#i still think we just have to wait another couple months and we'll start seeing the vcarb is mistreating daniel discourse

[mcl38]

they haven't quite turned on vcarb the way they did mclaren but from what i've read that seems to be bc daniel keeps saying "it's not the same problem as mclaren" when like idk dude if the only time you've finished a race ahead of yuki was bc you got put on softs at the end of the race it is smelling very shades of mexico '22 to me. just without the having to make up a time penalty bc u punted yuki off the track.

i can say yuki is already getting the lando treatment though. "hOW MANY RACES HAS HE WON AND YOU DARE SAY HES PERFORMING BETTER THAN AN 8 TIME GP WINNER?" (ya i'll go to the top floor of my apartment and shout it into the void through a megaphone too what are you going to do about it) only this time there's a heavy dose of racism added in. the amount of people i have seen calling yuki a "pokémon" derogatorily and refusing to admit the racist connotations there are wild. not to mention the ableist terms i've seen be used to refer to his height. it's all very gross and yet again daniel says nothing to even try to prevent it. it's wild how someone always has to get harassed by his fans regardless of if he fails or succeeds.

ok so like first of all yikes. i rly rate yuki but im v selective w my online (especially my tumblr)

experience so i rly almost never venture out of my mclaren-centred bubble, which means i never rly see what ppl say abt him. 'pokemon' is actually vile like thats so clearly racist bc its not even a pun of his name at all or any sort of reference to his personality?? AND the fact that its a cartoon w the infantilising implications of that... ku's essay on the infantilisation of east asian drivers u will always be famous.... like u guys ever noticed how nyck is also rly short and has a youthful face and nobody ever talked abt him in the way they talk abt yuki? much to think abt

now. permission to be mean here but even if its 'not the same problem as mclaren' is the problem not STILL the fact that daniel in his 10+ year career hasnt bothered to understand the way the engineering of f1 cars works in like any material way and thats the reason he always struggles to identify his driving issues / has a disconnect with his chassis unless its tailored exactly to what he already likes and knows how to drive? i saw that bit from newey's book about how max and checo give rly good feedback and so did webber and vettel and it was kind of subtly implying that during the bit in between (the daniel era) he designed less effective cars be he wasnt getting enough precise feedback.... i genuinely havent been able to sleep at night since. like it felt like smth slotted in my head like aaaah this has been the problem all along. if only daniel wasnt so busy going on podcasts making fun of the idea of women in motorsport and actually spent some time to do some way overdue physics homework... lol. Imao even

the truth of the situation is yuki is in the best form of his career and also wiping the floor w daniel. like factually so. EVEN with team orders favouring daniel so his fans cant say its bc of that like they did with mclaren. i genuinely think its quite sad the amount of personal stock daniel fans have clearly invested in this mans career and how much it bothers them when he doesnt perform to their expectations - like he's ur driver, swallow it and accept it, because thats what he's been doing to try to move on. doing all this intense online hate bullshit only makes him look bad bc it highlights how badly and for how long he rly has been embarrassingly underperforming. but by this point it feels like they WANT him to underperform bc they crave that martyr underdog victimised figure to root for and fight for - which is why ur totally right anon, that someone always inevitably gets harrassed regardless of if daniel is failing or succeeding. 

i will say one thing which is that i rly dont think daniel is at all aware of whatever the fuck his fans do on twitter and instagram (and deffo not tumblr lmao). so i dont think this is an issue of like him telling his fans to chill out - and it doesnt work anyways, bc lando literally has made talking abt how much cyberbullying sucks a part of his personality and theres still some rly mean and hateful lando fans (not in a fun way like me<3 lol) (i hate on my own blog and in discord groupchats). so like thats not necessarily on him, its more on netflix for making him the lowest common denominator guy to like, ykwim? also the unfortunate reality is that despite the tshirts and the kneeling (or no kneeling) no one rly seems to stand up to defend the drivers of colour who literally constantly get SUCH vitriol thrown towards them w any occasion. im not expecting daniel of all ppl to say anything abt it ngl

[melbatron5000]

It's a 2-man Con

Listen, I think I know a thing.

When Aziraphale comes back from talking to the Metatron and is telling Crowley about being an angel, we've all heard the theory that he's speaking code, trying to ask for help. The more I look at that scene, the more that theory tracks.

Maybe less well-known is the theory that Crowley didn't miss a damn thing, he's answering in his own code. And again, the more I look at that scene, the more this also tracks.

(When my husband, annoyingly observant beloved partner that he is, saw the second season for the first time, he said, "That whole thing was a show for the Metatron. They have a plan. Crowley slipped something to Aziraphale when he kissed him." And I said, "Nah." But now I think he's right, and damn if he isn't smug.)

I'm gonna try to break down what I think they're saying here, because it takes just a hot minute to piece it together. I've been thinking this over for a couple of months now. I think I have most of it. I just don't know when Crowley puts whatever he's handing to Aziraphale in his own mouth. I need more eagle-y eyes, it seems.

First, Aziraphale comes back from his talk. He's pensive as he crosses the road, and anxious when he starts talking, and mouths "I need help!" as he's talking. He's acting like he does when he lies to the other angels, and once it's seen "I need help!" is pretty clear.

He does the whole thing about telling Crowley he could appoint him as an angel, like old times, but even nicer. It's all very uptight and not positive at all. My interpretation? "The Metatron is here, I think he knows we're up to something, we have to go to Heaven right now and put things right before he really does something awful to one or both of us. The time to spring the plan is NOW."

Crowley stares at him. At first it seems like he's staring in disbelief, but if you really look at his face, he's listening, hard, and interpreting as fast as he can:

He asks Aziraphale if he told the Metatron where he could stick it, then. My interpretation? "The plan has changed. I can't go with you to Heaven. You'll have to go alone."

Then Crowley starts his confession -- "We've spent our existence pretending we aren't."

Aziraphale looks at him -- not with shock, or surprise, or love, or hope, but with a "Why are you doing this now?" face. Not "Why did you wait til now to tell me, you love me, oh, I love you too!" But "Why are you telling me SOMETHING I ALREADY KNOW while our ENEMY IS LISTENING??" :

He's confused, but also listening and interpreting. What I'm hearing/seeing: I don't think this is a love confession from our demon. I think they are both well aware they love one another. They can't say it in so many words, and it's a secret from Heaven and Hell, but it's not a secret between them. I'm hearing Crowley set the scene. "The Metatron either wants us together in Heaven under control, or separated. I have things I have to do here or the plan won't work, so we'll have to separate. We need to make it look good. I do love you."

I don't think Aziraphale likes this change of plan. And Crowley can't detail why the plan has changed, not with the Metatron listening. So Aziraphale insists, come with me. The plan we had will work. Do it my way. Crowley says, "You can't leave this book shop." It's easy to interpret that as "You can't leave me," but I don't think it's that. He's saying something about the book shop being safe, or even that he can't leave without whatever they've hidden in the book shop. (I THINK THEY HID SOMETHING IN THE BOOK SHOP!) Aziraphale says, "Nothing lasts forever." I hear him saying the book shop is no longer safe, and they have to move/take whatever they've hidden and they can't speak freely there anymore.

Crowley replies, "No I suppose it doesn't. Good luck." He's gotten that much, but he is still set on his "We need to fake a break up because I can't go with you."

Aziraphale still doesn't like that. "Come back! I need you!" He's scared. Whatever he has to do in Heaven is big, and scary, and he needs and wants Crowley with him. He does not want to go into the mouth of danger alone.

This is when we get, "No nightingales." What I'm hearing? ESPECIALLY since if you listen, you can hear a LARK sing as Crowley goes out the door? It's the line from Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare, whose plays they both enjoy, though Crowley prefers the funny ones. "It's too late, that's a lark singing the dawn, not a nightingale singing to the night, we have to part. Our happy ending isn't yet."

Then the kiss. I do not believe this is their first kiss. I don't believe they've allowed themselves many, maybe not even more than one, but I do think they've kissed before. I'm not sure when, but I suspect 1941. (Season 3, come ON!!)

And when they part, Aziraphale stops himself from saying "I love you," and instead says, "I forgive you." I'm hearing so many things in that "I forgive you." I forgive you for leaving me on my own, I forgive you for hurting my feelings like this, I forgive you for changing the plan without telling me, I forgive you because you are forgivable whatever anyone else says, I forgive you because that's what I said when we split up at the bandstand and everything was okay in the end and I hope hope hope that everything will be okay in the end this time too.

Crowley says, "Don't bother." I'm hearing, "yeah, I hope it's all okay, too. Wish me fuckin luck. My part will be hard, too."

And as Crowley leaves, Aziraphale mouths, "No." And we hear a lark sing. A lark, singing to the dawn, and so fair Romeo must away.

Just because the break up is a ruse, doesn't mean it doesn't hurt and isn't hard. It has to look real, and so it's going to feel real, too. Ouch. :'(

And then Aziraphale touches his lips. Not once, but twice. My bad, he only touches his lips once. The first long second is pure emotion. "Why now, I hate this, I want that so badly and I can't have it."

After that, though --

After he pulls himself together a bit, he has a bulge in his cheek. He shifts his jaw to move whatever he has in his mouth to his lips, and then his first two fingers go stiff for a moment as he palms something right before he takes his hand away.

And then, this.

Edit to add: someone on Facebook asked me why a kiss to pass whatever Crowley gave to Aziraphale, why not palm it or drop it in his pocket?

My answers: 1. The kiss is a message. "We're still good, I still love you, I still want this." 2. The item is too important to be dropped in a pocket and hopefully found later. 3. The Metatron is paying WAY too close attention, and will definitely see them touch hands. Seeing a kiss and the angel rejecting the demon, though? Well, the demon forced that kiss on him, the angel didn't want it. Clearly the demon thinks this relationship is different than it is. It's a bigger gesture that sells the ruse. 4. Houdini's wife used to pass him the keys to his cuffs with a kiss before the show. This is a message that magic-loving Aziraphale WILL understand: here are the keys to your cuffs, sneaked to you by your beloved in plain sight.

That's it. That's what I got so far. I still have questions.

What did Crowley pass to Aziraphale? What's the plan? Why did it change? What does Crowley need to do that he can't go to Heaven again?

[lovesickfoolwp]

right where you left me; part 2 — jj maybank

part 1

pairing : reader x jj maybank x kiara carrera

summary : after secretly liking kiara for several years (and leaving you to be with her), jj thought that he would be on cloud nine when he heard her saying she felt something for him. after all, he took a risk. but was it worth also risking his relationship with you? and what if they were better off as best friends than lovers?

jj and kiara were celebrating a month since they were together when they came to the restaurant where you worked, and now, as the second month started since the two of them were a couple, things had started to get complicated because 'the honeymoon phase' has passed.

they had started arguing about little things, like that one time when jj refused to help kie to clean after they had a party at the chateau. or when she wasn't on his side when he quarreled with pope, as if she was supposed to take their childish quarrels seriously.

and all this just because kiara was still feeling guilty after finding out that you were dumped because of her, and because jj had started to realize that the spark he felt when she told him she liked him had meanwhile started to go out because you can't make a thing that's already finished continue, no matter how much you want it. it's just not the same as it used to be. not always. and unfortunately, not in this case.

with a little time before going to the party on the beach, where jj knew there would be a lot of people, probably you too, he felt uneasy. and being next to kiara, outside in the hammock, waiting for the rest to be ready, he didn't say anything. and the silence of the night and the silence between the two of them was really starting to affect kiara. she also felt that they were not suitable as a couple. this situation was not beneficial to any of them.

so... she was the one who opened the inevitable discussion.

"where would you like to go for our one year anniversary?" she asked, placing her palm over jj's hand to bring him down to earth.

it was a trick question, to see if he could see his future with her as her lover.

caught by surprise, having his mind elsewhere, he asked "do you think we'll catch the one year anniversary?"

she nodded. "don't you?" she asked gently. she cared for him, but it hurt her more to see him absent.

love cannot be forced and she understood that. feelings come and go. none of them deserved to suffer and continue, if they were not happy.

jj realized too late that his mouth spoke first and sighed, only to release his hand and turn his body towards her to get a better look at her. "kie..."

"just tell me if you still have feelings for me, jj. I promise i won't be upset if the answer is negative." she smiled at him. "we both deserve the truth."

"i—" he wanted to say something, but he stopped. then he took a second to put his thoughts in order and continued. "i was so fixated on the idea of having you, that I didn't think that things had changed in the meantime. i tried to bring to life some feelings that, unfortunately for both of us, but more so for you, had set in a long time ago. i feel so bad, kie." he stops talking and puts his hands on his head, avoiding her gaze. "i don't deserve you."

"jj..." she whispered his name and reached out to take his hands off his face. to make him look at her. "it's not about who deserves whom, j. some relationships are just not meant to work, even if the persons care about one another."

"you're not mad at me?" he asked, and her heart broke.

she didn't want to make him feel that way. she wanted to be in his life, but she didn't want to have the wrong role. and the role of being his girlfriend did not suit her.

"why would i be mad at you, fool?" she teased, making him smile. "you didn't intentionally do something to hurt me, did you?"

he shooked his head and the silence fell again, to let them put their thoughts in order.

"so, we really broke up?" he asked her as he helped her out of the hammock, after he had gotten out first.

she approved, holding out her hand so that he could help her and when she reached the ground, next to him, she raised a finger towards him. "but don't think that means you got rid of me!" she threatened him to loosen the atmosphere a bit.

"i wasn't planning on doing that." he said honestly, smiling down at her.

so, during the party, where jj saw you at topper's arm, he started to feel guilty. he had given up on you to run away towards an obsession he had a long time ago. only to see that that obsession was just an idea created in his mind and that the reality it didn't have the same charm.

he was standing away from the group and from the rest of the world, at the bonfire, looking at you as he took sips of his beer.

he did not noticed pope when he sat down beside him, until he put his hand on his shoulders. "hey." pope said and by the time jj was looking at him, he was also looking in your direction. "isn't she the girl you were seeing before?"

"who? her?" jj was acting dumb, taking one last look at you, when you were laughing at something topper had said, turning then his full attention to his friend.

"yeah." pope gave him a small smile, feeling a little bit bad for bringing it up. "what was her name? y/n?"

"yeah. y/n y/l/n." he said and set the bottle down next to him after he finished drinking it. "she's a pogue." he added and shrugged, as if he knew that mentioning this detail was not important, but he said it anyway.

seeing him so miserable, pope felt sorry for him, on the inside, but on the outside he refrained from laughing at him. how dumb must he be to not to do something about it when it was so clear that seeing you with a topper bothered him? and he knew from kiara that the relationship between them wasn't working, so they ended it a few hours ago. he had to open his eyes.

"what?" he suddenly turned towards him, with a grimace on his face, when jj saw him grinning at him.

"what do you mean?" pope hurried to defend himself, raising his hands in the air. "i didn't said or did anything!"

however, the grin was still on his face.

"well, your face sure does!" jj replied and rolled his eyes.

pope started laughing and jj hit him in the arm, making him fall from the beach chair he was sitting on.

pope continued to laugh, shouting at him "you're jealous!".

"no, i'm not."

just like pope's face earlier, his face also said otherwise.

while jj helped pope up, feeling bad that he had pushed him, you appeared in front of them. "who's jealous?" you asked looking at both of them and jj's jaw clenched when he saw you.

speaking of the devil.

"oh!" said the pope and pretended to hear something, putting his hand to his ear as he rose from his chair. "was that john b?"

"sit—" jj wanted to tell him to sit down, but he was quieter than you and he wasn't heard.

"i didn't hear anything."

you looked at him strangely, with an eyebrow raised.

"i'm sorry, bro, i've got to go." he said and put his hand on jj's shoulder again, squeezing it gently this time. "see you later, y/n!"

and with that being said, he had disappeared from the landscape, leaving you two alone. jj, cursing him in his mind, and you, being perplexed.

you wanted to sit next to him, but he got up and he tried to keep the distance between you.

"is that how it will be from now on?" you asked, speaking louder so he could hear you, and he stopped in his tracks.

a few seconds had passed, seconds in which he inhaled deeply, until he turned to look at you.

"what are you talking about?"

"what am i talking about?” you snorted, feeling yourself getting angry. "before you came to the restaurant, i hadn't seen you for about a month! you ignore me!"

he crossed his hands over his chest, looking at you intensely. "i don't want to hurt you more than i already have."

"really?" you asked him, fake laughing, and he approved. "do you think it would hurt me if you behaved like a normal person and at least said hello when i'm passing by?" you didn't give him time to answer and continued, tears starting to form in the corners of your eyes. "no, jj! it hurts me even more when you pretend you don't know me!"

and he felt miserable. he let his arms fall to his side, but his gaze was still on you so he felt countless knives being stabbed into his heart when he noticed your eyes shining with tears.

you were crying again. because of him.

"i thought i was doing us both a favor by avoiding seeing you." he whispered, not sure if he should say it out loud.

"how the hell would that do me a favor, hm?" now you were the one who crossed her arms over her chest after running a nervous hand through your hair.

"i don't know, okay?" he said harshly and rolled his eyes. "i don't know what i'm doing and standing so close to you doesn't help me at all!"

you smiled sadly, and wanted to turn to leave. "then excuse me, i will be leaving."

but he stopped you. as you had done with him.

"y/n, please." he said your name like a prayer, asking you to stay by his side. "i'm trying my best to do the right thing, but i don't know how the hell i manage to hurt the people I care about in the process. i didn't mean it to sound like that, believe me."

you stopped and sighed, "so what was that supposed to sound like, j?"

he knew that he was the one who had put an end to it. he knew that he had run away from you to run after an unreal illusion, and now, when he still felt attracted to you when you were close to him and jealous when you were around another boy, he thought he didn't deserve to even talk to you. but he wanted to. he wanted to share with someone what he was thinking because then, after hearing himself say his thoughts out loud, maybe they would make more sense.

"when kiara told me that she liked me, i let myself be led by the impression that i could feel for her what i once felt, and i made the mistake of putting an end to what we had. in that month in which i didn't look for you and i tried to avoid you, i kept lying to myself that the feelings i had for her returned. but after seeing you again, i felt what i felt the first time i saw you combined with all those times you made me feel so many things for you just by being yourself. and i couldn't get those moments out of my head." he said everything in a hurry, but you somehow managed to keep up with him. still, you didn't know if you wanted to be as far away from him as possible or to be so close to him that there wouldn't be a millimeter of distance between you. "i still feel something for you, y/n, but i don't think that i deserve a second chance after what i've put you through. i don't want to be selfish."

when you heard him admit that his feelings for you were still there, you felt both a sense of relief, but also a sense of heartbreak. how could you know that what he said was true, if he didn't seem sure of himself either?

"you know..." you started to say, being also overwhelmed by nostalgia when he mentioned the moments when you were sure of yourselves. "that night i wanted to tell you 'i love you' for the first time," you said with a sad smile, thinking what would have happened if you had told him then.

his thoughts stopped. now the only thing he was thinking about was your last sentence, especially the last three words that had slipped from your lips. he imagined that he could turn back the time to watch your lips say those words over and over again. he imagined how he would listen to you saying those words over and over again.

over and over again.

"do you still feel it?" he asked, forgetting everyone and everything. only you mattered.

being out of touch, not knowing what effect your words had on him, you asked "feel what?".

he swallowed hard and then answered you. "do you still love me?"

caught off guard by his question, you felt yourself sinking into the sand you were standing on. in fact, you wish this would happen. that way you wouldn't have had to admitted it.

"yes."

that's all he needed. in the next second, without thinking about what would happen next, he immediately covered the distance between you and pressed his lips harshly to yours. the kiss was one full of desire, the desire that will grind you both and make you forget about yourselves. he didn't want to detach himself from you anymore. he didn't want to act without thinking carefully before anymore.

he just wanted to continue wanting you, as he wanted you in that moment.

feeling the need for air, you put your head back a little, his hands squeezing your waist as close to his body as possible. you took a deep breath and asked him "did you feel anything when you kissed me?"

"anything?" he repeated, breathing hard and bringing his forehead together with yours. "i felt everything that could be felt."

you smiled and stood up on your tiptoes a bit to pull him into your second kiss of the night. and certainly, not the last.

[maddiehu7]

Apocalyptic | Daryl Dixon |

Chapter 1

I'm laying in ricks room trying to take a nap when I hear the door slam open I immediately jump up grabbing my gun from under my pillow pointing it towards the open door

"Lori!" I hear someone shout it sounds familiar I walk out quietly hiding behind a wall

"Carl!" I hear someone shout again....rick? No it can't be I think to myself starting to tear up at the possibility when I hear the footsteps get closer I put my guard back up and swiftly move out from behind the wall pointing my gun straight ahead

"Alex..." I see no other than my brother standing in a open gown with bandages around his stomach, holy shit

"Rick...Rick!" I drop my gun running to hug him

"Oh thank god your ok" he says beginning to cry hugging me harder than ever

"Me, thank god your ok I've been here waiting for you for months" I say also crying pulling back to cup his face seeing it's really him we both smile

"What's happening...where's Carl and Lori" he says sniffling

"Well it's kinda hard to explain the dead have rose basically and Lori and Carl went with Shane I stayed back knowing if you woke you'd come here" I say still smiling at him wiping his tears away

"We-we gotta find them" he say worriedly

"I know I know and we will ok?" I say holding his shoulders looking him in the eyes he nods back at me hugging me one more time

"Let me just pack up and we'll go" I say eager to find my nephew but not knowing if I'm prepared to go out into the world I barely can fight off the stragglers that come through here or come out when I scavenge and I definitely don't have enough rations for two people let alone medical supplies for Rick

"Shit" I sigh out but pack what I have and put my gun in the back of my jeans, when I hear something from outside

"Daddy! Daddy! I got the sumbitch I'm gonna smack him dead" I hear the last part and run out seeing Rick on the ground a kid with a shovel standing over him

"Hey what the hell!" I yell pulling my gun out but not aiming at the kid he looks at me confused to see another person when I'm assuming to be his dad comes over shooting a walker in the head running over seeing me

"Hey who the hell are you?" He questions putting his kid behind him

"I live here who the hell are you and why'd your kid hit my brother" I say on guard

"Your brother" he says looking over at Rick seeing he's not a walker

"Shit look we're sorry ok Duane say your sorry" he says looking towards his kid, backing up from my brother I run over kneeling down seeing if he's ok

"I'm-I'm sorry" the kid stutters out

"Hey Rick you good?" I say grabbing his face looking in his eyes he just mumbles at me when I hear a gun cock behind me, fuck

"What's his wound" the older man says I look back at him

"He was in the hospital in a coma, he got shot" I say putting my hands up trying to diffuse the situation

"And you how come I've never seen you here when we've been here this whole time" he says shaking slightly

"What can i say I keep to myself" I say a little angrily I look back at my brother to see him passed out

"Fuck, you guys live around here right? Can you help him...please" I add looking at Rick passed out, the man comes over and looks at him for a second before dropping the gun

"Fine come on" he says motioning to help him with Rick so I do lifting him slinging his arm over my shoulder groaning

"This way, Duane lead the way" the man huffs out the kid looks at me suspiciously but leads us to there house regardless. When we get there we set Rick on the bed to rest I roll my shoulders sore from carrying him

"I never got your name" the man sighs out motioning me to follow him to the kitchen

"Alexis" I say hesitantly

"Morgan and this is my son Duane" he says pointing his finger towards the kid from earlier sitting down at the table

"Thanks...for uh taking us in" I say smiling half assed at Morgan he just nods back

~~~time skip~~~

It's been a couple hours I've been checking on Rick on and off and so has Morgan cleaning his wound, I explained to Morgan the past few months and our plan to find our family he didn't say much in return

"Dinner" Morgan says to me and Duane we both get up and head to the table sitting down when my brother comes out

"Hey Rick you ok?" I question going to help him walk but he waves his hand for me to stay seated so I lower myself back on the seat waiting for him to talk

"Yeah I'm ok...thank you..." he says waiting for them to say there names

"Morgan and Duane" Morgan says sitting down also

"You shot that man today" Rick sighs out how confused he must be I think sadly

"It wasn't no man" Duane says defensively

"What the hell was that out your mouth just now?" Morgan says looking at the kid I smile lowly at the father son relationship

"It wasn't a man" he corrects himself

"You shot him in the street out front- a man" ricks says getting more aggravated

"Rick it wasn't a man ok it was a walker member I told you dead rose, video game style" I say looking up at him sorry to break the bad news

"She's right, now come on sit down before you fall down" Morgan says pointing towards the chair next to me I smile a little at his words Rick complies sitting down Morgan serving us some food I go to eat not having a hot meal in forever when they hold hands to pray Morgan reaching his hand to me

"Oh ok" I say quietly going along with it even though I was never religious and definitely now more than ever isn’t

"Lord we thank you for this food, thy blessings, and we ask you to watch over us in these crazy days amen" Morgan says looking up at me and Rick

"Amen" Duane says, I go to eat almost moaning at the feel of food in my mouth Rick smiling smally at me. After dinner we all sit in one of the bedrooms relaxing when we hear a car going off I'm immediately on guard looking at the window and I'm not the only one as Duane freaks out a little

"It's nothing one of them must've bumped a car" Morgan reassures the kid

"You sure?" rick asks I look at Morgan wondering the same thing

"It happened once before, it went on for a few minutes...get the light Duane" Morgan says me, Rick and him going to look out the window

"It's the blue one down the street, the same one as last time, I think we're ok" Morgan says me and Rick looking out the window carefully, damn there's a lot out there tonight I think to myself

"That noise won't it bring more of them?" Rick questions

"Nothing we can do about it now just have to wait them out till morning" I say sighing noticing Duane come in the room and peak out the window

"She's here” he says gasping I look at him confused

"don't look. Get away from the windows....i said go, go on" Morgan says when he won't leave, I look out to see a woman walking towards the house, what the hell? Duane goes in the other room crying

"Duane, Duane quiet now come on" Morgan goes over and hugs him trying to keep him quiet that must be someone important I think sadly looking at them, me and Rick go and sit back down as the door knob rattles

“She uh…she died in the other room on that bed, there was nothing I-i could do about it, that fever man her skin gave off a heat like a furnace, I should’ve-I should’ve put her down man I should’ve put her down I know that but I- you know I just didn’t have it in me she’s the mother of my child” Morgan says crying silently I almost tear up at the sadness of it

“I’m so sorry Morgan” I say truthfully looking at Duane he just smiles smally through his tears

(To be continued) let me know if you liked it!and yes Daryl will come in soon lol

[traegorn]

I need to stop doing this to myself.

(A Rant Where Trae Has Written Too Many Books This Month)

So since most of you started following me because of Witchcraft or podcast stuff, I realize a lot of you don't know how much fiction writing I do.

Primarily what I've published are comics. The big one is UnCONventional (which ran from December of 2009 to December of 2019), but I also did a steampunk comic called The Chronicles of Crosarth (which I put on hiatus in like 2018 intending to come back to... but I haven't, and I make no guarantee that I will even though over 650 of the 800 planned pages are done). Crosarth is... fine? The art isn't great in either of these, but UnCONventional carries itself with the humor.

But that's all old stuff. You may be like "Trae, what have you been producing for the last four years," and the answer is "not a lot." I got major creative block with the pandemic. Peregrine Lake, the "Northwoods Gothic" comic I was supposed to launch in 2020 (which has some characters from UnCONventional in it) didn't materialize when I said it would. What storytelling energy I had went into Stormwood & Associates and The Meatgrinder (my two actual play podcasts), but that was it.

And then 2023 happened, and the juices started flowing again.

Peregrine Lake is moving forward -- but with me just doing the writing. My urge to draw has not returned, but my urge to write has. A friend of mine, Ethan Flanagan, is drawing it, and I've written the first year of comics. It likely won't launch any time soon (the artist I'm working with is busy as hell so we want to get a shit-ton of the comic done before we launch it -- we have like the first month and a half of the comic ready?). But yeah -- it's happening. I hoping for Spring, but we'll see.

The other thing though is that I've started writing, like, novels. I've always had like twenty ideas in my head, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I decided to start with the idea I cared the least about (in case I fucked it up): A queer urban fantasy story.

In the last month and a half I've written complete drafts of two different novels in this setting, and am halfway through another one... and have another one outlined.

I, uh, had some ideas.

If you're asking yourself "Hey Trae -- what the fuck? That's a lot" you need to know a few things that aren't obvious. At one point in college, in 72 hours, I produced over 40 pages of text between three research papers. All were for 300 level courses, and I may have disassociated while writing them because I frankly don't remember most of it. But, like, they were decent papers.

One of those papers is in Google Scholar.

Anyway, yeah. I haven't been sleeping great because I've been obsessively writing, but you might ask "Why didn't you just write one and get it ready to publish?" That's a great question. Because I wrote a book, and when I was 3/4 of the way through it I realized something very important: This book would make a great sequel to a book I haven't written. I've been writing book two in a series where I haven't written book one yet.

Well fuck.

So I finished that draft, and I went and wrote book one. Now that book? That book I'm getting ready to publish. I expect to have it out in January. Part of my editing process involves setting what I think is a completed, good, revised draft down for a couple of weeks and then returning to it with fresh eyes. We're in that waiting period right now.

But I still had a bunch of energy.

So the first thing I did was a revising draft on book two (the one I wrote first), but I finished that. And had more energy. And more stories in this setting kept popping up.

So I started a third book. And I'm halfway through the first draft of that book. But then I realized yesterday... shit, this isn't book three.

This is book four.

I need stuff to happen before we get to this story.

So now I've outlined the actual book three, and am working on literally both of these books at once (I'll take a break for Christmas and then go do a final edit on Book One).

And... I'm just like... why am I like this?

I need to stop myself for a few days and get more sleep.

[silverynight]

By blood

<---Previous

Part VII

Tanjirou is still hurt and exhausted when Genya and he manage to go back to the butterfly estate. The redhead gives his friend another hug.

"Thanks for taking care of me," he mumbles, beaming in a way that makes Genya turn completely red and look down.

"I did nothing."

"You know that's not true."

The butterfly girls find them and the kakushi take them to one of the recovery rooms; Tanjirou thinks it's not necessary for him to stay that long, but Aoi glares at him in such a way he has no other choice, but to let her check on his wounds.

They tell them a half version of what truly happened because neither of them can mention Akaza.

Although Tanjirou feels bad for lying and he can't help but think about the upper moon again and what Genya has told him about him.

It's difficult for him to believe that he loves him, but he's not going to lie and say that part of him doesn't believe it.

However, it's scary because that would mean thinking about his own feelings too and Tanjirou is not sure he's completely ready to do that at the moment.

"I'm going to inform the Pillars," Aoi says then.

"You don't have to."

"I do," she argues, slightly irritated. "You know how much they worry about you. They probably want to see you."

Tanjirou would like to see them too because he misses them every time he goes on a mission, but he's not sure he's prepared to see them either.

They will ask questions.

"Okay," he blurts out anyway because it's not like he has other choice.

The first ones to arrive are Tomioka, Shinazugawa and Kocho; Tanjirou can't help but smile when he sees that the wind hashira goes to check on his younger brother while the other two make sure Tanjirou is alright.

However, after a couple of minutes, the white haired hashira turns around, takes him in his arms and bites Tanjirou's cheek softly.

"Let him rest," Tomioka scolds the other Pillar, who just ignores him completely.

Later Kanroji and Tokito arrive as Kocho is inspecting Tanjirou's wounds yet again; fortunately, his legs are not hurt so there's no need for her to see his thighs. Akaza's marks are still visible even though it's been a while since he bit him last.

Uzui brings his wives who start fussing over him; Hinatsuru offers to make food for Tanjirou and pulls Makio and Suma towards the kitchen.

Himejima, Iguro and Rengoku get there last, but they immediately ask the others about Tanjirou's condition.

Even though he finds his Pillars' concern endearing, he can't help but roll his eyes a little bit.

"I'm fine," he mumbles. "The doctor did an amazing job at patching me up. And Genya brought me here."

Rengoku turns around and bows in front of the boy with the mohawk.

"Tanjirou means the world to us; thank you for taking care of him. We'll never forget it."

"I didn't do much..."

"Nonsense!" Shinazugawa grins, hitting his brother's back in a playful way. "You were great!"

Tanjirou would've smiled at that display of affection then if it wasn't because he was still thinking about the way Rengoku said that Tanjirou meant the world to them.

"You don't have–" Tanjirou gets cut off by Kanroji's kisses; the love hashira starts pressing her lips all over his face until Tanjirou turns slightly pink. "Wait. Kanroji-san, are you okay? Why are you crying?"

"Mitsuri, give him some space," Iguro pulls her gently before embracing the other Pillar. "He's alright now."

Kanroji says something that Tanjirou doesn't understand, but that's when Uzui steps closer to him.

"We want you to stop going on missions."

Tanjirou really likes his Pillars, but it doesn't please him at all when they treat him like something fragile.

"I want to help," he mumbles. "I'm here for a reason and I won't stop until I find a cure for demons."

Months ago he would've said Nezuko, but now he can't help but think about Akaza too; he also wants a cure.

He still wants it, right? Even though he's angry with Tanjirou at the moment.

"We can do that for you," Tokito offers without hesitation.

"I can't stay here while you risk your lives for me," Tanjirou can't do that; he'd never forgive himself.

They look at each other like they have talked about it before, like part of them knew that would be his answer.

"Would you marry us, Tanjirou?"

The redhead would've believed that was just a joke if it wasn't because Himejima asked the question, not Uzui.

"W-What?"

"It's okay if you don't want to," Tomioka assures him. "But we want you to know that we love you and it'd be an honor to have you as our husband."

Tanjirou's face must be almost as red as his hair at the moment because his cheeks feel extremely warm.

"You love me? All of you?"

"We honestly thought it was obvious at this point," Uzui winks at him. "It's not like we've been trying to hide it or anything."

They love him and they just admitted it out loud. Tanjirou feels his heart happily beating inside his chest. So that's why he couldn't stop himself from calling them his Pillars in his mind.

He loves them too. For a moment it seems like there's only one thing to do, that the answer is right in front of him and it's obvious...

But then he thinks about Akaza and his heart hurts a bit.

"Can I think about it?"

"You can take as much time as you need," Kocho assures him with a sincere smile. "We'll always be waiting for you."

"Would you let us court you at least?" Rengoku asks with a pleading expression, he looks really excited about the perspective of courting Tanjirou.

"Yes, you can," the redhead says, feeling warm and fuzzy at the thought of it.

Makio, Suma and Hinatsuru get really happy when Uzui tells them Tanjirou agreed to the courtship; they kiss him on the cheeks and assure him they can't wait for him to be part of their family too.

Which leads to Shinazugawa and Tokito glaring in their direction and reminding them Tanjirou is not going to be only theirs.

They spend a nice evening together, until some of them have to go; they all have busy lives and too many responsibilities. Tanjirou knows they're making a huge effort just to be with him and he really appreciates it.

When they all are gone, Tanjirou has confront all those thoughts he pushed aside while his Pillars were with him.

Although it surprises him when Genya puts a hand on his shoulder and is the first one to actually address the main issue.

"I'm really happy for you, Tanjirou. I truly am, but I think you should tell him."

Yeah, he needs to talk with Akaza; he has to see him again.

"And then you should tell the Pillars everything."

"You're right," Tanjirou nods, determined. "I can't let them court me without being completely honest with them."

Tanjirou's chest hurts and a bad feeling suddenly spreads like a shiver down his spine; he knows everything is going to change after that, but he's done with hiding things from the people he loves.

***

Next--->

Patreon

[genericpuff]

Ladies and gentlemen... we got 'em.

Every now and then, Rachel will post a sketch to her IG story or her page, oftentimes accompanied with a caption that states how hard at work she is.

Now, some of my pals and I in the UnpopularLO Discord have been taking note of the time stamps of when these get posted, so we could keep an eye out for when they inevitably show up in an episode. Normally I wouldn't be hyperanalyzing a creator's posting habits like this, but there's been a unanimous suspicion among the LO community that Rachel's buffer for LO is only a couple weeks ahead at any given time. So, we waited. We kept our eyes peeled for these panels to show. And hoo boy, are the results of this little experiment pretty damning.

The sketch on the left was posted to Rachel's IG about 4 weeks ago. It showed up in Episode 219, posted last week on October 29th.

The sketch on the right was posted to Rachel's IG story on October 27th. It showed up in this week's episode, November 5th, just a little over a week later.

I'm not gonna pretend like we know all the facts from this evidence alone, but again, people have been suspicious over this for a while now so seeing these finished drawings show up in the new episodes anywhere from a week to a month later tells us a lot. To lay out some of the brunt of it:

Whatever buffer Rachel has is small and shrinking fast. There was a 2 week break at the start of the season to "rebuild LO's buffer", and from cross-referencing the HxP make-out sketch and when the episode went up, we know that the buffer at one point was around 4 weeks. Most Originals creators are encouraged to have a buffer of 9-15 episodes, not episodes in progress, but actual finished episodes that are ready for posting, so that the series can still update with new episodes even if the creator needs to take a break for a week or two or if an emergency arises in their life. With the proof of last week's sketches showing up in last night's episode, I think it's highly probable we'll be seeing another 2 week break by the time December rolls around, but it will likely be presented under the guise of a "holiday break".

Rachel does the roughs at the last minute and nothing more. It's basically been confirmed at this point that Rachel's only contribution to the comic is the roughs and script. From former interviews and Patreon chit chat posts that allude to this, to the fact that the only progress pics from Rachel that we ever see are roughs, to the credits in every episode that feature upwards of five separate assistants working on each episode but somehow the comic still manages to have incredibly inconsistent plot threads and art that looks like it's been rushed, Rachel is basically just doing the roughs for her comic, writing/drawing one panel at a time, and passing them along to her assistants to finish at the last minute. This would account for the art being so inconsistent (Rachel's roughs likely aren't very polished and don't feature any sort of referencing or direction for the team), every episode now being made up of mostly copy+pasted panels, as well as it feeling so rushed, because the assistants literally don't have time to draw different shots or put the episode through any rounds of clean-up before submitting it.

Considering there are ALSO sketches of HxP fluff that haven't made it into an episode yet*, Rachel may as well be working on fluff content before she works on anything else. Just because that H x P panel was drawn 4 weeks prior to it being uploaded doesn't mean that's the buffer. She could have just as well drawn it first because it's what she felt like drawing and either shoehorned it in somewhere or just saved the 'boring' stuff for last. So either her buffer was only a month ahead of time at one point and has since shrunk back down to 1-2 weeks, or she's working on new episodes a week at a time and saves the 'boring' stuff for last hence why each episode ends up with so many repeated copy+paste panels and drawn out dialogue. Both scenarios are terrible and indicative of a creator who is both clueless and doesn't give a shit.

Rachel spends an absurd amount of time on social media. Between her Instagram and Twitter (both of which are often chock full of re-shared fan content that has the Lore Olympus hashtag on it) her new Tiktok account, her VERY strictly moderated FastPass FB groups (that she is an administrator for so she can lock any thread that has a hint of criticism in it**) and her Discord, Rachel seems to spend the majority of her time stalking her favorite hashtags and retweeting them (I've literally had some of my own fanart pieces retweeted within SECONDS of me posting them). But she'll still put out Tiktok videos talking about how behind she is and how hard she's working - literally working on episodes the week they're due as we've proven - videos that she's clearly spending time away from her comic to make and that she's sticking around in afterwards to check the stats and respond to comments from her fans. It's great that she's sharing fanart from her readers, but not so great if she's doing it so much that it's eating into her time to develop the very comic they're creating fanart for.

Hot take, but I can't help but feel that Rachel can only afford to not give a shit about her workflow and how she manages her team because she's in the top 1% of creators. Believe me, I've seen the stress building up in the WT Originals community from creators who are being vastly underpaid and overworked. None of them can afford to be so lazy with their work, because a single week without an episode for them means not paying the rent that month. They don't get mid-season hiatuses, they don't get 2 week 'buffer build' breaks, it's a constant grind of 12-18 hour days because if their series doesn't perform well, not only will they not get renewed for another season, but they likely won't even receive any FastPass revenue due to not hitting the 'threshold' they need to hit to receive it. This is not a problem for Rachel who is someone with millions of subscribers and thousands of regular readers checking in each week but also someone who we speculate got in on the FP program before they introduced the Minimum Revenue Threshold around 2020. Hence, she likely does not need to hit that threshold in the first place to receive her earnings. Every other Originals creator who is subject to the MRT system has to work their ass off and hope that Webtoons will give them enough promotion to draw in traffic to hit that threshold and not get cancelled - but those beneficial front-facing slots are often given to Lore Olympus every time it updates, often for an entire weekend at a time, while its creator fucks around on Twitter, gets mad at 'haters', talks about how busy and 'behind' she is, while she visibly miffs around with non-comic-production-related-things like making memes or rigging Vtuber models.

Let's just say, there's a reason why whenever there are Webtoon controversies concerning the state of their working conditions, you never see Rachel say a word. She is simply not affected by WT's current state of affairs so does not feel the need to speak up against it. I'm willing to bet the only time we'll ever see Rachel talk 'bad' about Webtoons, it will be after she's inevitably driven her own image and comic into the ground.

Concerning *: Here are some sketches that haven't made it into any episodes yet. It's hard to tell if they will, I can assume the one on Twitter will show up but the other two could very well just be Rachel faffing about for fun. Either way, these exist and are still publically viewable, so if they DO show up in any future episodes, we can cross-reference them later.

Left: Oct 28th Middle: Nov 4th Right: Oct 29th

The following Hades panel will very likely show up in the upcoming November 12th FastPass episode. If it does, that not only tells us Rachel truly is only working on these episodes 1-2 weeks ahead at a time, but also that she's working on them out of order as this FINISHED drawing showed up BEFORE the UNFINISHED Persephone sketch from above showed up in her IG story - with its respective finished drawing showing up literally a week later.

Concerning **: Rachel is literally an administrator in the official LO FastPass group on Facebook, which wouldn't be an issue if she weren't so anal about any perceived slight against her work. She will literally lock any thread that doesn't make her look good.

And her own interactions with these fans posts may as well be borderline psychotic. She'll either immediately refute any amount of fan theories on the spot (destroying any semblance of discussion or fun theorizing to be had) or just... comment really messed up shit that says a lot about her and how she writes her precious cinnamon roll protagonist.

Fun fact, she got banned from a FB group that memes on LO because she tried to harass the administrators of the group to ban all criticism. The admins banned her instead. It's not really relevant to this post but I wanted to say it anyways because it's fucking hilarious.

***EDIT TO ADD: She didn't just get banned, she was so butthurt over it that she apparently bitched about it in her Patreon, which her cult accepted as permission to go after members of this same FB group. All just for not kissing the ground RS walked on. Literally psychotic cult behavior.

Let's Play creator mongie has done similar things, so this seems to just be a general attitude among the top-earning creators on WT (yikes), but that's another topic.

Concerning the actual topic at hand, the last thing I'll mention is, save for the credits at the end of each episode, Rachel barely ever gives her assistants credit when she goes on rants about how "busy" she is or how "successful" she's become. You'll never see her thank her assistants or give them credit for how easy they're making her life that she can get away with doing the roughs at the last minute and spend the rest of her time talking about her dog, showing off her new gel nails, or talking about how much of a workaholic she is. But she sure as shit will throw her assistants under the bus whenever she has to come up with an excuse for the sloppy inconsistent art.

TL ; DR: Rachel is not 'busy'. She's just incredibly bad at managing her deadlines and team of assistants and would literally rather whine about how behind she is to make it sound like she's pressed for time. Which, she absolutely is. But it's not because of Webtoons or because LO is a hard comic to put together, it's literally her own undoing. You know what they say - it takes way more work to pretend to look busy than it does to actually do your job.

Rant over.

[airenyah]

Your essay on Joong's underrated acting skills deepened my Joong appreciation so much, that I watched Mafia the Series, I'm watching Ploy's Yearbook (even though there is a serious lack of Joong so far), and I'm planning on watching The Warp Effect too. I haven't watched het shows in over ten years, so this is a big deal! 😂 I really liked him with Dunk in their shows, but MTS gave me another facet of him, because he's so timid in it, unlike in SIMM and HA, where he's (seemingly) very cool and in control. So thank you for making me a full time Joong (and Dunk) girl 💜

i saw this message first thing in the morning when i woke up yesterday and it instantly put me in a good mood!!! <3

YESSSSSS I'M SO HAPPY TO HEAR THAT

mafia the series might actually be my absolute fave thai het-show, it's just SO funny!!!! and the entire cast is so great, like, not just joong but the entire cast plays off each other SO well. and don't even get me started on gina virahya and her portrayal of anna kondra!!!!

you know, when i went into mafia the series i saw the poster and was like "ughh i really am gonna have to sit through this standard (overly) dramatic mafia show just for joong, huh. the things i do for my boy..." and then. AND THEN. you can imagine my surprise. i was crying tears of laughter throughout the show and i was actually laughing so hard that my mom made a comment about how she could hear my laugh in my room

beam is my loser boy and joong portrays him in such an adorably awkward way, i love it <333

and yes there IS a serious lack of joong in ploy's yearbook so far :((((

it was quite funny tho bc in the one scene where joong does show up i immediately recognized him by the back of his head, like!! i saw this:

and instantly went "OH there's my boy!!!!!" 😂😂😂

and i can't wait to see him with film bc film did extremely well with gun in not me and i feel like film and joong will also work together really well

you know, i'm always happy to turn people into full time joong (and dunk) girls!!!!!!

i've adored them ever since simm which i watched live from ep2 onwards. fun fact, actually: when i started simm i actually had no idea who they were (even though technically i'd seen dunk in bad buddy already, except i wasn't paying attention to the random high school bandmates and so i didn't actually recognize dunk and only realized later on ahahah)

aaaanyway, i had no idea who they were, right? and so in 2022 my mom and i spent two nights in prague during easter and in the evening we were in our hotel room and we were kinda looking for something to watch. and i was like "hey look, gmmtv has a new bl out and it looks kinda cute and fluffy judging by the thumbnails?? and like something that doesn't require too much brain power?? plus, there's also only two eps out so far, so we'll be caught up right away" and so we watched the first two episodes and then the two of us ended up watching every new ep together every week hahaha

i actually didn't really talk about it on tumblr back then and when you go back on my blog you'll see that there are hardly any simm post. but really, with every new simm episode that aired i liked joongdunk more and more. and especially once the characters started dating i was actually so in awe about just how comfortable joong and dunk were with each other and how they absolutely weren't afraid to touch? like, their physical affection was just so casual, like it was the most natural thing in the world to them in an "i'm-not-even-thinking-about-it-bc-it's-so-normal" kind of way and that was just soooo refreshing to watch?? i was (and still am) truly amazed

and when just a couple of months later, at the end of 2022 gmmtv announced joongdunk were gonna get another show together i got SO excited!! and also when it was revealed that simm was included in our skyy 2!!!!

and then hidden agenda started airing and then i was tagged in that tag game and then i went to watch joong's entire filmography and then i ended up falling into a joongdunk rabbit hole and here we are...

anyway, i have multiple agendas and one of them is turning people into joong fans and dunk fans and joongdunk fans sllksdfd

and my other agenda is getting people to watch mafia the series, bc it's truly a gem of a show!!!!

(speaking of agendas: the only thing that's missing in your message is you telling me that you approve of my fight for a sexy joongdunk vampire bl, like... that would have made the message and the influence of my joong/dunk/joongdunk blogging complete 😂😂😂)

[firstkanaphans]

okay, so based off of the lineup we saw from part 1 I think I see gmmtv's logic process (to clarify, not saying i'm happy about it, just that i think i see what they're doing 😂)

it seems like they saved a lot of their more experimental and/or riskier pitches for this part 1 - basically the ones that are more likely to slip under the radar if they'd been presented alongside the big fan fave pairings, directors and/or show concepts. but to make it a little more even they did pad it somewhat with a few easy fan faves like offgun and geminifourth to keep it a little more even.

my guess for why they saved firstkhao for part 2 is because they're saving part 2 for the big hard hitting pairs and show concepts. this way, the shows that would be more likely to go under the radar in part 1 get some time to shine on their own and garner interest before the big name shows/directors come in and occupy the fan discussion circles.

this way it also keeps fans coming back to watch pt 2 for the pairs that they're waiting to see. i also think it gives the producers some time to take a temp check and see what fans are/aren't interested in before committing to their 2nd half.

on one hand, it does suck that we have to wait a while longer before we see our boys again, but on the other, at least we'll have something to look forward to in dec/jan! also, even though they definitely deserve better than to be used as fan bait, i'm also kind of weirdly proud of our fk boys being saved for the pt 2 because that means they've officially made it in the big ranks if they are being used to boost ratings, haha 😂 :')

So, I’m going to put this under a read more because y’all’ve had to listen to me gripe enough for one day. Fair warning: Apparently, I’m still heated so open at your own risk.

This is a very nice thought, Anon, but honestly, I don't think these people have any idea what they're doing 😂 If their idea was to use Part 1 to make people more excited for Part 2, then they failed miserably considering they didn't even tell us when Part 2 was. Next week? Next month? Next year? No one knows. Much less us, the viewers.

Right now, I just feel used. If they had announced all of the shows today and FirstKhaotung didn't get anything, I would have been disappointed, but I at least wouldn't feel like the possibility of them was being dangled in front of me like a carrot. I feel like P'Tha is in his evil lair, stroking his chin, saying, "Let's see how well they sell out their next couple fan meets then we'll make a final decision on whether to give them a new series." Dishonor on all their cows!

Splitting this into 2 parts was just a bad idea all around. Like are they really going to have another big to-do in a couple months (unlikely) or is Part 2 just going to be held on the GMMTV Live House set? Neo and Mark can host since they apparently don't have anything better to do either.

As to why they split the show into two parts, I’ve seen some people hypothesize that the Only Friends cast wasn’t included because they wouldn’t have had time to film the trailers, but they’ve been done filming OF for a while. If the cast didn’t have time to film trailers, it’s because GMMTV has them flying all over the world to fan meets every weekend. And that’s on GMMTV. Those fan meets should not get in the way of actual acting. 

A better guess, in my opinion, is that whatever director they’re scheduled to work with is the one who didn’t have time to film a trailer. P’Jojo for instance is apparently editing Only Friends episodes on a week-to-week basis so it makes sense that he wouldn’t have time to film anything. I hope this means that FK might be working with a very solid director, but they’ve also just recently started following New Siwaj on Twitter so that specter will continue haunting us for the next couple months (or more) as well. 

I just personally feel that GMMTV has really backed themselves into a corner here because now if FK don’t get something legitimately good, I’m going to be even more pissed than I already am. You kept me waiting for this?? And the cherry on top of this already horrendous situation is the fucking School Rangers announcement.

I cannot tell you how mad I am about the School Rangers thing. School Rangers is where they send actors to die. White’s been holding his own there for years because no one wants to cast him in anything else. So, to bolster ratings, they throw the entire cast of Only Friends in there. It pisses me off! They’re using our built-in fanbase for views on a show they don’t even have the decency to translate. Can you tell I'm angry?

Bottom line: these are actors. Let them fucking act. Because if you keep making them do ridiculous game show shit, they’re going to fucking leave—and I would not blame them at all. FK could probably make more money with a YouTube channel at this point.

I’m sorry I’m being so negative about this. To clarify: I do think FK are getting a series together (since they’re clearly not in anything else 🙃). And I don’t even need them to be in a series together to be happy. I just need them to be in fucking something. 

I mean, if there’s one bright side to all of this, it’s that I can’t imagine they’ll do this shit again because they’ve managed to piss off so many fandoms. I remember watching the show last year and being so fucking excited but now, I can’t even get excited about the few shows I'm interested in because there's this huge “what if?” hanging over our heads. The long, drawn-out wait for news just seems cruel and I think they should all go fuck themselves, honestly.

[squippy360]

Tony Stark x Male Reader

Part 1:

cw:(alternate ending, tony's ending, getting saved)

(Previously)

I moaned louder when I came again. I felt him slam into me one last time before he pressed my body flush against his. "I love your pretty little voice." He growled. I moaned at that and squirmed when Steve let my arms free. Tony glared at Steve. "He doesn't belong to you!" Tony yelled out. 

Steve rolled his eyes and smirked. "Oh really~" He said and dropped me on the ground. I fell on my hands and knees. I was on the verge of crying when he backed up a few steps. "Go to your Master then." Steve said and put a hand on his hip. "Listen M/n, you're in a very vulnerable position right now. Please. Let me get you out of here. I get you think you love him right now but once you get your memory back, you won't anymore!" Tony begged out. 

"Please! Just come home to us! We all want you back. We'll do anything! Please M/n!" Tony yelled. I sat there, processing what he was saying. Tony had tears in his eyes. "Just come home! I don't care how long it takes or how much therapy you will need. There is a softer bed and better people waiting at home for you, they all want you back. I want you back!" Tony yelled, obviously emotional. 

I stared at him for a couple of moments, I saw flashes of old memories flash in my mind. 'Tony…" I thought and began to crawl over to him. 

Steve got on his knee. "Come here, Love~" Steve purred. I looked over at him for a few moments. "Love?" I mumbled back. "I'll love you even more than that monster!" Tony said. 

I looked between both of them. Tears started rolling down my face. I was struggling to make a decision. My sensitive mind was only meant for obeying and I was beginning to get a headache. 

"W-What…" I whimpered. Steve hummed and motioned for me to come over to him. "Come on, My Little Prince~ I'll buy you all the toys and clothes you want~ I'll make sure to stuff you everyday~" Steve purred. 

I was so tempted to crawl over to him. I inched over slowly, still unsure. "M/n! Please! I don't care what I have to buy you, how much attention I have to give you, or how long it will take for you to recover, I just want you! I want you home with me and everybody else! Please!" Tony yelled. 

More of my memory came back, making me groan slightly. I crawled over to Tony and looked back at Steve. "Can I stay with him?" I whimpered out. 

Steve got up, his soft smile suddenly gone and he walked up to Tony. I gasped and backed up, clawing my way up weakly as I hit the button that dropped Tony's chains. 

Tony gave Steve a death glare before shooting him over and over again with his nanotech. I sobbed silently and turned my head away as Tony continued his wrath. "Your! Fucking! Dead! To! Us!" He yelled and shot one final blast, incinerating his corpse. I was shaking in the corner, curled up and facing away from him. 

I gasped when I heard him walk over to me. He picked me up gently and sat me on the bed. "I'm so happy you're 

ok…" He said.

Tony took the clothes off the floor that I had on earlier and carefully dressed me.  I nodded and yawned. "I'm…so tired…" I said as I avoided the sight of my Captain's remains. After the adrenaline died down a bit, all the bruises finally started to break out and I winced in pain. I leaned into Tony's soft touch and promptly fell asleep. 

(Timeskip to a few hours later)

I woke up in a familiar place. An IV and  a heart rate monitor were attached to me. I groaned and started getting up. A hand held me down. "Ah! Ah! Ah! No moving." They said carefully. I whined and looked up, seeing a familiar pair of glasses. "B-Bruce? W-What…?" I mumbled. Another hand came up and stroked my face. "I'm glad you're awake…" Tony said. 

I stared at him for a few moments before pulling him into a tight hug. "Thank you…I knew I should have listened to you…" I mumbled quietly. He held me tight, not wanting to let go. 

For months, I didn't leave Tony's side, not even to go to therapy or to get diagnosed for any mental issues. He was concerned for my health and took me anyway.

After 2 years of treatment, for the both of us, we were almost somewhat back to my normal self. Everyone was finally comfortable being around us again and hanging out with us. Tony seemed to be happy and finally didn't feel guilty when he asked me out. 

"I love you so much, Tony~" I mumbled to him. 

"I love you too, M/n." Tony whispered back and we just enjoyed each other's company, comfortably.

[jmflowers]

I don't want to gush but gahhhhh I love hygge universe so muuuch!!! There's just something about how Maya and Carina interact with each other. They have a bunch of things to work out, Andrea is quirky and Bea is a handful but there's just so much love underneath. Ok just kidding...I'll gush.

I LOVE that you chose to come to my inbox and gush/not gush. Thank you soooooooo much. I actually read this aloud to my mom? (She wasn't as excited as I was, of course.)

Hygge Universe is one of my most prized creations because it's kept me company through like... a year and a half? Two years? Of my life. I always wanted to create a family!fic universe because @a-windsor 's Thing!Verse meant so much to me when I was just a wee little fic reader. I'd never found the right fandom for it, though.

And then I was in college and I was surrounded by men all the time, talking about men who made films and men who acted in films and men who told stories about men who did men things. It was like drowning every day, so I came home and wrote soft, loving stories about women who loved each other and their children and got to have happy endings.

I didn't know it at the time, but I was writing about a little boy whose fictional birth is just a couple months before my real nephew. (And almost exactly a month before my youngest niece, and mere days after my high school best friend's little girl...) I'm waiting to see if the universe pulls a fast one and bestows another child in my life who'd be the same age as Beatrice. We'll see...

But anyways, yeah! I wanted it to be a place where under everything, there was always love. Andrea was a slow-growing conglomerate of ideas shared by friends and pieces of people I love (mostly my brother) and snippets of his moms. I love his trajectory of starting out as this weird, nerdy, intelligent kid and growing into someone capable of putting himself and his own needs first, while still showing up and loving others. That's probably something I wish for my own brother, honestly. Andrea as a teenager and a young adult (I've written a fair bit for him that hasn't yet been shared) is just... cool and kind and adept at reading others. He's got jokes, too.

Bea, though... I think she came out of my head fully formed. There's never been much question for me of where she's going and what she's going to accomplish. I want so badly to have the time and the readership to tell her entire story. (Hopefully that dream comes true.) She's all the spunk of each of the second-borns in my family and a touch of the bravery I see in people I admire and so much of who Carina and Maya were when we first met each of their characters. She's one of those kids who start out sure of themselves and then face a setback and aren't really sure how to recover right away. But she does - I promise. There's a happy ending for both of these children who live in my head.

It means the world to me that anyone cares even a fraction of how much I care about this universe. It's been one of the greatest joys of my life to share it with others. Receiving the love refuels me to keep writing away at it, even though the deadline of the finale is looming. I hope this community that's been built still exists when the show is over. I'm not done telling stories about Station 19 yet.

[gemgirl28]

I'm sure I'm not the first person to notice this by any means, but I realized that despite Sokka having a delightful character arc where he learns to chug his respect women juice and then does so for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, he never really seems to acknowledge his sexist ways to the first person who we see calling him out for it - Katara.

And sure, there's something to be said for prideful siblings not wanting to admit they were wrong to someone that can hold it over their head for the rest of their lives but I also think Sokka is better than that.

I think this conversation would go hand in hand with him and Katara having a heart to heart post TSR, and I think it would go something like this.

Katara slowed as she approached Appa, remembering how upset Sokka had been when they left. She swallowed, heart racing in anticipation of talking to him, when he looked up from the bag he was handing to Suki.

"Katara!" Sokka cried, wrapping her in a huge hug. "Are you okay?"

She squeezed him tight, relieved he wasn't still mad at her. "I'm fine, yeah."

"Listen... can we talk?" He asked, as he pulled back from the hug. Katara nodded and offered a reassuring smile.

"Sure, do you want to walk on the beach after you get settled in your room?"

"I'll take your bags up," Suki cut in, already hoisting two packs on her back. "I don't think he wants to wait any longer to talk to you," she added with a warm smile to Katara.

"Okay."

"Thanks Suki," Sokka said, kissing her cheek and then gesturing for Katara to lead the way.

They walked along the shore for a few minutes in silence, save for the breaking of the waves upon the sand. Katara let the noise settle her nerves and worry from the past few days.

Abruptly, Sokka stopped and faced her. "I owe you an apology. Actually- I owe you several apologies."

"Sokka-"

"Please, I need to say this." He took a deep breath and nodded. "It wasn't fair of me to tell you not to go on this trip. You're right- we both loved Mom, but in different ways. I never thought about how much her death took from you, because all the things she used to do... you just took over. I miss her, because she was our mom, and she was incredible, but I realize now that for you... losing her meant losing so much more. And I'm sorry."

"Sokka," she tried again, feeling tears well in her eyes. "I forgive you. I know I wasn't exactly... calm when I asked."

He snorted. "No, but you shouldn't have to be calm all the time. And I'm sorry too, that I've come to rely on you so much for everything and not offered anything in return."

Katara gaped at him, wondering when her brother had grown so wise.

"And I'm sorry that I've spent so much of our lives, but especially since Mom died, being a sexist jerk. I've tried to be better these past few months, but I sill haven't apologized for how rude I was to you, and I'm sorry."

She flung her arms around his neck, pulling him in for another hug. He stumbled but quickly recovered, hugging her back.

"Of course I forgive you, you dunderhead." She chuckled even as tears streamed down her cheeks. "But thank you for saying it anyways."

After another minute she released him and wiped at her eyes. "We better get back so I can start on dinner."

He threw his arm over her shoulder and tugged her back up to the house. "So we can start on dinner. Zuko said you've had a busy couple of days, you should take it easy."

Katara thought of Sokka's poor knife skills and inability to boil water and grimaced.

"I hope your girlfriend's a better cook than you then, or else we'll all starve."

She laughed at his affronted guffawing, but she saw the smile beneath it and knew they would be okay.

[cleoselene]

I might have gone a little nuts at Amazon this month but THAT'S OKAY, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY ON THE 14TH, THESE ARE TREATS FOR ME.

Actually it's mostly stuff for the house. I'm redecorating my living room and got some stuff we just NEED for that purpose and for general house use. Like we've never had many cups so I ordered a bunch of decent sized plastic cups. I got a stepladder to help with redecorating, and some more hanger hooks. I got 12x12 frames to put up record inserts/sleeves that are artistically appealing. Going to put a section of the wall devoted to family and dog pics, the rest is records. Aside from my Rothko and my framed Leighton Meester + Check in the Dark Poster. but I probably pulled 45 framed pics off the all (I told you I went maximalist XD)

also ordered a couple of surge protectors and some new fairy lights for the living room. For the longest time we lived on fairy light only illumination and it was pleasant, but our light set died. I got 66 feet and it can change color by remote. Hopefully it's enough, but it was only like 7 dollars so if I need to order another 66 feet that's no big.

and really, THIS one is happy birthday to me: I ordered the special limited edition clear version of VNV Nation's Empires. I still need Automatic, Noire, and Transnational on vinyl to round out all their available albums, and I *do* want them all but most of them are shipping from Europe which is EXPENSIVE. This one is from the UK but for some reason only charging 7 pounds for shipping, so it'll probably take 10000 years lol. Or maybe it's just their version of media mail and that's why it's so cheap? Media mail is dope man, as a vinyl collector I double plus love it.

I think the roommates are probably getting me COWBOY CARTER on vinyl for my birthday >_> I strongly hinted to them that the blue vinyl would be a GR8 birthday gift hahah

also my mom owes me some money so I am not BROKE broke. If they don't get it for me I can afford to order it. And I already paid for TTPD (The Black Dog version) on vinyl so that's covered. I wanna get it on CD too, and probably the same for TTPD so I can listen to them in my car. It's been my tradition since I became a fan of Taylor's to buy the CD for my car but that was before I became a vinyl collector (literally my first ever vinyl was a signed copy of Midnights that a friend sweetly bought for me, thus the addiction started) so I'm not sure. I don't like buying things twice. We'll see how much I love TTPD? I think COWBOY CARTER is worth buying twice, I love it that much. TTPD might make me feel the same way, but either way, i wouldn't get the same version? Like I got Black Dog for Vinyl, I would get one of the other variants for CD. Maybe I'll wait to see which of the songs I like best and order accordingly.

also, Beth Gibbons' first solo album in May T___T she is probably my favorite living female vocalist (no one can touch the late great Whitney). She's been working on this album more than a decade I know it's going to be SO good

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (22/10/23)

next week is gonna have another big catch up, I was actually gonna do it the week after I did jujutsu but then realized next week it'd be the 200 chap for this series so decided to postpone it until then just cause it's a cool big round number, tho today's chap 199 woulda been fitting too since it was the colour page for the serie's 4th anni but anyhoo also starting from now the stuff I talk about will be bolded as seen below, yeah I shoulda done this from the start cause it's way more readable and stuff but the other thing I did made more sense at the time I started it, but this is better overall now

Anime

Hoshikuzu Telepath Ep2

nice epiosde mostly just introducing the 3rd member of our main group, next ep is gonna be aoki shiki's chara so that should be good

Frieren Ep7

very good ep like usual, the demon story in the middle was pretty obvious but it was still good. very excited for the next episode considering the cliffhanger and the title for it, hoping for some more sakuga 🙏

Undead Unluck Ep3

great episode all around, loved hearing my queen yuuki as gina, too bad we won't see much more of her til cour 4 or 5 (depending on how fast adaptation goes) but it'll be worth the wait. also, since I read all of UU from start to just some months ago, in just a couple days I had things very fresh on my mind so I noticed it easily, but it's really crazy to see how early tozuka set up seeds for future payoffs, I won't mention what exactly cause spoilers but there were 3 ones in this episode and it really is great writing and storytelling to be able to pull that off

Pokemon Horizons Ep25

nice and action packed episode, fit for being the end of this initial cour/arc, which we only found out about earlier this week. should be getting a new op along with the new subtitle and stuff but we'll see. we also got some lore like the full team of the ancient adventurer and that the evil organization was related to him in some way. the goal now is to find the rest of the team so that should last for 25 more eps probably but we'll see, there should still be gym stuff along the way and all that

Adult Precure Ep3

nice ep, lots of karen x kurumi moments which this artist I follow on twitter was certainly going hog wild for. saki and mai from splash star showed up at the end of this episode, and next one is gonna be about them, so that's cool since I didn't think they'd show up until the yes 5 girls had all gotten their transformations back

Imas Million Live Ep3

good ep as you'd expect, really enjoyed how much yuriko there was since she's one of my favs from ML (mikku 🙏), next episode is gonna have at least a crumb of rio so looking forward to that too they said the teather will take 2 months to finish building, I hope that it'll be finished after next episode just so we can move on to other stuff. not having this following the structure of the og anime/U149 makes it harder to predict what'll be happening

Manga

Ice-Head Gill Ch17

as expected it's ending soon, and as part of the U19 club as well, hopefully ichinose ends on the same week too, but I'll give more thoughts when it actually ends

Jujutsu Kaisen 239

I was looking forward to see how yuji and co were going to take on juiced up sukuna but we're taking a detour to have kenjaku fight, but with the twist that it's one of the most (unknowingly) op charas fighting him. I really like how goofy his power is so looking forward to this fight. tho I don't think there's any way he'll win

Undead Unluck Ch180

I could see this coming cause of fuuko saying all that earlier in the chap but it's still EXTREMELY POGGIES to have andy back after all this time, even if just temporarily, looking forward to them having a crumb of time together next chap

[skloomdumpster]

wait i though s1 took place in fall (since it's the begining of the semester) and s1 was only like 3 months so if they do a time jump i think it would be the second semester (january)

This was sent to me prev. s2 drop, but it's something that's bothering me a lot.

S1 takes place in fall, allegedly, since semesters start during fall in UK and Bloom's parents seem to think she's in boarding school at the Alps.

So we'll pretend S1 starts at the very beginning of September. Through Season 1, time passes. A couple months at the very least, as we have the characters saying "it's been weeks" every other episode.

By now I think it's safe to assume that students are actually allowed to leave school grounds during weekends (Implied by Terra in season 2 saying "another set of fairies didn't come back from the weekend"), so the visit Bloom and gang pay to the Peters was not the semester break, just them going during the weekend to explain everything.

IF we're very very generous, then season 1 takes place in 2 months, putting its ending in the start of November. Which is already very uncanny with how the characters themselves are acting. Sky says he's been watching Bloom for weeks since the speacialist party and in that same episode, before, he says Silva's been hurt for a week too. Ideally season 1 actually lasted 3 months, putting its end in December... Which doesn't make sense, because we end still in "fall"

But sure, November. Then Rosalind takes over and s2 starts and we had a time jump, because Silva's been in prison for months (someone please clarify to me how long he's been arrested, I dont have the episodes at hand rn). It seems his trial in ep 1 is after 2 months.

Later in episode 6, when Aisha faces off Grey, she says they've been seeing each other for months - Let's pretend "months" means only 2.

This puts the ending of season 2 in January.

So.... What the fuck happened to winter?

Do we not have seasons in the Otherworld? Do we not have special dates or holidays? Do seasons last longer in the Otherworld? I need answers

[subtle-edge-of-rot]

Hey there Payton! I hope you're having an amazing day and congrats on almost 800 followers, or maybe you already have 800, idk lmao.

Anyways, I have come with what may be the last update I have with Work Guy. Saturday was unfortunately the last day that I get to work with him until probably August/September. Unless my boss can find someone to work the position that I have to fill in.

So, on Saturday he shared a lot with me. A lot of it was personal and cute family stories. He even showed me photos of his baby pigs since neither of us really have the time for me to go out there and look at them. It's kind of busy for us both, but I don't mind since he showed me pictures 😌 He remembered that I wanted to see them at least haha

He was also telling me about these motorcycle trips that he wants to go on, and that got me real excited. I love motorcycles, and I plan on learning this summer(I think I already said that before lmao.) But he was telling me about them and I told him a few that I wanted to go to. I said that I wanted to find a friend or two that would be willing to go with me, but didn't know if it would be too weird to say that we could go, maybe. Especially since we haven't hung out outside of work, yet.

Then his riding lawnmower that he was using kept dying on him. So he would come to look for me to get me to help him jump it. He was so freaking cute when he would come over. He would have his head ducked down, watching his feet until I stopped weed eating, then he would look up at me and give me a half smile and ask me to help him. I swear he looked like a lost puppy. He did catch me singing away to Stone Temple Pilots. I don't know if he actually heard me over the weed eater, or if he just saw me bobbing my head. He was smiling all goofy at me though 😭

He did end up looking for me again. I wandered off to weed eat the other side of the camp ground and when I was heading back to the truck to put more gas in it he was looking around for me and it was so fucking cute. He saw me and came over to me to ask me if I would help him jump the mower, again. The battery is shit, honestly.

Then when we were leaving for the day. I did tell him, "If you ever wanna go fishing, just let me know." Because I got nervous and I know he likes fishing even though he says he never has the time to. I didn't wanna say something that would be like- idk weird or lame. He just smiled down at me, since we were walking side by side to our vehicles and was all "Oh yeah?" And I got nervous and just nodded my head and said "Yeah, I could always use more fishing buddies." Which he just chuckled at and nodded. He didn't really say much so I hope I didn't say the wrong thing.

He does have to drive by the Pay Booth that I'll be working in starting tomorrow. So we'll see if he actually stops and talks with me for a bit, or if he just drives by like he and the guys last year did and just give me a quick wave. I don't really blame them since last year none of us really knew one another. Work Guy trained me last year for the Booth, but that was it. I was really awkward and he was too so we never tried to be friends until this year when we worked together every day for a little over a month. I really hope he comes to talk to me, but idk we'll see. I'm not really trying to chase a guy ever again or look needy, I don't need to be used again 😭 I'm hoping since I offered to let him go with my friends and I to the movies a couple weeks ago, also that I offered to go fishing with him if he ever wants to then he'll end up trying to reach out. Idk, we'll see. It has reached the waiting game era.

Hi Ori! I hope you’re having/had a good day! I’m not to 800 yet, still hanging out at 799! Hopefully we get to the big 800 here soon, I’m so excited!

Nooo this can’t be the last update!!! I love these updates so much.

I’m glad he opened up and showed you his piglets and he looked out for you. I think he’s gonna miss having you around, considering how often his battery died and he specifically asked *you* for help. I bet he can’t wait for August/September rolls around so he can see you at work again.

Definitely invite him to go fishing sometime! Don’t give up or anything. It sounds like he was happy you offered.

I’m sure he’s gonna say hi to you at the pay booth. It sounds like you two hit it off!