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vgfm · 1 year

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Predicting Future Fountains in Deltarune: The Missing Ingredient

I’ve noticed a trend of Deltarune fans trying to predict what will happen in future chapters. It’s a common trait of a fanbase undergoing hiatus brain. One of the most common forms of prediction is trying to guess where future dark worlds will pop up in the light world. Some fans’ predictions have made more convincing arguments than others, but so far all of the ones I’ve seen seem to be missing a key ingredient—one I intend to share today.

To begin, I’m of the opinion that it is more or less impossible for anyone outside of Toby’s development team to accurately predict all of Deltarune’s chapters outside of making a wildly lucky guess. We have been teased some information regarding chapter 3 and, to a lesser extent, 4 and 5. The further removed a future chapter is from 1 and 2, the harder it is to predict. On top of that, I’m anticipating that the full game will introduce some earthshaking twist that will throw the narrative on its head—this will likely occur around chapter 6 or 7, but it could be sooner.

Despite this, fans (including myself) have attempted to predict each chapter’s dark world location by scraping together what little evidence we can. One of the most common arguments is to assert that each dark world so far has followed a trend that future dark worlds must follow as well. Perhaps the most popular trend argued for is the “double door rule,” i.e., the argument that each dark world’s entrance in the light world will be a pair of double doors.

The Double Door Rule

The strongest piece of evidence supporting the double door rule is the entrance to the librarby computer lab: in Chapter 1 it was a single door, but in Chapter 2 it became a double-door entrance. Apparently this was such an important detail that Toby was willing to retroactively change content from a previous chapter. This has led fans to speculate that other locations in Hometown with double doors will become future dark world locations.

On the one hand, I do think that light world locations with double doors have a decent chance of becoming future dark worlds. However, I think many fans neglect to mention that this “rule” already has exceptions to it. The most obvious exception is the Dreemurr house in Chapter 3. None of the doors in the house are double doors, and it’s 99% confirmed at this point that this location will be Chapter 3’s dark world location.

On top of that, it could also be argued that the dark world inside the unused classroom does not follow this pattern either. There is a double door that leads into Castle Town, but this is a separate dark world from the unused classroom. We see the great door, which is a double door in the dark world, and going through it takes us to the Card Kingdom dark world. However, in the light world we can see that neither door leading into the unused classroom is a double door.

Even if one were to argue that the Great Door still “counts” as Chapter 1’s dark world having double doors, it doesn’t do us much good if those double doors only exist in the dark world—by that logic, any door in the light world (single or double) could lead to a future dark world. On that note, the fact that the librarby’s door was “retconned” into being a double door in Chapter 2 means that the same could happen to any future dark world location as well, even if that’s not the most likely outcome.

Despite its flaws, I don’t think the double door rule is completely without merit. I think the purpose of double doors is to indicate a potential location where Kris and Susie will use their dark world entrance animation first seen in Chapter 2.

I think the likely reason for the library’s door being changed was to allow for this new animation to play upon entering Cyber World. In other words, this rule may help in predicting dark worlds that Kris and Susie will enter intentionally, but won’t help when predicting “unexpected” dark worlds that appear like the one at the end of Chapter 2.

The Missing Ingredient

With this in mind, I believe I’ve stumbled upon a more reliable pattern that can be used to predict future dark worlds: one that has applied to the first three chapters’ dark worlds and may likely apply to Castle Town as well. I’ve seen many fans point out that dark worlds are strongly associated with the idea of escapism: toys and games, the internet, and television. I think this idea is on the right track, but it’s missing one key ingredient that I alluded to earlier.

To better explain what this missing ingredient is, we need to take a look at Chapter 3’s upcoming dark world. This dark fountain was made inside of the Dreemurr living room, and although previews have shown some possible influence from other parts of the house, the dark world appears to be primarily themed around the television that Kris turned on. I think the fact that the dark world is primarily themed around television rather than the Dreemurr house as a whole tells us a lot about how future dark worlds will operate.

The way I see it, it’s not enough for a dark world location to be somewhere “important” in the light world. It’s not enough for a dark world to have a double door entrance. A dark world needs to exist as a playing field for gameplay scenarios to take place. But above all else, a dark world needs a theme. And so far, the themes we’ve seen all relate to escapism—specifically, a type of escapism that can be expressed as a relatable interest or “medium” of some kind—that’s the missing ingredient.

Chapter 3 seems to codify this trend, as what we know of that dark world implies that it is not simply a “house-themed” dark world, but instead a TV-themed dark world with perhaps some flavoring from the rest of the Dreemurr household sprinkled in. We see something similar in Chapter 2 with fair fliers from the computer lab appearing as set dressing in an otherwise computer-dominated light world.

I think that a “house-theme” dark world theme would not have been sufficient for Toby’s purposes, especially if there are future dark worlds that will also take place in the homes of other Hometown residents.

In other words, I think this trend of media/medium-based escapism does limit the likelihood of certain locations from becoming future dark worlds. For example, the Mayor’s office may not become a dark world unless it’s established that the Mayor has some specific interest or hobby that she brings to work that would become the theme of her dark world. Otherwise, an “office-themed” dark world would break the trend of escapism and would likely be bland to boot.

Additionally, this might also make Asgore’s shop less likely as a future location, as his dwelling area only has a TV (which has been done) and, given Asgore’s meager living situation, it seems less likely that he’d have paraphernalia from some escapist hobby locked behind his double doors. We do know that Alphys lends comics to Asgore, but these are already present in his main dwelling area, and the prevailing theory among fans is that a flower shop dark world would be in the mystery room in the back instead of the rooms we’ve already seen.

Another reason I doubt a flower shop dark world, at least in Chapter 4 or 5, is that Toby said in his summer newsletter that Chapter 3 “is shaping up to be a pretty strange one. I mostly focused on unusual gameplay elements, and it’s not too heavy on the story… Anyway, Chapter 4 will be a much more standard chapter!” Since Chapter 3 is implied to focus on the Dreemurr family, it would feel odd to me that Toby would deem this chapter as “not too heavy on the story,” only to include another Dreemurr-focused chapter in Asgore’s shop so soon after it.

My takeaway from Toby’s assessment is that he doesn’t consider Chapter 3 story-heavy because Chapter 3 focuses more on gameplay than story, but I believe it’s also because the Dreemurr focus will lend itself more to a character-focused narrative rather than one that moves the immediate main plot forward significantly compared to Chapter 4. This also implies to me that Kris may not be the Knight, given that the chapter where Kris creates a dark world is viewed as a “strange” outlier and less story-focused, but the subsequent chapter is viewed as “more standard,” which would make sense if chapter 4’s dark world is created by the real Knight.

Predicting Future Dark Worlds

So where do I think future dark worlds will take place, based on this trend? Well, so far we’ve had dark worlds based on toys and games, the internet, and television. In addition, the game has also made reference to three other forms of escapist entertainment that may play a future role in the plot: literature, art, and video games.

To start, we have literature—specifically, fantasy literature. We’ve seen multiple references to Gerson’s Lord of the Hammer series, and this series is near and dear to the heart of Father Alvin, one of several Roaring Knight suspects. I’ve theorized that Alvin is the Knight, so it would make sense that he’d create a dark world themed around his father’s book series.

Now, you might ask: shouldn’t that have been in the Library? Well, I argued in my Alvin Knight theory that the librarby fountain was botched—if Alvin is the Knight then he likely didn’t intend to create a computer dark world, but was forced into the equipment closet when Berdly and Noelle entered and he created Cyber World from there. The fact that a literature dark world wasn’t used in this instance could imply that it’s being “saved” for a different dark world.

So where might a literature-based dark world take place? A possible location could be the school—there’s currently a locked classroom on the opposite side of Castle Town from the former Card Kingdom.

The school is connected to Gerson and besides the librarby it’s the place that would most likely have books in it. However, the church is another possibility.

The Church

Many have theorized that there will be a church dark world, likely in Chapter 4. I don’t disagree with this notion, but one thing I partially disagree with is the idea that this dark world will be purely themed around the town’s religion or that it will portray the town religion as a form of escapism to fit with the trend of dark worlds as escapism. I somehow doubt that Toby would make a commentary on religion that on-the-nose, given that he removed a series of Clover lines that merely hinted at charged topics like religion and gun control.

Instead, I think a church dark world will follow the trend of Chapter 3’s dark world: it will primarily be themed around an escapist hobby or interest, Gerson’s literature in this case, and the church-y elements will be background dressing. On that note, I think there’s a strong possibility that the church will have more than one room in it. If it does, then I think the dark world will not be in the main hall of the church and will instead take place in a back room, either Alvin’s room or a classroom used for the church’s youth group.

There is a snag with this prediction, however: Castle Town. In the past, I’ve thrown around the possibility that Castle Town may have been created by Gerson—specifically, created from his old writings (hinted at by the old papers seen on the floor of the supply closet).

If this is the case, then Castle Town would satisfy the role of being a “literature” dark world and it would follow the same theming pattern as the other dark worlds we’ve seen.

So where would this leave the Church? Well, a church dark world would still be possible without breaking the pattern I’m arguing for. Instead of the church being a literature-themed dark world, it may instead be an art-themed dark world instead. My evidence for this mainly relies on one line of dialogue: Spamton referring to easels and CRTs.

“WE DON’T NEED ANYONE ELSE!!! WE DON’T NEED [[Easels]] or [[CRTs]]!”

For those unaware, a CRT is an old type of television—the type that the Dreemurr household has. Spamton makes numerous references to future Chapter 3 characters, namely Mike and Tenna, but the easel line is the odd man out—it could be a patented Spamton-grade non-sequitur, but the fact that it’s paired with a reference to television makes me think it’s significant.

An Artistic Alternative

Unless if Toriel has a hidden artistic side, there’s no evidence of any easels in the Dreemurr household. It’s implied that Asriel has some artistic talent, given his framed drawing and the game assets on his computer, but there’s no easel in his room either. Whoever drew the Neo body might have some artistic talent—if so, I suppose this doesn’t rule out the possibility of a Blook house dark world. However, I think there’s another artist candidate: Alvin.

I’ll admit, I am stretching things a little, but I think there’s a possibility that Alvin could be an aspiring artist—emphasis on the “aspiring” part. We do see an old drawing of his in the unused classroom--it’s heavily implied that he drew this as a child, which would explain why it’s yellowed and why (presumably) Gerson held onto it.

Most people draw when they’re kids so it’s not unusual to see that Alvin did so, but from a narrative standpoint this could be intended to plant the seed of the idea that Alvin is associated with the arts.

We know that Alvin’s youth group also partakes in arts and crafts, as evidenced by the angel doll that Noelle and Dess made, so it’s likely that Alvin has at least some experience as an art teacher, even if it’s for something as pedestrian as afterschool children’s crafts.

We also know that Alvin hung around with Asriel, and both of their drawings are described as “poorly drawn,” perhaps suggesting that Alvin may have mentored Asriel at one point.

I could see “poorly drawn” being a flavor text calling card to describe art associated with Alvin in the future, perhaps with a joke where the flavor text describes his childhood art interchangeably with his most recent attempts. Alvin being an artist would also dovetail nicely with my past musings on whether Ralsei was created from a drawing.

If Alvin’s an artist then this would line up with his questioning of whether his father was proud of him—while this line could be referring to any Knight-related activities that Alvin’s engaged in, it could also double as his overall view of his career choice and talents (or lack of). It’s hard to make it big as an artist, and having a father who’s far more successful in his own field would highlight Alvin’s perceived inadequacies even further. To top it off, I’ve previously pointed out how Gerson’s life parallels the life of J.R.R. Tolkien and Alvin may or may not parallel his son, Christopher Tolkien. Well, it just so happens that one of Christopher Tolkien’s professions was being an illustrator, best known for drawing the maps of Middle Earth.

How sure am I of Alvin being an artist? Not very, but I think it’s a distinct possibility. If one were to ask me what interests Alvin would likely have outside of his religion and his father’s work, then art would be the first thing to spring to my mind. At best I’d give it maybe a 60% chance of being true. I mainly bring it up as a “backup option” for the Church’s theme if literature is already taken by Castle Town, given that there’s some scant references to art that can be cobbled together around Alvin, at least when it comes to teaching children. Seeing various doodles come to life as darkners would be interesting, at least.

Chapter 5

So Chapter 4’s potential church dark world could account for either a literature theme or an art theme. Earlier I mentioned a video game theme, so where does this fit? Well, I think the answer is obvious:

Deltarune has been heavily associating Noelle with her interest in video games and comparing them to dark worlds. The Spamton Sweepstakes has only doubled down on this association by teasing a future ice palace location from Dragon Blazers.

I think it’s more likely that this location will be in chapter 5 than, say, 6 or 7, because it was teased as one of the final images in the Spamton sweepstakes, which primarily teased content in the next chapters coming out.

On top of that, Noelle is an important character and Chapter 2 heavily implies that she will return to our party at some point, given that there’s unused dialogue referencing her being in Castle Town and equipping items that she currently can’t without hacking. Each member of Noelle’s family also seems poised to play a role in the narrative, so it would only make sense for things to come to a head in the Holiday household for Chapter 5.

Chapter 5 taking place in the Holiday house would also align with my earlier observations on Chapter 3’s dark world: a “house-themed” dark world would be too drab and would be less appealing if future dark worlds take place in other character’s houses. Having a Dreemurr dark fountain and Holiday dark fountain makes a lot more sense when one can be themed around television and the other around video games.

Another strength around this prediction is that, despite my attempts to tie my dark fountain predictions to my Alvin knight theory, I think overall this prediction can complement most major Knight suspects. I’m no stranger to the fact that Dess and Mayor Holiday have become rising stars in the field of Knight speculation—having dark worlds in the church and Holiday house would fit with ether of them being the Knight, given that they’re a religious family with history in the church, and the house fountain’s reasoning should be obvious. On the flip side, I think both locations also work for Alvin: the church is obvious, and Alvin learning (or already knowing) that Noelle is connected to the Angel would give him incentive to pursue the Holiday family.

On that note, if Alvin is the Knight then I think his arc will not only involve him trying to use a dark world to revive his father via his dust-covered hammer (likely during Chapter 4), but also using said revival as a means to tempt Noelle with the idea of reviving Rudy in Chapter 5, assuming his health takes a turn for the worse when he tries to go to church. This turn has some foreshadowing in Noelle’s line about wanting healing magic to be real for her father’s sake—Alvin could have the means to make such a wish come true, or at least make Noelle think that it will.

The Future

So where does this leave Chapters 6 and 7? I have no idea. Like I mentioned, I think there are major plot twists yet to be seen or hinted at in this game, and chapters 6 and 7 could break the pattern of previous dark worlds (if 6 and 7 even have dark worlds at all). If I had to come up with another form of escapism, then I suppose the town festival could be seen as a form of escapism in a similar vein to the toys and games of Chapter 1.

We have seen a few references to fairs and carnivals in dark worlds, so this would bring things full circle. If all of Hometown takes part in the fair, then a dark world with a fair theme could occur anywhere, even outdoors, or possibly even encompass the whole town.

Last on the list is the shelter.

Honestly, I have no clue about the shelter. I’m not even sure whether the shelter will be opened in Chapter 6 or opened in Chapter 7. Most fans say 7, but making it Chapter 6 would fit the Gaster theming that’s been associated with that location, and ending Chapter 5 on the gang heading into the shelter would be one heck of a cliffhanger. I can’t say what escapism could be associated with the shelter. If the shelter is the final chapter, then maybe Deltarune itself will be portrayed as the escapism, though I’m not sure how you’d make a Deltarune-themed dark world when you’re already playing Deltarune. If the game is going to have a chapter that’s the odd man out, then 6 and/or 7 are the likeliest candidates, imo, which basically makes them impossible to predict.

As I’ve alluded to earlier, any number of things could derail my prediction: there could be a huge twist, the festival could come sooner than Chapter 6, or the church could be a red herring. I remember in Chapter 1 when several fans (myself included) were confident that chapter 2’s dark world would be in the hospital due to the early screenshot of the fun gang dressed as doctors.

It’s very possible that Toby knows we’re going to assume there will be a church dark world when he has no such plans. It’s also possible that dark worlds won’t follow a consistent pattern at all and everything so far has just been coincidence.

Still, I think if we are going to make predictions to pass the time then it helps to come up with predictions that are internally consistent, or at least ones that have something narratively or thematically interesting that’s driving them. To me, throwing darts at a board and deciding fountain locations based on a building’s doors just seems far less intriguing. Those are my two cents, anyway. Either way, I can’t wait to see the next status update prove my prediction wrong before it even gets off the ground. Until then…

#deltarune #undertale #deltarune theory #noelle holiday #kris dreemurr

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danmei-confessions · 2 months

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I truly think SVSSS deserves a revision more than any of MXTX's other novels.

I love the novel, yes, but it is poorly written. MXTX rushed the chapters after Bbingqiu's reunion due to using VIP lock for the first time and it makes the writing distinctly worse. I understand that she was young while writing it, which is the whole reason why it deserves a revision. The novel could have so much more potential than it currently does and it's no wonder that it's her least popular when even fans of her other novels choose to not read it due to being uninterested.

So much more story could be added, or just minor details. For example, we barely know anything about the 12 peaks all together, and unless you make up facts, there's practically nothing on their peak lords too. I see complaints about the SVSSS wiki being empty regarding the peak lords and I hate to say it, but that's NOT due to the moderators but rather pure lack of content. Hell, most of the facts that do existed were only in the light novel and not in the web novel at all. There's such little information it's really not shocking that the fandom runs on head-canons. In all 100 chapters of her novel, half of it in slightly plot, while the other is SQQ being... SQQ.

I have so many thoughts on the potential SVSSS has:

Despite it being mentioned that there are 'plenty of minor sects' we only hear the name of one.

Despite sects like Tian Yi or Zhao Hua being a part of the main 4, we know almost nothing about them, how they run, or their disciples/sect lead (literally the only named Tian Yi disciples are the 3 nuns). We also don't know their locations, what locations they control, or their history

The past events of SVSSS (before SY transmigrated) are so messy. Theres only 2 timelines I've found here on tumblr and even those are so different from each other. Theres no clear years compared to TGCF or MDZS and its so frustrating. This also leaves characters practically age-less (other than like. Binghe) unlike her other characters.

Almost none of the side-characters grow development with anyone other than Shen Qingqiu. I say 'almost' but I can not name any off the top of my head. There are characters that have/had such interesting relationships that were completely thrown out the window For The Plot. This is so.... disappointing, considering other character's relationships make up the plot! It's not only the MC!

Everything being rushed is heartbreaking, and with a re-write I think arcs such as the Holy Mausoleum, Jin Lan, Borderlands, etc could become SO much more interesting. Alongside that, the Mai Gu Ridge situation was blown off so fast?? Like, it was mentioned that the Endless Abyss was breaking through CCM, then just never mentioned again...

Power Scaling. Fights. Actual fights between people who aren't LGQ or LBH. We only really got NYY/LPM, MBJ/his uncle, and TLJ/LBH. Most of those were ALSO rushed.

The System's appearance was reduced LARGELY in the later chapters-almost like MXTX forgot about them. The whole first 2 volumes include The System so much, and its unique! functions! all for it to be disregarded and those functions to never be used other than the jade necklace.

Actually going into the wonderous world of PIDW that is claimed to have interesting weapons (only Xin Mo was shown), locations, plants (only Qingsi and that one thats too long for me to feel like typing shown), and creatures (only rly ZZL and Madam Meiyin shown).

That's all I really have right now. I'm not trying to be an anti of MXTX's other novels. I just think that SVSSS has so much potential that she could have brought out if she had chosen to revise it. I love TGCF and MDZS very much, they have great scaling, brought-out potential, and relationships that SVSSS so could have.

I do want to exclaim that out of all her 3 novels SVSSS has been my favorite for years. I genuinely feel upset that it was not the one picked despite how obvious it is that it has barely any NEW content. Or at the least, confirmed facts. In her QNA's most of the questions are purely MDZS/TGCF while there's maybe 2 SVSSS ones. Those few questions answered by her are literally lifelines for some fans. (Such as heights and Moshang) The novel could become popular just if the criticisms/potential of it were actually addressed. I'm not saying that casually but I am very sure of it as MXTX is a freakishly great writer and she COULD take the novel to the same heights as TGCF/MDZS if she truly wanted to.

#danmei confessions #svsss #discourse

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jbaileyfansite · 11 months

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Interview with The Telegraph (2023)

We all know what is meant by McCarthyism. It popularly refers to the first half of the 1950s, when Senator Joseph R McCarthy led a ruthless campaign to hound suspected communists out of the US government. What’s less well-remembered than the Red Menace is the Lavender Scare: by an executive order from President Eisenhower, McCarthyism also targeted gays and lesbians. “If you want to be against McCarthy, boys,” the senator once told the press, “you’ve got to be either a Communist or a c--ksucker.”

Thus gay men and women, living closeted lives as they worked for the state, were targeted by sinister-sounding bodies: the FBI’s Sex Deviance Investigations Unit, Washington DC police’s Sex Perversion Elimination Program and the Department of State’s M Unit. All sought to identify government employees deemed to be security risks vulnerable to blackmail.

Popular culture lost sight of the Lavender Scare until it was brought into the light in the US by Thomas Mallon’s 2007 novel Fellow Travelers. Set mostly in the early 1950s, it told of a tangled romance between two men; Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller, a handsome war veteran and political fixer who steers clear of emotional attachment until he meets Tim Laughlin, a sweet young Catholic newcomer to DC whom he nicknames Skippy and sets up in the office of a Republican senator.

The novel was not published in the UK. But now it has been adapted for television, and one piece of casting in particular feels calculated to get the attention of audiences beyond the US: Laughlin is played by British actor Jonathan Bailey, best known as the Regency heartthrob Anthony, 9th Viscount Bridgerton.

His co-star is the American Matt Bomer, who, like Bailey, professes ignorance of what the New York Times, in its review of the novel, referred to as “the Lavender Hill mob”. “It’s a chapter of LGBTQIA history that I was completely unaware of,” he says.

This is not the first time the novel has been adapted – it was staged as an opera in Cincinnati in 2016. By then it had already caught the attention of Ron Nyswaner, who laboured over bringing the book to the screen for the best part of a decade. Best known for his script for Philadelphia, the 1993 Aids courtroom drama which earned Tom Hanks his first Oscar, it was his stint as a producer of Homeland that persuaded Showtime to fund an expensive eight-part decades-spanning drama. “I’m still in disbelief that we were able to tell this story on the scale that we were able to tell it,” says Bomer, who is also an executive producer on the drama.

The scale is considerable. The period detail of 1950s Washington, in both corridors of power and gay demimonde, is lavishly recreated. And as the story progresses it parts company with the novel, which opens with Hawk looking back at the closure of his career as a diplomat in Tallinn in 1991. Nyswaner’s script expands to take in other pivots in modern US history: the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the spread of Aids in the 1980s, when the now-married Hawk and the dying Laughlin meet for a final reckoning.

I met the drama’s two stars in London earlier in the summer, before the actors’ strike in Hollywood put a stop to such encounters. It was the first time they’d seen each other since the end of the shoot. Bomer, though just off the plane and heavily jet-lagged, exudes a chiselled, blue-eyed intensity. Bailey fizzes with puppyish energy. Both are themselves gay and Bailey in particular sees their casting as a sign of progress. “We would not be playing these parts five or 10 years ago,” he says. The highlights of his CV are mix and match. He has played mainly straight characters on television in the likes of Broadchurch, Crashing and W1A, and gay characters on stage in the Sondheim musical Company and Mike Bartlett’s play C--k in the West End.

The career of Bomer, 10 years his senior, looks a little more linear. His most high-profile film role is as an object of ladies’ lust in male-strippers drama Magic Mike and its sequel. But in 2014 he won a Golden Globe playing a closeted journalist in HBO’s adaptation of Larry Kramer’s play The Normal Heart. In 2018, he made his Broadway debut as part of an exclusively gay cast reviving The Boys in the Band, a portrait of gay life in 1960s New York.

Earlier on the day we met, Stanley Tucci had said on Desert Island Discs that he doesn’t see why straight actors shouldn’t play gay characters. “I think it’s incredibly complicated and nuanced,” says Bailey with a sigh. “You just want to make sure that everyone feels there’s enough space at the table. Everyone who is panicking that they’re never going to be able to play outside their own experience is wasting their energy.”

Bomer counters that it ought to cut both ways, that gay actors should be allowed to play straight. He speaks darkly of movie producers who “wouldn’t hire me because of who I was”, of gay actors who “weren’t even given a shot. A lot of it boils down to opportunity. Was everyone given the opportunity for the role? There is something about seeing the most authentic version of who you are represented on screen. It gives you hope.”

In Fellow Travelers that authenticity is portrayed most unswervingly in the bedroom, which the plot requires Hawk and Laughlin to visit often. “I haven’t necessarily really seen gay intimacy in a way that I would want to,” says Bailey. I gently remind him of Linus Roache, who plays a senator in Fellow Travelers but, back in 1994, starred in Jimmy McGovern’s Priest as a Catholic priest struggling with his sexuality – graphically so in a central scene with Robert Carlyle. “Oh yeah, that’s true,” he says. “I looked to that a lot.”

As is on trend for male actors nowadays, both leads look impeccable with their shirts off in low honeyed lighting. “Hawk is ex-military and he also wants to appeal to people in bathroom stalls,” reasons Bomer, who did period-appropriate Royal Canadian Air Force drills and looks no less pneumatic than he did in Magic Mike.

Bailey concedes that Laughlin, who orders milk the first time we meet him, boasts the body of a Greek god for the simple reason that the shoot overlapped with Bridgerton (yes, he confirms, the newly married Anthony is back for the third season). “There’s no way Tim would have had a Bridgerton body, but what can you do if you’re commuting? I was like, I really want to lose weight to tell Tim’s story, but I lost fat and just got really ripped.”

How resonant is the history portrayed in Fellow Travelers to today? It’s easy to play six degrees of separation between now and then. For instance, McCarthy’s closeted sidekick Roy Cohn is a lead character (played here by Will Brill). A ferocious prosecutor of both communists and gays, he would go on to be Donald Trump’s lawyer, before dying of complications from Aids. It was Trump’s three appointees to the Supreme Court who this summer enabled a 6-3 ruling releasing businesses and organisations from the obligation to treat same-sex couples equally. The landmark ruling occurred just days before I met the actors, and has been widely interpreted as a profound attack on LGBT rights.

“There is an entire generation of men and women who suffered and struggled and loved under a government that felt that its morals were more important than their personal freedoms,” says Bomer. “And that’s exactly what we see happening today. Whether it’s McCarthy or the current Supreme Court justices, are morals more important than freedoms?”

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#fellow travelers #jonathan bailey #matt bomer #the telegraph interview #interviews:2023 #jonny bailey #interviews #NEW!

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path-of-grass-and-leaves · 2 years

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Localizing A Magical Journal

When I was starting out, every book I read on the subject of witchcraft seemed to contain a long list of crystals and imported herbs. Many of these were not easily accessible and didn't fit into my personal practice. Magic came easier to me and became significantly more meaningful after I started localizing my practice.

It has also made writing my magical journal that much easier. Even after over a decade of practice, I still found the task of writing a grimoire to be a daunting one. Adding more local and personal elements to my practice has helped me to organize my journal, making the act of actually writing in it much less strenuous.

If you're looking to localize your grimoire and don't know how to get started, here are a few ideas:

Sections for Native and Invasive Plants

This section can include folklore, culinary uses, medicinal uses, cultivation, a planting calendar, which animals/insects they attract, and a personal correspondence list. I would write one chapter for invasive plants and another for native ones. Additionally, you could add a section for garden crops if desired. I would also add notes on toxicity to humans and pets.

Why work with invasive plants? Because they're abundant! Foraging them helps reduce their population and we get the benefit of a new plant to use in our practice. In fact, mugwort, a popular herb among the occult community, is an invasive plant where I live.

Local Animal Symbolism Section

I organize my animal symbolism section by mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, and fish. These chapters can include folklore, physical characteristics, behavior, habitat, diet, and correspondences/symbolism.

Entries can be made more personal by observing animals and recording experiences (just no hand feeding or interacting). I also like to include different forms of veneration. This can be spiritual in nature, like leaving offerings, or mundane, like installing a nesting box for birds.

A chapter on bugs and insects is also a good idea. This could be helpful if you keep an outdoor garden and want to record information on common pests and pollinators.

Local Stones and Crystals

One of the least ethical occult practices, in my opinion, is the use of crystals. The rising popularity of crystals is the cause of a lot of suffering. Does that rose quartz really promote love when it was sourced through child labor? It's important to know where your crystals come from and how they are harvested.

One way to localize your stone and crystal collection is to research which are specific to your area and where to find them. For example, there are certain rivers in my area that contain agate, jasper, and quartz. If you can't go out and search for them yourself, finding an ethical distributor to purchase from is more than sufficient.

Entries can include their composition, how they are formed, what they are used for, and personal correspondences.

Family Recipies and Local Edible Plants

I imagine that having a recipe section would be very important to a practitioner who performs most of their workings in the kitchen. I love to cook, but it rarely makes its way into my practice unless I'm preparing an offering of some sort. Either way, I think that having even a small section of culinary recipes can be beneficial, because it adds a personal element to a grimoire.

I would include your favorite recipes, family recipes, and even dishes that can be made from locally foraged plants. Correspondences can also be noted for each dish and recipes can be specific to certain deities, holidays, or workings.

Urban Legends and Local Superstitions

Urban legends and local ghost stories can be a fun addition to any personal grimoire. You can research the origins of these stories, read the personal experiences of others, and record them in your journal. You can also visit places associated with urban legends (only if it's safe and legal to do so) and record your own experiences.

Another way of localizing your grimoire is to research common superstitions in your area and where they come from, or record your own family superstitions.

Local Spirits and Places of Importance

For spirit workers, research local spirits and entities, their associations, appearance, and origins. In addition to this, write individual entries on spirits that you work with personally. I would include their assumed appearance, location, personality, how to call them, preferred offerings, and areas of strength/weakness. You can also add a section on thoughtforms, if you use them in your practice.

It's also important to think about which local areas are significant to you personally. Is it a river? A clearing in the woods? A hiking trail? Your own backyard? Make a list of areas that inspire you. How can you get there? What grows there? What kind of animals live there? Are there spirits? Would you perform specific workings in these areas?

#witchcraft #grimoire #book of shadows #witchcraft community #local witchcraft #witch tips

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sniigura-archive · 2 years

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i know you and i like you anyway (1)

chapter 2

nathan prescott x reader ; warren graham x reader

summary: when the pressure and eyes are on you, it’s hard to stay afloat. especially when your not so forgotten best friend comes back into your life. and they are ready to mess up the plans others have for you.

having parents and peers constantly nag you about your grades, interests and lack of an significant other can bring you down. but meeting the new kid in the academy can change at least one of your mocking points.

yn is implied to be afab (lives in fem dorms) but is genderneutral otherwise!

tw/cw: mentions of poverty, mental health issues, canon typical violence, swearing, implied/ref drug use, modern au as in its not 2013, huge canon divergence and messed up time line, obsessive behaviour, possessive behaviour, tell me if i missed smth!

read on ao3 for better formatting and tagging

unlike popular belief nathan prescott did not grow up in arcadia bay. the heir to the prescott name grew up in fort lauderale, florida. his family, from his mother side, lived there. she was able to convince his father to let them live there, bless her soul.

(“it will be good for him! for us! the pressure will destroy him. just look at how kristine treats us.. i don’t want to lose another child.”)

he spend his time at prestigious elementary and middle schools. and at middle school is where he meet you. people started quickly talking about you, simply because you were the only scholarship student. unlike everyone else you didn’t come from money.

your uniform was constantly 3 sizes too big, your hand was constantly raised and when you got anything less than an A there was clear panic on your face. the biggest difference to everyone else were your empty eyes and constant deadpan. seemingly nothing truly got a reaction out of you. there was a boy who tried to, by pulling at your hair and messing up your homework.

you beat him up so bad that the whole class just decided to leave you alone. and fact is, everyone who was near you also got left alone, so nathan was naturally pulled towards you. he wanted nothing more than to be left alone.

middle school was hard, simply because nathan`s problems started to really show, he wasn`t a child anymore who threw temper tantrum’s. he was now a boy with violent emotional outbursts. and quite frankly, children are cruel. getting a rise out of the weird prescott kid was more entertaining than torturing their maids and nanny’s.

because you were the only one who could handle his temper, simply because you didn’t care about it as long as he didn’t touch you, you got paired up for different projects.

and that’s how you meet his family. his father didn’t like you, but he doesn’t even like his own children, so his opinion didn’t matter. his mother and sister loved you, simply because you were very polite. dinners were filled with you being questioned to hell and back while you were trying to eat as much as possible.

“uhhh.. i have an older brother, he’s 2 years older than me…i have a twin brother, too. and another 3 little brothers. my father works at a la…actually he’s unemployed right now. my mother works as a teacher and during the summer break she works..where ever they need someone. what i want to be when i grow up?…middle class.”

meeting you after school was hard, responsibilities which nathan couldn’t even imagine carrying were put on your shoulder.

(“sorry. i have to study and babysit. so sorry, i need to grocery shop and take care of dinner. i wish i could, i have to cut the hair of all my brothers and clean the house. if i don’t pass this test my father will murder me.. i have to study. thank you for being so understanding.”)

to be honest, at first nathan didn’t even want anything to do with you. his mother insisted for him to invite you over. he now knows she pitied you. he now knows, too that you even were able to pull on the heartstrings of his father, because he would ask when you would visit again.

when nathan asked you, why did you have to care for everything, what did your brothers do to help? “have fun, i guess.” he felt angry for you. “how can you just roll over and take it? what the fuck is wrong with you?”

“well, who else would do i? why are you angry? i’m not angry, and i’m the one with the responsibilities.”

nathan learned to love you and the emptiness you carried around.

just like everything good in his life, your friendship (or was it more? it felt like more. he misses you, he misses your mean comments, your eye bags and exhaustion.) ended slowly.

once middle school was over, and he was able to graduate with a dirty record of violent outbursts, which was magically clean once he looked over it. the prescott family moved to arcadia bay. he was enrolled in the blackwell academy.

he found this out at the end of the summer break. to be honest he was getting suspicious, because all his questions regarding the highschool he was supposed to attend were being ignored. his father send him away, his mother smiled at him with sadness, he insisted to go to the same school as you.

“please, don’t forget me at your new cool school.”

“i will NEVER forget you, idiot. you’re the only tolerable person i know.”

the way you smiled at him was still clear in his head. you were beautiful in a way he has never seen, and the older he gets the more he realises he never will see anyone quite as pretty as you.

when nathan is 13 he meets dr. jacoby and starts treatment for the anger he feels. he knows that he fells ptity for him. nathan misses you, when he told you about his father, about the bruises and pressure he is under you simply talk about an escape plan. a way you both will be free from the shackles your family put on you and live happily everafter.

maybe you pitied him, but that would never stop you from treating him normally. you didn’t try to avoid his outburst, his meltdowns, you were always direct to him and never lied. he respected you more than anyone. he sees it in his mother, and relatives, how they dance around him as if he is fragile.

when nathan moved away, the first year he visited every break he could. summer, fall, winter and spring spend together. when he wasn’t there with you, he texted you. sending letters, postcards and hour long phone calls. his father hated this, more than anything.

(“depending not only on someone, but on such a low class person? don’t you know that you’re being used? they only see you as a walking wallet! i will put an end to this.”)

the only time dr. jacoby has seen sean prescott in person is when he expressed his concern regarding a codependent friendship with someone from florida. looking back on it, the doctor realised he was lied to and he was able to convince nathan to stop the contact, the only stable and positive influence in his life.

nathan wishes he could say that he got back in contact with you, that you were best friends again, but life is cruel and he’s a coward. he misses you, more than anything. he thinks he’s obsessed with you, dreams were about you (both dreams and nightmares), his day was spend imagining what you were up to, what you look like now. the silly thing is, nathan has never told anyone about you. victoria knew that he had an ex best friend in florida, but she didn’t know any details, rachel knew he was hung up on someone, jefferson knew that there was someone inhabiting his heart and mind.

and well. the school knew somethings. see, the thing is, when you’re high some things slip out. sometimes you mumble a name once or thrice when you’re passed out, and when you (try) hooking up with someone, you moan the wrong name. more than once. with different people. yeah. when one person claims he said the wrong name it’s one thing, but three? he was in deep shit.

victorias nosiness didn’t help, she wanted all the gory details, but he couldn’t say anything. what was he supposed to say? i fucked it up with the best person, because i couldn’t stand up to my shitty father and useless psychiatrist? sure. part of him was sure that she saw the pictures of you he has in his drawers, in his albums, hidden away.

for a short time nathan thinks he moved on, when he met rachel. she was pretty, smart and nice. she was less than you and much more. and he thinks he’s ok, ok with the distance and unknown which surrendes you. why did all your social media accounts have to be private?

nathan is 18 and it has been nearly 4 years since he has seen you. blackwell turned into the senior focused art academy, just like it was planned. he entered his first year in the 2 year programme and finally he was able to make a name for himself. victoria turned the vortex club into a group for the elite just like how she planned, with nathan’s help. he wasn’t the victim anymore, he finally ruled over the school grounds. summer passed and before he could register it, it was fall break.

it was the last few days and students started to move back into their dorms. the talk right now where the new students attending, some students dropped out because they were catched with drugs on their person, some couldn’t afford the rising tuition prices and others simply moved away because of their parents. nathan couldn’t careless, those who left aren’t close to him, but who is truly close to the prescott heir? he can’t lie though, he lost one of his best customers, or more like frank did.

victoria was in nathan’s dorm room, she was checking out the new student’s. according to her, there were no new people in the girl dorm’s who fit in the vortex club. how tragic. outside on the hallway was some commotion,

“please, move and unlock your door before i decide against helping you with your furniture.” could be heard from the outside, spoken by an unknown voice. the room besides nathan was being occupied. sad. he will miss the privacy and silence. especially now, with furniture being build. fucking hell.

“oh my, hottie alert. two of them even.” victoria was peeking out of his door.

“oh yeah? found some new members?” she hummed, “let’s go over and introduce ourselves. first impressions are everything. before the freaks come and snatch `em away.”

nathan groaned, “give me a minute. i’m still fucking hangover from yesterday. fuck, frank needs to stop stretching his shit or one day i’m going to die, for real.” victoria only chuckled at her best friend.

stepping away from the door she got out here phone and looked herself over in the camera, fixing a few strands and wiping away lipstick which started to smear over her lips. in the meantime nathan got up from his bed, going through his har with his hands and putting on his iconic jacket. with that he left the room, victoria right behind him. looking his door before they make their way over to his new neighbours.

and honestly, he should have expected this, because you always meet someone twice. or that’s what you always said. the door was open, and some guy had his back turned towards them. damn, he’s tall. it’s kinda overkill. turning around, the stranger nearly ran into him and victoria,

“shit! my bad, i didn’t see you there…do we know each other?”

you weren’t who nathan saw when he found out you were back, or more like you were here. in his life. instead, he saw face to face with your twin. the guy was freakishly tall, nathan remembered how small he used to be, now he was over 6 feet tall with clear defined muscles.

nathan with his proud 5`7 feet felt his fragile ego being tested, simply by the fact that some guy he used to know when he was, like, 13 was now way taller than him. and part of him wants to lash out, yell at oliver for not watching where he’s fucking going. but nathan was aware that this would kill any chance of reconciling with you. starting a fight with your brother would immediately put him on your shitlist, even if you hate oliver. sometimes.

(“he’s still my brother. if you talk badly about him again, i’m going to throw you out of this window.”)

“jesus himself could stand before you and you wouldn’t recognise him. stop bothering people, this is the third time you have asked someone this. get your stuff already.” your clearly annoyed voice rang through the room. thankfully this took away n

oliver scratched his head, “man, not my fault i can’t recognise faces for shit. my name’s oliver. nice to meet you guys!”

victoria the angel (or devil) took over the conversation, noticing that nathan was a tiny bit overwhelmed, “hi! i’m victoria and this is my best friend nathan. we just wanted to welcome you to blackwell. if you need any help don’t be afraid to ask us.” she put on her best mask of friendliness. “we are the leaders of the vortex cub, a group for blackwells elite. i’m sure you will fit right in.” taking out a flyer she gave it to him.

reading it over oliver said, “me? for sure. i don’t know about grumpy bear back there.”

“what’s that supposed to mean?”

“you’re my twin, and i love you but you’re mean. like, even teachers are afraid of you. well, i better get going before you throw something at me.” with that oliver left his spot at the door and nathan finally can look at you. you were sitting in the middle of the room, an unfinished shelf laying on the floor and a toolbox was at your side. in one hand you held a screwdriver and in the other hand, raised into the air you held a pillow, obviously ready to throw it.

you look just like he remembered and at the same time it feels like he’s looking at a stranger. you’re not quite as skinny anymore and your eye bags weren’t as dark anymore. wearing a oversized hoodie and jeans, just like when you were a kid. but now he knows it’s probably more a fashion choice instead of only owning hand me downs and extra big clothes to grow into. of course, you still have to be stupidly attractive. now you wear glasses, too.

you lowered the pillow back to the ground, now that your target left. looking down at the shelf you pouted and said in a small voice, “i’m not mean.” your piercing gaze drifted over to victoria and then nathan, “hi, i’m the mean y/n, apparently.” when you saw him, you did a small double take. victoria and her awareness immediately caught that. stupid artists and their eye for details, especially since she has heard that name mumbled many times.

“oh? where are you guys from?” she asked, smiling at you.

“uhh…florida,” when you saw her raise a brow, hinting at waiting more details you continued, “fort lauderdale, to be exact.”

“what a coincidence! nathan here also grew up there. do you perhaps know each other?” the way victoria smiled reminded you of a dog barring it’s teeth in a warning.

nathan knew you and you would play along with whatever lie he went with, but part of him doesn’t want to lie. here’s his chance to actually start a path, to be friends again (or to be more. but you probably hate him, on the other hand who doesn’t?).

“…long fuckin` time no see, y/n.” what a lame way to say hello after nearly 4 years, but it’s not like he can rewind time.

before he could register it he was hit square in the face with the discarded pillow, “what the fuck? what happened to forgive and forget? huh?”

“woah..” only now did nathan register that fucking warren was also in the room, sitting on the bed. the guy was impressed, he never thought he would see someone attack nathan fucking prescott. warren is putting you on a pedestal right now.

“what the fuck are you looking at, loser?” in true nathan fashion he had to lash out at someone and it couldn’t be you. warren quickly put his hands up in surrender, regretting ever speaking.

“no fighting in my room, guys.” oliver returned in his hands two boxes stacked on top of each other. looking at nathan, he said “so i do know you, what kind of unforgivable act did you commit for grumpy to punish you with the pillow of hatred?”

“stop calling me that!”

oliver walked further into the room, dropping his boxes near you and asking you something, in a hushed voice and a language unknown to the others in the room. when you answered his eyes widened in shock.

“the rich kid! of course i remember you, dude. in fact, y/n will forgive you for whatever you did and marry you. so we- you guys can be rich and shit, together.” oliver nodded wisely, while you looked so tired. shaking your head, you simply started to screw around with the screws in the shelf.

quickly dismantling the shelf, you dropped the screws messily on the floor and stood up, pointing to your brother you said, “you’re horrible,” pointing to nathan, “i’m incredibly angry with you,” pointing to both warren and victoria you spoke your last words, “it was nice to meet you both. warren, i will take you up on that offer to show me around.” and then you walked out with the tool box in hand.

“are you finally going to tell the story about y/n?”

“…fuck, i don’t know how to put up any furniture.”

#life is strange #life is strange x reader #nathan prescott #nathan prescott x reader #warren graham #warren graham x reader #life is strange imagine #x reader #nathan prescott imagine #warren graham imagine

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csuitebitches · 2 years

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Reading List: Spirituality, Globalisation, Parenting and the 0.99 Cent Pricing Bias

What I’ve read (🖤) and planning to read (🤍)

Books

• Fall of human intellect - A Parvasarthy (genre: spirituality, humanness) 🖤

Academic Papers

The backlash against globalisation - Stefanie Walter (from annual review) 🤍

In recent years, the world has seen a rising backlash against globalization. This article reviews the nature, causes, and consequences of the globalization backlash. It shows that, contrary to a popular narrative, the backlash is not associated with a large swing in public opinion against globalization but is rather a result of its politicization. The increasing influence of globalization- skeptic actors has resulted in more protectionist, isolationist, and nationalist policies, some of which fundamentally threaten pillars of the contemporary international order. Both material and nonmaterial causes drive the glob- alization backlash, and these causes interact and mediate each other. The consequences are shaped by the responses of societal actors, national gov- ernments, and international policy makers. These responses can either yield to and reinforce the global backlash or push back against it. Understanding these dynamics will be an important task for future research.

The causes and consequences of urban riot and unrest - Tim Newburn (from annual review) 🤍

This review explores those varied bodies of work that have sought to un- derstand crowd behavior and violent crowd conduct in particular. Although the study of such collective conduct was once considered central to social science, this has long ceased to be the case and in many respects the study of protest and riot now receives relatively little attention, especially within criminology. In addition to offering a critical overview of work in this field, this review argues in favor of an expanded conception of its subject matter. In recent times, scholarly concern has increasingly been focused on ques- tions of etiology, i.e., asking how and why events such as riots occur, with the consequence that less attention is paid to other, arguably equally impor- tant questions, including how riots spread, how they end, and, critically, what happens in their aftermath. Accordingly, as a corrective, the review proposes a life cycle model of riots.

Parenting and it’s effects on children : reading and misreading behaviour genetics (from annual review) 🖤

There is clear evidence that parents can and do influence children. There is equally clear evidence that children’s genetic makeup affects their own behavioral characteristics, and also influences the way they are treated by their parents. Twin and adoption studies provide a sound basis for estimating the strength of genetic effects, although heritability estimates for a given trait vary widely across samples, and no one estimate can be considered definitive. This chapter argues that knowing only the strength of genetic factors, however, is not a sufficient basis for estimating environmental ones and indeed, that attempts to do so can systematically underestimate parenting effects. Children’s genetic predispositions and their parents’ childrearing regimes are seen to be closely interwoven, and the ways in which they function jointly to affect children’s development are explored.

More than a penny’s worth: left-digit bias and firm pricing- Avner Strulov-Shlain (from MorningBrew) 🤍

A penny saved. What’s the difference between $2.99 and $3.00? Basic math says one cent, but you probably perceive the difference to be about 22 cents, a new paper by a University of Chicago business school professor estimated. The research explores left digit bias—the phenomenon where consumers’ perceptions are overly influenced by the leftmost number in the price—and it brought receipts, analyzing retail scanner data on 3,500 products sold by 25 US chains. And while it might seem like every price you see ends in .99, the paper argues that retailers are leaving money on the table by underestimating this bias when setting prices.

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bonebabbles · 1 year

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Riverstar's Home Finished

It's a good book in the last 5 chapters. It's a bad book in the first 23.

THE GOOD:

It pumped the breaks BIG TIME on Clear Sky's ridiculous "redemption arc," giving him the space to be the fantastic, greedy villain he functions best as.

The dialogue is written very well. It's been pointed out to me that generally Kate Cary writes good dialogue, and it really shows. There are some excellent lines and quotes in this book.

This scene between Tall Shadow and River Ripple is superb.

Riverstar's arc is handled competently. It's a story about learning to balance peace and self-defense, and not lose what makes him special in the face of Clan pressure.

Night, Riverstar's deputy, is a woman who remains his platonic friend. This is a very low bar but it was cleared.

Arc is a positive portrayal of an adoptive parent, though it is only mentioned briefly. Riverstar thinks highly and lovingly of him.

Gray Wing being angry tutorial tips every time Riverstar died was funny.

Clan cats being able to create rafts and use willowbark as binding is now canon

The ending action is commendable. The struggle over the bridge was compelling, and excellently showcased both Riverstar as a unique perspective who handles conflict in his own way, and Skystar as a xenophobic dictator who uses his religion to justify his greed.

THE BAD:

So many characters come out of nowhere, they are introduced endlessly.

Which especially sucks because those intros aren't terrible, but you don't get the chance to see their traits in action.

A lot of Riverstar's most interesting traits have been removed, or are not complimented by the story.

For example; in Chapter 19 he starts having an identity crisis about who he is and what makes him special; but because he's frustrated and lost about this for several chapters, you just get Grumpy Riverstar until he has his epiphany while fighting Slash.

MOST of this book is recap that destroys a MASSIVE draw of the character by making him less mysterious.

For example; Turns out he couldn't swim until the second book of DOTC, he hasn't been in this territory longer than the other cats, and he spent 6 months locked in a house doing nothing.

It's a real slog and PACKED with filler. God it's boring. The first 18 chapters have nothing to do with the last few and 5 more are dedicated to traveling.

They managed to brutally kill another female character (Flutter) in an arc already notorious for its misogyny, give her no speaking lines before that death, and forced blubbering romantic pining onto a character who was popular in large part because he didn't have that.

His new mate, Finch (later Finch Song), appears suddenly in chapter 24, three quarters of the way through the book, and they fall in love at breakneck pace. She's pregnant 4 chapters later.

Finch also ends up giving up everything she loved, her whole life, including her friends and family, to follow Riverstar home and give him biokittens so he can finally get over Flutter. (they dont even name a kid after her)

Final rating: 4/10 Should have been a novella

It's not as fucking awful as Onestar's Concussion or Leopardstar's Hernia. It is a readable enough book and does have a solid ending, but you could skip more than half of the book and miss nothing.

Fans of Riverstar will probably be disappointed by the pointless retcons, but will enjoy the last 10 or so chapters when he's true-to-form. The original content that's worth reading would have fit just fine into a novella.

If you want to read it but aren't interested in a DOTC recap, I would recommend just reading the Tall Shadow/River Ripple scene I linked above and then starting from Chapter 19 onward. I wouldn't buy this one unless you're a dedicated Riverstar fan, or don't plan to read DOTC and want to use this book as your only experience of the main arc.

#bones reads rh #Riverstar's Home

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fanhackers · 1 year

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Radio, Radio!

I almost didn’t write this post for fear that you guys will think I’m even more of an old than I even am, but a) fuck it and b) there’s a way in which everything old is new again, so bear with me. *takes deep breath* OK, so when I was a young fan, a lot of my fannish life happened over the RADIO. Yes, RADIO, that–I was about to say, that weird looking box with dials on it, but you probably don’t even have a radio. (*Shut up, shut up, I can’t hear you, la la I am going to live forever!*) But you probably listen to something like radio on Spotify, or you listen to podcasts, or you might even use an app to listen to some great legacy radio station in your area. So imagine you had a dedicated box just for that.

Anyway, in the before-times, radio then–like podcasts now–was a way to do fandom. Music people know this of course, but I’m both a fan and a theatre person, and man, radio theatre was the best, and fannish radio theatre even better. Britain had and still has a really strong radio drama tradition, which is smart because it lets them produce new plays by new writers for a fraction of the cost of a staged production. But NPR in the US used to do radio drama too–they had a show called NPR Playhouse / Sounds of Theatre which I was devoted to.

I have two particularly strong fannish memories from this era. First, the joy of hearing the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on radio. Douglas Adams wrote Hitchhikers for radio and radio is the best way to experience it - I mean, Zaphod having two heads and three arms is radio joke if there ever was one, and then all these poor TV and film people had to figure out how to actually get an actor with a second head. (Footnote 1). I backtrack here to say that if you don’t know what I’m talking about, never read or saw any version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy, click on the link and have yourself a whale of a time (or a bowl of petunias of a time.) (Sorry, the whole Hitchhiker’s thing makes me instantly 12 years old FOREVER. My whole world is Hitchhikers, Star Wars, and Doctor Who– Five.)

Moving on: the second great fannish radio experience was NPR’s dramatized version of Star Wars, which had Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels playing their original roles, and Perry King as Han Solo - Perry King, you will remember (who am I kidding, you will absolutely not remember, but anyway), became a fan-favorite for a show called Riptide, so that was okay, too. And they expanded the text! And added new scenes! I can remember Mark Hamill giving an interview talking about how different it was to play the part for radio; he talked about how you had to sort of put movement in your voice at all times: “I’m–grunt–putting on my–harumph–jacket!” But he was great at it–obviously, since he’s become such a famous voice actor since. And it’s wonderful that podcasting has brought theatre and fandom back into the medium of sound - podcasts are the obvious new media version of all this.

Okay, so bring this back to fan studies, these personal fannish reminiscences (and awesome links—you’re welcome!) are brought to you by Martin Cooper’s book Radio Legacy in Popular Culture: The Sounds of British Broadcasting Over the Decades (Bloombury, 2022, excerpt available at the link). Make no mistake, this is a fannish book in its way - Cooper is interested not just in radio but in artistic works that are in some way about radio, which he regards explicitly as fanworks about radio:

In the case of fandom it could be alternative storylines; in our case of radio listening, it can be a reinterpretation of what has been heard on the airwaves. Hence, it is plausible to think of the responses I analyse in the chapters that follow as reinterpretations and critiques of radio listening; that they have been produced by professional writers and musicians makes them less of a subculture and more of a series of transformative texts that extend the meaning and understanding of the medium of radio. They are portrayals of the everyday action of listening to the radio: of paying attention to the programmes, the discussions, the documentaries, the dramas, the daily shows and the DJs.

Note that the book has a specifically British focus, but British music and drama have influenced fandoms all over the world. I mean, Radio, Radio; Video Killed The Radio Star; Oh Yeah (There’s a Band Playing On The Radio), Radio Clash –Cooper frames all these songs as part of a British transformative fannish response to the medium. Radio on!

–Francesca Coppa, fanhackers volunteer

(1) I got the chance to meet Mark Wing-Davey, who played Zaphod Beeblebrox both on the original radio show and on the BBC show--he's a big-shot theatre director now, but I honestly could not keep my inner 12 year old under control: I basically had my fists stuffed in my mouth because OMG Zaphod Beeblebrox!!! my heart!! and finally I just kind of choked out, "sorry, I can't--excuse me" and fled the dinner. *facepalm*

#author: francesca coppa #forever 12 #radio fandom #so glad that podcasts and podfic are a thing now!!

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bleach-boyz · 1 year

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Chapter 4: Jackasses

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Almost the entirety of the year 2000 was spent filming stunt after stunt for Jackass. MTV had decided to produce and air three seasons pretty much back-to-back, starting in October of that year. That meant that you all needed to make an enormous amount of content extremely quickly. Beyond just being contractually obligated to, you filmed so much because you wanted to ensure that you’d all make it into the show as often as possible. You knew the producers were getting footage from a few different sources, which meant there was a lot that ultimately couldn’t be used. You wanted to make sure that what you were filming was good enough to make it into the show.

You were behind the camera a lot of the time when filming, but you would sometimes participate in the stunts where the main point was just to watch someone get hurt. You were often filmed attempting and failing to do something on a skateboard or simply slamming yourself into something hard. You almost never got genuinely hurt, and it became a bit of a joke how indestructible you were.

Pain was never an issue for you, and you’d much rather take a bump than be involved in any pranks or gross-out stunts. At some point the boys caught on to how much you didn't like vomit so whenever they would puke during a stunt, which was happening more and more frequently, they’d intentionally get close to you to make you upset. This torture did inevitably work over time to desensitize you to it, though.

The release and subsequent popularity of the Jackass show were the final push needed to skyrocket Bam to a new level of fame. 2001 brought both his Element Skateboards partnership and his introduction into the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games, which, in combination with Jackass and the CKY films, had him raking in an absurd amount of money. Bam’s life had become a ball of chaos, and you and the crew were just along for the ride. He’d constantly fly you all out with him to different appearances he had to make for his skate merch or Jackass, and you got to see places you’d never seen before.

By the end of its first season, Jackass was officially a cultural phenomenon. Besides Bam, Ryan and Dico over time became the most popular and recognized member of the CKY crew due to being the stars of some of the most memorable stunts and skits that made it into the show. This meant them and Bam were asked to come to L.A. to shoot more often with the rest of the reoccurring cast as the seasons progressed. The rest of you were definitely less famous but still acknowledged constantly as "the CKY crew" or "Bam’s crew" by the public, especially in West Chester. West Chester wasn’t a very big town, so everyone and their mother knew about the kids that "made it big" with a Hollywood TV show.

You basically never had to pay for your own drinks at the local bars anymore, and you’d also noticed that the dudes were starting to get a lot more attention from women than they ever had before. You resented that part a little bit. You knew those dumbasses didn’t deserve having so many beautiful women around them, mostly because of their inability to be humble about it. You didn’t say anything though, since you were also getting extra attention from men and occasionally women, and you didn’t want to appear hypocritical.

After your breakup, you started sleeping around a little bit with those random people who’d approach you. You’d never been particularly interested in one-night stands before, but you thought you’d try them out in an attempt to get over Chad. You couldn’t really tell if it helped, but it was still fun in the meantime. You weren’t shy about your behavior, but early on you decided to keep any hookups with women on the low. You knew that, unfortunately, your friends would only have straight guy fetishizing nonsense to say about it if they found out, so you mainly confided in Jenn with the details.

Sometime in early 2001, while the show’s second season was airing, a senator started a campaign against Jackass, claiming MTV was responsible for helping parents protect their kids or some bullshit. It was their persistent and ruthless attack, in combination with a few copycat incidents, that led to MTV caving and canceling the show after its first three seasons.

Of course, the entire cast and crew were extremely frustrated by this, and you became a bit worried over what this would mean for all of you career-wise. Bam would obviously be okay, but for the show to be cancelled barely a year after it started, that could be bad for the rest of you.

Luckily, you got word soon after the cancellation that perhaps the most important project any of you would ever work on was greenlit and would begin its filming as soon as possible—Jackass: The Movie.

The Jackass movie was especially important to you because Jeff and Spike, after some begging from your end, were allowing you to be one of the assistant directors. Your duties mainly included creating the schedule, being the go-between person for the cast and different crews, and just basically helping Jeff with anything he needed. This meant that you were there every shooting day and got to spend a lot more time around the Jackass cast members that you’d barely interacted with before.

Every member of the Jackass cast was a big character in their own right, and that created a high-energy and often unhinged environment. They were all really nice, but everyone was also constantly trying to fuck with each other, and even though you were rarely a target, you still had to keep your guard up. Especially when you were around Steve-O and Pontius.

You'd become close with those two over the course of shooting. At first, you just found them entertaining and good company when getting fucked up, but as you spent more time with them, you really started to care for them. You cared for all the cast and crew, of course, but you'd had a hard time moving past a friendly coworker relationship with most of them. Steve-O and Pontius had instantly pierced through that, and they felt like your brothers in the way that the CKY crew did. That didn't mean they weren't dicks, though. Your close friendship ultimately just meant they felt comfortable messing with you.

Bam and Ryan were the only members of the CKY crew that were official members of the Jackass cast, but Raab and Dico both managed to get one stunt in the movie. Although their involvement in the film was less than that of the show, the two and Rake didn’t seem to have much of a problem with it. With the extra time they were all able to dedicate themselves more to the continuing CKY film series.

You were in the peanut gallery for a few of the stunts in the Jackass movie, but you weren’t tasked with any stunts yourself due to being busy with assistant director responsibilities. The only thing that you filmed was an alternate take of the "Off Road Tattoo" stunt. Steve-O had been running late that day for some reason, and when it looked like he might not show up, Jeff asked if you’d consider doing it instead. It had originally been your idea, after all. After maybe five minutes of contemplation, you agreed. You’d been getting a lot of tattoos lately anyway, and you weren’t the type to regret something stupid and fun like that.

The tattoo artist gave you pretty much the exact same fucked-up smiley face that Steve-O got when he finally arrived to set; only yours didn’t make it in the movie. You were only slightly irritated by that, but you knew that there would be no reason to show the same stunt twice. Also, Steve-O was absolutely a more entertaining presence on screen than you. Jeff promised your cut would end up in the extras included in the eventual DVD release of the movie.

By far the most rewarding and fun time you had filming was in Japan. You’d never been out of the country before, and to go somewhere so beautiful and different was very exciting. When you weren’t filming, you spent a lot of time alone wandering around different parts of Tokyo, trying to experience the culture and everything it had to offer.

Just because you were in a different country, though, didn’t mean that the partying would stop. You were still getting dragged out to bars every night with the rest of the cast and crew, immersing yourself in the Tokyo nightlife. However, it was one of the more uneventful nights that you remember the most.

A bunch of the guys had insisted you all go to this burlesque strip club up the street from your hotel after you finished dinner. You weren’t particularly interested, but you felt like getting drunk, and it wasn’t like watching attractive women dance would be hard for you.

When you arrive, you go straight to the bar with Pontius and Dave while the other members of the cast and crew try to find a place to sit. You three collectively buy a round of beers for everyone and head back over to pass them out to the group. They all had to spread out a bit due to there not being a spot big enough for everyone to sit together, and you set your beer down at a table with Ryan, Bam, Steve-O, and Chris. Before sitting down yourself, though, you decide to go back to the bar and take a couple shots. You could handle your alcohol pretty well, and the atmosphere of the club was making you kind of anxious, so you thought you’d push yourself a little faster toward your desired level of drunkenness.

"What are you havin?" Knoxville asks as he comes up behind you.

"Not entirely sure; I just kinda yelled "two whiskeys" so.."

The bartender comes back with two mystery whiskey shots for you, and Johnny asks for two more for himself. When he receives them, he thanks the bartender with some weak Japanese vocabulary and pays for all four shots.

"Loaded with MTV money? Or is this just your Southern hospitality?" You ask, and he chuckles.

"I can’t help being a gentleman." He says, and you both cheers, throw back the shots, and head back to your respective tables.

Pontius secretly paid a dancer to go give Dave a lap dance, which made you all die of laughter as you could tell he was both delighted and stressed out by the situation. Besides that, no one was really jumping at the opportunity to interact with any of the dancers, and you found it quite funny how awkward everyone seemed about it. It made you wonder why anyone wanted to come there in the first place.

Bam later pulls out his wallet and asks if he can buy you a dance, to which you decline.

"Why? You’ve slept with women, right? I thought you’d enjoy it." He says with a smug look on his face, and your eyebrows furrow. You know you’ve never told Bam about any of that, so you assume that Jenn must have let it slip at some point. It’s obvious Bam is just bringing it up now publicly to be a little shit.

"Wait, you have?" Ryan asks, surprised.

"No way, dude." Steve-O says.

"Hubba hubba." Pontius jokes.

"God dammit, Bam.. I mean, yes, but it’s not anyone’s business." You respond, and all the guys start clamoring over the realization.

"How many times?" Ryan prods, and you start to get out of your chair.

"Wait, so you’re a lesbian? I think I owe someone five dollars." Steve-O says.

"I’m going to the bathroom." You say and leave before any of them can think of another dumb thing to ask or say.

Once you come back, it seems like everyone is ready to head out, despite only being there for an hour. Most of you just go back to the bar in the hotel and continue drinking, chatting, and messing around with each other there.

"No, seriously, which is better, sex with men or women?" Steve-O asks after a couple hours, trying to bring the conversation back to where it was earlier.

"There’s no way it’s better with men. We’re slobs, brutes, slaves to our desires." Pontius says, and you laugh, feeling a little more open to talking about it now that you’re drunker.

"It really depends," you say.

"Shit, you’ve probably made more women cum than any of us." Steve-O jokes.

"Certainly more than you, Steve." Knoxville says as he walks up next to him, one hand behind his back.

"I’m going to bed, children." He continues and goes to shake Steve-O’s hand, but as he does, he pulls his other hand out from behind his back and attaches a mouse trap to Steve-O’s fingers. Steve-O screams, and the rest of you let out some loud, drunken laughter.

"Fuck!" Steve-O exclaims as he slowly pulls the trap off his fingers. Knoxville, dying of laughter, pats him on the shoulder.

"Okay, okay, now I’m actually going to bed. Goodnight ladies." Johnny says as he heads off to his room.

"What an asshole." Steve-O says as he calms down.

"Man, what time is it anyway?" Pontius asks, and Bam checks his watch.

"11:52," he says.

"Damn, it’s not even late; we’re so boring tonight." Pontius responds.

"I’m gonna go to the convenience store down the street and get some snacks.." you say as you stand up and see that the hotel bar is starting to close down, "and beer."

"I’ll go with ya." Ryan says as he gets up too.

"Why don’t you just meet us up in Steve-O’s room once you’re back?" Bam says, and you nod and head out with Ryan.

As soon as you two head out, you hand him a cigarette and pull out your own. This was routine anytime you two were outside together.

You go to light yours, and then light Ryan’s. "Thanks." He says, and you look him in the eyes for what feels like the first time tonight.

Ever since that revealing conversation you had with Ryan around a year and a half ago, you were slowly becoming more endeared by everything he did. His little jokes, his laugh, the way he’d subtly take care of you—you really just liked being around him. You'd also started confiding in each other more often. You loved everyone in the CKY crew, but Dico was the only one you'd ever really been able to trust with any personal information. You knew everyone cared for you in their own way, they just had a hard time taking anything seriously; everything became a joke. That's why it meant all the more to you that your friendship with Ryan was becoming more emotionally intimate.

You’d been avoiding admitting to yourself that you’d developed any sort of feelings for him, mostly because he was still on and off with the same girlfriend. Over time, it had become obvious that the two had lots of problems, and Ryan would catch a lot of shit for it. You genuinely did think it was a relationship that Ryan needed to get out of, but you didn’t want to say anything knowing that you had a bit of an ulterior motive. He was pretty whipped for her anyway, so even if they did break up, you knew he’d be upset for a while. In the meantime, you are just going to have to keep pushing down any feelings you have towards him. It sucks, but you hope one day you'll be able to push hard enough for the feelings to go away for good.

"How’re you feeling?" You ask as you both start walking towards the convenience store. You try to keep your eyes on the sidewalk to make sure you don’t stumble or trip over anything.

"Drunk." He says point blankly.

"Right. Same." You say and feel a little awkward for asking that question. Luckily, Ryan chuckles a little bit, and it defuses the tension.

"How are things going with your girlfriend?" You ask suggestively. Normally, you wouldn’t dive into this subject so soon in conversation, usually afraid the real reason behind such a question would reveal itself. However, you have far less tact and control over the things you say when drinking. It’s only sometimes a problem.

"Oh, she broke up with me right before we flew here." He says, and you raise your eyebrows. Historically, the two breaking up just meant there would be a couple weeks of turmoil and anger on Ryan’s end before they’d inevitably get back together. Though, Ryan had been acting surprisingly chill this whole trip so far. At least in the times you’d seen him.

"Do you think it’s actually over this time?" You ask, and Ryan sighs.

"Yeah… I think so. I don’t know... I usually just chase her and wear her down until she agrees to get back with me, but I'm not sure I can do that anymore. It's exhausting." He says, slurring a little bit, but you can tell from the tone of his voice that he might really believe what he’s saying.

"Bam says I gotta get with someone else so I can finally get over her." He continues, and you hold your breath for a second.

"That might be a good idea." You say as casually as you can.

"Is that what you did when you broke up with Chad?" He asks you, and you side-eye him.

"Yeah… kinda. Well, I haven’t really dated anyone since then, but hooking up with people sorta helped. I think the main factor in getting over it is time." You say as you two approach the front of the store. You throw your cigarette on the ground and stomp it out. Ryan does the same.

"So hooking up with girls helped you?" Ryan jokes as he pulls open the door and holds it for you. You roll your eyes and walk inside.

"This is exactly the reason why I never told anyone; I knew you’d all have some bullshit to say." You complain and then trip over nothing as you turn into an aisle. Thankfully, you catch yourself, and Ryan laughs a little too loud for how quiet the store is.

"I’m sorry, I’m a guy. How is the thought of two hot chicks hooking up not supposed to excite me?" He joins you in front of the beer. You reach inside the fridge and pull out a 12-pack of the cheapest.

"Oh, so you think I’m hot then?" You ask mischievously. He stares at you and smiles.

"Duh… I mean, well, a lot of the dudes do." He says, and you furrow your brows.

"They do?" You ask and head towards the instant noodles.

"Yeah, like Steve-O, Pontius... I’m also pretty sure I even heard Jeff say something once." He says. You feel satisfied and giddy over Ryan admitting he found you hot, but you wish he hadn’t tried to deflect from it by bringing up the others.

"Steve-O and Pontius will fuck anything with a pulse." You state as you grab a couple of the spicy chicken noodles.

"I mean, you’re right, but still..." He says, and you decide to drop it for now as you head towards the cashier. You'll have plenty of time to overthink his statement later.

"Are you not getting anything?" You ask, and Ryan’s mouth falls open.

"Right." He goes off to another aisle, and you pay for the noodles and beer. You can hear the sound of things falling off their shelves, and you give the cashier an apologetic look.

Ryan comes back with a few bags of chips and candy.

"You like the ones with the potato guy on them, right?" He asks and holds up a bag of Calbee chips. You smile and nod. Once he pays for everything, you’re on your way.

You get back to the hotel and head up to Steve-O’s room like instructed.

When Steve-O opens the door, you and Ryan wade through empty beer cans and a few whippet chargers to get into the room and see Pontius and Bam hanging out on the bed.

"I hope you’re tipping your housekeepers well, Steve-O." Ryan says as you both put down your bags. Steve-O laughs as he goes through your bags and grabs a beer and a bag of chips.

"I can't believe you two aren’t loitering around the local bars preying on desperate women." You say to Steve-O and Pontius as you grab one of the cups of noodles and fill it with water. You meant the comment not as a judgment but as a genuine expression of surprise. Lately, Steve-O and Pontius were getting with different women almost every night, but you hadn’t seen that behavior as much in the last week.

"Our charms aren’t exactly appreciated by the ladies of Tokyo." Pontius says.

"They aren’t appreciated by any ladies anywhere." Bam jokes, and you laugh as you put your noodles in the microwave.

"Why don’t you two just give it up and touch each other?" You ask, and Steve-O and Pontius stare at each other for a second and smile like they know something you don’t.

"Nahhh. He’s not my type." Steve-O giggles.

You spend the next hour and a half drinking and fucking around a bit more, but you personally are at the point where more beer was just going to make you more tired. The most eventful thing that happens is when Steve-O manages to get into Knoxville’s room and pee in his suitcase as revenge for the mouse trap earlier. Other than that, you'd say it's been a relatively chill night, which you sometimes prefer to the usual partying because it allows you to get to know and bond with the cast and crew better.

After you say your goodbyes, Ryan walks with you back to your room, citing needing his hat back that you borrowed earlier that week as the reason. This reasoning is suspicious, but you disregard it as drunk Ryan logic.

He follows you inside your suite, hands in his pockets, as you grab the black baseball cap.

When you hand it to him, your fingers touch and you look into his eyes. It is at this moment, drunk and exhausted, that you know you can't push it down any more.

There had been nothing particularly special about that night so far; you’d spent the majority of it with other people, not even sitting next to each other. Maybe it was how rosy his cheeks were in the night air or the way your shoulders brushed past each other when you were walking outside earlier. Maybe it was how he held the door open for you at the store and remembered what kind of chips you like. Maybe it's the way the sleeves of his new jacket are too long on him or the way he's biting his lip right now. You don't know, but standing here together now, you give up.

You like Ryan, maybe a lot. This past year and a half, you’d been able to mostly suppress any feelings you had, leading to months where you didn’t even think about it, only for him to smile or say something that would bring those feelings back stronger. You’d been so forceful, doing your best to control the uncontrollable, but you understand now that you can't will it away. You need to deal with it.

The room is quiet—too quiet. You stare at each other for what feels like an eternity, but in reality, it is probably only a few seconds. You swear you see his eyes dart to your lips.

It would be so easy to kiss him now and push him onto the bed—make him understand the way he makes you feel. It would be so easy, but you care too much about him to do that. He’d just been broken up with, and even though it had been building for a while, you know that it has to be affecting him deeply. If he had made a move on you that day after you and Chad broke up, you might have reciprocated, but you also would have ended up resenting him for it. It’s not fair to dangle that promise of intimacy and comfort in front of somebody who just lost it. It would taking advantage of them.

So you wait for him to say or do something, anything. After a moment, he says "thank you", pulls his hand away, and yawns, looking at his watch.

"What time do we have to shoot tomorrow?" He asks you, and you snap out of your daze. He puts on his hat and gives you a small smile.

"11," you say as you look at the clock on the bedside table. It’s almost 2:30.

"Not bad… alright goodnight!" He says cheerfully and leaves.

Just like that, he’s gone. He left, like tonight was any other night. You well up with emotion, the feeling of dread reigning above all. Dread that finally accepting your sentiments about Ryan will only lead to your torture. That he may never be able to reciprocate, that you’ll spend too much time obsessing over something that will never be. You know you're being dramatic, but you can't stop the thoughts from racing through your head.

You sit down on your bed and rub your eyes, drained.

What the hell were you going to do now?

————————

Idk if I like this chapter lol. Sometimes this story just feels like a Wikipedia article. I realize I set myself up for it to be like that since I started so early in the timeline- I just hope y’all appreciate a slow burn. I promise I’m gonna be picking up the pace though.

ALSO lmk if you wanna get tagged when I post new chapters 🤔 next one is gonna be about Haggard

#bam margera #ryan dunn #brandon dicamillo #chris raab #cky #cky crew #jackass #jess margera #cky imagine #viva la bam #my fic #rake yohn

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mdhwrites · 5 months

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Why Are Original Books Feeling More Like Fanfiction?

This isn't because only now authors who do fanfic are also original writers. Even Niel Gaiman has admitted to having done fanfiction. LOTS of works have easy ties to other stories that came before to a point where they can be seen as fanfiction inspired. Why is it though that so many people agree that the vibe and excesses of fanfiction, along with its deficiencies, are now coming through in original works that people are asking money for?

Well, a lot of it is going to come down to the fact that with the rise of e-book publishing, it allowed a LOT more independent creators to find success. This is a good thing. It allowed a lot of new voices to be allowed into a very insular medium that always required agents and publishers to get anywhere. Even for traditional publishers, you now have works that don't cost NEARLY as much to publish if they stick to just ebooks instead of having to do huge releases everywhere, especially as in recent years, Amazon has enabled bookstores to order in bulk from Amazon. You don't have to deal with the upfront costs of a print run if it can just break through.

How do you know which horse to bet on though, as a reader or a publisher?

If you are a writer, and don't have an industry job somewhere as a writer, places for you to build a following are not easy to come by. Even as the internet allows for more small time publications to look for short stories, that circling back to you can be hard and that actually requires, you know, being the one to submit the best story. It also means making a story based on their guidelines and prompts which might not even match your strengths or your interests. What is something that gets past all of that as a writer though that allows you to build a following?

Fanfiction.

Worse yet is that anyone will tell you that the best works are not the popular works. That the most popular authors in fandoms are rarely the ones who are actually the most competent but the ones that best sell to their audience what they want. The ones that feed into fandom indulgences the most while being good enough to not make your eyes bleed when you read their work. The most popular works will also often be attached to the boldest, more provocative names in a community because those writers become genuine personalities to their readers, rather than just the works that they create. There are absolutely exceptions to this but these are going to be the sorts of works/authors who are the easiest to find and the most likely to actually chase after the dream of a publishing deal. After all, these people are still going to usually have to be willing to shop around a bit for an agent and what not and an incredibly talented but meek or non-ambitious author isn't going to do that.

We saw all of this very explicitly with 50 Shades of Gray, one of the true break out successes of early ebook publishing that essentially followed the exact sort of thing I'm describing. A work that is trashy fun with an author who is inflammatory enough to cause people to talk about her and a story that updated voraciously not just because it needed so many chapters but because it allowed a constant amount of attention, all helping the fanfic itself to become huge. Then a publisher explicitly geared towards converting fanfic (that I actually don't know if it still exists or not, or is at least still doing what it used to like this) scooped her and the story up and allowed it to stay mostly unchanged because of their popularity. The quality of the work mattered less to the fact that it had an engaged audience and the author could promote the book by themselves. It saves you a TON on marketing and makes you a more 'sure bet' than some rando who submits an amazing manuscript but is otherwise entirely unknown.

My own stories follow this even as someone who is entirely independent. My most successful stories by a LONG shot were when I was at my most popular on Fimfiction and while the site also had its most engaged user base. There were simply more people who might actually check out the works, causing initial interest and buzz to help push the books in their early days, give them a couple reviews and then have them circulate outside of just the fanfiction circles afterwards. It probably also helped that these works had evocative covers, were erotica and usually helped by a push from an erotica fanfic I released at roughly the same time to garner buzz. I don't think those works are bad mind you, just that I do think my writing has gotten better while my audience has diminished GREATLY since I left my old platform and as Fimfiction itself withered. As such, even as the quality has gone up, my numbers have gone down.

And that brings us back to the original question: As a reader and as a publisher, how do you decide who to take a chance with? Who is going to get you to pick up their book? Especially if any of the books aren't priced at the lowest possible on Amazon of 2.99 or even .99 cents (or 0 if you read through Kindle Unlimited, which is 11.99 a month)? After all, no one has money right now, let alone for books.

You go with who has already proven themselves in the market and can be sampled for free: fanfiction. You're gonna end up going by popularity then though, not just quality. Otherwise, it'd be just like taking a blind bet anyways and that's not why these people are seeking these communities for their next book to read/publish.

See you next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#Writing #Book Tumblr #Fanfiction

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astr0-philia · 6 months

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ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟜: 𝕄𝕒𝕪𝕓𝕖 𝕚𝕥 𝕒𝕚𝕟'𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕓𝕒𝕕!

Prolouge 1 2 3 4 5

Some memes to start of the chapter:

[Third person]:

It felt surreal, like she was floating in a dream. [Y/n] was entering the Pomefiore dorm and never had she seen such a regal and beautiful architecture in her whole 700+ years of living.

Rook led [Y/n] through the hallway explaining each bit of the dorm in great detail and passion. He looked like he was infatuated with the dorm. It was amusing to watch as he would go in detail, with joy and pride written all over his face. It was cute and quite funny.

Then he suddenly stopped in front of her, making her hit his back with her face. He turned to [Y/n] quickly as she started rubbing her nose, as it was still in pain as he asked.

"Dame Princesse! Have I told you about our magnifique housewarden Vil Schoenheit?" he questioned with eyes twinkling with curiosity. As if he were expecting her to know the guy called Vil instantly.

[Y/n] looked at him in confusion. "I have never heard of a person named Vil Schoenheit. More or less seen him either...."

Rook's face dropped in horror as she spoke. He looked at her as if she had just killed his family and stole his riches. His eyes shone in disbelief and shock. She sweat-dropped as his gaze became even more intense and unnerving.

"Did I....say something wrong....?" she asked in uncertainty as she looked up at Rook.

Rook shook his head, as if trying to bring himself back to reality. He grabbed both of [Y/n]'s hands in his in haste and pulled her closer to him.

"Non, Dame Princesse! You did nothing wrong. I was just quite shocked that you did not know of our housewarden." he replied with a smile on his face. It looked quite strained to say the least but [Y/n] chose to ignore it for her own good.

"It's just that Roi du Poison is so popular here in twisted wonderland as a model and actor. Yet you do not know him." He filled her in with the information quickly.

'Ah....he doesn't know I'm from another world does he....'

"Ahhhh....I am from the countryside where not a lot of information gets through to. So I guess that is why I didn't know about him at all!" [Y/n] couldn't believe she lied so badly through her teeth. He probably won't even believe her at this point!

As Rook examined her suspiciously to check for any hints of lying on her face, [Y/n] couldn't help but cringe at the thought of getting found out. He stared at her for quite long before jumping back and grinning at her.

"Ah I knew you weren't lying mademoiselle! Now let us go and introduce you to Roi du Poison as you still don't know him!" Rook quickly grabbed her hand and dragged her too a big door in the middle of the hall . It was different from the other dorms around it. It stood out with its intricate designs and bigger size.

At the top it had a label which said "Housewarden" on it with cursive letters and fancy designs.

Rook knocked on the door with care. As if trying not to displace any of the designs on the door. They waited for a few seconds before an alluring and confident voice called out from the other side of the room.

"What is it now! Come in." exclaimed the voice with a hint of annoyance.

'I guess he is annoyed as it is quite late right now....'

As they entered the room. In the middle of the room, stood the gorgeous man with all his glory. Hands crossed and standing like a model. He radiated authority and confidence as he stared at them as they walked into the room like they were small ants before him.

"Rook....what have I told you about not interrupting me when I am doing my skin care in the evening!" He exclaimed at Rook with even more annoyance than before, rubbing his temples.

"Ah! Roi du Poison I wanted to introduce you to the new student in our dorm!" he stated, pushing [Y/n] in front of him with some force.

'Nice way to put me on the spot dunce head....'

As [Y/n] regained her composure, she nervously looked up to meet the gaze of the beautiful man. Only to see that his face was filled with surprise as he looked at her with curious eyes.

"Oh! So its you...." He smirked and looked at her up and down, sizing her up like he did before in the ceremony, to check if I had any flaws and such. [Y/n] turned to Rook feeling uncomfortable. Only to receive a nod of approval and understanding from him, with a strained smile once again.

"Well I guess you don't look half as bad as those potatoes that came in a while ago." He said exasperatedly at the thought of the new first year students.

'Damn.'

"Uhmmm..... Nice to meet you [Y/n] Alastaire at your service!" She exclaimed in fake enthusiasm while bowing, trying to get on the beautiful man's good side.

"Hmmm...." He came closer to her in a hurry and spoke again. "You must keep your shoulders straight when bowing, not slouched-" As he straightened her shoulders. "-you must always talk formally to a person you just met-" Grabbing her face with force making her look at him. "-and you must always keep a clear tone when speaking to someone who ranks above you in the system." He said, staring into her eye's.

Hah- what a joke. Him? Ranking above her? Wouldn't fucking dream on it. What was he a model? She's a princess, nothing beats that.

[Y/n] looked at him with great annoyance and stood with confidence. Trying to defy him but he wouldn't budge.

"The name is Vil Schoenheit darling. Don't forget it." he said with amusement.

Rook then coughed nervously to get their attention, in which he succeeded, when they both snapped their heads towards him.

"Well then I shall go and lead Mademoiselle to her dorm room. Roi du Poison do I have permission to leave?" He asked politely and carefully, acting like he was walking on thin ice around Vil.

When Vil finally said yes after some convincing. Rook and [Y/n] were finally let go from the jaws of Vil's room to the hallway.

"Rook.....is Vil always this strict" [Y/n] asked with concern in her tone. As she couldn't believe what she had just experienced moments ago in Vil's room.

"Dame Princesse. Please do get used to Roi du Poison's attitude. This is the common personality of Vil, and nothing will change it." Rook mumbled to her. As if trying to make sense of the situation.

"Okay then! Now let us go to meet your new dorm mate, and see your new room!" exclaimed Rook going back to his normal attitude once again.

'Was he bipolar....?'

He then led [Y/n] through the hall again filled with portraits and pictures, before they stopped in front of another door like the previous they had entered. This one was a bit smaller than the other one and had less intricate designs on it .

This time instead of knocking on the door like before. He swung it open with great force. Shocking both her and the person who was inside the room.

"Ah yes. [Y/n] this is your dorm room and here are the spare keys to the dorm if you need-" passing her some keys in a hurry.

"Wait a sec-"

"-and if you need me just go to the door across from Roi du Poison." Then he left, leaving both [Y/n] and the new stranger in the room looking like fools.

She turned around slowly towards the stranger she had been put into a room with. She stared at him in awe at the guy in front of her. The male had beautiful cotton candy like purple hair and shining blue eyes, which held pure innocence in them . Just as she was about to introduce herself to the cute looking boy. She was interrupted.

"Hah? You're my roommate? A GIRL ? I can't believe this...." The boy looked surprised yet quite annoyed as he looked at [Y/n].

'Huh? Maybe he is mad because I invaded his area...'

Quickly she bowed her head down towards him, shocking the cute boy.

"I am so very sorry that I invaded your place! I barged in and disturbed you. I am your roommate from today onwards and I hope you forgive me for this slight inconvenience." exclaimed at the cute guy in an apologetic tone. It shocked the cute boy after hearing her say those very words, as he raised his arms in alarm waving them in a haphazard way.

"N-no I didn't mean that in a mean way! It was just that I was a bit disturbed at the moment. I am sorry!" He exclaimed back in an apologetic way as well bowing down to her as well.

As they both lifted their heads up after a couple of seconds. They looked at each other.

Fits of giggles erupted from their mouths as they both couldn't keep a straight face at the ridiculous situation.

In the midst of the laughter they introduced themselves to each other.

"*Wheeze* M-my name is Epel Felmeir. What's yours?" He said before going back into his fit of laughter.

"W-well my na-name is [Y/n] Alastair. Nice to meet ya dude!" While also going into the same fit of laughter after some moments something happened.

*SNORT*

[Y/n] slapped a hand on her mouth in shock, as Epel also looked at her in disbelief.

The moment they had eye contact again they fell into fits of laughter once again.

At this point both were a mess. Trying to grab on to whatever furniture was next to them to keep them standing straight and at one point [Y/n] had grabbed on to Epel and they both held each other as they were holding on to their lifelines.

As the laughter started to diminish both Epel and [Y/n] regained their composure.

"Heh. Nice to know that a person with a good sense of humor is my dorm mate." Stated Epel in amusement and happiness.

"Me too dude. Me too." [Y/n] agreed with Epel as they spoke to each other.

As they started talking both started to have small talk and asking questions like "What's your favorite color?" or "What did you do before coming here." and stuff like that.

"Well Epel. Once again with seriousness. I do apologize if I did invade your space in the beginning." Said [Y/n} once again.

"Aw shucks man! You ain't invading my space! You're my friend now!" exclaimed Epel in happiness, as he finally got his first friend in NRC. Even [Y/n] couldn't be any happier after hearing what Epel said.

"Aw thank you Epel!" She shouted in glee as she hugged Epel. Epel couldn't help but blush at the action.

As the night drew in [Y/n] and Epel were still talking, with occasional fits of laughter here and there.

At one point [Y/n] and Epel had dozed off and had fallen asleep on his bed.

'Hey this might not be as I thought it would be' [Y/n] thought before dosing back into a deep sleep.

Bonus Scene:

"[Y/n] I don't get how Rook does all this french shit at all. He just goes 'Beaute', 'Non' and 'Roi du Poison' every single chance he has." Vented Epel to [Y/n] n] n] as she sat in front of him on her bed listening to him with keen ears.

"Well I mean it's Rook we are talking about Epel. It is bound to happen anyway!" explained to Epel as she also had no mental capacity to deal with Rook's shenanigans as well.

As their conversation went on outside the door Vil was walking in the hallways trying to get to his room. Just as he was walking past the doors. He couldn't help but eavesdrop at the conversation the 2 were having. So he lent an ear and put it in the gap of the door that was opened up in front of him. as he heard Epel speak again.

"-like one time he said 'I'll speak french between your legs'- " shocking Vil at the vulgar language.

"-and then he said 'The hottest things i ever been told.' " Vil was terrified to say the least at the moment.

"I can just picture someone screaming bonjour at a penis" exclaimed [Y/n] trying to keep it going.

"Sacrebleu mademoiselle vagina" shouted Epel at the top of his lungs laughing out loud.

"Hon hon hon titty croissants" [Y/n] laughed with him.

*Wheeze*

" TITTY CROISSANTS?!" Epel wheezed at the comment.

"ROOK WOULD TOTALLY SAY THAT" [Y/n] cackled at the thought of it.

As the laughter went on inside the room. Vil stood there speechless, too shocked to even process what he had just heard. Shaking his head to bring himself back to his conscience. He muttered under his breath.

"None of you should ever be having sex-....."

As he left the door never looking back, traumatized by the turn of events.

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

Authors Note:

Hello everyone! I hope you like this chapter. I had a lot of fun writing the scenes and characters and I hope you like it too! Please don't forget to give me any advice you have. I want to try to make this book fun for you and everyone who is reading this book!

So if you do have some, I will be waiting for your advice!

Have a nice day and or night!

#rook hunt #vil schoenheit #epel felmier #crowley #twst grim #twst #twsited wonderland

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gloster · 2 years

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FAVORITE FANFICS OF 2022

What is up, you guys? HAPPY 2023. We did it. We somehow made it through 2022 that, in 2 words: TRIED IT. 2022 tried all of us in so many ways than one. Emotionally, mentally, physically, and beyond.

We all had ways of coming up with ways to get through the rough year. Friends & family (both blood & chosen). Music. Movies and shows. And of course fanfics.

The world can be turning, burning, but at least fanfics can always be counted to take us away from harsh reality and bring us into the sweet world w/our fav characters, OTPs falling in love dozens of ways.

Every year fanfic writers both familiar & new to me blow me away with their talent, their writing, their brilliance. And every year I always do this traditional post to give them their flowers.

If you're interested in past lists, here are the ones for 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018

Without further ado, here are my favorite fanfics of 2021

1). prince & prince by Authoress aka @kiribakus (tododeku)

Summary: Note to self: don't accidentally fall in love with a prince who's in an arranged marriage keeping your kingdoms from declaring war against each other. Especially when you're spying on him as his manservant.

Jaw. On. The. Floor. Jaw. Still. On. The. Floor. This story is the reason why this post is coming January 1st instead of the December 31st. I stayed up till almost 3 in the morning to finish this story and my jaw was on the floor when I read it. My jaw is still on the ground as I write up this review. I buddy-read this w/my bestie @littlenightdragon & our mind are still blown by what we read.

This story has been a long time coming. This is considered the classic fanfic in the tododeku community. It's took me while to get to it since there are so many stories I wanted to get through, but I finally did. Quite frankly, because this is such a popular fanfic, I don't know what else I can say that other readers haven't said in their own rec posts.

However I will happily say this one lives up to the hype. I repeat: LIVES 👏 UP 👏TO 👏THE👏 HYPE! The writing, the dynamics between Izuku & Shouto, the smut that was just 🔥🔥🔥, and again I APPLAUD @kiribakus for how the story was done. This is loosely based off the Captive Prince trilogy, so if you're familiar with the trilogy, you definitely see the elements of the story while also having this fanfic be its own thing. Not an easy thing to do, so massive kudos 👏👏

2). The Pakhan's Jewel by theangryuniverse (viktuuri/victuuri; mpreg)

Summary: No one had ever heard the omega speak.

It was not that they had never heard him at all. They had all heard the voice of the omega at some point – a gentle laugh, for example, a quiet hum, or, quite more often, lustful cries and moans, caused by the Pakhan himself. But the omega never spoke, and never deigned to even look at them, for they all were beneath him, and mattered less than the dirt beneath his feet.

For they all knew that Katsuki Yuuri's heart belonged to one man only - and that man was Viktor Nikiforov, the Pakhan himself.

Someone had said, I believe it was either here on Tumblr or Twitter, that the YOI fandom is keeping itself alive w/fanfics, fanart, and posts on our favorite ice-skating couple. I 1000000000%. And this fanfic is proof of it.

Oh where oh where do I begin? Let's start with this. We have ABO and a Mafia AU with an established happily-married couple who give the same intense, overly-passionate in love energy as Gomez and Morticia Addams.

I repeat an ABO Mafia AU story with a couple who give off the same intense, passionate happily-married energy as Gomez and Morticia Addams, which I needed so badly and was greatly needed. It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. I ate it up like candy. I devoured every chapter.

My favorite element of the story is how Viktor is the Pakhan, he's the boogey-man that keep enemies and allies alike on their toes. Yet Yuuri is the one who keeps him on his toes- and knees-and however Yuuri decides to see his husband fit. It was sooooooo good. Like if Yuuri told Viktor to burn the world, he'd do so happily. He was such a simp for his husband the same way Gomez is for Mortica and I ATE IT UP.

And I'll definitely check out more stories by this author & suggest you do so too.

3). Winter Song by proantagonist (viktuuri/victuuri)

Summary: The set of Yuuri’s mouth softened into a private smile as Victor squeezed his knee beneath the table. His hands were bare, free from the gloves he so often wore when they were together on the rink, and the heat of his palm burned straight through the denim of Yuuri’s jeans. He slipped his own hand beneath the table and found Victor’s. Hidden from sight, their fingers began to flirt and play. A secret conversation all their own that needed no words.

Yuuri was aware that at some point—a moment in time he couldn’t quite place—Victor had become his boyfriend.

There wasn’t a single instant when it happened. It was a slow awareness, as if Victor had silently been asking the question for months now, and Yuuri had been giving him the answer a little more with each passing day.

Another YOI story? Why, yes, yes it is. Was this another one that gave you all the feels? Yes, yes it did. This one- all I can say is 10 10 10 10 10 across the board. This one was canon, in a way that was more so behind the scenes/deleted scenes that the creators didn't want us to see but the fanfic writer was like Yeah....FUCK THAT, we're getting those bonus scenes.

In this one, we see Viktor and Yuuri develop more as a couple while also coming into their own. I love how it's equal. Like yes, even though Yuuri has social anxiety, Viktor has his own issues with self-worth, past relationships, and expectations. The author noticably took time with the relationship where we see them become a stronger team, better friends, and a sweeter couple.

Such a joy to read.

4). The Roundabout Way of Fate by @itsmyartfam (tododeku)

Summary: “His quirk will get attention no matter where he goes. But if he ends up working with heroes then he’ll have their protection. That’s why I said most doctors and nurses have minor healing quirks- because people with powerful ones often catch the attention of heroes, who will in turn protect them from any villains who also have their eye on them.”

“Oh! Okay. Okay… this… this is a lot…. Heh, and I was worried he’d breathe fire…”

“Don’t ever forget- Izuku’s quirk is a good thing. He just needs to be a bit more careful than most children.” _________

Midoriya Izuku wants to become a hero. Midoriya Izuku is born with a healing quirk. He learns how to save people a different way.

You ever read a story that's so canon yet not like canon, but you wish it could be canon? Like if you had a chance to redo canon, you'd pick an alternative. Well, for this one, if I could make it canon, I would in a heartbeat. Like it was among one of the first fanfics I read in the beginning of the year, but the fact I still think of it fondly proves how much of a great, fun read it was.

There are so many things I love about this fanfic. Obviously the writing, obviously the pining that goes on with both Shouto and Izuku. But I think the main things are I love how Izuku has a quirk, a Healing quirk at that, that seems so minimal to society but he's like, NAH You're not gonna push me around and treat me like I'm delicate flower. There were even scenes where he had to remind Shouto of that, and it was too satisfying to read.

But most of all, I love the platonic relationship between Izuku and Bakugo. This is one where you can tell there is a bond there, but it's much healthier with boundaries clearly set. One where Izuku isn't afraid to call Bakugo out & Bakugo actually thinks things before before just exploding.

I ADORED IT. Just as much as I adored the author @itsmyartfam for making Izuku a healer. They had expressed they dealt with backlash from other readers who didn't agree with the quirk, but I thought it was very fitting. Given Izuku's personality, his caring nature, his compassion, healing is perfect match.

5). flawless by @irishseeeker (kathony/kanthony)

Summary: Kate Sharma is the diamond of the season.

Viscount Anthony Bridgerton plans on courting and marrying the Diamond of the season.

Kate is going to make that as difficult as possible.

First off I like to give massive thanks & props to @irishseeeker for doing the damn thing and giving me what I wanted. Me & my besties @littlenightdragon & @kila09 all agree on several things

Season 2 KICKED ASS. Season 2 carried. Simone & Jonathon did what needed to be done and carried season 2 on their bare backs.

Season 2, much as it is amazing & gave me my new favorite OTP, would've been better if Kate had been made the diamond. It definitely would've given the Queen the buzz she wanted. It would've been made the season more better- not to mention take away the barely-there love triangle they were trying for and failed at EPICLY.

The fact @irishseeeker as if they could hear my thoughts took the idea and run with it, they have my eternal gratitude. Currently it is a WIP, but y'all should definitely check out because you'll be devouring and begging for more. I know I did.

6). Bottom by Anonymous (kathony/kanthony)

Summary: By day, Anthony Bridgerton is in control. He eats at exactly the same time every morning, he exercises for exactly the prescribed amount of time, at work he never misses a deadline or forgets to show a friendly face, and at home he's a dedicated son and big brother, always there when his family needs him. His life since his father's passing has been about control.

By night, Anthony is ready to let go. He doesn't want to think. He doesn't want to plan. He wants to let go and let someone else take the wheel. (Or the dog leash.)

This is Anthony's journey into being a sub.

Before this story, I never really read femdom unless the couple is a queer-sapphic couple. Now after this story? I just want more. Especially if it's Kate being that dom. Like please give it to me. Please please please.

Mind you, we don't get much of Kate or kanthony/kathony until the last chapter. The beginning is more so Anthony and Simon, but the main thing I love about this story is how it does explore Anthony's trauma with being the oldest, having so much expectations placed on his shoulders. Which is what the show did hint at, but didn't go deeper. In this story, we did. And I appreciated it.

7). All That series by @himawaribees (Itafushi)

Summary: Fushiguro Megumi and Itadori Yuuji first meet at a frat party and proceed to have lots and lots of sex. Like, a silly amount of sex. Some (the author) might say they have too much sex.

Follow itafushi's journey as they fall for each other and slowly, eventually get together!

This was an unexpeted I found on Tumblr, I believe. I've been rocking in the Jujusten Kaisen fandom for awhile- also highly recommend the anime as well as the manga. But as long as I've been rocking in the fandom, I didn't have a definite ship. Until now.

Sometimes, all it takes is a good fanfic to kinda show you how well a ship can be. Which is what happened here.

I've always liked Megumi and Yuuji's dynamic in the show. Definitely gives sunshine & grump energy. Eager pup & annoyed cat. But this story, along with many from the author proved how that dynamic can work even more than as a couple. The way I just devoured the first story of the series, then the 2nd one, then the next, and the next till I finished what's been poste & am eagerly awaiting the next update.

Honorable mentions:

Sweet Tooth

Trust Me

Slow Down

8). Like, Comment, and Romance by @xskyll (tododeku)

Summary: In the hero community, it’s common for popular heroes to have merchandise for sale. Amongst these items are a few staples: t-shirts, figurines, and, of course, replicas of their costumes. This is where Deku, a well-known YouTuber, comes into play. Deku’s Hero Analysis is a series where the host, Deku, dresses up in official pro hero costumes, then does an analysis of each hero and reviews some of their merchandise. Joining him is Hito-nyan, the sarcastic cameraman who never shows his face and loves to push Deku’s buttons. And watching them is pro hero Todoroki Shouto, who absolutely, without a doubt, does not have a crush on Deku. Except actually he does, which is fine, because it turns out they have a friend in common and getting to meet the adorable YouTube star is more likely to happen than he ever would have dreamed.

Midoriya Izuku + Youtuber. A combination that never crossed my mind and never seemed so right until now. Like second, I started reading the story, I was like WHY DIDN'T THIS COMBO CROSSED MY HEAD BEFORE. It makes total sense, especially with how in depth his hero analyses are and how much of a fanboy Izuku.

Along with Izuku being a total fanboy, we also have Shouto who becomes a massive (obsessed) fan with Izuku's channel, and quickly afterwards with the boy himself.

I love how we got the unexpected duo that was Shouto and Ochako, a duo I didn't realized I needed until now.

9). Most Favorite Bedtime Story by Sasunaru (drarry; mpreg/implied mpreg & veela-Draco)

Summary: Scorpius' most favourite bedtime story? The story of how his parents fell in love. And his grandmother tells it the best!

My friend Melissa aka Sasunaru can go no wrong when it comes to her pen game & her wickedly brilliant brain. This was no differeny.

A simple story, but a sweet one nevertheless of how young Scorpius loves hearing his favorite story, how his parents first met and fell in love. And who better to tell the story than the grandmother who was there to witness the love story unfold before her eyes.

10). Like Honey and Grenadine by bazooka (taekook)

Summary: A Somewhat Cosmic Adventure, In Which: Jeon Jeongguk is both a Flustered Meme Child as well as the King of Hell; Kim Taehyung is really good at peeling back layers; Jeong Hoseok can go wherever he wants; balance requires sacrifice.

A retelling of the Abduction of Persephone, but with extra awkward flirting and way more gay.

OMG, this story. OMG, THIS STORY. It just delivered. And I eat. I ABOSLUTELY LOVED LOVED LOVED IT.

We have a Hades and Persephone AU, which I never get tired of, but in this one it was a bit more modern, kinda like Lore of Olympus where Taehyung quickly finds the boogey-man everyone fears and is weary about is a nothing more than a bunny. So insanely cute.

Honorable mentions that I seriously wanted to add to the list but this post is already lengthy. All amazing, all greats reads by various writers y’all should check out:

With Just A Little Help From Our Friends by @sashadistan (tododeku; ABO AU w/Shouto quietly pining, Izuku being oblivious, Kiri being helpful, & Bakugo being done w/all their butts)

Letting It Go by dreamchaser31 (kathony/kanthony; Kate being through w/Edwina's shit & calling her out AS SHE SHOULD, Anthony & Lady D backing her up all the way)

Brighter than The Sun by @goldentruth813 ( sheith; a retired vet in care of care & Keith answering the call)

Hooked on You by @trenchcoatkitten (tododeku; heartwarming story invovling cats, Shouto being a pet daddy, and Izuku a knitting mentor that he falls hard for)

in his hands by @softlystarstruck & @babooshkart (drarry; trans-drarry who are happily married w/soft BDSM & even softer aftercare)

And there you have it, folks. Those are my top fanfics of 2022. I can already tell I'm gonna have LOADS for 2023. To the authors, thank y'all so much for your incredible stories, including the time and effort.

Happy New Year, guys

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sangyeonsmuse · 2 months

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PRETTY BOY | Kang Yeosang pt 4

Pt 3 Pt 5

✎ Model Yeosang x fem pov

✎ genre | highschool sweetheart, classmates to dating, secret admirer, popular guy x outcast

✎ summary | this 11 part series is written in the pov of yeosang secret admirer, based on the lyrics from the song Pretty boy by Lennon Stella.

✎ word count | 259

Bae’s notes | in this short series there are slight mentions of angst thought its mostly fluff. Both Yeosang and our female lead are in school throughout this story up until the last chapter which will take place years later

"New words, tell me something that I've never heard and this time would be the first, that you'll be more, more than just a pretty boy"

(Red indicates the songs lyrics)

____________

It was during lunch time when you left the cafeteria and I decided to follow you up to the school's rooftop. For the first time I saw you there with a sad and distant look on your face. I wanted to hug you then but It'd be weird then wouldn't it after all you didn't know who i was or at least I thought you hadn't. So then I turned on my heels in a rush to go back inside only to knock over a few plants and be spotted by you in less than two seconds.

"You don't have to run from me all the Xena after all I could use the company now.."

That was the first time that I truly got close to you. You shared your feelings for what seemed like the first time ever for you and of all the people you could share them with you chose me. From that day forward we grew close and I couldn't have been happier because the one thing I wanted since freshman year was to be closer to you than anyone. And of course it only made me happier to realize the more we hung out that I was indeed right about you all along Yeosang. You're far more than just a pretty boy, and i'd do everything in my power to prove to you how amazing you truly are

#ateez #ateez au #ateez fanfic #ateez fic #ateez imagines #tbz x reader #atz fanfic #ot8 ateez x reader #atz x reader #ateez ot8 #ateez yeosang #yeosang x reader #kang yeosang #yeosang #Spotify

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allie-campbell-bradshaw · 11 months

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Chapter 9: Hurt

A/N: I am so glad to be back in the full swing of things. You have no idea how much I have loved watching this story develop…not to mention my craft too! I mention this in my notes for every chapter, but just in case you missed it– I do not give permission for my work to be re-posted without credibility. If you do want to post this story to your page, please be sure that you tag my account or at least mention its original source in your post. Again, thank you for being here and I hope you enjoy :)

Warnings: Swearing (It is the navy after all)

Chapter Nine: Hurt

BRADLEY’S POV

The reading quiz in chemistry was a breeze on Tuesday. Although I must give credit to Trace for that one. She knew exactly what parts to study and which paragraphs from the reading would be questioned. It was like she had a natural gift for intuition.

Although there were some highlights, the rest of the week was a drag. Allie and her two friends were not in the cafeteria at all for breakfast that week. I couldn’t not blame myself for that one. Despite Emmett continuously pestering me for updates, I didn’t bring Allie up at all. Well, I at least didn’t bring her up first. And thanks to the rigor of the academics, it was pretty easy to forget her while I was focused on my studies. Yes, I still thought about the two encounters we’ve had, but seeing her less and not thinking about her as much has made that slight hurt go away.

Flash forward to Thursday, and we were now sitting in our flight training course, scratching our heads as we read, and re-read, and re-re-read the same problems over and over, not seeming to make sense of them. It started off pretty easy, with basic takeoff and landing calculations. Now, in the middle of this fifty question test, they were referring to flight gargan that I had never heard before. There was a scenario about a wing that made no fucking sense.

Natasha and I made eye contact with each other. She let out a deep breath as she played with the pencil in her hand, looking way more flustered than I did. Javy was sitting next to her, keeping his hands buried in his face, elbows on the table, as he struggled to get through the problem.

“Time!” Officer Tate called out in a military-esk yell. She was our professor for our aircraft interior units. We would work with her once every three weeks. This week we focused on the parts in the nose of the aircraft. She was a rather large woman, with skin deeper than Javy’s and thick black glasses. She looked to be in her mid-30’s, but I wasn’t ever good at guessing ages.

All of us put our pencils down right away, half of the class learned the hard way that if you kept writing after she called ‘time’, you’d get a 0. Even if it was only a split second after she yelled out to us. However, I feel that our immediate sense of ending the assessment came from frustration and overall just being over it, rather than her conditioning.

There were 8 of us in the class. Very small, but that’s what you expect when you go down such a specific, and dare I say not very popular, career path. The guy that has assumed the role of the class pet, Taylor or Tyler or Tyson (something like that) volunteered to pick the papers up, which Officer Tate gladly accepted.

Once Ty-whatever the fuck- was back in his seat, she gave us our next assignment, one that was due by the next time we saw her in September. We had to learn the names and purpose of every mechanical device that was in the middle of the airplane, right below the wings.

We were randomly put into pairs, everyone excited about their partner except for Natasha, who got put with the pet. She gave me an annoyed look before she made her way over to him, which made me smirk. She was the woman that would say what everyone was thinking. I loved it.

I quickly took her former spot, greeting Javy, my new partner as we looked over the work packet that he had to fill in. Over 14 pages stapled together, all of which had at least 2 or 3 different parts, or cords, or machines outlined for us to fill in.

Today was the only day we could do some hands-on work with the anatomy of the cessnas before we started to fly them next week. Amen! We all followed Tate to the oversized hangar that had 4 naked cessnas scattered about. All of the groups found their own to work with for the remainder of our class time. Javy and I opted for the one closest to the opened garage, letting the breeze hit our hot bodies as we looked at our aircraft.

I looked outside of the hangar, noticing the building on the opposite side of the runway. The words “U.S. Naval Academy General Hospital” stuck out in bold, slightly faded, navy letters. The outlines of the letters were covered in dirt and moss, confirming the older age of the building. It was a medium shade of brown brick, with a row of outdoor entrance rooms lining the tarmac. I remember hearing that those were used for general treatments for students that got minor injuries, not essential enough to take up any of the hospital rooms inside. The hospital had 2 levels. The bottom floor housed their emergency room wing and recovery wing from the surgeries that took place in the wards that were at the end of the wing. The second floor was used for the general hospital visits. Where people would go if they were in labor, or recovering from an illness, or receiving treatment.

“Fuck!” I heard Javy yell next to me, as he grabbed his hand and took numerous steps backwards from the aircraft. “Watch out for that powerbox by the fuselage Bradshaw. That shit’s super magnetic. Almost took out my whole hand”. He winced as he walked away, shaking out the pain that I’m sure was radiating through his body.

“Do you need a medic?” Tate asked Javy, who was pacing now as he waved his hand, having a hop in his step, in a shit ton of pain for sure!

“No,” He answered, “I’m good. I just need a minute”.

“Let me know if you need to see a nurse,” she continued, “they can wrap it up for you if the swelling gets too bad”.

I walked over to where he was and looked at the magnetic powerbox. It was resting right in between two other parts, with less than an inch of room between its parameter and those of the other parts. It would for sure take out anyone’s hand if you didn’t pull it away in time when it latched. There was a button that you could press below it, which caused the magnetic strips to give so you could easily take the box out of the airplane.

It was the powerbox that was outlined in the fourth page of our packet. I quickly turned to that page and read up on its performance. I was in the middle of the page when I froze, thinking about Officer Tate’s words: Let me know if you need to see a nurse, they can wrap it up for you if the swelling gets too bad.

Could it be this simple? As far as I could tell, this was the only way where I could ensure that I was in a room alone with Allie. She would be forced to listen to me then. And then I could explain all about the stupid bet, and how I just went along with it to entertain my moronic roommate, whom I loved very much. She needed to know that I was serious about getting to know her. That she was more than just a “bet”. I quickly made my way back over to the middle of the aircraft, ducking over and finding the space that the powerbox normally lay.

I kept contradicting myself. Always finding reasons for why I should or should not do this. This would all be a waste if she wasn’t at the hospital, or if another nurse treated me, and by doing this, I was risking my flight time for the rest of the month. I wouldn’t be able to work out as much as I nurtured the injury. But she was so worth it. Talking to her, and clearing my conscience sounded like a bigger benefit in my eyes. I couldn’t live with myself if she thought I was just a run-of-the-mill fuckboy. I was far from.

Suddenly, I felt Emmett’s spirit enter my thoughts. I have to give him credit, for how grossly immature he was, I sure was learning a lot from him. He taught me how it was okay to let go, to not be serious all the time. He was surprised to learn that my senior superlative was “Best Personality”, but I gotta admit, I was a character before my mom died. She would call me her “mini goose”.

Carole rushed to grab the video camera, laughing as 9 year old Bradley, who had put on his one dress suit, his wig that he still had from his einstein costume that he wore from halloween, and his moms black reading glasses.

“Hi everybody!” Bradley began, speaking to an imaginary audience in front of him, “Harry Carey here! And it lookth like we got a very exthiting world theries on our handth”!

Bradley was imitating one of Will Ferrel’s SNL characters, recreating the scene he had just watched with his mom a few days ago. He kept going with the scene, looking over at his mom and laughing when he realized she was filming, before creating his own skit with the character:

“And if you look over here,” he grabbed the camera and turned it to Carole, who was sporting a red sundress in the summer heat, continuing with his speech; “You thee a very pretty Carole Bradthaw!” Carole struck a pose and did a twirl for the camera. “I love you mom!” Bradley yelled out to her, still holding the camera on her.

“I love you too, mini goose!” She said before walking forward and reaching for the expensive equipment.

Bradley beamed as he went back to his scenes, spending hours and hours creating SNL skits in his living room as his mom watched, seeing Nick in his eyes, knowing how much he would have loved to do this with his son.

‘JUST FUCKING DO IT’ I heard “Emmett” saying to me in my head. If he was really here, he would have thrown my hand in the aircraft long ago, carrying me bridal style towards the hospital before dumping me at Allie’s feet.

Before I could even change my mind, my hand was holding the powerbox in the aircraft, letting the force carry me forward as the magnets snapped together.

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