#the reason I made this blog in the first place was because of bad events that happened in the fandom

[drdtappreciation]

it’s been a long while but im here to share my pure love for drdt like other fans

it’s a phenomenal project that im constantly thinking abt everyday, I don’t know if tumblr would even let me copy and paste all the positive compliments in the english dictionary here!

but recently drama has happened and im really concerned. I love drdt, I don’t want it to end nor do I want the fandom to break.

^

[navybrat817]

Rules and Chaos

Pairing: Tattoo Artist!Bucky Barnes x Baker!Female Reader Summary: Your friends are a bad influence when you and Bucky set up booths for a Fall Festival. Word Count: Over 2.3k Warnings: Implied sex, slight humor, slight fluff, tension, teasing, inner monologue, Bucky Barnes (he's a warning, okay?). Previous Part of AU: Ladies and Gentlemen A/N: Fic #4 for Navy's Trick or Treat Nonsense! Quick visit with Hottie and Sugar and a small mention of Thorn and Rose.❤️ Beta read by the lovely @jobean12-blog (thank you and @whisperlullaby for assuring me this wasn't garbage!), but any and all mistakes are my own. Divider by the talented @firefly-graphics and Bucky edit by the amazing @nixakimbo .Please follow @navybrat817-sideblog for new fics and notifications. Comments, reblogs, feedback are loved and appreciated!

“You did this on purpose. I know you did.”

With a small laugh, you finished setting up the last sign in front of your table. You wanted the stand to look perfect. “What exactly did I do, Tess?”

She pointed to the booth beside yours where Bucky and Hal were also in the middle of getting their things set up. “You somehow got them to put us right next to the boys.”

You stole a glance at the “Sin On Skin” booth beside yours, the sign tastefully saying “S.O.S. Tattoo Parlor”. Bucky winked at you when he caught your gaze out of the corner of your eye. A goofy smile appeared on your face before you cleared your throat and got back to work. “You do realize I had absolutely no control over where they placed us since I didn't organize this event.”

The nearby elementary school had put on a Fall Festival over the last few years and the woman Steve started seeing was a teacher there. She thought it would be fun for the guys to do face paintings and temporary tattoos for the kids. It was Bucky who suggested that your shop sell baked goods, after running it by you first. Not only was it good for exposure for you and Tess while helping to raise money for the students, it was an excuse to spend the day a few feet away from your boyfriend.

How could you say no to that?

The only downside was that the weather for tomorrow called for rain. To be on the safe side, the booths were going to be in the gym so that the families could still enjoy some of the festivities if it stormed. No matter what happened, it would be a fun day for everyone.

“Then he did it and now I have to watch you two make eyes at each other between customers tomorrow,” Tess accused, but there was no malice behind her words. You didn’t argue since there was a good chance that you would check Bucky out and vice versa. “And aren’t you two hanging out tonight after we finish up?”

“Yeah. We’re doing a movie night,” you replied. You hadn’t had a chance to do a lot of fall activities with Bucky yet, but he promised that he’d take you on a hayride tomorrow before the event was over. And the two of you were watching scary movies tonight. A perfect excuse for you to snuggle against him.

Which will probably end with him inside me, so well worth the jump and scares.

“I still think he’s the reason why we’re next to each other,” Tess said, checking over the order you put together. You made sure there was a range of Autumn and Halloween colors and everything was back at the shop ready for you to set out the following morning. “Though I shouldn’t complain. You two are cute together and he makes you happy.”

“We are a cute couple,” Bucky said, winking at you again. “And she makes me happy, too.”

You had to smile as your heart skipped a beat. It still felt a bit like a dream that the handsome tattoo artist was your boyfriend, but he was yours. It was silly to think that the season was brighter because you had him around, but he was like the unexpected warmth you sometimes experienced on a cool day when the sun came out. If you told him that, you knew he’d argue that it was the other way around. That you were the one who brightened everything around you.

Bringing out the best in each other is what good couples do.

“Get back to work, Hottie. We’re almost done,” you teased when he walked around his table. Clad in one of his signature Henley's, maroon to likely go with the fall theme, you found yourself staring at his chest as he stopped in front of you. Your eyes snapped to his lips when he tapped them with his finger.

“Gimme a kiss first, Sugar,” he said, his voice as warm as your cheeks felt. “One little kiss. That's all I'm asking for.”

“Fine,” you agreed, moving in close. “One kiss.”

He cupped your jaw as he leaned in and deeply kissed you, instantly making you melt against him as you kissed him back. You smiled as you tried to pull away after a second, his lips eagerly seeking yours as he went in for seconds. You discovered after your first date that one kiss was never enough for your boyfriend. He claimed your sugary lips drugged his system with desire and the only cure was for him to have another taste, which made him crave you and your kisses more.

I crave him, too.

He wrapped a hand around your hip and dragged you closer as you mewled, a sound of need that you tried to stamp out. Arousal seized you as his tongue licked along your mouth. It wasn’t fair that his kisses brought such a strong reaction out of you, especially when there was nothing you could do to satisfy it. At least, not right this second.

I’m not going to wiggle my hips and rub my pussy against his cock. I will maintain some sort of self-control.

“Hey!” Hal grinned as you tore your lips away from Bucky’s, shivering at the slight growl he let out at being interrupted. The sound made you want him more. “You two can’t fool around here. Not unless you’re teaching Sex Ed.”

“Yeah,” Tess chimed in, handing you her phone so you could take photos. Bucky still had a hand on your hip, only allowing you to twist a bit. The possessive touch also had safety behind it, telling you that you had nothing to fear when he was close by. “Behave, you two. This is a school.”

Your jaw dropped before you snapped a few pictures, making sure to capture the entire booth. You’d have to get more in the morning once the treats were set out. “We are professionals. We would never fool around here.”

And, thankfully, no children were nearby to witness you and Bucky kissing each other since it was after hours. You couldn’t wait to see him interact with the kids though. They would adore him and his gentle giant demeanor. The kids would love all of them. Jake’s sister even planned to stop by so his niece could get a face painting done.

“So, you're saying if he dragged you off to a nearby classroom… Oh, come on. Like you didn’t think about it the second you asked for a kiss,” Hal said, shrugging when Bucky shot him a glare and set out a bottle of orange paint that matched the shade of his hair. You wondered if he’d keep it orange for November or if he’d go for a shade of red. “Or maybe you two will roll in the hay during that hayride you keep talking about.”

Bucky didn’t look at all embarrassed, swearing that the boys were used to hearing him moan on and on about you. It was a nice feeling. “Like she said, we’re professionals and we wouldn’t do that,” he argued, raising an eyebrow. “And did you just say ‘roll in the hay’? You sound like Jensen.”

“I’m a country boy at heart. I know all about rolling in the hay,” he smirked, looking over at you when your boyfriend pulled you closer. “Hey. Don’t classrooms have locks?”

“Hal, stop encouraging them,” Tess hissed as he chuckled. It was too late. They planted the seed and you knew Bucky was thinking about it, too. “Though he does have a point. Just go into one of the rooms and lock the door. No one will notice.”

“And there’s still time before we have to get out of here,” Hal added as he checked his watch. “Make it a quickie.”

“Hold on,” you said, handing the phone back to Tess when you realized you were still holding it. “You two are actually encouraging us to find a classroom to fool around in? The night before the event?”

Not that it wouldn’t be fun and a good stress reliever, but-

“It’s no different than you two in the kitchen,” your friend said, pointing at Bucky as your cheeks got hot. “Yeah, I had that counter cleaned twice.”

Bucky turned his head toward you, humor in his eyes as you played innocent. “You told her about that?” he asked, brushing a kiss to your temple. You had to tell her. It was technically her kitchen, too. “How I ate you out so good you almost cried?” he added low enough for only you to hear.

You trembled at the memory, the mere thought of his skilled tongue and fingers making your toes curl in your boots. Before you could open your mouth to say something in your defense, Hal laughed. “And it’s no different than the two of you messing around in the break room. Thought Andy was gonna buy a new couch to replace it.”

It was Bucky’s turn to feign innocence as you gazed at him, gently tugging on his bun as tried not to smile. “You told him about that?”

Earlier in the week, you waited around for him to close the parlor. The two of you chatted on the couch when you didn’t want to leave right away, which led to a heated makeout session. It wasn’t long before he had you in his lap, bouncing you up and down on his cock as he growled filthy praises. How well you took him, how beautiful you looked riding him. It was a feat that you could walk out before he took you home.

Where he wrecked you all over again.

“Steve told him, so everyone knows. Punk can’t keep a secret to save his life,” Bucky said, glancing around where a few others were starting to wrap up. “Look. Messing around in our shops is one thing. We own them. Messing around here is something else.”

“He’s right. And even if we wanted to mess around, I’m pretty sure the security guard or administrators will catch on if we suddenly take a stroll down the halls,” you said before your brow furrowed. “Wait a second. Where’s Steve?” you asked. You hadn’t seen him since he dropped off the table banner.

Hal looked behind him and shrugged. “Wasn’t he helping Rose grab decorations for one of the other displays?”

“It shouldn’t take that long, should it?” your boyfriend asked.

As if on cue, Steve rushed into the gym and came to a stop a foot away from the booth. His cheeks were pinker than usual and his hair was a bit of a mess. “Sorry. Rose was showing me around. She’ll be back in a minute.”

Bucky nodded slowly. “Thought you two were getting decorations.”

“Well, yeah. We did. She has them,” he said quickly.

“Stevie?”

“Yeah?”

“Check your fly,” Bucky said, nodding to his crotch.

Hal laughed so hard he almost fell over as Steve fixed his pants, you and Tess covering your mouths to not draw more attention as you giggled. “See? If Stevie can have fun in a classroom, so can you.”

The blonde looked slightly offended by the assumption. “We were not in a classroom,” he stated as you all stared in disbelief. It only took a moment for him to smile. “We were in an office. That’s completely different.”

You shared a look with Bucky, practically seeing the lightbulb turn on over his head. “An office?” he repeated.

Steve nodded, pointing to one of the gym doors. “Yeah, the principal's office is that way and the nurse’s office,” he said, smirking when he realized why his best friend was asking. “You’re worse than I am, you know that?”

“Worse than what?” a kind voice rang out, Steve's girlfriend gracefully walking over with a small box in hand. He took it from her hands immediately, like it was too heavy for her.

“Buck was wanting to, um, 'visit' one of the offices,” he replied.

Rose kept a neutral look on her face as she looked at you two. “So he told you,” she said carefully.

The poor guy really can't keep a secret.

“More like his open fly told us,” Hal chuckled, holding up his hands when Steve took a step toward him.

Rose placed a hand on his arm, stopping him in his tracks. “I normally wouldn't encourage this, but since Steve let the cat out of the bag,” she said, smiling when he gave her a lopsided grin. “The teacher's lounge should still be unlocked, but only for a few more minutes and I can't help you if anyone walks in. You're on your own. Got it?”

“Got it,” Bucky chuckled, leaning in close to breathe against your ear. “What do you say, Sugar? Think we can sneak in there? Have a bit of fun before our movie night? Break a few rules?”

The thought had you squeezing your thighs together in anticipation. “Thought you wanted one kiss before you got back to work. Not a quickie.”

“Let’s live dangerously,” he smiled.

Your breath hitched, something in your mind telling you to go along with the crazy idea. It wouldn’t hurt anyone. The two of you would clean up any mess you’d make once you were done. And if Rose, who worked here, had fun with Steve, would it be so wrong for you to do the same?

“You’re a bad influence,” you smiled back as he tugged you by the hand toward the door. “All of you!” you added when Tess laughed and Hal whistled.

But it’s good to be bad now and again, especially with the right partner by my side.

So, did Bucky fuck you against the door, the vending machine, or on a table? Love and thanks for reading! 🧡

Masterlist ⚓ Bucky Barnes Masterlist ⚓ Ko-Fi

[lunarblazes]

okay i really hate to do this so soon after my last escapade into My Blog Being On Fire but. we need to talk about fan skin artists.

fan skin artists (and fan modelers!) are integral to a lot of the glitz and glam of a minecraft series, in particular, empires smp and the minecraft championship event, though hermitcraft is also bleeding into this lately. skin making to the level you see in videos and streams is really hard! i’m a skinmaker myself, actually, and my current default mc skin took me about six hours total to make, not including recent tweaks to the design, and on average my skins take me three hours each when they’re edited and five and a half hours each when they’re original. i’m also learning blockbench modeling, and though i’m very much a beginner, it doesn’t take much more than a beginner to tell you what kinds of techniques they use to get the models on empires and hermitcraft.

“well, luna, if you’re a skinmaker, why don’t you make fan skins? you clearly really like these series! it would probably be fun for you, right?” i hear you say, for the sake of my post flow.

you’re right, random citizen! i would love to make fan skins and fan models! it would be very fun for me!

however. there is a horrifically bad problem with ccs not asking permission to use people’s skins or flat out not giving credit for their skins at all. this is straight-up art theft, and it’s not okay. some of these artists already have online followings, and that’s the only reason i know who has made certain skins. ccs are notoriously terrible with affording skin artists and modelers the same respect they do with traditional fanartists (even if they pay modelers, it is my belief they should still be credited).

now, some ccs make their own skins! that’s great! but i genuinely cannot tell who has made their own skin and who has used a skin from someone else because nobody ever draws a distinction. i know a few ccs are typically really good with crediting artists in their videos—pearl, in particular, has a skin artist whom she credits often—but in events like mcc contestants often forget to credit their artists, and i’m left a bit skeptical if they asked to use the skins in the first place.

so. yeah. skin artists and modelers need to be given the same credit rights as fanartists. minecraft skins are just as much fanart as a painting someone put a lot of effort into. please, please, please always credit your artists.

[discluded]

My Top 10 memorable 2022 MileApo moments 💚💛

In no particular order,

Mile defending Apo and telling him he's not weird. Mile Phakphum #1 apocolleague #1 Apo defender #1 Apo protector 😖

2. Whatever they put in the water that day at the XBlush shoot 🥴

3. The Moon Represents My Heart at KPWT Taipei (curse you one video per post Tumblr limit). The audible gasp and excitement from the audience when they realized what song it was!!!

4. MileApo at the Vogue Thailand Gala. Everything about them and how beautiful they were... Mile had just gotten out of COVID isolation #2 and now they had a Vogue spread and were mingling with the movers and shakers of the Thai ent industry. Also specifically these boyfriend soft launch selfies 😖

5. Paper Mile at the KPWT send off. This one was bittersweet and making the best of a bad situation... Apo was doing his best to have Mile be included but even Apo was not his usual sparkly self. The appearance of paper Mile per the request of quarantined Mile really put the smile back on his face.

6. Sharing dessert and water in the Red Sea Film Festival IGL

7. Apo taking this sexy photo of Mile in Phuket and immediately being exposed as the photographer. Thank you @ apovision for God's work and thank you @/may for exposing them.

8. Mile replying to this tweet. Yeah it's a tweet. Yeah he interacts with many fan tweets. But trust me, this is the one that made all of us deranged. It's the reason why I'm deranged now. I think about this all the time.

9. Mile and Apo kissing live at KPWT Bangkok. I'm just going to make peace with the fact that we're likely never gonna see another live kiss at a KPWT show again. But we got this one.

10. Holding up the pride flag together at KPWT Taipei. Wasn't Taipei beautiful!?! 😭 It was a beautiful moment for the entire cast and the audience, since it was Pride Week in Taipei 🌈

Bonus: 11. Meeting all of you 🥰💕 Yeah I'm sappy as heck, what are you gonna do about it.

If you've ever sent me an anon or liked or reblogged one of my posts or followed me or stalk my blog but don't have a Tumblr or written fic or drawn fanart or written meta or made gifs or made edits or trended for MileApo, thank you for making fandom a fun place. If you've learned anything new about yourself or the world or changed your perspective in life because of anything I reblogged, I'm glad something I said or did affected you 🥰

We often talk about about when being in fandom is annoying, but really, it's a community. If you've stayed, thanks for embracing respecting each other and loving KinnPorsche and loving Mile and Apo and the people in their lives (which includes all of us!)

Maybe the real MileApo was the friends we made along the way 🥹🥹🥹 (Mile would agree because he is equally sappy like me).

Many other beautiful memories I wanted to include... but I loved these so much. It was hard picking favorites, but I'm gonna 😤

Bonus runners up:

Looking like a royal couple at their first fan meet

KPWT Seoul date (are you going to give us the video or not BOC...)

Apo lifting Mile in the KPWT Taipei behind the scenes video

Mile discretely rubbing Apo's waist underneath his suit jacket at the D7 event 🤭🤭🤭

KPWT Taipei goodbye (x2)

(alright no more for real or else I'm gonna be here all day)

[viviennevermillion]

Them both having a crush on you

notes: had this idea ever I got to know these two. how they act when they're both in love with you, what happens when you pick them and what happens when you reject them for the other. I hurt myself writing this.

characters included: alhaitham, kaveh

contains: character x gn!reader, pining, rejection, jealousy, wingman!kaveh

warnings: angst, unrequited love

dark content blogs dni

Alhaitham:

You got to know Alhaitham because of the whole "saving Sumeru" fiasco, having worked with the Traveler and their team to overthrow the sages and rescue the Dendro Archon.

While you were always impressed with Alhaitham's intelligence, it was refreshing to see a new side to him in calmer moments, like the celebration feast that Nilou organized. You were surprised to hear him talk about how the people of the Grand Bazaar feel joy from the bottom of their hearts, something the people he knew at the Akademiya were foreign to and how he actually enjoyed the atmosphere of the event because of its special meaning. It wasn't a statement you had expected from him but you would lie if you said that you didn't enjoy when he subverted your expectations. That seemed to be something akin to a hobby for the scribe.

Since your chosen career paths made the two of you cross paths every once in a while, Alhaitham became someone you considered a friend, someone you saw occasionally and enjoyed to converse with. Small talk always turned into debates and complex discussions with this man and Alhaitham was enjoying that a lot.

He was actually the reason you met Kaveh in the first place. When he met you, you were suffering from a particularly bad headache and Alhaitham offered to take you to his house to give you a couple of painkillers, since his home was closer than yours. When you entered the house, Kaveh was kneeling next to the living room table, crafting a little house with matchsticks. Alhaitham didn't make much of the stinging feeling in his chest when you went over to his roommate and introduced yourself with a smile and excitedly commented on how much you liked his work. Alhaitham just simply rolled his eyes. "This is my roommate, Kaveh. He rather does little diy projects than try to get his life together."

He hated to see how well you started to get along with Kaveh. That you met him in the afternoons to hang out with him, sometimes more than you did with him. Alhaitham knew he probably gave off the impression that he didn't like spending time with people that much and was very busy with work and his studies. Still, you spending time with Kaveh prompted him to ask you to hang out with him more.

You thought this was simply him warming up to you more and you were happy to see it.

When you weren't around, Alhaitham couldn't help but sometimes look down on his roommate, telling him that he should probably get some money and a stable life first before he thinks of wooing you. Kaveh, however, always had a comeback. Mocking the way Alhaitham didn't seem to understand romantic gestures and how to express love properly. "I may be in a bit of a financial situation right now, but you're one to talk. Do you think y/n would fall for a guy like you? See, so be quiet." Kaveh, just like you, was blissfully unaware of the fact that Alhaitham also had feelings for you.

Alhaitham usually just ignored Kaveh's comments or answered with an amused smirk. However this time it made him wonder if there was some truth to his words. Whether that was what you wanted: a romantic man who brought you flowers and wrote you poetry and always knew how to express what he felt for you. Someone like Kaveh

Alhaitham, being more bitter than usual, happened to "accidentally" take Kaveh's keys more often when he went out, only for that to backfire horribly. He went to knock at your door to ask you if you wanted to grab dinner with him, only for you to open the door and for him to see Kaveh on your living room couch wrapped in a blanket with a tea you made him. You scolded Alhaitham for taking his keys again and explained that Kaveh didn't have a place to go so you let him stay here. "So, what brings you here?", you asked him with a smile. "I just wanted to give you back your pen. You left it at my house", Alhaitham said with a neutral expression as always and chucked Kaveh's key in the direction of the couch, "here's your key. Hopefully you'll move out soon so you won't need it anymore." With a quick comment on how he was busy and had to go, Alhaitham left again, leaving you and Kaveh wondering whether he was in a bad mood or something.

When you choose him:

It was one of the rare evenings, where, even though you now visited Alhaithams house quite regularly, both of the roommates actually decided to spend some time with you. You had come over to play a couple of rounds of Genius Invokation TCG against Alhaitham. Kaveh sat down next to you, giving you tips and making a few teasing remarks towards Alhaitham when you were close to defeating one of his characters.

Alhaitham didn't let that deter him. His strategy made you outmatched even if Kaveh was helping you. If only the two of you teaming up wouldn't make him sit so close to you and joke around with you so much. Since Kaveh wanted to play the game as well, it didn't take long for Alhaitham to grab his book and go outside to read, not wanting to watch Kaveh shamelessly flirting with you any longer. He shouldn't be bothered with this situation.

During a break, you went outside as well to find Alhaitham sitting on a bench in front of his home and reading his book. You didn't know that he was only staring at the pages, unable to internalize any sentence written there. "Why did you leave?", you asked and sat down next to him. You were willing to give Alhaitham the space he needed for his research, but you thought it'd be more fun to have him around. Plus, you were always looking forward to spending time with the man you had a crush on. "I wanted to read more about this topic", Alhaitham gestured towards the book and avoided your gaze, "besides, you don't need me to woo my roommate." He said that so casually in a matter-of-fact way that at first you genuinely thought Alhaitham just misinterpreted the situation but didn't care for the outcome. So you revealed the truth, knowing he wouldn't hold it against you. That you actually fell for Alhaitham and were looking forward to spending more time with him. "Kaveh knew, I guess that's why I've been talking to him that much more than usually...", you awkwardly put a hand in your neck as Alhaitham gave you a confident smile. "I should have seen that coming", he teased you, acting as if he never had any doubt you'd fall in love with a scholar like him, "well, worry not, I'm quite fond of you as well." You smirked back. "Were you jealous of Kaveh?" "Jealousy is for people with too many shortcomings", Alhaitham remarked dryly.

That's how you ended up leaning against Alhaithams chest, discussing how to proceed with your relationship. He talked as calmly and casually as usual and the only thing that gave him away was the rapid beating of his heart. He had an arm wrapped around you and gave you a sweet forehead kiss.

Alhaitham was not above being petty though. He knew exactly what Kaveh felt for you and he had no problem rubbing your love for him into his roommate's face; kissing you passionately in the kitchen while Kaveh was trying to make himself a milkshake. "Do you guys have to do that in our shared living space?", the blond architect sighed as Alhaitham was trailing kisses down your neck, repeatedly pressing soft pecks to the spot below your ear, smiling against your skin triumphantly considering how you hugged him closer and let out a happy sigh. Kaveh mused that this would be a long and miserable couple of months before he got used to this...

When you choose Kaveh:

Alhaithams heart was aching when he saw you kissing his roommate. He cursed the feeling he was experiencing. It was just love, it shouldn't bother him that much. It'd pass eventually, as all things did.

His face showed nothing of what he was feeling inside as Kaveh leaned his forehead against yours and the two of you were giggling about a joke he had made, you playfully hitting the architect with a pillow before Kaveh ripped the pillow from your hands and pulled you into his lap, kissing you tenderly.

To you and your boyfriend, Alhaitham was just as he always was. Calm, confident, a little distant and not very emotionally expressive. The scribe knew you had no idea of his feelings and neither did Kaveh. Maybe that was exactly the problem. Maybe that was why he lost you.

Maybe he should have shown you more that you meant something to him. He would never become a romantic like Kaveh and Alhaitham had no interest in pretending to be something he wasn't, but he could have told you more what he appreciated about you when the situation called for it. Reached out to you more to show you he liked spending time with you. Showed more interest in your passions. He was so caught up with trying to ignore his feelings for you that he didn't notice how deep he had fallen in love until it was too late. He looked at how you kissed Kaveh, how you stared at him like he was the most precious thing you had ever laid eyes on and Alhaitham wished from the bottom of his heart that this could be him.

But the scribe proceeded just as he always did. Focusing on his work and studies, still interacting with you the same way he would with any of his close aquaintances. To Alhaitham, loving you and seeing you love Kaveh was a rollercoaster of emotions. To you, Alhaitham remained the same through it all. No difference in behavior, no hint of feelings; just the usual. Alhaitham had missed the chance to show you he loved you. And now that didn't matter anymore, so he might as well continue as he always had; casually talking to you and trying to ignore the hurt in his chest when you'd lean over to Kaveh to press a kiss to his cheek.

Kaveh:

Kaveh was still trying to process the whole Sumeru fiasco he was absent from. Not only did the sages get overthrown but Alhaitham had friends? People he brought over to his house? Well, it was mainly you and he occasionally saw his roommate talk to the General Mahamatra, Nilou or Dunyarzad but Kaveh was used to Alhaitham being a loner if his work and research didn't involve social interaction in any way.

What surprised the renowned architect was that you weren't nearly as obnoxious as his roommate. In fact, he grew to like you very quickly with the way you showed interest in his creative projects and were willing to discuss the arts with him. How you looked at the novel he was reading and revealed you had actually read it yourself, promptly discussing the most important plot points with Kaveh while Alhaitham was sitting across from you raising an eyebrow.

Kaveh found your presence very pleasant and it didn't take long for him to ask you to spend some time with him. He wanted to take you for a tour around Sumeru, showing you the buildings he had created, leaving the best for last. He felt a sense of pride when you marveled at the Palace of Alcazarzary and asked him questions about its construction process. Something he hadn't felt in a while considering he was broke and Alhaitham would remind him of his failures constantly, even if mocking him wasn't always his intention.

If only you weren't head over heels for the scribe. Kaveh caught feelings for you so fast, he hardly registered what was happening. The architect was a romantic at heart and was unashamed to admit to himself that he had fallen in love with you. You obviously trusted him and cared for him, otherwise you wouldn't have confided in him about your feelings for Alhaitham. Seriously, unrequited love was hard as is, but did it have to be Alhaitham of all people???

Kaveh didn't understand what you saw in the man. Even after you explained it with a chuckle, finding it amusing how the two of them were always bickering and how Kaveh was obviously shocked that you would fall for Alhaitham.

Still, because Kaveh loved you and because he believed that it was in our nature as humans to help others, he decided to put his feelings aside and support you. It would hurt to see you happy with someone else but it would hurt him even more to see you sad.

That's how Kaveh became your unfortunate wingman. Relaying all the information to you about what made Alhaitham tick and what things he liked. Letting you come over to their shared house so it prompted more interactions between you and the scribe. And watching how happy you looked whenever Alhaitham was giving you attention.

It hurt Kaveh but as long as you could be happy, there was nothing else he wanted to ask for from you. He loved you. Deeply and unconditionally. And the only thing he wanted was for you to live without regrets; fortunate and free to follow the path that made you happy.

Still, there was always a sliver of hope left in him. He knew you probably only let him stay with you out of pity that he was locked out of his house (again) but he loved the way you sat with him, wrapped in a blanket and slightly leaning against him (something he convinced himself was totally platonic), after having brought him a hibiscus tea (his favorite). The two of you were reading a play and Kaveh gave you some subtle hints, projecting onto the main character and explaining his feelings for the love interest. When in reality, those were just Kaveh's feelings for you. He didn't know if you caught onto what he was doing or if it was merely wishful thinking, but his heart skipped a beat when you explained how the love interest must be feeling for the main character, who was oddly similar to Kaveh, as well. It was a beautiful romance. One that Kaveh might never have but always dreamed that he would.

When you choose him:

The past few weeks had been hell for Kaveh. The last time he met you, you parted from him with plans to finally confess to Alhaitham. He never knew if you did it. You had been very busy with work and so had Alhaitham. He knew the two of you had met a couple of times since then, but if Alhaitham was your significant other, he sure didn't give any hints when he came home. Maybe the scribe just wanted him to suffer in uncertainty.

Kaveh was glad when you came over to his roommate's house to spend time and play Genius Invokation TCG with the two of them. When Alhaitham left to go outside and read his book, Kaveh finally asked the question that plagued his mind since he last saw you: "So...how did your confession go?"

Your reaction wasn't what he thought it would be. You chuckled and then awkwardly smiled at him. "Actually...funny thing happened", you began and Kaveh noticed how you were fidgeting with your hands, "....uh....I- well, I actually am not in love with Alhaitham anymore." Kaveh's heart started beating rapidly when you said those words. "Why's that?", he asked curiously, simultaneously trying to recover from the sudden turn of events. "Well, you see...over time I started falling in love with someone else", Kaveh's eyes widened when you took his hands into yours and looked at him with an honest smile, "Kaveh, I'm in love with you..."

Play it cool, was his initial thought to himself as his heart started beating even faster. But he was Kaveh and he could never play anything cool so what he did instead was basically throwing himself at you, hugging you and knocking you over onto the couch behind you while Kaveh buried his face in your neck as he was laying on top of you. It wasn't the first time you two had hugged but you could feel the relief Kaveh was experiencing. "Sorry that I made you wait", you softly spoke and pressed a kiss to his forehead, knowing that Kaveh enjoyed physical affection, "I had to sort out a lot of my thoughts." You could hear quiet sobs coming from the architect as he was tightening his hug and mumbled an incoherent "I love you" against your skin. "Hey, don't cry, okay?", you gently caressed the exposed skin of his back with your fingertips as Kaveh gradually calmed down and looked into your eyes, smiling before leaning his forehead against yours.

You held his hand, squeezing it to signal that you were not going to let go. Kaveh cupped your cheek and asked if he could kiss you, to which you nodded in response. Kaveh's kiss was loving and romantic, just as you expected of him and he pulled you into his lap and leaned his head against your shoulder. "I'm glad you came to your senses", he chuckled.

When you choose Alhaitham:

Seeing you kiss Alhaitham made Kaveh's heart sink in his chest. He knew that this was a possibility. He was prepared for this, or so he thought. And yet it hit him like a raging sumpter beast. He had lost you. And to Alhaitham, of all people.

He was happy for you. Somewhere in his aching, shattered heart he was genuinely happy for you. And he knew he would be able to support you as much as you needed to. One day. When his heart would heal.

But for now, he glared at the scribe who knew full well how Kaveh was feeling and made a point of kissing you passionately and and trailing kisses down your neck when Kaveh entered the kitchen. A quick and easy way to make sure Kaveh would leave the two of you alone for the rest of the evening. Instead, Kaveh took his play and went back to his room, locking the door, sitting on the bed and hugging a pillow as he allowed himself to cry into it. His muffled sobs were drowned out by the soft pillow and the sound of the rain hitting Alhaithams windows.

In this moment, Kaveh hated everything. He hated that he had no place of his own; that everything around him belonged to Alhaitham and now even you had given your heart to the scribe while Kaveh was dependant on the man who had no qualms rubbing his new relationship into Kaveh's face.

The unrealistic heart of a dreamer that Kaveh cursed a lot these days hoped that you would knock on the door and comfort him. Explain that it was all a mistake and that you loved only him. That you would hold onto him and stay with him and hold him until his tears would disappear. But the knock never came.

[hell-drabbles]

Hi!!! I would like to apologise first for my bad english but reading through your blog made me think of something: How do you feel about an Angel! Companion not the angst one where they got angelification but as in God's creation. Companion is somewhat of an angel already on how they correct and guide Ra-on.

Angel! Companion who is a blank slate grew up with Ra-on and Minhyeok who later started to adapt human emotions.

Angel! Companion who died protecting Ra-on and causing him a mental break down.

Angel! Companion who after their death methamorphosise(?) into their angel form.

Ra-on who is feeling conflicted, happy to see his companion alive but at the same feeling betrayed/ in disbelief by Angel! Companion's secret.

Angels who are obsessed with regrooming Angel! Companion out of their humanity because they are not letting their youngest sibling not know about Angel Ethics.

Sorry for the long paragraph. I'm kinda obsessing over the whole wolf in sheep's clothing concept. I am sooo interested in your thoughts or HC about this.

Let's see... Well, I hope you don't mind if my thoughts go all over the place and in no chronological order.

Playing around with a concept like that, I would imagine that this Companion was essentially God's last creation before he vanished, a sort of incomplete creation at that because they had basically nothing. No role, no position or anything of the sort. Really, the only thing they have going on in their head is that drive to seek out God, if only to find out the reason why he made them this way. And so, without telling anyone, and without anyone caring, they simply wandered out of Heaven and went to the human world.

They wander, probably take on the form of a kid and end up meeting Ra-on and Minhyeok and the rest is basically history. While it's not official that the Companion is adopted, the Companion is either living with Ra-on or Minhyeok. Childhood shenanigans ensue, kiddos admiring the coolheadedness of the Companion, their big ol strength.

And, of course, the tragedy happens. Ra-on parents are killed. My angsty brain wants to have the Companion be there for that event. Death isn't new to them so they're not in a state of panic, but it's still incredibly unsettling to see the Companion covered in blood while curled over Ra-on as they blocked his ears.

I like to imagine that the angel that killed Ra-on's parents recognized the Companion as one of their kin and actually pats the Companion on the head for the sheer level of emotional manipulation they're doing on Solomon's bloodline. They'll come for Ra-on later, so make sure he doesn't die to something stupid. This angel is talking some real revealing stuff so the Companion has to block Ra-on's ears.

This type of Companion would have a different dynamic with Ra-on compared to the original, because this Companion would be more driven by guilt for intentionally keeping Ra-on in the dark about some heavy shit. Leads to a lot of avoidant behavior on the Companion's part and any anger would just, be pushed riiiight down because the guilt would come back. Then they'd just, disengage from any and all conversations and just, calm down. This does lead to Ra-on believing that he's a burden to them, that the Companion can't stand the sight of him anymore. He tries to close the deepening gap, but until the root of the problem is solved, it's only going to make things worse. Are they even friends anymore?

The answer is yes, and it is unfortunate that they're both controlled by deep shame of themselves. The Companion can and will risk their life for Ra-on, because how else can they make up for the fact that they've been lying by omission for all these years.

And so comes the time for the Companion to finally be free of that disguise of theirs. Whatever the circumstances, be it to save their own life or some sort of messed up rebirth, the Companion is back to how they used to look, and now Ra-on has to digest the fact they've been lying for so many years. But, as much as he wants to be angry, the Companion was then stolen away, back to Heaven.

Man, I really wish I had more information regarding Heaven and how it works. My brain can only create so much before it spits out not so good ideas.

[etirabys]

I've been absent from tumblr for nine days because I was in Philly for a 800 person twitter con (whose constituents roughly map onto the rationalist tumblr diaspora, culturally). I was tweeting up a storm in conjunction with meeting twitter people irl and barely checked tumblr.

The con itself stretched over a long weekend, but I arrived four days early for preparties and stayed two days for postparties. I am on the plane right now, returning home. I got about twelve weeks of normal socializing in nine days. In the last four days I was taking small amounts of Ritalin to get through the day. That sounds bad, but that's how much I valued talking to weird internet people and having unique interactions that you cannot have outside of festivals.

The last iteration of this con last year had 300 attendees. At the time, I had 180 twitter followers, mostly from the times tumblr melted down and everyone including me advertised where they were elsewhere, as insurance. I munchkinned the hell out of socializing at the first con, got an additional 100 active followers that provided enough attention for a self-sustaining poasting reaction, and am at 2500 now.

I'm approximately the same person on twitter that I am on tumblr, except I don't post my erotica (my twitter followers skew more heavily male, so I'm less willing to be sexual) and I'm more strategic about seeking clout. I like to think I stay away from the clout-chasing things I find really gross (like having takes about politics nonstop, or starting beef), but I currently treat getting twitter followers as an enjoyable game.

It's nice to have a place where I'm explicitly seeking power, as it is nice to have a place (here on tumblr) where I'm explicitly not. My tentative plan is to hit 10-20K and then push the "trying" lever to off. I know a number of "microcelebrities" who get no stalkers or murder threats, but can go to just about any major city and have a place to crash, or people to show them around. That is what I want for myself.

I explain this not very flattering thing as context for what the con was like for me.

Most of the time, I exist socially the way most people do – avoiding risks and being discreet with dissent to keep the peace. I think people go to events like this one or Burning Man to get a freaking break from having to do this – as long as the con is full of reasonably mature and interesting people, the atmosphere becomes wonderful when they coordinate to drop the pretense for a week. I ran into a person who had a bad interaction with my acquaintance a few years ago, and told him I thought poorly of his actions but wanted to hear his side of the story. (The ensuing interaction was illuminating and pleasant.) A guy came up to me and observed that he'd made several conversational bids this year and last year, I had seemed to dislike this every time, and asked if I would prefer he never approach me again. We proceeded to have an extremely autistic debugging conversation, in front of several of his friends, about whether we should speak again in the future. (The solution: yes, he can try again, but pick a question from Askhole – don't inflict small talk on me.) I ran up to Famously Evil-Alien-Vibes-Having Economist Robin Hanson and said, "I have nothing to say to you in particular, but I find you interesting and I want to hang out," and then we argued for an hour about the fertility crisis. After asking for blessing to say something negative, I told a blogger whose blog post that I'd otherwise really liked that there had been one aspect that I found disingenuous. We had a good back and forth after I said this.

What I found so addictive about this con is that my popularity-seeking drive and my honesty-seeking drive – both of which I somewhat repress most of the time – were not only expressible, but in harmony. It is quite inappropriate to be super open and openly autistic in most social contexts. Here, I could say exactly what I meant, and as long as I delivered it in the right way, people would like me for it. The conversation where the guy started with "You don't seem to like me, should I never talk to you again?" should by most predictive measures have been awkward and unpleasant – but I got the sense, steadily, that he (and his friend who eventually joined in) liked me for how I was responding to him. All I had to do was, literally, just say what I really thought, and it somehow all worked out.

[lil-lost-mind]

(This is a bit of a along post about my general experience in the qsmp fandom, both good and bad, and it does mention xenophobia but not direct experiences)

I'm happy to see people here being so nice and reminding that we(Brazilians) are welcome here

I was really hesitant about interacting with fandom at first, I actually was there the Brazilians arrived because suddenly tazercraft live appeared for me on YouTube, I joined for a moment but didn't stay long, but I did look about it later. Because Brazilians youtubers/streamers are on a server with a bunch of people from other countries? I was curious about what this would lead to

Didn't regret it, but since then, I was a bit scared of interacting on fandom. Some comments on clips were fine. But then I started using tumblr because of a friend's recommendation, I kept a look on what was happening on lore on general but didn't really interact on fandom. Hence why I created this blog, and also why it took me so long to link this blog to my main one

Because, well, if I got hate for any reason, it would only be a sideblog that I only posted about qsmp. I could just delete it or just ignore them

I am by nature a person who is very shy to talk about my interests, it might have nothing wrong about it but I'm shy, I'm the type of person who goes on asks box on anon because is too shy, even if I'm not doing anything wrong there's this fear of judgemeent.

In the light of the recent events, I am once again reminded that's why I don't use or plan to use Twitter, but still I couldn't avoid but feel... scared in a way, I don't think anyone would like to be treated that way. And even a bit ashamed of saying that I'm brazilian. Ashamed might not be the right word, but there's this feeling wich is similar, and while I'm proud of being a brazilian, I just... maybe invalidate is a more fitting word, it's just feels like my culture is unimportant compared to others.

And this is what it seems, in my understanding, what looks like suffering from xenophobia is, but I imagine it's worse suffering it directly ofc, and ironically, I don't think I ever felt like that for those reasons before. And while I can't talk about how it feels when suffering from it directly, I feel bad for the people who had to go through it(not only Brazilians). Nobody should feel ashamed of their culture or ethnicity

Ofc tumblr isn't free of people like that. After all, no social media will be free from intolerance. But it feels like it's harder to see it. But I can't emphasize enough how it makes me happy to see so many people saying their blog is a safe place for us. After seeing this stuff, it makes things better, for me, at least. It reminds me that my culture isn't less important than any other

And qsmp brought something beautiful, the unity of communities. Because even with those bad things happening, it's not the only thing in fandom, it happens, and any fandom has this, unfortunately. But I love to see every time someone talks about their culture, facts about their languages, to see people motivated in learning new languages. It's beautiful and makes me happy each time

I don't regret making myself part of the fandom, the opposite, really, I've met creators that I would have never without the qsmp. I've met amazing people there, I've found incredible artists and writers. I've had fun

I've found the motivation to learn new languages again, more passion to draw

And I'm thankful to everyone there who is incredibly nice and so made me more comfortable interacting here, even if they will probably never know

So despite everything, I think it was worth it

Was worth reading character analysis and theories, enjoying stories, seeing fanart and animatics, learning new language facts and about other cultures. Was worth seeing people being happy

Again, I'm very thankful for all the people who made me, and I'm going to assume a lot of other people who needed to hear that, comfortable and validate here, I can't express how much this made me happy, I hope everyone coming from twitter have a good time here<3

And a very big and sincere "VAI TOMAR NO CU" to any xenophobic and racist person

I know very few people will see this, or even read everything, but I had to say this somewhere, so yeah, I'm rambling on tumblr again:D

[archiveikemen]

'Wicked Love Blooming In The Dark Night' Story Event: Chapter 2

Roger Route

I do not own any of the Ikemen Series content being uploaded on this blog, everything belongs to CYBIRD. Please support them by playing their games and buying stories. Not 100% accurate, expect mistakes.

read this before interacting with my posts

???: Thank you so much for waiting, Roger!

The person who approached Roger was a young man with brown hair.

Young Man: This is…?

Roger: Ah, she’s my lover. She insisted on sticking to me today, so… yeah.

Kate: Huh? I did n—

Young Man: Ah, I see! Nice to meet you. I’m Ben, and I’m a pharmacist!

Kate: I’m Kate. Did you and Roger arrange to meet here?

Young Pharmacist: Yes! Ever since I first met Roger at this tavern, we became great buddies.

Young Pharmacist: At first, I felt embarrassed because I was a mere pharmacist, compared to the Royal Physician.

Roger: Haha, you say that and yet you’re the one inviting me for daytime drinking these days.

Outsiders must never know about the existence of Crown.

Therefore, “royal physician” must’ve been the alias Roger used with outsiders.

Urged by Roger, the young pharmacist sat down and started talking happily.

(Fufu, they seem to be very close.)

Roger: This guy may be young, but he’s one talented chap. Rumour has it that the drug you buy from him is exceptionally effective.

Roger: Apparently, even long-term chronic illness can be cured instantly.

Kate: That’s like magic!

Young Pharmacist: Magic? Ahaha, right. If only I could really become a magician who magically heals the sick.

Roger: …

The three of us continued our lively conversation—.

…

(Leaving his wallet with someone to pay the bill for him. How convenient.)

I paid the bill and went outside to look for Roger.

(Ah, found him.)

Kate: Roge—

(Huh…?)

In the alleyway, Roger slipped “something” into Ben’s hand.

It was money.

Roger: Then, I’ll see you “again”.

When Ben left, Roger noticed my presence.

Kate: Roger, just now—

Roger: Ah, I purchased some of that miracle drug from him and gave him advanced payment.

Kate: Drug?

Roger: If the drug he made is truly that effective, we should have it in stock for the palace or Crown.

Kate: I understand that, but why did you have to do it in such a shady place?

Roger: Purchasing drug for the palace means that there will be less of it available for the people. Won’t that look bad if done openly?

(That's a reasonable explanation. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that.)

(But something feels off.)

Kate: … Roger, is that really all?

Roger’s eyes that rarely ever showed his emotions flickered.

Roger: You suspect that I betrayed someone. … Right?

(...)

Roger: It's up to you to decide whether I’ve betrayed anyone, and whether my actions were good or evil.

Roger: Haha, your thoughts are written all over your face.

Roger: Young lady. You want an answer from me, but it’s not going to be that easy.

Roger: Even if I do give you an answer, you can't be sure that it’s the truth, can you?

Roger’s eyes were fixed onto me — like a predator eyeing its prey.

(He’s warning me. I’ll get myself into trouble if I go any further.)

Crown’s purpose was to fight evil with evil, they existed in a dark world that no one should step into.

(I feel like I’m being skinned alive and having all my weaknesses exposed.)

Putting my safety at risk was not part of my job as a fairytale writer, I was sure that no one would hold me accountable for backing out.

(However, I agreed to become a fairytale writer to save my life.)

(... I want to be accountable for my own decision.)

If not, I might lose myself in this dark world.

(Therefore…)

Kate: … I’m not going to back out. I said it myself that I wanted to spend the entire day by your side.

Roger: … Huh?

Roger: I like it, this side of you. Courageous and earnest. … I’m almost moved to tears.

Roger ruffled my hair with his tough hand.

Kate: H-Hey

Roger: Haha, you’re so cute. Come on, let’s get going. You said you’re not chickening out, right?

Kate: Y-Yes!

…

(Where are we…)

We arrived at an abandoned warehouse after sunset.

And then—.

Young Pharmacist: Sorry to have kept you waiting, Roger. Here’s the drug I made.

The young pharmacist took the drugs out of his leather bag and held it out to Roger.

Roger: So this is the cure-all drug called— “blue pill”.

Young Pharmacist: Yes! Taking this drug can cure you of all your ailments instantly.

Young Pharmacist: That’s why the price is a little bit on the high end—

Roger: The price doesn't matter to me. But is this all the stock you’re selling?

Young Pharmacist: Huh?

Roger: I was thinking that it'd be good to stock up on this “superior quality” drug at the royal palace.

For a split second, I thought I saw the look in Roger’s eyes change.

His gaze was sharp, calm, and yet angry at the same time.

Young Pharmacist: Of course! I still have some of this drug in stock.

Roger: Where are you storing them?

Young Pharmacist: Where, huh. … Erm, it's a warehouse I rented nearby Euston Station.

Roger: Euston, A501XXX—

Young Pharmacist: Wha.

Jude: I already did my research on that place. The trading company has also been eyeing that area.

I turned in the direction that voice was coming from, and saw Jude and Ellis standing on the second floor.

(Why are the two of them here?)

(No way— that means this is…)

Roger: We’ve got the evidence. Go to that warehouse and seize all the “blue pill”.

Ellis: Understood.

Jude: Tch, that place is far from here. How troublesome.

Young Pharmacist: What’s all this about, Roger?

Ellis: … Roger.

Ellis tossed Roger’s hunting rifle down from the second floor.

Roger caught it and pointed it at the young pharmacist’s forehead.

Young Pharmacist: !?

Roger: Doctors and medicine exist precisely because illnesses aren't so easy to cure.

Roger: And yet, you had the cheek to take advantage of and trample on that.

Roger: — Save your apologies for the afterlife.

— BANG.

(Ah…)

(... Wh… wha…)

My field of vision was dyed bright red with blood.

My heart hammered hard against my chest, I stood there petrified as Roger put down his rifle and approached me.

Roger: I took the initiative to approach that pharmacist, built a trusted relationship with him, then I betrayed and killed him.

Kate: …

Roger: Here’s the question, young lady.

Roger: Was my betrayal evil or justified? What are your thoughts on it?

[angelasscribbles]

2023 Wrap

Since there was no Tumblr year in review this time around, I made my own! Ok, full disclosure, I was already going to make my own. For some reason I started tracking everything I posted back at the beginning of the year and last week I totaled things up just for my own information but then I thought…why not share it?

I’m only including fandom stuff here because I do not want to attempt to figure out how many posts I’ve put together for my other lists (Writer’s Corner, ADHD Stuff, Poly Stuff) but my most popular post was this ADHD one. It has over 90,000 notes and is still climbing.

2023 Tumblr Choices Fandom Wrap......

Stats at a glance:

Chapters posted: 125

Extras Posted: 91

Teasers Posted: 7

Updates Posted: 8

Throwbacks Posted: 12

Original Fiction Posted: 1

Series Launched: 12

Series Wrapped: 6

Events Ran: 19

Live Discussions Hosted (Word Warriors): 4

Blogs Launched: 9

New Projects Started: 6

Personal Milestones Passed: 3

Details and commentary under the cut.

Series that launched in 2023:

In Your Room (Dreo)

A Fervid Fixation

The Crown and the Shield

Victim of Love

Mardi Gras Mayhem

One Night in Cordonia

Law’s End

The De Facto Queen

The Dark Kingdom

Cordonian Royal Airlines

Queen of Hearts

Insurrection

Series that wrapped in 2023:

In Your Room (Dreo)

A Fervid Fixation

The Crown and the Shield

Victim of Love

Mardi Gras Mayhem

One Night in Cordonia

Blogs Launched:

TRR Visuals

Angela’s Reblogs

Law’s End

Word Warriors

TRR Poly

TRR Scribbles

TRR Bad Romance

TRR One Shots

Cordonian Royal Airlines

Events Ran in 2023:

Drake Walker Appreciation blog:

Drake Walker Appreciation Week

World Whiskey Day

Drake’s Birthday

Maxwell Beaumont Appreciation blog:

Maxwell Beaumont Appreciation Week

Max’s Birthday

Choices Prompts:

Story Starter Prompt 4

Story Starter Prompt 5  

Mardi Gras Mayhem (Collaborative Fiction)

Round Robin 1 (there will be more)

Rewrite Challenge

August Catch Up Event

Smutember

Flufftober

Holiday Rewrite Challenge

Choice Holidays:

Valentines Day

Spring Holidays

Festival of Fears

Second Annual Winter Holidays

Fics of Christmas Past

Projects:

Reorganized all visuals, sorted by story and published in one place (TRR Visuals)

Recently Posted and Chapter Archive (Angela’s Reblogs)

Saturday Surveys (Angela’s Reblogs)

Law’s End (See note below)

Word Warriors (see below)

Cordonian Royal Airlines (see below)

Law’s End: I call this a project, not just a new story because it was supposed to be a bit more far-reaching than just a story with character profiles, mock news articles, and multiple episodes. So far there are two character profiles (graphics for that by @harleybeaumont), one article, and many fabulous extras made by @secretaryunpaid. I am working on wrapping up episode one. Once the question of who killed Trent is answered, episode two will move on to a new mystery, while still focusing on the relationships between the main characters.

Word Warriors: Again, this is more than just a blog. It’s a Discord group, live discussions, a peer support group, and a critique group. The blog itself provides a list of writing resources and advice in addition to information about the Discord group, the live discussion schedule, and notes from past sessions.

Cordonia Royal Airlines: This is more of a collaborative project than a series. There will eventually be images posted as well as drabbles, one-shots, and chapters written by other contributors. (That’s the plan anyway.)

Personal Milestones Passed:

1,000 followers (now over 1,400 but waiting to hit 1,500 to post it)

1,000,000 words posted on Tumblr.

Published my first book in February.

Blog Shut Down:

Who could forget the infamous blog shutdown of 2023? It went down on July 25th and didn’t come back up until August 29th. Well, maybe everyone but me could forget it. I was in withdrawal lol. Five weeks of being mostly off Tumblr forced me to examine and reevaluate a lot of things. And even though I was thrilled to finally be unblocked, things aren’t the same. And that’s okay. Things change, life marches on.

I am by no means saying I’m out of here. Never fear. As long as I have fanfiction to write, I suppose I’ll be posting it here. I just feel less and less like working on my TRR stuff. I still want to finish the series I’ve started, and I’ve found I still have plenty of ideas for one-shots or short miniseries, but I’m not sure I have another epic, long TRR saga in me. Who knows, though? I’ve said that before and been proven wrong. I don’t control when inspiration happens or where the muse takes me.

I don’t know the fate of all those side blogs yet. Since I recently reorganized my master list, (yet again), I don’t know that they are needed. For now, they will remain as basically parking lots. Just a different way to organize my content.

The Rest of Tumblr:

2023 was the year I finally figured out how Tumblr works! I now understand the phrase shitposting on main. I discovered the rest of Tumblr, not just this little corner of it. From Goncharov to other fandoms to the existence of entire communities that I belong wholeheartedly to: Queer, neurodivergent, polyamorous, writers, etc. I found my people on this hell site.

What’s Next:

The Choices fandom will always have a special place in my heart, and I have made real, lifelong friends here and for that, I’ll always be grateful. My just over two years here have had their ups and downs for sure, but the ups far outweigh the downs. (If they didn’t, I would have left long ago).

I’m still working on the following TRR series:

Heir Apparent

Savage Love

The De Facto Queen

Royal Retribution

Queen of Hearts

Unexpected

Law’s End

Insurrection

Dark Elf

The Dark Kingdom

American Girl

Bad Parenting

Leo and Liv

Some are closer to done than others and there are a few that I just haven’t had any inspiration or excitement for in a while. I also have many one-shots in process.

And @harleybeaumont got me to play Heaven's Secret (#romanceclub) and not going to lie, no choose your own adventure story has grabbed my attention like this since TRR. And yes, there is already a folder marked “Heaven’s Secret” on my laptop with three WIPs in it!

Then there’s my original fiction. Long before I found Tumblr and got bitten by the fanfic bug, I was posting flash fic on my own website, saving short stories for submission to anthologies, and working on a few different original novels. I want to get back to that. Not to mention a lifetime worth of poetry that needs to be sorted, organized, and published.

All of the above may have to be put on hold as I navigate life with constant volleyball tournaments, a continuing search for the right second career, and a burgeoning business to manage and contend with. Not to mention a five-year-old with high energy, high needs, and high sensory-seeking behaviors. Life is complex on the best days.

Meanwhile, I’ve found that I really enjoy running the discussions for Word Warriors, giving feedback on other people’s work, and helping other writers on their journey. I can’t wait to get back to that in January.

I don’t know what 2024 holds but I am wishing the best for each and every one of you. Let life’s adventures continue!

Happy New Year everyone!!

[sophieinwonderland]

Today We're Talking About Ethics and Dual Relationships!

One more thing that bothered me was an anecdote DIDadoseofreality mentioned where they engineered a scenario that allowed their student, who they were also the therapist of, to talk about trauma in front of the whole class.

Now, in this anecdote, they're sure to make it clear that they asked their student if he was okay participating in this exercise. And the student had allegedly expressed a desire before to be able to talk about his trauma in a way that wouldn't make him feel foolish. So they present this as doing the student a favor.

And maybe that is how the student perceived it.

But... this is also a really uncomfortable power dynamic where your therapist who you share privileged information with is using that privileged information in your classroom to pressure you into sharing traumatic events with all your classmates.

And while the student allegedly gave consent for his teacher/therapist to blog about it the incident later, his therapist is his teacher.

There is a huge power dynamic in play there for pressuring a patient into waiving their HIPAA rights.

And while I sure do hope the teacher/therapist had the presence of mind to at least use a pseudonym for their student/patient and that their student/patient's name isn't actually Zac, it really doesn't matter because anyone in that class or told what happened by people in the class could stumble upon the blog post and now know that Zac's in therapy with their teacher.

Because after describing this event in the class in detail they also thank Zac for letting them tell everyone what Zac did Monday. Which, for a post made 4 days ago, places this incident multiple people know about on October 30th.

Unless some of the details were falsified beyond the name of the students, I'm going to hazard a guess and say that there was only one class anywhere where a student participated in an exercise that followed the exact sequence of events described on that blog, including Zac's specific trauma, on October 30th 2023.

...

I tried doing further research to find out if this was common or if it was even ethical. What I found first was a Quora thread with a bunch of different opinions. Well, the same opinion mostly but from different people.

I wasn't clear on dual-relationships or how they worked, so I decided to do further reading and came across this article. (Since I'm not one to just trust Quora at its word when there are better sources to be had.) Here are some excerpts.

This is not a simple "all dual relationships are bad." There is clearly nuance to this.

But if this relationship could impair their objectivity or competence in their role as a therapist, then they're supposed to avoid that relationship.

Now, one answer in that Quora thread described an example of a therapist-professor relationship working well for them with proper precautions and going to extraordinary lengths to keep those lines separate.

This is clearly not how DIDadoseofreality behaved though.

They used privileged information to influence how they treat their student in the classroom, got their student to open up about a traumatic event in front of everyone, then while having power over their client in their dual relationship as a teacher, they got their client to waive their HIPAA rights and allow their story to be posted on the internet for all to see. And potentially reveal to their classmates that the student is seeing their teacher as a therapist.

These are massive ethical violations.

I frankly would not trust them as a therapist OR a teacher.

If I were Zac, I would be shopping for a new therapist because mine could clearly not be trusted to keep their dual relationships separate.

If I were DIDadoseofreality, I would be looking for a colleague I could recommend Zac to for the same reason. I would also promptly delete my post describing the events of October 30th before a student or someone connected to me in real life identifies me and reports me for what are obviously ethics violation as both a therapist and a teacher.

[pizzatrocious]

So! With the end of this wonderful little event, I do have a bit of a bittersweet announcement.

I'll still be around here and there on a low-effort multimuse I plan to make a while from now... but, save for any light activity you'll still see from me, I plan on retiring from writing.

I'm not retiring for any bad reasons, quite the opposite! But as someone that's been writing on Tumblr for roughly... 14 years? I think I've done most of what I've wanted to do. Every kind of thread you can imagine, every type of character, and every type of genre. For the past few years I've jumped blogs A LOT, but really only because I loved chasing whatever next big thing felt fun to write.

I was here when ask blogs were the standard instead of RP blogs, regardless of whether or not the mun could draw. I remember my first ever Bowser RP blog, iconless and full of crack on a classic Redux theme. I unfortunately remember the Homestuck and Danganronpa craze, and an era where icons were a semi-new novelty that only the 'fancy' blogs used. I remember back when a majority of the Pokemon RPC was a fairly popular crack group that, at its peak, had 300~ active blogs all at once.

I remember the Splatoon Marie roleplayer that chased after me, even when I'd socially isolate myself during the darkest spots of my life, and the Rosalina blog she made later down the line. You might know her now as my wife, Rosie. Funny to think, our more popular duo wound up being Peach and Bowser.

I remember all the different iterations of the Smash RPCs, and all the people that rocked the community with every post. Then there was the Sonic RPC, a place that was almost torn apart by an awful person's hold on the community, only to rise from the ashes! That RPC's pretty quiet nowadays, but those guys may as well be sleeper agents for Sonic content.

Then there's the people I affectionately call 'The Elder Gods'. The ones that, despite being here over a DECADE, they still dedicate themselves to the same characters they always have. They're usually the ones with the ancient-looking blogs that go largely under-the-radar nowadays, but they're the foundation that built these writing communities. You guys mostly just keep to yourselves nowadays, but I see you.

And of course, my good ol' kindred spirits, the people that roleplay the most obscure, hyper-specific characters. Those one-off indie games, obscure shows, characters stuck to a spinoff title or are just dubiously canon, or characters with basically no canon that they've made into their own!

Of course, that's not to forget the people that take the big popular characters, and absolutely ROCK them in a way that makes the character all their own. Gotta toot my own horn, considering one of my old Bowser blogs had a couple thousand followers.

I could go on, and on, and on... but long story short, I've had a great time here.

Part of me never wants to stop, to be honest. But in all this time, I've become a different person. My hobbies have changed, my interests have changed, I'm a completely different person now! But I've also always been a stubborn creature of habit, never wanting to give anything up.

As a result of being anchored to my old habits so long, I'm left a little at a loss for what I want in life. More and more I've felt like a caged animal, just circling around my little enclosure and doing the same things over and over for enrichment. Add to that the usual struggles of adult life being rough and expensive, and you can imagine wanting to spend more of my time on survival is a factor too.

Nobody's gonna know what I really want now, except for me. I need to get out there and do some soul-searching. Find new hobbies, make new friends, experience new things... who knows what I'll be doing a year from now!

That said, I give my genuine, most heartfelt thank you to everyone I've ever crossed paths with in throughout all of the Tumblr RPCs I've been in. Honestly, the only reason I don't list off names is purely because I want to make sure nobody gets left out of my little expression of gratitude. You all know who you are, anyway.

I wish I could've known some of you a little better... but that's just life, isn't it? Sometimes the most impactful people in your lives are the ones you never get to really know. I'm sure I've gotten to be that person for my own fair share of people, with how reclusive I tend to be.

Again, this isn't goodbye. I mean, I'd be a little embarrassed if people thought I was gone forever, only for me to pop up a week or two later. This is a hobby I've always loved, I'll always find my way back to it. I'll always be lurking about, sometimes posting during funny shenanigans. Like I said at the start of this post, I plan on making a private, low-effort multimuse! Mostly I'll just use it to keep tabs on my friends and the writers I really enjoy seeing, but I still have a small list of characters I'd like to play around with a little.

Otherwise though, it's time to leave the nest and try other things.

Thank you again. This is Vincent, signing off.

[juneviews]

Wanted to start this by saying that I usually agree with your opinions (or even when I don't, I can at least see where you're coming from) but that's not the case when it comes to your opinion on Only Friends because I completely disagree and just wanted to add my two cents. You said that it wasn't relatable to the queer community but I'm sorry, the queer community isn't a monolith, there isn't one universal way that every single queer friendship group functions. Just because it wasn't relatable to your experience, it doesn't mean that it wasn't relatable to many other queer people's experiences. For example, one of my friend groups consists of gay men and the stories they've told me (and some of which I witnessed with myself)? Not that far off from OF (aka everyone getting with everyone, behind people's backs as well, and most of them are still on friendly terms now). It's perfectly fine that you didn't personally relate but you can't say no queer person/community did.

I also saw depth to a lot of characters and I could relate to several of them in different ways and everything in the finale made sense to me for those characters. For me it achieved what it set out to do: entertain, while also make me connect/care about some of the characters. It didn't do that for everyone (you included) but please don't claim it's a "bad show" as a general statement just because you didn't get anything out of it because a lot of people did. (My friend who struggles with depression and is currently going through a depressive slump found comfort in seeing Ray progress to a point where he's much happier at the end of the series because it gives her hope that she can get to that point soon too.)

Is Only Friends a brilliant, amazing, showstopping, incredible show? No. But it's not bad, far from it. It certainly has its flaws but the sudden hate it's getting is not warranted imo.

hi, first of all, it's fine to disagree lol, though it's always a bit jarring to me when people feel the need to let me know they disagree with me bc clearly we simply have a different taste & opinion. when I share my opinion about a show, I do it on my blog but never go on others' blogs to either defend a show I liked or trash a show I didn't like, but anyways. I have NEVER, EVER said that the queer community is a monolith & that all queer representation needs to be relatable to ME. in fact, a lot of my favorite queer media are HIGHLY UN-relatable to me lol. I never implied that only friends' flaws comes from it being unrelatable or unrealistic? in fact I believe it to be realistic since it's made by queer men & has recurring topics that p'jojo especially has used in previous shows of his, especially since the story of only friends is inspired by real-life events. in fact I said that I WISH they'd have leaned into the queer community aspect of it even more bc it was the one point in which this show differentiates itself from friend zone, so yeah. don't really know where you got that notion from. secondly, like it or not, I can claim any shows I've watched are bad in my opinion. once again, media is subjective & I did not like only friends so for me it IS a bad show. is it the worst? no. did I HATE it? no. did I have a good time in front of it? also no. also from a writing standpoint I'm sorry it IS objectively bad and FAILED at what it set out to do, especially considering the show itself doesn't seem to know what it set out to do in the first place. moreover, sudden hate? I've been criticizing only friends since it started airing lol, I'm not jumping on any bandwagon, and in fact it's more so the fandom that's catching up to the fact that this show is not very good. now, I'm genuinely glad that this show helped you & your friend and that you liked it! that's great, of COURSE this show is gonna have its fans, and in fact it has a lot of them! however it seems to me as if you've taken my (justified) criticism of the show to heart for a reason that only you fully know, and I hope you can investigate why that is. I truly value you as a long time follower of mine & I hope you can agree to disagree with me on that one even though I must admit this ask seems a bit jarring & personal to me. wish you all the best :)

xxx

[riality-check]

Advice for New Fans

AKA: Things I Wish I Knew When I First Started Out

Disclaimers

I’m by no means an expert. 

This list is not comprehensive. Please add your own thoughts to it!

I’m approaching this from a lurker/fic writer perspective, so artists/gifmakers etc. might have different perspectives. 

I’m also really only on tumblr and ao3, so different advice might apply to different sites. 

This advice will not apply in every single case; it is just broad generalization that I have found to work most of the time.

General

Protect your personal information! I’m going to sound like my mother for a minute, but be aware of how much you’re sharing online. Don’t make yourself easier to dox by sharing personal information like names, locations, etc. Be careful. The internet is more good than bad, but bad still exists. Please protect yourself, especially if you’re a minor.

Respect people’s boundaries! For example, if accounts say “minors do not interact,” don’t interact if you’re underage. It sucks (I’ve been here personally), but it’s better for everyone if you scroll away. Boundaries like that are in place for people to curate their own online experiences for whatever reason they see fit. You don’t have to understand a boundary, but you do have to respect it. Be mature.

Don’t be afraid to create! If you’re debating over whether or not to hit the post button, do it. Just do it. If you had fun making whatever your creation is, and you want to share it with people, DO IT. This kind of stuff is supposed to be fun, and it’s all about collaboration. There’s an audience for everything, so someone will absolutely see what you put out and love it, even if you just made it for yourself.

Don’t feel ashamed for not creating! If you’re nervous or unsure about making something, but still want to participate, that’s totally fine! There are so many ways to do that, and I’ll talk about them later in this post. But even if you’re not creating, you’re still a vital participant in fandom (I remember all of my regular commenters!)

Two cakes! Just because it’s been done before doesn’t mean it’s been done by you. No one can make what you make in the way you make it, so even if it is similar to something that already exists, go for it! Chances are, people want more of that thing and will be happy to see it.

Don’t be afraid to join fandom spaces! If you see a link for a Discord server you’re interested in (and you meet requirements set by the mods), join it! If you see an event you want to participate in, participate in it! Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and talk to people. More often than not, you’ll make really awesome friends, and you’ll have a lot of fun. We’re all just people, there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Tumblr

Don’t be afraid to change up your blog! I’m going to be honest: most people won’t care about your blog title. Make it as silly as you want and change it on your own time. Your url isn’t permanent (though it is more recognizable), so feel free to change it whenever and however you see fit. Icon, layout, anything else, change it up. Nothing here is set in stone, so make it what you want!

Curate your experience! “Unfollow” and “block” should be your best friends. Don’t like something? Unfollow. Still keep seeing it? Block. Poof, all gone, you’re done. Don’t pick fights. Don’t waste time energy on fighting when you could be making something or doing something that makes you happy. Follow who you want, like what makes you happy, and, most importantly, REBLOG.

Reblog, reblog, reblog! You gotta do it. It’s how this site works. If you enjoy something enough that you want to show another person, hit that reblog button. It’s how more people see the post, and it makes creatives super happy to see. Likes are for storage, reblogs are for sharing.

Tag your stuff! I really, really wish someone had told me this earlier because now my blog is an absolute wreck. Use tags to make your life easier and your blog more filterable. They don’t have to be funky custom tags like some people use. Fandom tags are a good place to start, and then you can add character, ship, and personal tags if you’re feeling fancy. But please, please, please, tag your stuff, it’s going to make it easier to find it all in the long run. You’ll thank me later.

Talk in the tags! In addition to being organizational, the tags are a fun little place for you to share your thoughts, and only OP (original poster) and the person you reblogged it from. As a writer, I love seeing people’s thoughts in the tags, so don’t be afraid to share them, weird or incoherent or long as they may be!

Yes, and! tumblr has a really, really cool “yes, and” culture. Meaning, if you see a cool little post and have your own ideas that you want other people to see, reblog and add on to it! Just go for it. You’re not stealing anyone’s post or ideas, you’re adding your own thoughts, and, chances are, other people are going to find that pretty cool (and may even add some thoughts on your thoughts, and down the line it goes!)

Post your stuff! I seriously wish I had done this earlier. For a long time, I only posted on ao3 and didn’t really bother with tumblr, which I kind of regret. For example, have you written a snippet you can’t fit into your fic? Post it! Posting to tumblr is a really fun way to get engagement on stuff you may not be ready to post to other sites, like ao3, or it is the final site you had in mind. Whatever the case, go for it! Tag with your fandom, characters, ships, any personal or additional tags, and send it out into the world. More people are going to love it than you think, I promise.

AO3

Titles! Don’t sweat the title too much. Most people don’t read it. They’re going to pay a lot more attention to the summary and tags of your fic. If you are struggling with a title, I recommend song lyrics or a phrase you really like from your fic.

Summaries! This is what’s going to draw your reader into your fic. Don’t just say “I’m bad at summaries,” that’s not going to interest people. Either summarize your fic in one sentence or take an engaging excerpt from it and copy it into the summary box. No matter how bad you think that is, it’s better than no summary at all.

Tagging! Honestly, same principle as tumblr, but for a different reason. Tag your stuff so that people know exactly what’s happening in your fic. Most people filter by tags, meaning that what you put ensures that they get the best reading experience possible. Best advice I can give: tag major romantic and platonic relationships, characters, dynamics (ex: Steve Harrington Has a Crush on Eddie Munson), and themes of the fic (ex: fluff, angst, pwp, etc.). Better advice: go find the fics you like that are similar to what you’re writing and see how they tag.

Format! This is the biggest one, and it’s the thing that made me want to create this post in the first place. Please, do not give me a wall of text to read when I click the link to what looks like an amazing fic. It hurts my soul. The best advice I have for format is to read actual books and see how they’re formatted. Briefer, more simplistic advice: start a new paragraph every time someone new speaks or the focus changes. You also don’t have to indent on ao3, and if you’re in Rich Text, it’ll put spaces between paragraphs for you. Also, there’s a horizontal line button in rich text, so you don’t have to spam the underscore key to manually create one.

Comment! I personally have to get better at this, but comment! If you liked the fic, share your thoughts, even if it’s just a little heart emoji! Writers spend so much time on their fics, and they love feedback that’s a little more in depth than a kudo (although kudos are always appreciated)! If you’re able to, comment. You’ll make a writer’s day, I promise. If you’re a writer, don’t feel pressured to respond to every comment. If you want to, go for it! If you don’t, that’s okay, too. You’re all good either way.

Conclusion

Please add on to this with whatever you wish you were told when you were first starting out! And new fans, welcome! We’re happy to have you here, and we hope you have fun!

[mask131]

Some times ago Neil Gaiman posted on his Tumblr blog about a project he had of, if I recall correctly, a movie adaptation of “Journey to the West”. One of the reasons he gave as to why he gave up on the project was that he realized that this work didn’t need to be retold by an European - I do not have the exact quote, I am just saying things out of memory. This post, and the topic of “Should non-Chinese people make fictional works based on Journey to the West?” made me think back to a book that would have made me answer “Yes, non-Chinese people can retell Journey to the West”. And this book would have made me answer that - if I had been asked - because it is such a beautiful and funny book. I even hesitated to share about it here because this book is truly one of my little treasures. I read it when I was a pre-teen and it marked me deeply and if I were ever to lost it I’d buy it again because I couldn’t imagine having a library and not having this book with me. And it isn’t just teenage nostalgia speaking because, re-reading it as an adult, I still find new entertainments and fascinating meanings and implications that I completely missed as a young kid not knowing much. 

I had a bad literature school-teacher at the time and when she heard about me reading it, she answered that it wasn’t good for young minds to read these kind of works because they “mixed the genres” and blurred the lines of the categories of literature - she much preferred that kids would have much more categorized works that clearly and easily fit into one genre or the other. That’s the kind of bad literature teacher you’ll probably all recognize somehow, and this already places this book as one of the things these people do not like. But to take this book merely to spite those that wrongly understand literature would be a shame, because this book deserves to be loved on its own for the shere amount of work, poetry and love that its own author put into it.

This book is probably the greatest French reimagination of “Journey to the West” I can think of - it is “Le Singe Egal du Ciel”, “The Monkey Equal to the Sky”, by Frédérick Tristan, originally published in 1972, but still printed to this day. And before the Journey to the West purist start attacking me like rabid dogs, I insist on the term “reimagining”. It isn’t an adaptation of the work, and it is not a question of being a faithful translation of the original epic. It reimagines, re-arranges, re-creates the Journey to the West plot and characters into a story that is, on its structure and foundations, identical, and yet couldn’t be more different than it. And it is a good thing, because it is the power and strength of this book.

I heard that Tristan’s books were translated in English - which doesn’t surprise me given he is one of the great French authors of the late 20th century - but since I do not know if this specific book was translated, and under which title, I’ll use the French title translated into English, The Monkey Equal to the Sky. What is “The Monkey Equal to the Sky”? It is, as I said, Journey to the West retold, but condensed, trimmed down and cut short to fit into one nice fantasy novel of forty-two chapters. Some of you hearing that might feel some sort of self-righteous nausea, saying “If they cut down anything from the original plotline, it is not worth it, better read the full original”. But again this would miss the point of this wonderful book: to someone with bare knowledge or no knowledge of the original epic, it is a great introduction and first discovery, by having a shortened story centered around the key characters and events, while also being different enough so that when said nocive in ancient literature gets to read the original epic, they’ll have an entirely new world to discover. But to the other side, to those who are very familiar with Journey to the West, it will be a fun entertainment and deforming mirror, as Frédérick Tristan truly plays with the original text, creating a game of correspondances and analogies, uniting several different characters into one, inter-connecting strongly the “before” and “after” parts surrounding Sun Wukong’s imprisonment under the mountain, and ultimately making it even more obvious than the greatest monkey of them all is the main character and protagonist of the tale. 

Because this is what Tristan wanted to do before all: tell the story of Wukong, all about Wukong, as the protagonist, hero, antagonist and villain of his own tale all at once. The story might be changed, but trust me, the character of Wukong isn’t in the least, because this book is filled with the spirit of Journey to the West and the Monkey King, if not with the detail. I will tell you already the very bold move Tristan did, to really make this story even more about Wukong than it was originally: in Tristan’s novel, there is no Tripitaka. The monk that is charged with fetching the sacred texts in India and who is surrounded by three disciples is rather... Sun Wukong himself, or rather his fictional equivalent here, The Monkey-Equal-to-the-Sky (also undergoing his religious name, Aware-of-the-Vacuity, Conscient-de-la-Vacuité). It might seem like an insane thing to do, but it WORKS. Of course, those that will be looking for some of the readings of the epic - such as a dissection, exploration and study of the human soul, psyche and personality between the various impulses, emotions and vices, throughout the metaphorical characters of Tripitaka and his disciples - will be disappointed because Tristan’s novel is not a psychological one. But instead, what you have is a careful balance between existential horror and a cosmic farce - some sort of impossible mix of Lovecraft’s cosmic dread mixed with the world-questioning humor of Good Omens, and even then the comparison is a very poor one missing out on the very peculiar, unique and poetic feel of this novel. It is about this monkey, who is all powerful and yet constantly bound and chained by something, it is this monkey that clearly is the voice of reason of the world and yet acts like a madman, this monkey that is a living paradox - and the story is about how his very existence throws an ordered world into chaos and forces it to be rebuilt and undergo a full renewal. It is the story of how, by merely existing, this character that does both heroic deed and monstrous actions, challenges the very notions of supreme powers, of existence, and of reality. It is a buffoonic Shakespearian comedy where the trickster-monkey mocks, beats up and scams everyone and everything, it is an apocalyptic work where we see what happens when something unexpected and that should not exist destroys the very foundations of the world, and it is a philosophical and religious investigation as the monkey searches for, studies, explores and quests for the powers, the meanings, the morals and the truths behind religion, absolute purity, true virtue, and the world. 

It sounds like a LOT for a novel that is actually a shortened and condensed version of Journey to the West, but that’s the secret: by mixing various characters into new ones, by changing slightly the focus of the story, by giving new angles to some episodes and scenes, Tristan opens up a whole new space and vast expanses of literary terrain on which he adds tons of fascinating content and fresh details to retell the story with new meanings. Frédérick Tristan himself put a Warning in his text as a foreword, explaining the various inspirations of his work so that people did not mistook his novel for a mere adaptation of Journey to the West: because beyond the great Chinese novel we all know, he also took elements from other texts that also told of the legend of Sun Wukong (Journey to the West merely being the most famous and most complete of the various tellings of this ancestral legends), as well as various stylistic ingredients and poetic tones from the various historical translations of the work in Europe - such as the first French and British translations. In the same foreword, Tristan does spell out his intentions of completely reversing the original meaning of the novel by making Sun Wukong take the place of Tripitaka during the pilgrimage to India. 

And even beyond his extensive researches surrounding the figure of Sun Wukong himself, Tristan also slid in his novel various elements from both European and Asian traditions. European because he places here and there subtle references to European fairytale structures or old European myths (though I have to say they were subtle enough that I didn’t notice them until it was pointed out to me). As for the Asian inspiration, this allows me to break down another of the arguments people who do not know about about Frédérick Tristan might raise: what does an old white French dude knows about China anyway? As it turns out, a lot, and that’s not just his obsession with the Sun Wukong legend. Frédérick Tristan lived from the late sixties to the mid-eighties half of the time in Eastern and South-East Asia. He was at the time not a yet recognized author, but a mere specalist of the textile industry, forced by his father to inherit the textile business of the family against his son’s poetic and literary aspirations. His positions led him to work on official business matters in China, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos - and during his trips, visits and stays there he became enamored and fascinating with their history and culture. China most of all became his main dream and subject of study: “The Monkey Equal to the Sky” is but the first of a series of six “Chinese novels” each one taking inspirations from various elements of Ancient China. Sometimes he retells and weaves stories based on Chinese myths, like with “The Monkey Equal to the Sky”, whereas other times he rather explores various religious and philosophical aspects of China through the means of fiction. In one he recreates the koan genre in the rules of the art, in another he proposes a fictional exploration of the roots and teachings of taoism, and in yet another novel he pays homage to the works and style of Pu Songling.

And if he knows so much about China, it isn’t just because he loves to write stories about it - he also published serious, profesionnal, recognized works about Ancient China. His most famous work being “Houng, les sociétés secrètes chinoises”, an essay about secret societies in China centered around the rites and practices of the Tiandihui. And his historical and cultural knowledge of Ancient China, its philosophies, its literature and its secret societies helped him recreate another semi-historical semi-mythical China for “Journey to the West” or rather an anti-Journey-to-the-West, to be played in. 

I could speak much more of Frédérick Tristan, of his work, and of the beauty of this novel, but I will merely say that, if you enjoyed Journey Through the West, and enjoyed its characters, you will definitively find Tristan’s novel very entertaining. And if you ever have the chance to read it in French, do so, because - again - I do not know if an English translation is available, and if it is I cannot attest of its quality since I never read it, but I hope the brilliantness and fun of the text will be carried on throughout the language barrier. 

[kob131]

I am sick and tired of people claiming that Jacques is a good father just because he rescued Weiss from the battle of Beacon. Last time I checked, basic human decency isn’t worth rewarding, it’s just doing the bare minimum to get by in life. Also, a villain doing one nice thing (or at the very least neutral thing) to a hero doesn’t mean that they’re a good person. Sauron not teleporting to The Shire to kill Frodo and all the other Hobbits living there as soon as Frodo put on The One Ring for the first time doesn’t change the fact that he’s a 60000+ year-old demonic turbo-Hitler.

Guess we're doing RWBY venting today.

Reminder I have a side blog for this @kob-bitches-about-rwde

Anyway-

I don't know why Jacques is such a hard good faith check in RWBY. He shouldn't be.

Jacques is the definition of a one-dimensional bad guy. He has no reason for his actions beyond 'selfish'. He has no history beyond 'abusive husband/wife'. He's not even a racist or a sexist because that would imply he has some kind of standards, he's just an opportunist. Jacques is basically a Captain Planet villain. And yet people continuously fail at understanding him.

I know the point. That 'Jacques is so poorly written that the writers actually didn't make him bad/made him a good parent and Weiss was wrong!'. They know Jacques is supposed to be bad, they argue the writing fails.

My issue is that the barest amount of scrutiny shows that they aren't paying attention.

'Jacques picked up Weiss from the Battle of Beacon'? Why the fuck would Jacques not do so? Especially since he didn't want her going in the first place?

'Jacques let Weiss go to Beacon'? We never see that actually. I bring this up because people love to ignore the info about the White Trailer basically being Jacques sicing a monster onto his kid by saying 'we don't see him doing that!'. Well, Jacques isn't seen letting Weiss go to Beacon out of the goodness of his heart either.

'Jacques let Weiss spend his money'? Then he took it away when she stopped talking to him. This is literally the definition of finical abuse. And while a parent taking away an allowance isn't always finical abuse- a parent with a known history of abuse doing so for something as petty as not talking does indicate it as such.

'Jacques slapping Weiss was just disciplining her for attacking someone and lashing out at him'? Weiss is a god damn veteran at this point and Jacques openly said he was parading her around for PR reasons. Even though Weiss is clearly not okay with this. Even though the people of Atlas clearly do not care about the events Weiss suffered through. Even though it could have been avoided by doing ANYTHING else.

Weiss' 'attack' was accidental, to the point even James knew she wasn't at fault. And Jacques OPENLY stated his reason was because it made him look bad, not out of concern for the target or frustration with her attitude. And he slapped her ONLY when she verbally struck him, not because she refused to take responsibility.

This stuff is blatant. We've seen this in fiction so many damn times already. It's to the point that when someone pulls this card, I can only assume one of two conclusions-

1- The speaker is stupid/ignorant that they cannot see obvious writing and thus shouldn't be taken seriously.

Or 2- The speaker is so manipulative that they are willing to outright lie because their audience wants to hear 'RWBY bad' thus they should NEVER be taken seriously.

The eternal shit criticism end- Stupidity or lying?