#I have a thousand ideas and I want them all

[leletha-jann]

Miscellaneous headcanon that nobody asked for: the Heterodyne family doesn't have a concept of "bastard".

Oh, they'll happily accept the description, if you're yelling at them, but they never really grasped the idea of "this child is born out of wedlock and therefore a lesser heir".

Why would they? There's no doubt about whether a kid is a Heterodyne or not - they have a DNA tester in the Castle. It's shaped like a giant evil lion, it climbs out of a bone pit, and it has its drama dial turned all the way up, but functionally it is a DNA tester.

If someone showed up at Mechanicsburg with a kid years after the Heterodyne's forces had stomped through that particular region, and said, "My kid is a Spark and it's your fault, this is YOUR kid and they're trying to turn my village into kumquats", either the Chapel of Bones lion said "yes" or it said "no".

There isn't an in-between state of "yeah OK that's my kid but unofficially". Either the kid is a Heterodyne or they're not.

(For the record, I suspect any "no" verdicts got everyone involved killed very quickly. The Castle doesn't like anyone it sees as a pretender. Including kids.)

If the kid is a Heterodyne - even if their father didn't want another one - I suspect the Castle would go: "Great! Kid is Family. Family is mine to protect. Kid is mine now." And there would be another Heterodyne in the family, no different from any of the rest.

As noted elsewhere, the Heterodyne family is extraordinarily cohesive for a thousand-year dynasty of evil unassailable mad scientists. Even the rival Red and Black Heterodynes seem to have been feuding with each other for the fun of it (probably with a side of ugh, sibling). The family never really split, diffused, or fractured - as evidenced by the fact that by the time our story comes along, there are no half-forgotten cousins or distant relatives with Heterodyne blood.

This tells me that in all probability, the Heterodyne family never shuffled its bastard children off to some less visible place - and you cannot tell me that a thousand years of raider warlords who sacked Europa on the regular never accidentally ended up with a baby they didn't plan on making.

And the whole concept of an illegitimate child is founded on the acceptance of the idea that some higher power told you that you could only have kids with this one person.

...yeah, I'm not seeing any candidates for telling the Heterodynes anything. Not ones that survived the attempt, anyway.

So there's probably a solid Heterodyne family precedent for "all these kids are half-siblings", and absolutely no Heterodyne family precedent for "but this specific one is lesser for it".

[universefcb]

since you asked for Max Verstappen you shall receive xD

so first idea is divorced!dad!Max x only parent!reader and basically their daughters are in the same grade and are close friends so there are many playdates so the two meet quite often and it starts to develop

TOGETHER AND GLUED, MAX VERSTAPPEN.

→ Summary: You are single parents and develop feelings.

→ Warning: Mention of Reader. Fluff/angsty. Romance.

→ Author's note: Thank you for your order, dear! I was very happy.

And sorry if there are mistakes, English is not my language.I hope this is what you asked for!

The sound of children’s laughter filled the house. The living room carpet was covered with dolls, pillows, little pots of Play-Doh, and two half-empty glasses of grape juice. Clara, her daughter, was sitting on the floor next to Sophie, her new best friend at school. The two had only known each other for a few months, but from the first day they seemed inseparable.

Sitting on the sofa, with a bottle of water in his hand and a light expression, Max Verstappen watched the scene with an almost imperceptible smile on his lips. He didn't usually smile so much, not anymore, but there... there was something in that house, in that calm energy, that made his chest slow down.

You appeared in the living room shortly after, wiping your hands on a dish towel while trying to fix your loose hair. Max looked at you with almost no attempt to hide it. There was something comforting about the way you walked around the house, as if every movement had intention and calm. Unlike his world, where everything was rushed and controlled.

“They’re having fun,” he said, pulling up the sleeve of his shirt and adjusting it at his elbow. “This is the third Saturday in a row that Sophie wants to come here. I think you’ve become part of the routine.”

You smiled, that kind, real smile, like you understood exactly what this meant to him. “Clara too. Since she made friends with your daughter, she’s been sleeping better. She’s happier, more confident. So… I think we’re in the black.”

“I should be grateful, actually. Sophie was pretty closed off for a while after the divorce. I didn’t think she’d smile like that again.”

There was a pause, and their eyes met. For a moment, the children's sounds in the background seemed distant.

“I think... we both know how lonely this role can be,” you said, your voice a little lower, but still firm.

Max nodded. His blue eyes lost focus for a moment, returning to his daughters on the floor. It was true. He knew.

The girls' friendship became routine. Over time, the get-togethers stopped being just about them. When Max arrived, you had already left the coffee brewed, knowing that he liked it strong. Sometimes, he would bring croissants or cakes from the bakery he discovered near his house. The conversations would go on and on. They would start laughing together at their daughters' stories, then at school situations, after everything. And, little by little, they started laughing at each other.

One rainy afternoon, while Clara was crying after being teased by a boy at school, Max showed up uninvited. He was holding Sophie by the hand, a tub of ice cream, two Disney movies and had that protective and affectionate demeanor that few people knew.

“If he messes with you again, I can send an official email from Red Bull Racing. We have lawyers,” he said seriously, before winking at Clara and laughing through his tears.

You watched him the whole time. It was amazing how he could be both firm and sweet at the same time. How he brought comfort without making any effort. That night, after the girls had fallen asleep side by side on the couch, you sat on the floor with Max, your backs against the couch, and you just sat there, side by side, talking about everything and nothing.

“Do you miss it?” he asked suddenly.

“Of what?”

“To just be... you. Without having to split yourself into a thousand pieces all the time.”

You looked at him, feeling your heart skip a beat.

“I do. But I also feel like I found myself in this. I wouldn’t trade it. I just... sometimes I wish I had someone to hold my hand when everything was too much.”

Max said nothing. But he reached out, slowly, and let his fingers find hers in the silence of the room.

The invitation to go out came weeks later. Natural, unpretentious, but full of intention.

“There’s a new restaurant near the marina. I thought I’d take you. Just you. No school bags, no dolls on the floor, no fighting over vegetables. Just us.”

You laughed, surprised by his courage. 'A date?'

“If you want to call it that. I call it breathing.”

You accepted.

That night, she saw a Max the world didn't know. No pressure, no fame, no armor. He laughed easily, listened to her every word with attention, and touched her hand with a tenderness that said more than any conversation.

On the way back, he hesitated at the door of your house. You did too. It wasn't haste, it was respect. A rare kind of care.

“Is this going too fast?” he asked, as if afraid of breaking something fragile.

“No. It’s going the right way,” you replied, approaching him.

The kiss was calm, full of tenderness and security. And yet, it carried all the intensity of something that had been growing day after day, amidst scattered toys and small gestures.

You separated, both with silly smiles on your lips, foreheads touching.

“I hope I’m the best for you, dear.” He said.

“You already are”

Taglist: @paucubarsisimp @nngkay @meganesanchez @htpssgavi @merinott @luvvpedri @moonvr @joaosnovia @httpsdana @ilovebarcaaaa @p4uul0vr @pedricando @barcapix @owala6789

[antimony-medusa]

Was wondering with all your excellent thoughts on creator's boundaries and keeping fan things in fan spaces, do you have any thoughts on the opposite happening, as in creators going into fan only spaces?

I was thinking about this because I have seen multiple streamers read fanfic on camera that had "if you're the streamer please just ignore this" written on them and that always feels like it's slightly icky to the boundaries of the fanfic writer but I can also see the argument that it has the streamers name on it, therefore they can do what they want with it.

Also felt a bit weird with Wilbur posting something he intended to be canon for the dsmp on ao3, a fandom space explicitly for fan creations, but that's a slightly different can of worms

Would love to hear your thoughts if you have the time!

Right. So, my formless thoughts after having written an essay for most of the day.

I do not— love— creators in fandom spaces. I have not seen any specific instances of creators reading fic that has "if you're the streamer please ignore this", but I have seen multiple instances of creators reading fic specifically with the intention of finding fic that's weird/funny/bad and making fun of it. They always seem to end up on self-insert fic obviously written by some 16 year old with a crush, too, and read that out to thousands of people to make fun of it, and man. It doesn't feel great!

However, I do see the argument that if has their name on it they can do what they want with it, but especially if you're talking about fic with "streamer don't interact" on it, like, I feel like creators are misunderstanding the purpose of that story. That's not intended for them to look at it, the writer is probably mortified that they saw it. It is not the same thing but the emotional equivalent is approximately aligned with my friend comes over, I say "make yourself at home", and my friend starts going through my embarrassing medical devices. Like I did say make yourself at home but why are you sorting my meds and googling what they're prescribed for? You were technically invited but idk man. I kind of thought that you weren't going to go through my medicine cabinet??? Now you know that I have some serious medical issues which I have not been talking about, and that's hovering in the air between us? I just wanted to discuss video games with you?

Okay like, I see the argument that creators should be able to look at anything that has their names on it and do whatever. But I feel like creators just baseline do not get fandom, a lot of the time, which is fair! Fandom is a bunch of people getting way too fucking into a creator/concept/story and then displaying their thoughts for the edification of other people who are also distinctly abnormal about that idea. And if creators walk into a fandom space with 'fandom" above the door, nobody's going to enjoy what happens. I was DMing with a friend today and we were talking about emduo trusting each other enough to fall asleep together and then we just spammed crying emojis at each other for a while because oh my god character feelings. I don't want Philza to see that! That's for my friends who I have my "instead of brain there is emduo" feelings with. I don't even do that in front of my normal friends who I discuss life goals with. Fandom is for people who have decided to go absolutely around the twist about their blorbos, and like if you are a normal person, and especially if you are a normal person who shares a username with the guy I'm torturing, you are going to find this space weird.

And so you get creators who walk into a space, and then it's weird, and then they are uncomfortable and say hahahah these guys are weird, and nobody profits! Nobody is having a good time! This sucks for everyone involved!

I feel like if creators are in a place where they go "If I google my name I will see shit but that's on me" and then they google their name anyways, that's one thing. But most of the time they don't even have that framework, it's just walking up to someone you don't know and going "huh huh huh are you talking about me what are you saying can I see" but in this case the people you're talking too are kind of obsessed with the ongoing roleplay at lunch you have with your friends where you're playing out betrayals and bloody deaths over the mashed potatoes, and nobody is going to be happy if those people detail the extended bloody death scene they wrote for you, much less the alternative happy ending where platonic arranged marriage stops the war.

There's a thing where like the saying is "eavesdroppers never hear good of themselves" and like, it's not the same thing here, but it holds. If they wanted you to know, they would have TOLD you. And they're not telling you cause they know the aging down a character into a sad baby to be kidnapped is not going to hit the same to the guy whose name it is. They're keeping that over here, archive locked, where only the other freaks obsessed with the lunch roleplay are sharing notes. Drags hands down face. Like the thing is I do understand on a baseline if people want to see what other people are saying about them, but the thing is, it does not ever go well. I do see the argument of well I should see what you're doing to my persona, but like— fandom is weird. If you have a fandom of any sort, and you are aware you have a fandom, you should know that even if entirely platonic, the fandom is doing horrible things to your character. War crimes are just the start. You either need to be prepared to see the war crimes, or know how to filter and bounce your eyes, or you— and I think we would all be much happier— can just stay away. Like let the weirdos in their discords talk about giving your character a mental breakdown, they're just following the honourable tradition of putting blorbo in a hydraulic press, but if THEY know that it would be weird to show it to you, why are YOU breaking into their house to find the weird stuff? This doesn't sound like a winning social activity for anyone involved.

Anyways yeah. I don't love creators in fan spaces. Click the box to make your fic not googleable and consider archive locking. Can we PLEASE keep fandom space and creators separate.

[therobotmonster]

I'm not here to pile on, but there's also some fundamental misunderstandings of the tech, and intellectual property, that need to be addressed.

There's another thing here that feels like a fundamental unfairness. Generative AI is a tool designed to make money for the companies running it and drive down the price professionals can charge for the categories of work that it generates.

This is the first assumption that is fundamentally incorrect.

The services are designed to make money, yes. Well, most of them. OpenAI has no real path to profitability and has always been an investor trap. But they are not designed to drive down the price professionals can pay for the work it generates. That's conspiratorial catastrophizing.

The economics of that simply do not work. Midjourney, which is the most artist-centric one out there (customer service issues notwithstanding), has roughly thirty million users.

There aren't thirty-million would-be art-commissioners out there and there simply aren't enough industry jobs to support MJ at $30 a month. A tool's function is how it is used, and for the vast, vast, VAST majority of users, it isn't Photoshop.

It's a Spirograph, an Etch-a-Sketch, a Thingmaker.

In short: A toy. (which is an entirely valid use).

Among the most common first prompts Midjourney's reported is some variation of "happy dog/cat/other-pet-type-animal playing in the clouds." From there it's mostly whatever neat idea the person wants to visualize in the moment for their own use or to show off to friends.

If OpenAI scrape my online work without my consent and use it to train their models and then a) people who used to pay me instead pay them to generate art in my style or b) clients use the threat of that to pay me less than I would normally earn then they are benefiting from my labour and I am not.

First, you don't own 'your style.' Styles aren't copyrightable, they aren't protectable, and they shouldn't be. There's nothing to prevent a client from looking at what you make, going to Fiverr, and doing the exact same thing. You are more than your style, and that's good, because dollars to donuts a set of Disney lawyers can find thousands of examples of art that they 'own' in a style close enough to anything you can make that will convince a judge.

In fact, no one owns art, not even the art's creators. Copyright isn't ownership of 'the art', it is a limited patent on a specific fixed expression. All art flows from the commons and returns to it, or is supposed to, but Disney's lawyers have spent the better part of a century working to ensure that doesn't happen.

What you own is the reproduction/economic rights to the specific works you create. Your characters, your stories (but not plots), your images, your songs, etc. If the end result doesn't infringe those specific things, it's fair use. It doesn't matter how much inspiration was taken from you if the end result isn't a copy of your work.

And that's also good for the same Disney-lawyer reasons.

Secondly, this isn't 2022, if anyone wants to dupe your style with an LLM all they have to do is drop a single example into a style reference field. Your style can be replicated from some combination of what came before, more or less, it's just a matter of figuring out the prompt that simulates it. Heck, that can often be done by description alone, for stuff that's not remotely in the dataset.

Third, the public domain nature of machine-generated work means that any commercial use of AI requires heavy transformative action by human artists. This, combined with how corporate-workflow-unfriendly the gatchapon-nature of the generative AI is makes it less effective for the big corporate players than anticipated.

I made the thing. They used my years of work and learning to make money - money they would not earn without my work - and only I lose out as a consequence. That still feels kinda thefty to me.

The skills you developed, like the ones I have, and that all other artists have, did not come from nowhere. We all stand on the shoulders of those that came before, and ex-nihlo creativity is, near as I can tell after 48 years on this planet, if not a myth than a once in an epoch type situation.

If learning, copying, and inspiration are 'theft' then we are all the goddamn Beagle Boys.

The major part that's being overlooked is that the advantage AI gives does not, in fact, weight to the corporate side. Which is why all the worst corporate goons have been using the Copyright Alliance to lobby for regulatory capture of the tech on copyright grounds, and copyrighting styles if they can get away with it.

Disney has more than enough data 'they own' to make generative AIs for their own internal use, and are doing that as we speak. So does every major entertainment corp. Adobe already has their 'ethical' AI setup complete (ah, the ethics of being able to gain a secondary use out of work they'd already paid artists cents on the dollar by merit of being a monopoly with massive money behind them, and the ethics of sneaking AI-scraping agreements into their unnecessarily-cloud-based system so they have access to works that aren't public-facing published works subject to fair use).

Any one of them can replace any given member of their creative staff with a photoshop monkey and an AI, sure. But any one of those fired creatives can use that exact same technology to cook up their own in-house competition. And the fired worker is the one with all the ideas.

No matter how big their AI teams are, the big boys all have production bottlenecks. They aren't going to substantially up the amount of stuff they're making, just make the stuff they're already doing cheaper. A large production house saves some money with AI, but their quality is likely to drop in the process, and certainly won't improve.

But the smaller creator using AI as a force multiplier gains access to the ability to produce vastly larger and more ambitious projects at a higher level of creativity, freedom and polish.

Computer-assisted animation savaged the cartoon production environment. Vector-puppet animation, digital color, CG, all of them wiped out countless hand-animation jobs, cel painters, cel photographers, etc.

But the advent of those tools also made it so that one or two man teams could suddenly do larger projects without being bankrupted and could get them out to a larger audience. We lost a lot of corporate animation jobs, but a whole new field of indie animation happened.

This is the situation with AI, we're just in the "OMG it's a witch!" phase and the "Shrink wrap and lens flares" phase simultaneously.

As to it feeling 'thefty'. Every individual image in a large dataset takes up an average of four bytes. You and I have access to the same open source AI programs everyone else does, and the same prosumer services.

I figure I've contributed a couple of thousand works to the searchable web during my time, at 4b each, I say I could fairly represent my contribution to any given dataset with this 9kb image of me in a Matt Trakker helmet I made (which would also be in that dataset).

A shitty JPG's worth of statistic data is, to me, a relatively minor buy-in for access to the amalgamated and modeled aesthetic data of the entire species.

My share of whatever profit these companies 'make off me' is measured in slivers of a cent, whereas what they actually makes up the bulk of the dataset is the stuff people actually care about, all the pop culture, the comics and the movies and the cartoons and the paparazzi photos, the photoshoots and the pop music and the commercials masquerading as all of them.

The idea that I, or any other small artist, is being robbed because a couple of for-profit enterprises refined some handy tools for accessing the artistic zeitgeist of the modern world seems silly to me in context of what I gain access to by working AI into my workflow.

I also can't really get mad about a machine being trained on my work when I always try to tell people who are interested how to do what I do. I don't believe in trade secrets or that I'm in competition with other artists. I don't think its a zero-sum game.

I know that every single person who commissioned something from me could have gone to someone else, probably someone better than me, instead, for the same price or maybe less. They didn't come to me because I wasn't the only game in town for 3d printed transformers parts, illustrations, d20 creatures, or whatever hustle was feeding me at the time. They came to me because they liked my stuff, and wanted to support me, and when they came back its because I tried to give them a good experience and, on that occasion, succeeded.

The idea that you're just your style and your price range is just not true. No one ever got the job because the bosses couldn't find someone else who was 'close enough' to their style. There's always a poor man's you, and the hypothetical clients lost to an LLM, if they existed at all, would likely be going to your non-union fiverr counterpart.

And the skills I have, or that you have? Those still exist. They still give you an edge over the competition, if that's how you want to look at it, as a total lay-newbie with no art background is, no matter the toolset, going to be less effective than someone with those same tools and that artistic training.

Sorry for the long-ass post, but I've had a lot of this banging around in my noodle for awhile.

What do you mean by "in-group signalling" in that post?

I'm referring to the way a lot of people seem to treat "unconditional hatred for Generative AI" as a signifier by which someone reaffirms their belonging or allegiance to the category of Artist (imagined as a special category of people wholly separate from the category of Non-Artist) based on the conception that the only reason why someone might not hate GenAI (or might hate it but think some criticisms of it are unprincipled) is because they 1) aren't an Artist themselves, and thus 2) they either don't understand what being an Artist is like or they categorically hate and oppose Artists.

To name a concrete example:

Just a couple weeks ago I got an anon message pretty much along the lines of "I get it, you don't have a creative bone in your body and have to pretend that art theft is fine because you're incapable of creating art yourself" (despite pretty clear evidence of me being an Artist™, such as the fact that at the moment that anon was sent to me, you could scroll down like two posts on my blog and find me showing off how some of my music was featured in a doom metal compilation album).

This anon was sent in response to me saying that, while I have problems with the GenAI industry, I think "it's art theft" is not one of them because (by virtue of being a copyright abolitionist) I think describing any situation where a copy of something is made without affecting the original as "theft" is patently ridiculous. Like, that's a pretty clear example of how performing enough unconditional hatred of AI art is treated as a signifier of belonging to the Artist™ in-group, and failure to perform it is treated as a sign that you can only possibly be a ignorant and/or malicious Non-Artist.

[specialagentartemis]

Re. your post on AI with no sources (which I'm going to reblog; but I wanted to note this outside of the tags): I work in higher ed too, in administration. As it happens, my program is having a meeting next week, required by the office for undergrad education, to talk about "what we're going to do about Grade Inflation". *SCREAMING* I've been in this job for 24 years. I've seen past attempts to deal with grade inflation! I've seen past attempts to deal with honors inflation! They haven't figured out a solution YET. But what's especially NOT a solution is pushing it down on all of the individual depts. Because all you'll get in that case is inconsistent amounts of change (if any), and all that happens then is that those depts that DO try to address the issue find their enrollments plummeting. It absolutely HAS to be an across-the-university push all at the same time, or nothing is going to work. But yeah, sure, we'll sit around a table next week and talk about how we can grade more harshly. An idea that, as things stand, is basically asking the instructors to kill their enrollments and thus kill their student evaluations, which are examined by the administration when it comes time to renew their job appointment. I do NOT know the solution to all of this. Because there's all that on the one hand, and there's the "college as commodity" issue that you mentioned on the other hand. How do we get to a point where we can get the students to focus on the learning opportunity in front of them, rather than on the distant post-graduation job market? I just don't know, because the whole mindset is so foreign to me. And I think for a lot of teachers, too (which I am not), there's this same issue of... we weren't the ones in that mindset when we were IN college, so it's very hard to understand it now. It's not hard to understand the *fear*, or the pressure. It's just hard to understand the not-caring at all. Anyway. Just wanted to say: solidarity. This is such a big problem. AI is exacerbating it, making it worse, but the problem really was already there.

oooof yeah. Good luck and I’m really sorry about that :(

as one of the reblogs of my post said: the solution to this is UBI. Unfortunately, the solution to quite a lot of things is UBI.

Because that’s the problem, right? It’s not so much that AI exists, it’s that it makes it exponentially easier to just give up and fall into the attitude that is already pervasive anyway. I’ve never had to talk about great inflation but ugh yeah. If college is a commodity, and you need a good grades, and if college is a business, you need to keep coming and paying for those good grades… you have to revamp basically the entire economy to get out of the hole that’s been dug, both by us and for us!

Like, what, we need “college does not cost thousands of dollars” AND ALSO “4-year college is not a requirement for getting a ‘respectable’ job where you can support yourself and survive comfortably” AND ALSO “community college gets respect and support” AND ALSO “professors shouldn’t be expected to teach, research, and do administrative work all at once, all the time” AND ALSO “get rid of the publish or perish model for real” AND ALSO “teaching and public outreach are institutionally valued” AND ALSO “college professors actually get taught how to teach, like get taught education theory and pedagogy” AND ALSO “not have students’ housing or scholarship depend on their grades” AND ALSO “not have a grade school culture of teaching to the test and standardized tests that instills in you for your entire childhood that grades are everything” BUT THAT WOULD MEAN “not funding grade schools/high schools based on student test scores, just actually funding them all for real” AND ALSO “hiring more teachers” BUT THAT WOULD MEAN “making teaching at a school a task that isn’t horribly thankless and burns people out real fast” BUT THAT WOULD ALSO MEAN “making school not a miserable place to be a child” WITH A SIDE OF “make sure everyone is teaching phonics again for real so from a young age, students learn how to read well and don’t struggle with reading and writing in a way that encourages them to give up and use ChatGPT” AND ALSO “generally having a culture that values learning and knowledge rather than money”… it is all SO MUCH and it will be hard to do and also expensive so nobody with the power to fix it really wants to try that hard to do so!!

and yeah, I definitely think you’re right that because all the professors and TAs are the people who liked school enough to keep doing it forever it’s just, incredibly hard to grok the students who don’t care. But the mess of a culture we’re in makes it all so hard to challenge because it feels like we need to untangle EVERYTHING to fix ANYTHING.

UBI would be a great start though.

[rapunzellovesbooks]

Okay, I am going to write something that has legit been running through my mind for weeks now. You can like it or not, but this is my opinion of the whole situation and this is coming from someone who, yes, would love it if Nicola and Luke eventually became a couple but who also is very tired of the unnecessary drama. I lowkey hate what I have become over two people who have done nothing and I mean NOTHING wrong.

So, we all saw the world tour, we all have seen BGT, we all can safely say Luke and Nicola have insane levels of chemistry in and out of the show. That is not something solely shippers have said, critics, reviewers have said it, their friends have and so have the people themselves. You can have chemistry with someone and not be dating them, otherwise no show or movie would ever get made. We can say chemistry is there, period. While I do think that Luke and Nicola always behave like what I consider to be simply bestie behaviour, I am also very aware that I have no idea how I would behave with someone I shared this filming experience with, had shared intimate scenes with and was travelling the world with. They were each other´s people during that world tour and, yes, they were unhinged. I probably would be too amidst the madness of it all. So maybe their bestie behaviour is different than mine. Everyone ate it up, we all loved it. Some were convinced they were dating and they flat out multiple times denied it, they did. Some people knew Antonia existed and by some I mean folks who have way too much free time and go lurk under tags and posts from family and friends to see if they spot Luke or someone he is hanging out with. Folks who monitor every like, every follow, unfollow, time they are online, etc.

So when people saw her clear on a paparazzi picture, they thought Luke had lied to them, had betrayed them, but you cannot betray someone you owe nothing to. They said he ruined Polin and rushed to Nicola´s defence. And then Jake came along, also on a festival picture not two months after that. And then everything was very different. Jake was the saviour, the one who healed a broken heart. And it bugged me for so long until I understood why people thought this way. And now I see it.

People legit believe that Nicola has only ever had one boyfriend, Jake because he is the one on her instagram, the only one that I am aware of she has ever been photographed with, which makes total sense, since before, no one cared about who Nicola was dating. Even during the world tour, since people assumed she was with Luke, no one looked further. So when Luke did not fill the role people wanted from him, Nicola became a martyr of sorts and anyone who was beside her, a person worth of adoration, while the girl who had "sabotaged" her became the villain of the story. Everyone became a caricature of sorts in the fandom. And the person I feel bad for now is Nicola, because this is what, to me, the whole situation screamed.

You think Nicola waited all her life to simply shoot season 3 with Luke and be with him. A girl "like Nicola" in people´s eyes could only have her co-star as boyfriend. Now, Nicola has had boyfriends before. She has, she said so herself. During season 1 and 2 and 3 maybe. So people being angry at Luke for not dating Nicola after breaking up with Jade annoys me so much because how the hell do you know Nicola was not in a relationship? Can you really only envision a girl like Nicola alone until ONE guy comes along? And I mean this because so many people then commented, "oh, we all knew he would never be with a girl like Nicola". The fuck does that even mean?! Nicola is gorgeous and Jake is not a saint for being the guy she is dating, he is not. He can be whatever he wants to be but a man does not get to be the greatest thing since toast simply for dating a woman who is not skinny nor is a man a devil for dating a woman who is skinny.

Everyone created their stupid timelines but you failed to see that there are a thousand things, people and meetings in Luke and Nicola´s lives that you will never know about. It is very possible Nicola was dating someone before the WT and during (she had already met Jake) and Luke as well. We know this. So, no, Polin is not ruined because if the requirement for Polin was both leads being single then you would not have loved the Polin that you already have, one where both leads were in relationships with others but still remained the actors, besties that we know and love. I admit that I do not understand them most times when they interact as if that is normal bestie behaviour but that is on me.

So, no, there is no feud or beef because, why would there be one? They know each other, no one duped or sabotaged anyone. You just simply believed Nicola and her body type was only ever good enough for one person and one person only and when that person did not do what you wanted all hell broke lose. You say you defend her and you are happy for her but that includes, in my opinion, the notion that you thought she was sad before. Why? For all we know she could have had a million boyfriends and lived her best life all this time and we never knew.

There was never a conspiracy, no one lied to you. You dont have to like that they have a bf and gf, I dont, but I can also simply go watch BGT season 3 and be done with it. I dont have to analyse the new Luke and A pictures or leave nasty comments under Jake´s posts, I do not. I can ship them because, in my mind, they are Colin and Pen while also being very VERY aware that they are not. I want to go back to a sense of normalcy because this is stupid. It just is and it is insulting to two people who have, honestly, been more than patient, more than kind with this nonsense.

In conclusion, the reason I believe so many people lunged at Luke is because they saw and still see Nicola as someone who can only have one man because she has a different body type. So many people get mad at Antonia for simply being skinny and it makes no sense to me. None, at all. Maybe Luke tried to be with Nicola and she was unavailable, maybe everyone is only happy in pictures, or maybe not. Maybe it is none of our business and it never should have been in the first place. We are all curious and noisy people, but man, it is more than time to tone it down by a thousand.

[rotting-victorian-child]

Drug of Choice

spencer reid x reader

(this is the first thing i have fully written in a few years tbh. not my full potential just trying to get back in the swing of things. thank uu)

tw: mentions of drug abuse

summary:spencer and reader were kidnapped and drugged together, both developing addictions after. they enter a drug fueled relationship, and wonder now when they’re sober if the connection was real.

You stood, arms crossed, at the window of your apartment. Raindrops were slowly forming against the glass, and for a moment you were so focused on them you almost forgot about the man sitting on the bed behind you. Maybe you thought if you stared long and hard enough you really could forget him. The silence was heavy, nearly suffocating. If you spoke, then he’d answer. If you turned around, then he’d be there. Why couldn’t he just be far away? Or anywhere but awkwardly posed on the edge of your bed? You didn’t want to have the conversation that was coming. You didn’t want to confront your feelings, much less confront them when they may not be real. For someone so smart, he was stupid enough to stay. And even more stupid to speak.

“Do you remember what it was like before?” Spencer broke the silence, voice low, like breaking the silence was breaking something fragile.

“Before what? Us?” You asked, still staring at the raindrops. Still too coward to turn around and face him.

“Yeah. Before us. Before we started to confuse whatever this is for some type of connection? Or some type of…I don’t know.” For once, Spencer didn’t know. Or maybe he did and he just couldn’t find the right word. Even more likely, maybe he knew what word he wanted to say all along, but couldn’t bring himself to actually speak it into existence. It didn’t matter though, because you said it for him.

“For love, you mean? Before we started to confuse what we were doing for love? Yeah I remember a time before that, Spencer. And I would kill to go back to it.” You finally turned around to face him, with coldness in your tone and arms still crossed. He sort of flinched at your words, was it really all that bad, being connected to him? Even if the connection was built on addiction? Now that the Dilaudid was out of the equation, was there anything left between you two?

“Maybe you just liked the company. Or the enabling. Maybe it was never about me, or us. Maybe it was always about what we were doing.” Spencer looked down at his hands, not sure if he could look at the girl standing across from him.

“We were high the first time we kissed.” You blinked, as if to try to stop tears that didn’t even exist. God, you wanted to cry. You wanted to actually feel something. You knew this feeling, this connection, went so far beyond some stupid narcotic and so did he. Why did you both have to question that? Why did you both have to struggle so hard with the idea that you both deserve love, both deserve to be loved. You knew each other before you got kidnapped and drugged, you knew the versions of each other that existed before and those versions were equally as avoidant of the obvious feelings they had for one another.

“I wanted to kiss you long before I ever touched a drug in my life.” Spencer replied, looking up at you. He meant that, and it hurt that it took getting high for the first time to act upon it. He felt like a coward, maybe if he had just kissed you one of the thousands of other times he had thought about it this conversation wouldn’t be happening.

“I wish you would have. I would have kissed you back. I wouldn’t of needed a fucking drug to do it, either.” You winced at the hostility in your voice. This wasn’t all on him, and you knew that. But newly sober you wasn’t the most logical.

“That’s not fair. You were high, too. Do not try and act like I’m the only one responsible for the way this…relationship started. If my memory serves me correctly, and it always does, you were the one telling me you loved me while high out of your mind. Needed a drug to do that, didn’t you?” Spencer asked matter of factly. You uncrossed your arms at his response. He was right. Your attitude softened a bit, and this argument was silly. You were both high, end of story.

“I’m not high right now and I still love you.” It came out of your mouth before you even realized what you had said. You took a moment to think about it, and it was true. You did still love him. Drugs or not. No one else had ever made you feel the way Spencer Reid did, not even the Dilaudid made you feel half as euphoric as him.

Spencer stood up and took the few steps necessary to reach you, he placed his hand on your cheek. Your face felt warm and your vision blurry, how could one person make you feel so good? And how could you ever convince yourself you didn’t really love him?

“I love you too. Stone cold sober and I love you.” He pulled your lips onto his. He could feel you in his veins, feel your entire being entering his blood stream. No high could ever compare to the way you both felt in that moment. You both went to pull away, and it almost felt impossible.

“I’m sorry I didn’t do that before all of this. You didn’t deserve that.” His hand remained on your cheek.

“Then I wouldn’t have known you were my favorite drug.” You whispered to him, knowing he felt the same. Maybe the whole time it was each other that you were addicted to.

[maras-mischief]

This is going to be...interesting.

Adam and I had been dating for about 6 months, and it was getting pretty serious. Adam was the best. He was handsome, kind, funny, and knew just the right buttons to push in bed. I haven't had a lover give me multiple orgasms before, but Adam did every time. But there was always something hiding in the background. I didn't put it together until after the half-year mark, and we were talking about moving in together.

"You know something I never noticed until now, Adam?"

"What?"

"There are at least 3 days a month that I never see you. You always have training or seminars or out-of-town clients that seem to pop up once a month."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I noticed something strange, too."

"What?"

"It's always during a full moon cycle."

"Huh, weird."

"Are you cheating on me?"

"What?! Gloria, god no. Why would I ever cheat on you? You're amazing. You're perfect. You're smart, sexy, funny, and the things you do to me in bed...I couldn't handle being with another woman if I tried."

"Okay."

The full moon cycle got closer, and Adam was called to the home office for an executive team-building retreat. Once again, something was nagging at my nerves, and something was off with the whole thing. I kissed him and waved him off as the Uber drove him to the airport. Little did he know that I booked a flight myself. A little commuter trip and one slipped GPS AirTag in his carry-on later, and I was heading to the middle of nowhere.

It certainly looked like a corporate retreat. Lots of people in Ivy Style casual clothes. It looked like an ad for an upper-class privilege digest. I knew Adam came from old money, but he never flaunted it like this. I stuck out like a sore thumb, and Adam spotted me immediately.

"Gloria, what are you doing here?"

"I had to see for myself. I couldn't stand the idea of you cheating on me."

"Gloria, you have to go. You have to..."

"Adam, you brought a guest. I was wondering when we were going to meet the little lady."

Adam cringed as the baritone in beige smiled his best CEO schmooze at me.

"I will say, an odd way to introduce the lady to it all."

The man reached out a hand and shook mine. There was a gleam of mischief and darkness in his blue eyes. If there were wolves on Wall Street, this was the wolf hunter.

"Gloria, meet my...Dad."

My eyes must have popped out of my head as I looked the man up and down. Now that I was looking, I could see it. A cultured-looking brunette with an elegant string of pearls joined him.

"You must be Gloira. Adam has told us so much about you, it feels like you're part of the family already."

The woman, whom I could only assume was Adam's mother, pulled me into a hug. Adam looked mortified.

"Well, we'd better get inside before the festivities begin."

I followed Adam to a room in the resort. My mind was swimming with a thousand questions. Adam was going away for the weekend at a country resort with his parents. Why didn't he just tell me that? Why lie about it being for work? The sun was setting, and I was ushered into a posh room.

"Adam, what is going on? Why did you lie about this? I want to meet your parents. Are you ashamed of me?"

"Gloria, everything will make sense in about 10 minutes. Babe, I understand if, after tonight, you never want to see me again."

I was about to protest and proclaim against his statement when he started taking his clothes off. I didn't know what to say or do as Adam just stood in the middle of the room in his boxers.

"Just so you know, I love you."

Before I could say another word, Adam doubled over in pain like a massive cramp had hit his stomach. He fell to the floor in a heap, and I rushed to help him. His muscles began to spasm, and it looked like he was having a seizure. The only thing I knew about seizures was to roll them to their sides. I did and waited for it to pass. I was not ready for what happened.

Adam's body was...shrinking. His muscles were twitching and withering under his skin, which pulled tight to follow. It was like someone poured hot water over him, and he was shrinking like a pair of denim jeans. His body hair faded away from his arms and legs. With his new size and lack of hair, he looked...feminine. It was when his strawberry blond hair turned true red and sprouted from his head that I understood what I was seeing. Adam was turning into a woman.

The epiphany was made concrete as his toned chest melted and two breasts expanded on his new delicate frame. I could only imagine that his penis was undergoing a similar transformation. The whole process lasted about five minutes. I never knew five minutes could feel like an eternity.

The woman's eyes opened and locked on me. They were Adam's eyes, but they looked shockingly blue against her paler skin and red hair. An impish smile spread across her lips, and I felt something happen to me that I didn't know was possible. I felt...aroused.

"This is not how Adam pictured this moment."

The woman unfurled like a contented cat before she stood. Adam's boxers fell to the floor instantly off her petite frame. I looked away and blushed as I locked eyes on the neatly trimmed bush that clearly matched the drapes. As I suspected, Adam's penis was gone. The soft pubic hair end just at the top of a slit that disappeared between her legs. My mind swooned as I suddenly thought about what that tasted like.

"Well, the cat's out of the bag. Or in this case, the Skinwalker is out of her clothes."

"Skinwalker?"

"Uh-huh, and I must say, you picked a hell of a time to find this out."

"I didn't know. I...you...I..."

"Gloria, it's okay. I just need you to know a couple of things before we begin this weekend."

"I...huh?"

"One, Adam loves you, which means I do too. I'm Addie."

"Addie."

"Yes, under the influence of the full moon, Adam becomes me. He didn't know how to tell you this...yet."

"Okay. What else? Wait, he hasn't cheated on me, but have you?"

"God, no. Believe me, it's been hard as hell. The first thing a Skinwalker needs after the change is sex. I've burned through a dozen vibrators, staying faithful to you."

"Okay. Is that all?"

"No..."

"What?"

"This weekend is a Skinwalker Retreat."

"Meaning...wait, your parents are..."

"Yeah, the whole resort this weekend, in fact."

I was still trying to process everything I'd learned in the last 10 minutes. I was in a resort of people who changed gender under the full moon. My boyfriend was a stunning redhead who was doing something weird to my libido. His parents were now...like him. I could only imagine his parents as flipped genders.

I was so busy wrestling with this that I didn't notice Addie closing the distance between us. When I snapped to, she was mere inches from me. I could feel the heat pour off her naked body, and I felt my panties dampen. She was beginning to breathe heavily as she looked into my eyes. The something else that I always felt in Adam was looking into my soul. There was hunger in her eyes and a dark passion that made my heart skip a beat.

"Adam...I mean, Addie."

"I want you, Gloria. I can smell arousal. I know your pussy is wet for me. I told you the first thing a Skinwalker needs after is sex. I've gone 6 months without sex."

I gulped as the look in her eyes ignited an arousal in me a hundred times more fierce than Adam could. I wanted her to take me. I wanted to taste her. I wanted to feel her naked body against mine. She pulled me into a kiss that melted my knees. I'd never kissed another woman before. There was no five o'clock shadow scratching my lips. Her lips were soft and sweet. Her tongue plunged into my mouth, and I moaned.

"Bed, now."

I let her pull me to the bed and peel my clothes off in the process. I was going to make love to a woman. I was going to let this supernatural beauty do whatever she wanted to me. I was at a resort surrounded by people who were having sex and changing genders every month for three days. Addie pulled my soaked panties off and pushed me onto the bed.

"Addie...I never..."

"I know. Don't worry, I won't hurt you. I'm going to spend all night and all weekend showing you what I can do to you that Adam can't."

This is going to be...interesting.

[junietuesday]

oh my fucking god. the last few skaldovas have been fun enough but kinda goofy and meandering to me. but this episode they locked the FUCKKKKK in. like i was truly on the edge of my seat. jake going Crazy w the evocative imagery had me fucking clapping and cheering like my family watching basketball. the dragon “like a beached leviathan”, “head buried in the floor like a fallen statue”, “its teeth still sharp like a jagged field of broadswords”, “scales like thousands of coal-black shields, but rather than glimmer in the torchlight, they devour it”, the magic bow “a golden thread weaves itself from thin air, dripping down like honey from a spoon”, bulrick’s transformation “steam rises from his pores, pulsing veins darken beneath his skin, and his flesh starts to soften, sagging like wax left in the the sun,” “his body liquefies in front of you collapsing in on itself as bones, sinew, and blood melt into a sloshing gray mass”

and emily just dropping banger after banger- “after im done with you, you will believe in the gods because you’ll be fucking needing them”, “i wasnt chosen. i was the one who chose. i chose to still believe in them, and you could too, but you dont because you dont believe in them because the idea of someone being more powerful than you is a threat to how you see yourself, you arrogant son of a fucking scholar”. murph Locking In to zudrick’s character and his role in the story, the fucking awesome body reveal, “i used to give away my faith too easily, and that made me not want to give it away at all. but i have faith in you welly hamdam, boggy rodger. i will do this your way.” caldwell w just so many quietly powerful moments, “oh, friend, im not the show. im just the opening act”, “i made a promise to you all, i’ll never run again. i’m sorry. this time itll be different, i promise. im sorry”, “stories are something that cannot be buried, cannot die, and whether you like it or not, i think we’ve become part of a grand new one”.

not to fucking mention!!!! the glorious return of the theme of hope, walking the line between blind faith and dark cynicism. and writing a new story even tho the old one may be gone, may not be what you expected. every aspect of the fight plays to the theme, bulrick’s whole deal, his dialogue is soooo fucking good. the fucking dragon, the LORE of the princess and the gods is so fucking insane, the origin of black lace is so fucking cool. and welly and zudrick and boggy as contrasting perspectives on faith, but then their newfound faith in Each Other…… THIS IS WHAT NADDPOD IS ALL ABOUT!!!!!!!!!

[butchjorse]

Regarding Twilight in your Sandwich AU (which I love, by the way!), it’s obvious that she’s pretty bitter about the entire situation. However, I can’t help but wonder how bitter she is. Would she do something…drastic to get the princess title she believes she rightfully deserves?

Also how would the Mane 6 react upon learning about how Twilight treats Sandwich? Can’t imagine they’d be thrilled with their friend’s behavior.

Twilight definitely could, and probably would, if Luna weren't there.

Luna is a very powerful alicorn, even despite her weakened post-banishment state. She is Celestia's sister, after all, and she is no less powerful than her sister. Her weaknesses lie not in magic, but in experience. Equestria is not the same place as it was a thousand years ago, and it takes more to run it now. She's doing well, but not as perfectly as Celestia was.

Twilight has no chance of standing up to Luna right now, the only way she would be able to kill Sandwich is while Luna is preoccupied outside of Canterlot, and she surely would not survive to take the throne for herself. But Twilight does deeply desire to get rid of Sandwich, by any means necessary. Right now, her strategy is to make Sandwich hate being a princess as much as possible, in hopes that she will run away and her seat will vacate, leaving Twilight the only worthy pony left to ascend.

Applejack in particular would have a LOT to say about Twilight's behavior. All of them think she's in the wrong, but Applejack in particular feels very strongly about treating children kindly and believes that Twilight is completely out of line. It would definitely put a strain on their friendship, all of their friendships. You can't help somepony who doesn't want to be helped.

I believe eventually Twilight would be able to get back on the road to redemption, but unfortunately it will take a while, and Sandwich is going to be in the middle of it.

nooo idea where you got that from.... i have no idea.... /j (yes, she most certainly is, though i doubt she's diagnosed right now. i'm autistic too! and i based her off of how i was as a child, though she's gone through a bit of a personality shift after so many traumatic events happening all in sequence.)

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Well, looks like it’s time for another round of spambot Whack-a-mole. Every so often I’ll get absolutely inundated with spambot follows, and this week seems to be serving up a fresh batch. Today it was only about 75 (I get 2-3 of the above emails every day when it's really bad). The past few days it's been over 100 every 24 hours.

And yes, I go through the effort to report and block every single one. First of all, the last time I messaged Tumblr about this they said that this was the best way to help them, since it lets them know what profiles to check out. Moreover, I want to have an accurate idea of how many followers I have, and this is the only social media profile I have that gets such onslaughts of fake profiles. So I painstakingly go through and delete them every day—even on a quiet week there are usually at least a few. (I really wish Tumblr staff could figure out a UI that allows bulk blocking, instead of having to click on each one individually.)

A few observations under the cut:

--I’ve gotten to the point where if the username is a string of nonsense words, there’s no profile pic, and the tagline is “untitled” in one language or another, it gets instantly blocked. I am trying to be really careful to not just go on autopilot and block every single new follow without paying attention, because I am getting actual people following me in the midst of this spambot storm. I’ve probably blocked a few actual profiles from newbies or people who just never got around to customizing their profile, but I’m not going to click through to every one of several hundred profiles over a matter of days.

--Even if there’s a PFP, if the tagline is still untitled or if they have one recently posted/reblogged post that doesn’t say anything about them, and if they’re missing a bio, that’s a block. (If they have only one post but it’s from five years ago, I let it slide, because I doubt any bot is going to commit to the bit that long and it’s more likely someone who remembered that they actually have a Tumblr.)

--If someone went through the trouble to put together a custom blog theme, they’re probably not a bot.

--Profiles that are obviously pr0nbots/spammers/AI? Also blocked. (This week’s themes seem to be real estate scammers and automated reposters of spammy medical/science YouTube videos. One time a while back it was cannabis and psilocybin dealers, probably because a post I made about culinary mushroom foraging went mildly viral.) Sometimes a profile will have the PFP and banner and a bunch of posts, but they’re all advertising something, with no self posts, random reblogs, or other posts to suggest an actual human being with varied interests.

--I hate that I’ve had to block so many pr0nbots that my first inclination on seeing a PFP that is a conventionally attractive young female-presenting person in a cute outfit is to just block them because most of the time I’m going to click through to their blog and it’s going to be photos and/or videos of their naked, variably bouncy fleshy bits everywhere, but I have to remember that there are also still people who are conventionally attractive who just want to share cute photos of their outfits with no intent of also taking pictures without said outfits. (And sometimes blogs full of nekkid people are just curated by actual humans who enjoy pictures of nekkid people.)

--While some of the usernames are random strings of words and sometimes numbers, other times I think Tumblr may be recycling the usernames of deleted accounts, because they seem like the kind of thing a Tumblr user would come up with circa 2014.

--I have to wonder how many people who claim to have however many thousand or million followers on whatever social media platform have their numbers inflated with terrifying numbers of bots, and it’s now made me kinda skeptical of high follower counts, not just here but on other platforms. Like are all 807,168 of your followers actual people? Your social media follower count has become increasingly important in getting things like book contracts, music deals, etc., but no one ever asks whether you cull the obvious fake profiles.

--Oddly enough, the spambots who leave spammy comments in replies to my posts rarely ever follow me. They still get blocked.

--Sometimes there are so many spambots that I end up having to use the actual real people profiles mixed in as milestones along my path of mass-annihilation-via-report-and-block. Like “Oh, wait, I remember that name, they followed me in between yesterday’s Spambot #89 and Spambot #90. I must be at the end of the most recent bot-salvo.”

--I probably missed a few bots who managed to slip through the above filters and convinced me they were real people. But hey, I'll take a few over thousands cumulatively over my tenure on Tumblr.

[gauntletgirlie]

Anyone else think about writing fan fiction but then realise your OC would just end up being an idealised/better version of yourself and also you keep attacking the story with different plot lines because ultimately you just want to end up with the character you’re obsessed with and you can’t make up your mind what the best/most compelling/most satisfying way for that to happen would be, so you keep the stories in your head?

Besides, your ideas are too insane for anyone to like, surely, even though you’ve written whole scenes in your head and you think they might actually be quite good alright?

Just me?

[faunandfloraas]

okay i'm glad to see you bring up the teasing of seungmin bc it was also rubbing me the wrong way but i didn't know if i was just being sensitive or what. obvs we don't know what goes on behind the scenes and obviously they all care about each other and tease each other as friends but when time after time the joke targeted towards seungmin is "we don't like him and he doesn't understand things" it's like. hm. it starts to feel mean spirited!!

sorry for the rant i guess i didn't realize how bad this was annoying me lmao

Yeah, tbf I think it's just one of those things where even if Seungmin is 100% unbothered by it, and the guys dont mean anything by it, its still fine and understandable for people who have ever been on the end of jokes like that- whether in your own friend groups or at school, at work, etc. to not really enjoy it.... So I don't think you're being sensitive! But also I did question even making my post last night for the same reason.

The jokes are also just not funny 90% of the time lately which makes it more egregious bc seeing any joke get beaten into the earth gets old eventually- like they do make jokes at his expense sometimes that /are/ funny, so I'm not saying they cant ever do that, it's just that the minute the jokes arent funny, well then its awkward at best or actively uncomfortable at worst so 🤷‍♀️

[softquietsteadylove]

Hey Birdie ✨🖤

I hope you're doing well. If I wouldn't loose myself in other things I would camp here all day. Still need to read a truckload of your work, but...

I would like to ask you to write about Ajak just being a typical mother. Teasing some of her eternal children. And annoying the hell out of Thena and Phastos. And Kingo trying to steal the spotlight.

🖤✨Hugs and Love! ✨🖤

"Are you two going to dance at all?"

Phastos didn't even bother looking at her. "Why?"

Ajak put her hands on her hips, though. "Because we're celebrating. This isn't just any village party, Phastos, it's a wedding! Live a little!"

"No, thank you."

Ajak sighed; how did she manage to get half a team's worth of dour party poopers? She looked from Phastos to Thena, who was also lurking at their little table, away from the festivities as much as possible. "Thena."

"No."

"I haven't even asked anything," Ajak huffed, balling up her fists at the two stubborn mules of Eternals before her. She crossed her arms. "You said you would support their union."

"And I did." Did , as in past tense; as in, she got through their wedding without saying a word. That was the utmost of her duty.

Ajak looked out towards where the dancing and intermingling was happening at its peak. "Gilgamesh is having a great time."

Phastos did turn in his seat to look at his sister. She kept her face even, but perhaps he could see something that Ajak couldn't, given his sudden amusement. "Yeah, T, Gil's having fun."

Thena made a face on the verge of snarling at him. "Gilgamesh always has fun at festivities. He has a warm heart."

"Yeah," Phastos snorted vaguely in her direction, "really don't get how you two-hey!"

Ajak rolled her eyes as Thena, in all her years of wisdom and maturity as an Eternal, flicked the side of Phastos' glasses to make the arm snap him in the side of the head. "Children!"

"I didn't do anything!" Phastos protested, pointing blatantly at his pale sibling.

"Enough," Ajak declared, putting her hands on their table. "I want both of you to get up from this table, stop sulking, and go and talk to someone in that room."

The two shared a look.

"And not each other!" Ajak added, even pointing in the direction in which she had bid her two grown team members.

Phastos went first, at this point just to avoid Thena's temper. He wouldn't bother monopolizing Sersi's attention, not on her wedding day. Perhaps he would go and sit with Sprite in quiet misery. The two negatives may charge positively, in some ways.

Thena eyed Ajak as she fell in step with her. "What is it?"

"You don't look particularly happy," Ajak said more quietly. As much as she had begun with the intention of mothering her sour little Fighters into socializing, Thena required a more subtle approach.

"Must I?"

Ajak bobbed her head towards the direction of the bride and groom. "She is happy. Isn't that enough?"

"Is it?"

Ajak sighed. It was no secret how Thena's distaste for Ikaris was not mere pettiness. Something about her did not like something about him, deep down. Ajak of course, knew what it was, and how many layers - lifetimes - that dislike had taken to grip them so irrevocably.

"If Sersi is happy, then so be it," Thena conceded. She even managed a smile as they moved from one room of their current temple to the other.

Ajak raised an eyebrow at the Warrior's sudden attempt at pleasantries. But she waved as Gilgamesh, having seemed to sense the presence of the woman beside her, waved. "What did you promise him?"

Thena sighed through her nose. She was probably unhappy that Ajak had managed to guess even that much of her behaviour and its reasons. Her hand lowered from also waving to Gilgamesh. "Ikaris and Sersi are happy. And it is their choice to bind themselves in this way. I shall not offer protest."

But she had considered it. Which wouldn't surprise Ajak in the least; Thena wasn't the type to silence her opinion on Ikaris to save Sersi some comfort. If she disapproved of her sister's choice in betrothed, she would let her know about it.

"Gil likes weddings."

Ajak tried to keep her smile from spreading too wide. It would only send Thena into the depths of the night to avoid more scrutiny into her thoughts and feelings. But she couldn't resist. "You don't want to ruin anything for him."

"For them," Thena corrected, although it wasn't all that convincing, seeing how her smile grew as Gilgamesh cut through the crowd to approach them.

"There you are!" he greeted her (Thena) so brightly the candlelight paled in comparison.

"Indeed," Thena sufficed to say, although she let him bring a chalice of some form of liquid to her lips. She made a face. "What is that, Gilgamesh?"

"I dunno," he admitted freely, looking at it for himself, perhaps for the first time. "Sprite gave it to me."

Thena's expression changed just for an instant. Sprite was especially unhappy today of all days, and while the Warrior Eternal had her sympathies, she never was one to let pranks happen to the Strongest Eternal passively.

Gilgamesh blinked as Thena gently and softly slipped the cup from his hands with hers.

"Ask Kingo for one," she spoke to him just as gently, completely unlike her manner with anyone else. "A fresh one."

"Okay, you keep that one," he grinned, completely oblivious to why she had claimed his drink for herself when she did not enjoy the taste of any spirits. He waved to her again as he set about his new journey.

Thena smiled and waved until his back was turned. Then she dumped the liquid directly onto the floor and threw the chalice with such force that it crumpled at the side and tumbled into the wall fountain. "Little cretin is trying to sour his evening."

Gilgamesh could handle his drink, well over tenfold what even Kingo or Sprite could handle, let alone a human. But he could still feel hangovers.

Ajak had noted that when he did indeed suffer from a night of revelry after the fact, it was always Thena who had cool hands for his forehead and soft words and even water carried just for him.

"Go easy on her," Ajak whispered to her, and Thena did end her complaints about her teammate there. "You don't know what it's like."

"Hm."

Ajak eyed her daughter, taller than she, and wiser in some ways and far, far dumber in others. "To long for someone like that? To want to reach out and hold them freely, like they're all you would need in the world?"

Thena's eyes grew soft, tracing a figure who stood above most of the crowd, and far broader. "Indeed."

Ajak sighed; she needed a different approach.

"T, come on, there's dancing!"

"Not on your life," Thena shot back in Kingo's smiling face. The degree of her refusal spoke to their closeness.

Ajak was grateful Kingo had managed the closeness with Thena that he had. She didn't know how he had, or for what reason the two deeply different Eternals were able to match each other's energies, but she was thankful nonetheless.

"Aw, come on, you're a great dancer," Kingo attempted to sway his sister, obviously a few drinks in himself.

"And what do you know of my dancing?" Thena asked, finally humoured enough to laugh, even if it was a little sardonic sounding.

"I know you're always flippin' around and spinning and stuff," Kingo motioned with his hand. Maybe more than just a few drinks in. "And I've seen you let Gil pick you up by the waist and-"

Thena shoved Kingo to the side. With all the spirit in the air, not many noticed the way he flew with such force he blew clear through the nearest door, taking it off its hinges.

Thena needed to learn to restrain her strength when it came to her brothers.

But Gilgamesh appeared right behind, practically able to ignore having seen Kingo be thrown aside like kindling into a fire. "I got one! You're right, this one is better."

"Good," Thena smiled, watching him take a healthy gulp. "Easy."

Ajak didn't even bother to avert her eyes as the Warrior leaned forward to swipe a stray trail of liquor from the corner of the Strongest's lips. It seemed Gilgamesh was the only, if a massive - massive - hole in the Warrior's defenses.

"Thanks," he became sheepish. "Did you like that one? I can get you another."

"No need," she assured him cleanly, disregarding that the cup was nowhere to be found. "Kingo said there is dancing."

"Ah, well," Gilgamesh glanced over his shoulder and then back at them. "Probably not my thing."

"Why not?" Ajak asked before the subject could be dropped completely. This was an opportunity, or as the Warrior Eternal would put it, an opening.

The two looked at her but Gilgamesh in particular had no reason to be suspicious of it. "I'd probably just step on toes if I tried it. And I don't really wanna dance with anyone out there."

Ajak wheeled around on the Warrior Eternal, who borderline took up a fighting stance at her sudden movement. Ajak grinned, and Thena, one could say, almost looked flustered for it. "Thena?"

She glared down at Ajak, but her Prime was immune to her frost. "What?"

"Kingo did mention the dancing, and it seems like Gil wants to try it," Ajak held her hands out, sewing the seeds and now just waiting for them to blossom.

"Oh, uh, well," Gilgamesh was sweet enough to blush as he looked at Thena's hesitation. "You don't have to just for me."

But Thena looked all the more torn as he said it. She understood the Strongest Eternal, far better than any of the rest of their team. Ajak had conceded very early on into their mission that she would never hope to understand her own son the way Thena understood him.

"I don't really know how I'd do," he mumbled, looking back at it again. The more he looked at it, the more he looked like he wanted to try it. His eyes lingered on the couples turning in circles, swaying with their arms around each other. He looked back at Thena. "You're always graceful--you'd probably be good at it."

Ajak's eyebrows rose nearly to her hairline as the Warrior Eternal's skin began to show a little colour.

Thena cleared her throat, trying to avoid the scrutiny of the woman beside while also being honest with the man before her. "You wish to try it."

It was such a simple statement, and her blunt words often rubbed her fellow Eternals the wrong way. But Gilgamesh accepted her statement with a sigh; he did.

Thena cast her eyes to Ajak for only a second. And, even with her cheeks flushed, she offered Gilgamesh her hand. "I'll try it with you."

"Really?" he beamed, and Ajak watched the Warrior Eternal crumble before her very eyes.

"Yes," she laughed faintly. The usually cold and standoffish woman melted as Gilgamesh's hands moved over her. One found the slender curve of her waist while the other touched the bare arm exposed by her saree.

"Have fun!" Ajak called out to them loudly, and purely for her own amusement.

Thena gave her a glare that could give even Arishem himself pause, Ajak was quite certain. But in contrast, Gilgamesh gave her a blithe wave and a smile.

She watched as the two took their place. Thena was uncertain, obviously on edge as they began moving. But Gilgamesh had picked up more than he let on through watching them. He led his partner - battle and dance - through each of the motions, his hands moving hers as needed.

Gilgamesh was right, Thena was naturally graceful, and the more freely he moved, the more naturally she moved with him. As if every move he made was a question, and she followed naturally to answer, every time.

They were made for each other, Ajak mused as she drifted to the wall. With her most reluctant children taking part, she could rest easy. She had shed her happy tears, held Sersi's hand and wished her every happiness. She even told Ikaris to savour the love he could experience now.

Kingo and Phastos and Sprite were lending each other company, which was for the best. Druig was busy stuffing his face but Makkari was happily perched beside him, pilfering morsels as she liked, although Druig did happily feed her a few sweets out of the kindness of his heart.

She could not have asked for a better night, feeling quite mother of the bride (and groom, in some ways).

The current dance concluded and a new one started just as quickly. Ajak watched Gil trail his hands down Thena's arms as he walked over to her, rather, to the fountain next to her. She grinned, "having fun?"

"Yeah, actually," he chuckled, dipping a cup into the water, "Thena's a little thirsty, I think. She seems kinda flushed."

Ajak held back a chortle. "How kind of you."

Gil reached into the water, picking out the cup Thena had thrown with all her might. "Huh, this looks familiar."

Ajak waited, but he never did say anything more about it, dropping it back into the water in favor of retrieving a drink for his precious Warrior Eternal. "Gil!"

He half turned, already eager to make his way back to her.

Ajak shrugged, "you could have just asked her. She would have said yes."

The Strongest Eternal blushed prominently. "Ajak!"

But the Eternal Prime held up her hands, resigned to stop spying on her children so they might actually do some real bonding. "I'm just saying! If you want me to interfere that's fine, but you don't need my help. Not with Thena, at least."

Gilgamesh grumbled, rolling his eyes at her motherly meddling. And yet, despite knowing her scrutiny, he bounded over to Thena, even holding the cup delicately and tipping it up to her lips for her. His free hand felt bold enough to tuck her hair back for her.

Ajak did avert her eyes, this time. That was for them to share, not for her to observe. Whatever may happen with her children from this point on would be on them. Although she did have to admit, she did hope she might get to experience two Eternal weddings in this one lifetime.

[theygender]

I wish I could just play video games all day as my job bc I have so many things I wish I could do like playing all 19 mainline Final Fantasy games in order. Unfortunately I would never be able to attract a big enough audience to make a living though because I would be doing things like playing all 19 mainline Final Fantasy games in order

[buff-muffin]

Travelling Luffy modern AU:

A modern AU where when Luffy met Shanks as a kid he and his mates were living in a van travelling the country probably as some form of criminal but no one in the sleepy village of Foosha knew him. And it inspired Luffy to travel when he grew up. So after high school Luffy picks up random jobs saving money for himself and others to travel going on these grand trips over seas and when he gets back squats at a new friends place and finds a new shitty job to save money and does it all again. He tries to get all his friends to travel with him though it doesn’t always work out so it’s usually two or three of them.

And even in completely different countries Luffy just has a way of befriending the locals finding the best restaurants and activities and even making genuine friends who he is still pen pals with years later. So many times the craziest things have happened to him but Luffy never takes photos on his journey so Nami and the other Strawhats had made it their mission to document every bullshit lucky occasion because no one will believe him otherwise.

His car broke down? Yeah turns out the mayor of the city found them and helped them out. Now they regularly share animal pics. The random old man he befriended in a big city? Yeah turns out he’s actually one of shank’s dads and a criminal and while though retired is still conning a casino for their money and running from the government. The tall rando he fought at a restaurant before both of them decided to just eat and chill? Turns out his mother is one of the biggest gang leaders in the country and he is her right hand man.

Ace also travels but never as frequently as Luffy does now. He’s seen the big places and heard plenty of stories from his friends (the white beards) but is pretty happy in the city. So it’s always a pleasant surprise when the random stranger Luffy befriended happens to know is big brother.

It’s even funnier if you imagine that’s how Luffy meets the grandline strawhats. Like Robin was an exchange student staying overseas, he befriended and greeted her when she returned home. Chopper was graduating high school in a sleepy snow town and because of Luffy decided to head to the university local to him to become a doctor. Franky was actually a professional mechanic and after talking and a lot of pushing decided to make a better name for himself in Luffy’s town for a fresh start. Brook was an old professional singer who was stuck over seas they randomly found and decided to help out, renewing his passport finding his birth certificate ect. He now performs at bars and is working on a solo career. Jimbe was travelling for his own kind of work though after a few encounters with Ace and then Luffy, he found himself so charmed and in need to settle a little, chose to become a teacher at the local university.

The one time Luffy flew by himself because none of his friends could make time he ended up having to stay over seas for two years due to issues with his visa. By some fucking miracle Rayleigh was there and ended up looking after the kid helping him with his piss poor education, inability to hold a stable job and his own house. Luffy came home to the biggest party ever and while most of his friends graduated he started taking online courses while travelling got a share apartment with Zoro and started really cleaning up his resume and not quitting his fucking job every time he traveled.

Luffy just has the travel bug and a need for adventure and has taken all of the east blue gang with him multiple times on these adventures. Something always goes wrong but works out in the best ways.