#i will not do anything above 73

[olderthannetfic]

I thought it would be interesting to see if I could easily determine which ships had the most works updated in 2023.

It turned out to be fairly easy, though a little time consuming. I think these results should be reasonably accurate.

Some points to note:

I did this on my own account, and I have like 2 people muted. So I am capturing the effects of archive-locked works, but my numbers might be off by one or two works due to muting.

Works updated in 2023 is a number that constantly changes as works are deleted or updated again in 2024.

I didn't scrape the entire archive or anything like that, so it's possible I missed a ship that would bump one of these down below 100. I'd take the last few at the bottom there with a grain of salt. But I think we can be reasonably sure the top ones are accurate and that the kinds of numbers that we see at the bottom there (eighteen hundred plus works updated in 2023) are about where the cutoff will be even if we find a ship I missed.

--

As for how I did this, I went to the category tags and the rating tags, filtered for updating in 2023, then excluded ships in the sidebar till I got to 130-150 ships excluded. I also grabbed ships that are big in general from tag search, which you can use to find all relationship canonicals, ordered by frequency.

I combined those lists of ships, cleaned off the works numbers, and generated a list without duplicates. That got me three hundred and something (yes, they were mostly duplicates). I generated the relevant AO3 URLs, opened them in batches with Open Multiple URLs, and copied the works totals into a spreadsheet. Not as tidy as using a script but honestly pretty easy if you know a few spreadsheet formulas to clean up data.

The key here is that if you're only going for pretty good and not accurate beyond a shadow of a doubt, all you need to do is generate a list of likely ships, then check them.

It's possible that there's some much-updated ship that is so evenly spread across these various other tags that it just missed showing up in the sidebar. Hopefully, grabbing more than just the top 100 avoided this problem.

This method also doesn't take into account backdated works. If a whole archive was imported in 2023 but all backdated, there could be some ship that didn't have new works but where AO3 users experience in 2023 was of an influx of content.

I also did this just now, in late March/early April, so some 2023 works have inevitably been deleted or updated again. So the exact work counts don't represent the experience of using AO3 throughout 2023. A fandom active in early 2023 might not have much updating in early 2024, while a fandom active in late 2023 would. This could demote the latter a few places in the rankings since I didn't grab numbers on January 1st.

Even if a person scraped AO3 every day or was monkeying around in the databases, you also have to ask what conceptual answer you're after. Is it works a user could have read at some point during 2023, whether they were deleted by the year's end or not? Is it new-to-AO3 works or only newly-created ones, not including imported archives? Does it matter if the works are fic? If they're in English? What about accidental double-uploads or translations of a single work?

I hope this makes it clear why a definitive ranking is not actually possible.

However, despite these drawbacks, I am confident that the rankings above accurately represent the broad trends on AO3 in 2023. Just don't get too fixated on whether a ship should be at number 73 or number 74.

And, of course, I excluded these from the top 100:

Original Character(s)/Original Character(s) - 20,026

Minor or Background Relationship(s) - 16,187

No Romantic Relationship(s) - 8,052

Original Female Character(s)/Original Male Character(s) - 7,195

Original Male Character/Original Male Character - 6,283

Other Relationship Tags to Be Added - 5,618

Original Female Character(s)/Original Female Character(s) - 3,990

Original Character(s) & Original Character(s) - 3,210

Here's a spreadsheet if you want to see the actual numbers not as a shitty screencap. I left the next few below 100 for context.

[ectonurites]

Are Tim and Cass Cain actually close in canon? Or is that more of a fanon thing that gained canon status?

Alright, so the tldr answer is that yes pre-reboot they were close—but it wasn't something that happened immediately/right off the bat, it took time, and they didn't always perfectly see eye-to-eye. But like, it's not just some totally fanon thing, they were absolutely close.

I'm using past-tense in the above though because it's like... all the actual content with them becoming/being close is pre-reboot. Anything post-reboot with them either had them back at square one (during N52 stuff) or like, just sort of handwavey 'oh they're close again' without much actual elaboration/explanation. Theoretically nowadays everything's canon again so all the old stuff applies, but as far as I'm aware nothing has really dug all that deep back into the two of them/their dynamic.

Now, to give a brief crash course on Tim & Cass's relationship in canon...

Early on they weren’t all that close because Tim was absolutely intimidated by her & her background and like, in general seemed to just find her kinda off-putting:

(Robin (1993) #73)

However Tim eventually gets over himself & after working side-by-side with her a little bit realizes he shouldn't let being intimidated by her stop them from being friends and working together:

(Batgirl (2000) #18)

After this point they work together on several occasions, definitely communicating much better than in their initial appearances together and clearly getting along well. They're a fun lil duo:

(Superman/Batman Vol. 1 #5, Superboy Vol. 4 #85)

Then… after a while, War Games happens. Gotham goes to shit, Steph dies (well, we nowadays know she didn't really, but they sure were both grieving) and so they both independently move to Blüdhaven, which leads us to the Robin/Batgirl: Fresh Blood crossover. Which has some fun little moments with them:

(Batgirl (2000) #58)

As well as some on the more tense side, as they both navigate mourning Steph and the clashes in their ideologies/approaches to hero work—the fact that Cass wants to be & be like Batman, and the fact that Tim absolutely does not:

(Batgirl (2000) #59)

After the crossover they mostly do their own thing staying out of each other's ways in Blüdhaven—though they do get another little story together in this timeframe in Batman Allies: Secret Files & Origins that sort of rehashes the above conflict during some training together & a team-up.

And we DO also get the cute (and oft-mentioned by the fandom) moment where Tim mentions she frequently breaks into his house to shower & steal rice krispies (just for clarity sake, while fandom almost exclusively calls her 'Cass' largely to avoid confusion with Cassandra 'Cassie' Sandsmark, within the comics themselves both Cassandras get called 'Cass' and 'Cassie' at various points—considering Cass is the one who lives in the same city as Tim at this point in canon, that's definitely who he's talking about here)

(Robin (1993) #138)

So like, at this point they are absolutely comfortable with one another and pretty close, but just, they don't see eye-to-eye on everything so it's not some flawless friendship (and I say friendship specifically because at this point we're still a few years out from them actually becoming siblings). But it's absolutely an interesting dynamic!

Then… after Infinite Crisis we get to the One Year Later/OYL era which is... bad for Cass. Terrible horrible character assassination we all refer to as the 'Evil Cass arc' which began in Tim's book. I don't wanna pull panels from it because it's just... it's bad!!!!!!!!!!!! There's a reason it got retconned into Cass having been brainwashed—because it was bad.

I guess the only thing worth bringing up here in relation to Tim & Cass's relationship though (because as mentioned, Cass gets retconned into it having been brainwashing so anything from her in this era is irrelevant/moot) is the fact that Tim was obviously very upset about the whole situation because Cass is someone he cares about and he even says he considers family.

To fast forward through that mess, when we get to the end of it and the 'oh it was brainwashing haha!' retcon, Tim was the one to have on hand a counter-serum that could free her from Deathstroke's control:

(Teen Titans Vol. 3 #44)

Once Cass is no longer forced to be evil and ooc, she gets a little mini at the end of which Bruce formally offers to adopt her (and Tim, who had earlier been adopted by Bruce, is present for this—so from this point on they go from a more general 'we're like family' to actually 'we are adopted siblings').

Buuuut then Final Crisis & Battle for the Cowl both occur and Cass gets extremely pushed aside by DC, giving up the Batgirl mantle to Steph and heading off to Hong Kong.

At which point we find out that Tim & Cass have actually kept in contact (just... off-panel) during this time when she's been out of Gotham and he's been off doing all sorts of stuff:

(Red Robin #17)

When they see each other in person again, Tim urges her to be a Bat again. Maybe not Batgirl if that's not what she wants, but to wear the symbol and be part of the family. (Which she does take him up on, keeping the suit he brought her and becoming Black Bat).

She pops up again at the end of Red Robin to save Tim & also help him pull off a fake assassination attempt on himself—ya know standard stuff.

And then right before the reboot we get to see them working alongside Damian and Dick in Gates of Gotham, and see one final time that yeah—these two have kept in touch after everything, and are definitely far more on one another's wavelength nowadays than they were back in the 'fresh out of War Games' era:

(Batman: Gates of Gotham #2, #5)

So like, does fanon over exaggerate them and their relationship? Aaaaabsolutely—that’s what fanon does. But they did definitely become close after everything they went through and had a fun dynamic together!

Sadly though, as I mentioned at the start of the post, the n52 wiped everything back to a clean slate. And while nowadays post-Infinite Frontier everyone’s histories have been restored their dynamic has never really been the same again.

[jlhynde-insanitybrilliance]

UDLTTOM DIALOGUE DRAFT #73

*Harry & Ted playing 2 truths and a lie with Tom & Knights of Walpurgis*

Harry: It’s my turn again? Ok Umm…I didn’t learn how to swim until I was eleven, I’ve never been to South America, and I’m an unregistered animagus.

Ignotus Avery (frustrated): Bloody hell! Why are these so difficult?! I believe all of these!

Harry: How are they difficult?

Alyxander Mulciber: After hearing you out raced a dragon on a broomstick anything goes at this point.

Lyra Burke: Oh, I do believe you are an animagus! That would make so much sense, wouldn’t it? How else are you able to slip away so often without being noticed? What’s your form?

Abraxas Malfoy: That’s not part of the game, Lyra.

Lyra: New game! Let’s try and guess Evans’ animagus form, every wrong guess you have to drink but if we get it right Evans has to down the rest of the bottle! And we get to ask you questions!

Harry: Alright, sure.

Lyra: Is it aquatic, amphibious, reptilian, or mammal?

Harry: None of the above. Drink.

Druella Roiser: Avian?

Harry: No, though it can fly. Drink.

Thaddeus Nott: Is it an insect?

*Harry nods*

Theodore (stunned disbelief): It’s a bloody cockroach, isn’t it?

*Harry passes bottle to Theodore*

Harry: Drink up, Ted.

-3 bottles & a half of Fire whiskey later-

Abraxas: -hic-I’m telling’ ya, he’s gotta be a blue morpho-hic- I’m a thousand present positive of it-hic

Walburga Black: Shhh, please! I insist that he’s lying. He’s a liar, Abraxas, he’s been lying about the whole thing tryin’ ta get us-hic-smashed. He’s got it written on his hand 🤚

Lyra: I think-hic- if I was a animagus I’d like to be a butterfly 🦋. It-hic-reminds of the Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi—

Harry (still mostly sober): Are you not going to guess, Riddle?

Tom: Oh, I wouldn’t dare presume.

Harry: That’s no fun. C’mon, don’t be a chicken.

Tom (unable to ignore the challenge): Fine, Evans. Let me think about it… An insect that can fly, it’s blue, is found commonly in gardens, but is not native to the British isles. Is it bigger or smaller than a knut?

Harry: Smaller.

Tom: And what country is it native to?

Harry: Australia.

Tom: What does it eat?

Harry: Mostly aphids.

Tom: Then it’s a pest controller…

Harry: Give up?

Tom: Do you? If I get it right you’ll have to down half a bottle of Fire whiskey in one go, Evans.

Harry: I don’t think you’ll get it right. You’d never guess it.

Tom: How about a wager, Evans, between just you and I? I get it wrong and I’ll write one of your essays for you, any subject, any length…

Harry: I’m listening.

Tom: But if I get it right, I get a kiss. Right here (taps lips)

Harry (laughing): You know what, fine. Sure Riddle. If you think you can guess it without asking another question.

*Tom whispers his answer in Harry’s ear & its right.*

Harry:

Oh shit!

[hughesmedicine]

rockstar 2| l. hughes

luke hughes x !lynch reader

one

ynlynch

liked by dylanduke25, edwards.73, rydelfunk and others.

ynlynch: he begged for a song🤭

load more comments..

ynsbestfriend: HE BEGGED??

| lhughes_06: she’s lying, I didn’t beg

| dylanduke25: y/n never lies so

| lhughes_06: I swear she can get away with anything cause of you.

| dylanduke25: yeah cause she didn’t do it?

| ynlynch: knew there was a good reason to keep duker around, love you bestie

| dylanduke25: love you more!

| lhughes_06: she’s not innocent but okay

| dylanduke25: yeah okay, I’ve never seen her do anything wrong

jackhughes: are you guys matching in the last picture??

| ynlynch: are we?

| jackhughes: im starting to not like you again but matching outfits are a no go🫡

| ynlynch: good but if you used your eyes you can tell and shut up.

| jackhughes: hostile and for what?

| ynlynch: many reasons to be hostile when it comes to you.

| jackhughes: okay rude.

ross_lynch: do we finally get to meet him??

| rockylynch: ^

| ynlynch: yes tonight at his hockey game!

ross_lynch: forgot you were dragging us to that

| ynlynch: dragging?? More like you wanted to go and you even bought a jersey with dukers last name on it🫡

| ross_lynch: he’s my favorite so what do you expect me to do???

| edwards.73: I think someone needs to check on duker

| lhughes_06: already on it

| ynlynch: he’s gonna pass out again when he sees me above him lmao

| jackhughes: that’s my worst nightmare

| ynlynch: now I know how to scare you, watch your back rowden

| jackhughes: im not coming to the lake house this summer.

| ynlynch: that’s okay, luke told me where you live and coincidentally that’s where one of our tour dates is

| jackhughes: im moving away.

| rockylynch: wise decision

lhughes_06

liked by ynlynch, rydelfunk, rutgermcgroarty and others.

lhughes_06: saw my girl play right after we won and it was the best way to end the night, so proud of you and your brothers!

tagged: ynlynch, ross_lynch and rockylynch

load more comments..

jackhughes: im so proud of you both for doing amazing tonight!

| ynlynch: Jack being nice???

| jackhughes: gosh I can’t tolerate you anymore.

| ynlynch: there’s the jack I know and love very much, thank you rowden<3

| lhughes_06: thanks bro!

_quinnhughes: I guess since Jack took over the nice role,I get to take over the mean/joking role

| ynlynch: please stick to just being nice..

| _quinnhughes: what’s that supposed to mean??

| ynlynch: if you used your context clues, you could figure it out easily

| _quinnhughes: oh I walked myself into this one.

| jackhughes: welcome to my world

| _quinnhughes: you can take it back, I don’t want it.

dylanduke25: im still in shocked that we saw you guys in concert.

| rutgermcgroarty: no same it doesn’t feel real.

| nolan_moyle: rutgers a fan???

| ynlynch: you didn’t know?? This man talks highly of me to every stranger he meets and he begs for teasers every week😭

| rutgermcgroarty: can you blame me?? Got the best mom out here

| ynlynch: #1 mom right here🫶🏻

| adamfantilli: he is right about the best mom

| ynlynch: you guys are gonna make me cry.

| rutgermcgroarty: group hug in lukes room

| lhughes_06: do not.

| rutgermcgroarty: too late we’re already on our way, thanks for the invite!

rockylynch: thanks for bringing us to the game y/n! I enjoyed it but I’ve never seen ross so hype before

| ross_lynch: thanks for coming to the show! It was fun having you guys there too and thanks luke

| ynlynch: you have to come to hockey games with ross and I more! He goes all out

| rockylynch: I’m coming to more then

| dylanduke25: can I join on this outing??

| ross_lynch: yes!

| ynlynch: gosh you answered fast😭

| ross_lynch: told you favorite player.

trevorzegeras: congrats to you both! also y/n it was fun seeing you perform!

| ynlynch: YOU WERE THERE???

| trevorzegras: no but I wish, luke facetimed me in the middle of it cause I asked him too

| ynlynch: you’re coming to the next one.

| trevorzegras: im actually coming to the jersey show, have a game there that day

| ynlynch: ahhh I can’t wait, bring jamie!!

| jamie.drysdale: im coming either way!! I’ve been waiting to see you perform for awhile!

| trevorzegras: he won’t admit it but he’s been a fan since the beginning

| ynlynch: stop jamie I love you

| jamie.drysdale: love you more y/n/n!

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Daughter of the Rain and Snow

Concept: Around ten years after the events of Crooked Kingdom, 25-year-old Captain Inej Ghafa frees Maya Olsen from a pleasure house in Ketterdam. Maya is looking for revenge against the man who put her in her position, a man who she knows nothing about except his name: Kaz Brekker.

Tags: @wraith--2 @lunarthecorvus @just2bubbly @real-fragments7 @cartoon-clifford @origami-butterfly @lady-a-stuff

Content Warnings: in more general terms I want to remind people to be aware of the nature of Kaz and Inej's experiences and relationship since even if I'm not directly addressing these things they tend to be implicit in any writing about them, but specifically to this chapter there's grief, kidnapping, and ptsd references.

Note: Same note as the previous 2 chapters: sorry this may have more typos than usual as I wrote it on my phone

Chapter 73 - Wylan

To be entirely honest, when Wylan had asked Aimee if he could help her with anything he hadn’t been expecting her to say cutting her hair. But he couldn’t see anything wrong with the request, so he agreed and once she was ready she went down to the third floor to get dressed. Wylan crossed the fourth floor landing and hesitated for a moment beyond Esme’s bedroom, then pulled the door closed and slipped downstairs. It was not to be dealt with today.

Aimee sat on a chair beneath the pagoda, twitching her fingers in and out of her fist. As soon as she’d begun to cut the first half of her hair away, her relief was palpable in the air. She laughed giddily, clutching the long, limp tresses between her fingers and staring at them with wide eyes. After she’s cut both sides, above her shoulders wherever the blades fell, Wylan took the shears.

“Stop me whenever you need to, alright?” he smiled, “I’m just going to try to even it out a bit,”

Aimee nodded.

It took a while - they went slowly, and Wylan was only reasonably certain of what he was doing - but eventually Wylan thought it looked neat enough to at least get her through until the opportunity to ask someone who had a better sense of hairstyling. Aimee stood up slowly, brushing her fingers through the locks at the front of her face. She giggled again, eyes shining.

Wylan almost jumped when he suddenly felt Aimee’s arms close around him. She was considerably shorter than him and her head rested on his chest as she held him; after a moment of hesitation Wylan gently moved one arm over her shoulders, but he did not want to constrict her further.

“Thank you,”

The glow she’d sparked in Wylan’s chest lasted all of ten minutes. He gathered the piles of hair they’d cut away between them into the bin then followed her back into the house, to immediately hear panic filling the air. Someone was shouting from upstairs and there were footsteps racing through the building.

He suggested Aimee go to the kitchen and find herself something to eat, then hurried up the stairs to where he could hear Nina and Jesper’s overlapping voices.

“What happened?”

They were on the second floor outside the office, Inej unconscious between them. She lay on the floor, her head and shoulders cradled in Nina’s lap. Wylan swallowed, fighting the need to look away, to close his eyes. Jesper was apparently thinking the same thing. He caught Wylan’s hand and squeezed it briefly, then knelt to lift one of Inej’s arms over his shoulders.Nina helped him lift her and between the three of them they managed to carry her messily but safely enough down the steps.

“She was shaking like anything when I went in,” said Nina, “Completely out of it. And then she just… stopped,”

They lay Inej onto one of the sofas and Nina quickly arranged her limbs so she was lying on her side, legs bent, one arm beneath her head and one laid nearly over torso. She pushed the hair from her face.

“You’re going to be okay,” she whispered to the unconscious girl, “I promise,”

She stood up and brushed her hands down her shirt, frowning.

“I’m going to get her some water,” she said, after a minute of trying in vain to coax Inej back to the conscious world.

Wylan was leaning forward from one of the armchairs, eyes fixed on Inej. After Nina had left the room, he felt Jesper tug gently on his sleeve.

“You should see this,” he murmured softly.

Wylan frowned and followed him into the hallway and Jesper pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket - its very edges streaked with blood.

“It’s… what he used to get her out the house,” Jesper told him, “I think it must be, at least. She gave it to me last night but I- well, look I just read it. It’s a marriage certificate - for Elinor and Albert Crull,”

Wylan frowned.

“You think we were right?”

“Maybe… the birth years add up, Elinor would be the same age as Orlagh,”

“Is her maiden name on there?”

Jesper glanced at the paper.

“Van Deen,”

Wylan shrugged. He didn’t recognise it, but if he and Jesper were right in their theories then that might not be her real name anyway.

“We could ask Inej to look at it?” he offered, uncertainly, “She might know what to look for,”

Jesper glanced at the door to the living room.

“When she can, I mean,” added Wylan, “This doesn’t have to be our priority right now,”

“I know…” Jesper sighed, “I know that. I just think she deserves to-”

“I know,”

Wylan slipped his hand through Jesper’s so their fingers intertwined.

They sat quietly in the living room for some time, watching Inej as though she might vanish at any moment. Aimee sat cross-legged on the other sofa next to Nina, running her fingers through her hair in silence and frowning. Nina could not sit still; every few minutes she would find herself something to do, fetching someone a drink or running the cloth she’d placed on Inej’s forehead back under the tap again, and when she was seated she drummed her fingers against her knee.

“I’m going to check on Kiada,” Wylan said after a while, “I know she needs to sleep but it’s late in the day for no-one to have seen her,”

Nina nodded vaguely. He wasn’t entirely sure she knew what he’d said.

Wylan felt that something was wrong as soon as he crossed the hallway and noticed that Kiada’s bedroom door was ajar. The guest room she’d been staying in was farther down the hall from the main landing, closer to the back of the house and sharing a wall with the master ensuite, so no-one would have noticed the door was open from the stairs. Wylan crept towards it slowly, anxiety trying to tug him backwards.

“Kiada?”

The door creaked at his gentle touch, swinging slowly open.

“Kiada, are you alright?”

The room was empty. The window was open - but it was on the latch and the key was still in it. The barest edge of a breeze lifted the thin curtains and they floated silently above the windowsill and the little plant that adorned it.

Wylan frowned.

“Kiada?”

He paced briefly back into the hall and called for again, and when no-one answered he returned to the bedroom. The only other thing moving in there was a scrap of paper on the bed; Wylan only noticed it when the wind caught it and the corner began to flap against the little jar that had been used to pin it to the mattress. Wylan pulled it free and briefly inspected the jar - which appeared to just be an empty jar - before pacing back to the door with the note clutched between his fingers

“Jesper?” he called down the stairs, and when no reply came after a moment: “Jesper!”

“There in one second!”

“Now,”

“Alright,” Jesper called from two floors below, and Wylan could hear his voice getting closer now, “What’s wrong?”

Wylan pushed the note into his hands as soon as he reached the top of the stairs.

“I can’t find Kiada, that was on her bed,”

Jesper’s eyes scanned the page.

“Shit. Oh shit. Erm - Inej! - Inej isn’t awake - Nina! Nina!”

“What does it say?”

“I…” Jesper glanced at Wylan, then back at the paper before he read aloud: “It’s Alby. ‘Hostage exchange within 12 hours, or I turn her into the stadwatch’,”

“Oh,” Wylan whispered, clamping his hand to stop it shaking, “shit,”

[townesorsomething]

Midnight Burger & Young Leif characters as WTNV intros…

Caspar: Regret nothing, until it is too late. Then regret everything. (10)

Leif: I fought the law and the law won. I ignored the law and the law won. I abided by the law and the law won. (80)

Gloria: A lonely heart. A wandering eye. An empty stomach. A shoulder to cry on. This is what makes us us. (32)

Ava: The optimist says the glass is half full. The pessimist says the glass is half empty. It is only the truth seeker who wonders: why is the glass there? Why is there water all over the floor? Why is it covering every other surface of the house? Who, or what, is doing this to us? (18)

Effie: Our God is an awesome god, much better than that ridiculous god that Desert Bluffs has. (31)

Zebulon: Close your eyes. Let my words wash over you. You are safe now. (5)

Shel: Act natural. Act like all of nature. Act like the entire cycle of life and death and change and rebirth. (46)

Ex: The secret to a long life lies in how acutely you perceive time. (54)

Ted: Numbers don’t lie. But humans using numbers lie all the time. (87)

Läfftrax: Now is your chance. Well, that was it. It’s over. Did you do it? Have you achieved what you wanted? No? Ah well. (52)

Clementine: Those who remember history are also doomed to repeat it. (98)

Terric: We make money the old fashioned way. We chemically convert lead into gold. (103)

Tamara: But don’t you see? You never needed anything else. The weird was within you the whole time. (69)

Frank: Cook a feast no family could fully eat. Recite prayers no family could fully believe. And acknowledge a frightful history no family could fully comprehend. (78)

June: The arctic is lit by the midnight sun. The surface of the moon is lit by the face of the Earth. Our little town is lit too, by lights just above we cannot explain. (3)

Chuck: In just a few days the whole story will be known. This is what happens after. (76)

Verge: It takes heart. It takes guts. It also takes cash. It just needs your payment immediately. (30)

Bertiluna: What’s past is prologue. What’s future is epilogue. This right here is maybe chapter 4 or 5. (73)

Dez: Which came first? The chicken, the egg, or airplanes? (92)

Alice: To err is human. But to err is also computer. We’ll have to find another test to reveal which of us are secretly bots. (81)

[scented-morker]

synopsis. you’ve been harboring a crush on your neighbor since middle school, and now as junior year nears a close and prom is just around the corner, your relationship gets thrown through a loop with the introduction of a new girl. now you have to make it through seeing him with her when it’s so obvious that he belongs with you.

details. bff!Jungwon x fem!reader, neighbor au, bffs2l, ft. ex-boyfriend jake and sister wonyoung, mostly fluff, lots of pining

warnings. none

word count. 4008

You had never particularly liked windows.

A weird thing to dislike, true, but there was always something unsettling about them to you.

Maybe it’s because they were so transparent. Windows couldn’t hide anything, and hiding was something you’d been doing for a very long time.

However, there was one window you liked.

You peeked your head through the curtain, looking across and seeing the exact same window you were looking through but on the house next door.

Taped to the glass was a piece of paper, Jungwon’s messy handwriting reading ‘meet you at 7’ staring back at you.

Jungwon, your neighbor and best friend since you were six.

The paper was a fun habit the two of you had started when he got his phone taken away for prank calling your principal (it was Riki’s idea). In his desperation for homework answers, he had taken a bold sharpie to a notebook, and now it was the chosen source of communication.

You rushed to grab your things, running down the stairs and out the door, a way-too-chipper-for-seven am spring in your step when you fell into step with Jungwon.

“You ready for karaoke night tonight?” You asked, referring to the weekly karaoke night you had on Fridays. Jungwon was always ready for karaoke night.

“Oh shoot, um I actually can’t make it this week. I’m sorry.”

“What do you mean?” You pouted at your best friend. He’d never missed karaoke night before.

“I actually have plans with Sohee tonight.”

You roll your eyes but make sure Jungwon can’t see it. Last month when he’d told you Kim Sohee had started talking to him you had laughed out loud, which made him grumpy for the next week.

Sohee was in the grade above you, she was captain of the cheer squad, and the last time you checked, had been dating Jake Sim for the last year.

You were understandably shocked that she had suddenly become interested in your best friend.

“I thought you were hanging out tomorrow?”

“Yeah, she made plans for tonight and tomorrow.”

“Without telling you?”

“Look, she didn’t know it was karaoke night okay? Can you drop it?”

You take a deep breath, reminding yourself to just be happy for your best friend.

“Yeah, of course.. so what’d you get on that science test?”

“73”

“Jungwon!” You gasp, and he laughs sheepishly.

The rest of your walk to school feels normal, just you and Jungwon messing around while complaining about the classes you’re about to enter.

“Jungwon!”

You’re cut off by the shrill voice of Kim Sohee as soon as you enter the school building, Jungwon’s phone still in your hand as you two take a picture of the top of your foreheads.

She beckons him over, and he looks at you for a second as if contemplating if he should go, but a quick nudge of your elbow has him going over to her, yelling something about sending you the picture and seeing you in class.

Your smile drops once he’s gone, turning into an awkward grimace as you navigate the halls alone— an action you’ve never had to do before, since you and Jungwon were already solidified best friends by the time you stepped foot into a school building.

‘You did the right thing,’ you remind yourself as you approach your locker.

Best friends support each other. Best friends like when the other is happy.

You slam your locker shut harder than you meant to— all those other best friends aren’t stupidly in love with Yang Jungwon like you are.

“All I’m saying is that if this was an episode of backyardigans-”

Your sentence is cut off by a car horn, and you and Jungwon both stop your steps as you turn to see who it was.

The two of you were already running a little late, because you’d stopped to get coffee before school this morning and the line was longer than usual.

You’d wished you’d just kept walking once you see who it is.

“Wonnie, do you want a ride?”

Sohee smiles her sickly sweet grin at you, and you fight to urge to make a face at her.

He looks over at you next to him before speaking.

“Uh I’m okay walking, thank you.”

“Oh come on don’t be silly, I’m already here and my dad took the top off of my car this morning!”

Jungwon glances at you again, and you give him a tight smile.

“It’s okay, Won, we’ve been doing this long enough I know the way to school by now.”

He breaks out into a goofy grin at your comment, hopping in the passenger side of Sohee’s convertible.

She grabs his face and smashes her lips to his— an action that has you immediately diverting your eyes from their direction, willing your eyes to stop watering.

When you look back she gives you a satisfied smirk, putting one hand on the wheel and driving away while your best friend sits stunned silence in the passenger seat.

That morning you’re late to class, but your teacher lets you off the hook because of the mascara smears dried down your cheeks.

Jungwon misses karaoke night again that week.

“And he yelled at me for having your number on my face, can you believe that?”

It’s Saturday morning and you’re sitting on Jungwon’s bed while you tell him about what the band director had said yesterday when you’d marched at halftime.

Jungwon had gone out with Sohee and some of the other cheerleaders after the game and forgot to text you last night, but Saturday morning breakfast with the Yang’s was part of your routine at this point.

“He doesn’t want me to do it next game— but don’t worry, no old man is gonna make me stop supporting my best friend!” You declare, jabbing your finger into his pillow.

Jungwon is quiet for a moment before speaking.

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t.”

You raise your eyebrow at him, “what do you mean?”

“Like wear my number.. if your director gets mad. Plus Sohee said it makes it look like we’re dating.”

You frown. Did Jungwon really hate the idea of dating you that much?

“Won, I mean this in the nicest way but frankly I don’t care about what either one of them thinks about us.”

“Well I do”

“What?”

He sighs, “it’s just, Sohee doesn’t like that we’re always hanging out because it kinda seems like we’re dating ya know? She wore my number on her face yesterday too and everyone asked if me and you broke up.”

You feel guilty at how happy that thought makes you. People actually thought you and Jungwon were dating.

“Okay so?”

“It just doesn’t look good if people think me and you are together and me and her actually are.”

“Won, since when do you care about what people think?”

“I just do okay? Can you just do this for me? I think I really like her.”

You make sure you’re looking the other way to hide the tears building up, “yeah, whatever won that’s fine.”

“Are you mad at me?”

You sneak a peak at his face, an action you immediately regret because looking at his shiny eyes and pouty lips only intensifies the feeling of being helplessly in love with your best friend while he chases someone else.

“No, I’m just gonna head home okay? I’ve got a lot of homework to do today.”

Jungwon calls after you, offering to do it together, but you’re already down the hall.

“Yn honey, are you not staying for breakfast?” Jungwons mother looks at you softly, and something about it has the tears immediately falling down your face.

“No, I’m really busy today so I’m just gonna head out. Thank you.”

She stares in shock as you run out the door, immediately marching up to Jungwons room to ask what was up— you hadn’t missed Saturday breakfast with the Yangs in six years.

That night you scroll through your phone aimlessly, Wikihow articles on “how to not fall for your best friend” and “how to get over a guy you never had a chance with anyway” pulled up on every tab.

It comforts you a little, and you peek out your window to see if Jungwon is in his room, already sketching out ‘sorry for ditching you’ in your newest notebook.

However, he wouldn’t have seen it because even though he’s in his room, Jungwon is pacing back and forth not paying a single ounce of attention to you.

He’s on the phone, and it doesn’t look fun with the way his hand is flailing about as he talks or the deep heaves of his chest from repeated sighing.

You watch for longer than you probably should, what first started out as trying to read his lips inevitably turning into just staring at them.

He tosses his phone onto his bed (still with the same cars blanket on it from middle school) and covers his eyes. Somehow you know he’s letting out a loud groan— probably because you’ve seen him do it so many times.

He looks your way, and at first you’re embarrassed to be caught, but then he grabs the notebook next to his bed and a giddy feeling returns to your chest.

She’s crazy

You take one look at it and let out a laugh. Normally you don’t condone woman bashing, but it’s Sohee, and she definitely is crazy.

Hate to say I told you so

He just rolls his eyes before flipping to his next sheet, looking at you hopefully.

Chem hw?

Already turned it in

He pouts, writing out a goodbye before clambering over his bed and to his school bag.

You just look down at the notes on your bed, clicking play on your Spotify as you transfer them to a new page.

A few minutes in and they’re quickly discarded, materials strewn across the comforter while you attempt a performance of Fancy by Twice in your vanity mirror.

It’s not very good, but it’s fun, and when the next song comes on you try again. This time you put on a bedazzled hat that you found in your closet, quickly turning into a one woman dance party, completely forgetting that yours and jungwons curtains are both open.

He looks up from his homework to ask you something about ions, but he leaves the sharpie hovering over his notebook, immediately letting out a giggle at what he’s seeing.

There’s laughter in his eyes as he watches you fondly for a few moments before turning back to his paper, deciding he’s done for the night.

When you finally finish your impromptu performance and collapse on your bed in exhaustion, there’s a note on Jungwons window and you have to squint to see the black writing because of the darkness outside.

Cute moves

Not only did he compliment you, but the next morning you see the familiar meeting message on his window, meaning he told Sohee not to pick him up so he could walk with you.

You practically float down the stairs, the prospect of Jungwon finally realizing that Sohee wasn’t the one for him making all of the negative thoughts from the last few weeks disappear.

“Well you’re in a good mood this morning,” he giggles when you join him.

“I’m just glad we’re walking together again, I’ve missed you these last few days.”

He smiles, bumping your shoulder with his own, “I couldn’t leave my best friend hanging.”

You hide a bashful smile behind your hair.

“And I need your help with something.”

You look up at his glittering eyes, “what’s up?”

“Well, you know prom is coming up..”

Your eyes light up, and he giggles.

“So I guess it’s true then.”

“What’s true?”

“That girls get all excited and gushy over prom,” he says, with another bump to your shoulder.

“Well I don’t know about gushy, but yeah I’ve thought about it before…” you trail off, leaving out the fact that all of your prom daydreams included him.

“That’s great!!” He doesn’t offer any context on why it’s so great, just asks you another question. “What do you think is the perfect way to ask someone to prom?”

You can’t help the excitement from bubbling in your chest, you try to convince yourself that it’s a totally harmless question, but the lovesick voice in your head can’t help but scream “HE'S ASKING YOU.”

Because come on, why else would he be asking about your perfect promposal if not to use it to give you exactly what you want.

“Well, personally I think I’d like it kinda small. Like just someone with a sign outside my window or a casual ask while on a walk or something,” then quickly you add, “but I know a lot of other girls dream about a big public ask, ya know like at a football game or in front of the whole school.”

Jungwon nods, “that’s what I thought.”

There’s a beat of silence before he speaks again.

“Sohee is probably a big ask kind of girl, don’t you think?”

You feel as if you’ve been slapped, and you can’t help the way you recoil.

“Uh”

“I mean I don’t know if it’s weird asking you or not, I know you’re not her biggest fan but I figure you know girl stuff better than me.”

You tuck your head down, blinking back tears as you realize he was never interested in you.

“Yeah, she definitely would be.”

He notices the way your voice seems quieter.

“Hey you okay?”

“Yeah totally,” you’re approaching the school doors now, and you cover with a quick lie, “I just realized I totally forgot to study for this quiz in chem.”

“We have a quiz?!”

Somehow, Jungwon took your embarrassed reluctance when it came to prom as excitement, as he enlisted you to help him write out a giant sign for Sohee.

(“Well you seemed so excited and I know how much you like making posters”)

So for the three hours between the end of school and the time you had to report for the football game, you sat on Jungwons floor and helped him.

Honestly, it was kind of nice. You got to sit there with someone you love, joking around and creating something.

In fact, if you forgot about what you were doing it almost felt like a date.

But then you would trace out Sohee’s name in two foot letters and remember that he didn’t want you.

“Okay, I’ve got to get ready for band… good luck tonight!”

You hug your best friend goodbye, your lips brushing his cheek on accident and leaving you blushing as you run out of his house.

A small part of you didn’t want the team to win, because maybe if everyone was upset about the loss, Jungwon would decide the moment wasn’t right to carry out his “epic promposal plan” (Yes he named it that himself).

But you tried to shake that thought out of your head, immediately feeling guilty when you remember how long Jungwon had been looking forward to this game.

“Go Tigers!!”

From where you stood playing in stands, you could just see the top of Sohee’s face. It would be a lie to say she looked anything less than perfect, her dark hair shined in the large lights and her kicks were flawless everytime the team scored.

And as much as you told Jungwon you hated football, you spent the entire last quarter on your feet, screaming your head off for your best friend and his teammates.

The other team was up by three with less than a minute on the clock, and you let out an inhuman noise when Jungwon catches a throw in the end zone, officially winning the game for your school.

You wish you could run down as soon as the buzzer sounds to give Jungwon a hug, but unfortunately you were stuck in the stands until the rest of the crowd dispersed.

It’s only when you see him with the rolled up paper that you remember your after school activities that day, and your eyes shoot back to the view of Sohee in front of you.

This time instead of tumbling or cheering, she’s standing still and— flirting with her ex boyfriend?

Your eyes go wide as saucers, mouth falling open as she playfully shoves Jake’s shoulder, giggling like a schoolgirl.

You wave your hands at Jungwon, trying to get his attention and call the plan off, but he either doesn’t see you or doesn’t care, continuing his path to the cheerleader.

As much as you hated them together, you couldn’t help but want to stop Jungwon from seeing her with Jake.

But all you can do is watch as he locks eyes on them, dropping the still rolled sign as he walks up.

“What the heck?”

Sohee turns to look at him, and she doesn’t even have the decency to look guilty, keeping her hand on Jake’s pec as she turns to look at the boy she’s been leading on for over a month.

“What?”

“I- I just thought-”

“Thought what?”

He doesn’t even respond, just turns around and walks away, stomping mud into the discarded sign as he does.

“Won?” You tap on his back door, hoping he hadn’t locked himself up in his room.

He didn’t, and it only takes a moment before he’s swinging the door open.

“Hey.”

He doesn’t look as upset as you thought he would, and you feel a weight lifting off your chest at his lack of bloodshot eyes.

You pick up the sign he had left on the ground, and he glared at it.

“I don’t want it, I mean you did most of it so if you want to you can keep it but-”

You cut him off, “Jungwon I don’t want to keep it.”

“Then why?”

You beckon him out the door, leading him further onto his own deck.

You roll out a small piece of the paper, grabbing it securely at the top before ripping it with as much power as you can muster.

The confusion on his face has now changed to a smile, and his eyes glitter as you take the piece you tore off and rip it into even smaller pieces, depositing them into his fire pit.

“You try.”

He practically runs over, ripping a huge chunk off before layering it with another one and ripping both.

Before long he’s got the entire poster in his fire pit, and there’s a real smile on his face— one you haven’t seen in a while since he started bringing Sohee around. It only gets bigger when you grab a pack of matches from your purse.

After lighting the pile of promposal, you watch as he collapses into one of the chairs around the fire.

“You always know exactly how to make me feel better,” he laughs, “even if this does feel a little bit crazy.”

You shrug, owing the idea to your older sister, “it worked for Wonyoung, we burned all her ex boyfriends hoodies and she never cried over him again.”

Jungwon laughs, “you know, I actually didn’t cry at all.”

You sit next to him, propping your head up on your hand.

“Really?”

“Nope,” he shakes his head, “I don’t know why. Honestly I didn’t really feel sad, I just felt really embarrassed.”

“There’s nothing to be embarassed about, I doubt Jake thinks of you any differently, and really she should be the one embarassed. I can’t believe she used you like that.”

Jungwon nods, “yeah, Jake already texted me and told me he thought it was messed up. Apparently she used me to make him jealous, but when he found out he turned her down.”

You can’t help the satisfied smile from making its way onto your face, a small snort leaving your mouth.

“Guess she’s going to prom alone tomorrow.”

Jungwon looks up at you, “are you going?”

“No, I think I’m just going to stay home and study. I don’t really like most of the people at our school.”

He pouts, “but what about your perfect prom to go with your perfect high school experience?”

You shrug, “that was when I was younger Won, I think I’ve just realized it’s unrealistic.”

He looks like he wants to say something else, but at that exact moment Mrs.Yang yells out the window that it’s too cold and the two of you either need to come inside or postpone your talk until tomorrow.

You yell back immediately, promising to send her son back in.

“I need to get to bed anyway. Goodnight Won, I’m glad you’re not sad.”

He hugs you close, “goodnight love.”

You do not in fact, get to bed after that, because the nickname is all you can hear and think about everytime you close your eyes.

Coffee?

You’ve never felt so grateful to see Jungwon’s handwriting from across the way, and you send him a thumbs up before closing your curtains to get dressed.

The two of you spend most of the day in the cafe, talking and joking around just like old times, and you think that maybe this is enough.

Maybe Jungwon doesn’t have to love you back, he just has to love you the way he always has.

So that night when he holds up a notebook with “sure you don’t want to go?” on it, you smile.

Maybe next year

I’ll hold you to it

He grabs the jacket to his suit, and you close your curtains. If you leave them open you’ll never get anything done, you’ll be too busy waiting for him to come home.

Which would be no time soon, considering the dance didn’t end until eleven and it was barely after six.

You lasted about half an hour actually studying, before deciding to watch a movie to pass the time. It was some cheesy high school movie, and you hoped the cheesy prom scene would make you feel better.

You and Jungwon had watched this movie at one of your sleepovers, because you loved romance movies and he loved you so of course he watched it.

You pause.

Jungwon loved you— surely it was platonic, but he loved you.

You click pause on the remote, ripping your curtains back to see multiple papers taped up on Jungwons window.

I love you

⬆️ I wrote this last year and then buried it deep into one of my drawers, but I think it’s time to bring it out.

I never loved Sohee, not the way I love you. I think deep down I knew it was always you, and I’m sorry it took me so long to admit it.

I love you, and not in the best friend way.

You read it three times before your vision gets too blurry to make the letters out anymore.

“Mom! Do we still have Wonyoung’s old prom dresses?”

In five minutes your mother is in your room, multiple dresses in her arms.

“I knew you would change your mind, come here.”

The party is in full swing when you arrive, and you see Jungwon standing out on the dance floor awkwardly next to Sunoo.

You can’t help the laugh that escapes your mouth, and as if he has yn senses, Jungwon’s head whips around.

His eyes find your immediately, and he starts cutting through the crowd of people towards you, a huge smile on his face.

Sohee cuts in for a moment, but Jungwon is tired of her getting in the way of you, and shoulders past her.

Neither one of you say anything when you finally stand in front of each other, but you open the small clutch your mother had sent with you.

He watches with fond eyes as you unfold a peice of paper.

I love you

And he kisses you right in the middle of the dance floor, just like every high school movie you’ve ever watched. Except it’s better, because it’s Jungwon.

[mxtxfanatic]

Wei WuXian stayed quiet. A while later, he answered, “So that’s why we should cut ties right now, in case anything I do affects the YunmengJiang Sect in the future.”

Or else, he really couldn’t make any guarantees on what he’d do in the future.

“...” Jiang Cheng murmured, “My mom said that you do nothing but bring our sect trouble. It’s true indeed.” He laughed coldly, talking to himself, “‘To attempt the impossible’? Fine. You understand the YunmengJiang Sect’s motto. Better than I do. Better than all of us do.”

—Chapt. 73: Recklessness, exr

Jiang Cheng isn’t saying this because he believes that he will be dragged into Wei Wuxian’s “mess” by association, or else he would have been satisfied with Wei Wuxian offering defecting as a solution. He’s saying this because Jin Guangshan just told him that Wei Wuxian’s actions make it look like he’s “starting his own sect” with the Wen remnants, with the implication being that any sect Wei Wuxian founds will be more powerful and popular than any of the current established clans, especially the Jiang Clan who owes its continued survival directly to Wei Wuxian (and from the way all those cultivators were clamoring at the foot of the Burial Mounds, jgs wasn’t wrong).

Madam Yu always said that Wei Wuxian would show Jiang Cheng up no matter what he did. This is the “trouble” that she was afraid of and the fear that her son inherited. By Wei Wuxian refusing to return under his command to Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng is accepting this as Wei Wuxian reaching “above his station” to show him up once more.

[deeisace]

Instead of doing immediately-useful things, my evening's been spent using my 1950s Welsh dictionary to try and work out what the month words mean

Not all of them do, Ebrill is just April

And actually idk what April is from either, maybe I should get my 70s English dictionary out next

But uhhh a bit of a list?

I couldn't find anything for January/Ionawr, except that ion is Lord

Mawrth/March is after Mars, the god

Mai just says May, but there's a listing above that says "mai - that it is"

Gorffennaf/July - gorffen is "end", so gorffen af, gorffen haf, "end of the summer"??

Medi/September - medi is "to reap" - harvest month!

Hydref/October - autumn!

The closest I got to December, Rhagfyr is rhagof, "before thee" - the. The one before January?? Idk my Welsh isn't good enough I can speculate on centuries-old word mutations

Days of the week, I had a look for too

They're mostly named for gods, same as the English ones

Tuesday/Mawrth, Mars (same as March) - in English this is for Tyr

Wednesday/Mercher, Mercury - in English this is for Odin, Woden's Day - the Welsh is cognate (???) with Romance languages tho, like Mercredi an such

Thursday/Iau, Jove or Jupiter - in English this is for Thor

Friday/Gwener, Venus - in English this is for Frigg

Saturday/Sadwrn, Saturn (same in English)

I haven't a listing for Sul/Sunday tho

Monday, tho, idk if this is the right root, doubt it, but Llun is "shape" "figure" or "form"

I've looked up them on Wikipedia, and that says that all these Norse gods in the Welsh are associated with the Roman gods the English ones are named for, which is interesting

Idk how much this is cs the book I'm looking at is 73 years old, but y'know

It's not quite exact, I spose

Like, Friday/Gwener is for Frigg (goddess of marriage), or Venus (goddess of love)

Tuesday is for Tyr (god of single combat) or Mars (god of war)

Thursday, Jove/Jupiter (sky and thunder), or Thor (thunder etc) - this one matches!

Wednesday doesn't quite tho, Mercury is a messenger, god of trade, and Odin is like wisdom and battle, so far as I can tell

This is not really very interesting, unless you like etymology

I'm gonna track down my English dictionary to find out what the English months etymologies are now, cs that's like. Super useful.

[desolationtimstoker]

How to Survive the Magnus Archives

An Abridged List of Survival Strategies for Anyone Who May Find Themselves in an Episode of The Magnus Archives.

(I have too much free time, it is very late, and I'm thinking about how you really Can't Win in The Magnus Archives. So here's this, I guess.)

Avoid anyplace where secondhand books can be found. Libraries, used bookstores, antiques shops, and the attics of dead relatives are all firmly off-limits. (Episodes 4, 17, 24, 46, 60, 62, 66, 68, 70, 80, 81, 131 and 134)

DO NOT accept any unexpected or inexplicable promotions at work. (The entire thing, man. You know who this is about).

Also don't take a job which requires you to work in a solitary setting or after-hours (ex. night watchman, janitor, park ranger). (Episodes 33, 37, 57, 69, 109, 114 and 148)

But also don't take a job which brings you into contact with a LOT of people. (Episodes 5, 34, 36, 55, 61, and 87)

I wouldn't recommend anything in construction or maintenance, either. (Episodes 8, 35, 69, 87 and 114)

Also stay off boats. (Episodes 33, 51, 101, 115, 121 and 141)

Get enough sleep :) (Episode 74)

But going to sleep can also be bad? (Episodes 11, 86, 98, 113 and 120)

Go vegan. (Episodes 18, 30, 72 and 130)

Do not care for aging friends or relatives. (Episodes 24, 36, 84, 136 and 144)

Do not live alone with your mother. (Episodes 111 and 170)

Actually it's probably best to cut off contact with your mother altogether. To be safe. (Episode 77 and 111)

Keep your house and person clean. But not like, too clean? It is absolutely imperative that you and all your personal effects remain passably clean. But don't be weird about it, either. (Episodes 32, 93 and 102)

Don't take the underground. (Episode 71)

Actually stay above ground in general. (Episodes 15,41, 51, 53, 63, 64, 132 and 152)

Find a damn good exterminator. (Episodes 32, 39, 45, 55 and 102)

Gouge your eyes out. (Episode 154)

Keep your home and surrounding areas brightly lit as often as possible. (Episode 25, 52, 63 and 73)

Resist the urge to isolate yourself. (Episodes 13, 48, 92 and 159)

But also bear in mind that someone nearby might be a secret monster. (Episodes 78, 79 and 122)

Stay out of abandoned buildings. (Episodes 23, 26, 28, 63, 72, 73, 104, 147 and 156)

When you enter a place, count the doors upon arriving, and again before you leave, and never use a door you don't recognize! (Episodes 47, 101, 79 and 146)

If you find something evil, absolutely set it on fire. (Episodes 111, 119 and 130)

But try not to enjoy it too much. (Episodes 89 and 139)

If a woman is Extremely Hot, but you get kind of an "evil" vibe from her, you're probably better off NOT dating her. (Episodes 67 and 154)

If you find yourself with a spider infestation, pick a god and pray. (Episodes 16, 69, 123, 147 and The Entire Podcast, Basically)

[lacunafiction]

Hello, I am wondering how to trigger the Friend of the Forest achievement. I have chosen (what I think is the option various times with different playthroughs but have still yet to successfully find the tree's power source for the most merciful kill. Thanks for creating such a fun and intriguing game. I really enjoy how the story changes based on your personality/stats. Also, this is the first time I've ever used this platform to do anything so pardon if this isn't asked w/ proper spoiler tags.

Hi Anon,

I'm glad you're enjoying hunting for achievements within the game.

Also, don't worry about the spoilers; I will add tags and include a 'read more' line. This particular trophy is one of the most difficult to earn.

I'm tagging @Itrizzo (yours isn't coming up; I'll message you too) and @honeylemonbutte because I think you both are seeking this achievement. 😎

Friend of the Forest

In order to earn this achievement, you must select this choice option:

#Find its power source in its chest and set that on fire. A merciful, near instant death.

There is then a stat check of Merciful being greater than or equal to 68, so Merciful >= 68. By selecting this option, you will naturally get a +3 to the merciful stat, so you will need to be at 65 or above prior to selecting this option to earn the longer scene that can be very insightful into the tree creature. It is a harder trophy and scene to uncover because I only wanted highly merciful MCs to discover it, but it's well worth trying to unlock due to what happens. 🌲

I can give you some tips on how to get Merciful up. This isn't a comprehensive guide (I've seen some MCs at 73 merciful), but it ensures you will meet the stat check if you pick these in addition to any other options that you may have already selected.

Introduction: #Forgive him (Milton). *set merciful +2

Chapter 2: Be attentive and gentle, willing to listen to her and her fears. "What is the matter? I'll listen."  *set merciful +3

Chapter 3: #Decide to believe him. "Maybe we can help look?"  *set merciful +2

Chapter 4: #Forgive J. "You are trying to do the right thing." *set merciful +3

Chapter 9:  #Soothe them by being reassuring. "R, you tried. I know that." *set merciful +2

Chapter 10 : Any of the options to be kind to the dog and engage with her will earn a +2.

Chapter 11:  #"We have to do something," you urge, wanting to spare Milton from pain. "He is young…"  *set merciful +2

(You should be at +16 before the choice to select the method of kill.)

Then also select the option to mercy kill the creature for another +3!

I hope this helps! :D

If you’re enjoying your time in Fernweh, please consider leaving a review/rating on the platform you downloaded the game from during your next break from the story. It helps TFS out and encourages me! 😍💚  

[justforbooks]

Martin Amis, the author of Money and London Fields, has died at the age of 73. Here are some of the most memorable quotes from interviews over the course of his career.

On writing

“What makes you a writer? You develop an extra sense that partly excludes you from experience. When writers experience things, they’re not really experiencing them anything like a hundred percent. They’re always holding back and wondering what the significance of it is, or wondering how they’d do it on the page.”

“I find that people take my writing rather personally. It’s interesting when you’re doing signing sessions with other writers and you look at the queues at each table and you can see definite human types gathering there … With Julian Barnes, his queue seemed to be peopled by rather comfortable, professional types. My queue is always full of, you know, wild-eyed sleazebags and people who stare at me very intensely, as if I have some particular message for them. As if I must know that they’ve been reading me, that this dyad or symbiosis of reader and writer has been so intense that I must somehow know about it.”

“To me it seems like a part-time job, really, in that writing from 11 to 1 continuously is a very good day’s work. Then you can read and play tennis or snooker. Two hours. I think most writers would be very happy with two hours of concentrated work.”

“Any smoker will sympathise when I say that after your first cup of coffee you have a sobbing, pleading feeling in the lungs as they cry out for their first cigarette of the day, and my desire to write is rather like that. It’s rather physical.”

“There are pains you have to go through when writing a novel. If I wrote a novel without that – where it was all flowing, from beginning to end – it would make me very suspicious. It has to have the admixture of pain. But otherwise it seems to me a hilariously enjoyable way of spending one’s time. Assigning life to all these propositions, and (usually) dreaming up people, rather than taking them from life.”

“I have no patience for anything experimental or obscure – above all, obscure. I have to know at all times exactly what’s going on. I’m very committed to the pleasure principle. You read literature to have a good time. Or why else would people go on doing it?”

On his father, Kingsley Amis

“He was brilliantly indolent: he never gave me any encouragement at all. I later realised how valuable and necessary that was.”

“I left the proofs [of The Rachel Papers] on his desk and went off on holiday. When I came back, he’d gone on holiday. But he left a brief, charming note saying he thought it was enjoyable and fun and all that. I think that was the last novel of mine he read all the way through.”

“I always thought if he had been born a generation later, he would have written my novels. And if I’d been born a generation earlier, I would have written his novels.”

On cancel culture

“Every fibre in my being resists. It’s a philistine manifesto. It’s anti-creativity. Appropriation means taking without permission – who do you ask permission of? It’s getting that way in every direction. I got bollocked for writing about the working classes in Lionel Asbo. But I’d been doing that since I started.”

On his comments about Islamism

“Well, there was an unpleasant flurry [at that time], and I certainly regretted having said what I said; already by mid-afternoon on that day I ceased to believe in what I said. Collective punishment is obviously ruled out by definition – it was the sort of thing you say towards the end of a long interview without really having time to clear it with yourself. But that never felt like a great convulsion in my life. One death threat and a lot of chat. It wasn’t much of a cancellation.”

On feminism

“I’ve been a passionate feminist since the mid-80s. It was Gloria Steinem who converted me in a single day in New York. It’s the rhetorical device she uses throughout, and it’s very effective: she just reverses the sexes – what if men menstruated, what if men had babies? It’s unanswerable.”

On politics

“I’m secure in my conviction that socialism doesn’t work, because it goes against human nature. The idea of people acting out of social altruism is not part of human nature. It’s an element in it, but it’s not a guiding principle. I’ve always been a gradualist.”

“One of the real truths of the 21st century, and earlier, is that history is speeding up. We’re all on a sort of rollercoaster now. There are existential threats that weren’t fully acknowledged not so long ago. We are sort of hurtling forward. It’s more of a task to ask people to slow down.”

Remembering Christopher Hitchens

“He had a greater love of life than me. He really enjoyed everything, so much. I quite like life, but I’m not as crazy about it as he was. It somehow formulated itself in me that, now he was dead, it was my job to love life as much as he did.”

“Christopher was a real contrarian. One of things I’m proud of is that friendship. We never had even the slightest froideur about disagreements. I think it’s a good rule never to lose a friend over an argument. Never get into these sincerity contests: “I feel so strongly about this that I never want to see you again.” Rubbish. I disagreed with Hitchens violently over literary things as well as political things. But it never got to the point of raised voices. That’s partly because real friendship is rare, particularly male friendship.”

On ageing

“My father said to me that when a writer of 25 puts pen to paper he’s saying to the writer of 50 that it’s no longer like that, it’s like this. The older writer, at some point, is going to lose touch with what the contemporary moment feels like, although some writers do amazing jobs, Saul Bellow being a good example.”

“I feel I’m only going to write short stories and novellas from now on. Chekhov said, toward the end of his life, “Everything I read strikes me as not short enough.” And I agree.”

“In the old days it came quicker, the prose. Now it’s a battle. It’s not about coming up with striking adverbs, it’s more about removing as many uglinesses as I can find.”

“I don’t want this to get out of control or I’ll be drowning in schmaltz, but it all starts to look very beautiful now that I know I’m not going to be around indefinitely. You know, the way that to a prisoner condemned to death, water tastes delicious, the air tastes sweet, a bread-and-butter sandwich makes tears spring to the eye.”

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[neosimi]

I posted 594 times in 2022

That's 19 more posts than 2021!

343 posts created (58%)

251 posts reblogged (42%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@isabella-goth

@neosimi

@microscotch

@andrevasims

@kestrelteens

I tagged 583 of my posts in 2022

Only 2% of my posts had no tags

#ts2 - 198 posts

#ts2 screenshots - 183 posts

#rb - 177 posts

#ts2 gameplay - 169 posts

#desiderata valley - 169 posts

#mail - 88 posts

#q - 73 posts

#anon - 54 posts

#wcif - 43 posts

#ts2 download - 34 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i realize i hate doing milestones bc i dont feel like anything is *milestone worthy* so i just don't mention it at all but thank u for 1k!!!

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

🧬 atomiclight’s retro posters +  random stickers 🧬

here’s something that has been stuck in my wip folder since the end of last year. not sure why it took me this long to post, but alas! here are a whopping 110 recolors across two meshes by the wonderful atomiclight. in hindsight i probably should’ve combined them into one but eh, i wasn’t about to redo 50 recolors lol. you can find the originals for ts4 here and here. :] 

files are compressed. swatches included in the zip. 

download: [sfs] | [box] ♡

credits: @atomiclight. 

707 notes - Posted June 9, 2022

#4

stopping by to share some bedding with you all this weekend. ( *ˊᵕˋ)

i picked out 10 recolors from luridsims’ wishful dreaming bed found here. i knew i had to have them in my game! special thanks to curiousb and their complete bedding creation kit, it made things easy peasy. :]

files are compressed. no reshade under the cut.

download: [sfs] | [box] ♡

credits: luridsims, curiousb.

See the full post

900 notes - Posted February 6, 2022

#3

✨4t2 wall art /photoboard rc’s by aoifae + iconic posters by plutosims✨

happy sunday! here’s some decor for your sims. (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

included are some recolors by aoifae, with a few new meshes by kkb. i looked around but couldn’t find these exact items, but if they are already converted please let me know! it’s worth noting my versions have been slightly scaled up. the scroll art i went ahead and added recolors to moocha-muses‘ botancial scroll, be sure to grab the MESH here. as a bonus, i added pluto-sims’ iconic posters onto the civic idol poster. :]

files are compressed. swatches in the zip.

download: [sfs] | [box] ♡

credits: @aoifae, @sims-kkb, @pluto-sims, @moocha-muses.

935 notes - Posted June 26, 2022

#2

See the full post

1,016 notes - Posted April 10, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

🎼 4t2 simmify music nook by myshunosun 🎸

happy friday! here is a wonderful set by @myshunosun, perfect for any sim but especially those with an affinity for music. 

i learned a lot converting this set, from tackling my demons (slots), to adjusting the footprint, to finally adding shadows, to figuring out how to make the guitar amp invisible. speaking of the guitar, it’s cloned from crispsandkerosene’s acoustic guitar, which requires argon’s hack. the storage unit is cloned from thimblesims’ dawn living storage unit c. it has 8 slots, so i just duplicated the top middle slot to make up for it. i found if you want to add two stack of LPs on the bottom of the storage unit like shown above, its best to turn them around. it won’t flicker when moving the camera that way for some reason. that should be it, enjoy! ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

files are compressed. polycount under the cut.

UPDATE 9/14/22: fixed meshes so you don’t have to find the sweet spot lmao. also fixed the mesh texture on the plant to be black (bc i had pink twice and barely found out myself). also resized the record player by like 1cm shh.

UPDATE 9/16/22: Fixed the storage unit from the first fix, oops!

download: [sfs] | [box] ♡

credits: myshunosun, crispsandkerosene, argon, thimblesims and their shadows tutorial, pforestsims’ slot tutorial, rugrat0ne’s footprint tutorial.

POLYCOUNT :

storage unit - 212 [surfaces/misc. $600]

potted plant - 554  [deco/plants $200]

stack of LPs - 150  [deco/sculpture $120]

guitar - 1331 [hobbies/creative $1000]

speaker - 776 [electronics/audio $200]

record player - 1369 [electronics/audio $99] meant to be $400 oops.

1,347 notes - Posted July 22, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

because fuck it why not, right? (read on ao3)

---

When Ingo had woken up in the Highlands, among his few possessions had been an odd bracelet. It was made partially of fabric and partially of smooth glass, with a few bits on the side that clicked in a pleasing way when pressed. Sometimes the glass part flickered when pressed on, but other than that it didn’t do anything, and something in his mind said don’t mess with it, you don’t know what you’re doing, so he put it in a pocket on his coat and forgot about it.

That was, until he stepped into one of the distortions that had been appearing all over Hisui, and it suddenly started buzzing.

He found a patch of grass behind some rocks and pulled it out. The glass part was lit up, writing panning rapidly across it. 73 missed messages from—Missed call from—89 missed messages—3 missed calls—

It went on for quite a while. He stared at it, waiting to see if it would stop.

Above him, the white lightning of the tiny rift crackled.

It landed on a few more announcements of missed messages and calls. Frowning in thought, he clicked one of the buttons on the side to see if it would do anything now.

The text disappeared from the screen, and was replaced with a single message. Attempting to reconnect: Elesa…

“Hello?!” It was a woman’s voice, sharp and a little staticky.

“Hello!” It’d be rude not to respond.

“Oh, Arceus- Ingo, is that actually you? Holy shit- okay, okay- where are you right now?”

He looked up at the distortion around him. “In… the Coronet Highlands?”

“…what? Are- are you in Unova?”

“I’m afraid I don’t quite track your meaning. May… may I ask who I’m speaking to?”

“If this is a joke, it’s not fucking funny, okay? It’s- Arceus, it’s been months, do you have any idea how worried we’ve all been? Just tell me where you are, damnit!”

“As I said before, I’m in the Coronet Highlands. In Hisui.”

“…Who is this?”

“Warden Ingo, of the Pearl Clan. Were you unaware? You used my name earlier.”

“Pearl- oh, wait. Wait, wait. Is this some kind of alternate universe thing? I thought those were localized, but—shit, that makes this more complicated. Ugh, and you’re not even-“

The woman was no longer speaking to him, her voice growing more distant. Above him, the rift crackled more violently and the entire distortion flashed. “Ah, I’m afraid our time may be up. The distortion is fading, and I do not think this connection will last outside of it.”

“Distortion? Wait, Ingo, what-“

As quickly as it had come, the bubble disappeared, and the glass flickered with a rush of static and then went dark again.

Well, that was odd. The strange woman had sounded very distressed through all of it. He hadn’t even gotten her name.

---

The next time a distortion appeared, he laid tracks directly for it. As soon as he crossed the barrier into it, the bracelet began buzzing again. This time he pressed the button on the side without waiting for it to stop.

When the woman’s voice came through again, she was in midsentence, like she’d been speaking before the connection had been properly established. “-there? Hello? Is- is this, uh, the same Ingo as last time?”

“It is. I believe we should have a bit more time than before, as well. As long as this distortion holds.”

“Yeah, you mentioned a ‘distortion’ last time, too, before you got dropped. What’s that about?”

“They’ve been appearing all over Hisui. Small… pockets, I suppose you could say, where space and time do not act correctly. Pokémon not native to the area appear… even some that we’ve never seen before at all. Items, as well.”

“And these things… also create some kind of… connection between us?”

“I suppose? I will be honest, I understand very little about the mechanics of these distortions. I don’t think anyone fully knows how they work, or why they form. Any research we might do is hindered by how dangerous they are.”

“…Dangerous? Are you in danger right now, talking to me?” There was a sudden edge to her voice.

“Oh, please don’t be concerned for my safety. Ensuring the proper maintenance of my tracks is one of my responsibilities as a Warden. I must confirm that the Pokémon appearing in the rifts do no undue harm to the environment or any native species, so I would be present here regardless. Speaking to you is incidental.”

“A… warden? Is that a job, in that- in your universe?”

“That is the position I hold, yes. I am the Highlands Warden serving Lady Sneasler. The protection of her passengers and supervision of this station are also part of my duties.”

She was quiet for a moment. “I… I should probably put you on the line with a, a scientist out in Alola, or something. I’m sure actually speaking to someone from another dimension would be helpful for them…”

There was an implicit continuation to her voice. “…But?”

“How long do you think we have, if you can guess? And—will those things keep showing up? Will I hear from you again?”

“The distortions generally only last for a few minutes at most. From the size of this one, I would guess we’re about halfway through the allotted time before it closes. But, yes, they seem to be growing in frequency, so I imagine we’ll speak again before long. If- if you’d like to continue conversing, that is.”

“I- yeah, I- fuck. Fuck.” There was the sound of cloth shifting, and unsteady breathing, for a moment. The sheer, despairing exhaustion of her tone stilled the automatic chiding language from him. Then, “Yeah, yes, keep calling me. It- it’s really good to hear your voice. Even if you’re not…” she sniffed, and trails off.

“When… we first spoke, you knew my name before I gave it. Do you…?”

Ingo’s heart did a very small, hesitant flip. He wasn’t willing to voice anything, not based on this threadbare evidence, but an unspoken question still hung in his mind, circling around the rift and the way she’d spoken to him at first and her odd manner now: do you know me? Do I know you?

“I… yeah, well. I… I don’t really understand how this, this whole thing works, but there’s some kind of… parallel here, I guess. Between your world and ours, because—there's… an Ingo in my universe too. A… good friend of mine. He sounds like you, has,” she chuckles weakly, “your same way of talking, but he… he’s been… gone, for a while now. Months. We’ve more or less given up on waiting. I- I thought you were him, at first, but…”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, it’s…“

“No, I mean-“ he waved one hand, ignoring that she couldn't see it. “I am sorry. This must be painful for you. Speaking to a stranger with your friend’s voice. It wasn’t my intention to cause you any heartache.”

“Oh. No, no, it’s-“

A snap from the sky above drew his attention away. Lightning itched its way along the barrier of the distortion, signaling a warning. “Ah, our window is closing.”

“Promise-“ her voice started out urgent, getting his attention, but then dropped back into something quieter. “You’re not- you aren’t. Promise you’ll call again?”

“…If that’s what you wish.”

She didn't get a chance to confirm it before the distortion snapped itself up, the air smoothing over the disturbance.

Unspoken words weighed him down. He couldn’t say anything to her directly, but… gone for months, your same way of talking… and she hadn’t specified what gone meant. Was it possible-?

But then there was the thing that had kept him from speaking. If he was wrong—and everything right now pointed to the idea being very circumstantial at best—it would be unbelievably cruel for him to suggest it. He’d be giving her false hope that she’d found her friend, only to have it taken away again. Would be asking her to treat him as a companion when he was little more than a stranger. Would be involving her in his own search for his memories, simply because she had the misfortune to know someone who resembled him.

He wouldn’t say anything. If and when he had more evidence, or if it came up naturally, maybe… but for now—no. He’d keep it to himself.

[sinammontea]

Introduction

I am @cinnamonstrous, and I'm a 20 year old woman (she/her).

This is only my second blog, so I'm still learning how to not get taken down!

I do not encourage disordered/unhealthy eating habits, and I do support recovery. I am not pro anything besides recovery and living a happy, healthy life. However, this blog will be a platform where I share my days and my thoughts and talk about the unfortunate circumstances of depression, anxiety, panic, ptsd and mainly disordered eating.

I will be posting a lot of WIEIAD.

This is my cute journal that I choose to share with strangers on the Internet ♡.

If you're triggered by any of the above-mentioned do not interact, I kindly ask you not to report either as this is my safe space, just block me. Having my safe space taken from me won't help me get better. If anything, it makes me sadder.

Fun facts about me

I am a woman in stem, studying medical biotechnology (1st year uni), and I am also a singer at a university band.

I am learning Korean and German (mostly Korean), and I do most of my learning by watching series.

I have an undiagnosed chronic illness (we are still exploring what it might be) and PCOS.

I used to play badminton.

I'm terrified of fish for no reason at all xD.

I love the sims and music (K-pop, rock, jazz, you name it, I probably will like it).

My MBTI is INTP.

I speak 2 languages, Portuguese and English (English being my second language, so feel free to correct my mistakes in a kind way).

I am always willing to make friends +18 (especially giving the circumstances of this blog)

TW Stats

Height:1.48m/4'10

Current BMI:33.2; 29.9

HW:73

LW:45

CW:73;65.5;62.5;61.8

GW1:60

GW2:50

GW3:45

UGW:40

(I get weighed monthly. Therefore I won't have a lot of updates about my weight)

Arms:

Chest:103cm

Waist:81cm

Hips:109cm

Thighs:

Calves:

(First time taking measurements is after a month of r3striction)

[communistchilchuck]

You have pre reboot Lonnie reading list? 👀

Lonnie Machin/Anarky/Moneyspider Pre-Flashpoint Reading List

You bet! This is going to get a little long, so I’ll put everything under the cut. Personal favorites will be starred with an asterisk and issues most important to his character/story will be bolded, though I do heavily suggest reading unstarred comics as well. So, without further ado…

(I included a few personal notes that reflect some of my own thoughts and feelings. Feel free to disagree with anything I’ve written, I just figured I’d add them in case anybody was curious about what I have to say.)

* FIRST APPEARANCE - Detective Comics (1937) #608-609

FIRST APPEARANCE AS ‘Moneyspider’/FIRST MEETING WITH TIM DRAKE - Detective Comics (1937) #618-620. Arc also depicts the death of Tim’s mother Janet Drake.

CW: Racist depiction of Haïtian people and misrepresentation of Vodou and Obeah. If you’d like, you can skip or skim the ‘Obeah Man’ arc, as Lonnie is only relevant in the unrelated B-plot involving Tim’s detective case (most prominently in issue #620) or forego the comic entirely. Most essential information is that Lonnie meets Tim, it provides context for some later appearances, and Lonnie is established as a proficient hacker who managed to siphon funds from WayneTech.

* Robin (1993) Annual #1

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #16-18

* FIRST MEETING WITH OLIVER QUEEN (Green Arrow I) - Green Arrow (1988) #89

* The Batman Adventures #31 (DCAU)

Batman Chronicles #1 (second story)

* Batman: Shadow of the Bat #40-41

NOTE: This is sort of where you begin to see Alan Grant (Lonnie’s creator)’s emerging Randian Objectivism and Neo-Tech sympathies show. It gets kind of weird about technology and “enlightenment” among other things. As Lonnie was always meant to reflect Grant’s political beliefs, I will not say this is ‘OOC’, but I will say that I personally am not a fan of the direction. These two issues are massively important for the character, so I will advise they be read.

Anarky (1997) #1-4

NOTE: As stated above, Grant (and thus Lonnie) takes a turn into Neo-Tech Objectivism (which, if I may be frank, is scam pseudo-philosophical garbage). Though this is Lonnie’s first solo comic, I myself have mixed feelings about it for that reason. However, if you want to see more of where the character goes, Lonnie having a cute dog he really loves, developing history and characterization, and a second brush with the occult, feel free to go ahead.

* Batman: Shadow of the Bat #73

NOTE: Though this is a relatively minor appearance, it’s still one of my favorites.

Anarky (1999) #1-8

NOTE: A messy series that nobody wanted (I mean this almost literally, Grant did not want to write it) and got cancelled before they could disprove the Joker paternity arc. I’ve softened on some parts of it over time as I’ve learned more about the editorial mandates and hard situations the creative team went through that resulted in a little bit of disaster, but I still approach it with a healthy amount of criticism from a fan perspective. I will say that the over-the-top antics are relatively normal for a comic book and most of my contempt comes from the fact that the politics are not my favorite and I dislike certain character and writing decisions, etc., but it does feature some characterization I do enjoy so I won’t write it off.

CW: American Confederacy (Mandated “Haunted Tank” cameo appearance) in Issue #7. Issue is skippable without missing anything too important.

Young Justice: Sins of Youth #1

Sins of Youth: JLA, Jr. #1

* Green Arrow (2001) #51

NOTE: One of my favorite Anarky comics of all time and a genuinely wonderful character examination featuring a team-up I adore.

Robin (1993) #180-183

NOTE: Some time between Green Arrow (2001) #51 and these issues, Lonnie was shot in the head, chemically paralyzed, and kept catatonic (comatose? Both are used) by Ulysses Hadrian Armstrong, aka The General. Ulysses would keep Lonnie attached to an iron lung and wire his mind to a digital communications network, forcing Lonnie to work for him. He is able to talk using speech synthesis and explore the depths of the internet/communicate with others as ‘Moneyspider’ once again. This sets up his role in Red Robin (2009). The writer, Fabian Nicieza, does not show what led up to this happening and you’re only told more of the details through inference and research (he detailed that Lonnie got shot on a forum post, for example), so I felt it necessary to go over here.

Red Robin (2009) #13-25

NOTE: Lonnie begins to work with Tim Drake full-time as ‘Moneyspider’ as he recovers in Leslie Thompkins’ clinic. Issue #25 is his last appearance before the DCU’s New 52/Flashpoint reboot.