#the quality is abysmal but man i love it

[fallen-juniper-leaves]

best way to watch anime actually

[honeydots]

laslow commission for kris~~!! thank you!!!

[astragatwo]

missyouran ❤

(Static images UTC)

[rynnthefangirl]

Your answer shows me what I already think, you, fans of this boys, dump all the emotional responsibility on Aegon and Viserys, they have to choose between family and having their right, and the fact that they did not want it is something that you assume. Aegon "You are sitting in my chair " Targaryen does not seem to reflect what you say and Viserys was a great hand and the year he reigned a great king .

And no, Jace did not die saving anyone, that is not mentioned in any text, only in a video where they do not even represent his physical appearance well, flying quickly between the ships spitting fire is not the best way to save Viserys, something that he again did not achieve if we assume that he tried it since Viserys became a father at 13 and was married to a woman older than him at 12, otherwise he would be a courtier, all because of a shitty idea had by Jace. Nothing is ever mentioned about Viserys in relation to Jace, he may have perfectly felt conflict with him and Rhaenyra, since they are the ones ultimately responsible for what happened to him, regarding Aegon, his relationship with the "Velaryon" princes is mentioned to say he adored them to compare them with Viserys (there is an abysmal difference, Aegon and Viserys were infinitely closer) and the feelings of a 9 year old boy are not those of a man who is aware of what was happening around him.

I will make assumptions but so will you, the only thing I believe is that the responsibility of giving up their "rights" as others have done before would fall on the "Velaryon" princes who are the ones who occupy a place that does not belong to them perhaps ambition and the desire to occupy a throne at all costs is not a characteristic attributable to Aegon and Viserys🤷🏼‍♀️ despite their traumas they were still men and Targaryen princes of their time and that your legacy (the legacy of House Targaryen) is reduced to some random house of the seven kingdoms to make alliances or that they predispose you to join a celibate order where that surname will die with you does not give me the impression of being what they would want. It is an issue that goes beyond them as people, it is a duty to their house. They also give the kingdom a stability that Jace would never give them, since anyone can threaten and oppose the reign of an illegitimate son, it is not so easy when your name is Aegon Targaryen and no one doubts your kinship, so that quality of Aegon and Viserys of caring for people would still be present since they would give stability, unlike others.

The "Velaryon" would have the throne and would be the new dragon lords while the legitimate Targaryens get crumbs. Because yes, this is what would happen. Jace would reign with the surname Velaryon. The fact that he would reign with the Targaryen is an invention of the series that makes no sense. But again it will always be the same, Aegon and Viserys are the ornaments that only have the right to speak when everyone dies and there is no one else to support and of course they have no other life than to be sad. But hey, everyone has their own interpretation of these characters, I will always support them as kings and heirs in any possible scenario.

It is not ambition to want something that is yours, it is justice.

Aegon "You are sitting in my chair " Targaryen does not seem to reflect what you say.

The context of that quote is Aegon dismissing his Hand and regents after having been manipulated, controlled, and assailed by ambitious lords for the past six years, at great risk to himself and his loved ones. Such an attitude cannot be assumed to apply to a situation where he never experienced the Dance and Regency, and his brother sits the Iron Throne.

Viserys became a father at 13 and was married to a woman older than him at 12, otherwise he would be a courtier, all because of a shitty idea had by Jace.

Regardless of the consequences, the point is Jace's intentions, which were explicitly said in F&B to keep his brothers safe. And reminder that despite the things Vis suffered in Essos, he did fare much much better than his brother did in Westeros. Had he been with his father's friends in Pentos, he likely would not have suffered at all. Given the horrors and danger that befell Aegon in Westeros, Jace's idea to get A&V far away from the conflict was not a bad one. It was just awful misfortune that their ship happened across the Greens.

Nothing is ever mentioned about Viserys in relation to Jace, he may have perfectly felt conflict with him and Rhaenyra.

And he may have loved them and not blamed them at all, so your point? Like you said, we have no info on this, nor on Aegon's feelings beyond "he worshipped them as a boy". Whatever we think is only headcanon. For my own part, I do in fact headcanon Aegon and Viserys having very complicated and mixed feelings about their family, especially Rhaenyra. But that is about my interest in angsty complex character dynamics, not some need to fulfill my bias by making Rhaenyra and the Velaryon boys either hated or loved.

Perhaps ambition and the desire to occupy a throne at all costs is not a characteristic attributable to Aegon and Viserys.

It isn't.

They were still men and Targaryen princes of their time and that your legacy (the legacy of House Targaryen) is reduced to some random house of the seven kingdoms to make alliances or that they predispose you to join a celibate order.

What do you think every second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. son of every house in Westeros does? Not being the one to continue on the main ruling branch of your family is a common experience expected of everyone who is not the first born son.

They also give the kingdom a stability that Jace would never give them

This is the one thing I agree on, and the only reason I have to be against Jace taking the Iron Throne. That being said... starting a war for the throne... also destabilizes the realm......... So one could say that Jace should abdicate in favor of his brothers for the sake of stability, but if he does not, then that is not a justification for A&V to start a war that will get thousands killed. It's the same thing as when TG say "oh Rhaenyra's reign would never be accepted so the Greens had to usurp the throne for the good of the realm" even though their action of usurping the throne quite literally destroyed the realm as much as or more than any possible instability from Rhaenyra's reign would have.

Jace would reign with the surname Velaryon. The fact that he would reign with the Targaryen is an invention of the series that makes no sense.

Is this not literally how things work in Dorne. I don't recall the Martell name being lost during all the times that the reigning ruler of Dorne was a woman with a consort from another house.

Also, this is not an argument against a bastard ascending the throne. This is an argument against a WOMAN ascending the throne. This would be an issue even if Jace was Laenor's true born son. Which means it has nothing to do with his legitimacy, and has to do with the idea that Targaryen blood being passed down from a mother doesn't "count" as much as Targaryen blood being passed down from a father.

But again it will always be the same, Aegon and Viserys are the ornaments that only have the right to speak when everyone dies and there is no one else to support and of course they have no other life than to be sad.

I think this is the most interesting line of all. Because all the value you have ascribed to A&V is entirely tied up in ideas of legitimacy and Targaryen blood purity, rather than anything about them as unique people and characters. They are the best because they are trueborn, because they are Daemon's sons, because they are the rightful kings, because they are pure Valyrian blood.... but you could replace them with characters of entirely opposite personalities and backstories, and that would all be true. They are "ornaments" to your ideas of the glory and legacy of House Targaryen.

For me, my love of them is tied entirely to their unique characteristics and identities. It's not just them being sad-- though of course their traumas are certainly a part of their characters-- it is every single thing they say/do/think/feel/experience/love/hate/fear. They are rich, complex, and fascinating characters. I am in truth, hardly a Velaryon boy stan. I like them, sure, but that's it. I just like them. They aren't even among my top 10 favorite Targs. Aegon III is my all time favorite Targaryen and Viserys II is definitely top 5. I'm not saying that others' don't do this, but don't think for a second that I am shoving them aside or into convenient minor roles to prop up their half brothers. Quite the contrary, the characters of A&V are first in my heart and first on my priority list.

It is not ambition to want something that is yours, it is justice.

The throne is not some sacred thing. Truth is, it is NOBODY’S right. Absolute monarchy is a terrible system of government, and nobody should hold that kind of unchecked power. It isn't "justice" to start a war that risks bringing your own people death and devastation over some messed up idea that you are entitled by birth to be the most powerful person ever. Aegon II believed that is was his right to rule over Rhaenyra because he was born with a schlong. If he believed that it was his by right, does that make him "just"? No, no it does not. It makes him a greedy warmonger.

Like do you think I care whose parents had a ceremony before they fucked, and whose didn’t? I don’t. If GRRM came out tomorrow and revealed via Word of God that Daeron II was in fact the Dragonknights bastard, it would not change my opinion on the First Blackfyre rebellion one bit. I still would not support Daemon. A true king wears the crown not because he wants it or feels entitled to it. A true king wears the crown because the REALM needs him to. THAT is what Aegon III and Viserys II understood. That is why they are better than Aegon II and Rhaenyra (though ofc Rhaenyra >>>>>> Aegon II, always).

If you want to imagine an Aegon and Viserys who would fight their brother for the throne, and cheer them on as they tear the realm apart because it’s their “right” and we can’t have dirty bastards on the throne… I’d recommend taking another look at Aegon II. Because that is his character. And to be clear I’m not saying Jace would be in the right in this hypothetical— it’d just be the Dance all over again, both sides refusing to give up a crown for the good of their people. I love Aegon because he represents an END to that kind of attitude. He makes peace with former Greens, he compromises, he leaves his uncle in the line of succession to avoid conflict, he sits by Tyland Lannister’s bedside to comfort him as he dies. That is why I love him, and his brother.

[onyourowndaisymae]

𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒈 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 - 𝒖𝒑𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔, 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆 & 𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒔

hello!

i'm alive. yay! it's certainly been a minute since i've posted anything substantial, and i'm here to rectify that. this post is long. very long. i talk about a lot here-- my absence, my thoughts on obey me nowadays, what i've experienced as a writer on this platform, and updates i'm making to the way this blog looks and runs.if you're interested in catching up but don't have the time or motivation to read all of this, feel free to scroll down to the closing remarks.

☆ 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 ☆

so, i will say this unintentional hiatus was caused by three things: my health, my shaky relationship with the obey me franchise, and the growing difficulties of participating in fandom. i'll address all three in that order.

★ 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 - my health has been shaky practically all of my adult life. i'm getting better about managing it, but even now, being twenty two years old and unable to keep up with my peers is... so exhausting. on my worst days, i am stuck in bed and distracting myself from the pain. the american healthcare system is a doozy that gives me a headache, but just know that i'm working towards proper diagnoses and treatment as fast as i can. i know that pushing myself to write for the sake of a regular posting schedule is ridiculous, so i have no intentions to do that. i will roll with the punches of my shitty health and hope i don't get knock on my ass again, lol.

★ 𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐞 - okay. hater time. i don't really like nightbringer.

i know! i know! hold your rotten tomatoes and let me make these stocks my soapbox for just a minute while i explain! i promise i'm not being a thoughtless critic!

i think the writing for the franchise has been slowly going down in quality for awhile. i'm never going to act like this is the best writing i've ever seen in a video game, but obviously season 1 of the og game was good enough to get us all hooked. the conflicts felt real, the relationships felt earned, and the lore was really interesting. season 2 of the og game has a special place in my heart. the franchise used to be romantic! dark! horny! complex! it feels like in recent months, the game has become so sanitized that it's alienating the same userbase that gave such an odd concept a chance in the first place. season 2 opened with an aphrodesiac plotline, and now we can hardly get a kiss from our love interests. i'm not saying everything needs to be graphic smut, but come on! it's a romance game, damnit! with as many competitors solmare has in the otome market right now, i don't know why they wouldn't be focusing on dynamic and interesting romance.

nightbringer itself is. whooo. a dual-edged sword. on one hand, it turned me into a solomon simp, and clearly i can't get enough of this man. it also had some really touching character moments. asmo's arc about falling and missing how things used to be was fantastic. satan's early development and issues bonding with his brothers were handled really well. but at the same time... these characters have also struggled with flat and rushed writing in this game. satan almost exclusively is just "cat guy with a temper" now. barbatos' character, while nice to finally have romantic storylines, has been butchered for the sake of making sure every romanceable character is marketable early on. characters are saying "i love you" ENTIRELY too fast. i get that this is not the og game and things will obviously be different in this timeline, but at the very least, i expect the writers to handle this stuff with care. i'm disappointed by how one-note everything feels now.

also, while i'm up here on my soapbox, i will also say: i think the events are abysmal nowadays. fucking hell. i am disappointed every time i click on a story portion and read three lines before the screen fades out and it's over! the events used to be low-stakes, interesting ways to explore the characters, but now it's just. disappointing. i think something similar has happened to the devilgrams and the romance that used to be in them, although it's nowhere near as bad.

for all of my bitching and moaning, i still clearly like this game franchise. i'm still going to write for it. but i think it's important to discuss these failings as a community. it helps people feel less alone when their passion begins to wane for something they once loved for seemingly no reason. maybe we can prevent the series from falling apart before its bitter end. it does not make you a "bad fan" to be able to critique something you love-- it means you love it enough to know when it's not at its best.

★ 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦 - at some point, i found i got really intimidated by posting on my own blog. i began to psych myself out with every post, every like, every thing i got excited about. "is this good enough? do i want people to see this?" it's one thing to want to put your best foot forward, but another entirely to try to make every single thing you post perfect in an ill-fated attempt to fend of criticism from yourself of others. it's why i never took up art or music to any serious degree-- why put so much effort into something that's doomed to fail?

and then came the worry about notes and reblogs and followers. fandom should never be a numbers game, and for a lot of people it isn't. but it became a legitimate worry of mine that people would be disappointed if i didn't put out something with universal appeal, and thus, i'd be disappointed myself that i didn't live up to some unspoken expectation. i wanted to start posting for a new fandom, but then i became really worried people would feel "cheated" for following me when they expected one thing and got another.

obviously, this is not a healthy mindset. i needed to take a step back.

how did i resolve this? why didn't i just quit? well, for starters, i took some time to remember why i started posting. i have been writing fanfiction all of my life, usually shared with only a singular person and obsessed about until all of the dopamine was wrung dry from it. bringing it online was a deliberate choice. at first, it was because i was desperate for content for a small fandom (collar x malice, my beloved!) and thought "if nobody's gonna post this, i will!". but then i got into obey me, a much bigger fandom. through posting, i found a larger community of people who loved this piece of media just as fervently as i did. so many people of amazing talents dedicating their time and effort into expressing their love for this hobby. as i did the same, i began to gain a small following. one of my series blew up and gained me praise from some of my absolute favorite people in the fandom-- now, they're my friends who i adore. i began to grow proud of my writing. i'd never been proud like that before. posting on tumblr has proven to me that i'm capable of stepping out of my comfort zone and take the risk to do something, even if i'll fail. that is something i am so thankful for and can never replace.

i won't pretend fandom doesn't have its faults. every time i log on, i can scroll long enough to find something that absolutely exhausts me. labors of love are, at the end of the day, still labor, and work without appreciation is demoralizing. fandom is run by passion, but when there's a drought of people willing to put themselves out there it becomes hard to invest your energy into.

i don't have a perfect solution for this. all i know is that i can also scroll long enough to find a piece of writing or art so breathtaking that it invigorates my creative spirit. or i'll check my notifications and find a comment or reblog that absolutely makes my day. and isn't that worth sticking around a bit longer?

in the future, i'll try to be better about announcing my breaks and also just... pacing myself better. sometimes it'll be a bit until you hear from me. i hope that's okay. know i'll never log off for good without an explanation. i'd like to keep posting my silly little stories for a long time.

☆ 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 ☆

jesus. that previous section was waaaaay too long. okay. time to lock in.

★ i have a new theme! i used to have a sort of vague space-y theme, but i'm committing to the stars. do you like them? i hope so :3

★ i'm gonna get a bit weirder with the content. part of what has inspired me to keep writing is people coming up with the most off-the-wall, random, interesting ideas that i come back to consistently. that will include some dark content and the themes surrounding it like violence, horror, etc. things here will ALWAYS be tagged as thoroughly as i can. if you're not interested in reading that, no worries! hopefully something else i've written will catch your eye. (and obviously, minors, do not interact with this content. you shouldn't be in here-- my "byf" page has indicated this page is 18+ since the beginning).

★ as a general rule, i've decided that i'm no longer going to take requests. i love the enthusiasm and hearing people's ideas, but ultimately, i never end up doing them. instead, my ask box is always open for post suggestions, conversations, etc. i just don't want the sort of obligation that requests come with hanging out in the background anymore. this is, however, subject to change for special events, like that trick or treat event i did in the past and the fics for gaza event i'm doing currently, so stay tuned!

★ ... despite my in-depth obey me ramblings above, this is a multi-fandom page, lol. i will forever and always give my flowers to collar x malice. i am interested in posting occasional fics here for other fandoms in the general otome genre, so keep an eye out for those.

★ the above rule has been broken by my beloved, twisted wonderland. remember above where i mentioned wanting to post about a new fandom? yeah, it's this one. it became too much of an obsession. the new blog is centered around making night raven college an actual college, as well as just other twst content as well. the username is @daisystwistedgarden. give it a follow if you like that content! i probably won't discuss it much here, as i want the writing to stand on its own, but the pages have very similar layouts. that's me on a sideblog, don't worry :)

★ the masterlists are getting an entire overhaul and will now be organized by character. i procrastinated the hell out of these-- make overhauling the masterlists reason 3.5 for the hiatus. i will queue those up to post overnight sometime this week, so expect those sometime soon.

☆ 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 + 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 ☆

if you're here, i want to say thank you. this blog, which originally started on a whim, has really done a lot for me. i love writing (even if i hate all the boring administrative parts of running a blog) and the fact that you people spare the time to read my silly little posts is insane to me. while i was gone, we hit the 2k follower mark (and the 2.1k follower mark, too!) and i'm just. baffled. thank you.

i'm back, i'm ready to write, and i'm excited to see where this takes me. give me a couple of days to fully replace all the old posts with new ones and make everything look right, but after that, i'll be posting again like normal. if you're interested in my twisted wonderland content, follow @daisystwistedgarden, and if you want to support my writing and gaza at the same time, consider donating to my "sponsor a WIP" page here.

once again, thank you for reading, for liking, for reblogging, for following, for hanging out in my ask box-- all of it. it means the world to me that i get to enjoy this slice of the internet with such wonderful people.

talk soon. (for real this time). xx

[turnwashingtonsbaddies]

PLS PLS OKS DEAR GOD GIVE US THE PUSS PUSS EATING RANKING OF TURN CHARACTERS I NEED IT LIKE SPONGEBOB NEEDS WATER (must include robert rogers)

ok im officially done with school (woo 🥳) so i can give everyone in my ask box what they've been waiting for. i am going to keep the list limited to the ppl in this promo photo bc there are so many goddamn characters in that show and if you want heavy-hitting analysis, i've gotta keep a short list (at least for now)

analysis under the cut:

as mentioned before caleb brewster does indeed SWEEP the pussy eating power rankings

as also mentioned before john andre is as mediocre in eating pussy as he is in acting and flute playing. he thinks he's amazing at it tho

now for the fun. i need to get this first paragraph out of the way bc it is about the man who made me begin to ponder this question 2 years ago in the first place. abraham. fucking. woodhull. this beanie-wearing menace to society has NEVER made anyone other than anna strong come. point blank period. even with anna tho, he's done it like maybe once or twice. whether or not he did it by giving her head is up for another debate tho

oh and speaking of anna strong. she gives me pillow princess vibes for a reason i cannot quite explain. it is just kind of a gut feeling i have. maybe it has to do with the fact that ppl are always just throwing themselves at her, so she doesn't have to bother with actually working on pleasuring them

but back to abe for a minute. he's actually (believe it or not) NOT the worst one on the list, and that is because richard woodhull has NEVER ONCE made a woman come. not even his wife. not once. richard has never even eaten pussy before. richard has only ever had sex in the missionary position. abe is a terrible partner for a reason, and that reason is bc he was raised by richard

one member of the woodhull family does possess some finesse however. mary woodhull eats pussy like a mf champion. i imagine her learning it was much like her learning how to fire a gun. at first she was like 'wtf is going on??? i cant do that??' but give it few tries and she easily upstages all the men around her

using mary shooting a gun as my transition here..... let's talk about simcoe. honestly, he does give me the vibes of someone who really wants to be good at eating pussy, and maybe he even enjoys doing it. however, i think he gives toothy head. and i also think he does it on purpose. that's right. he's a biter

speaking of ppl who enjoy eating pussy, i think hewlett slays in that department ngl. ik i said before that caleb is arguably the only man on the show who enjoys eating pussy, but i actually want to amend that bc i think hewlett does too. however, i think the one drawback for hewlett is that his desire and ability to give good head does come from a place of him being (and i mean this with peace and love hewlett enjoyers) a massive simp

i straight up dont have a transition for this one but it was literally an intrusive thought and i just need to expel it. ben tallmadge the type of guy to apologize after eating pussy. why? who knows. it could have even been decent head. he's still apologizing anyway. however my bet is that decent is the best he can do bc he's an overthinker, which can get in the way of having strong head game

finally, and yes i made you read all of this before giving you what you wanted anon, robert rogers. "(must include robert rogers)" is SO REAL. SO TRUE. you're right for saying so. however he is such an enigma to me and i really don't know where to place him both as an eater of pussy and frankly as an entity in general. i know he has to exist in some kind of extreme tho. god-tier head or the most abysmal head ever anyone's ever experienced. maybe he's even literally eating pussy, like in a cannibalism way. i'm not ruling that out either. honestly, maybe the quality of head varies between sessions too. after all, he's always gotta keep em on their toes

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Worldbuilding: !@#$ the terfs, be more creative with gender and bio sex than a binary system.

9.5 times out of ten the majority of gender systems I read in US books are really, really uncreative, and I do mean that because manga, has more creative gender systems than a lot of US books. I love you Melanie Rawn, but still, the inversion as good as it was in the uncompleted Ruins of Ambrai, still was largely a European system because it was largely a commentary on the European system. (Yes, I did understand that.)

And the US tends to, very much accuse other countries of having uncreative gender systems that are absolutely rigid, say the US to Japan. (Though the usually [white] understanding of Japanese gender is usually abysmal... but that's a whole paper and a half there.)

When building a gender system, be more creative! You have this other fake culture. You can do whatever the heck you feel like. Say, the Barbie Movie, which hilariously the alt-right USian detested, though it still was a commentary on mostly US gender norms.

Can't we loosen this up a little? You have literal aliens and you can't imagine a more creative sex and gender system than the binary? Oh really? Humans aren't even binary on either. I'm going to give cultural examples.

Introduction

Bugis have 5 genders.

BTW, someone got so mad when I pointed out the page they cited said that Bugis recognized 5 genders, they went on a youtube rant about it. lol Deal. BTW, people put a lot of emphasis on Bissu like how people hyperfocus on trans women in the US because masculinity is that fragile. Albanian is complicated.

Some countries/ethnicities have 3.

India has a 3 gender system in Northern India. Women, men, Hijra

I mean this list:

Some countries don’t even define the two gender system the same way (Europeans are sooo uptight. Loosen up.)

For example, a Korean man wearing pink--no problem. No one flips the hell out when a man in Korea wears a hanbok with a chima and a jeogori. They are like cool. He can do as he likes. Even baksu wear chima in religious ceremonies. They believe it gives them extra powers.

The whole pants. are. for. men. and. women. only. wear. skirts.

Oh c'mon...

Pants were invented for horseback riding--like the heel.

So let's get this mind-numbingly straight (pun somewhat intended here) Men, are men because of horses. (haha, yes, Barbie reference), thus have to wear pants. But are absolutely effing forbidden from wearing heels, which are also associated with what? Horseback riding. Hmmm...

And men still wear dresses and skirts, but they call it by other names.

Judicial robes for sale, and look, a man is wearing them.

But--But that's soo different from a dress...

https://www.net-a-porter.com/en-jp/shop/product/la-doublej/clothing/maxi-dresses/muumuu-printed-silk-twill-maxi-dress/38063312420399795

This is a dress because as Webster's Dictionary says:

: an outer garment (as for a woman or girl) usually consisting of a one-piece bodice and skirt

Yes, it's worn by a woman. I couldn't find another definition.

But men also wear sarongs. And bath towels, and kilts all of which look suspiciously like skirts. And togas. Which shows how fragile the definition is that you need to narrow the definition that much.

And freaking for those religious, God on the Sistine Chapel, by suspected maybe gay Michelangelo, has a vaccuum sealed butt on the Sistine chapel wearing a pink dress.

C'mon, we can be more creative than this, surely. I mean, if you look at this super rigid gender system, does it make any sense at all? OK, I'm NB and all, but seriously, I look at it and go, WTF happened to you?

You get so uptight about men wearing lace, stocking, high heels, dresses, pink but forget so quickly that less than 200 years ago, no one gave a damn, and if a man didn't wear those things, he couldn't make it in high society.

I mean...

Lafayette, wearing pink, heels, stockings, lace (his collar), and a wig. Give me a break here.

And gender definitions change over time...

Just about 100 years back, in order to be out and gay, it was thought your entire gender was different. There was nothing like a butch gay man. You were considered part female, in fact. And no one in the 19th century would have taken exception to that. It didn't change until much later in Europe.

But also Europe imperialized the world with gender expectations, leading to a rise of violence against third gender communities.

What was one of the first three rules of culture I posted? Culture changes. Koreans like to say, even in ten years the Mountains and rivers change. So gender can and will also change in definitions becoming more rigid, more fluid, recategorized, etc over time.

So given all of these things... let's rethink gender.

Gender doesn't have to be Defined by Sex Assigned at Birth

A lot of Human cultures assign gender this way. Born one way, raise them that way, hope it works out.

But you have a whole FANTASY WORLD and you can see, humans don't make a lot of logical sense when it comes to gender. I mean heels are for women, and men should never wear them, except when they are attached to boots, but the boots better not be too high , or you're *gasp* gay is the European "logic" system. And only what? 50 or so years ago, women were finally allowed to wear pants.

So you don't have to do it by genitals. You could do it by hair color. Gender affirming care would be changing your hair color, or horns, or whatever tickles your fancy. You could, say have a cephlapod species with smaller males that can present female part of the time, and based on their texture of their skin, that's their gender.

You could do it by color--the species has actually blue, dark blue, green, yellow, etc skin colors and they can change them at any moment and the one they tend towards, well, that's their gender.

You could also make it so you automatically need a polycule for the species to work out and reproduce. And thus there might be, say a 6 gender system. 2 possible genders for the three adults there.

C'mon. Nature is creative and sometimes has an all female species. Look at Mourning geckos. There are so few males, and they are sometimes called a lesbian species of gecko.

Even then, you have intersex, and not all intersex people are infertile.

Terfs only think it's wrong to "go against nature" when it has to do with gender presentation. Nothing else. But they have no, no problem with assigning a sex to an intersex child without their consent. That's culture taking over for nature. And how that is shaped, or not shaped, absolutely belongs in world building.

If your men aren't horseback riding, and your women aren't either, then dresses for all are fine. Deal with it.

I think it would be entertaining to see an alien species determine the gender of the child by holding up paint swatches to the child's say eyes and then saying, "Yep, a girl."

Or even well, the birther stayed in # temp rooms, for # amount of days, Oh, this is the expected sex of the child. But the gender, well, we will determine that by these [arbitrary] factors.

But seriously, you can define gender and sex however, you want. Is medical/magic intervention necessary or not? Who gets to determine it?

Next step is to find the rules for how gender is expressed in an idealized world.

Do you constantly call all of your girls and tell them they can grow up to be a princess? But tell all your boys they are going to grow up to be doctors and lawyers?

This is what Social Scientists would call socialization.

For this, I would suggest you make a spreadsheet and then put down arbitrary lists of things the "ideal" gender would wear. So for the US, Pink is for girls. Blue is for boys. How they should act. And finally, how they are taught.

It's so ubiquitous that even feminists often trip up and see a baby in a pink dress with lace and automatically pick up a doll. (I'm just saying, maybe think that one over a bit.)

Make a list for each column. And then for the individual characters figure out how they DON'T fit those norms and then terrorize them with it...

What do you threaten the privileged group with if they come out of line?

For men in the US, for example, you go with homophobia. "That's gay."

Because the threat of being gay is sooo outlandish. *eyeroll* It's an threat to everything masculine.

I'll go over this in more detail later in the series, but you need things to discipline the privileged group and the disadvantage group(s). What's the threat if you become this other group? Death? Social ridicule? Financial loss? Being outcast?

Or, do you get rewarded and become a shaman, a healer, or a celebrated hero for being able to not fit in? (This also is possible).

Cultural justifications

Cultural justifications for this are different from the actual historical reasons or the facts.

The historical reason that pink and blue switched was because dyes became more readily available for both and they felt like it.

Blue used to be more rare, and thus considered "virginal" because blue is rare in nature, but under industrialization as people became more and more disconnected from nature, and blue dyes became available, the idea of this became more diluted, and the switch was from blue to pink.

That's not what the cultural justifications were for this thought originally. The thought was that blue was a more "delicate" color, clearly more suited to women.

Because, if you have forgotten (yes a joke coming), humans constantly get amnesia on where things come from. Constantly. We've lost information in your own lifetime. You were born 2 seconds ago? Well, I hate to tell you, we've lost information in that 2 seconds.

So, when they can't remember the reason, Humans make up a reason to go with it, that's often frivolous and silly. Something that feels, what? Natural to them. Though remember the rule, Nature gives no fucks. So find and make up a logical reason for the cultural item and then find a stupid reason that people are willing to double down on it and there you go, that's culture. So say your species of aliens, the ones that are temperature linked to sex, link Iunno, gender to horn size. Bigger horns mean a certain class of gender. The original reason might be that bigger horned females are better at digging nests back when they were a pastoral society, thus better able to have larger clutches of children. But they've now reached the stars, so they completely forgot why and now just say that bigger horns are simply sexier because reasons. Or it could have flipped that smaller horns are in more demand, because big horns get in the way of industrial tasks, but no one says that. And now the bigger horned females, are considered a lower gender than the smaller horned females, who then raise all of the eggs.

See, the justification doesn't even have to follow any sort of logic. It's what they tell everyone to make them feel better.

And truthfully, a lot of culture is built this way. The reason you tell everyone isn't really the actual truth. I mean I did a whole series on Story Structure, and the justifications versus the reasons why it was made that way don't even close to match. People blindly parrot what other people tell them if it will help them succeed. (BTW, not saying I'm not guilty of this, I absolutely am.)

So I think this gives you a good basis to free yourself up for a larger system and be more creative with your gender definitions. Because absolutely both gender and sex are defined by culture, but in different ways.

You have effing demons, and you can come up with a more creative gender categories? You have unicorns and you don't have more creative gender categories. And you have kracken climbing buildings, but you can't imagine a third sex category for them when it absolutely exists in nature. C'mon. Hit me with your most creative and free yourself of your own culture's definitions of gender.

What if you nuked the entire Male/female/NB system. What would that look like? How would you justify it on two fronts? Blow that system out of the water and rework it. What would the Sexual orientation work like with a 3 sexes, 2 gender for each each system?

What stupid prohibitions would you put in for such a system?

[ink-asunder]

I've mentioned this before, but I just love Nygus and Stein's potential dynamic so much. They're both on the med team in some form at the DWMA, so that's where a lot of their interactions would come from. But the way they're similar to each other and the way they contrast is just really interesting to me.

Nygus's bedside manner is fine (/gen), but her professionalism draws a solid border between being compassionate and being a motherly figure (a trope which nurses have been depicted with for years that literally no one seems to recognize as a red flag in a medical professional).

Stein's bedside manner is absolutely abysmal. This man is out here acting like he's cutting people up for fun. It's like his own cursed sense of humor about his intrusive thoughts that he doesn't know what to do with. There's an element of Madness (psychosis/intrusive thoughts) to his experience that makes him afraid of hurting people by following through with his intrusive thoughts. It distresses him so much that it drives him to literal mental instability. But the truth of his actions and behavior show that he's competent, and even good at seeming compassionate (even if he's putting on for the sake of others, he's still PUTTING ON FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS, yknow?).

Nygus is one of the only people who knows Stein that doesn't have a weird Thing with him. She's not afraid of him, but she doesn't believe he could be better either. And I like to think that that objective regard would alleviate some stress on Stein's part. When they interact with each other, Stein doesn't have The Weight of trying to be better, nor the enticement of teasing someone for fun. Nygus's vibe is played completely straight, and Stein can just get to work and trust her to rein him in if he gets too zealous.

I feel like I could make a diagram of, like, Qualities of a Good Medical Practitioner and a quadrant diagram of personality traits, and I feel like the two of them would end up in interesting places in relation to each other

[murphychips]

a treacherous descent into werewolf romance fiction

okay so. this story begins with me being on facebook, scrolling through videos, and getting these adverts at the end of EVERY video clip from these sites:

and i mean EVERY single one. and out of deranged curiosity i ended up clicking them and checking out their previews only to find maybe some of the more garbage i've ever had the displeasure of reading. each advert was different and each story varied, but all of them had dogshit quality.

eventually, i wondered who was making this stuff; MULTIPLE apps were being advertised to me under a bunch of different names, and all of them were centred around werewolves or mafia or billionaires. sometimes all three!

so i downloaded a couple of apps to see if i could identify an owner, but those all varied too! most don't even have websites; the app is the only thing they have. almost none of them have author names, or any way to identify the writer, and there's no way to submit to most of them. eventually, i chased up a few of these apps on reviews to find most appear to be stealing content from across the internet:

some of these are stolen from amazon, others are stolen from similar apps are cross-posted, others--as one comment says--appear to be scalping from wattpad (and likely AO3 and fanfic.net, although i'm currently trying to find examples).

HOWEVER

one app that crossed my phone was Letterlux, which does feature a submit page and appears to actually promote original work! the genres remain the same--werewolves, billionaires, mafia, etc--and so i was like alright. this appears to be a publishing outlet of SOME kind. what's the catch?

the catch is the abysmal fucking offerings:

the 'exclusive' contract here is if you do the whole 'submit a thing and they extend an offer', whereas non-exclusive is you just posting the thing. but look at the numbers! look how low they are! $450 if your story is above 200,000 words????????????????? and you have to post EVERY DAY for the update bonus; if you miss more than 4 days, you're out of the running. HOLY EXPLOITATION BATMAN. never mind that for the non-exclusive, you get a measly $250 for 200,000 words and NO update bonus. with the signing bonus of a whole $50, that's $300 for 200,000+ words: a whopping 0.0015 per word.

another app that appears to promote original work is Galatea, owned by inkitt; it appears legit in that it's been advertised by a bunch of different places, i.e. Writer's Digest, and has a fairly slick site, but reviews from users say it's a scam--a less predatory scam than usual, but still a scam.

TL;DR, if you write heterosexual steamy werewolf romance, your shit is likely making money for some company in whoknowsistan, who use microtransactions to make you pay for individual books. and i haven't even TALKED about how some of these apps have some of the most crazy IP protection i have ever seen, such as banning you for an hour if you screencap ANYTHING, and hiding recorded videos:

but despite all this, and this horrible rabbithole of novel apps i've fallen down, nothing compares to me having to read all this fiction and realising that we are ignorant to the quantities of sheer bad werewolf writing out there, so much so that i'm honestly tempted to post my own straight-bait just to see how far i can get. things that i've noticed:

all the female protagonists start off as abused or hated and are saved by some Alpha/Alpha King/Alpha Demon/idk man

sometimes the werewolf aspect is just an inner wolf who like. yells at you sometimes?

there's gamma rank werewolves?

there's DELTA rank werewolves?????????????

i honestly think i'm becoming addicted to finding out just how unhinged some of these stories get, but that is beside the point: in the end, for the love of god, don't be a dumbass and use these shady apps, and do NOT submit to places who won't even give you an entire penny per word. also, check your shit; it might have been scalped for someone else's profit. okay. ciao.

[userseokmins]

secret wishes ◦ h.v.c.

💞 🄿🄰🄸🅁🄸🄽🄶: Hansol Vernon Chwe x gn!reader 📚 🄶🄴🄽🅁🄴: Fluff, Humor/Comedy/Crack, PLATONIC!au, Besties!au 💬 ⓌⒸ: 3.4k ⚠️ 🅆🄰🅁🄽🄸🄽🄶🅂: Food, One mention of alcoholic beverages, Reader gets a tattoo, Cheesy corny stuff, Everyone is a menace imho, lmk if i missed smth! 📝 🄰/🄽: what better way to make a fic debut on this blog than a (very belated) birthday vernon fic to my beloved @aceofvernons. Basically it's a love letter from one bestie to another but it got kinda out of hand sjjskakak I still hope you enjoy it 🎉 (also ty Nova for color correcting and giving me confidence 💖)

It's like waking up disoriented from a dream. 

Vernon is suddenly snapped out of the daze Seungwkan had left him in moments ago. The man responsible for it is now standing next to him, barking orders out to at least five other people who are running around their tiny, shared apartment.

"Geez, you didn't need to make such a big deal outta things."

"Should've stopped me instead of pouting in silence in your abysmally dark room like always."

"It's not that dark," Vernon protests and scratches the back of his head, "and I don't pout." 

Lilac strands flutter as he tilts his head and does the very thing he said he doesn't do: pout. Seungkwan spares him a look only to roll his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah Mr. Vamp. Maybe when a certain person isn't mentioned, sure." He jerks his head to the right. "Now get your lazy butt moving so I'm not tempted to take a hundred percent of the credit, love, and appreciation in your stead."

Vernon reluctantly peers into the kitchen. Mingyu is waving a spatula in a threatening manner at Wonwoo and their partner for eating and playing with the batter he's been working hard on. Peeking into the living room causes his entire body to cringe at Seokmin and his fiance who are supposed to be blowing up balloons. Instead, they're taking a break to giggle and kiss at one another's necks.

Ugh.

Seeking reprieve, he finally finds comfort stumbling next to Joshua, the seemingly only calm one among the other chaotic scatterbrains. With a kind smile, the maroon-haired man hands a loose end of the various paper chains he's looping together to Vernon, who readily takes it.

"You're pouting."

"I don't pout, Josh."

"Sure, sure. Unless it's about you know who."

"Seungkwan said the same sort of nonsense."

"He's not wrong. Otherwise he wouldn't be putting in all this effort for the both of you."

Vernon frowns. "He didn't have to."

"He did 'cause you were pouting. We all had to."

"I don't… ugh, whatever. All I wanted was something small but different."

"It's different that's for sure." Red bangs fly up when Joshua snorts at a sweaty Seungcheol stumbling through the front door, flanked by additional friends, to bring in an unnecessarily large table. "I know it's not what you normally do but I think it'll be nice."

"We like to do quiet things. Just the two of us. But everything's been screwed up this year."

Joshua's laughter is soft and melodic despite the underlying mockery Vernon suspects it disguises. "So, this surprise party and the commotion that came with it isn't bothering you. You're sulky because quality bestie time has been sacrificed since they went away."

Just because he's right doesn't mean he has to say it. 

"I'm not sulking and I'm not sure what's so funny either." 

"You are, my dear buddy!" He clasps his friend's shoulder reassuringly whose lilac hair cutely lessens the intensity of his perpetual frown. "After we celebrate, you'll get them all to yourself."

Vernon's nose crinkles. "Why is everyone being so insufferable?"

Not bothering to reply, the other man simply hums and stands to hang the completed portion of the chain. He can manage his grumpy younger friend who's now stapling the remaining rectangular pieces of paper a little bit too aggressively. The knowledge that Vernon will settle back into his easy-going nature once you return is inevitable. 

It's just a question of how long all of them will be able to hold out until then.

By the time the sun sets, the fast-paced energy of the afternoon has dwindled down and the party preparations are finally finished.

"Are you sure it will be fine?"

"Honestly, Chwe! Do you not trust my baking skills?" 

"More like I don't trust my fridge."

Seungkwan looks up at the exchange between a whiny Mingyu and indifferent Vernon. "Just don't open the fridge overnight and everything should be fine." He huffs, handing a stack of empty pizza boxes to Seokmin. "There's nothing but the cake in there anyways."

That must be enough to satisfy the dessert maker who obnoxiously puffs out his chest in pride. Wonwoo secures the last pack of untouched beer he'd brought in one hand and his partner's wrist tenderly in the other. Bidding everyone a good evening, he leaves with Mingyu following behind them like an elated puppy heading back home after a tiring walk.

"We'll take these and head out too," Seokmin supplies helpfully as he and his fiance finish gathering the final pieces of trash laying around. "See you tomorrow!"

Joshua is the last to go and jingles his car keys loudly before shutting the door with an exclamation of, "Enjoy the surprise!"

He disappears with a cheeky grin and swift departure before the opportunity to be questioned arises and Vernon turns to his unphased roommate.

"What did he mean by that?"

"Oh, you know him. Sometimes he's normal, more often he's not. Probably just wanted to re-remind you of that fact."

Seungkwan's statement is one that anyone can agree with. Figuring Joshua meant nothing as usual, it's already forgotten by the time Vernon's made his way up the steps.

Much later into the night, he's on a desperate search for something when you call but picks up nonetheless. No matter what he's doing, one thing for sure is that he'll always answer the phone when it displays your name. Because it's you.

But maybe that wasn't the smartest decision.

"Hello 'sol!"

"Hey bestie," the phone is cradled between his shoulder and ear as he rummages between the couch cushions. "What's up?"

"Nothing much, guess I just wanted to hear your voice."

A silly smirk halts him in his tracks. "Miss me?"

"Oh, how I long for you so!" The sarcasm lacing your words can't fully hide the smile he hears. "I've talked to you every day as always, it's like I never even left."

"Wish you didn't."

"You and I both. It's nice to be home but still…"

"We've always spent your birthdays together."

"Which is exactly why you should've come back with me!" 

"Couldn't intrude on the fam like that."

You sigh. "No one would've minded, you're so dear to them." Mimicking your mother's voice, you continue, "Where's that lil Hansolie of yours? We enjoy his company so much, it's as if he's our son. In fact — we might love him more than our own child!"

Vernon laughs brightly. Bold and loud like he always does in your presence. You draw that part out of him like no one else can, setting him at ease to simply be himself. Comfortable. There are no appearances to uphold with you, no worries either. Everything melts away and it's easy to forget what he was all stressed about before you called. Until hurried feet pounding on the floor signify that someone is about to rush into the living room.

"I found them! I found the — " Seungkwan's happy skip halts upon seeing his friend on the phone and attempts to catch his breath after scrambling down the steps. But the keywords to the unfinished sentence roll right off Vernon's tongue out of relief without thinking. 

"The rings?"

Even if he can't see, you perk up from your slouched position in the car and repeat eagerly, "Rings?"

Vernon shares a wide-eyed look with the other man in the room who hesitantly places the box on the coffee table. So much for being relaxed — he got too relaxed and ended up spilling the secret. Exposing himself like an idiot. He normally doesn't care that you are privy to everything there is to know about him but now…

Licking his lips nervously, he chuckles awkwardly. "Uh… yeah?"

"Did you get married or something in the week that I was gone?" you tease. "What's all this ring business about?"

"N-nothing. It's nothing big… y'know how Kwannie was… contemplating… um, engagement."

The man in question gapes and starts waving theatrically while mouthing silent charades full of utter disbelief and betrayal that are readily ignored.

Meanwhile, you snort. "Oh yeah, because that's definitely not a big deal at all. About time! But how did you end up with his rings then?"

Vernon turns his back on a dramatic Seungkwan in order to focus on organizing a believable white lie. "We… invited some of the guys over to talk it out and uh, he didn't want to lose them in the chaos because… he's still deciding and all that, you know… "

"Incredible," you mutter, "yet it seems like you lost them."

Panic, his brain screams. And maybe some shame added as well.

"But whatever, at least you found them." Somehow you seem to miraculously buy his pathetic excuse. Leaving the matter alone because you're distracted by a hearty yawn, he lets out a quiet exhale of relief while you stretch your neck out. "I'm tired." 

Your best friend collapses onto the couch, feeling exhausted himself. "You should get some rest."

"And miss when the clock strikes twelve?"

"You've got a long day ahead, flying out after your celebration. You know you can stay longer if it's too much." 

He's a little nervous saying that after everyone excitedly spent time to set up a surprise party but your well-being will always be more important to them over anything else. 

Mingyu and his cake would survive.

"Puh-lease," you grumble and Vernon knows your eyes just have to be rolling, though you're actually glancing at your watch. "Don't you worry your handsome little head, I'll be right on time."

His eyebrows furrow. "On time for what?"

But you've already put the speaker away from your face, giggling like a gremlin in the background before you loudly cackle, "You're a horrible liar, Hansol!"

He breaks out into a cold sweat, even more perturbed when you simply hang up without even a farewell. "What is up with people today?" 

"I dunno, what's up with you?" Phone held dazedly in one hand, Vernon turns to face Seungkwan's wrath. "Because suddenly, I'm engaged — according to your standards!"

"Sorry 'bout that. I'll explain everything when I give them their gift, okay? I think… I don't think they believed me anyway."

"Even Bookkeu wouldn't be fooled by that awful acting. Gosh, now I'm gonna feel bad about not proposing."

"Aw, c'mon Kwan. You know that's not what this meant."

Seungkwan's not really upset and Vernon knows that. Still. It's a subtle sting of a reminder that neither in the ten-year relationship have made a move for sealing that lifelong commitment. It would be a lie to say that it didn't occasionally eat away at the gentle-hearted man. Not that marriage was needed in every romantic relationship.

"I should've said Seokmin but that wouldn't have made sense either… "

"Those two? They're so attached to the hip they would've never handed over their rings to anyone. As a matter of fact though, I wouldn't give you mine either seeing as how you treated yours."

Vernon is quick to jump at his roommate and put him in a light headlock as faux retaliation, knuckles rubbing on the top of his hair while the latter yells in protest. They roughhouse as usual (this time staying clear of any lamp posts), nearly pulling off one another's clothes in the friendly tussle.

That's the position they freeze in when there's two heavy bangs on the door — Vernon with his hand fisted in Seungkwan's collar who has the former's shirt halfway up his torso. Inching closer to one another, they hold their breath. Peeking warily at the front door before meeting each other's terrified eyes that continue to widen in alarm when the beeping sounds of the code being entered starts after two seconds of silence. 

They scream (very manly screams if anyone asks them about it afterwards) when the lock clicks open because who on earth knows their code and would break into their apartment at 11:56 PM?

"It's me!" You announce with a flourish — arms raised in exhilaration — only to lower them in confusion. "Oh. Am I interrupting something?"

Joshua glances around you to laugh at the two men entangled in what now looks like a hug. "Is that how you guys plan to defend yourselves? With a lover's embrace? You knew we were coming, Kwannie."

"I didn't know you'd show up at midnight!"

They step away from one another with disgruntled expressions and Vernon side-eyes everyone dubiously.

"You knew?" 

Seungkwan's stuttered excuse is cut short when your (and everyone else's) phone buzzes and you excitedly cheer, "Happy gremlin birth hour to me!," and turn to a gobsmacked Vernon. "Aren't I gonna get my welcome back squish and squeeze?"

Of course, he could never deny you a hug. Especially on your birthday. Even if you scared the crap out of him by 'breaking in' when you're supposed to be far away with your family still, he opens his arms with an upward lift of his lips.

"Happy birthday, bestie. Now tell me, what in the world are you doing here?"

He takes in your appearance. Despite the off-and-on nap in Joshua's car on the way back from the airport somewhat helping, there's no way your animated behavior can hide all the obvious tiredness and jet lag.

You back away with a pat to his left bicep that has various rows of little black tattoo symbols encircling it, rocking back and forth on your heels.

"Wanted to celebrate my birthday with you!"

"You should have rested."

"I'm not a child, I wanted to surprise you!"

"But — " Vernon gestures helplessly to you, then the decorations he's sure you haven't noticed, and expects some support from his other friends but they have seemingly disappeared to give the two of you privacy. Plus, likely to escape him asking about the bizarre circumstances.

Gee, what wonderful pals.

"I know, I know… all of you put in a lot of effort. Especially Kwannie."

"I helped too!"

"But it was his original idea and organization, no? You'd never plan something like this."

"Why do you know everything, it's your birthday?" He groans in exasperation at your laughter. "It's supposed to be a secret and you're supposed to be surprised!"

"Ah, speaking of which," you eagerly roll up your right sleeve, "look at what I got!"

His eyebrows raise at the reveal of the ink that now circles over your skin. "Oh? You got tatted?"

"Yes! When I called after you got yours last year, the waitlist was so long I ended up just scheduling it as a birthday gift."

From afar, one might think they're the same as the ones dotting his arm. But upon closer inspection, he's more than pleased to see how you chose to have your own unique personality shine through. Miniscule versions of symbols that mean something precious and objects that seem to represent you best are outlined or filled-in with your favorite color.

"Beautiful."

You smile broadly at how awestruck your best friend is. "No, you."

"No, you."

"No, you."

"Fine, we're both pretty!" Vernon relents, well aware that this could go back and forth forever. 

"That we are." You urge him to sit down on the couch and situate yourself next to him, right shoulder to his left, and grab his wrist. "Look!"

Extending your joined arms, you show him how your tattoos align almost perfectly. Then securing his other free hand in yours with the traditional pinky promise the two of you have done since childhood. He chuckles as you nudge him cajolingly with an elbow.

"I see."

"What do you see?"

"You just want me to say something cheesy 'cause you're in your affectionate era."

"It's the least you could do on my birthday."

A deep, weary sigh. "We're… each other's… better… half?"

The hands you have placed on his body tighten their hold as you squeeze hard in your excitement. He grunts as appropriate between your rambling, focusing mainly on when he'll be able to get circulation back where you're gripping, until you suddenly deflate.

"I messed it up. Stupid, sleep-deprived brain."

"You're not stupid."

"You're right, it's your fault."

"Mine?"

"I took the brain cell but now you have it back because we're together." Finally freeing the poor man, you stand in front of him and point. "Okay, let me try again so you'd better wipe your mind clear."

"Yeah, yeah." Vernon crosses his arms and pretends to look annoyed as if there isn't a goofy grin on his face.

"It was supposed to go something like this. We mirror each other, right?" You gesture to your tattoos again. "We're very similar, maybe even too similar at times. But," you flop down where you were originally seated, "we're also different! Different enough that we can compensate for each other's weaknesses and complement each other's strengths… you know, like you said — all that corny stuff."

"Cute."

"Like you."

"And you."

You lean in so close to Vernon that your noses almost touch. "Yeah, because we're besties and we look cute together. Okay, since I ruined the surprise and told you all my secrets, isn't it your turn now?"

"My turn?"

"Yeah, Mr. Rings."

"Ah… so that was your goal all along."

"Of course, I'm waiting with bated breath."

He raises his chin in the direction of the coffee table. "It's right there."

Despite teasing him about not wrapping it, you quickly snatch the velvet box before he can grab it himself. "Couple rings?" You put a hand over your heart dramatically. "Aw, you shouldn't have, Hansol."

"They're bestie rings, you dolt."

"Did you just call me an idiot?!"

"Yeah. With affection though."

You make a sound of disgust but return to the precious gift, lips curling upwards. "They're beautiful."

"Copycat."

"Stop it, you love me."

"I do."

"Then put it on me," you demand, handing him the ring box and wiggling your fingers in anticipation. 

Vernon mumbles something about how impatient you are and to chillax. But he does as asked and gently takes the hand always used to pinky promise and bro-slap him. Sliding the ring on your middle finger, pleased when it's a perfect fit. Then, he does the same on his own and scrunches his nose in satisfaction.

"Perfect."

"I know."

He takes your hand back in his like before, and brings you into the kitchen. Identical rings brush against each other and the tattoos on your arms act like magical sigils to shield from anything that threatens to break through the personal bubble created by your joined hands.

"How did you figure out my ring size?"

"There are lots of opportunities because you don't fall asleep until some ungodly hour and happen to still be passed out when normal people awaken. So thanks for that."

You stick your tongue out at his snarkiness and receive a dollop of icing on it in return. "Mingyu makes amazing cakes!"

"So you knew about that too."

"Duh. And I know he'll be mad if you cut a piece."

"Two," Vernon deviously points out and places a plate down for himself. 

It would be an absolute crime to not devour such a delicious treat, figuring it a waste to let it sit out instead. Making a gross noise of appreciation at the first bite, you couldn't wait to thank Mingyu later. 

You get that opportunity the next morning as more and more friends from the day before tiptoe in one after the other per Seungkwan and Joshua's request. Quiet giggles and definite blackmail material when they sneak a peek into the kitchen to see you and Vernon fast asleep with your heads laying on the counter, limbs splayed all over the place and each other. 

The two of you had chattered about everything, anything, and nothing at all. No words needed to be said even when a comfortable silence settled as the sun started to rise before both of your eyelids closed. 

You were his best friend and he was yours. That was all that mattered. The strength of your bond meant that you were content just being in each other's thoughts, even at times you were far apart. Physical reminders like tattoos or rings were just the cherry on top of the cake that you had worked hard and spent years together on creating.

Speaking of cakes…

"My precious darling," Mingyu whisper-screeched from afar, "I knew you would be destroyed!" 

He sighs, distraught, and Wonwoo pats him on the back. Their partner begins snickering when the tall man gingerly lifts up the new one he brought with shaking hands. "Good thing I made two!"

userseokmins 2023 ©

[madmanwonder]

(Prompt, Original AU, Crossover AU) (Fusion AU) Weiss brings Shallot over for Thanksgiving dinner, meeting her family...and demonstrating his abysmal table manners. (Thanksgiving)

Weiss mused in the back of her mind, that she didn't think this one through. How she thought she would brings Shallot over for Thanksgiving Dinner, meeting her family (san her father who's in jail thanks to few close friends) and hope they will love him in spite of his cavemen-like behavior...

MUNCH! MUNCH! MUNCH! MUNCH! MUNCH! MUNCH!

Weiss stare at her paramour along with Winter, Whitley and Willow who was looking on in mixture of awe, shock, and digust as they saw the youthful-but-ancient saiyan eating up his food with gluttonous delight...and abysmal tabble manners that made them look green in the face.

Whitley the youngest of the Schnee sibling turned his icy blue eyes on his older sister. A deadpan look on his sharp, aristocratic face.

"This...This is the man you call your paramour, dear sister?" He snarky asked his older sister who in response was to face-palmed in shame and anger.

"Even Ragna have better table mannerism than him." Winter comment in disgust as she unable to look away at the savage eating machine.

Willow eyed her daughter with mixture of sardonic amusement. "I do hope he got his other good quality to him or you and I going to have a long talk about your paramour, young lady." Willow comment with a deadpan smile.

[dribs-and-drabbles]

Laws of Attraction ep 7

A short one today because I do not have any time for this (rip my sleep).

Well, there we go. We know what Tonkhao died for. Thatthep murdered someone who was trying to blackmail him. I'm not sure how the doll would prove that though (the sound recording itself probably wouldn't be enough tbh) but the green shirt makes a reappearance, as Thatthep decides to rope Tanthai into the cover-up and tie him to the scene of the accident (puns absolutely intended).

Where did Charn get shot for him to go down like that?!

What IS this show?! 😂 The music, the knuckledusters, the blood spattered shirt, the misspelled tattoo. It's actually a comedy.

"But there's one thing that you're better [at] than him...You have my heart" 🤮 People in love stink (affectionate).

Navin in pink, possibly representing Charn's plan to confront and get 'revenge' on Thatthep that will eventually come between Charn and Tinn. The pink, which later becomes a dark red before Charn leaves in a plane with a red interior, with Tinn devoid of colour as his love leaves him but with Charn keeping their blue with him (gdi the quality of these yt videos is abysmal).

Oh my god Charn and Tinn are so fucking adorable. If anything happens to them so help me bl gods I will RIOT. (Hello, Charn in all blue for the 'I love you scene'! He upgraded from just blue pj pants after their first kiss to a full blue pj outfit here).

A singular pair of handcuffs in the middle of the drawer?! 😂

Of ALL the idiotic things Tanthai has done (and Thee has let him) whyyyyyy upload a video to social media?! And omfg Thee needs to SHUT UP.

Well we finally know about Tanthai's mother...but at what cost? Ooof what a scene.

Jäääääävla. That ending. Charn trying so hard to maintain his mask but, as predicted, the Love of a Good Man™️ cracks and breaks it.

I joked in ep 1 that the third time Tinn saves Charns life it would be emotionally...but now I'm leaning to Tinn actually rushing into that warehouse and saving Charn's life in ep 8. We'll soon see!

[ep 1] [ep 2] [ep 3] [ep 4] [ep 5] [ep 6]

[thecloudstan]

Oooh, if you're accepting stuff for the OTP + Character Ask thing, then for Rufus/Cloud... Let's go with 3, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 22, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 36, 38, and 39. Lmao, I know that's a lot. Please, thank you, and sorry. XD

Yes, yes, yes! Still doing!! I'll answer the first ask or two and put the rest under the cut so this post doesn't get too long.

3. Are they into PDA? Who initiates most?

I think it's pretty obvious that Rufus is the one who initiates PDA, but only when he feels especially bastard-like. I do think he'd naturally draw the line in situations that would make Cloud genuinely uncomfortable (like in front of his friends/family/comrades), but strangers? Eh, who cares? Mostly, though, Rufus likes to be almost caught, it's the tension of possibly being seen that excites him, it's watching Cloud squirm that amuses him most. If Cloud is drunk, he'll act physically possessive without much pretense at all.

12. Who prefers calling to texting (& vice versa)? Bonus: Who is so bad at texting it made the other think they weren’t interested when they first started hanging out? [This could be hypothetical as much as real].

Rufus would rather call. It's the business man in him. Real businessmen don't text important shit. It's also bad form to put things in text. Too formal, some things are better communicated verbally (this may be the fact that I work in a law office speaking). Cloud is the one who is abysmal about texting at first. If Rufus is inwardly concerned that Cloud isn't interested, he'd keep it to himself.

13. Stay home/go-out? What are their date nights like?

Irritatingly lavish because Rufus plans them all. This is not Cloud's forte. He barely wants to be seen in public, let alone seen in public with someone who loves to be seen in public. A night in would be perfectly fine with Cloud. Still, I can't see this as being planned by anyone other than Rufus, and the "night in" would be a "night in a 5 star suite complete with room service and wine that costs almost as much as the room itself."

17. Who is more competitive?

Tie. They're both so bull-headed. Have you played the game(s)?! Have you heard these two men throw insults (flirt) back and forth?! This is what makes the ship so much fun!

18. What are they like when they’re drunk? How do they act together? & when 1 is drunk, while the other one’s sober?

Cloud - fewer words, if you can believe it, but no filter. Will say the mean things and the soft things and the sweet things. Holds a sour face. Bebi-shaped (always).

Rufus - horny and somehow even more elegant. Difficult to tell except for the slight flush to his cheeks. His smile reaches his eyes more.

19. What do they fight about most often? (Alternative: what was their biggest fight?)

Which one of them is a bigger liar.

22. Love languages? How do they get around differences, if any?

I think Cloud's love language is pretty clearly Acts of Service. He can't help but help. For Rufus, I would lean toward Quality Time. At least in the case of Cloud, he knows he needs the right hook. He finds ways to make sure they're alone, repeatedly, without interruption. He is not at all feigning attentiveness. And at least in terms of NTYC, they get around differences primarily by Fucking. It can be very cathartic and can really re-frame whatever things you were arguing about beforehand, LMAO.

25. (a lil sappy, but..) What do they like about each other?

Hmm. I think Cloud likes the directness, even though there are times Rufus is clearly playing a game. He likes that he can say whatever he wants without really having to worry about stepping on Rufus' toes or hurting his feelings. Rufus likes having a worthy opponent in Cloud. By many definitions of the term.

27. Craziest place they had sex?

Bathroom at a heavily attended private event. This is in the story but I also just think it tracks for the ship, generally.

29. First date? (Give as much or little detail)

Something suitably over the top that would make Cloud flush the entire time. Something that included a private car and an expensive dinner, maybe an illustrious night at the theatre because Rufus is important enough to get box seats. Everything is a competition, after all, and if Cloud is shocked speechless, Rufus is pleased. He's winning.

30. Pet names? Yes or no?

Rufus would absolutely use pet names (again...he's ruthless). Cloud? No. Absolutely not. Unless things uttered milliseconds before climax count as "pet names."

31. How do they spend their anniversary?

Alone. I don't know if either of them are sentimental enough to put much stock into an anniversary.

32. Who’s so affectionate they can’t stop touching the other?

Probably Rufus, but I don't know how much of this is genuine affection or that desire to claim and overwhelm. It's probably still motivated by affection, he just tells himself otherwise. You have to fuck Cloud into submission for him to start feeling comfortable enough to get touchy-feely.

36. Who is more protective?

Cloud. No one on the planet is more protective than Cloud.

38. If/when they have kids, what is their parenting style (or pets-who does what)?

Cloud is practically already a co-dad, so I think we kinda know his parenting style. Or, I like to indulge myself in writing MORE about it. I think his mother was probably a wonderful parent and that he was quite close to her, so that's what he'd emulate to the best of his ability. Patience, protection, never a raised voice.

Rufus...aaaah, yikes. That's tough. I don't think he has much use for children. Can't picture it. I would like to believe he'd want to be a better father than his own, but I think his fear of failing would create a self-fulfilling prophecy, of sorts.

39. Do they get along with the other’s family? If not, how do they deal with the other’s family?

Well enough. Cloud is combative with the Turks because old habits die hard, but in the end they'd have each others' backs, right? I believe so. And Rufus will be perfectly cordial to anyone who is important to someone who is important to him. He takes that sort of thing seriously. He values loyal people.

[trinketfairy]

🍌

🍌 what’s your list of dreamies right now?

I definitely have a few that have been on my radar for a while now... This post is gonna get long, sorry in advance...!!

First up would be the 2inchGiraffe Richie Tozier and Eddie Kaspbrak plushies. These were a limited run, and unfortunately for the entire time they were running, I never really had the money to spend on getting these two. I really just wanted to be smarter with my money, but it's one of the decisions I regret making immensely because my chances of finding them again are slim to none. Still, I keep them on my holy grails list in the hopes that maybe, someone out there will be kind enough to let me buy theirs. A man can dream...

I've also had my eyes on the Snughouls Fairy Floss Bat for a while now, and it's one I definitely plan on getting one day soon! Again, it just comes down to money... I completely understand why these are as expensive as they are, because they're obviously high quality products from a small business, but until recently I just didn't ever have the sort of money needed to pay for USD to CAD conversion rates, as well as the abysmal shipping rates we have here. Hopefully soon though, I've been saving up now that I have money coming in on a more consistent basis!

Lastly we have the Prime Shiba 22in Rosalie the Wolf Dog plush. This girl is absolutely gorgeous, and I fell in love with her ever since I saw her first preorder photos on the website! Again, it's just another issue with money- I was only able to get my 4 other PS plushies through good luck, good timing, and an insane Black Friday deal, and the odds of this happening again literally only come once a year. Still, I'd be happy to pay full retail price for her since I want her that badly, but alas being an adult means having to exercise some kind of responsibility over my spending money.

Runners up include the Jellycat medium Bashful calico cat, Jellycat medium Smudge Changi lion, and the Squishables Mini limited carousel horse. I see these going on Ebay sometimes, with the former two more frequently than the latter, but oh man do these go for a pretty penny.. It's funny cause the JC calico cat is one that I really wanna use as a mascot, so I guess my taste really is that expensive!

I have a lot more that are on my wishlist/ISO list, but this covers the ones that are most wanted and/or not easily obtainable, for one reason or another.

[Ask game source]

[strangestcase]

I showed my SO some very old fanfiction I wrote specifically about my since-abandoned j&h au. Dated back to when I was 14 specifically. And he goes

"This is the worst thing I've ever read...its not good."

And I was like, MAN, YOU USED TO WRITE shitty soviet russia macbeth adaptations in your free time. 2 sides of the same coin. Now, he wasn't putting me down, usually he praises my work but that one was one of the first things I had ever written so the quality was abysmal.

Anyway I love reading old writing and comparing it with new writing and marvelling at how much I've matured as a person and how I actually know how to write an accurate description of smoking a cigarette now, it's fun.

I don't even know why I'm telling you all this I just kind of felt like saying it, sorry if it's too much. Autism be damned.

No it’s fine, my jh stuff from when I was 14 also sucked bad lmao

[orangepanic]

Just dumping headcanons today for self-care, but some of the discussions I've seen about Zuko and Azula post-war and the tendency in fandom to give our favorites all the good qualities and none of the bad got me thinking about a different headcanon, which is that Iroh II is not a particularly good Firelord.

I usually give him siblings, but in the situations where he takes the throne it's not great. Yes, he is an experienced commander and a thoughtful diplomat, and on the international stage he's well-regarded. But he's also a man who left home at seventeen and never looked back. He didn't join the Fire Army. He lived for years overseas and married a foreigner. He wears his hair short. The deep sense of tradition in the relatively conservative Fire Nation is something Iroh can respect, but it holds little appeal for him personally. This is a man who will push open borders and innovation and international alliances and foreign investment, reversing his mother's rather isolationist policies and spending money like crazy on bridges and trains and undersea telegraph cables and fleets of airships to connect him to the world that he loves. The treasury hates him.

At the same time he looks bored at the kinds of public appearances for which royals are expected (he is) and delegates as much of this as possible, which makes him seem remote and uninterested to the public. He's also introverted and rather private, and refuses to have his family paraded about like show dogs for the media (and unfortunately says this on a hot mic), further distancing him from public opinion. He believes in moving the Fire Nation towards democracy intellectually but doesn't work well with a highly political cabinet who don't agree with what he sees as the best way to get there. Taxes are high to fund all his projects. His approval ratings are abysmal. When all of his children turn out to be non-benders the succession is questioned.

Iroh's unpopularity does more to push the Fire Nation towards representative government than any of his own political efforts.