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animecreator3000 · 3 years

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About the Boueibu iceberg

@delphoxqueen asked me to explain about my list for the iceberg so here it is. I might update this from time to time with links and stuff if I stumble across the original posts. This is all from what I know so feel free to add new info. Also, spoiler warning for RobiHachi and the Boueibu manga and novels. (This is like a masterpost it’s very long)

1. There’s a theory in tumblr about which decade the series is set in, using data like the friday the 13th calendar in s2 ep11. In HK we got a second number for when the next monthly Pretty Boy Contest was happening and using the one from Love it was theorized that around a decade had passed since then, which ended up being true.

2. The stage play had a few original songs and characters exclusive to it so unless you watched the full performance, you probably weren’t able to witness all of them. One of the characters is called “Robato Deniro”, as romanized in the stage play booklet I own.

3. The nurse and the cafeteria staff from the s1 mobile game appear in the background in around the first half of s2 ep3.

4. S2 had an unfinished manga that was only available online and was never released on physical format; it was centered around the defense club and sometimes the conquest club and Beppu brothers. All that’s left from what I know are the scans linked on magicalgirlsandcerulean’s blog.

5. This isn’t that obscure because it’s talked about in the anime, but I’m mentioning it because I think many people dropped it before the ova, where right at the beginning it is revealed that the alien that resucitated Mr. Tawarayama twice was, as described by Io, a “mulberry-colored naked mole rat-looking thing”, and was nicknamed “Moley-san” by Yumoto. At least in the anime, we had never heard before of who this was and it never appeared on screen nor was mentioned again.

6. In HK ep8, Karurusu promises the knights to grant a wish if they show him how earthlings spend summer. Kyoutarou reveals at the end of the episode that he wished that summer lasted one more day so he could spend it doing nothing, which prompts Ichiro to theorize that it’s the 32nd of august, and the next day is the second 1st of september.

7. The stage play was was held from march 10th to 13rd, of which the latter is Ryuu’s birthday. There’s an additional recording of a small celebration with cake focused on Ryuu and Io.

8. Atsushi mentions his older sister in the flashback at the beginning of s1 ep4, but she never appears or is mentioned again.

9. There’s a few posts on tumblr theorizing about what happened to the Hakone parents since Yumoto only says in s2 ep3 that according to Gora, “they are busy with their hot springs tour”. En mentions that it’s a bit suspicious, but it’s all the information we have from the anime. Posts talk about the parents perhaps passing away from an accident or an illness, thus the reason why Gora was so worried about Yumoto’s cold in s1 ep10, but from another post I think it’s implied in the second novel that they actually left their home when Yumoto was still a toddler.

10. It’s no secret that the surnames of the characters are all real onsens in Japan that even the seiyuus have visited, but apparently the Arima onsen has two different kinds of water, “kinsen (gold hot spring)” and “ginsen (silver hot spring)”, with different properties each, and the Kusatsu onsen water also has certain properties, both that were used to build the characters. Additionally, Ryuu’s favorite food are Sato Nishiki cherries, which are grown in the same prefecture, Yamagata, as his onsen, Zaou.

11. The press club lose relevance after s1, with only Kinosaki and Tazawa reappearing briefly in s2 ep2 to interview the Beppu twins after they arrive at the school. Tazawa doesn’t even have lines. Hireashi is mentioned by Zundar in ep11.

12. What the heck

13. Exclusively in the manga we see that Arima met Kinshiro and Atsushi when they were little and they were good friends, but when they met again as adults, Kinshiro seemingly didn’t remember Arima. Atsushi, however, stated that Kinshiro’s talent is remembering people’s faces and names, so Arima wonders if he’s just trying to distance himself from him. He also explains to Akoya that he follows Kinshiro and obeys him because as a child, he was fascinated by his radiant smile. This is never talked about in the anime.

14. Like the previous point, the anime never shows Akoya being bullied, at most just a slight dislike of his full name, but the manga shows that he was made fun of for it and how he actually hates his surname, to the point of introducing himself formally to the president and vicepresident of the student council as “Holy Angel Akoya”.

15, 16, 17, 19. Batonama lives were the livestreams done through the franchise by the defense club seiyuus on youtube and niconico. They’re all on youtube, without any kind of translation.

Love-ko is a girl with a shell bikini drawn on a piece of cardboard that was used as a girlfriend in the Batonama Love! lives, acted by the seiyuus themselves.

RobiHachi has one episode full of official Boueibu artwork and a parody of the series too, a Love-ko doll appears, and Wombat appears as well, named “The Don”. It received an english dub, so for a bit, people were excited that Wombat was going to speak in english too. Also, various mechas appear in both Boueibu and RobiHachi.

18. The director of Fairy Ranmaru (Masakazu Hishida if I’m not wrong) revealed in an interview that he was inspired by Boueibu and aimed to make a show like that.

20, 21. The website super-groupies.com has results for defense and conquest club lingerie sets, dc and VEPPer tote bags, the Beppus’ scarf rings, dc bath sets and the pumps magicalgirlsandcerulean mentioned. I’ve found the s1 Loveracelets and Caerula Adamas’ ring on different sites, the True Loveracelets on TheChara’s twitter and the Happybraces (apparently called “Hapibure”) on broccoli.co.jp but I’m not sure where exactly they were all announced and sold, so I’ll just drop that.

22, 33. Boueibu was originally pretty much a copy of Sailor Moon, I think they were all going to be called “Lackluster Moon” and that stuff and be literally Sailor Moon genderbent. They were all different from color palettes to physical features (except Yumoto’s), and Ryuu was a shota, even smaller than Yumoto. Their names were also very reminiscent of the five Sailor Senshis’. Even if they made it more original, the show is still clearly inspired by Sailor Moon (just look at Caerula Adamas lol) and Pretty Cure. It has also referenced, very blatantly, animes like Doraemon, Detective Conan, Aikatsu and even Vocaloid, when Kyoutarou tries to guess what Karurusu is saying with ““Just Google It, Asshole”?” in ep1.

23. Wombat’s real name and the name of his planet sound like gibberish to the earthlings and ends up being named after the Earth animal, but Zundar, Dadacha, Karurusu and Furanui all have original names. And I think Hireashi means “goldfish”?

24. If you google “zundar technology”, it’s actually a company in Shanghai, China. Aren’t Wombat and Zundar always talking about “advanced alien technology”?

25. Zundar and Dadacha are siblings, so are Karurusu and Furanui, and so are their father King Kamopapa and their uncle minister Wao, but neither are the same species and, except the first two, not even the same color. But they are supposedly related because they share birthmarks or something like that...

26. Everyone who’s in this fandom knows about the pixel blur and voice pitch censor from s1, but I’ve added it anyway because it’s so rare for mahou shoujo and shounen animes to explain why the heroes aren’t recognized when transformed.

27. A good while of s2 ep11 is spent discussing Zundar’s ex-wife and his problems to give child support. Naturally, he gets mad at this.

28. “Money doesn’t betray” (s1 ep6) and “The despair hidden behind your smile that comes from not being understood” (s3 ep11) are sentences that came out of nowhere and implied that the people they were said by (Io) or about (Taiju) respectively had some kind of angst going on but were never explained at all. They’re famous for just that.

29. The Beppu twins’ house in Andromeda shown in flashbacks had strange green circles that apparently are from another anime I don’t know but honestly I didn’t get it very well... It was revealed on a tweet from Takamatsu.

30. Alien language mostly appeared in s2 due to the many flashbacks of Aki and Haru in Andromeda, but in Boueibu s1, it appears on the Zundar Needle before it is shot on the human. It appears a lot through RobiHachi as well, due to being a story about travelling through space. There might be an alphabetical chart somewhere, but I can’t assure it exists, I might even have dreamed it.

31. Hikaru Midorikawa as the melon monster, Kousuke Toriumi as the bishounen monster, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as the kotatsu and panda monsters and Takuya Eguchi as the remote controller monster in s1 and 2, before going on to voice the main cast in HK. Keisuke Koumoto voiced Hatchi Kita in RobiHachi as well as Akihiko in Boueibu, and the characters look similar.

A new addition is that so far Boueibu is the only anime I’ve seen where children weren’t voiced by female seiyuus, but by actual children. Personally, it’s charming and makes it so much more realistic, specifically since no women appear in the franchise at all either (not counting Protag-chan in the game).

32. Speaking of seiyuus, Can I Destroy The Earth? had a dub shown in ep11/12 (?) that made Gora the villain that wanted Earth to stay the same and not progress, against the monsters that supposedly wanted to bring good things to earthlings. Aki and Haru quickly dismissed this dub as fake. (I made a mistake in the title in the previous post btw)

34. As seen in the glossary in the Boueibu Mook (I think, but might not be the mook), Caerula Adamas’ speeches are based on an old japanese detergent commercial that went “Gold, silver, pearl, gift”.

35. In the manga there’s a short parody of the first chapter of Sailor Moon with “Pretty Boy Guardian Gakuran Akoya”. The conquest club manga was released before the anime, so I remember reading somewhere that a fake website appeared for the Gakuran Akoya manga, before turning into the conquest club manga website in the day of its release.

36. Cgi was used a few times in the anime: s2 ep10 for a short sequence of the defense club on a rollercoaster and the carousel monster, ep11 for a cenital shot of the Battle Lovers singing, and HK ep12 for the Honyalaland soldiers and the Wao mecha.

37. The toothbrush incident in s1 ep7. (It’s definitely well-known but it’s so weird lol)

38. “We hope we can see each other again someday!” Something along those lines was the last text to appear in the last episode of HK, implying a s2. We all know how that went.

#boueibu #new post bc i didn't put a readmore in the other one and it was getting too long #msorry #long post #speaking of the robihachi eng dub... sarazanmai has one too...#so many animes like those get dubs but not boueibu?! HOW UNFAIR #at least we got the funimation subs #is the game even canon??#i mean with stuff like how everyone is apparently straight in there #even yumoto who pretty much came out as gay in the anime #that's very inconsistent #i mean. it is canon but maybe it's like an au? idk #also we need gakuran akoya to be real lmao #also no prequel with gora or hk s2. WHYYYY #i think this took me four hours

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swiftgronmasterpost · 4 years

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Spring/Summer/Fall 2013 - The End(?)

Click here for an appropriately sad Swiftgron breakup playlist.

I don’t know if it’s important or not but Dianna wishes several friends a late happy birthday on twitter, apologizing for missing the actual day through this spring and summer. It seems like maybe she’s going through something (like a bad break up?) because it’s not like her to miss friends’ birthdays.

March 26, 2013 - Maybe a relevant tweet?

April 7, 2013 - Dianna tweets a photo of James Dean in a day dream like setting:

April 16, 2013 - The article that outed them:

Someone made a fake article that said Swiftgron was dating:

Dianna tweets seven times that day which is a bit much for her.

The hashtag here stands out to me:

The fake article goes viral and all week people are tweeting about the possibility that Dianna and Taylor are dating.

April 23, 2012

It seems to culminate on this day. Many people are buzzing about Swiftgron and this actress tweets:

That’s right at midnight.

About 12 hours later Dianna deletes her public Tumblr:

On that same day Dianna reblogs several things on her private Tumblr. These two stand out to me:

She reblogged both of these posts and the only hashtag they had in common was “#lost love” - she was searching that hashtag.

I think it’s very clear that today is the day Swiftgron 2.0 broke up. I believe they were forced to by their management teams due to being outed.

April 24, 2013 - Taylor seems regretful/stressed out she screenshots her text to Austin and posts:

I think Dianna’s obviously upset about this and as an act of defiance she tweets at Taylor a few days later (Taylor does not respond.)

April 29, 2013

Instead Taylor posts on Dianna’s Birthday (April 30) a silly google search (very DIanna in nature tbh) with a play on the lyrics from 22:

Taylor had the week of Dianna’s 27th birthday off of the Red tour (it was scheduled like that) but as far as we know they did not hang out.

May 4, 2013 - Ours

At her first show since their supposed break-up, Taylor performs Ours as a surprise song. She introduces it by saying: “This is a song about how, when you fall in love everybody starts to give you their opinion. I imagine it could be really hard to make a relationship last, I wouldn’t know. But, given that everyone is giving you their own opinion about it, I think that the only opinion you should really listen to is yours and if you love that person, that should be all that matters.”

youtube

Dianna dyes her hair brown and goes to Morocco a week later with Ashley (”You searched the world for something else, To make you feel like what we had”) from about May 11 - May 14 or 15. While there she attends the A Small World relaunch. ASW could be viewed as a bit “sketchy” if you will. I think this is where she befriends Olivia Wilde.

This is Dianna’s first (known) trip to Morocco (Derek Blasberg is there too) but she seems to be drawn there over and over again after this, even marrying Winston Marshall there (and possibly meeting another boyfriend, Gus Wenner there.)

May 19, 2013 - Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas

Taylor wins 8 awards and says this during her acceptance speech:

This and the performance of Ours makes me think Taylor is bitter about a break up right now, even though publicly she broke up with Harry back in January.

This is also the event where Taylor is famously grossed out by Justin and Selena’s hetero nonsense and does this:

It seems like as always, Taylor has a lot going on right now...some kind of drama with Justin is boiling but it’s possible she’s also referencing her breakup with Dianna in her acceptance speech.

Dianna pops back up in NYC.

May 20, 2013 - WLW icon Kristen Stewart apparently spends the night at Taylors?

May 28, 2013 - Taylor plays Haunted on the Red Tour and gives a speech:

"This is a song that I haven't played on this tour so far. It came up when one of my friends tweeted the lyrics to it today and it reminded me that I haven't played this song in about two years. It has to do with the fact that, you know people talk about ghosts all the time. You just kind of imagine it being this supernatural thing, but there's another kind of ghost and it's just a person who is out there walking in the world or just doesn't love you anymore and that's a whole different kind of being haunted." Seems like she’s really going through it.

July 2, 2013 - Anniversary of Hyannis Port trip and interesting private Tumblr post from Dianna:

Bad things happen this summer. Cory Monteith passes away and Taylor is assaulted at a meet and greet by a DJ.

July 2013 - Dianna buys a house in LA (I Wish You Would)

August 2013 - Dianna’s whosirmesir moniker gets outed and she stops blogging under that tumblr account.

August 14, 2013 - Taylor is in a weird place according to the Lover diaries:

1. she seems to have basically written The Lakes here

2. she’s really harping on themes she ends up addressing in I Know Places, Out of the Woods, and Wonderland

August 29, 2013 - Dianna steps out with restaurateur Nick Mathers.

Not sure what to make of this one. Dianna seems to date two types of men: 1. teeny bopper actors for bearding and pr purposes (it generally seems) and 2. rich businessmen. Nick is type 2, but their relationship is reported on as if it’s PR. “Sources” call up gossip sites to fill them in on the relationship and both their projects get plugged along with announcements on them as a couple:

I don’t know if they were more or less legit but she goes out with Taylor five days later...

September 4, 2013 - The Fun! Concert:

Swiftgron’s last pre-Kaylor public sighting - they go to a Fun! concert in LA

It’s just a split instant of video footage but Sarah Hyland uploads this to Vine and it does not look like Dianna is enjoying herself:

Note: It kind of looks like DIanna has her arm around Taylor’s waist and also the person to the right of Taylor is Selby Drummond who is still friends with DIanna as of writing of this masterpost (December 2020) and who still appears to be a fan of Taylor’s.

Dianna does look miserable but I do think it’s interesting they seem to be making an effort to hang out on the two year anniversary of their public (perhaps private as well) first meeting.

Dianna tweets about the concert the next day:

September 6, 2013 - Taylor plays Speak Now as the surprise song on the Red tour. Interesting given the timing of Dianna and her new boyfriend being public just one week before this.

September 8, 2013 - Taylor plays Sad, Beautiful Tragic for the first time ever live and gives this speech:

"I kind of feel like playing a song I've never ever played live before. This is um a song that I wrote about how you know just because something's over doesn't mean it wasn't incredibly beautiful. Cause another lesson I've learned is not all stories have a happy ending and you have to learn how to deal with that. So this is a song about a story that didn't end so happily but was still supposed to happen. This is called Sad, Beautiful, Tragic."

I don’t think this song was originally written about Dianna but I do think at this time while they stumble through the last phase of their relationship Taylor was inspired to sing it.

October 2013 - Taylor writes I Wish You Would, a song inspired by an ex who had recently bought a house near her driving past her house. It’s thought to be about Harry but Harry didn’t buy a house in LA until March 2014. But of course we know Dianna did buy a house near Taylor’s in LA earlier this fall.

November 11, 2013 - The music video for “She’s Just Another Girl” premiers starring Dianna looking stunning in high fashion drag, dressed up as the lead singer, and lip syncing the words to the song:

Some lyrics to the song include:

All of my friends say I should move on She's just another girl, don't let her stick it to your heart so hard And all of my friends say it wasn't meant to be And it's a great big world, she's just another girl

I could be reeling them in left and right Something's got a hold on me, tonight Well maybe all of my friends should confront The fact that I don't want another girl

I think it’s at least possible that Dianna was drawn to this project because the lyrics resonated to her given what she was going through with Taylor at the time.

November 12, 2013 - Day of Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show rehearsals and Dianna posts this (now deleted) picture:

November 13, 2013 - Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show where Taylor performs and Karlie Kloss walks the runway.

Dianna posts this picture (now deleted) of her at Emma Stone’s birthday party from 11 months previous:

It’s likely she’s looking at Taylor in this photo who was seated across from her.

It’s a very random picture to post. It wasn’t titled as a throwback and it wasn’t an exact year after the picture was taken (prompting some kind of happy birthday shout out to Emma Stone or anything) - just a random picture of Dianna smiling, likely at Taylor.

November 17, 2013 - Dianna posts a (now deleted) photo about missing someone:

November 21, 2013 - Taylor posts lyrics from a hopeful love song about a troubled relationship:

Lyrics:

December 9, 2013 - Dianna listens to Pale Blue Eyes

Lyrics are about being emo over a lost love with Blue Eyes:

Sometimes I feel so happy Sometimes I feel so sad Sometimes I feel so happy But mostly you just make me mad Baby, you just make me madLinger on your pale blue eyes Linger on your pale blue eyes

Thought of you as my mountaintop Thought of you as my peak Thought of you as everything I've had, but couldn't keep I've had, but couldn't keep

Linger on your pale blue eyes Linger on your pale blue eyes

If I could make the world as pure And strange as what I see I'd put you in the mirror I put in front of me I put in front of meLinger on your pale blue eyes Linger on your pale blue eyes

Skip a life completely Stuff it in a cup She said, "Money is like us in time It lies, but can't stand up" Down for you is upLinger on your pale blue eyes Linger on your pale blue eyesIt was good what we did yesterday And I'd do it once again The fact that you are married Only proves you're my best friend But it's truly, truly a sinLinger on your pale blue eyes Linger on your pale blue eyes

December 11, 2013 - You know the drill...Dianna posts a now deleted photo to Instagram:

December 13, 2013 - Dianna posts an attention grabbing photo on Taylor’s Birthday

Conclusions - Swiftgron very clearly goes through a rough breakup due to being outed.

Then they attempt some sort of reconciliation - even hanging out (date night?) on the second anniversary of their Fairfax Flea Market meetcute, but it goes wrong.

Taylor is on tour for much of this time and Dianna is posting angst ridden and peculiar Instagram posts exactly at the time Taylor meets Karlie.

Click here to keep reading!

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leofiat-bunny · 3 years

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DSN Ep 5 Liveblog

I have been very good and not spoilt myself or tried to watch it on my phone: no tumblr, no youtube, barely any twitter (nothing even vaguely related to the series).

So. It may as well be Friday (+ 22hrs 50mins)

All in one post so I don't see something I shouldn't before I finish.

PART 1

Wow. I got the order on this ALL wrong didn't I? 😂

Yeah, I think "don't mention Leon" went through Leo's head there, and that was the reason for the hesitation.

Even the title knows your plan is lousy Leon!

What completely random book did he end up with then?

Yes, because it was the cat who brought you the ice and umbrella. You should have gone with "It's a thank you for being cute. For Pobjer."

Yeah, if I disturbed quiet like that I would also drop the volume way lower than pre-interuption. 😳

... How can you be that stupid? Like, you've heard him slut-shaming you, how can you think this is a ploy?

At least you snapped out of it quickly.

I think we're supposed to be "aw, cute 😍" instead I'm "aw, that poor cat 😥". I was so gratful when Pob put the poor thing down (is it a she or he?)

I totally headcanon their parents as a Gomez and Morticia pair. This is feeding into that perfectly.

You can just imagine baby Leon begging their parents and their dad - whom Leo apparently takes after - absolutely refusing because his wife! Then Leon does what he always does when his parents deny him: he turns to Leo. Except Leo says no too! Because Fiat of course. 🤣

Aww, of course they did. That's legit cute. I wonder if they teamed up or independently came to the same solution? Probably the former based on how he said it, but I like the thought of the latter. (And it could be that but Leon never knew it.)

Does Smart have a slight lisp, or a non-standard (not "tv Thai") accent? It could just be different vocab, or I could be making it up entirely, but his speech sounds slightly different to me?

So do we find out first or are we left in suspense too?

Yeah, figures.

Well, I guess he doesn't need to play "he loves me/loves me not", so he has to find a different question to pass the time. Very romantic Fiat 👍🤣

Hiding the evidence 🤣 That's coming back to haunt him shortly isn't it?

I guess it is difficult to persuade someone you'd be a good boyfriend if you're Leon and they're spending time with Leo. I agree, Leon is losing in that comparison.

They really turn into 4 year olds in each other's presence don't they 😅

PART 2

"I'm going to punish you" - how are you feeling @thequeenofsastiel?

... that was honestly a lot more explicitly d/s than I was expecting to get.

The list is always in his mind.

I think that sounds like a challenge to Leo.

So... what, they were on a completely random walk? What? Also, why is it dark while people are wandering around in uniform? The shortest day is 6:36 - 17:55. I'm... confused.

PART 3

I don't blame Leo one bit if he gets annoyed at Fiat for accusing him of cheating and refusing to listen to him after.

Also: 4 year olds in each other's presense, it's not even just when talking to each other.

"I know Leo's perfect, but I'm not too bad myself" did get a snort. Points for honesty? (As Leon sees it anyway)

Family business related it was, though not dimplomat related.

So was the pic outside the orphanage?

Honestly? I get Fiat's reaction at the end of that scene. When I feel guilty about something I actually did wrong I get a bit mad at someone who isn't me. (And writing this made me realise that that's only when I did something wrong. When I feel guilty just because my brain hates me, I don't get mad at other people. I am very strange. 🤨)

"Leo is Leo. Leon is Leon. We don't need to be the same." is a better way of saying what I was thinking just there. Both generally in the world we need variety but also within relationships: someone who suits one person brilliantly wouldn't suit some other person at all. (As for this contradicting what I said earlier: one's Joking Mode, the other is Serious Business.)

"I'm going to be your boyfriend" 😣 Not a fan. Obviously, he's right, but he has no reason to think as much so far.

I'm not the least bit surprised you love Fiat being jealous, but wouldn't you be upset by the displayed lack of trust? He didn't just tell Pob "hands off!" he accused you of cheating.

Ah, right, he knew Pob had been at that orphanage before Pob approached him. So it was the "not my secret to tell".

I guess if you don't count Leon, Fiat hasn't really had any opportunity to display jealousy? And, as someone who keenly feels his own history of jealousy, that might be a bit scary. Either in a "does he really care?" way or a "am I so bad for feeling this?" way.

NatsuAn crumbs.

Leon... please don't become a lawyer. Your concept of logic is somewhat... lacking.

I don't dislike them, they can be kind of cute, but I am fairly disinterested?

PART 4

How did I call this wrong? Let me count the ways... 😳🤦‍♀️

Hey Mr, we saw a place you were staying on a "summer camp". You really telling me that was self-service? 🤨

Brat who wants to be a Good Boy.

Watch a youtube video. I haven't checked but I'm sure relevant ones are out there. You don't even need to understand the speech. "Monkey see, monkey do" would help a lot.

See above x2 😂

I guess that's meant to be "you'd burn my clothes if you wore them" (you're so hot)?

Good thing Pob came out of his building for no reason, not because he was planning to go somewhere 🤨 (sorry, I know I'm much more forgiving when it comes to LeoFiat. That's favouritism for you 🤷‍♀️)

I guess now we know what the scene on the couch with Leo's mum is about now. (She has papers, it's very proper... except I'm certain the charity should have someone whose job is to have this meeting. Ah well, this is tv drama, we should expect nothing else.)

Call him out! It's not a good look to get into a fist fight before the game Leo.

Good job Rick.

It's an even worse look to get into a fist fight during a game. 🤦‍♀️

#don't say no ep 5 #don't say no liveblog #leofiat #don't say no

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zmediaoutlet · 3 years

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tagged by my good buddy @doilycoffin and uhh some number of other people to do the little tumblr survey game thing, and eve you are an absolute hero for including the clean copy at the end, thank you --

1. why did you choose your url?

I am Z and this is my Media Outlet. Although originally twitter was.

2. any sideblogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them.

Absolutely not, I can barely keep this one running. Also, I can’t imagine curating that much. People can handle seeing a Hannibal post instead of a Spn post, and if they can’t -- man, good luck to them.

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

I actually saw a thing from tumblrmemories today that reminded me that this post even existed, and so I can answer: apparently, I joined this tumblr place at 04/05/2012 3:26:41 PM. I have zero memory of the moment, lol.

4. do you have a queue tag?

I do not, but that’s because everything I post is queued. Y’all don’t know when I’m on here, I am mysterious. ...I am not, it’s just that I don’t like clogging people’s dashboards. So I queue for like an hour and then bounce.

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

...I don’t remember! I guess because lj was collapsing like a flan in a cupboard, and there wasn’t anywhere particularly relevant to go when you were looking for fandom content. But I don’t remember what fandom it was, back then! That was a few months before I started watching spn.

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

(i keep seeing pfp and all I can read there is pirst ferson pooter.) My icon is just... my little happy man! He’s so happy, look at him. <3 And I think he’s been the icon since April 5, 2012. Y’all who can like change your icons and whatnot are impressive to me. And confusing. Both of those.

7. why did you choose your header?

...I don’t think I have a header. Do I? Now I’m feeling very losttravolta.gif.

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

uhh I think it might be that dumb ficlet I wrote where Dean gets turned into the teeniest of dragons and is trying to hoard Sam’s junk.

9. how many mutuals do you have?

literally no idea how to find this out

10. how many followers do you have?

just under 1400, a bunch of whom are probably dead accounts or noninteractive, which I guess isn’t much to show for almost ten years, is it. Should’ve learned to make gifs.

11. how many people do you follow?

just under 300, a much of whom are probably dead accounts or noninteractive, lol.

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

I don’t think so. I don’t have the shitpost energy!

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

um, <1 hour on average. Some days I don’t come on at all, some days the scroll goes on a little longer.

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

I have never intentionally started a fight with any blog, but a few people have gotten GROSSLY OFFENDED by posts I’ve made and tried to fight with me. My reaction, like a somnolent bear, is to be confused and wonder why someone’s making such a big fuss. I guess they won, since I blocked them and/or they blocked me, and they got to feel superior because they’d shown me what’s what. And they also won because I still think about it with bewildered annoyance years later, lol. Why did you turn into such a bitch over a headcanon post? Oh well, I’ll mildly hate them forever.

15. how do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

They’re grossly stupid.

16. do you like tag games?

I do! Look at me doing one. It’s very high school, very sitting around past midnight on a sleepover.

17. do you like ask games?

I do! Same answer.

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

uh, none? How does one even measure such a thing.

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

absolutely not, oh my. EDIT: WAIT yes why not I have a big somnolent bear crush on doilycoffin. Let me woo your Texas heart or whatever, you goth grandma you! <3, >3.

20. tags?

idk who of y’all is doing what. These questions kinda got less interesting as they went down, haha, but I’ll toss out some tags anyway, uh -- @themegalosaurus, @alaynestone, @stripperlecki, @wetsammywinchester, @watermelonlipstick, @peach-coke, aaaand we’ll call that good.

#ask meme #or close enough to one #this isn't really getting to know you #it's like... metrics #kinda odd #but still worth looking at ig

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lokisasylum · 3 years

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Check In Tag!

Tagged by : @parkandblues (thanks, hun 🦋)

1. Why did you choose your url?

“lokisasylum”... I think i’ve explained this a lot, but “Loki” is a nickname I was given since my school days because I was a hardcore trickster & would get away with anything and everything. I also recall being VERY persuasive when caught until I got off the hook. While “Asylum” comes from an album by Disturbed (one of the bests I own).

2. Any sideblogs? If you have them name them and why you have them?

Yep, @arsenicbutterfly which is like an aesthethic/anime/cyberpunk/steampunk/grunge blog, and I also have @lokirasengan-fc which I originally created with the intention of moving all my fanart/artwork (also promote my Society6 & Redbubble shops) to in order to separate my main blog for BTS news/post and that one for artwork but none of my mutuals really followed me on it so its basically a dead blog >_>

3. How long have you’ve been on tumblr?

I think since 2010 which is the same year the (Disturbed) “Asylum” album came out.

4. Do you have a queue tag?

I don’t know, never really thought about it.

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

Hmm... I remember 2009-2010 to be a very chaotic years.

- the Death Note fandom went up in flames due to the MILLIONS of cases of cyber bullying (some ending in s**cide). I remember being part of this RP group within the fandom that I ended up quitting when I got admitted into Graduate School and because 2 of the oldest members ended up being actual PSYCHOS. (Which is why I also quitted roleplaying)

- Deviantart was rumored to either be shutting down or heading into a worse fate since they started censoring Mature Art/Literature/Fanfics (I remember all the artists who had their 20something chaptered fics and comics OBLITERATED off the site without a reason). So many people left DA for other blogs and I remember thinking the same, that I needed to migrate elsewhere. I tried 2 new social medias that eventually disappeared with less than a year of existence and then there was tumblr with had apparently been created for that very purpose (as a refuge for artists & people in general who were disappointed or got screwed over by the system). Which is funny because tumblr ended up the same way...

I still kept both my DA accounts active and I still post ALL of my artwork/photography there.

6. Why did you choose your icon?

I usually changed my icon frequently, but this recent/current icon is special to me, because it was made as a tattoo design for my Jikook Vampire fic (Forever, You Said) of a butterfly trapped between a Full Moon/New Moon. Its a matching tattoo between jikook (Jimin’s is a yellow butterfly inside a new moon, while JK’s is a blue butterfly inside a full moon). Meant to symbolize how both existed in the same timeline separated by two worlds with Jimin being a vampire and Jungkook being human, but their lives got intertwined since their first meeting.

7. Why did you choose your header?

[I legit had to go back and check what my header was ‘cause i forgot]

Because I mean... Its Park Motherfucking Jimin.

8. What’s your post with the most notes?

Like... this month? I think its the post about BTS as Flower Spirits from the HYBE museum.

9. How many mutuals do you have?

Few but I love them (same)

10. How many followers do you have?

635... damn, when did that happened?? WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!

11. How many people do you follow?

Like 14ish? Most of them were fanartists I really admired, but sadly most of them aren’t active or left for Twitter cause people kept coming to tumblr to steal their art and post it on twitter/instagram. So they moved to twitter in order to have some “control” over their works, but now people steal their art from Twitter and come to post it on Tumblr 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

And this is why I still post most of my art on Deviantart.

12. Have you ever made a shitpost?

I... I dunno, have I? Oo

13. How often do you use tumblr each day?

24hrs/7 days a week, I never really log out of tumblr. So I just wake up, eat breakfast/lunch (whatever’s available at 11am), do chores around the house, make sure my fam’s healthy, fed and comfy before I jump back into tumblr where I kill off most of the day and night. If I’m not here I’m on deviantart or Ao3.

14. Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? Who won?

I usually avoid going to other blogs to argue per se because most of these blogs that shitpost for the sake of creating conflict are very young and very ignorant. They never see reason/logic even when you slap ‘em across the face with receipts. So I don’t bother.

HOWEVER, ain’t afraid to calling people out through my own posts from time to time without the need to name names. If it fits, it ships and if you offended that’s a YOU problem.

15. How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

I avoid them as much as possible. I’m like Taehyung on that note, I’m the type of person that if you try to force me to do something and I see no benefit (for me) in it? I won’t do it.

16. Do you like tag games?

Yes, they’re fun and break the monotony.

17. Do you like ask games?

I do... but no one ever interacts with me for them 🙃

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

Eehh.. maybe @utopiajeon , @debrenner , @aikimei

19. Do I have a crush on a mutual?

I mean I love them and think they’re awesome people, but I also think of them as the children I don’t plan on having in the future. LOL

20. Tags?

@utopiajeon @doctorcerberus @i-like-plain-rice @corkytheguar anyone who wants to do it!🌸

#tag #tag game #tag meme #for fun #mutuals

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en-theheights · 4 years

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All the problems with HSMTMTS:

I keep getting asked question on what happened in the fandom, and what is going on against all of the s*xual assault allegations against J*shua and T*m. This is going to be the post where I lay out all that I know of and inform the tumblr fandom on it because not all of you are on Twitter, and Tumblr is literally the heaven amongst fandoms. After this post, I’m DONE talking about this show and being apart of this toxic group. Along with talking about the s*xual assault allegations, I will also be addressing the issues during the BLM movement and other crap that not only the cast and crew have been a part of, but also the fandom itself. Let’s dig in.

Sidenote: I really don’t want any hate, I’m just trying to be open with you guys and inform you all. Also, I’m doing my best to remember everything, so if there is something that you want to know more on then please just message me personally cause I’m seriously SICK of discussing it publicly.

Not eveything in the fandom is due to JUST the cast and crew. This fandom is FULL of very toxic and creepy people.

A few months ago, someone (a grown women) who was overly obsessed with Olivia hacked into her grandfather’s account to turn it into a fan page to get undercover information on Olivia, as well as getting information on where Olivia lived. This grown women has also done some other seriously inappropriate things. If you want to learn more about the sketchy things that this women has done than you can go to Twitter and look it up.

There are always ship wars in fandoms, but this one takes it WAY too seriously. I’ve seen people get attack on their looks just for being a part of a ship. The ones that are heavily abusive are Rina vs Rini, Seblos vs CJ, and redlyn vs Redky. It has cause people to leave the fandom due to how bad the attacking got. On Tumblr, everyone’s pretty open about ships, but on twitter it is a literal battle field.

Disgraceful people still continue to ship the actors instead of the characters. J*livia and J*fia is what I’m going to talk more closely about. (First, josh is a grown adult and both Sofia and Olivia are minors, please unfollow me if you don’t see anything wrong with that). Sofia had to delete a few of her tik toks after one with Joshua went viral and people wouldn’t stop shipping her and him in her comments. Like one video she did, the caption was “I want a boyfriend” and people assumed they were dating and wouldn’t stop tagging him in her videos. As for Olivia, people have been shipping them since the beginning of the show. Fan accounts on all platforms have dedicated their time to this. I don’t necessarily remember if Sofia or Olivia came out saying that they were uncomfortable when they got shipped with their cast mates, but it started causing drifts between the actors because of this and Joshua wasn’t featured in any of Sofia’s videos after that and Olivia didn’t post as much as she use to with him. It goes to show that shipping actors makes things awkward and strained within their personal relationships. DONT DO THIS!

A person stating that they were friend’s with Olivia came out to expose Joshua of being a bad boyfriend after she tells everyone that Olivia and Joshua has been secretly dating during the press tour of HSMTMTS. There was clever evidence that showed they were dating and the girl came out with multiple receipts, and even went so far as to go on Instagram live to speak on the matter. But she then came out stating that it was false and she only wanted some attention. Apparently she was a j*livia stan. I can’t find anything on twitter about it anymore, since I’m pretty sure eveything was deleted. This can ruin people’s careers and I don’t know why anyone could think it’s okay.

There are genuinely a lot of creepy adults that roam around in the HSM fandom. On twitter, there would be grown adults writing in detail how the kissing scene between Joshua and Olivia made them feel. People continue to post the gif of Nini and Ricky kissing and write out why it’s so important to them. People have taken that kissing scene and literally turned it into nasty and inappropriate sm*t on AO3 and Wattpad. Note once again that these characters are minors and it’s NEVER okay to write inappropriate stories about children. Grown adults need to be held accountable for their actions if this is how they’re acting.

Some parts of the fandom genuinely hate on both Sofia and Olivia for literally nothing. Just jealousy between their ships, and because of it, they think it’s okay to to personally attack the actresses on their looks and where they are in there careers. People continuously pin Olivia and Sofia against each other, like for example people bashing Olivia for not being as successful as Sofia, or Sofia being bashed because she doesn’t have the same singing career as Olivia. It’s once again, DISGUSTING!

This one is more about Disney and then not doing their part. Disney cut out the majority of Seblos’ scenes, which caused a lot of turmoil within the fandom and why Seblos felt unattached and awkward while they were together in all of their scenes after the dance episode. People called out Disney and said they they shouldn’t have put Seblos in if they weren’t going to go full out with it.

Onto the cast and the crew:

Kate (miss Jenn) got a lot of hate for exposing that Frankie (Carlos) and Joe(Seb) are in an actual real life relationship without asking them for their consent to tell the world. Don’t know whether they had spoken about them being in a relationship or not, but Kate didn’t speak on it after that either.

A video came out a few days ago of the cast taking cast pictures during their tour, and Mark (Mr. Mazzara) was standing beside Sofia in which it looks like his hand was rubbing Sofia’s lower back, and she seemed uncomfortable. I’m not sure if it’s a stretch or not because the video is super blurry and it’s hard to kind of see their faces, but you can clearly see his hand go behind her back. Personally for me, I didn’t notice anything too alarming, but you’d have to see for youself. I won’t be posting that and instead you can dm me personally and I’ll send you the link to the video.

A past comment of Joshua’s was exposed in which he is saying the F slur. #joshuabassettisoverparty was trending world wide on Twitter, with people wanting him off the show. He has apologized for it since then, but not many ever forgave him and it was just really his young girl audience that came to his defense, even though it wasn’t their apology to forgive. People that only stan him because he is a cute cis white male didn’t see the problem in what he had said, and kept saying that he was young and that it’s not a reason for us to hate on him, but he was only 17 when he said that, and it’s no excuse. Personally to me, his apology was super bland and he didn’t address it personally on his Twitter, but instead replied to a post saying he’d do better. Here’s what he had said:

Here is his apology on this:

Joshua also went on a live in which he said “boys, gals, or whatever” People accused him of being transphobic and enbyphobic. Others think that his words were being blown out of proportion. Here is that video:

I found it to be very ridiculous and rude that he doesn’t follow anybody on twitter or tik tok. On a live video, Julia said something about him not following her, and he just says that he doesn’t follow anybody and she shouldn’t take it personally. Honestly not that big of a deal, but it’s still shows pitifullness and arrogancy. Don’t know what his contract looks like with whatever agency he’s with, but maybe they’re just strict on that, but idk.

People hate on Matt (EJ) for being republican. He hasn’t done anything problematic or said anything out of offense, so for me he’s good. UPDATE: Turns out, Matt is friends with Benjamin Lawson Adams, a convicted pedophile. Here’s a brief statement in what happened:

He worked for the Weinstein company, so no surprise there. His arrest happened in May 2016, and his license was suspended to practice Law in July of 2018. If Matt knew what was best for him, he would stop having any and all associations with this dude.

That’s all I can think of on situations not regarding the s*xual assault allegations or the BLM movement. But there’s probably so much I’m missing. I’m going to make a part 2, cause the next half is too long to post here as well. I’ll label it #exposinghsmtmts so others are able to see it.

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codyfernmorelikedaddyfern · 5 years

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Romeo & Juliet - Duncan x fem!reader

Apparently, I can’t write about anyone else by Duncan Shepherd but I’m not even mad about it.

It is inspired by Romeo & Juliet by Dire Straits.

Description: When Duncan bumps into (Y/N), the young woman he madly fell in love with and dated throughout high school and university, he desperately try to fill in the blanks and reconnect with this woman from his past.

Warnings: Mention of smut and past relationships, domestic abuse, cliffhanger.

Word count: 7349.

Duncan dropped his empty paper cup in the bin on his way out from the coffee shop, his coat closely tucking him in his own body warmth in the gentle sway of the snow falling to the floor. The gentle puffs of vapour escaping his mouth reminded him how much he loved the cold weather and in his absent minded trance of watching the snowflakes dance their way to the ground, his confident steps were stopped as he bumped into the shorter frame of a woman, her nose stuck on her phone, scrolling through what looks like to be Twitter or Tumblr.

“Terribly sorry about that!” he managed to mumble at the sight of the young woman dropping her phone to the ground. They both reached for the device that bounced on the frozen ground, watching the shatters the fall had caused to the screen.

It’s only a few seconds after that his face read the features plastered on the visage of the girl in front of him. “Duncan?” her voice whispered, unbothered by the state of her phone. His eyebrows knitted in confusion. “Y/N? Oh god, it’s been a hot minute” he tried scoffing off the awkwardness from his shoulders. His blue gaze fell on the shattered screen “I’m really sorry about that, could I… Make it up to you?” he attempted, trying to push the tremor in his voice.

It was like their heart had remained dormant for all of these years apart and finally, the sight of each other’s slightly aged features kick-started the pumping of their blood to their faces. Her hair were devoid of coloured dye from their teenage years and back to their (Y/H/C) roots and a few wrinkles marked her forehead. He, however, did not change his hair, instead deciding on letting his facial hair grow to a well-kept stubble, the gap between his eyebrows now marked with the years as well.

Damn he had no idea how much he had missed her until she was now standing in front of him. And the years that had gone by since he had last seen her had only made his heart swell some more like it used to. “It’s fine, Duncan, I’ll just get it fixed” he had even missed the way her voice sounded. The young man nodded, reminiscing on the past he had shared with the young woman and trying to find his footing once more. “Let me at least take you for a coffee at some point?” Duncan attempted.

“Just, you know, to catch up?” the young man pushed further, raising his eyebrows in hope. A large puff escaped (Y/N)’s lips and she lightly screwed her beanie back on her head. “I’m in a bit of a hurry right now” her eyes darted out of his gaze, only to find a focal point in the near vicinity. “Not right now” she sighed before starting to push past him “maybe next time” her voice rang again as he watched her run away from him.

Duncan didn’t know how long it took but somewhat he ended up waiting in front of the cafe nearly every day, always at the same time. Until one day, he woke up earlier and made his way to the shop before he would usually show up and he saw (Y/N), nursing a cup of coffee while typing away at her laptop. Unwrapped from her heavy coat, scarf and beanie, he was silently reminded that the years had definitely gone by. It was like he was 17 and falling in love all over again.

When (Y/N) looked up from her laptop, her gaze fell into Duncan’s who offered her a small wave. It took him a couple of seconds to ponder his next moves while she returned the gesture, the indecisive throbbing of her heart making it near impossible for her to look at anything but the tall frame of the one she loved so dearly. The young man made his way to the table next to hers, taking the spot on the wooden chair. The young girl hoped he would just keep his nose in his drink, she hoped he would just leave her to her own device but he obviously thought otherwise, greeting het with a careful “good morning”.

“Good morning, Duncan” her voice whispered back as he sat down next to her. “How are you?” Duncan replied with a genuine smile, peeling off his own coat. “I’m alright, how are you?” she tried her hardest to smile but something in her stomach turned. It had been years but the lingering feeling was still here.

First loves as well as fist mistakes. She promised him he would always be special but right now, she couldn’t help but remind herself they were over for a reason. She reminded herself that, despite the 5 years it took for them to bump into one another, she should not fall in love all over again. But (Y/N) couldn’t help but melt at the soft honey like tones of his voice or the heavenly shades of blue dripping from his gaze. Small talk lead to slight giggles and reminiscing of the happier memories they had shared.

From new jobs to new life experiences, the 20 minutes they had spent talking flashed within seconds. She had settled for a small office position down the road from her apartment, she had moved after important events came and thrashed her life around and he drank her words, eager to learn more and more about the last few years of her life she had spent away from him. “If you’re ever tired of working there, I’m sure I can find a position for you” Duncan even offered.

They were not as young as they used to be, but the maturity that had bloomed through the years made them more calmed and composed. Adults. 27 years old adults. Duncan couldn’t help his heart from fluttering at every laugh his remarks would pull from the woman sitting next to him. How silly he had been to let her go the way he did.

“I see you got your phone fixed” his smile was bright, as if no time had passed, as if they had never been apart. “Yeah, thank you for offering, though, I appreciate it” her voice replied. Duncan fished for a pen in his coat pocket and went to scribble on a napkin. “Here, that’s my phone number, I think I changed it since the last time we talked” he handed her the piece of tissue. (Y/N)’s cheeks ignited again with pools of pinks and reds as she grabbed onto it, unsure on what to do. “I would very much like to take you on a date, could go to that Chinese you loved?” his eyes reached hers, hopeful to rekindle some sort of link with the young girl he fell in love with so many years ago and for who his heart seemed to still beat for.

But her gaze left his to look at the scribble once more. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Duncan” she breathed, her eyes falling on the door opening to a tall frame holding up a little boy. Her fingers stuffed the napkin in her pocket as Duncan looked in the direction of her gaze. His heart seemed to shatter while she watched her stand up, pressing a kiss to the cheek of the man and peeling the toddler out of his arms.

“Duncan, this is Sam, my partner, and this is Liam, my son” she sheepishly introduced her ex-lover to both of the figures. Sam’s hand reached forward to shake Duncan’s while she spoke again. “Sam, this is Duncan, we used to see each other a while back” (Y/N) blushed as she cradled the sleepy boy in her arms.

The sad blue gaze of Duncan’s fell into hers and he forced a smile to the three of them. Taking the last gulp of his drink, he excused himself to (Y/N) as he slipped his coat back on his shoulders, biting back the venom of jealousy coursing through his veins. “It was great to catch up, have a lovely day” Duncan dropped as he waved at her before slipping away from her view.

When she looked up to her boyfriend, the anger burning in his eyes made her aware she would be in for a ‘treat’. Silently pleading for him to keep it in. Sitting back on her chair, she gently stroked the chubby cheeks of her little boy, still half asleep in his mother’s arms. “Was it… His father?” his voice spoke in anger once more. (Y/N)’s eyebrows furrowed in annoyance and she bit on her bottom lip. “Why would it matter?” her voice spat as she gently stroked her son’s hair.

“Does he know?” Sam continued, crossing his arms around his chest and leaning back on his chair. Her eyes rolled at his comment and he smacked his hand on the table, making both (Y/N) and Liam jolt up. “I asked you a question, (Y/N)” his voice dripped once more, cutting old wounds open. “Do you think I’m that much of an idiot? I know who he is” Sam’s face pushed further across the table, anger exuding from his pores.

“He is Duncan fucking Shepherd. If anything, the child support he can provide would help you get out of that shithole you call you home”. His words cut through her like she was made of clay and he spoke daggers. “So I’m going to ask you one more time. Does he know?!” The young woman stood up after sitting her son on the chair, wrapping herself in her coat and tucking her (Y/H/C) locks under her beanie before pulling the child back in her arms.

“And I asked you ‘why does it matter’ if he is the father or not?” she spat right back at him, her face inches from him. “I’m done with your shit, Sam. If I wanted to be under surveillance 24/7, I would have dated a cop, not a banker” she finished, dangling her scarf around a neck before making her way out of the coffee shop and leaving him to sear in his own anger and jealousy.

Her feet carried her through the busy streets of DC as she held her little boy in her arms, letting him distract her from the harsh conversation that had transpired and what more was to come. His candid speech had the mother even forget about the interaction as she dropped the little boy to day-care and quickly made her way to work.

It’s only when she made it back home with her toddler and her fingers grazed against the napkin Duncan had scribbled his phone number on that she was reminded of the events of the morning. Looking at the digits penned on the tissue, she pondered on just throwing it in the bin. But the look he had given her before he left was convincing her otherwise. She had to, at least, apologies.

Well, she didn’t have to. She wanted to. So she did, keying in the number she read on the napkin, she typed in the shortest apology she couldn’t muster.

(Y/N): Hi Duncan, I would like to apologies for this morning. I would be happy to have a proper chat over a cup of coffee if the offer still stands. Best of luck, (Y/N).

Sent. Receipt. Read. Her heart stopped and she quickly locked her phone and placed it on the kitchen counter before joining her little boy on the couch. As Duncan tried his hardest to find the words to refuse. She had a whole new life now and his selfish desire to try and pick up the pieces he had broken half a decade ago. But he had so many questions burning his lips and begging to escape his lungs.

Sitting on the chair of his office, he played with his phone, twirling in between his fingers as he tried to formulate an answer to her text. The buzzing of her phone pulled her nose out of the colouring book she was working on filling in with Liam. (Y/N) rose to her feet and gingerly grasped her phone, turning it to see a text from Sam. It was his turn to apologies and without even asking for her piece of mind, he had texted her that he was on his way. Her eyes rolled and her heart stopped when another notification came through.

Duncan: Hi (Y/N)! No worries, it was bold of me to assume you would be free J. Would you rather make it a breakfast or a dinner?

(Y/N): Either sounds good to me, should we see how things are on Friday?

Duncan: Sure thing! I’ll check on you then. Great to speak to you again.

He was trying his hardest to hold back. He couldn’t be the needy teenager he was when she met him. A decade had passed since then and he could not allow his need take the better of him. Duncan was a man, not a boy anymore. However, she brought it back to him. The giddiness and the eager need to keep on texting her. It’s like they were back in high school, when they first met. Before the ever growing love that spurted from them. Before life got the best of them.

A sigh rumbled through her chest while she made her way back to her boy, her phone half-hazardly tossed on the couch while she praised Liam for his beautiful selection of colours he had picked for his butterfly. (Y/N) only left the company of her little boy to start cooking dinner. Looking through the half empty cupboards, she swore under her breath.

A knocking pulled her attention to the door. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion before she remembered the text Sam had sent her. (Y/N) went to open the door, the frame of the man standing there with a small bouquet of flowers. He made his way in the small apartment, his body language still exuding anger and discomfort.

As Liam heard the door, he quickly ran to hide against his mother, earning a small giggle from the young woman. But her smile dropped when Sam threw something else on the counter. “What is that?” she curiously looked at the large white box sitting on her kitchen counter.

“A paternity test for your new friend” Sam grinned at his girlfriend while she pulled Liam in her arms. “What do you mean?” her voice answered, laced with confusion and some tones of fear when her eyes dropped to his. “Buddy, how about you go and play in your room? Mom and I need to talk a little bit, okay?” the man went to stroke the cheek of the child who nodded, escaping from his mother’s clammy hands and scampering to his bedroom.

“Is Duncan Shepherd the father of your fucking son?!” his voice has hoarse and dry, a hint of alcohol making (Y/N)’s nostrils flare. She squinted her eyes, turning her face to the side as if she could avoid the smell of booze on his tongue. “I don’t want to talk about this, Sam” she whispered, stepping back from him, weary of what was to come. “Because I’m right, isn’t it?”

A few seconds went by with silence, only interrupted by the sharp blow Sam had just delivered across his girlfriend’s cheek. She didn’t budge though. She opened her eyes, tears welling and threatening to spill as the stinging handprint on her face turned into a throbbing pain. That is definitely going to bruise as he allowed himself to smack the spot once more at the lack of an answer.

“You are a coward. Hitting a woman” she spat at him while her tears streamed down her face. A third slap. The last one. “Sam. I need you to leave my house right now” she breathed between her tears as the ache did nothing but throb. The sudden realisation seemed to hit him. “I told you I was done with your shit. Get whatever leftover of decency and clarity of mind you have and leave” her voice trembled. His eyes were wide in shock as he tried to plead for her to forget him. But the only thing she did was to call the police as he cried.

The only way she got him to leave was manacled by the police officer escorting him out of (Y/N)’s apartment. “Ma’am, if you would like to press charges, I will need you to come to the station with me”. Her mind was pleading for her to follow him but all she could think about was the soft cries of her son in her arms. “I can’t leave my son alone, do I have to do it right now?” she asked and the officer shook his head.

“Come to the station when you are ready, but I would advise you to have someone over to discuss it. Domestic violence is very hard to go through and it might be best for you to not do it alone”. (Y/N) simply nodded while she swayed the little boy around. With a bang, the door was closed and the only thing left in the apartment was his little tired cries. The officer’s words rang in her head once more and she pulled her from the counter, considering the choices she had to avoid being alone. The gentle wails of her boy stopped before she could properly think.

(Y/N): Hey, I know this is last minute but could we make it a dinner? Tonight?

Duncan: Sure! Do you want me to cover it? I’ll meet you at wherever! J

A tinge of regret bit her gut when she texted him back with her address. But there was no ounce in her action as she just curled with her boy on the couch, the exhaustion having taken him to sleep. Another knock pulled her to her feet and she found herself checking her reflection. The impact had left a small bruise right on her cheekbone and she tried to hide it by fanning out her hair. When she opened the door, the large smile of Duncan quickly faded at the sight of the dried tears and the not well hidden bruise.

“Are you alright?” he asked, concern dripping off of his tongue. All (Y/N) could do was nod and mention for him to come in. “I had an eventful evening to say the least” she glanced at the clock while closing her apartment door behind Duncan. “And it’s not even 8pm yet” she scoffed before inviting him in the living room. He watched her gently lean over the couch, covering her little boy’s face with tender kisses to wake him up.

His confused state brought some sort of qualm to her mother as he snaked his little arms around her neck, returning her kisses to her in a few blabbers. “Buddy, do you remember Duncan from this morning?” she softly whispered as he nestled close to her. His little head nodded and his tired face left the comfort of (Y/N)’s neck to look at the man. “Do you want to say hello to him?” she pepper his temple with kisses, gentle rocking him in her arms.

He whispered a little hello while rubbing his sleepy eyes before yawning and snuggling closer to his mother who quickly praised his politeness. “Sorry, Duncan, I guess this is a bit much to wrap your head around” (Y/N) chuckled. He reassured her, he surely wasn’t expecting his high school sweetheart to be a mother now but he wasn’t surprised about it either.

“Do you want to help mommy cook?” she looked at the little man who eagerly nodded before climbing down from his mother before scampering to his bedroom. “What happened?” Duncan attempted as he took a step closer to his hostess. “Sam got a little handsy and… Jealous, I guess” she rolled her eyes. “He convinces himself that any man around me is Liam’s father” she whispered, placing her cold hand on the swollen lump on her cheek.

Duncan seemed to freeze, her gaze averting his as much as she could but it pulled her right back in. “Your boy’s not his?” the young man wondered, slowly following his ex-lover to the kitchen where she started to pull together what could make a dinner. “No, to be fair, he barely was a boyfriend” she chuckled a bit, trying to relieve some of the growing tension caused by the conversation.

His blue gaze fell into the empty cupboards. “He didn’t particularly like the fact that I didn’t want to tell him who is” she carried on gently, “It’s not a conversation I enjoy having so I usually don’t answer when he asks”. Duncan seemed to piece together some dots. The worry stirred in Duncan’s stomach. “Did he ask if I was?” he finally asked after swallowing the growing lump in his throat.

(Y/N) nodded, pulling a large pot and filling it with water before pushing it on the stove. Duncan walked closer after a couple of minutes of silence fell between the two of them. “He even bought a paternity test to prove it” she scoffed again.

This was wrong, Duncan thought. He shouldn’t wrap his arms around her waist like he did. He shouldn’t rest his head on her shoulder. It didn’t matter if he had been hopelessly in love with her for nearly half of his life. “Am I?” he whispered as he felt her melt into his embrace. She really shouldn’t let her heart flutter the way it was when his breath fanned against her skin.

Her hands went to rest on his arms as if she was giving him a queue to hold her tighter against his chest. “Would you like to be?” she gingerly breathed once the thrumming of her heart got louder. “Why have you never told me?” Duncan pulled out of the embrace and for a second, he thought he might tear up. “Because I never needed to” she span on her heels, a comforting smile on features as she looked up to him.

“So… I’m the father?” his words fell out of his mouth, more as a statement than a question, with a rumble and she went to look at the floor. “No, Duncan, you’re not. Liam has just turned 3” she looked up at him. A heavy sigh left his chest but he wasn’t sure if it was in relief or disappointment. After releasing her own sigh and brushing her (Y/H/C) off of her face, she made eye contact. “His father was… a mistake” she admitted with a whisper.

“I never had the balls to tell him and he fell off the radar anyways.” Her arms crossed across her chest. “Are you… Doing okay?” he wondered as he looked around at the small apartment reminiscing of the empty cupboards. “The offer still stands from this morning, my mom would be happy to have you in the team” Duncan continued.

The rustling of feet came to the kitchen, bringing a happy smile across (Y/N)’s face. Skittish and shy, Liam quickly ran to his mother and asked if he could play in the living room instead of helping, his little heart filling up with happiness when the young woman gave him a nod. “I’m really sorry this happened” Duncan said when the sound of cartoons on TV rang from the living room. “Please let me order dinner, it’s not much but it’s some help, right?”

The slow sound of her whimpers snapped his attention to her and he quickly rushed to pull her in another embrace. His lips hastily found her forehead, covering it with tender kisses while she let herself cry in Duncan’s arms. “I should have never let you go on your own, I should have jumped in the car and followed you. It should be me fathering your children. It should be me filling your pantry with food and providing for the both of you” he whispered in her hair, her hold on him tightening as she clutched on his shoulder for dear life.

“If only you knew how much regret I felt the day we ended it” he breathed in the shell of her ear. Her hand left her grip on his back to reward him with weak little punches against his chest. But his grip on her never loosened.

“I had so much to give you, Duncan. I was so in love with you” she nestled her face in his neck, wetting the collar of his shirt with salty tears. “I still am” he gently whispered, dropping a soft kiss to her temple. “I promised you thick and thin, it was just such an awful timing and I am so very sorry” his voice trembled in his throat as her quiet sobs calmed down with his soothing embrace.

“You still love me?” (Y/N) quietly whimpered, pulling her face out of it’s perch to drown in the ocean blue of his eyes. The sight of her tearful eyes rid him from his speech, all he could do was nod. “I love you like the stars above” he breathed, losing himself in her eyes. “I’ll love you ‘till I die” he carried on before she gingerly pushed her lips against his, a gentle sigh escaping the both of them at the simple touch they had missed and craved for so long.

“Would you give us another chance?” Duncan’s lips quivered as he pulled from her lips and she nodded eagerly before joining their mouths again in a passionate kiss, his hands resting carefully on the small of her back while hers found purchase on his neck.

“Mommy?” pulled them away from one another, Duncan quickly turning away to hide his blushing cheeks. Tears welled up in the little boy’s eyes as he ran to his mother who quickly pulled him up in her arms. “Is your friend going to be mean to you too?” he softly whimpered against (Y/N), trying to give Duncan the meanest pair of eyes he could muster. “No buddy, we’ve been friends for a very, very long time, my friend isn’t mean” she shushed his tears by softly rocking him, her eyes catching the expression plastered on Duncan’s face.

“To prove I’m not mean, I’m going to let you chose whatever we eat tonight, how does that sound, little one?” he leaned closer to the little boy. Liam’s sad eyes turned mischievous in half of a heartbeat, looking back at his mother. “Really?” he asked her and after she gave another look to Duncan, she nodded. “Anything you’d like, honey” she kissed his chubby cheek, turned off the fire under the pot of water and went to crash on the couch with her boy in her arms and her man at her hips.

Hesitantly, Duncan perched his arm around (Y/N)’s shoulders, pulling her closer while little Liam snuggled closer to his mom. “So, what do you want to eat?” the man asked before watching the toddler stand tall, excitedly throwing his arms up and chanting “chicken nuggets” at the top of his lungs.

His mother looked fondly at him, not able to hold back a laugh before going straight under his tee-shirt to blow heavy raspberries on his tummy, having the boy crumble in heavy laughers against his mother. Fishing for his phone, Duncan quickly scrolled through his apps to find Postmates, quickly working through his own order before passing it over to the woman by his side. When she looked at it, she noticed he had already entered her usual “go-to” menu.

“You expected me to forget your McDonald’s order?” he chuckled while she picked Liam’s Happy Meal before giving him his phone back, a light blush on her cheeks. Her son’s face suddenly twisted and she didn’t even need a word to understand what went through his mind. “Potty?” she raised an eyebrow to him as a confirmation and he nodded before sliding off of her laps. “Do you need me to come?” she asked again as he shook his head, running for the bathroom.

They both could hear the scrapping of his stepping stool on the floor and a gentle chuckle shook (Y/N). “Does it hurt?” Duncan enquired as he looked at the angry shades of purples on her cheekbones. “No, not anymore” she went to poke it a couple of times. “You should put some ice on it” he replies as he stood up. “I’ll bring you some from the freezer” the young man said once more before navigating to the kitchen.

A heavy sigh left (Y/N) and for a moment, she enjoyed the silence surrounding her. It only lasted a few seconds before Liam’s voice rang from the bathroom. “Mooooooom! Heeeeelp!” the little boy whimpered and the young woman quickly rose to her feet to reach the bathroom door. “Can I come in?” she gently asked, pushing the door ajar. The little boy hummed as he tried reaching for the handle of the toilet. “Can’t flush” Liam whimpered as before watching his mother’s hand press on the handle for him. “Let’s go wash your hands now, you dirty boy” she teased, lifting her son up in the air as he giggled to the sink.

Following the gentle laughs, Duncan made his way to gentle laugh of (Y/N)’s boy while holding a flannel holding a few shards of ice. “Here” his voice softly whispered as he lowered the cold pack to her cheek. His hand landed on the small of her back while she watched him through the reflection of the mirror in front of them.

Liam broke the tension as he shouted a happy “Done!” by shaking his wet hands before being placed to the ground by (Y/N). Her body twisted gently, her hand resting on top of Duncan’s as he held the ice on her cheek and then, her eyes met his. Then his lips went to rest against hers with a gentle sigh, grazing the edge of her jaw with his knuckles.

But the tender gesture was interrupted by a loud knocking. Panic quickly pumped in (Y/N)’s veins. Her fearful eyes met Duncan’s once more before he went and fished for his phone. “Must be PostMate. I’ll get it” he pressed a protective kiss on her forehead before making his way to the front door to meet whoever was delivering their dinner.

The smell of fried food quickly filled the space and Liam jumped on the couch, chanting his praise for the fast food carried by Duncan. The young man chuckled at the little boy’s enthusiasm as (Y/N) joined the two men and helped unpack the content of the paper bags. The air filled with the gentle conversation Duncan started with Liam, taking an interest about the boy’s day care program.

Fondly looking at the pair, (Y/N) could not help but feel her heart swell. She, too, had never been able to dampen the quickening of her heart when she so much thought about the Shepherd’s son. She was just about 16 years old when she found herself falling for him. He had the typical bad boy demeanour and when he would take her out in his car to a shady alleyway to get high, she knew he was trouble. Even when after getting arrested and narrowly escaping juve, she couldn’t help but get drawn to Duncan.

While she watched them start to bond, she realised how much she had missed him and how much she loved watching his interaction with the toddler. She wished he had been the one to father the boy. She wished they had never been apart.

Duncan held the body of his girlfriend closer, the pad of his thumb ran across her cheek, wiping away tears that had spilled as while he made love to her. His heart sank in his chest as he watched (Y/N) burry her face in the crook of his neck. His grasp tightened and he finally spoke. “Why were you crying?” he peppered gentle kisses to her temple, another sigh shaking her frame as she held a sob.

“It might be the last time we see each other” she breathed out, her tears staining his skin once more. “I just love you so much, Duncan” (Y/N) propped herself against his chest to crash her quivering lips against her boyfriend’s. “And I love you just as much, babe” his voice trembled as the kiss broke off. “Someway, somehow, once you finish your degree, I’ll be here and I’ll woo you off of your feet and we’ll run away from DC” he reassured her tears away.

Duncan knew he meant every single words that rolled off of his tongue. The only thing he needed was his girl and he would do anything for her. Even if it meant to let her go so she could bloom and focus on her studies far from him. (Y/N) stirred out of consciousness, falling asleep in the arms of the one she was so desperately in love. She hoped she wouldn’t wake up because it would mean that, in the morning, she would have to jump in her car and drive away from him.

But she did wake up and the pair of arms holding onto her were a cruel reminder of what was about to happen. Slinking out of his sleeping grasp, she reluctantly snuck in his kitchen, cooking what was their last breakfast together possibly forever. The feeling of the warmth of his arms clutched at her heart. But there was just silence between the both of them. They ate in silence, held each other in silence, and got dressed in silence.

One last look at the clock made the nightmare a reality and with a sigh, (Y/N) sheepishly told Duncan she had to be on her way now. The young man nodded sadly, holding her heavy suitcase on their way down to their car. It was just silence until he loaded her belongings into the trunk of her car. She stood by the driver door of her car, tears flowing again on her face.

Duncan gingerly cupped her cheeks, tilting her head to kiss her once more as he held her tightly, holding back a sob of his own. “So, that’s it?” he whispered, his eyes looking far in the horizon of DC as he quickly blinked his tears away. He felt (Y/N) nod against his chest before their embrace was cut short.

She climbed in her car, lowering her window for him to prop himself on it, stealing a last handful of kisses, each more and more desperate as he felt his heart breaking. “We can do this” he whispered before crashing his lips against hers once last time. “I’ll never stop being in love with you, I swear it on my life” Duncan sobbed in front of her.

He rarely showed his emotions in public, afraid it would give his surrounding the idea that he was weak but, when he was with (Y/N), his façade melted away. She looked at him in the eyes one more time as she turned on the ignition of her car. “Seatbelt on. And call me when you get there, we can make it work” Duncan said, grazing her jaw with his knuckles. She nodded before finally speaking, “Don’t wait for me, Duncan” she whimpered before closing her window as her heart shattered.

The young man watching his lover drive away, convinced that the distance wouldn’t get between them, convinced that his family wouldn’t get between them, convinced that nothing could take away what they had. But when his mother’s reaction to his heartbreak was a cold “At least now, you don’t have anything holding you back anymore. No more dead weight”, he could only realise how wrong he was to believe this could have worked.

“(Y/N)?” His voice whispered, pulling her out of her daydream. When she shook her head, she realised why his voice was so low, the upper half of her son sprawled across Duncan’s laps, a gentle snore escaping his tired body. She bit back a laugh when she watched the man’s uncomfortable position. “You can move, he’s not a cat” she chuckled before reaching back for the boy.

“I’m going to put him to bed” her voice made Duncan nod, slowly lifting the sleeping child in her arm, carefully cradling him. “Can I come with?” he whispered, smiling softly at the vision in front of him. After watching the young woman nod, he jumped to his feet and followed her as she walked to the boy’s bedroom.

He went to lean against the frame of the door, fondly looking at (Y/N) as she laid her son in his bed, quickly changing him into his pyjamas before tucking him between the folds of his dinosaur print blanket. As she bent over to drop a handful of kisses on Liam’s face, her eyes met Duncan’s adoring gaze, a wave of crimson staining her cheeks.

Her feet carried her to him and they made their way back in the living room. Her frame dropped on the couch, releasing a sigh of relief before she started to gather all of the garbage on the table, silently helped by Duncan. He sat next to her, looking at the woman she became. “I’m sorry I never called” she broke the silence, trying to dismiss the tight knot in her throat. “I’m sorry I never tried to reach out for you” she closed her eyes as if it would prevent the tears threatening to spill from breaking free. “I’m sorry I was always too busy and never tried hard enough to make us work”.

His arms linked around her and he pulled her close to his chest as she kept of pushing apologies past her lips, sobs shaking her body. Duncan ran his hands through her (Y/H/C) locks while drawing soothing circles on her back as she grew silent. “I’m sorry I never visited” he softly whispered, his hand landing on her cheek to caress her skin softly. “I guess I convinced myself that, if it was meant to be, we would end up together no matter what” he stroked her hair once more, his gaze looking for her teary one.

“Look” Duncan caught her eyes in his, “I have never been able to be with anyone else than you and I don’t think I ever will be able to” he shifted on the couch to sit up. “I think you’re the love of my life and if we were the right people at the wrong time, so be it. But I’m here right now and I have not been this happy since you left” her lips caught his in a soft kiss after he spoke. His words resonated with him, she had never been able to get over her passionate love for him no matter how hard she tried. (Y/N) unsuccessfully dated a few men and even a woman at one point, but no matter how much she liked them, no one could quench the ache that her heat suffered from her separation with Duncan.

“Let’s take this chance. Build off of what we left. I want you to be The One” his voice was desperate as he pulled her on his laps, his face now lost against the gentle skin of her neck. “We could be a family” he whispered, his hands flat against her back while she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, allowing one of her hand to lose itself in the brown of his locks.

“What would people think?” her voice shook through her throat while she closed her eyes at the gentle contact of Duncan’s breath fanning out against her flesh. Goose bumps ignited her skin. “Fuck them” he said blankly before pecking her neck. “Life has given me another chance at being with you and I’m not wasting it” his lips pressed on her throat once more and (Y/N) sighed. “I had no idea exactly how much I missed you until I saw you” she admitted, giving his chocolate locks a gentle tug at the sensation. Their heartbeat synchronised in a heavy and fast harmony as if they had never been apart. “Are we really doing this?” she whispered right as Duncan laid her down on her couch, his kisses becoming hungrier and sloppier as he hummed against her skin.

As crimson flushed against her cheeks while his lips stained her collarbones with wet trails, she clutched his arms tightly, her eyes opening in shock. “No, we can’t, not right here” she whimpered as he propped himself up above her. Duncan captured his bottom lip at the alluring sight laying upon him. His eyes, dilated and darken with arousal, captured her figure before pushing himself off of her, clutching her hands to help her sit up. “Feel free to stay the night, though” she softly whispered while jumping up to her feet.

Duncan scratched the back of his neck while looking up to her. “You can crash on the couch or… We can carry this on to the bedroom?” the blush on her face seemed to spread further across her cheeks. The young man stood up, his body dangerously close to hers while his lips worked their way across her shoulder some more before playing with her own mouth, his tongue reaching to find it’s long lost mate. His finger slide underneath her thighs as he pulled her up against his chest.

The only thing breaking the fiery dance of their mouths consuming one another was the short whispers she released, directing their intertwined bodies to her bedroom. Duncan gingerly kicked the door shut, satisfied once it clicked into place, he then stepped further in until clumsily bumped on the frame of her bed, having them both tumble on the soft mattress with a few giggles.

It was like they were 17 again and exploring each other for the first time, learning how to love and worship the other’s body. A task they both mastered.

His lips explored the supple flesh of her neck with a soft array of sighs and quiet moans from his lover. A couple of tears prickled her eyes and silently glided against her cheeks and the heaving of her chest pulled Duncan’s out of his worship to look at her teary face. “Honey, why are you crying?” he whispered, shuffling to lay besides her instead of resting between her thighs. His hand reached up to wipe away the salty drops unfurling on her soft features, a concerned frown pinching his face together.

“I just… I’m so in love with you, Duncan” she whimpered as her hand reached to rest of the stubble of his jaw. “I want you forever and ever” her voice trembled so more and she bit down on her lip to stop it from quivering. “I’ve always said I was going to marry you one day” his face melted into a gentle smile as he pecked her lips. “And I’ve missed you so, so much” she finished in a breath as it fanned against his face, his eyes locked into hers.

His hips shifted to rest on hers once again and as his lips retrieved that sweet little spot he would suck on to drive her crazy, he released a raspy whisper to the shell of her ear. “Honey, remember that time we had to be extra quiet because my mom was sleeping across from us in that chalet in France?”. She eagerly nodded, her legs quivering while his tongue licked a wet and hot strip along she length of her ear. “Well, you’re going to have to make more of an effort to not wake up your son” he withdrew his face from it’s hiding spot against her neck and watched her bite her lips once more. Another nod rattled her face, this time more shy and reserved.

“Good. Because I’m about to make you feel how much I’ve missed you”

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Tagging the Killer Queen squad : @shenevertricks, @wroteclassicaly, @idespac, @psychobitchtess, @hplotrfan, @tea-party-at-wonderland, @langdxn, @hecohansen31 & @blakewaterxx

Just let me know if you would like to be tagged whenever I post a piece!

#duncan shepherd #duncan shepherd x reader #house of cards #hoc

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sophieakatz · 4 years

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Thursday Thoughts: Writing Advice (Part 2 of 3)

Welcome back!

I recently stumbled across this writer ask meme about pieces of writing advice, and I was having so much fun thinking about it that I decided to just respond to them all!

16. Start your story on a train

If it makes sense to do so, sure.

Be careful of advice that tells you what kind of scene to begin with or not to begin with. If everyone writes the same kind of opening scene, the slush pile readers start to get bored.

17. Rules are made to be broken

First you gotta learn the rules. That’s how you learn how to break them well.

18. The first draft of everything is shit

This is likely. I don’t recommend assuming that anything you write is going to be shit, because that can discourage you from writing at all. But I encourage you to be open to the possibility that your first draft will be shit. Give yourself permission to suck!

To paraphrase Neil Gaiman, a first draft is you telling yourself the story. Turning it into something that other people will understand is what editing is for.

19. Write drunk edit sober

I hadn’t heard this before, but I like it as a metaphor for letting go of your inhibitions. If you stress too much about making your first draft perfect, you might not write at all. I do my best first-draft writing after midnight, when I don’t care what anyone thinks anymore, not even myself.

When it’s time to edit, though, be ready to hold yourself to much higher standards.

20. Write stoned edit stoneder

I honestly have no idea what this means.

21. Leave home

This might mean a few different things, so I’m responding to each of them.

If you are suffering from writer’s block, a change of scenery can sometimes help. Go to the living room, go outside, go somewhere else (while maintaining an appropriate social distance).

If you want to expand what you know, in order to write something beyond what you know, leaving home can help. If you want to write about the world beyond your home with any amount or accuracy or relatability, then you need to experience the world.

If you want to create a dynamic story, most likely that’s going to involve having your characters leave home. We call it the “hero’s journey” for a reason. Usually, the hero goes somewhere. Now, that journey can be an internal one – the hero might not physically go anywhere at all. But the story will “go” somewhere.

22. Do not use semicolons

Semicolons are a tool; use them wisely.

23. Kill your darlings

I really, really don’t like this advice. It’s well-intentioned, yes. I get what people mean when they say “kill your darlings.” But I’m really not a fan of the phrase.

When people say “kill your darlings,” what they mean is, sometimes you will have a scene, line, or character that you love a lot. But then you will discover that for some reason – pacing, relevance, editorial demand – you need to cut that thing you love.

“Kill your darlings” instructs you to not be precious about it. If something isn’t working for your story, just get rid of it.

But the fact is, when you love something that you wrote, there is a reason! A darling is a darling because it is good! Maybe it doesn’t belong in this particular story. Maybe you do need to cut it. But you don’t need to kill it.

Darlings have value. That value might not be apparent yet, but it exists. You can always take the thing that you loved about that scene, line, or character and keep it safe somewhere, as inspiration for a new story in the future.

I recommend making a folder titled “Orphanage” and putting your darlings there. You can and will find a home for them someday.

24. Don’t edit as you write

This will vary from person to person, and from project to project.

When I’m drafting a novel, I need to shut up my inner editor and just write. If I let myself get carried away editing, then I’ll stress too much about making it sound perfect, and I’ll stress myself out of writing at all.

But if editing as you write works for you, then go for it! There’s no correct order for writing. If the right thing for you to do right now is spend an entire afternoon making a pivotal scene perfect, even if you haven’t finished the rest of the novel yet, then do it.

Do what works for you.

25. Always carry a notebook and pen

I’m a personal fan of this one. I carried a notebook and pen with me all through junior high. These days I’m more likely to jot down ideas in the notes app on my phone. I do have a little notebook I carry in my pocket at work, though, since I’m not allowed to have my phone out.

My memory isn’t good enough to go without some way of jotting down ideas when I have them. Also, having something to write on when I’m bored makes me happy. Writing is something I just plain need to do. It’s who I am.

26. If you have an idea, write it down, you are not going to remember it

I mean this is true for me. You know your own brain best.

27. Get off the Internet

Nah, dude, the internet is where I get my best ideas!

It can help to remove distractions when you have a deadline, of course. I like to set a timer for a half hour and tell myself that I cannot open Tumblr, Twitter, or Facebook until it goes off.

28. Do not show an early draft to anyone

Hm. The issue with showing an early draft to someone is that you’re still figuring out what the story is yourself. This is a vulnerable time for a writer. It can be very easy for someone else to look at an early draft and tell you what they think the story should be. They don’t do it on purpose, usually. But they’re not always right.

Once you know what the story is and what kind of effect you intend for it to have on other people, then you do need to show it to someone. You need to hear a reader’s perspective. It’s the only way to learn whether your story is doing what you intend it to do.

Only you can decide when it’s the right time to show someone else something that you’ve written. There is a right time. You do deserve to have other people read your work.

29. Do not show an early draft to anyone that you do not really trust

Choose your readers wisely. “Trust” is a tricky word; I think you can show your drafts to people that you know and love, and also to people that you don’t know very well.

The people you meet in a writing workshop might be more willing to give you useful critique than your parent who will tell you that everything you write is great. At the same time, your parent will know you well enough to give their critique in a way that makes sense to you, while a relative stranger might accidentally come off as rude or condescending.

Show your early drafts to people who will give you what you need. This means that you should give them some guidance about how they can help you, especially if they’re not used to giving writing critique.

Are you looking for praise and encouragement from the reader? Are you looking for how it makes the reader feel? Are you looking for which characters or moments stand out to the reader? Tell them what you need and see how they respond. That’s how you find useful critique partners.

And they are partners. If they are taking the time to read your work, figure out something you can do for them in return. If they are a writer, too, offer to read their work. If not, buy them a coffee.

30. Don’t drink and write

I don’t drink, but I don’t see why not. For some people, drinking might help you get to that no-inhibitions mental space I discover after midnight.

31. Read your story aloud

Reading your writing out loud is a fantastic editing tool. When you just use your eyes, your brain can fill in the blanks with what you meant to say. It’s harder to miss errors when you read out loud.

With plays and screenplays, which will eventually be read aloud by performers, you need to hear the story read aloud in order to discover what’s working well and what isn’t.

32. Start with the end in mind

This is not obligatory, but it can help.

There is a place for writing by the seat of your pants (“pantsing”), especially if you don’t yet know where the story will go or what it truly is about. Again, the first draft is you telling yourself the story.

But a cohesive narrative has an ending which resonates throughout the story. It makes sense as the place that the story was going all along. This isn’t the same thing as a predictable ending. It is an ending that makes sense as a consequence of everything that came before it.

My undergraduate screenwriting professor had us write the last ten pages of our screenplay very early in the semester. She told us to make our best guess about how the story would end. This forced me to figure out some things about the characters and their journey very quickly – which proved to be useful for my writing the rest of the semester.

Then my professor told us to not be afraid of changing the ending. Most likely, she said, once we actually got to the end, it would be very different than what we just wrote. But it was still important to keep the destination in mind as we took our characters along their journey.

To be continued…

#writing #advice #writing advice #writblr #writers of tumblr #reading #writing critique #editing #kill your darlings #thursday thoughts #listicles #first drafts #rules #writing rules #rules are made to be broken #endings

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everbrilliantheartbreaker · 5 years

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Fanfiction Reader Tag

Tagged by @eyeliner-vampire ♡ ♡

Fanfiction Reader Tag!

1. When did you start reading Fanfic (How old you were or how long ago)?

When I was probably...11 ish? so like 13 years ago

2. Do you have an AO3 account?

Yeh (LadyWisteria)

3. Do you read WIP (work in progress)? Why or why not?

All the time. I’m not picky about this at all. I’m a simple person. I see fic I think I’ll like? I read. doesn’t matter if it’s finished or not. I’ll make up my own ending til it is lol. also authors need that encouragement. finishing stuff is hard

4. What time of day is your ‘fic reading time’?

Usually late at night (like 1 a.m. and later..much later) but sometimes I’ll waste an afternoon instead (2 p.m. ish til I either have to go to work or I finish the fic)

5. How much time do you spend reading fic per week?

Not remotely as much time as I used, that’s for sure. Anywhere from an hour (if I’m rereading That favorite fic) to 2-4 hours if my friend has sent me a longfic again.

6. Do you listen to podfic (fanfic recorded like an audiobook)?

I...didn’t even know this was a thing tbh, so no. Sounds very neat but also I don’t listen to audio books anymore bcus my attention span re: audio input has gotten so bad over the years I can’t focus for more than a few minutes.

7. What’s your favorite fic genre to read?

AUs AUs AUs. and fantasy. and fantasy AUs (although good long AU fics are harder to find). I am a very simple person. I see magic mentioned, I read. I also read a lot of romance fic (proving once again that fanfic writing is often better than mainstream original writing, bcus romance is one of my least favorite YA/movie genres). I don’t read as much of them but I also love mystery and paranormal fics

8. Are there any genres that you tend to avoid?

Super angsty no happy ending type stuff. “Major Character Death” is an automatic nope lmao (unless the summary looks reaallyyy interesting or it was recc’d to me). Tragedy is definitely Not my thing

9. What tag(s) do you track?

I don’t track any fic tags (I stopped tracking tags at all since Tumblr changed it from “keeping track of new posts in said tag” to “dropping random posts from that tag into the middle of your dash, and usually the same three”)

10. How do you find new fic?

Nowadays I mostly just read what friends send me or the new stuff a very few writers I follow post, but sometimes I also come across stuff through Twitter or Tumblr and curiosity wins out

11. How do you organize your fic bookmarks?

I..don’t? Is this a thing people do?? If I wanna reread something I either search through my bookmarks by title/author or just. filter by fandom.

12. Do you subscribe to authors or stories?

Yeh. I only keep up with a very select few of them though. altho part of that is due to several of them being people I followed on fanfic.net years and years ago and never unfollowed, even though our interests may no longer be the same. (the other part is me going “oh I’ll read that later” and then just. never doing it.)

13. What is your favorite fanfic trope?

fake dating and bed sharing are always good

everyone is gay. also Good

14. What kind of plot line are you always here for?

“everything’s the same but they’re soulmates” (oh my god they were soulmates)

mafia AU

MAGIC

I really like in-between scene fics too. the events and character interactions that happen off-screen. I like writing those

15. What can an author do to make you love them?

write about my faves frequently

cool AUs

write about minor characters

good sense of humor

16. What can an author do to make you avoid them?

not into mpreg fics

a/b/o fics make me super wary I usually pass on those, even if the summary looks mildly interesting. they’re rarely if ever done in a way that isn’t rapey and gross

don’t care for fics period that have rapey scenes but you’re supposed to find them romantic

adult/minor ships

characterization is a big deal to me so if I don’t like how they handle the characters, especially faves I probably won’t be back

17. What do kudos mean to you?

when I get one I have a few seconds of “oh someone kinda liked this thing I wrote” and then I carry on about my day >.>;;; (I do appreciate them tho)

18. What kind of commenter are you (No comment, short comment, keyboard smash)?

I don’t comment as often as I mean to or wish I did, but when I do they’re loong comments (I’ve passed the AO3 character limit at least once kshg)

I tend to quote favorite parts and then react to them, and I like to theorize and ask questions about character’s thoughts at a certain part or what author imagines happens before/after the fic

19. Have you ever stopped reading a fic? Why or why not?

Yes. Once because I stumbled into a very sexually explicit fic when that was. Not at all what I was expecting (I was also very young lol), I think there was a very few I quit because they were boring or very poorly written, but most often I “quit” a fic for the same reason I don’t do audio books anymore lmao: because my attention span is sht and my motivation and commitment are extremely fickle things. I either forget or just wander away for a bit and then forget. Often I mean to come back and finish it; it’s just a matter of how long it takes. (I also second hand embarrassed out of a fic so hardcore that it’s been a whole 9 months since I’ve touched it khdfgd)

20. Have you ever read a fic more than once? What is it about that fic that makes you want to read it again?

YES. This requires like a minimum 4 separate posts to really answer but:

Behind Bricks and The Penance of a Killer by Deathbelle

this person is my fricking favorite author ever and these are two of my fricking favorite fics ever, I must’ve reread Behind Bricks 6 or 8 times now and Penance is the BokuAka-centric companion piece to my favorite fic of all time that I always wanted

Mending Bonds and If the Heart Breaks, Does That Mean There’s No Home? by RussianSunflower3

Mending Bonds is soft found family fluff centering on a very minor fave of mine and If the Heart Breaks is very angsty found family fluff that also focuses on some minor characters and it always hurts my heart but the ending and the soft middle always heal it right back up (“[Hanamaki] has a heart big enough for everyone in the world, and then some.” ohhhh my godd)

Boiled Frogs by ReginaGalaxia

this one is. a really hard read centered around emotional abuse and manipulation and hoooo boy it is a rough read especially if you’ve experienced any of that personally but it’s so well written and the character dynamics are great and in its lighter moments it’s fricking hilarious.

(bits and pieces of) The Roost by Ugglabarn

bits and pieces only bcus Roost has a lot of very heavy dark content that I’d have to be in a specific mood to reread the whole thing because it hurts my heart way too much but also it’s one of the best Fukurodani-centric longfics I’ve ever read (PLUS AN AU..!!) and I love love how they write the characters and how much focus there is on the minor members and ships and in its lighter moments Roost is also really funny the most recent chapter was hilarious

Expensive Hotel by Crown_of_Winterthorne

smut. explicit smut. excellent explicit smut with loving polyamorous boyfriends and plenty of consent discussion and kissing. my entire jam right there

Class 1-A Whomst? by Ya_Boi_Hal

this is the funniest chatfic I’ve ever read in my life and the first good chatfic I ever read. absolutely hysterical. also has some really good serious content in the middle and some Aizawa dialogue that punched me right in the feels. 12/10 will read again. sometimes I just randomly say “Mineta whomst??” and cackle to myself

and back in the day it was:

The Flame of Betrayal by DataIntegrationThoughtEntity

I guess traitor! Tahu was a popular trope back when Bionicle fandom was at its peak?? and not everyone liked it apparently but I enjoyed this fic greatly every time I read it it was well written and had interesting OCs and I am actually highly tempted to go reread it again

and Asleep Beneath a Wheat Field by Feline Freak

this was a very peculiar little OC-centric one shot that was also very sad and I don’t know why it grabbed me like it did but I remember rereading it 3 or 4 times at least

21. Do you like sequels?

The fics I like don’t usually come with sequels but The Penance of a Killer is one so Yes

22. Do you like dabbles?

I guess? I haven’t read too many I don’t think but hey, more fic is more fic. Who’s gonna complain about that?

23. What do you wish more fic authors would do?

Write about minor characters more

24. What do you wish more authors would stop doing?

that thing where they latch onto one facet of a character’s personality - or worse, one that fandom made up - and write them as if that’s the only trait they have

25. Do you like one-shots or multi-chapter?

Multi-chapter. I mean both are great obviously but the majority of my faves are multi-chapter and obviously if I like a fic I’m gonna wanna spend as much time in that universe as possible

26. How long do you like chapters to be?

Usually I feel the longer the better. once in a while I’ll hit one that’s so long it’s kind of distracting but extremely rarely

27. What’s your favorite POV (point of view) to read (first, second, third)?

Third

28. What do you think of OC’s?

I didn’t use to care for them very much but as I started reading fic by more advanced writers I found several I really liked. have a very small list of OCs from recent fics I’ve read I would actually kill a man for I love them so much

29. Do you download fic?

No, but seeing as my absolute favorite Bionicle fic vanished off the face of the earth several years ago and I cannot find anything about it an y wh ere sometimes I think about saving my faves. I never got to finish reading that fic and I am absolutely devastated every time I think about it.

30. Tell me something else about your fic reading! Anything else!

best thing is when my friend and I buddy read a fic and send each other our favorite parts

Tag!

@yaelathewordsmith and @samantha-girlscout ♡ ♡ ♡

#Toa does a meme #long post #i didn't forget about this i've just been picking at it ever since u tagged me

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weakeninghope · 6 years

Text

The (love) story we wrote together

Rating: Teen

AO3 link here

Summary: He didn't think it was important, it was just a random insult written on his desk, easy to erase -which he did when he saw it- (written in a horrible penmanship, if he had to add something) and he probably knew the culprit. It was most likely Yut-Lung, an underclassman who had his diva-like eyes on Ash for some reason. Well, Ash did know the reason. Turns out Ash Lynx here was the top student in his high school year, with an IQ over 200, he was even smarter than his upperclassmen, and Yut-Lung was jealous, because he was the smartest in his class, but he was still way behind Ash, and that asshole hated losing.

Notes: It's been a long time!! I'm here again hehe this time I'm here with something I read on otpprompts about messaging a person using a table and writing to them and I thought it could be a cute idea for Asheiji.This is my gift to postingpebbles aka @eijis-okuumura on tumblr for the @bananafishvalentines! I hope you enjoy this <3!! Sorry if anything feels weird, this spent two weeks sitting on my drafts because I couldn’t ffind the time or the inspiration to end it, but I did my best anyway ;;;;

I hope everyone likes this, comments and kudos are much appreciated ;;

I'm weakeninghope on tumblr and Shirotxpoison on twitter btw, you can contact me if you want *^* See you soon!

fic under the cut!

The first time it happened, Ash just brushed it off.

–

He didn't think it was important, it was just a random insult written on his desk, easy to erase -which he did when he saw it- (written in a horrible penmanship, if he had to add something) and he probably knew the culprit. It was most likely Yut-Lung, an underclassman who had his diva-like eyes on Ash for some reason. Well, Ash did know the reason. Turns out Ash Lynx here was the top student in his high school year, with an IQ over 200, he was even smarter than his upperclassmen, and Yut-Lung was jealous, because he was the smartest in his class, but he was still way behind Ash, and that asshole hated losing.

Well, too bad for him.

Ash just hoped it was a one time thing, though, he had enough with Yut-Lung calling him a nerd or making fun of his glasses when they crossed ways in the corridors, he didn't want someone to dirty his desk, the only place besides the high school library where he could be by himself and all right, reading a book or writing stories like his brother had been teaching him ever since he was a brat. The blond just wanted silence, he had already a bunch of reasons for punching the hell out of Yut-Lung and his followers, but if he got expelled that would cause trouble to him in the end.

And he wouldn't be able to see him.

That's right. Ash Lynx, 17 years old, the lone wolf, the smartass, had a crush on an upperclassman. He didn't even know his name, he just knew how every time they crossed ways on the corridor to commute classes (there was a course that his crush and the other third year students did on Ash's class) their gazes would cross and Ash would stare agape at those black eyes, that apparently looking silky hair... damn, Ash was enhanced even by their height difference. The boy was slightly shorter.

Oh, he would have to tip-toe if they were to kiss...

Damn, snap out of it! Ash thought. He would often space out in class thinking about him, even though every time the teacher asked a question, Ash always got the answer right. But he was constantly spacing out thinking about that boy, even if he didn't even know his name. Sometimes, he would even fantasize with the boy sitting in his desk, being able to be in the same place as he was, even if just for a moment...

Maybe that was too much.

Whatever.

Those bastards better not touch Ash's desk again if they didn't want to be taught a lesson. Ash was a tidy person, and besides that, he hated trash and that “nerd” written in his desk was that, trash. The letters forming the word were ugly as fuck, it wasn't even nice to your eyes, reading that shit. Moreover, weren't desks supposed to be clean? Like, if you don't keep them clean, weren't you supposed to be on detention?

It turns out that he was wrong.

–

The second time it happened, Ash was angry.

–

That time, there were various insults in his desk, those bastards went beyond the classic, recurrent “nerd”, they wrote “asshole” “bastard” “nerd”, “loner”. That last one was written in a puffy, boring penmanship, which Ash identified as Yut-Lung's. Ash had a keen eye for identifying kinds of penmanship, and he had seen Yut-Lung's once, enough for Ash to recognize it forever.

Instead of staying put like he always did, Ash decided to take action. That winter day in the middle of January, shivering by the cold but with his blood boiling, Ash launched himself at Yut-Lung; he knew where his class was.

“What the fuck are you doing to my desk?” Ash shouted straight to Yut-Lung’s face.

“Me? I wouldn't dare doing anything to the genius of this institution.” Yut-Lung replied.

“The first time you used your lackeys and now you wrote in it yourself. Don't play dumb. Well, you don't have to “play”. You are dumb.” Ash yelled.

Yut-Lung got angry at that, his face went red and he jerked his arm, grabbing Ash's.

“You pretentious bastard! I'm tired of you trying to be superior!” Yut-Lung cried, his voice echoing in the hallways.

“No one's talking about superiority you asshole! I just want you to stop fucking with my desk!” Ash shouted. Having arrived at that point, a lot of people were gathered around them. That highschool loved rumors and fights, huh. Ash just wanted those fuckers to stop messing with him. So what if he was a loner? It was better than to mingle with people like Yut-Lung.

(even though Ash would love to mingle with people like his crush)

Then, Yut-Lung ran away with tears in his eyes. A few minutes after that, he came back with a teacher, and Ash got expelled. Oh well, it looks like it was bound to happen, eventually.

That day, when he got home, Griffin asked him about what had happened.

“Got into trouble?” He kindly asked.

“I'm sick and tired of Yut-Lung.” Ash said.

“Didn't I told you to ignore him?” Griffin asked in return.

“I do ignore him! But this time he started writing insults on my desk!” Ash shouted, furrowing his eyebrows.

“And instead of insulting him couldn't you just erase the insults and keep living your life? I mean, he's an underclassman, he isn't even your classmate.”

“But I bet he stalks me. He knows in which classes I study. He knows where I sit and he writes stuff in my desk, Griff. And I don't like people sitting in my desk.”

“Then you won't like the period in which you have to swap classes between those people in third year.”

Ash's heart skipped a bit. He suddenly got flustered and even blushed a little bit. Griff raised an eyebrow.

“So there's someone you like in third year? Oh, Ash... Youth is so plentiful...” Griffin acted, putting a hand in his forehead and raising his voice, like he was performing something dramatic.

Ash remained silent, but Griffin kept going nevertheless.

“So now you're over Kelly Momsen? The girl you liked when you were 14 years old?” Griffin asked. How the hell did he know about Kelly?

“Shut up. I don't think about her anymore. We grew apart and that's it. But at least at that time I didn't have to worry about assholes insulting me in my desk.” Ash stated.

“Well, use those three days to think about you've done and blah blah blah and all the things you know you'd have to do but you won't do. But please don't call one of the favorite pupils “an asshole” in front of the whole class, got it?” Griffin said, winking an eye to Ash, which made clear that he wasn't angry. Griff wasn't angry most of the time, he knew Ash had his reasons.

Instead of doing what Griffin told him, Ash used his time off the school to think about his crush, to think about how now they wouldn't be looking at each other when commuting classes, which was a shame. But they'd eventually see each other again, so it wasn't that bad.

And they did, they saw each other again when Ash returned to school the following monday.

But then it happened again.

The third time it happened, Ash was tired of this shit already.

–

That looked like it was Yut-Lung's revenge, because besides from insults there was stuff like “you'll pay for this” written on his desk. Instead of ignoring it like Griff said, Ash chose to reply that time. He used all the remaining space in his desk to scribble a big, SHUT UP, with the best penmanship he could manage, because he wanted to make Yut-Lung angry, if he were to tell the truth.

The day after that, he expected to encounter another insult as he sat in his chair (which was right by the window, he could see the snow falling), but what he found instead was a clean desk, only his “shut up” remained. That, and a reply to his comment in a penmanship he had never seen before. It was simple, not much could be said about it, but it still looked cute and attractive.

That's some nice penmanship.

And then Ash had a crazy idea. He knew the handwriting of all his classmates by heart, so it had to be someone from another class, or someone from another high school year.

From another school year.

His heart skipped a beat.

There was a possibility. There was a class which was conducted in that room, and his crush attended to that course.

What if...?

No, no, wishful thinking.

But still, he replied something.

Can't say that about yours, though

He didn't mean it in a bad way, though, he hoped the receiver of the message got it, it wasn't a threat, or something bad, he just wanted to... start a conversation. For the first time in his life since he met Shorter, his best friend, who was in another class and they didn't coincide in any subject.

That night, Ash went to sleep thinking about the receiver of the message. What kind of person could they be? They looked like a nice person, erasing those insults. But a little bit nosy too, they minded another person's business after all. However, Ash wasn't... entirely dissatisfied with what happened. Suddenly, all of Ash's class periods didn't matter; he was only focused on the one in which he could talk, well, write, to the person sitting on his desk.

And so he fell sound asleep hearing the sound of the pouring rain as he thought about the mysterious person.

The following day, Ash found a clean desk again, with only a single sentence written on it.

Thank you, thank you. I try to write as well as I can. It's not my speciality, though.

Ash wondered if someone had written insults on his desk again and that kind person had cleaned them off as they did last time, but instead of giving it much thought, he just replied the message.

What is your speciality, then?

He swirled the pencil around his fingers, thinking about tomorrow and the answer he'd receive. The days were slowly going by and each day, he exchanged a line with the secret person he was writing to.

I am on the pole-vaulting team. They wrote one day. Ash slowly imagined his crush in the pole-vaulting team; his crush training, wearing gym shorts, sweating as he ran, his taut muscles exposed for him to see... damn... did he seriously had to think of this?

It was inevitable, every time he commuted classes and saw the boy, he would look at him as if he knew something Ash wasn't aware of, meanwhile Ash secretly dreamed about the desk person being him.

If it was really him, he had to work on improving his handwriting though.

That's nice. I write. Ash replied. My brother taught me, he is a novelist and I love his stories. He really enjoyed Griff's books and stories, he wasn't lying. If Griff was here though, he would probably say that that look like a classic shoujo manga story and that Ash was head over heels for his crush and that the person on the desk was probably interested in Ash.

At times like those were when Ash's heart seemed to stop; what if they were really the same person?

Anyway, he didn't want to worry about that, everything was going smoothly with the receiver, they spent a few days exchanging life stories, anecdotes; and their penmanship was slowly getting better. Ash was starting to love it. Besides from that, every time he crossed ways in the corridor with the boy from third year, he would smile at Ash; a knowing smile. Ash was way too flustered by that, it couldn't be true that he was losing his cool demeanor.

But he did.

That's great. By the way, would you like us to meet?

Boom.

Ash's head exploded. Of course he wanted to meet them. He had spent an entire month talking to that person, he desperately wanted to know who they were so he could finally know if they were his crush or they were another person. He needed confirmation and he needed it as soon as possible, so he answered that he was okay with it.

Okay, let’s meet tomorrow by the gym, at lunchtime.

He hoped he hadn’t sounded rude, but since it was written everything seemed more serious. Deep inside, Ash was afraid of the person not showing up. He had abandonment issues ever since his mother went out of the picture when he was born, and his father neglected both him and Griffin, but that person seemed pretty gentle, right? They would definitely show up, right?

Yeah, right.

Ash went to the gym as he said and spent an entire hour waiting, only for uselessly acknowledging that he had kept his hopes up and that he should just give up. He should have never started this to begin with. Who the hell starts a friendship or whatever with someone you’ve never seen?

That day nothing was written on the table when commuting classes either, and his crush was missing too. Good, February 13th couldn’t get any worse.

What Ash didn’t know though, was that Yut-Lung had planned it all out. He knew who the person writing those messages was and successfully entertained its subject, Eiji Okumura, so that he couldn’t meet Ash.

Eiji was so tired. He had spent an entire hour going over his paperwork of the student council and he couldn’t even get a second to sneak out of the student council room to go meet the person he was scribbling with. He didn’t dislike Yut-Lung, but he had to admit that what he did was kind of unfortunate and that he could have waited or could have asked Eiji for his help another day.

He had to make it up to that person because he didn’t want them to think that Eiji had left them alone.

That was when Eiji got an idea. That day was February 13th, so the next one was Valentines Day. He could make chocolate for them and tell them to meet in the gym that afternoon, because truth be told, Eiji had a little crush on that person. Was it weird, to like someone you haven’t even seen?

Eiji shrugged and kept going over his paperwork. He didn’t know if it was normal or not, but it was happening. That person had… nice handwriting; and there was something in the way they spoke that was strangely captivating.

As captivating as his underclassman, the blond one he kept eyeing when he went into his classroom. Well, Eiji supposed he had to say goodbye to them now, his heart already had an owner.

Eiji was determined to finish that and to go home to make the chocolate, and this time, he would sign it with his name. It was time to be brave.

You’ve got this, Eiji. You’ve gone to worse hardships than having to help with the student council paperwork. You’re in the pole vaulting team and you’re doing pretty well. You will ace this.

The next morning, when the time in which he usually read messages from the person at the other side of the table (which sounded pretty weird, he was really communicating with someone via a table) arrived, Ash found a pretty pleasant surprise.

Chocolate.

Oh my god today is Valentines Day. Ash thought.

Oh my god there’s a note attached to the chocolate. Ash thought. His heartbeat increased. He felt his face grow hot.

With slightly shaky hands, Ash started reading the note. And then he froze.

The handwriting.

It was from the nice penmanship person.

“It’s me. I’m sorry for not showing up yesterday, I had to help the student council with some paper work. I hope you like this in compensation for what happened. Let’s meet today at 5PM near the gym, if you’d like?

Eiji Okumura.”

A name.

Oh my god the person he had been talking with had finally identified themselves. They weren’t a blurry ghost in Ash’s mind anymore. And today he was going to meet them, but he wanted to do a little investigation, and Shorter was going to help him.

At lunchtime, he went to look for his friend and told him what had happened.

“Do you remember the person I was talking to?” Ash asked while looking at Shorter, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Via your table.” His friend deadpanned.

“Yes.” Ash answered.

“I still can’t believe you’ve spent a month talking to someone via a fucking table, Ash.” Shorter stated while pointing at Ash.

“Shut up and listen to me.” Ash grabbed his hand and put it back to its place. Shorter was a bit annoying sometimes.

“Aye aye, sir.” Shorter motioned, sailor-like.

“They’ve given me this” Ash held the wrapped box of chocolates in front of Shorter’s eyes. “And sign this note. Eiji Okumura. We need to find out how his face looks like.”

“You’re talking to the master of figuring out how people’s faces look like”

“That’s why I’ve come to talk to you”

“You flatter me.”

“Let’s go to where the teacher have the data on the students. If we rummage through the computer will find data on the people from third year. And you said he was on the pole vaulting team? We could find something out.”

And so they did. Shorter entertained the teachers while Ash went inside the faculty room only to find out that the table person was actually his crush.

Eiji Okumura.

The boy he had spent so much time dreaming about.

The boy he imagined in tight shorts running-

Focus.

Rummaging through a computer that doesn’t belong to you sent a strange thrill to Ash, knowing he had done something he shouldn’t have, but he had a goal in his mind.

The rest of the day went by pretty boringly, he was way to flustered and nervous about the encounter with his crush to think about anything else.

Until the time to meet arrived, and Ash grabbed a pen and went to the gym. Eiji was waiting for him, and without saying anything, he went to where he was and wrote “it’s me” on his hand.

Eiji then reacted, blushed to the tip of his ears and confessed something. And they started confessing their lives out.

“To be honest, I have a crush on you.” Eiji confessed.

“To be honest I’ve been in love with you since I entered this high school.” Ash followed.

“To be honest I’ve been looking at you when we crossed ways in the corridor.” Eiji continued.

“To be honest I’ve imagined you in your sport clothes running and thought you were pretty handsome-“ Ash blurted out. Shit! He wasn’t supposed to say that! “Forget what I said.”

“What if I don’t want to.” Eiji said, approaching Ash and grabbing his hand. It was warm.

“Well, you’re the upperclassman here.” Ash admitted, his fierce green eyes piercing Eiji’s adorable black ones. “But I’ll make you forget.” He finished.

“Oh, how?” Eiji asked.

Ash then closed the distance between them with a kiss. It was fast, harsh and imperfect, a bump of lips more than a kiss, the rim of his glasses smashed Eiji’s nose.

“That was a terrible kiss.” Eiji chuckled.

“Want to prove if you can do it better?” Ash taunted.

And then Eiji shut him up with a kiss and his pen fell, rolling on the floor.

“Wait!” Ash exclaimed when they parted “I need that to talk to a very special person!” He said.

“You’re terrible.” Eiji laughed.

And everything seemed to be all right. Ash was undeniably happy.

Yut-Lung, who had seen the development of what was happening, on the other hand, wasn’t as happy.

But honestly,

Fuck him.

#asheiji #banana fish #ash lynx #eiji okumura #bananafishvalentines

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mostlysignssomeportents · 6 years

Text

#1yrago My RSS feeds from a decade ago, a snapshot of gadget blogging when that was a thing

Rob Beschizza:

I chanced upon an ancient backup of my RSS feed subscriptions, a cold hard stone of data from my time at Wired in the mid-2000s. The last-modified date on the file is December 2007. I wiped my feeds upon coming to Boing Boing thenabouts: a fresh start and a new perspective.

What I found, over 212 mostly-defunct sites, is a time capsule of web culture from a bygone age—albeit one tailored to the professional purpose of cranking out blog posts about consumer electronics a decade ago. It's not a picture of a wonderful time before all the horrors of Facebook and Twitter set in. This place is not a place of honor. No highly-esteemed deed is commemorated here. But perhaps some of you might like a quick tour, all the same.

The "Main" folder, which contains 30 feeds, was the stuff I actually wanted (or needed) to read. This set would morph over time. I reckon it's easy to spot 2007's passing obsessions from the enduring interests.

↬ Arts and Letters Daily: a minimalist blog of links about smartypants subjects, a Drudge for those days when I sensed a third digit dimly glowing in my IQ. But for the death of founder Denis Dutton, it's exactly the same as it was in 2007! New items daily, but the RSS feed's dead.

↬ Boing Boing. Still around, I hear.

↬ Brass Goggles. A dead feed for a defunct steampunk blog (the last post was in 2013) though the forums seem well-stocked with new postings.

↬ The Consumerist. Dead feed, dead site. Founded in 2005 by Joel Johnson at Gawker, it was sold to Consumer Reports a few years later, lost its edge there, and was finally shuttered (or summarily executed) just a few weeks ago.

↬ Bibliodyssey. Quiescent. Updated until 2015 with wonderful public-domain book art scans and commentary. A twitter account and tumblr rolled on until just last year. There is a book to remember it by should the bits rot.

↬ jwz. Jamie Zawinski's startling and often hilariously bleak reflections on culture, the internet and working at Netscape during the dotcom boom. This was probably the first blog that led me to visit twice, to see if there was more. And there still is, almost daily.

↬ Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society. Curios and weirdness emerging from the dust and foul fog of old books, forbidden history and the more speculative reaches of science. So dead the domain is squatted. Creator Josh Foer moved on to Atlas Obscura.

↬ The Tweney Review. Personal blog of my last supervisor at Wired, Dylan Tweney, now a communications executive. It's still going strong!

↬ Strange Maps. Dead feed, dead site, though it's still going as a category at Big Think. Similar projects proliferate now on social media; this was the wonderful original. There was a book.

↬ BLDGBLOG. Architecture blog, posting since 2004 with recent if rarer updates. A fine example of tasteful web brutalism, but I'm no longer a big fan of cement boxes and minimalism with a price tag.

↬ Dethroner. A men's self-care and fashion blog, founded by Joel Johnson, of the tweedy kind that became wildly and effortlessly successful not long after he gave up on it.

↬ MocoLoco. This long-running design blog morphed visually into a magazine in 2015. I have no idea why I liked it then, but indie photoblogs' golden age ended long ago and it's good to see some are thriving.

↬ SciFi Scanner. Long-dead AMC channel blog, very likely the work of one or two editors and likely lost to tidal corporate forces rather than any specific failure or event.

↬ Cult of Mac. Apple news site from another Wired News colleague of mine, Leander Kahney, and surely one of the longest-running at this point. Charlie Sorrel, who I hired at Wired to help me write the Gadget blog, still pens articles there.

↬ Ectoplasmosis. After Wired canned its bizarre, brilliant and unacceptably weird Table of Malcontents blog, its editor John Brownlee (who later joined Joel and I in editing Boing Boing Gadgets) and contributor Eliza Gauger founded Ectoplasmosis: the same thing but with no hysterical calls from Conde Nast wondering what the fuck is going on. It was glorious, too: a high-point of baroque indie blogging in the age before Facebook (and I made the original site design). Both editors later moved onto other projects (Magenta, Problem Glyphs); Gauger maintains the site's archives at tumblr. It was last updated in 2014.

↬ Penny Arcade. Then a webcomic; now a webcomic and a media and events empire.

↬ Paul Boutin. While working at Wired News, I'd heard a rumor that he was my supervisor. But I never spoke to him and only ever received a couple of odd emails, so I just got on with the job until Tweney was hired. His site and its feed are long-dead.

↬ Yanko Design. Classic blockquote chum for gadget bloggers.

↬ City Home News. A offbeat Pittburgh News blog, still online but lying fallow since 2009.

↬ Watchismo. Once a key site for wristwatch fans, Watchismo was folded into watches.com a few years ago. A couple of things were posted to the feed in 2017, but its time has obviously passed.

↬ Gizmodo. Much has changed, but it's still one of the best tech blogs.

↬ Engadget. Much has changed, but it's still one of the best tech blogs.

↬ Boing Boing Gadgets. Site's dead, though the feed is technically live as it redirects to our "gadgets" tag. Thousands of URLs there succumbed to bit-rot at some point, but we have plans to merge its database into Boing Boing's and revive them.

↬ Gear Factor. This was the gadget review column at Wired Magazine, separate from the gadget blog I edited because of the longtime corporate divorce between Wired's print and online divisions. This separation had just been resolved at the time I began working there, and the two "sides" -- literally facing offices in the same building -- were slowly being integrated. The feed's dead, but with an obvious successor, Gear.

↬ The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Required reading at the time, and very much a thing of its time. Now vaguely repulsive.

↬ i09. This brilliant sci-fi and culture blog deserved more than to end up a tag at Gizmodo.

↬ Science Daily: bland but exhaustive torrent of research news, still cranking along.

The "Essentials" Folder was material I wanted to stay on top of, but with work clearly in mind: the background material for systematically belching out content at a particular point in 2007.

↬ Still alive are The Register, Slashdot, Ars Technica, UMPC Portal (the tiny laptop beat!), PC Watch, Techblog, TechCrunch, UberGizmo, Coolest Gadgets, EFF Breaking News, Retro Thing, CNET Reviews, New Scientist, CNET Crave, and MAKE Magazine.

↬ Dead or quiescent: GigaOm (at least for news), Digg/Apple, Akihabara News, Tokyomango, Inside Comcast, Linux Devices (Update: reincarnated at linuxgizmos.com), and Uneasy Silence.

Of the 23 feeds in the "press releases" folder, 17 are dead. Most of the RSS no-shows are for companies like AMD and Intel, however, who surely still offer feeds at new addresses. Feeds for Palm, Nokia and pre-Dell Alienware are genuine dodos. These were interesting enough companies, 10 years ago.

PR Newswire functions as a veneering service so anyone can pretend to have a big PR department, but it is (was?) also legitimately used by the big players as a platform so I monitored the feeds there. They're still populated, but duplicate one another, and it's all complete garbage now. (It was mostly garbage then.)

My "Gadgets and Tech" folder contained the army of late-2000s blogs capitalizing on the success of Gizmodo, Boing Boing, TechCrunch, et al. Back in the day, these were mostly one (or two) young white men furiously extruding commentary on (or snarky rewrites of) press releases, with lots of duplication and an inchoate but seriously-honored unspoken language of mutual respect and first-mover credit. Those sites that survived oftentimes moved to listicles and such: notionally superior and more original content and certainly more sharable on Facebook, but unreadably boring. However, a few old-timey gadget bloggers are still cranking 'em out' in web 1.5 style. And a few were so specialized they actually had readers who loved them.

Still alive: DailyTech, technabob, CdrInfo.com, EverythingUSB, Extremetech, GearFuse, Gizmag, Gizmodiva, Hacked Gadgets, How to Spot A Psychopath/Dans' Data, MobileBurn, NewLaunches, OhGizmo!, ShinyShiny, Stuff.tv, TechDigest, TechDirt, Boy Genius Report, The Red Ferret Journal, Trusted Reviews, Xataca, DigiTimes, MedGadget, Geekologie, Tom's Hardware, Trendhunter, Japan Today, Digital Trends, All About Symbian (Yes, Symbian!), textually, cellular-news, TreeHugger, dezeen.

Dead: jkkmobile.com, Business Week Online, About PC (why), Afrigadget (unique blog about inventors in Africa, still active on FaceBook), DefenseTech, FosFor (died 2013), Gearlog, Mobile-Review.com (but apparently reborn as a Russian language tech blog!), Robot's Dreams, The Gadgets Weblog, Wireless Watch Japan, Accelerating Future, Techopolis, Mobile Magazine, eHome Upgrade, camcorderinfo.com (Update: it became http://Reviewed.com), Digital Home Thoughts (farewell), WiFi Network News (farewell), Salon: Machinist, Near Future Lab, BotJunkie (twitter), and CNN Gizmos.

I followed 18 categories at Free Patents Online, and the site's still alive, though the RSS feeds haven't had any new items since 2016.

In the "news" folder, my picks were fairly standard stuff: BBC, CNET, digg/technology, PC World, Reuters, International Herald Tribune, and a bunch of Yahoo News feeds. The Digg feed's dead; they died and were reborn.

The "Wired" feed folder comprised all the Wired News blogs of the mid-2000s. All are dead. 27B Stroke 6, Autopia, Danger Room, Epicenter, Gadget Lab, Game|Life, Geekdad, Listening Post, Monkey Bites, Table of Malcontents, Underwire, Wired Science.

These were each basically one writer or two and were generally folded into the established mazagine-side arrangements as the Age of Everyone Emulating Gawker came to an end. The feed for former EIC Chris Anderson's personal blog survives, but hasn't been updated since his era. Still going strong is Bruce Sterling's Beyond the Beyond, albeit rigged as a CMS tag rather than a bona fide site of its own.

Still alive from my 2007 "Science" folder are Bad Astronomy (Phil Plait), Bad Science (Ben Goldacre), Pharyngula (PZ Myers) New Urban Legends, NASA Breaking News, and The Panda's Thumb.

Finally, there's a dedicated "iPhone" folder. This was not just the hottest toy of 2007. It was all that was holy in consumer electronics for half a decade. Gadget blogging never really had a golden age, but the iPhone ended any pretense that there were numerous horses in a race of equal potential. Apple won.

Still alive are 9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors, MacSlash, AppleInsider and Daring Fireball. Dead are TUAW, iPhoneCentral, and the iPhone Dev Wiki.

Of all the sites listed here, I couldn't now be paid but to read a few. So long, 2007.

https://boingboing.net/2017/12/29/my-rss-feeds-from-a-decade-ago.html

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casswrath · 3 years

Text

I posted 7,351 times in 2021

8 posts created (0%)

7343 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 917.9 posts.

I added 4,366 tags in 2021

#tumblr - 1097 posts

#supernatural - 713 posts

#batfamily - 687 posts

#harry potter - 477 posts

#grishaverse - 332 posts

#six of crows - 295 posts

#sandersides - 209 posts

#animals - 198 posts

#the old guard - 196 posts

#lucifer - 162 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#like ok. if it focuses on mary and her wrapping up some hunts or whatever like she said she did in the asa fox episode that’ll be like. fine

My Top Posts in 2021

okay I saw your tags on the wicked casting post and I see your joke about casting James Corden as Fiyero but you are missing the obvious casting choices- James Corden as Boq 🧍🏼‍♀️

OH MY GOD that is mildly straightphobic and I AM HERE FOR IT I WOULD DIE

2 notes • Posted 2021-11-05 17:54:55 GMT

FELLOW QUEER

HOW IS THOU THIS FINE DAY?

HELLO FELLOW GAY!! I AM JUST FINE THIS FINE MORNING!!! THE SUN IS SHINING THE BIRDS ARE SINGING AND I AM ABOUT TO EMOTIONALLY RUIN MYSELF WATCHING LES MIS AGAIN

2 notes • Posted 2021-02-05 16:06:55 GMT

I am lost

I am vain

I will never be the same without you

Without you

I wont run

I wont fly

I will never make it by without you

Hey! Guess who has a song stuck in their head now THANKS

2 notes • Posted 2021-01-29 13:19:59 GMT

january 6 is like november 5th 2.0 but minus the destiel. i mean think about it- kimye broke up, kanye apparently cheated on her with jeffree star, the us president literally attacked the capital of the united states while congress was is session, a shitton if people broke into the fucking capital building while it was being evacuated, almost nobody got arrested, a woman was killed, THEN AFTER THAT congress reconvened and officially ratified Joe Bidens election and im like 90% sure i missed some stuff

ETA: trumps twitter was suspended before they took away the nuclear launch codes and thats fucking terrifying, people are calling to enact the 25th amendment, apparently the insurgents attacked other government buildings accross the country, some republicans are trying to pass off the attack as an antifa thing, there still hasnt been any arrests, AGAIN THE PRESIDENT LITERALLY STARTED A MOB THAT COMMITED FUCKING TREASON, when asked to call them off the video trump posted essentially said that the attackers were in the right and that he loved them which is INSANE, apparently aids had to beg trump to release a video and activate the national guard (which somehow didnt actually do anything for 3-4 hours), apparently a fistfight almost broke out in the house chamber over the PA electoral votes objection

(not as important but a woman went viral for being upset about being maced "were storming the capital its a revolution" look up elizabeth from knoxville)

i swear to god america is fucking insane

2 notes • Posted 2021-01-07 16:09:51 GMT

24 notes • Posted 2021-04-24 22:25:33 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #yikes

0 notes

greywindys · 7 years

Text

Gorillaz | 2017 in Review

Ayyy happy new year!!! Relative to the entire year of waiting that was 2016, 2017 was a pretty packed year for Gorillaz and consequently, for me as a fan. To sum it up in three words- They came back! (Finally, someone let them out of their cage?) And there was a surplus of content- good, quality content. But there were also some letdowns. Which release falls into which category depends on who you ask. Like, pretty much every move Gorillaz made this year was met with both applause on one side and boos on the other. If I had to pick a word of the year for them, it would be “polarizing.” However, polarizing isn’t always bad, and there were many well thought out conversations, theories and fan content that resulted. Add in some scandal and disorganization and you’ve got a pretty wild twelve months. Under the cut I list some notable and memorable momentz.mp3 of the year, mostly for my own records but anyone is welcome to read.

Hallelujah Money (1/19/17)

Gorillaz started their year off with what was probably the most polarizing move of the year. Some backstory: January 2017 we still had no idea when the album was coming out. Actually, we didn’t even know IF the album was coming out like, we basically didn’t know wtf Gorillaz was doing. Then, on the day before the US inauguration they drop the video for Hallelujah Money, a video punctuated with Orwellian imagery for a song that sounded like a funeral march. Benjamin Clementine took a prominent role while 2D took a backseat (a trend that would persist throughout the singles) and, after the initial excitement, fans began to complain. “What happened to the fast paced music Damon promised?,” “Where is 2D? This doesn’t feel like Gorillaz?,” “Why do they need to make their music so political?” This only drove other fans to passionately defend the song. There is still no consensus on this song/video other than the agreement that “it makes more sense in the context of the album.” My personal take is that whatever point this video was trying to make is obscured by their backtracking in the form of bleeping out any mention of Trump’s name on the album. Go big or go home. And at this point in the year I think we can say it- Trump fucking sucks, okay? Trump sucks.

Dylan leaks the album (Mid-March 2017)

This is like, probably my favorite story. By the time March was upon us, we knew the album was coming soon but we still didn’t know when. The album was like a cryptid, rumored but never found. And then Dylan happened. Now to clarify, he didn’t leak the entire album and he didn’t do it on purpose but he did leak more than we were ready for. After the tracklist leaked, fans began googling the songs on video sites like youtube and dailymotion. When one fan google’d “Saturnz Barz” on vimeo, they were met with a mysterious password protected video. A couple tries later (the password was “2017″), they had access to “Saturnz Barz” one month before the album came out. And they found more- “Charger,” “Busted and Blue” to name a few. All of which were uploaded by Dylan Byrne, a lighting technician connected to Gorillaz who apparently didn’t know his private videos could still be found on search engines such as google. The fandom collectively lost its mind, some with excitement over the new music, others with indignation at fans who dare “disrespect Damon and Jamie” and that those listening to the leaks were going to be responsible for Humanz flopping. It was wild. Oh yeah, and I downloaded the leakz and Humanz didn’t flop.

Giant content drop of 2017 (3/23/17)

I use this particular picture of 2D here because I that we, on some level, were all 2D by the end of that fourth week in March. I’m using the “Saturnz Barz” video release date because that’s when it all began. I distinctly remember waking up on that day expecting to listen to a Damon Albarn interview and some new tracks on a UK radio show but by the end of the day we not only had new music (4 tracks, specifically) and the interview but we were also blessed with the perfect “Saturnz Barz” video which featured the band in the starring roles, gave us “the bath” meme (though that’s more of a curse now) AND an upcoming announcement of a “secret show” set to take place the very next day where the live band would play the entire new album. I think this was also the period where we finally learned the album’s name and release date. It was so much. Too much, but a good too much. Everyone felt alive. Phase 4 had officially begun.

Mocaps (April 2017- present)

Gorillaz debuted many new ways to depict the band this year but by far the most hilariously amazing method was through motion capture, abbreviated “mocap.” 2017 was in many ways the year of the mocap, specifically, 2D and Murdoc mocaps. Mocap Murdoc and mocap 2D graced us with the weather, Deezer ads, app videos, multi-lingual announcements, and even walked us around the Demon Dayz tour. My personal favorite moment was 2D telling Murdoc he fed a stray cat a kinder egg. I also want to give a special shoutout to Murdoc’s wonky eye. There was a time when we were all trying to find meaning in it. Was it an artistic choice? Had Murdoc gone blind in one eye? Was he possessed? The truth is none of the above. It was just, in the true spirit of what the mocaps models came to represent, wonky. I don’t think we all truly gave the mocaps the credit they deserved. In my eyes they are on the same level as the puppets AT LEAST. And I maintain that their potential has yet to be truly realized- Mocap carpool karaoke? Mocap SNL skit? The possibilities are endless.

Murdoc and 2D answer fan questions....live (4/20/17)

This also falls under the umbrella of the previous moment but I think it deserves its own mention because this was like, peak mocap utilization. Fans were allowed to submit questions that would them be answered by Murdoc and 2D live while we all watched. Their VA’s not only improvised these answers but also finally got the change to live out their personal headcanons. This interview was the first time we ever saw wiggly Murdoc. Much essential information was learned in this half hour event- 2D knows how to make theremin noises! Murdoc said “meme” and “twerk”! 2D sold the geep! Cyborg Noodle has taken to cycling! A lot of you seem to think I’ve been critical this phase which, while totally true, it also makes me think you possibly weren’t aware of this blog at this time because I love this interview and died when it was first released. And then I continued to love each and every subsequent awkward interview they had with actual human interviewers. The first quarter of the year was great (for me).

Reddit AMAs with the entire band, Noodle, 2D (2017)

I wasn’t an active fan during previous phases but my impression is that they didn’t have as many q&a’s with the band as this phase. The characters were very accessible this phase and, as I’ve mentioned above, at first this was great! But nothing good it forever. The Reddit AMAs, while highly entertaining, soon came to contradict past events and even past answers to earlier interviews. For example, we learned during the band’s AMA that Cyborg Noodle was NOT actually cycling somewhere in England but decapitated and being used as a pot in Noodle’s room. What was the truth? Later on, 2D had his own AMA which was cute but yielded significant nit-picking and criticism from fans including myself. For me,personally, the 2D AMA was the turning point. I didn’t mourn the loss of Cass Browne with other fans until that AMA. The difference in writing was and is glaring. For that reason, I didn’t pay much attention to the Noodle AMA but from what I saw, similar debate over her characterization (or lack thereof) took place. Tbh, I can’t picture a Noodle that types out “YAASS GURL!!1″ (or w/e it was) unironically but...I’m happy it brought joy to some fans. That all being said, regardless of writing quality the AMAs did a great job of engaging the fandom and initiating some interesting conversations.

Fans miss 2D so much that he gets his own impromptu video (6/8/17)

By far the most frequent concern over Humanz was the “lack of 2D.” It was on Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, pretty much all social media. Despite this, no one ever expected Damon and Co. do acknowledge this let alone actually respond to it. Then, out of nowhere, 2D makes an announcement on the Gorillaz app and there it is- “Sleeping Powder” an exclusively 2D music video by 2D, starring 2D and some dorky dance moves. It was 2D’s “Dare.” The song was cute and even had its place on the tour set list. And that’s the power of 2D. And everyone was happy until people started joking that “Sleeping Powder” was written in a day and was still better than all of Humanz, and others chastising everyone for “making Damon feel bad enough to write a new song.”

Strobelite (8/6/17)

I’m not going to get into “Strobelite” too much. If you were there, you know what happened and what it led to (a certain liked Youtube comment and the later, Noodle’s answer during her AMA). “Strobelite” was also hyped up as a the band’s first official mocap video (despite “Sleeping Powder’s” release a month earlier) but unfortunately, was underwhelming to a significant portion of the fandom. Reasons included but were not limited to: no Russel mocap, very little plot, very little Murdoc, rumored cut scenes that DID involve Russel, and, yes, controversial shipping fuel. I don’t think “Strobelite” charted nor do I remember it being involved in any promo. I actually don’t know what happened to “Strobelite” outside of the, um, for lack of a better word,the discussion it spawned. There were also many theories about what Murdoc was doing at the bar. To this day, we still have no answers. What’s the plot for phase four again?

Gorillaz in Media (2017)

This isn’t exactly a singular moment but I want to highlight it anyways because the length to which they went to make this phase an immersive experience deserves a lot of credit. Not one but two apps were developed, one of which gave fans access to the band’s home and hosted events such as live listening parties so that fans could potentially meet. The other provided new content, art and access to secret concert locations. BUT THEY DIDN’T STOP THERE. With one of their sponsors they were able to construct actual, real “Spirit House” models for fans to walk through. Additionally, the band is accessible through their own music mixes on Spotify, Noodle has an instagram, G Magazine etc. I’m going to fit in the amount of sponsors they had under this category as well because, as annoying as they were to some, it did give us some cool new animation and ads (”We Got the Power” comes to mind, along with the Lenz ad). They put in work, they really did (though the topic of social media #justice4MurdocTube).

The Super Deluxe is never released...until it is (September 2017-November 2017)

I forget when the original release date was but what I do know it that it didn’t happen. Phase four slowed down in the latter half of the year, and I think this made everyone hyper-aware of what content was yet to come and that content was the Super Deluxe with *bonus tracks*. But then it never came. It was delayed until October, then October came and it STILL wasn’t there. Finally,in November, orders began arriving and songs were ripped and uploaded. Reactions ranged from elated to disappointed to simply confounded that the the entire thing cost around $400. You could say that it was very polarizing.

Honorable mentions

Humanz being released (I know, why isn’t this on the list? I decided against it because it leaked a week early so by the time it WAS released mostly everyone had already heard it), Demon Dayz fest streamed live, “Garage Palace” surprise video drop, G Magazine, G-Foot pop up shop steal fanart, Fans strike the fear of god into the Gorillaz team for forgetting Russel’s birthday, Humanz revealed as the fourth album title, Gorillaz announce a TV show, probably more that I’m forgetting.

Anyhow, what a year. I like to stay vague about my personal life here but to keep it simple, despite everything happening the world, on a personal level, it was a good year. I did a lot of growing, got some really great feedback at my field placement, tapped into some new hobbies and recently adopted two cats, brother and sister, whose names I’m still deciding lmao (leaning towards Oberyn and Elia). So yeah...here’s to that. I hope 2018 treats us all well <3.

#personals.#not tagging this because it reads more like a journal entry than anything else #but it is the #endofyear #post for this year eh so anyways #long post

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enaasteria · 6 years

Text

Answered Asks // 3

Consolidating asks as to not spam dashboards. Under the cut!

Anonymous said to enaasteria: March 29th 2018, 3:56:00 pm · 2 days ago wanted to drop by and let you know that i've been listening to 'Fool of Me' by Meshell Ndegeocello for more than a week and it reminds me so much of the heartbreaking moment in chapter 11 when Sehun made the decision to leave Ahri behind. imnotcryingyouare. i hope they become like the song 'Cheek to Cheek' (Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald version) *hinthintwaggleseyebrowswinkwink* hope you have a lovely day <3!

AHHHH REPLIES *-* <3!!! I accept the love you’ve bestowed upon me. I shall violently love you back *SHOOTSHEARTSATYOU* dont worry, I remember the what I wrote in the recs message! I was saying that I’ve been listening to this song ‘Fool of Me’ by Meshell Ndegeocello, which reminded me so much of the end of chapter 11 when Sehun decided to leave Ahri. The heartbreak is so real T_T imnotcryingyouare. I hope they end up being like ‘Cheek to Cheek’ (Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong version)! - ma

OMG SO APPARENTLY I DIDNT DELETE IT. This is how tumblr inept I am. I thought I did. It showed that I did when I was on the computer but apparently I didn’t on mobile. WEIRD. Listening to it now!

Both of these songs sound so similar. I feel like I’ve heard them before omg. good recs. I really like them.

Fool of Me by Meshell Ndegeocell

Was I blind to the truth just there to fill the space... What kind of fool am I that you so easily set me aside OMG MY HEART IS BREAKING. Why do the lyrics fit so well. Right off with the first few lyrics. I’m crying. YES I AM CRYING. This was almost the same words she thought in the chapter. Was she there only to temporarily fill the void in Sehun’s heart when she felt it was for Jiyul instead. OH NOOOO.

I can't touch you no more Can't touch you any more any more And this relates to Chapter 12 a lot how she wouldn’t really look at him or touch him and this is so sad. THIS WHOLE SONG IS SO SAD but it’s so fitting to that part when he chose Jiyul over her and IT”S GOING INTO MY APT PLAYLIST.

Cheek to Cheek by Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald

THIS WHOLE SONG. Can I just say how cute it is??? This just makes me feel like I missed an opportune moment for Sehun and Ahri to dance together at the wedding??? I kind of made it so that it was Soi and Ahri dancing puahahahha. Technically, I should’ve made Sehun and Ahri dance because he tends to dance when he’s nervous about something.

Sooooo BOOOOO I MISSED THE MOMENT. BUT STILL. It’s ok hahahahah But really. This song. The beat. THE CHEEK TO CHEEK. More like forehead to forehead between the two leads. Thank you so much for the recs!!! I loved them so much and can’t wait to add them to my playlist!!

I read chapter 17 till half past 4 in the morning. I had to sleep because i needed to wake up at 9 for a gym session the next morning. But I have sleep problems so I kept waking up throughout the night and reaching for my phone to reread 17 in my sleep-induced haze and dozing off. I had to fake illness and reschedule my gym session in the end xD. I hope my trainer doesn’t see this. HAHAH even when I was half asleep, I kept thinking that I still had so much to tell you about 17!! - ma

OMG MA. WHY DID U STAY UP SO LATEEEE. NUUUUU. Also since your music anon and the abbrev is MA, I literally scream MAAAAA LOOOOL. AND OMGOSHHHH. Please rest. Please sleeeeeep. Your poor thing. i’m so sorry that the story kept waking you up. But I can’t wait to hear your thoughts and really thank you so much. I really can’t appreciate your messages enough. They make me so HAPPPPPYYYY //runs off screaming while drinking my coffeeeeeeeee//

@sehunsmile said to enaasteria: March 30th 2018, 11:42:00 pm · 9 hours ago ENA, ENAAAA!!!! I JUST GOT HOME AND I'M FINALLY GONNA READ CHAPTER 17. I'M SO NOT READY BUT I AM! I KNOW I'M GONNA DIE, I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS CHAPTER AND GOD CHAPTER 16 ENDED SO GOOD I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT BUT I'M EXCITED SO I'M GONNA READ IT NOW! SORRY FOR ALL CAPS I'M JUST TOO EXCITED AHFNJABFKSBFLSKFJDKJDFK

YASSSSS. LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF IT AND I DONT MIND CAPS LOCK AT ALLLL. IT just shows me you’re really excited and I’m excited for you to read it. Many apologies for how long it took me to write it but I hope you enjoy it. AHHHH TY FOR LIKING CH 16. I remember being really stressed over it because it was so SLOOOOOOOWWWW but yas yas. Please enjoy 17. Thank you for your patience //hearts u//

@heythereitsmo said to enaasteria: March 31st 2018, 12:12:00 am · 8 hours ago Oh when Sehun tells Ahri the story of the Keepers, I remembered you wrote a piece about it and it was just — beautiful. I cried then and I cried now because it literally took my breath away. Every chapter is so stunning Ena, every word resonates so deeply in my soul. It wasn’t always easy but they’re happy together and in love and I hope on my own stars that someone will love me the way Sehun loves Ahri — even if there are flaws and hurdles. You wrote this fabulously, love. Fantastic job.

YAS!!! You caught the merge of Keepers into Apt. This and Yua x PCY are all other stories I’m working on and I wanted to weave them into apt for continuity. I like having all my stories intertwine in some manner. It’s fun but also makes my brain want to explode when I have to make it flow right LOL. YOU’RE REALLY GUNNA MAKE ME CRY. Thank you so much for reading. I really remember you as one of the readers staying with this fic for so long. i really think it’s been years for you and I’m so grateful for your patience but also all the support you gave me. I wish you all the love and happiness and thank you for loving my characters as much as I do.

Anonymous said to enaasteria: March 31st 2018, 12:26:00 am · 8 hours ago Okay but Sehun getting provoked by ahri’s ‘other men’ amuses me sooooo much THANK U SO MUCH FOR CH 17 I honestly needed some destressing with an overload of fluff (and that thick tension 😉😏) ☺️💕💓😚

I definitely had to throw in Ahri’s other men to lighten up the mood hahaha. JK JK. I just really love jealous sehun?? I think he’s super sweet and it’s not like he’s like the bad kind of jealousy. He’s just irked??? LOOOL. It’s cute when he’s just agitated. I really hope you love the fluff and slow burn for the kiss LOL

@shewantsmeshesgotme said to enaasteria: March 31st 2018, 1:35:00 am · 7 hours ago I. AM. IN. LOVE. NXKELBFKDLFNFNDNNSKDKFNFBI. I CANT EVEN FORM THOUGHTS IM SO BLOODY IN LOVE OH MY GOD ENA WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!!?!? You....you are some sort of a genius wizard I can’t even...I’m just broken I love this fucking story so much and YOU I LOVE YOU THANK YOU CHRIST I NEED TO SIT AND STARE AT THE CEILING FOR AN HOUR. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

LORIIIIIIIIIIIIII. THANK YOUUUUU GAHHHH. THANK YOUU SO MUCHHHH. Thank you for your help. Thank you for reading. Thank you for the screams. IM NOT A GENIUS WIZARD. YOU ARE. BUT THANK YOUUUU. Really thank you so much for reading this fic and DONT STARE AT THE CEILING. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS. Now that I finished 17, I can get to reading all the fics that are sitting in my backlog and I really want to read all of yours. I really need to read The Boxer. It’s on my to do list foreverrrrrrr. hugss!!!

@yeolieminelli said to enaasteria: March 31st 2018, 2:25:00 am · 6 hours ago HUHUHU. Just finished Ch. 17 😭 It's beautiful. How the each traditional family story just made sense for Ahri and Sehun ❤❤❤ Thank you for writing such a beuatiful chapter for both of them. You are a great writer dear. 😁😁😁 On a side note- I was listening to an instrumental that fit so well for the last part of Sehun's surprise, it felt even more magical. I wish I could share it with you, if I discover how. 😂

YAYYYY!!! I”M SO GLAD U ENJOYED ITTT. RIGHT? I’ve had that ending in my head for 3 years now and it’s finally there. It’s finally written and can I place a pat on my back for it because I thought it was fitting for their story too. Thank you so much for your help on it and thank you for reading. What instrumental?? You can send me the title and I can look it up on YT to add to my Apt Song Rec list!!

ramblingpeaches said to enaasteria: @ramblingpeaches I CANT TAG U WHY March 31st 2018, 3:07:00 am · 5 hours ago that was such a beautiful chapter! so worth the wait- no actually way more than that! you honestly have such a way with words. your writing, your story has made me feel a bunch of emotions and you're just so so talented that i feel like i can't properly express how much i adore your writing and hope this somewhat conveys it haha. thank you for an amazing chapter, definitely made my morning! :) ♡

Thank you so much for this message! I’m so glad you thought it was worth the wait. I’m so sorry it took so long to write but I’m such a slow writer. AND I HAVE A WAY WITH WORDS. AHHHHH //SCREAMS// You’re so kind to me and this is really such a great message because it just makes all the screams worth it. AND NOOO. REALLY. You’ve done so much for me. If you read and send me a message of how you enjoyed the chapter, that really just makes my heart swell. Thank you so much for reading!!!

@yeollieollie said to enaasteria: March 31st 2018, 3:23:00 am · 5 hours ago Omg my heart that was the cutest thing ever why can’t that happen to meeee amazing!!!

Thank you so much for reading!! Wasn’t it??? It’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever written in my entire life and I kind of don’t know what to do with myself anymore LOL.

Anonymous said to enaasteria: March 31st 2018, 5:11:00 am · 3 hours ago hi chap 17 was full of fluff i literally died after reading it 💗 tq for writing such a wonderful story! :) also! how old are sehun and ahri in this story?

ANONNN. Did you know I screamed a lot while writing this chapter. I felt so bad for my followers on Twitter. They felt the main grunt of it all ahhahahaha. I almost died writing this. My heart hurt so bad from it all T_____T Thank you so much for reading and as for their ages. I heavily---HEAVILYYYY aged Sehun in this because I felt I needed his character a bit older than how he was. And since I started this fic 3 years ago, I really did age this poor boy LOL. He’s 29 and she’s 27 in the story. :)

#ma #music anon #sehunsmile #heythereitsmo #anon #shewantsmeshesgotme #yeolieminelli #ramblingpeaches #yeollieollie

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