#sorry i didn't respect the poll results

[elementary-my-dear-daddy]

Captivated

Analogical (Virgil & Logan)

Warnings: Intoxicated sex, smoking, blood/violence mention, jerking off

Read it on AO3!

Summary: Punk!AU where Logan is absolutely fascinated by the lead of a local band at a house show.

The harsh ring of feedback coming from the shitty speakers set up in the backyard of the house show Logan was at seemed to make his skull buzz. Contrary to what Remus tells all of their friends, he was not dragged, lied to, or forced to be here. He liked the thrum of loud music and enraged lyrics spat towards him, it was a good place to decompress and let go of the rigid persona he typically presented. He could give up the polos and ties and neatly combed hair for a night in favor of a less maintained appearance, which felt rather freeing. Tonight he’d borrowed a pair of ragged crust pants from Remus and opted to wear a sleeveless tank that showed the slightest bit of his Oxytocin formula tattoo on his shoulder, and of course exchanged his dress shoes for sturdy boots just in case he’d end up near a mosh pit. Speaking of, Remus found him just as the next song started, waving him over to the gate into the yard so they could actually hear each other. He successfully managed to work his way through the crowd and noticed that Remus was pulling something out of his pockets.

“What’s that?” Logan asked loudly, trying to be heard over the loud screaming of the song.

“I scored a few spliffs!” Remus yelled back, pulling out two of the mentioned items as well as a lighter, “Want one?”

Logan nodded, waiting for him to light his own before taking one for himself. He let the end rest in his mouth while he clicked the lighter a few times to produce a flame. He didn’t see the harm in occasional vices like these, so long as they remained occasional, and if they helped him let loose, well that’s just an added bonus. He exhaled the first hit slowly, just like the other taught him to do when they were skipping classes together in high school. 

“These aren’t laced, right?” He thought to question.

“Probably not.” Remus shrugged, “I got ‘em out of a nightstand, so unless whoever lives here wanted to poison themselves I don’t think so!” 

Logan rolled his eyes, taking another drag. Of course Remus stole them, “Let’s hope we don’t get caught then.”

“Have I ever gotten caught?”

“Don’t you remember junior year when we-”

“Have I ever faced consequences?” He shot with a grin.

Logan frowned, “Unfortunately, no.”

“Fuck you too, stiff.” Remus blew a cloud of smoke in his face with a laugh.

When the taste and smell of burning filter hit them they flicked their spliffs to the ground, taking care to stomp both of them out (If Remus was going to cause a fire, it would be intentional). There’d been a lull in sound as a new band started to set up after the last. It wasn’t much of a stage, just a few amps, a drum kit, and a platform of old wooden pallets and scrap that raised the performers up slightly. Logan leaned against the cinderblock walls of the yard separating it from the neighbors who so graciously put up with what went on here and watched over the crowd. Small groups chatted, drank, smoked and what could only be described as dicked around the venue. He took it in, smirking to himself as he thought about how just a few years ago he’d be appalled at such deviant behavior. Now, he happily participated in it all.

His attention gravitated towards the new band, notably the man at the front fussing over what looked like a bass. Heavily decorated with tattoos, piercings, and a magenta dyed mess of hair, he seemed so… compelling to Logan. He slung his instrument over himself and wandered up to the microphone set up at the front.

“Hey, shut up we’re gonna start.” He spoke, setting off the feedback on the mic again. The crowd hushed and began to gather towards the stage. The man spoke again, “We’re Fairy Certain by the way and we write songs about gay sex.”

There were four clicks of drumsticks counting the band in before noise assaulted the crowd. A fast driving beat drew people to the front, with a few people starting to headbang and form the beginnings of a pit. There were a few bars of instrumentals, before the man at the front leaned into the mic again.

“We aren’t a crime… Not on my time…”

Logan paced over to the edge of the crowd, gazing up at the stranger with a hazy expression. Lithe fingers plucked over the stings of his instrument quickly as he yelled into the microphone, captivating Logan.

“I’ll be your man…that way you can…”

His mind could have been addled by smoking, or from the rush of adrenaline the music gave him, but the singer seemed to glow up on the stage. He wondered if it was just a trick of light from the porch lamps reflecting in the second hand smoke from various sources or if it was actually radiating from the man.

“Be my boy, let’s destroy the fucking world “

Over the course of the performance, Logan got closer to the stage. He moved with the crowd, shuffling along as the tempo of each song changed. There were a few times he landed at the edge of the pit and absentmindedly pushed its participants back towards the violent center. It was one of those times when the crowd was fully ramped up that he felt a rough shove at his back, launching him forwards into the action. He was caught up in the chaos and tried to get his head on straight to escape it. He dug his shoes into the ground and shoved the nearest body, only to feel himself get slammed by another in his side. When he turned, an elbow collided with his face. In a few seconds, he was completely disoriented and knocked over onto the dusty ground. He had enough sense in him to cover his head and curl up, waiting for the pit to dissipate or for someone to pick him up. Luckily, it was only a few moments before someone was grabbing onto his arm and yanking him back to his feet.

After getting his bearings and dusting himself off, he noticed the music stopped and everyone in the immediate vicinity was staring at him. The person who grabbed him still had a hand on his shoulder. He turned to look and was met with the same man who had been performing this set. Now that he could see his face a little more clearly, he saw the touch of black eyeshadow beneath his brown eyes. He looked at Logan with a worried expression, checking for any distress in his face.

“Hey. You ok?”

Logan opened his mouth to answer but nothing came out. He nodded instead.

“Your lip is bleeding.” The stranger pointed out, “Hold on wait here.”

He watched as the other hopped back up on stage and leaned into the mic again.

“Learn your fucking show etiquette assholes, you’re supposed to pick up someone if they fall! That was our last song anyway. Whatever.” He stepped off the stage and returned to Logan, who was more or less at the peak of his trip and was unable to do much besides stare. The man grabbed his hand again and led him back into the house.

Logan was taken past a long line of people to the house’s bathroom, the two of them cutting off the next person in line for it.

“Hey what the fuck?”

“I’m just getting the first aid kit, gimme a sec.” 

Logan waited in the doorway, watching him dig around under the sink until he retrieved what he was looking for. The stranger once again grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the back of the house, grabbing keys from the chain on his belt and unlocking one of the bedrooms. He was sat down on the bed, waiting as the other opened the kit up and found some things from it.

“I’m Logan.” He managed to say. 

“Virgil.” The other responded. He took Logan’s chin in his hand as he analyzed the injury, “Don’t think you’ll need stitches but this looks pretty nasty. You took a few decent hits out there, huh?”

Logan stared at him with wide eyes, blushing, “Is it that obvious I was smoking?”

Virgil looked at him, confused at first, and then with an expression of realization, then a soft smile, “I meant in the pit, but now that you mention it your eyes seem kind of dilated.”

“Oh.”

“Just hold still for me, Logan.” He said, taking a wipe to the cut. Logan winced and would’ve pulled away if not for Virgil’s hand holding him in place. Soon enough the blood and dirt were wiped away and some salve was applied to help it heal. It helped bring him back to earth for now, his high finally dying down enough for him to feel the pain of the injury and the awkwardness of the situation.

“Sorry, I should have been more careful out there.”

“No, not your fault. Some asshole pushed you in, I saw him.”

“He didn’t happen to have no shirt and a mustache, did he?”

“He did.”

“Remus. A friend.”

“An asshole friend.”

“That defines him very well actually.” Logan said, earning a chuckle from Virgil, “Sorry to make you end your set. I liked it a lot.”

“Thanks, but don’t worry about it.” Virgil shrugged, “Rude people don’t get to hear my awesome gay sex music anyway.”

Logan smiled, “Why do you write about it?”

“Dunno. I’m gay. I have sex. I like to yell about it.” He closed the lid on the first aid kit and set it off to the side, turning back to Logan, “Why do you go to these types of shows?”

“They let me relax, as hard as that might be to believe.” Logan answered, “Plus it isn’t a bad way to meet people.”

“True.”

They both sat there on the bed for a moment. Loud music from the next set of musicians started, slightly muted by the walls of the house, filling the brief silence between them.

“I bet you meet a lot of people at these shows.”

“Sometimes.” Virgil responded, “Everyone wants a singer but no one wants a bassist. They cancel each other out.”

“Surely that’s not accurate.”

“It’s true, and yet we’re the best with our fingers.” He joked, holding up two fingers and mimicked the action of plucking a bass, “You trying to say something?”

Logan rubbed his arm nervously, “Oh, I didn’t mean like- well… you are attractive but I meant, sorry.”

Virgil laughed at the other fumbling over his words, “It’s okay, it’s cute.”

“What is?” He asked, still a little dazed.

“You are.”

“Oh…” Logan turned red. It was hard to see in the unlit bedroom, but still noticeable, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Virgil replied, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but do you wanna stay for more than just the music?”

It took Logan a few seconds to process what Virgil meant, but when he got it he looked back at the other man and nodded quickly.

Virgil acted quickly, going to straddle Logan’s hip and capture his lips in a kiss. He was careful to avoid hurting him further, but he couldn’t help but intensify the kiss when the faint taste of blood entered his mouth. Logan was overwhelmed just by a simple kiss. The other’s tongue piercing ran under the roof of his own mouth, while the twin hoops from his spider bites pressed into the flesh of his lips. He tried to match the force that Virgil gave, but found himself content just being the recipient of the affection, only making a lazy attempt to lick into the other’s mouth occasionally.

After a few minutes of this, Virgil pulled away, taking in the sight of a lust drunk Logan. He pushed him to the bed lightly before going at it again, this time letting a hand roam underneath the thin fabric of Logan’s shirt. The feeling of Virgil’s hands exploring his skin excited him and he arched into the touch as soon as his hand ghosted over his pecs. A soft moan left his mouth, causing Virgil to smile against his.

“You like that baby?”

“Mhm.” He responded.

“You want more than this?”

Logan gasped as Virgil ran his thumb over his nipple, “Please, yeah.”

“Let’s get these out of the way then.” Virgil said, playing with the hem of Logan’s shirt and pants.

They both quickly scrambled out of their clothes, flinging them out of the way as they pressed quick kisses and gentle touches to each other's newly exposed skin. When they stripped down to just boxers, Virgil urged Logan to lay down on the bed once again. He rubbed at the other’s thighs as he hovered over him, quickly noticing the small wet patch forming at the top of the tent in Logan’s underwear.

“Fuck, so hard already? That’s fucking adorable.”

“Virgil…” Logan whined.

“I know babe, I know.” He reached to pull his own length out of his boxers, spitting on his hand and slicking himself up, letting a quiet moan leave his lips as he did. Once he worked himself up he took out Logan’s cock, leaning forward until he held them both in his hand. He stroked them together, listening past the loud music coming from outside to hear all of Logan’s noises.

Logan bucked his hips up into Virgil’s hand, looking at how handsome he looked above him. Tattoos covering his chest, arms, and sides, all glistening with the effort of performing both before and now. His expression, lips slightly parted, brow furrowed, messy hair sticking to his forehead, and eyes squeezed shut in focus as he jerked them together, it was so incredibly hot. He let out a groan as the other twisted his wrist just right so his palm ran over the head of his dick. 

Virgil opened his eyes to see Logan writhing in pleasure beneath him, his hands gripping the sheets beneath him. He moved his hand over their lengths faster, gripping them harder than before.

“Fuckkkk Logan, feels good.”

“Uh-huh, faster!”

“You want more? Huh?”

“Yes!”

Virgil increased his pace and leaned forward to kiss him again, not being as gentle as before and biting Logan’s lip between his teeth as they got off. They both thrusted into his grip, moaning into each other’s mouth. It was when Virgil ran his tongue piercing over the fresh cut on his lip that Logan felt that familiar heat curling in his veins.

“ ‘m close!”

“Me too, shit-” Virgil cried as he stroked them as fast as he could. He captured Logan’s mouth in another long-lasting kiss, the other whining constantly as his orgasm built.

With a final couple touches from Virgil, they both toppled over the edge together. They spilled over each other’s cocks and stomachs, panting from the quick fuck. Once they rode out the pleasure, they collapsed beside each other on the bed.

VIrgil was the first one to break the silence of the afterglow, “How’re you doing, Lo?”

“That was really good.” Logan breathed, turning his head to rest against the other boy’s shoulder.

“Good, good.” Virgil sighed and reached for his shirt, cleaning the come off of the both of them. Logan watched and grimaced.

“You’re not going to wear that out, are you?”

“No, I’ll just toss it in the laundry tonight.” He replied, throwing it off to a corner of the room.

“Wait.” Logan finally put the two dots together, “You live here?”

Virgil nodded, “Yeah. I wouldn’t be as much of an ass about everything tonight if it wasn’t my place.”

Logan thought for a moment, “Was your door unlocked when you came in here?”

Virgil looked at him with curiosity, “Uh, yeah, I thought I locked it but I guess I didn’t. Which is weird because I normally check a bunch of times to make sure it’s really-”

“Check your drawers.”

Virgil leaned over to check the bedside dresser drawer where he kept all his smoking stuff that he usually used to relax before bed and, lo and behold, a few joints and spliffs he rolled before were missing.

“How did you-”

“I’ll make Remus pay you back.”

[tamayula-hl]

Plagiarism allegations currently levelled against me and evidence of my innocence

I'm sorry for posting so many times on this hard topic. But yesterday @freewld (https://www.tumblr.com/freewld) asked me, "You reversed, traced and plagiarised my drawing, didn't you?" I received a DM saying. After discussion, I was given permission to publish a verified image of me and her drawing by overlapping them. Below is her art, all of which I have permission to publish.

The picture on the left is my illustration that is allegedly being used in this case. And the picture on the right is the one she claims was plagiarised by me.

She says: " When my drawing is inverted, angled and overlapped, there are a number of places where the lines overlap. I believe you must have traced my drawing because there are too many places where the lines match for it to be a coincidence".

See the verified image she created by overlapping our drawings on her Twitter feed. (another)

To be fair, I also made a verification image and video.

When two pictures are overlapped with respect to the line of Seb's right eyelash.

When two pictures are superimposed on the basis of the lines on both cheeks of Seb.

I draw every time using the screenshots I have taken of Sebastian as a reference, and probably she does too. I would argue that if I draw a picture with reference to a 3D model of the same 'Sebastian Sallow' character, it is only natural that the two pictures should be similar. If one tries to express his individuality - the distance between his eyes and eyebrows, the length of his nose and philtrum - in a drawing, it is natural that some of the lines will overlap.

In the first place, to claim 'plagiarism by tracing', most of the lines need to match, but there are not many places where the lines of the two pictures overlap completely. It is my contention that this cannot be evidence of 'plagiarism by tracing'.

I believe I have proven my innocence to the world with these two superimposed verified images and videos.

However, @freewld is using Twitter's survey feature to solicit third-party impartial opinions on the allegations.

This is the current voting result.

Incredibly, the majority of votes went to 'I think Tamayula plagiarised'.

I think this voting system might not be fair because as you know, X(Twitter) allows a single user have multiple accounts and actually I currently have eight accounts on X(Twitter). Therefore, I wonder if it can work properly as the third-party impartial opinions because some users might vote this multiple times by using their own multiple accounts.

And I've only been back on Twitter for about a week and have only about 200 followers. In contrast, @freewld has been running her account for 10 months since March 2023 and has more than three times as many followers as me. It is a voting system that overwhelmingly favours her.

With such a voting system, there is no way she can prove that I have plagiarised. It remains to be seen what the outcome of this poll will be, but even if the result is more votes for 'I think Tamayula plagiarised', I will continue to maintain my innocence and I will not apologise to her.

Finally. I have tried to be as honest as possible over the past few days and have continued to assert my legitimacy in Japanese HL fandom, but it is no longer possible for me to deal with this matter any more. I feel ridiculous about everything now. I hope everyone can understand my disappointment a little.

Thank you so much for reading this long sentence so far. I am taking a short break for just a few moments.

[larnax]

i wasnt expecting the results of that poll to suggest that dudes don't like cracking eggs in general but it kind of makes sense? the dominant narrative in the tumblr transmasc community at this very second is that You Can Never Know and providing any kind of advice is invasive and possible misgendering which is in large part a backlash to transfem spaces where egg cracking is a thing you're supposed to actively do so a bunch of trans dudes saw jokes about forcefem and thought "but if someone forcefemmed me that would suck ass bc im not a woman and dont want to be one" as if "actually im a trans guy" or even "hey, please don't speculate on my gender it makes me uncomfortable" wouldnt immediately cause any transfem person irl who suggested you might be an egg to be like "oh sorry bro my bad" bc shes like a human being capable of processing additional data, so they all made a bunch of posts about how that extremely niche scenario would be really invasive and triggering which then had to be abstracted so it wasnt immediately obvious that theyre just getting really mad at some transfem on reddit talking about putting estrogen in the water supply, and then somehow became a major community talking point.

which i think is the problem, almost every horror story is "someone decided i must be [identity] and then didn't listen when I told them to stop", because if i say i don't wanna cut my hair and some trans girl says "yknow i felt like that too before i realized i was a girl" and then im like "oh i already tried being a girl and it wasnt for me" and thats the end of the conversation it's at worst a little awkward. ofc it's different if it's a cis person telling me it's proof i haven't entirely forsaken my womanhood but this is a classic case of "changing the words in a sentence changes the meaning". the fact that transandrophobia necessitates that cis and trans guys experience gendered treatment by society the same way means that you can't say "well this is fine if a trans person does it from a place of wanting to help and is respectful about it" because a fully actualized gnc trans guy and a feminine cis guy who's never been given encouragement to explore his gender have to be the same kind of person and not two groups of people with different circumstances who will be helped and hurt by different things.

[rulers-of-hungary-tournament]

Final Result(s)

The time has come, lads and lasses! It's been a number of weeks, but we finally have our Ultimate King of Hungary (before Mohács). And who is that amazing, unparalleled ruled that has absolutely trounced every opponent (in these polls, that is)?

It's him. Of course it's him, who did you think was going to win this one, III.András?!

Anyway, we also had two bonus polls, and we'd be remiss if we didn't also mention their winners.

First off, there was the Anti-Habsburg Antiking contest. We decided to do away with the Bethlens and Bosckais (sorry to all the Bethlen, Bocskai, the other Rákoczi and Thököly stans out there) and instead just straight up pit the two most iconic candidates against each other. As a result, Rákoczi Ferenc and his moustache trounced Szapolyai János - and I don't suppose any of the others would fare better, though it would be funny to see Thököly get, like, zero votes. Anyway, we might do something with that somewhere down the line. For now, congrats, Ferenc, you're the best alternative we ever had to the Habsburgs.

The second poll was in our opinion more well-constructed, and also asked better questions: namely, who is the TRUE father of the Hungarian nation? That one was pretty decisively won by Árpád (other options included Levedi, Álmos, I.István, "nationalism wasn't invented yet, dumbass", and Other). Painting by Feszty Árpád, from around 1900, just to rub it in that "nationalism wasn't invented yet" was in fact the correct option. (Kidding. Unlike the Hungarian government of the 19th century, we are not in fact in the business of dictating people their national identities - if y'all say Árpád is the Father of the Nation, I believe you.)

But to be honest, I am not quite ready to part with this sideblog quite yet. So before I send you on your merry way, I have one last question for y'all...

[whos-hotter-jjba]

ik moody blues or stone free will win (yawn) but real ones know purple haze deserves to win

I'm probably the worst person to send this to aksjsjshfhjhs I'm a Purple Haze hater, sorry, but I really respect how the Purple Haze truthers are so committed to it!!

I don't think those two are the favorites though, Moody Blues didn't even beat Sticky Fingers in an earlier poll, and Stone Free lost to Star Platinum before too. But I think the beauty of it is that the results can always change! I personally voted for Moody Blues and Stone Free in those polls, I'm a basic bitch with specific tastes

[aysekira]

Being a cdrama fan is frankly exhausting, you can't just enjoy the creativity and stories bc there are a 100 behind the scenes considerations and changes happening all the time. I know most industries don't respect writers but chinese dramas take the cake, they're the least respected when their work is the most important, it's why so many dramas end up being horrible. And these new regulations are so frustrating because some shows need 50 or 60 or 70 episodes, nirvana in fire joy of life ming lan, already a lot of shows are cutting their episodes so they air at the same time instead of waiting 12 months, how the hell are you going to tell a 60 or 55 episode story in 40 or less episodes? They keep adding these insane rules as if they're trying to kill the industry outright, you can't make harem shows, you can't make queer shows even if they're sanitized to high heaven, lord forbid couples have sex or sometimes even kiss like normal people, you can't have reincarnation which is why we end up with so many shitty rushed xianxia endings they can't give us more. Sometimes you find something so great it makes all the mess worth it but the way they're going they're not going to leave room for even the tiny tiny slivers, the 0.01% of dramas that are great that somehow manage to make it through the cracks despite their best efforts. It's clear their is something very wrong with the industry when they make 400 dramas a year yet not even 40 of them are good, it's truly the wild west out there bc most of these dramas you'd watch them and think they're money laundering schemes bc no way this actually got made. They need to stop caring about pretty faces and paying them insane amounts of money and start hiring good writers but I'm not going to hold my breath... Sorry for the rant I just had to let this out lmao

let it all out anon: this is a safe space :) i wholly agree with everything you said since i'm a firm believer in that while you could aim for a very tight, cohesive&coherent writings (which i assume would be the aim of this rule); there's only so much you could tell before that compression ceiling hits& all hell broke loose in terms of story telling.

to add more to your examples, i cackled in imagining just how absurd it would be if NEF, rebel princess, secret advisors, three kingdoms cut down to those limits at it might result in qi heng being non existent (minglan), advisors being a singular advisor instead& more. and those, like your examples are the kind of dramas that (similar to the examples mentioned) needed the length to fully flesh out their dimensions.

i do not know what to say to make you feel better about it but my personal approach (esp recently) is just to have no hope about it, zero expectations-- then if it turns out to be good; it'll be a very nice surprise (personal example: currently airing LYF. i expected nothing&even side eyeing it a bit before it airs because well uh the casts&promos shown didn't tickle my fancy one bit back then-- and now it's practically my current obsession)& if it's not then it'll be just a passerby of a show and no investment (time/interest) was made whatsoever :)

or may i suggest venturing more to kdramaland as they have all sorts of good ones recently/currently airing (19th life, my dearest& lovely liar to name a few)& i heard from a very trusted source (@dangermousie) they have quite the stack waiting in line to air some of which you could see from the poll here: https://www.tumblr.com/dangermousie/725177465537003520/the-sageukcostume-kdrama-you-are-most-looking?source=share

you have a good day now anon :)

[netscapenavigator-official]

I actually wanna do a debriefing of my "Most Fuckable Ghost in Luigi's Mansion 3" Polls, so here goes:

And fyi, the titles aren't just underlined for style. They're hyperlinked to the respective poll. So be careful. Also, this a really long post with a lot of photos.

Part 1: The Basic Enemy Ghosts

Initially, this poll started off with two front runners. Goob and Hammer took off before any of the other three got any votes. Goob took the initial lead, but Hammer quickly passed them. As the poll got more votes, however, Goob slowly increased in popularity, while Hammer fell behind. The others began getting votes, too, resulting in...

5th Place [6 Votes]

Hammer!

~

3rd/4th Place (Tie) [7 Votes]

Oozer & Slinker! (Sorry, I can't put them side-by-side. Oozer's image is too tall, and Tumblr's auto-formatting crops his head off.)

~

2nd Place (Runner-Up) [10 Votes]

Trapper! (y'all are NASTY)

~

1st Place (Most Fuckable) [13 Votes]

Goob!!

~

Part 2: Bosses (Levels B2 - 7)

This poll, unlike Part 3, did not omit anybody. However, the keen eye will notice that there is no ghost listed for Level 1. That's because there isn't one. Level 1 is the lobby, and it is the only floor in Luigi's Mansion 3 to not have a boss ghost. This is most likely so that the player has time to orient themselves with the game, as this is the floor where the player first battles any ghost. Therefore, Goob could technically be considered the "boss" of Level 1, but not really, so I didn't count it.

Initially, Steward took off in popularity, shortly followed by Chambrea. I can't really say that I'm surprised, as, in my opinion, the third part of this poll had far more fuckable options. Either way, these two were the front runners for a long time. Steward took the lead first, but Chambrea later overtook him. Eventually Steward came back, and the two were tied for quite some time. However, at some point in the middle, Amadeus Wolfgeist had a sudden surge in popularity. He rocketed to the top and remained there for quite a while. Eventually, though, his lead became less and less as others began getting votes, including the former front runners.

Doctor Potter, the Boss on Level 7, is one of two ghosts in all three polls to receive zero votes. It appears the Luigi's Mansion crowd on Tumblr is not only anti-environment, but also anti-GILF.

8th Place [0 Votes]

Doctor Potter (L7)...

~

5th/6th/7th Place (Tie) [1 Vote]

Chef Soulfflé (L2), Kruller acab (L3), & King MacFright (L6)!

~

4th Place [2 Votes]

Clem (LB2)! (i don't know about y'all)

~

3rd Place [9 Votes]

Chambrea (L5)! (this concept art does her dirty with that gummy smile lmao)

~

2nd Place (Runner-Up) [11 Votes]

Amadeus Wolfgeist (L4)! (nvm what i said earlier, y'all are apparently pro-GILF after all)

~

1st Place (Most Fuckable) [15 Votes]

Steward (LB1)!! (i'm starting to sense a very basic theme here...)

~

Part 3: Bosses (Levels 8 - Rooftop)

This poll omitted Level 11's boss(es) because, while it's never explicit said anywhere, the three of them are very much coded to be little girls. So I, obviously, excluded them from a "Most Fuckable" poll. It worked out, though, as that meant Parts 2 and 3 could have the same number of options.

Speaking of options, I did originally have Level 11's Nikki, Lindsey, & Ginny in this poll before I saw their image and realized they were kids. As a result, I decided to make Part 2 the bigger poll, with it initially having Morty. Once I decided to remove Nikki, Lindsey, & Ginny; I moved Morty to this poll to even things out. However, a keen observer might've noticed I made a goof of this poll: Despite changing the title and poll options to reflect the addition of Morty... I completely forgot to add his photo... even worse, I completely forgot to remove it from Part 2. I did eventually notice, however. Before either was reblogged and my horrid mistake was immortalized forever, I was able to edit both posts and correctly put Morty's reference photo where is belonged.

Also, because Morty's photo came at a later date, you can actually tell that it's higher quality than the others. This is because I made the initial poll on my laptop. On my laptop, the preview images loaded at a decent resolution, so I just saved them, not thinking much about it. I didn't realize the Super Mario Wiki was down-scaling them until after I had all the pictures uploaded. Oh well. However, when I realized I had messed up Morty's photo, I didn't have access to my laptop. Therefore, I had to make the edit on my phone. On mobile, the Super Mario Wiki down-scaled the photos a LOT more, so I had no choice but to open the image link and use the original file.

(For this debriefing, I'm using ALL of the full-res photos because who doesn't love extra pixels?)

This was the most voted-in poll, with 52 votes.

I expected King Boo to do abnormally well (because he's King Boo, duh), but I also expected Hellen Gravely to do a lot better than she did. While King Boo and Hellen started off well, Hellen quickly fell behind as people started voting for Serpci. Serpci rocketed to first place last minute and maintained that lead for quite a while. Eventually, however, King Boo made a come back and the two were tied up until the final day of the poll.

DJ Phantasmagloria and Morty were also late-comers to the game. They both weren't really present in the first few days of the poll. I expected Morty to do abnormally well, too, because of how friendly he is, in the game, compared to the other ghosts and bosses. DJ Phantasmagloria I was torn on. I didn't personally choose her, but I knew she might have a decent chance if she found her audience. Both Morty and DJ Phantasmagloria rocketed up in numbers in the second half of the poll's timeline, and I think they both held first place at one time or another.

Captain Fishook, the Boss on Level 12, is the second candidate in all three polls, alongside Doctor Potter from Part 2, who received zero votes. Unlike Dr. Potter, I'm more okay with this one... I mean, he's literally a fish. I probably would've been more mad if he had gotten votes. I debated whether or not to even include him, but I did just in case someone complained.

8th Place [0 Votes]

Captain Fishook (L12)... (yes it's spelled like that, according to the Super Mario wiki)

~

6th/7th (Tie) [1 Vote]

Ug (L9) & Johnny Deepend (L13)!

~

5th Place [6 Votes]

Hellen Gravely (L15)! (I AM FUMING!! HELLEN IS LITERALLY MOTHER! HOW DARE YOU ALL!!!!)

~

4th Place [9 Votes]

DJ Phantasmagloria (L14)!

~

3rd Place [10 Votes]

Morty (L8)! (I suppose we can have one personality king...)

~

2nd Place (Runner-Up) [12 Votes]

King Boo (Rooftop)! (we love a plus-sized King... like slang-wise... not monarchy-wise)

~

1st Place (Most Fuckable) [13 Votes]

Serpci (L10)!! (Hellen was fucking ROBBED)

~

Conclusion

The three Most Fuckable ghosts in Luigi's Mansion 3 are:

Serpci (L10), Goob, and Steward (LB1)!!!

~

However, if we want to democratize things:

3rd Place [25% of poll & 13 Votes]

Serpci!! (Level 10)

~

2nd Place (Runner-Up) [30.2% of poll & 13 Votes]

Goob!!

~

1st Place (THE Most Fuckable) [37.5% of poll & 15 Votes]

Steward!!! 🎉 (Level B1)

~

(Somehow, even when all the options were ghosts, y'all still managed to choose the basic white guy. I'm never making another opinion poll again.)

[thelordofgifs]

Obscure Tolkien Blorbo: Quarterfinals results and analysis

It feels a bit silly to do this for just four polls, but here we are. The full quarterfinals results are here, and statistics under the cut.

Who got the most votes?

Pleased to announce that that was our queen Tar-Ancalimë, with 214 votes!

Who got the fewest votes?

Narmeleth, who has done very impressively so far, bows out with just 58 votes. Sorry, LoTRO people! You have my utmost respect anyway.

Which poll got the most votes?

Beregond vs Tar-Ancalimë had a healthy 399 votes.

Which poll got the fewest votes?

The quarterfinal from the most obscure quarter of the bracket, Narmeleth vs the tra-la-la-lally elf, garnered 196 votes - still a lot more than the low vote totals in the previous rounds! Things are definitely heating up now.

What was the tightest race?

I didn't think we could possibly beat the insanity of the fox vs Eldacar poll last round, but astonishingly Nerdanel beat Haleth by 0.4% or one vote. What can I say we love them both.

What was the biggest sweep?

The tra-la-la-lally elf did rather crush poor Narmeleth with a margin of 40.8%! Which makes me rather scared for the semifinals ngl.

I hope everyone enjoyed the quarterfinals :)

[fontasticcrablettes]

Tales of Sexylady Poll Results

The poll finished with 204 responses! Thank you everyone for participating. As last time, I reserved 5 spots for write-in votes. I'll post the final bracket in a bit, but for now, here is a summary of the results.

First, a shout-out to the lovely ladies who didn't quite make the cut. Everyone on the list got voted for at least once, so they are all appreciated by someone, but they just didn't have the numbers. Many of these characters suffered from the simple fact that their games are not readily accessible to the Western fanbase, so let's hope for translations and ports in the future so everyone can appreciate them!

In order, the honourable mentions (and number of votes) are:

Mary (30)

Mint (24)

Hilda (20)

Sodia (20)

Ines (19)

Rondoline (18)

Schwartz (17)

Ange (16)

Shizel (16)

Harold (13)

Atwight (11)

Ilene (11)

Nanaly (11)

Philia (10)

Mathias (8)

Elrane (7)

Symonne (6)

Almeidrea (6)

Peridot (4)

Lilith (4)

Agarte (3)

Incarose (3)

Beryl (3)

Fortuna (3)

Zilva (2)

Thitose (1)

Let's have a moment of silence for Thitose, the character who remained at 0 votes for the longest time, and only secured a single vote in the end.

The Winning Write-Ins

41 characters were submitted for consideration. The top 5 earned a slot in the final bracket. They are:

Mary Kaufman

Pronyma

Driselle Sharil

Nephry

And the 5th slot will go to Replica Nebilim, winner of the Nebilim-off hosted earlier today. Both Nebilims had an equal number of votes... probably. As discussed earlier, I counted "Nebilim (unspecified)" as the Replica version.

The next two most popular write-ins were Laplace from Luminaria, and Undine. I'm not sure which Undine, that is. Some voters specified the Symphonia version while others didn't specify. I think we will have to have a spirit tourney in the future to clear everything up.

In a similar situation are the spirits Luna and Celsius. Tied with them are Fourier from graces, Seres from Berseria, and Noir from Abyss.

Finally, the following characters all got 2 votes each: Aqua, the Baticul Lesbian, Jozette Cecille, Karla Outway, Kasque, Lisette, Mesissa, and Mileena. I hope Baticul Lesbian is happy being in a group with Cecille.

There isn't time to list every write-in who got only 1 vote, but here are some of my favourites:

Anna Irving. I respect a woman who is sexy purely on vibes.

"Captain Aqua from Tales of Hearts r is the sexiest Tales lady to me hands down I don't even know if she's 18+ because she doesn't even have a page on Aselia and she kinda looks like a Bratz doll but she's a badass pirate captain and her color scheme of purple and yellow looks so good istg." I respect you and I believe you, anon. I can't even find a picture of her when I google, so I'll have to take your word on it, but I'm sorry no one else shared your passion.

Morgrim. My good friend. This is a cat.

"Marble (ToS) (listen I know she's old but sexiness is in the heart)." You know what anon? Marble is a grandmother, which means she is a mother to someone who is also a mother, so that's like, MILF x 2. It's simple math.

Thanks for participating!

[thequimmqueen]

hi Fran, totally get your frustration over Quimm—I think the people who want them together (or to stay together, or get back together, etc) are a bit out-numbered xP … it can be disheartening!! So I totally get you, and sorry to hear it’s making you feel bad )):

But remember, the ship means a lot to a lot of people, and I’d even say it’s one of the backbones of fanon in this fandom—so I don’t think Quimm is going anywhere, at least!! I respect whatever people wanna ship or interpret them as, but I agree it would be nice if more ppl were loud about them as we are 🙈

Hi- I'm really, really sorry that it took ages for me to answer your asks -again- but I felt like I needed the right mindset to answer this one properly, otherwise, I would have behaved very negatively.

(Which I did in the first poll's results... I'm also very sorry about that. You guys really don't need me being passive-aggressive over stuff like this.)

But, Yes, it IS disheartening. It is disheartening to see so few people genuinely like them as a pairing and it kills me that I get so sad about it because I don't have the right to worry so much over what others like- I should KNOW AT THIS POINT- BUT-

It's so.. painful, still. Especially when you're me and you have a history of getting harassed or arguing with people over opinions on this ship & the other one I hate so much. People I thought I got along with, no less.

But, I cannot deny, that's true. Quimm, for better or for worse, has been popular for being one of the few character duos that are directly connected through flipdecks, and seem to have unfinished business going on. (that's not something Timm and Cecilia have haha) There are also many who favored it before I even set foot in this community, and deep down I still hope they like it because a lot of what I've written and drawn is also inspired by them, the people who were obsessed with it before I took the torch myself.

And well, even if I have posted less and less with them, that doesn't mean that I have stopped thinking of them, or Flipline in general. There are days when I can go for hours talking and discussing headcanons, Quimm ideas, and other stuff without a care in the world. But I just, don't feel confident enough to share it here, but instead to friends only.

I would love to find a new place to do that in, to share my art, and headcanons, and place all the cheesy, dorky, made-with-love art and content for these two that I can make.

Because, haha, they still have my heart and they aren't giving it back anytime soon.

And yes, I also want there to be more people that like the ship... which is actually funny because just when I was having this crisis I met a new person who has also recently asked me my opinion on their own ideas for them two. It's funny how the universe works sometimes.

Maybe there aren't many people right now, and maybe it'll be long until we can settle a stable little group (though I know there's still a few people who like it) But I do know I want to share the art and stuff that I make of them, at least to those who care.

and I know that there are indeed, people who care. I'm so sorry I didn't remember before.

[j-vin]

Hi Jay,

I've recently replied on some of your posts & I wanted to express that I respect your effort to try to understand the concern on both sides. I imagine that you've gotten a lot of hate which you do not deserve.

If you are interested in learning more about radical feminism I recommend reading books but if you want a blog to look at radically aligned's one has a good faq.

As a radfem, I hope you know that we do not hate you for being trans. We want to help you but we see a different solution to gender dysphoria - one without all the risk and side effects. We want gender gone and the recognition that sex does not tell you about personality.

I know that message may seem contradictory with what you have seen of radfem activity but I encourage you to read theory for yourself.

We see misogyny as sex-based (e.g. abortion bans effect AFABs and not AMABs) and gender as a tool of that oppression. The radical means "to the root" as we aim to examine the root of sexism and change the system.

Best of luck to you.

Hello dear anon,

I'm really thankful to you for your time on reading my posts. And also, I'm really happy that there are people appreciating my views and sending me this type of messages! And yes, I also got hate (mostly from radfems, actually) and I didn't really understand why, but I love that you are empathic enough to think about this, too! <3

Again, I really appreciate that you give your time away to recommand me books and stuff, and I actually really wanna know you (meaning radical feminists in general), but I don't really have time of doing it (also, my English isn't very advanced, as you see, and I know there will be pretty formal and complicated language). But thank you anyway! :)

I made a poll some weeks ago, and the results showed me that most radfems are not hating on us (which was pretty surprising, ngl. After the posts some of them make, I was expecting somethings else, but anyway). I appreciate your willing to help trans people, but trying to convince them that they are cis (their gender identity macthes with their sex) is not the best thing to do to help them. One of the terrible ways a person could change someone's sexuality or gender identity is by s3xual abu5e, which I don't think it's what you want. The best way you could help a trans person isn't by encoureging them to transition. Giving basic respect and mental support would be what we want!

Also, gender isn't based only on personality traits, stereotypes and gender norms. The main effect gender dysphoria gives is discomfort with your body and biological sex. Pretty tought experience to explain in words :) . As a person who suffered i puberty of it, too, I got to say that I didn't feel comfortable with my public identity (meaning how others call or consider me and the proununs they use to reffer to me). But yeah, trans people are different with different experiences, and, as for example a man usually ears masculine clothes, this applies to transmen too!

I understand why "terfs" find gender ideology mysogynistic, but I justed wanted you to know that if being trangender was a choice, the trans community would be way smaller. I appreciate radfems' intention and I really wish gender and sex superiority to stop, but I don't think posting the kind of transphobic things they post would be the solution. But yeah, I'm not gonna tell people what to do or what to post (as long as it's not too offensive). I just think we should be more respectful to eachother and that's it!

I'm sorry for the way too long answer and the bad grammar. Thank you for your time and patience! Have a nice day! <3

[galaxystar17]

♡A3! Fave play character polls overview♡

I'm dropping by to say that the brackets are mostly done ^^ That said I am planning on starting the polls sometime next week, so be sure to check them out.

As I didn't explain everything regarding the polls in my previous post, I'll go over the categories and other info here.

Poll categories.

Here's the list and a little explanation about the categories that will appear in the polls.

Finalized poll categories include:

-> Favorite play character (troupe plays/mixed plays) - troupe play roles go against other troupe roles, mixed play roles go against other mixed roles;

-> Favorite overall play character for each actor - the two winners go against each other to determine the overall favorite role (the winner role from troupe plays and the winner role from mixed plays);

-> Favorite troupe play character (troupe plays/mixed plays/overall) - similar thing to the ones per actor, just in here the 6 winner roles both from troupe and mixed plays from each of the actors go against one another (the overall category for this works the same way);

-> Last Planet (by troupe/overall) - Last Planet characters go against each other troupe wise (fave role per troupe), also the 4 winner roles have a battle to determine the fave overall Last Planet character.

Also I wanted to say thanks to everyone who voted on the poll regarding Last Planet characters, it helped me a lot with organizing the brackets. Thank you very much 🫶

* I'm unsure about this, but I am currently thinking of also doing a Favorite female play characters category.

2. Brackets.

For reference I'm putting one actor, one troupe and one last planet brackets, so y'all will know how the whole thing looks like (you get sakuya and one half of last planet brackets lineups spoilers while I'm at it lmao). As this is my first time making brackets of any sort for tournaments and the like, I didn't exactly know where to create them. I made them all using canva, so sorry if they're not exactly well done. I wanted to also include each actor's official color, but I couldn't find every single one (for the last planet brackets, I tried to choose colors similar to the troupes' logos). Therefore some of them might not be identical, but I hope they are at least close enough color wise.

The actor's bracket will have side A and side B, while on the contrary the troupe and last planet brackets will not as there's no need to divide them side by side. As of now only the spring and summer's 10th plays have been released, but I still decided to include them. That is why, naturally, for autumn and winter the brackets will look a tiny bit different (beside Tasuku and Azami, because instead of making a separate category for Twin Kingdoms, I included their roles in their respective actor brackets). The only difference will be instead of three matches between the two roles on side A, there will be one match with two roles and one match with three roles (side B, mixed plays and overall category stays the same tho).

For the troupe bracket, as I mentioned above, on the left side we will have matches of the six winning troupe roles from each actor, while on the right side the same thing but for mixed roles. Then the two that win will be put against each other to determine the overall fave play character of the troupe.

For the Last Planet, I decided to have a fave role per troupe and then overall fave of the whole category. At first, I thought of going by the roles of the characters like space police etc., but I settled on this, in the end, as I think it's more neat this way.

The brackets, of course, will be updated as the polls will go. I'm currently creating a masterlist for them. First I'll post the bracket, so you know which roles are against which and the updated one will be posted after the last poll of each actor is over to show final results. Don't worry tho, I will be posting which play character goes further without the brackets in the meantime.

3. Polls and voting.

I'll try to post polls regularly, but I'm sorry in advance if there would be any delay. I will probably queue them, though I'm unsure about the hour yet. Nonetheless, all of the polls of each round will be up for one day, so make sure to vote for your blorbos on time.

Also a little reminder to be kind to the others while voting and doing any propaganda.

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding other categories etc. you can always send an ask, I'll try my best to answer.

Thank you for reading this far and see you in the polls. <3

[fizzingwizard]

poll results!! I got 43 votes. Almost didn't reblog a third time, because the second reblog got only one addition, but y'all surprised me with 10 new votes this time! So small turnout but it's to be expected, I mean I'm not convinced the other 9&% of followers really exist x'D

Assuming those votes are all from people who do actually follow me, that means that about 2-3% of my followers participated bahaha. What can I say, I've been here for ten years, spent most of it stewing in my little corner, and only talk when I'm angry *cough* The majority of people I knew back in the days of tumblr yore have moved on, but their blogs remain. RIP friend blogs. I still remember you, girl whose username I never figured out if it meant a cute story about penguins or a horror movie about a ravenous penguin-zilla

I was kinda curious to see if any of the mysterious followers who joined more recently would speak up... But lurking is definitely allowed :P

The category which got the most votes was, predictably, fandom content... And mainly y'all said you follow for fandoms I rarely ever post about anymore haha. But I like the "now I just live here" vibe. Come on in, pull up a chair, sorry it's all soggy, I left the window open in the rain...

The second most votes went to "I don't remember" and you know what. I respect that.

Now I need to think of something more thrilling for my next poll...

[knb-still-rocks-in-2k21]

This one is for Midorima and Takao! I will focus on details that are my personal favorites since it might take forever if we talk about everything this pair have. :')

Midotaka is definitely one of the best written relationships in knb. Official poll results and the number of fanworks about the pairing said it all.

At first, Midorima was like an alien among the Shuutoku team. He's insanely talented, selfish and has weird habits which made him hard to talk to. He didn't get along with anyone in the team, worked alone, and the team just left him like that as long as he does his job. But Takao, the person who gets along with everyone, started talking to him and gave the lone wolf a companion. Takao was the one who helped Midorima connect with his team.

One amazing thing about Midorima and Takao is their dynamic. They are totally opposite, and because of that, they complete each other. Takao helps Midorima connect with others while Midorima, even though he doesn't directly try to, motivates Takao to work harder. Takao follows Midorima everywhere he goes, and although Midorima never says anything, he appears to appreciate the company.

In the first half of the series, we only know Midorima and Takao as the very serious GoM shooting guard and his way too cheerful teammate sticking with him. After the Rakuzan vs Shuutoku match, we're shown another side of their friendship, and only then did we see the actual depth of the relationship.

(That's the best match in the series imo. All of the characters are well written, especially Midorima whose character development is absolutely amazing.)

It turned out Takao actually lost to Midorima and held a grudge against him, but was being very reasonable and quickly moved on from his ironic situation. It was when he rightfully earned Midorima's recognition. After that, it was a friendship firmly built on trust and respect.

Midorima himself stated his trust in Takao loud and clear.

Midorima agreed to every beautiful thing Takao said about their senpais. He had always appreciated them, but he didn't put that into words. Takao helped him convey his true feelings about the team.

Takao personally takes pride in being Midorima's partner. Takao didn't like Midorima that much at first (hell, his starting point was literally him seeing Midorima as an enemy) but seeing Midorima work so hard turned his feelings into respect, and he started pushing himself harder to deserve his spot as the shadow to Midorima's light.

Conclusion: Takao is the best partner Midorima can ask for. They complement each other in many ways, trust each other with all their beings, and Shuutoku is lucky to have them as a pair on the team.

.

@ikerevedgar sorry it took so long!

[babypandawrites]

Allies, Pt. 12

The Siege of the North, Part Two

Pairing: Sokka x F Reader Warnings: Implications of Death, I think that's all? Word Count: 3,286 Summary: With the Fire Nation waging war on the Northern Water Tribe, you didn't expect things of the past to be brought up, but, when do you expect anything at this point.

Note: And here we have, the final part of Allies :') But don't worry- the story will continue in a sequel 👀 Phew I did not mean for this to take so long, but I was having a really hard time with the end and ended up having to change where the reader was towards the end for me to... actually be able to write the chapter. Thank you to everyone who has enjoyed the story thus far! It means the world to me, really. It's crazy to think about how I've been working on this for four months! I hope you guys will stick with me for the months to come while I write the sequel :') I'll be carrying over the taglist to the sequel since it's the... same story just a different name heh. Let me know if you want to be added or taken off! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and that you all have a great day! <3 Also hi sorry bringing this poll back up bc the results are currently tied!!!

-Navigation- | -Atla Masterlist- -Last Part- | -Allies Masterlist- | -Next Part-

Taglist: @boomeraangin | @brokennerdalert

Eyes blinking open, Y/n slowly came too. Her vision was blurry, and her head was pounding. Faintly, she could hear someone talking, but her head was too fuzzy to make out who it was and what they were saying. Her vision clearing, she could see a rocky ceiling, which seemed… odd. Was she in a cave?

When she tried to sit up, she found that she couldn’t move. Her arms were trapped against her sides, and her legs were bound together. Groaning quietly, Y/n twisted onto her side. Aang was on the ground a few feet away from her, hands bound behind his back. He didn’t seem… present.

Observing the situation more, she noted the figure that stood at the entrance to what she was assuming was a cave. They were still talking, and her head was finally clear enough to make out what they were saying.

“I don’t need luck though, I don’t want it. I’ve always had to struggle and fight and that’s made me strong. It’s made me who I am.”

Struggling weakly against her bindings, Y/n furrowed her eyebrows together. “..Zuko..?”

His head turned to the side slightly, an acknowledgement that she was awake, but he didn’t turn to face her. “Don’t bother trying to get free, I’ll just knock you out again.” He paused for a short moment. “Sorry about that, I just.. I knew you wouldn’t give up. You never have.”

Zuko had… taken her too. Why…?

Grunting, she continued to struggle against the rope, stopping only when Zuko rested his hand on her arm. “What did I just say? Did I knock you in the head that hard?” Sighing, Zuko settled on the ground next to her. “I’d prefer if you didn’t make me knock you out again. You probably think otherwise but I don’t want to hurt you.”

Opting to stay silent, she shuffled in place. He watched her carefully, before awkwardly looking about once she stopped moving. He took in a deep breath, when she started shuffling again. “Are you.. uncomfortable?” Being met with silence, Zuko glanced at Y/n to see she was looking at him with a blank expression. “I can sit you up, if you want.”

Not receiving an answer once again, he let out an annoyed breath. “Conversations usually go both ways, Y/n.”

Still, she looked at him blankly. “I don’t think people typically converse with their captors, Zuko.”

“Well, we used to be friends!” Crossing his arms with a huff, Zuko slumped against the cave wall. “I guess the key phrase is ‘used to be’, isn’t it?” He clicked his tongue, before breathing out a sigh. “I didn’t capture you to turn you in, we could… still be friends.”

Y/n took on a pensive expression. “Then why..?”

“Why did I capture you..?” Receiving a nod of confirmation, Zuko shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t… I don’t know.”

“You don’t… know..?”

“No! Okay?! I just-” Breathing out another annoyed breath, he dropped his head into his hands. “Why? Why did you leave? I thought… I thought we had each other's backs and… and you just up and leave?! Just like that?! No explanation, no nothing!? So why?!” Continuing to stay silent, Y/n grimaced internally at the rise in Zuko’s volume. The more he spoke, the louder he got. It was almost hard to imagine that this was the boy she grew up with.

Zuko scoffed, shaking his head slightly. “Fine then. It doesn’t matter anyways- You’ve chosen your path.” He let out a laugh, one edging on hysterical. “You know, I thought maybe I could sit here and convince you to come back, but I can see that isn’t going to work… The Avatar and his friends have won your favor.” He was silent for a moment, seemingly calming down from his outburst. “Uncle told me that I shouldn’t be mad at you, that I should respect your decision to find your own path. How can I do that when your so-called path is going against me?”

Before Zuko could continue, Aang came too, returning from the spirit world. Attention turned to the boy, when he started to struggle against his bonds. After a short moment of futile struggle, he sat up to face Zuko.

“Welcome back.”

“Good to be back.” Aang spoke with a threatening tone, blinding reaching around with his hands- which were tied behind his back -to try and find Y/n’s wrist. Once he was able to grab onto her wrist, he took in a deep breath and blew Zuko away from them while simultaneously shooting both him and Y/n out of the cave. The two landed in the snow outside, where Aang started to caterpillar crawl.

It didn’t take long for Zuko to get to them, grabbing Aang by the collar and lifting him in the air once he did. “That won’t be enough to escape.”

Suddenly, Appa appeared above them, before landing on the ground. Y/n breathed out a sigh of relief. Katara got off the bison, as Zuko dropped Aang back into the snow. “Here for a rematch?”

“Trust me, Zuko, it’s not going to be much of a match.”

Katara blocked a fireball Zuko shot at her, sending a wave of ice towards him. Once the ice reached him, she encased him in a pillar of ice that she raised high from the ground. When she dropped him, he fell to the ground unconscious.

Sokka jumped off of Appa, rushing over to Aang to cut his bonds. “Hey! This is some quality rope!” He commented, before moving to Y/n to free her as well.

“We need to get to the oasis! The spirits are in trouble!” Aang got up, and ran to Appa, while Sokka helped Y/n to her feet.

Everyone was on the bison, ready for take off, but Aang hesitated on leaving, looking towards Zuko’s knocked out form. “Wait, we can’t just leave him here.”

“Sure we can. Let’s go.”

Y/n shook her head softly. “No, Aang’s right, we can’t leave him. He could die.”

Aang jumped off Appa, and grabbed Zuko to bring him up onto the bison. Sokka watched him with a somewhat exasperated expression. “Yeah, this makes a lot of sense. Let’s bring the guy who’s constantly trying to kill us!”

As they started to fly back to the Spirit Oasis, the moon changed to a blood red, casting a red light over everything. This seemed to affect Yue, who held her head in pain, letting out a groan.

Sokka looked at her concerned. “Are you okay?”

“I feel faint.”

Aang, with a hand to his head, looked at the moon. “I feel it too. The Moon Spirit is in trouble.”

Yue glanced at the moon as well. “I owe the Moon Spirit my life.”

“What do you mean?” Sokka questioned.

“When I was born I was very sick and very weak. Most babies cry when they’re born… But I was born as if I were asleep. My eyes closed. Our healers did everything they could. They told my mother and father I was going to die. My father pleaded with the spirits to save me… that night, beneath the full moon, he brought me to the oasis and placed me in the pond. My dark hair turned white, I opened my eyes and began to cry- and they knew I would live. That’s why my mother named me Yue, for the moon.”

They neared the oasis as Yue finished her story, to find Zhao there- a bag in hand and Momo on his head trying to stop him from what he was doing. The group got off Appa when he landed, sans Yue and Zuko, ready to fight Zhao and the other Fire Nation soldiers in the oasis.

“Don’t bother!” Zhao held a knife to the bag he had, which must have had the Moon Spirit trapped inside.

Aang dropped his staff, raising his hands in surrender. “Zhao! Don’t!”

“It’s my destiny… to destroy the Moon… and the Water Tribe.”

Y/n glared at the man, resisting her urge to attack him. “You’re insane.”

“Destroying the moon won’t just hurt the Water Tribe. It will hurt everyone- including you. Without the moon, everything would fall out of balance. You have no idea what kind of chaos that would unleash on the world.” Aang tried to reason with him, but Y/n wasn’t sure words alone would stop the man.

“He is right, Zhao!” Heads turned to Iroh, as he approached.

“General Iroh, why am I not surprised to discover your treachery?” Zhao spoke in a bored tone.

Iroh lowered his hood. “I’m no traitor, Zhao, the Fire Nation needs the moon too. We all depend on the balance.”

Unsurprisingly, Zhao continued to hold his threat on the Moon Spirit, the knife he held at the bag it was captive in not dropping.

“Whatever you do to that spirit I’ll unleash on you ten-fold!” Iroh pointed a finger at Zhao, before taking on a firebending stance. “LET IT GO, NOW!”

After a moment of stillness, Zhao faltered, lowering the bag. He kneeled and released the fish of the Moon Spirit back into the pond. The red light casted from the moon returned back to normal.

Seeing something move in the corner of her eye, Y/n’s attention moved to the right, just in time for her to see a figure sneaking away. Careful not to draw attention to herself, she followed after them, noting that Zuko was missing from Appa’s saddle as she snuck by. He was taking the chance to sneak away, while everyone was focused on Zhao. If she had anything to say about it, he wouldn’t be getting far.

In her pursuit, the moon fell dark, probably thanks to Zhao. It’s not a surprise that he would try and kill the moon spirit, even after letting it go. Keeping her distance and staying as hidden as she can, Y/n continued to follow Zuko- Only stopping when he did. Eyebrows furrowing together, she watched as he shot a blast of flames to a lower area from where they stood- Which was shot at Zhao.

The man stopped in his steps, looking up at Zuko incredulously. “You’re alive?”

“You tried to have me killed!”

He shot several more blasts at Zhao, which he was able to dodge. When he tried to run off in the other direction, Y/n moved quickly to grab her bow and an arrow, shooting it at the ground in front of him. Both Zhao and Zuko were shocked by this, not having noticed her before.

“You tried to have him killed?!”

Zhao’s gaze darted between the two, before primarily focusing on Zuko. “Yes, I did. You’re the Blue Spirit- and enemy of the Fire Nation! You freed the Avatar!” Pausing, he pointed to Y/n. “And her!” His words dripped with venom.

“I had no choice!”

Zuko fired several more attacks at Zhao, while Y/n readied an arrow- though she waited to shoot it until the right moment. Zhao avoided the attacks, removing and dropping his smoking cloak as they subsided. “You should have chosen to accept your failure- your disgrace! Then, at least you could have lived.”

Returning the fire, the two end up in a short exchange of attacks, before Zuko blasted Zhao in the chest, knocking him down. Having seemed to realize Y/n was waiting for the right moment for attack, Zuko glanced at her. “Now.”

Though she didn’t need his signal- In quick succession she fired two arrows at Zhao, one pinning his sleeve to the ground, the other pinning his pant leg. The two jumped down to the lower level Zhao was, landing on either side of him as he struggled to free his clothes from the arrows. Zuko took on a firebending stance, while Y/n pulled another arrow through her bow. They both waited to attack, watching the man carefully.

Finally wiggling the arrow free from his shirt sleeve, he scoffed, looking between the two. “Two traitors working together again, hm? I’m not surprised at this point.”

Y/n narrowed her eyes when the Admiral quit trying to wiggle the arrow pinning his pant leg down free, quickly pivoting on her heel at realization. Twisting to the side, she narrowly dodged the arrow when he threw it at her. This initiated the fight once again, Zuko sending a relentless stream of attacks. Realizing her bow wasn’t going to get her anywhere in a close range fight, Y/n hooked it away onto her quiver, running at Zhao while he traded fire blasts with Zuko. She grabbed onto his arm as he tried to send an attack at the prince, yanking it to the side so the blast shot to the right. He twisted his other arm to send a fireball right into her face, which she was able to duck away from as she released his arm. The momentary distraction gave Zuko the opening to shoot a powerful blast at Zhao, knocking him back a bit.

Unable to keep his attention on both of them at once, Y/n was able to swipe her leg at his ankles while he was focused on Zuko, knocking him down. Not relenting, Zhao shot a blast at Y/n, catching her off guard and knocking her down. She rolled out of the way of another blast, before Zuko helped her off the ground- While firing at Zhao. The two looked at each other briefly, sharing a nod.

Running at Zhao once again, Y/n twisted, ducked and dodged the attacks sent at her, while also giving room for Zuko to send his own blasts at the man. Once close enough, she started throwing punches at Zhao, taking his attention in the fight. The close proximity of the fight didn’t stop him from using his fire, leaving parts of her clothes to be singed. She ducked when he tried to punch her with a blazing fist, giving the opening for Zuko to send another powerful blast at Zhao, knocking him down once again.

He didn’t get up this time, rather looking past the two with a horror ridden expression. “It can’t be!”

Furrowing her eyebrows, Y/n turned to see what he was looking at- The moon. In the heat of the battle, she hadn’t noticed it started to shine bright once again.

Suddenly, water rose up coalescing around the bridge they were on, taking the form of a large fish like creature. It reached out and grabbed Zhao, pulling him off the bridge. He struggled against it, before Zuko reached out to him. “Take my hand!”

For a moment, it seemed like he was going to grasp onto Zuko’s hand, but instead drew back- an expression of hate taking over his features. Zhao was taken under the surface of the water, disappearing. Crossing her arms, Y/n looked at the surface of the water in near disbelief.

Silence lingered in the air, it only being broken when Zuko quietly cleared his throat. Looking up from the surface of the water, she glanced over at him. He took a minute, before speaking up.

“Listen, Y/n… I’m… sorry. For everything. I- Ugh, what am I even trying to say here.”

She raised an eyebrow in amusement. “That you’re sorry?”

“Yes- Wait, I already said that..” He breathed out a sigh, holding a hand to his forehead. Laughing softly, she held out her hand.

“Truce?”

He hesitated for a moment, before grasping onto her hand, a soft smile tugging up his lips. “Truce.”

Tugging him a step closer, Y/n put an arm around his neck, bringing him into a hug. Zuko tensed at the action, but returned it nonetheless.

“We can still be friends..” Mumbling quietly, she broke away from the hug. “But I need to get back to them.”

“I.. understand.” He paused. “Actually, no, I don’t. But… I won’t stop you.”

Offering a small smile, she slipped past him, intending to go back to the oasis. She stopped on the way there, however, seeing that her friends were gathered. Katara waved her over, inviting her into the group hug they were currently sharing. Running over, she joined them, a wide smile on her face.

---

Sea water gently splashed up against the sides of the boat, spraying past the railings. The more Y/n sat with her back against them, her head leaned back, the more the back of her shirt and her hair dampened from the water. Eyes closed, she took in a deep breath. With her terrible track record on boats, she didn’t know that being out at sea could be so… relaxing.

“Can’t sleep?”

She shook her head softly in response. “You can’t either?”

Sokka breathed out a quiet, somewhat tense, laugh. “No..” He paused for a short moment. “Do you mind?”

Opening her eyes to see that he was motioning to the space on the deck next to her, Y/n offered a soft smile. “Not at all.”

Muttering a small thanks, he gave a weak smile in return, before settling down next to her. He sat close enough for their shoulders to press together, the close proximity made her heart race.

Silence lingered over them for a long moment, before Y/n spoke up. “I heard what happened… With Yue.”

Breathing out a soft sigh, Sokka tilted his head back, looking up at the moon. “Yeah… I figured you would.”

“I’m sorry for bringing it up but- I just wanted to say if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m always right here.”

“Thanks..” He paused for a moment. “You know, I went to that shop you were working at once when you weren’t there. I was trying to catch you there, that… didn’t work out- Obviously.” He breathed out a quiet chuckle, digging into his coat pocket. “But I did meet that lady you worked for, and she asked me to make sure this got to you.” He held out a bracelet, the one she’d been looking at in the shop before she started working there.

Her eyes widened slightly. “I forgot about that.”

“That’s why she asked me to give it to you. Let me see your wrist.” He tied the bracelet around her wrist, once she held it out to him.

“Thanks.” She spoke with a smile, twisting her wrist slightly causing the stone to glint in the moonlight.

“It’s no problem.” Smirking, he took on a slightly teasing tone. “I didn’t expect you to be a jewelry person.”

Pressing a hand to her chest, she feigned an over exaggerated offence. “Just because I lived in a forest and can fight better than you doesn’t mean I can’t like girly things.”

He looked at her offended. “You cannot fight better than me!” She leaned a bit closer to him, raising an eyebrow. “You wanna test that theory?”

Falling silent, he gulped. “No, I think I’m good.”

They were both quiet, before breaking into a short fit of laughter. Leaning back against the boat's railing, Y/n hugged one of her knees to her chest.

Once again, silence fell over them. After a few moments, a sudden weight was on her shoulder. Tensing slightly, she looked to the side, to see that Sokka had fallen asleep- His head now leaning on her shoulder. She opened her mouth to wake him up, but stopped herself.

Something in her didn’t want to wake him up… The closeness was… Nice.

Letting her eyes fall closed, she leaned her head back, absentmindedly fiddling with the bracelet tied around her wrist. She felt so calm, but still her heart raced, and she wasn’t sure why.

With certain thoughts and memories coming to mind, however, the pieces started to fit together.

And it was in that moment, Y/n realized.

[natromanxoff]

Disc - May 24, 1975

(x)

QUEEN IN JAPAN

When this year's poll award results were announced, perhaps the greatest surprise came in the three group categories. For three at the top was a name that had never even appeared in the top 10 before — Queen.

"We were stunned. To win four categories, including all three group categories was quite amazing. Of course we didn't expect to win... although we didn't expect to lose if you see what I mean. With polls you just never know what will happen..."

That's Roger Taylor's summary of the group's reaction. "Obviously polls reflect the readership of a paper, and all I can say is that it's obvious Disc has a great type of reader!"

"They're so tasteful," Freddie agreed with a wry smile.

Brian's high placing in the Top Musician category gave everyone a great deal of pleasure, as did the realisation that both last year's albums appeared in the top 10 albums of '74.

"Now that was great. I think what gives us extra plesure is that it bears out something the sales have suggested that after buying 'Sheer Heart Attack' people were interested and impressed enough to go back and buy the previous two."

Brian has said to me on many occasions in the past that he thinks 'Queen II' was underrated at the tour, but that one day it may be looked upon as a definitive Queen album.

"In fact it was 'Queen II' which did us proud in Japan," Freddie explains. "On the strength of just that album, for they'd never seen us, we were voted number one group in the polls of one of their top papers."

"And while we're not knockng the British ones, out there they have about a quarter of a million voting each time."

Now those quotes from Freddie and Roger were just the first of many references to Japan, a country from which they've just returned, and incidentally one with which they fell in love.

"They practically had to handcuff me to my bodyguard and drag me home screaming," reminisces Freddie.

"For one thing they're so charming and polite," explains Roger. "That's why it's so horrible to be back! Everyone's so rude here."

Apart from the success of the trip, both socially and professionally, the combined American and Japanese tours served an important purpose for Queen.

"This was our first major world tour, and now we've come back we're able to assess things differently. Having been to the States and Japan we're able to assess our popularity from actually having seen it, not just from letters and reports. And we can look at everything in that context."

But as the purpose of this feature is more reflective, for now let's content ourselves with finding out whether anything else has changed.

Personal changes in them are more evident to an outsider. Roger seems to have become more extrovert given the confidence and status that success and money bring, while Brian seems to have withdrawn further into his music. Freddie is even more poised and able to indulge his whims more. But perhaps the biggest change has been wrought in John Deacon.

"I remember times when John would come along, stand at the (...) of the stage, play the whole set and go again without saying a word to anyone," Brian told me once while reminiscing. Now John moves around the stage, indulges his cocasionally caustic and often extrovert sense of humour more, and generally seems to enjoy everything very much.

"Have you seen his 'Image kit'?" Roger asked. "It consists of a white baseball hat and sunglasses. Once he'd bought them you hardly saw him without them."

However much sucess and money ("we've cerainly earned a lot of money" I'm told) may have changed the boys in some respects they still value their friends and their fans. What have they to say then to those in Britain who may think they've been neglected lately?

"Sorry! We work every hour of the day, and have been trying to take it in turns so that all our fans can see what we're doing. It now looks as if we won't be touring in Britain again until late in the year, but we hope to do one big gig somewhere in the summer to let the fans see what's happening. We don't know where yet, but we'll make sure it's good."

And of course there will, hopefully, be the new album.

"You don't write actual songs on the road, you just get little ideas. What we need is the pressure of being in the studio and then things start to happen. Sadly we don't know when it'll be finished and ready for release. Probably not until early autumn."

There may be a single though: "If I write something suitable," Freddie says pensively. "Wait until I get my baby grand..."