#but now i just got a notif from someone i don't think i recognize? and it's like

[elytrafemme]

i think CS broke me bc in some kind of asshole way i think i began to expect people to comment on it so seeing comments still made me go !!! but it was nowhere near how it used to feel. so posting a fic with a small kudos amount, in a living fandom but definitely nowhere near DSMP’s numbers back then & still now, has reminded me that getting an AO3 comment-- especially from a stranger-- is the best thing in the fucking world.

[atimeofyourlife]

We've met before, it's different now

written for @steddieholidaydrabbles prompt: modern au | rated: t | wc: 995 | cw: mentions/ fear of transphobia | tags: modern au, tinder au, trans steve harrington, transfem steve harrington, trans eddie munson, transmasc eddie munson, pre steddie, first date, t4t steddie Steph is back in Hawkins for the first time since coming out as trans. Robin convinces her to get back on tinder, where she finds Eddie. He's familiar for some reason, but she can't place why

Steph couldn't place how she felt as she laid on Robin's bedroom floor. It was her first time back in Hawkins since coming out. Since her parents had kicked her out, saying that they would never see her as their daughter, she would have to accept her place as their son, the sole Harrington heir. She'd left with Robin for Chicago, where she could reinvent herself. Become the woman she knew she was. But they were back in Hawkins for Christmas, and Joyce and Hopper's wedding, which was happening early in the new year.

Really, she didn't know how to be Steph in Hawkins. Anyone who was unaware of her transition didn't seem to recognize her, even people she'd been friends with in a different time. She'd been right behind Nicole, a girl she'd once dated, in the grocery store. And Nicole turned and looked her straight in the eye and asked if she was new in town. Mark Lewinsky approached her in the parking lot and offered to take her on a date. And every time someone looked at her, she wanted to make herself smaller. To hide away and put on a mask the way she had in order to survive high school.

Now, she was unsure if she wanted to do anything with her time, or to just hide in Robin's room when she wasn't needed elsewhere.

"Come on. I've updated your Tinder profile with new pics and everything. Even if we just sit here and swipe through everyone. But you never know, you might get something out of it." Robin said, dropping onto the floor next to Steph. 

"Fine." Steph rolled her eyes and held her hand out for her phone. She flicked through the photos Robin had chosen. A lot of her favorites, including a thirst trap from the boudoir photo session Robin had gifted her for her birthday, nothing too risque, everything was covered in a bodysuit, but it was a photo that made her feel confident and sexy every time she looked at it. "Okay, lets do it."

The first few were various guys she knew from school, a couple of girls mixed in too. She swiped left on all of them, not that interested. The first one that made her stop wasn't one she was interested in dating. But she was shocked to see Carol Perkins pop up with her interests set to men and women.

"There is no way Carol fucking Perkins is interested in girls." Robin said from where she was looking over Steph's shoulder as she flicked through the photos.

"Tommy's in most of the pictures. I bet they're looking for a third." Steph said, swiping left. "But they know that no self-respecting woman would get into that mess if they knew Tommy was involved, so Carol it is."

"You told me that you had a threesome with them?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, but that was before I knew I was a woman, and at the time I had very little self-respect." Steph replied, and continued swiping.

Robin had got bored of watching Steph swiping through Tinder, so had moved back to her bed to text Vickie. Steph stayed on Tinder, yet to swipe right on anyone, but then one guy caught her eye. A guy with long curly hair, named Eddie. He seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place him. His bio said that he was in a band and played dnd. There was something about him that made her swipe right. She didn't think anything would come from it, and tried not to think on it.

A few hours later, she checked her phone to see a notification from Tinder of there being a match, and Eddie had sent her a message.

Hi. I don't really know what I'm doing with this. I'm back in town for the holidays, and my friends said I should make a profile to try and meet someone. But you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on.

Steph giggled and blushed at the message. It took her a while to figure out how to respond.

I'm back in town for the holidays as well. My best friend updated my profile for me and said I should start looking even if I swiped left on everyone. You seem pretty cute, and I would love to hear more about this band you play in?

Steph felt that she and Eddie really hit it off, messaging each other for a while everyday. They talked about almost everything, and were even planning a date at Benny's. But Steph couldn't help feeling nervous. What if Eddie couldn't accept her being trans? What if everything went wrong and she got hurt, or outed, or worse?

She decided on a basic outfit, a comfy sweater over jeans. Feeling that anything fancier would make her overdressed for a date at a diner.  She still felt nervous, but she was sharing her location with Robin so someone would know if anything went sour.

On the date with Eddie, everything felt so real. Time seemed to fly by, and they were talking for hours. She found out that he was also living in Chicago, so they could continue to see each other.

"I graduated from Hawkins High three years ago. I hated everyday that I was stuck there " Eddie said.

"You graduated a year after me, but your profile said you're a year older than me?" Steph asked, frowning. She still couldn't place him.

"I uh. I got held back a couple times. Shit happened. It was a hard time for me."

"I feel like I should know you, but I don't remember you from school."

"The thing is, I've not always been Eddie." He said, looking nervous. "I had a different name, and I looked a lot different too."

It took a moment for Steph to realize what he was implying. "That's okay. I get it, because I've not always been Steph."

[jhkfan123]

enchanted- tom blyth | ch. 6 (includes ch.7 TEASER)

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

✦vi.

when you woke up, you woke up to notifications. and lots of them. texts from all your friends. they were all something along the lines of, 

"were you on a date with the guy in your movie?"

"girl, have you checked tmz?"

"im so jealous rn. check instagram." 

oh. god. you immediately opened instagram, and there it was. the first post. 

"actor y/n spotted with tom blyth on coffee date!" connected to the headliner, was a photo of the two of you through the window of the coffee shop. this was going to blow up. it already had, according to your friends. you weren't sure what to do. do you reach out to tom? is that weird? you were going to see him tonight anyways. you texted your closest friend, who reassured you that if you wanted to shut this rumor down, you could. but did you want to? what if you didn't, and tom did? the only thing you could think to do was bring it up to tom at the party. 

...

the playlist you had made to get ready for tonight was unbeatable.  you were always the playlist maker in high school. there was always a song that fit the vibe perfectly in your back pocket.  you had named this playlist "what is even going on." you felt it fit right because truly, what was going on. why all the sudden hints, and now the articles? you weren't complaining, per se, but the switch up was pretty weird. 

according to tom's completely blunt description of the party, it was 'less formal', which gave you the idea that he didn't want to tell you it was a rager. so, you dressed appropriately. on your way there, you stopped for food, because you weren't sure what type of food would be there. when you arrived at his rental home, there was a valet outside, which made you question if this was actually a rager.  you valeted your car, tipped the worker a few bucks, and made your way inside. 

when you walked in, the lights were dimmed, there was pop music playing, a bar, and a group of people dancing. but it was nothing compared to what you imagined. you realized that maybe hollywood people don't have full on ragers. it looked like a lot of fun. you placed your coat on the coat rack and walked in. you headed straight for the bar. you needed a shot for confidence. when you approached the bar, you ordered, and took your shot. then, you wandered. looking for anyone you recognized. 

eventually, you found yourself talking to someone you had met at an awards ceremony a few years ago. they were a year older than you, and according to them, had just landed a major role. 

"well, remember me when your famous." you said. she laughed. you ended the conversation as she found another friend of hers. you looked around, but it was a sea of unknown faces, and still no tom. you decided to plop yourself on the couch. hopefully someone would approach you. you began to watch the people.  

you loved people watching. watching people dance, drink, laugh, you loved it. it was so nice to see into other peoples lives, and forget about your own. just by watching their actions, you could tell so much about a person. you could watch people for hours on end. 

"i had thought you bailed." you heard. someone sat down next to you, and tom got your attention. when you looked at him, you swore you felt lightheaded. he was wearing slack-esqe pants, with his silky button up shirt not very buttoned up. in fact, there was maybe three buttons still buttoned. jesus. you weren't sure how much more of this you could take. 

"i would never. i've just been lost in this sea of people, couldn't find you." you replied. he laughed. his hair was slightly wet, which gave you the inclination to believe that he had been dancing. that must have been why you didn't see him. there had been at least 30 people dancing in that pile. you noticed the thing chain around his neck, and his one earring. not many people talked about his earring. but you noticed it the first time you met him. you loved it. 

"i'm assuming you've seen the stories?" he asked, his smile dropped slightly. you thought you were going to have to bring it up first, but clearly not. 

"i would have to live under a rock to not have." you replied. he nodded, thinking for a moment. you decided to keep talking. "but look, there's nothing we can say to change the stories. i'm trying not to think about it or get to involved." you said. he nodded again.

"you're right. you're so right. and I'm glad you are because honestly i came over here and had no idea what to say about it. so thanks for being on top of it." he replied. you smiled at him. he smiled back. and then you were silent for a few seconds. 

"so, this is quite a party." you gestured to the room. 

"it's really not. but thanks anyways. i was originally going to have a quieter party, like rachels, but my friends convinced me to have a bit more, 'fun' with it, i guess? it's stupid. we're not in college anymore." he looked around the room before returning his gaze to you. 

"sometimes people need this kind of fun though, especially in this industry. every single party and gala and ceremony or gathering is on television and photographed, and it's nice to just have a fun party again." you commented. he agreed with you. 

"im going to go get us a drink, ok? what do you want." you told him he could bring you anything, and he was off. however, it was not long until someone took his seat. you recognized him as brady, from rachels party. although this time, he was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. his hair was a mess. clearly he didn't put himself together for this. and mostly, he reeked of alcohol. you did not want to talk to him. 

"hey pretty, remember me?" he said. he plopped his head down on the cushion. you rolled your eyes. 

"yes, i do, brady. what do you want." you asked. he threw his arm up on the cushion on the couch. not technically on you, but it still made you uncomfortable. you scooted away slightly. 

"nothing, nothing, i just wanted to know if you were enjoying the party?" he was slurring his words. looking at him, he looked tired. even worse, he had another drink in his hand, probably after a lot of others. 

"yeah, i am, but shouldn't you lay off the drinking dude? you look pretty drunk." he did not like that. 

"i am literally fine, back off girl." you were searching for a way out of this situation. no one was paying attention to the two of you. "besides, i want to keep talking to you." this time, he put his hand on your knee. that was enough. 

"alright no, i'm not doing this." you tried to get up but he moved his hand from the cushion onto your shoulders, and applied pressure. he was trying to trap you. "hey, dude get off. i'm serious." you tried to remember the self-defense you had learned, but in this moment of panic, nothing came to mind. you froze. "get off. get off!" you kept repeating it, but he kept getting closer. he tried to kiss your neck, and he was trying to slide his hand up the back of your shirt. 

things were starting to blur, nothing was helping. you starting kicking but you couldn't get your feet where they needed to be. the room felt like it had started spinning. the music louder, the people louder and faster, the lights darker and darker. 

"hey! hey! get the fuck away from her." you heard someone begin to speak, but he wasn't getting off. then you heard a crack and a few thumps. he stopped. someone grabbed your hand and you followed them into a room. your eyes were blurring from tears, but the lights were on in this room. "sit down." your eyes finally cleared, the spinning had finally stopped, and you finally recognized that tom was standing in front of you. 

you took a few deep breaths. 

"are you ok?" he asked. he sat down next to you, and put both hands on your shoulders, signaling you to try to stop tensing, when you finally did, he let go. you hadn't responded to him yet. you were still processing what just happened. 

"i think so. i mean, obviously no, i'm not, but i'm doing ok." he got up and entered the bathroom, and returned with a box of tissues. you took one and wiped your nose, and eyes. 

"good. i'm going to text someone to call the police on him, make him leave." he assured you. his voice made you realize what he had actually done for you.

"tom, did you actually hit him?" you asked. 

"um, yeah, i beat the shit out of that man." you couldn't help but laugh. he had managed to make you laugh after everything that just happened. "i may have broke his jaw, but then again, i wasn't aiming for any particular area. i wasn't thinking. i just needed him to get off you." you saw his face grow more somber. you remembered him mentioning to you that he had known brady almost his whole life. "i wouldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams that brady would have done that. he just lost all my respect." 

"thank you, tom, for getting me out." you saw him peer down at his phone. 

"don't thank me. i feel so guilty that i left you there. i should have known , or something." 

"hey. there is no way that you could have known that was going to happen. don't beat yourself up about it." out of impulse, you placed your hand on his face. he didn't shift, didn't move, nothing. in fact, you swore you felt him relax a little at your touch. 

"i already have. why would i assume that with all the men at the party, not one would touch you?" 

"it's not something anyone expected to happen.  please, please don't get mad at yourself." he nodded. then he looked at you, and he didn't stop.  the two of you seemed to be getting closer, then. you realized that you were. the two of you were leaning in. eventually, you closed your eyes expecting a kiss. 

"no." you heard. you opened your eyes. he was shaking his head, looking down. 

"what?" you asked. your stomach immediately dropped. 

"i won't kiss you. not right now." he answered. you straightened up your posture. 

"why not...but..you just.."you began to stutter. 

"y/n, you were just panicked, and almost taken advantage of, and even though, i really would like to kiss you, i feel like by doing so i am also taking advantage of you." he seemed to be kicking himself over this. "your in a state of shock that i have seen before. if your not thinking straight, i don't want to do this, not right now at least." you sat there for a moment. was he right? you realized that it was really hard to decide. you said nothing. "y/n, listen. the police are here, and i'm going to go talk to them. stay in here." then he left. 

after he closed the door. there was only one thing you could think about:

'i really would like to kiss you'

but he didn't. you didn't kiss. he got up, and left. 

...

next thing you know, he was driving you back to your house. you had heard some yelling when the police arrived, and the party ended as soon as they arrived. you supposed that no one really wanted to party anymore after a man was arrested for attempted assault. 

about five minutes later, once you heard all the voices stop, tom came back in. he told you he was taking you home, and then, once you had stood up, he hugged you. you held the hug for an entire minute. you really needed it. 

on the way home, you called your closest family member and cried to them. 

once home, tom waited for you to shower, and get in bed before he finally left. 

what a night. 

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

TEASER FOR CHAPTER SEVEN

you had spent the entire rest of that second day in bed. you canceled the meeting you had planned, and just sat in bed. you slept a little, cried a little, and most of all, you had texted with tom occasionally. he checked in almost every hour of the day. 

when you woke up the day after that, you woke up to no notifications. so you decided to check social media. bad idea. after a few scrolls, another post from tmz popped up. but it wasn't about you and tom. instead, it read: 

RACHEL ZEGLER AND TOM BLYTH DATING RUMORS ARISE. 

[stacywaters]

Purple Ink (RM)

[Words in bold are in Korean]

I begin another doodle on my arm. It's nearly filled now with sketches from my ballpoint pen.

"Seriously, I can't believe your soulmate's never asked you to stop. Your drawings are everywhere at this point" my friend Stacy laughs.

I finish up the rose I'm drawing, "I'm sure they love my drawings. They've told me themself."

Stacy sighs, "I wish my soulmate talked to me more.. do you think I'll ever find them?"

"Easy. Just write your name really big on your forehead, they won't miss you."

"That is FAR from a solution, Y/N."

I laugh and look back down at my arm. A small heart appears next to the flower.

----

A Weverse notification interrupts my thoughts as I walk through the door. "RM started a Live" I open the live.

Namjoon and Hoseok are painting. I giggle as Namjoon spills some ink on his arm. Shutting my phone off, I go to take care of the pile of dishes in the sink.

As I pull my sleeves up, I notice a splatter over my wrist.

"What the.."

I run over and grab my phone. Pulling up the app again, I stiffen at the sight.

Namjoon's purple ink stain covers his wrist, a few splatters on his palm. Exactly like mine.

"No way... it can't be" I mumble.

Slowly, I grab a pen and write a small note on my arm by the splatter. Like clockwork, it shows up on his arm: "Namjoon?"

-----

The next few days, twitter had been blowing up about us.

"Namjoon's soulmate is an ARMY?"

"Guys! She knows! She found him!"

"Aww, that's sweet. Let's be happy for them."

"Wait, you mean they haven't met yet?"

I sigh, bringing my head to my hands.

"What do you want to do about it?" Stacy asks.

"I don't know.. I'm happy but I'm sad and I just don't know what to do. I'm surprised that he's someone I've admired for so long, but I feel dumb for not ever noticing. And I never imagined meeting my soulmate would be like... this. What if ARMY hates me? I don't want to cause him trouble. What if-"

"Relax, girl. I've only seen supportive comments so far. Everyone knows that you can't control soulmates, I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Yeah, I just, i dunno." I slump down in my chair, "it's not like I'll ever get to meet him anyways. It's a lost cause."

"Hey! Chill out. What you need to do is give him a way to find you."

"Such as?" I grumble.

"Such as posting your art online. I've been telling you forever, your creations are too good to keep to yourself! And if you post them, soon enough either he'll find you or ARMY will"

"That's... that's not a bad idea."

And that's how you got here. You'd been posting for two weeks now, but only had about 12 followers.

"Trust the process! He'll find you. It takes time to build an account." Stacy assured you.

"I just feel like the art should be for me, not a faceless algorithm."

"I'm sure he'll find you. He sees your art every day."

"I hope so" I mutter.

-----

I scrolled on my phone half-awake. I couldn't fall asleep, so I decided to explore my feed on instagram. Suddenly, I received a like. And another like. And a follow. And soon enough, a message.

"Who..." I mumbled.

My eyes widened as I see the message they sent me. (Messages by them are in THIS COLOR, messages by you are in THIS COLOR :))

"I'd recognize your art anywhere"

I shiver at their words. Looking at their account, it doesn't help in figuring out who this is. A part of me carries a small hope. It must be Namjoon! He must have found me! But I don't want to get hurt.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Namjoon :) You draw on my arm all the time.."

No... no way. It can't be. What am I supposed to say to my soulmate? What if it's just Stacy pulling some sick prank on me?

"Hmm, prove it then."

Suddenly I feel a tingling sensation on my wrist as words begin to appear.  'Hello artist'. I quickly scratch out a message in our chat room.

"Oh my god, it's really you! I never thought I'd find you.."

"Well you did :) I love your drawings by the way. I'm a big fan."

"No, that's what I'M supposed to be saying. You're music is seriously amazing. I can't believe I get to be your soulmate.."

"You're so cute"

I blush. Not sure what to say, I wait for him to speak again.

"How long have you known?"

"That I'm your soulmate haha"

"Oh, uh, I was watching your live with j-hope"

"Ah, so when I spilled the paint on myself? That isn't very romantic..."

"Well, I'm glad you did regardless."

A question sits at the back of my throat. Suddenly my fingers begin to type it.

"How did you find me?"

He begins to type.

"It's actually kind of similar. I've been following you for a while now. I found your page maybe, two weeks ago? You didn't have too many posts up at the time but as you started posting more, I guess I just kinda realized one day. Like your drawings felt like home to me. And one day I was looking at your art on my Lock Screen, and then down at my arm, and it just hit me. So I decided to message you haha"

"Dfbivaldhflvahf ok wait you made my art your Lock Screen?"

"Shoot. Shouldn't have sent that part"

I giggle.

"Um, I guess where do you live?"

"No no not like that-"

"I feel like I'm messing this whole soulmates thing up already??"

"Like do you also live in Korea or..?"

"Ah, no.. sorry. I live in (INSERT COUNTRY NAME)"

"Don't be sorry! Y'know.. we're actually going to be doing a comeback soon with a tour :D"

"I'll talk and see if we can go there!"

————

I shiver in the cold hallway. He told me to meet him here, is he still coming? Maybe I should leave.. NO! That's silly. He's coming, Y/N. Just be patient.

Suddenly I hear sneakers squeak against the tile. Turning to my left, I notice him. Him. The boy I've been messaging for 7 months now. The one I've been waiting to meet. The one I love.

His dark hair bounces as he runs, star-like shimmers glimmering in his eyes. He slides in front of me, skidding a bit on the slick floor.

"It's you, you're here, I" He pants.

"Hi Namjoon" I smile.

Suddenly my head goes blank. All those months of texting, and I have nothing to say.

"Erm, good luck with the concert."

He checks his watch, "Oh, right, haha. I was so excited to meet you that I forgot about the concert."

"Hey! ARMYs paid good money to be here tonight. Don't forget about them because of me"

He smiles and pulls me into a hug. We swing from left to right as we talk. After around 15 minutes, a staff member informs us that we have to go for him to perform.

Once he leaves I sink down to the floor, clutching my phone to me. I daydream about reality, the moments only seconds ago that somehow already feel so distant. Wonder when I'll see him again. Wonder if it'll be soon.

"I can't believe she's his soulmate"

"I know, right? I mean, is the universe sure that they're destined?"

Laughter from the two staff members pulls me out of my lovely daze. Why are they so rude? What did I do? Do they assume I don't know Korean just because we spoke in English?

A third girl working there spoke up, "C'mon guys, let's not be so mean. We don't even know her yet!"

"Yeah, but like, have you seen her?" The previous staff questions.

"Yeah, what about her?"

"She's just... not what I thought she'd look like."

"She could be listening now," the third girl said, "I think she seems perfectly nice. You should give her a chance."

Without another word she walks out of the room and into the hallway, where I was listening. I look up to her from the floor, my eyes glistening with tears.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! You must have heard them. They're like that to everyone, don't worry."

I nod and turn away, "Yeah no, it's just... old insecurities coming back"

"Well don't let them," she smiles, "I, along with I'm sure Namjoon, think you're gorgeous."

I laugh, "Thank you. You are too"

"I have to be! It's hard keeping up with my worldwide handsome boyfriend" She jokes.

"Wait, are you?"

"Minji, Kim Seokjin's soulmate" She grins.

We talk together while we watch the concert from the waiting room. Apparently she's been with the boys for 2 years, which is a little intimidating. Am I going to have to meet them later? What if-

"Everything alright?" Minji asks.

"y-yeah!" I nod.

"Don't worry, you'll be okay"

I turn to her. Did she know? Suddenly, Namjoon and the rest of the members pour into the room.

He pulls me into a hug, "How did we do, baby?"

I blush at the nickname, mumbling, "You guys were amazing"

"Were you nice to Y/N?" Seokjin asks Minji.

She sighs, "yes, but Ari and Chaeyeong said stuff about her"

"What did they say?" Namjoon yells.

"They were just being rude. Talking about what she looks like and if she's good enough for you, and...y'know"

Unknowingly, I had begun to tug harder at Namjoon's shirt while tears threatened to form. He pulls his arms tighter around me, "Hey, hey, it's okay. You're perfect. Don't listen to them, Minji's right. They're always like this. We are all here for you, we love you. None of the things you're insecure about mean anything to me. To me, you are perfect."

"I-I.." He pulls away to look at my face.

"You're crying but you're smiling.. I don't understand"

"They're happy tears" I grinned, "Because, I can't believe the universe thought to give me the luck that is you."

[novelcain]

Novel I have the funniest story

So I have Discord, right? And recently, my mobile Discord notifications haven't been sending. I don't know why, I have all the permissions turned on, but it won't work—whatever, right? As long as I check my phone regularly, right?

And it's been a really good day! I got the highest grade on my essay, I totally nailed a presentation, I made my favorite soup for dinner—a great day. It's around 6:50 PM and I'm cradling my soup in one hand on the couch, just relaxing from the day. It's my first break from homework for a while, and I'm enjoying it. I decide to share the positivity in one of my group chats on Discord with my close friends. So I send "@everyone love you" and I close Discord, thinking nothing else. I finish my soup, I do the dishes, and I go upstairs to play some video games on my computer.

All the while, I haven't checked my phone. I don't have Discord open on my PC, and I've been trying to cut my hours on my phone to focus on the real world (aka touching grass). I play a game, and while I'm waiting for another player to take their turn, I check my phone because I'm bored.

Strangely, I have one notification. I don't recognize what app it's from, but it looks like a text or call. I unlock my phone to check and find out it's my friend Catherine calling me on Whatsapp. Strange, right? We only use Whatsapp for sending videos that are too big for other applications and for when my internet kills Discord. (For context, Catherine is my best friend and basically the Novel to my Ritz. Also, my wifi is awful—probably why I've been struggling to receive notifications)

I think the call is weird, especially since there were no Whatsapp texts accompanying it. I try to call Catherine back, but she doesn't pick up. I reason as to why she did it—most likely I didn't respond to Discord fast enough so she tried to get my attention elsewhere. That makes sense, we do it all the time to each other. So I go and check Discord.

It opens to the channel I left it on, where I pinged my friends and told them love you. I notice I had 6 DMS, but I noticed my friends had replied and I was curious to see how they were. had already forgotten I did that, to be honest, so I go and read the responses. Let me just:

(Cami)

@everyone love you

(Raven)

LOVE YOU TOO

(Jasper)

love you too

(Slyvie)

You're the best! :)

(Raven)

Why the random love you tho?

(Sylvie)

Yeah, that confused me a bit too

(Raven)

Cam whats goin on?? Why the random love you?

And suddenly, it hits me why Catherine called.

And my first thought is: oh my god, they do not think I killed myself.

I open my DMs to Catherine, and sure enough I see: "are things mostly okay Cami? You haven't marked off anything from your accountability list, and there was the message you sent in the groupchat. I'm a little worried."

And I just go: OH MY FUCKING GOD THEY THINK I KILLED MYSELF.

Which is literally the worst way you could ever respond to "love you" with, by the way

Anyway, I explained what happened and now it's going to be an inside joke with the group. I literally despise my friends, theyre the best😭😭😭

LMAO GIRL NO! You be out here givin people heart attacks professionally istg 😭

But honestly as someone who's done this on accident too this is so funny 😂😂😂

Also my discord mobile notifs have been fuckin up too! What's up with dat? 🤔

Also!

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR SCORE!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎊🎊🎊🎊🥳🥳🥳🥳🥂🥂🥂🥂 SO PROUD OF YOUUUUUU!!!!!

[official-zerg-fangirl]

how do you feel about kerrigan going super Saiyan in Legacy of the Void? what about the Amon plot in general?

(idk if you get notifications when a question is answered publicly, so @fall-warning hi, also THANKS FOR SENDING THIS. I LOVE ATTENTION I LOVE TALKING ABOUT MY GIRL)

Oh, That Jean Grey ass Kerrigan transformation is half the reason my bio says "Starcraft 2 never happened, Metzen can suck my dick." *

*the other half is the Kerrinor Kiss, because on Official-zerg-fangirl, the running gag is I have an irrational hate for Raynor bcs I was one of Those middle school girls who would legit be jealous of a fictional character (I just didn't realize what i felt was jealousy bcs i didnt know i was gay)

I hate it! I HATE IT. IT SUCKS.

I am normally an extremely big fan of fire, and red, and phoenixes, and literal deities, and women being any or all of the above. But none of that should have been Kerrigan, and definitely not in the way it was handled. Fuck you, Blizzard. Fuck you for the insane bullshit happening behind the scenes, but also fuck you for what LotV did to my girl!

I refuse to play any part of LotV to this day! I don't fucking care! Sorry to the protoss stans, it's great that you got so much extra lore with Alarak or whatever, but absolutely FUCK what they did to my girl!

oh but I loved the amon plotline tho.

"m'am, why the fuck" it was validating it was powerful it is everything the character arc of the entire Zerg species was building up to and it turned Kerrigan into the antihero she was always meant to be, and LotV is probably great but that epilogue ruined it with a pointless second transformation.

[more deranged rambling below]

Look, Kerrigan's character arc in Brood War was top notch it was S tier it was great I wrote a literal essay about how I do sincerely believe Kerrigan in SC1 + Brood War had a heroic character arc, and I am of course correct, and the canon agrees, BUT WE WILL GET TO THAT,

now initially ofc i was like naw SC2 never happened. Obviously I've softened on that opinion (but saying it never happened is funny. so is acting like everyone is missing the point of Kerrigan except for me. this blog is the space where i get to play up an extremely cocky persona ok)

SC2's general insistence (at least that's my first impression) on treating her zergness like a boring corruption and "ooh Kerrigan was good before but she's evil now" bothers me. like they do this to her instead of, oh I don't know, she was abused and exploited as a child fucking soldier, she latched onto the guy who 'saved' her and was too wrapped up in the exhilaration of having someone who 'cared' about her that she couldn't recognize she was being used as literal fucking bait, and then he LEFT HER TO FUCKING GET EATEN BY ALIENS, and by the grace of fucking god, those aliens saw her value and potential in a way no one else ever could, they elevated her, made her stronger, gave her the means to break off the shackles implanted in her skull (remember the Amerigo mission???), and from that point on, all the anger she'd been harboring from all those years of abuse could run freely, so of fucking course she became impatient and vengeful!

Yes, Kerrigan was extremely destructive, spiteful, cruel,even! But you think someone who's only ever known violence and death and cruelty could ever be anything else? are we so naiive as to imagine a perfectly human Sarah Kerrigan would not become the Queen of Blades Her fatal flaw is wrath, you see how quick she is to anger when she fights Tassadar. To quote the man himself,

"So long as you continue to be so predictable, O Queen, I need not face you at all. You are your own worst enemy."

she is predictable because of her wrath. In her beginning as the Queen of Blades, she's too consumed by all her fury, by her newfound power that she can and will use to demolish everyone who's wronged her, and she hasn't yet learned the wisdom required to use said power. this is a flaw she overcomes in Brood War, wherein she delays her fury and rage to arrange a temporary alliance, to wait for just the right moment to have her vengeance and crush her enemies.

aaaaaand here's the Wings of Liberty campaign going like "Zerg turned her evil. yeah she's killing and infecting terrans bcs that's what zerg do. we need to redeem her by removing her zergyness."

like - no acknowledgement to the fact that the terrans are currently being commanded by the dude who used her and then fucking left her to die???? bro like of all people you'd think Raynor would understand why she's waging war on the Dominion HE'S LITERALLY DOING THE SAME THING, but Blizzard gonna Blizzard and the final boss is Kerrigan bcs Raynor's gotta work with the Dominion to neutralize the greater threat - which is somehow Kerrigan. Okay.

It just really rubbed me the wrong way. Can you tell that it rubbed me the wrong way?

but then it redeemed itself. Bcs the Amon plotline.

NO I AM NOT JOKING. FUCK YOU THE AMON PLOTLINE WAS GOOD.

"oh but it derails everything and now my simple slapfight between humans and two aliens has transformed into some sort of cosmic battle between good and evil" fuck no it doesn't it was foreshadowed back in Brood War did you forget Duran? the fuck you think that man was doing if NOT foreshadowing that some fucking hidden power beyond every race's leaders was controlling the situation specifically through the Zerg? Even BEFORE Brood War, the lore that the Zerg and Protoss were both created by the xel'naga and that the Zerg were specifically created with a mandate to assimilate the Protoss was right the fuck there. you know who said that shit? THE OVERMIND. Pay attention bro, Amon was there all along!

Could he have maybe been introduced in a less jarring way okay sure but he didn't derail shit, this WAS the rails, you just got too caught up in the surface level fighting to recognize what was happening!

also, the Amon plotline was (before that FUCKING EPILOGUE) so extremely validating to me, let me tell you a story about when i was playing HotS - no, even before HotS, whcih did a lot of good stuff, in fucking Wings of Liberty, a campaign I just spent a few paragraphs shitting on, it did one super good thing. it did the Zeratul missions. It did this shit:

oh I imagine a lot of Starcraft fans hated this cutscene bcs it was an out of nowhere messiah plotline delivered via literal exposition ghost, but, see, I'm smarter than your average Starcraft fan, I am a genius and I'm sexy, and I know my wife Kerrigan better than anyone, even the fucking Starcraft writers (suck my dick Metzen) and I see this cutscene at 7:33PM, April 29, 2021, and I ran into my friend's DMs and said "I FUCKING CALLED IT"

BECAUSE I WROTE A FANFIC (unfinished, novel-length, self-indulgent, OCxKerrigan, highly nsfw, no I haven't posted it anywhere I wanna finish it first I wanna perfect it).

AND IN THAT FANFIC I WROTE SOMETHING SO ABSOLUTELY DERANGED I FIGURED IT WAS JUST SELF INDULGENT ABSOLUTE SKEWERING OF THE CANON JUST TO RUN SHAMELESS ZERG APOLOGIA:

I wrote that the Overmind, before capturing Kerrigan at New Gettysburg, telepathically communicated with her, and very specifically said that her human psionic mind would resist control until the bitter end, that it would kill itself rather than accept forced subjugation into the zerg, and THUS he had to ask Kerrigan PERMISSION, that he couldn't and didn't want to strip her of her free will, and he specifically promised to her power, and purpose, and the potential to usurp his place as the leader of the Zerg, and he specifically welcomed that possibility-

and like that's stupid that's so fucking stupid, why would the zerg ever value free will why would the Overmind pursue to the ends of the earth a servant that he couldn't control, that he knew could and would one day usurp him? there's no way this is canon-compliant-

IT IS

AND NOT JUST CANON-COMPLIANT, IT'S FUCKING CANON. ACTUALLY LITERALLY CANON.

STRAIGHT FROM TASSADAR'S MOUTH, THE OVERMIND DID THAT SHIT. THE GODDAMN EYEMONSTER HAD PLANNED ALL ALONG FOR KERRIGAN TO HAVE FREE WILL AND THAT HE SPECIFICALLY VALUED HER FREEDOM.

The only reason I can't say I predicted the future is because I started writing this fic after WoL released, but I clearly had some sort of precognition I fucking knew I was on the wavelength my deranged apologia was canon I was right.

OH AND THIS AMON SHIT GIVES ME FULL JUSTIFICATION TO BE A GREATER APOLOGIST THAN I EVER COULD BEFORE. BEFORE IT WAS LIKE "c'mon the zerg aren't people, they're mindless demons of destruction" OHHH NO YOU DON'T MOTHERFUCKER! THEY ARE PEOPLE, THEY HAVE MINDS AND FEELINGS AND WILL AND THEY'RE BEING CONTROLLED BY THEIR CREATOR - NO, THEIR CORRUPTER, AGAINST THEIR BEST INTERESTS,

AND THE PRIMAL ZERG, THE PRIMAL ZERG! THEIR GLORIOUS PAST! ZERUS, THE GARDEN OF EDEN BEFORE AMON'S MEDDLING, WHERE THERE IS NO CONTROL AND NO DESOLATION, ONLY THE RULE OF THE HUNT! HERE, WE SHALL FORGE A VISION OF THE LIBERATED SWARM, REUNITE WITH OUR PAST TO FORGE A BETTER FUTURE, AND OH LET'S NOT EVEN TALK ABOUT THE PARALLELS BETWEEN WHAT AMON DID TO THE ZERG AND WHAT THE GHOST PROGRAM DID TO KERRIGAN,

BECAUSE THAT'S JUST IT, KERRIGAN IS THE SWARM, WHICH IS WHY SHE BELONGS IN THE SWARM.

SHE AND THE ZERG BOTH EXIST AS BEINGS OF INCREDIBLE POTENTIAL WHOSE FUTURES WERE STOLEN AND CORRUPTED FOR THE SAKE OF A HIGHER POWER'S TWISTED WAR GAME, TURNED INTO A LIVING WEAPON AND SET TOWARDS A CAUSE THEY DON'T BELIEVE IN, THEY ARE CHAINED AND THEY WILL ONLY ACHIEVE THEIR GREATEST SELVES ONCE THOSE CHAINS ARE BROKEN,

and this entire fucking theme of subjugation and of being transformed into a living weapon was in Brood War, too! That was what the UED did to the Zerg! This is why Kerrigan is the hero of Brood War, an entire species was enslaved and her, with her human mind, was the only hope anyone had of not submitting to Earth's slave army! Amon is simply the greater master who enslaves the zerg more subtly, with chains that are harder to break because they permeate across the hive mind link itself,

And by the fucking WAY, the revelations of that xel'naga relic, Zeratul's visions, the insight given by Zurvan of the primal Zerg, all bring such a delicious context to the entire wings of liberty campaign, and they make that campaign good and make everything I complained about earlier just an extra spicy flavoring and a dash of gray to our terran heroes, THEY MADE ME ACTUALLY LIKE RAYNOR???

bcs you know what, fine, perhaps Raynor does see the Queen of Blades as nothing but pure evil, perhaps he does choose to ally with the Dominion to destroy her, that is his human perspective, as someone who loved Kerrigan but knew her so briefly, all he can truly see is the Zerg as he understands them, the mindless living weapon, the infested terrans that beg for death as they seek to tear you limb from limb. We are imperfect, we aren't omniscient, perhaps I should forgive Raynor for his short-sightedness. He cannot concieve of harmony with the zerg because of what he has seen, so of course his dear friend is corrupted, infested, controlled, and he has to free her, and maybe he can make this deal with the devil. From his eyes, this is the best route he can take. He even knows he should not kill her, he knows what she's meant to be, and he has no idea how she'll go from the monster he sees now to the savior of Zeratul's prophecy, so he does what he thinks is best.

and as we see in HotS (and i think also LotV a bit?), Raynor's choice to use the relic was a mistake, it robs the zerg of their salvation and feeds so much energy into Amon's greedy maw... but also, it wasn't a mistake.

See, Kerrigan's temporary severance from the swarm frees her of the influence of Amon on her mind (though I am adamant that her actions have been PRIMARILY motivated by rage and vengeance and spite!), and when she sheds her humanity once more and properly returns to the Swarm, it is in the sacred birthplace of all Zerg, on the planet that obeys the law of nature, where hardship and violence are tools to produce an ever-greater self, and all that she has suffered will become her strength,

AND KERRIGAN ASCENDS - NO, EVOLVES - INTO HER PRIMAL SELF IN ORDER TO FULLY REALIZE THE OVERMIND'S PLOT OF LIBERATION. I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG AND SHE WAS A HERO, THANK YOU HEART OF THE FUCKING SWARM YOU REDEEMED SC2.

which just makes the fucking fire lady 'oh shes not zerg anymore she's xel'naga heehee' feel all the more bullshit???? Like, i thought it was bullshit before I knew anything abt HotS but now its SUPER bullshit, bcs primal kerrigan WAS her perfected self. She didn't NEED to become xel'naga. SHE IS ZERG! SHE IS THE QUEEN OF BLADES!

It's just so pointless. Nothing you could do to Kerrigan in this literal final hour of the entire Starcraft franchise could possibly be as thematically powerful as the Zerus arc, and you should've just continued those themes. leave Kerrigan's character arc concluded. Stop fucking with it. You had something amazing and you fumbled the bag at the literal last second. seriously, what the fuck? THAT'S how you end the series? What happened in the writers' room- other than the creepy misogynist bullshit we already know was happening, of course?

anyways yeah I hope that satisfied your curiosity. :D i don't wanna know how many words this was, I just know it took me like 2h to write. maybe more. I don't have a good sense of time. it's the autism.

[noona-clock]

The Flight Attendant - Part 4

Genre: Flight Attendant!AU

Pairing: Yunhyeong x You (Female!Reader)

Warnings: None

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | Words: 1,968

One Year Later

If Yunhyeong hadn't brought it up during your text conversation this morning, you would have completely forgotten it had been a whole year since you'd started your job as a flight attendant.

But Yunhyeong, being the incredibly thoughtful and considerate person he was, had brought it up. He'd actually remembered the exact date of your first meeting and had told you it was a cause for celebration.

It had been several months since you'd felt that pang of romantic disappointment in your heart... but there it was again. It was hardly noticeable at this point -- thrumming ever so slightly and trying to hide in the deepest corner of your chest, but you were familiar enough with the feeling to recognize it instantly. And Yunhyeong remembering the day the two of you had met was, apparently, enough to trigger it.

To be fair, you couldn't remember the last time one of your friends brought up the fact it was your friend-iversary. And certainly, none of your male friends ever had. One of your closest male friends, Jae, barely ever remembered your birthday. So, the fact that Yunhyeong knew the exact day you had first met was actually a pretty big deal.

If you weren't absolutely, positively sure that Yunhyeong only had friendly feelings for you... his text this morning would make you think otherwise.

But, like I said, it had been several months since you'd wished that were true. You had basically given up on ever becoming more than friends and co-workers -- and that was fine!

Fine!

Totally and utterly, positively, completely fine.

That's what you told yourself, at least, as you typed out a text to him.

I can't believe it's been a whole year 😲

After pressing 'send' on your reply, you closed the lid of your just-barely-full suitcase and zipped it up expertly.

After all, it had been a whole year since you'd been flying all over the country. You were an expert by now! And your flight was leaving in just two hours -- something that would have absolutely terrified you a year ago. But now you could pack, get to the airport, and get onto the plane in an hour and a half, tops.

You were rather impressed with yourself if you were being honest.

When the taxi arrived in front of your apartment building, you quickly slipped into your uniform heels and grabbed the handle of your bag. You waited until you'd slid into the backseat of the car before sliding your phone out of your pocket, a smile coming to your lips when you saw another message from Yunhyeong.

I may have a present for you.

OMG you do not. It's not that big a deal, I don't need a present!

...Well, too late.

YUNHYEONG

...what is it?

You'll get it soon! See ya!!!

You pressed your lips together, keeping in a soft chuckle of amusement so the taxi driver wouldn't get distracted from the road.

You also tamped down a flutter in your heart and stomach so you wouldn't get distracted from... everything. Your upcoming flight, your friendship, acting like a fairly average person and not someone who was stupidly in love with their best work friend.

But then another text message interrupted you, and your insides snuck in about three flutters as you clicked on the notification.

Actually, tell me when you get to the airport. And don't go anywhere until you hear back from me.

Immediately, your forehead wrinkled with slight confusion.

...why

Yunhyeong wasn't really one for surprises -- at least not during the year that you'd known him. He frequently did things for you and even bought small souvenirs for you when he flew to fun places, but they were never a surprise. He always texted you Hey, I made dumpling stew, come over and have some or I saw this pen with your favorite animal character on it so I got it for you.

So, for him to be this covert about something just seemed kind of odd.

I wish I could tell you, but that would absolutely ruin the surprise. And it's a good one, I promise.

I mean... you really had no choice but to trust him. He had never -- not once -- given you any reason not to.

So, trust him you did.

Okay... I will... even though this is very nerve-racking and unlike you...

He simply replied back with three innocent angel emojis, and one corner of your lips quirked up in amusement as you slid your phone back in your bag.

As with any other kind of surprise, you tried to keep your mind off of it for the remainder of the taxi ride.

The soft music on the radio, the passing scenery of the city, the other cars whizzing by you. You attempted to focus on one or more of those things... but the idea of a surprise from Yunhyeong was too novel and, frankly, tempting to not think about it.

And the fact that you were on your way to work? That piqued your curiosity even more. How could this surprise not interfere with your schedule?!

And why would he need to know when you arrived at the airport? Why would he not want you to go anywhere until you heard back from him?

Once you were only about five minutes from the airport, you finally admitted to yourself that you had no earthly clue what this surprise could be. You finally gave up.

The next five minutes were the tensest minutes you could recall in your recent history, and when, at long last, you texted Yunhyeong that you were here, you let out a huge sigh of relief.

He replied less than a minute later, while you still had his conversation open.

Come to Gate B16 and don't you dare look up to see which flight it is.

...Okay, things weren't any clearer.

Why was he telling you to come to a different gate? You'd been assigned to flight 9787 to Chicago, gate A9.

He wanted you to just... not get on that plane? Get on another plane?

You shook your head slightly and clicked on the button to call him rather than reply to him in a text.

"Just do it!" he chuckled as soon as he picked up.

"What is going on?!" you whined, your eyebrows knit together in distress.

"Y/N," Yunhyeong said confidently. "Just trust me. Gate B16. Come straight here."

He hung up before you could point out that he had said 'Come straight here' and not 'Go straight there' which implied that he was currently at gate B16.

...Interesting.

Well, there was nothing much more you could do, was there? After sliding your phone into your bag and letting out a deep, relenting sigh, you took hold of your suitcase handle and headed to the tram for concourse B.

In reality, it took less than ten minutes for you to wait for the tram, board the tram, ride the tram to concourse B, exit the tram, and walk down to gate B16.

But it absolutely did not feel like less than ten minutes! It felt more like ten hours, and your stomach was in anxious knots the entire time.

You walked down the concourse as quickly as you could without actually jogging, your eyes glued to the gate signs as you passed by.

B11... B12... B13... B14...

Looking up ahead, past gate B15, you squinted slightly to try and make out what was listed underneath B16, on the flight information screen.

And when you were able to read it clearly enough... you stopped in your tracks.

Because it said --

"Y/N!" Yunhyeong cheered, suddenly appearing in front of you and taking your suitcase. He also took your elbow gently and led you closer to the gate. "Don't worry, I got your schedule changed and everything worked out. I really wanted to tell you to pack more, but that would've given it away. But there will be plenty of opportunities to shop where we're going!"

"Paris?!" you wheezed, eyes wide as you stumbled along toward the boarding area. If Yunhyeong didn't have a grip on your elbow, you weren't sure you'd be able to move.

Yunhyeong squeezed your elbow a bit, and when you blearily glanced at him, you saw his lips pursed in the most adorable of smug grins.

"I knew that's been on the top of your list for a whole year, so I wanted to make it happen for you," he said.

And, honestly, you had no idea how to respond to that. For maybe the first time in your entire life, you were actually -- quite literally -- speechless.

It wasn't until you'd walked with Yunhyeong through the waiting area, down the connecting ramp, and into the plane that words finally came to you.

"...I --"

Okay, well, one word. And it was barely even a word.

"Are you okay?" Yunhyeong chuckled, finally releasing your arm so he could stow your suitcase up in the very last overhead compartment.

A deep exhale poured through your lips before you replied, "Yes, I just -- I don't know what to -- How? And -- and -- and why? Paris? How?"

"It was fairly easy, actually," he assured you as he hefted your bag up over his head. "I spoke with Liah about it two months ago and she went along with my Top Secret Plan."

So... your supervisor had known about this for two months?! And had put the Chicago flight on your schedule fully aware that you would actually be going to Paris?!

Now you really had to hear his answer for your second question.

"But why?" you asked, the fact that you were utterly dumbfounded still very apparent in your voice.

Yunhyeong closed the overhead compartment and stood up straight, reaching out to put his hands on your shoulders.

Of course, your stomach flipped over, and when he smiled at you it flipped over two more times.

"Because you're my friend!" he told you with a soft laugh, a laugh that clearly stated this was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yes, but -- but -- Paris! I thought you would make my favorite noodles and pack them in a lunch for me!" And, really, the only reason you thought that was because he'd done it before!

But this was on a whole other level!

Yunhyeong just laughed again, shaking his head slightly as he squeezed your shoulders. "Y/N, you are a flight attendant. You will go to Paris again, more than once."

"Well, yeah, when you put it like that it doesn't sound like a big deal," you sputtered.

"No, no, no, no," he tutted. "It is a big deal, but only because you've wanted to go and now you finally are. And I will take you everywhere, to all of the good places, I promise."

If you continued to be all flabbergasted about this, you would probably just feel silly. Plus, you were fairly certain passengers would start boarding within the next half hour, so you had to get started on your pre-flight duties.

So, you simply let out another sigh, briefly reached up to cover Yunhyeong's hands with yours, and said, "All right, let's do this. Thank you. I can't even begin to express how grateful I am, this is the best present ever."

Yunhyeong's lips spread into a full-on grin, and somehow, you had forgotten just how cute he is when he smiles.

Then, he let go of your shoulders, turned around, and headed back to help unload all of the meals for the flight. When you turned around, you saw three more flight attendants enter the aircraft, so...

It was time to go to Paris, I guess!

Part 5

[rayclubs]

13: What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

18: do you use tools like outlines or drawings? (Paraphrased. From the writing ask game)

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

When I was around twelve, I used to write fanfics on a forum with a public beta function where a stranger could select the bit of text where they found a typo or a grammar mistake, right-click it, and sent a notification to the author with a comment detailing what was wrong. Looking back, it was a fucked up function that brought a lot of toxicity to the platform, but, well, I was twelve and didn't speak English, I didn't have a lot of alternatives. Well, one day this girl just beta'd almost all of my fics entirely unprompted, like, I woke up do fifty-something notifications, so I messaged her with a polite "thank you", we got talking, and she was very nice, and ended up proof-reading for me for the next couple of months. She was twenty-one or maybe twenty-two, and she was encouraging in a way - back then I didn't really have any adults who would support my writing hobby, she was the first. She started giving me advice - not unsolicited, I was looking for critique, always am - and at some point she said something along the likes of "I think you should make your characters more... character, y'know? This guy you're writing is a chain smoker, but he hasn't lit a single cigarette in three chapters." And, well, it stuck with me, I guess. Make your characters more character. Make it so you know who's speaking without reading the dialogue tag. Make the reader recognize who entered the room just by describing the footsteps. There are so many subtle things you can fill the story with that make it so much more alive, so... breathing with reality. It's nice, I think. The girl from the forum disappeared though, stopped texting me at some point - I think maybe she got bored, and I don't blame her, I was a kid and she clearly just helped me out of the goodness of her heart. Maybe even a bit of healthy arrogance. I hope she's alright. She's gotta be around thirty now. I hope she still writes.

Do you use tools like outlines or drawings?

I tried, but they don't work for me. If I'm writing a really long story and need to keep track of a lot of recurring motifs and elements, I might take notes in a separate document, but I don't draw schematics or use any tools. Sometimes I get overwhelmed and can't really get writing because I don't have the pieces in my head in a way that'd make sense and the only thing that really helps is talking to someone about it. Luckily, I have very patient friends and a blog to run, so I'm never really out of ears to sit on!

[sunny6677]

Spooky Month: The Dating Sim

Part 23

(I'm mainly just doing this because it's fun to watch, but this is basically a spooky month interactive thing/poll which is kinda like a dating sim. Of course, only the adult characters can be your love interests. So do take that in mind.)

————

You decided to answer Lila first.

Clicking on the notification of her message, it went to the screen that was usually shown whenever you texted someone. Seeing her message pop up, you began to type away at your virtual keyboard. You answered that you had just woken up.

You began to slowly sit up in your bed, unplugging your phone from its charger. You were about to slowly slip yourself off of your bed so you could get ready to go and see her so you could babysit her son, but in the corner of your eye, you saw another message from her presumably pop up on screen. You turned your gaze back to the screen.

Her message had read, "Oh—alright! Don't worry. I think I'll just be giving my prints to the boss today, so it shouldn't take too long. I'll wait for you as long as I can, alright?"

You smiled, and typed back a thanks in response. You promised that you'd be there soon.

With a sigh, you clicked on Kevin's notification before you got ready. You then typed an apology for not having responded last night, and that you fell asleep around the time he texted you. You typed that you had a kid to babysit today, but that you'd try and talk to him when you could.

Setting down your phone, you then finally slipped out of your bed, and walked toward your closet. It was time to get ready.

————

You were on the road by now, driving in the front seat of your car. You hadn't dressed up too much, merely picking something casual. You took your phone with you just incase anyone you had the number of wouldn't be stuck waiting for you to answer. You couldn't exactly text right now though, considering you were on the road after all. Birds chirped from outside of your car, and occasionally, vehicles would drive by you.

Lila's address wasn't far. So you were at least thankful for that. Even if it had been far though, you still would have tried the best you could to get to her place. She seemed to be under a lot of stress right now.

You drove by the movie theater, and a part of you wondered if you could see Radford again. He seemed like a nice guy after all. In the distance, you could see the candy store, and Kevin came to mind. The lights seemed to be on, so he was probably working by now. You drove by the sidewalk. You saw a group of three mischevious looking teenagers.. well, at least the one in the middle looked mischevious.

As you kept driving along the road with only the sounds of the ambience of the street accompanying your hearing, you finally saw Lila's house in the distance. You at least recognized it as her house because you could see the address. With an eager but soft smile, you began to turn once you managed to get close enough, and slowly inched your way into the sidewalk. You drove slowly, trying to be careful so you wouldn't hit her vehicle which was clearly there.

Finally, you stopped. You then let out a slight sigh, before opening the door, and tucking your phone into your pocket. You wouldn't be using your phone much since most of your attention would be presumably focused on her son for the entirety of the time you were watching over him, but you also thought to bring it just incase of any sort of emergency.

You slammed the car door shut, and locked it with your car key. You then began to walk toward the door. Her house looked.. nice. It was like any other ordinary modern looking house, but it looked nice even so. Inviting, even. Or maybe that was just because you knew it was her house.

You finally stopped once you got closer to the door, and you rang the doorbell. There was a few moments of anticipation, the ambience being that of birds chirping all around you, and the sounds of vehicles driving from behind you. Finally, the door slowly opened.

You smiled once you saw the familiar look of Lila's face peeking through the crack of the door. She opened it more, and her whole body finally became more visible. She looked to be wearing a dark purple coat, even despite the temperatures. Perhaps it was just to look more formal for whoever her boss might have been?

She then grinned, and spoke, her voice raising an octave. "Oh! You're here!"

You greeted her, and then apologized for not having answered her a little earlier since you were asleep and all. In response, sne only shook her head. "No, that's okay. Just come in. I'll show you around so you'll know what to do, okay? I'll let my son know you're here too."

You nodded meekly in reply. She stepped out of your way, and you entered the home. The cold air caused by the air conditioning then hit your skin, and caused a breath of relief to seep out of your mouth like pouring automatic lava. You had to admit, living in a suburban town in Arizona might not have been the best life. But maybe that was different if the people here were friendly enough.

You took a look around. You could hear the muffled giggling of what must have been her son in the other room. Most likely the living room from what it seemed, since the kitchen was nearby and you could very clearly see it.

You thought of what to do. You weren't necessarily shy about this, but you didn't want to make the whole situation awkward b doing nothing, and you didn't want to make a fool of yourself either. Even if you had only met Lila a few days ago.

[lawain-dimensional-heroes]

drabble - clairify (Project Sekai Timeline)

They day of the hangout has arrived and Hanaka was sitting on a bench at one of it's local parks where the three decided to meet up. She decided to check on her phone for any notifications. Most of them are just random app notifications, some were messages from her friends.

[Minori]: Srry, I had something I forgot to do yesterday! >< [Minori]: Gimme 15 more mins top! {Hanaka}: Ahah, tyt! I'll just practice the tuba again ^^;; [Minori]: Please don't break any windows again by playing it loudly again !!! Σ(っ °Д °;)っ

Minori, while being late, was at least considerate of the other to inform beforehand.

Miku was the same in that regard, having informed Hanaka beforehand.

[Miku]: Hey, Hanaka! Can you please inform Mitsuki that I'm going to taking a bit longer? I was considering a change of clothing for a bit if that's fine [Hanaka]: Actually, Minori is going to be 15 mins. late anyway, so there's no need to worry! [Miku]: traffic jam, perhaps? [Hanaka]: Ahah...Probably.

15 minutes passed, Hanaka was on her phone still, typing away a message to Minori, but before she could send a message to her--

"Hanaka-chan, I'm here!!"

Minori's voice was already audible from the distance. It caught the pinkette's attention as she turned her head to look at the direction where the voice was coming from.

It was indeed Minori and she brought some friends along- the three she formed an idol group with: Momoi Airi, Hinomori Shizuku and her favorite idol Kiritani Haruka.

"Ah-- hey Minori--" Hanaka spoke up to her before looking at the other, in a curious yet amused expression.

"--And friend? Didn't think you'd bring along your friends today-- surprising me too I see?" A soft chuckle escaped Hanaka's lips, before looking at Haruka. "Are you all here to hang out with me as well?"

"Considering you're our classmate and Minori's friend, I think it's a perfect way to get to know eachother some more. Besides, Minori told a bit about you. Didn't think we'd meet someone from another planet." Haruka responded, looking over at her fellow members, before Airi spoke up.

"Wait, you're buying the whole other world thing? Her knowing MEIKO and KAITO was crazy enough-- you're joking about the whole world thing, right?"

"I don't think she is," Shizuku responds. "Haven't you heard? Shibuya station has been getting visits from trains from that other world since a few years ago. So it makes total sense that now that she could be from another world, as odd as that may sound."

"Ooohhh, so that's how you got here, Hanaka-chan!" Minori looked at the pinkette, a smile forming on her face. "Right?"

Hanaka nodded, a smile forming on her face. "It's how a lot of people from other worlds get there. Honestly, it almost makes me want to plan an outing with us girls at my homecity-- during vacations though, of course!"

"..Honestly, I have to see for myself to believe it all..." Airi responded with a raised eyebrow at the fellow pinkette. She looked at Minori once more. "...The fact you believe these words so quickly is weird, y'know that, right?"

"Ahah..." Minori let a chuckle escape her lips, somewhat silently agreeing with that fact. "I don't think Hanaka-chan has any reason to lie about it-- I mean her ears aren't really normal, right? So it's not the weirdest thing we've seen. And thanks to Mi-- I mean uhh--"

The group noticed a sudden gust of wind picking up, causing Minori's hat to be accidentally be blown into the wind.

"Ah not again--"

Minori started to ran to follow her hat, until she tripped over her own feet and flopped to the ground. Fortunately she landed on grass, but surprisingly, the hat seems to be heading to someone, someone they all would recognize by the teal hair.

"Wait--" Airi spoke up, seeing the familiar person infront of them almost in disbelief. "But that's--"

The person caught the hat with one hand, while the other she was holding pole with a flag stuck on it that was flowing in the wind. The flagpole-- and the whole outfit in general had a modern futuristic look to it.

"..." Minori stood up, looking at where the hat went and even she was silent for a second, before finally uttering the name of the person she recognized.

"...Miku?"

The outfit Miku wore was the one people know it as the 2022 version of the Racing Miku outfit, with one tiny change with the flagpole: it was able to be compacted into a more easier to carry version, with the flag rolled up and the pole portion sliding inside itself. Now it was as compact as a glowing stick, which she clipped it to her side.

Upon hearing her name from the brunette, Miku nodded. A smile appeared on her face as she placed the hat back on Minori's head.

"Today's forecasted to have a windy day, you know that right? You're Minori, right?"

Miku looked at the rest of the three of the group. The influx of memories from the last few days have gotten clearer.

"And you all must be the rest of the MORE MORE JUMP group: Airi, Shizuku and Haruka-- Hmm?"

Miku noticed the phone that Minori dropped from her fall, she picked it up before Minori could respond to it. Miku looked at the empty screen. She had a weird feeling about it, so with that, she spoke up again.

"...And then there's you." Miku's expression turned neutral upon looking at the screen. The three were confused, while Minori almost wanting to yank the phone away from Miku, but the other familiar Voice could be heard from the phone.

"Can't really hide from myself, can I?" A hologram appeared on the phone-- a hologram of the tealnette that Minori knew. The two started to softly smile at eachother. Now that their Miku appeared before the one Hanaka knows, Minori felt like it was too late to take that phone.

"So... These memories-- of these worlds, of them--that was because those were your memories, right?" Hanaka's Miku asked, looking at the hologram before looking at the idols now looking at her.

"That's right--" the other responds with a nod-- her smile remains. "That explains why you know of me, of them-- of these sekais. You and I are basically the same person, which also explains how I know so much about you.

"Hold on--" Minori spoke up. "How come there's two of you then? One's a VIRTUAL SINGER and the other's just...Human?"

"Dimensional variants," Hanaka responds. "My brother has met a good amount of variants of himself and others. Think of it like a character from a game, with each variant being from a different safe file from one another--"

"Or how a song is different with each remix." The hologram Miku spoke up. "She's Miku, but with some changes here and there in her world's remix. I guess the Miku of this world."

"Of this world?" Shizuku repeated, before Minori's friends started to discuss softly about what that meant.

Hanaka, the observant of the group, spoke up. "...So you're able to get to this world as a hologram, yet you don't exist in this dimension? I know it might be weird of me to ask this, but have you seen a blonde man in one of these sekais as you call it?"

"I have yes--" The other Miku spoke up, "I was observing him and the others. I'm not sure how or why they came here--"

"We were aware of the existence of these sekais recently," Hanaka's Miku spoke up. "His father sent us on a mission to learn more about it. Moreso he wants us to learn how these worlds work and if there's potential ramifications about how these worlds are powered."

Minori and her friends were confused about all this speak while Hanaka listened closely to what the Miku's are talking about. As for Minori's Miku, she had looked to the group for a moment, a more neutral expression was shown on her face for once before looking at Hanaka's Miku.

"Can we talk about this somewhere else? I know a place where we can talk about this."

"Fine by me if he's going to partake in this discussion. He actually was supposed to be doing this mission on his own, plus he knows the most about these dimensional stuff than anyone of us does."

"That is fine. Shall we talk about all of this with the three of us tomorrow? I'll meet you two over at Wonderland x Showtime's Ferris Wheel, okay?"

"That's fine by me."

With that, the hologram disappeared. With a smile, Miku walked up to Minori, with he hand reaching out to the phone, indicating that she wants to give it back to her.

"Sorry for temporarily confiscating it. I had way too many questions regarding these memories and all these other stuff in my mind. But now that I have enough answers, I'm a bit relieved to know that there's legitimate reasons for these memories."

"Okay, but what the hell--" Airi spoke up as she walked up to Miku, there's a sense of annoyance in her voice.

"So you came here to talk to the other you and just drop this bombshell that there's some crazy stuff going on?"

"Easy now, Airi," Shizuku spoke up. "It's a confusing topic that's not in our expertise. I understand you're concerned, but I think Miku's as concerned as we are, right?"

"..." Airi was silent, while Miku spoke up.

"I don't blame her for thinking this way. So far it seems like everything's fine, but how these worlds are created and maintained, that's the main concern and it's something I hope that the two of them can talk it out. As for me I am still genuinely interested in the four of you."

A soft smile appeared on her face as she looked at the four.

"I myself am happy to meet fellow idols, even if it wasn't the best way for us to start meeting eachother, eheh...heh..."

As silence envelops the group, Minori took the chance to speak up.

"...MIku, are you doing okay?"

"Hmm?" She tilted her head a bit.

"I've heard the news from a few months ago and I wanted to know if you're doing alright. Y'know, the one news about the concert?"

"..." Miku took a chance to remember it...

Yes, that concert... So to hear the fellow idol ask how she's doing? That was a touching for her. She gave Minori a soft pat on the shoulder with a nod. "...It's a long story, but I'm doing much better, thank you."

"The news about the concert? What news?" Shizuku asked to the tealnette, with Airi also speaking up.

"Okay, I think it's clear we're all a little confused here. Pinkie-cheeks, Miku, care to explain to tell us all about what the heck is going on?"

"P-pinkie-cheeks!?"

Miku, finding Hanaka's reaction a bit adorable, softly giggled to herself with a nod on Airi's question.

"Sure, sure-- I'll catch you all up to speed...After we get something to eat-- we can't have a conversation on an empty stomach now, can we?"

"Of course!" Minori responds. "Let's go-- I know a good place to get something good to eat!"

[dgcatanisiri]

Y'know, I do get worried sometimes about the way that even in leftist anti-terf spaces, there's often an... I'm gonna call it a reflexive worst case response to still assume the worst of men, like there's this inherent attitude of assuming that anything they do that is deemed wrong is also done with intention to cause discomfort.

It's even in the way of "hey guys, don't do this," when there's like DMs of what are probably parasocial relationships making an impression of assuming a closer friendship than there actually is. Y'know, there've often been cases of women who get these kinds of DMs and then post pictures of it (hopefully blacking out the names) on social media as an example of what not to do.

Cuz like... doing that tends to prompt the social media mob to start investigating and try to figure out who did the creepy thing - the story gets taken out of the posters hands and made into the absolute worst possible thing, when the worst "crime" was assuming that someone was closer than the other person thought they were.

To be clear, I do understand why there's a jump to this on the part of women in general, I'm not saying that it's a response that comes from nowhere.

But at the same time, there's also still what sometimes comes across as an undercurrent of always assuming the worst of the men involved in these situations, which... feels like it might come from terf talk of assuming all men are inherently dangerous and not to be trusted because of the fact that they are men.

I mean, I'm basically word-vomiting this out right now because I read some stories that involved various drama on this, and just thought about how I respond in a lot of scenarios. Like... I've outright worried in the past if me responding to like various YouTubers on Twitter is overstepping my bounds, when honestly, I'm saying this about a YouTuber who probably has had their notifications set to only show them responses from mutuals anyway. I've even held back from making comments BECAUSE I worry about coming across as overstepping those bounds.

So like... I could easily see myself doing this with people. I mean, I've had a few occasions where I've said something on Twitter that got a like from actual celebrities, but like... That may be a thing that makes my day, but they probably would never recognize me by my screen name if I were to like speak with them at a con or something.

Also, probably there's some commentary to be had about how we turn random voices on the internet into micro-celebrities, simply because they sit in front of a camera for a few hours at a time and rant about their views on X, Y, and Z, and how damaging that can be for both the person in front of the camera and the audience - I have like a less than nothing of a platform here on Tumblr, but if I went and made like YouTube videos that were basically me reading my venting and rants as a script, slapped some footage on top of that audio... I could probably end up being able to give myself a trajectory into the Video Essay Community™ because of it. And then I'd have to become MUCH more concerned about the inevitable Discourse™ that comes from it - even to the point of potentially being doxxed and having to move, just because someone disagrees with my opinions and thinks that I deserve to pay for not agreeing about the portrayal of video game characters or something.

Like the most drama I've ever been a personal party to was that weirdness a couple of years back of someone accusing me of wishing violence upon ACTUAL women because of my lack of sympathy for a FICTIONAL race of female-only aliens, due to their portrayal and actions during the FICTIONAL existential war, and then listing off a series of either wild misinterpretations or outright lies to try and make that out as a pattern of behavior. Beyond that, I've had a couple of instances of people taking my saying X means that I don't give a shit about Y...

But amplify that the way that inevitably comes when you end up with a platform of thousands, of hundreds of thousands, all taking the worst possible interpretation of your words and then amplifying that so that people who've never heard of you now hear those interpretations...

And when I think about it, yes, honestly, I do kinda fear what would happen from that because of my being male - obviously, again, I don't want to frame myself as being more vulnerable than women to doxxing and all that associated concerns, but... I feel somewhat like my vulnerability would be played down by others because of my gender, because of my sexuality, that I would be seen as being less "at risk" just because I'm male, even though I'd theoretically be just as much at risk as anyone else - hell, I'd inevitably be speaking leftist rhetoric while living in a red state, which... I mean, I see plenty of signs of support for the guy who just got his mugshot taken on a daily basis, so it'd be dangerous for me all the same.

That's what I'm getting at in saying that sometimes you see this downplaying of and dismissal of men, the kind that comes from terf rhetoric dismissing what men go through because it's not as persistent and socially pervasive as what men go through.

But it seems sometimes like what women get as waves of harassment, men can end up getting in a series of piling microaggressions that everyone - not just those hurling them at them, but even by the men in question - downplay.

I mean, it's not like I don't know about the way that MRAs have ruined the whole concept of "men's rights" and that sort of thing, but... I DO genuinely think there needs to be more discussion of the way that patriarchy broadly hurts men AND how sometimes attempts to undo the damage it's inflicted towards women can be overcorrected for to continue inflicting damage on men.

Again, this is a lot of word-vomit on my part, so this may well not necessarily read right, but... I mean, that's kinda going back to the "worst case interpretation" thing, isn't it, that I'm trying to process this as best I'm able, but maybe not able to put it into the best words, so some random person can come along and decide I'm saying that men are the real victims or something like that...

[jiannguo]

Why, why, why is it that when I searched yt for xiao zhan willing to find a particular add, half of the results when bjyz videos? Why? sometimes I just really hate the whole world. I didn't watch the video, but the title of one insisted that somehow the last douyin Xiao Zhan posted is "proof" of their relationship. And somebody claimed that the couch in the picture you have as your header now is wyb's couch. Or that wyb has been there, although that post of wyb's was from 2019 I guess. And that Xiao Zhan is petting Jianguo's cheeks bc they remind him of wyb's cheeks. Like how about he's petting his cat cause it's his cat?! These people are insane and I don't know how they're capable of reaching that far.

Sorry for the super late reply 😅 This message got buried under other notifications.. I apologise!

That's because 🐢 tag it as "CPN" aka its couple nǎo = couple brain (it's a chi-term). Which means whatever is tagged underneath are by-products of the cp delulu way of thinking, and it's not hard facts, not to be treated as real evidence.

And it's traffic. BL fans are huge.

I'll give you a very recent example. 🐢 think of Doumo Cathedral to be a CPN just because a) XZ posted in 2019 b) in 2016, Italian Senate passes bill recognizing same-sex unions and its supporters took a photo in front of the Cathedral. So 🐢 expect XZ and W*B to get married in 2026 in that Cathedral (the year is because that's when they think XZ's contract with WJW expires). All of it "CPN".

In reality, that cathedral is one of the most popular spots in Milan right in the middle of city centre, so photographing there isn't a big deal, Cai Xukun, Li Yunchun etc have filmed photographs and vlogs there. Secondly.. as much as 🐢 believes the theory, the reality is a gay couple can't get married in Doumo Cathedral out of all places. Its a Catholic Church, and gay marriages in Italy can only have "civil unions". Honestly, some of these people should read up on it, Google is free.

Lastly, what the relationship between XZ and WJW is at present, no one knows. It's all speculation.

So Anon, these people can literally create a mountain out of a molehill and call it a mountain, and say its "cpn". And anything goes. It's sort of sad, as they will put their theories in front of basic common sense and logic.

And if you even want to try and add some sense in their logics, they'll simply use the term "homophobic". Which is weird as XZ's fans encompass many people of all walks of life including LGBTQ community. They are more pissed towards 🐢 who think outing someone for the sake of a ship is their God given right.

Anyways.. enough rant 😅 . In a nutshell, let's just ignore, report (esp the misgendering posts) and block.. some people will never change their minds.

[leafweaverryn]

💜 For the writer game: ✨💕🎨

breeeeee! *bouncing wave*

✨- Out of the comments you’ve received on your fics, what are two or three of your favorites? - i don't really have specific comments that come to mind immediately (sorry!), but i do have favorite commenters that i love getting notifications from. @inkmousey, because her keyboard smashing is like that first sip of coffee in the morning. just... aaahhh... @feather-dancer, because their comments are always unhinged, hilarious, and make be grin. @fragileizy, because she leaves behind live-tweets of her reading experience, and it's a nice little thing to go back and reply like a movie commentary. and you of course! 💚

💕 - What is your favorite fic that you’ve written? - probably A Heart Worth a Second Chance. it was the first time i really got to explore Felix's potential and really play with and get to know him. he's probably my favorite doll now because of that fic lol The Star Pilot's Kiss and The Witch and the (Lind)Worm are up there too as my favorites, both because I enjoyed the worldbuilding in those. sci-fi is one of my favorite genres, and getting to play with the idea of kwamis as ai and miraculouses as ships was super fun, especially in figuring out how different powers would work in a sci-fi setting. and witch marinette is just always fun in general lol

🎨 - If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see? - oh gosh um......... the problem is i'm absolutely oblivious, so even if someone did, i probably wouldn't recognize it and need them to snap their fingers in front of my face a few times and go "this is what this is from!" i also (feel like i) don't have many scenes that are really illustration-worthy, if that makes sense. i imagine my fics as movies as i write them, so switching the brain to think of immediate screengrabs is kinda tough. only because i'm thinking about it, if i had to pick as something that would be visually stunning and really fuckin' cool to share both with and without context would be when Marinette/Ladybug finds the Ladybug ship in The Star Pilot's Kiss.

thank you for the asks! 💚

[chris-aok]

Daylight

I've just discovered a company called Daylight that has launched their first product: It's an Android tablet that uses a new screen technology that provides the same contrast and matte surface of an e-Ink display but has the 60 FPS of an LCD. Cool.

In addition to this screen technology, they claim to have made improvements to the OS, UI, and UX to reduce the addiction, attention-grabbing, notification-spewing, dopamine-fuelled experience of most other modern smart devices; with the idea being that this is a device you will use more calmly in a more focused way with no blue light and less stress.

They're calling it the DC-1, which is short for Daylight Computer I.

I've watched a few videos about them and their CEO & Founder, Anjan Katta. He's got the eloquence and thoughtfulness of Steve Jobs. He spoke to me.

You can watch a cool introduction to the company, him, and the product below from S3:

I believe in their product and in their mission. Well, I believe in it enough to talk about it here, just not enough to buy one yet.

To be fair, I wanted to buy one, but what discouraged me was the following:

They haven't built up the supply chain to be able to ship units on a whim yet. Right now, they're taking orders for "batches" that will be shipping in the coming months. A Founder's Edition unit currently costs $729 USD (That's almost $1,000 CAD at the time of writing). A Founder's Edition is said to come with a stylus, charging cable, sleeve, and "extras". If you don't want to spend that much right now, you can instead put down a refundable $100 USD deposit on a unit that will be available in Q1 2025. At the time of writing, Batches 1 through 3 are sold out, and they were going to ship between early July and late September respectively. Batch 4 is open right now with 185 units available and it ships in November 2024. I don't do Kickstarters. This is their first product and even if I trusted that they would ship on time, $1,000 CAD is a lot to ask me to wait until November for. Or $100 to wait until next year for. I don't blame them for needing to launch this way, I don't think less of them for it, it's just not a fit for me right now. I bought my Steam Deck from Valve under similar circumstances, but I trust Valve, and I needed a gaming computer: I don't know Daylight yet.

I like my Kindle and iPad mini fine thank you very much. They're small, this is bigger. I don't need a bigger tablet. Admittedly, despite my efforts to make my iPad mini less distracting, I could do more. My interest in the DC-1 is purely out of curiosity because it's New Tech™ and I love tech. If I genuinely had a need, this would maybe be a different situation.

This is their first product. I have no idea how reliable the device is yet, nor do I know how trustworthy they are yet warranty-wise, or competent support-wise. I just learned about them a few days ago, so forgive my hesitation. Just because you launched doesn't mean you're ready to support your customers just yet. This is the late-adopter in me speaking: I want more data before committing. Maybe a year or two of reviews and seeing them in the news. Which brings me to my next point:

Who says they'll still be here in a year or two? I don't just buy devices for the sake of the device. I also want to know the company I'm buying from will support the device for as long as I use it. I respect that it took them 6 years to get to this point and launch, but if this screen technology is as revolutionary as they claim, I predict a few things could happen:

They get bought out by someone bigger (e.g. Amazon), they stop supporting their customers, the screen technology either gets integrated into the next Kindle or worse: The acquiring company mothballs the technology to silence a competitor.

Someone claims patent infringement and they get ceased-and-desisted into oblivion (I don't think this is likely, but crazier things have happened)

My favourite: The market recognizes the value of the screen technology and Daylight agrees to license it to others, making it ubiquitous and the DC-1 obsolete because others can iterate with it faster and cleaner.

Someone else manages to create a similar screen technology for cheaper

I'm excited by this product, this company, their philosophy, and their founder. I look forward to seeing how they evolve in the coming years, and I'm genuinely rooting for them. I might eventually pick up a unit one day, just not today.

Go get 'em, Anjan.

[pushovermediacritic]

Okay, I just got back from watching Kung Fu Panda 4 (great movie, by the way), and I'm confused, surprised, and hurt to find that vaspider has blocked me. Just for giving some light criticism. I wish I could message them to apologize, but I can't because of the block and all.

Basically, as far as I understand the situation, someone else made some posts about American regional sensitivity around food, one of the specific notes being about how sensitive people are about the Philly Cheesesteak.

So vaspider reblogged telling people not to call anything a Philly Cheesesteak if it has green on it, then a bunch of people reblogged with jokes about calling random food a Philly Cheesesteak while vaspider angrily told them to stop, then vaspider made a separate post saying those people were being childish bullies and they were blocking every single one.

I responded to that post saying that vaspider was the one bullying those people, by ordering other people to shut up when they're just making harmless jokes about food. I admit that my comments were rude, but I didn't think they were out of line since they weren't more rude than the post I was commenting on was. I recognize now that I should have been more polite and I'd like to apologize for that.

Because I'm blocked now, it took a bit of work to find their response, and it just left me even more confused.

This may shock you, but this isn't actually about cheesesteak at this point.

For the record, yes I'm genuinely shocked their anger wasn't actually about cheesesteak. I thought it had something to do with historical insensitivity or something.

But now I'm fairly sure I know what the issue is, and it comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of what a reblog translates into in real-life terminology. This is the phrasing they used:

It isn't "bullying" to keep people from interacting with you when they've proven they won't stop doing something when you said "this isn't funny, I don't like it." That is actually enforcing healthy online boundaries. If people think that kind of behavior is funny or appropriate, they're not the kind of people I want to hang out with. If people think it's out of line, or indeed bullying, to block people for touching people in ways they've said "don't do that," they are also not people I want to hang out with.

Vaspider obviously thinks a reblog is equivalent to someone saying something directly to you, or touching you on the shoulder. And in that scenario, it's totally justified to ask people not to do that and expect them to comply, otherwise they're violating your boundaries. That makes sense to me now, and it didn't before.

The way I look at it is that making a post is like sitting down at a table and starting a public conversation. When someone reblogs, they briefly sit down at the table and leave a comment. By my perspective, what vaspider did was sit down at the table, immediately tell off the people who were already there, then when people came to the table to make jokes about their take, get annoyed and yell at them to shut up instead of leaving the table.

That's why I saw their behavior as bullying, because to me it seemed like they invaded a space they weren't invited to, threw out an insult, and kept saying "shut up" to everyone who was trying to make light of the situation and raise the mood.

I now realize that my analogy is flawed because there is no way to turn off notifications on a specific post, there's no way to leave the table once you've commented on it (outside of maybe deleting the post, but does that stop notifications? I genuinely don't know how that works). Tumblr should have a "mute post" feature, Reddit does.

That said, I still don't think someone reblogging is equivalent to poking you, that's more like using the Chat or sending Messages, is touching you on the shoulder and pulling you aside for a private conversation. I still think a reblog chain is more akin to a public conversation.

And I think jumping to blocking people over harmless jokes or light criticism is bad. I don't like the fact I got blocked over this, when I was following vaspider for politics and whatnot, stuff actually important and serious. Blocking someone should be a last resort, I try to only block bigots and bots, not every random idiot who I have a disagreement with.

But, trying to be even-handed, I do see how it can be tempting to spam the block button on anyone who even slightly annoys you when you're trying to keep your notifications from being flooded, and there's no less extreme way to do that.

[forevermagik]

multiples of 4, eda, + a bonus question of your choosing. and also 17

Well, this happened. I cannot even with you two. Anyway, answers below the cut lol! @kraefishh your answers are here since it's THE SAME CHARACTER and we're gonna ramble in one post.

2. BONUS QUESTION!!! Favorite canon thing about this character?

She's chronically ill/disabled and it's NOT THE PUNCHLINE. It gets it's own ARC about how it affects her but it's not ~inspirational~ about her overcoming it.

Also like, she's a woman in her 40s. With wrinkles. And grey hair. And like, she's a main character!!!! She's not reduced to the mentor figure.

.

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Oh MAN this one is interesting to me because like... Put this woman in Kingdom Hearts and have her vehemently not adopt (adopt) Sora on his journey while he helps her, Luz, and King save the Boiling Isles with NOT the power of friendship but the power of bashing people on the head with a Keyblade. Or something. Then have her as a summon (harpy form ofc) later.

Put her in my book and watch her and Rinnie make TERRIBLE decisions. And Rinnie have a 404 brain error as Eda just takes off an arm and a leg.

PUT HER IN YOUNG WIZARDS and have her explain magic (witchcraft for her, wizardry for someone like Dairine) in a way that actually I think LINES UP?!??!?!?

Anyway, moving on...

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8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Seriously not a fan of people saying Eda's dumb. She's not. She was just absolutely failed by the school system and thus she despises it. And while yes, I was Lilith when it came to school, I recognize that students like Eda EXIST. And deserve to be taught in ways that match with them. But no, this is not a dumb woman.

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12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

UM!!!! This woman absolutely looked at Hunter post Hollow Mind and went FUCK I HAVE ANOTHER KID I GUESS.

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16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

Anything Eda x Darius. Like. Really not my thing. Raeda forever, and I'm also oddly fond of Eda/Raine/Camila.

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We determined 17 was a no.

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20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

HMMMM! I mean, Eda and Raine while a couple are also I think just amazing chaotic best friends. And when Lilith and Eda aren't trying to kill each other (sibling problems) they're also good friends. So.... *shrug* I don't got anything else for this one.

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21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

!!!! (not that I've posted any of the fics I've written yet) but my favorite thing to do when writing Eda is to just have her have her ramble in her thoughts like I do. Also it's fun to write her turning into harpy form in front of Raine :)

So far don't have anything I don't like so....

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23. Favorite picture of this character?

by @/kaereth (I swear I'm not reposting for credit I also just do not want to blow up your notifications) but I love this creachurification. So much.

Though this gif is one of my go-tos:

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24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Eda's honestly so different from anything else I've ever seen so???? I don't know?????

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25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

Okay so I was told I'd really like the show and it was about her coming to terms with her chronic illness and the recommendation came from enough people that I was like, "okay, I have an idea of what to expect."

I was wrong.

And that's FINE!!!!

Tbh, I'm not a huge fan of her in the first episode. She's mean to Owlbert for a throwaway line I feel and it's very heavy-handed. But I do like when Luz is holding her head as they're both staring at the Warden like "did you just...?" so I liked that.

By the end of the "choose yourself" conversation in Witches Before Wizards, I loved her. And that was *before* the curse was revealed.

I just. I love her??????

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Okay, that's all of them. Enjoy!