#I’m gonna keep the original bc it’s hilarious

[haveyouusedthispokemon]

not allowed to not have used scatterbug. mandatory scatterbug.

[incorrectpinescone]

Wirt: “Dipper, why does it take you an hour to wash your hair?”

Dipper: “Mabel, PowerPoint.”

Wirt: “…What is happening right now?”

Mabel, after she set up her PowerPoint: “You got your pre-shampoo-“

Wirt: “You’re…You’re what?”

Mabel: “Pay attention. All questions will be answered after the presentation. Now, you got your pre-shampoo. Twenty minutes. Actual shampoo and conditioner, in the shower. However long that takes. But, you have to let the conditioner sit in your hair. And if you have curly hair like us, you’re showering with cold water. Then, you have your leave-in conditioner-“

Wirt: “How is a leave-in conditioner different than-“

Mabel: “FOCUS! So, you got your leave-in conditioner. Then, you have to decide if you want to towel-dry or air dry. If you towel dry, you’ll use some curl cream. And you can’t forget about the hair oil…”

[ferallester]

okay so I didn’t have the motivation to do Appreciation Week at first, but seeing @yonpote do it all in one day has inspired me so let’s do it! (but with screenshots and stuff bc Yeah LMAO)

for @dpgdaily’s Dan and Phil Appreciation Week!

post is under a break so that it doesn’t just break tumblr

Day 1 - Favourite Dan and/or Phil quote:

the entire opening from the pinof 7 bloopers is hilarious but by far one of my favourite quotes (one that has continually haunted me since 2016, when I watched it for the first time) is:

D: Stand still!

P: Stencil!

D: … I’m gonna hit you. [laughs] Shut up!

I quote this weirdly often in my fics. In fact, I’m pretty sure two of my recent published fics use it as a reference. I didn’t realise until now that I was partially misquoting it XD

I also can’t not mention, from Basically I’m Gay (the entire part from when Dan starts talking about Phil is linked, quote starts about twenty seconds later):

D: We are real best friends, companions through life, like actual soulmates […]

maybe he was trying to be ironic, but there’s something intensely poetic about his body language when he describes them as actual soulmates

I’m obsessed with it, but in like the way people don’t shut up about Pride and Prejudice, maybe, idk I’m just bisexual and hoping that I get half as lucky as the boys have

there are many more moments tbh I could say LMAO

Day 2 - Favourite Dan and Phil Series:

OUGHHHHH THIS ONE IS ACTUALLY REALLY DIFFICULT—

what is now called Season 1 of the Sims 4 and the Undertale playthrough are VERY close contenders, but I think my favourite series is actually the DITLs! (there’s no playlist for this one rip)

you can easily split them into two or three sections (depending on if you count any of The Making Of videos for TABINOF, the calendars, or the prep for II as DITLs), and each section has something wonderful to enjoy!

the ‘local’ DITLs (Manchester and London) are incredibly domestic, with the boys just going about a semi-typical day, and the Festive DITL honestly just turns that up to a hundred, I love the domestic ones so much

the ‘holiday’ ones too (Japan and Australia) are also super fun, because we get to see the boys doing silly touristy things like holding koalas or hanging around one of the busiest intersections in Tokyo (I also keep hearing conspiracies about the Australian one LMAO)

the ‘making of’ videos are their own unique source of slice-of-life entertainment, because They’re Getting Important Stuff Done but they’re making it entertaining for us too

my favourites are the original DITL and Festive DITL <3

Day 3 - Favourite Dan and/or Phil Outfit:

used @phanoutfitsblog’s screenshots for most of these, with the exception of Dan’s initial look in the baking video (also I’d be lying if I said that Sister Daniel wasn’t high up on this list hhhh)

can Phil stop being pretty for FIVE MINUTES JEEZ— it’s actually incredibly difficult to pin down favourite outfits for him bc he just. Keeps. On. WINNING.

his red shirt in the red carpet roasting video is probably the most iconic so far but it could really have been literally any other outfit he’s worn in the last several years

and Dan’s no slouch, either! this man is gorgeous and he ROCKS it! he wore this particular shirt (?) to an interview (or at least it was framed like one) and he looks INCREDIBLE in it but I can’t remember where I found the other screenshot so I won’t post it lmao

his initial appearance in the Halloween baking video before he changes into Sister Daniel is also equally pretty bc of the makeup and honestly? gimme your gender Howell

other honourable mentions include a recent magazine shoot that I’ve forgotten the name of (some phan I am LMAO, shame on me for only remembering the pink), and his dystopia motorcycle twink shirt from the red carpet video

Day 4 - Favourite Joint Content

oooh, difficult question, that’s like choosing a favourite child! still, the answer to this one is a lot simpler than Day 5 below, because it’s the original PINOF, as well as the photobooth challenge!

while PINOF wasn’t my initial introduction to the boys (that goes to the Sims 4), it’s one of the earliest things I watched of them, and almost certainly what got me to stick with them! (along with the Sims 4… LMAO)

Dan says he was being ironic when he said ‘this is the most fun I’ve ever had, and maybe it’s the tism kicking in, but he doesn’t sound sarcastic or ironic when he says that

it’s pretty clear from the get go that they’re two boys (boys in love, even) making a silly video, having absolutely zero idea that it’s going to change the world <3

the pb challenge, meanwhile, is just incredibly funny, I remember almost hurting myself from laughing so hard the first time I watched it XD it hasn’t aged perfectly, but that’s most things from ten years ago

the honourable mentions list is VERY long so I won’t put all of them here LMAO, but the Get Down video is one of them XD

Day 5- Favourite DanAndPhilGames video

oooh, another difficult question, here, because more often than not, the answer is yes! I could say the Halloween baking video one day, and the Katamari video the next, and one of the Sims 4 building videos because I’m a sucker for renovations (also, the GAY WEDDING and the RETURN in general!), and honestly there’s so many videos I’ve forgotten over the years (LOVE NIKKI!) but I think I’m gonna say the finale of Undertale!

it makes me cry every time I rewatch the series, and it’s such a beautiful story, and yeah I’m a mess just thinking about it, because the fact that they chose to be pacifists from the get go is one of the genuinely sweetest things I can think of

Day 6 - Favourite Solo Video(s)

oh no I don’t actually know how to fully answer for Dan, but at a guess… yeah who am I kidding, it’s BIG and We’re All Doomed! :D (yes I know WAD! isn’t a video (yet, hopefully) but it overrides literally everything else bc I loved that night so much)

BIG, as a queer person, is just honestly so incredibly important to me, because being able to listen to other queer people — very successful ones, too — and how they’ve struggled in ways I’ve been fortunate to have never suffered, and how they overcame it all, and are still dealing with it to this day? yeah I’m still so proud of Dan for it all, he deserves the life he’s made for himself <3

WAD is in a similar vein to this, but with the addition of me being able to actually MEET Dan and then watch him on STAGE as he did his comedy show! I made him laugh with a joke about Australian summer being hell, and that’s probably one of the best things that has ever happened to me <3

honourable mention goes to his Keep On Movin’ video, bc that’s just damn impressive

Phil, meanwhile… I have so many videos to choose from, and while Coming Out To You carries the same importance as BIG, if not more since I watch it more (I love them equally, but COTY is only eight minutes long okay), I am actually struggling to choose a favourite outside of it!

mostly because all my favourite Phil videos… are joint content videos!

that being said, his fourth ACNH video is incredibly sweet, and I think I might go rewatch the series!

also his house review videos (the apartment one and the expensive house one) are pretty iconic

AND the sleepless night series— can you see why I’m struggling? :’D

Day 7 - What do Dan and Phil mean to you?

(oh god I am so sorry for this monster)

I don’t remember 2016 being a particularly rough year for me, despite the many star-studded losses (rip Anton Yelchin especially), and maybe it would’ve been that way even if I hadn’t found Dan and Phil, but finding them at what could be considered their initial peak of fame was probably one of the best things that could have happened to me, because I was just a year into my experiences with internet fandom, and what better way to do that than get yeeted into the chaotic world of two British dorks on the net that everyone and their cat shipped?

I may have missed out on the radio shows, sure, and I missed out on pretty much every YouNow and Rize show and whatnot because I’m a goose, but I came into the fandom just in time to see TATINOF live, even though I couldn’t get a meet and greet ;w; one day I’ll catch Phil

I distinctly remember being at the Gold Coast Eisteddfod, which was an hour south of Brisbane, on the same night as TATINOF, and absolutely booking it back with my mum to Brisbane, stressing the entire way even as we got McDonalds and I got changed out of what was either my school uniform or my performance uniform (I can’t remember) into something more normal for a night at QPAC

and yet, once I was there, I had probably one of the best nights of my life, because TATINOF, in my opinion, is the best thing the boys have ever done on stages (II and WAD! are very close tho don’t get me wrong)

someone helped me draw cat whiskers on my face, I remember chatting happily to other phannies around me (what about, I have long forgotten), and I remember how loud it was, and how much I didn’t mind that, for the first time in my life

I bought more merch at II and WAD!, because I was either given more money or I actually had money to spend since I got my job by WAD!, but, even when disappointed by the fact that I couldn’t afford much, I have cherished my TATINOF lanyard since that fateful night in August 2015, because it symbolises just how much I love the two gay dorks who are now two of my biggest queer role models

the fact that they chose us over fame and fortune in the entertainment industry? I’m so grateful for that, because it means, even though we gave them utter hell (I wasn’t quite one of them, but I probably did a few minor demon things as a teen LMAO), they cared, and still care, about us, the audience

this is getting SO long and waffly, oh my GOD, this is why my current fic is eleven k long already, uhhhh tl;dr they’re weird and queer (affectionate), I’m weird and queer, and I am so glad I found them, because having them in my life is one of the best things that’s ever happened to me, down to graduating from high school and university and having their videos to watch <3

okay that’s enough sappiness this took me like three or four hours love y’all <3

thanks @dpgdaily for hosting!!!!

[mythicalmagical-monkeyman]

@murkystarlight yeag!!! Ofc ofc

(Original fic where this comes from here :3)

i’m gonna let this be it’s own post tho just bc i wanna be able to edit it and stuff, yk

Anyways, yeah, so the tree name was just from me being sleep deprived and finding it hilarious if they gave the tree a stupid name so I mixed a bunch of words together and slapped them in there and called it a day

*cough*

anyways, Cooper’s hands! Yes, I’m assuming you’re asking why they’re cybernetic so

yeah so Ex is my headcanon au and I was watching the season 2 final and then it got to that part where Never Witch just throws Cooper off her Raven-Island but then later we find out he managed to re-grab hold of the Raven and climb back up

so i got thinking, hey… we like bulling this kid, so how can we make this worse? And we’ve already seen a few movies where when hero tries to save themselves by grabbing on to the edge of something they dislocate their shoulder so we thought, why not apply that to Cooper? so in Ex when Cooper gets flung from the Raven-Island, he dislocated his shoulder when he grabbed back on to the Raven so he wouldn’t fall into the void. But also because of sharp rocks and stuff he kinda tore up his hands so to fix them Cooper dream crafted them into cybernetic replacements to give them a quick “heal”

unfortunately untreated dislocated appendages can sometimes lead to some issues;

So he’s kinda just been keeping them that way for added stability and protection because his hands get messed with/injured a bit

hope … that answer does things justice lol

[mando-abs]

Preface: I am an 18+ blog, so minors don’t interact and keep scrolling

I know I was gonna do notes for the new Percy Jackson book, but in true Percy Jackson ADHD fashion, I stopped like a third of the way in bc it started feeling like a chore. And now I’m making this post days after finishing it 🤷🏻

But congratulations Rick Riordan on once again attracting his target reader audience

It was really good tho. If I wasn’t so bone tired lately, I would’ve finished it two days, but it took me like four lol. So if you have problems focusing on reading for long periods of time, this book is phenomenal (granted, I read oodles of college level books last year for my degree so middle grade is like a walk in the park but…my point still stands). This book is lower stakes than the original series, but if you love Percy as much as I do, this is great 😅😅 GIVE THAT BOY A BREAK

I’ll post a few spoilers below if you’re curious and nosey on what happens but don’t want to read the book. I encourage you to look up the general synopsis tho bc I’m not gonna write about that. This is gonna be my highlights.

Poseidon is a crocs and socks guy and I couldn’t be more happy. This is my biggest highlight. I’m not joking. Like of course he is. He’s also building an infinity pool in his underwater summer getaway which is just great. He’s trying to build a relationship ship with Percy so that’s great. Percy seems to be chill with that but he knows Poseidon’s gotta work for it.

Zeus being the reason why Percy’s gotta get 3 letters of recommendation. And why his first and only kite as a kid was struck down 😭😭😭

The existence of the restaurant Himbo Juice in this book surely means that Rick is aware of the femboy Hooters meme. Like I feel it in my nuggets

Percy and Annabeth sure are Percabeth-ing in this book and it gives me life. Like I can’t pinpoint an exact moment bc it’s everywhere.

I looooooove how Ganymede is painted as a victim of grooming in this book. Bc of course. And I looooove how Iris sympathizes with him bc she understands his situation and knows how he got an even worse deal than she did in his position. It’s also interesting how Riordan hops around this within the confines of middle grade fiction.

Also Ganymede feeling obligated to fill and top off everyone’s cups (demigod or not) was a nice touch

Iris has a demigod child that only loves monochrome and it’s killing her. Amazing

Sally Jackson is living her best life with Paul and is now a published author. AND SHE’S PREGNANT 😆😆😆😆😆😆 AND PERCY IS EXCITED TO BE A BIG BROTHER 😆😆😆😆😆😆😆 oh I love it. Honestly, I could have a book just on that with him doing big brother babysitting.

Hebe has a Chuck E Cheese establishment called Hebe Jeebies where people can become younger as they play games and eat cardboard pizza. And she has killer chickens that will eat your flesh and conduct chicken fights. ALSO THE MAIN CUSTOMERS BEING BOOMERS BC THEY CANT GROW UP IS HILARIOUS. Burn.

When the trio was turned 8 temporarily, Percy was so anxious bc childhood trauma obvi. But Percy going “I don’t want to go through growing up again. I won’t. I’m so scared,” was owie.

In fact, Percy being so anxious he pressure washed (pressure bombed?) a cave is relatable. If every time I had a panic attack I became a pressure washer, my neighborhood street would be so clean.

The god of old age (whose name escapes me) being the one who stole the chalice made a lot of sense. AND PERCY EMBRACED HIM INSTEAD OF FIGHTING HIM BC HE WILL BE FIGHTING OLD AGE HIS WHOLE LIFE AND HE WANTS TO GROW OLD😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 I was tearing up. I think this was really targeted toward the young adult/approaching middle age audience. Damn you Riordan

Percy broke into Zeus’ chamber in Olympus to return the chalice and the only god to notice him was Athena!!!!!! They literally went “👁️👄👁️ 👀” She’s more tolerant of Percy being Athena’s boyfriend now!!! It’s gettin serious

Hmmmmmmmm

That’s all I have to say about that

[winderlylandchime]

Hello! The brother anon here again, now the reason why I was late with these reports is because i had to take my brother to the er (he’s okay! He’s just dumb) because this moron ruptured his stitches when he jumped off the couch while watching the last episode. We didn’t realize it at that point until much later when he came into my room and said ‘hey, don’t get mad and promise you wont tell mom but something totally not cool happened’ and that’s when he showed his bandages. So he is now being forced to stay overnight at the hospital just in case since (i wish this was a joke) ‘he is not to be trusted.’ Again: he is completely fine and was making jokes and and the nurses find him funny, so he has that going for him, i guess. And while he laying down, the doctor said to me ‘okay so you can go home’ and my brother tried to get up and the doctor pushed him down with his arm and went ‘not you. We talked about this a minute ago’ and this morons reply was ‘i was hoping you forgot’ so more will come in like a day or so. He did make me pinky promise him that I will not watch it without him and that I will not tell mom about this (he said nothing about bunch of random people tho). Oh and before that he did ask if he can watch it on his phone but i had to break the news that the music is different and he was stressed! And before i left he did ask about the nurse from earlier today that told him he watched qaf when it aired ‘bc he needs someone to talk to since he’s being held hostage’ (the nurse is off until monday thank god) to which the doctor went ‘(brothers name) you arent being held hostage but you are my only patient that is above 10 that I have to keep extra eye on bc you cant be still for 5 minutes.’ So all in all today was a success and he is fine but since he’s a child in a grown man, he has to stay there until hopefully just tomorrow. And I’m gonna be honest as his sister, i find this all hilarious and give you all permission to laugh at his stupidity. Now at least your inbox will be normal for a day or two :)

Dear sweet anon and anon's brother. I have literal tears streaming down my face. HE TORE HIS STITCHES FROM WATCHING QUEER AS FOLK?!!? I am dying and also it is highly relatable.

Thank you for gatekeeping and making sure he is only watching with original soundtrack because otherwise it is a travesty and we refuse to discuss it.

I love the idea of him making you promise to not watch it without him... he knows you've seen it before, right? And will watch again and again?

Well, later when you tell him how random strangers on the internet got a live blogging experience of his reactions to watching QAF, you can tell him we were all sending him lots of well wishes when he... ripped his stitches out in emotional displays about our favorite ship.

[realife-mermaid]

okay this is here for me (but if you want to ask about a character you can 🥺👉🏼👈🏼), i’m trying to keep track of the stuff i’ve put in my tags bc some of it actually Is there for more than aesthetic reasons haha so i’m gonna keep track of the names i’ve tagged on here and also simplifying to just “c: character name” so i fucking remember how i tag everyone akskd

regular text means it’s been changed, red means it hasn’t been and it’s still floating in the ether

TAMINA AND THE TERRIBLE HORRIBLE NO GOOD VERY BAD DAY -> i think i'm just tagging literally everything that goes in my "main" universe as "the poisoned obsidian" instead of doing separate tags for separate stories within it because i never remember my own tags and there's so much crossover between characters.

MAIN POISONED OBSIDIAN CHARACTERS

c: tahmina vasquez

c: charles donnelly

c: matthias - this bitch needs a last name or an epithet or something damn

c: nia thorne - i don't think i have her on here by another name but

c: beck vida

c: evangeline de la heina

c: marty vida

c: isadora da rosa

c: leo vida

c: lilith - may tag her by a different name, settling on "nokomis all-mother" but i DO worry this falls into cultural weirdness (it is generally an igbo or ojibwe name and she is not either? but she also didn't like, name herself, and EYE am indigenous so. i'm still debating).

c: xan the scourge

c: morgwaine - also getting a last name or epithet

c: nyx the eternal

c: iggy the bloody - the way i have tagged her like 50 different things lmao

c: kephas the wanderer; c: peter the old bear (i'm gonna choose a different animal, haven't decided yet)

c: captain irayz santos

c: nicos blue

c: einar nemean - the thing is i'm thinking of combining him with nicos so he's floating free for now

c: inara khoji - her name was originally "indira" but that was always a placeholder name. did a lil more research and settled on inara.

c: reagan the redeemer

c: veruca lightseeker

c: elyse nightbridge

c: valentin of the light

i'm missing most of the witchmark characters here so althea, del, ynez, etc etc if you see anything entitled "generic fantasy universe" or "witches caused climate change" I'LL GET THERE

HISTORICAL POISONED OBSIDIAN CHARACTERS

c: sigthorn - i'm adding an epithet to the group he lives with, the way i do the obsidian isle but i'm unsure of what to call it. i was calling it the "iron atoll" until i realized i was just jacking the iron islands from asoiaf lmao (absolutely no relation to the greyjoys tho)

c: ivar

c: isabella de la heina

c: nicolias - needs an epithet, probably the same as sigthorn's

c: micah blood-eye

NO GAYS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS NOVEL -> also poisoned obsidian but these bitches need epithets so no one has been changed yet

c: lieke

c: luka

c: aneurin

MY BEST FRIEND DIED AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS STUPID T-SHIRT -> the title of the book is not changing because i think it's hilarious but it turned into a whole series (the medical/romance one) so it's being tagged as "recovering romantics anonymous" to shift the focus onto the support group the main characters all go to.

c: thalia massi (might change last name, undecided)

c: alec ruiz dubois

c: gabriella ruiz dubois

c: mary stevens ochoa

c: rocio acosta

c: cheyenne lipnicki

c: alva karla alvarez

c: hadley alvarez

BORDERTOWN BLUES -> this is not changing, just the character tagging is different now so its-

c: Lani Kealoha Lange

c: KJ Toussey

c: Key Toussey

[itacestians-unite]

a playlist (and some AU rambling)

soo i shared some songs a month or two ago for the college au i’m working on, but about a week and a half ago, i compiled a little google doc of songs i think quite fit the vibe i’m going for in this fic and i thought i’d share it!

link

still working out some of the details (which is difficult since i haven’t written multi-chapter fiction since i was 12 💀) but basically, feliciano is an astronomy major (also art minor) and lovino is an architecture major and also feli has a heart condition

*i pause to check my notes*

coronary artery disease (yeah researching this has been fun /not)

and i’m still working a bit on the character arcs (especially lovino’s since he doesn’t have a disease as a big portion of his arc). i keep switching ideas between feli and lovino for what i want their arcs to be like. like, first feli had some commitment issues but then i totally changed my mind and gave them to lovino instead and now i’m not even sure how it’s gonna end up.��

this fic was initially inspired by the song bishounen by hikaru station! i love using music as fic inspo. the fic has changed a bit since then since originally it was just gonna be a oneshot. soft. cute. a bit sad. feli was gonna be like, a soft flirt originally towards lovino. space is also a theme throughout the story bc of the song + feli being an astronomy major duh.

i wrote the first three chapters back in april of 2022 but haven’t gotten much done since then and i’m probably gonna rewrite it all.

it’s just like... a slow burn strangers to friends to lovers with fluff and Angst bc i fear relationship conflict so writing about it is so... profound. they’re not siblings in this ofc.

my other favorite character is francis. he’s a theater major b/c my friend who’s a france kin is into theater and his dialogue is SO fun to write. actually so is lovino’s. literally my favorite scene is an exchange between lovino and francis arguing about something (they’re roommates). they’re hilarious i love them

the other big roadblock i had was i want the fic to have a sort of... soft whimsical vibe in the prose bc of the song i based it off of but lovino makes this INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT OH MY GOD so i’m working out how to make the prose in lovino’s POV more soft without feeling ooc. the voice i had going just made me go Blah and give up for a while.

i’ll maybe share more at some point! i’m just shy about it 😳 i even have a pinterest board for this au thats how much i love it.

[winchesternova-k]

just realised that now i don’t have the excuse of researching this next scene i’ve been procrastinating writing it a bit bc i’m worried abt getting it wrong fvgfvg

[baoshan-sanren]

Hi...how are you? If you don't mind me asking what is your top 5 fav danmei novels (until now)? And why? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....

jfhdkhgfdjhdjks I JUST finished Peerless so that’s going first on my list bc I am weak and I WANT MORE

Peerless (无双) by Meng Xi Shi - (jjwxc link) (chapters 1-187) (extras 1-4) (not explicit) I am fckn IN LOVE with this novel. Feng Xiao and Cui Buqu are the most brilliant fucking morons I’ve ever met in my life. This is a slow build of all the slow builds, murder, intrigue, so much stupidity, court dramas, martial arts fights, levels of arrogance that would make even Yan Wushi shake his head (who does show up in a tiny little cameo in one of the chapters). The book is split up in five arcs that allow for a pause in between, if you find 190+ chapters to be too much for a continuous read through, but I would have flown through them in a space of a few days, if life hadn’t turned upside down on me. Now that I’m finally done, I miss these morons more than I’ve ever missed two fictional characters. This novel will def end up in my top five for a long time.

The Wife is First (妻为上) by Lu Ye Qian He - (jjwxc link) (chapters 1-5) (chapters 6-85 ongoing) (explicit) This is still, by far, the most feel-good danmei I’ve ever read. Jing Shao dies, then gets to relive his life all over again from the night of his wedding to Jun Qing. The beginning may be rough for some readers bc Jing Shao, despite getting another chance at life, has nonetheless arrived too late to prevent his first offense against the man he married (can you hear me screaming about hurt/comfort!). But from that point on, he is determined to do things differently, so the story that had been one of misery in his previous life, turns into one of love and devotion (and some very satisfying court scheming) in this one. It is an extremely satisfying read, and the relationship between the two mains, despite its rough start, is so goddamn lovely, I can’t recommend it enough. 

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (人渣反派自救系统) by Mò Xiāng Tóngxiù - (physical novel purchase link) (chapters 1-80) (extras 80-98) (chapters 1-53 ongoing) (explicit) Yeah, this is my baby. I’ll admit off the bat I’ve read svsss at least ten times, which is five times more than either tgcf or mdzs. It’s hilarious, frustrating, insightful, feral, infuriating, and pretty fucking amazing, all at once, and all of it overlapping. I’ve written essays upon essays about mxtx’s creative choices in this novel, most of which will never see the light of day. This damn thing is so ridiculously rough on the surface, but svsss, for me, is like a damn onion, and every time I read it, I peel more layers off and find something else new underneath. I fucking love this damn novel, and you will only pry it from my cold dead hands. 

Lord Seventh (七爷) by Priest - (jjwxc link) (chapters 1-5) (chapters 6-7) (chapters 8-32) (chapters 33-76) (extras 1-3) (semi-explicit?) It’s kind of a crime that this is the only Priest novel on this list, but if I can only list five, I’m gonna try and not double up on authors. Highly, highly, recommend this, especially to people who plan to read Faraway Wanderers. Zhou ZiShu’s background doesn’t take up a large part of the story, but the environment in which he thrived at court tells you much more about him as a person than the first fifty chapters of tyk do (and in much more stark terms). Jing Beiyuan is an absolute fucking delight, a man who had reincarnated multiple times, but managed to keep all of his memories of his previous (pretty terrible) lives. His sense of humor is therefore honed to the nth degree, and he is simultaneously a giant gremlin who takes nothing and no one seriously, but is also utterly done with everyone’s shit. Basically a story about being destined to forever be entangled with another person, and then deliberately choosing not to be. I love this goddamn novel to pieces. 

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun (二哈和他的白猫师尊) by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat - (jjwxc link) (chapters 1-4) (chapters 5-149 ongoing) (heavily explicit) This fucking novel haunts me. It’s been over a year since I’ve read it, and I still sometimes lie awake, staring at the ceiling, wondering about the nature of life, love, forgiveness, and redemption (and then I curse Meatbun to high heaven). I once described reading 2ha as being stuffed feet-first into a wood-chipper for 200 out of 300+ chapters, and I still hold to that description. But this is, hands down, one of the most hauntingly beautiful novels I’ve ever read. To anyone who intends to read it, I highly recommend checking out a detailed list of content warnings first, buying three boxes of tissues, and being ready to have your life ruined for good. 

Once again, I ask those who are willing and able, to buy the original novels and support the authors. (jjwxc buying guide for english-speakers here)

[tanadrin]

@iracher

Tumblr recommended me your post and I just got really interested in what game writing do you think is good? (im really interested bc I love rpgs) I think pillars of eternity did a good job to let you roleplay whatever. I hate inquisition tho, I dont understand why would MC help chantry =\

i’m gonna use this opportunity to vent about inquisition for a sec, because although it has features i like, it also has features that bug the shit out of me.

i like that the DA franchise doesn’t have a single protagonist--having multiple main characters you play as lets them tell discrete stories and keeps you from omnicompetent hero syndrome, where a characters feels like a mary sue just because they have the lifetime accomplishments of like six people (i’m look at you, Star Wars Expanded Universe). the worldbuilding isn’t great--it’s mostly ISO standard fantasy--but it’s OK, it has some original bits (the qunari are great for this), and it’s a fun enough place to run around in.

but they clearly want the chantry to be the local catholic church expy, with all that entails for a modern popular audience--dogmatic, often militant, strictly hierarchical. as a result, they’re sort of intrinsically organizationally unsympathetic. and then in DA:I they borrow the name “inquisition” to continue the medieval aesthetic, except the actual historical inquisition is monstrously unsympathetic, especially to a modern audience, and the name doesn’t even really make sense? and why should an independent organization trying to save the world from disaster be affiliated with the chantry anyway? and why are you the head of it? just because you have a magic hand? idk, it’s all quite weak justification to get the setup they want, and even then it takes way too long to establish all this in-game. it would make a lot more sense if you were already a minor-but-significant political or religious figure of some sort, but mostly you’re just Some Guy/Girl.

boring fantasy writing by committee is the worst kind of fantasy writing.

my absolutely favorite all-time RPG is the original Deus Ex. it’s so old now it’s probably hard to look at unless you’ve got some intense nostalgia goggles on, but it had extremely fun gameplay (the genre is sometimes called “immersive sim,” i think, and it’s one that’s kind of rare nowadays; hbomberguy talks a little about its history in his hilariously long video on Human Revolution), and i thought the writing was great.

not to say it doesn’t have weird bits and bits that fall flat. but it had ideas, and it was willing to try them, even if they didn’t always work. it’s a heady mix of 90s conspiracism, cyberpunk, and weird political tangents and digressions that you don’t get anywhere else, not even in its direct sequels. it also prefigured in a dreamlike way the next 20 years of political and social development with uncanny accuracy, as if Warren Spector had a vision of how the 21st century would go but could only half-remember it in the morning. and the soundtrack slaps so fucking hard it’s unreal.

otherwise, i generally prefer RPGs with tons of visual character customization and dialogue. which is to say i liked most of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 (never played the third one). the character-level interactions often felt strong and satisfying, even if the plot as a whole wasn’t super well-written. i actually think that lower-level element of writing is more important--i can forgive a dumb plot around a macguffin or a threat to the universe, but not boring character interactions. this is something skyrim was bad at; for open-world RPGs, Fallout: New Vegas does it considerably better, although my only real complaint about that game is that i like having a fully-voiced protagonist.

[zhuhongs]

As I'm writing this marks my 5th full day in Taiwan. Its been good, its also been a lot. But yk, any big life change will come with these sort of feelings. Before I came here a lot of people said (rather ignorantly) I was basically asian anyways, so I'll fit right in. They had a very narrow idea of what asia was like and thought, oh you tick some of the stereotype boxes, you’ll fit in and stay there forever. I always knew that wasn't true, and people were saying it in bad faith. I’m indian, I like a lot of things about Asian culture and I know more than the average westerner but I was born and raised in the West. Now matter what, I will always be a Westerner, ya know. 

This is incredibly apparent to me as I have been living with 3 Japanese people. Now 4 since one just moved in. I find it incredibly funny, I was originally going to go to Japan back in 2020 and now I’m here in Taiwan getting the Japanese roommate experience. And I must say, it sure is something. I must preface, my roommates are incredibly nice. But that’s the thing, they’re too nice. They’re nice, polite, unobtrusive, and considerate to a fault. It makes me feel very uneasy. Like I can’t even make a sound. They’re so pleasant, have such inoffensive likes and interests that it feels so hard to be different even in the smallest things. For example, we clean a lot. Like they sweep up the hair on the floor around once or twice a day. And I shed farrrr more hair than they do and t’s just, i don’t know, strange. Or like they refuse to keep their belongings out, even if it’s neat. Like we always bring our toiletries and and out of the bathroom and leave nothing there. Even the floor mat gets put away after a shower. That blows my fucking mind. Like!?!?!? Why can’t I keep my shampoo inside the bathroom where its easy to access, why can’t the bathroom mat just, always be down. What’s the need to constantly put away and take things out. I don’t think this is reflective of Japan as a whole but moreso of these girls but, oh my god. It’s great that they are so clean. But as a very forgetful person, it makes me feel Veryyyyy on edge. But I have a feeling that sooner or later it will become less of an issue. It’s not a big deal, but yea. I’m just really not used to living in the same room as others. Also it doesn’t help that I can’t communicate effectively bc of the language barrier. We both try so hard but it just, doesn’t work out. It’s no ones fault though. It just is what it is. If we all shared an apartment with separate rooms, that’d be ideal. I could very easily do that. But this… it’s gonna a very interesting 3 months. My cousin offered for me to live with her if it gets too much, and i think I will take her up on it when my 3 month lease is up. Bc i’m NOT losing that money.

But tbh, i am also very different from my cousin. There are aspects of asian culture that I’ve always lived by that she will never like. But I feel like she’s more accepting than my roommates are. We coexist better. It feels no matter what, i will never fully mesh with anyone else. My existence has always been caught between two different paths of thoughts and people rarely consider a third path. But that’s okay, I’ve long accepted this about myself and made peace with it. It’s honestly funny how my cousin is different, but with my roommates our differences are a bit suffocating. Nevertheless I’ll never get tired of how mad my cousin gets when her bf and i talk to each other in chinese. It’s HILARIOUS. She’s like “BOTH OF YALL ARE NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS.. OH MY GOD” we enjoy to piss her off, it’s a love language. But for now I want to stay in the dorms. The next semester I’ll probably stay with her. Plus, my friends are coming back to Taiwan in january so i’ll have more than enough people to speak to in Chinese.

Honestly, this is living arrangement is the only challenging thing about living in Taiwan right now. Classes are a bit tough right now but I will easily catch up once my books come in. Taking public transport is getting easier by the day, and my chinese will no doubt improve but even at its current state, I can easily get around. I can order food, talk to cashiers, and even have a simple conversation with strangers. I’m overall doing great!! I’m just too introverted to be around people so often. Like the US is very different. The US is built off of solitary time. People commute all alone, live in separate rooms, it’s very easy to be alone and take up space. Well at least for me. Many cannot do that. But here, I’m always around others -- on the bus, on the train, at shops, at the dorms, on my walk to class, at the bus stop. Everywhere, I’m so lonely sometimes yet I am also surrounded. There are so many random times I want to cry but I kinda can’t. I always feel like others are staring at me but also averting their gaze. It’s a very unique sort of struggle. Of course, I choose this and I will never regret the decision, but there is a special sort of loneliness that comes with studying abroad, especially so far from home. 

I tried to explain it to my roommates but my Japanese isn’t good enough. But their foreignness is different than mine. Sure, more people speak english here, and my chinese is better than theirs. But there are so many Japanese people here too. On the street people don’t stare at them. They pass for Taiwanese on a first glance, the culture isn’t all that different from theirs: they can buy food that they’re used to, They can call their friends and family at almost any time bc there’s barely any time difference, if something happened, it’d be easy to go home or have someone visit, they’re used to this sort of city. But for me, its completely different. Which I chose, I understand I chose it, but I still need some time to get used to it. It’s a big change. I didn’t understand how big of a change it’d be. I don’t think anyone can fully understand until they are there. It’s an experience for sure.

But I think all of this is forcing myself to become much louder about the way I am. I used to hate the way western culture was So loud about individualism. I thought, isn’t it good to be considerate of others.. Why must it always be about what I want. But now I’m like… yea there’s a level of consideration i can give but I refuse to live my whole life trying to be palatable to others and take up as little space as possible. I will find my own way that’s a fusion of every culture I’ve encountered. There are no arbitrary societal rules I want to follow, only my own judgement. I follow my rules and I need to be louder about that.

I think a lot of people, regardless of ethnicity want to be like that and cannot bring themselves to do it. Like comparing the nightlife of taiwan with the daytime, I can tell there are so many repressed people out here looking for escape. This is true everywhere, but I just realized it here in Taipei. These next few months will be about me learning how to do that and be okay with it. I’m excited to see what kind of person I’ll be at the end of these 6 months. It’s day 5 and I feel like I’ve reached so many realizations about the world outside of my bubble of existence and it’s lovely. I can only imagine what the future will bring.

[juhaksworld]

TBZ reactions to you forgetting what day their birthday is

(not exactly an au but let’s just pretend you can’t look up their birthdays online bc they’re idols lol)

Sangyeon:

lowkey hurt. (you meanie -_- ) like one day you were sitting together talking and you were like “oh my goodness I’m so excited for my birthday in a few months bc it’ll be a reason for us to get the day off and spend all day together and he’ll be like “we could do that for my birthday too!” and you’d be like “.....yeahhhhh!!!!! but ummm when is your birthday?? I’m really sorry I forgot. I’m terrible at remembering dates and stuff” and he’d be like “in two weeks” and you’d instantly feel so bad bc this poor boy deserves better (you meanie x2) you’d keep apologizing and he’d forgive you in his heart but he’d pretend to be sad the rest of the day just to make you feel bad ( as you deserve ) and you’d like make it up to him by planning this super sweet day with him and get him the awesomest gift and he’d tell you he wasn’t actually mad at you for forgetting but you’d make sure never to forget any important date again bc having sangyeon sad/upset with you was too heart wrenching,, even if it was just a joke.

Jacob:

you’d be like going through your calendar at the beginning of the year making sure you have everyone’s birthdays put in correctly and you’d casually ask him when his was and he’d be like “????” thinking it was a joke since y’all had been dating for like 3 years. and then you’d look up and realize how awful you must seem for not remembering so you’d make excuses like “i knowwww when your birthday is i’m just double checking….*blushes*” jacob would start giggling and then come sit beside you and hug you and be all sweet and say something like “ahh it’s alright! don’t feel bad at all!” but then he wouldn’t tell you to make you feel bad and you have to go searching through your pictures from last year to find the right day. he’d just laugh bc he knows you didn’t forget bc he’s not important,,, you’re just kinda forgetful. he’d tease you about it a lot. maybe he’d pretend to forget your birthday one day just to get back at you lol.

Younghoon:

he would think you were joking at first and be like “stahpppp you know when my birthday is!” and you’d be like “ummmm hoonie i don’t actually” and then he’d just be like shocked and a little hurt and then he’d start explaining to you about how his birthday was in fact the DAY OF HIS BIRTH INTO THIS WORLD and without his birthday there would be no Kim Younghoon. and you’d just be like “i know...why birthdays umm..are important hoonie” but he’d keep lecturing you about why you should remember and you’d feel so bad. he wasn’t upset,,, just shocked you could forget something like that. eventually you’d be like “i understand hoonie” and make an excuse to leave the room and then you’d call chanhee and desperately ask him to tell you when hoonie’s birthday was. chanhee would laugh at you but finally give in and then you’d rush back to hoonie and be like “BAEEEEEE YOUR BIRTHDAY IS AUG. 8TH!!!!!!” and he’d be like “duhhh” anyways,,, you’d avoid bringing that situation up with him or chanhee bc it was too embarrassing.

Hyunjae:

after he realized you were serious he’d just laugh in your face. like he wouldn’t be hurt at all he’d just think it was hilarious,, especially since you were so flustered about it and embarrassed for forgetting. he’d go on and on with you about how you “ForGOt HiS biRthDay” and you’d be pretty sure it was in the first half of Sept. but you just weren’t 100% positive, but he wouldn’t tell you and he wouldn’t let any of the other boyz tell you either. then at the end of the day he’d ask for your hand and you’d give it to him...a little afraid of what he was gonna do with that black marker he was holding. he’d write “SEPTEMBER 13TH 1997” in bold thick lettering on your wrist. and you’d be like “SKJDKDJFKSJDH WHY’D YOU WRITE THAT SO BIG WITH A MARKER??? NOW IT WON’T COME OFF!!!!” and he’d just laugh and be like “well,,, hopefully you won’t forget my birthday now!” then he’d kiss you on the cheek and run away for his life.

Juyeon:

clueless,,, he’d be like “you forgot my birthday?? for real? this isn’t a prank?” and you’d be like “i’m sorry T-T” he’d do that face like he’d just blink a couple of times looking at you with a slightly disappointed blank face like “ur serious bae?” and you’d try so hard not to laugh bc he looked so funny and cute but you’d feel so guilty. so you’d go on to explain that you were just having a “blond moment” and you couldn’t think of it. you knew when his birthday was...you were just blanking out right then. so you’d change the subject and cross your fingers that you would remember his birthday later and then you’d write it down 30 different times in different places and add a reminder for his birthday and a reminder to remember his birthday bc,,, you never wanted to admit to juyeon that you actually forgot his birthday. he was always so good at remembering all the important dates that had anything to do with you,,, so you wanted to be better at remembering as well 

Kevin:

he’d be so butt hurt over this oml. he would 100% never tell you and just sulk all day bc he always makes such a big deal out of your birthday that takes weeks of planning and you just ??FORGOT?? his???? a baby lol. even after you remembered and very loudly exclaimed “OOOOHHHHH YEAHHH OFC!!!! HOW STUPID OF ME FOR FORGETTING” he’d still sulk. you’d have to do some serious explaining of yourself and apologizing and everything. he’d watch you put it in your calendar and turn on reminders every day for a week leading up to his bday. would quiz you randomly after that asking you if you remembered his birthday. you’d have to prove your loyalty to him by remembering some small detail about him that was super important to him before he would completely forgive you.

Chanhee:

disappointed but not surprised lol. would just roll his eyes and be like “why must you be this way?” you’d feel bad,,, but not like super embarrassed bc he wouldn’t make a big deal about it. would tease you a little bit and pretend to be hurt,, but you would know he was just pretending. would ask you if you remembered other ppl’s bdays and when you could,,, he’d tease you even more “i feel like i should be jealous, y/n, that you remember juyeon’s birthday so quickly but not mine...your own bf of 2 years” he’d keep asking you randomly throughout the day if you could remember,,,, and when you finally did remember ( or you secretly asked on of the other boyz ) he would stop teasing you as much and just tell you you had to get a certain (expensive) gift for his birthday to make up for forgetting lmao

Changmin:

Laughs when you ask when his birthday is and then after a minute he’s like “wait--- you were being serious???” and you wouldn’t want to admit it bc you know he can get offended easily over certain things sometimes so you’re like “well...i mean...i know when it is...i just can’t..umm...remember...right now….” *nervous laugh* he wouldn’t exactly be upset..more surprised and a little confused like how do you literally forget your own bf’s birthday you weirdo. he’d just give you this judging look like “????” and that would make you feel even worse than if he openly was offended...somehow. anyway you’re like “i’ll just----- wait until it comes back to me...never mind” and you’ll quickly walk away or change the subject bc you hate having him look at you like you’re the biggest idiot of the century. changmin’s just like “this girl. what a strange person I’m dating”

Haknyeon:

he would be sad,,,like “oh my goodness, how did she forget???” I feel like he tends to overthink so he’d just be so astounded and depressed that you had forgotten such an important fact about him. so he begins to ask you other questions about himself to make sure you hadn’t forgotten everything about him like “what’s my mom’s name” “what year was I born” “when did we start dating” “what’s my favorite food at the moment” etc etc. and you just feel so terrible bc this poor buy is convinced that you don’t love him anymore and he just :(((  

[i’m sad writing this y’all ;-; ] 

so anyways,,, you’re like “listen hak,,, the reason i’m randomly asking when your birthday is is bc it’s my literal password and i forgot. I forget everything. you should know that by now T___T it’s not bc I don’t think it’s important to remember.” and hak would be like uwuwuwuwuwu “my birthday is your password?? that’s so cuteeee!!! <3 and then he’d tell you and forgive you bc,,, hak is like that

Sunwoo:

butt hurt pt.2. he’d sulk and sulk. “You can’t remember my own birthday baby???” pouts. you’d have to explain yourself thoroughly and even though he knows you sometimes forget important things,,, he’s still surprised and slightly offended. would say something like “you’re not allowed to have any kisses until you remember” and normally that wouldn’t be that bad of a threat bc you were sure you’d remember after a while,,, but you didn’t want him to be even more offended than he already was so you pretended to be heartbroken by this threat and started to act all desperate to find out his birth date (even though you originally just wanted it to put on a little drawing you were working on beside your bday lol ) and so you’ll like all frantically call chanhee on the phone asking when sunwoo’s birthday was (making it seem like a secret from sunwoo even though you made sure he heard) and then you proudly went to sunwoo and told him you remembered the date and by then he was laughing bc he realized how silly he was for being so sad. (you got a kiss on the top of your head for “remembering” lol)

Eric:

lowkey confused and highkey amused. you forgot his birthday??? lol. Is how he thinks. so like one day you were just talking with him and he was telling stories about his birthday a few years ago, before you started dating… and then you realized that you could not for the life of you remember when his birthday was...you were pretty sure it was in december...but that’s all you could remember so you asked him after he was done telling you a story. and he laughed and was like “duhhh it’s December 22nd” and you were like “OOOHHHHHH YEAHHHHH HOW COULD I FORGET???” and then he was like “wait--- you actually forgot??” and you were like “Ummm yeahhh,,,,, sorry ;-;” and then he was like “SHOOT i shouldn’t have told you so i could use that as a bribe against you!!” and you just [-_-] anyways he’ll randomly think of that throughout the day and be like “omg guys my own gf forgot my birthday. none of y’all have it as hard as i do” and then he’d pretend to be sad lol.

[mittensmorgul]

it’s a bummer to see you can’t enjoy the ending. I hope someday you can come around it it. It wasn’t perfect but it didn’t nuke its integrity. i think the heart of the show really shines through and it’s a shame that it’s not being appreciated bc there’s so much shipping drama 😣

Hi there!

I... first of, I really need people to understand this... the travesty of the finale for me has almost nothing to do with “shipping drama.”

Yes, I see the wild conspiracy theories flying around, and I’m honestly concerned for some of those folks and hope they can find a way to make peace with this in whatever way they can, because we aren’t likely to ever get a better answer than that this is legitimately the ending that Dabb thought was best, despite years of us seeing the best of his writing choices and guiding Sam, Dean, and Cas to grow past the roles that Chuck would’ve forced them to fulfill, and that at the end it fell flat because he couldn’t actually come up with a better ending than “this was always their destiny, free will is a lie, and these characters had nothing outside of the revenge quest they’d been raised for since birth and manipulated into over and over for the entertainment of a vengeful god.”

I can see how “surface level” viewers would feel that this one basic narrative point was satisfying, that Sam and Dean had grown beyond their own hopeless cycle of self-sacrifice that had driven the narrative for so many years. The fact that they both acknowledged that they should allow their stories to end in that way was satisfying... but only in the shallowest and most detached read of the narrative. Like, is this really the ONLY thing these two characters learned in the last 15 years? If so, that is BEYOND depressing af.

And even THAT message lost all narrative weight when the two of them were once again reunited in death, as if nothing else had ever mattered in their lives. As if neither of them had ever outgrown the codependency that had driven so many of those previous self-sacrifices and refusals to let go of each other even in death.

So yeah, in the absolute most basic sense, I suppose I can see how casual viewers or people who aren’t actually invested in these characters could find that at least narratively coming back to a starting point.

But narratives don’t actually work that way, and that’s not the point of watching fifteen years of story develop in between.

This story wasn’t JUST about Sam and Dean needing to accept that death might be okay actually.

This story was also about free will, fighting for humanity as a whole but also their OWN humanity and self-identities. In Dean’s case, the absolutely transformative growth from feeling like nothing but a hammer, a killer, a tool to be used. And then less than an episode and a half later, after finally accepting that truth into his heart and using it to defeat the original creator and reclaim the story of his own life for himself... he gets pied in the face after flippantly talking about his destiny and having no choice, and then three scenes later he literally dies impaled on a great big nail... like a hammer...

So I would kindly ask folks who feel satisfied by that shallowest possible takeaway of this episode, and maybe invite folks to look just under that surface. Try to understand why loads of us will NEVER feel satisfied with this ending, and why it truly does feel like the most hopeless version of the story. Like even in defeating Chuck, they could never be allowed to own their own stories and what happened to them after that point was just a twisted version of the “destiny” that drove Chuck’s entire plotline for them anyway.

Please understand where we’re seeing this as horrifically painful irony rather than some beautiful circular narrative about letting go.

For a lot of us, the shipping stuff would’ve been the cherry on top of the sundae. We would’ve been happy with a scoop of plain vanilla, though. We would’ve been happy for anything that honored the journey to freedom, and the choice at any sort of a different life of their own making than literally falling back on a nail fighting off one of John’s unresolved hunts and a vampire who had literally never been named in canon before, yet who Dean instantly recognized somehow... 

but sure, for those of us who felt that “the heart of the show” was all the stuff that the finale actually erased-- that “family don’t end in blood,” and that this was actually not a show about just two brothers but the love of their found family and coming to terms with the choices they actually HAD made for themselves versus the narrative that Chuck kept centering them in DESPITE what they would choose for themselves, the finale basically told us no, everything you ever found of value in this story actually meant nothing. It told us that Chuck’s story for them was their only truth in the end, and their only freedom was to be found in death.

Please, I am begging people, stop trying to gaslight us that this was some beautiful ending. Maybe think for a second that “your read” of the narrative that allows you to find peace with the ending is not what we saw and loved about this story for the 326 episodes leading up to this finale.

And please try to understand that we were not wrong to see the entire narrative through this lens. Because we were literally validated IN CANON, and told that we understood the depth of the story and the characters just fine, actually. There’s literally ONE episode of the entire series that burns it all down in a bewildering pile of wtf. And that’s #327. That throws that entire read out the window to well actually us all back into Chuck’s literal ending... This was literally the ending Chuck wanted to force them to enact for him, and it’s what ended up happening even after they defeated him-- the ultimate Big Bad of the entire series should’ve been defeated, but instead he pulled off one final victory over the entire story.

Becky: No. You can't-- Chuck: I did. Becky: Y- This is just an ending. Chuck: Yeah. I don't know how I'm gonna get there, but I know where I'm goin'. Becky: B-But it's so... dark. Chuck: But great, right? I can see it now -- "Supernatural: The End". And the cover is just a gravestone that says "Winchester". The fans are gonna love it. Well? Becky: It's awful! Horrible. It's hopeless. You can't do this to the fans. What you did to Dean? What you did to Sam? Chuck: There, see? It's making you feel something. That's good, right?

and

Dean: Well, what now? You're not gonna dust us. Chuck: Oh, yeah? Why not? Dean: Because you're holding out. For your big finish. Yeah, we know about your galaxy-brained idea, how you think this story is gonna go. Sam got a little look into your draft folder. Chuck: Sam's visions -- they weren't drafts. They were memories. My memories. Other Sams and other Deans in other worlds. But guess what. Just like you, they didn't think they'd do it, either. But they did. And you will, too. Dean: No. Not this Sam. And not this Dean. So you go back to Earth 2 and play with your other toys. Because we will never give you the ending that you want. Chuck: We'll see.

And even in DEFEAT Chuck thought he understood these characters, thought that having rendered him powerless they would finally take their revenge and kill him, but they didn’t, because he never actually understood these characters at all. And the story he tried to force them into from day one was never about THEM, it was about HIM. 

And then Dean gets like two whole days of freedom and choice and is apparently incapable of making any of the choices that don’t throw him immediately back into Chuck’s favorite story. Like none of that resolution in the previous episode meant anything at all. He even SAYS it in the finale:

Dean: Yeah, no. I think about 'em, too. You know what? That pain's not gonna go away. Right? But if we don't keep living, then all that sacrifice is gonna be for nothing.

And then two scenes later the show gives us the Nelson Muntz HA HA and Dean is no longer living, and Sam is left to carry on as a shell of himself and wander off into Blurry Wife Land to devote any even remotely content moment of the rest of his years to raising a  Replacement Dean to fill the void, and is never able to pick up the pen to write anything better of his own life than Chuck would’ve dealt him in the first place.

So I’m glad that top-layer takeaway is sustaining and enough for you. It wasn’t, and will never be enough for the rest of us.

What was actually real in all of this? We were.

Until we weren’t.

And that’s honestly a shit message to be pushing on people in the wake of it all. So please stop.

I should actually thank you for the kind intent with which your message is phrased, but that doesn’t make it feel less hilariously awful. Though I chose this one to reply to as the least insulting of all the messages currently in my inbox on this subject. So thanks for that, at least.

[chitsangenthusiast]

18, 27, 29 for the ao3 wrapped if you haven’t answered them yet! 👀👀👀

helloooooo beloved ash <3

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

a hilarious reverse to the question i just got from shan lmao but it was a pretty equal split between zuko and sokka in mallrat chpt 5, purely bc i know that if i had written in the direction that they wanted to go in then i was going to have to add on chapters and throw off the loose 5+1 structure that the fic is already just barely clinging to. so i refused them <3

(the argument was originally going to cause a bigger rift that would've needed more time to heal, bc mallrat is nothing if not dramatic. the entire scene is actually written out, squirreled away to be picked at for other future fics lol)

27. What do you listen to while writing?

LOVE this question just like i LOVE procrastinating on writing to make playlists for nearly every wip i have!!!

my mooncusser playlist gets played when i need to write serious/angsty scenes, nsfw wips get a vaguely-sensual playlist when i don't feel like rummaging for raunchier ones. and mallrat technically has an official playlist but i've also built out a specific one for chpt 6 that's just full of schoompy songs and vibes as i write very schoompy for this last chapter lol

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

ohhh oh okay forgive me i'm gonna give a couple bc i've published so little this year and looking through the things i've written for this is actually helping the writer's block lift a little lmao so! this bit from mallrat chpt 5:

Zuko had stayed, waited. Hoped, maybe, that he would come back, and Sokka may be sinking in some sorrowful quicksand, but that alone makes him feel like he can still touch the earth below. It’s soft, tenuous, pushing his toes down too hard could have him falling right through—and yet, if he can figure out the right weight distribution of his feet, then maybe he can regain his footing. Take those steps through the doors of the tea shop, meet Zuko where he’s at, and pray that he at least hesitates in kicking him back out. If he can keep his head up long enough to breathe through the fog, in through the nose, out through the mouth, then maybe the words will return. Zuko will look at him—he likes looking at him—and he’ll glare, he’ll probably interrupt the entire time, but there’s still the odds that he’ll listen. Hear out Sokka’s explanations, entertain his apologies.

from in time's arrow bc it was very fun to write lol:

“I wasn’t lying—” a second battle of the legs, another deadlock. Sokka huffs, then screws his face up when it accidentally syncs with Zuko’s. “I’m just trying to do my job here, Sokka. The whole point of us being in this sub—” “This isn’t a sub,” he cuts in. The combination of quiet exasperation from the speakers and Zuko’s dramatic eyeroll aren’t nearly as good as cries of mercy after a (masterful) pun, but he still turns to the now empty rockbed satisfied. “This is a bathyscaphe.” Zuko groans loudly, and in his periphery Sokka can see him lean forward—barely, able to move only mere inches before stopping just short of hovering over his shoulder. “Then tell me the difference between those two! Pretend like you’re explaining it to the people who’ll be watching this, if you have to, but at some point you have to answer my questions instead of spouting off puns every five minutes!” “Well, whalecome to what it’s like working with me,” Sokka snarks. He punctuates his point with a stabbing finger, then quickly reels it back when it comes closer to Zuko’s chest than intended. “And like I said after the first time, if you’re gonna have a fish-ue with it then you better kelp that to yourself—” There’s a fleeting twitch to Zuko’s nose, a hint of a smile that’s smothered a touch too slowly, and Sokka’s brows fly up. He knows what a choked down laugh sounds and looks like, and close enough like this, Zuko can’t hide. Even with his mouth obscured, Sokka can read his mirth elsewhere, in his crinkled eyes and partially-exposed dimple, the awkward throat clearing and minute quivering of those well-defined shoulders.

[thecelestial-art]

ok but like, here me out,,,,, avatar high school au but its just me projecting my personality and trauma

my instagram

Aang

Freshman

He's trying his gosh darn hardest

The group baby

Appa is a therapy dog so he spends the day with gyatso in his classroom :)

Hes a saint bernard 

The best man

Despite katara being the ‘mom friend’ he runs the god damn show

Momo is a shit head sphinx cat 

The gang dropped movie nights for “knitting nights” so they could all learn to knit him sweaters

Hes very fashionable

he hates it

sokkas best friend

Aang makes costumes so when halloween comes around momo is very scary as dorothy 

Track and field babey

Does not curse

He has a hard time keeping up with world events

Straight (i'm not wrong)

he and toph have an ongoing tradition of going in full dress to waffle house before school dances. 

it got to the point where now all the workers know them by name

they also accidentally crashed a white lotus meeting and just kept going

Azula

Band kid

Sophomore

Rich girl with 2 friends

Pre eng

i know most schools dont have this program, but mine did and holy shit. those were some overachievers 

The most annoying mf on the planet

Not a single teacher likes her

The know it all that will fight if you don't agree with the facts

She was the ww2 kid

Capitalist in the worst fucking way

Closeted lesbian, when she figures that shit out she gets a lil better

The one who can drive

Mai

Bisexual

She's really good at math?? Like shes the gay who can do math

But cannot drive, bitch failed her permit more times than she can count

She nearly went to an all girls boarding school at one point

Sophomore

Colorguard!!

She has beat the shit out of people she's walked in on making out in the bathroom

Genuine friends with the faculty??

She takes programming/coding as a filler class but she's pretty good and continues to pursue it.

Her tumblr looks sick as hell

has caused a teacher to cry

Ty lee

Bisexual

Lesbian earings actin mf

Sophomore

Cheerleader

She is the nicest mother fucker and everyone loves her

Despite acting like an airhead she's really science orientated

When she takes biology she passes with flying colors

Very invested in social justice

She would never hurt a fly but she will fuck you up

The one with a healthy relationship with her father

has comforted a teacher she found crying in the parking lot

Iroh

Now runs the jasmine dragon where zuko works after school w/ katara 

Knows every single kid who comes in and tries his hardest to make sure everyone feels appreciated

Former war criminal

In a book club

The white lotus? Yeah this is the white lotus

Idk if it would be the same as the show, or if its just an old person shit talking group

Zuko

Junior

His dad got full custody of him and his sister when he divorced their mom

But at 13 he got kicked out for another bullshit reason and ever since Iroh has had custody of both of the siblings

But bitch boy ozai has visitation rights but only wants to see azula

Theatre kid!!

I mean he was gonna join jrotc to appease his dad but he figured his shit out before he really joined

A republican turned leftist

Hes queer he just doesnt know which label to use

Himbo rights

He and katara are best friends idgaf about ships but they are bros

orchestra kid! (yes this is me self projecting bc we have similar trauma) 

Violist 

Teachers have no idea what to do with him bc on one hand he's very reclusive and on the other his sister has the worst opinions so they don't know

Katara

Sophomore 

Still the mom friend but this time she goes to therapy

Bc she literally raised her brother after her mother died?? And then became a parental figure to her FRIENDS???

Biggest political activist, genuinely does her best at educating herself and others about civil injustices

Also really obsessed with cults and true crime

Choir kid

She takes AP history, english, and second language classes

Is trying her hardest in math and sciences

Huge stuffed animal collection

Student council vice president

she originally ran for president but jets gang voted him in as a joke

The teachers pet

Swim team bitches

Best friends with the school janitors

This is my au so fuck off she and zuko are chaotic friendgroup parents and annoying best friends i love them

and maybe something more???

 who fucking knows theres a betting pool in the white lotus and so far aang is winning 

Sokka

Junior

Bisexual

Gym and History teachers LOVE him

On the swim team and the fishing team

Started crying when he took his drivers test

Goes to gsa w/ toph and loses his fucking mind

He's the reason suki’s car is disgusting

In all advanced/ap classes in math and science

Was the kid who carries a portable speaker around until suki put him in his place

Still has to use his hands to figure out left and right

Yue

Technically she doesn't go to school with them she goes to a nearby private school

She met the gang at a football game and has been invited to every group outing since

Junior!!

Very invested in world politics

When she joins the group at school events she ends up making friends with all the staff

Debate team kid!!!

She's not a rule breaker she just knows their limitations ;)

at one point missed school for like 2 months and everyone thought she died

turns out it was just fucking pneumonia and sokka is one dirty liar

Suki

oh? you mean yue’s best friend bc we dont respect pitting women against each other in this household?

Junior

Bisexual icon!!!

Oh god what sport would she do??

Probably basketball??

Or she would just do martial arts outside of school

And have a ‘female empowerment’ club or somethin

100% believes in self government in society and that the current gov exists purely on the theory that all humans are inherently evil

Bitch for bernie

Her car is DISGUSTING

She asks if she can hit peoples juul and then throws it in the trash

The gym coaches really like her but she fucking hates them

Is very close with her school counselor??

She never wants to run but she keeps getting elected to homecoming court

Toph

Freshman 

Former homeschool bitch

Joined the wrestling team and the fishing team??

She doesn't even like fishing she just thinks it's hilarious 

Very good a pottery and that's her arts credit

She and iroh have lunch together every thursday

If she catches wind of you putting gum on desks they will find your body in a ditch

She makes sokka and suki take her to prom 

She hates it she just likes to fuck with people at prom

Sometimes she just tells people she doesn't believe in something bc she cant see it

has been wearing the same sandles for the past 3 years bc “they’re reliable”

Cryptid hunter

Goes to gsa bc its better than any fucking reality tv show

Has nearly burnt the house down making ramen