#Find the common link between them I bet you can't

[samd1o1]

Silly Girls are my favorite character archetype

[scrumptiousstuffs]

How much of the truly unhinged things FK do and say do you think is mostly fanservice? I genuinely can't imagine saying half those things to a person for real. It's not that I think they don't care about each other, but I can't really believe it's that intense without them realizing it, so I have to conclude that it's made that way for fanservice. They have said they read everything we say, so they know what we respond to and what gets retweeted the most. And I know enough about other cps to know some of the fanservicy things they do - pretending to not be able to make something everyone knows they'll be at, saying stuff like "we're just naturally like this", getting "caught" cuddling. It rings less true every time I see it.

The one thing that gives me pause is how much other people tease them after being around them for five minutes. Is it all just one big in-joke? Do other cps have that same thing where their coworkers ship them and is it as universal (I think Tay and New do? I don't know I don't really pay enough attention to other cps, just enough to know most of the common fanservice)? Do other cps say things like FK say to each other? I just don't know.

I guess I just think that fanservice is supposed to be a tacit agreement between fans and cps to buy into an illusion but not take it too far. When you do that, it's fun. But sometimes FK make me want to go full delulu and then I have to slap myself a little.

Anon, I give you permission to go all delulu 😉 (I’m in it and living the best life 😌).

However, delulu aside, I don’t think FK is doing much fanservice.

I mentioned in previous asks they will try and do “extra” or hype up a little bit, usually during fanmeet/concert/events - but you can always tell 😅. They are amazing actors on-screen but off-screen, they are a pair of giggly mess whenever they try to do fanservice - be it delivery pick up lines (most recent examples inc. FK fanmeet and OF fanmeets), where the boys almost immediately break out of character or doing it exaggeratedly👇🏽 (First burst out laughing after Khaotung deliver a pick up line, while you can see Khaotung’s face…)

Or if it is an “act” of fan service (like during LOLfanfest when First stripped off his jacket) he broke out into a cheeky grin (and trying to hold off a giggle), Khao rather than “joining in the act” by I don’t know 🤷🏽‍♀️ caressing those biceps (for example), instead gets flustered and tries to quickly cover up his bestie (of course, First may just be doing it to tease his bestie and trolling us hehe)

No doubt, they are getting better (or should I say, more comfortable) with fan-service, for example, when Khaotung proudly told his bestie a fan was hitting on him (during the Bookfest earlier in 2024), First immediate response was “why are you hitting on my boyfriend?”

But, I stand by what I said in my previous ask, our boys (as a CP) are generally atrocious at fanservice 🙃.

The interactions we see of them now are just how they are -clingy, sticky besties who don’t realise that the things they say and do for each other are actually not the norm for usual best friends behaviour or even usual CPs. We are just seeing it now cause their relationship is “open” once they are officially a CP. But the boys have gone on trips together even back in 2020, do collab of their clothing lines when they were babies in GMMTV and I remember the official FC managers of both boys actually said they know FK are close even pre-CP cause if you find one, you bet you will find the other one close by (also echoed by countless of other actors/actresses who like you say in your asks - tend to tease them mercilessly about it hehe)

This ask explains FK relationship better. And I’m putting a link from a previous ask I answered re: iconic moments in FK fandom, where most of the unhinged stuffs happen unscripted.

We see them basically doing/saying unhinged things way back pre-CP. I’m sure by now, you have hopefully seen countless of other videos or read through other asks stating the same thing (with most of the videos normally captured by their friends/colleagues in gmmtv cause they just don’t realise how out of the ordinary their relationship is).

The boys share everything - from wardrobe, perfumes, accessories to credit cards. I’m sure we also have evidence floating somewhere they just packed everything in one suitcase (at one point) when they had to travel overseas together for a function.

Also, the one thing they can’t fake - is the genuine adoration they have for each other when they stare at each other (usually when the other is not watching). So many photos of these 2 just staring at each other (that fans jokingly labelled it as Thanawhipped and Kanawhipped depending on who is doing the staring). We had interviewers/photographers actually calling out to Khaotung (at one point) to stop staring at First so they could take his pictures 🤣…

Plus, I have always thought the boys as old souls and quite sensitive to emotions (especially if it pertains to each other). Jokes aside regarding the “extra” fanservice during their official fanmeets/concerts - these 2 cannot express how much they meant to each other without breaking down and turn into gooey mess (personally, I just can’t see these as being fake).

But you are absolutely right in saying CP culture, fanservice and the parasocial relationship they have with the fans should be respectful and we need to have boundaries. It’s fun to admire their relationship/friendship (or whatever it is they have - I’m still on queerplatonic team, btw 🫡) - but it shouldn’t be to the point that we cross the line.

As for other CPs, I don’t follow them closely enough to comment. I think each CP have their own take in what they want to show to their fans, but most can function independently without the other and they have friends outside the CP. FK on the other hand…yes, they have friends too but these 2 are codependent to the point they genuinely can’t seem to function 100% without the other person being close by as their support person (like the amount of time Khaotung mentioned First without prompt when he was the special host for GMMTV Live House….🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️and similarly, First will bring up tidbits about Khaotung again unprompted to fans/hosts 🤦🏻‍♀️ (eg the tidbit of him staring at Khaotung face when they woke up together in their shared bed during the Busan trip…🙂‍↕️)

Anyway, I’m going to finish up with this view of Khaotung (cause now I’m imagining this was what First saw that morning in Busan 😭😭😭 - those lucky boys!)

[bowsellie]

better than revenge - pt 2

fic warnings: cheating, angst, love triangle. abby x reader, reader x ellie, abby x ellie kind of. MDNI, smut

part 1 part 3

warnings: not proof read! ellie x reader, smut without feelings, kind of toxic!reader, manipulatey!reader, SMUT, MDNI. oral (r! receiving), face fucking (e! receiving), praise, pet names.

The rest of the night was spent internet sleuthing. Going through the girls Abby followed named Ellie--of which there were three--and finding the only one with a pride flag in her bio. Requesting to follow and scrolling through her posts to confirm that she was exactly Abby's type. Liking a few of her recent posts to show her you've been looking, then going through your mutual friends to figure out your common link.

After some time gathering information, you decided to send her a message.

hey, idk if you know me but we have a couple friends in common. I can't believe we've never met, you seem so cool!

Shortly, a response came.

oh, hey! yeah I've seen you around but never had the chance to introduce myself haha. well, I'm ellie (obviously).

You let yourself fall into the comfortable lull of flirting with Ellie. Complimenting her appearance, her vibe. Mentioning your queerness. Bringing up the potential to meet up in person. Everything that had worked on Abby seemed to be working on Ellie.

oh, are you still dating that abby girl?

Shit.

oh, her. idk honestly haha. we're on a break or something, but I don't think we'll get back together. I kind of have my eye on someone else.

who?

You looked at her message, considering for a moment before the three dots on Ellie's side popped up again.

do I know them at least? I won't say anything if I do--swear.

how about we go out to coffee and I can tell you then?

Nervousness and excitement danced in your gut as you watched for her response. When the little "yes" appeared, you smiled to yourself and began to make plans to see Ellie.

---💗💗💗---

"You're so pretty, baby."

Ellie's mouth was against your ear, breathing hot and humid as you whimpered. Her knee grinding against your cunt, pressing into the seam of your jeans and expertly growing a pressure there that you knew would pay off sweetly.

Her soft mouth moved to kiss your face all over. Cheeks, brows, lips, as she whispered praises in between. "Prettiest girl I've ever seen. So perfect. I bet you're so sweet." At this suggestion, your hips bucked upwards and elicited a louder groan out of your mouth. "You want me to taste you, sweet girl?"

You nodded quickly, somewhat dazed already. Sex with Abby hadn't felt this good since the very beginning of your relationship, when sparks were still flying and the fire in your bellies was bright. Before the domesticity, and the comfort, and...

You should probably stop thinking about your girlfriend while fucking another girl.

Tuning back in, you noticed that Ellie had pulled your jeans and panties down in one swipe and was resting her cheek on your thigh, looking up at you with hungry eyes. Making eye contact, she leaned forward slowly until her warm mouth attached itself to your cunt. You closed your eyes as you moaned, immediately overwhelmed by how warm and wet and good it felt to have Ellie's tongue playing through your folds. She teased at your clit before moving back down and giving long licks to your pussy, listening attentively to what made you pant and groan and squirm underneath her. She focused more and more attention on your pulsing clit, sucking it between her teeth harshly and applying pressure that made your back arch and thighs clasp around her head. Your hands took two chunks of her hair and began to pull her closer to you, pushing your hips against her mouth as she sucked and lick at your clit. Tensing up and practically shouting her name, you came messily over her mouth.

Ellie leaned away and looked up at you with a grin, wiping her mouth on her hand. "You are sweet." She leaned forward over your body to kiss you sloppily, the tangy taste of pussy on your tongue.

“Ellie,” you whined. “I wanna taste you.”

“Want me to fuck your face, pretty girl?” You nodded enthusiastically, reaching to pull her close to you. Ellie discarded her jeans, moving to position herself above your face. She held you by your hair and lowered her wet cunt over your mouth, holding you still as she ground over your extended tongue.

The girl above you was a grunter. Between praises of how good you were doing, she was breathing out carnal pants and groans that grew louder when she began to increase the pressure. Your jaw was sore, but you knew Ellie was close as your teeth bumped against her clit one, two, three times. As her rhythm stuttered and the grip on your hair loosened, Ellie’s thighs squeezed tight around your head as she came right on your tongue. Your tastes blended into something strong that stayed on your tongue as Ellie climbed off your face, kissing your hair and heading towards the bathroom to grab a washcloth and clean you off.

Wiping down your legs and chin, you sat up and began retrieving your discarded clothes. Ellie sat on the edge of the bed, shy in a contrast to her precious persona. “Have somewhere to be?” she asked. She placed her weight on one hand behind her in an attempt to look casual, but a crease sat between her eyebrows.

“Yeah, it’s late and I have to get home. This was great though. I want to see you again.” Your words came out rushed, and you glanced up at Ellie.

“Yeah, let’s do this again. Should I, I don’t know, walk you home or something?”

You shook your head, already halfway out the door. “No no no, don’t worry about that.”

Suddenly, your plan was getting risky. Yes, you wanted Abby to find out and be jealous. But how were you planning to tell her? How would she actually react? The foundation began to crumble and you bit the bottom of your lip raw on the way home.

[szhmidty]

They are closing ranks around the confirmed pornbot

Hm, I'm not sure "confirmed" pornbot is the appropriate language here. The blog in question was known to post porn and known to send sugar daddy messages to random people.

There are real users who do that. If you run a porn blog, you'll run into them. The sticking point for me was that @honoratacarnage, the user who highlighted the sugar daddy spam, is not a porn blog: they're an art blog, and pretty much entirely SFW from what I can tell. Real users who want to roleplay as a sugar daddy don't generally spam random blogs with those messages; it's a waste of time. They spam other porn blogs run by young women, since those young women are more likely to be receptive to such messages. Like, the language "you’re pretty enough to be my sugar baby" just doesn't make sense when I don't think honoratacarnage has ever posted a photo of themselves (I checked their blog archive; there are no photos of them in the photos section). That, to me, heavily implies a bot or scammer who's fishing.

The real smoking gun would be to get a look at the kinds of porn basel-1995 was posting. Pornbots will post what is basically link spam: post after post after post of generic porn with links to cam sites or the like. Real users will sometimes reblog these --- sometimes the generic porn is just good --- but even then it's pretty easy to tell the difference between a bot and a real user from a cursory glance.[1] But, without that smoking gun, I don't think I can be 100% certain they're a bot.

Bot or not, I do think it's fair to call them a scammer. Scattershot "Pretty Babygirl, I Want To Be Your Sugar Daddy" is a common scam tactic: you ingratiate yourself with flattery and promises of money, get their bank details under the guise of needing it to wire over the money, and run off with as much as you can get. I've known people who fell for it, and scams like it. The difference between a scammer and bot is academic in this context; either way I don't think they should be on the vetted list.

But I don't run the list, I don't like how the list is promoted and organized even if I approved of the vetting process, and one of the vetters claims to have a contact in Gaza who can vouch for basel-1995. It's weird and messy. Without being able to audit their process myself, I'm not confident their vetting process actually works, and the whole thing is half moot for me since I believe I can do more good by just donating to aid organizations anyway.

If you do want to donate directly to a palestinian's crowdfunding campaign, I would suggest looking into Operation Olive Branch or Gaza Funds. I can't exactly vouch for either vetting process either, but it's a safe bet each has more resources to vet than random tumblr blogs do, and I'm not aware of any funds that are extremely likely to be scams on their lists.

Also, counter-intuitive as it may be, find a fund that is near completion to donate to.

1: This is actually an irritation of mine. People will get really upset about blank blogs following them, accusing them of being bots. Blank blogs aren't bots: the point of a bot is to generate links for people to click on and follow. They're there for SEO spam and brute forcing engagement through volume. A blank blog doesn't do that. The blank blogs are just lurkers, which is fine. Let them be while they get comfortable and they'll start posting and putting up a real bio/blog header when they feel like it.

[ggren-mainz]

Umineko - question arcs playthrough -> ep 1 - 7

last part - All parts and episodes - next part

If i continue like this i might en up needing to make a master list with all the links, cause apparently there's a limit to how many links and photos you can have in one post. Oh well, an issue for future me.

The witch! It's the witch! They're real and very witchy!! Death to non-believers!!

Ok but a non-witch theory, hmm it wouldn't be impossible for someone to fake all of these, at least for now it's pretty simple. And the butterflies could be just a trick of light. But eh, it's more fun to think that witches exist now, isn't it?

Betting on them discovering a body or something like that.

Dead dead DEAD D E A D.

The perfect stuck together with a body mystery, am I right? Can't get out of the island, no contact with the outside. Reminds me of that one Agatha Christie play (and i do know this is a very common theme in her works but this is the one i saw) The Mousetrap. Very fun.

Hell yeah, erasing the evidence. Gonna help the mystery for sure.

oooh la la, 2 with one stone, not like i am complaining! But unfortunately i do know that he will live so yeah. All else i know is that George, Jessica, Kanon and Sayo live at least until answers arc, Rosa at least until ch2 where she pulls out a gun(????) and Beatrice and Battler the entire game. yeah, that's kind of it.

ok wait a second let's think. This makes...5 people.

... so prob someone else is also missing which would make 6. Huh so this is...the start of the witch's epitath huh. And i assume the two who are close are Sayo and George. We also know at least 5 people will be left alive after the 3rd night. Interesting.

Natsuhi Entered Kinzo's study and he basically said she's an Ushiromya in her heart, and he's so right. She does everything for this damned family, while the siblings all try to tear it apart. You might be insane and probably evil Kinzo, but this one was right. Even a broken clock is right twice a day or something.

Still waiting for the toxic yuri + hate sex between these two. Bet it exists.

yep, knew it. Well there goes the 6th one. Now as I have mentioned, i know they aren't dead but i am curious over where they are and what will happen to them

wait huh did they find their bodies?? one body? someone's body, or at least someone gravely hurt??

I was about to say that I hope Maria doesn't join them. Good cause i doubt it will be a pleasant sight.

Ooook.... I don't know if i should say i expected this or not. Like on one hand i did, on another i didn't. So they'll come back but...how? I am sure they will, at least some of them but again...how??? Love Jessica's voice acting tho.

Back with the bold text, and yeaa... yea. Poor battler, i genuinely feel so bad for him. And i wonder how Maria will react, thank god she didn't come.

Also thought, but was Natsuhi supposed to be one of the victims, but because of the charm she was saved? And mayhap Gohda was taken instead of her? Just an idea. Also the tips represent how much their faces were fucked up, good to know. And also probably where they were originally stabbed, looking at the other red dots. Quite small tho...

Gosh this is so depressing... Poor George, poor Jessica, poor Battler, poor Maria POOR EVERYONE.

THAT'S THE KEY! The key that chose them! I think at least, because it seems like a pretty unimportant detail to press so much on, and especially draw like this.

So basically after this Kumasawa comes and cries about blood in the dining room, and after a bit of investigation they conclude that that must be the crime scene. They all leave with a bitter taste in their mouth. And after that the most unexpected thing happens (sarcastic)

yeppp....no one expected this.

I wonder if the typhoon will last longer, as for all of the days said in the epitaph to happen. I mean it would be a bit anticlimactic if the police just arrived and they're all escorted.

Anyways just realized i talked a lot here and i should've probably cut it up at the end of last chapter ooopsss. See you next post ;P

next part

[kanvasal]

I'm going to be discussing some of the sources that this guy has, so here is where I'm getting them from. This is from the description of his video https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DEzpr5TsV36_RulfcK0tL_FPb05j5cdfGDhYObwwGNQ/edit "Testosterone makes you more successful at trading on the stock market"

I am literally laughing at this. They are claiming that testosterone makes you better at this thing that is known for being incredibly unpredictable

There is a Michael Reeves video that perfectly shows this, as his fish makes better financial choices on the stock market than wall street bets. Idk if that's actually good, but I assume that these 'wall street bets' people are meant to be good

And don't forget the sample size. From the source that this dude uses "To find out, Coates and his Cambridge colleague Joe Herbert followed 17 male traders for 8 consecutive business days at a firm in London" and "In 14 out of the 17 cases, the traders earned more money on days they had elevated morning levels of the hormone"

So they tracked 17 people, for 8 days. Idk, doesn't seem that legit to me. I'm trying to watch this and give it a chance, but considering that this is one of the first sources that they use, I don't have much hope. I do however have hope that it will be just really funny to watch

Next point, "Testosterone makes you more attractive". I can understand what they're saying, the typical attractive man has a masculine face, which I imagine has a correlation to higher levels of testosterone. Nothing to add

"Testosterone makes you happier"

See, this is a different thing. I am not a proper researcher, I am random internet idiot, but I can see that the study that they linked doesn't seem to be relevant. In the study, they track the mood of hypogonadal men (the movie calls them men with low testosterone) with and without T replacements. The movie however, seems like it's going in the direction of "all men today should have more testosterone". I would also like to add that the supposed benefits of testosterone on these men seems oddly similar to mood benefits I've heard of from hrt (this is from memory, I can't remember the effects exactly and can't be bothered researching. Quite a common theme with me)

"Testosterone makes you more successful"

The source that he links says that "...implicit power motivation, is positively related to baseline testosterone levels...". So, increased testosterone makes people want power and dominance. Not exactly success, considering that 'success' is a subjective thing in of itself. He does link it to another source "The Winner Effect: Why Alpha Males (And Mice) Keep On Winning" which has a title that physically pains me

"Testosterone makes you a better person"

They link to a thing that makes connections between testosterone and altruism, using soccer fans as test subjects. They talk about how higher levels of testosterone increased ingroup cooperation, and more outgroup hostility. Being kind only to 'your group' doesn't make you a good person

Apparently testosterone also makes you lie less. Study looked alright to me, I only read the abstract tho

I'm watching this moviementry called "The War on Masculinity: Reloaded". It's obviously taking inspiration from The Matrix, and so I'm just laughing at this hyper masculine movie about "How Men's Hormones Are Being Altered" (from the title) is inspired, in part, by the work of trans women (who I believe intentionally altered their hormones, and would probably support it even if they don't do it themselves. Can't be bothered doing proper research and doesn't really matter)

Some of first scenes in the movie show a dude getting broken up with because his girlfriend doesn't love him, despite how much effort he puts into the relationship (oh he deserves her doesn't he!!), before a dude (Morpheus) appears out of thin air and teleports him to a cafe using a camera. Then they do the red pill blue pill thing, but with sd cards, make a meta joke about ripping off the matrix, and then do a dramatic title sequence with text. I'm probably going to keep posting about this as I watch this, but just wanted to point out that these people put Lorem ipsum into their finished product

Idk if you're really supposed to do that, but I thought that it was mostly used as a temporary filler text, not intended to be left in for a finished product. It was obviously not meant to be read, as right after this the blacked out text changes to this

THE FALL OF TESTOSTERONE

ANTI-MASCULINITY AGENDA

They also keep refering to it as if this is some suppressed truth, as you can see by the classified looking documents (wouldn't want lorem ipsum getting into the wrong hands now would we?)

[serial-doubters-club]

InuSan or SessSan and why? Go!

I was not prepared for this one! 🤣🤣🤣

SessSan all the way! But I can't deny that InuSan doesn't make me go 👀👀👀.

InuKag is way too precious to me, and most of the time I find it hard to ship Inuyasha and Kagome with anyone else but each other. But if I had to ship Inuyasha with anyone else besides Kagome it would indeed be Sango. They could easily bond over their passion for fighting and combat, and I can see them spending long hours training together. Throughout the series they formed a strong friendship, and who knows, during the heat of fighting practice, I could envision a little somethin' somethin' going on between those two. I may have a little headcanon going on that Sango had a crush on Inuyasha throughout the story, and had Kagome not returned to the Feudal Era, they would have grown closer and eventually fallen in love. I offer you this link of an InuSan moment/comic I found a looong time ago that sparked my interest in InuSan. FYI, It does depict Inuyasha and Sango having a moment while they're already with Kagome and Miroku, respectively. Just giving a heads up in case that situation makes anyone uncomfortable. Also, my brother was working on translating the comic for me. He forgot, but this was my reminder to remind him to finish it.

I definitely prefer SessSan, though. Even though Sesshomaru isn't at the top of my favorite characters list, I have so much fun shipping him with everyone looool, especially Sango. Iirc, it was a fanart of the pair that sparked my interest in them. They just look so good together! But as I started formulating headcanons for how their interest in each other and their relationship would start, I realized that they have one very important thing in common - Kohaku. At one point Sesshomaru spared Kohaku's life and later in the story Sesshomaru becomes his protector. I like to headcanon that in seeking out her brother time and time again to try to reestablish their connection and help Kohaku regain his memories and heal from his trauma, Sango would inevitably run into Sesshomaru time and time again. Sorry, a lot of this is just headcanon, so I apologize for the rambling, but this pair just gets me so excited! I imagine that Sango would visit Kohaku regularly, and with time Sango would gain Sesshomaru's trust, respect, and admiration.

We all know that Sesshomaru is worse than scum for everything he did to Inuyasha, but I think that in watching Sango go above and beyond to save Kohaku and help him heal, while also seeing how strong, powerful, brave, and optimistic Sango is in the face of all of the tragedy she's experienced, Sesshomaru would at least witness how powerful a sibling bond can be and that might move something inside of him. I'm notorious, at least in my own eyes lol, for attributing emotions to Sesshomaru that seem unrealistic for him to develop (but I believe, dammit), but I sincerely think that Sango and Kohaku's relationship might move him to at least recognize that he was cruel to Inuyasha and maybe (strong strong strong emphasis on "maybe") even ask him for forgiveness. I don't imagine them ever being as close as Sango and Kohaku, but I think there is a possibility that they could grow to tolerate each other better and even become allies.

Also, what's not to freakin' love about Sango??? She's strong. She's smart. She's profound. She's beautiful. She's a QUEEN BAMF. I also enjoy the headcanon that when Sango first encounters Sesshomaru in her attempt to make contact with Kohaku, she kicks his ass and hands it to him. This boy would fall head over heels for her, and I have already made plans to have my funeral on this hill.

In conclusion, Sango and Sesshomaru would make a badass couple. There's emotion, passion, romance, tenderness, angst, conflict, tension, and drama in that story and you bet your bottom I am on the case and have SessSan fics in the works to address it all. Cause I mean, what about Miroku, amIright? And Sango's a demon slayer while Sess is a demon *eyebrow wag*. THE POTENTIAL ANGST AND INTERNAL CONFLICT IS DELICIOUS.

So, yeah, if I had to choose, I'd choose SessSan.

I love you for sending me this question @sassybratt9791! Thank for the ask! <3 <3 <3

[penwieldingdreamer]

Dante's Prayer - Chapter 2

Another chapter for you guys, thank you so much for the likes and reblogs. Thanks to @fortheloveoffanfic for betaing again. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Warnings: none

Words: 1582

Chapter 2

Amalie sat next to the vanity, watching the maid style her sister's hair. She had seen Mister Shelby, accompanied by his brother and Johnny Dogs, a friend of the family, and could already find the truth in the rumors spread about him. His eyes as cold and deep as the Atlantic in Winter and not even his smile could give them warmth. "Are you excited for the ball? Mother went all out, even a few cousins from Austria came to attend, móraí can't wait to meet the Shelbys."

"Do I really have to go? You know I hate balls and dancing." Saoirse whined, grunting as Doris pulled a curl too hard before she answered instead of the sister.

"Your mother wants you to meet your husband, miss, it won't do you good if you don't attend. Besides, I heard Mister Shelby is very handsome."

Snorting, the youngest of three heavily leaned her head on her hand, not sure what to think about all that swooning the two women were doing. "If you like him so much, why don't you marry him, Doris. I bet he wouldn't mind as long as he's had someone to warm his bed and take care of things he doesn't want to do."

"Now don't be that way, little sister." Amalie admonished, taking the pearl necklace their grandmother had given to Saoirse on her eighteenth birthday. "Who said anything about you warming his bed? That's what mistresses are for."

The comment was supposed to be in jest, yet it stirred doubt in the youngest daughter's heart. What if her husband would take another to bed? She despised the fact that she'd have to marry Mister Shelby, but she'd hate it even more would he take a mistress. Nothing was a worse fate in her mind than to shrivel away in a loveless marriage where both partners would do no more than sit across from each other and never utter a word.

"I do hope you were only joking, my dear." their mother's voice sounded sternly from the door to Saoirse's room. Her blonde tresses were swept back into soft finger waves framing her face and the small tiara their father gifted her, pinned to the top of her head. "The guests are waiting and you still aren't dressed for the ball."

Sighing, Helene motioned for Doris to fetch Saoirse's dress, while the lady of the house finished her hair and laid the pearl necklace around her neck. "Everything will be going smoothly and you'll see, you'll have something in common by the end of the night."

"What? That we both are forced to marry each other?" The youngest daughter turned to face her mother, feeling the anger rise again underneath her skin.

"You know your father and I are only looking out for you." Helene tried to reason with her daughter, her delicate hands tightly holding onto her shoulders. "I want you to be safe and if I have to marry you off to a man who can ensure that, then I will."

Clasping her own hand around her mother's, Saoirse let out a soft sigh. "I know, I'm sorry. The thought of having to live with a man I don't know and who doesn't know me made me anxious, I didn't want to upset you, mother."

Their eyes met in the mirror and even Amalie smiled at her mother and sister. Helene leaned down and laid a soft kiss on Saoirse's rose colored cheek. "You'll always have a home here, you know that. If Mister Shelby dares to only once lay a hand on you, I will have Johnny bring you back here and he will wish to have never been born."

"Thank you, mother." the youngest of three squeezed the hand on her shoulder, giving it a light kiss on the slightly wrinkled yet still soft skin.

"You're welcome, luv, but now get dressed before the guests think you ran away." Winking at her two daughters, the lady of the house left the room.

Amalie grinned at her sister, leaning back on her seat next to the vanity. "Well, I do hope that Mister Shelby will behave, it would be a shame to see his handsome face get scarred."

"I wouldn't know." Saoirse shrugged with a smile playing on her lips as she changed into her dress, the red silk and taffeta fabrics only slightly framing her body, keeping most of her curves hidden but giving the eye enough to be interested. "I haven't looked at the picture mother gave me. I didn't want to know the man that might ruin my life and freedom."

With a shake of her head, the oldest of three stood from her seat and helped her sister with the buttons on the back of her dress while Doris busied herself with taking the shift from the chair and cleaning up the slight mess around the room. “Well, little sister, you’re definitely missing out.”

"Miss, may I present the Shelby family from Birmingham." the butler told Saoirse, giving her a little bow as she saw the two men staring at her, no smile on their lips. Just their hard, cold eyes, as blue as the stormy Atlantic sea.

Snorting, Saoirse sent her a grin and they left her room with their arms linked, their heels clicking on the marble floor as they made their way to the ballroom of the estate.

Swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat, she moved forward with her hand held out in greeting, all the while feeling the scrutinizing gaze of the older woman behind them on herself. "Mister Shelby, it is a pleasure to meet you. I do hope that I will fit your expectations, considering we are to be we'd in a few weeks from now."

Snorting sounded from beside her and Saoirse wasn't sure if she had said something false. The Shelby brother in front of her gaped at her, mouth opening and closing, like a fish out of water and his eyes wide eyed and filled with uncertainty. "I do not believe this is a laughing matter, Mister Shelby, so please enlighten me."

"Forgive me, but it seems you 'aven't been informed well enough." he stated, a smirk playing along his lips, yet his eyes held no warmth, even with the mirth coloring his words. "It’s my brother Arthur you've been greetin' not me, Thomas, that you're supposed to marry."

She blushed the darkest shade of crimson as she remembered the conversation she had with her mother. It was the same day her parents had agreed to marry her off to Thomas Shelby and they had told her about the man, but stubborn as she was, Saoirse had run away, not wanting to see or hear anymore of the business man and gang leader from Birmingham. And now looking back at the smirking man, Saoirse felt the anger boil in the pit of her stomach. How dare he mock her for that honest mistake? If this was the way her married life with him was going to be, she'd stop it right there. If only she could slap that smirk from his face, granting her satisfaction for being the prick of a businessman that he was.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, Mister Thomas Shelby, there are other guests I have to greet." she ground out between clenched teeth and left the three Shelbys in the ballroom, Polly glaring daggers at her nephew. On the way out she ran into Niamh, one of their maids, hurrying out of sight with a haunted look. "Are you alright?"

"I'm so sorry, Miss," she mumbled hastily looking over Saoirse's left shoulder to where the Shelbys were still rooted to the spot but Arthur was watching the redhead closely, his eyes furrowed in confusion. "I-I forgot something, yes, something in the kitchen."

Taking a hold of her arm, the younger woman led the maid away from the party, the eldest Shelby brother hot on their heels while Saoirse asked herself why she was afraid of the man. "Has he hurt you, Niamh? Taken you against your will?"

"Nothing of the sort, Miss." She shook her head, her red waves bouncing with the motion. "I was stupid and in love."

Furrowing her brows, the youngest daughter of the Duke stopped them both behind a corner. "Then why wouldn't you want to talk to him? It could be your chance."

Niamh's eyes glazed over with unshed tears, thinking back to the day he said his vows and sealed it with a kiss. "It's too late for that. I wanted so badly to tell him that" but she broke off, shaking her head.

"What? That you love him?" Saoirse inquired, putting her hand on the maids arm, hoping to get a real answer out of her.

"No, at least not just that." she started, brushing away a stray tear that had escaped. "I wanted to tell him that I was with child, but he married another. Arthur is Jack's father." The little boy had been coming to the stables often enough, trailing after Owen who took care of the horses.

"What?!" the deep timbre of a voice pulled them out of their conversation and both women turned to look at the man that had caught up to them, blue eyes blazing like the stormy sea as he strode towards Niamh.

Arthur Shelby had been a father long before Linda told him about the child growing in her belly.

tagging:

@fortheloveoffanfic @fics-not-tragedies

[shyrose57]

Brothers anon back again after like a week, sorry about that. But as a sorry I worked out a bit more with the Great SMP town! Also idk if you know but the Brothers au link is broken on your pinned post, I tried using it to skip to the questions I had yet to answer and it didn't work. 

1: The idols people could choose from where Technoblade, Sapnap, George, Ranboo, Bad, Fundy, Karl, Phil, Tommy, Tubbo, Sam, Wilbur, and Eret. People who choose Technoblade or Sam often become the guards of Mizu and those who keep laws inforced. The difference between following Technoblade or Sam is, for Technoblade you focus purely on fighting and less about laws, you also learn more about history. While for Sam you focus much more on laws and even restraining and helping people (If its confusing think of Sam followers as the police and Technoblade followers as SWAT). Technoblade followers are also sometimes called to provide protection during resource gathering missions. For Karl you tend to learn story tellings and study writings, Karl followers are also the main librarians and take care of books and preserve them. Sapnap and Phil followers are the people who go on supply missions or runs, though for Phil you learn how to address wounds and further study most things. While for Sapnap you further study monsters and their weaknesses, along side where they most commonly spawn. George followers tend to study architecture and tend to be the architectures of Mizu, designing new sections of the city and planning out where stuff goes, their also the people who handle stuff like ventilation and supply of water and checking damages on almost anything. Eret followers study history like many other idol followers, but unlike the others they focus solely on history and laws, they tend to be the leaders of Mizu and the ones who organize basically everything. Bad followers study and learn psychology and reward and consequences situations, while Eret followers make the decisions, Bad followers are also great helps and a very important part of what's basically The Council, as they study and guage how actions will affect the city and provide their input. Wilbur followers of course learn entertainment, like they learn how to play instruments, how to write and play in plays, some even make games! Tommy and Tubbo aren't actually common idols, their referred to as "Mix" idols most of the time, as the people who pick them typically have a wide range of skills and interests that just don't fit in any other idols. So Tommy and Tubbo followers really just go through a college type thing, where they learn a wider range of things than any other idol follower, those followers tend to pick up basically whatever job they want. Tubbo differs slightly though as Tubbo followers can focus a little bit more in a certain field than Tommy followers, which can allow Tubbo followers to often be picked or asked for help for things like building, or recording history, though they CANT be used to help Technoblade or Sam followers, and can't be chosen to go on supply runs or missions. Than Ranboo followers are similar to Karl's, in which they are the librarians and study writings, but they are also the main recorders of history and are tasked with writing down what happens every single day. 

These are the things some idols share, Technoblade, Phil, Sapnap, Sam, and Eret followers all study weapon and armour formations and how to make them. All idol followers learn at least some history of what their learning and their own idols. Bad and Phil followers tend to be the doctors in Mizu. And every idol has one representative in The Council.

2: Its how he shows that theres no hard feelings against the other person, and that he has already completely forgiven the other person. He continues to gently prank the other person until the person either also says that they forgave Grievous or that they show their comfortable around him again. Jackie and Cletus found the situation incredibly funny and laughed hard when it first happened. Watson just kinda watched it all play out with his amused father face but also was ready to step in if it seemed like Grievous went to far. 

3: Benjamin has a lot of life experience in stressful situations, which allows him to relay on pass experiences in a great multitude of situations. And he's just a very calm person. So he's able to just handle the situations better than anyone else. 

8: It was Jackie's birthday when Levi gave him alcohol, Jackie was tired and Levi gave him it, telling him it would keep him awake and make it easier to talk with everyone. Jackie did drink it and got a bit tispy before Watson figured out what happened and stole it away from Jackie, then going and hitting Levi. 

Almost everything from the SMP was lost due to time and weather, the buildings still remain, although crumbling and ruined and many things are missing from them, but a few things (like weapons, books (although heavily weather worn), discs) did survive and are somewhere in the world. The town in the Greater SMP does have 2 weapons, Orphan Obliterator, and Dreams Nightmare sword, and have the original copy of Ranboos memory book. People knew it was there at first, many visited and a few attempted to even preserve everything, but over time, other stuff happened. New kingdoms popped up, with quite a few claiming that the history of the SMP was just made up, a cleverly devised story and since at this time its been a decade or two since the SMP fell, and people just aren't as into it or studied the history as much, they believed them. So people stopped visiting, and everything fell into ruin. Only the town in the SMP grounds still believe and study the SMP, but their often called the idiots of the world for what they do. 

Jackie gets hurt after he jumps about and accidentally steps on a magma block, Charles gets distracted by worrying over Grievous after he got shot that he isn't paying attention and almost falls into a lava pool before Ran saves him, and Cletus gets to cocky and gets hit by a wither skeleton before Watson has to come in and save him. By the end everyone is whining and saying how they regret it as Ran tells them off for not following what he said and how he said they weren't ready. They find a bastion and fortress! They find the fortress first and Watson, Cletus, and Grievous go in to grab blaze rods after Watson basically freaks out about blaze rods and won't shut up about getting some for potions. And after Cletus gets hit by the skeleton they rush to a nearby bastion they saw to barter with the Piglins for the cure. But after they get it they stay behind and continue to trade as Watson teaches them about Piglins. 

10: I'm thinking of adding maybe mind control or hallucinations to the battle. With Ranbob being so close to Dream again, and even though he'd tried so hard to break Dreams control in him, Dream is still able to control Ranbob to some degree. Causing him to have hallucinations during battle of him killing his family again and Ran trying to kill him. While for Ran, Dream manipulates him, trying to get him to believe that this all is still Ranbobs fault, and how Ranbob doesnt care about him or anyone, and only cares for himself. Basically he's trying his last ditch attempt to separate the two so he can get his puppet back, and get rid of a annoying nat (in his opinion) in the process. 

13: A lot of people know of him being the General actually. But it only matters to people who actually fight in the Pit, as again its merely a fighting title. Not many people have been able to beat him, only 2 have actually been able to bet him and win whatever the prize was when they competed, but those people also choose to not take the general title. But they've said it was very hard to beat Jackie with his speed and him being able to do whatever he wants basically. Jackie, Ran, and Watson are all at some part on par, they share similar fighting moves and tatics which are obviously shared in battle. But other than a few shared tatics, their not considered on par at all. They do! The Corporal fights first, Sergeants go next, then the General. 

14: A few times Ranbob tried to break off from the group and head back to Mizu, but every time someone caught him, weither it be Charles or Cletus or even Jackie, and were able to bring him back home. Talking to him and talking him through the whisper episode, keeping him calm and in charge of his mind.

Nice to have you back, Brothers Anon! I tested the link, and it worked fine, so I think it might’ve been one time, but I went ahead and re-linked it, so I hope it works for you now.

1: Honestly sounds cool. I call studying Karl! With all the different builders, Mizu sounds like a beautiful place. What would you say some of it looks like? Any special areas? And also, the Council? What’s that? I assume they’re the leaders, but is that all they do? Do they make decisions over everything, or are they divided for certain areas, like farming and education? Does every idol have a representative, or are their multiple under one for the Council?

2: Aww. That’s actually kind of sweet. Grievous gently pranks people to show affection. I like that, anon, I really do.

3: What kind of situations?

8: Levi! You should be ashamed of yourself! Bad person, bad!

That’s really interesting, actually. Was there a reason people claimed it was just made up, or did it just happen? Also, do any of the gang realize Nightmare is Dream’s sword? Does Dream try to get one of them to bring it back?

And SMP town isn’t believed? Were they never in contact with Mizu?

Honestly, all those injuries were about what I expected. Charles was worrying over Grievous? Just general concern, or have they forged a friendship? How’s Ranbob faring with the whole ‘two of my idiots just about died’ thing? He strikes me as a worrier. 

Do they have fun, at least once it’s all over? What kind of potions do they up and brew? Do they just sit down and experiment with all their supplies for a bit, and see what happens? Does Ran commandeer it all?

10: Oof. That’s gonna hurt. If Dream has that power, why didn’t he use it before, to force to fishermen to give Ranbob back? Did they have some sort of protection against it? Does it only work for certain people? Also, if I may ask, why is Dream so vested in Ranbob? Surely he could get another puppet, eventually? Is there a particular reason, or is it more of a ‘I worked way too hard on this one to give it up now’ kind of thing? Is Ran the nat? If so, what’s his opinion of all the others? 

13: Huh. So Jackie’s pretty strong, then. In what way are they not considered on par? Is one considered stronger than the other? Faster? Is Jackie considered stronger than them aside from shared tactics, or is it the other way around? Also, can there only be one Corporal and two Sergeants, or is it simply because those were the only ones to catch Porkius’ eyes.

14: Oh, so this happened during the road trip? Jackie even got involved? How did the gladiators react to Ranbob trying to bolt for Mizu randomly? How far has Ranbob gotten? Was it ever far enough to seriously concern the fishermen? Does bringing him back ever get physical an evolve into a fight, or does he usually stay pretty docile during it?

[santaclausdeadindian]

Sorry for doing it this way, I think OP deleted their post or blocked me like a mature, balanced person would, so I have to tag you in

@mr-laugh

Oh boy, lot to unpack here.

So you didn’t even know there were that many subgenres of fantasy, one of the most popular classifications of fiction on the planet... And you think you know enough to tell ANYBODY what classic fantasy is?

And where exactly I attempted to do that, huh?

If you don’t even know the most common subgenres of this vast pool of fiction, why are you jumping into this discussion? You just admitted you don’t know anything!

There is no discussion, there is a stupid ass post. Don't flatter yourself, you don't know jack shit.

Me not knowing what exactly are the precize subgenres of a genre of literature, which, btw, are completely arbitrary and for your information, sword&magic is a legitimate category, has absolutely nothing to do with what that post you were so keen on agreeing with above. It was you who said pretty much any classic fantasy is like that: some poorly written, self-indulgent and borderline racist.

Did ya read the link, buddy? Howard talked about knowing what burning black man smelled like. He was quite approving of these things! And the books are pretty racist, it’s not hard to see, unless you ain’t looking.

Yes, I started reading and by the end of the first paragraph I was convinced he was ahorribly racist man. And? Still doesn't change the fact, that for my 12 year old self, there was nothing racist about it. I definetly wasn't looking for it, that much you got right. If I'd read it again, I'm sure I'd catch on to it now, that I know what kind of asshole he was. So the implied racism would be there. You got a point for that.

Rugged individualism? It always amuses me how that argument always pops out of the mouths of guys who are aping what they’ve heard their buddies say. If ten thousand mouths shout “rugged individualism”, how individualistic are they?

Then you should amuse yourself by looking up why this thing crops up as of late. It's coming from certain, supremely racist yet unaware of it publications that claim ridiculous shit like "rugged individualism" is a hallmark of white supremacy, among other, equally laughable things, like punctuality. It's a joke.

Again, I will give Howard to you, if someone that racist writes a black man saving the hero of the story, I bet there was something else still there to make it wrong.

Conan’s not some avatar of rugged individualism.

Uhm, yeah, he pretty much all that.

He’s as unreal and unrealistic as the dragons are,

It's called fantasy for a reason, buddy.

but more dangerous because White Men model their ideas of reality on Big Man Heroes like him;

Glad you are totally not racist, yo!!! It's such a relief that White Men are the only ones with this terrible behavior of looking up to larger than life, mythic superpeople and nobody else. Imagine what it would be like, if we would have some asshole from say, hindu indian literature massacering demons called Rakshassas, by the tens of thousands, or some bullshit japanese warlord would snatch out arrows from the air, or a chienese bodyguard would mow down hundreds of barbaric huns without dropping a sweat, or some middle eastern hero would fight literal gods and their magical beasts in some quest for eternal life.

it's a poison that weakens us, distracting us from actually trying to solve the world’s issues, or banding together to deal with shit.

This is what you just said. It's up to the white man, to get their shit together, be not racist and solve the world's problems, because those poor other people's just can't do it. If we would just not be oh, so racist, then China would surely stop with the genocides they are doing now, or blowing more than half the greenhouse emissions into the athmosphere, the muslims would stop throwing their gays from rooftops or ramming trucks into crowds and would just start treating women as equals, India's massive rape problem would be gone, subsaharan African would be magically bereft of the host of atrocities committed there on a daily, yeah, you sure have that nonracism down, buddy!

A rugged individualist would be smart enough to realize that even the most individualistic person needs others; no man’s an island, and a loner is easier to kill.

Individualism doesn't mean at all what you think it means, it's a cluster of widely differeing philosophies that puts the individual ahead of the group or state, it's ranging from anarchism to liberalism and is also has nothing to do with my point.

Central Europe?  What, Germany?  Because let me tell you, historically they are SUPER concerned about race!

Germany traditionally considered western european, central europe would be the people stuck between them and the russians, to put it very loosely. We are equally nonplussed by the self-flagellating white guilt complex and the woe me victim complex of the west. We did none of the shit those meanie white people did to the nonwhites and suffered everyting any poc ever did and then some. We don't give a shit about your color, we care about what culture you are from and if you respect our values.

I’m an American from a former Confederate state; trust me, race is everything.  It always is.

No it really isn't. How old are you? Asking without condescension, genuinly curious, because if you are in your low twenties at most, it's understandable why you think like this.

See that hike? Do you know what happened at that time that made virtually all american media suddenly go all in with racism?

Occupy Wall Street, that's what. It's a brilliant way to sow victimhood and hate and desperation amongst the people who have one common enemy, the powers that be, the banking sector, the politicians, the megacorporations.

Can't really blame you if you are in your early 20's at most, you grew up with this bullshit hammered into you. If you are older, step out of your echochamber please!

If you actually believe, that mankind doesn't progress naturally towards a more accepting society purely on the merit of there being more good people than bad and sharing a similar living with all the hardships in life, seeing that our prejudices inherited by our parents are baseless, that's how we progress, not virtue signalling courses and regressive policies. I was raised as any other kid, I had a deep resentment towards the neighbouring nations, I said vile, racist shit against people who I actually share a lot of genes with, of which fact I was in deep denial about, and then as I gradually got exposed more and more actual people of these groups, I started to realize I was wrong and everybody should be judged by their individual merits. It works throughout the generations, my grandma was thought songs about Hitler and how all jews are evil in school, she legit thought all black people at least in Africa are cannibals and shit, my mother stillsays shit that would get her cancelled in the USA, and I will probably have a mixed race kid as we stand now.

This whole racism is an eternal problem is laughable and disingenuous and I am actually sorry for you that you feel like that.

Moving on. As for Dany, the “noble white girl sold to scary dark foreign man” is a very popular trope, especially in exploitation films, which Martin draws on much more heavily than most authors do.

No, he fucking doesn't. I already wrote a bunch of examples from the books you seeminly ignore willfully. First of all, she is sold to those olive skinned savages by a white man, who is a terrible, increadibly evil man. He want's to fuck the then 11-12 ish Dany so bad, she picks his slave most resembling her and rapes her repeatedly, "until the madness pass." He also maimes children and traines them as disposable slave spies by the hundreds. There is no boundaries colour here, GRRM prtrays all kinds of people as reprehensible, evil and disgusting. Just like you can find plenty of examples to the opposite.

What is he drawing from your exploitation movies exactly? He writes about the human anture, he writes about the human heart at war with itself, that's his central philosophy of writing.

ASOFAI is basically just a porn movie with complicated feudal politics obscuring it, which is probably why it worked so well as an HBO series (up until the last two seasons or so.)

There is no gratuitous sex scene in the books, the rapes are described as rapes, they are horrible, they are very shortly described and usually just alluded to.

The people commiting them are not put into generous lights and one of the single most harrowing stories hidden behind the grand happenings of the plot is a girl named Jeyne Poole, whose suffering although never shown, is very much pointed out, along with the hypocrisy of the people who only fight to try and save her, because they think her a different person.

Honestly, if you actually read the books and they came of to you as porn, you might want to do some soulsearching.Btw, the HBO series was a terrible adaptation, it immedietly started to go further and further from the books with every passing season and the showmakers made it very clear to everybody, that they didn't understand the very much pacifist and humanist themes of Martin. And neither did you.

We also get no indication Essos will eat it when Winter comes; hell, they seem to not know Winter exists, given the way people act, even though that is also unrealistic and weird.  Essos was just super badly designed, and Dany is a terribly boring character.

to be continued

[eryiss]

Fraxus Week 2020: Day 4 - Drunk

Summary: After a crappy post-college first year, Laxus jumped at the opportunity to leave town for a week for a road trip with his friends. He intended it just to be a week away with his friends, but when he meets an unfamiliar stranger, the vacation turns into something much more. [Fraxus Multichapter]

This is the fourth part of my Fraxus Week admissions, hosted by @fuckyeahfraxus​. This year I’ve made the prompts into a single multi-chapter fic. You can see all the chapters in the Masterpost linked below. Hope you enjoy.

You can read this on Fanfiction, Archive of our Own, and under the cut. Read the other chapters from this masterlist.

Chapter Four – Out of the Rain

The contrast between the two days was ridiculous.

Laxus almost couldn't believe that it had been a day since he was lounging in the hot summer sun, whereas now he was narrowing his eyes as he drove the RV through the onslaught of rain. The storm had come from nowhere and according to the weather forecast, it would be sticking around for the rest of the night. The clouds were thick and covering the stars, meaning it was almost pitch black on the empty roads.

Unlike the day before, everyone was still awake as evening turned to night. They had spent the entire day driving, trying to catch up for the time they'd used at the water park. Bickslow had driven through the morning and early afternoon, and then had switched with Laxus.

At that moment, Laxus was fighting off sleep. They needed to find somewhere to park soon.

Not that they'd have a good night's sleep, though. The sound of rain battering down on the RV echoed loudly, and Laxus knew that it would sway and creak in the wind. It would be safe, but not anywhere near easy to sleep in. All he could do was hope that the forecast was wrong, and that the storm would end a lot quicker than they had stated.

He also hoped that he didn't fall asleep at the wheel.

"We have some money left over from renting the van, don't we?" Evergreen asked Bickslow, looking up from her phone.

"Yeah, a little over a hundred dollars. Why?" Bickslow asked, yawning into the thermos of coffee he was drinking.

"Well, there's nowhere close that'll let us park up and stay in the truck," Evergreen said, and Laxus cussed under his breath. "But there is a motel at the next rest stop. We should be able to get two double rooms with that."

"Sounds good," Laxus nodded. "Nobody's got a problem with that?"

When everyone agreed it was the best use of their spare money, Laxus got the directions from Evergreen and started to drive towards the motel. It was clearly a good choice, as soon after they made it lightning and thunder started splitting apart the sky, with even heavier rain following it. With his tired state, Laxus knew that it was best to get off the roads as soon as they could. It was certainly the safest thing to do.

Eventually they pulled off the highway and followed the illuminated signs to the motel. It was a nice enough looking place, which probably was a lot more welcoming in the day and when it wasn't a storm. It would certainly better than staying in the RV though the night.

Bickslow, who still had the money saved for the RV in his account, was the one who went to the reception. It took him a short while, but he eventually returned to them all with two keys from two double rooms, soaking wet with the water dripping off him. As he dried himself off with a beach towel they had brought yesterday, he claimed that he wished to share a room with Evergreen for the night.

"Why, exactly?" Freed asked, packing the clothes he would need for the night into a bag.

"Because I've had sleepovers with the two of you and you're both really boring," Bickslow claimed. "Evergreen lets me paint her nails and we gossip. You two just like sleeping."

Laxus was almost certain that it wasn't the real reason as to why he wanted to share his room with Evergreen. Given that both of them knew that Laxus had developed a crush on Freed, it seemed likely that this was some way for them to torture him by making him sleep in a room with him and nobody else. If the room they shared only had one bed, he was going to kill the bastard.

"It is appalling how we want to sleep at a sleepover," Freed commented, and Laxus sniggered.

"And that's the kind of boring attitude that makes me and Evergreen the best friends and you two the boring people on the side-lines," Bickslow grinned as he tossed a room key towards Freed, who managed to catch them without difficulty. It was an annoyingly attractive feat. "Room 203. Top floor."

Apparently leaving no room for argument, Bickslow turned is back and started to pack an impromptu overnight bag. Laxus and Freed shared a glance before picking up their own bags. They opened the door to the RV and winced at the rain they needed to walk to.

Despite the fact it had taken less than a minute to get under the protection of the building's veranda, both men had been drenched by the heavy rain. They quickly found their room and unlocked it, and Laxus let out a small breath when he realised that there were indeed two beds waiting for them. It was a nice enough room, with a small kitchenette – if a coffee machine, mini fridge, sink and microwave could be considered that – and a large enough TV mounted onto the wall. The large beds were rather appealing, given how Laxus had been curled up as he slept since they'd left Magnolia.

"It's better than I thought it'd be," Laxus commented, placing his bag at the foot of the nearest bed. "Kinda nice actually."

"It is," Freed agreed, walking to the bathroom and looking into it. "And a shower that might actually fit you inside of it."

Laxus grinned, mainly at the teasing tone in Freed's voice, and glanced into the bathroom to see that there was indeed a large shower. He reached over Freed and picked up one of the towel's hanging up. He started to dry himself off as Freed shucked off his jacket.

"I think I might have a shower before I go to sleep," Freed commented. "I need to wash my hair, might as well do it now."

"Sure," Laxus nodded, then he chuckled. "I get what Bickslow meant when he said we're boring."

"So do I," Freed said thoughtfully. "It's quite annoying that we're proving him right, isn't it," He sighed, and Laxus couldn't help but smirk. Freed really was quite a competitive person; Laxus enjoyed seeing it. "Why don't we try and prove him wrong instead?"

"How d'you suppose we do that?" Laxus asked with furrowed brows. He expected Freed wouldn't want to prove Bickslow wrong in any way Laxus was thinking.

"Well, our judgemental friend payed for this on his card, and all charges from the room will be his to pay," Freed commented absently as he walked towards the small kitchenette, and opened one of the cupboards. "And this place has a rather well stocked mini bar."

Laxus grinned when Freed pulled out a bottle of tequila.

"Sounds like fun."

~~~

"Oh come on," Laxus proclaimed with a slight slur in his voice. "That's bullshit."

"I told you, she's vicious," Freed said with a tipsy laugh. "It's why she always wins her fights."

They had gotten drunk. Well, maybe not drunk. But they had passed tipsy.

After they'd taken shots of the tequila, something that Laxus hadn't done since he was in college, they had both finished bottle of high percentage beer each. That was when they had turned on the TV, looking for something to watch to put off sleeping. That was how they had gotten where they were: sitting side by side on Freed's bed, a bowl of hot nuts, chips, and chocolate between them, watching The Real Housewives of… somewhere.

"She threw a plate at the guys face," Laxus argued. "It's bullshit."

"It's what she's paid to do, be stupidly annoying and start fights with people. It was probably staged anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it," Freed argued, reaching into the bowl of food between them. His head snapped up when the woman on the screen threw a champagne glass at the man she was arguing with.

"Bet that hurt," Laxus said with a grin. He was winning this argument.

"You can't be sure," Freed said indignantly.

"I can throw a mug at your face and we can see if it hurts ya," Laxus threatened with a grin.

Apparently, the alcohol in Freed's body had made the false threat hilarious, as he let out a loud and boisterous laugh. Laxus joined in, watching the shorter man as he almost doubled over as he laughed, the handful of food dropping onto his bedsheets.

"How often do you watch this crap," Laxus asked with a grin.

"Ever makes me watch it. Every night we went to one of our dorms common areas and watched something. Ever got obsessed with it, and then got Bickslow into it too," Freed laughed, shifting himself so he was sitting up again. "I would have complained about it, but Bickslow used to make me watch awful kids' films, so this is better."

Again, Freed started to laugh, and Laxus found himself unable to resist the charm of it and joined in too.

That was how they spent quite a lot of the night, eating the snacks that Bickslow would be overcharged for while watching crappy reality TV. They got a little bit more sober as time went on, as the only thing left in the minibar was champagne and they weren't going to be so cruel as to make Bickslow pay for that as well.

Part way through the night, Laxus had taken note of how close they were to each other. Their sides were pushed together, shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh. In his drunken state, Freed also seemed to be just a little bit more physical. He gesticulated a lot more, and Laxus often found himself with the other man's hand on his shoulder when he was making a point. At one point, Freed had even grabbed Laxus' wrist to get his attention, and it sent a thrill through Laxus that set his blood on fire.

On their third episode of rich people fighting, Laxus found his gaze on the man beside him. He was watching the show with contentment, a tipsy smile on his face as he made comments about the people on screen. It was endearing, and Laxus was left with an equally happy smile.

His smile faltered when Freed's did.

For a second, Laxus had thought that the other man had noticed him looking and was uncomfortable with it. But he didn't move away and Laxus realised he was now almost glaring at the TV. Laxus looked towards it to see that they were on the 'next time' part of the show. One of the women was shouting at a man, and it took a moment for him to realise that she was accusing him of cheating.

"He cheated on me," Freed commented, with a smile that was most likely sad. "My ex, not the man on the screen."

"Oh," Laxus mumbled, not sure of what else to say. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Freed sighed, closing his eyes. "I shouldn't be sad about it; I don't understand why I am. I wasn't in love with him, I'm not even sure if I particularly liked him by the end of the relationship. I was actually going to leave him, for heaven's sake. So I shouldn't feel bad that he found someone else, but I do."

"Well," Laxus began again, not sober enough to think of anything eloquent to say. "He cheated on ya. It's a shitty thing to do. You get to be pissed off at that."

"I suppose so," Freed sighed, almost as if he was disappointed in himself. "What does annoy me is how it happened, though. I didn't walk in on him, or find out myself. He just told me," He laughed bitterly at that. "Just sat me down, said he was seeing someone else and that we weren't together. I didn't get to be a dick about it, really. I didn't yell, or really react at all. It just sort of ended, and then I came back home again."

"Should have punched the fucker," Laxus commented indignantly. "Sent him to the other guy with a black eye."

"It wouldn't have been productive," Freed waved the idea off, eyes still closed. "It's a tempting thought though, I must admit."

"You can punch me if you wanna. Get it out of yer system, y'know," Laxus suggested, and it was clear the booze in his blood had made him suggest that. Freed looked to him with a small smile.

"You're far too good a man to be compared to him," Freed commented.

Laxus blushed a little at the compliment, even if it wasn't much. He looked down at the man, who was watching the TV and clearly trying to act like he wasn't affected by what he had just said. But even drunk, Laxus could tell that the man had lost his easy posture and his hands were clenched at his sides. Laxus frowned at this, reached for the remote and muted the show they were watching. Freed frowned and looked up at him.

"I'm sorry the bastard cheated on ya," Laxus said with as much seriousness in his tone as he could show. "I know that you said you wanted to leave him, and that ya think it's stupid you feel bad about it, but the guy betrayed ya. And you didn't deserve to feel like that, or to be treated like that. So, I'm sorry."

"As I said, you don't need to worry about it," Freed said with a sigh. "It's not your fault, and I'll get over it."

"But you shouldn't have t' get over it because you shouldn't have been cheated on," Laxus said with an insistent tone in his voice. "I mean if I were dating a guy like you, I wouldn't even think about looking at other guys. I mean who fucking would. Yer hot, you're and interesting, and know how to make a guy enjoy himself. Who wouldn't want that?"

"Well, it seems that my ex disagrees with you."

"Then he's stupid," Laxus said firmly. "Seriously, this guy is clearly a dick head. Because if he looks at you and thinks he wants something more, or different, then he's an idiot. Cause you're fucking… just look at yourself. Can't think of anything I'd change."

"Oh," Freed said, a little shocked. Was he blushing as well? Probably not. "Well, thank you. That… that's nice of you to say. I appreciate it."

Freed turned and looked towards him, and only then did Laxus realise just how close they were to each other. Their noses were almost touching, and Laxus' mind screamed to him that it would be easy to close the gap and press their lips together.

"Well, I mean it," Laxus shrugged.

With the booze flowing through him, and his good sense all but gone, Laxus listened to the voice in his head. He pushed his face forward, cupped Freed's face, and kissed him.

[veiljumpernyssa]

could you just... like... answer all of those questions at once? I can't pick one but I wanna know all the things

Oh God okay

[[MORE]]

1. When did you start playing?

Oh a long time ago...over a  year ago I’d say? The main 3 were only up to uhhhh the Hermit book I think. I remember I stopped playing after that gross fetishy Asra CG came out.

2. What got you into the game?

The beautiful art and the tarot theme. This was before I knew what I know fdjhksd

3. Who was your first route?

Julian!

4. Who is your favourite route?

Honestly Muriel is shaping up to be my favourite so far. Before that, I loved Asra’s route.

5. Who is your least favourite?

So far, Portia’s. Don’t get me wrong - it’s nothing to do with Portia herself. It just feels a little stagnant and flat.

(I bet you expected me to say Lucio, didn’t you? Well, you’re wrong).

6. Who do you play in Heart Hunter?

Chibi Chandra!

7. Who is your favourite to chase in Heart Hunter?

Portia or Muriel!

8. Who of the not playable LIs do you wish you could romance?

The baker. Selasi route when?

9. Opinion on Asra?

Asra is often mischaracterised imo and held to an unfair standard that a lot of the other characters aren’t. I’ve seen many of these arguments and I’m tired.

Asra is not jealous, possessive, creepy, manipulative or shady. Not once does he act possessive towards the MC in any of the routes including his own (a possible exception could be made for the Reversed Ending, but what do you expect? That’s after the MC literally enables that behaviour).

Being sad or cautioning the MC against Julian is not being jealous or possessive. The way he talks about Julian it’s pretty obvious he felt more for the man than he realises, even if he doesn’t understand that himself.

Asra keeps secrets from the MC because canonically trying to remember too much too fast harms the MC. This has been established. In his route, he literally tells you that he hates keeping secrets from you. He takes you into his own personal gateway - an expression of trust and a willingness to open up to you. Does he do these things in the other routes? No, but that’s because you’re not spending that time with him.

I also see people angsting about how sad Asra is going to be when you tell him about Lucio in his route. Lucio harmed his parents and has been cruel to Asra so like idk what you expect. The MC doesn’t know this of course, but you do!

I think we also forget that Asra took a considerable amount of time and effort to rehabilitate the MC, care for them and reteach them basic tasks as well as magic.

Is Asra a perfect person? Of course not. He’s probably overly cautious, he can be a little distant and he reacts badly when in a crisis (see the deal he made with the Devil). He’s not always brave and not always strong, but why should we expect him to be? He’s a human being and he’s bound to have faults, but he has a generous nature and is remarkably well-adjusted considering the trauma of his childhood (don’t tell me that suddenly losing your parents is not traumatic).

10. Opinion on Julian?

I once said that Julian is likely hypersexual and I still maintain that. (For those of you who don’t know, being hypersexual is like..a tendency to engage in compulsive or self-harming sexual behaviour, sometimes as a result of trauma). I think Julian craves affection and associates sexual interest or sexual contact with his worth as a person. I don’t think he does it deliberately or to be manipulative, but because he has a definite self-esteem problem. I honestly see him as bipolar like me.

I think the way the fandom treats him as this dumbass uwu subby boy is kind of annoying. A lot of people I feel erase his bisexuality either by just ignoring it or by making homophobic jokes where the punchline is ‘ha ha he likes dick like you do!!!!’ like no shit, he’s BISEXUAL. But he’s also hard-working, brave, clever, pleasant and good-natured, and once he starts to really come into his own, he’s cheerful and optimistic. He has so many more good qualities than just ‘submissive and kinky’.

11. Opinion on Lucio?

This may surprise y’all but I actually don’t hate Lucio that much. I love to hate him as a villain.

I think he, like all of us, is a product of his environment. He grew up in a clan with a strong martial culture; his clan were warlike and frequently made war on his neighbours. We’re all influenced by our upbringing and I don’t think he’s an exception. I draw the line at saying he ‘just didn’t know right from wrong’ though. He’s not a baby.

But the differences between Lucio and the other LIs like Portia, Asra, Muriel etc is that Lucio’s life and his fate and the hardships he’s faced are almost entirely due to his own choices. It was he who decided on the eve of his eighteenth birthday to kill his parents. He sought out Vlagnagog with the intention of making a deal. He chose to continue to make deals. He knew he carried the plague and he chose to carry it across the continent including into Vesuvia, causing the deaths of thousands. He murdered and blackmailed his way across the continent. He wouldn’t have even needed to bargain for a new body if he hadn’t caught the plague that he brought into Vesuvia himself after making a deal etc.

Do I think he is a sort of cackling, villainous cliche or unrepentantly evil? No. I think he’s a person who has made deliberate choices that he is facing the consequences for and IMO it’s important that he face those consequences. I do think his main issue is entitlement and a profound lack of self-esteem (I don’t think he really believes any of the stuff he actually says about himself or other people; even Lucio’s not delusional).

I mean that’s about as generous and objective a take on Lucio as I can give you. I’ve made my feelings clear on him, but I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t actually understand him as a character, hopefully the above will prove I do haha.

12. Opinion on Muriel?

Out of all the LIs I think I relate most strongly to Muriel because of a few reasons: trauma, touch-starved, lonely and wants to connect but afraid of getting hurt (physically or emotionally).

Now that I’ve gotten personal, I really hate the way Muriel is treated by the fandom. He’s either called bland or boring, or he’s treated like he’s an animal, called feral and animalistic. He’s none of those things.

Muriel has a big complex about being alone. He was literally given away by his parents and left in Vesuvia on his own, to fend for himself on the streets. Being abandoned by his parents and not knowing why, not remembering is traumatic enough, but because of his size he’s often characterised as aggressive and strong when he’s always been gentle. Later in his life, Muriel was forced to fight and kill people against his will. I don’t think a lot of people get just how traumatic that is; not only being forced into doing Lucio’s bidding, but being forced to violently take someone’s life. I don’t blame him for leaving to live at his hut and resist connecting to anyone. It’s common for traumatized people to withdraw and isolate themselves, because the thought of getting hurt again is more frightening than being alone. But everyone needs human contact, and I think Muriel struggles a lot between wanting connection and contact (physical or emotional), between not wanting to get hurt again, to not feeling like he’s worth the effort. That struggle is something very close to my heart and that’s why I’m attached to him.

13. Opinion on Nadia?

Nadia has the biggest youngest sister complex and it’s almost amusing because I, too, have the same complex (even though I’m actually the older sibling!). Nadia, like me, feels like she’s always been compared unfavourably to her older sisters, and has felt like she has to work harder to prove she’s their equal.

It’s probably because she’s a Cancer like me. We have dual natures sometimes; the caretaker and the ringleader, who feel like we have to take it all on ourselves to get the job properly done, but who have moments where our self-doubt takes over.

I do find some aspects of Nadia’s route to be sort of odd, where it’s mentioned that the people of Vesuvia find her to be a tyrant. There’s literally no evidence to suggest that, so the only reasoning I can find next is she’s a woc. But race doesn’t matter in Vesuvia apparently so...what else could be the reason? Not to mention she’s been asleep for the past three years, so the people haven’t even seen the Countess in that time.

I feel like we didn’t really get to understand a lot about Nadia even from her route-why did she fall asleep? What on Earth did she see in Lucio? Why did she let him do all those bad things in Vesuvia before he died? (My initial thought was Cancers can be sloth-like and passive, so that could be why).

14. Opinion on Portia?

Of all the LIs I feel like it’s Portia I know the least about despite having probably the most appearances. Sure, she’s quirky and fun and cheerful, and that’s cute, but...what does she want? What does she fear? How does she feel about her brother being on trial?

I’m hoping we get to expand more of her personality in her route. I know her patron Arcana is the Star, so her route will likely be about learning to have faith in other people, but who knows.

15. What is your favourite Arcana card?

Justice. The Empress is a close runner-up.

16. Have you bought any of the official merch?

No, I refuse to give a single cent to Nix Hydra. (I really want those Tarot cards though hhh)

17. What is your favourite CG?

The one where Asra is sitting in the gondola. Squishy cheeks :3c

18. How many Arcana themed blogs do you have?

Three! This one, then I run an Ask Muriel blog at @ask-muriel-inanna and an Ask Asra blog at @ask-asra-and-faust

19. Do you draw any Arcana art? What is your favourite image you have drawn?

The cover I just did for my Arcana comic! I cant link but it's in #arcana comic and #my art

20. Self insert or apprentice insert?

Both are valid, but I have an apprentice OC.

21. Do you have an apprentice?

Yes I do! Their name is Daya

22. If there is one thing that could be made with the Arcana theme on it, what would it be and why?

Idk what this means I big dumb

23. What is your favourite ship?

Outside of the LI x MC ships I really do like Asriel and Portia/Nadia (but only if Portia isn’t her servant anymore).

24. What is your least favourite ship?

Muriel x Lucio, Asra x Lucio or Julian x Lucio. None of them would even consider ever touching Lucio with a ten foot pole and y’all know this.

25. On your first play through, what direction was your ending for the LIs?

Upright babey!!!!!

[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Man Up 4: The Donnyest Game”

Written by: Haley Mancini

Written & Storyboarded by: Alicia Chan

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Yup, he's back.

The epic Man Up saga gets yet another episode, turning the trilogy into a tetralogy, putting it in the same category as the Shrek series. I'd argue the quality is very similar, at least in my opinion. The second one was better than the first, one of the rare sequels that was better in every way, and the third one was just horrific. It was so horrific that I didn't even want to watch the fourth one, but somebody once told me that the world was going to roll me and The Final Chapter was better than the third.

I could talk about the Shrek films all day, but I don't think that's what you came here for. Maybe I'm just trying to delay the inevitable, since the very first character we see in this episode is...

...oh boy, Donny. I was sort of hoping that Donny in the title wasn’t referring to the comic relief, as unlikely as that would be. At least they continue the cruelty streak with him that started with Total Eclipse of the Kart, as he struggles to open a jar of strawberry jam without getting it all over himself and getting covered with ants. It's not that it isn't deserved. The Powerpuff Girls, who normally help other people with jars, don't seem to want to help, though Bubbles does give this lovely advice.

Bubbles: Stop, drop, and roll, Donny!

The joke is that he's not on fire, you silly goose! Get ready, because there's a lot of jokes like this. While all of this jam related insanity is happening, a familiar face is hiding in the bushes.

Because this is a part of the Man Up tetralogy, we get the one thing that linked all of them, and the only thing that linked all of them: the villain is Manboy, a man man man man who wants to prove that he is a man man man man by doing man man man man things. The most man man man man thing in this episode is to beat up this majestic unicorn. See, it's ironic, because this majestic horned pony is getting annihilated by ants. Or, "ant-nilhilated" as Donny puts it. He's trying. Oh McCracken, he's trying.

I'm surprised they didn't leave a pause between that pun and Blossom talking about the B-plot of this episode. She doesn't want to waste any time, because they have one hour before they have to participate in the Utonium Strawberry Picking Contest.

The winner gets their photo on the fridge, along with a photo showing the "4th year strawberry champ", which happens to be Blossom! Before I can ramble on about how this show's sense of time is out of whack, I can say that the episode proves that this is not referring to Blossom being the 4th consecutive winner of the strawberry picking contest, but the winner of the 4th year this contest was held. Then again, who would have participated in the 1st? Jojo back when he was a monkey? I'm putting way too much thought into this, am I?

Donny is super intrigued by this grand prize, as if the winds of destiny were whispering "Danny". Bubbles has to slowly move her Finn-faced head in to remind him that his name is Donny, in another amazing joke for this comic relief character.

Buttercup, that rascal, tells Donny he doesn't have a good shot at being the champion of giving Sitcom Dad his sweet, sweet free strawberries, but Bubbles comes in to defend her best friend.

Bubbles: It's okay, Don-Bon! You may not be the best strawberry hunter, but you’re still my best friend!

Yeah, great pep talk, Bubbles. Yeah, Donny is terrible at absolutely everything, but at least he's Bubbles' best friend because he has a great personality he doesn't treat his old friends like dirt when he makes new ones he's a unicorn! Donny seems to take it okay, at least.

Suddenly, Blossom gets a call from the Mayor that the Blimp Shrimp is on the loose, reminding us all that the Powerpuff Girls do indeed save the world before bedtime and aren't just strawberry pickers that can fly. There really isn't much else; we don't even get to see this Blimp Shrimp; I guess we're supposed to just find rhyming funny. It's not really on the money.

Well, there is one reason: it's so Donny can do something that isn't very bright, since he can't seem to use his common sense without the girls to guide him. While he’s hunting for strawberries using his strategy of saying he will not be distracted, he sees a churro on a napkin. This napkin happens to be right next to a lasso hanging off of a tree! He can't fall for this.

(Johnny Test Whip Crack)

At least, that's what Manboy thought. Manboy is bewildered by this specimen, as not only does he not look like the unicorn in his purple guidebook, he fell for the very first trap he put up! You'd think he would know all of this, since he was clearly looking at him getting defeated by ants.

Man Boy: It says here that unicorns are incredibly powerful, are experts at camouflage, and are capable of tracking their opponents across many miles! That doesn't really sound like you!

Donny: I know! I sound more like, "Hi, my name's Donny! D-O-N-N-Y!"

I am so glad to say this is the last time he appears this season. They couldn’t even be consistent with him not knowing his name. They could have at least had him misspell it. Actually, they shouldn’t. Manboy, finding no pleasure in beating up such a weakling, offers him some training that would turn him into a commando. “A strawberry commando?”, Donny asks, and Manboy just rolls with it.

So Manboy trains his own opponent through many tasks, like jumping across cliffs, catching fish, doing pull-ups over a fire, and a few other. This training montage is played a bit too straight to be that funny, but it does have this song about how montages are only here to speed things up. No, really.

Bet you can't guess what's happening here Time is of the essence, so we'll make it clear We only got a minute for a montage song Because this episode is ten minutes long

A montage is happenin'!

I am not going to lie, it's kind of catchy, and at least it gives a scene some sort of a joke.

There is one other thing: there's a scene where Donny gets taken away by what is unmistakably a bald eagle. Later, after he starts getting the hang of being a manly unicorn, he punches that eagle right in the face without even a hit flash. I don’t even know what to say.

After his training and his somewhat justified violence against the national bird of the country this takes place in, or at least it was in the original, he ends up becoming a Rambo-like muscled hero, looking almost exactly like the picture in that purple guidebook. I always wanted to see Donny get the Musclecup treatment, said no one ever. Thanks to this training, Donny stops telling bad jokes all the time and now speaks only in gruff action hero lines. Not sure if I would consider that an improvement.

Manboy: Okay, unicorn! It's time to play the most dangerous game...and you're it!

...so he wants to play a children's playground game with him? That is the conclusion one would expect Donny to consider with that line, but how else would somebody interpret that? I think he may have forgotten a sentence.

Suddenly, Donny starts shooting horn lasers at him. He tries, for the only time in the entire episode, to use his man man man man beard powers, but they get lasered off. Much like the Reboot Puffs in certain episodes, Manboy just knows that a punch would not be able to stop him, and just runs away.

Speaking of the Reboot Puffs, we do get a peek back at the B-plot, and I really mean a peek, because there's almost nothing here. After Sitcom Dad reiterates how this strawberry picking contest's prize is that fabled picture on the fridge, Buttercup boasts that she is for sure that she'll win this time. She has a secret weapon: a dust buster. Bubbles asks if she really learned nothing from that time she used a vacuum cleaner last year.

Insert cutaway gag where Buttercup chases triple chin Ranger Smith with a vacuum cleaner. Honestly, Bubbles should have just stopped at asking if she really has learned nothing, because the answer is usually yes.

Most of this episode is just Manboy getting chased by the Muscled Hellhorn, sometimes hiding in a bush to avoid him. Donny slowly walks, yelling out to Manboy to come out, come out, where ever he is. This is the big irony; he's this big and strong manly man, and he's getting chased away by a sparkly unicorn...who is also a big and strong manly man. I think the muscles and action movie one liners really lessen this.

Buttercup shows up to suck up some strawberries with her dust buster, and she unintentionally sucks up the bush Manboy was hiding in. Hey, something that actually ties the Donny chasing after Manboy plot with the strawberry plot! Unfortunately, that's the only time the two plots really converge; Donny doesn't even seem to be interested in the strawberries in any of these scenes.

As for those strawberries, the next time we see a Powerpuff Girl is when the episode suddenly cuts to a scene where Blossom is picky about what strawberries she puts in her basket. At least that kind of fits her character, even if that seems to sabotage her plans to win. Sitcom Dad outright said the person with the most strawberries wins that coveted photo on the fridge. Honestly, that's really it for the strawberry plot until the end, and no attempt is made to connect this scene with anything else.

It's just more Donny from here on out. If there's any kind of progression, at least the training montage made him a little more competent at dodging traps. He easily dodges an arrow trap, and just walks through a fallen tree. The closest thing to an action scene in this entire episode, really. Eventually something's got to break this new character of his, and it's going to take more than a napkin with a churro on it.

Oh no, it takes a napkin with two churros to make him fall into a trap! He even reverts back to his usual voice just to yell out his love for churros. Manboy shows up that he finally bested this majestic and powerful unicorn...even though he not once tried to lay a finger on him like he said he was going to do. I guess he would take any victory at this point.

Unfortunately for Manboy, that victory doesn't last. Somehow, Donny managed to set up a trap of his own, as Manboy ends up walking backwards, stepping onto a green button, which covers him in strawberry jam. At least that strawberry jam scene from the opening has a point, as he then gets to succumb to the ants.

And not just ants, either, but he also ends up running into a beehive. It doesn't entirely reference the infamous Nicolas Cage remake of The Wicker Man, but we do get this line, which is almost as good:

Manboy: Oh my god! Bees! Bees! Gyaaah!

Okay, he says gosh, but that's not what I heard. Then he gets attacked by a shark, because random. Eventually, he does end up going into a river, which does cleanse him from the jam, the ants, the bees, and the shark. This river ends up going into a waterfall, and then goes into another waterfall. Both times, they have to point out where Manboy is with a giant yellow beeping arrow, as if the context wasn't clear enough. This scene was enjoyable, but that might be because this is the best beating Manboy ever gotten.

And now, the required "I'm so sorry I was such a doofus" scene, though we usually don't see it from a villain. Donny somehow managed to get out of the cage and run all the way down to the bottom of the twin waterfalls to confront Manboy. I honestly stopped questioning such things; maybe it's that same kind of unicorn magic that allows him to poof tickets to ice skating shows.

Donny doesn't accept this apology, and does what he wanted to do as a person who was called "It."

Donny: Tag, you're it! Now you'll have to chase me-e-e-e-e-e!

The conclusion one would expect Donny to consider with that "and you're it" line is exactly what happens. One might ask, if this was Donny's idea of playing tag, why was he trying to horn laser him? The answer, much like most other questions one could ask about this reboot, is pineapples.

Manboy, in his anger, finally decides to lunge right towards Donny to possibly fulfill his promise to beat up a unicorn. Donny moves his neck slightly to make him miss and hit a tree instead. Yeah, it wasn't as cool as when Blossom did that in the original.

In the end, they finally tie this all up with that strawberry plot I completely forgot about, since it barely shows up. Blossom has her pretty pile, Buttercup accidentally sucked up the park ranger, and Bubbles ate the strawberries she found. Since she's best friends with a character who is well established in this episode to be not too bright, Bubbles can't be too far off, you see.

Donny shows up with that tree Manboy ran into, and it turned out to be a strawberry tree. His muscular physique is suddenly gone for no reason whatsoever. Why shouldn't they just have him stay muscular at the end of the episode? The status quo never seems to bother them.

The Professor decides to give Donny that fabled photo on the fridge he always wanted, right next to a fridge magnet of a poorly drawn Texas. Yee haw. Yeah, I can't think of a better ending for this.

Does the title fit?

Sadly, yes, at least with the Donnyest Game. I guess Donny being made more "manly" does sort of continue with Man Up 3's themes, but that's as close as we get.

How does it stack up?

Out of all the Donny-focused episodes, this is the best Donny one by the virtue of having not as much to complain about. He’s not constantly whining and being an absolutely terrible analogy the writers had to deny. He’s not being a terrible friend by ditching him for a total stranger who happened to have glitter and crayons. The episode doesn’t prop him up as this incredibly important character while the characters we should be caring about are getting their butts kicked. Most importantly, it’s not Bubbs and Donny Get The Mail.

However, there really isn't much to praise, either. The strawberry plot doesn't really go anywhere beyond a cutaway gag, and this episode doesn't change my opinion on Manboy or Donny as characters. I don't hate this episode, but I didn't really want to re-watch it.

Next, another episode where a villain cowers in fear over a cutesy character. Will it be any better than this one?

← Watch It! ☆ The Oct-Father →

[chooserecovery]

I can't find a reason to stop SH,or to want to stop.I mean,I know it's super fucked up,but if it's only hurting me and it helps then what's the point in stopping?

In the guide to reducing self-injury (which was written by Bree) there are a few reasons listed for why you should stop. They mostly focus on physical risks and the possible after-effects. For those who don’t want to click the link, here’s the list:

It’s dangerous: there is a risk of infection no matter how severe the wound is; you could hit a vein or artery which can make things more serious than you intended, or, in some cases, cause death; if you damage a muscle or tendon you could permanently damage your motor skills.

It’s addictive. Self harm releases endorphins in your brain, and you can get addicted to their release. The more you do it, the harder it is to stop.

It can make you feel worse. After self harm, many people feel guilt, shame, sadness and depression. It can end up making the problem worse instead of better.

It is a temporary solution that doesn’t help you deal with the problem. If you self harm instead of letting out your emotions in a healthy way, the emotions can bottle up and explode in an inconvenient way.

You could get caught.

All valid concerns, and worth considering. A common pattern when people SI as a way to cope, which I’m assuming is your main purpose since you said that it helps you, is that, over time people start to feel trapped by their SI.

It basically plays out like this: SI helps. Because it helps, and it helps faster and sometimes better than anything else we try, we use it to deal with more problems. We favor it over other ways to deal with things, because it seems to work so much better. We get used to doing it, and it doesn’t seem to help as much anymore. We’ve been favoring it over other strategies for long enough that it’s hard to find anything else that works because we haven’t spent that time figuring out how to tell what we need in each situation. Because we don’t have other techniques at our disposal, we SI more in the hopes that it’ll work better. We can’t stop, because it is the only thing we have that works–even if it doesn’t work as well as it used to, it’s better than nothing.

Maybe you haven’t gotten into this situation yet. Maybe you won’t. I can’t see inside your head. But I’ve seen things play out this way for so many people that it’s hard not to see it as inevitable. At the very least, it’s a risk that you, and anyone who SI’s should be aware of.

Also, specifically because you mentioned it not hurting anyone else, I’d like you to imagine for a moment that your best friend is hurting themself. Wouldn’t you be upset? Wouldn’t you want to tell them to stop? Most people would, and I’m willing to bet that the same is true of people who care about you. They may not know, it’s a pretty personal subject so a lot of people choose not to tell anyone, but chances are good that they would feel hurt by what you’re doing and by the fact that they can’t help.

Now, I’ve said all this in the off-chance that you don’t already know it. But, really, odds are good that you’ve heard all this before. Most people have heard all the downsides pretty quickly. They get talked about a lot. Sometimes that’s enough to convince people to stop. Other times, not so much, and that’s okay. So, I’m done talking about that. Instead, I’d like to tell you about some of the good things that I’ve found in recovery.

You don’t have to worry about hiding the marks anymore. When you have something to hide, there are things that you can’t do. If there is anything that might lead to you not being able to carefully control your clothing, there’s a good chance that you won’t do it while you SI. Once you stop, there are so many more things you can do without having to stop and consider whether you’ll need to hide parts of your body.

You don’t panic when you realize that you’ll be away from your tools for a few days. It’s okay to go on a trip without having to figure out a way for your tools to be plane-safe.

You start to learn ways to cope that you can take with you anywhere–no more having to hide in a bathroom with a tool because you’re freaking out about something that happened, just flip through your inventor of coping skills and find something that you can do in public, like breathing exercises.

You can get better at understanding what you’re feeling, and learn how to respond to what you need. Sometimes faster than you would otherwise, because you can recognize what’s coming.

You can feel more connected to people, because

You don’t have a secret to hide from them, so it doesn’t feel like there are as many walls between you and them

You have an incentive to talk openly with people and build a support network because you are looking for other ways to cope.

No more blood stains on random shit like honestly I don’t know if people realize how frustrating it is until it’s not an issue anymore.

So much more energy. Bodies get tired of having to constantly heal injuries. If you SI on a regular basis, then your body doesn’t get much of a chance to rest before starting to work on the next round or rebuilding and lost or damaged tissues. It’s exhausting, and stopping lets you get back to a normal level of energy not dampened by the constant unscheduled remodeling.

Those feelings that you’ve been trying to shove down with SI? They stop having as much power over you. Some of that comes from learning new ways to deal with them. Some of it comes from dealing with whatever it is that causes them, because you’re just sick of it coming back to bite you in the ass. And some of it is just because sometimes, because you’ve been dealing with things as they come, the problems seem a lot smaller. It’s like dealing with a handful of pebbles rather than a single giant boulder.

No more itching, praise whatever you believe in.

So, there’s some good things, a lot of which I didn’t really expect. As for motivation, if I’m honest, I didn’t really recover from SI until I accepted that I didn’t care about recovery anymore. Admittedly, a controversial stance to have for someone who co-runs a recovery blog. But I was miserable and tired of depriving myself of what seemed to be the only thing that helped, so I decided I was done telling myself not to. I was trapped either way, I may as well at least take the option that helped, right?

But it was a hassle to deal with it, and, frankly, I was a bit pissed at the concept of SI having more control over me than I did over it. So I decided I wasn’t going to stop, I was just going to commit to doing other things first. As I kept trying new stuff, I found other things that worked. And as I managed to move away from it and was forced to deal with more of my problems in other ways, I found that I was just generally a lot more confident moving through life and that things that happened didn’t seem like they were as big of a deal anymore. Eventually, it just seemed like it wasn’t worth the effort to SI anymore. I still don’t really have a hard ban on it, technically. But, mainly out of spite and laziness, I’ve just learned how to deal without it, and I don’t want to give up all of the things that I’ve gained from stopping. (Honestly, though, fucking ITCHING. Never again!)

Obviously, I support stopping SI. I think there are way more upsides to stopping, and I think that the harm of SI outweighs the benefits. But I included that last part to let you know that I get not wanting to stop. I get that it feels pointless sometimes. I get saying “Fuck it, this works for me.” But you can feel so much freer without it, and you deserve to be able to lead a life where you don’t constantly have problems resurfacing and the stress of wondering if people are going to find out, or of having to explain it to people when you do. And, really, you just don’t deserve to be hurt. You, and everyone else, deserve a life without needless pain and stress and worries. You can’t avoid all of those things, but if you’re willing to put in the effort then you can learn some tools to help you stop adding more of them to your life.

If this isn’t convincing to you, that’s okay. Maybe you’ll stumble across reasons of your own as you move through life. I hope you do. If it was convincing, though, check out that link at the top again. There are some solid tips for making it easier than just saying you’re done and trying to stop completely.

I wish you all the best, whatever you do,

–Luke