#like I don't think she can even say shit about what happened without risking making more people upset

[naylor]

turning on taylor and blaming her for things she had no say or control over solves nothing and takes the attention away from the actual monopoly that fucked you all over just to maximise profits on a tour that was gonna be record breaking anyway.

taylor doesn't handle the logistics for her tours, and even if she was deeply involved in the technicalities of tour she still has no control over how ticketmaster deals with its own logistics or an option to not work with them. even if she wanted to give her fans the best experience possible she still can't control what ticketmaster does, nor how presale is handled.

[thefiery-phoenix]

YANDERE BAKUGOU FAMILY HEADCANNONS (Platonic)

There would be NO DOUBT that they would ALL be HELLA OVERPROTECTIVE about you 

I mean, Masaru would be kinda chill actually compared to Mitsuki and Katsuki. He won't freak TF out if you talk to other people and have fun with your friends and he's the most lenient one in the family and he doesn't give a damn what you wear. He likes seeing you in all sorts of clothing and thinks his darling little daughter looks good in whatever she wears and won't force you to do anything 

But when it comes to the question of sleepovers and going to other people's houses WITHOUT EITHER one of the Bakugou's to accompany you is a big no go. They're worried that something might happen to you if you step out of the house and they half wish you'll stop trying to be apro hero. Why be a hero and put your life at risk while you have the big strong Ground Zero as your brother and 2 parents who are perfectly capable of protecting the youngest Bakugou?

Mitsuki, on the other hand will treat you like a child along with Katsuki. Everyone loves spoiling the shit outta you and Mitsuki likes dressing you up in cutesy cutesy little outfits. Mitsuki however will NEVER allow you to break rules like disobeying her when she says no to something and sneaking off with your friends. She simply will NOT tolerate rule breaking and even if you DO manage to sneak around her back, your brother Katsuki will always be there to 'get you on the right track' even if he has to use his quirk on you. They just want what's best for you after all

They are self aware yanderes and their relationship towards you is unhealthy and delusional and they KNOW it but they have to protect you from the horrors of the world. If you used to attend the UA, you bet Katsuki had something to do with why your mom suddenly wanted you to drop out and take a break for sometime and soon that 'break' turned into a never ending relaxing vacation at your home for you. You won't be working anytime soon while they're around that's for sure and while Masaru talks to you, Katsuki and Mitsuki will be busy preparing food for you guys to eat. They don't want you going in the kitchen, what if you accidentally hurt yourself or boil or burn yourself?

They'll love cuddling with you and making you feel safe and comfortable in their presence. They have NEVER hit you till date and never will either. And WHO expects parents to starve their own kids? Cuz, they aren't those types of parents

For punishments, they'll just restrict your usage of your favorite items but they won't leave you isolated or without food and water. They aren't THAT heartless psychopaths 

Katsuki is the world's MOST short tempered brother one can have and you BET he's gonna cling to you 24/7 and tell on you to your parents what you both did the entire day (This boi should come with a blabbermouth and a tattletale warning label). You can hate him all you want for it but he just wants what's best for his youngest sibling. He loves and cares about you too much and he won't cuss around you so much either since he actually rather enjoys your innocence. His blood will BOIL when you talk to other people ESPECIALLY other GUYS and he'll obviously threaten to blow them up, even if you talk to Kirishima

 Being in relationships is COMPELTELY off the table for you. They will NEVER allow you to date and if you are in a relationship in secret, oh... what a shocker, that scumbag broke up with you the next day? Well, you can BET your allowances your OWN family was behind it but they'll just comfort you as they get you and give you whatever you want

The house will be full of baby pictures of you and Katsuki and you all as a happy family. They'll have guests over a few times but they can't ever let someone try taking you away from them so they'll try limiting the time of the guest's stay in their household instead of maniacally killing them. They won't let pro heroes enter their house either and will come up with INFINITE excuses as to why they can't come in. They just don't want to lose you 

Just let them take care of you and everything will be all right after all, family ALWAYS knows what's best for you...

''Come on little firecracker, you'll look cute and adorable in that dress and I think we should CERTAINLY put up some pictures of the wall after this. What do you think Masaru?''

''Sure, our little angel looks nice in whatever they wear''

"Tch... you don't look THAT bad firefly..."

[genericpuff]

no stop this article is too funny

this is from 2020 and while it talks about webtoons in general as a platform and medium, there's an excerpt from Rachel that's ironically and hilariously telling on herself when it comes to her priorities as a creator and how her work has aged incredibly poorly in the past 4 years:

She may as well just be saying, "I like Webtoon because they don't have any quality control" and "the trad publishing market had standards that I couldn't live up to, so instead of actually trying to live up to them, I went with a platform that has zero standards and was willing to make me into the standard regardless of my own qualifications and lack thereof."

Like y'all, take this as advice from someone who's had their fair share of rejection letters... the print industry dumping your unsolicited portfolio in the bin isn't gatekeeping, it's the nature of the business. The way Rachel describes it here - albeit I'm sure it's simplified for the sake of being an interview answer, but still - makes it sound like she was just expecting to walk right into the trad publishing market without an agent, without a completed manuscript or pitch, without any professional representation, and just slam her portfolio of mid-2000's art on the desk expecting them to hire her on the spot.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of barriers that prevent people from getting into the trad market, hurdles that can often be outright unfair (lacking the funds, lacking the connections, etc.) but... there's also a reason many of those barriers are there in practice.

First of all, fun fact: the reason why many publishers don't take unsolicited manuscripts isn't just to help them filter out the spam and low-effort submissions and prevent an overload of submissions (because if they took submissions from anyone and everyone, the overviewing system would break entirely), but it's also for legal purposes so that they don't get sued. Because if Joe Chucklefuck sends in an unsolicited manuscript that just so happens to include a plot point about the multiverse, and then a new book series or movie comes out that is about the multiverse, Joe Chucklefuck might get the sense they're being stolen from and attempt to sue them for plagiarism. This is why it's stressed so much by publishers that any unsolicited manuscripts will not just go unread, but will be thrown straight into the bin.

But second, many publishers simply don't want to take the financial risks on random start-up creators whose only experience is running their own personal projects on Tumblr, much less personal projects like Rachel's, half of which are fetish-content and all of which are unfinished. Of course they weren't gonna take Rachel seriously back then, she hadn't done anything to build up her presence in the industry.

In that sense, yes, self-publishing or pursuing a platform gig like Webtoons probably was Rachel's next best option which would be perfectly acceptable on its own, but it's just so, so telling that she thinks it's a "perk" for Webtoons to lack so much in the way of quality control, and we would ironically see the glaring evidence of that "perk" 3-4 years later in LO's final season when every single element of it as a "professional" piece of work turned to shit. It's no wonder she liked Webtoons in 2020 for letting her do anything she wanted, because what she wanted absolutely would not fly with an actual editor and publishing agency that cared about putting out a polished piece of work. The only way she was able to get "in" with a professional publisher was through Del Rey after Webtoons brokered a deal for her to have LO put into print, and even that level of prestige can't hide the fact that LO sucks ass in print. It's almost like under normal circumstances and without Webtoons carrying her on their shoulders above every other creator on the platform - many of whom actually do have experience in both tradpub and self-publishing - Del Rey wouldn't have paid her any attention. Without Webtoons, no one would take her seriously because she doesn't take what she does seriously, and it shows in her priorities as a creator who simply wants to just do whatever she wants without any sort of reasonable oversight like research or editing which are, again, necessary expectations within the tradpub industry, because it's not just about being a free-thinking self-expressive artist anymore in that industry - it's a business.

Of course, Rachel is probably now laughing from her soapbox over the fact that she now technically helps run an imprint, so haha "poo on the meanie trad market", but considering that imprint has still not launched and has been put on the same "coming soon" track that the LO television show has been on for the past 4+ years on a loop, I'm not holding my breath that it's actually going to amount to anything substantial.

(gotta love how they asked if Rachel was gonna create any more stories and her answer was RSP, which will help other creators bring their stories to life. so at best she didn't answer the question which is nothing new for her, at worst she gave away the fact that she's gonna be acting as some kind of producer who will be given all the credit and praise for other creator's works and efforts lmao no thankssss)

And god knows what the quality control of this imprint is gonna be like if Rachel's attitude toward the trad market overall is, "Nooo they won't let me do what I wantttt :((((" when she admittedly never even broke into the trad market to begin with and had zero experience working within that industry prior to LO.

And even then, Webtoons still doesn't give her as much freedom of choice as she claims to have. I mean ffs, this is the same person whose moderators stated that the Swarovski crystal dress from the finale was done as a "fuck you" to Webtoons for not letting her draw Persephone nude all the time.

She's obviously still being prevented from doing what she wants to do, when a lot of what she wants to do is better off not passing the vibe check and making it into the comic.

Quality control exists for a reason, Rachel. And "letting you do what you want" isn't necessarily a "flex" that Webtoons can claim over trad publishing when that "flex" is forgoing the traditional barriers that would usually prevent someone like you from failing upwards into manufactured fame the way that you have.

And that's my big bag of cents on that.

[leclerc-s]

the blue - part four

masterlist previous next

i think i like him...

congratulations, you're officially the last person to know

HOW COULD ANY OF YOU KNOW WHEN I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW MYSELF??

the way you look at him but don't worry he likes you too

HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?

easy, the way he looks at you

WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN THOMAS??

well, you look at him like he hung the moon and he looks at you like you're the only person in the room who matters to him.

ASK HIM OUT!!!

no! and risk our friendship? no fucking way

it worked out for me didn't it?

yeah, but it's different.

how is it different amelia?

i don't know it just is.

god you're a fucking idiot. no wonder we're related.

okay rude

i'm being an idiot.

do you want to go on a date?

fuck i like you do you like me?

am i fucking 5?

OH SHIT!

FUCK!

I'M SORRY THAT WAS AN ACCIDENT! I DIDN'T MEAN TO SEND IT TO YOU!

so you meant to send it to someone else?

NO! FUCK!

amelia, it's okay. i get it if you meant to send it to someone else. it's fine.

jesus fuck how can i write songs but not get through this one fucking thing?

okay, fuck it. i can do this.

do you want to get lunch with me?

i mean we already have plans for tomorrow, so yes amelia, i do.

NO YOU IDIOT!

okay, that was uncalled for.

ME. YOU. DATE?

oh.

forget i said anything. it's okay. i get it. i hope we can still be friends.

read 13:28

14:04

amelia screamed into the nearest pillow scaring her little brother. she had hoped that oscar had gotten busy and wasn't just ignoring her, she didn't want to ruin her friendship with him, not over some stupid feelings.

"mum! she's doing it again!" paddy shouted. nikki holland walked into the room watching as her daughter continued to scream into a pillow. nikki shooed her youngest son out of the room, which he did without protesting. he did not want to watch his sister cry knowing there was nothing he could do. last time she had sobbed for 45 minutes when they were alone without telling anyone what it was about. to this day paddy suspects it was harrison’s fault, it always seemed to be these days.

nikki sat next to her daughter waiting for her to stop her screaming. when amelia's head popped out from inside the pillow, she smiled at her mom. nikki knew her, she knew it wasn't a genuine smile, something was upsetting her.

"what's wrong?" nikki questioned her daughter. amelia smiled, "i’m fine mum."

"no, you aren't. talk to me, is this about harrison?"

amelia groaned, "did everyone know about that?"

nikki nodded, "we did honey. now what's wrong?"

"am i unlovable? is there something about me that people don't love?"

"what?" nikki questioned, "no, you aren't. you're the most loveable person i know, and i'm not just saying that because i'm your mother. what makes you think that?"

"i asked oscar out on a date. he only said oh. i thought he liked me, tom said he did."

nikki pulled her daughter in for a hug, the girl placing her head on her mum's chest listening to her heartbeat, "i'm sure you caught him off-guard. let him get back to you, don't assume the worst."

amelia opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by a knock at the door. she exchanged looks with her mum before standing up and going towards the front door. she gasped in surprise when she noticed who was at her front door.

FORTY-FIVE MINUTES EARLIER

i need a favor

what happened to hello tom? how are you tom? how's your day going tom?

hi tom, how's your day? how are you? i need a favor.

i'm great oscar, thanks for asking. what favor do you need?

i need your address

excuse me?

well amelia's address

can i ask why?

i fucked up. amelia asked me out on a date and all i said oh. i have to fix this.

and you plan on fixing this how?

by taking her out on a date? and apologizing profusely for fucking up.

at least you're apologizing. i'm still waiting for harrison to apologize to amelia.

don't fuck this up piastri and my sister is staying with my parents right now. she didn't want go home to her empty apartment yet.

i won't, now what's her favorite flower?

tulips, she loves tulips

take care of her oscar

i promise

NOW

amelia gasped in surprise at who was at her front door. oscar smiled at her, holding a bouquet of tulips in his hand. he looked a bit relieved that she had been the one to answer the door. oscar has silently prayed her parents or brother hadn’t been the one to open the door, that would’ve been awkward.

"hi," he greeted, "i was busy so i didn't answer your text. does the offer still stand?"

"of course," she whispered. oscar held the flowers out to her, "these are for you."

amelia grabbed them, "tulips are my favorite, who told you?"

"a little spider," oscar joked. amelia laughed, and oscar felt his heart skip a beat, "so about that date?"

"now?" amelia questioned, "i'm not dressed properly."

oscar took in her appearance, she was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. a simple outfit and yet she was still the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, "i think you look beautiful."

amelia blushed, "i have to go put these in water," she told him. oscar nodded, "i'll wait here."

paddy appeared behind his sister, "i'll do it. go. get out of the house for once."

amelia jumped, "when did you get here?"

"i saw a cool car in our driveway, i had to know who it was," paddy explained, "hi oscar. what kind of car is that?”

"hello," oscar greeted, “it’s a mclaren.”

"of course it is,” paddy joked, “i want her back home before midnight," paddy threatened, switching his demeanor from the kind boy he had been moments ago.

"paddy!" amelia scolded. paddy and oscar laughed, "this isn't funny."

"it kind of is," oscar said, "she'll be back before midnight mr. holland."

paddy sweetly smiled, "she comes back in tears or anything less than happy and we will hunt you down. understood?"

"yes sir."

"good," paddy said, handing her a jacket and pushing his sister out of their home, "have fun but not too much fun!"

"paddy!"

the boy giggled maniacally before oscar held a hand out for amelia to take. she took his hand, ignoring the butterflies in her stomach at the cause of that simple action. paddy closed the front door as the two began walking towards his car. he shared a knowing look with his mother and he made his back to his room, she fondly rolled her eyes at her youngest.

amelia quickly realized oscar piastri was nothing if not a gentleman. he had opened the car door for her, shutting it behind her before rounding the car and sitting in the driver's seat. he gave her a bright smile before leaving her family’s driveway. the two talked for what felt like hours but was only a few minutes as oscar parked his car in front of a coffee shop. amelia gasped, it was her favorite shop in her hometown, she turned to look at oscar and he just gave her a bright smile.

"you're brother helped out more than i would like to admit," oscar softly said, "but this was the best i could do on such a short notice, you kinda caught me off guard."

amelia smiled at him, before leaning over the console of his car and hugging him, "it was better than my idea."

oscar pulled away from her, ignoring the closeness of their faces, "what was your idea?"

"attempt to cook lunch for us, fail, and order food," she joked.

oscar laughed at her joke and amelia smiled again, at least someone in her life liked her jokes. her brothers didn't understand her jokes half the time, except for paddy, he always got them. her parents didn't understand them at all and her friends always told her not to underestimate her skills. the truth was amelia was a shite cook, there was no denying that, she was a great baker but cooking was a no go.

oscar gave her a final look before getting out of the car, rushed to her side and opened her door, holding a hand out to her, "shall we?"

amelia laughed, "we shall," she said as she intertwined their hands, oscar gave her another smile before leading her inside the coffee shop.

ameliaholland 'in a world of boys, he's a gentleman'

view all comments

landonorris AMELIA? WHAT IS THIS?

↳ ameliaholland it's an instagram post lando. duh.

↳ landonorris I FUCKING KNOW THAT! WHO IS THAT??

↳ ameliaholland that's a secret i'll never tell.

samholland1996 AMELIA? WHAT THE HELL?

↳ ameliaholland isn't it such a cute post?

↳ samholland1996 NO! WHO IS THAT??

↳ ameliaholland please refer to my earlier comment.

harryholland64 AMELIA GRACE HOLLAND!!!

↳ ameliaholland yes??

↳ harryholland64 ANSWER THE FUCKING PHONE!!

↳ ameliaholland can't i'm on a date 🤭

username AMELIA GRACE HOLLAND SOFT LAUNCHING WAS NOT ON MY 2023 BINGO CARD!

oscarpiastri oh?

↳ ameliaholland oh?

↳ username WHAT DOES THIS MEAN???? WHAT DOES PASTRY BOY KNOW??

hazosterfield oh.

↳ username the difference between their comments is hilarious to me

username where are the overbearing and overprotective comments from paddy and tom?

↳ username those two probably knew.

danielricciardo AMELIA?? HUH?

↳ ameliaholland cute post right?

↳ danielricciardo i've joined the list of your brothers, i don't know who he is but i'll break his face if he hurts you like you-know-who

zendaya i'm sorry? why wasn't i told about this??

↳ ameliaholland i'm sorry z! it just happened! i'll text you the details later!

↳ zendaya i'm holding you accountable to that!

oscarpiastri posted a new story

seen by logansargeant, landonorris, ameliaholland and others

¡leclerc-s speaks! they're my babies who just had their first date. they are not dating, not yet. the hard launch is when they start officially dating, i'm working up to that. i also clearly don't know how time works so ignore that plot hole, i'll probably fix that later.

¡disclaimer! this is in no way making assumptions about the people involved in this story, this is all fake. it is a fanfiction please don't take any of what is said seriously. this is all for entertainment purposes and as a creative outlet for me. enjoy!

[pinkvenomsstuff]

Friends don't kiss friends. part 1

You and Carl have been best friends since childhood, when you were still terribly messy kids. You practically grew up at the Gallagher's, you were next-door neighbors, and when you weren't there, you were at Alibi's with your parents, Veronica and Kevin. You were with him at all times, at least the most important ones. And some it was you who made them come true, like his first French kiss behind school.

You were the first one Carl liked, that's why you were such friends, he really liked you a lot. You were the first one who aroused something in him, sexual or not. And for that, you were the one chosen for his first kiss, his first dance performance at school, the first one he ran to with a can of vegetables with a hundred thousand dollars in it, and you buried yourself in some wild terror. Your favorite weapon was delivered to you in the school bathroom. And the first woman, except Fiona, who saw him when she got back from juvie.

You guys had some disagreements when he came back saying he was black and forcing a ridiculous black accent, acting like a sick gangster. The braids in his hair almost made you kill him. His mother scolded him immediately. He was someone else, not the Carl you knew but who knew he was there, somewhere, but he was. But you couldn't stay away from him long, and within two weeks you were talking normally.

Or the first person he asked for love advice when he started to have feelings for Dominic, he did everything for her, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. She betrayed him and contracted gonorrhea, the sages say: karma is like a kick in the ass. You were the one who took him in, and then went with him to take a test, where he discovered that he didn't have the disease, and the certainty that she betrayed him.

You were the first one he ever told about his shitty parents, not that you didn't know, you lived with him. But it went deeper, he told you how he felt about Monia's death and how he felt like a failure for years, especially after what happened to G-Dog, but you brought him back to who he always was.

And shit, those damn words almost made you choke on the beer you were drinking. "Back to life," what did he mean by that? What were you to him anyway? That was a question you didn't mean to ask. You two have always been best friends, both of you have always prioritized friendship above anything else, you didn't want to risk it and end up losing your love.

You were at his house now, lying on his couch missing him. It's been almost five days since you've seen each other, even though you lived within meters of each other. "Hey Mom. I'm going to Gallagher's!" you yell, she yells back saying it's okay and that she's going to be on Alibi. You leave the house wrapping your headset around your cell phone, shoving your hands in your sweatshirt pocket.

You look around and see no cars, it was a cloudy and relatively cold day. You walk down the sidewalk taking the few steps to Gallagher's house, and surprisingly you still haven't heard any screams, groans or anything breaking. You jump the playpen at the house, sell a Frank passed out - or not, sleeping or dead on one of the stairs. You ignore that old junkie shit and head upstairs ringing the doorbell.

The door is almost always open, but you don't think it's polite to walk in without knocking, especially not to find someone fucking on the couch or in the kitchen. The door is quickly opened by Lip, who has wide blue eyes, but he relaxes as he recognizes you. "Fuck, I thought it was the social worker." she whispers in relief "Hey girl. What are you doing here?" he asks giving you space to enter, so you do.

"I came to torment C-Dog." you say smiling, he laughs with a cigarette stuck to his lips. "Right." he sits on the sofa. "Where are the rest of the staff? This house is insanely quiet and it makes me wonder if no one is drugged or dead." you say, Lip laughs puffing out his cigarette. "No, no. Debbies is out with Franny, Fiona is at the diner, Ian is probably fucking some gay guy and Liam is in school."

"Uh…I thought things between Ian and Mickey were serious." you talk, Lip shrugs. "They're coming and going because of their bipolarity." "Got it. I'm going up." you say starting up the living room stairs, Lip nods turning on the television. You walk down the hall really seeing the empty rooms, you go to Carl's and give a few rings, nobody comes to open it and you don't hear anything.

Then, slowly you pull the doorknob covering his eyes, an immediate action upon entering his room since you found out he slept naked sometimes. You enter the room one finger at a time until you are sure there is no one in the room. "Y/N?" a hoarse voice comes from behind you, and you jump in fright. "Oh shit Carl. You scared me!" you gasp putting your hand on your chest, he laughs walking into the room.

He rummages through your clothes thrown across the bed so you don't know which ones are dirty or clean, and just then you notice a white towel drapes around your hips. Leaving his luscious abs showing, it was a fact that Gallagher came back a hundred times hotter from jail, you'd admit that yourself.

You grab a random playboy magazine from under his bed, throwing his body on the bed you cross your legs opening the magazine as he changes. Even though you've seen each other almost naked a few times, or else in your underwear and panties and bra several times, you respected your privacy. You flip through the pages of magazines, naked women posing or wearing costumes.

"Wow, that's hot." you say smiling, Carl looks at you without understanding. You turn the magazine over to him "Oh, she is." you notice that he has his legs covered by sweatpants, my biceps are still uncovered. You return to the magazine, pushing away any inappropriate thoughts. "I'm dressed. What are you doing here?" he asks sitting next to her on the bed. "I was bored and I have a best friend living next door to me so…" he laughs, pinching her ear. "I understand. What do you want to do?"

"I don't know, man. We can do whatever you want but I'm honestly really hungry so I'd like to stop by Paty's first." you say closing the magazine. "Right." he smiles, you roll your eyes around his extremely disorganized room. "God, Carl. Did you know Fi has a laundry basket in the hallway? Or you could start washing them then." you turn up your nose when you smell one of his shirts.

"Ah... mind your own business girl!" he exclaims smiling and ruffling your hair, you shake your head. "Fuck, let's go to Paty's before I end up eating you." you sigh, feeling a knot in your stomach, Carl looks at you slyly "Oh no! Shit no! Carl fuck you!" you exclaim, closing your eyes tightly, denying it, but - I would like to - was what crossed your mind.

"Wow, ok. I thought you thought I was super hot and all..." he laments pretending to be offended, putting his hand to his chest. "Oh yes- yes you are. I just-" You can't find the words, he laughs with his total fishy face, not even able to think. "I understood. I'm just playing with you. Come on babe." he says laughing and pulling your shoulders to walk with him, you laugh but you're still extremely embarrassed by it.

"Hey, Ian!" Carl walks past him, Ian ruffles his hair. "Hi guys, and hi Y/N. I haven't seen you in like a week?" Ian says it more like a question, you nod. "And Kevin, have you recovered from your vasectomy?" "Yeah, I had to take some time off after I saw Frank fuck a homeless girl in the kitchen." Ian laughs loudly, throwing his head back in the chair. "I swear, it was 'fucking traumatizing!' you laugh along with him, Carl laughs at both of you. "Where are you going?" Ian asks with a beer in his hand. "Paty's, and then some Chicago alley." Carl responds. "beauty." Lip goes upstairs.

Carl walks to the front door, you stop him. "I think we'd better go around the back. There's a Frank passed out in your driveway." you say sarcastically, Carl rolls his eyes. "Fuck that old man." he says walking to the kitchen door, you follow him with a smile on your face.

You walk in front of your house, the truck is still in the driveway. "Do your parents really let you drive?" Carl asks as you turn the keys in the door. "Hm, no. Ve says I might get hurt, but Kev doesn't care. He thinks it's radical!" you say excitedly, Carl smirks at you.

"Too badass. I drive Fiona's car sometimes, it's nice." he comments, you two get in the car sitting on the seats. "Yes, it is. When I get my license, I'm going out at dawn with you to all the car races." you say smiling, which makes Carl smile as he remembers the things you guys did to make it to the city limits for the damn clandestine races. "Uh, great. I really don't want to have to bike to the end of Chicago."

"Right, right." you chuckle at it "Just a year to go or maybe two..." "Sixteen is the new seventeen." he says, you nod turning on the radio. "Birthday Sex" blasts through the loudspeakers, you and Carl singing the lyrics perfectly as if you were at a live show. In fifteen minutes you were already in Paty's, you park the car just before the entrance to the store. Carl walks out the door normally and you jump out of the truck, the two of you enter the diner.

You move to one of the tables facing the street, Carl follows you and you sit opposite each other. A knowledgeable attendant comes to you. "Hey guys, can I take your order?" she asks smiling, you take a good look at the menu even though you know it like the back of her hand. "Hey fely! An x-bacon with double fries and a coke. Please" Carl says, Felicity writes it down on paper. "What about you, Y/N? The same as always?" she asks still with a smile on her face, you think for a moment. "Hm... Same as him. And pancakes. With honey, lots of whipped cream and strawberries. Please." she notes. "Yes, someone had come to serve them." "Thanks." you both say thanks, she leaves to take more orders.

You two look at each other but don't say anything. You start snapping your fingers. "So…what have you been doing?" Carl asks breaking the silence. "The usual. Taking care of the bar, the twins, studying and sleeping. No big deal." you shrug your shoulders. "And have you been seeing anyone? Like a hookup?" you shake your head "No. Nobody. And you?" "Nobody either. But I like a girl." he says low, you're a little surprised. "Oh good Carl. Who is it?" "A girl over there, you don't know..." "Okay. Can you tell me about her?"

"Well, she's quite outgoing. She likes games and has questionable taste in music. She loves riding her old skateboard." he tells you the details, you laugh at the last remark. " She's a good girl so then. I'm happy for you, asshole." you run your hands through his hair, ruffling his strands. "Yeah, she is. She's pretty pretty too, like, awesome." You nod, seeing one of the waiters come with their orders. He puts it on the table, you thank him with smiles. You quickly pick up your burger and bring it to your mouth, taking a big bite.

The incredible taste of the fried bancon, the melted cheese and the grilled meat had you moaning in satisfaction. "Oh, God. This is fucking better than a blowjob!" you exclaim, Carl raises an eyebrow at you. "Have you ever gotten a blowjob in your life?" "No. But I got blown, and I'm sure I say this is way better." he shakes his head laughing, you notice the little bag of ketchup being poured into his burger, you frown at that sinful act. "Bro, are you really using that red sauce in a x-bacon? That's like a crime in Italy, man." you say taking another bite of yours, Carl throws the empty ketchup bag at you.

"Fuck Italy and its pizzas without ketchup! We're in America." he grumbles, you laugh. "That fucking is a godsend honey, there's no reason not to use it." "Uh, ok. At least you know Italy is not an American country." you mock him, Carl looks at you like you've said the most shocking thing in the world, the boy throws two potato in your face. "Hey you shit! Don't throw that at me." you exclaim, an elderly couple next to you complains about the noise. "Can you guys not scream or throw your cockroaches? Shitty ghetto teenagers. They don't know how to behave anywhere." the old woman mumbles the last sentence.

"I'm sorry gentlemen." you smile falsely at they, looking at Carl who was laughing hysterically. You shoot him a death glare. "Old bastards. I'm going to make these fags eat dust." you claim looking at your delicious pancakes. "But I'll get this over with first" "Yes you will." Cal says still laughing.

You finish quickly and compete with Carl to see who eats the most pancakes in the least amount of time, you obviously win with 7 pancakes in two minutes, but Carl is a good competitor with five. You both laugh when you notice that his lips are full of whipped cream, and so is the tip of his nose. The old people from before complain again, saying that you are noises. "Enough. I'm going to make this old woman hear some truths. Shitty South Zone bitch!" You get up from your desk, reaching into one of the pockets of your shorts, placing some bills on the table.

Carl too, with his wallet in his hands. "I pay." you two say together, laughing then. "Hey big boy, I pay. I brought you here, it's ok but next time it's you." you threaten with your lower finger pointed at him. "Right." "Now C-Dog, stand there and watch me fuck these old men." you tell him you're close to the exit. "Oh, go for it girl." he whispers to you, who gestures with your hands to him following you to the elderly couple's table.

"Hey good afternoon." you smile sympathetically sitting next to them. "What you want?" the woman asks arrogantly, looking you up and down. "Ah...no big deal. It's just that I actually heard you complain about me and the boy with me, I had to come here." you say sadist, eating a potato of them. "So what, girl?" She rolls her eyes. "It's just that I was a little hurt, you know? I thought you were pretty, that's fine for such an old age. But then you opened your little shit mouth, saying really prejudiced things. And I thought, I should punch some respect in this bitch." you wink at her, the lady looks at you with a hateful expression. "So, here's my darling lesson."

You pick up your glass of soda, you take a few sips, and then you spit the drink back into the glass. You smile at her before slowly pouring the coke under her head. She starts screaming getting the attention of customers calling you a ghetto rat. "Go back to the south side, motherfucker!" you exclaim, spitting in your food, standing up and feeling Carl proud stares at you. Fiona comes up to you, you think she's going to scold you but you're surprised when she applauds you. "Aren't you angry? Those customers with money never came back here." she denies smiling. "No, really. You did me a damn favor, I hate those old men, they always come here and complain about the food or my people."

"Oh, that's great then!" you smile, she nods throwing a cloth over her shoulders. "We left the money on the table, Bye Fi!" Carl yells opening the front door, she yells back an "ok" you walk out of there with you feeling insanely good. "Girl, I fucking worship you! You fucked with them." Carl exclaims jumping up and down, you laugh at him. "It's no big deal. It was deserved." you get in the car, and you start it. "Certainly." he says putting on his seat belt.

You start the pickup. Carl doesn't stop looking at you for a second, especially his hair flying in the wind invading the car through the windows. He's totally mesmerized by you, and seeing you defend him in a way has only made him more in love with you than he is. He was sure you were an amazing woman when you told him you faced men who were harassing you, but he was even more sure now, seeing your enviable posture up close.

That was the thing you loved most about Carl and that he admired most about you. You two wouldn't let anyone say shit about you, or whoever was important to you. It could be the biggest truth in the world, but the Gallagher's don't let anything go unnoticed. You had a trust that he sincerely always wanted to have for him, Carl was always a bully, stealing food and hitting some carusos when necessary. But you did even worse as a kid, and it's not something you're proud of, but you were just a kid angry about not being adopted.

And when Kevin and Veronica adopted you and welcomed you into their home, things changed, but there are things that don't change. "Where you want to go?" you ask, Carl blinks a few times. "I don't know... maybe in that abandoned terrano of the Díaz's? I heard that there are some people from our school going there to smoke and skip class."

"So that's where we're going, bro." you turn the car around the corner, turning onto the avenue. "Do you have cigarettes there? My dad never leaves them in the car because of the twins." he nods pulling a box out of his pants pocket. "Here." he hands you a pack, you hold it to your lips, Carl takes your lit lighter to the end of his cigarette, lighting it, you thank him.

[kerubimcrepin]

Wakfu OVA - Book 3, Dragon Mountain [PART 1]

Amalia he is handing you all out the Twelvian equivalent of six nuclear devices.

Amalia: [asks Joris]

Kerubim: [replies instead of Joris]

Second most batshit thing he's doing after the whole "speaking over him in private" thing. He's so evil dad energy.

Joris having to do the thing most of us know as "mom stooop she already got it."

AND after Keke stops talking he starts answering the question she asked him himself.

Once again, what seems like a normal interaction to most, is a goldmine to me.

Literally the funniest possible thing a guy who keeps losing Dofus, and had to stop being Ebony's guardian due to "interpersonal issues with the dragon", can say.

I never mentioned this previously, but one really cool detail is that even though he probably can't use them, the Dofus do react to Joris's touch — thanks to his dragonized nature.

Since the OVAs came out before the movie, this drove a lot of people a little bit crazy.

Big fan of Atch and Keke standing silently and looking vaguely worried about things.

I'M INSANE.

OF COURSE KERUBIM CREPIN WOULD REACT TO THIS. HE'S DAD.

I can read into things soooo well. I can read into them so easily. It comes like breathing to me.

[puts on tinfoil hat] Yes Kerubim wants to come back home together with Atcham and Joris, but also, Kerubim is seen pushing Joris towards his responsibilities, so I wonder if he feels a sense of guilt for the person Joris has become (guy who will die if he isn't saving the world).

lL;sdf;epor21301;;;; aksdkmaljwijahcfaw j

Anyway, I'm liking the fact that Kerubim and Atcham decided not to come with. Letting Joris have fun (type 3 fun, to be exact) with his friends <3 without making him feel weird by hovering around.

I have thought for years what Joris allowing Yugo to risk the end of the world for Tristepin might mean for his character. It doesn't feel out of character, far from it, — though it would be just as in-character if he was (softly) against this.

I think it's just one of Joris's many multitudes. He has very strong ("strong") morals, until people he cares about are involved.

Besides that, as someone who was alive before Ogrest's Chaos, I do think he'd love for the flooding of the world to stop, which might also be a factor in him not resisting the Brotherhood of Tofu's dangerous decisions here.

Just like OVA 2 was win after win after win after win for Crepinjurgenites, I think this OVA is kind of a big win for Adamai and Yugo fans.

Anyway the way Joris and Ruel are watching this happen is so fucking funny I can't. They really said 😬 and 😐

Joris hesitates before joining in.... because he's not a part of their friend group (but he wishes he were)

Personally, I think he joined in after seeing Otomai do so. It felt less awkward/presumptious. We don't see him lay his hand on Ruel — it cuts away to Otomai before that happens, which makes me consider this possibility.

OVA 3 makes me wish for an alternate season 3 that doesn't suck ass and actually handles Adamai's arc well. My suffering is so real and poignant.

THAT'S WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT. HE WAS SILENTLY STANDING THERE THINKING "Adamai is right though..." and doing NOTHING. Because he's sick in the head.

GET SCARED.

When I first watched the OVAs, I thought that these were all his past lives, and not the fucking Eliotropes. I wish life was kinder 😔

Joris "50 traumagenic psychological disorders" Jurgen ready to attack things at the drop of a hat like a wild animal.

Cutie-patootie shielding his eyes and groaning all pissed off at Yugo for doing whatever scary shit he just did.

Staring at Otomai.

While Otomai is staring at him.

He replies to her as if his own reaction to this wasn't O_O

Ngl I feel like having Grougalorasalar (the #coguette #female manipulator dragon), Dardondakal (??? the cringe warcrime dragon), and Goultard's Gay Lover Doomed By The Narrative inside your head would give anyone brainrot that leads them to cause an apocalypse to happen.

AND there are three other guys in there. And all six of them are eating holes into his brain.

Your honor, Ogrest just had a silly little time and we should forgive him for it.

[clears throat and approaches the mic] Ogrest and Otomai are good but. What if another father-son duo also had a scene where the son threatens to hurt his father if he doesn't leave him alone. Wouldn't it be cool. Haha. There are tons of father-son duos in this franchise! Tumblr user @jorisjurgen, also known as @kerubimcrepin, is not pointing at any pair of characters in particular — I just think a son should threaten to kill his father at least once more in this franchise.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for blackmailing someone and then snitching to the feds anyway? Okay, so I work for a contract medical research lab generating quantitative image data, working closely with veterinary pathologists who provide the qualitative data. Together, we put together a report like "okay, here's what the medicine/medical device did and here's why we think it happened", and that report usually gets sent to the FDA if it looks promising enough that the sponsor wants to push for clinical trials and eventual market release. So we get a study in and we've got (fake numbers here) 400 sections, but the quote says they only want 300 measurements done. I'm confused and go "wait, which 300 out of the 400? which 100 should I ignore?" and go to the pathologist. She also thinks it's weird and reaches out to the client, hoping it's a typo and we're about to get paid for the bonus 100. Nope! He pressures us for it to be a phone call (no paper trail) and then not-so-subtly hints that he wants the... uglier-looking sections dropped. In other words, he wants to cherry-pick data that makes him look good. This is not only dangerous but The Most Illegal Shit. People's lives hang in the balance and they have to be able to trust the research that tells them medicines and medical devices are safe. We take that responsibility seriously. So the pathologist gathers data and emails him like "I'm taking a REPRESENTATIVE 300 samples for analysis, my report will include scoring of the ones that make you look bad, and if I find out you doctored the reports behind my back, I'm sending everything I have directly to the FDA." (this is not how data is normally submitted in the industry. normally the report is commissioned, and then all dealings with the FDA are done by the client) He grouses, but agrees. And then says "if the FDA reaches out to you, don't respond." .....What? But that's already industry standard? Why would he say that? Why would he expect the FDA to reach out to us? Anyway the pathologist and I discuss it, and both assume he's definitely about to doctor these reports behind our back once it's submitted. So at my suggestion... the pathologist sends the communications to the FDA anyway. Here's the thing: we don't actually know that this guy meant to do some ethics violations. We just assumed he was suspicious without real proof. Even unproven accusations in this industry can get you blacklisted for life, if not facing criminal charges. Did we risk destroying some random guy's life over bad vibes and nothing else?

What are these acronyms?

[i-guess-im-into-this-now]

The Apothecary Diaries

S1E18 First Watch

Here's where I watch The Apothecary Diaries for the first time and give my thoughts, analysis, predictions, and occasionally I stumble into a joke.

To start at the beginning:

Episode 1

My character/locations cheat sheet

Suiren - Jinshi's attendant

Lakan - master strategist

Pairin - one of the princesses at Verdigris House

Luomen - Maomao's physician father

Meimei: one of the princesses of Verdigris House

Suirei: court lady who doesn't like Maomao

Woah. Okay so that's a loaded exchange.

Jinshi: How does one decrease the value of a courtesan? Maomao: In the case of pregnancy, it would reduce it to nearly zero.

There are 7 seconds of silence in this show after that. Yes, I used a stopwatch to time it. That is a freaking insane pause.

Jinshi makes a move to... I don't know exactly, reach out maybe? Reassure Maomao that he's not planning on doing this? I'm not sure. There is a shit ton of subtext to this conversation, that I'm not sure I have completely figured out but I will try.

Jinshi is the more obviously bothered by this statement, by a lot. Maomao is just observing to see how Jinshi responds to it. Essentially what she says is that a man could rape a courtesan and impregnant her to bring her value down, to ruin her. It would bring her value so low that anyone could afford to buy out her contract at that point. Jinshi has not provided any context to why he asked this question, and Maomao is studying him closely to see what he does with the information. I don't believe she thinks he would do this personally to a courtesan, or she wouldn't have told him. But as it appears, they've arrived at a brothel where Jinshi stopped her before going inside to ask this very fucked up question. She has to at least examine the possibility that she is wrong about Jinshi. And I think he passes her scrutiny, but not without damage done. She's disappointed that he is planning on going into this brothel, and that he asked such a depraved question. It hits particularly hard, because just prior to this they were having a nice moment where she opened up about her father. Now she is likely backtracking, either wondering why she bothered, or scolding herself for behaving inappropriately.

As for Jinshi in this scene, he hasn't revealed why he wants the answer to this particular question so badly. But boy does he want it. He let himself and Maomao fall into Lakan's trap just so that Lakan would tell him the answer. But Lakan didn't answer. Instead Jinshi asks Maomao, knowing that the question is inappropriate. He risks damaging the regard between the two of them so that he can get this answer. He's risking widening the rift between them. But why? What use is this answer to Jinshi? Does this have to do with the story Lakan told? Is he concerned about what may have happened to a courtesan in the past? To Maomao's mother? Is there a courtesan in the present that Jinshi is concerned about? Who can say.

In any case, Jinshi can see the damage that asking it has caused. He tries, I think, to backtrack, but it's too late. Maomao is retreating from him. She wants to flee, this conversation hurts for reasons she doesn't want to examine. Thank god Jinshi is emotionally intuitive. He can't let her walk away like this. The rift between them is too large, there is no telling if it could even be fixed if she leaves now. Jinshi grabs her arm.

Jinshi: You're leaving me now?

Maomao explains that her presence would compromise whatever plans he has in the restaurant. And Jinshi has to agree that makes sense, even if he can't put into thoughts or words why his heart is breaking right now.

Jinshi's critical error in this moment is that he is trying to keep Maomao out of what he's up to. He wants to protect her from whatever he's involved in, yet doing so is harmful too. He never tells her why he is visiting this place. He never explains why he asked the question. She is left to fill in the blanks with her own assumptions, with devastating results. In his effort to protect Maomao, Jinshi has harmed her. Jinshi cares for Maomao, but he hasn't learned to fully trust or respect her. And there will never be a relationship without trust. He's still got a lot of work to do before a real relationship can happen.

Maomao: It's fine. I didn't show any emotion when I spoke.

Maomao!!!

Her heart is breaking here too. I'm only surprised she is willing to admit it to herself. Perhaps the anguish of this moment has become too great to deny? For as sad as this scene is, that Maomao is aware and acknowledging her emotions is a major breakthrough! I suspect she's in for some painful moments now that she has to feel her pain, but you can't heal what you don't feel. She's on a path of healing now! Yay!

Oh my god, she even turned around to watch him walk into the building. So good Maomao. You're doing great girl!

Maomao: I truly hope you enjoy your evening good sir.

Maomao you dirty little liar!

Okay so maybe we only get to see a tiny step forward for Maomao, but a tiny step is still progress! I'm just so happy to see anything that pokes past the impasse that Jinshi and Maomao have been stuck at for ages.

The fuck kind of nightmare was that?! No wonder Maomao doesn't like to feel her emotions if she gets horrible flashbacks. Was she the baby in that scene? It looked like someone who was horribly injured tried to kill a baby. Apparently they couldn't go through with it. Was this Maomao's courtesan mother? Was she burned or scarred in someway? Perhaps to bring down her value? Or was the baby the product of rape? Was she trying to get rid of the baby to allow her to what? Return to being a courtesan? Seems unlikely with the injuries. Because she hates how the baby was conceived? Because the baby reminds her of the man who did this to her? Maybe to kill the baby so it couldn't be abused by someone else? Maybe because the woman in the scene was planning to kill herself after killing the baby?

Maomao looks at her hand, then thinks about the conversation she had with Jinshi yesterday. She then says of the nightmare that she brought it up. So there is a connection between the conversation and the nightmare. I'm guessing that what Jinshi asked about is exactly what happened to Maomao's mother, which triggered her memory. Why look at her hand? Does this have anything to do with her bandaged arm? Does the neglect or abuse of her mother have something to do with Maomao's low self-worth and the reason she is willing to self harm for her experiments? Or is she looking at her hand just to ground herself in reality, to try to fight back the traumatic memories?

After being awoken by her nightmare, Maomao is comforted by the familiar sight and routine of her father working in the apothecary. He asks her to take a package to Verdigris House.

This is maybe as good a time as any to ponder if Maomao's connection with Verdigris House is greater than that of an apothecary. I mean clearly it is, she considers the people here to be her family. But could she have had blood family that lived here as well? Was her mother one of the courtesans? I think that has been hinted at fairly strongly now.

Maomao is welcomed back with open arms. I'm so glad too see it. When was the last time someone gave Maomao a hug? Was it the last time she was here at the brothel?

Pairin is being harassed by granny to make a choice on something, and Maomao uses the opportunity to sneak away.

Pairin: Is she going to the annex?

I fricking hope so! I've been waiting for this!

Okay, so the annex is part of Verdigris House. And it looks identical to the room in Maomao's nightmare. So this must be where Maomao's mother lived. Perhaps where she died. And Maomao lived here, at least as an infant. How did she end up with Luomen?

Oh shit! Her mother is still alive?! But in a terrible state. She has some terrible illness. And it's not confirmed that this is her mother, but isn't it implied? Either way, Maomao used to be chased out of here by this angry person though it seems she no longer has the energy.

And hold on, I remember a scene from the last time Maomao was in the Verdigris House where granny asked her to tend to what I thought was just an ill courtesan, but perhaps it was this person in the annex.

Maomao's mother patient seems to be in the end stages of her illness. She no longer has energy to even speak. Luomen's once effective treatments don't offer relief, and there is nothing more that can be done. Though she may have been dealing with her decline for a long time Maomao will soon have to deal with the death of her mother. This may not be a healthy relationship, but there will still be grief. We grieve for people even when it's complicated. We also grieve what could have been, what never was. And there is never a good time to lose someone, but certainly some times are worse than others. Much of Maomao's life is uncertain right now, and she just took an emotional blow from her interaction with Jinshi, causing her to dip into the emotions she tries to avoid, now this on top of it. When it rains, it pours.

There is a troublesome customer visiting the Verdigris House. Meimei has been tasked to meet him. How foreboding. It couldn't be Lakan could it? His history with courtesans makes me ill.

Okay so maybe this lady isn't Maomao's mother, maybe she is. Maomao explains that the woman has syphilis. At least Verdigris House takes care of their own. I love that. Luomen may have been able to do something for this woman if he had arrived to serve the brothel during an earlier stage of the illness. There is a flashback here, where we get a glimpse of young Maomao in the brothel. No one trusted the eunuch doctor from no where, even if he could have done something. After contracting syphilis, the lady had to go on serving customers until the sores spread over her whole body, and she was locked up in the annex.

The woman tried to hum a tune, but is unable to to speak. I wonder if Maomao recognizes it.

Little girl: Big sis wanted you to know that the weirdo with the monocle is here, so you should avoid going out there for awhile.

Oh no! It is Lakan! Why is this little girl telling Maomao specifically so she can avoid him? Does he have a history with Maomao at the brothel? I'm trying to recall all of the things that Lakan said about the courtesan he used to visit at Verdigris House. That he could beat her at shogi, but not go. That she never sold herself but that she had an arrogant expression... I mean, I could be looking into it too much, but that... could be Maomao? Did she work as a courtesan here before? Is this why Jinshi is so determined to find out how someone might have reduced the price of a courtesan?! Did he know she used to work here? Does he worry that something terrible has happened to Maomao here? DID IT! Oh my god! It would explain so much about her fear of working as a courtesan, and her trauma. What the fuck happened in this brothel?! And who all knows about it! I demand answers!

I'm going to pull it back a little bit, and return to an earlier theory that Lakan is actually Maomao's biological father. He may have a history with Maomao at the brothel but that may be as a man who was somewhat interested in the daughter he fathered. Understandably, Maomao wants nothing to do with him. We learn here that Maomao knows who Lakan is though. Thank god they didn't run into each other in the palace. Can she really go on avoiding him? He can follow her in the palace or in the Pleasure District.

Maomao refers to Lakan as a long time customer of the Verdigris House, an old acquaintance, but that if she just stays put in the annex, she won't run into him. Okay, but tell me why you don't want to run into him....

Maomao has had a rough day. She's still reeling from her conversation with Jinshi and now she has been trapped all day in the annex with a woman who maybe hates her, so that she can avoid Lakan. She's had nothing to do but think about all the really painful emotions that she usually stays busy to avoid. Meimei finds Maomao hiding out in the annex, and lets her know that Lakan has left. Apparently he has brough up an offer for Maomao?! Maomao hates it, and so do I!

Maomao worries that if she didn't have her job that the madam of Verdigris House would have sold her off to Lakan by now. She thinks that Lakan's interest is the main reason that the madam wants her to become a courtesan. So Lakan is a major contributing factor to why Maomao is so fiercely opposed to being a courtesan. Her terror takes on a new shade of meaning now. If only we knew what has transpired between Maomao and Lakan in the past, we could understand.

Meimei has been given offers to leave the brothel, but has as yet turned them all down. She's getting close to retirement age, but isn't ready for that yet. Maomao asks why she doesn't just leave? To Maomao the freedom to choose would be preferrable to any offer that a customer could make. Maomao thinks that Meimei is holding out for love. Perhaps she is in love with someone already, and is waiting for an offer from that person.

Maomao: Maybe it's love. But if that's the case. It's not a rabbit hole I want to delve into. That's an emotion I'm sure I left behind. Back in the womb of the woman who birthed me.

Nearly every example of romantic love that Maomao has is heartbreaking. She's seen heartbreak after heartbreak in the brothel, with courtesans having promises made to them, and then broken. We don't know the story of her parents, but if her mother is the dying woman in the annex, or if she has died already, then then there is heartbreak in her story as well. Even the concubines in the palace don't have the love of the emperor, instead they merely battle for his attention and favor. The sole example she has seen is that of the concubine who was able to escape the Rear Palace when her military beau was able to secure her release.

Maomao is not open to the idea of love, in fact it is something she tries to avoid, disdains even. This view of love is one of the reasons we have seen her repeatedly shut down any tender emotion she's had, and why she is so willing to read any other explanation when love is directed at herself. And she tells us here, that it stems from her parents. How is she ever going to trust someone enough to love them and be loved in return?

And what a way to talk about one's own mother. "The woman who birthed me." So there is a story there. It sounds like one of abandonment, neglect or abuse, as we've already guessed.

The princesses want to pamper Maomao, and she adores the attention. This girl is so touch starved. I wondered about Maomao's need for physical touch, way back in episode 2 when Jinshi touched Maomao's hair and breathed on her neck. He did it in an effort to try to seduce her, but her reaction was interesting. She didn't get disgusted or freaked out as she did with his flirting. She just kind of let it happen. Now we see it with the courtesans that she considers family. Meimei is scrubbing Maomao's back and she is relaxed and smiling. The courtesans love Maomao so much, I wish she could have this kind of affection all the time.

Hard transition to Jinshi. A man who maybe has never had a hug in his life, except for the back hug he stole from Maomao when he was drunk. He's regretting that his date went so terribly, he didn't mean to give the impression to Maomao that he was trying to hook up with someone. He tells us that it definitely wasn't what he traveled there for, which is really unnecessary. No one who has been watching this show believed he was. I would like for him to tell us what he was up to though.

Maomao has retuned to Jinshi's residence, and Jinshi steels himself to face her. He's embarrassed and knows he's once again put space between them, when all he wants to do is find a way to get closer. Plus, it looks like he's carrying that jug of... beverage that Lakan left. He presents it as a present from a weirdo. Their conversation lacks all of the usual banter, and is perfectly polite, which for these two is a disaster. Jinshi watches her walk away. He's not sure where to even begin to repair this. He's frustrated. Maomao is doing her best to pretend like Jinshi already left. Gaoshun is there listening closely. Suiren is there watching Maomao and wondering what has changed, but knows it's some bullshit because she says:

Suiren: For goodness' sake.

Yeah Suiren. I feel that in my bones. But when I say it there is usually an F bomb in there somewhere.

Maomao is having very complicated feelings about having seen her mother the woman in the annex. It's distracting her from her work. It seems bad, but it's a good sign that Maomao is starting to face her emotions and try to process them, rather than avoid them.

Suiren thinks Maomao's distraction has to do with the master of the residence so she decides it's time to say something. Suiren realizes that hints and subtly don't work so well for Maomao when it comes to herself. She needs very blunt advice, which Suiren provides.

Suiren encourages Maomao to ask Jinshi for some space for her apothecary supplies.

Suiren: You may appear apathetic, but you're keen. You know where you stand, and how to play the game.

Yes! Call her on her bullshit Suiren!

Suiren: Because somebody was born noble doesn't inherently make them any different from you or me.

She's telling Maomao to quit looking at Jinshi as some lofty official, see him as a person.

Suiren: If you view everything in terms of status, then you'll miss opportunities.

Thank you Suiren! Internalize that Maomao. Put it in your head and keep it there.

Maomao has an errand to run at the court pharmacy, and she's delighted. She'll sparkling here. If only Maomao could be employed here.

The odd court lady that smacked Maomao in the head a few episodes back has arrived. Maomao figures that this lady works in the guard house and handles herbs in her job, which is why she had a bitter smell earlier, here I thought she was on drugs. Maomao ponders why the lady dislikes her so much, when they've had so little interaction.

A little casual classism for flavor. The pharmacist bemoans that the court lady is required to come pick up drugs herself. Then realizes he said it in front of Maomao and tries to back track. It's not okay work for a court lady, but fine for servant. That comment right on the heals of Suiren's much better advice about class.

Maomao discovers that the item she was sent to pick up was potato flour and wonders why Jinshi needs it. She pieces together a few things about Jinshi's actions. She suspects his actions are part of a purification ceremony that would be used to perform ceremonial rights. Something a nobleman might do. Something that would be strange for a eunuch to do. I'm tired of this theme. Moving on.

Gaoshun and Jinshi are trying to piece together the mystery of Luomen, but Jinshi can't stop thinking about how things are so distant and confused between himself and Maomao, right now. And just to make sure Jinshi never gets a moments peace, Lakan arrives.

Lakan is in the same house where Maomao is right now, and on the one hand I'm hoping they don't run into each other for Maomao's well being, but on the other hand, let's get this plot moving along. It's time to throw Maomao to the wolves.

Question: why does Lakan bring his own beverage whenever he visits? Is he afraid of being poisoned?

Jinshi isn't even bothering to hide how irritated he is at this visit. That's telling. And maybe a mistake. Or maybe intentional.

Jinshi: It seems to me, that you had engaged in some dirty trickery. Lakan: How very rude. That's rich to hear from a thief like yourself.

Gasp! Jinshi a thief?! Go on!

Oh no! Lakan really was trying to get Maomao. He spent a decade trying to get Maomao? Maomao who is what? All of 17 or 18 here? Has he been trying to get Maomao out of the brothel since she was a child? With good intentions or bad ones? Lakan feels he's been made a fool. He tell Jinshi he's upset with him over this.

Jinshi is worried, pissed, and oh so intent.

Jinshi: So do you want your prize returned?

I'm fairly certain that Jinshi wouldn't do that, and is just moving the conversation to find out Lakan's intentions.

Lakan: Not quite. I will pay whatever it is you ask.

That's... a hell of a look from Jinshi. So intense! Jinshi fucking hates this guy.

Jinshi: And if I refuse?

Lakan: Well then, I suppose there is nothing I can do is there.

Which is a threat to wreck Jinshi's life! It's a declaration of war. Holy shit!

Lakan: How many people could defy a man of your rank? I could count every single one of them on one hand.

The imperial family maybe? Yup that's it. Jinshi knows that Lakan knows his true identity.

Oh my god. Lakan knows everything!

Lakan: I'm just concerned you know. About what my daughter would think.

He's threatening to expose the truth about Jinshi, and hits him where it hurts the most: Maomao. Jinshi was worried that Maomao may be this man's daughter, and Lakan just confirmed as much.

Jinshi is tense. Hands balled into fists, posture wary, as Lakan asks to meet Maomao. This asshole has been following Maomao. First at the brothel and now to Jinshi's residence.

Everyone one of Lakan's moves were so well played, and Jinshi... is trapped. He once again has to make a choice between the obligations of his station and his own personal desires. He can give this official what he is asking for and go on business as usual, after all what is one servant over another? It would be an easy decision for someone else other than Jinshi, if it were about someone else, other than Maomao.

Jinshi looks deep in thought when he comes upon Maomao while the sun is setting. Is something ending here?

Jinshi addresses Maomao as "apothecary." It's respectful in that it acknowledges her for her skills, she may even like being called this, but it's another sign of the distance between the two. I don't know the last time he called her by her name.

Jinshi seems very nervous to bring this up to Maomao. You can hear the tension in his voice. Unusual for Jinshi, when he is usually bold and shameless when interacting with Maomao. It's a sign of just how precarious things are between the two right now. Also, a sign of just how divided Jinshi is about even bringing this suggestion to Maomao.

Jinshi: There's... an official who wants to meet you sometime soon. ... It's...that weirdo I've been telling you about. His name's... Lakan.

A pause. Then a fricking jump scare of Maomao's intense glare! This glare isn't giving Jinshi chills in the fun way. She looks legit scary. It reminds me of a frightened animal that has been backed into a corner and has no choice left but to fight. Lakan is a line she will not cross. An absolute boundary. With one look she declares that there is nothing she won't do to avoid that meeting.

Jinshi: I'll find a way to let him down gently.

Jinshi, Jinshi, Jinshi.... what the hell are you going to do? If you can't convince Maomao to see Lakan, and you won't force her to do it, then your other choice is to go to war with Lakan.

Jinshi: I've never seen her make a face like that. I never want to see it again. Ever.

I hope he means that as I'm going to do everything I can to keep her protect her from Lakan. I hope this is a turning point for Jinshi, where he chooses Maomao in a real way. I hope he won't waver again on this, allowing Lakan room to maneuver Maomao and himself.

Maomao is distressed that Lakan has found her again. She goes to collect medicinal herbs. A familiar and comforting activity.

She is approached by Suirei who cares for the herb garden near the military officers' part of the palace. Maomao questions what Suirei is growing here and Suirei claims she planting a medicine for resurrection?

Maomao has a VERY strong reaction to that. Who has died in Maomao's life that she is that desperate to get back? A family member? Someone she loved? A patient she couldn't save?

Suirei claims to be joking. What a strange lady. Are we absolutely sure she's not on drugs? The music is unsettling in this scene and so is Suirei. She asks how good of an apothecary Maomao is then tells her she's going to plant morning glories here. I happen to know that those are poisonous! Is Suirei hoping to make a poison? Will she try to get Maomao to do it?

The sun is setting over the palace and the music is ominous. Is something serious about to happen in the next episode?

To start at the beginning: Episode 1

Next Episode:

Episode 19

[m3r1m4r5u333]

Look. I'm fucking done here.

I'm fucking furious. I've had ENOUGH of people shit talking Kristen Reidel for being "antibuddie".

Newsflash you imbecils, it's OBVIOUSLY blatantly untrue!! She's been here for us, from the very start, to lay out the foundation for queer Buck and Eddie. She's written, directed and been the executive producer for some of the most monumental buddie moments!!

Maybe take a moment to understand that these shows are huge and one person does not have all the say for how things work out. These people do not work in isolation, doing whatever they like!

Let's remember that the show used be on Fox, which is arguably one of the most conservative networks there are!!!

The show already had several main queer characters and romances when Eddie's character entered the show in season 2. We also know that the main target audience is fairly tradional, and the show is freaking expensive to make without a huge profit in return. We KNOW it has repeatedly struggled to get renewed due to that.

Let's remember that creating a show like this is not an existence of stress-free creative indulgence - you are actually responsible for HUNDREDS of jobs! The show's survival! People's income! The crew isn't just a couple of known actors, it's also everyone else making the show, and these productions are HUGE. It's so many families income at stake.

So WAKE UP and realise what they've been against, creating this show.

I'm like obnoxiously queer but even I would get nervous at the idea of similtaneously airing several queer ships on a show about emergency responders, on freaking Fox!

Seriously, just stop to think. What if they had gone for blatant buddie early on?

The show would have had to juggle... let's do some math...

Hen, Karen, and Eva being queer and raising a rainbow family,

Michael's coming out storyline, then his and David's romance, Josh being very much gay and dating men... Add to that Buck and Eddie, and that's MANY prominent queer characters, story arcs and romances trying to compete for air time... ON FOX, in a show about firefighters!

The risk of the the largely conservative, homophobic audience on a conservative channel going "it's too much" and abandoning the show was REAL, don't you pretend otherwise.

Sure, there are other less easily intimidated audiences, but how would they know if the leap into the unknown would pay off?

I think in those circumstances they made a very sensible decision to focus on the other queer characters anf storylines first.

Again, it's hundreds of people's incomes at stake!!! There must have been people, funders, bosses voting against adding more blatantly queer storylines to the current situation because it was just not the right time.

So Kristel Reid was CAUTIOUS when she gave interviews. Remember, the future of the show has been uncertain from the start with how expensive it is to make!!

She did not want to give false hope to the viewers hoping for buddie come true. She did not want to be accused of queerbaiting. She very sensibly made sure to appear neutral about buddie, and give the UNTRUE impression that her head canon is that meh, they're just straight friends to her.

Quite frankly folks... NEVER PLAY POKER WITH THIS WOMAN, I think she'd eat you in a minute!!

She LIED. Fucking absorb that information. Breathe it in! You can do it! She's been obviously rooting for Buddie to happen for AGES.

Why do I say this?

Well here's my fucking powerpoiny about it!!! Read this and take a minute to consider her innocent "oh they're the very bestest of friends"-front against her actual work on the show!!

She WROTE 5x18, you know, with Ravi's line to Hen:

"I think it's sweet that Karen was defending you. I mean, isn't that what we all want in a partner, knowing they have your back?"

She's no spring chicken, she wrote this fully knowing the memory we buddie shippers possess!!!

She WROTE the scene in which Eddie comforts Buck at the hospital after Maddie's kidnapping.

She WROTE 3x01, that's the scene in which Eddie bursts into Buck's apartment when Buck's feeling down and has Chris hang out with "his Buck".

She co-wrote Eddie's disgusted reaction to meeting Abby, she co-wrote Buck hearing that Chris is going on a two-week school trip and freaking out like a mother hen,

She WROTE freaking 4x14 - You know, the episode SURVIVORS, in which Eddie is shot by a sniper!! In the queerest way possible!!

She WROTE Desperate measures, you know - the episode in which Eddie breaks up with Ana, freaking oozing repressed queer subtext all over the place!!

Have you even watched the talk Buck and Eddie have before the breakup?!!! It's INSANE.

---

Buck: Ah. I thought you'd be the first one out the door. Christopher know you're coming?

Eddie: Not yet. I haven't figured out what I'm going to say when I get home. To Ana.

---

Try telling me that "door" isn't the door of a closet, I challenge you!!

She freaking co-wrote 5x17!!! The META of Taylor, in 5x17 "promising" she won't "run the story", and then breaking that promise.

That same episode has Eddie visiting his home btw, and paints a very illuminative picture of the environment Eddie grew up in - it practically spells toxic masculinity, compulsory heterosexuality, catholic guilt. Really, that episode basically screams "This is why Eddie is such a repressed onion."

THAT episode also has THAT insane closet door scene, Eddie opening a closet door as Buck says:

Buck: You know, your parents will understand!

Eddie turns to stare at him.

Buck: ...They should understand. *Plays with a toy dinosaur as he's talking, and pretends it bites his finger.*

... And again, after that episode she wrote 5x18, the one with "Isn't that what we all want in a partner, knowing they have your back?"

An obvious parallel to Buck and Eddie meeting and promising to have each other's backs!!!

....

Seriously, Kristel Reidel has had our back from the very beginning and I'm fed up with people talking shit about her!! I think it's no coincidence that one of the emergencies she wrote was "someone stuck in a freezer", that's fucking meta. I bet she's wanted to fucking hit the pedal but she's been forced to bide her time, and it's been fucking agony at times.

And don't even get me started on Tim fucking Minear, who people have ALSO shit talked because "hE jUst liKes tO QuEerBait".

BE FUCKING GRATEFUL FOR KRISTEN REIDEL, YOU utter... *censored*.

BE GRATEFUL FOR TIM MINEAR. They are our freaking GOATS and they deserve our love!!!

Edit. After reading up some more about the power structures of media networks like these... I would really not be surprised if it turned out that the people running this show (such as Reidel and Minear, the people listed next to the episodes) have had even less say on what sort of stories they get to do than I've thought.

After all, these people we fans focus on and know by name... They're really not nearly as influential as we think. There are still plenty of big chiefs higher up in the food chain. I've heard some vague rumours before that the network has meddled with the show's creative decisions a lot in these past years, and would not be surprised if it was true.

[enkvyu]

the world cries snow.

gojo lifts his foot out from the ground once more. the effort it takes is minimal but piled up repeatedly, the sorcerer only becomes more and more aware of how time consuming it really was.

this was no time to play around in the snow, he needed to find elsa.

“elsa!” he screams, but the fierce winds sweep away his desperate cries. he doubts she could even hear him, if he himself struggled to pick out his voice against the howls of winter.

but hope is a cruel thing, and his voice is torn and repaired over and over with his technique as he searches for elsa with her name.

he contemplates soaring the skies in search of her but erases it quickly from his mind. whilst it would be easier, his six eyes could distinguish her against the backdrop of a blizzard without difficulty, he worries if the sight of him might scare her away.

he had to be careful, he couldn't risk losing another friend due to his ignorance.

gojo trudges onwards, eyes seeking a familiar figure. he pushes aside a cluster of branches and comes face-to-face with a clearing in the forest.

as if fate had relented and granted his wish, his heart leaps with relief then drops in worry at what lay before him.

elsa kneels in the centre, hunched over the edge of a crystal-clear lake.

the beauty of the lake is lost on gojo as his eyes trains on her fragile body, trembling softly.

because the cold never really bothers her anyway, gojo doubts it was the chilly winds that shook her shoulders so.

"elsa." gojo says again, closing in. he watches as her body freezes at his voice, looking over her shoulder to meet his eye.

an electric current runs between them before elsa picks herself up hastily. "gojo! what are you doing here?"

a jolt of pain stabs through gojo's heart as he watches her wipe away half-frozen tears. "i came after you."

"you shouldn't be here." elsa laughs, but there isn't a trace of humour in the otherwise beautiful sound. "i bring danger wherever i go, you won't be safe with me. please, if you care about yourself or even me at all, please just leave me alone."

"wait, you have to listen to me, elsa."

"no! you listen to me, gojo. can't you see what i've done? haven't you seen how many people are in pain because of me? everyone looks at me like i'm a witch." then, quietly. "maybe i am one. but even then, my biggest fear is that you'll come to fear me."

"we can fix this." gojo persists, taking another step after the other. he doesn't miss the last part of her mumbling and hope warms the tip of his ears. "come back with me and we can show them that you aren't a threat."

"i can't."

"you can. it wasn't your fault."

"only you think that."

"and together we can make them all change their mind."

elsa hugs her arms closer. "it's hopeless. they won't believe me."

"i believe you."

"you aren't enough!" she snaps, whipping her head around to glare at him. "the look in their eyes told me enough, gojo. they don't want me there because i'm a hazard. and it's fine, really! i belong here anyway, in the snowy forest."

gojo balls his fists at his side. it pained him to think she didn't understand that she belonged with him. didn’t she feel their connection, the ignition when he draws too close, a sign that they were two kindled flames? together, they were destined to walk side-to-side.

so he tells her. "you belong with me."

elsa's eyes widen, and warmth colours her face. she opens her mouth to deny his words when she finally realises how close he had gotten. a rush of unidentifiable emotions encases her heart and the snowstorm rushing around them picks up in velocity.

"stop it, gojo! don't come any closer."

shit, gojo thinks. he should have been more subtle. still, he wasn't about to let this opportunity go to waste.

his hair dances furiously in the wild wind, and ice pelts his uniform over and over, pushing him back. his blindfold is taken by the gales, but he lets it happen. he gives up on coaxing, and takes big, demanding steps forward.

elsa tries to take a step back but the lake stops her.

"please, gojo." she cries and it really is such a beautiful sound, even when shaking with grief. perhaps he really was in danger, and elsa was a siren luring him in for a feast. even then, gojo believes he would walk right towards her as he was doing now, eyes and heart wide open for whatever she wishes.

he had long been enthralled into her trap.

elsa buries her head into her arms, palms pressed against her ears in an attempt to deafen her rebellious thoughts. "i can't hurt you too!" she pleads, withdrawing into herself.

if she hurt even the person who she held most dear, then what was she good for? though their separation would be a wound that never heals, a scab picked at time and time again, she thinks it might be better than this.

a hand grasps her arm and it's warm.

she looks up, eyes wet with unshed tears and finds herself staring into gojo's blue eyes. the shade of blue is startling and for a second, elsa relishes in the calm.

“you could never hurt me.” he promises and his voice is the only thing she can hear in the snow. with her heart beating in her ear, heat rushing to her cheeks, the blizzard around them seems to quieten.

a single tear rolls down her cheek. "how?"

gojo lifts his other hand and gently takes a hold of her’s. slowly, as if afraid she'll run away, gojo brings their interlocked hands up between them. then, he lets go.

panic surges through elsa. she had delusioned herself into thinking that without gojo, she would be okay. this selfless decision of hers was for the greater good, even though her heart throbbed in protest, she had pushed through regardless.

but when push comes to shove, elsa feels the empty hole that gojo's absence would leave, and realises she simply could not be without him.

she reaches forward with a start, then pauses.

her fingers stop centimetres away from his.

"see?" gojo says, a small smile blessing his face. "you can't hurt me because i'm the strongest."

"this is..."

"infinity. a convergence of infinite series so that anything that approaches is slowed down and never reaches." he turns off his technique and closes the gap, interlocking their fingers once more. "basically it means you could never hurt me, elsa. not in this lifetime and not even in the next."

hope is a cruel thing. it overwhelms elsa in seconds and she presses into the hold. the cruel emotion makes her gaze slow as she looks up at him. "then, that means, you're safe around me?"

"even if you did hurt me, did you think i would run away? i couldn't be away from you even if i tried."

“but i pushed you away! do you… do you still even want to be with me?”

the whistling snow picks up again, but it's a slow, dreamy pace that the ice takes on as it encircles the two.

“my place is with you.” he confesses.

"what are you saying? you better not be saying this just to calm me down."

"i'm not." gojo takes their connected hand to his lips and place a kiss to the back of her hand. "i love you elsa. always and forever."

that day, arendellian citizens would witness a sudden clearing of the sky and a lifting of the snow, clouds drifting apart and fading away to reveal the blue skies, a shade as blue as gojo's eyes.

tiktok has done numbers to my brain. dedicating this one to alice my biggest hater bc she has yet to see the vision :3 word dump + not proofread LOL

[familyagrestefanblog]

Sorry, I just need to get this off my chest.

You know what's shit?

That I always come back to work on my explanation posts on why Alya, Plagg, and Emonette being treated unfairly and being disregarded by Maribug's writing is by now pissing me off to similar degrees as her bad treatment of Chat Noir

But that always ends in a domino effect of me putting together more of the overall narrative that ticks me off so much cause my ADD brain can't NOT look for the continuous string of the writing pattern I follow once I'm at it.

You probably can imagine that this isn't very good for my mental health and the only reason why I'm still doing it is because I have a strong suspicion on what the new story arc will do with Cerise after this agonizing hiatus, and only once the actual new story arc proves me wrong can my ADD brain let this emotional investment of 7+ years in my "comfort show" since I was a 16 rest in peace.

Being neurodivergent is exhausting of FUCK...

So I always stop writing any of the posts about the other topics and come back to my Adrichat corner because that's the "safe space" my brain is the most familiar and comfortable with by now since season 4 to make a post AT ALL that isn't running the risk of leading me down 7 new rabbit holes I can't unsee anymore afterwards...

I MISS looking into several narrative threads in this show and voicing my opinions on them. In hindsight, I regret not having done it more when it was still possible, but I feel like it should have been alright in any other normally written show to have a fan blog dedicated to a specific part of the story. I feel like I shouldn't be the one in the WRONG for having done that.

Anyway, I honestly MISS the time where I knew that Maribug's benefit and comfort weren't the only things accepted as "valid" readings of the story. From both sides. Supporters and critics/salters.

Where saying anything that isn't immediately connected to Marinette's benefit and comfort didn't need a full-blown 20 page essay post going into any detail possible to fight for the right to even be taken seriously as a realistic reading of the story at all.

I know I'm not the only one upset at this, but I wonder how many people really realized by now how batshit insane this is right now. That only the most vanilla and vague-ass posts that do their best to not in anyway say something that would be "mean" and "non-validating" to Marinette can be posted now without it automatically being categorized as at least "critical" or running the risk of getting perceived as salt or wishful-thinking.

You can't point ANYTHING out anymore without at least one person running in and either saying "You just HATE Marinette and want to see her punished! You people never care about HERRRRRRRRRR (regarding a topic that isn't about her or is her fucking JOB as a narrative tool to DO)" or "Yeah, nah, the show would never let that happen because of the Marinette bias lol"

You can't even say anything anymore about Adrien's abuse without it being either undermined to all hell because of Marinette having been bullied and needing to be a girlboss who does to others what she's declared "tortured" for, or Félix "hypocrite and victim-blamer" Fathom. Gabriel being abusive was once the most basic ass thing to talk about, what the fuck happened?? (don't answer that, I know the answer...)

The whole analysis' side of this fandom that isn't catering to Marinette was either killed or basically exiled into the "critical" or outright "salt" tag because you can't even be interested in world-building anymore without having to fight for the post's right to be taken seriously under the crushing weight of Marinette's narrative benefits and comfort.

Because mademoiselle ain't fucking interested in ANYTHING lore wise beyond what's convenient for her (not to mention the retcons), so talking about the Guardian and Kwami lore for example counts as SALT now because it automatically implies for people that Marinette isn't all that matters and her flaws of not being interest in ANYTHING might actually COUNT as flaws she should work on. I know, the fucking HORROR! 😱

I MISS writing theories, analysis posts, and speculating about this shows future plots in even the most basic "set up and pay off" manner but I know I can't because my default approach is always complementary to the main character - meaning what challenges them and the narrative the most to grow, expand, and develop. This isn't a Marinette specific thing, I ALWAYS do this.

And contrary to popular belief in this fandom, I get by perfectly fine doing that for the majority of other pieces of media I consume. It is MIRACULOUS and this damn Fandom that now genuinely did it's best to convince themselves that this level of main character centric morality and revenge porn level writing is NORMAL when it's seriously NOT.

There is a REASON why this show hardly ever gets recommended on social media the way one would think despite its success. Or why the Fan backlash is so enormous despite a solid part of the Fandom already having left long ago and the young target demographic not uniformly having a voice in the social media discourse.

Or why people actively advise others AGAINST watching the show, AGAINST forming an emotional investment, and AGAINST going anywhere near the Fandom.

Cause no fucking shit, this isn't normal.

[impishjesters]

warning(s): none note(s): This was a request that accidentally got deleted so I'm fuzzy on the exact words used, but I remember it involving a reader who makes clay things and that it was for Gangle. So my apologies to the requester if I missed anything! A/N: I don't remember if it was platonic or romantic, but this was written with the intention of the crushing stage because I just think it's so stinking cute. I definitely feel like Gangle would enjoy someone going out of their way to not only help fix her masks but make her brand new ones without her even asking for them. Too cute.

Gangle x Clay Maker!Reader

Gangle held her recently broken comedy mask for what felt like the hundredth time, and it seemed like almost every time was a result of something to do with Jax. The most recent case, however, was the new arrival, just to have it stepped on breaking it further. If she had a mean bone in her body she’d curse the damn thing for being so fucking fragile.

Luckily she had you, someone who worked with clay to make all sorts of little things. You had even taken to making her some new masks, some she wore, some she put up as decoration too afraid to risk them breaking. Even when you reassured her you could fix them up if that happened, that offer extended to her two original masks.

When everything had died down she separated from the group and headed for your bedroom. She had asked once before why you didn’t just ask Caine for more space or a new room, you had brushed it off by saying it’s not like you needed a fully furnished bedroom.

Besides Caine oh so graciously gave you all the things needed to make new clay stuff, asking for more at the moment felt like too much—even if you deserved it for being trapped in this shit hole, all of you deserved more than you got.

Gangle raised a hand to knock before remembering that it wasn’t necessary and instead opted to push the door open before calling out your name.

Your head rose from the project in front of you, throwing a quick glance at your guest. “Ah, Gangle. Broken mask?” Poor girl couldn’t catch a break.

“Yes…the newbie broke it…b-by accident!” she tacked on. “Then Jax stepped on it…”

Gangle crept over and you gestured for her to show you the pieces. Laying them out on the worktable she hunched into herself, hands fiddling idly. “I-it’s not too broken is it?”

You shoved your current project aside and gently collected the fragments like it was a puzzle, whistling when you saw the damage. “Nothing’s too broken, especially since you already told me you don’t mind the clay. It might take a little bit longer than normal though, but I can give you a temporary comedy mask if you want.”

She shook her head, there was a certain fondness for her original two masks that it felt odd to wear the mock ups you made. Though she was starting to fear the damage becoming too much that these two masks would hardly be original anymore.

“Do you think you could…maybe make more solid copies of them? L-like the others?”

The masks you designed were made a bit more durable then the temporary comedy masks she’d used before. They were temporary after all, more akin to a cheap Papier-mâché mask then a solid structured mask.

“What like a better version of your main two? Thinking of tucking these two away for safety?” Gangle gave a nod and you looked at her, mask shards forgotten to reach out and touch along the edge of the tragedy mask she wore. “You know you could easily just ask Caine to fix them up.”

Gangle tittered nervously at your tender touch, trying to focus on anything but how close you were. “I..I guess I could.. but..”

It was embarrassing to admit she liked your handiwork, and while she was worried about her masks you did bring up a good point. Caine would easily fix them if they got that bad, but it felt like a last option to fall back on. In fact he had fixed them up multiple times prior to your arrival, but it felt like she was a bother having to always find him and ask time and time again.

If she was being completely honest, she sort of just really liked the tender attention you gave her and the way you kept working so earnestly on masks for her. Masks she didn’t even ask for, it was completely your own doing! So sue her for sucking up all the attention you happily gave her.

When she never finished her sentence you took that as her being lost in her own head and gentle jostled her face. “Outta that pretty little head missy, you don’t have to explain it to me. But yeah I can make sturdier mask copies.”

You gesture to the free seat nearby and she scampered off to her usual spot. It gave her the perfect view to watch both you and your work while being just the right distance to not be in the way or for her heart to beat out her chest.

The project you had been working on when she entered was left untouched in favour of fixing up some of her broken mask as well as getting a fresher template drawn up. Gangle eyed the ignored project before her attention went back to you.

“What were you working on before I came in?”

“Mm? Oh, nothing too important, just some little clay dolls.”

Gangle pulled her knees closer as she listened to you talk about the dolls in question. She was forever grateful that her masks kept the exact object she was staring at vague, if you knew that her eyes were glued specifically to you she’d completely unravel.

Physically and mentally. Maybe one day she’d speak up on her feelings.

[theerurishipper]

Oh god finally. Someone who also hates season 5 Adrinette! Finale gaslighting of Adrien aside…. I found the romance boring? It was kind of hard to watch? The second hand embarrassment of certain scenes me me have to pause and take breaks lmao. The first 2 seasons of LadyNoir weren’t like this, so I know they can write romance if they wanted to! What makes you hate Adrinette in season 5? Because personally I think it has issues even if you erase the gaslighting of the finale

Anon, it's like you read my mind.

I'll just come out and say it. Pre-reveal Adrienette is literally the most boring and asinine way to get Marinette and Adrien together. It's not even about the ship. I like Adrienette. I enjoy reading fics focusing on it. But canonically, their relationship is not that developed and Ladynoir has the bulk of the development, which makes total sense since the show revolves around those sides of them. But they made Adrienette canon first, before the reveal, and I have things to say about that.

First of all, it's just so... lazy. Making Adrienette canon the way they did let them flake out on writing meaningful character development. The thing is, having Adrien do all the work is just bad. Marinette's whole arc that has been built up for four seasons is that she can't confess to Adrien. Part of her story is about gaining the courage and confidence to be able to tell him her feelings. But guess what? She didn't need to do shit, because that would mean the writers actually had to write character development, and that's too hard. So they had Adrien fall in love with Marinette and had him confess to her, which made it so much easier for them to get together. And it is just so lazy.

You know what else is lazy? How they wrote Marinette and Adrien's relationship in general. A part of Adrienette's relationship is that Marinette is under the impression that Adrien's life is perfect and that he has no problems at all. She just began to realize that that isn't the case in Risk. This was the perfect set up for some much-needed development in their relationship, because quite frankly Marinette and Adrien were not close at all before this. But now suddenly, Adrien is in love with her for seemingly no reason at all and she doesn't have to make the effort to get to know him, because he ends up pursuing her and just... lets her see the real him without any effort on her part. And it's like she just got handed the relationship without having to undergo any character development.

And it's so bad because Marinette was the one in any of their dynamics who had to learn to accept Adrien for who he was. She was the one who had to undergo the development of learning to love both sides of Adrien. She was the one who couldn't reconcile the idea that Adrien and Chat Noir were the same, and therefore couldn't love Adrien in his entirety. Adrien never had that problem. The moment he figured out Marinette was Ladybug, it just clicked for him. He already knew her and valued her. So, to have him be the one who has to give up on his feelings for Ladybug and fall for Marinette while Marinette doesn't have to start seeing him for who he is... it's just so bad. To have him do all the work and her not have to lift a finger and just get her dream boyfriend without truly knowing him... it's just bad writing!

And Adrien! I've always mentioned that he only exists to be Marinette's prop, and that is so visible here with the way he just... falls in love with her for no reason and does all the work to make Adrienette happen so that Marinette can just get what she wants handed to her without needing to grow as a person. And like, you're telling me he started to like her in Puppeteer 2? Fucking there? Don't make me laugh, show.

Apparently, all it took for him to fall in love with Marinette was her telling him that he should talk to his father. You mean, the same thing that Nino and Kagami and Plagg have been telling him throughout the series? Despite them knowing him better and being closer to him than Marinette? And apparently since that's all it took to make him fall in love with her, why didn't he fall in love with Nino or Kagami? Make it make sense!

And speaking of which, let's talk about the plot contrivances. Because Adrienette is the side of the square with the least development and least stakes, making it canon means they have nothing left to explore about it. So they introduce all these contrivances in order to try to make it interesting, and they do this at the expense of other plotlines. Marinette growing brave enough to confess? Forget that. Marinette realizing that she has a lot to learn about Adrien? Forget it. Ladybug and Chat Noir resolving their conflict from the previous season? Who's she?

Instead, we get episodes like Derision that deal with Marinette's supposed trauma that came outta nowhere. Now she's having trouble holding Adrien's hand and telling him she loves him. This was never a problem before. She held Adrien's hand just fine in episodes like Gorizilla and Chat Blanc and even as late as Risk. They made Marinette not being able to confess to Adrien about some retconned-in trauma instead of just about her not having the confidence to express herself. But no, we get this new trauma so that we can drag out the Adrienette drama for more episodes, because surely we have nothing else to deal with! Not like we have so many unresolved plot points and underdeveloped characters that could use some focus! The only reason Derision even exists is so that they can stretch this drama out for longer in an effort to pretend that it actually has something going on. Because now that Marinette knows that Adrien loves her, she shouldn't have any trouble telling him she loves him, and that would be the end of any relevance Adrienette has. So we get a bunch of episodes that go on and on about Marinette being unable to confess and Adrien being the Perfect Boyfriend™ who only exists to support her and help her with her trauma while asking nothing of her.

And speaking of Adrien, all he does throughout this season is talk about his relationship with Marinette. He isn't allowed to have any other emotions other than those that relate to her or Adrienette. Even his relationship with Gabriel is about how he's not letting him date Marinette. Him being a Sentimonster is only about how it affects Adrienette. And so, we get the scenes with Adrien blaming himself for Marinette's "suffering," and him being the one to change himself instead of her developing more confidence. The way they make it seem like Adrien has to change himself because of Marinette's reactions which are not his fault just so he can make her happy at his own expense is just... ugh. Like, I don't mind that he wants to help her be more confident, but the show puts the onus on him to be the one to do most of the work to make her feel comfortable and confident while she just sits back and doesn't grow or develop at all.

And this isn't a huge criticism compared to the actual problems I've laid out, but Adrienette is just so... bland. Like, it's the basic cookie cutter high school romance we've seen in hundreds of shows before this. I'll say it again, Ladynoir is what gives the square its flavor. Adrienette should have developed enough to be interesting in its own right and to compliment Ladynoir, but they chose to go the drama and contrivance route instead of developing their relationship. So, we have things like the whole sex metaphor thing, you know, because that's the most important thing in a season where Monarch is at his most powerful and Ladybug and Chat Noir should be more proactive.

I actually have more to say but I have no energy rn to say it. So I'll probably make a longer post about it sometime in the future.

Thank you for your ask!

[dani-luminae]

Good grief, discussing the "magic ban" is so weird in this fandom.

The first book was like "we don't rely on magic so much cause we literally have washing machines so we don't need animals to do it" and people went nuts like OMG THEY MADE MAGIC ILLEGAL!!!! Like no. show me where it says magic is illegal? Mal uses magic: no repercussions (other than social but that's a different discussion). Jane uses magic: she gets scolded by her mom. Nether of them are actually punished.

The exception to this is D4 because the guide book make it more than clear they lost track of canon and confused it with fanon because they do call it a 'magic ban' there but let's be honest. Nothing about D4 aligns with the past movies in the slightest.

Genuinely I think the "magic is discouraged" thing is mostly Disney's excuse as to why we don't see magic galore in the movies, cause they don't have the CGI budget, and that's it.

But also I haven't read the first Isle of the Lost book in a while but as far as I can remember... you're pretty much right. "We have technology so we use it" they say, and somehow people drew the conclusion that magic was straight-out illegal. Magical/fantasy creatures still exist - Aurora and Phillip ensured their castle was big enough to provide lodging for passing trolls. Genie still races around (with council approval for most of it, but that's different than "it's illegal!"). Accidental wish-granting happens. Stuff like that. It's not exactly punished. (Though to note, Jane did get grounded. But still, not really any legal punishment.)

My most genuine opinion on it is that technology and stronger community networks can do so much more than magic can, and without the risk of evil curses and everything else that happened in the past.

People are like "but Merlin Academy is full of magic!" Yes, and shit went wrong every day from the sounds of it. Uliana and her crew were free to run around and be jerks and straight-up ruin their classmates lives???? And even the most well-meaning charms could backfire badly (see: Bridget's cupcakes.)

I guess what I'm getting at is that magic in these movies is also shown to be either A) massively unpredictable in so many ways, or B) straight-up malicious - so no wonder people moved away from it when they could manage to. But there was never said to be a "magic ban" until the fourth movie promo materials, which as said, don't make any sense with the rest of the canon.

(And even then with the greatest example of "good magic" we ever got thrown out - aka Cinderella's transformation - D4 retconned it so FG wasn't even good at magic at the time. So what even is the situation with magic in this series?)

Who even knows anymore. Certainly not the writers!

[empressofdiamonds]

LOW VALUE MALES and how to understand them.

Keeping in mind "sex is the end goal of LVM" and "LVM won't care about women's emotions and will leverage them for their end goal" helps clarify tremendously their modus operandi. If you don't wanna read all this post, re-read this first post and scroll down. That's all there is.

LVM will pretend relationship for the sake of sex, they won't even be willing to put in effort and care into the relationship, just enough so they can access sex. And once dumped they'll crawl and cry so hard and pretend they'll improve themselves but it's all for the sake of sex.

They're literal slaves to their dick. They WANT to get it wet. The Dick Must be Wet.

LVM don't see women as their equal... and wont change their minds. They see women as possessions instead of humans. They won't care about what women desire want need deserve, because they see those things as obstacles to sex, so he'll cut corners just to get his dikk wet. Like "huh, why bother romancing her, I'm doing bare minimum and she's willing to give me sex, anything beyond that is useless

They're cheapos. They'll do hangouts, fake dates (that's what I call cheapo easy fake-romancey dates, like walk dates, park dates, starry night dates, home movie dates, etc), they'll pinch their pennies when it comes to dating... Because they simply aren't sure if the sex will be there. They aren't sure, so why the hell spend this much cash, Jessica Neighbor might have better odds than Joanna Doe? They'll litterally do a mental risk/perk calculation. To give you an idea, an escort's time is 600$+ in major cities, they're happy to pay for that, but will screech at the idea of paying 40$ for a nice dinner with a glammed up lady (that is ACTUALLY into them).

They loathe effort and energy, and they loathe making others feel good without expecting anything back. Let's say you're a LVM. Your average Joanna Doe, you romance her, you bring her to cute cafes, you get through boring discussions about future (you legit don't give a F about that, she's not the one and you know it), and you future fake her, you recourse to lowly strategies to make her think there's something going on. Joanna invests more of her time into you, she opens up more and more, after 1-2 weeks you bring her to fake dates, increase the intimacy, slowly push her boundaries, then tada sexxx.

They'll recourse to immoral strategies without any personal issues. It brings us back to point 4; they don't see women as people to respect. Respecting women to them is optional, and they do it begrudgingly to not be seen as absolute assholes... This is bringing us back to the previous point's LVM example: Uh oh? Joanna Doe doesn't wants to have sex? You'll start doing guilt trips, push her into sex, say that she's weird, or maybe increase the romance fake talk, say she's the Number One and that you Know You'll Spend Your Life With Her, She's So Special. You lovebomb her, you talk of everything you think women love. Litterally you'll trow anything until it sticks.

To LVM, dating IS a numbers game. They more they'll ask women out, past exes, former classmates, anything goes, the more odds of having sex. So that's a win move for LVM. They are motivated by sex, and don't give a shit about women's emotions, they're annoyances. LVM will also have a bunch of women they talk to at the same time. But no, Joanna is the "only one he's talking to". They'll lie their asses off if that means protecting their odds of having sex.

If a LVM thinks sex might happen soon, he'll persevere the masquerade. But most aren't that endurant. A lot drop it after 3-4 weeks, the most endurant hold on for 2 months or something like that. Say no. Insist that you don't want to engage in sex and that you want to take it slow. Pump those damn BRAKES!

The instant you whiff anything LVM, dump. Don't even feel bad. LVM are EVERYWHERE. You'll find other men out there easy. They're rich, poor, prestigious, rednecks, academic, blue collar, whatever, they're everywhere. But their $$$$ or their network isn't worth a miserable lifetime. NEXT!!

[funnyscienceman]

my favorite favorite favorite part about the singed = corin reveck thing is the fucking nier shadowlord of it all. the fact that it would mean singed had a hand in the creation of not one, but *two* characters whose stories are about doing good or trying to do good and losing (or risking losing) their humanity in the process.

orianna not giving two shits if going down to zaun might hurt her. not regretting it one bit, just immediately working her ass off to save her own life, and then just giving her dying dad the last piece of her physical humanity —her HEART — whether he wanted it or not.

viktor not giving a damn about piltover, about jayce, going fuck it all even if it might hurt. going through with the glorious evolution, turning himself into a fucking machine — to save himself, to help others. the fact that he was SO READY to throw in the towel and let himself die after what happened to sky.

it's the idea that SINGED played a pivotal role in these two's formative years — singed, as in the guy who'd burn a person's home to the ground and kill their mother just so he could experiment on them. the guy who'd torture his test subjects half to death if they didn't cooperate. the guy willing to keep a dying animal on excruciating life support just for his own research. it's the fact that he can do, has done, and will continue to do all these horrible things with not even a *shred* of remorse — and also still pick up a child's lost toy and return it to them, asking with genuine interest, "you built this? why aren't you playing with the others?"

i really don't know how to articulate this without going in circles, but like. the fact that he's only in it for himself is EVERYTHING. how people just keep going to him for help and he is NOTHING but unequivocally honest. he'll do the thing. he'll give you the drug, or save your dying daughter, or whatever the hell else. he'll warn them, and then leave them to make their own decision.

"Sometimes death is a mercy," he warns Silco. Silco says back, "She can take it," so alright. If you say so. Not my problem.

"I must warn you, if you take this path, they will despise you. Love and legacy are the sacrifices we make for progress. It's why I parted ways with Heimerdinger."

"Jayce will understand," Viktor says.

Singed doesn't even rebuke him, put him down, nothing. Just a simple, "Perhaps." An, "Eh, maybe. Only one way to find out ig"

(He doesn't even make Viktor pay him back, btw. He doesn't say a thing about him running away all those years ago. Unless for some fucking reason that was omitted, but i'm choosing to take s1 as-is here, disregarding s2 entirely)

He DOESN'T CARE about anyone else, is the thing. He could not give any less of a shit beyond whatever he or they have obligated to each other. He doesn't hold Viktor running away against him. He doesn't fight back against silco holding a fucking knife to his neck beyond glancing between him and it and just plainly answering his questions. (He has his pinkie out when holding stuff like bottles and i think that's the funniest piltie shit ever)

So like it makes PERFECT SENSE and also NO SENSE that he's significantly responsible for possibly the most moral Piltover champion (Orianna) and the most moral 'bad guy' from Zaun (Viktor). Both of whom are humans-turned-machines, while — possible chem augments aside — he himself is still pretty much entirely human. The fact that he's the most inhumane among the three of them.

It's like Vik and Ori took after the 'going all the way to the ends of the earth for your goal' part of him, the 'i am well aware of the circumstances and have decided fuck it we ball' part of him, and disregarded his apathy entirely. acting *against* it, sometimes, going behind his back to help a chemical disaster in zaun, even if he's already forbidden it. shutting down all of your own efforts to save your life after it kills someone who isn't you.

giving him your heart, even if he quite possibly didn't want it. Not even giving him room to make a choice, never talking to him about it, never bringing it up. Ori realizes there's no other option and just. Does It.

I. Have lost my mind over this fucking character fmekdjdjc (i am so worried for season 2)