#here is the entertainment star;; ask meme

[cyborg-franky]

Comforting their partner

I think I needed this myself, who knows.

MODERN AU - SFW Ace x GN Reader Marco x GN Reader Rosi/Corazon x GN Reader

Ace

You’d been exchanging texts with Ace all day, and he knew you weren’t in a good place—stressed, tired, and burnt out. He spent most of his day sending you pictures of Stefan, his father's dog, and a large selection of dumb selfies and memes he’d collected.

It made you smile, made everything just a little less heavy to know he was right there for you even if you couldn't see him. You were so swamped with your chores and work that free time slipped through your fingers, leaving you further fatigued. 

You lay in bed, staring at your TV, feeling so sorry for yourself. Things just kept piling up, and you were about to burst from how much you stuffed down and pushed aside. Tears prick the corner of your eyes. You bit your lip, not wanting to just burst into tears. You looked at your phone and saw nothing. Ace hadn’t replied in over ten minutes.

Maybe he’d finally passed out or was playing another game with his brothers.

You could feel the sadness creeping in until there was a tapping on your window. You opened your eyes and stared at your curtains. The same tapping happened again, and you sat up, pulling them open and almost jumping. 

Ace was outside your window, having climbed the tree. He was waving with a huge grin on his face.

“The fuck, Ace?” you huffed at him when you opened the window, and he slid in, getting his foot stuck and falling onto the bed below with a laugh and looking up at you. “Well, sounded like you needed a shoulder to cry on,” he shrugged from where he was making himself comfortable on your bed, kicking off his boots. Both of you wincing when they thudded to the floor. 

You sighed, your anger melting away as he held his arms up. He made grabby hands as you slowly leaned in, letting Ace grab you and pull you down against him. He cuddled you up to his side, your head against his chest, and you heard the rumble of his voice and his heartbeat. You closed your eyes when you felt fingers running through your hair.

“You wanna talk about it some more?” he asked, and you shook your head, draping an arm over his waist and sighing, breathing in his smell. It was always comforting, like a warm fire on a cold night.

“Alright, wanna watch funny videos?” he suggested, and you nodded. He got comfy, arm around you, and phone in a position you could both watch. 

The night ended up in your boyfriend's arms, just the two of you, silly videos to entertain you and take you away from your troubled thoughts.

Marco

He’d been texting you when he got a spare moment at work and worried about how you felt. He felt bad he couldn’t duck out of work to come, scoop you up in his arms, and kiss the bad thoughts away.

But he listened to you, let you vent, and even gave advice when you asked for it.

Thanks to Marco, you were currently watching a comfort show, curled up on the sofa and cuddled up in blankets as you tried to let the show distract you enough. Every so often, you’d message him. He checked in on his breaks, and although Marco wasn’t here with you, you felt connected and cared for anyway. He spoke so soothingly and calmly, like a soft breeze.

It was evening by the time he came over, knocking on the door andamiling at you, his half-lidded eyes full of love as he leaned down and kissed your forehead.

“Come on, let's go for a ride,” he said, his car still running on the drive. You could hear his music faintly from the open window.

“Okay, where?” you asked as you grabbed your phone and keys and locked up. “Just around.” 

The wind ran through your hair, his hand on your thigh, and you both listened to your music as you cruised through the peaceful evening. You were just happy in one another's company, letting the night and his comforting aura chase away the sadness. 

He knew how much you needed to get away from the noise of the world around you, driving a little ways from the city, where the stars twinkled in the sky brighter than you were used to.

You soon pulled up to a late-night food place. Marco killed the engine, the music shutting off as he nodded for you to get out. “Let's get something to eat, or at least a coffee, yoi.” Marco smiled at you before getting out of the car.

Sitting in a quiet corner of the cafe, you both shared a plate of fries, not feeling super hungry. You sipped your drink of choice as he drank his coffee.

“So, want to tell me about what happened today?” he asked, his hand reaching across the table to find yours. The weight of his larger hand on yours calmed your jumbled mind enough to pick through the mental clutter. “Well… so this happened today, and I just am struggling with it… It’s silly though.” You said with a dry chuckle, thinking he would judge you for how dumb it was, how it didn’t feel like a real problem.

“Hey,” he squeezed your hand. “If it upset you, it’s not silly, okay?” You paused, thinking his words over, seeing the warmth of his smile. “Okay,” you nodded and talked it out with him.

Rosinante

He knew you’d had a rough time at work today; everything that could go wrong had. You were tired, exhausted, and struggling to deal with it. You messaged him on your lunch break, not wanting to vocalize what was wrong, just taking comfort in his messages.

All the heart emojis and silly selfies of him making a half-heart with his fingers, his big charming grin filling the screen as he beamed brightly. You sent one back, completing the heart he was sweet.

When you got home, feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders, the bad feelings dragging you down, making your feet feel heavier. You opened the door and took a deep breath, trying to feel better about just being home and away from the job that stressed you out,

“Hey!” Rosi said, a smile on his handsome face as he stood up, towering over you. He pulled you into a hug, keeping you close and not letting go. He didn’t want to pull away first. He wanted to give you the hug you needed.

When you managed to fight the urge to cry, you peered up at him and got a kiss on the forehead.

“I have something to cheer you up…” He said with a wink. Pulling away, he nodded to the basket on the table.

You looked through it: comfort snacks you loved, a movie you wanted to see for ages, and other little bits and pieces that he knew you loved, including a plushie you held to your chest and smiled back at him. “Thank you so much, Rosi. I love you.” I love you too, and I hope it helps even a little!

You spent the evening cuddled on the sofa, happily eating your snacks, wrapped in a blanket, watching the movie he’d bought. Rosi gently rubbed your leg, trailing fingertips up and down your skin to keep you relaxed and calm.

He knew you’d talk about it when you were ready. He was never the type to push or ask, knowing that when you felt up to it, you’d talk it out with him, and when you were ready to share, he was ready to help you. He took your hand and brought it to his face, kissing your knuckles. “How do you feel?”

“Much better, thank you.”

[nevertheless-moving]

STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE AU MASTERLIST

List will be updated with links if/when AUs develop For my Star Wars AU Masterlist: Please See Here As always, people are more than welcome to play with any of these ideas! just please link back to me so I can see! Seriously if you want to write stuff in any form with ideas from any of these aus I will love you forever! 1 to 20: Words of Radiance AUS 21 to 30: Non Words of Radiance AUs (note: these might also be WOR AUs) 31 to 40: Post Winds and Truth Wild Speculation (that may or may not also be a WOR AU)

1 to 20 Words of Radiance AUS

[EDIT, Previous #1 Now #28]

2. High oath Hesina willshaper aus. This is actually many many AUs because the "Mom??" Reveal is great in all contexts. Concept, WOK Era Outline, Brief Fanfic

3. Renarin asks Kaladin for help with radiant stuff during WOR. Secret training. Everyone thinks they're fucking. Chapter 1 and Outline/Meta

4. Elhokar drunk orders kaladin to bedchambers, begs for help keeping away nighmare creatures. Kaladin nearly kills him before scary spren realization, then goes into serious radiant mode when syl gets ambiguously concerned. Everyone thinks they're fucking.[Note: I might be too easily entertained by this trope]. Kaladin is deeply pained by this but also has  people saving thing and really doesnt want to reveal the radiant thing to the whole camp. Earlier third oath. Eventual fucking optional, see above au, except with a bit more pity than vibeing for option a.

5. Crack. AUs 3, 4, and 9 at same time so people just think Kaladin is the Kholin Rhysadium. Bridge 4 offers government overthrow if he's being pressured. kaladin assures them that's not it. Now people keep trying to high five him. Kaladin with head in hands while Moash snarks over his shoulder "you know when i said fuck the lighteyed i didn't -" Kaladin definitely asexual in this one.

6. Hesina and lirin come to shattered planes, shocked/thrilled/emotional to find kaladin. Bridge 4 desperately trying to get approval of [bugs bunny meme our] parents. Lirin reluctantly adopting renarin who wants to learn about healing now for some reason. Blackthorn surgeon mutual loathing/ jealousy son swap hilarity. Lirin is having a time. 

7. Kaladin wasn’t on guard duty the night of szeth arrival. Still warned by syl about assassin, but has to dead sprint while glowing to get across camp fast enough, soft reveal to anyone outside. Only barely figures out wall running on the way over to crash in window just in time. Szeth freaks out and runs away after very short, mildly anticlimatic interaction. And now Kaladin has to deal with Everyone.

8. Kaladin further along in powers during initial szeth fight. Battle of champions degrading to slap fight when they run out of stormlight and get stuck on the plains. Concept/ Ask, Funny Severed Leg

9. Manufactured rumors about adolin/ kaladin. Effective political mudslinging for most of WOR. Shallan plays up things about her relationship with Jasnah to be a more appealing beard. [Previous #9 Is Now #33]

10. Kaladin has a meltdown in prison, breaks out of his cell. Just a little bit more stormlight...Shouts of alarm. Aaah glowing Assassin in white! Kaladin panics more. Adolin handles the situation like a champ. Kaladin maybe briefly kidnaps him.

11. Nale goes after kaladin instead of lift. Ohhh so many thoughts for parallels.

12. Syl immediately dive bombs pattern when kaladin and shallan meet. Really early radiant reveal but just to each other. Kaladin does not trust her but doesn't want to reveal his own status so just watches her super intensely...since she's also constantly watching him too, yes, this gets misinterpreted. See au 3 through 5 but more discreet. Veil is the one draggng him from the barracks for late night 'training sessions' [these are actually training sessions but veil flirts outrageously with kaladin when anyones in earshot. So.] that distracts things a bit.

13. Adolin, suspicious after the Assassin in White fight, was secretly following kaladin at night. Sees him step off a ledge into a chasm (I just reread the section and was like?! You glanced over your shoulder once?!). Adolin spends the whole night stewing in regret, anger, grief, guilt (I was there. I could have yelled. Should have done something. I didn't realize...I didn't know. I didn't know anything). Next morning Kaladin is on guard duty and adolin flips his shit, suddenly remembering that the whole reason he was suspicious of this guy was because he inexplicably survived a several hundred foot drop.

14. Kaladin barely manages to hold it together just long enough to out himself as radiant right after prison. Part One, Part two

15. Kaladin does NOT hold it together after getting arrested.

16. Kaladin swears third oath early. Next few weeks involve a lot of hiding glowing bridgeman squire antics and gaslighting people about kaladin's intermittently light eyes.

17. In the initial confrontation with Szeth, Kaladin pushes a bit harder about the radiants being back, Szeth spirals a bit more, crashing realization that he isn't truthless...

17a.  Earlier radiant reveal: szeth surrenders the honor blade and then immediately collapses into the ground. Kaladin drags him and the blade upstairs. Has to reveal himself now because 1) kaladin what the fuck how and 2) the assassin is mumbling about radiants. 17b ANGST: szeth surrenders the honor blade and immediately kills himself with kaladin's weapons. Kaladin takes honorblade, collapses on way back because it's draining his stormlight, maybe messing with sylbond. When he wakes up hes injured, surrounded by lighteyes and a handful of his men...handles it badly because Very Specific Shardblade Winning Trauma. Crazy two nickles moment. Downside: cries a lot in front of people he'd rather not have cried in front of. Upside: dalinar believes him about amaram now. Public windrunner powers, but obscured Radiant reveal because glowing assassin sword is very clearly granting magic powers. Weird interactions of honorblade bond and nahel bond. Lot of interesting fallout from Dalinar having his very own Mystical Assassin now.

18. Kaladin sends Syl to spy on the 'horneater princess', one sided radiant discovery. When she sends pattern to spy on bridgeboy, he somehow notices. Shallan does not handle it well. 

19. Something something people put together all the impossible stuff Kaladin's done with all the impossible stuff the Blackthorn did as a youth, combined with one of bridge four drunkenly talking about their best theories for the Captains 'mysterious backstory,' combined with Dalinar literally calling Kaladin son and seemingly overnight the warcamps are convinced that Kaladin is Dalinar's bastard child.

20. (COLLABORATIVE with @gnecrognomicon) Instead of being thrown in prison, Elhokar orders Kaladin be strung up for the Stormfather's judgement. Part One, Part Two

21 to 30 Non Words of Radiance AUs

22. Way of kings au where the beggars of alethkar are rounded up for the war effort. Jezrian, of course, ends up on bridge four.

23. Kaladin time travel au to way of kings only the transition is a bit like a spren going through the cognitive to material realm transfer. Not all there. Heartwarming bridge four bonding slightly to the left - sure the mans crazy but he just looks so...disappointed when we dont help with the injured, and he shares his food like an idiot. How does someone seven foot tall and stronger than a chull make axehound pup eyes. We're not following him though. He's not our lead - holy heralds balls is he glowing??  Bit more of a symbol than a friend, but a symbol that you take turns holding at night because he has such bad nightmares and also hes clingy. 

24. COLLABORATIVE / stone soup with @sweetteaanddragons : adolin and kaladin time travel to way of kings. Kaldin brooding about how to escape AND save all his men AND the world until adolin barges in and buys everyone. 

'Thank the almighty,' Kaladin thought with almost painful relief, watching Adolin argue haughtily with a growing swarm of Thadeus's lighteyes. 'I never thought I'd actually appreciate having a rich friend.' He would, of course, rather die than admit this. "I had it handled," he growled, when the two finally managed to speak inconspicuously, each weaving amongst a thousand confused former bridgeman, speaking quietly with several, until they were able to meet in the middle with reasonable subtlety, all things considered. "That's great, Kal," Adolin said cheerfully, clearly not buying a word. "Say, how would you feel about doing some, you know..." He waved a hand, earning a raised eyebrow from Kaladin. "Glowy stuff for my Father," his voice dropped from a subtle hush to a slightly conspicuous whisper. "So he doesn't disinherit me. I did not have permission for this."  Both pairs of eyes flicked to the side, the Blackthorn's towering figure approaching like a Stormwall. "Uh. Sooner rather than later perhaps."

26. Oathbringer/row au. Adolin doesn’t kill sadeus. Mostly just excuse to dunk on Sadeus for trading one (1) shardblade for mythical warrior who can make his own shardblade. oh look more of your former slaves are glowing now. and THEY make shardblades too!

27. Elhokar and Kaladin time travel from Elhokar's death in oathbringer to way of kings. Part one, Part Two

27B. Elhokar solo time travels back from Oathbringer death to Way of Kings

28. Moash tells kaladin about beef with elokhar early. This derails the entire plot of the series. [EDIT, This au was previously #1, before I abruptly realized it was WOK, Not WOR]

31 to 40 Post Winds and Truth Wild Speculation

31. Szeth kaladin pity fuck time travel au words of radiance. Bridge four roasts the shit out of kaladin. Kaladin is doing everything in his power to avoid implying "knowledge of future" which makes the timeline of their relationship deeply confusing.

32. Szeth kaladin time travel au post book 5, they get their memories back in the high storm right before canon first meeting. Szeth sort of stumbles in, halfheartedly attempting a confused assassination.

33. [EDIT: Previously AU Number 9] Kaladin time travel back to wor, book 5 gone wrong. Deeply terrifying from outsider pov. Captain of the Kholin guard, bridgefour leader, is suddenly Full fourth oath windrunner talking about how humans are the voidbringers, they actually need to support the parshendi in bringing one last controlled desolation, and then kill the heralds and also god. Don't worry not our god. Different god. Our god is already dead. If someone else travels back with him then it swings around to a lil bit funny.

34. Post winds and truth, pre sunlit man, crossover with the twilight of mistborn era 2 (i think the cosmere timeline could make sense but if not, oh well). Kaladin gets a boon from his god(s). Requests to learn more about mental health. Has to go to another planet to do so, because mental health research on Roshar sucks. Scadrial's god seems (relatively) friendly and their planet has developed antidepressants AND wellness seminars. Shenanigans with Very Old Wax and the gang.

35. Jasnah, Dalinar, and Renarin (surviving Kholin Radiants) travel from End of World to right after Gavilar's death. Crack. Outline

All of the above (plus other fandoms if you keep scrolling back) will be tagged with 'my au' The above, plus my canon stormlight and other cosmere meta, technically canon compliant fanfic drabbles, or other things that i've written but don't fit in an au will be tagged 'nevertheless cosmere'

[d1ana-m0nd]

╭─► ❝The Servant: Umbrella Academy's Servant❞

Five Hargreeves × Female! Reader || Written by Diana (d1ana-m0nd)

➢ Description : A Q&A video with Y/R/N and Aidan Ghallagher.

➢ Word Count : 1,750

➢ Links : Masterlist && Character Profile

➢ Note : Not gonna lie, I am uncomfortable about writing a real person 😭, well, real people in general. That's why in this fanfic, Mr. Gallagher may come off as OOC. So please don't be surprised that I focused more on the reader's chaotic energy to contrast with Mr. Gallagher's tame personality. For the record, Y/R/N means your real name. Also please comment or let me know if you want a part 2 but with your questions instead.

Q&A with The Umbrella Academy cast ft. Aidan Gallagher and Y/R/N

"Hello everyone! As promised I promised to you guys, I brought over Y/R/N who plays Number Zero of the Umbrella Academy, for today's video." Aidan Ghallagher introduced the girl beside him who wore a large cardigan and an unamused look on her face. 

"Are you for real?" Y/R/N asked, not humoured by Adian’s introduction but the actor looked amused by his fellow co-star’s reaction.

"Is that all you have to say I mean? You don't have a catchphrase or introduction for your channel?" She added but the brunette actor ignored her words knowing she’s just jesting for the video. 

"Anywho, we will be answering some of your questions and we will be providing our answers to the best of our abilities."

The (your hair color) actor huffs and pretends to be hurt by being ignored. 

"Oh yeah, I just wanted to double check Y/R/N, are you okay with answering the questions-"

"Of course I am, if I wasn't I wouldn't be here."

"You've been in my channel for 15 seconds and your already acting like it's yours."

The actress dramatically flips her hair then bats her lashes at the camera making Aidan laugh, "It's my job to make this entertaining. I know you can't possibly handle the weight of being the only star."

The boy smiles, clearly entertained by her actions but, managed to stifle his laughter. "We might as well start with the questions before this becomes her channel."

"So the first question is from, moe-moe-kyunette, I uh, did I say that right?" Aidan looked doubtful once he said the username then looked at Y/RN to help him out.

"Ship it and clip it everyone! You've tricked him into saying the thing!" The actress laughed as she slammed her fist against the table while holding her stomach, knowing the internet user just tricked Aidan into saying a meme.

"Wait, is it something bad?"

"Not a bad thing, it's like a japanese meme, an anime meme to be exact, about an idol girl trying to be cute so she says that."

"I see," As the actor was about to resume with the video but Y/R/N stopped him, "Wait, before you start, can you do the 'moe moe kyun' meme with the hand gestures?"

Aidan shook his head whilst smiling then resumed, "Well, they asked you the most important question. Have you ever listened to my music?"

The actress stiffened, "Did my manager really agree with the questions you picked?"

"Yes, yes, she did." He looks at her with a raised brow and an amused look then gestured to the camera, "Well, we are waiting Y/R/N."

"I-" She looks away flustered, "I'm sorry but I haven't listened to your music yet- I know I promised to listen to them but have not had the time to listen to them…"

"And why is that?" The brunette crosses his arms the look still on his face.

She nervously looks down at her feet, "It's just...I haven't been able to make time yet." He gives her a knowing look then gestures to the camera, "Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?"

"I just, I just- I just think that we should move on now! How about I read the next question?" She then nears the monitor, and Aidan is silently laughing. 

"So Aidan and Y/R/N, is it true you guys fought on set?" The girl quickly hides her face in her cardigan from the camera. " I should have never read the question voluntarily!"

The boy beside her chuckles, "But, to answer your question, we have never fought on set, some people just misinterpreted that we had a fight because she hit the back of my head."

The actress hides herself with the cardigan she wore, "Look! That's how I greet my friends. I know that's not how other conventionally greet others that's why I only did it to people I was close with."

"Let me," She takes in a deep breath, then removes the cardigan from her face. "Let me add some context to the story first, so I mistook Aidan for my friend Astrid without her wig on, and yes, I didn't notice he was wearing his costume!"

"So like, I greeted him by slapping the back of his head. He turned to me confused why I just did that and I ran away out of instinct and never explained it until he had the chance to corner me." 

Aidan was laughing so hard, "I had to corner her because I didn't want our scenes to become awkward than they already were. When I found out the reasoning I just forgave her but told her that she really shouldn't have ran away."

"It was instinct okay! That was not the first thing I thought of when I processed I just hit you. It didn't help either that we weren't friends yet, so I thought my whole career was ruined at that moment." The (your hair color) actress covered the half of her face. 

The boy smiled though it was his way of attempting to stop himself from laughing anymore at his fellow co-star’s flustered state. "Gajh1098 asked, what is that one trait we like about our character at the same time hate?"

Y/R/N gestures for Aidan to start first, "You can start first."

He nodded then prompted his chin on his hand, "I would have to say, I hate how Five is confident in himself to the point it comes off as arrogance. Being confident is not bad but if you have seen Y/R/N here-"

She jumped then exclaimed loudly, "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"She acts too confident on camera but we all know - especially the other casts members - that she's actually tamed. You can see on our interviews as a cast, that she's like that one cousin in the corner, that doesn't know what to say so she hides behind her other cousins."

The girl cringed, "Oh, god, you saw those memes? I was hoping you wouldn't." 

"I was literally there to witness it," The actor laughed then, added on. "Anywho, Y/R/N acts confident but it doesn't come off arrogant. She knows her limits but Five doesn't because he thinks he can do everything by himself that he ends up not recognizing that he can't do everything himself."

Y/R/N nods, "Yeah that's kinda toxic in a way. It's kinda like how in group works. You lead the group and end up doing everything yourself, because you don't trust your teammates. I can see why you wouldn't trust them but, you shouldn't push yourself to the point where you crash down."

Aidan nods then gestures at the girl, "Your turn to answer the question."

"So the one trait I dislike and like about Y/N is that she's flexible with handling people. She is very understanding, too understanding! She knows how to interact with them very well. It's a good trait in hindsight - especially in work places - but, it's not a good trait if you become so malleable that people take advantage of it." 

The actor nodded along agreeing with her words.

The actress then abruptly sat up shouting, "MY TURN! I wanna read the next question! Oh yeah, do we have to mention the usernames? Or are you going to show them on screen?" 

"I usually mention them because I feel like it makes them happy-"

"Well too bad! I'm going to make their day miserable." Y/R/N cheekily grinned. "This person asked why I always hide behind other people or hold onto their clothes like a child… Can we skip this?"

The boy chuckled, "No."

"Seriously, I feel like you and my manager are trying to humiliate me for the video.” She muttered under her breath, narrowing her eyes at Aidan suspiciously, “Anyways, I'm still getting used to cameras and it's kinda instinctual for me to do that I suppose? I'm not used to cameras since I have been used to working with microphones being a voice actor first and foremost."

His hazel's eyes light up, "Oh yeah, I recall you saying you were a VA, why did you audition for the show to begin with?"

The actress scratched her nape with a wry smile, "I thought it was a voice acting job not acting. I didn't even know until I was picked that it was an acting job. I scrambled to research on acting and kept asking the others if they could give me advice on acting."

He face palmed, smiling, "Did you not read what you were screening for?"

"To be fair, it was my manager who read it out loud, I just butted in and just said yes mindlessly because I saw the character designs and thought they were cool, I'm referring to the comics by the way."

"Next question from is from wbip8581, they asked how we become close?" The brunette male read the question outloud.

"Since Aidan and I got a lot of scenes together, I asked if we could work on them - like rehearse with each other so he could give me pointers on how to deliver my character."

"We hung out but, it was more on watching reality TV shows to examine and decipher how an angry person acts or how someone similar to Y/N acts." He added onto the girl’s explanation to which she nodded along.

"I think because of him, I got into watching Hell's kitchen," Both the actress and actor laughed at how true the statement was.

The brunette male then decided to move, "For now, this is the last question since I know the video is probably going to be long with how much Y/R/N rambles-"

"HEY!" The girl pretended to look offended by putting a hand over her heart.

Aidan chuckled, "So, the last question is from Immpotato10, do you two plan to make more videos together? Assuming that the Q&A does well."

"That depends really… although I like talking to Mr. Gallagher." She says his last name mockingly which made him roll his eyes, "I don't wanna overstay my time here in his channel, and if he has good video ideas then I will probably reconsider."

“Well, I suppose that’s goodbye for now!” Aidan bid his farewell to his audience followed by Y/R/N waving her two hands at the camera like a child. 

➢ Taglist : @igotanidea @incapableofanything @kumioon @buuhsworld @stray-npc @sunsunhe @instabull @theredvelvetbitch @yoashh @keowthedino @danis-stuff-is-here @sol3chu @cxlynv @d-a-r-k-s-w-a-n @supernova25 @venuseuripedis

➢ Note : If your username is highlighted blue that means I cannot tag your blog. I suggest you either follow my blog and turn on your notifications or you turn on your subscription to the masterlist. Also, "Reblog to support your favorite writer" divider belongs to @/benkeibear

[my-name-is-apollo]

OKAY so I read "The Caesars" by emperor Julian and y'all, if you love Lucian's satires this is absolutely for you.

Here are some of my favorite parts from it:

A quick summary: Romulus (who has now attained the status of a god, like Heracles) once hosted a Saturnalia and invited the Greek gods and the Roman emperors to the banquet. A contest between the Roman emperors ensued, with Alexander the Great called in as an extra contestant upon Heracles' request.

Silenus is the star of the show, doing most of the jesting. But I really like the way his bond with Dionysus is highlighted

And it's no joke, he really does roast these emperors till they're sizzling lol starting with Julius Caesar himself:

Next comes Augustus Octavius, whose entry is so pretentious and pompous that it becomes repulsive

Apollo gets a bit defensive over his "nursling" (a nod to the belief that Octavius was actually Apollo's son) and goes *insert Barbie meme "it's really not that bad! it just needs a little... shaping. To the salon!!"* ft Zenon the Philosopher who casts some spells of philosophy to make Octavius less obnoxious

And it works because Octavius is mostly humble and well mannered for the rest of the day lol

Heracles grabs this opportunity to fanboy over Alexander the great.

Like, "my beloved Alexander"?? It's cute when the gods gush over their mortal descendants.

Now, a shoutout to the emperors who didn't even get a chance to sit in the assembly because they were the worst of the lot apparently. We have:

Caligula, so terrible that the gods didn't wanna even look at him and he straight away was sent to Tartarus

Nero, who tried to be an Apollo wannabe and promptly got taken to the underworld

Commodus, whom Silenus didn't even bother to roast (and he tripped and fell anyway, what a loser)

There are more but these were the funniest

Anyway, the gods decide on how to choose the best amongst the Emperors. Apollo and Hermes have differing opinions on this, but Zeus decides to entertain the suggestions of both of his sons :3 (finally, one instance where he treats Apollo and Hermes equally)

All the emperors talk about their achievements first, then Hermes cross examines them to see if their motives were worthy enough and oh boy, it does not go well for Alexander who is brought to the verge of tears by Dionysus lmaooo

Anyway, in the end the gods vote and Emperor Marcus Aurelius wins the contest. But after that, Zeus asks each emperor to choose a god to spend the rest of their evening with

Ares and Aphrodite kind of just adopt Caesar LOL and yes, Cronus is present, sitting beside Zeus, with Rhea and Hera also sitting with them. He is the one who nominates Marcus Aurelius.

but here's the most crack part of this whole thing:

Like who invited Jesus bro skdjsndn 😭

Anyway, the story ends with Hermes giving some generic advice to the author, Emperor Julian and ending the story. Also, Julian lets us know that this whole story was told to him by none other than Hermes himself, and gives a disclaimer that he doesn't know if it's is true or just a lie fabricated by Hermes, or a mixture of both LMAO

Here's the link PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE THING

[anonymouspuzzler]

oh baby it is WIGGLE WEDNESDAY (note: still do not know when these are going to queue up). also, Gramble is here! these two have a fun dynamic and Wiggle especially is easy to put in Absurd Situations so there is a lot of good art of her. thanks again to @incorrectbugsnaxquotes for many inadvertent inspirations!

(alt text/image IDs under the cut!)

[Image 1 ID: Two small doodles of Wiggle. On the left is a shoulders-up drawing of Wiggle, smiling and waving with her left hand, with stars around her and text reading "the Wiggle of prosperity". On the right is Wiggle on her side, kicking one leg out and playing her banjo, with text reading "Happy WIGGLE WEDNESDAY (it's monday".]

[Image 2 ID: A drawing of Wiggle recreating the Sonic "alone on a friday night?" meme. She is on her side with her legs crossed, propped up on one arm with the other gesturing up, saying, "Alone on a Friday night? Thank you for practicing social distancing".]

[Image 3 ID: A drawing of Wiggle recreating a screenshot from Brian David Gilbert's "Unraveled". She is standing in front of a board with multiple slips of paper reading, top-to-bottom and left-to-right, "THE 10 DEFINITIVE PURPOSES OF MUSIC", "1. CREATE or CONTROL EMOTION", "2. REMEMBER OR SHARE INFORMATION", "3. ENTERTAINMENT", "4. JINGLES", "5. MARK TIME IN A GROUP", "6. [mostly cut off and unreadable]", "7. AMBIANCE", "8. CREATE OR MAINTAIN SOCIAL GROUPS", "9. [mostly cut off and unreadable] ". Wiggle is standing to the right, pointing up at #3, one hand on her hip and expression serious, saying, "Bangers only."]

[Image 4 ID: A 2-panel comic of Wiggle, recreating screenshots from Brian David Gilbert's "Unraveled". In the first panel, Wiggle is drawn from the waist-up, smiling cheekily at the camera, holding a mug in one hand while the other is on her hip, saying, "There's Red Bull in this mug." In the second, she is drawn from the knees-up, motion-blurred as she kicks high in the air with a manic grin, screaming "HIYA!"]

[Image 5 ID: A three-panel comic of Wiggle and Gramble. In the first panel, Wiggle is bent over whispering into a phone, looking worried, saying, "Darling, I need you to come pick me up right now." The journalist, represented by a little doodle of them from behind in a speech bubble, responds, "...why?" In the second panel, Wiggle is looking back over her shoulder at Gramble in the background, standing on a stepstool to grumpily wash dishes in a sink, as Wiggle whispers, "Gramble is passive-aggressively doing the dishes he asked me to do six hours ago." In the third panel, she's turned back to the phone, looking utterly terrified and whispering grimly, "This house isn't safe anymore."]

[Image 6 ID: Drawing of Wiggle in a lunge, one hand on her hip, the other gesturing around her. She is wearing an oversized baby carrier labeled "#1 BOYF CARRIER" in which Gramble sits with all his limbs limp, looking confused and slightly flustered. There are stars all around Wiggle along with cursive text reading, "fashion, bitch".]

[Image 7 ID: A doodle of Gramble sitting on Wiggle's shoulders, screaming "TOO HIGH TOO HIGH AAAAA" and rearing back in a panic, knocking her sunglasses away in the process. Wiggle, who has Gramble's panic-grip right over her eyes, is visibly grimacing.]

[Image 8 ID: A single-panel comic of Gramble and Wiggle. Gramble is sitting on the ground cross-legged, looking worried and saying, "I know you're deflectin' by makin' jokes about how hot you are--" Wiggle, kneeling next to him and clutching him tight with both arms, visibly ugly-crying, screams back, "IT'S NOT A JOKE. I'M A LEGIT SNACK".]

[Image 9 ID: Wiggle posing like a supermodel in a massive sunhat and tall platform heels with ankle straps. To her right is Gramble looking up starstruck and blushing, hands folded in front of his chest, with text next to him reading, "tall wonan."]

[Image 10 ID: A two-panel comic of Wiggle and Gramble. In the first, Wiggle is standing with one hand on her hip and the other on her chest, looking dismissively over her shoulder and saying, "Oh, come on, I wasn't that drunk." Gramble, standing next to her and looking up worriedly, responds, "You tried to color my face with a highlighter because you said I was important". In the second panel, Wiggle, clutching a flustered Gramble's head with both arms, retorts, "That's because you are."]

[Image 11 ID: A drawing of Wiggle and Gramble recreating that one meme with the tall woman. Wiggle is standing and speaking into a microphone in her right hand, while Gramble is stanced up to her left, staring up at her.]

[Image 12 ID: A drawing of Wambus, Wiggle and Gramble recreating a meme. Wambus is seen from the back in the far-left foreground of the image, while Wiggle, glaring sternly, is holding an anxious Gramble on her hip on her left side, pointing at Wambus with two fingers with her right hand.]

[Image 13 ID: A drawing of Gramble sitting on the ground with his hands on some kind of scratching post, rearing his head back to expose all his te Gramble eth.]

[Image 14 ID: A single-panel comic of Gramble and the Journalist. Gramble is sitting at a table with a striped tablecloth, head resting in one hand, looking lovestruck and saying, "Remember when Wiggle made that romantic dinner for me?" The Journalist, face obscured by steam from a hot drink, is walking over to the table placing one mug labeled "Do the Wiggle" down while holding another labeled "8 AM DEAD LINE". They respond simply, "...she microwaved you a pizza."]

[Image 15 ID: A three-panel comic of Wiggle and Gramble. In the first panel, they are sitting side-by-side on a bench, Gramble looking anxious, Wiggle looking flirtatious as she says, "Has anyone ever told you they love you?" In the second panel, Gramble, looking anxiously back, asks, "...Do my parents count?" In the final panel, Wiggle, leaning away slightly and looking worried, replies, "...yes.", to which Gramble, head in hands and looking miserable, says, "Then no."]

[gumnut-logic]

Sweetapple Slices - Slice One

Sweetapple | Dear Mr Tracy | Along the way

I posted one of the OC questionnaire meme thingies and when I received some asks, I realised I could only communicate with my OCs through fic.

So for Alex, introducing Sweetapple Slices - short fics I can answer questions with :D

I hope you enjoy.

-o-o-o-

@idontknowreallywhy asked:

If your character had to get a tattoo, what would it be?

This was written between work shifts so done in a massive hurry. i hope it works. Many thanks to @onereyofstarlight for the quick read through :D

-o-o-o-

“No, Erry, no.”

“Aw, you are a spoil sport. Here I was thinking I could get a little apple in support.”

Alex starred at her. “It’s permanent, Erica. What if you end up hating me, you’d have to burn it off or something.”

She stared up at him, quite frankly as if he was a silly moron. “Don’t be silly.” Well, he was half right. “I could never hate you. You are just too adorable.” She reached up as if to pinch his cheek, but he ducked away.

She grinned and grabbed one of his fries instead and stuck between hot pink lips. “Wuss.”

“Why do I put up with you?”

“Because we are a good together. We make excellent multifunctional polymers. And without me you would never have thought to, much less approached, the mighty Scott Tracy with your brilliant idea.” She stole another fry just for emphasis.

He stared at her, but ultimately he had to smile. How could he anything but? Erica was multicoloured today - pink lips, blue hair propped up in pigtails, and a shade of sparkly green eyeshadow that just added to her overall level of glowing radioactivity.

“You’re dangerous.”

“And don’t you forget it.” He lost another fry.

“You do have your own, you know.”

“Not as entertaining.” She swooped in for another, but he moved the remainder out of her reach.

She pouted a moment, but then grinned at him. “See, you can learn.”

He fought back the urge to throw all his fries at her head.

“But, come on, seriously, you wouldn’t want to get a tattoo? Not even one that says ‘Virgil forever’ or ‘He’s my thunder’…oh, oh, ‘Rescue me, baby’ with a love heart.

He found himself staring at her again. None of those were worth any comment at all. “So do you have a tattoo?”

“Of course.” She suddenly found the street outside the cafe much more interesting than poking fun at him. In that direction lay the tattoo parlour that had started this whole discussion.

“Well?”

“Nope. Not telling unless you get one, too.” She snuffed her nose at him. “No tatts, no tales.”

“I could ask Fireman Fred.”

Her eyes widened. “Don’t you dare!” But then she realised how much she was revealing and she settled back. “He doesn’t know anyway. So, hmph!”

“Really? You have all the eyes for him, Ery. No action?”

“Mind your business.”

He burst out laughing. “So you can mind mine, but I can’t yours?”

“Exactly. Besides, if I didn’t mind yours, all sorts of things could happen.” Her hands were gesturing about as if she was trying to contain and enunciate the concept.

“Like what? The end of the world as we know it?”

“Pretty much.”

And that was the end of that because he happened to look at his watch and apparently talking about getting tattoos had eaten their entire lunch break. They were now five minutes late in getting back to the convention centre.

Damnit.

There followed the jamming of fries in his mouth, sculling the coffee that was barely passable - he wouldn’t be coming back here again - and dashing out the door like a pair of teenagers late for class.

He did eye the tattoo parlour one more time as they ran past, though…

If he did return three days later, after the dregs of the convention had finished, on the last night before flying back to Māhia, when Erica was otherwise occupied, he certainly wasn’t going to mention it.

And if sitting down at work for the next week required just a little extra care, he still wasn’t going to say anything.

It was worth it.

Because if Virgil ever did get around to discovering the tiny silhouette of Thunderbird Two on his right buttock, he was hoping it would get kissed better.

Much better.

-o-o-o-

[bonebrokebuddy]

Choked on my soul reading your wip thing booster gold being a Tiktok star I beg of you to elaborate

okokok. this is the lighthearted section of a fic concept that deals with the potential political impact and position Booster would have gained & lost as a result of him trying to get the most attention possible. But it backfires, causing him to lose most of his notoriety & alienating the fanbase he previously had. Thus landing him in the position where he is generally in the comics of desperately trying to regain the fame and status he once had & trying to make up for the lost money via so many fucking brand deals.

Because to me, that shit is fascinating and it would also be hilarious to see Booster as a "was been" famous influencer and highlighting his antics when he was in full popularity vs where he ended up after it all went down, would be very interesting. So if you want to know more about that side of this idea, please feel free to send in another ask about it!

--------

Do you think Booster Gold would be great or horrible at social media/TikTok? Because the guy is from the future. He most likely has a sense of humor that is very different from modern standards & knows about centuries of media and pop culture references that do not exist yet. He’s from the 25th century. That’s four centuries of time for humor, language, and entertainment to evolve.  But do you think Booster Gold would be great or terrible at social media/TikTok with his future sense of humor that’s riddled with slang, pop culture references, and idiots or sayings referencing events that have not happened yet?  Because I think he would make a fuck ton of trends & be very notable online. Mainly because he’d deliberately copy online viral hits that haven't happened yet and essentially is stealing ideas from people in the future. Because he’d absolutely do that to gain notoriety. And people would be fascinated with this weird dude online who simultaneously knows Jack And Shit about literally any modern media but somehow has the most advanced humor online. He’s constantly referring to things that don’t exist and his little robot behind him chirps up that “that film was made in the 23rd century, it hasn’t been made yet.” The younger generation would be fascinated by this superhero. I also bet the fucking merch line he would have would be either the blandest corporate thing ever made by a team he hired or he'd make it a gimmick of slapping a specific logo of his face on everything he owned to the point where it became a meme and people demanded merch of the shitty design. There would also be about a bajillion different plushie versions of Skeets though and I would totally buy all of them if I could.  And here's the thing. Humans Love to see other humans fumble through things that we perceive as common knowledge because it's charming and funny the way they mess up, misunderstand how something works, and are delighted when they finally get the hang of it or find out how it actually works. Sure, it's fun to watch someone who is really good at something. But I also think it's very fun to watch someone who has zero fucking clue what they are doing and are trying their best to find it out as they go.

There would absolutely be a compilation of all the times Booster was super excited after he found out that something very mundane existed: "Guys, I have wonderful news. I just found out that the Cavendish banana isn't extinct yet due to them being genetically selected to grow seedless so much that new plants could not be grown as there are no seeds and the existing plants got slowly being destroyed by a parasite! I forgot that they still were around in the early 21st century! So I'm going to try one for the first time!" Michael Jon Carter, aka Booster Gold, aka @/GoldstarNotBoosterGold then directly proceeded to bring the unpeeled banana up to his mouth and bite directly into it. 

He then proceeded to eat the entire banana in this fashion, his face visibly scrunching in distaste with every bite, very clearly not enjoying this endeavor. When he was done he looked off into the distance for a moment, compiling his next words, "Hm, honestly not bad. Kind of bland but I really wish the skin wasn't so tough. Makes sense that 21st-century fruits would be more of a hassle to eat. But overall, I'd give it a 5/10." Needless to say, the three-minute-long video became viral overnight and he became quickly well known online for saving people and being a hero, making bizarre TikToks with his sense of humor from the future, giving out free merch with a horribly compressed image of his face on it, and for trying out food, activities, media, video games, and etc. from the past and reviewing them.

And here’s the thing. Booster Gold is Not super subtle about wanting to be famous/get popular but like, that makes him actually more liked. At first this causes people to flood his comments and media with negative responses about how he’s “not a real hero” if he doesn’t do it out of the goodness of his heart via comparing him to figures like Superman and how he’s a fraud hero.

His response gets plastered all over every news site imaginable. (oh god now I'm imagining what YouTube apology videos would be like in the 25th century)

He responds very directly that “Yes. I am doing this for the fame and money.”

“Wouldn’t you?”

“It seems kind of weird to assume that nobody has an ulterior motive when being a hero. Some heroes help people out of the goodness of their heart but that’s an unrealistic standard to place on heroes. I’m constantly putting myself into danger and could die any mission. Is that not enough to prove that I’m a hero? Why do I also have to have this weird high moral standard that is super unreasonable?”

“Also, people seem to forget, this is my job.”

“I do not have another one. Making online content is how I get my money. I don’t get paid by the government or the Justice League. Just by what I earn from my videos and streams. Plus, everything is so outdated that the effort of adapting to what  a “normal” job in the 21st century is like would take forever. And yall seem to forget this a lot, but having a normal job would mean I would not be able to help anyone between 9-5. I need the flexibility that an online job like this gives me so I can help as many people as possible as I can without having to worry about being fired because I had to fix a time rift and had already used up all my sick days.”

“People criticize me for heavily promoting my merch and gaming the algorithm but people seem to not realize. Heroing is expensive. You think repairing technology from the future is easy with such outdated equipment?”

“Sourcing materials that don’t have synthetic equivalents yet is not cheap.”

“People don’t seem to understand how much money goes into maintaining equipment or the constant medical bills.”

“I have to promote it hard and keep my views up or else I won’t be able to help people anymore. I can’t help people if I can’t pay rent.”

“But hopefully I’ll be able to get enough money to make a company to have other’s take over the job for me so I can retire. That’s just how businesses work. “

“But, I will say that the 21st century has been so cool and it’s been so fun to been to be able to experience things I would have never been able to when I’m from and I wanted to share my experiences with other people even if they don’t really understand where I’m coming from. It’s been very nice to be able to get paid by people who like my videos and are entertained by me fumbling through what it’s like living in the 21st century. “

“But while I like helping people, is it really too much to ask to be paid for my job? This is not the first time I’ve expressed my reason to travel back in time to become a hero was to be able to start his own company and eventually retire. Is it not enough that I’m still a hero? I could just quit that and make making content my full time job? Did you ever think of that? I could just stop being a hero because I now can make rent. But I still put on the suit and help fight bad guys because I want to do good. I also don’t think it’s inhuman for me to want to be acknowledged that I did something good. People are selfish creatures. I deserve to want for people to acknowledge that I looked really cool after defeating a villain! I don’t think that’s too unreasonable.”

“Anyways, make sure to like, subscribe, and ring that bell!”

“My Twitter and Instagram is BoosterGold. Go follow me on Tiktok and Twitch at GoldstarNotBoosterGold. My second channel is BusterGold”

“And make sure to check out the new merch drop on Friday! You guys have been asking for a Skeets plushie and its almost here!”

“Booster Gold, signing off from the future!“

From then on after the video, he just amps it up and is super direct that he’s doing this as his job and for the sole purpose to make money & get more well known.

Like he’ll open up a tiktok or youtube video occasionally with “this is trending and you know me, I’m always ready to cash in on those views” and “I’m not usually a horror guy, but I’ve been seeing a lot of people play this game and you all think its fun to watch me shit my pants. But at least the ad revenue will let me buy a new pair”. 

It actually ends up having people like him more (there are definitely still some critics don’t get me wrong). But people see him as incredibly human. His obnoxious branding becomes a meme and just something to expect of Booster. But despite that, he’s genuinely a good guy and will drop everything if he sees someone in need. 

He’s much more relatable and human than the other god-like beings in the JL. He has videos of him talking about money struggles and rambling about how damn expensive it is to fix equipment that’s four centuries out of date and people relate and laugh at his frustration. 

Other videos about him contain him complaining about his medical bills (in the future the US has a Single-Payer healthcare system and the Medical Insurance industry is abolished. and the history books didn't accurately emphasize how much of a pain in the ass it was) and setting stream goals to pay off bills. He talks about things that people never heard heroes talk about before from their perspective:

- A stream where Booster cleans out the food in the fridge after being off-world for a month and now all his food has gone bad. 

- Booster asking for advice how to grocery shop because nearly all of the brands that make the snacks and foods he wants, haven’t been founded yet. And asking advice on what prices for food is normal because the difference in inflation   

- Booster asking questions about modern etiquette to his followers because those have definitely changed over 4 centuries.

- “Guys how the fuck do you navigate anything online? The layout of all of them is fucking awful! Has that law about standardizing format to cancel subscriptions not been made yet? Because it sure as hell seems like it!”

- A tweet of Booster in the hospital with about a bajillion things attached to him posing with a thumbs up with the caption “I might’ve broken all of my bones but at least they didn’t touch my handsome face”

- The first few times Booster mentions going to physical therapy or doing PT exercises his fanbase goes “Holy shit, I never realized superheroes would have to go to PT after getting injured.” Like, they saw heroes getting injured but it didn’t click in their heads that those injuries would have actual repercussions. To the viewers, it seemed like the heroes always bounced back. And they’re just now realizing that that’s not the case, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes

- “Dealing with Batman is Just as scary as you’d think. The guy gives me the creeps”   (Bruce has 100% worked with booster about spreading rumors about Batman to keep up his reputation so Anything that Michael says about him can only be about confirming rumors that support his reputation or pre-approved stories about Batman being intimidating even outside of fights. Booster does once say that there’s a betting pool in the JL if Bats is a vampire and Bruce was not happy that it wasn’t cleared with him before but it’s been easier to fight goons recently as they’ve been reaching for holy water rather than guns first. Bruce then decides to have Booster keep up these rumors as long as they are actually cleared with him so Bruce can have a firm control over the Batman vampire mythos.)

- “Does Batman go to PT? Pfft, I’ve seen the guy bounce back from every injury he’s ever had with inhuman speed. I swear, it’s like he gets a bullet wound or stabbed and is completely fine the next day!” 

- “Oh yeah, Superman is just as nice as everyone says he is! He overheard me talking to Flash once about how I couldn’t find a soldering iron fine enough to fix some of my more intricate gear and he said I can ask anytime if I needed him to use his laser vision to fix my stuff! He’s great.”

- Booster talking about fighting time monsters and being kinda sad that no one can actually see the amount of effort it takes to deal with those issues because if he’s done everything right, there should be no trace anything happened at all. 

But his streams can also reveal some of the more… undesirable parts of becoming a hero, namely the gruesome injures, trauma, and seeing friends get brutally injured:

And people realize this through Booster accidentally trauma dumping to his audience and them going “oh shit, I knew doing hero work isn’t easy but this guy needs a fucking therapist”: 

-  Briefly mentions how weird it was to hold in his guts in after getting injured really badly during a fight. 

- (warning there’s a description of a burnt corpse so skip this if you don’t like that): “The dishes have been piling up lately guys. I keep meaning to get to it but it’s just - you remember those burning apartments I had to sort though last week? The, uh, slightly grainy and squishy texture of the food under my fingers keeps reminding me of sorting through those houses and I just haven’t been able to get to it.” 

“ I was sorting through the debris, looking for potential causes of the fire. One of the walls was gone and you could see the metal pipes melted into a weird shape, it was kinda cool.”

“But uh, I went to shift what I thought was a burnt piece of furniture out of the way. And when I grabbed it, it like, gave away? sort of? I thought it was going to be burnt wood but the first few layers of the outside crumbled under my touch and flaked away, the non-burnt part way on the inside was still kinda squishy.”

“It, uh- it, turned out to be someone’s arm.”

“The firemen said the person must’ve been crushed under the falling wall and didn’t escape in time. And they just lied there, charred nearly to the bone.”

“The texture just reminds me of that happening and I haven’t been able to do dishes or eat anything with my hands in a while.”

“But anyways guys! I think I’m going to get Beetle to do them when he comes over tomorrow!” (The sudden whiplash of tone definitely gets viewers very concerned because that Cannot be healthy)

——

I also enjoy the concept that people mercilessly bully him online (but with no real ill intent, think Jerma’s fanbase type of bullying and memeing the shit out of the man)  

Ted Kord is absolutely a fan favorite. At first he was often visibly in the backgrounds of Michael’s videos all suited up. Then he was the supervisor and behind-the-camera context giver to Booster for the more stupid stunts he did for internet attention and answered questions Booster had about media he reacted to by filling in the meaning of what he was being shown. 

People Loved their dynamic and sure enough Booster capitalized the shit out of it by pulling Ted into his videos and having Blue Beetle be the voice of reason & the comedic contrast of “guy who knows how to do things” vs “guy who has no fucking clue what he’s doing. Their “High INT, High STR, Low WIS, Low CHA ” & “High CHA (with permanent disadvantage), High STR, Low WIS, & Low INT” relationship is much loved online. 

—

But at the same time, he could also accidentally be the cause of many technological breakthroughs in the 21st century because common knowledge to him would be so absolutely foreign to us as that’s centuries of advancement in the fields of technology, science, engineering, and math between current day and the 25th century. I’d like to imagine he corrects a physics equation with one made in the 23th century that was common knowledge for him, but not so much for the modern century physicist. And now he’s in the media focus for being a superhero influencer online who somehow caused a breakthrough in physics. With the intent of becoming a superhero with the sole purpose of gaining fame & money to eventually form a corporation based around himself to make a comfortable living.

[fullmetalnihongostudy]

🍓 Cat Astrology - Pallas and Play

🎏 Spirituality is not just for humans. Pictured is Tama (たま), the famous stationmaster cat of Kishi Station in Japan, who after her death was enshrined in Shinto as a goddess of one of the local train lines she served. Every year, her successors still bring offerings to her shrine on the anniversary of her death...

🎏 Likewise, can cats be affected by astrology in the same way we can? It's just my observation, but if you know your cat's birthday you can use a birth chart calculator just like you would for yourself ♡

Here are some deductions/speculations I have made about cats and astrology. I do not expect them to be accurate, they are just for fun! I am not a cat behaviorist, please do not use this as actual information about having a cat! However if you do wanna share your cat's chart or signs I may turn this into an actual thing lol 🍓

Pallas governs intuitive intelligence. In cats, this would have once meant hunting, but when with humans, this instinct translates to play ♡

🎏 cats with Pallas in aries are proactive. may always initiate play with their owners. up early and probably have a secret double life taking place entirely before their human is awake ♡

🎏 Pallas in taurus cats may have a lot of toys. they enjoy the physical world and tend to love their scratching post as well as lounging elegantly on the nearest sofa, piano, or windowsill ♡

🎏 Pallas in gemini cats are like gemini humans in that they show two sides. may be playful but can need lots of stimulation. quick to catch their cat toys but very soft and gentle with their hooman ♡

🎏 Pallas in cancer cats are very affectionate in play. may play and cuddle. enjoy playtime before bed or sharing their owner's space. A classic 'keyboard cat' who keeps you company while you work or study ♡

🎏 cats with Pallas in Leo think they are top cat, chanelling that leo energy 🦁. loves attention from humans. generally won't entertain themselves but will want human attention and affection. star cats. great for a cat cafe! 🌟

🎏 Pallas in virgo cats are neat like virgo hoomans. smart and mentally active, they need loads of stimulation in play. may outsmart you ^_^

🎏 Pallas in libra cats need balance. work hard, play hard cats. need lots of naps and need variety in their life. holistic cats that benefit from enriched environments

🎏 Pallas in scorpio cats - most likely to trick their owners. may come and boop you when you are least expecting it.

🎏 cats with Pallas in Sagittarius are bold cats, and always have a strong sense of their environment. may take a deep interest in what you are doing.

🎏 Pallas in capricorn cats? homebodies, but different from cancer. tama's birthday is not known but she gives strong capricorn vibes as she takes a sedate position of responsibility ♤♡◇♧

🎏 Pallas in aquarius cats will surprise you when you least expect it. wake you up by kneading you. very likely to enjoy watching things out the window.

🎏 cats with Pallas in pisces are frequently found to form a loaf. loaf shapes are not sedentary, however. here, your cat is sensing the energy of the world around them. the loaf may be a precursor to some proper cuddles.

author's note: this is for fun only! I AM a proper astrologer though, self taught and not qualified but have been doing it for a decent 6 years and I find I'm reasonably accurate. you can find some of my serious posts here and here.

but obviously I haven't examined the birth charts of hundreds of cats to make these observations =_= otherwise not sure what I would be doing with my life. So yes, disclaimer, this is a bit of fun and mostly I couldn't resist my mad 3 am idea of a super long eternal Pallas Cat pun. I don't care if it's 2023. we need to bring that meme back. so please enjoy 🦋

🎏 Please also do not claim or repost without permission but feel free to reblog and fill my asks with anything astro related or if you have noticed your cat's sun or other sign fits them, I wanna know about it lol

[nohrslittleflower]

[ approval ] -  "i commend thee, lady elise, for your choice is as a rare gem unearthed from the depths of antiquity, a treasure that glimmers with the radiance of thy discerning soul!"

Ask Meme from Here!

Elise can’t help but immediately break out into giggles. She’s always entertained by how Odin can manage to say the simplest things in the most complicated way. It’s fun. She’s glad he still does it, even here. 

Though at this point it would probably be really weird to hear him talk normally.

“Thank you! Your selection is as… um… as astounding as the gleaming nights star, brighter than the rest in its splendor of darkness!” She nods confidently as she finishes, beaming up at her brother’s retainer. She’s a little out of practice in speaking Odin-talk ‘the dark tongue’, but she thinks she got it close enough! She’s pretty sure! She hopes! Only Odin would really know if that was true or not though.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, April 11

Buffy: (shrugs) I'll be fine. Spike: Buffy. You're not happy here. Buffy: Please don't make this harder. Spike: You don't belong here. You're something... You're better than this.

~~Doublemeat Palace~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Elope (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by veronyxk84

Followup Tests (Angel/Maggie Walsh, E) by MadeInGold

A Strange Sort of Afterlife (Multiple Crossings, T) by Ditsyjo and Wolfcubx2

Daisies (Buffy/Spike, T) by desicat

I Know I Should Figure This Out on my Own (but if you come back, could you take me home?) (Cordelia, Wesley, T) by purple_mechanicalpencils

Cooking Together (Crossover with Dawson's Creek, G) by Julikobold

Rock Concert Tickets (Buffy/Spike, G) by Julikobold

Spilling (Crossover with The Golden Girls, G) by Julikobold

A Year of Judgement (Ethan Rayne, T) by NAOA

Say Yes to Heaven (Buffy/Spike, R) by Maxine Eden

[Chaptered Fiction]

Object of Affection, Chapter 1 (Xander/Spike, E) by felixsfishnets

Scooby Family Therapy, Chapter 1 (Joyce/Everyone, E) by Anne_Hathagay

Highlands and Tropical Islands, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Faith, M) by QuillBard

Ripped Stockings, Chapter 1 (Giles/Jenny, E) by TheClowniestLivInExistence

Written in the Stars, Chapter 8 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by RavenLove12

Celebrating You, Chapter 9 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by DeamonQueen

Army Wife, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, R) by though_you_try

Keep You Ghosted, Chapter 7 (Buffy/Spike, R) by hydranjenna

The Boyfriend Swap, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Maxine Eden

The Stars to Hold Our Destiny, Chapter 10 (Crossover with Star Trek, FR15) by Hermionetobe

Blood and dust, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, 18+) by Blackoberst

It's Easy Time, Until It's Not, Chapter 24 (Buffy/Spike, AO) by hulettwyo

Coming Through, Chapter 55 (Buffy/Spike, AO) by hulettwyo

Service Unit, Chapter 10 (Buffy/Spike, AO) by hulettwyo

Hope is the thing with feathers, Chapter 10 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by will_

What The Drabble? Vol. 2, Chapter 10 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by veronyxk84

In Your Dreams, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Geliot99

We're Going to be Friends, Chapter 16 (Buffy/Spike, R) by scratchmeout

Build a Bridge, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Niamh

Love Lives Here, Chapter 47 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Passion4Spike

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork:Dark Willow Fan Art by erin_m_creates

Artwork:🌸🌸🌸 by novivi

Comic:favorite scene by fox-toothed

Gifset:Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1.07 & 5.18 by whatisyourchildhoodtrauma

Gifset:S01:E09 - The Puppet Show (Part 1) by thecrazyknight

Gifset:The Zeppo by dailybuffysummers

Gifset:Anne by detectivedawnsummers

Video: BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: Portrait Painting | Time Lapse - Fan Art Series by TIM NARDELLI

[Reviews & Recaps]

Joan the Vampire Slayer (and Randy) | 6x8 "Tabula Rasa" | The Normies Group Reaction! by The Normies

"The I in Team" (4x13) | *Buffy the Vampire Slayer* Reaction by cass reacts

Older and Far Away: Buffy 6x14 Reaction by Dakara

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER - SEASON 6 EP 22 GRAVE (2002) REACTION VIDEO AND REVIEW FIRST TIME WATCHING by Reel Reviews With Jen!

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1992) - Film Review by VIDEO ZONE

The Re-Watcher's Council | "Reptile Boy" Buffy the Vampire Slayer S02E05 Spoiler Review by LGRN - Entertainment

Podcast: Angel S4E1: Deep Down by Booze & Buffy

Publication: The 10 best Angel episodes, ranked via digitaltrends

[Recs & In Search Of]

spuffy fanfics where drusilla plays a major role in the story recced by mcgnagallsarmy

[Community Announcements]

New "Good Vibes" Flair Announcement by r/buffy

Fandom5K 2024 Schedule by fandom5k

[Fandom Discussions]

[on Buffy being 'kicked out'] by moistvonlipwig

[Riley's ending] by breezybeej

[Xander in the S2 finale] by nicnacsnonsense

[S6 as a Willow fan] by aingeal98

[Ask: Lies My Parents Told Me meta] by momsforroadhead and explosionshark

[Meme: why is the library closed?] by sunnydale-high-school-rumors

Conflicted feelings on the show so far... by multiple authors

Which Firefly transplant to Angel did you enjoy most? by multiple authors

Questions about souls by multiple authors

Do you think Dawn existed within the Wishverse? by multiple authors

What are some pieces of dialogue that you hated? by multiple authors

What are some of the most mind-blowing Buffyverse moments? by multiple authors

Most interesting Wishverse character? by multiple authors

Season 7: did anyone ever say whether the lighting and wardrobe were intentionally meant to be so gloomy/dark? by multiple authors

Buffy's reaction by multiple authors

Giles' reaction to Joyce blaming him for Buffy leaving Sunnydale by multiple authors

Faith, Hope, and Trick by multiple authors

What are the best moments of each season? by multiple authors

Ryles comeback was poorly done by multiple authors

Just started reading the comics and I have questions about Buffy's relationship with Angel and Spike by multiple authors

Does becoming a vampire mean the body is possessed? by multiple authors

Which one time/small recurring character you wish became a main cast member? by multiple authors

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

[allthatwas]

(meme).‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎she had appreciated unit then,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎in the worlds she crossed their paths asking over‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎&‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎over again:‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎where is the d.octor?‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎the stars are burning out–‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎&‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎in some ways she appreciates them now...‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎yet their reciprocation of appreciation came with a lot of questions.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎an assistant to a legend,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎a companion to so much history that they could only dream of getting to see.

it isn't annoying,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎&‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎she does her best to entertain their fantasies,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎because she gets it.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎feet on the ground now,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎she lives in a constant state of imagination,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎relived memories that are so crystal clear‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎(as if the grandiosity of the stories has suppressed much of the before,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎sometimes she has to look to her mother's picture to remember her).‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎but even when she gets it,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎there is still that lingering emptiness:‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎felt back in pete's world,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎felt stronger here knowing that there's something just out of her reach,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎knowing that there's no family to call...‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎&‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎it must show on her face.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎[WE DON'T HAVE TO TALK ABOUT IT].

"no,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎no–‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎'salright."‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎she flashes a toothless grin in @b4didea's direction,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎her voice as kind as she can manage,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎yet with the smallest bit of edge.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎"i get it,‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎he's...‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎it's...‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎they're really great stories aren't they?"‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎but isn't that what they are now?‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎just stories...‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎"you're a fan of the d.octor then?‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎didn't realize he had 'em."

[playermagic23]

Web Series Review: Panchayat Season 3

Star Cast: Jitendra Kumar, Raghubir Yadav, Neena Gupta, Chandan Roy, Faisal Malik, Sanvikaa, Pankaj Jha

Director: Deepak Kumar Mishra

Synopsis: PANCHAYAT SEASON 3 is the story of the feud between a villager and an egoistic MLA. After the events of the second season, a new 'Sachiv' (Vinod Suryavanshi) arrives in Phulera. Brij Bhushan Dubey (Raghubir Yadav), the Pradhan Pati, devises a plan. He keeps the Panchayat office locked on the day of the new Sachin's joining. Brij even doesn't pick up his call and so does Vikas (Chandan Roy). The new Sachiv complains to the MLA Chandrakishore Singh (Pankaj Jha), who in turn, complains to the DM (Kusum Shastri). The DM urgently calls Manju Devi (Neena Gupta), the Pradhan, to her office. Manju and Prahlad (Faisal Malik), the Up-Pradhan, make it clear that they want Abhishek Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar) back as the Sachiv. As luck would have it, the same day, the MLA is jailed for killing a dog. The DM cancels Abhishek's transfer and asks him to join Phulera Gram Panchayat. Brij, Manju, Vikas and Prahlad are overjoyed to have Abhishek back with them. But there are certain problems in front of the village. Prahlad is depressed over the death of his son, Rahul (Shiv Swaroop) and has turned an alcoholic as well. Meanwhile, the Gram Panchayat elections are around the corner and Bhushan (Durgesh Kumar) is determined to win at any cost. As part of his strategy, he decides to send an olive branch to the MLA. Soon, this leads to utter chaos and madness in Phulera. What happens next forms the rest of the show.

Panchayat Season 3 Story Review: Chandan Kumar's story is terrific and the writer manages to neatly take the story forward. Chandan Kumar's screenplay is very effective and is peppered with lots of entertaining and dramatic moments. But the surprise this season is that the show scores big time with the emotional scenes as well. Chandan Kumar's dialogues are sharp and hilarious as required. Some dialogues are bound to become memes, just like it happened in the previous season. A few one-liners, however, do give a feeling that they were written keeping in mind that it'll become meme-worthy.

Deepak Kumar Mishra's direction is praiseworthy. Like the previous seasons, the execution is neat and uncomplicated. Often, several cult shows tend to disappoint in the subsequent seasons. But PANCHAYAT has proved to be an exception. The writer and director have taken care that nothing is added for the heck of it and at the same time, the new developments carry the essence of the show. This time, the stakes are higher and hence, even the tension levels go high in some scenes.

On the flipside, some developments are silly. For instance, the idea of the Pradhan to not pick up the call of the new Sachiv is childish. But since it leads to LOL-worthy moments, one won't mind. The same happens with the scene where a family is given a house under the PM Awas Yojana scheme though they don't qualify for it. The reason behind it is far-fetched. However, it makes for a nice watch. Secondly, the romance between Abhishek and Rinki (Sanvikaa) doesn't progress much and it's a bit of a downer.

PANCHAYAT SEASON 3 begins on a very entertaining note and the first episode sets the mood. The sequence between Prahlad and Damyanti Devi (Abha Sharma) is lovely and the most emotional sequence of the show. The real fun begins once the MLA arrives in the village for a truce meeting. The scene starts ordinarily but ends on a high and is sure to bring the house down. From here, the show is highly entertaining. This time, there's also action and the final episode is very nail-biting. The last 10 minutes give a 'Katappa ne Baahubali ko kyun maara' or 'Lonavala mein kya hua' (THE FAMILY MAN) vibe and enhance the excitement for Season 4.

Panchayat Season 3 Performances: Jitendra Kumar doesn’t have much to do initially but later on, dominates the show. He’s totally gotten into the skin of the character by now and is very impressive. Raghubir Yadav, too, puts his best foot forward. Neena Gupta is first-rate and this time, her character gets a deeper understanding of politics. This adds a lot to her role and also her performance. Chandan Roy lends able support, as always. Faisal Malik has a difficult role this time but comes out with flying colours. Sanvikaa is a fine talent and her mere presence instantly lifts the impact of a scene. Pankaj Jha is outstanding as the antagonist. The same goes for Durgesh Kumar. Sunita Rajwar (Kranti Devi; Bhushan's wife) leaves a huge mark. Ashok Pathak (Binod) this time has a longer role, considering the popularity of his memes perhaps, and does very well. Asif Khan (Ganesh) is highly entertaining while Aanchal Tiwari (Raveena) is sweet. Abha Sharma is adorable and Vishal Yadav (Jagmohan) makes his presence felt. Prateek Pachauri (Babloo) and Ebaabdullah Khan (Dabloo) are funny. The others who do well are Tript Sahu (Khushu; Vikas's wife), Bulloo Kumar (Madhav; who sides with Bhushan), Gaurav Singh (Chottan Singh; MLA's PA), Amit Kumar Maurya (Bam Bahadur), Kusum Shastri, Vinod Suryavanshi, Shrikant Verma (Parmeshwar), Vishwanath Chatterjee (Sanjay Yadav; cop) and Diwakar Dhayani (BDO). Kirandeep Kaur (Chitra; MLA's daughter) doesn’t have much to do and hopefully, will have a stronger part in Season 4. Lastly, Swananad Kirkire (MP) has a promising cameo.

Panchayat Season 3 music and other technical aspects: Anurag Saikia's music enhances the impact. As for the songs, the Manoj Tiwari track is damn good. But watch out for 'Thame Dil Ko', sung by Abhijeet Bhattacharya. Amitabha Singh's cinematography is satisfactory. The bird's eye view shots of the village, especially, are memorable. Karishma Vyas' costumes and Naveen Lohara and Sayali Naikwadi Singh's production design are straight out of life. The action is realistic. Amit Kulkarni's editing is smooth.

Panchayat Season 3 Conclusion: On the whole, PANCHAYAT SEASON 3 fulfils all the humongous expectations and rests on bravura performances, some funny and dramatic sequences, nail-biting climax and meme-worthy dialogues. This time, the show also scores on the emotional front and also boasts of action scenes. Thanks to the insane popularity and word of mouth, the third season is bound to emerge as one of the most most-watched or maybe the most most-watched show for Amazon Prime Video this year. Recommended!

[specialshinytrinkets]

🪲Boys will be bugs🪲

(Technical stuff under cut)

Original Bug Popuko and Bug Pipimi toy pictures from this post

OML LOOK AT THE TWO BOYS!!!!! XDDDDDDDDDD I guess I have been starved of caption writing for long enough to do this, so.... here we go!

One of the things about this duo that is. Making me shake and yell is that, technically speaking, they're kinda opposites. But not really. They're simular, but different. In terms of headcanons — that is for sure. Let me explain.

Gumball is the star of the show. It's his world for a reason — if Gumball stops existing, the World (as in, the extraterrestrial omnipotent forces of scriptwriters) is going to do everything in its power to return things to status quota [See also: "The Static"]. The eyes are all on them. They can't escape being Universe's favourite boy. He suffers and doesn't quite know that, being shoved from one wacky situation into another, often being misinterpreted and laughed at, without proper guidance (this Gumball angst post has rewired my brain and you're gonna have to Get Over It).

As for Grave, he's a one-off character. He's starved of attention both in meta and in-universe sense. Why, you may ask? Well, because I don't believe that a child of loving, attentive parents would earn money via illegal burger selling. And rap during work without any specific purpose, only to entertain himself (amd maybe, as intention, others). He's nowhere and everywhere, possibly existing in the background for much longer than presented, with Mr Small referencing a guy who left EJHS for supposedly lying and working at the cemetary. Very interesting coincidence.

So, we have a guy about whom barely anyone strongly cares, and a three-episode character. Both are well-deep into humour as coping mechanism (with Gumball it's confirmed; with Grave — cutting up dead animals as a teen is definetely traumatic). Both are selfish in their own right. And both probably feel lonely!

But with Grave being adopted by Needlemeyers (because of course he is), that adds extra interest. Now he's directly tied to a person who suffers from Gumball's hijinks. So how would he feel meeting Gumball? And how would he feel after finding out Gumball has their own mental struggles? Would there be a sense of kinship? Of the need to guide the young cat through life? And considering that Needlemeyers would greatly care of Grave, what would Gumball feel when hearing of mothers, who DON'T throw their child into a desert to prove his worth?

Oh, and. Don't forget about the queerness. And gaming. Never forget. These fools are like that one meme: "-What do you think of gay marriage? -As far as I'm aware, all marriage is gay marriage." They are nigh interchagable. And I love their moronic energy.

[tortoisesshells]

1, 3 and 4 for the writing excerpt meme? :D

1. ... that makes me smile:

Customs doesn't usually have much for anyone to smile about, and they're five minutes away from an extraordinarily loaded conversation about justice, but for now, Nellie thinks Ursa Minor looks like a goose:

“Well, your education was likely significantly more comprehensive on this score than mine, Commodore.” “Undoubtedly. But Nellie, I really cannot see a goose.” She sighed, and glanced up at him. “If you are determined to laugh at me –” “I am not laughing –” “James.” “I am not laughing now,” he amended, “I am curious. What you see is what you see. I cannot tell you that you are wrong there.” “If you promise,” she said, and raised a hand to gesture at the sky, again. “There, the North Star. That’s the head. Those little stars arcing behind it are the long neck. The little box – the one with the other bright star in the lot, I don’t know it’s name but you see it, there? – that’s the body of the thing. I suppose I’ve been imagining that its wings are folded in – that it’s paddling about on some mill pond in the sky.” When described in this way, it did resemble a goose peering into the shallows for food. James said so, and Nellie, limited by the darkness as his perception of her was, fairly preened.

3. ... that encompasses my style:

Answered here, but: I don't usually do kid/adolescent narrators, but this passage from had you not better make One of us does have my usual belaboring of historical detail for characterization, and a character playing chicken and losing with their own emotions and memory. Also, I do think this one of my better attempts at Elizabeth from POTC at any age:

She frowned at this – why on earth would a man not want to travel? Instead of being stuck in a great dreary northern place which (Elizabeth glanced over at her father’s prized globe, finding this Massachusetts Bay by the great ungainly sweep of a cape that always put her in mind of a prize-fighter’s arm) probably had bears and snow. She had not seen the latter in some two years, and did not miss it at all – she had never seen a bear, though, since Papa had a weak constitution and tended to faint at the sight of blood, which meant for all her pleading she’d never seen the baiting-pits in Paris Garden in London – or anywhere else, besides. She had seen a bear skull once, in one of her father’s friend’s curio-cabinets, between curious-looking coins of long-dead Roman emperors and rocks that man had (in a superior tone which immediately made Elizabeth lose interest) called glossopetrae. Someone later told her that those hand-sized rocks they were ancient shark-teeth, which had set her to staring at the inscrutable waves with fear and fascination. But she was ignoring the conversation, which she ought not to do – she was something like the lady of the house, even though she was too young for the position she’d inherited when Mama had – “Then your family is in Massachusetts Bay?” she asked quickly, to stem the unwelcome thoughts she’d just had.

4. ... with dialogue I'm proud of:

Answered here, but! Love a character who says outrageous things with a smile. From another shoreline, in another life:

Roger snorted. “It’s the fire for us, Vicki. You might as well find your comfort where you can.” She glanced at him, chewing at her lip for a half-moment. “Ought I to – take one of the other rooms?” “Don’t be ridiculous. Take advantage of the foresight of our ancestors and stay by the stove.” “I’d like to lie down.” He looked at her, unsure at first, and then – entertained. “And you would rather a door be between us? You are taking this journey into the past very seriously. It’s not 1866.” Vicki demurred, feeling as though she had to explain herself, but not finding the words for what she meant to say. She was his sister’s employee – his son’s tutor – she’d need another job after this one, whenever that was. None of it was very articulate, and she watched miserably as Roger add another log to the stove. “If it distresses you that much,” he said, looking over his shoulder at her, with an expression she could not have parsed even in the frank light of day, “I will take one of the other rooms. Though – I’m not enough of a gentleman not to ask for your coat.”

send me a number and I'll share an excerpt of my writing!

[itscomplicatedx]

The Dumbass most common reactions to Hash Bingo

(which I am too lazy to put in an actual Bingo Meme)

-If you claim to be a Tom fan and you’re saying any of this stuff, you especially should be ashamed of yourself.

Update: Now with a board by @in-defense-of-loki !

1). “She’s showing off her pregnancy!”

Yeah, they get kind of hard to hide when you’re a few months in. Of course she was going address it in the interview- she showed up with a baby bump. What was she supposed to say when they asked- “No, please ignore the fact that I’m so obviously pregnant?”

2). “She got pregnant to trap Tom!”

They got engaged in September. And yes, men who feel trapped constantly light up with goofy smiles when their fiancé is around, and go around talking about how “very happy” they are when congratulated/s. 🙄

3). “It’s a publicity stunt, just like Benedict and Sophie!”

Oh goody, the insane tinfoil Cumber bitches who are obsessed with Benedict and Sophie conspiracy theories are now going to move on to Tom and Zawe. 🤦🏻‍♀️

4). “She’s punching up/is a social-climber” (some sick fuck actually tried to put this on her Wikipedia page! 😡)

He’s not going to date you sweetheart. He doesn’t even know you exist. Get over it.

“Social Climber?” What century are you living in??

5). Unhinged “heartbroken” rant about how he’s no longer single.

See # 4. And please get therapy.

6). “Zawe looks like an ape, man, etc.”

Ah yes, racist dog whistles. You’re racist scum. That’s pretty much all that needs to be said about this one.

7.) “She’s just using him to further her career and get into Marvel.”

Update: Zawe talks about how she got the role here

My original answer: Because her career totally wasn’t rising on its own before they got together/s-she got picked to star in Broadway after all. She got the Marvel role before they went public. It’s possible Tom put in a good word for her-that’s how the industry often works. In case you forgot, when Tom was being considered for the Loki role Kenneth Branagh put in a good word for him. He probably would’ve done that even if they were just friends. But if either Tom or Zawe had truly sucked, no good word would’ve gotten them the roles.

8). “I miss him with Taylor!” ::proceeds to spam Zawe tags with Hiddleswift::

It was for 3 months-6 years ago. They both moved on-you need to as well. And don’t spam tags!

9). “Taylor ruined him for decent women and he’s scraping the bottom of the barrel.”

This one seems like a combination of 4, 6, & 8. As well as how ridiculous it is that you somehow think that every woman should be measured by your particular idol, who is not the model of perfection you seem to think she is.

10). “They’re both gay and using each other as a beard.”

While I’m all for more out Queer people in the industry, there are actual straight people there. Everyone is not gay and hiding it. How about concentrating on supporting Queer rights within the Entertainment industry, instead of wasting your time publicly speculating about stuff like this?

11). This one has been aimed at me personally-“You only like Zawe because she’s with Tom!”

No, actually I took an interest in her since I first saw her in Betrayal. This furthered when I had a pleasant personal interaction with her-when I was at stage door I was coughing and sneezing a lot, and she got me some tissues and asked me if I was okay. I then started researching other stuff she’s been in. I know for a fact I’m not the only one. Them getting together was icing on the cake.

Besides, if she came to peoples’ attention because they saw her with Tom and started to like her, what’s wrong with that? I, along with many others, first found out about Tom when we went to see the first Thor movie; and I was originally there to see Chris Hemsworth.

12). “Her grandfather/family was bad, blah blah.”

I tend to take these things with a grain of salt, but let’s say for the sake of argument that it’s true. So what? Are we holding people responsible for what their ancestors did now? In that case, we’re all in trouble, because I guarantee you every body has got at least one asshole ancestor-probably multiple ones.

That’s all I got for now.



[whatmathgodwrought]

Salad Bar Theory of Popular Culture

This is going to be a long post. It will discuss "The Salad Bar Theory of Popular Culture," and why Tumblr dot com is the ideal, overgrown petri dish on the web for this phenomenon.

It's a bit of lark, but I do hope you'll laugh at least once if you read to the end.

Imagine you're dining at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. The restaurant is massive. The self-serve food bar has every kind of dish imaginable, and what's more, there is a construction crew adding more space, and new chefs are constantly adding new entrees, remaking old favorites, and sometimes they even invent new cuisines altogether. All of your friends and acquaintances are there. Sometimes you eat together, sometimes you talk about what you ate, sometimes someone excitedly comes to your table raving and telling you to try something new or an old favorite. There is more than you could ever possibly eat in several lifetimes, and it only keeps growing.

This metaphor is the current state of entertainment in the 21st century for all forms of media: music, movies, books, TV shows, ebooks, audiobooks, podcasts, talk radio, art, comics, graphic novels, manga, webcomics, cartoons, anime, newspapers, infotainment, online journalism, live-streaming, plays/dramas, console gaming, PC gaming, smartphone gaming and more. Thanks to the internet, streaming, global-shipping, viral-meme-culture, commodification-of-the-invidivual-via-the-social-media-grind, (and let's be honest, piracy and archival culture), people have access to and are exposed to more entertainment than they could ever hope to consume in several lifetimes.

So, where does leave the typical diner at this restaurant? Well, as the next paragraphs will show, there is no such thing as a "typical diner." There are no gourmets, no gourmands. There is just the Cornucopia and groups of people wandering the endless salad bar. You can be first in line and pay a premium to experience the brand new dish. You can go back to the same section and reload your plate with the same thing as many times as you want, and people will ask if you don't ever get tired of the same thing. You can be a vegetarian. You can eat only meat. You can eat a bit of everything. You can brave the sneers and jeers of the gatekeepers as you sample something--with tastebuds aglow--for the first time and rave about it to all your friends.

So what kind of dining experiences are there in this cultural canteen, this pop-culture pizzeria, this taverna theatre? What do you see there?

Popularity is the Objective Word Here

When something is popular, it spreads like wildfire. This has always been true of popular culture even before the internet. Humans are social, they tell stories and they share. This may seem obvious, but it's also bedrock for the other observations.

Originality is Dead: Long Live Reboots and Remixes.

Show of hands to three questions:

How many people recognize the reference of a gorilla carrying a woman, climbing the Empire State Building while bi-planes shoot at it?

King Kong right? A cultural icon for many years.

How many people have actually seen the original King Kong (1933) starring Fay Wray and directed by Cooper and Schoedsack?

Not as many right? Maybe you only saw one of the many remakes in 2021, 2017, 2005, 1986, 1976, 1967 or 1962.

How many people are alive today that saw King Kong (1933) in the cinema?

Not many I'll bet.

I'd wager the number of hands goes down with each question. And yet the staying power of the original story remains burned into film history and memory. The point is this. Humans retell stories. This is not a bug. It's a feature. "Tell me the story again of…" There is joy (and profit) in the retelling.

Derivative Reference is Often the Primary Way of Experiencing Pop Culture

OK, so people are sharing things left and right. They're retelling, remixing, rebooting, writing fan-fics, etc. All of this creative effort means that your first-time encountering something new may be a reference, rather than experiencing the original. People rarely experience the true original firsthand anymore. They're going to experience things second-hand.

This is especially true with older media. A first experience with something will often be a derivative reference. An example: Back in the day, in school, we watched Planet of the Apes in class. (I don't know, probably the teacher was hung over.) Want to know how I figured out before the big reveal that the Planet of the Apes was really Earth?

Troy McClure spoiled it for me. In Season 7 Episode 9 of the Simpsons, "A Fish Called Selma," McClure takes an acting gig in a musical adaptation of Planet of the Apes, and he sings the following lines:

Oh my God, I was wrong It was earth all along Yes you finally made a monkey out of me.

So there I am, watching Planet of the Apes for the first time, and Troy McClure's big number starts playing in my head. I sit there in disbelief, remembering the Simpsons, and then practically crying into my desk with laughter.

Probably the teacher thought that "kids these days" don't appreciate cinema, but it was just so absurd to have the movie spoiled by a bit in the Simpsons.

Want to know something else? In doing research for this essay, I discovered that Planet of the Apes film isn't even the original. The original story was a French language novel "La Planète des Singes" by Pierre Boulle. So again, people love retelling, often in different forms of media.

Point is, the longer something has been out, the more it tends to be referenced in other forms. TV talk shows will make jokes referencing the new popular thing. Popular phrases quickly become part of the everyday lexicon. People talk at the water cooler. A tech mogul names their new software after one iconic word in Heinlein's 1961 sci-fi novel.

Any piece of popular culture could be "spoiled" for you at any moment, which brings us to....

Spoilers are Everywhere but Do They Just Act as Adverts?

King Kong dies in the end. Dumbledore Dies. Both of these are spoiler memes (and I'm not sorry), but consider the amount of time passed between the original release of both. How long is the statute of limitations on spoilers? How long before a popular piece of media saturates public awareness so much that it becomes unavoidable? Is this ultimately unavoidable because of the viral nature of advertising, marketing and sharing?

In the modern day, it's increasingly hard to avoid spoilers. I've heard of people going off social media for weeks before a major film release so it doesn't get spoiled for them.

People seem divided on the topic of spoilers, but it's a very good question: Would you still enjoy a story if it was spoiled for you? Shakespeare spoils Romeo & Juliet in the first 14 lines:

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Do you still want to see the rest of the play? What if it had Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo, Claire Danes as Juliet and Harold Perrineau as Mercutio? There is something to be said for knowing where the story goes, yet still enjoying the teling of the tale.

I'll go on record and say I don't really care about spoilers. They've become adverts to me, hooks of interest into things I might not have discovered otherwise. I have to encounter new media somehow, and I try to take a positive outlook on it, saying, "I was meant to discover this." If I like something, I'm going to like it unabashedly and still find a way to enjoy it.

Delayed Gratification

If you are PC gamer, let me ask a question: How many unplayed games do you have in your Steam library? Games you haven't even downloaded and opened for the first time. What about unfinished games? Played-once-and-dropped-it games? Now ask yourself: Did you buy this game when it first came out? Did you pay for early access? Would you have still enjoyed it, even if you had to wait a while? Consider the Reddit community r/PatientGamers. They don't care to line up and pay a premium for a brand new release. They know it will still be the same game (often less buggy), and they will even be able to get it on sale. They know the salad bar is vast. There's lots of content, and there's no hurry. They let it come to them when the time is right.

I Don't Want to Hear It

Similar to r/PatientGamers, there is also the phenomona when it seems like everyone is raving about something, to the point where you begin to actively block it out. It doesn't seem to matter what it is; even if it's something good that you would ultimately enjoy. Something about the repetition or the messaging rubs you wrong, and you innoculate yourself against it. You avoid that part of the salad bar at all costs, even if you might like it.

Interpreting the Rules: Remixing as Fan Behavior.

How dooes your social circle play the game Uno? Fandom has a tendency to take what's been created and modify it, remix it according to their own rules, according to fanon's own internal logic. Sometimes it's seen as an act of repair, sometimes a love letter to canon. Sometimes it's shipping characters. Sometimes it is a what-if. What if all these different characters from different properties got together in a story?

Dismay at Media Conglomerate Strip Mining

Has one of the five mega media conglomerates "ruined your childhood" by making a live-adaptation of your favorite childhood cartoon? Well, buckle up, because they aren't going to stop. The big five are hungry for content, and they are actively strip-mining your childhood favorites. It doesn't matter if it's a live action remake of Avatar the Last Airbender or CATS the musical, eventually some studio exec is going to see dollar signs, and your favorite thing is going to get a bad remake. It's best to just accept this.

Further Dismay at AI Strip Mining

If you don't like what the big five are doing, you will hate what AI is doing, and if you're an artist you probably already know you are getting robbed by AI companies. Large language models (also known as Plausible Sentence Generators) and text-to-artwork tools like Stable Diffusion and Midjourney are getting more sophisticated.

They're still scraping the web, and more sites seem to be selling user-generated content to these places, prompting artists to use Glaze and Nightshade to protect their work and poison AI data-models.

People are selling their likeness for permanent use in perpetuity for use in crowds. Lord of the Rings used AI-enabled CGI units in some of the battles, and that was over 20 years ago. How long before they don't hire extras for movies anymore?

The year is 2100. You put on a vid. It is the usual cast, starring: Tu-Pac Shakur's avatar, Hatsune Miku, the latest Disney princess avatar, and the disembodied voice of James Earl Jones. All of the original flesh and blood actors are long dead, but their AI avatars and copyright ramain. Some were never were alive in the first place. It's all necrotainment. You turn off the TV.

Back to the present year, James Earl Jones's voice is now in an AI model, so Disney can give us the same Darth Vader forever. The year 2100 seems not so far away.

On the plus side, there seems to be a growing backlack against AI-generated content. People consider it cheap, shoddily-made and flimsy, and the quickest way to associate a brand as cheap garbage. At the Glasgow Willy Wonka's Chocolate experience event, the organizer used AI generated visuals for the marketing, and people arrived disappointed at the "dirty old warehouse." According to Paul Connell, the actor who played Wonka, the script was "15 pages of AI-generated gibberish."

"I never knew I would have liked this"

OK this is getting a bit grim, so here's something fun: People are getting exposed to other cultures' entertainment, and they like it! Netflix reports that 60% of their users have watched a Korean drama, and they plan to invest USD $2.5 billion in future Korean drama for the platform. Like anime booming outside of Japan in the 80s and 90s, or the British Invasion in the 1960s, people try out other parts of the salad bar, and discover they quite like it.

Archival Behavior

Abraham Lincoln once said, "You can't believe everything you read on the Internet." This is why screencapping and archiving things has become more important. Tweets get deleted, accounts get banned, and users deactivate. Capturing and archiving things here at least preserves some of the conversation.

In the Art of War, Sun Tzu wrote, "If you know yourself and you know your enemy -- and let's be clear the enemy are techbros, who are fundamentally lazy and want to cut corners for the sake of a quick buck and flashy, fake-innovation. Even their own mothers don't love them. They stole this content from Tumblr username whatmathgodwrought, original posting date 2024/03/03, and this should be used as evidence in the lawsuit against the responsible parties -- you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."

If the internet is just 4 websites containing screenshots of the other ones, many are doing the good work of archiving for posterity.

Wasn't this Post also about Tumblr?

Yeah, yeah, we're taking the scenic route. (If you actually read this far, thank you. Send whatmathgodwrought a message and I'll read your blog, maybe reblog some of your stuff, maybe even follow you.)

Let's recap: pop culture spreads like wildfire. It gets retold/remixed/rebooted. Reference and spoilers are everywhere. You can delay and still enjoy a thing anytime, or you can resolutely choose to avoid a thing completely. You can remix, recreate, and fan-theorize canon ideas to their natural conclusion. The big five entertainment corps and AIs are strip-mining the heck out of it. People loves to try out things they never would have had access to before. So, after having some of these kind of experiences, you can post your fandom thoughts on Tumblr, add tags and watch it blow up (or not) or don't add tags (and watch it somehow blow up anyway?). Posts with "10k note energy" have slept for years before someone fired a reblog chain heard round the world. So what makes this environment the Galapagos Island or Cambrian period of websites for this Salad Bar idea?

Repeat and Resurgence

So the thing about a recurring joke is that it keep recurring. People will often write: "I will always reblog this." There are also seasonal examples. King Taejong falls from his horse, Feb 8, 1404. Julius Casear's assassaination on the Ides of March. Voyager's "Threshold" season-2, episode 15, Jan 29th. The clay tablet to Ea-nāṣir complaining about inferior quality copper. People like retelling, and reblogging with scheduling or queue contributes to the seasonal nature of repeat themes.

Tag You're It

Tags kind of help with the spreads-like-wildfire aspect. I've always liked tags as a general concept, because they're a flat, non-hierarchical, multi-category way of organizing information. In the Dewey Decimal system, your number is the category, and that's it; no nuance, no second-guessing, no argument. With tags, you add as many as you want, and then off it goes--haphazardly careening about the Tumblr ecosystem. Tagging is also broken, but whatever.

Goncharov

my favourite thing about the goncharov nonsense is that it relies on the tumblr culture of watching ur mutual posting about something but not really paying attention to it. the reason it slips so easily under the radar is we’re all used to seeing people’s random sudden fixations on our dashes and then just letting them do their thing - you don’t unfollow, you often don’t even filter it out, you just think ‘hey, glad they’re having fun’ and scroll past. i went like two days before realising it was a mass joke because i assumed one of my mutuals was just Really Into some old mafia film from the 70s all of a sudden. because why wouldn’t they be

User @watchmakermori hits the nail on the head. Tumblr's ecosystem exposes the user to random fandoms, which they might like, might look at later, or might actively avoid. It is within that space of ambiguity that the Goncharov phenomena thrived.

Trending By Organic Pollination

On this hellsite, it's possible to completely overwhelm the tags and get something trending, but at least this is mostly driven by human interest. In this case, Tumblr's lack of an algorithm is actually a feature. When a mutual reblogs something, at least I know that a human did it, unlike algorithm-based, auto-served content. We've seen what algorithms have done to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and even Google search. Algorithms drive "engagement", endless scrolling, and are likely contributing to Dead Internet Theory. At least Tumblr users are continuously blocking bots, trying to inoculate against AI-generated content, and are reblogging human content.

Parallel Play

Tumblr users' tendency to engage in parallel play also contributes to the remix factor as users reblog, retag and recontextulize. A shitpost becomes educational. Two isolated fandoms collide accidentally because of a poll. Someone makes a spelling error and it goes viral. Users play with JPEGs like dolls. Everyone is just out there doing their own thing in the big sandbox, and emergent behaviors result.

In Conclusion?

This post ended up more Tumblr-positive than I intended, even though that wasn't the original idea. The idea was to be more dispassionate, more objective, a casual observer. But like any participant-observer, I've gotten a bit caught up in the phenomenon.

So let's call this a Love Letter (academically aggravated) to Tumblr. Suffice it to say, I hope y'all keep blocking bots, reblogging humans, spiting the great AI content harvest, and keep enjoying the Salad Bar.