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canonicallyobserving911 · 3 months

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Buck & Eddie: 2023 - 2024 Rereleased and Unreleased Photos

A timeline of the photos that were released by JS, JCC & TM since 6B.

After TM (9-1-1 showrunner) recently released two "never before seen pictures" of Buck and Eddie, one as recent as last night, I started thinking about all the photos and videos that have been released of them since the start of 6B and it was quite interesting to see it all once I put them together.

Reminder, Buck and Eddie were barely shown to be work partners let alone friends for 98% of 6A and after 6x13 aired, they were shown to be living separate lives again for the remainder of 6B after Eddie was forced into dating again even though he said he wasn't ready. Aside from the Buckley-Diaz Family scene in 6x1 and the small amount of time they shared at the end of 6x7 and the time they were partnered in 6x13 (my favorite episode which was the finale for me since the last 5 episodes could have been yeeted to the sun); they didn't work side-by-side like they did before Eddie quit the 118 in 5x10. That's why the timing of the rereleased and unreleased photos and video is so jarring.

First, in April 2023, JS released the picture below of Buck and Eddie at the poker game before 6x13 aired and he spent most of that three-week mini hiatus counting down to the day when he was going to reveal it on Twitter or X or whatever it's called this week.

Second, in April 2023, a photo of the clapperboard was released weeks in advance for 6x17 which was an episode JCC directed. It includes a picture of Buck and Eddie at the bottom of it.

Third, also in April 2023, after 6x15 aired, several posts alluded to Twitter users being in an uproar about the introduction of ND and how Buck hurt Eddie’s feelings with that BS line about her seeing him (which everyone but Buck knows was a bunch of BS).

Don't try to debate me on this because Buck’s words hurt Eddie and it doesn't matter if they were intentional or not. He broke Eddie’s heart with that $hit so... I digress because thinking about it still pisses me off (it's been months but I'm still not over the way S6 ended).

Anyway, it was posted on Reddit (linked here) that JCC posted the photo from season 3 below on 9-1-1's TikTok account but the question is why would he release it since he didn't direct 6x15? The OP of the thread explained how he never posts things about episodes he didn't direct so it was interesting to read this information but since I only saw it on Reddit and nowhere else, it's unclear if there was a motive behind it.

Full disclosure: I don't have a Reddit or TikTok account, so I don't know if this post was legit but the date on it is April 25, 2023.

Fourth, in May 2023, right before 6x18 aired, TM decided to release a video of Buck and Eddie from season 2 but why did he do that? Especially right before that BS episode that had Eddie acting like he was in high school again and giggling over some chick he witnessed almost kiss her brother in the mouth in 6x5 and Buck settling once again for a woman who only wanted to use him for his "Firehose" and nothing else like AC, AM and TK did?

What exactly was the point? Was he trying to tell viewers something or was he just piddling around on FB like he did last year when he responded to a viewer with a long post about the storytelling decisions he greenlit for LS?

Reminder, TM was working on LS for the past two seasons while he left OG in the hands of KR who literally destroyed all of Buck’s character development and growth by regressing him with TK, LD and now ND. Seasons 5 and 6 went into a tailspin of Buck not growing or learning from his mistakes and the responsibility for that lies solely at the showrunner's feet and who was in charge? It was KR.

The way Buck's gazillion storylines ended was not long form storytelling especially since he was constantly being regressed. He said he didn't want to make the same mistakes but he kept making them and instead of letting him go back to therapy (which he clearly needs) she let him flounder and read self-help books and donate his sperm to that loser Connor (reminder Connor wanted to run out on his pregnant wife because the baby wasn't biologically his but I still believe the baby is his and not Buck's). She wouldn't let him talk to the team like he used to do so they could offer him some good advice about the important life decisions he was trying to make but in Season 5 she had no problem letting Buck tell the 118 about his dumpster fire of a relationship with TK.

Fifth, in January 2024, TM was at it again with posts on Facebook (I don't use FB) but this time he posted two unreleased photos of Buck and Eddie. Apparently, he released the one below a few days ago but it was discovered by a blogger who posted it on 911blr. Based on Eddie's appearance, it looks like it may have been from season 5, possibly sometime around 5x16 "May Day" but who knows.

Sixth, last night, the photo below was released by TM and it's never been seen before either. Based on Eddie’s appearance, this picture looks NEW like it might be from Season 7 but who knows with all the unreleased promos and pics from previous seasons that started circulating in S6.

In the photos above, Buck and Eddie are shown in every season except for the most important one... Season 4. The shooting is missing and so is the will reveal. (I don't count the picture on the clapperboard because it appears to be one JCC added to it for whatever reason and it wasn't an official photo or video like the others.)

So, are they still using the shooting and the will as the catalyst for them becoming a CANON couple? Only they know what they're doing but whatever it is the question has become why are they doing all these cryptic Buck and Eddie posts and releasing photos of just the two of them? What are they trying to say, if anything?

Hopefully it's not so they can do a repeat of the things they did at the end of seasons 4 and 6 and delay them getting together yet again.

If they're going to finally let them be together then it's time to stop with the delay tactics and get rid of all those one-dimensional LIs. Leave N and M in season 6 where they first appeared and should have remained.

If they aren't planning to make Buck and Eddie CANON then they should let them stay single. It's been 6 years; how long do they realistically believe viewers who actually care about them as characters are going to keep waiting? In the past, actors and actresses have left shows around the fifth, sixth and seventh seasons so hopefully that won't happen on 9-1-1 but nobody has time to wait around for 15 seasons for Buck and Eddie to get together.

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tnt-kokoo · 1 month

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Kiwis

pairings: Shidou Ryusei x ()reader

summary: kiwis are sour but you'll grow to like it. (I saw it on a tt, I forgot the user and didn't save the vid so if you'll find the person please tell me 😭😭)

warning: takes place before blue lock; there will be a creep; swearing

masterlist

Being new to a school has always been hard for everyone, especially if you're nowhere near as social as the people in your new class. One guy is especially 'social' as you may call it.

Shidou Ryusei.

He manages to not only anger every teacher by not doing his stuff but also pisses of the school director by disrespecting the school uniform code. His messily dyed hair and his not fully buttoned shirt, aswell as his rude (non-existenting) manners, annoys every elder.

Even you have been questioning his ways but never voiced it. Why should you? He is a violent guy after what you've heard. Classmates and people from other classes say they like him but also fear him, they just try to not say it.

Two weeks after you've started to attend this school some girls tried to befriend you but even though they seem nice and funny, all of you know you won't be actual friends. They may talk and help you with small work problems but you wouldn't really call them friends if you were honest. So that's why, waiting for your train after school was boring.

Waiting in the cold train station with the only light being from the exit and the cold and neutral lamps, you've grown to hate, you stand there next to your 'friends' who were in their own world and excluding you completely. But apart from them you've also noticed a few other people from your school, whether they were older or younger or even the same age as you in the same train station. One of them being Shidou Ryusei.

As the next train arrived and drove further and further, the wagon got less and less crowded. You've managed to now sit down infront of the one and only guy who stays himself even with with many people not liking it. All of his friends got off the train a few stations ago so it was only him and you sitting there now.

He wasn't bad looking and apart from his looks, his way of talking and acting got you kinda interested in him even if you would never talk to him. Looking at him while he was looking boredly out of the window felt like stalking and made you sigh as your gaze parted from him.

As your stop got announced you stood up and walked to the door not looking back. It, again felt like a boring and useless day. Like there was nothing you could be happy or proud about.

Days passed and you're still using the same train, going out of the same stops and sitting infront of Shidou Ryusei. At this point he even acknowledged you but didn't care that much to start a conversation.

As the electronic voice said the next station you got up a bit early to just be save, considering today was a rather full day. What you didn't notice in the other hand, was that behind you was an older guy who seemed to be in his own world. With his phone in his hand he went closer to you and while not noticing it yourself, Shidou did. Because then, he pushed the guy away.

"Fucking freak" He said in a loud way not enough to yell but enough for everyone to hear him.

"Taking pictures of girls half of your age, disgusting." He explained in a rude and disgusting way. Before the man could say or do anything, the doors opened and the boy took your arm in his hand and pulled you out with him.

After getting out he nodded at you and left to go his own way.

Standing there looking at his back was like remembering an important core memory. You were so thankfull for him that day, and maybe you miss-charactized him a bit too much.

___________________________________________

As the next chilly day approaches, you had to thank the blond-pink-ish haired classmate of yours. And ehat could be better than a home-cooked lunch? Considering he never seemed to have one of his own, you'd hoped he would appreciate it.

Soon you were on your way to school next to your 'friends' All of them in their own conversations to notice how your hands were shaking. Was it okay? Would he like it? Questions liked these made you more and more anxious as you walked further into school ground.

Never in your life would you have thought you would be searching for the brute first when entering thr classroom. And seeing him there laughing with some other guys made you even more nervous to walk up to him, so you didn't. You waited until lunch break.

As lunch time hits, people stood up fast to go to either the cafeteria or to just go out of the room. So ypu took your chance and walked up behind him while hebwas talking to two other guys who you still didn't learn the names of.

Tipping him on his shoulder felt dreading and even more when whispering, because your voice seemed to got lost, "This is as a thnak you for yesterday." With a small smile you gave it to him (or more like pressed the box in his hand) and walked fast away. That was until he put his hand on your shoulder and answered in a calm and seemingly boring way a simple thanks.

____________________________________________

After that day you noticed the two of you grow closer and closer to eachother, you realized he was your first real friend in your new school now that your'friends' left you. He had his own humor and way to talk but it didn't change much in your relationship, it was really refreshing to be honest.

____________________________________________

ᯓᝰ: Idk why but at the end I lost ideas to write something, it's so bad 😭😭

#blue lock #shidou ryusei #first post #bllk x reader #bllk #blue lock x you #bllk x y/n #help idk what to tag #bllk shidou #shidou ryuusei x reader #ryuusei shidou #shidou ryuusei

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babydr · 28 days

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Car-Hammer: In Defence of a Death Threat

Hey everyone, I fell down a rabbithole after the banning of predstrogen and I had a humor class I needed to do a presentation for a humor class. it's an analysis of the ban and the reactions to it. I figured I should post it because it really opened my eyes to the humor here on tumblr and how it was weaponized. Also I spent hella time on it.

1. Thesis

In this presentation, I am going to analyze the ban of a popular Tumblr user, Predstrogen. Through this analysis, I’ll be able to shed light on the style of humor that is unique to the website, the way that style of humor keeps communities on Tumblr safe, and the way that Tumblr’s CEO tried and failed to silence that humor by villainizing it.

That was a mouthful; now let me explain.

2. Predstrogren

Predstrogen is the username of a blogger by the name of Rita.

A few weeks ago, she posted a transition timeline, a style of post coined by trans people to show their gender transformation progress.

The post was marked as explicit, and Rita was banned.

The misidentification of posts by trans people as sexual content is actually a common occurrence on social media sites (Haimson 5-6),

but it is especially bad on Tumblr, which is ironic considering that it has actively branded itself as the queerest place on the internet. (tumblr dot com the website and app [tumblr]).

3. Matt Mullenweg

Predstrogen was a very popular blog, and this blatant example of discrimination made people frustrated. One user even reached out to the CEO of Tumblr, Matt Mullenweg, to ask him about the ban.

He made a lot of different points in his response, but most importantly in our case, he claimed that the reason Progesterone was banned was because she made threats against Tumblr staff.

Tumblr users were not happy with this response, and one of them asked for an example of a threat. Mullenweg obliged, and posted this:

4. The Threat

This did not satisfy the Tumblr audience. Mullenweg was mocked into oblivion.

But,

He is correct. This is technically a death threat. So why didn’t Tumblr users see it that way?

5. Transgender People and Humor on Tumblr

In Kahente gah-han-de Horn-Miller’s essay “IO STER IS” (yo-ster-is), she discusses the ways that First Peoples use humor.

Obviously, there is a wide gap between the plight of First Peoples and the plight of trans Tumblr users, but many of her points ring true in both cases.

Horn-Miller states that, due to the difference in world views between people groups in First Peoples humor, “What may appear to be funny to some may not be funny at all to others.” (Horn-Miller 22) This is also true for Tumblr’s trans community. The brand of humor in Rita’s “threat” is obvious to anyone who is engaged with the community, but may be incomprehensible to an “untrained eye.”

Horn-Miller also states that the humor of First Peoples is pointed, aiming to “critique, to probe the limits of [their] values and to suggest new possibilities.” (Horn-Miller 40)

This is exactly what Rita was trying to do with her “death threat.” In fact, Rita made a comment underneath the original post clarifying this:

The lack of punctuation is another Tumblr tone indication that this is a sarcastic comment. With this, Rita is clarifying that her joke was a sort of litmus test, a critique of Tumblr’s moderation standards. She was trying to see how long it would take for Tumblr to crack down on her for a joke, as the website was actively dragging its feet moderating real bad actor elements like TERFs. This brings me to my second point…

6. Keep Yourself Safe

Tumblr’s weak moderation policy has hurt trans people, but it has also bolstered anti-trans sentiment. A large community of TERF’s [Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists] thrive on the site without much moderation to keep them away. (Felts 57-58, Hairedtin 68) This has obviously generated backlash.

Take this post, which went viral shortly after Rita’s ban, for example.

This post may look simplistic, even crass, on the surface, but dismissing it as such would do it a disservice.

In her essay, “Teasing, Teaching, Tolerating”, Kristina Fagan, like Horn-Miller, examines humor in the First Peoples communities. Once again, these are vastly different communities, but certain concepts carry over. Fagan claims that the humor that First Peoples cultivate usually has multiple lessons embedded within it. It is rare, she claims, that their humor simply “demonstrates unsuitable behavior.” Instead, it explores “troublesome or contradictory areas of life.” (Fagan 31)

By examining this post through a similar lens, we can see that the humor is not simply demonstrating the unsuitable behavior of telling someone to end their life, but is instead exploring the contradictions inherent to our transphobic world.

Why is it okay for transphobes to tell trans people to kill themselves by denying their identity or their access to medical care or access to their communities [lesson 1], but it isn’t okay to tell transphobes to do the same thing [lesson 2]?

7. Keep Yourself Safe - 2

These aren’t the only lessons, though.

Let’s examine a comment made on this post by another user.

In chapter 8 of his book Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humor, Michael Billig comments on the paradoxical quality of humor as both social and anti-social. Humor can bring people together, and also maintain social order via exclusion. (Billig 22)

The transgender community understands the context of this joke, and thus finds it funny. Moreover, they can find community within this joke, knowing that everyone who finds it funny knows these same truths. The “cishet” elements, not understanding this truth, take issue with this post. Thus, they are effectively marked and driven away by what appears to them as “blatant terrorism.” In this way, the insular community can keep itself safe from outside elements that would threaten them while also outwardly mocking those elements, a defence that is necessitated by the lack of competent moderation.

8. Poor Little Mullenweg

In an attempt to portray himself as a victim, Mullenweg villainized Rita by posting her joke and deliberately misinterpreting it.

In this way, he engaged in unlaughter, a term coined by Billig in his essay. Unlaughter, Billig says, can be “itself a rhetorical presence, speaking volumes of criticism,” effectively silencing laughter. (Billig 16)

Unfortunately, this silencing attempt failed.

Billig explains, “Just as joke-tellers cannot guarantee themselves a reaction of laughter… unlaughter, cannot guarantee to silence the laughter of others… Unlaughter is a favourite target for the laughter of ridicule.” (Billig 17)

In this case, the unlaughter failed because of the context surrounding Mullenweg.

9. Poor Little Mullenweg - 2

In her essay “Comedian Mike Ward v. The Quebec Human Rights Commission”, Christelle Pare examines a defamation case against comedian Mike Ward, brought on by his jokes about a young disabled boy, Jeremy Gabriel. In Ward’s set, he goes as far as joking about drowning Gabriel.

Pare argues Ward’s case, claiming that his jokes were permissible in the context of his “dark humor standup” and that he never intended to harm Gabriel. (Pare, 122)

Rita’s defenders are engaging in a similar argument, claiming that her joke was permissible in the context of “Tumblr” humor (which I have just defined) and that she obviously had no intention to harm Mullenweg.

More importantly, the context that surrounds Rita’s joke is not one of discrimination. Mullenweg is not a disabled child; he is the millionaire CEO of Tumblr. He is not a sympathetic victim.

10. Poor Little Mullenweg - 3

Still, Mullenweg does not falter. Billig claims that “ridicule can be more hurtful than hatred.” (Billeg 19)

Mullenweg, unable to handle his ridicule, is racing towards hatred. In an attempt to weasel out from under the laughter of the Tumblr community, he has refused to engage in the criticism levied against him.

Instead, he is doubling down. So far, he’s made multiple posts smearing Rita, posted her private usernames in an attempt to shame her, and mocked other users for supporting her.

11. What Now?

Interestingly enough, a group of trans Tumblr staff made a post condemning the actions of their boss and CEO, calling them “unwarranted and harmful.” They also plainly state that the car-hammer post quote “does not meet our definition of a realistic threat of violence.” They are in on the joke. They understand what the transgender community has gone through. They end by stating their commitment to preventing harassment and encouraging trans expression on the site. (Staff)

Predstrogen’s ban was unwarranted and harmful, yes, but it was really just a small symptom of a larger system that classifies all forms of trans expression as sexual. By deliberately misinterpreting the humor that transgender communities on Tumblr cultivate and use to keep themselves safe, Mullenweg villainized a trans woman and was made a laughingstock.

By turning himself into a figure of ridicule, Tumblr users who were otherwise unsympathetic to Rita’s cause were galvanized. This is a bitter-sweet point for Rita, who spoke about her experience on another social media site. (clownkiwi) She’s glad that light is being shed on this situation, but is disgruntled that focus is squarely on Mullenweg and not the bigger issue of trans censorship on Tumblr and the internet at large. If people really cared about the censorship that trans women go through on social media sites, she claims, they would have spoken up sooner.

Even after all this, it’s still not about trans women. It’s about the cis guy in power.

#Tumblr staff #Rita #predstrogen #matt mullenweg #photomatt #transmisogyny #staff #transgender #trans rights #🚗🔨⚒️💥#transfem rights #trans woman #transgirl #transfem #mtf trans #drama #avewy #tumblr drama

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boxstudios · 1 year

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Bob Velseb - The Baby Problem P1

This is a repost from ao3 :D This was requested by 2 ao3 users! Reader Pronouns: They/Them Reader Sex: AFAB Word Count: 5,544 Warnings: Smut, Slutshaming, Cockwarming, Unplanned Pregnancy, Pregnant Sex, Breeding

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The thought of having a child was something that definitely crossed your mind. A child running around your home, enjoying life under the care of you and your future Spouse. You chuckled at the thought. You had never really wanted children but you always said If your partner wanted them you wouldn't be against it. It was just all the risks of pregnancy that made you uncomfortable. You'd rather not rip your vagina.

You and Bob had been together for a while and you assumed he must have some fertility issues. With the amount of times he's cum inside of you completely unprotected, you should've been pregnant by now. It made you wonder what exactly the risks of cannibalism are. Was infertility a part of that risk or does it stem from something else? You tried to research it but since there isn't much research on cannibalism as a subject, you were left with no answer. You were perfectly healthy and had no known fertility issues. It didn't matter anyway. Child or No Child you were happy to stay with Bob. It was easier this way. Having a child with Bob would be too complicated.

So here you are, stuffed with Bob's seed as he lays next to you, cock still deep inside you. He was licking your neck from behind and planting kiss after kiss all over it. You both pant heavily as you adjust your position moaning quietly as his cock twitched inside of you. "Oh Darlin'..." He groaned as he attacked your neck again. "Bob…I need to get up…" "Just stay like this a lil longer sweetheart..You feel amazing…" His grip on you tightened slightly. You sighed as you turned your head to look at him. He stared back at you with a smile.

After some time you got up and cleaned yourself up. Bob wanted to get in the shower with you but you shut him down as you knew it would lead to more sex and you had had enough for the night. You carefully washed your scarred up body. Bob loved leaving marks all over you. While it was painful to wash, you liked when he did it. He brought out a secret masochistic side of you that you didn't even know you had. The perfect mix of pain and pleasure always put you on a high. As you washed yourself a wave of his cum rushed out of you. "God.." There was always so much of it. You knew he wasn't exactly 'human' anymore like he explained to you but God damn, he could always go for such a long time and when he did cum He would always overflow you. You continued to wash yourself as the white sticky liquid came out of you.

About a week later you found yourself at work feeling more tired than usual. Your Co-workers were getting worried. "You sure you're ok?" "Yes..I'm fine. Don't worry about me." You excused it as being tired from getting down with Bob last night as you did every night. Your performance was lacking and everyone noticed. Including Bob who was watching you at a table concerned. What was wrong? You'd never been this tired unless you stayed up watching TV all night. Even then you were never THIS out of it. You were being so forgetful and had to constantly be reminded of what orders you were making and you looked exhausted. The most hard working employee was reduced to a sloppy mess. Bob wondered if it was the result of him last night, but he brushed that idea off. There had been a lot of other times where he was both rougher with you and had gone longer and you were still never like this. Your manager eventually had to confront you. "Hun, Are you ok?" "I'm ok Ms Maple." "No you aren't. You should head home. I can take over." "But I-" "No buts. Go home and get some rest." You sighed as you nodded and groaned. "Alright." You quickly went into the back and changed out of your work clothes. You wondered why you were so tired. You quickly clocked out before heading home. Upon arriving at home you quickly flopped on the couch and quickly fell asleep. Later you woke up in the arms of your lover. But he was out of costume. He gently laid your head on his chest as he ran his fingers through your hair. Before he even noticed you woke up, the tiredness dragged you back into sleep.

Another week later you got worse. You started feeling sick to your stomach. You had to call off of work due to how ill you felt. As soon as you told Bob you were feeling ill, he came over immediately to shower you in affection. Kissing you, hugging you, and giving you small words of affection. He couldn't care less if he got sick. He had a rather strong immune system anyway so the chance of that happening was small. Either way he would always come to keep you company. Gently caressing your body. He would hold your hair back if you had to throw up, make you soup to try to help you feel better. Although your appetite made you unable to eat it as just smelling it made you feel worse. He was worried for you. You normally loved the food he cooked. But he was perfectly fine with it. Anything for you. Your emotions were also all over the place. Sometimes you would push him away, wanting to be left alone and then an hour later you would want him to be constantly touching you and would get upset when he let go. The sudden changing of emotions confused him. He had no issue with holding you and not letting you go, but then would be confused 15 minutes later when you don't even want to touch him.

The week after that your cousin came over to visit. She heard you weren't feeling well so she decided to come over and check on you. The two of you sat on the couch talking. You were wrapped up in a blanket as your cousin sat on the other side of the couch. The two of you were talking and laughing until the conversation of you being sick came up. "So what are you sick with?" "I haven't a clue." You chuckled. "I've been throwing up alot, being very tired, and my mood is everywhere." Your cousin chuckled and laughed. "Maybe you're pregnant." She said jokingly. That sentence made you freeze. "What..?" "I'm kidding! I'm kidding! You're still a virgin right? So it's not possible." You looked at her with a serious expression filled with slight horror. "...You are still a virgin…right…?" "..Well-" "(Y/N)!" You flinched when your cousin suddenly raised her voice. "Oh my GOD! Are you serious?! Your parents are gonna kill you!" You deeply sighed. "I'm a grown adult. I can make my own choices." "You're gonna get disowned." Your family was a rather strict family. They held religious family values over anything else and your parents were strong believers in 'No sex until marriage'. "...W-Well.." "We need to get you a pregnancy test. Right now." "W-We shouldn't assume the worst." She stood up and grabbed your hand. "We need to make sure."

There you were at the drugstore with your cousin, buying a few pregnancy tests. You stood there completely nervous. If you were pregnant what would this mean? You didn't know if Bob even wanted kids. You knew the chance of him leaving you was slim but you were anxious. There were also a million other complications. Your family would demand to know who the father is. You could never tell them. Never. Having a baby with a serial killer could be dangerous. You couldn't put Bob on the birth certificate. But your family would shame you. If you couldn't tell them the name of the father, you'd be deemed a slut. An outcast. You'd be disowned in an instant. Also the fact that Bob isn't even HUMAN anymore. That could come with complications of its own. Your cousin looked at you before putting her hand on your shoulder. "Calm down. I'm not upset with you. I'm just worried about you. Y'know?" Her voice sounded calm as she comforted you. She paid for the pregnancy tests for you as the two of you walked out the store.

The two of you stared at the 3 tests in your hand. All positive. You felt yourself freeze as you stared in horror. "Oh my god." Your cousin said before putting her hand on your shoulder. You felt yourself trembling, your knees growing weak as you felt close to passing out. "Come on, sit down." She slowly sat you down on the couch as tears filled your eyes. Her hand not leaving your shoulder. "Who's the father (Y/N)?" You stared up at her. You couldn't tell her it was Bob. What were you supposed to say? What were you supposed to DO!? "I….I…." Hot tears rolled down your face. "I…I don't know…" "You don't know…?" You sniffled and started sobbing. "I DON'T KNOW." She quickly pulled you into a tight hug. "Shhh It's ok…We'll figure something out, ok?" You gripped her tightly. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO AND I'M SCARED!" You sobbed into her shoulder. "I know. I know. Don't worry about it..It's gonna be ok." It took alot to calm you down as you were shaking uncontrollably but she eventually calmed you down enough to where you could speak properly. "So…What are you gonna do with it?" You looked up at her. "H-Huh…?" "Do you plan to keep it..? Or are you gonna get an abortion?" You sniffled as you looked at the floor. "I…I don't know…" She sighed. "It's ok…I'll give you some time to think.." She slowly stood up. "I need to go but I promise we'll talk later." "Ok.." She grabbed her bag. "I'll see you later." "...Later.." She left. Left you feeling stressed out and distraught. You don't know how to feel.

As night fell you sat in your room, pregnancy test in hand. What in the world were you supposed to do..? Suddenly the sound of footsteps came from your room near the window. You quickly hid the test in your pocket before turning around to see the love of your life walking towards you. "You feeling any better darlin'?" He said as he sat down on the bed next to you. He reached his hand out to hold you but the sight of you slightly flinching stopped him right in his tracks. His smile quickly turned into a frown. "What happened?" His Voice quickly turned from sweet to stern. "N-Nothing.." You couldn't look him in the eye. "No hun. You don't ever flinch like that. What. Happened." His Voice growing more serious. "I…." You didn't know what to say. "Darlin' please. What's wrong?" His Voice turned softer. You reached into your pocket. You were hesitant. "I…I have…something to…talk to you about." He looked at you. He was listening clearly. You took a deep breath as you slowly took the test out of your pocket. You were shaking and looking away as you slowly handed the test to him. It was completely silent for a moment before you felt yourself being pulled into a tight hug. It was still silent but the hug was tight. He was left speechless but he was definitely happy. You could hear him chuckle as you felt hot tears land on your shoulder. You had just fulfilled one of his main goals. To have a family with you. "B-Bob..?" He just hugged you tighter. He didn't know what to say, he just wanted to hold you. Hold you tightly forever. "I love you…so much.." Those were the only words you heard before you tightly hugged him back. You were just as emotional as he was as tears started rolling down your face as well.

It was 3 months later. You and your cousin had talked about it. And you decided you were going to keep it. You were now 15 weeks along and your belly was starting to show. Bob was overjoyed. He would find himself resting his head on your lap and rubbing your stomach. He also loved when you would sit on his lap and he could kiss you while rubbing your stomach. He was the happiest man alive. Before meeting you he never would've even considered having kids. But he was a changed man in that regard. He couldn't be happier. You would both be the parents of a lovely child. He gets to spend the rest of his life with you. This child would make sure of that. He's been taking extra good care of you since you got pregnant. Making the food you crave, showering you with all the affection you desire, and giving you space when you need it. He wanted to do everything he could to prevent a miscarriage. What he wasn't prepared for was how horny you would be.

The pregnancy had messed with your hormones a lot. You became extremely needy. Constantly wanting to have sex to the point where Bob had to start refusing you because he didn't know if he could control himself. He wanted to be gentle with you. To take you gently. As much as deep down he wanted to pound the shit out of you because of how hot you looked pregnant with his child, he didn't wanna risk anything. He knew he was a lot bigger than you and could break you so easily. So he decided for now, he'd be soft with you.

He sat on the bed next to you, gently running his fingers through your hair. You slowly climbed on top of him. "Bob…" He looked at him with need deep in your eyes. He chuckled. "(Y/N)." He replied in a smug tone. You slowly started to move your hips grinding against him. "Please…" You whined. You wanted him so bad. "No.." He said before smirking. You pouted. "..Please Bob I need you so bad…" You slowly started to pull on his pants. He was fighting demons right now. He wanted to flip you over and fuck you til you couldn't breathe. But sadly, he had to resist. "Sorry Darlin' not-" He was cut off by the feeling of his dick being stroked. Dammit, you just don't know when to quit. He looked at you to see you lowered his pants and were stroking his large cock. He had to resist. He had to. Don't give in- Ah fuck it. He started groaning as you stroked his cock. He looked at you with hunger, but you could tell he was trying to restrain himself. That's when you slowly removed your pants. He placed his large hand on your thigh. "Sweetheart…fuck…" You slowly let go of his dick before you positioned yourself on top of it, you started to grind. Whimpers and moans came from your delicate mouth. You craved release so badly. You wanted him so badly. "Please…Bob.." You wanted him to ravish you. To fuck you into the mattress. "God Dammit Darlin'.." You felt yourself being lifted up and laid down on the bed as the big man towered over you. "You want it? Fine." He pulled down his pants and boxer all the way before discarding your panties. "But I'm goin' slow." You whined but you knew there was no changing his mind. You'd take what you could get. He positioned himself at your entrance and looked at your helpless face. "So pretty…" He slowly inserted himself into you, being careful as you moaned. "Such a perfect piece of meat…" He slowly started to move. "All for me…" You softly moaned as he entered in and out of you at a slow pace. He looked at your body and placed his hand gently on your stomach. "A perfect piece of meat…with my child inside of it…" You wanted more. He noticed it. He slowly started to bite at your neck as he picked up the pace a bit. Not too much faster, but enough to keep you satisfied. "A-Ah..! Bob..!" He continued to nibble at your neck before removing your shirt. He looked down at you. Your bare belly and breasts on display for him to see and him alone. He then cupped one of your boobs in his hand. You gasped loudly as your boobs were slightly swollen. "My perfect partner…" His hand moved slowly, playing with them and rubbing the nipple. "And their perfect body." You were on a high. While he wasn't as rough as he normally was, he knew how to give you just as much pleasure. He slowly leaned down before taking your nipple into his mouth. You let out a loud moan as you started to tremble. His tongue circling around your nipple in a perfect motion. "Bob..! Fuck! Bob..!" You could feel yourself getting closer to release as Bob picked up the pace a little more as he grew closer to his release as well. He took his mouth off of your boob and stared down at you with a look of hunger. "Yes..! More! Please!" Your voice faded into pure moaning. Bob panted as he felt you tighten as you came. You let out a loud and long moan. That's it, that's what sent him over the edge. He quickly pulled out of you as he came all over your chest and stomach. A wave of cum covered your body as he let out a long sigh. You looked up at him with a pouty face. You wanted him to cum inside of you. You looked down at your cum covered body. Bob then started to lick your body from your sensitive chest to your twitching clit. He licked every drop of cum off your body before looking down at your dumbfucked face. He smiled as he laid down next to you and caressed your body gently. You leaned into him as you both laid completely naked. He rubbed his hand on your stomach.

Your cousin had taken you to get an ultrasound and to make sure the baby was healthy. And they were. The doctors were unfortunately unable to tell the baby's gender due to unknown complications. They wanted to do some tests on you to figure out what the complications were but they couldn't identify the problem. It didn't matter to you as long as your baby was healthy. You didn't give two fucks about what the gender of the baby was. You took the ultrasound pictures home to show Bob and he was quite literally shaking out of pure joy as he stared at the pictures. He started to tear up. It warmed your heart to see him so excited to be a father. However anxiety never left you. You were still going to have to tell your family as a family gathering was coming up and everyone wanted you to attend. You were also worried about what exactly this baby was going to be. You questioned Bob about what exactly he became after he stopped being human. He was confused as well and said he didn't know for sure but assumed he was a demon. You questioned why he thought he was a demon. Then it came to life that his demon costume was in fact not a costume, but a second form. You were very shocked to find out this information. He chuckled as he thought you already knew when he told you he technically wasn't human anymore. Then worry filled you again. What if this was the complication that doctors were having with the pregnancy? What if it resulted in you miscarrying? Bob noticed you getting anxious and carefully hugged you and reassured you that it would all be fine.

Then it was time for the family gathering. Your cousin helped you mentally prepare for this day. You were about 6 months along at this point and your boss had already had you take a maternity leave. You tried to convince her that you would be fine working for a little longer but she decided you definitely needed a break after working for them for so many years. You wore a long sweater that covered your belly. You had brought in your original pregnancy test to show to your family. You were the most anxious you've ever been. You knew you would be shamed, disowned, and most likely hated by the rest of your family but you didn't care. Yes it would hurt but you would start a new life with Bob and this child. It would all be ok. You hoped.

You sat at the dining room table as you kicked your legs slowly. Anxiety was feeling you to the brim as your family members walked around eating food and chatting. Your cousin was sitting right next to you trying to keep you calm. Eventually everyone sat down to eat together. Your father looked at you. "What's wrong with you kiddo? Why the long face?" He laughed a bit. You took a deep breath before you stood up. Everyone at the table turned to look at you. You felt yourself start to tremble as you opened your mouth to say something. Your mouth remained open, nothing coming out for a few seconds. "I…" Your whole family's eyes on you. "I have something to tell you all…" You felt as though you were about to cry. "This is news you probably aren't going to like…But…I can't hide it…" You said, voice shaky. Your parents raised their brows at you before you walked over to them with a little box in hand. "Mom, Dad, I want you to open this." You placed it down in front of them before taking a large step back. "(Y/N) what is this about?" Your mother questioned. "Just open the box…" You frowned with a shaky breath. Your dad carefully grabbed the Box before taking off the lid. He froze when he found what was inside. A positive pregnancy test. Your mother took the box from him and froze as well. Suddenly your father quickly stood up before walking towards you. You quickly started backing away. "(Y/N) (M/N) (L/N) Is this a fucking joke?" Your mother quickly stood up too and grabbed his arm and tried to pull him back. "Hunny calm down!" She said. "IS THIS A FUCKING JOKE?!" He shouted as you sniffled. You were backed into a corner. The rest of your family members took a moment to look inside of the box. The younger members of the family looked stunned, while the older family members looked angry. "N-No…." You felt yourself tear up as you looked at your father with fear. "You aren't EVEN FUCKING MARRIED. YOU KNOW THE MAIN RULE THAT THIS FAMILY HAS. NO SEX BEFORE FUCKING MARRIAGE." He screamed in your face as your mother tried to pull him back. You uncle also got up. "Bro calm down." "NO IM NOT GONNA FUCKING CALM DOWN!" You started to cry, your breathing grew heavy as you started having a panic attack. "The poor kid is panicking! Just leave them alone!" Your uncle said. "WHO'S THE FATHER? WHO'S THE FUCKING BASTARD WHO GOT YOU PREGNANT?!" He yelled in your face. You sobbed louder as you started to break down. "I DON'T KNOW… I DON'T KNOW." Your father looked at you stunned. "You don't know..? So you've been going around and sleeping with multiple PEOPLE?!" "NO! I WOULD NEVE-" "THEN WHO'S THE FATHER (Y/N)?! WHO'S THE DAMN FATHER!?" Your uncle and your mother quickly dragged your father away from you who was yelling harmful words. Your younger family members walked over to you to comfort you as you were breaking down. You could never really handle being yelled at. The older members of the family were shooting you nasty looks. Eventually your mother escorted you outside to get some fresh air. "Hey, Hey. It's ok sweetheart…" You sniffled as you looked at your mother slightly confused. " I'm not upset with you, don't worry. The whole "No sex before marriage" thing came from your father's family." You looked at her stunned before tightly hugging her. "It's ok baby. Don't worry. Mama's gotcha.." You sobbed into her shoulder.

After you were done crying your mother helped you fix yourself up. She told you about how excited she was to be a grandmother. The rest of the night your dad was shooting you nasty looks just like the other Elder members of the family. After a long night of stress you returned home to find your boyfriend already laying in your bed waiting for you. You ran over to him and started crying as you vented about your stressful day. He was more than pissed off to say the least however he kept it to himself as he gently held you and comforted you. You fell asleep in his big arms.

You were watching TV when your water broke. You didn't even notice until you felt the couch grow wet under you. You just stared at the wet spot on your couch. You thought you pissed yourself first and were about to clean it up. You then got an odd feeling of discomfort in your stomach. You then remembered it was 3 days before your due date. Panic settled in. You quickly grabbed your stuff and ran out to the car. You started to quickly drive yourself to the hospital. You called your cousin and mother and they both said they would be there. You then called Bob but he wouldn't pick up the phone. Perhaps he was busy. It was alright. It wasn't like he could come to the hospital anyway. You'd tell him later. You quickly parked in the parking lot before making your way inside. The discomfort started to turn into pain as you walked inside. You quickly walked up to the counter. The lady looked at you and knew before you even said a word. She quickly walked from the counter and grabbed a wheelchair. "Please sit here. I'll take you to the LDR." You nodded as you sat down. She started to push you towards a room. "Did you come here with anyone?" She asked. "No.. Ugh- my Mom and my cousin said they're on their way.." She nodded before taking you to the LDR.

The birth was a long and painful process that lasted hours. Your mother and your cousin eventually arrived and were there for you the whole way. Your father didn’t even bother to come. Your mother held your hand as you went through the pushing process. Your cousin looked like she was gonna pass out. She'd never seen someone give birth and it made her feel sick. After it was all over there was with your beautiful baby girl. She cried the moment she came into the world and she still cried in your arms. Your mother started crying at the sight of her beautiful grandbaby. Your cousin had to leave the room due to feeling sick. You felt exhausted. The nurses put your baby in a little crib as you rested. You were exhausted. What you fail to notice is that Bob was calling your phone repeatedly.

He was at your house panicking. Anxious. He knew when he saw the stain on the couch that you'd gone into Labor. Your mother and cousin eventually left after admiring the baby and congratulating you. After you woke up you looked at your phone to see the amount of calls from Bob. You knew he was worried sick. You looked over at your baby who was sleeping soundly. It made you emotional that you brought that little thing into the world. It gave you a warm feeling inside. Parental Love. You took a picture of your baby girl and sent it to Bob. 'Meet your daughter. :) What are we gonna name her?' Bob saw the text almost instantly. He stared at the picture as his eyes grew wide. He had a little girl. An adorable little girl. He got extremely emotional and started spam texting you about how happy he was and about how much he loved you. Happy tears rolled down his face as he just stared at his new daughter. He couldn't wait to hold her and take care of her. You decided to give Bob the honors of naming her as he couldn't be there for the birth. After naming about 50 names and being unable to decide on one, he chose Grace. A sweet yet simple name that you both liked.

After you got discharged and returned home with your baby girl Bob was over the moon to meet his little baby. Looking at her for the first time he got emotional and started crying on your shoulder. Teaching him how to take care of her wasn't easy though. It took an hour to even get him to hold her as he feared he would accidentally hurt her due to his big size, but when he did though, he wouldn't let her go. He would constantly be holding her and carrying her. He was attached to her like a magnet. She was scared of him at first and cried when even looking at him which made him sad as he feared his child wouldn't like him, but the more time they spent together the more she wanted to be around him. She would start crying sometimes when he would put her down which gave him all the more reason to hold her. He watched as you breastfeed her. He made a joke saying "When is it gonna be my turn?" Which made you laugh uncontrollably. She would cry when she was placed in the crib you two bought which caused Bob to swoop her up in his arms. Bob was rather good and changing her diaper and cleaning up her vomit. Grace definitely liked him more than you. When she would stop drinking breast milk, Bob would make her formula and feed her.

When you started working again, Bob would be the one watching her during the day. When both of you were busy, your mother would watch her for you. Your father sadly wanted nothing to do with her. Bob loved taking care of her and would often fall asleep with her resting on top of him or next to him. Who knew your murderous bear of a lover could be so soft and gentle with children. He would sometimes joke about her growing up to be just like him. You shut that idea down faster than Lighting McQueen could say "KaChow". She did really love him though. When she started to babble, Bob would start having pretend conversations with her. "Abababababa!" "How interesting..tell me more pumpkin." "Babababababab." Those were little exchanges you would overheard on the daily. Pumpkin was his little Nickname for her.

One stressful night Bob came home covered in blood forgetting to clean himself off. You woke up in the middle of the night to him standing in the middle of the room covered in blood. He tried to reach for the baby but you smacked his hand away. "Go wash your damn hands." You said sternly as he pouted a bit. He just wanted nothing more than to snuggle with his lovely partner and his child.

As Grace grew, she and Bob grew more close. She was definitely a daddy's girl. Bob spoiled her too. Giving her candy when he isn't supposed to, letting her stay up later than she should, and some other things. When she started crawling, she would constantly crawl after him when he would walk around.

He's extremely protective of her as well. Just the thought of her hurt scares him. When she was learning to walk, he would panic every time she fell. "Bob, she's fine." "I don't think she's ready to walk." "Hun falling is apart of how she learns." "What if she hurts herself?" "A small fall won't hurt her." "But what if it does?" " B O B ." Her fragileness scares the crap out of him.

She has a weird tendency to hide in random places and has given Bob multiple heart attacks when he can't find her. When that happens he refuses to let her out of his sight for even a second.

He does his best to hide his darker side from his daughter. Always keeping his equipment in hard-to-reach places, and he refuses to let her see him when he's angry. He doesn't want his daughter to bear witness to that side of him. The last thing he wants his daughter to be scared of him. he loves her so much

He loves both you and your daughter dearly. If you told past him that he'd be happy in a relationship with a child he would laugh in your face. He somehow manages to juggle both his murder life and his family life without losing his character.

"What if we have another-" " No ."

#bob velseb #bob is so hot help me #bob velseb x reader #bob velseb x you #spooky month bob velseb #spooky month #sr pelo #spooky month x reader #the baby problem #box_studios

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cleolinda · 1 year

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Santal Blush (Tom Ford, 2011)

(tomford.com)

A textured fusion celebrating sandalwood, SANTAL BLUSH presents exotic spices enhanced with luxe ylang ylang, warm cinnamon, and sumptuous woods – seducing with a modern, second-skin warmth.

Notes: Sandalwood, cinnamon, cumin, fenugreek, carrot seed, jasmine, rose, ylang ylang, benzoin, agarwood, musk.

So I've told you some stories about wrangling really intense fragrances using my "Dab on three particles. No sudden movements. Do not look it in the eye" method. I did this with Chanel No. 5 and the aldehydes still gave me a panic attack; I did it with Not A Perfume and still got an instantaneous headache. I got some beautiful shape-shifting effects from Mitsouko and Coco Mademoiselle. Even at such low amounts, I am, in fact, getting what the perfume is meant to do.

Sometimes I don't. Santal Blush is the story of the time "just try one whole molecule" did not work.

Here's my clickbait read-more: The sixth time was the charm.

I do read reviews in advance to get an idea of how a perfume shows up on other users' skin—the notes, the olfactory textures, the opening and the eventual drydown. So I did know that Santal Blush is unusually subtle for a Tom Ford, a brand I associate with being expensive as fuck very strong. My only experience with the brand before this was trying Tobacco Vanille in a Sephora, which I loved so much that I kept the tester strip to scent my purse—my whole-ass purse, for a full week. It's not a timid brand.

So I try a dab of Santal Blush five times, and all I get is a witheringly dry Australian sandalwood with cinnamon. Like, I can feel this thing sucking the moisture out of the back of my throat, it's so dry. Within two or three hours, it was barely there—and reviews say it's supposed to really last on your skin. "It's creamy, it's floral, it's powdery." Fuck off, no it's not, I said, baffled. Where is the blush in this thing, conceptually? Why is it even called that?

Finally, I buckled down and slathered it on. And by "slather" I mean "a smear on the back of my hand the size of a quarter." A WHOOSH of floral came out, to my entire surprise—the classic [(rose-jasmine) + maybe (ylang-ylang and/or tuberose)] combination that you can see in the development of perfumes for a hundred years now. Just in the ones I've written about, you see it in the two Coco Mademoiselles, the No. 5 formulations, Mitsouko, the Samsaras, Hypnotic Poison, and even Tyrannosaurus Rex, somehow. And when I write about Jean Patou's Joy in the next few weeks, you're going to see it spotlighted there.

And this is a floral building block that's amazing with sandalwood; in Samsara last week, it merged with Mysore sandalwood in the old and Australian in the new. In Chanel No. 5 Eau Première (the variant I can stand), the ylang-sandalwood combination is gorgeous. And in Santal Blush, mingled with the heat of cinnamon, that floral compound is the blush. Imagine being shoved onstage, being mortified and unprepared and flushed—and then you discover that you actually like being there, you're maybe a born performer after all. Santal Blush isn't a loud or showy fragrance (on me, at least), but it's an interesting mix of vulnerable beauty turning into confidence.

So I tried it a seventh time, a big smear on my wrist. No floral. What.

An eighth time. Bigger smear. Wrist. No floral.

A NINTH time, the back of my hand. BOOOOOOSH. ~JASMINE

I cannot explain this. See, I often wear fragrance on the back of my hand because I type so much; if it's on my wrists, I'm just crushing perfume into my laptop. I know the back of the hand isn't a pulse point, but I get a nice waft of scent now and then while I'm working (alone, not bothering anyone). I would have thought that my wrists would have done more for the perfume, but no: Santal Blush only gets interesting on the back of my hand.

The sandalwood is still, however, dry as fuck. I even went and checked my sample of Nemat's Australian sandalwood oil—it has the same characteristic cedar-like pencil-shaving quality, but it also has a lovely citrus aspect, somehow, that keeps it from smelling actually scratchy. An even cheaper essential oil I had was lower quality, but still smoother than Santal Blush. What this tells me is that you don't end up a sandalwood fragrance THIS DRY unless you get up early in the morning and put some work into it.

I don't know why Tom Ford—or rather, perfumer Yann Vasnier—went this route, but Santal Blush is clearly leaning into the comparative dryness of Australian sandalwood, supporting it with the bark of a cinnamon stick, “sweaty” cumin, maple syrup-inflected fenugreek, and woody, earthy carrot seed. It even uses benzoin (a mild vanillic resin said have a touch of cinnamon) rather than a creamy or fruity vanilla. And this is the same variety of sandalwood (give or take some specific synthetics, probably) used in the new Samsara, mind you. That current formulation uses its floral building block—rose, jasmine, and its spicy, Juicy Fruit-y ylang-ylang—to offset the dryness of Santalum spicatum, and its green top notes give the perfume an airy, unexpected freshness. Back to Santal Blush—whatever components were actually used, Vasnier emphasizes (to my nose) jasmine and the spicy aspect of ylang rather than the creamy or fruity—no "bubblegum" note. As far as I can tell, everything in this fragrance has been engineered to be as arid as possible.

I'm not sure why, exactly. "Parched" is not really my association with blushing, unless the point is make the woody base so dry that the spicy floral really stands apart as a metaphorical rush of blood rising to the surface. If that's the case, then this perfume only works "correctly" on the back of my hand.

What do I get on my wrist, then?

The sandalwood

Not much

The cumin

When I was a teenager in the '90s and used a portable CD player with a headphone jack, I used to like to pull it halfway out; I'd have to turn the volume way up to hear it, but I'd get a somewhat muffled background layer of whichever song (mostly bass guitar, drums, and background vocals) that fascinated me. Putting this perfume on my wrist is like pulling the jack halfway out of Santal Blush. I don't get much cumin even considering that, but I can start to smell the idea of the human body beneath the blush.

Cumin is a real interesting note to throw in here, by the way. It's often used to give a note of "sweat" or "body musk," and I know this because people constantly complain about it on fragrance sites and forums. As Angela at Now Smell This writes,

Few notes in fragrance are as polarizing as cumin. Some people associate cumin with sweat or food, and even the tiniest hint of it will cause them to double-bag a perfume sample and take it to the garbage can in the backyard. Other people, including me, like the carnal edge cumin adds to a fragrance.

To elaborate a bit on the "carnal" idea, I've posted a story that I can't believe I just told about why you'd put a seemingly unpleasant "body musk" into a fragrance. Short version: it could simply remind you of being sweaty with someone—or it actually could prompt a physical sensation.

(Santal Blush is by no means the only fragrance to use cumin; "cooking spices" in perfume might be a post unto itself, if you want to get into the use of coriander, nutmeg, and caraway. The cumin-forward fragrances I see mentioned most often are Rochas Femme, Jean-Paul Gaultier's Le Mâle, and Alexander McQueen's Kingdom.)

I actually like cumin a lot as a cooking spice that I know mostly from Mexican food, although it's also used in curry, baharat, chili powder, other spice mixes across cuisines, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. But, to put it lightly, a lot of people do not care for it. Much as with oud (which is also in Santal Blush—"agarwood"), this might be a cultural—bias? Lack of appreciation? Or it might just be that it truly doesn't work with an individual's chemistry. (It seems to do fine with mine, albeit faintly here.) As the Fragrenza blog notes,

Cumin, however, is a unique spice due to its animal-like note, which imparts a sensual, strong, and persistent aroma to fragrance compositions. While the odor can sometimes resemble sweat, animal notes in perfumery are highly useful for their capacity to fix other components and enhance their scents. When used precisely and sparingly, cumin lends strength and character to fragrances.

At Côté Bougie, "5 unusual facts to know about the scent kamoun (cumin)":

The use of cumin goes back so far that it is even mentioned in the Old Testament and in various Greek writings. Its oldest trace of use has been dated to at least 5000 years ago and located in the Nile Valley region. It was present in the pharaonic tombs without doubt for its unique scent. In the Middle Ages, it was used as currency. And in ancient times, it was used as a pepper in cooking thanks to its very aromatic flavor. [...] Cumin has always been known for its powerful smell. It gives off a spicy, woody and aniseed scent. In the family of spicy fragrances, cumin brings a touch apart since it also diffuses an amber note.

Make new friends (I've got a licorice/anise post coming up soon) and keep the old (our pal amber), as they say. And benzoin would support the cumin to create an even more lasting, amber-y effect. The cultural history implied by cumin also underlines the (sigh) "exotic" quality. Fortunately, there's no orientalist storytelling around the name GUERLAIN; the "blush" is an olfactory effect, not a stereotype.

And the cumin, oud, and (unspecified) musk give that blush a human foundation, even though it comes out really lightly on me. It may be that Santal Blush has been recently reformulated for the cheaper, because older reviews speak of a much creamier, longer-lasting fragrance, and I can't get this to last more than 4-5 hours under the best conditions. I would like it to be less dry and more balanced, no matter how much a showcase it's meant to be for Australian sandalwood—like, "moist." I'm trying not to say "moist." Because I don't mean it that way, and now we're just all thinking about me saying it. Maybe I should be meaning it that way—Tom Ford, as a designer and a brand, is out here with fragrances called "Lost Cherry" and "Rose Prick." You wouldn't think I'd have to coax a Tom "Fucking Fabulous" Ford fragrance out onto the stage, but here we are. Maybe Tobacco Vanille will still have some razzle-dazzle by the time I get to it.

Perfume discussion masterpost

#perfume #perfume discussion #perfume: tom ford #note: sandalwood #note: cumin #long post

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miszswan · 1 year

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People You Know - iii

warnings: mentions of blood, death, toxic relationships, child birth

just so that you all know, the tradition thats in this series is entirely fictitious i made it up, unless this tradition is real then yeah i got it from there, i didn't find any Maori traditions like this <3

A whole week had passed, a week since the premiere, a week since Camila told Amiria about her encounter with Jack.

At first Amiria choked on her tea, then she processed what her best friend said, then made a face that would definitely mean something along the lines of, ‘What the actual fuck?’

Then Camila went on and explained everything that he said to her.

But like expected, Amiria didn’t budge. Her decision stayed the same. She didn’t want to see him. She was ready to but that didn’t mean that she wanted to.

Since then Camila and the Campbell women travelled back to Amiria’s house in Atlanta and were preparing for one of Amiria’s favorite traditions and the most significant for her as a new mother.

It was a tradition that was brought into the Campbell family by Aroha herself. Back when Amiria parents were in their early stages of dating her father was invited by his current wife to a very special evening where they celebrate the lives of both the mother and the newest edition to the family. Now to be very honest Aroha’s side of the family births were very peculiar and worrying. From being born in the middle of New York traffic to almost bleeding out during child birth.

The tradition started with Amiria’s great great great grandmother in the 1800s and ever since it’s just continued throughout and has held her family together and strengthened the bonds, especially with the in-laws and no matter how dissolved and faded the Maori side of the family became this was the one with that always stuck.

That’s one of the reasons Amiria absolutely loved the tradition.

It’s the reason she was so excited to begin with.

Having her family in the city that had become a second home to her and them having the opportunity to meet her beautiful baby daughter erased any and all worry that has been in her mind recently.

As Aroha, Camila and Amiria spent a couple days shopping for decorations and ingredients to make Amiria’s favorite foods , she seemed to have completely forgotten about Jack as a whole. All she could remember from the premiere was how much fun she had, dancing, singing and celebrating with her co-stars.

Now all she was feeling was an abundance of excitement. Within the next couple hours all of her closest family would be in her house.

And that’s all she could focus on.

***

camilamendes updated their story

•

LIKED BY urbanwyatt, lilireinhart, druski2funny and 196 898 others

amicampbell: been cooking since 4AM 🫶🏼

[👤] camilamendes

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user: I need this woman to cook for me

↳amicampbells: one day I will babes

user: I smell a family reunion

↳amicampbells: well you’re getting there

doloreskaihe: I will be leaving with leftovers by the way 😌🤞🏽

↳amicampbells: mmmm no

user: has no one gotten closer to figuring out who Amiria’s baby daddy is?

↳user: you do know there’s a reason why she hasn’t told the public

↳user: I get that but the reason can’t be that bad

↳user: I heard something about him being a deadbeat

↳amicampbellfan: can you all just leave her and her daughter alone, it’s not our business to know what happened nor are we entitled to the truth.

user: what’s the name of the marvel show you wrote and directed👀

↳amicampbells: we’ve finished filming but you’ll just have to wait a little longer *cough* comic con *cough*

druski2funny: we’re going to be eating nicely 😁

↳amicampbells: you should get here early or else my cousins and family will eat everything 😗

↳doloreskaihe: excuse you😒

↳margokaihe: little cousin you keep testing me 🤔

↳amicampbells: 🧍🏽‍♀️there is a 3 year difference…calm down

user: is it really a family reunion if druski is going?

↳user: you do know that Amiria and Druski have known eachother for like 6 years … they’re basically siblings

amirialover: btw you’re an amazing mother🫶🏾

↳user: should you really be calling her that when she’s keeping her daughters’ father away from her

user: which marvel movie are you most excited for?

↳amicampbells: DEFINITELY BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER❤️❤️❤️❤️

***

Jack had spent the last couple minutes looking through Camila and Amiria’s stories on Urbans phone as the latter along with Neelam was getting ready to go.

All he could see was the two friends shopping and enjoying themselves, preparing for the festivities that were approaching within the hour.

He smiles to himself as he hears her laugh again, he’d been deprived from the real thing for too long.

That’s how it’s been since she left. Amiria had blocked Jack on everything, from her Twitter to iMessage, Jack had no way to contact her. So he’d use Urbans phone to see how she was doing how Ani was doing even though Amiria hadn’t posted a single picture of her daughter on the internet.

He thought it was smart, kept her out of the public eye, she was far to young for that.

He also knew that she still kept in close contact with their mutual friends that she met through them, but only invited Dru, Neelam and Urban.

Amiria was actually the person who introduced Jack to Druski when she was invited to an event he was hosting. At the time the two had been very good friends for just over a year, were and still are like brother and sister.

Urban and Neelam on the other hand just remained in contact with Amiria and checked on her as much as possible. Sometimes they would visit her when they were in town, especially before the big fight that ended everything.

Even though they’ve all been a lot busier, they still keep in touch.

Part of Jack wanted to beg the three of them to not go but he didn’t want to ruin her day.

With Neelam waiting in the hallway of the hotel the three were staying in, Urban goes to Jacks room to get his phone. He walks in to find Jack lying on his bed with a frown, scrolling through more of her posts or posts of her co stars with her.

When he sees Urban he switches off his phone and gives it back.

“You can’t keep doing this.” Urban scolds as he looks at the state of his best friend. “Especially after the stunt you pulled last week.”

“What else am I supposed to do? She won’t talk to me.”

“You aren’t entitled to a conversation with her.” The moment those words leave his mouth, Jack roles his eyes. “I’m telling you the truth. Ami doesn’t owe you anything. Especially after everything you put her through.”

“I wasn’t that bad.” Jack says trying to defend himself.

“She has the right to take as much time to think about whether she wants you in her and Ani’s lives or not. You have to give her that time.” Urban scoffs. “I thought after fifteen months you’d realise that you genuinely fucked up.”

“So you’re taking her side.”

“Get over yourself! I will always support you but for this I can’t. Amiria is being a mother. She’s protecting her daughter from as much pain as possible and that includes you after you clearly showed her the kind of father you’d be.”

“That’s not fair, I was pissed that day.”

“That’s always been your excuse when it comes to her.” Urban purses his lips as he felt his more protective side come out. “I’m sorry man but Neelam, Dru and I are going to be supportive friends. Clearly this is important because she wouldn’t be having this thing 6 months after Ani was born.”

Urban makes his way to the door. “What do you mean? I thought this was just another family tradition.”

“It is Jack but Amiria told us multiple times that this happens because if the mother or the child or both have a dangerous and risky birth. The same event happened with Mrs Campbell when she was 6 months old, Amiria when she was 6 months old and clearly this is happening because somehow bad happened the day Ani was born.” Urban says quickly before leaving, not being able to see the dumbstruck expression on Jacks face.

If something really bad happened while Amiria was in labour, is there a chance that she could’ve been dead today? Is there a chance that Ani could’ve died in childbirth? Is there a chance that they both could’ve died that day?

He had to try one more time. If he was going to properly give her space he had to let her know how sorry he was. One more time.

***

A few hours had passed and Amiria’s house was filled with her loved ones. Ani was in the arms of her mother for the first two hours before Amiria put the baby in her room for a short nap, while keeping the baby monitor close by.

She’d been talking and catching up with her family. From her grandparents to the youngest cousin of the family only bing twelve. The night was turning out better than she could’ve ever hoped for.

For the past couple minutes, Amiria and Camila had been sitting with Druski, Urban and her cousins Dolores, Margo, Maia and Marcel. Listening to every single embarrassing story that came out of the groups’ mouths. As much as Amiria should be feeling mortified, she was laughing her ass off with the rest of them.

It had been awhile since her family was together. Now this was only like an eighth of them but nevertheless they sent their love. By love I mean parcels and envelopes filled with cards and presents for her and Ani.

She was just happy that her cousins and best friends her getting along so well.

Everything was perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

But the more anxious side of Amiria and her gut told her that something out of the ordinary was going to happen tonight, but like usual Amiria fashion she pushed it to the back of her mind and continued to enjoy her company.

She then hears Ani’s faint cries on the baby monitor. “That’s my cue, I’ll bring her down.” Amiria says as she pushes herself off the couch, takes the monitor with her and goes upstairs.

The moment Ani’s eyes land on the familiar women her cries begin to hush down and she hums to herself as she uses her short chubby squishy arms to reach up for her mother.

A sweet smile forms on both of their faces. Ani let’s put a squeal as Amiria lifts her up and blows into her stomach. The two spend a few moments laughing before the woman moves her to the changing station.

She places gentle kisses on her daughters head as she places her on the table. She quickly unbuttons Ani’s clothes and removes the dirty, foul dipper, wraps it up and throws it away.

“You know everyone downstairs is here for us.” Amiria says to her daughter who just wiggles her tiny fingers in response as her mother wipes her and grabs a fresh dipper. “Because of how far we’ve come together.”

She lifts up the lower part of Ani’s body and slips the dipper under. “And we’ll go very far, just the two of us.” Ani coos as Amiria presses down the straps before taking the dress out of her daughters drawers. “And I will protect you from every single bad thing on the planet. As long as you have me, you’ll never be alone.”

She continues as she slips on the purple dress. “You and me, just the two of us, we’ll be okay.”

That’s something she’d been saying to her daughter quite often, especially recently.

Amiria sticks her pinkie out in-front of the baby, attempting something. Instead Ani wraps her small hand around the finger and pulls it to her mouth. The older woman chuckles as she pulls herself out of her daughters grip, to which the baby responds with a pout. Amiria just watches her daughter with complete adoration before she’s pulled out of her thoughts with a knock on the door.

“Come in!” Amiria says as she zips up Ani’s dress.

She expects it to Camila but she’s shocked but relieved to see Maggie Harlow.

The moment Ani’s grandmother walks in she takes a moment to gaze around the room. The walls coated with lilac paint, beautiful plastic butterflies hang from the ceiling and picture flames scattered across the wall. With her cot in one corner ontop of the soft, plushy carpet, the changing station not to far from it and a matching sofa for the times Amiria, Camila or Aroha would spend keeping an eye on Ani. A box of toys and the wardrobe right next to it.

Maggie hand ever been in Amiria’s new home before. She had visited numerous times back when she lived in her loft. While Jack and Amiria were still dating, she’d sometimes come and visit her while Jack was away. This was a very rare case for Maggie, she often never put this much effort into keeping in touch with Jacks numerous girlfriends but something about Amiria Campbell felt different.

She was much kinder, more mature, compassionate, Maggie could go on and on about why Amiria was perfect for Jack to her husband who would say the same thing. Unfortunately their son poked the bear to much and he lost her.

“This is beautiful.” Maggie says as her eyes scan the room in awe. “Looks much better than in the pictures.”

Amiria giggles as Ani reaches up for her mother and practically clings onto her shirt the moment she’s scooped up into her arms. “Thank you, my dad actually helped with most of this so you should be saying that to him.”

“Only the best for his granddaughter.” Maggie wanders off to look at the pictures on the wall. Some of them had Camila in or Stephen and Aroha in but most of them, in fact six had just Ani and Amiria. Each picture had a date, for every month since she was born. The latest one had been taken today. A few hours ago actually.

Ani in Amiria’s arms; Amiria wears black baggy jeans and a light blue tank top while Ani wears a matching shirt and pants. The twos’ foreheads pressed together and a smile lingering on both of their lips. Maggie could practically picture the moment perfectly and it honestly brought tears to her eyes. The moment was absolutely beautiful. Taken only hours ago.

“She has his curls.” Maggie mumbles, a small smile forms on Amiria’s face, if there was one feature she wanted her daughter to have would definitely be his curls. “And his eyes, your mouth and hair colour.”

There’s a reason why Amiria looked more like her mother than father, it’s simple. The Kaihe women have very, very strong genes. It seems that the only thing that Ani had inherited from Jack would be his hair and eyes, otherwise everything else was completely Kaihe and a little bit of Campbell.

Amira takes a seat on the sofa and Maggie joins her. Ani rests on her mothers lap as she plays with her fingers.

“How have you been?”

“I’ve been surviving, I’ve just been busy these past couple months.”

“Filming must be tiring, especially with this little trouble maker.” Maggie says before tickling the baby’s stomach making sweet giggles escape her mouth.

“It is but it’s all worth it to come back to her. I miss her during the day.”

The two women spend a few more minutes talking before Maggie says something that shocks Amiria. “The first time I met you, I told Jack that he has to marry you.” Amira and Maggie both start laughing. “I’m serious, you were much younger then but I knew that you were perfect for him. Besides you gave me a granddaughter, why wouldn’t I want you to marry him.”

“Sometimes I wonder how different things would be now if I didn’t leave that day.”

“You left because you were doing what was best for you and Ani.” Amiria nods her head in response, she sniffs as she feels the tears form in her eyes and a lump in her throat.

“Do you think I’m a bad mom because I’m not letting Jack be apart of Ani’s life?” By now the tears were streaming down her face, Ani notices and frowns as she reaches out and places her hand on her mothers face.

“I would never think that. Neither does Brian.”

“I want to but I just can’t, not yet.”

“We understand, so when you do make sure it’s on your own accord. Nobody else should force you to do anything. You’re Ani’s mother, it’s your decision.” Maggie reassures her, Ani however sees that her mother is still crying and her lips start to quiver.

“Ani baby, I’m okay. Please don’t cry.” Amiria assures her daughter as she wipes away her tears and places a kiss on her forehead.

Maggie takes Ani just before Amiria stands up to freshen up in the bathroom. Minutes later the two women descend the stairs and join everyone else outside.

Camila had gathered everyone outside for the toast. It was tradition that the grandpa pat of the new born well the parents of the mother were the ones to make it.

Everyone holds a champagne glass of some flavour of sparkling juice. Another tradition, no smoking or alcohol, well anything that wasn’t baby safe at the gathering.

Amiria stands next to Camila with her daughter in her arms and a glass in her right hand. Her friends and family standing on either side while her parents stand across the group.

“Firstly, we’d like to thank all of you for coming to celebrate our beautiful daughter and granddaughter today.” Stephen Campbell starts, a sweet smile forms on Amiria’s face.

“Amiria baby, there will never be enough words that we could use to describe and explain how proud of you we are. How grateful we are that you’re alive, well and healthy. That you’ve managed motherhood and your career.” Aroha Campbell adds, tears start to form in the twos eyes.

“That you’re growing and healing everyday. Despite everything you’ve gone through over the past couple years, you have still managed to keep your shining smile on and raise your daughter.” Stephen continues with his eyes locked on his only child.

“You are everything and more of what we hoped for you. Taku tamahine ataahua,” my beautiful daughter. “I am so proud of you, of the woman you were then, you are now and who you’ll continue to be.”

“So let’s raise our glasses filled with sparkling juices.” Stephen starts making everyone raise their glasses. “For my amazing daughter and precious granddaughter. We wish you both a wonderful future filled with happiness, love and prosperity.”

“So here’s to Amiria and Ani!”

Then everyone screams. “To Amiria and Ani!”

Amiria immediately speeds to her parents with her daughter resting her head against her chest but her eyes still open, observing everyone. The family of three share a special moment as the guests continue talking amongst themselves.

After Amira and her parents play with Ani for a few minutes, her along with Camila go inside and sit on the couch.

Ani sits in between them fiddling with a some of her toys while people walk in an out the kitchen, taking a thing or two off the platters.

Just as Amiria is about to say something to Camilla, Ani nudges her mothers thigh. Amiria knowing what her daughter wants, scoops Ani up into her arms.

“I’m going to warm her a bottle.” She says to her best friend before walking towards the kitchen.

Just as she’s about to join her, Camila hears the doorbell ring and goes to answer the door. Her mistake was not checking the peep hole because the person she was greeted with the moment the open, was the last person who everyone wanted to show up.

“Shit.”

“You have got to be kidding.”

Jack and Camila say at the same time the moment she opens the door.

“You have 5 seconds to explain why you’re here or else I’m getting Mr Campbells machete.” Camila seethes making Jack take a small step backwards.

“I just want to talk to her, apologise again. Just please give me five minutes with her, I know she’s here-“

“Of course she’s here, do you have any fucking idea how important this day is to her?”

On the other side of the house, Druski, Urban, Neelam, Dolores, Marcel and Margo talk amongst themselves in the kitchen.

“Margo, can you please ask camila where she put the bottle I filled this morning.”

“Be right back.” Margo says as she stands up and walks towards Camila.

“Oh crap.” Druski says the moment he notices who Margo and Camila were with. The rest of the group turn their heads in the same direction and see the familiar rapper.

Before Druski, Neelam or Urban can say anything, Marcel and Dolores are speeding towards the three, the former trio scurry after them and are greeted with Jack pleading with the two women.

“Jackman I really think you should leave before Amiria or her parents see you.” Camila insists.

“I don’t think you understand how much our uncle and grandparents hate you.” Margo adds on. “ I didn’t think they were capable of hating anyone actually.”

“Dude, you really have to leave.” Urban says as the eyes of Amiria’s cousins and best friend practically burn into him.

“Just 2 minutes with her please, just let me make this right.” Jack begs once again.

“That’s it, I’m getting the machete.” Camila snaps as she tries to push her way out of the group that had formed behind her.

“I know where Amiria keeps her old cricket bat.” Margo adds on as she follows Camila.

The two women are stopped by Dolores who stops Margo by grabbing onto her shoulder and Urban who quickly takes hold of Camilas’ hand. As the two women try to break free while the others try get Jack to leave, they all seem to not notice the familia giggles coming from the kitchen.

“Margo you can tell Camila I found the bottle.” She pauses as she giggles at her daughters attempts to poke her face. “Stop poking my face!” Ani laughs this time, neither noticing who was at the door but now the group had noticed and they really didn’t know what to do. Jackman on the other hand wore a face of pure glee as she watches his soulmate play with their daughter. “I’m going to go feed her upstairs.”

Then Amiria stops when she notices the group huddling by the door. “What?” She walks closer, then pauses again. They all couldn’t possibly exaggerate when they say they saw all the colour drain from her face. The sparkle in her eyes that had been shining over the past couple hours had been extinguished. The funny thing is, Ani noticed and turned to her mother with a puzzled look before turning towards the unfamiliar man standing in the doorway.

Ani could tell something wasn’t right, this made her cling onto her mother even harder and keep a strong sharp glare on the man in the doorway.

“Jack?” Amiria’s’ voice trembles as the words escape her lips.

“We were trying to get him out-“ Camila begins explaining the situation before Amiria cuts her off.

“It’s okay I’ll talk to him.” Amiria nods to the group making them disperse, Margo and Camila remain.

“Are you sure?” Camila asks her best friend, who is taking deep breaths. The eye contact between her and Jackman hadn’t broken.

Amira lets out a deep breath through her nose as she clenches her jaw, nodding in response. She tries to hand her daughter over to Camila but the baby clings onto her mother shirt.

“Kei te pai mama.” Mama’s okay. “I’m okay baby.” Amiria assures her, Ani reaches up with her small hands to brush away the single tear that Amiria didn’t even realise escaped. She places a gentle kiss on her daughters head before handing her over to her Godmother. She gives Camila the bottle too before she follows the group outside.

Jack who had been waiting outside, had been watching through the window took time to fully appreciate how much Ani was like her mother. The empathy, compassion, the intelligence. From the dark brown tint in her hair to the complexion of her skin and the sound of them giggling together. She was an exact copy of Amiria in his eyes.

Treating her that way was truly his biggest mistake. He’s missed so much already.

Amiria steps onto the front porch of her home and closes the door behind her.

“What do you want Jackman?” Crap she used his full name, he clears his throat.

“Just to talk.”

“Fine talk.”

“I’m really, extremely sorry for everything that happened over the passed couple years.I wish I could take back everything I ever did-“

“Well you can’t.”

“Baby I just want another chance, please.” Amiria scoffs.

“How many times did I have to beg you for another chance when you were clearly in the wrong? How many fucking times did you ever apologise to me? How many months,no years, did I wait and hope you would change?” Amiria’s voice trembles again as she chokes back tears. Not of sadness but of pain and anger. “But my daughter didn’t change you because here you are.”

She takes a step closer, finger in his face. “Fifteen months later and the same self centred, narcissistic, manipulative asshole I left.”

Tears are streaming down both their faces, Jack attempts to cradle Amiria’s face in his hands but she takes a step back.

“Baby, I’m doing this because I love you and miss you.“

“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have treated me like that.”

“Bubs I loved you through all of that I promise you.”

“Then why did you do it?!” Amiria shouts, startling Jack. “Why did you make me feel like no one would ever love me after you, like no one else cared about me, like no one would ever put up with me or take me back if I left you. You made me think that my family and best friends gave up on me because I chose to stay with you. Despite everything you put me through I still loved you and I almost lost everything because of you.” Her breath shudders towards the end, she quickly wipes the tears away. “My career almost went down the drain because of you.”

“I know I hurt you and I’m so sorry for everything that happened but please don’t let what I did to you keep me out of Ani’s life. We need each other to get through this and -“

“Let me make one thing crystal clear.” She says as she takes a step closer, their faces inches apart, if this were normal circumstances then some else would’ve happened because of then small space between them. “We do not need you. Ani doesn’t fucking need you. I didn’t need you when I bled out and flatlined for 2 minutes after giving birth to Ani and I certainly do not need you now.”

“You what?” Jack says with look of pure horror on his face. His gut feeling was right

“I was dead for 2 minutes but Doctor Forbes bought me back and as long as I’m alive I will always protect my daughter. Even from you.” Her index finger touches his chest. “I never want her heart to be broken by you, like you broke mine.

Amiria shakes her head as she wipes away more tears, she walks back to the door. “Oh and Jack, move on dude this is what we are and forever shall be, so I suggest you move on.”

Sooo that was part 3, idk why it took me so long to write this bc dahmet its long

chile...anywhoo

Hope y’all enjoyed

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wawawawawawawawawawawawawa · 5 months

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hiiiiiiii we havent sent you any asks for some time. mostly because kanra didnt front much

[idk if you can recognize us after all the url changes]

ereyesterday our their of pissed suggested getting into an outpatient psychward and told us to think about it. and silver[headmate] made a post on the tumbler saying that this could be a bad idea because somewhat recently i made a hole in a wall and less than a week ago Lyra messed up a cupboard. as if we're the only ones who on occasion damage stuff when angered. this is literally so mean for no reason.

also. a few months ago shinra had an accident with a knife. and we got a fun new 1 inch long scar and possibly a little bit of nerve damage or something. and we were supposed to get some reminder tetanus shot around a month after that since i had no idea when was my previous tetanus shot. and i uhhhhhhh didn't get it since i'm scared of doctors, and it would probably seem quite weird if i went to a doctor about this now

also im sorta balding but. scared of doctors so cant do anything about that

last sunday i was in some social studies class or some other shit. and the teacher said something about how lgbt people were never oppressed in this country. which is a very bold thing to say as someone living in a country in which like a quarter of the area declared itself a "lgbt free zone" and only calmed down a little when the european onion told them that that's probably illegal. and i decided to argue with the teacher a bit. one of the things she said was that sometimes there's dudes in pup masks on pride parades, which invokes disgust and thus should be banned, and. idk why but i kinda expected teachers to have a bit more common sense than 14 year old twitter users. also i came to school wearing a spiked dog collar on a regular basis. [for reasons unrelated to kink.]

well. good thing i'm failing every single one of my classes lmao. at least i won't be invoking disgust in fragile old ladies

also. i just met a doggy and he was very niceys. very soft and friendly. and polite also.

- toby

HOW COULD I NOT RECOGNIZE U MY BESTIE IN CHRIST <3 u changed ur url a binch of times but ur icon remained the same sdlfndnfkjsnsdf so i was able to keep track!

i however do not understand a single word of that first paragraph. if u want my advice, DO NOT. FUCKING GO. TO A PSYCH WARD!!!!! idfc Who it helped, it hurts a lot more than it helps, theres NO WAY to tell which psych wards are good and which are shit. no really let me go thru them all rn:

REFERRALS: most professionals that work in different offices do not know each other on a personal level and may never hear of their bad stories. a doctor that was the chillest coolest doctor id ever met referred me to a psychiatrist that sucked fucking ass shit. there is no way to know for sure

GOOGLE REVIEWS: im gonna b real i dont trust some of those mfs. you seen the guys that go into psych wards? a lot of mentally ill people r internalizers and just accept whatever happens to them, and even if they arent, society looks down on the mentally ill SO MUCH that they could b told "you deserve this bc ur crazy" and due to all this societal gaslighting, theyd agree

REVIEWS ON OTHER WEBSITES: same thing lol

why is this so important? because you cannot Fucking leave a psych ward. an outpatient ward yeah you can leave, but ive been to both in and outpatient and they excert the same level of bullshit control over their patients. in outpatient, one of the therapist told me "you are not mentally ill" and made me cry lol. she MEANT to mean it in a "you're not mentally ill, you're ~suffering from a mental illness~ uwu dont let ur disorder define you" kinda way, but that concept was introduced in therapy..... two days after she told me this. like hello? and then she tried to spin it as like, it was a problem with Me i.e. My PTSD Was Triggered and not She Is Dog Shit At Timing The Explaining Of Concepts.

this place also invited my abuser into group therapy even after me incessantly telling them "this is my abuser, she will use all this against me" and yeah guess what she did immidiatley after lol

dont go to wards.

WRT THE KNIFE: damn :0 thats insane dude, hopefully the nerve damage will heal but from experience its gonna take like, a few years at minimum lmao. i had a Knife Incident involving my pinky and the nerve damage was so bad that i couldnt hold scissors w my pinky in the scissor loop thing but evenchually it got better but it took like 4 years. if the knife was clean and not rusty ur risk of tetanus is pretty low i THINK, do not quote me on this. if ur scared of doctors, look into if ur pharmacy offers tetanus shots! some pharmacies have vaccinations other than flu and covid (which i need 2 get lol rip) so u might be able to get one THERE and not see A Doctor about it!

u dont need a doctor for the balding. minoxidil my dear boy, its at walmart, its the stuff thats in rogaine. you want "minoxidil 5%" thats whats in rogaine, theres "minoxidil 3%" thats For Girls but idk ive never heard of anyone having a problem w it. IT IS TOXIC TO CATS THOUGH IT IS VERY VERY TOXIC TO CATS IF YOU HAVE A CAT DO NOT LET THEM FUCKING TOUCH YOU OR RUB ON YOU UNTIL IT DRIES ok? :) id google more if i were u but boom. problem solved. i am the doctor now

"dog masks invoke disgust and should be banned" babygirl disgust is subjective and like, someone could use that logic to ban whatever YOU like, or Are. maybe someone is really disgusted by lil old ladies bc the wrinkles look gross as fuck to them. should we quarrantine the grandmas?

also lol at the dig against 14 year old internet puritans and then surprise surprise guess what happened on This Very Blog while this ask was sitting n collecting dust!! i gotta b on my best behavior bc theres a nonzero chance that The Feds will be looking at this blog (did u know u dont report cybercrime to local police and instead theres a form on the fbi's website? Well Now You Know!) and that goes 4 all of u too. bart please be good..... for the love of GOD please be good....... please tell me yall know that simpsons scene

also also yay doggy!! was it a regular dog or a dude in a pup mask? either way very fun n cool!!!

#wasks #4 everyone else: im gonna turn asks back on but no anons for a lil while <3 #kanranon #missed u bestie!!!!! i was wondering when ud send another ask #tho ig ur not kanra ur toby sdjnksjdsndf but either way!! a message !!!

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truthdogg · 7 months

Text

As I read the post linked below, it reinforced for me just how much media has changed in the past ten to twenty years. The post itself is a great snapshot of what’s required to understand a news story, and it demonstrates why most news media today is simply not working.

I don’t watch tv news, and haven’t for probably a decade. We have a subscription to the New York Times, but the login rarely works for me, and we’ve let our Washington Post subscription lapse. I get my news from a variety of online newspapers, npr, websites, blogs, and podcasts, and usually do an internet search for anything that sounds interesting or that I want to understand better.

This is a pretty terrible way to keep up with things. It takes a lot of time, and it requires a general knowledge of the ideological slant of the news outlet I’m reading. That means I either have to remember or look up who owns the company and who runs their editorial board, which takes up even more time.

I could save a lot of time by going to one source that not only spells out what just happened, but also tells who loses and who gains, what the impacts will be and how to process it, and perhaps even include links to speech transcripts and legislation for us to read on our own. Good newspapers used to do more of that, but they don’t anymore; instead they simply share the latest quotes about the subject at hand. (“He said this thing, she said a different thing, so you decide for yourself who’s telling the truth. What is truth, anyway?”) So now we need to piece full stories together from multiple sources, just like tumblr user @yiffmaster does above.

It takes a genuine interest in what you’re reading to spend the necessary time that on that. Otherwise all you’ll see are stories about how there’s a new hire at NLRB from SEIU and that upset somebody, or something about the Joy Silk doctrine that makes no sense on its own, or (most likely) that Biden spoke to a worker or two on a picket line somewhere but so did Donald Trump so both parties claim to support workers. It’s all meaningless individual trees standing on their own until you can step back, study, and see the forest.

That’s not to say we never get important dot-connecting well-researched articles. We absolutely do, and there are still plenty of amazing hardworking journalists, but the landscape is so fragmented that it’s hard to know where those articles will come from, whether they can be trusted, or often even how to find or access them. Often they don’t even have dates, so it’s hard to know just how outdated the information even is.

I would love to find a news source that organized its articles by topic and provided outside links. Every story could provide links to relevant info and source material, instead of offhand references. But such a broad news site doesn’t really exist among the sources I read. (TPM might get closest at times, but it’s a tiny company.) instead, an article gets published, it’s out of date a week later, and it remains the top search result for its subject matter for weeks, months or years. Try looking up what the Biden administration did to help rail workers after they went back to work at the start of December 2022, to see what I mean. It’s possible, but you have to already know what you’re looking for. Otherwise all you can find is that they let workers down by forcing them back to work, which isn’t remotely the whole story—what came after that was a very big deal.

But there’s a workaround to all of this that a lot of Americans use to feel they have the full picture. It’s a cable network that does connect all the dots. It ties stories back into an overarching narrative, and explains to viewers how each news story reinforces its narrative. Its viewers tune in for that narrative; they know who is blocking the programs they’re told are good or bad, and who supports the other ones. It’s called FOX News of course, and it’s complete garbage propaganda. It’s also genius in how it works.

There is no good way to deprogram a FOX viewer who’s sucked in, because there is simply no alternative that fully describes the stories that they follow. They’re in an alternative universe of facts that have bits of the real world thrown in for color. The stories that multiple reliable sources do provide cannot counter that narrative on their own, because they simply don’t explain enough. If anything they have the opposite effect, because the FOX viewer is arriving with a set narrative in their mind, and the small story that simply presents arguments with no conclusions will include the argument they’re familiar with. For them to come out of that well of ignorance will require research into multiple sources that they’re simply not going to ever do.

A liberal propaganda outlet to counter it is more than useless—most people who lean left find those annoying and and no one on the right would believe a word of it.

No, what we need is news for today to be organized completely differently, almost like a current events Wikipedia. Publishing a newspaper or making a newscast and sticking them online is borderline ridiculous. They’re only snapshots in time, and without a tree of links to accompany them—perhaps via a link back to a topic main page where that tree of links resides—they often become misinformation fairly quickly.

Many news outlets have taken some baby steps toward something like this, but only with major stories (“Follow our impeachment coverage here!”), and only with their own articles. This relegates other important news (like what the Biden Admin is doing with labor) to a lesser status and keeps these outlets as news gatekeepers, and it undermines their own credibility among doubters by presenting yet another closed system.

We need news sources that are much more comprehensive and committed to providing a full picture if we ever hope to undo the damage and division that propaganda is creating here. I’d love to know if any of you have found such a thing. I haven’t.

#long reads #TLDR: news media is completely divorced from modem reality and needs a comprehensive update #us news #fake news #propaganda

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funnuraba · 6 months

Text

This is a post I didn't want to have to write. It’s about some disturbing things that have been happening in the Vinland Saga Discord server, Somewhere Not Here. This is the one currently attached to the r/VinlandSaga subreddit. And, unfortunately, this involves the mods and at least one leader of the Project Vinland scanlation team, which scanlates a number of series besides Vinland Saga. I've made the decision that the situation is too dangerous and unfixable for me to stay silent any longer.

(If anyone has more to add to what I say here, I just ask that you please not give any identifying details for regular users unless you've cleared it with those involved. Many active users in the Discord talk about being minors on a regular basis and I don’t want them to be endangered over this.)

The Somewhere Not Here server is supposed to be “all ages”, meaning that no NSFW is supposed to get posted, period. According to direct statements the admins have made, that includes even nudity and suggestive scenes from the manga itself. There are no age roles or locked channels to keep minors and adults apart.

The lines I'm drawing for "NSFW" aren't my own personal interpretation, they're based on the mods' own repeated words and rules they've enforced in the past. At least, for people who aren't mods or friends of the mods.

For some time now, these rules have been enforced very rarely. More than a few of the people posting explicit/NSFW things and escalating NSFW conversations have been mods. After seeing it happen a few times and feeling uncomfortable, I discovered to my horror that adults and minors were interacting in these conversations. I’ve reached out to the mods and admins over and over, showing them exactly what was happening and begging for more caution. They’ve done their best to stonewall. (Also, in the process of all this, I've discovered one of the mods is underage and will get pinged/notified for NSFW you report to the mods on Discord or on r/VinlandSaga. Great planning there!)

A few of the mods made a server-wide announcement back when I first contacted them and cracked down for a while, but now it’s started back up. Despite my repeated attempts to explain to them what this looks like, and why it is bad to be doing this in a forum full of teenagers that they advertise as being minor-friendly.

In that February announcement, they pretended they’d just randomly remembered about the rules they came up with themselves.

That was a lie. The announcement was made about a day after I sent an anonymous Reddit PM to two admins including Rill, detailing every disturbing thing I’d seen from their mods in the past few weeks. I gave them dates, channels and names. The server announcement referenced a few rule violations I'd told them about, but only the ones from regular members. A few members apologized jokingly for NSFW posts that they’d made, and the mods responded like it was in fact the fault of random members, and not the moderators of the server actively making things unsafe. I think that was a calculated and malicious choice.

I knew then that I'd be writing this post eventually. But I needed to be absolutely sure I wouldn't be smearing anyone for a one-time mistake. So I waited. There were a couple of minor incidents with mods "forgetting" the no-NSFW rules after February, but no smoking guns. Then around Halloween three different mods went berserk at the same time, and I've had to reach out on Twitter so many times I've lost count.

I’ve wrestled long and hard with how much detail I should post here. There are many admitted minors in this server, and definitely many more who haven’t mentioned it. I don’t want to repost anything sexual that they’ve posted, and my fear is that if I name someone they like, they could get defensive and wind up staying in a dangerous place longer than they would have otherwise. But so many adults are involved in the lies that I’ll just have to say it.

There are three adult mods I’ve seen breaking the rules against NSFW. Tikki is the one I’ve seen doing it the most. She’s tikki.ki on Discord and TikkiTchikita on Twitter/Reddit. She has a Tumblr too, but I don't remember the username because just seeing it pissed me off enough to block her. I can't prove what's in someone else's mind, but I've seen her talking with minors about NSFW subjects over and over and over again, and based on certain facts I can't share safely, I believe she knows exactly what she's doing. I told Rill and the other admin in my first warning that "someone" would be able to produce screencaps making an airtight case for that.

I think they got my hint, and they know I'm right. That's why they made that server announcement within a day. And that's why "21+" mysteriously popped up in Tikki's Twitter bio just days after I sent this to two people who definitely aren't her:

(LAST-MINUTE EDIT: While making sure I have screencaps of everything, I discovered something I hadn't seen before in which Tikki does this with a minor who states their age in the same conversation. Her only previous defense would have been that she doesn't have eyeballs and her memory resets at the end of every day. This is beyond any conceivable defense and I'm no longer nervous about my choice to name names in this post.)

JarkeyBacon (same username on Twitter, Discord and Reddit) and OddHesitation (oxsystem on Discord) are the other ones who've violated the NSFW rules, before and after my first warning to the admins. They've also made it clear that they're ignoring other people breaking these rules. They do it much less frequently. OddHesitation has done it with an underage person, but unlike Tikki I have no proof he knew that. I believe he and JB just don't care what they're doing.

Most recently, JarkeyBacon pinned a post to the top of the #manga-discussion channel. It was a screencap of (exhales) a Twitter foot fetishist telling Yukimura-sensei they want to suck on his feet. I've reached out four times, three times directly to JarkeyBacon, begging for that to at least be unpinned. No response. I'm getting views on those tweets that only he and I would've reasonably seen. He's tweeting and liking things in between. Meaning he's deliberately ignoring me. The foot harassment post is still pinned. So for a week now, every single minor who went into that channel has gotten an unmissable notification for... you know. That.

Rill/Kiekoes (rillant_pv on Twitter and rillant on Discord) is the admin I've contacted the most about all this. He helps run the scanlation group Project Vinland. I've given him chance after chance to turn this around. I don't think he's interested.

Rill was the one who helped Tikki pretend after that server announcement that she was someone who could be trusted around minors, even though he knew exactly what I reported to him. I told him and the other admin, "I can't sugarcoat how bad this looks," hoping they'd be more likely to remove her if I put it in a non-confrontational way. Instead they ignored the evidence I sent them. I'm certain that my recent tweets to Rill have been shared in the private mod channel, because the views and profile clicks are sky high compared to my usual stats. And I know that he shared and acted on at least one tweet, because someone from the server found the Tweet and contacted me within the day.

This is what he helped her do. After reading my very clear warning about her repeatedly, knowingly, talking about this stuff with minors:

She gets to pretend she wasn't the one at fault. She gets to pretend she's safe. That she's the one who's always cared about these rules the most.

I know posts like this are hard to believe without a ton of screencaps. I wrote a much longer post with some very disturbing details, but after wrestling long and hard, I don’t feel like I can post that part without further endangering innocent people. All I can say is that I’ve had this same fandom identity for 15 years now, and that’s what I’m staking on this public statement. I hope anyone who’s followed me for a while knows that I take this subject very seriously and I would never fabricate anything like this. Not to mention that Project Vinland is scanlating two different series I very much want to keep reading.

There are a few screencaps I will post: after I saw that the the mods were getting careless again despite my private warning, I tweeted this at an admin. (I've left a tiny screenshot in there with no username. (CW FOR FICTIONAL CSA: If you right-click and view the image in a new tab, you can zoom in to see a tiny fraction of what's been getting posted in just one channel lately, with moderators clearly active in the same channel on a regular basis. Tikki is the main one ignoring these posts, which are often still visible on the same page when she responds to something else.)

No response, but the Views are very high compared to my usual tweets.

I haven’t been blocked by anyone I tweeted at, and they made that server announcement about the rules one single day after my Reddit PM. They also haven’t made any public statements about how a lunatic is trying to take the server down with fake accusations. Those facts mean they know they can’t risk actively antagonizing me, because I have the screencaps to prove everything I’m saying. They were hoping I'd go away.

(And, guys, if you're reading: my primary concern here is for the minors in your server. If you try dragging any of them in to defend you, obviously I'll have to post the screencaps after all, and explain exactly what I had to report to the admins in that Reddit PM.)

If you're in the server, you can go check the date on that post in #server-announcements for yourself. It's February 4, 2023, one day after I sent my original PM on Reddit. Here's an Evernote draft of the very last version I checked over before copy-pasting it as a PM, plus a few paragraphs to prove how extremely helpful and polite I was:

Wasn't I nice? Obviously I'm not new to the internet, so I was lying about expecting them to deal with it correctly. That never happens with mod friend groups. But I had to give anyone who actually cared about this a fair chance. Either to get the offending mods out, or to get themselves out. Every current mod's had the chance they deserved to get out of this. None of them are willing to run their server safely. Not one single apology from anyone involved.

Since that first PM, I've also learned that one of the Discord/subreddit mods is in high school. In both places, users are directed to report all NSFW content to the mods. I’ve used that rule on the r/VinlandSaga subreddit to report a couple of ugly rape jokes. I know that minors are bound to see those things on the internet--I certainly did--but I would never forward posts like that to a minor for any reason. I’m disturbed to learn I did exactly that without knowing it. I don’t understand how this decision was ever made. I reached out to Rill, asking him to please tell me there was some kind of setup where the underage mod wouldn’t get pinged/notified over reports that could have NSFW content, and again I was ignored.

So. I've counted 3 adult mods bringing up or highlighting NSFW things in the Discord, all of them on multiple occasions. One underage mod who was bafflingly chosen to handle reports that would inevitably include NSFW material. And I've contacted two admins, one of them repeatedly. I know these messages made contact. Because of the views, and the fact that two of the warnings got them into scramble mode, and because every time I've tweeted at Rill or JarkeyBacon over the past week, I see mods mysteriously popping up in some of the Discord's public channels within a short time. I wonder what made them all come into the server to chat???

Here's yesterday:

That tweet of Yukimura's he links to at 8:26, btw, is dated 8:22 by my time. But JarkeyBacon broke his Discord silence at 8:20, meaning he was on Discord and Twitter simultaneously just forty minutes after I tweeted at him at 7:44.

Go ahead and guess what happened during that gap between 10/31 and 11/4.

JarkeyBacon I literally just wanted you to unpin and delete the toe-sucking tweet in your server full of minors. That's all I wanted. You fucked up once back in January, but I didn't name you in my PM, and I wouldn't have named you here otherwise. I would've assumed that was a one-time mistake. What are you doing, man?

At this time, I no longer believe anyone left could be ignorant of what's going on. If they are, then the other mods have deliberately endangered them by keeping them in the dark. I don't think anyone with power is genuinely interested in fixing the horrifying situation in the Somewhere Not Here server. In February, I threw these people a rope to pull them away from the cliff over which they were dangling. They decided to fling themselves back over, while spraying diarrhea all over a bunch of minors they PERSONALLY asked to come hang out under said cliff.

Did you guys really think I'd stop caring?

#vinland saga #project vinland #witch hat atelier #cesare #akatsuki no yona #did you morons really think you could stonewall me lol #nah let's go i'm naming names #tikki #rill #kiekoes #jarkeybacon #oddhesitation #zashisu

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treehouse-void · 1 year

Text

Meeting Family Friends part 1

I know it's been awhile, but I'm back with more stories. Pokemon belongs to Nintendo, Dragon Ball Z, and all characters from it mentioned, belong to Akira Toriyama, Lord X belongs to a Twitter user who goes by losermakesgames, and Mecha Sonic belongs to Takashi Iizuka. Everyone else belongs to @hiddeninthenullandvoid, who is helping me with writing for the next while or so.

It had been a few weeks since had trained with her dad and with various others in the multiverse, such as Goku, Vegeta, and Beerus.She was exhausted, even after a week long break, she still felt her muscles ache from the strain she put on them. Immortale, ever the kind soul, let her take a break back at her own universe, where she was currently relaxing underneath a tree. It was spring, warm weather, the sounds of other pokemon playing in the tall grass, and the smell of fresh air. She took a deep breath of the fresh air, not wanting to do much of anything as she felt her body melt into the ground below her in a relaxing way. She then heard the sound of a portal opening and her father stepping through, the portal closing behind him.

“So, Gia…” X said after it closed. “I hope you’re feeling a bit better from all that training.”

Gia responds that she is, but wishes her soreness would go away as she gets up and rubs her front left leg where she could still feel a bit of leftover pain. He mentions that it’ll take time to heal and to rest for a bit longer. He mentions that it will help her get stronger.While she rests her sore body, X tells Gia why he is here.

“I have a surprise for you. I’d like to take you on a little adventure, show you some of my friends, does that sound good to you?” asks X.

“Sure…beats doing nothing. Can I say goodbye to my friends first?” asks Gia, getting up on all fours.

“Of course,” X responds happily, knowing how important it is to keep in touch with friends.

---

Gia runs off to the usual meeting place, where everyone decides to hang out and play some Pokemon games. Elan looks up from what they’re playing and tackle hugs Gia.

“My father wants me to meet some friends of his,” the female Eevee explained. “So I’m going to be going on a bit of a multiversal road trip for a while. I figured I’d let you guys know ahead of time before I went.”

They all were ok with it, Reme wishing he could go on one someday too while Elan felt like something major was going to happen. The male Eevee made her promise to stay safe with one final hug, and she promised while he hugged back. Water Gun told her “Good luck.” before asking for her to bring back something cool for him.

With the goodbyes said, X picks up Gia and sets her on his shoulder, before focusing his power into a small, rusty ring. The ring expands, becoming larger than X, with a portal opening in the center of the ring. It showed a field of dying grass, with a yellow sky. The scent of blood wafts from the portal, making Gia’s nose scrunch up in disgust. X steps through the ring, and into the strange new world. Once there, the ring closes behind them, and X sets Gia down on the ground. The grass feels rough under Gia, like walking on sandpaper almost. There weren't any sounds of animals to be heard, only the sounds of wind and waves crashing against rocks. It put Gia on edge as she walked through the field, looking up at X, wondering who he was meeting here.

“This place belongs to an old friend of mine, Lord X. He’s a good guy, I think you’ll get along just nicely.”

Gia looks forward again, and spots a strange looking hedgehog, leaning against a tree. She slowly approaches, and the hedgehog turns, facing Gia. They are a bit on the short side, with periwinkle colored fur, black eyes with red X’s for pupils. They smile, their teeth being a dark yellow in color. X waves to them, and they wave back.

“Ah, X, good to see you my friend, what brings you here?” says the hedgehog, whom Gia can only assume is Lord X.

“Good to see you too, I’m taking my daughter Gia on a little adventure. Wanted to introduce her to you first.” says X, motioning to Gia.

Gia waves and introduces herself as the one being talked about. Lord X walks a bit closer, and kneels down to look her in the eyes. He softly laughs, and reaches a gnarled hand out to scratch under Gia’s chin, which she slightly pulls back at.

“No need to worry, I’m just wondering how you’re so…different than your fathers, you mustn’t be born from…normal means, are you?” asks Lord X.

X clears his throat, catching Lord X’s attention.

“Yes, Gia was found as a normal Pokemon egg, which Immortale went and healed. She’s the 2nd oldest child.”

Gia nods to confirm it’s true. Lord X stands up, and stretches a bit.

“So, we’ve been introduced, you need to leave, or do you wish to stay for tea?”

X nods, and looks over into the setting sun.

“That would be nice, you aren’t currently transmitting, are you?”

Lord X shakes his head no.

“Transmitting?” Gia asks mostly to herself aloud. “Transmitting what?”

“No, I’ve gotten a shot, won’t be transmitting any X-12-” Lord X stops, and looks to Gia.

“X-12, a virus that turns people like you, into demons like me.”

“I’ve never heard of it,” She explains.

“Well, both of your fathers have it, lucky son of a gun can’t transmit it, at least not in the normal sense.”

“Is that why I don’t have it?” She asks.

“Your dad said it just a bit ago, you were made from an egg, not through the normal means. So you didn’t get it through genes. I have a kid of my own, made the normal way, and they have it because I have it. Passes down through parents to the kids."

“Oh,” Gia responds, feeling a bit dumb before remembering the tea. “You said something about tea, didn’t you?”

Lord X nods, “That I did…here, I’ll take us there.” Lord X turns away from Gia and X, and begins to walk through the field.

“Come along now, it’s only a few minutes from here on foot.”

X walks behind Lord X, following him through the field, while Gia quickly runs to catch up with them.

---

The sun continues to set on the horizon, and it slowly grows darker and darker, with no sight of Lord X’s home anywhere. The sky slowly fades from a dull orange, to a dark red. It’s also getting hard to see, but soon, a large building can be seen in the distance.

“There’s my home, it took a bit longer to get here than I thought…” says Lord X.

“How long does it normally take?” Gia asks curiously.

“It takes about 10, maybe 15 minutes normally for me,” says Lord X. Gia looks at the large building, trying to figure out what it is. It looks like a large mansion, with dark purple bricks. There isn’t a fancy yard, just a simple dirt path that leads up to the front doors. Lord X leads X and Gia up to them.

“Here we are, once inside, feel free to make yourself at home, I’ll have someone make the tea.” Lord X goes up to the door, and goes to open it.

Thanks again for reading and yes we have returned to present day type stuff. Once again, @hiddeninthenullandvoid is being a cowriter of sorts for me for however long it needs to happen. It might be a short while or a long while, but for the time being they're going to help me write these stories. Thank you for reading, and sorry it's probably longer than usual.

#gia null #gia pokemon #into the null and void #lord x null #lord x #x null #everyone else #first everyone else #mostly because there's too many characters to tag

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enhypenet · 6 months

Note

Why does it take so long for posts to be reblogged? Sometimes even longer than a week

Hello there, anon!

We know posts being (re)processed through the network can be a little bit frustrating, especially as it can seem that they are being ignored on purpose — but you can rest assured that they aren't, unless they don't abide by our guidelines! We will be explaining how our queue works below, and we hope this clears up your question.

The network tag, as well as the ENGENEblr community itself, is always something I am observing ; the days where it is most active, at what time users start interacting (liking, reblogging) with posts, the frequency in which creations are posted, etc. This is something I, the sole admin, have always done (even when I still had my own personal blog as a creator) so as to ensure this network actually serves its purpose — which is to spread creations to a (somewhat) wider audience and keep them circulating through the community for longer so they get attention.

With all the observations I have made taken into account, the network's queue started operating like this, way back in July: every Thursday / Friday / Weekends (the days where the community seems to slow down), around 12 posts (halfway through / near the end of Dark Blood era, our network tag saw more or less than this amount of posts daily) are queued through 11AM EST to 11pm EST (the timezone was chosen randomly). Again, this queue "plan" started taking effect halfway through the month of July, with a notice about it being fixed on our blog's desktop theme, though not on our pinned post on mobile — something I apologize for. Our pinned will be re-done soon.

From when the network started up until this July, our queue would run 24/7 — something I have come to notice, as the years went by and engagement on visual content started becoming worser, was not beneficial for the creators in the end. Reblogging creations a few hours after they had been made didn't allow for them to circulate properly, which is why I started spacing out the queueing days gradually until finally updates were only made on Thursdays or Fridays. As of now, however, the queue reflects the bigger amount of posts the network tag is seeing as we approach comeback season and there is much more influx — so posts are (re)processed starting on Thursdays, and ending on Sundays.

And, regarding the final concern in your ask — there is not really a settled, final explanation to that. Sometimes the unusual silence in terms of updating the network may be because there is not enough posts to be queued, or because the admin didn't have time to queue anything, and so on. Whatever it may be, you name it, and it can be a reason why.

At the end of the day, I ask for our followers and the creators who have chosen to use our tag to please be kind and, above all, patient. Our inbox sees several passive-aggressive "questions" that do not get posted almost weekly, and I firmly believe there is no reason why. This network was started almost 3 years ago and I have been operating it on my own for a good chunk of that time — one would argue that it's a silly thing to do seeing as this is "just a network" and not an update / general fanbase blog, but I am always putting a lot of thought, care and love into it. I am always working so this network can, as I mentioned above, serve its purpose as we seem to be the only network dedicated to ENHYPEN operating at the moment — thus meaning the community largely trusts it to do its thing (and I am thankful!).

This response wasn't supposed to be this lengthy, but I hope it answers your question, as well as give our followers a better insight into how the network operates! We are always open for feedback, so long as it is brought up to us kindly and not demeaningly.

Thank you, and we hope you all enjoy Orange Blood era with us!

#sorry for the essay everyone D:#anonymous #answered #long post cw

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incorrectbatfam · 2 years

Note

Hi. I love your work it's super hilarious and always makes me smile no matter the bad I had. I know you mostly only do bat family only. But I really love the BuzzFeed unsolved segment you did with Batman villains. Would it be alright to ask if you could do more of that?

Again love your blog. It's so refreshing.

"Hello and welcome to another season of Buzzfeed Unsolved. Today we'll be covering the enigmatic case of the Riddler."

"I see what you did there, Ryan."

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

"Yeah, I love a good wordplay."

"It's a double wordplay, actually, since his true identity—as we'll dive into—is Ed Nygma."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"That's a stupid name."

*wheeze*

Shane: "I'd love to sit down for a dinner with Poison Ivy."

Ryan: "Except she could strangle you with her plants."

"She seems like a decent lady."

"She's an eco-terrorist!"

"But she's got a good point."

"—and that's when Roman Sionis became the notorious crime boss Black Mask."

"Wait, so he fused a mask to his face?"

"Pretty much. Kinda gross when you think about it."

"I can imagine. Like, you know when you were a kid and you'd cover your head in saran wrap and try to melt it on with a hair dryer?"

"No?"

"You didn't try to encase your head in plastic when you were a kid? That was a whole thing at my school."

"The fuck kind of school did you go to?"

"You didn't do that?"

"Why the hell would I do that?!"

"Harleen, known for her genius-level IQ, got her PhD in psychiatry at Gotham State University."

"But Gotham's not a state."

*wheeze* "I mean, it's so cut-off it might as well be."

"Also, if my math's right, that means she went to school with Bruce Wayne."

"What are you implying?"

"You know how college is."

"So you think Bruce Wayne and Harley Quinn were—"

"Smashing pumpkins?"

"... Sure. Let's go with that."

Shane: "If I was Mr. Freeze, I'd give up evil and just drive an ice cream truck."

Ryan: "No offense, but you'd be the stranger danger that parents tell their kids about."

"You don't want my ice cream? My evil Arctic laser ray sundaes?"

"Actually when you put it like that it sounds pretty good."

"Here we are in the Joker's abandoned theme park. I'm gonna turn on my spirit box and see if we can pick something up."

"I thought he was alive."

"Depends on your canon."

Shane: "Fuck, marry, kill: Two-Face, Mad Hatter, Man-Bat."

Ryan: "Kill Man-Bat and uh... fuck Two-Face and marry the Hatter."

"Interesting. Care to explain?"

"Well, Man-Bat's, like, an animal, right? Or at least part animal. And I'm not into the furry stuff anymore, so—"

"Anymore?"

"It was an experimental phase."

"Sure. A 'phase'."

"It was!"

"Don't worry Ryan, your secret's safe with me." *winks*

"I'm not—" *takes a deep breath* "Anyway, so kill Man-Bat. Then I'd have a one-night with Two-Face 'cause I think his two halves can get creative, you know?"

"Why're you asking me if I know? Do I look like I know him?"

"Honestly I wouldn't be surprised at this point."

"And then I'd marry the Hatter 'cause Batman's gonna send him back to Arkham in like a week anyway so I'll be free."

"Welcome back to Buzzfeed Unsolved: Postmortem, a show where we answer your most pressing questions about the latest episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved, which was Red Hood. All the questions we have today are from our Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and directly on the video on BUN."

"Our first question comes from user@jasontoddsnotdead on Twitter: Is it possible that Red Hood was actually a former protogé of Batman who felt he was let down because Batman won't do what's needed?"

*Shane and Ryan glance at each other*

Both, in unison: "Nah."

Ryan: "Our next fan art comes from @robin4 on Instagram. It's basically the Ghoul Boys as a vigilante duo."

Shane: "Would you ever become a vigilante, 'cause I wouldn't."

"Sure. Just not in Gotham."

"The Hotdaga's coming to Gotham City, and this time, they're facing off against the evil Condiment King."

"That's not a real villain."

"It is."

"I don't believe you. It's too over-the-top even for Gotham."

"Well, you better believe it, 'cause we even got a special performance from Catwoman herself."

"Why did I agree to this show?"

#ask #batfam #batfamily #batclan #batman family #gotham rogues #gotham city sirens #dc comics #crossover #tw food mention #tw swearing #tw death mention #tw sex mention

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homunculus-argument · 2 years

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You ever wonder about people you used to know, whose names you don't even remember anymore so you couldn't even look them up if you wanted to?

When I was 17 I met this girl at school who took a handful of the same classes as I did. I don't know if she was just completely lacking in personal boundaries or whether she considered me a much closer friend than I considered her (I don't think I could ever remember her name), but she started telling me mad personal shit about how she used to hang out with drug users and do drugs before she found Christ and reformed her life. I would like to stress that she, too, was seventeen years old.

This one time we had a biology course together, and she asked me if I'd be ok if she dropped out of the course. I suppose she did think we were closer than I did, since it wouldn't have crossed my mind to be bothered by it. She worded her question in a way that was intended to prompt me to ask her why, and she did.

She happily explained to me that she didn't care to study the parts about evolution, because the theory has already been disproven and she'll just re-take the same course next year when the news of this discovery has already reached Finland, and they've updated the course. She was so confident that this would happen that she was dropping out of the course because she didn't want to be forced to memorise useless, outdated theories.

Somewhat baffled - this being a gymnasium (university-preparatory high school) in Finland, which prides itself first and foremost on the quality and accessibility of our education - I asked her what the alternative theory was. I had literally never, not before nor since, come face-to-face with an actual human being who unironically did not believe in evolution.

She had told me about her personal relationship with Jesus before, so I was expecting some kind of fundamentalist rhetoric imported from America. Instead she shrugged, saying she couldn't remember exactly, but someone she knew (she never explained who the people she was talking about were in relation to her, she just referred to them by first name as if I should know who they are) had shown her a website where they explained what the real truth was. She didn't remember what it was, just that she was convinced it was right.

She was my buddy to our Russian course class trip to St. Petersburg (yes, we literally went to Russia for a week for a language class, when I say Finnish public education goes hard, it really does go hard), and during our time there, we once sat at the same breakfast table with our russian teacher, who had always been eccentric in classes, but never really elaborated on her private life.

When my companion mentioned that she is going to get married soon after graduation (at the age of 19, which may not sound odd but finnish people tend to marry late, in their late 20s or early 30s, some couples only marry after they're already having/planning kids and need to ensure both parents' legal rights), and our Russian teacher casually explained how she originally turned down her own husband's proposal because she didn't think marrying him was God's will - she wanted to become a missionary and go live with some uncontacted tribe in some rainforest, learn to speak their language and then teach them about the christian God in their own tongue.

Sitting there, listening to them chatter like this was all a perfectly normal subject, I ate my hostel cereal in silence, internally shitting myself. Which probably sounds strange, prompting me to another background explanation.

I'm not sure if I can quite explain this to someone unfamiliar with finnish culture, but Finland is not a very religious country. An average millenial finn is like myself - baptised as a protestant, went through confirmation, and officially filed myself out of church as soon as I turned 18. Most people are nominally christian but never bother to leave church at all. Having only met one this far in my life, I had never sat at the same table with two people who not only actively considered themselves christian, but also went out of their way to Live In Christ. I had met priests who weren't this big and serious about being a christian in all things.

Anyway, the class trip ended, school ended and we graduated. The last time I heard of this girl, she was 19, and had newly gotten married to a man whom she described as "nothing like other men" because he was romantic. He also had children from his previous marriage, and therefore my companion-whose-name-I-always-kept-forgetting-and-have-now-forgotten-for-good took her first step into independent adult life by becoming a stepmother to a 5-year-old.

I have no way to find out but I hope that bitch is ok.

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bucciaratitties · 2 years

Text

My JJBA Vento Aureo head cannons for Team Bucciarati (Part 3)

Part 1, Part 2

It’s implied all of the Bucci Gang must’ve failed Polpo’s test to gain their stands so here are my headcannons on how it went down

Bucciarati

Requested by Polpo to come meet him and take his test a year after being in Passione

Thought the lighter test was supposed to test his wits and caution

Immediately brought the lighter home while his dad was in the hospital and researched how to keep the flame alive

Didn’t sleep at all that night

Managed to keep the lighter lit for 24 hours

Proudly told Polpo he managed to keep the lighter lit for 24 hours

Polpo liked Bucciarati and wanted him to be a stand user so he had Black Sabbath pierce him with the arrow on the spot in front of his prison cell

Bucciarati thought Polpo was trying to kill him but understood after Polpo explained and he could see Black Sabbath

Met Sticky Fingers the following week when he was late to visit his father during visiting hours and Sticky Fingers zipped him into the room

Fugo

Bucciarati told Fugo what the test really was before he went to see Polpo

Fugo didn’t believe him until Bucciarati started unzipping things in their home as Fugo watched them fall apart

Bucciarati waited for Fugo outside the prison as he came out with the lighter

Once home, Bucciarati told Fugo they were going to purposefully let the flame go out as he was confident Fugo would get a stand but just in case, he and Sticky Fingers were in the room next door

Fugo spent the next few days hanging around Sticky Fingers once he could see him

When Fugo met Purple Haze a week later, he was upset he was nothing like Sticky Fingers and didn’t come out of his room for 4 days

Bruno brought him home takeout everyday and left it on his nightstand

Narancia

(Stated in PHF that Narancia could see Fugo’s stand which is why Fugo went behind Bucciarati’s back to have him take the test)

Fugo told Narancia before hand exactly what the test was and that he already had a stand

Narancia didn’t pay attention to Fugo at all

The only thing he got out it was “keep the flame alive for 24 hours”

Brought the lighter back to his dad’s house while his dad was at work

The flame went out within 5 minutes as Narancia forgot to close the window

Narancia freaked out since he could see Black Sabbath who was chasing him around the house

Narancia threw everything he could at Black Sabbath; chairs, lamps, pans, his dad’s expensive wine bottles etc

Freaked out and screamed even more suddenly seeing an airplane fly around his house shooting the pictures off the walls

Black Sabbath finally got him and Narancia was more scared that he completely trashed his dad’s house

Immediately packed up and left before his dad came home

Mista

Didn’t want Bucciarati to tell him what the exam was because he “wanted it to be a surprise”

Got back to his apartment and placed the lighter on his dining table

Opened the fridge to drink a soda

The closing of the fridge door blew out the lighter

Mista shrugged and relit it placing it on the coffee table

Fell asleep on the couch within the next minute

Woke up to what he thought were bugs flying around his face

They were asking him for food and to help them open the fridge

Barely questioned the Sex Pistols at all

Just glad none were labeled with the number 4

Immediately asked them to rob a man who beat him up once

Abbacchio

Could not have cared less about the outcome of the test

Turned the lighter off himself

Barely flinched when pierced with the arrow

Thought his stand was a woman

Immediately subconsciously replayed a fond memory hanging out with his old policeman partner

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mimzy-writing-online · 3 years

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Writing Toph Beifong, Advice from a Blind Writer

I’m Mimzy, an actual visually impaired writer and blogger who talks a lot about writing blind characters accurately and sensitively. A while back someone sent me an anon asking how to write Toph more accurately and sensitively.

Anonymous asked: Hi there! Your blog has been super-helpful already - I thought I knew a bit about writing with blind characters, but it turns out there was a lot to learn - but this is more specific. I'm writing a The Last Airbender fanfiction, and one of the characters is Toph. I think the fandom has done a fairly good job of respecting her blindness, but what are some things you'd like to see when people write her? I want to represent the character as best as possible; thanks in advance!

It’s taken a while for me to answer because I have a lot of thoughts about it as both a blind writer and someone who has read a lot of atla fanfiction. So here we go:

Before we get started, I want to mention some things:

One: I have an entire series for writing blind characters that continues to grow with time and the most up-to-date version can be found pinned as the top post on my blog. There will be a time-stamp for when the post was last edited and a long series of links to all relevant posts on the subject.

Here’s a quick link to that post, but again, all you have to do is click my blog url and you’ll find it immediately.

Two: I’ve noticed something amazing about the atla fandom and I would like to thank you for it. I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers have taken to writing image descriptions for both the fanart and memes you post in the fandom, whether it’s OP including the description or another blogger adding it themselves. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a fandom so consistently doing this and that’s incredible. Realizing how many different blogs were picking up this habit has warmed my heart.

I’d like to see writers use her other senses. There’s soooo so much more to her O&M (Orientation and Mobility) than earth sense.

Beyond sight and earth bending, there’s hearing, touch, smell, taste, sense of direction, hot vs cold, sense of pain, sense of where your body parts are in relation to the rest of you, sense of internal well-being, etc. Before Toph had mastery of her earth bending, she had to have mastery of those too.

Toph also must have very strong opinions about certain smells, sounds, tastes, and textures. Toph is opinionated about everything, and when so much of your understanding of the world depends on senses that most people are ignoring in favor of some other sense you don’t have, it gets frustrating. I’m sure that tree looks pretty but the smell is terrible. Who cares if this fabric looks pretty, it’s scratchy, do. not. like. at. all.

But also in positive ways too. Oh, that flower arrangement looks bland and monochromatic? Who cares, it smells sweet and honey-like. Weird dark cavern with high ceiling and no light? The harmonics are awesome.

Every character probably has a certain sight or image they’re particularly fond of: Katara watching snow fall, or Aang enjoying how small the world looks from up on Appa, or Zuko enjoying the sunrise every morning during meditation. In that line, Toph must have some things personal to her that she enjoys.

I imagine she likes the taste of foods familiar to her childhood, the smell of whatever flowers grew around her home, and the texture of certain kinds of dirt Example: loose dirt probably isn’t the best for seeing, but I think she would enjoy how it feels to run her fingers through it or maybe enjoy the way it softens her perception of the world the same way sighted people like to see colorful, bright lights reflecting off puddles in the middle of rain.

If you struggle with this, that’s okay. I recommend taking some time to think about it for yourself, to find what tastes and smells and textures and sounds you enjoy the most, what makes you feel safe and at home, what brings you comfort, and relate that back to Toph.

In a Modern AU, I want to see Toph have a cane. Even in a Modern AU with bending included in the world building, I think Toph would benefit from having a cane.

The cane has a lot more function than bumping into things. A big part is that it signals to others that you are very obviously blind. Which is a big deal because sighted people are really, really bad at spotting the blind person.

(psst, please stop saying ‘the blank look in her eyes’ because I swear to god it’s been killing me inside for years.)

Also, even in an AU with bending, I think Toph would like the advantage of tapping her cane to create a stronger, more distinct vibration than a small shifting of her weight on her feet. It would have more control.

You could give Toph a guide animal, buuuuuuut, um, Toph is not a guide dog person. Like, there are some people who definitely prefer a guide dog, and some people who definitely prefer a cane, and some who definitely prefer no mobility device at all. Toph does not have the vibes of someone who wants to be both responsible and reliant on an animal when she’s so insistent that she can take care of herself on her own. Toph likes animals, but not that much.

Although, yeah, only 10% of the blind community use mobility devices, so cane and guide dog users are the minority of the blind community, but I stand by the vibe that Toph would love the independence of a cane. Also, it’s almost never ever done. Modern AUs never seem to touch much on Toph’s O&M skills with canes or guide dogs.

I wrote a whole post on everything you need to know about canes, what orientation and mobility is, how you learn O&M, what kind of canes exist, how to use them, how to describe the sensory input a cane gives you, and everything I know about guide dogs from past research.

Honestly, you could give Toph (or any blind character) a cane in any AU, because I fully stand by the theory that canes are a piece of technology that has been invented, lost, and reinvented again and again.

I wrote “I found a piece of lost blindness history” a few months ago after a visit to see my grandparents. My grandmother told me how her blind aunt found a way to write letters by hand to send to my grandmother when she was a child. I speculated on how the long cane has probably been invented and then lost and then reinvented over and over again in history, as well as giving a little history on the growing popularity of guide dogs in the 20th century following World War 1.

About the “blank look in her eyes,” I have a theory to the exact cause and nature of Toph’s blindness.

I know it’s common to think that the milky green color of her eyes is why she’s blind, though I’m not sure how many realize that milky green color is caused by severe cataracts. At least, cataracts is what I assume to be the reason for the color of her eyes. However, people with cataracts still have some remaining sense of light and shadow perception.

Only 9% of the blind community is completely blind, seeing absolutely nothing. The rest have some remaining vision, even if that’s only light and shadow perception or the perception of vague movement.

The percentage of people born completely blind is even smaller.

Toph says that she’s never been able to see, which would lead me to guess that the initial cause of her blindness was a defect with the visual processing part of her brain. I also theorize that the cataracts developed slowly over her very formative years and that she likely wasn’t born with them. For that reason, I think it would have taken a few weeks or months for her parents to realize there was something wrong with her eyes.

Here is a post about the developmental years of blind children and how their life would differ from both sighted children and from someone who went blind as an adult.

What is it like to see nothing?

It’s a concept that sighted people struggle with and I completely understand. I myself didn’t understand the concept of “nothing” until someone explained it as this:

“Imagine trying to see out the back of your head.”

Which, genuinely, imagine that. Try that. Because here’s what I found. There’s no part of my body that can help perceive that. I don’t have eyes there, nor do I have a part of my brain that can process that. Because of this, there is no sense of light or dark, no shape or shadow or movement or depth that I can perceive. There is nothing.

And honestly, it gives me a headache trying to think too much about it.

Toph doesn’t see black, doesn’t have a mental image of it. When people talk about light and dark, Toph has nothing to base the concept on. The closest relation she has to that is silence versus sound, or her earth sense when she’s in the air on Appa versus when she’s on solid ground. But it’s not the same.

I would like to examine the way the show tried to describe Toph’s earth sense, that black void with ripples of white stretching from her feet and outwards. Television is a visual medium so of course their explanation of Toph’s earth sense would be visual, but that’s not what it’s actually like in her head. More accurately, it’s like touching the back of your head to something and feeling what’s solid behind it and what has more give. A wall versus a pillow for example. Slamming your hand on a flimsy table and feeling it rattle under your palm. And for someone so adept at using that sense, she feels not just the table surface under her palm, but the individual rattles down the four legs, how uneven those rattles are because the legs are carved decoratively instead of solid planks, and how the foot of each leg bumps against the ground, and how the floor vibrates in response to the impact, which she feels in both her feet and hand.

About Toph’s Relationship with Her Parents

It’s not something I see touched on much. There’s been a lot of focus on Zuko and Azula’s relationship with their parents and the abuse, as well as exploration of Sokka and Katara’s trauma with losing their mother, and Sokka looking up to his warrior father while Katara struggles with her abandonment issues.

Please don’t take this as a critique, because there are a few valid reasons for this and I would like to give you some insight on how to explore Toph’s relationship with her parents.

For starters, the show had a lot more reason to focus on Zuko and Azula’s parents, with Fire Lord Ozai being the primary villain and Zuko’s greatest abuser, and Azula’s dependent worship of her father in response to Ursa’s neglect and favoritism of Zuko, which was likely Ursa’s response to Ozai’s favoritism of Azula. Their parents are huge driving motivators for why Zuko and Azula make the decisions and mistakes they do, why they are at one point in the show the villains themselves. (And why I think Azula should get a redemption arc and some healing.)

Katara’s trauma of losing her mother and blaming herself is a huge factor in both her response to the war, her relationship with her bending, and her motherly nature with her friends. The show has to explore that. Just as it has to explore Sokka’s problems with toxic masculinity in response to being the man of his village, and his desire to be a great warrior and leader like the father he idolizes.

The show needs to explore that to make the plot move forward, and it benefits from these being two sibling sets with different responses to their upbringing and different sibling dynamics, setting them up as foils for each other.

The show also wouldn’t benefit by giving Lao and Poppy Beifong more screen time. Their established character were two nobles who kept as far out of the war as possible and prospered monetarily for it. Poppy was polite and demure and Lao liked to lead the conversation. Unless the gAang decided to return to Toph’s home, those characters had no reason to pop up anywhere in the show. And if they did, they would be a hinder to Toph and her part in the plot as both Aang’s earth bending teacher and as the greatest earth bender in the world, tossing Fire Nation soldiers eight ways to Sunday.

So truly, I understand that there’s not a whole lot of canon material (comparatively) to go off of when developing this, but I will offer some insight on what is there in canon.

Toph’s relationship with her parents is explored in that it maps out why Toph doesn’t want to be mothered by Katara, why she wants to prove how independent she is, but there’s very little on screen interaction between Toph and her parents.

Toph deeply loves her parents. I think that plays into why she doesn’t want Katara mothering her, because she has a wonderful mother at home who she loves and wants to better understand her, but she had no friends growing up and no older sister, which are the roles she needs and wants Katara to fill. If Toph wanted a mother figure, she would have latched onto Katara. Look at how Zuko never sought out another mother figure but did find a father figure in Iroh as he began to heal from his childhood trauma and separate his self image from his father’s acceptance.

Toph is in a complicated situation, she loves her parents but the way they’re raising her is hurting her in the long run. But Toph can see that their actions are because of their immense love for her. She can see how they would do anything for her. While she never had any examples of how other noble children were treated by their parents, who might have been distant or disinterested or always away for their social and work lives, she was remarkably loved by her parents. Her father put careful thought into her tutors and checked in on her progress. Her mother feared for Toph’s emotional state when she was kidnapped (even if she was incorrect about how Toph would respond), showing genuine empathy for her daughter.

I think their over protective nature became the love language Toph best understood them by, and part of her reasoning for not revealing how capable she was, was because she wanted to keep experiencing that love and care for as long as she could. But it’s not a love language she would put up with from anyone else.

I would like to point out Toph’s genuine excitement to see her mom again in the season finale of Book Two, how badly Toph wants her mom to understand and accept her for who she is.

My thoughts on what Toph can’t do: read, swim, see in the sand, fight things mid-air.

For how incredibly powerful the show makes Toph with her earth bending and the O&M she taught herself through it, they do touch on some of her weaknesses when they come up and find a useful way to showcase them.

The Serpent’s Pass was an excellent example of Toph’s vulnerability in water. From her fear of not being able to see on Katara’s ice bridge to not being able to swim and needing Suki to save her, Toph’s weaknesses putting her in danger added to the excitement and “sitting on the edge of your seat” feeling while watching the episode without turning her into someone who was helpless. She was just in a position where her normal defenses were useless.

Just like the earth benders in the metal prison in the ocean, or Katara having little water in the middle of a desert where her friends needed that water to survive more than she needed it to fight, making her vulnerable later in the show when the insect-wasp things attacked. Just like fire benders being weaker at night, or powerless during a solar eclipse, or a sighted person being lost in the dark. Those were just situations in which the tools you were accustomed to relying on could no longer help you or were taken away.

The show was clever in that it didn’t make her inability to read a direct threat to her safety, but rather as a clever plot device for her to be alone when the sand banders attacked and have to choose between fighting them to save Appa, or holding back an entire fricking building by the tiniest spire on its very top from falling into a void leading to the spirit world. It also showed her weakness to not being able to see or fight as well in sand. Which the show later made an effort to show how she’d improved on that problem in Book Three when she was surrounded by nothing but sand at Ember Island.

Like improving her ability to see in the sand, I would like to see a character teach Toph to swim, or at least float, so that she never feels helpless again. If she took the initiative to improve her sand bending so much, I’m sure she would have learn to swim eventually.

And on the note of reading, I’ve seen some speculation on how Toph could learn to read, whether it’s through using ink that has some percentage of earth mixed in, or developing the sensitivity to feel out the different weight, consistency, and texture of ink on paper.

I would like to bring your attention to Louis Braille, the blind Frenchman who invented Braille while studying at the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, the world’s very first school for the blind in Paris France (established 1785). Previously Louis was learning to read through a method in which each letter was pressed into the paper to leave an imprint that someone could feel out with just their fingers.

Louis Braille concluded that raised lettering was impractical because-

1. It is difficult to read, the letters had to be printed in huge font to be fully felt out and printed on thick paper.

2. Thick paper means higher quality, more expensive. Larger font means more paper is needed for a single text.

3. This made it inaccessible due to expense and the sheer volume of a text.

4. If today’s Braille books are hard to access and giant compared to traditional books, I can’t imagine how inaccessible those raised letter books really were.

The subject of Braille, the start and controversial near downfall to Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles were discussed in a post about writing a blind character during the Victorian Era.

I’ve heard others complain in the past about fantasy universes in which a sighted person invents a solution to allow the blind to read, when the most effective and longest lived method was invented by a blindman over two hundred years ago and is the standard taught in schools today.

And while I couldn’t easily explain it or how it works because I can neither read Braille nor speak Chinese, I can tell you that Chinese Braille exists and works only slightly differently from the Braille western languages use. So, again, modern AUs especially would benefit from enabling Toph to read Braille and use a computer and phone with screen reader.

But just as easily you could choose not to have her learn to read but rather have sighted people read things aloud to her. Whether it’s in a professional setting as an adult having an assistant who reads and writes for her, or as a cute, fluffy little moment between Toph and another character. Both are just as genuine to the blindness experience.

Blind Jokes

If you ever get around to reading my post about blind jokes, I’d like you to remember that it’s primarily written for people writing original characters and that Toph canonically makes blind jokes, so to take away from that would not be true to her character.

Does Toph’s Earth Sense Negate her Blindness?

It’s a question I’ve seen raised before and discussed by both abled, disabled, and blind people. There are multiple perspectives on it, but my own take on it is that Toph’s earth bending does not negate her blindness, but rather functions very much like the process of learning to use a cane.

She had a tool, a teacher, and she learned to use that tool. Instead of a cane, it was seismic perception and her teacher were blind badger-moles. She spent years learning to earth bend as they do and then continued to take it to new heights as she explored fighting with it on her terms against sighted fighters.

Come to think about it, I would love to see Toph teach another visually impaired or blind earth bender who to see and bend as she does.

Is Toph Good Blindness Representation?

This question was posed to me in the comments of my master post, and my answer was something like this: “Toph is good representation, but she can't be the only type of representation we get. She's the best we had 15 years ago, but there are a million ways to nuance the blindness experiences. Toph's experience being born blind, having very over protective parents, being a small girl in a patriarical and wealth influenced society, having no friends growing up. Those are all great aspects of blindness to show, but there is so much more to explore. As for her blindness and whether or not that's negated, that's also nuanced. She has limits, she's not all-powerful, but she is the best earth bender hands down. More or less, I love Toph, she's a great character, give me like a million more blind characters who are completely different from her.”

I want to see accurate and well-written blind characters become much more common in modern media, and that’s why I started this blog. So if you decide you want to write your own blind character from scratch, feel free to come back and look at some of my other stuff.

End Notes:

I want to thank the anon who sent the original question because it never occurred to me how much the atla fandom would benefit from a post like this.

You should follow my blog. Along with advice about writing blind characters, I write general writing advice and answer questions about writing, college, plot development, character analysis, and living with blindness. I curate writing advice from fellow writeblrs, write my own image descriptions for writing memes, post about mental health and working/living with ADHD, disabilities outside of blindness, and LGBTQA+ topics.

#avatar the last airbender #toph beifong #atla toph #atla #blind character #writing advice #writeblr #fanfiction

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