#and like. english is my first language AND i'm familiar with the content AND i've worked with these people before

[monstermoviedean]

highly underrated skill to be able to communicate with people who have different levels of technical knowledge without being condescending or shitty about it

[golden-moony]

king of my heart | smau

pairings: lando norris x fem!reader | pato o'ward x fem!reader

summary: y/n is an F1 content creator loved among the grid and the fans, and more than one person ships her with lando due to how close they've always been. but when y/n goes to her first IndyCar race, the last thing she expects is being involved in rumours with another mclaren driver.

warnings: love triangle? kinda.

author's note: i might turn this into a mini series but i'll see how it goes. btw english it's not my first language so if there's any grammatical error please let me know so i can fix it, ty🧡 now enjoy!

part 1 | part 2 | part 3

------------------------------------------------------

yourusername posted to their story!

[caption 1; it's indycar weekend in Long Beach, babyyyy!] [caption 2; time for practice and snacks🌞]

patriciooward

liked by indycar, zbrownceo, yourusername, and 83,527 others!

patriciooward INDY500 colors and back in the streeetz🤩

user1 lookin' goooood🔥

arrowmclaren it'll look even better with confetti covering it😉 user2 admin knows a win is coming!! 💪

user3 Este es tu año, cabrón! VAMOOOOS 🇲🇽

user4 is it a requirement to be handsome to drive in mclaren? cause daaaamn

user5 same girl, same

yourusername black is the new papaya fr 🔥 can't wait for tomorrow!

patriciooward hopefully you'll be wearing #5 user6 OMG?!?!!!??? yourusername can't show favoritism! i'm a professional, sir patriciooward it can be our secret then 😉 user7 OH MY- HELLOOOOO? user8 landonorris come get your girl bro!!! user9 omfg mr o'ward i wasn't familiar with your game user10 y/n sweety, wrong mclaren driver landonorris 🤨 user11 she really said i want a mclaren, don't care which one😭 user12 and she's so real for that

user13 let's goooo Pato!! 🦆🧡

user14 y/n and pato's exchange?? NEW SHIP HAS ARRIVED!

user15 i feel like i'm betraying my roots but pato and y/n would be the it couple fr user16 SO TRUE user17 pato and lando deserve sooo much better.

user18 NOT LANDO REPLYING TO THE COMMENT 😂😂

user19 f1twt is about to have a blast with this one 🍿 user20 they already have #teampato and #teamlando hashtags going on 😭😭

yourusername posted to their story!

[caption 1; preparation for ✨qualy day✨] [caption 2; that's how you arrive in style]

yourusername

liked by pierregasly, alexanderrossi, shelovesformula1, and 76,088 others!

yourusername First IndyCar race ✅ can't explain how incredible this weekend was! I’ve had the pleasure of chatting to so many cool people, discovering so much about this series and meeting so many of you! 🧡 can't wait to show you everything soon 😘

user1 what a babeeeee 😍

frosenqvist so great to meet you! hope you come to another one again soon! 🏁

arrowmclaren we second this! user2 she's an indy girl now 😎 tkanaan especially after all the fun we had last night😜 yourusername oh i'll definitely come back for more races (and parties ofc🙊) user3 she's part of the family now! love to see it user4 mclaren team 🤝 us: being in love with y/n

user5 PATO INTERVIEW??!! WE WON

lissiemackintosh so happy to have met you!! 💖

yourusername can't wait to see u again 🥹 user6 MY FAVES 🤩🤩 user7 girls supporting girls 💞 user8 we need a colab!

landonorris y/n get out of there. That's not your family!

carlossainz55 y/n please hurry, the kid has missed you maxverstappen1 y/n please hurry, we can't stand him anymore maxfewtrell y/n please hurry, he gets whiny when you're not around alex_albon y/n please hurry, oscar is about to commit crime oscarpiastri that is correct, so please y/n hurry landonorris when i asked y'all to back me up, this is NOT what i meant 🙄 yourusername if it helps at all, i've miss you all 🫶 (except Lando) landonorris i hate y'all fr user9 this is the kind of content i pay my internet bill for 😂

user10 literal queen 👑

user11 she couldn't become lando's wag so now she goes to indy to try to find a man lol such a clout chaser

user12 girl stfu she's literally just doin her job user13 try not to sound so bitter next time 💋 user14 get a life, hater

user15 MOTHER IS MOTHERING

user16 i don't think we're talking enough about that last photo

user17 RIGHT?! Y/N X PATO LET'S GOO user18 nah y/n x lando >>>>>>>>

patooward Indy looks good on you 💯 i wonder who took that amazing first pic

yourusername credits to you, amateur😘 user19 you can't convince me they're not flirting user20 i truly don't know if i wanna be pato or y/n... i only know i'd hate to be lando rn 😭 user21 y/n and lando are the endgame user22 Y/N X PATO TILL THE END

landonorris posted to his story!

[caption; safe and sound where she belongs]

sooo.... y'all want part 2?

[justwonder113]

Showering Bang Chan with affection

Lee Know ; Changbin; Hyunjin; Han; Felix; Seungmin; IN;

Warning: gender neutral reader, Kinda suggestive but nothing is implied. Reader is Whipped but no worries so is Channie.

A/N- this is the first ever fic I've ever written about Stray kids so I'm really excited. I really hope you'll like it. Feel free to share your thoughts with me. Requests are open if you're interested. Sorry if the grammar is bad English isn't my first language. Word count- 750

You two laid on the bed, with you carefully watching your boyfriend with literal heart eyes and him playing on his phone. You finally managed and convinced the Bang Christopher Chan to take a day off and just rest. And now he was all snuggled up in his favorite hoodie his curly hair cutely messed up, skin glowing all nicely from the skincare evening you held and now he was immersed in his game.

You two were set on just chilling and having a lazy day content in each other's presence. You were reading your book and were set on finishing it but you got distracted by your boyfriend's grumbling. He mumbled something about someone cheating his pouty lips cutely jutted out. This adorable sight was enough to distract you from your book. Admiring your boyfriend felt more interesting anyways.

You had no idea how much time has passed since but still it didn't feel enough , he was so immersed in his game he didn't even notice your eyes on him. You didn't want to seem like a creep but you couldn't take your eyes off of him. He was literal perfection in your eyes, it felt like watching art piece at a museum. The way he had his eyebrows drawn in concentration, his happy giggles whenever something went his way or the way he pouted his pretty lips when it didn't, it had your heart jumping in your ribcage.

In fact he was pouting right bow and mumbling about something you didn't really catch on and also didn't really paid any mind to it. Now you had different goal you wanted to achieve. Your mind was occupied with only one thing, which was to kiss him senseless and that's what you were set on doing.

You set aside your book and slowly crawled to him, carefully getting in his lap to not disturb his game. His hands immediately wrapped around you and he quickly kissed your temple. It was cute how even when he was distracted he never failed to give you your much needed affection. It was little things like this that made you fall for him more and more every day, make you feel like a teenager experiencing love for the first time ever.

You felt kinda bad that you were distracting him but as soon as his warmth engulfed you, the second you felt his familiar comforting scent surround you you were a goner and all plans to stay put were gone.

At first you started leaving slow soft kisses on his neck, amused at the shivers that run down his whole body. You felt his grip on your waist tighten, he even muttered something you didn't quite catch on. The main thing was he was not opposed to your sudden affection so you gave yourself a green light. You kissed the spot on his neck that you knew was his weak spot and you couldn't help but smile when he giggled at the tickling feeling.

In a matter of seconds your self control was thrown out the window and you kept leaving kisses wherever you could reach, his neck, his jaw, his cheeks, his forehead, his nose, his squishy lips. You were so immersed you didn't even realize when he put his phone away, he put his arms around you, caging you against him now willing to let go even for a second. He watched you with eyes filled with so much love and passion, shining so brightly any star would be jealous, you were taken back for a second at the intensity of his gaze. God, you were so in love with this man. You sometimes even wondered if he could feel it. You were expressive with your feelings but you were not sure if you were fully expressing it, making him realize just how much he meant to you. Loving him was part of your being now, part of your existence. And you hated how there were not words that could be used to express your feelings.

Channie looked at you with knowing eyes, as always fully aware of what were you feeling and thinking. " I know love, I adore you more." He softly muttered against your cheek leaving a soft kiss there, sending shivers down your spine.

You huffed out a laugh while shaking your head, "Not possible love."

He playfully rolled his eyes, mischief glimmering on his beautiful face. "Let me prove it to you then" he whispered against your lips before sealing your them together.

[roses-for-rosalyn]

i desperately need dealer!ellie and her sweet girlfriend (who is also totally a stoner (;). maybe if reader went out of town for a while and ran out of weed, so she got some off of a dealer/from a dispensary in that town. then reader gets home and ellie would be (mostly jokingly) horrified by the weed that wasn't hers, and so on :3

(sorry if this does not make sense, english is not my first language and i've never done an ask before so im a bit nervous :])

Rahhh what an amazing idea!! I'm so honored I was your first ask, also don't be nervous to approach my account this is a safe space for anyone darling 💕 Sorry it took so long to respond!!

the people who like my Ellie content come 'ere, this is a treat for you.

word count: 3.7 k

minors dni (please bro)

cw: sprinkle of fluff (haven't had a productive therapy session in a loong time), mutual masterbation sort of, neck kissing, drug use 🍃, established relationship, dealer! Ellie, strap on use (r! receiving), teasing, multiple orgasms, overstimulation, no use of y/n (lmk if I missed anything)

You stand before a familiar rust colored door, contemplating for a moment before you rap your knuckles against the hardwood. You were visiting your girlfriend for the first time in a few weeks–which felt more like a few months. You had gone back home to visit family for a while, and to meet up with some old friends. Naturally being with family was incredibly stressful and you were relieved to be able to return to your girlfriend for multiple reasons: 1) she has weed 2) you were extremely sexually frustrated after being without her for a few weeks 3) you simply missed her company (which you would never explicitly admit to her considering she was a pain in the ass half the time). You had been texting Ellie every day and she never failed to turn the conversation from something wholesome into something incredibly dirty. You would go from talking about your day to shaking, nervous hands trying to type a response without dropping your phone. She could have you aching for her in mere moments simply by stringing together a strategic set of words. It was truly a gift, an oddly specific gift that you were incredibly grateful for when you were separated from her. 

You had told her almost everything about your visit. You failed to mention that being with family got so stressful you met up with your old plug from highschool. You only bought like three prerolls, but for some odd reason you felt like you were being unfaithful to your drug dealer girlfriend. It was something so incredibly silly, but the action just felt…weird. She enjoyed being possessive a lot of the time, mostly because it was fun for her (particularly in bed). Someone might flirt with you at a bar and she would take you home and not let you come until you had said you were hers over and over and over. A combination of nerves and excitement invaded your body every time you thought about telling her. You would imagine her reaction and an ache would immediately grow between your legs. But then another side of you wondered if it might actually bother her, and maybe she wouldn’t react that way. It was a gamble and you were unsure if you felt like risking it. 

The sound of the door opening disrupts your train of thought. As soon as you see Ellie’s face your worries dissolve, you leap towards her, wrap your arms around her tightly and kiss her. You were both smiling so hard your teeth gently knocked together. You lean back, taking her in, you had missed her perfectly placed freckles and familiar green eyes. You kiss her again and again and again, pecking your lips against hers. She moves away from your lips, cups your face and plants gentle kisses on your forehead, cheeks and nose. You giggle and scrunch up your face at the feeling, your cheeks starting to warm. 

She breaks away and rests her forehead against yours, “Hi.” she says breathlessly.

“Hi.” you reply, giggling. “I missed you.” 

“I know, I’m an incredibly amazing person to spend time with, anyone with a brain would miss me.” She smirks, almost challenging you to retaliate. 

Your eyes narrow,  “you know what?’ You scoff, ‘I know you missed me,” a grin forms on your face before you continue, “In fact I have proof of exactly how much you missed me right in my phone.” You lean in, whispering in her ear, “And if you don’t admit it we won’t do anything we talked about while I was away.” 

Ellie smiles, “Ok, Ok I missed you,” she looks down, “you and your perfect tits.” You pull away from her and playfully slap her on the shoulder, poorly pretending to be offended–your giggling gave you away. you could tell she meant it when she said she missed you because she was looking at you with such adoration in her eyes you think you might explode. 

Ellie finally walks away from you to close and lock the door before gently grabbing you by the hand to lead you to the couch. Her hand is so warm and familiar, you squeeze it softly, savoring the feeling. 

She looks back at you, mischief in her eyes “Wanna smoke?” she asks. 

“God, I thought you’d never ask.” You smile, giddy as ever. You eagerly sit down on the couch next to her, close enough so the sides of your thighs touch. You were more needy than usual and Ellie took notice. 

Your eyes move to the coffee table which has various weed related objects strewn about. Ellie had clearly been smoking a bit before you had gotten here. You watch her hands as she leans over the coffee table and begins to expertly roll and pack a joint with her slender fingers. You get lost in her movements, studying the way her hands move so carefully and purposefully. 

She finishes rolling the joint and offers it to you with both her hands, head bowed as if she was bestowing a wondrous gift to you. You giggle at her amusing antics and gently take the blunt from her hands, pinching it between your thumb and pointer finger. Ellie is quick to grab the lighter off the coffee table as you bring it to your lips. You wait for her to burn the tapered end off before wrapping your lips around it and deeply inhaling. Thick smoke fills your mouth, flows into your throat and lungs. The feeling is warm and familiar, ever since you started dating Ellie, smoking stopped burning and started feeling more tingly. It was a sort of comforting feeling- knowing your body would eventually relax and your thoughts would become muted. Your eyes instinctively close as you breathe out, a smile forming on your lips. 

“Wow, you really missed smoking huh?” Ellie laughs at your dramatic display. 

“Well I didn’t exactly go completely without it, but I missed your shit, this is actually good.” You look down, sigh and take another small hit. You offer the joint back to Ellie and look up at her, trying to read her expression. Her appearance doesn’t give anything away as she takes it from you and takes a long hit. Her eyes stay on yours as she exhales, all you can do is stare back, your eyes frantically searching hers for any hint of anger or jealousy. 

“Where’d you get the other shit from?” Her tone is completely flat. “Wasn’t from me was it?” she pinches her eyebrows together, trying to recall if she sent you off with anything. 

“No, no. I got really stressed and I was desperate for any type of relief sooo I messaged my old plug from highschool.” You let out a short laugh. Ellie hands the spliff back to you calmly.

“Was it any good?” She tilts her head and watches as you take a long hit before answering.

“Pretty good, but nothing compared to your shit babe.” You smile as you exhale and hand the joint back to her. She takes it and puts it out, her expression remaining scarily blank. She was obviously planning something in that brain of hers. 

She hums and nods looking down at the coffee table. She sits up and finally looks at you, pats your thigh and mumbles “come ‘ere.” You do as she says and adjust yourself so you're straddling her. “Cheating on your drug dealer who is also your girlfriend huh?” She shakes her head, “Bad idea.” Her expression turns into a wicked smirk. 

You laugh “No I-” 

She interrupts, “Uh, uh, I don’t want to hear any excuses.” 

“But I-”

“You’ll have to make it up to me princess.” Her voice lowers, a suggestive tone lacing it. The way she said it, dominance dripping from her words sent butterflies straight to your cunt. 

“Whatever you want, Ellie.” you say in your most submissive voice, hoping it will convince her to take mercy on you. You know she’s gonna make you ache tonight one way or another. She smirks and kisses you. She opens up your mouth with her tongue, the kiss this time was different; it was hungrier, her tongue roughly massages against yours and she groans at the feeling. You move your hands down to the hem of her sweatshirt and tug. You break away for a moment to throw her sweatshirt across the room leaving her in a white tank top. She grabs the hem of your t-shirt and does the same, leaving you bare for her. 

You hadn’t worn a bra in anticipation for tonight and it definitely paid off. Ellie wasn’t expecting it and stared for a moment, your nipples beginning to harden from being exposed to the cool air in her apartment. You can’t help but giggle at her ogling, but the giggle is quickly cut off once she latches her mouth onto your sensitive nipple. Her warm tongue swirls around your hard bud and you gasp at the feeling, threading your fingers into her hair. She brings up one of her hands to begin playing with the other breast, pinching and rolling your nipple between her thumb and index finger. The feeling was even more intense from the weed, her actions sent arousal straight to your cunt. She takes her time, licking and sucking until she’s satisfied. You're a panting mess after mere moments, mumbling breathless obscenities as she has her way with you. She moves to the other nipple and you have begun grinding against her to try and relieve the ache that had now grown painful between your legs. She removes her mouth, before moving up your body. She kisses along your clavicle taking her time, sucking and licking as she moves. She made her way to your neck and latched on to the sensitive skin causing you to moan. She is slow and methodical, purposefully trying to mark you up. You didn’t mind, you kind of liked the bruises she would leave behind. Your heightened senses deliciously exaggerate the feeling of her warm tongue on your skin, while also making the ache in your cunt almost unbearable considering everything was sensitive. 

“Ellie please.” you whimper, wanting her to do anything to satiate your sore cunt. 

“Please what, Princess?” She asks between kisses. 

“Ellie” you whine out, frustrated beyond belief. She hums and grabs your thighs, wrapping them around her waist, then your arms to wrap them around her neck before standing up and walking you both to the bedroom. She continues teasing you with her tongue, touching you everywhere, but where you need her. She lowers you down to sit on the edge of the bed and you break away from her to back into the middle and lay down. She raises her eyebrows at your eagerness, but crawls on top of you and kisses you, her tongue intertwining with yours, her leg in between yours rising higher and higher… before she pulls back. You frown and tilt your head in confusion.

Ellie smirks and raises her eyebrows, “Oh, you thought I was gonna make this easy?” She lets out a dry laugh at your desperation. She finds it cute, but not cute enough to give in and give you what you want. 

“But I just got back-” 

“And what did you do while you were gone?” She tilts her head questioning you. “You gave me a reason to make this difficult for you,” she answers her own question before leaning in so close you can feel her breath tickle the shell of your ear and whispers, “And you know how much I love an excuse to make things difficult for you.” The bass of her voice invertebrates through your body sending tingles down your spine. 

“F-fine,” You try to sound confident, but she has you in pieces underneath her. “What do you want?” At your question Ellie sits up kneeling over you.

“Get up.” You sit up slowly as she gets off the bed and you follow. You stand in front of her, chest heaving from arousal, eyes shining with desperation and Ellie almost scraps her whole plan for the night. She grabs the hem of your shorts and gently lowers them past your hips, letting them slip to the floor. She does the same with your underwear, all the while you stand still, allowing her to have her way with you. Ellie unbuttons her jeans and lowers them to the floor, her tank top following. You can’t help but stare, her sports bra doesn’t do much to conceal her hardened nipples, her toned abs and arms practically made you drool. She rests her hands on your hips and takes a moment to admire your bare body. “So beautiful, baby.” Ellie breathes out before planting a gentle kiss to your shoulder. You smile at her and she smiles back, then she walks towards the head of the bed, grabbing one of the pillows and putting it in the middle of the bed. You're confused until she gestures for you to sit on the bed. Oh. 

You crawl on to the bed and straddle the pillow, facing the head of the bed. Ellie moves to the top of the bed, gently grabs your hips and encourages you to lower down on to the pillow, you put your hands on top of hers and start to sink down. Once your sensitive clit contacts the soft fabric of the pillow you let out a small gasp. Subconsciously, you start rocking back and forth on the pillow, so needy and overstimulated you couldn’t hold back anymore. Your eyes start to close from the delicious pressure on your clit.

“That’s it princess, just like that.” You let out a little whine and continue rutting against the pillow, chasing relief. After a moment you realized the pillow wasn’t going to be enough, you needed more. You move your hand from Ellies and start to bring it down between your legs. She grabs your hand and tuts “uh, uh you’re going to move just like this,” She nods to you, “until I say. Not any faster, not any slower.” 

“But-” 

“You didn’t seem to want me enough,” She shrugs, “so I’m gonna make you need me.” You let out a quiet moan at her words. She was intoxicating when she was like this, you loved it and hated it at the same time. 

Ellie lets go of your hips and you do as she says, keeping a steady rhythm against the pillow. Once she watches you for a moment she leans back onto the pillows one leg bent, the other straightened out in front of her. And she just…watches, staring you right in the eyes, she doesn’t plan on touching you or helping you in any way. Fine if she was going to watch, you were going to give her a show. A show good enough to get her to give in–hopefully. You begin letting out little whines and gasps as you move fluidly against the pillow. You maintain eye contact as you let your moans build, your clit being teased from the fabric. She groans “Keep moving just like that Princess.” Your eyes follow Ellie’s hand as it slowly starts to move between her legs, palming at her clothed cunt. 

The action immediately sent a wave of arousal to your needy pussy. “Ffuck, Ellie.” you whine out, letting your head fall back and eyes close. Your moans grow a little louder, pleasure slowly building in your stomach. You look back at Ellie, her chest is heaving as her hand moves a little faster against the fabric of her underwear. She is looking down, watching you fuck the pillow, both of you longing for the pillow to be Ellie. You decide to boldly move one of your hands to your breast, cupping and massaging the soft skin. She doesn’t protest, only watches you in awe. You could tell she was on the verge of giving in. You start moving your fingers around your nipple teasing the sensitive bud, before pinching  and rolling it between your fingers. You moan loudly at the sensation and begin to move faster against the pillow. Ellie gets up quickly and grabs her strap from the night stand. You let out a sigh and halt your motions, feeling relief flow through your body. 

Ellie looks back at you “Did I say you could stop?” 

“N-no but-” You stop talking once Ellie tilts her head, silently challenging you. You start moving again, whining a little bit at the feeling of your sore clit rubbing against the soft fabric. You watch as Ellie adjusts the harness. Taking her time to secure it, you would almost be pissed off if you had any room for any emotion besides complete and utter desperation. 

Finally Ellie moves behind you on the bed, she caresses your shoulders, moving her hands up and down and kisses the side of your neck. You are still desperately humping the pillow as she said, waiting desperately for her to say the word. “Ellie please.” The desperation in your voice is pathetic, but you were reduced to a puddle from her literal torture. 

“Come and then I’ll let you stop.” She whispers in your ear.

“Ellie I can’t, it’s not enough I need more please.” She moves her hands to your breasts and begins cupping and massaging the tender skin. Once she starts teasing your overstimulated nipples your head falls back on her shoulder and you moan her name. She starts sucking and kissing your neck and that was all you needed. The pleasure in your stomach finally started to build to a peak. You start rutting your hips faster, chasing your high. 

“Come for me baby.” Ellie breathes into your ear. At her words your orgasm hits you, your pleasure coming to a satisfying peak after the relentless teasing. You buck against the pillow over and over, riding out your climax. “Good girl.” Ellie says as she continues teasing your nipples. When you start to come down Ellie immediately guides you so your upper body is laying against the bed, still straddling the pillow. She grabs the pillow and puts it underneath your hips, giving her a perfect view of your swollen, dripping cunt. You suddenly feel her fingers running up your slit, gathering your arousal, before shoving two fingers inside your soaked cunt. You gasp at the sudden intrusion, tightening around her fingers. “So perfect for me baby.” Ellie says before starting to move her fingers, curling them up against that perfect spongy spot inside of you. You moan as she moves her fingers in and out of you perfectly. She removes her fingers from you and you feel her begin to guide it against your soaked pussy, nudging your clit as she moves her hips forward. You moan into the sheets as she moves her hips back and forth a few times, grazing your clit each time. The strap was coated in your juices after mere moments. You were almost dripping down your thighs, clenching around nothing as Ellie teased you. She massaged the silicone cock, coating it with your arousal, before teasing your entrance with the very tip. You groan as it stretches your tight cunt. She moves slowly, opening you up with the thick black cock. 

“Oh god.” you moan as she moves deeper into you. 

“Relax for me baby. You can take it.” Ellie assures you. You relax, allowing her to sink all the way into your tight cunt. You whimper as she bottoms out, feeling a painfully pleasurable pressure in your pussy. She grabs your wrists and holds them together with one hand and places the other on your hip. She starts to fuck you mercilessly, not giving you any time to adjust, forcing a pathetic “fuckfuckfuck.” out of your swollen lips. Ellie begins grunting at every thrust from the effort, but keeps her pace. The harness was rubbing against her clit perfectly, her ache being soothed as well as yours. 

“God I fuckin missed this pussy baby, missed using you however I wanted like this.” You moan at her words, you loved it when she used you however she wanted. “Such a good girl for me.” She begins moving faster, getting lost in her pleasure. She uses her grip on your wrists to pull her cock deeper into you, causing you to moan at every thrust. Ellie could tell you were already close.

“You can come as many times as you want, princess, but I’m not stopping until I’m done.” You started to come undone, your orgasm ripping through you as Ellie fucks you through it. Waves of pleasure wash over you and you moan so loudly, you are sure the neighbors heard, hell maybe the whole neighborhood. You start to come down, but Ellie doesn’t let up, you whine as she continues to pound into your overstimulated cunt. You whine out her name and she reaches under you to lift you upwards, your body flush against hers. She slowly moves her hand down your stomach, you can tell what she’s doing “Ellie I can’t-” 

She pauses, “You can take it, give me one more baby.” You nod and she moves her hand to your clit and starts rubbing it in small controlled circles. She uses her other hand to tease your nipples and you’re already close again, muttering obscenities and letting your head rest on her shoulder. Ellie begins panting and moaning in your ear as she thrusts into you, reaching her high as well. Her hips start moving sloppily and she breathes out “Come for me.” before coming undone herself. You let go, your moans syncing with Ellie’s as her thrusts become slower and less controlled. Your body completely submerges into your pleasure, your hips rocking back into Ellie’s mindlessly. You can barely hold yourself up any more as pleasure washes over you. Ellie holds you against her as you lose your strength. She pulls out of you slowly and lowers you down to sit on your knees as she removes the strap, throwing it to the side. You turn around to face her and smile lazily, she smiles back and kisses you softly. She lowers you onto the bed as she continues kissing you. You collapse into the soft pillows, every bone in your body giving out. 

“I missed you.” You barely manage to whisper.

“I missed you too.”

[javispunk]

Hii, so I saw an edit on tiktok of joel to i can see you by Taylor Swift on the background and i was wondering if you could do something based on that? Maybe like inspired by the lyrics and the moments between them that relate to those lyrics? But feel free to so it as you imagine it!!! Thx S2

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM2C5KGbd/

Yes! I saw this edit and was thinking of doing something inspired on it and Taylor’s song, at least now I have an excuse to actually do it! This screams dbf!joel, so I had to do it. Thank you so much for the request :) I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if you’d like any other kind of version on it, or some kind of series on this?? Thank you for the support.

I can see you

Summary: You’ve been in Jackson for about a couple years now and you’ve always seen Joel go on about his days, filled with patrol duty or just casually at the cafeteria. Either way, and oblivious at first, you see each other. One night at the bar, you confirm your doubts.

Pairing: dbf!joel miller x fem!reader

Content/Warnings: +18 smut (minors don’t interact!), age gap (Joel is in his early 50s, reader is in her mid twenties), fingering, oral sex (female receiving), unprotected sex (p in v).

Notes: This is a bit long, I got carried away. It’s also a bit of a slow burn but bare with me! Please excuse any mistake, as english is not my first language. Comments and reblogs are always appreciated! Leave any requests you’d like me to write :)

You kept to yourself at Jackson since you joined in a couple years ago. You had a few people you could call friends and rely on. Besides them, your dad was also a good call. He always made sure to provide anything for you. You weren’t a child anymore, not even close to it. But you were his only daughter and that would be enough.

There would also be no effort made on your part to make more acquaintances, and that’s fine, that’s just the way you were. The people you usually had gatherings with would be your dad’s friends. And being a social butterfly, he had a few of them. But Joel Miller was his most relying one. He was a little bit younger than your dad, but they still found ways to share common interests. They’d do patrol duty together, always make way to eventually do a Saturday night dinner at yours or his - either the three of you or with more guests. You also learned about Joel’s loss and grief very quickly, something you could relate with.

For more than a year now you’ve felt safe with these people. Never once you got to complain about them, nor they did regarding you. Tonight it was just you, your dad and Joel at the dinner table. The usual setting of the table, familiar by now - your dad at your right, Joel at the other end, opposite from you.

“It should be alright if we get there by 5.” Joel spoke as he continued putting food on his fork. His signature plaid flannel shirt falling on top of his shoulders on a way that was now familiar to you.

"I'll be there sooner if I can get an early night." Your dad held the plate in his hand as he tried to collect more food from the table center. "I'm sure Adam will be there if I let him know." You received a gaze from your father as he spoke once again. "By the way, he told me he left you a message at the bar. Have you talked to him?"

"Dad... c'mon." You kept looking at your plate before turning your eyes to both man at the table.

"What? He's a great guy, he's your age. Great sense of responsability, I've seen how he handles work."

"Well, that's great for him. I don't see what that has to do with me."

Joel chuckled at your statement, still looking down at his plate. Your dad looked at him. "Honestly, I don’t understand this kid.”

Even though you were in your mid twenties your dad insisted on calling you kid, kiddo, any type of derivative.

“Well” you began as you collected your plate. “This kid has work in half an hour. I’ll just do the dishes and then go.” You headed to the kitchen with a sarcastic smile.

Once you put down your plate in the kitchen counter, you supported the weight of your body on it with both your hands. You sighed with frustration. Eyes closed, head down. The amount of hours you did the previous week at the bar left you restless and honestly wishing for a week worth of sleep. A few minutes passed, and you stayed like this. Silence prevailed until you heard Joel’s voice behind you.

“Got two more.”

“Fuck.” You jumped at the sudden voice, looking briefly at him, going back to the kitchen counter the next second.

“Sorry.” He quickly spoke. His body relatively close to yours, placing both plates on the sink. “Here, I’ll do that.” He took the sponge from your hand, slightly touching it.

There were several moments of tension between you and Joel over the last year or so. Usually cordial and kind moments like these, but they were filled with tension, you were not sure if it was sexual, but it felt so for you. Joel was at least 20 years older than you, you were not sure about his age. In a matter of seconds you recalled all of these encounters. The way he’d wait down the hall for you, or the way he’d always try to brush past you whenever you were in the same room. You would notice how he would make conversation with you whenever he could, how he would shower you with gifs - actual cool and useful gifs - how he payed attention to your interests, or how he'd get protective whenever he felt you were in some kind of danger.

"So you don't like Adam." he asked, mid-chuckle, while grabbing some soap.

You put your hand on your head, slightly embarrased. "Well..." You also looked in the direction of the dining room, searching for your dad.

"Your dad went to the neighbours. He said something about a favour. He'll be back soon enough." He noted.

You looked at him with your mouth slightly opened in a form of response, before speaking again. "Adam's alright. A bit insistent. My dad always makes a stand on the matter of relationships, I'm not sure why."

"You're almost what? 26? He probably wants you to get married. I got married around your age. That's how we'd do it in Texas."

You looked at the man's back. You didn't know much about his past. He had no pictures of his ex wife in his house. You knew he had a daughter before the world went to shit. That was the extent of knowledge you had about his grief and sorrow. Ellie would have filled some of the void in his life. But besides that, Joel was a lonely man.

"I'd get married if it wasn't the end of the world. Or if there was someone interesting around here." You laughed.

Joel followed your action, closing the running water tap. "I'm sure you'll find him." He chuckled, looking at you as he dried his hands with a cloth handtowel.

"Besides, I'm great on my own." Your voice raising an octave.

“I’m sure you are." His eyes on you. "Do you need a ride? It's freezing outside."

You shook your head no, while grabbing the coat propped on the back of the chair. "It's just a few minutes walk, I'll be fine. It will be even colder when I close at 1am. But thank you." You smiled his way.

He nodded his head, hands on his hips.

***

The clock marked half past midnight when you first looked at it since you entered the bar. You didn't stop to breathe since you started serving drinks at 8pm, walking from one corner of the bar to the other in a fast pace. The bar was usually filled with middle aged men, a few younger people, about your age, casually sitting in groups over a few tables. You sipping a few drinks once in a while over the hours without anyone noticing.

You think about the small amount of time you still have to work while you go around the counter and collect the empty beer bottles on the nearest table. You grab the cloth hanging from your shoulder only to wide your hands on it, before you make your way behind the counter again, your back against it.

"A whisky if it's not too much trouble." You heard Joel's voice.

You quickly turned around, a smile appearing, plastered on your face without you noticing. "Hi!" You swifted the counter dry in front of him. "What are you doing here? I thought you started work at 5." You started preparing his drink.

Joel slightly shrugged both shoulders, before removing his jacket and propping it on the stool next to him. "Couldn't sleep. How's your shift going?"

"Alright. A few drunk men making a mess, but that's mandatory."

You grabbed his glass and started pouring the honey coloured liquid.

"But you can put them in their place."

"I don't have a choice." You supported your body on your elbows, leaning on top of the counter in front of Joel. The cleavage on your shirt open and exposed to his sight, as you felt his eyes directly on it. You held his drink in your hand, giving it to him in a nonchalant movement. The alcohol probably getting to your head at this point of the night, just the slightest - you were sure the rest was your attraction to the older man.

You watched Joel's eyes on you, before he moved them up to your own. He coughed before speaking, in a way of disguising his actions. "Thank you."

You smiled, noticing his stunned tone. "You're welcome."

You would never have this behaviour at dinner nights of course. Here, where everyone was a little drunk and honestly, wouldn't remember parts of the night, you felt this urge to mess with him. You knew he kind of like you by the way he would move next to you, by the way he'd speak directly to you, the words he would use when no one else was hearing.

You held your place in front of Joel. Him taking a sip of his drink as the ice clinked when the glass turned on his hand. Eyes locked on yours. You noticed the bar emptying slowly, but surely.

"Would you mind giving me a ride home? I have to close the bar and by then it should be pretty late."

"It's alright sweetheart." he spoke after ungluing his mouth from the glass which was now resting on the counter, him looking at your smug expression, which earned a half upward smile from him, before looking at your eyes again.

"Thank you." You touched his arm in a thanking gesture, leaving your hand over it much more time than it was needed to. You never touched him. It even felt like a challenge, something that was forbidden to do. His skin was soft even though his figure looked rough from working everyday out on the cold weather on patrol duty.

His eyes looking down at your efforts, while he held his drink in front of his mouth the whole time. You eventually moved away from him, continuing your work.

You took care of the wet glasses, cleaning them, your back leaning against the back counter of the bar, facing Joel. Every few seconds your eyes would be on top of him, while you wiped dry the cups, moving your fingers in a slight but surely suggestive manner. You were not doing anything wrong. You were far away from Joel, just doing your work. Behind him, still in the distance, you saw a man approach the counter. Adam.

"Hey." He looked at you with a wide smile, hands on the counter, not noticing the man sat beside him right away. "Oh, hello Mr. Miller. How are you?"

Joel slightly raised his glass at the kid, hoping that would be enough of an answer to his question. His broad shoulders square, looking foward, miding his own business.

You also noticed the last group of people leaving their booth, putting down the money on top of the table for you to collect it.

"Hey, we're almost closing but can I make you anything?" You asked him.

"Hum, not really. I gathered you didn't get the message I left you back there." He looked over at Joel for a second, before continuing. "I wanted to know if you'd like to go to the movie night next friday? They're going to show that movie you wanted to see at the theatre."

Your mouth opened before you grabbed another glass to clean. "I'd love to, but I think I'm doing a night shift on friday. Sorry."

"I heard that movie is great." Joel's voice muffled from the glass on his hand.

You looked at him, watching his smug smile covered by it. He was doing this on purpose.

"I'm sure it is. But have fun, I think the group from the cafeteria wanted to go."

"Next time then." Adam tucked at the sleeve on his jacket. "Tomorrow I get off work around midday, if you're free for lunch."

You were free, but had no intention on agreeing on his plan. But for the love of God, you could not find a single excuse to get yourself out of this situation. You noticed the younger man's face, hesitant. As soon as Joel noticed your silence, he spoke, still facing his glass, now almost empty.

"Actually, I'm gonna need your help until later. We'll have lunch outside Jackson." Joel saved your night with a simple phrase.

Adam looked at Joel with a disappointed expression. "Well, alright. I'll come by and let you know when-"

"You should go home, kid." Joel interrumpted him. "We got an early shift tomorrow." He looked in his direction for the first time since he appeared uninvited.

"Yes, sir. I'll be there." He agreed, before turning to you. "Do you need a ride? It's awfully cold outside."

Joel put his drink down and got up. "Let's go kid." He grabbed him not so gently but still not roughly by the jacket, putting an arm around his shoulders, turning him away from you and guiding him through the front door. Once he put the young man outside, he closed the door behind him and spoke from a distance. "You're already closing right?"

"Thank you for that." You continued to tidy everything behind the counter, as Joel made his way to you across the bar. "Am I supposed to marry him?"

"If you really want to." He entered the space only reserved for staff. "I'll help you with that."

"You don't have to."

"I know, but it'll be a lot quicker and we can get you home."

You smiled. "Thanks, I'll just finish some things out in the back."

You ran to the kitchen, hoping to get a moment for yourself. Did Joel help you just out of good heart? That didn't seem like something he'd do. Maybe because you were his best friend's daughter - he was just trying to be nice.

After a while you heard his voice behind you, for the second time that night. "You know, he would be a nice husband. He can almost kill a few clickers without screaming if he puts his mind to it."

"Shut up." You laughed, throwing him a napkin you had at hand, still trying to finish your work duties.

Joel grabbed it in the air, laughing along with you. He scrunched it up in his hand, approaching you and almost connecting your bodies together - your back touching his front, as he placed the napkin on the table in front of you. Arms next to each side of you, hands placed on the edge of the table, where he supported his body's weight.

Your heart started beating and you swore Joel could hear it, because his behaviour was too bold to be natural.

"But you don't wanna marry him, do you?" His voice was low and you could feel the vibration from his tone on your back.

"No, not really." It seemed like he was waiting for something from you. A sign to act his next move, without being criticised. It almost felt like he was afraid. Afraid of you not feeling the same. Not wanting the same.

Your body tensed under his. His presence hovering above you. He was significantly bigger than you. Fuck, you thought. He smells like sandalwood and the whiskey you gave him earlier. You were almost intimidated to turn around, so you decided not to.

"So you're all shy now." You watched his hands shift on the table top, before moving them to your lower stomach.

Your heart felt like it would break free from your ribcage. You looked down at his hands holding you in place. They looked huge on your body.

You turned around suddenly, trying to play his game. Your hands behind your body. "What do you mean?" You put on your best innocent smile.

You saw him do the same. You noticed his eyes were the most gorgeous you'd ever seen when he raised his eyebrows before speaking, hands now on your waist. "I mean how you made me hard under that counter top back there."

You rolled your eyes in response, while you shrugged your shoulders. "Couldn't really notice. But I do now." Your hand flew to the bulge in his pants.

A laugh came creeping in his tone. "Careful, sweetheart."

"Why?" Your head up, looking at his face from underneath.

You both stared into each other's eyes with doubt on your expression. You decided to break the hesitation, gluing your lips to his. The taste of whiskey still prominent on his mouth, as he slid his tongue inside your mouth.

Your hands immediately on the back of his head. One of his on the lower of your back and the other on your ass, putting you on top of the table. You opened your legs to wrap them around him, Joel immediately erasing the gap between you both.

His hands running from the top of your back to the back of your thigh, holding it in place around his waist.

"You have no idea how long I waited to touch you." He spoke once you both pulled back for air.

"You're gonna relive your little fantasies or do something about it?" You asked as you started to unbotting your pants while looking his way.

He immediately replaced your hands with his, taking your jeans off in a swift motion. Your shirt followed quickly. He left your paneis still on, just putting them to the side before sliding his middle finger in your slick folds. He laughed as he felt how wet you were, before inserting his finger in you. You whimpered as you felt his rough calloused skin inside your cunt, moving up and down inside you. You moaned his name quietly, trying to hold on your excitement. It seemed like his knees gave in on him as soon as he heard his name coming from your lips.

"Say my name again." You heard him ask.

"Joel..." You moaned louder when he added one more finger inside you.

"Sounds so good coming from your pretty little mouth." His thumb rubbing soft circles on your clit as he kept fucking you with his fingers.

Your eyes rolled back in protest. The amount of pleasure building on your stomach was like something you've never felt before. He began to curl his fingers and you made a gutural sound with your throat, head falling back.

Joel got on his knees and placed both hands on each side of your pelvic area, holding both your legs between his biceps and forearms. You felt a void, missing the friction his fingers stimulated inside you.

"Please." You begged him.

"Please what, sweet girl?" His head between your legs, looking you up, mouth dangerously close to your core.

"Please, make me cum." Your voice came out almost in a whisper. But it was more than enough for Joel.

His lips connecting to your core, kissing it gently first, focusing on your clit. You were a mess of whimpers under his touch as he gently made out with your cunt, visibily holding himself not to get out of his pants and fuck you right then and there. Sucking on your clit, he then moved on to your entrance, sliding his tongue inside you, licking your core from bottom to top.

He was good. Joel kept his hands on your lower stomach, trying to hold you still as you moved under his touch. It was unnerving the amount of pleasure he provided you with. You never once had your body react like this.

You looked down at him, entertained in his own little paradise. He was truly intoxicated by the scent of your skin, the feel of your core, the wetness you had started to drip a few minutes ago.

He kept his rhythm steady and intense at the same time.

"Fuck." You kept moaning as you looked down at his face between your legs. Every now and then he looked up at you and the tight knot on your stomach would grow. The look of lust in his eyes enough to make you cum. "Joel, I'm- I'm-"

"I know sweet girl, you're so close." You felt the vibrations from his voice on your pussy. "Best fucking thing I've ever tasted in my life."

That did it for you. Your orgasm loosen and spread through your entire body, your legs shaking as Joel held them tighter, keeping his tongue on you, making you enjoy your high. Your head was thrown back, your hands behind your back on top of the table, supporting the weight of your now numb body. You kept your eyes closed for a while, feeling your body tensen up and resting for a while.

You felt one of Joel's hand grabbing you by the lower of your back, helping you with supporting your body weight as he noticed you couldn't do it yourself.

"So fucking beautiful." He spoke while unbuttoning and dropping down his jeans with his spare hand. With his help now, you could use your hands. You took his flannel off, before ripping his underwear down his thighs, his lenght shot right up, hard as a rock, bouncing on its own weight.

You felt your cunt pulse once again, still sensitive from your previous orgasm. One of your hands held his cock, pulling him closer to you. You heard Joel moan as he felt your hand moving up and down him.

"You like that." You stated. Not even a question. You were letting him know you knew. With your legs slightly up, around his waist, you positioned his length on your entrance slowly, making him eager for your warmth.

Once you got his tip inside you, he couldn't control himself, pushing his cock inside you slowly and deeply. It was out of your control now.

"Fuck, Joel." You screamed as you felt him stretch you wide.

He panted above you. "Shit..." he mumbled to himself, as he looked down, seeing himself dissapear inside you with each thrust. "You feel so fucking good."

Once you got used to his girth, you felt Joel fasten his pace. He was hitting your g-spot every single time he slapped his hips on your ass. The clapping sounds making him go feral. Holding one of your legs up with his arm for better positioning, Joel kissed you again with urgency. You left your mouth hang open against his when he once again fasten his pace, letting him know you were enjoying it by letting a whimper come out every time he thrusted inside you.

"Prettiest fucking thing. Let me see your pretty face when you cum." He mumbled against your open mouth.

You felt your second orgasm creep on you. His words took you to the absolute edge. His low voice making them feel like velvet. It didn't take long for you to feel that explosion of pleasure inside you. Your whole body shaking for the second time. Your ecstasy face putting him on the edge.

He quickly pulled himself out of you, letting his warm release hit your chest, running down your tummy after a few seconds of kissing each other. You wouldn't let go. You physically couldn't get enough of each other. His hand still grabbing the back of your neck, to keep you close to him. Your hands tangled on his hair. Both of your breathings slowing down as a few minutes passed just making out in an endearing way.

Your foreheads glued to each other as you panted together.

"Please come pick me up more often after closing shifts."You laughed and he followed.

"I'll do anything you want me to."

[corgitation]

resources I'm using for studying japanese

vocab/kanji:

wanikani: I use daily reviews to learn kanji and vocabulary using the kanji. This resource isn't free, but this has really helped me stay consistent. I like the UI and find the content helpful

renshuu: this is my favorite mobile app, I use this to learn JLPT-specific vocab and kanji. I use the free version

mochi srs: the best flashcard app! The UI is super easy to use and has lots of shortcuts for making and reviewing cards fast. You can easily create and edit templates for cards, and have cards reference other cards. I have a deck for kanji and one for vocab, and my vocab template references any kanji that are used in the vocab tab. There's also super easy furigana, lots of features for japanese.

grammar:

bunpro: really good for grammar, this has lessons for each grammar rule and divides them into groups through popular textbooks and their own groupings for jlpt grammar

genki textbooks: pretty standard textbook for learning vocab, grammar, and kanji

genki study resources: great site with activities for all the genki lessons

tokini andy genki reviews: extra practice for genki lessons, explains some grammar more clearly, introduces new dialogue.

reading:

japanese folktales for language learners and japanese stories for language learners: folktales are a really great way to learn, because these references come up a lot. I've seen references to urashimo taro in evangelion, and the new pokemon dlc is a reference to momotaro. This book has the japanese on one page and english on the other, with vocabulary after the chapter. (here and here on natively)

animal crossing new leaf tobimori: I've recently started playing this and it's so much fun. I'm already really familiar with the game so I don't depend on any of the text for playing, and it's good for more common expressions, differences in speech between polite/casual/male/female etc. I have a post describing how I'm able to play this here. (here on lingotrack)

listening:

japanese with shun: big fan of this podcast, it's free on spotify and youtube, which scripts on patreon. Each podcast is about a short subject, and they're all in japanese. (here on lingotrack)

learn japanese pod: some free podcasts on spotify with more paid content, this one is both about japanese and in japanese. It will teach phrases for specific scenarios, like ordering sushi or refusing situations.

tracking:

lingotrack: I started time tracking a couple of months ago and it's been so helpful! This site is great for quickly logging study activities and seeing how the time stacks up. It helps me identify which areas I'm spending enough time in and which ones are lacking. I also use the library section for keeping track of my japanese native content

toggl: I use this online stopwatch for tracking the time for different study activities so I can log them in lingotrack. It also has a browser extension which I usually use

finding native content:

natively: excellent site for finding comprehensible input content and tracking days read. This site has a lot of reviews for books so it makes it easy to find books that are on level. You can follow me here

lingotrack: collections in lingotrack provides user generated groups of content so that you can create an see groupings of native material content. There aren't as many reviews for material here as there are for natively though, so I find material there and then add them here. You can follow me here

other:

tofugu: this blog has everything. Use it for finding reviews on japanese language resources, learning grammar rules, etc.

jisho: dictionary app, I use it as my source of truth for vocab and kanji meanings

heisig's remembering the kanji: a different approach to learning kanji, this focuses on first teaching the simplest kanji and building from ones you already know. This is different from wanikani, which will make sure you know (its own) particles before introducing the kanji that uses them, but focuses on learning kanji and vocab in priority order. I'm listing it here because I don't use it much anymore

deepl: ai translator, works much better than google translate. You can also put sentences in chatgpt and ask it for broken down explanations. Take any translations from ai with a grain of salt - they are great tools but do not ensure accuracy

edit 3/10/2024: added tracking and native content sections, added links to lingotrack and natively for media

[lurkingteapot]

Hi, how would a non-binary person (me) get around the binary gender rules and vocab in Thai?

Thank on you for your amazing resources!

Hi there!

This is a question I feel like native speakers of Thai should be much more qualified to answer 😅 @recentadultburnout ? @jinitak ? Any takers?

For what it's worth, though: I also consider myself outside the gender binary, and am uncomfortable with some forms of gendered address in languages I'm fluent in, and as such have looked into it a bit. I'm barely conversational, so the things I list here have been sourced from conversations with queer and non-binary Thai acquaintances and a couple of language teachers plus my own observations, which may very well be faulty … so under the cut it goes.

First off: Thai isn't nearly as clearly binarily gendered as many beginner resources indicate. Beginner resources will say, oh, men™ say ผม (/pʰǒm/) and women™ say ฉัน (/tɕʰǎn/), but (as you may have already observed while watching shows or interviews) in reality people (queer or straight, cis or trans) will use several different pronouns for themselves and others depending on who they're talking to, and in what context—perception of gender is only one part of that. Your age, the tone of voice and level of politeness/formality you're affecting, the situation you're in at that moment, all those things affect how you talk about yourself to others, and how others talk about and to you. It's not as cut and dry as English "these are my pronouns" -- partially also because you'd kind of need to go out of your way to gender the person you're talking about in Thai.

One example: people of all genders can and do use ฉัน (/tɕʰǎn/), though I gather it's less commonly used by men these days. Contrary to what most classes will teach, men or people who are read as male may (and do!) use ค่ะ (/kʰâʔ/; often drawn out to ค่าาา (/kʰâː/ with a very drawn-out aaa)) and จ๊ะ (/tɕáʔ/) in affectionate/familiar conversation, and it's not unheard of for men to refer to themselves by their given name, either -- something a lot of teachers will say are "feminine" speech patterns. For women or people who're read as female to use particles such as ครับ (/kʰráp/) or pronouns such as ผม (/pʰǒm/) seems to be less common, though not unheard of, especially when a woman is affecting a brash personality at that moment. All that is to say … for those of us who fall somewhere in between (or outside the binary altogether), there's quite a bit of wiggle room.

Golf Tanwarin (former MP and the director of GMMTV show The Eclipse) uses different particles depending on context – I've watched interviews where they use ครับ (/kʰráp/) exclusively, others where they use both ครับ (/kʰráp/) and ค่ะ (/kʰâʔ/), and in the live spaces they opened when the Eclipse was airing, to my recollection they used ค่ะ (/kʰâʔ/) and จ๊ะ (/tɕáʔ/) pretty much exclusively. Some non-binary Thais use non-standard polite particles -- Silvy Pavida (The Warp Effect, Laws of Attraction) uses งัฟ (/ŋáp/) on their IG posts, for one example.

My personal approach (which, again! may or may not work for you) is that I go with what people expect from my appearance, and switch to other options only once I'd've got to know my conversation partner better. My reasoning for this is that as a language learner, trying to deviate from the expected language use will likely be perceived not as me trying to express my identity, but simply as me being bad at the language -- I feel like I need to attain and display a level of skill with the language that makes clear the uncommon way I use it is intentional, first. This might not be your approach! but it's worked for me so far.

What I'm doing in the meantime: I try to watch content by people who … idk, match the sort of presentation I aspire to, or who I feel kinship with? and try to emulate what they do (keeping in mind that most online content is rather informal); sometimes, when I'm comfortable enough, I will just try things out when I have the chance (though this can have embarrassing results).

tl;dr there's no way around it, but there are several ways to manage it, and you'll find out best by playing around and finding what works for you, personally :)

(also: I'm glad you found the 'learning Thai' link dump helpful <3)

[olderthannetfic]

Reading for Context

I don’t really feel like scrolling through community profiles has taught me anything. People tend to just post normal tumblr posts and not tirades about shipping. I was told to just scroll OTNF go understand, but OTNF’s feed is just screenshots from a K-drama and idiots pestering him about pronouns for some reason. Is there like a specific way to do it? So… i’ve actually never understood the social conventions of other people in any group i’ve been in. I haven’t really had in real life friends since middle school.

This is actually kind of an interesting question.

First, let me be plain, what you've been asking repeatedly over the last couple of weeks or however long it's been is this:

How does a neurodivergent person who fundamentally is not good at social nuance, reading comprehension, and picking up on context get better at those things?

I've known people whose parents hired coaches to work with them on a weekly basis for years. "How does socializing work?" is not a simple question.

Teaching reading comprehension is hard too.

I vaguely remember a lot of times in school where English teachers spent whole semesters trying to get us to understand not only what figurative language meant in context but how to detect that it was present in the first place. I still remember this one 9th grade classmate wailing "But why does it have to be a metaphor?"

What you're asking about is something most people work on for decades, yet you want randos to summarize it simply in a few sentences.

--

The first thing that jumps out at me here is the superficiality of how you're describing engaging.

When people say to lurk, they're talking about a deep engagement with a community. They're talking about reading closely, including comments, for a month, not scrolling back through a week and just skimming the top-level posts.

Did you open the replies on my tumblr posts where other people besides me are discussing things? Did you look at the reblogs with content, and not just the ones I reblogged back onto my own tumblr?

Beyond the exact number of days you should read or the exact procedure, people are talking about a very in-depth kind of engagement in general. The point is that it's difficult to just come into a new space and know how it works without studying it.

For example, I talk about oldschool fanfic stuff a lot. A logical default assumption is that I'm a woman. Are you not familiar enough with fanfic spaces to assume that, or are you coming from Spacebattles or something?

Why on earth would you default to 'him'?

I'm not insulted: it just shows a staggering lack of clue about the context you found me in.

I've linked you to my patreon where you can see my pro writing pseudonym, which is obviously female. My tumblr itself links to my pro writing and gives my actual name, which is also fairly obviously feminine. I've also recently talked about being pregnant. Yes, it was oblique and I only confirmed it in the replies, not a top-level post, but plenty of regulars noticed. (Yes, yes, biology is not gender, but still...)

There are plenty of clues I'm not a "him", but you missed them all. I don't care about pronouns, but I do care about people who don't bother to or aren't capable of reading closely.

Quite a few people have sent me asks asking what I'm watching. I have repeatedly said that it's DMBJ and described it as "the Chinese tomb raider franchise". Yet you assumed it was Korean for some reason. This suggests that you just scrolled through quickly and did not actually thoroughly read the text of the posts or the replies. It suggests that your eyes skipped over the boring-looking short text posts in between the picspams.

It suggests you didn't bother to google what I was watching when I did say the name because you don't give enough of a shit to bother. That doesn't suggest a very high level of interest in my blog or any reason I should cut you any slack or pay attention to what you think.

It also suggests that you didn't look back all that far. I've been posting a lot about DMBJ, but I only started downloading Ultimate Note on July 15th and Tomb of the Sea on August 1st.

--

If you want to understand a community, scrolling hurriedly through one month of content and not actually reading it closely is insufficient.

This is what people mean when they say you're not willing to put in the work and want other people to do it for you.

[its-elvie-innit]

realizing duolingo is NOT HELPFUL if you don't have a background in languages is so annoying because it was helpful Years Ago they just changed it so it's bad now. I took french for four years, and it's a romantic language so learning Portuguese which is in the same branch makes duo a pretty useful tool because I can point to "um" and "uma" and go ah yeah that's like le and la, and they're letting me know the genders by teaching me man and woman as the first words. But I WOULDNT HAVE KNOWN THAT if I didn't ALREADY HAVE BACKGROUND in a SEPARATE SIMILAR LANGUAGE and also duolingo is SHIT AT TEACHING ME FRENCH because I don't have ADVANCED BACKGROUND IN FRENCH THAT IS WHAT I'M TRYING TO USE DUO FOR, ACTUALLY.

Honestly I'm not even fully using duolingo for my Portuguese information it's literally just a memorization tool to get you introduced to certain verbs. You literally CANNOT understand anything without prior knowledge, so I am half note-taking, half verb tabling, and 0.1% cramming duo lessons for that memorization boost. Duolingo used to have a well of information not even hosted by the application, but instead was manually written by its millions of users to help others understand word contexts, and it was free!!!! Duo didn't have to pay shit for it!!!!! But instead they chose to throw away MILLIONS of comments and discussion links to reduce their shit server costs because bill whatever-the-fuck his name was decided he hates learning actually and fuck all your good information I need two extra dollars to afford a snickers bar in the downstairs vending machine. Look at my terrible owl tiktoks.

And I DOUBLE know this because I was learning hiragana in 2019 and I still remember how to sound out at least a few letters because I only got a couple months in, and they had at least a few good tools to help you understand process and learn the content, but then this week I decided I'd like to learn Korean so I started with the basic course and I can tell you right now it might possibly be one of the WORST english phonetic representations of the language sounds I've ever read. Just a little under half, maybe, of duos spelling work for the Hangul letters are completely incomprehensible because of the completely avoidable letter duplication for different sounds. I'll give you an example:

Do you want to know how these letters are pronounced? Here's your hint; both sound suspiciously like tah.

For an app that's supposed to be pretty accessible, I would think that spelling the phonetics right would be pretty high up on your list!!!! And yes, I'm very familiar with the very hard t-sounding "d" sound of some eastern European languages, but I am being so serious when I say whoever pronounced these recordings just said "tah" and "ta"!!! It is EXTREMELY hard to differentiate certain sounds, but the thing is these are not the worst offenders. Actually, the Hangul lessons? Yeah, not the letter system on the side? Those are worse.

These two characters are done in such a robotic sounding way that the only way you can differentiate the sounds is by carefully, CAREFULLY listening to whether the robot (?) does the tongue flick that causes the rolling r at the very beginning of the recording. Otherwise, it's SUPER hard. I would expect you don't mischaracterize the sounds but hey apparently getting a voice actor for character sounds is really hard. I guess. Hey, let me try look this up on YouTube actually. Oh, but for that I would have to download a whole other app to properly write out the words because none of my other apps have a manual writing system and I AM USING DUO TO LEARN THE WORDS. this should be ON THERE.

Not to mention this character, where the robot JUST says T. It says "tuo". The one that it represents? Deo. I would even call it an Italian passing accent. It's stupid.

This problem is occurring in multiple languages, I'm just pointing it out in Korean because it's so all over the place. There's a character representing "kye" that is just. Straight up a ch sound. That's all fine and dandy but there's another character, spelled with a different letter that represents a CH sound too and it's NOT k. It's all over the place!!!!

In my Portuguese lessons, I can say "homem" all I want and it's still not going to give it to me ever because the robot pronounces it wrong. It's the FIRST word you learn in pr lessons, and you have to pronounce it with an H sound HEAVILY. The robot doesn't do that, but it's the only way duo accepts it during speaking lessons when it picks up other soft sounds just fine. I only know this through trial and error. It does NOT tell you.

The only way I learn anything is through my note taking and it's so so sad because duo really used to be good. But taking french, a language I really love, is a pain because at least once a lesson segment, if not twice I will get a word that I don't know and have never been taught, that has never popped up before, in, like, a picture activity where it shows you an image and you have to interpret the right words, so you can't click and check what it means. And every time I'll report that I've never learned the word, but its not like it teaches me or anything after I've reported it, and you don't get to know what the word means until you get the question right so you might lose all your hearts in a lesson just for nothing, if you end up choosing the wrong option too many times. It's so unenjoyable.

It's not like duo can't be good, it can. It's a fun app! But you don't learn any languages past the first couple of words, without any grammar or base knowledge to start you off. It makes me frustrated knowing that the options available to me are limited bases on the sentence structure I'm already familiar with.

[yourejinx]

// Let me in // (Azriel x Fem.reader x OC ?)

A/N: this is something very new to me, something that i'm still trying out so bear with me. I've got this idea to bring other characters to a side Azriel story, sometimes following the events from the books sometimes not.

I honestly don't know where i'm going with this tho, should I make a series? I just do this out of fun.

SUMMARY: Destiny is a cruel thing, bringing together two people who seem to still be hung up in the past.

SIDE NOTE: English is not my first language so I apologize for any grammar mistakes.

Pilot ( Vol. 0)

My heartbeat was pounding loudly in my ears by the time I reached the east front of the battlefield. Bodies piled up in every direction, rotten corpses both fae and human alike. I scanned through all of their faces, most of them Illyrian and Loyalists but I could make broken pieces of the porcelain battle-worn masks of some of my people that were peaking up from the gore and mud.

War has never been pretty, I've experienced it first-hand when I was just five years old. Our village's part of a great island splitted into five main territories, always in the verge of battle with its neighbour villages. I thought i knew what to expect of this, having seeing it as a child, but truth be told no amount of training could prepare me for this, searching familiar faces –his face– among the dead.

As I made my way through the field of shredded wings and wrong angled limbs another warrior came into view. I braced myself for any threat but he seemed to be doing exactly the same as I was. He looked exhausted, wings dropped and almost dragging against the soil with each step. His eyes met mine and I tightened the hold on my blade, although worn out the power beating behind those violets eyes was enough to startle me. He took me in, my clothing, my blade, my mask, and opted to so very slowly rise up his palms. I didn't loose my grip.

"Hey.." he whispered, voice rasped "you're from Thera" he pointed at my mask "we're– we're allies. I'm Rhysand, son to the High Lord of the Night Court"

"Prythian..." I muttered " your father summoned us here"

"Yes, you were supposed to be further south. How did you end up here?" He asked looking at the dead around us.

Exhaustion quickly turned into cold rage as the memories of what happened flodded my mind.

"We were betrayed" I said as a red half piece of mask catched my eye a few feet away. Resembling the god of the sun in red and gold, Asta's mask. My heart sunk to my feet and I didn't dare move toward it, fearing I could never shake the image of his lifeless eyes off my mind.

The male, Rhysand, followed my sight for a moment before I averted my gaze back to him. Something like understanding danced in his eyes.

"Family?"

I didn't answer.

"You should go back, re-agroup. The war is over" he said gently.

"There's no one left on my flank" my reply came out harsher than i expected. I put the blade back into its sheath across my back.

"I'm sorry" he offered and paused for a moment "we can look for them together"

I hadn't seen anyone alive in miles, and didn't posses the strenght to look for my best friend's body. Almost the entire village had come answering the call for help, except for the Great Lord, the counsil, the ill, and of course women and children. Home will most likely hold a different meaning by the end of the slaughter.

I took a look around, then at the defeat written all over Rhysand's face. He seemed genuine and was looking for his people as well. I had nothing left on that battlefield and yet I took a step in his direction.

"Alright" was all I said as I offered him a can of water, all that was left of it. He hesitated for a second before he took it.

"Thank you..." Rhysand said after chuking down all the content of the can "I didn't catch your name"

"Y/N... It's Y/N" I responded walking beside him.

"Y/N..." he breathed. And we kept moving across the field in shared silence.

--------------------------------------------

I remember the first time I saw Azriel, tall and brooding and extremely handsome. Where his brother, Cassian, was all banter and loud laughter, Azriel was all discret rare smiles and low rasped laughs. His shadows were the first thing to draw my attention, fascinating as they were; still I didn't miss the look of distrust he gave me when Rhys first introduced me to the Inner Circle. The kind of look you give to someone you know nothing about, as if they held a secret agenda.

I couldn't blame him, little was known about Thera thanks to the many protector spells that spread all around the Island. Even the words that got out to the world were mere rumors. The High Lords of Prythian barely ever looked in our direction if not for cases of extreme need of our forces, like in the war against the Loyalists. Thera was ancient, much more older than Prythian or Hybern, and as all arcaic things it refused to be open to the world, keeping all its secrets inside the territory.

Azriel was wary for months, always on alert, always watching as the great spy master he was. There was probably very few people that could rival his talent, even fewer that could notice the shadowsinger before he was out of sight again, but somehow I always knew where to look at, where to find him. I didn't let him know that.

Back in Thera all children born with blessings were trained from a very young age to become great ninjas, warriors,sorcerers...and those who presented some specific talents were admited in the most prestige training academy of the village to become a part of the Elite force that guarded the secrets of our territory. Asta and I had been the youngest ninja to ever be admited in with the Myrajh, the group that possesed the skill sets to make an entire Empire fall in one night. I was used to always be on alert, and to notice even the slightest of things most would ignore.

It took longer for Azriel to trust me than the rest, Mor and Cassian almost inmediatly falling into jokes and banter with me after just one look at their now High Lord and the trust he seemed to had put in me. Amren wasn't so chatty but she gave off this aura of silent respect as she nodded once in my direction. It was like she had known me, or the hidden truths behind my people; wether she knew or not, she didn't say anything about it.

Now, almost five centuries later, I sit with them at the table in the living space of the House of Wind discussing what to do next. Rhys had gone Under The Mountain nine years ago and things weren't going as smoothly as we thought, the discontent has settled heavy amongst the people across Prythian, even here in Velaris. Not to mention the stoll it takes everyday from our group just at the thought of what he must be enduring there. Alone. Rhys was my first friend ever outside Thera, and the only one who understood me, even when I kept things for myself. He gave me a purpose after the War, something to look foward to when I had lost everything, and I had failed him. Left him alone when he needed me most, left him go on his own to what surely was a trap.

"Stop." Amren spoke to me, and the heated argument between Mor and Cassian died. "You go awfully quiet when you're plotting something, you look like Azriel" she said and I lifted my eyes to meet the shadowsinger's brieftly soft stare before turning to her. "Whatever it is, stop it. You can not go there."

I closed my fingers in a fist beneath the table.

"I'm not needed here, Amren. But I can do something, I'm good at infiltrating, let me go get him back. It's been too long."

"Don't say that —" Cassian started but Amren cut him right in.

"What would you do then? Let's say you succesfully infiltrate that horrid fortress, we don't know if the wards they put in are going to drain you from your power before you can even put a feet inside." In her grey eyes something dangerous danced as she said to me " If they get to you, all of Rhysand's efforts to keep this place safe, to keep us safe go to shit for nothing. He suffers for nothing."

"I can't just sit and do nothing." it's eating me alive, i almost added.

"You keep the Court borders safe, you keep this people safe. You travel from one point of the Court to the other and beyond making sure everything stays in order and that no one forgets about their High Lord. You think I don't know where you go off to when you're not in Velaris?" She deadpan looked at me.

I cut a glance across the table at Azriel. The shadowsinger sat very still next to Mor. Has he been reporting to her?

"You do more than enough." The blonde spoke softly, all trace of previous frustration gone "We need you here, Rhys needs you here"

I didn't let the pain show on my face as I rose to my feet. "Are we done here?" I asked to no one in particular. Amren nodded. "I'll return to the west cost border tomorrow afternoon."

And with that I took off, back to the Town House.

Everyone joined in for dinner at the house a couple of hours later. I was already sitting on a small couch in the corner of the living room, beside the window, a pile of spell books next to me and a bowl of hot noodle soup in my hands. I was too preocupied with learning anything that might be of use against Amarantha to join them in the kitchen, besides that not so subtle strange bond between the two Illyrians and Mor always made me a little uncomfortable. It got me feeling some type of way and I didn't like it.

I averted my gaze from the trio hanging out in the kitchen back to my books and decided that it was better to continue my searching somewhere more... quiet. I drank the last bit of soup before grabbing the pile and made my way to the rooftop. The chill night breeze welcomed me as I settled myself against a cushioned chair and rised my feet to rest on top of the banister; even Velaris, as beautiful as it was, looked more dull without Rhys. Not so many stars shone in the sky as if the city itself was mourning their High Lord.

I must of lost track of time up there and fell asleep, cause next thing I know I abruptly opened my eyes and in a swift motion got my hunting knife directed at the neck of whoever stood in front of me. Hazel eyes full of surprise greeted me and I lowered the knife in realization, calming the thunder of my heartbeat. Azriel. He was reaching down to the forgotten book in my lap.

"Fuck Az, don't creep out on me ever again." I muttered.

His eyes softened at me apologetically and he grabed the book, setting it back down on the small table next to us.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself" he spoke so low that I couldn't tell if it was him or the shadows speaking. "work yourself to exhaustion. It's not your fault what happened to Rhysand"

I opened my mouth but before I could retort he spoke again. "He didn't let me come either, it's useless to point the blame at ourselves, it was his call."

A small shaky sigh escaped my lips "It's just...I can't help to feel like I failed him. I owe him everything, Az."

"I know" he said and griped my right hand in his scarred one. It was warm even in the chilly winter night. "You still have us, you know? We'll figure it out"

A promise. It was rare to see this side of the shadowsinger but I always knew how kind he was behind the tough exterior. We were alike in more ways that I cared to admit, and sometimes he even reminded me of Asta. But it was painful to think about it, and cruel.

I lifted my eyes from our hands not knowing how close we were standing next to each other, I could feel his breath caresing my cheek. Azriel has always had this sort of magnetic pull that drawn me in. It made me uneasy at times. I opened my mouth to thank him, unable to take my eyes off of his own when I felt it. An explosion of night dust and starlight snaped inside of me, and the realization of what it was had me recoiling in horror. It must have been written all over my face 'cause Azriel's look was one of concern.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked but didn't try to reach me again.

He hadn't felt it then. I didn't stop to think if It was a good thing or not as I shoved that thing inside until I could barely sense it. I couldn't deal with it right now.

"Nothing, I remembered that I need to be elsewhere. Goodnight." I breathed the pathetic excuse before winnowing away from the house. From him.

My mate. Azriel was my mate.

[simpforchuchu]

Hi, how are u? I reader Hyuga x reader x SWORD, and I LOVED it! Now I'm imagining possible moments betwwen the reader and Hyuga, and reader and other SWORD leaders/members and Amamya Brothers. Also, their reaction to her and hyuga interactions. Anyway, I wanted to say that I really love your writing and content. And sorry for any errors, English isn't my main language and this is literally the first post I write on tumblr and I don't know what I'm doing hahaha.

Hyuga x reader x SWORD | Part2

a/n: Hii! It's been really a long time huh ? I explained myself before maybe you have seen it :') But anyways... sorry again. Actually i've deleted almost all of my old requests but i kept a few of them cause i want to write that topics too. And this was one of them xjkdkd And thank you so much for your compliments too, love ya 🥰 Sorry it is really short but I hope you like it :') ♥️

Warnings: blood

After a not too long drive, Daruma cars and Rascal motorcycles stopped in front of the designated warehouse. Hyuga turned to the young woman who had been watching for a while and smiled when he saw her so tired that her eyes nearly closed.

"Hey, we need to go inside." He said it softly and Y/n looked up at Hyuga and nodded. As Hyuga got out of the car, Koo and Kaito approached the car and extended his hand to the young woman.

Y/n looked at the hand outstretched to her in surprise, still distrusting anyone so she was nervous. Hyuga came to the other side of the car and put his hand on y/n's uninjured shoulder and smiled at her.

"I don't really like them either, but they're pretty reliable for women"

Koo rolled his eyes and smiled at the young woman again at what Hyuga said mockingly.

"We're here to protect you y/n-san. We know you're injured so let me help you walk please."

Y/n nodded and took the hand that was extended to her. Koo was about to smile and support the young woman when she staggered before she could even take a step. Koo quickly grabbed the young woman tightly.

"I was talking about this y/n-san. Are you okay?"

Y/n nodded and started walking with support from the man holding her. Hyuga was also carefully watching the young woman.

She wasn't very bulky, she looked rather slender and weak. Her hair was disheveled and there were bloodstains on her clothes. But her gaze… her gaze was very different.

When they entered the warehouse, everyone in the warehouse turned to the door. Y/n struggled to continue walking even though she was uncomfortable with so many people looking at her.

The other leaders looked at the young woman with confidence.

Rocky was angry when he saw her injured and weak, he was angered by some people hurting a young woman like this. Murayama stared in surprise and admiration. The young woman was very beautiful, but he knew she was older than him, so he had to be respectful.

Pi and Takeshi looked seriously up and down with the familiar face. She seemed worse than the last time they saw her, it must have been hard living the fugitive life.

Cobra, on the other hand, smiled as soon as y/n walked in, thinking she might be scared.So he wanted to appear as sincere as he could so she could trust them.

The Amamiya Brothers were the same as always. Hiroto coldly stared at the woman he saw in the photograph, while Masaki offered a stupid smile.

After Koo and y/n, Hyuga entered the warehouse and shouted

"Oi, where's the doctor? Her wound is bleeding, it needs to be bandaged as soon as possible."

When Rocky looked at Kizzy, Kizzy pointed to the man next to him.

"The doctor is here, Koo-san this way please."

Koo walked over to the chairs in the middle of the warehouse and helped y/n sit down. Y/n nodded her head and tried to take off her jacket, failing, Hyuga rolled his eyes and approached her.

"Okay, let me-"

He slowly helped the young woman take off her jacket and frowned when he saw that y/n's arm was a pool of blood. Y/n was looking straight at him.

Hyuga sat across from her and the doctor looked at the young woman's arm.

"What the hell did you do to your arm?"

Y/n muttered quietly

"I took the bullet myself"

Y/n rolled her eyes as the doctor's eyes widened.

"You're lucky you didn't die, miss"

Y/n grinned at what was said and muttered

"Yes, I am very lucky".

Hyuga, on the other hand, smiled at the young woman's mocking demeanor. He thought there was something about her that attracted him...

[faustandfurious]

I do realize the impossibility of creating a "one size fits all" list of "classics everyone must read before they die!" but if you felt like listing a few authors or books you think are basically always left off those lists in favour of some american or english book, i would be interested! i have the same complaint abt anglocentric "classics lists" but to find these books that are neither my own literary culture or English Classics, I am just sending out blind feelers

With the disclaimer that I have seen some of these books on the lists you mention (but infrequently, and often ignored in favour of mediocre Anglo literature), here are a few of my (non-Anglo, but unfortunately still very European skewing) recommendations. To be honest, these are just intended as starting points for dipping your toes in various countries' literary canon.

The Book of Disquiet - Fernando Pessoa

I'm reading this right now and it's so full of sentences I want to serve with tea and biscuits on a Sunday afternoon while watching the snowfall outside, I'm not sure how else to convey the deep sense of contentment I get from reading this.

Kin - Miljenko Jergović

Based-on-true-events family saga about Yugoslavia through the 20th century, and I'm honestly annoyed that Jergović is still relatively unknown in the English speaking world. Personally I think his collection of short stories, Sarajevo Marlboro, is even better, but Kin is more books-to-read-before-you-die material due to its scope and length.

The World of Yesterday - Stefan Zweig

Zweig is fairly consistently left off the lists, even the better ones that actually include German language authors like Goethe and Mann, which is a shame because The World of Yesterday is the memoir of a man who had a front row seat at pretty much all the important events in Europe in the first half of the 20th century. He knew Freud. He knew Rilke. He knew a guy who knew Lenin. He had opinions on everything. In addition to being beautifully written, it's such a good way of learning history through immersion.

Danton's Death - Georg Büchner

Due to personal reasons I really vibe with this. Also a must-read if you're in any way obsessed with the French Revolution.

Journey by Moonlight - Antal Szerb

Really famous in Hungary ever since its publication in 1937, but it wasn't translated into English until after 2000, which explains its relative lack of popularity outside Hungary. If I could scrub every book recommendation list clean of Harry Potter and put this there instead, I would.

Victoria - Knut Hamsun

Look, I've had tough dudes admit to me that they cried on public transport while reading this.

Kristin Lavransdatter - Sigrid Undset

Undset wrote historical fiction about medieval Norway before it was cool, but she rarely or never seems to make it onto the rec lists, which is a shame. To be fair, even in Norway her reputation seems to have suffered a bit from the fact that she converted to Catholicism, which was considered at best a bit unfashionable, at worst outright scandalous, at the time. At any rate, Kristin Lavransdatter is well worth a read.

The Makioka Sisters - Jun'ichiro Tanizaki

I feel like the vibes here are similar to Tolstoy (there's even, funnily enough, a minor character called Vronsky), and it's a very good portrait of Japanese middle class life in the 1930s. An overarching theme in Tanizaki's works is the ongoing conflict between Japanese tradition and the more westernised lifestyle adopted by the younger generation, which has the added benefit of giving a Western readers something familiar to hang on to while reading, so why Tanizaki is left out of those rec lists is honestly beyond my comprehension.

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

Misc notes from the Maghni AI February Q&A Stream:

Aurum demo is going to be delayed by a few weeks, currently expected for the beginning of March.

Everything else should be on schedule.

Hype content will be posted around the end of February regardless of Aurum's demo being delayed! (Something fun, Oliver related, is coming before the end of this month. Assumedly - not mentioned, this is me saying this - his second English demo, since Austin's announcements match the schedule.)

Languages development has been going well on Natalia's part.

Audine recently finished her English recordings, development for her voicebank starts soon.

Crossy has been drawing a lot - for the upcoming February content and for the official character art, which is a lot of work since they want it to turn out perfect.

GABRIEL and GLASSIA's voice actors have been recording. GLASSIA's voice recordings are experiencing some delays because their voice actress wasn't satisfied with them, but she's a fast recorder according to Natalia.

GLASSIA is Brazilian.

Natalia and Austin are excited about the development of voice colors, and Austin is also excited about the engine themes. Barham is excited about the age and gender parameters (which are different!) though those won't be available on release. Caleb is most excited about phoneme editing but also mentions that some very powerful voices are coming. (I have never used VOCALOID so I didn't understand what Crossy was talking about o(￣┰￣*)ゞ something "V1 pitch bends better than V5")

The vocabulary they use around the program is inspired by a will to "paint the vocals". This is mentioned in response to someone asking if you can draw the pitch bends, to which the answer is yes.

They're putting a big focus on accessibility and beginner-friendliness, as they expect Maghni AI to be a first entry-point to vocal synth for many users due to the many languages it includes.

I'm not sure what exactly this is about, and it's mostly hypotheticals but they're enthusiastic about ideas adjacent to lyp-syncing. And feedings your voicebank little raspberries. For what it's worth

The two test libraries should have the exact same quality as other full libraries, but they will be limited in what they can do. (Like they won't have as many voice colors, their range might not be as great, they're just meant to be for getting a feel of the program.)

Maghni AI is meant to be very third-party friendly.

"Huge French vocal synth scene" mention!!!! (the girl taking these notes is French)

"Vocal A" is pretty much finished with his recordings.

Even if they create official stories with their characters, Vocatone's characters are up to your personal interpretation. (If Oliver is a silly goofy child to you, that's cool, if Oliver is very serious and broody to you, that's cool too.)

Next stream should be at the end of next month.

Growl parameter is an exciting prospect but probably not anytime soon. That being said, one of the voicebanks they're working on will have a voice color that's pure growl.

They were asked about "if they could have any UTAU for Maghni AI". I've been having a difficult time processing names but I'll do my best... Natalia: Momo Momone, Ruko, Ritsu - there are also voicebanks that aren't as big but are phenomenal, like Aiko Kikyuune - later mention: Yufu Sekka, Sayu Yurika. Barham: isn't familiar with UTAU. Austin: I didn't catch the name, sorry, but if I'm understanding well, two voicebanks he worked on? Caleb: Kakoi Nizimine. Crossy: Celeste? Then one I didn't catch, then Muyuka. Someone in the chat: Adachi Rei (which Natalia thinks would be phenomenal). Natalia keeps mentioning UTAUs so I'm giving up OTL

There will be a transcription in the future if you really must know what UTAUs they like (and if I got them wrong)! This is a summary so please go ahead and watch the archive if you want to know more about Maghni AI.

[onlineproblems]

Beta Reading Slots open :) [2/5 available]

Contact: DM me for my email.

Content accepted: Sensitive subjects such as rape, incest, racism, homophobia, bigotry, etc. are fine IF handled intelligently -- not simply used for shock value, or obviously endorsed by the author. Please keep in mind I am not a sensitivity reader; I can't help you decide what to include or exclude, or how to approach certain topics. I simply encourage you to do your research.

I have the right to refuse any submission without giving a reason.

I accept any fandom as well as original fiction. I am most familiar with the following --

TV:

Twin Peaks

The X-Files

Doctor Who (2005)

Psych

Pushing Daisies

The Mentalist

Once Upon a Time

Bates Motel

Hannibal

The OA

Books:

Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit

Shadow & Bone, Six of Crows

A Court of Thorns and Roses series

The Witcher novels (as well as the games and the Netflix series)

Movies:

The Conjuring universe

Lord of the Rings trilogy (sorry, not The Hobbit or Rings of Power)

The Alien movie universe

What I can help with:

Grammar: punctuation, sentence structure, correct word usage, spelling, etc.

Flow: I can point out areas that might benefit from being fleshed out, shortened, or rearranged.

Style: suggestions for alternative words/phrases; highlight cliches or redundancies.

Time frame: I prioritize my real-life responsibilities. I'll let you know the soonest I can get back to you based on the length of the work and what you'd like me to do.

How to submit a request: Send me an email with "READING REQUEST" + your total wordcount + fandom (if applicable) in the subject line. In the message body, let me know what you want help with, if you have a deadline, and any other details you'd like me to know (US/UK spelling preferred? English not your first language? Under 18?). Attach your document (DOC, DOCX, MD, ODT, RTF only) or include a link to a Google Document with commenting/editing permissions enabled.

My creds: I have 3+ years of professional proofreading experience, and I've been beta reading on and off since I was 15. My undergraduate degree is in English Literature. I love working with writers of all levels, and I've collaborated with people from Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America.

My process: I include positive feedback and comments about what I enjoyed and what I think you do really well. I can either make grammar corrections directly in the document, or leave them as "suggestions." More subjective changes will be included as comments in the margins. I may have questions for you if I'm uncertain about a section in the text -- I'll leave a note in the document and mention in to you when I reply to your email. Feel free to keep the conversation going!

[anakinsafterlife]

Music and Arts for Interview with the Vampire and other French-Enjoyers

I am so genuinely excited to find out that Zachary Richard, the Francophone folk singer from Louisiana, has released a novel! The story addresses the concerns of the American Francophonie with the story of a family wracked by politics and violence in the wakr of the American Civil War.

Friends, this the is the first American novel to be published in French since 1894! Although there is still a Francophone community in Louisiana to this day, they have been dealing with forced Anglicization for well over a hundred years, including the forced Anglophone education of Francophone children.

Zachary Richard remains an outlier in an largely English American cultural landscape. He wrote and recorded the majority of his songs in French and is popular in the international Francophone musical community.

I have been meaning to talk about Richard for a very long time, particular in the context of Interview with the Vampire. There are a good many cultural references in Interview, but unfortunately it seems that the show-runners are not really too informed about historical French arts because there aren't many references to French music or playwriting. Lestat would be more likely to act Moliere than Shakespeare. Louis would be somewhere in between, probably listening to and speaking both French and English songs. Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with Black Creole musicians, of which there were/are indeed plenty in Louisiana. I've been meaning to educate myself in that area and post a selection along with my favourite tracks from Richard, but life has been very pressing indeed these last few years, so that never happened.

Here, then, are a few of my favourite songs from Zachary Richard and a few brief recordings from Black Zydeco artists, as well as the blurb from Richard's novel.

I didn't include translations, because that would make this long post long indeed, but Richard's lyrics are readily available in any search engine.

The novel:

Summary:

In the disarray that fell on southern Louisiana following the Civil War, André Boudreaux, seventeen years old, discovered life with his grandfather Drozin. This southern veteran, who became a rich man thanks to the arrival of the railway, tries to regain his prestige and his political power. But the sordid murder of André's uncle, the turbulent elections of 1882 and the political aims of his daughter-in-law will turn his world upside down. Les Rafales du carême is the first French-language novel published by a Louisiana author since 1894.

The music:

Dans les grands chemins. (On the big roads). A song about personal history and being drawn away from your place of origin to explore the wider world.

Au bord de Lac Bijou (On the shore of Lac Bijou). One of his bigger songs and very basic of me, but it's beautiful.

Le Ballade de Jean Batailleur. Again, one of his big ones, but it's a ballad about an orphan who grows up to be a criminal and dies alone. Depressing but gorgeous.

And this one gives me chills every time. It's a live rendition of Richard's song "La Promesse Cassee," performed with Celine Dion. This is hands down Dion's best performance ever, imho. Her voice is so nuanced and her expression so powerful, without ever once over-singing. The song's content probably has a lot to do with that. Richard wrote it in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when New Orleans was so utterly devastated, and the US federal government promised aid, which, after days of waiting, never came. "The Broken Promise" is a scathing and haunting commentary on that betrayal.

"Laisse le vent souffler" (Let the wind blow) addresses the same issue, but years later. The singer tells the story of the police arriving to evacuate the community as another hurricaine approaches. He refuses to leave because he has already survived other storms and he has seen how the police have failed to support a scattered community in the past.

Can't believe I almost forgot this one:

Reveille--A powerful song addresses the expulsion of the Acadians, the forced removal (by British/English Canadian forces) of the Acadian French from the Canadian east coast and northern USA east coast. Many of the Acadians were shipped further south or "back" to Europe, where most had never been. Plagued by attendant atrocities of starvation, drowning and disease, thousands of Acadians were killed. Those who survived the journey down the American coast eventually became known by the shortened name of "Cajuns."

There are also a few extra things here from Richard's YouTube, where he highlights other Louisiana French singers and musicians. I've only included a couple, but people writing for Interview might want to explore his page more, since there's some Black Zydeco (Louisiana folk and French) musicians there.

J'ai une chanson dans mon coeur:

I couldn't find anything out about this. A young, Black American girl sings this song in an American school. I think, and hope, that she's another member of the French Louisianian musical community. Very sweet.

Zachary Richard talking about his influences and earlier Zydeco music in Louisiana.

[emeraldskulblaka]

heyy which rock opera you would recommend to start with? everyone seem to choose between 'classics' and their favourite and it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts!

Hi!! Hmm, difficult question - which musical would you recommend to someone who hasn't watched any? Always depends on your personal interests. In my experience, rock operas are often very specific and require prior knowledge of the general plot and background to really enjoy them (as opposed to musicals, which usually do a great job explaining what's necessary to know).

The first thing you have to decide is which language you're looking for, or if you're comfortable watching with subtitles. I've been told that Temple is a classic, but since there is no translation and I don't speak Russian, I'm not going to enjoy it overly much. The German Faust rock opera has the same issue.

Next, it's important to decide what kind of content you're interested in. You don't like fantasy? The Last Trial is phenomenal, but those who don't like fantasy won't like this show either - you won't "convert" anyone. Finrod is very specific and barely mentions any names, so it's only really enjoyable for people who have read the Silmarillion or are familiar with Beren and Lúthien, at least. Someone who dislikes musicals for being tooo much of a show and too dancey and dramatic and glittery will have a very hard time watching Mozart l'Opéra Rock.

So my recommendations:

Mozart l'Opéra Rock - French with English subtitles. Can be considered a classic by now, I think. Entered my list of favourites instantly, the songs just slap, and it mixes classical with rock music. It wouldn't hurt to read up on Mozart's life a little beforehand 😅

Jesus Christ Superstar - originally English with a complete translation at least in Russian. Not sure about other languages because I know of several German productions with only the dialogue in German. Theeee classic. Not really my favourite, but very watchable, and tbh it should be on a 'required watching' list in this category just because of its massive success and continued popularity.

Lay of Leithian - Russian with English, Spanish, Finnish subtitles. Much smaller in scale than the other two, but so much love and care has been put into its creation. Only suitable for fantasy fans, but works without prior knowledge of Tolkien. This rock opera changed my life for the better.

Honourable mention: The Last Trial - Russian with English and Chinese subtitles, full English translation available, but not performed on stage. Took me a while to understand the plot, and it's billed as a musical, but it's so so good. The ending makes me want to punch a wall every time.

As I've said - it always depends on your interests. Obviously watch Orpheus if you like Greek Mythology, and if you're a history nerd, don't miss Joan of Arc!! But these three (four) do a great job of introducing you to the genre by showing a great variety in topics and styles 💚