her own and getting Coach St. Louis to laugh.

Then there’s Juraj, laughing and blushing. Dinah feels her heart stop beating for a moment, but she manages to ask one good question.

“You think this a good start to your career?” 

Juraj laughs, and Dinah knows this feeling is more now, tied and infinite.

3. End of Season

It was a loss. Boston 5 - Montreal 4. Dinah had to hold back her tears when she saw the final score on her screen. Pasternak really shut the door on them. Her phone is a Roman Candle in a room of near darkness. She unlocks her phone and sends a text to Arber and Juraj.

To: Big Bro, Juraj

Hugs. god, I'm so sorry. I know how hard you both fought this season. Do you need me to come over?

From: Big Bro

You know where the key is, Dee. We wouldn’t mind company.

A new message pops up, just between Dinah and Juraj.

From: Juraj

I’ll keep the couch warm. You want to pick a movie?

Dinah comes over and slips her shoes off before shuffling over to Arber, resting her head in his lap. Juraj toddles over and shoves his head in Dinah’s lap.

“You’re a puppy dog, I swear Slaf. Needy baby.”

That made Arber laugh, Juraj turning pink as the movie started.

4. Arber, Juraj and Dinah hanging out before Juraj asks Dinah on a date

Dinah sat themselves down, fiddling with the ring on her index finger as she waited for the boys. Now that the season was truly over, exit interviews done, there was a tiny, faint buffer of time before everyone scattered for the summer.

“Baby Dee!”

“Arber!” They crashed into each other, squeezing tight as Arber lifted Dinah off the ground.

Juraj follows Arber, quiet as he blinks at Dinah.

“Can I?”

“I’m a hugger Juraj, it’s fine. C’mere.” He’s gentle and wraps himself around her.

“So, I hear you’re heading home soon?” Arber nudges Juraj into a corner, raising his eyebrows.

“To finish my schooling, yes. In a few days, but I want to ask you something. Dinah, would you join me for a walk? Nothing too —“

“It’s a date Dee, Slaf is just shy. Meet him at the park Saturday, hm? We both know you think he’s cute.” Both Dinah and Juraj turn crimson.

“HEY. I told you that in confidence you dork!”

“You think…I’m cute? Not just something Arber is saying to be funny?” Arber gets up, heading to the bathroom and the air gets still.

“No. He’s telling the truth. I didn’t want to distress you—“

Juraj grabs Dinah’s hand and squeezes it.

“I like you more. I remember…. I remember my draft day and you couldn’t stop looking at me and I couldn’t stop thinking about you writing wondering what was making you scribble so fast.”

5. Dinah and Juraj’s First Date

“Time with you is never a waste, Slaf. You make any day less gray.”

“Sunshine, the sun is telling me I make their days better. Follow me. I have a surprise for you.” Dinah links pinkies with Juraj and follows him down the path to a picnic blanket laid out with food.

“How in the… Jura how —“

“Arber. Said feeding you would be the best way to woo you. Love you.” Dinah squeezes Juraj’s pinky again, the sentiment sending butterflies through their spine. The blanket has a bowl of strawberries at the center.

“Sandwiches, lemonade and oh, oh I love fruit! Jura, I thought you don’t like strawberries?”

“They’re not my favorite, but you are. Sit, let me feed you.” Dinah shuffles herself between Juraj’s legs and lets her body relax fully into his chest.

The basket shifts closer to the pair, and before long the taste of strawberries breaches Dinah’s lips. Sweet, tart, and juicy. They stay like this, Dinah being fed til every last strawberry was gone.

“How did you know that you wanted to be a journalist?”

The question makes Dinah freeze. Their head tilts back to meet Juraj’s eyes, and Dinah smiles.

“I’m fond of telling stories, and the only way I really could convey it is by following other’s stories. I tried writing fictional stories but it didn’t stick. The only common thread my family seems to share is hockey, from the love of the game to the thrill of watching it. It’s the only way I know how to do what I do best. To show my love to the people in my life.”

To show love? Juraj takes a breath, eyes meeting Dinah’s. He tries to kiss them, getting their nose. Again, their forehead before Dinah tugs his face to hers.

“I still like you most.”

“You’re not right. I wanted to kiss you proper —“

Dinah kisses Juraj again, but deeper, eyes shutting closed.

“I see.”

“I hope so because you seem ready to explode.”

5. The Summer Haze

Juraj is going to surprise her. The box in his hands feels heavy, but after talking (and getting laughed by Arber) he’s sure this is the right choice.

Two steady raps on the door, and the door swings open to show a sleepy Dinah.

“You’re back early. What has you coming over?” Juraj gives Dinah the box and blushes.

“For you. I noticed the recorder was falling apart, so I got you a nicer one.”

“I like this. I like you.” It gets quiet for a moment before Juraj tugs Dinah close to him.

“I like you most.” A kiss to her head, her cheek and her lips.

“I like you most, Jura. Stop trying to one up me.”

“No. I’m always going to like you more.”

As Dinah pulls Juraj inside to cuddle, the thrum of her heart finally goes steady.