#GO CHECK TENACIOUS OUT FOLKS

[horriblegoosefest]

The goose is almost here!!! 🪿

Rummage around in those folders you haven’t opened in years, dust off the cobwebs, and bring some life back to your most abandoned works. You said you’d come back to it again one day, but the days turned to years, and – what’s that I hear?

H-O-N-K, we will finish a wip today! 

H-O-N-K, write it or I won't go away! 

What is the horrible goose fest?

The horrible goose fest is borne from the many cries for accountability from fandom creators and the wish that someone hound them (or honk at them) into finishing their wips. This is a partnered fest in which one partner (creator) commits to finishing a work-in-progress and one partner (goose) commits to providing dedicated accountability. 

Great, how does it work? 

There are no prompts in this fest. It's designed to help you finish those languishing drafts and build relationships with other folks in the fandom. You can sign up as a creator and/or a goose. If signing up as a creator, you are committing to finishing an existing work-in-progress (fic, art, podfic, translation) that is not affiliated with other current fest collections or prompts/self-prompts (wips from past fest drops are fine!) If your work-in-progress is already posted to ao3, we will ask you to hide it by adding it to a private collection for the duration of the fest; it will be revealed with everyone's works during the posting period. Creators will upload their finished works to the fest’s ao3 collection. 

If you sign up as a goose, you are committing to frequent check-ins with your creator to help them finish their work in progress. This will involve ongoing discussions with your creator about their progress and deadlines. You're not expected to alpha or beta their work. Think of yourself as a particularly tenacious cheerleader. You are also committing to writing a thoughtful rec of the work upon its completion, which will be posted on tumblr.

How do I sign up?

All participants will sign up by filling out a form on airtable. You can choose your own partner to sign up with, or be paired with a partner by the mods. Participants must be 18+. Due to modly time constraints, we will be capping the number of fic sign-ups at 35. There will be no limit for art or podfic.

If signing up to be paired with a partner, sign up forms will be used to help the mods best match pairs. All HP fandom ships and characters are welcome. Creators will detail their wip plans and accountability needs. Gooses will detail their accountability style and preferred time/frequency commitment – how often and for how long can you check in, are you strict or more of a softie, what strategies and advice can you provide your creator? The form will also have a space for geese and creators to share ship preferences and squicks. We will try our best to match compatible creator/goose pairs, but as with any paired fest, you'll also need to be open, flexible, and friendly.

Can I sign up as both?

Sure! But be aware of the time commitment of both roles and be mindful of what you can realistically handle. Your partner is counting on you! 

What if there are more geese than creators? Or more creators than geese?

If we have an imbalance, and you are a good fit for more than one creator/goose, you may be assigned more than one participant to work with. We will do our best to take into account your time commitment and preferences, so please let us know in the sign up if you are willing to be paired more than once! For fairness reasons, if you are a creator assigned two geese, the two geese will collaborate on a single rec of your work at the end of the fest. You are always welcome to assemble your own team of additional cheerleaders if you’d like <3

If I'm a goose, do I have to be horrible?

The title is jokey. We're not really encouraging anyone to be unkind. Think of a goose as an accountability partner. We're hearing from lots of creators that deadlines and kind but firm expectations are what really get them across the finish line. Goosing is a big job, but in the end we're all rewarded with more works to enjoy! 

What if there’s an issue with my pairing?

To avoid this as much as possible, we encourage folks to sign up as an already-formed pair. Prior to matching, we will share a list of the participants who have signed up. Feel free to use this to form your own pairs. We will be running a discord to facilitate participants getting to know each other. Please remember to be kind, and if someone’s wip really catches your eye, don’t be afraid to reach out - they may be eyeing you!

That said, we know this might be stressful for some, so we are happy to pair you. If you have any concerns with regards to matching, or at any point throughout the fest, please reach out to us. Our goal is to make the fest a safe space for all participants in accordance with our expectations below. 

Speaking of kindness, what are the other expectations in this fest?

We ask that participants generally abide by sals, kink-tomato, and dldr, but also, in recognition of the ways these rules have been used to silence poc voices in fandom, you may be asked to tag content beyond ao3's major trigger warnings or the fandom typical disclosure of sexual acts and violence, such as racist tropes/triggers. Refusal to tag sensitive content may result in your fic being pulled from the fest. If you have questions about what kinds of content we'll ask you to tag or want a sensitivity read for your content, please contact the mods, we really are happy to help!

There will be email check-ins throughout the fest. Make sure to add our email, horriblegoosefest@gmail.com, to your contacts to ensure you receive these communications. Please only reply via email, not via tumblr, discord or any other messaging service. Please send any questions about the fest to horriblegoosefest@gmail.com or #mod-help channel in the fest discord (do not contact individual mods). 

We will post small (optional) challenges and games to participate in during the fest to hype everyone up. These will be posted in the discord server and on tumblr, so make sure you join the server and follow @horriblegoosefest on tumblr! 

Submission info:

There is no word count minimum but we do ask that you submit one fic, artwork, or podfic. Fics should be beta-read. Remember that geese are not required to beta (although they can if they'd like to). Podfics and translations must have either blanket permission or consent from the original authors to be included in the fest.

Works can be submitted in any language. There will be a space on the sign up form to let us know what language you intend to post. If our mod team is not fluent in your chosen posting language we will contact you to discuss options to help us make sure works are beta read and tagged according to fest guidelines. You may be asked to include a disclaimer that the mods are unable to guarantee comprehensive tagging. 

Creators will submit works to an ao3 collection and the following header information should be emailed to the mods. Multi-chapter works will be revealed on a single posting day. As the fest deadline nears, geese will write a celebratory rec of their creator’s work, which will be posted to tumblr. We are happy to provide guidance on writing a rec if you need it.

Header for Fic:

Title:

Creator:

Pairing(s):

Rating:

Word Count:

Warnings/Content: (content warnings as well as general fic tags/enticements go here!)

Summary:

[explosivecoffee]

tag people you want to get to know better

tagged by @si-lantro

last song: Tenacious D's cover of "...Baby one more time". I didn't expect it to go as hard as it did, but it's stuck in my head now lmao

currently watching: mostly stuff on youtube (if I somehow don't get bored and swap to a different one barely a minute in), currently it's highlights of Jerma's Elden Ring playthrough.

three ships: I genuinely don't know enough media to comment lmao, and also cause I don't often get too invested or bothered about ships (and the bloody ass discourse associated with them) in general. But uh, let's try based on what I can name off the top of my head. Yor/Loid (mate, I blame you specifically for the Spy X Family posts that got me curious in the first place), Sypha/Trevor and uh, Aylin/Isobel. I'm also a sucker for the wholesome, supportive types if I can actually remember them.

favorite color: mostly dark and warm colours? Like a burgundy or deep violet.

currently consuming: (as of writing) apple and pear crumble with ice cream

first ship: HMM, I don't actually remember, cause see reasoning about ships above. I don't think much now, let alone a kid. Guess the closest back then was thinking how the dynamics between Zuko and Katara seems to have more potential to explore than Aang and Katara. Close second was I guess the dynamics between Teen Titan's Robin and Raven.

place of birth: a hospital that no longer exists in the capital, either taken over by another place or just shut down, couldn't recall.

current location: in a gremlin den (my room).

relationship status: been single for basically all three decades of existence, probably too lazy for my own good to bother but never also felt the need for it (as nice as the idea of being in a relationship is). The closest attempt was a mutual from a discord server who started showing manipulative man-child (with yellow fever) bullshit not only ruined a decent chunk of my final year in my masters but also my interest to even bother trying again.

last movie: Oppenheimer (the fact other disarmament folks I know speak of this kinda got me to check it out lol, even if it was pretty long)

currently working on: drafting more art-related stuff, and prepping notes for an interview with a uni student (over a policy that was like from 4 years ago).

I tag..uh, mutuals who are interested? Now go!

[quilloftheclouds]

I can't say exactly why, but I kinda associate you with tenacious-scripturient. Maybe it's also because I discovered their blog because you won this song giveaway? I hope my mind is not making this up now haha... but yeah :D

[Tell me what users you associate me with!]

Ahhh!! @tenacious-scripturient IS SO COOL.

Yes yes!! They wrote a song for Colin from OSS when I won one of their giveaway raffles, and I’m heckin’ just. Obsessed with it? THEIR SINGING AND COMPOSING SKILLS ARE WONDERFULLY FANTASTIC. I originally stumbled across Tyler’s blog after checking out who was to blame for the reams of likes that were filling my notes. akshadkljsdlgk I’M SO GLAD I DID BECAUSE TYLER IS AWESOME. The Eternity’s Magic is so marvelous and I love their descriptive writing style and how relatable and fun their characters are! Wyatt is my sunshine boy. >u

[mediumsizetex]

Listen/purchase: The Dust Car Dash - Charity Grand Prix by Dustcar Racing Syndicate

All proceeds from this album will go to Tenacious Unicorn Ranch! Tenacious Unicorn Ranch is a trans owned and operated alpaca ranch in Southern Colorado that acts as a safe haven for trans & other queer folk. As we have a similar love of Trans folk & Ungulates, we picked them to be the ones we help out with this charity album release! Check them out at  twitter.com/TenaciousRanch/  or tenaciousunicornranch.com

Album cover art by Ali Wormologist

[beansbeware]

Beans’ Bagginshield Recs

Here it is! My first rec list eight years since I first started shipping Bagginshield. When this lockdown started (and ended and started again) I found myself re-reading OG/classics and discovering new ones. Sifting through my AO3 history I realized I have read and already forgotten so much fic over the years. For a while, I though the ship had run its course but as we can see now, Bagginshield lives! Check back for updates as I discover (and remember) more fics. Pay attention to the tags and trigger warnings! 

AU

I Sang In My Chains Like The Sea by orphan_account for lincesque, IronPanda

In which Bilbo is a Jaeger pilot candidate, and Middle Earth stands on the brink of destruction. (Pacific Rim AU) [Wasn’t sure how this one worked but man it did]

At the Turn of the Year by northerntrash

They say that strange things live in the woods, fair folk and things more spirit than man; don't step between the old oaks, parents mutter to their children, or they might find you, and eat you. Thorin never believed that, but now winter is settling into his bones, the shadows are growing longer through the hoar frost, and he is lost among the trees.

And it was there that Thorin met him, that strange, laughing creature, walking barefoot through the bracken.

Canon-ish

Homeward Bound by perkynurples for 61Below

His life slips away from him on an elven boat carrying him overseas, and there is one last journey Bilbo Baggins must take if he truly means to arrive home.

Sansûkh by determamfidd

The battle was over, and Thorin Oakenshield awoke, naked and shivering, in the Halls of his Ancestors.

The novelty of being dead fades quickly, and watching over his companions soon fills him with grief and guilt. Oddly, a faint flicker of hope arises in the form of his youngest kinsman, a Dwarf of Durin's line with bright red hair.

(Follows the story of the War of the Ring).

The Great Shire Conspiracy by Avelera for Emsiecat

Ten years later, Bilbo can't even go to the Green Dragon without a dwarven tourist buying him a beer and sobbing over Bilbo's great tragic love affair with Thorin Oakenshield. Which would all be quite touching and heartbreaking, if not for one little thing...

Dark (generally not a fan but this one made the cut)

Pain-Bearer by lilithiumwords (unfinished)

In an alternate reality, Erebor was never taken by Smaug, and the War of Dwarves and Orcs never happened. The Orcs invaded the Shire, slaughtering hundreds and taking countless more as slaves. Bilbo is slave to Azog, the Dwarf King's mortal enemy... until the Dwarf King rescues him.

Dwarves! in the Shire

Selling to Hobbits by HildyJ 

Exiled from his kingdom and living on the mercy of others, Thorin is determined to make his own way in the world for him and his family. And the annual Summer Fair in Hobbiton sounds like the best place to sell enough of his crafted goods to do just that.

Oak and Mistletoe by HildyJ (series)

After a life dominated by a strange form of sickness, Thorin is sent to the Shire to seek a cure only Bilbo Baggins can offer.

Erebor - Nope, Never Fell 

A Most Sensible Idea by HildyJ

Bilbo Baggins isn't sure about this. Not one bit.

Frodo is definitely too young to enter into an arranged marriage with a dwarven king called Thorin Oakenshield. It's a good thing that Bilbo is there to chaperone him through their courtship.

After all, there's no chance that a fussy hobbit bachelor would ever catch the eye of a king.

Signs and Meanings by HildyJ

It shouldn't matter to Thorin that the visiting hobbit cook doesn't speak his language. But it does.

Per Aspera by northerntrash

Deep in the dungeons of the Kingdom of Erebor, in an old, unused storeroom, lived a Hobbit.

In which Bilbo Baggins, a strangely successful thief, makes a mistake, and meets a Prince.

Erebor - Rebuilding

Mother-Tongue by northerntrash for HildyJ

Forget-me-not: a small flower, with four petals, which are normally found in shades of blue with a pink or white centre. These are traditional flowers of intent in the Shire, used to express true love, and remembrance.

In which Bilbo plans to leave Erebor, and Thorin tries to understand why.

Previous Engagements by Lunarflare14

After the Battle of Five Armies Thorin and Company have a new task: rebuilding their reclaimed home. Suddenly Bilbo finds himself up to his ears in responsibility and he surprises himself with how well he can navigate negotiations with elf dignitaries, farmers in Dale, and a dwarf king who has patience for neither.

But as Spring approaches a caravan from the Blue mountains brings something everyone had nearly forgotten: the dwarf woman Thorin promised his hand to many years ago.

Which is fine. It's all fine. It wasn't like Bilbo was falling in love with the king or anything.

That would be tragic.

And I'm Your Lionheart by Lee_Whimsy

Bilbo lingers in Erebor while Thorin recovers from his wounds, and soon finds himself caught up in politics, romance, and the occasional kidnapping. Ensemble cast. AU. Eventually Thorin/Bilbo.

Fix-Its (Gawd we need them)

An Expected Journey by MarieJacquelyn

For years Bilbo has written about his adventures and told stories about his dealings with dwarves and dragons. To most it seemed like fanciful nonsense but to Bilbo it was all very real. A weight followed him home from his travels, one called regret. Now in his final moments Bilbo has a choice to make – go quietly into death’s embrace or go back again and face all the fear and pain for the chance to make things right?

Of course, change is a fickle thing and not everything can be done again as Bilbo is about to find out. In the end, it may not only be salvation that he’s fighting for.

though the stars walk backward by baggvinshield, killaidanturner

Bilbo wakes, always in Erebor, with dark shadows to one side and the first light of a terrible dawn to the other.

An Expected Journey by MarieJacquelyn

For years Bilbo has written about his adventures and told stories about his dealings with dwarves and dragons. To most it seemed like fanciful nonsense but to Bilbo it was all very real. A weight followed him home from his travels, one called regret. Now in his final moments Bilbo has a choice to make – go quietly into death’s embrace or go back again and face all the fear and pain for the chance to make things right?

Of course, change is a fickle thing and not everything can be done again as Bilbo is about to find out. In the end, it may not only be salvation that he’s fighting for.

Over Your Shoulder by northerntrash

The battle is over, and the lost have been counted. There is too much death, too much blood, and in the middle of it sits one small Hobbit, left quite alone but for a body on the ground and the memory of what might have been. But he is a tenacious creature, and if there is one thing that he has learnt, it is not to give up hope.

In which Bilbo Baggins goes on one last journey, and doesn't come back alone.

Historical Setting

The Ghost And Mr Baggins by perkynurples

They say that everything can be cured by saltwater - sweat, tears or the sea. Bilbo Baggins chooses the last option, taking his recently orphaned nephew and moving to the charming Oak Cottage, overlooking England’s grislier shores. The house charms him instantly, and though he knows nothing at all about the sea, or about making ends meet on his own so far from everything he’s known his whole life for that matter, he’s quite determined to stay, and see his nephew get better, odd sounds in the night be damned. He’s living in a modern world, after all, and the nonsense he’s been hearing about the house being haunted by its former owner, the mysterious Captain Durin, is just silly superstition… isn’t it?

Hobbit! Thorin

I've Grown a Hedge Around My Heart by pibroch (littleblackdog)

Thorin Brandybuck, just recently come of age, still lives in his family’s smial in Buckland, with his parents and two younger siblings. Thorin is an odd duck amongst his relations and neighbours-- unsociable, grumpy, shy, and awkward. And beyond that, he looks rather strange even for a Bucklander, strongly favouring the thick, dark haired build of his Stoorish blood.

It defies all sense and reason why Bilbo Baggins, an exemplar of all the respectable traits Thorin lacked, would ever desire a friendship with him.

Bilbo, as Thorin discovers, is not always as sensible as he appears.

Marriage (or something like it)

An Unexpected Proposal by Eareniel

As Bilbo sat smoking in his empty hobbit hole, he couldn’t help but wonder – when did his life become so boring? Or better yet – when did his old life stop being enough?

He suspected the answer to that question lay somewhere around the time when he had refused Thorin Oakenshield’s offer of marriage.

Something Blue by Lapin

Thorin marries Bilbo after the Battle of Five Armies, a marriage of convenience, not love. Slowly, they must come to make the best of it, Bilbo resolves. After all, he's a Hobbit. They make the best of things.

Magical/Super Powers

On Adventures and Other Forms of Conduct Unbecoming of a Wizard by manic_intent for beingevil

For as long as even the old Gaffer could remember there had been a wizard living in the hill at Bag End, overlooking the Shire. As wizards went, this one wasn't the wandering sort, always out to lure gentle folk out onto nasty adventures, or even the powerful kind, the sort that lived in high towers, reaching out into the ways of the world.

Modern Setting

Old Stone, New Fires by northerntrash

Bilbo was not sure what he had expected when he had agreed to supervise the restoration of Erebor House, on the lonely tidal island in the North sea, but it was not this. The winters up here are cold and harsh, and there is a strange feeling on the air, thick with the brine of the sea and secrets to which he is not privy; there is some part of the long and troubled history of the place that has not been spoken of, a shadow between the broken family gravestones and the caves beneath the cliffs, dark and dangerous.

Perhaps it is all in Bilbo’s mind, but as the nights grow longer, he starts to doubt it, and as Thorin sinks ever deeper into black and incalculable moods, he will have to find what has been lost, before it takes them all.

For This by northerntrash

Thorin Durin had lived in his new flat for approximately eighty four minutes when things started to go terribly, terribly wrong. The wrongness came in the form of a package, delivered to his door, wrapped in brown paper and string, with a small tag wishing him a very sincere welcome to the building.

Nothing Gold Can Stay by perkynurples

Bilbo Baggins led a rather peaceful life, thank you very much, until an old acquaintance decided to turn it upside down, and he found himself agreeing to take a job that’s… let’s say not exactly up his alley, and might eventually cost him a little more than his treasured cozy lifestyle. Who would have thought tutoring a slightly menacing monarch’s more than slightly overbearing nephew could prove to be such an adventure?

Love-In-Idleness by perkynurples

Taking Bilbo Baggins, a successful movie actor who is only just getting used to the perks and intricacies of becoming A Face People Want To See, and putting him together with Thorin Oakenshield, with his very traditional (read: slightly backwards) ideas about what constitutes Real Art and Real Talent, might very well be viewed as just some clothead’s idea of a joke. But there are jokes, and then there are carefully calculated risks the size of controversial reproductions of classic Shakespearean plays - for Bilbo, it is the chance of a lifetime to prove himself to all those who have ever deemed him too one-dimensional to even attempt stage, while Thorin has the opportunity to get out of the rut that’s been hindering his career for so long now, and shine in a role worthy of his talent once again. That is if the two learn how to share the same space for more than ten minutes without wanting to tear each other’s hair out. The course of true love never did run smooth, after all…

If There Were Water by stickman

Bilbo Baggins might be in over his head. He’s purchased an old stone house atop a hill overlooking a city he doesn’t know, and plans to live quietly, largely ignoring the rest of the world. But it’s early April, the rainy season, and the roof leaks, and there's something strange about Bywater House that he can't quite figure out.

Thorin Oakenshield is in his fourth month of trying to reconcile his own grief with his failures at anything remotely resembling a competent single parent, living out of a shoebox flat with Fíli (seven, sullen, and stubborn as hell) and Kíli (five, resilient but cracking), working crap jobs and hating everything including himself.

Under the cover of rainy afternoons and sleepless nights, roof repairs and building restoration, Bilbo and Thorin try to figure out how one navigates isolation, and how one breaks out of it. Every step they manage to take forward finds them dragged back again; every question asked has too many answers, or too few. This is a story about living in a world where everyone is on their own, always, and how things go on.

How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us by stickman

Bilbo is a harried 1st year British literature Ph.D. (early 20th century fiction) who happens to have an interest in spatial narrative structures, a lack of time-management skills, and a tiny apartment with a lot of books and very little furniture. He’s stressed, always, and doesn't quite know where he belongs. He tells himself that really, this is, in fact, what he wants to be doing. But sometimes, as much as he loves books, he gets an urge to do something with his hands.

Thorin is a disgruntled M.Arch. 1 in his last year who can’t be arsed to shave and frightens his students, and, frankly, his profs, but his work is top-notch so no one can really say much. They can, however, bully him into running a hands-on design workshop on Saturday mornings, which is complete crap, because he’s used to drinking his Friday nights into oblivion so showing up at Milstein at 7:45 the next morning and trying to teach in a room of wall-to-wall windows as the sun rises is not at the top of his list. Besides, no one ever shows up.

Except one morning, someone does.

The Boy You Met (At The Coin Laundry) by Lee_Whimsy

Bilbo accidentally spends a summer in Ireland. One rainy day, Thorin appears in the hotel laundry room, naked and dripping wet and about to propose. (But not, unfortunately, to Bilbo.)

Gandalf, Thranduil, and a handful of Spanish footballers all guest-star.

Hooked On You by Chamelaucium

Thorin should have learnt not to trust his brother and sister by now.

Come with us on holiday, they’d said. It’ll be fun, they’d said. A nice break from work.

Yeah right. All this holiday had brought him was being knocked around the head, acute hay-fever, and the biggest, most ridiculous crush ever on the cute, golden-haired fishing instructor.

One-Sided Conversations by northerntrash

"Thank you for listening," Thorin said, getting to his feet. "I hope to be able to return the favour, one day."

The man on the bed didn't respond, but since he'd been in a coma for longer than Thorin had known him, that wasn't entirely surprising.

“One”/Soulmates

you lick your lips (you taste like years of being alone) by perkynurples for stopchasingflowers

Thorin Oakenshield was born without the longing, and has spent his whole life merely observing others as they pursued a feeling unknown to him until they finally found their One. He has made his peace with the prospect of being alone, and has been faring well enough, but little does he know the fates have a different story in store for him.

Things We Grow Together by serenbach

Dwarves are born with a bone-deep knowledge of their One, but Thorin stops feeling the pull of his after the dragon attacks Erebor. Needless to say, he is surprised, and not initially pleased, to find his One living behind a round green door decades later.

Hobbits find a seed that represents their innermost self and can offer it to someone else to plant. This creates a bond as strong as deep roots in the earth between them. It is just like Bilbo, after years of thinking that no one would want his, to offer his soul-seed to a dwarf that does not understand gardening metaphors.

But just because they have found each other does not make the quest to reclaim Erebor any easier, and in the end a sacrifice is still made.

Thorin has to trust in the strength of the bond between himself and his One, because otherwise he will never believe that the sacrifice was worth it.

Colour-struck by northerntrash

Soul mates are like adventures, Bilbo had often consoled himself. Nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable things that made you late for dinner. It was no great hardship that he had never met his, even if he couldn't tell which of his petunias were blue and which were purple.

Quest-ions

Discovering Mr Baggins by Eareniel

The story of a Hobbit, told through the eyes of the dwarves.

Thorin Oakenshield's Majestic Diary by Fruitsie

Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain and Totally Majestic Badass of Middle Earth, does not have a raging hard-on for Bilbo Baggins.

No, seriously.

Just read his diary.

Call You Home by northerntrash

In which the Company are entirely too nosy about matters that are supposed to be a secret, and Bilbo learns that being concerned about propriety is overrated when you could be making friends instead.

Time Travel (because walking Middle Earth is not enough)

Of an Arcane Binding by Salvia_G

An inexplicable magic ties Bilbo Baggins, hobbit of the Shire, to Thorin, dwarven prince of Erebor

[astrowithkaro]

Hey can u do sept 17 for language of birthdays thanks ❤️

Language Of Birthdays: September 17 - Virgo

[You can find the rest of the series here; or check out my masterlist]

The Day Of Perseverance

Whether creative or not, September 17 people are known for their perseverance in achieving goals. Although it may take them many years (they seem to like it that way), they are not only capable of building a career and attaining stature, but also managing to stay on top for some time. Those born on this day are heavies, difficult to get around and even more difficult to suppress. Once their course is set for an objective, no matter how high or humble, they are virtually unstoppable. Although they can be very enthusiastic, for the most part a high seriousness and commitment colours practically everything they do.

Facing obstacles and overcoming them is par for the course for September 17 people. They are not typically ones to crush opposition with a lightning blow, but rather wear their opponents down with relentlessly applied pressure. They themselves operate very well under this same pressure, and are rarely prone to nerves or a fatal lack of self-confidence in critical situations. It follows that they can be relied on to perform in difficult and trying times.

Although they can be creative, most September 17 people are physically tough, admirably stubborn, left-brained logical thinkers; they organize their thoughts consequently, and reason that if A is true then B must of necessity follow. Those born on this day have a strong feeling for justice and a fair settling of disputes, and will not only insist on being treated fairly but also on being recognized for their accomplishments. Not surprisingly, September 17 people can make excellent lawyers or arbiters.

Generally September 17 people favour the status quo, although they may work for gradual change to better existing institutions. Even the most radical people born on September 17 will eventually find their place in the Establishment. Perhaps this is due to their feeling for structure, literal expression, and dislike of disorder and anarchy. Those born on this day can often be found on the side of conservationists who value the preservation of living things and folk traditions.

Despite their conservatism. September 17 people have a strange sense of humour that sets them apart from their fellow man. They are capable of doing the most ordinary things in an eccentric way. Usually they are not as serious as they seem and if in relaxed company can be a lot of fun. They do not reveal this side of themselves spontaneously, however, so particularly those who work with them may never see it.

September 17 people rarely go out of their way to impress, shock or attract others. They are highly self-contained, having little need for the kind of adulation or nursing that could leave them vulnerable to the vagaries of human whims and feelings. For them, emotion is a serious thing, and not to be expressed at the drop of a hat; therefore when they say "I love you" the words carry some significance.

Strengths:

Persistant

Tenacious

Undaunted

Weaknesses:

Conservative

Fixed

Heavy

Advice

Whether September 17 people have sedentary- or dynamic professions, they should engage in quite strenuous physical exercise, since they often have a tendency to gain weight. Cutting back on fats and excessive protein will be vital to their health, particularly if they wish to avoid cardiovascular difficulties. Those born on this day do best when satisfying their sexual needs in a permanent loving relationship. Whenever possible, they should avoid physical and emotional confrontations.

Judging others may be your worst habit: try to be more accepting

Make time for fun; goofiness and silliness are nothing to be afraid of

Get out of the way and let others come through

[storydays]

Season 1, ep 5, p1

You opened your eyes to see a young child running through luscious green gardens. The child was giggling and quickly slid on his stomach to hid underneath a bush. Your sight cleared up a bit to see the child was you, age 5. Younger you peeked out and yelped when you were picked up by large hands, and you heard your father's booming laughter. "Found you, my little waterbender!" Your father turned you upside down and tickled you, making you squeal and cry out, "Uncle! Uncle!"

"All right, Bumi, dear, be careful with him. He just ate lunch." A beautiful (H/c) woman walked over, her short hair flowing in the wind. Your father chuckled, before setting you on his shoulder, and walked over to your mother. "Sorry, love. I couldn't help it! I've missed you both so much." He wrapped his free arm around her waist, and kissed her passionately, making you groan in disgust.

"Ew, Mom, Dad, gross." You stuck your tongue out in disgust. "Oh, what are you talking about gross?" Bumi growled playfully, tickling your sides again. You laugh, and wiggle out of his grip before running to hide behind your mother's leg. You heard your mother giggling which made you suspicious, but shrieked with your mother when you both were in the cold water. You clung to your mom's back, giggling like mad. 

Your father's pale blue eyes sparkled with mischief, while he remained dry on land, laughing so hard, he was clutching his stomach. Your mother tickled your side, your secret signal for getting your father. You both summoned a giant wave and brought your father into the ocean with you. You jumped on his back, and he began swimming around like a polar bear dog, your mother swimming behind you. 

You then wrapped an arm around your mom's neck, and hung between the two adults, and looked at them hopefully. "We'll be like this forever, right?" Your innocent question made their hearts hurt, but they couldn't bring themselves to tell you the truth, not yet. So they held you closer, and smiled . 

"Of course, kiddo." "Yes, my love."

*End vision*

You opened your eyes to see Jinora and Nevermore over you, looking worried for you."(Y/N), are you okay?" Jinora whispered. You looked outside to see it was dark out, meaning you fell asleep reading again. "Hey, 'Nora. Yes, I'm okay. Are you okay?" You sat up, your hair sticking up everywhere and poofy. She giggled, but then looked down at her hands, shyly peeking at you. "I-I had a nightmare, and I can't go to Mom and Dad." 

Nevermore crawled into the little bookworm's lap. "How come you didn't go to Korra?" you wondered. "Because Daddy says that Korra needed to be alone for a little while. Can I sleep with you?" She used her polar bear pup eyes, and you sighed in playful defeat. Lifting your blanket, you silently told her to come under. She snuggled into your side, and Nevermore curled near your heads. 

"Good night, (Y/N)." Jinora whispered. "Good night, Jinora." 

*The next day*

You exhaled sharply, as you wrapped your knuckles up tightly. "It's been great to have you back, Korra." "It feels great to be back, although Tarrlok isn't please with our leaves of absences." Bolin scoffed. "Hey, (Y/N) created the Fire Ferrets and Korra, you joined before you joined his task force." "Okay guys, team huddle." You clapped your hands, making the younger teens walk over and put their hands over each other shoulders. 

Bolin grinned goofily, making Korra grin goofier, and you and Mako glance at each other uneasily before Mako clear his throat before taking over. "It's our first match of the tournament tonight. I know our team has been having some ups and downs for a little while. But even so, the Fire Ferrets have been on top of their game. Are we ready?"

Korra and Bolin echoed: "We're ready!" "Not yet." a sweet voice sung from behind you guys. You broke your group up to see Asami holding up a new uniform. "You'll need these." Mako immediately walked over. "Hey Asami." "Good morning, sweetie." She replied happily, as the firebender admired the outfits. "These new uniforms look great." he complimented. You and Korra looked at each other before rolling your eyes at the 'couple'.

"You look great, champ." Bolin rolled his eyes, Korra gagged when they rubbed noses, and you scowled, but you all fixed yourselves when they turned to you guys. "Well, teammates, I'll see you before the match tonight. Asami and I have a lunch date." "Okay, we'll check with you guys later!" Bolin cheered, waving. "Yeah, see ya when we see ya." You  grumbled, before turning away, and tightening your ponytail. 

You watched Bolin and Korra from the corner of your eye. "Soo, Korra...There they go, here we are. All alone in the gym, just you and me, two people alone. Together, alone." Bolin sputtered when Korra said, "What about (Y/N)?" "(Y/N) doesn't count; you've seen him in matches." You huff a laugh at that.

"Uh..I got to head back to Air Temple to train with Tenzin. See ya!" Korra ran out of their awkwardly. You pat Bolin's shoulder as he pouted in sympathy. "Soo, you like Korra don't you?" you smirked. He laughed, avoiding your gaze. "There's no use hiding it. And guess what, I'll be your wing-man." The Earthbender grinned as you began to explain your plan. 

*That night*

"Work with me, Pabu! You want to look spic and span in your new uniform, don't you?" Pabu chattered angrily as Bolin put him into the warm bath water. Nevermore smirked from the other side of the room, her tail lazily swinging back and forth from your shoulder. "So, what do you think of Korra in a girlfriend sort of way?" Bolin asked outloud.

"Personally, I don't see Korra that way. She's like my little sister, if I'm being honest." You hummed, turning in the mirror to brush your hair out. "She's great, but I think it makes more sense for me to go for Asami." Mako thought aloud, stirring the dinner. Your grip tightened around your brush, as you glared at the Firebender's back.  Bolin was also irritated but for a different reason. 

"I was talking about a girlfriend for me, Mako. Leave some ladies for the rest of us!" Bolin snapped, as Mako realized his mistake. "I know, that's what I thought you meant." "Sure, Mako. That's why you said, 'I'." You said sarcastically. "I don't know, Bo. It doesn't seem like a good idea for you to date Korra." "You just said, she was great two seconds ago." The Earthbender narrowed his eyes at his brother. 

"Yeah, Korra's a great athlete and Avatar and stuff. But I don't know if she's really girlfriend material. She's more like a pal." "A-A pal?" You questioned, turning half away to share a look with Bolin. "Bro, you're nuts. Korra and I are perfect for each other. She's strong, I'm strong. She's fun, I'm fun. She's beautiful, I'm gorgeous." You laugh as he continued. "Okay, I don't care what you think, I'm going to ask Korra out." 

That caught Mako's attention. "Look, it isn't just a smart idea to date a teammate, especially during a tournament. Keep your head out of the clouds and your priorities straight, okay?" Mako turned to finish cooking dinner. "You know what I'm talking about, don't you, Pabu? I'm talking about real love." He whispered to the Fire Ferret.

 You laugh again, putting blue beads in your hair. "Don't worry, Bo. You'll find the right girl one day." You went silent again, watching Mako from the mirror. 'This whole thing with Asami isn't good. Someone is going to get hurt, most likely Asami and/or Bolin. So how....how can I stop it?'

*A few hours later*

You tied your belt around your waist, listening to the announcer talk to the crowd.

"This is it folks, after a year of waiting, the pro bending tournament is finally here. Tonight is the first set of matches in our single elimination, 16 team bracket. And I gotta tell ya, these are the most tenacious and talented bending trios this arena has ever seen. " 

At that point you made it to the platform with your team, and the light shining on you guys. "Introducing our first team, the Future Industries Fire Ferrets." Everyone began cheering, you could even hear Korra in the background cheering. "Yeah, (Y/N)!" You looked into the stands to see Nagisa and Kazan calling you. You didn't know they were coming tonight, but it made your heart happy. 

"You can do it (Y/N)!" Nagisa cheered with Kazan waving from your Aunt Rene's shoulder. You waved back and blew a kiss to your aunt. "And their opponents, the Red Sand Rabbaroos." The crowd cheered louder when the two opposing teams made an explosion right away. "What an explosive opening volley. Both teams recover quickly and unleash a barrage of bending, I am astonished with how amazing the Fire Ferrets have improved! No wonder, Councilman (Y/N) and the Avatar haven't been in the pages lately. They've obviously had their noses to the grindstone in the gym." 

You used your ice to protect Bolin from an incoming Earth disk he wasn't aware of. "The Ferrets advance into Rabbaroo territory and are holding nothing back. Nice sprawl there by Mako, Bolin strikes, Ula dodges and all three Rabbaroos are down! The Fire Ferrets easily take round one, now onto round 2."

You smirk, using the water to knock the Firebender down the back. "The Rabbaroos are looking for payback, and they go after (Y/N). Bolin comes to his rescue, and he Earth disks Umi back into Zone 2! The Ferrets are on fire tonight, and they win round 2!" You, Mako and Bolin high fived each other.

"Round Threeee!" drawled another announcer. "With the Rabbaroos down two rounds, they'll need a knockout to win, and with the way the Ferrets are playing, I don't see that happening." The crowd began booing. You punched the air, making water fly at your opponents. "These Ferrets are moving like an well oiled machine." Bolin grunted as he sent three Earth disks to the opposing firebender, knocking her back. 

"Bolin bashes Adi into Zone 2, and the Ferrets get the green light to advance. The Rabbaroos are just fighting to stay on their feet at this point, down goes Adi, Ula, and Umi." "All three rounds go to the Future Industries Fire Ferrets who win their opening tournament match!" You all cheered, with giant grins on your faces. 

As you all walked back to the room to change, Mako spoke to you, not noticing Korra was there waiting for you guys. "Wow, we were really awesome tonight in that ring. Glad to have you back, (Y/N)." You took your helmet off and grinned wider. "Yeah, it's great to see we haven't lost our spark." Korra came up to you guys with a smile on her face and grinned. "Yeah, you guys were awesome out there!" "Thanks, Korra." Your cheeks were hurting from smiling so much at that point. 

You went behind the curtain to change into your street clothes, hearing Bolin talk to the audience more. Korra seemed to forgot you were in hearing range because as you were getting dressed, you heard her talk to Mako. "So, I've been thinking we should spend some time together." Mako chuckled, "We've been spending lots of time together." "I mean, outside of the gym and not while searching for kidnapped family members, or fighting chi blockers." she clarified. 

"I don't know. Asami and I are--" You almost fell over when you heard Korra say, "Look, I really like you and I think we were meant for each other." 

Silence followed. 

"Korra, I'm really sorry, but I just don--" at that moment you walked out, and cut him off. "Don't think it isn't a good idea to not hang out as friends." "You heard all that?!" Korra asked, blushing a bright red. "Kind of hard when I'm changing in the next room, Kor." "Will you excuse us for a second?" You pulled Mako away from her as Bolin came in. You then pulled Mako's ear, making him groan. 

"Ow, (Y/N)! What was that for?" he demanded. You frown at him, cross your arms and stare him down. "Mako, what in the entire hell is wrong with you?" you countered. "What do you--" "Don't play stupid with me! You don't even love Asami, you're in love with Korra! I don't know what is up with you lately, but you are being a ass! First you try to shoot Bolin down when he asked you for advice about his love life, and now you're trying to shoot Korra down hard." you whispered shouted. 

"Look, Mako, I'm telling you this as your best friend," you placed a hand on his shoulder, making amber eyes look into your (e/c) eyes, "You can't have it both ways. You need to make a decision and make it before anymore people get hurt." You walked away, leaving the firebender to trail behind you. 

"Congratulations, guys! You looked amazing out there." Asami beamed as she came into the room, giving Mako a kiss on the cheek. Mako smiled weakly before looking at a heart broken Korra. You raised an eyebrow at Mako, making him look away in shame before walking away with Asami. 

Rolling your eyes, you sighed aggravated, but felt your mood life as you heard little feet running towards you. "(Y/N)!" Nagisa's body slammed into you, hugging your waist, while Kazan hugged your leg. "Hey guys! It's been a while!" You knelt down to hug the children listening to Bolin ask Korra something.  "So, Korra, I was thinking you and me,we could go get some dinner together. Sort of date situation." 

"Oh, that's really sweet, but I don't think so. I don't feel very date worthy." She said sadly. "Are you kidding me? You're the smartest, funniest, toughest, buff-est, talented-est, incredible-est in the world!" Bolin said, a slight blush on his cheeks. Korra giggled at the Earthbender. "You really feel that way about me?" she asked slightly. 

"I felt that way since the moment I saw you. Trust me,I know we're going to have so much fun together." Bolin encouraged."You know what? I could use some fun. Okay, sure." "Yes! Who's the luckiest guy in the world? Right here, Bolin!" 'Good for you, Bo.' You smiled, zoning back into Nagisa's chattering.

The little girl was talking about how cool it was living with your aunt. "Yeah, Aunt Rene is pretty cool. I like visiting her because she's so much fun." You turned to Kazan and signed, 'What do you think of living with Rene?'  He smiled toothily, and signed back, 'She's really nice! She's a firebender like me, and has been teaching me to use my powers. She also has a waterbender teacher come for Nagi.' Suddenly he frowned, and signed, 'I just wish there were kids my age around. It'd be nice to have other people around besides Ms Rene, Nagisa, and her staff.' 

You hummed, and then brightened up, before turning to your aunt. "Why don't you guys come to Air Temple for dinner? I can cook, and Nagisa and Kazan can meet the Air kids." Rene looked at the two children and smiled. "Sounds good, let's do it." You turned to Kazan and signed,'Well, you are about to get your wish, little dude. You can come meet my cousins.' 

Together you walk out, Kazan riding your back, and Nagisa holding Rene's hand, and chanting, "Food, food, food!"

Neo nuzzled Kazan when he came forward, and you helped Nagisa onto Neo's saddle. "Hold on tight okay, we're going to take the fast way. 

*Timeskip*

You walked into Air Temple and found your family relaxing in the garden, waiting for you to come home. Ikki brightened up and ran over to you, with an excited look on her face. "(Y/N)! How'd it go? Was it super cool? Did you win? Are you going to the next match to-" You cut her off by laughing, and splashing her with a litle bit of water. 

"Hey Cheeky Ikki. Yes it was super cool, we did win, and we're going to the next match. But I have some friends for you to meet first." You went to the side and revealed the shy firebender and excited waterbender. "Hi! I'm Nagisa, and this is my brother Kazan!" Ikki, Jinora, and Meelo looked at the sister brother duo curiously. "Nagisa, Kazan, meet the Airbender family: This is my Auntie Pema, and Uncle Tenzin, and my cousins, Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo. Family, meet Nagisa and Kazan, and you all know my Aunt Rene." 

Rene wrapped an arm around you and smiled. "Cooking competition?" she grinned deviously. "Cooking competition." you agreed. "Yay! On your mark," Meelo started, "Get set," Ikki giggled with Nagisa. "Go!" Jinora cried, as you and your aunt began cooking at a rapid pace. "And done!"

You presented: 

Vegetable curry, for the vegans of the family, while your aunt presented:

Meat surprise for the meat lovers of families. 

"Enjoy!"

[ithinkofnealcassady]

hi! idk if ur taking prompts or anything but can you write something abt peter being (selectively) mute? it can come from him being autistic or as a coping mechanism or however! even better if tony can help overcome it. thank u sm❣️

lemme just preface with the fact that my experiences are not universal and that i didn’t even understand that i’m literally selectively mute until less than a week ago. nevertheless, i hope this fulfills what you wanted <3

---

Peter doesn’t mean to be doing it.

It’s just that he’s been laying flat atop his sheets for almost two hours now, letting the idle spin of the white ceiling fan raise chills on his legs where they jab out of his too-loose boxers.

He’s got an incessant humming at the back of his neck though the rest of him is cavernous and cool. His eyes hurt. He can’t sleep.

He’s snapping one of MJ’s hair ties against the inside of his wrist. It’s supposed to make him come back into his body. It isn’t working. It feels like he’s up there bobbing on the breeze from the fan. Like suspension as a concept is tenuous and there is no webbing and Peter has been freefalling for ages and he still can’t see the ground.

He’d rather splat. He’d rather hit the ground, guts and grime and all, than keep hovering.

Johnny is off doing alien shit. MJ has an internship. May is on a shift. Ned hasn’t answered his texts.

There’s nothing holding him here.

It’s all too easy to let go.

Peter’s vision slips out of focus.

Time moves like ribbon curls and spilled honey; like sanded wood planks and fingerprints smudged on window panes; like the starchy water left after boiling potatoes and wet ink bleeding across the page.

It is all angles and pains and endless fields of undulating wheat, and then it isn’t.

Focus is painfully sharp. He immediately wants to retreat back into himself.

There’s a warm hand on his wrist. Peter fumbles the hair tie. It snaps onto fingers that are not his, rather than the thin skin over his palm.

“Stop that,” says Tony’s gruff voice, “quit it, kid, stop.”

Peter blinks. He turns towards Tony. He doesn’t know why Tony is in his apartment.

“School called,” Tony says, as if he reads minds. “You didn’t show up. They called May, and she called me to come and check on you since her shift isn’t up until twelve.”

Peter looks idly at Tony.

Tony’s hand skims over Peter’s forehead so lightly that Peter isn’t sure it happened. Peter thinks Tony’s palm is shaking. Peter thinks Tony’s eyes look heavy.

“One of those days?” Tony says.

Peter breathes. Somewhere inside his chest the answer is pulsating—it’s grabbing onto his ribs and rattling them like prison bars—but nothing. Nothing rises to his mouth.

Something, some great and primordial It, stoppers his throat, makes him stupid. Helpless. He fucking hates being helpless. All he does is try not to be.

He closes his eyes when his lower lip trembles. His throat is painfully tight. He hates feeling like this. He doesn’t get it. Nothing happened. Why does he feel like he’s sunk a foot into the foam of his mattress.

“Alright,” Tony says. “Hey, okay, I’m here now. We can fix this. I know we can. You know the first step? Because I do and I’m willing to share my answer with the class. Here it is: sit up. That’s the first thing. That’s always the first step. Come on, up, let’s sit up.”

Tony’s hand squeezes Peter’s shoulder three times, fast. Peter pushes himself up. He must. Because he’s sitting. His elbows feel strange. Too big. Too bendy.

“Hey, look at that,” says Tony. “You nailed it. Olympic gold worthy. I’ll contact the YMCA. You need a minute? Let’s take a minute. Step one, done. You earned a minute, I’m—here, scoot. Move that leg, I’m coming in hot like a mofo. Do the kids say that? I think I heard it on a TV show once and, frankly, it baffled me.”

Tony wedges himself onto Peter’s mattress and leans back against the headboard.

Peter looks at him, all decked in a massive hoodie and ratty sweatpants. His face is strange and blurry. Warped like he’s watching the bottom of a swimming pool writhe. Peter feels like he doesn’t recognize Tony. Peter feels like he would recognize Tony blind and backwards and upside down. He does not understand this feeling. It’s infuriating. He wants to reach down his throat and into his chest and pull it out like those clown napkins neatly tied in brightly-colored knots.

Tony sighs, settling against Peter’s pillows.

He gives a good show. As if this is normal. Any of this at all.

Tony turns his head towards Peter, then pats Peter’s cold kneecap.

He turns away again.

Peter thinks that if some magic spell could summon from his chest the sound that has been pushed so deep it would never otherwise be heard, it would be a guttural, fractured scream.

His finger loops around the hair tie.

Before he can snap it, Tony’s hand stops him. Cuffs around Peter’s wrist, all calluses and divots and swirled prints.

Peter can feel every rise and fall against his skin.

“How are we doing during our little interlude?” Tony says. “More interlude? Less interlude? Terminated interlude? All of the above are fine. Just keep me updated. A memo on my desk will suffice.”

Peter clenches his jaw.

“Oh, he’s mad. Okay. I can give you time. How about the next step for today is a shower? You look like you’re fucking freezing. Go take a warm shower. I’ll do that fancy thoughtful thing where I throw a towel in the dryer for you so it’s all toasty when you get out. Remember to wash behind your ears and everything.”

Tony slides off the mattress and stands beside it. He stares at Peter, open, patient.

Peter pushes himself off the mattress. The floor beneath his feet feels like a memory.

Tony says, “Hey, look at you! Nice. We’re making shit happen, folks. Into the bathroom with you, young one. Throw your towel out the door. I’ll go fix it up nice.”

Peter follows the instructions at half-pace.

In the shower, he finds himself sitting under the stream. He does not remember why he sat. He doesn’t feel lightheaded. Or nauseous. Or anything else at all.

He finds his footing. Stands. Soaps himself.

The garbled sound of the water calms him, even if he feels matted eight layers deep.

When he gets out, the towel is waiting beside a stack of his clothes. All of them are warmed.

He gets dressed and pads out of the bathroom.

Tony is standing at the stove. He’s cooking something. Peter cannot tell what it is.

Tony snorts. “You tuck your sweatpants into your socks? God, I shouldn’t be surprised. You do seem like the sock-tucking type. I bet you single-cuff your jeans or something. Fold your underwear in thirds. Hang your sweaters.”

The worst thing is that Peter has the comeback ready. Like a normal person? he wants to say. Like a normal person? sits on the back of his tongue. He can’t say the words. Neurotypical who? Not him.

God, even joking in his own freaking head sounds discordant.

Peter pushes himself up onto the counter and sits, legs dangling.

Tony continues to cook. Every once in a while, Tony will start to hum, then stop. He’ll get halfway into a verse and then quit as if he forgets the words.

Peter cannot pick up a single melody.

Tony is rather suddenly before him, plate in hand. It’s laden with eggs and turkey sausage. Two slices of toast. A peeled orange.

Tony peeled an orange without Peter noticing. Without smelling, even.

Peter takes the plate. It wavers in his hands but he rights it.

Tony does not begin to clean the cookware until Peter has stabbed a sausage with his fork and begun to chew it.

His mouth feels like it’s full of glue. His whole existence is a cotton ball. Fucking Christ. He’s so tired of feeling like this.

The next time Tony taps him, it’s on the elbow.

Peter starts.

Tony catches his plate before it can slip off his lap.

Tony taps Peter’s temple twice. “You’ve been—out there for a while. That place I can’t follow you. Food is getting cold. I expect it all to be finished. I know I’m the cool parent but I will not budge on this one.”

Peter stares.

“I know,” Tony says, voice breaking. “God, I know, Pete. It’s okay. Just some breakfast. It’s fine. You can do that, I know you can.”

Peter knows he can too. He knows he can, and he’s pissed because he feels like the crater punched into the earth’s crust that wiped out the dinosaurs, all smoking and empty and awful. He can finish a plate of fucking eggs. Toast. He loves oranges. He can do this.

It feels like he can’t. It feels like an undertaking. The epic sort.

He grits his teeth, stabs a chunk of egg, and does it. It’s like pulling himself along by the ends of his nails, but on the inside.

When he’s finished, he feels sick rather than bolstered.

But Tony takes his plate, grinning, and washes it for him. Whistling from between his teeth, now.

Peter’s finger hooks the hair tie. He knows that if he snaps it hard enough he’ll come back.

He does it once, twice. Nothing. He hears the slap against his skin. It feels like nothing more than a pinch.

“Hey, stop that,” Tony says, hands wet and sudsy as he takes the tie off Peter’s wrist.

Peter blinks at his skin. It’s mottled red, lightly bruised. He hadn’t realized.

It was supposed to fix him.

“I’m keeping this. I’ll personally give it back to Michelle. This isn’t May’s. It’s not May’s, right? She only uses scrunchies. She’s a child of the flowers, bless her hippie heart. Okay. Pocketing it. Let me finish the dishes. I need May to love me. Okay. Be right back.”

Tony pats Peter’s knee before he goes.

Peter watches the wet spot from Tony’s hand grow on the fabric of his sweats.

Tony brings him to the couch. The couch is not big. It is deep and too soft and sometimes, if you sit wrong, you get a butthole piercing from the springs.

Tony wraps him in a blanket. And then another. One is a quilt Ben made. The other is a blanket so enormous and thick that Peter is faintly sure it will smother him.

But he lets Tony wrap him up. Because he has no other choice. And because a little part of him—one tenacious bit who hasn’t lost hope—deeply wants Tony to fix this for him, and trusts that Tony knows what he’s doing.

Tony settles onto the couch next to Peter, tossing an arm across the back. His fingertips scratch Peter’s neck, along the knots of his spine.

“We could watch something,” Tony suggests. “I tend to think watching something after eating aids the digestive process. Gets the systems moving. Sound good? Let’s watch something fun. Let’s watch Ferris Bueller. God, that poor bastard. What mother would name their child Ferris? And he’s such a successful kid too. That’s overcoming adversity right there.”

Tony fumbles with the remote. He pulls up the movie. Peter sits in his blanket nest.

The film starts with the iconic monologue sequence.

Something in Peter settles seeing it. It’s so familiar to him, he could recite the whole script end-to-end.

Not now, probably. But usually.

It itches in his chest.

Tony hums rather than laughs during movies. A soft noise with his lips pressed together. A light smile.

He seems so calm. At ease. Peter doesn’t get it. Tony is always freaking out, especially when there’s absolutely nothing wrong, but not now.

Peter can’t make himself speak and Tony isn’t freaking out. That’s weird.

But maybe it’s good. Maybe. Because Tony acting normal might make Peter’s subconscious feel normal and then everything will click back into place and Peter can stop being so helpless and pissed and nonexistent.

It doesn’t reboot his subconscious. What it does is make him sleepy. The brush of Tony’s fingers, the familiar cadence of the movie—Peter drifts, and this time, he sleeps.

He’s shaken awake what feels like hours later.

He opens a bleary eye. Everything is moving.

A great mane of braided hair whacks him across the face.

He sputters.

“Oh, shit. Sorry. Sorry, baby, just me, joining in on the cuddle sesh. Don’t worry, I changed out of my scrubs first. I know how much you hate being near my dirty work scrubs. Which astounds me, considering Ben saw you sneak a pizza crust out of the trash once when you were a kid.”

She settles next to him on the far side, where a snoring Tony isn’t.

She wraps her arm around Peter’s waist, strong and lithe and familiar, and Peter feels it.

It makes his eyes ache.

He swallows and swallows. He turns to May. He presses a firm kiss to her cheek.

“I love you too, honey,” she says, poking her nose into his neck. They’ve never needed words to communicate anyway.

He closes his eyes, warm enough to bake, surrounded on every side with stifling love.

He sleeps, chasing the sun across the sky, and when he wakes again, he wakes.

[prettylittleparadox]

Happy Cancer Season! Before anyone moans about crabs, here’s a few CANCER LEADERS we wouldn’t be the same without!🥳🦀 May we honor and celebrate the many ways that caring, tenacious, and *strategic* Cancers heal the community♋️🔮: I’ll post more about these phenomenal crabs, like their moon signs and anecdotes on their birthdays!

1. Octavia Butler, Mother of SciFi, helped create and popularize the genre of African American Science Fiction. (And if you’ve never read any, you’ve never read real high stakes scifi ) Her work has won the Hugo and Nebula awards and still serves as powerful social commentary. Read: Kindred, Bloodchild, Parable of a Sower.

2. Walter Francis White, from Atlanta, used his light skin to infiltrate the KKK to investigate lynchings!! He discovered what we been knew’d-that the police were the KKK!! He later went on to lead the NAACP from 1929 to 1955.

3. Thurgood Marshall, was the first Black Supreme Court justice. He’s represented and won more cases before the high court than anyone else -29 out of 32, putting in WORK for civil rights. *

4. Medgar Evers was an NAACP leader who worked tirelessly for desegregation. He traveled through Mississippi registering Black folk to vote, and worked to gather evidence and eye witnesses for Emmett Till’s murder and other closed case black murders. This put a lot of national attention on Evers, who was assassinated in his own driveway :( *

5. Mary McLeod Bethune was the only one of her 17 siblings who was able to attend school. And she had to walk miles to go. This is why she strived toward education, and opened what would later become Bethune-Cookman University. She also opened her own civil rights organization called the National Council of Negro Women never stopping the fight to PROTECT BLACK WOMEN! She was a special advisor to President Roosevelt!

6. Mother Mary Ann Wright was Oakland’s very own, feeding the hungry in the community for decades. She first used her own social security checks to provide one meal a week, before opening her own foundation where she fed 450 people a day on small yearly budget. She said, Love is just another word until it is put into action. The time you spend talking in meetings about reaching out to those in need, might be the difference between life and death for someone.” PERIOD! Cancers for DIRECT action!

7. Ida B Wells was born enslaved but went on to become an investigative journalist! She wrote about the conditions of Black only schools before focusing her efforts on Anti-Lynching. She risked her life to travel the south for eye witness accounts to report until she was run off by constant death threats. Along with founding the National Association of Colored Women, she is co-founder of the NAACP. (I’m honored to share a birthday with this Queen, who was at one point dubbed the most famous Black woman in America)

8. Nelson Mandela, the first black state head and first democratically elected President of South Africa. His life’s activism and his government worked toward ending the legacy of apartheid.

Happy Cancer Season!!🖤🔮

[trashexplorer]

BLCD Review: Sahara no Kurowashi

Title: Sahara no Kurowashi (サハラの黒鷲)

Release Date: 2019/06/26

Author/Artist: Saotome Emu

Cast: 

Satou Takuya x Kumagai Kentarou

Enoki Junya

Yamashita Seiichirou

Kijima Ryuuchi

Synopsis: On the outskirts of a faraway desert oasis, there once lived a charming young slave trader, known throughout the land as "Black Eagle". One day, one of Black Eagle's former slaves, Gran, captures him and has him taken to Alkil, a skilled animal trainer. Alkil's semen contains an aphrodisiac that makes any human obedient to him. Black Eagle was to train under Alkil until he became an obedient plaything for Gran. However, Black Eagle refuses to yield, and Alkil starts to view this tenacious slave trader as someone special...

Review Proper

Arabian settings in BL can only go two ways: horrendous or magnificent—there is no in between. Moreover, Arabian themed BL usually involves a kidnapping, slave trade, drugs, rape, and Stockholm syndrome, especially in manga. Now, does Sahara check all of those boxes? Well, yes—except Stockholm syndrome like Lala no Kekkon. However, I would like to say that I prefer Sahara no Kurowashi better because not every character was a despicable asshole and Loki actually had a backbone unlike Ramudan. I had actually thought at some points that Loki would top Alkil for revenge because he was even able to top Tol before that. Also, I’m quite surprised at how well they were able to stretch Sahara no Kurowashi considering that BL of Space shares the volume with it. I actually like both stories and I find Soutome’s duality interesting. Kurowashi was obviously still porn, but it had a decent plot line, while BL of Space was straight up porn. 😂 However, it was so funny to me that even though Kurowashi was supposed to be a serious story set in a fictional place near the desert in the old ages, Ingle straight up said: “...TAIMINGU yokatta” AND I WAS SHOOK. I had to look at the raws to see if he really did use a loan word, and lo and behold:

They could get away with “madam”, but “sex, type, and timing”??? 😂 

Moving on to the voice work...

I was really confused as to who was voicing Kurowashi because Kumagai Kentarou went for a similar tone as Satou Takuya’s Daath. I have never heard Kumagai Kentarou bottom before, so even though I knew exactly who was voicing who because I looked it up months before, I was like: “Aw yis!!! Satou Takuya was going to bottom here!!!”, BUT THEN SADADDY TAKUYA MADE HIS APPEARANCE AND I WAS ON MY KNEES APOLOGIZING. He used a similar tone as his Ryou in Minaduki Yuu’s Hinadori. 🔥🔥🔥 Oh gosh, I didn’t know that I was missed him as a seme this much. He, of course, slayed here, and I was never able to hear his Daath the whole CD! I’m so excited to hear him in Blue Sky Complex later on. 

As for Kumagai Kentarou,

I was honestly not comfortable with the idea of him bottoming at first, especially after hearing him top Enoki Junya, but the instant that mattress mambo started, I was blown away! I shouldn’t have expected any less from chameleon man number 2! Speaking of being a chameleon, he did not sound like Ono Yuuki here AT ALL! Man, aside from Saitou Souma, I’m also scared of Kumagai Kentarou. And you know what was so brilliant in his performance here? It’s the way he bottomed. As Loki was a somewhat similar character to Satou Takuya’s Daath, I thought that he’d go for something like that, but he was even more of a fighter than Daath! When Loki was raped the first time, the sheer disgust and reluctance was clear in his voice; but when Loki figured that he shouldn’t go down not fighting, best believe Kumagai Kentarou was able to bring out that genuine confidence and smugness Loki needed! What a man! And he’s only 26 folks!

Everybody else who was cast in this BLCD delivered, too. From the stoic Ingle, Tol the little minx, the other loyal slaves, the charismatic madam, and the underwhelming yet suffieciently voiced Gran—Fifth Avenue really stepped it up in finding quality this time. No wonder Kurowashi was included in chil-chil’s Top 20. I wouldn’t have expected any less. 👏👏👏

I was honestly doubtful going into this because as I’ve said earlier, this was just porn with a decent plot. After all the feelings Link And Ring and Shinkon-san gave me, my expectations for a good BLCD were higher than ever, so I’m glad that this delivered. Although it’s neither a god-tier SASRA, Shokugyo no Ouji, nor Hasekawa Ai’s no Koi series, this is still one of the better Arabian themed BLCDs out there. I definitely recommend listening to this, and it’s pretty accurate to the manga (seeing that they should’ve replaced the loan words). The manga has also been licensed by Renta!, so you can read it in English!

[supposedlyawitch]

my natal chart

Alright I’m going to post a chart that honestly confuse the heckoroni out of me. I used the site natal chart to get a basic idea. Luckily the site explains what all the numbers and symbols mean uwu. I know I’m a fake witch.

BASIC SUMMARY OF ME THAT I COPY AND PASTED FROM THE SITE

I’m going to review it later and repost what I feel is accurate and isn’t accurate. This is a long list I know

Birth Chart

The Sun is in Cancer

Sun in Cancer natives have a strong survival instinct. They are protective of those they care about, and of themselves too. They are often quite reticent about sharing their inner selves to the rest of the world, and are often caught up in reminisce. Cancers have a reputation for moodiness, although this trait is most evident when the Moon is in Cancer. Cancer needs roots. They resist change to an extent, and concern themselves about being secure and safe in most everything they do. Cancers can be quite intrigued by objects with history attached to them -- antiques, photos, souvenirs, and the like.

Cancer is a very sensitive sign, and they don't always appreciate it when you are blunt with them. Their reactions to hurt will depend on how thick a shell they have developed. Most Cancers react by withdrawing or retreating. Some have developed an ability to manipulate others to get what they want. They avoid direct confrontations almost as a rule. Cancers are, in fact, quite yielding and soft when you have them in the right mood. They are one of the more hospitable signs of the zodiac. Sure, they can be touchy and indirect, but they are also very dependable, caring souls.

Short description:

She weighs words carefully and can be tenacious. A calm and discreet nature, tender, thoughtful, sensitive, and impressionable.

Possible issues: She is humble, timid, changeable, indecisive, lazy, or over-sensitive. Easily influenced by the family and sometimes manipulative.

Cancer with ascendant Leo

She projects a strong image, which hides a sensitive and emotional character. Very noticeable and intriguing demeanour.

Sun in XI: The Sun is in the eleventh house

You are a humanitarian who aims to treat everyone as equals. You seek to be unique and original, and you do your best to avoid bias and prejudice. Social status is less important to you than belonging to a group of diverse personalities. Your identity, in fact, is somehow linked to a larger unit than yourself. You have high hopes and goals, and tend to look at life in terms of opportunities. You have magnetic appeal, as people sense your broad tolerance and openness. The friendships you establish are crucial to your development. If you identify too much with your friendships and your friendliness, you may become too impersonal and alienate those who would like to get close to you. Successful career thanks to support of patrons, friends or relations. You are a leader in groups and people look up to you.

484 Conjunction between the Sun and Mercury

Because your ego and your mind are usually on the same page, you possess much mental energy. You are always in a position to think about what you want, and in many ways, this is an interruption of the will. You are highly intelligent with a great drive to communicate with other. You invest a lot of pride in your intellectual capacities. You may not always listen as well as you speak, however! You might be too busy thinking about what to say next. But you are very curious and although you enjoy expressing yourself, you usually don't dominate conversations completely.

As far as studying or learning goes, you are better off reading the material than listening to a teacher. These traits come from a strong need to take an active role in communications. It is very hard for you to passively listen and absorb information.

Your opinions are usually strong and you are an independent thinker. You tend to be proud of your opinions and thoughts, and might easily get a bruised ego if you are not "heard", if your opinions are pushed aside or ignored, or if your opinions are criticized. You are expressive and possibly a very animated speaker. You are also very witty and others enjoy your playful and sometimes mischievous sense of humor.

28 Trine between the Sun and Uranus

It is natural for you to question tradition. You are, above all things, an individualist. You naturally rebel against that which is established. It doesn't mean that you consistently break all the rules, but you definitely do question some of the rules, especially those that simply don't make much sense. You possess a huge distaste for routine. You work best when you have some say as to when and how you get things done. You possess much self-integrity. You avoid labeling people and are most offended when others attempt to label or stereotype you.

You easily embrace new ways of doing things, you stick up for the underdog, and you express yourself in unique and inspiring ways. You don't have to try to stand out as unique--you are original, creative, and progressive without trying. You are far from pretentious. You value honesty and truth, and you avoid putting on airs. You believe in the equality of people, and easily relate to people from all walks of life. You possess an unmistakable enthusiasm about life, and generally your life is interesting because you invite unusual or adventurous experiences into your life. You are generally appreciated by others because you are open-minded, fair, and not judgmental. Nothing really seems to faze you! You take things in stride, and are rarely shocked or taken aback by human behavior.

192 Conjunction between the Sun and Lilith

You are mostly comfortable with the darker side of your nature. A student of human nature.

The Moon is in Leo

Depending on other positions in the chart, Moon in Leo people are not necessarily outgoing. When they feel comfortable, they do like being the center of attention. That is, they like being in the "spotlight" in the comfort of their own homes and with family and friends. They enjoy entertaining others, and often take on the role of comic. Lunar Leos often feel a need to organize, and even control, their families and friends. They have an inner mission to set things right, and generally like to oversee the goings-on in their little circle.

This is a rather creative position of the Moon. At the very least, Moon in Leo people want to create and entertain. They can be rather lazy at times, and a little bossy too. Generally, though, they have a deep need to treat others fairly and justly. Lunar Leos require lots and lots of love and care in order to function well in the world. When they feel slighted, these people can be dramatic in their emotional displays. When their pride has been hurt, they are given to big scenes and sulking. This rarely happens in public, however. Lunar Leos are far too concerned about their image to make splashy scenes outside the comfort of their own homes. In public, they prefer to take things in dignified ways. At home, however, they're given to big displays of emotional drama. These scenes generally don't last too long, however. Lunar Leos are often personally popular folk who are valued for their integrity and strong sense of justice. Generally, it is easy to reason with a Lunar Lion. Appealing to their well-developed sense of fairness usually works well.

Short description:

She is brave, knowing how to take risks and possessing the courage of her convictions, honest, imposing, and sharp. She has a great sense of, and respect for, justice. Organizational sense. Selectivity with friends but is not overly influenced by them. Taste for splendor.

Potential issues: changing and numerous affections. Emotionally demanding and proud. Brooding when attention is not forthcoming.

Moon in I: The Moon is in the first house

Very sensitive. Fantasizes. She is easily touched, moved, and affected; she is sometimes shy, prudent, and emotional.

Your feelings are right out there for everyone to see, and you can come across as emotional and impatient, or nurturing and caring (or both). Your first reaction is emotional, especially if the Moon is in close proximity (within ten degrees) of the Ascendant degree. You need emotional stimulation, movement, and freedom to express yourself in order to feel happy and fulfilled. Your moods are very changeable, and this can be quite obvious to others. Because of your emotional sensitivity, you might often take things too personally, and react too quickly. Developing an awareness that others' emotions are just as important, even if they are not as overt and immediate as yours, will be important.

319 Sextile between the Moon and Venus

You are generally amiable and project a soft and yielding manner. You possess natural charm and you are highly imaginative and sympathetic. You can make an excellent mediator and go-between. You are keenly aware of your need for relationships and for intimacy. You have a well-developed respect for qualities typically associated with the feminine. People appreciate you for your tender heart and friendly, diplomatic disposition. You should enjoy a good measure of personal popularity and success in your life. Although generally considered "lucky" with relationships and with money, this is less about luck than it is about a certain level of inner peace and positive energy that attracts pleasant situations. At times you can be complacent, downright lazy, and over-indulgent in the "pleasures" of life. However, you are a peace-maker at heart and have an unusual ability to help and heal others. You are gracious and warm.

She is gracious, sweet, happy. She especially enjoys pleasure and entertainment, the Arts. She needs tenderness. She appreciates home life in a comfortable, safe atmosphere more than most.

-120 Opposition between the Moon and Neptune

She may lack firmness, and can be a sucker for a sob story! She likes to live in a dream, in the world of imagination, and can hope so much for things that reality checks can be brutal.

110 Conjunction between the Moon and Ascendant

She has a good influence on the family, and the family usually gives back, loving and helping in return. She likes travelling, movement, change. She likes contact. open to other people. Very sensitive, observant, adaptable, likable, and somewhat of a chameleon.

Mercury is in Cancer

She communicates with feeling, endearing others with words. She is reflective and has one of the best memories around. She feels people out and can be quick to pick up emotions and moods. She is discerning and full of insight, lucid, and thinks things through. She likes to please and to create a good impression. There can be a strong tendency to be influenced by those around her.

Mercury in XI: Mercury is in the eleventh house

She has lots of friends. She likes intelligent, cultivated people around her with whom she can enjoy verbal sparring. She likes debates, interminable discussions. Often has friends who are younger, or friends come and go.

You are endlessly curious about people, group interactions, community affairs, trends, and teams. You are attracted to people who bring new ideas into your experience, and who have something novel to contribute on an intellectual level. You are very forward-looking and fair-minded. Fair play, impartiality, and unselfishness are important ideals for you. There can be many changes or fluctuations in your personal wishes, dreams, plans, and ideals. You might attract friends who come and go, or who are dishonest or duplicitous.

69 Trine between Mercury - Uranus

She is perspicacious, ingenious. She binds intelligence and originality together with genius. She likes literature, especially fiction. She is spontaneous in her friendships and knows how to turn situations around positively.

49 Conjunction between Mercury - Lilith

Can be provocative in speech or communications, persuasive, interesting conversationalist, quick to see the flaws of a situation.

Venus is in Gemini

Venus in Gemini people will try to win over the object of their affection with witty conversation, displaying just how much they "know," and demonstrating their diverse interests. These lovers are playful -- some might even call them a tease. They are hard to pin down, and they resist relationships that promise to become too "comfortable." Even those with their Sun in Taurus or Cancer, whose outward demeanor may suggest some reserve and caution, will want their relationships to be stimulating and full of conversation with Venus in Gemini. Venus in Gemini people don't want to be tied or bogged down in their relationships. They appreciate lightheartedness in love. Although they are willing to talk (perhaps endlessly) about the relationship, you may get the feeling that they gloss over some of the deeper issues. In love, their tastes change often, and it can be hard to know what to expect from one day to the next (or, sometimes, from one hour to the next!).

Pleasing Venus in Gemini involves supporting their need for fun and variety, showing interest in their brainpower and knowledge, and giving them space for friends and activities outside of the relationship. Let them know just how much fun you have with them. Try not to get overly miffed by Venus in Gemini's changeable, fickle ways. Remember that time spent with your lover will be exciting and invigorating.

Venus in XI: Venus is in the eleventh house

Successful professional life in great part due to good relationships, friends or patrons. She finds love in the circle of friends.

The friendship level of your relationship needs to be genuine in order for you to sustain romantic interest. You tend to focus on a person's unique qualities -- those traits that make him or her stand out -- as the most attractive. Your relationships must possess some kind of unconventional element in order to keep your interest levels high. Calves and ankles are either erogenous zones for you, or parts of your body that are particularly attractive! You may meet lovers through group activities. Although you value friendships and group affiliations highly, you might jump into friendships without considering the responsibilities they might entail.

-69 Square between Venus - Jupiter

She is nonchalant, perhaps pretentious or self-important. She likes what is beautiful and sometimes ostentatious, perhaps spending money too quickly at times. She likes to please and can have numerous amorous adventures. She can undergo tribulations in love. May take things to excess, which sometimes interferes with a smooth flow.

She is big-hearted and warm, with an open heart and a tendency to want to give a lot to the people she loves. She can have some problems with following through on her promises, however, not usually because of any ill intent, but because she sometimes overestimates her personal capabilities, wanting to do more and give more than is actually possible. She may have a tendency to live beyond her means. She needs to be cautious about the tendency to feel overly-optimistic or overly protected. Moderation is the most important, and perhaps challenging, lesson in her life.

-29 Square between Venus - Uranus

She may look for new sensations in love and might often feel unsatisfied by connections that quickly turn into purely conventional relationships. She likes novelty, adventure, the eccentric. She is frivolous, unstable, or inconstant. Marriage is not usually for her and, if she does throw herself into this adventure, it may eventually be considered a youthful mistake. There can be numerous love affairs or off-and-on relationships. There is a tendency to react spontaneously and intensely to others, and there is marked emotional impulsiveness. Perhaps her most successful relationships are unconventional ones. She may delight in defying convention. She has considerable romantic charm and humor. There can be sudden relationship status changes, and a marked inner craving for emotional excitement.

44 Trine between Venus - Neptune

Her professional life can be creative or inconstant. She has a taste for the Arts, can be a dreamer, and may be easily influenced and romantic. She is emotional and very sensitive.

Romantic, creative, gentle, and adaptable, you naturally express the finer qualities of mysterious and dreamy Neptune in your love relationships. Your imagination is rich and your fantasy world well-developed. You are turned off by rudeness and crudeness, and are drawn to beauty in its many forms. You are very giving and generous, but may be a little on the submissive side, or sometimes downright lazy, failing to take the initiative when situations call for it.

Mars is in Cancer

This position inclines toward passive-aggressiveness. These people seem to resist change and to shy away from direct confrontations. They need to feel secure before they act. As a result, they can appear rather slow at times. Their motto is "The best offence is defense". They may appear weak to some, but they can be very strong. Their strength lies in their tenaciousness. Their sex drive can be very tied up with emotional need. At their best, they turn others on with a protective, almost therapeutic way about them. The protective nature of Cancer is best expressed when Mars in Cancer natives are turning the energy outward -- when they are being the protectors of others. Turning it inwards is when there are problems. They must avoid over-sensitivity and self-protection when it comes to sex. Some Mars in Cancer people are especially turned on by the thought of creating a baby.

These people are threatened by indifference. They can be argumentative and manipulative. Their energy levels are variable, and they can appear to move rather slowly. They have defensive reactions and bursts of emotional displays when they feel cornered. With reassurance and confidence, these natives are protective, helpful, and dependable in the long haul. They prefer to handle situations peacefully and humanely.

Mars in XII: Mars is in the twelfth house

So much of her energy goes into working life. She loves research. She could be a lab worker, doctor, police officer, teacher specializing in hospital, prison or hospice work. She can be indirect and very private. Rich dreams and fantasies.

With Mars in the twelfth house of the natal chart, you can struggle with asserting yourself in direct, natural ways in your youth, but with time and experience (and perhaps some hard work), you're likely to learn to work with this energy rather than allow it to work against you. Watch for a tendency to feel defeated before you've given something a real shot. You are extraordinarily resourceful, and you can handle many things on your own or in uniquely creative ways.

Though you may have a great deal of energy and drive, you lack confidence or the desire to put yourself and your interests first. Positively you can be very unselfish, working more on behalf of others than for yourself. You deny your own desires and needs too much, however, and you are likely to secretly become very angry, which can sabotage your finest efforts. There is a touch of the incurable romantic in your nature. Your daydreaming and fantasizing world is rich and precious to you. You also bring imagination into your sexual relationships, although you can take a bit of time to feel comfortable and to warm up to a new person in your life. Overcoming a vague and persistent feeling of guilt or doom can go a long way towards a healthier, happier approach to the pursuit of your desires.

54 Conjunction between Mars - Ascendant

She is energetic and direct.

-12 Square between Mars - Midheaven

She might suffer professional setbacks through actions that are too impulsive, imprudent, or lacking in forethought.

Jupiter is in Virgo

She attracts the most good fortune when she is helpful, honest, orderly, and pays attention to details. The service industries, nutrition, and health are prosperous avenues. Practical and technical knowledge and skills are most valued. A real problem-solver and others appreciate her help. Doesn't always feel lucky or especially ambitious. Rather, hard work is valued.

Jupiter in II: Jupiter is in the second house

Easygoing over money matters, no credit problems, this placement tends to increase her inheritance. She earns good money often without too much effort. She fully enjoys what she has.

43 Sextile between Jupiter - Saturn

She is serious, patient, honest, hard-working, orderly. Her judgment is good and she is inclined to think things over. She pursues her objectives to the bitter end, usually knowing when to choose the right moment. She is upright, usually law-abiding and respecting order.

-46 Opposition between Jupiter - Uranus

She is too independent for her own good at times, and her liberty is all-important. She may lack diplomacy, and her extravagance can be shocking to some! She likes verbal battles and may espouse extremist ideas to shock her companions. She can have a number of internal tensions.

Saturn is in Cancer

May feel fundamentally unloved and unsupported, but can miss opportunities to receive support because of the basic attitude that she isn't going to get love.

Saturn in XII: Saturn is in the twelfth house

She likes quiet and solitude above everything. She seeks work (or can work) alone, without being bothered. She is too easily distracted or bothered by chatting, outside noises.

1 Trine between Saturn - Uranus

She knows how to be on top of the situation. She perseveres, is determined but ingenious and original. She is very practical. She proceeds slowly, but is always bound to achieve her objectives in the end.

Uranus in Pisces

She is receptive, subtle but can reveal herself when asked to become involved.

Uranus in VIII: Uranus is in the eighth house

She is interested in antiquity, archaeology, history. Her financial situation has its highs and lows, which an inheritance can help out.

Neptune is in Aquarius

Generosity, especially enjoying resolving problems in order to satisfy everyone.

Neptune in VII: Neptune is in the seventh house

Partners for love, to show the depth of her passion, but may have a troubled conjugal life if the cards are not on the table.

Pluto is in Sagittarius

Great aspirations: sexuality and love are idealized.

-10 Opposition between Pluto - Lilith

She may lead a double life. She may have a secret love affair but the secret doesn't last, or at the very least there are complications. Otherwise, this aspect can point to scandals whether or not they are real.

5 Trine between Pluto - Midheaven

She can pour much of her energy into succeeding professionally. She is an authority figure and a great organizer. Strong sense of authority.

Lilith in Gemini

She can feel uncomfortable if speaking too much or too little, or for her intelligence or social skills. She may be wary of people who seem to be indulgent in these ways -- who are social butterflies or who talk too much or who seem to flaunt their intelligence. Her curiosity may have been stifled in some manner. Owning and accepting this side of the nature can be empowering. She can be wicked with what she says when angry! Shame in these areas can lead to extremes of behavior and a feeling of being out of control. Working on self-acceptance is the key to empowerment.

North Node in Taurus

She is brilliantly perceptive and easily gets close to someone. However, the tendency in the first half of life is to define her worth or value through her relationships and to be too wrapped up in others' needs at the expense of her own. Lessons are learned the hard way. Confusing and intense life situations come at the cost of comfort and peace. Her path is to discover and embrace her own values and to establish her self-worth through her own efforts. She should aim to enjoy life's quieter moments while blocking the subconscious need to create crises, as this is the way to improved relationships and greater satisfaction. Qualities to develop: patience, self-sufficiency, restraint, disengagement.

North Node in X: North Node in the Tenth House

She is sympathetic and kind, preferring to stay childlike and free. She may resist labels, responsibility, the limelight, recognition, or "growing up," but over time, this limits her growth. Qualities to develop: ambition, commitment, responsibility.

Cancer with ascendant Leo

She projects a strong image, which hides a sensitive and emotional character. Very noticeable and intriguing demeanour.

Ascendant is Leo

Leo rising people cannot help but be noticed. They radiate a special energy and magnetism that gets others' attention. Sometimes it's because they are loud people who pay a lot of attention to their personal appearance (especially their hair!); other times it's due to a regal manner that simply demands interest from others. Leo Ascendant people are very self-aware and body-conscious. They are acutely aware of others, and how they come across. In fact, these people are especially aware of their personal "backdrop"--they consider what the people they're with, and the environments they are in, do to their own image. Often, Leo rising natives feel as if they are on stage, even in the privacy of their own homes! They are given to rash decisions, temper tantrums, and excesses. However, they have plenty of staying power, drive, and their idealism keeps them from getting into too much trouble. The desire to oversee the goings-on in their circle can sometimes amount to bossiness. If this desire doesn't go too far, however, it can just mean a person who wants to make sure the people they love are all right. Many Leo rising people are managers, either by profession or character.

The tendency to overestimate things, and themselves, is generally present. This is due to a natural enthusiasm and optimism about any new undertaking. Sometimes, they are walking commercials. In fact, Leo rising people make excellent promoters. Leo rising people are generally demonstrative, and given to grand gestures. Drama comes naturally to these natives. In fact, some are so caught up in fiction, they're a little blind to fact. They have an unusual need to be admired. Leo Ascendants often have a strong physical constitution. They pay special attention to their personal appearance and mannerisms. Usually, they choose clothing and hairstyles that are youthful. Their manner is authoritarian and strong. Very full emotional life.

No matter their age in real-world terms, Leo rising people are kids at heart. They are fun-loving and warm; generous and spirited. Just how magnanimous and outgoing a Leo rising individual is will be modified by the placement of the Sun by sign and house. This is because the ruling planet of a Leo Ascendant is the Sun. For example, a Leo rising person with Sun in Virgo may not come across as strongly as a Leo rising person with Sun in Aries. No matter the placement of the Sun, however, Leo rising natives are quite self-aware and optimistic. They have a natural flair for presentation, an eye for quality, and a hard-to-resist warmth of style. They want to make things happen, and create a stir.

House II - the second house - is the area of material security and values. It rules money and personal finances, sense of self-worth and basic values, personal possessions.

Leo on House II

Financial success will be very easy thanks to the support of influential people. Tendency to spend more than what is earned. Financial progress is slow but steady. Generous with loved ones and children. Sign and house placement of the Sun may show money-making channels.

Virgo on House III

She may pull everything to pieces, analyzing, criticizing. Over-thinking and over-analyzing is probable. A busy early environment. She is proactive, tending to details and taking care of things in an efficient manner. Usually won't take on anything without examining the pros and the cons. She is very careful, sometimes to a manic extent, taking everything into account even to the slightest detail. Can be a worrier and fretter.

Libra on House IV

The simple life or the small home isn't for her. If money is a problem, she can be frustrated, wanting luxury or comfortable and beautiful things. Will spend on home more lavishly than other areas. Likes luxury goods to make life comfortable, going out, cocktail parties.

Scorpio on House V

Can get blinded by and drunk with love: everything revolves around her love. Her passions run deep, exclusive. Quarrels can result. Fertile love life.

Capricorn on House VI

Can work hard, unceasingly and patiently. Weak point: the cold, changes in temperature.

Aquarius on House VII

A slightly hasty marriage is possible. The relationship between partners will be very friendly and full of understanding. Both will love their independence, their freedom of action. If one refuses to give this to the other while insisting on it for themselves, problems ensue.

Aquarius on House VIII

An unexpected inheritance.

Pisces on House IX

She likes sea cruises. She has brilliant ideas that seem to come from nowhere.

Aries on House X

All the leadership qualities are there: authority, energy, initiative, leadership, lots of gung-ho, and of course intelligence.

Taurus on House XI

She likes to be surrounded by frank and good-hearted friends. These friendships don't stand on ceremony. She carries out everything she takes on surely, composedly, and calmly until successful.

Cancer on House XII

Problems seem to only come from the family.

[thegreatlukeski]

MARSCON 2021 http://marsconcomedy.com - http://www.marscon.com Hilton Minneapolis/St Paul Mall of America - Bloomington, MN March 12th, 13th, & 14th, 2021 Music Guest Of Honor ROBBIE ELLIS! robbieellis.net & robbieellis.bandcamp.com Making her MarsCon debut, AMY ENGLEHARDT! http://www.amyenglehardt.com And returning, these usual suspects: BETH KINDERMAN DEVO SPICE IL NEIGE INSANE IAN THE GREAT LUKE SKI TV’S KYLE & LINDZILLA IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: The MarsCon Convention Committee has been making plans for both an in-person convention like usual, and a virtual MarsCon 2021 if large gatherings are still not going to be allowed in Bloomington MN during March 12th through 14th, 2021. Right now, that seems to be the most likely scenario, and if it is, the acts listed above have all agreed to perform concerts from home into MarsCon��s virtual convention video feed. Stay tuned to the websites and social media accounts of MarsCon (Minneapolis) and the MarsCon Comedy Music Track for updates. A TRACK BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD SOUND JUST AS DEMENTED You may have noticed the “MarsCon Dementia Track” has changed its name to the “MarsCon Comedy Music Track”. This something I have been thinking about doing for a few years. The main reason I wanted to make this change is because, unlike other words that started in fandom circles that went mainstream (fanboy, pwned, cosplay, etc.), the term “dementia” as coined by Dr. Demento to mean “comedy music” (as well as sketches, stand-up, and/or other funny or odd audio that may be heard on “The Dr. Demento Show”) sadly has yet to catch on with anyone outside of Dr. Demento fandom. Due to that, my assumption is that when someone new to MarsCon looks at the convention’s programming and sees the phrase “MarsCon Dementia Track”, they will either (1.) not have any idea what that means, or (2.) think that the track is about the medical condition known as “dementia”. I feel I owe it to all of the acts that I persuade to come out and perform at MarsCon every year to do everything I can to get them as large as audience as possible. I ran this idea past the folks following our track’s Facebook page, and there was nearly unanimous support to make the change. Lindsay Smith updated the logo for me, and I made the changes to our online accounts: Website: http://www.MarsConComedy.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MarsConComedy Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MarsConComedy People in the fandom are still going to use the word “dementia” to mean comedy music (etc.), just as the 79-year-old Dr. Demento is still doing every week on his online show. Heck, Dr. D. just released a new album which has the earliest comedy songs ever recorded (1895~1925), titling the album “FIRST CENTURY DEMENTIA”! I am just trying to get a few more butts in the seats at our track’s concerts by putting the words “COMEDY MUSIC” in our name, so that people who never found Dr. D.’s show but love the funny songs of “Weird Al” Yankovic, The Lonely Island, Epic Rap Battles Of History, Garfunkel & Oates, Rachel Bloom, Princess Rap Battles by Whitney Avalon, Flight Of The Conchords, Ninja Sex Party, Tenacious D, and the Aquabats will see the words “MarsCon Comedy Music Track” and think “Hey! I love comedy music! I should register for MarsCon and check that out!” THE MARSCON COMEDY MUSIC SAMPLER PLATTER CONCERT! Every November, MarsCon holds a Masquerade Ball to promote their convention happening 4 months later. This year it was a Virtual Masquerade Ball, and the MarsCon Comedy Music Track was asked to contribute by having a one-hour “Sampler Platter” Concert, which is now up on YouTube for all to see! The show features Beth Kinderman, Marc With A C, past Music Guests Of Honor Dr. Pinkerton of the C.O.G., Lauren Mayer, Devo Spice, the great Luke Ski, and MarsCon 2021’s Music Guest Of Honor Robbie Ellis! Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJIctvjAouE Follow the social media accounts of MarsCon and the MarsCon Comedy Music Track for status updates on MarsCon 2021. There will be a MarsCon 2021 Comedy Music Track Fund Raiser album with live tracks from MarsCon 2020 a.k.a. the last thing any of us did before society ended.

[themculibrary]

Mission Fics Masterlist

Links Last Checked: May 3rd, 2024

15 Minutes, 35 Days (The Off-Piste in Rjukan Remix) (ao3) - Veldeia steve/tony T, 3k

Summary: A failed attempt to sabotage a HYDRA research facility leaves Steve and Tony at the mercy of the enemy. Will they survive to see another day together?

A Place to Lie Low (ao3) - Sholio T, 5k

Summary: Two separate Hydra-hunting missions converge, and Nick Fury and Sitwell end up getting Sam out of a tight spot. Looks like they're all going the same way for a while.

Digitised (ao3) - antigrav_vector stev/tony, background pepper/tony M, 26k

Summary: After the events of IM2, Tony finds something curious in his dad's things that he hadn't had time to look at before, what with being busy trying to stop Vanko and Hammer and, you know, not die. Of course that means trying to figure out what it does. Doing so, however, has consequences he could never have imagined, digging up old traumas and causing new ones. Tony finds himself in a whole new world, hunted down by an old enemy he'd thought he'd dealt with, and rescued by an old hero he'd thought was dead...

Laid Bare (ao3) - chezamanda clint/natasha E, 19k

Summary: Starting a relationship with your partner is against S.H.I.E.L.D. policy, but it's not like Clint Barton cares about the rules too much. An undercover mission dredges up feelings that can't be buried.

Light Work (ao3) - TheIntelligentHufflepuff steve/bucky T, 19k

Summary Steve and Bucky get together. It's simple, really: all it takes is an intergalactic kidnapping.

Luminosity (ao3) - CSHfic, VSfic steve/tony M, 60k

Summary: The Avengers organize a two month mission to investigate an anomaly in space that appears to be engulfing planets, Steve is worried about leaving Tony alone, and Hawkeye is just worried about being left behind. But then something goes wrong. Steve drags himself out of the wreckage of their ship, on a planet that shouldn’t exist, the Avengers are missing, Iron Man is torn to scraps, and Tony has a lot of explaining to do.

Or, in which Steve has no clue that Tony is Iron Man, and it takes crash-landing on an alien planet for him to find out.

No Force in the Universe Can Stop Me (ao3) - notbeloved07 bruce/tony, pepper/happy T, 15k

Summary: Taking a shot at filling my own prompt on avengerkink:

In an AU, instead of taking out Tony's arc-reactor, Obadiah Stane kidnapped Tony, faked his death in a "lab accident", imprisoned him, and forced him to design weapons for Stane.

Bruce is going about his day hacking Stark Industries to learn more about the Hulkbuster weapons when he comes across some discrepancies in the code--subtle things, like inefficient loops in otherwise streamlined code, bizarre variable names, or incorrect comments.Intrigued, he goes through all the code of SI's weapons industry, comes up with a pattern, and finds the messages Tony has been hiding in the code.

And then he goes and busts Tony out. Lots of badassery, including on Tony's part--he may be defeated, but he's not broken.

On A Provisional Basis (ao3) - Beans (provetheworst) bucky/clint T, 32k

Summary: If SHIELD were in better shape, Clint wouldn't have ended up with his own team and someone else would have ended up dealing with the new recruit. Then again, he wouldn't have had a good excuse to get the skycycle back, either, so it all evens out.

Wherein Hydra are tenacious, no one can confirm or deny the existence of psychics, and Clint's willingness to put his faith in folks who no one quite trusts - along with his thing for incredibly competent assassins - lands him in trouble. Again.

On the Wire (ao3) - SierraNovembr bucky/steve/tony T, 10k

Summary: When Natasha gets a phone call from an old acquaintance, it’s a race against time to stop a catastrophe.

(pre)historical (ao3) - antigrav_vector steve/tony M, 19k

Summary: The Avengers start out the day fighting dinosaurs, and then their day gets weirder. Tony's hurt, Steve's worried, and the others are trying not to laugh at the two of them.

Quantum Entanglements (ao3) - antigrav_vector M, 11k

Summary: A few weeks after the events of CA:TWS, the team is sorting out the HYDRA bases they've discovered as a result of the data dump Steve and Nat did. What happens next, well. Not even Tony Stark, futurist, could have predicted that.

Slow and Soft (ao3) - onthewaters clint/phil E, 23k

Summary: When Coulson adds Barton to his team, he expects smartassery. Except there isn't any...

Somewhere in the Dark (ao3) - flipflop_diva steve/natasha E, 13k

Summary: In the weeks following the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson spend their days tracking down leads to the winter soldier's whereabouts. But when Nick Fury shows up unannounced one night with the news that Natasha has gone missing, plans quickly change. And soon it becomes a race not only to find her but to figure out the circumstances around her disappearance. (And, of course, for Steve, it might be time to figure out how he finally feels about her.)

suffer the misery of devils (ao3) - canonjohnlock T, 11k (WIP)

Summary: When Zemo's notebook is stolen from Shuri's lab in Wakanda, Sam, Peter, and Shuri team up to track down a now missing Bucky and figure out what the captor wants from him.

Thanking Every Star in the Sky (ao3) - antigrav_vector steve/peggy E, 23k

Summary: The Howling Commandos have only recently been woken up from their 90 year naps, and learned that there's a new war against the Chitauri. Worse, they've learned that it's not the second war, but the fifth. Once they're back on their feet, they're given a small ship, and then assigned two new crew members: a fighter and his battlesuit mechanic. Steve isn't too pleased about this, at first. He's got his relationship with Peggy to try to sort out, and a new war to fight. He's got a team to lead and a suicide mission from SHIELD Director Fury to try to survive, somehow. He's not sure how yet. What he hasn't got is time to worry about team dynamics and possible interpersonal conflicts. He really should give the guys a chance. Steve knows that. But when the mechanic refuses to talk about his past, and the fighter doesn't give them a name or even show them his face... Well, Steve doesn't like that one bit.

Of course, that just means that their new crew members have to go and surprise them all. Repeatedly.

The Arsonist's Choir (ao3) - Brenda steve/bucky E, 11k

Summary: "It's Bucky," Steve added, helplessly. The buyer was now sitting at Mikhailov's table, but the mission seemed unimportant. "He's been arrested. In Texas. And, uh, apparently, we're married."

"Congratulations," Natasha replied, with a small grin. "Are you registered anywhere?"

The Perch (ao3) - AvengersCompound (emilyevanston) sam/clint E, 4k

Summary: During a mission, Sam and Clint are sent to the same spot for surveillance. Normally Sam quite enjoys the teasing of his teammates, but Clint’s constant chatter quickly starts to get on his nerves. As time passes, it becomes clear, when Clint’s annoying you, there might be something else going on.

The Ransom of Tony Stark (ao3) - antigrav_vector steve/tony M, 16k

Summary: As tends to be the case with anything involving the Avengers, the day starts out routine, and rapidly goes sideways. This day is no different; What was supposed to be a routine recon mission suddenly turns into a rescue...

[quilloftheclouds]

Inspiring Writeblrs Tag Game

Been wanting to do this for a while now, but I suppose I’ve just now worked up the motivation: I made a writeblr tag game! Specifically a “OH HECK WHO DO I CHOOSE, THERE’S TOO MANY PEOPLE I LOVE, SHOOT” sort of tag game~ (Aka: please someone tag me back so I can rant more about who I adore. ;u;)

Rules: If you can, tag at least one writeblr in each question and give a bit of explanation on why! You don’t even need a taglist--your answers act as one!

Of course, there is no push at all to do the game if you are tagged, and it would be lovely to do this even if you weren’t!

And now, onto the questions!

1. Whose writing has inspired your own? Through what qualities?

2. What writeblr(s) do you appreciate for their engagement in the community?

3. Who do you absolutely adore for their support of your own works?

4. What’s a lesser known writeblr that deserves so much more?

5. Who would you recommend for their writing resources (advice, prompts, templates, etc.)? How have they helped you?

6. If they were to publish, who would you immediately buy a book from? Do you have a specific WIP in mind?

You can find my answers under the cut! (Be sure, THERE ARE SO MANY MORE ANSWERS THAN WHAT I DID.)

- { - } - { - } -

1. Whose writing has inspired your own? Through what qualities?

Okay but. @abalonetea has such a recognizable, truly marvelous writing style. I love how Katie uses different font formats to convey the emotion and even the worldbuilding in her wips, I love her curt sentences that cut and chop like the action, I love the smooth flowing sounds of her peaceful scenes! I LOVE THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR DYNAMICS. Her characters are so well developed, so real seeming with their so many quirks and little things, the relationships are so cute and it’s all so full of hope, and yet, each character is so different and lovable all the same! (Even the villains! Oh no.) All of these factors have influenced my own writing, but the formatting of her writing and structure especially, since I’ve begun to experiment a lot with it!

@bookenders. Do I even need to say why? SO MUCH VARIETY. SO MUCH SKILL. Take the smallest of drabble ideas and hand it to her? She makes something glorious from it, as is obvious from her recent follower celebration. Wonderfully fitting diction, a deep knowledge and passion for linguistics and what she writes about that’s clear from her writing, the ability to have such a contrast in her writing style between different types of stories THAT ARE STILL ALL BRILLIANT. THE ABILITY TO WRITE SO MANY DIFFERENT TOPICS AND ALWAYS SO AMAZINGLY? That’s heckin’ inspirational. I’ve started branching out myself in attempting to write some things completely contrasting with what I normally do, mostly if not only because of this utter genius. Congratulations, 🌵 pal, I’m blaming you for this.

2. What writeblr(s) do you appreciate for their engagement in the community?

@mvcreates is currently on a bit of a hiatus BUT I DON’T CARE IF SHE NEVER SEES THIS Y’ALL NEED TO KNOW HOW ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC SHE IS. Of course, you probably already do, what with how much she does for the writeblr community! Positivity ask games, a beautiful discord group filled with wonderfully friendly writers, reblogs and reviews that are so in depth and with a wide variety of works reblogged that I likely wouldn’t have seen otherwise! SHE’S HECKIN’ AWESOME, FOLKS.

3. Who do you absolutely adore for their support of your own works?

I SEE YOU @tenacious-scripturient. I KNOW THAT’S YOU. I SEE YOU CONSTANTLY IN MY NOTIFICATIONS WHAT THE HECK. I HECKIN’ LOVE YOU AND YOUR WORKS. JUST SO YOU KNOW. I JUST. I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT, REALLY. A HECKIN’ AMAZING WRITER, BOTH OF WORDS AND SONG??? LIKING MY STUFF SO MUCH?? ASLKJFLDLKSJDK

@sunlight-and-starskies I SEE AND LOVE EVERY COMMENT YOU MAKE, YOUR EXCITEMENT FOR MY WIPS IS??? SO HECKIN’ APPRECIATED AND GIVES ME SO MUCH MOTIVATION TO CONTINUE? Seeing that others love my stories just as much (if not more???) than I do is so inspirational? AND YOU’RE ONE OF THE MAIN CULPRITS FOR IT. And honestly a lot of your comments are just... so heckin’ hilarious and/or kind. Love you so much, mate. <3

4. What’s a lesser known writeblr that deserves so much more?

I’m honestly not sure if she’s well known or not (she certainly deserves to be!!!), but in any case y’all need to go check out @clawhee-writes. Marvelous heckin’ writing, HECKIN’ INSPIRATIONAL WORLDBUILDING, an absolute delight to talk with, ideas that are yarn darn brilliant and an absolutely BEAUTIFUL wip, a wonderful person just all around! And she reblogs some really cool stuff, too! SO ANYWAYS I REITERATE, Y’ALL SHOULD GO CHECK HER OUT.

5. Who would you recommend for their writing resources (advice, prompts, templates, etc.)? How have they helped you?

@cogwrites‘ advice posts are likely one of the most major reason behind why I’m on writeblr in the first place! Her way of wording is super accessible, super interesting, and SUPER FLIPPIN’ HELPFUL, MY STARS. She has so many different series on such a range of wonderful advice!

Although she’s currently on hiatus, I also highly recommend @pens-swords-stuff! She has so much covered with absolutely marvelous advice and resources, and she’s so well organized, it makes finding everything feel like a dream come true!

And @imaghostwriter!! The sheer amount of resources they reblog covers just about everything, and their wonderful organization! IS SO HECKIN’ INSPIRING STARS. How??? Do you do it???? QUILL CAN NOT COMPREHEND.

6. If they were to publish, who would you immediately buy a book from? Do you have a specific WIP in mind?

@lady-redshield-writes. And no, because every single yarn darn wips of hers are HECKIN’ STUNNING. Her worlds are so expansive and fascinating, her character dynamics are to die for, her wording and writing itself is BEYOND STELLAR. Every time she posts something from her original works I jump at that notification. The two of her wips I know the most about are Symphony Number Five (ORCHESTRA NERD UNITE) and And Miles to Go Before I Sleep (I just! Can’t! Get over this wip!!! THE WORLDBUILDING! THE CHARACTERS! THE CONCEPT ENTIRELY!!! SO COOL.)

Also probably every single one of the above tagged as well. Because all of them are amazing as I’m COMPLETELY CERTAIN THEIR WRITING IS, TOO.

[spankystokes]

The folks over at @tenacioustoys sent over 2 awesome figures from artist @jimmckenzie for us to open up and check out... so we did just that. The Baby Scarecrow & Beneath The Harvest Pumpkin Crab 'Mono' edition vinyl figures are simply amazing... and we can't get enough of them, really stellar work from Jim and from @toyqube (the producer). If you dig these figures, they are up for grabs via the Tenacious Toys site... links below - so please, do yourself a favor and go grab them and head on over to our YouTube channel to watch the unboxing/review ( link in bio or http://www.youtube.com/spankystokes ) Beneath The Harvest Pumpkin Crab Mono edition & Baby Scarecrow 6-inch vinyl set: https://www.tenacioustoys.com ************************* Visit us: http://www.spankystokes.com Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/SpankyStokes Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SpankyStokes Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SpankyStokes ************************* #JimMcKenzie #TenaciousToys #ToyQube #video #pumpkincrab #scarecrow #babyscarecrow #youtube #video #videoreview #vinyltoys #arttoys #unboxing #review #spankystokes #toyblog #toyblogger https://www.instagram.com/p/B5x0mVkl6VS/?igshid=1gvd8vy3e8x1k

[destructiveurges]

“We Are All Going To Die” by Black Oak Clique (USA)

An open letter and anti-manifesto to Climate Offensive, Extinction Rebellion, Earth Strike, and other nonviolent movements

When the world ends, people come out of their apartments and meet their neighbors for the first time; they share food, stories, companionship. No one has to go to work or the laundromat; nobody remembers to check the mirror or scale or email account before leaving the house. Graffiti artists surge into the streets; strangers embrace, sobbing and laughing. Every moment possesses an immediacy formerly spread out across months. Burdens fall away, people confess secrets and grant forgiveness, the stars come out over New York City...and nine months later, a new generation is born.

(CrimethInc.)

We’re going to die?

"The Earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses." But us – me, you, even those who are killing the earth? We’re going to die.

In the worst case scenario, you drown, you starve, or you succumb to heat stroke. Not figuratively. You will drown, you will starve, you will succumb to heat stroke. Perhaps there’s the small chance that you will survive the mass migration to the last reaches of habitable land in and around the poles.

Perhaps.

But let’s be realistic here: In all likelihood, you’re going to die. A slow, horrible, excruciating death at that. We would like to say this is the future we’re hurtling towards at an ever-increasing rate. But it isn’t: it’s the present, the material, graspable present. Islands are sinking into the ocean. The poverty-stricken are freezing to death on the streets. People are burning to death in gigantic wildfires. The collapse is not to be a single event. It’s a process, and it’s currently underway. In the best case scenario, death is liberation. Perhaps the real “you” – your body, your consciousness, your soul, what have you – won’t die, per se: instead, the abstract “you” – your way of life, your social relationships under capitalism, your system of meaning that’s been drilled into your head since day one – will die.

Can’t we reform the system?

No. We can’t. The system is the problem, and the system runs deep. The problem isn’t just capitalism. It’s also the state, but it also isn’t just the state. It’s the ideology of consumption itself: that beings – plants, animals (including humans deemed to be subhuman), fungi, even inanimate natural “resources” – are objects to be bought, sold, and eventually, consumed. This ideology is perhaps the deepest ideology we have. It permeates every form of knowledge: from science, to art, to politics. It seeps through our language (one must think how often we refer to feeling, living beings – ones with the capacity to suffer – as “it.”) It permeates our relationships. It is the very basis of our societies, if it cannot be deemed our “society” itself – the group of capital-h Humans deemed to be worthy enough to be circumscribed by the abstract Community, that constructs itself in opposition to literally everything else.

Your favorite pet politician isn’t immune to this. Not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, not Bernie Sanders, not Jill Stein. Not the Democratic Socialists, not the Green Party, not the CPUSA, and not anyone else, either. Perhaps their hearts are in the right place – but sadly, that isn’t enough. To quote the amazing piece Anarchy Works by Peter Gelderloos:

Some people oppose capitalism on environmental grounds, but think some sort of state is necessary to prevent ecocide. But the state is itself a tool for the exploitation of nature. Socialist states such as the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China have been among the most ecocidal regimes imaginable. That these two societies never escaped the dynamics of capitalism is itself a feature of the state structure — it necessitates hierarchical, exploitative economic relationships of control and command, and once you start playing that game nothing beats capitalism.

What about nonviolence?

Concerning nonviolence: it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.

(Malcolm X)

The struggle against ecocide was never nonviolent, and it never will be, because it cannot be. That’s because ecocide is violence: violence against me and you, against animals (wild and domestic,) against the trees and the grass and the water and the mountains. Climate insurrection is self-defense. Strict adherence to nonviolence – that is, the rejection of violence – is complicity in the face of ecological destruction. It is not “offensive,” it is not “rebellion,” and it’s not a “strike” at climate change. Many of us do not have the privilege of being nonviolent – namely, those of us who already marginalized. We will be the first to go. We’re the rural farm workers and their families being sprayed with pesticides. We’re the houseless freezing to death in polar vortices. We’re the indigenous peoples whose homes are being swallowed by the sea. We’re the poor who will not have the capital necessary to complete the long trek north to the last remaining habitable lands. If we aren’t violent – if we don’t rebel against the system that oppresses us – we will be crushed. Don’t be complicit in our death, in your death.

What’s climate insurrection?

Perhaps the only hope me or you have. It’s destroying that which destroys us - by any means possible.

Wouldn’t that hurt the movement?

No. A better question would be: what has “nonviolent” protest won us in the long run? The answer: absolutely nothing. Many supposedly “nonviolent” movements, such as the Civil Rights Movement, were incredibly violent. There were hundreds of riots throughout the United States, and of course, the existence of armed paramilitary groups such as the Black Panthers, or the Brown Berets. One could make the argument that this narrative of nonviolence is pushed by the very people whose power would be threatened by violence, because violence means (perhaps immediate) change. Hence: why those in the US celebrate Martin Luther King Day, a federally recognized holiday; but not Malcolm X Day. Even the most-oft example of nonviolent resistance, the Indian independence movement, was not so. Bhagat Singh, who after his execution became a folk hero of the cause, was inspired by French anarchist Auguste Vaillant to bomb the British Raj’s Central Legislative Assembly. Less than a year before, he had assassinated a British police officer in retaliation for the death of the nationalist leader Lala Lajpat Rai.

Wouldn’t it be counterproductive?

Counterproductive to what? Getting meaningless reforms passed? Getting empty pyrrhic victories in the legal circuit? Performing impotent marches through major cities that don’t achieve anything other than receiving lukewarm press from second-rate newspapers? Ask the battery hen liberated from cramped cages by animal activists, or the old-growth forest protected indefinitely by logging saboteurs (and all the animals who call those forest home): is direct action productive?

Anarchist action— patient, hidden, tenacious, involving individuals, eating away at institutions like a worm eats away at fruit, as termites undermine majestic trees — such action does not lend itself to the theatrical effects of those who wish to draw attention to themselves.

To quote the great illusionist Georges Méliès, "I must say, to my great regret, the cheapest tricks have the greatest impact."

If insurrection is so great, how come people aren’t doing it now?

They are. You just haven’t heard of it because the media is smart enough to hide it. Hearing about the heroic stories of those who fight back would be too dangerous for most to hear – it runs the risk of radicalizing them. Movements like the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts, have been waging war against ecocide since the 1970s.

I don’t want to go to prison.

We dream of a world without prisons.

I’m scared.

We’re scared too, friend. We should be, but we should be

strong, too

What can we do?

We’ll let the great animal activist Keith Mann speak for us.

Labs raided, locks glued, products spiked, depots ransacked, windows smashed, construction halted, mink set free, fences torn down, cabs burnt out, officesin flames, car tires slashed, cages emptied, phone lines severed, slogans daubed, muck spread, damage done, electrics cut, site flooded, hunt dogs stolen, fur coats slashed, buildings destroyed, foxes freed, kennels attacked, businesses burgled, uproar, anger, outrage, balaclava clad thugs.

What if I don’t have the ability to fight?

You do, even if you can’t physically. Despite the tone of this letter, we aren’t totally opposed to above-ground action. In fact, in some cases, we think it’s necessary. Groups like the Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Group and the Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group are active in representing and advocating for operatives. As Sinn Féin, the Irish political party once associated with the militant IRA has been described:

Both Sinn Féin and the IRA play different but converging roles in the war of national liberation. The Irish Republican Army wages an armed campaign... Sinn Féin maintains the propaganda war and is the public and political voice of the movement.

What happens next?

We don’t know. But with any luck, we’ve laid out our options.

(via Heresy Distro)