#at this point i just wonder how many hoops i'd have to jump through to have the power to just make the t/l myself

[rubberbandballqueen]

does the fact that i am having a rogue translation of legal forms made so that the local immigrants can also participate in city programs they otherwise would've been kept out of due to illiteracy make me chaotic good, or do i have to be doing more expressly illegal things for that to count

[mobius-m-mobius]

HI i just saw ur lokius fairytale post aaand like kinda rotating that cinderella scenario around my head any chance you have any other thoughts to add onto it ?

Hey anon, really glad the fairytale asks stuck with you because we've been having so much fun with them! Honestly I'd not had a chance to think of more until getting this but after having a little time there's a scenario I'm kind of loving which may or may not have spiraled from the og Cinderella concept so apologies in advance 😅

(also putting this under a cut because y'all know me and whew did this get longer than even I'd expected 😂💖)

Cue Ravonna sending Mobius on a reconnaissance mission to get details on Odin being up to something which seems to differ from the usual flow of that timeline, the details are vague enough for him to wonder where she's going with this but they both know the chance for him to get close enough to Asgard is too tempting to pass up and there's an upcoming ball with enough invitations that one more shouldn't be a problem. So he tries his best to at least blend into the background long enough to slip away and search for info but the fact that he's pretty much the only person at the party not boisterously jumping through hoops for Odin's attention or favor draws Loki's attention him like a lightning rod, lol, which doesn't escape mutual notice and since the only other option would be Loki making a scene to draw attention to whoever this mysterious(ly hot) stranger is no one seems to know, Mobius can't help pointing out he's not exactly someone that would be sent in as a physical threat so maybe if he's allowed a few minutes to explain he could make it in Loki's best interest 👀👀

Loki's skeptical but intrigued, and it's not like he was enjoying the night beforehand anyway so he follows expecting some obvious lie of an excuse as to what Mobius is doing there but instead Mobius quite bluntly tells him he's there for dirt on Odin that could be mutually beneficial for them both.

This part he keeps to himself ofc, but by now he's figured out whatever's going on clearly has to do with/is centered around Loki's future and after so many years of researching Lokis he's secretly harbored a crush and honestly does want the best for them if possible so it's very easy to at least tell the truth about why he's trying to sneak around in the first place. Loki doesn't completely believe him, but he's infinitely more interesting than anyone in recent memory and Loki's desperate to learn about him so he haughtily declares Mobius no real threat, and will guide him through the palace personally to seek out this all important info, with the threat of imprisonment if the night ends empty handed.

Mobius cheerfully agrees with the knowledge he'll be long gone through a time door before things come to that, and the night is kind of playing out like a fantasy he didn't even realize he had so because he knows it won't last he lets himself be a little playful with Loki, praising his magic and asking questions he hadn't been able to answer from his files, like which flower first comes to mind when he looks out at the gardens?? Loki of course bristles at first but soon realizes how much comfort there is in the way Mobius speaks to and about him, and how his words bask brighter and warmer than any sun 🥺

However, because of this he can also tell Mobius knows far more about him than he previously let on, and can't figure out why he seems so delighted by all the qualities everyone else has been so bothered by his entire life so as they search through Odin's private study he starts needling for details to match, eventually getting nothing but things that completely baffle him like how Mobius obviously has horrible taste in food and that he seems wiser beyond his years than any Midguardian he's ever seen yet somehow seems to have nothing of personal value in his life except something called a jet ski?? And he's taken aback how, when pressed, Mobius isn't even upset about it but just a bit sadly resigned. They share a moment of bonding over their prior loneliness and start to grow even closer, leaning in just before a crash sounds from the hallway and the sounds of drunken guards calling for there whereabouts of Prince Loki echo, forcing them to break apart as Loki panics about how to explain Mobius' presence and bringing Mobius back to reality about how far he let the night spiral by indulging so it's all he can do but stumble out an apology for everything as Loki tries to find a way for them to sneak away before turning back just in time to see the gleam of a time door disappearing in the middle of the room 😔

Now the whole "glass slipper" element is a harder one since it's not like even if Mobius left behind something TVA related Loki would be able to trace it back to him so this is where I headcanon he dropped a folded magazine photo of a fav jet ski he liked to carry around as a reminder of why he works so hard, that he had taken out to show Loki was he was talking about earlier and Loki uses to trace back to Don, alerting the TVA due to the obvious branch it cases, and then you can only how everything Mobius knows implodes from there which would probably take me a year to detail but is very fun to picture and yes because I love him this would also result in Don meeting the Loki of his timeline because he deserves love too 😂😂

[waltwhitmansbeard]

let's talk fic request etiquette!

as someone who has been in the fanfiction game for a hot minute now, i've been having some Thoughts around ask memes for drabblers and fic writers. these ask memes are such a fun and helpful way for writers to exercise their creative chops, and for readers to participate in the creation of the kinds of stuff they like to read. i'm a huge fan of ask memes myself (feel free to send me one!), and i've written a lot of stuff i never would have thought to write without other people's generous prompts in my inbox.

but! i think it can be easy for some expectations to emerge around fic writers and ask memes that can make writing stressful and overwhelming for writers, and that's not great! fic writing should be a source of fun and creativity for writers and readers, and so there are couple things i'd like ppl to keep in mind when they're thinking about asking their favorite writers to fulfill a prompt.

check their blog! a lot of writers have rules or guidelines for the types of requests they'll take and how they'll take them. for example, some writers may close down their askbox after receiving a certain number of asks, while others will happily take as many requests as come their way! writers will also likely have a list of fandoms and/or ships they'll write for, which is good for you to know when it comes to making requests. please do a thorough check of a writer's blog to make sure you're respecting their boundaries before making a request. some writers might have guidelines that fly in the face of some of the other items on this list, and that's okay! these are just general recommendations, and individual writers might feel differently.

make one request at a time. this piece of advice might be directly contradicted by the guidelines on a particular writer's blog, and if a writer says they're down to accept as many prompts in a row from the same person as they can, then great! do that! but it's not uncommon for a writer to be inundated with a lot of requests at once, especially after posting a new ask meme, and so it's considered polite to send one request and then wait for yours to be filled before sending another. remember, you're very likely not the only person who enjoys this particular person's writing, so give them the chance to do their thing.

only send the prompt and the fandom/ship/character(s). the idea behind these fic ask memes is to see what the writer comes up with when only given the prompt and the characters to write about. if you like this writer, you should like what they write! unless the writer says otherwise, please do not send detailed scenarios or plot descriptions of what should happen in the fic you're requesting. if you're reading an ask meme, and one of the prompts on the list makes you think of a specific scene for your favorite ship, wonderful! that should be something you write and explore for yourself. it is not another writer's responsibility to jump through your enumerated hoops when you send them an ask meme request. remember, your prompt is meant to be the jumping off point for the writer's creativity, not an essay assignment in a literature class.

specify the ask meme, especially if it's older. if you're sending in a prompt from an ask meme, and the writer has reblogged a number of them, please help them out and let them know which one you're sending from. this is especially true if you're sending from an ask meme that is not the one they've reblogged most recently. it's just helpful!

reblog the fic you've requested. this one is basic as hell, y'all. if you've requested someone write something, you reblog it and put something nice in the tags. end of story. this was written for you. the very least you can do is be nice about it. and if the prompt was not filled in the way you expected, or if you didn't enjoy the fic, fine! don't request from that writer again. but for this fic, just fucking reblog it. it's quite literally the bare minimum and it costs you nothing.

talk to the writer! if you're not sure what a particular writer's feelings are on ask memes/requests/writing in general, ask! i promise you, we love talking about writing and our favorite blorbos, and it's always better to err on the side of courtesy. feel free to ask us how and when we like to receive requests or what types of requests we're okay with taking. we'd love to tell you how to make our lives easier, lol.

remember that we don't get paid. unlike fanart, fanfiction cannot legally be commissioned or purchased, so even though fanfiction writers put just as much time and work into their art as fan artists do, we do not have the option of any kind of remuneration for it. and that's fine, we get that! but it also means that we are doing a lot of labor (labor of love, but labor nonetheless) for free. please keep that in mind when sending in requests. we're happy to write using your prompts, but it's a prompt, not a detailed commission. our ideas and wants matter, too.

fic writers, feel free to add to this list with your own suggestions. i can only speak for myself when i say i love receiving fic requests from people, because i love writing and i love connecting with others in my fandom and i love exploring these characters in a way i might otherwise not have done. but what i don't love is feeling like i am at the beck and call of others in my fandom. i write for me, and then i like to share what i've written with others. it's how i participate in my community, and i'm so grateful to anyone who has ever sent me a prompt to fulfill. please just remember that your favorite writers don't just exist to bring your personal whims to life, and that they work really hard to create the things you enjoy.

[letsrilakkusu-blog]

My quest for Seventeen concert tickets

It's been just over a year since I slipped and fell HARD into the diamond life, and I have spent most of that year waiting and looking for a chance to see Seventeen in concert. My patience has been rewarded, and I'll be attending the Nagoya performance of their FOLLOW to Japan tour this December! It wasn't easy, and a lot of it really just came down to luck, but I thought I'd write about my experience trying to get tickets through various methods in case there's any international Carats who could use some guidance or encouragement.

Missed opportunities and hoping for another world tour

I became a Carat right when Seventeen was in the middle of their Be the Sun tour in North America, but it was my peak busy season at work and I couldn't justify trying to make a trip to see them. It couldn't be helped but I really regretted it later on. In November/December 2022, I traveled to Korea but had short stops in Japan on both ends, precisely when Seventeen was doing their dome tour. At this point there was no legitimate way to get tickets so I resigned myself to at least enjoying some of the Seventeen pop-up events around Tokyo. I also met a fellow Carat living in Japan who was able to attend multiple dates of the tour and I got maaaaajor FOMO.

I told myself that 2023 would be the year - they would come back to the states and I would be willing to drop some dollars to get good seats to see them. I bought my Carat membership to take advantage of any pre-sale - I was READY. It seemed like everyone was anticipating a world tour announcement after the release of FML. I was already feeling pretty antsy because I know Seventeen had a crazy increase in popularity in 2022 (I mean, I'm a part of it) so I was psyching up myself and my wallet for a ticketing bloodbath.

THEN Pledis only dropped two Korea concert dates and 12 dates for Japan for the rest of the year, and Carats around the rest of the world sighed.

Failed attempts to FOLLOW to Seoul

With the FOLLOW (not world) tour announcement, I grew increasingly desperate, particularly because I know there's not much time left with OT13 before the big E period begins. The Seoul dates were at the end of July and not ideal since my work is already ramping up by that time, but I decided if by some miracle I could get a ticket, I would swing a quick trip to attend the concert.

The miracle didn't happen, haha. I applied for the fanclub lottery and missed. After hearing about how ruthless ticketing for Korean concerts is, I pretty much accepted that I wouldn't be able get a ticket during the fanclub pre-sale but I still had to try. I read up on tips and tricks, practiced buying tickets to other events on Global Interpark, and even enlisted my husband to try and help me when the sale started at 1 AM our time. After multiple errors loading the site, we got into the queue with 100,000 people in front of us :,) Needless to say, there was nothing left once we finally got in. I spent a few days after that checking religiously for cancelled tickets, but when Pledis announced that Seungkwan was going to sit out, I decided that it just wasn't meant to be. I ended up watching Seoul Day 2 online and it was such a bittersweet experience because the concert was so amazing, and I wondered when my chance to see them in person would come.

Jumping through hoops to try for Japan concert tickets as a foreigner

After my complete failure in getting Korea concert tickets, I turned to Japan as my last hope to see the boys this year. I didn't know the specifics but I was aware that it's difficult, and sometimes impossible, for foreigners to get tickets to concerts in Japan. To curb scalping, tickets for many popular events are sold through a lottery system, where you apply for the dates/seat type you want, and everything is up to chance whether you get it or not. Popular artists will often have one or two lottery rounds reserved just for their fanclub, so being a member increases your chances. And almost all of this requires a Japanese phone number.

For Seventeen, they usually have a Lawson general lottery open to the general public after the fanclub rounds are over, so I considered using a proxy to try for that. I reached out to a reputable one, but he put me on a maybe list because he had already received an overwhelming amount of requests for the FOLLOW tour. ^^;

Then, the hero we didn't deserve appeared. An international Carat living in Japan posted a very detailed guide on Reddit (now deleted, RIP) on how to join Seventeen's Japan fanclub and the process of applying for tickets through the fanclub lotteries. I don't have a Japanese phone number and address, which is needed for the fanclub, so I didn't think too much of it until I saw other users commenting about borrowing said information from friends who live there. Fortunately, I have a friend in Japan who had previously helped me get a ticket to the Seventeen museum pop-up, and he graciously let me use his phone number and address to apply for the fanclub. I successfully signed up and paid my 6,000 yen fee.

The first round of the fanclub lottery for Saitama / Aichi / Osaka / Fukuoka was open for a little over a week from mid-August, with the results to be announced in early September. You are allowed to apply up to two times for each date, once for premium seats and once for regular reserved seats, but you can only win one type of seat per date. Premium seats are strictly for fanclub members and cost more because they are closer to the stage and come with extra benefits. After some hiccups and a lot of trial and error (needing a VPN, using a Japanese keyboard, Google translate messing with the page functionality), I submitted my lottery entries. I was open to attending five dates, so I applied for both seat types for each day, so 10 entries total. I just needed one to win!

Luck was on my side - success!!!

The day of the lottery result announcements, I was neck deep in work and also recovering from COVID, HAH. I was feeling miserable and trying not to get my hopes up so I wouldn't be too disappointed if I didn't win.

The results came out at 4 PM my time. The Reddit user who made the guide had said that typically, the losing emails come first all at once, and the winning emails will come a few minutes later. That is NOT how it went this time. xD I think there were so many entries and emails to send, the server was overloaded, so the emails just came trickling in, one or sometimes two at a time. I tried checking the results on my Lawson My Page but that was overloaded too, so I kept getting an error. All I could do was wait.

45 minutes and five rejections later, I was steeling myself for 0/10. Then, the sixth email came and I could tell right away that it looked different. I google translated and couldn't believe it - I won a premium seat ticket to Nagoya!!! I screamed and immediately told my husband, my mom, my sister, and my closest friends LOL. Four more rejection emails eventually came but it didn't matter, all I needed was one win and I got it! For this round of lottery, payment had to be made at a Lawson convenience store, so I had my friend go and pay for me. The actual ticket will be available for me to pick up at a Lawson closer to the concert date.

Overall, even with all the difficulties I had, I actually really like the Japanese ticketing system. Of course there are loopholes, but it's definitely a fairer way of making sure that fans can get tickets at a reasonable price. And I'd much rather lose out on tickets based on a random draw than actually trying to buy tickets and failing to get any because I wasn't fast enough. The ticket prices in Japan are also fixed and much, much cheaper than in America. Regular reserved seats for Seventeen were 14,000 yen. The catch is that for that same price, you could get a pretty close seat or a really far seat (and seat assignments are also random), but it is what it is. My premium seat cost 24,000 yen, which, with the very favorable exchange rate converted to $170. Honestly, even at a 1/1 rate, it's still cheaper than a much less desirable seat in America.

Can't wait to FOLLOW Seventeen to Japan!

I'm sooooo thrilled for my first chance to attend a Seventeen concert!! I'm a little nervous because it will be my first time attending a concert at such a huge venue, by myself, internationally, but of course my excitement completely outweighs that. The first thing I did after confirming my win was order the version 3 caratbong (I hate it but I caved because I don't want to be the only Carat in the premium section without a syncing lightstick) and a Hoshi picket (cuz all the Japanese fans have them). My trip is all booked, and December can't come sooner!

[lexsang]

I'm nervous about approaching a bucher with needing blood, but I want to take control of my life. What is that interaction like. Have you ever done it before. It can't be a normal thing that they get asked.

I'd like to start off by saying that no one I have ever talked to has been confident in that interaction. And I havent done it yet, but it is one of those things that I will potentially want to do later down the road. That being said, this is my advice on how to do it in a more natural way that will be less likely to have them look at you weird and make it harder to come back next time: First of all, a lot of the discomfort with this exchange can come out of wondering what the butcher thinks you are needing the blood for. So as odd as it is, I really do suggest for your first time that you dress in a way that doesn't scream vampire. Everyone has their fashion sense, and that is absolutely not something you should have to cater to others with, but in this situation, it may make you a little more comfortable striking up the conversation. Secondly, be direct with what you need, but have a reason. There are plenty of really fascinating cultural dishes from Europe, Asia, and I'm sure elsewhere that use blood as an ingredient. Strike up conversation and you can ask if they have heard of a certain dish or just tell them that it is something you've been wanting to try, and of course mention that blood is one of the ingredients and that that is what you are there to look for. I know its rediculous to have to jump through this many hoops, but the sanity of a vampire living in a christian centric, western society rests on the butcher not thinking that I am trying to order a sacrifice to a demon or something from them :P I don't know if you have heard of them, but some of those dishes actually do sound wonderful. It could even be a good idea to get excited a out making one of them before you go in, to have the intention of going in to buy blood for blood sausage or sanguinaccio dolce, that way you don't feel you're being insincere. The last thing I suggest is to find out if their business has a phone number or email, that way you dont have to be there in person, which should relieve a decent amount of the worry. Depending on where you live, this can be a legitimately difficult subject to broach, but you'll never know whether it can be sold to you if you don't ask. And in the end, as much anxiety I'm sure all of my hoop-jumping-throughways ideas may have caused, I guarantee you that the worse that their response will ever be to you is no. I hope that some of this was helpful, because it does sort of feel like a nonsensical jumble of words at this point. Please don't hesitate to ask more questions if you'd like me to clarify anything. And remember, these are also the words of a nervous vampire who hasn't actually done it themselves (though I have bought meat for steak tartare but that still doesn't exactly count because that's what you buy from a butcher)

[vicmeep]

It's one of those days when I'm feeling a little physically ill thinking about Alice again.

Feeling helpless and hopeless because she just used me and threw me away after she finally got on her own path to healing. After she constantly told me how all her exes did that to her, especially Anna, her ex fiancee. Bullshit.

I can't even listen to some of the songs we had anymore. I even sent her that one song from skillet called "rebirthing". Just...those lyrics now hurt. That same day she lied about the break, and how she was done having her trauma define her.

After the months of you berating me, threatening me with knives from your kitchen that you'd say you'll kill yourself with just to get me to stay even though I kept telling you I wasn't leaving.

You...manipulating me even. As if the suicide threats weren't enough.

Her actually saying to me at one point, "You like your broken little toy don't you? Your little Ragdoll."

She actually fucking said that.

She wonders why I was progressively getting worse. Gee it's almost as if you treat your also depressed partner like shit it's actively going to make him worse or something.

Either I was in a cycle that I would either shut down or "stonewall" is the proper term because I'd want to prevent her from being upset. I thought me just speaking or texting her made her worse. Unfortunately that would always backfire , and then I'd get even more silent because of it or try to force myself to speak.

Or I'd say she deserves better than me, thinking I wasn't a good boyfriend or soulmate especially with how she was treating me. Or I'd gotten to the point I just thought...I was her bodyguard. Not her boyfriend, just a bodyguard to protect her.

No matter how much I bent over backwards, how she kept breaking me, how much I destroyed myself, how much I jumped through hoops, didn't matter.

I was in so much pain when she mentioned the break. I was so convinced everything was my fault. I even asked her "if I were good would you still want a break?"

It was in VC. She was silent for a moment and said "yeah.".

She did so many things now in that last VC, I was so...broken, I just didn't see it..I believed everything.

There was at one point I lied about...a gun. The reason why I did, and I just didn't know what else to do just to get her to stop threatening me with the knives. It worked but...it backfired.

In the last VC she was upset at me, then hit something a few times out of frustration saying "why did you buy that stupid fucking thing?!"

Saying something like why wont anyone think about her for "five fucking minutes".

Then I think she...faked a panic attack. She began breathing heavily and she even said during this less than a minute panic attack, that she was having one.

Again just...I just thought everything she did and said was true. Idk.

I said something like during then that "I just want things to get better" then got angry at me, saying "you refuse to let things get better!" I had jumped when she said that.

Then she began laying about the break again. Changed her name to just "Allie" along with having a different avatar. She kept reassuring me that it would only be until the 20th of January in 2021.

Back then, I didn't outright say it was a lie, but I did say "I said it because I wanted you to stop threatening me with knives..."

Her response back then with her own fucking voice was "oh..."

Then I sent her a screenshot, one of the few I could salvage to attempt to get evidence, when I was reacting to her threatening me when the abuse started. I don't...want to show any of the screenshots yet. At least not in this post.

After that I remember her saying because of the captiol being raided, to use the gun I lied about in case something happened.

She has the audacity to say in the last VC, "I wholeheartedly believe you're my soulmate"

She said she'd react to some of my texts with emojis during the break. She did. I only remember to one of my texts when I said "what am I doing wrong? Haven't I paid enough?" With a single tear emote.

I kept trying to text her the first few days.

I was in so much pain. I tried opening up to her about what ripped me apart again, something she always ignored or began yelling at me about whenever I'd bring it up.

I tried sending goofy videos.

I felt so in pain I finally just said to her, was that I'd leave her alone because I caused her so much pain.

She got upset and began texting me saying "why am I so weak..." And that she had to go to work again soon.

Last thing she sent was this picture of my late Christmas gift, in a black bag. On the 13th of January. When she began that new relationship.

I didn't figure it out until hours later on the 14th. I checked her twitter, saw it wasn't my old Twitter anymore. It was someone else's. I texted her.

What was her first response to when I even sent her screenshots from her own fucking bio?

"...Who?"

She actually fucking said that.

After that, began yelling at me, blaming me exclusively. Saying "That's not fair. You pushed more and more everyday. I tried so fucking hard. stop putting this on me alone." Before then she said in response to me saying that she moved on that damn fast. "I didn't. I was drifting away from you for awhile." Then when I said whenever I tried to open up she'd always get angry at me, she responded to that with, "and now you're making me out to be like my father."

So, came to the conclusion she cheated on me. No other explanation for it. The same day when she initiated the break she lied about, saying she wasn't a cheater.

It's not going to matter what I went through. No matter what I did for her, how I destroyed myself.

People will scoff and laugh because it was long distance so it already is not to be taken seriously. Along with the fact I'm trans, and a poor imitation of a man.

Men can't get abused or are seen as less than men.

It doesn't help because I can't re-open the dm to get evidence of the abuse. I have such little evidence. She has all the evidence in the world of me publicly harassing her after everything.

She gets to be happy. Despite everything I did for her, something she fucking says on repeat that she swears up and down she did the same things for Claudia, Anna, and any of her loved ones. Saying how she's supposed to be a brick wall, how she's supposed to bleed for others to prove her worth, to protect them.

She made a tweet about it mocking me, when she would constantly berate me, how I would often say I'd refuse to speak but I'd do everything in my power to make sure her and our family were happy. I thought me speaking made her worse.

I even said once that all of the bad shit that storms in my head 24/7 I would keep in and wouldn't taint anyone with my horrible mental health.

Saying some dumb shit like "like that was a healthy thing to do???" Look who's fucking talking, Alice.

No matter how I even attempted to warn her... girlfriend back then, twice. Only twice because I didn't want her going through the same shit I did even online, and the only things I could salvage were very few screenshots back then, not all the ones I have now where it's still not enough. Most of it I sent were the ones from her original account, when she was nice to me. Because of all the things she lied about. Only one back then was from the other account where she was blaming me after she lied about the break.

It's not going to matter what my good intent was, what I was trying to do and now she accused me of harassing her girlfriend. I never fucking did that. It was only specifically towards you because of the bullshit you put me through and promised me.

There are people would will make me the villain anyway.

"doesn't matter if she abused you, or if you self harmed because of her, you harassed her so you're worse and two wrong don't make a right".

Fuck you.

I'm a fucking laughing stock.

She's happy now. She's healing now. She's Claudia and Anna.

And I'm left here.

No matter what I say she did, no matter what I said on reddit, doesn't fucking matter. It isn't real. No one will fucking care about what actually happened, only what I did after the fact.

It's not going to fucking matter to anyone.