#I'm admittedly having some trouble with this one down the line

[nehswritesstuffs]

trick or treat!!

How about a bit of a Bellazón-related wip that I got just kind of sitting there on the ever-turning rotisserie in my brain? 147 words; takes place obviously in an AU where this can happen; slightly edited so it WILL be different in the final version but I'm not telling you HOW.

“Where…” Rosinante sat up and wiped the tears and snot and ruined cosmetics from his face onto his shirtsleeve. “…where is Nami?” “Arlong has her,” the girl squeaked. “He saw one of the maps she can draw and kidnapped her.” “She can draw maps?” “Yeah; better than adults, even though she’s younger than me.” She looked at this strange man slumped into the couch and shivered. “How… how do you know Bell-mère…?” “We used to… work together.” “You used to be a Marine?” He paused and licked his lips. “Yeah. I was, but… I don’t know if I can ever call myself that again.” “Good,” the girl said, resolute. “Marines are useless. Can you get my sister back from Arlong?” Rosinante let go of Bell-mère’s hand and gently held the girl’s face as he looked her directly in the eyes. “Tell me where I need to go.

Want a little fic snippet, WIP, behind-the-scenes info, or otherwise, hit up my ask (multiple callers accepted and encouraged)!

[amysnotdeadyet]

Good Steve

Another! And then I have to go cook dinner. Stupid reality.

My darling @newtypeshadow asked for a somewhat complicated Steddie from Stranger Things plot, so she gets 555 words.

If there was one thing Eddie Munson was known for — besides shredding on the guitar — it was being protective of his boyfriend. Corroded Coffin were big enough that when they got outed the subsequent dip in record sales didn't tank their careers.

The metal scene was all about people living their lives outside of social conventions, after all.

Eddie did a cover of Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law" to open every concert that tour. Steve came along the way he always did. Instead of hanging with the other WAGs, he wore a staff shirt and assisted everywhere backstage. He'd learned a ton of useful skills in his years touring with them, and was always happy to help.

It took new guys some time to figure that out, though.

"Why the fuck is he here?" asked the guy who would be known as Bad Steve for the duration of his employment. He was a lighting expert of some renown, but he'd been caught in traffic on the way to the gig, so Steve had started setup while they waited.

"You're late," said Nate through the headset.

Steve emerged from beneath the boards already talking. "They need to solder #17, it's just not connecting." He turned to Bad Steve with a charming, boyish grin. "Oh, hey! I'm Steve, happy to lend a hand."

"You're Munson's boytoy." Bad Steve, unfortunately, had not muted his headset.

A dark 'ooooh' went through the line from several sources.

Steve's expression shuttered. "Check it or don't, but don't blame me if it goes out. Chart's over there."

Eddie came crashing into the booth, looking like a hot mess. "Stevie, baby, I need your touch."

Steve rolled his eyes. "You need me to do your eyeliner again because you smudged it already."

"Yep," said Eddie. "Oh, and Bad Steve, do consider who might be listening, hm?"

Steve let Eddie put his hands in the back pocket of his admittedly small jeans shorts, not even bothering to glance back to where Bad Steve was fuming.

A few hours later, when #17 had been soldered and the show was underway, Bad Steve got to see why Eddie's Steve was the favorite.

A nazi punk managed to get onstage while security was breaking up a fight elsewhere, and Steve flew out of wings with fire in his eyes to tackle the guy before he got past the monitors. Long legs pinned the guy's back to the floor, and he palmed the guy's head like a basketball, leaning in to say something there was no mic to pick up.

The guy tried to get up and got his face slammed into the stage for his trouble, Steve clearly in control even when the punk tried to swipe with a switchblade. The knife clattered away as Steve brought his own arm down on the guy's hand, smashing it into the monitor with a crunching sound and the screech of feedback.

The rest of security finally arrived to confiscate the knife and the nazi. Steve let him up, holding his own hands out while they hauled him away.

At that point, no one could blame Eddie for the scorching kiss that followed.

"Well," said Eddie into the mic, once Steve was safely offstage. "That was fuckin' hot, right?"

The cheers that followed were almost as deafening as the music.

[strawberrypinky]

I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed with negativity on the internet recently and thus I've decided to take matters into my own hands and spread some ✨love and positivity���

And what better way to do that, than to recommend wonderfully written fanfiction I've come across this year? Admittedly, I haven't read as much as I would have liked, but I still want to share the few I did read. So without further ado, here are my fic recs of 2024 (thus far! Might add to this along the line):

Baldur's Gate 3 Fic recs:

O Fortuna [by @gufu-vire] on AO3 - Raphael x Dark Urge ❦ Plot: Post the events of BG3, a redeemed Dark Urge and Raphael renegotiate terms to fulfil a contract sworn upon during the crisis of the Absolute. An adventure fraught with tension, frustration, conflict, and more as the reader partners up with the devil you love to hate…

This is possibly a very biased mention on this list, because I consider Goof a very dear friend and moot, but it is a deserved spot nonetheless! I have yet to catch up with a majority of the chapters, but I'm enjoying a lot of sneak peeks and Gufu's creative process in private in the meantime. Between the conflict this story is utterly hilarious and witty and is a perfect balance between action and idle affairs. There are also so many intriguing takes on Raphael as a character & Harleep deserves a trophy on his own. I could talk a lot about this story, but truly, I cannot recommend it enough!

❦

Sleep Deprivation - [by @nyda-the-tav & Aisln] on AO3 - Gortash x Tav ❦ Plot: As Orin continues to harass the group of misfits trying to stop the Absolute, Ophelia (Tav) looks for safety in the arms of Gortash in an effort to combat sleep deprivation.

I've only recently started reading this story & both authors best believe that once I've caught up with all 50(!) chapters, I'll leave a more detailed review for Sleep Deprivation. But what I've read thus far has been nothing short of a joy, and I'm always down for a good Tav being absolutely ruined by Gortash himself. The dynamic between the supposed enemy and the hero is gripping, hilarious and not to mention really well written! Kudos to the authors! I'm really excited to read more of what you two come up with!

❦

His Star - His Queen [by @random-introverted-blog] on AO3 - Astarion x Tav/Astarion x Dark Urge ❦ Plot: An ascended Astarion kidnaps the Dark Urge/Tav from a different timeline, after loosing her in his. Desperate to save Tav/Durge from himself, Astarion follows her to rescue his love from certain suffering at his own hands.

I was recommended this story on TikTok (of all places, lol) and I wasn't sure what to expect - but holy shit. The first chapter alone had me on the edge of my seat, as you're really thrown into the action from the start, but the entire premise had me hooked as soon as Ascendant Astarion made his appearance. I often have issues with the ascended version of Astarion's character (I just looooove fixing him & I've got issues with the 'make him worse' story arc), but the exploration of what could have been in tandem with trying to save the heroine from inevitable suffering is beautiful & I can't recommend it enough. I've yet to catch up with every chapter (can you tell I've got trouble keeping up with fics, lmfao?) but either way, "His Star - His Queen" is deservedly on this list!

Note: This fic includes non-consensual sexual content

❦

Judgement by the Hounds [by @septembersummer] on AO3 - Gortash x The Dark Urge ❦ Plot: A look into the relationship of The Dark Urge (Seren) and Gortash, from their first meeting up to their shared end. "The rise and fall of the worst situationship of all time" indeed.

This one I actually finished (very slay), though I'm not sure I actually processed it. I went through all five stages of grief reading this and I'm not even sure I can say anything without spoiling the entire premise. Dear author, you have written possibly the most captivating and enchanting portrayal of Durge and Gortash & though I knew how it would end, I was wishing for a happy end through it all. There's nothing to say about this, other than it was utter perfection.

❦

Miscellaneous One Shot recommendations:

legacy with no memory by @discordsmuse on AO3 - Gortash x The Dark Urge The Weight of A Promise by @sserpente on tumblr [Part 2 is equally good!] - Gortash x Tav/OC kiddo. by @avocado-writing on tumblr. - Gortash & OC

to have and to hold by @littlejuicebox on tumblr. - Astarion x Tav

choices. by @deadtired-highkeyenergetic on tumblr - Astarion x Tav

how to win a custody battle in one easy step. by alltears on AO3 - Astarion x Tav

Dangerous by NaeveTheWizard on AO3 - Astarion x The Dark Urge

❦

Honourable Mentions:

I'm also giving a shout-out to @avani-telvanni & @infernaldaydreams, because while neither have written fanfiction I could recommend, I am obsessed with their respective artworks for Tav x Gortash/Durge x Gortash. You guys are absolutely amazing and I'm conistently in awe of what you create. You deserve all the recognition you receive and more 💕

Hogwarts Legacy Fic rec's: a very short list, but two are dear to me nonetheless!

Victory [by @jonquil] on AO3 - Victor Rookwood x Original Female Character ❦ Plot: Victor Rookwood is enraptured by the new, ancient-magic-wielding student attending Hogwarts - and Victor Rookwood always comes out on top.

Technically I started reading "Victory" in 2023, when it first came out, alas, it was finished earlier this year and I couldn't help but include it, because it remains one of my favourite fanfiction ever. To me, it's the best fictionalisation of "Enemies to Lovers" in a long time, as I was rooting for the villain to win from start to finish. From the wonderful characterisation of Rookwood to the alternative canon timeline and ultimately the victory of the villain - there's nothing like it and I was hooked from start to finish. I am still sad it's over, but I'm excited to read the prequel (as soon as I get to it, lmfao), because I know it'll be equally spectacular!

Note: This fic contains non-consensual sexual content.

❦

Invisible String [by @legacygirlingreen] on tumblr (though it can be found on both AO3 and wattpad too!) - Sebastian Sallow x Reader ❦ Plot: In an alternative, victorian-attitude-compliant timeline, Sebastian Sallow falls for the new fifth-year. This story explores the sweet beginnings of a tender love amidst hardships and battles ahead.

Admittedly, this is possibly the most biased fic rec ever, but I stand behind it nonetheless. While this fic started in March of last year & brought me and my platonic soulmate May, aka legacygirlingreen, together, it remains my favourite Sebastian Sallow fic to this day. The amount of love, time and creativity May put into this has me in awe time and time again. The sweet and tender love the two protagonists experience is perfectly fluffy and slice-of-life, yet the alternative version of the canon events of Hogwarts Legacy add the perfect amount of drama and action. I will always come back to this fic, because yes - It is that good.

[blitzsicedcoffee]

Ficlet: I'll Save You

(Admittedly, I shouldn't be writing this, because my wrists hurt like a bitch, but I'm a bitch to myself and I have THINGS IN MY HEAD that need to get out of said head, so here. Have my head hehe).

Here you go @blitzwhore :)

Setting the Scene:

Stolas works for IMP, he has been asking over and over to go on a mission with the gang and Blitz kept saying no because he was worried it's "Too dangerous". Stolas followed up with "I am literally an eldritch god" to which Blitz said, "Fucking fine but do what I say".

Blitz falls through the portal, face first while Millie giggles and Moxxie shakes his head, both stepping through behind him. Stolas comes through last, gasping, "Blitz! Are you alright?" he reaches his hand down and Blitz waves it off,

"Yeah yeah yeah I'm fucking fine", he says, wiping snow off his jacket. Moxxie chuckles, "He does that like every day".

"Really?!" Stolas asks again and Millie nods. Blitz rolls his eyes,

"ANYWAY, let's go over the job gang. So we're here in...fuckin...what is this, Russia?" he looks to Moxxie and he opens the maps on his phone.

"Yes, we seem to be somewhere in the tundra of Russia, sir". Moxxie affirms and Blitz nods, "Good I guess. Millie why are we here again?"

Millie pulls out the briefing that Moxxie typed earlier, "It seems like we are looking for some guy in a cabin? Real remote person".

"What'd he do?" Blitz asks, Moxxie has been taking clients directly recently while Blitz and Stolas take longer getting to work. For...reasons.

Moxxie replies, "Well, it seems he shot up a preschool in a nearby village, sir. The teacher wants revenge".

"Holy fuck, okay", Blitz says, polishing his gun.

Stolas puts his hand to his mouth, "My word! He definitely deserves this then, we must be quick!" they all stare at him then back at Blitz.

"Yeah-it's fine Stols, we'll just go at our regular pace. Just wish it wasn't so fucking cold here, Satan's taint!" he shivers, holding his arms in his big coat with the hand sewn IMP patch that Stolas resewed after the last one got mildly burnt during the last mission in Antarctica, as someone decided to light a fire near the portal.

Stolas can't help but admire how cute Blitz looks in his little coat. He's only in a small wool sweater himself, his feathers giving him plenty of warmth already. As they walk toward the location of the cabin, the M's hold hands and Stolas grazes his near Blitz's hand and he blushes, putting it behind his head.

"UUUhhhh, m-maybe not while we're on mission", Blitz says shyly, his words having trouble finding their footing. He's realized that since they started dating, literally every brush, every touch, even potential is a fucking recipe for disaster in his head and body. He fucking melts like an ice cream cone in Wrath.

"Oh, right", Stolas replies, pulling his hand away and looking down, frowning. But Blitz can't take his sad owl eyes and reluctantly holds his hand, red hot spreading across his cheeks. Stolas doesn't say anything to the sudden change of heart, just smiles and winks at Millie when she looks back at them.

Blitz pulling his hand away from Stolas, he pushes him down by placing a hand at the small of his back as they all duck behind some bushes.

"Okay what's the plan?" Moxxie asks, looking to Blitz who shakes his head, "Huh?" he replies, clearly distracted and Millie and Stolas giggle.

"Sir! The plan! For killing this guy!" Moxxie says again, annoyed now as Millie runs her hand up the back of his hair under his hat and he calms a little.

Blitz scooches away from Stolas and takes a deep breath, "Right. So Moxx, you flank the back with Mills. I got the front with Stols". They nod and separate, but the target is good at realizing his surroundings.

He steps out of the cabin, holding his shotgun.

"I FUCKING HEARD SHIT OUT HERE!" he says in Russian and Blitz shrugs, "Alright I just need to line up the shot", he lines up the rifle through the bush and Stolas puts a hand on his shoulder.

"You don't think we should wait until he's back inside?" Stolas asks and Blitz scoffs, "Nah, this'll do fine". He looks back in his scope but the target is gone.

"Fuuuuck", he whispers under his breath. Stolas looks around, "I dont see him..."

"See M&M anywhere?" he asks, still whispering and Stolas shakes his head, "Fuck" he replies in a whisper again.

Suddenly the target tries to tackle Blitz, kicking Stolas to the side against a tree. Putting his hands around Blitz's throat.

"Blitz!!" he turns eldritch, swiping a black claw straight through the targets body, slicing him in half right over Blitz, their blood dripping down Blitz's face as Stolas's eldritch form looms over him.

"Holy fuck...." he whispers, barely audible. The blood in his body flooding his face and...other parts.

Stolas quickly pushes the split body of the target aside and changes back to his regular form, blood splattered all over his face.

"Blitz are okay?! I'm so sorry if I scared you I-" he starts but Blitz pulls him down by the back head feathers into a deep, tongue twisting kiss.

"That was the hottest fucking thing I've ever seen", he says, both breathing heavily as they continue making out in the blood stained snow.

"Sir! Are you-WHAT THE FUCK?!" he says, gesturing to them and Millie chuckles, "Oh Moxx don't be mad, this is literally us every time we do a mission".

Moxx sighs, "You're right", then he sees the body of the target, "Satan-daaaaammnnnn. Was that you Stolas?!" he asks and Stolas nods, Blitz sitting up and pulling Stolas close, "You're damn right it was him!! My sweet murder bird", he coos and gives pecking kisses all over Stolas's face, him hooting in response.

Moxxie takes a picture of the body and holds Millie's hand, "Okay how are they more gross than we are".

"It's cute!" Millie says, smiling. Blitz blushes, standing up and Pulling Stolas up with him and easily pressing the crystal portal open.

"Come on gang! I'm fucking horny, and if I don't get to fuck this bird in the next ten minutes I'm gonna explode", he scoops Stolas up in his arms to his surprise,

"OOoh hoo hoo!" He hoots in response, kissing Blitz on the horns as he's carried through the portal.

[batsplat]

seen people talk about how marcs 2012 season was the reason the penalty point system was introduced (that made vale start from the back in 2015 which is admittedly absolutely absurdly funny) so here i am to ask my favorite motogp historian for thoughts (and prayers?) mostly about what exactly marc DID to make that happen (kinda funny also that he was branded a track terrorist from day 1 😭) and why they struck it in the mid 2010s?

okay so I'm gonna be lazy here and start out by just including what I put in the marc race recs post:

phillip island 2011 was the worst incident, and marc was criticised by motogp riders too, including valentino and casey. that one was like... it was just straight up dangerous and also incredibly stupid, I mean you're trying to get an extra lap in at the end of fp1 and are putting yourself and other riders in serious danger (definitely a case where you can argue that the penalty didn't go far enough and a race ban would have been warranted). marc can sometimes be pretty bullish in response to criticism while still going away and kinda realising what he'd done was a bad idea, quietly adjusting his behaviour... examples include this, where he had his team appeal the penalty, as well as of course 2018 argentina, where he talked down the 'mistakes' he'd made and said he'd done more wrong in the aleix than the valentino incident (which may be true, but it's the rhetorical equivalent of saying it's better to go up to someone's home and throw bricks through the windows than it is to set it on fire) - he is fairly good at learning from his mistakes, even when he doesn't always fully admit to them

that being said, of course he did continue getting himself involved in a fair bit of controversy during 2012. but it's worth pointing out that the penalty points system wasn't just a case of 'oh this kid is so bad, we've got to do something' - it was also a case of 'yeah this is being handled in a super inconsistent manner, actually'. like, there were times people felt marc should be penalised more, yes, but other times where they felt it was too much... it was just a bit all over the place. luckily, inconsistent stewarding is a problem they've managed to fix in the intervening twelve years, so we never hear about that stuff any more. let's just give a quick summary of the four biggest 2012 flashpoints:

qatar: marc runs luthi off-track in a deliberate and pretty dangerous way and gets a slap on the cooldown lap for his troubles, plus a reprimand from race direction

catalunya: towards the end of a race in which marc made several questionable moves, pol espargaro attempted to overtake marc who had just saved a fall - marc cuts across the track to rejoin the racing line and ends up colliding with pol. he was initially given a controversial penalty in the form of a minute added to his final time, before that was rescinded (which was unsuccessfully appealed by pol's team). see here for valentino and casey's reactions

motegi: marc 'torpedoed' kallio in saturday morning practise, riding into his side while kallio was on the racing line headed into a turn and causing kallio to highside... which he was not penalised for. some responses to the incident below

valencia: marc attempted to overtake corsi in friday practise, causing him to crash. this time, race direction handed out a back-of-the-grid penalty

it's a subtle distinction but an important one so I'll just stress it again: the stated aim of the penalty points wasn't to hold back aggressive riders like marc but to attempt to reduce inconsistency, which had been exposed in part due to how differently these marc incidents were handled. what marc did was create several high profile controversies, in each case prompting some level of frustration with how race direction handled the whole thing. obviously, there were other non-marc-related stewarding controversies, but it is inarguable that he was a significant factor in causing a revamp of the system

by the way, here's valentino's criticism of marc after the valencia incident:

here's a quick explanation of how the penalty points worked:

and, you know, for what it's worth marc did calm down in motogp... he certainly became better at operating in the grey area of the rules, approaching his racing in a manner his competitors didn't always appreciate but was certainly a lot harder to penalise. though there were also incidents that of course people felt marc should be penalised for - say after jerez 2013, jorge did kinda go 'okay but surely you can at least give a few penalty points for this, isn't this what they're for'. but it's not like there was unanimous agreement on that, see the immediate responses of some of the riders:

(bradley smith saying that jorge's last serious race was motegi 2005 - the one he got the race ban for - is a bit of an insane stance to take and doesn't really match up to reality, but it did make me laugh so that's something. of course the general point that during the alien era most of them were avoiding doing much actual racing isn't exactly wrong but. still)

not to make this a riding standards post, but this is the underlying tension when you're trying to decide how to regulate the sport... jerez was the first serious test that system faced - and it's one where race direction ended up calling it a pure racing incident. which is a tough call! I talked about it a bit in the sete post and what his stance was on the jerez 2005 incident, where he feels like this isn't a contact sport and shouldn't be adjudicated as such. it's a fundamental philosophical difference that became very relevant again when marc showed up fresh from his controversial moto2 campaign and woke up the entire class with his own particular brand of racing. from a write-up of the jerez 2013 race:

(motegi 2008 not motegi 2010, which is something I remember because casey's pass also allowed valentino to immediately swoop on through. should be noted that casey may have apologised but he did not give the position back to dani lol. also motegi 2010 is pretty memorable if we're talking about hard racing. fair to say that valentino demonstrated he did not share the approach of his fellow aliens when battling jorge)

and more on the shift marc brought about:

this is the thing, right - a big part of understanding that time period is concerning yourself with what came just before. the general feeling (unsurprisingly not shared by casey, jorge or dani) was that the series desperately needed some new life breathed into it, that the racing had become stale and sterile and far too predictable... there were several factors that contributed to this, from the beloathed 800cc bikes that were only replaced in 2012, to the approach of those three aliens and how adept they'd become at racking up wins by dominating out front, to how valentino (generally considered the most 'exciting' racer of the lot) had taken himself out of the competitive picture... I mean, in all honesty the racing is still not great in 2013 compared to the rossi heyday (it had gotten better by the very end of the 2010s), but of course there's a lot more energy to it than the years before. which meant the sport as a whole was in a tricky place where they both had to be seen to be constraining marc, stopping him from being an active danger to himself and others, while also kind of... letting him loose. a little bit of controversy is hardly a bad thing, after all - love him or hate him, everyone had a take, and that's the kind of thing that's obviously healthy for a sport

marc did get two penalty points that year for ignoring yellow flags in silverstone and crashing in the same place as cal crutchlow had just gone down:

(for obvious reasons, 'ignoring yellow flags' is extremely dangerous, but there's no reason to believe he wasn't being honest here)

he was also given another penalty point for the contact that caused dani's crash in aragon, taking him perilously close to that back-of-the-grid penalty:

and that was basically their position - it's a warning. broadly they wanted him to not completely revamp his approach, but just apply a little more discretion, exercise his judgement. a little more caution, a little more restraint. it's still fundamentally a different philosophy of racing than the one that had been espoused for several years by the other aliens save for valentino - but marc could get to a place where he was engaging in hard racing that generally toed the line without crossing it. a little more detail on the aragon incident and marc's approach to racing in the context of the time period from this write-up:

this is the issue, right, marc was riding on just the right line of acceptable that race direction would not have in any way been justified in slapping out race bans - though you can certainly argue that in some cases, you could have handed out more penalty points, which would then have meant he would have faced more 'real' consequences. in any case, they couldn't actually 'teach him a lesson', because he'd already more or less learned it... if the lesson is 'hard racing and contact is fine, just don't overdo it'. which of course, not everyone would agree with. the odd memorable exception aside, throughout marc's premier class career he's been very aware of that line, and has taken care to avoid bringing the wrath of race direction upon himself too severely

the penalty points thing and sepang 2015... well, first of all let's quickly bring in what the actual ruling was:

honestly, I imagine that if they didn't have a penalty points system, they would've figured out a different way to penalise him, and might have slapped him with a back-of-the-grid penalty anyway. not in a 'oh the fim had it out for valentino rossi!!!!' way, more that they did need to be seen doing something. the penalty points felt like a fairly elegant way of giving a penalty that wasn't that harsh and wasn't making any judgement calls over whether valentino deliberately kicked marc, while also in an indirect way ensuring that valentino would suffer consequences. and yes, it is a nice bit of dramatic irony - but the piece says it, the penalty "had to be severe enough for rossi to feel truly punished". the penalty points happened to be the tool they had available and perhaps with a different set of rules, valentino would have been handed a slightly different flavour of punishment. but really, this is more 'fun historical coincidence' than something that massively changed the events that played out

of course, it was a controversial decision that few people felt 100% comfortable with. on the one hand, if you believe that valentino kicked marc, then you probably would have wanted him to be disqualified - three measly penalty points does not feel enough in that situation. on the other, if you believe that valentino engaged aggressively with marc but without deliberately trying to make him crash, then a back-of-the-grid penalty that essentially decided the outcome of the championship before the final race even started is a tough pill to swallow. (of course there's also a position somewhere in between where valentino didn't literally kick marc but did attempt to run him off track, which would make the penalty 'about right'.) of course, the championship standings should ideally not determine what sort of penalties are being handed out - but equally, it's something that did limit the intrigue going into the race, and over something that felt quite arbitrary. the other penalty point he'd gotten to rack up the four total was about a qualifying incident in misano - which either feels like a silly thing to determine the ultimate outcome of the championship, or instead is a demonstration of how the cumulative nature of the points system is supposed to work. but yes, it did get a lot of criticism in the aftermath, with concerns over whether future title fights could end up being defanged as an indirect consequence of relatively minor incidents earlier in the season

and of course, the penalty points were eventually scrapped in early 2017. here's a bit more on that decision:

basically, sepang 2015 was a contributing factor to broader changes in how motogp was regulated, which down the line had the knock-on effect of getting rid of that penalty system entirely. rightly or wrongly, race direction felt like they had better tools available to penalise riders and this system was now redundant. anyway [insert another lazy gag about how the switch to a stewards panel has completely failed in eliminating controversy from stewarding] [insert pithy closing line] [press post]

[cilil]

Day 1 ~ Daily Life & Customs

AN: For day 1 of @silmarillionepistolary. Yes, it had to be Cara for tax day, and yes, with Turgon. Thanks again to @elentarial for suggesting this pairing all the way back in December, I'm invested (pun intended) now.

𓂃🖋 Characters/pairings: Caranthir x Turgon 𓂃🖋 Synopsis: Caranthir is delighted to finally receive some personal correspondence - from his favourite cousin no less. 𓂃🖋 Warnings: / 𓂃🖋 Oneshot (~600 words) | AO3

Dear cousin, 

I hope you are well. 

The pen you gifted me proves to be wonderful not just for writing, but for inking my sketches and drawings as well, so I must thank you again. 

I have been making some progress with the tower I was designing, though I am not yet happy with the archway and window designs. Uncle Arafinwë was so kind as to ask Eönwë to take me to Ilmarin for inspiration, but Lord Manwë was more interested in telling me about the birds nesting in his towers than explaining the design. 

I am admittedly lacking inspiration of my own at the moment, so if you happen to have other ideas, please let me know.

Regards, Turukáno 

Carnistir read the letter several times, his brow furrowed in concentration and contemplation. It was quite like Turukáno to keep his correspondence short and to the point, yet another reason why he was — despite his sincere commiseration for his dear cousin's troubles — positively delighted to hear from him. 

Prince or not, Carnistir didn't receive many letters, and most of the ones that ended up on his desk were formal correspondence, either addressed to him or to one of his brothers. Tyelkormo and Makalaurë were particularly notorious for forgetting to take care of theirs, and Maitimo had recently taken to spending a lot of time with Findekáno and was less willing to help out. 

Thus many things fell onto Carnistir's shoulders, and private correspondence had become an even rarer treat. It made him feel important — even wanted in a strange and possibly pathetic manner, as he chastised himself — that Turukáno was indirectly asking him for help and opinions regarding one of his passion projects. 

Determined, Carnistir pushed a stack of papers aside and placed his new favourite letter in the middle, reaching for an empty sheet of paper to compose his response posthaste. While not exactly an urgent matter, it was not one to ignore for days or weeks either. 

Dear cousin, 

I appreciate your letter, and hope this one finds you well. 

If you would like my personal opinion, I am afraid I cannot say much without having seen the progress on your sketch. I would be happy to visit and have a look, though. 

What I can also do for you, if you wish, is arrange a meeting with Grandfather Mahtan and possibly Lord Aulë as well; surely they could provide some better insights. Let me know if you would like that, and I shall speak to my mother promptly. 

Regards, Carnistir

Carnistir hesitated before writing down his final lines. Briefly, he contemplated a warmer wording, at least a "yours" or "yours truly", but in the end decided the safest way was to simply mirror Turukáno's style. Besides, he didn't want to seem pushy or intrusive, not when he had such a golden opportunity to gain his favourite cousin's favour. 

He would accompany him to any meeting he might agree to, of course. It would certainly be helpful for his own studies as well, he justified it to himself as soon as the thought crossed his mind. If he was going to study the depths and nuances of things like trade, taxes and even the occasional textile work, something his family members liked to tease him about, some input on style, composition and architecture couldn't hurt. 

Waiting for the ink to dry on the paper to avoid any unforgivable stains or smears, Carnistir began looking for an envelope and sealing wax. He was going to make sure that his letter would be sent as soon as possible. 

Thanks for reading! ♡

taglist: @elanna-elrondiel @i-did-not-mean-to @saintstars @urwendii

[snek-panini]

It's Friday the 13th! Here, have a book completely unrelated to that:

It looks fairly straightforward from here, but this is a bind of @dietraumerei's wonderful Good Omens series, The Sprawl of Life. It's a canon universe, pre-season-2 South Downs Cottage fic, and I typeset it when I did because I'd just watched season 2 and wanted the fluffiest, sweetest, most slice-of-life thing I could think of and this was it. Seriously, if you have been personally victimized by the season 2 finale this might be the antidote you're looking for. Though admittedly some of the lines do hit a lot more bittersweetly now than they did when I first read it in 2019.

More pics under the cut! This one's got an unusual format, go have a look!

It's a dos-a-dos! My first one! Before I started making books I'd never even heard of this format, but I've been wanting to try it ever since I found it. It's hard to find stories that suit the format, though--they've got to be within a certain word count, about the same length, and related to one another, and they have to be a pair, not a three or four part story. They look super complicated without (I've found, anyway) actually being that hard to make. If you want to impress a non-bookbinder make one of these to show them; all my family were fascinated by it.

For materials, the floral cover is scapbook paper from Joann's (the fancy stuff that's very flexible and feels handmade) and the spine is Allure book cloth from Hollander's in the wisteria color. It's a perfect match for the lavender in the paper. I've only previously used the Lineco/Books By Hand book cloth and gotten good results, but my experience with that brand in general was that it's a cheap, readily available base for starting out, but there are wider and better quality options out there once you get away from chain craft stores. Working with this cloth was proof of that. It's stiffer than the Lineco stuff, which made it a little harder to glue down but not enough to cause problems, and it took HTV better than any other surface I've used it on. Here, check out the spines:

Images of the spines. In case the photos are a little blurry, that's Demolishing Proofs We Never Believed In on the left and The World and its Beautiful Particle Logic on the right. The titles gave me some worries. I didn't want to obscure more of the florals by putting them on the front, but was worried they wouldn't fit on the spines since they're so long. I got them on, but it took a lot of careful measurements. Still, though, I couldn't be more pleased by them, and I barely had any of my usual trouble getting the HTV to stick.

Handmade end bands on both sides, in colors matched to the cover paper. I was a little worried about making my own for this project since the text blocks are only about 100 pages each. I was worried they'd be too short. But they're not, and I got a really nice front bead on them. I wanted to do three colors but that proved too challenging for my current skill level. Maybe next time. The second image is the endpaper. Specifically it's the back endpaper, so you can see how the second spine fits into the case. When you read a dos-a-dos, you read the first part, then flip it over like you're going to read the back blurb and there's the second part ready to go. I only explain this because, having never made one, I thought you flipped it over top-to-bottom until I did the case fitting for this one. The top-to-bottom one it called a tete-beche and I think does not have the shared cover board in the center; the pages are connected upside-down. (This is all from my limited research; pro bookbinders please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Couple of interior images. All the graphics came from rawpixel and they are the same in both halves. I kept the typeset really simple on this one, without any extra graphics. Partly that was to keep the page count down (images can take up extra space) and partly it's a reflection of the text. It's a happily ever after story, mostly. Their lives are so much easier here than in canon, and the focus is on communicating without barriers or frills and on building their relationship without other things getting in the way. So it's got a fancy title page, because it matches the cover, but the rest is straightforward with just some simple swirls around the chapter numbers.

I couldn't be more pleased with how this turned out. I was worried it would be very complicated since it's a new-to-me build, but I was exaggerating the difficulty and that made for an easy bind. I hope the author likes it too.

[fairytail-whathesays]

Loke/Laxus has me intrigued actually, any headcanons for that?

As with all things, I can give it my best shot!

Loke was furious with Laxus, to a degree above the rest of the guild, when he had the nerve to show his face after leaving the guild to fight Phantom Lord on their own. He attempted to fight Laxus 1v1 for it, but rather than get his ass summarily whooped as anyone else would have, Laxus just let Loke wear himself out trying to hurt him. It wounded Loke's already low self-esteem much more than punching him outright would have.

Any grudge over that disappeared after Tenrou Island, because Laxus was there when everyone needed help and Loke wasn't.

Loke was the one who referred Laxus to Master Bob, having previously been contracted to a Blue Pegasus wizard, thus facilitating Laxus and the Thunder Legion's stay there during Fairy Tail's year of disbandment.

Laxus and Freed (and Evergreen) were all immensely popular among the women there and hoo boy, did that rile up Loke something fierce. Loke was immediately on 100% power, and did everything in his power to try and make his 'turf' his again.

It didn't work.

Because some of these headcanons have to be funny and unserious or I'll eventually run out of steam, this made Loke so pissed the he decided he'd just date Laxus himself so as to keep all the ladies from migrating into his pocket.

Laxus literally agrees for shits and giggles.

Loke is in a pickle because none of his usual so-cheesy-it-actually-works flirting strategies work on Laxus. For that matter, Loke can't fulfill the role he usually prefers to take in relationships, which is the knight in shining armor and the guy who keeps the other party swooning and blushing at all times.

Loke: I'm unseduce-able. You could never meet my high standards. Laxus: puts on an RnB song Loke:

Because I admittedly had trouble concept-ing this ship as Fairy Tail characters, I'm gonna replace the usual NS/FW section with an AU section:

Loke is the real name of a veteran competitive gamer who goes by the online handle Leo (and yes, he can be a furry if you're the type to stan SonicFox or whatever).

He's serious stuff--your friendly neighborhood gamerbro jocks who think they're hot shit at video games would find their asses virtually nuked if they tried to 1v1 him. Games are his life.

He has just started to really build his empire online and translate the world of success in video gaming into something resembling a celebrity-style dating life, when he's challenged by a newcomer only known by the handle "Thunder God". No pfp, no information known, never speaks over voice chat or types messages. He thinks he'll whoop him like all the rest.

You already know what happens--the shocking upset, and legendary gamer Loke is summarily beaten (probably while streaming in front of like 3,000 people) by this mysterious no-face.

This starts up a very public debate wherein Loke is at risk of losing his title and status if he loses again, should Thunder God show his face--because Thunder God is now out there, casually destroying other gaming legends like some silent, deadly assassin. Loke does some investigating all the way down to hiring white-hat hacker Lucy Heartfilia, and decides to find out who this guy is.

When he finally meets up with the guy, he naturally thinks the guy who answers the door is Thunder God's older brother--actually, what he asks is "are you Laxus' dad?" and the death glare he receives induces f e a r.

For reference, Laxus is a 6'3" masc4masc built like a power lifter. His jawline has probably killed people before and his broody vaguely unhappy stare is more suited to indebted college students than pro gamers. Loke flat-out does not believe him when he says he's the Thunder God.

Admittedly, Loke doesn't look much like the picture of 'pro gamer' either--he's handsome and popular and those stylish blue glasses are now an official part of his merch line.

It doesn't take much convincing, though--one round at Super Smash Bros with the most embarrassing joke of a character Laxus can find, and the proof is right there. From there on out, a rivalry is cemented, with Loke swearing to beat Laxus in an upcoming tournament and Laxus basically going "yeah, whatever".

Said rivalry starts to turn to affection when Laxus actually...asks Loke to hang out some time. It turns out Laxus is kind of lonely, and Loke basically won't deny him attention if it comes with an attempt to finally beat him at their preferred game. Loke takes it as an opportunity to try and figure out Laxus' tricks, while Laxus uses it to get a cute guy to talk to him.

When Loke actually starts to see Laxus in a different light--as opposed to some upstart asshole threatening his throne--is when Laxus shows him his garage. It's basically a merch display except instead of merch it's priceless gaming arcade memorabilia, all working. You turn off the lights, and the whole place lights up in flourescent and neon lightning like some arcade-hopping teen's fantasy in the 90s. Laxus' dad (Ivan) was a deadbeat who gamed all day instead of finding a job, which is why Laxus is a missed bill away from being destitute...but he left Laxus some killer gaming instincts.

It turns out Laxus is kind of an 'ex-con' of the gaming world--information Lucy and her hacker friend Levy manage to dig up. He was banned from several gaming tournaments because of violent behavior and threats, rendering all his skill at gaming virtually irrelevant. Lucy and Levy recommend using this for blackmail's sake--either Laxus throws the tournament so Loke can keep his title, or Loke can expose his identity if he wins, thus rendering the victory null.

Loke can't go through with it, obviously. It turns out all that time spent with Laxus resulted in *choking noise* actually liking him.

The tournament happens, and predictably, the last two to make it past all the brackets are Loke and Laxus. The two major differences between this match and all the others is that a) Loke actually sort of holds his own, having practiced against Laxus so many times and b) Laxus actually makes use of text chat. They send messages back and forth throughout their fight.

It's long-winded, but Laxus wins, effectively becoming the Rey Mysterio of the gaming world. Loke, however, gets to keep his reputation intact by taking his career off in a new direction. After the courtesy 'good game man' messages left in chat, Loke types out 'wanna go out to dinner sometime'.

Laxus accepts in front of like a million viewers and boom, they're a power couple now.

[cryingpariah]

“You know most people knock, right?”

The president of the world economic journal had been enjoying a rather benign evening, his staff were retired for the night and he was going over some admittedly rather boring business licence renewals when his door had magically opened. (It obviously wasn’t magic, he just hasn’t gotten into the people onboard starting at way below eye level yet). In stepped little Jackie in her doll-like nightwear, which he had made the grave mistake of calling ghost kid attire when she was in close proximity to a stapler, as her little feet carried to the chair opposite to his desk. It’s where they know stood metaphorically, her little body scrunched as her forehead rested on her bunched up knees.

“Shorry I guessh.” Her whispered voice muffled by fabric.

A quiet overtook them and Morgans felt the familiar awkwardness creeping in. He had taken the kid in on a whim, he had had the gall to call it fate when he had passed by the orphanage that day but he was woefully unprepared for what having a child in your life actually was. Thankfully he could get away with it in during the day and there were plenty more people on staff who were much better at childcare, doting on the girl constantly. But now…

“Isn’t it past your bedtime or something?”

“Didn’t think you knew I had one.”

“You’re like 5 of course you have a bedtime.”

Her chin now rested on her knees, a bewildered expression on her face “…I'm 8.”

“Pshh semantics. The point is you’re awake and not asleep, what’s going on there?”

He received an owlishly blink before Jackie pointedly looked left. “…It’s nothing mind your own business.”

Morgans began sifting through the filing cabinet of his mind, searching for the very light folder labelled “Things that kids do”

“Did you wet the bed or something?”

Her head whipped around so fast he was a little worried for her neck. “OBVIOUSLY NOT.”

“Is your stuffed animal in the wash?”

“I don’t even have stuffed animals!”

“Did you have a nightmare?”

Silence, bingo. He preened at being able to decipher her troubles but she was back to head on knees in what he assumed was embarrassment.

He cooed condescendingly. “Oh did you get a little scared? You get that nightmares aren’t real right?”

“This one was.” Her voice came out flatter than he had ever heard as she tried to fold up more.

His smirk dropped when a very quiet, very hesitant sniff punctuated her claim. Her wording felt important, like he should have known. Like a strike of lightning it came to him; a conversation with the lady who had run that orphanage. The kid's parents had been complete workaholics, as most people from the island were, but almost to a comical extreme. They were stern, he was told but never cruel, not intentionally anyway. They were never really there. Then one day, with no real explanation, they were just…gone. Jackie had been the one to find them. He felt bile in this throat as the date came back to him and the quick glance at the calendar confirmed it.

He heaved a sigh. There are few times when the well deserved title of asshole got to him, now was one of them.

He began clearing off his desk, there was no way he’s getting his work done now. He headed for a nearby shelf and reached for his chess board. Her head rises by the time he had sat down and started setting the board.

“What are you…”

“Gonna be honest here and say I don’t really know. You wanna play?”

She looked at him incredulously and he was worried she was about to start crying before she quietly muttered something along the lines of “I don’t know how to play.”

“It’s alright. I can teach you, we’ve got plenty of time.”

Could she really not feel the waves of desperation rolling off him? He was not a man of comforting words, this was the best he could do!

After what truly felt like an eternity to the albatross, a small smile found its way onto Jackie's face. “Okay.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah!”

He had to admit, the youngster was a quick learner, she picked up the game in ten minutes and they were off to the races. Sometime around dawn she actually won and the smug smile and snarky goading had him picking her up and dragging her back to her room.

“What happened to ‘don’t be bellyaching if you don’t win and be a good loser’??”

“This has nothing to do with that, I just remembered little brats need their rest.”

The kitchen staff peeked out and muffled their chuckles at the sound of her shocked gasp “I’m not a brat, I’m great! Take it back!”

He cawed his laugh in response. “Not a chance, go to sleep already.”

Despite her incessant protests that she wasn’t even a little bit tired, she knocked out the second her head hit the pillow.

When she does wake next neither of them really talk about the main issue and choose instead to vehemently deny the claims that they’ve finally started to “mesh”. However, for the next almost decade on that same sleepless night, like clockwork, Morgans's door would open and his desk would be cleared, the two ready for their annual rematch.

[mama-scarebear]

First off, I’d like to say welcome back! Been watching your blog recently and I’m a huge fan.

Secondly, I’d like to ask for some advice if I may? Domme to Domme. I have this little girl, sweet as angel cake most of the time, but she’s still a brat. Normally, when she brats she always stops short right before she gets into any trouble. (Chronic people pleaser, she doesn’t want to actually make me angry) but here lately she has been.. one hell of a heathen. I have no idea what’s gotten into her but she’s playing her part. I’m a soft Domme generally, but still sadistic so my spankings can be cruel. (As long as she allows it) and I think a spanking is what she’s seeking, so I’ve been getting creative in grounding her, lines, timeouts, etc but I’m running out of ideas and she isn’t.

We’re both on the autism spectrum, and she has a huge special interest in learning so I “homeschool” her. During one of her lessons last week, she kept mouthing off, not paying any attention and generally getting on my last nerve. So, she got about an hour long chat with my ruler and had to hold a bar of soap in her mouth until her assignment was finished.

That didn’t stop her behavior however. That day when I went to put her down for her nap she was so fussy. Way fussier than she normally was. Ran all around the house, hid from me, anything she could do. I finally got her wrangled, tightly tucked her in bed, set up her baby monitor and camera (she’s a fucking runner. She needs constant supervision) and locked the door. Admittedly, I let my guard down for a second, and got to working on dinner and forgot to check in camera for a little bit. When I did check it, it was covered. By the time I headed back there to open the door, the damn thing had crawled out of the window, and had come back through the back door. She hid for another 10 minutes, finally being able to sneak past me while I was looking for her and found all of her snacks, gorging herself sick on them. That particular stunt I’m still coming up with a good punishment for. I’m honestly a bit stumped. I feel like nothing has been working lately.

I’d like to clarify, I’m not actually angry or frustrated with her. I really do enjoy the game of cat and mouse here, but I’m running out of punishments and what to do. She’s pulling stunts faster than I can keep up with. So my question is, what would you do in my shoes? Is there anyway I can quell this kid?

So firstly I'd just like to say that I'm not a part of your relationship so any advice I do give is to be done so with a hefty grain of salt. Before I do give ideas for punishments the fact that this has been (as far as I can tell from your message) a sudden and recent shift in her behavior from chronic people pleaser to extreme brat is a bit of a yellow flag. It's a warning sign to at least make sure everything is going OK on their side of things. If this hasn't been something thoroughly discussed and built up to and is a sudden shift into this level of bratty behavior it would make me want to examine and ask my partner if there if everything is OK. Sometimes misbehaving to get punishments is just that and sometimes it's more and it's important as dominants to make the distinction and act accordingly.

Now for the fun

Whenever it comes to punishments I'm a suckered for tying it back to the original offense. You seem to be caught in the classic loop of "these are the archetypal punishments but none are working what else can I do?". The best solution to that is to remember everything in a large enough quantity or when done certain ways is a punishment. For instance her little snack fiasco shows she wants snacks. Give some to her. When she feels full? You keep giving her some. Keep going and going until she's fit to pop. The stomach ache she'll endure will be the punishment. She wants to interrupt you constantly? That's fine. Let her speak her little head off and tally up every minute she does so. Next day she gets a lovely little gag to keep her quiet for just as many hours. Let her learn that any slack in her leash you give can be tightened and used to choke her. Lines and spankings are classics but they're ineffective at putting a message across.

Theres also the deprivation route. She likes to run off? Hobble her at home until walking is earned once more. She likes to interrupt and everything else has failed? Talking is a privilege that can be taken. Remind her that it is by your good graces she isn't bedridden and helpless.

Also on a final note. Some bondage at naptime seems a smart idea. A locking collar with a locked leash so she can't run off. Best of luck

[romanceandshenanigans]

Writer Q&A Game

Thanks to @clairelsonao3 for tagging me!

1. What motivates you to write?

I'm not exactly sure tbh. It almost feels like a compulsion. There are days where I simply do not feel good in my body if I haven't written anything. Then there are others where I can't bring myself to write because I'm too tired or too distracted from life. Honestly the second I get a clear head and enough time to myself, I'll start writing.

2. A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

This isn't from my WIP, but from a fanfic I wrote a while ago. I want to try to find a way to incorporate it into something. Not sure where though.

“I know this seems like it’s coming out of nowhere,” he said, “but promise it’s not. I’ve had a long time to think about it.  A few years, actually. I guess, I just didn’t realize how deep I was in it until about five minutes ago.”

She kept silent, but the simple fact she hadn’t told him to get out gave him the confidence to keep going. . 

“I meant it when I said I’m crazy about you. I like that you take your sugar with a drop of coffee.  I like how you sing to yourself when you’re happy.  I like that you never seem to get cold.  I like that you never lose your head under fire, but still need me to get rid of spiders. I like that you can laugh at yourself.  I like that you can laugh at me. Hell, I like that you’re perfectly willing to slap my face if the situation calls for it.

I like so many things about you Liz, and that’s just the stuff I found out on accident.  I can only imagine the stuff I’d learn if I started loving you on purpose."

3. Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them and what are they like?

I really do enjoy writing Finn. The boy just makes my smile.

Close second is another OC which I wrote for fanfic who I want to save and put someplace else, Lucy. She's my softest girl who has a lot of love to give. Might figure out a way to put her in this regency setting somewhere, but who knows.

4. What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

The first draft spree. The moment when you get an idea and you have write it down as quickly as possible. It's rough and definitely will need some editing, but that rush cannot be topped. It just feels satisfying to exorcise even the smallest of scenes out of my body.

5. What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

Dialogue, hands down. It's at least the part I've gotten the most compliments on.

6. What is something in the writeblr community is most enjoyable?

I've only just started to dip my toe in, but I really do love answering asks. I like seeing other writer's process and knowing I'm not alone. It's just fun!

7. A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

I've been using Scrivener and it's really helped me keep everything organized. I have a very conspiracy board way of drafting, so having all my random snippets in one place really helps.

8. A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

Not sure world building is my strong suit for this current WIP. I suppose I'm enjoying expanding the world of the theatre, but I admittedly need to do more research.

9. What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

Write anyway. It doesn't have to be the scene that's giving you trouble. It doesn't even have to be for the piece you're trying to focus on, just don't get out of the habit of writing. Once you lose that momentum, it takes a long time to get it back.

10. Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters

Gotta give a shout out to @clairelsonao3 for being so welcoming in my introduction to the writeblr community. And @janec23, for being one of the few specifically romance writers to reach out.

But I really can't begin to thank all the people who have followed me from my fanfic blog over to this one. It really means so much to know people are interested in reading anything I put out there.

@flapjacques, @jo-harrington, @can-of-pringles, @handahbear, @auroramagpie, @justanothersadperson93, @sad-cat-hours, @ghostface001, @theowlwhocameback, @mattmurdocksscars, @roruna, @everything-intertwined, @sweetjedi, @arcanerazil, @vibratingbonesbis, @delirious0pandemonium, @llovelykenobi, @geek-girl7, @mixedupanddown

Know that I love and appreciate you all.

I'm also going to leave this an OPEN tag to anyone who wants to do this, and especially invite everyone who I have tagged above. (and

[viscerally-tired]

"Tmagp's episodes don't fit in with the fears!"

YES THEY DO LOOK, JUST LOOK. YEAH SOME EPISODES ARE HARD OR IMPOSSIBLE TO PINPOINT, SO ARE MOST TMA EPISODES????

"Yeah but this episode mentions the Spiral AND the Stranger." Yeah because- they're inherently linked? They may be 'enemies', but they borrow concepts from each other 24/7.

Most fears borrow from others, you can't have the Hunt without elements of the Flesh, you often can't have the Eye without some other fear being present to be Watched, you can't have the Spiral and the Stranger not be linked at times because the Stranger also makes you feel like you're going mad, and the Spiral also uses the uncanny valley as a mechanism of harvesting fear PLEASE.

I have a notebook in which I attempt to categorise the fears in each episode of TMAGP, as well as additional character/general notes, do not discredit my hard work PLEASE. Although I am 100% open to hearing other thoughts/theories and potentially changing my categorisations.

1) First Shift: (1) The Stranger, (2) The Eye.

2) Making Adjustments: The Flesh.

3) Putting Down Roots: Admittedly hard to pinpoint, though I would say the Corruption and the Lonely, which yes, the two VERY MUCH go together fight me on it and I'll give you examples. There are mentions of the Eye (paranoia), and the Flesh-ish, but the paranoia is a product of the crime he's committed, not the Eye, and the Flesh is only relevant due to decomposition, which is the Corruption.

4) Taking Notes: The Slaughter.

5) Personal Screening: The Eye.

6) Introductions: Okay this one I have no clue, I can tell you what it's not, but not exactly what it is, though Needles does mention enjoying the fear that his victim has of dying so the End is a possibility- though I doubt that simply because the End doesn't have a track record of being super involved. Needles also enjoys mindless pain/violence, so potentially the Slaughter could be involved.

7) Give and Take: The Spiral

8) Running on Empty: Also the Spiral! How fun :33

9) Rolling With It: Either the End or the Desolation, looking at the Desolation's relationship with money troubles specifically here, and therefore it's relationship with gambling.

Anyway thank you for letting me ramble I'm loosing myself to this podcast and if I'm proven wrong later down the line I will throw myself in the lake :33

[gefionne]

Hi Gefionne!

Have you been reading any good books lately? I recently read “A River Endless” because I saw you mention it, and I enjoyed it a lot.

I noticed you have written quite a few fanfics set in a historical AU. I can only imagine the amount of research this takes and as a fellow fanfic writer I would love to hear a bit about your process when you write these.

Do you enjoy reading historical fiction in general, do you have any favorites that you would recommend?

Hello, friend!

I'm glad you enjoyed A River Endless! I also enjoyed those books, since I've been on a fantasy kick in the past 6 months. I loved fantasy most as a kid, and while I moved away from it for a while, I reread the Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab and got yanked back into wanting to read fantasy.

Shades of Magic is a favorite, though iirc Schwab's first move from YA to adult fiction. It still has a very YA flavor because of that, but it's such an engaging world that I got sucked in. Totally wrote an OT3 fic based on the series when I finished it again this time lol.

Other stuff I've really liked lately:

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries and Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawlett - I really like her prose style and the books overall are whimsical and endearing.

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas - Dark academia with a supernatural twist; reread it recently.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess and Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan - Also YA-flavored adult fantasy inspired by Chinese mythology.

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo - I love this book. I will never stop gushing about this book. I reread it this summer because it's a creepy, humid Southern gothic that's queer af and has delicious prose.

In terms of historical fiction, I've had a lot of trouble connecting with it for quite a while now, despite having written a couple of meaty historical fics. There are some quirks of historicals that will bug me enough from the start that I can't get into them: mostly that they info dump the setting within the first paragraph with a laundry list of historical details that's like "Hey, look, I did my research!" but it actually makes the story sound like a freshman HIS101 paper, not a novel.

One of the toughest things about writing historicals is doing all that research and then judiciously weaving it into the story, not putting your whole-ass knowledge of details into every page. While of course I want to make the setting come alive with historical detail, in the end, the story is about the characters and their arc, so you have to walk this line of putting in enough detail to make it believable while not getting bogged down in the details. If a historical novel leans too hard on establishing the setting at the very start and less on introducing the characters, I tend to put it down because it seems like a book about the period, not a book about these people I'm supposed to care for. I might as well read non-fiction for that. All the historicals I've picked up lately--which, admittedly, isn't that many--have been like that, so I noped out.

My research for fics is not anywhere what would need to be done for a novel I'd be willing to query. I read 3 books about the Eagle Squadrons, watched a movie or two, and always had the internet's legion of aviation nerds at hand when I was writing my WWII Royal Air Force AU, but I still fudged enough that I'd be reluctant to do more than fanfiction with it. All historicals require some fudging, extrapolation, and creative license, but if I wrote an RAF novel, I'd have a far larger reading list.

For Limerence, the 70s English public school AU, I read a book of accounts of queer men and their experiences in public school, with some history of public school in general. Again, not half enough to float a novel, but perfectly adequate for my purposes of writing a fic for fun. The Good Omens fic that spans several historical eras is a product of internet research, and I believe one commenter found an historical misstep with tea, when it wouldn't've been available in the place Zira and Crowley currently were. I nodded to them for noticing the error, but didn't go back and fix it because while I put a lot of work into my fics and take them seriously as an art form, I'm comfortable with some anachronisms or imperfections in historical accuracy because I do, in fact, write these fics for fun around a full-time job, house, partner, and pet, and people can read them for free.

My advice for writing historical fics: pick up at least one non-fiction book about the period you're writing about, then see if you want to read more books or just chill on the internet. Decide how much you're comfortable fudging and what you need to be super accurate. Then focus on your characters and plot, using the setting to prop them up and make them come alive. The setting/time isn't the main focus, but you have to know enough about it to let your story unfold within its confines.

Anyway, this is so long and if you've made it all the way to the bottom, anon, that's lovely. I was just taking a break from my workday to reply, so it's back to the grind. ;-)

Love, Gef

[americanwh0resstuff]

God knows I tried

Chapter II

Word count: 2,244

002

Elizabeth's hands trembled as she watched the tall priest walk back and forth before the altar.

"Now Liz, you know lying is a sin, yet still you continue? Why are you lying to me, young lady?"

His voice was cold and stung like a blade against her.

She grimaced as he retrieved the old wooden yardstick from the altar.

"Hands, up on the table, now."

With one swift whip, he created crimson red lines across her skin, blood pooling into the crevices.

"Miss, can I help you?"

Elizabeth snapped back to the present, looking down at her hands to see that they were in fact not bleeding and it was purely a memory, she'd never forgotten the old father McPherson, or the sisters who once "cared" for her either for that matter.

"Miss?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I guess I'm a bit out of it today."

A chuckle was admitted from the tall and handsome man before her, her eyes lingered to his friendly ones, and then the small scar in his eyebrow.

"Don't worry, we've all been there, it's just, you look troubled, if you don't mind me saying." He was leaning up against the barrier of the breeze, the small ferry from the mainland to Crockett island; a large denim jacket sat on his shoulders and he was wearing a pair of black gloves. Liz smiled softly at him "yeah, I'm fine, just a bit... lost in thought I guess." He nodded.

"What brings you to Crockett? I'm afraid we don't get many visitors around here?" He looked deeply into her eyes, trying to hold the conversation.

"I'm actually going back home, I've had some... news, a family crisis, I didn't have much choice" Liz remained vague, not wanting to dump the dead mum card on a perfect stranger.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I hope everything's okay, if you ever need anything, feel free to ask, I'm the new Sheriff here in Crockett!" He placed his hands on his hips, shoulders back, and looked at her with pride.

She smiled softly at him. "my names Elizabeth, Elizabeth Bates, nice to meet you, Sheriff." She stuck out her hand for him to shake, but he hesitated, looking at her sadly. "Ah, Miss Bates, I'm sorry, I heard about your mother, I only met her a few times, but, she was always friendly." Liz looked down at her feet, a sad smile plastered on her face. "Thank you." she held back her tears as she tried not to think about her poor mother.

Shortly thereafter the ferry docked onshore, the bridge was lowered and people started to shuffle off. "The offer still stands, if you ever need anything..." He trailed off before disappearing into the small crowd.

With her bag flung over her shoulder and a suitcase in hand, Elizabeth dragged her way down the docks and through the island, past the general store, the school, and eventually the church, she stopped and thought about going in to see Monsignor Pruitt, but she decided it would be best to go home and get settled first.

When she reached the quaint one-story house, she could barely hold back her tears as she unlocked the door, a flood of memories coming back to her in an instant, some good, some bad. Memories of the hard times her father would drink too much and take out his anger on her and her mother, or when he'd lock her in her room for "disobeying" him, but also good memories, her mother making her a stack of pancakes every year for her birthday, playing piano in the living room while her parents laughed and danced and everything seemed normal.

Liz collapsed onto the couch, exhaustion taking over as she closed her eyes, jet lag was already kicking in. She didn't rest for long, as only a few moments later, a knock was heard at her door

A woman with big eyes and dark curly hair stood at her door.

"Erin!" Liz beamed, her childhood friend and admittedly, her teenage crush, never failed to make her smile.

"I've missed you so much" she whispered into her hair. "I'm really, really, sorry about your mom" the dark-haired woman gave her a sad smile and stroked her hair as a form of comfort, she knew how to do that, how to calm you down in an instant, either by a touch of your hand or stroke of your hair, she could cure your anxieties in a blink of an eye.

Liz made them some peppermint tea before the two women sat down on the couch, chatting for ages about nothing and everything, Erin told her about Riley's return to the island and how she planned to go to mass later that morning, as it didn't start till 10 am.

"Since when are you so devout?" The blonde joked, reminiscing of times when Erin and herself were the town outcasts, causing trouble every chance they got, often ending up at the sheriff's office or in the church where the old Monsignor would give them a stern but caring speech, she smiled at the memory. "I don't know, littlefoot and I have to repentance to do." she joked

They sat for a while, drinking their tea and reminiscing a little longer before Erin left to get ready for mass. "You sure you don't wanna come? monsignor Pruitt should be back from his trip, you can give him one final heart attack before he finally kicks the can?" They laughed at Erins crude joke. "Don't be rude, he's old, leave him be." Liz said as her friend left for home. She looked up, seeing the church steeple in the distance, she contemplated going, she really did, but she decided to wait till after mass to visit the monsignor, she needed to plan her mothers funeral with him anyways.

Liz decided to shower and change her clothes, she had just been on a 7 hour flight after all, and she didn't want to run into anyone looking like this.

After her shower she dug through her suitcase and picked out a dark red turtleneck, body-con dress and a long black cardigan, she put on her knee high leather boots to keep her legs warm, she also applied minimal makeup, some concealer to cover her dark eye bags, some mascara and a slightly tinted lip balm, just to bring some life back into her face.

She picked up her scarf and the box of PG tips tea that she bought for the Monsignor as she remembered how much he liked his cups of tea and especially English breakfast. Stepping out of the small bungalow she pulled her leather jacket round her thin frame to keep the wind out, the cold, icy air nipped at her face and blew the black scarf over her shoulder and behind her back, there was a storm coming, she could feel it.

The young woman made her way over to the white chapel, tea in hand along with a folder of letters and pictures of her mother, things to use for her funeral.

Her hands shook slightly, a wave of emotions hitting her like a brick and she tried to keep them bottled up, she didn't want to cry, not yet, crying was for at home, with a tub of ice cream or a fresh pot of mac and cheese, not for cold afternoon walks.

Pulling herself together before walking up the church steps, Liz took her scarf off before entering the holy building. "Make sure to take your jacket off so you'll feel the benefit when you leave!" Her mother's voice rang through her head, the advice she'd hear every Sunday morning.

The church was empty, not even Beverly stood there giving her the usual condescending looks, just the silence of an abandoned house of god. She sat down in the first row of pews, taking a moment of reflection and waiting for the old Monsignor to greet her, after all, mass had finished earlier that day and she knew he liked to stick around in the back rooms, organising the church's belongings.

After maybe 5 minutes of waiting and looking at her feet, Elizabeth heard the door open and soft footsteps making their way over. "Hello my dear, can I help you?" She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before bringing her eyes up to the figure in front of her. The man before her eyes was not the reliable Monsignor Pruitt, instead she saw much younger and slightly taller man, his clerical collar giving his position away. "Um, hi, I'm sorry but I was kinda hoping to see Monsignor Pruitt?" She asked in the nicest way possible, she didn't want to chase the Raven haired man away, but she did of course want to see the man who was so kind to her in her youth. "Oh, well, I'm sorry but I'm afraid the Monsignor isn't here." Her heart sank and her stomach churned. "Oh please no, don't tell me-" He interrupted her "no, no, don't you worry, he's just fine, I'm afraid her fell ill while on his trip to the holy land, he's recovering in a hospital on the mainland but I assure you, there is nothing to worry about!" He smiled softly before gesturing to the empty space next to her, she nodded and he sat.

"Now where are my manners, my names father Paul Hill, I've been sent to take over the congregation for a while. And you must be Elizabeth!" Liz looked up at him once again, a confused look plastered on her face. "The Monsignor spoke very highly of you, said you're not hard to miss." His eyes scanned her clothing, she wore the same dark shades that she wore many years ago as a rebellious teenager. "Really, I don't think 'highly' is the right word." She let out a small laugh, reminiscing of the amount of times they sat just like this, Pruitt giving her stern but caring talks on her 'behavioural issues'. She could always tell that he never wanted to give her these long lectures, but she knew how her parents pleaded with him, and how he was too much of a pushover to ignore their requests.

Father Paul chuckled and shifted in his seat, turning to face her slightly. "Trust me, the Monsignor always cared for you, at least that's what I can tell from the way he speaks of you." He set a soft hand on her shoulder.

"Now, I may not be the person you were searching for, but I'm sure I can still help you all the same." His hand left her shoulder and moved down to his own leg, he watched intently and she fiddled with her fingers. "Yeah, well," she struggled to get her words out, "my mum, she recently... passed, I've come to talk over her funeral plans." The young woman's eyes immediately started watering, but she pushed the strong emotions back. "I'm so sorry for your loss." His hand hesitated for a moment before he softly placed it over hers, only taking it away after she flinched. "Hm, thank you." She said sadly.

The folder full of documents soon opened as they both flicked through the many pictures of her beloved mother, deciding which to use for the wake, reading letters and trying to write her speech. Liz finally spoke up. "I'm sorry, I know priests don't often help with funeral planning, it's just, I was expecting Monsignor Pruitt, I just figured-"

"Its okay, really." He smiled softly before engulfing her hands in his own. He studied her face, watching the tears slowly fall from her eyes. "I'm so sorry, I-" her whimpers were interrupted by him pulling her firmly into his arms, wrapping himself around her. He felt his heart break for the poor girl, losing someone so close to her.

That sat like that for a while, Elizabeth eventually calming down, her breathing coming back to its natural rhythm. Although it was strange to admit, she enjoyed being in this perfect strangers arms, the comforting warmth that radiated from his chest filling her entire body with an indescribable warmth, he felt familiar, like an old friend, someone she could trust, that was something she rarely felt these days

She was the one to pull away first, not wanting to make the poor man even more uncomfortable, he seemed almost hesitant to let her go, but alas he did.

He lifted his hand up to her earrings, touching the small crosses dangling to her jaw. "Are you devout?" He asked carefully. Liz let out something close to a laugh. "No, I um, I wore these a lot as a teenager, you know, the typical goth who wears religious attire, it annoyed Beverly to no end, so I guess it just felt right to wear them again."

He nodded and let his hand fall to his knee once again. "Ah yes, Beverly." They both giggled slightly, looking at each other.

They sat for a while longer, making plans for the funeral that would take place in a few days time. "Please, if you need anything l, feel free to drop by, my door is always open." He smiled at her as they stood up from the pew. She thanked him and started heading towards the door, she stopped for a second.

"Do you like tea?" She held out the box towards him.

[mellowdaffodils]

Author's Note: My professor asked for us to write a musical scene for class. So I wrote a scene based on my friend's D&D campaign I'm in. My classmates really loved it and I got an 'A' so that's pretty neat to know that one's fanfiction can be enjoyed in a college setting. lol. The Tumblr format is not correct for a script but I did the best I can to make it legible as a script. Azul's singing lines are blue while Mellow's is yellow. I hope you enjoy. Melody Based on: Song of Healing but it's a little much... The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Piano Cover

Musical Scene: Confronting Azul

The set is an abandoned castle. The stone cracked and covered in vines. The moat dried. A young woman and young man stood next to each other, with a knight dead on the ground with a hole in his chest. The young man’s right arm was covered in blood, somehow he had punched through the knight’s armor and punctured his heart.

(AZUL stands back facing MELLOW as their enemy PERCIVAL falls to the ground dead, the final blow struck by AZUL. Hand bloodied, AZUL wipes his hand with a handkerchief nonchalantly. MELLOW takes a step towards him.)

MELLOW

AZUL… You have some explaining to do…

AZUL

(quietly puts his handkerchief away, back still facing MELLOW)

What do I need to explain?

MELLOW

Was what PERCIVAL said was true? You’re somehow messing with time?

AZUL

(slowly turns to face MELLOW, smiling gently)

I have.

MELLOW (bewildered)

Why would you even do that? What’s the purpose?

AZUL

(his smile falters a bit, but it still stays)

I will keep turning time till I get what I want.

MELLOW

What is it that you want? Money? Power?

AZUL

(he takes off his glasses to clean them)

I rewind time when you die.

MELLOW

(looks confused but hopeful)

When we die?

(she smiles and sighs in relief)

You make sure the whole team survives this quest? ZAYIR, TRISSA, POPPY, all of us?

AZUL

No.

(puts his glasses back on)

I make sure you survive. To be quite frank, I don’t care about the others.

(he shrugs his shoulders)

MELLOW

(looks at AZUL confused)

Why would he keep me alive and not the others!? I don’t have money! I don’t have anything of value! Why would you use this power to make sure I’m alive!?

(MELLOW grabs AZUL by his coat)

AZUL (serious tone)

(gently removes MELLOW’S hands from his coat, but holding her hands firmly)

If you are quite done with that tantrum, I would like to proceed further into our quest. We never had gotten this far before and honestly, you should be thankful that I’ve done this in the first place. Without me, you would be dead.

(lets go of her hands)

MELLOW (baffled)

So what? You want me to thank you? Messing with time has dire consequences! If I’m meant to die and you bring me back to life - you could be ruining the fabric of reality as we know it! 

AZUL

(fixes his glasses)

That is all irrelevant to me really.

MELLOW

How many times exactly have you done this?

AZUL

(is silent for a moment)

Fifteen times.

MELLOW

Fifteen!?

AZUL

PERCIVAL always gave us great difficulty. Even though I had prior knowledge, each timeline had different possibilities. One little change can mess everything up. 

MELLOW

But why!?

AZUL

Well, the butterfly theory indicates---

MELLOW (interrupts him)

Do not mess with me Azul! You know what I mean! Why would you go through all this trouble!?

AZUL

(he was silent for a moment, readjusting his glasses) 

It’s because I love you…

MELLOW (baffled)

B-But why!?

AZUL

No one can help who they love. Falling in love is out of one’s control, though I’d much prefer that I didn’t - admittedly. 

(AZUL looks away ashamed)

It hinders me greatly, I can hardly think logically. It’s a nice and terrible feeling at the same time. I don’t regret what I have done to make sure you’re still alive.

MELLOW (emotional)

Why? Why? Why!?

(tears roll down MELLOW’S face)

I am a lowly orphan, cursed by a witch, not a penny to my name! I have no value to you!

AZUL

(shushes MELLOW and wipes her tears)

You are worth more than the world to me. 

(smiles sadly)

MELLOW…

I will rewind time, so I can save you.

I promised to do so under the pale moon.

(AZUL holds MELLOW’S hands)

Your sweet eyes.

Gazed at the sky.

Hoping for better days.

Tragedy struck and he then took you away.

I then learned to control time.

I did it from spite.

I held your body in my arms as I waited for dawn.

I whispered a desperate wish for you to open your eyes.

I would let the whole world burn before I let you die!

MELLOW

AZUL…

(MELLOW gently pulls her hands away from AZUL’S grasp)

Like clocks’ gears mark the years in the verse of time.

Life is born.

Lives get torn.

Life can be unkind.

All life dies, it is law, Azul listen to me please!

It’s a sad thought but their souls are at ease.

Like the sun sets in the sky, darkness will reach you.

Darkness sets but we patiently wait for dawn.

While the sun sets in the sky, darkness will teach you.

Even though life seems hopeless there will always be light!

AZUL (angrily and aggressive)

Like clocks and gears mark the years in the verse of time!

I will always make the clock of the universe unwind!

In your mind!

Precious time!

Will be seen in better days!

Memories, like a dream, are still taken away!

Curse the sun in the sky, darkness won’t reach you!

Even though darkness is in the sky, I’ll be your light!

The sun will never set as long as I control time!

I would let the whole world burn before I let you die!

(AZUL grabs MELLOW by the shoulders, staring into her eyes. MELLOW looks scared and AZUL eases up and lets MELLOW go)

I’m sorry…

(AZUL turns his back to MELLOW)

I need time alone... The others should be in the village, you should meet them there...

(AZUL walks off stage right)

MELLOW

(reaches out and tries to follow him)

AZUL wait!

(MELLOW stops halfway and watches AZUL walk away)

AZUL… 

Your love for me surpasses the very verse of time.

I wonder what made you think I was… worth your time?

(MELLOW slowly turns around to exit, but she glances towards AZUL’S direction worried)

AZUL… Please come back soon.

(MELLOW walks off stage left and the lights turn off)

END SCENE

[emometalhead]

Aftershock Day 1 Recap:

Day 1 was incredible!!!!

Let's start at the beginning. The line situation when trying to enter was super weird this year, but an employee let us go into a line we otherwise wouldn't have been able to go into. That line got us in really quickly. Thank you to that man lol.

The first band we saw was Pinkshift! It was my second time seeing them. They brought a lot of energy, and I'm glad I knew more of their songs this time around. My aunt really liked them and wants to check their music out now too! Speaking of my aunt. She won lots of cool points. I made bracelets to give away, and my aunt threw the Pinkshift one on stage. The singer grabbed it, made a heart gesture, and threw one back!! (It's in the pictures below!!) That was one of the best things to happen to me at Aftershock!! I also got a rose that was thrown by the singer!! 🥰

The next artist we saw was Nothing.nowhere. I admittedly had a bit of trouble trying to get into his music while doing my festival prep, but he was really good live!! I had a fun time vibing and headbanging. He was really engaging with the audience, and seemed happy to be there. Plus, he covered One Step Closer by Linkin Park!!! I had no clue he was going to do that. My dad, aunt, and I are humongous LP fans, so we really went hard singing and headbanging.

Next was White Reaper! They were vibey. They were definitely the most chill set of the day. They were nice to watch and relax a little. It was pretty stinking hot already at this point, so I enjoyed the break from jumping and headbanging. They were entertaining, and my aunt knew a few of their songs!

Thousand Below was the first time in the day we saw a solid mosh pit. They were heavy and awesome! I had an equally fun time watching the band as I did watching the pit!! There were a couple kids on their parents shoulders in the mosh pit. They looked like they were having a great time, and it was fun to see. I always worry about kids in crowds, but those kids were very safe and very happy.

We were only able to catch about 20 minutes of Pennywise's set, but I'm grateful for those 20 minutes! They were good!! I really like their music, so I was excited and had decently high expectations. They definitely met my expectations. We sat down to rest a bit during their set, but nonetheless it was still fun!

Next up was Stone Temple Pilots!! This was my third time seeing them, and also probably the best time. I'm a huge huge huge STP fan. I managed to get really close to the stage, and I had a great view the whole time. I also went a little crazy, because they played Big Bang Baby!! It's my favorite song, and they didn't do it last time. I screamed louder than I had all day at that point lol. I was jumping through the whole song. I was separated from my dad, but afterwards he told me he recorded the song for me!!

We got surprisingly close for AFI considering we literally got to the stage as the band was coming on. My aunt has been wanting to see them for years, so this was her moment. It was my second time seeing them. They were as good as I remembered! That crowd wasn't too rowdy or crowded, and the mosh pit when on pretty much the entire time. My aunt went into the mosh pit, and I found out that was her first time!

We only watched some of Incubus' set, because we wanted to get close for Avenged Sevenfold. They were really good though! I hope one day I can catch a full set, since last time I saw them it was also only a partial set. We met up with some of my dad's old work friends at this point. They're super sweet, so it was nice to see them. Both of them kept commenting on how big I am now lol. I think I'm still like 10 in their minds, but that's okay lol. We don't see each other often.

Avenged Sevenfold was incredible, obviously. This was my second time seeing them, but my first time in a festival setting. They had so much energy. M Shadows' voice absolutely delivered, and it is no secret that I think Synyster Gates is a god. There was a pit in front of us that never lost steam through the entire set. I got pushed around a bit, but my aunt and dad made sure I was safe and could enjoy the show. I was able to see the band on stage for most of the set, which was definitely nice. They had cool visuals on the screens though, so it wasn't too bad when I couldn't see the band.

I was able to give out all of my bracelets, and everyone seemed really excited about them!! No one was expecting a bracelet lol. I'm looking forward to handing more out today!! I also met some dude in a band. We were talking for a couple minutes, and he was really nice. After this weekend, I'll have to check out his music. I love meeting local musicians!!