#they aren't selling them this year but as soon as they bring them back

[hotwaterandmilk]

I'm seeing "Wedding Peach was unsuccessful" trotted out on Twitter again and it's honestly kind of funny to me. You can dislike the series, but you're rewriting history if you suggest it was a massive commercial flop/astronomical failure — it simply wasn't.

The Wedding Peach TV series maintained viewership throughout its run which is why it aired an entire year's worth of episodes (the full length it was intended to run) and didn't get cancelled like Nurse Angel Ririka SOS, for example.

I'm not going to pretend it did Sailor Moon numbers, dear god, it absolutely didn't get close hence why it wrapped as it did. I would suggest looking back now, that it was the definition of a mid-performing title for the time period. It sold toys decently but not outrageously, it got viewers but not an outstanding number, and it garnered a small but dedicated fanbase of male otaku. All of which is par for the course when it comes to a mid title in 1995.

Wedding Peach DX was produced because the TV series LD sales were decent enough to warrant it. Children were not buying LD box sets at this time, adult fans were and it was this interest that justified the creation of the four DX episodes as direct-to-video releases. If a series doesn't sell well they don't make more episodes, let alone higher quality deluxe episodes specifically for the home video market (and thus for older audiences with spending power).

It is very important to point out that Wedding Peach DX had NO INVOLVEMENT from the original creative team. Tomita Sukehiro and Yazawa Nao did not contribute to its creation, Tadano Kazuko didn't provide designs. Yuyama Kunihiko was the driving force behind the production of the DX episodes and he served as both director and writer for all four episodes (bringing on Wedding Peach animator and soon-to-be frequent Pokémon collaborator, Ichiishi Sayuri to serve as character designer).

What inspired these to be fanservice dreck to the level they ended up being is honestly beyond me. I mean the otaku market definitely wanted more episodes featuring the characters (and more songs featuring the seiyuu, if you want to see how keen otaku were for FURIL please see this post) but part of what they liked about the characters at the time was their (barfbarfbarf) perceived purity and innocence. The DX including panty shots and swimsuits kind of threw them for a loop. Even now, if you look at discussions about the DX among otaku there's a bit of a divide in opinion.

The DX episode sales were (as far as I can tell based on magazines from the time) also mid, but enough to cover four episodes. Three and four don't seem to have sold as well as one and two, but again the stats from the time aren't comprehensive. I think the fact that there weren't any after episode four says it all, honestly. OVA episodes are expensive to produce and it was extremely common for them to stop immediately if the sales weren't there. DX didn't justify its existence beyond those four episodes and Yuyama moved onto a far more successful project in Pokémon.

On that topic, I think it's important to note that Wedding Peach was OLM's first television series (albeit a coproduction with KSS). If it and the studio's adaptation of Mojacko hadn't made some level of profit it would have been quite difficult for them to adapt Pokémon. Neither Mojacko nor Wedding Peach set records with their viewership or sales numbers, but they both did "OK". It was in Pokémon however, that that OLM truly found a successful property with the series still running today. Sometimes you've got to have a few runs at producing things before you find success. Wedding Peach was one of these early runs, a project where a lot of people cut their teeth but one that didn't justify its own continuation beyond a certain point. Just a very standard media mix from the mid-90s, in other words.

Wedding Peach is a problematic title with indifference through to outright objection to representing love outside of heterosexual romance. Looking back now it feels like an absolute dinosaur on so many levels. Between the anime's fatphobic episode and Momoko dropping some gender essentialism, I'm not surprised people want to relegate it to the dustbin of history.

However, I think it is very telling that Tomita Sukehiro, when presented with the opportunity to tell a similar story in the modern day, chose to represent not just queer love, but platonic and familial love in Wedding Apple. While he can't undo the regressive and cringy elements of the original series, as a creator he has progressed and I'd like to think we can all continue to improve our outlooks and output as we grow.

Disliking Wedding Peach in the modern day is completely understandable. I'm not going to pretend anyone should watch it in 2024 without knowing that it is a camp, cheaply made relic of a time when heterosexuality was considered magic. However, just because it pandered to all the worst things trending at the time doesn't mean it didn't sell enough products or hold enough viewers to justify its production. It did, it just wasn't a strong enough property to go beyond that and that's representative of mediocrity rather than mind blowing commercial failure imho.

[hurtspideyparker]

Emotional Support Intern Peter Parker

Tony and Peter finally arrive in the large room, polished leather Oxfords and stained-lace Converse making their way through the crowd of professionals. Tony has a hand on Peter's back guiding him, because no matter how many meetings, conferences, and office buildings they traverse together, Peter always manages to get lost the second Tony lets go. 

Thankfully Pepper is easy to spot, shaking hands with some blah blah from wee woo Industries. Her hair is the only splash of colour in the constant white black grey of everyone's pencil skirts and collared shirts. 

"Hi Ms. Potts!" Peter greets as soon as the woman turns and spots them. 

"Hi Peter—Tony. I told you to stop bringing the kid to these things. No offense Peter."

"None taken! You look lovely, did you get your hair done?"

Pepper's hair cascades over her shoulder in perfect curls, splayed out over her white button-up. 

"Yes actually, a trim and some highlights. I think she went shorter than I asked though, because I always get half an inch, and this does not look like half an inch."

Peter steps a bit closer and squints at the piece of copper hair she's holding out. 

"I think it's just because she curled it. You usually get it blow dried after."

"Hm. I think you're right actually."

Tony rolls his eyes, "I'm so glad you guys are having such a great slumber party. C'mon kid I have to avoid that senator and he's starting to glance this way." He tries to head over to some tall plants that happen to be great blind spots. 

"Ah ah ah Tony! We are talking about this. I told you to stop dragging Peter to all of your work responsibilities. I'm sure he's bored to death with these meetings and work events."

"Pep, he's an intern, he's supposed to be bored and taken advantage of. Besides, if you take away my emotional support intern then I simply wouldn't show up! So."

"You aren't even paying him for his time!" Pepper says at the same time Peter mumbles "emotional support intern?"

"Um excuse me, that 3 million dollar suit he stuffs between his math homework and Go-Gurt begs to differ. And anyways, I pay him with experience. I brought him to that seminar in LA on Saturday, and he's following me to Tokyo for that week long conference in July. I highly doubt he's complaining," he squeezes the boy's shoulders, Peter looking up and beaming at him and Pepper. 

"I'm really fine with it Ms. Potts. Besides, the more of these things I go to the more lab time I get!" Peter pipes in.

Pepper glares at Tony. "Really, bribery?" 

"Okay well, if us grown adults don't want to be here how else am I supposed to get a 15 year old to talk about environmental reform to people who don't even believe in climate change." 

Pepper and Tony hold each other's stares.

"You mean he spoke to Mr. Ellis about the generator you designed for his carbon plant, and it didn't end with him calling us a pansy corporation and you calling him a decrepit geezer who's business is the only thing that's going to die quicker than he is?"

There's barely stiffled hope supressed under Pepper's professionalism. 

Tony smirks. "Yep, I think Mr. Ellis even smiled. The kid's got charm! Who knew."

Pepper glances at Peter in consideration. 

"Peter have you ever considered pursuing anything further in business? Engineering is great, but if you really want to be successful it's incredibly important to build interpersonal skills, leadership, and even current market and finance knowledge. I mean you might want to sell your designs one day, or start a company." 

"Oh, I haven't really-"

"You could shadow me! I mean interning with a CEO is a once in a lifetime opportunity, it would give you a glowing resume, and I know a lot more about this stuff than Tony. He didn't even perform his executive duties when he actually was the CEO."

Pepper has that gleam in her eyes, the one she gets when men call her sweetheart, or when Tony isn't even dressed for their reservation that started ten minutes ago. 

It means she's already had the argument in her head. 

Peter is still stuttering, flustered with this side of Pepper. Her business face isn't usually directed at him, and it's a far cry from the woman who sends him home with leftovers from dinner. 

"Wait wait wait, are you trying to steal my intern?" Tony asks incredulously. 

"If anyone even needs an intern Tony it would be me. I have to babysit you and the company, meanwhile you just need him to hand you wrenches. Competent help is hard to find these days and you're wasting his talents." 

"Um, excuse me, he's the only thing keeping me together. You already have your fancy day planner and Excel spreadsheets, I need him to get me out of the house. He's the only thing keeping me a responsible adult, if you take away my emotional support intern then I will not attend a single meeting for the rest of the quarter." 

"You are such a man child!"

"La la la la can't hear youuu," Tony says with his fingers in his ears.

"Um, guys, I think people are staring."

Peter tugs on the corner of Tony's sleeve to get him to unplug his ears, glancing nervously at the groups of people sending them judgemental stares. The three of them give a wave and pleasant smile, most of the crowd continuing to move along on the grey carpet at the sight of their unsettling synchronicity and false turn of the lips. 

Pepper speaks through her teeth, a grin still presented at passers-by. "Fine, you can keep him, but only because he's doing half my job for me. The only person you can emotionally regulate around and it's a teenager. I'm glad you finally found someone who can keep you entertained." 

"Love you too honey," Tony says while putting a hand on the small of her back and kissing her cheek. He sighs, looking around the room at all the government officials who think these tech companies are spying on them. 

Apparently a surveillance state is only cool when they do it to manipulate their incarceration numbers, rig elections and lobby votes, and not for data mining and targeted ads. 

"I say we hit the cheese and crackers, take an awkward amount of sips from those tiny water bottles, and then speak to some old ladies till we have to do our presentation."

"Sounds great Mr. Stark. Will you make sure they don't grab my face again? I smelled like old lady perfume at school and Flash started making fun of me for stealing people's grandmas."

Tony looks into Peter's eyes questioningly and finds nothing but sincerity and resignation in them. 

"Well. Not my fault your cheeks are so gosh darn cute. But I'll do my best," he wraps an arm around the shorter and starts heading through the room again. 

The weight is comforting. Peter used to get anxious at these events, but Tony never leaves his side and is always looking at him like he's the Michaelangelo in the center of every room. He became accustomed to being Mr. Stark's favourite part of the event. While that may not seem difficult, especially considering the droning lectures and snooty company, it always feels special making jokes about people's ridiculous work jargon, and comparing the staleness of crackers at conferences. 

"Emotional support intern huh?" he says smugly. 

Tony glances at him, but instead of scoffing or denying anything, he just speaks with honesty. "You and Pepper are the best, most important things to this company. And to me. I'm really glad you're here kid."

Peter doesn't know what to say. The words stick in his throat while Tony hands him a water bottle with the lid already cracked. 

Peter has super strength; It's completely unnecessary to open his bottle for him. He doesn't point this out. Tony will do it at the next meeting, just like he did at the last one, and Peter will never mention it.

[frances-baby-houseman]

I want this little linen shirt jacket so badly and I have been keeping an eye on it but after I single handedly wrote my library's strategic plan in 24 hours*, I think I'm going to get it for myself as a treat. I was hoping it wouldn't be popular and would go on sale but two colors are already sold out so I think I do have to act.

*I don't want to talk about it.**

** it's literally all I can talk about, I'm furious, what is even going on at this place

[pocketramblr]

Ask game, please! After the whole MLA kidnapping him debacle, Giran sells out everyone and gets rehabilitated. Please.

1- so, Giran watches the new combined group generals announce their plans to the canon fodder and that's the last straw, he knows which of those two categories he's in now. So he texts Compress and Twice that he needs a vacation after dealing with everything and he's headed to the beach, he'll be back in a week, do they want any souvenirs? Twice asks for twenty things, Compress tells him to not worry about it and that he'll go to ReDestro if anything in his prosthetic needs maintenance, enjoy his week, and promptly forgets to pass this on to Shigaraki or the others. Giran slips away.

2- Hawks, who keeps an eye on threats, notices he's very suddenly gone and wonders if he was sacrificed fully for the MLA merger, and asks a few questions- Twice says nah he's just on vacation at this beach, and gets distracted and forgets about that too. Hawks tells a handler, who sends an agent to the beach- though Giran isn't actually there, just close and watching for it. When he sees the agent, he follows them to leave.

3- Grabbing the agent, Giran explains two options- either he can call Twice and say the trap worked and they found the mole, killing Hawks before he can get out of the villa... Or, Giran can make a deal and get his own. The agent agrees to make the call about the deal, Giran with a hand on their arm and ready to use his quirk at any moment. The commission agrees to his terms in exchange for information- and Giran has a lot of it.

4- including, you know, Dabi's real identity- the guy hadn't killed anyone at the beginning, lost his gun to a fourteen year old, and was clearly not going to play nice with the league, Giran would have dropped in with some other low level group if Garaki hadn't told him to keep him close and why. And Compress's identity, not that it super matters. And how to restrain Twice effectively. And how to bring in the MLA generals. And their accurate numbers. He knows more than Hawks about everything except Garaki's plans for Shigaraki, so the MLA move quickly, having Hawks sedate Twice and extract him first as soon as Shigaraki goes under the procedure.

5- the HPSC spins the whole media narrative about the quirkless doctor who's been experimenting on people and corpses to make villain minions for All For One- including the dead hero student Shirakumo, and Endeavor's eldest dead son- and how he was going to do the same to Shigaraki... Until Endeavour stopped him and avenged his poor dead nomu son, [camera coverage switches to live takedown of hospital as heroes attack the villa as well, not bringing students along because that really might hurt the whole publicity win they tried with this.... Tons of heroes still die tho ah. Definitely a hard fight. And oh yeah none of the heroes knew about the story being aired until after so Endeavor has his breakdown at the hospital and Mic almost kills more people for bringing Oboro into this like that.]

+1- Giran, watching the plan succeed fairly well, takes his money for his info and doesn't exactly "rehabilitate"... He does lay low and live comfortably for a while though as he watches the balance of power shift, many heroes wanting to change or pull away from the hpsc after what they pulled (the Todoroki family is in tatters and they aren't the only ones), different villain and vigilante groups probing out the new space in power, AfO fuming at so many plans down the drain while he's still in Tartarus, etc. I'm sure Giran will come out of retirement once he figures the new playing field, the new players he respects or tolerates, and how to turn a profit with them.

[electronickingdomfox]

"The Covenant of the Crown" review

Novel from 1981, by Howard Weinstein. This is the first novel set in the TMP era (not counting the movie novelization), though strangely enough, they still refer to Kirk as "Captain". I didn't love the story A LOT, but it was a fine read with good characterization and entertaining plot. This author seems to love McCoy, so he receives the main focus, while Kirk moves to a secondary position, and is absent from most of the novel. Spock and McCoy's bickering is fun, with a really bitchy Spock, and a somewhat pitiful, somewhat childish McCoy. The Doctor is going through a middle-age crisis, and his vulnerable portrait is kind of tender.

As for the plot, is a bit unusual, since sci-fi elements are scarce, and instead, the story takes the form of a traditional quest to restore the rightful king to the throne.

Some spoilers ahead:

The neutral planet of Shad, rich in valuable minerals, has been torn by civil war for decades, between the Loyalists (partial to the royal family and supported by the Federation), and the Mohd Alliance (warlike and secretly aided by the Klingons). Whoever wins the war, will determine if Shad enters the Federation, or becomes a Klingon satellite.

Almost twenty years ago, Kirk had been a Federation envoy in the planet, and had befriended the King. But back then, the advance of the Mohd Alliance forced the royal family into exile. Things are looking more hopeful now, and it's about time for the King to return and finally bring unity and peace to Shad. The Enterprise is thus tasked with the mission of bringing him there. Problem is, the King is very, veeery old now, and he dies soon after arriving to the Enterprise. The full weight of Shad's restoration falls then on his only daughter, Kailyn. But she's in her early twenties, and very inexperienced. (Why is it that these fantasy kings always wait until they're at least 60 to produce a heir? Seems very risky, if you ask me. I guess this is something that Kailyn has in common with Disney princesses). Anyway, Kailyn lacks confidence in herself, compounded by her chronic illness, which she doesn't know how to treat herself, and forces her to take shots regularly or die. Also, before being accepted as Queen of Shad, she must retrieve the crown (hidden in a different planet) and pass a test. Rightful heirs to the throne always have some psychic powers, which make the crown's crystals react upon touch.

The plot diverges then, with the main story following Kailyn, McCoy and Spock going in a shuttlecraft to a most inhospitable planet to find the crown. As Klingons are likely to sabotage Shad's unification, Kirk stays in the Enterprise, hoping the Klingons will follow him, and not notice the shuttlecraft's course. Kirk's subplot revolves around him trying to find out who in the ship is the Klingon spy, who's been feeding info about the mission to the enemy.

Meanwhile, Kailyn and the others aren't having a fun time looking for the crown. The shuttle crashes upon landing, there are horrible storms in the surface, Kailyn falls ill, a savage tribe captures them and wants to sell them as slaves, McCoy is feeling too old for this shit, and Spock has to babysit the two princesses (Kailyn and his dear Doctor). If this wasn't enough, Klingons have, in fact, noticed the shuttlecraft and followed them. So it seems there won't be much landing party for the Enterprise to rescue later. And at this point, I have to ask: "Why, Kirk, WHY did you send this landing party to such hostile planet!!?" Spock, I can understand, but McCoy and the only heir to the throne? (you know, the one who should be ALIVE, in order for the mission to be successful at all?). As it turns out in the end, Kailyn's presence was necessary, because the crown's guardian wouldn't give it to anybody else. But I'm not sure Kirk and the others were aware of this at first.

Throughout her adventures, Kailyn matures a lot and grows confident and self-sufficient, so of course she becomes a worthy queen. However, she had developed a misplaced crush on McCoy. And when the Doctor finally rejects her, and explains that he loves her "but not like that", she has a hard time. Now, McCoy's attitude had been less than stellar, and he shouldn't have been such a flirt and mislead her. But at least this receives the proper criticism, and the author doesn't turn Kailyn into a trophy girlfriend for McCoy to feel younger.

Spirk Meter: 0/10*. Judging by Weinstein's Star Trek comics, this author leans much more into...

McKirk: The novel opens with Kirk in McCoy's cabin, while the Doctor counts his gray hairs in the mirror and complains about getting old. And Kirk (as the good husband he is) assures him that he's not that old and still looking fine. Later Kirk pulls him out of bed, where McCoy is lying depressed, to bring him to his surprise birthday party (and Kirk's very anxious about McCoy not liking the party idea, since he's feeling so bad about his age). Then Chapel is gossiping about how Kailyn follows McCoy everywhere, and probably has a crush on him, and Kirk hears this. Chapel is like "uh, oh... spoke too much in front of the wrong person...". As result, Kirk has a bedroom discussion with McCoy (no, literally, McCoy was just getting into bed). And Kirk confronts him with the typical "what the hell are you playing at!?". And McCoy retorts with a "what about ALL the things you did in the past!?". You get the idea... There's not a lot more, since Kirk almost disappears from the story later. But consider McCoy's literal definition of love in the novel:

"Caring about someone more than I care about myself... enjoying someone’s company through thick and thin... trusting completely..."

Reminds you of anyone?

There's also a bit of Spones, though they spend most of the time bickering with each other. But Spock is protective of him, and McCoy is a bit clingy. Specially in the latter parts, their dynamic becomes more like that of two proud dads for Kailyn. There's also this exchange:

“Spock,” McCoy said slowly, “Kailyn’s in love with me.” The Vulcan raised an eyebrow. “Indeed?” “Don’t act so surprised. I happen to be quite lovable.” “I have never doubted that, Doctor,” Spock replied wryly.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[thetreefairy]

I hope you're having a good day/night. Platonic Aizawa and Present mic where the reader had abusive ‘Christianity’ parents because of her quirk (I’m going to say two blood manipulation, and you can pick the other one), and they threw her in a foster home because she was the ‘devil spawn’ or something and they put her in a foster home that’s where she met Hitoshi. So years later, the parents show up and ‘apologize’ and want to start new again. They didn’t mean that they needed her for money, or they could sell her to some rich guy who would pay for her since she had two quirks and was young and pretty.

I don't know but I am worried that this is based of your real life with the trauma around christianity, so if you want to vent about anything my dms are open </3, also requests will take more time due to my studyin' gn!AFAB! reader Warnings: abusive themes, christianity, yandere themes, shouting, arranged marriage attempted, abuse of power, transphobia, misgendering, implied murder

Reader's quirks:

Blood manipulation, kinda like the blood-bending from A:TLA.

neuroelectric interfacing, like wanda you can read people's mind and awake their deepest nightmares.

m/n - mothers name

f/n - fathers name

Reader used to love their birth parents with all their heart. When they gave them up for fostercare because their quirks were too demonic, their heart broke.

Their heart broke in a million pieces, but Reader's heart broke even more then they saw Shinso Hitoshi come into fostercare. They became friends due to their shared trauma, they trained together and they soon became siblings.

Their caretakers saw that, and they told all who even wanted to take one of the two in, that the two are not to be seperated.

So when the two pro-heroes; eraserhead and Present mic wanted to take the two in, the caretakers couldn't help but do a happy dance. Erasermic loved hitoshi, yes. But due to how he spoke about Reader they couldn't help but fall in love with them as well.

So when reader finally became comfortable enough to share their trauma surrounding religion and their concern about 'tainting' Eri.

The yandere tendencies started to become worse.

"Me and Reader are going out to that cat café we wanted to try!" Hitoshi shouted towards the living room while the two were putting on their jackets. "Alright, but don't make any detours and be home before dinner!" Hizashi shouted back at them with a smile. The timing was great, since Reader's biological parents wanted to have a chat with them.

But when the two opened the door, Reader's birth parents were infront of them. "My child, what have you grown!" The woman shouted while trying to grab Reader's hands, which caused Hitoshi to stand between them. "Don't touch them." He hissed, causing the woman to step back in surprise. Reader was frozen, they couldn't move and they didn't know how to react.

"Why, boy! We are her parents!"

"No, you aren't, you gave up those rights when you put them in fostercare. And they go by they/them pronouns so watch it." Shota said in a harsh tone, putting his hand on reader's shoulder, trying his best to be comforting. "My husband and I have granted you your request to speak to us, Reader and Shinso will not be presented for that conversation."

Hizashi and him wanted to keep the conversation a secret as to see what they wanted first, before bringing Reader's hopes up. "Do not forget, that they are legally our child." Hizashi chimed in.

M/n and f/n walked into the house, causing Reader to hide behind Shota and causing Hitoshi to shield them with his body. Glaring at the two adults. "Well this concerns reader's future!" M/n shouted, causing Reader to flinch. "Yes, we have found a way to rid her of her sins!" F/n tried to announce excitedly. "I would watch what you call them, and watch what you say."

Hitoshi hugged them thight, looking for a way to get reader and himself out of this situation. But he knew what quirk f/n had, and he didn't want Reader to see him use that quirk. Afterall it had been used to torture them.

"You just need to marry our high priest! He will clench your soul, reader! It is the perfect-"

"Get out." Hizashi said, his voice calm. The couple didn't listen and tried to get closer to Reader again. Reader activated their second quirk, causing the two to stand still while they see their nightmares. Hitoshi saw this as the perfect time to get them the fuck out of there.

He knew the look in their dads eyes, this wasn't going to end well, and Reader needs to stay in the dark about it.

When the two teenagers were upstairs and Hizashi texted hitoshi to blast some music. "That devil!" f/n shouted when the two were back to normal. "Oh, what hypocrits." Shota chuckled. "How dare you! We must live in gods light and we need to cleanse Reader's soul!" M/n shouted. Hizashi scoffed. "Well, you'll see soon enough if your god even wants you."

[hypaalicious]

NGL y'all, it's been rough.

On the surface, I guess you could say I'm doing alright. I have a roof over my head, adequate food to eat (most of the time), good friends and family to rely on... But when I say this world has beaten me down to pieces, it definitely has.

COVID was the first chink in the armor. Watching the entire world basically shrug off mass death and try to blithely live like it's still 2019 despite a pandemic raging worse than ever with less protections than we had before is wild. Don't matter how much facts you have to show to people, they will ignore it and then also in the same breath wonder why everyone's sick all the time. I mourn the children who aren't protected, who are sent into schools with no masks to become disabled/chronically ill for the rest of their lives. I mourn the immunocompromised who are trapped indefinitely in their homes because the world has moved on from pretending to care about COVID. It's been 4 years. Time doesn't even feel real. Then October 7th happened, and I get to watch a genocide happen in occupied Palestine in real time. Now, if you don't know me, then you may not know that I generally avoid rated R live action movies because I am a wuss and can't take the explicit violence and gore in a lot of them. I went from that, to watching lives of Palestinians recording their loved ones blown up, carrying their remains in plastic bags, IDF psychos shooting women and children in the back, the despair and anguish of Palestinians being corralled, starved, poisoned just because they exist. I have irrevocably been changed by bearing witness to this horror. Writing my script for my game has slowed down to a crawl. I close my eyes at night to sleep, and dream about the devastation I witnessed. I wake up and see even worse horrors, all unchecked by world powers. I get on Facebook and see people carrying on with life as if nothing is happening at all. I don't... I feel like I'm looking at society from the opposite side of a glass window. Everything has lost its color. How can I care about movies, video games, traveling, etc when it all just serves as a distraction to the ugly reality that cannot be ignored? I don't care about celebs and their drama. I don't care about the regurgitated mess Hollywood puts out. I don't care about what overpriced AAA game is highly anticipated. I do not care at all. The climate is fucked up and I see venture capitalists literally selling pieces of iceburgs to rich folks in the UAE for cocktails like it's nothing. People wanna talk about what new restaurant opened up and all I can think of is the fact that a singular bell pepper is like $2. A musical artist announces a tour and all I see are more superspreader events where people won't mask then bring home viruses to their families. Is this the future we want? Hell, will we HAVE a future? We, collectively, will rue the day we sat around and did nothing to stop all of this. And I fear that day will come very soon.

[cjonesjr]

・﹒・ single dad, huh?

Summary: You had just moved into the sprawling suburban neighborhood after inheriting your late-grandparents' house. Your new, next door neighbor wanted to help you move it and you couldn't help but accept it. You soon fall down a rabbit hole of "is this guy too old for me?" after you realize your true feelings for him.

Warings: Age gap, fluff

Pairing: Don!Mobius x GN!reader

Notes: I finally watched the Loki Disney+ show and when I tell you the moment I saw dad Mobius...I'm a sucker for DILFS, guilty as charged 😔. Should I make a part 2????

The neighborhood was nothing special, it was your average suburban area with picturesque houses and families. You grew up closer to the city so you never had to deal with driving everywhere as eveything was walkable, but you have visited here occasionally since the house you were moving into used to belong to your grandparents. So you held some fond memories of this place, it would take a while to get used to it, but in time it would get better.

You never visited here much though, as it was over a two hour drive, but cherish the little memories you had of this place. You had been saving up to move out of your parents' house but no apartments seemed to work for you. Of course its not nice to find out your grandparents had passed, but you were blessed that they left you their house. All the papers were in order and the house was officially in your name before they bit the dust.

Today was your move-in day and the medium sized moving truck sat outside as you did everything yourself. Since it was just you- you didn't feel the need to pay a few guys to move your stuff as there wasn't that much, but still a decent amount. You briskly walked back up into the truck to lug a box into the house and as you walked down the ramp, someone called out to you.

"Need any help there, new neighbor?" It startled you at first before you quickly recovered and looked over to see the source. It was your next-door neighbor. He was an older man with grey, short hair. Maybe he was in his 40s? He probably just didn't want to maintain dying his hair all the time so he kept it natural, but you couldn't lie and say he wasn't at least a little bit attractive. You thought about this and contemplated his offer, it wouldn't be so bad, right? You could get to know him and he could get to know you. Knowing someone right off the bat would be helpful in this new area, you just hope he didn't have any bad intentions.

"Sure!" I just need to get these boxes all inside first, so bring them in and I'll tell you where to put them. I can handle the rest" You walked down the ramp with your box of who knows what and he got closer with a smile on his face. "Now I hope you aren't some creep because if so, I will have to ask you kindly to leave" You laughed awkwardly- partially afraid of that being the case but also trying to make a joke out of it.

"Oh, pfft. I'm a single dad. My days consist of selling- or trying to sell jet skis and telling my sons not to burn their toys. I mean- why do they think that's cool? You know what's cool? Jet skis" Huh, he was a single dad, why did that make your heart skip? He was a dad, a dad! And he has multiple sons, you were single and in your early 20s with no big plans. He seems to like jet skis though, a man has to have his hobbies after all, it honestly was cute.

"Single dad, huh?" You mused with a small smile as he passed you going into the truck and picking up a random box and following you.

"Yeah. My eldest is twelve and my youngest is eight and they are my boys. My wife left me a few years ago so I've been raising them on my own the past few years. It's been a learning curve certainly, but they're good boys, not counting burning their toys. Seriously I don't get it, why would you burn your own stuff?" It made you slightly sad that his wife left him when he seemed like such a good father, from first impressions at least. "Oh shoot, I never introduced myself! My name is Don" he flashed a smile with excitement as he stood next to you. Saying your name, his face switched into one of concentration before snapping his fingers with a smile.

"Now I remember! You're the grandchild of that old couple that lived here! Sorry for your loss, by the way. They were nice people" From the way he went from excitement from remembering where he heard your name from then unfortunate passing of your grandparents, it was obvious that he didn't want to brush over that fact and tried to be kind.

"Thank you. I miss them but they were nice enough to leave me this house since they knew I've been trying to save up. But I can't wait to meet your sons" Changing the conversation was needed as you didn't want to lament on them being gone, but didn't want him to think he did anything wrong. So you gave a genuine smile as he walked next to you into the house and you had a feeling that he would become a good friend.

"Well, every two weeks I plan a cookout and this Saturday is the next one. A few neighbors from this block usually come over so you can get a chance to meet them too. No pressure, of course! Only come if you're comfortable!" You thought it was really sweet of him to invite you over, even if he didn't know you weren't the most sociable person ever. He followed you through the front door and set the box down in the kitchen since it was well...stuff for the kitchen. The box you held was for the livingroom so you set it down there.

"I'll think about it"

"Think about it? What's there to think about?" He exclaimed as he started to talk with his hands, but not in anger, in was very amusing how animated and passionate he was. "You're hangin' out with the coolest dad on the block, you'll meet my sons, meet the other neighbors, and have some good food" He walked closer to you and you couldn't help but feel your attraction to him grow stronger. You're so fucked.

"I'm not the most...social...person. I prefer to spend my time alone...and in my house" it wasn't a lie, you truly did prefer to spend time by yourself reading, playing games, and a few other things. But you didn't know how you would react to being near him for that long with a bunch of strangers around.

"Well, the offer is still on the table. It starts at six sharp, but showing up fashionably late wouldn't be bad either. As long as you're there" He winked at you as he left to grab more boxes. Wait...he winked at you? He winked at you! Your face burned slightly as you replayed it in your head a few times before shaking your head and stood in your house for a few seconds before meeting him back outside. You had to get it under control, this stupid little crush would get out of hand very fast if you didn't put an end to it now. But...would it be so bad? You haven't had a crush on a long time much less dated anyone, might as well have a little fun if it makes you happy. But you wouldn't actively go for him, no way. He's too old and has two kids. Nope.

"Wait, where are your kids now? School?" It was a Tuesday morning so they most likely were, but the thought had just occurred to you then as he walked back inside with a box for the bathroom and a box for the bedroom.

"Yeah. They take a bus everyday since my work schedule usually lets me off after they get out. This is one of my off days. They're decent at school, I'm not trying to pressure them into a career they want to do so as long as they pass its fine" Your heart flipped yet again as he truly seemed like a caring father if not a little quirky, but who isn't? Smiling, you walk back out with him to get the other boxes.

This went on for the next few hours- you'd talk about yourselves to know each other better as you grabbed more boxes and set them in the right room. It honestly took a lot longer than it should from the amount of boxes you had- it wasn't that many- but got caught up in just...talking. It was really nice though, as you felt like you made a new friend already and it was your first day here. As you were talking about the good restaurants here so you can get takeout at, the sounds of kids outside signalled that school ended and Don's sons would be home soon. He looked down at his watch and smiled.

"Right on time! You just got one more box in there I'll bring out. You sure you'll be fine unpacking this all?" He insisted that his kids could wait and that he wanted to help you unpack all the boxes, but you would rather him not see all your things because you were more of a private person, and plus you didn't want him to miss making dinner for his boys.

"Yeah I'll be fine. It was really nice to meet you, Don. Maybe I'll see you again tomorrow?" You shook hands and couldn't help but feel tingles up your spine from the contact, but still smiled and he smiled back before letting go.

"I work tomorrow and you'll probably still be unpacking but you can always visit me at work! You know where I work, stop by anytime you feel like it, you know my schedule. Well, I'm off, see you later! Nice to meet you!" He started towards back towards his house just as you saw two young boys enter the yard, those must be his sons. Heart feeling warm, you watched as he happily grabbed what looked like his oldest into a headlock and rub his hair. Sighing. you decided to check out one of the places he recommended to get takeout since you were hungry and looked it up on Google. You couldn't help but be tempted to take his offer to his cookout on Saturday. Maybe you'll visit him at his job too.

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #24: 1973

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Tony Orlando and Dawn, Jim Croce, Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, Paul McCartney and Wings Kris Kristofferson, Elton John, Billy Preston, Carly Simon, Diana Ross. End description]

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*Turns my chair around so I can sit in it backwards*

So. You were just caught trying to cover up a major break-in into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in order to cement your reelection.

As I alluded to last poll, one major historical event I need to mention is the Watergate scandal. The actual break-in took place the previous year, but the resulting investigations and trials won't start to take place until this year -- after Nixon's reelection. However, there aren't many songs about the incident from this time, or at least not in the charts. Most of the songs protesting Nixon tended to focus on the war.

Speaking of the Vietnam War, 1973 does not mark the end of the war, but it does mark the beginning of the United States' exit. To bring it back to the music, one of the 60's polls included the Monkees' Last Train to Clarksville, a song that wasn't explicitly written about the war, but had the war projected onto it because it's a song about someone leaving home and not knowing when they're coming back. It seems fitting that one of the songs on today's poll is Tony Orlando and Dawn's Tie a Yellow Ribbon[...], a song that wasn't explicitly written about the war, but had the war projected onto it because it's a song about someone coming home and not knowing what his welcome will look like.

Soul music is continuing to have one of its golden ages, with artists like Roberta Flack and Marvin Gaye topping the charts. It's been a while since I talked about Billboard from the business side of things, but the explosion of this genre gives me a good excuse to do so. In 1973, the Billboard chart for R&B songs was changed from "Best Selling Soul Singles" to "Hot Soul Singles". This change may not sound that significant, but it becomes more notable when you see how often this title changes. This article goes more into depth about Billboard's complicated history when it comes to its representation of Black music.

Which reminds me, it's time to start talking about disco. It will reach the polls soon, I promise, but now feels like a good time to set the scene before we get to that point. As I mentioned in a previous poll, the disco scene really came out of soul. Especially Philly Soul, which had lush instrumentation that worked really well with the overall atmosphere of early disco. At this point in history, disco is still an underground subculture, and musically the line between it and soul music isn't that clear. Disco as its own genre of music that could be identified as such by the average listener will come later.

I don't usually talk about the formation of genres until they reach the charts, but I'm going to make an exception here. Because 2023 is the 50th anniversary of this genre, the genre has grown into a dominating musical force across the globe, and it's the only genre I actually studied in college.

In 1973, a Jamaican-American teenager named Clive Campbell (more widely known as DJ Kool Herc) and his sister, Cindy, started hosting parties out of their apartment in The Bronx, New York. These parties would play a lot of funk records, but he wouldn't just play them. Instead, he would play two copies of the same record on a turntable so he could extend the percussion section of the song, also called the break (which is where breakdancing comes from). This would lay the foundation for hip-hop, further expanded by artists like Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa. All three of these men are still alive and I've linked interviews with some of them.

Hip-hop and rap are often used interchangeably, but there is a difference. Hip-hop exists both as a subculture and as a style of music. It incorporates art forms such as DJing, breakdancing, graffiti, beatboxing, rapping, and many other elements. That's why I said DJ Kool Herc helped set the foundation of hip-hop. Within early hip-hop culture, the MC was mostly there to bounce off of the DJ and keep the energy up. That isn't to discredit the difficult work of early MCs (trust me, if you were bad at it, the audience would let you know). Rap itself as an art from has a plethora of different artistic roots in Black culture, from scat singing in jazz, to various traditional West African storytelling techniques, to early 20th century gospel groups, to rhyme games, to Black radio DJs. The genre started to get more notice outside of the party scene as wordplay and flows started to expand further, especially as the first hip-hop groups started to form and the MCs became part of the "band". Like disco, hip-hop was still very much an underground subculture, but it would soon take over the nation.

It will be another 17 years before the first rap song reaches number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby). We won't see a rap song featured on these polls until 1995. But it's hip-hop's 50th birthday, and so much of modern American culture doesn't make sense without its involvement.

[shadowcatzone]

<3 day w venti

-pov it's valentines day ignore the fact that i'm late-

Your day started very early. You got dressed, had a quick breakfast and headed out, grabbing a basket on the way. You probably wouldn't return until around lunchtime, but that was fine. You had a few things planned for the day but none of them needed you to rush things.

You made your way past windrise to get to starsnatch cliff. Later, you would surprise your favorite bard and - hopefully - spend the day with him. But for now, you started picking cecilia flowers. You knew the flower shop would soon run out, and if you had any flowers left, you could sell them there.

When your basket became full with them, you stopped picking, instead making a flower crown. You spent quite a while working, occasionally humming or even singing. Once you were done with the flower crown, you picked up the basket, which was still half-full, and made your way back to mondstadt.

As you had expected, the girl selling flowers had ran out about an hour ago. You had picked some windwheel asters on the way back, so you sold her the flowers. Which really means you forced them on her - a normal occurrence on this specific day.

After bringing your basket home, and eating a little snack, you set out for the bard. You found him rather quickly too, after following your ears, you saw him sitting on the railing of the plaza out in front of the church.

He gathered quite the audience, people dancing in front of him while he simply enjoyed playing. While his eyes were closed, he played his lyre expertly, as expected. You quietly went up to him and sat down next to him. He didn't seem to have noticed you, and if he did, he hid it perfectly. But you weren't here to play around. Looking at the flower crown in your hands, you simply had to try. So, you started reaching for his hat, quietly, carefully, and when you almost had it-

"Don't do that now, windblume." He hadn't even opened his eyes.

So you pouted. "how do you always notice me even with your eyes closed?"

He chuckled softly, "Well, i have good ears. And somebody just mentioned you a minute ago. Wait until i finish the song, please."

Then you leaned back and looked towards the people dancing. You would also love to dance to the songs of the best bard in mondstadt, unfortunately, that would be impossible unless he split in two. After he stopped playing, another bard started. Seems like he organised himself a group this year.

After watching on for a few notes, he put away his lyre and turned his attention to you. "What is it?"

"Oh," you held up the flower crown for him to see, "i made you a flower crown!" Although you thought you saw him flinch a little, he reluctantly removed his hat and leaned forward a bit, so you put the flower crown on his head.

Then you held his face, with one hand on each side. "You are really pretty you know that? And i don't mean just average pretty, you're borderline beautiful." Upon which he sighed overly dramatical - you reacted with an eyeroll - "oh! I am hurt! Am i just a pretty face to you, windblume?" "Don't say that," now you chuckled. "You're downright angelic, venti. You really are! Looks, personality and all, my angel."

Though, he didn't seem particularly pleased with the statement, so he pouted. "Just angelic? You know, i could be more."

But you simply leaned in and whispered, "oh, i do apologize, my lord, my archon! Let me right my wrongs by emphasizing, with these people as my witnesses, how truly divine you are! Lord barba-!"

You didn't get much further, as the former had already silenced you in a kiss.

Afterwards, he looked straight into your eyes, with a hint of ire, "you're bold, aren't you? Cute little windblume... i wonder how far you're willing to take this." And you decided not to test him any further.

"E-either way, i prepared a few bottles of wine, as well as some apple pie... would you like to go on a picknic?"

Then you returned home, having decided to meet with venti about an hour later, to pack your basket with wine, apple pie and some other things. Meeting with venti at the city's gate, you went to windrise together.

And spent the rest of the day together. You listened to venti playing his lyre, he would braid dandelions into your hair, and consume a suspiciously low amount of alcohol. "I thought you'd drink more of the wine." "But i want to be sober while i spend time with you! At least, today." You chuckled at his response. He was really adorable.

After you watched the sunset together, he accompanied you home. Naturally, you would offer him to sleep in your home rather than outside, which he accepted. As you often did when he was over, you shared your bed.

But, today was slightly different. After you both were ready for the bed, he rolled over, now lying above you, his lips hovering above yours. "Oh, windblume. You didn't think that was it, did you?" He chuckled "we're just getting started."

[rubiatinctorum]

Okay honesty time i am SO stressed out!!! i had a busy Friday and then waited a really long time to make a marketplace sale on Saturday and one of the people was a no-show and i had/have too many things listed — to the point there were things i realised i wanted to keep and not sell!!! and last time i did this i was like 'ok, purpose served and nothing lost, take the listing down and put it back where it belongs in my room no problem' and that was that — but tonight i'm feeling really sad about it!!!!! like oh no i accidentally almost sold things i love!!! even though they didn't get sold and i still have them and there's no harm done and there's no evil in thinking about selling something. it's a betrayal to no one and nothing if i almost made the wrong call but didn't. but now i feel bad and awful and terrible and based on the time of the month and other recent symptoms i think i might just be nearly ready to start my period again, i cry really easily a day or two before over things i can normally act normaler about. anyway soon i have to arrange sale meetings for things and pester people who no-showed if they want an alternate time (as if that's not foolish as hell bc hello!!! they didn't show the first time!!!!) and ask the people who've been pending on sales now for a while if they even want the thing (implication: damn are u even decided on this bc ur not moving to like. buy it or anything). one customer in particular is really trying my patience bc she won't confirm one way or another whether she wants something AND she's trying to bring the price down. it's already discounted!!! i can't sell it for less than that!!!! im already losing lots of money on what i paid for it i cannot bring it down even further. marketplace used to be fun (like. earlier this week) but now people aren't showing up on time or at all and i'm losing day after day after day to sitting in my living room looking out the window in preparation for someone arriving 30-45 minutes late (side note: i wish many lovely days for the person who arrived not only on time today, but early and still in my window of availability!!!! that was really nice and so much more refreshing compared to many late people lately) and now that i'm out of direct financial crisis but don't feel the motivation to recreationally spend, i feel now like all of this is kind of a chore. it's 11 days into August now and i feel like I made good use of 2.5 days of it. it's a third through the month and i feel like i've wasted most of it online trying to sell sell sell. i don't want to lose the end of the summer like this. Then again what kind of end of summer is it? We've had a few nice weather days, but most of August has been overcast and/or rainy. Not exactly going out weather. God, this sucks. Dull April, May, June weather. Beautiful July weather. Dull August. Then back into autumn. Is this where we're at now? One beautiful and warm month a year? This is the worst year for weather I think I've ever seen, and considering I spent most of the year looking forward to a bit of sun as my main thing to look forward to, this feels kind of sad. I guess I have to get used to going for walks again when it's foggy and rainy, like I did back in May and June. Maybe I'll even take up going to the mall again. I haven't been to the mall in over a month. I don't know what I'd do there, even. anyway i feel a bit better now and less stressed so i guess typing this had some benefit after all. i have a journal, i don't know why i couldn't say all this there, though i did write about some of it. i guess it's easier for me to be a yapper when i'm online. there's just something different about making my inside thoughts into outside thoughts

[ofthehands]

Had the idea of a TCM vampire AU stuck in my head for quite some time now, and while I've got a fic blocked out for it and will probably draw some sketches for it soon, I wanna work on other stuff at the moment, so under the read more is a collection of ideas I've had for it that I'm throwing into the nether.

Sawyer Colony

Grandpa-

Literal 1000 year old vampire

Supposedly super powerful (younger Sawyers hype him up so much)

Not very active (for now)

Passes on vampirism to other Sawyers either genetically or by biting them "when the time is right"

Nubbins-

Born human, turned by Grandpa when he was pretty young bc he fell off the roof of their house and almost died

Super proud of this fact ("I'm g-grandpa's favorite!")

Survives getting hit by truck bc vehicular manslaughter can't really kill a vampire lol

Chop Top-

Born human as well, turned by Grandpa before he went to Vietnam "just in case"

Good call, he took a swinging mace straight to the forehead, would have died if not turned

Really enjoys taking part in human life/ music/ just hanging out with humans he doesn't plan to eat. Nubbins will do it with him, but isn't really social otherwise.

Drayton-

Hasn't actually been turned as of the start of story

Incredibly salty about this fact, is a dick to brothers in part bc of this, and is way meaner when he's been worrying about his own mortality/ potentially never getting turned

Started selling human meat as a side hustle to get rid of all the bodies his vampire brothers brought home.

Very anti-social and disconnected from his humanity despite being a human much longer than his brothers.

Bubba -

Only Sawyer brother born a vampire

Was his parents' pride and joy bc of this.

Parents didn't leave, ended up killed. Long story lol

Really wants to socialize with humans/ the outside world, but brothers have convinced him he can't.

Does self-expression (masks + little outfits + makeup + hair), listening to radio, and watching movies to simulate interaction he craves.

Vampire Hunters

Lefty-

Usual obsessive Lefty things.

Got fired from job bc he was constantly pursing vampires.

Only person who believed Sally when she reported vampires killed her friends.

Dying of heatstroke at all times bc he wears a turtleneck everywhere

more scared of being bitten/ turned than he is of dying (fairly confident vampires don't have souls/ can't go to heaven, and so being bitten = L + Ratio + ruined soul + no place in God's kingdom)

Stretch-

Got dragged into this the usual way (though a little different)

Overall the most successful hunter. (Don't worry about that lol)

Confident she can bring an end to the vampire colony and avenge those they've lost.

Only vampire hunter to actually work with all the other hunters at some point. (Don't worry about that either)

LG-

Stretch's emotional support

Has no idea how tf to deal with vampires

Beats the shit out of them in bat form with a stop sign stolen from their lair (not effective but kind of funny to watch)

Mad as hell at Lefty for dragging them into this

Sally-

In psych hospital after talking about vampires killing her friends/ brother

Gets out of hospital after accepting the "truth" that vampires aren't real.

Trying to live her best life when dragged back into vampire nonsense by Lefty.

Has a service dog named Leo who helps with mental health symptoms and later with smelling/detecting vampire bats (they're stealthy little bastards)

Determined to avenge brother/ get her uncle out of the huge mess he's made

Other notes

Been working on vampire lore and making sure it all adds up. Currently they can turn into bats bc that's fun, and only the very old/ powerful vampires like Grandpa are weak to sunlight. Also a bite anywhere on the body can turn someone if they're not killed, so the Sawyers mostly cut people and lap up the blood, kind of like real vampire bats.

Also Franklin isn't on either list but he's going to be uuhhhh involved so to speak

[tobiasdrake]

We aren't quite done here yet, despite everything. One last push.

Yakou hiding the photo doesn't necessarily mean that he didn't want it found. It could mean he didn't want it easily found. As in, by anyone but the crack team of pro investigators he works with.

Oh. Oh, shit. At the last possible second we've looped back around to, "Okay, but how does Huesca's vengeful espionage bro relate to all of this?"

The timing was pretty suspect but it got lost in all the shuffle. The extensive knowledge of the lab's inner workings required to make this all happening is similarly suspicious.

I figured Yakou maybe used to work here or Photo Lady worked here or something, but that's all speculation. There may be real answers to be found here.

If the Labyrinth doesn't want us probing deeper then that means there is deeper to probe.

I figured we were setting something up for next chapter but sure, we can do this now! The mysterious Photo Lady, Huesca's co-conspirator, all of it.

The mastermind would be Huesca's old espionage pal. They were selling company secrets together for five years. Then, six months ago, Huesca said he wanted out, infuriating his partner. He had to shut himself in for his own safety.

We don't know many people at the company so the list of suspects is not vast. Yomi seems unlikely on account of his ultra-righteous personality. Doesn't seem like the type of guy to be selling company secrets. But that doesn't necessarily prove he didn't.

Makoto's only been here for three years so he's out.

Robot Researcher is the most suspicious of the bunch, simply because of his visceral hatred of Huesca and gleeful grave-dancing. But it could as easily be someone we've never met. Maybe even Photo Lady, who knows.

He could only get it from a binder in the storage closet. That closet was locked with a key only Yomi could access. In theory. It also looks like an old office so there's a possibility that whoever used to work in there might have had the key. But that's speculation.

So far as we know for sure, Yomi is the only person who can go in and out of that office. If Huesca's co-conspirator mailed that map to Yakou or something, then it can only be Yomi.

...and if Yomi was selling company secrets alongside Huesca, then that explains why Huesca didn't feel safe having Peacekeepers escort him around. Choosing instead for his own deathtrap tunnel, and to have other scientists bring him food and supplies. He even made them check the boxes to ensure nobody was hiding inside, waiting to jump out and kill him.

Weird request. Seems paranoid. But not if there was a real possibility that Yomi might hide Peacekeepers inside while the boxes were being loaded.

Makoto suggested the traps were a deterrent, but I thought that was weird. How would they deter people who don't know they're there? But the Peacekeepers knew about the traps. If Huesca was beefing with Yomi then... a lot of things make sense, actually.

Yeah. This makes an alarming amount of sense.

Yomi is Anonymous. Yomi's been selling company secrets with Huesca for five years. When Huesca cut things off and secluded himself in his lab, he was hiding from Yomi.

This. Does sound like something Yomi would write. Fuck.

Yomi isn't Stopped Clock right. Yomi sent Yakou the floor plan and let him in. This is his checkmate. Use Yakou to kill Huesca and then swoop in for retaliation and eliminate Nocturnal Detective Agency. Game over.

I knew we were going to have to throw down with Yomi eventually but I wasn't expecting it so soon. I guess in a roundabout way, Yakou did what I asked. He went out and got himself killed so we can chain-kill our way to Yomi.

I don't think we'll be able to reap Yomi's soul here, though. The Labyrinth is already collapsing because we got the guy. If Yomi didn't participate in the murder itself then he's off the hook. That's how it worked with Servan.

I know, right!? Fuck this guy. I want to Halara him so bad right now. Drown him in the river where he blew up our first sub.

He's right. He's not the target of our Mystery so he's off the hook. Even if we stabbed him, he's just a projection of Yomi, not the real one. So it wouldn't matter. Only Yakou's soul was drawn into this place.

So it doesn't matter to the case. It only matters to us, because we can take this knowledge back with us to the real world.

The answer to my combo-chain hypothesis from way early on is no, the Labyrinth doesn't work like that.

I mean. That's what I hear every time you speak but I didn't expect you to say it out loud like that.

Okay but how tho. I didn't get the impression that Yakou was acting reluctantly, under duress. This felt personal for him. What was his stake in all of this?

IT SURE IS CONVENIENT THAT WE HAVE THE ONE PERSON WHO CAN KEEP THEIR MEMORIES THIS TIME AROUND, ISN'T IT!?!? @_@

Okay. Well. Once we get back to the real world we can--

Die. Once we get back we can DIE. Fuck, I forgot that this was happening.

[hamliet]

If you don't mind sharing your opinion, what are your thoughts on the dynamic between Aemond and Lucerys? Do you think Aemond truly hated Lucerys or did the former realize that he did not hate the latter as much as he assumed after Lucerys' death?

I think Aemond projects his inadequacy onto Lucerys and is jealous. Their relationship parallels Alicent and Rhaenyra's, and deliberately so.

Let's start by talking about Aemond's grudge against Lucerys. I'll say two things: firstly, Aemond didn't deserve to lose an eye. Secondly, Lucerys is not truly at fault.

Aemond claiming Vhagar so soon after Laena's death was bad form, sure, but it's also typical ten year old behavior. I'm sorry, but a ten year old does not understand the complexity and nuance of grief or the idea that there is a time and a place for things, and that was absolutely Not It. You can get into whether or not his parents should have taught him this, but the reality is that claiming Vhagar is not an unforgiveable sin but instead a child's foolishness.

And that said, you can see why Laena's daughters and Rhaenyra's sons (again, in the books, Rhaenyra and Laena were romantically involved, so she was very close with Rhaenyra's sons) would see it as rubbing salt in the wound. Even though Baela and Rhaena aren't as involved in the books, yeah, it comes across as hurtful, even cruel, even if Aemond had no cruel intentions. Of course they were furious and frankly, would have been justified to never forgive.

But you just said Aemond wasn't unforgivable! To the audience and adults, yes. For the kids, well, not forgiving for personal hurts is their choice, but whatever they could've chosen, it doesn't mean that Aemond was some irredeemable monster.

So then let's go to Luke. Luke is even younger than Aemond. In the show, Aemond picks up a rock and starts using it to hit Jacaerys' head.

Aeeemooooonnnnnd you do realize that can kill someone, right? Well, to be fair, Aemond doesn't, because as a kid he doesn't fully grasp death's finality. Still, it imo justifies Luke and Jace defending themselves with violence, and doesn't put them on a lower moral tier.

When it comes to the eye, Luke also doesn't fully understand what that means, how that's a permanent disability, how no kid involved deserved a permanent punishment for what happened between them there. Like he's six years old. You think a six year old can comprehend what that means?

This is why Alicent's "an eye for an eye!" is so effed up. It reflects her understanding of fairness, but what Aemond needed in that moment wasn't revenge, but love and comfort. That whole scene had nothing to do with Aemond or Luke and everything to do with Alicent's self-despair at her powerlessness projected as envy of Rhaenyra.

So. That at last brings me back to Aemond's feelings for Luke. It's not hatred exactly, but imo the same as Alicent vs. Rhaenyra: envy. Rhaenyra protected Luke at the expense of her own wellbeing. Now, Alicent wasn't there when Aemond lost his eyes, so by no means am I judging her, but even when she found out it was more about how to make them hurt instead of how to make Aemond feel better.

I think Alicent loved her kids, but how she treats her children is a major flaw especially when compared to Rhaenyra's treatment of her kids. But, also? Rhaenyra's sons were born of love. Alicent's were born of--well, duty is a nice word, but by today's standards, we'd call it assault. This doesn't mean they're bad kids or that Alicent hated them (she. loves. them.).

But, Alicent's understanding of love is interwoven with power and the idea that love seeks power for the beloved first and foremost.

Alicent wants to be loved unconditionally, like every human alive. But she never has been. Her husband kind of loves her, but he doesn't know her or respect her in the same way as he did Aemma. Her father claims to love her, but uses her like a pawn and sells her into marriage. The show's depiction of her bond with Rhaenyra as a kind of puppy love ties beautifully into this as well: she experienced it, only to have it broken by the expectations of a society that says "can't let this exist."

So, Alicent's husband shows his flaws in love by not giving her power and by neglecting their kids. This hurts her. Her father shows his love by making her queen. When it comes to her kids, giving them power is the only way she feels she can express love. But it's as lacking when she does it as it was when her father did it.

I do think Aemond was jealous of Rhaenyra's prioritization of all her kids--including stepkids. I think he projected his feelings in inadequacy onto Luke. He was the second son. He wasn't loved by the people like Daeron or Helaena, or in line for the throne like Aegon. His biggest triumph--claiming Vhagar--was overshadowed by the fact that he lost an eye that same day.

Lucerys is also a second son. Not only that, but he's a bastard, and yet he was loved by his biological father, Harwin, his legal father, Laenor, and his stepfather, Daemon. Meanwhile Viserys, frankly, doesn't give a damn about Aemond or any of Alicent's kids.

But Aemond is the legitimate one. Aemond, if things go by the book, is entitled to things Luke has. Why doesn't he have love or belonging, then? It's the same "but I've done it the right way, so why am I not the one being rewarded with happiness?" tragedy that is Alicent's relationship with Rhaenyra.

Maybe if Luke lost an eye, he'd feel what Aemond feels. Maybe that's the true equalizer (it's not).

Still, in the books, Aemond is going to let Lucerys go. But one girl taunts Aemond and implies he's weak for preferring to marry her sister over her, and this is what sets Aemond off on Vhagar to hunt down Luke.

In other words, it was never about hatred. It was always about Aemond projecting his own feelings of inadequacy.

[bwoahtastic]

Okay so I don't know if it's even remotely good, or worth your time. But I've going through the tags and I miss the Pagan gods AU, so I thought why not write something for it. I'm not really good at smut and it can definitely be improved, but I wanted to try and give it a go. So here is my submission for the Pagan gods AU. Also beware of the ship it's not the usual version we have of them. And beware of the mistake and and all, English isn't my first language and this is definitely not beta proofed.

When Max was brought to the temple as a sacrifice for their god, he didn't expect to be because he was a virgin. He heard of boys and girls being sacrificed each year after the winter solstice, to their god for protection. Some of them came back and the chief village looked always scared and the sacrifice was then brought to his house for an inspection.

If the inspection went well then the village was safe, if not the sacrifice was banned and immediately someone was sent to the sacred temple. It only happened twice with a boy named Nico, and everyone was avoiding talking about him except when the sacrifice ceremony was about to begin. Then the whole village talked about Nico and how he failled them all by being worthless. He didn't even get checked out by the chief. He was immediately kicked out of the village and no one heard of him since.

The other boy who was kicked out was George. And no one saw it coming. After all he succeeded and he even bragged about it saying the god really liked him. But as soon as he said it, plant were dying, the farmers couldn't grow anything, animals started to die, and soon the water was also tinted. So they turned to George and asked him again and again what did he do to let the god unleash his warth upon them. And without a response and seeing the situation getting worth he was kicked out.

Max did heard about George's futur as soon after his exclusion, everything went well oh so well. They even had enough food for a whole city and some farmer used the extra food to sell it to the near villages. One of their sons, Esteban, said he saw George in the near village and that people treated him like trash. They acused him of witchcraft as when he arrived nothing could grow. So it soon appeared that George was cursed. And not later after that, there was news that George was killed by a hungry villager and eaten. The hunger, and anger and madness taking over. The next week the said village was gone. Completely destroyed.

And so everyone was afraid to mess up with the god. So this is why Max didn't understand why he was the one choosen as a sacrifice this time. He couldn't care less about the whole deal, but also he didn't want to end up like Nico or worse like George. He never prayed to their god. His father Christian often did and never came back with good news from it. Only when he goes to the temple with Sebastian that he gets some luck.

Max was sometimes jealous of their relationship. He so wanted to be useful for his father that worked really hard for them. But he knew his craft was in hunting. And so he made it his mission to bring enough food for his father and his brother. Sebastian's craft was more into knitting. He created beautiful piece of clothing and offer them almost always to Mark, the blacksmith's son. He did share his creation with the rest of the villagers for free. And some said that his kindness will be his downfall, but Seb never saw it that way.

And when Mick, Esteban and Lance were going to other villagers to sell some of their products they always take some of Seb's crafted clothing to sell. Giving him the whole money they got of it, even if Seb always put a fight to refuse it, until they mention Max and Christian. And then reluctantly Seb agrees to take the money.

They aren't rich far from it, but at least they do make it work. And this is why Max is so afraid of being the sacrifice. Because if he fail in one way or another, his father and brother will be left alone and ostracized. There's no way they won't be the target of the rest of the villagers even if they seems to like them. They seemed to like George and look what happened to him and his family! His little brother Lando was taken to the deep end of the forest and no one saw him ever since. His father was spared but only because he promised the chief he would never ask for any help. And to prove it got to the extrem limit of the village. Living by himself and never speaking to anyone since.

Max doesn't want that for his family. So this is why he went to see Mark and Jenson. If the blacksmith son is a decent man he will take care of Sebastian and his father. And if Jenson is a friend like he pretend to be for Seb he will make sure that Seb and Christian are being taken care of no matter what will happen with Max.

Having their words that they would protect his family, Max was then sent to the temple with no explanation of what to do. The only thing he was told was to strip and wear the purple Toga he will see in the temple.

He didn't believe it at first because purple is the color of royalty and expensive but as soon as he saw the toga, he had to believe it. So he stiped, wore the toga in a clumsy way. He couldn't be faulted he never wore one before and waited.

He's been waiting for a while and no sign of the god. He felt like he was played and started to strip back into his clothing when suddenly he heard someone coming. Half naked the top of the toga, dripping out of his shoulders Max looked with spoked eyes as the feared god approach.

He soon realise that this god is not like the ones he knows. His Skin isn't white like his, but darker. Not like charcoal, more like tree trunk. He never saw someone having this type of skin color before. His hair were falling as little waves of curls. Making his face look softer than he think a god should look like. His eyes were brown same color as honey. And then, then his body, muscles everywhere Max could see. Tatoos that complemented his skin and seemed like having a mind of their own. Max was especially draw towards the lion one on the chest.

And that's when he realised maybe this god is so feared because he isn't one of their gods. But a foreign god that had so much power that not even the king of the gods himself dared to come here. The god just looked at Max and raised an eyebrow. Something like amusment in his eyes. Max frown and looked back at the god in the eyes. He realized soon enough that he was taller than said god. Not by much but still taler than him and that put him in a better mood already. And so with this new bravado he spoke first when everyone told him to just shut up and do what the god said.

- You don't look like a god from here, what's your name?

The god scoff at that and smiled.

- You're the first one to speak to me before I have spoke. Aren't you afraid of me?

- No. I'm not.

Lies but he couldn't let that god look him down. No matter what his powers are he will not submit to him. Even if that means dying at least his family will have Jenson and Mark to protect them.

- I hate being lied to little lion.

- I'm not afraid. I'm angry.

-Angry? And why is that?

- Because we have to sacrifice someone every year around that time and we don't know what we have to do to appease you. I'm sure you're not from here. Why should we submit to you!?

- Are you sure you're doing the right thing here little lion? I'm a god after all. I could kill you.

- And I don't care. I never believed in gods anyway.

- You're an interesting one little lion.

- Stop calling me that.

- And why is that?

- It's weird. I don't even know if you'll kill me. And I don't know your name.

- Oh that. No one told you about your role?

- No. We never know.

- Hum well you're quite young I guess that's the reason.

- I'm 26.

- You don't look like it at all little lion.

Max frown harder and the god chuckled. Pleased to have this human with him. Maybe he will be entertaining this time.

- To your question my response is the following. Yes I'm a god you never heard of. And it's normal I had earn many names through time. And I was always there. You just never heard of me because your gods and goddesses took the space. As for what type of god I am, I'm a fertility god. With everything that implies.

Max looked at the god not understanding the last part. What does he means with everything that implies?

- What are you confused about little lion?

- What do you mean by everything that implies?

-Sex of course

- What??

Max suddenly felt very very exposed and tried to cover himself. He was stopped by the god tho.

- Tell me, what do you know about the ritual?

- Nothing I was never interested in it in the first place and also, I never expected this!

He's blushing and the god's eyes on him do not help. Said god was looking at the little lion and taking in everything let him go.

- I'm not into virgins in general and you clearly don't know what you were giving yourself up for. So little lion let's do this. We will talk and eat and then I will go and you can sleep in the temple. You will be under my protection no one will ever hurt you here. And tomorrow you will go back to you village and tell to the chief that he needs to tell everyone about the ritual, the goal of it and what it is important. I don't want to force myself into a sacrifice.

Max was extremely surprised by the god's words and seen him under a new light. Maybe this god wasn't terrible after all.

- There's no catch, I will really go back and there will be no consequences for the village?

- As long as you do what I say, then I promise to let the village alone until next year.

That is good. He could keep his family safe and is assured that the village won't have any problems. So. He agreed to it and soon enough he was carried to a bed room, with a lot of food. More than any he's ever eaten and drinks and music playing in the background. As it turns out the god was really charming. And without the divinity stuff he practically looked like a normal human. Maybe around his thirties. They did laugh a lot and shared their experiences. It wasnt comparable and Max got to learn so much with the god, he feared he annoyed him. But no, the god looked at him like he was genuinely interested in Max.

But around maybe two in the morning Max felt his eyes dropping and fell asleep on the god's tights. The god smiled and put his little lion in a better position on the bed before keeping watch over him.

When Max woke up he was alone the god wasn't there, put next to him were clothing expensive clothing and a little note.

"Thank you for this night little lion"

Max blushed and took the clothes in his arms not sure about wearing them, he chose not to and wear back his tiny tunic made by his big brother. He left the temple and was set to come back home but something bothered him.

- I don't even know his name.

"Lewis"

Startled Max looked around to see no one. But he tried out.

- L-Lewis?

"This is my name little lion. If you come back to the temple to pray, just call my name and I will be there for you"

He couldn't see Lewis but Max knew he was here. He just felt it. He smiled.

- Thank you Lewis.

When Max got back to the village, and Seb asked him what happened he just said that nothing happend and that he needed to talk to the chief.

A year later Max willingly went as a sacrifice this time, knowing what he was into. And he never regret it especially not when he had Lewis whimpering under him, kissing him and urging him to go deeper and faster. When they finally touched completion, and Max felt himself dying a little he thought that would have been a shame because Lewis looked incredible when reaching the skies. Max marked Lewis' skin with kisses and bites and his hand went slowly resting on Lewis' belly.

- My little lion.

- My beautiful god.

They smiled at each other and cuddled for the whole night. The next morning when asked if Max would like to spend the rest of his life with Lewis and their child, Max didn't hesitate and agreed. Lewis blessed the village with eternal fertility and Max got to be an immortal god himself. He didn't even bother about his title, he needed to be there for his husband now and their little one.

[okinawa-division]

It’s just that Japan has turned around into the midsummer —The perfect time to enjoy a beach trip for most people.

Once a certain jet-black car has reached its destination at one of the best hot-spots being reviewed in Okinawa, the boy with reddish hair has been spotted stepping out of the car …with a number of boxes in his arms. 

The seashell chimes hanging above the bar’s doors let out their lovely rattling sound as he gets inside.

“Good afternoon, mister. Are you perhaps Mr. Young of Eagle’s Nest? I’m Yuuya Kanata from Nara division. I’m here today to relay the birthday presents from my team.”

“This box is my gift. They may look all yummy but they are in fact scented candles I found nice. If by any chance, I think they will make good decorations to your bar at nighttime. Their smells are quite something too. This one has a vanilla scent, this one is strawberry milkshake, this one is butter cream, and many more —Well, they all smell like desserts in my opinion.”

And then he brings out a cooler box. 

“Okay, these ones are actually edible haha. They’re Monaka ice cream made from my teammate despite him telling me that making ice cream isn’t really his land of expertise. Even so, he expects something cool like ice cream would sell off rather well in summer and more particularly; maybe somewhere with a tropical climate like in Okinawa. And in case you want to be more creative with them, the empty shells (crispy wafer) are also available in the additional bag.”

“From Saigo-san are the beautifully painted ceramic plates and the last one is from Mr. Chishio —Hmm, the latter is like… the assistant of Saigo-san? Honestly, just how many jobs this guy has been carrying under that title. I don’t know why, but Mr. Chishio seems to know your place rather well even before we entered the DRB. He even asked me to tell you ‘Thank you for the trading’ and give me his own gift for you.”

Inside the box from the guy called Chishio are a collection of kitchen knives for various uses ...Just don’t get the wrong idea. Japanese are known for using different knives for each different role in the kitchen. So, the ultimate motive behind this gift is only for cooking …Definitely, not for murdering someone, maybe?

“And that’s all we’ve got for you today. Lastly, Happy Birthday Mr. Young —EH? YOU ALSO GOT A KITTY?” 

Seemingly distracted for a minute, the boy soon keeps his composure back from petting the kitten a couple of times. 

“…It’s a shame that I’ve to fetch some seafoods for my teammates before dinnertime, so let me say a good-bye for today. Nevertheless, hope you and your teammates all have a nice year!”

——— BONUS: about fifteen minutes ago

Chishio: We’ve already arrived at the bar so why don’t we order some liquor on our way home?

Yuuya: How do you forget that I’m still underage and alcohol seems likely to be downright sedative to me? What wicked humor you have today, Chishio-san. At least don’t convince your minor to be your drinking friend!

Chishio: *chuckles* Aren't you 19 this year, kid?

Rashaad smiled at the handful of gifts he had received from the Nara Division. Truthfully, he wasn't all that familiar with them, though he did know of them. It was one of the many perks of being a bartender; you knew just about everyone in Japan, whether they had revealed themselves or not. He made a mental note that he'd have to interact with the Nara team later on when he had some free time. Before he departed, the bar owner disappeared quickly into his bar before returning with a bottle of sake and some cups.

"For Chishio-san and Fuyugami-san," Rashaad stated, handing him the bottle and the cups. "Tell them to make sure it's thoroughly heated first."

Bidding the young teenager a farewell, Rashaad looked at the gifts he had received. Out of all of them, the candles were perhaps his favorite. Opening a random one, he quickly lit it with his lighter. In a matter of seconds, the entire bar seemed to smell like some fruity cereal, making Rashaad nod his head, enjoying the aroma.

Sitting down on one of the stools in his bar, he chose the vanilla and chocolate parfait as he began digging into it, eating it was his hands. He heard a small 'purr' from above and looked as it was his kitten, Coco, whom Rashaad had forgotten was on top of his head. Looking up at him, he placed a small thing of ice cream on one of the plates, Fuyugami-san had given him.

The feline, not needing to be told twice, dug into the sweet milky treat, using his small tongue to eat it. The scene made Rashaad grin; this birthday was truly shaping up to be, perhaps, his best upon leaving the States.

Thanks for the gift!