#And those have been technical comments rather than responses

[carryonlikewedidbefore]

the way Watcher has ghosted the world for 2 days is pretty ironic given Shane doesn’t believe in them

[kiame-sama]

Night and Day- (Yandere!Chrollo x Autistic!Reader) Pt. 4

Warnings; yandere behavior, yandere relationship, soul-mate AU, represented autism based off of my own autism, slight infantilism, people are jerks, any negative comment said towards MC has been said to me or about me, social settings are difficult, adult themes, sensory issues,

~~~~~~~~

Waking up secure and safe in your soulmate's arms was a rather pleasant experience that you had begun to grow accustomed to. The feeling of his warm body intertwined with your own was a constant and comforting reminder that Chrollo was with you. He had warned you once that he may not always be present when you awoke after a night's rest, but you had yet to ever wake up without him by your side.

More often than not, Chrollo was already awake by the time you woke, so it surprised you to not hear his relaxed greeting upon realizing you were stirring. A quick glance at his face gave you the impression that he was sleeping but you knew better than to make any assumptions off of the way he appeared. If Chrollo had taught you anything, it was that he was very good at acting the part he desired to play.

This is why it came at even more of a surprise to you when you realized he was actually asleep. You had somehow woken up without accidentally waking Chrollo and finally got a look at him while he slept. He seemed similar to how he usually did when he was awake, impassive and calm in every way without a single thing disturbing his peaceful rest. The only difference you could see was how Chrollo seemed to be free from the thoughts that constantly fought for attention in his mind.

He looked so peaceful that you couldn't help but kiss his forehead, smiling to yourself due to how relaxed he seemed. You knew he was awake when the corners of his mouth quirked upwards into a slight smile, likely woken by your gentle kiss. Chrollo slowly reached an arm out and hooked it around you, pulling you close to his chest and cuddling you much like someone would cuddle a stuffed animal.

"You're up early."

"Mmm, no. You're up late."

"What time is it?"

"Almost midday."

He slowly opened one eye, glancing to the clock on the bedside table with a relaxed hum. The slightest of smirks played on his lips as he closed his eye again and snuggled deeper into the blankets. A soft chuckle escaped him as he seemed to bask in the simple joy of laying in bed.

"You have changed me for the better. Do you know that?"

"How?"

"I have slept soundly by your side since you came into my life. Truly, I have likely slept more recently than I have in the entirety of my life. You bring me such peace that I can finally sleep."

A warmth filled your body at his words and you quickly hid your face, feeling happy from his murmured affection. Part of you wondered why his praise meant so much to you because there was still the fact that he had technically kidnapped you. But it truly made you happy to hear his praise despite how the two of you met.

"I doubt I would be able to sleep this well on my own. But for now, just a little longer, okay?"

~~~~~~~~

"For how long?"

Your voice had a noticeable tone of anxiety to it as you nervously picked at your nails. Finding the slightest ridge and dip in your nails and worrying absently at it until it hurt before moving on to the next thing that caught your vague attention. It was one of those visual cues that indicated you were becoming antsy and distressed.

The low hum of voices and airships had you on constant alert. The older couple nearby whispering and casting odd glances towards you and Chrollo. Somewhere a child began to have a tantrum and cry loudly, making you flinch in response to the noise.

The skyport was busy with people boarding and departing from the airships. Truly, the chaos and sound not only distracted you, but made you feel overwhelmed despite being right by Chrollo's side. You were less than comfortable and even more so when Chrollo told you where you both were going.

"Until what they need is resolved. Don't worry, Love, I won't let anything happen to you."

"It's not me I'm worried about..."

The slight surprise in his expression was fleeting as he took in your concerned frown. He knew you would be hesitant with the presented ordeal, but he also knew you were in zero danger where the two of you were headed. Any danger present would be to him and him alone as the family of killers had no real quarrel with you.

"You don't have to worry for my sake, Firefly."

The new name managed to distract you just like Chrollo hoped it would, watching you slightly cock your head to the side in response. He had plenty of endearing names he thought of for you, but none seemed to stick as well as the one he chose. A beacon of light and kindness kept safe and protected in the monstrous phantom spider's grasp. To him, there was no need for you to ever have to fight or worry, you could stay safe in his grasp and he would keep the harshness of the world at bay.

~~~~~~~~

Chrollo watched you tap a pattern on your leg, looking outside the nearest window with an unblinking stare. You had been fixated on the outside since you learned just what the occupants did for work.

The Zoldyck family did not reach out for assistance often, so when they contacted Chrollo, he was interested enough to answer. An ever reclusive group that lived secluded on a mountain filled with monstrously powerful people who did not like outsiders. Of course, there was one big thing the Zoldyck family was known for and that was for being top-tier assassins.

Chrollo felt it prudent to tell you just what the family infamously did before encountering them face to face. Since then, you had withdrawn to a nearby window of the staff-house that sat in the valley shadowed by the mountains. It was likely a new experience for you to meet a family of assassins, seeing as the troupe was your first real encounter with bonafide thieves.

You warily watched doors nearby open as several men entered the room. Three of them seemed to be family members, as they were not in suits like the butlers, and you were slightly relieved when they didn't even glance in your direction. They wasted no time in getting into the details of their conversation, immediately talking about Nen and what they needed from Chrollo.

One of the men seemed to be the youngest of the group; an intimidating wall of muscles and cool demeanor. The eldest of the group didn't seem very interested in the conversation being had, instead having a cup of tea and some kind of small tart snack. The third seemed to be somewhere between the other two in age and clearly held himself with confidence despite the powerful company he was keeping.

A soft coughing sound drew your attention back to the eldest man as he seemed to be having some kind of a quiet fit. When the others didn't react, you wondered if it was a normal occurrence but still felt a certain level of concern. The others did not respond to the distress the eldest seemed to be in and it only put you more on edge.

His continued gentle coughs were quiet now, and the lack of sound distressed you as much as the presence of the sound. Your eyes flicked over to the elder and you stared for a long moment. There was no rise and fall to his body and it became clear the man was not breathing.

Your body acted before you did, as if you weren't in full control of yourself anymore. The impact of your hand on his back caused a cascade of reactions. The men standing on guard around you turned on you and began to restrain your movements. Each hand felt as if it burned your skin and you began to writhe in an effort to escape.

As you struggled you heard the elder take in a rasping breath following the forceful ejection of the food in his throat. He quickly gave some kind of signal to tell the men to back off, releasing you from their grasp despite their clear hesitance. Now the attention of everyone in the room was on you and the eldest man, clearly making you more distressed now that so many eyes were staring at you.

"I apologize for my boldness, Sir, but she clearly just attacked you-"

"She did not. If anything, she acted to help me. Though it burns to admit, I did not expect to begin choking and certainly didn't expect to have no one notice. Had she ignored my distress the way the rest of you had, I likely wouldn't be living anymore."

The man let out a clear displeased snort, as if mocking himself.

"A Zoldyck choking to death on food? What a dishonorable way to die."

He turned his wizened gaze to you and you felt surprisingly small under his watchful eyes despite the fact he was tiny in comparison to anyone else in the room. The fact that others were staring at you made your skin warm and begin to itch, as if you were having an allergic reaction to their gaze. Chrollo clearly noticed your distress and stood, ignoring the displeased look from the elder you stood near as he approached and wrapped one arm around you, letting you hide your face against his chest.

"Care to explain your casual, rude interruption? I wish to speak with the woman directly."

"That won't be happening."

"Explain yourself, Lucilfer."

"You see, she and I are inexplicably intertwined- soul-mates, if you will- and she does not deal well with being touched or stared at. If anything, she only accepts my touch without becoming distressed."

Where it vaguely frustrated you to have someone speak for you when you could speak for yourself, you were content to keep your face hidden and bask in the vague sense of security if gave you. Even though you knew they could still see you, something about hiding your face made you feel safe. The sense of comfort was only heightened by the fact it was Chrollo you were with.

"Anything you say to her, can be said to me as well."

There was a huff of annoyance- likely the eldest of the group- before he relented, speaking to you despite how you tried your best to hide from view.

"You deserve a reward of some kind. A Zoldyck always repays their debts."

A muffled sound came from you and you pulled back ever so slightly to repeat yourself, clearer this time.

"No thanks. Don't want."

After your quick words you returned to hiding your face against Chrollo's chest, trying desperately to just disappear from the many pairs of eyes watching you. It was obvious- to those watching at least- that you were very uncomfortable with being looked at and you just wanted to be left alone. Chrollo was more of the mindset that the Zoldyck owed you quite a bit given your actions, but he wasn't going to push you to accept whatever gift or payment the elder had in mind.

"(Y/n), are you sure-"

"Yup. Nope. I'm good. Thanks, no. Don't need. Don't want."

Chrollo chuckled softly, holding you close and gently rubbing your back in a slight attempt to soothe you. Given how you seemed quite stressed with the situation, Chrollo was content to let you hide and try to remove any focus from yourself. You seemed to relax significantly as he slowly caressed your back, still refusing to look up from where you hid.

"I guess that's that."

~~~~~~~~

You sat next to the young child who was silently showing you the origami they had made, each piece delicately crafted and put into clean figures of various paper crafts. Chrollo had gone to the adjacent room to speak to the masters of the house when the child approached you with a stack of origami paper in hand.

They wore a simple satin kimono and their hair was cut in a bob with bangs covering their forehead. The child seemed content to sit in silence and fold the paper, pausing every now and again as you followed their example and folded your own origami with them. Something about the silent kid was calming and they seemed pleased whenever you both finished a different piece.

Eventually, you didn't have to keep an eye on their motions before you were able to make the folds on your own. After some time, it seemed as if the child were truly appreciative of your presence and your efforts to partake in the origami. You were quite entranced as well and hadn't even noticed the fact that you both were being watched as you two communicated silently with each other.

It was rare you became so entranced in an activity with someone that you lost awareness of the things around you, but you weren't complaining about having the company of your new young friend either. Something about the way you both seemed to communicate just fine without eye contact or speaking gave a certain level of credence to your ability to communicate in general. As you finished up the piece you had been working on, you finally took note of the curious looks you were receiving.

Chrollo and the same intimidating man with white hair stood silently observing your wordless interaction with the young child. You didn't know their name and you doubted they knew your name, yet the two of you got on surprisingly well despite the lack of spoken words between you. As soon as you two realized you were being watched, you both stopped what you were doing, returning the silent stares at your apparent audience.

"Let's go, (y/n)."

At Chrollo's beckon, you got up and gathered the few origami you made, giving the crane to the child instead of keeping it. The way the child reacted was as if they had not received a gift or something similar before and they almost seemed confused as to why you would give them one of the origami pieces. Without a single word, you followed your thief, waving to the child who waved back, the smallest of smiles pulling at their lips.

~~~~~~~~

"You seem to be enjoying it here more than I thought you would."

You glanced up at the casual words from Chrollo, tilting your head slightly in response. It was true you were meshing better with the group of assassins better than either of you had expected. Naturally, you thought you wouldn't even remotely get along with the assassins but you found yourself less and less stressed in the group of usual people.

"We've been here longer than I thought we would."

"I know. I had expected to move on by now, but the continued need for one of my nen abilities mean they still have need of my assistance. However, it is good to see you getting along and not in conflict with others."

"I don't try to cause problems..."

"And I never said you did. People take issue with you for things out of your control. It is interesting to see you among others who are a bit different like you. It's refreshing."

There was a certain level of anxiety that bubbled up inside of you as you talked with Chrollo about the unusual family. Part of you worried that Chrollo was displeased with how well you were getting along with the family. A more anxious and radical part of you worrying that he may leave you with the family. Despite how you knew the idea was ridiculous and unlikely, you felt compelled to ask.

"Are you mad I'm getting along with them?"

"Not at all, Love."

"... Are you going to leave me with them?"

"Darling, where is all of this coming from?"

"Are you?"

"No. I absolutely am not going to leave you here. (Y/n), I understand you can't help but worry about things, but I don't know how else to explain this to you. I have no interest in leaving your side or in letting you leave my side. You are my soulmate. You are mine. I don't care how broken or defective you think you are, you are stuck with me. I am happy you are getting along with them, but if they tried to take you or force you to go with them I would slaughter their entire family. Okay?"

"Okay..."

Chrollo nodded and sat on the bed, patting the space next to him expectantly as he stared at you. When you decided to join him, he let you lean against his side for comfort and wrapped one arm around you. His touch was comforting to you as you snuggled against his warm body and into his possesive hold.

"Guess I need to show much more possessive behavior over you. Otherwise how else should I keep you from worrying about these things?"

"Chrollo, you don't have to do that..."

"Clearly I do. That or fuck you boneless every day."

"Chrollo-!"

"Just joking, Love. Just joking."

"Liar."

"You know me too well."

[humanitys-strongest-bamf]

hi Kat, huge congrats on reaching 2K 💕 for the event, could I request a post-war Dadvi drabble where the happy family is living somewhere in Marley & celebrating Levi's birthday?

hi flo! :3 i rly want to commission someone to draw levi holding a baby in his lap now kjdskfj

Making a Fuss | 2K Follower Event | Post-War Dadvi Drabble

✧ word count ➼ < 800 ✧ notes ➼ post-war, fluff

The farmer's market was a bit more crowded today in terms of both vendors and buyers. Although most of the produce was sold earlier in the fall, there were still fruits and vegetables that had been harvested from the gardening that had occurred the year prior. A few years after the end of the Rumbling, the world was slowly getting pieced back together.

Walking from your house to the market and then through the market to the bakery was going to be a bit of a longer journey, so you were pushing Levi through the lineup of vendors as he sat in his wheelchair. It was ultimately for the best. Since he was seated, he was able to sit with your 7-month old in his lap, although your child was beginning to get restless from the amount of people around you. He wanted nothing more than to escape Levi's lap and crawl around, but Levi had a firm grip on him.

You had originally said that you were only wanting to pick up some vegetables and hang out at the bakery for the afternoon, but Levi wasn't dumb. It was too much of a coincidence that you had been this insistent on going out on his birthday. You had something planned.

His eyes went from staring at the bakery off in the distance down to your child that was busy babbling and tugging on his shirt. He had been fine as Levi occasionally distracted him by chatting with him or poking him, but it was clear that he was getting restless.

Levi heard you shuffling around behind him and you reached over his shoulder while holding a small plush shaped like a cat, handing it to your child to play with.

You ruffled your baby's jet black hair, which matched the hue of his father's. It hadn't thickened up enough for you to be able to style it yet, but you knew that your heart was going to melt as soon as you saw your baby wearing the same undercut as Levi.

Levi's nose immediately scrunched up as he gave his child a wary look the minute the teething toddler began gnawing at the plushie, very quickly covering part of the stuffed animal in his own slobber.

"Would you rather him be gnawing on his hands that have been touching every surface we've seen since leaving the house?"

The only response you heard from Levi was a gentle grunt as he acknowledged your comment.

You wheeled Levi and your baby over to a corner table on the outside porch of the bakery as soon as you arrived before walking inside to pick up the order that you had placed ahead of time.

You knew that Levi was not one to enjoy gifts, but you wanted to at least do something to celebrate. Plus, the three of you needed to get out of the house and go somewhere other than the teashop.

"No way," you uttered affectionately as you redirected your child's grabby hands away from the pastry cake you held in your hands. "I didn't even set this thing down yet."

While your child looked overly excited for the sugary treat that he technically wasn't even supposed to have yet, Levi held a skeptical expression, with one eyebrow raised higher than the other.

"Oh c'mon, it's like your first day off in what...two weeks?" you asked in an exasperated tone as you sat down. "I know you're very adamant about keeping the teashop together, but you should at least be allowed to celebrate your birthday."

"I've had days off."

You scoffed, clearly not believing him.

"Yeah, and you choose to spend them at the shop despite the fact that Gabi and Falco have been helping out."

"And leave the fate of the shop to those brats? Fuck no."

A scowl quickly appeared on your face as you visually berated him for cursing in front of your child, although you already knew that he didn't really care too much about that concept of not cursing in front of him.

He tightened his grip on his child that was getting increasingly fussy and turned him around to look into his eyes that matched yours in color.

"You have never made a fuss about your birthday, have you?" he asked with a serious expression. "Maybe you should have a chat with your mother."

You gently smacked Levi's shoulder with an annoyed, but also subtly amused look.

"He hasn't had a birthday yet, you dumbass."

You vaguely heard him scoff at your comment, amused at the fact that you cursed almost immediately after judging him for cursing within earshot of your baby.

"Just accept the 'happy birthday', you asshole."

[lis-likes-fics]

Kiss Me Through the Phone

Pairings: Steve Harrington x Reader Word Count: 2.1k words Kink: Phone Sex Warnings: NSFW, phone sex, masturbation (m and f), dirty talk, daddy kink, praise... A/N: This is late, ik. I swear I'm working on it but that ADHD and everything is hitting HARD. I can't promise I'll catch up but I can promise that these will get finished so I won't leave you hanging. Enjoy this (late) fic though and I'll hopefully see you again with a new one tomorrow!

"Don't you think you should probably be getting to bed, babe?"

Steve raises a brow as he speaks into the receiver holding the phone to his ear as he awaits your response. You called him hours ago to talk while you did homework. The first half hour consisted of him teasing you because you still had homework to do while he graduated the year before. He kept calling you a "literal child", to which you replied, "Then I'm dating a pervert." He promptly shut up.

But now it's midnight, and you ditched the remainder of your homework a couple hours ago. It's late, and you technically have school in the morning. You aren't ready to hang up but Steve is always trying to take care of you, and this is one of those times when he's trying to enforce that—even though he'd rather die than hang up the phone.

"And, you know, I would but…" you trail off on the other end, trying to come up with an excuse and falling short as you shrug, "I just don't want to."

He rolls his eyes and laughs. "Go to bed."

"You can't make me."

"I'm going to."

"How? You're not even here."

"I'm going to drive to your house and make you."

"If you drove to my house, I'd convince you to do something much better than sleeping…" Steve can hear the smirk in your voice, and he thinks he's going to die if you keep using your charm on him like this. He's already horny enough all the time as it is, you don't need to make it worse with suggestive comments you can currently live up to.

"You drive me crazy," he answers truthfully.

He hears you giggle and smiles. "That's good. Keeps you on your toes."

He shakes his head and hears you shuffle around. When you curse under your breath, he hums. "What?"

"Nothin'. Got the cord wrapped around my hand and it tangled a little." A pause. "There."

"Yeah, well, you probably like that shit, don't you? Fuckin' weirdo."

You laugh quietly, trying not to disturb the rest of the people sleeping in your house. "Don't kink shame me!"

He raises his brows, "What if kink shaming is my kink?"

You hum, "It's not. You like to be called Daddy. Which is admittedly weirder."

He scoffs, ignoring the heat in his cheeks when you say it. "No, it's not."

You giggle again. "Yeah, it is. Daddy."

He licks his lips. "You think so? Baby?"

He hopes you'll say no because, otherwise, his "baby" makes him sound like a creep.

"No," you say, an angel. You miss his little relieved breath. "You wanna know what I like?"

"What do you like, baby?" he asks, less joking this time and more fond.

"I like your hands..." Your voice is quieter now, speaking in a secret whisper between the two of you in the cover of the night.

We're doing this, Steve thinks, excited.

"Yeah?" he murmurs. "Where do you like them?"

"Well… I've been wanting a new necklace. I think that'd work just fine," you smile shyly.

He can see it, kissing you all nice with his hand wrapped around your throat. His pants suddenly feel really tight.

"Where else would you like it?" he wonders.

"I dunno," you mutter, shy suddenly. Steve thinks you're weird. You're almost always the one to start something like this, and then you get shy and quiet when he plays along with you. He thinks you're cute.

"You don't know?"

"Mm-mm," you say.

He smiles, licking his bottom lip. "You know where I'd like it?"

"Hm?"

"On your thigh," he breaths. His hand moves to rest on his own thigh. He hears your breath hitch. "I'd love to feel your thighs. I miss 'em."

It takes a moment for you to respond again. "Where else would you put them?"

"Where else do you want me to put them?" he counters. He knows you don't like when he does that—or, you don't favor it. He knows how it makes you squirm, when he makes you tell him what you want. You're never good at telling him.

Your voice becomes really small, really shy. "I dunno."

"You dunno?" he asks, smiling. "Where do you want me to put my hands?"

Steve can imagine you on your bed with the phone pressed to your ear, playing with the cord as you try to come up with a response that isn't "I dunno".

"Just tell me. Don't worry about soundin' weird," he says.

You take a breath. "I want your hand…"

You trail off and he has to contain his laugh. "Where?" he asks again. "On your hands? On your tits? Inside of you?"

A pause. "All of the above?"

He does laugh this time, clutching the phone. "Where do you want me the most?"

You clear your throat a little. "Inside me."

"I want 'em inside you, too."

He hears you moan lightly, and now he has to undo his belt.

"Would you like that, baby? For me to put my fingers inside you? I'd have you squirming like crazy."

"Yeah," you whisper back. "What do you want me to do?"

"What do I want you to do?" he repeats, smiling. "You don't needa do anything. I'll take care of you."

You chuckle lightly. "Yeah, but… what do you want me to do? Do you want me to touch you or…?"

He feels like teasing you. "You mean, like, jerk me off? Or did you wanna use your mouth, dirty girl?" He can imagine you biting your lip, trying to hide your face away from him.

"Did you want that?" you murmur.

"Did you?" he counters.

You laugh a little. "Answer my fucking question, dummy."

He laughs as well, "Yeah, I do." His amusement dies down a little, returning to little secret words. "I really want it, but I wanna spread you open and eat you up more."

He hears you moan again. And then you moan again, and his interest is piqued, along with something else…

"Are you touching yourself?" he asks, a smile in his voice as he calls you out.

You get shy again. "Maybe a little."

"How much is a little?" You don't respond. You just moan again.

He's too hard to ignore it anymore. He unbuckles his tight jeans and takes himself out of his boxers. He brushes his thumb over his tip, red and weeping as he closes his eyes and sighs shallowly.

Your voice grabs his attention again. “Are you touchin’ yourself now?”

He chuckles lightly, too breathy to be subtle. “Can you blame me when you’re makin’ those pretty sounds in my ear?” He strokes himself slowly. “God, what I’d do to be there right now. I’m so in love with you.”

Your laugh comes out as a tiny whimper, your voice just as breathy as his as you thrust your fingers inside of your and sigh. “You’re too nice to me.”

“I’m not nice enough to you,” he disagrees. “You deserve the world, baby.”

“How about– Mmh– How about we just start with your voice in my ear, huh?” you mumble. “What would you do if you were here right now, Stevie?”

He makes you swear never to tell anyone but he loves that nickname. You only ever use it when you’re feeling really soft and shy, in the comfort of just his company when he’s being especially sweet and you’re a pile of mush. He wants you tucked under his arm, and he wants to kiss you stupid, but he has to settle for just a smile through the phone and a few words that don’t accurately describe how strongly he feels for you.

“If I were there right now, I would lay you on the bed and put your pretty thighs over my shoulder.” You shudder on a moan, presumably pushing your fingers deeper inside of yourself and curling. Steve keeps going. “I’d fucking devour you and then kiss you all over your body—which is just perfect, by the way—and then I’d fuck you dumb.”

You moan. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he breathes, taking his lotion from his drawer and smearing it in his hand. He strokes his cock a little faster, wrapping his fist around himself and squeezing as his head tips back and his lips part, a breathy moan slipping from them. “I’d fucking split you open on my cock.” He knows you love it when he says that. You always melt in his hands whenever he says things like this. “You’d be cryin’ f’me.”

You’re so lost in your mind, imagining him doing these things to you whilst thinking about his hands inside your pussy instead of your own. “Where would you put me?”

He’s happy to tell you. “We’d start out with you on top. I’d put you in my lap and let you ride me until your little legs got all weak and tired. Then I’d lay you down and fuck you with your legs around my neck. Have you screaming my name.”

Your voice is pitchier now, and he swears he can hear the faint sound of your pussy squelching with the rhythm of your insistent fingers. He pulses in his hand, his hips jerking up into his hand every so often as he grinds into his fist. He’s fucking his hand by now, so lost in thought that he can’t help but get a little carried away imagining his fist is your tight pussy.

“Which name?” you whimper. “Steve or Daddy?”

He verbally shudders. “Both.”

“Which one do you want the most?”

He chuckles darkly, aware of the way you turn his question around like he had done to you before. “Maybe you should call me Daddy.” He groans. “You’ve gotten a little out of line since we last did something like this…”

“Maybe I should, Daddy,” you reply back, immediately followed by a whine. He wants so badly to be there to watch you touch yourself, to watch you try to put your little fingers inside of you and hit all the spots he does. He can imagine so vividly you trying to replicate the way he makes you feel. "Need you to…remind me who I belong to."

He's so pent up as he listens to you. He can't help when a few stray groans make their way out of him. "You know who you belong to. You're mine, baby."

"'M yours," you moan, wet sounds reaching the phone and filling Steve's ears with sweet music as he fists himself faster. "I need you."

"Yeah?" he hums. "You need Daddy to fuck you nice and deep, baby?"

"Yes." A moan. "I miss you so much."

"I miss you, baby," he says, too fond and too affectionate and too far gone to fight his urge to get in his car and go to see you right now. But he would die before he left this call.

He's close, he can feel it creeping up on him as his hips jerk up into his hand. By the way you gasp and moan into the phone, he can tell you're reaching your breaking point as well.

"You gonna cum for me, babygirl?" Steve asks, listening closely.

"Yeah."

"You gonna cum all over those pretty fingers?"

"Yes."

"Fuck," he huffs. "Do it for me, baby. Cum for me."

He can hear you try to stay quiet, your muffled gasp as a deep breath fills your lung on a whimper. "Oh, fuck, Daddy!"

He curses under his breath, your little whimpers and whine as you cum and moan his name bringing him closer and closer until he can't hold it anymore.

His mouth falls open and his grunt melts into a rough whimper as he cums after you. He feels the warm, sticky release coat his chest. As his pleasure wanes and he feels like he can think straight again, he sighs deeply into the phone.

"Fuck." He hears you sigh heavily. "You okay, baby?"

A pause. And then.

"Yeah." You sigh, "Fuck, that's better."

He smiles. "Been thinking about it?"

"All day." Your voice is breathy, slurred together like you're going to pass out at any moment.

He runs a hand through his hair, "Well, when I see you tomorrow, we can reenact it." He grabs at the shirt he'd taken off a long time ago, wiping himself clean as he listens to your steady breath through the phone. "You want that?"

"Mmm," you agree.

He smiles fondly. "You still with me?" He can see you dozing off into your pillow, and he wishes he could feel your warmth against him.

"Mmm," you hum again.

He lowers his voice to accommodate for your sleepiness, "I'm gonna hang up, baby."

"Hmm-mm."

"I love you," he says, kissing into the phone and wishing he could kiss you.

"'ove you, t-mm," you mumble, barely coherent but trying for him.

He chuckles lightly. "Goodnight."

"Mmm."

Steve the Babysitter taglist: @samz31 @sparkletash @fandomgirl17 @marjoriea13 @param8re @anotherblackreader Stranger Things taglist: @activebliss @life-on-needs @killerqueen-ofwillowgreen @emmalee-01 @sw34ter-w34ther @hellfire1986baby @gublur @allofmari @redwineandnicotine @the-cryptid @katsukis1wife @chaoticcancer @papichulo120627 @emistrash Tag yourself here...

[mysticpear]

running list of my favorite moments from Paris 2024

the rapper who now sponsors women's wapo

stephen from penn state and everyone being obsessed with pommel horse now

SIMONE BILESSSSSSSSS literally eating after tokyo and at age 27 (dont fact check me im not doing google searches)

jade carrey's grace after her quals on floor

womens gymnastics having qualifiers on every event in the top 3

womens gymnastics leading all teams by FIVE WHOLE POINTS and the 2nd/3rd difference being 2 TENTHS (aka 5.0 vs 0.2)

synchronized diving bros tm

the new womens gymnastics commentators who are focusing on the incredible skill of the athletes and their resilience and safety rather than a single flexed foot like in the past

aly raisman is there love

waiting for track events bc i just want to see hurdles and sha'carri richardson

womens rugby absolutely demolishing great britain

con't:

12. snoop memes 13. simone's response to reporters asking about hezly, simone's caption under the team gold win, simone's response to aly raisman asking what the team nickname is 14. stephen from penn state again for becoming an overnight national hero 15. the main woman on the rugby team (ilana?? not sure) whos fully an icon and a beast and knows it as she damn well should 16. my friends and coworkers tolerating my gymnastics infodumps

con't part 2:

17. SIMONE GETTING BLOCKED BY MYKAYLA LMFAO 18. continuation of stephen memes i love them keep it up 19. just saw that apparently martha stewart is joining snoop for equestrian events bc "he's afraid of horses" 20. ILONA MAHER MY ICON MY LOVE 21. tom daly's sweaters and children 22. simone biles' husband (no he will not have a name) sitting with her parents and keeping their scorecard. v wholesome 23. aly raisman asking the team what their name is and simone fully glitching on how to not say "fuck" at a press event

WAIT SAME DAY BUT I THOUGHT OF MORE

24. pregnant fencer winner, can u imagine growing up like "yeah i technically medaled at the olympics bc my mom had been growing me for SEVEN MONTHS already" that kid is gonna have incredible stories 25. simone and her biggest competitor Rebeca Andrade cheering each other on even tho they're both going to all around medals on different teams. they FUCKING GET IT that's girlhood 26. katie ledecky eating it up year after year

part three of the day:

27. the gymnast who's sponsored by cheese?? jealous 28. the swimmer whos obsessed with the muffins so true king chase your passions 29. i found my favorite meme, allow me to quote: "gay men thirsting over the lithe sun-kissed swimmers' bodies of Team Italia and lesbians thirsting over a woman in a backwards hat and severe bob doing shooting - this is what those people at Stonewall died for" with a gif of the pistol icon queen (do not know her name) (also this is obv dramatic, we know Stonewall is a deep and complex history, don't @ me) 30. a clip of synchronized divers from (i think) china and the commentators were talking about how they had to come up with a new term to describe their water entry and it was something along the lines of splash disappear magic or smth. crazy

I'm back and worse than ever 31. HAPPY SHA'CARRI RICHARDSON IS RUNNING DAY 32. Alice Bellandi, who i just found out about. LETS GO LESBIANS LETS GOOOOOOO 33. i just.. something about the olympics exposing how much progress there is to be made in the world. year after year. from women's rights to gay rights to trans rights to racism to sexism and on and on and on. some dumbos were like "yay international competition" and instead got lesbians celebrating their gold medals w their gfs and women sharing about how they had a therapy appt right before they competed. its kind of a beautiful testament to the validity and worldwide nature of these issues 34. simone sharing that she met w her therapist the morning of her all around gold win 35. once again SIMONE'S FAMILY AND THEIR SHIRTS IM CRYING 36. im kind of obsessed with seeing noticeable mistakes intermixed with perfection 37. PIN TRADING specifically the clip of ilona maher trading w simone

anotha one

38. Jade Carrey medaling on vault 39. Suni medaling on AA 40. stephen again. SLAY individual PH medalist!!!! one of my best friends texted me to make sure i'm also obsessed with him and i told her about my deepdive into his gf's NCAA career lol. PS stephen you should come visit ur alma mater because you genuinely seem like one of the coolest people ever and i wanna meet you. 41. shoutout to frederick richards (also men's usa gym) for tearing it up all the damn time. i think he posts a lot on social media and the men's all around gymnasts should be getting a whole bunch of hype 42. Sha'Carri Richardson. so beauty so grace. she didn't even look like she was trying for the last quarter of her 100m qual. 43. related: im obsessed with the purple track like hello???? iconic 44. video of the camera man for trampoline. just up down up down up down 45. honestly every new thing i find out about the shooting events (incl the post about america not medaling at all but phrased as a clear dig at our firearm policy) 46. how (and maybe this is just me) women are fully dominating the news cycle in terms of what i hear about the olympics. the only men i've heard about are stephen and the Dad energy guy shooting for turkey, everything else is THE GIRLS 47. katie ledecky holding so many consecutive spots on every event record list she's on

hello again

48. Snoop ACTUALLY with martha stewart and both of them in full esquestrine (??) fits 49. WOMEN HAVE WON THE V A S T MAJORITY OF USA INDIVIDUAL MEDALS YAAAAA 50. ilona maher still shes just. ugh. (as i write this i get a post w a pic of her and stephen captioned "asking a bisexual woman to explain her type" lmao) 51. KAYLIA (?) AKA ALGERIA'S FIRST GYMNASTICS MEDALIST 52. proposal 53. the mixed doubles couple in ?? badminton?? who broke up to focus on their sport then won together and got back together <3 love is real 57. not only the pregnant fencer but I also just saw about a pregnant shooter??? again these kids are gonna have top tier bragging rights. also women are sick as hell 58. maybe already said this but im not reading the last fifty seven entries to check so any of the women's gymnasts and their just proud af smiles when they hit an incredible stick. like the way they just stand there for a sec and slowly bring their arms down bc they previously accounted for an extra beat while landing. chefs kiss ugh 59. whoever the hell made stephen an american flag cape 60. omfg saw a post with a bunch of people talking about stephen and one of the connections was "so and so who is in the pommel horse specialist group chat" because a) that is a thing that exists??? im so delighted and b) what he was saying was that he usually logs on to see that stephen is playing some NERD ASS VIDEO GAME (i am not that direction of nerd so i dont remember which it was). obsessed 61. IMANE KHELIF. get angry yall. saw someone say "all it took was the other woman saying she had never taken a hit that hard. but girl ur in the hit people hard sport. at the most elite level." like ya. reading up on the "transvestigation" which is a term i just learned and genuinely needs to be cut tf out because the implication that ALL men will be and are biologically stronger than ALL women is absolute bs. 62. Noah Lyles: "America. I told you. I got this" so true king 63. the medal counter that added a ring category for the couple that got engaged lol very wholesome 64. jade carrey coming back to the olympics simply because she didn't perform up to her standards at Tokyo 65. omg the pic of simone touching up her lip liner SO iconic 66. oh the other name for the womens gymnastics team (other than fuck around and find out) being the golden girls because they're the oldest team to compete maybe ever? for usa 67. the owner of stephen's former (? current?) gym saying the phone has been ringing non stop with parents signing their sons up for classes 68. DID I ALREADY SAY LAURIE HERNANDEZ COMMENTATING + HER W ALY AGAIN??? 69. as the sixty ninth entry this feels appropriate. the paris pole vaulter who didn't win bc his dick caught the bar. 70. also sha'carri richardson's silver but also her in team USA and a ponytail... idk if i love or feel a Type of Way bc shes so known for her own style but also this feels super affirming that she's competing for team USA but not in a way thats something she needed, more like we needed. does this make sense

[ateez-himari]

BEHIND THE CURTAINS: TOKYO

A singular netizens airs out a year old situation, forcing the truth out of the shadows

July 24, 2024 (12:29PM)

One comment under the post ATEEZ's youngest made for member San's birthday sparked delayed reactions throughout social media platforms as detective netizens who had made it their mission to debunk the truth behind this statement have just finished placing the pieces together. KQ ENTERTAINMENT found itself forced to release an official statement concerning the situation in order to avoid the spread of false rumors which were rapidly getting out of hand. The user that began it all said this:

'Everyone this is the man who woke up every single night to check Hima was still breathing after she nearly died on the 'Break The Wall' tour, every single night at the same time he set an alarm. He had nightmares about it and never told her, he just needed to fall asleep holding her hand in the hotel rooms. He's like her guardian angel'

The information was leaked last year through workers of the venue who were allegedly present during the group's 'The Fellowship: Break The Wall' second day in Tokyo for an encore, disclosing that during the interlude which was extended due to what many believed to be a technical difficulty, nearly all staff teams were making desperate attempts at saving her life. At the time many believed this to be nothing more than an attention seeking lie as those were becoming rather common in the industry, and the story was rapidly forgotten thanks to the company's damage control - which we now know was at the vocalist's request.

The statement containing the young woman's side of the story confirmed this to have been truthful as she recalled that during this time despite there being large gaps between tour dates, there was still much work going on behind the scenes which built up fatigue. According to her, physical complications due to illness at the time of the concert simply made matters much worse to the point of going into cardiac arrest, at which point staff teams were ordered to come immediately no matter their positions.

Having been informed that the youngest was unwell at the time attendees did not question the circumstances behind her sitting down throughout the remaining performances, though they noticed the tears in the member's eyes when taking a break for the ment. In a live later that day following the widespread of this news, the captain mentioned feeling as though the responsibility was his own due to having the final say on whether she would perform that day, claiming that had he paid more attention this never would have happened.

Members have been relatively open about consistently requiring oxygen masks during concerts due to the physical strain of extreme effort, which is what he believed was happening when she was hooked up to one in the changing room. Unfortunately that could not have been further from the truth and the constant reassurance from his youngest saying she was only slightly tired made him give in, leading to what very well could have been a life changing tragedy. Atiny reassured him that this was in no way his fault, although the traumatic impact this left behind was very visible in the way tears welled up in the captain's eyes having to recall such an event along with the tightness of the hug that followed when the woman in question entered the room to retrieve a book.

While they were already careful when it came to their artists' health, it was noticed by those looking into the topic that ever since that day, the company has been taking greater care to look after them which in parts included hiring a much larger team of health professionals. We can only wish the idols well moving forward and we ask that fans stop inquiring about the situation as this is still clearly very fresh in the group's memory. In the future please refrain from looking into situations such as these that have not been addressed as they are likely things the members wish to keep private.

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[system-of-a-feather]

Is it really final fusion if there are parts that you're still keeping separate and disowning from yourself? These parts deserve to feel like they have a right to exist, that healing is possible for them and that they are not a lost cause. It isn't fair to call yourself final fused when these parts are being excluded from your recovery. Repressing trauma is not healthy and it isn't sustainable to do that forever. It would be healthy if you worked with them, held compassion for them, and helped work through their trauma beliefs with them. Sometimes to heal you need to be disregulated sometimes, because you're letting yourself finally feel the feelings, and they've been kept away for so long, naturally it will cause disfunction for a while.

Bro, you are assuming an awful lot off of an awful little combined with a lot of poor interpretations of that post. I also find it a bit rude and crossing some boundaries for you to be 1) telling me how my vulnerable parts feel 2) telling me that I dont know what >I< feel and 3) telling me how my vulnerable parts - both when they are operating seperate from me and fused with me - should be treated.

If you think you aren't doing that and are not encroaching on territory you don't know about (ie my trauma, my system, my recovery and my healing) then please, tell me the details about my vulnerable trauma holders that you seem to know more about than I do, because man, between being literally them and living 24/7 with them and talking with them for my entire life, I really thought I'd know them better than a random anonymous stranger online. Go figure. You learn new things every day.

Putting aside the honestly disrespectful breach of boundaries under the assumption its well intended, I will continue the rest of this post assuming you asked me about how the post on how we handle our vulnerable parts relate to our fusion rather than assuming and judging because I honestly think the question I am giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you MEANT is actually a really interesting one! Because it can be totally confusing how our system that does not actively engage and actively interact and actively force our trauma holders to go through trauma processing could POSSIBLY fuse with them.

(Actually I have to comment on a few points of confusion and disclaimer on this before I can fully just move onto the next topic in case there is some really strange miss understanding or reading comprehension issue that might make the interesting part of this response confusing if not addressed)

---

Confusion and Clarity Section:

To remove any potential confusion, I'd first like to state that it is "really" final fusion because they're literally me, I know what they feel, I know what they think and I know what they've been through. I can only write the post about how we used to handle things and how we operate now AND speak for those parts because I AM them like, genuinely and fully. Not even "technically them" I deadass AM them, so please don't assume I can't speak for myself and my own trauma and recovery. I know myself and my needs.

There isn't really a debate whether or not we are "finally fused" or what aspects of our life determine "final fusion" other than, you know *checks notes* the fact we literally operate like 75% or more of the time as a complete solid whole with little to no dissociation and honestly even these days, no disconnect between our identity beyond a general and standard IFS way of navigating complicated feelings.

Clearing up that odd comment on "really final fusion", I'm pretty sure you are referring to this post? And if so, I think you missed the part where we have always stated they are absolutely welcome to engage and hang out and we don't "lock them up" or repress them in any way or form.

---

Final Fusion & Our Sleepy "Dragons" / Trauma Holders

The post in reference discusses some of how a lot of our heaviest trauma holders and parts that have been extremely disconnected and dissociated from life for years actually don't regularly spend a lot of time near the front and our system / whole has STRONG rules against EVER forcing those parts to "recover" or process their trauma or "engage in the real world and life and exist" if they don't want to.

It's a concept our system didn't really understand and used to REGULARLY do the opposite of because of good intent and good will "these parts deserve to live and exist and they deserve to heal and be better and so they need to heal from their trauma or they will be forever suffering and they deserve better" and its something we spent over a year learning from one specific part in our system - a major trauma holder - that it is far far more HARMFUL than helpful and that A LOT of that good intent / good will interest in making parts heal came from a lot of 1) projection of me wanting to be perfectly healed right now and projecting that need for healing onto other parts and 2) very trauma-unresponsive, inconsiderate, and not respecting either the autonomy, individuality, or ability for those parts to speak for themselves and their own needs.

Trauma informed care, both internally or with other people, is built on a principle of respecting the traumatized individual and ACTIVELY listening to what THEY are saying and what THEY need and what THEY are experiencing. Often trying to push your ideals, your agenda, your recovery schedule and pacing and trying to push an individual to heal faster than they are ready, serves in small amounts of reinforce the idea that the traumatized individual can not make their own decisions, they do not know how they feel, they do not know whats best for them, they shouldn't have a say in how they are treated, and that they have to conform to another person's standards and heal correctly.

I would LOVE for those parts to come sit with us and talk with us for hours upon hours about trauma. I would LOVE fro them to cry and throw things and be in crisis. We actually get slightly excited whenever those parts are around and in crisis because it gives us an opportunity to support them, show them some coping skills, and help them learn that life is actually pretty okay. Some of our best and most happiest moments (on both sides) have been in those post-crisis where those parts have, for the first time in their entire life, EVER felt ANY support from ANYTHING or ANYONE and those moments are so warm, healing, and impactful on both the supporting and the supported end.

That being said, while our whole and our supporting parts would LOVE to be able to speed run those moments until those parts are completely comfortable existing immediately, that would require us to ACTIVELY make them suffer, feel pain, and relive their trauma when they otherwise would not have to.

These parts have COMMUNICATED to us, when they were more stable and when they were not, that they >do not< want to regularly be around the front and out because everything as it is is too much for them. They have actively asked us to let them rest and have extended periods of calm and peaceful sleeping when things are good so that they can have a break from chronic suffering.

Yes, if we dragged them out, made them process trauma, made them look it straight on, made them dysregulated, eventually they'll "get over it" and "get used to it", but that is only after EXCESSIVE pain as those parts are EXTREMELY prone to being thrown into deep and intense flashbacks. We COULD quickly desensitize them and get them used to life, but the quick method is honest to god cruel, inconsiderate, trauma-unresponsive, and arguably traumatizing to those parts.

Instead, we listen to what those parts have communicated and meet them where they are at in their recovery. Those parts have told us that they are in *peaceful* sleep when they are not triggered and that sleep / distance actually helps them process the sheer amount of stimuli and information that is required for them to regain some stability.

Of course, sometimes triggers come in our life that forcibly wake them up and they get thrown into flashbacks and thats okay! Not ideal, not fun, and I feel bad for them but its okay! Because while they are suffering deeply, they are also surrounded with SO many parts that are actively and intently here to support them, help them, show them the world, and help them develop an understanding for the present and coping mechanisms that are healthy.

And usually after we have helped calm them down, showed them around life and given them some time to enjoy and appreciate existence, they - in a good mood that is now regulated and calm - actively ask to go back to sleep because they are 1) tired and 2) have a lot of new things to process and anything more would be overloading.

And so we have parts - specifically Lin - who is good at holding the front and keeping them company while they fall back to sleep, much like a parent reading a kid a bed time story. It's a very healing and very helpful and trauma informed way of approaching, supporting method that respects the communication and feelings of the individual parts and minimizes the amount of unnecessary stress, triggering, and flashbacks for those parts.

And thats all when we operate as independent parts - which we mostly do when those parts need support because its easier for us to give them focused support when operating as independent parts than as a fused whole as it can be hard to utelize our coping skills as a fused whole when they're triggered. (Think of it like using IFS framework, but instead of parent part and inner child, they just have actual names)

As a whole, I don't "stop being those parts" or exclude them, I am still them and their traits are integrated into the whole. As a fused whole those parts can actually exist and engage in the world A LOT easier than as individual parts because they themselves don't have to be over active and the predominant part of the brain while the trauma they hold can really just remain sleeping in the back. As a fused whole they aren't "trauma holders that are sleeping" they are Feathers and their trauma that they held remains sleeping.

And as a fused whole, I don't think I have to be chronically experiencing and processing my trauma to be me, to be happy, or to be present. My trauma isn't my identity and I am not any less "existing" by not chronically living in my trauma.

As a fused whole I'm literally just Feathers. I got "brains" because I know where certain thoughts and feelings would have come from as individual parts, but like... I'm Feathers. I'm literally just fucking Feathers XD And I literally am those vulnerable trauma holding parts as well. And thank you for your concern, but as those vulnerable trauma holding parts, we're fine and honestly enjoying our life the way it is man.

If you are really that concerned about us, please check to make sure you aren't projecting your own struggles because if you are, please take care of your trauma holders and give them lots of love, support, patience and understanding and please don't rush them to heal faster than they need to.

(the pink is very much explicitly from an Evaline brain which is one of those heavily traumatized vulnerable parts; I am explicitly calling that part of this out because I am genuinely very fucking proud and surprised any of them actually wanted to voice anything for themselves and I am gonna reinforce that cause its awesome and I love that for them)

[myconetted]

more tumblr meta in response to @alliered's post here

be warned: i am inarticulate yet verbose

on volunteer work

Tumblr has around 200 full-time employees. As of 2019, it looks like it had 16 million monthly active users. Two hundred people is just not a lot of people to run a social media site, which has to follow regulatory requirements and do moderation and all that shit. Volunteer work is going to happen and you can't really get around it. That's how scrappy teams operate.

Is tumblr chaotic? Yes. Could it stand to be more organized? ...Maybe? I remember the glassdoor reviews saying it was total cowboy culture and you were mostly left to your own devices. @jv (who works at tumblr) has also commented in late 2022 that tumblr is still very decentralized and you're encouraged to ask forgiveness rather than permission.

I don't work at tumblr so I have no idea how much of a problem this is, but it's worth remembering the point I made earlier: you can reduce chaos and thrash by adding process at the cost of making everything slightly slower. For tumblr specifically, since it's a remote team distributed across timezones, requiring people to come to meetings to make decisions can make things a lot slower because there will only be a few hours in the day that everyone can attend a meeting and limited overlapping waking hours. You're in the US and you wanted to ask your manage in the UK about whether you need to work on X or Y? Hopefully you asked in the morning, because your 2pm is their 10pm!

When you have a small enough team where everyone is very senior, it can actually be a huge productivity boost to do things in a pretty ad-hoc way. I personally have witnessed the transition from a ~70 person org to a 150-200 person org, and at 70 people we didn't need internal newsletters or super-fancy ticketing systems or dedicated project managers. Everyone knows everyone and can just ping each other directly. At 150-200 people, that starts to break down, and you get into situations where two teams might be working on very similar things without knowing.

Maybe that's something tumblr could do better, but it's also the type of thing that requires a shitload of concerted effort to get right: the worst thing you could do is introduce a bunch of middle management who end up wasting more time than they save because they don't have enough background information or technical expertise.

new features

also for bug fixing and new features.... the thing is that many users speak more on NOT wanting so much time spent on what seem like weightless updates when we want more focus in issues that have existed for weeks, months, and even years.

I think this point is really important for understanding a lot of the recent changes around tumblr that have occurred basically ever since it got acquired by automattic. Here's the bottom line: tumblr is not profitable and never has been. That means everything tumblr has been doing until now is not enough.

Tumblr needs more users and it needs to get more money from those users, or it dies. That's it.

The easiest and most reliable way to make money is to serve ads, serve a ton of them, and let advertisers pay more to target specific user demographics with their ads. In 2022, 90% of twitter's revenue was from ads. But tumblr's owners and staff don't want to do that, so they're exploring other options.

Which is why you've been seeing new features you didn't ask for: tumblr needs users, tumblr needs money; if the current features aren't cutting it, then they need to find some new features that will. Some features like the "live" thing are an attempt to get more users and/or engagement, to lure people in from other platforms like tiktok and instagram who are into that kind of thing. Other features, like the checkmarks and badges and merch, are more directly about getting money.

You may not like non-chronological timelines, but users coming from other platforms haven't had to curate their own feeds for like a decade now and just have no idea how to do that--tumblr offers recommendation-based feeds because it's empirically successful and helps you retain users. So you can see they're trying a lot of different things right now.

You might be wondering why this has only started happening within the last two or so years even though automattic acquired tumblr in late 2019. If public statements are worth anything, it's because they spent the first couple years rebuilding a shitload of backend infrastructure, probably paying down a ridiculous amount of technical debt, in order to make the platform stable and flexible enough for staff to work on a bunch of new features at once without worrying about extreme jank or bringing the whole platform down because someone removed a load-bearing print statement.

spam bots

Matt, CEO of automattic and the guy who's currently running tumblr as his highest priority, said last year that tumblr would need 2 million users to buy ad-free browsing in order to offset tumblr's running costs. At $40/yr, that's $80m annually to keep the lights on for tumblr.

EDIT: Here's a post from another staff member who breaks this down in a lot more detail and explains the motivation for the Live feature.

Fighting spam is just a notoriously difficult problem that no one has solved. The current situation mainly boils down to: get rid of all the spambots, or avoid accidentally banning real users. Pick one. That's it! To put this into perspective, neither Facebook nor Twitter have figured it out either. And they're both huge compared to tumblr, not just in terms of headcount but also in terms of the engineers they attract: we're talking about the combined efforts of hundreds of smart engineers who have tons of resources to tackle this problem. They haven't figured it out. In 2019 when tumblr was acquired by automattic, it had a total of 200 employees, whereas twitter had 4,900 and facebook/meta had 45,000. All things considered, I think tumblr's doing a pretty good job both in their automatic detection and their reporting system.

This is also one of those areas where people will be very tight-lipped about the specific things they're doing to fight spam, and for good reason. Fighting spam is a constant battle where each side is updating their strategies and trying new things. I don't know if you've noticed, but these spambots come in waves (at least that's how I've experienced it). The influx of spambots come in, tumblr figures out how to prevent and ban them, the spammers figure something else out, a new wave comes in, rinse and repeat. Making public posts about how the spambot detection works is a great way to tell spammers how to evade detection.

would finding a way to make the sign up process more difficult for spam bots be able to clear up resources elsewhere?

Yes, making sign-ups harder can make it more difficult for spammers to make accounts. But it also makes it harder for people to sign up. And again, tumblr can't really afford to add friction to the sign-up flow, because friction means losing potential users, and tumblr needs users. Also you would be surprised how easily spammers are able to circumvent these kinds of things so you end up in a state where you have fewer user sign-ups but the bots are still everywhere.

user feedback (tickets)

I mostly ran out of energy at this point but with respect to whether or not staff knows about things users want and how they're keeping track: that's what the ticketing system is for! That's why cyle keeps telling people to make tickets! The support tickets are how tumblr staff keep track of problems users are having and feature requests. Those tickets are connected to a ticket tracker where they can keep track of spikes in user requests and bugs and spam bots. I know it sounds stupid and it sounds like they're just telling you to put your suggestions directly into the trash, but that's actually the for-real tracking system they use for monitoring bugs and feedback. Everything else, like the various official and personal blogs, are because they're passionate about making some of this stuff visible to users.

So yeah they could maybe make portions of their internal tracker more public so users can see what tumblr is prioritizing, but that introduces its own problems, up to and including making the tracker less useful to staff. (I don't know if you've ever seen the chromium tracker. It's a nightmare.)

---

anyways tldr:

money hard without ads

tumbler need money and probably has to get this money without a significant headcount increase (not sure how much runway automattic has, but it's probably less than in 2019 because of the pandemic and the econony and all)

maybe tumblr could benefit from more internal process and organization but it's really hard to say as an outsider

otherwise i think it's kinda hard to ask staff to do more than what they're already doing cause they're doing a lot rn

don't let that stop you from giving them feedback, because even when you feel like all your feedback is going into a black hole whenever you open a support ticket, that's actually how they track these things. nothing screams user feedback like 300 new tickets in the queue about the same thing and they actually have to close those things out

i really didn't appreciate that last bullet point until i started working at a company with a product. users would ping individual engineers about things being busted and it's always like DUDE you're supposed to email support so it actually gets seen!! otherwise it's just hanging around in someone's inbox!

[oceangirl24]

20 Questions for Writers

Thanks @mrsmungus for the tag. ❤️

❣️How many works do you have on AO3?

13 total, including three fanart art gifts. The only writing I have is my current work. I'm bringing the old FFN stories over on another account.

❣️What is your total AO3 word count?

834,995- 1 million before the year's end would be nice.

❣️What fandoms do you write for?

So far only Boy Meets World. The fanart gifts have been in other fandoms.

❣️What are your top five fics by kudos? Autumn in Philadelphia Trilogy- 243

Flashbacks- 109

Christmas to Last a Lifetime- 94

Not too shabby for such a massive series with an OC as a main character.

❣️Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes. Eventually.

Ever single comment is incredibly important to me and I don't always have the spoons to respond the way I want to. Rather than rush a response, I wait until I can give it my full attention. There are times, however, when certain comments appear to go answered for months. Those are comments from people I am in touch with privately and have already thanked. I will respond to those in time as well.

❣️What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The Darkest Night without question.

❣️What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

At this point, probably Christmas to Last a Lifetime.

❣️Do you get hate on your fic?

Is having someone throw a tantrum in your comments hate?

The writer who did this was upset over how the first part of AiP ended because they did not read the tags or summary. They also complained about my OC being better than theirs and whined about liking Audrey more as though at 11 years old I created with Aud malicious intent to hurt them 20+ years later. 🙄

This was the person who also tried to push me out of the fandom, harassed me, and stole my work.

So, hate, no. Immature, entitled behavior, yes.

❣️Do you write smut?

No it's not my thing to read or write. My story is canon compliant and I'm staying true to the content of the show as well. Since it's a 90s kids' sitcom, situations were only dealt with to a certain degree.

❣️Do you write crossovers?

Technically. lol The AiP trilogy is a crossover with BMW and its sequel show, Girl Meets World, but since it's in the same universe I don't count it.

I am in the works of doing a real crossover that I'm really excited about, hopefully soon.

❣️Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes. See the hate on fics response.

I debated how much to say since my socials are still being monitored but you know what, I don't care.

This person stole big chunks of my work from three of my stories and readers have noticed. That's how I became aware of it. Two readers brought it to my attention and just recently another mentioned it also.

I've dealt with it thanks to my dear friends who have had my back through this year + long ordeal.

And ngl, it was satisfying to see her panic and meltdown when the report was submitted and rush her ending. The subsequent attempts to cover her tracks have been popcorn worthy as they have been both comical and pathetic.

Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm too nice and give too much benefit of the doubt which is why no one outside of my friends' circle has seen the massive report on the theft and harrassment.

However, should you dear [REDACTED] try it again, I'm holding onto that report and won't be so nice the second time around. It won't be your friend who's been asking for the link since December 8th that I'll give it to either.

❣️Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not to my knowledge.

❣️Have you ever co-written a fic?

Not yet!!! But soon and I'm so excited.

❣️What's your all-time favorite ship?

As for canon ship, they change all the time, but currently it's

❣️What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

At this point it's looking like Birthday Wishes. lol I mean, I have it outlined to the end and the next chapter is almost ready to go, but I'm prioritizing Saudade and have little time for BW, unfortunately.

❣️What are your writing strengths?

I'm not sure. May be characterization? Possibly world building and character development.

❣️What are your writing weaknesses?

Conciseness. lol Also SPAG editing. My brain skips words like crazy when writing and even editing. No matter how many times I go over things, I miss so much.

❣️Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I avoid this personally because I know enough that I'd mess it up. And I only know Swedish which isn't really a language that figures into my work naturally.

As for fics I'm not writing, it really depends on how it's done.

❣️First fandom you wrote for?

Boy Meets World. First published was Labyrinth.

❣️Favorite fic you've ever written?

Ah, how to chose. Autumn in Philadelphia trilogy. I can't get anymore specific than that. lol

No pressure tags to play for: @axolotlsupremacyowo @tsunderesalty @amberlide @winterlovesong1 @justanotherpersonwhowrites @obscureobsidiandraws @stealing-your-kittens @bees-and-sunshine @ligercat

If anyone would like to be included in the tags, please let me know and I'll be sure to get you next time.

[pelleas-at-castle-nox]

Witch's Brew/Baker's Delight

Udon was a ferret who ran a rather successful Bakery on the campus of a magical institution, a rather upstanding member of his community, even if he did happen to moonlight as a witch with the local coven. It was after hours, his store front converted into a temporary venue as the tables were all decorated with fancy table clothes to host a little tea party. Guests weren't scheduled to arrive for another few hours, but being the perfectionist he was, all the work had been finished already, and he didn't have much else to do but sit there and scroll his phone hoping someone would show up early.

Soft clinking of metal heralded the arrival of a feline knight, a resplendent suit of silver inlaid mythril armor accenting a slim fighter's figure. Her paws, both hand and feet, were uncovered, though a discerning eye would see that the magical protection offered by the armor extended even to those extremities, even her cute long tail that marked her not as a pure cat, but a feline vulpine hybrid. Atop it all was a hat, a large ostentatious hat more logically associated with a wizard than a knight, but which also seemed inlaid with magical protection.

She was also overbearingly nervous, paw continuously trying to obviously reach for a sword which seemed to be conspicuously missing from her ensemble. She sat down at the opposite end of the table armor clattering audibly. If she had hoped to be stealthy, she had failed miserably.

The red and pink ferret was firmly juxtaposed off the small knight, possessing a welcoming and inviting chubby figure, complete with a heart printed yellow apron. He didn't know exactly why this jittery knight had sat down at his table, but he had nothing better to do so he quietly slid a plate of cookies closer. "Hey, you want some tea? Or a biscuit or something?" Despite his best efforts, some concern did bleed through his voice.

The comforting tones of the ferret seemed completely lost on the cat who looked like she'd have jumped out of her skin from the jolt she gave, and probably would have if not for her armor. "T-Tis I! Um, I mean, I'm Conrad, agent to His Imperial Majesty Glenn, responsible for the deaths of between 230 and 400 people in the 17th age of the Demesne." Her feline eyes vibrated with intensity as she looked down at the plate of cookies, paw twitching as she resisted the urge to take one. "Excuse me, sir. Are you by any chance... a witch?"

Udon had started tuning the knight out when it became apparent that she wasn't really going to be a good conversational partner, mentally going over his checklist one more time as he nodded along. "A witch? Yeah yeah..." He was technically a part time witch, but he was licensed and all, so he hardly saw how it mattered. Reaching over and grabbing a lovely tea pot, an equally lovely tea cup was filled. He took a moment to let it cool before taking a sip, frowning at the surprisingly bitter taste. No comment was made on the way his body seemed to visibly swell from just one taste. He reached over to a small ceramic jar and removed the lid, sighing as he saw its empty nature. "This shit has no sugar, and Sparky ate all the sugar cubes, is that cool with you?"

Conrad recoiled in fear and disgust, for this is truly...

Steeling her composure as best she could, the anxious knight nodded as another teacup began to be filled. "Y-yes, that will be fine.  As a Knight, if I take tea at all, it is without sugar…" Relaxing just a bit as she realized she'd not alerted the witch into defensive action, she chose to take a subtle approach and coax the damning information out of her. She knew she'd have absolutely no choice to partake of this devil's fair, really there was simply no way to avoid eating some of these cursed food items, none at all if she were to complete her mission. "Ahem... Now, pardon me for asking, but do you regularly hold council with imps and other such demons, perhaps meeting for tea and to practice illegal dark magic?"

Something within the kind and patient ferret snapped at the question, and in that moment his patience was lost. "Look dude, do you want a biscuit or not?" He'd put in all this effort to lay out a fine spread for anybody looking to unwind after a hard day, and here this cat was harshing the vibe so spectacularly!

Conrad's eyes darken in fear, and her ears pin back in shame.  The Emperor's most trusted agent has found a witch for whom she is no match. He evades even her most cunning inquiries with ease, and the brazen air with which she admits her heresy shows she fears neither man nor God. She cannot win, and defeated, she relents. "A... biscuit would be lovely, thank you."

A smile finally crossed the Ferret's face once again as he picked up a cookie and threw it across the table, effortlessly landing it right on the knight's waiting tongue. "Bitchin~" Horrified by the sudden display of perceived violence, her first instinct was to remove the cookie from her mouth, and yet she found such instincts overridden as her jaws slowly worked to mash up the buttery delight, delicious cream spilling out from between two layers of baked goodness. The flavor was more than she could handle, and like a starving beast, she let instincts truly take over, her paws shoveling the full plate of biscuits into her muzzle, washed down with the tea when she began to struggle to get it down.

Udon's brow raised, but he made no moves to stop the hungry knight, and even poured her an extra cup of tea to follow the first as he watched her face and hands begin to soften rapidly. "You sure you don't wanna take that pretty armor off? Are you on duty? Probably shouldn't be partaking of a witch's brew on duty."

The casual taunt forced an extravagant moan from the cat, who shook her head languidly. "N-never fear good sir, this armor's designed to withstand any manner of barrages, from within or without. It would take a truly catastrophic occurrence to wrench it from my b-uuuurrrrff... BAH!" Her protests were interrupted by a rumbling belch, and all at once the breastplate of her full mail burst off, a cascading gut bouncing free. A horrified meow reverberated, and Udon reached one thick paw up into the air, catching the sailing breastplate before it could fly off into the distance and wreck even a piece of his carefully planned Decor. He smiled brightly as he watched his handiwork, coming around behind the cat and beginning to fiddle with the straps on the rest of her armor. "I was just lamenting the lack of a center piece, I think you'll do nicely~" The tea pot was hefted up off the table, and after an experimental testing of the heat, which was indeed cool enough to drink from, the spout of the pot was placed in the knight's lips, tipped back, and poured freely into the dazed knight, who only grew larger.

Today's entry was based off the legendary OPEN RP between tumblr users slappycat and kirkegarde, neither of whom I will be tagging but I will put a link to said legendary text post because I think it's really funny and everybody should see it at least once.

[somewhereinthepines]

Hello, Pines! Is it okay for me to call you that? You can not answer this if you don’t want to, but you are one of few people who don’t have strong feelings for Dylan/Ryan ship. I wanted to know why? I hope it doesn’t come off combative!

hi, and yeah, it’s more than okay! when i was writing ‘by design’ i was called this by a reader and fellow author, so i kind of gentle of this nickname now, haha.

now, about your question….it doesn’t read as rude or combative to me at all! i don’t get irked, when i’ve asked about stuff that i don’t like or not into. but in turn, i have to warn that i do prefer to be honest about my opinion, and while i don’t hate dylan/ryan ship, i think that people who really love it might find my words kinda downing. my opinions are whimsical and fully based on my own pref and tastes, and what i look for in fiction, so i’d just ask people to view it as this. just me speaking for myself, from my own tower. 

*waves a hand* but let’s begin. so ah, dylan/ryan. it’s true, that i indeed don’t have any particularly strong feelings about them as a ship. or about dylan. i don’t hate him as a character, i just don’t care about him lol. surprisingly enough, i didn’t actively distaste anyone in the quarry. and it’s smth, bc supermassive does tend to create/write at least one character, who pisses me off in their games. either way, dylan wasn’t that. he was fine. i just didn’t find him interesting or compelling, or felt like ryan had some insane connection to him. 

i look back at all the interactions, that dylan had with ryan, and it’s very generic to me. the game trying to force them into ‘romance’ only made everything worse and feel scripted, rather than coming off natural. i mean, what ryan and dylan have narrative wise, first of all? 1) they talk inside mister h’s office, and it all while they lie out plot points for us, and dylan also makes a comment about ryan always going through chris’s things. so technically speaking, he makes sexual comment about a guy, who he likes with another man. like, if he’s into it okay lol. but it was a bit strange. 2) they might have a kiss, that was basically not happening out of free will. it happened bc of a truth/dare game and not bc either of them decided to do it, while they had some meaningful moment together. more so, i find it almost funny how if ryan picks truth, emma asks about him and mister h. so even the girl, who ‘shipped’ those two or smth, was actually curious about (once again) ryan and another man lmao. you are beginning to see the pattern here too, i believe. 3) the cut off hand scene, that was just….not super impactful, despite it supposed to be tense in an emotional sense vs just a tense gameplay. but it’s not. in fact, i often think, that if the quarry pulled a john & andrew there, aka ryan would have been stuck with his camp leader during the night (and chris wasn’t a werewolf), and they run into the same situation with cutting off hand or not, it would have been so good, y’know? no matter whose hand would have been at stake, it would have been so much more loaded and hard for them to decide what to do, even from non-shipping point. like, how can you intentionally harm someone even if they ask you to, when you feel responsible for them (chris) or when you admire them and they are the most important adult figure in your life (ryan)? cutting off dylan’s hand was traumatising for both dylan and ryan, don’t get me wrong. but it was missing a heavy key-emotional aspect in it. for me, it’s always gonna be more of an evil dead ref, than anything else. i love my gore to be meaningful in one sense or another. which brings me to the following point…. 

nothing really happens after that. at all. there wasn’t any tension or uncertainty. and okay, maybe they didn’t want to take the route, where dylan would look at ryan oddly, bc he finally realised that he doesn’t even really know the dude at all. but then, nothing in the game led me to believe, like dylan or ryan would be attached to each other to the point, where they both would be able to ‘overlook’ this moment in future, either. so yeah, it only proves, that there was no aftermath, and it was kinda a meaningless scene in terms of the ship, and what a waste! i watched du’met killing charlie 4 separate times, and each time, it was ofhduhgi great, amazing, i could see a personal touch there. and those two weren’t even officially speaking, written as a couple. then, there is dylan who doesn’t even question things and ryan, who have no time to question if he’s fucked up for doing it or not, bc he has other things (mister h) on his mind. and the thing is, that i legit wished that the game would at least make dylan and ryan’s interactions entertaining for me, even if i wouldn’t have shipped them together. like until dawn threw me a bone in chris/ashley segments. i do not ship those two at all, but i loved how the gameplay actually forces you to deal with consequences if chris will pick to shoot ashley or pick josh and not her. at least, they made it interesting and gave a bit different angle to both characters and their possibly not all that deep relationships lol. ashley pettily watching chris to be torn apart spoke volumes about how he might have not been the guy, she thought he was. dylan and ryan don’t get even a bit of this. 

next bit be that dylan is a boring character to me, even outside the ship. i cannot think of anything, that would personally interest me, if i had to put him and ryan into a ‘romantic’ set-up. him being prone to panic in extreme situations or insecure doesn’t pull anything in me. it’s very mundane things. and it’s not like i haven’t ever shipped an aloof/emotionally stunted/mental character with basically a ‘normie’. one of such examples be the nite own/rorschach (watchmen). and here is the thing, i don’t like dan lol. he piss me off on a few occasions, and i generally don’t vibe with his character at all. i look at him and see an average joe, who chased after a woman, who usually wouldn’t even glance his way, unless she had some turmoil happening in her life. i see a person, who put on a costume, but couldn’t ever actually commit to all the pain and suffering, that would come along with it, just so that he could do the ‘right thing’. but it didn’t change the fact, that i did like how he had affection for rorschach and how rorschach essentially only ever liked dan in return. even if nite owl was plain for me, he clearly wasn’t for rorschach, who was hilariously delusional about him (along with other things). and i also always saw a chance of dan getting ‘corrupted’ into rorschach's ways of living, which would in return traumatise him and ‘isolate’ him, and make him ‘perfect’ for his fucked up partner. in the end, dan was a simp lol. He wasn’t simp just for laurie, but for rorschach as well, so there was always hope lol. and it’s smth that i cannot see in dylan and ryan’s case at all, bc i don’t think that ryan would care that deeply about some guy to go and try to chase after him. or that dylan would be simping for ryan so hard, that he will be able to shrug off his cool deminear and flat affected reactions. inside my head, they just do not work at all. if you look at all of my multi-chapter fics, that i ever wrote, for whatever pairs, there is a common theme of smth being ‘not quite right there’. i don’t ship someone who is normal and who does normal things, and who doesn’t have some huge ‘flaws’ or clear problems or red flags, that would affect their relationships and who can form a very specific bond only with that other specific person. i wouldn’t have bothered with dan/rorschach, if i didn’t feel like dan’s crush on laurie can be made meaningless and unimportant in the end of the day, bc he would pick rorschach and just be with him, even if he now kills people…. 

in that sense, dylan for me is what max is for travis/laura shippers. a cuck lol. and trust me, i don’t want or have intentions of diminishing the dude in my fics or hcs. as i said, i don’t think that him having a crush on ryan was bad or that he was having said crush due to a very 20 smth worldview is smth to be frowned upon. like in a way, it legit sucks to be dylan or max in a situation, where your cool eyepatch gf or sofrcore metalic bf would rather fuck some redneck grandpa, than you lol. to summarise it, i’m a guy, who watches ‘phantom of the opera’ and thinks, that i would love to dropkick paul from a rooftop, bc i just don’t need him there lol. i wanted christine to get isolated and corrupted, and disappear with her ‘angel of music’. i’m a dude, who watched dracula and wanted mina gone forever, bc dracula and john were so much more sexy to look at. i’m someone who wished, that ichabod crane would have been abducted in a sleepy hallow movie, like he was in the book. i love it, when it’s complicated and maybe even, ‘bad’ or downright scary to want that thing, but if you are ready to go after it, stay with it, this means that in the end you want it more, than anything else. it’s fiction and i love my fiction to be extreme, be it emotional extreme or smth else. so yeah. ships like dylan/ryan, chris/ashley or idk, erin/jamie weren't made for me, and that’s okay. bc chris/ryan and du’met/charlie is what was made to a t, almost as if to tailor my own fascinations, and i don’t care that canon doesn’t spell it out for me, that they’re destined lovers. in my head, and in my understanding they are. and that's the fun of shipping, really. to just indulge yourself in what you see as crucial for a dynamic to work. 

*looks up at the wall of text above* well, uh yeah. i guess it’s all that i say here. like about the ship and dylan on his own. i always compare preferences in fiction (characters, ships, media) to food, bc i feel like it just drives the point across. i’m a very picky eater irl (some textures, tastes would make me gag and i just won’t be able to stomach the said food), and i’m like that with what i ship too. it doesn't objectively make smth amazing and the best there to be, it just makes those things tasty and great for me, subjectively. and i do hope, that one day, internet would just take a chill pill on that matter, and there be less ‘call outs’ about shipping this or that, or someone getting aggressive just cuz someone else doesn’t like their ship and not even in a rude way. 

and thank you for asking me this, i do think that it’s important to know why you don’t like smth or just don’t care about it and love that other things instead. it really helps to not fall into ‘trending’ and ending up doing smth that you most likely won’t enjoy at all. spent your time only on stuff, that really ‘speaks’ to you.

[juniperhillpatient]

The Drill Re-watch

The Dangerous Ladies are back! And they have a big scary drill. I love how Mai is just happy to get something to do & I had honestly forgotten how consistently ecstatic Ty Lee is at any opportunity for violence. She's so adorable & scary at the same time. Have I mentioned lately how much I love Ty Lee? +1000 iconic behavior points to her for taking out all those earth-benders & scaring Katara. I had also forgotten just how scared of Ty Lee Katara is & how much she dislikes her. Katara yelling & calling Ty Lee a circus freak was a badass moment. +1000 iconic behavior points. Mai disobeying Azula just because she doesn't want to get muddy & popping up in the end like "we lost" in a deadpan voice was hilarious & very based of her, +500 iconic behavior points. Sokka's plan to take out the drill from the inside was pretty smart. +500 iconic behavior points.

My favorite part of the conflict with the drill was actually Ty Lee. I also really loved the flirty moment between her & Sokka, & Katara having to drag Sokka away. Honestly, I've never given much thought to Ty Lee/Sokka as a potential ship until this re-watch but their flirty banter during fights is so funny & cute. And I just can't get enough of Ty Lee happily kicking ass.

Surprisingly, I don't have that much to say about Azula in this episode which is rare for me but this was pretty much standard hero vs. villain "let's keep the Fire Nation out of Ba Sing Se" stuff. I mean, the Azula vs. Aang fight was badass, but I don't have any meaningful analysis of it. I think the most meaningful takeaway I have about Azula in this episode is regarding her relationship with Mai & Ty Lee. It's been commented on a hundred times that Mai disobeys Azula's order in this episode, but still, I'll comment on it again. I think it says a lot about the dynamic between Azula & Mai. Mai is a subordinate, & there is a power imbalance but Mai knows what she can & can't get away with & isn't afraid to do what she wants under certain circumstances. I think that the dynamic between these three girls is layered & this episode gives evidence to the idea that Azula does treat Mai & Ty Lee like friends to the extent that Azula can treat anyone like friends. Mai never felt coerced & if she was reluctant to follow specific orders, she simply didn't.

Jet & Zuko were my favorite part of this episode, actually. I can't believe it took me as long as it did spending time in this fandom to warm up to Jet/Zuko as a romantic pairing. Shocking & disappointing for me, really, I feel like I usually have good taste right away. SMH past me. Oh well, I see the truth now. They're literally Thee Template. Like, they met each other, said "be gay do crime" & had a touching heart to heart about both being traumatized & Zuko realized that he didn't always have to be alone & by the next episode Jet is following Zuko around like a lost puppy begging him to join his little found family. THEN freaking Iroh warms up his tea with fire-bending. Iroh, I was just warming up to you & starting to stand up for you, dude. What are you DOING? Zuko is right. For a supposedly wise old man, that's just.....really fucking stupid. I don't even know what to say. I guess Iroh got a little too comfortable? Like....what? Anyway....

Despite the rather contrived way in which it happened (yeah, sorry, I'm gonna say the writing is a LITTLE contrived like, I just don't get it is Iroh supposed to be smart or not?) I DO love a dramatic breakup between two characters who technically never even dated. Jet now knows that Zuko & Iroh are fire-benders. And MAN. A hundred smarter people than me have written fascinating essays & analyses & metas about the tragedy that Jet is right that they're fire-benders & more right than he knows because they're literally Fire Nation royalty & both personally responsible for a lot of harm inflicted by the Fire Nation but he's wrong because they are actually refugees now & not causing any new harm & also because he needs to let go of this obsessive hate because it will (& does) lead to his downfall like....We'll get to my thoughts on Jet's tragedy & his death when we get there but this set up for drama (by itself!!! pretending I'm watching for the first time!!!) IS excellent writing (if the specifics weren’t so contrived.) If only they ---- never mind, I'm done for now. I'm ending this ramble. Goodnight. Oh yes, Zuko & Jet get +1000 iconic behavior points for their quick little fling that will change them both forever & for having a dramatic breakup without Zuzu (king of drama on any other occasion!) even knowing about it.

Anyway, this was a great episode. I'm surprised I had so little to say about Azula & that she earned no iconic behavior points, but it's okay because she will blow everyone else out of the running in Crossroads of Destiny, I already know 100% for sure. Yeah, my favorite parts of this episode were the Dangerous Ladies & Jet & Zuko but I should also mention that I liked Sokka joking about the different group names even though "gaang" hasn't come up yet. And the hints about metal-bending & its potential were fun subtle foreshadowing.

[silveragelovechild]

THE KILLER (spoilers galore)

I watched “The Killer” on Netflix. It’s directed by David Fincher and stars Michael Fassbender in the title role.

It was good seen Fassbender again. He’s an actor I enjoy. His last movie credit was in 2019 for “Dark Phoenix”. I believe he took time off to focus on his private life (marrying actress Alicia Vikander and having a child with her.) He also participated in race car driving.

But back to “The Killer”. The first 20 minutes focused on Fassbender as his unnamed assassin prepares to kill someone who will be staying in a hotel room across the street. As he he assembles his weapons, naps, and does yoga, Fassbender narrates his mantra, and the precise method of his kills. He also explains his indifference about why he does what he does. We’re led to believe he is an expert assassin who never misses… until minute 21 - when he missed his intended target, and shoots a dominatrix instead. (WTF - so much for building our expectations then blowing them!)

Rather take another shot to kill his true target, he bails, collecting his paraphernalia and wiping up his finger prints, then leaves.

For the next 10 minutes or so, we follow Fassbender as he makes his way from Paris to the Dominican Republic (flying through the UK & US). Several times he stops to wash and shave, wiping down the sinks and spraying them (I assume to defeat possible DNA tests).

In one scene, an airline agents comments on how many frequent flyer miles he has accumulated. (HUH? He is so fastidious about not leaving a trail yet he doesn’t want to miss out on frequent flyer miles?!?)

When he finally arrives at his secret compound in the Dominican Republic he notices something suspicious and realizes someone cased the place to kill him. You see, this second assassin left distinct footprints and a bunch of cigarette butts at the gate. (If you’re going to hire an assassin to kill another assassin, he should be as good or better than the intended victim!)

Fassbender learns his girlfriend has been tortured and rushes to the hospital to see her. If I was an assassin hired to kill another assassin I’d stake out the hospital to see if the target shows up… nope! Instead Fassbender has touching reunion with his girlfriend and plots his own revenge. (BTW, why did the second assassins let the girlfriend live? It would have been much more clean to kill her.)

Fassbender discovers the thugs who tortured his girlfriend arrived at the compound by taxi. He decides to get revenge on the taxi driver. The poor driver had delivered the thugs to the compound and had to wait while they entered the house, 30 minute later, he drove them back to the airport. Technically this taxi drive was a witness - why did the thugs let him live. But they didn’t have to worry, because Fassbender kills the poor guy!

Next Fassbender heads to New Orleans to see his handler, to learn who were the thugs who tortured his girlfriend. The handler refuses so Fassbender kills him with a nail gun. He about to kill Dolores, the secretary, but she makes a bargain. She will tell him the names of the thugs, if he will make her death look like an accident (she has children and wants them to have closure). They both honor their ends of the bargain. (Kerry O'Malley who plays Dolores is very good in a small role.)

Next he heads to Florida to kill one of the hired thugs. But Fassbender isn’t as stealthy as he thinks he is. The thug is ready for him and the two have a knock down drag out fight. Thank Gawd Fassbender has experience in superhero movies because even tho the thug out weigh him by 100 pounds, Fassbender survives dozens of punches and at least a half dozen body blows. (In addition to magnetic powers he must be invulnerable.)

For those of you interested in this kind of thing, Fassbender has a full body nude scene at minute 81. Unfortunately it’s obscured by a steamed up shower glass.

Next Fassbender heads to New York to to kill the second assassin responsible for torturing his girlfriend. This second hired killer is played by Tilda Swinton (who is only refereed to as Q-Tip because of her white hair). Apparently she’s not as good at her job because even tho Fassbender is pretty obvious following her in a car, she doesn’t notice.

Fassbender confronts Swinton in a posh restaurant. She seems to accept her fate and delivers an interesting speech… one assassin to another. Except she included an anal sex joke - weird.

BTW - what was the Handler’s purpose of sending the second killer and the thug to Fassbender’s secret compound? They tried to get the girlfriend to reveal a secret, but according to her, she didn’t talk. Then they returned to their respective homes in Florida and New York having failed. Apparently this Handler has a very incompetent team of hired assasins.

I think the Killer’s kill-count is now 6 which would have been unnecessary if he hadn’t missed his target at the beginning.

If you’re curious, Fassbender took 8 flights to kill 6 people, so he earned approximately 11,090 more frequently flyer miles.

Next stop Chicago. Fassbender tracks down the billionaire who paid for the original kill job (you know, the one that Fassbender missed). The billionaire doesn’t know who Fassbender is, and says he didn’t ask that Fassbender is punished (killed) for missing his target. And in the biggest WTF of the movie - Fassbender believes him and lets him live, then leaves.

So in the fucked up Topsy-Turvy world of The Killer - the billionaire gets to live while the innocent poor taxi driver is killed. That’s a big fuck-you to the little guy.

In the end, Fassbender returns to his girlfriend back in the Dominican Republic, where they relax in the sun. (Remember how easy was the first time the thugs found his girlfriend?!?)

The Killer is based on a French graphic novel series with 14 volumes, so undoubtably there will be sequels.

VICTIMS:

ALIASES:

Throughout the movie Fassbender’s unnamed assassin has access to dozens of passports and credit cards, each with a different alias. We learn nine of them… all characters from old sitcoms from the 1960s to early 1990s. Were these in-jokes by Fincher and Andrew Kevin Walker, the screenwriter (both children of the 1970s).

Felix Unger - on his flight to Miami

Archie Bunker - on his flight to the Dominican Republic

Oscar Madison - was when he ships a package via FedEx

Howard Cunningham - on his flight to New Orleans

Reuben Kincard - car rental in Florida

Lou Grant - flight to New York

Sam Malone - car rental in New York

George Jefferson - at bank

Robert Hartley - gym membership

[bard-llama]

20 Question Fic Writer Game

Thanks for tagging me @chickiefoo!

How many works do you have on AO3? Today, 450. Probably will go up in the next few days, though, because I enjoy posting daily when I can and I have some new content (vs new chapters to published stuff)

What is your AO3 word count? 2,177,884 🤯🤯🤯

What fandoms do you write for? Primarily, I write for the Witcher, but I spent the last year writing for Avatar, the Last Airbender. Honestly, I've written for a number of fandoms, but most of it was when I first got an AO3 account in high school and college, before I stopped writing for several years. The Witcher got me back into it, and since then, it's only been that and atla. And maybe possibly the DND movie a little bit, but I don't actually have any words on paper, so I don't think it counts.

What are your top five fics by kudos? 1. Fire and Water (atla) 2. A Second Chance at Family (atla) 3. Five Times Geralt Frotted Against Jaskier's Ass and One Time He Fucked It (TWN) 4. 5 Dinners with the Lioness (Plus 1 with the Lion Cub) (TWN) 5. Death Rites (atla) Kinda funny that I have more Witcher Video Game (esp Iorveth/Roche) fics than any others and yet none make the top 5, but honestly, I think it's just because atla and TWN have bigger fandoms with more people. And technically, I do mostly write a rare pair... (they have 744 works now... but 146 of those are mine...)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I try to, but honestly, I get overwhelmed really easily and I figure people would prefer if I focus my effort on writing vs trying to respond if it's a choice between the two, so...

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Hmmm. See, the thing is, endings are.... not something I get to that often. But the first thing that came to mind was an atla fic where Zuko gets his hands chopped off and his feet fucked up and then has to learn how to recover. In general, though, I have to write endings that are at least hopeful, if not necessarily happy.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Uh. I don't even know how to measure this???? Maybe Bitter Victories (Witcher)? That one starts out really angsty, but ends in the afterlife with a happily ever after (but like, kind of a bittersweet one bc they're alone in their afterlife, all their friends still alive).

Do you get hate on fics? Unfortunately, I had a fic fairly recently that I really did get a lot and that was rough. But also, when I mentioned it in the author's notes, people were really, really sweet and supportive in response. So if you get hate: delete it and seek out validation from people, because you deserve to know that the hate is bullshit. And also, the back button exists and if you're old enough to be on the internet, you're old enough to know how to use it.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I have 103 Explicit fics on AO3, so... yeah. Um. The kinky kind???

Do you write crossovers? Not really? Well, I guess it depends on how you define it. I do a lot of like, crossovers between different Witcher mediums - but it's all still the same universe. I dunno that I'd ever branch into doing a whole different universe (though, just saying, Ciri's power was made for universe hopping).

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge. I hope not?

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes! It's so cool! I had a fic get translated into Russian.

Have you ever cowritten a fic before? Not really. When I was 9 or 10, my bestie and I would write together, but honestly, I like having full control over everything and my muse is unpredictable. It's best to just work alone than to have someone waiting on something I can't promise I'll deliver. That said, my process really depends on being able to talk through and brainstorm ideas with other people. It's very much collaborative, but I - or rather, my muse - has ultimate control.

What's your all-time favourite ship? Probably Iorveth/Roche (Witcher)? I mean, I've written an awful lot of them and they're the kind of characters where even if the story isn't about them, there's still a regard between them, you know?

What's a WIP you'd like to finish but doubt you ever will? I like to believe that I will one day finish ALL my WiPs... as much of a pipe dream as that sometimes seems... (I have over 300 WiPs)

What are your writing strengths? I think I'm pretty good at character voice? And I'm decent at porn. Uh, I guess my muse is really inventive, too? And I certainly have no shortage of ideas.

What are your writing weaknesses? Description is definitely the biggest one. I am not a visual person AT ALL and so I don't really think to describe the scene much??? And I really can only give details if I've actually like, built out the floorplan or made the character design or something. There's a reason I build a lot of settings and characters in the Sims.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I mean, I've done it, I think it can be important for a scene - but I also think it's important for the reader to know what's being said, so I usually put it in brackets next to the other language, so you don't have to jump to footnotes or something.

First fandom you wrote for? BBC Merlin, I think

Favourite fic you've ever written? You expect me to choose ONE!?!?!?! (Honestly, it depends on my mood.)

This was fun! Tagging @lutes-and-dandelions, @moonlights-ordinance, @miahclone, @fantom-flower, @useless-empty-brain, anyone else who wants to???

[fangeek-girl]

Fic Tag Game

Thank you @wibzenadarksiderwithasoftheart for the tag

How many works do you have on Ao3?

Works: 12 Fics: 11 One of my works is original fiction

2. What's your Ao3 word count?

242,814 (including 2 unfinished fics)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

At the moment Star Wars only, but when the mood strikes Roswell New Mexico as well.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Fix You (Star Wars, Obianidala)

Three Makes a Family (RNM, Malex)

One Love (RNM, Malex)

Halves of a Whole (Star Wars, Skywalker Dyad part 1)

Treacherous (RNM, Malexa)

5. Do you respond to comments?

When people actually comment, yes! I always feel my responses are superfluous, but I love when people take the time to comment.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably Last Kiss, considering it ends with Padmé's death...

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Three Makes a Family, but it's been in edits for over a year so nobody gets to see how wholesome it ends because I haven't been able to put myself back into the RNM writing mood 😭

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I did in the RNM fandom because some people can't handle polyamory.

9. Do you write smut? What kind?

Not much. I usually default to fluffy smut. The closest I've come to actual smut in published fics is Treacherous, and it's focused on their feelings rather than the action.

10. Do you write cross-overs?

I tend to stay in one fandom at a time when writing.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope. And I'm not sure I'd like it. I would be too worried about whether they got the tone right.

12. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Once, when I was in the TVD fandom, years ago. The other two cowriters just stopped participating after like 3 chapters and told me I could do whatever, then got mad at me for taking the whole thing down.

13. What WIP you would like to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Ouch. Three Makes a Family is technically written, just not edited. So it's kinda finished...? But I haven't fallen back into the RNM mood, and the shitshow that was s4 made it very hard.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Ships come and go with my special interests, so ask me every few months and the answer will be different. Right now, I'm leaning toward Obikin/Anidala equally.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Writing out feelings and lyrical prose. (What is this, an interview? 😅)

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Continuity in a long arc. My brain goes too fast and gets stuck on subplots. Halfway through a long project I usually have to rethink my idea for the ending (if I even knew where I was going in the first place) because I strayed so far from the original plot lol

On the bright side I am slowly learning to actually outline my fics 😂

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

For real languages, it needs to be grammatically correct. I say this as a native French speaker who read way too many published novels where there's dialogue in French and it's absolutely awful.

For fandoms languages, have fun I guess! A translation in the notes or between parenthesis always helps tho.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Either HP or Buffy, back when we posted on fanfiction.net. I read those fandoms a lot as a teen, but I can't remember if I wrote much back then.

19. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Treacherous maybe? I really love how it turned out.

20. What fic would you want to rewrite one day?

None. When I post a fic it's done in my head. If I start thinking about how it could be better, I'll never stop editing and rewriting it. And then no one would get to read it. My fics are by no means perfect, and there's always something bugging me about them when I reread them, but they represent my writing at that moment.

Tagging @bisexualalienss, @maeglinthebold, @burntblueberrywaffles, @palfriendpatine66 and @somethingsteff and anyone else who wants to do it. Feel free to ignore me 😉

[backupthere]

💁 (for any if the Back Up There stories!)

Did readers influence/change any part of this story?

Since you didn't ask for any particular story, I'll talk about the series as a whole.

The short answer would be "no", in that each story is always complete before I start posting, so nothing that happens in the reactions to one chapter will change what happens in a later chapter.

However, there are a few things that do make an impact. The cast for the universe is huge, and sometimes I like to outsource the creation of characters, which helps to lower the risk of the background characters just being the same four guys over and over again. Those kind of things happen here rather than on AO3, where I'll post asking people to give me a number or a name so I can throw together some character lists. (Once a guy has a name he usually grows a personality by himself...)

The other thing that happens is when somebody leaves a comment about a character reminding them of somebody - particularly if they're talking about guys in the UK leagues, but it can happen with anybody - sometimes a background character gets a face or a skating style due to those comments. It's always clear that the commenter isn't doing it on purpose, and I think if it was deliberately done to try to influence a characterisation it wouldn't work.

One rule I have for myself with this 'verse is that once a fact is established, no matter how tiny, that's canon and cannot be changed. So a casual comment that gets me thinking (did these guys know each other in juniors?) or a response to a plea for character names throwing up a new guy who shares a surname with an existing character can lead to an indisputable fact - there's a guy on the Eagles who has a cousin on the Pumas and they have never interacted in any of the stories so nobody would know this, but the fact remains that they are related because somebody said so and I said "okay then". (I think that might even have been you...)

The very early stories in the 'verse, the short ones that aren't as good because they were silly throwaways before I realised that this thing was just going to be my entire life, also came from more of a chat background, where somebody (@swedishgoaliemafia) would say "hey wouldn't it be neat if - " and then just sit back and watch the carnage. The very first story came out of a chat about why a team had turned up with no backup netminder, and what might have happened to him, and although that wasn't technically influenced by a reader on the basis that there wasn't anything to read at that point, the series as a whole probably wouldn't exist if that conversation hadn't happened.

I also try not to change what I write next because of the audience - I've seen some talented writers get too caught up in their readers' demands for "I wish you'd write a fic where - " and start churning out stale and repetitive work because they stopped writing for themselves, and I don't think I could go down that route... not that that's really a thing for me, as nobody ever sends me prompts or requests for some reason! I do however have in mind that what I'm writing is intended to be read and enjoyed by somebody other than me, and I think there's always subconsciously going to be a little bit of that running through things. I might not set out to write a story or a character or a scene because of something a reader said to me, but it's always hugely satisfying to get a comment saying "X made me cry" when I'd known that it would as I wrote it.

I'm writing for myself, but I'm thinking about you guys as I write.