#I saw that it's become quite popular on TikTok now

[burn-before-reading]

Fanpages

Joost klein x goth! plus sized! reader

It was only inevitable your relationship would become public. unfortunately, not all attention is good.

wordcount: 700ish

warnings: fatphobia, cyberbullying, google translate Dutch

a/n: First request ive gotten, thanks! haven’t written for a plus sized reader before but i really wanted to take a stab at it so i hope i did it justice at least a lil. Also most of the time i try to write gn readers but this one ima be leaning more fem. hope you enjoyyy (Im so bad at titling things you guys)

RPF BELOW. Dont read if not comfortable with that k thnks :)

it was unlike you to go on such a deep dive into the comments of some random fanpage for your boyfriend, but it was only inevitable regardless the recent events. After Eurovision, Joost’s popularity just seemed to have skyrocketed and with that your guy’s relationship became a lot more public.

Fans figured out you two were dating quite quickly. Piecing together screenshots and matching posts, but it wasn’t until some fans took a picture of the two of you kissing at a bar last night that your socials truly went haywire. Most fans were supportive, you had seen a cute fan edit of the two of you already, but of course with every few lovely comments, there were always gonna be jealous fans.

- can’t believe hes dating this fat bitch

- i know right?! she looks so tacky and weird compared to the rest of his friends

similar comments kept popping out at you, all under the slide of fan paparazzi photos with the caption: JOOST GIRLFRIEND CONFIRMED?!

You didn’t even wanna look at your dms at the moment. fans taking it upon themselves to tell you you weren’t good enough for him, like you hadn’t already been together for years. You knew you shouldn’t let the comments of strangers get to you, but it brought up all the insecurities you’ve had about your relationship in the past.

your little media spiral had led you to where you were now, hiding in your bedroom, under the covers, away from the world. You were too busy doom scrolling on your phone and blasting Bauhaus to hear the knock and jingling of keys from Joost entering your apartment.

He had gotten the news probably even before you did that morning, his mentions filled with the same few screenshots and reactions that he learned to ignore. He had stopped by the store to pick up a bouquet of flowers and coffee and pastries from your favorite cafe you two frequent. He followed the sound of the music to your bedroom to find the lump of blankets on your bed that was you.

"oh Schatje..." you heard him call out. Your head popped out from under the covers to reveal to him your tear stained face. Eyes red, you did your best to put on a smile for him.

"Hi love, Im guessing you saw the news.." you sniffle and glance at his full hands. "You really didn't have to come by today, I'm okay I promise."

"je gezicht zegt iets anders, liefje" (your face says something different, love) He set down the flowers and small feast on your dresser and crawls onto the bed next to you. You sit up in your blanket cocoon and lean on his shoulder, Joost wrapping in arm around you and pressing a kiss to your forehead. "What did they say?"

"people are assholes." you mumble. "Its nothing I wasn't expecting.. just wasn't how I thought this week was going to go.."

"I know and im sorry. I saw some of the bad comments already, you know I love everything about you right?" he pulls out his phone and opens tiktok to show you a post he had saved. It was another edit, this one of pictures of joost in his lowlands performace with his mime face paint and you that same day with your matching trad goth makeup. The caption included the hashtag # couplegoals and it made you smile. "See, not everything is bad, they love you Schatje, I love you."

"okay okay, can we just stay in today? and tomorrow, and maybe the whole week..."

"Today for sure, why do you think im in sweatpants?" he gestures to his cozy attire. "Now share the blankets, your place is always so cold."

you open the blanket to wrap around the two of you and Joost repositions you so your legs are resting over his in his lap so he can be all the more closer to you. You look up at him and his right hand cups your face, wiping away and remaining tears, before leaning in and kissing you. You lean closer and move your lips with his as you feel him grab your side to move you more onto his lap. you break the kiss, faces still inches from each other.

“The coffee is gonna grow cold.” he just smiles and murmurs against your lips.

“fuck de koffie”

[yuttikkele]

please tell me more about gen z lotf au 🙏🙏

OFCCC!! i wrote a lot more about this than i thought i could, and i feel like i could keep going but i do wish to go to sleep! ty for the ask! (there was also an anon ask with this question, idk if it was you, but i'm just gonna answer this one lol)

the choir boys all know each other irl (obvi they still have choir together). everyone lives roughly in the same vicinity, but no one knows that.

they all met online during the pandemic. possibly through video games, twitter, or tiktok

how did this ragtag group of people all become friends? idk fortnite probably

i don't know much about fortnite, but it seems like it would start some friendships and/or rivalries. maybe minecraft or roblox too.

how they met and became friends is hazy, like how the beta kids became friends in homestuck. point is: they're all friends. pretty much.

some boys are closer friends than others, but they're all mutuals. they're all in like the same community. what community? that is a good question i should probably think of an answer

piggy uses the nickname people bullied him with as his online name. he gets cyberbullied and has ended up on many a cringe account, but it doesn't really bother him anymore. he likes to spread information, but he was a little self-righteous about it before he quit twitter. now he argues with people on instagram. piggy's also a redditor.

ralph usually just watches other people's content, but sometimes he'll post something and it'll get pretty popular because he's ralph and being well-liked is an innate part of his character. ralph does prefer to go out and do stuff than being online all the time.

simon is chronically online. being shy, he gravitated towards the internet. he's definitely a fandom girlie and has a tumblr (hi tumblr). he spreads positivity on the internet all the time. he's one of the good ones fr. i do hc simon as a Christian, so he does spread the Word a lot as an lgbtq affirming Christian dude

jack doesn't spend too much time on the internet. he also isn't allowed a lot of these medias by his parents, so that may have something to do with it. he does get upset when his posts don't get as many likes as ralph's

roger ragebaits and leaves hate comments all the time, but he has moments where he's nice. maurice memer obviously. sam and eric are the voros twins. i don't have too many thoughts about these guys just yet

they voice chat and sometimes video call

meeting each other irl for the first time led to the utter disgust at ralph's blindness in the fashion department

ok onto them reading lord of the flies cause i think this is such a funny concept

they all miraculously start reading lord of the flies as a class assignment at the same time

they all tell each other this and they're all like "loooool that's crazy we're all reading the same book at the same time"

i saw someone on my last post ab this say exactly what im about to say. it is truly the only way to go with this.

everyone's all "oh haha ralph's got the name of the first character AND he's blonde!" "piggy has the same name as peter's online name! haha how sill-" "WHY IS MY FULL LEGAL NAME IN THIS BOOK???"

the last person is jack btw if you couldn't tell

the exact names and character descriptions matching up a little too well with the boys startles them, but they still joke about it A LOT.

i mean, think about it, if you were forced to read this book in class and you find out you and your friends are basically the main characters, you would NOT stop cracking jokes about it.

"'ugly without silliness.' wow jack, william golding really DID put you in his story!"

they do start to get a little more freaked out when, yk, stuff starts going down in the book and they have to analyze it.

piggy's eventually like "OK we, or at least i, have got to figure this out." and he goes and does some research.

aaaaand that is all i can tell you for now :))

i do headcanon a lot of the boys as queer, but my hcs of them as gen z-ers do differ a little from my hcs of them as gen silencers.

piggy is a strict ally, his aunt is an ally, allies all around, until he realizes he is not so straight as he seems and is not really just an ally. bisexual

ralph knows nothing about the sexuality and gender biz he just does what feels right. he's pretty much demisexual/romantic tho.

simon is a gay dude. he is gnc and on the trans spectrum somewhere

jack is the only one using queer slurs, everyone gets onto him for it. he's gay, but he doesn't know it/won't accept it (because everyone in his life is HOMOPHOBIC!!!). when he does finally accept it, he is still using those slurs as slurs he is not reclaiming them.

[feuqueerfire]

Lovely Runner Live Blogging

I've been seeing the “i found you girl i like being around you” edits on tiktok but before then, i’d also heard about the show and saw an ep 1 clip of when she runs up to him at the swimming pool. i’m a time travel show enjoyer and this show has been getting such good reviews, so I’m excited. my last few shows have been quite dark and violent and i kinda wanna go for another such show but think a lighter (yet emotional) show might do me some good so that i don’t burn out

Ep 1 (June 25)

2009

omg…

ah, he encouraged her to live through this time when she was contemplating suicide and ig later on she will do the same bc he unfortunately takes his own life before the time travel i think

Dec 31, 2022

13 years, how old were they then and how old are they now?

oh i knew she was a fan but she’s a biiiig fan

ah, they were in high school at the same time and his high school was across hers

some fans hate Sunjae bc he’s too popular and getting opportunities

the band members also seem to not like him and it could be bc of his popularity but he also seems resistant to being an idol in general and wants to retire so that might have smth to do with it

wow she’s really having a tough day: rejected from job bc it has no elevator and she has a wheelchair, late to the concert, and then lost the ticket omg

this scene of Sunjae putting in his in-ear and going on stage is now iconic to me bc of the edits, kept expecting to hear “i found you girl i like being around you” as background music loll

she’s really determined to be positive and make the most of everything, i expect a breaking point soon though

oh, in hyuk doesn’t want him to retire

phone crack

wheelchair stops

yeah the tears finally. what a fucking day

hehe they meet in the current timeline

lolll her getting annoyed that her friend came just when she could’ve been getting a ride w Sunjae

what is that jar that she gave him?

was it Sunjae who saved her from the accident?

the watch was weird for a second. i guess that's gonna be The Object that takes her back/causes everything

ahh he took meds and jumped off into the swimming pool.

this reminds me a bit of True Beauty but like the friend who passed away

time of death: Jan 1, 2023. 12am

dead at 34, so was 21 in 2009? 19 or 20 interactional age?

The fact that she Just saw him alive and seemingly well a few hours ago must make it even more unbelievable

Traveled back

her legs work again

okay, I'd seen this Instagram edit of this scene as the very first thing I saw from this show but I didn't know when I first watched it just how awkward/embarassing this is T.T

aw, is he also going through something now? her talking about how he went through this alone made him soften

SHE SAID SARANGHAE SUNJAE-AH?! please

her still being like 'this is my dream' oh she's gonna be mortified when she realizes this is real in a time travel universe

lolol she's like I'm not dreaming? Fuck, am I dead?

pls i'm dying, Sunjae's so confused while she's acting as if they're both dead now (and mustn't cross the bridge)

so did Sunjae take the watch?

Ah, he probably had to quit being a swimmer and become an idol in the original timeline too because of his shoulder

June 2008

So are they seniors in high school right now?

ahh she gets to see her grandma from 14 years ago when she still recognized Sol before alzheimers or whatever T.T

Aw, Sol cries every time she looks at Sunjae

ah, the parallels of Sunjae holding the umbrella over Sol and asking why she's crying now and in the original timeline

I watched around the first 30-40 minutes of this episode on my iPad while I was on the train (and also like 10 minutes in a restaurant lol). I'm likely going to have to take the train a lot starting the second week of July so I had been thinking that maybe I'll save this one for that time and watch like some raunchy BLs and GLs now that I can't watch on the train but the first ep was quite good, I think I'll binge it now oof.

Ep 2 (July 6)

Since Episode 1, I've watched My Stand-In Eps 1 - 11, Blank Season 1, and reread Mistborn: The Final Empire.

"i can fool a 19-year-old, right?" lol Sol

who is this guy? i know there's a love triangle, is this the second lead?

the people who go back in time/become younger scolding the other kids who seem the same age as them is always funny

ah, so funny, he's the first guy Sol stanned

lmfao please why's he running after the bus

the little icons getting farther and farther away and the song about going farther away playing lmfao

omg, she can't tell him the future/what will happen if he does something? time stops?

woah, you really could just stop time and do a bunch of stuff while shouting future facts lmfao

pls, this future-telling grandma cosplay

Sunjae jealous of Taesung already

how does she keep finding herself in these situations, plssss

like Sunjae is literally so correct to be like what the fuck like actually but also T.T

that guy is indeed Sunjae's father and lmfao Sunjae was the one who borrowed the porn/erotic VHS that Sol's mother has been on the dad's case about

overly dramatic crosswalk scene but i guess it's fine since it's mirroring how she probably got into her accident originally and she has trauma from it

she's the one who gave Sunjae an umbrella first! Also i've def seen this scene from a tiktok or smth

pls so he didn't even mean to borrow the erotic video? smh

this is kinda like My School President when Tinn was trying to impress Gun but everything went wrong and he was being a loser lol

so these two episodes effected the future and there's a photo of Sunjae and Sol on the table but it didn't change the death

Ep 3 (July 6/7)

ah, so he didn't injure himself this time?

hilarious that he can't seem to confess while she's fangirling and cooing over him

the dad left his shoe like cinderella lmfao

eughhhh she's like fuck, you don't want me to be your fan anymore? let's be friends! while he's trying to confess

Sunjae's dad dramatic + full of expectations and pressure + getting ahead of himself

and Sunjae also not tell him about the injury

omg her brother and her friend are both home not noticing the fire in their sight?

does that much water even do anything to a fire? feels like you're not supposed to be doing that...

I wish they hadn't done this fire scene so humorously with the brother and friend, kinda took away from the weight of it. also i wonder if the fire or her mother burning her hand won't still happen bc stuff like the shoulder injury or the ball hitting Im Sol still happened even if in a different way than the original timeline

aw, glad his dad understood

lol she's drunk, how cute

is she gonna forget the confession and kiss? since she's yknow legit drunk. i wonder if ppl made a fuss about it because if it was a bl, this would def have been Discussed in the fandom

ah, ofc she doesn't rmr

bruh aghh it's like I can see where this is going with her listening to the recording + Taesung spotting her + Sunjae being far enough behind that he'll see them (+ he thinks he confessed last night and expects her to remember the kiss too)

i'm gonna kill somebody, she didn't even pause so the "I like you" is just playing with nobody to hear

omg travelling to original timeline

girl what?! how could you say you want to date Taesung or is that not really happening or like what's going onnnnn

Ep 4 (July 7)

Oh, Sunjae had not only saved her but was at the hospital too. He'd liked her throughout his high school time i guess but what about that final night, did he recognize her even then?

oh, he had. wild

ohhh she gave him a bunch of the candy that night that she had given him the very first time when she mistook him for a mailman

hmm okay so the Sunjae POV we got of that night was the original timeline before Sol's time travel thing, right? because the photo wasn't there? and the timeline that Sol's waking up in right now is slightly different based on what she had done?

ok the future had indeed changed

omg what the hell, why did that timeline's Sol reject Sunjae like that, like in this timeline, they were friends??? unless Sunjae was being a creep fr

i got spoiled about she can come back 3 times but how does she know only 1 time is left? also it's just been 10 days?! so why did Sol react like that, wtf

ah, so it's like she's kinda fighting with her 19-year-old self from the past who's in love with Taesung? and doesn't know Sunjae?!?! weird...

so the 19-year-old Sol thought she was possessed because her memory from when older-Sol came back was missing... interesting and complicating

lmfaoo exactly, I was saying she could stop time but shouting out future facts. hilarious to have her shouting celeb marriages

plsss how's she asleep on his floor

"i don't make friends with girls. how can a girl and a guy be friends?" alright lol.

why do we have Hyunjoo pooping her pants and that furthering her romance (?) with Sol's brother come onnn

ah, Taesung mommy issues and feelings of abandonment

yknow I do like Taesung and Im Sol's banter and back-and-forth

i'm cryinggggg, not young-Sol's birthday event for Taesung

it's suchhh a long song, i'm dying. and young Sol's fashion pls

hehe Sol telling Taesung how to treat young-Sol is cute actually

so many weird men... that taxi that went away? and now this guy...

is this Sol's accident but in this timeline?

ah, Sol realizing that Sunjae had saved her

okay, in that original timeline, i thought they just called a random number maybe and was confused and ig that's true but Sunjae specifically called Im Sol's number? or what? how'd he know it? and he knew that it was her he was talking to.

Ep 5 (July 7)

i wonder how the accident happened the first time and why Sunjae was there back then

this bra returning scene reminds me of True Beauty but I can't remember what Suho was trying to give Im Jukyeong, idk why I keep thinking pads??

okay i was gonna be tormented, so I skimmed and it's on ep 2 of True Beauty. She accidentally gave Suho a bag that said "thanks for keeping my bare face a secret" but he hadn't recognized her, so to get it back, she'd said that it has pads (i remembered this part at least)

cryingggg at her being like hmm he said he can't be friends with girls, so all those "just friends" rumours with girls were all real romances (as idol Sunjae). anyway i doubt it bc he seemed to forever be in love with her even over a decade later and that's just a trope I'm gonna have to get used to.

yesss i love a girl saving a guy from the common motorcycle/car trope and also girl kabadoning guy

Sol is cute trying to block all mentions of the swimming Olympics from Sunjae but plsss it's all becoming romantic moments and also iffy when you think about young-Sol having a boyfriend

oh, cop mentioning burying a body... i think I've heard that this show has a serial killer

in the original timeline, the taxi driver with the key indeed did something? but this time the other guy got there? and he's the serial killer or what

damn, taxi driver has Sol's flip phone

not Sol's brother and Sunjae meeting but Sunjae being punished for giving Sol alcohol

cryinggg Sunjae being curious and looking at Taesung's profile but he finds out

pls Sunjae getting mad at Sol's inability to bike reminds me of Tinn yelling at Gun about not knowing any math (My School President). when even the down bad secret crush bearing Sunjae and Tinn lose their minds teaching Sol and Gun lmfao

girl, why is Sunjae buying the same jacket as Taesung T.T but ig they're gonna have him fill in for the vocal... but he's not gonna fill in for Taesung

how humiliating to run into Taesung just as Sunjae bought and wore the bright red jacket because Taesung owns it too yikesss

and that's how the eclipse happened, though Taesung isn't in it for much longer i guess?

Taesung watching Sol watch Sunjae perform reminds me of Twinkling Watermelon

oh, intense yelling from Sol

double whammy of hearing the confession recording finally and Sunjae also telling her to break up with Taesung at the same time

Ep 6 (July 8)

ah, I’m Sol broke up with Taesung but I don’t know if that’s the end of it… but she also knows Sunjae’s confession…

sunjae is quite fun to watch like his despair at his “breakup with taesung” thing going wrong vs joy when taesung got broken up with

Sol’s brother does bother me, why is he so annoying

pls both Sunjae and Sol holding back to appear cool/not “shake the other’s heart” aghhh

Taesung’s “Oh, I think I liked you a lot” is funny

not Taesung getting into a car crash, damn it

so is Sep 1 the day her accident happens? I don’t remember the date. is it gonna happen again even though the bridge thing already happened? or is it a different thing?

Taesung’s dad (?) Kim cop is investigating the case of a he dead bod?

nooo now he has their address bc of grandma

oh, Sunjae confession

Taesung in hospital but his dad doesn’t visit and his friend doesn’t believe in him + he calls Sunjae to let him know that Sol’s mother is at the hospital, oh man

aw mannn Sol rejecting Sunjae because she knows she’s not in the right timeline and is gonna have to leave soon etc. does she realize she’s the one he liked in the original timeline too? he’s talking about liking the rain and on the original timeline radio show he also mentioned it

not having to take an umbrella to Sunjae on the day of Sol’s accident! and after she almost stayed home all day

omg she’s realizing right now that she was his first love back then too and she didn’t “confuse him”

tbf maybe this mans would’ve gotten her even if she didn’t leave right then. a fucking kidnapping

omg this taxi fucker really took her Again D:

Ep 7 (July 8)

oh on that original accident too Sol missed her stop on the bus and Sunjae was waiting with her in the bus, that’s how he was there on the time of her accident on save her

i’m watching this on the subway on my commute to/from work but there are two people talking in korean beside me and i feel awkward watching a kdrama beside them lol

okay they left a couple minutes later

oh at this bridge where her original accident happened is where she dropped that watch and the first time she time travelled, right?

omg who the hell grabbed her in this timeline? bc taxi driver was in the taxi still

good job to sunjae for connecting everything and figuring out the reservoir lmfao

ah, she went back to her time again and the young-Sol is back but also that's kind of oh no in a way, though Sunjae's clever i wonder if he'll be able to figure it out?

i knew from pics i saw that she can use her lefts in the future

Sunjae survived too

pls not her getting mistaken for a sasaeng, i don't even wanna watch anymore

what a different life

damn, young-Sol had another kidnapping a year later?

oh naurrr is Sunjae doing the "who are you? do we know each other?" thing because young-Sol did this to him after he helped her with the kidnapper?

oh he's not even here, it was a scenario in her head lol

lmfao crying, this Sunjae lovesss the attention and fame (though not the stalking)

the shenanigans of them justtt missing each other every time

i can't believe we're getting random enemies-to-lovers right now, especially with them texting each other antagonistically, this is soooo fun

i seriously need to go to sleep but ahh

owww

oh, the concert didn't happen

ah, and they met on the bridge again

35 minutes after my bedtime already, gonna take a while to fall asleep too, whelp

Ep 8 (July 9)

omg Sunjae got the time capsule egg before it got torn down and he even waited on Jan 1, 2023 fully expecting her to come - and she did, so why didn’t they meet?

and Sunjae got the watch from the time capsule

hmmm would he happen to travel back in time at all? bc she travelled back with his watch and maybe he can travel back with her watch?? esp if smth happens to her idk

lmfao pls not the hotel where they can be alone together

but also he’s an idol going with a random girl lmfao

i loveeeee Sol omg she’s so funny and endearing as she’s talking about how she didn’t mean they should have a passionate night and also mentions that they had crushes on each other in a throwaway line but she doesn’t wanna skip intros and get to the conclusion But she’s not judging sunjae for thinking that, they just have different values lmfao what a cutie but sunjae’s gonna act clueless like oh? what were you thinking as if he doesn’t know what this insinuates

i loveeee celeb/non-celeb romance esp when it actually shows the reporters and rumours and fans and such and how they can affect/limit the relationship

he has such a big house why not hide the cut out in some random storage room omg

pls and now Sunjae thinks she plans to stay the night and have sex lmfao

true Inhyuk would be like what the hell, Sunjae can’t fall for Im Sol again!!

Taesung?

Inhyuk talking about how Sunjae’s liked only Im Sol this whole time and kept going back to her old house whenever he was drunk while Sol can hearrrrr

ah, she confessed that she used to like him too

i kept being nervous that Taesung would somehow be in the house but Sunjae/Sol first kiss!

isn't it crazy fr, after 15 years you finally meet again and this time the girl you've loved forever confesses back and you kisssss and it's not a shitty one either

what the hell, the fuckass taxi driver is here too? that was indeed Taesung before right or did i mistake taxi driver for Taesung, I hope not

"Even if somebody sent me back to the past, I would never gamble with my future" whelp Hyunjoo, don't foreshadow too hard

the stalker makes me nervous both in terms of what if that person was the person who was knocking or whatever the night Sunjae died and also what if she finds out that Sunjae's dating Sol and does something to either of them?

okayyyy, so the taxi driver mans went and attacked Sunjae, was it the same thing in the previous iterations too?

I listened to the Afternoona Soju podcast episode and learned about 2 scenes: Sunjae and Taesung drink and do karaoke together and cuddle to sleep, and Sunjae's speech envelope + Sol's resignation letter get swapped so he ends up saying that out loud as a speech

Ep 9 (July 9)

so as hinted, a year after she came back to the current timeline, in the young timeline 2009, the taxi guy kidnapped Im Sol again and Sunjae saved her again and that's what caused that guy to get jailed until now

i loveee 2009 freshman Sol's hair, beautifully bangs and wavy hair

Hyunjoo's joyoush "hmm" and nod at 33:50 after Sol asks her if it was her idea is sooooo good omg i replayed several times

omg, the sudden "are you really from the future?" that had like no build-up, so I was surprised hehe

ahhh they kissed accidentally ofc they did, ig we'll see Sunjae and Sol married by the end?

Ep 10 (July 10)

ah, makes sense that Sunjae wouldn’t actually believe the time travel stuff oof

pls hiding under the table is so T.T

oh she’s telling Taesung about the time travel too

i like it when in a love triangle the guys try to impress the family like now with the flooding and in Ture Beauty with the dumplings but it’s annoying when they let it get the best of them and don’t care about what’s actually happening like why are you up arguing and making a mess instead of helping clean up wtf

i do like Sunjae Taesung antagonizing when it’s like verbal and witty not physical fights

oof Taesung telling Sunjae that he shouldn’t even be jealous of him bc Sol clearly likes Sunjae

Superstar K vs going to the states

ah, he digs up the time capsule and figures out that he dies (possibly because of trying to protect Sol) that time in the future

oh, the billboards changed and Eclipse is releasing their new album instead of Sunjae’s stabbing hmm i can’t tell bc im watching on my phone but is Sunjae in that photo?

Ep 11 (July 10)

ARE THEY GONNA GET BACK REFUNDS FOR THE PLANE AND THE REHABILITATION? and are they gonna get the luggage back?!

not this kissing gossip lmfao

yknpw technically this is a noona romance in this timeline 3x Sol x 20 Sunjae (krn age)

the “should we roll back another minute? if you give me another chance, i’ll do my best” thing is soooo cute like Sunjae fr was just going for the remote not the kiss like Sol thought

i’m crying from second hand embarrassment at the parents and brother finding them like this and am dreading the hundreds of condoms reveal T.T plssss and even Basic instincts got brought up again and Sunjae having to cover Im Sol’s ears i cannotttttt, how humiliating

the condoms flying out like this is really and truly killing me i can’t watch fuckkk if i was sunjae i would have to leave move away say good bye to Sol like life death and time could not make me stop loving you but this… in front your family? yeah i’d learn to live

lmfao the family meeting was very funny

he sings sonagi for her on a stage ahhh first of all he’d died but she gets to see him sing again + knows it’s about her this time

ah this fucking killer mans

Ep 12 (July 10)

ofc both Sol and Sunjae are gonna try to stop the murderer

lol will Sunjae get jealous of In Hyuk lmao

i can't watch this toilet water nothing pls at least use the water that's stored in the tank of the toilet not in the fucking bowlll

is the institution just that they made out? because i don't think they had sex?

lmfao maybe now the MIL and FIL will finally get along

omg, she's pretending to have gone back so that Sunjae doesn't stay with her at this place where the attacker's gonna come

oh also i'd figured out the 3 lives thing a while back btw i'd been like how does she know w/ certainty that she has 3 chances but the clock said 3, then 2, and now it's at 1

Ep 13 (July 11)

just go so frustrated that Youngsoo figured out that Sol was setting a trap bc that guy put his hand on her to check but Sol ended up shouting for Detective Kim eughhh such planning and yet

and Sunjae runs into him right then ofc

not Sunjae getting knifed! and falling off he cliff!!!

oh, Sol returned

girl where the hell is Sunjae like nice to see Sol’s life and Taesung but c’mon

i got spoiled about the letter switching and Sunjae giving actor award speech from Sol’s resignation letter so i don’t have like The Suspence for this

ohhh Sunjae’s watch also became a time machine

oh my godddd his time machine also takes Sol back in time for some reason and she literally cuts it off right at the beginning?!?! doesn’t give him the umbrella in the rain

curious about how they’ll explain the killer stuff in the past if Sunjae’s not there to save Sol?

Ep 14 (July 11)

so Sol and family just move away soon after like Sunjae still has his sling? yknow what let me not think too much

lolol articles coming out. i didn’t realize he was just gonna be mc-ing

ahhh Ryu Sun Jae is gonna be acting in Im Sol’s script?!

ouch the script hurts (though she’s plagiarizing so hard from alternate timeline Sunjae!!)

both of them busy trying to reject the script/actor but omg poor Sol. it sucks so bad to be the one who remembers, like when Sunjae used to remember while young Sol forgot and now thisssss after everything

another enemies to lovers arc

okay i was wondering how we’d go back to Sunjae knowing but ig he’ll get dreams and memories

oh, the murderer is gonna attack the sasaeng girl instead?

Sunjae is just Meant to be obsessed with Sol in every timeline ig

yaas the lottery tickets truly a must for a fucking time travel anything

ah the ferris wheel

Ep 15 (July 11)

the taxi driver can’t be obsessed w Sol in this timeline too right esp bc it’s been 15 years since his interest in the original tl

not Sol’s mom trying to set Sol up with sunjae now loll how the tables have turned

lmfao this time it’s Sunjae hiding from Sol when usually it was the other way around in the past timelines

oh, the killer is actually targeting Sunjae straight up this time maybe, not Sol first

Sunjae’s memory coming back in flashes

oh, he's got it all back

omg dramatic. killer guy almost got Sunjae again and then for a second I got nervous that Taesung was gonna crash like the other way so that killer T-bones his car

Ep 16 (July 11)

last ep!! 1h 19 mins instead of the usual 61-63 mins

killer dies just like that

ahh meeting again after remembering

"because he died, somebody else might get to live"

they kiss pretty nice

the parents do make me laugh, the dad being like hah i know Sunjae chose a good, beautiful girl to date while the mother's like hah i know she's no beauty

ah, marriage and wedding, cute

Overall:

A fun show with a fun concept and great acting + romance. It was funny and delightful most of the time, there was a kind of killer/suspense aspect but that wasn't really ever the Focus, Sunjae being killed was the focus; similarly, they didn't thoroughly explain the time travel because the mechanics wasn't the focus, Sol going back was the focus.

I liked Sunjae and Sol together and it was fun seeing how Sunjae was slightly different in the different timelines lol I liked seeing the couple on high school, college, as idol!Sunjae and actor!Sunjae. It did feel a bit like consistency was lost in their relationship but that was the point i guess. It was a very romantic concept, the way they were falling in love in every timeline.

Everything about it was good and I was engaged, I just don’t think I’d think about it much though. Kinda reminds me of When I Fly Towards You c-drama in that way; a cute youthful romance drama but I'm not hung up on it. At least it kept me company during my commute of the first week at my new internship.

Rating: 7/10

[natlacentral]

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Crown Prince Dallas Liu Had Elliott Smith on his Zuko Playlist

With the Netflix show officially renewed for two more seasons, the actor talks to GQ about his personal style, his cult series PEN15, and bending lightning.

Before he found his calling, Avatar: The Last Airbender star Dallas Liu considered becoming a stuntman. But when Liu was only 12 years old, his soon-to-be manager discovered his competition videos on YouTube and asked him if he'd ever thought about acting. The answer was yes: “Martial arts had definitely inspired me to become an actor, because of the performance aspect of it,” Liu tells GQ from his home in California.

Now, at 22, Liu’s credits include a Gen-Z cult comedy (PEN15) and a high-profile Marvel film (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.) He’s been able to channel his eclectic background to play the complicated villain at the center of the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise, Fire Nation royal Prince Zuko.

A few weeks before Netflix announced that Avatar had been renewed for a second and third season, Liu talked to GQ about how playing Prince Zuko changed him, his love of A24 films, and the Pen15 renaissance.

Were there any Avatar scenes that you were really excited to film?

All of the flashbacks. All of episode six was super fun, but specifically the scene between Aang and Zuko in that shed after an escape. And then, when Zuko sort of blows up at Zhao, at the fight at the Northern Water tribe.

The writers had given me a lot of good stuff to work with, and so I was just happy that in our show Zuko gets a character arc. In the first season of the animated series, he’s sort of one-note and quite melodramatic in each scene—he's sort of being repetitive about his motives. [But] he was always my favorite character as a kid. I just loved Zuko. Being able to play him was a dream come true.

I saw in another interview that you said that it was great to humanize him. Was there anything that you kind of discovered about yourself through playing Zuko, because he's such a complicated character?

Yeah, since he’s so complex, playing him opened up my heart while I was off-set. When I had originally arrived in Vancouver to work on the show, I was similar to Zuko in that I was very narrow-minded in what I wanted to do, in terms of how I wanted to be an actor on set. I thought this was my one opportunity in life to prove to the people that I have a spot in this industry.

I was like, I'm focused on my work, do my job, go home, rest, and just take care of myself. And throughout that process, that's what it feels like with Zuko and Iroh. Zuko is like, "I'm just going to capture the Avatar, and then return them to my father and then I get to go home." And we see that that's not the case.

There are so many things that are involved in this journey that Zuko and Iroh go on, and something that I felt was my relationship with the other cast members and with the crew members started to grow. I found myself wanting to open up my heart and share this experience with them, and share all the love that I had inside of me that I had been trying to hold back on.

If you were not playing a character from the Fire Nation, what powers would you want to have personally?

Oh, it still definitely would be fire. It’s the most aesthetically-pleasing one in my opinion. In the world of Avatar, you can start to manipulate other elements once you become a master of that base one, and I think lightning is something that I've always thought would be super cool to bend. I think fire represents me, my heart.

What's your Zodiac sign?

I'm a Leo.

That adds up.

Wait, why?

Leo is a fire sign!

Oh, yeah, that's true!

Have you seen the TikToks about the Pen15 renaissance?

During my time shooting it, Pen15 was still blowing up. It's been on this continuous rise, which I'm so happy because that show—now it's really, really popular. But at the time, it was so underrated. I was still tapping into a younger version of myself on that series. But [for Avatar] I took inspiration from watching Maya and Anna act out as kids, for Zuko being an innocent child himself in the war meetings, in that first scene with Uncle Iroh in episode six.

I mean, you were still a kid. You were 16. That's a child.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess it's a lot closer to Zuko, and that he doesn't think he is.

Did you really shave your head for this, or did you do a bald cap?

Given that we were trying to stay faithful to the original and what it represented in the show, I thought it was extremely important for me to shave my head. I had a choice. I won't get into what it represents so much, but you get to see a little bit in some of the Avatar lore that exists outside of our series. But it gets you into character so much because it pisses you off so badly every morning. Waking up on the weekends when I'm not working and I just want to go out, I have to throw on a beanie. But waking up and staring at myself—This is my life now, this is who I am—I think it certainly got me into character very easily.

I really liked your red velvet suit at the premiere. How has your style evolved from your younger years to now?

My mom has always been my biggest fashion influence. She's the one who sort of turned me into this picky critic when it comes to outfits and clothes. Even when I was younger, I wouldn't ever let her pick out my outfits. And because I didn't let that happen, I ended up looking really stupid and goofy a lot of the time.

But I think everyone starts in sneakers—very common, especially for guys. You start with basketball shoes, and then you transition into Jordans, and then you transition into some form of streetwear after that. And at that point, you could go, I think, either into this world of vintage or archive clothing, or obviously, people love designer clothing and mixing up that world of streetwear with that.

But for me, I think I just really elevated basics. My style has just become less about brands, obviously, and more about quality. I'm 22 now, so I'm paying for all of this stuff myself. So I'm like, is this worth it? Am I going to be fine without this? On carpets for the Avatar premiere, I wanted to go all out. When I'm in real life, I just stick to all black and different shades of gray.

Did you make a playlist for Zuko, his character to get into character?

I did, but at some point, I stopped using it just because I sort of found my groove from the character. But some artists that were in there were Elliot Smith and Duster.

Which Elliot Smith songs did you put on there?

“Between the Bars.” And just all of his most popular stuff for sure, because especially “Between the Bars” relates to some part of Zuko's life, whether it was his actual scar banishment or catching the Avatar.

Are there any genres you want to dabble in next?

I honestly love drama so much. Obviously, the new Dune film just came out and I just love Denis [Villeneuve]. Every actor, I feel like can agree with me on [that]—and that we want to do an A24 film. But honestly, I'm still just trying to take any work that I can get, because I do want to show my range as an actor. I'd love to work with Willem Defoe on something, that'd be cool. So, just projects that are grounded, but have a stylistic element that separates it from Hollywood blockbusters.

[thecynthh]

the infamous deepfake.

okay so we have all seen or at least heard of the deepfake of matt right? its been quite the up roar recently bc everyone on here is talking about it, and i know im not that popular or if i should even be addressing this because all of it ive read about.

so if you dont know the deepfake of matt was basically a nude photo that was completely fake was posted on tiktok in an edit. it was shared not posted by sturnsfilmed or whatever their tag is now who is very popular on tiktok and notorious for saying some rather sexual things about them in their captions. the original pciture and edit was made by someone else who i am not aware of their @. just a disclaimer, i have not seen the picture nor am i wanting too, please stop sharing the photo around its rude and very horrible to the triplets.

my take

i think that if people didnt make such a big deal out of this and found it weird deepfakes wouldve definitely become more poplar, and im not saying that its right that people make these pictures or post them but lets be real. deepfakes wouldve RULED tumblr if it wasnt so wrong, i feel like there would be way more apparent if it wasnt so socially unacceptable/weird asf. we are all into sum pretty freaky shit and i think at least a good heap of people would be on the hunt for shit like that.

deepfakes are weird, especially if its of a famous person, like matt, who is very much unsuspecting of its capabilities and is most likely not aware that all of this happens and i truly hope he never does have to find out about it. because if you really think about it, what if he was just a guy at your school and he got exposed and had to change his entire identity and who he was because of this.

i know that its already been taken down but like i feel like if one of them knew about it, like if nick saw it, and matt knew what weird shit this part of the fandom does it would actually push him to quit.

now im a consumer and a provider of this content that i am talking about, i write, i read and i enjoy it but the thought of them knowing about it in reality really sets me off. please dont get me wrong i love fics and i love the snaps and texts of all of them but if they even HINT towards what we do im abandoning tumblr sooooooo fast.

please take what i say with a grain of salt cus imma be real idk what im talking abt. love yalls pls stay safe and be careful what yalls post.

-syn

[franollie]

ok so back in december i posted some old marauders art i found in my digital sketchbook, and i said something along the lines of i want to make a post on the marauders fandom and how it’s changing fandom as a whole. and then i forgot about it. BUT BEHOLD! Fran’s study on transformative fandom through the marauders fandom! strap in because this is gonna be a long one:

I want to preface this by saying i have a lot of nostalgia for harry potter—more specifically the marauders—but i obviously do not support jkr and her transphobia.

reminder that I am critiquing the marauders fandom as a whole. as a w h o l e as in the collective fandom. not you specifically. okay?

now, if i remember correctly, the marauders fandom started because people shipped wolfstar and wanted to explore their dynamic in hogwarts. simple as that.

then, it came out that jkr was making blatantly transphobic comments. at this point in time, i had moved away from the harry potter fandom as a whole because i saw something shinier to hyperfixate on (hello sailor moon), so i’m foggy on the details in terms of the marauders fanbase at the time. but from what i understand people started pointing out the racism in the series as well.

flash forward to 2020–the marauders renaissance on tiktok. suddenly the marauders fandom was no longer just wondering what the 4 marauders + lily would have been doing in school. it had expanded to involve a diverse array of characters with agreed upon backstories. And it was really fun to dive back into the fandom. for many, it was reclaiming a series that held a lot of nostalgia to a lot of people from a bigoted woman.

however, i think with the rise in popularity of the marauders fandom—an entirely transformative fandom—fandom as a whole made a switch from creating fanworks out of love and respect for a piece of media to caring about the fan content first and foremost over the media itself. that’s not me saying that the marauders fandom is to blame for everything wrong with modern fandom—the lack of community, the complete disregard of canon characterization, lack of media literacy, etc.—but i do think the marauders fandom gave all these issues the little nudge they needed to take a deep rooted place in how fandom works.

when fandom becomes canon, it’s easy to ignore genuine problems within the fandom as “oh well its not really canon”. But thats really only true to a certain extent. Most people within the marauders fandom consider ATYD as the canon they follow when ATYD is in fact fan fiction. additionally, i’ve met people in the marauders fandom who haven’t read ATYD.

the marauders fandom is quite literally whatever you want it to be, and that’s fun but it’s not fandom in the traditional sense.

remember those new characters i mentioned earlier? well a large majority of them are women including many women of color. however, these women are almost entirely used as props for the boys’ stories and are entirely one dimensional. (lily is snarky and smart, mary is fun loving, marlene is a party animal, dorcas is cold-hearted softie, pandora is ditzy, but most importantly they’re all ✨girl bosses✨). that’s not to say these girls dont have potential for interesting stories or that no one writes them as three dimensional characters. but the fandom at large uses them as props for their favorite mlm ship. jegulus having more fics than jily (the only canon ship in this fandom) alone proves this point.

“but what about marylily/pandalily?” also great ships that i love, but they only really exist to get lily out of the way for james to be with regulus. thus, they are inherently supporting the internalized misogyny of the marauders fandom. i’m not disregarding people who do genuinely ship marylily and pandalily, but that is where the ships stemmed from.

first and foremost fandom is about loving the source material so much you’re inspired to engage with others who enjoy the source material. you can’t really enjoy fandom if you don’t know the characters or world you’re working with; kind of a “you have to know the rules before you break them” type of situation.

i could talk more on the internalized misogyny within the marauders fandom or how we can use the marauders fandom as a study on fandom in the modern age. instead, i’ll leave on this note: as i said before, fandom is about loving the source material so much you want to engage with others who enjoy the source material, and at the end of the day the source material for the marauders fandom is harry potter. and i don’t have much love left for a series that is transphobic or a fandom that doesn’t treat its women with the same care as it’s men.

to reiterate: i not implying that everyone who enjoys marauders materials supports jkr, in fact i’d go as far to say most marauders fans are actively against jkr. however, i feel uncomfortable in a space that fundamentally cannot exist without harry potter.

i have a lot of ideas for marauders stuff and i still enjoy these characters (namely dorlene and jily) but me including my versions of these characters doesn’t really solve the problem. atp can the problems even be solved? idk this got away from me, and i still have more thoughts.

so yeah! peace love and trans rights 🫶 probs won’t post much marauders stuff—not that i really did before but some of you follow me for marauders content for some reason???

[ruruas]

"This is Embarrasing": You can't like Duran Duran anymore

Around two years ago, I saw a post on TikTok about a 14-year-old new-age preppy girl (I say new-age as this is the Taylor Swift-Stanley Cups-Sephora-Neon explosion preppy and not Dark Academia-Plaid-The Secret History preppy) going to a Duran Duran concert. She was happy and excited, celebrating this opportunity to go to a concert of what seemed to be one of her favourite music artists.

Duran Duran is an 80s band, the type of band that your parents liked with your mother having a major crush on one of the members. They're still very active today, releasing new songs and performing shows but its mainly their 80s discography that gets the most attention.

And so, because the 'aesthetic' of this girl didn't match the 'aesthetic' of the band, the comments clowned her for 'not being a true fan'

There are some nice comments (thank god) but its mostly just judgement on why a 'basic' girl would like something 'cool' like Duran Duran.

This is quite stupid. Very stupid. A teen girl can't enjoy a certain band because she isn't wearing a denim jacket with spit-dyed brown and blonde hair? Because she decides her skincare of choice is Drunk Elephant, and thats not '80score' or whatever bullshit watered-down aesthetic the kids are parading these days? Its "name three songs'" again all over. Ah wait, someone DID ask her that!

You know whats even funnier? Back in the day, Duran Duran was known as a "teenybopper" band that appealed to young teenage girls, both with their music and looks. They made pop songs (infused with rock elements) that generally talked about summer and girls and having fun. I say generally because Duran Duran's lyrics are deeper than that, but the most popular songs have those themes on the surface.

So really, it makes complete sense for a preppy girl on TikTok to be posting about a band like Duran Duran. Even if it was a thrash metal band that had nothing to do with the preppy aesthetic, it would still make complete sense for her to go to the concert and enjoy herself. Because aren't music-based subcultures like New Romantic (what Duran Duran is a part of) about the music and ideals first, then the outfits and 'look'? I thought that as long as I like the songs and have knowledge of the music itself, I could be a part of any music-based subculture! Now you're telling me I can't wear certain clothes or buy certain products because it doesn't fit this one concert I'm going to?

This truly shows how dumbed-down certain subcultures and band fanbases have become because of the 'aesthetics' trend. It's all about the 'look' now, all about the 'vibe'.

Whatever happened to the main point of it all?

Whatever happened to the music?

[crystallinestars]

Regarding your post mentioning Genshin burnout, recently I kind of felt it as well ! The only saving grace for me was Scara's banner, I finally managed to get him on Tuesday after pining for him during the past few months. So I guess I kind of have more motivation to play now? Esp to build him along w his team (Layla and Faruzan also popped up in my rolls :D). But after I've built them sufficiently, I might lose motivation again ...

And I saw you mention toxicity on online platforms, this is so real (for both Genshin and HSR) 😭 Like I was scrolling on Reddit yesterday and I saw a hella cute AvenPaz family artwork. It was then reposted on another subreddit (It's kinda meme-y community) and OMG they were being so rude ... Like they legit seemed so pressed seeing Aventurine in a non-BL ship. They were going "ohhh the str8s are at it again," (they used a more obscene term that I won't name) and I was thinking: so my bi self is apparently mega straight now just because I like NL stuff, huh 🤨🤨 I had to unsubscribe, like I loved seeing the funny edit pics from this subreddit but whenever they see a NL ship (or even a hint that a male playable character could be with girl) they just absolutely become so rude... I guess it could have been worse (like straight up brigading the artist) but the negativity was so so off-putting. Ofc we could all have our own preferences but whyyy feel the need to become so insulting when they see something they don't like.

Big big sorry for longggg negative vibes rant 😭 Ngl I'm also super tempted to go off about the treatment of a certain architect by the hands of both Mihoyo and a huge chunk of Genshin fandom, but if it is too uncomfy for you then I will refrain. ^^ I don't want to disrespect your blog !

Tbh though it is comforting to know that there are at least other Genshin likers (esp girls) who have similar sentiments regarding BL and our favorite architect ahahah...

Congrats on pulling Scara!!! He’s so much fun and a godsend in exploration. Seems you already have a good team for him (I use Layla and Faruzan with him too 😄)! May he grow big and strong haha.

If you lose motivation to play again, well… don’t play! Do something else you find fun! Life is too short to dedicate all your free time to a single game.

Honestly, the entirety of the Hoyoverse fandom is quite toxic. The only game that’s exempt from it, to my knowledge, is Tears of Themis.

Reddit is definitely up there with Twitter for being the most toxic platform in the fandom (I’m guessing TikTok and Instagram too, but I’ve never been on these sites). The BG/NL ship bashing is incredibly common, unfortunately. Really can’t enjoy anything NL on there. Really, why can’t they leave the things they don’t like alone and just move on? Why be so rude? 😔

I used to be a part of AlhaithamMains and things were mostly chill at first, but over time it became a haikaveh mains. Anyone who requested for there to be a separate sub for the ship was berated, and posts politely saying they didn’t see Kaveh and Alhaitham in a romantic light were rife with hateful and aggressive comments. I remember someone posted Kavehlumi art in KavehMains, and one person had the audacity to comment that Kaveh actually belongs to Alhaitham. And these types of comments were EVERYWHERE, under every NL ship post.

I took one peek into AventurineMains, saw the very first post talk about how Ratiorine is implied in the 2.0 quest, and noped out of there. Not surprised the same fate befell Aventurine 😔

So yes, Reddit is full of awful, loud people that ruin the fun for anyone who doesn’t ship the popular ship. You were right to leave. I left a long time ago and have been so much happier because of it. It’s unfortunate you have can’t enjoy a lot of things now, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to protect your mental health.

If you want to go off and rant about how Kaveh gets treated, please do! God knows I have my own gripes about it, so it’s really nice to know I’m not the only one troubled by it. Plus, I love it when people share their complaints with me, so don’t worry about being too negative.

Trust me, there are quite a few of us girls who love Kaveh but don’t care for BL. We just keep to ourselves and stay quiet to avoid trouble from the toxic shippers.

[kindh3art3d]

Falling for You - Stephen Sanchez x Reader One Shot

It was a whirlwind of lights, sounds, and emotions as Stephen Sanchez and Y/N took the stage together, belting out their newest single to a screaming crowd. Their unofficial collaboration was made popular on TikTok when a fan mixed a cover Y/N singing one of Stephen's latest singles. Everyone loved it so much, they demanded an official collaboration, and within days Y/N's manager flew her out to meet with Stephen.

To say they hit it off immediately would be an understatement. Stephen was instantly drawn to her quiet beauty and odd sense of humor and captivating musical talent.

They talked for hours in the studio and when the sun had set, and they both realized all they had eaten that day was iced coffee and potato chips they decided to get cheap fast food.

Y/N had an odd feeling that this wouldn't just become a standard collaboration that made their labels a quick buck, she felt that something deeper was developing.

When they got back to the studio that night they wrote and produced a new single, which within a few days had gone viral on TikTok as a trending sound. This also brought an onslaught of shippers, which Y/N didn't mind too much...

They had been touring together for a few weeks now, but it was the first time they had performed together on stage, their schedules both finally aligning and the beginning of their tour had started.

Y/N had always been a fan of Stephen's music, but now that she was working with him, she saw a whole new side of him.

As the curtains drew to a close and the audience gave a standing ovation, Stephen leaned over to Y/N and grinned. "That was a stunning performance," he whispered. Y/N's heart began to race as she looked into his sparkling eyes. She had never been one to have a crush on a coworker, but there was something about Stephen's charm that made her feel like anything was possible. As they walked off stage, Stephen started talking about his passion for acting and the theater. Y/N found herself captivated by his words and could feel herself falling deeper into his spell. She knew that this moment would be one that she would remember forever.

Over the next few weeks, Y/N and Stephen spent a lot of time together, bonding over their shared love of music and exploring new cities. They collaborated on writing music, each bringing their unique perspective and talent to the table. Y/N was struck by Stephen's creativity and passion, and she found herself drawn to him more and more each day.

As they explored new cities, Y/N and Stephen discovered new cultures and cuisines, deepening their connection as they shared new experiences together. They explored bustling markets and quiet parks, talking for hours about everything from their favorite bands to their future aspirations.

Despite the growing feelings Y/N had for Stephen, she couldn't help but wonder if he felt the same way. She tried to read his expressions and body language, but couldn't quite decipher his true feelings. He was mysterious in the best way possible.

Nonetheless, she cherished the time they spent together and looked forward to the adventures they would share in the future, all the while knowing that their time together was limited.

One night, as they were walking back to their hotel after a show, Stephen took Y/N's hand and looked her in the eyes. "Y/N, I have to tell you something," he said, his voice soft. "I know we've only known each other for a short time, but I feel like I've known you forever. I'm falling for you."

Y/N's heart swelled with happiness as she realized that she was developing feelings for Stephen. She smiled up at him, and with a bit of hesitation in her voice, she said, "I'm falling for you too." Stephen looked at her with a mix of surprise and delight, his eyes shining in the starry night sky. He took her hand in his and leaned in to kiss her, a gentle and tender embrace that left her feeling weak in the knees. As they pulled away from each other, Y/N felt a sense of excitement and anticipation for what the future held for them as a couple.

The rest of the tour was a blur of exploration and excitement. Stephen and Y/N wrote more songs together, all the while enjoying every shared intimate moment together. They knew that their time together was limited, but they made the most of every moment.

As the tour came to an end, Stephen and Y/N felt a bittersweet mix of emotions. On one hand, they were sad to be saying goodbye soon. They had grown so close during their time together, sharing laughs and deep conversations late into the night. On the other hand, they were excited to see what the future held for them. Stephen was already brainstorming ideas for their next tour, and Y/N was looking forward to exploring new musical avenues. Despite the uncertainty, they both knew that their shared passion for music would always bring them back together. As they hugged goodbye, they made a pact to stay in touch and continue making beautiful music together.

On the night of their last show, Stephen and Y/N shared nervous energy, the crowd was fantastic and it was possible the best show they've shared together. They could still hear the ecstatic applause of the audience.

Suddenly the excitement became sadness as Y/N realized she was flying back home in the morning.

"What's wrong?" Stephen asked as he took a step towards her and cupped her cheek delicately, as if he was scared of breaking her.

A defiant tear slipped down Y/N's face as she whispered

"This is it."

Stephen suddenly embraced her,

"No, it's not."

She shook in his tender embrace, emotion and exhaustion rattled her frame.

"This is our last show. I'm going home in a few hours."

He dropped his arms and gripped her shoulder, finding her eyes with his kind ones

"This is not it. Just because this tour is over doesn't mean we are."

Y/N wanted to believe him, she truly did. But it was stupid, crazy, impossible. They lived across the country in separate time zones and long distance never worked out.

"When I told you I was falling for you that one night, I meant it." He licked his lower lip, and glanced around

"I haven't stopped falling for you since, and I never will."

More tears streamed down her face as Stephen spoke everything she wanted to hear.

"I don't want you to go." He took her hand and squeezed it.

"Stay here with me."

She threw her arms around his neck and cried into him.

"We'll figure it out, I promise even if I have to quit music I'll do it for you." he whispered and she knew he meant those words.

"I love you Stephen." She smiled softly and kissed him.

He leaned into the kiss and laughed.

Relief washed over them as they basked in the happiness of the moment.

They pulled apart and she found herself drowning in the depths that was his dark eyes.

"What?" He chuckled, and she grinned wrapping her arms around his neck.

"You're fricking hot."

This made them both laugh.

He adjusted the guitar strapped to his back and took her hand, leading her to the green room.

"I guess we'll have to cancel your flight."

She smiled

"I think I have to do more than that."

Stephen looked over, radiating happiness,

"We'll figure it out."

"Together" she beamed.

"Together" he echoed.

and that was a promise they both intended on keeping.

[nicosraf]

Hi there! I loved Angels Before Man so much! It's already one of my all-time favourite reads, and I'm so glad tiktok helped me discover it. I'm an aspiring writer myself, and realising angels before man was self-published really gave me hope that becoming an author is way more achievable without the barrier of being traditionally published. So i was wondering if you had any advice for people like myself on self-publishing and your experience with it?

Hello!! Thank you so much for reading!! I'm really glad you enjoyed :] <3

Oh yeah, I think we're in a boom of indie books in general! There's so many good self-published books coming out, especially POC-centered and/or queer. There's also a really supportive community around self-publishing now that I don't think was there before. I definitely didn't think self-publishing was feasible until I saw the sort of stuff that Freydís Moon, Kellen Graves, and others were doing.

My biggest advice is not to do what I did skskks but anyway

If you want really actionable suggestions: don't publish through Ingram. Do either Amazon KDP or Draft2Digital, though I would personally recommend the latter. D2D take a cut of royalties, but they provide a free ISBN (I believe), and they make distribution really easy. You're going to want to invest in an editor (support freelancers!! I recommend my friend Quinton tbh) and a cover artist and/or designer. Also, you're going to need formatting software, or get someone (a.i. a designer) to do it for you; if you're not trying to turn self-publishing into a full career/hobby, then I would just ask someone to do it for you. Atticus is the most popular software, I think, though I used Vellum. (Alternatively, you could export into epub and paperback with Scrivener. Also, I think D2D can actually format it for you but I'm not sure.)

Yes, I'm aware this is quite a bit of upfront costs. It's a lot like starting a business. ABM was very much a passion project for me, so I accepted I would lose some money, but I've actually made my money back by a literal miracle ahsjkddsf I'm very thankful, but I'm definitely really lucky. This is a big risk! Financially and emotionally, so please keep that in mind.

By far, my biggest advice is to build relationships with other indie authors and indie readers. This is a really supportive space! We love to boost each other!! If you have more questions, don't hesitate to slide into my DMs tbh! I know I'm very busy but I can try to help or direct you to someone smarter than me :')

[ramblersaccount]

18

In 2020, like much of the world, I experienced a lot of change. However, it felt somewhat less disruptive for me personally than for many others. Yes, the global pandemic turned our world upside down in a matter of days, but it was also the year I turned 18 and was supposed to transition into a young adult – Aaliah, version 2.0, with newfound independence and cooler vibes. I had anticipated a grand transformation in the way people perceived and treated me. I imagined myself becoming more sociable, attending parties, and embracing a more carefree lifestyle, no longer reliant on my parents for permission. Well, as it turned out, that's not quite how things played out. *Cue the sad trombone*

But that's perfectly okay; I could undertake the "Aaliah transformation" right from the comfort of my own home. TikTok had already gained considerable popularity as a social media platform before the pandemic, and I had recently created an account. The platform was rampant with self-proclaimed "self-care" gurus offering advice on how to take care of yourself during lockdown. They covered everything from skincare routines and dietary tips to picking up new hobbies. These content creators were there to both entertain and educate the masses. I found myself saving videos on the best recipes for weight loss, effective at-home skincare remedies, and guides on discovering my personal "aesthetic." Before I knew it, I was comparing myself to the people I saw on the app, wondering why I couldn't look more like them. Unfortunately, this remains a habit I struggle with to this day.

At that time, I weighed 115 pounds and really only had one proper meal a day. Even before the pandemic, I rarely had breakfast or dinner but would grab a sandwich or a snack after school and before my sports practices. Now that I was spending my entire day at home, my eating habits started to change, and I developed a fear of becoming "too big." I was a self-conscious teenager, plagued by worries about whether I was good enough.

My school was relatively small and predominantly Hispanic. In my grade, I could only recall about seven Black students, with me and one of the boys having the darkest skin tones. I also had a bit of a tomboyish style. This combination of factors made me feel somewhat less attractive than my peers. Additionally, I sometimes felt as though I was pigeonholed into the category of the "angry dark-skinned social justice warrior." 

I had never been in a relationship, and it seemed like no one had ever shown genuine interest in me, so I felt the need to reinvent myself. Despite my best efforts, I began gaining weight, and to my surprise, I actually liked it. I had always had curves, but now they were more pronounced, making me appear older and healthier, and I thought it suited me. I started experimenting with makeup and trying out new hairstyles and clothing, and I had mixed feelings about the whole process. Each new style I tried seemed to meet with resistance from my parents, making me feel like nothing ever looked quite right on me.

My excitement soared when I received acceptance to Lincoln University. Located in Pennsylvania, it meant I would be on my own, and being an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) meant I'd finally get to experience being around more Black people than I ever had in my previous schools, truly immersing myself in American Black culture. I knew I'd never fully grasp it, coming from a West Indian household, but I was thrilled to be around people who looked like me.

When I moved into my dorm, the pandemic was still ongoing, so we had to quarantine for about a week. But after that initial period, college life began to unfold just as I had envisioned, at least for the first week. I hung out with a random group of people initially, only to never talk to them again, as it turned out. However, I embraced the clothing I wanted to wear and felt confident, albeit with a sense of artificial confidence. Strangely, every time I stepped out of my room, I felt a subtle tightness in my chest. Were my hand movements awkward? Why did I make eye contact with that person? They probably think I look out of place. These thoughts weighed on me with every step I took.

In time, I found myself leaving my room only to eat and occasionally get some fresh air. Surprisingly my anxiety about people had nothing to do with COVID and everything to do with my self-esteem. Luckily my room never felt like a prison; it was simply my sanctuary. I oddly never felt lonely, even though I spent most of my time by myself. I would read, watch TikToks, practice my dancing, paint, and do anything I wanted. I even tried out new recipes using a little toaster I definitely wasn't supposed to have. I felt free and content in my self-imposed solitude.

The only thing missing was my family, the food I loved, and the familiarity of my city. Lincoln was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farms. There were only fake Italian restaurants and Domino's for dining options. The cafeteria's ethnic food could only hold me over for so long. I missed my mom's pelau and the ability to buy doubles. I longed for visits to the deli and taking the train. Living by myself made me happy, but I wished I could do it back home. 

Reflecting on it now, I regret missing out on the opportunity to socialize, but I am grateful for the time I had to be with myself. In hindsight, I see that it was essential for my personal growth. During that time alone, I discovered a deeper understanding of myself and learned to appreciate the journey of self-discovery. In moments of self-reflection and solitude, we often uncover our true selves, which can grow and flourish as we become more self-aware. Life's paradox is that while we seek connections with others, we must also connect with our inner selves. This inner journey helps us become more complete and better at forming meaningful connections with the world. 

[colors927]

i hate that since tiktok became popular, so many people now think that “healing your inner child” means the over consumption of toys.

i understand allowing yourself to buy a toy here or there. but i literally hate that basically no matter what corner of tiktok you’re on, they’re talking about how you just need to buy this or that, usually preying on vulnerable people who are desperate to feel better about some aspect of their lives.

I’m always so so grateful tiktok became popular when i was a little bit older, because i promise you tiktok would have absolutely rotted my brain as a teenager, more than tumblr did because tiktok is definitely worse and is definitely different from tumblr.

it was already a bit of a struggle living through the height of instagram, youtube and facebook in my teenage years and early 20’s. and i did get manipulated into buying things i didn’t need because i was trying to feel better.

but i also see grown-ass adults being subjected to the manipulation of tiktok videos. it’s not just young people who are being harmed by it. although obviously with younger people i pray it doesn’t make a lasting negative impact on them since their brains are still developing.

it just really all bums me out to think about.

i enjoyed tiktok quite a lot when it first was becoming popular in 2019 through part of 2021. but the longer i was on there i just saw what a terrible place it is to be and i stopped using it.

i can’t even fully wrap my head around how bad tiktok is, because it’s so so bad on there. not in every corner, but way way way too many.

[potsie-reader]

1. 45 so far

2. TFIOS and The Lightening Thief

3. In no particular order: Crying in H Mart, The Cruel Prince, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Legendborn, Under the Whispering Door

4. RF Kuang, Celeste Ng, Michelle Zauner

5. Fantasy I think

6. So many books lol.

7. I think it’s around 4 and I’d say it’s pretty accurate.

8. I surpassed my goal of reading 30 books and definitely branched out more genre-wise. I read more non-fiction/memoirs and it’s become one of my favorite genres.

9. Lol see last answer

10. I don’t read many new releases. I’d say Babel though.

11. I loved Little Fires Everywhere

12. Norwegian Wood and Vicious

13. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

14. Dial A for Aunties, Six Crimson Cranes, Hand on the Wall

15. I don’t really pay attention to awards.

16. It Ends With Us

17. Educated by Tara Westover

18. No clue. I borrow most of what I read from the library, but when I do buy books it’s usually from thrift shops or used bookstores. I’d say 10-20

19. All the time. I love my library

20. Bloodmarked was my most anticipated read but I haven’t read it yet. Hopefully soon though.

21. I didn’t participate but I saw some of it on YouTube, Tiktok, and twitter.

22. Anna Karenina

23. Probably a couple of hours or less, I read a couple graphic novels.

24. I DNF-ed Eleanor Oliphant and quite a few others that I can’t remember right now lol.

25. I want to try to find books at the library that look interesting to me that weren’t recommended to me online. Preferably something that isn’t popular.

end-of-year book ask

How many books did you read this year?

Did you reread anything? What?

What were your top five books of the year?

Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

What genre did you read the most of?

Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

What was your average Goodreads rating? Does it seem accurate?

Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

Did you get into any new genres?

What was your favorite new release of the year?

What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

Any books that disappointed you?

What were your least favorite books of the year?

What books do you want to finish before the year is over?

Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?

What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

How many books did you buy?

Did you use your library?

What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

What’s the longest book you read?

What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

Did you DNF anything? Why?

What reading goals do you have for next year?

[survey--s]

664.

Have you had more hot or cold drinks today? An equal number of both - two coffees, a glass of juice and a Pepsi.

What's a name you like that's similar to yours? Nicole.

Where did you get the last plate/bowl you ate with from? Uh, it's from ASDA I think.

How's your mental health today? Pretty great because it's the weekend.

What bands and artists did you listen to when you were a teenager? Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Panic! At The Disco, Funeral for a Friend, Hawthorne Heights - then I did a total 180 and started listening to stuff like Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley, Nerina Pallot and Imogen Heap.

Do your feelings get hurt easily? Not really.

What sort of restaurant did you last eat at? It's a vegetarian/Italian place.

Do you have a friend who's always sending you TikTok videos? Do you actually watch them? Yeah, they're always cat, beagle or horse related lol. I do watch them for the most part, but they're normally ones I've already seen.

Have you ever seen a cougar in the wild? No, but I remember staying at a resort in Canada that had hiking trails and there were loads of warning signs about what to do if you saw a Cougar.

Will you attend a wedding in the next 3 months? No.

Are you good at following instructions? It depends, but generally yes.

What's your backyard or outdoor area like? It's fine - the walls need painting and I want to get it cat-proofed at some point too.

Do you like your boss? (or your last boss if you don't currently have one) I work for myself. I liked my previous boss on a personal level - he was a lovely person but an absolutely awful manager. He had clear favourites and was way too easily influenced by wanting to be popular.

When was the last time you took a selfie? I took one with the cat last week lol.

What did you have for breakfast yesterday? Peanut butter and banana on toast, coffee, fruit juice.

What do you do to entertain yourself on a long flight or journey? I use the in-flight entertainment mostly. If I'm on a train I'd just use the WiFI to mess about. In cars I mostly sleep or talk to the driver.

Where are you right now? On the sofa under a cosy blanket, watching Harry Potter.

Have you ever done a hearing test? No, I don't think so.

Do you hate small talk? It depends. I'm happy to chat to people I meet walking the dogs or something but I hate small talk in shops.

What's the hottest temperature your current town/city has ever had? I have no idea, probably mid-thirties? It got to about 33 or something last summer, anyway.

What programs/applications do you currently have open on the device you're using right now? Just Chrome.

How many steps per day do you do, generally? On work days, around 18k. On weekends, maybe 200 lol.

Have you had any snacks today? Yeah, I had an apple with peanut butter and some crisps.

Did you have any exchange students at your high school or university and did you become friends with them? Yeah, we had loads at school. I was friends with a few of them - they were mostly from Germany or Hong Kong. One of the girls from Hong Kong used to stay and have sleepovers with us quite a lot.

What's the next thing you'll tick off your to-do list? I have nothng that really needs doing today? Oh, I guess giving the dog his medication as there'll be fireworks this evening.

Have you ever had a chia pet? I have no idea what that is.

What's your favourite sandwich filling? Prawn mayonnaise, or brie, grape and cranberry. A good old bacon or sausage sandwich is nice too.

Do you have any nieces or nephews? Not biological ones.

What was the last reason you saw a doctor? To get a sick note from work.

Do you use light mode or dark mode on your phone? Dark. Light mode looks really weird to me now.

[c-h-stevens]

There's nothing there 👆 yet. But then I remembered photography counts as art...

Some thoughts:

I really hope this takes off for good, if only so that there's a place to push back against privacy invasions and AI. It also looks better than other grassroots social media efforts like Cohost and Pillowfort, and even Bluesky (which is an OG Twitter clone, and I didn't really like the OG Twitter).

Social media starts becoming unusable when some awful big corp buys it. That's what happened with Tumblr and Yahoo, Instagram and Meta, and... well, I hated Twitter before Musk X-fied it, but the current version is much worse. As long as Cara stays under current management, it has good chances of remaining at least decent.

I'm hopeful writers can find a place in this app, too. After all, Instagram and Tiktok weren't catering to writers either. Cara at least allows for text-only posts, and its character limit is far more generous than Twitter's. I can post my whole blurb, including content warnings, and have plenty of roo left. I can post substantial snippets and not worry about having them AI-fied! The potential is there, is what I'm saying.

The real question is whether readers will be jumping ship. I partly made that account because I think the more active the app is, the more likely people are to flock to it as they get sick of the current ones. That's how it always happens, ever since the days of MySpace and LiveJournal. Something becomes the last straw for a bunch of people, they start looking for alternatives, the only ones are meh, they go back to the OG because that's where everyone is, something else beomes the last last straw, and oh look, this app is getting popular so we might as well set up camp there. Right now social media looks to be in a similar place.

A few observations more: I've seen quite a bit of variety in artforms (besides photography, I've seen sculpture, bookbinding and embroidery) and a few posters in languages other than English. So the userbase is already diversifying. I also like that they're planning to allow NSFW art in the future, if only because that means they're probably not going to be ridiculous with the censorship--I'd like to be able to say kill without worrying about being sent to post dungeon, thank you very much.

I don't want to sound like the app is perfect (though it's still on beta so there's that) but I haven't tried it long enough to find many complaints. There's quite a few bots spamming all over the place, though that's probably inevitable at this point.

By the way, I saw a trending post asking for people interested in storytelling, I commented saying I'm mostly a writer escaping the AI onslaught, and got a couple of comments chiming in in agreement. Interesting...

If you've been on the fence about joining this new app called Cara, I've been on it for about a week and today I'm unpacking everything!

The reason behind why it exists,

Why you should care about AI and data protection

How the Cara app works

Why I LOVE the way the Cara app works

Some ideas for how you can take advantage of this opportunity, even if you're not a visual artist

Read the post to get all the details! It's way too much to fit in one Tumblr post!

[sisididis]

@electric-onion tagged me to post my top 4 Spotify tracks (I don’t use Spotify so I hope it’s ok if I share my 4 most-listened-to songs.)

Here they are : )

I’m tagging @friendlyneighbourhoodromanian @no-passaran and @bunny-banana 🥰