#I could talk about this for like 10 years lol but I digress

[enbetweeen]

Your humanity is heavenly

[signed-loni]

Okay, so my lil request is like sal and y/n sleep over. There all nice and cuddles up and enjoy their night. but when tention hits the rom it's a crumbling set of emotions. like emotions all over the place as they make out. but that's cut kinda short when ash and larry walk in with drinks and they're high as the roof. Basically a friendly lill cock block if u will

Heehee. Yes🕺🏻

ALSO I APOLOGIZE FOR TGE LATE RESPONSE, I have been having to motivation to write, so please enjoy :)

(Since its gonna take place in highschool, no mentions of alcohol. Obviously, not their freshmen year, you guys are in your senior year. You and sal ate both 18.)

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 ⚠️: 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐬𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐟𝐰, 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐬, 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐮.

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟏,𝟏𝟗𝟕

@plusvanity

You and your friends, Sal, Larry, and Ash, were all walking to your class the three of you had together. Math was always easier for you nowadays since you had friends to talk to in class with.

Mrs packerton had her back turned to the class and you were writing in your notebook everything she was jotting down on the chalkboard. “Any questions?” She asked, turning around to face the class. The room was silent for a moment. “Alright! I’ll be at my desk, you all figure out this problem.” She wrote a quick problem down that would surely take the whole class about 10 minutes to complete. Quickly, you copied the problem into your book, starting to figure it out, when you felt something hit your arm. It didn’t hurt at all, felt crumpled up though. You glance at your arm a d too the floor, where you see a crumpled up piece of paper. Picking it up, you read the words

-“Wanna come over for a sleep over? Larry and Ash are coming to”

-You knew it was from your beloved boyfriend sal. You two had been dating for about a year or two now, and you didn’t actually have a sleepover yet, despite the fact you lived in the Addison apartments along with Larry.

-Quickly responding on the paper, you threw it back to sal

-“Of course! I’ll just have to ask my parents lol.”

-Sal silently sighed and nodded to himself. Your damn parents always were so strict. It bugged him sometimes to say the least, but he never pushed you to go against your parents word. They weren’t pushy about you going out with Sal, going on dates, hanging out with him and Larry, going to the fifth floor (surprisingly) but whenever it came to you asking to sleep over? No.

But,sal digresses.

Finally, your mom picks up. “Hello?” She asks. “Mom,” you start, carefully. “Can i sleep over at Sals house tonight?” You blurt out. Your mom is being quiet so shes thinking. Thats kinda surprising, she always just straight up says no. “My friends Larry and Ash are gonna be there to so it wont just be me and him!” You quickly say to convince her further to let you go. “Sure honey, go have fun.” She says sweetly. “Really? Thank you mom!” You say, hanging up so she doesnt change her mind-You quickly text Sal, Larry, and Ash in the group chat you guys had that you could go. -You rush home to pack a bag, and you’re out as fast as you were in. You walked to the elevator and took it up to sals floor. The elevator door opened with a loud ding! and you were on your way to his apartment.-You knocked on the door and sal let you in, opening the door a little wider for you.-You went into his room and processed everything, seeing as though it was youre first time in his room, you were fascinated by everything. His posters and paintings on the wall, the old record player he owned, the records he owned (all heavy metal of course).

~

(Sals mask is off in this part).

Its about 9:00 now and your other friends still aren’t there. You don’t mind of course, you just wish they would have let you know ahead of time that they were gonna flake out. You don’t mind only being with Sal of course, but you did kinda want to have an actual sleepover with your friends-

You and sal lay on top of his bed, watching a scary movie, you cuddled on his stomach with his hand on your head, playing with your hair. You get sorta bored and you start moving around a but. You sit up and sals hand falls off of you and onto your lap (accidentally, sal wouldn’t touch you there without consent). You look at Sal and he looks away, pulling his hand back. “M’sorry” sal uttered. “I-its okay. Don’t worry about it.” You said back with a little smile. That same fucking smile that makes sal go crazy. That same smile he loves to feel when he locks lips with you. That same smile that got him to fall in love with you.

-Sal started to stare, and once he noticed, he quickly turned red. Tension hit the room as soon as he looked away. Accidentally touching hands and locking your eyes together. You did it once more before sal finally couldn’t take it.-Sal quickly looked hack at you and turned your head towards him, pulling your faces closer together. And once you nodded, sal immediately pulled you into a kiss. Not even 1 minute in and you guys were already making out. Keep in mind, you guys don’t check the time frequently, and it was about 9:10 since you guys started making out. The kiss went on and on for a while, pulling away only to breathe.

-Sal got on top of you and kissed even more passionately. It was starting to get sloppy. Tongue slipping out and falling back u to yours.

-Once he got on too of you, you could feel his growing boner. And it was getting harder by the second😭-

His hands found their way to your hips, bringing you even closer to him than you already were, if that was even possible. His fingers went up and down your thighs and found their way to the waistband of your pajama pants. -As soon as he got your permission to dispose of your pants, Larry and Ash burst in,higher than the roof. -

“Fuuuuuuck..” larry slurs. “Woah woah woooah, were you two about to fuck right now??” Ash giggles as she sees sal on top of you. “Sal quickly grabs his mask and straps it onto his face and gets off of you. You sotuate yourself and sit up along with sal. “N-no, we weren’t..” sal responded. “You fuckin liars, we toootaly saw you on top of them.! You cant hide it from uuus” Larry says, falling onto Ash slightly. “What the fuck are you guys on?” You say, half embarrassed, half genuinely confused. “Heh, a lil weed, mayyyybe crack” ash says dizzily. “You guys need sleep” sal responds. “Yea yea, sleep schmeep whatever.” Larry says and he collapses on the ground, taking ash with him. And just like that, boom. They’re asleep.-

You sigh and fall back onto the wall, looking at sal, visibly red. You smile and give him a kiss on his prosthetic and fall back onto his bed. “I love you, Sally face.” You say sleepily. “I love you to, baby” sal responds, falling back onto his bed with you, taking off his prosthetic and wrapping his arms around you.

[minniiaa]

Hehehe, I was hoping you'd like that idea though I don't think I ever saw your puppy Law post, I'll look for it at some point lol

As for the reason behind Law's sudden shift in affection… I didn't think about it until now. I woke up with a mission and nothing more! But now that you mention it, I have formulated a few of my own theories and also have chosen to take one of yours and run, sprint even.

I really like the idea of Law, who's been surrounded by death since he was barely double digits, suddenly gets hit with the weight of mortality. He never got the time for a grieving process, his parents and little sister died while he was trying to survive exactly what killed them and I doubt a 10 year old of any academic achievements could process that by himself. Cora died as soon as he was given a chance, a reason to hope again, Law was beaten and scorned at 13, he was tired but he couldn't bring himself to disrespect Corazone's last wish by allowing himself to die. He lived for years not for himself but for a man who risked it all for him, for parents who never got to see their son become a doctor, for a sick little sister who waited in a closet for her big brother, Law grew up living for anyone but himself because if he did he would find no reason behind it. So while he sits in a secluded corner of the hospital after that day's butcher's bill surpassed yesterday's, his mind slows down to try remembering some of those faces and names he couldn't save but for some ungodly reason all that comes to mind is Lami, Cora, his parents and suddenly the familiarity of death is no longer *just death*. Now it's a crooked smile that would need braces in a few years, grey hair, and that welcomed, looming figure behind him no longer being so tall, but none of that happened and Law, for the first time in 18 years, realizes he was robbed. Maybe it's a bit silly for a doctor to feel the weight of mortality at 28 years old, it's a feeling he needed though, that feeling sending him into an upward spiral quicker than he ever thought possible.

My own first thought, however, involved a play on the interaction between Law and Sengoku at the end of Dressrosa. Law's a surgeon known for having direct correlation with one of the most cruel crime families in the country, and while he has earned the legal trust of the police, one too many of them remember Law when he was that dickhead teen, so Sengoku tries saving as much face he can with his fellow officers by catching Law alone and briefly (Sengoku is holding back a lot) tries to bestow some grandpa wisdom onto him because his boy died for the one in front of him now. Sengoku wishes he could invite Law to his empty home for rice crackers and tea, or maybe coffee, Cora preferred coffee too. Law wants to know the man who raised the one who saved his life. Did Cora get his smile from Sengoku? They could both talk each other's ears off about one man but only Law gets answer before parting ways because above all else, Sengoku wanted Law to know that his son, his Rosinante, did not save him to fulfill a mission or some savior complex, he saved Law because he saw the life in a dying boy's eyes.

Second thought features, get this, living Cora!! I actually don't care much for angst, I want angst the way I want a bandaid on my arm. I know ripping it off is more beneficial but has anyone ever considered that I'm a little bitch? I digress though. Cora is fucking estatic when Law, very begrudgingly, admitted to be seeing someone. Sure Law has been in relationships before, however Law never let him know about said relationships until well AFTER they broke up, so to hear Law talk about his current partner at all automatically has him rooting in this mystery person's corner. The long awaited question finally can be asked, “When can I meet him?”. First of all, how did he know Luffy's a guy, Law hadn't said his name yet, second, never ever in the history of ever. He can't give up though, and Cora pushes Law to introduce him, saying he'll even wait a few months into the relationship so they don't feel rushed. Luffy and Law had been dating for AT LEAST a year at that point. Cora chooses to ignore that in the moment when Law breaks that news to him. Law is, honestly, a little flabbergasted by Cora’s investment in his love life, probably tries joking about showing Cora how to use tinder before it boils down and Law has to genuinely ask Cora why he's being so “weird” about Law's romantic life. Cora… Cora kinda just deadpan stares at Law out of complete shock at the realization that Law is being serious. With a tone akinned to one you would use when explaining to a child why Fido had to go to “the farm”, Cora absolutely dumps everything Law has done that's made him worry since learning of Law's romantic life. He recognized some of the names of Law's past partners, and he recognized them for a reason. It wouldn't have taken much from Cora to make Law realize just how stupid his question is, but Cora also wants Law to know just how special this person is for them to be having this conversation now. Law has always known how special Luffy is in comparison to his past relationships, but he's never had the right words to describe such facts, thanks to Cora of course.

Overall, the idea is that someone/something happens to make Law actually process his life/mindset which in turn makes him see clearly just how much Luffy has always meant to him. I dunno if I properly expressed just how little introspection Law has had to have done for him to break at 28 but my hands hurt from typing so I pass the baton to you in this relay race.

-💫💀💫

Yes, amazing anon! This is my personal favorite of the three (probably due to the expansion of my previous idea). I love your description of Law's relationship with mortality through the deaths of his parents, Cora, and Lami. How he doesn't realize until he's so much older and instead of making him feel downtrodden and even more sad, he almost feels relieved knowing that death is no longer looming behind him. Perhaps he's realizing his own mortality and knowledge that his life can be taken from him just as quickly as theirs. Now that this has finally clicked in his head (he knows it should have years ago he's a surgeon for fucks sake he watches people die everyday) he wants to live his life and love Luffy the way they both deserve to be loved because it could be over tomorrow.

This conversation with Sengoku is something I always wanted to incorporate into one of my stories and will probably do one day when I find the right one. I wish we knew more about Cora and Sengoku's relationship, they are both such fascinating characters and perhaps Law is understanding that Sengoku helped Cora grow some of his more admirable traits, like his desire to do the right thing and his ability to love so deeply. I firmly beleive Sengoku is a good man he just is not on the side of the story that we root for in One Piece and thus we see him as a villain but that's a topic for another day. But yes, the revelation of Cora saving him simply because he wanted to see Law live and be happy is something that can allow Law to truly move on. He's always been worried about making Cora proud and doing something with his life that is of value but maybe he realizes now that all Cora wanted for him was to be happy. Now he has someone in his life who makes him happier than anything in the world and it's high time he makes sure Luffy knows it.

Living Cora is the best and I used a conversation with him in one of my fics to help Law overcome his fears and tell Luffy he loves him so I am on board with this idea fully. Cora's totally invested in Law's love life, he wants him to be happy and knows that his little guy needs more love than even he can give him. He's been quietly watching from the sideline as Law dates and doesn't even tell him. He sees Law was in clearly unfulfilling relationships and he kept his mouth shut because he knows Law needs to experience life and that some people can't find their prince unless they kiss some frogs. However, now he sees the small changes in Law since he's been in this new relationship. He's less angry, he smiles more, he just overall seems more relaxed than Cora's ever seen him even if he is still the same uptight cranky Law. So he wants to meet Luffy not just to get to know him, but to thank him for finally being the person who can make his adopted son happy. As Cora explains how different Law is from Luffy and how he can just see how much he cares for him, Law sees it too. With a little encouragement from Cora about letting himself bask in the glow of this beautiful love he gets to experience and allow it to overtake him, Law finds himself seeing his point. There's no use in trying to hold back anymore, Luffy is already his and he knows more than anything Luffy just wants Law to give him every piece of him in return. So he does. Shout out to Cora for making Law's blockhead ass stop being so stubborn.

I think Law definitely needs SOME intervening person/event he's just a man so set in his ways whose mindset rarely gets changed. He cares about Luffy more than anything but he's never allowed himself to just let go and embrace what it really means to love and be loved. Once he does, there's no going back. :)

[mrs-gauche]

Hi! Any thoughts on the 'hidden track' at the end of the Bonus DLC Tracks for the new Dragon Age Vinyl set? "D'Read Koda" can be interpreted so many ways but 'dread bear'? Coda, the musical notation? (Do you suppose there's any connection to the bear and maiden graffiti art we see several places in Inquisition [or any connection between that mural and the one from The Missing {moon atop the bear and halla horns on the maiden?}])

Hi! Thanks for the ask! :D And yeah, I've been super curious about this as well! (And also the pre-sale for the vinyl now starting at the same day that the final volume of The Missing is coming out, May 10th 👀 but ALSO everything about the cover, like the GOLDEN CITY (omg???), the enormous DRAGON (Mythal???), the vines/tree branches (like Mythal's vallaslin/visions of her conquering in Trespasser??), the ECLIPSE in the background (according to Dalish mythology Mythal "created" the moon/"An Eclipse as Fen'Harel stirred"??), the summit/mountain beneath it (!!) and that single hooded person (with a staff resembling the headpiece of one of the two figures in the 2020 teaser mural/symbols in the new cinematic)?? The potential LORE revelations on this thing are absolutely bonkers, but I digress! 😂)

Anyway! I actually thought something similar when I first saw that mysterious hidden track name, that it has to be some kind of anagram or wordplay, given how much BioWare LOVES to do those and also with the musical term "coda" being spelled with a "k" for some reason, but what stood out to me especially was the random apostrophe that's in there, since the devs are also known for their (internal) "disputes" about the extensive use of apostrophes in DA for the elven language and names. lol

So to me the odd spelling plus the random apostrophe points more to it being an anagram for a specific elven term, but I have yet to decipher what it could be. 🤔

My second thought was if this "hidden track" could actually just be the final part in the "extended version" of the Lost Elf theme (starting at about 10:13), but then I looked up the game's files and noticed that this specific tune actually plays (though only once) when you first get to the Darvaarad and the full piece is about 2:40 minutes long (the hidden track being only 1:08), leading me to think this is probably what's titled "Qunari Atmosphere" on the tracklist. And after going through all the Trespasser music files I could find, there was nothing hinting at something like "D'Read Koda" either. :/

But you're right, "Koda" is also a term in the Dakota language meaning "friend/ally" or "little bear", but I'm completely at a loss as to what that could refer to. For all we know, it could be a reference to frigging Storvacker. 😂

As for your second question though, since you brought up "The Bear and the Maiden" painting/mural in connection to the mural in volume 3 of The Missing, there are actually a few other interesting aspects to this that I've been thinking about, but before I start rambling get to that point, let me just put the rest under a cut so people don't get spammed with an exhaustingly long text post. lol

First off, for reference, this is the painting we're talking about, featured in various places throughout DAI!

People have made quite a few speculations about this imagery over the years. For one, given that it is not exclusively found in elven ruins and filed under "Fereldan art" in the game's files, some people assume it could depict an old legend of the Alamarri. Others have suggested that it's actually just a little easter egg in reference to the "The Bear and the Fair Maiden" song in ASOIAF. lol

But by far the most popular take on this, is that this is depicting the elven gods Dirthamen and Ghilan'nain. Based on Ghilan'nain's sacred animal being the halla and the lady with her all white appearance and her antlers kinda resembling one as well. And Dirthamen's sacred animal being a bear (among others, I think). Which would pose the question though, why these two are portrayed in such a way, when there's nothing in the lore that could give us an explanation?

To me, it almost looks like the maiden is trying to calm the bear down/keep him in check, who has gone out of control and is now turning into a wild beast (that can apparently also breath fire? lol). With what we know of Ghilan'nain now, it's definitely possible that her horrifying experiments and creation of all kinds of freaky creatures might have inspired such imagery.

So, while I can see how you could draw a parallel to the mural in volume 3 with the way they're positioned/embrace each other, I don't know what else to derive from this, other than that it would point to the bottom "red one" being Ghilan'nain and the "green one" being Andruil and not the other way around, or that Andruil was maybe able to shapeshift into a bear? lol But if we're going with my assumption that the bear is losing control over itself, maybe it could refer to the stories of Andruil succumbing to madness from hunting the Forgotten Ones in the Void. As opposed to the mural in the comic, where they seem to be rather peacefully in love (to me at least).

But while we're at it, let us go back to Ghilan'nain and Dirthamen's potential connection real quick (because I've been thinking about it ��)! What's interesting to me, is that these two have actually been mentioned together in the lore, too, looking at this ancient elven writing for example that is only revealed to you when using Veilfire at the Temple of Mythal:

"His crime is high treason. He took on a form reserved for the gods and their chosen, and dared to fly in the shape of the divine.The sinner belongs to Dirthamen; he claims he took wings at the urging of Ghilan'nain, and begs protection from Mythal. She does not show him favor, and will let Elgar'nan judge him."

"For one moment there is an image of a shifting, shadowy mass with blazing eyes, whose form may be one or many. Then it fades."

So there we have the two being involved in what appears to be a judgement on someone serving under Dirthamen, because of Ghilan'nain's actions. While we don't know how much of this actually happened, it definitely makes you wonder about their intentions here. Why would Ghil do this? And why specifically to someone serving under Dirthamen? What was the outcome? And what does this tell us about their relationship? (And now that I think about it, what if this sinner was actually the bear in the mural? lol)

As for the sinner himself. Now, I don't know about you, but when I reread this codex again after several playthroughs, particularly the “shifting, shadowy mass with blazing eyes” at the end, I thought “Wait. That kinda reminds me of something......”

Look, I know it doesn't appear that way when looking at my blog for like five minutes, but I certainly don't think that every single codex entry on elven myths should be automatically assumed to be about Solas. 😂 That being said, I can't help but feel like there's a connection to be made when looking at this other ancient inscription, that can be found in the final chamber of the Solasan Temple:

Faintly carved into the stone is a figure bound in chains. Two other figures have turned their gaze from the central image.

The script below the image is ancient, though Solas is able to provide a partial translation:

Pride in our accomplishments and in our hearts. That same pride became (a word meaning corrupted or altered) within him, he sought to claim (indecipherable), cast from favor and so he was bound.

Hidden from mortal eyes, death lies within.

To me, this text always seemed to perfectly match up with the ancient writing in Mythal's temple. A person being judged for claiming (godhood?)/daring to fly in the shape of the divine (a dragon?), put in chains and "bound" as punishment (by Elgar'nan?). And again, there are two figures involved. If the events of these writings do connect, was this "sinner" the one belonging to Dirthamen, taking wings by the urging of Ghilan'nain and them now silently accepting Elgar'nan's judgement, making those two the "figures turning their gaze"?

The thing is, if I'm presented with an ancient elven text about someone's PRIDE being corrupted in a place called SOLASAN temple, how in the world am I NOT supposed to draw an immediate connection to Solas here? 😂 I'm not saying that the sinner in this story had to be him per se, but if the age-old theory about Solas having been a spirit of Wisdom once who somehow turned into Pride is true, then there's still the question of how or why exactly this corruption occurred? And, if anything, the story of this sinner would provide at least one possibility for what happened to someone who had been corrupted in ancient times.

"Cast from favor and so he was bound."

If Cole's cryptic comments in Trespasser are actually about Solas (and Mythal?), then it's safe to say that Solas was himself bound ("He left a scar when he burned her off his face"), which does make SO much sense, considering that he values free will above everything, his furious reaction to the Well of Sorrows is SO telling, oh and also, he lead a motherflippin Slave Rebellion. 😂

But if we're looking for further potential connections between Dirthamen, Ghilan'nain and Solas... Well, Dirthamen is not only called the Keeper of Secrets, but is also always associated with sharing wisdom, knowledge and giving counsel to those in need. His symbols also include two ravens. Wolf and raven being known for pretty cool 80s synthwave music having a special bond in many real life myths and legends.

And Ghilan'nain is the only elven god we know of who was a "huntress of the People" before she ascended to become the youngest of the elven pantheon (possibly because of her relationship with Andruil or her ability to "create" things). As far as we know, Solas was also one of the People before he "became" Fen'Harel. So they were very much alike in that sense.

There's also the tale in which Fen'Harel gets captured by Andruil, because he had angered her by “hunting the halla without her blessing”. Some people have taken this to mean that Solas made a move on Ghilan'nain or that they had something going, so naturally, given that Andruil and Ghilan'nain are believed to have also been lovers, she was not very amused about that. lol (Which would make the rest of the story even funnier, where Andruil declared to “punish” him by making him “serve in her bed for a year and a day to pay her back”. lmao)

Which brings us finally back to the mural in The Missing volume 3, that could depict Andruil and Ghilan'nain embracing each other, perhaps even romantically (btw, if you want to know why I think so, check out my post on volume 3. :D).

I kinda joked about it at first, but if we assume that this mural was actually made by Solas as well, then you do have to wonder why he would even choose to paint such an intimate moment between Ghilan'nain and Andruil, people he arguably despises? Though it'll be interesting to learn what their relationship was like before his rebellion and Mythal's murder. I mean, who knows, maybe the before-mentioned tale actually happened and all three of them made out afterwards (willingly or not). 😂 (I mean, we're still talking about immortal beings here, so what else are they gonna do all day? lol) Or maybe Solas was just the Evanuris' personal portrait/mural painter at one point. lol

Anyway, to conclude, all of this is partially why I assumed for the longest time, that the two figures seen in the 2020 teaser mural could be Ghilan'nain and Dirthamen (also the fact that Dirthamen's vallaslin matched up perfectly with the silhouette of the right figure and obviously everything about Ghilan'nain and her horrifying experiments in Tevinter Nights).

...but with everything we've learned since then, I'm now actually leaning more towards it being Ghilan'nain and Elgar'nan (if you want to know why, I highly recommend watching this fantastic analysis!).

The only thing that still kinda irks me with this, is the fact that the only elven god that's known for wielding a spear like this is actually Andruil.

However, it is super suspicious to me how the "goddess" seen in this concept art seems to break out of what looks like huge ocean waves and how this "grey sludge stuff" from Ghil's ancient "pools" in Tevinter Nights was described to have "smelled like the ocean" AND the mention of (capital P) Pride in elven myths having "stopped Ghilan'nain's hand when she was about to destroy her creatures of the deep sea". 👀👀 (Also, is it just me or does the figure in the 2020 mural look like she's having algae hanging down her headpiece? Not to mention the tentacles. lol) So there's that.

Also, and I know this is the silliest reason, but I don't know if BioWare would expect new or casual players to keep up with all these long "complicated" elven names, since "Ghilan'nain" and "Elgar'nan" do sound kinda similar and people might get them mixed up. lmao So having Elgar'nan and Andruil might be a bit more distinguishable, just for the sake of making it a little easier for new players lol (I mean, they have changed names before to avoid this problem, like when the Tevinter city "Qarinus" was turned into "Ventus" because it sounded too similar to "Qunari", I think? 😂).

I don't know if any of this actually answered your question, I feel like I got carried away by like a mile. 😂 I don't know how I got from "D'Read Koda" on the vinyl to tentacles, but here we are. 😂 Those are my thoughts on.... a lot of stuff. lol

[avagloom]

Ok so here’s the story of me meeting sinjin drowning (Weston & Kalynn). My sister and I went to the thrift store on some random day and this was our peak obsession time of sinjin and knowing where they lived through videos (like the exact neighborhood 😭) we knew we’d probably bump into them. Or at the least see them go around my hometown lol. So whenever we’d go out we’d be hoping they’d be there too but this one time we both were wearing random clothes we didn’t really like so we kind of hate our pic with them but anyways I digress, we went into the store and after about 10 minutes we could hear Weston’s voice it was like a horror movie lolll. We saw him kind of jumpy walking around kind of like a tip toe walk but just out of his personality being bubbly I guess. He was following behind Kalynn and my sister and I were freaking out how to approach them. We had to go some amount of aisles over before mustering up the courage to ask for a picture. So our mom was there too and she took the picture — we were so obvious we knew who they were so when we got closer they kinda knew what was going on. I couldn’t even talk i mean already having social anxiety meeting my idols at the time was soooo scary. My sister said something like “we love you, we relate to you so much because we are also two years apart in age so like the same dynamic” Weston was so goofy (as expected) and Kalynn was joking about how we met in the thrift store and in the picture she was even holding a random shirt I don’t think she bought. Ok so then my sister pulled out her phone and gave it to my mom and my mom said idk the password (we forgot in the moment you could just swipe to the right lolll) Weston then said “give it to me, I know the password” my sister was shaking trying to enter the password to open her phone and omg when she opened it, it was on merge mansion and they both saw lolll (she still thinks about that and how embarrassing we were). Then we took a picture and got out of there so we could get a breather and reconvene after that crazy event. Omg and my mom saw Weston again at her hair cutting place like 2 days later!! Here are the pics:

Sorry I rambled 😭😭

[judasisgayriot]

hello again! you once again prove yourself as the queen of heroes ramblings. you responded with so much detail so quickly! loveeee it :)

i wanna ask you more, i like getting your mini ted talks. what are your thoughts on sylar/peter as a ship? i personally don’t really see it in the show, but i’ve read some real good fics with them.

Hahaha omg I love you anon I’m glad someone enjoys hearing my unhinged rants about this show…

Soooo. Maybe the girlies will hate me for this one lol. Thing is, I can see how sylar/peter would lend itself to having some good fics written about it. Like, the concept is there, it has potential. The foundations for a good hero/villain ship are there, they are definitely set up as foils and parallels to each other, they have the whole ‘two sides of a coin’ thing going on. But like you, I don’t really see it in the show at all. It’s like they had the potential but didn’t actually execute it/make me give a fuck about it/make me remotely want to ship it, lol.

It is/was a popular ship in heroes fandom (lol heroes fandom in 2024 is like 12 people but hey) and I do see why for the above reasons. I actually think the episode ‘the wall’ is a great concept but again, they don’t sell me on it/execute it well/actually follow through on making me remotely believe they’d become friends by the end. Right before they break out, having spent what was apparently like 10 years of mind-time together in there or whatever, Peter still hates his guts and wants to smash his head in with a sledgehammer lmao?? (I mean girl same. The whole ‘peter has to forgive sylar, narratively and kind of literally, if he wants to escape the mind prison’ plot point grinds my gears. I think he should get to never forgive him ever for killing Nathan if he doesn’t want to lmao. Shout out to that one fan panel with Milo where he’s like ‘peter would never forgive him he would eviscerate him’ king you are speaking my fucking language lol. I digress.) like afterwards I can buy that sylar has latched onto Peter and wants to be his friend/wants Peter to like, model being a good person for him, but not that Peter actually gives a shit in return or wants anything to do with him lol

(Sidenote, that in itself is a rly interesting concept, and me and @buildarocketboys developed a fic idea about peter agreeing to like, ‘mentor’ sylar and hang out with him but if and only if he kept shapeshifting back into Nathan for him. Now THAT is fucked up and deranged and the good stuff and actually makes me, avowed sylar disliker, feel kinda sorry for the guy lol. Yessss let me marinate in the badwrongness of all of that and how Peter is the one acting fully insane. Anyway. I digress once more.)

Anyway I’m clearly also biased bc I used to like sylar as a character back in the day but sometime over my like 4 rewatches over the last few years he really started pissing me off lol. Now it’s not like I’m being an anti about him being an evil villain or anything, I love a problematic king and I’m a Nathan stan lmao. In fact I only really enjoy sylar when he is getting to be a proper fun cackling all-out villain, he’s actually enjoyable and funny in that mode. It’s the like 9 flip-flopped badly written redemption arcs they keep trying to give him like they’re trying to make me feel sorry for him bc his dad sold him to one direction or whatever, but sorry!! I feel nothing! He’s a whiny bitch and they should have just let him be killed off one of the first 900 times it nearly happened! I don’t have any sympathy and he’s completely lost me lol. So yeah. That does make me biased plus being a Petrellicest girlie and a Nathan stan and an Elle stan sorry I selfishly won’t forgive him for killing them 😔 poor baby serial killer I’m being such a mean hater. Stan my absolutely fucking awful morally confused self hating politician guy instead loooool

Well. All that to say that I see why people ship it, it has interesting foundations that could have led to something good but IMO it just didn’t, I can definitely imagine it has some good fic out there that can sell you on it, but I just don’t see their great poetic love or whatever. It’s soooo ‘baby’ ‘fellow associate’ core by the end lmao. And it actively annoys me. But I am just being a hater I know. Sorry to the cool petlars out there it’s all hashtag my opinion

[h20goflashnsplashsealrideon]

I have a couple reasons for liking pooltoys 👀

When I was younger (I think maybe 9?? 10?) I was alone in the pool at my grandparents. We had a classic intex whale, and I had been struggling for awhile to get on it. I was shorter back then, being a kid, and while I could stand up, it was up to my chest, so the top of the whale was relatively high up. So anyways I was fighting to get on that thing for a good 10-20 minutes.

Also, as a note, I don't get to go to my grandparents as often now. They live a good bit away, and also my mom has a poor relationship with her own mom (no blame to my mom btw, her grandma was a terrible mother lol). And it's too far for me to drive comfortably. But I love my grandfather, and their house has always been one of my favorite places that invokes a deeply strong sense of nostalgia in me. But anyways, I digress:

Since nothing had been on top of the whale for awhile, the black PVC had soaked up all the sun's warmth. Finally, I managed to clamber on top, and I think that's the most at peace I've ever been in my whole life.

I was exhausted from climbing up it, the warmth of the PVC was so cozy, and I fell asleep to the sound of the pool's ripples. Although I unfortunately don't have that whale anymore (Benji is a new one), I am transported to that same place of relaxation and peace when I'm on/around pooltoys.

They bring me back to a simpler time and place, where you don't have to think of anything like money or mortality, and, even if just for a moment, you can relax.

It took me awhile to find the community. I'd known about the pooltoys at furry conventions that people would take pictures with for awhile, but I only found out it was a whole thing thanks to Ash Coyote's video lol. The whole time watching it I felt just like when I first found out about furries lol ("omg!!! This is a thing??!?!?! There's other people who like the thing?!?! Yep this is my personality now.")

On the more nsfw side (I'll be brief dw), I'm a very texture focused person, and in my current living situation, it's difficult to have some things. It's a lot easier to explain why I have a pooltoy in my closet than something like a latex suit or other k1nk gear. But even then, it's not just convenience, it's the feeling of it pressing against you, the smoothness, the soft sounds of your hand running against the pvc. It's all just so... hot?? Also, it's a lot easier (and safer) than finding an actual person just for nsfw purposes whenever I'm in the mood (I'm a woman, so hookup culture has a lot of risks for me, and most of the time I don't care enough to bother lol)

So yea, tldr:

-Very calming experience with one when I was younger

-I'm a furry, so the aesthetic appeal is there

-Nice texture is nice

-✨️convenience✨️

Also sry if this is kinda rambley lol it's late for me and I love a good excuse to talk abt what got me into pooltoys lol

i love this so very much, there really is nothing like the sensation of just simply resting on the back of a toy. i went to a creek with my bf earlier this year and floated on the back of laguna (also an intex whale-- built for snuggling in the sun?) and was just totally blissed out.

this was a very sweet response, thank you for it :-) ❤️

[itsana004]

I have to ask for Droite for the character meme! (Or if you already got an ask for her, then Gauche?)

Ahhhh, first of all thank you so much for the ask! 💓 This one is special because it's about a minor character I care about a lot, and did for literal years and I'll do my best not to make this a paper scroll long (can't make promises). So let's roll! Here lays my truest thoughts on Droite/Dextra

•How do you feel about this character

You'd be surprised to know, but I did not like her character at all when I saw her for the first time.

She looked so... cold, had a lack of personality, unlikable boring character? Or maybe it was the fact she looked much older and more mature than the other main cast at the time, especially when she was strict? I can't pinpoint the specific reason, but there was really a time when I saw her as most viewers of Zexal see her as: an uninteresting boring minor character.

So how come I changed my mind? And got so attached to her to the point literal years passed and I still love her character?

The first time I ever saw Zexal episode per episode was probably when I was 10-11 years old on the TV, and Zexal was pretty popular in Italy back then, and I distinctively remember this character made an impression on me on episode 54 in her duel against Tron, with her solid strategy and clever tactics (and it was very unique compared to any other character), cause let's be real, this show is about dueling, if the character weren't good duelists, they really didn't stick to me in the long run (and Droite sure didn't give her best duel at all in that Droite and Gauche Vs Yuma duel, it was generic and boring to me), but Droite was doing very well against the main antagonist of that season, Tron (and it even made me root for her!) and the way he got around her strategy and the cards he used felt very oddly specific because of the nonesense rule that Yu-Gi-Oh women cannot win, so we can forget a minor character woman actually beating the main antagonist of that season (I understand the plot was needed to be driven forward with Tron as the main antagonist ofc lol but I have more thoughts on how they could have handled it better but I don't wish to digress) - anyway this duel stuck to me and as I said, Zexal was fairly popular in my town and I was talking about it to my friend, a frustrated naive young me saying how she felt about that the butterfly girl with purple hair losing and for some reason I didn't catch her name and my best friend told me it was "Drua" (from Dorowa but fandom decided it was Droite and I was confused but I found here in the end!), and then I searched her name on Google and saw a gorgeous fanart of her holding a butterfly and you could say my spiral started then (so in a way I am the way I am because of my friend, it's all her fault). From that point on I started to form an attachment to this character and pay attention to every time she appeared on screen, but boi young me was in for total disappointment because from that point on Droite was never given this kind of focus, or any development nor deliver a duel like that ever again (In Italian dub from 4kids they censored Droite and Gauche being homeless orphans being picked from Mr. Heartland so extra less scene 🤬). Young me also kept wondering, what happened to all those feelings she poured in ep 54? And I figured in the end that's a question only god knows, cause Zexal writers definitely don't, and so fanfics gave me much better answers. As years passed, I have to say I only grew to love her character more and more, I just kept learning new things about her and appreciated her character paying attention to every time she appeared from the limited screentime she had and I'm going to list some things I really love.

I was glad to learn that dueling wasn't something she was forced herself to learn for the purpose of training or for the sake of becoming stronger like Kaito, but it's something she enjoyed ever since she and Gauche discovered Duel Monsters when they were homeless orphans living in the streets (I feel like this adds more to her personality), and for them being only kids struggling to live day by day, found a little joy in their lives, and it even became their star of hope, something to look forward to in their hellish life (MY POOR BABIESSS I LOVE THEM MUCH).

I also love the fact Droite and Gauche treat each other as equals, they must have helped each other to get stronger by dueling one another, there is no air of superiority between them like Shark is towards Rio when it comes to dueling, so I assume Droite and Gauche have always one up the other to the point they have the almost same number of wins and losses against each other, and they must have spent their time mostly support each other as well. I love how she recognizes Gauche's move against Esper Robin instantly showing how close they are. WE NEEDED MORE SCENES OF THOSE TWO SQUABBLING, ACTUALLY, WITH THOSE THREE WITH KAITO, I NEED THEM TOGETHER IN ON LINE OKAY.

Also can we talk about how this girl had endured powerful electric shocks?? And joined up to the top 3 in elite duelists with Kaito and Gauche like the QUEEN SHE IS???

Also girlie just tasted tomato juice which was implied to be blood so casually what's up with that????? (That scene is so funny it will always be one of my favorites).

This woman is such a girlboss!!! Droite can casually fly a helicopter, run around the Tower like she owns it, being assertive in general a force to be reckoned with throughout the little time she appeared in Zexal, and humble her man to back away (THE NOTORIOUS NUMBER HUNTER TOO) and catch this man in his lies then HUMBLE HIM AGAIN IN THE W.D.C. AND YEET HIM FROM HER LANE (PLEASE THIS SCENE WILL ALWAYS BE FUNNY TO ME) .

Idgaf that she lost against Vetrix, she manhandled him in this duel, and not even his crest power from Barian world worked on her THIS IS QUEEN BEHAVIOUR RIGHT THERE.

Despite her lack of appearence in the second part and the complete abysmal decision to make her lose TWICE MORE LIKE IT WASN'T ENOUGH, I still appreciate the little contributions she was allowed to make.

I guess, a part of me is still attached to her for what she could have been? How she could have been used? (I brainrot about that every day) and it's painful to love a character that isn't very liked or even recognized while also completely understanding why, but I guess I still love her character and that doesn't seem it will change for a while.

•All the people you ship romantically with this character

I ship Droite with Kaito and no- I don't care what anyone says, if Zexal writers sent an announcement right now saying they will never be canon, I would still ship them because fanfics convinced me, cause some fans will always be better at writing romance than Zexal writers would ever dream to. I really love picking up from what was left and actually putting them to use by adding more things to the table to fix the mess, and I'm gonna die on this hill.

I also don't mind any other ships with Droite (as long as they are not problematic...) but one of my favorite rarepair has to be Droite x Akari (my comfort ship <3) - they haven't interacted once but they are both girl bosses and hot and I don't need any more reasons.

•My non-romantic OTP for this character

Just like I said in Gauche's one, this has to be Droite and Gauche. I refuse to see them through a romantic lens. It is true they share a lot of care for each other, but canonically Droite has romantic feelings for someone else and familial/platonic love exists, and interpreting them that way makes their relationship much sweeter and deeper in my eyes. Gauche being the only family that Droite has in a world where she was born with none will always be more meaningful and deeper to me than them being in a romantic relationship will ever be.

Another fact I forgot to mention in Gauche's one is although they don't have a specific label for each other in the sub, the Italian dub seems to be the only one where they actually refer to each other as "Fratello and sorella" (Brother and sister) - Kaito says "It's right that his sister duels", and although dub changes are not always for the best, I am fine with either one, in one they have a label for their relationship where it isn't left blank and it enforces their familial bond - (Droite says along the lines of "I'm his manager so I have to pull him out of this" in the sub - of course, she's not just a "manager", but at this point what do they even refer to each other... there is no label, and for two people who literally grew up together and spent so many years together, I find it odd - but on the other hand, these two never knew what the word family even meant when they were orphans living in the streets, and that being the reason for the lack of label to their relationship is just─

•My unpopular opinion about this character

She best girl─

•One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon

(Omg this part will be so long I'm so sorry)

1 - In episode 54, I wish instead of Droite giving up and losing because of her own free will, they could have made it so that she couldn't handle the power of the crest and collapses right after she draws a card, after trying so hard to resist it as long as she did - first, it doesn't make her look incompetent or make her look bad and still makes Tron a threatening villain. Second, it leaves the outcome with "No result" and still leaves it ambiguous than a straight "Lose" because of the notorious "female characters cannot win because they suck" awful rule the Yu-Gi-Oh series has created that screams sexism and misogyny from the writers - and no - the fact that the audience for this show is mostly boys does not excuse it.

2 - She should have won the duel together with Yuma in episode 104. Zexal has a really tedious habit of making strong female characters sacrifice themselves to show their valor and significance - no - that's not good enough when it is done again and again (Rio for her brother, Anna for Yuma, Droite for Kaito and Gauche and... Yuma?) and god I hate this so much, they could have found plenty of ways to show that without making Droite lose, we already know how dedicated and devoted Droite is for the people she loves/cares about, she tried to call Gauche back to conscious several times and took the fall for Yuma several times, they didn't need to kick her out of the duel to reinforce that same pathetic excuse again.

3 - Droite, Gauche and Kaito are the three people who have the most connection with Mr. Heartland (than Yuma will ever be) as well as having actual reasons to retaliate against the late Mr. Heartland, as they were exploited and have suffered hell from him, so why on HELL Yuma and Astral were shoehorned into that frecking duel - I do not care they are protagonists - I do not care people love the touching moment between Astral and Yuma before they transform into Zexal III - they could have animated that exact scene in their battle against Don Thousand or any other duel - there was no reason at all that would explain this decision in terms GOOD WRITING - to rob Kaito from that duel - imagine: after Kaito wins the duel against Mr. Heartland, since Droite and Gauche were already in Heartland City because of Yuma's friends understanding the world was in danger, Mr. Heartland in his last efforts could have pleaded Gauche and Droite to help him and manipulate them telling them how he saved them as orphans and they are here today because of him. But to his surprise, they don't, instead they use their ace monsters to attack him instead and send their farewells, and Mr. Heartland meets his demise - heck, they could have been the ones to take over after Kaito collapses - no matter what anyone tells me, either of the two ways it's how it should have played out because all of those three characters meet a proper closure with this man, but zexal writers do not give a sh8t about any other characters except their precious main and that leads to bad writing.

4 - I'm not really a fan of Droite being Gauche's manager? My reason for that is Droite spends most of Zexal serving/helping/sacrificing for other characters and is never her own person, and to me this is one of many examples. It's fine that she's his manager but what I wish would happen is Droite starts to miss competitive dueling and feels confused about her feelings of doubt towards her current job, and so for the upcoming W.D.C. Tournament (becoming a yearly event) that everyone including all our beloved cast will participate in it, Droite takes it as an opportunity to seek answers she needs through this Tournament and is encouraged by Gauche as well to "get a piece of the action", so she participates as a competitor together with Gauche - it lets her be her own person instead of being a "cheerleader" for Gauche (she can still be supporting of him while being a competitor) + it shows Gauche and Droite will support each other no matter in what they do and there are no ill feelings if Droite decides to resign from being his manager.

5 - The complete lack of development or scenes between Droite and Kaito, heck, it might be as dry as the sahara desert, and for me to say it is very concerning, luckily for me fanfics exist! So for the "what I wish would have happened", there is a fanfic called "I'll Always Be With You" by AquaMagic.389 (is my canon now, and in the second chapter I WEPT) - yeah, that's what I wish had happened, it's just adding the little things in the flashback that can slowly build up overtime.

Fun fact: In the Japanese W.D.C. 3DS game in Shingetsu Rei's route as Droite is her opponent, Yuma tells some things about her to Rei and he literally blurts it out for everyone to know about Droite's feelings in public to piss her off lmaooo - and later with Kotori's help Droite confesses her feelings properly but we don't know what happens after that (damn I-) so another I wished is them having actually some development post-canon, who knows, maybe through a Tournament (my brainrot from "La puissance de zexal" fanfic from griffon chap 20 is showing) yeah I'm gonna stop right there.

6- Finally, the last point. Every anime ever has a beach or light-hearted episode, why couldn't we have that like a field trip?? Also, I always found it interesting Hart and Droite's love for butterflies, I wish I could see them having such a cute moment where Hart admires her deck and it reminds him of those peaceful days when his big brother and he would chase butterflies and would share about those days with Droite it's just-

I'm so sorry this post turned into a paper scroll after all, if you ever reached until here then thank you and sorry for making you read all that, take care and have a good day! And again, thank you so much for the ask 💖

[icarus-suraki]

I've been thinking about a post that's been circulating here about the subtle racism present in Western/white danmei fandom (which is definitely there, whether one realizes it or not). And it reminded me a lot of 1990s anime fandom.

First, for the record, I'm white. Just so we're clear. Okay, moving on:

The DIC dubbed version of Sailor Moon was broadcast when I was 13, in 1995 (and I jumped right on it too). Around that same time, the SciFi channel was showing a handful of animes in rotation on Saturday mornings. There were a few dubbed anime and even fewer subbed anime on VHS at Blockbuster. 9 times out of 10, no one ever really knew how to pronounce "Neon Genesis Evangelion" or "Urusei Yatsura." And the general perception of "anime" in general was that it was raunchy at the mildest and only got progressively more pornographic from there.

But as these things started to appear in the US and be available to a wider audience, all these racist stereotypes of Japan and Japanese people started to surface too. To quote someone from the time, "Isn't manga the kinky stuff Japanese businessmen read on the train?" That was the perception: it's all dirty. (Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Ronin Warriors and some other early arrivals helped with that some, because they were clearly children's cartoons. But then we had to deal with the whole "children's cartoons" issue when looking at NGE and Miyazaki's movies. But I'm digressing and glossing over whole decades of localized anime.)

tl;dr: in the early and mid 90s, if you were a fan of anime you were very much a consumer of a "foreign" product.

So we loved it but there was a very steep learning curve when it came to actually understanding what we were watching, especially as the internet got bigger and better and we learned that, wait, there are outer senshi? There are whole other storylines?

And there was an entirely different visual language and cultural foundation to these shows (and later movies and manga and so on). Why the heck does she have a giant drop next to her head? Why is she holding that piece of paper? What does it mean to work at a shrine? A shrine to what? What's the deal with the cherry blossoms? Why does he have an expression like that on his face? What does it mean when the characters do this? And this was in the 90s, so the internet then is not what it is today. We had to fumble our way around and learn the details of these "foreign" cartoons, while contending with the stereotypes other people (usually adults lol) had about Japan, anime, and Japanese people. But we did learn! We'd read, we'd hit up the internet as much as we could, we'd talk to one another, we'd go to events and conventions and just try to pick up as much as we could. Because we were curious! We wanted to know!

We were lucky because within a few years we had Princess Mononoke in movie theaters (not many, but some) and Cowboy Bebop popped up and Gundam Wing came along and the internet got better and anime stopped being such a fringe interest and now there's better information and understanding (at least a little).

That's a long story to say that the Western danmei fandom needs to do the same thing: get down into the cultural source and learn stuff.

You have got to acknowledge that you are engaging with works from a culture that is not your own. You can't just slap Western concepts onto it and try to shove an entirely different culture into the framework of your own culture. That's not going to work. And, no, you won't understand everything right off. There's layers in here and you have to acknowledge that and start learning.

You're engaging with concepts and worldviews that are almost certainly not the same as your own, my fellow white danmei fans, and you have got to realize that. Step back from your notions and your expectations and, yes, your racism and stereotypes, and start looking at the complexity of an entire culture out of which a character you love has arisen.

Once upon a time, someone here on Tumblr wanted to do a presentation about how "magical girl" characters like Sailor Moon and Sakura Kinomoto were inherently feminist. The problem was that this person never even considered the ways "feminism" might look or be discussed in Japan. This person was imposing Western feminism on characters that were created entirely outside that worldview/mindset. Don't do that. It's unfair to the creator, it's unfair to the creator's culture, and it actually kind of stifles your opportunity for learning.

Will I ever understand Japanese culture as well as a Japanese person? Absofuckinglutely not. But I know more than I once did, which means I can enjoy more aspects of animanga than I used to. I can get more of it and I'm less likely to misinterpret the creator's intentions. I'm not that great at it and I love a good translator's note, but I can get more of some of it.

So dig in to the cultural foundations and stop shoving Western cultural concepts onto works that weren't created in that milieu. (Yes, I said "milieu!") Get curious! I am begging you to stop assuming and get curious! Ask yourself "why?" and then get to researching!

For your first assignment, stop writing fanfic where Lan Wangji sounds like a robot. He uses short, perfect, referential phrases because he's elegant and educated. In English, the most elegant characters use elaborate language. Not so in many Chinese works: the fewer and more perfectly chosen the words, and the more meaning lying within those words, the more refined and educated the character is. It's like he's so good with language that he doesn't even need to use it anymore.

At least, that's my superficial understanding at the moment. I've got tons more to learn.

So let's get learning and stop shoving our expectations, assumptions, worldview, stereotypes, and cultural baggage onto works that exist and were created outside all of that. Let the works stand on their own and learn their foundations.

[anemxvisions]

//ok my monster thoughts about the AQ

Ok first off Paimon read the freaking room omfg like please! Do you not see the state of Possion?! Like she just lost the two closest people in her life. On top of that I was crying laughing when Neuvillette showed up and clearly saw her going through it but he legit perked up and was so happy to hear how Sigewinne is doing like bruh XD

That out of the way lets get to the most talked about parts of the AQ

First the imfamous Childe throw by Skirk…honestly it’s actually what I expect from her. Listen Hoyo loves teasing us so they’re not going to show all dynamics with her. If anything this is a clear sign of her character especially as she referred to an all consuming whale as a pet. Her chucking Childe goes to show she’s not super entuned with human nature, given how long she’s been in the abyss makes sense. Bottomline I didn’t take away from the scene as comedic, yeah it got a little chuckle but after I heard how Skirk talked about him makes sense, Childe is the stray cat she found in the dumpster, stinky baby.

Moving onto the Focalor and Furina, yeah Furina needs a god damn hug and I’m taking her away from Focalor! My jaw dropped when I saw the hundreds of tally marks as she had to go through basically the same day for over five hundred years with the only thing keeping her going is Focalor’s message. God my poor bubble like she probably wanted to tell Neuvillette so many times but couldn’t I’m sobbing.

I do feel they could have hinted more at Focalor being separated, it would have made her sacrifice feel more impactful like Rukka’s but I digress she needed to be completely hidden in order to defy the heavenly principles which good for you girl. I just don’t like how Furina’s ‘reward’ for all of this is to live as a human like…five hundred years to get maybe at most sixty years? It does not seem fair or just, her suffering worth so little.

Neuvillette honestly was going through it but I’m so happy he wasn’t ‘betrayed’ by Furina like how a lot of us were predicting. I do however wished he had the like big emotional moment with her and not Focalor.

A thing I really liked is how the Fatui for once are not blamed for what happened and instead actually helped the nation out. The Knave said it best that organizations with abundances of resources should lend a hand no matter sides. She came to Fontaine first to save her home get the gnosis second. I am sensing the building blocks of her being friendly towards us for when she eventually becomes playable and yeah wincing and mourning the loss of her being the mean queen but who knows we still need Fontaine’s second world boss.

Nobody else said it but I am so mad at the lack of more Remurina lore! Like how can you heavily talk about it last quest and barely any mention of it?! I hear maybe in the future we will be getting more but I’m all huffy

So glad to see the arc was used, a small part of me felt like the arc in the fortress was never going to be used as a plot point so very glad I wasn’t disappointed.

Now onto the extra info at the end…the gnosis being the remains of the third descender is def giving JJK Sukuna fingers vibes lol like what the Tsarista gonna collect them all consume them and get the power of a descender hehehehehe…..

Anyways! Natlan crumbs and it’s the nation of war and dragons like hello!

Overall I don’t typically play Archon Quests expecting anything, I always set my expectations low so I don’t get unintentionally mad some bit I was hoping for isn’t add. I don’t really expect hoyo to really get into the nitty gritty details especially with archon quests and with a track record of many of the final acts falling short I was expecting this a fifth time.

I give this AQ as a whole a 6.9/10

The build up was great the cutscenes amazing urgency all the way until the end. There are ofc some parts where it fell flat but I still greatly enjoyed this quest.

[thekenobee]

Lol let's talk about how we got into our obessesions with Russell Crowe.

Like which movies did you watch first? Which one has finally made you go "Ok fuck it, Imma watch all of them"? When was this? Which movie is your fave now (and why?)

Or anything else you wanna share/let me know haha. Just answer whatever you wanna answer tho I could go into a full blown essay on each of these questions lol

Howdy, I'm hurring with an answer!!

I think the first film was "Gladiator". I saw it approximately 10 years ago and was BLOWN AWAY. The plot, music and above these RUSSELL.

And then it got me, RUSTY MA MAN. "Les Miserables" followed, "Next Three Days", "A Good Year"! And there was "Robin Hood" among them as well. I remember especially the huge impact "Master and Commander" left on me.

The reason for my Russellance(Russell + Renaissance) happened quite spontaneously, to be honest!

I was revisiting the soundtracks I held dear when Spotify decided to play "Now We are Free" and It ALL CAME BACK TO ME. I rewatched "Gladiator" the next day.

Films and storytelling, most of all, are the very reason I haven't given up when things were at their worst in my life. There was always a story which would resonate with my heart and melt the sadness away even if just a little bit. I've rewatched "Master and Commander" recently and That was the 3 time I fell in love with this film.

ALSO, WAS NO ONE GOING TO TELL ME THIS WAS BASED ON FREAKING 21 NOVELS is another story completely

I'm caught up now with "A Beautiful Mind" which I watched 2 times- First and LAST. As a person who suffers from OCD and anxiety, I felt EVERY SECOND of this film and it shattered my heart(recovery will take some time, hah).

"3.10 to Yuma" was SO GOOD, I'm thrilled to get immersed in westerns! (I've been trying to get round to it for a couple of years now, hahahh).

What is vital to mention is that "The Nice Guys" is ACTUALLY such a GOOD FILM I can't believe it!

I also feel obliged to let you know that I'm oh so rubbish at sticking to questions, I just go full DIGRESSION mode!

Hope I managed to help you get a picture of my Russellance<3

PS. I'm finishing reading "Master and Commander" and it's absolutely TERRIFIC ✨(as Terrific as Jack Aubrey in this GIF 💗💗💗)

[voyeuristicvixen]

Capt’s Log No. 42_SL’s BIG 20!

iM SuCh a NeRd ! I really do have a designated outfit for Mentoring in AND it matches Bellisaria Welcome Center. W my matching bot friend lol  I have been learning a lot as a mentor from other mentors, things about SL and the various worlds and niches you can find here. When you stay so enmeshed in your reality in SL you tend to forget just how vast it is. Its really unfathomable at times, just like they say our galaxy is continuously growing as we are discovering new parts of it, SL is a quantum realm in a way... I have to write a whole article about my views on SL and the astral world and the correlations therin. I digress

SL20B was a blast! I attended the premier of an SL documentary that was amazing, I got to see Phil Linden, Strawberry, all the OGs that was great! I love the talks that they do and all the different things that showcase how amazing SL is, the gifts and exhibits, and opportunities to volunteer and meet new people, and of course THE MUSIC!

My pops did a great couple of sets, it was really dope to see him in a different SL crowd of people that may never have stumbled upon Meroe or the Movement by themselves, that in itself is really cool to me because his sets always plant seeds for self reflection and spiritual growth and understanding. I really love when he does the cinematic spoken word because that is something unique that ive NEVER seen or heard anywhere else in my life. It is truly special my dad goes off!

Gigi, Lex, and I are usually there to support when we can! Partying it up and being the vibes! These glowsticks Lex gifted us def elevated the mood, Lex is a W stage hand. Also, I have to mention because this is something that never goes away, prejudice and racism in SL... during events like this there are always a few bad eggs that bring down the vibes with weird comments and actions towards avatars that look like us, or represent themselves with a strong spiritual and purpose led conviction. Its all about frequency, not all frequencies will mix but people on SL can sometimes come off quite prejudice or whatevs. lmao. Even self hating for some people! When you really dig into the various regions and worlds in SL you can see how perverse/self hating many of the themes can seem. Its quite interesting. Lol high going off on tangents. Look how cute Gigi and I look !! XD

I got to do my own set it was dope af “Summer Of Love” was my set theme, I put together a set that represented my time in SL thus far, I played a whole Hippie woodstock classic rock set with my favs Jimi, and all the greats. I played Grateful Dead in honor of my first home “Darkstar “ and the old hippies from the lot... XD Then I played some Drum and Bass in honor of one of my fav clubs ive been going to for 10+ years Bassline Junkies. The same folk there and say “Oi oi“ when I enter, Eon the hamster. Great fellow! Then I played house music, in honor of all the various house groups I am a member of and clubs I attend, I fell in love with house in SL, and i ended it with just some feel good jams

oh! and I did a reading for Secondlife and its residents and the future of SL how could I forget that XD yep It was a blast I kilt it . I even built the set in blender and everything!

I wore this belt as my everyday attire on my old SL avie before mesh was a thing. This was my favorite ! It has flexi fabrics that flow when you dance and walk tied on it and little pouches and gris gris bags on it. It was a very sentimental set for me tbh. It was the first time I participated in SLB and it was also the first time I used mic in a full curated set and everything.

Happy Satisfied W My New Strawberry & Patch! I got Phil and Ober bears tooo  I collected a bunch ngl XD

Mystory Connect is about to pop off, prepping for major RP vibes ! I am so ready to bring new ppl on the regions and make fun stories and tings, we been plottin and plannin! I am now the Real Estate Agent for mystory! I am super excited because these regions are so well built, you can drive everywhere, ride your bike , you can take the subway which is real working subway, its got all kinds of dope commercial and residential spots to live and work and have great roleplay in. I just love how intimate and homey these regions are, and there are always people around, but its about to be even more poppin with all the new things coming in that we rollin out!

Me and Val havin a cute lunch meeting date at ITALVIBEZ ! That restaurant is the BOMB.COM I love getting oxtail bowl, beef patties, and the guava smoothie drink!! Theres also cute sippy  cups that I get for Yemsters she loves them!! Baby ITAL eatsssss :p

[eleanorfenyxwrites]

Random Idea junk drawer

So I had a great time doing my Wangxian-centric Breath of the Wild AU last year, and when I finished it I definitely left the epilogue open-ended enough to do more Zelda AU’s/Fusions in the future (I still don’t REALLY know how big the difference is between AU’s and Fusions and which one my other-content-inspired stuff usually counts as but I DIGRESS) because here’s the thing. The Thing(TM). Zelda games are my JAM. They were baby’s first special interest. Literally.

When I was 7 years old my parents bought a GameCube and a game disk that had 4 remastered Classic Zelda games on it (two 2D, two 3D) as well as a 20-minute playable demo for Wind Waker, with three different starting locations to choose from that you could play as many times as you wanted. And you bet my little 7-year-old ass played every bit of it that was within my skill level (which was not much lol), until I got my next Zelda game at 10 (that was Twilight Princess, and it was the first Zelda game I ever finished). I have the Wii walkthrough book for Twilight Princess that I bought used online and it reeked of cigarettes for months after I got it. I chose a screenshot of one of the characters out of it to paint on one of those horrible school industrial ceiling tiles in my 8th grade art class (sadly the photo of it is lost on an old dead phone, but it was really good, I mixed up all my own custom colors of paint and everything which was like. Impressive for 13 year old me :( ). I have and treasure the Hyrule Historia book. I had shitty ill-fitting graphic tees that said things like ‘Good things come to those who break clay pots’ (really funny to me now that I’m a ceramicist and could easily make pots for myself for the purpose of smashing if I were so inclined [I’m totally gonna]). I have massive Zelda tattoos on the insides of both forearms and I’m planning more so that I’ll hopefully end up with two Zelda half-sleeves. Like ZELDA IS MY THING. WHY I’m not writing more Zelda AU’s and playing around in my expanded sandbox of hyperfixations, I have no idea.

But anyway, I’ve started playing Ocarina of Time again, I have no idea how many times I’ve played it at this point within the last 19 years, and I’ve done it on every Nintendo console possible (except, ironically, the N64 as it was originally made for). So obviously I’m playing along and getting lost in the story because it’s a fuckin good story, as one does, and I was like ‘hey what if Wangxian tho’ and thus. Today’s junk drawer was born. Have I already started an outline of the fic plot points as well? Yes. Did I have to stop myself 800 words in and say that no I can’t just write out the entire plot tonight and no it can’t all go into this junk drawer post because I should actually just write the damn thing instead? Yeah. When will that happen? I don’t wanna think about it, so let’s just have fun talking characters and locations and their implications, shall we?

I’m going to post my notes completely unedited and let y’all see the whole ugly process, and I’m gonna put it below the cut because this is already long enough to scroll past but all I’ve done is gush about Zelda and in doing so further cement my well-established status as a huge fuckin nerd lol:

Jiangs/Lotus Pier as Kokiri Forest -- Deku Tree is Jiang Fengmian (Does this make Madam Yu the giant nasty spider inside????? ew)

- Wei Wuxian -- taken into LP/Kokiri Forest as a young child, young enough to fit in with the other children, but he'll soon be old enough for everyone to know that he isn't one of the lake/river children, he's from Elsewhere. - Jiang Cheng as Mido, small and angry and won't let anyone see JFM/YZY without really fucking good reason but also takes the leadership role in LP/Kokiri Forest once JFM/Deku Tree is dead - Jiang Yanli as Saria, gentle and sweet and fond of music and wandering through the woods that keep their lake hidden from the rest of the world. She'll awaken as a Sage in WWX's adulthood.

Cloud Recesses as Hyrule Castle, Lans are the Royal Family and Sheikah combined

- Lan Qiren as the king of Hyrule, though as the second brother he's supposed to be leading the Sheikah, not sitting on the throne - Lan Xichen (already in his 20's) as Impa. He'll awaken as a Sage in WWX's adulthood. Although he's supposed to be in line for the throne, someone has to be the leader of the Sheikah since LQR can't be, which leaves: - Lan Zhan as Princess Zelda -- plagued by dreams and visions of evil coming to take over the world, but no one takes him seriously because he's still so young. People also forget that in the line of succession he's supposed to be the one protecting the royal family as the next leader of the Sheikah, so it's actually his destiny to have these visions, not to be a politician. He sees in Wei Wuxian someone who's willing to break the rules and society's expectations to be the true hero he's been dreaming about. He'll take up the extremely active role of Wangji/Sheik as an adult, having learnt the Sheikah secrets under Lan Xichen's tutelage and taken up his rightful place as one of them since his escape from the palace as a child.

Kakariko Village -- inhabited by average people (akin to Caiyi town, close with the royal Lan family but not directly cultivators?)

Nies as Gorons in Death Mountain/Goron City/Nie Fortress

- Nie Mingjue as Darunia -- hot-tempered and built like the mountain, willing to swear brotherhood with the boy who came to save his people. He'll awaken as a Sage in WWX's adulthood. (NHS as the snot-nosed kid who hero-worships WWX in adulthood? lol)

Jins/Jinlintai as Zora's Domain -- The Zora are a proud people who live high above the rest of Hyrule at the top of their waterfall (tower). (Golden Carp Tower has a lot of water motifs and they decorate things in teal and gold like the zora do too)

- Jin Guangshan as King Zora - Jin Zixuan as Princess Ruto, eaten by their deity god (who is still a giant fuckin fish, I dunno what else he could be lol) and who thinks he has to be engaged to WWX after giving him the Sapphire (maybe because he was told from a young age he'd have to get engaged to one of the lake children anyway and just didn't know who/hint at unrealized Xuanli?) He'll awaken as a Sage in WWX's adulthood. - Jin Guangyao as (????? :( :( :( where will my boy go?? I need my boy for emotional support)

Wen Ruohan as Ganondorf -- a cruel king wreathed in shadow and flame....I mean it writes itself lol

- Baoshan Sanren as Rauru, the Sage of Light -- withdrew from the mortal world an unknowable amount of time ago to protect the Sacred Realm and has watched over WWX these last seven years as he slept. - Jiang Yanli as Saria, the Sage of Forest -- she awakens into her powers to protect her childhood friend/brother(s), though this will mean having to leave Jiang Cheng on his own in Lotus Pier - Nie Mingjue as Darunia, the Sage of Fire -- he awakens as a sage to honor the Brotherhood oath he swore with WWX in the past - Jin Zixuan as Princess Ruto, the Sage of Water -- he 'dumps' WWX because he has to do the more important work of stopping the apocalypse, try to contain your disappointment WWX, you can still be coworkers and save the world or whatever, if you even care. - Lan Xichen as Impa, the Sage of Shadow -- Lan Xichen must leave the mortal world behind to take up his mantle as the Sage of Shadow, leaving Lan Wangji to carry his worldly responsibilities instead (sort of half-retreating into seclusion like canon) - Wen Qing as Nabooru, the Sage of Spirit -- Wen Qing is the leader of the all-female band of Gerudo thieves who in no way endorse Wen Ruohan's domination of the world. When she leaves to take up her role as the Sage of Spirit, she leaves her cousin Wen Yun (my OC Madam Lan) to lead the Gerudo in her stead. (need to find a role for Wen Ning? Except zelda lore is that only one man is born to the Gerudo at a time every hundred years and he’s always their king. Maybe WN is meant to be the new one but WRH has reached immortality/won’t die and let him succeed him?)

Plot would follow Ocarina of Time fairly closely (Unlike my BOTW AU where I tried to make it...relatively more like canon??) because there's a very definite plot there, while BOTW is so much more fluid it was easier to adapt to something else.

[tc-frog]

march tc challenge by @tryoutstc pt. 1 :)

i'm putting off school work and i'm bored so i'll do last month's challenge for fun :D i'll do the other parts some other time

day 1: if you could change one thing about your tc, physical or personality-wise, what would it be? i would make his hair shorter so he wouldn't wear it in a man-bun every single freaking day i see him. he's way too old for that hipster hairstyle😭

day 2: are they "your type", or was falling for a person like them completely unexpected? bc it's not a romantic crush as i said, i'll answer this according to which people i usually look up to otherwise. soo intellectually speaking, it's no surprise i find him fascinating because he knows so much about philosophy, books and humanities in general

day 3: if they were an ice cream flavor, what would it be? i feel like J would be a rare/unusual flavor like lavender. i had that once and i think it would fit lol

day 4: imagine you have a whole weekend to spend with your tc. what would you guys do? i'd let him teach me about all his favourite books and philosophers, maybe try to convince him to buy some of them, annotate them for me and gift them to me haha we also don't really know each other that well, so i'd definitely just talk to him a lot, especially about my problems and how he's perceived me these past years bc i'm a nosy little bitch. there would probably be lots of late-night talks bc he's such a night owl. he usually sends out messages at like 3 am or something😭

day 5: what's their biggest talent? to digress from the formerly talked about subject and end up somewhere completely different. happens every time!

day 6: be honest: would you guys be a power couple or not? our sexualities don't align so nope lskghslkghlsks

day 7: if they knew about your feelings, would they confront you about it or ignore it? bc i don't have romantic feelings for him there would be nothing to confront - even though in one of his messages to me, he lowkey implied something like him thinking i had a crush on him and if i'm okay with our conversation but generally speaking, if someone had a crush on him i think he would overthink it a lot until he couldn't take it anymore and confront the student to talk it out with them. he would be very understanding and empathetic tho in the same message i mentioned before he actually mentioned a certain experience which, in my opinion, sounded like he already dealt with someone crushing on him in the past. i wanna know if it's true and what went down sooo bad

day 8: are they a good singer? absolutely not😭😭 i only heard him sing one time and that was enough💀

day 9: if you could choose an outfit that your tc had to wear every single day, what would it look like? hmm difficult. probably a blazer over a cozy grandpa sweater, some slacks and dress shoes. i feel like that fits his vibe

day 10: are they more academic, artistic, or athletic? what about you?

definitetly academic, but in an artistic way. he's a very unique thinker

[shawnjacksonsbs]

If the piece fits, I might still try on another. 10-19-24

"Neither political party is clean when it comes to tactics that divide our people." - Roy Barnes

or

"To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am." - Bernard Baruch

I was typing the date, after I wrote everything except the quotes, when it dawned on me . . .that date is my birthday. Lol

In good Pawpaw fashion, I'll be at my youngest grandsons birthday party today. Is there a better birthday than getting a little time with with . . .loved ones for our birthday?

I have several family and a few friends that would gladly help you understand that taking time with loved ones for granted could cost you more than the most time.

Now, on with the show~

There are people who struggle with what they’re going to wear almost daily. I'm not talking about people who literally don't own clothes. I'm talking about those people who "feel" like they don't have anything to wear, but who go through their closets, picking through and inevitably find something like 99% of the time even though they felt defeated before they started. It's irrelevant whether or not they feel they look good or feel uncomfortable at the end. They do find something to wear.

It's similar to the people that go through their fridge, and every cabinet of their home looking for something to eat or for a snack just to feel like there isn't anything even though there is food in there. Sometimes shopping was just done. Lol. Either way, they look tireless, only to "settle" for something they probably put in that kitchen by choice anyway.

Words, these entries are sometimes a struggle for me like that. Not always, but enough.

I can't imagine people who write articles every day. I used to, ya know? Write every day.

For the first 9 months that I subscribed to this new life, way back 10/11 years ago, I wrote something every single day.

It was a lot of nonsense, a lot of struggle, and with a ton of grammatical errors, and misspellings, as most was written in Notepad not in Word, or in a program5 designed to help with a bit of automatic correction(s), but . . .

But it saved my life. I will, until I physically can not, always figure out a way to put forth an entry.

I do still talk about kindness, gratitude, and peace, and although I try to limit pieces based on religion and politics, it is hard to let it all go by the wayside.

This piece isn't meant for either of those ends, but I will say that tolerance has been my biggest battle. The "trying to show love to the unlovable" or "tolerating those who don't tolerate others" is a "for me" cause or greater good.

Both sides make me sick to the stomach a lot, and its more because of the hate and division than it is because of their belief in policies and ideologies, even an extremely large percent of those on "my side" of politics and religion do this.

Seems no one even knows what the higher ground feels like or cares anything of its benefits anymore.

But I digress. It didn't mean to veer off course.

I meant for this to be a struggle for something to wear, while ending up wearing . . .something.

And for the how and why of it, of course.

I think I've found it too. This is the word I'm going to wear today.

Do I look ok in it? Or does it my . . .ego look fat? I really don't wanna change, so please be kind.

No, really. Lol

I wonder if everyone could see past OUR differences to live in peace what that would truly look like, from the wars over seas, to the unrest among the citizenry in our country.

Peace is better earned instead of forced, but either way, it should be the goal. Right?

Keep sharing your love and your laughter with the world around you and always remember that kindnesses are a beautiful way to reflect the love we actually have in our hearts.

Until next week;

"I have no time for either the left or the right, to me it’s outdated thinking. We need to find a way to move beyond that and bring people together . . . before it’s too late

I’ve noticed though both the left and the right claim to be “for the people” one of Corbyn’s claims was “for the many not the few” which of course was a nonsense cos those who dared to disagree got lots of hate and abuse, I know cos I was one of them." - unknowingly stolen from Terry Barnes Facebook commenter

[howtowearblackinthesummer]

I officially been watching too many true crime stories bcuz there’s this girl I went to school with, who imma call Kate. Kate was a sweet, innocent girl and we played sports together. Kate got with this guy Nate and they were together until we all graduated. Kate even lost her virginity to Nate. Kate was raised by a young single mom and they were SUPER close. Like I could see them going out and getting mistaken for sisters. They were also horse girls but I digress. Anyway, Kate and Nate got married and popped out some babies. They also moved all the way across the country to Nate’s family home. This isolated Kate, so eventually her mother moves across the country to be closer to Kate.

This is where the speculation takes place since everything is happening thousands of miles away from me and I do, surprisingly, have my own life.

Kate and Nate break up after about 4 years. Kate stops posting pictures of Nate, only the kids. She rarely posts at all and when she is in it she looks…unwell. Just after a breakup, single mom, in someone else’s family home with your single mom isn’t ideal, so her demeanor is expected. It just seemed a little off.

She stopped posting videos, if she does it’s always silent, and (this could just be me) but she’s had the same haircut and picture angles for the past 10 years. Her mom still does her own makeup like it’s peak 80s but I found it endearing at the time.

Fast forward to now and she’s randomly posted about marrying her soulmate. She’s never posted this guy before. She isn’t smiling in ANY of the photos. And her mom apparently wasn’t at the wedding. The only other person she ever posted pictures with besides her kids wasn’t there. It was VERY intimate (think 10 people max including the bride groom and Kates 2 kids).

Did I mention she continued to look unwell whenever she posted herself? Her hair is EXACTLY the same as it was 15 years ago. She has dark under eyes which could be from the kids but there is a void behind her eyes now. The sparkle from her youth is gone. Idk if new guy is a Mormon or something but even he was throwing me off a bit. I could be reading too deep into this and dramatizing someone else’s life instead of mine, but I have a feeling. I know what that darkness can look and feel like.

I don’t think she’s had any time to get to know herself. To be herself. To experiment or grow. As soon as she saw Nate she was obsessed. Always talking about him after practice. Hoping the boys team would join us for dinner after games so she could be near him. Then when she got with him it was still about him. He was a bit more experienced (he was my friends fuck buddy until Hurricane Kate came through lol) and seemed to have hobbies and a life of his own, but Kates life seemed to be deeply intertwined with Nate’s.

Long story short those wedding photos and all posts leading up to it look like a cry for help to me. I could be projecting as I haven’t spoken to this girl directly in years. But she doesn’t look okay. I hope I’m wrong and she doesn’t end up a true crime story. I wouldn’t blame her if she snapped though. If I can pick up signs from thousands of miles away, Is there anyone close to her that’s Able to intervene ?