#it's 2022 and she is still a Poster

[nihilnovisubsole]

me explaining goncharov to my mother: so tumblr made up this scorsese crime film and they're arguing about its themes and-

my mother, completely deadpan: well are they reviewing the theatrical release or director's cut.

me:

my mother: what does frances ford coppola think of it

[sunflowerinthemoonlight]

[drinkthemlock]

JORDAN MOONEY DIED???? AND NO ONE FUCKING TOLD ME????

[batshit-auspol]

So a bit of background first for our international followers: Clive Palmer is one of Australia's many mining billionaires who like to meddle in our country's politics, and as such he is utterly despised by all of Australia.

Picture for context:

He is most commonly known online by the title "Fatty McFuckhead", (problematic as it may be) because he tried to sue a youtuber for $500,000 for calling him that - and he lost. So the name stuck.

Up until his most recent foray into parliament, the legally certified Fuckhead was best known for his batshit business ventures, such as attempting to build "The Titanic 2" (failed) and trying to build a dinosaur theme park (also failed, but at least nobody got eaten by a T-Rex in this one).

For a very long time Clive played the role of sugar daddy to Australia's largest conservative party, the ironically named Liberal Party, until they had a falling out in 2012 after Clive claimed there was too much money influencing politics (lol), at which point he started his own party, days after saying he totally quit and wasn't fired and he only left because he didn't want to be a distraction.

His initial run at parliament was actually kinda successful, with Palmer's group winning 4 seats, plus a member from the "Motoring Enthusiasts Party" joined them too after accidentally getting elected and not knowing what the fuck to do.

Despite this initial success however, Palmer's party (which ran on basically no platform other than "I'm rich") hit an iceberg (titanic 2 achieved) and seven elected state and federal politicians quit within the first year.

By the time the next federal election rolled around, only one Palmer party candidate was still running for re-election. The most successful of this group - Jaquie Lambie - quit to sit as an independant and is still in parliament today.

Here she is with a painting of herself strangling Clive (she sells signed copies of this)

And here the senator is posting about liking sausage:

Anyway, we're getting to the point: which is the yellow posters. By the 2016 election, just two years after forming, the party was in complete freefall. It won just 0.01% of the vote at their second election, and it was announced shortly after that Clive was quitting politics and the party was being shut down. Australia breathed a sigh of relief.

It was, of course, short lived.

Clive, in desperate need of attention, restarted the party for the 2019 election, fielding candidates in every seat and spending $60 million in advertising in an attempt to win votes.

Every single candidate lost.

It was in this campaign however that Australia really started to fall out of love with Palmer, because most of that $60 million went towards putting up the world's least compelling marketing billboards on almost every single free space in the country.

For a good six months this was basically the only thing you would see in Australia if you went outside:

Clearly Graphic design is his passion. And yes, the genius did just straight up try and copy Trump's homework while changing a few words, hoping nobody would notice.

Very quickly these all got vandalised and it seemed the ad companies didn't care enough to replace them.

We could go on posting examples, there are thousands, but the best is definitely the one Ikea put up shortly after Clive lost the election:

In 2022, Clive's party contested the election AGAIN, this time also opting to send millions on spam text messages to every person in Australia begging for people to vote for him, as well as buying almost every youtube ad for a year, at the cost of $100 million.

He won a whopping one seat.

During this election Clive ran on an anti-lockdown, anti-vax platform with the slogan "freedom, freedom, freedom". That message, however, was slightly undermined when his goons, dressed in 'Freedom!' shirts, made national news for trying to beat up a protester who turned up at a rally dressed as an annoying text message, shouting "pay your workers" at Clive.

As if that wasn't bad enough, at another rally Clive knocked himself unconscious while trying to jump up on stage, and then a few weeks later was rushed to hospital with covid, while his anti-vax ads were still in regular rotation on TV, at which point it was also leaked to the press that Palmer had been alledgedly trying to buy Hitler's car.

Utterly humiliated, the party deregistered again shortly after the election.

Can't wait until he runs again in 2025.

Anyway, on the other "Clive tweeting Miss Kobayashi's Dragon" thing, we have no idea what that means but here's a screencap:

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for not letting my friend join my crappy tribute band?

this happened a year ago but i still feel kinda bad abt it. i (14ftm at the time) and my friend, sarah (fake name) (15f at the time) met because we were in the same math class (this was fall 2022). we became decent friends, i never went over to her house or anything but we chatted during class about bands we liked and shit like that

then in spring 2023 i decided i was going to start a mcr tribute band. now i was a HUGE fucking mcr fan, i knew their entire discog (even the stuff that's not on spotify) and could give you a bio of each of their members, i knew all the fan injokes, etc etc etc. i asked some of my other friends (who were also huge mcr fans) to join the band and a few of them joined; to get other members i put up posters around town. the members we still needed were a lead guitarist and a drummer iirc

i told sarah that i was starting this thing because i was super excited abt it and she excitedly asked to join as the guitarist. now, a) sarah only plays acoustic guitar and doesnt have an electric guitar (or didnt at the time) and b) sarah is not a huge mcr fan. she knows, like, their most popular songs and that's it. despite this sarah will call herself "emo" as a joke (which is annoying to me, a Real EmoTM, but that's not what this post is about). i told her no you can't join because i'm looking for people who are like crazy fans (i phrased it a bit nicer lol). she asked a couple more times a few days later but i still told her no...i get that she wanted to join but again she did not know half their discography and i wanted the tribute band to play deep cuts. everyone else who joined was a huge fan like me

now a year later me and sarah are still friends (i took her to a meet me @ the altar concert recently which was fun) and the tribute band kinda fizzled out, we had a few practices over the summer but we had lineup and scheduling issues especially since almost none of us could drive lol

What are these acronyms?

[preservationofnormalcy]

[It is January of 2022. I’m entering a wing of the DC Office site that looks older than the others. The carpets are a strange brown, vintage looking, and the lighting casts an almost yellow pallor over the wood paneled walls. I can practically smell the cigarettes. I pass by an empty room labeled “social media office” - boxes piled up by the door. Maybe they’re going to be using it soon. They’ll need it.

I approach a door labeled Necrocommunications, knock lightly twice, then enter. 

I am greeted with the sound of a voice drifting softly across the room. A few chairs and tables sit around me, the same vintage style as the hallway before, the same browns and yellows. A high desk is across the room, and a woman is seated at a control panel. She has black curly hair, done up in an old fashioned style, a polka dotted blouse, and though she’s facing away from me, I can see the edges of cats-eye glasses. 

The panel she’s working at is huge, and resembles the type of switchboards they used to use in the ‘50s, dozens of physical wire connections crisscrossing the device and attaching via plugs. The woman has a headset, one ear covered in a bulky speaker, with a microphone near her mouth. She speaks casually, with an incredibly heavy New Jersey accent.]

I] Oh, him? He’s circled, babe. Taken as hell. Mhmm. And he still asked you? Ain't that a bite. So now you know he’s out of the question and yarding on. Dodged a bullet, hun.

M] Irene? 

I] Oh, god, hold on. My appointment is here. Yeah. I’ll call you later, beautiful. Caio. 

[She hung up the call, taking her headset off and turning to me. She looked like she was straight out of my grandfather’s high school photo album, including the color. Her skin was almost grey, it was so pale, but she didn’t seem like she was sick. She looked me over with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, leaning forward on her desk.]

I] Well, hello Miss Meghan Hendricks. What can I do for you, sugar? 

M] I’m here to interview you for my audit, Ms Donofrio. 

I] All business, aincha? 

M] This is my job.  

I] ….yeah, you’re right. Sorry. I don’t get cute visitors much. 

M] Right. 

I] Pull up a chair, hun. 

M] I’ll just stand. This won’t be long. I came here because of your Occult Communication Tools poster. 

[She sits back with a dramatic sigh.]

I] Yeah, took me forever to convince them to let me do that. We had agents using spirit boards, pendulums, casting runes, tarot cards, ghost boxes, all kinds of shit they brought from home. Bought from Walmart, or worse, a thrift store. I was always telling them, honey, baby, you gotta use our stuff, we maintain it, we disinfect it of ectoplasmic residue, lockout-tagout procedures, the works. It’s so, so unsafe to use anything but our tools. Sure, you gotta do paperwork when you check it out, but it’s better than somethin’ following you home…

M] Right into it, I guess. That’s what Necrocommunications does, right? Talk to the dead? 

I] You bet, sugar. The dead, demons, angels sometimes when they ain’t on our plane or in realspace. Other little spiritual twerps and bugaboos. 

M] I’ve been asking this a lot in the last few months, but…you can do that? Consistently? 

I] Consistent enough to make it worthwhile. S’not perfect. Fails most of the time, depending on who you’re calling. 

M] How so? 

I] Well, some people don’t wanna be called. Some people are chatterboxes. We got a list of likely contacts who we suggest people contact, but…we do other people sometimes, too. Always worth a shot, I say.

M] How does it work? 

[At that, Irene winced slightly and wagged her head from side to side.]

I] We got theories, but more importantly we got procedures. We know different things work for different people. Sometimes it’s cultural. The method that contacts Mr Smith may not work for Mr Chan, y’know? 

M] It’s mostly for information gathering, then. Like the Board of Infernal Affairs.

I] Information gathering’s a big part of it. Someone died with a secret? See if they got loose lips now. Also, y’know, helps with hauntings or gettin’ rid of little jerk spirits. 

M] You mentioned disinfection….

I] Yeah, yeah, there’s….risks, y’know. Sometimes the person you contact ain’t a fink, you know, and they start a whole new haunting. Sometimes one spirit’ll lie and say they’re another. Then they follow you home, start leeching your energy. Happens less when we cleanse the tools. Which is why there’s procedures for this, and every Office staff member in the building is trained on at least the basics.

M] Is it….is it only for Office personnel? Is it something I could…

[Irene’s face grows into a playful smirk as she hears the hesitation in my voice, leaning her face in her hand.] 

I] You got fifty cents? 

[She leads me into a back area of the office. Lining the walls in storage containers are row upon row of spirit boards, each box with a paper listing the dates each was used and then cleaned, along with the name of the person who did it. There are other items, too - pendulums, bags of runes, spirit boxes like you see on ghost hunting shows, and other devices and artifacts I don’t recognize. Irene’s attention, however, is on a phone booth at the end of the room. It’s clean but battered, clearly old and used. It has no door, but an open front, and above the phone itself is a depiction of a figure on a boat, with one word beside it: “Charon.”]

I] We confiscated these in the 80’s. It’s easier to use this one than have to sign out spirit board, y’know.

M] Weren’t you just complaining about that?

I] I complain about a lot of things, sugar. 

[I approach, standing before the phone in disbelief. Irene senses my hesitation.] 

I] Put in the money, then use the keypad to type out the person’s name. It’ll take it from there. Who you gonna call? Grandma? Mom?

M] My brother. 

I] Ah. Shit, honey.

M] He died in California. Two summers ago.

[As I reach for the receiver, I see Irene’s face freeze in some sort of concern.]

I] H-honey, that…was he in—

M] Yes. 

[I put my hand on the receiver, and I feel her hand on mine. She’s cold. She’s so cold and clammy that I jump slightly and look her in the eyes. Her face is sorrowful and scared, searching me.]

I] Honey…you won’t be able to—

M] You said—

I] If he was in…there’s no one there, sugar. He’s gone. 

M] I know he’s gone, but you said I could—

I] No, no, he’s…if he was…he’s gone, gone. There’s nothing left of him. You can pump quarters into that thing all night long and you won’t get anyone.  

M] H…how? I was…I was on the phone with him when it—

[As I watch, her eyes go wide, and she covers her mouth.]

I] Th-that’s how you remember, isn’t it? Thought you were just…in the Office but you hadn’t known about…that’s how you remember.

[I let go of the receiver. I can’t feel my fingers. I’m shivering, but not from the cold.]

M] I know how I remember. What I want to know is why everyone else forgot.

[jhkfan123]

enchanted- tom blyth | preface & ch. 1

. ˙ ✦ ♡ㅤ°. •                                                                                                                                                                . ˙ ✦ ♡ㅤ°. •

part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

part 6

part 7

part 8

part 9

part 10

part 11

part 12

 "please don't be in love with someone else please don't have somebody waiting on you"

"she's flawless"

"she's not flawless"

"what?"

"she's not you"

❤ ENCHANTED ❤

after starring in one of 2022's top movies y/n y/l/n has risen to stardom. at 23, she's only at the start of her career. julliard trained, cover of teen vogue, things are going great for her. and now, she starred in one of the biggest franchises as clemensia dovecote in the prequel for The Hunger Games trilogy, the ballad of songbirds and snakes. she's been attending galas, doing press, all alongside her co-stars, rachel zegler, josh andres rivera, and most importantly, tom blyth. she's liked him since the second she met him, but he hasn't seemed to bat an eye at her hints. but what happens when he finally starts hinting back, all while a spiraling rumor about a relationship between him and rachel arises? 

characters

y/n - the newest hollywood it-girl

tom blyth - y/n's costar, the lead in her new movie, the ballad of songbirds and snakes. internet's new bf 

josh andrés rivera - starred mainly alongside tom blyth as sejanus plinth, friendly with y/n

rachel zegler - starred as lucy gray baird, and has gained fame. played the "love interest" of coriolanus snow, over time has gained a "sister-like" bond with y/n.

AU: rachel and josh are NOT dating (for the plot)

Authors Note: i'm in love with tom blyth WHA-      enjoy this book! ongoing but should be finished soon! part 1 should be out in less than a day. called jhk fan but writing abt tom blyth (2024theplot)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

✦ i.

the camera flashes blinded you as someone guided you towards a crowd of people with microphones. you almost trip over your floor length gown as you approach a shorter woman, no taller than 5'0. your security guard lingers behind you, ensuring no one tries to pull anything. you felt a bit overwhelmed. yes, you'd been exposed to this before, but it was still fairly new. the flashing lights, people screaming your name begging to get your attention, figures holding out posters and whatnot to sign, and of course, the red carpet interviews. they gave you a sense of comfort. you could focus on one person, talk to one person, and tune everyone else out for a short minute before you had to move on. 

"hello dear, mind if i ask you a few questions?" focusing back into real life, you glanced at the woman holding a microphone to your face. 

"no i don't mind. shoot." you replied, adjusting the strap on your dress. 

"first of all, your role in this movie was small, but mighty. people online are loving it, they call you "panem it-girl." people have also been making edits, now my question is, have you seen any of these?" you chuckled at her question. you attempted to stay off social media as much as possible, but in this day, its very difficult. and the answer was yes. your own feed had been filled with lots of these edits. it was strange, seeing yourself on your screen, with others saying things like "panem it-girl" and "she deserved more screen time" and "iconic queen." the whole idea made you laugh, for your role in the movie had been fairly small, but your newfound fame had secured you a spot on the press tour. 

"yes i have seen them. it's pretty weird, seeing myself, but i am just glad people love the character. to make a long story endless, i've always been a fan of the books so when this prequel came out i bought it as soon as possible. i loved clemmie the second i read about her, so it was really cool to be able to bring her to life, and i'm so happy people liked the way i played her." you replied. you tried to keep it simple, but sometimes you felt like there was too much to say and not enough time to say it, which led to extra long answers to really short questions. 

you heard her shout a thank you as you were whisked to the next interviewer. 

"hi, so nice to see you, who are you wearing?" the man asked. you glanced down at your dress that had taken you ten whole minutes to get into. the whole process of getting ready took three hours, not to mention the photoshoot your publicist encouraged. getting your hair just right took an hour alone. 

"today i'm wearing versace. i was really inspired by blake lively's dress from the met gala and i thankfully have a great stylist who was able to find the perfect dress for me." you had always loved red carpet looks, and began to design your own in a fashion sketchbook when you were twelve years old. one of your favorite perks of being well-known was the ability to wear the dresses you had always loved. 

the security guard whispered in your ear that it was time to go pose. you thanked the man interviewing you and walked away. as you approached the middle of the red carpet a few people caught your eye. rachel zegler was standing in front of the cameras, flashes of light every second without fail. you seemed to have caught her eye, she turned to you and waved. you returned the gesture and made your way to the place you were supposed to pose. the cameras began to flash as soon as you stepped in front of them. you positioned yourself into your signature pose, which showed off the best parts about you. rachel walked over and gave you a hug.

"you look great" she attempted to compliment you, but it was hard to hear her over the people shouting.

"you look better than i ever will."  you returned the compliment and saw a disappointed look on her face. 

"girl you know so well that's not true" she laughed before returning to her initial position, maybe a few feet closer to you now. you returned back to posing, the flashes still going off, your name being mixed with rachels, being called from ten different directions. you began to walk off when you heard cheering from your left. you turned to see who had arrived. 

wearing a white blazer, a white, barely buttoned top, and black slacks was tom blyth. he had just stepped out of the vehicle dropping him off. you heard an overwhelming scream of voices. you had met tom on the set of the new movie, but had learned that you had both went to juilliard, and he graduated the year after you enrolled. there was a one year period where you too had been at the same school, yet never met each other. when the two of you first met, there was an immediate friendship. you guys drove to set together, practiced lines together, and hung out as many time as you could, squeezing in your busy schedule. but there had always been something more there for you. to you, he was the most charming, alluring, funny, kind person you'd met. it had always been one sided. you'd learned to suppress it, and accept that maybe he wasn't as interested in you as you were in him. while you were thinking, he had finished his interviews and was coming over to the two of you. you waved over to him and he flashed a smile at you. you approached him as he gave you a hug. you embraced it as much as you could. 

"hey! how are you?" he asked. you glanced up at him. your height difference was perfect in your mind. 

"i'm doing great, how are you?" 

"fantastic." he replied. he looked around you, finally making eye contact with rachel. you watched as his face lit up, and your heart sunk a little lower. there was nothing going on between them, at least, that's what you'd known. but seeing him excited to see her gave you a sense of jealousy. you knew it was selfish, obviously he made the entire movie with her, why shouldn't he be more excited? but you couldn't control it. he patted you on the shoulder and watched as he gave rachel a hug. a much more meaningful hug, that's what it looked like, at least. he wrapped his arm around her waist and posed with her. you asked your security guard to take you away from the photo area, off the red carpet altogether, but he told you to wait because they wanted an all cast photo. you decided to go back and do more interviews. you approached another woman. 

"hello." you greeted her.

"hi! im with letterboxed, would you care to give me your top four movies of all time?" you loved this question. you watched every video they posted of celebrities top movies. you'd never been asked before, and you had planned this out weeks in advance. it distracted you a little from your heart. 

"i LOVE this question, i've been planning for weeks."

...

once the movie was over, you exited the theater and made your way to the afterparty. you changed into a much easier outfit. one you could dance in. you were going to need it anyways. the dress had a corset-esqe top, with a very short skirt. like sabrina carpenter. you put on some high boots and fiddled with your hair a little. 

you entered the afterparty fashionably late. most people were already there. you recognized a few of your castmates from "the academy." you went over to them and got yourself a drink from the bar. 

"you look amazing, drop the makeup routine right now." you heard one say. lilly cooper, the actress for arachne crane. you laughed at her, but promised you would. you talked to a few more people, the actress for livia cardew, actor for festus creed, and more. before you knew it, 45 minutes had passed. you ventured away from them, and into the more central area. 

"girl get over here!" you heard. you pivoted on your heel and spotted rachel, tom, and josh. you happily walked over and gave josh a hug, you hadn't seen him all night. "this outfit is out of this world." rachel complimented. you did a little twirl to show off every bit of it. when you returned to your initial place, you saw tom laughing. a smile broke out on your face. 

"im ready to dance guys, when's that happening?" you asked them. rachel grabbed your hand, along with tom's. josh followed you guys as you headed for the dance floor. they were now playing "breaking dishes" by rhianna, one of your all time favorite clubbing songs. you had always been proud of your dancing skills, and now was the chance to show off. on your way to the dance floor, you picked up another drink, and downed it as fast as possible. finally on the floor, you and rachel began to dance together. she spun you around and you did the same to her. soon, josh swept you away and you danced with him, making sure to one up every move he made. you felt yourself getting tipsy, but that didn't matter, what did was that you were having fun. 

mid turn with josh, you felt yourself get pulled away again, a new hand holding onto yours. you looked up to see tom, who had ditched his jacket, and your pretty sure had unbuttoned another button or two, pulling you to dance with him. you agreed happily and began to dance with him. you had never noticed how good a dancer he was. every time you tried to one up him, he would pull out some move you hadn't seen before. 

"i saw you trying to one up josh" he shouted over the music. "isn't going to happen sweetheart." he called you that as a joke, but you felt yourself getting red. your stomach dropped. 

"wait here, i'm going to get another drink." you yelled, attempting to be louder than the already blaring music. he grabbed your arm and pulled you back.

"hey how many is that now?" he asked, referring to the amount you had drunken that night. 

"oh please." you shook him off and went to get another drink. you downed it and returned back to him. you felt the drinks going straight to your head. he spun you and you felt very dizzy. too many drinks.  you had always been a bit of a lightweight. three or four drinks was way to many. you continued to dance with him. he spun you again, this time returning you to him. he spun you back and he pulled you into his chest and you knocked into him. rachel came up behind you and you almost tripped on her feet. 

"woah, you've had too much to drink."  she immediately noticed. you tried to defend yourself, but found yourself slurring your words together. "yeah, you're done." she walked you over to a couch and sat you down. you laid down and your vision began to blur as you passed out. 

...

you woke up the next morning on a sofa. but this sofa was not the same sofa from last night. this was your sofa, in the hotel you were staying at for the premier. somehow, you had gotten home. no idea how, no idea when, but you had gotten home. you immediately noticed your discomfort, you glanced down, seeing yourself in your outfit from last night. 

after a shower and skincare, you still tried to ponder who had gotten you home last night. whoever it was knew your room, found your room key, and took care not to wake you as you were transported home.  

you pushed the thought down, thankful for whoever did it, but stopped wasting time on it. you packed up your suitcase and made your way back home. 

[vyl3tpwny]

why it ourple

ok.

i'm going to tell you the story of how purple became my favourite colour. and then, where the name vylet pony came from.

———————————————————

ch.1 the mace windu incident

once upon a time. I really liked star wars. i kind of still like star wars i guess. but when i was a kid, i REALLY liked star wars.

in my room, i had a mace windu poster.

i still can't find the exact poster. it looked something like this

mace windu was my fav star wars character for an inconceivably long time. with that, i also became fascinated with his purple lightsaber. nobody else had a purple lightsaber. i loved it. staring at that poster constantly made me really like the colour purple. ever since the poster started exerting its technicolour pressures and whimsies upon me, i became fixated on the colour purple. forever.

"hai!~ im mace windu and i loveee Videos!" - mace windu, star wars episode iii: revenge of the sith

———————————————————

ch. 2 the viny scratch era

fast forward like 7 years. i am in the my little pony fandom now. i am 13 years old. i really like vinyl scratch. she is pictured here:

my first online presence in the mlp community was as a vinyl scratch / dj pon3 roleplay account. for a good year, people called me vinyl and "vy".

however when it came time to start releasing music in the fandom, i couldn't go by vinyl scratch at the time. this name was already being used by the artist who currently goes by Scraton!

this is still one of my favourite songs by them:

anyway. i actually held a really insane, irrational grudge against scraton for being named "vinyl scratch" as a music artist before me. i got past that after a while, because i had to stop being 13 first. i stopped being 13 and eventually fell in love with their music and we became friends later after!

but it's 2013 and i can't be vinyl scratch anymore. people already called me "vy" because of being a vinyl scratch persona.

so.

———————————————————

ch. 3 it's vylet time-wait is that can opener? CANNI?

it started on december 28, 2012. i posted to my then-instagram account this image:

you may recognize this as my oc canni. here's their reworked look in the 2022 album (10 years later) can opener's notebook: fish whisperer (illustrated by @astroeden):

can opener's original name was "ultra vylet". their colour scheme was originally intended to be the inverse of vinyl scratch's, as a sort of strange protest to not being able to be vinyl scratch. i was like ok. well if i cant be vinyl scratch, i am going to make a character that swaps the main colours. within a few months of "ultra vylet" existing, i discarded the design in favour of a completely different one:

this would be the only time vylet consistently had purple in her design until 2018 or so.. lol.

then. on april 15, 2013, i posted this to my instagram:

i had essentially combined three things:

The fact the people called me "vy'

The fact that my favourite colour is purple (violet)

The fact that I wanted to be vinyl scratch (dj pon3) before

———————————————————

ch. 4 vylet pony ≠ vinyl scratch

that is to say, i never really put a lot of thought into "vylet pony" as a name. i just made it when i was 14 and now i am going to be 25 soon. will i keep vylet pony as a name forever? not sure. do i take great pride in its insanely snarky origin? absolutely.

after i had decided firmly on "vylet pony" as a name — after dropping the "3" from it — i made a new instagram account. the very first thing i posted to it was this:

illustrated by my friend, shade.

now that looks slightly vylet-like, design-wise, oc-wise. oh. but now she is grey and black? ok.

she stopped being purple from 2013-2018.

here is how her design progressed through the years:

the first one is by my then-partner sara. this is when vylet's cutiemark was still an upside down music note, reflected from "ultra vylet" / can opener's original design. i'll show how it became a puzzle piece next.

the second one is by shade

the third one is by chibadeer

the fourth one is by astroeden

———————————————————

ch. 5 the puzzle piece

to this day, i still cannot find the fanart in question. but over instagram, someone asked to draw fanart of my pony. in doing so, they misconstrued the shape of the upside down music note as a puzzle piece, like this:

i've been looking forever for the original fanart/fanartist that made this mistake. because ever since that art, i just stuck with it anyway. i like puzzles and puzzle games. i'm also a puzzling and enigmatic person. and the puzzle piece can go into so many different things. all sorts of problem solving is like a puzzle. music fits neatly into that category in my opinion. so because of its intrigue and ability to mean so many different things, i just went with it. i never looked back.

———————————————————

ch. 6 that is the history of the colour purple and vylet pony character design

i hope this answers the question "why it ourple"!

[asgoodeasgold]

Cin fuckin' cin! 🍸

Incredibly, this post concludes my epic scene-by-scene rewarch of The Offer which I started in August 2022! Yes I am a slow coach but there were many distractions along the way.

Bob is what got me started in making and posting Matthew Goode edits (my first posts were 'For Your Consideration' posters for the HCA Awards), so he is very special to me 💝. At this point, I would like to say a big, big thank you to my goode friend and role model @pleasereadmeok for being so welcoming and encouraging of me as a newbie, she is the reason why I am here today still posting. I was clueless and feeling a bit overwhelmed and would have given up many times over without her kind support! 🙏🩷😘

115 Offer posts, almost 200 Bob GIFs, 1 YouTube video, this has been a joyous ride in celebration of Matthew's breathtaking performance, one of his best. I have laughed with Bob, ugly-cried with him, and felt very emotion in-between. I am so glad Matthew's stellar performance got him noticed and opened doors for him, utterly deserved.

Matthew was, unbelievably, snubbed by the Emmys (they can go to hell 😁) but no matter, he is going places through the sheer force of his talent and hard work and bringing joy to many, and who knows, one day he will be holding a little 'sexy eunuch' statue of his own.

Needless to say, there will still be a lot of Offer posts in the future, I need my regular fix of Bob, as I am sure you do too! So until then, cin fuckin' cin 🍸

📷 My edits from Paramount+ The Offer (2022) ep10

[jezebelgoldstone]

RRR (2022, dir S. S. Rajamouli)

things i am not now and likely never will get over from RRR

DRIFT COMPATIBLE BATTLE COUPLE DETECTED

queer? platonic? queerplatonic? who gives a shit no matter what it was it was AWESOME

Colonialism Is Bad Actually: The Musical

the symbolism. holy shit. every BIT of it was absolutely amazing.

wow all the mains in this movie are just, really hot? my poor lil pan heart had a rough time with this one ngl

the fact that someone (likely many someones) watched this movie about Colonialism Is Bad Actually and said 'you know what let's dub this whole thing into Hindi and English and then not give an option to watch it with the original Telugu dialogue' sure was,,,,,,,,, A Choice

THE MUSIC

by which i mean the actual song-and-dance numbers as well as the like story soundtrack all of it is going on my playlist asap

listen the spirk-behind-glass scene is awful. spock and kirk can't even touch. they can hear. they can see. but they cannot touch. and i in my sweet ignorant bliss thought that was as bad as it could get.

tonight i learned that holding someone in your arms through the bars of their cell is so much worse

I watched it on Netflix but i looked it up on a few other ahem websites and on EVERY SINGLE ONE Telugu audio wasn't even an option.

there was not one single chance to tie things together or make a connection or do a setup/payoff or callback that was not taken. not a single one.

everything about this movie is 100% Extra

in short: this movie is a masterclass

aaaaaand the rest below a cut because WOW i have a lot to say actually

which brings me to the dancing oh my gods. not sure i've ever seen such enthusiastic dancing in anything in my entire life. seriously by the final number i was exhausted just watching them

in general, this movie is: stunning

"RAM." "BHEEM." "SEETHA." IT'S ABOUT THE SYMBOLISM.

also this was kinda hilarious because i watched it in hindi [the least disorienting option] and they kept SAYING "ram" but in the subs it was always fuckin RAJU so like. again with the Choices. like seriously what was the thought process there. WAS there a thought process.

FIRE. WATER. STORY. I JUST. I. HELP ME.

i ADORED jenny. with my whole entire heart. she is one of the very BEST examples of Ignorance Is A Privilege and also At What Point Does Ignorance Become Malicious that i have ever ever seen. i loooooooooved it. i mean i hated it a whole lot while it was happening but also i am SO GLAD that now rather than trying to explain all of this to people i can just tell them to watch this movie and then sit them down and be like, so what are your thoughts on jenny's culpability in literally everything?

oh and how you can be a kind person and still do atrocities! like jenny is so sweet and so kind and you just like her so much and yet. and yet.

t h e s y m b o l i s m

i cannot remember the last time i saw a movie so visually stunning. the cinematography is breathtaking. pause on just about any random frame and it could be a movie poster or hanging in an art gallery or what have you.

they also dubbed all the lines that were actually in english? i mean i get it for the characters who spent most of the movie speaking Telugu because you'd need their voices to stay the same through the whole movie yeah fine whatever. but like. they dubbed all the ENGLISH characters, too? like literally dubbed them from english into english??? the dialogue matched their mouths except the timing was veeeery sliiiiiiiightly off but it SOUNDED really obviously dubbed??? Y THO???

HOLY SHIT THE FIGHT SCENES OH MY GODS

Malli. Malli honey i love you. i'm just realizing i don't know if that's your actual name gods damn it. but whatever your name is child i love you.

and did i mention that everyone in this movie is beautiful? like. seriously. Ram and Bheem especially holy SHIT.

Physics Does Not Work Like That And I Do Not Care Because That Was AWESOME: The Musical

oooohhhhh they re-recorded and dubbed the fucking SONGS too. i am so pissed about this y'all i can't even tell you.

oh i want to do a whole entire post that's even longer than this one about the symbolism. hell i could probably do a whole entire post just on the fire/water symbolism even without everything else. It was AMAZING.

okay ram is fire and bheem is water and ram's people go to a valley on the shores of a river and the river is in literally every shot of the village and just ram BEING fire but water being a place of HOME and SAFETY for ram

i'm not crying shut up

MALLI AND HER MOTHER TRY TO REACH EACH OTHER BUT THEY CANNOT TOUCH THROUGH THE GLASS

BHEEM AND MALLI HOLD EACH OTHER THROUGH THE BARS OF HER CONFINEMENT AND HE HAS TO LET GO AND LEAVE HER

BHEEM AND RAM HOLD EACH OTHER THROUGH THE BARS OF HIS CONFINEMENT AND BHEEM RIPS THE DOOR RIGHT OFF

ooooooohhhhhhh and people holding hands right before they part. oh that hurts. all of those hurt so bad.

how every single time people held hands when they parted they always held on till the last possible second EXCEPT FOR RAM'S MOM.

she lifts her hand away from him and then pulls back and it was devastating

Predators Do Not Work Like That But I Do Not Care Because That Was Awesome And Also They Ate A Bunch Of Colonizing Cops: Queercoded Edition (ACAB)

bheem with his arms spread and rope or chains around his wrists or in his hands. i just. the way it flipped back and forth from 'he has the power' to 'he is helpless' to 'he should be helpless and isn't' was just. breathtaking.

AND THEN. AND THEN RAM. CHAINED UP THE SAME WAY. DOING THE SAME GODDAMN THING AND USING THE FACT THAT HE'S CHAINED UP FOR HIS OWN FUCKING PURPOSES BECAUSE HE SAW BHEEM DO IT FIRST DON'T TOUCH ME

okay listen this movie would've been good no matter what but like. they really are just SO beautiful. and. when ram. with like the long hair. and. beard. and like. you know? like. his. his hair. his general. everything. um.

literally at the most emotionally inappropriate moment i literally thought about that whole 'i saw a man so beautiful i started crying' thing and like that almost literally happened literally

Why There Can't Be Any Such Thing As Good Cops: The Romance (ACAB)

and like here's the thing i'm not sure i would've even NOTICED this had it not been for the linguistic chauvinism with the audio and everything but like both of them were hindu and a lot of the symbolism though awesome was also really strongly hindu and i just i don't know nearly enough about hindutva to have any kind of opinion BUT i also feel like maaaaaaaybe there was something a little uncomfy about some of this

oh no wait the suspenders dance. that might've actually been the best part. yeah.

oh all the british actors did SUCH a good job being so eminently punchable

throw cheetahs at each other! and snakes! somehow have upper body strength greater than the force exerted by a 800+ lb tiger lunging! throw those motorcycles! punch through those walls without breaking your fingers! use herbal paste to heal broken bones in a matter of a minutes! break solid stone with nothing but the strength of your shoulders and gay love! i am so here for all of this!!!

Throw Rocks Marble Pillars Live Tigers Cops At Cops: The Movie (ACAB)

i love that jenny felt bad for the poor little girl who got kidnapped enslaved and imprisoned so she. bought her a dress and a toy.

you know, to make her feel better about the whole 'being kidnapped enslaved and imprisoned' thing.

instead of doing, i don't know know, literally anything else. like even just saying to her aunt 'hey this makes me sad' or something. #solidarity.

the violence was violent and the romance was sweet

okay so during the fight at the midpoint like i know that by the end of it ram and bheem are literal fire and water BUT ALSO. Ram enters the scene in a flaming carriage and from that point forward the fountain is in pretty much every shot of bheem. just sayin.

love that lachu (or whatever his name really is) told ram that there was no cure. like yes! you go man! ram may be so beautiful that in forty minutes i'm going to be in tears but that's no reason to tell a cop the truth about anything! you lie to that cop man!

A BRITISH SOLDIER HIT LOKI IN THE HEAD WITH A BRANCH AND THEN STOLE MALLI AWAY

BHEEM HIT RAM IN THE HEAD WITH A BRANCH AND THEN STOLE MALLI AWAY

i know other people got hit in the head with tree branches too but STILL

honestly i really like that ram and bheem were, well, ram and bheem. but i mean im glad they weren't like ram and lakshman or bheem and arjun or something. not even just because that would've been brotherly like i'm glad they weren't arjun and krishna or something either. i liked that their names weren't from the same story. i liked it better this way and i can't even articulate why.

i am never ever ever going to get over the progression of part of bheem's introduction being something going wrong and him holding two ropes (he has all the power) with his arms spread and that being used to show us how incredibly strong he is -> something going wrong and bheem with ropes around his wrists (he shouldn't have any power at all) holding his arms spread and that being used to show how incredibly strong he is in a completely different way

like every time there were ropes or chains in bheem's hands or around his wrists it meant something, and it was a beat in the rhythm of a discernable arc, but now i can't remember all of them gdi

oooohhhhh there was SO much more symbolism i wanted to talk about but it's so late that i have a headache and this post is so long my computer's lagging like two sentences behind so i should stop and go to bed. sigh.

just go watch this movie, okay? pleae? I cannot IMAGINE who would've read this whole thing,m but if you did, just watch it, all rigth? (and if you happen to know of any site - ANY site - where i can watch it in FUKIN TELUGU kindly drop a link please and thank)

[secretgamergirl]

People are super weird about letting fictional trans people get on with their lives.

There's a thing I've written about before where people will refuse to accept that fictional characters could possibly be trans no matter how incredibly blatant their creators are about it. You can put a big note on a character design sketch that just says "she is trans," you can have a character whose body shape suggests one gender and have every single character in the show make a point of correcting anyone misgendering that character accordingly, you can straight up have a character come out as trans, either having a serious talk about their identity with a parent while bathed in the trans flag color scheme with an actual trans flag on the wall behind them, or just straight up say "hey, I'm a man, gonna change my name to Victor, everyone cool with that?" and people will still find ways to bend over backwards and deny it.

But there's a small handful of characters out there people will accept as trans, generally, without a huge fight over it. Typically this happens with characters who are first introduced to people in a context where them being trans is treated like a mean-spirited joke, or is at least put so bluntly people can convince themselves it was. But then we have this weird thing that happens where that recognition is completely conditional on feeling like there's a mean-spirited joke they're in on.

Let's just dive in with the example that's going to be on most people's minds lately. Bridget from Guilty Gear.

I'm pretty sure if you had internet access from 2022 to 2023 you are Extremely Aware that this girl Bridget is trans, and that the scum of the earth threw a gigantic snot-nosed bawling fit of denial over this for at least half a year, trying to cope with all sorts of weird baffling denials where she wasn't trans in Japan and localizers made this up or there was some double-secret "true ending" to the game you could unlock somehow that walked this back or whatever, and the creator of the series as a whole, and this character, and really the only voice with any authority on the subject ended up writing like 4 big public statements directly addressing these bigoted weirdos about how no, she's trans, and she's always been trans. There's also some possibility that you were aware that Bridget is in a fighting game called Guilty Gear Strive, and maybe even that she's been a character in that series since 2002.

Here's the thing a lot of people don't seem to understand though. Since Strive has this whole story mode bit with her gaining the confidence to admit she's trans to everyone around her and they're all accepting and all that, if you just got here it would be pretty reasonable for you to assume that either she's a brand new character, or that in previous appearances, she was either "stealth" and everyone thought she was a cis girl, or this general look is new and she used to do the boymode thing. But, no. She's always presented this way, everyone's always known she was assigned male at birth. We went through two whole decades with Bridget being THE poster child for gross bigots going "hey, the little blond girl dressed like a nun is pretty cute right? HA! That's actually a boy! You're freakin' gay dude!" TVtropes had a page forever called "Dropped a Bridget on him" for describing all the media that as a "reveal" along those lines. The 4 letter T-slur was pretty much coined to describe this specific character.

So it's not that the recent rage from bigots is because they were into Bridget and thought they were into a cis girl, or that this character is "suddenly a girl." It's that we are now very explicitly saying "yeah, she's trans. Everyone knows she's trans and everyone is cool with it." There's no more "dark secret" to use as a gotcha.

Meanwhile, the incident that was really on my mind today was seeing someone's big retrospective piece about good ol' Poison, refreshingly opening with the actual story of how she was created, citing the same concept sketch from that post of mine I linked earlier, and not repeating the usual gross playground rumor, going on to mention an a fighting game appearance where backlash from trans-positive people caused Capcom to walk back some gross jokes in victory quotes about her "manly strength" or whatever... and then proceeded to speculate if cutting those transphobic jokes meant they have "retconned her into being cis." Like, what the hell is this logic? Is the idea of a character being trans and NOT being subject to gross ridicule seriously so hard for people to get their heads around that "they must have decided she was never trans at all" feels like a sensible explanation? That's... not how retcons work. If we've had years of hard confirmation that a character has had some particular trait, that's just a fact about that character, and you can go ahead and keep assuming it's true. A retcon would be like, if there was a new game and it had some cutscene where we see Poison dying her hair, revealing/confirming that it hasn't been naturally pink this whole time. There isn't a word for people just quietly deciding drastic changes have happened to characters, then never mentioning these anywhere. Because that's just not a thing that happens. It is completely absurd to just go around assuming characters stop being trans or gay or vegetarian or whatever the hell else if you haven't been reminded of the fact lately. That's like assuming your parents ceased to exist when they played peekaboo with you and hid their faces behind their hands. What the absolute hell? Oh and people do this with Birdo like all the damn time, too.

"Hey, don't you mean Birdetta?" I was going to make one of those rambling joke tags about this but, no, actual real discussion on this one. So just to clarify things here...

Here's the Japanese ad for "Super Mario USA," the Japanese release of the American "Super Mario Bros. 2" being presented in a way that makes it pretty clear we're going for as clear an example as we can give of mid-80s Japan's conception of a trans woman. Technically her first appearance was in Doki Doki Panic, a game created as part of this multimedia promotional thing for... a Japanese TV station's 1987 fall line-up. It was then reworked a bit into a Mario game because... it was really good, the actual Japanese sequel to SMB wasn't great, and Nintendo didn't want to have to deal with all the weird licensing issues tied into things. In the original manual for that, we have...

I'm a bit rusty, but in Japan, she's Catherine, and this brief description here says she's trans in a bigoted fashion, along with mentioning she tells people they can call her Cathy, you know, in a flirty sort of way. The general structure of this made its way into the original Super Mario Bros. 2 manual, at least in keeping the same general format of here's her name, here's some gross transphobia, here's her nickname, but... the whole thing's kind of a mess? Like, if you just saw the U.S. manual, and it said "Birdo- [Transphobic nonsense], ... rather be called 'Birdetta.'" It would be reasonable to interpret that as a dead name/chosen name sort of thing, but the original Japanese version has roughly the same formatting (and confirmation she's trans) but there's plainly no dead naming there, just an informal nickname... and the U.S. manual didn't even call her Birdo at all. It calls her "Ostro" and then it calls the actual ostrich enemies "Birdo."

And they're like that in-game in the credits too. Everyone caught the obvious error there about the wrong names getting used, and flipped those for future western mentions, but nobody ever caught that there was supposed to be a cutesy nickname going on, and future releases cut the whole transphobic description entirely. So, she's called Catherine in Japan, Cathy for short, and just kinda arbitrarily called Birdo instead in the west. But there's no dead name in any of this, just one of those Mash/Sabin Terra/Tina M. Bison/Vega/Balrog localization messes. And she always has been trans, everywhere, that's just a thing and has nothing to do with badly written manuals, and she's not going to somehow stop being trans just because the awful jokes have stopped.

Here's some fun extra trivia from wikipedia though! "Birdo/Catherine was prominently featured in the cut-scenes for the Japan-only, Satellaview pseudo-sequel of Super Mario USA (Japanese title for the Western version of Super Mario Bros. 2), known as BS Super Mario USA. In this version, three "Super Catherines" were voice-acted by Jun Donna (Pink, described as "slightly mischievous"), Rika (Red, "whose finances are always in the red"), and Akemi (Green, described as "cultured and affluent"). The voices were those of gay men or transgender women." That should really be "BS Super Mario USA" though. The Satellaview was weird.

[goldfades]

✮ 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐢𝐬: 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐧𝐨𝐰. 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐢𝐬: 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐧𝐨𝐰! zegras' have more fun au

♡ ─ word count | 1.6k

♡ ─ summary | the zegras family say their goodbyes to Y/N as she heads off to Michigan.

♡ ─ warnings | unedited, slight angst (like very little), bittersweet moments, mostly zegras!fam x reader, some cursing, a lot of lighthearted trev slander lmao, mention of getting drunk, nothing else i don't think?

♡ ─ taglist | tbd

♡ ─ ev's notes | hey puckers (ha, see what i did there), i hope you are having a good day so far. this is kind of a filler chapter/prologue so we can connect w y/n & her fam because i'm a sucker for details. ALSO PLEASE SEND IN REQUESTS FOR THIS AU, i'm gonna run outta ideas lmao. inbox is always for any thoughts just please be kind! remember everyone is going through life just as you, being kind is easier for everyone!

back to navigation back to AU masterlist

LATE AUGUST 2022

You sat the edge of your bed, staring at your now ─ empty bedroom.

It seemed unusual to see your childhood bedroom all empty. It even felt weird to call it your childhood bedroom now, because up until this moment it was just your bedroom.

The light blue starry wallpaper, which your brothers had messily put up in an failed attempt to comfort you when you found out Trevor was leaving for Michigan, seemed somewhat empty without all the polaroids, posters, and decorations you once had up.

You still had some decorations you knew you wouldn't need at your dorm. It still felt weird to be in your bedroom when it was so empty ─ it felt as if you were already gone; it just felt like the ghost of your old self.

You were snapped out of your haze when you heard a soft knock coming from the door. "Come in," you answered.

Your mom came in, a small smile on her lips. Her expression seemed excited but you could sense the anxiety radiating from her. She walked over to your bed and took a seat next to you.

"How are you feeling?"

"Pretty good. How are you feeling?" You replied, mirroring her expression slightly with a small smile. Your tone was slightly playful as you watched your mother's smile widen.

She was glad this day wouldn't all be sentimental and sad. It was a major change for both of you, and you both felt a little anxious over big changes.

"I'm feelin' pretty happy. One less mouth to feed," she joked as you laughed softly. "No, but seriously, I'm excited for this new chapter for you and Parker. This is gonna be so exciting, college is so much fun and I just know... you're gonna do great things."

The last part was when she slightly broke the facade. Her voice broke slightly as she blinked away the tears and you felt your eyes water at the sight. Your mother had always been the strongest one and seeing her get all emotional was somewhat of a new experience. You'd only see her cry once a few times before.

"Oh, mom..." You pulled her in with a big hug, soothing both of your nerves about the whole situation. She hugged back just as hard, wanting to keep you in her arms forever. She still saw you as her little girl, even if you were leaving for college tonight.

You pulled away and she sniffled. "Let's make some breakfast, okay?"

You were fine with that, your stomach growled. It was around 9 in the morning, you had only gotten a few hours of sleep because you spent the entire night packing up most of your stuff that you were taking to Michigan. You decided to only pack the things you needed the most for now because Trevor was coming up to Michigan in a few days with your car and some other stuff you couldn't take on the airplane ─ but even with that, it was still so much.

You both went downstairs and you pushed yourself up on the island comfortably, waiting for your mom to get breakfast.

──

The time had come ─ you stood outside with Ava and your parents, waiting for Griffin to arrive to take you and Parker to the airport. It was a bittersweet moment, the air filled with a mixture of excitement and nostalgia. Your bags were packed with all your essentials but somehow you still didn't feel exactly ready (as if you'd ever be). Your room was empty and your childhood home seemed smaller somehow, as if it couldn't contain all the memories you'd created within its walls: the hot summers spent with Brie and Parker in the backyard, chaotic mornings before school with your brother and sister, scrambling around to get ready for the day now felt like a distant memory.

You exchanged knowing glances with Ava tearfully. She had been your partner in crime, your confidante, and your partner in countless adventures. Tears welled up in both your eyes as you thought about the distance that would soon separate you.

Your mom, too, was struggling to hold back tears. Your father patted her back soothingly as he was trying to stay composed as well. Now, as you were about to embark on this new chapter in your life, she couldn't help but feel a mix of pride and sadness.

As you stood there, emotions running high, Ava decided to break the heavy silence with a playful quip. "Hey, remember that time we tried to build a treehouse in the backyard and ended up with a pile of scrap wood?"

You chuckled, wiping away a tear, remembering the memory quite well. "Yeah, and we blamed it on Trevor for knocking it down."

Ava grinned through her own tears. "Always putting the blame on him, I'm gonna miss that."

You shook your head. "Hey, no, don't say that. It's still gonna happen, we're gonna fuck up somehow and blame it on him."

Your mom chimed in, a smile playing on her lips before she shook her head in mock disapproval. "Hey, just because you're heading off to college doesn't mean you can start using that kind of language, missy."

You and Ava burst into laughter, the familiar banter and inside jokes helping to ease the emotional weight of the moment.

Dad, who had been keeping a slightly more serious demeanor, couldn't resist chiming in. "Yeah, listen to mother Y/N." He broke in a small rare smile.

Laughter filled the air, momentarily dispelling the heaviness of the moment. It was a reminder that no matter how far you went or how much time passed, the bonds of family would always bring you back to those lighthearted memories with them.

Suddenly, your mother broke out a small sob which shocked all of you. You and Ava exchanged glances before frowning, both hugging your mother tightly. Your eyes welled up again for what seemed like the millionth time that day. Before anyone could say anything, you heard the familiar rumble of Griffin's car approaching.

Your father cleared his throat, rubbing your mother's back in an attempt to soothe her.

Griffin's head popped out of the window, "Hurry up!" He hadn't seen the sorrowful expression and you couldn't resist an eyeroll at his obliviousness.

You sniffled and pulled away, "I gotta go, now..."

Your mother's face contorted into a small smile, sniffling. "Call or text me everyday or I swear, me and your father will just show up at your dorm unexpectedly." Your mother threatened playfully which made you let out a tearful laugh.

"Yeah, I promise don't worry. I won't be like Trev." Everyone broke out in one last laugh at Trevor as Griffin honked two times impatiently.

Your father sighed and patted your back. "Griffin will leave if you don't hurry, honey. Time to get this show on the road."

You grabbed your suitcase and gave Ava one last, tight hug. "I'll text you as soon as I'm settled in the dorm, if I see any cute guys I'll snap a photo for you, Ava."

Ava wiped away a final tear and chuckled. "You better. Safe flight, and don't forget to call me everyday."

Your mom joined the hug, her eyes still moist. "Take care of yourself, sweetheart. We're always just a phone call away."

With one last round of hugs, Griffin honked three times and you let out an annoyed groan. "He has zero fucking patience, my god."

Your mother gave you one last stern look. "Sorry, freaking patience."

You finally hopped into Griffin's car, wrestling with your emotions and trying to maintain a brave front as you waved goodbye to your family. With a dramatic sigh, you turned to Griffin, your brother, and shot him an exaggeratedly annoyed look.

"What was that about?"

Griffin, who was busy fumbling with the car keys, looked at you with feigned innocence. "What was... what about?" He finally got the key in the ignition and started the car.

You pointed at your tear-streaked face with mock indignation. "You see these tears, Griffin? I was saying goodbye to everyone and you ruined the mood with your honking."

Griffin couldn't help but grin, knowing he had successfully slightly lightened the atmosphere, even if it meant teasing his sister a little. He pulled out of the driveway and merged onto the road, glancing at you with an amused expression.

"Well, you know me," he said, shrugging nonchalantly, "I've got a reputation to uphold, gotta make sure that I'm always tormenting you. Besides, I figured a little honking was better than a sob-fest."

You rolled your eyes as you fasten your seatbelt. "Thanks, Griffin. You always know how to make me feel better."

You both exchanged glances before letting out a small chuckle. "Seriously, though. I'm gonna─"

"Shut up, don't make this a sad moment. This isn't a sad moment, this is an exciting one, okay? You're goin' off on your own, with Park and it's gonna be so much fun. Frat parties every weekend, like you've always wanted." Griffin interrupted, as he sighed. He glanced at you one more time.

You chuckled at the last part. "Yup, gonna get absolutely shitfaced with no mom or dad telling me to 'be more responsible'."

He joined along. "Yeah, but not every weekend. Don't be like a borderline alcoholic like Trevor."

You both laughed at that, slandering Trevor was your favorite hobby.

"Oh shit," Griffin mumbled. "We forgot about Parker."

He made a sharp U turn, making your hit your head on the glass. "What the fuck, Griffin─"

-> make sure to check out my navigation or masterlist if you enjoyed! any interaction is greatly appreciated! <-

thank you for reading all the way through, as always ♡

[sinclairstarz]

for the cinephile byler truthers. i made the party’s modern au letterboxd accounts

in my head mike wheeler is the film bro cinephile of the party. hes a big brad pitt fan and fincher is his favorite director if you even care.. dirty dancing would be in his top 4 if he was honest. he went to see dune cause hes a scifi nerd, ended up hating it so much and complained about it to will but still gave it 2 stars cause it was pretty. did leave a very mean review. very critical rater but mostly leaves high ratings because he just doesn’t watch things he doesnt wanna see.

alternative movies i considered putting: pulp fiction (5 stars), the killer (1 star), se7en (5 stars), across the spiderverse (5 stars), nope (5 stars) , the batman 2022 (4 stars), once upon a time in hollywood (5 stars), inglorious basterds (5 stars), the matrix (half a star)

the thing is so good and he has a poster of it on his wall in canon so it felt right. it just feels wrong not to do ghostbusters (plus its one of my favorite movies…) and yall need to hear me out on brokeback 😭😭😭 ur telling me he wouldnt bawl his eyes out??? ur wrong. will byers is a jake gyllenhaal lover. he watches dirty dancing a lot for mike, and loves ghibli movies a lot. he cried during rain man. honest rater but doesnt take it too seriously, mostly 4/5 star ratings

alternatives: saltburn (half a star), asteroid city (5 stars), blackkklansman (5 stars), the force awakens (3.5 stars), the perks of being a wallflower (4.5 stars), back to the future (5 stars)

rogue one because lucas has taste. its the best star wars movie, if u care. he would love how fun and goofy ghostbusters 2 is. in my head Wes Anderson is like the party’s claimed director and they all watch his movies together and do marathons because the weirdness, comedy, and emotional commentary is a perfect mix for them. so. bottle rocket. lucas’ favorite wes anderson is the grand budapest hotel if u wanted to know. he rates things pretty highly and isn’t super critical.

alternatives: dodgeball (5 stars), scream 5 (4 stars), the matrix (3 stars), good will hunting (5 stars), jurassic park (5 stars), die hard (5 stars),

likes making lucas watch gone girl on valentines day and telling him shes gonna do that to him next time he annoys her. v for vendetta is her favorite romance movie and shes a big marvel fan (in a cool way. kind of .) but thor ragnarok is probably one of her fav marvels, along with spiderman far from home and iron man. i just know she watches Casino Royale and decided she hated James Bond and then ended up watching all the Daniel Craig Bonds with Mike and loved Skyfall so much. the song is on her playlist and she did cry after No Time To Die.

Alternatives: Superbad (5 stars), baby driver (5 stars), bottoms (5 stars), 10 things i hate about you (3.5 stars), scream (5 stars), kill bill (5 stars), lord of the rings: the return of the king (1.5 stars)

also a bit of a film nerd. i considered giving him a star wars and i know in my heart he’d probably have empire somewhere in his top 4. but star wars is lame and i wanted to give him se7en so he fucking gets se7en. he knows john wick is objectively dumb but he doesnt care hes just here for a good time. the party probably watched saltburn together and all fucking hated it. I just know hes a kurosawa nerd and always goes when the local theatres do very rare special showings of his movies.

alternatives: baby driver (4 stars), the ewok adventure (5 stars) hot fuzz (5 stars) harry potter and the sorcerers stone (4 stars) legally blonde (5 stars) spirited away (5 stars) dazed and confused (5 stars)

she likes movies that make her feel all warm and fuzzy and hopeful. i wanted to give her breakfast club, but i think she’d honestly like sixteen candles more (even though breakfast club’s better). she cried at almost every movie in her top 4 and makes max rewatch juno with her like once a month. she gives most movies 5 stars unless she really hates them, and loves any movie thats fun to watch, even if its bad. she likes movies with pretty girls and fun colors.

alternatives: barbie (5 stars), legally blonde (5 stars), inception (2 stars), heathers (5 stars) pretty in pink (4.5 stars (she was mad andi didn’t end up with ducky)) my neighbor totoro (5 stars)

in conclusion if you haven’t seen They Cloned Tyron (2023) go watch it it deserved the oscar

[delicatenightfury]

Trust

2022 Month of Writing: Day 20

Pairing: Kaz Brekker x reader

Prompt: "It's hard to bury your past."

Word Count: 3k (this turned out longer than I was expecting)

Author's Note: please don't steal my work! you can choose to respond to the prompt as well, but don't steal my work

I'm not totally sold on this, but if you're interested in a part 2, please let me know!

I based this off the Netflix show Shadow and Bone (even though I liking the books better 😅) - just a heads up

y/n pressed a damp cloth against her arm where she had gotten a long cut. She winced slightly but focused on cleaning the wound before it got infected. She and the other crows had just barely survived an encounter with Pekka Rollins and his men in what, unfortunately, was an ambush. Her abilities as a Squaller did help some, but one of the Dime Lions sliced her arms, making it more painful to control wind. She had been lucky with her injuries and required far less attention, thus why she was tending to herself. Nina needed to be focused on Inej instead of her.

She tensed slightly when she heard the familiar sound of footsteps accompanied by the thump of a cane. They stopped somewhere behind her, letting silence fill the room for several minutes. She knew it was petty, but she wasn’t going to be the one to speak first. Several minutes later, he finally caved.

“We need to talk.”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” she said lowly.

“It doesn’t matter. We need to talk.”

“Yes, it does matter, Kaz.” She sent him a glare over her shoulder. “You almost got us killed tonight.”

“We have to cut off Rollins’ resources-”

“Do we? You’ve been content just doing simple business for the Crows Club. Then, all of a sudden, you take a mission to saints know where and somehow manage to cross Rollins in the process. Now, we have been framed for murder. And I wasn’t involved in any of it, since you left me behind, yet I still got dragged into this mess.”

She threw down the cloth and picked up a clean one to press firmly against her arm. She held back another wince, glad that the bleeding had seemed to stop for now.

“The mission was need to know.”

She glared at him.

“And I didn’t need to know?” Kaz didn’t respond, but he didn’t look the least bit apologetic. “I had to go into hiding, Kaz, because Rollins added my name to that bounty before you even stepped foot onto the boat that brought you all back to Ketterdam.”

“It was never my intention.”

y/n scoffed.

Kaz slowly came closer, but still kept his distance.

“We were sent to Ravka to locate the rumored Sun Summoner,” he said.

That made y/n pause. She had heard the rumors. All of Ketterdam had. Especially when the Fold expanded and wiped out several towns. The Sun Summoner was a Grisha who was able to manipulate light, who might be able to use their power to help tear down the Fold once and for all.

“And?” she asked.

“We found her. The Darkling used her power to expand the Fold. We had several run-ins with her, but she didn’t come back to Ketterdam with us. Our employer was looking for answers.”

“About the Sun Summoner?”

“Amongst other things.” She glanced at Kaz. He was looking at the far wall, but was only a few feet away from her now. Feeling her gaze, he looked down at her. “He took a particular interest in you.”

“Me?”

“He saw your wanted poster in the street and made an inquiry.”

“That’s not much to go off of, Kaz.”

“He’s a privateer. Rich. Seems to be from Ravka. His inquiry was brief, since his main focus was on the Sun Summoner, but he seemed determined.”

“Again, not completely helpful. This privateer have a name?”

“He called himself Sturmhond.” y/n froze. She knew Kaz was watching her for a reaction, but she couldn’t care. “You know him.”

y/n tossed the dirtied rag aside. She nodded slowly.

“I used to. It was a long time ago.”

“When?”

“Why do you care?”

“Because just hearing the name caused you to freeze up, y/n. I need to know if I can trust you to still function properly should we encounter him again.”

She looked at him.

“You’re worried about how well I’ll perform? Thanks for the vote of confidence, Kaz.” He continued to stare at her. She picked up clean bandages to begin wrapping her arm. “You don’t have to worry about it. It was a long time ago.”

“Not good enough.”

“Will you just leave it?”

“No.”

“Kaz-”

“y/n.”

“Drop it.”

“Tell me.”

She sighed.

“He’s my brother.”

There was a long beat of silence as Kaz took in her words.

“I wasn’t aware you still had family.”

She scoffed.

“As if I could call them that. I was the third child and therefore expendable. Being Grisha just gave them another reason to ignore me.”

She tightened the bandage she had put around her arm. It was a rough job, but it would hold until it could be properly looked at later. She began to clean up her supplies, sticking it in a corner for when it was needed again. As she moved, she caught a glimpse of Kaz. He was still looking at her, as if trying to find more answers.

“What?” she said. Her voice sounded more harsh than she meant it to.

“There’s more that you’re not telling me.”

y/n rolled her eyes.

“Just drop it, Kaz.”

“Not if you have information that will help us.”

“And how is my past going to help us with Pekka Rollins?”

“It will prove that I can trust you.”

y/n stopped. She set down the clothes she had been folding and looked at Kaz. His expression remained cold and hard. He rarely showed emotion as it was.

“You’re questioning my loyalty?” she asked. He simply stared at her, causing her to huff. “Thanks for that, Kaz. After all this time, I’m glad to know where we truly stand.”

She got up quickly and made her way to the door, passing by Kaz along the way.

“y/n-”

“Don’t. Just don’t.”

She hurried outside to avoid him seeing the hurt on her face.

The following week was rather eventful. The Crows had created quite a bit of chaos after releasing false Firepox at all of Pekka Rollins’ businesses. In the same night, Kaz got Rollins to lift the charges he had put on the Crows and admit that he was responsible for the crimes. Rollins had been arrested and taken to Hellgate.

During that time, Kaz and y/n had barely spoken to one another. They only spoke when necessary and even then, they did little to converse with one another. Jesper and Inej were quick to notice the difference. Even Nina and Wylan noticed but neither felt it was their place since they hadn’t known the Crows long.

y/n had been reading in her room when a sharp knock came. She stood and went to the door, finding Kaz on the other side.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Downstairs,” he said. “We have guests from Ravka.”

y/n sighed but nodded. She stepped around Kaz to make her way downstairs, letting him go to wake Wylan and Jesper.

“y/n?”

She looked up sharply at the familiar voice, her eyes widening.

“Zoya?”

The dark haired Squaller smiled widely. She moved forward to hug her.

“Saints, what are you doing here? We thought you were gone! Not even Baghra knew what happened.”

y/n looked down.

“Zoya-”

“And who is this?” A tall man approached them, a smile on his face.

“Tolya, this is y/n. Nikolai’s sister.”

Tolya’s smile grew.

“You’re Nikolai’s sister? It’s wonderful to finally meet you. I traveled with him for many years. He’s spoken of you often.”

y/n was going to respond when a glimpse of Kaz caught her eye. He was standing by the stairs, watching their interaction. Her shoulders deflated when his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. She knew immediately that he had caught at least part of their conversation. She looked back at Zoya.

“It’s a bit of a story,” she said. “One that can be shared later. I assume you are the guests Kaz told us about?”

“Yes. We have a mission for you.”

Soon, the Crows were seated in front of Zoya and Tolya, who handed them a document. 

“The neshyenyer?” Nina said after they had explained the mission. “Sankta Neyar’s blade.”

“So you haven’t completely forgotten what you were taught at the Little Palace,” Zoya said with an almost taunting tone. “Just your loyalty to Ravka.”

y/n couldn’t help but feel like the statement was also directed at her.

“Ravka or Kirigan?” Nina countered. “It didn’t take him destroying a city for me to question my loyalty.”

“So, that we all know you two have history,” Jesper said, “what’s the payment for this particular job?”

“Name your price,” Tolya said. “It matters that much.”

“Is that the Lantsov family crest?” Wylan asked, looking over Nina’s shoulder at the paper.

“You know it is because it’s hideous.”

Zoya shot her a glare before glancing at y/n, who only smiled in amusement. She was never a huge fan of the Lantsov crest. To hear someone felt the same was a little refreshing.

Tolya looked at the group. “Prince Nikolai requests your services to retrieve and deliver the neshyenyer to Alina Starkov in East Ravka.”

“She’s returned?” Nina said.

“As has the Darkling,” Zoya replied. “With an indestructible army of shadow monsters.”

“Saints,” y/n muttered.

“I do not like the sound of that,” Jesper said.

“She needs the blade to kill them. It’s the only thing that might work.”

“Retrieve the blade, and the prince will pay you whatever you ask.” Tolya told them.

“But I like the sound of that,” Jesper said.

“I assume same goes for you?” Zoya asked Kaz.

“I’d welcome the chance to help your prince spend his country’s money.”

Nina quickly expressed how instead of kruge she wanted someone released from Hellgate. Zoya decided to poke fun at Nina for her attraction, but y/n nudged her arm to quiet her. Nina had told y/n of Matthias, the Fjerdan she had fallen for before she came to Ketterdam. She admired Nina’s determination to free him.

“The offer is the offer,” Tolya said. “And Prince Nikolai is a man of his word.”

“But we need to go now,” Zoya told them.

y/n looked to Kaz, who was scanning over them. His eyes lingered on her for a long moment before he pocketed the document.

“It’s settled,” he said. “We’re in.”

The group dispersed quickly after to begin preparing. y/n watching Kaz walk away. When he disappeared upstairs, she sighed.

“Well something’s going on with you two,” Tolya said suddenly.

“Excuse me?” y/n said.

“You and Brekker.”

“It’s nothing.”

Tolya hummed as if he didn’t believe her.

“I haven’t been here long, but I can sense the tension between you two.” He slid into the seat that Zoya had vacated and tilted his head at her. “What happened?”

Despite being much larger than her, he did not come across as intimidating. y/n felt herself relax.

“You said that Nik told you about me. Well, I’ve never talked about my family. But when Nik was in town as Sturmhond not long ago, he made inquiries about me. Kaz demanded answers I wasn’t ready to give.” She sighed. “He implied that he couldn’t trust me.”

Tolya nodded slowly.

“Have you tried talking to him?” he asked.

“Kaz is unbelievably stubborn.”

“And if Nikolai’s stories have revealed anything, I believe you are too.” y/n chuckled. “So why haven’t you told him?” y/n paused and looked at him. Tolya offered a small smile. “Perhaps the first step in receiving trust is showing it? Someone always has to take the first step.”

y/n watched Kaz from the doorway of his room. He was going through various maps and documents spread out over his desk. She knew that he knew she was there. Somehow he always knew. Nonetheless, she knocked on the doorframe.

“Yes?” Kaz said.

“We need to talk.”

He barely glanced at her.

“It’ll have to wait.”

“No, Kaz. We need to talk now. We can’t keep working like this and you know it.”

He huffed and looked at her as she stepped into the room, shutting the door behind her. He leaned back against his desk.

“What is it?” he asked. “In case you’ve already forgotten, we have to leave for Shu Han soon.”

“I haven’t forgotten. But if this plan works, you need to know the truth.”

“About?”

“Me.” She waited for him to make a quip or dismissal, but received none. So, she took a deep breath. “My real name is y/n Lantsov. I’m the third child of King Alexander and Queen Tatiana. I never made my society debut because once it was discovered that I was Grisha, I was taken to the Little Palace. From then on I was raised with the intent of identifying as Grisha, not a Lantsov.

“As a result, my parents basically forgot I existed. My eldest brother barely spoke to me as it was, so I was only truly close with my other brother. I wasn’t allowed to see him. Kirigan wanted there to be little to no reminders of our pasts so that we could separate ourselves from the otkazat’sya.”

She paused and looked outside. Ketterdam was bustling with activity, both legal and illegal, just as it always was. Ketterdam never slept. 

“Early on, Nik and I would sneak out at night to meet. We were children and would rather play than train and learn. Nik loved to play pretend. We had found an old boat and we’d be sailors. I’d use my powers to steer us. He’d call himself Sturmhond with the distinction that he was a privateer, not a pirate.

“But we eventually got caught. I was disciplined by my instructors and put through more rigorous training. More so than some of the others. At first I thought it was because I had snuck out, but time went on and I was still pushed harder. My powers are no where near Zoya’s level. I doubt even an amplifier could get me there. Unfortunately, it took me too long to learn why that was.

“Kirigan wanted me pushed because of my background. He was… almost giddy about the fact that I was a Lantsov. I started noticing his power plays against my family. When he would visit the Grand Palace, I was among his small entourage of Grisha. He would give me special tasks when we visited, as if flaunting the fact that I was under his command instead of my parents.

“One day, while a group of us were traveling, we were attacked by Fjerdans. Drüskelle. They ambushed us, their goal to bring us to the Ice Court for a supposed trial. But we knew better so we fought back.” y/n took a deep breath to calm herself and force back the memories. “When I realized I was the last one standing, I used my powers to knock the remaining Fjerdans unconscious. I couldn’t kill them, despite the fact that they had just killed my friends.

“But as I stood there, I realized that I was alone. For the first time in years, I was by myself. I realized that there was nothing tying me down in that moment, so I fled. I went to the nearest port and stowed away. I ended up here and chose to make a new life for myself. One where no one knew who I was, where I would have more freedom than I could have imagined. Then I met you. And you know the rest.”

Silence fell over the room. y/n didn’t want to admit it but she was nervous how Kaz would react. She could feel him watching her, staring holes into her back.

After a minute, she felt the air shift and heard Kaz push himself off the desk. He slowly walked toward her, cane thumping at his side. She continued to stare outside even as he came to stand next to her.

“So Sturmhond is the prince,” he said.

y/n almost wanted to scoff - of course that was what he chose to say first - but she refrained.

“Yes. Tolya confirmed it for me.”

“And when he came to Ketterdam and inquired about you, it was because he thought you were dead.”

She shrugged.

“I suppose so. I don’t know what got reported to the king or Kirigan after the ambush. At some point, I stopped caring. It wasn’t my problem anymore.” She looked down. “Guess I was kidding myself. It’s hard to bury your past.”

Kaz huffed.

“Not if you bury it somewhere no one will ever look.”

“And I thought no one would look in Ketterdam,” y/n said, finally looking at him. “The Darkling never left Ravka and I had no idea where my brother was. I hadn’t seen him in years. I didn’t even know he had gone to serve in the military until he had been gone for three months.”

Kaz studied her for a long minute. y/n wished (not for the first time and certainly not the last) that she could read him.

“When we retrieve the neshyenyer and go to Ravka to deliver it, what will you do?” he asked. “I have no doubt we’ll run into your brother at some point.”

y/n sighed.

“I don’t know. I suppose I should talk to him at the very least. He deserves that.”

“And after?”

She shrugged.

“I’ll figure it out when I get to it.” She looked him in the eye. She knew that her answer probably left him unsatisfied but it was the best she could offer in the moment. “What about you?”

“Me?”

“Last week you said that my past would tell you whether or not you could trust me. Now you know. What’s your verdict?”

Kaz’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he scanned her over. She refused to look away. Finally, he nodded.

“I trust you,” he said. “You’ve got our backs.” He stepped back, breaking eye contact with her so that he could gather various things off his desk. “Now finish gathering what you need. We leave for Shu Han in an hour.”

[muxas-world]

what’s the 2023 lore?

There's not more lore is more little things that my but mostly other roquez shippers/scholarships perception that Marc got a change in tone when speaking about Valentino... see, if you look back, especially 2021-22, he was very strong in having a consistent narrative about Vale and their rivalry. Examples include saying in an interview that with Joaquín Sánchez, where he spoke a little bit in detail about 2015, how Vale kicked him, how young he was, and how they tried to keep a relationship but after 2018 it became impossible because Valentino didn’t help or want to. So, Marc wanted nothing to do with Vale; it was a divorce. In 2022, the same discourse continued in his documentary and interviews. He wanted nothing to do with Vale in terms of fixing the relationship because Vale had no respect for him. In his documentary, he says the famous phrases, "everything started at the ranch, maybe he got mad because I broke his record," "I wouldn't do that to a 22-year-old." His mom says she took down their posters and minibikes of Vale. So, the discourse was that Marc is finally over that and wants nothing to do with Valentino...

In 2023, the discourse changes (not that he is saying he wants to be friends, fix the relationship, etc., but for sure he has at least stopped answering in such a stone-cold way). I think the biggest proof of that is the DAZN doc-ep where they show him photos, and one of them is with Vale, and he says, "they were some beautiful years." The most important part is when he is asked if he would like to have dinner with him: "I can't answer that because it doesn't depend on me." (Wait, yes, he is still being cautious, and maybe you can interpret that as him making Vale seem like the one who doesn't want to fix things and that he is the bad one. Like, yes, that's an interpretation, but that's the thing—he changed his tone. Now it is no longer a bad time of his life; it is beautiful, and he doesn't mind fixing things. The tone is different.) The biggest question for me is why??? He doesn't need to do that from a PR perspective. He did so well putting a narrative about what happened in 2015 and the young boy from that time, etc. He didn't and doesn't need to appear more calm about Valentino because the people who hate on him because of the incidents with Rossi are going to continue to hate him, and people who like him or don't mind him already have their ears full with his narrative from 2022. So, I don't get the change of tone. But again, maybe I'm delusional and pointing out things that are not there. Also, disclaimer, I was not here before 2023, so all I know are articles and videos from before, so I could be wrong 🙏🏼

[coochiequeens]

"We want justice,” doctors chanted in Kolkata, waving handwritten signs that read, “No safety, no service!”

16 Aug 2024

Indian doctors have called for a nationwide shutdown of hospital services as public fury over the rape and murder of a trainee medic in the eastern city of Kolkata last week mounts.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the country’s largest grouping of medics with 400,000 members, said the 24-hour shutdown would be implemented on Saturday, affecting most hospital departments except for essential services.

The shutdown comes after thousands of people took to the streets in several cities to express their outrage at the rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor, whose brutalised body was found on August 9 at Kolkata’s state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

On Friday, large protests were held in various cities – including Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state, Mumbai in the west and Hyderabad in southern India – demanding justice and better security at medical campuses and hospitals.

“We want justice,” doctors chanted in Kolkata, waving handwritten signs that read, “No safety, no service!”

Demonstrators held banners calling for accountability as they gathered near parliament in New Delhi.

“Doctors, especially women are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession. It is for the authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses,” the IMA said in a statement issued on Thursday on X.

Doctors hold posters and shout slogans during a protest condemning the rape and murder of the trainee doctor, at a medical college in Ahmedabad, western India, on August 16 [Amit Dave/Reuters]

Multiple medical unions in both government and private systems have backed the strike.

Doctors in government hospitals across several states on Monday had halted elective services “indefinitely” in protest.

Indian media have reported that the murdered doctor was found in the teaching hospital’s seminar hall, suggesting she had gone there for a brief rest during a long shift.

An autopsy confirmed sexual assault. Doctors say the circumstances of the rape point to the vulnerability of medics left without proper protection and facilities.

Though police have detained a man who worked at the hospital helping people navigate busy queues, state government officers have been accused of mishandling the case.

On Wednesday night, the hospital where the trainee doctor was killed was attacked. Police did not identify who was behind the rampage, but said they have arrested 19 people so far.

Little has changed

There were more than 31,000 reported rapes in India in 2022, the latest year for which data is available, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The gang rape and murder in 2012 of a young woman on a bus in Delhi, northern India, led to nationwide protests and outrage over the country’s failure to tackle sexual violence against women.

Since 2012, the government has brought in sweeping changes to the criminal justice system, including tougher sentences and the death penalty for repeat offenders.

Conviction rates for rape ranged between 27-28 percent from 2018-2022, according to NCRB data.

The definition of rape has also been widened to include non-penetrative acts and the age threshold for rape trials lowered so 16-year-olds can be tried as adults.

But campaigners say little has changed despite the tougher laws.

Criminal lawyer Rebecca M John, who has represented many rape victims, said some rapists still believe they can get away with their crimes.

“One of the factors would be the absence of fear of the law,” she said.

Many cases of crimes against women also go unreported because of the stigma surrounding sexual violence and a lack of faith in the police.