#i'm still not over the trade

[tbh-entp]

My ENTP dad's employees told him the reason why I'm single and not birthing grandkids is that he raised me to be too independent and not take shit from men because he treats my INTJ mom so well.

and i know they didn't quite mean it as a positive because this came up in comparing photos of the grandkids and them tell him why he's got none... but it's a little twisted because what they're saying is that their daughters aren't being treated well...?

[talentforlying]

thinking about john's multitude of short-lived, often quickly-abandoned apartments for some reason, so a couple details:

although you might expect to find a very wizard-y interior to any place he's currently living at — you know, grimoires, skulls, dust, clutter, etc. — his flats actually tend to be fairly spartan in terms of decor; they've even been accused of looking modern, here and there. he just moves too frequently to really settle in & accrue Things, and has so often had to simply up & leave everything he currently owned behind (with very little chance of getting any of it back) that he no longer attaches much meaning to household objects.

besides the consistent presence of at least one bookshelf with at least 12 books on it, and a sad sprig of garden sage that miraculously hasn't died yet, the one exception to his lack of personal touch is his extensive collection of records + tapes, all of which he has repeatedly & methodically tracked down and bought / bid / traded / stolen / threatened for / blackmailed for / simply taken back whenever an enterprising landlord or new tenant left him the opportunity to do so. his record player itself has never needed to be taken back, since it has always mysteriously vanished from whatever flat he's leaving and mysteriously appeared wherever he's staying; it's convenient like that. his 10th anniversary walkman, however, frequently goes missing, only to turn up again later in a place he KNOWS he checked when he's least expecting it.

lack of home decor isn't to say he doesn't own much, mind: the bulk of his personal possessions — assorted occult paraphernalia, blackmail documentation, miscellaneous crap from his mucous membrane days, and anything he is able to take with him from past flats — are usually stored off-site, in a secure location that can't easily be tied back to him. this guy's been accused of being a satanic killer on multiple occasions, he knows better than to keep all the real shit out where anyone can just swan in and see it.

currently, this storage location (which i lovingly call occult shit central) is an abandoned inner london storefront + adjoining flat that was formerly his old friend ray monde's shop and home, called brick-a-brac antiques. it's decidedly cozier than the last place, (in that there are chairs, plural,) and has fewer bear traps laid out in anticipation of unlucky thieves; in fact, if a person were to visit without already knowing where constantine actually lives, it'd be easy to mistake it as his expectedly-wizardy flat. it's not an ideal location for an occult shit central, too close to the heart of the city and too close to people to avoid drumming up suspicion should constantine attempt any sort of ritual inside, but until chas finally quits ducking the paperwork and signs over his storage lot (which he may or may not be dragging his feet on out of pure resentment for having to do it at all) ray's place is the best option there is.

constantine's previous (and future) storage location was a lock-up in streatham that chas had been letting him use (see: all but surrendered to him entirely) since he got out of ravenscar, but after constantine's sister died, john decided he was done with magic and, in a spontaneous fit of rage, burnt the place down with everything but a few necessities still inside. he regretted this later, when he inevitably returned to the occult scene after just over a year away, and spent a lot of time calling in favors / hypnotizing arson inspectors to try and put together an inventory of everything he'd lost.

in the nearly 20 years since the fire, he's managed to replace or find substitutes for about 2/3 of what he had (occult-wise), and gather enough fresh dirt / do enough favors / orchestrate enough compromising situations to accumulate a little over 1/4 of the political / interpersonal power he once maintained. ( the lack of success in the latter being, in part, because people now in power aren't as familiar with his name & reputation as they once were; in part because people just don't believe in magic as much as they used to, or were otherwise bought by hell / heaven / other parties a LONG time ago; and in part because he's come to absolutely fucking despise most politicians / people in power more than he is willing to work with them, or more than he is able to plausibly believe they won't try to drop him at the first opportunity. )

you would be hard-pressed to find a landlady/landlord that speaks kindly of this man. if he wasn't kicked out for suspicious smells / disturbing noises / sudden infestations / suspected satanic activity, then it's likely that he abruptly up and disappeared in the middle of the night, with no warning and no rent. (on a few occasions, this vanishing act also coincided conspicuously with a gruesome death on the premises, sometimes of the landlady/landlord themselves, although no one's ever been able to prove anything.) frankly it's . . . magic, that people still rent to him.

due to these aforementioned bad ends, he's incredibly lucky if he gets enough time or leeway to take any sort of furniture with him from one place to the next. however, there is one incredibly comfy, wing-backed, sapphire-blue armchair that's miraculously managed to survive every move in the last ten or so years without being reported stolen — even though it has survived every move because it has, in fact, been stolen in the dead of night nearly every single time, by john and at least one of his buddies.

[aetherphobia]

Picture this, you just joined a discord call with two of your besties. You decide to casually play royale high to send eachother gifts and run around aimlessly and whatnot. You go out into the front of the castle with one of your friends and you jokingly chase eachother around because of an inside joke between the two of you.

And then, as a joke, you pull out a hammer and ironically start violently hitting the fountain lady with a hammer to "intimidate her into giving you a halo."

You have a good laugh and then actually do the fountain. You look through the fountain answer sheet and pick the correct answer for the frozen wings story (A). You skip through the dialog because nothing interesting ever comes from this part and you just graze through it. And then you see the final word in the story. And then this happens.

So now you are absolutely SCREAMING ON VC and even crying a little bit. And the moral of the story is that apparently, physically assaulting the fountain lady with hammers is an effective halo strategy. Thank you and goodnight.

[hillbilly---man]

I think a lot about me can be summed up by the conversation I had on my first day of my current job.

For context, I had spent a bunch of time trying to figure out how viable it would be to register a fake business so I could go to a grocery industry trade show (for fun)

Me: "hey, I was on [internal database website] and saw something about a trade show. Is that something I'd ever be sent to?"

Boss: [laughs] "No, don't worry! They only send the managers there. You wouldn't ever have to go."

[splashinkling]

Another Get to Know Me

thanks @sleepy-night-child for the tag!

a band that you don't like that many others do:

I'm pretty amicable for music. it'd take a song I really hate for me to not like a band. on the other hand, I will like any song that will get me to sing along with it

least favourite animal and why:

bees. when I was a kid, someone told me to not move around bees so that they wouldn't bother you. outside during recess, I froze still cause a couple of bees landed on my shoulders/neck. the bell rang for us to go inside and I had to make a mad dash for the doors despite the fear I'd get stung. hindsight and common sense now tell me bees are generally harmless and wasps are the enemy, but I'm traumatized now and treat them the same

hot fandom take:

head empty, I don't really have any takes, especially ones that aren't already out there. also not really in fandom land, I'm just on my own island.

do you wear any jewellery, if so, what's your favourite piece:

not super devout, but I've got this necklace from elementary school that's a cross with a dove on it that I still wear. otherwise, the owl ring I got a couple years back that I wear as a necklace is the one

a movie others liked but you didn't:

honestly I watch so many movies with my friends nowadays and a lot of them are really bad lmao. I think a recent movie we watched was The Killer and I didn't like it, but it's rated highly for who-knows-why. like it's not even a comedic mess-up, the assassin was just bad at his job and it's not entertaining

three things you love about yourself:

I'm a relatively positive person, or more like I don't have that much hate in my soul. will try to be the best supportive friend you've ever had. and I've got a lot of creative outlets to use!

a place you hope to visit in the future and why:

Japan! I wanna see so many gamer things there. plus the tourist-y landmarks/activities. life-sized gundam is also on the list, if that's still around. and the food! (that I've been seeing because I follow this one guy on YouTube)

an actor that gets on your nerves and why:

the first name that came to mind was Dwayne Johnson for whatever reason, but he's doesn't actually get on my nerves that much

things you're excited about in the near future:

(slowly and surely) getting back to writing!! reviewing some of these games that I've been playing recently, because I've got Opinions on some of them. and getting used to this fancy new limited edition 8BitDo controller that I got. if this was a week ago, I could've said watching my friend finish the main story of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but that's already happened

least favourite ship in a fandom you're in:

again, not really in fandom land so I have no idea about what ships go around.

what's the most toxic fandom you've been in:

as a gamer and basketball fan, those are wildly toxic fanbases. gamers are so mean to the devs (sometimes rightfully so, other times not so much) and to other players. like literal death threats sometimes, it's insane. and then fans of basketball would literally boo their own players at times, like what.

list three things you find beautiful about life:

Space science (thanks Kurzgesagt)! Other people's works (art, writing, games, or otherwise)! Family, friends, and pets!

any dreams for the future:

finishing and publishing any of my works so that people can (hopefully) enjoy the experience I made for them

how are you feeling today?

another day of writing, gaming, etc. but it's grey and gloomy outside and it's sucking like half of my energy away, especially because I need to walk the dog later. and the NBA Trade Deadline is at 3pm so I might be spending more time than usual paying attention to player movement/trades between teams, especially because my team is Not Good and I'm expecting them to make moves this deadline.

no pressure tagging @talesfromaurea, @moonluringfrost, @ettawritesnstudies, and sleepy friend already tagged @oh-no-another-idea and @drippingmoon, but I'll tag as well if you'd like :)

[mspaint-flower]

more flower rock

OMG YESSSSS I REMEMBER HEARING THIS AHKJDSHFNJKSHNKJKSNGSJ btw i have listened to all the other songs you sent me i just don't wanna spam answers (THEY'RE ALL SO GOOD ISTG THANK YOU)

i wish there was more rock music with her (that's literally what she's supposed to be good at) smh

[brw]

I'm very puzzled and slightly concerned how they're going to adapt Eric specifically because from the sounds of things he becomes Grim Reaper without Simon dying and I feel like that's such an inherent part of their relationship, that Eric essentially dedicated his entire life to avenging his younger brother who he did love in his own warped fucked up way and making it so Eric sort of inevitably turned into the Grim Reaper is strange? It could be done alright but this is also the MCU and ain't nobody is asking for Eric Williams to have tons of nuance (except for me because I'm insane)

[i-appear-misssing]

I just had the horrible thought that I need to fall in love because having devastating crushes on beautiful, competent, authoritative women that I desperately want to please is exhausting and I need it to stop

[bonestrouslingbones]

btw big shoutout to that woodworking class i took in my final semester of high school for allowing me to 1. not constantly sound like i'm talking entirely out of my ass and 2. hide some very niche secrets because of the like 2 full months of paperwork & osha training before i got to actually build anything

[tampatom12]

noooo Stef and Josh are getting a divorce https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39866413/sources-bills-finalizing-trade-star-wr-stefon-diggs-texans

I saw this message as soon as you sent it, Anon, and didn't want to believe it, even as more details came out and the trade was offically finalized. 😞😟😔

I had truly thought that Josh and Stefon were gonna be together forever, both in the game and also just in life in general!!!!!!!

They had seemed to finally be on steady ground, even after Stef had fumbled his final catch in the last Bills game of the 2023 season.

It's hard to believe that this era of their relationship is over, espeically because they had only been getting started...at least when Tom left New England, he and Julian had been tight for ten years!!!

All of the above having been said, I remain highly optimistic that they WILL one day reuinte, even if it is a long time away in the future!!

They way they connected and obvisouly loved each other is not something to scoff at, which is why I just know that they are gonna end up back in each other's orbits eventually!!!

And on another note, I'm sure that there were more things going on in the background than what the public is currently aware of when it comes to this trade...even if Stef was in love and so happy about Josh, there could have been other things within the team that he wasn't fond of, which likely influenced his decision to leave/ask for a trade.

At the end of the day, I am gonna be sad and nostalgic about this for a bit. 😞😟😥😓😔

It's crazy to me that he would leave the man that he loves, but if there were other things that weren't clicking for him and making him unhappy, then it does make sense as to why he allowed himself to be traded. ):

Anyway, thanks for popping in Anon!! I do always appreciate getting messages, even sad ones like this. 💔

[allpromarlo]

i'm kinda hoping blazers get messy and trade dame somewhere other than miami idk...

[arctic-hands]

I like having joined a book fandom that's still new and fresh cause we get to nerdily bond as we devour a release of a new book in the series and I get to see all the theories and discussions and memes in real time as opposed to years later when everyone else knows how it ends so I have to block the fandom bc of spoilers. It's a feeling I haven't had since a teenager bc as of late I drag my ass into a fandom like a decade after its hayday and miss all the fun stuff

But it sucks ass that I am no longer as weirdly and eerily patient like I was as a child and the nine month wait for Heavenly Tyrant to come out is driving me crazy

[chispas-and-broken-bindings]

[wehaveagathering]

the little get-together from the Edmonton game, 1.2.24

[baladric]

my smut keeps getting interrupted by political worldbuilding, what has become of me???

[alistairian]

Ngl lie guys all this trans shit is really getting to me

Do you realize how often straight men use trans people and gender as an icebreaker? Like, hey dude I barely know anything about you but lets bond over how cringe gender is, like that's a real fucking common line of thinking and I'm going to fucking lose my shit one day. Like I'm at home fucking getting anxious and stressed because there's just this constant innescapable stream of trans hate all over the internet, all over the news, and then I go to work and it's all "lol trans people are a fucking joke, right?"

And the worst part is knowing that if I dare to fucking stand up for myself then I'm just another cringe overemotional trans person who can't take a joke.