#i literally had no idea i thought we were just talking strategy

[wormtoxin]

achievement: get him hard playing chess

[fanfictionismyaddiction]

Ultimate Distraction

Word count: 1k

Pairing:Lando Norris x reader

Summary:At Silverstone, Lando Norris is completely captivated by his girlfriend in his favorite summer dress, unable to focus on anything but her

Requests are open

______________________________________________________________

The sun was shining brightly over the Silverstone Circuit, casting a warm glow across the paddock. It was a beautiful summer day—one of those rare ones in England that felt like something out of a dream. The sky was a brilliant blue, and the air was filled with the buzz of engines revving, mechanics shouting over the noise, and the unmistakable excitement of race day. Today felt special.

I had chosen to wear Lando’s favorite dress—a flowy, soft yellow sundress with tiny floral patterns that swayed with every step I took. It had thin straps and a fitted bodice that accentuated my figure in just the right way. Lando always said I looked like a “literal goddess” in it, and I couldn’t resist the idea of making him smile by wearing it today. I paired it with a simple pair of sandals and let my hair fall in loose waves over my shoulders. It felt like the perfect outfit for a summer day at the track.

As I made my way through the paddock, I noticed heads turning. A few crew members and even some drivers glanced my way, surprised to see a new face, but I was used to that by now. Lando had kept our relationship private for the most part, so whenever I showed up, it was always a bit of a spectacle. Today, though, it seemed like there were even more eyes on me.

I finally spotted Lando near the McLaren garage, standing with his back to me. He was listening to his race engineer, nodding along as they discussed strategy. As I approached, a few members of the team noticed me and subtly nudged him. When Lando turned around, his eyes landed on me, and his expression instantly shifted from focused to utterly captivated. His mouth parted slightly, and he blinked as if he wasn’t sure if I was real.

“Hey,” I said softly, walking up to him, my dress catching the slight breeze and swaying around my legs.

“Hey,” he replied, his voice a little breathless, eyes never leaving mine. I could see his brain working to catch up, his usual cool confidence momentarily slipping away. He cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure, but his gaze flickered down to the dress, and I saw a flicker of something—desire, pride, and a hint of possessiveness.

“You look… wow,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “You know that’s my favorite dress on you.”

I grinned, knowing exactly the effect it had on him. “I know,” I teased. “That’s why I wore it. I thought you could use some extra motivation today.”

Lando chuckled, but I could see the way his eyes stayed locked on me, as if he couldn’t look away. “Well, you definitely have my attention.”

One of the engineers cleared his throat behind Lando, bringing him back to the present. Lando snapped out of his daze, blinking rapidly and trying to refocus. “Right, um… what were we talking about?”

The engineer chuckled. “Race strategy, mate. But clearly, your mind’s elsewhere.”

Lando tried to shake it off, but I could tell he was struggling. As he tried to refocus on the task at hand, I could see him sneaking glances at me every few seconds, his gaze traveling from my face to the dress and back up again. His eyes darkened slightly, and I could tell he was fighting the urge to stay by my side instead of getting ready for the race.

I stayed near the garage, chatting with some of the crew members who had gotten to know me over time. But I could feel Lando’s eyes on me, watching me like a hawk. It didn’t take long for some of the other drivers to notice me, too. George Russell was the first to approach, offering a friendly smile.

“Hey, Y/N! You look amazing today. Summer suits you,” he said, his eyes flickering briefly to Lando as if testing the waters.

“Thanks, George,” I replied with a smile, aware of Lando’s gaze boring into us from a few feet away.

I could practically feel Lando’s mood shift from adoration to a bit of annoyance. He didn’t want anyone else seeing me like this—yet, at the same time, I knew he wanted to show me off, to make everyone see the girl he was so completely smitten with.

As if on cue, Carlos Sainz strolled over next. “Y/N! You look stunning, as always,” he said with a wink. “Are you sure you don’t want to come cheer for Ferrari today?”

I laughed, knowing he was only half-joking, but before I could answer, I felt a familiar arm slide around my waist. Lando had closed the gap between us, his body language screaming protectiveness.

“She’s quite happy here, thanks,” Lando cut in, his tone light but firm, giving Carlos a look that made his intentions clear.

Carlos raised his hands in mock surrender. “Alright, alright. Just saying,” he chuckled, but I saw the amused look he shot at Lando.

“Can’t blame me for trying,” he added, walking away with a grin.

Lando’s grip tightened around my waist, and he leaned in close, his lips brushing my ear. “They’re all just jealous,” he muttered, his breath warm against my skin. “I can’t decide if I want to keep you hidden away or show you off to everyone here.”

I turned to face him, resting a hand on his chest. “You know I’m only here for you, right?”

His expression softened, his eyes filled with a mix of adoration and frustration. “Yeah, I know. It’s just… hard to focus when you’re looking like this.”

I laughed softly. “Well, you better try. You’ve got a race to win.”

He groaned, his forehead dropping to mine. “You’re not making it easy, you know that?”

Just then, his race engineer called him over again, reminding him that it was almost time to get into the car. Lando sighed, pulling back reluctantly. “Alright, I better go. But promise you’ll stay close?”

“Always,” I said, giving him a reassuring kiss on the cheek.

[thewritetofreespeech]

Could I request Aemond's s/o defending him? S/o's words were so scathing and brutally honest, no one can talk back to her.

Your heels click furiously as you ascend up the stairs of the tower to the room of the King’s Hand. A message had come earlier that morning requesting, no demanding, your presence at once and it infuriated you that just mere moments after his return Lord Hightower thought he could just order you around.

The door opened after you had made your way to the top, and the servant left immediately after that. Clearly having been told to give the two of your privacy. "You summoned me."

"Yes, thank you for coming." Otto replied calmly. Clever enough to pick up on the distain in your voice, but also clever enough to know not to acknowledge it. "I wanted to talk to you for a moment about Aemond."

You arched a brow. There were a lot of things you thought this conversation could be about, Aemond being one of them, but your husband had been very low on your list. "What about him?"

"How is your marriage to my grandson going?"

"...Fine..." Again, this was a very strange conversation. But you were still on your hackles as you were not sure where this line of questioning was going.

"That is good to hear. My grandsons can be a... challenge." That sounded more personal than he may have meant. "Aegon is too concerned with the opinions of others. He is reckless in his pursuit of praise and adoration, to the point of weakness."

"Careful," you caution, "is it not treason to speak ill of your king?"

"Aemond is the opposite." Otto continued. Ignoring your quip. "He is reckless in pursuit of damnation. He thinks he knows better. That books and study make up for lack of experience. And for that he will accept the guidance of no others."

"Maybe he does know better. Have you bothered to ask him?"

Otto huffed through his nose. Coming to realize his grandsons may not be the only challenge with your cheek. "I want you to caution him in my stead."

"You mean reign him in?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes." He confessed. "Aemond will not listen to me. He thinks everyone is conspiring against him."

"Aren't you?" You counter back. "You are literally conspiring with his wife to spy on and manipulate him to your own ideas."

"Encouraging him to see reason."

"You can spin this however you would like, Lord Hand, but that is what you are doing and I shall play no part in it."

"You would see your husband break under the weight of his own ambition."

You shrug. "Maybe he will. Or maybe he'll fly. But I do know this, I will not break his trust."

Otto huffed again. Crossing his arms now as he seemed to debate on a new strategy to overcome your objection. “I thought you were clever, and therefore more reasonable.”

Flattery.

“No, you thought I would be more pliable. Because I am the fairer sex? Or because you’re too scared to confront Aemond about your concerns?”

“You know, when the contracts came for who my grandson would marry, it was I who put your House name up for consideration.”

Indebtedness.

“Then I owe you for my eternal happiness. We shall name our 4th child after you.”

Otto sneered. Frustrated at your flippant tone now, but also the slight. “Your husband will die if he continues this path. And the wives to traitors, should Rhaenyra win, do not end well.”

Fear.

You have to admit. That one almost got you.

“Then let us see to it that we do not lose, and my husband will be safe, the realm secure, and all shall live happily ever after under the true Targaryen rule.” You intentionally leave it blank on who would be ruling, Aegon or Aemond, but sure as the sun rose a Targaryen would sit the throne at the end of the day. “Now, if you excuse me, I must return to my duties and my husband.” The tone in your voice letting Otto know that your loyalties had been chosen, and this conversation would not happen again.

Your curtsy like a lady for the Lord Hand and see yourself out. Half way down the stairs you change your mind from telling Aemond about the incident to keeping it to yourself. You do not wish to lie to your husband, ever. But if he heard that his grandsire had conspired with you to keep him on a leash, there was a good chance he would throw the man from his tower. Otto had been right about one thing, Aemond was getting more reckless in his frustrations on the war. Perhaps he had been right to try to help steer him towards more caution, if you could, but it would be for no benefit other than Aemond’s and your future together. You would not be another knife in Aemond’s back for him, nor would you be another pretty pawn for the Hand to manipulate his King, or Regent, with. Otto Hightower was on his own.

[bietrofastimoff23]

Here's the thing that really gets me. Objectively speaking, Aegon in the original story is not a good person stretch of the imagination. He's unfaithful to his wife, he's a lazy drunk, he's spiteful to his nephews, and he becomes a crueler person as the civil war spirals out of control. And he is kind of a fucking loser if we're being totally honest. He's clearly out of his depth when it comes to military planning, and happily goes along with ideas by Criston Cole that he perceives to be "manly" ways of fighting a war. With even his victories being pyrrhic ones that see him receive crippling injuries.

So like...this is not a character who you should be able to do dirty, right? But somehow they keep finding a way! The writers are so insecure about their affection for Rhaenyra that they go out of their way to invent new scenes and flaws to add extra humiliation to a character that already got pretty brutally humiliated in the original story. Taking the one account for Mushroom that we're pretty much told outright was likely bullshit (since he literally wasn't even in King's Landing), and somehow making it even worse. And making up that nonsensical dragon pit scene for his coronation just to have Rhaenyra's side make him look impotent. People try to defend these changes with the excuse that the historical records might have missed subtle details, and I'm just like fuck right off with that bullshit. People would remember a fucking dragon bursting out of the ground and killing a hundred civilians (something that gets completely glossed over, while the Ratcatcher mass execution is dwelled upon as an atrocity).

I thought at first that maybe they were slowly improving things a bit with his depiction in Episode 2. Because bless the actor, he's fucking trying with what he's got to work with. He nailed the raw emotions of a parent that's just had their child get brutally murdered. But no, they're regressing yet again. And rewriting Criston's plan just to make Aegon look like a moron who derails everything for his own side. A rewrite that when you think about it for literally 5 seconds actually makes Criston and Aemond look like idiots. A 2v1 ambush plan is objectively a smarter and safer strategy for taking out Meleys than a 1v1 ambush plan.

Sorry to keep you waiting. I agree with everything!

The writers' favoritism is so obvious in the parallels between Rhaenyra and Aegon, where they can both do stupid things, but in Rhaenyra's case it is presented as heroism and sacrifice, and in Aegon's case he is exposed as a worthless idiot. Rhaenyra can order the torture of her mutilated brother and the murder of an innocent servant in order to legally have fuck with her uncle, and it will never be mentioned again. but when Aegon hangs the rat catchers because they can't identify his son's killer, they talk about it in a negative way in every episode and even include it in the opening.

In fact, Aegon didn't even mess up the plan in RR. Aemond could easily have joined him and their victory would have been quick, but the writers decided to spoil that for the sake of unnecessary drama.

They could easily make Aegon the bad guy of this story without trying to make him look pathetic in every damn scene. We don't have a single triumphant moment for Aegon. Even his coronation was not only depicted as gloomy and dark, but it was also spoiled for the sake of Rhaenys' girlboss moment (a mass murder that the fandom prefers to ignore). No one respects Aegon, does not appreciate him, everyone tries to manipulate him, his own council does not tell him about the plans, his mother does not care about him, his brother betrays him. And the few good things he had that made him happy (Jaehaerys, Sunfyre), he loses on the same day when hotd bothers to show them as an important part of Aegon's life.

They just can't let Aegon have anything good, because even when his character is at the very bottom, he remains one of the most interesting.

[bibibbon]

MHA 412 leaks (rant)

Iam not a fan of the leaks I really am not because wtf is going on?!?!?!

1) THIS !!! THIS WAS ONE OF THE WORST THINGS TO COME OUT OF THE FLIPPING MANGA. What the actual hell like there is no izuku introspection and also I get the idea that's being displayed here but it was done horribly in my opinion. It also doesn't make sense on applying this ideology to shigaraki considering that he literally told shigaraki he could never forgive him because of what he did to Eraserhead.

Look not giving up on the idea of people being able to change could be a good thing and idea that could be explained through midoriyas character and making him a symbol of hope. However, that doesn't excuse the horrible stuff going on between bakugo and izukus dynamic. Izuku has clearly been shown having negative feelings towards bakugo (as he should) and we should of seen those negative feelings explored this to me feels like an utter BS of an excuse to be like no izuku is just naturally a living saint which IS ALSO UTTER BS. We have seen izuku get mad and fight like a lunatic a whole bunch and now Iam supposed to believe that izuku can never feel a bad or negative emotion towards anyone because of this?!?!!?!?! The bakugo redemption fails due to many things but the main thing is the lack of izukus thought. about it.

Here is the thing YOU CAN FEEL NEGATIVE EMOTIONS AND HATE SOMEONE BUT STILL HAVE HOPE THAT THEY CAN CHANGE AND BECOME A BETTER PERSON but horikoshi does this to make bakugo look better?!?!? Why?!?!

2) ALSO THIS?!?!?!!

Wdym izuku has to give up the thing that he had to gain so he can win?!?! How is he gonna win is horikoshi going to make this a vestiges fighting eachother type of bs whole izuku defends himself quirkless somehow ??!?!??!??! Also why is it that he is THE ONLY CHARACTER WHO IS GETTING CONCEQUENCES?!?! Like you have tokoyami and hawks who lost their quirks but gained it back because AFO died so why not ( NO CONCEQUENCES) and then you have bakugo who LITERALLY CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD (no concequences) the only real concequences there were are some injuries then and there but that's it nothing big for the major and fan loved characters happend they're all alive and fighting.

If the point was that izuku could of become a hero with no quirk then shouldn't if he just become a quirkless hero instead of suffering getting a Quirk more suffering more suffering losing a quirk and more suffering!?!?

3) Also don't even get me started on how dirty shigarakis character is being done this guy wants to destroy stuff for fun not because he believes that the only way to rebuild a society suitable for him and his friends is by destruction or another ideology no he is just a psycho who wants revenge against THE WRONG PERSON!!!!!

4) wasted potential. IZUKUS LACK OF INTROSPECTION AND POV MADE THIS HORRIBLE. like it could of been good but it fell off horribly due to the fact that he didn't have any development and he is just jumping to ideologies. I think this ideology suits him but in theory he hasn't developed enough for him to have it in the first place. Also the lack of pov also makes us DOWNPLAY HIS BATTLE Strategy AND THE THINGS HE IS DOING. LIKE YALL AREN'T DEEPING THAT HE CANT BREATHE THIS GUY MAY DIE OR GET SEVERE BRAIN DAMAGE BUT IS STILL FIGHTING LIKE A MADMAN and I don't see people talking about it all Iam seeing is "oh bakugo parallel hehe bs". Horikoshi then goes on to show us panels of izuku training and you can tell there isn't a lot because NO ACADEMIA ARC AND BAD PACING OF STORY. The idea of him destroying society's pain rug could of been cool but again not enough pov or introspection or anything

5) WHY IS STAR AND STRIPES HERE?!?!?!! Like did shigaraki steal her quirk because I forgot and if he did then why hasn't he killed izuku using her quirk that's so stupid. Horikoshi has told us and shown us that shigaraki wants death and destruction. He ruined shigaraki and is he now downplaying his intelligence or something or is this some plot hole because why is she here and why isn't her quirk being utilised also what happend to shigaraki using danger sense?!?!! Like I swear that stuff was active last chapter so what happend now can the vestiges just deny and not give him access or something but if that's the thing he can freely use ragdolls quirk.

ALSO SHIG AND IZUKU ARENT THAT WELL DEVELOPED AND ONLY HAVE PARALLELS THROWN AROUND WITH NO INTERACTIONS SO HOW IS THIS GONNA WORK

[batrogers]

Inspired by @crazylittlejester's Wars headcanons, which intersect a lot with my own issues with food so of course it stuck with me.

Content warning for discussion of a very broken relationship with food/implied restriction, but I like making things a little hopeful and sweet.

Twilight & Warriors LU fic, rated G, approx 1000 words.

Also on AO3

IIII

Twilight set up to make dinner, as he had a hundred nights before for the group, with about twenty minutes of that being debating what to make with Wild, which one of them was going to be in charge tonight, and then getting the ingredients out of Wild’s slate before he settled to clean up and start. It was his favourite chore, if he was honest; he loved cooking when Wild let him, and after how long they’d been together Wild often was content to help rather than lead. He got distracted a lot, and liked the chance to get up and wander, and after one too many “What if” ideas, the others preferred it, too.

It was around when Wild wandered off to see what Hyrule and Wind were doing that Twilight saw Warriors crack his neck at the far side of the fire and stand up. He turned and started walking away himself and Twilight froze.

Had he ever seen Warriors leave the fire when he was cooking? He didn’t think so. His mouth twitched. “Leaving already?” he joked. “I’m gonna miss the company.”

Warriors startled, then turned and laughed. “What, you liked me just hanging around staring at you?”

“I don’t care,” Twilight admitted. “Although in Ordon I’m used to the company. I've just gotten so used to you watching the whole time it’s strange to see you go.”

To his surprise, the other man walked around the fire and touched his shoulder. “I think if you haven’t poisoned me after four months, you’re not going to. I don’t think Wild would either, at least on purpose, but...”

Twilight automatically responded to the second with, “He’s only done that once,” before the first part finished processing. “You thought I might poison you?!”

The hand almost left his shoulder, then squeezed it before its owner dropped to sit beside him. Twilight turned to stare, but Warriors couldn’t quite meet his eyes or answer him. Twilight stared at his hands again and tried to think back – he knew at some point in the first two weeks they’d been together, Time had talked to Warriors although not what about. That was when he’d started watching him cook.

Had he ever eaten with them before that? Twilight didn’t think so. When Wild cooked, Warriors usually asked him for something to make himself and...

“Something happened during the war?” Twilight guessed, when Warriors hadn’t spoken.

“Very early in the war,” he agreed. He looked around the nearly-empty fire, but most of the others were napping, training, or getting up to something else. “Impa had taken me on as her protege and – literally within two weeks of losing the castle, I fell.... very ill. I almost died; if we hadn’t been staying with the Sheikah, I likely would have. And within days of pulling out of danger, I was sick again before they could find out who was doing it.”

Twilight swore and narrowly missed cutting his finger as he cut up the onions in front of him. He shook himself and sighed. “Shit. That fucking....” He couldn’t think of a strong enough word.

Warriors snorted quietly. “I’d be sick after eating anything after that, for another two weeks until Impa figured out a strategy to make me not... Not panic at the thought. Fairies can detect most poisons, so I started coaxing them to stay close, and the rest of the time... If I didn’t make it, or Impa didn’t vouch for it, I just.... didn’t eat. Add that to rationing, and I made more than a few people scared for my health the rest of the war.”

Twilight didn’t comment that he’d honestly talked to Time about how he looked now. Warriors still was one of the skinniest among them, although Twilight had just assumed it was his natural body type. But to hear the rest was.

“I don’t mind you watching me,” he said, because what else could he say?

“I’ve appreciated it,” Warriors said, softly. “Time caught me not eating and reminded me we had to trust each other. It was... hard.”

He’d never watched anyone close enough to see if the risk of Warriors being too nervous to keep food down had come up now, Twilight supposed, and he wasn’t going to ask now. But it was tempting. He dumped the chopped onion into the pot and started on the wild garlic, feeling his eyes with more pressure than before.

Was it clean enough? Did he think his food was safe?

Cooking for the village children meant a lot to him; he was always careful about that, because making one of them sick was his worst nightmare. But it didn’t feel the same as the importance of realizing Warriors trusted him in the face of something that’d almost killed him before too.

Just as vital, but nowhere near the same.

“Thank you,” Twilight said. He swallowed until his eyes didn’t burn. “For trusting me. Is there anything else...?”

Warriors snorted, hard. “Just warn me if Wild tries to talk you into anything weird if I walk away. Alright?”

Twilight turned and caught his eyes before he nodded, not letting the lightness in his voice belie the fear he could see there. “I promise. No surprises here.”

“Great. I’m gonna go find the river and bath, then.” Warriors stretched his jaw and stood, squeezing Twilight’s shoulder as he walked away, his light tone at odds with the tension in his back.

Twilight would chase Wild off with the spoon if he had to to keep that trust.

[miracles-and-butterflies]

Mira, wake up, you cannot die. You got your leg into a trap, not lost your head

“Oh. Apologies. That is my fault, everyone.”

Warning, potentially sensitive topics below.

~~~~~~

Mirabel’s head was still going in circles. That was the first thing she registered.

The second was the searing pain. Mainly in her right leg, but she could feel it in her ears and neck too - albeit not as intensely.

The third was that said leg was propped up on a cushion, over the purple covers. Luisa’s room, her mind supplied after a beat. When did she get in here? The last thing she remembered was…

Mirabel’s idea of getting away was literally cut short as metal clanged and something stabbed deep into her leg, weighing her down. She screamed.

She covered her mouth with a hand to muffle her cries of agony, well aware that nobody wanted to hear them. Dolores especially.

Between the leaves and twigs and fabric, she saw a glimpse of what had happened to her. An animal trap of some kind. Clamped around her right leg.

She instinctively stumbled to get away, but the trap is completely stuck in her. And it’s heavy, making her drag her right leg like dead weight.

When she continued to squirm anyway, she could feel jagged, metal teeth digging deeper into the limb, ripping away fabric, skin and revealing trenches of gore.

Piercing her flesh, scratching bone and exposing nerves. It’s making her see black spots. As if her vision needed any more reason to be ruined without her glasses. She tries to sit down, but twisting her leg subsequently only puts her in more pain.

After a few attempts of trying to yank her leg free, cutting new wounds as she did, she stopped and tried a new strategy.

She jammed her fingers into where she could, slowly separating the metal. The cool air and release of pressure stung like hell, but she kept going. However, she just isn’t strong enough to counter the force long enough to remove her leg fully. It slips from her grasp back together, creating a new wound underneath the last. Unfortunately catching her ankle in the process.

With a desperate wail, she tried removing it again. This time, it snapped back above the previous two injuries, closer to her kneecap.

That’s when she noticed there were dozens of traps surrounding her. Because of her myopia, she hadn’t noticed them until she was directly on them. She tries to remain as still as possible, terrified of setting another one off. Or worse, altering the others to where she is.

Everything is starting to haze together and she can’t make herself think rationally about what she should do and the tears wouldn’t stop.

A donkey brays.

Did she faint?

She must have done.

“Hermanita?” Mirabel opened her eyes and saw Luisa looking over at her in concern. “You awake? How are you feeling?”

“What happened? Why am I— when did I get here?” Mirabel asked.

“I found you while herding the donkeys. Or, well, one of them did. And I took you back home to find Mama, but she was still out. So Isabela tracked her down for us. Mama fixed your leg and we came back here. Mama thought it best to keep an eye on you, so I took you into my room.” Luisa explained, slowly, giving her time to process. “It’s okay, don’t stress about it. You were in and out of it a lot, it’s normal for you to be confused. Do you want to talk about it?”

Mirabel shook her head, instantly regretting it. “No. Not right now, please?”

Luisa wasn’t sure if Mirabel remembered that she had already told her or not, but if she didn’t want to talk about it right now, fair enough.

“Thank you for helping me,” Mirabel goes on to say. “And I’m sorry. I should have been able to handle myself.”

“You don’t need to apologise. You didn’t do anything wrong, Mira. You were hurt.”

Mirabel bit the inside of her cheek.

Luisa sighed, gently. “How are you feeling now?”

She shivered, though she tried and definitely failed to hide it.

Luisa pulled out another blanket from under the bed and draped it over them, before pulling Mirabel close against her. She was so warm, she couldn’t help snuggling into her sister.

“It hurts so much.”

“I know. Do you want me to get Mama?”

“No, thank you. I’m sorry. I feel too sick to eat or drink anything.”

“That’s okay, you don’t have to. I can just distract you from the pain.”

Mirabel raised an eyebrow, unconvinced.

Luisa smirked. She picked up a book from her bedside table. A Christmas Carol.

“I raided one of your many bookshelves, while trying to find your spare pair of glasses—”

“Oh, Pa broke them on accident two weeks ago. I haven’t gone to get a replacement yet.”

“Oh yeah, shit... I forgot about that. Anyways, I raided one of your bookshelves and picked out this. I thought you could read to me, like old times?” Then, she added teasingly, “Or I can read to you. So long as you promise to help me with the tricky words?”

Mirabel closed her eyes, relaxing a little. “Will you read it sensibly, Lu?”

“Pft. No. I picked Charles Dickens, I mean yeah, he’s one of your favourite fiction authors, but also because I need to then do the accent and give each character a different voice.”

“You don’t need to. You can just stick to one—”

“No, I’m doing it.”

[ummick]

mick schumacher is interviewed about his decision to join wec and what challenges he'll face during the season [part 1/2] - 2024 (transcript under the cut)

Interviewer: "When did you have the idea of moving to the WEC with Alpine?" Mick: "The idea arose to basically understand, okay, what can I do to go back to racing? And there were a few options and I think they were probably limited down to around three options, which was one, Super Formula, and Indycar, or you had WEC. And I think that for me the choice of going with WEC was very simple because I still wanted to have that connection to Formula 1, with Mercedes, but also now, because I'm racing with Alpine in WEC, I do have that connection to Alpine in Formula 1, too, right? So to be able to have that connection with both is a great thing, and again, I think that for me racing in such prestigious races as let's say the Le Mans 24 Hours, it's a great, great positon to be in and a great place to also show your potential." Interviewer: "And have you already thought about Le Mans event? Are you excited about one of the most important races?" Mick: "Yes! I don't really know what to expect, so I also don't go in with any expectations. I'll literally just let myself go with the flow, let's say, and see how it goes, because from everybody I've talked to, they say it's the most insane event that you'll ever go to. So yeah, I'm very excited for it. It's ten days of pure racing and pure motorsport, and can't wait to start in it." Interviewer: "Okay. Have you already done a few tests with the new car? Is correct?" Mick: "Yes, correct." Interviewer: "And which are the biggest differences between F1, WEC, if you try to…" Mick: "I think a lot of the underlying systems in the car are very similar to what we have in Formula 1, actually, so a lot of the, let's say, energy management, how the differential works, how all those tools work… So also engine braking, traction control… Well, obviously traction control is very different compared to Formula 1, but all of these key elements are very similar, so in terms of mindset and in terms of approach, I feel like I'm in a good position because I already understand most of those systems. In terms of car behavior, we're talking about a car which obviously weighs a lot of kilos, like we have 1,030 kilos empty on the stats, so if you put a driver and you put fuel into it, it makes the car at least two, three, maybe 400 kilos heavier, compared to a Formula 1 car. On top of that, our aerodynamics are a bit different. I think they're more considered, obviously, as a low-drag setup and just trying to account for as much air through the car, as opposed to make the car as loaded as possible. A Formula 1 car is obviously extremely loaded. You have a lot of downforce, which obviously equally has a lot of drag.

So there's some differences, some similarities, which means driving approaches are also different. You have to be a bit more cautious. You have to be a bit more, let's say, pro-active with working the car, 'cause obviously if… Let's say, once a car goes sideways, it's a lot of momentum, it's a lot of weight that carries the car towards the outside, which means that, yeah, driving style and let's say what you have to think about whilst driving is a bit different, compared to Formula 1." Interviewer: "Okay. And what do you expect from your first race in WEC?" Mick: "I don't know. I don't know what to expect. My goal is to finish the race. I think that in endurance, from everybody that I've talked to, is the key element. You wanna finish the race, you wanna see the checkered flag, 'cause that's the only way you will eventually win a race. For us, also with all the new setups and all the new kind of build that we've done, for us is really gonna be important to just have a clean event, a clean race, and a clear strategy on what we wanna do during the event. And I think that that's gonna be… Once we get close to our testing days, once we get close to Qatar, as well, all of that will be put in order so that we have clear targets, also from each individual what we need to do and how we need to work together." Interviewer: "And from your point of view, which could be the most difficult races in this season?" Mick: "The one race with the most, let's say, uncertainty around is always gonna be Le Mans. You've heard it so much, and all the other racetracks are pretty much Formula 1 circuits, so I know these tracks. For me, I don't think that's gonna be a big issue. Le Mans, on the other hand, is such a prestigious and such a difficult event, with conditions changing within the second. It could be one side of the track you have blue skies, on the other side of the track you have down under 'cause it's raining out buckets, so I think that that's, for me, gonna be the biggest challenge, is to understand and survive Le Mans." Interviewer: "Okay, okay."

[ilovedthestars]

Three for the ask game? :)

Hey there, anon! Thanks for the ask!

(Send me a character ask game)

First impression

So I'd heard that SecUnit Three was the second rogue SecUnit we met, and when I got to the dock fight in Exit Strategy i thought that Hostile Three, one of the two SecUnits deployed with the CSU, was the Three everyone was talking about XD

When I got to Three for real, i was like HEYY HERE YOU ARE!! I think the thing that hit me the hardest in its first conversation with 2.0 was that little pause before "Thank you for that information" when 2.0 tells it Two is dead. That was an Oh. moment for me. It's doing it's best but it just lost someone it cared about :(

Impression now

Precious!! Sweet!! Sad :( It is having SUCH a time. It lost its two best friends, its entire world, and any semblance of protocol to guide it in one fell swoop. Given all that, it's doing an admirable job, but It's gonna be a while before it really settles into itself. I think even underneath the people-pleasing search for protocols to follow, it's sweet and wants to be helpful. It wants to be friends with Murderbot (more than Murderbot wants to be friends with it). It misses One and Two.

Favorite moment

"There is a lot going on here that I don't understand, but I am participating anyway." Iconic line, sums up its character in a single sentence. Confused, but wants to help. Also, a mood.

Idea for a story

Ages ago, I started writing a time-travel fix-it where Three gets thrown into the past just in time to save One and Two. I needed the pure catharsis of it getting a second chance to protect them <3 I stalled out on it a while ago, but System Collapse did give me some new ideas....

Unpopular opinion

When SC came out everyone jumped on that one line at the end where MB tells Holism to talk to Three! I did not read anything significant into that when I saw it, and was pretty startled when I found so many people taking it as "MB set Three up with Holism and now Holism is gonna have its own rogue SecUnit companion." I will admit that that's probably where Wells is going with it, more or less, but honestly it doesn't excite me like it does other people. I knew Three was likely to get written off-stage, but I'd rather have a bit more time with it interacting with characters we know!

Favorite relationship

One & Two & Three :') I love speculating about what their interactions were like. The tension of caring about someone but being literally unable to tell them...losing them right before gaining your freedom, and knowing you'll never know who they would have been if they were free....this is why I had to write the time travel fic!

Favorite headcanon

The friendship was mutual!!! I go back and forth on whether I think One, Two & Three were able to communicate that to each other in small ways, or if they each had to live in the tension of not knowing. Even though the latter is now confirmed by canon (on Three's end), I'm still partial to the former.

[koheletgirl]

just an assortment of random thoughts i haven't yet expressed on here:

aside from the fact that idk why they felt the need to name the village, them naming the village gives the impression that it's just one village. rather then, you know, all that's left from the southern water tribe

also, it's much larger. and there are other teenagers in it.

my bf had to pause and yell for five minutes about comedic timing because of the scene with sokka and the toddlers. he was right of course but it still hurt

the joke wouldn't have landed anyway because they're not even toddlers

why does everyone take sokka seriously in this show. does his arc mean nothing to you (i know the answer is yes)

this isn't katara i'm not going to dwell on that. it's simply an entirely separate character. there's not even a point in trying to analyze this. another win for misogyny

another thing that made my partner endlessly angry was how katara simply cant waterbend in the first scene, then successfully breaks the fucking iceberg without even being angry or anything, then goes back to not being able to bend.

so many men explain bending to katara in this. im not going to dwell on it there's no point

sokka and the ideal of masculinity get along just fine. he is in fact the ideal of masculinity. not like that was a core theme of his original character or anything

something to be said at how desperately they're trying to make all the characters as likeable as they can. i could smell these 40 year old writers sweat through my screen and i didn't like it

it's also not working because they have no idea who these characters are or what made them good characters

ozai is stupid

i'm actually going to argue that every change they made here was for the worst. all of them. zuko being conscious and talking to aang? bad. the crew being the 41st division? bad. twink jee? bad.

the thing about the 41st division was that zuko didn't manage to save them. they did die. for a show that wants to be "darker" you sure missed some of the more tragic elements of the original

speaking of which, the only moments that actually made me feel something were zuko's scenes (and sometimes iroh's). dallas liu you're a legend and an icon

katara actively killed kya ok yeah sure this makes sense

the spirit world has a thing for sokka. sokka in particular. it's funny. one might even argue that it's narratively significant. you know what never mind

they're not planning ahead At All. they took some of the most essential moments from later seasons and just threw them at us in season one. the later episodes are not going to make sense. i hope they don't get to make them regardless.

why are they going back to omashu??? sure within the internal logic of the show it makes sense, but narratively, why???? you already did the secret tunnel. mai and ty lee were already introduced. what's left of season 2's omashu episode? doesn't matter i hope they don't make it

i cannot stress enough how nothing in season 2 is going to make sense. azula is already here. zuko has already had a ton of character development. even ozai himself wasn't supposed to be here. season 1's villain is zhao!!! he's the only one we see on screen, he's the only one the characters interact with!!! it's zuko and it's zhao and that's it!!!! you're not supposed to have the whole backstory!!!! you're not supposed to know the rest of them!!! that's what makes seasons 2 and 3 work!!!!! is this just going to be 3 seasons of the same characters fighting each other???

ozai's strategy doesn't work. if you send all your forces to the north who is going to attack omashu? are you implying this was made easier because omashu's army was fighting with the north? they weren't. we saw it we were there. are you implying conquering omashu would have been impossible on a different day because the nwt would have helped them? that literally make no sense, we know it wouldn't happen. all you did was cut your military in half.

i literally forgot momo was there

why is hahn nice. why. explain this to me.

stop setting up stories about the rest of the avatars. we don't care. also did bryke even give you the rights to those

it's really ambitious considering they're failing so hard at making the one season of the one show they needed to make

episode 6 was awful stop gaslighting me

i really hate lok did you guys know. it would sure be fun if they stopped using worldbuilding elements from lok

in a way this is lok. maybe in a way we're all lok

the real avatar was the friends we didn't make along the way

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

EPISODE 5……..🥺

Right off the bat, i love the idea of percy’s forehead peeking out of the water, like the mysterious mermaid he is

Annabeth was the best part of the episode as always

Thought they were gonna talk more about thalia percy parallels grover just looked a lil tad distressed and that was it but whatever

Percy and his lil ‘hi’s will never stop being funny

the usual “i thought annabeth was gonna punch me but she was actually nice to me guys who would’ve thought someone would be happy to see me” narrative still shining through WITH THE HUG PLS CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW SWEET THE HUG WAS

grover’s so confused like “literally an hour ago you guys hated each other….am i missing out on some plot point”

dude was ‘looking for new tickets in the st. Louis arch as if they were going to be on the floor lying somewhere💀

Percy’s face when he addresses grover after the hug, he’s so proud someone actually hugged him 🥹his face is just like “hey grover look SHE’S HUGGING ME🥺”

Can I just say the writing for percy is perfect

like he’s so 50% there like he’s so good at communicating and asking what’s wrong and trying to understand the other person’s feelings (sally jackson’s son for you) but at the same time he has NEVER had a friend before so he ends up embarrassing himself 😂😭

”im pretty sure that’s what friends do” “….at least i think that’s what they do” pls 😭

grover’s face too help you’re already tired of being third wheel???oh honey this is THE FIRST HALF OF THE FIRST BOOK get comfortable

not their lil heads popping out and going back in. Peak comedy right there

Seriously adam did reallyyyyyy good as ares. Theres no one else i can imagine anymore as ares. The delicateness of his ‘good mood’ as if it is gonna break any second, the rage and fury but at the same time being extremely funny???

the diner looks so cosy it’s so cute

was kinda missing some percy rage in this but it comes out at the last so its fine

The real reason for grover to be so okay staying back is not the strategy of getting answers out of ares but because of how tired he was of taking care of annabeth and percy.

I feel like they should be showing luke more (later on they will, i have faith) im already forgetting about him it wont hit as hard if i dont remember him

Percy “ive not seen many movies since im broke” jackson x annabeth “ive never seen a movie since i live in a magical camp” chase

but the fact that annabeth’s never seen a movie kinda erases the fact that later on in hoo, annabeth talks about watching cheesy old romance movies with her father which kinda contributes to their dynamic but

the fact that percy would probably be the first one to take her to the movies makes me not care

honestly tho IM REALLY REALLY HOPING THAT THEIR FIRST MOVIE WONT BE THE ONE AT THE START OF BOTL I’d rage as much as annabeth when i see percy with rachel (not that im a rachel hater, im a circumstances hater)

grover is such a good therapist, like he is THE EMPATH. He tripped the god of war into talking about his life this is a grover appreciation post

annabeth zoning out with fascination at the mechanics and also i love the “percy being done with annabeth” representation

i cant see anything so nothing to say here

SEAWEED BRAIN THIS IS A HISTORICAL MOMENT IN PJOTV HISTORY THE FIRST SEAWEED-

grover manipulating ares through his emotions>>>>>

also ares roasting athena

Percy sacrificing himself AGAIN like the depressed kid he is

annabeth immediately reassuring percy that she would save his mom the character developmentttttttt from being inconsiderate about percy losing his mom to promising that she would save the lady EVEN THOUGH SHE BARELY KNEW HER

This is giving me too many feelings guys the lady she’s promising to save is the lady who will be the best mother figure who will singlehandedly heal her mommy issues AND BECOME HER MOTHER IN LAW

“Its warm” i thought this was gonna be the last thing he says before whatever was gonna happen to him so i was like lol famous last words

but fr tho the intenseness of annabeth crying for percy to GET UP and percy’s just fading out of the world trying not to cry trying to reassure annabeth that he’s okay IN WHAT WOULD BE HIS LAST FEW WORDS, literally everything he does is for someone else even in his dying moments its just magelhi”gdsjihoawerhoudfjls

especially with the “im not…..” [okay] lol we have always known that percy, it aint a big surprise

i got to applaud leah for how she portrayed annabeth’s brain chemistry altering every minute with percy and how that influenced her speech with hephaestus

i cant believe thats leo’s dad hes giving santa claus i do like him tho

Now that i think about it the percabeth hug should have been after percy comes back to life not after the louis arch scene since they were just starting to have two minutes of chemistry there and have the “you dont have to feel bad about the hug” in the zebra truck scene

percy trying to intimidate ares lolllll walker scobell did his best to make it look real tho so good for him for not representing it as it was; a lil 12 year old child threatening a wrestler looking god of war

”Thanks for the emotional abuse and the cheeseburgers” will forever be in the cinema hall of fame

i feel like grover either is going to say the wrong person or he’s going to figure out it’s luke but something’s going to stop him from saying it out loud

or he’ll say it which causes some angst amongst the team who dont trust him cuz both annabeth and percy worship luke like there’s no tomorrow

RAINBOW?? OHH THEYRE GONNA IRIS MESSAGE LUKE??

LIN MANUEL MIRANDA

[stevespookington]

Signs: With their season in a tailspin, Richmond try to right the ship against mighty Manchester City. Off the pitch, everyone faces their own setbacks.

Sunflowers: A friendly match takes the team to Amsterdam, where one night out unlocks truths for many.

Boxes: The Greyhounds try a new strategy that has everyone thinking outside the box. Sam prepares to host a VIP guest at Ola’s.

The second act of season 3 of Ted Lasso is about taking that belief, the belief that they have been treating as a passive thing, and extending it. It's been a sign, something they could literally point to, but they hadn't quite gotten it yet.

They made it back to the Premier League, it was a miracle of the power of belief. And then everyone was doubting them and they were struggling to ignore that doubt, struggling to shrug it off. But they were trying, trying to just "let it flow."

But then they had Zava, they could believe in him instead. It was another miracle. They were going to win.

And then that belief was shaken when they realized that Nate hadn't just left them, but had tried to destroy the idea of Believe on his way out. And it rattled them.

And they started to lose.

They started to lose and then Zava left. Zava left and they lost again. And then, when Ted told them they just needed each other the sign fell down. It was a sign. Belief wouldn't save them. They were clinging to the idea of belief, it had brought them together. It united them. And now it was gone.

It is a sign. I agree. Yeah. In fact this, it’s just a sign. All right, guys, listen to me. Belief doesn’t just happen ‘cause you hang something up on a wall. All right? It comes from in here. You know? And up here? Down here. Only problem is, we all got so much junk floating through us, a lot of times we end up getting in our own way. You know, crap like envy or fear, shame. I don’t wanna mess around with that shit anymore. You know what I mean? Do you? Well, do you know what I wanna mess around with? The belief that I matter, you know? Regardless of what I do or don’t achieve. Or the belief that we all deserve to be loved, whether we’ve been hurt or maybe we’ve hurt somebody else. Or what about the belief of hope? Yeah? That’s what I wanna mess with. Believing that things can get better. That I can get better. That we will get better. Oh, man. To believe in yourself? To believe in one another. Man, that’s fundamental to being alive. And look. Yo, hey. If you can do that, if each of you can truly do that… can’t nobody rip that apart.

And this? This was something new. They had taken the idea of belief and thought it was something they had to see. Ted believed in them. They had the sign to prove it.

But then Nate tore up that sign.

And Ted took it down and he didn't replace it. Instead he told the team what they needed to hear. What Ted needed to hear.

It was okay to be a mess. Nothing had to be perfect. You can fail and keep trying. The belief of hope.

Things can get better. Ted can get better. He can recognize his past and embrace it, instead of trying to become perfect. You can be a mess and still have hope.

The players need to believe in themselves, believe that they will have one another's backs.

And then in Sunflowers we see the team bond. They have been unstable for so long, leaning on Zava instead. Following Zava. Getting the ball to Zava.

Not one another. Zava.

And so Issac doesn't let them split up. They have to bond again. Relearn that belief in one another.

But not everyone is there.

Colin is still struggling with the idea of making those two lives of his one. He doesn't want to be a spokesperson. He wants to trust his team, trust them not to care. He wants to believe in them. But he can't yet. He's been in survival mode for too long. He hadn't had anyone who really got it. What it would mean, to be the first out one.

Until he sat down and talked with Trent. Trent who has been in the press rooms. Trent who has torn down players. Trent who knows what that must feel like.

Until he could say, I have two lives and it is fucking hard. He has two lives, he has been compartmentalizing. Putting his lives in two separate boxes.

But Sunflowers ends on a higher note. Everyone has gone out and done something that they needed to do. A new experience, something to give them hope. Something to strengthen that tenuous belief.

The way I see it, we’ve been playing too rigid, you know? Our guys need freedom. Go wherever they wanna go. Follow their guts, their hearts. As long as they remember to fill in the space that someone left behind. They gotta have one another’s backs, that’s for sure. But, you know, it’s just constant, nonstop motion. Just going from position to position until positions don’t really even exist anymore. It’s fast, fluid, free. With full support.

They have been too structured, too rigid. They need to be faster, have more freedom.

They have been constricted by the expectations of others. The expectations of the pundits and everyone putting them to finish last.

The expectations of society to do things a certain way. To love a certain way. To have their brains work a certain way. To play fucking football a certain way.

They need something new, something different. They need to approach it all from a different angle.

Instead of putting things in a box, all tidy and neat. Boxes can be useful, make things easy to think about. But they can also be a fucking cage.

Once you start confronting one thing, once you break out of one box. It is easier to see the other boxes. The other cages.

"Well, if I was wrong about this, what else?"

"What has been compartmentalized that shouldn't be?"

"We turned this box into triangles, what else?"

But it isn't easy to confront things like that. Things that have been ingrained. Rigidity can be useful, it can make things strong. But too much of anything is a bad thing. Even too much belief if they do it wrong. Belief in a sign is blind faith.

To believe in yourself? To believe in one another. Man, that’s fundamental to being alive. And look. Yo, hey. If you can do that, if each of you can truly do that… can’t nobody rip that apart.

It has always been about breaking free of boxes, breaking free of cages. Challenging societies expectations of what defines masculinity, what defines a leader, what defines a family, what defines belief.

What other cages are there for our characters to break out of? Expectations of how to succeed in their worklife, how to succeed as a boss, a friend, a player, a partner.

One doesn't expect to get from life what one has already learned it cannot give, rather, one begins to see that life is a kind of sowing time and the harvest is not yet here. He was just a humble preacher's son. And yes, he had his demons, but they never stopped him from searching for beauty. Because when you find beauty, you find inspiration. If, that is, you stay as determined as Vincent. Never stop, no matter how many failures. When you know you're doing what you're meant to do, you have to try.

When you know you're doing what you're meant to do, you have to try.

As viewers we always have expectations too, when we watch a show, how do we break out of those? How do we break out of our own boxes and challenge what we think should happen based on what we know about other shows plots and stories.

Maybe we do know how it ends, maybe we don't.

A lot can change in six episodes, think of how far we've come already.

The second arc of season three is all about belief and being trapped in boxes and needing the freedom to get free.

But once they figure their way out of their boxes? Their cages? Once each of the players on can really and truly be themselves? Be free? Skies the limit.

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.

It won't be easy, there will be communication issues and they probably will step on toes, literally, along the way. But they will be there for each other.

They will be there for each other with their new found belief in each other, not in a sign.

[fleshwerks]

Thoughts on new Dragon Age "teaser"? You have the best takes.

I'll be deadly honest, I didn't even realise it was out, that's how checked out I am, but I will always fall hook line and sinker for a delicious bait made of things I can chew on, so let's seeeeeee. I'll do first impressions for now. I'll warn you, I haven't done 'takes' in ages, I've seriously lost my edge and resemble someone yelling at a cloud more than someone with intelligent or at least entertaining takes. Proceed on your own volition. Note, I have not been keeping up with DA4 updates. At all. I am literally grasping at straws and screaming out of my arse.

I'll say this. I believe Mark Darrah who had retired from BioWare was brought back on to save this tattered ship that had failed to launch how many times now? If you were with DAI and Anthem especially, you know that when a vet of that calibre is being brought on board towards the end of production, you're fucked. The sheer scope of the regions visited in the trailer... I wouldn't blink an eye if it was a turn-based strategy game, but it is not.

I'm surprised how shit the game visually looks, but it's been my criticism with the thus far released art, and now, environment assets. And again, I'm coming off of Anthem, and Anthem was truly, truly gorgeous. Now someone might argue that every DA has had its distinctive visual style. Well I thought DA2, for what it was, sure did look inspired. I didn't enjoy the game or the characters, but I enjoyed looking at it. Dragon Age Inquisition kind of lost me aesthetically, but I see what they did there. It was more generic, certainly not attempting to be photorealistic, but I saw the idea and accepted it.

Now this though? What is this? The panning over what I presume is Treviso literally looks like a mobile game ad.

Ok, fine, I'll not go in on the visuals, I'm too fresh out of art college and I'm so anal-retentive that my o-ring's more pinched than a pinprick about this stuff. Moving on.

I believe the new PC is an Antivan Crow? Since when are they fighting for all of Antiva? Everyone??? Since when?! Zevran's canonically not returning, and even he was compassionately practical on his best days. The Crows are not good people. They buy kids to train for miserable jobs meeting miserable ends. Oh, so we had a whole character who gave the Crows a finger for being the shitshow they were, but now they're this resistance task force? What, why, because the 'Islamic Borg' invaded?

Then. I feel like I'm missing a fuckton of contest because I haven't read the preceding comics and stories, I have one comic book from the DAI-DA4 interim and it ended so disappointingly, I never bothered after that.

We're really retconning all the complex and complicated factions into freedom fighters, aren't we. I guess such is the state of our real world. Always a plucky band of people belonging to formerly shitty fucking organisations suddenly saving the day like heroes, possibly somewhere along the way ruminating for 2 seconds on whether they deserve to pat themselves on the back, landing on 'but we will change how we operate, and we will save the world, always!'

I'm into the Rivaini squid though. I've never been fond of Rivain, not just because parts of the fandom like to present this place that has barely been talked about in canon like some haven for... idk. I just didn't expect squids. And you people know I love marine invertebrates. You know what, fuck it, here's my 'best take': have squid, will travel!

But that port city ravaged recently by the dragons in ruins looks like it's been in ruins for the past 2000 years, only recently excavated. It's so clean. And here I go again with the aesthetics.

Anyway, Falon'din and/or dirthamen is fuckin' around in Rivain, aren't they. Because I believe that head shape, multi-hands etc were presented in many of the statues we saw in DAII, and given that Falon'din's proverbial crows, envy and nightmare were so prominently featured, and sexyman Solas' outright resentment for former master Dirthamen and the vain Falon'din, welll... risen gods. Dirthamen at the very least was associated with watery depths, but they're twins (or are they? Perhaps the facets of one person altogether)... Anyway, I'm more interested in what the fuck is happening in Weisshaupt. That part genuinely interests me. Circling back to Dirthamen, Razikale is the dragon of Mystery. Associated with Dirthamen, at least according to my theory, while Urthemiel was the Dragon of Beauty, and we keep getting indications that Falon'din was pretty, aggressive, and exceedingly vain. So Big Dirty's up next. Falon'din had the crows, right? Both defeated in DAI. He's out, more or less. And again, Solas most likely was Dirthamen's student before he decided that he himself didn't want to be but totally wanted to be revered. So my take is that Razikale, who got mentions in DAI is waking up as well.

The villain gods of this mess, the classic Dragon Age false gods we fight in every single game as end bosses, will be connected to Dirt. Eh. Same eagle, different liver.

Anyway I have a doubt that this kind of scope will end anywhere nice. The production's been fraught as fuck to the point where the panic button has been pressed many times. The art looks like a significant downgrade, the production has been filled with veterans just clocking the fuck out.

It doesn't sound interesting. I'm tired of saving the world as an Eastern European in late 2023. This kind of story does not speak to me at all anymore. Not after 2019, not after 2021. It looks dated and mediocre, the story is so old that if it goes where I think it will, it has no relevance or message for anybody but perhaps some American audiences (some). I'm just... I'm not.

The rah-rah I got from that clip leaves me ice cold. There is no rah-rah in such widespread misery. There are only curse words and the sound of grinding teeth, and everybody's a dick, and everybody's dick past is dredged up hard. No retcons.

I don't want it. It better receive insanely high marks for me to play it. And I loved this franchise, two of the PCs have gone on to be archetypal in my private works now.

The mystery is gone. The power creep... I don't want to hang out with gods. They should have never been brought into the story as characters you can extensively hang out with. Edit: basically the entire thing sounds about as exciting as a somewhat well-produced mobile game. Which is fun to fuck with while taking the metro, but...

[thelordofgifs]

A WILD FINARFIN APPEARS!!!

i really loved this chapter! Lúthien in her Finrod era is everything. And she's making friends 😩😩😩 my poor little baby she is everything to me and Also it looks like she's ready to return to her old maia shenanigans i like it

Morwen beloved i feel you... bright people can be So tiring sometimes

finarfin showed up and i was like HECK YEAH!!! THE MAN THE MYTH THE ULTIMATE POLL LOOSING CURSE BEARER!!! you have my permission to put him in the spinner and make him pathetic though he is very pathetic already. poor guy :(

eärwen is so everything to me!! i love my women angry and sad and bitter thank you

FINDUILAS AND CELEBRIMBOR ARE SO BABY I'M HOLDING THEM GENTLY IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO THEM I'M BURNING THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND

all in all amazing chapter!! fantastic work beloved

p.s. the russingon section is. hmm. i'm not sure i want to know how their dirty talk sounds like- they're so sad and doomed. poor babies. why can't they just have nice things. just make their vassals suffer their shameless flirting over war maps i'm sure that won't end badly at all

p.p.s. "we should move our armies here and here it would make fighting against morgoth much easier" - "omg babe that was so hot" - "i know 😏"

thank you you are the bestest ❤️❤️❤️ writing that Finarfin section like hmmmm… which of my mutuals might this appeal to… a mystery unfortunately…

Anyway yes Lúthien is very much in her Finrod era (“mortals are so cute and they’re all going to die OH NO”) and we love her for it. Writing her and Morwen was very interesting to me – I wanted them to have a difficult relationship without falling into any “women hating each other” clichés, so I’m really glad some people liked that! Lúthien is canonically So Much – incredibly powerful, terrifying to all villains, half the characters in her story fall in love with her at first sight – and I think the flipside of that is that she can be pretty exhausting for someone reserved like Morwen! (I read Morwen as autistic – very much inspired by @outofangband’s wonderful headcanons of course – and Lúthien is unintentionally triggering a lot of Morwen’s sensory issues.)

Eärwen is so fascinating to me because I think canonically she must have found her children’s decision to go on with the march so hard to deal with – and they were even planning to use the stolen ships her people had been killed for, before Fëanor quite literally set fire to that plan! I’ve always thought she would have a hard time reconciling with Finrod when he returned to life (and her other sons, but I think Finrod returned first); his own kin were killed at Alqualondë and yet he eventually made nice with his cousins!

In tfs Finrod’s refusal to come forth from Mandos for Celegorm’s sake is a Significant Plot Point, even if it’s one I don’t give too much attention to. The sacred right of refusal… the idea that you can be given a blessing from the gods themselves and yet choose to throw it away… these are themes that are going to recur. (Partly why in recent parts Fingon has been thinking about Eagles, and what the favour of the Valar means.) But! The flipside of Finrod’s decision is kind of an ugly one. Eärwen has every right to her bitterness! She sees this as Finrod once again choosing his Noldor kin over his Telerin kin, and the betrayal really stings. I will confess that I am not entirely sure how this is all going to pan out, but politics in Aman are going to have Ripples as a result of Finrod’s choice.

As for russingon – look this is my murder warlord OTP and I adore them. I think they’re both drawn to the other’s violent streak, and they do genuinely find military strategy talk very very sexy. Weirdos (affectionate). Whenever I write one of these conversations between them, I have to be sure never to suggest that, for example, Fingon’s hotness distracts Maedhros from the military talk – the military talk is itself hot to Maedhros (and vice versa). I find them so funny and so tragic ok.

[questionablepastries]

large vent

tw: suicidal ideation

I need to type this out for my own sanity. But also the entire purpose is on the off chance that someone reads this and, in some way, relates to what I'm experiencing. Not the entirety of it, but a part of it, would be enough for me to justify sharing my experiences. Normally, I would have written this out in a diary but something tells me that by sharing it and letting people they are not alone would be more beneficial than keeping this to myself. To preface everything, these are first world problems. All of this spiraling - ok first off my behavior towards what is really the most minor of all triggers is annoyingly blown over. All that happened was that someone i thought i could have befriended more given time and more chats- just one day decided i wasnt worth being (and i hate typing this) mutuals with.

What made me laugh was the idea of describing my lil hissy fit emotional tantrum to my boomer absolutely not online coworkers and they would all most likely laugh about it. But the more i thought about losing this mutual, the question i kept going back to was why? why was i blowing this out of proportion? what even caused this big of a reaction in me? well first off, i was really riding on the hope to get to know them better. i really wanted to be friends with them. the great thing about online friendships is that it eliminates any barriers that would be present if someone tried to make friends with you in person. you dont worry about smelling bad, looking weird, stuttering, bad posture, etc. so truly i was thinking if our interests aligned enough and we cracked some jokes we had something, that could blossom into something cool. instead it didnt and they just dropped me entirely out of nowhere, and me being my silly self thinks somehow its my fault.

honestly though im sure they were going through something - like they would constantly post about wanting ppl to unfollow them and me going oh that cant be about me surely, nah it was most definitely about me. i cant nail down what it was though, did i not reach out enough? did i joke too much? was i too little was i too much. unfortunately, with the lack of a physical barrier im taking this as a personal fault that I Really messed something up. Something about me as a person is inherently undesirable and therefore not worth putting in the time or effort to talk to -- there must have been something off about me for this to have played out the way it did, right? I keep running scenarios in my head like oh what if i reached out more, or what if i responded in a different way that one time -- as if it can change the outcome of what has happened but. all of this. all of this emotional self inflicting stupid reaction im having stems from my own struggles in real life to make friends. this has been a running trend all my 28 years (yeah 28!) and.. to bring myself back to reality and to keep my emotions from spilling over. I came up with a good strategy.

I always ground myself by saying to myself in a silly voice as if one would calm down a pet "are you punishing yourself for having become the person you are today due to your shitty environment/upbringing that you had no control over" and "are you punishing yourself for factors out of your control Again? eye roll come on now" and thats literally how ive been grounding myself this entire time whenever i get really uncomfortable with how i am as a person in real life. and yeah honestly my upbringing sucks ass it sucks soooo much. i have no extended family and it has never been more obvious since i became conscious as a toddler to this day that my extended family on both sides absolutely does not give a shit about me nor my immediate family. my immediate family being my mom and my sister. my mom and my sister are my ONLY family. side note and i mean this semi-jokingly: if you have a family fuck you. when my coworkers talk about their uncles or their aunts or their grandparents or how they were raised by their grandparents or how they hung out with their cousins and how they went on vacations, or how they spent time with their dad. i feel this massive vacancy in my heart that is a placeholder of what i want so desperately to have happened. i feel like those scenarios they describe to me are just not possible, families only exist on tv shows, and christmas specials, thats not a real thing. it has never been a reality for me. unrelatable. all of it. and as a first generation child from immigrants (lets not even get into my dad we havent spoken to him in over a decade) my only memories are of food stamps, being smelly in school because my mom could literally not afford the time to take care of me or afford a baby sitter, my stuttering, my inability to join extracurricular activities due to money, all of it added up to my ostracization throughout the entirety of my school years.

& as a child on welfare it was very much drilled into me that the only escape from poverty is through education and i took that very seriously. im a fucking scientist now i passed the national exam to get where i am. where i failed socially didnt matter to me back then as long as i had good grades, grades were All that mattered to me. and i succeeded. but not without some draw backs. ive always been an awkward person. i have a couple of friends few and far between in person. its literally three people that i keep in contact with in real life and i am extremely grateful that they reach out to me but its also like. i gotta do better lol one of them forgot my birthday this year and the other one only texted me 'birth' on my birthday, the last one he's a keeper - we're basically brothers and he always checks in on me, but he doesnt live in the same state as me. so all of that is to say. When this person broke mutuals it kind of made me, or rather for my own sanity, seriously re-evaluate my relationship with how i spend my free time, and who and what exactly am i placing value in. this person absolutely does not care about me and i dont expect them to. and given what little we had in terms of an online friendship i guess i let my hope of a cool friendship with them blind me to the reality of what we actually had. time and time again i have placed more hope and love into online individuals that do not reciprocate - and usually they just drop the ball on me. which is like ok. im sure i was either too little or too much i can never accurately gauge how intense i am due to, you know, Lack of Real Life Experience. oh right the suicide thing, so like for the longest time i struggled with suicidal idealization - it only stopped until i graduated about two years ago. In my pre-teens to late teens i told myself that if i was in the same scenario where my mom and my sister are my only family but we were well off i would definitely have killed myself.

I decided as a pre-teen that my only worth was how high i could get into my academics in order to lift my mom out of poverty. that was the Singular Only driving factor that kept me alive. kinda. damn that sucks to write out lol but its true! that was my mantra back then and i would repeat it anytime something shitty happened to me or someone was mean to me. im not sure where im going with this. i just wanted to get it out there, that i was and still am very lonely in person, and whats funny is that im not even like ugly im just average, i hung out with my sister and dolled myself up a bit for my birthday and we went to the mall and three guys hit on me unprompted so its definitely not a looks thing - SPEAKING OF when i got into uni and moved into an apartment with four roomates i was like this is my YEAR, im gonna go out SO MUCH im gonna walk around campus im gonna go out late and do school clubs!! and then covid happened. the apartment lease was worthless. i stayed indoors exactly the same amount as i always did only this time it was justified, but it sucked because that was the time i had decided i was going to break my cycle of staying inside holy shit that fucking sucked. and then my senior year of college i didnt need to stay in an apartment anymore because i was required to be in a hospital four days out of the week for training so i ended up back at my moms. i think there is something wrong w me tho bc im not saying it was being poor that led to me being awkward. but it didnt help, and im gonna go ahead and blame my lack of a support group - family wise, my entire life, on how uh. i came out. lately im trying to reel back how blunt i am. which. uh. hmm. i actually have a large language barrier with my mom. somehow i picked up on understanding spanish but not speaking it perfectly, it improved, im way better at speaking it now.

but i could hardly communicate with my mom while growing up, and she never expressed interests in my hobbies or who i was as a person, to this day i am and will forever be a 7 year old toddler in her eyes. she still shows no interest in me as a person or who i am. which is fine with me, ive accepted that she wont change, because she grew up in a more messed up environment and this entire time only until Recently, she had been on breadwinner providing for my two daughters survival mode. um. so , like i mentioned. that person breaking mutuals just shone a light on how, broken i am as a person? you would think, without physical barriers the sky is the limit when it comes to befriending people but no i still struggle i cant do anything right i suppose. i just need to focus on improving my life outside of online spaces. people online will reach out of they want to and can so im trying to lessen my hopes in general. and um. idk im at a loss for words currently. i simply dont know where to begin when it comes to , anything? living? hmm. i only just escaped school so i feel like i can breath - air for once. im no longer under the scary pressure of - if i fail at school im better off dead- ohh i think i know what i can add - offline people are WEIRD. ive had a couple of hiccups with friends irl that i literally dont talk to anymore! one of them became a misogynist red pill guy, another guy kept trying to touch me every time we hung out! and the last guy kept telling me to fuck off when i asked how he was doing!! hmmm. yeah this is just circling back to my current mantra which is to not be overly mean to myself for how i am currently due to my , situations leading up to now. I DONT KNOW. here's hoping..!! something !! anything is nice to me!! ohhhh i remembered something else. recently my coworker exchanged numbers w me saying something about haning out with other coworkers in the future. i am so desperately trying not to get my hopes too high up. always happens tho!!!!!!!! i get my hopes up when it comes to making friends both offline and online!!!!!! and guess what keeps happening again and again!!! HAHA………..can i have hope this time??? do u know once i tried reaching out to a mutual i wanted to befriend and get closer to (we were calling each other friends by this point) on Three Separate Platforms i knew they were active on only for them to Not respond to Anything i sent? AND i didnt even reach out three times in a row I Spaced It Out like a Normal Person. Only for Them to Tell me how they were having Fun in Their Friend Group of Other Online People talking about our Mutual Interests. Do you know how fucking stupid i felt at that moment. Oh im sorry am i not cool enough to be invited to that. Am i too stupid what is it about me thats so repellent??

I know its common courtesy to not be straight to people and tell them whats wrong with them but damn i wish someone would be straight with me and Not leave me hanging UGH. I realized at that moment tho that I never wanted to BE that desperate EVER AGAIN. I felt like such a stupid asshole holy shit. I never want to be that desperate for some onlines person attention ever again oh my god,, i dont think ill ever forgive them for that. its all on me though!!!!!!!!! mY FAULT!!!!!!!, for placing Value and i guess getting my Hopes up that i could make friends again WHOOPSIES i forgot im fuckin uhhh Ultra stinko Stupid Bitch who cant maintain any sort of relationship!!! back to the ditch on the side of the road i go to drink my stupid pond water like the unlovable unwarranted piece of shit nobody wants to hang out with again!!!!!!!! MY BAD!!!!!!! SO SORRY TO BOTHER. well its whatever i got money now, i have a job. and as much as i would like to say well earning money is all that matters right? its not. im a greedy greedy jealous little sniveling BITCH and my heart will never stop yearning for what others take for Granted. SO YEAH LOL. this has felt great to type out!! if you relate to any of that...um... Im sorry!!!!! we all in this together. but maybe not really im just gonna be kept at arms length with literally anyone i try to befriend offline due to me bein a little weirdo who cant relate to anything haaa,,, i want to end this on a positive note but fuck that! This is where im currently at and this is my current predicament! Will it improve? sure if i put some effort into myself and spend less time online and stop putting rakes on the ground to step on. i literally set myself up for getting hurt everytime ill figure out a way to make the pain hurt less.

[realityhop]

"A common core belief that plagues many people is that of, “I’m defective”. […] The Ten common defectiveness coping behaviors that were first described by Jeffrey Young (Young et al., 2003), help break down these defensive coping strategies into three major types: overcompensation, surrender, and avoidance. […] Clinicians can help their clients struggling with this core wound become more aware of its origin, the little things he or she does to hide the “defective” self, the ways in which it is triggered, and how to challenge and reframe these thoughts based on evidence.”

— Carlyn Wood, Core Wound: “I’m Defective” (2022)

"Taking a person-centered planning approach literally might mean asking, “If I were the patient, what would I want my care, planning, or environment to be?” and then developing a care plan from that orientation.  This approach differs from the longstanding idea in social work that what works for one person in a typical situation could be standardized as an approach for all people facing similar situations. Many of the ideas within person-centered social work emerged from Carl Rogers, a psychotherapist who authored the book “Becoming a Person.”  Rogers’ research and its applications focused on helping his patients become their authentic selves rather than a reflection of their society.  Social workers applied Rogers’ theories and insights to their work and began to emphasize helping clients develop as individuals rather than as reflections of their social subset.  This new approach relies on a social worker’s highly developed sense of empathy since person-centered care emerges from the worker’s ability to put themselves in the other’s place."

— Malone University Online, Why A Person Centered Approach Is Valuable (2020)

"Just like a therapist, people could come and talk to the machine by typing in their problems.  Weizenbaum called the programme "Eliza".  He modeled it on a real psychotherapist called Carl Rogers who was famous for simply repeating back to the patient what they had just said.  And that is what Eliza did. [...] Weizenbaum was astonished.  He discovered that everyone who tried Eliza became engrossed.  They would sit for hours telling the machine about their inner feelings and incredibly intimate details of their lives.  They also liked it because it was free of any kind of patronising elitism.  One person said: 'after all, the computer doesn't burn out, look down on you, or try to have sex with you.'  What Eliza showed was that, in an age of individualism, what made people feel secure was having themselves reflected back to them."

— Adam Curtis, Hypernormalisation (2016)

"There is both comfort and security in having your sadness reflected back to you, confirming that it is OK and normal and encouraging people to talk openly.  But this can also spill over into narcissistic wallowing, to be in love with your own sadness, and a failure to outgrow or to transcend some of the more teenage expressions of these feelings is one of the common criticisms of the album—that it becomes a shallow dirge. [...] In her Village Voice essay “Nasty Art,” Ann Powers argues that transgressive music can allow us to vent negative feelings through the exercising of our emotions, but not to the point of completely exorcising this negativity.  This is a constructive experience even though it won’t necessarily make the listener feel “better” or immediately happy.  Referring to ugly images and the feedback-drenched guitars of NIN, Powers wrote: “All these devices work as a mind-clearer, fighting against what art critic Robert Hughes has called the ‘culture of therapeutics.’  This notion that even transgressive art must enrich and heal dominates the American aesthetic.”  Perhaps this is where The Downward Spiral succeeds best, as a vicious and bilious purging of pain that we can experience along with the narrator and then switch off, having brought to the surface some of our own negative thoughts and feelings.  Art does not have to be pretty, but it can at least resemble catharsis as emotional freedom. [...] In many respects, the anger and rage of NIN is a direct draw for teenagers who are struggling to assert their identity in the world and who, through music, would find belonging in their nonbelonging and thus feel less alone, particularly if their feelings come from an equally strange and damaged place as The Downward Spiral.  The common irony is that, in feeling so different and isolated, all teenagers are intimately alike: experiencing the same emotional growing pains and self-absorption and struggling to extend their self-sympathy to others."

— Adam Steiner, Into The Never: Nine Inch Nails and the Creation of The Downward Spiral (2020)

"Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence.  To survive in the world, we have to act in concert with others, but to survive as ourselves, rather than simply as cogs in a wheel, we have to act alone. [...] It makes sense to avoid humiliating dependence by insisting on independence.  But there is another alternative: interdependence. The main difference between these alternatives is symmetry.  Dependence is an asymmetrical involvement: One person needs the other, but not vice versa, so the needy person is one-down.  Interdependence is symmetrical: Both parties rely on each other, so neither is one-up or one-down."

— Deborah Tannen, You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation (1990)

"The self may develop differently in different cultures.  The independent self is conceived as an autonomous, self-contained agent, operating on its own, making choices and pursuing self-selected goals, complete with its own inner set of values and preferences.  The interdependent self is understood as firmly embedded in a network of social relationships, complete with obligations and accommodations. [...] Like Hume, the Buddhists assert that the self does not exist as a separate, independent thing, fully separable from its surroundings.  Nevertheless, within its social environment, the self is quite real and important. [...] If you’re down in the weeds examining the details of how one part of a single mind works on specific problems in specific situations, the grand unity of selfhood is a quaint and generally dispensable notion.  But anything about human relationships and social systems requires selves–indeed, preferably extended-time selves. [...] It is fair to say “there is no such thing as the self” because the self is not a thing in the physical sense. [...] The most important nonfiction versions of self is the desired reputation.  One’s social interactions are guided partly by the imperative to maintain a good enough reputation.  People seem to feel authentic and true when they do something that helps realize the desired reputation.  Self-actualization builds on the idea that selves have potentialities and gain some satisfaction when they achieve these desirable outcomes, but there is little evidence that people have a true inner self."

— Roy F. Baumeister, The Self Explained (2021)

"Short of self-destruction, many people have been drawn to philosophies that hold out the prospect of their disappearance as distinct individuals.  They may involve merging with some metaphysical entity – the Platonic form of the good, or some kind of world-soul.  Or they may be philosophies like Schopenhauer’s, which promise to dissolve the self into nothingness."

— John N. Gray, Feline Philosophy (2020)

“The hopelessness part of creative hopelessness is the feeling that arises when you realize that all your efforts to escape defectiveness pain haven’t worked; instead, they’ve resulted in depression and a lot of related problems.  The creative part of creative hopelessness is the courage and new ways of thinking and acting necessary to find a different response to defectiveness pain.”

— McKay/Greenberg/Fanning, The ACT Workbook for Depression and Shame (2020)