#and people adding likes to that post based on the commentary

[honestlyvan]

As the pendulum is swinging back to “stop shaming people for leaving likes”, I am going to go on record to say I don’t like like because they’re a purely “number go up” metric that most people do not treat with the kind of thoughtful affection people who talk about leaving “little kisses for the people they follow” treat them as. I feel this exact same way about kudos in that mindless interaction from a potential audience is a real “good for you” kind of situation that simply does fuck all for me.

And before someone can call this grind culture brainrot, I also feel this way about reblogs without commentary. Good for you. I'm glad I was a good dancing monkey, enough for you to go “hey [people following me], lookadis guy”, even if you’re not gonna actually tell me that. We can talk about our choices for engaging with things and people on this site all we want, but intent isn’t magic, and I’m gonna reserve the right to complain about how that treatment feels regardless.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Social Quitting

In “Social Quitting,” my latest Locus Magazine column, I advance a theory to explain the precipitous vibe shift in how many of us view the once-dominant social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, and how it is that we have so quickly gone asking what we can do to get these services out of our lives to where we should go now that we’re all ready to leave them:

https://locusmag.com/2023/01/commentary-cory-doctorow-social-quitting/

The core of the argument revolves around surpluses — that is, the value that exists in the service. For a user, surpluses are things like “being able to converse with your friends” and “being able to plan activities with your friends.” For advertisers, surpluses are things like “being able to target ads based on the extraction and processing of private user data” and “being able to force users to look at ads before they can talk to one another.”

For the platforms, surpluses are things like, “Being able to force advertisers and business customers to monetize their offerings through the platform, blocking rivals like Onlyfans, Patreon, Netflix, Amazon, etc” and things like “Being able to charge more for ads” and “being able to clone your business customers’ products and then switch your users to the in-house version.”

Platforms control most of the surplus-allocating options. They can tune your feed so that it mostly consists of media and text from people you explicitly chose to follow, or so that it consists of ads, sponsored posts, or posts they think will “boost engagement” by sinking you into a dismal clickhole. They can made ads skippable or unskippable. They can block posts with links to rival sites to force their business customers to transact within their platform, so they can skim fat commissions every time money changes hands and so that they can glean market intelligence about which of their business customers’ products they should clone and displace.

But platforms can’t just allocate surpluses will-ye or nill-ye. No one would join a brand-new platform whose sales-pitch was, “No matter who you follow, we’ll show you other stuff; there will be lots of ads that you can’t skip; we will spy on you a lot.” Likewise, no one would sign up to advertise or sell services on a platform whose pitch was “Our ads are really expensive. Any business you transact has to go through us, and we’ll take all your profits in junk fees. This also lets us clone you and put you out of business.”

Instead, platforms have to carefully shift their surpluses around: first they have to lure in users, who will attract business customers, who will generate the fat cash surpluses that can be creamed off for the platforms’ investors. All of this has to be orchestrated to lock in each group, so that they won’t go elsewhere when the service is enshittified as it processes through its life-cycle.

This is where network effects and switching costs come into play. A service has “network effects” if it gets more valuable as users join it. You joined Twitter to talk to the people who were already using it, and then other people joined so they could talk to you.

“Switching costs” are what you have to give up when you leave a service: if a service is siloed — if it blocks interoperability with rivals — then quitting that service means giving up access to the people whom you left behind. This is the single most important difference between ActivityPub-based Fediverse services like Mastodon and the silos like Twitter and Facebook — you can quit a Fediverse server and set up somewhere else, and still maintain your follows and followers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/23/semipermeable-membranes/#free-as-in-puppies

In the absence of interoperability, network effects impose their own switching cost: the “collective action problem” of deciding when to leave and where to go. If you depend on the people you follow and who follow you — for emotional support, for your livelihood, for community — then the extreme difficulty of convincing everyone to leave at the same time and go somewhere else means that you can be enticed into staying on a service that you no longer enjoy. The platforms can shift the surpluses away from you, provided that doing so makes you less miserable than abandoning your friends or fans or customers would. This is the Fiddler On the Roof problem: everyone stays put in the shtetl even though the cossacks ride through on the reg and beat the shit out of them, because they can’t all agree on where to go if they leave:

https://doctorow.medium.com/how-to-leave-dying-social-media-platforms-9fc550fe5abf

So the first stage of the platform lifecycle is luring in users by allocating lots of surplus to them — making the service fun and great and satisfying to use. Few or no ads, little or no overt data-collection, feeds that emphasize the people you want to hear from, not the people willing to pay to reach you.

This continues until the service attains a critical mass: once it becomes impossible to, say, enroll your kid in a little-league baseball team without having a Facebook account, then Facebook can start shifting its surpluses to advertisers and other business-users of the platform, who will pay Facebook to interpose themselves in your use of the platform. You’ll hate it, but you won’t leave. Junior loves little-league.

Facebook can enshittify its user experience because the users are now locked in, holding each other hostage. If Facebook can use the courts and technological countermeasures to block interoperable services, it can increase its users’ switching costs, producing more opportunities for lucrative enshittification without the risk of losing the users that make Facebook valuable to advertisers. That’s why Facebook pioneered so many legal tactics for criminalizing interoperability:

https://www.eff.org/cases/facebook-v-power-ventures

This is the second phase of the toxic platform life-cycle: luring in business customers by shifting surpluses from users to advertisers, sellers, etc. This is the moment when the platforms offer cheap and easy monetization, low transaction fees, few barriers to off-platform monetization, etc. This is when, for example, a news organization can tease an article on its website with an off-platform link, luring users to click through and see the ads it controls.

Because Facebook has locked in its users through mutual hostage-taking, it can pollute their feeds with lots of these posts to news organizations’ sites, bumping down the messages from its users’ friends, and that means that Facebook can selectively tune how much traffic it gives to different kinds of business customers. If Facebook wants to lure in sports sites, it can cram those sites’ posts into millions of users’ feeds and send floods of traffic to sports outlets.

Outlets that don’t participate in Facebook lose out, and so they join Facebook, start shoveling their content into it, hiring SEO Kremlinologists to help them figure out how to please The Algorithm, in hopes of gaining a permanent, durable source of readers (and thus revenue) for their site.

But ironically, once a critical mass of sports sites are on Facebook, Facebook no longer needs to prioritize sports sites in its users’ feeds. Now that the sports sites all believe that a Facebook presence is a competitive necessity, they will hold each other hostage there, egging each other on to put more things on Facebook, even as the traffic dwindles.

Once sports sites have taken each other hostage, Facebook can claw back the surplus it allocated to them and use it to rope in another sector — health sites, casual games, employment seekers, financial advisors, etc etc. Each group is ensnared by a similar dynamic to the one that locks in the users.

But there is a difference between users’ surpluses and business’s surpluses. A user’s surplus is attention, and there is no such thing as an “attention economy.” You can’t use attention to pay for data-centers, or executive bonuses, or to lobby Congress. Attention is not a currency in the same way that cryptos are not currency — it is not a store of value, nor a unit of exchange, nor or a unit of account.

Turning attention into money requires the same tactics as turning crypto into money — you have to lure in people who have real, actual money and convince them to swap it for attention. With crypto, this involved paying Larry David, Matt Damon, Spike Lee and LeBron James to lie about crypto’s future in order to rope in suckers who would swap their perfectly cromulent “fiat” money for unspendable crypto tokens.

With platforms, you need to bring in business customers who get paid in actual cash and convince them to give you that cash in exchange for ethereal, fast-evaporating, inconstant, unmeasurable “attention.” This works like any Ponzi scheme (that is, it works like cryptos): you can use your shareholders’ cash to pay short-term returns to business customers, losing a little money as a convincer that brings in more trade.

That’s what Facebook did when it sent enormous amounts of traffic to a select few news-sites that fell for the pivot to video fraud, in order to convince their competitors to borrow billions of dollars to finance Facebook’s bid to compete with Youtube:

https://doctorow.medium.com/metaverse-means-pivot-to-video-adbe09319038

This convincer strategy is found in every con. If you go to the county fair, you’ll see some poor bastard walking around all day with a giant teddy bear that he “won” by throwing three balls into a peach-basket. The carny who operated that midway game let him win the teddy precisely so that he would walk around all day, advertising the game, which is rigged so that no one else wins the giant teddy-bear:

https://boingboing.net/2006/08/27/rigged-carny-game.html

Social media platforms can allocate giant teddy-bears to business-customers, and it can also withdraw them at will. Careful allocations mean that the platform can rope in a critical mass of business customers and then begin the final phase of its life-cycle: allocating surpluses to its shareholders.

We know what this looks like.

Rigged ad-markets:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue

Understaffed content moderation departments:

https://www.dw.com/en/twitters-sacking-of-content-moderators-will-backfire-experts-warn/a-63778330

Knock-off products:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/08/twitter-is-the-latest-platform-to-test-a-tiktok-copycat-feature/

Nuking “trust and safety”:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-dissolves-trust-safety-council-2022-12-13/

Hiding posts that have links to rival services:

https://www.makeuseof.com/content-types-facebook-hides-why/

Or blocking posts that link to rival services:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/better-failure/#let-my-tweeters-go

Or worse, terminating accounts for linking to rival services:

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2022/12/twitter-suspends-mastodon-account-prevents-sharing-links/

That is, once a platform has its users locked in, and has its business customers locked in, it can enshittify its service to the point of near uselessness without losing either, allocating all the useful surplus in the business to its shareholders.

But this strategy has a problem: users and business customers don’t like to be locked in! They will constantly try to find ways to de-enshittify your service and/or leave for greener pastures. And being at war with your users and business customers means that your reputation continuously declines, because every time a user or business customer figures out a way to claw back some surplus, you have to visibly, obviously enshittify your service wrestle it back.

Every time a service makes headlines for blocking an ad-blocker, or increasing its transaction fees, or screwing over its users or business customers in some other way, it makes the case that the price you pay for using the service is not worth the value it delivers.

In other words, the platforms try to establish an equilibrium where they only leave business customers and users with the absolute bare minimum needed to keep them on the service, and extract the rest for their shareholders. But this is a very brittle equilibrium, because the prices that platforms impose on their users and business customers can change very quickly, even if the platforms don’t do anything differently.

Users and business customers can revalue the privacy costs, or the risks of staying on the platform based on exogenous factors. Privacy scandals and other ruptures can make the cost you’ve been paying for years seem higher than you realized and no longer worth it.

This problem isn’t unique to social media platforms, either. It’s endemic to end-stage capitalism, where companies can go on for years paying their workers just barely enough to survive (or even less, expecting them to get public assistance and/or a side-hustle), and those workers can tolerate it, and tolerate it, and tolerate it — until one day, they stop.

The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting, the mass desertions from the gig economy — they all prove the Stein’s Law: “Anything that can’t go on forever will eventually stop.”

Same for long, brittle supply-chains, where all the surplus has been squeezed out: concentrating all the microchip production in China and Taiwan, all the medical saline in Puerto Rico, all the shipping into three cartels… This strategy works well, and can be perfectly tuned with mathematical models that cut right to the joint, and they work and they work.

Until they stop. Until covid. Or war. Or wildfires. Or floods. Or interest rate hikes. Or revolution. All this stuff works great until you wake up and discover that the delicate balance between paying for guard labor and paying for a fair society has tilted, and now there’s a mob building a guillotine outside the gates of your luxury compound.

This is the force underpinning collapse: “slow at first, then all at once.” A steady erosion of the failsafes, flensing all the slack out of the system, extracting all the surpluses until there’s nothing left in the reservoir, no reason to stay.

It’s what caused the near-collapse of Barnes and Noble, and while there are plenty of ways to describe James Daunt’s successful turnaround, the most general characterization is, “He has reallocated the company’s surpluses to workers, readers, writers and publishers”:

https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/what-can-we-learn-from-barnes-and

A system can never truly stabilize. This is why utopias are nonsense: even if you design the most perfect society in which everything works brilliantly, it will still have to cope with war and meteors and pandemics and other factors beyond your control. A system can’t just work well, it has to fail well.

This is why I object so strenuously to people who characterize my 2017 novel Walkaway as a “dystopian novel.” Yes, the protagonists are eking out survival amidst a climate emergency and a failing state, but they aren’t giving up, they’re building something new:

https://locusmag.com/2017/06/bruce-sterling-reviews-cory-doctorow/

“Dystopia” isn’t when things go wrong. Assuming nothing will go wrong doesn’t make you an optimist, it makes you an asshole. A dangerous asshole. Assuming nothing will go wrong is why they didn’t put enough lifeboats on the Titanic. Dystopia isn’t where things go wrong. Dystopia is when things go wrong, and nothing can be done about it.

Anything that can’t go on forever will eventually stop. The social media barons who reeled users and business customers into a mutual hostage-taking were confident that their self-licking ice-cream cone — in which we all continued to energetically produce surpluses for them to harvest, because we couldn’t afford to leave — would last forever.

They were wrong. The important thing about the Fediverse isn’t that it’s noncommercial or decentralized — it’s that its design impedes surplus harvesting. The Fediverse is designed to keep switching costs as low as possible, by enshrining the Right Of Exit into the technical architecture of the system. The ability to leave a service without paying a price is the best defense we have against the scourge of enshittification.

(Thanks to Tim Harford for inspiring this column via an offhand remark in his kitchen a couple months ago!)

[Image ID: The Phillip Medhurst Picture Torah 397. The Israelites collect manna. Exodus cap 16 v 14. Luyken and son.]

[soracities]

what are your suggestions for starter poetry for people who dont have strong reading/analysis backgrounds

I've answered this a few times so I'm going to compile and expand them all into one post here.

I think if you haven't read much poetry before or aren't sure of your own tastes yet, then poetry anthologies are a great place to start: many of them will have a unifying theme so you can hone in based on a subject that interests you, or pick your way through something more general. I haven't read all of the ones below, but I have read most of them; the rest I came across in my own readings and added to my list either because I like the concept or am familiar with the editor(s) / their work:

Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times (ed. Nick Astley) & Being Alive: The Sequel to Staying Alive (there's two more books in this series, but I'm recommending these two just because it's where I started)

The Rattlebag (ed. Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes)

The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (ed. Ilya Kaminsky & Susan Harris)

The Essential Haiku, Versions of Basho, Buson and Issa (ed. Robert Hass)

A Book of Luminous Things (ed. Czesław Miłosz )

Now and Then: The Poet's Choice Columns by Robert Hass (this may be a good place to start if you're also looking for commentary on the poems themselves)

Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World(ed. Pádraig Ó'Tuama)

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (ed. Kevin Young)

The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing (ed. Kevin Young)

Lifelines: Letters from Famous People about their Favourite Poems

The following lists are authors I love in one regard or another and is a small mix of different styles / time periods which I think are still fairly accessible regardless of what your reading background is! It's be no means exhaustice but hopefully it gives you even just a small glimpse of the range that's available so you can branch off and explore for yourself if any particular work speaks to you.

But in any case, for individual collections, I would try:

anything by Sara Teasdale

Devotions / Wild Geese / Felicity by Mary Oliver

Selected Poems and Prose by Christina Rossetti

Collected Poems by Langston Hughes

Where the Sidewalk Endsby Shel Silverstein

Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez

Revolutionary Letters, Diane di Prima

Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved by Gregory Orr

Rose: Poems by Li-Young Lee

A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor / Barefoot Souls by Maram al-Masri

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

Tell Me: Poems / What is This Thing Called Love? by Kim Addonizio

The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins (Billy Collins is THE go-to for accessible / beginner poetry in my view so I think any of his collections would probably do)

Crush by Richard Siken

Rapture / The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

The War Works Hard by Dunya Mikhail

Selected Poems by Walt Whitman

View with a Grain of Sand by Wislawa Szymborska

Collected Poems by Vasko Popa

Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas (this is a play, but Thomas is a poet and the language & structure is definitely poetic to me)

Bright Dead Things: Poems by Ada Limón

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire,

Nostalgia, My Enemy: Selected Poems by Saadi Youssef

As for individual poems:

“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

[Dear The Vatican] erasure poem by Pádraig Ó'Tuama // "The Pedagogy of Conflict"

"Good Bones" by Maggie Smith

"The Author Writes the First Draft of His Weddings Vows (An erasure of Virginia Woolf's suicide letter to her husband, Leonard)" by Hanif Abdurraqib

"I Can Tell You a Story" by Chuck Carlise

"The Sciences Sing a Lullabye" by Albert Goldbarth

"One Last Poem for Richard" by Sandra Cisneros

"We Lived Happily During the War" by Ilya Kaminsky

“I’m Explaining a Few Things”by Pablo Neruda

"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" //"Nothing Gold Can Stay"//"Out, Out--" by Robert Frost

"Tablets: I // II // III"by Dunya Mikhail

"What Were They Like?" by Denise Levertov

"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden,

"The Patience of Ordinary Things" by Pat Schneider

“I, too” // "The Negro Speaks of Rivers” // "Harlem” // “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes

“The Mower” // "The Trees" // "High Windows" by Philip Larkin

“The Leash” // “Love Poem with Apologies for My Appearance” // "Downhearted" by Ada Limón

“The Flea” by John Donne

"The Last Rose of Summer" by Thomas Moore

"Beauty" // "Please don't" // "How it Adds Up" by Tony Hoagland

“My Friend Yeshi” by Alice Walker

"De Humanis Corporis Fabrica"byJohn Burnside

“What Do Women Want?” // “For Desire” // "Stolen Moments" // "The Numbers" by Kim Addonizio

“Hummingbird” // "For Tess" by Raymond Carver

"The Two-Headed Calf" by Laura Gilpin

“Bleecker Street, Summer” by Derek Walcott

“Dirge Without Music” // "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

“Digging” // “Mid-Term Break” // “The Rain Stick” // "Blackberry Picking" // "Twice Shy" by Seamus Heaney

“Dulce Et Decorum Est”by Wilfred Owen

“Notes from a Nonexistent Himalayan Expedition”by Wislawa Szymborska

"Hour" //"Medusa" byCarol Ann Duffy

“The More Loving One” // “Musée des Beaux Arts” by W.H. Auden

“Small Kindnesses” // "Feeding the Worms" by Danusha Laméris

"Down by the Salley Gardens” // “The Stolen Child” by W.B. Yeats

"The Thing Is" by Ellen Bass

"The Last Love Letter from an Entymologist" by Jared Singer

"[i like my body when it is with your]" by e.e. cummings

"Try to Praise the Mutilated World" by Adam Zagajewski

"The Cinnamon Peeler" by Michael Ondaatje

"Last Night I Dreamed I Made Myself" by Paige Lewis

"A Dream Within a Dream" // "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (highly recommend reading the last one out loud or listening to it recited)

"Ars Poetica?" // "Encounter" // "A Song on the End of the World"by Czeslaw Milosz

"Wandering Around an Albequerque Airport Terminal” // "Two Countries” // "Kindness” by Naoimi Shihab Nye

"Slow Dance” by Matthew Dickman

"The Archipelago of Kisses" // "The Quiet World" by Jeffrey McDaniel

"Mimesis" by Fady Joudah

"The Great Fires" // "The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart" // "Failing and Flying" by Jack Gilbert

"The Mermaid" // "Virtuosi" by Lisel Mueller

"Macrophobia (Fear of Waiting)" by Jamaal May

"Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong" by Ocean Vuong

"Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou

I would also recommend spending some times with essays, interviews, or other non-fiction, creative or otherwise (especially by other poets) if you want to broaden and improve how you read poetry; they can help give you a wider idea of the landscape behind and beyond the actual poems themselves, or even just let you acquaint yourself with how particular writers see and describe things in the world around them. The following are some of my favourites:

Upstream: Essays by Mary Oliver

"Theory and Play of the Duende" by Federico García Lorca

"The White Bird" and "Some Notes on Song" by John Berger

In That Great River: A Notebook by Anna Kamienska

A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

"Of Strangeness That Wakes Us" and "Still Dancing: An Interview with Ilya Kaminsky" by Ilya Kaminsky

"The Sentence is a Lonely Place" by Garielle Lutz

Still Life with Oysters and Lemon by Mark Doty

Paris, When It's Naked by Etel Adnan

[voidpumpkin]

A Guide For New Users Fleeing From Twitter, From A User Who Needed One When They First Started:

Hi to everyone fleeing from twitter, Elon Musk is shit and he already has had an actively harmful effect on the site, one that will only get worse. So, welcome to Tumblr, it can be kind of intimidating, given its reputation and how many different features there are, I was certainly confused and intimidated when I first logged on and as I'm active on both I sympathise with y’all, so here’s a guide to anyone new:

Put your hashtags in the hashtag section. This is the only way they’ll actually have any sort of effect, or appear when you search for something. Don’t post them on the post itself.

There is a character limit for hashtags and a quite high hashtag limit. Go wild. Writing entire speeches is common. 

Don’t tag lots of unrelated stuff to your posts, that’ll get you reported for Spam and just hated in general

Don’t censor words, users are fine with swearing, doing so especially with triggering content makes it hard for people to limit their exposure to said triggering content.

There’s no such thing as ratioing.

We don’t have quote retweeting, every reblog, comment, etc counts to op’s post. They can see it all, and will be notified depending on their notification settings.

Change your icon, people will think you’re a bot if you use the default.

Give yourself a bio, it’ll make you look like a person.

Follow people and tags, that’s the only way you’re gonna see the content you wanna see. The foryoupage isn’t to be trusted.

Actually reblog stuff, liking has no effect, reblogging is the only important thing here as there is no like based algorithm. Doing so will also make you appear human.

You can hide your likes and who you’re following. Doing so is not frowned upon in the slightest.

You can block tags, similarly to muting words on twitter.

You can have multiple blogs tied to one account. 

You can customise your blog, go wild.

There is no word limit, you can write as you want. But if it gets too long make use of the keep reading feature, (the three dots beside the add gif feature)

There is an image limit of thirty, up from the former ten, though for some they may be stuck at only using ten, tumblr is kinda inconsistent. If you want to add more you’ll have to reblog your own post. 

There is no reblogging limit when it comes to a post, though there is a daily posting limit, go wild, only your followers will be upset.

You can have videos, gifs and pictures in the same post.

You can just post audio.

Adult content is still banned, but actual moderation and enforcement is spotty, especially if it’s written. 

Spam liking and reblogging isn’t a thing. Go wild.

You have an ask box that people can submit stuff to. You can respond or just delete the post. You can remove anon capability from it (which will get rid of most of the hate), or outright bar it.

You can’t private your account but you can restrict commenting and reblogging. Edit: I’ve been informed that you can in fact make your blog password protected, it’s just that it’s a rarely done thing and not widely known.

Block whoever and whenever, it’s not a big deal. Though if someone you’ve blocked has reblogged and added to a post and someone you follow reblogs that, their commentary will still be included in the post you see.

We don’t have muting, only blocking.

Yes, direct messaging is a thing (it’s the little smiley face)

The only way to promote your is through ‘tumblr blaze’, you pay a certain amount of money and your post will be promoted, but not targeted, so no invasions of privacy. You are subject to the employee’s whims on whether or not it gets promoted and unfortunately hate speech has been allowed.

Tumblr has tendency to hide/consume comments, posts and asks, don’t be surprised if they go missing.

Tumblr searching a blog relies on tags, words in the post and the users name, keep that in mind.

Posts will remain after you delete your account or the original post if they have been reblogged.

Years old posts are still circulating and that is considered normal.

You can queue up posts to be released when you’re not using your account. Or you can just post whenever you’re active. Go wild.

Wizards exist and are very popular on this site. Accept it.

There are posts with no notes that will never gain any more than a sing note for your like. Accept it.

There are posts will no op. Accept it.

Trans and autistic people dominate this site.

Don’t get pissy when someone tags a post ‘tw (insert slur)’, or any trigger warning for that matter, most are just being considerate of their followers who may be triggered by such content.

Twitter discourse is regularly mocked, it’s not gonna fly here.

No, we don’t call each other oomfs, or anything like that. We just have mutuals.

Tumblr in general lacks a lot colloquialisms that began on twitter.

We do have ‘blorbo’ ‘poor little meow meow’ etc.

Trying to go viral or trying to corporate is frowned upon.

Tumblr has a tendency to blacklist things tagged like ‘crowdfunding’ so bring that kind of logic you use for twitter posts over to tumblr.

We don’t have twitter circles, co-posting, etc.

Tumblr is surprisingly good at recommending blogs.

There are no verified accounts, and your follower count isn't visible. This is a good thing, trying to change it will get you laughed at.

People are going to just make up stuff, don’t believe everything you see and if it’s a claim about someone, investigate it rather than just believe it.

You can edit your posts after you’ve posted them, but the versions reblogged before said changes will still circulate. This editing of the original has been used as a spruce of comedy

If your worried about people seeing your potentially triggering, or even graphic content and they haven’t blocked the tags you’ve used you can use the keeping reading feature to put the content under the cut and post a warning at the top.

And this is quite important:

Stay anonymous and have fun. There isn’t an expectation to constantly expose inner details of your life, you aren’t expected to use your real face, your real name, age, etc. You’re not even expected to be truthful here. Exist however you wanna exist and have fun, that should be the point of social media. 

Also keep in mind that tumblr has its own distinct culture that is going to take some getting used to. As well as a history any user who’s been here a while will at least somewhat understand.

Also I'll be editing the post with additional info and corrections provided to me.

[fallofcyber]

The Susan Foreman/Susan Twist Theory

So ever few years the Doctor Who fandom seeks to ask the question What about Susan, and Because of this new season the Theories have started back up again so lets look at the evidence.

Pre-Devil's Cord: It was speculated that Susan might return this season, the main evidence point is a woman we all have been calling "Susan Twist" based on the name of her actress.

Many people are speculating that based on this actress' name that there is a 'Twist' involving a 'Susan'. Now I wouldn't put it past RTD to create a season plotline purely based on an actress' name, but to state that this 'evidence' is a stretch is a massive understatement. So pre-Devil's Cord a crackpot theory that insists on speculating about the return of a Classic series Time-Lord, similar to the constant theories about The Rani, Omega, or even Morbius.

Post Devil's Cord: Now we finally have a solid piece of evidence, an explicit callout to Susan. In fact I believe the first time Susan is mentioned by name since the revival, when the Doctor is telling Ruby about his life on Totter's lane.

So we have two through-lines this theory hopes to connect. The Susan Twist mystery box, and an explicit call out to Susan Foreman. Now this callout to Susan seems incredibly deliberate, almost like it's attempting to introduce new audiences to the character. Plus the Doctor also speculates on her current status, whether she is alive or dead.

Also I'll bring up the 'Always a Twist at the End' song from the end of The Devil's Cord. Not only being a meta commentary on the nature of seasons of Doctor Who, but also a play on words referencing 'The Twist' a type of dance. There's always a twist, thus there is always a Susan Twist.

Post-Boom: We have a new Susan Twist cameo

and it's creepy ambulance lady. Currently the Susan Twist cameo hasn't added anything to the theory post Boom, but lets looks at something else for a second.

Varada Sethu

This is Varada Sethu who has been confirmed to be joining the TARDIS along with Ruby and the Doctor.

She shows up in Boom as the character Mundy Flynn. Now this could easily be another instance of an actor having a bit part in Doctor Who before Colin Baker, Freeman Agyeman, Peter Capaldi, Karen Gillan. However Russel has stated that the situation is more complicated than that. Specifically bringing up when Jenna Coleman showed up in Asylum of the Daleks before making her debut later in season 7.

Some speculation theorized that Varada Sethu's character was a regenerated Susan Foreman, but after Boom I believe something else is going on.

So this is all linking back to my 'The Doctor is trapped in a television show' Theory

( https://www.tumblr.com/fallofcyber/750149486367621120/okay-absolutely-off-the-wall-doctor-who-theory?source=share )

I think I might have an idea that could solve both the Susan Twist and Verada Sethu mystery. What if they aren't just reused actors on the show Doctor Who, but are reused actors in the show within the show. As in the reason we are seeing this actor show up in multiple places is because they are literally being recast in universe.

So in conclusion I do believe Susan Foreman to have some sort of relevance to the story, but I don't think she is at all connected to Varada Sethu or Susan Twist. Maybe she has a connection to Susan Twist, but I don't think they are one in the same.

[hayaomiyazaki]

sharing my googledrive

hello (◠‿◠)👋 over on my panel show blog, i host a googledrive of about 2tb of british comedy content that people have really seemed to enjoy over the years! i have a lot of storage available, so i figured i would do the same over here~

➤ userhayao google drive

this is a totally random assortment of about 1tb of films as well as mini/series, audiobooks, and stage plays: things i love, things i've never seen but want to, a few requests and fan faves — and i'll be adding more things regularly. i make an effort to get everything in very high quality, typically .mkv files of 1080p/2160p bluray rips, if i can :')

plenty of it is nothing particularly rare or special, but i personally think there are some real hidden gems in there, so i hope people will enjoy them!

i will also leave a link to the drive on my pinned post ^‿^

⚠️ discretion is appreciated, so of course i don't mind if the links are shared but it'd be safest for the drive if people could link back to this/my pinned post opposed to posting individual drive links! thank you in advance (◕v◕)

based on the asks i get about my other drive, here are a few notes/faq items below the cut!

— i'm streaming a film but it's in another language/commentary is on. how can i change that? i've downloaded some of these from foreign hubs, so the default audio tracks are not always the originals. googledrive doesn't support multiple audio tracks, so you'll need to download the film and switch the audio track like so:

— what do i do if there isn't a subtitles file? almost all files have the subtitles built in, so you can turn them on like this:

— what is VIDEO_TS and how do i watch it? a video_ts folder is a full-blown dvd! after downloading the VIDEO_TS folder, you simply drop the entire folder into your media player and it will function like a dvd with a home screen you can click on:

— i wanted to watch _____ but it's missing from the drive. is it gone forever? i probably removed it to make room for other content. if you really need it, even temporarily, just let me know!

— do you take requests? i'm open to requests! for specific details about 🏴‍☠️ sites and resources, it's best to dm me off anon :')

— won't google...take this down? probably one day 😅 as i mentioned above, a degree of discretion is key! still, i do this on a burner email and everything is backed up, so it's no big deal. if it gets removed i'll just throw it up again hehehe

additional faq here!

[blorbocedes]

It's probably time to admit Nico's monaco based youtuber days are over 🥲

in 2023 he only posted 1 video, 8 months ago. In 2022, when he got his rimac his videos popped off among car enthusiasts with over a million views (he was the very first! that's where the monaco based youtuber headline came from lol) and he promised a bunch of stuff he was gonna film with it, like drag racing and 0-1s accelerations but he never did. nicotube was always a passion project, he never did ads or sponsors. in 2017/2018 he was using it to find his post f1 career footing, those videos were more car porn, driving around in fancy sportscars, vlogs of boats or even f1 race vlogs and recaps, starting his own karting team (which kimi antonelli raced in!), and finally dipping his toes into sustainability with greentech festival. he started doing one hour podcast sessions with f1 and then other notable figures, which really popped off during covid. also doing f1 simulator races of every track and talking about the best ways/corners to drive and optimise the track. even tracks he never drove, like he did the sim for Miami in 2022, but not vegas. f1 is ofc his childhood love, he talks about the sport and his career fondly but even that with his sky commentary duties he only attends like 5 races, and no more race vlogs or his driver rankings of the season.

these days, his most used social media is linkedin actually. he's big on tech, startups, and specifically sustainability. esp with Rosberg Philanthropies where he's funding scholarships to phd grads in Oxford who research in sustainability and environmentally friendly tech. so making videos of ferrari car porn doesn't really align with the brand unless it's to promote electric cars.

does that mean his YouTube channel is over? no. I wouldn't be surprised if he drops another video whenever he feels like it, but the olden days of a bunch of sleekly produced videos every other week are long gone. he's moved past it and gotten into other projects he cares about and knowing the rosbergs I wouldn't be surprised if he slowly transitions into more projects where he's not the public facing front of it anymore.

I loved nicotube. i probably wouldn't be as big of a fan if I hadn't discovered it because it allowed a glimpse into nico outside of f1 driver, outside of sky sports narrative, just nico rosberg the person who is genuine in his enthusiasm of explaining how car wings work, who is cringe and funny and endearing and embarrassing. there's some absolute gems there. I'm sad there won't be more but hey, people change and people grow. 🥹 nico especially f1 fandom at large likes to box into unchanging, fixed category, like he was f1 driver til 2016, then monaco youtuber from 2017-♾️, but that's not exactly true and I'm acknowledging one of the changes.

[flameraven]

Very thoughtful commentary about artists, Neil Gaiman in particular, and parasocial relationships more generally. Excerpt:

1. Stop Idolizing Creative People. Creative people are easy to idolize because they create the art you love, and that gives you permission to feel things, and to see yourself and your desires reflected in that art. That is a powerful thing, and from the outside, it can feel like magic, and that the people who do it are tapped into something otherworldly and admirable. Plus, they often get to have cool lives and get to know other cool creative people. They do things that are removed from the day-to-day aspect of a “normal” life, and they’ll even post about them on social media where you can see them. Sometimes, independent of their art directly, they’ll speak about their life, or life in general, and they’ll seem wise and considered and kind. I mean, what’s not to like?

But please consider that this is all an extremely mediated experience of this person. The art is the edited and massaged result of hours and days and weeks and months of work, into which the work of many others is also added. My novels originate from me, but it’s not just me in there, nor is the final form of the novel an accurate statement of who I am as a person, not least of all for the simple reason that I am not trying to tell my story in my novels. I’m creating fictional characters, and the world in which they make sense, for the purpose of the story.

Despite how it might look from the outside, this is not sorcery. It’s years of experience at a craft. It’s not magic, just work. A completed novel (or any other piece of art) won’t tell you much about the specific, day-to-day life and inclinations of the individual who made it, other than a general nod toward their competence, and the competence of their collaborators. Likewise what you see of their lives, even from the illusorily close vantage of social media, is deeply mediated. Lives always look admirable at a distance, when you can only see the lofty peaks and not the rubble at the base — especially when your attention by design is pointed at those lofty peaks. There’s much you don’t see and that you’re not meant to see. The vast majority of what you’re not meant to see isn’t nefarious. It’s just not your business.

Now, before I was a professional creative person, I was an entertainment journalist who spent years interviewing writers, directors, movie stars, musicians, authors and other creative folks. Since I’ve been on the other side of the rope, I’ve likewise met a huge range of creative people from all walks of life. Please believe me when I assure you that creative people are just people. Richer and/or more famous? Sometimes (less often than you might think, though). Prettier and/or more charismatic? Especially if they’re actors or pop stars, often yes! But at the end of the day they are just folks, and they run the whole range of how people are. By and large, the day-to-day experience of getting through their life is the same as yours. Outside of their own specific field of work, they don’t know any more about life, have no more facility for dealing with the world, and have just as few clues about what’s going on in their own head, as anyone else.

They’re just people. Whose work is making the stuff you like! And that’s great, but that’s not a substantive basis for idolizing them. It makes no more sense to idolize them than to idolize a baker who makes cookies you like, or the guy who comes and trims your hedges the way you want them to be trimmed, or the plumber who fixes your clogged drain. You can appreciate what they do, and even admire the skill they have. But holding them up as a life model might be a bit much. Which is the point! If you’re not willing to idolize a plumber, then you shouldn’t idolize a creative person.

(“But a plumber doesn’t make me feel like a creative person does,” you say, to which I say, are you sure about that? Because I will tell you what, when my sump pump stopped working and the plumber got in there, replaced the pump and started draining out my basement which had an inch of standing water in it, that man was the focus of all my emotions and was my goddamned hero that day. My plumber that day did more for me than easily 90% of the great art I’ve ever experienced.)

Enjoy the art creative people do. Enjoy the experience of them in the mediated version of them you get online and elsewhere, if such is your joy. But remember that the art is from the artist, not the artist themselves, and the version of their life you see is usually just the version they choose to show. There is so much you don’t see, and so much you’re not meant to see. At the end of the day, you don’t have all the information about who they are that you would need to make them your idol, or someone you might choose to, in some significant way, pattern some fraction of your life on. And anyway creative people aren’t any better at life than anyone else.

Which brings up the next point:

2. Fuck idols anyway! People are complicated and contradictory and you don’t know everything about them! You don’t know everything even about your parents or siblings or best friends or your partner! People are hypocrites and liars and fail to live up to their own standards for themselves, much less yours! Your version of them in your head will always be different than the version that actually exists in the world! Because you’re not them! Stop pretending people won’t be fuck ups! They will! Always!

This sounds more pessimistic about humans than perhaps it should be. When I say, for example, that people are hypocrites and liars, I don’t mean that people take every single opportunity to be hypocrites and liars. Most people are decent in the moment. But none of us — not one! — has always lived up to our own standard of behavior, and all of us have had the moment where, when confronted with a situation that would become an immense pain in the ass if we stuck to our guns, or demanded the inconvenient truth, decided to just bail instead, because the situation wasn’t worth the drama, or we had somewhere else to be, or whatever. We all choose battles and we all make the call in the moment, and sometimes the call is, fuck this, I’m out.

Every person you’ve ever admired has fucked up, sometimes really badly. Everyone you’ve ever looked up to has secrets, and it’s possible some of those secrets would materially change how you think about them, not always for the better. Everyone you’ve ever known has things about them you don’t know, many of which aren’t even secrets, they’re just things you don’t engage with in your day-to-day experience of them. Nevertheless it’s possible if you were aware of them, it would change how you feel about them, for better or for worse. And now let’s flip that around! You have things about you that even your best friends don’t know, and might be surprised to learn! You have secrets you don’t wish to share with the class! You have fucked up, and lied, and have been a hypocrite too!

You are, in short, a human, as is everyone you know and every one you will know (pets and gregarious wild animals excepted). And all humans are, charitably, a mess. This doesn’t mean there aren’t good people or even exemplary people out there, since there are, along with the ones that are, charitably, a real shit show. What I am saying is that even the good or exemplary people out there are a mess, have been morally compromised at some point in their lives, and have not lived up to their own standards for themselves, independent of anyone else’s standard for them.

[accio-victuuri]

Sugar Rush : August 2023 CPNs

As with all other CPN posts that involve this lovely pairing, everything in here is speculation/interpretation based on popular concepts in the fandom. facts are also mixed in as well + events that happened before. This is not meant to “deceive or lie” to anyone. If it wasn’t clear, posts like this or similar to it are for cpfs only — and even other cpfs are encouraged to pick and choose what they believe in depending on what makes sense to them. You have to know some of the “lore” in this fandom to appreciate it, or be in that mindset wherein bjyx is probably/possible to be real.

These monthly round-ups, especially for August, have additional commentary and cpns that I didn’t share as an individual post for a variety or reasons. So there may be something “new” here for you.

Enjoy all the sugar! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

• rumor/cpn : XZ anonymously booked 26 cinema screenings in chongqing for yibo’s movie. the funny thing is there was a comment that if they find anonymous screenings for condor heroes movie in henan ( yibo’s hometown ) , they will join the bjyx supertopic 😂😂😂

this could be a different person but we cpn that it’s xz who booked since it’s in CQ. also whoever this was booked premium tickets and not discounted.

no one “released” a rumor or anything, some fans just noticed this while booking their tickets and found it interesting.

• another round of bottled joy cpns, this time around wyb’s alleged renewal with them on september and so much more

• reasons why we think the 26th bday letter post was from xiao zhan

• clues in the bday instagram post art

• fake rumor of wyb’s script having drawings

• XZ’s work week around WYB’s birthday

• Bottled Joy bday greeting to Yibo + Chen Shuo’s bracelet

• A cpf said yibo looked at their phone because her phonecase was a photo of wyb and xz. but again, this is not the proper behavior — following him around and shoving your phone in his personal space. I do not take this as candy, but for archiving purposes, it’s here.

• Unintentional matching 😂😂😂😂

• WYB plays card with Chongqing people 🃏

• Fake stories from paparazzi(s) who “followed” the boys back in 2018/19

• 8/11/2023 Rio Livestream candies

• 8/13/2023 LRLG 🍓🥝

• Yes please, drop more photos and do more similar captions with posts that are days or a week apart 👀

• throwback : the best bottled joy cpn

• 8/13, WYB allegedly drove and went to XZ’s LOCH shoot. You may see some photos and videos that is allegedly the proof but you can’t even see the driver’s face. There’s also some talk that “WYB” was wearing a motorcycle helmet so there will be no chance people seeing him. I don’t know what to think. I understand how exciting it is, how hilarious that people even speculate about this and the fact that cpns like this is dangerous. i would hate for melon/yxh accounts to pick this up and get them in trouble. We already heavily speculate that they visit each other on set because or some clues we see — no need to dig and investigate too much. 🙏🏼

• In the morning of 8/17, Paparazzi were saying XZ and his co-star from the past are not real and have no chance. This went on #1 HS. As expected, XZS pulled some mild sweets. 18:33! YIBO ZHAN ZHAN!

YBO updated minutes later. But my favorite would have to be their second update with 22:30 AI AI ZHAN!

• WYB became the first spokesperson for Pokemon Trading Cards, this is wonderful cause we know how they are big fans of it. I’m happy seeing them basically be the face of brands that they have always loved ( like chanel and gucci for example )

• 8/20/2023 YBO vlog candies 🧁🍭

• Yibo’s signature hand gesture confirmed to mean “wang”

• Qixi Festival number games

There is also some conversations that said XZ was not seen going to work that day. He & WYB could be working on Ad materials and other things, but that means they can go back home earlier. They don’t need a full day to spend Qixi together, tho that would be nice too. They just need time to be together on this romantic day. Maybe we will get more details in the months to come but we wish them all the happiness! 💕

• A new BTS on XZ sort of complaining about WYB/LWJ not looking at XZ/WWX with “yearning” as he walks away. This is so hilarious to me cause it’s so on point on what we have seen from XZ. He may be the calm & poised XZ to everyone but with WYB, he can act spoiled. He can demand more and be frank. The way he wants WYB/LWJ to show the kind of devotion he expects is just— why? why????? and you have WYB who will willingly spoil him and grant his every wish. ✨ A true example of XZ wanting the love WWX/LWJ have to happen to him too.

• similar “trick” of twirling a cloth by their fingers & how different they are

• revisiting the bts of XZ saying he prefers WYB with no makeup on ( he was just stating a universal truth that wyb is handsome even when he is bare faced )

• wool/felt doll cpn

• 8/25 XZS and YBO similarity

• revisiting the blurred background in ZZ’s mirror selfie 📷

• A wedding gift of t-shirts signed by the boys

• WHITE COUPLE SUITS! ☺️

• This month, I saw 2 questionable videos going around related to them. I do not endorse spreading these videos around but i can’t help that it pops up on my weibo feed and fans really have different etiquette when it comes to this. But i have to say that it should be a genera rule to not promote these proxy shooting because it’s too invasive. If they are hiding, we should not be the ones exposing them. They are already working enough as it is to keep their privacy. Please do not ask me for the video. I am mentioning it here for archiving purposes only.

One video is from WYB’s shoot of Luoyang, Lele & YanYan were assisting another guy aside from WYB with an umbrella. Why would they do that? We know the hiding by umbrella ploy was used before, like in SDC 3. So are they using the same tactic to protect this friend when he is visiting the crew?

Second one is at a hotel. Video is allegedly from a 🍤, they were more interested with XZ but they filmed WYB was also in the same hotel. XZ went in without any luggage too.

The videos are not clear at all, to the point that you can’t provide this as evidence in court that “based on this video it’s clearly wyb or xz” , so take it with a grain of salt.

• ZZ draws poker cards

• The start of everyone’s love for the AU pair Shengyang x Chen Shuo! This Sunshine couple! ☀️ These two are so passionate about their dreams, one with art and other w/ dancing. Their smiles. Their positive disposition. How can you not love them???

There is also the observation that SBMS premieres 9/1, conveniently when all the activities for Summer Movies, which includes OnO is done. This is not the first time this year that their projects were not released within the same period. It feels too much of a coincidence. This drama will be done in a month so i don’t know if WYB’s Bright Road can still squeeze in it’s airing before the year ends, tho i’m not optimistic cause drama licensing is tricky. Before LOCH gets released Spring Festival 2024. No matter what happens, All I know is BXGs are booked and busy!

• SOMEONE OPENED A WEBSITE THAT INCLUDES a very detailed timeline analysis of the BTS. If you’re into that and wanna go back & take a look then please do. It’s so interesting! Doing a day by day timeline of the BTS and events that happened, with photos and videos is tedious work so this is such a treat! 💕

-END. See you next Month!

Note : if you plan to reblog this post. Please do not tag it as “Wang Yibo” or “Xiao Zhan” because this does not belong there. It’s specifically for CP audience and tagging it on individual name will expose it to people who are not.

➡️➡️ (2023 previous posts) Jan-June / July

[erinarigby]

What I find interesting about those sketches is that Paul isn't necessarily enjoying the sexual encounter/cigarette kiss or being in John's lap but he is clearly enjoying being held and kissed by John, he's leaning into it and his eyes are closed so he can enjoy how good it feels more fully. John's eyes are also closed and he's blushing a little. The implied sexual intimacy of the cigarette kiss doesn't move Paul over much and he's already distracted by something in the 3rd sketch despite cradling John's head. but in the 2nd sketch Paul is greatly enjoys being kissed and held while they're nude together, even pressing his chest to John's while they do it.

The sketches seem to me to tell a brief story where maybe Paul is putting up with John's sexual needs so that he can get a flicker of romance from him where John kisses and holds him, and somehow he enjoys that more than cigarettes touching.

Another interesting tidbit is the implied power differential between them. Paul can supply what John wants but he can also pick up and leave (the third sketch where he seems to be already on his way out the door, at least in his mind) whenever he wants. Except Paul's expression in the lapsitting sketch strikes me as "inspired" he's seen a fresh truth or received a new chord progression from the Collective Unconscious. John inspired many people in artistic ways with sexual contact, there's a post on thedissenters of a young woman's testimonial about how spending a night with John opened her creativity, thru conversation as well as sex. Paul as the driving force of the Beatles may have received a new artistic message. Meanwhile John looks up with some resignation and longing and digs his fingers into Paul's ribcage. He's less interested in the Inspiration and wants to stay in bed with Paul to touch cigarette ends again.

It's a little 💔 because John may be receiving more emotionally from their romantic encounters than Paul does and the gap isn't closed easily. 2/2

part 1 of the ask

first off, you’re spoiling me anon. i’ve never gotten this detailed of an analysis on my art work this is making me giddy because i can explain some of my thought process behind my drawings!

your interpretation of the cigarette kiss as a sexual act, super eye opening. strangely enough i didn’t really catch onto that while i drew myself, unintentional sexual allegory there on my part? after all i do use references for my artwork and this was based on a vintage cigarette ad i found.

onto the other sketches, your interpretation is on point with how i viewed it. i mentioned in the notes and reblogs of the post my very intentional usage of stills from a brigitte bardot movie as reference.

john’s attraction and near obsession with brigitte was projected onto people he loved, like cynthia and making her dye her hair blonde. i wanted to make it seem like john was putting paul into a role of being his object of sexual desire, and i thought it would be perfect to use bardot as that symbol. (plus i really liked these poses.) bardot plays that archetype of sexually aggressive hedonistic women, so there’s the part of the power imbalance. though in your interpretation, subverted by paul craving the romantic intimacy more than the sexual. also there’s the importance of paul in that female role (this is not meant as me the artist trying to feminize paul or anything) but rather commenting on john’s objectification of paul. i was mainly thinking of his comments about paul’s only good trait and the only reason he got so far being his “pretty face” in hdys.

important to note, this isn’t commentary on lenmac irl it’s just a fictional narrative in my art inspired a bit on things in reality! this is a disclaimer for everyone that this is not an analysis on the real people, just my silly drawings :)

for anyone else who wants to let me know their interpretation on my art, the drawings are here and here

[light-blue-glazed-terracotta]

i don't know of any particular minecraft related moves from reddit re: the blackout but this is my most popular blog so i reckoned i'd pop some info in here regarding how the website works & etiquette and that

on reddit, you follow subreddits pertaining to a certain topic. on tumblr, you follow blogs and tags. people may keep their blog to a certain topic (ie this is a minecraft blog), so if you want to see minecraft content, you should follow minecraft blogs and relevant tags, such as mineblr, minecraft, modded minecraft, etc.

the way that the tag system works, you may find that you don't like the way a blog posts. you can go into settings -> content filters and put a person's url (blog name) into that, and you will no longer see their posts.

reddit is functionally based on comments. on tumblr, there are three ways of doing this: replies, reblog text and reblog tags.

replies are if you don't want the post on your dash. they will be visible in the notes section, but the original post will not appear on your blog.

reblog text is if you have something to add to a post. reblog tags are generally for commentary and reactions. for instance, on a post of a picture of a house built in mc, you might reblog with tags saying "oh wow, i really like this!". on a post with headcanons and lore, you may reblog with text adding your own theories and thoughts.

when tagging posts, using "speech marks" will bring the text within them to the front of the tags, on their own. this is stupid. to get around this, use one or two apostrophes.

block liberally, nobody gives a shit. this is a lot more person focused than reddit and if you don't vibe with a person you don't have to deal with them

uhhh that's pretty much everything i can think of that i haven't seen covered

OH. actually on here text only posts get about as much traction as pictures, unlike on reddit where they get far less attention in general

[lookingfts]

Hi, I'll preface this by saying that I'm a fan of your writing and this is not a rant at you specifically. It's something that I'm growing more and more frustrated with when navigating content/creations in the fandom (and other fandoms on here too tbh). Your posts just happened to be the ones I came across today and they provide a convenient case study into the matter.

I politely appeal for you to insert gif credit and sources in posts like these: https://www.tumblr.com/lookingfts/752534640842211328?source=share and https://www.tumblr.com/lookingfts/752585046132752384/this-ridiculous-little-man-with-his-stupid-little?source=share

From what I can tell (unsure about the s3e1 bedroom one) but the other two come from: https://www.tumblr.com/chenfordsbee/752307297817165824/kanthony-hands?source=share and https://www.tumblr.com/bakerolivia/750875519674892289/anthony-bridgerton-and-benedict?source=share

I think we all know that the inbuilt tumblr feature to embed existing gifs in posts is very broken (where it automatically credits, and links you back to the full set when you click the text/username under it), and it can be very frustrating to find the exact one you want.

But reposting them yourselves without credit is seen as very bad etiquette amongst creators, and a lot of creators will block people for this reason (to avoid said person collecting and reposting their future content), and warn their fellow creator mutuals to do so too.

Also, it makes the user experience quite annoying for some users. i.e. You see a post with a really cool gif; you swore you've seen that exact one before, you may even recognise the very specific style/coloring, OR you've not seen that scene giffed before but you've wanted to, you now really want to like/reblog the full set if you could find it. Either way; you wish you could see the whole thing from the original post. But there's no link or even an indication as to the original creator/blog it came from, so... yeah this sucks.

From your other posts you seem like a reasonable and well intentioned person, so I don't think you're setting out to be deceptive in any way (some will actually fully repost a mish mash of different sets, and caption and tag it as if it's their own creation), you just want to scream about your faves, as you should. And I'm sorry this got so so long but I think I need to make it really clear, because I assume that some of these reasons/povs/repercussions must be unknown for it to keep happening. I could go into how it affects creators in fandoms in more detail but I'm sure you can imagine and I don't want to extend the lecture (just imagine someone copying and pasting excerpts from your fan fiction, and posting it, without any citation of said fan fiction or even mention of the author).

TLDR - Please link back to the original post if you're sharing stand alone gifs, made by someone else, in your own posts. Or better yet, reblog the original post that you're downloading the images from, with your added commentary (we would actually LOVE to see it, but I do also get if you just want to pluck out one specific moment from the set).

An example:

[THAT ONE GIF FROM THAT MOMENT YOU REALLY WANT TO POST ABOUT]

GIF by @tumblrusername

Blue font to illustrate that this is a hyperlink to the original set. I just based this on the way the aforementioned broken inbuilt one is formatted, but as long as you @ the user (this pops a mention into our activity just like the inbuilt feature does so we can come scream along with you) and link the applicable post in some clear way it's all dandy and helps everyone out.

I really hope that this doesn't come across as hostile, and that you answer so it can be shared to make others more aware too.

Thank you for asking this. You're totally right - I have not been thinking about crediting gif creators, and that's something I need to learn!

I'm still very new to Tumblr and learning the ropes. I didn't really intend to post S3 gifs at all - I was keeping Kanthony photos/gifs I liked on my phone to share with friends, and eventually I realized how many I had saved, so I decided to start making posts with them, and I was simply uploading them from my phone at that point.

You see so many gifs floating around here - I didn't think closely about the time and effort that people are going through to create these gifs, and I will do better in giving them the recognition and attention they deserve. (If one of the gifs I've used is yours, please let me know and I will tag you.)

Thank you to everyone in the fandom for contributing their art, and thank you for standing up for creators.

[niobiumao3]

Havoc Marauder Interior

Someone made a post about this a while ago but apparently they de-activated so it is possibly lost to the mists of time. Here is what I put together for myself as a writing reference. Image heavy, meta heavy.

Last edit: 2023/11/03

Edits: Replaced garbage text layout with actual ship overhead. Realized the two concept art images face different directions. This likely explains the magical moving jump seats. Also added discussion of a cargo hold. Added discussion of ship dimensions (specifically length). Replaced old guesstimates with numbers from Dawn of Rebellion. Added commentary about the magical seat.

I think people under- and over-estimate the Marauder's interior potential. Given its overall size and intended use (transporting about 10-15 troops plus assorted equipment and providing air support in a forward area), there's not much room left for creature comforts.

Except the Batch aren't 10-15 people, they're 5, and the shuttle is referred to as modified numerous times. This leaves plenty of room to make assumptions and freeform. So, as to what we have actual, visual evidence for from episodes and concept art, here is a rudimentary floor plan:

An important point about the two concept art images: they do NOT face the same direction. The top image faces to the aft/back of the ship, i.e. the tailgun. The second image faces to the fore/front of the ship.

Number key:

1: We know this is where the ramp and door are located from War Mantle and Metamorphsis.

2: We know about this upper storage area from Cut and Run

3: The access to the tail gun has changed visual from TCW s07e02 and various TBB episodes.

The Magically Appearing/Disappearing Seat

In Cut and Run we have this moment with Hunter and Omega, but in most other shots each of these consoles has only one seat (eg. Tech and Echo in prior frames). I think this is actually NOT a magically appearing seat. I think it's the other console seat, because I suspect they can be moved. I base this one this shot from Replacements:

That looks like a seat with a moveable base.

Obviously this is bad design for a ship which is doing barrel rolls and what-not, so I have to assume they're magnetically locked. Even if it is the same seat, in the shots right before that one above, Omega walks up and it's not in that space. So it's almost like the scene was longer and was shortened, and we missed a few frames of her or Hunter unlocking it and moving it over.

Meta Discussions

tl;dr: I think of the Marauder as a small fishing vessel or a van-conversion RV. You can put a lot into a small space if you get creative.

Bathroom I know the writers have made weird assertions there isn't one and omg they all smell gross from no hygiene but that makes zero sense. Soldiers are constantly under stress, they're getting injured, they need to stay clean when possible or they're going to get sick and die from a systemic infection in short order. Anyone who's glanced in the general direction of military history knows this. You can argue about clone expendibility all you want but the Batch minimally qualify in that regard, being Nala Se's pet project. Can you imagine losing one of them to a staph infection because there's nowhere for them to bust out some no-rinse antimicrobial soap or get their scalp clean? I'm not saying they'll be doing photoshoots in between missions (well maybe Hunter would ) but, come on. (And are you going to tell me Mr. Sensor Sensoria is cool with doing long hauls with 4 people who don't bathe? Just, no.)

But that much aside, anyone who's ever been in an RV, a commercial airliner, or a modest-sized sea vessel knows you can cram a bathroom into a tiny space. Yes, you're going to be spinning in circles doing things, but the benefits of a spot to clean up, manage waste, and tend to injuries far outweigh any other use of that area. So regardless of what the writers say, a transport without a minimal refresher (to use the SW term) is counter to the ship's designed use. It has to be able to accommodate Wrecker, of course, but in the end it can double as storage when not in use. There is zero reason to not have one. Added to this, we now officially have a length for the Marauder, which is 30.3 meters (see below). RVs which are 1/5 of that size have bathrooms. You're going to tell me the Marauder doesn't?

If nothing else, since the TCW episodes and the beginning of S1 have pointed to them going on extended deployments with long hops between stops, they're going to need one or constantly be handling waste in much less efficient and sustainable ways.

Added to all of this, it's specifically called a modified variant of an Omicron. We're probably meant to think this means 'Tech would like to fly faster than the GAR and ship engineers think is reasonable for a shuttle' but IMO it extends to changes like this as well. So, there's a refresher in there, feel free to choose a spot. Right across from the fold out racks is a good candidate because in most imagery it's just weapons storage, and there's an entire upper-deck space which you could use for that.

Galley Definitely not one of these. The Batch are eating rations any time they're not on Kamino. You can make an argument they (and all clone units) have cook kits for improvised eating in the field; in the Batch's case I suspect that's a given, as they'd just start doing it because who's going to stop them? Additionally, the sheer amount of rations you would need to carry around to feed Wrecker would be ridiculous. (Remember when Wrecker talks about never being full in S2E13? I feel like this is an indication they did and still do, in fact, have to improvise a lot of additional caloric intake. Hunter probably thought Cut and Suu's farm was a genius idea. 'Grow your own food! Wrecker will never be hungry again! Fucking incredible.' Then Tech got the ship impounded.) I think you can argue for one being added, like with the refresher. Do they actually need those weapons racks anymore? Definitely no. But, it's not on there by default.

Beds As you can see in the concept art above, there are at least 3 racks that fold out from the wall on the port side. They're at a minimum wide enough to accommodate Wrecker, they may also be long enough for him to not need to curl up (unclear because in this shot from Bounty Lost his knees are bent and he's hugging Lula):

Three is a weird number since originally there were four of them. I figure the options here are:

The pilot/copilot/second row seats all look 100% more comfortable than the racks. We actually see Tech sleeping in one, at one point, so this has actual evidence to support it.

It's war time, they're never all asleep simultaneously. Someone is always flying the ship or on watch.

The floor is in effect the same as a rack, arguably preferable as you can't fall off it in the event Something Happens while you're out. So, one of them might actually be ON the floor sometimes.

They're not really intended to sleep on the ship for extended periods, but narratively we're lead to believe they have, many times, and needed to make adjustments to it as a result. Notice how quickly Wrecker whipped up a bed for Omega? IMO, not the first time they've done something like that--they did it for themselves first.

Cargo Hold Based on that screenshot of Omega above and the below shot from Cut and Run, the 'hold' of the ship is actually a storage area overhead, running the length of the ship. In that shot above of the rack, there are a series of yellow rungs which imply you can climb up somewhere on the port side. This is probably alternate access to that same overhead storage space.

In Cut and Run we see Echo, Omega, and Tech hide in it, coming back out from a slide-open hatch:

Given Tech's height this is probably somewhere around 1.5m high.

We can be reasonably certain the hold isn't under the ship, or at least storage there is minimal, due to a couple of things:

In all instances where the hyperdrive has been pulled, it's under the ship on the belly, and takes up a reasonable amount of space. Eg., in Retrieval, here's a bunch of stuff which has been pulled from the ship:

In instances where they're working on the ship from the outside, like in Cornered, the sides and belly never have panels open which contain empty space unless the ship's hardware have been removed to reach something:

So, the cargo hold is probably that space on the top from Cut and Run. It doesn't have much room; reasonably speaking, the area with the weapons and sleeping racks was probably a cargo hold as well, they just converted it to a more general purpose area. (So IMO this is a stronger argument for putting a commercial airliner-style bathroom in place of the weapons racks, particularly once they bail on the Empire.)

Dimensions - updated 11/3/23 Dawn of Rebellion has a Bad Batch section, and indicates the Marauder is 30.3m in length, 36.65m wide (presumably with the wings extended, and 12.41m tall (this probably includes the central stabilizer).

I will edit this to update it as we get more pictures. Since the toys that I know of have no basis the show from an internal perspective I didn't include anything from them.

Image sources:

All screencaps by me. Use at will.

Marauder underlay

Bad Batch Concept Art, Marauder Interior

[nico-di-genova]

Champagne Seconds

Summary:

Pato wins in Milwaukee, Alex lets him celebrate.

Read on Archive

It takes ages to get Pato alone, to even see the man post race one. Despite not being popular enough in the eyes of certain parties, Pato cannot seem to escape the mob of people that surround him from the moment he parks his car in the winners circle. Alex, with his measly top ten finish, doesn’t merit much in the way of interviews. He hasn’t touched the podium since Laguna Seca, hasn’t tasted the champagne from the top step in a little over two years. There is a growing hunger, a desperation, that grows harder to ignore with every race that passes. It’s seen in his driving of late, frantic and on edge and losing the carefully maintained control he has exerted for years. He’s making mistakes, it’s costing him.

There’s little that seems to satiate the need for a win, save for Pato and the glow in his eyes when he finds Alex later. He’s come fresh from the track, knocking on the door of Alex’s hotel room with a hesitancy. Given the time, Alex doesn’t blame him for exercising caution, they’ve both been exhausted – grabbing sleep where they can, and alone time with each other in even smaller quantities. The demanding nature of double headers have already kept them separate for most the weekend, Pato’s win only doubling that time spent apart.

Alex isn’t needy, but he’s thankful for the knock anyway.

“Sorry, who are you?” he asks when he opens the door, leans on the doorframe so he’s blocking Pato’s entry into the room. He’s already changed into pajamas, sweats and a grey t-shirt that comes from his Andretti days. The faded number 27 across his chest is faint, worn away from countless washes and age. Pato’s still in his track clothes, gym shorts and a black shirt that he keeps in a bag in the driver’s room.

He rolls his eyes, “Haha. Very funny.”  

“I thought so,” Alex quips, moves to allow Pato entry into his room. There’s already been enough commentary made about Pato’s fame level, his contribution to the series, Alex himself adding to the defense – but they’ve yet to talk about it in person. Pato has no plan to, if the way he brushes past Alex and brushes off the joke is any indication.

He’s barely closed and locked the door behind him before Pato’s slamming him back up against the surface of it and kissing Alex with a fervor. Alex moans, eyes going wide before fluttering closed, the taste and scent of champagne invading his senses. Pato is drenched in it, hasn’t taken a shower to wash the stuff off yet, his hair is sticky with it when Alex threads his fingers through the strands at the back of his head. He licks the taste of it from Pato’s mouth, his lips, finds himself desperate and wanting for the sharp flavor, even if it comes in the form of Pato’s seconds.

It’s been so long.

Pato’s fingers fist around the fabric of his shirt when Alex pulls away to lick a line from the base of his neck to his jaw, tasting sweat and champagne and engine exhaust all in one go. It’s like being trapped in the dirty air of the car in front of him, recycled and tainted. Alex doesn’t care, he’s learned to live off of it.

“Rossi,” Pato breathes, his name sounding like a cheer when it falls from Pato’s lips. He drinks that down too, returns to kissing Pato for the taste of his name on Pato’s tongue.

“I’m so proud of you,” Alex pants in between the frantic makeout, “So proud.”

“Wish you were there.”

Alex does too, on the podium, or getting drenched by the champagne Pato would have sprayed on the audience. Debriefs and car talk had kept him busy, ensured he couldn’t be anywhere other than the pitlane, then his own truck with the team. Now, he kisses the line of Pato’s jaw, cradles the man’s face in his hands and angles him so he can get to the soft spot just below his ear, the spot that has him turning to putty in Alex’s hands.

Pato moans, quiet, grip on Alex’s shirt tightening. His eyes are closed, dark lashes contrasting against freckled skin.

“I’ll be there next time,” He promises, licks away the traces of champagne that linger on Pato’s skin before sucking enough that he knows a mark will be left tomorrow – he’ll trace the shape of it in the morning light, his thumb working over the spot while Pato snores softly beside him.

“Promise?” The man asks, looks at Alex through his lashes, lips still parted like he’s trying to invite Alex’s tongue back into his mouth.

It’s a promise he can’t make or keep, not with the state the number 7 has been in. But there’s a raw want to the night that makes it easy for Alex to give into it all.

"You’ll be fighting me for first next time, all the way to the line.” Like the 500, where they were trading the spot back and forth for the third stint, Alex feeling the rush of the fight coursing through his veins each time he got the pass on Pato. Afterward, the feeling had faded fast, focus shifting to easing Pato through the crash of endorphins brought on by the crushing loss. Alex wants that feeling back though, wants to remember how it felt to actually be up at the front and in the fight for it all, Pato beside him.

Two races. He’s got two races.

The thought enters his mind fleetingly, anxiety at the rocky state of his future. He pushes it aside in favor of tangling his fingers in Pato’s hair, pulling the man back so his neck is exposed, so he can suck at the skin along his carotid with a new fervor. Pato might not be able to hide the mark tomorrow, it might just peak above the collar of his fireproofs. Alex can look at it in the team meeting, can know it was him who left it while Pato smirked at him like they were sharing a secret – despite the team knowing about them. Subtlety was hard where Pato was concerned, and Alex found he didn’t much care about hiding. Let them see the mark, they’d know Alex was the one who Pato had come home to. He could celebrate his win with the fans and cameras, but in the end it was Alex who was going to taste the victory on him.

He’s growing hard in his sweats.

Pato smirks against his lips, Alex can feel it. His hands settle on Alex’s hips, hold him firm against the door. Alex doesn’t forget his strength, hard to with the way Pato’s body is solid beneath his touch, but he does forget that Pato can exert said strength against him. Alex tries to thrust forward, finds Pato’s grip unforgiving. 

“You wanna blow me in the shower?” He asks, standing on tiptoes and leaning against Alex further just so he can reach his ear, so he can whisper his request and send a shiver down Alex’s spine with the suggestion. “Get down on your knees for me?”

Alex’s knees probably don’t much like the idea, but he finds it hard to care with the way Pato is slipping a finger beneath the waistband of his sweats, stroking along warm skin because Alex had forgone underwear. His dick twitches in interest.

“We have another race tomorrow,” Alex counters, tries to pretend like he cares. If he weren’t thinking with his dick he probably would, but Pato’s finger is dipping lower, toying with him.  

“Yeah, and I’ve been thinking about my cock in your mouth since I got off the podium.”

Alex chokes on his spit. “Y-yeah? Bet that made the interviews fun.”

“Sure did, thought about my cum on your face and it made things a lot better.”

It’s rare that Alex finds someone who can go toe to toe with him, which is maybe why he likes Pato so much. James is the only other person who’s maybe been able to match him, but Alex wouldn’t fuck James – not anymore, their friendship has solidified into just that. With Pato it’s something different, it’s easier, it’s filthier, it’s Pato fully slipping his hand into Alex’s pants to wrap it around his dick just to smirk at how hard he is.

“C’mon Rossi, let me cum on you, please.” He strokes his hand teasingly, slow and drawn out and still keeping one hand wrapped firmly around Alex’s hip so he stays still. “I won the race, I wanna celebrate.”

Alex groans, thunks his head back against the door. These hotel walls aren’t thick, which is why Pato is sure to keep his voice so low, but it’s making this whole ordeal ten times hotter.

“Go to the bathroom then,” he says, biting back another groan when Pato swipes a thumb over the head of his dick. He knows Pato is only waiting for the okay, for permission, because it’s late and they typically save any sex for after the weekend, but Alex can’t take the teasing much longer. He’s gonna spill in his sweats and then that’s just gonna ruin the whole night. This is his last clean pair.

“Really?” Pato asks, smiles genuinely. It’s cute and endearing and all the reasons that Alex loves him. He’d been toying with Alex, excelling at it, and now had the shocked look of someone who had not really been thinking he’d succeed – like he knows he’s hot, but isn’t really sure just how far looks would get him.

“Yes, Pato. Come on.”  

The permission is all he needs. He kisses Alex again, quick and then pulls away – already stripping out of his shirt as he does. Alex watches the line of his back, the ripple of his muscles, the way his shoulder blades shift under his skin with the movement, and then follows along after him, mouth dry, suddenly eager to be filled.

He strips out of his own clothes while Pato gets the temperature of the water right. His pants and shirt get folded and left on the sink, while Pato’s end up in a crumpled heap on the floor.

“You gonna be okay down there?” Pato asks when Alex comes to stand behind him, wrapping an arm around him and splaying a hand across the firm expanse of his abs. He kisses the top of Pato’s head, smells the sweat and tastes the champagne.

Alex eyes the tile of the shower over the top of Pato’s head, the grout lines that will probably be indented in his skin by the end of this.

He shrugs, “Yeah, just don’t take too long.”

Pato’s already hard, had been half hard from the moment he slammed Alex up against the door. Alex is very skilled with his mouth, both verbally and when he’s got something occupying it. He’s not too worried about how long it will take to get Pato off.

Pato doesn’t seem worried either, not if the way he grabs Alex by the wrist that’s resting against his stomach and eagerly pulls him into the shower is any inclination. Alex ends pressed back up against the wall, against the cool tiles, steam keeping him warm while Pato gets the majority of the spray. He needs it, needs to clean the remnants of the track from his body.

Alex watches how the water trails down his body, in rivulets, over the ridges of muscle. His hands start to follow, grabbing Pato’s waist and pulling the man to him.

“Tip your head back,” He commands, finger curling just below Pato’s chin, angling him back so his hair is getting the brunt of the water. Pato maintains eye contact with him, a challenge in his eyes. He doesn’t want to obey tonight, he wants to be the one doling out orders.

Alex supposes he’s earned it, what with the win. And with the way he’s carried himself all day, all carefully maintained professionalism, despite the fact that he’d woken Alex up earlier that morning with a string of profanity so vulgar even Alex was shocked by it. He’s been handling media, fans and IndyCar reps alike, all trying to mitigate the minefield of drama that had been laid down by an asshole just trying to pass his failures off onto Pato because he figured Pato would just take it. Alex knows Pato can take a lot of things, but this was one that he hadn’t let slide. It had inspired in Alex a certain amount of pride, to watch Pato carry himself through the pitlane with his head held high and a firm stance on the Mexico race situation when anyone asked. He would have been proud to carry the majority of the marketing, knew it would fall on him as the Mexican driver in the series, but it should never have been his alone to manage. They’d wanted him to take the blame, Pato had thrown it back in their faces and then won the race just for good measure. So yeah, Alex figured he could get down on his knees and do as he was told for the night. Pato had earned that, and more.

He drops his grip on Pato’s chin.

“Let me wash your hair?” He asks, reaches for the shampoo bottle to his left, tucked into the corner of the shower on the recessed wall. It’s the expensive stuff that Pato splurges on, the kind that costs triple what Alex’s Head and Shoulders does, bought online because it was too fancy for the likes of a Target.

Pato smiles, pleased at it being a request and not a demand, Alex ignores how the look of satisfaction has something akin to pride settling warm inside him.

“Yeah, sure.”

Alex is quick to grab the shampoo, work it into Pato’s hair with steady fingers, using a decent amount because the champagne can be a bitch to get out. The scent of the stuff is strong, sharp, invades his senses and joins the steam that’s filling the small space. Pato watches him the whole time, hands coming to rest on Alex’s hips, thumbs tracing the dip in the bone there. Alex swallows under the gaze, tries to ignore just how predatory it is, like Pato’s sizing up his prey. When it’s lathered, soap coating Alex’s hands and foamed up on Pato’s hair, Pato’s hand goes for his cock, wraps around the length of him while Alex’s hands stutter in their methodical scrubbing.

“What-ah?” he starts, cut off by Pato leaning forward to trace Alex’s nipple with his tongue.

“Keep going,” Pato demands, only giving Alex enough time to get his hands moving again before he’s sucking marks into Alex’s chest. The hand around Alex’s cock strokes, aided by the water that spills from his shoulder down his arm and adds to the slick slide. Alex’s hips jerk forward at the same time his fingers in Pato’s hair grab at the soapy strands.

Pato hisses, bites at Alex’s nipple in retaliation.

“Fuck!” Alex jumps at the sharp bite of pain.

Pato laughs, licks at the irritated skin as an apology, then moves to the other side of Alex’s chest and repeats the motion.

“Y-you’re making it really hard to actually wash your hair.”

Pato shrugs, unbothered, “Figure it out. And don’t cum.”

"Making that hard too,” Alex counters, thrusting up into Pato’s grip around him for emphasis.

Pato works his way up Alex’s chest, his neck, nipping at the stubble rough skin of his jaw and smearing shampoo across Alex’s cheek when he reaches his ear.

“You wanna be good for me, Rossi?” He teases, bites at his earlobe.

It’s rare that he gets Pato in this form, rare enough that Alex isn’t entirely used to it. He whimpers, the sound escaping him before his brain can catch up, before he can think to hold it back for appearances sake. He can feel when Pato smiles against him, the curl of his lip.

“C’mon you’re smart right? A good listener? All those notes you take during meetings, all that skill,” he strokes Alex again, “all that talent? So you can do this, can’t you?”

“Y-yes.”

“Then prove it. Don’t cum, don’t move. You’re gonna stay against this wall, wash my hair, and then you’re gonna get down on your knees and take what I give you.”

Alex can feel his knees going weak, can feel the humiliation at Pato’s words washing over him like the spray of water. He nods, swallows around the lump forming in his throat. Pato pulls away to look at him, brown eyes wide and innocent, except for the way his pupils are blown with pure want.

Alex imagines he probably looks the same. His fingers are still tangled in Pato’s hair. It would be easy to tighten his grip, pull Pato back to him, reverse their roles. But Alex doesn’t want that. He wants to win at this game, show he can obey, show he can succeed, just as much as Pato can. Pato know it too, it’s why he cups Alex’s jaw gently in his hand that’s not wrapped around Alex’s cock and leans back in on tiptoes to kiss him like a reward.

Alex whimpers against him, unprepared for the softness of it.

“You’re doing good,” Pato promises.

Alex nods, swallows, and then he keeps washing Pato’s hair with fingers that tremble. He’s not used to the floaty space Pato has pushed him into, doesn’t mind it, just finds his body isn’t as controlled as he’s used to. It’s nice, in that it means he’s not as tense, his hips don’t thrust up as much when Pato goes back to stroking his cock. He stays perfectly still against the wall, save for hands working their way through Pato’s hair.

When he’s done, Pato tips his head back beneath the water again, washes the soap away with his own hands. Alex stays against the wall, waits for Pato’s hand on his shoulder. There’s a question in the way he grips Alex, thumb pressing against his collarbone, fingers tightening around muscle of his back, the force of it brings Alex to the surface for the moment. His head clears momentarily of the fog.

“Still okay?” Pato asks.

“Mmm-Hmm.”

“Words, Alex.”

“Yes. Yeah,” Alex replies. “All good. Just wanna suck you off, man.” He’s not thinking about the amount of times he’s going to brush his teeth after, or how sore he might be come morning. He’s thinking only about how much he wants Pato’s cock in his mouth, heavy on his tongue.

Pato laughs again, loud in the small space of the shower, echoing off the steam slick walls.

“Okay, baby. Go ahead then.”

He pushes Alex down with the hand on his shoulder, and Alex sinks to the tile. His brain sinks too, back to that floaty space, where Pato’s touch is the only thing that grounds him once he’s down on his knees. He keeps a hand on the back of Alex’s head, blocks the water from the shower head with his body, so Alex isn’t getting waterboarded and yanked from the space he’s found himself in.

Pato’s thumb strokes carefully over his hair, where he’s started growing it out, not from choice but from the lack of time he has to make it to the barber. The final leg of the season is busy, even more so because he’s balancing contract negotiations with his McLaren obligations. Pato must see something in him shift, brain starting to chase that rabbit called his future, because his grip on Alex’s hair goes sharp, fingernails scratching lightly at his skull.

Alex blinks, feels the water beaded on his lashes spill down his cheeks.

“Hey, Rossi, focus,” he demands. “Look at me.”

He follows the line of Pato’s thigh, his hip, chest, all the way back up until he’s looking up at Pato with parted lips.

“Forget everything else.”

“Okay.”

“You’re here.”

“Yeah.”

“You are gonna keep your eyes on me. Nowhere else.”

Alex can feel the thud of his heart in his chest, the sweat coating his skin from the heat of the shower. He can feel his cock jump where it rests hard against his stomach. Pato sees it too, smirks.

“And keep your hands on your thighs.”

Alex obeys, splays his fingers across the exposed expanse of his skin and waits for further instruction.

“Do not touch yourself. Got it?”

“Yes.”

Pato smiles again, soft, kind, reaches a hand out to cradle Alex’s jaw again. He has to be perched up on his knees for Pato to reach him, but the position means Pato can slide his hand from his jaw, to his mouth, slipping his thumb between Alex’s parted lips.

Alex moans, nearly lets his eyes flutter closed before he remembers the rules, looks up at Pato with determination and want while the man rests his thumb on the pad of Alex’s tongue.

“There we go,” Pato praises, “pretty boy.”

Alex isn’t prepared for the pet name. It’s the type of stuff he normally reserves for Pato. It’s never been reversed onto him. The shock of it pulls a sound from him that comes out strangled and garbled by Pato’s thumb in his mouth. His hands twitch against his thighs. He can feel himself blush, feel the heat of it, something deeper than the surface level heat of the bathroom. It must be noticeable, Pato seems to catch it.

“You want my cock, pretty boy?” he teases, presses his thumb down so Alex’s mouth opens wider, so there’s spit pooling in his mouth and threatening to drip down his chin. He can’t swallow it back down, not with the way Pato is holding his jaw open.  

Instead, he looks up at Pato and garbles out something that he hopes conveys his answer, feels the blush worsen, feels tears prick at the corners of his eyes from the humiliation. Pato would stop if he gave any indication he wanted this to, if he pulled back Pato would let him go. Instead, when Pato wraps a hand around his own cock, Alex leans forward to take it.

He hasn’t done this in a while, so Pato is careful with him, doesn’t force Alex down, just keeps a hand on the back of his head like a threat. Part of him wishes he’d be brutal with it, choke Alex on cock so his throat was still raw come morning. When he tried to speak his voice would rasp, throat burning with effort. It’d give him an excuse for staying silent on the radio, for skipping out on interviews. But Pato is exceedingly gentle, lets Alex take his time.

He licks the head, testing. It’s humiliating having to look up at Pato as he does it, makes him feel incompetent. Pato still doesn’t press him, doesn’t seem to show he cares at all. His thumb tracks a soothing path along Alex’s skull.

Pato teases his cock along Alex’s bottom lip, coats it in precum. Alex opens his mouth wider in response. His tongue pokes out just enough to be teasing, and with the eye contact he’s maintaining, he imagines he probably looks pretty debauched already. It’s easy to see why Pato likes this position so much, there’s power here that Alex had forgotten.

Pato’s eyes darken, his grip on the back of Alex’s head tightens, but he doesn’t thrust forward when Alex wraps his lips around his dick, licks along the underside, following the vein with his tongue. He takes only what Alex is willing to give him, Alex working himself halfway down Pato’s decently sized cock until he’s pulling off for air.

“You can’t take me all the way, Rossi?” Pato teases, only enough that he can watch the blush spread across Alex’s cheeks. He traces a finger along Alex’s jaw, featherlight and mockingly sympathetic.

Alex’s hands on his legs clench, fingers digging into the muscle of his thigh.  

In answer, Alex leans back forward, takes Pato down again, makes it a little past halfway before he gags on it. The sound seems to echo off the tiles. When he pulls away again a thread of spit follows, Pato watches it, eyes going wide. Alex watches his reaction, doing as he was instructed and not looking anywhere else. He can feel when the spit lands cool and stringy against his chin, drips down the fever hot skin of his neck. The steam from the shower and his own embarrassment are making the temperature feel worse than it is.

“Do that again,” Pato demands, hand cupping the back of his skull and finally pulling him forward. Alex goes, willingly, pliantly, gags himself on Pato’s cock and then keeps going. His eyes flutter closed for only a second when he reaches the base. There’s nails pressing into the base of his neck to remind him.

“Look at me, baby.”

From this angle, looking up the broad expanse of Pato, the ridges of his abdomen and the shape of his chest, Alex feels his mouth go dry. He swallows on impulse, just to give his throat something to do, feeling the weight of Pato on his tongue and going deeper. Knowing how it feels when the roles are reversed, when Pato swallows around his dick and the tight wet heat of him constricts, he’s prepared for the reaction it has on the man. Pato groans, head falling back, both hands wrapping around the back of Alex’s head and holding him down. His fingers scrabble for purchase, seeking out hair to pull, finding only short tufts. Alex smirks as much as he can, given the preoccupied state of his mouth. There’s nothing for Pato to grab onto, save for his own fingers when he entwines them, no way for him to set the pace. He can only take what Alex is willing to give him. Which, lucky for him, is a lot.

He sets a steady pace, chokes himself when Pato refuses to do it for him. The burn of tears in the corners of his eyes is like a release. When they fall, they mix with the water from the shower, the sweat beading down his face from his temples. He knows his eyes are glassy when he looks up at Pato, red-rimmed, shining like the spit that slicks his chin and slides down his body to the drain.

Pato wipes them away when he realizes, brushes the tears away with the pad of his thumb when Alex pulls off and then pushes him back down with an unyielding grip. Alex goes, gags again. The breath he draws in from his nose is ragged, uneven, it matches the frantic beat of his heart. He can hardly hear the praise that falls from Pato’s lips above him, too distracted by the sound of his own breathing loud in his ears.

“So good,” Pato pants, “So good, Rossi. You’re-fuck.”

Alex knows he close, can feel it in the way Pato’s cock jumps when he licks along the vein again. Part of him wants to say fuck it, suck Pato down to the hilt and swallow what he can when Pato spills down his throat. The other part of him, the part that hasn’t moved his hands to touch his own hard and leaking cock, knows tonight isn’t about him.

“Rossi,” Pato whines, like a warning.

Alex pulls away, mourns the loss of the shape of Pato down his throat only long enough to breathe in a  few shaky breaths, before Pato’s fisting a hand around his dick and finishing. He keeps one hand on Rossi’s chin, angling his head up, despite the fact that Alex would have been obedient enough to do it himself. With his other, he holds his twitching dick steady.

Alex closes his eyes then, soaks in the sound of Pato’s arcing voice when he comes. Alex’s name falls from his lips like a prayer, like a celebration, and then his cum is streaking across Alex’s face  like the champagne spray he hadn’t gotten. Alex feels it, tastes the bitter taste of it when some spills across his open mouth, his tongue.

“Jesus,” Pato pants when he’s done, when his breath has stopped hitching with each tiny noise of release that had escaped him. Alex can feel the cum where it’s streaked across his cheek, his eyelashes, doesn’t open his eyes because he knows he can’t. He jumps slightly when Pato’s grip on him shifts, his chin released and a warm palm cupping his jaw. Alex leans into the touch, lips still parted and breath ghosting warm over Pato’s thumb when the man traces the shape of his mouth.

“Pretty boy,” Pato praises.

Alex keens, hates how proud he feels at the words.

"Go ahead. You can touch yourself, baby,” Pato grants.

Alex listens, the death grip he’d been keeping on his thighs releasing, hand immediately going for his aching cock. It doesn’t take him long to cum, aided by Pato’s index and pointer finger slipping into his mouth and giving him something to suck, humiliating him further. He spills across his own hand. The water from the showerhead rinses any remnant of his release down the drain.

Afterward, Pato cleans him, takes a washrag warm with water and wipes the mess clear from his face. He blinks his eyes open slowly, the blurriness from having them closed for so long taking a moment to clear. He finds Pato on his knees in front of him, close enough that Alex can see the constellation of freckles dotting his cheeks, along with the beads of water on his lashes.

“All good?” He asks, swipes the washrag across Alex’s cheek. It smells like the bar of hotel soap, clean.

Alex nods, swallows. His throat hurts only slightly, voice rasping a little when he speaks.

“Uh-huh,” he winces.

Pato looks momentarily sympathetic, worried.

“I’m okay. Just- just need a minute.”

His head is still in that floaty place, body still not feeling entirely his. His fingers, when they wrap around Pato’s wrist are numb.

Pato seems to understand, probably does, Alex has eased him back into himself enough times to know how he must look right now. Dilated pupils, spit slick lips and an air of detachment in the way he looks around.

“You did so good,” Pato says, kisses Alex’s cheek that he’s just wiped clean.

Alex feels his breath shudder.

He operates on autopilot as Pato eases him to his feet. A towel’s wrapped around his waist, he holds it up as Pato uses another to dry his hair and upper body. Alex doesn’t miss the way he’s careful around his chest, patting the area dry to not upset the already steady forming hickeys any further. Come morning they’ll be dark, now they’re just tender, pink in the dimmed light from the bathroom.  Pato kisses each one  as he goes, works his way up Alex’s neck until he reaches his mouth.

When he kisses him, it’s with all the tenderness he lacked when he’d slammed Alex up against the hotel door. He tastes like the champagne still, the barest hint of it, and something sweet – like icing. Alex chases the taste of it, until Pato’s hand on his chest stops him, pushes him back.

“Clothes,” he orders, offers Alex his shirt that had been carefully folded on the sink, his pants after that. In between Alex getting dressed and brushing his teeth, Pato rewards him with a kiss, a praise, a touch that’s featherlight on his skin and feels more heightened than usual. Alex lets himself be taken care of, up until they’re crawling into the bed and the change in location clears his head further.

“I’m glad you won today,” he says, when Pato’s curled up against him, head resting on his chest while Alex lays on his back and stares up at the shadows cast by the streetlights outside. There’s a tree just outside the window, it’s branches dancing in the slight breeze, reflected in the dark mass of writhing movement on the ceiling.

Pato shifts against him, his hand that is splayed across Alex’s chest curls, fingers resting over the faded number 27 of his Andretti shirt. Alex doesn’t look down at him, but he can tell Pato’s moved so he can look up at Alex. He can smell the sharp scent of the mint toothpaste they had shared, Pato splurged on a fancier brand, but he’d forgotten it back at Alex’s house in Indiana, been reduced to Colgate instead.

“Yeah, me too,” he admits, “Fucking worked my ass off for it.”

“You earned it,” Alex agrees. His arm is trapped beneath Pato, sure to be sending pins and needles through him soon, but for now he’s content to wrap it around the man, slide his hand in a repetitive pattern along the ridges of his spine. Pato makes a sound not unlike that of a contented cat as he curls closer to Alex.

“More than a billboard?” Pato asks, laughs to himself.

Alex scoffs, “Fuck yeah, way more than a billboard.”

He knows Pato is still hurt, but that’s a conversation for another day. For now, he’s a winner, fresh off the top step and still wearing the shine of a man christened in wine and bathed clean again.

“You’ll be up there again soon, too,” Pato mumbles, when the silence has stretched on for so long that Alex had thought he might have gone to sleep.

Alex feels his jaw tick, feels the pang of failure register low in his gut. He shoves it down in favor of remembering Pato’s fingers in his mouth, the praise he’d been showered in. It’s not the same, never will be, but it’s enough. Not that Alex would ever say that out loud, because he still does very much want to win.

Two races left.

Alex will make one of them work, and when he does, he wants Pato on the podium with him. He’s tired of champagne seconds, wants to feel the rain of the stuff on his skin fresh and undiluted. He wants Pato to be the one holding the bottle.

"You're gonna be beside me," Alex says, nuzzles close to Pato so he's inhaling the scent of his too strong shampoo, kissing the crown of his head. 

Pato sighs, content and sated and happy, "Always." 

[burberrycanary]

Hi there! I am about midway through reading your story Lost Vocabularies and it is amazing!! The whole series has been so lovely, I’m obsessed with the way you write! The way that you convey the boys complicated emotions and capture all the little nuances of their dynamic has me feral!! Beyond even them the way you inject so much personality into the locations is so good, I feel like I am there!! So thank you for writing this lovely story 💕 I was wondering if you happen to have a list of all the books that Bucky and Steve read? I have been looking up a lot of them and adding them to my to read list bc they sound so interesting lol! On that same note, how did you decide what books to mention? Are they all ones that you have read or did you do research to find ones you thought they would like?

I’ve been coming back and rereading this kind and wonderful comment in my inbox over the last few weeks when way too many massive, stressful, time-sensitive things were all happening at once. 💕 But since I have a little breather between crazy periods, I get to dive in here as a treat.

Lost Vocabularies involved a lot of research, which I hope isn’t apparent because I didn’t want there to be any noticeable difference between the parts of the story that are based on places I’d been, foods I’d tried and books I’d read personally—and what was created purely based on research. Fingers crossed that the seams don't show!

In this series, we see both Steve and Bucky use art to process—helping them understand themselves and connect to the world again. Bucky is drawn to stories while Steve as an artist is much more visual, but the underlying impulse is similar. In the same way that you learn a lot by glancing through someone’s bookshelves, what characters read is interesting to me, and revealing. This version of Bucky is a very private person so these books offer a glimpse into his inner life. And as the POV character we get to experience all these things alongside Steve.

I’m not much of a sci-fi or fantasy reader so some of Bucky’s picks were a real challenge for me. But I wanted these to be grounded in the characters and the storytelling functions, not based on my own taste and opinions, though of course those always bleed through. 

Steve’s Reading List

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Alice Neel: People Come First by Kelly Baum and Randall Griffey

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft

The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston, edited by Ann J. Abadie

One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965 by Jia Lynn Yang

Bucky’s Reading List

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard Feynman

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Six Not-So-Easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time by Richard Feynman

Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos by Steven H. Strogatz

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

I’ve included some notes and commentary on why I picked each of these works under the cut.

The Same River, Twice (The Man Is Still Left with His Hands)

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Classic post-WWII dystopian sci-fi that focuses on society collapsing after a series of catastrophes that were unintentional but very much caused by people, which leads to a lot of the population becoming blind. Thematically this work engages with the loss of identity that people, both abled and disabled, face in the process of survival and a dark look at what happens after societies break down. How this applies to Bucky is obvious, but part of the argument of this post-Endgame series is that it applies to Steve, too. 

Also, there are huge mobile carnivorous plants. 

Fun fact: the opening of this novel is said to have been the inspiration for 28 Days Later!

Still Left with the River (The Paradox of Motion)

Alice Neel: People Come First by Kelly Baum and Randall Griffey

Alice Neel’s portraits are extraordinary, almost unnervingly vivid. In this story, Steve is familiar with her work as a fellow New York-based artist active in communist circles in the 1930s. She also worked for the WPA, producing wonderful street scenes that documented New York neighborhoods of the era. 

To be honest, I have so many questions about what Steve was up to in the late 1930s before his war mania of the 40s hits.

One of the core themes of this series is Steve struggling with what his body is for if it’s no longer for violence. Who is he if he’s not a soldier? What is his radically changed body if it’s not a weapon? How do you come home from the war?

In this regard, Steve and Bucky have all kinds of shared life experience.

So thematically I include Neel because of her startling gift for capturing personalities and bodies through a process of frank, earnest, truthful observation of the integrated completeness of body and self: this space that’s you. 

But a book of Alice Neel’s work with her sensitive portraits and fleshy frank nudes pulls him into flipping through page after page of these personalities and bodies, not idealized: seen.

Steve isn’t ready for that when he bumps into this big “impractical” art book in a holdover Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn, not when he’s still so shook up and adrift. But he will be.

There’s such empathy and radical humanism to her pieces. “People,” as she famously said, “come first.” I stand by the conclusion that Steve would love her work.

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft was relatively unknown in his lifetime—he died in 1937—but his stories were published in popular fantasy pulp magazines like Weird Tales and Astounding Stories, which is where Bucky would have come across his work. The fact that Steve recognizes Lovecraft by name means that teenage Bucky must have talked about what he was reading and the pulp stories he liked with teenage Steve, which is adorable—“this Lovecraft fellow, Steve, you wouldn’t believe the stuff he comes up with.” And Steve was paying attention enough to remember two decades and change later without the benefit of his serum-enhanced memory, which hurts my heart a little in the best possible way. 

That’s how Steve all these years and decades later is able to wordlessly toss this collection of H. P. Lovecraft’s stories at Bucky on a hot hazy stumbled-upon beach in northern Florida and watch Bucky’s whole face light up. 

And of course Bucky would view Lovecraft as a great beach read 😂

But this is the basis for something I’ve written into this series: Bucky excitedly sharing things he finds interesting with Steve—wanting to tell Steve first, Steve most. And although Steve is quiet, stoical and very self-contained, he’s paying a whole hell of a lot of attention.

Given that Bucky is canonically a Tolkien fan, I think the imaginativeness and ranging scope of Lovecraft’s complex, often interconnected stories would appeal to him. And, thematically, Lovecraft is distinctive for the era for having characters psychologically fragment when confronting these vast inhuman others. 

“The Call of Cthulhu” opens with:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.

Steve and Bucky have each voyaged out a long way.

Trauma, in a way, is a form of terrible knowledge. You can heal but you can’t unknow things. 

Not Language but a Map (The Grammar of Sensation)

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

This is the first book in the series that we see Bucky pick for himself. And, wow, he picks a doozy with themes of multiple and unstable identities, invasive surveillance, manipulation, psychosis, and how individuals can get chewed up by larger systems, falling through the cracks of society. Dick was writing based on his own troubled experiences with southern California drug culture of the early 70s, but this work gets at much more fundamental darknesses that I think would speak to some of the horrors Bucky has gone through and won’t talk about, not even with Steve. 

Within the first few pages, we get this:

It was midday, in June of 1994. In California, in a tract area of cheap but durable plastic houses, long ago vacated by the straights. Jerry had at an earlier date sprayed metal paint over all the windows, though, to keep out the light; the illumination for the room came from a pole lamp into which he had screwed nothing but spot lamps, which shone day and night, so as to abolish time for him and his friends. He liked that; he liked to get rid of time. By doing that he could concentrate on important things without interruption.

The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston, edited by Ann J. Abadie

Eggleston was an early pioneer in color photography and that fascination with color is very apparent in his work. I think this focus would grab Steve as an artist who doesn’t take seeing the full spectrum of color for granted. Even in the MCU’s thin action-film scripts, Steve comments on things that offend his aesthetic sensibilities even when that has absolutely no bearing on the situation at hand, from Stark Tower to Lang’s van.

Not even a world-ending crisis can keep Steve from going, wow, no, that’s ugly. I enjoyed running with that 😂

Steve’s view of Eggleston’s photographs shifts over the course of the series, reflecting what he’s feeling, from the fragmented and disconnected detachment—“isolated and off-kilter”— that he sees in them at the beginning that shifts to the passionate engagement in the world he finds in them later. 

Steve looks through the whole book of William Eggleston’s photographs again and at first the colors still roll over him like the shockwave of a distant explosion, all he can focus on. But gradually the subjects and compositions pull forward, too: monumentalized images of the everyday that at first seem neutral, the work of a detached observer. But the off-center framing of ordinary life is so deliberate as though everything might be important and where every detail deserves attention—that’s nothing like neutral. That’s not detached at all. You have to care a whole hell of a lot.

This mirrors the journey this post-Endgame Steve goes on. Because Steve Rogers should be a character who cares a whole hell of a lot, not what the MCU writers eventually reduced him to. And that’s what this fix-it is trying to fix. 

Lost Vocabularies that Might Express (The Memory of These Broken Impressions)

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard Feynman

I love writing Bucky as a big fucking science nerd. His last night in New York and how does he want to spend the time? At a science fair with his best friend and a couple of pretty girls. So Bucky reading about quantum electrodynamics is delightful to me. The thing is, though, Bucky is a bright enough guy with a high school education. He’s not a genius—and the MCU is lousy with geniuses. But if Bucky wanted to learn a little more about all this quantum stuff he heard about in passing during some vague and very improbable sounding explanations, which by the way also allowed one of the few people still living who truly matters to him and the closest thing Bucky had left to family to fuck off to the past, well, Feynman’s QED isn’t a bad place to start in understanding some of this quantum stuff, at least. 

Feynman here is very much writing for a popular audience. His writing is conversational—the book is adapted from a set of lectures he gave—and his voice is witty, casual and surprisingly light, but at the same time Feynman is deeply invested in helping lay people understand quantum mechanics. The book opens with:

Alix Mautner was very curious about physics and often asked me to explain things to her. I would do all right, just as I do with a group of students at Caltech that come to me for an hour on Thursdays, but eventually I’d fail at what is to me the most interesting part: We would always get hung up on the crazy ideas of quantum mechanics. I told her I couldn’t explain these ideas in an hour or an evening—it would take a long time—but I promised her that someday I’d prepare a set of lectures on the subject.

I prepared some lectures, and I went to New Zealand to try them out—because New Zealand is far enough away that if they weren’t successful, it would be all right! Well, the people in New Zealand thought they were okay, so I guess they’re okay—at least for New Zealand! So here are the lectures I really prepared for Alix, but unfortunately I can’t tell them to her directly, now.

C’mon! Tell me Bucky Barnes would not be hooked by this opening. 

Thematically, and more seriously, the question of how could Steve do this? has two very different meanings. So far in this series Bucky isn’t ready to confront the harder version of that question which comes potentially with some very painful answers: how could Steve make that choice? Nope, he’s not ready for that. Instead, his brain unconsciously takes the easier way out: trying to understand quantum electrodynamics. 😂😭

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Bucky must have liked A Scanner Darkly, because he went for another Philip K. Dick novel. Today remembered mostly as the source material for Blade Runner, this bleak dystopian novel is set in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear war that destroys most life on Earth. The work has themes around empathy—who feels empathy and for what?—materialism and what really makes us human. 

I find it interesting how Sebastian Stan talks about The Winter Soldier in terms of someone who has undergone a process of total desensitization, which to varying degrees is deliberately part of the training of all soldiers. But rebuilding his core sense of empathy was one of the things Bucky chose to do as soon as he had any agency in that two-year period where he was on the run, which is remarkable. As a person who has been treated as though he wasn’t human and had his empathy forcibly stripped from him, I think Bucky would have a lot of complicated feelings about the enslaved androids who escape but are ruthlessly tracked down and killed. Some of these escaped androids are dangerous and do lack basic empathy—shown in the book by torturing and mutilating an animal—while other androids seem like ordinary people just trying to live their lives. 

I like that Bucky talks about the book with Steve later in the story, returning in my view to a very old habit of bookworm Bucky wanting to share what he’d been reading with Steve <333

“I need to find something to read next,” Bucky says after wrapping up his description of an imagined religion that involved plugging into a box to virtually suffer the existence of a man forever walking up a steep hill while struck by crashing stones. 

“Well, did the androids dream of electric sheep?” Steve asks.

“Who knows?” Bucky knocks into him gently as he takes the bowl Steve passes over. “They just wanted to be free. Though the free people just wanted to own stuff or plug into a box and suffer. So, you know, sort of a grim outlook. ”

“A little light, cheerful reading.”

“Hey, we live in a world where people write ‘Take back what’s yours’ in the streets and then smash up the windows. Dystopias don’t seem so far off the mark.”

Six Not-So-Easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time by Richard Feynman

Another case of Bucky sticking with an author he likes! To me, this implies that Bucky has already read Feynman’s Six Easy Pieces, which explains some of the foundational basics of physics for a very broad and non-technical audience. Six Not-So-Easy Pieces is also drawn from Feynman’s famous Lectures on Physics, focusing here on relativity and space-time, but this work assumes a greater knowledge of math, hence the name. But as a legendary sniper Bucky must have a strong aptitude for math and anyway I just leaned into making Bucky an all-around nerd, because Bucky Barnes, nerd who grew up hot, is delightful to me. 

Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time are all on point for a post-Endgame fix-it, which I think should count as a not-so-easy piece in its own right. 

Throughout the series, we see Bucky using physical copies when he reads fiction, more or less from unconscious nostalgia: connecting back to memories of his younger self who was an avid reader of pulp magazines and cheap paperbacks. Once Steve gets him going with that first quietly tossed-over gift, Bucky always carries around a sci-fi or fantasy book in this series despite the limited space in his backpack. And this familiarity wouldn’t just be from his pre-war life since I figure Bucky would have gone for the Armed Services Editions that were distributed for free to soldiers. Bucky likely traded with other soldiers once he finished a book if he couldn’t get a new ASE distribution: trading in his finished novel for a new one is Bucky unconsciously falling back into another old habit.

But for non-fiction, Bucky is absolutely here for the Modern Marvel of being able to carry around as many books as he likes on his phone. I figure Bucky would have used public libraries during certain stages of his recovery when he was homeless and migratory since they are a place to get information that is consistently available in cities; and a warm, quiet place you can go with a minimal number of security cameras. I headcanon a middle-aged librarian who has a few streaks of gray in her dark hair—and who reminds Bucky of someone but he has no idea who—explaining what e-books are to this tall, gaunt, soft-spoken homeless guy with an eye contact problem. And this person who isn’t the Asset anymore and isn’t Bucky Barnes yet has the out-of-nowhere thought: huh, whaddaya know. That’s pretty neat.

Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: With Applications To Physics, Biology, Chemistry, And Engineering by Steven H. Strogatz

Isolated systems tend to evolve towards a single equilibrium and these equilibrium points have been the focus of many-body research for centuries. But life is generally not that simple because most systems aren’t isolated. Often the dynamics of a system result from the product of multiple different interacting forces and objects in these systems can change between multiple different attractor wells over time. Or as Strogatz puts it:

As we’ve mentioned earlier, most nonlinear systems are impossible to solve analytically. Why are nonlinear systems so much harder to analyze than linear ones? The essential difference is that linear systems can be broken down into parts. Then each part can be solved separately and finally recombined to get the answer. This idea allows a fantastic simplification of complex problems, and underlies such methods as normal modes, Laplace transforms, superposition arguments, and Fourier analysis. In this sense, a linear system is precisely equal to the sum of its parts.

But many things in nature don’t act this way. Whenever parts of a system interfere, or cooperate, or compete, there are nonlinear interactions going on. Most of everyday life is nonlinear, and the principle of superposition fails spectacularly. 

You can think of nonlinear dynamics as situations in which the sum of the parts is insufficient to understand the whole. This connects to multiple themes in this story as Bucky and Steve try to understand themselves, their lives and each other. But here Bucky is also just continuing to live his best life as a nerd with a strong intuitive knack for math, a high school education, an internet connection and a growing collection of science e-books. Or as Bucky puts it:

“It’s nice, though, like this smart guy is just talking to you but doesn’t assume you’re dumb because of what you don’t know.”

It’s touched on only very lightly in the series so far, but Bucky has a lot of complex feelings about higher education that relate to class, indirectly to sexuality, and go back to the experience of being the son of upwardly mobile working-class immigrants who were very bought-in on a traditional take on the American Dream.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

I picked this partly because I thought the title would grab Bucky, who has been a stranger in a strange land several times over. Thematically this midcentury sci-fi novel focuses on challenging social norms through having the main character, a human who’d been raised by Martians on Mars, come back to Earth as an adult. A best-seller in its day that was controversial for its rejection of Christianity, monogamy and the nuclear family, the work is very tied to the looming cultural changes of the 60s and 70s. 

The novel’s critical reputation has been steadily in decline for decades, but I think Bucky would find it interesting since he grew up within the traditional early 20th-century culture this novel satirizes and challenges—mores that this story’s version of Bucky didn’t unquestioningly accept but didn’t openly challenge, either.

Having Bucky pick this novel reflects the themes for the last act of this story that focus more on Steve and Bucky's different experiences as closeted queer men growing up in a deeply homophobic society. These experiences continue to shape and impact them and yet are also a past these two are coming to terms with and growing beyond. 

Fun fact: this novel coined the word “grok.”

One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965 by Jia Lynn Yang

Of all the books featured in this series, One Mighty and Irresistible Tide is my top recommendation. This is an accessible, well-written history of a topic that haunts American history: immigration. The specific focus is the waves of legislation passed in the first half of the 20th century that tried—and often succeeded—in limiting who could legally immigrate based on the racial and ethnic hierarchies that equally haunt American history, right down to the foundation. 

In this series, I wanted to pick up the themes of social justice and immigration that were so vaguely and incoherently included in TFATWS. These themes are inherent in the Snap and Return plotline except that Disney does not want to touch any of these politics with a ten-foot pole. But I remain fascinated by trying to wrap my mind around what it would mean for half the population to vanish and then return five years later, catastrophically in both cases. It’s a huge, intricate, sticky, difficult world-building problem that’s inescapably political. 

Steve isn’t quite ready to dive into facing or helping to fix the problems of the post-Return world that his actions helped to create. But here we get to see Steve’s burned-out passion and conviction slowly rekindle as he reads about the complicated and often ugly history of American immigration—and he gets mad about it. Of course, he gets mad about it! This is my answer to the ludicrous idea that Steve Rogers could quietly sit out the second half of the twentieth century. 

At the same time, I can have compassion for Steve knowing he can’t keep going but not knowing how to help himself, only to be given the cursed monkey’s paw of time travel. And he fucks up. His actions have real and lasting consequences. But that doesn’t make the situation hopeless or mean Steve can’t try to repair the relationships he damaged or work to regain the trust he lost, assuming he’s lucky enough to be given another chance by people who love him but have been hurt by his choices.

One of the greatest challenges in writing this Endgame fix-it was accepting Endgame as the starting point of the story and trying to reconcile a character I love with the choices canon has him make. Over the course of these stories, the central point isn’t Steve coming back to Bucky. It’s Steve coming back to himself. Through a slow and painful struggle, Steve finds himself again—rediscovering his stubborn endurance, his compassion for others and his drive to set wrongs right. Steve stumbled, badly, but he gets back up. Because that’s who Steve Rogers is. 

And because of who Bucky Barnes is—his innate kindness, his warm-hearted generosity and his stubborn loyalty that isn’t blind but runs deep—that’s how these two characters come back to each other, after everything.

Deliberately, this series is the first hard-fought and hopeful glimmer in a long trudging process that can get so heavy to carry forward, day after day, but is shot through with moments of beauty and joy all the same. 

I can't go on; I'll go on.

In other words, to quote one of my favorite poets: what the living do.

[wild-karrde]

NEW WEEK, NEW RECS! START SENDING YOUR FAVORITE FANDOM CREATIONS FROM THIS WEEK IN FOR ME TO QUEUE UP FOR FRIDAY!

The goal of Fandom Friday: provide a place where people can shout-out their favorite creators from the week, whether it’s a piece of fan art that made you smile or a fanfic that moved you. Drop a link to your favorite creations this week into my ask box along with what you loved about it, and I will give them a shout! It doesn’t have to be Star Wars either! If it’s on another website (AO3, Twitter, etc.), please be sure to state that as well.

This happens each week, so don’t feel like you’ve got to get out everything in one week. Just keep track of them throughout the week or send me an ask whenever you find something, and I’ll drop them all on Fridays (or throughout the weekend if I get a lot). You may submit for this week until THURSDAY MORNING (I’m in the Pacific timezone). Anything received after that will roll to the next week. A summary of the weeks’ recs will get added onto this post on Saturday, so check back here for all of the awesome fics and art! And be sure to go give the creations on that list some love (and don’t just share the ask responses I put out).

This week’s submissions will start posting on Friday, October 6 13.

Rules and additional details under the cut! PLEASE make sure you read the rules before sending something in. If your submission violates any of the rules, I will delete it.

Rules:

Please send submissions to my ask box (sending them all to one place makes wrangling them easier each week). In your ask, please include the creator’s handle, a link to their work/post (if links aren’t working for the ask, please DM me them), and what you loved about it!

Please ensure the link is to the creator’s original post and not your own reblog or repost of their work (if they’re on another platform). The idea is to drive people to visit the creator’s page!

The creation does not have to have been posted this week! It can be something older. Also, don’t worry about whether or not a rec is a repeat from a prior week. Just looking to celebrate things that made an impression on you this week, whether you’ve seen it before or not!

NSFW is alright! Just make sure you note it in the ask so I can flag appropriately! Since I’m including 18+ material, minors may not participate. 18+ posts will be tagged with NSFT/lemon/lemony lemon (trying to cover all my bases).

NO incest, underage, cl*necest, master/padawan (or similar power dynamics), dub-con/non-con/rape. Also, no H*rry Potter. There are a few others that I also won’t share due to my discomfort with them (i.e., R*xsoka), so if you’re not sure, ask. Also, many of you submit multiple works at once, and that’s fine, but if one of those works contains something that violates the rules, I will delete the entire ask, so something to be extra careful about when submitting!

If your rec involves spoilers from a show that’s currently running, please include that info in the ask so I can tag it appropriately (I will normally tag a few different ways, but I always use #&lt;show title> spoilers if you need to filter, for example: Andor spoilerswill be tagged #Andor Spoilers). I will stop tagging spoilers two weeks after the show stops airing.

You can submit GIF sets or edits, but please ensure you are submitting from the blog that actually created them. Wanted to add that caution since there’s been a lot of people stealing/reposting GIFs and edits in particular recently. So just be cautious.

Try to avoid commentary in your ask that might make others feel bad (“the only person who knows how to write XXX correctly…”). It’s important to be able to appreciate creators without making others feel bad, so let’s try to keep the commentary complimentary without being off-putting for other creators.

Self recommendations are allowed and encouraged! Shout out your own hard work! You deserve the recognition!

*Rules subject to change so PLEASE make sure you read them before sending something in. If your submission violates any of the rules, I will delete it.

**If you have any questions about any of the rules, don’t hesitate to DM me!In addition to sending me asks, I highly encourage you to go either leave a comment on and/or reblog someone’s work (tag me or use the #Fandom Friday tag if you do!). Let’s get the interaction back up on this website and show the creators that work so hard on their stuff some love!