#it's the U and I sounds that i think are the most poignant

[sallysetoncore]

so i just caught up on doctor who with elsie (which is to say that they’ve already seen all the episodes, but i’m the one who was behind and had to catch up) and the good news is that now they can send me any meme, fanwork, whatever about it and i’ll Get It. bad news is that i think i’m going to spend the next two weeks just wandering around the apartment and mumbling to myself in various english (and similar/adjacent) dialects until i can pinpoint the characters’ voices.

[ash-and-starlight]

Books of 2023

the list nobody asked for <3

My reading habits had gone a bit stagnant in the past couple of years so this year i made the effort to engage in reading again and wow books really are good!! who would have thought! Sharing this year's book log with the small reviews i did while reading yeah i am That kind of list lover if u feel like being nosy, (and maybe even help mi crowdsource reading recs based on my likes 👀🤲?)

The left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula i Need to know your thoughts on omegaver- [gunshot] THAT ASIDE yeah. mrs Le Guin you've done it again. I can see why everyone got their brain chemistry altered by this book.

The Membranes - Chi Ta-Wei another brain chemistry altering book. would love to discuss it with a gender studies major lmao

Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie its a v atmospheric and poignant story, I know I would have loved it more if I was familiar with the rich religious/cultural background it draws from

The Masquerade Series - Seth Dickinson Crazy insane in the membrane about this series. one of the most compelling worldbuildings I've ever seen, and most importantly it features one of the most crazy wet pathetic scrunkly meow meow protagonists i've ever had the pleasure of reading about.

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides i liked the writing style of this book a lot! idk how well it holds up re: intersexuality topic, but its a very engaging read.

Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power - Jude Ellison, Sady Doyle The title says it all honestly, its a beautiful, thought provoking and engaging essay, spanning eras, pop culture phenomenons, and real life events on the topic of women and horror.

The cat who saved books - Sōsuke Natsukawa this was so cute and heartfelt, it will really make you go Ah Yes, this is Why we Love Books <333

The Locked Tomb Series - Tamsyn Muir now when people say there is a girl who is the cursed sacrifice of 2000 infants who falls in love with the sleeping embodiment of the soul of the Earth (barbie) and also another girl who is the only survivor of the aforementioned sacrifice and is. a Jesus metaphor? and also the two girls become one at some point. and every book is a different genre. and god is bisexual. and memes survived the nuclear apocalypse. I can just nod and say so true.

The Area X Trilogy - Jeff VanderMeer Rotating this series in the microwave of my mind at the speed of light it's soSO GOOD!! the movie doesn't even come close honestly u NEED to read the books. and then go touch grass and be aware of every strand in a completely new way.

The Dawn of Yangchen - F. C. Yee nice read! I was more invested in the worldbuilding crumbs than in the actual story lmao, I will forever think about the HEATED airball rivalry between the air temples and about the swt greetings / bethrotal armbands.

Inuit Stories of Being and Rebirth: Gender, Shamanism, and the Third Sex - Bernard Saladin d'Anglure starting w a disclaimer bc I feel like the topic of native colonization was ignored when it should have been way more prominent when talking about the context of where and when these testimonies were collected?? That aside it was very interesting and well put together, with first account testimonies of Inuit elders about their myths, lifestyles and beliefs.

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee i read the book after having seen the tv series (which i also rlly recommend). Very moving story about a family and its generations, from Korea under Japanese colonization to modern day America.

Her body and other parties - Carmen Maria Marchado sometimes I go about my day then I remember this book exists and stare at the wall for 30 minutes.

Dictionnaire de l'impossible - Didier Van Cauwelaert big miss. this collection of articles about "strange impossible phenomenons" sounded so quirky and interesting but i sure would have loved if the author hadnt so clearly picked a side. and also way too much church for my tastes.

He who Drowned the World - Shelley Parker Chan Im not even gonna speak about this one if you've followed me since july you know what pits of insanity and despair i'm in

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin Sometimes!! the book with pretty covers put in the "famous on socials" bookstore section!! are good!! It's about being othered it's about connection it's about diaspora it's about love and friendship and most of all it's about viddy games.

Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel reading this post-covid and learning it was written in 2017 was A TRIP. Psychic damage at every page. still feeling very normla.

The Mask of Apollo - Mary Renault Ugh i desperately wanted to like this book because the setup is so interesting and full of potential, but the end result was just. flat. flat story flat characters the plot focusing on the wrong things at the wrong times i was so DONE when i reached the end otz.

Babel - R. F. Kuang LOVED the worldbuilding in this, the "lost in translation" system of magic is one of the most interesting things ive ever read. I think theres something about the writing in general that didn't win me over completely?? but all in all a very good

Red Ocean - Han Song This sure is a Book. That i've Read. its so profundly strange and unlike anything ive come across that i dont even know what to feel about it. i think 90% of my confusion comes from Not Getting Cultural References so if someone has a "red ocean explained" essay plz send it my way bc i couldnt find one.

[billdenbrough]

also for all my starmora posting and texting if u have had to suffer that, the thing that struck me most when leaving gotg 3 was. nebula/mantis. like. obviously starmora was always gonna murder me and it DID and also rocket being the heart of the story was gonna fuck me up and it DID but the thing that absolutely blindsided me with how much it meant to me was nebulantis, especially because of that One Scene on the flying pyramid

but every scene built up to it!! like. starlord’s “she calls me star lord when she’s mad at me” met by mantis’ grumpy little “she’s always mad at everyone”, the way mantis complains to drax about how she can’t know things if nobody tells her after nebula (and gamora, but nebula is the one that makes her mad) yells at her about the spacesuits, the “why do you criticise everything? it’s a different sound” “uh, no it isn’t. [imitates mantis] eurgh, dying, eurgh, dumbass. it’s the same sound!”

and all of that leads to that moment on the ship, when nebula shoves drax and mantis yells at her that she doesn’t have the right to push him, and nebula fires back at her about always supporting weakness. and then mantis says the thing that has haunted me since watching lmao: “fine! i don’t care! i know you have to find fault in everyone else to feel better about yourself �� so find fault in me! but you don’t have the right to push him!”

and the way nebula just. stares at her. mantis saying he loves us and makes us laugh, how is that weakness? mantis saying he has sadness but he is the only of you who doesn’t hate himself. so i don’t care if he is stupid. LIKE. it just slams right into me i think bc her entire life, nebula’s value has been determined by her success. she never won against gamora, so she was tortured, pulled apart piece by piece, thanos always saying it was to help her get ‘better’. nebula who fulfils EVERY ROLE in the team—not so much emotional active support but caretaker, pilot, living weapon, ultimate defender, local robot—because that’s what she has to do to be worth keeping around. nebula, whose self-worth issues were built into her from childhood.

and here is mantis saying who cares that someone isn’t the best if they love you, if they make you laugh. who cares about strength when someone matters to you? what is strength to love? what is it?

and then, when rocket’s voice comes through the intercom and nebula stops still, swallows, says “rocket?” in that voice biting back all the emotions she doesn’t usually let herself express, and the camera pans to mantis looking at her. to mantis seeing nebula on the other side of grief, what it looks like for her to finally exhale this held breath she’s had, bc rocket was the only person she had for five years (“i’m family,” gamora says; “so is he,” nebula replies levelly), and he’s going to be okay. it’s this amazing one-two moment of two people who have been ostensibly teammates but really at odds the entire movie look at each other and really see each other, really understand what the other stands for, who they are. god!!!!

and then when drax and nebula form a little shield in front of mantis at the end when they’re all in the pit and mantis steps past them both, despite nebula’s protests. at the very end, when nebula decides to lead the city; this girl who is a weapon, laying down her arms to try give these little girls the childhood she never had. at the very end, when mantis strikes her own path—the girl who always ‘finds weakness in others and supports it’, leading her three companion beasts into the unknown universe, just to find herself.

and that last moment, when mantis says to all of them, “i love you all,” with that half beat before all, and she nods at nebula. it’s just. holy fuck. there were some real masterclasses in relationship dynamics and development in this film, but nebula & mantis were largely an undercurrent beneath the surface, but no less impactful, no less poignant for it. god. god

[edwinspaynes]

who do you think the dbda (the main four) would like the most and the least out of the tlh gang, and why?

who do you think the cat king's fav would be?

(hope u have a good day 🫶)

this is so amazingly fun because i'm currently writing a crossover fic about these characters! i've written some of their interactions, so i'll answer this ask with supplemental snippets from the case of the five half-angel curiousities!

edwin's favourites are alastair and cordelia.

cordelia, because she reminds him of niko in some ineffable way...

Edwin was fairly certain that the enchantment was either made by someone extremely stupid or extremely malicious, but he was not about to say that. “We know next to nothing as of now,” he said. “A good detective must assess all the facts before drawing conclusions. Luckily, I am good at that, as is the friend we are meeting.” “Friend?” Cordelia was smiling. “Yes. Niko. Do you recall when I told you that you were reminiscent of someone? I was speaking of her.” “She sounds lovely, then,” Cordelia laughed. Alastair rolled his eyes.

and alastair because they share a sense of humor and are gang on matthew sometimes for fun:

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Cordelia said. “Tell me the oddest thing about the world today, something that I’m unlikely to know.” Edwin considered this. “Have you ever been to a Primark?” “What is a Primark?” Cordelia’s voice was curious. “Ridiculously inexpensive clothing store. I am certainly fortunate that I can conjure up whatever outfit I wish with ghost magic; the living sell the lowest-quality things and get excited over them in a way that I simply cannot understand.” Alastair nodded along with him, a superior expression on his face.

(and later also because they have a lot of poignant conversations about, like, edwardian homosexuality...)

charles's favorite is thomas initially and he becomes close with matthew as well as thomas.

charles about thomas:

“Bet,” Charles said. “And also, I like the look of them. Especially the tall guy. Thomas. They’re all solid lads, don’t you think?” “I’m quite honestly concerned about their newly acquired feline friend,” Edwin mused, “but yes. They’re altogether inoffensive. The girl as well. I rather like her. She’s oddly charming.”

charles and matthew:

“I burned it to the ground, if you must know. My school, I mean,” Matthew said, deciding to leave out the fact that he had only made an impact within the South Wing. “Considering what you have just shared, perhaps you would like to know it. I ought to be ashamed, but I was thirteen. And am still rather proud of my ability to create explosives at such a tender age. Such takes far more analytical abilities than you might think.” “I know. I can make Molotov cocktails,” Charles said approvingly. Thomas spoke. “What’s that?”

niko gets along really well with cordelia

<3 :

“I think we should just call the ‘item that underwent factuari’ a ‘factuari,” Niko said. “Do not be silly,” Edwin chided, giving Niko an affected but pointed look. “Factuari is a verb, not a noun. You cannot change parts of speech simply out of personal conveience.” “I’m going to anyway,” Niko said, and because Edwin could not be mad at Niko, he smiled as when rolling his eyes. “I think I will, too,” Cordelia agreed, and Niko looked at her with an approving grin.

crystal immediately adores james, but unfortunately that's in an upcoming scene. they do have an entire chapter to themselves, though, with a little bit of cordelia.

as for the cat king, well, someone i love very much wants to learn how to pop into existence with a chandelier over his head... but i haven't written this chapter yet <3

and a bonus <3

“So,” Edwin said, “what year were you all born? I estimate that we’re likely around the same age, and am quite curious.” Cordelia clapped her hands. “I thought we may have lived during similar time frames as well.” She looked delighted. “I was born in 1886, and Alastair in 1884. I died in 1964; he and Thomas in 1965.” “Both of them?” Edwin asked curiously. “Do you know how some married couples expire within hours of each other?” Cordelia’s eyes were shining. “Well, both Alastair and I did, with James and Thomas. An odd coincidence, but…”

[pesterloglog]

Roxy Lalonde, Jade Harley, Calliope, Aradia Megido, Sollux Captor, Karkat Vantas, John Egbert, Gamzee Makara, Dave Strider, Rose Lalonde, Kanaya Maryam, Jane Crocker, Jake English

Candy, page 21

ROXY: thx everyone for joining us today

ROXY: we are gathered here to honor the memory of alternate universe jade

ROXY: alas we hardly knew her

ROXY: by which i mean we didnt know her at all

ROXY: cuz she fell out of the sky like a week ago and was already dead

ROXY: but i think that based on our long acquaintanceship with alive jade we can safely assume that she was totally rad

JADE: (ugh)

ROXY: so were all here to contemplate the vast cruelness of the universe that such radness was plucked in its prime

ROXY: psst callie the roses

CALLIOPE: oh, of coUrse!

CALLIOPE: pUrple roses traditionally represent love at first sight, however these roses are actUally red roses that we prepared Using a blUe dye.

CALLIOPE: the blUe rose is the most elUsive and mysterioUs of all flowers.

CALLIOPE: the combination of red and blUe in this context is meant to evoke the dUal natUre of death, in that there is nothing more mysterioUs and impossible to comprehend than the vast void of the afterlife, bUt also there is nothing that makes Us appreciate the life and and love that we already have than the mystery of death.

CALLIOPE: while death is terrifying, there is always joy to be foUnd among the sorrow. each time we witness death, we fall in love with the important people in oUr lives all over again.

ROXY: woah callie thats a beautiful metaphor

CALLIOPE: aw, thank yoU roxy. u_u

ROXY: dont sound so humble it is v v deep

CALLIOPE: i jUst can’t take credit for external inspiration.

ROXY: lmao cmon callie youre the literal muse

CALLIOPE: yes, bUt yoU’re...

ARADIA: oh no did we miss the entire corpse party

ARADIA: i hope not

SOLLUX: yes that w0uld be *such* a tragedy.

ARADIA: oh shush you

ARADIA: the tragedy is what i dont want to miss!

KARKAT: ARADIA?

KARKAT: HOLY SHIT... SOLLUX?!

SOLLUX: hey l0ser. it’s been a l0ng time.

KARKAT: IT’S BEEN A...

KARKAT: IT’S BEEN A “LONG TIME”?!

KARKAT: IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY TO ME?! IT’S BEEN MORE THAN A FUCKING HUMAN DECADE!

KARKAT: I THOUGHT YOU GUYS WERE DEAD.

ARADIA: no i wasnt dead

KARKAT: NO, I MEAN LIKE

KARKAT: “GONE FOREVER”??

KARKAT: I THOUGHT THAT YOU TWO LITERALLY DIDN’T EXIST ANYMORE!

KARKAT: OR AT THE VERY LEAST WERE TRAPPED IN A DEAD UNIVERSE PERPETUALLY COLLAPSING INTO ITS OWN ASSHOLE.

SOLLUX: 0h. n0pe.

KARKAT: FINE!

KARKAT: WALTZ IN HERE WITH NO EXPLANATION WHATSOEVER. SOUNDS ABOUT FUCKING RIGHT.

KARKAT: IT’S NOT LIKE YOUR SUDDEN AND UNEXPLAINED PRESENCE IS ANY LESS OF A JOKE THAN THIS “FUNERAL” WE’RE HAVING.

KARKAT: I MEAN, WHY STOP AT SOLLUX AND ARADIA?

KARKAT: MAYBE FUCKING NEPETA IS ABOUT TO POUNCE FROM BEHIND THAT GROTESQUE STATUE OF THE HUMAN SUFFERER T-POSING OVER THERE.

KARKAT: NEPETA, ARE YOU THERE? COME ON OUT! THE CORPSE PARTY WOULDN’T BE THE SAME WITHOUT YOU!

ROXY: SHOOSH everyone!

ROXY: there will be a reception with cake n candy after the service

ROXY: u all can have ur poignant reunions then

ROXY: before we unite in tearful togetherness we gotta unite in tearful loss

JOHN: wait... there’s more?

JOHN: i thought that nice speech callie made was, like...

JOHN: pretty much the funeral.

ROXY: lol no

ROXY: callie and i were just gettin started

JADE: oh my god...

ROXY: anyway where was i?

CALLIOPE: how the infinite mystery of death makes Us appreciate the love we have!

ROXY: right

ARADIA: so i see you managed to get out of the fridge

GAMZEE: i DiDn’T jUsT gEt OuT oF tHe FrIdGe, I wAs SeT fReE sIsTeR!

ARADIA: i see

GAMZEE: wHeN tHe DoOr Of ThAt FrIdGe pOpPeD oPeN iT wAs LikE i Be AlL sEeIn ThE lIgHt AnD sHiT.

SOLLUX: well yeah

SOLLUX: that’s what happens when s0me0ne 0pens a d00r t0 a t0tally dark encl0sure.

SOLLUX: fuck, i can’t believe y0u’re still this stupid.

SOLLUX: 0h wait i can.

GAMZEE: nO bRoThEr, It’S a MoThErFuCkIn MeTaPhOr.

GAMZEE: A mEtApHoR fOr ThE mIrAcLe Of rEdEmPtIoN!

ARADIA: redemption

GAMZEE: yEaH cHeCk It ThE fUcK oUt.

GAMZEE: i DiD My MoThErFuCkInG rEdEmPtIoN aRc. :o)

ARADIA: is that so

GAMZEE: i BeEn DoInG aLl KiNdS oF gOoD dEeDs At ThE lOsT mOtHeRfUcKeRs.

GAMZEE: pReAcHiNg ThE hOlY wOrD. mAkInG oUt WiTh OrPhAns.

ARADIA: oh hmm

SOLLUX: isn’t it “kissing 0rphans”?

ARADIA: let him talk sollux

GAMZEE: i EvEn GoT a HeAlThY mUtUaLlY fUlLfIlLiNg kIsMeSiS gOiN oN wItH tHaT fOxY hUmAn BrOaD uP fRoNt.

ARADIA: its so nice that you believe all that gamzee

ARADIA: i think i can honestly say

ARADIA: im reasonably happy for you?

ROXY: omg quiet in the back already!

ROXY: were tryin to have a beautiful and solemn proceeding up here

ARADIA: oh im sorry

ARADIA: i do agree that its a beautiful corpse party

ARADIA: but i think it would be even MORE beautiful if we could you know

ARADIA: actually see the corpse?

KARKAT: OH MY GOD ARADIA, WHY ARE YOU STILL LIKE THIS?

ROXY: oh lol ur right i cant believe that slipped my mind

ROXY: hey jake a lil help?

ROXY: im like hella pregnant here and shouldnt be doing any heavy lifting

JADE: ughhh...

DAVE: yo babe its ok

JADE: easy for you to say! youve got practice with this kind of thing!

DAVE: just remember its not actually your corpse

DAVE: i mean technically it is

DAVE: it both is and isnt your corpse at the same time

DAVE: which yeah the longer you think about it like that the more fucked up it gets

DAVE: but also when you objectively think about it the combined multiverse is a huge tangle of interrelated but totally random events and its only chance that this specific life is the one you ended up living

DAVE: you and that corpse could have just as easily switched places

DAVE: but also that would never actually happen because its not how paradox space works

DAVE: anyway my point is that nothing really matters so chill out

JADE: um, i love you with all my heart dave but youre REALLY not helping right now

ARADIA: now this is more like it

JADE: i cant look...

DAVE: oh

DAVE: here

JADE: uhh... what... are you doing??

DAVE: emotional support yo

ROSE: Dave.

DAVE: what

DAVE: id like to see you do better

KANAYA: Me Too Actually

ROSE: I’m sorry, but I’m not the one whose questionable consolation tactics are on trial here.

CALLIOPE: this isn’t a trial! it’s a fUneral!

JOHN: haha, they’ve got a point rose, you gotta admit.

ROSE: A point about what?

JOHN: um...

JOHN: you’re not great at consolation? just saying.

KANAYA: Oh You Dont Know The Half Of It

ROSE: Excuse all of you, but I’m an excellent advice giver.

JADE: umm nobody said anything about advice giving rose...

JOHN: oh yeah, the advice is top notch.

JOHN: but you’re kind of a weird person to like... cry in front of?

JOHN: no offense.

ROSE: What??

JOHN: the first time i ever got upset in front of rose irl, she put her arms around me and it was so awkward that i had to ask her if she was hugging me or reaching for something on the shelf behind me.

CALLIOPE: everyone, we’re getting rather off track...

ROSE: I was doing both for your information.

DAVE: the first time rose hugged me it was such a disaster we didnt make eye contact for like a week after

KANAYA: Jade Come Here I Shall Hold You In My Arms

JADE: thank you kanaya at least ONE of you knows how to treat a lady in distress!

JANE: Agreed. I’ve always felt that Kanaya has done an exemplary job of providing a model for compassionate, empathetic behavior, which others of her kind would do well to follow.

KARKAT: WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?

JANE: I’m sorry, Mr. Vantas. Do you have another unsolicited political opinion you’d like to share with everyone?

KARKAT: CONSIDERING THE SHIT GEYSER THAT JUST SHOT OUT OF YOUR IGNORANCE CANNON, I’D SAY MY OPINION IS PRETTY FUCKING SOLICITED RIGHT ABOUT NOW.

CALLIOPE: EVERYONE!

CALLIOPE: be qUiet!!!!!

CALLIOPE: please. roxy gathered yoU all here for a reason.

CALLIOPE: at least listen Until the end.

CALLIOPE: after that yoU can argUe all you want.

ROXY: look everyone im not dumb ok even tho i act like it sometimes

ROXY: i know whats goin on here

ROXY: that were all drifting apart

ROXY: and i know thats just a normal part of growing up and making new families

ROXY: and i guess learning that some people have unbridgeable divides on political stuff

ROXY: i can accept that things arent gonna always be the same as when we first met

ROXY: specially with dirk gone

ROXY: damn...

ROXY: even though its been more than a year i still feel it like he died yesterday

ROXY: what callie said earlier about death being mysterious and full of love is true

ROXY: i dont know if i ever would have gotten up the courage to marry john if dirk hadnt died

ROXY: sometimes i think about what it would have been like if he was still here

ROXY: i think we can all agree that if dirk didnt kill himself there would be some big differences in the lives of people here in this room

ROXY: i cant say if theyd be good or bad

ROXY: maybe when it comes to this kind of thing... like

ROXY: infinite probability and multiple universes and shit

ROXY: good and bad dont matter

ROXY: theres no better or worse just different

ROXY: even with dead jade here whos to say that the world she came from was actually worse than ours?

ROXY: she probably died a heroic death doin something incredible

ROXY: we probably only have the great lives we do right now because of her sacrifice

ROXY: the universal odds of us all being alive and healthy and together like this are so infinitesimally low that its literally impossible for us to understand with our limited linear consciousness

ROXY: isnt that amazing??

ROXY: so even if this is the last time were all ever in the same room like this

ROXY: i think its just incredible we could be here in the first place

ROXY: out of a sempiternal number of possibilities we are the only incarnation of this exact specific moment in all of existence

ROXY: i think that we should all look around and be super grateful for what we

ROXY: wh... what we

ROXY: wh... wha...

ROXY: whoah fuck

CALLIOPE: roxy? are yoU okay?

ROXY: of course im not ok i just WENT INTO FREAKING LABOR

JOHN: oh my god!

JOHN: oh my god!

JOHN: it’s happening, oh my god!!

JOHN: ...

JOHN: oh my GOD!!!

ROXY: omg john are you just gonna keep shouting oh my god or are you GONNA HELP YOUR WIFEY OUT

JOHN: OH MY GOD!!!!!

JOHN: doing ok there, sweetheart?

ROXY: ugh whyd i let you put this thing inside me

JOHN: don’t worry roxy! we’ll get it out as soon as we can!

JOHN: er, by “it,” i mean our child.

JOHN: we probably shouldn’t be talking about him in dehumanizing terms before he’s even born, huh?

JOHN: seems like kind of a bad omen?

ROXY: omg.......... john SHUT UP

ROXY: i need like six gallons of demerol STAT

ROXY: lets GOOO

JOHN: right! going!

CALLIOPE: wait! i...

CALLIOPE: i woUld like to be there as well!

JOHN: hurry up then!

JADE: AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

JAKE: By jove!

DAVE: jesus fuck

CALLIOPE: jade! yoU...

CALLIOPE: yoU’re alive!

CALLIOPE: or, Um,

CALLIOPE: yoU’re not dead!

JADE: i am not jade.

CALLIOPE: then who...

CALLIOPE: who are yoU?

JADE: you know who i am, calliope.

JADE: we met once, years ago.

JADE: you were dead, and so was i.

KANAYA: This Certainly Is A Turn Of Events

ARADIA: ill say

ARADIA: at first i was underwhelmed with the proceedings i have to admit

ARADIA: but that was quite the twist

ARADIA: this may be one of the best death related celebrations ive ever seen :)

SOLLUX: t0p five at least.

JADE: you’re undoubtedly surprised.

JADE: but these events were not unpredictable at all.

JADE: this is exactly what i have been expecting to happen.

JADE: and while i cannot say the same thing for the rest of you,

JADE: i, at least, am exactly where i am meant to be.

JAKE: Hey uh.

JAKE: Not to come off as a total idiot here but...

JAKE: Who were you supposed to be again?

JADE: my name is calliope.

JADE: i am the muse of space.

JADE: and i have entered this body to protect your world.

[narwhalandchill]

yknow as much as the (deserved) inazuma backlash has clearly changed hoyos writing for the better i do think there v much is one completely wrong lesson theyve taken from it and thats incorporating story quests into the AQ sequence (and specifically how theyve never attempted it again)

the concept itself was Never inherently bad. in fact it unironically has a ton of potential bc you could lessen the need for sudden character specific exposition in the AQ AND pull off way more high-stakes and timeline-specific plotlines in the SQs by ensuring players will experience it at the intended place and time.

the issue was that they introduced a bleak depressing inazuma in the middle of a fucking civil war and then went omg AQ on pause!!! lets go to a festival with ayaka and u will be her first friend ever OwO yoimiyas is at least vastly better written and actually involves the VH and sakoku decrees so its always been a favorite of mine but even then im sure theres things worth criticism in there its just been 2 years so i cant analyze it off the top of my head. but the greatest offender has always been the way ayakas comes with such a complete tonal dissonance it just takes you out of the atmosphere they spent the entire act I building up.

and it rly makes me sad bc i Know hoyo took the backlash about interrupted pacing and disjointed tone as "ok story quests bad as AQ requirements" when its like. no the one you wrote just sucked

AQ incorporated story quests need to have a damn good reason to be mandatory at that specific point and while its far from perfect i DO think yoimiyas fulfills that! but ayakas doesnt! at all! and like im realizing the issue is also in how genshins made it a standard that a character must receive a story quest Instantly on release. so i guess ayakas had to be in between acts I and II for plot reasons but like. that being the case then the story quest itself shouldve focused on a completely different theme as opposed to her very predictable tropey personal problems that werent even explored properly imo. like im sure plenty of depth and nuance in her characterization was lost in translation but i almost cry laughed the first time the restaurant vendor went "oh ayaka is lonely because she is so perfect that no one sees her as a friend but instead an aspiration" like what in the 3rd grader writing mary sue self insert fic tarnation 💀 you couldve worded that exact same concept in 12 different ways to make it actually sound poignant and you did That SHAHSKSJSKDLJH

(and a quick addition before i get accused of being a blind hater hater lmao. here goes: "the burdens of miss ayakas position as the public face of the kamisato make it difficult for her to shed the mask of practiced perfection. i think people struggle to see her as a person whod enjoy simple things in life like friendship just like everyone else when theyre so used to viewing her as an unreachable figurehead." there. now its way more clearly nuanced. this took me 3 minutes and is far from any fluid writing yet. the difference is staggering)

but like. as a result this ambiguous timeline limbo most story quests end up falling into is genuinely a shame bc i do think theres potential in attempting the ayaka n yoi thing again but with characters for whom it makes sense and actually enhances the AQ experience by necessitating it. and yeah yeah ik genshin wants to be casual friendly so they dont want to force ppl to do quests they dont like for AQ so its unrealistic to expect them to ever try it out again but man

as long as they pick the right place and time and characters for it they could massively alleviate the issue of some story quests contents ending up feeling like somewhat empty fluff bc they cant assume what point a player will be in the main plot could be so they lack actually impactful lore and or character beats.

obviously im not a writer at hoyo and idk how much backlash the ayaya/yoi situation got them but like. idk. taking the lesson "never do anything like inazuma again" isnt rly what id consider the full picture. inazuma does suck and has clunky moments throughout but like in 2.0 people were still hype! inazuma had good ideas and concepts and attempted sth that couldve been great the issue isnt inazuma bad on all levels its that they never delivered its potential and 2.1 was an incredible letdown.

[acornered]

Which of your OCs is most like yourself? And which is most dissimilar?

And if you're not in the mood for introspection which OC do you think your potential fandom would misinterpret so bad?

Thank u so much for this and also I will answer both because I love talking about my baby children!!

1. This is gonna sound like a cop out but I don't think any particular character is most like me because I use my own experiences to inform all of them. I may give one my trauma, another my sexual hangups, a different one my sense of humor, and this other one my gender feelings. For me it really is like having children-- they are all reflections of me while at the same time being their own complete people. I will say though, for me the most difficult character to write is Adele, my vampire character. Being centuries old lends itself to a perspective on the passage of time, history and mortality that I cannot/will not ever comprehend, so I think she'd win most dissimilar to me by default.

2. Amantheá Erauger would easily win most likely to be misinterpreted/canceled by fandom. Not only is she a morally grey woc, but she's also significantly older than her love interest, and an abuse victim with abusive tendencies. I wrote Ama with all of her moral complexity because trauma, healing, redemption, and breaking abusive cycles are poignant and important themes to me, and I want my story to explore them meaningfully. That being said, as much as I try to write her with integrity, it's hard not to see the shadow of the discourse her actions will create lurking in my periphery.

[a-moth-to-the-light]

Songs of the Summer, 2023: #11

[intro & rules]

There It Goes by Maisie Peters (June 23, 2023)

i’m at the library again.  i keep being here—sue me.  i love it and i know exactly why—  (can’t explain why i love you, but the library? well, that’s easy.) you see, it’s not-hospital today, and it was not-hospital a year ago,  and my mom and my doctor and i think that’s wonderful.  also, i like the windows here,  and the little green-apple-round seats where i would bring my lunch  every day  forever and ever… or at least for tomorrow.  today, i think i’ll just head home.  i pack up, take inventory of my bag, and wonder if i’ll always want to keep sticky notes around,  buried in the bottom of its front pocket. 

--

“There It Goes” truly found me at the perfect time. As explanation for its place on my list, I offer this story: I listened to “There It Goes” for the first time while walking through my old neighborhood at sunset. This neighborhood is the place I hold the most memories of; my old house saw me start my first journal, get my first depression diagnosis, meet my best friends. I don’t live there anymore, but going back to walk in the area, which I occasionally have reason to do, is a bit of an earth-shaking experience (think: MUNA’s “Around U”). So imagine what it feels like to run into a song like “There It Goes” for the first time, to be stunned by a line like the way I loved you, I will not be embarrassed of that, in a place like that, at a time when the world is bathed in golden light and the sky painted with surreal, electric pinks. Fucking transcendent.

But "There It Goes" is a standout all on its own, too. I was motivated to listen to it in the first place because this post described it as “perfect closure”, and they couldn’t be more right. The lyrics are cathartic, and Maisie Peters performs them so earnestly, with so much tenderness, that I feel her hope, too (the way she sings I sleep through the night breaks my heart and puts it back together again in just a few seconds). I brought it up a little bit in my “History of Man” review, but I want to spend some time just talking about what an engaging performer Peters is, just through vocals alone, and how well her voice and her lyrics blend (as the first post I linked puts it, "her lyrics are so perfectly her"). So much emotion is stored in just the way she sounds, the way she uses the wispiness of her voice, and her performance in this song is particularly impactful. The feelings of "There It Goes" remind me of some of my favorite Taylor Swift songs—her soft, lullaby-ish ones like “Afterglow”, “The Archer”, “Daylight”, “Labyrinth”, and “This Love”—so I would definitely recommend checking this one out if you're a fan of any of those :)

I have one qualm with this song, though: “There It Goes” is produced like a much cheesier, much less poignant, ballad than it really is. It’s fine—it’s listenable and still worth returning to, especially the intro + the cool, hollow-sounding percussion—but lyrics & a performance this good deserved much better production, something less jumbled and chaotic (especially in the chorus). For all the songs higher than this one on my list, though, maybe because I listened to them more or (probably) because I think their production is better, “There It Goes” is really how I’d like to remember the summer of 2023—it communicates this belief in the goodness of life and existence and having a future that I’d like to think of, and that I’d like to to feel, too, when I look back on those months. And, if my life ever flashes before my eyes one day, I’d like to look back and hear this song, the soundtrack of long walks and breathtaking sunsets and feeling, as Maisie Peters put it, so far from the cliffs. 

[maxxmmorg]

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There are multiple pathways and going the wrong way transports you straight back to the entrance. Create a free account to unlock the full magic and wonder of Newgrounds Zelda - Lost woods remix 2017 Share Download this song. Tip: Even thought the whole song is about 12 seconds long, and I think 8 beats long, the secret is reversing the main chords. The Lost Woods is called such for a reason. Zombies in the Hyrule field without a shield Now to deal my hookshot! Din’s fire looking hot!įairies what I should’ve got Man, these hearts are not enough Make it rain with stormy songs Owl is talking way too long The tune of the remix comes from a game called Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and it's a really great game. Ganondorf ain’t got this swag Light arrows go in his ass Watch me pass On my ride Got my Epona tonight Look at all my clothes, you say I’m flossing Red, Blue, Green to slay the bosses Dubstep Zelda lost woods Remix by legatusrj. Always straight to the point - no blind walkthrough.

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[geoffrard]

please tell me more about this geoff/gerard proof 👀

anon how much time do u have

thought about being jokingly tinhatting with my response to this but i dont actually think they full fucked or whatever. so instead i'm just gonna dump several thousand words of an earnest attempt to outline why geoff and gerard deserve the same treatment received by other legendary canonical friendships like bert & gerard, mikey & pete, etc etc

also i caught the riot fest covid so idk how comprensible i will be. and idk how much sense some of this will make if you don't already have, like, rudimentary knowledge about geoff rickly's start in the hardcore scene in new brunswick, nj, so obligatory plug of the thursday primer that me and nic @raytorosaurus put out a while ago.

but tl;dr, geoff rickly and gerard way were drawn to each other literally from the beginning. since then, neither have left the other's orbit. they are legit cosmically connected narrative foils who could have been each other's closest confidant but never have been more than incredibly meaningful people to the other due to instance after instance of wrong place, wrong time.

i'll do my best to sum up some of the most poignant moments in their over twenty-year-long friendship, but nic and i are drafting several other posts that more diligently delineate the connections between thursday and mcr in their overlapping, mirrored careers and similarities/divergences in their goals/approaches as musicians.

so anyway despite what you might have assumed from the story that goes around where geoff heard gerard and mikey (badly) playing vampires at the eyeball house and wasn't impressed, i believe that at that point they'd already been friends for a while.

this is how gerard recalls the moment he met geoff:

Way: I remember it super vividly. Do you remember? I was walking out of the record shop that Alex [Saavedra, Eyeball Records] worked at on Kearny Avenue and you were standing against a wall wearing a black t-shirt. You were rail skinny and you looked like you were dying and you were so pale with this jet black hair. Rickly: My vegan lifestyle was not agreeing with me. Way: It looked like the sun was killing him. [long pause] And I thought he was super cool. (from their interview with vice in 2015)

long pause and i thought he was super cool.....like....

this is what geoff looked like back then btw. im guessing it was around 2000/early 2001 that they met since thats the outer limits of geoff's black hair goth days

(source)

gerard designed shirts for bands in the scene, including this one for thursday, probably done around 2001 when the dove became the main symbol associated with thursday. at this point mikey was a regular at the eyeball house but gerard was still hiding away in his house, but would always talk about his brother.

Geoff: "I knew Mikey from parties at the eyeball house. I liked Mikey a lot, and he was like, 'you're gonna love my brother Gee (he called him Gee all the time), Gerard, he's the best comic book artist, he's always at home, just working on comic books.' So I was like yeah, I wanna meet this kid, you know, I wanna make comic books with him, you know, that sounds awesome!" (source)

after that geoff kept asking mikey when his brother would come down to the eyeball house, because he'd loved comics since he was a kid, but he was too shy to verbalize that, and his love of comics wasn't something he'd ever actually shared with anyone other than his grandmother, who had just passed away, but he heard that this quiet guy who'd sometimes hang out with the scene's resident kid brother was this amazing comic book artist, and geoff decided that gerard was a person he wanted to know.

So like they were literally talking about writing a comic book together: geoff would write and gerard would draw. but they never were able to spend that much time together. thursday found massive and unanticipated success in late 2001 when understanding in a car crash started playing on mtv nonstop and gerard was still a hermit for the most part but had started to piece together the band that would become my chemical romance.

so then blah blah blah the story where gerard and mikey introduced the idea of their band to geoff we've all heard it. i linked it above but you can read the excerpt from dan ozzi's sellout here if you aren't familiar with the details already.

and that story ends with geoff listening to their demo and realizing that this little band actually had something. but i firmly believe that geoff loved the scene and was so compelled by gerard's art and wanted to collaborate creatively with him that he would have been willing to do it regardless of if he came around to their music or not.

geoff said this in a podcast in 2018:

"Gerard is sort of like... when he's not sort of hiding out in his house somewhere, he's actually so charming and personable. There's a reason why I was so drawn to him, and that he's, like, a superstar."

obviously we'll never know, because geoff was so compelled by the music that he played their demo to death in the tour van and then took the only two weeks that thursday had off in one of the busiest years of their career while in the midst of a super contentious legal affair with their record label to produce bullets.

okay now that i am looking at what i have written so far i look like an insane person and that is okay but i think that i will save the rest for another longer post about the fated careers of mcr and thursday. but i feel that i have done my job by just giving you this taste. more to come but their friendship literally so expansive and detailed (in ways that I don't usually see articulated here) that a single tumblr post is never going to do it justice. as i said, stay tuned, we're working on something more.

tl;dr (another one) gerard and geoff are perennially obsessed with each other & have been since literally the first time that they laid eyes on each other and it comes out the second that either of them have to be even a little reflective on the other's career thanks for reading my manifesto bye.

[oftenderweapons]

hello 👀 first of all i love your writing. second of all idk if you saw joon’s make up artist reaching up to him to fix his makeup on set but i could think about vixen bc we all know how volatile and jealous she may get.... so may i suggest a joon x vixen jealous sex drabble??? thank u!!!

Hello, dear reader. Thank you soooo much for the compliments. I couldn’t help but deliver, it literally wrote itself. There you go 💜✨

title: yours, truly

pairing: namjoon x reader (nicknamed Vixen)

wordcount: 2.7k

genre: smut, fluff, established relationship

rating: 18+, minors do not interact

synopsis: Vixen doesn't appreciate the imbalance between her belonging to Namjoon and his belonging to her, and although she understands the limits due to his job, at the same time she's uncomfortable about the way she feels. However, Namjoon is eager to reassure her.

trigger warnings: argument on jealousy and double standards. There is one very specific passage where Namjoon imposes himself physically on Vixen, grabbing her and pinning her while she's trying to get away from him. If this triggers you, please do not read further. On to sexual topics: mention of cunnilingus, masturbation (male and female receiving), unprotected sex (BE SMART!!!!!!), marking, power struggle, several occurrences of pinning and top-bottom shifts.

a/n: Hello people, here's the first of several drabbles I've been working on. Please, stay tuned cause HOPEFULLY Jimin and Princess should be next 💖

Here's my masterlist enjoy 💜✨

⁂ ⁕ ⁂ ⁕ ⁂ ⁕ ⁂ ⁕ ⁂ ⁕ ⁂ ⁕ ⁂

You stormed into the apartment, Namjoon hot on your heels.

“Vixen,” he called, watching you take off your shoes with a frown on your face. “Babylove.”

You lifted a finger, inviting him to keep quiet before you stood and headed to your room.

“Vixen?” he called, once more. He knew what had happened, and he knew you didn't mean to act like that. He knew you didn't like feeling jealous or possessive, but the footage of him wrapping an arm around his makeup artist — even if it was just to keep her from falling — had unsettled you more than you wanted to admit.

There were women who dried his sweat and helped him change his clothes and saw him half naked regularly, and they were out there doing so publicly, while you didn't even own a picture of him kissing you. After being together for six months. After him asking you to be his wife.

To anyone except his friends and family, you were nothing but a stranger to him.

“Vixen?”

You were his. Always. All the time. You wore his clothes and had his marks on you from Monday to Sunday, twenty-four seven, uninterruptedly ever since he'd first told you he loves you — with an unintended pause because of the tour.

But what about him? Did he even belong to you?

He called your name shyly, fearsomely. “Look at me, please.”

“I'm going to take a bath,” you announced dryly.

“I'm coming with you,” he replied, already taking off his clothes.

“I want to be alone.”

He inhaled and did the crudest, most animalistic thing he could think of. He grabbed your waist and made you face him. “Vixen. Look at me.”

You shook your head and tutted.

“Say 'no' and I'll let you go,” he said, his voice booming like thunder.

You stayed silent.

“Look at me,” he repeated, an arm around your waist, his free one coming up so he could grip your chin and force your eyes to meet his. “Like this.”

“I hate this!” you spat, looking away right before he forced you to meet his eyes again. “It's not fair!” You snarled before angrily pushing the heel of your foot against his toes.

He hissed and let you go, only to catch you once more half a second later, pinning you against the wall. “Talk to me.”

Your brow furrowed, your eyes like a dark storm, you looked at the floor as you admitted, “I have no right to feel jealous. And I hate it. It’s not fair.”

Namjoon hugged you to him, kissing your head as you pressed your forehead to his chest.

“I’m so sorry, I just… hate that you make me feel like this. It’s not you, it’s how I feel about what you do. That is, the position you’re in.” You bit your lip nervously, gripping his shirt in your fists.

Namjoon didn’t quite understand what you meant by that, but reversing the situation gave him a quite poignant point of view. The idea of you being chaperoned by other men at all time, of you being in his shoes, with people drooling over you at all times, being backstage and having no privacy with or without your clothes on, people imagining you as their partner, as their hot one night stand, as their one true love.

The thought of having to share you the same way you had to share him all the time made a shiver run down his spine. He knew he would never be able to tolerate all the things you went through for him without batting an eye. “I’m so sorry, love.” He ran his hands to the back of your thighs lowering himself to pick you up, your arms latching behind his neck as he did so. “I’m so, so sorry, little fox,” he repeated, his voice so deep and soothing.

“I’m okay, it’s just that…”

He kissed your cheek as he sat on the bed, placing you on top of him, straddling his hips. “You’re not okay, and that’s alright.” He waited for you to oppose as he let his lips linger one millimeter from yours.

Shyly, almost as if reluctantly, you pressed your mouth to his, feeling his hand on your nape, tangling in your hair, the other one pressed to the small of your back. “Take off your clothes, please,” you whispered in between kisses. Unquestioningly, he took off his undershirt, your body still on top of his while you undid the buttons of your blouse — actually, only a couple of them before you slipped it off from over your head. Namjoon’s hands went around your waist, lifting the lace and satin top you were wearing underneath, pressing his nose to your sternum once your torso was so enticingly naked, your body rising to your knees so he could reach your breastbone more comfortably, your arms hugging his head.

“You’re so precious, my babylove. So strong,” he murmured, “You’re so understanding and I’m so glad when you open up to me.” He inhaled you as he confessed some more of his worries, “I always fear that someday it will feel too much and you’ll leave.”

You shook your head, squishing his face in your palms before standing before him, taking off your jeans lightning-fast, watching him quickly remove his slacks and underwear in one go.

“Come claim it, babe,” he growled, extending his hands to you, making a come-hither motion.

You wiggled out of your panties and smiled sweetly, joining him, sitting on his lap and batting your eyelashes with a cute pout, Namjoon shaking his head at you with a knowing grin. And at that, you placed your hands on his shoulders and pushed him down. “You really thought?”

He licked his lips and rolled his eyes. “I, at least, hoped.” His hands landed on your ass before you could grab his wrists and pin them above his head while you made your way up, your naked fold glistening with wetness already in the unforgivingly bright light of your bedroom.

You knew he had a thing for keeping the lights on anyways.

“Come on, sit,” he said, his arms fighting you only playfully as he ached to grab your ass and make you ride his face.

“No.” Your reply was lapidary as your free hand began to tease the skin around your sex — not yet your folds, nor your clit,

“Vixen.” Your name sounded like a warning.

“Maybe you’ll learn I can do without you.”

“Enough,” he growled before his arms escaped your weak excuse of a grip, his jaw locked and his eyes stern in what would be nothing but his hard dom look. “You think you’re funny?”

The way he pushed you with your back to the mattress, your arms trying to save you from losing your balance, made your heartbeat flutter.

“You think I don’t know that already? You think that doesn’t scare me to the bone?” He hissed as he laid on top of you, holding back his weight only slightly. “We know who can do without who here,” he said, his eyes so tormented you wanted to comfort him. “I’m half a soul without you.”

You wrapped your legs around him, rubbing your pelvis against his hardening cock. “Stay with me, then. Remind me.” You placed your lips against his neck, licking up the curve of his throat before bringing your lips to his ear. “Are you mine, Joonie?”

His eyes rolled shut, his head moving in a nodding motion. “I only want to be yours. All the time. I wish we could be naked and alone every single second.”

You giggled and moved your hand between your bodies. “Can I stretch a little? I need you inside.”

“Do you want me to do that?” He asked, right before you shook your head. “Fuck, ____, you're fucking perfect,” he murmured, kissing down your body, licking your nipple, sucking it briefly. “I'm so in love.”

“Do you remember what I told you that night?” you asked him, purring as you pushed two fingers inside you.

“That you're gonna be my wife, someday?”

You chuckled and nodded. Sometimes it felt unreal that he had proposed to you. Already.

And that the ring around your right fourth finger was not your family ring.

“I told you I'm dedicating my life to you. That I want to live by your side for as long as we can. That I believe in you.”

He found solace in the crook of your neck, his lips searching for your collarbone before his teeth nibbled at it gently. “Don't stop. Ever.”

A third finger entered your hole, stretching your inner walls until you were comfortable. Still, you were too impatient to wait any longer, grabbing his cock and placing its tip against your folds. “I won't,” you promised, a loud gasp leaving your mouth as he sank in. “Fuck, too big.”

Namjoon backtracked as quickly as possible, but your hands stopped him just in time. “No, no, stay inside, please. I can get used to it.” Your nails sunk into his ass. “Don't go. Please.”

Namjoon inhaled, trying to keep his cool as much as possible. “I should have prepped you.” He groaned and pressed your face into his neck. “Hold tight, love. I need to shift just a little.”

You loved when he pampered you like that, when he treated you like his delicate porcelain doll. With a loud exhale, he fixed his position until he could rest more easily and resist your tight squeezes as you adjusted to him filling you to the brim. In maybe a minute, you shifted your hips, whispering, “Okay, move, please.”

“That's my good girl,” he replied, smiling at you before giving one slow, smooth stroke that made you purr and throw your head back, his tongue drawing the arch of your throat. “My jealous little thing, mh? You're so adorable.” He gave another deep, slow thrust, watching you writhe below him, legs shaking as they tensed up in pleasure. And then again, pulling out and pushing in making your toes curl, your entire mind malfunctioning into bliss.

“I love it when you're jealous,” he taunted you. “Makes me feel so wanted.” He drew the shell of your ear with his lips, your body drowning in sensations, too small to handle all he had to offer. “Almost as sexy and as desirable as you are. My little fox.”

“Joonie…” you almost sobbed, clawing at his shoulders before remembering you must absolutely not, throwing your hands off him and tugging at the sheets.

Namjoon nuzzled his nose against the side of your face. “Scratch, mark, bite. I don't care. I'm yours, Vixen.”

You whimpered and forced yourself not to. Maybe you just wanted to see who would cave first, maybe you were still feeling too petty about all the times you had been denied.

“Do it. I know you want it,” he tempted you. “Take what you want, little fox.”

You shook your head and brought yourself not only to pin your hands in place, but also turn your face away.

Namjoon rammed into you aggressively at your act of defiance, causing you to gasp and flinch. “Claim me. Do it, ____. I belong to you. Won't you acknowledge that?”

Lips sealed, eyes closed, you fought him, knowing you were absolutely hopeless the moment he pulled you on top of him. “See. This is what you do to me. Look at me. Look at the mess I become for you. For you, alone. No one else in the whole world, Vixen. Only you.” He led his hand on your belly, rubbing at your clit with his thumb, letting you grind on him with your own pace. He only wanted to make you feel good. “Vixen, please, baby. Look at me.

Slowly, you opened your eyes, your hands on his pectorals, your hips moving on him so naturally, so comfortably. He looked beautiful. Grandiose. Magnificent.

He looked like the only man you would ever look at. You knew there was no way you would look at anyone else if he was in the room.

“What are you thinking about?” He asked fondly, placing his hand atop of yours, lacing your fingers together.

“That you're the only one for me. That I need something of you that belongs to me alone.”

He shifted your hands slightly, his engulfing your own on top of his beating heart. “Here. Yours. All yours. Take it.”

You started going faster, needing for the messy ordeal to come to an end so you could sleep the afternoon away wrapped up in his arms.

With quick swivels of your hips, you changed your angle, making sure that he rubbed against your sweet spot, deep inside you.

“Guess what else is yours?” he teased, looking down, keeping his finger steady against your sensitive nub.

“Your exceedingly large dick?” you suggested with a gleam in your voice, sending the both of you into a tumble of laughs.

“Exactly,” he replied playfully. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” you replied quickly, feeling your high spiral out of control. “Cumming.”

“Let go,” he reassured you, catching you with his arm once your body collapsed, his thumb still teasing you while he started thrusting from below, making sure that your orgasm peaked and extinguished in pleasure before he finally climaxed, knowing all too well that your final squeezes would trigger his own ecstasy.

“Doesn't it feel good to cum on your favourite dick, mh?”

“My one and only,” you stated openly, watching him get increasingly worked up. “Show me who you belong to, Joon. You say you're mine? Then cum inside me.”

He shut his eyes tight. “Come on. Gimme all you've got,” you taunted him.

He grit his teeth and shook his head. He needed better leverage to go harder.

You understood that immediately. “Wanna get on top?”

He was conflicted, but in the end you found yourself with your back once more to the mattress, his cock pushing inside you so hard and fast that you were ready to start all over again if it weren't for the numbing sleepiness pulling at your mind.

“I'm yours,” he gritted out, in between strokes, like a mantra. “Get it into your pretty head that I'm yours. That I only want you. For the rest of my life,” he breathed out the final part. “I'm gonna—” and with a wildly erotic growl you felt him swell inside you before his release flowed into you, his body too sensitive to handle the high for too long.

Once he was done, there was nothing but spent, panting bodies, your hand in his hair as you helped him calm down.

“Are you feeling better, little fox?” he asked, taking your joined hands and bringing your knuckles to his lips. “If we swapped roles for a day, you the idol and I the normal person, I don't think I would be able to face it like you do.”

With your eyes closed, you waited for him to pull the two of you on your sides, your head on his chest, legs tangled together as he rubbed his feet against yours lazily and lasciviously.

“I know you don't like feeling jealous and I'm sorry that I made you feel that. You always say it's part of my job and you're understanding, but we both know it's hard to stop these emotions from happening.”

You nodded, inhaling his scent, so deeply mixed with yours. “It's worth it though. Because of the man you are, and what you mean to me.”

He kissed your head.

“I need to clean up. I want to sleep with you.”

He nodded. You were both more than happy to cancel the date and just sleep in, wrapped up in light sheets on the late September day.

Once washed and ready for sleep, Namjoon found your perfect position, your right hand in his left one as he toyed with your ring, pushing it around. Even though he had proposed, he knew the wait would be long. Still, he tried. “How much time left?” he asked, the question a cliché between the two of you by now. You always knew what it meant to him.

“A while,” you replied — your usual answer.

He nodded and pulled you closer. “Sleep tight, baby fox.”

“Sleep tight, big bear.”

[monstrousdanger]

I think as a past teacher the one thing that bothers me is that no one is taught how to give proper feedback outside of the education field. Whether it's at work or online, I see so many people providing "helpful critiques" that sound or read too much like bullying. I know people are going to fight me on this or claim that I'm a soft-bellied lizard, but just hear me out.

Before launching an assault on someone's work, consider what they are already doing well. Have they improved in tasking or time management? Did they write a line in their work that tugged at your heartstrings? Do they provide excellent customer service or work well in teams? Acknowledge it. Tell them what they are doing right BEFORE you tell them what they are doing wrong.

After the good, comes the tougher pill for people to swallow. When you are giving somebody a tip, use a tone of voice that makes them feel less like an imbecile. Nobody likes being told they are doing something wrong - don't make them feel worse adding even an ounce of the annoyance you may feel in the moment. Instead, keep a neutral tone and choose words and phrases that are directed towards the person's behavior, NOT their personality, ambitions, attitude, or past. Similarly, Don't make inferences based on the behavior. If someone is moving slowly at their job, our first thought is usually "they're lazy." Maybe they are, or maybe they weren't appropriately trained to complete the task they were given. Either way, the point is YOU DON'T KNOW. You are not telepathic (unless you are, which creepy) and the moment you take on that role, your goose is well and truly cooked, so stick to reporting the tangible facts. Consider using a phrase like "I noticed x, perhaps consider trying x."

When you are giving a critique, pick ONE thing that you would like to see the person change. We are all human and therefore inherently flawed, which is weirdly exciting because we get the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. That can be a tough mindset to take though if you just got back an essay covered in correctional red ink when you spent weeks writing it. As a teacher, I found myself at the helm of a red pen marking up my students' writing until there was no whitespace left to cover, and guess what? For a large percentage of my students, their writing never changed, but their attitude did. They were far less motivated to take chances and get creative knowing they were probably going to get everything wrong. So I switched up my tactic. Instead of impulsively marking up every mistake I could find on the page, I would pick a consistent trap that they would fall into and have them working on fixing that first. If they forgot to capitalize letters or include periods in their sentences, we would start there. That's an easy, specific goal they can place on a sticky note and reference when they read over their writing later. Find that one thing that could help improve someone's work and start by clearly explaining what it is that needs to change, showing what you want to see, and then following up with any further corrections to mastering this new skill.

Lastly, talk to the person and create a plan. If you are reviewing someone's art online, consider reaching out in a comment or DM to provide the person with poignant exemplars or resources that can further their journey. Personally, I am a visual person, so I always appreciate when someone provides me with a checklist, written reminder, or resource that I can reference later. Consider providing similar materials that will help remind them of their goal in a format that works best with their learning style. At work, sit down and create a step-by-step process with your employee on how to keep growing, allowing for their input. They most likely know what they need to do for themselves to make the corrections, and if they don't you can be there to provide them with some ideas. At the end of the day, advice may given freely but not received willingly. It is therefore up to the individual to take your word or not, because it's their life.

Above all, stop and consider how their behavior has made you feel. If their behavior has impacted you negatively, consider breathing, walking away, or journaling before engaging in the conversation to avoid saying something more harmful during the feedback process. This is not a soap opera, keep the drama between whatever fictional characters you moon over at night.

There is of course, the other extreme where someone provides ONLY the good stuff, but holds back on any valuable insights that could help that person grow. As a musician working in the industry since I was seventeen years old, I have had my fair share of verbal abuse and other objects (including a smashed violin) hurled my way. That is to say I can take a little jab at my work from the local internet goblins, because it never hurts as much as what goes unsaid. Humans are not islands, we can only grow and prosper so much on our own before we need to reach out and ask for some help. If someone asks your honest advice, give it to them with professional courtesy. If the tip is unsolicited but needs to be stated, go ahead and say it, but please, for the love of cheese and crackers, do not be a self-righteous ass about it. At the end of your own words is another living, breathing human being with very real doubts, fears, and emotions that you need to keep in mind. Feedback and criticism is meant to be helpful, pushing people and industries further, but can easily be wielded maliciously.

[youghvaudough]

Random things from the Shadow of Kyoshi that just make sense (or not)

... as a mandarin speaker 

ft. my Cantonese speaking friend

& my measly one semester of JAPN 1001

(spoiler warning)

rambling after the division

Loongkau, the name of the ghetto Miss Kyoshi raids are the start of the book, is in fact, Cantonese for 壟溝 “gutter/ditch”. these intimidating lookin lil suckers r in the traditional script, & the simplified version is 垄沟 (lóng gōu). no funny business here; p accurate name

extremely random, but, when Kyoshi punched the wood table in her mid-ring apartment, it was mentioned that the joinery cracked. traditional Chinese wood constructs are not held together by nails, but rather carved pieces at the ends that join together like puzzle pieces and provides fixture. they r called 榫卯 (sǔn mǎo)

what rly impresses me abt them is that these fixtures are used to hold together wood structures under whole tiled ceilings; oh yes, no glue, no nails, just expertly carved wood. I’m not gonna do it justice here u can search it up to learn more if ur interested ;)

Erhu !!! Ugh I love this one. 二胡 (èr hú) is a traditional Chinese string instrument that looks like a hammer with an elongated handle and two strings wow a horrible description; the notes it plays sound v sorrowful to me and i think it has something to do with the notes being in the minor scale ??? (I can’t music theory AT ALL don’t take my word for anything)

but yeah I have emotional attachment to that instrument bc my mother & my late grandpa both love it. one of my mother’s favorite pieces (also one of the most famous erhu pieces) is a piece called 赛马 (sài mǎ) “horse racing” and it’s a perfectly thrilling and passionate piece that I am also a huge sucker for ok this is getting off topic

oh I love the use of Aiyaa 哎呀 (āi yā, not only limited to the one tone tho — pronouncing it is like singing in this case: depends on the context) it’s just a very common expression for a multitude of emotions it’s so Chinese i love it sm

Jinpa’s bison Yingyong, I am kinda unsure about bc for some reason my first instinct was 阴阳 (yīn yáng) which I believe everyone knows at this point; I think it should be 英勇 (yīng yǒng) “heroic and brave”

...but what’s interesting & a piece of useless info is that mandarin for apps (applications) is 应用 (yìng yòng); same sound, different tones funny kinda?

now this one is absolutely useless but there’s a Chinese soccer player with the name Yangchen, 杨晨 (Yáng Chén)

the closest irl approx. of “kill two spidersnakes with one stone” is probably the idiom “kill two birds with one stone”, which actually has a very close match (both literally and figuratively) in mandarin four-character idiom (四字成语 sì zì chéng yǔ or just 成语 chéng yǔ) — 一箭双雕 (yī jiàn shuāng diāo) “one arrow (shoots down) two eagle”

Koulin, aka the girl who rightfully got decked in the face by Rangi, my guess at the Chinese characters for her name would be 寇林 or 寇琳 (both Kòu Lín; the second choice’s character for Lín is conventionally used for female names). I chose 寇 bc it originally means “bandits/invaders” or just “enemies” in general, and using it in the name of a character usually indicates villainous status.

also technically the Chinese translation of Zuko’s name also has this character (祖寇, zǔ kòu)

Peony and Camellia, oof eek dunno how I feel abt talking abt this. So, peonies, 牡丹 (mǔ dān), are the closest thing to a national flower for China. Camellia, or 山茶花 (mandarin, shān chá huā) / 藪椿 (Japanese, ヤブツバキ yabutsubaki) / Camellia japonica (binomial/scientific name), obviously carries a lot of meaning and history for Japan (even though a little overshadowed by the cherry blossoms) as it has been ever present in a lot of poetry & has some almost religious reverence tied with it.

Now a conflict btw two clans with these flowers as symbols just feels a lil too poignant to miss; like it honestly just may be a passing mention and what happened in the books plot wise has no relation with anything real world but Sino-Japanese Wars flash backs go brrrrrr

zo/so, the character that almost prompted a civil war, is the kanji 祖 (in pinyin it is zǔ), and as mentioned in the text it means “ancestor/forefather”.

the name Huazo, if we’re going by zo = 祖, could be 府阿祖 (ふあぞ), which can mean at least according to this translator I’m using founder of a prefecture (a district under the government apparently) which is kinda fitting for her tbh

the way I didn’t even know what a prefecture was

Joonho, 준호, Korean given name

the ceramic gaiwan, as a drinking vessel used by the woman at the tea shop in the chapter Home Again, is 盖碗 (gài wǎn) “lidded bowl”, a tea serving set popular during the Qing dynasty (Yongzheng times). it is always a set of three: 上有盖, 下有托, 中有碗 “lid on top, supporting dish at the bottom, bowl in middle”

茶托 “tea supporting dish” also was referred to as 茶船 “tea boat” & i just think that is cute & neat

hey this is actually kinda a short one but thank u for reading this far!

[dancefloors]

please tell more about why you love jubilee so much/what parts of it resonate with you!!! 🎤 (i've started listening and love it but like not to stroke your ego but hearing your thoughts about songs always seems to enrich my own listening experience...)

thank u for saying that ur so sweet <3333. as for jubilee it's the just perfect wistful summer album for me. i’ve loved her previous albums, their thoughtful melancholy was perfect for my anguished little teen years, but this album takes that same vulnerability from her previous work and makes it serene and nostalgic! this album prioritises the rebellion of hope and that feels SO fresh.

i like that she retains her spacey dreampop sound but it’s now sort of lit up by more playful baselines or horns on paprika or slide tackle, or the shaker on be sweet, and the sweeping strings on in tactics. the sound feels very timeless to me, super thoughtfully arranged, and i think she really precisely perfects an individual atmosphere for each song while still playing into the breezy sound of the whole album. the temperament of her vocals really rise and fall with the story of each song too which i love dearly, i think she’s so talented and has such a careful hand when it comes to her arrangements <3

the part that resonates with me the most is probably how bittersweet and textured the album is. it’s not as dark as previous albums but how she acknowledges the losses that come with joy is heartwrenching in it’s own way, and i think very appropriate given current times. tactics, kokomo IN, and posing for cars are my favorite tracks i love love love them so much. kokomo IN especially, i love the whole story of feeling the lingering love of a high school sweetheart <3333 “just know that i’ll be here longing” is especially poignant and special to me <3 . tactics has such a great waltzy sound and i adore posing for cars as a closer and the “adolescent heart skipping beats, when all your love, it grows full and firm beneath” lyric followed by the instrumentals kind of swelling and rising underneath and her letting them speak for the rest of the song!!!!!! her storytelling is so captivating to me.

idk just as a whole the album has a kind of centered and mature joy that is able to accept the melancholy that comes with hope. and it manages to explore that without self-congratulating or bashing you over the head with how profound that nuance is every 2 seconds (sorry lorde). instead it feels very authentically euphoric and bittersweet. i'm glad you love it too.

[halcyon-hyacinth]

R S T U

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

Hmm. I think Rick Riordan definitely serves as an inspiration for the importance of writing not just likable, but compelling characters that you want to root for. He did a masterful job writing PJO (showing that first person can work, if done correctly), and then he expanded on everything he built in subsequent series. Other than that, his humor and world building are amazing. I’ve recently drawn from a few of his takes on Greek mythology for writing Zero. To this day his works remain among my favorite, and I’m super hyped to see the live action PJO series.

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

Enemies to lovers (hello Clexa, Catradora, and Lumity) and Found Family!!! When executed well, they can be so FUN to read and/or watch. One of the many reasons I adore The Owl House. Seeing a relationship undergo so many hurdles and both characters grow from them (while falling for each other) feels incredibly fulfilling. Likewise, Found Family is probably the most real and heartwarming (at times heart wrenching) trope there is. I strongly believe in the validity and superiority of this trope, and would lay my life down to defend it.

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

Love triangles are a horror among horrors. You almost always know from the beginning who the protagonist is gonna end up with and I hate them so much. I find it much more compelling to focus on the highs and lows of a couple getting together and staying together. Relationships take work, and imo love triangles only serve to amp up drama that could be stirred up in other, better ways.

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

Okay this was hard. Let me be clear that I have many favorite fic writers. Everyone brings something different to the table. For now, I’ll highlight these peeps I am fond of. 

@tiredandjaded - I binged their make my heart your home series the other day (taking a break from my lumity craze) and it was nothing short of incredible. Imo they’re the CEO of Found Family. The way Jade writes Luz’s dynamic with the Owl House residents, and her friends, is so detailed, descriptive, and poignant (I don’t remember what that means atm but it sounds right). Jade has a knack for picking up on the potential tension between characters and creating meaningful conflict that feels super fitting and hits where it hurts (the heart, duh). Cannot wait to see what she writes next.

@thefoolsyousee - I have a lot of respect for Fools cause he has writing range, and it shows. From fluff to bittersweet to angst. Not only does he have big brain fic ideas (Dinner at Blight Manor I’m looking at you) but he’s able to capture the personality and depth of characters extremely well. Not just the main trio, but side characters like the Troublemakers who we don’t see much of in canon-- yet he expands on them in a way that makes sense and works really well. Once again, I am citing his After Blood and Souls series because it’s probs my favorite toh series, and I love how he handles the canon divergence possibilities. 

@eleenadume - I am in awe of Eleena. She writes... so much. So many words. And they’re all SO GOOD! The length/quality of her writing is nothing short of incredible. She’s an extremely skilled writer who’s adept at weaving plot threads and great dialogue together like she’s Arachne (meant to be a positive comparison, lol). Not only does she overuse the ‘additional tags’ option in ao3 to a hilarious degree (My personal favorite is WHY IS THERE SO MUCH CRYING IN THIS FIC WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME in Locked Out), but the amount of love and energy she pours into her stories is so clear. The little details, amazing character interactions (hello Luz and Camila), and more. 

Ask me a question here

[seoafin]

DUDE,,, when i was reading the drabble i was also listening to the new ending and when the high notes came TT

AND SHIN SEKAI YORI WAS AHEAD OF ITS TIME, whole time i was like...are u fr, like that’s it? and had to read the novel to confirm

just read the follow up ask abt it, the fact that the reader never left him a “see u later/ goodbye” just “it’s nothing time can’t heal” leaving a tiny tiny expectation that mc will be by their side again and the story will continue but it ends up as a epilogue that sashisu barely get to see with their own eyes and have to hear it coming from someone else. and them finding the traces of mc in their life after they’re gone, picking it up but the owner is somewhere they can’t follow (yet)

like the crumpled post-notes it on shoko’s desk for grocery run written by mc who went to do it for her bc she was too busy in the lab, she gently smoothed out the wrinkles and kept it on her fridge, and took it with her everytime she have to go (utahime never pries when they went together and saw shoko reaching for a seasoning/ condiment that mc usually put on her food no matter how well it was seasoned and her hands faltered halfway, tucking one in her pockets to stop the slight trembles, odd considering her hands must be steady after years of handling bodies. she also has a collection of ripped paper she kept in her work desk from various notebook where there’s a ganbare/ good luck mc discretely wrote during their study session when they thought shoko wasn’t looking),,, bonus angst point if brain took control, and shoko ends up having mc’s body in her morgue twice and did the procedure in a haze with glassy eyes and (probably) end up breaking down bc of the realization that slowly lift the haze that she failed mc twice

candy wrappers hidden underneath the many piles of gojou’s book bc it was that one time mc reluctantly gave iher notes and was sitting on his floor sby the bed but along the way they end up chewing one of his sweet stash and throwing the wrappers to each other, and a small pack placed samongst the other but gojou’s ecapable of recognising that it was mc who bought it for him after her solo mission. sometimes he took 2 pieces from it, one left unopened by his side while he absentmindedly munch on one and if u took his phone, the recent app opened was his photos gallery. the first year never questioned when they were out and his eyes kept roaming whenever he stopped by in a shop, thinking that he already tried everything (and not the opposite, mc never told the brand nor did he asked for it bc he demanded that mc to buy it if they were in the same province where they found the local delicacy. sometimes, he went back to a familiar classroom where nothing has changed, sat on his previous chair and when the line of fantasy and reality blur, the faint sound of laughter rang in the room)

a scarf in suguru’s posession that mc accidentally left after their night out hunting for christmas present for gojou and shoko together, bc getou didn’t got a mission while mc just finished theirs. mc was distracted when they were in harajuku and bought 2 (an extra for shoko) matching scarfs on a whim for them (he almost went into a cardiac arrest, gojou throw a tantrum when he found out he was excluded but bought a matching couple set of winter jacket for mc, insufferable 😐). nanako and mimiko never managed to ask why he wears the same scarf on a specific day (is it the day mc d worded or is it the day they bought the scarf, hmmm) every year, they found the answer (?) to the question when cleaning geto’s room after shinjuku was over, it was a copy of a picture of mc who asked him to take on that day wearing a very similar scarf now somewhat worn out which is tucked in a box, strategically placed in the very back of his closet. (mc kept switching scarf tho so why is it worn out, how did he get his hands on it, did he put it beside his pillow everytime he woke up from his sleep when they’re alive and in reach just in his dreams? ig we’ll never know 🥰)

IM SRY THIS IS A WORD VOMIT BUT THIS IS SO SICK AND TWISTED. HAVING MY HEART BROKEN EVERYTIME I CAME ON THIS BLOG LIKE AKUTAMI HASNT DONE ENOUGH OF IT EVERY WEEK - 🐱

the reason it took me so long to answer this is because i have so many THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS and i didn’t want to overload this blog with too much angst but nhgnghghg

look....i love loveeee exploring grief in writing. some of the most poignant essays and poems i’ve ever read have been about grief and what death leaves behind. in my opinion grief is sadder than death and it makes me go feral!!!

stsg + shoko keeping physical reminders of things rip!mc left behind is SENDING MEEEE

rip!mc and shoko leaving each other notes in their notebooks when they study together ahhhhhdhdhdjdhdh and shoko keeping them 🥺

ok but the idea of gojo and rip!mc joking around and throwing candy wrappers at each other while shoko and geto are like "...." has me 😭😁😭😁😭 and gojo eating the candy rip!mc got him and looking at pictures of her at the same time. he keeps the candy tin and carries it around in his pocket time to time. the first years are like "gojo-sensei's hiding candy!!" so they steal it only to find the tin empty???

MATCHING SCARVES MATCHING SCARVES MATCHING SCARVES!!! rip!mc and shoko with matching scarves I want to cry

mimiko and nanako asking geto where he goes every year on the same day bc he won't let them come along and that makes them 🤨🤨 so they go snooping in his room and find the picture and when geto comes back he can't even be mad when he finds nanako trying on the scarf bc he knows you'd think it was cute uhhhdhdhdbbf

anyway what i’m saying is that you did NOT have to go this hard and now i’m