#line breaks no longer show up on mobile thanks tumblr

[answrs]

Readmores And You - A Really Great Tumblr Feature!

(this is technically directed at stuff I've seen in a specific tag because of the content of said tag makes it more likely to spoiler things, but it applies to anyone likely learning the ins and outs of a new site. speaking of which, hello! welcome to tumblr!) (this got. longer than anticipated. apologies, I get bogged down in trying to make things as clear as possible. ^^")

I've seen this a lot recently in the VC tags especially, where the post goes something to the effect of "tw bloody animal!" then like six periods and the images of whatever dead thing the post is about.

I recognize this is probably being carried over from some other website (...reddit probably? maybe insta?) but please. I appreciate y'all so much for trying to do what you're doing. but this method of hiding pictures isn't effective on tumblr, but there is an infinitely better option!

"but why? it works fine on other sites?" firstly, a few extra lines typically don't even take up enough space on mobile (let alone desktop) to hide your pics, so even at a glance anyone is likely still seeing at least the top half of whichever picture you posted before even noticing the trigger warning on top. second, because you have to scroll all the way past the images at the bottom of your post anyway to get to the next one on your dash/in the tag/etc. so if someone comes across your post and the trigger warning is applicable as something they want to avoid, unless they have access to a keyboard to use a keybind shortcut that ive been here 12 years and still cant remember, they can't see any other posts after it without either having to scroll through the pics or outright block you. which is... not the most ideal of options I would say.

"but what else am I supposed to do then!?" I hear you ask.

READMORES!

tumblr has a wonderful feature known as a "readmore" that's built into the site! it creates a break in your post, which hides any content - be it words, images, whatever - that you place underneath it, not showing it unless the person viewing it clicks on the words "keep reading" (formerly "read more" - hence the name :D).

Cool, how do I do that?

on mobile you can place one by tapping an empty line and clicking the grey squiggle icon from the selection that allow you to insert an image/vid/link

which will place a squiggly line into the post you're making:

(desktop uses the same icon, it's just in a more compact row of icons.)

you can drag it around after placing it too, just like photos. (note: mobile can get finicky with this and it's usually just easier to remove it -click the big red X- and add it in the new place you want it.)

EDIT: some of the versions of mobile editor are broken and don't show the icons. to add it in manually type ":readmore:" (with the colons, but not the quotation marks) on its own line. Thank you for the reminder, LovingTogetic!

this is also a nice way to keep your blog tidy and not swamped in long and/or spoilery posts (say if you're posting 5k word fics, or extensive meta, or gushing over the ending of the latest game or TV show most people probably haven't seen yet)! it's not required, obviously, but it's generally considered a common courtesy for others that will be seeing your post cross their dashboard.

finally, an example of the readmore in action:

(ta-da!)

have fun out there y'all, I hope this is helpful ^^

as an aside (I wasn't sure where to put this but under the break seemed appropriate), you may also see a lot of personal/vent posts be fully under readmores as well, even if the post is only a sentence or two long. this is mostly so followers don't necessarily see it unless they specifically click, but there's a more frustrating history to it becoming a thing: when a post is reblogged, any content above the break is permanently frozen as it existed at the time, but anything under it will reflect edits made to the post. while not common, a certain type of user sometimes browse the various "do not rb" tags and will purposefully reblog personal posts in order to upset and distress the users. putting those things under a readmore make it so even if that happens, the text can be deleted from all iterations of the post. recently the site rolled out an option to lock a post to reblogs, but you gotta mess with the settings and it's mostly a habit after a decade here dealing with the nonsense.

[asleepinawell]

Things That Go Bang In The Night

Shoot Haunted House fic for halloween, except not really scary at all and mostly silly. Arranged as a series of shorts, or incidents as the case may be.

Based very loosely in my chaos au, but the only thing you need to know is it’s post-samaritan and shoot are a firmly established relationship at this point.

_________________

Nighttime Disturbances

John is cooking an aggressive amount of pancakes when Root comes downstairs. Root looks at the heaping plates full of breakfast food on the counter of the surprisingly modern kitchen and then at the dark circles under John's eyes and manages not to laugh. She does, however, smile ever so slightly and John's eye twitches just a fraction.

Shaw is the next to show up, wearing a shirt Root thinks might actually belong to her, but the mutual clothing-theft has gotten to the point where it's basically irrelevant. Shaw looks at John and John glares at Shaw and Shaw smirks for all she's worth. She takes two overflowing plates of pancakes, tucks a bottle maple syrup in the crook of her arm and secures a seat for herself at the big stone table in the kitchen. She looks at her plates for a few seconds and then shuffles the pancakes around with a fork until all but three are on one plate. The smaller helping gets pushed over in front of Root.

By the time John joins them at the table, Shaw has eaten half her pancakes, but she still eyes the plate of bacon and eggs he has. He puts a protective arm around his plate before he starts in.

Root waits until he’s drinking his orange juice before asking, innocently, “Did you sleep well, John?”

She's disappointed when he doesn't spit out his drink, but he does scowl at her around his glass.

Fusco shows up before John can answer and collapses into a vacant chair.

“Boy, when you said this place was haunted, you weren't joking.”

Root does not smile even a little bit. Shaw stuffs more pancakes in her mouth, a look of intense concentration on her face. On the other side of the table, John is grimacing.

Fusco doesn't seem to notice. “Creaks and bangs all night and ghostly moans. I don't think I got a wink of sleep.”

Root adjusts the collar of her shirt a little and she sees John's eyes narrow when he focuses in on the movement.

“Maybe we should attempt an exorcism tonight,” he says. “Pour some cold holy water all over the ghosts when they start being a nuisance.”

Fusco's forehead wrinkles in confusion. “I thought that was for vampires.” He gets up to investigate the pancake situation. “You really cooked a lot of these, huh?”

“I had trouble sleeping. For some reason.”

Root is done with her breakfast, but Shaw's still going strong. Root watches her stuff her cheeks like a squirrel preparing for winter.

“You two hear anything?” Fusco asks.

Root pretends not be watching John out of the corner of her eye. “Not that I can recall.”

“Funny. It was really loud. I was scared out of my mind. Spent the whole night pointing my gun at the door.”

“Do bullets even work on ghosts?” Shaw asks, her mouth momentarily pancake-free. “Silver bullets maybe?”

“That's werewolves,” Root corrects and Shaw shrugs as if defense against the supernatural is not an extremely important topic.

“I'm sorry we missed the excitement,” Root says. “I rather enjoy things that go bump in the night.” The eyebrow waggle might be a little too much, but she can't help herself.

John stands up, maybe just a little too fast.

“I'm going to go explore the rest of the house.”

_________________

Cleaning out the Attic

“Still don't see why we have to do this,” Shaw grumbles after she recovers from another sneezing fit. Everything here is covered with a thick layer of dust and it feels like her lungs are full of it, and Root has it even worse with the sneezing and itchy eyes. What a dumb mission.

“She thought it would be nice for all of us to get out of the city for a few days,” Root calls from the other side of the room. The boxes here are stacked high enough that Shaw can't see her over them.

“She could have given us an actual vacation then, not digging through moldy paperwork in a drafty old house in the middle of fucking nowhere.”

Root pops her head around the nearest stack of boxes. There's dust in her hair, a grey smudge across one of her cheeks, and she's wearing a shirt with an overly cute little ghost on it that says 'hey boo-tiful’. Shaw shouldn't think she looks hot like that. She blames it on the boredom. And on the glasses which she knows Root doesn't need for this but she's wearing anyway as some sort of attack on Shaw's sanity.

“Am I not entertaining enough for you, sweetie?” Root's practically leering at her now which looks really dorky with her wearing that shirt.

Shaw drops a stack of paper onto the floor and brushes her hands off. “We can do that anywhere. Preferably somewhere warmer with room service.”

“But we'd be missing out on the added bonus of messing with the boys.” Root prods the stack of papers. “Nothing in these?”

“Not unless she's interested in a detailed hand-written accounting of how much it costs to redo the roof like eighty years ago.”

Root taps her lower lip with one finger. “Hmmm.”

“You can't be serious.”

Root shrugs helplessly. “She says you never know what She might need some day.”

Shaw has been basically over the Machine's new data collecting obsession since it started three months ago. She can acknowledge that there is a ton of information and history out in the world that's never been digitized and that some small fraction of it might help the Machine help humanity, but this is ridiculous.

The Machine can hardly rely on just them to dig up every paper document in the city, let alone in the world, and Shaw suspects she has a lot of people working for her without them realizing what their employer is. They get sent on occasional random missions though, most of which are horribly dull and involve a lot of sorting through paper and not a lot of knee-capping.

“If she really is going to want every single piece of paper in this house, she should say that and we can get a bigger van and just cram everything in there and let someone else sort it out.” Shaw has Claire still working on scanning in the thousands of pages from their last little trip, and that had been months ago.

“Afraid that's not the mission, Shaw.” Root prods the half-full box in front of Shaw meaningfully with one long finger. “And how often do you get to stay in one of the most haunted houses on the east coast?”

“I'd think New England would be lousy with the things.” Shaw takes in Root's expression, gauging her options. She knows she can get out of this, but she's got to approach it the right way. “Anyway, it's not like we've seen any ghostly activity here. Scariest thing to happen was that kale disaster Reese made for dinner last night.” Reese is a decent enough cook, but there are sometimes lapses in his judgment.

“Maybe we'll get lucky and see something spooky tonight since John exiled us to the east wing. It's supposed to be where most of the haunting has taken place historically.”

Reese had half-ordered, half-begged them to move to the other wing, and while Shaw doesn't take orders from him, she’s decided to be merciful. Most rooms in the house are huge and empty which lends it some interesting acoustics and, well, Root never was much of one for keeping quiet. Which brings Shaw back to her current mission to get out of sorting papers.

“You know,” Shaw says, shifting her weight to move herself a little closer to Root, “we could get lucky right now.”

The Machine must really want these damn papers because Root actually hesitates, but Shaw knows Root has no defense against a smooth come-on like that. She bites her lower lip (an unfair move) and sees Root's already-weak defenses crumble away in a flash.

“Attics are notoriously haunted,” Root says thoughtfully. “Might as well give this one a reputation.”

There's paper carpeting the attic floor by the time they're both worn out, some of which the Machine is probably going to yell at them for irrevocably damaging, but it's so worth it.

Root rolls over in the nest of scattered papers, looking for her shirt, and picks up a paper instead.

“This is about that kid that died here.” Root hands the paper over to her. “He was found drowned in a bathtub in the east wing. Everyone suspected his older sister, but no one could ever prove it.”

Shaw looks over the paper. It's got a clipping from a newspaper attached to it talking about the death of some kid called Phillip. She vaguely remembers Root talking about the whole thing on the drive up here. Supposedly the kid's ghost haunts the house and grounds and once drowned a gardener in one of the fountains on the lawn.

“Does the Machine care about stuff that's clearly just superstition?”

Root gets up and pulls her shirt back on, much to Shaw's disappointment. “She cares about how humans react to death and grief and fear, so in that sense, yes.”

“What about you? Do you believe in ghosts, Root?” Shaw teases.

“No.” Root smiles, but it's one of those hard, cold smiles, not one of the happy ones. “Ghosts tend to haunt people who wronged them during their life, right?”

“I guess?” She thinks there's something with loved ones getting haunted too, but she's hardly an expert on these things.

“If anyone was going to have been haunted…” Root trails off and shrugs. “So the odds are against them existing.”

Shaw rolls her eyes, because of course Root's ego would dictate that if she hasn't seen a ghost no one could have.

Root offers her a hand up off the floor. “What about you, Sameen?”

“Most things people take to be ghostly activity can be explained by quantifiable, scientific means. People are always blaming things they can't explain on the supernatural. It's lazy.”

Root grins and leans in so her face is right near Shaw's. “So what will you do when the ghost of little Phillip comes wailing down the hall to drown you in the tub?”

Shaw headbutts her gently in the face. “Any ghost shows up, I'll punch its ethereal teeth in, okay?”

Root backs up, clearly amused, and then glances around at the mess they'd made. “I think we should try the library. We can let Lionel finish up with the attic.”

“He'll love that.” Shaw hasn't been looking forwards to cleaning up the mess they made. She looks around the paper-covered floor one last time and then follows Root back down into the main house.

_________________

The Face in the Fountain

It's cold outside and Root wishes she'd brought a jacket, but the house and grounds are so large that going back for one would take at least twenty minutes. It might be worth it, except she's really tired and doesn't want to budge from the edge of the fountain she's perched on. The house has an unfortunate number of steps and she's been lugging boxes up and down them for the last day.

From out here she's got a pretty good view of the entire house. It's a massive thing, built out of grey and brown bricks with dark, empty windows lining every side. There's two distinct wings coming off the main house: the west wing which juts out onto the front lawn at a right angle from the rest of the house, and the east wing which, inexplicably, does the reverse and sticks out into the woods behind the house.

The front lawn has a few pathways across the overgrown grass, all in poor repair, and a handful of crumbling, ornamental fountains full of brackish water, including the one Root's sitting on. The back lawn has what was once a hedge maze but is now an impassable wall of brambles that the forest is hurrying to reclaim.

Shaw is running laps around the front lawn. Root figures she's working out the frustration of being stuck here for a week with no one to shoot. Shaw pauses next to the fountain on her next lap.

“You don't have to wait for me out here if you're cold.”

“I don't mind.” There's no easy way to watch Shaw work out back in the city, but here she can watch the full length of every lap Shaw runs and discreetly take pictures with her phone.

“Probably shouldn't stay by these things too long anyway.” Shaw peers into the murky water in the fountain with distaste. “Who knows what sort of shit's growing in there.”

Root looks in as well, but other than a distorted reflection of herself she can't see much.

“Maybe breathing in spores from whatever's growing in this toxic sludge is where all the ghost stories come from in the first place,” Shaw says. She drops a large rock in and it vanishes below the surface with a sploop noise. Ripples run across the surface of the water further distorting Root's reflection and stirring up the mud from the bottom. Something moves in the murky depths.

Root jerks back from the water and falls off the edge of the fountain to land on the ground.

“Root?”

Shaw looks at her like she's gone nuts and Root takes a second to get her breathing back under control before she answers.

“I didn't want to get splashed.” She gets back to her feet and tries to brush the dirt off, but the lawn was still damp from the rain last night so her pants are pretty much hopeless.

“It didn't even splash.” Shaw peers at the water as if she's expecting to find some other cause.

Root keeps her distance from the fountain. “We should head back inside and get changed before dinner.”

“Guess so.”

Root resolutely doesn't look back as they head up to the house for dinner. She knows it was just her imagination combined with reading stories of this place, but she can't quite shake the image of a corpse-pale face floating under the water, it's glassy eyes opened wide and staring at the sky.

_________________

The Face in the Fountain (continued)

They eat all their meals in the kitchen because the dining room is enormous, dusty, poorly lit, and even Shaw can admit it's a bit creepy. The kitchen is more than large enough and one of the few mostly clean rooms in the house. It should be a nice, friendly team dinner, but Fusco is exhausted and freaked out from the ‘ghost activity’ the previous evening, Reese is still sulking, and Root has been quiet since they came in for dinner. Shaw isn't sure what's up with her, but she figures it's nothing Root's going to open up about with the other two here.

After dinner they have to get their bags from their rooms to move to the east wing. Shaw brings a flashlight along since the electricity here seems to have a mind of its own and the wiring in the east wing is supposedly even worse. She thinks about calling the whole thing off and staying in the west wing, but she knows she'd get shit from Reese about being scared of ghosts if she did.

She briefly reconsiders again though because Root is still acting weird and making sure Root is okay is more important than not being teased by Reese, but Root doesn't seem to have any issue with switching wings. Still, she knows something is still up because Root doesn't hit on her once during the walk over and she's being all jumpy. Maybe she should have brought Bear along after all.

The rooms here are larger and probably had been nicer once upon a time, but now they're mostly dusty and full of covered furniture. The cleaning service the Machine had sent here ahead of time had salvaged a few bedrooms in both wings so there's a few habitable ones the choose from. Root opts for the smallest and Shaw doesn't argue because the rooms here are unreasonably large.

She waits until they climb into bed for the night before she tries to get an explanation out of Root.

“You've been quiet.”

Root murmurs something in response but it's muffled by her pillow. Shaw speaks evasive-Root-tactics well enough by this point that she can figure out by the pitch of Root's voice that she's brushing off the question. Shaw might have pushed further normally, but she's tired from lugging boxes of papers up and down stairs all day so she settles for rolling over closer to Root and dropping her arm over her. Root puts her hand over Shaw's and settles in.

Shaw isn't sure what wakes her up in the middle of the night, but she's suddenly wide awake and Root isn't next to her anymore. An unnecessarily dramatic flash of lightning from outside shows her that the other half of the bed is empty.

She figures Root probably just went to the bathroom, but the whole creepy house situation seems to merit her checking just in case. The bathroom is empty and Shaw stops back in her room to grab a flashlight before looking any further. Root took her slippers with her, she notes, so it wasn't like she ran out in a panic.

There's only a few places in the house they've all spent any amount of time in. She knows Root wouldn't go to the library since the extreme amount of dust there had caused her the sneezing fits that had sent them outside earlier that day. She wouldn't have a reason to go back to the room they'd stayed in previously, and a quick check of the main entrance hall has it full of shadowy corners but empty of Root. So that leaves the kitchen.

Root's sitting on the counter in the dark eating ice cream out of the container. Her hair is back in a messy ponytail and her bunny slippers are on her dangling feet. Shaw admits that she's maybe a tiny bit relieved by the sight even though she hadn't really thought anything bad had happened.

“I couldn't sleep,” Root says by way of explanation.

There's another flash of lightning outside followed by a peal of thunder and then it starts pouring. Raindrops hammer on the windows.

Root's face lights up in glee.

“Thunderstorm in a haunted house. Another item to cross off the bucket list.”

At least she seems to be in a better mood now even if she is working her way through their entire supply of ice cream. Shaw tries to rescue the remains of the pint, but Root loops her stupidly long legs around her and traps her there up against the counter. Root holds a large spoon of ice cream up and pushes it at Shaw’s face and no way is Shaw letting herself be fed like a child even if it is ice cream.

She ends up with ice cream smeared across her face before she escapes from Root's hold. The whole thing is extremely undignified and she's glad Reese isn't here to see it. She might discreetly wipe the remaining ice cream off her face with one hand and then lick it off her fingers, but there's no proof.

“Are you done now?” she asks, still indignant, but somewhat mollified by the delicious chocolate goodness.

Root evaluates her almost empty ice cream carton. “I suppose so.”

The ice cream goes back in the fridge and they walk back together by the light of Shaw's flashlight. Root seems okay now, but Shaw is still curious about earlier. She doesn't like it when she doesn't know why Root's upset, and if she doesn't find out what caused this round how can she prevent it next time?

“Did you see something when we were outside?” she asks as they cross the entrance hall. “In the fountain?” That's when this had started.

Root makes a small hmph noise. “Ghosts aren't real.”

“You saw a ghost out there?”

“Obviously I couldn't have since they're not real.” Root's tone is a bit condescending which Shaw takes as an improvement.

“Sure, but there could have been a dead animal or who knows what else in there. We can go take another look tomorrow if you want.”

“Yes, maybe that's just the thing.”

The way Root says it is maybe a bit ominous, but Shaw is glad enough that Root’s in a better mood that she doesn't read into it too much.

The next morning Root is already up and gone when Shaw wakes up. Shaw heads down to the kitchen and after a few very pointed hints from Reese makes a detour to the front lawn.

There is a huge truck parked on the front lawn. And a bulldozer.

Definitely suspicious.

Shaw goes back inside and gets coffee before investigating further because asking her to deal with Root's shenanigans without caffeine is cruel. When she gets over to the truck she sees some workers have a huge black hose running into the fountain Root had been sitting on yesterday and are draining it. Root stands nearby watching over the proceedings.

“When I said we could take another look…” Shaw trails off.

Root beams at her. “It was a great suggestion, so I figured I'd get right on it.”

“Right.”

The workers at the fountain wave them over. One of them points at something in the bottom of the drained basin. Shaw goes over to look and there, nestled in the wet weeds and filth, is the most repugnant looking baby doll she's ever seen. It's face is ghostly white and cracked and its glossy black eyes are wide and gaping like a fish's. If there'd been hair on it once it’s long gone now and most of the body is crushed.

“This what you saw yesterday?” Shaw can understand why seeing that bob up under the water might be disturbing, especially given the setting and the whole gardener-drowned-in-the-fountain story.

Root has a nasty glint in her eyes. “Unimportant now.”

She steps back from the fountain and waves an arm at the woman driving the bulldozer. Shaw sees where this is going and retreats to a safe distance. She'd ask Root if destroying the fountain is strictly necessary, but she already knows the answer she'd get and anyway Root just looks so pleased with herself and it's kind of endearing.

It's a weird sort of morning, she thinks. She's standing on the lawn of a haunted mansion wearing her boxers and a hoodie and Root's bright pink flip flops and drinking coffee out of a mug with a cartoon penguin on it. Root's next to her watching the bulldozer demolish the fountain with a look of intense satisfaction on her face. Her clothing situation isn't much better, though she at least managed to put on pants. She's got a new shirt Shaw hasn't before yet that says ‘ghouls just wanna have fun’ on it (Shaw is sensing a theme here) and an oversized flannel that Shaw thinks she might have stolen from one of their recent numbers and is barefoot much to Shaw's horror.

“Can I have a sip of that?” Root asks as the bulldozer backs up to make another pass at the ruined fountain.

“No,” Shaw says and hands her the mug.

“Thanks, Sameen.”

_________________

The Monster in the Conservatory

Fusco is red-faced and out of breath when he comes running into the lounge.

“It's...it's in the…” He pauses panting for breath.

Root waits politely for him to finish. Or leave. She's not picky.

“In the conservatory,” Fusco manages to get out.

Root sets down the ornamental dagger she's been considering accidentally acquiring for herself. “What is?”

“M-monster.” Fusco collapses into a mildewed arm chair.

Shaw peeks around the door frame from the next room. “What sort of monster?”

“Big...angry…teeth…”

“Evil dentures in the greenhouse sounds like a John problem,” Root says and ducks down to open the cabinet under the table.

“I want to fight the monster,” Shaw says. Her tone allows for no arguments.

Root can't not watch that so she gives up on robbing the place and follows Shaw. They pick up John from the smoking room along the way and head, not to the main entrance to the conservatory, but upstairs to the walkway entrance.

The conservatory is relatively newer than the rest of the house, a two story greenhouse built out of thick sheets of glass to let the sunlight in. There's a walkway on the second level of it that's accessible via a small staircase in the conservatory or an actual door from the second floor of the main house.

Shaw pauses as they near the door and reaches behind one of the creepy statues that line the hallways to pull out...a sniper rifle.

Root is impressed and slightly turned on. Maybe more than slightly. She wonders how many guns Shaw has hidden all over the house now.

“Let's see what this monster is,” Shaw says and pushes the door open.

The air inside smells awful, like rotten plants and soil and Root wrinkles her nose in disgust. Left untended, everything in the conservatory has either died or spread out to overtake all the other plants. There's vines and small trees below them and it looks a little like a jungle.

Shaw holds a finger up to her lips and then drops down to her hands and knees on the metal walkway to peer down into the forest below. Root looks over the edge of the railing, but nothing catches her eye. Maybe Fusco was imagining things.

Shaw smacks her on the leg and points and sure enough there's some leaves and branches rustling in the far corner. At first Root thinks it must be a squirrel, but it's pretty clearly something much larger. Maybe a deer?

All three of them watch the greenery closely as the shaking foliage gets nearer and nearer to the center of the room. Their quarry bursts out of the leaves and raises its large face to gaze up at them and sniff the air.

“Not a monster after all,” Reese says as they watch their new companion yawn hugely and show off its massive teeth and pink tongue.

“She's beautiful,” Shaw says softly, her voice full of wonder that's usually reserved for dogs.

Root isn't sure ‘beautiful’ is the word she'd use for the massive black bear munching on things in their house, but Shaw's obvious delight is adorable. Root, however, now feels totally justified in her previous caution about bears as those teeth are very large and its paws look impossibly huge. She's glad they're up high.

“There's a broken pane in the back,” Reese says. “She must have wandered in looking for food.”

Shaw frowns. “I hope she didn't step on any of the glass. Maybe we should check…”

Root is about to ask just how she plans to do that, but John seems to be one step ahead of her.

“We are not tranqing the bear, Shaw.”

Shaw actually pouts, lower lip stuck out like a child.

“But she might be hurt.”

They all watch the enormous bear stand up on its hind legs to rip a branch off a little tree. The walkway is high enough that she couldn't ever reach them, but it's still intimidating.

Shaw sighs. “Fine.” She sits down with her legs dangling over the side. Root figures she's staying until the bear gets safely away. She's torn between wanting to stay and watch Shaw watch the bear and going back to investigate the possibility of further fancy weaponry in need of a new owner.

Staying with Shaw wins out easily in the end. They sit side by side with their legs hanging off the walkway watching the bear snort and huff its way around the floor. Shaw's theory is there was some sort of fruit tree or berry bush down there and the bear is searching the ground for leftovers. Shaw takes the scope off her rifle so she can watch it close up.

After about an hour, the bear must run out of food because it lumbers back out the broken pane (Shaw watches with concern) and back into the woods at the edge of the property.

“I hope she's okay.”

“She'll be fine, Sameen.” It's sweet the way Shaw worries about some things so much, often things (people, animals) that no one else seems to care about. “Should we rip your clothes a bit and mess up your hair so we can tell Fusco the tale of your epic battle against the greenhouse monster?”

“No clothes ripping.”

Root could say several somethings about the hypocrisy of that, but she doesn't want to discourage Shaw from future over-enthusiastic clothing removals.

“We should make it look good though,” Shaw says and offers her a hand up. “Guess you'll need to give me a hand with that.”

“My pleasure.”

_________________

The Ghost of the East Wing

Root has to admit that the east wing of the house has a good, spooky atmosphere. There's scorch marks on some of the walls from a fire that partially burned down the wing years ago (the stories have it that you can still smell the smoke in the air, but Root has yet to smell anything other than mildew), and all the furniture is under white sheets. The wind howls through the cracks and rattles the windows enough to be irritating and make the whole place chilly. And then there's the fact the forest has grown in thick around this wing so there's nothing but dark woods outside the windows.

But the heating works well enough to keep the place comfortable and she's got Shaw as an extra heater, so it could be much worse.

Shaw whines in protest when Root sticks her cold feet up against her leg to warm them up. It's a cute enough noise that Root pulls her feet back and pushes them up against Shaw's other leg to see if she can get a repeat.

What she actually gets is socked in the face with a pillow.

It takes a few minutes of shuffling around before they're both comfortable enough to drift off and Root is so worn out from all the excitement of the day that she falls asleep quickly and doesn't wake up again until Shaw shakes her by the shoulder.

“Hhzzmhh?” Root asks. It's pitch black and she's still tired.

Shaw lays a finger across her lips to shush her and tilts her head to one side as if listening. Root goes as quiet as she can, barely breathing, and focuses on every little noise the house is making.

Footsteps. Those are definitely footsteps, and they're coming closer down the creaky floorboards of the hall.

Shaw rolls out of bed and drops to the floor in a crouch. Root knows for a fact that there's no way to move across the floor in this room without the floorboards making a racket, and yet Shaw is completely silent.

The footsteps are getting closer, and even though Root knows that ghosts don't exist and that the house isn't really haunted, she still feels a slight twist of fear in her stomach. She grabs her taser off the nightstand since Shaw has a gun already and if somehow she's been wrong all these years and ghosts really do exist, then maybe an electric current will be more effective against them than a bullet.

The door bursts open and there's a tall, formless white figure in the hallway.

“OoooOOOooooo,” it moans.

Root sighs. He wasn't even trying very hard, was he?

Shaw leaps up from where she was crouched next to the door and socks the ghost squarely in where it's face would be.

“Oww!” the ghost yells.

Shaw kicks it in the leg and slams into it so it falls over, twisted in its own sheet.

Root gingerly climbs out of bed and winces when her feet hit the bare floor. She tests the power on her taser as she moves towards the fallen ghost. Sure, she knows it's John, but he doesn't know that she knows so who could blame her for defending herself?

It's hours before anyone gets back to sleep.

_________________

Reassignment

Shaw wakes up to the news that they've been taken off the mission and are to return to the city immediately. She'd sort of been hoping to see the bear again, but otherwise she's pretty glad to get out of this place.

The list of reasons Root gives for their sudden departure is hard to argue with. The many incidents the Machine took issue with include: destruction of valuable historical documents, destruction of historic architecture, petty larceny, grand larceny, discussion of unsafe animal handling techniques (Shaw rolls her eyes at that one), excessive sneezing on valuable books, using historical stone gargoyles as target practice, attempted assault on an asset with a non-lethal weapon, and successful unarmed assault of an asset leading to a mild injury.

It's an impressive list and Shaw figures it's no wonder she feels so tired.

Reese is loading the car when she gets outside. He still isn't speaking to her and is holding an ice pack to his bruised jaw. Really he should be grateful she'd stopped Root from tasing him. It's not their fault he decided to try and scare them and they're hardly to blame for retaliating.

Root is a little sad they're leaving early and still sulking about missing out on a good tasing, but she seems eager to get back home as well. She steals the passenger’s seat before either of the boys can try to claim it.

Fusco is grumpy despite being the only one to have gotten a full night's sleep. “Next time you three need help, don't call me.”

Reese broods intensely in the back seat.

“Guess it'll just be you and me for the next haunted house,” Root says.

Shaw considers pointing out that basically every single strike against them from the Machine was either her or Root's fault (though Reese had brought that slug in the jaw on himself), and that the chances of either of them ever being sent on a similar mission are slim to none.

“I think we're scarier than a bunch of ghosts,” she says instead.

Root looks quite pleased with that response and begins listing off directions to get them back to the highway and out of this desolate area. Shaw starts the car down the driveway, the slightly-more-decrepit-than-they'd-found-it house in her rearview mirror.

[faterpresources]

Anonymous:

Do you have any advice on how to start an rp blog? I feel like there's so much to do and so many specific things, it looks intimidating, but I really want to get into it (and your blog seems like a safe space to ask as a baby in the matter)

Hi! Thanks you for asking and for trusting. I do admit that rping on tumblr can look daunting and there is a series of things that are considered “etiquette” that might not be obvious for newcomers. And the only way to learn is to ask, right? As I’m not sure if you would like something more specific or a step-by-step, I’m going to go through the whole process.

note: this is a repost from an ask in a more reblog-friendly format

1.       Setting up the blog

You might want to make a new e-mail account for each blog you want. I recommend making a gmail/google account, so you may be able to use other services and associate them with your blog. I’ll go into more details in a minute.

Some people would rather have a personal blog and then making the RP blog as a side-blog. Or a “hub” blog and many side-blogs so they have everything centralized. The downside is that you can’t follow people with side-blogs, only the main – and some rpers are a little suspicious of personal blogs, so if you intend to go this route it might be a good idea to state somewhere in your blog that you have a RP blog.

Tip : It isn’t said too often, but I recommend saving your blog’s e-mail and password somewhere, maybe a flashdrive or even google drive. This way, if something happens you will be able to retrieve your account.

When picking the URL, for a very long time tumblr had problems tagging URLs with a hyphen ( - ). I’m not sure if it has been fixed or if there are still some issues, so I recommend only using letters and maybe numbers. Other than that, pick anything that sounds nice to you!

Themes are nice, but not entirely necessary. Not everybody has photoshop skills and all that. Some people do have commissioned themes, but if you want to try your hand at it my first stop is usually @theme-hunter  or @sheathemes . They reblog many themes from many creators, so there are always many options that might suit your needs.  Some creators offer very newcomer-friendly themes that you can configure a lot of things without much hassle but some might require basic HTML knowledge – a few creators have guides on how to properly set up their themes and are willing to and answer questions, so don’t be afraid to contact them! You can also send me an ask, I’m not a specialist but I can certainly help walk you through the basics.

Tip: @glenthemes have very good themes and a basic installation guide here.

When fiddling with the options, try to pick colors that have nice contrast and are easy to read. If you are bad at picking colors or have problems in finding the code for them, I recommend trying this link. There is also this one that auto-generate palettes.

Tip : If you mess with your theme, remember there is the Theme Recovery.

Tip: If you use Chrome or Firefox you can set up different profiles and associate each with a different blog, so you don’t need to log out from any of your accounts.

There are two pages that I recommend having: one is an about your muse. If they are an OC, it is always a good idea to have at least some information out there to make things easier. If they are from a canon source, not everybody is familiar with the material so it might be a good idea to state. For example, if you are going to roleplay as Altria/Arturia, it is a good idea to have a “RP blog for Saber (Altria Pendragon) from FGO/FSN “ somewhere visible. The other page that is a good idea having is a rules/guidelines page. This one can be a little intimidating, but it is usually a way to communicate important things. For example: are you comfortable writing violence? Do you have any personal triggers? There is something you absolutely won’t write? There are things you may figure out along the way and it is absolutely ok to fine-tune this session every now and then. Some people also credit source for their icons and graphics in general in their rule/guideline page.

If you are using the tumblr default themes, when you create a new page you can turn on the option to show a link to the page. If you are using a custom theme, most of the time you will have to link it manually.

Oh, and if you are planning to do a multimuse, it might be a good idea to list which muses you have. The same goes for a hub blog; list the muses and link to the pages.

Icons aren’t necessary but are considered commonplace. You can find some icons I’ve done here but there are plenty of other sources. If you want to do your own icons, keep in mind to don’t make them too big, as a courtesy to your mutuals.

Tip: Anything larger than 300 pixels will be stretched to fit the post. As of today ( 4/29/2021 ) the posts are currently 540 pixels wide. This can be useful as making banners for your blog.

Tumblr allow users to “pin” posts. This mean that they will always visible if you access your blog, even on dash/mobile. You can use this to set up a post with basic links for mobile users or something else. For example, if you are out on vacations and won’t be able to do replies, you can pin a hiatus notice and then remove the pin once you are back.

2.       Introducing yourself

Time to officially join the fun! (insert a “Hi, Zuko here” joke) Don’t worry if you don’t have a fancy promo graphic or anything, most people make their initial introduction with a simple post.

(as you can see, I’m not very good at saying ‘hi’)

Try to introduce yourself in a few lines, but make sure to state which muse you RP as. Some people also like adding their pen name/alias and establishing a brand. Follow as many people as you want that reblogged or liked your post, and tumblr is going to start recommending other blogs that are related to the tags you use normally or have any relation to the people you follow. You can put as many tags as you want, but tumblr will disregard more than 6 tags in their system. Try tags like “<fandom> rp” and “<fandom> roleplay” along with the media, such as “movie” “video game”, “anime” and so on.

It might also be a good idea to follow a few RP memes blogs. They often have options to break the ice, like one-liners that your mutual can send you.

Tip: Don’t forget to turn on the asks and the anon

3.       Practical advice

Alright, now that you have a few mutuals, it is time to get to some general tips:

Tumblr can be a little “iffy”, and a great quality of life extension for RPers and navigation in general is installing the New Xkit extension. They offer a number of options to enhance your tumblr experience, but the ones I consider essential are the “editable reblogs”, “quick tags” and “blacklist”. Get it for Chrome or Firefox.

As a rule of thumb I recommend writing your RPs using Google Docs before posting or replying. By doing this you can do some spell check and if your browser crashes for any reason you can easily recover your work. You can also use Word, Open Office, or any text editor you feel like.

Because I’m a bit of a perfectionist, I also have Grammarly ( Chrome / Firefox ) installed for an extra layer of spell/grammar check. There is a subscription option, but the free one works perfectly fine.

To make things easier to locate, always tag the URL of your RP partner when doing a reply. There are other useful things you can tag, such as open starters, memes, and such.

Risking being obvious here, but when you are not interacting as your character it might be a good idea to tag as “ooc” or “out of character”.

Some people like making google docs with basic info and other useful stuff for easier access on mobile. It is a recent trend, it might be easier to edit as opposed to going through tumblr page editor and dealing with the HTML.  You can find some templates here and here.

Tumblr’s activity can be unreliable, so don’t be afraid of contacting your partner to see if they have gotten your reply after a few weeks. However, some people also enjoy using the RP Thread Tracker in order to be on top of things. It might be a good idea to check it out.

Because of Tumblr shadowbanning and shenanigans, it isn’t unusual for people to have NSFW sideblogs (sometimes referred as ‘sin blogs’). If you want to write smut, it might be a good idea to consider making one.

Some people don’t like replying to asks, as Tumblr won’t let you remove the initial ask. It has become common to see people making new posts to reply to asks.  This is a simple example:

As you can see, I used the mention to have the RP partner notified then I copied and pasted their question on my post and used the quote to indicate it. You can also have fancy graphics, like a line to separate the contents, just do whatever you feel like with the formatting or keep it simple.

To make sure your partner got the answer, I recommend copying the link to the post and pasting on the ask and then replying it privately.  An example sent to my rp blog:

4.       Basic Etiquette

Ok, this is a little subjective most of the time but here are a few things that are considered universal courtesy.

Never reblog someone else’s headcanons. If you enjoy it, maybe it should politely contact the author and ask if it is ok to write something based on their original idea but you should never downright copy or lift something from another creator. It is considered rude, or even theft in some cases.

Don’t reblog threads you are not involved with. It is ok to leave a like, but never reblog. This is because Tumblr can mess up the notifications and disrupt the flow of the RP.

Don’t copy other people’s graphics. It is very rude and sometimes they commission (aka: paid) for it.

Trim your posts. What does that mean? Every time you reblog with a reply, the post tends to get longer and longer, and it can cluster your and your mutuals’ dashes. This is why the New X-Kit’s “editable reblogs” is an almost must-have tool. If for some reason you can’t install X-Kit (if you are on mobile for example), then remove the previous post or ask your partner to trim for you.

Never take control of your RP partner’s muse. This is called “godmodding” and it is heavily frowned upon. It is ok to control your muse and the possible NPCs that you inserted, but never seize someone else’s character. Likewise, it can also be very upsetting if you use what people call “meta-gaming”, applying knowledge that your muse shouldn’t know about the other. For example, let’s say your RP partner’s muse is a vampire, but they have never disclosed that information to your muse, who also doesn’t have an excuse to know that (for example, being a vampire hunter) so it can be quite jarring sometimes. When in doubt, contact your partner.

This should go without saying, but RPing sexual themes with users under the age of 18 are illegal. It doesn’t matter if the age of consent in your location is lower, once you join Tumblr you are abiding by their user guidelines and the law of the state they are located in. If you are an adult, don’t engage minors with these topics, maybe a fade to black would be a better option. If you are a minor, don’t insist or you might cause a lot of legal problems for others.

Try to tag anything triggering. Violence, gore, NSFW. Both Tumblr and the New Xkit have options to block keywords.

When picking PSDs or graphics for your blog, you should avoid templates that change the color of the skin of POCs muses and try to pick the right race/ethnicity of the muse you are going to RP as. I won’t go through a lot of details, as it is a rather lengthy subject in an already lengthy conversation but keep this in the back of your mind.

Some RPers don’t like when you reblog memes from them without sending anything. Try to always reblog from a source or to interact with the person you are reblogging from, it can be rather disheartening to be seen as a meme source rather than a RP blog. This isn’t a rule and some people don’t mind, but it is always a good idea to try to do this.

This might be more of a pet peeve of mine than proper etiquette, but it is ok to use small font. What is not ok is use small font + underscript. Some people have disabilities that might make it harder for them to read it, so it might be a good idea to refrain from using it. Maybe if you feel like doing something fancier every now and then, but I wouldn’t recommend making this a habit.

Mun and Muse are different entities. Remember that it isn’t because a muse does something (especially a villain one) that the mun condones something. Never assume anything about the mun, when in doubt talk to them.

Be mindful of your partners and treat them the way you would like to be treated.

As a rule of thumb, always talk to your RP partner. It is only fun as long both of you are enjoying it.

5.       Closing Words

This got longer than I expected.

Despite all of that, don’t be too worried about not being very good at first. I assure you that you will get better with time, so don’t be afraid of experimenting as long you feel comfortable. And don’t be afraid of saying “no” if something bothers you.

My inbox is always open to questions and ideas, so feel free to contact me anytime!

I would also ask my followers: there is advice I missed/overlooked? Anything you would like someone have told you when you first started? Add your thoughts so I can update this.

Happy RPing!

[giuliafc]

Stuck in a Cabin (with you) - chapter 2

Read at: Ao3 || FFN || Wattpad

Summoned to save his Lady's life, Adrien gets stuck with her in a cabin during a blizzard. Identities get revealed, feelings come out...but who's been plotting to kill Marinette? Will the culprit be punished? Read to find the answer :) (Adrienette)

Read previous chapter here on Tumblr

Marinette shivered. She stood in front of the small frozen lake and looked around, trying to find any warning sign that there could be any danger. The sky was covering the park with its white canopy and the trees all around the lake looked like they came from a polar tundra, so covered in snow that every part of their branches displayed a thick white contour.

The scenery felt nearly apocalyptic and Marinette looked around reverentially — it was all so beautiful. Not having found any warnings for danger, she sat down on a bench near the lake and started taking her walking boots off, to replace them immediately with her ice skates. She put her walking boots back into the bag she had used to store her skating boots and placed everything back into the small backpack she had brought with her. She gave a couple of shakes to her feet, ensuring that her boots had been put on safely.

“I don’t know, Marinette. This sounds fishy. Why aren’t your friends here yet? It took you much longer than we expected to arrive,” whispered Tikki in her ear.

“Alya and the girls must have had a delay somewhere. She told me to start enjoying myself, and there doesn’t seem to be any danger around. What can go wrong?” mused Marinette.

Tikki looked at the sky warily. “It feels wrong. The clouds are too dense in the sky, it’s going to start to blizzard soon. I don’t want you caught in it. There must be a reason why nobody’s here at all!”

“Nothing to worry about, Tikki,” said Marinette with a smile. She tapped on the screen of her phone and opened the weather forecast. “There’s no mention of any blizzard starting any time soon.”

Tikki kept staring at her with a worried gleam in her eyes and Marinette sighed and gave her a quick rub on the head. She checked again that her skates were put on properly and then she moved warily on the cold ground to reach the surface of the lake. After a couple of minutes of watching Marinette skate, Tikki started to calm down a little, because Marinette was an excellent skater and there really seemed to be no danger.

Marinette saw the gaze of her small friend relaxing and smiled softly at her. “See? There’s nothing to worry about. It’s a bit unlike you to be this worried, Tikki. Usually you’re so confident.”

Tikki sighed and moved her gaze from hers. “It’s complicated, Marinette. A long, complicated story.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Tikki. Just enjoy the warmth of the purse, okay? I’m sure Alya will get here soon with the gir—” But Marinette’s reasoning was interrupted by a loud crack. She opened her eyes wide as the ice under her boots started breaking and one of the skates she was wearing got caught in the rupture. She panicked. She tried to pull her foot out. The ice broke even more, a skin curling loud bang resounding all around the silent lake. Marinette felt the ground underneath her feet dissolving, and the freezing temperature of the water hit her senses, like thousands of blades butchering her skin. She gasped for air so desperately that she felt herself hyperventilating. The whole place around her was a thin puzzle of shattered ice pieces. She waved her hands around, trying to find something to hold, but she couldn’t grab anything, the ice had broken too finely to leave her something to grasp.

She started drowning.

“MARINETTE!” shouted Tikki zipping out of her purse. “MARINETTE, PLEASE HOLD ON, TRY TO GET YOURSELF OUT! PLEASE, MARINETTE!”

“I can’t feel my legs!” said Marinette, emerging from the water to gasp for air. “I can’t move, Tikki, I think I have cramps! HELP ME!”

The little Goddess of Creation zipped around her chosen in a manic frenzy. She looked around but couldn’t see anybody by the lake that she could catch the attention of. And worse than anything, snow was starting to fall from the sky, making it very hard to distinguish anything.

Crap. It looked exactly like that time.

No. Tikki couldn’t allow it to happen. Not to her sweet Marinette.

Suddenly, Marinette managed to grab some larger piece of ice and started coughing loudly.

“Are you okay, Marinette? Almighty Creator, your lips are blue!”

“I-I’m n-not-t f-eeling v-very g-g-ood. I-I c-can’t m-move…”

Tikki’s eyes widened. “Transform! Please transform Marinette, the suit will help!”

“TIKKI!” called Marinette. “Sp— ” But as she said that, the block of ice she was holding on broke and she fell in the water again.

Tikki’s heart froze. No, it couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t possibly be happening. Not again. Not all over again. The pain, the heartache… she was a kwami, true, she wasn’t human, but she wouldn't stay there and do nothing while another of her Ladybugs froze to death. Not again. Screw the rule of not interfering with human life. Screw identity concerns! Marinette shouldn’t end her days drowning frozen and lonely, like it happened to Piào Chòng!

Tikki saw her chosen’s head emerging from the water and shouted, hoping that she would hear her, “I’ll look for help. Hold on, Marinette, please!” The red kwami’s gaze darted around the park, trying to see anything that could give her an indication that people were around. The place looked so empty and sounded so silent that the manic splashes of Marinette’s attempts at getting out of the water seemed to almost echo in the emptiness.

The snow was also starting to pick up. She knew that the clouds in the sky looked too dense to not cause a blizzard. She knew it, and that bad gut feeling she had had… she should've listened to it! She had again allowed one of her chosens to put her life in danger because of the snow. If Tikki didn’t find someone to help, she would never forgive herself. She looked around trying to find a landmark to remember where she was, and saw the bench where Marinette had sat to put on her skates, just next to a rubbish bin that had taken nearly the shape of a white mouse because of the snow that was covering it. She tried to imprint that picture in her memory. Marinette was struggling always more to keep her head out of the water. She had to be quick.

Feeling horribly guilty, she zoomed out and went off looking for help. ‘Please, Marinette, don’t give up! Hold on!’

oOoOoOoOoOo

Adrien sighed in the premade mobile cabin that had been set up as a changing room for his photoshoot. It was typical of his father to take advantage of the bad weather and decide to perform the photoshoot for Gabriel’s newest ski line in Paris, at the park near Lac Daumesnil, rather than having to go to the mountains and waste additional money for accommodation and travelling.

He had hoped to finish the shoot early, so he could have gone to Nino’s house to complete the shared history project that they had to do for school, but Jean Jacques (a new photographer) was too much of a perfectionist. Adrien understood that the man had only recently started working with the brand and was trying too hard to make an impression, but asking him to retake every picture 4 times using different lighting and then making him do them again once more because ‘the exposure wasn’t perfect’ sounded a bit excessive.

The weather had decided to get worse and he had been stuck inside the cabin, as his bodyguard had gotten stuck in the traffic of the city panicked by the strong new blizzard. Who knew when he would finally arrive! Adrien couldn’t wait to go home. The cabin was cold and one can only hear so many of Plagg’s complaints.

“This horrible weather is freezing my Camembert!” whined Plagg for the millionth time. “Can we go home already?”

Adrien sighed again. “I wish I could, buddy. But it would look strange if I got home without waiting for the Gorilla to pick me up.”

Adrien heard a notification coming from his phone and looked at it. It was breaking news about the weather. He opened up the News app and the concerned face of Nadja Chamack stared back at him.

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news. Good afternoon, I’m Nadja Chamack, and I’m talking to you from the Town Hall, where Mayor Bourgeois has just announced a Red Alert warning for the bad weather conditions.”

The screen showed a panorama of Paris wrapped under a thick canopy of snow, more fresh snow coming down from the heavy white sky. “If you’re out, please go home and do it slowly. The hospitals around town have reported a large number of calls and walk-ins due to driving accidents, or trips and falls, due to the bad weather conditions. Some hospitals report queues of over two hours to be registered and even longer to be seen. The code for today is like the one for an akuma alert: if it’s not necessary to go out, don’t. Stay in. Stay safe.”

The TV now showed M. Bourgeois standing in front of the Town Hall, wearing his sash and looking quite serious with his papers in hand. “Thank you, Madame Chamack. The situation is degenerating very quickly. There have been at least ten major accidents reported in the centre of the city alone. I repeat, this is NOT an akuma attack. Ladybug and Chat Noir cannot help the town. This is a real emergency, the coldest winter Paris has had since 1879. That’s why I’m declaring a Code Red alert. All public transport won't run until further notice. Schools will remain closed for the time being. If you’re not an essential worker, or you can work from home, don’t get out of the house to get to work. Stay in. Stay safe.”

Nadja moved the microphone back to her face. “Thank you, Mayor,” she said smiling warmly at M. Bourgeois. “As our Mayor has kindly stated, ladies and gentlemen, this isn’t an akuma attack. The Miraculous Cure won’t fix everything as it usually does. To make sure that this was the case, we went looking for the people who have been akumatised in the past with weather related powers.”

The picture in the video changed from the outside of Town Hall to the sitting room of a private home. There stood Aurore Beauréal, the girl who had been akumatised twice into Stormy Weather. “Hi, Nadja,” she said with a smile, her hand playing with a loose lock of blonde hair.

“Hi, Aurore. Nice to see you happy and smiling,” said Nadja’s voice in the background.

“Yes, thank you for checking on me, Nadja. I can assure everyone that it’s definitely not me causing this bad weather, to check if by any chance it was them.”

Nadja’s face reappeared on the screen. “That’s good news, thank you, Aurore.”

Then, the video moved to the inside of the Ice Rink in town. Philippe Candeloro, the middle aged figure skating trainer who ran the Rink, smiled at the camera and waved. “Good afternoon, Nadja.”

“Monsieur Candeloro, good afternoon. It’s nice to see you smiling and happy,” repeated Nadja, echoing the previous conversation.

“Thank you for caring. It’s definitely not me creating this bad weather.”

Nadja’s face reappeared on the screen. “That’s even more good news. Thank you, Monsieur Candeloro.” Nadja took a big breath. “From the Town Hall, that’s all for now. But keep an eye on your phone or on the TV, because we will keep you informed about any breaking news. As for now, stay in, stay safe.”

Adrien sighed and turned off the screen of his phone. His battery was starting to run low and he didn’t want to drain his phone completely, in case Gorilla or Nathalie would try to contact him. Code Red meant that everything would have been shut for a few days, which also meant that he was going to be trapped in his golden cage with no possibility to escape. Except through the roofs in black spandex, of course.

“The weather is horrible. It could take your bodyguard HOURS to arrive here. And what are we going to do in the meantime, freeze to death? My poor Gooeyness is all cold and hardened up!” Dramatically, he raised a paw at the height of his forehead and closed his eyes, faking distress.

“Oh stop it, Plagg, it’s not that bad. And someone may hear you!” shushed Adrien, but Plagg stuck his tongue out at him.

“Who's going to hear me? The photographer and the team have all gone, it’s only me and y—” but as he spoke, he saw a red dot zooming inside the cabin and his complaints came to a sudden halt.

“Oh thank you, Almighty Creator! It’s so good to see you, Adrien!” Both Adrien and Plagg stared in disbelief at a greatly distressed Tikki, taking heavy breaths to cool herself down.

“Tikki?” said Adrien, a loud gasp coming out of his throat. At the same time, Plagg shouted, “Sugarcube!” and zoomed towards her to hug her, but she put both paws in front of her tiny body to stop him.

“There’s no time to explain. A… girl. Skating at the lake. Danger. You need to help!” she said between heavy pants, her voice cracking as a big frown furrowed her eyebrows. “You need to follow me, NOW. It could already be late!”

Adrien blinked. “A… girl?”

His heart started racing in his chest as he stood without even thinking and put his coat on, opening the door of the cabin and looking around warily. Plagg was right, nobody was around, the place was completely deserted. He stepped out of the cabin and started running in the direction he knew the lake was, paying attention to where he was putting his feet to ensure he wouldn’t slip. Tikki and Plagg followed him.

His mind was filled with different thoughts as he started looking around. “What did this girl think she was doing, skating at the lake? There were loads of panels warning about thin ice yesterday. What was going through her mind?”

Tikki gasped. “Adrien, there were no signs earlier on. Not even one. Nothing that we could see at least.”

We. She’d said we. The thought struck his head and kicked away any other thought or doubt he would have had. “We? Where’s Ladybug? Why isn’t she helping? Were you here together?”

The terror in Tikki’s eyes grew so huge that Adrien felt he could actually touch it and taste it. She looked at Plagg, then back at him, then her gaze lowered to the ground.

“L-Ladyb-bug is unavailable,” she said.

Adrien stopped in his tracks, panting heavily, and looked at Tikki through the white shower of snow that was dimming his view. The snow falling from the sky was so thick that he found himself with snowflakes in his mouth. “You would never leave Ladybug’s side, Tikiki, I know you quite well. If you’re here, Ladybug is here too. WHERE THE HELL IS LADYBUG?”

Tikki’s eyes widened even more when he started to shout. The lower lip of the little kwami started quivering and Adrien was certain that the red colour of her little face grew paler.

“S-she w-was... ice skating on the lake and the ice cracked. You must hurry, please Adrien!” The tiny Goddess of Creation zipped to his neck and grabbed his collar with her tiny paws.

“It’s HER? Ladybug is in danger?” panicked Adrien. The first thing that came to his mind was that if Tikki was there, it meant that Ladybug wasn’t transformed.

Her identity!

Screw her identity. She’s in danger.

Oh God, Ladybug would never forgive him, but he had to protect her, he couldn’t leave her in danger! He’d never seen Tikki that panicky before—that didn’t sound good at all. He resumed his run through the park, trying to reach the shore of the lake as quickly as he could.

Tikki’s eyes filled with tears as she zipped behind him, and started sobbing loudly. “It’s happening all over again. I can’t lose another one. Not my *BURP*” she said, blowing bubbles, as the magic of the Miraculous prevented her from saying her holder’s name.

“Sugarcube! It won’t happen again, not if we can help it, don’t worry!” said Plagg, trying to rub her back to help her calm down, but Tikki was inconsolable.

“Why didn’t she transform?” Adrien stopped at a crossroad, not knowing where to go. The snow that was fluttering from the sky was making it very hard to make out the indications on the road. What yesterday and even earlier today would have been a two minute walk had become much longer now, because of the low visibility, and the slippery ground. Or at least it felt, much, much longer. Incredibly longer.

“She tried, but the ice she was holding onto cracked again and she was sucked down into the water. She couldn’t say the words!”

Adrien felt his soul leaving his body as realisation hit. “Is she drowning?” he asked. His heart was racing at thousands miles an hour. Tikki nodded and his heart stopped.

With the blizzard and the very low temperature, even if she had been out of the water she would be in danger. In the water, the danger had potentially grown by thousandfold. She wasn’t just in danger, she could die!

“Plagg, CLAWS OUT!” he shouted and dashed off, not even looking to make sure that nobody was around before transforming. He didn’t care. Screw Hawkmoth. His Lady was dying and nothing else mattered.

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

Author’s Note:

Hi again! So… due to the huge demand, here is chapter 2. Yes, Lila’s plan is unfolding quite well. Will Marinette survive?

In the next instalment of “Stuck in a cabin (with you)”, “Prince Chat-ming”:

— “S-SHE’S N-NOT B-B-BREAT-T-HING!”

— “What are you waiting for, Chat Noir? Please help her!” begged Tikki. “I can’t do it.”

— “I-I’M A BOY!”

Ehrm… I know. Sorry. The teaser ain’t helping. Let me know what you thought about the chapter. If I need to choose to prioritise a story to write (and publish), I will always go for the one with the most feedback, because I feel that I’m letting more people down if I don’t continue soon. I can’t promise I will publish every week, but let me know what you think and I’ll publish as soon as I can. Please subscribe if you’re interested in knowing what is going to happen, so you will know when the next update is!

And please check out my other WIPs, “When Magic Fails”, “Caught in the Loop”, “Errata Corrige” and “La Caverne du Papillon d’Or”!

Last but not least, as usual, if you read this and you’re not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server, Miraculous Fanworks (for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon. Not sure when I will update this story but it won't be too long! Promise!

[satonthelotuspier]

I’m a bit under the weather rn and unable to get out of bed. Using the time to do some work on the NieLan fic (8k in, getting there, ish?) between feeling sorry for myself, and I haven’t put anything out for a while. Therefore, have the SFT - Safe for Tumblr (but still a little spicy) part of the XiCheng cat ears fic that took over my brain based loosely on this post here. Full version (when I’ve finished it, it is not this day though) will go on AO3. Contains sexual language.

Jiang Cheng realised he’d fucked up when he saw the presents on the dining table.

Well, at first he didn’t, at first he ran through the list of birthdays, wedding anniversaries, friends who were expectant and so forth in his head and came up completely blank.

Then the date clicked in his brain.

February 14th.

Fuck.

He had forgotten Valentines day. And the worst thing was he knew Lan Xichen wouldn’t mind. He was too fucking laid back, too accepting of Jiang Cheng’s failings as a boyfriend, or, even worse, he had such low expectations of Jiang Cheng to begin with.

Had he heard Jiang Cheng come in?

Snowdrop hadn’t raised a fuss and run to him, so maybe they were out on a walk, or in the garden, and Jiang Cheng could sneak back out and head straight to the mall.

Even the thought of dealing with the mass of humanity out valentines shopping for their significant other’s was the lesser of evils when measured against Lan Xichen’s happiness.

He had just turned to walk back to the door and try and slip out when the excited barking and scritch of toenails on the wooden floor announced he’d been made.

Snowdrop barrelled through the house and over to Jiang Cheng to announce how pleased she was he had returned, followed by Lan Xichen who wrapped him up in a hug and placed a gentle kiss against his lips.

“Wanyin” he murmured, “Welcome back, we missed you”

“I only left yesterday morning” Jiang Cheng couldn’t help replying.

“And I missed you since yesterday morning” thank goodness Lan Xichen wasn’t sensitive about Jiang Cheng’s inability to accept tenderness without returning sarcasm.

“OK, needy much?” Jiang Cheng was answered this time with another kiss.

He was released eventually, and Snowdrop wanted another turn at his attention, which he was glad to give her, to avoid the inevitable evidence of his huge fuck up getting out.

Once Snowdrop was sated he could ignore Lan Xichen and the situation no longer; at least he had thought so but the other had retreated to the kitchen to make a request for dinner from the chef.

Honestly Jiang Cheng still wasn’t used to having staff, not that he did, they were definitely Lan Xichen’s.

Just like the majority of this house.

Jiang Cheng had eventually given in to Lan Xichen on the issue of living arrangements, the other arguing it was stupid to resent his money and for them to live below their means just for the sake of Jiang Cheng’s pride. But Jiang Cheng had forced the other to have a contract drawn up which had stipulated if, for whatever reason (i.e. Lan Xichen’s reaching his limit with Jiang Cheng) they broke up Jiang Cheng would only walk away with what he had put into the cost of their house, which was almost negligible in comparison. Lan Xichen had told him he felt uncomfortable with the stipulation but of course had had no other option but to agree, especially when Jiang Cheng told him it was the only way he’d feel any measure of comfort with the arrangement.

                                                            ***

The presents weren’t touched upon again until much later that evening. Lan Xichen had disappeared briefly with their empty wine glasses and reappeared with the two boxes in his hands.

Jiang Cheng swallowed nervously. He was about to make his grovelling apology when one of the boxes was placed on his lap.

“Happy Valentines” Lan Xichen told him and watched expectantly. Jiang Cheng opened the box to find it contained expensive spicy chocolates.

Something the Jiangs would devour but would be anathema to the Lans more ascetic palate.

Jiang Cheng forgot his guilt for a moment in his excitement.

“Oh my God, how did you find out about these? Wei Wuxian has been drooling over these for months in group chat” Jiang Cheng exclaimed; he was about to break into them when he thought better of it.

“I have my ways” was all Lan Xichen would reveal on the subject.

“I’m going to love trying them, and rubbing Wei Wuxian’s face in it. Thank you” he actually leaned over to press a kiss against Lan Xichen’s lips, and the other beamed like he’d been offered a blowjob rather than just one, freely given, kiss. Which, considering his complete and utter failure to prepare for the most romantic holiday of the year was about all he had to offer the other in return.

The thought sobered him and he was about to apologise when again Lan Xichen forestalled it by dropping the other parcel in his lap.

Lan Xichen actually looked a little giddy, and it made Jiang Cheng forget his own incompetence for the second time in virtually as many minutes; he pulled the lid off the box.

And his soul left his body.

He genuinely didn’t know where to put his eyes; he was fucking sure he’d never be able to look Lan Xichen in the face again.

As soon as he thought it his eyes snapped up, “Y-you got me cat ears? For Valentines Day? Do you want your legs breaking?”

“Don’t be silly, I got me cat ears. And you missed the cute little paw-print choker” Lan Xichen pointed helpfully into the bottom of the box. “I thought you might struggle to have a gift arranged with attending your seminar, so I took the liberty of helping out. I thought you might like to...” he gestured at Jiang Cheng.

Had his eyes bulged? He felt like his eyes bulged.

This manipulative little shit though.

“Are you insane, do you crave death?”

There was a delicate shrug, “I thought you’d look very cute, is all. I understand if you don’t want to” despite his claimed understanding, Lan Xichen managed to sound pouty; but the box was put aside and wasn’t mentioned again by him.

                                                           ***

“You’re a fucking idiot” Jiang Cheng told himself later, as he stood in front of the vanity mirror in the bathroom.

Lan Xichen had taken a call from his uncle about bank business and Jiang Cheng had used the opportunity to grab the forgotten gift box and sequester himself in the en suite.

Was he really going to allow himself to be manipulated into this?

He was sure the embarrassment would make him squirm for years to come if he did.

He looked down at the cat ear headband in his hands, then back at the mirror.

He was more than a little tempted to just throw them straight into the bin, but the soft, sulky look on Lan Xichen’s face earlier had tickled his sense of guilt. Of course the other looked gorgeous even in his petulance, and he wasn’t by nature a sullen creature, so Jiang Cheng was fully aware it was all skin deep for the purpose of manoeuvring him into giving in and wearing the cursed objects; unfortunately his body was unable to build up the immunity required to protect against Lan Xichen.

He supposed he should just be thankful there was no butt-plug tail…

He let out a long, heartfelt sigh, placed the ears to one side and reached for the choker.

                                                             ***

He supposed the sexier thing to do would have been to strip naked, or at least take his t-shirt off, but he was fucked if he was going to make it even more embarrassing for himself. Therefore he was still fully clothed in his dark jeans and white v-neck t-shirt when he heard Lan Xichen enter the bedroom.

He wavered at the bathroom door for several seconds, his face a beacon of flushed self-consciousness.

He knew if he left it any longer he’d bottle it, and it would render the most embarrassing part of actually putting the accessories on and seeing himself in the mirror, moot, so he sucked in a quick, steadying breath and walked out into the bedroom.

He definitely couldn’t meet Lan Xichen’s gaze now though.

He looked determinedly at the floor as Lan Xichen turned to him.

He heard the sucked in breath, “Wanyin” the other’s voice was delighted and he expected to be crowded by Lan Xichen; either hugged or kissed. Instead he heard the double click of a mobile taking pictures.

His temper overtook his embarrassment, his eyes flared as they rose to take in Lan Xichen holding his phone.

He leapt forward, intending to take the mobile off Lan Xichen with a snarled; “You asshole”

Lan Xichen was so much faster though, and quicker than Jiang Cheng could react he caught Jiang Cheng’s wrists and used his attacking momentum to overbalance him and send them both down to the mattress. Jiang Cheng’s wrists were pinned to the bed and the offending mobile had vanished out of sight.

“You can delete the pictures later, I promise” Lan Xichen said as he looked down into Jiang Cheng’s incensed face.

“Why not now, asshole?” he swore he wasn’t going to give the other the satisfaction of pulling on his wrists, but he couldn’t help it and he ended up trying to twist his body beneath Lan Xichen; who of course greatly enjoyed the friction.

“Because I quite like you where you are right now, A-Cheng. Such a hissing, spitting kitten” Lan Xichen mocked, keeping out of biting range, but Jiang Cheng had begun to calm down as soon as he realised Lan Xichen had enacted the whole scenario to make him forget his embarrassment.

“Such a spoiled little prince, manoeuvring to get his own way all the time” Jiang Cheng snapped up at Lan Xichen, whose eyes shone with amusement.

“Let me show you the benefit of being with a spoiled prince who always gets his own way then; if I petted you nicely, would you purr for me?”

“So fucking shameless. How thick is your face that you can spout such rubbish constantly?”

“It’s a good thing we don’t both have a thin face, A-Cheng” Lan Xichen took a chance and leaned down to nuzzle at Jiang Cheng’s jawline; when the other didn’t react negatively he followed it’s line with a trail of gentle kisses, before capturing Jiang Cheng’s mouth, his own firm and possessive.

[ofravensandgenesis]

For John, maybe?: “You’re holding back.”

A/N: Characters/Verse-Setting: John Seed and Deputy Declan Rook, set in the Walk Away AU, in the Between Silence And Quiet verse. Minor mentions of Mary May Fairgrave and Deputy Joey Hudson.Summary: John tries to orchestrate a chance meeting to talk to that strange Deputy who chose to walk away. You’re holding back and John as a prompt from Chyrstis! :D Thank you for the prompt Chyrstis!! :D ♥Content includes: Cult content, John being John, manipulation, mild violence, etc.Ao3 link here, to avoid tumblr disaster formatting on mobile.————————————

“You’re holding back, Deputy.” John observed, his steps slow and methodical as he circled around from behind the other man where he stood.Not even a twitch. Not a look, a breath, or a word.Just silence. Silence broken by the pitiful little groans of pain from the crumpled heaps of booze-soaked trouble-makers surrounding the Deputy’s feet. Not even a broken bone among them, pff. Weak, as Jacob would so aptly call them. Foolish too, as John would term it. Too eager to vent their spleen and their wrath on any easy target—easy to target because it wasn’t mentally challenging to pick out who wasn’t a regular alcoholic here at the Spread Eagle, that was. The thought almost had John smirking. Almost. Had the drunken sops actually gotten to the point of swinging, well…it would’ve benefited the Project for John to take a punch for the team if only to be able to start the chain of actions to staple a battery charge on the lot. Then it was just a matter of slowly picking them apart until they were handing over the keys and deeds to their houses and lands to get out of the growing mountain of scandal and misfortune that would follow them from that point onward. Too foolish to step out of the noose they’d made, and too foolish to realize they’d woven the rope and tied it themselves—like shooting fish in a barrel.That was if he took a punch. They didn’t need trash like this in the Project, and their lands weren’t anything important. These souls were small fry, unworthy and uninteresting. Poor fighters, too. John had already known he could take them—and break them—in a fight.They hadn’t known that though. They’d assumed because he was some “fancy shmancy ass lawyer,” that he didn’t know how to raise a fist and fight. That he didn’t know pain.Oh, but did he know pain in far more intimate and detailed ways that they didn’t—and he could show it to them,—but no. They weren’t worthy of that revelation, that understanding of the power of YES.But Deputy Rook?Deputy Declan Rook.Deputy XiuYing Declan Rook.That was a soul who could understand. The silence surrounding him was too heavy with knowing, with something, with promise, to go unremarked on.The Deputy had kept his silence in the church too, then, on that fateful night.He’d listened to Joseph, strangely enough.Or. Joseph said the Deputy had.John disagreed. Jacob disagreed.There had been something in the Deputy’s face…that had been so very far away.The feeling of a soul that is disassociated from its surroundings and the going-ons of the moment.They all knew that feeling well.Joseph had dismissed it.But John? John couldn’t let well enough alone.That was why he was here now, slinking about the Spread Eagle on a Saturday night. He’d had good intel from his people about town that the Deputy had made an appearance at the bar, god forsaken well of poison that it was.That meant dealing with Mary May Fairgrave, however. As much fun as it was to rile her up, that was unfortunately an animosity he’d have to take a rain check on for another time. A crisp twenty dollar bill was enough to buy a few minutes of tolerance from her, when accompanied with a smile and a promise from John that he wasn’t here to cause trouble, simply to check on an acquaintance of his, and then he’d be out of her hair. That was a lie…but a good enough one that no one would hold him to it without looking unreasonable and biased. Not that being unreasonable and biased was unusual in this particular venue, sadly, but that was a well known, common effect of alcohol. One the two of them were both aware of. Mary May had scoffed, warned him not to linger longer than he had to, but had pocketed the cash. They’d done this before—and she knew well enough that he wasn’t interested in being served a beer for his money. All the more  She’d consider that a victory, a few worthless dollars taken from Eden’s Gate and in her pocket instead. Typical greedHis on-going issues with Mary May not withstanding…John had not come in under the paper-thin guise of intending to drink. No, he’d had a much more reasonable excuse of seeking out another potential member-to-be, who had not officially joined the Project yet. All the man had to do was play a part: drinking away his woes, his depression, his awareness in its entirety—a common enough ailment with a common enough response: poison them into submission until they thanked you for it, paid for it as a privilege. No one would question it.And no one would question John coming in to apparently try to reel the so-called “vulnerable” man in, hook, line, and sinker. All the sinners saw was the fact that the man had money, land, wealth. That was all they saw. That was all they assumed John saw too. Assumed that was what he was after, trying to “coax” the man further into joining the Project At Eden’s Gate. That of course had been more than enough to stir the ire of some of the locals. And with an off-duty Deputy on the scene? John had harbored no doubts it would lead to an opportunity to talk. Talk to this Deputy who had walked away…instead of breaking the first seal. Instead of heralding the Collapse.Joseph had been expecting the Collapse. Had been expecting the sinners to try to take him, the way that barking Marshal had.But the Deputy had refused.How interesting. Even more interesting was how swift the Deputy’s response had been, interposing himself between John and the rabble-rousers as quickly and naturally as falling rain. John had found himself staring at the back of the other man’s head, black hair trimmed close and neat, his silhouette a stark-edged shadow of a man imposing and broad shouldered, wrapped in a thin, grey cotton tee and denim blue jeans. It’d made him seem so strangely ordinary, like he was blending in when he should have been standing out, should have registered as a threat. Because he was a threat, no doubt about that.The drunkards had completely missed it. Unsurprising, the buffoons. They’d been startled, and then predictably mad, redirecting their anger to the obstacle that stood in the way of them indulging in their sins.It’d been the first time John had heard the Deputy speak.“Stand down.” Two words, quiet enough to be missed if the bar had been noisy at the time.Quiet…but not meek. Not weak. It was the quiet of knowing. Knowing just what one’s own self was capable of. The lack of fear that came with power…and clarity.The Deputy had found some revelation of his own at some point then, John was certain.The sinners obviously had not stood down, and had, predictably, taken the first swing at Deputy Rook, as John had expected of them, based on what he’d known of their character.He had not expected Deputy Rook to put all three men down with such quick and clean efficiency. No wounding or serious injury, just enough force to subdue, just enough pain to quiet.Beautiful. That had been a beautiful display of skill. Of violence, so pinpoint and precise, it’d been almost gentle. The Deputy had been moving so smoothly and gracefully, he’d almost seemed to slow down, moving just fast enough to anticipate the men flailing around him like they were extras in a slapstick comedy.It’d been too easy. Too smooth. Too pretty.The Deputy wasn’t even challenged by this.He was holding back.That interested John immensely.The Deputy’s head turned, just enough to catch John in his peripheral vision as John circled to one side. The moment was long, before the tension was snipped as easily as the Fates cutting a thread, and the Deputy looked away towards where Mary May was moving towards them with a scowl half a mile long. The Deputy pointed to the phone, and Mary May stopped, her glower fading somewhat as understanding trickled in. She gave a sharp nod, unhappy about all this not because of the brawl, but because it involved John Seed as all present company could tell from the dirty look she shot him before she turned to call the Sheriff’s Department.“Deputy.”The Deputy didn’t look at John, only barely moving his head again to draw John back into the periphery of his gaze, never looking at him directly, head canting a tiny bit to one side as if listening, as if to say go ahead, I’m listening.

There was a faint trace of wariness in the Deputy’s expression.He still wouldn’t look at John.That rankled most of all, and piqued John’s curiosity in equal measures.Why? Why was the Deputy acting like this? What reason did he have for these little eccentricities? Eccentricities that heretofore, had never been remarked upon? The odd stretches of silence in place of words, the select self-expression through subdued gestures and looks alone…the choices made, both then and now.John had to try something. “Declan.”That got the Deputy’s attention, enough for that pair of dark brown eyes almost darkened to black in how the light fell.John smiled, a little victory well worth the cost of this trip into a den of inequity. Nothing substantial, yet. But a foot in the door was all he needed.“Thank you for your services, Deputy, though if I might ask…why did you step in so quickly? Nothing had happened yet, and it is your night off, isn’t it?”The Deputy looked at John for a long, long, long moment…before tilting his head another inch to one side.It was vaguely infuriating in that the Deputy was clearly communicating something but John wasn’t familiar enough with the man to know what. An emotional state of being, and some form of sentiment, yes, not an indication regarding their surroundings or to draw John’s attention to some other event starting up around them.Why was he so quiet? The word from the grapevine had given no previous indication he’d been anything but an ordinary man in the day to day portraiture of his character according to John’s sources.John could hear the crunch and crackle of dirt under car tires outside—back up likely. What a short window of time that had been, the other Deputy must have been nearby when the call went out to dispatch then.He had time for one more question then. “Why didn’t you simply walk away? Just sent out a call and let your colleague pick up the job.”John already knew, it was why he’d staged this entire self-contained mess. Deputy Declan Rook was a man of duty, that much Nancy had been sure of.What he was asking, really asking, was why Deputy Declan had walked away, through the allusion of word choice buried in a seemingly innocent question.He could tell that the Deputy got it. That the other man understood, just by the minute shift in his expression as he looked at John.But still the Deputy said nothing.“Rook, you alright? Mary May called up and said you’d been in a bar fight,” Deputy Hudson said, the sound of her footsteps filling the silence in place of any answer Deputy Rook might have given.“Or rather ended one, from the looks of things,” She concluded, eying the pile of groaning men upon the floor.The Deputy’s attention was on Hudson now, shaking his head and giving her a little reassuring smile, as if to say no injuries, I’m fine, as are they, just a little banged up.How disappointing, and how strange.But the little furrow of Hudson’s brow in addition to the slight frown upon her face when she looked at Deputy Rook was more promising.

This was relatively new behavior to her as well then, not just Deputy Rook choosing to be oddly silent in the moment. She didn’t understand why the Deputy was behaving so oddly either.She most certainly was not happy upon laying eyes on John himself though. He plastered on yet another smile, knowing exactly how this conversation was going to go down, her taking a statement, and the whole matter dwindling down as to yet another weekend dust-up to write up and add to the paperwork at the Sheriff’s Department.But Deputy Rook was hiding something. Holding back, as he had in the fight earlier. Holding back even as he was now with Deputy Hudson as they sorted out the aftermath of the fight.It left John with more questions than he’d started. But he had gotten a few new answers among it all.How interesting.

[haiky-u-lously]

Soul Searching Comments-- Part 1

W/ Iwazumi Hajime

--Soulmate AU where each day a random sentence that the person has/would say shows up on the mate’s body.

Because of tumblr's weird mobile text limit, had to break this into 2 parts. So, here is part 1. Then click for Part 2

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Your PV]

“Do you think you’re fighting by yourself?!” You read from your wrist out loud.

It had become your practiced ritual every day since you learned what the writing on your skin was. You would follow your wake-up routine and then check your body for the new statement of the day. Sometimes they were hilarious, sometimes sad, and sometimes worry-ing. But this time, you were more astonished. Lowkey wondering what could make your soulmate need to scream this out at someone.

“What was that (F/N)?” Your friend drowsily called from the other room.

You shook away the feelings currently flowing through your brain and went back to sit on the edge of their bed. “Oh nothing, just reading out the new comment. Have you found yours yet?”

You friend just sighed. She flew the comforter off her body and over your head and jumped up to run to the bathroom before you could retaliate. “Ah! Yes! It’s on my back today!” She exclaimed happily.

“And what does it say prey tell?” You asked, knowing she would tell you either way.

Opening the door, you saw she had started brushing her teeth and just held her shirt up for you to read yourself. You read out, “Could you teach me how to serve? Um…well…yea I don’t know what to say to that luv. Sorry.”

Your friend shrugged and closed the door behind herself, finishing her own wakeup routine.

[Months later]

“(Y/N)! (Y/N)! (Y/N)!” you heard being called from across the large gymnasium.

Turning towards the voice you saw your friend racing towards you and sent her a smile. “(B/F/N). What’s up?”

“I found him! My soulmate. He isn’t anything like we thought he would be, just a bit socially awkward since he is so much younger!” She yelped excitedly jumping up and down while latching her hands onto your own.

Her energy being contagious forced your own expression to grow into a wide grin that overtook your whole face, “Wow! I’m excited for you! Where is he?” You asked, looking over her shoulder to see if you could find a love-sick looking first or second year.

Kitagawa Daichi Junior high was a big school, so it made sense you would not have know everyone not in your grade, but to find out that your best friend’s soulmate was in your school was just to unreal, and you needed to see it for yourself.

“Oh yea, well… He actually doesn’t know yet.” She said sheepishly.

Raising your eyebrows at her questionably, she understood your unspoken questions and went on to explain.

“So, my comment today was something very very specific, right? And during the closing ceremony I overheard the volleyball team arguing and went to check it out. I mean how can I pass up getting the scoop on that juice, huh? Anyway! So, I’m watching pretty-boy yell at that first-year prodigy and then.” She smiles before continuing, “And then! The freaking prodigy said the line! And I’m freaking out so I run away to think if what I heard was actually what was written, but while I’m running away, by ankle starts burning which just solidifies that the one I heard that line from is in fact my soulmate.” She clasped her hands on your shoulders as her eyes bore into your own, “And then I rushed here to tell you.”

You put your hands over hers and slowly removed them from your shoulders, eyes searching her face for any indication that she was joking, or pretending, or you did not know, but something that indicated she didn’t actually run away after finding her soulmate. When you found none, you pinched her upper arm. “You idiot! Why didn’t you say anything to him? We are going on holiday now! And then you and I will go to a different school than him! What’s wrong with you!”

Her eyes bulged and you face-palmed at how she was just now realizing her mistake. “I gotta go find him! Bye, (Y/N)! Thanks for the advice!”

And she was gone.

[Years later]

“”Guys that girls squeal over piss me off even more.” You read out loud to your friend Kiyoko on the bus.

The statement being presented on your calf having caught her attention when you were both climbing aboard for the trip to the tournament.

She smiled sweetly at you, “It seems your soulmate has some very strong opinions. That should be good. Maybe he can actually handle you then.”

You laughed before lightly pushing at her shoulder, “Maybe, but if I don’t ever meet him, it won’t ever matter. Will it?”

Both of you sighed and looked out the window, individually thinking about how you hoped your soulmate meetings would go when they finally happened.

--------

Once at the tournament gym, your team quickly found its way to its court.

Soon enough it was time to face their old rivals from Seijo.

During the match you were standing with the coach yelling at the boys of Karasuno for their stupid plays as well as trying to yell encouraging tid-bits of information to help them succeed.

[After graduating university]

Kiyoko, (B/F/N), and you were waiting for your ordered car to arrive and take you to the next location for Kiyoko’s birthday scavenger hunt.

After she had met her soulmate, they had planned extravagant activities for her for every holiday. Always either leaving room for her friends to join, or making the time be set aside for her and her friends. It made you like them even more.

While thinking about this, you felt something slap you in the face. Having a mild panic attack and karate chopping the air around you, it took longer than should have been necessary to realize it had just been a falling leaf.

Your friends laughed at you and you decided to continue your antics, turning to look up at the tree above-head. Waggling a finger at it and shouting, “You wanna go bro? I will cut and burn you to ash.”

The wind blew through it again, and another leaf fell in your direction. You playfully jumped out of the way and stutteringly spoke out, “Okay okay okay, Mr. Tree. I’m sorry I will not burn you. But seriously I didn’t do anything to deserve being hit like that.”

Your friends laughed at your craziness, until (B/F/N) called that the car pulling up was your ride. Climbing in, they were still laughing, and you couldn’t help but beam that you were able to make Kiyoko’s day that much better.

“Oh!” She suddenly exclaimed, “(Y/N)! You never said what your random comment of the day was! Please tell us?”

You rolled your eyes, “Fine fine. Let’s see. You moved your hair off your neck so they could read it out for themselves.”

“It’s just every time you open your mouth, you seem to get even more annoying.” They both read aloud.

Seeing the struggle in their expressions in a positive thing to say about this seemingly rude statement, you laughed their worry away. “I know, I know. I can’t wait to ask them about it all though. One day.”

(B/F/N) laughed a bit before asking what you meant.

Then Kiyoko explained how you had started a journal writing down all the strange comments to ask them about when you would finally meet.

They both laughed harder at this, and you just smiled silently as you wondered when that would finally be.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Iwa’s PV]

He stood facing his back to the mirror in astonishment. Sorry, being clearly written on his lower back. “Sorry? Sorry is all this has to say?!” He screamed in disbelief.

Wondering how he was supposed to find his supposed other half when apparently his side of the bargin was only meant to get all these super unhelpful words and phrases.

“How many people say sorry in a day! This is the worst!” He yelled, unknowingly scaring the first years who had just entered the locker room.

They promptly exited and went to find the one who was known to back handedly control the strongest player on the Kitagawa team.

“Iwa-chan~~” Oikawa sang while entering the locker room. “Some little birdies came crying to me about how angry the big bad ace was. Screaming in the locker room, tsk tsk Iwa-chan. Tsk tsk.”

“Shut up Baka-awa. I’m not in the mood,” The olive-green-eyed male lamented, pulling his jersey over his broad shoulders.

Oikawa pouted, “So mean, Iwa-chan. Your soulmate will never want to meet you if you’re so mean to your friends~” Singing out the last taunt, Oikawa quickly ran back out of the locker space before the ace could catch and pummel him into a goop.

[Months later]

At the end of closing ceremonies, Oikawa had led Iwazumi towards the ole volleyball locker rooms, wanting to give the new captain some “helpful” advice.

Unfortunately, the pair of graduating males ran into the one and only Kageyama Tobio.

“Oikawa-sempai, Iwazumi-senpai. I wish you luck in your high school careers.” The boy bowed, and Iwazumi was grateful that’s all he said.

He thanked the blue haired boy and moved to go around him but was stopped by the glint in Oikawa’s eyes.

Whispering a warning, “Oikawa…don’t” The ace realized he was too late.

“Don’t sit here and tell us what to do. You are nothing. You will never be anything. You are just some prodigy who doesn’t know anything about what it takes to put in hard work for something you love as much as Iwa-chan and I do. So just keep your luck to yourself. You will need it.” He pulled his eye down and stuck out his tongue before continuing his verbal rampage.

Eventually he ended his onslaught of a speech, much to Iwazumi’s welcomed relief, but then continued by asking if Kageyama had anything more to say.

“I was just thinking it would be cool if you could finally beet Ushijima Wakatoshi in high school, since you couldn’t here.”

Iwa knew the boy was just stupid. He knew the kid didn’t mean it the way the Oikawa would take it.

But Iwazumi was also distracted by a loud gasp and quickly retreating steps before he could explain this to his best friend. Instead he just grabbed the light-brunette by the back collar of his shirt and dragged him away as quickly as he could.

[Years later]

“Geesh Baka-awa. Can’t you control your fans at all. You’d think since they live for your every word and action, they’d listen to you at least a little bit.”

The captain just smiled to the group of girls screaming for him from the bleachers, “Ah Iwa-chan. Its okay if you’re jealous. I’m sure they could cheer for you without my asking them to.”

He received a punch to the gut for that one, before Iwazumi went to finish warming up now that the team captain had been located…again.

-----

During the game he had let himself get distracted by the girl screaming at the Karasuno team. He couldn’t make her words when she gave hints on how they could adjust their playing to match Seijo, but he could hear her clear as day when she was tearing them down.

“Pick up your damn feet and move those asses or you are doing nothings but drills for practice until the next scrimmage!” She shouted before throwing her clipboard to the floor.

The quiet manager sitting besides the seat she had stood in front of, quickly picked it up before the shouting one could step on it as she started yelling at Kageyama specifically. About how he wasn’t the only player on the court and to trust his teammates if he wanted to stay on it.

This made Iwazumi smirk before refocusing on the game in front of him. She’d be an interesting manager to keep an eye on though.

[After graduating university]

Mattsun had sent his soulmate on a scavenger hunt for her birthday activity. Iwazumi was responsible for the last item on the list and had holed up in his apartment for the afternoon.

Waiting for the small group of females to come in for the item, so he could then take them to the surprise party the Mattsun had also planned for them. He had just reread the comment that had appeared on his ankle that morning, laughing about how ridiculous it seemed. An apology to a Mr. Tree. At least it was original, as opposed to his former ones.

Thinking about his own lack of knowing who his soulmate was, reminded him all over about Mattsun and Kiyoko. How they’d found each other. And how hard Mattsun had fallen.

Man that boy was head over heels in love with Kiyoko and he was not afraid to admit it, or share it with the world. And dammit, if Iwa and Oikawa couldn’t get him to say those three words to her tonight, how could they call themselves his best friends.

Knocking at his apartment door caused the male to stand up and shake his head out of his inner thoughts.

He opened it to see Kiyoko, the girl that he’d learned was Kageyama’s soulmate, (B/F/N), and the feisty manager from Karasuno high school. He smiled at the girls and welcomed them in.

“Hello, Iwazumi-kun.” Kiyoko greeted shyly.

(B/F/N) just shook his hand as she passed.

He watched as the third-party member entered, but didn’t say anything, and didn’t move too far from the entry way either. And, found himself wishing he had the fore thought to ask Mattsun who to expect so he could start a conversation with her.

But that thought to was cut short as Kiyoko asked if she had the last item, they needed to complete their scavenger hunt.

He laughed before leading her to his living room and giving her an envelope. “It’s just Mattsun wanted to surprise you, ya know?”

The girl opened the envelope and her eyes bulged before she answered, “He is so…I cannot accept this. No!” She said a bit more forcefully.

(B/F/N) came over to look at what she’d received and was soon in a fit of joyous hysterics. “Oh, this is golden. Boy sends us on a scavenger hut to get us out of the way, and then ends it with a card to go on a shopping spree with? Damn girl, your boy is so totally whipped. What did you do to him?!” Kiyoko’s face went red with embarrassment and the other two girls laughed at her expense.

“Now, (B/F/N). be nice. It is her birthday after all.” Iwazumi still didn’t know your name but he knew he’d remembered your voice. And it was still as hypnotizing as it had been years ago. “Kiyoko, what does the note say?”

The birthday girl, huffed around her emotions, trying to calm down so she could carefully read what was written in the letter provided with the card. “My dear…um yes anyway…I hope your day with your friends has been exciting in as many ways possible. While I’m sad I couldn’t spend the day with you, I…okay skipping this part since (B/F/N) will just tease me, um let us see…oh here we go…This card is for (B/F/N), (Y/N) and you to buy some ballroom styled dresses, along with a couple of fancy masks. Today and tonight might be about you…*cough cough*” While she was coughing, Iwa looked over her shoulder and saw he had written in some sugary-sweet nicknames. She continued after getting her heart back in order, “but other holidays must unfortunately be shared with all. So, I wanted to help you buy your costumes for the annual masquerade ball. I will see you at the party tonight, but please go get your outfits on my dime before getting ready and showing up tonight.”

When she finished reading, she looked at all three of the pair of eyes on her, before exploding into a blush again. “I cannot just take his money! No.”

Iwazumi smiled slightly to himself, happy he finally has your name for his inner thoughts to run wild with.

“Well, I say we can.”(B/F/N) started, before adding, “He literally told us to. DO you want to ignore his wishes?”

You laughed slightly before agreeing with (B/F/N).

Kiyoko just huffed, “Of course the crazy girl who argued with a tree would take sides with the idiot who ran away from her soulmate until she was told she shouldn’t have.”

Both girls yelled a “hey!” back in shock.

“Well ladies,” Iwazumi spoke with a smile, “as much as I would love to see how this all plays out first hand, I too must get ready for your party Kiyoko, so I must ask that you argue about the fact that you will end up follow instruction while on your way to do so.” He ushered the three out the front door, before calling a final goodbye, “And maybe, don’t argue with any more trees along the way.”

He rushed himself to his restroom as soon as he latched the door shut behind them, splashing cold water on his face to calm his racing heart. What was going on with him to be acting so strangely?? He couldn’t figure it out.

Okay, here is part 1. Since I am on mobile, it stopped me at the 250 text blocks. Part 2 will be up shortly. And then any questions/comments/concerns/ideas are welcome as always.

Right as he thought he could get ready in peace after calming down, Oikawa called whining about something or another. Iwa decided to tease him a bit to get out of his own head and the insult about his voice had the intended affect.

Hajime was able to get ready at the speed of light after that.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hope yall enjoy.

[muggle-writes]

Happy Storyteller Saturday! What are some ways you organize your notes/writing thoughts?

thanks for asking! Sorry I'm answering late, I had a rough headache and tried to sleep it off for most of Saturday so it's like 2am Sunday now (3am when I finished because I'm tired enough to have very little filter which means it's ramble time) but I'm awake so I'm answering.

to be honest, it depends on where I am and whether I have free time where there's nothing else I "should" be doing.

if I'm out and about, or if I "should" be doing something else I'll be writing on my phone. usually with a program called Quip, occasionally with a program called Bookstack. I'm out at my QP's right now, and she and my wife are talking video games, and I don't have my laptop handy so I'm writing in Quip. it's kind of a dropbox/google docs alternative, and it has a not-terrible app. I sort everything into a personal writing folder (i used to use quip for other things too, which I kept in other folders since it has a decent checklist ability) and if I expect something to be a long story I'll create a folder for it and put different scenes in different documents in that folder. if I expect it to be short, I'll just create a document straight in the writing folder and hopefully remember to give it a descriptive name. If I'm intending to write something especially short and post it immediately, like this, I won't usually give it a title. sometimes this bites me in the butt but mostly it's fine. I write things in quip rather than directly in the tumblr editor for two related reasons: tumblr mobile has a really annoying habit of eating my longer posts instead of posting them. i haven't figured out if this is more related to the length of the text added, or the length of time I have the draft open. on top of that, if I type it in tumblr mobile and try to make a backup copy, the largest unit I can copy at a time is a paragraph, not the whole document, so it would be a hassle to copy out. often, for posts this long, I wind up copying in three or four paragraphs at a time, saving the draft again, and waiting for tomorrow to display my changes before I click edit draft and add another few. it's easier to copy text into tumblr than out of it

if I'm on bookstack (a mediocre Google docs/scrivener alternative but it's open source and my wife runs an instance so I've tried it out. among other problems, it doesn't have an app so I have to write through my mobile browser and I have to have internet. quip stores locally regardless and syncs with the internet when possible so I tend to use quip instead) When I'm using bookstack, I'm forced to use its organization system. broadest to narrowest categories: shelves books, chapters, pages. you can put pages directly into books, or into chapters. I usually use pages as scenes, and keep them sorted into chapters. in theory I like bookstack but it needs some major improvements (options for variable theme, offline mode, general mobile UI, etc) before I would actually recommend it.

If I have my laptop I occasionally write in bookstack but more often Microsoft Word (I got a free student copy when I was in college and whenever my current laptop dies I'm going to get Open Office or Libre Office instead rather than pay for Microsoft.)

I sort my writing into fanfiction and original works. there's very little in the original works side, sadly. Within fanfiction, since I generally publish to ao3 as I go, I separate it into folders incomplete and completed. within each, I sort it into fandoms, within incomplete, I then have a folder for each fic, and then documents titled "published" and "unpublished" within each. within completed, there's individual documents for each fic (equivalent to "published" within incomplete) I cut and paste things between documents, or move documents around as necessary

for editing, it's a different story:

in Word, if I'm writing a variant of a scene I've already written, and I want to keep the old one and decide later which one I like better, I'll strikethrough the old paragraph and write another. If I get several of these I'll color code the old scenes so I can tell which one's which (sometimes I reuse parts of sentences in like. 3/5 variants so they're usually intertwined. my drafts get colorful) If I'm going in a really drastically different direction, sometimes I'll create a new document and in the title describe what the difference is.

In Quip (actually, in bookstack too, when I'm on mobile, so probably it's just my phone keyboard not playing nice with long documents. somehow I never have the same issue when I'm writing directly in the tumblr app) if I try to select large sections and replace or delete them, it deletes significantly more than I want it to, probably twice as many characters? twice as many minus one? idk. if I'm not happy with something in quip, it's a little glitchy about strikethrough so I'll just put a few blank lines, a line of squiggles (~) and/or an all caps "ALTERNATELY" and another line break and then the replacement.

anyway. that's all for when I'm composing prose (or publishable poetry)

when I'm scribbling down notes to keep them because I'm plotting a longer story or because I want to write but don't have time, I'll open up one of the above programs (usually quip or word) and create a bullet point list of sentence fragments and notes. I put major points at the top level of bullet points, indent for the next level of detail under each one. the top level bullets are usually vaguely in chronologial (or storytelling) order, but flashbacks/"this sets up for..." often show up in the nested bullets.

If I have a really thorough outline, with a full sentence for every scene, in word I'll make a copy of the outline with a page break between each outline point, and then I'll skip around between scenes based on my inspiration and write the scenes in their corresponding place in the draft so that the end result is pretty effortlessly in order. (in bookstack, I'll create "pages" for each scene. in quip I put three or four line breaks between the scene prompts or occasionally split them into separate documents.)

[nikatyler]

I have three weeks to learn everything for my last exams. Am I dying already? Well, no, but actually, yes. I kinda wish we had less time because this way, I’m going to waste so much of it procrastinating.

But maybe now that I’ve told you, I’ll decide to not procrastinate so that you can be proud of me or something. Maybe I’ll show that I am in fact capable of character development. Idk.

Yeah, I’m losing my mind. Just a little bit.

By the way, anyone else feels dead inside after watching the new Game of Thrones episode? You know, in the first part, I literally forgot what I was watching because everyone was so happy and celebrating and all that and then I got a reminder. This show is going to be the death of me.

desira-sims replied to your photo “Before we get to the replies, I want to quickly address something. I’m...”

I feel ya on social media. I recently got rid of a mobile game and the associated fb pages I was in. I’m no longer constantly checking my phone for it. It’s been nice taking a break from that. Focus on school, since that’s the most important thing. Come find us when you need a breather. ��

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photo “Before we get to the replies, I want to quickly address something. I’m...”

Yes, social media are basically time-eaters who steal the time which could be spend on writing or simming. Recently I've unsubscribed from several Instagram pages dedicated to memes as they my flooded dash and I spent too much time on them. Last two days I've played TS3 world adventures on my laptop without internet connection and it was great

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photo “Before we get to the replies, I want to quickly address something. I’m...”

And I barely paid attention to tumblr as well recently... Well the weather is so great that it would be a crime to spend time onlineXD

Ooh boy, if I was able to get rid of all the memes pages I follow, I’d have so much free time on my hands. But also, I mean...memes.

As for social media, I wish I could deactivate my Facebook account. I really wish. But sadly, all the people I know irl are there. I have to stay there to keep in touch with them. We still share a lot of school stuff there, I’d be lost without it. But those are the only reasons I’m there, I never post on it anymore. I actually deleted most of my photos and old status updates and unfollowed most pages.

I’m going to repeat myself here but I’m so glad I got rid of Twitter. I loved it there, but at the same time, it fueled my negativity. Even when I found and muted or straight up unfollowed the biggest sources of it, I wasn’t happy. So I just stepped into the daylight and let it go and it was the best decision I could make. Even though now tumblr will probably have to deal with my random thoughts. I need to find a special tag for that. Not just “nonsims” or “saviorhide”. Maybe “simmeronnie is losing it again”.

whysimstho replied to your photoset “Isla Paradiso didn’t disappoint at all. It was everything I’ve ever...”

Skyporn 24/7 sounds like a radio station

Lmao you’re not wrong. Or it could be something like a stream where they only record videos of really really gorgeous sky. I’d watch that. Seriously, shut up and take my money. I could stare at pretty sky all day.

desira-sims replied to your post “List 5 facts about a favorite sim of yours, and send this to 10...”

I recently went back and started this legacy. (Just got to the Gen 5 switch). I think Rachel is absolutely adorable.

Ahh, no way! I hope you’re having fun even though it’s a total mess :D I have to agree though, I love Rachel, she’s awesome.

Watch out, tiny gen 4 rant coming. When I have nothing else to do and I feel inspired, I rewrite gen 4 because I love these characters and they deserve a way better story. I consider the stories they got in the legacy the first drafts/starting point/base or something like that. So in some way, most of this stays in the “new canon”, it’s just thought through better or changed a little bit.

Okay, that wasn’t really a rant but seriously, stop me whenever I seem like I’m about to start rambling about gen 4.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “List 5 facts about a favorite sim of yours, and send this to 10...”

Number 4 - high five, Zoey, same with me!XD

5 actually, too

Ah, yes, same. Number 4...oh god. Been there, sort of. Just because I’m crushing on a person doesn’t mean I imagine being with them in bed all the freaking time. *looks at a friend who loves to imply that...when I’m actually a small innocent child who only knows woohoo from the sims and I’m not ashamed to admit it*

whysimstho replied to your photoset “Regan: “Court! Finally! How was the flight?” Courtney: “Not bad. I...”

Why is her face so funny to me ��

Well, it is kinda funny :D

philodendronandfoxes replied to your post “So you’ve made posts in the past about how you’re lonely or feel alone...”

Anon needs to chill.

desira-sims replied to your post “So you’ve made posts in the past about how you’re lonely or feel alone...”

Don't let them get to you. Something I have learned as I've grown older: Hobbies come and go. One minute you'll find enjoyment in something and the next it doesn't hold the same appeal. Some times you'll come back to that hobby and some times you never pick it up again. Taking a break is something everyone needs. They even tell new parents to take a little "me time" so that they don't get overwhelmed. Taking a moment to collect yourself is understandable.

108sims replied to your post “So you’ve made posts in the past about how you’re lonely or feel alone...”

Taking breaks from tumblr is good for your sanity. I had to last month for the sake of my mental health I got stressed out falling behind here and dealing with job stuff. Just like for you with school, job takes priority over my blog. I’ve taken so many breaks, honestly it’s fun to enjoy other hobbies and do other things.

dandylion240 replied to your post “So you’ve made posts in the past about how you’re lonely or feel alone...”

RL should always take priority. Taking breaks and doing other things is healthy and good. Don't let this anon get to you or make you feel guilty.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “So you’ve made posts in the past about how you’re lonely or feel alone...”

Anon is strange - as if tumblr was the only life you've got and you have to stay here whenever you like it or not. Why read between the lines and find unexisting stuff there like you don't care about your followers? It comes without saying that a person needs breaks from the tumblr every now and then

But who knows probably the anon wanted only to provoke you to start our "favorite" drama. In this case they do need to find a life for themselves

Btw too - feeling lonely on tumblr also can be a reason for a hiatus, so anon makes no sense

So I kinda didn’t want to address this anymore because I feel like I’ve said everything in my lengthy answer to that ask but I just wanna say thank you for writing all of this. I didn’t feel bad when I got this, the anon didn’t change my opinion, I still believe everyone has the right to take a break, leave tumblr behind for a bit and not feel sorry about it. Take that me time and come back better than ever (or not if you don’t feel like, that’s fine too)! I was still worried about posting this answer though. So thank you for letting me know I’m not the only one who feels this way!

dandylion240 replied to your post “April 30, 2019: Dear Diary, I believe I’m a good person. You know, I...”

Congratulations and have fun with the last day! It'll be bittersweet knowing this may be the last time you'll all be together but it's exciting too because it marks a beginning of something new. So happy for you!

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “April 30, 2019: Dear Diary, I believe I’m a good person. You know, I...”

Congratulations and welcome to the "adult" life! Let this day be one of the brightest moments in your memory!

Now I'm feeling nostalgic, I'll go and look through my graduation album

108sims replied to your post “April 30, 2019: Dear Diary, I believe I’m a good person. You know, I...”

That sounds like a really fun way to spend your last day! At my school at least we had a Senior day where there were a bunch of games and activities. Good luck on your exams, and I hope you enjoy your last day and everything that is to come!

It was very fun and everyone looked so good in their costumes! One of my classmates wore this 20s-like dress and oooh boy. She was gorgeous. Just...leaving on that day was really bittersweet. Part of me was like “yas, we’re done with this place!” but the other part of me already missed it. And yeah, our teacher didn’t forget to remind us that all of us might never meet again. There are reunions, it’s a tradition, but there’s always someone who can’t come.

Okay, moving on or else I’ll start crying, and I’ve already cried a lot today. Looking at you, GoT episode 4.

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “Regan: “You made it! Nice. I’ve heard you almost threw up on the...”

i'm laughing at the two couples in the background, both flirting during this conversation

Oh god I didn’t realize how funny that looks :D I didn’t want them to just stand there haha.

dandylion240 replied to your photo “In Character Judgement Call: Caleb Protect this soft boy. RULES: You...”

I Caleb the most from gen 4

I know this is just missing a word and I shouldn’t laugh but it comes off kinda funny. Still, thank you!

dandylion240 replied to your photoset “Felix: “You look perfect. No, no, you are perfect. Some girls are...”

Despite his ability to burp at inappropriate times Felix can say the sweetest things

No sweeter words have ever been spoken about my boy

Also no truer words have ever been spoken about my boy

108sims replied to your post “I’m waiting for my exam (still have like 2 hours) and I’m bored. I...”

Good luck!

nineyellowgirl replied to your post “I’m waiting for my exam (still have like 2 hours) and I’m bored. I...”

keeping fingers crossed :D

desira-sims replied to your post “I’m waiting for my exam (still have like 2 hours) and I’m bored. I...”

Good luck on you exam!

Thank you guys! The results should come on May 15th. Wish it was that day already. I think I did well, but I won’t be calm until I actually see it.

harmoniouspixels replied to your post “One day, I’ll have a nice tiny mods folder again. Today is not that...”

The TS4 community needs to come up with a Compressorizer like TS2 and TS3 has tbh

Yeah that would be nice. TS4 needs a lot of things in general though, to be fair.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “Hmm...”

Hm the thing I do plan something with berries and I need a spouse for my founder which I don't want to create myself... Sooo... Yeah, I could use a sim ��

flowerhoneysims replied to your post “Hmm...”

@simmeronnie But it‘s another kind of pink ☺️

Alright guys, I have an idea. Shoot me a message and we can talk about it! I’m down for this. Here’s just a brief description of everyone I can offer (in case someone else would like a sim and would like to know what they’re signing up for), we can talk more in depth in the messages later. I have one mean pink girl who loves robots, then this one that I’ve shown (she doesn’t have too much personality yet, but she hates her other sister and loves videogames), an agender person with pink skin, white hair and white eyes (loves animals and is the total opposite of their mean twinsister - and yet they’re still best friends somehow) and one pink boy with white eyes who just aged up into a child so I have no idea what he’s going to be like yet. I just remember he got the No Sense of Humor trait.

Can I have a wish though? If I send you one of these sims, would you please share with me the sim they end up with? I would love for them to get together in my game as well.

Side note, can you already tell my bpr is going to be a bigger mess than all my other legacies combined?

lyrea replied to your photoset “Okay, clearly he didn’t ruin all the traditions. Crisis averted.”

^_^ That is an impressive cake they got.

Oh, it is! I’m not sure now, but it might be the one that came with Monte Vista?

[brandnewdress]

rep room story

Some of you have asked for this, but I’m writing it mostly for my self while it’s still relatively fresh in my mind so I’m putting it under the cut in case you don’t want to see (and i get that ;) ) also... sorry if you’re on mobile... it did get a little long... ANYWAY:

I obviously always wanted to meet Taylor, I mean who wouldn’t right?! but I never ever expected it to happen to me so, while always having SOME hope that you just NEVER KNOW what might happen, I pretty much accepted that I probably never would. (But the funny thing is I read my June horoscope just in case and it said my lucky day will be June 8th....how did they know 👀👀👀)

Now flash forward to Wednesday the 6th of June, I was sitting in my room studying for my exams and eating lunch when I decided to take a break (probably after 5 minutes of work) I checked tumblr and saw that I had a new message, I thought ‘oh someone probably wants me to reblog their post, let’s see’ BUT NO it was taylornation: CONFINDENTIAL MESSAGE I couldn’t believe it?!?!! And I really do mean it when I say I locked my phone, threw it across the room and then dropped to the ground shaking like?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN TAYLOR NATION

I got my phone back and actually read the message but first I checked at least 10 times that that IS actually Taylor nation and not just someone with a very similar looking url trying to murder me. When I realised that it REALLY WAS THEM I replied to their message and pretty much immediately got a call from a New York number. I was still in shock so I don’t even think I sounded excited the Taylor nation lady (I think it was Erica) was like ‘...you okay?’ ANYWAY she told me what I need to do on the day, and asked if I wanted to bring anyone as a plus one (but I thought that it had to be someone sitting next to you so I said no, apparently it doesn’t!) I wrote all of this down on a post it note while she was speaking because I forgot pretty much the entire conversation as soon as it was done 😭

After that I couldn’t possibly do anything. I couldn’t eat I couldn’t study I just sat in my room staring into space for the rest of the day (and pretty much all of the next) so if I fail my exams I’m officially blaming Taylor 😛 I’m a really paranoid person so I couldn’t help but feel like I’d get to the box office and they’d be like ‘uhhh??? you’re not on the list FOOL go away’

Anyway I had some fun making and reblogging ‘which one of you snakes knows they’re meeting Taylor on Friday? 👀’ posts ;) on Friday I left my house at 8:30 to catch my train to Manchester it was departing from platform 13 😭😭😭 I cant even really remember what I did when I got to Manchester but suddenly it was 3:40 and I had to leave my hotel...

I got to the box office a little after 4 and then after a few minutes I got the envelope with my name on it with the rep room pass inside 😭 that’s when it hit me that THE Taylor swift wanted to meet ME?! For WHAT reason?! It said we had to wait until 5:45 and it was only a little after 4 so I sat around...waiting...still pretending (very well) that I’m not about to meet her.

NOW it was time to line up we were behind some gate or something and they put meet and greet wrist bands on our wrists (where else 🙄) and then we had to wait a little longer THEN when they opened the gate thing the rep room entrance was just THERE?!?! it was such a surreal experience the lwymmd throne, the delicate dress! It was all there!!!

And Taylor right behind the curtain 😭 I stood near the back of the queue because I just really wasn’t READY, you know... I could hear her voice and it sounded so different than what you’d expect deeper maybe?

We didn’t have much time with her so after a few minutes it was MY turn. I walked in and as soon as I did she said ‘YOU’RE SO TALL!!! OMG!!!!’ and NOTHING can prepare you for how gorgeous she is in real life I wanted to speak but I just couldn’t so I just looked at her and flailed my arms a little and she looked at me with this huge smile on her face... and then she HUGGED me real tight and she smells amazing and she’s SO warm and soft 😭

I still couldn’t find my words so I stood around for a few more seconds and I didn’t want them to kick me out so I said I LOVE YOU and she said ‘I love you too, you’re so sweet!’ hHahhahh alright Taylor that’s when I said I need to ask her an important question so I said ‘what’s your favourite song on melodrama’ and she said ‘oh...I don’t have one’ and I said ‘but you have to’ and she was like ‘no I don’t...;) you can’t have just one it’s a sonic journey’ and I know she was going to say something else but I had more questions and cut her off with ‘do you like pineapple on pizza’ and she said ‘...I actually don’t... but we don’t need to like the same pizza to get along, alright?’ 😭 and then I kept like reaching out to hug her again but I didn’t want to be weird so I asked her at least twice more if I could hug her and she said ‘OF COURSE you’re so sweet’ SHUT UP TAYLOR😭

That’s when she asked me if she can take a picture with me and I said NO 😂 and she laughed (WHAT A BEAUTIFUL SOUND) anyway she said ‘the flash is REALLY bright like REALLY BRIGHT’ and then she pulled me into another hug she literally pressed her face right up again mine which is why my glasses look like they’re about to fall off my face. Anyway the flash WAS really bright so I said ‘wow that really was bright’ and she said ‘yeah! I warned you!!!!!’ And then it was time for me to go 😩😭 so she called me sweet and cute again I hugged her AGAIN and she said ‘thank you for coming to see me!!!! See you at the show!!!!’

I LOVE HER SO MUCH WHAT THE FUCK!!! and the show was absolutely AMAZING she’s brilliant

Anyway June 8th was officially the best day of my life (and I hope none of you read all of this because 😬) Taylor REALLY is trying her best to meet as many of us as possible

[feynites]

(1/2) omg I have to tell you that I just came across your tumblr post about "Evil Chancellor Traytor" & it made me laugh so hard and reminded me so much of my own childhood in which me & my sister had all kinds of elaborate characters for our society of toys (including one of my mom's old Barbies from the 60's whose hands had been chewed by mice in my grandmother's attic) & my little brother also used to follow our stories-anyway the point is! What you wrote was hilarious & I would totally...

(2/2) ... read more tales from your society of childhood toys! It was hilarious and awesome! Also you seem really cool! Ok that is all! :)

-

Thank you!! X3

Having siblings you get along with seems to be a real boon on this front, it seems - lots of energy to bounce off of, and someone to consistently share and re-tell all the stories with. 

We played a ton of games, although probably none as easily summarized in an entertaining short story as Evil Chancellor Traytor. But. Lemme see... uhm... oh! Okay, we can try the story of the king who was friends with him. King Bazooka.

To begin, we’ll need context. One of the major sources of toys when my siblings and I were a bit younger was the local convenience store (which my dad ran... into the ground). But, while it was around, it had a selection of cheap plastic action figures. Which we could acquire at-cost, and so, we had plenty of them ourselves. This is where we got our cheap Power Rangers knock-off toys (one of which would eventually become the king mentioned in Traytor’s story).

For reference, they looked like this:

There were a few basic models, all of them very ripped, in a variety of colours ranging from the above yellow and red, to blue and pink and white and black and so on and so forth. Their limbs could move and their knees could bend, and their feet and hands could also be rearranged to some extent (I think, maybe not the hands) but they weren’t exactly durable, so their limbs popped off pretty regularly.

Anyway, we had a veritable army of these toys, but also something of a problem with them at first. See, my sister and I were both girls, but none of the models for these toys came with the usual, y’know, curvy boob-and-hips figure that would typically denote them as women. There were pink ones, and of course we were well familiar with the concept that pink = girl, but the pink Ranger Warriors were also savagely ripped. But we didn’t want to have an army of all boys, how would we apply our usual range of soap opera cliches? Who would get unexpectedly pregnant or engaged? In space?

The solution came by way of a library book about female body building, that I had semi-recently discovered and quickly recollected. I, in all my worldly older sister glory, asserted that these toys were totally capable of being women, they were just really muscular women. Skepticism was expressed by my younger brother and sister. The Book was called for. A magazine was acquired instead. Images were found of ripped lady body builders, and scrutinized for accuracy.

Skepticism was retracted. It was agreed that this solution worked, and that, in the tradition set before us by the Power Rangers television show, all pink and yellow versions of the toys (and any others we considered suitably effeminate for some reason or another, but definitely those ones) were The Girl Ones. Dilemma resolved, we immediately set about playing with them, of course, and constructing stories around them and incorporating them into our existing populace of toys. We discovered some neat stuff about these action figures. One was that their hands could hold onto stuff pretty well, and were quite suited to dangling them off of lines and chords and the attachments for blinds and tying them to strings and whipping them around like helicopters. ‘Space exploration’ required a lot of this. Of course, this also meant that our most intrepid heroes tended to be the ones who suffered injuries like ‘lost thumb’, and ‘severed limb’, and ‘complete dismemberment’. 

Most of the time, though, when something broke, it could be popped back into place. Thumbs, torsos, and heads were the general exception to this, I seem to recall. But every so often the ball that locked into the socket for a limb’s joint would also break, rather than just popping loose, and then the only hope was glue (which would reattach the limb, but also result in ‘mobility issues’ where it couldn’t move around at all).

So... in essence, we had an army of space-faring disabled gender non-conforming lady bodybuilders, and their brothers/husbands/boyfriends/etc, protecting the universe. We developed ridiculously deep attachments to some of these toys, with all their wonky limbs and wobbly knees and scratched paint, and we’d do our best to keep them away from the dog (but the dog didn’t go for them too often, because the plastic was too hard), and also any adults who might throw them away.

Eventually, though, the convenience store closed, and we no longer had easy access to new Ranger Warriors, or even the option of replacing ones who got too damaged to keep playing with. So my sister and I determined that it was time for our space adventurers to retire. No more whipping them down staircases or tying them to fan blades. They became Space Veterans, who would walk among the populace of other toys, and recount gruesome war stories and endure PTSD flashbacks and sometimes sit outside the tavern, drinking and looking up at the stars. Wistful, but by and large also resigned to the fact that their space exploration days were done, and they had other things to do. Quieter lives to get on with.

All but one.

Bazooka.

See, each Ranger Warrior was named after some kind of weapon. Names ranged from the creatively-dubbed ‘Gun’, to stuff like ‘Scythe’ or ‘Artillery’. The last Ranger Warrior we got before the store went under was a red and silver one, and by then most of the standard names were taken, so we dubbed him ‘Bazooka’. With a name like that, it was possibly inevitable that he was kind of an over-dramatic hothead.

But Bazooka had no battle scars, no lost or broken limbs. He had barely gotten a chance to fight in the Space Wars before his unit was recalled, and the peace treaties were signed. His older sister had a medal of Highest Honours, and had lost mobility in both of her arms, and could tell tall tales about the days when her unit would wade through alien wilds on daring missions. Bazooka was still pretty fresh. Signing up was supposed to be his chance for glory, his chance to prove himself! But instead, he had been washed out with all the old-timers, too.

Even though our space heroes might have retired, though, not all of their enemies did. One of the treaties signed granted an embassy to the Happy Meal Barbies. Twin sisters, forever rooted in place against plastic stands, with eerily off-model eyes. One of them had a bicycle prop, but neither of them could actually move off of their stands, because they were actually alien shapeshifters who had... misunderstood some images of humans, before they ‘locked in’ their final forms and found themselves stuck with them. So one just had this bike, fused to her, that she never rode, and that was technically part of her body. The other I don’t recollect as vividly.

Anyway, they were evil, like genuinely to the bone evil, but also sometimes sympathetic because one of them was part bike. And so of course when the dog claimed the old king, they hatched a scheme to become the Queens of Action Figure Dystopia.

The details of that particular adventure are lost to the sands of time. What is known, though, is that it involved a lot of hexes, and a giant purple marble called The Esper, and when all was said and done the twins only managed to be queens for a short period of time before they were overthrown. In a scene ripped straight from The Transformers Movie (the old cartoon one, not the Michael Bay stuff that was nowhere to be seen yet), Bazooka touched The Esper and ended up becoming the next king by way of ancient whatsits and magical such-and-such, regardless of his appalling lack of actual qualifications. All hail the new king!

He sucked at it. For a long time. The theme of ‘Bazooka has no goddamn idea what he’s doing’ was a pretty substantial one, in my memory, but it probably only lasted for a few days before he started getting his shit in gear and tried to solve problems with methods that did not require explosives. And he earned the friendship of his Evil Chancellor, who he would come to trust above all others and would not stand to hear besmirched (of course, to most other people’s eyes, this just looked like a resilient strain of his incompetence, and general opinion was that Bazooka was well-meaning-but-dim, and Evil Chancellor Traytor was... well... evil).

By the time Traytor died, Bazooka was among the last of the remaining Ranger Warriors. Many had been thrown out by then, culled in an effort to curtail our childish messes because, of course, nearly all of them were visibly broken in some way. Others had been misplaced or destroyed in any number of ways. Bazooka’s sister was long gone, and so were my two favourites, and pretty much it was just down to the king, who had grown weary even if his parts still moved and his armour was unscratched. The deaths of so many of his friends and loved ones weighed upon him. In his way, he had always been separate from them, always straddled a divide as someone not quite a veteran, not quite a hero, not quite a politician. He never really achieved any of the greatness he sought. Only the wisdom to realize that this greatness had probably never existed in the first place.

When he buried himself in Traytor’s name, it was, in many respects, the final chapter of the space heroes’ saga. In the end, few of them met happy fates. But while they were around, they witnessed the cosmos from the edge of spinning fan blades, and got possessed by alien brain worms who made them try to drown their best friends in the kitchen sink, and found out that they were secretly half snake alien and had mental breakdowns over it, and maintained orbital facilities in obscure parts of space where the only company they had for months at a time was the voice on the other side of a quantum transmission, and even became royalty (a few times).

So, as a toy’s existence might go, none of them did too badly, either.

[aceofaces20]

What would be a valid thing to submit as evidence for adhd? I feel like my teachers never noticed anything, all it ever says on my report is 'quiet', and im in the uk and you need school reports for diagnosis, and i feel like i wont be taken seriously cos they dont say 'bouncing off the walls' or something

I feel you, nonny. I wasn’t diagnosed until college because I was just “quiet.”

Odds are, if a lot of the symptoms add up enough to make you SUSPECT you have ADHD, you probably have it. But more research is always good!

So like many things, ADHD is a spectrum. The two ends of it are Inattentive to Hyperactive- and then you have people like me, in the middle, with the Combined version. Some people have more Inattentive than Hyperactive, some have more Hyperactive than Inattentive. Everyone who has ADHD experiences the symptoms a little differently.

You can find about six thousand symptoms lists online, but here I’ll tell you things that usually don’t end up on those lists that my therapist told me a lot of her patients ended up experiencing aside from listed symptoms.

(Note: Initially I tried to keep these short. Yeah, that didn’t work. I bolded the important parts.)

1. Insomnia, or at least a super screwy sleep schedule. No joke, this can be super detrimental and will only serve to exacerbate your symptoms. “Just set a sleep schedule!! You’ll feel better!” they all say- Thanks Barbara if I had any control over when my brain chooses to sleep at all I wouldn’t have this issue, ok?

-a solution to this is to, in all actuality, condition yourself. Start ONLY using your bed for sleep. Get a little chair or something in your room if you’re also a hermit like I was growing up (mushroom chairs are gr9) and once you get out of bed, don’t let yourself get back on it for more than a few minutes unless you’re going to sleep.

Some nights it’s not enough, but in general for me personally this has been an actual lifesaver- I can go from being not tired to exhausted at the drop of a hat in normal life anyway (another symptom they don’t usually tell you about) so it’s nice to be able to make it work for me for once- I get into bed, maybe spend 30 minutes restless and then I’m out.

2. On the subject of sleep. You kids ever heard of the sleep of the dead? Because guess what, I have ignored literal fire alarms in dorms because of it. About 1-2 hours into my sleep I enter a state akin to a bear hibernating. I have slept through wake-up alarms, slept through emergency alerts, slept through FIRE alarms, slept though friends and family attempting to wake me… you get the picture.

3. On the note of the hibernating bear. You constantly wake up angry (or at least disgruntled) at the universe and take a really, really long time to power on. No, I’m not talking “a case of the mornings.” I’m talking it takes me until noon some days to actually feel somewhat alert. I’m talking feeling nothing but seething rage at anyone who tries to engage you in higher brain function before you’re fully awake.-the seething rage is more personal to me, but, every single last one of my friends who’s ADHD has issues getting up in the morning. There’s hating mornings, and then there’s hating mornings.

4. About mornings. You’re constantly late to anything in the morning because you just couldn’t “get going.” i.e., you knew and 100% wanted to get up and get moving but your brain said “nah, let’s just sit here on tumblr mobile for a while k?”-it’s very difficult to describe this part of executive dysfunction with words, because it comes off as laziness to a lot of neurotypicals. It’s not laziness. It’s having the motivation and and will and the drive to do something and not forgetting about it and it still doesn’t get done.

“Why didn’t you do x?” they’ll ask. And you just sit there thinking shit, you meant to, really, honest to god meant to, it was on your brain to do and yet all you could actually do that day was sit around and watch terrible TV. And then you feel terrible because YOU think you’re lazy.It’s not laziness. It’s executive dysfunction.

5. Another not so well known EXDYF fact: Mental math or memorization for you will always be the literal bane of your existence. Teachers always told me I was a “smart kid” in school (I am, but not the point) and then they’d wonder why I couldn’t memorize a five line poem.

Or I’d start off with a 60 on a math test, until my teacher would comb through my work by hand (only useful math teacher I ever had in high school tbh) and I’d end up with a 92 because nearly all of my mistakes involved basic arithmetic errors. Even though I was able to use a calculator on the test.

(One time I decided 21-19=14. To this day 8 years later I still do not know from what abyss my brain pulled that info from.)

“You’re smart! Just focus!” I can’t choose what my brain decides to focus on that easily, Sharon, not without a lot of crying and panicking.

6. But wait! You say. I have really obscure information from a fandom that I can infodump on someone at a moment’s notice! Surely that means I’m just Lazy and Unmotivated, right? I guess I just can’t be bothered to memorize the important stuff.

*Loud buzzer noise* Stop right there. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

I will take you by the shoulders and look deep into your eyes and make you realize that guess what? If you have an ADHD brain, you have NO control over telling your brain what is important and what is not. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Your brain decides, and you usually get no say in the matter.

This sounds bad, I know. And in terms of school, birthdays, appointments, it’s terrible. But you’re not helpless. It sounds trite, but, get a good goddamn calendar app on your phone and use the hell out of it for appointments and birthdays. And for school? Find those fandoms and use mnemonics. No, seriously.

7. Also on school: You procrastinate the hell out of everything. And I’m not talking normal “haha I’ll do it later!” procrastination. I’m talking serious, problematic, REPEATED “why the fuck can’t I just do it on time like a normal person” procrastination where you start blaming yourself for not doing it sooner like a neurotypical.

Listen, buddy ol’ pal (or however that goes), you’re not neurotypical. But listen- there’s actually a medical reason why you do this.

So everyone’s brains have reward systems, right? Your brain gives you the feel good when you do something you think you should. And later, a brain remembers that it got the feel good for doing the thingy thing.

In a brain with ADHD, that reward system malfunctions. Sometimes critically. Your brain chucks so much stuff it deems “unnecessary” out the window it chucked out that feel good you got when you turned in that homework on time, or cleaned out your car, or did some pilates for 30 minutes.

8. You want to know what doesn’t help with number 7 there? Another thing that won’t show up on symptom lists but that virtually everyone I know with ADHD (quite a few, actually. Turns out we hang out in packs because we’re usually the only people who can understand each other) about ADHD is how daunting large tasks or projects seem to an ADHDer.

So listen, more medical talk here. Remember that EXDYF thing? Yeah, this is part of that.

EXDYF makes it very, very hard (almost impossible, sometimes) to break down large tasks into smaller, more feasible tasks. You get nervous the longer you put off that paper (“this isn’t something you can spit out overnight!”) You’ve been sitting in front of your computer for hours, and the only word you have written down is “The”.

Honestly, I’m not sure why it’s actually super hard to break down large undertakings into smaller tasks for the ADHD brain. But! Solution.

-if you’re having a problem breaking down ANY sort of task, I promise there’s someone else who’s done it online.

Need to write a paper? Use a template. Need to clean out your car? Find a checklist, or have a friend make you one (cause Lord knows I can’t make one on my own). Need to make a presentation? Find a sample one online. Hell, this even works for taxes. (Gasp!)

Do NOT be afraid to ask for help with even personal large undertakings. If your friends are actually your friends, then they’ll relish the chance. Especially when you can turn around and blaze through a quarter of the important project you two (or however many) have due next week in four hours because of hyperfocus.

9. So, your focus. Totally trash, right? That is, until you hyperfocus.

Hyperfocus, to a neurotypical, probably sounds great. Tune out all distractions and get shit done, right?

Sure, Linda, if you can call being able to ignore things like the need to sleep, eat, and use the bathroom “tuning out distractions.” Time becomes a literal illusion. And damn do you pay for it later by your brain not wanting to do anything at all.

On the flip side, this is why ADHD people make fantastic emergency workers like EMTs and firepeople. If you learn what to do with adrenaline when you start feeling it, you feel like you could punch Satan himself when you’re riding an adrenaline+hyperfocus high. Combine that with the fast-paced, unexpected nature of such jobs and and you have a happy ADHD brain because it’s never bored.

10. Because boredom feels like death. No, Cheryl, I’m not being overdramatic. Yes, Becky, I recognize everyone has to deal with boredom.

A neurotypical’s boredom and an ADHDer’s boredom are two very different levels of boredom. Ever heard the phrase “bored to tears”? Now imagine every time you get even a little bored, it’s like this.

And of course, the ADHD hell brain remembers the bad feels of being bored but can’t recall how nice it was to remember all of the answers on a quiz that one time you paid attention in class.This is why I have the worst problems doing homework and housework, or in general anything with serious repetition (exercise, cooking, driving, tidying up etc.). I can do it for maybe 10-15 minutes, and then my brain’s like “k I’m good. Next source of input please?” like, brain, I’m only like 3 feet into washing the kitchen floor. P l s.

11. Speaking of tears. Has rejection by someone you value ever felt like you wanted to quit existing on the spot, or at the very least wanted to move to an ice cave in Greenland and cry for the rest of your life? Even if the rejection was just perceived rejection and your friend was just expressing grumpiness at something else?

Even if your logic says “they didn’t reject you calm down you’re overreacting?”

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria. It’s a newer term, but honestly, once I found out about my own ADHD and this bitch of a symptom a loooooooot of my weird habits started making a lot of sense in my head.

It doesn’t have to be actual “rejection”. It can get set off from stuff like awkwardness (hence my personal resistance to making Adult Phone Calls) to disbelief (a huge, huge reason so many people go undiagnosed), to personal judgment and/or criticisms (oh, ok… I guess I’ll never mention my love for X ever again) to even just indifference (no one noticed I mopped all the floors in the house… guess I’ll just go die!).

Basically, if you perceive that someone you care about has dismissed you in some fashion, you literally just want to quit existing. On the spot. Because the feeling of it makes you feel sick, your chest gets tight, you can feel it in your hands, and it makes the rest of your day miserable.This variant is more likely with people you care about, but can definitely 100% happen with strangers too.

Another variant is this: if you perceive that someone (whether you care about them or not) has dismissed you in some fashion, your first instinct is to attempt to disregard and discard them completely. It usually doesn’t work like you want it to.

I’m pretty sure this is another reason why ADHD people hang out in packs. We always have a line in our head we’re terrified to cross with our friends. It makes us seem like we’re emotionally unavailable- but in reality we’re just terrified of being dismissed by our friends for showing our true geeky, infodumping, hyperfixating selves.

(Listen. If a friend mocks you for your true self they weren’t your friend in the first place.)

12. But in terms of crossing that line… Social cues? What are social cues?

Normal people can infer a lot from body language. With a lot of ADHD people, we tend not to notice. Or we notice too much and overanalyze. There’s no in between.

On a side note, your best bet for flirting successfully with an ADHDer is to just come out and say it. (Talk like an elcor. “Flirtatiously: I want to hear more.” or whatever innocent phrase it is you’re using to flirt. If they’re into Mass Effect, this will make them laugh, which means bonus points for you in their eyes.)But seriously, unless you’re making obviously romantic overtures we’re usually pretty sure you’re just being nice.

Back on topic: lack of social ability is a massive, massive reason people with ADHD are usually bullied growing up. If there aren’t any other ADHD people around, it usually feels like no one “gets” you. I was bullied horribly enough during junior high and high school to the point where I still have to repress the urge to automatically assume someone being nice to me means they’re plotting something behind my back. (Didn’t help that my hs was basically the Korriban Sith academy without most of the death. Culty, religious, nepotism ran rampant.)

13. Woe betide thee who angers the ADHD. It's not a problem with everyone, but... We’re like volcanoes. Awe-inspiring to watch in action, but God help you if we explode in your direction. And if it’s righteous anger there is almost literally no stopping us.

Anger has its uses. Our problem is that, like a volcano, we always have a lot simmering under the surface. We tend to hold onto it for ridiculous amounts of time until one day, boom. Yeah, I know, Kathy, that happens with everyone. Delayed gratification and all. The difference with ADHDers is that we usually don’t wait.

ADHDers’ anger will come out initially, because we can’t suppress it. We’re impulsive as fuck. We don’t think before we leap (our brains probably wouldn’t let us anyway). And it will seem like we are flying off the handle for no reason whatsoever. But we also have a tendency to unhealthily hold onto it afterwards even once the initial burst has happened. It’s like a (bad!) positive feedback loop.

14. Gotta bounce the leg. Gotta rock. Gotta fidget. Shit, I’m sorry, were you talking?

So one time I made it through 40 minutes of a math class actively suppressing the urge to bounce my leg… and then my leg twitched of its own accord. Freaky as shit, 0/10 recommend.

Sitting still is physically impossible for me, and for a lot of ADHDers. Lack of impulse control + lack of social cue knowledge + lack of ability to decide what’s important to our brains = Fidget fidget. Fidget fidget. Twitch. Fiddle with paper. Hey, my backpack has a fun texture by the zipper. Oh my God, that lady on the TV is wearing the best shade of blue ever! I wonder where she got it. Shit, I need to go shopping. Wait, why did I need to go shopping again?

“Hey I asked you what you got for number 7.”

Fuck.

15. Depressive episodes. For me, these usually happen after a major hyperfocus where I taxed my brain for all it was worth, especially for long periods of time.

If it lasts for a long time or starts seriously affecting your life, get it checked out. If your doctor gives a damn they’ll be happy you came in to get it checked, even if it was the wrong diagnosis, because if it had been then at least they were there to help you. And they’ll always be happy to sit down and figure out what’s wrong. I know they have to watch out for hypochondriacs and whatnot. But if a doctor really cares about helping people they’ll listen when you say something’s wrong, because they know that you’re the one in your skin, not them. Which means if you really think something might be wrong, something probably is.

More evidence: justexecutivedysfunctionthings here on tumblr. Contains people’s experiences with EXDYF, which is a huge red flag for ADHD.

The Wikipedia article on the subject. There’s a nicely organized chart. (Or at least there was when I looked at it.) Remember, you don’t have to identify with all of the symptoms to be ADHD. Even if you only identify with a few, if they’re significant enough that they are seriously impacting your life and existence, it’s worth getting checked out.

I may add more to this later/change some stuff as my memory allows.

[askluxnovalibra]

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-What can we ask about? 🤔 Anything really. The most common asks I get are about compatibility and placement descriptions. If you need advice or to rant, I will always try to help you out or send you a link to someone who can.

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🔎🔎🔎 ***Want a better and deeper insight into compatibility? Do a synastry chart. A synastry chart takes you and your partners’ chart and overlays them together. Your planets will aspect theirs and your planets will fall into their houses & vice versa. These aspects and placements will tell you how you will interact, get along, and how you work together. You can calculate your synastry chart on astro-charts.com or astro.com or any astro site you trust. How do you read a synastry chart? It would be very hard for me to explain it step by step as I don’t do a lot of synastry. There are many resources online that tell you exactly what aspects and placements mean what. Have your venus sextile your partner’s mars? Type in “venus sextile mars synastry” into google and stuff will come up.

***** please note, I do not do synastry, so I can't help very much

-My crush smiled at me in the hall last year but hasn’t talked to me since. Do they love me or not? What are they thinking? 🤔❤️🔎 I don’t know. I do not know you or your crush personally. It’s important to remember that most crushes are just that, crushes. It’s best not to spend too much time worrying about them. For most people, crushes don’t last more than a few months, if that. As an air dom with a Scorpio venus, I hardly ever have crushes and so when I see a lot of people obsessing over them, I usually will give you an honest answer. That being said, it’s totally ok to ask for advice. I’m never going to chew you out or call you stupid for liking someone. It’s natural. It’s a part of life. I’m just saying, crushes are not going to make or break you. They’re not the end of the world. What will happen will happen. I only say this because I know how you feel and I try to tell you the things I wish someone told me when I was younger. In fact, most of the advice I give is based on what a younger me would need to hear.

-Is it ok to message you for advice? What do people message you about?📨📬 Sure, I get a few private messages about people wanting insights about crushes / situations / placements and I try my best to help.

-Are there any kinds of private messages you don’t like?📭💣 I generally respond to everything

-Do you answer some asks before others? 🔢🔝 Most of the time my inbox isn’t that full (RIP the blogs that have 50+ lol) so I try to answer them all as fast as I can. Usually I answer chronologically (first ask gets answered first). If a question is simpler, I’ll try to get those out of the way. Complex questions take longer because I need to think about them and look up info as needed. Lately, anon compatibility gets answered last. I am more likely to answer non-anon asks a little faster, especially if you’re following me @luxnovalibra (you don’t have to follow @askluxnovalibra). Why? Because I don’t like when anons copy and paste compatibility q’s into 20 astro blogs’ boxes. It’s a bit disheartening because usually it’s just people who don’t care enough to look into astrology at all, and send in their crush-of-the-week’s placements. But don’t worry sending anons is perfectly fine! I totally understand being shy, or even because you don’t your main blog to pop up or because you’re not a full-time astro blog or whatever the reason. I get it, and I send anons sometimes too. And don’t worry if you’ve sent multiple blogs the same ask to get another opinion. Usually we can tell who’s just copy and pasting and who wants to learn. Pro tip for sending asks to other blogs: it helps if you say hi and/or mention something specific you like about their blog not just ‘compatibility xyz love ur blog.’ “Thank yous’ and polite feedback are nice too. Remember most of us are just teenagers that don’t get paid and genuinely want to help and learn together. To put it short, most asks get answered in 6 days or less

-Why do you add so many links?📚 I’m an air dominant lol I like to know things. It’s because I want to help and sometimes links are the best way to go. If I don’t know a lot about something off the top of my head, I’ll give you links and references. I get most of them from tumblr and a simple google search. Links aren’t mean to scare you, they’re there for deeper insight. I learn best with specific examples and links provide that. I give multiples because everyone has a different preference for writing style and multiples increases the chance of you understanding something and relating to something. Also, sometimes I’ll add them if the asker doesn’t specify if they want my personal opinion or a more general description.

-What if I ask about something you don’t know about? 🤷🏻‍♀️🕵🏻‍♀️ I will give you my best guess but admit that I don’t know a lot about that subject. I assume you don’t want a random answer and I don’t want to give one. Expect links or I’ll send you to someone who might be able to help

-What if I don’t agree with your opinion or your interpretation? 🙅🏻🙎🏻 That’s fine, I don’t expect you to agree with me all the time, that’s why it’s my opinion/interpretation. I’m still learning everyday. I’m not a professional. I’ll make mistakes. It’s all a part of the process.

//////////// Personal-ish Stuff:

-What are your placements? ☀️🌙💫 Libra sun 6th, Libra moon 6th, Taurus rising, Virgo mercury 6th, Sag mars 7th, Scorpio venus 7th, Cap neptune 10th, Aqua jupiter 10th, Aqua uranus 10th, Aries saturn 12th, Sag Pluto 7th, Virgo north node 5th, Cap MC, Virgo lilith 5th, Virgo juno 5th

About Me My Chart My Placements

-What are your dominants? 👁 Libra & Virgo especially. Then Capricorn, Taurus, Sag, Scorpio, and Aqua. My planets differ based on the calculator but usually I go by Mercury, Venus, Uranus, Pluto, and moon. Air and earth. Cardinal.

-How long have you been studying astrology? ✏️📓 I just found out I made my blog on May 8, 2016, so since about then. I got into it because of the memes and stayed when I realized there was so much more than your sun sign. It’s more of a hobby for me than a full-time study. I mostly learn through tumblr and google. I never want to intimidate or scare anyone away from it. When I first started, I didn’t know all 12 signs let alone their order. Even now, I still have a lot to learn but I think I’ve come a long way 😊

-Do you use desktop or mobile? 🖥📱 I use mobile 99% of the time. That’s why I make a lot of typos lmao usually I answer asks on the iPad and it lags a lot so expect typos and weird wording. Trust me, it hurts my Virgo and air placements way more than it hurts you

-Is this your main blog? Technically my main is @erinwriting so all likes, follows, replies, asks show up as that blog. The blog I use the most is my astro blog @luxnovalibra . I’m also @falling-for-the-winchesters and my tarot blog @queenofswordstarot

-Can we ask personal questions about you or your experience? 😁 Sure! It’s easier for me to talk about myself if someone asks rather than me coming right out and saying it (my air dom lol). If I don’t feel comfortable answering, I’ll say so, no hard feelings. Or if I can better answer you privately, I will

-Age/Gender/Name/Location 🎂🚺 20, Female, Erin, USA

-Are you in school? 🏫 I go to college for art

-Do you have any hobbies? 💡 Art & photography, reading, writing, astrology, tarot, camping, listening to music

[kusunokihime-a]

OKAY rant part two time for @littlelilypetal – this time about the more general plot of Arc Three because...reasons.

Also small disclaimer AGAIN for anyone else who pops in here, curious: this is from a fic written from a verse I wrote with two friends LONG before I joined Tumblr. It was written over literally hundreds of pages (I have the threads saved don’t try me boi, and the fic itself is 300,000 words and counting), and it’s very dear to me. It’s nothing that has to happen here, but it’s still a thing, and any whining about OC x Canon pairings will be met with fingers in my ears going lalala can’t hear you.

SO. Small disclaimer: this first part here is still a bit of a WIP, as my original draft had a plot hole in it. This is my attempt at fixing it xD

Arc three starts technically before the end of Shippuden, aka before Sasuke leaves. Ryū ends up going with him to raid Obito's old lab to make sure all the Uchiha bodies and parts are properly disposed of or buried. Among them is Itachi's body.

Now, Ryū at this point already has Itachi's permission to resurrect him (as noted in the other rant lol - he’s gotta come back and clean up his mess, and take care of his kids), she just doesn't have the means how, as she's lacking his body. And, of course, the body he had was ravaged by illness and worn out, let alone missing its eyes. So, while clearing the lab, she takes a DNA sample without Sasuke's knowledge, and then proceeds to help him clean up. She hasn't told Sasuke her plans yet, as she's still not 100% sure it will work.

As a test, she uses her soul retrieval technique on Neji, managing to retrieve his soul and replace it into his healed corpse. Knowing she can get it to work, she moves forward.

(Quick note about that technique: it's HELLA dangerous. Basically, a person uses a very thin connection to their body, and goes into the void to take ONE soul at a time. BUT, the longer a soul has been departed from the mortal plane, the further away it is – so she can't just take anyone who's died like a hundred years ago. Her limit is like...a few months, at best. But the void constantly eats at her chakra, and if she stays too long, she'll just...die. So it's a powerful technique, but EXTREMELY risky and limited. Hopefully it seems balanced that way ='D)

So, Sasuke then leaves a few months later, and she begins her work. At this point she’s still working in the hospital, focusing on surgeries to give her more time at home with the twins, who are about 8 months at this point. But, after her shifts, she sneaks to the basement of the hospital (aka the morgue), where there are cryogenic pods for storing bodies. They're almost always unused, and it's there she pours every spare ounce of chakra she has into regrowing an entirely new body for Itachi. It takes her months, and she nearly kills herself doing it, using up too much energy, but eventually she finishes it.

After her collapse, Tsunade confronts her, and she has no choice but to reveal her plans. Of course, Tsunade FLIPS her table, because one: that's hella dangerous, and two: how is this going to work? A few select people know the truth behind Itachi, but there's a few issues with him being revived. One is that he's still guilty in most eyes. And even if they break the truth behind the massacre, that's highly dangerous. The administration of Konoha – the Hokage and the elders – WIPED OUT an entire clan due to dissent. If the other clans learned of this, it would surely break the village apart.

Ryū announces she has a plan. Due to her connections with Sasuke as his guardian/sibling figure, she's also bumped into most of the Konoha Twelve during her years in Konoha. Most of which are heirs or at least high-ranking members of large clans. She plans to speak to them first, as they're likely the most receptive after everything they faced in the war, and knowing Sasuke's loss as his friends and comrades. By securing their agreement to help with the issue, she hopes to avoid a total meltdown.

She also has a few favors owed to her by the Hyūga, who are arguably the most powerful clan now that the Uchiha are “gone”. One for attempting to protect Hinata during Pain's invasion (I didn't elaborate on that in the other rant, but if I wrote the whole thing out we'd be here for DAYS lol), and then of course reviving Neji. She plans to rely heavily on them and her friendship with Hinata to help keep the other clans in line, by talking to her and Neji first. Hopefully, that way, the Hyūga - already knowing the plan - can lead by example by being calm, and hopefully help the other clans keep from flipping tables.

Unfortunately, Tsunade lets the plan slip to Sakura...who then tattles to Sasuke. She confronts Ryū about it, asking why she wouldn't tell him, and Ryū argues that she didn't want to get his hopes up if it failed. But, Sasuke shows up anyway, and agrees to stay and help with the plan to break the news about the coup and the massacre.

With Tsunade and Sakura's help, Ryū performs her technique, their Byakugō helping bolster her chakra alongside her sage state. Normally, Itachi would have been dead far too long. But thanks to Edo Tensei, the “distance” has sort have been...reset. It wipes her out, but she manages it, and returns the soul to his rebuilt body!

Of course, one thing they have to deal with is getting Itachi mobile. The body is basically the same as a newborn's – it has NO muscle strength, so he ends up needing months of physical therapy to get up and moving. And until he's fit (and able to defend himself, as there's fears he'll be attacked), they work with the young heirs of Sasuke's generation to move their plans forward. Ryū has a meeting with the Konoha Twelve and explains everything, and of course they all agree to help.

Once Itachi is ready, the elders are called into a meeting with Tsunade...only to find themselves surrounded by the leaders and heirs of all the major clans. They reveal that they know the truth, that Itachi has returned, and if they refuse to admit to it, they can Edo Tensei summon Hiruzen to confirm their story. Basically backed into a corner, the elders are forced to step down, where they can't bring about anything else like the massacre.

The last thing that remains is Itachi's official pardon. Tsunade decides to use Kakashi's coronation as a platform, as everyone will be gathered anyway. He explains the truth behind the massacre, and official pardons Itachi. But there are some in the crowds that look...less than happy about it.

So, from there, the general premise is how the Uchiha have to get back on their feet – forming an alliance with the Hyūga, and doing their best to settle into Konoha again.

But it doesn't end there :3c

One day, while Itachi is speaking to Kakashi about rejoining the shinobi force, Ryū senses an intruder in the compound, walking up the Naka river. She runs out to confront them...only to realize that it's SHISUI.

(which is actually the Shisui from my sideblog lolol)

BASICALLY...I think it's bull that Shisui leapt into a RIVER to dispose of his body...like...really? There's a HUGE chance it would have washed up on shore and been found by gods know who. SO, MY Shisui instead went into hiding – the only way he could know his body was safe was to keep it alive, but have everyone THINK it was dead. Even Itachi. Of course, he PLANNED to die later, but couldn't be 100% sure it would be safe. So instead (super short summary), he lived in a cave along the Naka for about ten years and learned echolocation via chakra from bats (think Toph from ATLA, only with chakra lol)

So...suddenly, Shisui is alive. Ryū is ecstatic, of course...but Itachi is PISSED. Because...had he known Shisui was still alive, he might have kept trying. He might not have had to kill the clan. A LOT could have been different. So...it takes time for him to come around, due to the guilt he feels about the massacre, and now knowing there was a chance it could have been avoided. But in reality...not really.

So now we suddenly have five blood Uchiha rather than three: Itachi, Shisui, Sasuke, and the twins. It's obviously nowhere near the clan it was before, but it's more than it was!

And this is where things start to go to shit, lol

So, remember those people, unhappy about Itachi's return? Well...there's a rather volatile group who feel the same way. See, some of the old Root members, led by Danzō, still harbor a LOT of resentment, and are still loyal to his memory. Among them is Okano Sumire, a woman obsessed with Danzō, who was a high ranking officer under his regime. She's been plotting revenge against Sasuke already for “killing” Danzō (though he technically committed suicide), and now she's got a whole lot more to be pissed about. With the massacre's truth revealed, Danzō's name is now just...dragged through the mud. And with the revelation of Itachi, she now also knows that the twins are blood Uchiha.

So, she regathers the scattered remnants of Root who are still loyal to Danzō, becomes their new leader, and basically begins plotting to wipe out the Uchiha for GOOD, as she feels they are all guilty for Danzō’s death and subsequent dishonor.

This causes the family problems all throughout Arc Three. It starts small – threats left on their doorstep, people jeering at them in public, etc. Though it's partially helped by the Hyūga, who – as the Uchiha's allies thanks to Ryū's work with them – do all they can to help bolster the tiny clan's reputation. But Sumire begins spreading dissent into the village with rumors and lies, and eventually things starting getting dangerous, including Ryū and the twins being attacked in broad daylight. She manages to hold them off with barriers, but she's obviously pretty freaked out after being attacked in the middle of the street with her KIDS with her.

So that's like...the main conflict, alongside the twins' conflict with each other. They end up on a team with Mirai, as I mentioned, with Shisui as their team leader. They later enter ANBU when able, and do their best to counteract Root. The rest of the story is basically them trying to wipe out Root before Root wipes THEM out. Of course they don’t face it alone, but it’s also pretty much THEIR problem.

And, uh...there's a rather volatile event just before the actual epilogue where it's Ryū who confronts Sumire...and someone gets killed.

But I won't spoil that :3c

ANYWAY. So yeah. That's the basic conflict (well, conflictS) of Arc Three. I had to kinda change things a wee bit after chapter 700 and Boruto became a thing, but...it's mostly unchanged. Just gotta account for other kiddos, like Sarada. Otherwise, I’m completely ignoring the PLOT of Boruto, and just sticking the pairings/kids in it to keep close-ish to canon.

But uh..yeah! Second rant, finished xD

[busaned-blog]

dude your tags on tht post abt hobi+jin not having any lines (+ the discrepancy in ppl's reaction to those awful distributions) is WHEW coldblooded but accurate. ive also seen it happen, ppl leaving bc they can't GET WORK in their own group, and beyond hating awful distributions for wht they are, theyre bad for group longevity esp w/jin whos getting his college degree, who i cld see walking away frm bts w/work+network options even outside of ent. industry. like, bight cherish wht u got rn, dang

Hello anon, thank you so much for your message! It’s nice to know some people actually read my tags I guess haha. I’m not gonna lie, at first when I read your message I was thinking of not replying… simply because we all know tumblr tags are messed up (especially on mobile) and I did not feel like people interpreting my response as hate towards Bangtan or to any of the members. But then I realized that for me in my heart I know my feelings about this whole situation are not based on hate towards either of those so I decided to respond anyways and I just hope that I will word everything correctly so that people reallize I am not a hater. It will be a long response, because as I said in my tags I have a lot of feelings about this, so I’m putting it under a read more :)

When I reblogged that post we’re talking about and put all those tags in, I was extremely angry. I can’t lie about that right now, because I was. Maybe it’s a petty response, but in a song that is 4 minutes and 34 seconds long you just cannot convince me there was no room for Hobi at all. That there was no room for him to get like four lines on his own or for Jin to have more than the two he did? Especially when some members take up like half the song? I just refuse to believe that I’m sorry… And especially to realize, if you look objectively, that the difference in ‘talent’, to put it as such, in Bangtan is not that big let’s be real. They are all extremely talented and no one is 1000 steps above the rest at all in my opinion.

I’ve been a fan since about July 2015, a little after the Dope era, so I have been around for four comebacks now (and a hell of a lot of other groups’ members leaving/groups disbanding) and I’ve said this before on twitter: I feel like the line distribution is getting worse in stead of better with Bangtan. Run was sort of okay for me, especially if you keep in mind the idea of main/lead vocals and sub-vocals, but after that it just got worse and worse imo. And apparently, judging by the response to Hobi having no lines in Spring Day and Jin having barely any solo lines in BST, people really don’t give a shit and want to disguise it under the ‘I love ot7 so let me reblog some posts complaining about the awful line distribution and be done with it’.

The outrage on my dash with the Hobi situation was pitiful, because (and maybe I follow the wrong people who knows) the only ones actually being mad were Hobi stans and some Jin/ot7 stans. The outrage for Jin was basically non existent and it still pisses me off till this day. And the biggest discourse was that people needed to just basically shut up and support Bangtan because otherwise, and wow guilt tripping much?, they would hurt Hobi in the process too. And I get that we all have our favorites, we all have our ranking of the members whatever, but how can you look at this situation and just not realize how damaging it could be in the long run? How damaging it could be for ot7. You don’t have to love and cry and yell about Hobi and Jin as much as you do your bias, but to stay mostly silent cause it doesn’t concern your fave? I just can’t relate…

I’m a Jimin stan, but that means to me I am realistic enough to realize I have nothing to worry about with him. That he will get his lines and his screentime and the attention from his fans. So why should I be blind towards the mistreatment of some of the others? Because I’m settled? Because Jimin is my bias so I have no worries? And I’m not trying to say people who don’t stan Hobi or Jin feel like this, but this is really how it comes across to me. And then everyone, and this annoys me the most, wants to hide behind one of two defenses, a) Bangtan love each other more than anything and they want to stay together forever so awul line distribution won’t break them up and b) Bangtan have a lot of creative control so they probably decided this was best for the song…

Which is funny, because in the same breath they want to oppose haters, which they should don’t get me wrong, by saying ‘don’t hate on *insert their bias here* because it’s not their fault, Big Hit makes the decisions not them’. Excuse me? But that is not how this works. You can’t want to claim they have full creative control and make the decisions themselves and then turn around and say it’s actually Big Hit. It’s either they make the decisions themselves and they are basically assholes for ignoring Hobi, and more specifically Jin in like every song, or they are all subjected to what Big Hit wants.

But to come to the actual point: whether people want to close their eyes to this situation or not, in the end this could be damaging for Bangtan. Do you really think Minzy from 2ne1 didn’t love her group and her members? Do you really believe that guy from Teen Top that wants to leave doesn’t love his group and his members? Do you really believe that someone like Minzy, to take her as an example, who was in one of the biggest girl groups in kpop, just casually decided to leave? Do you not think that she didn’t realize that if she left she will probably never have the income she had with 2ne1 again or that she most likely will never ever be as popular as she was when in the group? Yet she freaking decided to leave anyways, because as you said she got no work! And ofcourse she wanted some, even if that meant not living the live she did with 2ne1, but it would be at least some sort of a life. And this happens to idols all the time, and then they, shocking I know, leave… Awful line distribution, and awful equal promotion, will be the death of any group no matter how much they love each other and the fans or how successful they are.

And I just wish as a fandom we could collectively come together on these subjects a bit more. You don’t have to be a Hobi or Jin stan to be critical of Bangtan’s efforts and in this case their line distribution. And there is also nothing wrong with being a critical fan and trying to let them and Big Hit know that no fan is going to leave if they make everything a little bit more fair. I just don’t want it to come to Bangtan’s contract renewals in a few years and having one or two of them even contemplating leaving. As you said, Jin is graduating soon and many people in the industry have already said that he is a lovely person, easy to work with, funny, clever, hard working and on top of that a lot more multi-talented then people want to give him credit for. You really believe he has no chance of a career outside of Bangtan?

Let me say something positive though for once. If we move beyond the line distribution and take a look at the promo, Big Hit gives me a little bit of hope. 2016 has been a rather good year for all of them in my opinion. Yoongi had his mixtape, Jin had Law of the Jungle and some other variety shows, Tae had his acting, the Taejin OST (where they both proved even more that Bangtan’s line distribution is shit), some MC jobs for all of them on music shows, etc. I think that if you would write it down then their promotion seems to definitely be sort of equal, which gives me great hope that Big Hit will at least always try to promote them equally in that area. But it also seems to me they want them stuck in certain positions: Hobi being the dancer, Jin being the visual, Jungkook being the main vocalist etc. When they are so much more then that!

So what I’m trying to say is that I’m not trying to convince anyone that Hobi or Jin are going to want to leave over this whole thing, but please can we all for once as a fandom acknowledge Bangtan’s shortcomings and realize that if nothing changes (because this is not a one time thing with them), and if we don’t try to voice our concerns, it could come to a Minzy situation (or any other group member that has ever left their group due to disrespect basically). I just don’t want them in the future to break up or have some members leaving, and then have everyone cry their eyes out for a day when we could have done something about it now…

This became so much longer then I wanted to, and I probably didn’t even say everything I wanted to say, so I’m really sorry. And I mostly ranted about nothing you were talking about in your ask, but I needed to get this all of my chest. I always say this and I will say it again: I love Bangtan with all my heart, and I don’t plan on abandoning them anytime soon, but these comebacks just slowly become a little less enjoyable and I will keep hoping that next time will be better. That next time I won’t have to sit through the music video waiting for a glimpse of Hobi or Jin or anyone. I just want Bangtan to reach their full potential, because I really feel they haven’t yet, because I think they are 7 wonderful individuals who deserve nothing less.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale Review

Spoiler Warning for the entirety of Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale.

  Some movies are made for a single moment.

  For Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale, that moment is when Yui appears in the middle of the film's final battle—a showdown with the boss of the Aincrad Castle's Floor 100—bringing with her all of Kirito and Asuna's friends from stories past. There's a swell of music (the tune's called "let's join swords," and it's a remix of the franchise's most memorable track, "swordland"), and suddenly we see the silhouettes of Kirito's iconic dual blade against the backlighting. Along with back-up, Yui returns to Kirito and Asuna their appearances and weapons from the original Sword Art Online game, and the entire group explodes into frenetic action that carries through until final moment of the battle. 

  If you have even a shred of fondness for Sword Art Online as a franchise, particularly the Aincrad arc, this moment alone is worth seeing Ordinal Scale for. It's the moment the entire film drives toward, a rush of near-euphoric glee enough to make me scream with delight under my breath in the theater. It's been five years since the first season of Sword Art Online began airing and nearly three since SAO II ended, so it feels like we've been without new Sword Art Online long enough for it to feel like an event of the past (despite the continual chatter following the show since then). This, in turn, gives us enough space from the early days of Sword Art Online, the time when it truly felt new, that Ordinal Scale can actually get away with remembering Aincrad, both as an motion within the film itself and outside it with the fans.

    I walk into my local showing of Ordinal Scale about 30 minutes before the film began, wondering what kind of crowd I'm going to see. An awkward pass in front of the screen looking for a seat later, I'm reassured that this won't be like some of my other anime filmgoing experiences, as the crowd is substantial—and boisterous. Occasional laughs about the "super easy" quiz questions rotating on the screen pepper the dull buzz of conversation; I hear one girl mutter "Must get" to herself with a vengeance upon seeing an ad for the recently released SAO mobile phone game. And although less interested in the welcome messages from LiSA, Haruka Tomatsu (Asuna), and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Kirito) before the film begins, by the final corny slow-motion fist pump from Matsuoka, a genuine cheer finally emerges from the crowd before giving way to silence and the movie's opening moments.

  Whatever else was true of my company for Ordinal Scale, one thing was certain: these people were fans of Sword Art Online. And that was good, because this movie—all else aside—is for fans of Sword Art Online.

  I'm no stranger to being a fan of things generally, but as a fan of Sword Art Online (it was one of the first anime I watched once I'd finally figured out what "anime" was and decided I wanted more) it was delightful to see Ordinal Scale speaking a language only those who care about this franchise—warts and all—can understand. In the moment when we see Starburst Stream unleashed once again or Yuuki's spirit embracing Asuna as the Mother's Rosario Sword Skill appears in a burst of purple lights, the film clearly, unavoidably asks but one thing of its audience: "Remember. Because if you remember how you felt when you watched Sword Art Online, this is for you."

    So, that's the fanservice angle, but what's really neat about Ordinal Scale is that it pulls this metatextual conversation with its fans into the actual text of the film itself. The primary conflict in Ordinal Scale is, at its most basic level, one dealing with the importance of memories—specifically those of Aincrad. Memories that are immeasurably painful for some and bittersweet for others. One of Sword Art Online's ongoing themes has been a question of the validity and value of virtual experiences (although this idea's traced an admittedly inconsistent arc throughout the franchise's various stories), and so Ordinal Scale putting Asuna's memories of her time in Sword Art Online (the game) on the line aligns it strongly with this tradition—and, by the end of the film, doubles down on the Aincrad arc's very serious affirmation of the worth of such experiences. 

  So when Ordinal Scale instructs the audience to dig into their own memories, it marries the meaningfulness of the fan's memory to those that Kirito, Asuna, and their friends hold dear. Whether or not the memories were all good or all bad matters little—rather, the key is that they mean something to them (and, ultimately, carry tangible weight in the real world as well). In some ways this parallels the fan act of immersing yourself in a show, finishing it, and then fondly carrying on the memories of your time in the world with you as you move on with your life—possibly even allowing them to affect who you are as a person. Of course, it's not like this kind of unity between fanservice and themes is anything new, but it's certainly enjoyable to experience it with Ordinal Scale if, like me, you do carry some measure of affection for SAO.

  This kind of textual/audience resonance aside, as a film for fans, Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale succeeds because it reaches for and achieves a single peak of unadulterated fan joy. It can be watched, thought of, and loved purely in these terms. That single shot of Kirito once again becoming the Black Swordsman who saved Aincrad justifies the entire movie. It was the only thing the film needed to do.

      On the other hand, there are still 2+ hours of film that aren't that moment, I think it's still necessary that I note that on the whole Ordinal Scale is a surprisingly detached movie. While Ordinal Scale is certainly a more restrained, mature take on the world of SAO, at the same times it feels like it looses some of its charm in the attempt to present itself this way. The crisper, flatter character designs lend themselves less to diverse facial expressions than the more cartoony and moe designs from the TV series, and when paired with the lack of interesting character acting animation, the vividness of these characters had in the TV series finds itself drowning somewhat in the darker, grittier, colder world of augmented reality. It's without a doubt satisfying to see Kirito and Asuna looking and behaving like the young adults preparing to head off to college that they are, but I can't help but feel that the overall effect is one that makes the whole film feel rather cool in a way that lacks the passionate spirit of Kirito's over-the-top video game coolness from the TV series.

  There's also a disappointing lack of immediacy in film's cinematography, which relies heavily on long shots that place the characters in large backgrounds and distance them from the camera. Director Tomohiko Ito and his friend Takahiro Shikama shared storyboarding duties for the film [1], and both have proven to be excellent at the task in past works like the Sword Art Online and ERASED, but the direction in Ordinal Scale is depressingly lifeless outside of the more dynamic action scenes, completely lacking the engaging energy of the TV series. One scene that's emblematic of this problem occurs midway through the film. Following Yuuna, Kirito finds himself on a bridge in the virtual world and talks with her. Framed with a long shot, we can only see the barest outline of each character's face, and even as Yoshitsugu Matsuoka's voice rises along with Kirito's frustration, all we see is Kirito walking in a basic cycle across the bridge towards Yuuna. The direction completely sucks the power out of the encounter—a frustrating pattern that recurs throughout the movie.

    Happily, the story and script have a bit more of a spark to them, although the former is disconnected and the latter somewhat inane. It's fortunate that the key to the story of Ordinal Scale is, basically, that for the first time since Aincrad we finally have Asuna and Kirito's relationship back in the spotlight. Despite many battles that frankly don't always feel like they have actual stakes and the script's amusing failed attempts portraying friendly banter between Kirito and Asuna's group of friends (someone says something vaguely amusing, the rest of the group gently laughs), it's the promise that our two heroes made back on the 28th floor that holds it all together. If the final boss battle is the film's justification for existing, then it's Kirito and Asuna seeing the stars together at the film's end (and having their kiss interrupted by Yui lol) that validates the story.

  Which, really, is just to say that Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale is, at heart, Sword Art Online—a sometimes bumbling, sometimes ineffective, impossibly dorky, and charming invention with nothing but the best of intentions. SAO being SAO, this was never going to be a perfectly crafted movie—but it captures so many of the charms of the franchise whilst also avoiding nearly all of its most aggravating faults. It may be a few dozen minutes longer than it needs to be, undercut its own the drama by putting off the twists until near the end of the film, and lack the personality-driven dialogue that could really have made its characters come to life on the big screen, but it's still trying to be good and succeeding just often enough that I can't find it in my heart to ignore those efforts. 

  And, again: Yui appears, the Black Swordsman and Lighting Flash Asuna return. That was everything. And it was glorious.

[1] Thanks to Canipa from the Canipa Effect for making available his list of the full animation staff for the film. Be sure to check out his video breaking down the film's staff and the paths they took to this movie.

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Isaac eases his compulsive need to write about anime on his blog, Mage in a Barrel. He also sometimes hangs out on Tumblr, where he mainly posts his drawing practice as he seeks to become a renowned idol and robot fanartist. You can follow him on Twitter at @iblessall or on Facebook.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com