#i think i'd be completely alex if I was a guy and had lived a less crappy life

[hussyknee]

Reading romantic stories starts to hurt at some point. Because the characters are enough like you to identify with, but nobody has ever loved you like that. You can't imagine anybody ever will.

[veren-cos]

Bachelors (sdv) x reader on their period

Gender neutral, but purely because of the prompt, afab reader. I'd say everything I write is gender neutral besides the very rare Trans masc reader ☆

Not proofread and I wrote this in like 25 min- I'll update this when I'm less tired.

Harvey

• A literal doctor.

• Is not weirded out like at all. He is all like, "Oh okay! Do you need anything at all?" And moved on with life

• Maybe has a little blush when you first talk about it? It's a completely normal thing at work (and in life), but it's just because it's you that he wants to make sure he handles it well.

• Would probably get you chocolate. And a heating pad. And blankets. And all the things.

• Aka would just spoil you a bit more than normal, periods suck and he knows-

• If you had any like disorder involving you Period he would be extra on top of stuff.

• Will make sure you are well stocked on and properly take pain meds!

Elliott

• Would just absolutely spoil you!

• Runs a bath, gets chocolate, threw your pajamas in the dryer to get them extra warm, heating pad.

• Might give you a massage if they are super painful? Probably would do it regardless but he would definitely offer if he knew that got bad.

• Idk why he knows so much, maybe it's because of Leah? I don't really write about the bachelotettes, but I feel like she would be super open about it so that's why Elliott knows a lot.

• But yeah he'd be super good to you! Would make you food just because. He is great at spoiling people, but not actually great at knowing what to do physically haha. (I think I mentioned in a previous fic where he just makes you soup if your in pain, he would do that here too)

Shane

• So if I just take Shane as a standalone character I don't think he'd know a lot / want to know/ care.

• But!

• Jas. I'm not sure what age she is supposed to be (literally anywhere from 7-12 imo) but I feel like Shane would have read up on Period stuff in preparation.

• So he would actually be more informed than Elliott!

• Now onto the actual stuff lol-

• He wouldn't be super pamper-y like Elliott and Harvey, but he would definitely help around the house more.

• Animals are all taken care of, crops are all watered, took care of some weeds, etc.

• He would also probably be a bit more physically affectionate purely because he knows you like it.

• Might be a bit embarrassed about it at first but after the first one he gets the gist of what to do.

Alex

• Would be relatively informed just because he is a health nut, but also doesn't know what to do because the most important woman in his life is postmenopausal-

• Probably would just give you chocolate and hugs because he knows like. Emotional and cravings.

• If they were super bad he would ask his grandma for help!

• Wouldn't be embarrassed about it! Once again. Health nut. Gets you pain meds!

Sebastian

• Okay. So. Sebastian.

• Literally lives with 2 ladies. Both very strong confident women. He wouldn't be uninformed by any means, but he probably is still awkward around the topic lmao

• Like if you were complaining he would be like "...." "am I supposed to do something about that?"

• AND HE DIDNT MEAN IT IN A RUDE WAY he was genuinely asking. But he just doesn't know and also is an awkward guy?

• Would do the least out of all the Bachelor's. Maybe just be more emotionally available because Period mood swings be rough. Makes more time to talk about things with you.

• Grabs you ibuprofen or Tylenol, whatever you have in the house.

Sam

• So Sam lives with a kind of coddling mom, does not have sisters, so like. His mom wouldn't talk to him about it. He has no 'personal' experience with it.

• Would be the most clueless-

• But he would definitely be like, "oh babe that sucks let me know what I can do"

• Gives you more cuddles, helps on the farm.

• Super enthusiastic about making you comfortable! He makes it into a way bigger deal than it is but he is genuinely curious about stuff so you think it's cute.

• After your first one when your together he is much better prepared / informed so he isn't all over the place.

• Just very cute and well meaning.

An* I hope this was at least a little cute / silly / comforting / whateveryouwantedoutofthis! I base everything off of personal experience because, like, it's all I got- but more people should be comfortable talking about this! It's completely normal and just a basic human function. So if yours is different than what others describe, that's okay! If yours is exactly the same, also okay! Idk where I'm going with this, but there is no shame in having a period, and that's on that!

This also came off way more dramatic than I meant it to be, but I live for the drama so it's okay (this applies to both the fic and the author's note-)

Masterlist

[panelshowsource]

hey frends!

just a lil update to say that i'll be moving soon, so over the next 2–3 weeks i'll be quite busy and won't be able to post a lot a lot (not that i usually post that much but i do try!)

now that many panel shows are wrapping up their seasons, it's not too much to keep up with the masterpost or anything, so i'll definitely keep that chugging, but gifs might be a little slow :') i have a few requests i'll work on, and it's fine to send those in; plus, i said i'd be making BIG gifsets for the recent taskmaster contestants and i'm definitely working on those! i wanna do a good job so taking my time :)

wanna remind everyone about some of the newer additions to the googledrive!

ed gamble — glutton (audiobook) (i'll be listening to this today while i'm packing! if anyone else listened pls lmk what you think!! i'm also wrapping up david's book and gonna post my thoughts soon hehe)

added the most recent alex horne/tim key celebrity pointless to the alex horne collection folder

a couple seasons of duck quacks don't echo upgraded to 1080p

bbc radio 4's hard to tell from 2011, with jonny sweet, charlotte ritchie, katy wix, etc.

complete british as folk, with fern brady, ivo graham, and darren harriott (any other homo reading this grow up absolutely and painfully obsessed with queer as folk? either version? oh man... this programme gets a 10/10 for the name alone, iconic)

live at the moth club

lots of fun new episode of growing pains, hignfy, taskmaster, outsiders :)

as well, there are a couple of new podcasts out: russell howard's wonderbox and james acaster's springleaf :)

i have a bunch of asks and i'll post them later! you guys are being so cute about taskmaster it's been so fun

hope everyone is having a great weekend!

btw... please don't feel obligated to anon me rude messages... i'm a little stressed with everything going on in Life, so maybe save those for the new year? i'll try to come up w witty retorts after i've had some sleep

it's funny, i've been hearing a lot about blog competition and fighting for notes and monopolising panel show content blah blah in my inbox recently. (i only included one here but there's genuinely been quite a few just in the last couple of weeks.) i don't know what might be going on on other blogs or discords or whatever, and i honestly didn't even know these were still convos people are having; i kinda thought we all agreed that this site isn't as big as it used to be, notes aren't as plentiful as they used to be, but by golly we'll just keep on posting anyways. i don't know if there are edit tags for any panel shows but i don't use them; i just post content here for my current followers and if you guys like it then that's all i wanted to do. i don't care if there are other panel show blogs with more followers or posts that get more notes or better gifs or better blogs or whatever. it's all fine. i don't care. i don't think about it. so you don't have to ask me that stuff — how to grow your blog or get more followers or more engagement, or how i feel about other blogs that post the same content as i do — i won't answer it. just post it because you want to; don't race to be the first one to get stuff at (especially at the expense of making content you're proud of!); don't put other people down; don't send anonymous hate. just be cool and worry about you. if you can't have fun here without validation in the notes then you're gonna be miserable. flopping is integral to being active.

[drinkingbitterboy]

alright. i have emotionally recovered from miles posting on instagram this morning, which truly threw off my plan to do a little concert recap bc i was busy yelling at my phone/on tumblr. as you do.

a couple notes:

i don't really do concert photos; literally took a grand total of 4 during the actual show. so sorry, don't have much there!

i did not get a poster :( turns out they ran out before AM even went on stage?? i'm sad, but not too pressed bc really i'd much rather have a good view than wait in the merch line.

here we go!!

so getting into the arena was kind of a shit show lmao. we rolled up around door open and the line stretched 5 city blocks and doubled back on itself; it was mostly organized but asshats loved to pop in when the line got broken up by the streets. took us almost an hour to make it our five blocks and the line behind us was still just as long by then. at least folks waiting by us in line were nice! beyond nice conversation the true highlight was outfit spotting. shoutout to the absolutely dedicated guy who showed up in the full on fwn clown outfit complete with face paint by himself. in this weather! found a couple folks dressed exactly like the car alex (again, why are you wearing a blazer in this weather) and you know. felt real old about it seeing some of the other concert outfits. i'm sorry, not to be judgemental of the tiktok girlies, but holy shit. i managed to out myself once as a weird fan about it bc i had "inside knowledge" aka i saw the ig stories james and davey posted lmao. i'm so sorry i'm incapable of holding it in when i want to correct someone. had a grand time talking to some people in line next to me around my age; one of them even had an old sias shirt from seeing them live back then! good bonding about "hey what have you done since they announced this album?" one guy switched jobs twice, we got married, and the other couple had a baby. jfc.

further highlights include the person who wrote the batphone and cheeseburger notes, a couple other car truck bits i didn't take pics of saying things like "who the fuck are the arctic monkeys", and the true comedy of whoever designed the tickets. big mike wazowski energy

fontaines dc sounded great! a lot of folks around me had no clue who they were, though. so the crowd wasn't too excited overall. also i have no idea who put together the playlist in between sets bc it was nuts.

and then: the big reveal (that i then updated tumblr on)

i'm really surprised the whole set made it! the anticipation before they took the curtain down was absolutely palpable. also, didn't get a picture of it but at one point someone had a giant pole and was trying to poke something right at at the top of the frame of the screen. no idea what that was about but it was hilarious. not pictured: the bonus screens on either side of the stage.

an aside: my partner is fucking hilarious. every time a roadie came on state with an instrument he'd go "i don't think that one is a monkey." he also generally calls them the "monkfys" anyway bc he really latched onto that clip aksdjfs

so this was interesting! they didn't show the body paint symbols at all on any of the screens; instead, they showed this colorful wheel thing.

and then the actual show. oh my word. opening with sculptures was absolutely my dream and honestly i don't have words for what it's like to see alex in person. he's absolutely captivating. hypnotizing. one of the most amazing things is watching how he proceeds through the show--how he goes from suave and put together with his choreographed arm movements for emphasis and his little things like the little bubble pop in that song. and then he starts to loosen up (along with his hair), we get the silly dramatic theatre kid during cornerstone and do me a favour, and by the time we hit body paint he's just completely letting loose. even when they played much of the usual setlist and i obviously know the music super well--better than anyone else around me--it was still absolutely thrilling to just be there and listen to the music and sing loudly and jump around until we felt the floorboards creak. they felt really high energy last night! turns out coming off of a break is good for them!

related, getting to watch the transformation into the poofy lion hair in real life is incredible.

i must admit, i am not immune to things like alex waving in our general direction to the crowd and walking over to our side of the stage and all of the charming bits. just can't help it.

otherwise, the only other person i could consistently see was nick - we were standing stage right, maybe 15 yards back? so you know. gorgeous as always. i'm sure jamie was wonderful also in his insane leather jacket -- didn't see him at all lol. i managed to get a very convenient window to center stage so i actually saw alex a decent amount. worked out well because i couldn't actually see the screens super well. i'm short. here's the only two pictures i actually took of the band, right at the beginning:

and now for the rest of the setlist -- we all know they played a lot of the usual suspects. as expected, much of the crowd was pretty young and very invested in only AM and the hype songs. i didn't mind; at least i wasn't the only person screaming for perfect sense (weren't a lot of us, i was the only one in my general area, but that's alright. i don't care.) my spouse was entertained by the person next to us who looked up the spotify set playlist in between every song; he was like "why look it up? if you don't know the songs well enough to identify by intro then how is the list supposed to help?" anyway, holy shit when is snap getting out of the playlist? and yet even though i was not thrilled by it it was still so fun to sing along.

4 out of 5 had a really funny bit at the end while he was just kinda ad libbing lines. "four stars out of five, not quite there yet, but almosttttt." teddy picker and view from the afternoon were absolutely fantastic, too. and then we get the basic AM bits again, though turns out the crowd was also really hype for fluorescent adolescent. 10/10

i was so goddamn loud for perfect sense. shoutout to the spouse again for only knowing that song bc i learned to play it and then played it constantly bc i wanted to manifest it aksjdflaskdj

he was constantly saying "very nice. very nice. very good" in between songs, which was adorable. "hope you're having a lovely evening, folks." as my partner put it: "very good. that's him like yes, i've met my crowd interaction quota for the night"

and then of course we brought out the drama for do me a favour and cornerstone. i cracked up that there were already gifs of the "forcing a smile" bit by the time i got home.

mirrorball started with alex conducting the stings again. i love it so much. also makes my musician ass miss performing lmao. but really, i can't get over how good mirrorball is. it's so dramatic, so emotional, then the actual mirrorball reveal??? i cried. it's insane. it's beautiful. it's honestly indescribable. i generally don't like people filming a lot or taking tons of pictures but you know what? mirrorball is an exception. holy mother of god.

and then 505!! i know i mentioned this earlier but really??? the mirrorball is only lit up like this for 505 and then they pull it back up?? there better be a mirrorball for me, he says, then we pull it down for the very miles song, and then they get rid of it???????? i had some thoughts.

our end of the stage got a bit distracted during do i wanna know bc we had someone go down in the crowd and had to call someone over to help. good news is that they were pretty close to the wall/barrier so it was easy to make space. even so, i realy can't get over how good that guitar sounds.

and then body paint. we've all seen videos of the extended outro and really, truly, it's just a life-altering experience to watch it life. it sounded incredible, it looked incredible with the rainbow lights, everyone looked like they were having a blast. i am a little biased bc i'm so attached to that song i'm getting tattoos about it on monday lmao. but man. not over it.

and finally the encore. ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE?????? i was NOT expecting it and absolutely lost my shit. unfortunately at this point bc we did some shifting around i no longer had a good view of anything. so it goes.

dancefloor, as always, was an absolute jam. bonus points bc now it's forever associated with our wedding. and r u mine had the place going nuts bc you know, the AM only folks, but really, i am also not immune to how hard that song goes.

all in all, that concert was absolutely incredible. i had an absolute BLAST and it was such a joy. i loved getting to be loud and truly did not care that there were bits where i was the only one who knew all the words. even my partner who is only really a tangential am fan had a really good time. they sounded amazing. i'm absolutely still on a high from it. hopefully the transition to a smaller venue again after the huge stadium tour was nice for the band, too!

and now time for some more coffee.

[cataclitsmicdisaster]

Spoilers for The Mangus Archives and The Magnus Protocol ahead

Ok, I'm all caught up with tmap now and WTF? I like Celia, I regret shitting on her early on but something is still off. "If I go back I cant take Jack with me" and "Important names... Jonathan Sims and Martin Blackwood"? Ok, so you're clearly from the same dimension as Jon and Martin, maybe she lost her son in the first one and he's alive in this one? ALSO on the topic of Jon and Martin, it seems after they dragged the fears from their reality, the got dragged with them. I think they've been trapped in technology for as long as it's existed, and even before that. It sounds painful.

On the more domestic disputes of our lovely characters here at the OIAR, Alice seems like she was a bit of a control freak when she and Sam were together. It's thrown me off a bit but I can definitely see that being why they drifted apart. And does Alice know more than she's letting on? Sam made a really good point as to why she was sticking around and I'm not completely sold on the reasoning she gave on why she stays.

Then we have the cloaked figure with the bitey tape recorder, I'm thinking Jonah Magnus. I think that when he got his shit rocked by Jon some semblance of him remained and got dragged across dimensions with everybody else. Also I love the picture of Ink5oul that Alex and Jonny have painted, someone who just wanted to be noticed starts to become a monster, and doesn't actually know what to feel about it. It feels strangely like Jane Prentiss, how she was consumed fully by what loved her (not what she loved). The way Jane was fully embraced by what loved her feels similar to how Ink5oul/Grace has been fully consumed by the feeling of being important, being better, being worthy of all that attention. Though it seems Ink5oul is indiscriminate as to what fear they serve, so long as they all get their fill.

At first I thought they might be a Flesh avatar, what with the focus on altering the body with art and what that tattoo granted the ability of to the person it was bestowed upon. But then we got that guy with the Buried/the Vast (depending on how you want to look at it) on the cliffs of that burial site and the guy with the sun tattoo Ink5oul did that fell to the Desolation. And the way Ink5oul talks about skin feels akin to the Stranger. So that draws me to the conclusions that they serve all the Fears, that's if they even work the same way in this dimension as they did in the Archives dimension.

I don't like Lena at all, but I feel like she's bound by something like everyone else is. I'm thinking the OIAR works in a similar way that the Magnus Institute, London, worked in the Archives dimension. I think she was a good person once, but the time in that basement has turned her person sour. The way I'm thinking you're made to stay at the OIAR is that when you leave, your life becomes increasingly more miserable until you die. That's a theory I've come up with after the encounters we've had with Teddy, since the poor lad can't seem to land a job anywhere.

I'm worried for Colin, too. He seems to carry a Gertrude Robinson agenda, though he's far more manic in his attempts to stop whatever the fuck is going on. I like him a lot, though. He's funny to listen to, angry little Scotsman running IT for the cursed basement department of Government response.

Also on a more light-hearted note, since we've seen that this dimension's Gertrude and Gerry are alive, well, happy and living together as grandma and grandson, it makes me hopeful that other characters are happy and alive in this dimension as well. We've already seen Georgie living happily, even if I fear she may either be killed by the Stranger (see "who keeps taking Georgie's face?!"), I hope that Tim and Sasha are alright too. I'm also really hoping that Gwendolyn Bouchard is the daughter of one Elias Bouchard (the "loser stoner" Elias, not the "possessed by a slimy old git" Elias). I'd hope that his husband is Peter Lukas, though I doubt that would be the case. It's also likely that Gwen is the way she is because she's Elias's only daughter and he spoiled her absolutely rotten.

[imsogayyippee]

playlist anon back again here's the highlights

Butch 4 Butch - Rio Romeo

I Love You Like An Alcoholic - The Taxpayers

Laplace's Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!) - Will Wood (you ever see those videos of cosplays where one person is sitting on a chair and the other person is walking around them kinda pushing them around while this plays? Yeah that.)

Baby Hotline - Jack Stauber

Trees II - McCafferty (this is just vibe but I think it makes sense)

Choke - I DON'T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME (my friend says this is THE timlex song)

505 - Arctic Monkeys ("I'd probably still adore you with your hands around my neck" / "or I did last time I checked")

Milk Carton - Mercy Necromancy

GAHHH sorry im gonna yap about butch 4 butch n more gay shit i hope youdont mind.

this song is SO FUCKING ENTRY 54 TO ME. AUGHGUHDUSHGS.

"My sweetheart's piano is rat filled/And mine is infested with bugs/The music we make is unnatural/But it sounds just like falling in love"

DO YOU GET ME. CAN ANYONE HEAR ME.

"Tomorrow we'll dig through the garbage/And we'll fish out all kinds of neat trash/And when we go back to my apartment/She'll probably kick my fucking ass"

"I sing her songs in my garage/And make her fall in love with me/And once we're done/The sun is gone/We both just sit so nervously/I talk real slow/And speak real low/Hoping she'll lean into me/But we just laugh cause/What was that/We can't take ourselves seriously"

"She makes me go weak in the knees/But I can't let her see me swoon/Or else she will think I am sweet"

IM SICK IM SICK AOAIUAHGU THEY MAKE ME SO SICK.

--

anyways. i love you like an alcoholic

"Cast that first glance: your smile, my veins"

entry 84. it was love at first sight btw. yeah im right it's canon.

"Kissed that first night/And then the rain opened up the sky to get"

RAIN??? LIKE ENTRY 54? 😦😦😦😦

"I need you like I need a broken leg"

adding this cause it's funny

"Some handsome dark stranger/You were standing there on the corner/You had those compelling magnetized/Eyes you must have lost when you got older"

um. what role did alex immediately give tim when they met. yeah

"Seven blocks in, my fingers brushed your hand/I blushed and you laughed/But you seemed a little sad/I ain't one to jump a ship/But I absolutely knew/I was six steps in when I fell into you"

I HATE THEM I HATE THEM I HATE THEM!!!!! /nsrs

--

anyways i listened to laplace's angel (i didn't remember which song it was even if i had heard it bfore. btw no i havent seen those videos sorry 😭😭) and um. kills them with my mind

"Could you take a look at me?/Am I bad, am I bad, am I bad, am I really that bad?/And now we're singing, ooh, whatever you think of me/If you were in my shoes, you'd walk the same damn miles I do"

PARALELLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"It doesn't take a killer to murder/It only takes a reason to kill"

AUGHGHSH THEY MAKE ME SICK. ALEX FUCKING KRALIE.

"The only ones in need of love are those who don't receive enough/So evil ones should get a little more"

I THINK I HAUVE COVID.

"If you were in my shoes, you’d see I wear the same size as you"

FALLS HITS MY HEAD AND DIES.

--

sorry i would talk about baby hotline but the kind of lyrics it has are kinda hard to "analyze" like im doing with other songs 😭

--

"Cute guy, nice face/Wrong time, wrong place/I knew in a matter of a minute/His face was smashed/His skin was burnt/His shirt was torn in the dirt"

oh. ok then,dies

"I need you more than you need me/You're beautiful and smart and kind/While I am ugly, full of lies" "And I can't be with you anymore/I can't live like this anymore/I can't hold your heart anymore/I need you to go on without me"

.🙁🙁

--

read the lyrics of choke um. yeah i see it. all i have to say is toxic old men yaoi except theyre not old

--

"I'd probably still adore you with your hands around my neck/Or I did last time I checked" "But I crumble completely when you cry/It seems like once again you've had to greet me with goodbye"

.🙁

--

"When you put a knife to my neck/My stomach doesn't fill with dread/It's fill with butterflies instead/And when you threaten to do things to me/I don't scream"

ANON WHEN I GET YOU. /VPOS

anyways. that's it i hope yuo liked me talkig about gay peopel like and subscribe for more!!!!!!

[kralie-films]

Any update on Alex? It sounds like you two are really close, I understand being protective of him and wanting to keep him safe. I hope you were able to find him

Thanks for your messages, I'm going to go into a little more detail about what happened, now.

We live in the city, and as such, it's always a little busy. Down the street from us is a big park. I'm sure some of you might know what park I'm talking about, but I'm not going to name it. It's notorious for getting a little dangerous after dark, so I was surprised that he didn't come home at sundown. As someone suggested, I went off to look for him.

Walking out of the apartment building, I immediately realized something was off. The normal city noises such as cars honking and other such background noise was gone. You hardly, if ever think about these things until it's completely silent. In an actual forest, the absence of sound usually signifies the presence of some kind of predator. Maybe I was dealing with one, but I had never experienced anything like this before.

I made my way down empty streets. There were cars, but no people. The sky was black, and a haze hung low over the buildings. Looking up, I couldn't see the tops of any of the buildings. The atmosphere was oppressive and heavy. Once or twice I had to stop because I couldn't stop coughing. Sometimes it was a struggle to take breaths.

Looking down, I noted that the date displayed was June. I panicked big time at this point, thinking I may have just blacked out for months or something. I haven't had a black out like that since I was a kid, honestly. Something was fucking with me, but I wasn't about to find out what, I was more concerned with finding Alex... if I could.

So, I went to the place where I figured he went. The park. There, the paths twisted unnaturally, and one of the tunnels led to the entrance, if you understand what I mean. Like, I walked in, and walking out, I ended up where I had walked in. It was incredibly strange and I just wanted to find Alex and get the hell out.

All the while, I could hear a distant voice, like a gentle laughter. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a shape move here and there. I could catch a glimpse of the color green, but like a greenish sort of seafoam color. If I turned my head, it'd be gone, but I could see these glimpses out of the corners of my eyes. It, and the weird spatial fuckery led me to the fountain, where I finally found Alex.

He wasn't doing so hot. He was lying IN the fountain, drenched from head to toe, and I saw blood coming from his left arm. When I reached down to lift him out of the water, I could see his arm was even worse than I expected. Someone had stabbed up his upper arm pretty good, and from a cursory glance I could see a number of defensive wounds on his lower arm and hands. His knuckles were also a little bloody. I sure hope he gave whoever attacked him hell.

I mustered up all my strength, lifted him over my shoulder in a fireman's carry, and made my way out of there. I could feel him shivering, and... I honestly don't know how I got out of that horrible place, but I did. I don't know if that figure that was following us was helping or hindering, but whoever or whatever they are, I managed to evade them.

I took him to the hospital and apparently the wound wasn't as bad as I thought, but he still needed it stitched up.

So, we're home now, and you bet your ass I'm not letting Alex leave the apartment. But I can't exactly stop him if I'm not here, which is where I worry. When I have to work, I can't watch him.

I may just see if I can get some PTO and cite a family emergency. I don't know. I don't really want to leave him alone. I have no idea what happened, but I'm going to try not to overwhelm him with questions. I know I'd be overwhelmed.

When he woke up he looked so ashamed. Poor guy...

Anyways, sorry that my recap isn't super detailed. I'll let you all know if I forgot anything.

~T

[puellafuriadarkmagica]

So it's been a week, exactly as promised. It's just that it's also been some other weeks on top of that. I'll explain why at the end of this post, what I plan on doing about it, generally where my efforts have been lately, and how YOU (yes YOU!) can get involved.

Chapter 5: The Best Venue in this Small, Pathetic Town

From The Chats - Keep The Grubs Out. I mentioned before that my brother got me into The Chats. They're a world away from the kind of music I'm normally into, but they happen to be really fucking funny. That's generally enough for me to make an exception. Check out the music video to their big hit Smoko and try your damnedest to convince me this isn't one of the greatest music videos ever made.

"Oh, Kimmie, me 'n' Kel had the time of our lives. We had twenny-four hour room cervix, eggs derelict for breakfast..." the television blared feebly through its blown-out stereo system.

I've said it before but one of my favourite differences between our world and that of PFDM is that somehow the existence of magical girls has resulted in Kath and Kim still being on the air in 2009.

Fuck, I miss Kath and Kim.

"You, and me, we have an opportunity / And we, can make it something really good…" Zoey hummed from somewhere in the kitchen.

I also remember mentioning that this passage is included to remind people that despite her generally matronly(??) role to the rest of the cast of Part 1, Zoey's only in her mid-twenties. Bit sad, innit?

Thunk. A metal rail, roughly forty centimetres long, sailed neatly past Marie's head, drove itself clean through the skull of the Incubator perched on her shoulder, and dug itself into an oblique resting place in the pavement behind her.

Oh my God.

Oh my God!

They killed Kyubey??

"Introductions aside, have you run this past Lara yet?" "The thing is I think I've got to… warm her up to the idea first?" Danika smirked. "You can say she's too stubborn. It's not a crime, you know." "She's not as bad as you guys say she is, you know!" "Too right!" Hope leaned forward and coughed into a fist. "See, she's actually worse."

She's actually soooo cool and nice with it.

Hold on.

When did "such-and-so with it" re-enter common parlance? I remember it being a pretty ubiquitous way to suffix an adjective back in the late 2000's, and then it disappeared. And now it's back? Where did it go…

"Cool, cool. Hey, would you mind if I just confer with my friends about some stuff? I'm pretty new to what I do, and if we brought you on board that'd be a pretty major undertaking for both of us." "It's okay," Phoebe protested. "I can train her!" Hope shrugged. "Yeah, that's fair. Now it'll be a major undertaking for three of us."

Taking so long to reread this stuff presents the side-effect that I do find myself laughing at my old jokes that I'd forgotten I'd written.

Phoebe shot to her feet and clutched her skull (still contained within the flesh of her head, of course. Only one person with even the most tangential relationship to her life is intense enough to do otherwise). "I can't deal with you people! I can't… I'm… I need some air."

What?

Holy hell, what?

There's no way I foreshadowed Alex burning off her flesh this far in advance. Are you serious?

We've only just recently learned that she will be doing that, what, 45 chapters later? 46?

Hope's jeans pocket blared a harsh, percussive synth monotone. She noticeably flinched before practically ripping her phone out of her pocket and putting it to her ear.

Back when I wrote this, I said it was probably The Presets - My People. More recently I've locked that in. I was going to write that it's one of the few radio hits that's actually good, but then I realised my vision was completely clouded by nostalgia when I began to pen that. The past half-decade or so has been kind of nuts for mainstream pop. Charli XCX has got a couple tracks joint-produced by AG Cook and Hudson Mohawke on her new album, for crying out loud. Death's Dynamic Shroud is getting mentioned on the same electronic pop lists as fucking Beyoncé. Porter Robinson's… well, he's Porter Robinson. How did we get it so good? Should I be thanking Missy Elliot? Daft Punk? Dylan Brady?

Wait. I'm supposed to be talking about PFDM.

"Sure thing." Marie responded with a thumbs-up goodbye, like some kind of absolute mutant.

Not long after I wrote this passage, I did actually give someone a thumbs-up goodbye. Mind you, I was having an absolutely shit day and was pretty distracted, but I've still gotta live that down, on the inside.

"I'll get it," Hope announced. She opened the front door, saw who was behind it, and closed it again. Lara jammed her foot in the door before it could close. "Evening, Fearnley," she cooed. "Would you mind if I popped in for a chat?" "If I said no…" "I'd find other, less courteous ways to open this door, don't you worry."

I've barely started watching Utena, but she's Nanami, isn't she? She's totally Nanami.

"Shame. What's say you and I underthrow Deckard and find a new girl ourselves instead?" "Under… throw?" "It's like overthrow, but she's our inferior. She's really, really inferior, actually. You know how she spends her time? Going on witch hunts with this new girl just for kicks. I hear Woodward - not the dead one, of course - is third-wheeling whatever it is those two have got going on now."

"Underthrow" is one of my favourite Lara-isms, but it doesn't hold a candle to…

"Well then, why would I do that?" She smirked. "Face it, Fearnley. If I needed to psychologically outplay you, I wouldn't resort to spreading rumours. I've got a rapper wit." "You mean a rapier." "A what?" "She said rapier," Zoey huffed. "That's the expression. Rapier wit." "What, like a sword? That's stupid. The only thing a sword ever thinks to do is cut something, and that's only because somebody else tells it to. A rapper, on the other hand-"

"Rapper wit" is potentially my favourite malapropism of all time, and I came up with it. Thanks, me! Why, you're very welcome.

The Citadel, like all things, is metaeclyptic with an infinity of other things, places, times. One of these things happens to be a lighthouse on the west coast of Ireland, operated by a young man named Douglas Murphy. Though neither of them knew it, at the exact moment Audrey Wong lost her blue socks, he found a pair of green socks he had lost four months ago. The strangest part of all this, he would remark if he understood his circumstances to any meaningful degree, is that his role as a textbook example of metaeclypticism is, in fact, the only meaningful reason for his existence at all. The speaker god has, as it happens, written a proverb pertaining to this feeling of existential ennui, which goes as follows. From here until the end of the last chapter. It also goes as precedes, until the beginning of the first. Due to the impracticality with which one might quote it, it is considered a very unpopular proverb.

This is one of the passages which I think best encapsulates the style of PFDM, and hopefully my writing on the whole. It's definitely one of those key early moments where I Locked The Fuck In.

Well, that was a pretty short chapter, all things considered. I forgot how little time I actually need to write one of these. Maybe I should try for one a week, but given my track record regarding things taking a week, I don't think I can promise anything.

So what happened?

Life got busy again. I've got a job now, which does pretty much drain the life out of me. But it also gives my time some long-needed damn structure, so three cheers. Also, I've gotten a little carried away on an original webfic I conceived of last year and have been tinkering away at the planning stages of ever since. Actually, let's talk about that. And let's call it Project Anubis for short for now, in a pointless attempt to hide its true name - an aspect of the webfic I'm still uncertain about. It does have a name, and I am sort of leaning in-for-a-penny on that, but for now it's Project Anubis.

Sounds cool. What's Project Anubis?

Nothing!!! It doesn't exist yet, and won't for a serious while! Don't rush me here, okay?!?!

Actually, I'm going to talk about it here with you guys because there's like half a dozen of you maximum and I don't want to talk about this publicly yet. You won't see this on my main Tumblr. Anyone who reads that and doesn't read this, who I want to have see this announcement, already knows what this project is, and, in fact, what it's called. I mention it now, because I'm trying to open the doors to my friends who I know would be available for this, and frankly if you've spent the past… I don't even want to think about how long, conversing with my borderline manic ramblings in the comments section of my own anime fanfiction, well, are we not then friends?

Okay, but really, what is it?

Not too thematically dissimilar from a lot of the themes I've been spinning in PFDM. If you liked the oddball humour, the overly-researched science fiction, and maybe the weird underlying philosophical thriller, you probably will like this. If you were only into PFDM for the sprawling cosmology, the fight scenes, and the fact that it's Madoka Magica, you're gonna outright detest it. It will not be for you. Of course it wouldn't be. It's for me.

So what do you want from me?

I'm glad youu asked, line of bold text I put before this paragraph! Basically, I want anyone who knows a damn about more or less anything to give me a holler. I've got a lot of research to do for this, and anyone who can point me in the right direction would be a massive help. If you know anything about any of the following:

Speculative biology

Computer science

Feng shui

Biosemiotics

Astronomy

Gestalt psychology

Puzzle design

Card game design

Printing

Logograms

Conlang development

Chances are I'm gonna be coming to you for a lot of help. If this has legs, I might start hiring people to help me make it, too. If not on a stable income I can bankroll a team on, then at least on commission. If you're a visual artist who can illustrate things other than people with weirdly specific demands regarding colour palette and image composition, you're a writer and you feel like you can jive with my style (the more naturalistic, less-uranium-dense parts, at least, because this will not be the fuckin' slog that PFDM deliberately makes itself sometimes), or an actor - even if just for voice or photos - let me know that too. But don't expect anything to come of it, and definitely don't expect anything to come of it any time soon. Right now, I'm just trying to keep track of who I know who has X field of knowledge or Y specific skill. Gimme your email or your Discord or something, or just let me know if I can DM you here on Tumblr.

Why "Anubis"?

I had this idea for a gag in something where the main character dies and meets Anubis, who would be depicted entirely with photos of James Earl Jones. Anubis would then explain that everyone has a celebrity lookalike, and the gods themselves aren't excepted from this. Anubis just happens to bear a striking resemblance to James Earl Jones. I don't think this joke is going to be in anything, but I've been thinking about Anubis ever since.

What does Project Anubis mean for Puella Furia Dark Magica?

I dunno dude!!! I just work here!!! Maybe nothing? Maybe a hell of a whole lot? Maybe PFDM gets delayed for YEARS! Maybe the remaining chapters all mysteriously appear online tomorrow! I really don't know! I've just had a hell of a good idea and now I have to make it. I go crazy if I don't. I go. Crazy. If. I Don't!

Anyway see you all maybe next week I don't know? Bye

[dreadwhoop]

Reviewing the All Elite Wrestling personnel 2023 Edition (Part 3) -

GET RID OF -

No I've not lost my mind hear me out - Hook is a great prospect and well-guarded in the booking. He is a special attraction. This is it. They don't know what to do now. If the company had sense he'd of done stuff with guys they still have like Ogogo or even Samoa Joe. What would you do with Hook in AEW? For me I'd send him to NJPW and let him develop his technical skills - at the least make him Shibata's protege just don't make him suffer because he's not going to kiss ass to the establishment. I have no faith AEW will do anything with Hook when they've already pushed the wrong talents. He's got to go to grow.

Limitless dissapointment. What a tragic example of someone who can't reach his potential because of a complete lack of wanting it. Keith Lee is the guy who will smile at Jay White taking every spot and thumbs up a Swerve Strickland for wanting to adapt. Indubitably the only thing he resembles of a Junkyard Dog is the 'Junk' aspect. I do not dislike him but his sporadic appearences have tarnished what could of been a revival to his lackluster WWE career. Now I can only look at him as an overgrown mark for himself. The kind of luxury supercar who can only reach second gear.

Not a wrestler. NEXT.

He's returned to the mildest interest imaginable. Remember folks - a former TNT Champion and Tag Champion. This is 2/3 of the Triple Crown. Only Luchasaurus has accomplished this as well. Does he have blackmail on Tony Khan? Nothing about him is original and better talent have got less. Granted he's not winning anything but what do you expect? AEW outgrew him in the 4 years since becoming a weekly syndicated show. What has he done? Stagnated. Be it Kazarian or Ethan Page or anyone he's juxtaposed to he always comes off as the second stringer, the sidekick, the assist. Not a star.

I believe everyone in this world deserves a 2nd chance. Or even a 3rd chance if they've been so successful before and you understand they really want to try. Jeff Hardy has had his last chance more than 3 chances ago. It takes away from others how much he's given and it's beyond unfair. We live in a world where Tessa Blanchard is never given a single chance and is punished for calling "The Black Rose" a derogatory slur, fair enough, but we'll allow a DUI repeat offender the 'chance' to return and he's twice the age of Tessa. What do you think? If the 'crimes' were reversed would you still let Jeff Hardy back in? Of course AEW would - this is why it's just a vanity project and not one built on moral principles. Even if you disregard it the guy is a husk of what he once was so stop embarrassing the nostalgia.

"Protect me from myself" is the wrestler's mantra. Wrestlers are there to put their bodies on the line and expect their opponent(s) to help them keep things safe. Referees are meant to support this. Rick Knox was recently involved in the contraversial Rey Fenix International title win over Moxley. This isn't the first time a guy concussed/KOed has had no help from him look up 'Alex Reynolds knocked out' and look who the ref was there too. He's an amateur and dangerously naive to the well-being of the roster. At best he's careless. At worst malicious. See Jeff Hardy on 'chances'.

I could copy-paste what I said on Ruby Soho and be done with it. For everyone's safety, including her own, for the dignity of wrestling, and the chance for the women's division to mean anything, and belts to not just be used to keep broken wrestlers together, we need her to go - Britt Baker herself said it best - the industry has moved past her. It's now being held back from growing further.

Remember earlier what I said on Hook? This is one example. For a living bar of prison soap, nothing feels clean with this limpet around - I've never seen a guy more in need of having a mask put on him and, like Hook, I'd send him from AEW but instead to a landfill. The only good thing about him is his age which means he has time to go away and return better but, more likely, he's here to stay and infect airtime with negative ratings. A 'change the channel' wrestler.

I'll say this - he's incredible for his age and for the fact since I began watching wrestling he's been around…granted I've tried my best to avoid watching him but guess he thought better. His bit has run its course, get rid of the loose faction around him, free Jay Lethal, and let him be a booker or something. His mind is what is important not his body of work.

The time has come to finally talk about Sammy Guevara - a man I danced around with for 4 years debating whether he should be pushed or go. He should go. Here's why - Sammy Guevara is one of the best talents AEW has got so what's the problem? He can't overcome his own insecurities. He has to be associated with someone. He has to be involved with people who drag him down and, consequently, he's comfortable with it. When the Inner Circle and Pinnacle storyline happened it should of culminated with Guevara becoming the new leader and Jericho eventually breaking off to do his own ego faction. This way Guevara could of feuded with MJF on a more serious level. None of this happened. In fact Guevara has been stuck slowly grinding on the spot without a care. When he discussed why he joined Don Callis he could of mentioned Jericho gave him bad habits and his reliance to do his moves is why he lost NOT because he was just 'sick and tired' of Jericho my god what a bore. If Guevara becomes an AEW World Champion by the time next October runs around this company will die an agonising death.

[gruesomejack]

"You've never been kissed?"

Alex shot the boy a soft glare, "Shut up." On the porch of some frat house, the two boys were nursing the same beer, passing it back and forth between sips. It was warm and kind of gross, but it was nice to have the time with Andy now that he'd moved up here. There was a party inside that neither one of them wanted to be a part of. Andy invited Alex out as an excuse to see him, but honestly, they should've just hung out or gone bowling. The muffled sounds of music and voices weren't the type of ambiance either one of them was looking for.

"No, dude. I'm surprised." Andy said and took a sip from the bottle before offering it over to the other boy. "You were a cute girl-- You know, even for me. And now..." He trailed, "You're really good-looking."

Alex took a sip and bit back a smirk. "You're such a dick." He said and drummed his fingers on the neck, "Are you trying to seduce me, Campbell?"

Pursing his lips in thought, Andy took a moment and shrugged. "Not an entirely bad idea." He said before catching the shocked look in Alex's eyes. Breaking into a bright bark of a laugh, he put his hands up and shook his head. "Not like that! I mean-- Do you want to be kissed?" He asked, "Because... You know. I could. As a friend." He said, "You deserve to have a first kiss before you die of old age."

Alex stared, his cheeks warming a little. That sounded like an awful idea. Kissing Andy Campbell? He could barf. Frowning at him, his eyes fell to his lips and their shape. He had a perfectly formed bow and a full bottom; they were a pretty, natural pink, and they looked soft. They probably wouldn't feel too bad, would they? Alex groaned at himself for considering it. "Completely platonic?"

"One hundred percent. I know I said you were good-looking, but that's where that ends." Andy said and broke into another laugh, "I think I'd rather die than pursue anything more with you. No offense."

Reaching over, Alex punched his leg and glared. However, that made him feel better. He didn't want something as stupid as a kiss to change anything about the friendship they'd built between them. "...Okay."

Blinking, Andy let out another soft breath of a laugh. He looked at Alex, and his brows twitched. Was he serious? Pressing his lips together, his eyes moved over him and softened. Alex really was handsome; he had a square jaw and a classic look to him that a lot of guys searched their whole lives for. It was like he'd meant to be this way his whole life. And there were his eyes: deep grey and gorgeous, like two dark pools. It was easy to let himself move, to reach out for his cheek. The duck was slow, and the kiss was slower; soft lips brushed and moved against each other featherlite and curious.

"...Well?" He asked as he pulled back, a hum and a smile on his lips. Alex opened his eyes and wrinkled his brow. It felt... nice. It didn't really do much for him emotionally, just like he promised, but the feeling of their lips on one another had felt safe. Hesitating, Alex ducked in again and took another. This one was a little more involved, a little deeper and slower. Andy's lips parted for him, letting his friend's tongue slip inside and moved easy against him.

They pushed further in a search for that safety. It wasn't as strange as Alex thought it would be-- It almost felt natural with how close they were and the other affections they shared. Andy was tilting his chin and humming softly, his fingers tucking against the back of his neck and playing with the short hair on his head. They were pressed chest to chest; their hearts beat off one another and rattled in sync, their lungs squeezing. Alex wrapped his arms around him, and before he could try and tug him closer, Andy had pulled him into his lap to do the same.

Breaking to breath, Andy panted and trailed a few kisses from his jaw to his neck. His hands rubbed along the planes of his back and settled around his waist. Head fuzzy, he picked it up and smiled, his eyes searching Alex's gaze. "Should probably stop..." He said softly, "But uh... I'd... I-If you were interested-"

It'd felt so nice. The idea of more was tempting if just to help them both blow of some steam and stress. Alex nearly agreed, but stopped and shook his head. This was cutting it close already; he couldn't lose his friend to some dumb decision they made on the buzz of a few beers and the high of a kiss. "You wish, hotshot." He breathed and flashed him a small smile. "I... I just don't think we should."

Andy smiled back and nodded before helping him slide back off his lap. Taking the beer bottle from him, he polished it off and set the empty glass down beside him. "Feel better?"

Alex puffed out his cheeks. "Yeah." He said softly, glancing over at him. "Thank you, Andy."

[whatimdoing-here]

weird personal update under cut, mostly for those who've been around awhile. i guess i can put an intro too.

honestly there are so many new followers here i'm assuming for gif reasons but... like.. sorry guys. it's a fairly rare thing. others do them better and quicker than me for the most part. my poor 7 year old laptop i make them on is a struggle. new person intro to me below, but first let me get to the part where i journal so it's off my chest.

i use tumblr as a journal of sorts. and honestly it's thanks to tumblr in general i started questioning my sexuality when i was in my mid 20s. living in a very white, conservative state - even if you live in a liberal family, that shit just gets ingrained. i was never homophobic or anything, just didn't consider anything other than straight an option. long story short, figured the bi was the best label for me at that time, definitely made me feel better, and more like myself. my partner (husband) was like yeah that's cool all good i support you let me know if you need anything from me and it's been great since.

another... long-ish story in a shorter form... i started struggling the last year or two with all of it again. just feelings and s.x feelings and whatever, a big reason of why i started therapy. basically come to the decision i land on the ace spectrum somewhere. i know much less about being asexual, and it definitely doesn't feel as "good" coming to this realization. i think i probably fall close to the demi- label. but labels and feelings are hard. and since 1) i'm pretty uneducated and 2) no one wants to hear about my sx life, i'm not going to go into things. i just wanted to throw out there that... i'm still figuring shit out. this convo with m was a lot harder, went a lot worse. then there was a better second convo. he's still supportive, it's just harder for reasons that are personal to him so i won't delve into. our relationship is okay, he doesn't want to open our marriage, and not much has changed honestly. i'm still trying to figure out my boundaries, and where my 'am i doing this because i want to or feel like i have to' lines are. it's... not fun. adding to that that if things ever came to the point where our marriage wouldn't work... that completely changes not only my life in a large way, but the kids, and m's. that is the fuckin scariest thing. sexuality discovery would be way less scary if i wasn't scared it will eventually negatively affect people in my life. i'm very much a "i will accept this thing that's not great for me and be quiet to keep the calm and happiness of those around me" in most cases. i don't like taking up space for myself. it's been a rough couple months.

anyway if i had to label i'd go with biromantic, asexual (with some ace labels i may or may not ever figure out)

getting older is a fuckin trip. you think you should know what you want and who you are but no one really knows. and life changes us and we discover more about who we are. for those newbies that are not even 20... your 20s and 30s are great. just... be prepared to shift and change and evolve and be okay with that.

anyway. new folks. i'm alex. i live in the middle of the us. i have two kids (boys, 8 and 5) that... i've been on tumblr longer than either of them have been alive. i work from home in (broadly) a data role within a corporation. i enjoy my work, its flexibility, and just data in general. give me numbers. i've been married for 14 years this june, and i'll be 34 in july.

i watch nwsl and uswnt for sports mostly. working on reading more novels again. obviously my tv obsessions are clear within minutes of looking at my blog. i talk parent stuff too sometimes, it's obviously a big part of who i am, but i'll leave their names and pics off the blog for their safety. i'll show my stupid face here though. sometimes i'll talk about seizures (i have them occasionally, unfortunately, and my brain isn't feeling great right now) and other medical stuff if it's bothering me because this place really is like a journal release for me. i hold some stuff back but yeah. i'll tag with 'personal nonsense' if you want to mute. sometimes i post and delete because i read it again later and decide no one needs to read that shit.

you're always welcome to say hi. i'm fairly harmless, but also keep walls up until i know you better.

uhhh i think that's it. mmmbye

[oldarticles]

College vs. Real College

by Jake Hurwitz

Like many of you, I grew up watching Saved by the Bell, Boy Meets World, and (don't tell anyone) Dawson's Creek. Those shows taught me all I knew about relationships, family problems, and, as years passed without network cancellation, college life. Well, you can imagine my disappointment when I moved into my dorm freshman year only to discover that the college life portrayed on television during my youth was not even remotely similar to real college life. Allow me to explain:

Saved by the Bell: First of all, the fact that Zack got into UCLA without ever doing any homework (aside from that project he did with the Native American that one time) just because he got a good SAT score is ridiculous, but I won't even get into that. Zack moves in to his dorm with A.C. Slater and Samuel "Screech" Powers. Talk about a stroke of luck! Who saw that one coming?! As freshmen, Zack and the guys had a sweet common room, complete with a kitchen, which connected them to one Miss Kelly Kapowski and her two hot roommates, Leslie and Alex. My freshman year I lived in a 12 by 10 cinderblock cell with a strange Indian kid who had a nasty Hot-Pocket addiction and rampant body odor. There was no common room connecting our room to the room of three gorgeous women. Instead, we had a hallway with a puke-stained carpet connecting our room to the R.A.'s room - who, by the way, was not an awesome ex-football player named Mike but a tiny computer nerd named Barry. Yeah, my first day on campus was a let-down, and it only went downhill from there.

Boy Meets World: Just like Cory, Eric, Topanga, Sean and Angela, I applied to Pennbrook University. Sadly, I didn't get in, but not because of my low G.P.A. or because of a lack of extra curricular activities. No, I'd say the biggest determining factor in my not being admitted was that Pennbrook doesn't exist. That's probably the reason my spell check has it underlined in red right now. Anyway, as if that wasn't bad enough, I was totally thrown off when I went to my first class and didn't see my favorite teacher from high school standing at the front, ready to throw some sweet life lessons my way. What the hell, Mr. Deck? Mr. Feeny followed his students from school to school. I know change is difficult, and you might be missing that PhD, but, dude, get with the program. I mean, what am I supposed to do if Topanga gets mad at me? Or what if Angela wants to move to Europe for a year with her Dad? I can't solve problems like this on my own!

Dawson's Creek: That's when I started thinking, why should I even go to college? Pacey didn't go and he did fine. He was an investment banker, and later in the very same season, a chef. Those things sound like stuff I can do without ever getting any sort of actual training, right? So I put on a suit and went out there and gave it a shot. Amazingly, no brokerage houses or five-star restaurants hired me after my interviews. I did everything Pacey did; grew the goatee, drove a cool vintage car, even tried to use unnecessarily big words in my sentences"; unfortunately my math knowledge is at or below third grade level, and I don't know how to use a calculator. The chef thing didn't go too well when they discovered my culinary skills were limited to making Easy-Mac, and even that comes out a little watery sometimes".

What I'm trying to say is that college is not like TV. You're not going to bang Joey Potter, Topanga or in Zack's case - whoever the hell you want. Your teachers aren't gonna be Mr. Feeny or Professor Lasky (Thanks IMDB!). And you're gonna have to work hard to excel in life, my friend. But there is one upside that TV didn't tell you about. There's tons of alcohol to drink and crazy drugs to do in college, way more than any TV shows let on. So have a ball! Cut loose! Get fucked up! Hey, maybe Topanga will pass out and you can feel her boobs.

[hoghtastic]

The way you guys talk about Johanne and Alex being together reminds me of Bill Skarsgård and Alida. People talk about them all the time, and they say literally some of the exact same things, word for word, about Alida that you guys do Johanne. Just worse because it seems Alida groomed Bill into a relationship with her and ended up trapping him by having kids with him? Idk I’m just reading into the drama now but it’s….interesting to say the least

Thank you for your input, anon. 😊 Even though I don't follow Bill's career that closely ("It" and "Barbarian" are his movies that I've seen and come to my mind, though I've probably watched some more), and don't know anything about his personal life other than the name of his father and siblings, I'd agree that discussing a famous actor/musician's love life and a general dislike towards their significant other is a common phenomenon across every fandom. I even came across this "bingo" on another blog, regarding Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner's relationship:

I think in the age of social media, where parasocial relationships are thriving and even encouraged by the industry as means to make more money, people feel closer to their favorite celebrities and entitled to discuss their personal lives (we've already discussed this here). There's even cases of people who genuinely believe they'd have some chance of being together with the object of their affection, if it wasn't for their current girlfriend, who they sometimes portray as some kind of "evil witch" without the slightest evidence. And if this is common across every fandom, it can also happen in regards to Alex, Johanne or anyone else he might have dated/will date in the future.

Although, I believe most discussions here have been about Johanne as a person, her own character and actions, regardless of whom she is dating. People don't "hate" Johanne just because she is dating Alex, nor do they see Alex as some sort of helpless victim who can't think for himself. People knew about Johanne because of Alex, of course, but they dislike her because of some questionable things she's been doing, a position she's put herself in. Her attitude would have been considered bad had she been dating Alex, prince Harry, the guy from across the street or no one at all. (Personally, I wouldn't really like to be friends with someone who pretends to be someone they're not, by trying to pass someone else's art as their own, without even crediting them as their source of inspiration, for example. It doesn't matter if it would be Johanne or a completely anonymous colleague.) So, I believe things aren't so black and white. People aren't "evil witches" just because they're dating your celebrity crush, nor are they always perfect and the best thing to ever happen to them. Just like in real life, sometimes people make good choices when choosing a partner, sometimes they don't. And at the end of the day, as much as we can discuss about it, it doesn't really concern us on a personal level.

I hope this makes sense. But thank you for bringing this up, it's a really interesting topic to think about and discuss! 😃

[shinxeysartgallery]

What is your thought process for when it comes to designing ocs? Like where do you even start? You have so many of them so if you decide to make a new one how do you keep from making them too similar or find something for everyone to do? It sounds hard.

Honestly, half the time they're inspired by the absolute randomest of ideas/thoughts. I will literally just be sitting here and see something that catches my eye and gives me an idea or I'll just get a random thought like "oh this would be cool" completely unprompted.

For example, my OCs Carol and Pinchy. At one point a few years ago, I was watching YouTube videos and decided to read the comments on one in particular when one comment caught my eye. It was by someone named Carol, and immediately when I saw the name, I thought "you know, that would be a really cute name for a reindeer" and that idea is what prompted me to begin designing Carol. In her case, I designed her based off the name, which I had already chosen thanks to this YouTube comment. Because "carol" made me think of Christmas, I gave her a somewhat Christmas-y theme in her design (green and red being the main colors, and the gold accents because it went with the colors and still matched the theme, the bell around her neck, and the bows on her boots). In Pinchy's case, I started from his species and named him later. I was sitting a few years ago and randomly had a thought about how there were not very many bugs in the Sonic cast and kinda wanted to make one. Decided on a scorpion (even though they're not bugs) because I love scorpions. I decided on making him a bandit because that's pretty cool and not done a ton and his design was based off that occupation. Then I named him Pinchy because right after stinging with their tails, scorpions are known for grabbing things in their pincers.

So basically, if you have the idea for a name, but not a design, think of what elements you could give that character that would just scream that name. For example, say you want to name a character Alex. What could you give them that would make you go "yep that's Alex" when you see them?

If you have a design, but not a name, think of what the design makes you think of. For example, if you've designed a princess character, what's a name that would make you go "oh! she's a princess!"?

I've done similar with a few OCs, such as Barry. I had made a design for him, but didn't know what to name him by the time I finished. Then, as I'm staring at the finished art trying to think of a name, I was literally just like "you know, he looks like he'd be named Barry" so that's what I named him. lmao

Another thing I can suggest is to look up name ideas on Google. I've also done that a few times, especially with surnames. It can be something as simple as "boy names" or "boy names that begin with S", even all the way to "girl names that mean strong", just to name some examples. It can be a really great way to choose a good name for characters.

A lot of that just boils down to whether or not the magic inspiration RNG decides to roll in your favor.

For the other question, yeah it can be a bit difficult to not make characters be too samey, especially when you have as many as I do. For stuff like that, think of what the series (whether for fanfic-type stuff or something completely original) is missing. What could you insert? For example, say the cast lives near the ocean, even if that doesn't get brought up often. Because it doesn't get brought up often, there's not much to do regarding the ocean, so a character you could potentially make is a sailor. Maybe there's a guy who sells the main characters cargo from overseas or lets them borrow his boat for something? (You don't necessarily have to do something like make a whole arc about sailing on the ocean to use this character, either, but you can.) Personalities and mannerisms are a little harder, so I'd say to toss it up a bit; don't make everyone a hero or a villain, throw in some morally grey folks, too. If everyone is just "I'm a good guy" or "I'm a bad guy", then they do tend to come off as more samey, even if their personalities are a lot different.

Obviously you don't have to do any of that, those are just the things I do when I make new folks after getting the ideas for them. lol

[likeadevils]

I could be completely wrong but I really don't think Wildest Dreams is about Alexander Skarsgard. In fact I don't think its about anyone in particular. Alexander was 13 years her senior. Considering how her last 10+ age difference ended I'd say she would try to stay away from that. The music video is the only hint but that mv doesn't show it as a hookup. The climax in particular implies the guy was married. They were shown to have a full on relationship in secret.

I think it was a fantasy of her. "Let's get out of this town......crowds" since public attention was what ruined her previous relationship. "Nothing lasts forever" shows her pessimistic approach during 1989 era regarding love. "He is so tall......does it so well" shows how perfect her fantasy partner is. "Say you'll remember me"> At that point she had a bad breakup with all of her exes(harry included ik they became friends later). She atleast wanted someone to remember her. The original lyrics also shows it's not a hookup for her ("live in here forever") . I think she projected everything she wanted, every fear of hers, every pessimism onto an imaginary person. That's my 2 cents.

P.s Taylor said the video was inspired by burton-Taylor romance and her hairstyle was a callout to her grandmother. So those two are not giver hint.

i think that’s very much part of it!! i’ve always seen as being more about a state of mind then a muse, but i would guess that alexander skarsgard caused her to notice she was in that state of mind.

and yeah, both of the above things can be true while it also being a giver hint (one that i think was intended for alex in a wonderstruck being a hint for adam young type way). like, she wasn’t ever gonna say “oh this was inspired by me filming the giver in africa where i wore a black wig and had a rumored romance with another actor on set” she was gonna say “oh i set this in the 50s and in africa because i was inspired by elizabeth taylor and richard burton and my grandma who had black hair”

[lesbewriting]

because i had you

[cc!Quackity x Fem!Reader] [chpt.3]

SUMMARY: In which Quackity is left reminiscing about his past relationship with his ex-girlfriend after their breakup.

WARNINGS: mainly angst, um crying and mentions of moving on? there's like no fluff here sorry guys

A-N: Bit of a shorter chapter, but that's because I didn't know what else to write for it. Enjoy though :)

[masterlist]

[series masterlist]

QUACKITY PULLED HIMSELF through the sliding door of the grocery store. His eyes scanned the surrounding area as he searched for the food items he needed. He just wanted to hurry up and get this shopping done and go home already. Every little thing still reminds him of the wonderful girl he had lost.

His hands clutched at the basket he held tightly, staring sadly at the display of apples in front of him. Apples were always your favourite, he had remembered from all the times he would see you eating the juicy fruit.

He shook his head, forcing himself to grab a couple and put them into his basket. His feet slowly moved on, attempting to distract himself from everything. But it was incredibly difficult when for some reason anything he saw in that stupid grocery store, he would somehow manage to link it back to you.

Your favourite foods, drinks, snacks. Everytime he walked past the aisles they belonged in, it made him want to scream. His eyes fought to hold back tears as he shakily grabbed a can of whatever food he needed and put it into his basket again.

Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe he should have waited a few more days to go shopping again. He did just breakup up with his longtime girlfriend, and he didn't think he was in the right state of mind at that moment.

"What do you want for the future?" You asked, from where you sat huddled into his side on the living room couch. Quackity's fingers gently drawing small circles onto your arms as the two figures attempted to just take in the moment between them.

He liked this, he liked the spent time together where they both could just hang and intertwine themselves as they talked about whatever meaningless topics they could have thought of. No distractions like streaming, work or anything else that was stressful. It was just them. The two of them so utterly in love.

"I don't know, any future is fine. As long as you're in it." He finally said, after taking a moment to think it through. He knew what he was saying was true, as cliche as it may be. He did see himself at your side every single day. He did see himself stood across from you at the end of the aisle, professing your vows to each other.

"That was kinda cheesy, but I do agree." Y/n allowed a small chuckle to slip past her lips, adjusting the position you were in for a moment. "I'm not sure what I'd do if I didn't have you in my life, Alex"

Nevermind, he definitely couldn't do this today. He carefully placed whatever object he'd just picked up back down. He dropped the almost full basket onto the ground where he stood. He needed to get out of there already, so he hurriedly turned on his heel and turned out of the store.

He was sure, there was a ton of eyes drawing onto his retreating figure as he exited. But he didn't care at that moment. He felt like it was too overwhelming inside that store, he couldn't focus properly on the groceries he need to buy, when all he could think of was Y/n.

His feet carried themself back to his car. He opened the car door, and got back in. He refused to let the tears fall again, as he buckled his seatbelt and prepared to drive out of the parking lot and back home. He wanted to head home, before he fully broke down then.

Why did he have to allow himself to do what he did to the girl he loved the most? When it's everything he's regretted since. I guess it's the consequences he's supposed to face for his own shitty actions.

You were literally everything he ever wanted in a romantic partner. Atleast that's he always thought, until he completely fucked it up that day.

Of course, even his car radio had it out for him. He thought as the sudden lyrics of "-thought I knew just what I wanted" could suddenly be heard playing through the car speakers.