#how about haze

[cupidosaro]

New Fic (a query)

I found a little something in my notes earlier today…about a year and a half ago, I had an idea for a FemHarry x Blaise Zabini fic. It’s set in their 8th year after the war.

The part I have written is currently in Blaise’s POV, and boy is he a fun character to play around with. Very different to the type of characters I usually gravitate toward writing. If I had to describe him in three words, it would be: unabashed, confident, and direct. He’s so shameless it’s funny.

As for the pairing, it’s going to have a flare of enemies to lovers (mostly one sided ;)) and rivals to lovers. There will be tension of many kinds, needless to say, haha.

I’m unsure if I’ll do dual POV or not. If I don’t, the whole thing will be from Blaise’s perspective.

So, I’m curious: Is there any interest? I love doing rare pairs and things of the sort, and I’ll probably end up posting it regardless of whether I get any response on here or not lol, but, I’d love to know your thoughts anyway!

SCROLL to see the excerpt!

“Blaise couldn’t help his stare.

Really, it wasn’t his fault. Not when she looked like that.

Potter grinned, leaning over the table to jam Ronald Weasley in the shoulder with her finger. A lock of ginger hair fell into her face, having slipped out of her bun, haphazardly pinned up by her wand. She gestured to the book on the table—Defence, if Blaise had to guess—and waved wildly, to which Ron spluttered, his face becoming an unseemly shade of red.

Scowling, he flipped her off and dragged the book closer to his chest, burying his face in the pages.

Potter laughed, the sound joyful as it rang through the library. Her freckled cheeks dimpled into a smile, presenting an oddly charming visage.

Too charming.

So, it wasn’t Blaise’s fault he was staring so much. She was rather pretty for a halfblood.

Forgoing his work altogether, Blaise shoved his books into his bag and leaned back in his chair, unabashedly watching her. He didn’t care if anyone saw—they’d sooner think he was watching her in contempt than admiration—so, he sat there, and he gazed.”

[khruschevshoe]

You know, it's rather interesting to me that Taylor Swift's parasocial relationship with her fans is honestly more akin to a YouTuber than a writer's. When I scroll through her tag on tumblr/Twitter, it's far more regarding the connection to her personal life/relationship developments than the actual metaphors/fictional story she might be telling. Everything comes back to how her songs reflect back on her relationships with Joe/Matty/Travis/Jake/insert ex-boyfriend here. And what fascinates me about it is that even though she complains about it, she leans into that very perception because it strengthens the parasocial bond.

The marketing for TTPD so clearly being about Joe Alwyn and the songs to Matty Healy. The marketing/video for Red TV so CLEARLY being about Jake Gyllenhaal, with so many of the new lines in All Too Well specifically being digs at him (I'll get older but your lovers stay my age, casting an actor that looks like him for the video, specific lines in I Bet You Think About Me). The fact that songs like Getaway Car and Bejeweled and Gorgeous and London Boy and Lavender Haze being picked apart at time of release and long after for signs of relationships crumbling. The way she uses surprise songs in relation to her relationship development with Joe/Matty/Travis. The damn TTPD "stages of grief" playlists where she deliberately undid/changed the meanings of old songs just to keep her audience speculating on her love life.

It's not sexist to point out that her wielding her love life is a marketing tool and that the strongest connection to her audience isn't the strength of her writing/the composition of her music- it's her deliberate crafting of a connection between her music and her personal life, leaving the audience invested in her music as an extension of Taylor the Person/Girlfriend rather than Taylor the Artist.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji Goes To Lotus Pier AU: Part 3: Enveloping Feelings.

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 4 (soon))

[skyberia]

a ghost amongst the living (consequences of a cognitive death.)

[anistarrose]

the thing I keep coming back to about TAZ Balance, I think, is that there's heroes — lots of them, even — but there's not really a hero, not a singular one. when our characters try to save the world all on their own, and oh, do they try, their arcs — while eventually culminating in happy endings, for the most part — are, at the time, cast as tragedies. lone heroes, in TAZ Balance, are invariably tragic heroes.

Lucretia can't gather all the Grand Relics and defeat the Hunger on her own. Barry can't find Lup, much less sway Lucretia from her plan, on his own. Lup, crushed by guilt, sets off to neutralize her greatest mistake without even facing her family as she leaves, and that decision sets the story into motion in the first place. their intent to spare their family, to shoulder the burden alone so no one else will have to, fixes little and leaves them isolated. lonely. trapped.

even Magnus, rustic Folk Hero of Raven's Roost, fails to avenge the community that took him in. he sets off on a solitary mission to do so, never opening up about his pain to even his closest friends, but he never sees Kalen again. yet, maybe not too late, he learns, or rather, remembers — the strength to protect and avenge others comes from the strength to ask for help. the last thing helping anyone is trying to do this alone.

Lucretia assembles the Bureau, and as soon as she sees a way, brings Tres Horny Boys back under her wing. Barry, the very same day that Lucretia recruits them, sees the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet surface, and realizes it's time to put his trust in his family again — he shows himself to them soon after, and even with him putting up a facade, that's progress. and Lup, with endless time to reflect, is possibly the first of all of them to see where she went wrong. she won't be making that mistake again.

there's not a singular hero of the story, because taking on the burden of saving everyone is no task meant for one person. there's "our heroes," Tres Horny Boys, and there's the secondary, "secret," but no less important heroes who complete the ranks of the IPRE, but none can defeat the Hunger — nor reunite their family, nor vanquish an old foe — without leaning on each other, and on the new bonds they forged on this cycle. leaning on Johann, Kravitz, Team Sweet Flips, and the whole ensemble; every single connection that convinced them not to flee but to fight.

accepting that none of them can, that none of them should, be the hero alone — that's what averts the tragic end. the Hunger, terrible as it is, is wholly united, sharing and amplifying each other's despair. the only way to victory is to rely on each other, to care for each other, to learn how to be cared for, and to let your loved ones grant you hope.

[xan-from-space]

Damn, the Ember Island Players were actually kind of radical, weren't they? The more I think about it, the more it feels like the only way it makes sense in-universe is if being Fire Nation propaganda wasn't the point of their play at all. Aside from a barely tacked on ending where Ozai kills Aang, the play is remarkably sympathetic to the Avatar and a bunch of enemies of the Fire Nation, even framing them as being heroes. Even at points in the story where theyre literally killing Fire Nation soldiers, the narrative still seems to be on their side; they're the underdogs, the relatable ones. Its true that the Fire Nation values strength, but still, you'd expect that in a propaganda play they would be portrayed as at least a little bit more sympathetic... And sure, to some extent the gaang's characters could be seen as defamatory caricutures (the slander on Iroh specifically was probably intentional), but that also might be due to the Players getting a lot of their information from the cabbage man, someone who actively hates the gaang and only ever really sees the worst of them. (And notably, that also means that the Players had worked with an Earth Kingdom merchant to produce the play.)

Mocking the gaang is also just clearly not the point of the play or what people are there for. Sokka's actor says that he's constantly being approached by fans; people genuinely love these characters. The gaang have built entire dedicated fanbases in the Fire Nation because of this play. Honestly, the fact that they're on a remote island is probably the only reason they're able to perform the play the way it is. I imagine it would get shut down pretty quickly on the mainland. Considering all the propaganda in the Fire Nation that we've seen so far, I wouldn't be surprised if the ending was only written that way because it's illegal to write a story where the Fire Lord doesnt win. The play reads less like propaganda and more like 'we're doing the bare minimum to get this story past the censors.'

I'm really curious about what it's like behind the scenes for the Ember Island Players. Are their shows just simple, shlocky entertainment, or could they also be deliberate political commentary? With no recording technology, a play is easier to slip under the radar than something like a book: it's impermanent, stays in one theatre, and performances can be easily tweaked if, say, Fire Nation royalty happens to come by. It's interesting to me that Ursa seemed to like them, while young Zuko had a disdain for them, saying they 'butchered' the story of Love Amongst the Dragons; in all likelihood the version of the story Zuko grew up with in the palace was heavily propaganda-filtered itself. Although, to be fair, they're arguably just not very good playwrights. When it comes to the characterization, I do think some of it only seems bad because we know what the actual characters are like, but a lot of it is just bad writing clearly meant for cheap entertainment. For example, they sexualize Katara quite a bit (and there's other, better analysis out there I've seen that examines how they fetishize her as a Water Tribe girl). And, of course, all of the characters are reduced to shallow and stereotypical comedy.

Still, I think they're worth commending for doing their research and telling a story about enemies of the state that's both sympathetic and surprisingly accurate to actual events, if not the characters' personalities, amidst the Fire Nation's rampant propaganda and misinformation. From the little amount of information about them we can extract from the show, they seem like honestly very interesting people. They're walking this tightrope line between being very close to the heart of the Fire Nation but also separate from it; between being cheap, inconsequential entertainment and being a source of actual news for Ember Island citizens; between telling the underdog story about a ragtag group of children and still trying to make it look like Fire Nation propaganda. I'm not trying to make any big argument on whether they were 'actually good people' or whatever, I just want to know more about them. I kind of wish we could see their production of Love Amongst the Dragons now...maybe I'll write something about them someday

[autisticaradiamegido]

thoughts on dave and aradia (<>)?

day 356

BIG fan tbh. in this house we love and respect timerails

truly yall read this log and tell me theyre not cute

[mycenaae]

be you in time (it's easy)

rating & word count: T+ | 5207 words relationships: buck/tommy, tommy & hen & chimney, the 118 extended family warnings: Captain Gerrard Is There; some minor mention of sexual content; minor mentions of child abuse summary: It takes him a second to actually process the list of ‘Honoured Guests’ at the bottom of the running order. He blinks down at his phone. Zooms in on the PDF they’d gotten, and stares at the name just under Bobby’s. Screenshots it, and then pulls up a groupchat that he hasn’t posted in for almost eight years. (Captain Gerrard attends the medal ceremony; Tommy gets a little closure.)

[batbabydamian]

🦇🐥 Batman and Robin (2023) #6 rambling and screaming crying throwing up about a single page

so right off the bat, i'm adding these panels to the Ms. Hall is Shush conspiracy board - the first suspect in mind for who could train Zach would be Principal Stone, but Ms. Hall is conveniently placed in the "teacher's pet" panel HMM

Damian's history with Zsasz is mentioned again! any further reference to Streets of Gotham ends here once Damian and Zsasz face off, but i'm not complaining when Damian gets to kick his ass again LOL

AAH SUCH A COOL PANEL!! i rambled enough about Cizmesija's impact shots last time, but this is just. SO COOL... DAMIAN'S POSE, the light streak from the eyes, the jittery effect at the point of impact from Zsasz's front to his back - LIKE DAMN, YOU KNOW THIS KID HIT HIM HARD

ok i was gonna shut up about the impact shots but to accompany the Robin panel, THIS SICK BATMAN PANEL!! THE SPEED LINES ALONG HIS WHOLE ARM, the hilarious waves of that hit going through Zsasz's face asdfg, the cowl and cape silhouette in the back - and the KRAK SFX!! it's got a bit of that gritty splatter effect Cizmesija uses so either another smooth choice by letterer Steve Wands or extra kudos to Cizmesija!!

i thought the action would be my favorite aspect of this issue, but it was THE EXPRESSIONS. from Damian's frustration here (his glare and his seriously gritted teeth) to the page that brought me to my knees lol

a breakdown of my breakdown for this page:

DAMIAN'S WIDE EYED EXPRESSION AT BRUCE'S COMPLIMENT, THE SHINE IN HIS EYES!! what gets me about Bruce’s praise is how specific it is, especially pointing out Damian’s storytelling 😭 Bruce already knows Damian’s technical art skills are amazing!! storytelling through comics is a whole different skill and Bruce recognized that!! 😭 no wonder Damian is so touched, Bruce is paying attention 😭

HE LOOKS SO OVERWHELMED BY THE VALIDATION FROM HIS FATHER - THE TENTATIVE SMILE!! BEFORE HE BREAKS OUT INTO A FULL GRIN!! 😭

HOW HE BURSTS ABOUT HIS PROCESS AND THEN THE LIL ASIDE OF “I love those…” HE'S SO CAUGHT UP IN HIS JOY PLEASE I’M COUGHING UP BLOOD THAT'S SO CUTE 😭 happy Damian is my weakness i mean LOOK AT HIM OH MY GOD the wide smile his lil fist and the pointing, he cannot contain himself!! 😭

his art is so fun, i'm glad we get to see more of this!! the shadow of Bruce and Damian over the pages is a neat touch too! Damian expanding from realistic renders to this manga style on top of these amazing comic layouts…Bruce is right his growth is crazy 😭

to add on to Damian's progress from Bruce's eyes - Detective Comics (2016) #1003 was the last time Bruce acknowledged Damian's art!

the return of Flatline!! for this last bit, i'll be referencing Lazarus Planet: The Next Evolution (2023) since that's Nika's last notable appearance!

Nika calling Damian out on not contacting her asdfg she mentions something similar before, and i could only imagine it's been months since then considering that issue came out a whole year ago 😭

besides Nika meeting Bruce, the most important thing that needs to be addressed is if Damian's aware that she resurrected Ra's and finally, what they could have discussed??

ending note, upgrade from earbuds in Batman and Robin (2011) to headphones haha wired earphones only!!

[thenorwalkagent]

Finding out Trish is a pop star in Purple Haze Feedback gave me a lot of feelings

Wasn’t originally supposed to be broken into frames, but I needed the text to be readable. Single image version below the cut anyway:

[macksartblock]

If I continue to burrow into the bargaining stage I will never hit depression

[mintjeru]

if i don't hear myla's singing voice again by the end of this game istg i'm gonna have A Talk with team cherry (no spoilers please, i'm playing hollow knight blind!!)

open for better quality | no reposts

[youngpettyqueen]

do you ever think about Garak waking up and seeing Julian in that chair, uncomfortably crammed in and slumped over asleep, and wonder how he must've felt when he realized Julian wasn't going to leave

[r4pira]

The power

it suits you (I can taste it on you)

inspired by THIS amazing fic by @hazeism

[rickybaby]

Vladimir Rys on his relationship with the (Red Bull) drivers

The drivers are the stars of each team, so it is obvious that they enjoy a particular treatment, a privileged position within each team. Some things in F1 haven't changed, and among them is definitely the fact that drivers try to keep some distance from most people. I consider myself lucky: I have made nice connections with some pilots from the past, and of course there is also a good relationship with Red Bull pilots. There has always been mutual respect, and I don't remember having any problems with any of them, even outside the stable.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

I’m a bit surprised that the whole “Fyodor has a god complex” thing is so widespread. Asides from the fact that him seeing himself as a follower of god’s will is, well, canon, and in turn makes his use and control of others and eagerness to speak to Dazai, an “equal mind”, a neat juxtaposition, it also makes the whole Fyodor-Mykola dynamic so much more interesting.

If Fyodor sees himself as god, then his fascination with Mykola becomes the fascination one might have with a trapped, fluttering bug; Mykola’s fondness for Fyodor becomes devotion. But that’s not the dynamic they have at all.

Fyodor is an actor of god’s will. He does what is necessary, in his view, to create the order and perfection he thinks is inherent to God. “In opposition to God, you are fighting to lose sight of yourself” - is what he says to Mykola. “Splendid.” It is still said with the expectation he will fail, I believe. But it’s not said from some high vantage, just a certain interest at the futility of it all, but also an appreciation for, ironically enough, the clarity with which Mykola sees things. That freedom runs in opposition to Fyodor’s quest for perfection, but both goals lie in the capacity they share to see what lies beneath the surface of society like few else. And so Fyodor… just lets Mykola do what he wants, mostly. Mykola is a wild card; he helps the decay just as much as he acts independently. Fyodor is very direct with his control most of the time, but Mykola is not ensnared in Fyodor’s web, but in the web of God himself. Fyodor finds him intriguing. He indulges his quest for freedom. He indulges his silliness too.

And Mykola, who would commit acts of evil, acts he acknowledges as evil, just to break free of earthly bonds; to become someone un-beholden to society or morality or human attachment; he feels seen. He calls Fyodor his friend. He engages him, on friendly terms, in a way no one else does; with games, and no fear of contact. He feels understood, for once (look how quickly he throws his act up again when Atsushi cannot understand his fascination with birds) - and therein lies the problem. He is fighting to lose himself. Instead, Fyodor saw through him. ‘Found’ him, in a sense. And now Mykola has exactly what he was trying so hard to break free from - attachment to another; not the attachment of worship to a deity but the bond that comes from seeing and being seen. As screwed up as they both are, it’s just a friendship, plain and simple. But Mykola cannot lose sight of himself for as long as he is seen. So he has to die. Fyodor has to die because Mykola must do cruel, evil things if he is ever to be free of bonds, and expectation, and love, and the reflection that comes with someone knowing the depths of whatever remains of your soul.

And all the while, no matter how Fyodor wields his righteous hand and intellect and Mykola cuts and hacks at the strands of his still-beating heart in an attempt to grow wings, they both play by, in Fyodor’s eyes, the rules of God’s intent. Ultimately, they walk the same ground as the other.