#I’ve said so many times that the sets aren’t functional lots

[ophernelia]

Lykaia sets aren’t real. I don’t play in them. So why have I been fussing with functional floor plans for months!! I could’ve been using deco stairs to make the sets look more interesting! I’m so mad at myself! I always make more work for myself than I need to.

[hillbillyoracle]

For those with home related New Years Resolutions:

I’ve been a disabled homemaker for 5 years now so I wanted to share the resources that have helped me take our home from complete chaos to reasonably functional and enjoyable.

If you’re not functioning...

If you’re constantly tripping over things and getting injured, eating food that makes you sick, dealing with pests in the home, and struggling to complete basic tasks like feeding, clothing, and bathing yourself, then you should start with...

KC Davis aka StruggleCare aka DomesticBlisters

TikTok

Book

Podcast

Website

I recommend KC Davis’s stuff with a big heaping dose of “keep what works and leave what doesn’t.” She’s one of the few people I’ve seen talking about compassionate care focused on maintaining a level of personal functioning rather than maintaining a home. Her stuff has been very helpful to me during some very challenging times. 

I think her some of her best work is probably her videos on the 5 step tidying process, the ones on setting up bedside hygiene and food kits, and the ones on dealing with DOOM (Didn’t Organize Only Moved) boxes. 

That being said she has a tendency to use neurotype as a shield for not reckoning with other dynamics in a situation (gendered, narcissism, etc) when asked for advice by viewers which can lead to this “all people with neurodivergence are good” vibe which I find off putting (especially as an autistic person). I mention it because her bleh stuff was all I was coming across and I missed out on her good stuff for a while. It’s worth picking through though. 

Her book is a little better on the whole. 

If you’re functioning but still very overwhelmed...

If you can complete your daily activities of living pretty regularly but you’re still losing papers you need, rebuying items you didn’t realize you had, or looking around your home at a mess that feels impossible to clean, then check out...

Dana K White aka A Slob Comes Clean

YouTube

Website

Podcast

Books

I love Dana K. White’s stuff. Honestly, I recommend her to every level on this list but I think she probably shines brightest in this category. 

Her 5 step decluttering process is pure fucking gold. It’s a decluttering process that doesn’t rely on feelings at all - really helpful for those with trauma or alexthymia generally. She has multiple videos explaining it and even more where you can watch her go step by step with someone over the course of an hour and make a huge dent in some very overwhelming mess. Its the process I’ve used to go through over 50 moving boxes to declutter so we could fit in this much smaller space we moved to in April. 

Her day to day cleaning advice is also excellent. Her concept of dishes math has really helped me make decisions about what chores to focus on when I’m low energy. Her 14 Days to Opening Your Front Door series is amazing if you’re having to host for a given occasion but your home is a wreck. 

If you’re not painfully overwhelmed by your stuff but there’s still a lot of friction in your home...

If your stuff doesn’t overwhelm you but your home still doesn’t feel that good to be in, you’re still not finding things when you need to or it’s taking you a long time to find them, you create homes for things but they look terrible or they never seem to stick, then you’d love...

Cassandra Aarssen aka Clutterbug

YouTube

Books

Website

Podcast

Clutterbug types were kind of a game changer for me. It’s what really opened my eyes to why the systems that worked for me did not work for my partner. She is a Bee - lots of small categories that are all very visible - and I am a ladybug - big bucket categories that aren’t visible. When I reorganized our space according to the compromise between our types, Butterfly - big categories and very visible - all of a sudden the systems just worked so much better. There were many fewer fights sparked by things not getting put away or not being able to find things. So I really recommend her videos on the different types and examples of each. 

Quick word of warning, she does have regular videos about diet and exercise that I personally find pretty triggering to my disordered eating habits so I’m not subscribed to her and just check her channels every now and then so it’s easier to skip over videos where that might be a topic she talks about. 

Cliff Tan aka Dear Modern

TikTok

YouTube

Website

Book

Cliff Tan’s work is the most recent of these resources that I’ve come across but holy shit I cannot recommend it enough. 

Because my parents didn’t originally intend on my partner using the room she wound up using, there’s simply not space to keep some of the furniture and items in there anywhere else. Meaning she just kind of has to keep a fair bit of junk in there. But after watching (read: binging) the Dear Modern YouTube channel and seeing him completely change spaces by moving furniture around, I redid my partners room over the course of about 2 hours and it’s a completely different room. Way more comfortable and she’s already mentioned she’s getting much better sleep. 

So I really really recommend his stuff. Sometimes what you really need isn’t new stuff but just rearranging what you already have. 

If you’re pretty content with your home but want to streamline the process of caring for it...

If your home is pretty functional but regular tidying, deep cleaning, and maintenance tasks specifically keep falling through the cracks, then you might like...

FlyLady System

Website

The Secret Slob - YouTube

Diane in Denmark - YouTube

There are lots of systems out there for house keeping but I’ve yet to try or see one that seems to do better than FlyLady for me. Since with my illness my energy varies wildly, I don’t necessarily do things when her system recommends but I do them according to the priority her system ascribes to them as I’m able. 

FlyLady is a notoriously convoluted website so I really recommend learning from a secondhand source. The Secret Slob and Diane in Denmark are my favorites. 

Maintenance Lists

This Old House

There a lots of maintenance lists out there and honestly finding one and doing what you can is better than nothing. I personally like the ones from This Old House because they’re broken up into annual, seasonal, monthly, and some weekly tasks - which are essentially priority categories, similar to FlyLady. I’ve linked the winter one here but there are many others to pick through depending on what you want to work on. 

Bonus: Paper Clutter

My System

Link

This is what I’ve arrived at after years of experimentation. It’s an amalgam of a few different ideas from different systems in one place. I keep mind on my fridge but put yours where ever you’re dumping paper anyways. If you’re in a room or live in a car/backpack - I have ideas on how to organize it for those in this post too. 

Sunday Basket

YouTube Video

The Minimal Mom’s Video

She’s in Her Apron Video

Need something a little more robust? The Sunday Basket is probably be best version of a paper (and other stuff) system I’ve seen. Got something that needs dealt with? Chuck it in the Sunday Basket. The creator also has videos on long term paper storage ideas if that’s something you need as well. But her videos usually run an hour long so I recommend starting with either the Minimal Mom’s video or She’s in Her Apron’s video. 

Bonus: Digital Clutter

PARA System/Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte

YouTube Channel

Website

Book

Essential Video

The branding on this system can be very productivity tech wonk which is off putting to me but when I finally started hearing what was at the core of it and applying it - my digital life was changed. I’ve linked my absolute favorite video he’s done here. Ignore the bit about it being the last in the series, most of us are already using some note app and if you like it you can always go back and watch the rest. But just applying what’s in that video to your digital systems will make things easier to find. 

Hope this helps someone out there! 

[madllamamomma]

To all that it may concern:

Hi. It’s me, ya Mad Llama Momma.

Yes. It’s been a very long time, and I am sorry.

Since the start of this year I have been unfortunately going through, well, a lot. Mentally and physically.

Now that I am where I am today, in January of 2023, I see that I was at an all time low and just didn’t know it. 2022 was a year of me kick staring my healing journey of my mind, body and soul. And let me tell you it has NOT been easy. Between new multiple physicians and even going through two therapist (holistic therapy was kinda a joke for me personally), a liver surgery scare, coming to realized that I had an eating disorder, and stopped drinking because of said liver surgery scare, it has been a fucking exhausting year. (Note: I had a kind of contusion on my liver from some unknown trauma 🤷‍♀️. Yeah, my doctor didn’t even have a clue.)

Turning 30 also was very mind boggling to me, and I literally mourned my 20s for almost half the year and was crying about the fact I wasn’t where I thought I’d be by now.

I wanted to be knee deep in a blossoming career and making the world brighter and better. As last month, I officially quit my job and do not have plan to go back to the medical field at all.

I wanted to be wearing a size 12-14 and somewhat fit. But I’m currently a size 22 and the biggest and most out of shape and unhealthy that I’ve ever been.

I wanted to be a mother by now. But due to my overall health, it just wasn’t in the cards at that point.

I feel like all of our young lives we are told that we are supposed to be in a certain place by a certain age or we are failures, freeloaders, lazy, etc. But I’m coming to terms that this isn’t true and that 20s aren’t the official end of my fun youth nor the end of my life.

This entire year also sparked something in me. Sometimes we need to think hard about where we are at in our lives and evaluate if it was even worth it. Sometimes, things happens and makes us question who we really are and makes us think if we really are truly happy.

I realized I was using the Arcana and my fanfics to heavily disassociate and a way for me to escape our crazy world and in a very unhealthy way. It was great when it was working, but when it wasn’t, all my depression and anxiety came flooding in without any remorse, and I couldn’t even muster myself to write anymore despite having so many ideas.

I am happy to say that I’ve been in regular therapy session, I started ceramics again (where I make a lot of crazy sub par mugs and other functional pottery), my liver is almost all the way healed, I started back to yoga, and I’ve been losing weight safely for my health.

After being restricted all of my young life, I am feeling like I have been able to be my most authentic self than I have ever been and I feel like for the first time in my life, and I am finally thriving. I was afraid of entering my 30s feeling lost and feeling bad that I wasn’t a hot young 20 something year old, but instead I’m entering an era where I am focusing on me. And it feels great. It feels amazing.

I have a lovely husband who is my best friend and soulmate and that loves me and supports me, I have a wonderful set of found family that loves me for me and never ask me to change or to be anyone else other than myself, I feel like I can be creative without being restricted. And it feels great. I’m figuring myself out and I am so happy I am able to do it.

(TL;DR) For all the people out there who feels stuck, who feel like they can’t be themselves, who feel like nothing is ever going to change—please just know, it does get better. People are out there to help you, people who want you to be your best self. Sometimes it takes medication, sometimes it takes lengthy therapy sessions, sometimes it takes putting up boundaries with your family and limited the time you spend with them, and sometimes it takes just you admitting that you need help.

Please don’t give up on your healing journeys even if you family doesn’t support you. Please don’t think you are alone.

Please. Please. Do not give up.

Happy New Years my lovely hungry trash pandas,

❤️

Your Mother Llama.

[weirdocat83]

Younger Gen Z here, maybe my view is just very skewed from having a small friend group, but almost nobody really talks to each other anymore. Pretty much everyone is terrified of fake friends or judgement and almost nobody has proper social skills (both because of internet and quarantine) plus everyone is supposed to be “preparing for the future” all the time. Those that do have extracurriculars tend to have really tight schedules to the point where I wonder how some of them are even functioning much less getting straight A’s (sometimes I wonder where they’ll be in the future). Don’t get me wrong, wild things do happen every now and then but they aren’t super extreme. Yeah, kids vape/graffiti in the bathroom or every so often a fire alarm goes off or a fight breaks out but usually it’s just drama between friend groups, which, in a way is very sad. Because I don’t think I’ve ever seen people my age be in a large group and not have drama going on between them and I think that says a lot about how people make friends these days. A sort of quantity over quality. At least, that’s my opinion.

My personal experience doesn’t lend much to the conversation because I have been an observer without friends for a good portion of my life. Thus, I can’t speak for everyone. But I am a little thankful for that fact if only because I now realize a lot of things. 1) That people who won’t listen to you speak aren’t worth your time 2)The fact that it’s better to have a few friends to have meaningful conversations with rather than many who don’t get along. And I think those are lessons that many still need to learn.

I also think it needs to be said that the stress of school can be a little insane sometimes. Near the end of the second semester at school at one point I was talking to some friends about how stressed we all were and brought up the fact that at one point I had seriously thought about committing suicide because of how stressed and anxious I was. When I had that thought I realized that it was an unhealthy thought and distracted myself but when I brought that up in conversation there was a little concern, but mostly just a shared sentiment of “yep, that’s the school system and I feel that too.”

I’m fairly young but sometimes I feel much older than I actually am. I feel like I didn’t really have a childhood and I don’t think I am alone in this sentiment either. Several times throughout my life I’ve contemplated the fact that I’m just following the path someone else set for me, but is that really what I want? Can I even say no if it isn’t? And when does the monotony of endless tasks end? When do we get to be genuinely happy? Will that ever even happen?

Maybe this is the wrong platform to pose this question given the average tumblr user but

Is it just me or did our generation (those of is who are currently 20-30 ish) just not get the opportunity to be young in the 'standard' sense?

Like, everyone I talk to who's over 40 has all their wild stories about their teens and 20s, being young and dumb, and then I talk to my friends and coworkers and classmates, and we just... dont.

[nutraexperts]

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Semenhance Review

When it comes to enhancing your sexual health, I know there are a lot of options out there.

You might be wondering if there's something that actually works.

Semenhance is one product that's been getting some buzz lately.

It's marketed as a way to improve semen volume and overall sexual performance.

Let’s break down what it’s all about.

What Is Semenhance?

Semenhance is a supplement designed specifically for men looking to boost their sexual health.

The idea behind these semenhance pills is simple: increase the amount of semen produced during ejaculation.

This can lead to more intense orgasms and improved satisfaction for both partners.

Now, I get it—there's always skepticism when it comes to supplements.

But let's look at what sets Semenhance apart from the rest.

Ingredients That Matter

The formula includes several key ingredients known for their benefits in male reproductive health:

L-Arginine: This amino acid helps improve blood flow, which can enhance erections.

Zinc: Essential for testosterone production, which plays a huge role in libido.

Maca Root: A natural aphrodisiac that may boost sexual desire and stamina.

Tribulus Terrestris: Often used in traditional medicine, this herb may help increase testosterone levels.

Each ingredient has its own unique benefits, working together to support overall sexual function.

How Do Semenhance Pills Work?

Taking semenhance pills is straightforward. You typically take them daily with water.

Over time, users report noticeable changes in their semen volume and intensity of orgasms.

I’ve heard stories from guys who were skeptical at first but decided to give it a shot anyway.

One guy named Mark, 32 years old, said:

“I was hesitant because I've tried other products before with no luck. But after a month on Semenhance, I noticed a big difference! My partner even commented on how much more intense everything felt.”

That kind of feedback speaks volumes!

Benefits Beyond Volume

Sure, increasing semen volume is great—but the benefits don’t stop there:

Enhanced Libido: Many users report feeling more sexually charged.

Improved Confidence: Knowing you’re performing at your best can do wonders for self-esteem.

Better Orgasms: More volume often leads to stronger orgasms—who wouldn’t want that?

Overall Sexual Health Support: The blend of ingredients promotes not just quantity but quality too.

Real-Life Experiences with Semenhance

Hearing from real users makes all the difference when considering something like this.

Another testimonial comes from James, 28:

“I didn’t think much would change after taking Semenhance, but wow! The results were beyond my expectations—more volume and better control!”

These stories aren’t just marketing fluff; they reflect genuine experiences from people who took the plunge and found success with these pills.

Why Choose Semenhance Over Others?

With so many options available today, why should you choose Semenhance?

Here’s what I think makes it stand out:

Proven Ingredients: Backed by research and known for their effectiveness.

Positive User Feedback: Real testimonials show that people are experiencing actual results.

Easy To Use: Just pop a pill daily—no complicated routines or drastic lifestyle changes needed.

Money-Back Guarantee: It shows confidence in their product; if you’re not happy after trying it out, you can get your money back!

Final Thoughts on Semenhance Review

If you're looking for something that could genuinely enhance your sexual experience without complicating your life too much, give these pills a try.

With positive feedback and an easy-to-follow regimen, it's worth exploring what they can do for you.

Don’t let hesitation hold you back—your journey towards enhanced sexual health might just start with one small step: trying out semenhance today!

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Semenhance Pills

When it comes to enhancing your sexual health, semenhance pills have been making waves.

You might wonder, "Are they really effective?"

Let's break down how you can purchase and use these pills for the best results.

Where to Buy Semenhance Pills

Finding the right place to buy semenhance is crucial.

You want a reliable source that guarantees quality.

The best option is their official website.

Here’s why:

Authenticity: You get genuine products without worrying about counterfeits.

Promotions: They often have discounts or special offers that you won’t find elsewhere.

Customer Support: If you have questions or concerns, their support team is there to help.

I remember when I first decided to try them out.

I went straight to the official site and felt confident in my choice.

How to Use Semenhance Pills Effectively

Using semenhance pills is straightforward, but following a few guidelines can enhance your experience.

Dosage Matters: Stick to the recommended dosage on the packaging.

Typically, it’s one pill taken daily.

Timing Is Key: Take your pill at the same time every day.

This helps build consistency and keeps your routine on track.

Stay Hydrated: Drink plenty of water throughout the day.

It aids absorption and keeps everything functioning smoothly.

Pair with a Healthy Lifestyle:

A balanced diet and regular exercise can amplify the effects of the pills.

I spoke with Mark, 32, who shared his journey:

“I started taking semenhance about three months ago. I noticed improvements within weeks! Just sticking to my routine made all the difference.”

What Results Can You Expect?

So what happens after using these pills?

Many users report noticeable changes in a short period.

Here are some benefits you might experience:

Improved stamina

Enhanced libido

Increased satisfaction during intimacy

Sarah, 28, mentioned her experience:

“After just a month of semenhance, I felt more energetic and confident than ever before!”

These testimonials highlight how effective these pills can be when used correctly.

Safety Considerations with Semenhance

It’s essential to address safety while using any supplement like semenhance.

While many people enjoy positive results, it's wise to keep a few things in mind:

Consult with your doctor if you're on medication or have health concerns.

Be aware of potential side effects like mild headaches or digestive issues—these are rare but possible.

Most importantly, listen to your body as you start this journey!

Why Choose Semenhance Over Other Options?

With so many products out there promising similar results, why should you choose semenhance?

Here's what sets it apart:

It's formulated with natural ingredients known for their effectiveness.

The brand has built trust through consistent quality over time.

Plus, user reviews consistently highlight satisfaction levels that surpass competitors’.

John, 40 years old, said:

“I tried other brands before but never saw results like this! Semenhance has been a game changer for me.”

This kind of feedback speaks volumes about its efficacy and reliability.

Wrapping Up Your Experience with Semenhance Pills

Purchasing and using semenhance pills doesn’t have to be complicated.

Stick with reputable sources for buying them and follow simple usage guidelines for optimal results.

Remember that everyone's body reacts differently; give yourself time to see changes.

If you're looking for an enhancement in your sexual health journey—this could be exactly what you need!

Don’t wait too long; check out those deals on their website today!

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Semenhance: The Game Changer for Your Sexual Health

Let’s chat about something that’s on a lot of minds but rarely gets enough attention—sexual health.

If you’re feeling like your performance isn’t what it used to be, you’re not alone.

I’ve been there too.

It can be frustrating when things don’t seem to work the way they should.

That’s where Semenhance comes into play.

This product has been making waves, and I want to break down what makes it stand out in the crowded market of supplements.

What Is Semenhance?

Semenhance pills are designed specifically to boost sexual health and enhance overall performance.

They focus on improving semen volume, which can lead to more satisfying experiences for both you and your partner.

This isn’t just another supplement; it’s a carefully crafted solution aimed at addressing real concerns.

Why Choose Semenhance?

When I first heard about Semenhance, I was sceptical.

Like most products out there, it promised a lot. But then I started digging deeper and found some compelling reasons why this could be worth considering:

Natural Ingredients:

It uses a blend of natural ingredients that have been studied for their effectiveness.

No harsh chemicals or artificial additives here.

User Testimonials:

Real people sharing their experiences make all the difference.

“After using Semenhance, I noticed a significant increase in volume within just a few weeks. My partner and I couldn’t believe the difference!” — Mark, 32

Increased Confidence:

Many users report feeling more confident during intimate moments.

“I felt like myself again after trying these pills. It’s amazing how much confidence plays into everything.” — James, 28

The Benefits You Can Expect from Semenhance Pills

Now let’s get into what you might really want to know—what can Semenhance pills do for you? Here are some benefits that stood out to me:

Enhanced Volume:

Users often notice an increase in semen production.

This isn’t just about quantity; it can also mean better quality experiences.

Better Performance:

Many have reported improvements in stamina and endurance.

Feeling more energetic means better performance overall.

Improved Libido:

Some ingredients help boost testosterone levels naturally.

A higher libido can lead to more frequent intimate moments.

Faster Recovery:

If you're someone who needs time between sessions, these pills may help speed up recovery times.

Overall Wellbeing:

It's not just about sex; many users feel an overall improvement in their mood and energy levels as well.

How Does Semenhance Work?

The magic behind Semenhance lies in its unique formula:

Ingredients like L-Arginine help improve blood flow.

Herbal extracts support hormonal balance.

Antioxidants protect against oxidative stress which is crucial for reproductive health.

Understanding how these elements work together helps demystify why this product is effective for so many people.

Real-Life Transformations with Semenhance

Hearing from real users makes everything feel more tangible, doesn’t it?

Here are some stories that caught my attention:

“I was hesitant at first, but after taking Semenhance, my partner noticed the change immediately! It felt great knowing we were both enjoying ourselves more.” — David, 35

“Honestly thought it was all hype until I tried it myself. Now it's part of my daily routine!” — Chris, 40

These aren’t just testimonials—they’re proof that this product works for everyday guys looking to spice things up again.

Final Thoughts on Semenhance Review

So here we are—after diving deep into what makes Semenhance tick, it's clear this isn't just another run-of-the-mill supplement.

It's designed with intention and backed by genuine user experiences that speak volumes (pun intended).

If you're feeling stuck or unsatisfied with your current situation regarding sexual health, give these pills a shot.

You might find exactly what you've been searching for—a way back to confidence and satisfaction in your life!

Don't wait around any longer; take charge now!

👉 BUY SEMENHANCE AND ENJOY ORAL BLISS

FAQ

What is SemEnhance?

SemEnhance is a dietary supplement designed to support male reproductive health. It's made with natural ingredients that aim to enhance semen quality and overall vitality.

How do I take SemEnhance pills?

The recommended dosage is usually two pills a day, taken with water. It’s best to follow the instructions on the label or consult with your healthcare provider for personalised advice.

Are there any side effects of using SemEnhance?

Most users report no significant side effects, as it contains natural ingredients. However, some might experience mild stomach upset or allergic reactions. Always check the ingredient list if you have allergies.

How long does it take to see results from SemEnhance?

Results can vary from person to person. Some may notice improvements within a few weeks, while others might take longer. Consistency is key here; stick with it for the best chance of seeing benefits.

Can I use SemEnhance alongside other supplements?

Generally, yes. But it’s always wise to chat with your doctor before mixing supplements. They can help ensure there's no overlap that could cause issues.

Where can I buy SemEnhance?

You can find SemEnhance online through various retailers and on their official website. Just make sure you’re buying from a reputable source to avoid counterfeit products.

Is SemEnhance suitable for everyone?

While it's formulated for adult men looking to improve their reproductive health, those with specific medical conditions should consult a healthcare professional first.

Does SemEnhance really work?

Many users share positive feedback about their experiences, citing improved semen quality and increased energy levels. Individual results will vary based on lifestyle and body chemistry.

What are the main ingredients in SemEnhance?

SemEnhance typically includes a blend of vitamins, minerals, and herbal extracts known for supporting reproductive health like zinc, L-arginine, and maca root.

Is there a money-back guarantee for SemEnhance?

Yes, many retailers offer a money-back guarantee if you're not satisfied within a certain timeframe. Check the return policy when purchasing so you know what to expect if it doesn’t meet your needs.

👉 BUY SEMENHANCE AND ELEVATE YOUR PLEASURE

[lesser-mook]

DUNE PART TWO (Recommendation: Round 2) *light spoilers

Went in for another watch: I wasn’t tripping, this is definitely Jesus parallel/more so Anti-Christ propaganda. On the level of The Matrix, which is what this is, this generations Matrix. (also Jesus imagery/Anti-Christ/transhumanist propaganda)

Dune is worthy of that position too; Cause think about it, it’s accomplishing a level of epic the MCU took 10 years to build up to.

There’s no, and I mean NO REASON why the stakes, the action, and the characters of DUNE (movieverse) are this good when not only is Disney trying so hard to do the exact same thing AGAIN and failing —

But this is custom lore a lot of people aren’t even familiar with, this isn’t a superhero or a anime adaptation, this is coming from some book I’ve never even heard of and it’s this good? (Not a masterpiece, it’s just well made)

Both propaganda, (Matrix /Dune movies) don’t get it twisted but they’re good, except Matrix 4, that was ass.

Reverend Mother said it best:

“There are no sides”, none.

Just the order, in chaos. And if there is no chaos, well well well, better brace yourself because we’ll create a tragedy to course correct.

(Said the person part of an elite group manipulating events of the world and pulling strings, wiping out bloodlines, breeding their own followers with certain people in power to artificially bring forth a force from the “outer world”. They’re literally telling you what’s going on.)

Both propaganda, but one works & the other doesn’t (Sequel trilogy, Phase 4 MCU).

Why? because them being female isn’t their stake in the setting or their stake in your mind as you’re watching it, they’re just good characters first, people first & it registers to you as normal, not woke. Not exceptional because they’re women.

I didn’t really pay attention the first time but Florence did a good job as Irulan, channeling that mature wisdom of a leader in the making. She’s pretty smart (not in the way that modern society WANTS girls to be smart which is a Scientist or something, she’s intelligent politically and well read) and after she explained her case of the dangers of downplaying prophecy, religion & martyrdom and what that means to people wanting hope — To the Emperor. He said she’d make a fine Empress.

And he’s right. It’s easy to miss what she’s doing (actually) in the story, you see Florence ofc, but Irulan is easy to miss. That’s because the story doesn’t over-inflate her importance, when she’s more significant than she appears.

Point being, she’s a royal with a conscience (a good example of a decent person on the side of the “enemy”), she’s here & there throughout the story, being the voice of reason even to Reverend Mother, until she’s face to face, not with Paul but Muad’Dib.

Everything she said and did led up to her facing him, a force of nature of a man. Completely different animal. And both of them told the exact same thing (“Strategic alliance”)

The story begins with Irulan and it ends with Chani.

Why doesn’t the movie inflate the fact that they’re strong women? Because the movie doesn’t treat you like an idiot. That’s how it should be done.

It’s not putting them on a pedestal like many woke productions, or bending them over the couch for the sake of pandering like in Anime. Two different extremes.

Yes, Chani mentions that the Fremen way is that men and women are equal or (how any competent society should be functioning). If anyone reaches to say that’s woke? (I’m not even going to entertain that, or be smartass. Just relax. That line doesn’t mean what you think it means/ And this is coming from a mf who’s calling this Anti-Christ propaganda, so IF I’m saying the line wasn’t that deep, then it wasn’t that deep.)

Cause if you wanted to nitpick? That’s easy bait, when it’s really not.

Overall, this reminds me of Aaron Ehasz’ writing chops, how a Live Action Avatar The Last Airbender should be written.

Paul survived a genocide just like Aang but “Usul” is going in a very different direction:

Unlike Deku & Aang, Muad’Dib is not here to make friends, appeal to your inner child or some shit or hand out mercy for nothing in return.

But you’ll see what I mean. Paul is a little Gary Stu-ish (on purpose, hence the chosen one narrative. One of the signs is that he knows some of the Fremen way without being taught. Neo was a gary stu too.)

Yet the guy (Paul) still has to be taught, like Neo & Aang, he’s not perfect. He cries, he gets pissed, he doubts himself, he’s human still.)

Not a perfect little angel like Deku (who cried way too much, gets pissed only when convenient but when abused by the same guy his entire life) or unless it was time to make a CRaZy FacE during a fight. Please.

DUNE PT 1–2, Not as groundbreaking as The Matrix, not even close.

But given the fact that this has an almost 200 million lower budget than Endgame and is a better film than Endgame in story, (some) visuals, direction, writing and effects?

So yes, still a decent little movie, outside the realm of conspiracy.

Part One did it’s justice setting the groundwork, which is why it felt dry or boring for some people.

It got the work done, so the second could come out swinging, which is why the pacing felt so much better in this movie, it started right in the thick of the plot. The work was done already.

The level of foreshadowing in this movie, throughout? Is insane (PT 1 too). I counted it somewhat, the most throwaway line or an establishing shot you’d easily miss or overlook as random or an artistic decision, sets up something that will happen later, or in a couple of minutes; Or the next movie, and no I’m not even talking about Paul’s dreams.

Visual foreshadowing, visual storytelling. Vision. Not agenda shoved down your throat, not blatantly anyway. If you want to sell people propaganda without them rejecting it?

Make it good & wait for them call it a “masterpiece” or something. (People won’t question what they like, because bias lowers your defenses. That’s warfare for the mind, The Matrix mentioned something similar.)

But? When he goes Lisan-Al Gaib mode? And his speech scene in the southern temple? (my fav scene in the movie, how it began, the scene that led up to it, his stride, that shot, the MUSIC. Jfc, Hans Zimmer.)

Projecting his voice, like a godly apparition in human form. His aggression, body-language, he’s not asking, he’s telling you what’s going to happen.

The man can see timelines without an Infinity Stone, the LAST thing he wants to hear is someone informing him he has to kill one of his many mentors because of “tradition”, ALL just to speak his mind in a gathering.

Yeah, anyone would get pissed when all they’ve been hearing is “Prophecy, prophecy, prophecy” for the past imma say…(3 months toa year)

That entire scene was him embracing the role, while expressing his frustration that he had to do it at all.

He sells it 100%, reminds me a lot of Jesus roasting the priests in the temple. Same exact situation. Some other hang ups I have would be:

We never get to see exactly how Worm Riders dismount their Worms, we’re never shown how they get off. Especially how they manage to get a pregnant woman & crowd on and off one of those behemoths.

The Voice, as a concept is too broken. There should’ve been some kind of criteria like if you try to use it on someone who can also use it, it can be countered or something (Like “The Force”). Or you risk injuring your vocal chords if abused etc. It’s way too broken, you can win pretty much any fight by just commanding them to die. It’s basically Lelouch’s Geass

Paul is a sympathetic MC, he’s cool, he’s a bookworm, it’s good to see him learn something from others (to negate too much gary-stu energy), he’s like the quiet, nice kid in class. But he’s not all that interesting, that is until he transitions and he starts carrying himself a little differently. Pretentious? Sure, Messiah complex to the max, but again, consider his frustration with the whole thing. And he’s got the energy to make people follow, and I’m interested to see what he does next, that’s the point essentially. He’s not that engaging until he is.

PART TWO is worth the money because it’s 2 films in one, surprisingly well paced. But there in itself lies an issue, there’s a lot going on in just this one movie that could’ve been fleshed out. As you notice, there’s very subtle points where time-skips are implied, like Maud’Dib’s reputation, we didn’t really get to see how Usul got that reputation just that the name means something infamous to the Harkonnen’s at a point, so much so that that’s how they address him, like he’s Robin Hood or Captain America during the Civil War Arc (books). But it works because it keeps the movie from being 3 hours, but definitely skimmed over some things.

Some of the fight choreography has some chinks in the armor in the bigger scenes, like a character’s back it turned to someone who’s facing them and they don’t strike. The combat is overall solid, but that (in any movie) drives me nuts, and I saw it on my first viewing lol. But I won’t specify when or where, I don’t wanna ruin it. Because I can’t unsee it myself.

I find it very, VERY unlikely that the Harkonnen’s wouldn’t have a contingency for The Sand “Demons”/ Worms by now. Nukes exist, space ships, personal shields, hover jet packs, but not an Orbital Rail gun? Or a mounted Rail gun on a base wall? Fishy. Awfully convenient. (Harkonnen’s would have my ass in R&D because that’d be my first question to Chain of Command “What if we simply designed-”)

This is not a masterpiece, it’s a well made movie with an interesting parallel to The Matrix, very very well composed (Props to Hans Zimmer), well acted, the setting & story are interesting for what it is and how ambitious it is.

And very ominous overtones that caught my eye.

Might shill it again another time.

I recommend you watch it in theaters at least once before it goes.

If you have tinnitus or something, DO NOT brave IMAX.

That shit gets so loud it physically assaults you sometimes.

And if not, then enjoy it however you can get to it. It’s the same movie wherever you watch it.

TMI: I personally ignored the first movie when it dropped, “Paul’s Dream” OST somehow found it’s way to me via a playlist in 2022, finally watched PART ONE March 2024, then I was impressed with what PART ONE was setting up, and the sequel impressed me more —

So, If this is trying to be a Trilogy, I’m definitely going to have eyes on that 3rd installment.

Because Paul’s Dream in PART ONE regarding what Chani does to him, definitely makes more sense given not only — how uneasy she was the moment he broke off from the worm caravan suddenly to (do what he did), what he did in the temple, and how scorned she was later on (won’t specify) —

We can only imagine what else he's going to do that (might) lead to her making that call.

And that’s an “if” because Paul says to Jessica (after the attack, tent scene) he saw his death but claims that’s not what it means. 

And it also makes sense in context of the story. The knife was given to him by Chani, and to begin his journey to become Kwisatz: Paul had to die through killing another (Jamis). Killing another is killing himself. So the vision’s meaning was likely isolated to PART ONE’s plot, but it’s something to keep in mind for potential PART THREE.

It’s funny, cause My Hero spoils the ending in just the second episode, it doesn’t work because there’s no narrative point to it, doesn’t progress or fit the kind of story that it is.

Like Spider-man 2002 didn’t begin with Peter saying he’s Spider-Man, it began with a question:

"Who am I?"

It ENDED with him saying who he is, answering the question, because narratively, it makes more sense to hear it AFTER we see the goddamn story, and what he just sacrificed to be who he is. All to justify the answer to the question:

I bet you before now, you didn't really even think that hard on Peter's question making sense to that extent until now lol. That's how subtle it is.

Tangent: (Horikoshi copied other people’s homework without knowing why their shit worked in the first place, in context. The man at heart was a fanboy of A LOT of franchises, and you can see it in the entire story *He named a street after "Tatooine"* But his execution & ideas needed more time to mature. His mistake was getting involved with Shonen Jump before he had it figured out and or getting involved with them at all.)

Otherwise, main reason SM2002 narration works: Is because it isn’t a fantasy film with prophetic elements, it’s a superhero title and it didn't spoil anything.

For that MHA story, us knowing Deku becomes the greatest hero contributes to nothing, because for that story, that doesn’t make sense to know it that goddamn soon.

But in this story, with visions & prophecies, all these biblical parallels, knowing what happens in fragments, works because of how the film executes it, the setting is compatible with it — hooks you to keep watching, some visions are proven right. So for the audience that gives us a sense of progress and achievement even though all we’re doing is watching, we’re not doing anything, It’s very immersive. 

Like J.J Abrams “Mystery Box” technique but it’s not shit.

Hence why, DUNE: The movies, so far, are already a better Sequel Trilogy than the Sequel Trilogy of Star Wars. Because like EPISODE 7, PART ONE was just 100% Set up and foundation. And PART TWO was basically EP8-9, and now we might get another.

2 ways to technically spoil events here, but 2 out of 3 examples work. Because the storytelling methodology are completely different.

MHA was just copying an aesthetic without understand why the original worked (which is why the story began promising but ended up a narrative failure)

DUNE is compatible with it because the story itself already has mystic/biblical/prophetic elements, so it’s compatible with the trope

And for Spider-Man 2002 specifically, it didn’t jump the gun before the story was even finished in the writing room. There was a long-term point to the narration and the question.

It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.

[aisha-ot]

Well hello there everyone, long time no see …

I’m back and I hope you’re ready because we’re about to catch the flight of a lifetime.

I’m currently in my final year of studying Occupational Therapy (I know right, I still can’t process it). This year entails a number of new experiences and I can’t wait to share it all with you.

This week I want to start off with something that I think is one of the most important things to talk about seeing as I’m in a block that deals with it directly. The health of mothers and children, specifically looking at mothers and children living in communities like the one I’m working in.

My first block this year is community block. And, let me tell you, WOAH. It is a big change and a lot of work and many things to wrap my head around. I cant lie, I’ve had around 4 crying sessions so far, but we all know that’s how I cope. Cry and get back to work. It’s a good tactic in my opinion.

Back to my point, maternal and child health within the community.

I read an interesting article when thinking about how to go about this discussion that I think would be a great way to understand a mother so that we can also then understand how it affects our work as OT’s. I’ll add the link below so that you can also take a look at it.

The main thing I wanted to take from the article was that a mother is seen in different ways at different levels (Common Good, 2022).

A mother as an individual has personal experiences, struggles and problems that plays a part in how they function in their day to day lives. This can speak to their identity, their self-esteem and their overall mental health. This is so important to understand because let’s take us for example, when we’re upset or we’re sad or if we aren’t feeling good in our own skin, we sometimes don’t feel like doing anything or we don’t feel like leaving our rooms. Let me know if I’m right or if I’m talking rubbish.

I hope that what I said makes sense. But now let’s think about mothers, imagine feeling all of what was said above and not wanting to do anything, but you have a whole human being to take care of that needs your support. I’m hoping that my point is starting to take shape in your minds at this point. When looking at a mother as an individual we have to consider how their personal health and mental health can be affecting the care and development of their child. A mothers poor personal and mental health in turn has a negative effect on the child’s overall health. This is one of the reasons at to why maternal health is so important, especially to Occupational Therapists. We need to focus on mothers and intervene in any way we can in order to prevent a domino effect of further issues developing as time goes on.

(Waters, 2022)

(PSA: this is not what a mum and child’s environment looks like in a South African community setting!!)

Before we move on to the other 2 levels of a mother, I do want to touch on something I’ve learnt this week that links to our role as Occupational Therapist’s. It’s so easy for us to get sucked in to stories from our clients and to feel an overwhelming sense of sympathy and need to help in any way we can. I think I can sometimes get a bit carried away in this aspect. I’ll be completely honest here and tell you that I forget my role as an OT and feel this need to just give them whatever they need to help them in that moment.

BIG MISTAKE.

From all the lessons I’ve learnt this week (which was a lot, might I add), I think the one thing that sticks out to me is that, yes, we do need to find out personal information about our clients and, yes, we do need to dig deeper and see the hidden meanings. But in a community context, when we’re trying to provide a service to so many people in need of it, acting like a counselor is not what is going to fix things. Listening to a mothers story about the trauma she’s been through and letting her cry for 20 minutes in our session is not going to change anything. What is going to make a difference is asking the tough questions, finding the root cause of the problems and developing solutions that is surely to show change.

However, I read an article that expresses a thought that somewhat contradicts what I’ve just said. The link is attached below for those of you that want to expand your knowledge.

Let’s get into it. Ann A. Wilcock wrote an article about occupational science and within it she explains that transformation is the path to well-being, especially because it doesn’t focus on the “mundane” aspects of a persons life but rather on their dreams of aspirations (Wilcock, 2005).

This is a safe space, so I’m going to outright say that I do not agree with what she’s said. That’s because when we look at our South African community, so many mothers and families are suffering from a number of problems. Poverty, gender based violence, HIV/AIDS and the list goes on. In my opinion, our role as Occupational Therapists is to improve their lives in any way we can, even if that means focusing on the simple every day needs and problems faced by the mother, not to “transform” their lives and help them achieve their biggest hopes and dreams. I feel like that concept is somewhat unrealistic. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, I’d love to hear if you disagree, let’s argue…

I think it’s time I move on to the other 2 levels of a mother and try to wrap this up.

Let’s talk about the last two levels together because I think they somewhat link. Level 2 is the mother within the household and level 3 is the mother within the community.

What does the home look like? Is the father present? Does the father treat the mother and child right? Is the mother exposed to HIV/AIDS? Does the mother have the resources available for her to raise her child? Is there an income that the mother is living off? Is she working? Where does she leave her child? Is she able to access a doctor when the child gets sick? Can she get HIV/AIDS medication in her community? Is there a stigma of HIV within the community? Is there violence in the community? Is she safe in her home?

(Stats SA, 2014/15)

As of 2014/2015, 49.2% of South African’s have been living in poverty (Stats SA, 2014/15), and it’s most likely increased from then. This statistic is so clearly prominent in the community that I’m based in.

Out of all the mothers and children that I have seen this week, I can tell you that more than half of them are HIV positive, majority are single mothers, gender based violence is an underlying factor that mothers are trying to hide, they are struggling with generating an income and some are living off government grants and the community that they live in often threatens their safety.

The same goes for children in our South African communities. There’s another blog post from the Sikunye blog I’ve linked above that briefly explains the tragic reality of our children in South Africa, I think it’s a great quick read to understand just how many issues our communities face. It highlights that poverty, malnutrition, infectious diseases (HIV), stress, violence, psychosocial risks and disrupted caregiving are all risks to a child’s development (Common Good, 2024).

These are all factors that we as Occupational Therapists need to consider as each factor impacts the well-being of both the mother and the child. And we as Occupational Therapists have an important role to play in using the community based approach to improve the mother and child’s well-being.

To end off, I want to reiterate that we cannot be superhero’s and help everyone achieve their biggest hopes and dreams. But what we can do is use our knowledge, use our theories and our experiential learning and growth to find the root cause of the problems we see and change the seed that is grown, the soil it’s planted in and the water that’s used to grow it (my sincere apologies, I just laughed at myself for being that cringe). But the analogy makes sense, our role as OT’s is to be client centered and to have a community based approach which means we need to focus on the mother and child, their environment and the macro factors that impact their development and growth.

That’s all for today folks. Please let me know your thoughts on the comments, let’s interact and learn together. I’ll be back soon with more stories and OT life lessons, I hope to see you back here again.

References

Five Facts About Poverty in South Africa. Statssa.gov.za. (2015). https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12075

Good, C. (2022, April 20). What is it like being a mother in South Africa?. Sikunye. https://sikunye.org.za/blog/what-is-it-like-being-a-mother-in-south-africa/

Good, C. (2024, January 21). The big why behind the sikunye model. Sikunye. https://sikunye.org.za/blog/the-big-why-behind-the-sikunye-model/

Waters, D. (2022, April 26). What is postnatal depression and what treatment is available?. GoodTo. https://www.goodto.com/family/postnatal-depression-115582

Wilcock, A. A. (2005). Occupational science: Bridging occupation and health. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 72(1), 5–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/000841740507200105

[erin-bo-berin]

Fluff request: Steve and the Reader at karaoke with the older teens: Eddie, Jonathan, Nancy, Argyle, Robin, Jonathan. (Could Chrissy also be there? In an AU where she didn’t die?)

I’m so glad you requested this! I feel like I don’t often write too much about the older teens other than Robin and I’ve written a bit of Nancy in a few fics here and there, but I’d love to write about Eddie, Johnathan, Argyle AND Chrissy!

I’m also going to pretend it’s 1987 so set a year later because I HAVE to include Never Gonna Give You Up somehow in this.

Karaoke Night

Steve Harrington x Reader ft. Robin, Eddie, Nancy, Jonathan, Argyle & Chrissy

“When the kids are away, the parents will play,” Eddie grinned, leading your entire group into the karaoke bar.

“You act like you have kids, dude,” Argyle said, “Aren’t they technically Steve’s?”

“Not this again,” Steve grumbled.

You laughed at your friends’ and boyfriend’s banter.

It was true though, it wasn’t often the entire group of older teens got to hang out all together. But tonight had been planned well in advance when Robin found out a new karaoke bar had just opened in town.

Besides you, Steve, Eddie and Argyle—who had joined the group after befriending Jonathan—joining you were Nancy, Jonathan, Chrissy and of course, Robin.

“I’m amazed he isn’t high,” Chrissy giggled to you, nodding towards Argyle.

Argyle was definitely one who liked his marijuana. He spent at least ninety percent of his life in a fog, but somehow he still functioned.

“Give him time. Two songs in and he’ll already have a blunt,” you commented dryly.

“I’m sure Eddie hooked him up,” Robin said, stopping to join the conversation.

“Now this is what I’m talking about,” Eddie said, opening the doors to the bar, “Cheap beer, live entertainment and a good time!”

“Righteous,” Argyle slurred.

“Did…did he sneak a blunt between the parking lot and here?” you asked, amazed.

Then again, you couldn’t fault the long haired, brightly dressed boy. His own personality was as similar as his personality while high so it was often hard to differentiate the two.

“Slow acting weed?” Jonathan shrugged.

He was probably the most used to Argyle. He was newer to the group of the teens, but he was a lot of fun regardless.

“This is your idea of a good time?” Nancy asked, clearly amused, glancing at Robin and Eddie.

“You’re not too good for a dive bar, are you Wheeler?” Eddie asked.

“No, but I am firmly against embarrassing yourself because of karaoke,” she said, waving her hands in front of her, shaking her head.

“Just wait until you get a few drinks in you,” Steve said, “You get pretty crazy after a drink or two.”

You tried to bite back a laugh. It was true, as you and Steve had double dates with Jonathan and Nancy before. There had been instances where she’d had a drink too many.

Wild, was pushing it. She just got ironically stern and giggly. It was hilarious.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get drunk,” Chrissy appeared next to you, a drink already in her hand.

“That was fast,” you said, shocked.

Chrissy was also another person that could surprise you. She may have been a cheerleader in high school, popular to the point of appearing high and mighty, but the blonde hair, blue eyed girl was easy to hang out with and she loved to let loose sometimes.

“I was perusing the drink menu. I refuse to drink something that tastes like piss,” she shuddered.

“Thank you!” you exclaimed, “That’s what I tell Steve. I refuse to drink the stuff.”

“Y/N likes those fruity drinks,” Steve rolled his eyes, “She can’t handle anything hard.”

“I handle your dick just fine, thank you.”

Chrissy choked on her drink, Eddie spat out the beer he was swigging from and the rest of the group cackled.

“She got you, man,” Argyle laughed, patting him on the shoulder, “Say, is that Dolly Parton?”

Everyone turned to see a blonde woman on karaoke singing 9 to 5.

“No, dude. It’s just a random woman,” Jonathan said, “Let’s go get drinks.”

“I’ll take whatever he’s having,” Eddie mumbled.

“So, are we really going to do karaoke?” Nancy asked.

“You don’t have to do it sober,” you shrugged, “Maybe you and Jonathan can do a duet.”

“God, no. He can’t carry a tune in a bucket,” Nancy replied.

“And you think any of us can? That’s the fun of it,” Robin said slinging her arm around Nancy’s shoulders, “Come on, let’s go see what they have to drink.”

After everyone had dispersed into their own little groups—Nancy, Jonathan and Argyle at one table, Eddie, Robin and Chrissy at another, you settled with Steve.

Instead of letting you sit next to him, he pulled you into his lap, wrapping an arm around you.

“Very funny with that smartass remark earlier,” he whispered into your hair.

You shrugged nonchalantly.

“I spoke the truth. You didn’t clarify exactly you were talking about liquor.”

“Uh oh,” Steve said motioning to the stage as you sipped on your drink, “Argyle is first up.”

Argyle’s was arguably the best rendition you’d heard yet in the bar that night.

“He really chose Pass The Dutchie,” you laughed, wiping your face as tears streamed from how hard you laughed.

It wasn’t the song choice that was so hilarious, but the fact that instead of singing to the reggae styled song, he was instead reciting it like it was a epic poem with the straightest face you’d ever seen.

You and your friends cheered him on from your seats, applauding wilding when he was done. A stranger was so entertained he even asked Argyle for an encore, which unfortunately he turned down.

“Only when the mood hits, friend,” Argyle said in his chill tone, his excuse for why he didn’t perform a second song.

“More like when the weed hits,” Steve mumbled, holding back his laugh and you hit his chest, giggling.

You weren’t one to drink much, so you were nursing your first drink, but the fizzy bubbles were going to your head and you were feeling slightly tipsy.

“Material Girl is next!” Robin called, “Y/N, you wanna join?”

“Hell yeah!” you whooped.

You stood from Steve’s lap and he gave you a cheeky pat on the ass before you ran to the stage.

“No, no, no, no thank you,” Nancy was whining then started giggling.

“Oh no, she’s halfway through drink two by now,” you laughed, “Come on Nance, it’ll be fun.”

“Fine. But I’m not driving home then,” she said seriously.

“We wouldn’t bother you with that,” Robin sat patting her on the shoulder.

The song began and it was most likely a disaster. The three of you sang, shout and giggled through the entire thing, but you had the time of your life dancing and singing your heart out. Steve tipped his beer bottle in your direction laughing as you waved like a little kid seeing her parent in the crowd.

You took another turn with Chrissy afterwards and performed your heart out to The Beach Boys’ version of California Dreamin’.

Nancy, Jonathan and surprisingly, Eddie absolutely cracked you up when the group decided on Rick Astley’s new song Never Gonna Give You Up.

When you and Robin took another turn, you picked Take On Me.

The night passed with cheers and laughter and so much hilarity.

“Is there any Metallica on this thing?” Eddie had called to the bartender at one point, who’d just shrugged.

Somehow, he managed to do an epic performance of Master of Puppets.

You even got Steve on stage to do a song or two, after some begging.

“You owe me blow jobs for a month,” he huffed, though you knew he didn’t totally mean it.

But he sang Toto’s Africa with you, being a good sport since it was one of your favorite songs.

Song after song went by.

Def Leopard’s Pour Some Sugar On Me was quite the performance with you and Eddie dueting.

“Woo! That’s my girl!” Steve had hollered at one point.

More hits were performed by you and your friends: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Don’t Stop Believin’, Eye Of The Tiger, your entire party of 8 even crowded the stage to sing Mr. Telephone Man.

“Mr. Telephone Man, there’s something wrong with my line, when I dial my baby’s number, I get a click every time!” you sang with the group, sashaying over to Steve, making the telephone motion to your ear, pouting at him.

He grinned, grabbing your arm with his free hand, spinning you around in front of him before catching you with an arm around the waist, dipping you and kissing you passionately the moment the song was over.

The crowd cheered and wolf whistled as Steve righted you, smiling bigger than you’d ever seen.

The night came to a close with another amazing poetry performance from Argyle who somehow managed to make a spoken, poetic version of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill sound beautiful.

The entire group was laughing as you all stumbled out of the bar, the moon now shining high in the sky at well past midnight. You smiled at Steve, who’d slung his arm around you lazily. He’d sobered up a bit from being a little too drunk earlier when all he did was be all clingy and cuddly and tell you repeatedly how much he loved you. It was quite adorable.

“We definitely need to do this again soon.”

[navree]

you know, the one big thing that some of these time jumps really messed up is that, if you think about it for more than five seconds, aemond has the restraint of a saint for not being on the constant edge of murder. 

aemond, at the age of, at maximum, ten, gets set upon by four other people who are angry at him for no reason (“aemond stole vhagar!” the fuck he did, the only reason you should have to actually think that is if you too are a grieving eight year old, anyone else on the planet knows that vhagar chose aemond we literally saw her do it be serious). he doesn’t start this conflict or is the first to escalate it to violence, despite getting a bit too harsh verbally, and after defending himself and getting pissed off, loses an eye. a full eye. in a pseudo medieval society where we have to see him get stitched up with zero anesthetic at all, and where the entire meeting to talk about the fact that he lost a full eye devolves into how the real crime here was a throwaway insult, while he’s standing here without an eye and the only person who seems to care is just his mom (let’s not even touch on the fact that a thirty year old woman starts demanding the ten year old be “questioned sharply” which is basically westerosi euphemism for tortured or at least threatened to be tortured after having lost an eye as if no one else was able to decipher the magic of big b little b)

that’s what we have in canon. and it’s really not that hard to deduce that in the near decade after that, life got really, really hard for aemond. for one, this is a pseudo medieval society where the king has basically been publicly dying a death by a thousand badly treated cuts for multiple years, that cut took a long time to heal and it didn’t do so painlessly, and the fact that aemond didn’t get any infection and die or turn into a mini viserys is a miracle, but also a had to be a very long process. for two, aemond now has to deal with getting his ability to fucking see slashed in half, and likely having to relearn a lot of the way he was just living life in order to function. that’s something that would be hard to do nowadays, if you were dealt with partial blindness or lost vision in an eye in an accident, given that this is a pseudo medieval society, aemond had to do all of that in much more difficult circumstances. how much of life was spent with this kid in pain, frustrated, scared, resentful? for how long did this child have to struggle before he found some semblance of normalcy, at least physically if not mentally, before trying to make up for this sudden shortcoming? 

and having this time jump where the first time we see him after having lost a full eye is him being badass and cool and calm and snide (and weirdly horny for daemon but that’s a story for another time) means that a lot of audience members are going to miss that it is perfectly natural for aemond to be seething with bitterness about what happened, about the injuries and the difficulties that followed and the toll it must have taken on him and the way he was treated throughout the immediate aftermath. of course aemond flew into a rage and nearly hacked out lucerys’s eye himself, if you were bottling up that much pain and anger about having been dealt a lifelong disability for no reason, wouldn’t you be too? of course aemond decided he wanted to scare lucerys and make him feel small and afraid, how many nights did aemond spend terrified that he’d get some sort of blood poisoning or infection and die, or even just scared about the quality of life he’d have in a society that’s already just kinda shitty even if you’re able bodied? 

wanting to do all of their twenty years of set up in a ten episode season screwed this show in a lot of ways, most notably in how the frequent time jumps prevented us from spending any time getting to know a characters who weren’t rhaenyra, alicent, daemon, and viserys (like, i’ve said this a lot, but name me three character traits of lucerys that aren’t “momma’s boy”, how am i meant to care about vhagar full on eating him when the writers haven’t been able to put any effort in making me care about him as a person before that point). but it feels a wee bit galling when it prevents us from understanding the nuances of a character that are kind of important to fully understand the choices he makes that are going to have huge repercussions on everyone in the story. 

[feanorianethicsdepartment]

Alright, I read your recent post and need to know - what is your interpretation of Maglor’s relationship with the twins?

askjdhslkjag my biggest self-inflicted problem in this fandom is that my take on maglor, elrond, and elros' relationship is so intensely detailed and specific i am forever tormented by none of the fic i read ever quite getting it right (from my perspective; i’ve read plenty of fic that presents a good interpretation on their own terms, it’s just never mine.) it’s simultaneously way darker than the fluffy kidnap dads stuff and nowhere near as black-and-white awful as the anti-fëanorian crowd likes to paint it, it’s messy and complicated and surrounded by darkness, and yet there’s also a sincere connection within it which mostly serves to make all those complications worse. angry teenage elrond is angry for a great many reasons, and the circumstances around him being raised by kinslayers account for at least half of them. there’s lots of complexity here, and i don’t see it in fic nearly as often as i’d like

(warning: the post... feathers? i already have an internet friend called faeiri this could be awkward - anyway, the post she’s talking about includes the line ‘everyone is wrong about kidnap dads except me.’ this post follows on from that in being as much a commentary about why various popular interpretations of both how the kidnapdoption went and the way people subsequently characterise the twins just don’t work for me as it is a setting out of my own ideas. i’m not really interested in getting into discourse here, i’m just trying to get my thoughts down. i’ve read fic with these interpretations before that i’ve liked, even, don’t take this as a Condemnation, aight? also this turned out long as hell, so i’m putting it under a cut)

i can never buy entirely fluffy depictions of kidnap dads

which isn’t to say i don’t read them! sometimes all i want is something sweet, for these kids to get to be happy for once. it’s not like i think their time with the fëanorians was completely devoid of laughter

it’s just. the pet names, the special days out, the home-cooked meals, it can get so treacly it stops feeling like the characters they are in the situation they’re in and turns into Generic Found Family #272

it soaks out all the complexity - which is the thing i am here for - and acts like oh, these kids were never in any danger, they were perfectly happy being abducted by the people who murdered everyone they knew, there’s nothing possibly questionable about this relationship at all

and... yeah. that’s not the characters i know. that’s not the context i know they belong to

i just can’t forget the circumstances that led them to meet

rivers of blood, the air filled with screams, a town ablaze, a woman choosing to die. every interaction the three of them have is going to proceed from that nightmare

(sidenote: i tend to hold it was maglor that raised the twins, with maedhros looming ominously in the background not really getting involved. it’s mostly personal preference, i’ve been in and out of the fandom since before this kidnap dads thing blew up and when i joined that was a perfectly standard reading)

(also the cave thing was a dumb idea, old man, if only because it implies beleriand had streams safe enough for children to play in at that point. the way it separates the twins from the third kinslaying is also something i don’t particularly vibe with)

probably my least favourite angle i’ve seen on the situation (edged out only by ‘maglor was actively abusive towards the twins’ which no no no no no no no no NO) is the idea that maglor (and/or maedhros, append as necessary) took the twins specifically to raise them

like, i get where it’s coming from, but it makes maglor come off as really creepy

(i have read fics where it is indeed played off as really creepy, but that’s not a maglor i have any interest in reading about)

(’mags 100% bad’ is just as facile a take to me as ‘mags 100% good’)

even if you’re saying maglor took them in because they had no one left to take care of them - i highly doubt they were the only children the fëanorians orphaned at sirion. idk, it always makes maglor seem much less sympathetic than i think it’s meant to

i prefer to think of it as more... organic? something that evolved, not something that was preordained. them growing closer gradually, the twins finding an adult who might maybe be on their side, maglor becoming invested in them almost by accident

and then the twins are so comfortable with the second scariest monster in amon ereb they frequently sass him off and maglor’s gotten so used to not hurting them he’s not even thinking about it any more. no one’s quite sure how it happened, but they’ve made a Connection

‘wait aren’t they a murderous warlord of questionable mental stability and a pair of terrified small children who’ve lost everyone they ever knew? isn’t that kinda fucked up?’ yup! that’s the point! complexity!

another idea i don’t like is the idea that maglor was an objectively better parent to the twins than eärendil or elwing

other people have talked about this already, i won’t rehash the whole thing. i will say that while i don’t think elwing was a perfect parent - someone so young, in such a horrible situation, i wouldn’t blame her for screwing up - i do think she (and eärendil) did the best by them they possibly could

this is one of the few things they have in common with maglor

something i come across now and again is the idea that sure, elwing and eärendil weren’t abusive or horrible or anything, but they were a couple of basically-teenagers with so many other responsibilities, there was only so much they could do. maglor, on the other hand, is an experienced adult who could take much better care of the twins

and...

first off, it’s not like mags doesn’t have a job. he’s a warlord, he has a fortress to help run, military shit to handle, lots of other stuff that needs to get done to stop everyone from starving or getting eaten by orcs. i feel like sirion had enough of a government there was plenty of opportunity for elwing to take days off and play with her kids, but in the fëanorian camp nobody really has the time to chase after a couple of toddlers, least of all one of the last points on the command network. they just don’t have the people any more

(seriously, the twins getting a formal education with tutors and classes and shit is a weirdly specific pet peeve of mine. this is a band of renegades, not a royal household; if there’s anyone left with those kinds of skills they almost certainly have more important things to do)

more than that, though - well, a quick glance through my late stage fëanorians tag should tell you a lot about what i think maglor’s mental state is like at this point. he is so accustomed to violence death means nothing to him, he’s lost most of his capacity for genuinely positive emotion to an endless century of defeat and despair, he hates everything in the universe, especially himself, he’s only able to keep functioning through a truly astounding amount of denial, and he covers it all up with a layer of snark and feigned apathy, which he defends aggressively because he’s subconsciously realised that if it breaks he’ll have absolutely nothing left

(maedhros, for the record, is... i’d say more stable, but at a lower point. maglor may interact with the world mostly through cold stares and mocking laughter, but at least his mind is firmly rooted in the present)

(on the other hand, at least maedhros lets himself be aware of what they are and where their road will lead)

which... this doesn’t mean maglor doesn’t try to be kind to the twins, or rein in his worst impulses around them

there’s just so little of him left but the weapon

he stalks through the halls like a portent of death and gets into hours-long screaming matches with maedhros and has definitely killed people in front of the twins

not even as, like, a deliberate attempt to scare them, but because when you solve most of your problems by stabbing them it’s pretty much a given that people who spend a lot of time around you are going to see you do it at least once

and sometimes, he curls up in an empty hallway, and weeps

... suffice it to say i don’t think elwing’s the more preoccupied, or the less mentally ill, parent here

just. in general, the fëanorians aren’t cackling boogeymen, but they’re not particularly nice either

no one has the energy left for that. not these isolated and weary soldiers at the end of a long losing war and the beginning of the end of the world. they don’t really bother to guard the kids against them escaping. where else are they going to go?

the sheer despair that must have been in the fëanorian camp after sirion, the knowledge that the cause cannot be fulfilled, that they are utterly forsaken, that they’re really just waiting to die -

it can’t have been a happy place to grow up in, under the shadow of loss and grief and deeds unrepentable, and the slow march of inevitable defeat

they would have had a better childhood if they stayed in sirion, raised by people who knew how to hope

but that isn’t the childhood they had. and despite everything i’ve said, i don’t think that childhood was an entirely awful one

yeah, see, this is where the other side of my self-inflicted fandom catch-22 comes in. just as much of the pro-kidnap dads stuff comes off as overly saccharine and simplified to me, i find much of the anti-kidnap dads stuff equally simplistic in the opposite direction

the idea that maglor and the fëanorians never meant anything to elros and elrond, that they had no effect on the people they became at all, that it was just a horrible thing that happened when they were children, easily thrown in the rear-view mirror...

that’s even more impossible to me than the idea that life with the fëanorians was 100% fluffy and nice

like, i’ve seen the take that elros and elrond hated the fëanorians from start to finish. they were perfect little sindarin princes, loyal to their people and the memory of doriath, spurning every scrap of kindness offered to them and knowing just what to say to twist the knife into the kinslayers’ wounds

... dude. they were six. hell, given their peredhelness, mentally they could easily have been younger

what six year old has a firm grasp of their ethnic identity? what six year old is fully aware of their place in history? what six year old would understand the politics that led to their situation?

don’t get me wrong, i can see hatred in there. but something else that doesn’t get acknowledged alongside it often enough is the fear

some of the stuff i’ve read feels like it gives the kids too much power in the situation. they’re perfectly happy to talk back to and belittle the people who burned down their hometown and killed everyone they ever knew, like miniature adults who don’t feel threatened at all

and, like, six. i can see them going for insults as a defensive measure, but it is defensive. it’s covering up fear, not coming from secure disdain

(and a lot of those insults sound, again, like things an adult who’s already familiar with the fëanorians would say, not a scared child who’s lost almost everything. why would a six year old raised by sindar and gondolindrim know what the noldolantë is, let alone what it means to maglor?)

(... i’m just ranting about this one fic that’s been ruffling my feathers for five years straight now, aren’t i)

i mean, i write elrond as the world’s angriest teenager, who snipes at maglor pretty much constantly, but the thing about angry teenage elrond is that he’s angry teenage elrond

he’s spent long enough with the fëanorians he has a pretty secure position within the camp, and he knows that maglor won’t hurt him from a decade and change of maglor not, in fact, hurting him

but as a small and terrified child abducted by the monsters his mother had nightmares about? he fluctuated wildly between ‘randomly guessing at things to say that wouldn’t get him killed’ ‘screaming at maglor to go away in words rarely more complicated than that’ 'desperately trying not to do or say anything in the hopes of not being noticed’ and ‘hiding’

(and i don’t think the twins were never in any danger from the fëanorians, either. quite besides the point that before they started orbiting maglor nobody was really sure what to do with them... well, they wouldn’t be the first children of thingol’s line the minions took revenge on)

(fortunately for them, maglor did, in fact, take them under his wing. by this point even their own followers are shit scared of the last two sons of fëanor, nobody’s going to mess with their stuff and risk getting mauled. tactically, it was a pretty good decision for a couple of toddlers)

more to the point, i feel like a child that young, in a situation that horrible, wouldn’t reject any kindness they were offered, any soothing touch in a universe of terror

in a world full of big scary monsters, the best way to survive is to get the biggest scariest monster possible to protect you. that’s how elros rationalises it when they’re, like, eight, mentally, but at the time they were just latching on to the only person around them who seemed to care about them

that’s how it started, on their end. two very young very scared children lost in a neverending nightmare clinging tightly to the lone outstretched pair of hands

as for maglor...

i’ve called mags evil before, but i see that as more of a... technical term? he is evil because he did the murder, he remains evil because he won’t stop doing the murder. hot take: murder bad

but that doesn’t make him, like, a moustache-twirling saturday morning cartoon villain. he is deeply unhappy with the position he’s in and the person he’s become, and he’s always trying not to take that final step over the edge

it’s not that i can’t see a maglor who is abusive or manipulative or who sees the twins more as objects than people. it’s just that that characterisation is one i am profoundly uninterested in. i do occasionally read fic with it, but it never enters my own headcanons

horrible people can do good things!! kinslayers can do good things!! the fallen are capable of humanity!! people can do both good and evil things at the same time, because people are complicated!! maglor is not psychologically incapable of actually taking pity on these kids!!!!

it’s... again, complexity. the fëanorians straddle the line between black and white, which is a lot less sharp in the legendarium than it’s sometimes characterised as. it’s what draws me to their characters so much, why i have so many stupid headcanons about them. pretending they fall firmly on either side of the line is my real fandom pet peeve

and, like, this moment? this sincere connection between a bloodstained warlord and two children who will grow up to be great and kind in equal measure? i may not entirely like the direction the fandom’s taken it recently, but that beat, that relationship, it still gets me

so no, i don’t think elrond and elros’ years with the fëanorians were an endless cavalcade of abuse and misery. i think there was love there, despite the darkness all around them

an old, tired monster, and the two tiny children it protects

maglor never hurts the twins, not ever, not once. his claws are sharp and his fangs are keen, if he so much as swatted them he’d rip them in half. instead he folds down the razor edges of his being, interacting with them ever so carefully. he has nightmares of suddenly tearing into their skin

seriously, the power differential between them is so great, maglor so much as raising his voice would break any trust they have in this horribly dangerous creature. fics where he does corporal punishment always get the side-eye from me

the mood of their relationship is... i find it hard to put into words. melancholy, maybe, like a sunny afternoon a few days before the end of the world. three people who’ve lost so much finding what respite they can in each other as the world slowly crumbles around them

there are times when it feels like the three of them exist in a world of their own, marked out by the edges of the firelight. maglor telling stories of the stars, elros giving relaxed irreverent commentary, elrond getting a few moments to just be, all their troubles kept at bay

they are the last two lights in a world sunk into darkness, the last two living beings he does not on some level hate. he will tear his own heart out before he sees them in pain

he teaches them to ride, he teaches them to read, he gives them everything he still has left. the twins should never have been in this situation, maglor probably isn’t entirely fit to take care of them, but it is what it is, and they take what love they can

(maglor depends on the twins emotionally a bit more than any adult should rely on any child. he’s still very much the caretaker in their relationship, but that relationship is the only one he has left that’s not stained by a century of rage and grief. he’s obsessed with them, maedhros tells him frequently. maglor’s standard response to this is to try to gouge maedhros’ eyes out)

(that particular darker side to their relationship, where maglor’s attachment to the twins turns into a desperate possessiveness - that’s not something i think i’ve ever seen in fic. which is a shame, it feels much closer to my own characterisation than the standard ways this relationship gets maleficised. darker, in a different way than usual. horribly compelling in its plausibility)

however you want to read it, i don’t think you can deny this is a relationship that defines elrond and elros’ childhood. they were raised in the woods by a pack of kinslayers, the text is quite clear on this

but i’ve seen a lot of talk about how elros and elrond are only sirion’s children. they are completely 100% sindarin, they love and forgive eärendil and elwing thoroughly and without question, they identify with doriath over - even gondolin, let alone tirion. the fëanorians - the people who raised them - had zero effect on the people they grew into and the selves they created

and that, more than anything else, i find utterly unbelievable

look, i get what this is a reaction to. a lot of the kidnap dads stuff paints the fëanorians as elrond and elros’ ‘real’ family, and i’ve already talked about what i think of the idea that maglor-and-possibly-also-maedhros were better parents than eärendil and elwing. i think it’s reductive and overly optimistic and just a little too neat

but to say instead that elrond and elros held no great love in their hearts for maglor, no lingering affinity with the fëanorians, no influence on their identity from the people they grew up around, none at all? that after it happened they just left it behind and resumed being the same people they were in sirion?

that strikes me as just as much an oversimplification. it sands down all the potential rough edges of their identity, all that inconvenient complexity that stops them from fitting into any well-defined box, and replaces it with a nice safe simple self-conception i find just as flat and boring as declaring them 100% fëanorian

we can quibble over who they call ‘father’ (i personally find that whole debate kinda petty) but denying that it was actually maglor who was the closest thing they knew to a parent for most of their childhoods, and that that would, in fact, affect the way they thought of themselves and their family, elides so many interesting possibilities out of existence

(i’m not even going to get into the most braindead take i have ever heard on the subject, namely that because their time with the fëanorians was such a small fraction of elrond’s total lifespan it was like being kidnapped for two weeks as a toddler and had no greater significance than that. do you not understand what childhood is????)

like, i tend to think of elrond as a child as being very loudly not-a-fëanorian. elros is more willing to go with the flow - hey, if the creepy kinslayer wants kids, elros is happy to play into that in order to not be murdered - but elrond is very firm that he’s not happy to be here and he doesn’t belong with them

(this is after they get over their initial terror, of course, when they’ve realised they won’t be fed to the orcs for the tiniest slight. even so, elrond only really gets shirty about it around people he’s comfortable with, whose reactions he can reasonably guess at. naturally, the first person he does it to is maglor)

elros calls maglor their father exactly once, when they’re... maybe early preteens? this is because elrond hears him do it and immediately loses his shit. they have a dad, elrond says, in tears, and a mum, and any day now their real parents are going to come to pick them up and take them home

... right?

it gets harder to believe as the years roll on, as their memories of sirion fade, as they find their own places within the host, as maglor watches over them as they grow. elrond still mentally sets himself apart from the fëanorians, but it’s more of an effort every year. life in the fëanorian camp is the only one he’s ever really known. he can barely remember his mother’s voice

then the war of wrath starts, and the fëanorian host drifts closer to the army of valinor, and the twins come into contact with non-fëanorians for the first time in forever, and it becomes clear just how obviously fëanorian elrond is. he always insisted he wasn’t like the kinslayers at all, but he dresses like them, talks like them, fights like them

the myth cycles the edain tell are almost completely unfamiliar to him, he barely remembers the shape of the songs of lost doriath. even these sarcastic commentary and subversive reinterpretations he made of maglor’s stories - those were still maglor’s stories! he’s been trying to guess at the person he was meant to be, but it’s growing nightmarishly blatant how little elrond ever knew about him

instead, the people he was born to are as alien to him as the orcs of morgoth. he is a fëanorian, through and through

... yeah, elrond (and/or elros) having an absolutely massive identity crisis upon being reintroduced to his quote-unquote ‘true kin’ is another angle i’d love to see in fic that i don’t think i’ve ever come across. all those potential grey areas around who they are and who they’re supposed to be sound utterly fascinating, and i think it’s the complexity i hate to see elided over the most

i really, really doubt they could effortlessly slot back into being eärendil and elwing’s children. not when they’ve been surrounded by, lived alongside, been raised by the people who were supposed to enemies for most of their lives

they just don’t fit into that box any more. they can’t

speaking of eärendil and elwing, while i do agree that they both (especially elwing) get a lot more flak than they deserve, i don’t agree that therefore elrond and elros were never the slightest bit mad at them and fully forgave them for everything with no reservations

because, well, they were left behind. elwing had no other choice, but they were still left behind; it led to the world being saved, but they were still left behind. all the best intentions in the universe don’t erase the weeks and months and years of waiting, of a hope that grew thinner and frailer until it finally quietly broke

that’s a real hurt, and a real grievance. even if the twins rationally understand that their parents were making the best out of their terrible situation, you can’t logic away emotions like that. it’s perfectly possible for them to know they have no reason to resent eärendil or elwing, and yet still harbour that bitterness and pain

(i did write a thing once where elrond loudly rejects eärendil as his father in favour of maglor, but something i didn’t add in that i probably should have is that elrond later regretted doing that)

(not like, several centuries later, when he’d grown old and wise. two hours later, when he’d calmed down. but he was still legitimately angry at eärendil, because the one thing angry teenage elrond was not lacking in was reasons to be mad at the adults around him, and before he could figure out if he had anything less furious to say the hosts of the valar left middle-earth behind)

(it’s another element to the tragedy of the whole thing. in that particular story, which is mostly aiming for maximum pain, the only thing elrond’s birth parents know about their son for thousands of years is that he hates them)

(and he doesn’t, not really. you can’t hate someone you’ve never known)

not that i think they couldn’t ever make up with their parents! fics where elrond and his birth parents work past all the things that lie between them and form a functional familial bond despite it all give me life. i just don’t like the idea that there’s nothing difficult for them to work past

i don’t like the idea that elrond and elros would naturally, effortlessly identify with the mother they last saw when they were six and the people they only vaguely remember. i can see them doing it as a political move, i can see them going for it as a deliberate personal choice, but i can’t seeing it being immediate and automatic and easy

no matter how great a pair of heroes eärendil and elwing are, that doesn’t change the fact that to elrond and elros, they’re at most a few scattered memories and a collection of far-off stories. and so long as the twins stay in middle-earth, they’re never going to draw any closer

compared to the dynamic, multifaceted, personal, and deep bonds they have with the fëanorians - who, and i know i keep saying this but i think it gets tossed aside way more casually than it should, are the people who actually raised them, their birth parents must feel like a distant idea

and that’s why i can never buy interpretations of elrond as 100% sindarin, a pure son of doriath, with no messy grey areas or awkward jagged edges to his identity. given everything we know about his life, it seems almost cartoonishly simplistic

honestly it seems like a narrative a bunch of old doriathrin nobles trying to manouevre elrond into being high king of the sindar or something would propagate. it's neat and nice and tidy, something that’d be much more convenient for everyone if elrond did feel that way

but i just don’t see how he can. this narrative is easy and simple in a way real people never are, it ignores all the forces pulling him apart. elrond being uncomplicatedly sindarin with the life he lives and the people he's close to - that doesn’t make any sense to me

which isn’t to say i think he’s 100% noldorin, from either a gondolindrim or a fëanorian perspective. (i find it a little more believable, given, again, who he grew up around and who he hangs out with, but it’s still a bit too reductive for my tastes.) it’s also not to say i couldn’t believe an elrond who made an active choice to emphasise his sindarin heritage

it’s not how i think of him, but it works. i don’t have a problem with other people interpreting the complexities of the twins’ identities differently

i just have a problem with people acting like it doesn’t exist

in general i think there’s a lot untapped potential that gets left behind when you declare the twins, separately or together, as All One Thing

they’re descended from half the noble houses of beleriand, and they have deep personal ties to most of the rest. they belong to all of the free peoples even the dwarves, somehow, probably and i feel like that was kind of the old man’s point? so many peoples meet in them, to say they wholly belong to any one species is probably an oversimplification

they sit at a crossroads of potential identities, and rather than narrowing down their worldviews to one single path, they take the hard road and choose all of them. that’s what you need to do, if you want to change the world

and, to bring this back to my ostensible topic, in my estimation at least this mélange of possible selves does include them as fëanorians! it’s not overpowering, but it’s certainly there, and the adults they grow into long after they’ve left the host still bear influence from their childhood

nothing super obvious, nothing that wouldn’t stand out if you didn’t know what to look for, but there’s something almost incandescent in how fiercely elros reaches out for his dreams

there’s something almost defiant in elrond’s drive to be as kind as summer

as for who they publically claim as their family... honestly, it depends. while it’s usually more tactically prudent for elros to connect himself to his various human ancestors, on occasion he does find a use for his free in with the elf mafia, and elrond, code switcher par excellence, is famously the son of whoever is most politically convenient at the moment, which is rarely, but not never, maglor

(in the privacy of their own minds, well, eärendil and elwing may have been the parents elros was supposed to have, but maglor was the parent he actually had, and elros doesn’t particularly care to mope over what might have been. elrond, for his part, figures that after all the shit maglor has put him through, the least that bastard owes him is a father)

but honestly? i think before any of their mountain of identities, before thinking of themselves as sindarin or gondolindel or hadorian or haladin or fëanorian or anything, elrond and elros identify as themselves

they are peredhil, they are númenóreans, they are whoever they make themselves to be. that’s how elrond finally resolved his identity, figured out who he was and found something past the pain and the rage

he wasn’t doriathrin, or gondolindrin, or falathrin, or fëanorian, or whatever else. he was elrond, no more and no less

and that person, elrond, could be whatever he chose to be

... elros came to a similar conclusion, with much less sturm und drang that he’s willing to admit. being able to go ‘hey, i can’t possibly be biased towards any one of your cultures, because i’m descended from all of you and i was raised by murderelves’ makes it a lot easier to unite people around your personal banner, turns out

the stories other people tried to force on them shattered into pieces, and the peredhel twins were free to shape themselves into anything they could dream of

and as the new world struggles alive, these lost children of an Age of death begin to bloom into their full glorious selves -

i just. i love the poetry of that. despite every single shadow that hangs over their past, despite all the clashing notes pulling them apart, they harmonise it all into a greater, kinder theme, determined to make their world a better place in whatever way they can

they fail, of course, but so do all things. the inevitable march of entropy doesn’t diminish the long millennia they (and their descendants) held onto the light

and their growing up in the fëanorian host definitely had a huge effect on the noble lords they became. you can see it in elros’ loud ambition to create a land of happiness and hope, elrond’s quiet resolve to heal all the hurts inflicted by this marred reality

it wasn’t a perfect time by any means, but neither was it a nightmare. it was what it was, a desperate existence at the edge of a knife where, nevertheless, they were loved

even after years upon decades upon centuries have passed, it’s hard for the wise king and the honourable sage to separate out and identify all the conflicting emotions swirling around their childhood. they never knew eärendil or elwing, true, but they also never really knew maglor

not as equals, not as adults, not as people who could truly understand him. he disappeared into the fog of history, leaving only childhood memories of razor-sharp, gentle hands

it’s messy and it’s complicated and getting any real closure would be like shoving their way through a thornbush with bare hands even if elrond could find the shithead, and yet at the core of it all, there is light. not the brightest of lights, maybe, but an enduring one

that contrast, above all, that note of warmth amidst the shadows, is what fascinates me so much about their relationship. three screwed up people in a screwed up world, finding a little peace with each other

and the fact that somehow, it does have a good ending - the children grow up magnificent and compassionate and just, they become exemplars of all their peoples, lodestars of the new world born out of the ashes of the old - that makes it seem to me like this relationship must have contained some fragment of happiness

but, fuck, all the darkness that surrounds that love, all the tangled-up emotions its existence necessitates, all the prefabricated self-identities it can never slot into - nothing about it is simple, nothing about it is easy, and i find that utterly enthralling. especially how, despite everything, that flickering light never goes out

well, i don’t think it does, anyway. my take on this relationship is both complicated enough no one else ever quite gets it right and well-defined enough every single ‘error’ in other people’s interpretations sticks out like a kinslayer in rivendell

it is an entirely self-inflicted problem, i will admit. other people are allowed to interpret those complexities differently from me, and it’s entirely my own fault i lack the :waves hands around nebulously: to write my own hypothetical fic on the subject at a pace faster than glacial

still, though. i do wish there was more fic out there that engaged with these complexities. a lot of the common fandom interpretations of this relationship just sweep it all away

[pudding-parade]

I'm a terrible world hoarder, and I like realistic climates. For instance, I like no snow on tropical islands, but I also like proper seasonality (because there are seasons even in the tropics), so I don't want to just turn off all seasons but summer, which just makes for boring weather. 

The solution? The NRaas Tempest mod. This mod allows you to dictate the climate and weather patterns in each season in any given world on a detailed level. As I've been playing TS3, I've made and saved quite a few presets for Tempest. Recently, I decided to go through and fine-tune all of them because I've learned how to use the mod better over time. Since I'm doing that, I thought I'd go ahead and share them as I go, in case others might like to use them, too. This is just the "boilerplate" post for this sharing project, so that I don't have to repeat myself on future posts of the individual presets. The presets themselves will be shared in separate posts.

Each of the presets I've made is based on actual average climate data from a real-world city/region. Yes, I did actual research. So, as just one example, you can have a Twinbrook with New Orleans's climate. In fact, there’ll be lots of options because I've made a ton of these presets. Each post for them will be tagged "tempest project" in case you'd like to track that to keep tabs on when I share new ones. Here’s a link to the tag page, if you want to see the presets I’ve posted so far.

The presets are extremely easy to use because I've done all the research and work for you. All you'll need to do is plop them into your Library folder and then import them into your worlds. There is more detailed install and use instructions behind the cut, as well as a few more general notes. 

Required to use these presets:

Tempest, obviously. Duh.

Also obviously, you need to have Seasons installed.

Not so obviously, you need NRaas Overwatch, which you must use to import these settings into Tempest, since Tempest doesn't have its own import function. But everyone ought to have Overwatch, anyway, for smoother gameplay.

Recommended:

NRaas Traveler, to unlock weather in the EA vacation worlds, if you travel to them.

Danjaley's Fireplace Tuning, which reduces or eliminates the possibility of fireplaces starting fires, depending on which version you pick. This is useful because many of these settings feature auto-lighting fireplaces on active lots when the temperature gets below a certain point. I recommend the "no fire" version, personally.

Gurra’s Seasonal Sunrise/Sunset Offset Mod, which allows you to adjust sunrise and sunset times by season. It’s great if you play worlds meant to be set in more extreme latitudes, like Scandinavia or a polar region, where you have much longer days/nights at certain times of the year. There are two settings included in the download, but there are also instructions for making your own setting. The mod will apply globally to all saves in user folder, though, so it’s best if you use it in a specialized user folder and if you don’t travel to other worlds that would have different patterns.

Longer Seasons, which will make it so that you can have longer seasons than the unmodded game’s 28 days each, with options for different transition lengths between them. However, this mod edits the same XML as Gurra’s mod above, so they will conflict if you use them together as-is. That said, if you want the features of both in a save and you have s3pe and aren’t afraid to use it, you can use the two mods as a reference to make your own custom mod. I have made several of my own, for different climates/latitudes, in this way. If anyone would be interested in them, let me know!

To use these settings:

Download and install Tempest and Overwatch, if you don't already have them. These both go in your Mods folder.

Download and drop in the Tempest preset(s) you want. Put it/them in your user folder in Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3. They go in the Library folder, NOT the Mods folder. (If you don't have a Library folder, you can just make one.) 

Load your game and start a new save or load an existing save to which you want to apply a setting.

Once in your chosen world, click on the city hall or any computer in the world and choose NRaas/Overwatch/Immediate/Import Settings.

A list of all the NRaas mods you have will pop up. From that list, choose Tempest and then in the next pop-up, choose the setting you want for the world you have loaded.

Profit.

Once installed, the presets will show as "empty" households in your household bin. If you decide you no longer want a particular preset, you can simply delete it from the bin in the same way you would a household of Sims, or you can delete the file from your Library folder. They're tiny files, and aside from perhaps cluttering up your households bin, having a ton of them won't slow down your game loading or game play.

Do note that after invoking these settings, the current weather cycle in the world you're playing must complete before the new Tempest settings will be picked up and used. This may take some time, perhaps up to a day in-game. Also, if you use debug and then shift-click on the ground to change the season, the Tempest settings won’t be picked up until the next midnight in-game, and until that time the default settings for the season you switched to will apply, so you may find yourself with something like snow in the tropics for a time. For this reason, I recommend not messing with the seasons in this way, if you can avoid it.

About hail: In an unmodded game with default settings, hail occurs willy-nilly, in all seasons, though it seems more likely in winter. I’m guessing that the devs confused hail with sleet, which is an entirely different phenomenon. In real life, hail only occurs during severe thunderstorms and primarily in the summer. It’s also most common in parts of North America, though it does happen in other specific parts of the world, too. In short, it’s a pretty rare thing on the whole and is limited to certain areas of the world, and I’ve made it so in these presets. In many of them hail is disabled entirely, and where it isn’t disabled it’s set to occur as close to realistically as possible.

If you travel to another world, you can a use a different setting for the world you travel to, but of course you must import the setting you want to use for that particular world, following the above steps. Otherwise, the world you travel to will use the same setting as the one you traveled from.

Finally: These presets were made in a game that uses the Fahrenheit scale for temperature, because I’m a dumb ‘Murican. However, if you put them into a game where Celsius is used, the numbers will be converted for you when you import the preset. Maaaaagic! That said, if you then go and look at the settings once you’ve imported the preset, you’ll see lots of decimals because of the clumsy conversion factor between the two temperature scales.

[duckprintspress]

How to Edit an Over-Length Story Down to a Specific Word Count

One of the most wonderful things about writing as a hobby is that you never have to worry about the length of your story. You can be as self-indulgent as you want, make your prose the royalist of purples, include every single side story and extra thought that strikes your fancy. It’s your story, with no limits, and you can proceed with it as you wish.

When transitioning from casual writing to a more professional writing milieu, this changes. If you want to publish, odds are, you’ll need to write to a word count. If a flash fiction serial says, “1,000 words or less,” your story can’t be 1,025 and still qualify. If a website says, “we accept novellas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 words,” your story will need to fall into that window. Even when you consider novel-length works, stories are expected to be a certain word count to fit neatly into specific genres - romance is usually around 80,000 words, young adult usually 50,000 to 80,000, debut novels usually have to be 100,000 words or less regardless of genre, etc. If you self-publish or work with a small press, you may be able to get away with breaking these “rules,” but it’s still worthwhile to learn to read your own writing critically with length in mind and learn to recognize what you do and do not need to make your story work - and then, if length isn’t an issue in your publishing setting, you can always decide after figuring out what’s non-essential to just keep everything anyway.

If you’re writing for fun? You literally never have to worry about your word count (well, except for sometimes in specific challenges that have minimum and/or maximum word counts), and as such, this post is probably not for you.

But, if you’re used to writing in the “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” way that’s common in fandom fanfiction circles, and you’re trying to transition only to be suddenly confronted with the reality that you’ve written 6,000 words for a short story project with a maximum word count of 5,000...well, we at Duck Prints Press have been there, we are in fact there right now, as we finish our stories for our upcoming anthology Add Magic to Taste and many of us wrote first drafts that were well over the maximum word count.

So, based on our experiences, here are our suggestions on approaches to help your story shorter...without losing the story you wanted to tell!

Cut weasel words (we wrote a whole post to help you learn how to do that!) such as unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, the “was ~ing” sentence structure, redundant time words such as “a moment later,” and many others.

When reviewing dialog, keep an eye out for “uh,” “er,” “I mean,” “well,” and other casual extra words. A small amount of that kind of language usage can make dialog more realistic, but a little goes a long way, and often a fair number of words can be removed by cutting these words, without negatively impacting your story at all.

Active voice almost always uses fewer words than passive voice, so try to use active voice more (but don’t forget that passive voice is important for varying up your sentence structures and keeping your story interesting, so don’t only write in active voice!).

Look for places where you can replace phrases with single words that mean the same thing. You can often save a lot of words by switching out phrases like “come back” for “return” and seeking out other places where one word can do the work of many.

Cut sentences that add atmosphere but don't forward the plot or grow your characters. (Obviously, use your judgement. Don't cut ALL the flavor, but start by going - I’ve got two sentences that are mostly flavor text - which adds more? And then delete the other, or combine them into one shorter sentence.)

Remove superfluous dialog tags. If it’s clear who’s talking, especially if it’s a conversation between only two people, you can cut all the he saids, she saids.

Look for places where you've written repetitively - at the most basic level, “ ‘hahaha,’ he laughed,” is an example, but repetition is often more subtle, like instances where you give information in once sentence, and then rephrase part or all of that sentence in the next one - it’s better to poke at the two sentences until you think of an effective, and more concise, way to make them into only one sentence. This also goes for scenes - if you’ve got two scenes that tend towards accomplishing the same plot-related goal, consider combining them into one scene.

Have a reason for every sentence, and even every sentence clause (as in, every comma insertion, every part of the sentence, every em dashed inclusion, that kind of thing). Ask yourself - what function does this serve? Have I met that function somewhere else? If it serves no function, or if it’s duplicative, consider cutting it. Or, the answer may be “none,” and you may choose to save it anyway - because it adds flavor, or is very in character for your PoV person, or any of a number of reasons. But if you’re saving it, make sure you’ve done so intentionally. It's important to be aware of what you're trying to do with your words, or else how can you recognize what to cut, and what not to cut?

Likewise, have a reason for every scene. They should all move the story along - whatever the story is, it doesn’t have to be “the end of the world,” your story can be simple and straightforward and sequential...but if you’re working to a word count, your scenes should still forward the story toward that end point. If the scene doesn’t contribute...you may not need them, or you may be able to fold it in with another scene, as suggested in item 6.

Review the worldbuilding you’ve included, and consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. A bit of worldbuilding outside of the bare essentials makes a story feel fleshed out, but again, a little can go a long way. If you’ve got lots of “fun” worldbuilding bits that don’t actually forward your plot and aren’t relevant to your characters, cut them. You can always put them as extras in your blog later, but they’ll just make your story clunky if you have a lot of them.

Beware of info-dumps. Often finding a more natural way to integrate that information - showing instead of telling in bits throughout the story - can help reduce word count.

Alternatively - if you over-show, and never tell, this will vastly increase your word count, so consider if there are any places in your story where you can gloss over the details in favor of a shorter more “tell-y” description. You don’t need to go into a minute description of every smile and laugh - sometimes it’s fine to just say, “she was happy” or “she frowned” without going into a long description of their reaction that makes the reader infer that they were happy. (Anyone who unconditionally says “show, don’t tell,” is giving you bad writing advice. It’s much more important to learn to recognize when showing is more appropriate, and when telling is more appropriate, because no story will function as a cohesive whole if it’s all one or all the other.)

If you’ve got long paragraphs, they’re often prime places to look for entire sentences to cut. Read them critically and consider what’s actually helping your story instead of just adding word count chonk.

Try reading some or all of the dialog out loud; if it gets boring, repetitive, or unnecessary, end your scene wherever you start to lose interest, and cut the dialog that came after. If necessary, add a sentence or two of description at the end to make sure the transition is abrupt, but honestly, you often won’t even need to do so - scenes that end at the final punchy point in a discussion often work very well.

Create a specific goal for a scene or chapter. Maybe it’s revealing a specific piece of information, or having a character discover a specific thing, or having a specific unexpected event occur, but, whatever it is, make sure you can say, “this scene/chapter is supposed to accomplish this.” Once you know what you’re trying to do, check if the scene met that goal, make any necessary changes to ensure it does, and cut things that don’t help the scene meet that goal.

Building on the previous one, you can do the same thing, but for your entire story. Starting from the beginning, re-outline the story scene-by-scene and/or chapter-by-chapter, picking out what the main “beats” and most important themes are, and then re-read your draft and make sure you’re hitting those clearly. Consider cutting out the pieces of your story that don’t contribute to those, and definitely cut the pieces that distract from those key moments (unless, of course, the distraction is the point.)

Re-read a section you think could be cut and see if any sentences snag your attention. Poke at that bit until you figure out why - often, it’s because the sentence is unnecessary, poorly worded, unclear, or otherwise superfluous. You can often rewrite the sentence to be clearer, or cut the sentence completely without negatively impacting your work.

Be prepared to cut your darlings; even if you love a sentence or dialog exchange or paragraph, if you are working to a strict word count and it doesn't add anything, it may have to go, and that's okay...even though yes, it will hurt, always, no matter how experienced a writer you are. (Tip? Save your original draft, and/or make a new word doc where you safely tuck your darlings in for the future. Second tip? If you really, really love it...find a way to save it, but understand that to do so, you’ll have to cut something else. It’s often wise to pick one or two favorites and sacrifice the rest to save the best ones. We are not saying “always cut your darlings.” That is terrible writing advice. Don’t always cut your darlings. Writing, and reading your own writing, should bring you joy, even when you’re doing it professionally.)

If you’re having trouble recognizing what in your own work CAN be cut, try implementing the above strategies in different places - cut things, and then re-read, and see how it works, and if it works at all. Sometimes, you’ll realize...you didn’t need any of what you cut. Other times, you’ll realize...it no longer feels like the story you were trying to tell. Fiddle with it until you figure out what you need for it to still feel like your story, and practice that kind of cutting until you get better at recognizing what can and can’t go without having to do as much tweaking.

Lastly...along the lines of the previous...understand that sometimes, cutting your story down to a certain word count will just be impossible. Some stories simply can’t be made very short, and others simply can’t be told at length. If you’re really struggling, it’s important to consider that your story just...isn’t going to work at that word count. And that’s okay. Go back to the drawing board, and try again - you’ll also get better at learning what stories you can tell, in your style, using your own writing voice, at different word counts. It’s not something you’ll just know how to do - that kind of estimating is a skill, just like all other writing abilities.

As with all our writing advice - there’s no one way to tackle cutting stories for length, and also, which of these strategies is most appropriate will depend on what kind of story you’re writing, how much over-length it is, what your target market is, your characters, and your personal writing style. Try different ones, and see which work for you - the most important aspect is to learn to read your own writing critically enough that you are able to recognize what you can cut, and then from that standpoint, use your expertise to decide what you should cut, which is definitely not always the same thing. Lots of details can be cut - but a story with all of the flavor and individuality removed should never be your goal.

Contributions to this post were made by @unforth, @jhoomwrites, @alecjmarsh, @shealynn88, @foxymoley, @willablythe, and @owlishintergalactic, and their input has been used with their knowledge and explicit permission. Thanks, everyone, for helping us consider different ways to shorten stories!

[salemwritesxx]

𝓰𝓻𝓪𝓭𝓾𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷.

𝔹 𝔸 𝕂 𝕌 𝔾 𝕆 𝕌  𝕂 𝔸 𝕋 𝕊 𝕌 𝕂 𝕀

     ⇴ male reader [quirkless, support class]      ⇴ all characters are depicted as [18]+

↳ summary: Bakugou and [Your.name] graduate from UA. However, they had hidden their relationship for the past two years, so now it was time to finally show what had been going on behind closed doors.  

↣ rating: General Audience ↣ warnings: fluff, cute

｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

“Can you actually believe it’s over? 3 years? Gone…”, Eijirou sighed happily while looking at the graduation papers in his hands.

“Bro I am just glad I passed. I haven’t slept in weeks, I am merely functioning on Red Bull and 10 AAA batteries I sucked on in the last two days.”

The friend group laughed thanks to Kaminari’s words, but they also completely understood. They all had leftover blueish hues under their eyes from countless nights of training and studying, just to graduate from UA.

One, however, in the friend group, was rather quiet – very, very unusual for Bakugou. And so, Ashido asked him, “Bakugou? What’s wrong, you’ve been awfully quiet? Aren’t you happy? You can finally work as a pro-hero!”

She grinned, knowing how much he worked to get there, though he didn’t even really register her words as he kept looking around, trying to find someone in-between all the students that graduated today.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s great- Ah!”, Katsuki didn’t even finish properly when he saw you – finally!

“Oi, where are you going? We wanna take a photo!”, Sero yelled after him, but Bakugou just ignored him and walked through the crowds, his ruby eyes set on you. Not even realizing that his friends followed, intrigued by his strange behavior.

“[Your.name]!”, he called out to you.

You were standing with your classmates from your support class, now that you had graduated, you couldn’t wait to get your hands on heroes and help them. Even if there was someone who definitely would always be your first priority to support with your endless ideas and genius brain.

“Hey, someone from hero course is calling you.”, one of your classmates you.

Because they couldn’t have known. No one knew. You kept it a secret for the past two years.

“Ah, yeah, it’s-“

However, before you could say any more, Katsuki had already grabbed you. In a very dramatic scene, he spun you around so you fell into his arms while he hovered above you, tilting you back and kissing you. God, your boyfriend was so damn dramatic, really. (You watched too many K-Dramas with Bakugou that was for sure.)

But, even though you were surprised, you instinctively kissed him back, one arm around his neck, the other desperately grabbing onto him. You were, pleasantly, surprised how strong Bakugou really had become. Even though he was a bit shorter than you, due to his endless training to graduate and become a true hero, he was so strong, easily holding all your weight securely.

Everyone around you was gawking at you both. Bakugou’s friend group was silent for a moment, before they started cheering – of course they would.

“God… you’re so fucking dramatic, Katsuki.”, you giggled when he finally broke the kiss, his big, fat grin however also making you smirk a bit.

That’s it. With that, you had outed your relationship and fuck it felt good.

“You have no fucking clue for how long I’ve wanted to do this.”, he said while pressing another kiss to your lips before pulling you back up onto your feet; the smaller male instantly reaching around your hips in a possessive way.

“Why the hell did you never say anything?!”

“Ow!”, Katsuki got kicked by Sero, though his outcry was rather playful and exaggerated.

“How long??? Huh? I am really disappointed, I thought we were friends.”, Denki overdramatically ‘cried’, whipping his non-existing tears.

“Bro, calm the fuck down. [Your.name] and I thought it was the best.”

“Hmh.”, you nodded in agreement, your own arm around his back.

“But, I always thought you hated [Your.name]???”, Ashido finally asked, completely confused.

And now it was Bakugou’s turn to lightly blush and clear his throat, all while you were laughing beside him.

“We had a really long way to go.”

“He turned out to be quite useful for my hero suit despite being quirkless. So…”, Katsuki tried to explain, even though he didn’t like having to go back to that time – he was horrible at first.

“Yeah, Kat was an ass! I even wanted to help him negate the backlash from his Howitzer Impact, but no. All Mighty King Explosion Murder didn’t want my help .”

“Fuckin’ Jesus- stOP!”, he cried out in embarrassement.

“Awww, it’s okay, it was cute when you came crawling back after being hospitalized ‘cuz you used it too often and were intrigued by my grandiose invention after all.”

“I swear, you are the fucking worst.”, grabbing your neck, he pulled you down the few inches to capture your lips, making you giggle.

Meanwhile Ashido, Sero, Kaminari and Kirishima all just stared, then nodded in agreement.

“I can see what happened.”, Eiji said, grinning.

“Oh yah, they complement each other very well.”

Mina giggled, the other two boys also starting to chuckle, agreeing with her. They could see why it happened after such a rough start.

Though, truly, no one could imagine how rough the start of your relationship really was. Despite feeling the obvious sparks between you both, it was hard for him to see past your “handicap” – being quirkless. Now he wanted to slap his stupid self from 3 years ago. Because even though you were quirkless, he didn’t see it as a handicap anymore. Also, your brain was quite endless and despite hating to admit he wasn’t the best, you really were incredible when it came to inventions to help heroes. Bakugou had learned quite a lot and he was just grateful that, even though there were many ups and downs in the last 2 years, your relationship succeeded.

Especially in the last 5 months you both grew closer despite no one noticing it.

For a few minutes, you were still standing and talking with his friends, before you both decided to finally go home after graduation. Not really in the mood for partying or going out.

And for the first time, you didn’t part ways halfway, but in the end, walking through the tunnel the cherry blossom trees had formed – right into the bright future that was ahead of you and Bakugou. Finally together, open and proud.

｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

@salemwritesxx || do not repost, edit, modify or translate my works

⇻ salem.talks: in celebration of having finished my first year of college, I wanted to write something funny and stupid and cute! I was pretty tired from studying so the headcanon weekened I actually wanted to do will be postponed to next week. For now, hope you enjoyed this little thing.

[bubblesandpages]

Something I really have to hand it to the Monkie Kid Crew is how similar yet distinct so many of the character’s personalities are

Red Son and Tang can both be seen as the ‘smart one’ of the group

Macaque and Red Son are both villains turn(ed/ing) reluctant heroes

MK and Mei are both overly energetic gen Zs

MK and Monkey King, duh

Wukong and Macaque, double duh

We all know the joke about MK’s 3-4 dads

Point I’m trying to make here is that if you were to take the cartoon viewing compulsion to classify each character by a single main trait you’d get a lot of overlap between all the characters, and yet all of them – at least to me – is immediately distinct and ends up fulfilling a different function in the story.

At no point do you ever feel that you’re seeing the same story play out. 

I think a lot of that has to do with a) how every character has a very distinct eye-catching design and performance from their voice actor b) the specific way the Crew chose to mix and match traits (as I’ve said, there’s a lot of overlap) c) and most importantly, how narratively different each character’s journey ends up being, and how the other character’s play into their development. 

Red Son and Macaque both end up on the hero’s side by the end of season three, but they both go about it in such different ways, and have very different focal points around which their character’s circle. For Red Son his’s focal point is Mei, and his driving force is what Lady Bone Demon does to his parents. So naturally that’s where all of his focus is on during the season three final, with helping Mei to harness the samadhi fire, and saving his parents. Red Son’s already somewhat accepted that he isn’t completely villainous now thanks to his interactions with Mei in season two, and he clearly seems more fulfilled and happy with who he is as a person because of it. 

He’s arc also allowed him to accept a less focal point in the story, by which I mean Red Son’s okay with what seems like a smaller role in the grand saga of the Monkey King and his continuing legacy, something the irl writers treat with just as much time and respect as the ‘grander’ destiny a character like MK is set up for. Plus, it’s just so sweet getting to see a male character wholeheartedly being there and supporting a female hero? asjiubdfaefjwbfueuifbuefbue Crew your taste is impeccable. 

Macaque is further up the track of villain-turned-hero. 

Antihero? hero-turned-villain-turning-hero? idk  ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ 

Anyway, Mac is also on the road to redemption, but unlike Red Son Macaque was a hero once (assumedly) who was betrayed (allegedly). He has previous history with members of the main cast, unlike Red Son who reads as more generically villainy. This along with how overall slippery Macaque’s motivations are clue the audience in on his history with Wukong, and flood you. With. Questions. On just what his motivations are. 

(Seriously. What are they? Because Macaque doesn’t appear to have a longterm plan. As few braincells as Monkey King and MK, I swear.)

Macaque’s reasons for being evil aren’t clear yet, they have something to do with what we assume was a misunderstanding of sorts between him and Wukong. Mac is obviously resentful towards his former friend, and it’s why he has such a weird back and forth with the hero team, where he isn’t completely evil (he could have done a lot worse to the kids if he was) but is still hellbent on causing them problems. Because of that there’s something more malicious in his actions. Red Son is, frankly, too incompetent and his family’s plans are never fueled be having it out for the hero team – they’re more of a side effect of trying to take over the world – for the audience to view him with the same level of ‘evil’. 

With Macaque it’s more personal. Whatever he’s doing, he’s doing because He Wants It. To. Hurt. 

As such Macaque feels much more threatening than the Demon Bull Family (which is hilarious! He doesn’t even want to take over the world for one!). The Demon Bull Family are messing with the kiddies, Mac’s messing with the King, which is the first thing that distinguishes him from Red Son as a character. 

The second thing is that Red Son is a son, his family dynamic and how they make him feel is a big part of his character that sets him apart from Macaque, verses Macaque who has a shunned friendship and a bad attitude at the root of his problems. Thirdly, Red Son is set up in opposition of MK and Mei, while Macaque is in conflict with Monkey King and by extension MK. Each trio here has a completely different dynamic going on so that you never feel like you’re watching the same story play out. 

You see the same thing with every single character in the story. These pairs fit such similar roles, but come off as completely distinct from one another and – what for me is the biggest positive – HAVE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BUT STILL INTERESTING THINGS TO DO IN THE NARRATIVE. THANK GOD. 

Even the reincarnated crew feel like different people from their past selves. Mei is not her grandfather. Tang does not come off as just another Tang Sanzang. They’re conduits for their powers and roles but are still distinctly their own people, and I will take that over ‘fated reincarnated destiny’ any day. 

The Crew’s strength when it comes to using these stock character traits to quickly establish who every character is, developing them all, handling a very plot focused story, AND copious amounts of product placement all as smoothly as this Crew does it is awesome to watch. Like I am genuinely shocked at how they managed to do this whilst working with a two hour run time. 

I do think that balance was slightly off in season one, I did not care for Pigsy, Tang, and Sandy in that first season. There was absolutely nothing there outside of their stock character types, and one of the reasons season two blew me away as much as it did was that the Crew had figured out how to balance this massive cast and still kept the plot going. Most shows don’t manage to pull that off successfully *side-eyes vld* but they absolutely killed it with Lego Monkie Kid!

[flickeringart]

Minor aspects

While the nature of the major aspects in astrology is quite straightforward and has been covered more than sufficiently, there’s still a lot of fog surrounding the nature of the minor ones. There are a lot of minor aspects that can be taken into consideration when interpreting a chart… however, since they are labeled minor they won’t be as obvious and much more difficult to spot in one’s own life. Note that this doesn't mean that they aren't impactful. There’s a lot of speculation and vague terms used when describing them. It seems that every minor aspect is said to have a “spiritual/creative dimension” as if that is supposed to clear up any of the mystery surrounding them. Perhaps, on one level, we don’t want to pin them down too much because certainty is the enemy of exploration. Or perhaps it’s the case that the aspects themselves don’t want to be pinned down? There’s an appeal in keeping certain things mysterious in our lives, to avoid defining and putting rigid labels on phenomena. It makes life alive and beautiful. Many people dismiss astrology is because they are afraid that they’re going to be reduced to a set of characteristics and have their personality mapped up to the point of being able to predict and foresee patterns of behavior and fated themes. The fear of knowledge is not irrational; it is probably healthy to an extent. Knowing too much can be dangerous and rob life of its magic. “Curiosity killed the cat”, as the saying goes. However, this is not the whole truth because curiosity also leads to expansion and better understanding, so let’s not be afraid to concretize these aspects, it's not the same as "killing" their potential. Life is never completely in our hands anyway, there's no risk of knowing it all.

Quintile (72°)/Bi-quintile (144°)

These aspects are said to have something to do with individual style and quality of creative work. It is suggested that these aspects say something about a mental-creative process of imposing one’s mind on a particular subject. It is also linked to talent and gifts the individual would possess that have not been actively learned. Basically, it seems to be indicative of the particular way a person would approach a subject. For example, the quintile would not describe the activity itself - the activity could be painting, knitting, running, cleaning or whatever – the quintile/bi-quintile would point to the way the person approaches the activity.

For example, Ted Bundy (whose chart I’ve explored a bit here), has Neptune bi-quintile the MC. Neptune, being the planet of illusion hints to Bundy’s quality of being a chameleon, deceiving the public as part of his personal style.

Prince Harry, (whose chart I’ve touched upon before), has his Moon bi-quintile Neptune. The Moon can be indicative of the mother figure, and his mother Princess Diana certainly had an elusive style and charm that was a bit deceptive and seductive. Of course, he would have the same thing going in his own life but it would perhaps be difficult for us to spot. He also has Moon quintile Venus and he definitely has a style/quality of emotional-physical comfort. He has Pluto quintile the AC, which would point to a style of showing up in the world that is powerful and intense. He has a tendency to come off as destructive and chaotic at times. There’s also a quintile aspect forming between Mercury in the 8th house and the MC which would hint to a public image that is colored by the “taboo” things he has said about his family in the recent present, but also in the past. He’s a public image that is aligning with the style of the playful amoral trickster.

As I’m going with charts I’ve already explored, let’s look at the quintiles in Meghan Markle’s chart. Her Venus is quintile Uranus and it perfectly describes her style of “wokeism”, that is, appearing to be objective and intelligent about feelings and affective values. She has a style of being “the loving humanitarian”. Whether she is this way in an actual sense is debatable. The quintile aspect is describing the quality and style not the actuality. But, it is disturbingly close to reality that it somehow becomes reality. It’s like the actor who adopts another energy signature in order to portray a different person. It doesn’t really matter if a person is rotten at the core - if he has a loving way of being, what difference does it make? The style is real enough to not reflect and give the impression of love.

Semi-square (45°) / Sesquiquadrate (135°)

These aspects are said to precipitate events. The nature of these two aspects is more immediate than the square aspect (which causes tension and doubt and needs constant navigation). The conflict represented is usually unconscious and is therefore not easy to identify. However, as these conflicts tend to manifest quite abruptly, we can take a look at the concrete problems the person faces. The planets connected by a semi-square/sesquiquadrate aspect will be in conflict but force some kind of release (that may result in an accident because of it’s autonomous/unconscious function).

I have Saturn sesquiquadrate my Moon. Since I tend to unconsciously block my emotional responses, the pressure builds and I am “forced” to get out of a situation, “forced to listen to my emotions”. I have encountered the theory that the sesquiquadrate in particular is manifesting as something that is looked down upon societally. This would make sense considering the aspect forces a breakout of one of the planets and nothing that is immediate and abrupt is ever favorably looked upon when it comes to social-societal structure and predictability. I have been meaning to take on commitments that would further my status in society in terms of formal education (Saturn in the 9th conjunct the MC) but I have not been able to do it without considerable decline in my emotional well-being. So, I have been “thrown out” by unconscious forces every time I’ve tried.

My sister has her Venus sesquiquadrate Saturn. She’s known for her deliberate and strategic way of dressing. She plans her outfits carefully, there’s nothing haphazard about the way she presents herself. However, she has Lilith conjunct Venus so she can push the limits and simply do what she pleases sometimes as well when the pressure of Saturn becomes too much. But, this often causes external judgment. A relative of mine has her Sun semi-square Venus. I can tell that she’s highly aware of her appearance. She is very pretty but there’s always something that is a bit off between what she wears and her self-expression. It’s like it doesn’t quite fit and it’s irritating.

To get back to the celebrities, Meghan Markle has Neptune sesquiquadrate Mercury. Is it possible that this forces distortion and vagueness in opinion and communication? It would certainly fit the bill. She also has Uranus sesquiquadrate Mars. She simply has to “break out of her confining situations”, cut people out of her life and move on in her own way. Uranus is also sesquiquadrate her MC, which seems to point to her unconscious pull to “do what she wants to do” at the detriment of her public image and reputation. Notably, Uranus sits in her 5th house of personal enjoyment and creation.

Prince Harry has a semi-square between Mars and Pluto. When he is angry it blossoms into rage and he can’t see straight. It has gotten him into quite a lot of trouble and societal-social disapproval. It seems that this is a common theme with the sesquiquadrate and semi-square. He also has his Moon sesquiquadrate Jupiter. Isn’t it the case that he tends to indulge in a way that makes him look bad in society?

Quincunx (150°)

This aspect is typically found between planets incompatible by element and mode. Basically, they have nothing in common and have a hard time cooperating, which will cause minor stress in the individual because of necessity to work around the incompatibilities. The planets are not in direct conflict but they are uncomfortable with each other.

For example, I have my Moon quincunx Mercury. Every time I sit down to write I’m mildly disturbed by little things like an aching back, a headache, restless legs or whatever. It’s not very comfortable for me but I can still keep with it, however it might take a toll on me health wise. The quincunx has been related to health issues because of the mild stress that it causes. It is manageable and one is usually able to cope with the stress, but it’s not very pleasant. Because it is not as demanding as more disturbing conflicts in one’s life, it’s in the background causing irritation.

Meghan Markle’s Venus makes a quincunx aspect to her MC. This suggests that she has a hard time reflecting her value on a public level, it’s as if how she’s perceived publicly disturbs her sense of ease and comfort. She has an Aries MC with a Virgo Venus and she’s continuously depicted as a bully these days, as some kind a selfish and aggressive bitch (the more negative attributes of Aries). This must be undermining her self-worth immensely, however, it’s perhaps too minor of a problem to do anything about. It is still there nonetheless, harping on in the background, breaking her down and causing slow disintegration…

Semi-sextile (30°)

Planets forming semi-sextile aspects are said to be able to aid each other, to have a better connection than if they had no link at all. Usually one planet is in the sign that comes before the sign of the other; in other words, a semi-sextile might be forming between Mars in Aries and Venus in Taurus. The semi-sextile usually connects consecutive sign like this, but planets could be in semi-sextile in the same sign, like Mars in 0° Taurus semi-sextile Venus in 30° Taurus. In any case, the planet placed at an earlier degree or in the earlier sign can draw on qualities of the planet in the later degree or the later sign and vice versa. For example, Prince Harry’s Venus in Libra is semi-sextile his MC. He can draw on his sense of harmony a diplomacy to benefit his public image. His Mars in Sagittarius is also semi-sextile his MC, which makes it so that he can draw from his Martial qualities of energy and action to influence his career and success.

Parallel/Contra-parallel

These are called aspects in declination because they are measured by latitude and not by longitude. This essentially means that two planetary bodies can aspect each other in a certain way measuring the distance between them north-south of the celestial equator. Two planets at the same degree north and south of the equator form a parallel aspect and can be interpreted the same as a conjunction (some say that it's more obscure like a quincunx/semi-square). Two planets opposite each other north and south form a contra-parallel aspect and can be interpreted as an opposition (some say that it's basically the same as the parallel though).

I have found, looking at my own chart that these aspects only confirms already existing aspects measured by longitude or it confirms the sign that a specific angle is in. For example, my MC is in Aries and it is also parallel Mars. Mars is the ruler of Aries so it emphasizes my already martial MC. My Sun is conjunct Saturn and it’s also parallel Saturn. My sister has a Scorpio MC and it’s also parallel Pluto, the natural ruler of Scorpio. For example, my sister has a wide Moon-Mars conjunction (6°) but they are also in contra-parallel. How is this supposed to be interpreted? I would simply see it as Moon-Mars is connected strongly despite the orb being a little wide with the conjunction.

However, it’s not always the case that parallel and contra-parallel aspects only confirms already existing influences. They can also add themes and connections. My sister doesn’t have any longitude aspects between Saturn and Uranus but they are contra-parallel to each other.

Septile (51.43° - a 1/7 of the 360°)

It is said to indicate a hidden flow of energy between the planets involved, an inner sensitivity to the spiritual dimension of the planets. Another description I have come across is that the planets “darkly interact” and there’s an occult theme surrounding the connection.

I have Venus septile Jupiter in my own chart. Going by the said method of interpretation, it would mean that I have sensitivity to the hidden wealth and underlying beauty and abundance in life. I think it is quite accurate.

Novile (40° - 1/9 of the 360°)

Is said to be describing a contact of perfection/idealization. It also seems to have something to do with spiritual awakening and growth, lack of fear and freedom.

Having Sun novile Saturn for example could be interpreted as a feeling of communion with the world and life itself through responsibility and the control one can exercise through self-expression.

----

There are of course other minor aspects to explore, but I'll stop here for now.

[falcor-thee-luck-dragon]

Forgive, But First Fun - Nandor x f(vampire) reader

Summary: After getting left behind to fight off a pack of werewolves on your own, now mad at Nandor, you and Nadja have decided a little night out couldn’t hurt.

Warning: slight angst, fluff, fun times, and a tiny smut mention

Masterlist

Trudging angrily through the manors wooden doors, face stern and almost scary enough to put the fear of God into anyone. Your boots stomp into the large opening and onto the wooden floor boards as Gullimero, Nandor, and the documentary crew follow you in.

Your cloak is ripped and dirty as it lays in a pathetic black heap of cloth in Gullimero’s arms, your hair not looking any better, not to mention your face and arms that have various cuts paired with grass smudge marks adoring your skin. All in all you look like a hot mess.

“What the fuck happened to you lot? You’ve been gone all night.” Questions Laszlo as he walks into view from out of one of the hallways, his eyes scanning over a perfectly clean and handsome Nandor, then over to the dirty crew and disheveled Guillermo who’s got some leaves stuck to his hair.

“I don’t know.” You snap sarcastically, “How about you ask Mr. Dodgy-shit-stick over there.” Referring to Nandor who’s looking anywhere but you, keeping as silent as ever.

Gullimero looks between you and Nandor, then back at a confused Laszlo. “Oh, um they’re not speaking to each other right now.”

“And why the fuck not?”

Guillermo sighs before leaning towards Laszlo, “Nandor wanted to graffiti where the werewolves live and Y/N said he’d get caught and then Nandor said no I won’t and then he did.”

Laszlo raises a curious brow, “That’s it?”

“Oh, um....” Guillermo awkwardly scratches the back of his neck, suddenly pulling off a green leaf, “then they chased us to the park and when the pack closed in on us Nandor turned into a bat and left us behind so Y/N had to fight one of them off so we could escape and now we’re here.”

“Well that sounds rather exciting.”

“Not at the time.” Whispers Guillermo to no one in particular as he glances over at the camera.

“Huh,” Mutters Laszlo thoughtfully, scratching his beard as he thinks of how to help this situation, “well if you two dingbats aren’t talking to one another I believe Nadja needs you Y/N. Something about....well actually I’m not entirely sure.”

Perking up ever so slightly at this positive news, you cross your arms over your chest defiantly, “Well since someone does, I’ll be going then.” You grumble with a low growl at your Nandor who’s refusing to make eye contact while he stares frustrated at the floor.

Nodding in acknowledgment, Laszlo watches you stomp angrily up the steps before turning his head over to Nandor who’s now watching you leave with big sad eyes.

“Alright why’d you do it?” Interrogates Laszlo with a raised brow.

“Do whaaat?” Replies Nandor defensively, his once high and mighty aurora reappearing in an instant.

Rolling his eyes, Laszlo sets a hand on his hip sassily, “Well I sure as hell don’t want an angry Y/N wandering around this old place for the next however the fuck it takes you both to make up....in however fashion that may be. So I ask again, why’d you puss out and flee like a mangy opossum?”

Pursing his lips together in apprehensive embarrassment, Nandor mutters to himself before finally crossing his arms over his broad chest and sighing, “Because......I....I don’t know I panicked!” Exclaims the large vampire, causing Laszlo to start laughing. “Why are you laughing?”

Wiping a fake tear from his eye, Laszlo lets out a few more chuckles before finally composing himself, “My good man that is the second saddest thing I’ve ever heard. The first being when one of my many victims offered me one of their rare and exclusive Poki-muns card which I still have no idea what the fuck they were on about. Anyways, doesn’t matter, all I’ll tell is that you better make it up to her.”

“But she’s scary when she’s angryyy.” Whines Nandor with a frown.

“That’s all women my young pup, but since your lovely lady is a vampire she’s more dangerous.” He says while giving Nandor a kind pat on the back, “So uh, stay safe out there.” Adds Laszlo before turning and walking down the hallway leaving Nandor with his thoughts, Gullimero, and the documentary’s camera crew.

“What are you all looking at!” Snaps Nandor to the rest of the room.

——

“Oh my goodnessess that’s awful, my poor dark angel.” Soothes Nadja as you take a moment from your long and needed rant about the adventures in the park and Nandor’s cowardly stupidity. “That big hairy rhino doesn’t deserve you Y/N.” She reasons honestly, doing her best to make you feel better, knowing all to well the level of competent decision making skills of the other two vampires in the house.

“I know.” You mutter in agreement, your body tense and agitated as you pace back and forth in front of her as she sits in a chair, “Fucking beautiful idiot prick horse-fart of a husband. Urgghhh!” You proclaim loudly while throwing your hands into the air angrily, causing the furniture in the room to screech backwards across the old flooring at your outburst of vampiric energy. Nadja’s long obsidian hair blowing backwards as you do so while she keeps seated, unflinching.

Face softening, she gives you a sympathetic smile, “Oh my lovely fierce lioness, I know exactly what will make that sad little frown turn into a happy one.” Beams Nadja with an excited clap of her hands.

Hugging your sides, you let out a frustrated huff before giving your old friend a shrug, “What do you have in mind?”

——

“So we’re at the carnival!” Claps Nadja in delight as she smiles at the camera, “This will hopefully relieve Y/N’s pent up angers and keep her mind off of Nandor.....for now.” She adds a bit uncertainly.

“HA HA take that fuckers!” You shout joyfully from behind her, the camera panning over to you at the ball toss where you’ve been knocking down plastic bottles with a rubber ball. The stall owner cowering in the corner as he shields himself with a stuffed zebra.

The camera focuses back on Nadja, “I think it’s going really well so far.” She confirms with a convincing grin. “Relieving all that..uh....rage.” 

After winning a stuffed snake taller then you and deciding to wear it as a strange fashionable scarf, you and Nadja are wandering the carnivals streets while people watching to pass the time.

“So that’s why I never walk on the roof after 3am when I’ve had homeless man’s blood.” Rambles Nadja as your thoughts about Nandor come trickling down into your brain and nose. Huh, strange, must be cause you’re still wearing a thin red scarf of his.

No, stop thinking about him.

“Good lesson learned then,” You add with the flash of a smile before nudging her shoulder gently, “hey you wanna watch me win you something cool?”

Perking up in an instant, Nadja smiles a devilish fangy grin as she stops to eye up the multiple game stalls, “Why I would be delighted my dear Y/N, how about....um, oooh I want that giant tropical fishy with the long whiskers over there.” Points Nadja as your eyes travel over to the game stall with the large prizes.

It’s a game that requires the individual to shoot an arrow directly on three different sized bullseye’s stationed at various heights. Smiling like an idiot, you nudge your vampiric acquaintance in agreement, the both of you quickly swaggering over to the carnival game and it’s plush flashy prizes just screaming to be won.

“Hello good sir, my skilled roommate Y/N here is going to win me that fish.” Beams Nadja proudly as the teenager jumps off his chair to greet the two of you.

He smells like weed but surprisingly looks decent all things considered, “Uh yeah alright, two bucks for three arrows, hit every target directly on the middle red mark and if you make it on the bonus poster on the far back wall then you’ll have a chance to win that fish, good luck.” Mumbles the kid unenthusiastically as you slide him the cash.

Picking up the shitty yet still functional carnival bow, you give Nadja a wink before fitting an arrow in the nock and pulling back, lining up the shot and releasing directly into the first target to the left. Smirking to yourself you quickly draw again, hitting your second mark just as intended. Pays to be a skilled archer huh.

“Damn that’s pretty good aim.” Nods the teen as he watches in awe as you fit another arrow, releasing and punching a hole in the middle of the third target.

Nadja claps in excitement from behind you, “Yes! Win me that colorful fat bitch my feisty lioness!”

Standing like a warrior ready for battle with your bow in hand and wind blowing in your face, the kid almost drops the arrow he hands you for the winning shot as he practically swoons.

“Get those scissors ready, that fish is mine.” You growl in determination while picturing Nandor’s head as the final target, drawing back, you let the arrow fly straight into the bonus target. Winning Nadja her giant fish plushy.

“Yessss!” Shouts Nadja in delight as you drop the bow onto the table like a bad bitch before eyeing up the kid with a raised brow, “We’ll be taking the fish now.”

Wide eyed he almost falls off his chair, “Wait um, that’s the last one...I didn’t think, uh, my boss doesn’t want me to give away those ones.” He stutters out.

“What!” Snaps Nadja, “Then why are they just hanging there? You lied to us you little shit!”

“I’m sorry.” He pleads apologetically, “That’s what my boss told me. And no one ever wins the big prizes anyway so I didn’t think...”

“Well your boss he can eat a big horse turd cause I’m taking that fish.” You growl before jumping up and unhooking the fish from its perch above your heads, handing it to a practically glowing with joy Nadja who immediately hugs the thing.

Sticking your tongue out at the teen, you and Nadja turn to leave before a boney hand is suddenly on your shoulder, twisting around in an agitated instant, your face is mere inches from the wide eyed boy as he attempts to look even a tad bit threatening.

“No.” Is the only thing that slips from your tongue before your hand shoves him back, his whole body going air bound into the back of the carnival tent while the kid lets out a panicked scream.

“Ooooh Y/N that was very sexy of you.” Smirks Nadja while wiggling her dark brows, “Too bad a certain cowardly lion wasn’t here to see it.”

Petting the stuffed toy snake around your neck absentmindedly, you smile back a fangy grin, “Yes. Too bad.”

Continuing on your late night stroll through the carnival you both pass by random strangers, families, elders, children, and lovers all minding their sweet business completely unawares to the dark supernatural world walking right past them.

Although you’re quite enjoying this time spent with your best friend in the whole wide world, a low dull feeling of emptiness can’t help but creep into your undead being the more you catch sight of new and old couples walking together.

Sensing your growing sadness, Nadja nudges your shoulder playfully to gain your distracted attention, “Hello in there my black rose, what is on your mind?”

Holding the snake close to your body, a small smile creeps its way onto your face knowing she’s looking out for you, though it’s gone soon enough, “Oh you know....uh....blood.” You mutter unenthusiastically, trying to keep your thoughts away from Nandor and how much you miss him right now.

“Blood is it? But we just fed before attending the carnival.” Inquires Nadja in confusion as she keeps a normal pace at your side while the two of you follow the sidewalk past various shops and restaurants. “What is actually plaguing your mind my dear one?” She wonders with a frown, not keen on seeing you upset and in a grey mood.

Biting your lip anxiously, though not hard enough to draw blood, you walk past a couple more people before your eyes catch the sight of a small black bat disappearing behind a corner building just up ahead.

Squinting your eyes, your nose suddenly catches the scent of someone very familiar, “Nandor?”

Turning her head to face you, Nadja’s brows furrow in puzzlement, “What? No my sweet hurricane, forget that mangy old bear he’s not important right now.” Urges Nadja as she looks forward, suddenly surprised to catch a glimpse of someone who looks a lot like Guillermo racing behind the same corner you saw the bat fly behind. “Okay um what the fuck? Did you see that too?”

Glancing at Nadja you nod before quickening your steps as she does the same, her skirts flowing as she tries to catch up with you, though you’re much faster and with lack of annoying dress material, “Wait! You’re too fast.” Yelps Nadja.

Ignoring her protests you book it down the sidewalk like a maniac, almost running into a jogger before skidding round the corner of the brick building and coming face to face with a wide eyed Guillermo who gasps in surprise. Nudging him to the side, your eyes immediately fall upon the nervous fangy grin of your Nandor.

He gives you a shy little wave before shuffling awkwardly in place, awaiting your rampage of verbal and possibly physical assault that he’s certain is in the near future.

Taking a deep breath, you cross your arms over your chest defensively, “Were you following me?”

“Um, well.....I might have been....but only to make sure you were okay.” Mutters Nandor honestly, eyes shifting from you to the ground nervously as he awaits your wrath.

Pursing your lips together in thought, you shake your head before taking off the stuffed toy snake and holding it firmly in your hands. With a low growl do you grasp the snake in your right hand and hold it back like you might swing at any moment.

“You’re a fucking nincompoop you know that right?” Slips from your mouth without an once of anger lacing your words, instead do you hand the snake to Gullimero as Nandor watches in puzzled fear.

Taking a swift step forward, you point a finger into his strong chest while looking sternly up at him, “Racing off and leaving me too fight that angry bitch all by myself, and now following me when I needed a break from you! Nandor....... you’re something else.” You add with a shake of your head.

“Yes I know, and I’m sorry my love.” Smiles Nandor with saddened eyes, “I promise to keep you save from now on and fight off any werewolf who tries to hurt you....even if I am scared.”

Taking a step back, you can’t help the smirk that forms onto your face at his sweet words of forgiveness and sincerity. You know how much he fears werewolves and that he fled the scene thinking you were planning on following too, not realizing that you might actually give a shit about Gullimero’s and the crew’s lives.

“Oh my dear puff dragon,” You declare softly with a small smile, reaching both hands out to grasp his own, “I forgive you.”

Nandor’s face breaks out into the biggest and happiest grin you’ve seen since his last birthday when he walked into your shared crypt only to find you naked and holding a bushel of red roses while seated seductively on his coffin.

“Oh that’s fantastic because I was really missing you.” Reveals Nandor with a gentle squeeze of your hands. “Laszlo and Guillermo can’t make me laugh nearly as much as you can, they’re honestly rather boring.” He says before leaning in closer to whisper, “and not very attractive to look at either.” Causing you to crack another grin and your undead heart to fill with butterflies. 

Chuckling you reach up with one hand to pull his collar closer to you and a second later do your lips clash sweetly against one another in a heated moment of passion. He smiles into the kiss before moving to pull you in closer with both of his hands, one slipping low to cheekily pinch your round bottom.

Feeling him against you once again has to be the best sensation in the whole entirety of the world even if you’ve only been separated for a couple of hours. You absolutely love the way his fingers dig into your back and bum with an animalistic eagerness that’s slowly starting to drive you insane. Oh, the things he does to you.

Especially how his tongue slips into your mouth with ease while you tug at his hair long dark locks. “Y/N!” Suddenly shouts Nadja.

“Nandor!”

Begrudgingly pulling away, you turn around to face the confused lady vampire while Nandor hugs you from behind, happily smirking at her, knowing she can’t do anything to hurt him now. “Yes Nadja.” You answer.

With the fish plushy hung over her shoulder, her brows furrow in confusion, “What the fuck are you doing? I thought you were mad at him?”

“Yeah well, I was starting to really miss him and also I’m kind of horny now so.” You reply with a shrug as Nandor hugs you tighter, resting his bearded chin against your head while Nadja huffs in defeat.

“Alright. See you at home then.” Adds Nadja before turning towards Guillermo and shoving the giant carnival fish into his arms, “Hold this Gizmo I’m going home.” Then just like that she’s gone in a black wispy poof, flying away in bat form towards the vampire resistance on Staten Island.

“Okay then.” Mutters Gullimero as he looks up at the dark sky.

Feeling a wet kiss on the side of your face and neck you smile before turning around to face your dear husband, “Shall we take flight to seek out our bed chambers?” You speak slyly in a soft yet seductive voice.

“Yes.” Grins Nandor with a flash of lust and excitement before turning his attention over to Guillermo, “Hey Guillermo I’m leaving to make passionate love to my wife so don’t bother us or I will have a rat shit in your pillowcase. Okay?”

You giggle to yourself as Gullimero’s cheeks redden while he side eyes the camera, “Understood master. Have fun.” Squeaks out the loyal familiar as he stands there awkwardly with his hands full of two carnival prizes.

Nandor sneakily squeezes your bottom once more as he gives Gullimero a knowing smirk, “Oh, we will.” Then a second later you two are flying high above the city in bat form, ready to make love to your sweet Nandor for probably the twentieth time that week.

Down below the camera pans over to Gullimero as he blinks, “Well uh, I have these things now..” He says, holding up the fish, “and I am so not looking forward to cleaning up their mess.......again.”