#point of all of this is to not ask questions about queerness in gaming circles

[moophinz]

Haha what the fuck is this Yakuza subreddit (and why is it labeled NSFW)

[writingonleaves]

just two hours to get there, babe (i can make it back about an hour or so) - reckless driving au

universe: reckless driving au

warnings: not much! some minor spoilers of things that haven't Happened in the au yet, a devils cup win sometime before 2029 lmfao

title: "jersey giant" by tyler childers

word count: 1.8k

author's note: got emo about stamkos' goodbye to tampa bay on the players tribune (its always the players tribune) and whipped this up!

important context!! amelie wins an award from World Sports Photography (a real award) along with some prize money, and she decides to donate all the money to Sports Media For Everybody, a (made-up) organization that supports queer media professionals. Below is her op-ed for SMFE, which ends up circling around hockey media circles / hockey twitter. i like to see it as the first real Public thing she's ever posted / written. this is published about a month before jack and amelie get married in 2029, btw. enjoy and lmk what you think!!!

A Photo Worth More

by Amelie Fishel

Background: Amelie Fishel is a photographer mostly known for her work in sports. She has photographed in the NHL, NFL, PWHL, MLB, WNBA, the Olympic Games, the World Cup and more. Her photos have appeared in AP, ESPN, Sports Illustrated and The Athletic. Her photo of New Jersey Devils alternate captain Jack Hughes (also her fiance) during the Stanley Cup Final won a World Sports Photography award last week. A member of SMFE for over five years, Amelie has spoken in numerous classrooms and at panels and workshops to share her knowledge. Alongside Jack, she is an ambassador for You Can Play. 

When I took a bow at my last dance recital with Michigan Dance Company, I thought I was done with sports. 

Don’t get me wrong. Dance had — and still has — brought me so much. It taught me a lot of things about myself, and brought me friends I still talk to today. But after blinking at the stage lights onwe last time to loud cheers from our family, friends and fellow dancers, I knew I made the right decision to stop my decade plus intense training. I would end up dancing recreationally throughout college, but nothing close to what I did at MDC. 

During my first week at the University of Michigan, I was timidly walking around the overwhelming Festifall, which happens every year at the school. It’s basically a club fair to showcase everything you can do at Michigan. Whether by happenstance or something else, I locked eyes with Jenny DeAngelo, who is currently the social media coordinator for the Los Angeles Chargers. I still remember — she had the cutest bob, a camera around her neck and the friendliest smile.

“Are you interested in working for the Michigan Athletic Department?”

Looking back, vaguest question ever. They could’ve been asking for equipment staff or helpers for ticket sales. But I walked over to Jenny, and that was it. 

For my whole four years at Michigan, I photographed almost every sport. Football, swimming, soccer, gymnastics, field hockey, you name it. I gave up a lot of weekends and school nights when I could’ve been out partying (let’s be honest, knowing me, I wouldn’t have been anyways) to stand at the sidelines of a field or court. I always knew I wanted to do photography, but the sports part of it all caught me off guard. 

Photographing hockey was almost a different skill set. I never played and didn’t really know anyone who did. But hockey at Michigan is sacred. I felt it the first game I shadowed, with Yost Arena filled up to the brim. I remember panicking because the sport was so fast. How could I ever keep up?

But I’ve never backed down from a challenge. 

I started being placed on the hockey beat more and more to the point where the guys started knowing me by name. I found myself at Yost pretty often during the season. And with my love for photographing hockey came my love for the actual game of hockey. Michigan hockey, in a way, was where another very important branch of my root love for photography started. I will always be grateful to Kristy, Maggie, Lauren and all the players and staff I worked with there for the encouragement and setting the expectations astronomically high for how a photographer is part of the team’s DNA.

I’m so grateful that my first gig after graduation was with the NHL. Being trusted to photograph the Philadelphia Flyers, the New Jersey Devils, the New York Islanders and the New York Rangers as an inexperienced but eager 22 year old was such a pleasure. I learned a lot and I still look upon the early years of my career with so many good memories. 

Since then, I’ve been lucky to continue doing what I enjoy on stages I could’ve never imagined I would even have a seat at the table at. From the world stage with the Olympic Games and World Cups, to Stanley Cup Finals and Super Bowls, to junior and high school sports Every sport at every level has taught me something new, and I feel so grateful that holding a camera still feels fresh. 

I’m extremely honored to receive this award for a photo that personally means so much to me.

When I took that photo of Jack during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, I honestly don’t remember what I was thinking. I was a ball of nerves that entire game — that entire post-season, to be honest with you — and I was purely doing everything out of instinct. I was urged multiple times by many people to not do my job. Go be in the crowd and enjoy it as a fan, everyone told me. But I couldn’t. I would’ve rather been working with the safety net of the camera around my neck because that would calm down my nerves. So they let me do it, more for my sake than anything, I think. What I do remember is when the final horn sounded, because everything leading up to that point flashed through my mind like a movie. Like a supercut, as Lorde would say. 

An image of when Jack and I first met flashed through my mind all those years ago in Michigan (the state, not the school). An image of the first Devils game I shot flashed through my mind, where he, of course, scored. An image of me crying in a conference room in Madison Square Garden flashed through my mind, when I felt so burnt out and questioned if I wanted to even do this anymore. It wasn't the first time I felt that way, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. An image of Jack coming into my office and waiting for me to finish editing photos flashed through my mind, the quiet hum of The Rock as our soundtrack. 

I remember when family and loved ones were shuffling onto the ice and I saw Luke skating up to me, the cup in the back and the biggest smile on his face. All I could think of was him in the Michigan maize skating up to me all the years prior. It felt like the most full circle moment. 

Basically, it felt like a movie, where everything that led up to that point came crashing down on me and all I could feel was pure joy and pride.

To me, that’s it. Photographing people is about capturing the pureness of emotions. Joy, sadness, frustration, anguish, confusion. I hate to use a cliche, but it’s true. A snapshot of a moment in time can say so much. That’s what keeps me going. That’s what motivates me to keep trying when the last thing I want to do is click that damn shutter. 

Recently, I was asked last minute to shoot a Devils game. It had been over a year since I had done so, so I jumped at the chance. I didn’t realize until I walked into the familiar hallways that it was Hockey Is For Everyone Night. Chris Sccopetto, one of the equipment guys (more commonly known as Frosty) tossed me something when I walked in. I looked down and teared up. It was a roll of rainbow ribbon. 

When I covered the NHL on a consistent basis, I would tie a ribbon in my hair, the color matching whatever team I was working for that night. It was a little thing I did just for fun. During the Hockey Is For Everyone nights, I used to always put something rainbow in my hair. I was honored that Frosty remembered. 

At that Devils game, I was shooting pre-game warmups, and a young woman was against the glass. After she got a puck from Dougie Hamilton, I went up to her, showing her the picture and asking if she would want a copy. I don’t always do this, but the picture was too good and I felt like she’d appreciate it. Just as I was about to leave, she told me she liked the ribbon in my hair. We got to chatting, and I found out that she had just come out as bisexual to her family, and she had looked forward to being at the game tonight for a long time. I offered her the roll of rainbow ribbon and went on my way, but that interaction will stick with me for awhile. From one bisexual woman to another, we’ve found a common space in a sport we love.

In light of recent events, nights like Hockey Is For Everyone are more important than ever. I have been lucky that my sexuality hasn’t been an issue in any workplace I’ve been a part of, but I know that I am so lucky it hasn’t been. As a photographer, I feel the energy of the fans at every game I shoot. For all fans, staff and players to feel included and to feel like they belong in a world that they love is crucial. It’s how the sport will be sustained. I know how important that feeling of inclusion is. It’s not just rainbow ribbons and tape — it goes beyond. It must go beyond. 

Hockey Is For Everyone, and similar events to it, is a start. But that’s just what it is. A start. It’s through actions small and large where the work continues. It’s through just telling someone that you hear them and support them. It’s through donations, no matter how big or small, to organizations that do incredible work. It's through offering a shoulder to cry on and being the loudest to voice support in triumphant moments. Allyship exists in so many forms. 

In the corner of the photo that won this award, if you look on the top right, you see a fan waving a rainbow flag, by the way. 

I’m so lucky that the passion for my work led me to do what I love alongside the love of my life also doing what he loves. People say working with your significant other isn’t ideal, but now that I don’t do it as much anymore, I can say that I miss it greatly. Jack, you make me laugh and feel so incredibly happy. I love you. All the friends and colleagues I made through my work have been the greatest blessings and deserve all the thanks. My friends outside of work who remind me that life is more than just a camera, you deserve all the gold stars. Thank you. My family - Mom, Dad, Colette, Kaiden, Charlotte and Xander, thank you for all your cheerleading. 

But lastly and mostly importantly, thank you to everyone who has let me point a camera at them. The way I’ve been included in vulnerable, intimate and beautiful moments just by simply being there and doing my job — it’s a feeling that never gets old. Thank you for letting me into your life. I look forward to continue doing it with integrity and love for as long as I can.

yours,

amelie fishel

~*~*~

tag list (lmk if you wanna be a part of it!!): @ru-kru , @bunbunbl0gs

[amethyst-aster]

Blog intro

Hello! I’m Aster, a person who gives advice and who is still learning about the world as a whole. I am non binary, a calico cat therian and questioning voidkin

Fandoms/Artists/Bands:

Kingdom hearts (lore)

Castle of illusions (yt)

Musical Theater

FNAF

Epic the musical!!

Warrior Cats

Heartstopper

drag race

mlp fanon

TX2

Alesana

Hellaverse (Hazbin Hotel + Helluva Boss)

Ride The Cyclone!!!!

My blog is mainly about anything that catches my eye, such as cats, food, memes, fun things, famous posts, photography, tag games, etc.. and centered around magic. It is also very therian themed, touch starved posting, and epic the musical/ride the cyclone themed.

People don’t usually respect my DNI so I will just block freely at this point. Half the time it’s nothing personal, the other half is because you might be someone I would rather not be around.

I want to make clear: I do not want to be harassed or sent hate asks!(especially anon). Also no asks about Gaza or anything relating to Israel or Palestine

I am slightly unhinged at times and half the things that I say I don’t remember!

I am queer in many ways (sometimes people say I’m either the queer friend or the gayest one in the room, which I love).

Boundaries:

Yelling (don’t yell at me please)

do not call me selfish or delusional

Invalidation (Don’t invalidate me or gaslight me in a way that’s not jokingly)

Apathy-like saying how you don’t care or seeming disinterested or acting like you have a problem with me without saying it to my face or just not communicating if there’s a problem

Too many bad things all at once

asking about my age or things relevant to that

insulting me to a higher level in a serious way (more on that here)

Showing me pics of your SH

men/boys hitting on me (queer + not interested, this includes trans men obviously)

Talking about eating disorders or going into detail about anything relating to eating disorders

anything relating to genocide

#lore drop” for posts about me, either emotion related or abt what’s going on in my life.

#asks for aster, #questions for aster, and #asks are all for asks and questions

#cat therian is mainly vent posts abt shifts and being a cat therian ooc

Notice: I am no longer in wizardblr but my lore has not been taken down and is free to use or have inspo of it

oh also @amethyst-of-shadows is my horny blog

@amethyst-aster-2 is my alt

@same-pic-of-uranus-everyday is my pic verse blog

@anxiety-culture-iss is another blog I run

Fun fact: I can read and write in Norse runes

Fun fact 2: I am obsessed with shiny sharp things and creepy things (especially daggers, scissors, fire, swords, serial killers lore such as the Zodiac Killer and the Candy Man)! I also will not stop talking abt Greek mythology.

Link to wizardblr:

TW Unreality, Mild Violence, Knives, Weapons, and sexual references

[bl00dalchemist]

Since you're sick (ME TOO GET WELL IDIOT) Imma ask for ALL of the questions for Genshin :3c

SADISTIC MF (ilu get well soon too baby)

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

Childe.

At first the jokes about him being a fuckboy were absolutely funny but now i think they absolutely fucking suck and people have taken it as if it is canon AND I HATE IT.

🧡: What is a popular (serious) theory you disagree with?

I normally dont check too much into theories bc honestly they just carry the same ones and in a very good way, so i actually can't think of one rn sorry JFJFBF

💛: What is a popular ship you just can't get behind, and why?

Haikaveh, if i wanted to watch a hysterical blonde and a stoic mf bicker, i'd go watch a white couple fight.

But fr i dont like it bc they always fuck up their personalities so absolutely bad it makes me go ewww, also they reduced kaveh to being alhaitham's stupid friend who can't do shit right and its just?? Ewww x2

💚: What does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character?

Tough one bc I don't like to say 'WELL EVERYONE IS WRONG ABOUT THIS BUT AM RIGHT' bc everyone has their headcanons BUT- I really hate the way some people treat Dottore as if he was just a boyfailure who sets trashcans on fire bc he cant get his phd.

The man is a damn evil genius, even arlecchino would have thrown hands with him if he weren't also a harbinger NFJBGN

💙: Which character is not as hot as everyone else seems to think?

I was going to pick one of the girls but that might be biased since am a fucking homosexual so i will say Zhongli! Atm the guy's just some man going around working in funerals and correcting historians about rex lapis NFKFJ not that hot sorry.

💜: Which character is way hotter than everyone else seems to think?

Cyno???

The slutty little shorts, he goes around shirtless, he's got a spirit inside him??? HOTTIE

🤍: Which character is not as morally bad/good as everyone else seems to think?

I will merge this one and the next one bc its the same character so here we go.

Ppl always go one way or another with childe, like, come on!

They either turn him into a horny stupid dumbass or an edgelord and am honestly very tired bc the man is so morally gray most of the time! He released a beast on liyue to bring rex lapis out, but not because he's the devil, he just wanted rex lapis to come out but turns out ppl were actually able to protect themselves! terrible job supershit!

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

That people satanize it too much!

"it pushes gambling addiction!" So does every gacha out there, the point of a game made by a big company is to make money, but guess what! You can play totally for free if YOU JUST PLAY THE DAMN GAME INSTEAD OF EXPECTING EVERYTHING TO BE GIVEN TO YOU!

And if u dont want to play and think its fucking predatory and its bad for you: delete your fucking account or sell it so you can't go back. Seek help even.

💔: If you had to remove one major character from the series, who would you choose?

I don't think theres a major character outside the twins and dainsleif so i will say i just think sethos is pretty but so unnecessary lmao

💕: What is an unpopular ship that you like?

Arlecchino/Furina or Wriothesley/Lyney.

🏳️‍🌈: Which character who is commonly headcanoned as queer doesn't seem queer to you?

The queer circle is so absolutely wide that i dont actually think theres a single cis/straight bitch in this game ngl.

💀: If you had to choose one major character to die, who would you choose?

One of the main siblings, wouldn't it be absolutely fucking painful???

[unpopularshipbracket]

Round 2b Match 1

Rashmi Jamil/Amelie Macon (Entropic Float)

Fic count: 0

Milo/Piers (Pokemon)

fic count: 29

"COUNTRY BOY X EMO CITY BOY, HIMBO X GOTH, SHORT AND STRONG X TALL AND SKINNY, SUNSHINE ONE X GRUMPY ONE C'MON GUYS THEY'RE EVERYTHING it is MIND boggling they aren't more popular"

Rashmelie propaganda under cut!

Rashmelie:

"this essay is going to be reused whole cloth from the submission of them to the 17 million years of pining poll! because unfortunately i do not have the energy to go insane enough to write up anything new oh.

my god. where the fuck do i start with them for real.

okay so, theyve been friends since early childhood, and before either of them came out (Rashmi is agender, they/them, while Amelie is a trans girl, she/her, and they are both mspec which is a bit less relevant but is also there). the earliest time that we know that they have feelings for each other is when theyre both 14, and Rashmi - already out, with their entire family (parents and grandma) supporting them without question - is moving. uhhh 90% of american geography names are the same to me so i might lie there. from Nevada, where they both grew up, to New York, where Rashmi is planning on studying dance further, which has always been their plan; around 14 is when they ran out of teachers at home.

they quietly hope Amelie doesnt confess her feelings for them, as they fear it might tempt them to stay, which they cannot allow themself to do. Amelie, meanwhile, is very carefully not thinking about gender, because her parents are quite frankly the worst. over the course of the years before they meet back up, Amelie has had some dates, but each time, they dont work out, and in her own words, put logs on the flame she carries for Rashmi.

Rashmi, meanwhile. gets married. one of Rashmi's biggest struggles in their romantic pursuits has been the fact that they are both Indian and queer. it has been a struggle for them to find someone who respects both - someone who respects their gender identity while not throwing their culture under the bus. that is one of the factors contributing to the way their relationship with "Ajay" (we learn that this name isnt his real one, but it was magically replaced in Rashmi's memories of him and we dont know it) played out: he is also Indian, and the first thing he asked them upon meeting them was what their pronouns were. and it was all good.

until it wasnt.

i would love to get into that deeper, but the important point is that "Ajay" is kind of a piece of garbage, whose crimes include finding Rashmi's address when they didnt give it out, deliberately not sending Amelie her wedding invitation because Rashmi told him they used to have a crush on her, driving them to drop out of dance school, and general possessiveness (notable being the fact that, whenever he is home, he always asks them to stay home too, which leads to them dropping their social circle and their hobbies). one of the places it grows from is "Ajay" being ace and not quite believing that Rashmi accepts that. he also has a substance abuse problem.

all of that culminates as they return from a short visit to their parents, and he in a fit pushes them down a long flight of stairs.

in the meantime... god, i cant even figure out what parts of information are important about Amelie here. i would put as notable the fact that she only figured out she was a girl something like a year before the events of the game - and only ever came out to Rashmi, who in turn told their parents...

and who didnt realize that Amelie's workplace didnt know. her workplace is just. terrible in social terms. she loves the work itself (its food industry, a restaurant in a casino, dont remember the exact job description) but her coworkers are being the absolute worst. a cesspool of toxic masculinity. also an environment for Amelie's undiagnosed psychosis. she is prone to auditory hallucinations.

after being outed to her boss while also hearing from Rashmi's parents that their husband is... lets just say bad for them, she, while safely at home, hallucinates that her boss or maybe her father is breaking down the door.

simultaneously with Rashmi as they are falling down the stairs, they make Wishes.

these are not widely understood; from the context of the game, it seems as though some people get a Wish when in significant peril, or in distress. you do not need to use the Wish immediately as you get it, but they both did.

essentially, what Rashmi Wishes for is a way to escape from their husband that wouldnt raise a fuss; and Amelie Wishes for a place where she and Rashmi can both be safe. (i am very muddly on the details there) their Wishes create the anomalous clocktower where the game takes place."

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Hi, I think this maybe constitutes a Wales Question! So, I'm English originally, currently in my third year at Aber university, and its reputation for "that place you go to study and then never ever leave" is looking like it's holding true. I've been living with two very good friends of mine who are extremely Welsh for nearly 2 years now, and in that time I've been slowly picking up bits of Welsh culture and language (it started with me not wanting to mess up trying to pronounce the biology building name and looking like an idiot, but I got very interested from there, and plan on taking a class after I graduate).

I'm serious about wanting to live here, I've fallen in love with the town and the country ever since my knowledge of it evolved from "dragons and sheep and funny long names on road signs" that I thought as a kid, and I've genuinely enjoyed being brought into the fold and joining in stuff with my friends, But. my friends are very adamant that this means I can Be Welsh, and I'm not sure how to take it. On one hand, of course I would like to be, but I'm not sure how much I can claim that confidently- I didn't grow up here, have barely lived here for that long, and there's still a lot I don't get so I'm worried about making it weird. On the other, I think adamantly declaring myself English instead and turning them down is very very easy to take the wrong way!

As the most vocally Welsh person I am aware of on tumblr, I am humbly requesting your take on this... would it be considered unreasonable for foreigners to claim Welshness, with enough effort put in to learning ofc? It would be very nice and appreciated to get a second opinion :)

Diolch yn fawr iawn!

Okay so obviously I am slapping on a HUGE caveat here that I am No One, I am just another stranger at the shouting match who sometimes has some thoughts about things I see and the ability to amusingly compare things to other things. What follows are the lukewarm takes of Just Some Person, and not to be taken as gospel in any way.

But also lol you did ask and I love giving opinions, I do, so let's gooooo

So first up, I do think you're slipping into the fallacy here of playing the Boxes Game with something that doesn't fit neatly into boxes, as indeed nothing about humans and people and humans being people actually does. The thing about national/cultural identity is that they aren't precise, immutable data points. 'Culture' is already quite a loose and ethereal beast - you're basically drawing a circle around a bunch of things and going "Everything in here is X Culture!", and you'll be largely right doing that; but, the edge of the circle isn't, in reality, a hard border. It's a gradient. The circle will overlap with other circles, too. And sometimes even the things in the centre of the circle turn out to be absent half the time, and it's all a bit messy. Really, it's a bell curve, and you're just looking to see what turns up most frequently, with the understanding that you only get the big picture from all the data points together.

Nationality is even fuzzier, tbh. It's a highly personal thing. I'm very Welsh - my Welshness, though, looks different even from other Welsh people in Swansea, and certainly from a Welsh person living in Caernarfon. There are definitely unifying elements; but ultimately, it's something you kind of carve out for yourself, both consciously and unconsciously.

And I bring that up because part of your question is, "At what point do I cross the line into the circle? How long do I have to wait and how much do I have to do before Welshness happens? When do I get to claim the label?"

And there's no answer to that. Not for anyone. This is an identity issue, not a hard scientific concept. Kind of reminds me of a lot of questioning folks in the queer community, in fact. Humans like boxes and labels because they're comforting, but ultimately, we fit in them about as well as angry cats.

With that said, though, it's certainly true that there is a profound and observable difference between a naturalised citizen and a long-term tourist, which I think is the root of your fears here. A Brit who likes holidaying to Spain and decides to go and live there but doesn't learn Spanish, doesn't integrate with the local community, doesn't respectfully partake of any local customs (especially if they condescendingly view the local customs as quirky or quaint, or worse, look down on them), who learns nothing of the history of the area or wider country... that Brit could live there for 40 years, could even go the whole hog and get Spanish citizenship. But they are nothing more than a long-term tourist. Part of claiming culture and nationality is that it's not a spectator sport.

But by contrast, if that Brit were to learn Spanish and use it in everyday life (even if they sometimes fell back on English, or used a funky mix like Spanglish sometimes); if they learned all the history, INCLUDING and MOST ESPECIALLY all the pressure points that mean a Brit in particular cannot do X thing or make X joke; if they integrate with the local community, helping neighbours and coming to community events; if they respectfully take part in local customs, and only add elements of their own culture after learning about the customs properly so they know which bits are important and which can be amended...

Well, that's a totally different matter, isn't it?

It sounds like you're in the latter camp. It's particularly encouraging that your Welsh friends are already adopting you, in the broody chicken fashion of Welsh Mams Everywhere, because it suggests that while you may be English, you aren't English TM (you know the type). So, that's a good start, and it certainly puts you on the path to Naturalised Citizen.

So at that point, I suppose it becomes a matter of personal comfort. You're certainly right that it's still, relatively speaking, quite a new facet of your identity that you've only just started exploring and developing. Learning Welsh, when you get round to it (check with the university by the way, Aber is very keen on helping students learn and can get you cheaper/free courses), will push you several miles down that road, because that's a big effort expenditure AND it will put you in touch with the second of Wales' two dominant cultures.

But ultimately, the label you use has to be down to what you feel fits best, and what you're comfortable with. If you aren't comfortable with 'Welsh' yet, then that's completely fine - it's not for you at the minute. Put it on a back burner. Maybe use 'British' for now? In place of 'English', which is more specific. Maybe you can say you're "from England originally", or that you were born there but live here now; both of those are accurate, but also give the statement of intent. They make it clear that, as an adult, Wales is 'home'. This is where you're choosing.

In any case... croeso i'r clwb! And a thousand thanks for learning the language, and even just for the effort you've put in so far. Even just learning the pronunciation puts you miles above most English people, in spite of it being such a basic thing to do. It's more appreciated than you can know.

Also sorry this got long lol

[mushiemellows]

for the ask game do you have things to say about kiwi n mozu ? its really cool to me that they got to be relevant in SRH, smiles. 12, 20, and 21

oh yes yes yes!! I looooved making them into real characters in SRH. For a lot of the headcanon questions, I'll be talking about the little things that i used to flush out their characters in my brain that then informed how I wrote them, if that makes sense.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

So I do hc them both as transwomen. This literally never comes up in my writing, but it's rooted in the canon backstories for both of them (unhoused in their teens, in the same way that Franky being trans has partial root in his parents kicking him out at 10. And the whole FF is clearly all queer coded, and a big part of why I write Zambai as gay). I also needed to give them slightly different motivators to differentiate them from each other. So Mozu's a little more serious, a little more Family focused, she's slightly more logistical. By the time I have them running the bar, she's handling more of the finances and things like that, where as Kiwi's more of the face bartender. Kiwi, on the other hand, is a little more invested in her friend group outside of the Family. Like, they're both friends with Tiff and the others, but Kiwi is more in that circle than Mozu is. Also, Kiwi's a lesbian, idk if the microscopic Kiwi/Nami subplot is ever picked up on, but I did write it that way. And it's not a hc, it's a style decision- Toei, I'm begging you to give these women their deserved melanin.

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

I mean, easy answer is Franky. Second easiest answer is each other. Third easiest answer is Tiff, but she's an OC so that doesn't count. I do think post-Franky leaving, Mozu and Zambai get closer as they both step up to fill his position, while Kiwi gets more invested in that secondary friend group. In the same tone as the Nami/Kiwi thing, I actually do think those two would get along if they spent more time together. I think Nami would like both sisters under different circumstances, we're just never really shown them. On the flip side, I have Robin and Mozu getting along slightly better. It's the interlocking big sister-little sister dynamics, on repetition, if that makes sense. But less properly sisterly, more just complimentary.

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

Oh I loooooooove writing when they both tell a story at the same time. One of my favorite scenes to write was them essentially recapping the first third of the plot to Zambai, it's so much fun letting them bounce off each other and finish each other's sentences. They need to be their own characters, but I also love when they get to combine (they are like crystal gems to me). What I don't like? I don't like how little I have to work with. There's just scraps in the canon, so I had to build a lot of them up myself. In a way this was a bit of a blessing, they got to be whoever I needed them to be as long as it supported whatever Franky was up to, but it was still a challenge. Also- the true hardest part was the hours I spent remembering which was which and which was older (Mozu is younger and is the one in yellow, Kiwi is older and is the one in pink. it took me 13 chapters and 275k to cement that in my brain and I'm still certain I got it wrong at one point or another. I had to make a nemonic device.)

[ornithia]

lmao i got blocked for this

i, a living, breathing, real-life existing aroace individual, a literal example of the very category you specifically attempted to white-knight, asked a genuine question regarding the puritanical "white-washing" of the general identity to which i and several of my peers belong to - but i suppose confronting your own bigotry was just too much to handle, eh?

let's go over your "values":

so you're not a "radical inclusionist" (w/e that means) ... but by your own logic, excluding certain marginalised groups (such as the select "undesirable" and "dirty" asexuals that do not fit the pure stereotype mold) precisely means you're also not a real leftist, but a "Republican in training" (this is literally YOUR own definition in YOUR own words)

so ... people like you, then? also awfully convenient that all of this info that constitutes blocking was hidden below a read-more, btw. (also, you commented on someone ELSE's post. i'd say that's fair game - maybe DON'T comment publicly at all if you truly don't want to engage with anyone, especially not if you're requiring them to read a whole TOS essay of your "voids" and "warranties")

this one was a little further down ... buddy. MOST people who ship alastor are asexuals themselves, safely exploring their identities and analysing their experiences through a fictional proxy. i can ASSURE you the majority of us are not aphobic, we're simply diverse, as human beings are wont to be. trying to fit us all into a neat little box and weeding out those who do not fit your standards or rhetoric, on the other hand - now THAT'S aphobic as all shit

going over the DNI list now and:

lmao WHAT. please research the history of humanity and the arts, i GUARANTEE you that most people who've written/created analogs of terrible things (since the very dawn of human creativity) have not PERSONALLY engaged in horrific deviancy so much as commentated on it, in order to make a point about its horrors and use it to tell a greater message. (also "predators in the making" is literally a dog whistle used in right-wing circles, specifically the ones that embrace terf-rhetoric, are homophobic, anti-feminist, and pro-censorship with the intended goal of resetting society to the "nuclear family" aka institute a social order in which the queers don't exist, women exist purely to spread their legs and pop out babies for their masters Men, children are DANGEROUSLY isolated and taught to be ignorant of the world that exists beyond their neighborhood so that when they eventually grow up they end up xenophobic Adults unable to cope with the notions of Different and New and far less able to creatively relate, empathise, or put themselves in others' shoes, for better or worse.

also, THIS is why ACTUAL critical thinking matters, and not just lazy broad strokes of some supposed "general morality", like holy shit you'd think you'd realise this given you consider yourself a "💜Beginner Satantic-Pagan Witch" and all the maligned things that THAT would imply based on a surface-level understanding of satan/lucifer's origins without actual research into the religion, like - based on the name alone, most people would assume you have a sadistic and LAUGHABLY disproportionate desire to see humans suffer due to a petty and envious "sibling rivalry" over the fact that god doted on humans just a little "too much" for lucifer's personal liking (per the canonical texts of the abrahamic religions)

OBVIOUSLY that's not the case, as there's ALWAYS more to the picture; you criticals should try applying this philosophy more often, you all seem so miserable all the time it's hard to imagine how this COULDN'T help

as for the rest of the list ... honestly, it isn't terrible. MOST of it is reasonable. pity, as we could've potentially been friends - had you just chosen to NOT speak on behalf of ALL asexuals with 0 consideration for our varied and complex nuance and spooked yourself into blocking me over a reality check

[bi4pan-polls]

okay so! i am here with propaganda for Rashmi Jamil and Amelie Macon (Rashmelie) from Entropic Float!

most of my propaganda is reused whole cloth from what ive said for 17 million years of pining, so there will be a significant amount of focus on how long it took them to get together

anyway.

oh. my god. where the fuck do i start with them for real.

okay so, theyve been friends since early childhood, and before either of them came out (Rashmi is agender, they/them, while Amelie is a trans girl, she/her, and they are in fact canonically bi4pan - or pan4bi, if were going by name order, since Rashmi is pan and Amelie is bi). the earliest time that we know that they have feelings for each other is when theyre both 14, and Rashmi - already out, with their entire family (parents and grandma) supporting them without question - is moving. uhhh 90% of american geography names are the same to me so i might lie there. from Nevada, where they both grew up, to New York, where Rashmi is planning on studying dance further, which has always been their plan; around 14 is when they ran out of teachers at home.

they quietly hope Amelie doesnt confess her feelings for them, as they fear it might tempt them to stay, which they cannot allow themself to do.

Amelie, meanwhile, is very carefully not thinking about gender, because her parents are quite frankly the worst. over the course of the years before they meet back up, Amelie has had some dates, but each time, they dont work out, and in her own words, put logs on the flame she carries for Rashmi.

Rashmi, meanwhile. gets married.

one of Rashmi's biggest struggles in their romantic pursuits has been the fact that they are both Indian and queer. it has been a struggle for them to find someone who respects both - someone who respects their gender identity while not throwing their culture under the bus. that is one of the factors contributing to the way their relationship with "Ajay" (we learn that this name isnt his real one, but it was magically replaced in Rashmi's memories of him and we dont know it) played out: he is also Indian, and the first thing he asked them upon meeting them was what their pronouns were. and it was all good.

until it wasnt.

i would love to get into that deeper, but the important point is that "Ajay" is kind of a piece of garbage, whose crimes include finding Rashmi's address when they didnt give it out, deliberately not sending Amelie her wedding invitation because Rashmi told him they used to have a crush on her, driving them to drop out of dance school, and general possessiveness (notable being the fact that, whenever he is home, he always asks them to stay home too, which leads to them dropping their social circle and their hobbies). one of the places it grows from is "Ajay" being ace and not quite believing that Rashmi accepts that. he also has a substance abuse problem.

all of that culminates as they return from a short visit to their parents, and he in a fit pushes them down a long flight of stairs.

in the meantime... god, i cant even figure out what parts of information are important about Amelie here. i would put as notable the fact that she only figured out she was a girl something like a year before the events of the game - and only ever came out to Rashmi, who in turn told their parents...

and who didnt realize that Amelie's workplace didnt know.

her workplace is just. terrible in social terms. she loves the work itself (its food industry, a restaurant in a casino, dont remember the exact job description) but her coworkers are being the absolute worst. a cesspool of toxic masculinity. also an environment for Amelie's undiagnosed psychosis. she is prone to auditory hallucinations.

after being outed to her boss while also hearing from Rashmi's parents that their husband is... lets just say bad for them, she, while safely at home, hallucinates that her boss or maybe her father is breaking down the door.

simultaneously with Rashmi as they are falling down the stairs, they make Wishes.

these are not widely understood; from the context of the game, it seems as though some people get a Wish when in significant peril, or in distress. you do not need to use the Wish immediately as you get it, but they both did.

essentially, what Rashmi Wishes for is a way to escape from their husband that wouldnt raise a fuss; and Amelie Wishes for a place where she and Rashmi can both be safe. (i am very muddly on the details there) their Wishes create the anomalous clocktower where the game takes place.

Oh my gosh,,,couple of all. Not just Pan4bi couple of all time. Just couple of all time in the world.

*Propaganda for Rashmelie from Entropic Float Part 1

[cry1ng0v3rsp1ll3dm1lk]

i still haven’t decided if i’m going to force myself to write once a day or just let it come naturally. i’ve never been good at habits—lauren says we’re both really bad at maintaining things. and i can’t disagree with them. almost every plant we’ve ever bought has ended up yellow and shriveled up on our back patio. but i’d like to think i’m still capable of tending to something, someday.

next friday, i’ll be a nanny. i met the family at a queer expression event last month, and their kid just straight up ran around in circles the whole time. i just finished reading a book about these twins who literally combust into flames, though. so at this point in my life i think i feel capable of wrangling a hyperactive four year old.

i went over to their house yesterday for the first time to talk about what my schedule/compensation was going to look like, and laurel was already sitting in a miniature chair on the front porch, anxiously awaiting my arrival. i wondered if her parents had explained to her that we were going to be best friends for the summer. her mother, robin, popped her head over the garden fence to say hello. her teeth are crooked and kind of gray, but she is so beautiful—she has these bright blue eyes that anybody would just kill for.

we left our shoes at the front door and headed into the house. they moved here about a year ago (around the same time lauren and i moved into our place), but the house already looked so lived in. rainbow garlands from the birthday party section of target permanently hanging in the kitchen, laurel’s art on the fridge, a thrifted mid century dining set. jesus, fuck. lauren and i haven’t even hung up shit on our walls.

we sat and talked in the living room while laurel played imaginary games by herself. it felt weird that we were talking about her as if she wasn’t literally right there, but she didn’t seem to mind. robin told me about laurel’s obsession with star wars and spider man, and explained that her favorite thing in the world was to play dress-up. suddenly, laurel appeared in a full-on darth vader costume (giant mask and all). robin tried to ask her a few questions to engage her in our conversation, but laurel was in full darth mode—selectively mute and fully concentrated on channeling the force. she silently walked around in circles, obviously completely entranced in her imaginative world. “she’s like this a lot,” robin explained, “she’s really good at playing by herself—you could honestly probably just sit back and read a book.”

i was an only child (and a weird ass fucking kid), so i see a lot of myself in laurel. i would come up with entirely different worlds in my head and just disappear into a place where i didn’t have to think about how uncomfortable it all was (existing in a human body on planet earth). i think i’ll disappear this summer, too. i think laurel and i will create our own beautiful imaginary world where nobody can even touch us.

[chemicalpink]

You seem knowledgeable about it so 👀

What advice would you give to someone wanting to try BDSM?

You said previously the time you were sugaring was a niche bdsm thing,you don’t have to go in depth, but what was it like ?What are the dangers ?

Ohhhh dear, I don't know if you signed up for a lenghty answer but- I have one.

First off, thank you so much for considering me knowledgeable on the matter, I hope this can help shine some light on the question at hand.

You know how much I love DISCLAIMERS: This answer is by NO MEANS a definite answer to the question, I am simply answering from my very own experience and education in the matter.

OKAY so if someone were to come up to me and say Hey Marinette, I'm thinking about diving into BDSM, any advice?

I would probably tackle a few points.

How well do you consider you know yourself in every matter.

Independently of whether you're diving into the sexy parts of BDSM or not, you must understand yourself wholeheartedly, mentally, physically, emotionally and even spiritually. You must be aware of your limits when it comes to other people and yourself. I would also advise you know your contextual being and environment just to be safer, kinda test out the waters without involving yourself by asking around, how the bdsm community has developed in your area (sometimes you'll come to find that values and goals may differ from what you're looking for)

2. Be of age.

I believe it is a given, but looking back, I would truly advise for you to at least be 21 years old before you decide to venture in the scene. I was 18 when I first started out, and I can tell you it most definitely fucked up the way I relate with other people, as much as we think we are balanced within, being mature or what not, truth is, some things are organic and developmental according to your life experiences, there's no need to rush into things as you'll get to experience things as they're meant to be.

3. Develop a trusty circle of friends.

Unfortunately, bdsm is still regarded as something taboo in most parts, so it might sound a bit difficult to set yourself up with a few friends that know about your practices, just in case anything were to happen, they don't have to be part of the scene, just respect it as such.

Now, I'm probably not the best example out there when it comes to my bdsm experience but it is indeed a learning experience.

I never really dived into the sexy experience of bdsm outside of trusted partners with whom I had an emotional relationship status with, BUT I used to be a findom in the scene across the globe.

As much as I would love to go into much detail, I literally can't BUT hired professional findoms aren't that common so I was on top of my game up until covid hit and I lost most of my income.

I started when I was 18 as a sub with one of my ex-boyfriends, it was- excruciatingly horrible if I'm being honest, when he and I broke up, I started hooking up with men and looking back as to the reasons why they loved being with me, it is absolutely gross and it is one of the reasons as to why I am not that attracted to the smexy side of bdsm. ANYWAYS, when I turned 20 I started being openly queer, I often sub-ed for women and I started dom-ing for men. Things happened, word got around, I started dom-ing for much older men than me, up to the point where at 21 a person I usually sub-ed for suggested I tried out being a findom, so I did, at 22 I "retired" for mental health reasons as I found myself in the middle of a horrible breakup, stuck in a foreign country, potentially being a findom to 5 regular men (and the tax authorities on my ass for the dumbest reason–a story for another occasion)

As for the dangers... well, at the end of the day the scene is all about trust. There is always going to be some sort of power dynamic in between, and although we are aware of it, bdsm is meant to serve as a relief of sorts, we are only responsible for our own actions, so there is always going to be the doubt of will x person be as knowledgeable on the matter as I am? Are they understanding the same bdsm principles as I am? Are we both on the same page? Are our levels of involvement similar to each other? Some people dive into bdsm with their partners as something fun, spicy and whatnot, without really thinking about making the most of it, just as an addition to their already existing relationship and interaction, to some of us, it is more about the psychological aspects that bdsm comes with, to others it's a relief method, so as long as you make sure you're practising it responsibly in equal feet, it should be good.

Unfortunately, being queer is also a danger for the most part, I am not so sure about the differences when it comes to different practices but at least on my part, I was a queer female-presenting person, so there was a lot of forcing femininity from people that I didn't get involved with but knew of and had to interact with, some belittling and things of the sort.

All in all, it might be a bit easier to answer precise questions, but so far, this is all I can recall from my experience.

[fortunatelyenchantingtaco]

Do be so interesting to read fandom history cause while i did gain interest in fandoms really early for my baby self, it also mainly took place in a ru**ian speaking part of the internet

And the fun part about being a country that just doesnt generate any revenue or is uniteresting to basically anyone. Is that while yeah i was paranoid to keep all separate (which could have been better but whatever) its also blessedly so free of any and all lefal rights. For multiple reasons, tbf, its not only the fact that people were greedy and didnt want to pay. Soviet union just didnt have proper laws about intellectual property, and people just got access to the internet, and, more importantly, everyone was poor as shit. The piracy was thriving in parts because no actual people wanted to go into Ukraine and try to restrict the internet. Like hell we were buying discs of games and such, but those were pirated too

But torrent sites were so abundant it was not even funny. They still are, just a bit prettier, and less likely to give you a malware you purge for the next three days from you pc. Like when i tell you i was surprised you can get fined or smh over streaming from the wrong site i was flabbergasted. Yeah. The same thing with fandom content, the cursed ru**ian site i was on simply did not care. No one cared about any ownership. Hell, this was technically positioned as a social medie but became really dark at some point, doxxing was way too common. And there were ‘asks’ which is basically you take on a role of a character and answer questions and post. In the later years they also got littered with legal rules but for the longest time it was just. Nothing

It do be funny how its all connected not even to the fact that Ukraine is a new country or the fact that our government just refuses to police internet (aside from when it comes to our neighbours. Thsi yeah). Its all deeply connected to the simple fact that a) all fun content wasnt in english 2) we are simply not making any money to the creator regardless. How are you going to send cease and desist to a country where that shit doesnt even work

Like yeah there was a lot of scary shit. If your family/friends/people in your city would found out that you were queer or were writing queer? Oh yeah that could result in losing basically everything. But even that was more common in our neighbour and ukraine is simply just. Idk. People are very tired and deeply do not care because even if youre not participating in stuff like that your lifelihood is dangling on a threat every day cause economy is shit and everything is shit. Most people are genuinely too tired to go and doxx someone, and im not joking rn. I would love to say its better rn but its deeplt deeply not now we are at warl

To be completely honest, i do think fanfiction writers deserve to have commisions and everything and have the option to be given shit for their work. Fanartists do, and the main reason writers dont is because for whatever reason, legally speaking, it can be argued that the person is paying for the artist’s interpretation or a charater so its not a crime. Idk it may vary between different countries its just what i heard people at mine say. Its always much more finicky when it comes to writing and there is no walking around it which sucks ass but whatever i guess. I think it was just a bit more of a pressing issue in my circles due to everyone being sad depressed poor and writing to take control of their lives in any way possible but not much space to be actually creative and try to live on writing books

Damn sorry this is not a rant just an observation of how different fandom experience is. Due to me being like in A Lot of asks i was speaking with a lot of writers and with no one who draws so idk their part of the story. Drawing asks were also there btw, can still see people occasionally post the “hi ask me questions” art. So yeah i kinda. Was marinating in this

[satoumafuyuss]

I'm the fandom headcanon discourse anon! And yeah I fully agree with your addition!

More thoughts about this: I read a post in the BG3 fandom a couple months ago on how you can pick any voice regardless of your character's genitalia. They said that while it was nice trans inclusivity, it doesn't actually represent the full scope of what trans people sound like. It sort of moved me, and I wish we had more of that in general!

Not to say that trans people can never pass because that's absolutely wrong, but I wish it wasn't so universally treated as the absolute endgoal of being trans. I wish the full spectrum of bodies that comes with being trans or cis was represented in media.

And also that people didn't immediately headcanon characters who fail to very strictly conform to gender roles as "trans people who aren't there just yet" or "trans people who you can clock as trans because they act/look like their agab". It's super uncomfortable. I think there is a lot of worth to be found in respectfully representing early transition trans people/trans people who dont care about passing, but it just feels like fandom spaces are enforcing gender roles instead of supporting that. I don't think it's healthy to have that level of scrutiny over the way people simply exist.

I don't think people stop and think about why they associate thinness, whiteness and youthfulness with femininity both outside and within trans circles. There is this mentality of thinking that as soon as something is lgbtq its absolutely morally pure, and I truly hate it! People should be more critical of things!

But anyway feel free to use those thoughts for your video!!! I wish to remain anonymous but I'm happy I can help you with it.

you are so right anon..!!!

Passing is not the end-goal for many trans people, myself included. It honestly kinda bothers me that the go to compliment for trans people is "you pass so well!" cause like.. unless the person in question was specifically asking if they pass or not or felt like they don't and it bothers them.. it's kinda weird. I've seen so many trans people make posts talking about the fact they don't care about passing or don't want to but people STILL comment "omg but you pass so well!" cause to them passing is the ultimate goal for us and they cannot fathom someone being comfortable and happy in their visible transness.

All trans people deserve to be represented and heard. We're all individuals with different goals and needs for our bodies and identities. Listen to the individual! So many people who know I'm trans for some reason always ask each other things about me instead of just asking ME. And it's just lead to no one understanding who I really am and it's so hard to correct them anymore. It's like a game of telephone.. really does not help I was outed to my entire outer family even though I told the person who did it I wanted to tell them all on my own terms and one at a time so it could be personal. but whatever.

I've had many people in my life comment things like "if you're a boy why do you still wear skirts? why do you carry a purse? why do you have long hair? why do you paint your nails?" etc etc and it made me dysphoric not because those things made me feel that way.. but the fact my identity was questioned purely based on my interests and clothing. Why can't I just say I'm a boy without it being questioned? I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it.

Anyway, sorry got a little personal there but I guess my feelings on this matter are very personal so.. ahem.

And yeah I totally agree with the point of people believing things to be 100% pure and good when it has even a little bit of LGBTQ+ representation in it. It's a huge problem with media literacy I think. There are plenty of extremely bad and problematic medias out there that have queer rep in them but I still see people praise them for purely HAVING queer people in it. Meanwhile god forbid a media have nuance and subtext and coding instead of blatant representation and suddenly its the worst and most problematic thing in history for not saying anything outright..

What makes a trans headcanon offensive or not is down to the context of the character.

For example. Say you have a character who's interests do not align with the traditional things their agab "should" enjoy. They have a big character arc about being their agab while still enjoying these things because their interests don't effect their gender identity at all.. this is a character who is offensive to headcanon as trans.. (atleast when you try to make their gender identity align with their interests instead of the identity they heavily express in the media. like hcing a male character who wears skirts as a transman is fine imo cause it doesn't change his gender identity, which in this case, is very important to him.)

Now this time we have a character who has no arcs relating to gender identity or expression of anything like that. if you headcanon this character as a trans it is 100% okay! There's no gender roles to point to here!! you're just having fun!!

Then we have an ambiguous character, a character who doesn't particularly care about being treated one way or the other and just enjoys what they enjoy which happens to be different than what they are "expected" to like based on their agab. This character is also fine to hc as trans cause obviously their gender identity isn't that important to them.

And finally the most offensive. This character is heavily implied to be a trans already. They express gender problems relating to being trans one way but people read this and somehow cannot fathom that a trans character has ALREADY transitioned (socially and/or medically) and assumes this means the character is a trans the other way. Ignoring all the obvious signs and coding that they are, in fact, very wrong. Because a lot of people these days have no media literacy or reading comprehension. (also works for nonbinary characters where people insist upon them being binary one way or the other which is.. annoying(such as Crona from Soul Eater))

Anyway SORRY I RAMBLED FOR AWHILE LMAO ahem ahem thank you for offering your thoughts for my video on the topic! It's good to get other peoples opinions and thoughts on it cause I don't want it to be one-sided and only from my pov lol I hope everything I said makes sense idk I have a bit of a headache lmao

[frankensteinmutual]

the end of day debrief with kim really makes me so insane like. the amount of yearning in every sentence? it's like suddenly a switch has been flipped in your brain and this thing that you've been trying to suppress your whole life is suddenly clawing its way to the surface, now that you've literally obliterated yourself to start anew. even electrochemistry has to comment on how "devastatingly cool" he is. devastating! electrochemistry who does nothing but try to convince you to do drugs and ask out women! but it's not even just that, literally every one of your senses is focused on him, all your skills attuned to him, feeding you never ending information about how the city reflects in his glasses, all his smallest micro-expressions, how slender the cigarette is in his fingers, how deeply he inhales it, how the dark circles around his eyes somehow make him look younger instead of older - if you were to visualise the scene harry literally would not take his eyes off kim. and the way kim opens up! and even compliments harry! it's so intimidate, so tender. when I played the game for the first time I really did not know anything about it and when I got to that scene I was completely struck by it, the first thing I did after was googling "disco elysium queer" or something. and after this scene it just kept going, so much growing longing in every thought, every interaction with kim. yes I know it's still not obvious to everyone who plays the game, but as a queer person who knows this subtle desire bleeding through your subconscious when you're not ready yet to look at it in the daylight, this love that dare not speak its name - there's no way not to recognise it. and it's so beautifully done, too, there's no question about authorial intent, this doesn't happen by accident. even taken out of context, but especially within the context of harry's confusion about his own sexuality, the smoker on the balcony, kim's homosexuality, harry's censoring of homophobic slurs as the only thing that gets censored in the whole game, the focus on harry and kim being the target of homophobic slurs throughout the whole game in general, all the flirtatious little moments between them - it is text. it only gets reinforced by the subtext, like kim's saviour halo explicitly linking him to dora via portraying him as another person harry turns holy in his heart (and the metatext, because everything the devs have ever said about it only supports this reading (which isn't even a reading, it's just there, it's the game)). anyway my point is they were insane for all of this but the scene on the balcony in particular

[bounce-a-coin-off-your-witcher]

shelter me from winter’s bite

Everyone’s doing a hypothermia fic so I figured I may as well contribute. It’s one of my favorite tropes.

title taken from Brian Czyzyk’s poem “Hoarfrost” (he’s my favorite young queer poet and you should check him out).

tw: hypothermia, angst with a happy ending, whump with a happy ending

---

“Do you always have to be so damnably loud?” Geralt growls, glaring at Jaskier from across the small room. 

“My apologies for existing,” the bard snaps back. He’d only been rearranging his pack, looking for something reasonably clean to sleep in while his clothes were laundered by the innkeeper’s lovely wife. “I’ll try to do so more quietly from now on, good sir.”

Geralt huffs out a breath in passive-aggressive annoyance and Jaskier bristles. 

“Oh well, then. C’mon witcher, I know you want to say it!”

“Say what?” Geralt asks. His voice is low and threatening. He’s ready to play the game and by god he’s going to win this time.  

“It’s practically your motto at this point,” the bard hisses through his teeth, angry and bitter and tired. Geralt sees victory. Sees some peace and quiet on the horizon. “Say it!”

Geralt does as he’s told, like any good witcher would: “Fuck off, bard.”

“There it is!” Jaskier laughs joylessly, throwing up his hands. He pulls on his doublet and boots and heads for the door. “If you want me gone so badly, Geralt, then I will go. I’ll get out of your lovely white hair and leave you to mope in peace.”

“Fucking finally,” the witcher snarls, turning away. He doesn’t see the genuine hurt in Jaskier’s blue eyes as the bard quietly closes the door rather than slamming it. He doesn’t hear the quiet sob that rips its way out of Jaskier’s throat as he stands very still, shocked and suddenly exhausted all the way to his bones. He doesn’t smell the salt of his bard’s tears as he slips silently down the hallway and out into the late autumn night. He doesn’t notice the snow starting to pile up on the windowsill ahead of season.

He’s too busy being a self-flagellating moron to notice any of that.

---

Geralt is woken in the middle of the night by a commotion downstairs. He can hear several loud, panicked heartbeats and one very quiet, very slow heartbeat beneath all of those; it’s achingly familiar but the half-asleep witcher can’t quite call its source to mind. Geralt listens as the innkeeper barks out a series of sharp orders: “Meredith, you get to the kitchen and make some strong black tea! Florence, fetch a pail of warm water and two or three towels from the laundry. Josiah you lazy lout, get into the attic and fetch some blankets! The poor lad has gone blue all over!”

The witcher peers into the hallway and catches the skinny stable hand, Josiah, racing for the attic staircase. “What’s going on?”

“A farmer from the next town over was on his way over to help a friend’s sow give calf and he found-” the lad pauses to suck in a great gulp of air and launches off again “-and he found that friend of yours lying in a snowbank, muttering nonsense and shivering like a leaf. The poor fool didn’t have a cloak on him or anything, just a doublet and walking boots! He’s near-dead!”

Geralt curses and makes for the stairs, taking them two at a time until he reaches the main floor. There are voices coming from the kitchen and he follows them as if in a dream, his feet moving without aid of his conscious mind. “Jaskier? Is it the bard, Jaskier?”

“Are you the great brute what kicked him out?” the innkeeper’s wife asks, crossing her arms over her ample chest and narrowing her eyes. Geralt falters. 

“No, he- he left on his own, in a huff.”

“Wonder who could have started the huff,” the woman rolls her eyes. This isn’t about his status as a witcher, Geralt knows; this eye roll was made by a woman who knows a lovers’ quarrel when she sees one. Except that this stupid little spat might have cost Jaskier his life.

“Where is he? May I see him, goodwife?”

The woman points to a table in the corner, which has been cleared of cooking implements and cushioned with a heavy bearskin. Jaskier lies atop the brown fur, his skin frighteningly pale, his lips and fingers tinted a slight blue. Geralt rushes to his side and takes one of the bard’s stiff hands in his own. He brushes a stray lock of brown hair from Jaskier’s forehead and nearly recoils in shock from the temperature of his skin. Even colder than his hands, which are already dangerously frigid. If Jaskier cannot play his lute-

Geralt doesn’t even allow himself to finish the thought. Instead he works on rubbing small, careful circles onto the back of the bard’s hands with his thumbs, warming the skin in tiny increments: “Shh, you’re safe. I won’t let you go.”

The bard remains unmoving, heartbeat fluttering weakly, lungs barely drawing breath; Geralt fights back an overwhelming sense of panic, trying to recall whatever training he’d received at Kaer Morhen concerning freezing humans. 

“Do you mind if I take him upstairs and tend to him myself?” the witcher asks.

“Can you take care of him?” the innkeeper’s wife replies. 

Geralt bows his head, shame licking like flames up and down his bent spine, and nods. “Yes, Ma’am. I have dry clothes for him in our room and I was trained extensively for emergency situations such as this, all witchers are.”

“Alright,” she narrows her eyes. “But he’d best be alive come morning.”

“I’ll happily turn myself over to the village elders to be dealt with accordingly should the bard come to any harm,” he vows. Her eyes widen minutely and he can read the surprise in her body language, but she remains relatively calm. 

“Any further harm, rather. Alright, then. I’ll have my husband and the girls bring those supplies up to your room for him. We’ll be glad to go back to sleep.”

“Thank you for your kindness,” Geralt bows formally. She blushes despite her irritation with him and waves him away. 

“Take your bard and go, witcher, before I change my mind and spend all night caring for him myself out of motherly pity. Go.”

Geralt hefts Jaskier into his arms, heavy bearskin blanket and all, and hurries up the stairs to his room. He will not let Jaskier come to any further harm. Not by his hand. Not by his word. Never again. 

---

Back in their room, Geralt quickly undresses the shivering human, peeling away what few damp layers there are with growing disappointment. Jaskier hadn’t been prepared for a walk in the snow at all! Although, to be fair, it hadn’t seemed that cold earlier in the evening and the snow had been sudden and heavy. 

He wipes Jaskier down with a warm cloth and slips one of his own clean shirts over the bard’s head. He tries not to let his gaze linger on the way Jaskier’s shoulders don’t quite fill out the dark material. Or on the way his dark, wiry chest hair peeks out through the open laces at his throat. The witcher quickly shuffles him into clean smallclothes and wraps him in a thick wool blanket. 

They sit curled before the fire and Geralt holds Jaskier against his chest. He hums with his voice like gravel, grating out one note after the other in some attempt to soothe the bard’s aching body. Jaskier shivers and shakes violently in the witcher’s strong embrace, his eyes clenched shut with the cramps that wrack his frame as his muscles return to their normal temperature. Geralt feels like he’s holding a porcelain doll and keeps his grip deliberately loose, tight enough to comfort but not restrain.

“G-Geralt,” he groans. “Hold me, please.”

The witcher squeezes his arms more confidently around the bard’s middle, burying his face in Jaskier’s soft hair and breathing deeply. The warmth that usually emanates from his busy human body is gone and his chamomile-honey scent is buried beneath a layer of damp cold; it feels wrong. Terribly wrong. Geralt murmurs against his temple, begging the younger man’s forgiveness: “I’m so sorry, Jaskier. Gods, I’m so sorry. Will you ever be able to forgive me? I’m a fool, you know. I’m a fool witcher who never says anything important until it’s too late. I’m so incredibly sorry, my love.”

“This is a very good dream,” the bard sighs, smiling despite the pain. His eyes open, bleary and addled. “Like I was having in the woods, but better.”

Geralt raises an eyebrow and Jaskier seems to understand the unspoken question, even in his current sorry state.

“The real Geralt would never be so gentle with me, dear heart. You must be a dream, sent to me on my deathbed to ease my passage into the afterlife. There’s no other explanation for your sudden displays of tenderness.”

“It’s... It’s really me,” Geralt affirms. He runs his hand up and down the length of Jaskier’s spine, “I’m here, Jaskier. Can you ever forgive me for being so stupid?”

“I forgive you for being stupid ever other day, dear witcher. It is of no consequence to me.”

“It almost was,” Geralt frowns. “I nearly- I almost-” 

Jaskier’s arm raises weakly and his too-chilly hand presses to Geralt’s cheek. “I shouldn’t have stormed off like an idiot. I shouldn’t have kept picking the fight. We both fucked up, alright? What matters is our second chance. We got to have one, Geralt.”

“Hmm.”

“Am I wearing your shirt?” 

“Yes.” 

“Why?”

“Yours were all being laundered and this one was clean and it had been in my pack near the fire so it was already warm and-”

“Did you take care of me all night?”

“Hmm.” Geralt sighs after his hum and glances away for a moment. “What did you mean about... about the dream in the woods?”

“Oh. Well, when I was very cold and things were hazy and slow, I dreamed that you were there with me. Everything got very fuzzy and warm for a little bit, and when it was warm you were holding me like this and giving me little kisses. It was... nice. Even though I knew I was dying because you were being so soft, so considerate; saying things to me you’d never say out loud in real life.”

“I love you, Jaskier. I will try my best not to lose my temper needlessly,” the witcher swears. “You don’t deserve it.”

“Can we still cuddle like this?” Jaskier asks, leaning his weigth against Geralt’s firm chest. “It’s so nice to be held.”

“Of course. Anything you want. I’m not going to waste my second chance by treating you poorly. Not for another second, my beloved bard.”

“B-beloved?”

“Hmm.”

“Oh, well then I’m definitely still dreaming.”

Geralt lifts Jaskier into his arms and carries him over to the bed, which is piled high with their extra blankets. He tucks Jaskier into the nest against the wall and lays along the outside of the mattress. He presses his lips to the bard’s, reveling in Jaskier’s returning warmth, and smiles. “I’ll prove it’s not a dream. Every day.”

“Sounds nice,” Jaskier yawns, snuggling into the witcher’s arms and settling down to sleep. 

“It will be.”

[unpopularshipbracket]

Round 1a Match 1

Rashmi Jamil/Amelie Macon (Entropic Float)

Fic count: 0

Liam Dunbar/Hayden Romero (Teen Wolf)

Fic count: 336

Propaganda under the cut

Rashmelie:

"this essay is going to be reused whole cloth from the submission of them to the 17 million years of pining poll! because unfortunately i do not have the energy to go insane enough to write up anything new oh.

my god. where the fuck do i start with them for real.

okay so, theyve been friends since early childhood, and before either of them came out (Rashmi is agender, they/them, while Amelie is a trans girl, she/her, and they are both mspec which is a bit less relevant but is also there). the earliest time that we know that they have feelings for each other is when theyre both 14, and Rashmi - already out, with their entire family (parents and grandma) supporting them without question - is moving. uhhh 90% of american geography names are the same to me so i might lie there. from Nevada, where they both grew up, to New York, where Rashmi is planning on studying dance further, which has always been their plan; around 14 is when they ran out of teachers at home.

they quietly hope Amelie doesnt confess her feelings for them, as they fear it might tempt them to stay, which they cannot allow themself to do. Amelie, meanwhile, is very carefully not thinking about gender, because her parents are quite frankly the worst. over the course of the years before they meet back up, Amelie has had some dates, but each time, they dont work out, and in her own words, put logs on the flame she carries for Rashmi.

Rashmi, meanwhile. gets married. one of Rashmi's biggest struggles in their romantic pursuits has been the fact that they are both Indian and queer. it has been a struggle for them to find someone who respects both - someone who respects their gender identity while not throwing their culture under the bus. that is one of the factors contributing to the way their relationship with "Ajay" (we learn that this name isnt his real one, but it was magically replaced in Rashmi's memories of him and we dont know it) played out: he is also Indian, and the first thing he asked them upon meeting them was what their pronouns were. and it was all good.

until it wasnt.

i would love to get into that deeper, but the important point is that "Ajay" is kind of a piece of garbage, whose crimes include finding Rashmi's address when they didnt give it out, deliberately not sending Amelie her wedding invitation because Rashmi told him they used to have a crush on her, driving them to drop out of dance school, and general possessiveness (notable being the fact that, whenever he is home, he always asks them to stay home too, which leads to them dropping their social circle and their hobbies). one of the places it grows from is "Ajay" being ace and not quite believing that Rashmi accepts that. he also has a substance abuse problem.

all of that culminates as they return from a short visit to their parents, and he in a fit pushes them down a long flight of stairs.

in the meantime... god, i cant even figure out what parts of information are important about Amelie here. i would put as notable the fact that she only figured out she was a girl something like a year before the events of the game - and only ever came out to Rashmi, who in turn told their parents...

and who didnt realize that Amelie's workplace didnt know. her workplace is just. terrible in social terms. she loves the work itself (its food industry, a restaurant in a casino, dont remember the exact job description) but her coworkers are being the absolute worst. a cesspool of toxic masculinity. also an environment for Amelie's undiagnosed psychosis. she is prone to auditory hallucinations.

after being outed to her boss while also hearing from Rashmi's parents that their husband is... lets just say bad for them, she, while safely at home, hallucinates that her boss or maybe her father is breaking down the door.

simultaneously with Rashmi as they are falling down the stairs, they make Wishes.

these are not widely understood; from the context of the game, it seems as though some people get a Wish when in significant peril, or in distress. you do not need to use the Wish immediately as you get it, but they both did.

essentially, what Rashmi Wishes for is a way to escape from their husband that wouldnt raise a fuss; and Amelie Wishes for a place where she and Rashmi can both be safe. (i am very muddly on the details there) their Wishes create the anomalous clocktower where the game takes place."

Layden:

"THEYRE SO FUN !! liam and hayden went to the same middle school and absolutely hated each other because they got into a fight right before picture day in 6th grade and they had black eyes and bruises and shit in their yearbook photos. they meet again in their sophomore year of high school and both of them are still holding that grudge a little bit, before liam tries to make amends. plot stuff happens and liam ends up saving haydens life, and their romance kinda begins. teen wolf has this lore where werewolves can take pain from people (it’s a weird show with weird lore) and they both take each others pain by kissing. hayden (temporarily) dies in liams arms and when she comes back she says nothing feels right anymore, except for him. during their first season they also have this fun romeo and juliet/opposite sides dynamic. and in their second season hayden puts her literal existence at stake because she trusts liam enough to save her. theyre so good."