#we can all just pretend it’s one of those poetic posts

[linkspooky]

YUTA WAS ALWAYS SELFISH

I was originally going to make this post the week the big twist with Yuta in Gojo's body happened, because of the massive subversion that it was. It was the kind of twist that made you question if everything you ever knew about the character was wrong. Namely, Yuta one of the most empathic sorcerers we see in the series - the character who seems to lack the selfishness of the other sorcerers that make up jujutsu society. The kid who fights with the literal power of love.

Was Yuta a monster to begin with and we just didn't see?

So ignore the clickbaity tagline, Yuta is one of my favorite characters I'm not going to start calling him a terrible person. Rather that Yuta is dismissed as a soft kid or a wifeguy, when he's actually more cunning and cutthroat than anyone gives him credit for.

If a sorcerer is nothing more than a con-artist, then if the talent for trickery he displayed in the Sukuna fight is anything to go by Yuta is a true sorcerer down to his bones. Yuta turning Gojo's body into a puppet seems like a massive twist, and almost out of character for Yuta who was so devoted to Gojo.

His earlier fight in the culling game even seemed to hint that Yuta was too soft and he didn't truly have the attitude to fight someone like Ryomen Sukuna who was the embodiment of a calamity.

These panels seemed like a prophecy that Yuta was doomed to fall short against Sukuna. That he could never live up to his title as the next Satoru Gojo, because unlike Gojo and Sukuna who can stand on the top alone Yuta clings to his loved ones.

Sukuna got to where he is by rejecting love. Sukuna is Sukuna because he's never needed anyone to satisfy him. So how can Yuta who needs to be surrounded by his loved ones at all time to validate him and tell him it's okay for him to be alive even compete?

However, even in JJK zero Yuta's love is questioned on whether or not it's as selfless and "pure" as it seems. To begin with, Maki calls him out early on for attracting bullies by playing the victim a lot. He pretends to be a good and innocent person put upon by his circumstances and bullies when really he doesn't want to help himself. Instead of standing up to the bullies he's always let Rika protect him and then condemned her for being a monster. He's let Rika take the blame for all the destruction, even though Rika is HIS cursed technique, created by HIS emotions, and is protecting him.

Yuta doesn't make any attempt to try to learn to control Rika, or even work with her, he just shrivels away in fear.

"You act like a good person, but it feels fake..." Yuta has always adopted the facade of a good person. He seems soft, socially anxious and withdrawn, even after he gains confidence as a sorcerer those traits don't go away because they're a part of his outward persona. Jung divides the psyche into two parts, the persona a mask that faces the world the parts of yourself that come out in your social interaction with people and then there's the shadow your repressed personality.

Yuta's shadow is a literal monster that declares her love for him and then expresses that love by violently destroying everything around him.

Yes, Rika initially contained the soul of someone else but Rika the curse was created by his technique, her power corresponds to his emotions, she comes from his shadow, and even after the real Rika passes on the Shikigami RIKA still remains completely under Yuta's control. Rika is Yuta, the embodiment of his twisted definition of love that would curse his loved ones to keep them by his side forever because he can't live without them. All of Rika's insane possessiveness? That's Yuta's too. Rika's violent overprotectiveness? That's Yuta.

How poetic is it really that Yuta and Rika are so codependent that Yuta's shadow, the other half of his personality is literally RIKA. Yuta cannot exist without love, and without someone too love, he's so terrified of being alone that he cursed Rika and then turned her corpse into a puppet after death. He uses his loved one as a weapon to fight his enemies.

If you think about it for more than five minutes Yuta's cursed technique and Rika has some seriously messed up implications, but it's hard too because as messed up as Yuta's love is it's still genuine.

Love is a curse, but in 236 Nanami speculates that sometimes curses can save people too, just like how Jujutsu Sorcerers use curses to fight and protect others.

So Yuta's love is a screaming, raging, overprotective monster, but it's also what give shim the motivation to fight ofr others. Yuta's love is a curse, but curses can save people too.

Yuta on the other hand isn't aware of his own darker nature most of the time.

The big twist in Jujutsu kaisen Zero is that just as Maki accused him of from the beginning, Yuta was playing the victim all along. He acted like Rika cursed him with her dying breath, but Yuta was the one who cursed her because he couldn't bear to live without her.

However, even this apology is a bit telling of Yuta's self-centered nature. He immediately turns everything into his fault and starts beating himself up over it. He doesn't look at anyone else's perspectives or that other people had a role to play. He deliberately ignores Rika's feelings on the past few years, which Rika is quick to point out for him.

This scene has a parallel later where Yuta ultimately, only thinks about himself first and foremost. In spite of wanting so badly to be surrounded by his loved ones, it's more about him loving them, and less about their feelings for him.

After all he's completely willing to commit a double suicide with Rika to protect his friends, ignoring the fact Rika doesn't want him to pass on just yet, and Maki, Inumaki and Panda wouldn't want him to disappear either. This scene has a direct parallel a year later in the fight against Sukuna when Yuta gives up his body.

Maki almost breaks character from her usual culling game arcs stoicity to fight and argue with Yuta to stop him form doing this, and Rika who one year earlier told Yuta to live a long life so she wouldn't have to see him on the other side so soon is reduced to screaming and sobbing while holding his dead body.

Yuta loves people, or at least he feels an intense amount of love for people, but he can be as self-centered as the other sorcerers we see in the story. Geto even points this out right away, that Yuta is selfish, that he's seeking self-affirmation first and foremost. He needs other people's approval, their love, to feel like he deserves to exist. He'll do anything to earn that love, and once he has it he'll do anything to protect it but it's ultimately for himself.

It manifests in Yuta's technique itself copy, which first and foremost requires Yuta to consume parts of his loved ones that can never be healed if he wants to keep their copied technique. Yuta gets stronger by literally eating his loved ones. We have canon confirmation that Yuta fed part of Inumaki's severed arm to Rika.

Yuta's cursed technique is to emulate the strengths of all of his loved ones copying them and making them a part of his oqn technique, because Yuta will take any shape and form in order to be loved. It's also the perfect technique for fighting as a part of a group, because someone like Sukuna will naturally assume that Yuta's technique STEALS instead of COPYING so he'll forget that the original still retains their technique.

Yuta's not only selfish and has a very selfish, overprotective love for others, but it's those exact qualities that make him an effective sorcerer strong in the area that Gojo is the weakest. Group coordination.

Gojo is in his element when he's alone, but Yuta is so codependent that he literally cannot exist unless other people are looking at him. His strength comes from the things he copies and takes from his friend, and he turned his loved one into a puppet to fight others. Is it really that surprising that this kid would willingly use Gojo's body as a weapon after death when that's literally what he did to Rika.

How telling is it that like Yuta learned that Rika was cursed by him, went so far to exorcise her spirit, and then after finally letting go after her spirit passed on he made a second Shikigami named Rika a few months later made out of the small remnants of cursed energy that Rika left behind as a gift after passing on. The dude is not over Rika, he's like, Geto and Gojo levels of not over Rika.

Yuta's cursed technique being the literal weaponization of his love and his loved ones makes him the best character for group coordination in the entire series. Yuta even adopts apsects of hakari's persona when making his plans against Sukuna since he decides to gamble at several key points in the plan.

Several of the key moments in the fight are all Yuta's plans, with some collaboration from Angel. He makes several bets too like Hakari would. The first being going to finish Kenjaku by himself and using both Todo and Takaba in conjunction to trick him. The second is the bet that he'd be able to make it back in time to rejoin the fight in case Higuruma's plan fail.

It was Yuta who let his own domain barrier down on purpose to let Sukuna think he had the victory so he would let his guard down and make it easy for Maki to ambush him. Something that also required perfect coordination between Yuta and Maki working in tandem with one another.

Yuta set up Hana to do one large jacob's ladder when Sukuna least expected it because he knew Sukuna would forget that his technique is COPY and not steal. He also made the biggest bluff which was leading Sukuna to believe that he fed Rika his last finger.

These aren't just good bluffs, they require near perfect coordination with your allies and taking several chances on them. Nobara might not have even woken up so the last finger / resonance Gambit was perhaps the biggest gamble. Maki and Yuta had to coordinate with each other well so Maki would be there when Yuta dropped the barrier. Yuta needed Takaba a relatively new and inexperienced sorcerer to survive against the threat that was Kenjaku, and he needed all of his allies to stay alive while he was prioritizing Kenjaku.

These are all plans Satoru Gojo would never have been able to pull off, because Gojo only ever relies on himself. If Yuta and Hakari had intervened in the Gojo and Sukuna fight then he would not have been able to go all out, whereas Yuta REQUIRES people collaborating with him in order TO GO ALL OUT.

This is Yuta. This is his strength. Yuta is nothing without love, so he takes on the forms of the people he loves and takes things from the people he loves in order to gain the power to protect him. Yuta copies everything from the people he loves, so is it really that much of a surprise that he'd become a monster just like Gojo.

In some ways, Geto and Yuuta were the same. Geto was too sincere. To someone like him, the reality that the world of sorcerers presented to him was just too cruel. ’…that in a world like this, I couldn’t be truly happy from the bottom of my heart.’ To live for the purpose of being yourself. And for that goal, Geto could only continue to pursue his twisted dream, drowning himself in the curse that lies in the gap between ideal and reality.

Love is a weapon for Yuta. Just like his curse technique can take any form, so does Yuta's love, and so does Yuta himself. Love always wins, and in order to do so Yuta will take any shape necessary, no matter how twisted.

Love is the worst curse of them all, and Yuta will become the worst monster of them all if it means protecting his love ones.

[volpestarks]

[spideysbruh]

short n sweet

a/n- just pretend okay

~

liked by tchalamet, melissabarrera and 4,615,777 others

y/n please please please tonight!!

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tryinyn DONT TELL ME HES IN THE MUSIC VIDEO OMFGGGGGG

florencepugh spicy!!

tchalamet best set ever all because of you

snoozeyn when timothee is nominated for an oscar for this >>>

timsgf it's a music video he can't get nominated. and it's a shitty one at that, he was the best part

snoozeyn aren't you like 60?

wallowsyn WAIT WAIT WAIT

@chalametupdates just tweeted- Timothée and Y/n behind the scenes of Y/ns new music video!

@ynscurtains replied- BEST MV EVERRR

@timmysgf replied- I wonder how he feels about his girlfriend sexualizing herself for streams

@horroryn replied- HE'S NOT GONNA DATE YOU STFU

liked by tchalamet, sabrinacarpenter and 6,177,388 others

y/n please please please!!! enjoy the video, bitches. the actor in this one is super sexy

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rachelzegler that actor is really good!

y/n ik I'm so glad he auditioned

tchalamet superrrrrr sexy

y/n wow full of yourself much?

tchalamet I was talking about you 😔

pleaseyn timmy as a crazy ass criminal is just too awesome

goodgracesyn "men suck" and whole time she's dating timmy LMAOO she's so real

liked by tchalamet, rachelzegler and 3,387,827 others

y/n short 'n' sweet is all yours tonight

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tchalamet and you're all mine every night

mystyn I CLAIM COINCIDENCE ALREADY

ynsheadphones im so curious ab what the love songs ab timmy sound like

rachelzegler my favorite album ever

liked by y/n

timyn his comment 💀💀 so down bad

y/n just posted a story!

caption- damn maybe he should've released an album

liked by y/n, kidcudi and 6,716,773 others

tchalamet this beautiful girls album released today. bed chem is objectively my favorite, also juno.

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supergraphicyn juno omg he's a freak

shortyn LISTEN TO GOOD GRACES AND LEARNNNNNN

y/n who's the cute guy in the white jacket- oh wait he's sitting next to me rn nvm LOL

tchalamet liked

daylightyn bed chem.. lucky girl

tchalamet just posted a story!

caption- date night 😍😍

liked by haileybieber, tchalamet, madisonbeer and 5,717,888 others

y/n so.. what's everyone's favorite ?

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exesyn WHO MADE YOU WRITE DUMB AND POETIC

ynsdune BRO ITS SHAWN I SWEAR

tchalamet how does it feel to be this generations Shakespeare?

y/n liked

sabrinacarpenter I wish I made this wtf

y/n you've got it in you!!!

@companyyn just tweeted- WHOS THE CUTE BOY IN THE WHITE JACKET BITCH WHICH ONE

@beetleyn replied- also what fucking accent is she talking ab

@yn replied- idfk I needed a rhyme 🤷🏽‍♀️

@byeyn replied- HELLO!?!??! HEY GIRL

@infiniteyn replied- she's so fucking funny help

@laurieslaurence replied- he speaks french too so maybe that's what !!

@celebnews just tweeted- weeks after her new album released, Y/n L/n is seen happily with her boyfriend Timothée Chalamet. He was taking several pictures of her on a disposable camera. They stopped to say hi to fans and were apparently very kind and interactive.

@beliebyn replied- the way you started that scared the SHIT out of me omg never do that again celebnews

@comearoundyn replied- likely thing for them to do

@lovelyyn replied to @comearoundyn- what does your @ mean 😭😭😭😭

@modernyn replied- and we'll probably never see those pictures he took 💔💔

@mariasyn replied- ON TOP OF THE CHARTS AND LIVING HER BEST LIFE

liked by tchalamet, haileesteinfeld and 7,726,277 others

y/n to celebrate one month and all the love yall have given me, i wanted to release two other songs that i wrote after i finished the album. hope you enjoy!

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povyn BUSY WOMAN IS POP PERFECTION

paulsoneandonly oh goddd here we go, more shitty music 🙄

sweetyn I'm still not over coincidence girl WHO would do that to you

timsgf slim pickings is a crazy song to write when your bf is timothée

shortnyn can you shut the fuck up and get out of her comments for ONCE

liked by tchalamet

ynslipgloss I DIDNT WANT YOUR BITCH ASS ANYWAY🗣🗣 🎶

liked by y/n, florencepugh and 5,727,827 others

tchalamet my girl is on top of the world

comments on this post have been limited

y/n not us being goofy 🤣🤣

florencepugh my bestest friends !!

liked by rachelzegler, tchalamet and 4,817,132 others

y/n i am so grateful i could cry 💕💕✨️

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rachelzegler you deserve it all and more my lovely

tchalamet forever proud of you pretty girl

bearyn remember when she was excited over her getting 100k views on her video 🥺😭😭 and now she's getting MILLIONS

ynsucks all thanks to her boyfriend

fuxkyn is she serious w this shit, she uses timmy for likes???

amyyn he posts her all the time too, so now what?

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y/n vmas 😳😳😳

comments on this post have been limited

tchalamet i love you w so much of my heart that none is left to protest

y/n are you shakespeare

tchalamet nah i just made it up right now

liked by tchalamet, yourfriend and 7,727,266 others

y/n if you think they're looking at you... they're looking at me. happy anniversary my love 🥰💕💕

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rachelzegler IM DEADDDDD

tchalamet happy anniversary my angel girl

timmysgf rude asl

laurieslaurence istg its the same person behind these accounts

timsgf what no

ynswaterbottle LMAOOOOOOOOO

lightupyn her old lyrics 🥺🥺😭😭

liked by y/n, zendaya and 8,277,265 others

tchalamet i ❤️ my talented girlfriend

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horroryn HE SAID FUCK ALL YOU HATERSSSS AHHH YALL MAD

y/n why not uponeth me?

tchalamet liked

bedchemyn BYEEEE

tomholland2013 we need a double date soon!

modernyn MY PARENTSS

y/n I love you my darling boy

*

[enduringmoth]

thoughts on marvin's abuse, care's existence and paul's transness

taking a break from my usual bg3 posting to talk a little bit about my newer hyperfixation through the lens of queer allegory

necessary author's note: i am an afab transmasculine nonbinary person. obviously, while i do believe my transness does lend my opinion authenticity, at the same time, being trans myself does not mean i can't be transphobic -- so if any of the contents of this post set off alarm bells, please tell me.

trigger & content warnings: child abuse, kidnapping, torture, general petscop badness. obvious spoilers for petscop in its entirety, as well as references to the recent youtube deepdive by nexpo.

TL;DR -- perpetuating the idea that someone can force someone else to be a different gender than they are is harmful to trans people. however, all things involve considerable nuance. to pretend that marvin's actions could not have influenced paul's sense of self in the slightest discredits paul's lived experiences, and i believe a more trauma-informed dialogue about paul could be worth exploring as a community.

my preferred theory explaining petscop is that marvin tried to make care more like lina through abuse and "failed". after this, care would eventually end up in lina's home, and transition to paul.

(simply to make all of this less confusing, i'm going to call paul pretransition "care", though i will avoid pronouns. this is not me trying to invalidate paul, it's just so i don't have to keep saying "paul before he transitioned" or similar phrases.)

it is not a result of marvin's "failure" that care transitioned to paul. but i do believe there is a link between paul's perceptions of self and the trauma he endured pretransition -- and discussing these things gives us a deeper understanding of paul and his history.

obviously there is no "canon" answer to petscop. but im seeing this theory discussed a lot within the tags, and i personally agree with it -- i just feel some of those who are saying we cannot consider marvin's actions are not necessarily accurate, either.

what i am positing is that while marvin certainly did not make paul trans and i would never claim that he did, we understand that marvin's abuse of care -- his cruelty towards care, his warping of care's perception of appearance and self-worth -- is certainly a factor in how paul must see himself.

marvin's treatment of care was poor enough that paul struggles to recall that time of his life. he thinks they are different people -- and in a way, they certainly are (and i've seen DID theories for them which i also enjoy because of this) -- and has clearly repressed what it meant to be marvin's child.

marvin locked care in a basement for six months. that is no small amount of time, and it likely had no small amount of affect on paul. we can assume based on the implications of some school scenes that marvin was trying to convince care to be more like lina during this time. care escaped, and returned home -- though eventually, we know from belle's dialogue that paul would find his way to lina.

"do you remember the day you were born?"

paul's "birth" occurred after marvin's abuse, and though it was not a result of it, there is something almost poetic about following the thread of paul's life from care to his authentic self that plays as a foil to the heinous rebirthing practiced by marvin and rainer.

contrasted with what happened to belle (and seemingly others), paul chose (a form of) rebirth -- transition. marvin tried to make lina be reborn through care. instead, care resisted -- and he would eventually become paul, and that strikes me as so narratively compelling. it's not to spite marvin and please don't think i'm saying that, as care was naturally always paul -- it is simply self-discovery at its most raw and beautiful, and i love it.

the above is why i love petscop as a queer allegory. taking ownership of one's future and selfhood, even when others are trying to tell you who to be.

and that's why i think saying marvin made his afab child transition in rejection of martin's quest for lina -- or that marvin tried to make his amab child transition to care/lina, as nexpo posited -- is so wrong, and harmful.

yet, paul's trauma is real. it happened. and it's a part of him that should be able to be discussed for what it is.

as someone with extensive trauma history, i can tell you that my gender expression and personal identity are in some way connected to pieces of trauma, because those pieces are part of me. i am not trans because of my trauma, but my gender and my trauma are parts of me at the same time -- i am not each of my pieces, but a sum of my whole.

the point i'm trying to make here is that while i think nexpo genuinely missed the mark here with this whole "care never existed, marvin tried to make paul a girl" thing, i do think there needs to be room for a trauma-informed discussion around paul.

i hope that all made sense. if any of this is harmful/transphobic, please let me know. i genuinely love this game and i think it's so fascinating to discuss. /gen

[eff-plays]

But Astarion does seem to feel guilt/remorse when meeting the 7k spawns… idk it feels sometimes he does feel guilt and sometimes he’s just heartless.,

If this is in response to this post I made, then that post was in response to this and also some other fandom bullshit.

So I'm not saying Astarion doesn't feel remorse ever, but highlighting that at the core of his being, he is deeply selfish and self-serving, which a lot of fandom seems to either excuse away, or pretend is super good actually.

Here's the thing. Astarion does feel remorse ... in the Spawn ending. And obviously he feels no remorse in the Ascendant ending. So what happens with reglier ol' Asty? Well, he's not letting himself feel remorse. Because he's still not ready for it. He's still afraid of it. And like, yes! That's a totally logical thing for his character to do in that moment.

My problem is what people do next, and it's that they assume that his being this fucked up is actually an excuse to be a shithead to his victims and to others. That we should extend sympathy only to him and not to the people he's hurt.

"Well he was forced into it!" And? If I was forced into hurting someone else for my own survival, I'd still feel bad for hurting them? Most people would. I'm not saying Astarion doesn't, but that is distinctly how he acts. Which makes sense, self-defense mechanism etc etc. And stans agree that yes, he does supposedly feel guilt but he can't express it. So why do they excuse it when he instead chooses cruelty?

Again, I'm not making a moral judgment on him, he's a fictional character. I think what he does is (generally, I agree the reaction to the kids vs Sebastian is a bit odd) logical and makes sense for what he is. But pointing out those flaws of his, that were written like that on purpose, that are acknowledged flaws both in- and out-of-universe, doesn't make someone "gross" or a bad person. People disliking Astarion for his bad traits aren't automatically bad people who just don't get him.

He's a dick! He's written to be a dick! It's fine if people don't vibe with it or joke about killing him or do outright kill him! Will they miss out? Yes! But that's their perogative. People not liking Astarion, or hell, just doing something as innocuous as pointing out that he's kind of a huge asshole, are not uwu missing the point or being "gross" or whatever. They are acknowledging a fundamental and undisputable part of his character.

You can't on one hand wax poetic about how complex he is and how he lashes out because he's in such deep pain, and then take issue with people who point out how he lashes out and how it hurts others when he does so.

Speaking of, the thing about his reaction to the spawn kids? And how he supposedly feels bad but can't express it? He's all about killing them again! He wants to kill them! And when does he express remorse over both this wish and his actions toward them when he first victimized them? In the Spawn ending. The one that requires you to tell him no. Don't do that shit. It's bad. What you want is bad for you and for everyone else, even if it makes sense why you want it.

As a friend pointed out, it is kind of wild to see how life imitates art. In order for Astarion to get better, you need to acknowledge and push back against his cruelty and challenge his view of the world. That includes challenging his shitty coping mechanisms and reactions to things. And yet, it seems some people can't even do that.

You can acknowledge the complexities of his writing without using it as a cudgel against any and all criticism. And in particular, you can sympathize with him without attacking anyone who doesn't have the same level of sympathy, for usually quite understandable reasons.

Like I keep saying. Just because you understand how he acts doesn't make it somehow correct!

Anyway, sorry about that. I just had some thots because my brain is so big and full of worms.

[silly-little-soul]

SDV Highschool AU

A/N - in celebration of my graduation today!!

Very rushed and not formatted properly cause I’m at prom rn and writing this on my phone I’ll fix it later but like i wanted to post sth for the occassion

-

Summary: sdv highschool au, the ones under the +++ are x reader

Characters: Harvey, Shane, Elliot, Haley (cause theyre my favs to write for)

Warnings: drug mention

~~~~~~~~~~~

HARVEY

- Big nerd

- He’s planning to study medicine so of course he puts accordingly much effort

- Awkward as fuck icl

- Everyone lowkey loves him cause he’s always really helpful

- Aka almost the entire class just copies his homework

- Lives off coffee in every life and scenario

- (One of the) best in class and beloved by the teachers but not annoying about it

- If y’all wanna act like there wasn’t any homework in front of the teacher cause no one did it (except him ofc bcs NERD) he’ll totally play along

- Which is probably why the whole reason it worked

- Some ppl def have a crush on him

- But he’s just so awkward and oblivious… I love him

- Also not rlly into the kind of dating that’s most common among teens? Does that make sense??

+++

- So for you, let’s say you’ve been his friend since forever, best friends perhaps

- He’s had a crush on you so long but has like no idea how to go about it

- And you think he’s not interested cause he has friendzoned you so hard multiple times before

- It was a panic reaction don’t blame him

- I can picture you coming together at sone school dance and it’s like really cliche

- I’ll make these longer later I’m sorry

-

SHANE

- stoner

- Like sorry but

- Maybe it’s my Connor Murphy obsession or maybe I’m right

- I’m basing this v much on mentally ill Shane ik that backstory only semi much works with a highschool setting but we dont rlly know abt pre mental illness shane so

- Generally not bad at school he just has intense down phases where he completely falls behind (relatable)

- Works at some fast food chain and hates it but yk money is money

- No one ever shows up for parent teacher talks bcs he doesnt want the school to know about his family and his family about school yk

- Quiet most of the time

- Mean when talked to

+++

- But also like he doesn’t rlly mean it with some people you just gotta po ker if he does for you and talk to him

- Good news: you’re very much an exception

- Phew

- I’m thinking forced project or something

- No actually I’m thinking one of you is the others dealer

- Probs starting as a kinda fwb thing that becomes serious

- There’s sm potential here icl

- I’m gonna rewrite all of this next week and get more into it

-

ELLIOT

- The weirdest kid in the grade but beloved by all

- Writes a lot, probably started a club that’s related to that somehow

- Wins a lot of those lil writing competitions schools do

- A romantic, hands out flowers or something to people on Valentine’s

- Like super mysterious and no one can tell if he does it on purpose or if it just kinda is like that

- Def has some ppl crushing on him

- Has been ppls secret admirer before

- Except it’s not rlly secret bcs who else would do allat

+++

- So when he falls for you it’s like that too

- You get mysterious letters and flowers from an admirer

- Except it’s not mysterious bcs Elliot everyone knows no one else does that!!!

- You pretend not to realize a while tho cause it’s sweet

- And then after a but you just give him a secret admirer letter back

- Even if it’s not quite as poetic as his

- He appreciates it sm cause it’s so rare people match his energy

- You’re couple goals but also lowkey make ppl sick with all your sap

-

HALEY

- Pretty popular

- She’s very confident and can be a bit brash so you might get the idea she’s a typical mean girl but she’s actually pretty sweet

- Especially with the girls

- You might get a comment about your messy makeup but best believe she’s fixing it up for you

- Girl in trouble? She’s right there without hesitation

- Has told so many of the guys off before for harassing girls or not taking a hint

- She’s a guardian angle ngl

- A whole bunch of people having a crush on her and it’s getting kinda rough

- If the person is respectful she’s really nice in rejecting them (or at least tries), she was mean about it like once and felt so bad after

- She knows she comes off as pretty harsh and it’s not always intentional yk

+++

- You probably meet through extra activities i forgot the name

- She gets a crush p quickly but like y’all wait till you rlly know you work as a duo before you dare ask her out

- Like you wanna have sth behind your question and what you say yk

- Okay i gotta stop writing but !!!!!! will fix this up and write more next week

- Also send requests or fandom talk please and thank you

[plethoraworldatlas]

They seemed to have deleted the post, but someone quoted James Somerton's Helluva Boss video, which started out ok but like many of his videos went off on messed up tangents, and it just so happened that the part that they quoted is the quote that made me and at least a few other people drop him. It was him waxing poetic about how all the "interesting radical gays" died during the AIDS crisis and the reason LGBT rights as a whole are under threat now is because "only boring gays lived and became assimilationists". There's so much wrong with his belief; Disgustingly turning those who died of AIDS into perfect martyrs, discounting all the LGBT artists who lived and kept making art (also a disgusting discounting of all the grieving and memorialization art they did), discounting all the "boring" gays who also died because it was a damn crisis, making the rise of Homophobia and Transphobia the fault of the community instead of the actual massive political organizations that have billions in resources and nearly a century of connections, etc.

It's just martyrization; "There was once a time where the community could have had all their rights and a perfect community, but sadly all the perfect radical gays died so now everything sucks; Maybe we can come close to that again, but only if we purge stop everyone who doesn't hold every single one of my beliefs is an "assimilationists". It's literally stripping those who died of their complex humanity for political points, and even worse to use them as a cudgel against people who just aren't seen as "gay enough"; It's also nearly the same level of historical revisionism that some TERFS do when they pretend that AIDS Era America was at all a better time for the community.

[weeklydrarryficrecs]

My Year in Review is Actually Just a Drarry Rec List (lol)

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

In the Shadow of Your Heart by lq_traintracks (lumosed_quill)

Summary

And thus began the very strange circumstance of their fake dating in public and real fucking in absolute secret. It was, with no comparison, the weirdest relationship Draco had ever been in – which was to say, it wasn't one. Rating: Explicit Word Count: 51881

Link to Fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12282198/chapters/27917463

My Thoughts: This is one of those fics that had me (hypothetically) screaming from my rooftop over how amazing it was. Draco’s engaging voice kept the story moving and made the fic immensely comforting. This story is a cup of hot chocolate for the mind: rich, indulgent, and soothing.

Header Art generated by Wombo Dream.

35 notes - Posted July 1, 2022

#4

A Pocket Full of Stones by waterwings

Summary:

A curse is spreading through the wizarding world, erasing memories of the war. Harry Potter is on the case! Where Draco is the DMLE’s most wanted dark wizard and Harry is the private investigator tasked with bringing him in. It goes as well as one might expect. Rating: Explicit Word Count: 67983

Link to Fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/36210718/chapters/90265783

My Thoughts: This fic is so beautifully written. The prose, at times, reads like a Greek epic, poetic and larger than life. Draco, a consummate Dark wizard, glides through the story, captivating Harry (and me). This version of Draco is fascinating and horribly beautiful. Draco and all the characters drew me more and more into the story. It was so hard saying goodbye to this world at the end of the fic. I hope everyone reads this story! 

Header Art generated by Wombo Dream.      

38 notes - Posted August 26, 2022

#3

Life Lessons by bixgirl1

Summary

On the cusp of a promotion, Harry needs a little help with his image. Enter Draco Malfoy — who doesn't really do that, Potter — to whip him into shape… and make him feel things he hasn't for a very long time.

Featuring: odd jobs, surprising chemistry, lots of accidental kissing, the Prophet living up to type, owls exhausted by the carrying of dirty letters, a secret no one can talk about, a merry band of Slytherins (none of whom really approve), and an enchanted mirror (who really, really does). Rating: Explicit Word Count: 68378 

Link to Fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19090108/chapters/45353227

My Thoughts: I absolutely loved the letters in this fic. Each letter had great pacing and captured the characters' voices so well. The "My Fair Lady" aspect and a fabulous Draco made the fic so much fun to read! Header Art generated by Wombo Dream.  

40 notes - Posted June 24, 2022

#2

Loverboys by corvuscrowned

Summary 

As post-war violence and tensions rise, it seems as if there’s no hope to unify the wizarding world. Except, maybe, a manufactured relationship between resident Saviour Harry Potter and known purveyor of the Dark Arts Draco Malfoy. (The fact that they detest each other is beside the point. But as Draco’s unrelenting mind games begin to wear him down, Harry has to remind himself that it’s all fake. The relationship is fake. The affection is fake. The pet names, the romance — even the engagement photos are fake. But there’s something in Draco’s kiss that might just be real. Word Count: 84196

Link to Fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35143108/chapters/87553033

My Notes: This fic has excellent pacing, and the growth of Harry and Draco's relationship is quite satisfying. I was particularly intrigued by this post-War world's social issues and dynamics. This fic has a good mix of politics, romance, and erotic elements that make it strong. 

40 notes - Posted January 21, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

What We Pretend We Can't See by gyzym

Summary:

Seven years out from the war, Harry learns the hard truth of old history: it’s never quite as far behind you as you thought. Word Count: 131086

Link to Fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9794657/chapters/21995357

My Thoughts: Oh my god, what a fantastic fic. I feel healed, refreshed, and reborn after reading it. Draco's dialog had me laughing alone in my room, and Harry's ruminations had me rethinking my life. This story's approach to adulting up (or more like watching your friends become adults while you're trying to figure things out) is truly gold.

115 notes - Posted June 10, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[heartstopperfireworks]

DAY 1!

Welcome to Day 1 of FireWorks Fest reveals! We’re so excited to share these works with you over the next four days. You can use this handy Masterlist to keep track of your reading progress and creator guesses. Without further ado, let’s let the sparks fly!

💫

a straight up hoax

Nick/Charlie, Tara/Darcy

Rated: NR  

Word Count: 7,572

Is it possible for two of the gayest people ever to pretend to be a straight couple for one night?

Charlie is roped into playing Darcy’s boyfriend during the company’s party where both her crush and his are attending together, since they are (supposedly) a couple. Neither of them is good at being straight so things don’t go as planned… but perhaps, that might be for the best.

💫

two can play this game (and win)

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T 

Word Count: 5,342

Charlie Spring is a Twitch streamer and Nick Nelson is a YouTuber, they meet, fall in love and... Well, they try to keep it a secret. They manage, for a while. And then they don't. It's totally not Nick's fault that that happens (it is).

💫

Friday Stagecoach Gold (and Blue)

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T 

Word Count: 6,481

Once a week, for a short but glorious window, Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring catch the same bus to work.

Or

Four times Nick and Charlie almost speak to each other, and one time they do.

This is a group-authored fic we worked on together over the course of an intense 48 hours. The process has been poetically described by one of the authors: "It’s like one of those conspiracy theory evidence boards with all the yarn except it's a gay bus romance."- [redacted]

Please have a listen to Nick and Charlie's incredible Spotify playlist of commute bangers.

Thank you frogcakes for the beta read and cheerleading ✨

💫

retriever? i hardly know her!

Nick/Charlie

Rated: G 

Word Count: 2,243

'Oh god, oh god, he’s wearing rainbow shoes. Is he gay, or just extremely unaware that gay people exist?'

So there’s this boy. Man?

Boy? Fellow? Gent?

Cute Park Guy™ is either a professional dog-walker or someone with a large, bumbling group of pets. This is probably his day job; he plays tug-of-war with leashes and chew toys and, from time to time, Nick’s heartstrings.

In which Charlie is always at the dog park with a group of dogs, Nick is there with Nellie, and they both pine after each other softly from across the field.

💫

the dominoes cascaded in a line

Nick/Charlie

Rated: T 

Word Count: 3,100

They studied together most nights, one of the study rooms in the uni library becoming their unspoken spot, and hung out most weekends. Over time, Charlie got to know her long-distance girlfriend, Tara, as well as her best friend, Sahar, who was at uni with them. She also had another best friend, an ever-elusive boy named Nick, who he’d yet to meet but was assured did exist.

Or, Nick and Charlie are part of the same friend group in uni but haven't actually met yet.

-

CREATORS: If your works were released today, please don't forget to update your posting date!

[emilylawsons]

Hi Kayli! Surprise self-rec time!🌷Pick 3 of your favorite things you’ve written and share them here, then put this in the inbox (anonymously or not) of your fellow writers to spread the positivity and help celebrate already written fics 💖

(if you've already gotten this from someone else, just link the post you answer in so I can check it out, please 🙏🏼)

Thanks, Ameera! I had to think about this one a lot. And honestly I thought it would be pretty much all Tessjoel fics, but I went back a reread a few of my Fringe things as well and found one that stood out.

Matter and Light — A short Fringe drabble set after 5x08. It’s probably my best introspective bittersweet angst work, and I should appreciate it more. Try to tap into that in future writing. I can read this and think “damn I wish everything I wrote was this coherent and poetic.”

I’m in the trees, I’m in the breeze — A Tess haunting Joel fic. One of my longer one-shots. It’s probably had the greatest response of anything I’ve written, and it’s canon compliant on top of being incredibly angsty.

Of Artists and Architects — My WIP. My baby. My precious child whom I have nurtured for over a year and haven’t abandoned no matter how many times I’ve wanted to. It’s admittedly not my best writing, but I’ve written 20 chapters, and that’s more than I’ve ever given to a fic in 14 years of writing. For those who don’t know: it’s my modern Tessjoel AU and it’s pretty much my personal playground. There are times I love it and times I wish I’d never started it. We have a rocky relationship, but I can’t pretend like I’ve not poured myself into it. And any time someone gives it love, I melt inside and want to make them my best friend.

Anyway, if anyone chooses to read these and ends up enjoying them, please please please tell me. Because I could really use the encouragement right now.

[anchorandrope]

I NEED YOUR SIBWAWC ANALYSIS IM BEGGING 😭😭😭

hi love,

okay, i wasn't planning to do this because i don't do analysis anymore (mainly because i suck at it) but since it wasn't the only ask i got, i'm going to try. obviously this is my interpretation, it doesn't mean that it's the only one etc etc.

Disclaimer: i took out the parts that are repeated. i will also add definitions of "obvious" things (so that non-native english speakers can better understand).

Context

first, before analysing the song, let's see what Louis had to say about it.

Written in the same few days as the last two songs. Dave [Gibson] turned up with this picture on his phone of the title ‘She is beauty we are world class’ it was written in the toilet mirror of a train. Felt like a weird place for such a poetic sentiment (Louis via twitter, Wednesday 16 November 2022)

Louis tweeted about all the songs on FITF on 16 November 2022 because there was a listening party for the album. If you check the order of the tweets you will see that he tweeted the songs in this order: [his top 3], high in california, the greatest, waoyf (x), btm (x), ftm, chicago, all this time, out of my system, headline (x), saturdays (x) (x) (x), silver tongues (x), sibwawc, common people (x), holding onto heartache, ttwlg. the same order as the album, only in the tweets he didn't talk about angels fly. so, we can deduce that sibwawc was written together with saturdays and silver tongues. these 3 songs were written by David Sneddon, Joseph Cross, Louis and Theo Hutchcraft and produced by Joseph himself.

On this song, She is Beauty We Are World Class, it’s a thought-provoking title I don’t, you know, I’ve got I’m not certain what it means to me I’ve got an idea but it’s one of those phrases that I think is open to interpretation. Now Dave Sneddon, who I wrote this with. Joe Cross and Theo as well, really mad story he got the train down to the to the writing camp and on the toilet… in the toilet on the train written on the mirror was “she is beauty” and then he got a picture of it and then below it in a slightly different colored pen so we can’t work out from the same person someone, looks like someone had finished it off and put “we are world class”. He just kind of came with his picture, he was like this is an interesting title and that’s where this song kind of came from and I kind of like that someone else wrote it. We don’t really necessarily know what it meant to them; we know what it means to us. That was that was an interesting moment I think this is where we said, “let’s really try and go all in on the dance-ier sound of things” because I kind of allude to it on like All This Time but like it’s not quite as like trancey as this is. Almost has that kind of DMA’s lift with it with the instrumental that comes in on the post chorus. This for whatever reason this is, like it’s my best mate’s favorite tune I do really like this song but I think, it’s another one of those songs it’s important for the record to give a different flavor yeah. (Louis via youtube - Tuesday 13 December 2022).

what we learn from this is that 1) the title DOES mean something to Louis, 2) his #bestmate loves the song *pretends to be shocked*, 3) he believes the song is important to the album in a lyrical and musical aspect 4) links the song to All This Time for its musical part (he said it on twitter too, he said att and sibwawc are tracey - we love this pair of sisters 😌).

I’ve always loved All This Time. Just feel like a feel good tune from the off. James had a great vision for this song, it also helps ‘she is beauty’ not sick out on its own @LlSTENlNG_PARTY (Louis via twitter, Wednesday 16 November 2022)

Title

For reference: beauty is a noun that means an attractive quality that gives pleasure to those who experience it or think about it, or a person who has this attractive quality (cambridge dictionary).

we know that louis believes that the title is divided into “she is beauty” on the one hand and “we are world class” on the other. here we have two subjects “she” and “we”. it's interesting, because if we want to talk about the beauty of a person who uses the “she” pronoun, it would be “she is beautiful” but, in this case, we are saying that “she” is THE beauty herself. then there is a “we” (2 or more people) who are not up to her standard or level of beauty. so, if “she” is the beauty herself and “we” are not at her standard, that means that “we” is not up to the beauty standard. that could be one interpretation, another could be that “she is beauty” is being used as an idiomatic expression where it's synonymous with “she is beautiful” and the “we” is the rest of the world. a phrase of love, contemplation and admiration. only a person truly blinded by love could claim that there is, in effect, one person who is above the beauty of the rest of the world. we can also think that “she” and “we” are replacing something. i mean that Louis uses the pronoun “she” to refer to a thing or person and the pronoun “we” to refer to things or people.

Verse 1

Conversation is currency

“currency” can be the money that is used in a particular country at a particular time or the state of being commonly known or accepted, or of being used in many places – according to the cambridge dictionary. so it could be “conversation is money” or “conversation is diffusion”. both cases make sense. Louis is a person who sometimes - literally - gets paid to talk. also, being a big-name international artist, it makes a lot of sense that he also says it in the form of “sometimes i have to talk to people who just want money”. and, of course, the conversation is diffusion, of what? information, facts, anecdotes, opinions, preferences, literally everything. in this interpretation, there is something that spreads as people speak out. i think Louis could be alluding to both meanings, but, personally, i think it speaks more to the fact that there is something that is spreading.

Shapes become a language

relating to the interpretations of the first sentence, if we keep talking about money, the shapes could respect numbers or mathematical symbols. if we talk about diffusion, we could say that there are shapes that are being related to each other and that take on meaning.

Square eyes and sunglasses

we could say that square eyes is an idiomatic expression used to refer to when a person consumes a lot of media, especially tv. (source: cambridge dictionary). sunglasses cover the eyes, so we could say that this person, who consumes a lot of media, wants to hide it. If we continue talking about money, we can say that there is someone who consumes or is inside the media who wants to hide and if we talk about diffusion, we can say that there is a group of people who receive a lot of information and that is why they decide not to take it all, either because they like it or because they cannot.

Finding faces in the trees

this clearly alludes to pareidolia. if we continue with the interpretation of money, we can say that there is someone who thinks they are finding their way out but clearly they are not. if we talk about diffusion, we can think that there are one or more people who see things that are not real.

Fabricated fairytales

this is a breaking point for me because up to this point the money interpretation (as i call it hehe) made sense but for me this lyric breaks with that. in the money interpretation, i imagined that Louis was talking about his situation with people who are higher up than him in terms of power. Louis could have been saying that there are people in the media who are trying to hide and escape of a situation (which we don't know, but we can intuit that it has to do with him, obviously), but this lyric makes me believe that he's not talking about people with more power, but with less. if the song is from Louis’ point of view, that means that louis SEES and IS AWARE of lies that are spread. it is hyper-ultra-super-mega cool that he said FAIRYTALES !!!! fairytales have a purpose and that is ✨pleasing young people✨ as know as ✨ Louis’ target audience✨

so far Louis is telling us that there are fabricated fairytales that are being diffusing to generate money, and that the square eyes consume them and on that basis hide what they don't want to see, and then find things where there aren't any. gotcha.

Bring a new world to life

discarding the money interpretation, we can say that this lyric means that someone or something is able to change the situation and bring a new world into reality.

Sit down, sit down in the space and time

this lyric is very abstract and complex to me. for me it speaks of a protest in a specific space and time where Louis is not going to leave until he is heard.

Chorus

She is beauty

and here comes the question… who the hell is “she”? she is the lies, dear. lies are beautiful, who are we going to fool? if most people would rather believe things they know deep down are false and deny reality than accept it. (note that it's not “they” it's “she” so it's a particular lie).

And we are world class (woah-oh-oh)

okay, but who the hell is “we”? the world, sweetheart. the whole world (generalising) prefers to live in lies.

Forever

this is something that has always been repeated (its a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy baby).

We'll let the feeling last

the world is going to let that feeling last as long as it can, until the lie is unsustainable.

Verse 2

Escape the inevitable

as i said, lies are a ticking time bomb as they all, sooner or later, come to light. so people will always try to escape the “bomb” but it's impossible.

Fade into light

here he talks about how dark lies can be as they fade into the light (truth).

Soak up the empathy

here Louis is asking one or more people to fucking empathise with him. to put themselves in his fucking shoes or imagine what he is going through.

'Cause I'm with you tonight

it doesn't matter if you fell for the lie, i'm with you

Are we one, or are we two?

do we think the same or do we think differently?

Are we me, or are we you?

are we looking at the situation from my point of view or from yours?

Has it been all this before?

Ii you have already seen this happen, why do you still not realise it?

Do you see what I see?

do you understand now?

Bridge

Surrounded by lights (X6)

Surrounded, surrounded

Surrounded, surrounded by-

this means two things to me: 1) he is surrounded by the truth because it's his fucking life and 2) Louis is always surrounded by cameras, tv studio lights, radios, interviews, etc. but more importantly, he's surrounded by our lights because the moment he sees the most lights is at the shows, thousands of phones with their torches on him.

special mention to Louis who put rainbow lights HIMSELF in his show during sibwawc since otb is not in the setlist (which is when he was literally surrounded by rainbow lights thanks to the fan project of the fans).

To conclude

the song talks, in MY opinion about closeting and its relationship with the general public and the fans. i'm not saying that Louis dedicated a song to antis saying that they fell for the lie because they are shit, no. i'm saying that the media induces these lies in our society and that the target audiences of the lie buy into them because they are innocent.

if you have finished reading this, i thank you for your time and hope you found my attempt at explanation helpful. i would like to read other analyses so if you have personal interpretations or know of other posts: send me an ask <3

[apdreadful]

hey, different anon, but i thought i'd chime in because your explanation about shady eddie kinda opened my eyes lololol

i think it's interesting how buck is surprised to find out that eddie and tommy have been hanging out etc. and how eddie waxes poetics about tommy in front of buck, using him as a babysitter when convenient (also admitting that marisol has been babysitting a bunch as well), talking about how much he clicked with tommy etc etc. like, i don't even think it's necessarily malicious on his part, and even besties can fuck up sometimes. but it once again shows to me that eddie and buck aren't anywhere near as close or codependent as buddie shippers pretend that they are.

in season 6, buck finds out that eddie has been having poker nights with other firefighter people all this time, having a whole circle of casual friends outside of the 118 and apparently making time to hang out with them regularly. and buck didn't know a Thing about it. you can blame bad writing, yes, but the consequence for the narrative and the audience is the same: it establishes the canon fact that actually, eddie deliberately does not share quite a bunch of stuff with buck.

and those are not the only instances. but we keep getting those hints that clearly communicate that buck and eddie actually don't talk as much as people think they do, or they actually don't hang out that often to realize when the other one is regularly doing a certain hobby lol. if i had a whole entire hobby with casual friends on the side, you bet my besties would absolutely know about it first. because we talk about our lives? especially when it's something i've been doing for months or years??

just thinking thoughts. and your explanation of shady eddie... yeah, honestly, now that you said it like that, it does feel a bit shady to some extent, and that for a very specific reason imo. it feels shady because the entire buddie narrative is this: "eddie knows buck like the back of his hands. he knows all his needs and wants. he will never and would never hurt him or be insensitive towards him because he loves him to his core and thus knows exactly how to treat him right".

and like.... sorry to say this but...... canon does not support that claim at all. when looking at canon, season 7 is the latest proof that, no, actually eddie very clearly isn't understanding buck at his very core even after years of knowing him lol. if any of buck's love interests would have been THAT insensitive towards buck's insecurities and abandonment issues, they'd have been ripped apart by now, just saying.

Anon,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post so thoughtfully!

I had forgotten some of the stuff you mentioned.

I have never shipped Buddie. For all of the reasons we have both stated and several others.

Buck being bisexual and maybe even having a crush on Eddie. Does not mean that Eddie has those same feelings. Or that he would even be a good boyfriend for Buck.

Regardless of how we (or anyone else) feel about their friendship. Buck values that friendship. And I think that matters a lot. A life long friendship is incredibly valuable.

[lebuc]

Breakfast of Champions, Pt. 2

* Damn storm. F'd up the neighborhood & my sleep last night...

And, now having to babysit my girl’s niece Lily while she goes shopping for her friend's baby shower instead of chilling in bed with me this late morning.  Life's sense of humor at its finest, i thought, ending the call with Maya.

Those Cheerios tasted like cardboard & the whisky did nothing for my feeling of dread. Breakfast of Champions, right?  Only today, it's all falling flat.

--

After Maya left, I trudged into the living room, where Lily was playing with her doll,  She looked up at me, all innocence and glee, so I mustered a smile.

"Hey, Lily. What do you want to do today?" I asked, cynicism in check, hopefully.

Her eyes lit up. "Uncle Thrall, let's play dress-up! I have a princess costume!"

Great - I get to be a pretend prince with a makeshift prince's costume to match, fumbling through my work shirts, spiraling toward a new life's low.

But I played along. We twirled, danced, frolicked in a world of make-believe, pretending everything was hunky-dory; my energy draining with every forced smile.

Hours passed, and exhaustion began to gnaw at me like a hungry rat. The tea party, make-believe adventures, and the godforsaken puppet show sapped nigh every ounce of vigor from these ol' bones.

Collapsing onto the couch, letting out a hopefully not too exasperated sigh, Lily sensed my mood and climbed onto the couch beside me, her little voice filled with empathy.

"Uncle Thrall, you look tired. Want to take a nap?" Ok, kid. A nap sounded like a goddamn dream right now. We dozed off on the couch, she & I.

For one fleeting moment, my grey clouds melted away, if only for a little while.

Life had thrown me a babysitting fastball - low and outside & i crushed it over the right field wall, tho' fatigued.  I knew one lady friend who'd be waiting in the dugout with champagne to pop corks over, later tho’.

So Maya returned, finding us asleep like some ambered family portrait.

Waking up gently, expressing her gratitude, i saw Lily rubbing her eyes, stretching with the innocence of a child. I couldn't help but crack a wan smile.

Life is not duplicative.

It's usually just a feckless S.O.B messing with your plans.

But sometimes, just sometimes, it throws you a curveball - strike that - a fastball, like i said, that you can handle. In such moments, even jaded fans can find glimpses of something approaching beauty.

Continuing my search for that elusive P.O.G. at rainbow's end, I'll look back on this day. Pretending with Lily gave me a bittersweet respite.

It doesn't make the struggle any easier, but reminds me that - along with a good nap - amidst all the folderol, there's still a sliver of something worth holding onto that doesn't include alcohol. ( poetic? well...) * 6/23 - lebuc -  Breakfast of Champions, Pt. 2 * Part one: https://lebuc.tumblr.com/post/716981799422656512/breakfast-of-champions-pt-1-life-is-not

[fourseasonsfigs]

Tom Ford Snowglobe

Something new for the blog - our first (but definitely not the last) snowglobe!

(Side note, turns out snowglobes are HARD to photograph! They pick up reflections off all the windows and lights in the room, so I took these two boys on several grand tours around the house in an effort to find a suitable space. You all deserve better than a plain drywall backdrop, so this here is the gift box for the SHL concertgoers, which I picked up on Xianyu)

The figures in this snowglobe are so delicately colored they look washed out in photographs, despite my best yet still clumsy photo-tweaking efforts. They are a slightly softer pastel take on these Tom Ford outfits:

The dramatic background at the shoots does a lot to enhance the clothing color (she says in a blasé attempt to pretend there's even a reason to keep posting event pictures).

We really should see these outfits against a plain color backdrop. For reasons. Color science reasons.

Ok, I feel appropriately scientific. Back to the snowglobe.

Right. So less saturated color in this globe here, but sweet and soft.

Those are the lipsticks on their groundbreaking single non-competing link displayed next to them on the snowglobe ground. I didn't know until I got into this fandom that actors and actresses in Chinese entertainment always competed head to head in sales links, no matter how close they were in real life. Go figure these two would be the first to partner up and share sales ❤️

When I was uploading this picture I gasped and zoomed in immediately on the lower base band there. Fret not, gentle readers (and gentle writer), that's not a crack on the base there, it's just a ridge in the paint. Whew!

It's true though, international shipping for snowglobes is an exercise in Zen. It's just going to be what it's going to be, even with styrofoam packing and bubble wrap. I've been lucky so far, but it would be a long way to travel to end up drained of water, or worse - in shards (along with the shards of my broken heart)!

CUTE with Junjun's hand reaching out to escort him! (pulls up blurry event pic for the x100th time)

Ahhh I love it. I love it so much only emojis can properly express the emotions in my heart:

❤️😍❤️😍❤️😍❤️😍❤️😍❤️

Their symbolic stars and moons on the base here are very sweet, and their height difference never fails to make me smile. Google Translate failed me on the inscription - I'm assuming this is a quite poetic and lovely musing on love instead of the machine translated hodgepodge it gave me.

Not much to see on the top down angle here. Now, it wouldn't be a snowglobe without seeing it in action:

I hypnotize myself a little every time I watch that. I should put it to restful music, might be a good cure for insomnia!

Speaking of the lipstick, it would be in poor form to leave you without the actual advertising photos:

Material: Glass and...resin?

Fig Count: Well now that's a good question. There are figs in there in the water, but do they count towards the fig count? They certainly take up enough real estate to count for 2 figs. Hmmm. But if we're going to get technical (and where else to get technical other than a niche blog about niche merch?), I suppose the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Alright! We're still at 28.

Diorama Count: 3

Snowglobe Count: 1

Rating: Lipstick of loooooooove 😘😘

P.S. You've stuck around this long...surely you want to see one of my all time favorite pictures?

For Color Science? Posterity? The future of all humanity?

That's right you do!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[haloburns]

⭐

Here's a star for the director's commentary thingy :3 Excited to see what you pick to talk about

aww thank you!!

IM GONNA TALK ABOUT GHOST LIGHT

(for those of u new here, ghost light is my danny phantom oc ship, consisting of danny and mateo. mateo is my pfp)

so i started this angsty au series of my own series, right?? it started with a half-assed christmas fic that i speed wrote christmas eve and then abandoned. then like.... a little over a year later, i get this idea for an au and realize it's THEE perfect prequel to this christmas fic. so i start dabbling with it in between other projects and i fully intend to finish it before i post it because it's not THAT big a deal, and very few people actually follow me for my oc content ANYWAY but in march of this year i was like "okay. that's it. i need validation!!!" so i posted the first two chapters

then i decided i was burnt out from writing danny phantom stuff due to lack of engagement and jumped over to legend of zelda (pack server my beloved) and have spent the last few months recovering over there. except every time i plan on working on my next update for one of my fics over there, i end up with this fic again. EVERY. TIME.

"this isn't what i really want" is based on the idea that things would've played out differently if danny and mateo hadn't been roommates to begin with. the idea that "what if danny and mateo weren't roommates? what if danny was already ghost king? what if mateo never found out that danny was phantom?" drove the idea, but unfortunately, those two are like barbies i smush together magnets that can't be drawn away, and i realized that them having a "we're just friends :)" kind of relationship while fuckin nasty and pretending no one can tell was EXACTLY the vibe i wanted. this is one of those frustrating fics because everything would be solved IF THEY JUST TALKED TO EACH OTHER but their own fears keep them from being honest

which is why i like the title so much bc the context changes as the fic goes on and i am a slut for that shit

MORE DETAILS UNDER THE READ MORE BC THIS GOT LONG LMAO

it was only supposed to be a few chapters long, MAYBE 20k, and now i'm looking at 8 chapters, roughly 45k. AND I HAVE ACTUALLY PLANNED THE ENDING AND HAVE IT ALMOST COMPLETELY FINISHED!!!

but my favorite part about writing this fic has just been like... playing around with narrative stuff. the first chapter happens over the course of like. ten minutes. and it's so super gay and yearning and poetic. then the second chapter like. zooms through the night until danny and mateo are in an alcove all but fucking. then we jump to chapter three and get a deeper insight into these variations' minds and i reveal the level of dumbassery to be expected from this fic lmao i've also had a lot of fun pulling pieces from other fics i've written/published to tie together and change their context! they're fun little nods to my other works and has been such a fun exercise in "okay. so they do x because of y... but what if i change y to z, what would they do then???"

and then chapter four!! i actually have a completely different version that i originally intended to use, but as i got to the end of chapter 3, i realized, they would not fucking do that. so i recontextualized what i'd written and it turned into a whole different beast, once again showcasing the boys' whole fucking dumbassery on display for literally EVERYONE EXCEPT THEMSELVES TO SEE i just really loved them playing in the morning while continuing to delude themselves that This Meant Nothing to either of them

chapter five was actually not supposed to be entirely from luke's pov but it turned out to work best for pushing the story through more time quickly, and to also see the boys from an (mostly) outside perspective to showcase just how STUPID they're being. the conversations mirrored each other almost exactly but in ways unique to each of them that was so much fun to play with. luke and danny's relationship is much more antagonistic sibling-coded than luke and mateo's. luke is definitely filling the older sibling role for both of them, but in danny's case, he already has a meddling older sister, so his and luke's relationship follows that same pattern. luke is fine with that, he has that relationship with some of his sisters in both directions (he's the middle and only boy). but with mateo, he's the oldest, so he revels in the soft guiding older sibling advice luke gives him, and it's SO OBVIOUS in this chapter. danny and luke shouting and throwing things at each other whereas luke and mateo having a softer conversation, although both of them culminate in the same advice: just talk to him. then ofc we finish with jamie and luke talkin about his tendency to meddle and we get to see a silent peek at danny and mateo's relationship when others aren't watching which is just... so precious to me

now my plans for the last three chapters...... rubs hands together with an evil grin

so i never intended this fic to be as in depth as the main series, so chapter six jumps to the end of the year. end of the year celebration that ends in a "last night on earth" kind of deal with danny and mateo, and it's fuckin RAUNCHY but i'm really proud of it. dunno how it ends yet (maybe that's what my writer's block is... maybe if i figure out where i'm going, then i'll be able to finish it) it's... mostly just lots of gay pining while being rawed lmao

but then i realized nothing interesting happens in sophomore and junior years that would be worth mentioning, bc there's not ghost shenanigans that anyone else is involved with, so i decided to just.... skip forward lmao and i did it in THEE funniest style imaginable: a glee recap. it's literally titled "here's what you missed last time on..." and then there's an actual glee style recap where vanessa runs through the big events and we get some glee-recap quotes and end on an open ending.

then i proceed to cram the events of one year into a single chapter. the plan is danny and mateo get caught goin at it during a party, but they don't remember being visible. so mateo's confused when everyone is congratulating him on finally getting together with danny and he panics. and ends the relationship. this is like...late october?? so he and danny avoid each other until break. then break happens, they come back and mateo meets tony.

so, those of you who've read the main series will know the name Tony. he is a bitch. he hurts danny (emotionally) but he's not really a bad guy. he's just kind of a dick. he serves as an emotional flashpoint for ghost light in the original fic, and he does here as well, but this time it's slightly more passive?? and gentle?? i actually LIKE him this time lmao

the fic ends in an unsatisfying way, and that's on purpose. danny and mateo make amends for one final night, the night before graduation, but after that... they don't say anything and continue on like they have been. so they move away and drift apart and don't see each other again... until the christmas fic, which is hallmark levels of ridiculousness lmao

AND I'M SO CLOSE TO FINISHING THIS FIC!! i'm done with chapter 7, and chapters 6 & 8 are in their final acts. i'm gonna post them all at once and then turn my attention to finishing the hallmark fic!! i just... really love this story. i love getting to play with the characters and motivations and their ties to each other, how different things might've been if things had happened just a little differently, even if it is with my own work. there are like. seven people who give a shit about mateo and the stories i'm telling with him, and they keep me going with these fics!! writing in a fandom that actually gives praise and feedback makes it easier to work on my mateo stories, and whether the pack knows it or not, they're the reason i'm able to even CONSIDER finishing this story and i'm so grateful for that

BUT I'LL BE DONE NOW BC THIS IS ALREADY SO FUCKING LONG LMAO

thank you for giving me the opportunity to scream about this fic bc so far, only my sister has heard me yell about it and i figure she's due for a break LMAO

[koushirouizumi]

Just Adv-02 Standom Things

You know what I hate most about this situation right now?

How the person who stole my {Meiko} gif in question is now weaponizing the "old days" of FDD {Fictional Digidestined} as a means of ignoring the current situation in which they're blatantly lying about using my Meiko gif for a hatepost they made on 0801.

WHILE I WAS TRYING TO ACTUALLY CELEBRATE 0801 TOO.

And how they're a ~fellow Adventure{s} fan~ from ~the old days~---

Before "D.N.I."s ever existed on this Site, we used banners like these.

ALL OF US HAD THEM. ALMOST EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US. BECAUSE PEOPLE KEPT STEALING OUR SHIT FOR THEIR OWN WEB SHRINES AND NEVER OWNED UP TO IT WHEN CAUGHT.

I literally had one of the first 02 O.C. shrines on the web. If people like that visited my site, they were confronted with this banner on the very first page. It looked similar to the page of the Neo-cities revival I've been working on for over a month now.

This is what I have to emphasize now.

People still will blatantly ignore it, talk over you, try to convince you in their own damn terms "actually, this is the IMAGE STEALING website, so of COURSE I'm allowed to steal your images, creations, fan things and every single one of your O.C.s with their exact palettes too, you didn't create this O.C. you only ~re-colored~ it and those pixels {by hand}!!1!!!!" and "you should be grateful, it means free publicity!!!" and "YOU DONT OWN *COPY-RIGHT* TO OTHERS *ORIGINAL I.P.s*""

They'll wax poetic about the "old O.C. days" on D.A., when I was on D.A. too, I STILL HAVE AN ACCOUNT THERE, and I would have confronted them their about stealing my shit too, and I *might* have gotten a slightly better response from D.A. back then.

They'll post about their O.C.s while blatantly ignoring me DEMANDING them multiple times to remove my gif.

They'll talk about the "~old Adventure fan base~" "~before all these CRINGE AUTISTS ruined it~" all without knowing I WAS AN ~AUTIST~ EVEN BACK THEN, AND I HID THIS FACT BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE THIS.

They'll claim they have ~nostalgia~.

Nostalgia{/c goggles} in DigiAdvs standom shouldn't be a term used to refer to an Adventure fan, or an 02 fan, or a TAICHI FAN OR FAN OF THE ADVENTURE CHOSEN who is showing appreciation towards that and those characters too, until people trash them, people like this making positive works for the Chosen, leave anti-semitic hate comments on their work once they know about your family and the holidays you're trying to recognize.....

They should be used to refer to people like THIS, like these "02 stans" or "Adventure-02-Kizuna" only stans {all while trashing on Meiko and Tri in the meantime} who will blatantly steal your work and reproduce it for their ~anti Tri~ HATE POSTS and mock you and call you "cringe" for confronting them.

But oh it's not just the 02 standom who's been pulling this shit.

It's Adventure stans. It's TAMERS STANS. It's even Frontier stans, even Savers stans, even Xros Wars & Young Hunters stans, even SURVIVE STANS, even stans of all the other entries in the series who have pulled the same kind of shit. FREQUENTLY.

This person actually DID the right thing and removed it, even when I confronted them, even when they BLATANTLY may have even pretended to not even KNOW WHO THE HELL MEIKO WAS (when she's mentioned right there IN THE POST.)

You (general) people who never even fully finished Tri don't know who Meiko is, and yet you'll rb a post bashing a girl called Meiko and not put two and two together...

If this person could remove the gif, the person who stole it can remove it too.

Instead of waxing poetic about ~nostalgia~ for ~the good old days of O.C.s on D.A.~ where they probably believe with their whole chest ~no one would confront you over stealing their things without Permission~ (when WE ALL DID THAT THERE.)

BECAUSE YOU SHOULDN'T STEAL PEOPLE'S WORKS WITHOUT PERMISSION FOR HATE-POSTS EVEN IF WE'RE ON A DIFFERENT SITE.

And then everyone constantly complains about how

"Adventure{s}/02 fan base is dYING" and how they're SO SAD ABOUT IT

all while repeatedly pulling the kind of shit above.

It's sickening. It's sickening, it's gross, this kind of attitude in 02 standom NEEDS TO DIE.

PEOPLE LIKE THAT NEVER RESPECTED OUR WORKS AND FAN CREATIONS TO BEGIN WITH.