#and i'm like. it did not even occur to me

[wordsmeetwbb]

Watch Me (Through The Screen)

Word count: 1.6k

Content: fluff, suggestive/sexual language

Pairing: Pazzi

Notes: long awaited bikini fic! lowkey got kind of poetic during portions of this, but i'm happy with how it turned out! this was originally going to have smut, but i'm really in a slump there right now, so i took it out. send me your thoughts as always!

________

It’s nearly midnight when Paige catches her. Azzi, curled up on Paige’s hotel bed, nestled into the sheets, cradling her phone in her hands. It’s such an adorable image that Paige forgets to breathe for a moment. The air gets caught in her lungs as her eyes trace Azzi’s frame, gaze soft. Paige’s hair is dripping onto the carpet, boxers and an old UConn shirt draped over her frame, but Azzi doesn’t look up.

The music doesn’t register in Paige’s mind at first, the volume just a little too low to float across the room to where she still hasn’t fully exited the bathroom. Then the clip of the song restarts, and it clicks in her brain.

It’s that unreleased song by The Weeknd. The one that Paige has been edited to thousands of times. She’s seen plenty of them, scrolled past, saved a few to her secret folder of edits that are very much not about basketball. It had never occurred to her that Azzi might see them too. And then, not just see them, but watch them.

“Az.” Paige’s feet are carrying her across the room before she even thinks about it. Then her fingers are closing around Azzi’s wrists, making her tilt the phone so she can see the screen. Azzi flushes and tries to hide the phone, but Paige squeezes. It’s not hard enough to hurt, just enough to convey the message. Don’t move. Let me see. Azzi swallows hard.

“P-”

“Nah, hold up. What’s this?” Azzi tries to pull her hands away again. Paige doesn’t budge.

“It’s just– I was… was scrolling and… this one came up!” Azzi defends. The song is still playing as the TikTok restarts, over and over again, and Azzi feels each new loop scratch marks into her spine. She briefly considers pretending to have a heart attack. That urge only intensifies when she finally glances up and sees the smirk curled onto Paige’s face.

“Yeah, it came up, and then you let that shit play on repeat. Am I right?” Paige teases. Azzi, again, wants to die.

“No, you’re not. Fine, I watched it once. I’ll admit that. But I was about to scroll when you came over here and decided you had to hold me captive. Which, by the way, could I have my hands back, please?” Azzi’s tone is bitter, and Paige almost feels bad for teasing her, but then she listens to the lyrics of the song again and throws her remorse out the window.

“You can have your hands back after you tell the truth. You watch my edits?” Paige pries. Azzi presses her lips together into a tight line.

“No.”

“No?”

“Not on purpose.” Paige raises an eyebrow, gets in Azzi’s face a little bit. Their breath intertwines between their bodies.

“Not on purpose?”

“Stop repeating everything I say!” Azzi exclaims. Paige grins.

“Nah. You’re telling me you never go looking for edits of me? Not even last week when you kept texting me how much you missed me? Sending me those filthy fucking texts about all the things you wanted me to do to you? Did I get that right?” Azzi is blushing furiously again, but her legs press together at the reminder of those texts.

“Okay, fine. Sometimes I look up edits of you and watch them on purpose when I miss being on the court with you, or looking at you, or your hands on me. Happy?” Azzi bursts out. A satisfied smile snakes its way onto Paige’s mouth. The song restarts for the millionth time. Azzi lets out a harsh breath.

“Listen to the lyrics, baby,” Paige murmurs. “You like these edits? The ones with this song?” Azzi nods, all the fight draining out of her after the admission. “Why do you like these, Az? Tell me.”

“Want you to do it to me,” Azzi whispers. Something hungry flickers in Paige’s eyes.

“Do what to you?” Embarrassment flares in Azzi’s stomach, but she pushes it down and answers anyway.

“Fuck me from behind. Clothes on. Just shove them out of the way.” It’s barely audible, but it’s enough. Paige turns off Azzi’s phone.

“Yeah?” She says, voice low and rough.

“Yes,” Azzi breathes.

“Get up and bend over, then.”

________

It’s been weeks since Paige has seen Azzi. She feels the loss in the space between each rib, the slowness of her heartbeat being dragged through the molasses of her bloodstream, the way her fingertips are a little numb where they’re used to brushing across Azzi’s skin.

So, she’s trying not to think about her girlfriend while she scrolls through TikTok after practice one day. Then that plan crumbles into dust like drywall punched a little too hard.

It’s not a video. It’s a singular picture of Azzi, skin tanned and glowing from time spent in the sun. And Paige could spend hours looking at Azzi’s skin, because she’s in one of the tiniest bikinis she’s ever seen. Her arm is around some girl, probably a fan, but Paige ignores her as soon as she determines the distance between their bodies is completely friendly. Her eyes are immediately back on Azzi’s body, dragging along every curve and dip of muscle.

It’s a little triangle bikini, a scrappy little thing that barely covers Azzi’s tits. The tiniest sliver of flesh peeks out beneath the bottom line of the bikini top, taunting Paige, and more spills out over the top. Definitely more than anything that could ever be appropriate outside of a cruise, Paige thinks. Part of her seethes that anyone other than herself got to see Azzi like this. The other part is incredibly thankful someone did see her girlfriend like that, captured it, and posted it for the internet (and Paige) to see.

She swipes out of TikTok and immediately opens FaceTime.

The call rings three times before Azzi picks up, the camera focusing on Azzi, again in a bikini, lounging on a beach chair.

“You’re so fucking hot. Like– Az. I saw this picture, TikTok, whatever, and you– I mean– jesus, baby. That shit should be illegal,” Paige rambles. Azzi’s eyebrows scrunch together, and she pushes her sunglasses up to rest on top of her head as she squints at Paige on the screen.

“What are you even talking about?”

“That bikini, Azzi! And I had to see it on TikTok instead of from you? Come on, baby. I deserve to have those delivered straight to iMessage,” Paige complains, but her eyes have caught on the ridge of Azzi’s collarbones. The strap of her bikini top hovers over the skin, suspended by bone, and Paige has never wanted anything as much as she wants to suck marks into the divot between bone and flesh. “Fuck, Az. Just wanna see you.” Azzi softens.

“Hey, I would have sent it to you, but the picture wasn’t on my phone. Plus, you can see me right now,” Azzi soothes.

“Yeah, but this is just right now. I wanna be able to look at you all the time. Pull out the bikini picture when I’m lonely and miss you.” Azzi scoffs, but there’s a smile on her face.

“Oh, don’t try to act like you have innocent intentions here. You just want to stare at my tits,” Azzi accuses. Paige coughs.

“No! I’m very respectful. I have only respectful motives. Just wanna appreciate my gorgeous, beautiful, sexy girlfriend. I’m tryna be supportive here, and you’re getting in the way of my… support,” Paige says. Azzi stares at her.

“Really?”

“Okay, fine. I wanna stare at your tits. And your abs. And your arms and thighs and face and collarbones, because holy fuck, Az, I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated your collarbones the way I should have. You might actually kill me. But it’s okay, still send me pictures, because I’ll die happy, I swear.”

Azzi giggles. The two women just stare at each other through the phones for a moment, feeling a world apart and only a breath away at the same time.

“Fuck, I miss you,” Paige whispers, breaking the quiet. Azzi breathes steadily, each inhale and exhale supporting her whole body, as if she’ll fall over if she stops thinking about each breath.

“I miss you too, P. I’ll send you some pictures, I promise. I won’t even make fun of you for wanting pictures of me mostly naked.” Paige lets out a weak laugh.

“Wow, thanks. God forbid a girl wants to stare at her girl sometimes.”

“Through a screen?”

“However I can have you.”

They just breathe for another moment, pretending they’re sharing air. It almost makes the distance feel smaller. Then Paige hears Katie’s voice in the background, yelling for Azzi, and the space is broken.

“I gotta go get ready for dinner now,” Azzi says apologetically. Paige does her best not to let her face fall.

“Yeah, yes, of course. Send me pictures?” She asks softly. Azzi smiles and nods. “Okay. Okay, see you soon.”

“Talk to you sooner. Love you, Paige,” Azzi says.

“I love you, too,” Paige replies. Azzi ends the call, and Paige sits on her couch for a few moments in the silence, missing Azzi’s voice and her warmth and the way her body fits so perfectly into Paige’s.

Then her phone buzzes with a text from Azzi. Paige clicks it open quickly and almost drops her phone. It’s Azzi in a bikini, captured in a bathroom mirror. Paige swallows hard, loves the image, and praises God for Azzi Fudd and triangle bikinis.

[stupidusernamepolicy]

People are so high and mighty when they take "the emergence of type 2 diabetes is influenced by lifestyle choices" and turn it into "people give themselves type 2 diabetes"

There are some throughlines you notice in talks about type 2 diabetes when you ACTUALLY listen to people who have it. And once you notice them this alteration in phrasing goes from merely misleading to straight up crass, cruel and untrue.

For many people the term "lifestyle choices" means exactly that, choices. But if someone doesnt have the financial and scheduling means to cook from scratch, and eat junk food sometimes or even frequently, thats usually not enough to cause type 2 in most people.

However, if on top of that they live a high stress life that constantly spikes their cortisol, if they have to spend hours in a car commuting because work is too far to walk/bike to or they have health issues restricting their mobility or simply cannot spare the time to do so, cannot spare time to exercise in other ways, if they live in a polluted area (which are often also lower income which coincidentally tends to come bundled with all the other listed factors), the emergence climbs higher.

What about education? Multiple people I've spoken to who have metabolic and digestive issues, people who grew up in similar circumstances to me even, told me they didnt know what vegetables actually do for you, or even didnt know what fiber was until their 20s. I had my mom emphasize the importance of it since i was very little- if some people dont get that info at home, then chances are they wont get it anywhere until the damage has already been done.

Then the individuality part, which this "they did it to themselves" argument REALLY loves to ignore. No two humans are the same. Some people can subsist on an unbalanced, carb and fat rich diet and go without a vegetable for weeks and never develop insulin resistance. But for someone with PCOS, or someone who is just built differently on a molecular level, the threshold for metabolic breakdown is much lower.

Diabetes type 2 is an illness. An illness that can occur for any number of reasons, with one of (just one of!) the possible contributing factors being one's diet. To flatten it to just "ate unhealthy" is to both moralize (like a dickhead) and fundementally misunderstand the issue.

The current western lifestyle, where ultraprocessed food, high stress, pollution and a lack of emphasis on education about these three is what lead to the current prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Personal choice or not, people with type 2 are victims of this first and foremost. Do not mistake your being lucky for Being Better Than Them.

Because that attitude of "I'm better than them" quickly lends itself to dehumanizing a population of ill people. People who have enough shit to deal with already.

damn people rly hate type 2 diabetics don't they

[drewswife]

summary — you and spencer debating on who’s right on the plane and rossi looks it up and spencer was right

pairings — oblivious!spencer x pining!reader

a/n/warnings — fluff, bickering, spencer knowing he’s right but doesn’t want to hurt your feelings, use of y/n sorry

The stale airplane air hummed around me and Spencer, a familiar drone that usually lulled me into a peaceful state. Not today, though. Today, it was the backdrop to an increasingly passionate, if utterly trivial, debate.

"I'm telling you, Spencer, it was the summer of '98! I remember because that's when my aunt Brenda got her first computer, and everyone was talking about it." I gestured emphatically with my hands, nearly elbowing an unsuspecting flight attendant.

Spencer, ever the picture of quiet conviction, adjusted his glasses. "Y/N, with all due respect, the data clearly indicates that the widespread adoption of dial-up internet in suburban households didn't reach its peak until early 2000. While '98 saw a significant increase, it wasn't the 'everyone was talking about it' level you're describing."

"But it felt like everyone!" I insisted, leaning closer. "The internet was this new, magical thing! And Brenda was so proud of her Gateway."

"Your personal anecdotal evidence, while charming," Spencer said, a faint smile playing on his lips, "doesn't supersede statistical trends."

I huffed, crossing my arms. "Oh, so now my memories are just 'charming anecdotes'? Is that it, Dr. Reid?"

He's so pretty when he gets all academic like this, even when he's being a know-it-all.

Before the playful bickering could escalate further, Rossi, who had been patiently listening from across the aisle, cleared his throat. He pulled out his phone, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "Alright, kids, let's settle this. What exactly are we looking up?"

"The year dial-up internet really took off in suburban America!" I declared, pointing at Spencer. "And he says it wasn't '98!"

Spencer merely raised an eyebrow, a silent challenge.

Rossi chuckled, typing quickly. A moment later, his eyes scanned the screen. He looked up, a theatrical sigh escaping him. "Well, Y/N, it seems our resident boy genius is, once again, correct. According to multiple sources, while there was growth in '98, the true widespread adoption and peak awareness you're describing did indeed occur closer to 2000."

I groaned, slumping back in my seat. "Unbelievable. My own memories betray me." I shot Spencer a mock glare. "You knew, didn't you? You knew you were right this whole time."

Spencer's faint smile widened, but he quickly reined it in, a flicker of something almost apologetic in his eyes. "I had a strong hypothesis, yes. But I didn't want to prematurely declare victory." He paused, then added softly, "And I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

And he's so sweet too. It's not fair.

My mock glare softened into a genuine smile. "You're a dork, Reid."

"And you're delightfully passionate, Y/N," he replied, a warmth in his gaze that sent a little flutter through my chest. I knew he was right, and a part of me had known all along that he probably would be. But I also knew he’d let me argue, letting me have my moment before gently, almost hesitantly, proving his point. And in that moment, as I looked at him, completely oblivious to the soft fondness in my own eyes, I couldn't help but pine just a little bit more.

🏷️, @sleepysongbirdsings @spencerreid66 @khxna @raysmayhem-72 @multiversefanfics @boopiemadz @starrii-sturns

[kameyyy]

jeans guy can see himself out

[cpvnksabm]

you know, in general i am the #1 defender of ricky potts as disability rep (before the erasure rewrites) especially when it comes to his pre-cyclone backstory. but occasionally i do remember the details about ricky's parents, specifically, how stupid it is. i spend most of my time in this fandom internally screaming "stop haphazardly changing rickys backstory, youre erasing the parts that made him special to me" but this part is one of few things in the whole musical that i actually do want changed. because if you take it at face value it makes no sense at all.

direct quote from the script:

"when Richard lost his power of speech, the Potts family took a vow of silence; usually communicating in a series of strange gestures that only they understood. The only time they interacted with one another was when they read comics, or fed the cats… they had fourteen cats."

there is so much weird shit going on here.

first of all. vow of silence? i have never in my life heard of that being someone's response to having a nonspeaking child. i am not nonverbal myself but based on what ive heard from people who are, i understand that not being able to just talk out loud for ease of communication, it complicates every interaction... so why would ricky's parents, presumably non-disabled (the term "vow of silence" definitely implies a choice and not like, selective mutism or anything), do that voluntarily?

no seriously. why. the script makes no attempt to explain their reasoning behind this or how ricky feels about it. why did they do this. is it a symbolic gesture? an attempt to better understand what their son is going through? i can't see it helping ricky in any tangible way. in fact, not being able to have his parents stand up for him (especially as a disabled person who is chronically ignored, especially as a child) would probably make his life harder.

i'm going to guess that the reasoning behind this out-of-universe, the general concept the writers were trying to communicate, was something like "one of the problems with how society treats disabled people is that sometimes they get too much support, and people make really drastic life changes to give them help that they don't even need"...

...and on top of directly contradicting the rest of ricky's backstory ("the most appalling cruelty humanity can muster: complete indifference", anyone?), this is just not true! the idea that disabled people are given/offered "too much" help is a myth and a stereotype. the vast majority of disabled people in real life have less than what they need, and have to struggle to get by. every organisation that is supposed to help disabled people, at every level, is biased toward giving the bare minimum or less - not to giving people more than they need.

to my knowledge, the whole "my son cant speak so im taking a vow of silence" thing, this has just... never happened in real life. not only would it Not Even Help it's just... not an idea that occurs to most parents of nonspeaking children. because why would it? it's ridiculous! the potts family "vow of silence" is just a ridiculous overexaggeration of the concept of "parents of disabled children make sacrifices for their children", and i dont like it.

now, if you want you can handwave all this away with "yeah this would be insane and ultimately unhelpful, but the musical never says that it is helpful, so for all we know ricky doesnt like it and it isnt good and his parents are just insane for doing that". and if that was the case, it would kind of fit with a recurring theme in the musical of performative efforts to "help" ricky that actually just make him more miserable. although i would say that a literal vow of silence is waaaay too big of a life commitment for parents to realistically do performatively. but then again, ricky's parents are clearly already odd people, with the 14 cats and the "strange gestures", so maybe it's just their characterisation...

and that reminds me. why the hell are they communicating with "strange gestures that only they understand".

i think most of the fandom interprets this as referencing ASL. but based on the description that's not what ASL is. sign languages are languages, with their own complex grammar, vocabulary, etc. they are not "strange gestures". this is like if noel's lament ended with our Objective Omniscient Narrator Karnak saying "monique and the priest communicated with a series of strange sounds that only they understood" and then they just spoke regular ass french.

but of course the script never says they're using ASL, and to my knowledge no production has ever actually done ASL for the "gestures", that part is really just fanon.

if you interpret the "strange gestures that only they understood" wording more literally - there is such a thing as home sign! home sign is a communication system made of gestures, generally not considered a complete language, that develops in households where communicating in language (either spoken language or sign language) is not an option. primarily, this is something that happens to linguistically isolated deaf children. if a child cannot hear well enough to learn & communicate with spoken language, and their parents don't give them an opportunity to learn sign language, they develop their own communication methods.

even this isn't quite what's happening in the musical if you take it literally, though, because home sign is developed by the child, by the child who doesn't have access to language. ricky could be d/Deaf or hard of hearing, which would impact his ability to hear and thus learn spoken language, but there's nothing in the musical to really point to this and so i dont think its what the writers were going for. the phrasing of the "vow of silence" thing implies that it was ricky's parents' choice to develop their own communication method consisting of gestures, rather than just an existing language including the language they presumably all already knew and communicated with prior to the "vow of silence".

this truly just boggles the mind. how did this happen? was there a point where mr potts sat down with the family and said "okay, so when we all take a vow of silence, this gesture will be how we ask each other when the cats food bowl was last fulled"? i will give canon the benefit of the doubt on one thing - while it isnt specified in the script, based on how degenerative (neuromuscular) disorders work in real life, it's likely ricky losing his speech would have been a gradual process rather than an overnight thing, and therefore i suppose the parents could have had enough warning time to develop the basics of a signed conlang. but they could have also used that time to learn an existing sign language, which im sure would have been easier for everyone. or they could have used that time to say "considering english exists in forms that dont require talking out loud (AAC), it would probably be easier to learn that rather than a new language, and also why are we taking a vow of silence anyway, how does that help our kid".

of course we dont know exactly how this language of "strange gestures" came to be. because canon, rather than elaborating on any of this, simply dropped the out-of-context claim on our feet. but depending on exactly how it went down, if you take it seriously, i think it could range from "bizarre form of child abuse/neglect that would have a severe impact on rickys communication and social life for years to come" to "technically harmless but really weird and convoluted".

and while we're on the subject of potential neglect. may i remind you, the last part of the section on ricky's parents:

"The only time they interacted with one another was when they read comics, or fed the cats… they had fourteen cats."

This is, frankly, maddening. it seems to imply that ricky's family ignored him a lot due to his disability which, while depressing, is definitely consistent with the rest of his backstory - being ignored at school/in uranium in general, retreating into his own imagination to cope. and i've said time and time again that the ableism ricky faces, being constantly ignored and condescended to and having to literally die and have his disability be magicked away in the afterlife before anyone actually listens to him, this is the most realistic part of the whole musical.

with that being said uhhh. that ending line might be consistent with the rest of rickys backstory but its NOT consistent with everything else karnak said about rickys parents, as recently as thirty seconds ago! are you telling me these parents took a vow of silence in some sort of weird symbolic solidarity with their kid, went as far as creating their own gestural communication system (/signed conlang) to facilitate communicating through this vow of silence... and then barely interacted with the kid they had sacrificed so much for?

if i take karnak completely at his word here, the only explanation i can come up with is that ricky was the subject of some linguistic experiment that his parents came up with. and frankly im not convinced the experiment is scientifically or ethically sound.

okay, in all seriousness,

i know the potts family is not conducting an unethical linguistic experiment. or at least, i know that is not the intended subtext of the musical. it's possible to come up with contrived situations in which these bizarre decisions would be realistic in-universe, but we all know that ride the cyclone is a work of fiction. and when things are this contrived... the most reasonable explanation is simply "the writers never thought that hard about it".

and that's disappointing! this blatantly nonsensical detail stayed in the musical for years, and apparently nobody thought to be like "hey, does this make sense? should we fact-check this?". this part of rickys backstory stayed the same until his entire backstory was overhauled to remove his disability in 2022 and, tbh, i dont think that was actually that anyone realised this part didnt make sense and tried to fix it, more likely that it just happened to get thrown out while they were doing disability erasure.

everything about this short paragraph indicates the writers being unwilling to research. which is bad writing practice in general and particularly bad when you're writing about disabilities!

i find this particularly disappointing because, as ive said, most of ricky's backstory was very realistic in the old scripts, and surprisingly well done; this is one of the aspects of disability rep where they just, completely dropped the ball. unfortunately, that was years ago, and now rtc has so thoroughly gone off the deep end in terms of disability ""representation"" that it's hardly worth it to nitpick the worst details in the best versions of the script...

but, still, i wanted to share my thoughts on this. it's surprisingly under-discussed in the fandom. i see a lot of people attempting to explain how rtc's disability rep was always flawed, some better than others... and i thought it would be good to go through and actually nitpick what rtc did wrong in the first place so we can all try to do better.

anyway, to the half-dozen people still reading this. fic writers. if you are a stickler for Canon Compliance then please understand that the canon here is nuts. i'm not saying don't put it in your fics, personally i sometimes love to write fics that i call Canon Malicious Compliant, which is when you stubbornly refuse to acknowledge what the author probably meant to say and instead explore the fucked-up explanations of what the author literally did say. i would love to see some fics that explore how ricky would actually feel about the "vow of silence" thing, and how it would impact him & his relationship with his parents, rather than just having it as a background info that isn't acknowledged as the weird thing it clearly is.

alternatively, to the large section of the fandom that is willing to say "I recognize the canon has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it" - can i suggest CODA!Ricky, as in Child Of Deaf Adults, as an alternative headcanon that stays close to the canon while actually making sense? this would explain why his parents use a sign language at home way better than the "their kid cant speak so naturally they took a vow of silence" nonsense. obviously, headcanon what you want, this is the one part of canon that is really so nonsensical you might as well ignore it and treat it as a blank space in which to write whatever hcs you want, i just wanted to suggest one possible (more reasonable) explanation

[alt-lucidifer]

Okay so I'm gonna go on an excited rant here. So I may or may not have been listening to a certain song and gotten hella inspired and now I need to note down this idea somewhere before I forget it.

I have been reading a lot of svsss fanfics and it hit me so hard; I've never seen a fanfic exploring what would happen if Shen Jiu was ever given a glimpse of SY!SQQ's future. Angst, no doubt. So that could happen. But also. But also. But what if he instead was given control of SY body during the Water Prison arc.

Rather than fleeing like SY did, I think SJ would start formulating a plan. Then I was given the genius idea of giving SJ simultaneously a redemption arc and a further-blackening storyline. As he's already experienced a lifetime where he betrayed and abused LBH, I think he would rethink his actions—but not regret them. He still hates LBH. So instead, he starts rooting out issues that led to his eventual demise whilst also dealing with the bullshit SY left behind for him. What is happening with SY, you ask? Well... Plantyuan? I imagine his soul would kind of be in a comatose state while the mushroom body grows. Like being put on hold during a call, I suppose.

Then past the Jinlan City arc, SJ returns with LQG and YQY to Cang Qiong Sect. He distances himself and in true MXTX fashion, misunderstandings occur. SJ is STILL plotting, actually making use of his lofty immortal image to garner some attention that he uses to worm his way into positions of power. Then SY and SJ end up face to face years later... This could go in all sorts of direcions!

I imagine that power would be a big part of SJ character. He doesn't hunger for more like Binghe, but in a way he is never satisfied. His perfectionism stretches even to himself. But he is eternally ruined, he knows—there are some parts of him that he cannot mend. He cannot be perfect. Thus, no one else is allowed to be perfect. It's basically a superiority and inferiority complex in one. In the end, I think SJ would either destroy the sect from within before LBH has a chance to slaughter them all, since he doesn't actually want anyone to die. I think he would see it as choosing a lesser evil. SJ is by no means a morally gray character—he was a villain. But with knowledge of his "future" and mild influence by SY, I think he could become a more complex and less "good" or "bad" straightforward blank slate. Of course he already has a backstory, but I feel like there's sm left unexplored!

But I'm already working on Book-Wielder’s Normopathy... Oh well.

[starlightintheirwake]

"Right." He thought it might be something like that. "I'm sure I took it perfectly well when you wanted to break it off."

Yeah, fat chance. He's had time to think since Armand scrammed after turning him. At first he was pissed off to realize a whole relationship was deleted out of his head, until it occurred to him Armand did what he thought best for Daniel. Hell he may have even been right. Daniel might not have given him any other choice.

"For what it's worth, I was a full blown addict by the time I was sixteen. I'd have gotten worse and worse regardless if I'd ever met you. So if you're carrying any guilt around about it, don't."

Daniel hasn't looked away from Armand. He's studying his body language, trying to gauge what he's feeling.

"The past is what it is. I'm angry that you left me again." It's difficult for Daniel to admit. His identity's always been wrapped up in his independence. He doesn't need anybody, but he wants. More so he wants to be wanted back. It's embarrassing.

"So, why?" Daniel's an entirely different person since kicking the coke and smack in '86. That's not to say he hasn't remained a mess in different ways, or become one in new ways since the change. He probably makes a lousy vampire. "Are you disappointed in how I turned out?"

God, that was a big question. He couldn't have started with something easier, like do you know your address or what do you want for Christmas?

Okay. He could do this.

"I was hurting you. The whole while, only I couldn't see it." He smiled sadly. "We were having such fun. But you got worse and worse. It's like a drug. And no one has ever had such a taste for drugs that you have. Poison for poison's sake. You were addicted."

He stirred the water in the bowl and the little fish followed it, nibbling.

"And I remembered the words of my maker. He wanted me to go far away and have a life of my own. A life like the one you've had. But I wouldn't go. I would've climbed any wall, broken down any door. Imagine if I'd had that lust for a human life? In the end, he failed. An ancient, powerful vampire, beaten by the whispers of a dying slave boy. I had to be stronger... I was in love. And you were dying."

[goodplace-janet]

i agree with the idea that if you need help, you should ask for it, but does anyone know how to identify when you're facing a problem that someone could potentially help with if asked?

[casscainmainly]

WHAT

(From Convergence Batgirl)

[minugasakuranohana]

Part 1

Mori: After all these years, I've met Natsume-sensei again. How wonderful that he's still so cheerful. Kouyou: The leader is so respected. I would love to meet him, too. Mori: Sensei doesn't show his face much, so he must be working in the dark for this city. Aku: ...What are you doing? Gin: Cute ☺️ Natsume: *purr* =^ᴥ^=

Part 2

Kunikida: I'd love to meet the living legend who taught our president! I can't believe Katai beat me to it! Rampo: I have met him! Dazai: Me too, me too! Kunikida: What? Only me?..... Yosano: Well, well... Yosano, whispering: I've met him too, though. Yosano: We're all living in Yokohama, so you might bump into each other by accident one day. Kunikida: In order not to feel ashamed of themselves whenever such an encounter occurs, every member of the Armed Detective Agency should always keep their clothes clean and spend every day realizing on whose shoulders the responsibility to bear the banner of the agency! Dazai: I can't help ~~~ / *doing nothing* Natsume: *purr* Atsushi: Ahaha what's wrong with you all the way? Kyouka: Maybe you're a match. Atsushi: Because I'm also in the cat family?! 🐯😸

I tried to find it in English or Japanese, but I gave up in the end 🥲 so this translation is from Chinese into two languages 😵

But it was funny.

Mori: Natsume-sensei works so hard! Natsume: Retirement is like this. Haruno-chan petted me in the morning, Gin-chan in the afternoon, I hope Kyouka-chan and Atsushi like to pet cats too 😸 It's good for the back, you know... Maybe Naomi-chan will come over to visit Haruno-chan in the evening too... *purr* Fukuzawa: Realizing that Natsume was constantly loitering around the agency's dormitory.... Realizing that he lives there... To pet or not to pet, that is the question! It's a cat! But it's Natsume-sensei! 😕😣😭

Kouyou and Kunikida: We would love to meet Natsume! 😍😍 Natsume: meow Kouyou and Kunikida: Who let the cat in?! (╯°□°)╯

Yosano: To comfort Kunikida or to make fun of him with Rampo and Dazai, hm? Yosano: *Flashbacks from the day she met Natsume*

By the way, when did this happen?! I don't recall any mention of this in the canon. Maybe the first official case for the newly formed ada came from Natsume, and he entrusted them the investigate on the old military base - the ship that sailed to Tokoyamijima, which Yosano tried to blow up at the end of the war - in order to find out something about her and Mori? And he himself gave them permission to visit a military facility. Also, in chapter 66, it's the probability that Fukuzawa took a helicopter belonging to the Special Division, not Mori (though I'm not sure). And then Natsume just came in to check on the job and was like, "Oh, little Rampo did a good job! Congratulations! Good luck, little Yosano!" *runs off into the sunset back*

Dazai: *Flashbacks from all the moments where he and the cat went to the dumpsters, where Natsume saw him drunk and followed with him home (in another dumpster) just to make sure that this genius wouldn't jump off a bridge or something, wouldn't get lost or anything, where Natsume in between combat operations ran up on his 4 paws to check if Dazai was alive at all, like, the Suribachi explosion in 15...*

Atsushi: Kyouka-chan, you wanna say I'm a cat?! *hisses* Fandom: Yes, dear, the cat family with grandpa-cat has adopted you (~˘▾˘)~

(Also, why are English letters so cute and pretty in chats? It doesn't make Russian letters look any more like this. Disappointing ಥ_ಥ)

DVD омаке, 16 выпуск

(я не слишком уверена, что это именно шестнадцатый, к тому же сканы были не на японском, а к��тайском... Да и нормально вставлять текст мне лень)))

Мемное омаке)))

Мори: Нацумэ работает не покладая рук! Нацумэ: Пенсия — это вот так. С утра погладила Харуно-тян, днем Гин-тян, надеюсь, Кёка-тян и Ацуши тоже любят гладить котов 😸 Для спины полезно, говорят. Вечером может и Наоми-тян зайдёт к Харуно-тян... Фукудзава: Осознавая, что Нацумэ постоянно шарится по общежитию агентства... Погладить или не погладить, вот в чем вопрос?! Это же коооот! Но это же Нацумэ-сенсей! 😕😣😭

Коё и Куникида: Мы хотим увидеть Нацумэ! 😭 Нацумэ: Мяу Коё и Куникида: Кто сюда кота пустил?!

Йосано: Где-то между идти успокаивать Куникиду и поугорать над ним вместе с Рампо и Дазаем. Флешбеки с того дня, когда она встретила Нацумэ.

Кстати, а когда это было?! Что-то я не припоминаю в каноне таких упоминаний. Может, первое официальное дело только что созданного вооружённого детективного агентства поступило от Нацумэ и он поручил им провести расследование на старой военной базе — том самом корабле, который плавал на Токоямидзиму, и который Йосано в конце войны пыталась взорвать, — с целью что-то о ней и Мори выяснить? И сам выдал им разрешение на посещение военного объекта. Плюс, тот факт, что Фукудзава, вероятно, брал вертолет сп��цслужбы погонять в 66 главе, а не мори (хотя хз). А потом Нацумэ просто зашел проверить, как работу выполнили, и такой: «О, малыш Рампо хорошо потрудился! Поздравляю! Удачи, крошка Йосано!» *сваливает в закат обратно*

Дазай: Флешбеки со всех моментов, где они с котом шарились по помойкам, где Нацумэ видел его набухавшимяся и шел с ним до "дома", просто чтобы убедиться, что этот гений не прыгнет с моста или ещё откуда, не потеряется и вообще, где Нацумэ в перерывах между какой-то трэшатиной подбегал проверить, а жив ли вообще Дазай, типа, взрыв в Сурибачи в пятнашках...

Ацуши: Кёка-чан, ты что, хочешь сказать, что я тоже кот?!

Да, Ацуши, семейство кошачьих с кошкодедом тебя усыновило)

Мое честное мнение: Куникида, слишком много текста!

Исходники: [часть 1] и [часть 2] плюс небольшой (и единственный) отрывок на японском:

Пост номер 666 в моём блоге ✨

[mennany]

Gem and Pearl, also known as GAP (Got Any Pickles?)

[pennamepersona]

the thing is that my disbelief is sooooooo suspended for fallen london that I think it makes me miss lore bc it'll be like "there's a massive library bigger than europe inside of this whale carcass" and I'm like yeah sure ok I'll accept that at face value instead of going hmmm that seems weird, I wonder why that exists

[rustedleopard]

I feel like if Chujin was still alive during the events of Undertale Yellow, his and Clover's relationship would be incredibly rocky. Pacifist!Clover could bring him around to tolerating them (after all, they have that sort of effect on everyone), but it would be more in a "this human is the only 'good' human" manner than a "maybe I should reevaluate my opinions on humans overall because you can't judge an entire group based off (very biased) stories and one bad experience." Even then, that opinion would be subject to change should Clover ever get frustrated or behave "too aggressively" or act in any manner that isn't perfectly docile. If Clover ends up attacking a monster then it's "humans are just as horrible as they were in the war stories, I should've known better" regardless of the circumstances that could've pushed Clover to fight. Suffocating expectations and endless demands for patience when he wouldn't ask the same of a fellow monster.

And heaven forbid he ever meet Clover on a No Mercy Run...

[gallus-rising]

ok whatever. this isn't like a "callout" or whatever but i've thought really hard about this and given Prince has all but said my name i feel like i'm justified in at least letting my followers know about their shitty behavior

(note: last i knew Prince/Bucket they used he/she/they pronouns and asked people to continuously rotate so that’s what i'll be doing here)

about a year ago i was mutuals with @/fukit-im-bucket we weren't friends but we were friendly, ya know? then one day outta nowhere he blocked me and in the main fandom tags vagueposted about how he was soooo sad to learn a long time mutual was a secret proshipper and he felt soooo gross for ever having interacted with that disgusting person. the person who informed me of the post let me know she didn't publicly use my name but was DMing people who asked so like. i was kinda bitter about being maintag vagued and called a disgusting person, but i was thankful she didn't name me directly at least so i move on with my life

this May i start planning a rerun of Dimple Week. i announce it on the blog, i post prompts, and a few days after i posted prompts it occurred to me i could crosspost to my twt and bsky. since those sites run off hashtags i could just drop prompts and a tag for people to use and wouldn't have to run a dedicated account. i go on twt and start looking up the commonly used mp100/Dimple tags and because twitter's block function Doesn't Fucking Work i see a post from Prince announcing dates and prompts for an alt Dimple week created specifically because of me

i don't own the concept of "running a character themed prompt event" but this felt really shitty. organizing an identical event because my cooties are so bad people can't even stand that i like the same character as them. after this i did seriously consider not running Dimple Week because if my involvement was making people so uncomfortable what's even the point. i hate the idea of upsetting people just trying to have fun, but i decided that since Prince was running theirs in twt and insta and on different dates i'd just keep mine as is to Tumblr

and then, on the first day of Dimple week, i was sent this

there was literally no reason for this. no one was asking Prince why he wasn't doing Dimple week, he dropped this on the first day instead of any point before or after, and he's suddenly offering to host on on Tumblr as well as twt and insta. we all know how nebulous the term "proshipper" can be so not offering literally any details lets people fill in the blanks for what possible evil thing i could've done. i do not have a secret alt where i "endorse and create proship content" i'm very open about my ships and the sort of stuff i like to make (and in fact there are a handful of posts i've made that Prince would've had to have been actively ignoring my tags/artistic intent to not realize were ship posts) i don't force my ships onto anyone or try to secretly sneak them in to works/convos/events

Prince could've at any point DMed me to clear things up but instead she's vagued about me, made it sound like i'm a creep and a liar, and tried to ostracize me from the fandom for almost a year. i have not interacted with Prince in any why shape or form since she blocked me, but i'm so tired of putting up with her spreading rumors about me. again this isn't a callout, i'm not trying to get Prince canceled or whatever but their behavior is just childish at this point. block as you will and move on with your lives from this whole "this could've been a DM" situation like i'm just trying to do

every time i log onto twt.fuck i learn i've been blocked yet another mp100 fan/gimmick acct. and every time they are connected in some way to the person that fuckin main tag vagued me for Shipping Crimes. i could let everyone know you and all your friends have been telling people i'm a p*do for about 6 months now. i publicly make fun of the unbelievably petty thing you did recently because apparently i'm still on your mind. but i won't because i remain committed to being the bigger man. lmao

[vimbry-moved]

jumping off the back of the post about genres of song lyrics, another thing about tmbg's lyrics in particular is that even when they write about pleasant themes, they still manage to frequently do so through a sinister lens:

the experience of having children and looking after them:

a nice little nightlight protecting a child muses on the shortcomings it would have outside its assigned responsibility:

fantasising about getting high in the park with your crush:

[inquisitor-julia]

Me playing DA:V as a mage: oooh dragon fights are so fun! :)

Me playing DA:V as a warrior and fighting a dragon: *high pitched fearful screaming*