#cannot decide what i want to read

[lohstandfound]

My favourite If We Were Villains annotations from me and @roleplay-fan

Transcript and context:

"DNA vibes" "I can't tell which boy would say this. Not Brian probably"

'Are we Richard tonight or are we dick?' "no thoughts just amusing line" "John Tate to Richard -> could be Cathy too"

"kinky" "Alexa, play 'Unholy' by Sam Smith"

"oh wow sounds lowkey me" "*bonks you with self-love bat*" "I mean always playing supporting roles"

"I desperately need a map of the university a very detailed one"

'In my case, the latter.' "did you listen to Richard"

"they're friends, they're family and that's what makes this story such a tragedy"

"kinky bottom XD"

"my god why did it take me so long to pick up on James & Oliver?"

"It's my copy of IWWV and I'll highlight all the Shakespeare I want"

"*same energy as 'ZAK! PUT A SHIRT ON!'" "this is both Cathy about Leah AND Nadia about Ivy" "[next to an arrow pointing to 'Leah'] maybe other way around"

"MEREDITH IS DANNIE!" [Dannie = Danny from DNA, who was played as non-binary]

"MAYBE NOT" [immediately carries on from previous annotation]

"why did 'HAVE YOU INVENTED FUCKING WEED YET' come to mind?" [in reference to a line about theatre kids being weird/laughing at anything. also a moment from our dnd campaign]

"To be fair, y'all spout shakespeare and not everyone understands that"

[after a quote about stars] "I can see the stars again, my lady" "Rude!"

"you. are. a. good. actor" [in reference to Oliver insisting he's not and being surprised when no one agrees]

"left alone to fend for themselves and indulge in illusions? yeah" [after Filippa says she thinks they were fucked up from the beginning]

"you are in love with him"

"catch me pouring libations to Dionysus before cast parties"

"he would love a portrait of himself"

"was he wanting Oliver to be his Juliet? To James, Oliver isn't his sidekick but the love interest. They are the lovers in James' story but oliver is still stuck being the weak link, sidekick and so on, no matter what anyone else says about his talent"

"same energy as 'anything is a weapon if you yeet it hard enough'"

"He faked his death? the ending is just as sad as Bare"

[kareenvorbarra]

upset about arnheid vinlandsaga again today so i reread some of her scenes and i'm still marveling at how well her storyline was executed. i have literally no complaints about how the author handles her situation; even her death doesn't feel like she was done wrong by the narrative (though i would be more invested if she was still alive). she has real interiority and complex motivations and she's written with such delicasy and sympathy that you can tell that the author understands her. basically every other character in this arc can be judged by how they treat arnheid - thorfinn and einar's ride-or-die solidarity for a fellow slave who has treated them both with kindness, snake clearly seeing her as a person despite his respect for the status quo and anger over the deaths of his men, the petty cruelty of ketil's wife (which could never escalate to the level of what ketil is capable of), ketil treating her relatively well as long as she dedicates herself entirely to his pleasure and then beating her to death in a rage when she tries to escape with another man

lots of characters judge her harshly for her actions (to ketil's wife she's ungrateful, to snake's men she's spoiled and selfish, to ketil she's a traitor) but the protagonists never do. thorfinn respects her resilience and pragmatism in the face of suffering, understands on some level the violence she's endured. einar values her friendship, he asks her what she wants and does everything he can to help her with whatever she chooses to do. they refuse to leave her behind in a war zone when she might be dying. they steal her from a man who will surely hurt her again if she lives. she's an ordinary woman, suffering a very brutal but mundane kind of violence, and for a little while she's the most important character in this story.

[yo9urt]

Pokémon Fushigi no Motherfucking Dungeon !!!!

(i would put a screenshot here but my deck couldn't upload them for some reason.)

thoughts & comments on pmd in japanese below (VERY LONG)

28 new flashcards!!

uncountable new words that i did not add for various reasons!!

observations:

blessedly, the game is so far not using a lot of formal language. the personality quiz did use formal language but the actual characters themselves are speaking very casually (i’m actually really excited to see how the npcs speak in the future, i want to see how they’re characterized via their speaking styles)

one thing that really interests me in japanese is the 2nd person pronoun system and how people (or characters) choose to refer to each other and this was super fun to watch for in the game. in the first chapter, i counted 1 use of あなた (only in the “what’s your name?” menu input), several uses of きみ (most of which occurred during the personality quiz, but some of which were used by the partner pokemon prior to learning MC’s name; every time, it was written in katakana), 1 or 2 uses of おまえ (used by zubat towards the partner), and i noticed that after learning MC’s name partner exclusively refers to them by their name and does not use any kind of suffix. my guess is that this is either 1. because they are not human / this is standard practice in the pokemon world or 2. hinting at the fact that they end up having a very close relationship and that partner trusts leader immediately. i’m half expecting wigglytuff and/or chatot to be referred to as 先生 or something like that so we’ll see in chapter 2!!

speaking of expectations, i had a couple going in: 1. that there would be a lot of onomatopoeias, because they seem to have a huge amount of use in creative writing, & 2. that i would see a lot of the little stylistic bits & bobs i’m already familiar with in japanese that tell you more about a character. both of these came true! i’ve already added some new onomatos to my flashcards AND i noticed some fun things about the characters:

male partner uses ぼく (sensible - it’s either that or おれ, and he is NOT an おれ character at all) (funnily enough and perhaps somewhat embarrassingly i did name the partner in this game majima and in hindsight i’m thinking wow they are literally not like each other at all but it’s ok i’m just choosing to ignore it i cba to redo the entire save anyway. plus i customized it so he's gastly and i'm clefairy which is already the cutest duo ever and i don't want to change that especially because i also had to give them custom stats and movesets so WHATEVER majima is just going to be different in this universe and he can handle that. also the partner is written very cutely and giving him that name made him even cuter to me so its no big deal really)

speaking of cutely i literally can’t explain this because i don’t remember it being the case in the english version but genuinely there is something REALLY endearing about how the partner talks in the japanese version. i guess thats another reminder that things really do get lost in translation like im sure the TL team did the best they could but english partner and japanese partner already feel different from each other and the latter is so cute, in a way it does feel like he has a fuller range of expression here

i think male MC also uses ぼく? i swear i remember a “ぼくじしん” in there but who knows

ぼく and ほんとう (spelled ほんと by the partner but ほんとう in MC’s thoughts) were almost entirely in katakana (i think ほんとう might have been hiragana), also for some reason なぞ (“riddle” or “enigma”) was in katakana too???? just for artistic flair, maybe? おまえ was as well but that makes sense

zubat and koffing (zubat in particular) both had a rougher, more masculine speaking style, which is exactly what i expected from them. lots of sentence-ending ぜ and ぞ (male partner uses さ from time to time, but not ぜ/ぞ), and they called partner 弱虫くん which made me so mad on his behalf! so rude!!!!!!!

other thoughts:

i was worried about the lack of kanji but honestly it’s not impeding my reading at all. a lot of the words are words that don’t need kanji, and if they are kanji-based words then they’re either ones i’ve never seen before (and i can just look them up online) OR they’re ones i can recognize by their reading/the context/just generally being familiar with them after seeing them a bunch in other places. i definitely feel like my intuition for like…word boundaries and that kind of thing has already gotten stronger and will probably improve from playing this game lol

HOLY FUCK, READING PRACTICE. you would not believe the amount of reading i did. when i got to beach cave (literal very first dungeon in the game) i sat in the menu for maybe at least half an hour just straight up muddling through the 700000 words the game was putting in front of me. some of them i looked up, some i grasped from context, some i gave up on (but the last category was pretty small)

i was reading the entire menu and i got to the “hints” section and it was so long that i just gave up. a treat for future me

speaking of context, playing a game i know by heart was ABSOLUTELY the right decision. i could largely figure out what moves my boys have without knowing what the names of the moves meant by reading the descriptions and going “hmm…ghost…physical…low power…this is astonish!!!!!” or “normal…no damage…always lands…YAWN!!!” etc.

i also think i’m playing this at the right stage of my learning. just beginner enough to heavily benefit from the mass exposure/immersion aspect of it, but learnéd enough to recognize a great deal of what’s put in front of me, and already knowing the game really well makes it SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (X1000000000) much easier to bridge the gap between what i do and don’t know. i got a tiny bit mentally exhausted from all the reading lol but it was soooooo worth it, most of my studying right now comes in the form of kanji/vocab + grammar/structure + listening to music so i’ve been sorely lacking in the “just straight up reading things normally” department and this game really fixes that up for me :)

keeping it real my speaking is definitely shit because i never practice (unless you count singing…) but i found myself reading out loud as i played to help figure things out and i do feel like i improved a tiny bit by the end. the partner pokemon in particular was really fun to read for because they gave him a fairly emotional/heart-on-his-sleeve speaking style (not dissimilar to the english version, but it feels much stronger here as previously noted) so i got to have fun reading his lines :P i definitely felt like i was hitting the consonants much better and keeping everything flowing well

im trying to upload screenshots but it wont work, so for personal recordkeeping: SENTENCES THAT I READ AND UNDERSTOOD ALL BY MYSELF AND AM REALLY PROUD OF

いちどきめたことはさいごまでやりとおす？ roughly = “once you’ve decided to do something, do you see it through to the end/do you stick with it?” (lit. “one time decided thing TOPIC end until carry through?”)

「はどう」とは　きみのからだがはっするみえないエネルギーのことだ roughly = “[aura] is the energy your body gives off” (lit. “[wave motion] QUOTE TOPIC you POSS body SUBJ emit energy NOM thing is”)

オレンのもをたベると　HPがかいふくするぞ！Xボタンでメニューをひらき　「どうぐ」コマンドからたべてみよう！ roughly = “if you eat an oran berry, your HP will restore! try eating it using the ‘item’ command after opening the menu with the X button!” (lit. “oren NOM/CLASS fruit OBJ eat.NP IF ‘HP’ SBJ restore do EMPHATIC! ‘X’ button MEANS menu OBJ open(NOUN) [tool] command from eat-and-see-VOL!”)

why is the tutorial using ぞ???

is it because i picked boy during the quiz? is it trying to be manly with me??? am i reading too deeply into this? (probably)

i was surprised to see 道具 here because i just recently learned it and i was like “tool? there’s no tools in this game…” but i could tell from its menu position that it was item/inventory so i was like, huh, interesting use of the word…

この　かけらが　はまる　ばしょを　いつか　はっけんしたい！ roughly = “someday, i want to discover the place that this fragment fits into!” (lit. “this fragment SBJ fit place OBJ someday discovery do-want!”)

i did have to look up はまる but i knew all the other words on my own!!!!

it was so fun seeing words i recognized especially higher level (higher relative to where i am, at least, i.e. more recently learned) kanji words like 場所 ＆ 発見。noticing them in kana felt kind of like seeing your friend at a costume party and knowing it’s them without them telling you or something lol and i always get so excited seeing vocab words i know in the wild!! it feels great to recognize them naturally like that :)

[aropride]

brute forcing my way thru this article and feeling SO vindicated by the parts i understand. i fucking KNEW i was experiencing actual physical symptoms not caused by "not exercising enough" i KNEW exercise was making it worse I KNEW IT. I KNEW IT.

[orchidyoonkook]

Personal

Hi.

How did you get over your quarter life crisis?

Because I’m trying not to fall into the vast unyielding void. And I’m failing hilariously.

[rmu-vincent]

Dear Mr. Edgeworth,

I recall from one of your previous postings that you are particularly fond of cats, and am interested in your opinions on other animals commonly kept for human companionship. What are your thoughts on dogs? Horses? Rodents? Birds and reptiles?

I would assume that last one would have interesting twofold connotations given your status as a law student, due to these creatures' association with the legal profession - the epithet of "legal eagle" on the positive side, and all the jokes about snakes and crocodilians' show of professional courtesy on the negative. As an enthusiast of all things reptile related, I feel it is a reputation undeserved by these misunderstood, scaly creatures... as well as those aspiring to take on careers in law, very important for society...

But I digress. Lastly, I would also take it that, for rather obvious reasons, you don't really like fish, the way they remind you of a certain someone...

Regards, Seraphine. Again, may you excel in your studies, and no slanderous jokes come your way.

Dear Ms Seraphine,

Thank you for the kind words and inspiring thoughts.

Despite, as you noted correctly, being fascinated by cats, I am not that fond of most domestic animals, and my liking for cats is simply an amusing exception. However, there are still some species that I could call charming and interesting in ways different from keeping them as pets.

The first animal that came to mind was a graceful black panther. Ever since I was a kid, I thought of panthers as majestic, powerful guardians, trustworthy leaders, and dangerous vigilantes. They might not represent justice in the traditional sense of court cases and hour-long debates, but if one crosses their road, they should be wary of seeing their eyes shine in the dark when the night falls.

On the other hand, I could never resist swift, elegant antelopes' beauty. As someone who has always strived for success and improvement, their efortless endurance and resilience resonated with me; antelopes are in a constant state of action, awareness, and searching for new paths, opportunities. For me, they are a symbol of motivation and energy.

As my final point, I would like to mention swans. Even though they are often depicted as an embodiment of love, from swan figurines being placed on wedding cakes to towel swans on hotel beds, these birds have always struck me as an exquisite representation of change. On another note, the concept of a swan song has captivated me ever since I learned what the expression meant. It is impossible to deny that I spent hours considering what my swan song could possibly be, and to tell the truth, I still think about it from time to time.

Unfortunately, I do not have a strong stance on reptiles. They are the most beautiful when admired from afar, and their quiet deadliness amazes me; snakes in particular have been painted as villains since the beginning of time, so despite me condemning the demonization of reptiles, I understand why people have those... preconcieved notions about them.

Keeping rodents and other smaller animals as pets does not make much sense to me. For me, it would be impossible to love something that is barely capable of communicating its needs. These fluff balls always seemed closer to decor than to actual companions.

As for fish, I would not say that a certain someone you mentioned has enough influence over me to make me actively dislike fish. Marine species look magnificent in acquariums when the interior is done right, and personally, I do not mind fish... served with a tasteful side dish, that is.

Best regards,

Vincent Edgeworth

[thisisapaige]

So, what fics have y'all been reading lately?

[meanscarletdeceiver]

For the worst Rev. W. Awdry book - I'd say Book 9: Edward the Blue Engine. Don't get me wrong, there are some great stories - but it's not an Edward book. It's a book about almost every other character under the sun!

Except for Old Iron, and even then that's more a James story than an Edward one!

And if not Edward the Blue Engine for not being an Edward book, than possibly Tank Engine Thomas Again for being the book with the least stakes or excitement.

Wow, I was so wrong, you guys are not about to stand by and let "all the Skarloey books rank dead last" anon palm all the iconoclastic honors tonight, are ya?

[hlvrai-stuck-together]

((OOC))

Sorry I keep updating at like. midnight. I honestly dont have an excuse besides i go to work and i get home and i'm tired fghsdajk

Gonna take me a little while to get into the swing of this. I've never done an askblog like this before (though I have hosted... technically 3 in the past? (EDIT: no, 4 actually.) But never like this, and none of them went anywhere), so trying to get into the swing of it has been weird.

Glad people seem to be enjoying it, though! I had no idea it'd take off like this, aha. Hopefully I can get a bit more consistent and stop uploading at 2 AM, lol.

That said, I don't know what my schedule's gonna be (if I even start one). So if there's a couple days where I don't upload, it's not because I abandoned the AU or anything, it's probably just because I'm busy IRL.

Feel free to keep sending in asks even if I'm not online! I've already got a lot of really good ones sitting there that I'm gonna hold onto for a bit (for. reasons).

This has been really fun so far, and I hope everyone's having fun, too! Just bear with me while I figure this out. I'm hoping to get out a ref of [ERROR] soon, and also stop calling him that soon, but getting into character is proving to be a challenge when you do it on and off like this. But that's never stopped me before and it won't now. Like I said, this has been fun so far!

That said, if anyone has any suggestions on a meta level, I'm all ears. I realize now that I've run into this basically blind, so even though I did a couple week's worth of preparation in advance for this blog, I'm also still floundering a bit. Learning more every day, though! And I'm hoping I can pick up the pace soon as well. After Day 1's rapidfire replies, going at a more leisurely pace feels really slow, and I both wanna fix that but also don't know how because, like I said, I keep uploading at midnight gfdshjk

TL;DR I'm working on it dw lol

-Mod Dimonds

[megah3rz]

i think my issue with working for a very long time on one art piece is that i keep running out of things to listen to that are both enjoyable and not requiring more than like 30% of my attention (i cannot be alone with my thoughts)

[werewolfest]

Also. There are like……….many many things that don’t make sense in season 2 but one that I’ve been contemplating recently is the way that Jim is clearly still super pissed at Ed during the apology scene, to the point where they cut in and say shot, murdered, etc when Ed is dancing around how he made them feel or whatever. But then IMMEDIATELY after that Lucius is complaining about what a shitty apology it is and Jim says they think it was actually pretty solid coming from Ed?????????? Like? Hello?????????? I don’t understand what could have possibly changed their mind in under a minute. like why even bother have them acting outraged if you’re just going to drop that in the next two seconds

[b-blushes]

can't wait to be well enough to leave the house more freely i NEED to go to the LIBRARY!!!!!! >:(

[universestreasures]

Happy Birthday @blasterdiablo​ Part 4 (THE ENDO)

Thunder booms as the storm outside the castle rages on, the weather seeming to be just as intense as what was transpiring inside. Everyone, his own knight included, had seemed to turn on the young prince after he made his declaration that when he inherits the throne from his father, he was going to end the suffering of the humans and bring peace between the two species. It was something he had wanted ever since he was young, and that feeling only grew stronger as he began to know and fall in love with the human he was now using all of his strength to protect. 

Toshiki had become a target once again because of him. The blame for the prince’s declaration had been instantly thrown towards the human they claimed ‘bewitched’ him, the elders having found out about Ahmes’ habit to remove the inhibiting collar when they were alone from Percival. They wanted him dead. They wanted him dead and removed from this plane of existence so his presense could no longer influence the next heir to their people. Ahmes is sure if he didn’t have royal blood rushing through his veins, he would too be sentenced to a tragic fate. He just knows that's what monsters like vampires do, even to their own kind.

However, vampires were not the only monsters. For in the heat of the moment, his father finally revealed a fact that had been unknown to even Toshiki, a truth that revealed the origins of how the human got into this situation in the first place. Regretfully so and just like so many other human children, Toshiki had been sold off so his parents could save their own skins. Toshki had been abandoned by his own people, the people Ahmes wanted so desperately to save who were capable of being as heartless as the vampires...  

And with those words, the prince had finally snapped..

“I hate them...

I hate them both...

Vampires...

Humans...

They’re both...

They’re both monsters!!!”

Ahmes’ intense feelings, feelings of hatred and rage that he had been suppressing throughout most of his life that only exploded at the news of Toshiki’s fate, had bursted all at once. He felt for the first time in his life real power, his latent abilities to finally come to the surface that had sent a shockwave across the throne room. Toshiki had told him he wasn’t a failure. Toshiki had told him he was strong. Toshiki had told him he had the power to change the future, and it is due to that faith and encouragement that has allowed Ahmes to gain the power needed to protect the one he held dear from the monsters of both their kinds.

He had managed to get Toshiki out of the room, holding onto him desperately as he used his free hand to blast through any soldiers or vampires standing in his way as they hustled down the halls. He didn’t care if he was hurting innocents in all of this, people who were just following orders. All he saw in his raging ruby eyes were monsters trying to take his Toshiki, his beloved Toshiki, away from him. And that...was something he wouldn’t stand for.

The plan currently was to find Ashlei, the one person in this castle he can still trust. She could help Toshiki get to a safe place all the while he stood back and fought. After years of being unable to do anything to change the situation, the prince truly feels like he is making up for lost time by finally being able to save the one who loves from this madness. He prays that when the dust settles, he will emerge victorious and the world can start heading in the right direction, one where no one will have to suffer.

Sadly, fate had other plans instore for their world than the paradise Ahmes and Toshiki had been imagining in the sanctuary of the prince’s quarters. For out of he corner of his eye, he notices a a bat flying forward behind them. It wasn’t just any bat, either. It was his father, who was the one who wanted the human companion of his son dead the most. In a split second, he shifts from bat to human, takes out his sword from a sheath, and prepares to strike Toshiki who the prince had been dragging along this whole time. 

If this had been before his awakening, then the prince would have been powerless to stop his father’s charge, for he couldn’t react fast enough. But now, things were different. Ahmes wasn’t the same weakling his father had seen as a failure for his entire life for not acting as one of his standing should. Well, he was about to see what his son’s power, the one he had been wanting to see, was like first hand. 

Toshiki is suddenly swung and sent flying back by the prince, enough to have him land safely out of reach of the king. The movement happens so quickly that Alfred can’t change the direction of his blade, and it pierces right through the stomach of the vampire prince. No cries of pain escape Ahmes’ lips. All that could be seen is his raging red aura that surrounded both his body and the blood red of his ruby hues as they stared down the king.

“I won’t let you...I won’t let you or anyone else hurt my mate again!” 

Another shockwave of energy is released, this time sending his own father flying through the air and straight through a glass window. His father’s body would fall through the air. Normally, such a display wouldn’t do much to a vampire of his standing. However, what he slowly realized as he fell towards the ground below is that his powers had been...disabled, a feat that could only be caused by a vampire of royal blood. 

He couldn’t change into a bat. He couldn’t levitate himself. He couldn’t even move. He was...He was as powerless as a human, which meant...

Thunder struck once again, Ahmes breathing heavily as he stood there with his father’s sword still impaled in his stomach. He knows what this means. Vampires, especially those of royal blood, had quick healing. However, such things could be countered with the right magic tool, and his father’s blade that had been passed down through the ages, was one of them. After all, how were they to fight back against their own kind who betrayed them, if they too could heal quickly?

His vision begins to go blurry. His legs begin to buckle as he moves side to side. He feels a pain like no other. Despite this though, he has...a smile of all things on his face. He is smiling because he finally managed to do something. He finally managed to protect Toshiki, and in the end, that’s all he really could ask for.

His human then comes to his aid, catching him as he almost falls. Ahmes looks up at his love weakly, still finding Toshiki’s sapphire hues as beautiful as ever. He...He knows his time left is short. He knows what’s going to happen to him. However, what’s more pressing on his mind is what is going to happen to his human after all of this. Even in a moment like this, his focus is on the safety of his companion over himself. That’s just the kind of person the prince was. 

Toshiki was strong, stronger than any human Ahmes has ever seen. However, in a world ruled by vampires, he didn’t have much of a means to defend himself. That’s why, with the last bit of his strength, he uses his arm to pull Toshiki’s neck towards his mouth, and bites him in the same place he did when he placed his Mark of Possession upon him.

“Toshiki...You’ve...You’ve given me strength and support when no else could...You had a faith in me that wouldn’t waver, even as I saw myself as a monster...Now...It’s my turn...To return the favor for your kindness...To finally...set you free...”

With that bite, Ahmes does not take an ounce of blood from his beloved. No, instead he is the one who is giving. His body’s crimson glow still hasn’t left him, the light moving to be infused and sealed in the very mark he had given to Toshiki as a sign of his love. Toshiki’s body would begin to shift, taking in the prince’s immense power eventually causing his blue eyes to begin to shift to red and his teeth to grow sharp. He was turning into a vampire, a feat hat only a royal vampire like Ahmes was capable of performing.  

“Please...Please promise me that you’ll live a peaceful life, a life without pain or suffering...A life where you can...be truly free...” A tall order considering the prince won’t be apart of it, but he can die happily knowing that his love won’t ever suffer again at the hands of anyone, for he is now the most powerful vampire on the planet. “And if fate...And if fate blesses us and gives us a second chance to be together, in this world or the next, please...please come find me...Come find me and...bring me back to...back to...”

His words are drifting off, his ruby eyes slowly starting to close. Vampires did not necessarily have a concept in regards to reincarnation or the afterlife. After all, they were supreme beings who lived long lives, ones who didn’t fear death in the slightest. It was more something humans believed in. However, Ahmes had faith. He had faith that he would meet Toshiki again in some shape or form. He had faith in their bond. He had faith in their love, which is why he put everything he was and everything he is into his mate. 

“Back to you...my love...my mate...my...my...

For when they meet again, in whatever form that takes, they would be able to be brought back together...to continue where they left off. Their love, one of a vampire and a human, was too strong to be broken so easily. At least, that’s what the prince had faith in, for their hearts and souls were now linked for all eternity through that mark of connected rings that laid on the now turned vampire’s neck.

“My sweet...sweet...Toshiki...”

His heart stopes beating. His arms and body go limp in the arms of his love. His breathing comes to a halt. The hallway is silent, silent as if the universe itself was giving a moment of respect for the noble prince.  

Prince Ahmes, the next in line and the only heir to the vampire royal family, had died, and with his death, so did the reign of the vampires over the planet come to an end. The vampires eventually fell into myth and legend, being forced to disguise themselves as humans in order to protect themselves from those they once subjugated who now ruled the earth. No one truly knows what happened the night the vampire’s reign ended, a story that some have been still trying to uncover to this day.

Little did they know that the story had not actually ended, but rather the next chapter of it had yet to truly begin. And when it does and the two hearts return to one another, nothing will be the same as it was before...for them or the world itself...

~

[booasaur]

Something really amazing happened in France, and I think it'd help us in the US to learn about it. Forgive the long read, but I think this is genuinely great both because of what happened and how.

So as some of you might have seen, in a decision historians will debate for years (mostly to figure out just WTF he was thinking, even though he is alive right now and can be asked), the French president, Emmanuel Macron, currently in power and THREE YEARS before the scheduled election, seeing the far right rise in popularity decided to dissolve the assembly and hold snap elections.

577 seats were up for grabs. Remember that number. Since half of that is 288.5, 289 seats are needed for a majority.

The first round happened last week and boy, was it bad. The far right made HUGE gains. It won or was in first place in so many races. And Macron's party ended up third!

Overall, this is how things ended up after the first round:

Far right bloc: 33%

Left bloc: 28%

Macron's centrist party: 20%

Conservatives: 7%

The way the French system works is that if a candidate gets over 50% of the vote, they win outright, and some of the far right did manage that. But, many races went to a runoff.

Immediate projections after were that the far right bloc might win anywhere from 240 to 310 seats, a catastrophe.

A shameful swing to the far right leading to the first time they'll be in power since the 1940s? Yes, but maybe not??

This is where things get interesting.

Unusually, a lot of these runoffs are 3-way, instead of a simpler 2-way choice. And in pretty much every case, that helps the far right.

So on June 30th, the night of the first round, this is how things went down:

Immediately, the left parties put out the call: anywhere they were third, they withdrew and their voters would go over to whoever was running against the far right candidate. Their goal: form a "republican front" to block the far right. The far right cannot get 289 seats.

Macron's bloc was not so...motivated. Different people put out different instructions: in some places, if they were third, they should drop out, but only to help the center left, not far left, in other places, see how far you are, only then drop out, that kind of thing.

The conservative party simply said they won't drop out and won't give their voters instruction either way in races they're not involved in.

Late night developments:

More people in Macron's party are now beginning to realize the situation and starting to coalesce around whichever candidate can beat the far right one. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, from Macron's party, says clearly the priority is to block the far right. BUT, some Macron spokespeople on TV say they'll form a coalition only with the center left and conservatives, splitting the left bloc if needed. Some individual Macronists still saying they won't drop out, even if there's no hope of winning.

Lol.

So, now July 1st:

Only half so far. In one race, where the sister of Marine Le Pen (the far right leader and the face of their movement) was leading, the third place Macronist refused to bow out.

Excellent quote from another Macronist:

Perhaps realizing the same thing, that Macronist in the race against the Le Pen sister now drops out.

In some places, third place Macronists are dropping out DESPITE Macron bewilderingly telling them NOT to?

Halfway through the day:

Of the 311 3-way or 4-way runoffs, the number is down to 135 because of these candidates dropping out: 121 Left, 56 Macronists, 1 conservative.

Oh, there was this, in case people had any doubts about how terrible the far right are:

And to show the selflessness of the left:

July 2:

The deadline to decide if they want to stay in a runoff is today.

A dozen new third place Macronists who said they'd stay in have now dropped out. One got a call from both the PM Attal AND Macron to drop out, signalling the dawning understanding of the importance of this moment.

Even some conservative party members are now backing the left candidate who faces the far right.

A Macronist who had 30.55% of the vote in the first round and came in third to the far right's 33.11% and left's 32.73% and who would have been tempted to stay has dropped out.

The deadline to stay in or not has now passed.

Look at these far right shenanigans!

Macron still being a freaking loser:

July 3rd:

In the end, of the 311 3- or 4-way run offs, only 91 left. Some polls come out that have the far right getting between 190 to 220 seats.

July 4th:

New polls say the balance of the voting itself isn't transferring between the left and center and predictions have risen for the far right, now predicted to get between 210 and 250 seats.

July 5th:

New polls again, left voters now predicted to do better transferring vote to the centrists, decreasing the far right projections again.

However, scandalous reporting emerges: while Attal was trying to fend off the far right, Macron was not only NOT taking the far right seriously, he was undermining efforts to defeat them. His team shrugged off the first round results and celebrated a BIRTHDAY as the results were still coming in?

July 6th:

A few runoffs happened yesterday, nothing much unexpected, some left and center wins.

July 7th:

The day of reckoning. At this point, the expectations are that the far right won't come close to that 289 number but could still easily have the most seats.

GUYS.

It's over and the left are in the lead!

A LOT of cases where a leftist or centrist was 2nd in the first round and now won.

Amazing:

SO many lessons to take from this.

First, you have to vote! You have to. You can't do anything without voting. The freaking French, who'll protest for anything, are showing up to vote. If you're trying to achieve any kind of result and it's not going to happen by January 2025, you have to vote now.

But just as importantly, the left and center (and even conservative) parties made very key decisions. They were all lucky that Attal, who Macron chose, saw the big picture, bigger than indeed Macron could. A stupid selfish centrist leader could have still ruined everything if it were up to him.

TL;DR: After a disastrous first round in the national French elections where the far right was on the cusp of taking power, the left and center formed a strong coalition and through the power of voting and unity, overcame the far right AND their selfish centrist president to win.

[themirokai]

I got this comment on a story from my Other AO3 Account this morning.

(Info redacted because I prefer keeping these accounts separate but no one follows me on the side blog I have for that account.)

The story was posted almost a year ago and is relatively “popular” by my average statistics even though it has tropes and themes that are big turnoffs for a lot of people (hence separate accounts). This popularity is undoubtedly because it’s a Marvel Loki story and that fandom is massive.

So there is obviously an algorithm or a bot scrubbing ao3 statistics and leaving this comment on fics that meet a certain metric with the main character of the fic inserted into the comment.

I had a little time to kill this morning so I decided to investigate further. And y’all this is so predatory. Come on this journey with me. It made me mad. It may make you mad.

First, if you go to Webnovel’s website, you HAVE to choose between male lead or female lead stories before you can go any further. WTF?

And that’s weird, but this gets so much worse. This is basically a pay-to-read site that has different subscription models. Which… okay BUT! The authors don’t get paid! Look at that comment again. They’re promising a supportive and nurturing community, but zero monetary compensation. It’s basically, “post your stuff here so we can get paid and you can get… nice vibes?” I mean look at this Orwellian writing:

Using the phrase “pay-to-read model” in the same sentence as “qualitative changes in lifestyles for authors” deliberately makes you think that you can get paid and maybe even make a living on this website. But that’s not actually what it says and authors will not receive one red cent.

Oh but wait, the worst is still to come. In case this breaks containment (which I kind of hope it does) this is where I mention that I’m a lawyer in the US.

I don’t do intellectual property or copyright law but I do read and write contracts for a living. So I went to look at their terms of service. It was fun!

Highlights the first, in which Webnovel gets a license to do basically whatever they want with content you post on their site. This is how they get to be paid for people reading authors’ writing without paying them anything.

Highlights the second, in which Webnovel takes no responsibility for illegally profiting off of fan fic. This all says that the writer is 100% responsible for everything the writer posts (even though only Webnovel is making money from it).

Highlights the third which say that by posting, the author is representing that they have the legal right to use and to let Webnovel use the content according to these terms. So if a writer posts fan fiction and Webnovel makes money from people reading the fan fiction, and the House of the Mouse catches wise, these sections say that that’s ALL on the writer.

So that’s a little skeevy to start off with but the thing that is seriously shitty and made me make this post was that these assholes are coming to ao3. They are actively recruiting people in comments on their fan fiction. And they are saying they are big fans of the character you’re writing about and that they share your interests.

They are recruiting fan fiction writers and giving every impression that you can make money from posting fan fiction on their site and hiding the fact that you absolutely cannot but they can make money off of you while you try, deep in their terms of service which no one but a lawyer who writes fan fic and has some time to kill will read.

I see posts on here regularly from people who don’t understand how this stuff works, don’t understand that they (and others) can not legally make a financial profit from fan fiction. And there are tons of people who will not take the time to dig into the details.

Don’t deal with these bastards. Fuck Webnovel.

[sttoru]

sukunas fav concubine being bullied by the other concubines?? maybe they push her into the fountain 👀👀👀

·.⌇ 𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒. being bullied because you’re sukuna’s favorite concubine is nothing out of the ordinary. when sukuna finally notices the harassment you’re going through, he doesn’t hold back.

wc. 2.2k-ish

tags. true form!sukuna x concubine! female reader. fluff, angst (hurt to comfort). heian era. bullying. one mention of d.ecapitation. vile language. reader gets called ‘brat’. beta reading? what’s that

“she’s got nothing going on for her,” “right? i don’t get what he sees in her,” “tch—he’s only using her for her body anyway,” “duhh. he can’t be pleased by her looks. i mean, she’s really ugly. i bet he thinks of her as just ‘nother hole to use. . .”

and the shushed gossips continue. the concubines hanging around the garden have noticed your arrival, though do nothing to stop badmouthing you. they couldn’t care less if you hear what they say.

you’re used to it by now. you’ve adjusted to this life of yours as one of sukuna’s concubines. his favourite at that—which automatically makes you a victim of verbal (and sometimes physical) harassment. the other women in the ruthless sorcerer’s harem can’t stand you.

your eyes are glued to the path you’re walking on. your lady-in-waiting doesn’t utter a single word as well, holding her head low as she follows behind you. you know that the concubines will immediately pick on you if you make eye contact with one of them.

it’s moments like these where you actually miss sukuna. his intimidating presence and (in)direct threats would immediately make the others fall silent. you wouldn’t have to hear them call you nasty names.

though, unlucky you, sukuna’s out on business. uraume is left as a temporary supervisor of the entire estate. to make sure nothing goes wrong. despite all of that, you still find yourself in an unfortunate predicament.

“hey. we’re talking to you,” a female voice rings from behind you. it isn’t your lady-in-waiting, but the brown-haired woman whom you recognise as one of sukuna’s concubines. her name. . . you can’t recall.

she forcefully pushes your shoulder with two fingers. you stumble backwards, nearly tripping over the material of your kimono. you look down at the hem and notice a subtle muddy stain on the cloth now that you’ve accidentally stepped on it.

you curse the woman out under your breath. the kimono is one of your favorites since sukuna had it made and tailored to suit your taste.

“my apologies,” you mumble politely. you do not wish to make a scene as much as you want to defend yourself. not in front of those poor servants who are simply minding their business and tending to the garden.

the lady scoffs. another one joins. soon, four of them surround you, leaving you no place to escape the situation. with every step you take back, they take one forward. it’s intimidating, though you try to make it seem like you’re not afraid of their words.

“tell me,” the blonde one speaks up and her hand trails up your arm. she twirls a strand of your hair around her index finger before harshly tugging at it. you wince, but she doesn’t budge, “tell me what sukuna sees in a worthless slut like you.”

it’s about sukuna every time. you’re getting sick of the way they treat you because of something you can’t control. you don’t know why he favors you out of all the other women at his service. the way you’re treated because of something that you cannot change is getting frustrating.

the brown-haired woman follows the other lady. she pushes you until the back of your shoe bumps against the edge of a fountain. the grande fountain in the yard that you always love to admire.

the tugs at your hair get stronger. your patience is wearing thin. you take some time to reply to the other concubines, hoping to silence them for now.

you look up at the group surrounding you—a grin tugging at your lips as you decide to taunt them. you scoff, “hah. you cannot blame me for satisfying my lord better than all of you could do together.”

audible gasps sound from the group of concubines. they can’t believe you had the audacity to talk back and be disrespectful about it. the comment you made clearly struck a nerve. or in this case multiple.

“oh, you slut!” the blonde one shrieks, clearly more than upset by your doubts about her services as a concubine. in a flash of rage, she gives you a firm push, sending you backwards until you fall into the fountain with a loud splash.

your lady-in-waiting is the one gasping this time. she looks at you with great worry in her eyes, not knowing if she needs to go fetch uraume or not. she doesn’t have much say in the matter either way.

you’re humiliated by this. you can feel the water seep into the robes of your kimono, staining the beloved material. your hair is wet as well, the water droplets falling off the ends of your locks.

“pah, you look pathetic,” one of the lower ranking concubines chimes in—giggling at the unfortunate situation you got yourself in. the others follow with their own high pitched laughs, “serves you right.”

you don’t even know what you should do. your body feels heavy because of the water wetting your clothes. your nails drag along the fountain’s surface, trying to compose yourself before you do anything irrational.

you grit your teeth and take a deep breath. you’re shaking, both because of the cold settling over your body as well as the anger simmering inside of you. you open your mouth to say something, only to be interrupted.

by someone you didn’t expect to see any time soon.

“enough.”

the deep tone sends chills down your spine. the volume of the male voice nearly shakes the ground. it’s powerful, dominant and quite aggressive. as if the owner of the voice is pissed. no, more than that.

the group of concubines freeze, not even daring to turn around and face the unexpected visitor. you notice your lady-in-waiting immediately falling to her knees, bowing at the man whom you know very well.

“my lord,” you stammer out, being the first to speak up and address him. you’re surprised to see sukuna back this early from his business trip. he normally stays away from the estate for days on end.

sukuna’s footsteps are heavy. his strides are menacingly slow. the aura surrounding him makes the others shake—one concubine being smart enough to bow to him. the king of curses is not one to be messed with, especially when he’s angry.

“tsk. have you lost all your respect while i was gone?” sukuna growls, seeing how the group of concubines are frozen in place with fearful expressions on their faces. the fact that they’re not bowing before him worsens his temper, “kneel.”

he raises one hand and they all knew what was going to happen. you squeal and shut your eyes, hearing that familiar and dooming sound of slashes around you. it doesn’t sound like they’ve hit anything, so you peek through your eyelashes.

you see how the group of women have dropped to their knees the instant sukuna raised his hand in that specific manner. everyone knew just what that meant; death to anyone who’s got their head held high in his presence.

you’ve all seen enough people get decapitated by that same action to know that the sorcerer was not playing around.

sukuna scoffs. he walks up towards you, ignoring the pleas of the other concubines that are begging for his forgiveness. his bottom set of eyes look down at them with disdain before focusing on your figure again.

he silently stands still at the edge of the fountain. his large frame looms over you and you find yourself struggling to get up from the water to bow at him as well. you keep your eyes on your lap, “i’m sorry, my lord.”

sukuna hisses at your apology. a warning for you to shut your mouth. you’re apologising when it’s not your fault and that irritates him more than anything. two of his strong arms reach down to pick you up from your vulnerable position.

the king of curses hoists you over his shoulder like you weigh nothing. he’s not bothered by the fact that you’re dripping wet. in fact, both of his left arms wrap around your torso in attempt to warm you up.

“stay. you’ll all be dealt with accordingly when i return,” sukuna harshly orders your aggressors as he turns around and walks away from the group. he carries you in his arms, not sparing a single glance at his concubines.

he doesn’t even care that he stepped on one of the women’s hands as he passed by. the high pitched shriek only serves to annoy him, which you notice by the way he squeezes your waist in response.

it’s silent between you two for a bit. sukuna steps inside of the estate, his ominous aura making you hesistant to speak. you decide to stay quiet for the sake of keeping the peace. for now.

sukuna’s breathing is a little heavy. he’s trying not to lash out or say anything hurtful. he doesn’t like raising his voice at you—but sometimes he feels like he needs to. especially when you land in situations like those.

“how long has this been going on?” sukuna asks through a heavy sigh. his red eyes are focused on the end of the hallway, where his chambers lay. the veins in his neck look like they could pop out any second now, “and don’t you dare fuckin’ lie to me, y’hear?”

you gulp. you’ve never been so nervous to answer him, ever. you attempt to respond, “uhm, for quite a while, my lord.”

sukuna breathes in sharply at the revelation. the fact that you did not specify your answer only made him think that it’s worse than you’re making it out to be. he stops in his tracks, two hands on your waist as he forces you to face him.

your body dangles in the air as sukuna makes you look at him from up close, showing you that dangerous look in his eyes. you do not dare to avert your gaze from his as he speaks.

“you should’ve told me the moment they started disrespecting you like that,” sukuna grunts. another big hand grabs your jaw firmly, squeezing your cheeks together. you whine as it hurt a little. he scoffs and releases your jaw with a light push, “pathetic.”

you feel your body get thrown into your original position once more. your head is upside down and your legs hang limply over his shoulder. you try to defend yourself in a quiet tone, “i thought you were too busy. i didn’t want to bother you with such unimportant matters.”

it’s true. as much as you wanted to tell sukuna about the mistreatment you were receiving, you knew how busy he was attending to more urgent business. you didn’t want to annoy him with your own problems that you could easily solve.

if only you could stand up for yourself.

“nonsense,” sukuna raises his voice in a moment of weakness, though remembers that you’ve probably been through enough for the day. he doesn’t need to add to that by treating you like shit as well.

he simply sighs it off, “unimportant, huh? ‘s that how you think i view you?”

you raise an eyebrow at sukuna’s last sentence. you’re at a loss for words. you know sukuna values you more than any of his other concubines—it’s the main reason you’re getting bullied for—yet you never heard him speak to you in such a surprisingly soft way.

almost like he’s disappointed that you don’t realise the extent of his favoritsm. he cares about you more than you actually think he does.

“i-i’m sorry, my lord,” you stutter. you really do not have a clue about what to say. all you can do is apologise as you’re left overthinking that one little sentence he said.

“what a brat,” sukuna quickly regains his usual stoic and stern composure. he reaches his chambers and enters his personal bathroom before putting you down on your feet. he looks down at your short stature, feeling the warmth of your body leave his skin once you’re separated.

sukuna watches you shiver. he wants to get angry at you for not telling him about anything that’s been going on while he’s not present, though he simply cannot at the moment.

he’ll let you off the hook for now. but, he’s surely going to give you your own special scolding after he’s taken care of the other concubines. the man grabs a large towel from nearby and messily wraps it around your upper body.

sukuna turns around to walk out of his bathroom, looking over his shoulder once more, “get dressed into something else before you catch a cold.”

he calls for a couple servants to tend to you while he’s away to take care of those deviant concubines. sukuna watches the three maids rush to your service, preparing you a new set of clothes as well as trying to dry you off.

his gaze lingers on you for more than is necessary, his jaw clenching at the sight of you trembling from the low temperatures you’re experiencing. sukuna’s going to make sure those other women pay for what they’ve done to you.

he leaves the bathroom after that, though not without leaving you an order to follow;

“you’re staying in my chambers tonight.”