#(it's actually kind of a reversal of how i felt and somewhat still feel about using the term ''patriarchy''

[gendercriticalthinking]

My thoughts:

The main intent of this post is very eye-opening and true. While I think a lot of psychological analyses, including this one, tend to create meaning and complexity where there isn't any (to get an intellectual/detective/solving-a-puzzle "wow" factor), and a lot of "womb envy" analysis seems to be more about comforting and empowering women than accurately analyzing male motivations (most violent men aren't subconsciously* resenting the fact that women can give birth, they just like to hurt people), the overall message does have truth to it. Many, maybe even most, violent men use violence as a way to gain control/power. (But all of them do it because they like to cause suffering.)

My eyes rolled into the back of my skull upon reading this author mention the Columbine shooters played video games. (I can kind of give her a pass since her writing was published in 2004, since I absolutely support questioning new things and investigated them to see if they cause harm. Also I'm only calling this out just because I didn't see anyone else doing so.) I'm sorry but if video games cause/escalate violent urges to the point you just have to kill someone, most people should be dead by now. It is a multi-billion dollar industry. Countless women have played violent video games since their creation and yet we for some reason have never had a sudden uptick in female violent crime in the late 80's or the decades since. It's a male problem. Men who have violent urges come to video games, movies, television, hobbies, schools, malls, grocery stores, life in general, seeking a way to unleash their urges through what is otherwise benign. They come to these things already violent, and saying a piece of media (or clothing) was the/a reason they hurt people is to absolve them of the blame they deserve for their own actions. Again, it's just because they like to hurt people and have control over them. The hypothetical man who used to be pure and kind but got corrupted by an FPS game still would have become a murderer if he had watched a horror movie instead.

I'll close out the compliment sandwich by appreciating the teardown of (popular/organized) religion, and how clearly it's laid out that its invention was by and for men to make a system where they could gain and abuse power and control over others (women especially). Men would not and do not worship a female God because God is meant to be a surrogate for themselves.

*Incidentally, I realized this idea from "womb envy" actually contradicts a belief a lot of women who believe in "womb envy" also seem to hold (or at least flirt with): that men are biologically inferior (usually the reason cited is because of their role for reproduction, which one Google search for how emu parents act should disprove) to the point they're mentally incapable of deep/complex/intellectual/etc thought. If men are so animalistic they can't do anything besides feel carnal/animalistic emotions, then they also can't have subconscious desires, because they wouldn't have a subconscious. And if you instead/then believe "womb envy" is a conscious desire that they just hide from us then the fact that they know to hide it (and are decent enough at it for "womb envy" to be a Feminist Iceberg Tier 4 Concept most people haven't heard of despite its supposed prevalence in causing male behavior) is, again, not something a stupid, purely animalistic being would be able to do well, or possibly at all.

having a good day then thinking about this one quote about no woman ever comparing herself to god after creating life by giving birth but every boy with a gun is a god in his own eyes because he has the power to choose who lives or dies and he uses it to take and destroy lives. coughing up blood right now. i need to be hospitalized.

[solarnomoon]

ice ice baby - park sunghoon

the first time you went ice skating you almost fell. thankfully a taller guy was there to catch you. surprise surprise, of course it had to be sunghoon, king of the school, ice prince, whatever.

pairing >>> sunghoon x male reader

tags >>> college au, fluff, strangers to friends to more than friends (lovers?), ice skating, falling, idfk, sunghoon being a little forward

author's note >>> LOL hello i apologize for dying. i realize how much i miss this account and ive just been itching to come back so here i am

you knew coming to the ice rink was a mistake to begin with. i mean, come on, your ass was a fucking ice skating virgin: you'd never been before, so why would you even bother starting now?

alas, your best friend had stayed up all night watching yuzuru hanyu videos and all of a sudden, he felt the urge to begin ice skating, compelling you that it's "a calling" and if you guys didn't "drive to partake in the artistic media form that is ice skating" then you'd "lose the individuality that the human spirit guides us with."

...whatever that means.

at least he paid for you! a win's a win sometimes.

"c'mon y/n, you have to get off the railing at some point!" sunoo calls to you, skating in reverse to watch you. the edge had become your safety net, allowing you to actually move somewhat on the ice. sunoo on the other hand had somehow become a pro within the 15 minutes since you guys arrived, being able to skate forwards, backwards, eyes closed, anything possible. he even started gaining an understanding of how to spin, and was attempting to learn how to execute an axel.

you were still just trying to walk normally, not knowing how to know the difference between skating and walking. "sunoo, unfortunately i cannot let go of this fucking railing or i will die."

the boy just laughs at you, eyes rolling back. "you're exaggerating, just let go for one second!" you watch as he leaves you, gliding along the ice as if it was simply made for him.

building up the confidence, you finally stray away from the railing, letting go of your one protection spell from you upright and you on the floor. as you float along the ice, you feel that sense of freedom that sunoo was pestering you about, and you speed up, the skates on your feet becoming an outlet for your vitality.

but unfortunately, you were not yuzuru hanyu, nor were you kim sunoo. you misplace one foot, causing an imbalance in your body. you knew this was it. in front of all of these people, atleast 4 500 for sure, you were going to literally eat shit and die.

as you begin to fall, you brace for impact and close your eyes, but the collapse never happens, and instead, you feel someone's body holding yours, catching the impending descent to the ice.

"you okay?" the guy asks, and only after he said it was when you opened your eyes and looked up at him. though it takes you a moment, a flash of recognition eventually appeared in your brain. park sunghoon. king of the ice, king of the school. the renowned ice prince, the ice skater that competed in the olympics. "oh, y/n. are you okay?"

"y-yeah, sorry," you cover your face with your hands, muttering under your breath, "oh my god i almost died."

apparently it was in fact, not under your breath, because this gets a snicker out of the man, responding to you, "you did not almost die. maybe fall, but death is too much." he grabs you by the arm and skates you both toward the edge again, allowing you to grasp onto your lifeline once more.

"thank you, sunghoon. i'm sorry again for... i don't know. maybe it was a good thing, now you know that i'm shit at ice skating, i don't know how you do this." you observe him with your full attention now, noticing how he's dressed in a basic outfit with a beanie and headphones as if he knew that this would be a simple activity for him. not only this, but he has sunglasses on, presumably to hide his demeanor: he's kind of a celebrity around here.

"it's alright y/n, i told you already. plus, you're not that bad. you're just... learning." he seems like the last part was an afterthought, and you assume that he was going to say something more negative before changing his wording. "are you here alone?"

"nah, i'm here with sunoo. what about you?"

he flashes a quick smile, lifting his sunglasses to make eye contact with you. when he does, you look at his face closely, and realize he really is as cute as people say. you never really cared to notice him, as to you, he was just some guy that happened to have an expertise in ice skating. seeing him up close, you understand why people could develop crushes: his face was perfectly symmetrical with the only thing varied was the mole on his nose, but he has an extremely aesthetic face. his body was also perfect, broad shoulders with a smaller waist.

huh.

"just here alone. now i'm with you. so not alone." when he smiles, you could see how cute he really is, his fangs on both sides of his teeth accentuate his cuteness, offering a tinge of fierceness if he was focused. you both stare at each other for seconds too long, neither of you wanting to break the gaze. eventually, he looks away, saying to you, "wanna see something cool?" obviously you nod, and you watch as he skates away, accelerating before jumping right into a double axel, landing gracefully before coming right back to you.

you clap quickly, not wanting to let go of the edge for too long, "wow, impressive! i could do that too probably."

"oh yeah, cause you're like the best skater right? i think i've watched your videos before online." he motions a rectangle in front of him like a screen, "y/n l/n, triple axel, into a hydroblade, ending with two flying spins."

you scoff, flicking your wrist in front of him. "you know it bro, real recognizes real."

"for real." he looks at you with a straight face before bursting into laughter. "you're pretty funny you know, i'm surprised we haven't talked much before."

you scratch your head, "well, it's pretty hard when you're just the coolest, bestest, sexiest, beast of a skater." you joke with him.

"you think that of me?" he asks, one fang turning visible as he smirks.

"i was actually talking about me, thank you very much."

he hits his head in faux stupidity, smile not faltering from his face however. "oh, silly me. i should've known, like you said."

"what did i say?"

"real recognizes real." he removes his gaze from you to check his watch quickly before looking back at you. "you know, it's getting pretty late for a guy like you."

you whip your phone our from your back pocket. "sunghoon, it's literally 5:32 in the p.m. i can literally see the sun still."

he laughs awkwardly, "well, still late for a pretty boy like you."

"p-pretty?" you stare at him, wondering whether or not he meant to tell you that or not. "what are you talking about dude?"

"i said what i said. i meant that it's late, the ring closes at 6 today because of some hockey players wanting to run scrims before their tournament," sunghoon explains, leaning on the railing next to you. "i'm probably gonna leave soon anyway, so maybe you and sunoo can join me in getting dinner? if you want of course, i don't know if you have plans already."

"honestly, me and sunoo are supposed to get dinner with just each other, so maybe-" you begin to tell him, but then you notice sunoo talking to his crush on the other side of the ring, and a second later a text from said boy shows up.

[5:34 PM]

ALERT. CODE BLUE.

OK LOWKEY I REALIZE U DONT KNO WHAT THAT MEANS WEVE NEVER DONE CODES ANYWAY ICU TALKING TO SUNGHOON SO GO HANG OUT WITH HIM I WILL HANG OUT WITH MY MANSSSSSS XOXOXOOXO

"-you know what? let's get dinner. sunoo is actually busy all of a sudden." you roll your eyes when you make eye contact with sunoo, him giving you two thumbs up and a cheeky smile as his crush types something down on his phone.

"perfect. i wanted it to just be us. maybe i'll kidnap you and put you in my basement." the confusion on your face must've been evident, because he immediately follows up with "i was kidding. let's just get dinner." with that, he leaves you once again, skating around the rink with a few more tricks before coming back to you, signaling for you to follow him.

you do, getting out of the rink walking along the edge before sitting down next to him. you reach over to untie your laces, before sunghoon ushers you back, simultaneously getting on his knees in front of you, holding your right skate in front of him. "what are you doing?"

"untying your skate, why?"

"i can do it myself, you know?" you look straight into his eyes, tilting your head slightly.

"pretty boys shouldn't have to do anything," he suggests before giving you a little wink, causing you to turn away, not able to meet his eyes after his stupid flirtatious comment.

"w-well, what about you then!"

he removes your skate before moving on to the next one. "oh, so you think i'm a pretty boy huh? good to know." he unlaces your other skate before sitting down next to you, untying his own with haste. it clearly comes from experience, because it's no less than 15 seconds before he's up again, grabbing his sneakers, along with your own to your surprise. "here. so you don't have to get up."

"how do you know what my sneakers look like?"

"i saw you come in."

you lightly hit his shoulder. "so you were watching me the whole time?"

"cute boys deserve attention, wouldn't you say so?"

he goes back down to your feet and signals to put on your sneakers again. "i mean yeah but... you? finding me cute? hard to believe i guess."

"can't be that hard," you allow him to finish tying both shoes before helping him off the ground. you didn't even notice but he also had switched shoes with dexterity, leading you to wonder how much experience he has with these kind of things. "i've been watching you for a while honestly." he waves with his hands in front of you. "not like that, but more of like you're kinda like my school crush in a way."

you can't believe your ears. park sunghoon, king of the school, ice fucking prince, had a hallway school crush on you? y/n l/n. you didn't even feel like you stood out that much, just wanted to get your degree and leave. "school crush? there's just no way." you begin to walk away, not being able to face him without embarrassment flushing your face.

however, he clearly had other plans. "y/n." he grabs your arm, forcing you to look up at him. his eyes bore into yours, keeping you in a trance as you look at his face. "you're one of the cutest guys i've ever seen in my entire life. and i've seen a lot of people in my life already. please, just trust me when i say this."

and that was all the validation you needed. "oh. okay sunghoon. i trust you."

"good boy. now let's go get dinner, alright?"

and with that, he led you to his car to drive to dinner.

maybe the ice prince wasn't so cold after all.

[ihni]

Of pets, chapter 1/2

For @harringrove-flip-reverse-it day 4, prompt "Collar and leash" (NSFW prompt made SFW)

~~~

“Have you gotten a dog?”

Jim hadn’t meant to startle the kid, but Steve Harrington jumped about a foot in the air and let out a noise that was best described as a squeak at his innocent question. Whirling around so he was face to face with Jim – or, rather, face to chest; Jim was very well aware of his size – he looked even more startled when he saw who was there. Jim nodded meaningfully at the leather collar Steve was still holding.

“Oh,” Steve said, eyes wide and unblinking. “No? I mean, yes. It’s for Billy–“ His eyes widened a bit more and he added, almost shouting, “–s dog! Billy’s dog!”

“Hargrove?” Jim asked, and watched as Steve’s head bobbed up and down in something akin to a nod. “I didn’t know you were friends.”

“Oh, we are. Friends. The best of friends, nowadays, actually.” Steve pointed to himself with a thumb and grinned somewhat unsteadily. “Yup, all those bygones are … under the bridges.” He made some vague gestures with the hand that was still holding the collar, which brought both of their attention to said collar. Steve let out a little sound that sounded suspiciously like a ‘meep’ and hurried to lower his hand. When he spoke again, his voice was a little strained. “Sooo, what are you doing here?”

Jim sighed. “El wants a hamster.”

“A … hamster.”

“Yeah. Someone’s been telling her stories about the merits of having a pet, and since I’m not letting her start out with a cat or a dog, and she vetoed fish since they’re apparently ‘too boring’, here we are.” He indicated the store around them; shelves upon shelves of pet-related items. “Figures, right? The closest pet store around, and it’s two towns over. Gotta say, I didn’t expect to run into you here.”

“Yeah,” Steve said, his smile just a tad too wide. “What a coincidence.”

“I didn’t know the Hargroves had a dog. I haven’t heard Max mention it, and I’m sure El would have insisted on a pet earlier if she had.”

“It’s … uh, new. And not really, uh, a sure thing, just yet.” At Jim’s look, Steve took a deep breath and continued, “It’s … He found it.”

“Found it?”

“Yeah. It’s a stray, um, he found it out by the … by the junk yard. He’s thinking of maybe … keeping it.” Jim’s mind flashed to images of demodogs and four-legged faceless monsters as Steve obliviously continued, “I offered to help with some, uh, with some things.” The kid held up the collar with a sheepish smile, waving it around a little. Then he took a deep breath and started saying, “Well, I should probably –“

Shaking away the image of monsters, Jim offered, “You know, I used to have a dog when I was younger. A German Shepard, great dog.” Bessie. She’d been Jim’s best friend for a good while. “I could give you guys a few pointers if you want.”

“Oh god.”

“What?”

“I said, ‘oh good’.”

“Oh. Well, first of all, what kind of dog is it?”

Steve’s whole face was looking strained at this point. “We don’t know.”

Jim had to frown at that. “You don’t know?”

“No, it’s a … mutt. Like a wild dog probably.” He grimaced as if he regretted his words, but twisted it into a smile almost seamlessly. “But hey, you know how Billy is! With challenges, I mean. He, uh. Really wants to, um. Help that dog.”

At the mention of a wild dog, Jim’s eyebrows drew together further, because he’d honestly had enough of ‘wild dogs’ to last him a lifetime. He leaned in closer and lowered his voice as he asked, “It’s not some kind of … monster dog, is it?” It probably wasn’t, but kids these days were stupid – proven by the Henderson kid – so he felt he had to ask.

Taken aback at the – honestly valid - question, Steve shook his head. “No! No no. No monster … dog.”

“Hmm,” Hopper said with a nod. “Still, a wild dog can be dangerous. You shouldn’t approach it alone, it can bite you if it feels cornered.”

“Oh, uh,” Steve said, “don’t worry about it. It’s a … good dog. Just an overgrown puppy, really. All he needs is some … love and affection.” He paused a bit, and then added, “And food.” Then, after a beat and under his breath, “And like … someone to play with, I guess.”

“Hm,” Jim said again. He nodded to the collar in Steve’s hand. “Well, if you do catch it, make sure you keep it collared. You should probably invest in a leash as well,” Steve made a choked noise. “You don’t want it running away from you. And I don’t need another feral thing running around town.”

“Yup. Yup. Understood.” Steve yanked down the closest leash and held it up with the collar. “Well, that’s my shopping done. I should really get going, wanna get home before it gets … dark.” He cleared his throat. “So I’m gonna.” Pointing at the front of the store, he nodded again, slightly resembling a bobblehead. “Go. I’m gonna go.” He’d been backing up while he was talking, and when he reached the end of the aisle he threw up a pair of fingerguns. “Good luck with the hamster!”

He’d barely dashed out of sight when Jim called after him, “Get some treats, too! It’ll help with training your mutt.”

Another choked noise was his only answer.

What a weird kid.

(On AO3) (Chapter 2)

[darkness-falls-tarot]

Joseph Quinn: How is he feeling these days?

All readings are alleged and for entertainment purposes only; please take each reading with a grain of salt.

What is Joseph feeling: 5 of wands, Queen of swords reversed, the magician reversed - sorry everyone looks like Joe is still having a rough time according to my cards. There is an issue with a woman in his life who is being very harsh to him and has tricked him or hurt him in some way and he’s not happy. This person isn’t kind and has made him feel like a fool for something, whatever this was it seems Joe didn’t know what it was or only knew part of the information.

What advice do my cards have for Joe: ace of cups reversed, knight of wands, queen of cups - Joe is feeling lost and dejected by things in his life. Love or a friendship hasn’t worked as he wanted it to or how he assumed it would and he didn’t think it through when this happened. He jumped into this matter just hoping all would play in his favor. But it seems to have backfired. My cards show that this is what has happened but Joe needs to remember to trust his intuition and take the advice of this motherly figure I’m seeing in the Queen of cups. She is representing either someone in Joe’s life who’s been trying to help him or it’s his own intuition he ignored for so long that he needs to listen to.

How does Joe feel towards his fans: Queen of wands, 4 of swords, the hermit - his fans are a passionate group of people who like to talk about him with love and respect. But recently he’s felt the need to hide away and keep things from his fans, or he’s guarded around them because of something. He’s not being himself anymore in the public eye and for fans; this is a way to protect his privacy. He feels somewhat lost though because of this and I think it’s caused him to lose his sense of identity and belonging.

What does Joe feel about his recent work: 5 of pentacle reversed, 7 of wands reversed, knight of pentacles reversed - he’s happy to have finished his work on Fantastic Four and that shooting is over. He’s hoping to rest and recover because the constant work on set and promotional work for Gladiator 2 wore him out, but also Joe isn’t sure of his work these days. I get the sense Joe feels like these roles are cool but he’s not really feeling the connection he wants to a character he’s played for anything in the last couple years.

Oracle Card for Joe: web of connection - Joe needs to find a group who actually is there for him. The initial three cards make me think someone was meant to be trusted but couldn’t and he’s not happy about this. He wants to have reliable relationships and people in his life. He may be making some big changes in his circle soon and it’s for the better.

[venusloveslobotomies]

HELLO !! it's me again~ (⌒▽⌒)☆

eeeh, sooo...maybe you could write some reverse comfort for kyle, butters and kenny?? i literally have no ideas for plot and all this stuff but i really ENJOY reverse comfort stuff. i mean it makes me happy when i make feel better other people, that's it! (＠＾◡＾) so i would be so happy if you could write something like this !!

so yeah it could be some kind of one shots or something??! just a lot of comfort, a lot of fluff ☆ ～('▽^人)

(oh gosh i LOVE kaomoji so much. no one can blame me for using it wahaha!)

hi my love! i tried my best! i hope you like it <33

Comforting Kyle, Kenny and Butters.

Kyle

"Hi Mrs Broflovski, is Kyle home?" "Oh hi, Y/N! Yes, he's home but he's not feeling well. He's in his room." Sheila opened the door wider for you as you walked in. "Thank you, I won't be too long." You gave her a smile and made your way to Kyle's room.

He hadn't been at class that day, which was rare for Kyle. Something had to be up. You knew that him and Stan weren't on great terms after asking Stan if he'd seen Kyle and he'd seemed almost offended that you'd asked him about Kyle.

Knocking on his door softly, you entered to see Kyle, red-eyed, sitting on his bed, staring at his phone. He quickly looked up and made eye contact with you. It took less than five seconds before his eyes filled with tears again and he turned away. "Kyle, what happened? Are you sick?" No response. You sat down next to him and waited for a moment. You knew he'd start talking once he had a moment to compose himself.

"Stans an asshole." He wiped his eyes quickly, "I keep trying to help but he'd rather wallow in self-pity and drink than actually listen to his best friend." His voice broke slightly when he referred to Stan as his 'best friend'. You softly placed your hand on his. "He'll come around. He always does. You know he's weird about stuff with Wendy." You could only guess that was why Stan was in a bad spot. They were so on-and-off you could barely keep up with when they were together and when they weren't. "But why am I always there for him and he always chooses the alcohol?" He leaned his head closer to your shoulder.

Your relationship with Kyle was somewhat undefined. In moments like these, you felt too close to just be friends but most of the time, he just treated you like any of the guys. In some selfish part of your mind, you always hoped that these moments would finally shatter that glass wall between the friendship and something more.

"And when I'm upset, everyone just expects me to deal with it alone." "Well, you're not alone right now. I'm here, I'll always be here." He looked at you with glossy eyes. You could see how exhausted he was, "You know that you can talk to me, and you know that Stan will work himself out. He's complicated. This is just how he is with the Wendy stuff. He'll probably grow out of it. Boys are dumb, y'know." He laughed a bit at the last part. He continued to watch you carefully before seemingly making a choice. He abruptly threw his arms around you and just started sobbing. You were a bit shocked, he'd never full-on hugged you before, let alone really, properly cried in front of you. You hugged him back, tightly and resolved to stay that way until he was ok.

Almost ten minutes later, his sobs had subsided into soft whimpers. Your fingers traced light patterns into his shoulders and back as you sat silently with him. "Thank you, Y/N. What the fuck would I do without you?" "Probably still be lame." You joked. He sat back slowly. Something in his eyes had changed. He suddenly didn't seem so tired. Arms still around each other, you could feel his breath on your cheeks, gently fanning you. You couldn't help but lean closer. Closer, until your lips were barely brushing. You were paralyzed, waiting for his decision. It took him just a moment to close the gap. When the two of you connected, it felt magical. How long had you been waiting for this? You could taste the tears on his lips but you didn't care. When you finally pulled apart, his cheeks were almost as red as his hair. "Feel better?" You smirked a bit and he pushed you away in a joking way. Despite the joke, you could see that the life in his eyes had returned and he was smiling.

Butters

"Screw you, Eric! And screw the rest of you, too. You all sit there and let him be as mean as he wants!" You looked up from the table you were sat at with Red and Bebe. Butters was standing up and yelling at his friend group. His face was red and he was just barely holding back tears. You watched him storm off. "I'll be right back." You stood and rushed off after him, ignoring the questions from your friends.

You burst through the doors of the canteen, frantically looking around for Butters. You caught his gaze as he was slumped against the wall, tears now falling freely. "What happened?" You quickly moved to him and grabbed his hands. "Nothing, Eric is just a terrible person." "No news there then. Why do you even hang out with him? He's awful to you!" He seemed a bit taken aback but that quickly changed. "He's my friend! I don't have your luxury of choosing whoever I want to hang out with! I'm not good at making friends... I never have been." "Leo, I'm your partner? Why don't you hang out with me and my friends?" You pleaded with him, reaching to wipe his tears with your sweater sleeves. "People will think I'm weird if I'm hanging around a bunch of girls all the time." You snorted a bit. "First of all, that's not the worst thing for people to think. Secondly, it doesn't matter what they think. The only opinions that matter are from people who actually care. Like me... shouldn't my opinion matter?" "Of course, Y/N. Your opinion matters to me more than anyone else." He seemed to have resigned himself to understanding you. You knew he would go back to hanging around Eric but for the moment, you could enjoy having your boyfriend to yourself.

You pulled him off to walk around the block and cool him off. When you finally returned to your original spot, you kissed him softly and ran your fingers through his hair. He smiled, still embarrassed at the affection being so public, but he didn't care. You were a true angel and if he was seen with you, nobody could say anything that would hurt him.

Kenny

Hearing yelling and glass crashing wasn't the most abnormal thing in South Park. However, hearing Kenny's voice was a bit of a shock. You checked the time. 11:37pm. What the hell is Kenny doing out on the street, yelling? Looking out your window, you could see him stumbling, with a broken bottle of whiskey in his hand. You were so confused, but you rushed downstairs anyways and out into the street. "What the fuck are you doing? Come inside!" You grabbed his arm with one hand and twisted the bottle out of his hand with the other, tossing it into the grass as you pulled him back towards your house. Once inside with the lights on, you could tell he'd been crying earlier but now he was angry. "What is going on with you? This area is too sketchy for you to be wandering around... drunk." He gripped your hand as you let go of his arm. "Y/N I'm gonna kill my parents." "Uhm, no. But also, why?" You guided him to sit on the couch. He fell clumsily into the cushions, pulling you with him. "My dad hit Karen again. So, I hit him. And then he started throwing shit at me. And my mom was just screaming at all of us. I hate them so much. My dad pushed me outside and locked me out." Struggling to find a comfortable position to sit without completely untangling yourself from Kenny appeared to be impossible, so you sucked it up and stayed with your legs draped over him and your back arched forward to keep holding his hand. "Okay, I kind of get it, but in terms of murdering someone, we're gonna have to sleep on it." He was still breathing heavily, eyes lit up with rage you'd never seen from your normally laid-back friend. You squeezed his hand, desperately trying to pull him back to reality. He squeezed back and his eyes softened slightly, meeting yours. Suddenly his hands were on your face and his lips on yours. You could feel him almost squishing your cheeks together in his drunken state. You kissed back, trying to be gentle. It didn't take too long for him to pull away, now looking somewhat scared. "Oh god, Y/N. I'm so sorry. I'm just... I'm tired but you're so perfect and I can't even think properly. I've wanted to do that for so long but not like this. You should've had a choice-" "Ken, it's ok. I liked it. I'm just sorry you're upset while this finally happened." You pulled his hood fully off his head and stroked his hair, smiling reassuringly. His eyes spilled tears and he hugged you so hard, your breath seemed to be pushed out of your lungs. "Hey... Ken? I... I can't breathe." He loosened his grip just enough to allow you to breathe again. You moved to sit fully on his lap and hold his head while he silently released all his emotions into your shirt. "I fucking love you. How are you so perfect?" You laughed a bit and felt him finally relax into your arms.

It didn't take too long for you two to pass out on the couch, still tangled together in a comforting embrace.

I hope u enjoyed! ive never really written comfort before so i did my best! idk whether yall like the longer oneshots that i accidentally write, so if shorter is better, please tell me!

[wammypilled]

Sssooooo, there's this abomination I've been trying to write since last spring, that I really wanted to post for Mello’s birthday but honestly I think it needs some more time to marinate, just a wee bit, so I thought I'd at least post a little snippet today...

It's Wammy’s era and kinda wholesome, kinda fcked up, very silly and chaotic— so much so that I had a really hard time picking an ~excerpt. In the end I just chose this one bc I felt like it summarized the (insufferable) vibe at least somewhat decently.

Had to wait and wait and wait until I got so tired I wouldn't gaf anymore, bc this is my first time posting writing (or trying to really "write" at all) and it's so ☆nerve wracking☆ and I'm still trying so hard not to self-deprecate but honest to go— ahem, here it goes!

The city was a tragedy in three acts. Opening with the first victim: that poor van, dying on them some twenty times minimum. Second, enter the blondes’ paranoia about there being cops everywhere. And the grand finale: parking. So hard, apparently, that after two bumps, a glaze and countless reverses, Mello just made a brusque left, stopped by a tree in the middle of the bloody parking lot, pulled the handbrake and twisted the key out.

Linda relaxed so much she practically collapsed, “It’s over��”

“For you, yeah, it is…” He got out.

Without having to think about what Mello meant, Matt followed suit and hopped off. 

The asphalt was so still under his soles… solid… he almost bent down to touch it with his hand…

“Holy hell, it’s sunny!” Mello stretched, then closed the door in Near and Linda’s faces, “See you never, wankers!”

“What? Let us out! Matt, let us out!”

He also closed the door, making sure to talk loud enough for them to hear as he reasoned with his best friend, “It’s Folkestone and then on to Calais, no?”

“Ferry from Portsmouth. ‘S quicker.” Mello corrected, locking the van and then taking two fags and the zippo out of his coat pocket.

Like a moth to the light, Matt circled around the muzzle to light them on the same flame, while Linda yelped from the cabin.

“What the fuck else do you think I stole a bloody van for?” Mello’s upper lip twisted in question of her logic (as if there was anything sound about his), and Matt had to bite on the cardboard of the filter not to laugh.

“It’s nice and cosy in there, isn’t it? You’ve your snacks… Stay put.”

With the sweet, sweet buzz of bitter nicotine starting to wash over him, he found it in himself to gaze sympathetically at his girlfriend, “they’ll find you…” he assured, “eventually…”

She stared between the two of them (trying to see through the smoke?) while Near, unused to their modus operandi, twirled a white curl, gleefully interested in further developments, even though he’d very much be involved in them.

“Sorry guys, but you didn’t really think we’d tell you where we were headed, did you?”

“Matt, I swear to God!”

He quirked an eyebrow, “Babe, we’re both agnostic…”

Near actually chuckled. He was so weird, jeez…

Mello, in the meanwhile, had finally had it and turned his back on them.

Without another word, they made their merry way to the nearest entrance, their louche fairytale having them leave ashes in their wake…

For some reason he’d imagined the shopping centre would be a lot bigger, the architecture more geometric and satisfying, but now he realised that that had been a memory of a mall in Karachi, the one auntie used to take him to… which gave him a pretty clear idea of how Mello knew about that place, and also hurt to think about too hard— so, anyway, this mall here looked like a mess, straight lines and curves clashing instead of harmonising with each other. The sight didn’t make him feel cheery in the least, if anything it kind of looked like a gigantic pirate hat.

“Really, though, we could go anywhere we want, the world’s our oyster...”

“Mhm… with the lemons life gave us? Slurp!”

He could feel his fucking gums shrinking… “What is it with you and lemons today?”

“What? I love lemons!” He smirked, giving him a half-lidded, x-ray once over, “All kinds of lemons…” 

The images of Wammy x Ruvie old man smut that flooded his mind had Matt shuddering so hard he had to turn away and his ears filled with static—

“Aw, he’s just so sensitive!” Mello gave him a shove, which was promptly returned. 

A grin reflected off of Matt, easy, automatic, whole, and all the time he’d been deprived of those moments, of the pranks, their telepathy, his best friend’s touch, it hadn’t been at all.

Sunshine had never looked so pretty: squinty-eyed and toothy, the top layers of his bob flitting in the sea breeze like gold threads.

Matt inevitably felt his face warm, but didn’t look away. Mello did, slowing his pace. He’d change the subject now, Matt knew, no matter how he pleaded and yearned.

“What do we do with those cunts?”

Oh, right. 

“Linda’s probably breaking the window as we speak…”

Mello took one long last drag, and the time to smirk scornfully at his enjoyably-paced cigarette, and blew out the smoke to one side, “You shouldn’t have said that.”

Neither dared look back, but Matt tilted his head, smiling helplessly at his best friend until he rolled his eyes and pivoted on his tippy toes. 

He wondered how Mello felt, consciously falling for such a basic form of manipulation, but not for long, because that walk drove Matt fucking crazy; the moment that twat put some shoes on, one foot fell in front of the other just like a model's. Impossible not to see why he wanted to go shopping. He hoped he got to buy something cool to strut in…

[holydrakes]

Is it just me, but I've seen people saying this bit retconned the fact that Maka had always been the hardworking, passionate scythe meister one of the two and Soul is the lazy one so there's no way this is true, which for me I feel like that's the point? That all of these are just as much Maka's overly negative perceptions of herself just like those times the little demon taunts Soul about how supposedly pathetic he is, and not necessarily the truth. In my reading, both Maka and Soul felt equally somewhat useless without the other and felt that the other deserves better and this chapter is Maka's turn to show that. Neither of them did more of the heavy lifting actually, they actually contributed equally, but both of them would always cut themselves short if asked which one did more in the end.

I also read this tid bit in NOT where Soul called Maka as not much of a fighter is mostly referring to the ever present insistence that Maka is supposedly the least special out of the 3 main meisters but being able to be the strongest because she never let that stops her from trying was the point of her arc. Plus in this scene, I feel like Soul was hesitating to enter the tournament because he too, was aware they both still made kind of a weak team and it's still kind of early into Maka's scythe training and hence why he felt the need to bring up how she 'supposedly wasn't much of a natural-born fighter' and because Soul's the pessimistic one and the one who tends to respond to challenges by questioning it/running away, the scene showed how they usually tackled the idea of potential adversity: Maka doesn't care if she is supposedly 'not much of a fighter' as long as she tries and put trust in their bond, she can do anything. And then we get Soul feeling perked up and no longer hesitating like he did before after seeing her passion and optimism.

It followed the pattern that these two kids are painfully aware of how weak they are, but have different ways of tackling it that's both destructive and beneficial: Soul's awareness of his own weaknesses led him to run away from his family and repeatedly shown through his dealing with the black blood, it also hindered him to really reach his potentials because he's not confident enough to take too much risks, but because of this same reason he is able to be the more careful one between the two and detect dangers faster and why he was able to contain the black blood to not wreck Maka too much. Meanwhile Maka's awareness of her own weaknesses led her to often be reckless, but unlike Soul who often responds to adversity by stepping back, Maka responds to them by stepping forward and tackling them head-on, as if she sees her weaknesses as an opportunity to improve instead of running away from, as reflected in how she ultimately was the one who first coaxed Soul into utilizing the black blood to make up for their lack of power. In short, Soul (the slacker, the pessimist, the overly cautious) got someone who can inspire him to move forward, and Maka (the hardworker, the idealist, the reckless) got someone who can hold her back when she pushed herself too far.

The Salvage arc I feel is supposed to be some kind of reversal of how it usually goes but mostly to show how far their characters had progressed: Soul was able to resist the book's effects because by that point he no longer was as pessimistic about himself and what role Maka supposedly had in his life. Maka was put into a moment of temporary weakness so for once she could reflect back on how much she had depended on Soul and (likely because of her trauma with abandonment) how much it'd crush her if one day he'd decide to leave for someone better. After spending all her time by that point always charging through things head on, she had a moment of slowing down and finally made aware of her own weaknesses, so she ironically ended up adapting more of Soul's usual mindset: by running away from things (but she was dealing with her own abandonment issues here, so let's call it her achilles' heel) and Soul is now forced into a situation where he had to adapt Maka's usual 'show of courage'.

[thedivineart]

⠀⠀⠀꒰⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⌷ .⠀⠀d i s c l a i m e r⠀⠀✿𝆬

[ 𝒜𝓇𝓉 ✧ ] any events and other things in your life are cannot be accurately predict by me and the tarot cards, do take a note that we are 'still' the creator of our 'future'- what you 'do' now will be the outcome of your future life and this could be either a good or bad, if your doing good and you are good to others expect the bright future ahead but in reverse you might expect the worst.

[ ℰ𝓂𝒾𝓈 ✧ ] to pick a pile, firstly take a good deep breath, second focus on every pile in the photo provided below { pile one: kou, pile two: jelly, pile three: husband, pile four: band aid }, and lastly scroll more down to reveal your reading. if you cannot still pick up any of the pile, do remember the sequence of what is written in the first sentence.

[ 𝒜𝓇𝓉ℯ𝓂𝒾𝓈 ✧ ] grammatical errors ahead, if you're a perfectionist then leave this pac. I do write with so many flaws and I know it's not perfect since my first language isn't english.

-` 𝑇𝐻𝐸𝐷𝐼𝑉𝐼𝑁𝐸𝐴𝑅𝑇 ´- ✰︵ — m a s t e r l i s t ´-

: ･. ﾟ ✧. : ･. ☽˚｡ ･ﾟ ✧: ･. :.

ꕀ ׅ࣪ ꒰ ♡ ꒱ 𝓂𝒾𝓃𝒾 𝓅𝒾𝒸𝓀 𝒶 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝒹 ; messages from your guides...

✿。꒰ pile one ₊ kou ꙳ . ꒱

— either only you or the whole family is on the crisis during this time, you actually want to give up from everything since you think that any of your plan are being fulfill or you felt very unlucky for having the life you've got as of now. however your guides have answer for that, simply why those things are happening to you are because the divine, God and the universe is testing you at some point, you are being tested by how much you can do it; how much committed you are to our God and the spirituality. you maybe questioning yourself "why all your problem comes always most of the time, isn't there a peace and happy life?", do remember if have negative mind, you wouldn't have a peaceful life, if you got negative energy you attract negativity in life. However you may also questioning that " how you can attract positive in life?", well your guides says that you should start nurturing yourself first and then your family or anyone who surrounds you, so life will nurtures you back. you also aren't that kind of person who always think about themselves merely you think others most of the time, I know it somewhat good but please take note that you should focus at yourself, learn to nurture and be gentle for yourself.

﹏ ✿𝆬  for personal readings dm me ⬞ ࣪ ࿀

✿。꒰ pile two ₊ jelly ꙳ . ꒱

— at this point there's some issues regarding to your childhood which causes to leave a massive wound, up until now this wound doesn't still heal and this talks about there is someone who was dishonest to you before which lead you to have trust issues in people around you. also you feel that people are too harsh when comes to you, you've got some advice here from your guides; if they threw you harsh words the better suggestion here do diffuse those upset words with some humour— however if their words are already off limits, discipline them in such a possible good way you know. you got issues about your friends from your childhood (if ever you got one ), you still doesn't forgive them from what they just did to you from the past that already buried in oblivion and maybe you forget or doesn't pay much attention from it. At this time, you got some plan for a new adventure of your life, it likes you want some new beginning or change about your life and your too focus and dedicated for it, maybe you got some plans moving away like relocation or something along with those line and you really want it as fast as you can, as I write I feel that you don't want to live where your living now. However there's some obstacles from your way or you want that plan to be in secret or you want to set boundaries from your plans.

﹏ ✿𝆬  for personal readings dm me ⬞ ࣪ ࿀

✿。꒰ pile three ₊ husband ꙳ . ꒱

— if feel very unlucky about your life then this is your reading, living in this lifetime is what makes you indeed lucky not all people are lucky to live. your path is clear and all you can do is to enjoy this walk and start appreciating what you've got, everything will be easy on you if stop this fears and worrying about yourself and start believing that you can and you have your own good luck. the world is changing every day, hour, minutes, and it's even seconds, doesn't mean you're in below now that will be your place until your end, no, your time to shine wasn't come yet. the first thing you need to do is to think what you really want and what you don't want to be happen, focus more on being positive than having negative outburst in mind. sometimes you force things to happen but the divine timing wasn't yet ready and on set, remember that we can't get easily what we want and we do fall many times before we achieve the dreams, desires and even goals that we want, slow down and keep the real thing to happen according to it is and enjoy the moment. do help others by helping them even in small things however don't do it if you aren't willing too. boost good karma from helping without any heavy ache or even if they don't even say thanks to you, having a willingness is one of the key for positive outcome and success.

﹏ ✿𝆬  for personal readings dm me ⬞ ࣪ ࿀

✿。꒰ pile four ₊ band aid ꙳ . ꒱

— just like the pile one your commitment is being tested however yours are far different from pile one so don't read it ( if you want to read then read ). the universe put you on a test where your loyalty to divine, universe, and our God is being challenge. we know that life isn't fair and we going through different tough situation—still we shouldn't lose our fate from the above. worrying about something isn't a good thing since it wouldn't help you but only cause waste of time and energy you put in there. things will go accordingly to what is pattern and sometimes this called "good things" comes at once in a while, don't focus too much on worrying or else you might miss the good things that may come to you. learn how to balance your emotions and it's situation in reality, be kind and nourish yourself and also other, don't overthink too much that isn't serve you in anyway. focus on yourself, know what you want and need, sometimes we really do need that and we didn't realize we are too focus on others than our selves and worst we also forget those people who are true and loyal to us.

﹏ ✿𝆬  for personal readings dm me ⬞ ࣪ ࿀

— ｅｎｄ —

[ 🧁. ] Hello! Thank You so much for checking out this pac reading, if you ever like it please do follow and reblog for more pac. Next pac will be maybe another messages or how your parents thinks about you? let me know what you think guys...

© thedivineart — do not plagiarize any of my work, translate or repost it on other social media platform , do remember that this is only my official account where all my pac are posted, if you ever see something like mine from word by word kindly report it to me, thank you<3. theme is included

source [ 𝓃 ] layout by: @thedivineart

[violivs]

NMTDaily: And So It Begins

- Beatrice’s first vlog! What an opening line, I love it lol. I remembered the hand wave on “hello, people of the Internet” having a wider arc across the screen than it actually does, funny enough! Glad I didn’t specify the wide wave when I referenced this line in MARRIED, the fic I posted on the 25th.

- “I’m not too old for Halloween”, girl after my own heart!

- Always thought it was interesting that Bea’s mother is American. I wonder how/why they decided that. It’s the kind of super specific detail that makes Bea feel so real, because who would make that up? It’s also interesting that it means Bea and Ben’s families are both somewhat international. Another parallel for them, another thing they have in common.

- I bet the Aunties’ wedding was the cutest thing ever, imagine Hero and Leo standing up with them! That’s probably the last time all of the Dukes were together before the story starts.

- I’m surprised Bea’s parents moved because her dad got a promotion. I would have assumed her mom did, because we get the impression of her as the high-powered businesswoman. But good for Bea’s dad. Is it canon that he’s a university professor? (Promotion = tenure?) Or did I make that up for fanfic and/or confuse him with Ben’s parents being professors in canon? Listening for that. Maybe Bea’s dad was actually also a business person all along and that’s how her parents met. Who knows.

- Bea says Australia like I say Indiana, lol (no hate to anyone from Indiana though! Just another of those inborn rivalries with the neighbor, like the Oz/NZ one.)

- “A great science program” I forgot Bea was a science person!

- I always loved the set decoration in this room, I remember it’s Hero’s room, and it’s so artsy and cozy and pretty. Love the wall art.

- “Leo and I are in charge of the house for the next six months” Excuse me, does this series really only take place over six months? Well, it ends in the first week of November, so that’s seven full months. I think it felt like it lasted a whole year when it was airing though. Time slowed down during a certain arc for sure.

- “in-joke with myself!” Classic. I kind of love that the text on screen saying “good one Beatrice” is Bea talking to herself again in-world, but out-of-world it’s kind of the Candle Wasters talking, interacting both with their own main character and with the audience. Meta.

- “Sorry my life is so boring” are like, THE famous last words for an LIW protagonist. Honey, you got a big storm coming!

- I was always so incredibly impressed with Beatrice’s independence, her comfort with leaving her parents and essentially being on her own before she even finished high school. I was alone in a college dorm hours away from home when I first watched this, second semester of freshman year if I’m not mistaken, and I could barely believe I’d managed it. I couldn’t imagine doing that any earlier than I had. I thought she was so brave and cool. I think Bea actually shows more hesitation and nervousness than I realized she did in this episode, both because she’s not used to vlogging yet and because being in a new place is nerve-wracking, but I still think she’s so brave.

- It’s so interesting that in a reversal of the play, it’s our Beatrice who comes from away to Messina to start the story, instead of Benedick and the other men returning from war. Of course, we’ll see how the boys’ arrival on the scene is modernized soon enough!

- Harriett does such a great job making you care about Bea and like her right from the start. You just want to keep listening to her talk. I can’t wait to do just that over the next seven months.

- The Benedict Cumberbatch crush is a stroke of genius, but what are the odds that there happens to be a super famous guy named Benedict that you can reference who is at peak relevance in the exact year your MAAN modernization premieres? Truly, this series as it exists could only have happened in 2014. It was the perfect time and the perfect people. What luck.

- Oh, this is the wider arc hand wave I was remembering! It’s just at the end of the video and not the beginning. Funny!

- Covering the camera with her hand and ducking out of frame at the end of her first video is a direct parallel to what Bea and Hero do in their final NMTD video, sliding out of frame and all. Love that.

- I can’t believe how much there is to talk about even with these early episodes. These posts are gonna get so long they’ll have to go under a cut for the later episodes!

💖🦩🥭

[ilaosi]

weird question, but since ur a zombie I need some help!

okay, so I'm writing about zombies and such and the actual physical symptoms of zombism are like vague. super vague.

I was wondering what your experience was?

idk wikipedia and all them are uselessssss, and I thought asking a zombie would just be easier than going and looking for 16th century whatevers.

so, if you don't mind what was it like? what sorts of symptoms did you have?

anyway thank you for reading your awesome!!!

omg hi im a bit late but this ask makes me so happy i love talking abt this stuff !!! :D i'd like to preface by saying i experience my kintypes in a way that sounds a lot like a past life but i don't consider that to be the case, i believe my memories are from some version of me in other universes/realities.

soo my response might not be the most helpful because i don't think i experience zombism in the way most ppl think of it? i wasn't infected or anything, i died a (somewhat) natural death & the next thing i knew i was kind of unknowingly digging myself out of my grave. i don't know how or why i was resurrected, if someone else did it, if i did it myself, if it was some kind of divine intervention, no clue. in the world i remember, zombies were a known phenomenon that hadn't yet been explained by science.

living people reacted to us in a lot of different ways, some kind of worshiped us and treated us like we were chosen by the gods or otherwise special, but most just thought it was weird/gross and tried to avoid us. a few ppl wanted to get rid of us because it was "unnatural and contagious" (it couldn't actually be transmitted like a disease, in my world at least), there was even a group of ppl who denied our existence entirely. it was also pretty common for medical students to (consensually, most of the time) practice their skills on zombies, kind of like they do in this world with corpses, but we were more convenient because it was really hard to kill us and we didn't really experience much pain, plus we could heal (to an extent), and we were pretty much immune to infection & other complications/side effects. i think it was also a way of gathering information for research since there wasn't much known about us or how/why we existed.

as for the symptoms & what it felt like - i remember when i first crawled out of the dirt the main thing i noticed was that my body was completely still. my heart didn't beat, the blood didn't flow in my veins, i didn't particularly feel the need to breathe or blink. i was just as disabled in that world as i am in this one, but after i died some of my disabilities didn't really affect me anymore. i wasn't in horrible pain in the way i usually am, i just felt like all of my skin was slightly bruised and there was a dull ache all over my body but it was easy to ignore, and my bones felt,, empty? my brainfog/dissociation got a lot worse though. all of my senses felt much more dull but i definitely still had them. it took more pressure for me to feel things touching my skin, my vision was cloudy and less colorful, i couldn't really smell or taste most things other than meat, blood, decay, dirt, mildew, etc. other smells/tastes would have to be really strong/intense for me to pick up on it at all. i was dead for about 3? days before i emerged, and i was buried in winter, so decomposition hadn't totally taken over yet. i did continue to decompose after that, but eventually i figured out that keeping myself fed (primarily with non-human brain matter & insects) would stop that process and sometimes even reverse the effects of it to an extent. if i went too long without feeding or if i fed on the wrong things too often i would feel really sick and my skin would get even more flaky. sometimes huge chunks of skin or even small body parts would fall off, but they could be successfully reattached by any doctor who was willing to work with zombies.

visually/appearance wise - i was more pale and my skin had a kind of light-grey-green-ish tint to it. the parts of me that fell off and had to be reattached ended up looking more purple-pink-ish for a while, but usually they'd go back to the grey-green color eventually. the whites of my eyes were more blue & my irises were dark grey. my veins were more visible through my skin and they were a lot darker, almost black. my natural hair color is brown and before i died i had my hair dyed black, afterwards the color just never faded and my hair didn't grow anymore so it didn't change much, but the areas where my roots were showing turned grey.

i can't rly think of any other specific things to talk about but if u have more questions or if u want more clarification on something i said here feel free to send another ask!!!

[zhoras-bitch]

Chiming into the UT/UB discussion with my two cents.

The reason I didn't like UT is because its whole conflict felt so very artificial. They push these ideas, but the story gives me no reason to believe them.

The story tries to push MC and Kit's relationship as a forbidden romance, but the only thing that makes it forbidden is that Austin will throw a temper tantrum when he finds out about MC and Kit. As trashy as affair books like TNA, FCL, and TBB are, at least the MC and LIs' relationships actually feel forbidden.

They try to say MC and Kit's relationship affects the ranch, but the story gave me no reason to believe that.

They try to push Kit as a heartbreaker and a player, hence Austin trying to "protect" MC from them, but all we ever get is two scenes of fangirls/fanboys flocking around Kit, with Kit being totally unresponsive (on that note, I personally found Kit to be textbook definition of a personality-less customizable LI).

They try to give MC and Austin this backstory about their parents passing away when they were young, hence Austin's overprotectiveness and infantilization of MC, but it felt very poorly set up compared to MC backstories/traumas like the ones in ACOR and ILITW. They just kind of throw the background details at you and expect you to roll with it. Also, was MC being set with having a business major even all that important?

Heck, it didn't even feel all that sexually charged to me outside of the CGs, despite being a "17+ sexy" book. I generally hate PB's style of smut writing but at least books like TNA and Surrender and Witness are interesting in that their smut is fun to mock. UT just had me either bored out of my mind or frustratedly yelling at my phone.

There's also a point that a lot of people have brought up, where the whole "older brother protects younger sibling from their player friend" is supposedly meant for wlm and doesn't make sense otherwise. In a mlw route, that attitude would come off as slut-shamey; and in a mlm or wlw route, it'd come off as homophobic. These can be interesting concepts to explore, but the story doesn't acknowledge them. Though I'm not fully sure how I feel about that aspect, so do with it what you will. Though even as someone who likes to see gender-reversals of typical cisheteronormative relationship tropes (hence why I generally play GOC LI stories with a mlw route when I can), this book still felt incredibly flat to me.

Now I haven't started UB yet, but I do think that part of what appeals to me is Mandy being a LI. And not just in the aspect of having two non-GOC LIs. Despite Mandy veering dangerously close into the stereotypical "girly girl talk best friend that only exists to validate your feelings for LI and be your walking wardrobe" back in UT, she was actually the only prominent character I found remotely likeable. Like, the only one I felt was able to bring some degree of common sense to the table while Austin was acting like Caillou over MC and Kit's relationship.

So seeing her return as a LI is pretty awesome. Buuuuuuut like someone else said, it is weird that they did this despite hinting towards Mandy/Austin at the end of UT. Like, why not a throuple relationship between MC and Mandy and Austin? I mean, as much as I hated Austin, that still would have been pretty interesting.

One last thing I will say though. Outside of Mandy... I'm not sure what connection UB and UT are even meant to have with each other. IIRC, PB even admitted that they couldn't be bothered to include the option to transfer data from UT to UB, hence why people were getting Kits and MCs in UB that didn't match the ones they chose. I'm gonna hazard a guess that even HSS:CA has more to do with OG HSS than UB has to do with UT. Not that UT had a lot going for it anyways, but you get the idea.

Sorry for the long post, but yeah these are pretty much my thoughts.

I somewhat agree. I think that UT conflict works in theory, but there are a bunch of issues with the book's implementation that make it hard for some readers to feel invested and even plot points that seem to work against it, thus lowering the stakes. I'll try to keep it as short as possible, but here are my thoughts:

The story would work better if MC was in high school. I understand that they wanted to write smut, and that's why they couldn't do it. But narratively, 'My parental figure doesn't approve of my crush' is 1) very juvenile 2) works better when the parental figure actually has legal power and authority over MC. But when MC is a 20 something adult it's like. Girl (gn) you can do whatever you want, what's Austin gonna do about it? Get mad?

Austin and MC’s relationship should've been a bigger focus since it's essentially the main conflict of the book. Specifically I wish we saw more of Austin's loving side, saw how much he did for MC and grown to care about him the way MC does. That's another reason to set the story earlier too. That way we could've seen more of the aftermath of their parents dying, MC relying on Austin more as their caregiver and their only living relative and him fighting tooth and nail to protect his sibling. Without that emotional investment Austin is just some asshole, and it's really unclear as to why I as a reader should care about hurting his feelings.

Kit should've been more problematic. I agree with your point about how them being a player is stated but never really shown. I guess they were too afraid to make them unlikeable, but you have to give Austin a legitimate reason to be against their relationship with MC. Give them and Austin a sour past. Or make them wear a leather jacket. Just something that would scream 'trouble' to an overprotective older brother.

Finally, the resolution of the whole Austin and MC's conflict felt a little too... easy to me? I wish MC could call out the problematic side of Austin's behaviour more overtly, Austin reflect and meaningfully change, and them both come together as a family again.

(Typing this all out, I now honestly want a retelling of UT with highschooler MC, which is set shortly after their parent's death and centers largely around MC's relationship with Austin and his struggle to keep custody of their sibling without letting the family ranch completely fall apart.)

As for Unbridled, I think it's pretty obvious what they were trying to do. They saw UT was successful, so they wanted to capture that audience again with a sequel. But UT had no more story to tell, hence the spin-off. So to answer your question, the connection between UB and UT is literally just smut+cowboys+grumpy ML. Mandy is really only there to tie these books together so that they can market it under the same brand and (hopefully) pull in the same audience again. Which makes it doubly funny that UT fans seem to hate UB and vice versa.

Maybe they did plan to make UB about Mandy and Austin initially and then back paddled when they saw that a lot of people didn't really like Austin all that much? It's kind of a conspiracy theory, but it is funny to think about. It does make the entire Austin and Mandy plot line in UT essentially irrelevant, which is objectively not very good writing. But I didn't like Austin, so I'll take it.

[rezonan]

Cool new blog you're starting here, really liked your Red Hood post. So wanted to ask, what you would do with Tim Drake? Since your whole but about ways for Jason to move as a character interested me

How i would move Tim Drake as a character

I have no idea.

First question on this blog and I don't have a concrete answer for it, so I'll do what I do best and ramble.

My thoughts on Tim and why he's stuck in the first place

This might be a long section. There's a TLDR at the end if you want a summary of all this and just wanna know what I would do with him

So here's the thing, while I have been keeping up with comic lore and stories through wikis and the like for years since 2016 back when I was 10, I never actually read comics consistently at least as a hobby untill about a year and a half ago. In all those comics, I've only just seen the appeal of tim as a character, I just made a blog post talking about that not too long ago. Not to say I don't like him, I definitely do now, that's for sure. (Also wanna say to bare in mind I don't have universal knowledge of the character so give me some slack.)

So thing is, DC is stuck with him as a character, from what I can get from interviews and the older robin stuff, Tim was supposed to be the 'normal one', unlike Jason or Dick he wasn't brought into this life through tragedy, he went into the life because he wanted to and got into Into a lot of tragedies in a kind of reverse way. Which like I said before, is a beautiful piece.

He also was supposed to BE robin, as in he is THE robin, a lot of comics I've read of him so far before Damian (who we'll get to in a bit), he just seemed to feel like he would always be Robin, he was in universe from what I can see the best one to the point an out of character batman used bus girlfriend to get him back, Dick even said it once I think that he was the best robin, it kinda felt like he was always gonna be Robin and kinda grow the role past the sidekick status, I mean the man actually made the costume cool for the first time.

Then Damian showed up.

Now I don't have a definitive ranking of the robins but I wouldn't be surprised Damian is on top, he fits the asshole trying to be better archetype that I am a sucker for, I liked his stuff with Dick even if I haven't read a lot of it and bus arrogance while annoying to some with the good writers is just plain funny to me and like most of the Batfamily is badass. It also helps I grew up with the DCAMU movies where he was basically the main character.

But he kinda screwed Tim over. All that stuff I said about Tim growing the Robin role or any of that. GONE, I wouldn't say it was intentional on anyone's parts but it still happened.

In Red Robin #1, Tim’s Storyline following the Battle for the Cowl, Tim sees Damian in the Robin costume and that Dick has chosen him to be Robin. And you can really feel what I mean when I say Damian basically took what Tim had going for him at the time.

(lol early Damian was a dick)

Doesn't help that said DCAMU movies I mentioned basically omitted Tim meaning an entire generation of people (like me) didn't even know the dude existed. So now his identity as Robin was basically taken from him in the public eye, Dick had Nightwing and Jason has Red Hood, Damian is Robin now. And Tim is ... Red Robin? I'll get to that name but I wanna make another point.

Coming back to him being the 'Normal one' I meant not only that he was the dude who wanted to get into the hero life without tragedy or anything (which I'm now realizing is kinda a rehash of Barbara Gordon but whatever, I like Damian and his basically a male Cassandra at times) but it was also the fact he wasn't a orphan, yeah again Barbara again did this somewhat but her dad was Commissioner Gordon, Tim(forgive me if I make a mistake guys) had a normal dad and school life and everything. He was just a normal high school kid like you and me who just happened to be a crime fighting badass, kinda like Spider-Man.

Untill multiple tragedies struck and he did become an orphan

Now while in my ramblings I should have mentioned this before the Damian post, DC has taken another thing that set Tim apart from the rest of the robins away. So DC gets Bruce to adopt him, which I love but again, the uniqueness is gone a bit.

So now with have a Robin-less, orphan Tim. (Not sure if he's currently Robin or not, the costume confuses me).

So DC just has nowhere to go with him, they can't make him robin and bringing his dad back would be reductant. So that's where sigh... Red Robin comes along.

So at this point, Tim takes on a new identity and series written by Yost (one of my favorite writers) and it's awesome so far, Tim's smart and detective-like and god that costume just great.

(yes I know that's Jason in the costume but that's a point I'm gonna bring up)

But it also drops another issue with DC and it's direction with him.

I'm sure you've heard of the whole 'All the other robins graduated into better names, even his girlfriend but Tim still has robin in his name's and honestly I freaking agree. It just doesn't separate hum from robin enough for it to really catch on or make him look like he's a new entity. The costume is great but here's the thing.

Tim is the 3rd person to use it. It was originally created in Kingdom come for that universes Dick to use and then by Jason in countdown. So now we have Tim inheriting another costume from his two brothers and it just doesn't work for me

So over the years especially post New 52, DC has been making multiple attempts to go with the character from a costume change to naming him..... Drake??? Who did that anyway?? Dumb

They also made him come out as bisexual which I think is a cool change(I didn't 2 years ago but I was a shit person back then), it makes him more diverse and basically opened his character to a new market. The results and execution of this change has been... Interesting (WHY DID THEY BREAK HIM UP WITH STEPH AND WHY DOES BERNARD EXIST SO BORING!!)

So Tldr: DC got rid of what of what made his character orginally unique for the most part and removed his brand as the current Robin from him and haven't come up with a convincing replacement for a name and direction to take him.

What I would do with Tim

Again not sure since I still haven't read enough to make good judgement calls but there has been this idea in my head for a while now.

Tim Post-Red Robin was interesting mentally, I've talk about how he was so screwed by god at that point in my Tim Drake post. His friends and family even wanting to get him to have therapy.

I read a cool fic called 'New 52 redux' where the new 52 doesn't happen and he attempts suicide, he certainly feels suicidal or at least depressed in this comic, at least I think so, hope I'm not projecting on him there.

He feels like he thinks no one is on his side anymore in his mind, getting paranoid, cold Aka like Bruce, he was acting like Bruce in this run to me. Which was an interesting development since if you read the comics around the early 2000s you would think he would grow into the opposite.

So here's my idea, they lean into this identity Crisis and slow degrade into Bruce at his worst and take him to Hub City, the worst city in DC, yes even worse than Gotham. The question's orginal city that was so bad he quit for his own sanity.

A city so bad that homeless people used dead babies to beg for cash.

I would also give him a new name. Some of the fanon ones I see are pretty cool, Cardinal, Grey Ghost, Gotham Knight etc love em and any would be fine.

So the idea here is that Tim in his Post-Crisis Red Robin mental state, basically tries to singlehandedly take the city from crime, just like Bruce, leaning into how close they were acting but also wanting to prove to everyone else that he can be just as good as Bruce was. Get him to start a business hw would grow as the city moved on and use to profits to improve the city, would be incredibly depressing and brooding.

From there you can either show he's fighting a losing battle and make Tim fall more into his hole of mental issues and Bruce like behavior of pushing others away or let him actually start to win and feel better about himself and start to open up with his family and accept help. Then do the usually status quo stories in hub city.

Of course as usual I have another idea, If most of young justice are dead like I think they were at this time(Retcons and all that make this hard), try and set up a new hero team somewhere, in which he leads the next set of young heroes to avoid all the mistakes he faced as a hero.

Welp that was longer than I thought, hope that satisfied tour question.

[chloesolace]

Book Review: "The Scarlet Veil" by Shelby Mahurin

Spoiler-free

Genre: young adult, fantasy • Triggers: trauma, death, graphic descriptions of corpses, kidnapping, blood, misogyny, murder • Year of Publication: 2023

Plot: ★★★★

Characters: ★★★★

Writing Style: ★★

Re-Readability: ★★★

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General Thoughts

During the first half of this book I thought I would end up disliking it, and was very disappointed because I have been looking for an aristocratic vampire romance for ages. Not reverse-harm, not vampire warrior, no, the actual aristocratic-long-hair-wine-glass-in-hand-elegant vampire one might associate with figures like Carmilla and Dracula. This is also the main reason I did not DNF this, and I'm really glad I gave it a chance, because it ended up getting better the further I got and had me at the edge of my seat toward the ending.

I do wanna say that I have not read Serpent & Dove and although this is a spin-off with the same characters (just a different one taking on the role as MC), I understood everything I needed to. So, in my opinion, reading the Serpent & Dove trilogy is not necessary in order to read this. Sure, you might not have as much of a connection with the characters when you begin to read, but everything that's relevant to the story is explained quite nicely in my opinion. Now, moving on to the actual review.

Plot

The plot is a murder mystery. Bodies of supernatural beings turn up with two puncture wounds in their throats. Without getting into spoiler territory, I can say that the plot is very interesting and has some nice twists in there, too. You will definitely be entertained by it if you enjoy this sort of thing.

Celie being kidnapped and brought to the vampire castle is a scenario I also enjoyed reading. There was a bit of an enemies-to-lovers dynamic going on at times, since Celie, our MC, justifiably disliked Michal, the vampire king, in the beginning. Yes, I know that being kidnapped and then falling for your kidnapper is somewhat problematic but really, this is fiction and YA (not a dark romance). Celie was not actually treated like a real prisoner, and that only progressed further as the story went on; she was dressed in beautiful gowns, walked around the castle grounds and island, and even went on an undercover mission with Michal at a brothel *ahem*.

Also, if authors tried making every fictional scenario inherently healthy and unproblematic I'd die of boredom. I want that in real life, not my books x). But I digress.

Characters

I really disliked Celie in the beginning. Her actions and internal monologue felt juvenile, to the point where I seriously struggled to believe she was 19 and not, say, 15. I understand that she was supposed to be this soft, feminine and lady-like character and this is actually a character type I'd like to see more of, as feminity is often demonized and seen as weak by readers. However, it wasn't Celie's "lady-like" personality I had an issue with, but how she felt infantilized sometimes. The other characters kept her entirely separate from any plans they made, even if she was directly involved in one of the murders since she found the body. This is a good idea, but the execution made it feel like "go away, the adults are talking" instead of "she is too traumatized to take part in this", which is what I believe Mahurin was going for. It is also easier to believe the former due to Célie's often childish behavior and reactions. You can be soft and feminine but still behave a bit more maturely, which is what I would have hoped for her. Still, her character development was fairly satisfying. She still has a long way to go, I think, and I am looking forward to hopefully seeing that develop in book two.

Michal is a character I hope to see Mahurin elaborate on more. We don't know that much about him yet, so it is really hard to judge. He states at some point, and this is no way a spoiler (honestly, it felt kind of random for him to say it), that he is afraid of love. Why? What happened for him to develop that fear? So far I can say that I love how he has a very ruthless and violent side, but can also be extremely caring and sweet at the same time.

I also loved the side characters, at least the vampire ones, Odessa and Dimitri. Especially Odessa. I cannot say much for the Serpent & Dove characters because they mostly appear in the first section of the book, which is exactly the section I disliked.

In general, I enjoyed the characters. I'm giving four out of five stars, though, because as I said before, I think Célie's character could have handled a bit more maturely in the beginning, especially since she was supposed to be 19.

Writing Style

As always, this is entirely subjective but I include this part in my reviews since writing styles have made or broken books for me, and I would like to offer those interested in the books insights into the style before buying it, so you can decide for yourself if this is something you'd enjoy reading.

Oh boy. I didn't really like it, I fear. Firstly, the narrator is a first-person present tense which is already not my favorite combination, but it is easy to overlook really. The main issues I had were t-t-the c-c-onstant s-stuttering l-like this. It was wholly unnecessary in my opinion and widely overused. I also think we have been past this in publishing and established that there are better ways to write stuttering t-than t-t-this. There are stuttering writing guides online. I actually loved the fact Celie stuttered, since it showed her character development very well, I just wish the stuttering had been written differently.

Secondly, the constant italicization of words for emphasis got on my nerves, too. Using it sometimes is totally valid, but I swear there was not one page without at least four or five italicized words for emphasis, and that's not even counting the constant repetition of sentences that had already been said at some point before, just so the reader doesn't forget anything. Those were also in italics, of course.

Overall, this improved toward the end of the book, though. Celie's stuttering ceased and so did the italicization for emphasis (mostly). Still, this is something that annoyed me a tremendous amount and one of the reasons why it was so hard for me to get through the first part of the book, hence the two stars.

Re-Readability

I think this book can definitely be re-read. Especially if you enjoyed the romance scenes between Michal and Celie, like I did. However, keep in mind this book has about 620 pages so it is not short by any means. Also, I would probably skip the first part of the book if I ever re-read it and jump straight into Celie arriving in Requiem.

Conclusion

In essence, I enjoyed this book. It was exactly what I was looking for in terms of vampire romance, but it also pulled me right into the story and I am very excited to see what will happen in book two, especially after that ending. I don't think I will pick up Serpent & Dove, however, since the story of that trilogy doesn't peak my interest as much.

[the-void-writes]

Happy Blursday, sweetpea! Can you please tell me about Will’s relarionship to all of his father figures? :3

Oh absolutely, thank you so much!!! It’s funny because Will has a lot more father figures than I realized, though some of them are just guys that he feels somewhat safe around without an actual familial bond. Either way, this boy keeps adopting dads lol.

Will and His Fathers

Isaiah Shapiro - He’s his father only by legal name and nothing more. Will has never felt safe around him, not even as a young child, because of his father’s hatred for Freaks. Isaiah was the starting point for Will’s downward mental spiral, and the abuse he had to endure for years.

Jason Rhodes - His real, beautiful, loving father. Jason would make time reverse for this boy if that’s what he wanted. They share music, they go exploring, they train to help each other get stronger, they take care of each other when they’re sick, they just love each other like pure family. Their bond is completely unbreakable, and they understand each other better than anyone else on Earth.

Henry Prescott - The second most amazing father Will has ever had. He’s been calling Will his son since he met the family, always treating him like his own because the poor boy could never find sympathy from other people. He doesn’t care that the boy is different, he loves him all the same. And when they both thought they had lost Jason, they were each other’s biggest support system, helping the other stay afloat in their darkest time.

Rio Manuel - He’s more of a father by association to Jason, but that doesn’t mean he won’t care for Will just as much. He sees how unshakeable this kid’s devotion to his family is, and he wants to help him however he can. They actually trained together a lot because they knew the other would give them a fair fight with no holding back. Rio also can’t help but be protective of any kid who’s nice to his daughter, anyway.

Gabriel Vesely - This is a completely one-sided father-figure scenario, because Vesely sees this boy as his wonder child, while Will would love nothing more than to chuck him in a river. Vesely just has this idea that Will is gonna be his prodigy and do everything that he had ever wanted for his family, somehow forgetting how much of both Will and Jason’s lives that he’s ruined.

Atticus Wells - He’s a doctor from Bluebrook who took pity on Will when his mind was slipping away. He treated him with respect when everyone else wanted to ignore him. The problem was, Atticus is a Vesely-devotee, and he ran right back to Vesely’s side the minute the opportunity came up. So he has to fight Will’s friends, but he can’t bring himself to hurt this boy who had been ostracized for so long, a boy that Atticus saw a bit of himself in. (He also might have known Jason pretty well, so that only adds to his guilt.)

Honorable Mention: King Gazali becomes important to Will as a friend and confidant and somewhat of an older-brother figure (and an actual father figure in a few AUs).

There’s also an older gentleman in Paradise named Bailey, he’s a fisherman and a really nice and funny guy that Will gets along with. He’s more of a grandfather figure than a father figure, but the idea is still kind of the same.

[oraclekleo]

Kleooooo I did my first official reading last night 😭🥳

And it was actually a deck interview! I had such a hard time I swear... Like, right off the bat I asked "what's your vibe" and got The Star reversed and panicked thinking how the fuck I should interpret that I mean is my deck depressed??? 🙃 and the whole thing took me like an hour and a half for 9 questions?? I wrote everything down on a notebook and it was like 4 pages long 😂 But it was also very fun and interesting 🤭 I still have a long way to go (that came up on the reading too), but it's definitely a good introspection tool! I can definitely say that I respect readers so much more now that I faced my first reading 🛐

Do you have any ideas of other readings I could do to practice?

I also saw you want to do another game, so that reminded me I had yet to thank you for your answer for the last one! I have, indeed, been feeling very Knight of Wands-ish these past few days... Not only on the spicy side, but in general? Like, I've been much more motivated and inspired than usual and I'm actually doing stuff, which is great 🤭

And finally, I was looking through my email inbox because I wanted to gather all the readings I've gotten for future reference, and I found one by you! I'd forgotten you'd done a soulmate reading for me, so even though it was a while ago, I'm working on feedback for that one because I know it must've been a lot of work, since that's not a kind of reading you usually do 🥹

But I can say, I've gotten 4 or 5 soulmate and Future spouse related readings done over the course of 2 years, all by different readers, and it's insane how they all have the same vibe! And there's specific things that keep coming up so yes I'm definitely a believer (and it's why I think your reading is very statistically solid 🕵️‍♀️)

Anyways, hope you have a great afternoon? Evening? And let me know if you want to read my deck interview! I'm open to opinions about the interpretation I gave to the cards 🤓

Hello!

Aww! Wow! Well done!

Yeah, first readings can be hard and confusing but it genuinely gets better with time. Honestly I have never read reversals. It really depends on how you feel about it. I tried to do reversals but it just instinctively felt somewhat off. Maybe try a reading without them if it feels easier and smoother? Not that you have to, it's just a suggestion. 😊

Deck interview is one of the harder readings for the first time. Like logically you would want to do it first but when you think about it, the questions are pretty hard to interpret for a newbie so I'm proud you pulled through it. I'd love to see the result if you want to share it. You can send in email if it's private or longer.

I would suggest you to do readings where you don't care about the outcome, like where you are open to anything the cards might tell you. If you start with readings like future spouse where you already have some pre-reading idea in your head, it might cloud or confuse the outcome. So pick a tarot spread or question where you are fine with any outcome. That way you can be sure that the answer is unbiased. I personally searched Tarot spreads on Pinterest before, there are so many of them, some really fun to do. So you can give it a go. You can even try any of my spreads if there's some you particularly like.

I'm always happy when my readings sound accurate. And great for you to be more active and taking charge these days. Carry on. It feels good to actually roll the sleeves up and do things, right? 😂

I don't even remember I did a soulmate reading 🤣 I might need to revisit it myself. But no problem. There's no rush.

My afternoon is slowly turning into evening and it's all pretty good. I'm in a sociable mood at the moment, so I might start with some tiny game. I saw I received some suggestions into my inbox, I'm gonna check them out. 😁

Enjoy your time! Have fun with your tarot deck! 💖

[chellyfishing]

i had coffee this morning so here have my personal ranking of the four seasons of channel zero

before i start i should say i have some criticisms that apply to all seasons, which is mostly that they struggled with focus and had some extraneous subplots or concepts that didn’t really tie in with the whole as well as they could or should have. i will also add however that i liked all the seasons and found them all watchable! so even last place isn’t bad.

4. season 1, candle cove

umm you know i swear going into this i had a lengthy explanation for why i put this last. it’s actually somewhat interchangeable with #3, i think they have different strengths and weaknesses and atm i feel like the latter’s strengths are more meaningful. as for this season, i’m still a little bit, why teeth, like it felt a little more like someone had an idea for a horrifying image (which it is, very gross) and went with it without REALLY doing a good job of bringing it full circle. even so this season has some good twists and some fair pathos. i didn’t super love the characters, except like, the mom, who was great, really felt for her. the story was sort of propelled forward by its own “wtf is happening”-ness. it’s also just kind of a silly idea (i’m so sorry kris straub local58 is a masterwork) and it never really quite reconciles that.

3. season 2, noend house

like i said this is soooorta interchangeable with the above for me but today this is the order I’m going with. i think this is the slowest-paced of the seasons. it was hard to stay invested for a fair bit of it. most of the characters aside from the main girl felt like they didn’t matter and their subplots didn’t necessarily have much to do with the overall ideas of the story. however, the themes of grief and the use of metaphor was really well-done and the ending that brought it all together really stuck the landing. i got what it was doing and it finished in a way that felt meaningful and cathartic.

2. season 3, butcher’s block

okay i just realized that i kind of just went in reverse order and also this might be a controversial pick. i had some problems with this season, like its muddled messages about mental health (what was it trying to say? i still don’t know). but why it ranks so high is that i actually really cared about the characters and how things would turn out for them. i got really invested in them. also the main themes were about family and being loved and belonging which i’m a slut for. so, problems aside, it just really hit for me.

1. season 4, the dream door

i think this is a commonly-held opinion and it is a correct one. hands-down the best season, even though it gets a bit weird at the end? iykyk. the themes and metaphors were good, things connected well and made sense, and of course… pretzel jack. what a character, and what a performance. i don’t really know what else to say, i just… love him. anyway the series ending on such a strong note is a bit of a downer because i bet if it had kept going it would have continued to get stronger but we were denied. bummer.