#what qualifies as a poem

[azraellytired]

-When they call her name

A story about my thoughts and feelings of my deadname.

———

Sometimes I still hear her name. I used to turn to answer when it was said.

I’d feel like such a fool, answering to a dead girl's name. I’d always say afterwards that one day I won’t turn when they call her name.

I hear her name echo around me, reverberating against the walls and bouncing back into my ears, filling my senses with a sense of joyful grief. Yet I’d still turn when someone said her name.

It’s like a bell calling out for me. Like a whistle getting the attention of a dog. And in the end i'm always the fool who fell for the tricks of a king.

That girl died years ago is what they said. I personally think she’s always been dead. A rotting, walking corpse driven by the strings of those around her.

They saw a lively child while I saw her for who she truly was. She was a corpse, with flesh hanging off her bones. Blood would leak from her heart and teeth would fall from their sockets.

I do not mourn that girl, because she never truly lived. Even if she breathed and walked and slept and ate, that was a dead little girl who didnt know why she didn't want to fit in.

Sometimes they still call her name. Sometimes they forget she’s dead. Some are in denial.

One woman said she’d get a tattoo with her initials on it and not mine. Because she is the one in her heart, and not me.

Some people pretend that I'm her. I haven't been her and never will be her. That girl is six feet under and yet they still call her name and get angry when I don't respond.

Some people have her name. I used to look when they said her name even if it wasn't about her. It would always catch me by surprise every time, like a shock to my system. Like being dipped into ice cold water after standing in a desert. It leaves me shaken and confused.

I know they’ll all rue the day I don’t respond when they call her name.

I don’t think everyone understands. They still hold tight onto that girl's skeletal hand where flesh had peeled off and drained her of her blood.

But her bones are rotting, her eyes have melted, and her brain has been turned to mush. The worms ate away at her pristine skin and her hair has disintegrated into dust. Yet they still hold onto her as if she’ll come back and say she's okay. But that girl's rotten soul fills the room with that rotten smell that leaves me gagging.

But despite her rotten appearance her name still is spoken with such ease you’d think she still breathes. As if her lungs haven’t collapsed and her tongue isn't full of holes.

I feel like they see her in me. But we’re as different as night is from day. We’re as similar as a fly is to a worm. It’s like saying rocks and water are the same thing.

But one day, I suppose something changed. Perhaps it was a blessing, or a gift from whatever otherworldly being is out there. But I did not turn when they called her name.

I guess this means she really is dead and gone, and that I no longer have to worry about her sour ghost following me around. It’s like her spirit finally moved on into the afterlife peacefully, with no argument. She got what she wanted, she’s finally nowhere and nothing at all. And I got what I wanted too.

After years of pain and a rotten stench in my nose;

I no longer answer when they call her name.

———

My names Azrael (or Azie for short) and I’m transmasc with family down in the south who don’t quite understand who I am. I express my feelings and emotions by writing them out in short stories such as this.

[electricabsolution]

twin mirror selves of seeing: an essay (?) about sharkboy and lavagirl

this has been taking up a lot of valuable space in my brain for at least 3 years so im writing it down. no i dont remember most of this movie but ive decided im qualified to talk about it anyway.

everyone knows Sharkboy and Lavagirl. come on. right? George Lopez and that guy from twilight? the CGI is fucking abysmal but it was everything to 10 year old me. rivaled perhaps only by spy kids. i have many thoughts about it.

LONG POST. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

[the title is from the poem If Man Is Dead, Then God Is Slain by Ray Bradbury.]

i don’t really feel like summarizing the movie because i’m not focused on the plot. the gist of it is, max dreams up shit and it comes to life. he makes a cool planet just for kids, but oh no! his class bully Linus fucks it all up and he has to travel to planet drool and make it all better.

this isnt an essay really. more of a collection of thoughts because? ??? what the actual fuck is this movie. moving on.

max as the author ≠ max as the god

ok, max is a lonely and aimless kid. to him, real life is the Adult's World. hes out of place, so in his dreams (and daydreams) he makes up friends. friends with superpowers. normal kid stuff. they live on planet drool, basically a paradise for kids. but when dreams become reality, so do all of its flaws. because a god can only create in it's own image, sharkboy and lavagirl are equally as purposeless as max is. sharkboy grieves his dad and lavagirl longs to be around people without scalding them. They both feel uniquely isolated (which they are. main character syndrome) and take it out on max because he caused these problems by making them exist.

this concept is par for the course regarding the morality of authorship. to create a story is to have your characters suffer; little playthings with no say. naturally, sharkboy and lavagirl don’t like this. but i doubt this even occurred to max before they brought it up, considering he didn’t actually create them to Exist in a narrative. more on this later.

on the topic of gods, the biblical themes in this movie are pretty heavy handed, honestly. what with max's bible - the dream journal - and his very own adam and eve in the form of cool older kids with shark and lava powers which are like definitively two of the sickest things for a preteen. his Eden is corrupted, though (as Edens are wont to do), and therein lies the beginning of the story. the line between creator and author begins to blur.

the dream journal

The dream journal is the wellspring. its easily the most important part of the movie to me. its the fount of Max's power.... for a time. everything he's dreamed has been recorded in the bible. There's one scene where Max reads aloud that he once dreamed that Lavagirl had a motorcycle, and instantly it comes into being. But... didn't it exist before he read it? He wrote it down, didn't he? This scene shows us just how godlike Max really is - he needs to be believed in. At least here, interacting with his creations, ideas just existing in his head are functionally useless. Well, more specifically, existing to a singular being rather than many. the act of reading the journal to Lavagirl* is what causes the words to exist, a conjoining of consciousness i guess.

In this case, we have to assume nothing in his dream journal exists without a second party to believe in it. which makes sense.

but then they lament that max forgot to write down a full gas tank... and the bike becomes useless. Lavagirl accidentally takes the dream journal, and destroys it. (de-storys it, to borrow the phrase from that one tumblr post.) this is to show that his control of the universe comes from the writing, i guess? the act of putting to page is the power, and the next act of speaking the words makes the power real. this is why it's interesting to me that the movie itself opens on a monologue about sharkboy and lavagirl themselves. Max is reading from his journal to us, the fourth wall*, thus the characters come into being because we believe it.

max as the child

yes, he is the Dreamer or whatever the fuck and created a whole planet, but it was only because he felt so alone. he is still a kid. behind the dream journal, he just wanted friends. people who saw him. It's clear from the beginning of the movie he was bullied and we didn't see any friends to speak of. and his parents, well. your average fraught relationship. There isn't much to talk about regarding their scenes except (!) how they're portrayed on planet drool.

in the land of milk and cookies, literally a childish, comforting place, his parents, two giants, roam the area. their size indicates how max feels: small and hardly noticeable. but this is Max's dream world. exactly what he wants. his parents are madly in love and perfectly content. counter this to real life, where they don't notice max because they're too busy arguing. here, they're too lovey-dovey. but even in his garden of eden, he's still not... a part of their life. he's just too small. i dont even think max has conceptualized this because its so normal to him - and probably the way a lot of kids feel in real life, like being detached from the unified front of their parents. its actually really sad to think about, poor kid :c

linus as the author; max as the god

so it turns out that the corruption spreading through planet drool is due to the influence of linus graffitiing the dream journal.

so i mentioned previously that max's dreams don't exist until there's someone to believe. once that motorbike scene happens, it recontextualizes a fair bit of the story. so… when, exactly, did planet drool come into being? was it just out there somewhere in space ever since max had the first inkling? i doubt it.

i believe that it was Linus who really created planet drool. he stole the journal. thus, by reading, it came into being. in-universe and in, um… our universe. real life i mean. he's an active, hostile audience as opposed to the viewer who is utterly passive. he defaced what was a private sanctuary of one person’s mind both literally (editing the story) and figuratively (creating conflict creates narrative. it isn’t private anymore. it’s worthy of an audience, now.)

by doing this, though, it's Linus who gives the power to max. he’s the reason Sharkboy and Lavagirl come down to get him. like, he believes in max and his stories just to be a hater about it. respect??

i’m unsure what to make of linus having powers too, though. maybe it’s the fact that he wrote in the dream journal and even though he messed it all up, believers (i.e sharkboy and lavagirl, plus linus to some extent.*) can’t pick and choose what to believe in. it’s all or nothing. or maybe it’s supposed to be a kid thing, like anyone can make their dreams real but you grow out of it as you become a boring adult. that was probably the message.

anyway, all this is to say that if max is the Dreamer, this makes linus the Actor. the Enactor. (the subtractor. because… minus. get it?? ok sorry.) to return to the title quote (which is more explicitly applicable to sharkboy and lavagirl, but i digress), linus and max are mirrors of seeing. seeing=reading=existing. max creates the world, linus makes it real. yes, there is a difference.

i don’t think planet drool ever existed in its perfect state because it didn’t need to. any memories of it were created by the narrative, the bible / the journal, to give our protagonists a goal to work towards. getting the planet back to ‘how it used to be’ is easy for them to understand because there’s a clear divide between how max writes in the journal and how linus does. erasing his scripture is to erase all problems, and fade back into irrelevance (for all but max). the author-slash-editor has been defeated and the characters can go back to existing in the utopia of Max's mind. there might be a discussion to be had regarding the purity of non-existence, and once it becomes real it’s tainted. hmm.

*[all this talk of gods and authors and i've neglected to discuss the believers. its a bit scattered, theres the max–SB+LG relationship, max+linus–viewer relationship (which parallel each other), and the max-linus relationship. not very important, just notable. I just wanted to asterisk certain places because I wonder if those people are just extensions of the viewer at that point in time. the first time he ever reads the journal, it's to us. so, maybe, when i said the motorbike became real because he read it to lavagirl, it was still just us? maybe im just being overly literal. i mean of course it's us.]

not sure what all this means in the end, though. from this perspective, the author (linus) and the god (max) are evil and good respectively despite doing basically the same thing. but i guess it's the intent that's important - max, the god, had innocent intentions. he wanted his planet and Sharkboy and Lavagirl to be happy, it's just that by creating them at all he imparted his anxieties onto them. Linus, the author, had ill intent, creating secondary problems on purpose. the desire to share ideas, to have it exist in many minds, is what seems to be the issue.

they grapple for ownership over the universe but of course Linus can't win, he merely wants it. Max needs it. Max is it.

And which is God, which Human, God now must truly say: We fly much like each other, We walk a common clay. I dreamed Man into being, He dreams me now to stay - Twin mirror selves of seeing, We live Forever's Day.

[theicarusconstellation]

my ex / first wlw relationship (that says enough right there) just sent me a tiktok saying “i never had a teenage romance and i am at peace with that” and i was under the impression that our relationship, while not what we both needed, was still valuable and worthy of the label of former relationship for all its lovely moments because the love was there even if it wasn’t the form we thought it was but okay

[writerfae]

It is done! Emilia, a poem about my dear ghost girl.

Emilia is a character from my new short story collection, Sonntagskind.

tag list: @deadlycupid @wildswrites @poetinprose @saphoblin @bluehourskyeli (ask to be added or removed ^^)

[lucitumb1r]

I write to you.

I write to you out of love, a word I associate with you. With you I feel like a dove, and why? I'll give you a clue. The other reasons have left me, or maybe I've just forgotten. Rejection feels free, or maybe my feelings have rotten.

I used to be scared, of the both you and myself. My temper often flared, or I'd have hid on the shelf.

You used to get mad, and would 'care' for me. You'd call it a fad, and would tear at me.

'You're better than this! I raised you so well! Why now do you disappoint? When all was going swell?' But what you failed to quell, was the truth. You were hell.

In an attempt to pretend, you taught me you were love. In an attempt to learn, I called you hate.

I write to you out of hate, a feeling I know to be true. A cage made my fate, but I learned, and I flew.

[playdohsmell]

what i would do. oh, what i would do

i would hold you and tell you i love you

i would tell you unrelentingly how amazing your sensitivity is

do not lose it. protect it. guard it. love it.

i would brush your hair the right way. so it doesn't pull.

and when it would all become too much; because it would

i would smile and back away. and i would ask, "how much further?"

and you would look at me, in awe. you have never heard such a question. and you will not for a while.

i think you would smile and say, "that's ok there".

"ok", i say.

and here i will remain always in sight.

you will never be alone again.

[graythegoose]

Dip. Drip. Drip. Drop goes the water falling on my forehead. My body weighs as much as a whale and my bones are too weak to support the weight. So I lie here on my bed, embracing the repetitive motion. My ceiling has a small hole drilled into it. I placed it there in the process of losing my mind. My door is made of steel and I've bolted it shut. I can hear their cries but I'm convinced it's nothing more than a hallucination. I can feel the water in my eyes and mouth. My nostrils burn, but I smile nonetheless. I replaced my mattress with wood and somehow made a deal with the devil to nail my hands to the slab. I'm going insane.

[ckret2]

please more evil ford please i stare with my puppy eyes for this i am obbsessed

Yeah all right, I've been working on some art. (For context, we're talking about this Evil Ford.)

Evil Ford is Evil as in "cheerfully works with Bill even after learning his full plot" and "is totally ready to conquer and/or destroy the world." But other than the shocking lack of basic ethics and the supervillain objective he's mostly the same guy—which means he still cares about his family. He's hoping to get them to join in on the world conquest plan.

Forty-odd years ago he went off to college promising someday he'd be a big shot scientist who changes the world and he'd make his family a fortune. If taking over reality doesn't qualify he doesn't know what does. The family can join him and his buddy Bill and rule the universe together. Pines Pines Pines Pines!

Unfortunately for him, the rest of the family still has normal moral compasses. And also they've met Bill.

Bill can't currently possess Ford due to Reasons; but even though he can't get in the driver's seat he still has permission to ride shotgun at any time. Ford talks to him pretty regularly. He HAS been caught doing this. Stan thinks he's just gone a little nutty from thirty years of isolation.

Naturally, since he was always on Bill's side, Ford's perception of events during Weirdmageddon is a bit different:

I finally made an official Evil Ford New Costume Character Design, check out his exciting totally different brand new look:

I decided that, since Ford is still basically the same person aside from his terrible life goals, he'd probably have the same fashion sense. And so... nothing changes except two tiny details lmao.

But he DOES have tattoos:

I traced a canon character model and took off its top to get a base to slap tattoos on, and then went dang... they gave him a big head and arms. He looks goofy. Anyway,

His forearms have less incriminating tattoos—just a birch tree and a sunrise. (The sunrise looks like the Journal 3 "The Muse Has Spoken" page.) The red text is the "triangulum entangulum" ritual; if anyone asks he'll go "it's uhh an ancient Sumerian poem about how great science is." It's not until he's topless that it's like "oh so he's a CULTIST cultist." The one exception is an unconcealed Eye of Providence on his right palm—but it's in an ink that's only visible in certain lighting. It's there so at any time he can point his hand at something and go "Bill are you seeing this BS?"

Of course, he still has the "hey now, you're an all star" neck tattoo. I didn't have room to draw it.

As you can see, he's made being Bill's right hand man a core part of his personality. Rather than spending 30 years scrabbling around the multiverse desperately searching for a way to destroy Bill, he spent 30 years chilling in the Quadrangle of Qonfusion as Bill's specialest favoritest Henchmaniac, and only scrabbling around the multiverse occasionally for fun & profit.

Here's a photo Bill & Ford took at a Nightmare Realm house party like fifteen years ago, three minutes before Bill started an argument and set the house on fire.

Most people have their wild party years in college, Ford has his in his 40s.

[theglamorousferal]

Just found out about the Enough Stuff Non-Profit in Illinois and it got me thinking about Crime Alley and about if there was a place like that, they’d work hard to keep it going.

Now I’m imagining Danny, ghost king with its coffers, things at relative peace, but not having to actively work. He’d want to still be able to give back I think even if it’s not actively fighting. What if Danny started an Enough Stuff shop. Everything there is free. Everything is donated. It runs on donations. (The first few months it runs on his savings; ghost money translates thankfully).

Danny lives in the apartment above the store and the store has two floors. Sam moves in next door and runs an apothecary and plant store. She ends up running a vegan bakery and coffee shop too. If you perform or write a poem, you get a free coffee and scone. If she has the chance, she’ll teach you about basic herbal remedies and also some basic first aid because while honey is an antibiotic, it doesn’t do shit for something needing stitches. Jazz moves in and opens a free pediatric clinic. Tucker can be found running the business side of the non-profits and pushing Sam to “just get an EMT certification already, you’re more than qualified, and you know you want to.” Val travels a lot, she’s an Olympic martial artist, but when she settles someplace to train it’s usually with the trio in their Frankenstein apartment made up of the top two floors of three connected buildings. Between Danny finding he enjoyed training from his years as a hero and Sam wanting to always be in top form there’s a gym there she can train in and Danny’s usually free. She helps with whoever needs it when she has free time so she doesn’t feel like a mooch for living there only part-time. She ends up saving some kid from a thug and deciding to train him up. This leads to the kid bringing more kids to learn from her. She ends up buying a building on the block and renovating it to be a gym and training facility for her and it gets added to the list of non-profits Tucker is running. (He only leaves his corner office, he insisted, during working hours for lunch or meetings and the occasional lunch meeting).

Tim losing his mind trying to find anything about them. Him constantly hitting firewalls of binary, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Esperanto and some other language he could only describe as auditory Zalgo text. Tim desperately wanting to investigate in person but he promised Jason he’d stay out of it until he asked.

Jason coming back from a long mission with the Outlaws seeing the “cute little trust fund kid’s experiment” not only flourishing, but growing. He goes to research them only to find they’re mostly squeaky clean. There’s some stuff about disturbance of the peace and minor property damage when a teenager, but that doesn’t mean anything for someone setting up in Crime Alley. He watches them for a while, listened to what his guys said about them and the general opinion. He decides they’re above board, but he’d still watch them.

Then he got shot. More accurately, a shot grazed just under his armpit where there was a gap in his armor. He ended up stumbling out of an alleyway and directly into the pathway of one red headed doctor.

Kinda want to add more Amity Parker’s at some point. Debating having Paulina run a fashion house in the fashion district because she couldn’t convince her dad to let her move to a place known as Crime Alley, and just spend a bunch of time at Danny’s shop and maybe drop off ‘fits she made there. Star and Wes running a local radio station. Dash becoming a mechanic (after freaking out about not making it in football). Kwan opens a vet clinic. Eventually the Amity Parker’s own a full two blocks of housing and businesses.

[sunderwight]

y'know what, I think it's kind of interesting to bring up Data from Star Trek in the context of the current debates about AI. like especially if you actually are familiar with the subplot about Data investigating art and creativity.

see, Data can definitely do what the AI programs going around these days can. better than, but that's beside the point, obviously. he's a sci-fi/fantasy android. but anyway, in the story, Data can perfectly replicate any painting or stitch a beautiful quilt or write a poem. he can write programs for himself that introduce variables that make things more "flawed", that imitate the particular style of an artist, he can choose to either perfectly replicate a particular sort of music or to try and create a more "human" sounding imitation that has irregular errors and mimics effort or strain. the latter is harder for him that just copying, the same way it's more complicated to have an algorithm that creates believable "original" art vs something that just duplicates whatever you give it.

but this is not the issue with Data. when Data imitates art, he himself knows that he's not really creating, he's just using his computer brain to copy things that humans have done. it's actually a source of deep personal introspection for the character, that he believes being able to create art would bring him closer to humanity, but he's not sure if he actually can.

of course, Data is a person. he's a person who is not biological, but he's still a person, and this is really obvious from go. there's no one thing that can be pointed to as the smoking gun for Data's personhood, but that's normal and also true of everyone else. Data's the culmination of a multitude of elements required to make a guy. Asking if this or that one thing is what makes Data a person is like asking if it's the flour or the eggs that make a cake.

the question of whether or not Data can create art is intrinsically tied to the question of whether or not Data can qualify as an artist. can he, like a human, take on inspiration and cultivate desirable influences in order to produce something that reflects his view on the world?

yes, he can. because he has a view on the world.

but that's the thing about the generative AI we are dealing with in the real world. that's not like Data. despite being referred to as "AI", these are algorithms that have been trained to recognize and imitate patterns. they have no perspective. the people who DO have a perspective, the humans inputting prompts, are trying to circumvent the whole part of the artistic process where they actually develop skills and create things themselves. they're not doing what Data did, in fact they're doing the opposite -- instead of exploring their own ability to create art despite their personal limitations, they are abandoning it. the data sets aren't like someone looking at a painting and taking inspiration from it, because the machine can't be inspired and the prompter isn't filtering inspiration through the necessary medium of their perspective.

Data would be very confused as to the motives and desires involved, especially since most people are not inhibited from developing at least SOME sort of artistic skill for the sake self-expression. he'd probably start researching the history of plagiarism and different cultural, historical, and legal standards for differentiating it from acceptable levels of artistic imitation, and how the use of various tools factored into it. he would cite examples of cultures where computer programming itself was considered a form of art, and court cases where rulings were made for or against examples of generative plagiarism, and cases of forgeries and imitations which required skill as good if not better than the artists who created the originals. then Geordi would suggest that maybe Data was a little bit annoyed that people who could make art in a way he can't would discount that ability. Data would be like "as a machine I do not experience annoyance" but he would allow that he was perplexed or struggling to gain internal consensus on the matter. so Geordi would sum it up with "sometimes people want to make things easy, and they aren't always good at recognizing when doing that defeats the whole idea" and Data would quirk his head thoughtfully and agree.

then they'd get back to modifying the warp core so they could escape some sentient space anomaly that had sucked the ship into intermediate space and was slowly destabilizing the hull, or whatever.

anyways, point is -- I don't think Data from Star Trek would be a big fan of AI art.

[medievalandfantasymelee]

THE HOT MEDIEVAL & FANTASY MEN MELEE

QUALIFYING ROUND: 88th Tilt

Ètienne de Navarre, Ladyhawke (1985) VS. Prince John, Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

Propaganda

Ètienne de Navarre, Ladyhawke (1985) Portrayed by: Rutger Hauer

“Etienne of Navarre is as devoted to his lady as he is powerful and vicious, despite a curse that keeps them eternally apart. Also, he has a gorgeous horse and turns into a big wolf. What's not to love?”

Prince John, Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) Portrayed by: Richard Lewis

“He looks so good. Love this man and his moving mole.”

Additional Propaganda Under the Cut

Additional Propaganda

For Ètienne de Navarre:

“This man has the strongest "late medieval romantic poem protagonist" energy I have ever SEEN.”

“He was my first childhood crush and I never knew whether I wanted to be him or [REDACTED] him. He transforms into a wolf at night! He's handsome, and gentle, and chivalrous!”

For Prince John:

“Played by the late great Richard Lewis, who steals all his scenes with his dry humor delivery.”

(+ Bonus Sheriff of Rottingham)

[gallilovesf1]

P2 Into You: Jealousy

🏁 Character Introductory 🏁

MASTERLIST

Pairings (applied to the whole fic): Sergio Pérez x FemHorner!Reader, Toto Wolff x FemHorner!Reader, Lewis Hamilton x FemHorner!Reader

Warnings: Slow burn, mentions of sexual topic, Dom/Sub dynamic, Soft Dom! Sergio, Dom! Toto, angst, cheating, fluff, mentions of death, Mad Christian Horner!!

Author's Note: kinda cliffhanger ending, I'll be posting the 3rd chapter by Sunday! Enjoy!(⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕⁠✿⁠)

─ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

You sighs as you went to the bathroom to remove your make up and take a cold shower, you decided to play some music while you shower, you opened your playlist from Spotify, playing “Too Sweet” By Hozier, you sing a long as you turned off the shower and dry yourself, you put on some comfortable clothes to sleep in.

Laying in bed, you decided to read before you sleep, A poem by Homer “The Odyssey”. You enjoyed reading this kind of book as you felt warmth reading them. After a few hours of reading you feel sleepy as you yawn and put the book down on your bedside table, turning the lamp off after.

─ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Sergio couldn't sleep, he wanted to message you but scared to wake you up, he sat on his bed, hands on his hair as he curse at himself, “Fuckfuckfuck-” he sighs, ‘If only I'm brave enough to tell her that I love her…’ he thought, he went back to sleep, hoping that it'll be ok.

The next morning, Sergio woke up by his alarm, grabbing his phone. It's 6:30 in the morning, he sighs as he stretches his arms, standing up to go and take a shower.

Soon later, You woke up, feeling so tired from yesterday, you sat up grabbing your phone as you message Sergio and your brother a good morning before standing up and went to take a shower, the cold water on your skin made you shiver and feel more awake, your phone rings as you turn off the shower and dry your hands as you saw a call from an unknown caller ID, You answered it, “Y/N horner speaking, who's this?” You asked, “Hey, Y/N, It's Toto, Toto Wolff?” You frowned, “Hey, Mr.Wolff-” You said a little confused, “Please, Call me toto, You're making me feel old.” He chuckled, God his voice, the way he chuckled He's making you fall for him! You chuckled, “Aren't you old?” Toto smiled upon hearing your words, “I just wanted to say sorry for our unexpected meeting yesterday, and I hope you're ok.” “I'm ok, Toto, Thank you.” You smiled, “So, I was thinking, if you're free after qualifying later, is it ok if I take you out for dinner? So I can make up for yesterday.” He said.

Toto's waiting for your answer, he's expecting you to say ‘Yes’ to him, fingers tapping on his legs as he waits for your answer, “I'll let you know later, But it's a yes.” You said, as you heard toto sighs in relief, “Perfect, I'll see you later on the paddock, And also Good morning.” You smiled upon hearing his words, “I'll see you later too, Toto.” You said as you ended the call.

Smiling like a fool, you continued your shower as you can't help but smile upon hearing his deep voice, the way he chuckles and sighs, it's just a simple thing but God it's given you butterflies, you sighs ‘Get yourself together Y/N he's older than dad!’ you said loudly to yourself.

You went out in the shower, drying yourself up as you put on your clothes to wear in the paddock, you decided to put on light makeup, you put on a Red Bull polo shirt as you grab your bag and went to knock on Checo's door.

─ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Checo's putting on some clothes when you knocked on his door, “Checo, it's me, Y/N” you said as Checo hurriedly put on a Red Bull shirt, “Yeah, Just a minute-” he said as he looks at himself in the mirror, while you wait, you messaged your brother to meet you and checo in the lobby, Checo opened the door eyes widened seeing you, “Guau, eres hermosa…” you chuckled, “What took you so long to open the door?” Checo Opened the door widely, letting you inside, “I was getting ready then you knocked-” he sat down on the couch looking at you up and down, “You ready to leave?” you asked checo, as you catched him looking at you, “Oh..yeah, let's go-” he said as he grabbed his phone and sunglasses, “Do you need one?” He asked you, gesturing the sunglasses in his hands, You nodded, He gave you his glasses, “Vamos, mi sol” he said, putting on his cap, he opened the door, “After you-” “Thank you, Checo.” You smiled at him.

You met your brother in the lobby, waiting for you and checo, “Jeez, what did you two do? It's almost 9:00 am, dad's gonna kill us-” you and checo chuckled, “Such a drama queen-” you roll your eyes playfully at your brother as the three of you went outside to get inside the car and went to the paddock, the three of you exchanged conversation as you mentioned your call with toto earlier, “What??? Thee Toto Wolff asked you on a date?!” Your brother exclaimed, “dummy it's not a date! It's a ‘Dinner’, that's what he says-” you say as you hit your brother's arm, while checo just silently listens to you and your brother, “What did he tell you? Just dinner?” Checo sounded annoyed, “he just told me that he's sorry for bumping into me yesterday, that it's very rude of him, that he'll take me to dinner after the qualifying so he can make it up for me-” you explained as you smiled at Checo, who seems mad…? “Right..” he says in almost a whisper, “I can drop you off later if you want?” The Mexican offered, “That'll be great, Checo!” You smiled brightly at him.

Checo smiled, seeing you smile at him made him calm, he doesn't know why he is mad of you going out on a dinner with toto, he has no right to be mad at you, nor be jealous, he's just your best friend and nothing else.

The car stopped as you arrived in the parking lot of the paddock, Checo opened the door, holding out a hand for you, “Thank you..” you said shyly, your brother went out on the opposite door, “Why don't I get the same treatment, checo? I'm your best friend too!” You and checo chuckled upon hearing your brothers words, the three of you encountered some fans along the way, you, checo, and your brother signed some merch, posters, and other stuffs, being a horner made you famous too, also having a pretty face and a sunshine to a paddock made you a couple of fans.

─ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Finally, the three of you arrived in the paddock just in time, “What took the three of you so long, look at the time, Y/N.” Your dad said, looking disappointed at you as always, “Just ignore him, Y/N.” Checo said, Patting your shoulder, “We'll be back.” He said as your brother and checo went to their changing rooms to change, leaving you in the paddock amongst the mechanics.

You got bored as your brother and checo went out for some interviews, you wandered around the paddock to see some friends to other teams, to say hi to the other drivers too, most of them are your friends as well, you visited your friend Lewis at the Mercedes, “Lewis!” You called him, seeing him talking to bono, “Y/N-” he waved, you walked towards them, saying hi to bono as you hugged him, “So, how's it going?” Bono asked, “Well, same old me, how are you bono?” You returned the question, “I'm doing ok too-” he smiled, “Well I hate to leave but toto needs me, see you around, Y/N!” He says as he left, leaving you and Lewis, “I'm glad that you're comfortable around the paddock already.” Lewis says, smiling at you. “Well, I'm trying to be comfortable, I'm glad that everyone's been friendly-” you said shyly, you and Lewis exchanged topics as you felt someone's eyes watching you, you looked to the side to see Toto Wolff, looking at you. You smiled at him and waved shyly, he gave you a subtle nod, lewis noticed you, “You know toto? I mean…” you look away from toto returning to lewis, “I just met him yesterday, I kinda bumped into him…” you chuckled remembering the memory from yesterday, “He's tall and you still bumped into him?” He teased you, “Ugh, stop it- I know it's stupid-” you said as you and Lewis chuckled you saw toto approaching you and Lewis, You felt his gaze fixed upon you, “Lewis, Bono needs you.” He smiled to lewis as Lewis says bye to me and left me with toto, who's looking down on me, a smirk is displayed on his face, “Good morning, Y/N.” “Hi, Mr. Wolff- I mean Toto, good morning too-” you said slightly panicking at your words, “You ok?” He said, hands on your shoulders, You nodded, “I'm ok, just feeling a bit overwhelmed, that's all.” You smiled awkwardly, “Why? Is something or someone making you feel overwhelmed, Y/N?” He removed his hands on your shoulder and put it in his pocket, still looking at you, “I- No I don't think so..” he leaned a little, “Am I Making you feel overwhelmed, Y/N?”

Your cheeks turned bright red with his words, you do feel overwhelmed by him, the way he touched your shoulders, the way you smell his scent, you felt intimidated with him, you look up at him, his body towers In Front of you, “Answer me, Y/N.” He asked you again, You we're about to say ‘Yes’ but you heard your father call your name, ‘Great’ you thought, “Y/N!” Your father calls you again as he approaches you and toto, “What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in the red bull paddock?” your father says coldly, as he looks at toto from up and down, “And you, what are you telling her?” He pointed a finger to toto, “Nothing, Christian, I was just telling her to be comfortable around the paddock.” Toto says as he smiles at you, “Right, whatever, go back to the paddock Y/N I Will not ask again.” You sigh, “Bye toto, fancy seeing you!” you waved goodbye at him as you disappear from the crowds, “You shouldn't talk to her like that, she's just saying hi.” Your dad scoffed, “If he's saying hi to you then I won't allow it, don't go near my daughter toto, this is your first and last warning, Leave. her. alone. Understand?” Toto chuckled at your dad's words, Toto nodded, leaving horner as he went to talk to bono and lewis, soon enough your father arrived in the red bull paddock too, “Why are you talking to him, Y/N? Did he do something to you? Did he touch you?” Your dad asked you ridiculous questions, “God, dad no- I was talking to lewis when he approached us and he just says hi then you arrived, plus, why are you mad? I'm just talking to Toto-” you said confused, “Toto isn't a nice person, Y/N, You know that, he's our rival, our team's rival, you shouldn't be talking to him or making friends with, you don't want an issue and rumors to walk around the paddock, you know the media, Y/N.” your father warned.

“Fine, ok dad, I won't talk to him.” You sigh in defeat, “Don't be mad at me, Darling, I'm just protecting you from him.” “Dad, I'm fine, I can take care of myself, he's a nice person.” You tried to convince your dad, “I know him better, Y/N, so please listen to me?” You just nodded, “Thank you..” your dad says as you roll your eyes to his words.

You don't see toto as a ‘Bad person’, he's kind, charming, a charismatic person, he's one of the respective people in the paddock, you liked him.

You heard Checo call your name, you turned to face him, “Hmm?” You say looking at him as he stopped In Front of you, “You ok?” Checo asked, seeing your worried and annoyed expression, “I'm ok, it's just dad-” “what about him?” You sigh as you start telling him what happened between you, toto, and your father, “Why Are you with toto, anyways?” He questioned, “I was just saying hi to him when dad approached then everything fucked up-” you chuckled. He smiled, “I'm just glad that they didn't beat each other up.” Checo pats your shoulders, “So what time will you be going to dinner with him?” He asked as you remember that he offered you a ride earlier, “oh, we haven't discussed it, it's too awkward honestly, I can't even talk to him, he's too…intimidating.” “Hmm, I see, give me a call whenever you need to go, ok?” Checo gave you an assurance look, you nodded, “Thank you, checo, really, you're the best. I don't know what I would do without you.” You gave him a gentle touch to his arms, making the Mexican blush, “It's.. it's no problem Y/N.” He smiled, looking to his side to hide his blushing face.

─ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

TAGLIST: Tell me if you want to be added!

@cheyxfu

@simbelmyne20niniel

@totowolfffcheco

@barcelonaloverf1life

@omgsuperstarg

@xoscar03

@definitelymayb

@annetvkin

[unalivejournal]

today my class discussions were about 1.) the artistic Greek nude 2.) contingency and path dependence and 3.) a queer and cronenbergian analysis of a selection of Emily Dickinson poems. And right now I have to write an essay about what qualifies as a ghost story and what makes a house haunted. do I go to Tumblr university 😭

[1dcommunityficrecs]

Fake Dating Rec List!

List number four is here! I asked (in what I'm sure was a very dignified and reasonable way that did not involve tearing my hair or beating my chest because I love fake dating a completely normal amount) and you guys sure delivered! So below, we have 16 amazing fics (plus one Honorable Mention), ready for your reading pleasure.

It's Fine To Fake It 'Til You Make It ('Til It's True) by Sunflouwerhabit (150960, Not Rated, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson) - fic post

Harry dreads an impending visit to his hometown, where he’ll be forced to reunite with a newly engaged ex-boyfriend, a childhood best friend turned near stranger, and a family who never understood just how desperately he needed to leave. In the midst of it all, a ludicrous Twitter proposition brings him to Louis.

Reccer says: Their characterizations and chemistry in this fic were greats

Sun Means Sky'll Be Blue by Pearlydewdrops (91152, Not Rated, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson) - fic post

As the only singleton under thirty attending his cousin’s five-day wedding, Harry is desperate to find a date, or at least a reason to get people’s questions about his love life off his back. So when Louis, Harry’s old uni roommate and fellow wedding attendee waltzes back into his life, Harry seizes the opportunity, pretending Louis is his ex-boyfriend and that it’s a sore subject not to be mentioned.

Reccer says: I enjoyed the hate to love aspect of this fic, and how they dealt with their feelings. It was also fun to read about all of the dramatics with the wedding and Harry's family.

Escapade by Dolce_piccante (146241, Mature, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson)

CEO Louis / Jack McQueen Harry

Reccer says: Everyone knows Escapade (I hope!) but it's impossible not to mention her. It’s the standard-bearer of fake dating fics!

Mistletoe’s For Two by Crimsontheory (90901, Explicit, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson)

Advent fic, Harry and Louis pretend to be boyfriends. Or not...

Reccer says: The perfect advent fic I think, the kind you'd see in a Christmas movie.

The Games We Play by wishingforloushair (50000, Explicit, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson) - fic post Warnings: Gun violence, blood, violence in general, a bit of ptsd-like symptoms

Harry and Louis are MI6 agents who have hated each other since basic training but now have to go undercover as a married couple

Reccer says:

keep you like an oath by alnima (18102, Mature, Zayn Malik/Louis Tomlinson)

A supercute Zouis fake dating non-famous American AU with a wild Louis and awkward Zayn!

Reccer says: I love Zouis and this fic gets their relationship dynamics perfectly.

MARRIED FOR A WEEK?! by gravitycentered (20000, Mature, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson) - fic post

Louis is a YouTuber, and asks his friend Harry to join him in a "Married For A Week" challenge. Neither of them wants it to end.

Reccer says: I love the depth of the story, the layers to their friendship and their history and their care for each other. There's also a really interesting interplay of Louis' YouTube videos with Harry's photography projects, and the ideas of what to capture or share and what to keep just them, what's posed or acted and what's real.

kiss me on the mouth (and set me free) by tempolarriefics (47000, Mature, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson) - fic post

When Harry can't afford to finish his university degree without financial aid, Louis volunteers to marry him in order to help him qualify. Of course, that decision is complicated by the fact that Louis has been secretly in love with Harry for years.

Reccer says:

like a moth into a flame by we_are_the_same (5397, Teen, Zayn Malik/Louis Tomlinson) - fic post

A student writes Zayn a sex poem. The only logical conclusion is for Louis and Zayn to fake date.

Reccer says: Everything!! Zayn and Louis' relationship, the whole trope: everything!!

On the Horizon by FitzAndLarry (261051, Mature, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson) Warnings: Minor PTSD, Anxiety themes

Pilot Louis meets Doctor Harry on a flight & end up fake dating on a two week cruise

Reccer says: Its just lovely! The way the characters are written, and their interactions with each other are done wonderfully.

The Greatest Thing by infinitelymint (163789, Explicit, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson)

semi-cannon accidental marriage in vegas

Reccer says: The highs and the lows are captivating.

For Better, Worse And Mischief (I'm All Yours) by RedOrchid (37513, Explicit, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson)

Harry and Louis get married. PR made them do it.

Reccer says: It was a cute read!

Like Candy in My Veins by Littlelouishiccups (31867, Explicit, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson)

“Um…” Harry said slowly after a moment. “Okay. That’s… this is… Let me get this straight.” He lifted up a hand and swallowed. “You told your family that you have a boyfriend… and my name was the first one you thought of?” “Harry Potter was on TV, alright? It wasn’t that much of a stretch.”

Reccer says: Picture this: two outspoken, stubborn, pining idiots. Record store owner Louis, bakery owner Harry. Christmas, A/B/O, fake dating, too many pies, a “stolen” parking spot, a flooded bathroom, and puns!

Faking It by TheCellarDoor (46173, Explicit, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson) - fic post

Best friends in Uni, fake dating to escape unwanted advances—it’s perfect.

Reccer says: The fake dating fic I keep coming back to! It’s sweet and hot and so fluffy.

And Then A Bit by Infinitelymint (158824, Explicit, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson) - fic post

Or, take a parallel universe where Louis and Harry were never together, mix in a two year hiatus and an impending comeback, pour in a dash of lost fans, two tablespoons of strong friendship and a Modest! employee with a good idea. Add a squeeze of pretending to be a couple, lots of kisses and a tattoo or two. Stir. Serve: the mother of all publicity stunts.

Reccer says: One of my all time favorite fics! I just love how genuinely happy they are to spend time together, how sweet and soft they are at the beginning. And it’s lovely to imagine this as the 1D reunion we all want.

Just Pretend by Kingsofeverything (90207, Explicit, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson) - fic post

Divorced dads + teenage daughters = pretending to date to keep their kids happy.

Reccer says: I love older Larry—and kingsofeverything writes them SO WELL.

And our honorable mention -- this fic has been removed from AO3, so I didn't feel comfortable publicly sharing a link outside the writer's control or wishes (though I'm sure folks can find copies if they go looking), but I couldn't not mention this absolute classic which is one of my favorite fake dating fics ever.

Pull Me Under by Zarah5 (140140, Explicit, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson) Warnings: Homophobia, paparazzi harassment/stalking

Louis is a famous footballer outed against his will, Harry agrees to be his fake boyfriend to quell stereotypes and speculation.

Reccer says: Pining, emotion, beautiful writing... a fandom classic. Watching the delicate dance as they get to know each other and trust each other and learn from each other is beautiful. Zarah always does miscommunication so believably and realistically, where you can see exactly where things went awry but you still want to shake them because OH MY GOD YOU BOTH LOVE EACH OTHER

Read, reblog, kudos, and comment to your heart's content.

New category announcement coming soon!

[sivavakkiyar]

“The Exeter Book gives no authors and no titles to the 193 poems it now contains; nor are solutions given for the Riddles…Riddle 75 consists of a single line of verse: Ic ane geseah idese sittan. Literally construed, this reads: ‘I a single saw woman sitting’; the adjective ane (one) qualifies the noun idese (woman). My first translation of this read: ‘I saw a woman sit alone’. Initial vowels alliterate in Old English verse; ane and idese agree in sound as well as grammatically; both are in the accusative case.

Some scholars have thought this one-line riddle incomplete. It had no accepted solution. A woman might sit alone for various reasons. I received a postcard which suggested that the answer might be ‘A Hen’. Another reader wrote proposing ‘The Moon’, which was attractive, though Old English se mona is masculine. I remained undecided, assuming all the while that the woman must be the subject. She might be lonely, like the women who speak the Exeter Book poems Wulf and Eadwacer and The Wife’s Lament; or like the speaker of Ezra Pound’s version translated from the Chinese, ‘The Jewel Stair’s Greivance’. I was still looking in this direction when another postcard came with what must be the correct solution: ‘A Mirror’.”

—-Michael Alexander, The First Poems In English

[metamorphesque]

when you're translating, mustn't it be difficult not to get distracted by the splendour or pain of these poems? how do you sit down and review things solely academically?

oof that's a good one!

(First, I'd like to preface this by saying that I'm not a professional translator, nor do I have any formal qualifications in translation. Of course, I don't believe that either is strictly necessary to translate, but I wanted to mention this as my answer might differ greatly from what you’d get from “professional and qualified” translators.)

For me, translating poetry is like walking a tightrope between two worlds — the academic and the deeply personal. It’s not just about the mechanics of language or a, so to say, clinical transfer of meaning; it’s about diving into the soul of the work and letting it resonate with you and within you. The beauty or pain of a poem isn’t a distraction—it’s the very essence that guides the translation. The emotional pull isn’t something to avoid; it’s the core that makes the work meaningful.

When I translate, I’m not doing it solely academically. The academic aspect provides the structure, like the bones of a body, but the emotions, the beauty, and the pain are the flesh and blood that give it life. Of course, it’s easy to get carried away by the beauty and tenderness, and in my opinion, it’s only by "losing yourself" to the poem and letting it flow through your veins that you find the right words and sentiments to express the "heart" of the writing. It’s a dance between precision and passion.

Additionally, I think the fact that I’ve spent my life surrounded by these works makes me more receptive and my skin more permeable to them. I don’t know. A great question—a mess of an answer hehe