#From June to March you had separate shows

[jonathanbyersphd]

They used to end in June and be back by Labor Day. And they had 26 episodes! We used to be a proper country!

[crowleysgirl56]

Updated with edits!

Timeline of the last 12 months 15 months of the Good Omens fandom.

July 2023 - Good Omens season 2 drops. Fans watch on the presumption this season is based on the sequel idea Terry and NG spoke of in the 90’s and 2006. Reactions are mixed but mostly positive. We’re happy with fluff. Initial thoughts: “I don’t see how this story could have been fleshed out into an entire novel, but I guess it was only ever just initial ideas, so I suppose that works.”

July 2023 - THE KISS.

Fandom reaction: NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

August 2023 - NG responds to fandom

NG: “Season 2 isn’t actually based on the idea Terry and I spoke about.”

Fandom: “What?”

NG: “Season 2 is just a bridging story to get us to season 3. That will be the story that Terry and I discussed.”

Fandom: “What!?”

NG: “Season 3 hasn’t been greenlit by Prime yet so we might not get it.”

Fandom: “WHAT?!”

NG: “Also I wrote the kiss that way by giving the fandom what you want without actually giving you what you want. So like, stop asking me for things or I won’t write them.”

Fandom: “AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!”

August to November 2023 - The fandom, now lost and depressed, mope through the halls of Tumblr and Reddit, desperately clinging to any piece of information dropped by NG, sharing fan art, creating headcanons and theories, and writing the angstiest of angst fanfiction ever written. Some weep in a corner mumbling about the South Downs. Most just trudge through their daily lives, listless and despondent.

December 2023 - Prime greenlights Good Omens Season 3.

Fandom: YES! OMG HOORAY! WAHOO! Dancing in the streets. Fanfiction turns to fluff and smut. NG is active and happy, answering many questions without actually answering them. Gives us the hilarious gift of Dottie and Sadie.

January 2024 - speculation of when season 3 filming will begin commences. Realisation that it could be quite a while starts to sink in. Actors and writers strike has caused delay to the scripts being written. David and Michael have taken on theatre work which will delay their filming schedules. Douglas McKinnon announces he’s stepping away as director. Fandom has slight freak out, but NG reassures everyone it’s nothing to worry about, and linked to the recent strikes.

Early to mid 2024 - “The invisible and unbreakable line that joins Crowley and Aziraphale”.

Fandom: AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! We inevitably become even more feral. Much fanart is made.

March 2024 - David hosts the BAFTAs and Michael helps him during the opening. David is then nominated for TV BAFTA for Good Omens.

Fandom: OMG YYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!! Much dancing and celebration is had once again. We are so in love.

May 2024 - filming schedule for GO season 3 is announced. It will commence January 2025. The fandom reacts.

Fandom: “That’s still so long away!” “Michael and David will have their hair dyed white and red for the awards season!” “Going by the previous production schedule this means season 3 won’t reach our screen until 2026! No!” “Cannot wait for this to start filming we are going to be so feral!” More fanfiction, more fanart.

June 2024 - David hosts Pub in the Park. Michael joins him.

Fandom: THEY ARE SO CUTE! HOW CAN THEY BE THIS CUTE, WE DON’T DESERVE THEM.

Early July 2024 - horrible allegations are laid against NG and the fandom comes to a terrible crashing halt. Much debate and discussion is had back and forth: “Believe the victims”. “Separate the art from the artist”. “Drop the fandom entirely”. “Step back for a moment”. There is a lot of arguing, but there is also still a lot of love. NG has fled all social media.

Late July 2024 - until it’s January, and the show actually starts filming, Good Omens season 3 has now become Schrödinger’s Series. It both now exists and doesn’t exist. Prime at any moment may pull the production due to the backlash against NG. The fandom now re-examines McKinnon’s departure speculating if he left for other reasons. We once again despondently trudge the halls of tumblr and Reddit feeling the same feeling of this time last year.

This section of the post was made in late July was this was original posted: And that pretty much brings us up to date. Anything could happen in the next six months, which is why I feel we’re all worried. It’s why I’m worried. So instead, keep sharing the art, keep writing the fanfiction, keep speculating with theories and headcanons. Let’s be here for each other. Because we created this fandom for each other. It doesn’t belong to NG anymore. Let’s do this for Terry. Personally, I can’t wait to come back to this timeline and add January 2025 - filming begins.

28 July 2024 - Michael Sheen, the absolute angel that he is posts a picture of his tartan socks clad feet alongside the caption “To our world”. Such a beautiful, beautiful man!

10 September 2024 - Amazon Prime announces production for season 3 is paused. Everyone loses their shit. There is much lamentations.

Unsubstantiated posts start circulating that the show is cancelled. People who have a friend whose cousin’s gardener’s former roommate claim they are involved with the production and therefore they KNOW the show is cancelled. More lamentations.

Amazon stays silent for EIGHT. FUCKING. WEEKS.

The fandom walk around in a god damn haze again akin to what August to December 2023 felt like. Will we be left with the final 15 forever?

Mid October 2024 - for about 3 days straight the fandom receives information that is akin to a rollercoaster of emotion. Head graphics designer Mickey tweets out a now deleted post that everyone is going back to Scotland. Then Peter Anderson Studio tweet out a now deleted post referencing the South Downs cottage. Then random casting company updates their subscription website advertising Good Omens: The Finale a TV movie. Entertainment website releases an article referencing this. The fandom LOSE. THEIR. SHIT. AGAIN. We honestly can’t take much more of this.

25 October 2024 - Amazon finally announces the news we’ve been half expecting half dreading with positive and negative ramifications. Neil Gaiman is gone. GOOD! Season 3 will still happen. GOOD! But now it’s just a 90 minutes finale. WAIT, WHAT, NO! But it could have been worse. It was a hairs breath away from being completely cancelled. GOD BLESS RHIANNA PRATCHETT AND ROB WILKINS.

It’s been a wild ride everyone. I’ve already posted earlier this morning (25 October 2024) my thoughts about the whole situation so go read that there. But for now? Gaiman is gone, and we get our ending.

For now here’s to seeing our boys with their red and white hair again.

[sugarbombs-n-stuff]

Companion Birthday Headcanons

Ada: June 7th, She sees her birthday as when Jackson found her, she celebrates quickly but she finds it fun nonetheless.

Cait: February 20th, She never celebrated before sole but now that she does she loves it. Definitely a chocolate kinda girl.

Curie: April 12th She was powered on for the first time on this date! All Mister Handys/Miss Nannies sing themselves a little happy birthday jingle like the mars rover. Now that she's a synth her favorite cake flavor is strawberry. She loves celebrating with everyone, think of like a 5 year olds peak birthday and that's what Curie wants. She loves being gifted anything from prewar.

Codsworth: September 30th. He was purchased before shaun was born and was powered up a bit after he popped out. He loves wearing a party hat and like Curie, sings himself a birthday jingle. He loves the festivities of birthdays.

Danse: March 15th. In the brotherhood it was a quick happy birthday and then back to his duties. He feels indifferent about his birthday until Blind Betrayal, for a few months after he refuses to even think about anything that indicates he's human but when does accept that he's a synth he appreciates his birthday. His favorite flavor of cake is German Chocolate.

Deacon: December 25th. Though no one would ever find out except for Sole, he is a Christmas baby. Anytime someone asks what his birthday is it changes every time. He will celebrate his birthday with friends once he starts trying to find the real him but for years after Barbara's death he wouldn't even acknowledge it. He enjoys a good party but also likes something simple, he doesn't expect much cause it falls on a holiday though. His favorite cake flavor jokingly is funfetti, his actual favorite is just simple yellow cake with chocolate frosting. He will heavily appreciate any gag gift or fiber art craft thing that comes his way.

Dogmeat: January 1st. No one really knows so they celebrate on New Years Day. He gets plenty of brahmin ears as gifts though.

Piper: August 18th. She celebrated plenty when her parents were still alive and Nat tries to make her a present or two and she is very grateful. She enjoys spending her b-day with Blue and everyone as well. She doesn't care for cake, so she gets cookie cake.

Preston: November 3rd. He celebrated with is family and the early minuteman but after the quincy massacre he doesn't have the time or energy. If he had a choice, he would want to spend his birthday on the river outside sanctuary with a BBQ. His favorite flavor is lemon!

Nick: Human Nick's birthday was May 23rd, Synth Nick wanted some separation from him so he celebrates his birthday on February 14th, Valentines Day. He doesn't need any gifts or a big party, he's perfectly fine with a birthday card and since he doesn't really eat anything, a nice cup of coffee.

MacCready: June 2nd. Duncan's birthday is the day after so they normally celebrate together. He likes parties and gag gifts. His favorite cake flavor is actually orange with chocolate frosting. The only way he can get said flavor however is pouring Nuka Orange and using that instead of water when baking, duncan thinks its really nasty though.

Hancock: August 28th. When they were kids his brother would always make sure his birthday was good but after he left Diamond City and started celebrating with chems and shitty beer. When the sole survivor and their merry band of misfits rolls up he starts celebrating with a big meal among friends where he tries to cut back on chems. He's happy to get any gift and his favorite cake flavor is tarberry.

x6-88: October 1st. He never celebrated his birthday until sole showed up. He appreciates getting candy, weapon mods, and pre-war toy kits where you can build your own car. He doesn't mind sitting on the beach as a bonfire is being built. He enjoys swimming and eating whatever was packed and he finds that he actually enjoys his birthday. His favorite cake flavor is coconut with red frosting.

Strong: Pre-War, Strong's birthday was November 27th. He doesn't remember now and doesn't care.

Gage: January 13th. He celebrates by putting on a record and target practice, he'd prefer a rager with plenty of chems and loud music, Afterwords, go home, eat cake, and listen to some pre-war audio drama. His favorite cake flavor is vanilla with mutfruit frosting.

Longfellow: May 16th. He doesn't celebrate cause he doesn't really care. He drinks a beer at the bar then goes fishing with Diamond City Radio playing. His favorite cake flavor is coffee cake with tarberry jam on top.

[andoutofharm]

Hi! I just want to bring up a concern of mine is that Fall Out Boy will be playing at Download Fest in June and one of the partners of Download is Barclays (an official BDS target specifically an exclusion and divestment boycott). I got reminded to check because another festival in the UK (Great Escape) happening in May has a lot of their lineup pull out when Barclays remains as a partner and/or signed a petition encouraging it to drop them (Check BDS’s Instagram). I just want to give a heads up and perhaps encourage to use our voices to make the band aware! Like with the whole Gabe situation, we should be able to hold them accountable/let them be informed/make it clear about our feelings.

I wanted to say something now, rather than have it be a whole thing blow up last minute or afterwards especially since nobody else has noticed yet or said anything. At least unlike what happened in March, we have two months ahead of time to tell them. Please anybody who plans on saying something, please don’t harass people! Obviously FOB are not the organizers of this festival, they don’t make the partnerships, I doubt they check who are funding these events, they are simply invited/paid to show, but they as a band should be aware of the fact one of the bigger partners of this festival is profiting and funding genocide and is considered a big enough target to be put on said boycott lists. Pressure and encourage FOB to drop their appearance and/or make a statement. Not only should this be about informing people we look up to and encouraging them to make moral choices, but also informing others about the cause and how many companies profit from Palestinian genocide!

FOB tends to respond to backlash and pressure pretty quickly ie: Pretending you know who was never on stage, never doing that whole NFTs thing, and pulling offensive merch. IK people will go to Meredith, but please remember don’t harass and act like she controls the band. She is an entirely separate person from the band. I get it, Meredith is the easiest person to get noticed from when it comes to being close to the band, but hold that responsibility over FOB’s head, not one of their wives. Anyways so sorry for this long wall of text, or if this ask of mine seems ridiculous and it’s not really a fun ask, I just wanted to say what I had in mind and be able to properly address concerns and hopefully see a change. Thank you. ❤️❤️❤️

Thanks for bringing this to my attention! Here and here are the posts on BDS’s instagram talking about the other festival this anon is referring to.

I don’t know what the best course of action is here/what the best way to contact them is/how to bring this to their attention so if anyone has any thoughts or input please weigh in!

[oceanblueeyes03]

He was knee deep in HBS when the pic of Nic and him after his play was released. 

Sure, I will explain. 

Well, he and Jade spent Xmas 2022 apart. There were already signs of them being separated in Jan/Feb 2023 cause Jade didn’t wish Luke a Happy Birthday. They were still liking each other’s posts. Then in March towards the end of filming S3, he is rumored to have joined Raya. Now, people have said that girls didn’t believe it was him cause from what everyone knew he was still with Jade. Once filming ended, his PR released articles about his split and him being on Raya. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11904509/Bridgerton-star-splits-long-term-West-End-star-girlfriend-joins-celebrity-dating-app-Raya.html. 

Now we’re in the game on who wins the break up. Jade had already moved on with Morgan, her next (now ex) bf. Morgan and Jade had worked together on Elf and Morgan had also worked with Amber, Jade’s sister. We know this because on Jade and Morgan’s one year anniversary, Jade posted on her insta (don’t know the exact date but it was before March 10, 2024) which is now deleted cause her and Morgan broke up. This would mean they become official in early March 2023, very soon after Jade and Luke’s break up. 

Luke’s only free time was in April 2023, because in May he started rehearsals for TSOT. In April, he started following these Raya girl and IG influencer wannabes. He got with a girl who’d just turned 18, during the April 2023 boys trip with Rory, Jack and Tom in Malaga (at Senator Hotel). 

In May/June 2023, he was rumored to be going out with some of these girls late at night after his rehearsals and play. There were rumours about him doing cartwheels late into the night (though I have never seen proof of that). He was also all over Emily Bear’s instagram in May/June 2023 while she toured with Beyonce. We have the receipts of his fboy behaviour including that of Emily Bear and him mocking his fans (now deleted) on this post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CtmxU4LIIv4/?

This incident with Emily also prompted Luke to create his private instagram and he moved all the girls and his family and close friends to his private account. He followed these girls through that till Dec 2023, even after being official with Antonia for months. 

He may have met Antonia on Raya or through IG influencer July/Aug 2023, right after TSOT ended. Now, I said Luke was knee deep in HBS during the after show pic with Nic because Nic went to one of his very last performances in late June. That’s how I know. 

The first pic of Antonia that Luke liked is from early August: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvsTNFNtdX0/? 

Luke then took a vacay with Rory, Sienna. and her family in late August: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cwk_mlAoydF/? 

It seems Antonia and Sienna were introduced in Sept/Oct. We know this cause Antonia and Sienna’s first liked photo is from Nov: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzLmoTxtIjS/? 

Luke and Antonia took their first couples trip to Soho Farmhouse with Rory and Sienna in early Nov: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzWl3biIbAg/? 

They then went again for NYE with Rory, Sienna, Tom, and Charmaine and we got this: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1mRdNmIp6r/ 

Phew. I promise I will start that blog as soon as I get some time. Just too many receipts to share

Anon you are the Best!!!!!!! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

[asterrrrion]

Okay I should definitely be sleeping rn but ! I need to say this : I've seen a lot of international (mainly American people) on the internet describing the general situation of the world as chaotic etc because of Syria and Korea and Brian fucking Thompson and France (which is what I'm going to talk about here).

First off, the current french situation isn't really that groundbreaking or anything new right now, the country has been in a political crisis for... a while now, at the very least since 2018-19 although in my opinion it started much earlier.

It has been really chaotic for now nearly five months, since Macron dissolved the Parliament and the acting government in June after the European elections (there was a political strategy at play here however it failed pathetically which is something I'll get to later) ; however this isn't something on the scale of what happened in Korea, not even mentioning Syria. The government and the people are just (much like in America) extremely polarised because of years of neoliberal political decisions and it's showing and slowing the government down.

Tale as old as time, I know.

However ! I ask of you to never say that the extreme left and the extreme right united among themselves to take the centrist government down. While the Rassemblement National is a far right party (who is currently being charged for stealing a shitload of cash btw, hope you like the taste of lawsuits Marine), our current President Emmanuel Macron and his party (I would give you the name but tbh they've rebranded so many times I can't remember what it is rn so let's just use the old one En Marche) are NOT a centrist party, and LFI, even more so the NFP are NOT a far left coalition/party.

Saying they were a centrist party was what carried them through the 2017 presidential election until it became abundantly clear if it wasn't already that they were in fact very right-wing.

Macron started out in the Socialist Party who is, these days, not very socialist anymore and who we can in fact barely call left-wing as they tend to have pretty much the same ideals as you guys' democrats (which are our centrists, basically, we have different political scales).

So, to summarise (I am warning you right now I have unmedicated adhd and am studying history with a deep love for political history this will be 5000 words long) nearly fifteen years of french politics to analyse what got us into this mess and why I'm asking you to not say these parties are far left parties, here's this :

There are a lot of different political parties in France. Anyone can create one, and so that means that the left's biggest problem for the past *checks notes* now a bit more than a century, has been division.

The socialist party and the communist party, which used to make up most of the left wing, separated in 1921 or 22 can't remember over the 3rd International and the Soviet Union. That created the historical division between far left and left : which one wanted to overthrow the government (in the 1920s the anarchists and communists which... to the left is still the same today actually) and which one thought elections were the best way to change things (the socialists).

The communists were big for a long time but they kinda got demonized after the Marshall Plan for obvious reasons, and after the fall of the Soviet Union, while they remained the French Communist Party (PCF for short) they kinda stopped actively having communist ideals and being a big party. Nowadays they still exist but are a pretty small party and aren't exactly big revolutionaries (nor, to be honest, big communists).

The socialists had their time of glory, the Front Populaire, in 1936. It was an alliance between all left-wing parties to forbid the far right from being elected basically, as they had just attempted a basically coup d'état but not really a few months earlier. The thirties were, for also obvious reasons, a pretty rocky time in Europe. They did very very good (i'm a leftist if you haven't noticed by now. Also, duh, this is Tumblr.) social policies for the first year but quickly had to stop due to various economical and military issues and resorted to a pretty default not doing much type of governing (I promise you, this WILL become the signature pattern of the PS or socialist party).

They were elected again in the 80s, and pretty much did the same thing, and then again in 2012, and by then they were hardly a left wing party anymore, mostly a bunch of at best left centrists politicians and at worst right wing opportunists. So a new party emerged called La France Insoumise (LFI) who is now the biggest french left wing party led by an extremely controversial figure who has a bit of an ego problem (they've also, objectively, made a bunch of shitty decisions on handling inner politics of the party but we won't get into that).

Forgot to mention this but there's also the Greens, Les Verts, an ecologist party with vaguely leftist ideologies. Their ecology program is pretty much the same as LFI's but it doesn't really hurt to vote for them except for the presidential election.

Now, the Republicans on the other hand (our Republicans. not yours. obviously.) used to be a left-centrist wing party but they slowly became a right wing one at the beginning of the 20th/end of the 19th century as the monarchists and imperialists got the fuck out of the Parliament and the socialists came in. This is a prime example of a political scale being tipped to one side (rarely seen this way around). What you need to know is that except for Mitterrand in the 80s and Hollande in 2012, the country has been exclusively led by these guys from 1959 onwards. Or, not necessarily these guys but similar parties (yes I'm looking at you De Gaulle). Nowadays they're extremely divided and the whole party is falling apart between far right and traditional conservative right.

The Rassemblement National which used to be called the Front National (so RN or anciently FN) is a far right party who was founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen and a few nazis. Yes, you did read that right. No, I'm not joking. Funnily enough Jean-Marie was in the Resistance, but I don't wanna know what goes on in that guy's mind. They're now led by his daughter (as the dude is on death's door now, but there has been some family drama there also), Marine Le Pen, who has worked very hard in the past few years to make the party go from outwardly racist, misogynistic and homophobic to covertly racist, misogynistic and homophobic.

This means that aaaall of the decisions that caused poverty and misery for french citizens, mainly the lack of funding that goes into public service and the abandonment of any and all rural areas has led a lot of people to turn to the now not as demonized as before RN.

On the other side the left wing has been eating itself alive since Hollande in 2012 because of rivalries between the Socialist Party and LFI, which has cost them several times the presidential election, and less and less people are voting since more and more people are losing hope in modern politics.

Which leads us to 2017 : the election of Emmanuel Macron as President. Macron was originally a banker and Minister of the Economy under Hollande, but he changed sides and left the Socialist Party in 2016 to create En Marche, a party that was supposed to be a centrist party but was quite obviously a right wing one.

As the left was divided, LFI's leader and the socialist leader were outvoted in favour of him and Marine Le Pen for a second vote to determine the President ; this was his strategy. As long as the left was divided, he would win the first round of voting, then the second, because he knew that left-wing people would ALWAYS vote for him against Le Pen.

A LOT of shit happened under his mandate (to name a few, COVID, the gilets jaunes etc) all of which were handled very badly, and all of his decisions were neoliberal shit as always which didn't help anything and made it actively worse. That wasn't helped by the guy's ego (I am not kidding most politicians are arrogant but this is like on another level this dude seriously, dead-ass thinks he's the smartest person in any room he walks in) and general condescending behaviour and statements (like when he said "I like train stations, because you meet both people who have succeeded and people who are nothing". yeah. turns out the nation he's supposed to be representing wasn't a big fan of that one. wonder why).

In 2022 most people hated his guts, but as the left was still divided because the fucking socialists can't admit they're not the biggest leftist party anymore and the threat of the far right in power was more present than ever, he got re-elected. The thing is, right afterwards the presidential elections is held the legislatives. They're the election of both the Senate and the National Assembly, so the Whole Parliament.

Normally, this would just be a formality, as a people who has elected a president literally four weeks ago is generally going to vote for his party. It's important to note here, than TRADITIONALLY (can you hear the anger in my voice yet ?) the President, when choosing a Prime Minister, is supposed to choose from the biggest political party represented in the National Assembly. When that party is from another party than the President's, we call this a cohabitation.

Cohabitations are always a messy but pretty fun time, as the Prime Minister, usually only a lackey of the President, is now a member from an opposing party and as he has, constitutionally, enormous legal power (that he, usually, as a lackey of the President, only uses to support the President's politics). The thing is we hadn't had a cohabitation in a long-ass time, because the amount of time presidents were elected was specifically changed to avoid them and put the legislatives right afterwards the presidential election. The other thing is, when the entire country is only voting for you because the only other alternative is the far right...

Now, in 2022, the biggest party elected was still the President's. However, it was only a relative majority instead of an absolute one, which meant that they had to have support should they want to pass any law. So, instead of finding allies, they chose to use a lovely article of the Constitution, the now infamous in France 49.3. This article means that on budget laws (and ONLY on budget laws which... is definitely going to be totally respected and not at all ambiguously used) the government (read : the Prime Minister) can make a text of law bypass the National Assembly and be automatically applied.

But the Assembly has then the choice to vote in order to demote the Parliament. They tried. It nearly went through. It didn't though, in the end, because the Republicans were too divided for it to go through. However both of the major opposing forces, the entire left wing and the far right party the RN, voted it if I remember correctly. And most of the past two years until summer 2024 were just the government fighting with the National Assembly. They used a metric ton of 49.3, it's now a meme (and also a widely antidemocratic tactic that everyone hates).

In the summer of 2024, there were the European elections. Each country votes, and ours voted for the far right. Like, a lot. I'm not kidding when I say that the situation with the RN is pretty fucking critical. What matters here is also that the President's Party had a ridiculously low score.

Now, Macron won't be re-elected. He can't. Like, physically. You can't be elected more than twice in France. But he wants someone of his party to take over after he leaves (which btw is going to be difficult, I'll be very surprised if en marche lasts three weeks without him since they're also divided as hell), so he needs it to be popular.

So he did something that he thought was smart : he dissolved the government and the Parliament. That meant we had to have a new legislative election. We were scared shirtless as we were all sure the RN would be elected and we'd have an RN prime minister, which we know now by some sources is what Macron intended to be able to prove that his party is the best alternative to the far right in order to continue to be elected in the next Presidential elections in 2027.

But the morning after the annunciation, then LFI MP Ruffin called for an union of the left wing parties, which was by the way done remarkably quickly for parties that have been at each others throats for the past ten years (forgot to mention this but it HAD to be done quickly as our rat bastard President put the election literally a month and a half after annunciation).

So now Macron needed something to discredit the left in order to be considered the only candidate against the RN. And he found his thing : he demonized them. Because of their public support for Palestine, they were suddenly antisemitic (this is particularly vicious as antisemitic hate crimes have in fact been an issue since the beginning of the Palestinian genocide in France and a lot of Jewish people here are scared of antisemitism for, yk, very good reasons) and a far left party who was basically anti republican and composed of revolutionaries.

And it worked ! It helped that LFI has been seen as such for a while for a variety of reasons, mostly baseless, and that everyone conveniently forgot that the leftist union was and is made up of four different parties. The far left does not exist in the National Assembly in France. Not in the communist party, not in LFI. I'm not the one saying this, official statements by the state council are. But every right wing politician forgets that because it gets them elected. And people believe them. So stop spreading that lie, please.

The first round of voting was led by the far right, so for the second, Macron and the left allied themselves : in every district of voting where a leftist candidate, a macronist candidate and a far right candidate were still competing against each other, the candidate of the two with the least votes would resign their candidature to be able to give as little votes to the far right as possible.

In truth this wasn't completely followed by Macronists especially, some refusing to resign when against an lfi candidate, which is completely ridiculous and personally disgusts me. But it worked, and the left-wing won the election with the far right coming in third place. I cried that day, actually, from relief, as embarrassing as it is.

So that meant that Macron had to name, TRADITIONALLY, a left wing prime minister. Several names were offered (which was difficult as the socialists and government would veto any lfi member and the communists and LFI would veto any socialist member) and Macron said that he wouldn't name any government who had members from lfi in it. So the lfi leader did a pretty beautiful move and pulled out all of the lfi members of any and all propositions of government (this being, I remind, the biggest left wing party in France).

Macron still named a right-wing prime minister, denying the elections' result and preferring to work with the far right than with the left, left which might I recall got him elected. Anyway. So we got a very right wing government, borderline far right to appease the RN, who only managed to stay in place because of that fact.

They had to make 49.3 for most laws they wanted to pass as the Assembly was heavily divided in the past months. The leftist union voted to demote the government every time, but the RN wouldn't. And then, a week or two ago, on one of the most restrictive budget propositions for public service this country has ever seen, they remembered they had to look like they care about poor people since that's, you know, their electorate, and since the budget was of course forced through with 49.3 voted also to demote the government.

So now we have a new prime minister, supposedly more to the left although still, obviously, a right-winger. Nothing much changed. Can't fucking wait for 2027... And please don't say that the leftist union is far left or that Macron is a centrist. Neither are true.

[tinyarmedtrex]

2024 Fic Round Up

Thanks for the tags @onthewaytosomewhere and @zwiazdziarka <3 <3 I wrote over 500,00 words this year (hot damn) so I picked one per month to keep this list reasonable

Jan

Henry Lends a Helping Hand- Alex has a broken wrist and is having trouble masturbating. Like a good friend Henry offers to help him out.

Feb

I've got the mens rea if you've got the time- Coworkers Alex and Henry have been hooking up in secret for months. Alex would love for them to be more but knows it's impossible.

At least until something happens that causes him invite Henry over for the weekend. After that he knows there's no pretending this is just some casual fling.

March

Charlie Spring is not interested in romance- Charlie's life is surprisingly devoid of the thing he's supposed to be an expert in- romance. As a romance author people expect him to be a hopeless romantic but he's anything but. IHe’s whisked himself away to a small-town farm for the next two months to write. Everything is going well until he meets the owner of the farm, Nick Nelson.

April

Anything you sat (may be held against you)- Charlie loves being an attorney with Smith Law. There's only one thing about it that he doesn't love- dealing with the corporate law firms and their asshole attorneys. One of those firms is Lockwood and Co. and one of those assholes is Nick Nelson. Narlie as EtL

More under the cut!

May

I want you to put down roots- Alex is thrilled when the empty shop across the street from his tattoo parlor finally gets a new renter. And he's even more excited when he and the new renter, Henry, have immediate sparks. If only he would stop denying their obvious chemistry....

June

I only see you when the moon is full -It's been a month since Charlie and Nick shared a memorable night together. Charlie has been trying to put the strange man out of his head, but suddenly it seems like he's everywhere Charlie is. When Nick finally offers to explain what's going on Charlie agrees to go with him. That decision takes Charlie into a whole new world, one where he'll have to decide if this budding relationship is worth the danger, it's putting him in.

July

Keep my Heart Slow - It's been nearly a decade since Nick and Charlie last saw each other. After an emotional break up the two went their separate ways, both finding it easier to erase the other from their lives. But now their friends are getting married and have asked them to be groomsmen in the wedding. Will it rekindle old feelings or remind them why they parted in the first place?

Aug

An Exquisite Temptation- Henry is a Catholic priest who is content with his life. Enter Alex, lawyer who seems intent on upsetting on the delicate balance he's set up for himself.

Sept

It's all or Nothing- "Married at first sight is the first social experiment of its kind, using in depth research and expert opinions to match together eight singles. Those lucky participants will meet and get married on the spot. They then have eight weeks until decision day where they'll make the biggest decision of their lives- will they stay married or get a divorce?" When Nick heard that the infamous show was having its first queer season, he hadn't planned to apply. But after giving it time he decided to give it a shot. After all, he hadn't had any luck on his own, so what was the harm? Never could he have predicted all the highs and lows that would come from being married to a stranger. And, after eight short weeks both have a decision to make. Do they want to stay married or get a divorce?

Oct

The Heat Between us- Alpha Nick is in love with Charlie, his omega roommate but it's fine, he's managing. At least until Charlie's heat coincides with a snowstorm has them trapped in their flat. When Charlie asks Nick to help him out Nick is powerless to say no.

Nov

Where the Land meets the Sea (that's where I'll be) - Henry is a writer spending the summer in Alaska where he meets Alex, an unusual man (who turns out to be less a 'man' and more a creature of myth)

Dec

A Fair Pointe- When Charlie's dance partner hurts himself shortly before their new show premieres, he knows he needs a new partner. But he never expected that it would be Nick Nelson, whom he loathes and who loathes him right back. In order for both to get what they want; Nick and Charlie have six weeks to learn how to manage their mutual hatred and work together.

Or, enemies to lovers ballet dancer AU!

What a year!

Tagging @thrivingsuccubus @royalhearthuff @hotpinkmurex @binkitten @polkadotkat @bi-panic-actually @seths-rogens @songbird3724 @thesleepyskipper

[asherlockstudy]

After the answer about the camping trip spooning I received three asks which I will show here one after the other, because I think it is easier to have all data in one place instead of answering every mail separately.

Thank you for providing specific episodes. So I rewatched all of them and I believe that unless they have a pattern of super cold camping fails happening to them and all their close friends, then it is the same incident described a little differently over time. From my side, I will also add again the Cuddle Queen GMMore, which also belongs to the campingspoon!lore.

January 2014 | Weird ways to stay warm | GMM 360

Like Anon said, Rhett mentions their friend Mike (they even show a picture of him from afar on a mountain / no face shown), having to spend the night on the top of a mountain and it being super cold so he had to spoon his hiking friend. Link chimes in to clarify they were also switching every hour, so they were regularly changing who was the big and who was the little spoon.

December 2015 | Instant food taste test | GMM 826

Rhett and Link are masked and taste instant noodles. Link says that he remembered their flavour from the last time he ate them, which was when they had a near-death camping experience and they were huddling and spooning three other guys. He then mentions it again and says "I am spooning three other guys", so I believe it was four men overall and not five. Even covered with the mask, you can still see Rhett's face fall at this. He defensively says: "I don't think we almost died. We just almost embarrassed ourselves. It was just very very cold."

March 2020 | Cuddle expert reacts to famous cuddle scenes | GMMore 1716

Rhett asks Cuddle Queen Jean about emergency cuddles and especially about the two friends of theirs spooning and switching regularly and never facing each other, so it's exactly what he also said back in 2014. He gives however more information and he just looks very amused about it and kinda way too excited to tell Jean about something that happened six years ago to someone else, apparently. Anyway, let's see the dialogue:

Rhett: We had a friend who was hiking one day at a time and he and his buddy got stranded out in the cold when hiking. C.Q.Jean: Did this really happen? R: This really happened. Link: Yes, it really happened. R: And they got lost and they were on the side of the cliff and they had to spoon each other on and off. Big spoon, little spoon, alternating all night long to stay warm and they were just like - C.Q.J: And they were beloveds? Or were they platonic friends? R: No they were just like kinda had gotten to know each other two weeks ago, they were just kinda like have been working together for a little bit and then the next thing they're spooning all night with each other.

C.Q.J: So, one word for that; awkward. R: Ha! Right, yeah... L: When it's a survival situation, that's not, did that count as cuddling? C.Q.J: Ah well you know the peace that I am talking about, that feel-good cuddle chemical stuff only happens when people feel safe, comfortable and at ease. And in both of those scenarios we're talking about emergencies where people are having adrenaline coursing through their system and fear and discomfort. R: Yeah... and they are not facing each other, they're spooning. C.Q.J: Either way, it probably worked, they survived. R: Yeah, he lives to this day. C.Q.J: And I bet they either never talked to each other again- R: (very sceptical smirk) C.Q.J: - or they're best friends. R: Right. Right. Or more.

Rhett was talking about a specific incident with specific people, so it seems like he was speaking from a place of knowledge when he implied that the people engaged in this emergency situation might have become more than friends. Did their old friend Mike form a romantic relationship with that other guy? Hmmm....

June 2021 | Do you trust me? Challenge | GMM 1976

In the intro of the episode Link tells a scripted joke that he trusts Rhett would make room for him on that board door from the Titanic in order to spoon and both keep their warmth and survive. Then he asks Rhett whether he remembers when their trust was first established. Rhett laconically replies "Probably the first time we spooned" and laughs a little. Link shakes his head and asks: "You're talking about that camping survival situation?" but Rhett does not answer to this.

Verdict: Unless this survival situation has happened to their entire social circle, then we're just talking about one single incident, in which Rhett, Link, Mike and another (newer) friend were present. My assumption is that just like how back in the college days their mates always took for granted that Rhett and Link will sleep in the same bed together because they're so close friends, similarly they were separated in two duos and spooned all night, one duo being Rhett and Link and the other being Mike and that other friend. Rhett did not want to mention themselves when he first brought it up in 2014, out of fear it would be taken the right the wrong way. To the Anon doubting he would scapegoat Mike, well he probably did. Maybe Mike does not watch the show or maybe even if he confronted Rhett about this, Rhett would justify this with the argument that nobody knows who Mike is anyway, whereas they are public personas and there would be assumptions made about them by the fans. When Link impulsively reveals one year later that they were part of this group, a moody Rhett defends their choice as an act of great need ("it just was very very cold"), sort of a no-homo reaction. Then when Rhett wants Jean's opinion about it, he once more excludes himself and Link and does not name Mike either. I doubt he was fully honest about Mike and the other person barely knowing each other. He just tries to make this as vague and secretive as possible but he seems very amused and interested in what Jean will say about it. In the end, he unquestionably implies that the two people who went through this situation (either the Mike and friend duo, or their duo) had become more than best friends. One year later, Rhett either jokes or states that they have spooned more than once (since there was a first time spoon) and Link's mind immediately goes to the dangerous camping trip, so he confirmed that they have spooned in a camping emergency and 99% it is that one same incident, except Rhett always tries to hide they were there cuddling too and Link always proves him a liar.

What's certain is that this has made an impact on them. If we combine this with the "or more"... well things fall into place, no? As for the first Anon who asked when this must have happened, well I initially hypothesized 2014-early 2015 but this data points to prior to early 2014. But in my opinion not way before that and likely after they moved to California, so around 2012 - early 2014. It could have happened in late 2013, after the newsical kiss and when the weather was getting cold. Let's not forget Link in late 2015 said he had not eaten noodles since then and so it must have been closer to 2014 than 2012. Then again he might not eat noodles at all IDK

BTW: There was one episode in which for the needs of the game Link was pretending he forgot his sleeping bag and they had to get crammed to the same one. Don't hold me to it but I remember Rhett sort of implied Link had done that in real life. But I am not sure I remember correctly, just to be clear.

[thefinalcinderella]

Tsurune Book 3 Chapter 6 - Genuine (Part 1)

Finally...finally the last chapter...

Glossary here

Full list of translations here

Translation Notes

The kumotatewaku is a traditional Japanese pattern that resembles rising clouds. It is often used in the costumes of ancient nobles

The expression used here is 白羽の矢を立てる (literally: sticking a white feathered arrow), which is an idiom that means "selecting someone out of many people"

A chindonya is a kind of old-timey marching band that dressed in elaborate costumes to advertise for shops

Block style or kaisho style calligraphy is the regular script and the most commonly used. Every stroke is carefully executed

Previous | Next

In early June, the prefectural preliminaries for the National High School Kyudo Tournament, also known as the prefectural tournament, were held.

Kyudo supply stores and photo studios were set up around the venue, and the storefronts were lined with commemorative goods for the tournament. The wind was strong on this day, and the young archers were moving against it. The competition event was close-distance shooting, using thirty-six-centimeter kasumi targets with a shooting distance of twenty-eight meters.

For the boys’ individual competition on the first day, Fujiwara Shuu of Kirisaki High School once again won by landing all his arrows. Second place was Kabashima, also from Kirisaki, and third place went to Asahina from Haneina High School, showing the strength of the powerhouse schools. For the girls’ competition, Seo from Kazemai High School placed fifth.

On the second day, it was finally time for the team competition. The format was five-person teams and four shots in zasha. In the preliminaries, the time limit was eight minutes. Forty-two schools were participating in the boys’ competition, and the top eight teams with the highest number of hits in the two rounds would advance to the final tournament.

Tommy-sensei raised his voice. “Now it’s time for the team competition. Kazemai will show its true strength. Everyone, I wish you good luck!”

“Yes!”

After completing the registration process, Kaito, Kanbayashi, Seiya, Himuro, and Minato put their numbers on their right hips. Ryouhei and Nanao were reserve members.

Himuro was expressionless like he always was, but Kanbayashi gently stroked his number.

“Oh no, I might be really happy after all…”

Keyaki nudged Kanbayshi. “Don’t grin like that and get it together. I don’t wanna hear you whine.”

“Of course.”

Next to them, Ryouhei was tying his yellow-green headband.

“Today, my sister, Sae-chan, and Toujou-san are coming to support us. I’m psyched!”

“That’s great, Ryouhei,” Minato and Seiya said.

The Nanao Fan Club had updated its cheering goods and prepared fans with a frog wearing a crown. They also handed them out to support groups and parents, and when the bright green of them swayed, it looked like a chorus of frogs.

As they were about to pass through the noisy venue, people approached Minato and the others. A young prince, twins, a boy with a square face and thick eyebrows, a boy with pleasant features and a crew cut, and an antique doll.

They were Kirisaki’s Fujiwara Shuu, Sugawara Senichi and Manji, Kabashima Umetarou, Yushima Kaoru, and Kuon Takumi. The twins burst into laughter in front of so many of their rivals.

Shuu brought his face close to Minato’s right ear. Since their master Saionji’s left ear was bad, Shuu only showed this habit to Saionji and Shuu.

“Thanks for the birthday present the other day. I’ll treasure it.”

Shuu put his thumb on his yugake. A white underglove with a purple pattern could be seen beneath it.

“I’m glad I was able to give it to you on May 11th this year. I thought it would be perfect for you.”

“The kumotatewaku pattern is rare for undergloves. (1) ——See you in the finals.”

“Yeah, the finals.”

The two of them bumped yugake and returned to their teammates.

Shuu’s gaze drifted to Kuon. Kuon was in the starting lineup for the day, but he was standing separate from everyone else. Everyone could tell that he was isolated, and was not a proudly solitary existence like Shuu. A dissonant sound was wafting from Kirisaki High School.

Kuon, who didn’t care about other people’s concerns, had moved onward. In fact, he was frustrated because he didn’t do well in yesterday’s individual competition.

Manji rested his elbow on Senichi’s shoulder.

“Will we okay with Kuon? I’m more suited to be the starter.”

“It’s frustrating, but his hitting rate is usually high. The coach said there was no problem either.”

“Alright, everyone, let’s go!”

At President Kabashima’s order, Shuu and the others headed to the venue.

Meanwhile, Tommy-sensei and Masa-san were in the shade of a tree, away from the crowd.

Masa-san straightened his collar.

“Why did you remove Ryouhei and Nanao from the starting lineup? There was nothing to criticize about their results.”

“If we make it to the finals, each person would have to shoot twenty shots in total. Even if it’s difficult to shoot twenty shots and hit, how about twelve shots? The aim is to preserve stamina.”

“There’s one more thing I’d like to confirm before we get into the tournament. On the day of the entrance ceremony, I heard you say to Minato and the others, ‘I have given you white-feathered arrows.’ (2) I’m sure that you knew that saying originated from the custom of playing an arrow with white feathers in front of the house of a girl chosen as a sacrifice. Why did you purposely use it?”

“It’s to prepare them. Once a ship leaves the port, you can’t turn back even if you shout to get off.”

“Are you telling them to prepare to share the same fate? Even though those who are wounded might fail again?”

“Hohoho, I didn’t mean it in such a sad way. Youth is the greatest weapon, since they can just start over again and again. I just felt that they could make it to the new continent. The first fleet, the Kazemai High School’s boy’s kyudo team, started with six members. Takigawa-san, you’re the first-born son. When I was able to convince you, I was convinced that we had completed our mission.”

“That’s a bold opinion, typical of Tommy-sensei.”

“It’s true of all sports, but one cannot win by the strength of the athlete alone. Especially in kyudo, the character of the master comes out strongly. Everyone resembles your shooting, Takigawa-san.”

“…My shooting was said to be very similar to my grandfather’s.”

“It’s the spirit of archer that is passed on.”

“…Yes.”

Masa-san looked at the treetops swaying in the wind and laughed.

Following the opening ceremony, the yawatashi ceremony was held.

The boys’ division was called for the preliminaries, and they headed to the waiting area with Masa-san leading them. As always, the most stressful time was sitting in the chairs and waiting. When the team before them finished, the “stand up” signal was given, and they rose from their chairs and advanced to the honza. They bowed at the signal to “begin,” walked to their shooting positions and knelt down. They chose two arrows from the four they had.

First up was the oomae, Kaito. It was lovely how he never trembled when facing the target. The lovelier he became, the more stubborn he got, and he would end up saying things that were different from his true feelings. He would say, “I have no interest in you,” but would grab the other person’s arm and not let them go in the same breath. He lived and breathed kyudo. That was Kaito’s everyday. After his right hand flicked, shouts of “good” came from the stands.

The second, Kanbayashi, raised his bow. The midsummer sun encouraged growth. He absorbed more and more of what was told to him and expanded towards the blue sky. He had seniors who he admired and pursued the shooting he admired. His longing had a zeal that surpassed his anxiety. His arrow pierced the target with a grand hanare.

The third, Seiya, was quiet. Wearing a straw hat and an insect cage, he entered the forest, but stopped when he saw a field of flowers. The neat and trim flowers swayed. When he lay down and looked up at the rising clouds, he felt like he was about to float away. He heard a familiar voice and stopped returning to the sky—he hit.

It was the fourth, Himuro’s, turn. He took the bowstring with a bodhisattva’s hand and looked at the target with a bodhisattva’s eyes. His ability to make an uncurving douzukuri was probably something he was born with. It was his natural posture with no effort put into it. The frogs in the stands jumped when he hit.

The fifth was the ochi, Minato. The white-feathered arrow was proof that he had been allowed to come into contact with the gods. He didn’t resist, go against it, and accepted it as it was. His limbs, stretching vertically and horizontally, were incredibly supple. His body of sixteen, which couldn’t be wished once more after it had passed, embraced the earth, wide and endless.

The matooto sounded.

Hanazawa, Shiragiku, and Seo, sitting in the stands, held their breath.

“The boys are amazing.”

“I feel like they have become more and more refined.”

“I heard that Narumiya and Takehaya have also been going to Saionji-sensei. Their drive is different.”

For the second shot, everyone except for Kanbayashi hit.

For the third shot, Kaito, Seiya, and Minato hit.

Keyaki’s chest swelled at the success of his fellow first-years. “Kazemai, do your best!” Shuu’s younger sister Sae and their butler Toujou cheered in a small voice.

For the fourth shot, Kaito hit with all four of his arrows and left the shooting range to applause. After him, Kanbayashi, Seiya, Himuro, and Minato all hit the target. Their result was four, two, four, three, and four for seventeen hits out of twenty. It was a very good start.

Kirisaki was the sixth team to enter the shooting range. A wall of people filled the surrounding area to catch a glimpse of the champions’ shooting.

The oomae, Kabashima, released his arrow.

Senichi, Kuon, and Yushima all hit. The ochi was Shuu.

Wash your heart and turn it into incense; revere your body and turn it into flowers. Those were Kukai’s words, meaning that it was the duty of a virtuous person to serve others without any thought. Those who had a pure heart were fragrant. Shuu knew firsthand that this wasn’t a metaphor. The feeling of euphoria he felt when he brought his face close to the owner of that scent. He heard whispers of wanting to be intoxicated, of not minding sinking to the bottom of the lake if he could have it all to himself, but those were the words of a demon. He must not fall for the sweet words of someone who looked like him.

Shuu’s evil-expelling arrow dashed forward.

The results for the two rounds were announced.

For the boys’ division, Kazemai had thirty-four hits out of forty, Kirisaki had thirty-six, and Haneina had thirty-five.

The Kazemai girls had only twenty-eight hits, so unfortunately they didn’t pass the preliminaries.

Minato and his teammates got the ticket to go to the finals.

After lunch, the finals began. In the afternoon, the wind became stronger and their hakamas fluttered violently.

“It’s time to change the lineup. Yamanouchi-kun will be second, and Kisaragi-kun will be fourth. I’m counting on you,” Tommy-sensei said.

Ryouhei and Nanao received their numbers.

Minato adjusted the position of Ryouhei’s number.

“It looks like the five of us will be standing on that stage again. A year ago, you invited me to the information session for the kyudo club. That was the first time we five met face to face.”

“I wasn’t the only one who invited you. Everyone wanted to do kyudo with Minato.”

“Now, I can draw a bow. I’ve never been happier.”

Kaito brusquely held out his right hand, and the five boys looked at each other. Passionate feelings could be conveyed without words or skin contact.

Ryouhei, Nanao, Kaito, Seiya, and Minato bumped their yugakes together.

Kazemai’s opponent was Uyoshiro High School.

They were wearing bright red headbands. They lived in an area associated with military commanders who were famous during the Sengoku period, and when they went to a competition, they wore a certain armament. It was glasses. It might seem comical from the outside, but they did it very seriously.

The group stood in the first shajo. The oomae readied his bow and fixed his eyes on the target.

The bow maker, the yugake maker, and the arrow maker were the three gods of kyudo. The archer was the one who became intimate with these materialized gods. If there was a slight doubt or confusion, the string would make a muddy sound with those negative emotions. The twill brocade woven by the trinity of gods resembled battle attire. The flowers, birds, wind, and moon on the robe were the prayers of the samurai, and the butterflies (moths) represented the parents of the silkworm, production.

The flowers scattered. The flower battle was a warrior’s honor.

The oomae’s matooto resounded.

Kazemai’s oomae, Kaito, was undaunted. The wind beat mercilessly at his face, and his douzukuri felt like it was about to collapse under the wind, but he withstood it. Patience was his natural disposition. He might seem short-tempered, but he had the conviction to never give up. To not run away from the way of the bow. He was determined to cling to it for the rest of his life.

The nimato, Ryouhei, was listening to the news of the wind. Seeing the faces of his parents and sister in the stands, he felt strongly that he wasn’t alone in this fight. It seemed that people became stupid when they were angry and when they were happy. Their brain stopped working properly. The state in which one’s mind was clear and free from all distractions was called munen musou, and he learned from the path of the blade that you couldn’t fulfill your duties if you weren’t passionate.

The naka, Seiya, had found the answer to Minato’s question some time ago.

Why did humans shed their fur? It was to continue walking.

The ancestors of humans who left the forest for the grasslands learned to walk or run long distances in search of food. Body hair had a heat insulating effect and protected the skin from UV rays, but in order to prevent the body temperature from rising too high, they chose to abandon their fur and sweat instead. Humans had great endurance. The way one breathed was important in walking the long way of the bow.

The ochimae, Nanao, was thinking. Thinking was a linguistic activity.

There were two types of word formation. One was to give a name to something that had been hidden and make its existence manifest, and the other involved the intention of first creating a word and having the concept follow. When you learned a language, you not only acquired wisdom, culture, and thinking, but also the spell of words.

Letters and patterns were magical techniques that had their own power. If you looked down on them as just a means of communication, everything would be embodied and pour down upon them. There were no magic words; words were magic. A story was a kind of magic and truth. If you write it as tsurune, it would be called tsurune. A tsurune was the beautiful sound of a bowstring.

Nanao’s sharp hanare brought forth the next wind.

The ochi, Minato, held his bow.

Just how heavy was this shot?

Just how light was this shot?

“I” was the one who gave it meaning. The god of the bow didn’t smile at those who couldn’t love themselves or others. Because humans were incarnations of the gods.

Minato forgot that he was a human and turned into the matooto.

Uyoshiro had three, three, four, two, and four for a total of sixteen hits.

Kazemai had three, four, three, four, four for a total of eighteen hits.

Minato and his team made it through the first round without incident.

The second round began.

The stands were filled with people wearing blue and yellow-green headbands. The two waves struggled, almost swallowing each other up, almost to the point of spilling over onto the yamichi.

Kazemai’s opponent was Konoe High School.

Their blue arrow feathers and headbands were their trademarks.

Only those with kyudo experience would understand the exhilarating feeling of seeing the actions of five people overlap. There were rules even for movements such as taking a step forward, sitting, and nocking an arrow into a bow, and because there were rules, it was possible to match each other. Ikiai was the embodiment of the red droplets that circulated around the body.

They shot arrows every day. The faces were almost the same. The repeated daily routines were a series of miracles. They take up the bow, hoping to grow even just a millimeter better than they were yesterday. For most people, landing a hundred hits with a hundred arrows was just a dream, and it was precisely because they couldn’t do what they wanted to do that they got absorbed in it. The sound of the arrow hitting the target was pleasant, and they wished it would happen again, but the god of hitting was a contrarian. The moment you wished it, the chance escaped. Approaching something without wanting to approach it was nothing but a dilemma for humans, who had developed enlarged brains.

Don’t think, just feel, as a martial artist once said. How long would it take to reach that state? Even if it was achieved, would it be possible to maintain it? If you kept thinking like this, it seemed that you still had a long way to go.

Kazemai’s archers faced themselves in the form of the targets.

The aggressive Kaito, the lively Ryouhei, the intelligent Seiya, the sparkling Nanao, and the pure Minato.

They highlighted and polished their inherent colors.

Their inexperience became a weapon. Even though they were told that there was darkness an inch ahead, they wouldn’t be able to understand unless they looked into it, and they wouldn’t notice it unless they fell into it. Pain was something you only knew when you suffered it, and hate was something you feared only when you possessed it. The cry of the inner soul could only be learned through experience, and words were powerless there. No matter how many words you wrote, they would never be understood by those who never experienced it. Only an archer knew the heart of an archer.

A world of just two people, the bow and the human.

The bow caught the innocent body falling.

The ecstasy a bow gave you was different from that of humans. Skin with goosebumps and surging droplets. It was a ritual to bind the soul that was about to drift away to the body. There was no sound without a container. You couldn’t make a sound with an empty shell.

Minato and the others raised their bows, spread them wide, and released their arrows. Ashibumi, douzukuri, yugamae, uchiokoshi, hikiwake, kai, hanare. They followed these eight stages and headed towards the heights.

The results of the second round were as follows.

Konoe had three, four, four, three, four, for a total of eighteen hits.

Kazemai had four, three, four, four, four, for a total of nineteen hits.

Kazemai won by a difference of one hit.

Since there was some time until the finals, Minato went out to the front.

He wasn’t feeling bad. If anything, he was focusing on calming himself so he didn’t go too fast. A dull mind and a weak body. At first glance, it might seem like a state far removed from martial arts, but eliminating the “self” was the secret to being able to freely manipulate the body. As long as “I” resided in the body, the god of the bow would not descend upon you.

To become empty.

Even if it could be understood as a concept, it was extremely difficult to embody it.

An elderly man called out to Minato.

“It’s almost time for the finals. Just like last year, the match between Kirisaki and Kazemai is a must-see.”

“Thank you very much. But the match between Kirisaki and Haneina is about to begin.”

“No, no, the match is already decided before it even began, right? Did you see the head of those students from Haneina? A chicken’s cockscomb and a horse’s tail. The training clothes they wore in their Yotube streams looked like something from an old marching band. (3) You’re wearing a clean white kyudogi and your hair is neat. It’s praiseworthy. That’s what a Japanese boy should look like.”

“…I do have short hair, and I like white kyudogi. But, if someone is serious about kyudo, I will acknowledge them as an archer no matter what they wear.”

“What’s with that way of talking? Seems like I thought too highly of you.”

The man left. Minato went outside to focus his mind, but he ended up inviting needless interference.

His yellow-green headband was fluttering. It was something a master had prepared for his disciples.

Minato took a deep breath once more.

The card of Kirisaki versus Haneina in the second round got people excited.

Asahina raised the corner of his mouth.

“Nice. It looks great.”

Eddie tied an orange headband tightly.

“I am trembling at the prospect of a worthy opponent, that I am.”

Matsuda, who had poor eyesight, placed his hand on the shoulder of the poet Kanuma. Igarashi started walking while holding flowers. People naturally gave way to them. The existence of Haneina’s kyudo club was already dramatic in itself. The five of them walked leisurely down the flowery path.

The two schools began to enter the shajo, and the spectators held their breath as they watched.

In the first shajo, Eddie raised his bow. His blond ponytail swayed and sparkled in the sunlight. A stop, an upward turn, and a sweeping stroke. His shooting was like the block style of calligraphy. (4) A work of art that changed seven ways depending on the tools, brushstrokes, style, and word selection. His stance was to never prepare practice sheets, but always treat it as though it was the real thing. He quickly drew back his brush, and the arrow flew towards the target.

The second, Matsuda, hit.

The third, Kanuma, hit.

The fourth, Igarashi, hit.

The fifth, Asahina, begun to raise his bow. His red hair stood out against the green grass. His self-confidence and warm-hearted personality brought out the bright sun. When he drew his bow, his limbs stretched to infinity. The matooto resounded.

Kirisaki also matched their pace.

The oomae, Kabashima, hit.

The nimato, Senichi, hit.

The naka, Kuon, hit.

The ochimae, Yushima, hit.

When the ochi Shuu hit, the scoring board was lined with circle marks.

No one missed their second shot as well. The sound of the matooto and the cheers of the crowd made their bodies numb, and the elation made them desire more and more matooto. They became greedier and greedier.

Kuon was confident that he would never lose to the red-headed guy. If they went on to win, he would be placed in the same picture frame as the Young Prince, Fujiwara Shuu. What a beautiful picture it would be!

He melted into the world of images.

Now, let’s sneak in.

This was Tsujimine High School.

A boy with the hood of his white hoodie pulled deeply over his head walked over. A boy with streaked hair was standing a little further away. He stole the key from the staff room and hid it in his pocket.

Nikaidou and Fuwa were in the music room. They stood in front of the piano and gently opened the lid.

Along with Fuwa’s piano melody, Nikaidou played the drums using his hands and knees. He was very into music games and could even reach an uncanny level of fast drumming in games like Kotaiko no Tatsujin.

One day, after club activities, Nikaidou was tapping a rhythm on his knees on a whim when Fuwa correctly guessed the name of the song.

“Konahanasakuya-hime.”

“…Correct.”

Since then, the sneak-in sessions, not street piano, had continued.

Konohanasakuya-hime no Mikoto, the origin of the song’s title, was the name of the most beautiful goddess in the history of Japanese mythology. Her father was Ooyamatsumi no Mikoto, and her husband was Ninigi no Mikoto, grandson of Amaterasu Oomikami. Her husband accused her of infidelity, and in order to prove her innocence, she set fire to the delivery room and gave birth to three children in the flames.

When the two of them were babies, they had a scarlet seal stamped onto their faces at a festival called Hatsuyama to pray for their healthy growth. It felt creepy thinking that they might have passed by each other somewhere.

Fuwa began to play a song. As he proceeded at a walking pace, Nikaidou stood next to him.

A fearless smile—the start of a duet.

My fingertips hit the keyboard. The melody, chords, and bass line. Nikaidou sped up the main melody while adding improvisations. There was no way Fuwa wouldn’t take up this challenge.

“Nikaidou, can you keep to my speed?”

“Hah, there’s no way I’m following you.”

“Good grief.”

Fuwa ignored Nikaidou and decided to go fast. He was crafty with techniques such as giving someone glimpses and keeping them in suspense. Fuwa always kept his distance from others. Though he had purposely drawn a line telling them not to come over, those who crossed that line were, so to speak, prey. There was no need to hold back. He would shake them, shake them, shake them until they begged for forgiveness.

Nikaidou attended piano lessons when he was a child, but quit after learning “Turkish March” and had been studying on his own ever since. On the other hand, Fuwa’s mother was a piano teacher. Knowing the difference in their abilities, Nikaidou devised a plan. He tried to find rhythms that players might not be comfortable with, such as lowering the key by a semitone or changing chords.

Fuwa made full use of his techniques. Nikaidou clicked his tongue, then reached over Fuwa’s arm and hit a high key. It was more of a fierce battle than a fun session. Sound and breathing filled the room. The music room wasn’t air conditioned in order to prevent unauthorized use. If the sound leaked out, the shame would be unbearable. They played the whole song while sweating.

“It’s not fun at all playing with you,” Fuwa muttered.

“Same here.”

“Get out of here.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’ve always been an arrogant king, Koushirou.”

Nikaidou took off his white hoodie. His body was hot and he was breathing heavily. He reached into his bag to get something to wipe off his sweat and grabbed a towel and his phone.

The results of the prefectural tournament where Minato and the others were in were displayed on the screen.

“…Oh man. I think I’m gonna laugh.”

“You laughing by yourself isn’t a good thing. Alright, I’ll ask. What happened?”

“Kirisaki lost in the second round of the final tournament.”

“What!?”

Fuwa stared into Nikaidou’s large eyes.

“That’s a big upset. Who was their opponent?”

“It’s the school of the Yotubers Asahina and Eddie. Shuu-kun really is a lovely man. As expected, my special won’t let me down. I wonder if Minato-chan will entertain me as well.”

Nikaidou loosened the collar of his white shirt.

After the wind that had been blowing since the morning calmed down, an incredibly bright blue sky spread out above Shuu’s head.

Kirisaki had nineteen hits.

Haneina had twenty hits.

The powerhouse Kirisaki High School was defeated in the second round of the prefectural tournament.

Under the sunlight, the Kirisaki members calmly began cleaning up. “We all did well,” the president Kabashima exclaimed, and Yushima smiled and said, “It’s been a fulfilling three years. I’m grateful to everyone,” but Senichi and Manji couldn’t hide the heaviness of their steps. They endured the overwhelming mixture of feelings of inadequacy and jealousy toward those who had earned the smile of the goddess of victory.

There was only one person who missed in this team, and that was Kuon. Despite the weather having returned to calm, he looked as though he had inhaled a cloud of dust.

One could almost hear the crunching sound of it.

“Fujiwara-senpai, I’m so sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for.”

“But, still! Even if it’s to yell at me, please just say something to me.”

“I have nothing to say.”

Shuu left without saying any more.

Devastated, Kuon turned to face the person who appeared in the corner of his vision.

Minato, who was going to talk to Shuu, saw what happened.

“Kuon-kun, it’s usual for Shuu to not express his thoughts after a match. Don’t worry about it,” he told him, then immediately followed Shuu.

Kuon stared at Minato’s back and bit his lip.

Was he pitying me?

Who on earth were you talking to when you said “don’t worry about it?”

I can’t believe someone of the lower class is looking down on me!

Minato had no clue about Kuon’s delusions. He was running after someone he must not lose sight of.

He shouted the name of his brother disciple.

“Shuu!”

Shuu turned around and smiled. It was all he could to not drop his bow.

“I’m sorry, Minato. I wasn’t able to fulfill our promise to meet in the finals. It seems that I don’t have any luck with team matches.”

“That’s not true, Shuu. You’re my first bow friend—a genuine archer. We met at that kyudojo when we were little.”

“Minato.”

“Someday, we will definitely team up together.”

“…Yeah, I’m looking forward to that.”

What a cruel person.

You were the one who lit this fire under me.

God of the bow, please save me.

We are babies who don’t know anything. Although no ships nor people have arrived there, the sun is a red, blazing star that will someday turn to dust. We never witnessed the beginning and end of the story, and we believe in an empty dream that cannot be verified. Dreams are seen when one is asleep. People are still sleeping. A dream from which we can never wake. In the darkness, only my old friend knows what I did. Only you can burn me to ashes.

Shuu touched Minato’s forehead with his yugake-covered hand. His cold fingers were trembling.

He couldn’t let go of that unforgettable body warmth.

Previous | Next

[enjoythesilentworld]

Wille's Month - Voicemail (Free Day)

day 31 @youngroyals-events thank you for everything (more coming in a separate post bc i have a lot of thanks to give)

A collection of voicemails left by Wille.

read below or on ao3 (G, 800)

Simon’s phone. March 29th, 2027, 4:29pm.

“Hi baby! I’m on my way home, I’m just about to stop at the store. Did you say we needed more milk? I’ll grab some anyway, I think I have a coupon. Oh my gosh, you’ll never believe what I saw on my lunch break today. I took a walk around the park and there was this little mama duck, and she had a little trail of babies following after her. I nearly cried. I was late getting back to the shop because I stayed to watch them swim around in the pond. And I- Oh, I just remembered I sent you a video of that. Well, I’m telling you again because it bears repeating. One of these days when we move out of the city, we should get a bunch of animals or something. I think I’d make a good farmer. Or would that make us ranchers? Anyway, I’ll see you in a few. I love you!”

Felice’s phone. November 11th, 2029, 7:13am.

“Felice, we have an issue. I’ve been following this recipe you sent so closely but I’ve managed to screw it up. Why do my egg whites look like this? … I just remembered you can’t see them. I’ll text you a picture. They’re all grainy and weird, though. Are you busy right now? This would be so much easier if we could do this on FaceTime or something. I’d owe you big time. I guess call me when you wake up, if you can? Love you. Thanks in advance.”

Linda’s phone. October 20th, 2027, 5:32pm.

“Hi Linda! Simon and I are running a bit late. Someone had to spend an extra thirty minutes fixing his— Hey! I’m trying to explain to your mom why it’s not my fault we’re late! Sorry, Linda. We’ll be there soon, I promise. Simon is being very safe, though, and definitely not taking his hands off the wheel to try to steal my phone. I made some new cookies with a recipe Felice gave me, too. I’m excited for you to try them! You have to actually give me a sincere review this time. I appreciated all your kindness last time, but I want you to be brutally honest about these ones. Okay, we’re about five minutes out. See you soon!”

August’s phone. February 1st, 2034, 9:48pm.

“Hi, August. It’s Wille. I saw a short clip of the ceremony today. Sorry I couldn’t make it. Mamma seems confident in you, and I actually think you’ll do a good job. I’m not calling you ‘Your Royal Highness’, though… I wish you the best. Bye.”

Sara's phone. July 15th, 2025, 3:06pm.

“Okay, I grabbed what you said. I think— Oh, sorry. Hi. It’s Wille. You know that. Listen, I am worried he’s getting suspicious. I’m bad at keeping secrets from him, you know this. I still think no one should’ve told me and this party could’ve been a surprise for both of us. Sorry, rambling. I think I managed to find everything on the list. They only had two packs of purple balloons left, so hopefully 50 is enough. Oh! The cake looks awesome, too. Felice did a great job. He’s going to love it. Okay, I gotta go, he’s coming. See you— Hi Simon! … No, just a scam call. How—”

Kristina’s phone. September 5th, 2032, 6:11pm.

“Hi Mamma. I’m sorry I missed your call earlier. Things have been really busy over here. The movers showed up on time, thankfully, and everything went smoothly. We managed to get a lot unpacked already. Simon and I just had our first official dinner at our new kitchen table! Let me know when you and Pappa want to come visit. I’d say give us a few weeks to at least get the majority of the boxes cleared out. You’re going to love the view of the lake. It’s so beautiful, Mamma… I’m really happy here. Okay. Call me when you can… I love you. Say hi to Pappa.”

Erik’s phone. June 1st, 2026, 1:52am.

“Hi Erik. It’s your brother. Wille. Um… I graduated today. I didn’t end up finishing at Hillerska. It got shut down. You may actually know a little bit about why. I don’t want to talk about that… The past few years have been really tough, Erik. There are a lot more good days than bad ones now, but it still hurts every day. I miss you a lot. I hope you’ve forgiven me for stepping down from the throne. I think you have. You knew I never wanted it. I’m starting at uni in the fall, and Simon and I are going to live together. I’m really excited, actually. Normal life, and all that. Maybe I’ll even get a job. Imagine that. Former Crown-Prince working as a barista. Um, okay. I should probably get back to sleep. I’ll call again soon. I love you, big brother… Bye.”

[esotericas-sims]

@thebramblewood tagged me to post my top 24 screenshots from 2024. I only started my blog in March of this year (INSANE btw... how far we've come...) so a few months are going to be getting more than 24. I'm sure many of you have already been tagged, but I'm tagging @crvptydgaming, @j3lly-fish, @grimwoods, and @inlovewithregencyera, I'd love to see your years in review as well!

Long post under the cut. Also it's definitely more than 24 but SHHHH it was hard to choose

March:

back in the days of vintage Spectre Legacy content... I've learned so much since then, but I still really love a few of my old shots. This one I was especially proud of. I felt really proud of the split down the middle, and i think the differing moodlets and the little split did a great job foreshadowing the eventual split in their relationship... i miss my babies :(

April:

this was the month that i discovered my deep and abiding love for landscape photography in the sims.

also something about this shaving shot just absolutely charmed me, george's facial expression plus the candlelight just... i dont know. i still love this one. no notes.

May:

baby lydie.. she was so itty bitty *sobs. i love her little face. not a ton to say about either of these except that i really miss the spectres. someday i will return to them.

June:

it was actually impossible to pick just one or two from this month.. i love loved taking pictures in selvadorada, its one of my personal favorite worlds scenery-wise, and i have sooo many still on my computer from florence's quest there.

July:

july was my first foray into the wonderful world of pose player (never went back) and i think you can see me realizing how many doors it opens for more artistic shots. the scene with julian at the piano is still one of my favorites ive ever made, and although i was really sad to have to pause the spectre family story, i was at least glad to get to end it on a post i was really proud of.

August:

book of manon... :,) another project that i realized was beyond my skillset only partway through making it. i think realistically i should write a book, and not do a sims story about her, but i really wanted to share her with you guys.. i'd like to pick this one back up someday.

September:

i didn't post a lot in september, but i still really love octavia and margarita's wedding, especially this shot. she looks so shocked like??? god forbid your wife kisses you at your wedding??!!?! it was also the beginning of the cash legacy, which is a project i've had so much fun with (and will hopefully continue to have fun with in the new year)

October:

had to do a double feature for october because this is when i started posting a LOT, like daily on both blogs. most of these are just examples of good framing that i liked. u can see my screenshots becoming more and more minimalist i think

the one of victor and rhythm is um. uh... ummm m m mm. *tucks hair behind ear

i just think he's neat

November:

bon riddle my beloved.... idk thats all ive got to say about these. i still find that photo of him in the lake so charming. and my sogue shoot is an honorable mention... i'm also quite pleased with the winterfest party scene, and especially this shot. the separation between angelina/aphrodite and allie/kareem hits me, and the evil little smile on angelina's face.. delicious

December:

the real star of december was absolutely the epilogue montage i did for chapter one of cash legacy. i had soso much fun planning out each shot and playing dress up. as all my friends can tell you, the prom photos were some of my particular favorites. i had a truly impossible time choosing which one to use, and i still have all the others (literally like six of them) saved on my computer.

also obviously the christmas card shoot was super fun, and i've been enjoying getting to show off adult valentine a bit more. he's so special to me.

anyways my skills have clearly grown a ton this year, as has my ability to like.. shoot with intention and artistic vision. i'm still working on my writing and pacing, and i'm sure in a year or so i'll look back on these images and go "gross" but for now, i'm really happy with how far i've come.

[aectpen]

𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 ❆ 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐍

m.list

pairing: sunghoon x ex figure skater->idol!fem oc

synopsis: 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧'𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐲 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐲 𝐤𝐩𝐨𝐩 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩, 𝐤𝐚𝐲𝐨, 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐇𝐘𝐁𝐄.

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬.

chapter four: dear diary

in the spirit of reminiscing on the old times, once chaerin got back to the dorm, she opened up her "home" box. its where she kept her valuable items that brought her comfort away from home. the items include her diary, photos, jewelry, and more precious items. she hasn't written in her diary in a while, but its a relic of all her experiences. she was especially into journaling during her figure skating and trainee years.

as she sifted through the pages, she landed on a page that stood out. her fingers trailed over the tear smudged ink. her anger was evident through the force she used while writing the entry, almost tearing through the page. she felt like she teleported back to the moment she wrote it.

february 4, 2020 dear diary, i hate park sunghoon. i thought he was playing a sick prank on me, but he never turned around. how will i compete without him? how could he do that to me??? after how hard we worked.. i've never met anyone more selfish than him. he just laid it on me like it wasn't that big of a deal i'm gonna burn everything that has to do with him.

chaerin paused her reading to look back into the box. she most definitely didn't burn nor throw away anything that had to do with him. she picked up a polaroid she took with him on a day out. they went to the movies and got milkshakes afterwards. she put whipped cream on his nose and snapped the photo while he pouted and she smiled. it was the first time they had hung out outside of skating. it was the day they became friends rather than just partners. they realized they liked each other's company much more when they weren't so serious.

i'm crying but i'm not sad.. i'm angry i have cried out of frustration and obviously sadness but i never cry when i'm mad but honestly he will regret it when i'm at the olympics and he is in the dungeon training to be a flop idol god i really hate him fuck park sunghoon

"wow," chaerin whispered to herself. she forgot just how harsh her feelings toward sunghoon were. she continued flipping since she was so immersed in the angst of it all.

march 8, 2020 dear diary, i miss sunghoon skating is so boring it feels like a chore and my new partner is way too serious like wtf today i laughed after i fell on my ass and he was all like "is this a joke to you?" all stern boy bye i know sunghoon would've mocked his voice and we would laugh about it i was angry before but now im sad he was more than my partner, he was my friend and now i miss my friend sunghoon

chaerin reached for their good luck bracelet they made during practice. their initials separated by beads. they always wore it during competitions. they were undefeated since they made them, so they swore it was magic.

a month after writing that entry, she threw in the towel. she quit after a competition she had placed first in. she knew it was over when everyone was happy, but her.

june 1, 2020 dear diary, so today my friend told me about that new mnet survival show i-land right and i'm like okay i like txt so i'll tune in and today they revealed some trainees and you won't believe who i saw PARK SUNGHOON like you have to be kidding me my fantasy about him being a flop idol won't come true i will NOT be tuning in

june 26, 2020 dear diary, i lied i tuned in he looked okay i guess.. alright he looked good and he was really good perhaps i guess so maybe fans are loving the whole ex figure skater thing but its triggering me i kinda regret quitting figure skating. i could've went to the olympics and rubbed it in his face i thought i stopped hating him but i didn't. seeing his smug smile while everyone praises him and here i am hate-watching from my bedroom. if he didn't quit on me i would be so much more productive with my life i still hate park sunghoon.

september 18, 2020 dear diary, does the universe hate me? i cracked my phone, lost my keys, missed the bus, got an F, and park sunghoon made it to the debut lineup. i know one is not like the other but it was the cherry on top to my suffering :( i feel like an absolute failure doing nothing with my life while he's a famous idol my mom said i was used to be the child a mom would brag about, but now i'm the child you don't mention she said it so casually but i went to my room and cried for an hour straight i really have nothing going for myself

chaerin felt guilty looking back on how she treated sunghoon's success. she felt nothing but jealousy and hatred. how could he leave her and be successful? she thought he was making a big mistake quitting, but the truth was that was the best decision he could've made and she hated that. she wanted it to hurt him the way it hurt her, but not everyone gets what they want.

sunghoon's members began teasing him when they found out who he was with when he went missing for an hour.

"streets are saying sunghoon is already making a move on chaerin," niki announced.

"is sunoo's nickname streets now?" jay laughed.

sunghoon put his hands up in defense "oh come on, i was just catching up with her."

sunoo gasped "catching up? we missed out on some sunghoon lore."

"elaborate," heeseung crossed his arms.

"she was my figure skating partner."

"and they were figure skating partners." jake mocked.

"so you don't have a crush on her? i was really gonna take credit for introducing you guys." jungwon scoffed.

"i don't have a crush on chaerin."

the same was happening at kayo's dorm.

"chaerin!" haru barged into chaerin's room.

chaerin scrambled to put all the items back into her box, but she missed one.

"what's this?" haru asked picking up chaerin's polaroid with sunghoon. "oh my god? is that? that has to be a look alike."

"come on give it back!" chaerin chased after her.

"you guys have to see this." haru passed the polaroid to jie.

everyone gathered around to see while chaerin watched their reactions.

"how do you date park sunghoon and not tell us?" sujin shook her head in disbelief.

"i didn't date him, he was my figure skating partner."

"emphasis on partner, this is totally a boyfriend girlfriend pic," zena laughed.

"we were just friends that's all."

"no wonder you two were so buddy buddy earlier," jie was now much more confident in her prediction.

chaerin stared at the ceiling, trying to sleep, but she couldn't stop thinking about sunghoon. the time she spent with him reversed all those feelings she angrily wrote down. her thoughts were interrupted when her phone buzzed beside her pillow.

[unknown] are you up? [chaerin] and this is? [unknown] sunghoon

[slaaverin]

What was it that surprised you about Muse?

I thought Jimin was clearly saying Muse was about his passion for his art. I think it again had a lot to do with performing and not doing a lot of live performances and meeting Army, he more or less says this to Namjoon, and in his letter which is on display at the exhibition. I don’t think it’s as personal he says that too Joon as well. The exhibit intro also focuses on how it was about Jimin finding his artistic vision. He said to Joon that Who was a vehicle to stop and say, wait that’s not what I was feeling, but he was talking about his art. When he said about talking to his friends and they all felt similarly flat, that doesn’t mean in love necessarily, he said it was about passion or life, and as someone who has depression that happens. He also spoke about not always liking his work all of the time. That’s what the album is about to me. In my mind he started writing in 2022, he said he spoke to the members in vegas and they told him to write his feelings, that became Face. The songs he was working on with outside producers is Muse, so essentially it became a second album. All finished in June 2023. Face needed to come first and if you listen start to finish you can hear the story he is telling. As you said Letter being a hidden track is telling, that is a very personal song. Almost too personal.

Muse then starts with Rebirth which is a beautiful song, and almost a literal rebirth from Face, I’d say it’s the only autobiographical song on the album. This is why it leads. With the interlude after it, to structurally separate it from the rest. The circus theme from face continued here, he’s putting on a show, the Smereldo garden marching band , which they tell Loco is a vehicle to help people tell their hidden truths. Loco who Jimin said they picked bc he just got married so could convey the feeling needed. SGMB and the truth untold, a focus of the album, his exhibition being named the same thing. What truth is Jimin actually trying to tell us? What does he say he wants us to misunderstand? To me the only logical explanation is the opposite of what Who is about, if that’s about finding love, maybe Jimin has already found it. The billboard being probably key in this.

However to me, because Jimin said Muse isn’t personally linked, it really is just a good, fun album for Army. Face is deep and personal, Muse is light and relatable. Again in his letter Jimin says he wants to make music for Army. That’s Muse. I think face needed to happen for him, and he didn’t probably expect its success, something he also said in his letter.

Previous anon says about him being in the studio when talking with the producer but it’s not like he’s going to tell a room full of strangers about his personal life. He said it was like they read his diary but that can mean many things, including just being put on the spot having to explain something. He found a song that gave a very universal feeling, which he also says, everyone is alone..well that is a strong statement but not what he meant imo, because not everyone is physically alone, but actually as humans we are alone in the world, we live our own experience, but we seek connection with others. Love is a universal language. When the producers said Jimin couldn’t relate to the feelings of some of the songs, to me again he has no right to divulge any personal information about Jimin, especially not in his absence.

I know full well he cannot declare a love outright, if he said he knows love or has done could you imagine what would happen? but he did say rebirth is about having a crush on someone he fell in love with. This is what I mean about it being the only autobiographical song, one he knows the experience of but couldn’t openly say. One that continues the promise from Letter. The one ft a certain someone.

Oh I was simply surprised because Muse was so different from Face that it took me a bit off-guard at first lol

I agree with your train of thoughts anon. I arrived pretty much to the same conclusions.

Thanks for sharing your view 💜

[starstckrs]

HEY, i think i just saw LYONET ADLER walking down the strip. stop by to catch up and you’ll learn the TWENTY-THREE YEAR OLD is working as a RECORD EXPERT AT SKRATCH RECORDS and lives in CACTUS RIDGE TRAILER PARK. given they are COURAGEOUS but IMPETUOUS, it’s likely that they ARE NOT a vampire. i bet you can find them tearing up the dance floor to BULLET WITH BUTTERFLY WINGS BY THE SMASHING PUMPKINS and you’ll know why they’re called THE OPERATIC SKELETON.  ☾ .⭒˚ saylor curda. demi woman + she/they. bisexual biromantic + aquarius.

╰ * STATS. ╰ *PINTEREST. ╰ * PLAYLIST.

TW: parental death, teen pregnancy + drug mention

FEBRUARY 11TH, 1973: lyonet chayse mercer is born alongside her sister. their mother disappears before she can recall her face, and their father is the first person to love them wholly.

OCTOBER 15TH, 1978: at five years old, after an idyllic childhood, lyonet watches her father wither away painfully slow. she can remember all the nights they stayed up late because she and her twin begged for another story; one more sonnet, one more song. she can't imagine a life without him - all that would be left of him on earth was her, her twin, and their older half - brother. that isn't enough. it will never be enough.

DECEMBER 17TH, 1978: after her father passes, she watches her paternal grandparents accept her older brother while she and her twin are pulled into the black hole that is the foster system. keeping them together is at first a priority, but with how much of a menace they are as a pair, it isn't long before they're separated, too.

JULY 2ND, 1981: she finds herself sheltered and fed by three different families all before she's ten years old. she has no real sense of direction as a child—mostly because she has proven to be difficult; much more hyperactive than anticipated, unwilling or unable to focus on simple tasks, and not to mention the insufferable volume she keeps her squeaky little voice at no matter where she goes. like if a blown out speaker was a little girl, someone said once, except this one just keeps getting louder.

NOVEMBER 24TH, 1987: she's fourteen years old when she thinks she’s found her forever family. the blake’s are wealthy and generous, a rare pairing for the monetarily endowed. though she considered herself lucky to have the kind of privilege she's always dreamed of, she had felt more like a dress-up doll than she did someone’s child. at fifteen, the charade stops being fun.

MARCH 13TH, 1988: she has developed more than half the girls in her grade, garnering the attention of men she hasn’t even considered lending a passing glance due to their age differences. as unwelcome as it is initially, she can't resist feeling a strange, twisted sense of delight in knowing that she levies more power over people than she had once thought. she applies these skills first at school, tossing her honey blond hair over her shoulders absentmindedly in class, curling and stretching bubblegum around her forefinger at lunch, laughing at nothing, smiling at everything. what she doesn't know is how much her behavior will shape the rest of her life.

JUNE 20TH, 1988: she has decided on keeping her school reputation and home life strictly separate. until she can't anymore. after puking her brains out for a week and skipping school, she forces herself to take a pregnancy test, and the results is a bright pink positive. upon coming home from school the next day, her foster father has discovered the test before proceeding to first verbally berate lyonet, until her snide comments escalate him into a blind rage. by the time the beating ends, she is collapsed on the marble floors, burdened with a terrible stomach ache and spitting up blood onto her freshly ironed school uniform.

AUGUST 30TH, 1988: now four months pregnant and starting to show, lyonet is transferred into the adler's custody. she's hesitant of them at first, unsure how to feel about a new family considering the way the last one treated her - but, much to her surprise, they end up being the saving grace lyonet needs to survive the next eighteen years.

FEBRUARY 19TH, 1989: marceline 'mars' adler is born on the very same day lyonet signs adoption papers, mere hours after they leave the courthouse.

APRIL 4TH, 1992: she has five siblings to idolize, each of them as complex as they are lovable, and she can swear they are the only things that had pushed her through the remainder of high school and supported her through a breakdown preceding graduation that would give their stamp of approval on a bipolar diagnosis - narrowly avoiding an inpatient stay. although, they can’t protect her from everything, including that of herself. about two months into college, she harbors a deep-seated and deeply committal love for cocaine.

SPRINGTIME, 1996: she keeps it a secret; when she overdoses once in a frat house basement, when she drops out of those boring college classes, when she moves back home and rents a trailer in cactus ridge, and still now. she works a comfortable, if not slightly unfulfilling and mundane, job at skratch records and bides her time reading comics and practicing guitar alongside raising her daughter.

🎸 tidbits !!

has a penchant for the color red ( her main color ) and dresses in a kaleidoscope of stripes, vibrant shirts, long skirts and high top converse.

is in a band called pet salamander with her closest friends and is very proud of it. trying to find an agent currently

always has dyed highlights, cycles between hot pink, teal, and crimson red.

smokes more than you'd think; if she doesn't have access to coke or any pills, you'll find her chain smoking.

got caught high by her older sister reina and it remains a tense spot in their relationship, is always figuring out how to keep her quiet about it.

has adult braces that she could finally afford at the age of twenty - one. likes to choose either rainbows for the bands ( she ignores the connection to her sister ) or a red and black combo.

adorns bandaids on her fingers, hands and arms 24/7 due to her being totally uncoordinated in the kitchen and also having a habit of winding up in trouble and getting hurt.

[chimerafflesia]

big day in the chimerafflesia cinematic universe, today makes one year since I decided to watch Arc-V !!!

oh me from march 3rd, 2024 at 8:49 PM you truly had no idea the journey this was gonna set you on.

I always celebrate my anniversary of geting into yugioh as a whole (that's in april) but god arcv has been so life changing and such a presence in my life I want to acknowledge it separately as well. I feel like there's a lot I wanna say but mostly I'm just grateful. yugioh has had such a wonderful impact on my life since the day I got into it, and it changed my life to a degree no other piece of media has done before. and I feel like arcv alone did that again. it truly took me on a ride. yeah yeah arcv is a mess its a dumpster fire we've all heard it but it's MY FAVORITE hot mess. <3 I ❤️ this painfully mid media with my entire being. like with all things yugioh I truly feel it came into my life when I needed it.

I feel like there's a lot I wanna say and I'm kinda blanking because I'm writing this before work but I'm just really happy I watched it. (still haven't quite stopped watching it) it became my favorite yugioh spinoff because it just captivates me that much. I love all the characters to death and I love (and hate) the story but I think that's what makes it so fun. 2024 was a famously Not Great year and to have something like this show to fall back on and just sink into for a little while really helped me. thank god we had three !!! arcv duel links events last year. divine timing I think (especially on one of them. we know which one).

arcv inspires me to create !!! that's so huge !!! I had not written anything for a very long time and in the past year alone I have written thousands of words based off this silly show and idk man that's kinda huge for me. a lot of it is mishmash or scrapped fics that just sit in my google doc but they're still important to me nonetheless.

this tweet is from early june of last year and it's like oh buddy you have No Idea. ❤️

AGH man what else can I say!!! I just really love this show and I'm so glad I watched it!!! it's hard to believe it's been a year already. time flies so fast. I hope to continue sharing my joy and love for this show for a long long time and I'm not stopping anytime soon. happy anniversary to me and this show. it changed my life and it means the world to me. :') ❤️🖤💙💜 🩷🩵💜💚

[foxes-that-run]

Harry Styles and Taylor Russell (Tarry) timeline

2023

12-17 June - Taylor Russell at one of Harry's Wembley dates, we don't know which. The photos were provided of her sitting with Jeff, Xander and Jacquelyn on 19 January 2024

24 June - Taylor Russell and Harry leaving art gallery in London.

6 July - Taylor Russell seen walking with Harry and in the Vienna HSLOT show in VIP tent.

8 July - Taylor Russell and Travis Kelce spotted at Harry and Taylors concerts respectively. ….on the same day.

11 July Harry and TR by a hotel pool and Barcelona airport

23 July - With Brad at Love on Tour

10 August - 1989 TV announced and Harry goes to Taylor Russell's play on the same day, 9 August in US. Gemma and her partner there

25 August - they walked all the time in London

28 August - Harry attends Taylor Russells play more on closing night 7 October,

7 September - They passed Sigel Rides walking Root... Taylor Russells dog who disappeared as quickly as it appeared when she went to NY.

13 September - H seen near TRs play

27 September - They were seen riding Lime Bikes then while Walking TR reached for Harry's hand and he switched the side he was holding his coffee.

29 September - Harry and his dad at Taylor Russells play. TR went to Fashion week and wore a weird metal coat. Harry stayed in London. A story that he drove to pick her up from the Train Station and got a parking ticket.. except there were no photos and (as at June 2024) he has not been seen driving since December 2022. "An onlooker told The Sun on Sunday's Bizarre column: "Harry quickly parked up on the double yellows. You could tell he didn’t want to be late for Taylor after her long train journey so he quickly dashed into the station.""

8 October - Harry at the after part of the Effect in London

23 Oct - video of HS & TR in cafe.

3 November - Harry in Vancouver with TR, head covered. Left a note for a restaurant they visited and ate donuts on a dock.

9 November - Video of Harry’s buzz cut from 8 days earlier posted during U2 concert, same day it is reported TK will go to the Eras tour.

1 December - Deux Moi reports that Harry and TR are expecting, Taylor and Joe had a ceremony. Tree ends Deux.

2 December - Harry and TR rumoured split. Article deleted the next day possibly as it identifies TRs hotel

3 December Daily Mail reports TR and HS are in crisis then takes the article down.

11 December - distant photo of Harry and Taylor Russell in Italy from the 7th posted to HS news. Rumored to have been in Italy for weeks with Alessandro Michelle

26 December - Harry seen with TR at a pond in England wearing only underpants and a Eagles beanie

2024

3 January - Harry in the Caribbean with TR.

17 January - Deux Moi H LA 6 - 16 January

19 January - a photo of TR with Jeff at LOT Wembley last June.

20 January - Joe, TR and Zayn at Loewe show at Paris FW, some guy gives TR a neck rub.

26 January - Harry and TR seen in London Together, again riding bikes and dinner.

14 February - Blind item that TR is calling paps, they are then not seen together again for a month.

3 March - TR play opens in NY, Harry doesn’t go. He was in L.A.

8 March - Harry back in London, TRs play was on from 3-31 in NY, Harry did not attend. Pleasing ‘Single at last’.

14 March - Harry backstage at Mitch’s show in NY!! TRs play was on 10 mins away, she came after, arriving at 9:30/10, they left before encore with TR look to be arguing. TR did not attend Mitches show, her play was on. A photo leaked of Harry at the start of the show and TR came before it ended. Harry left with her, a crowd yelled her name and it looked like they argues in the car. Harry was walking alone an hour later. First time seen in a month.

15 March -Harry walking around NY with TR and separately with Maxwell Ritz. And at the white cube gallery.

17 March - Harry in Brooklyn at townhouse with TR with bag, last sighting for another month. Fashion spread about it.

19 March - Harry returns to London. TRs play on till 31, did not go

26 March - TR VF article where she says “My work is the most interesting thing to me, so that’s what I’ll say about that.” And talks about finding safety for herself, in August she talked about safety within a relationship.

1 April - TR Columbia

15 April - Harry & TR Japan sighting. 

19 April - TTPD, Harry seen in Japan.

20 April - Harry seen in Japan with TR, TR seen at airport on 24th last TR sighting w H. Later reports broke up then.

29 April - Harry seen in London

6 May - Harry on a lime bike London not with TR at met gala.

14 May - Deux Moi reports Tarry ended

15 May- Harry at Kacey Musgrave concert alone

19 May Harry and TR broke up last month: Sun & Mirror

20 May - tarry break up picked widely, rumor Harry in Italy

21 May - Harry seen in Italy.

23 May - Harry went kitchenware shopping in Rome wearing a Blur ‘modern life is rubbish’ he also wore in 2014.