#I'm expecting a few surprises

[debinhas-bicycle]

my very optimistic predictions for the olympic roster thrown together in the last 20 minutes

[skeletalheartattack]

Subtitles below the keep reading:

Hey you, shut your mouth and look at my paw! DON'T FORGET!! [Incomprehensible sped up gibberish] This... Journey... Money... Loads of coins. [Incomprehensible sped up gibberish] What-about-her? What-about-her? ... What-about-her? 'She still like me? [Quiet but mostly incomprehensible gibberish about subtitles] O P S O P N O-1 1. Here's the spell: Love the mermaid, for sure! The mermaid is HAPPY! Okay! It's pretty normal for a fish, right? Guuuyyyssss, beeeee caaarefuuulll wiiiiith theeee GIIIIIRRRRLSSS!!! [Incomprehensible] Oh! Silly! Oh yes! Lamb chop boy! [Incomprehensible] [Very quietly, while white noise is playing over it] Goood eevening, aand weeelcome too the shoooowww... [In the background] Ohhh, mooney!

[chayscribbles]

✨️THE CHAYNEMATIC GALA 2024✨️

the voting results are in!

and i've gotta say. a Girls With White Teeth Sweep was not something i expected. anyways, here are the winners for each element, and we're on the the final round of voting for the gala's best dressed!

full series: water | air | earth | fire

[osamusriceballs]

The Accident - Part VII

Atsumu x fem reader

Warnings: None

Words: ~ 2k

About: You talk to your mysterious friend and finally part from Atsumu.

Part I II -> Next part

"It's me. I'm okay- please don't worry. I'll be back soon."

"Where have you been? I was worried sick; I've tried calling you all night! You just texted me that everything's alright at 4am, but what's going on? Where are you?"

The voice comes out of the phone, quickly and fast as always, and you hold the phone a bit further away from your ear. "Please, I'm okay, I promise!" You can hear a few deep breaths on the other side, probably the attempt to calm down, and then the voice speaks again.

"Where are you right now? I'll come and pick you up, and then you can tell me everything."

"I'm at the—" you hesitate and then look at the name on the towel and read it out loud. "Do you know where that is?"

"Give me a second." You hear typing noises on the other side and then a little gasp. "That's an expensive hotel! One night costs 500 bucks, and the suits are literally thousands of dollars per night!"

"What?!" you're speechless for a few moments, realizing just how much money Atsumu might own—you are in a suite after all and you definitely did not pay for it.

"It will take some time to get there. I'll be there in an hour? I'll send you my location. Is there someone else with you?" Your thoughts drift to Atsumu, and you hum. "Yes. And I need to ask for a favor. Do you have a lawyer? Or do you know someone who maybe knows someone who can help me with a divorce for cheap?"

"A divorce? Who needs a—wait. Are you talking about yourself? Did you get married?" The voice is so shrill and loud that you almost flinch, and you find yourself regretting revealing that fact already. "I'll tell you the details later. Please don't worry about me." You try to sound as calm and soothing as you can, and after a few shocked gasps, you hear silence again on the other hand. "Hello? Are you still there?"

"Yes. I'll come and get you, and then you'll have to tell me everything."

You agree, and after a few more times of you repeating that you'll be fine and that you're being taken care of, you hang up. You take a deep breath, and without thinking too much about it, you quickly undress and go into the shower.

It's like heaven. The warm water feels soothing on your skin, and there are more products in the shower than you have ever used so far, but you find yourself drawn to the pretty bottles and decide to spoil yourself. It's not your water bill after all, and if Atsumu is paying for it, you can go all out and spend a few more minutes in the shower. The towels are fluffy and warm, thanks to the towel warmer, and you find yourself pressing your face against the soft fabric and inhaling the fresh and clean smell. The mirror is foggy by now, you probably showered at too hot a temperature, but the warm water just felt so good on your skin.

A soft knock on the door brings your attention back to reality, and you find yourself stepping closer to the pompous wooden door. "Y/n? I put the clothes in front of the door. Samu and I will wait on the balcony; you can get them anytime."

"Thanks!" you respond and hear footsteps leaving the room and a loud sound that's probably the window closing behind them. You wait a few more moments just to be sure that they are gone, and then you open the door a little bit to take the small pile of clothes.

It's a shirt with the hotel name, surprisingly tasteful due to the minimalistic logo of the expensive establishment, as well as a matching pair of sweatpants as well as a pair of socks. The fabric is soft, and you quickly put on the new clothes, only regretting that you have to wear your old panties, but there is not much you can do about it.

You take one last look at your phone, quickly checking your appearance one last time, wishing you'd have the time to wash your hair too, but you'll do that when you're back in your hotel room. You're just glad that you feel clean and warm now.

You step out of the room, feeling a little better and more alive already, and look around. You find Atsumu and Osamu standing on the balcony, both of them busy in a heated discussion, and you watch them for a few moments from your position after you noticed that they are not looking in your direction yet.

They are undeniably related. You can find similarities in the way they speak, in the way they use they hands when they talk and in the way they stand. They are both very attractive—something that you can freely admire now that they haven't seen you yet.

A notification on your phone informs you that your friend will reach you in a few minutes, and when you look up, you see that the twins have stopped talking and instead watch you through the window in silence. You pause momentarily and then lift your hand to wave at them. Atsumu's eyes take in your new clothes, checking you out from head to toe, and he gives you an approving thumbs up and a grin. Osamu rolls his eyes at Atsumu and simply pushes the door open.

"Hey. I'm glad the clothes fit." He comments, and you look down at yourself at his words. "Yeah, me too. Thanks. I appreciate it a lot; I feel so much better already."

Atsumu also steps into the room again, making sure to bump his shoulder against Osamu's when he passes him, ignoring the curse of the dark-haired male.

"Ya look better already. Feelin' alright again?" His voice is still tinted with the slightest bit of concern, and you smile at his words.

"Yes, thank you. I'm sorry for being so weird before. I was just a bit overwhelmed." Atsumu shakes his head and buries his hands in his pockets. "Don't sweat it. That's normal. Gettin' married like this is a pretty unusual thing after all."

"Right. Uhm. My friend will pick me up soon; I'll get downstairs and wait there. I'll give you my number, and then you can call me as soon as you find out more?" You look at him questioningly, and he is quick to fish for his phone in his back pocket. "Sounds good. I'll wait with ya till yer friend arrives." He watches while you type in your number and quickly save it. "Oh, you don't have to. I'll find the way on my own, don't worry." You shake your head, but he quickly wraps an arm around your shoulders and leads you to the door. "Nah, I insist. Where are your shoes?" You let him guide you, his arm around your shoulders feeling somewhat heavy but comforting while you look around for your high heels from last night. Atsumu guides you to the chair next to the door and ushers you to sit on it while he grabs the black shoes from the ground. "Do ya think they'll fit with the socks?" He asks with a frown, and you just shrug your shoulders as a response. "I hope so. I don't want to leave without socks; I don't even want to wear the shoes, to be honest."

His brows furrow while he looks at your feet. "Sorry, I wish we had some other shoes for ya." You quickly shake your head. "It's fine. It's just for the way downstairs. It's okay." He nods and kneels in front of you, and you subconsciously slide back on the chair as far as you can to create some distance between the two of you. "What are you doing?" He takes your left foot and places it on his thigh, and you feel every single muscle in your body tensing at the sudden contact. "Helpin' with yer shoes. Stay still for me."

You're at a loss for words while he slips the shoe on your foot; all you can do is stare at him while he secures it around your ankle. Surprisingly, it fits around your socked foot, and he nods before he lets go of your foot and reaches for the other. It doesn't take him long to get it on your foot too, and you shortly admire how skilled he is with his fingers, and then he places them both on the ground. "There ya go." He hums satisfied and gets on his feet, quickly offering you his hand to stand up. At this point, you just accept it and take his hand, allowing him to lead you to the door.

"Uhm. Bye, Osamu. See you. Maybe." You turn around and wave at the dark-haired twin who had made no attempt to come with you, and he nods acknowledgingly. "See ya."

You follow Atsumu through the door, who seems to be familiar with the hotel because he is quick to lead you to an outrageously big elevator. It's silent on the ride downstairs. You're standing each on different sides of the elevator, leaning against the walls, your bodies no longer touching. You don't really know what to say to him; you're too deep in thought right now, and he seems to feel somewhat similar.

"The exit is right there." He motions to the other end of the hall as soon as you get out of the elevator, and you hum while you follow him to the doors. You're lucky that there are barely people around because you certainly feel a bit underdressed with the clothes from the shop, but Atsumu doesn't even spare a glance to anyone you're passing. The receptionist greets you without batting an eye at your unusual attire; you're fairly certain that you both give a very unusual sight. Atsumu with his formal dress pants and half-opened dress shirt, and you with the hotel shirt and sweatpants and heels from last night. Surely not an everyday sight, but professionalism prevents her from looking longer at you.

It does not take long until you both stand in front of the hotel, just far enough from the entrance not to bother other guests but still close enough to see everyone who enters the building. You both stand there for a few moments in mutual silence, until you look up at him with a faint smile. "Thank you for showing me the way. I'll manage from here on. You can get back to Osamu; it's alright."

He frowns at your words and looks around.

"Can I really leave you here?" He looks a bit worried, and you nod with a tight smile. You really need some time to think about everything. "My friend will pick me up soon. You can go back to Osamu; it's fine, really!"

He hesitates for a second, probably not fully convinced that everything's fine, and the next thing you know is that his big arms surround you and pull you into a hug. You're stiff at first, unsure how you should react, but the comfort and familiarity that he is radiating by now makes it all too easy to melt into his touch and to hug him back. "Y/n. I meant it. I'll take care of ya, okay? Everything's gonna be alright. I'll make sure of that."

"Hmm." You hum against his shoulder, deeply inhaling his comfortable smell, and his grip tightens around you. "And if ya need anything—anything at all—call me. Anytime." You nod, hoping that he can feel your response and your gratitude because you don't trust your voice right now. You know you should probably pull back, but it feels too good to be in his arms, too good to be close to him, so you just stay, and he seems willing to let you.

"Y/n!" You hear someone yelling your name behind you, and you quickly pull yourself out of Atsumu's arms. You turn around and face a familiar face with big brown eyes which flicker from you to Atsumu with a surprised expression.

"Wait—Atsumu Miya? What are you doing here?"

Your jaw drops, and you turn your head back to Atsumu, who looks equally surprised to see your friend.

"You know each other?!"

[bugsbenefit]

all i'll say about Noah's video is that i think it's weird people are calling it a "bad apology", because it's not even an apology video. the only thing he says is that his opinions have been misconstrued and that he doesn't want people to die, which, yeah, he already said before. there's no sorry, from the video alone you wouldn't even know if he's aware of what he did that made people turn on him so fast in the first place

i know the norm nowadays is to call any response to an issue/a situation an "apology" but sometimes it's just a statement, which is what this is. if he was genuinely "apologizing" he'd have to address the actual things he did, like keep misinformation up, even after it's been disproven and worst of all the "zionism is sexy" thing. what he's doing is just cautious backpeddling by saying everyone got him wrong. just a pretty obvious pr nothing-statement sadly

[fictionadventurer]

Potential September Reading

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (ideally in audio)

An English Squire by Christabel R. Coleridge

A Sherlock Holmes story (and/or a screen adaptation)

C.S. Lewis nonfiction

A sensation or mystery novel

A piece of one of the Psmith stories

Some kind of nonfiction book

[theragamuffininitiative]

Repeat after me:

"Christian" is not a genre.

I wrote an essay and I deleted it but just:

Christian is not a genre. It isn't a genre of music. It isn't a genre of books. Or movies. Or whatever else you want to slap it on. The rampant misconception that it is, is just a marketing label that has corrupted our perception of how to experience art in a spiritually fulfilling way.

"I'm a Christian but I hate Christian music," just means you haven't found the type of music you like which happens to be also overflowing with the artist's foundational relationship with their creator. I have a slew of artists I adore who are never featured on Christian radio, ranging from singersongwriter acoustic, to southern rock, to lo-fi pop, to hard rock, to west-coast flavor drive, etc etc etc. There's a lot more where they come from, too!

"There are no good modern Christian authors." Not true. But very few writers who care about crafting good stories make the Christian best sellers list bc if you can't market a devotional to go along with it, then the big publishing house probably doesn't care. That's just the messed up world of marketing for you again, and the secular writers have to fight the same (but honestly probably less cannibalistic) machine fighting for slots that might become the next great film saga. Authors are out there telling absolutely Phenomenal stories, they're just small- or self-publishing, or publishing mainstream bc they were paying attention to that whole "slip by the watchful dragons" essay and a story doesn't have to be an allegory or have an alter call to be Christ-honoring.

Also! Don't knock stuff that was published 5, 10, 68 years ago! There is So Much Amazing Art made by beautiful wonderful artists whose love for their Creator and their fellow man and their world just swirls all through their compositions. Y'all love rediscovering random retro stuff, go have a ball with all that has already been made.

Anyways.

👏 "Christian" 👏 is 👏 not 👏 a 👏 genre 👏 label 👏

Seek out the art that moves you, the styles that you enjoy, the stories that speak to your story. You will either be able to experience that art on a deeper level than even its originator intentioned bc of your relationship with the Creator of all that is lovely and pure and true, or you discover that was their intention and suddenly you have a new artistic guidepost in your life laying out stepping stones of their art carved with deep care by the hands of their own faith.

[kattalectic]

So that video game Concord.

I took the chance with my partner to try the game out for ourselves before it went away. We played up until the servers were shut down, and the game was forcibly removed from the account.

It is just a video game.

For all the thoughts, speculation, random numbers of over-inflated investment, time frames etc.. At the end of the day, what was there was a video game, a good one too.

I could go on for probably days speculating how this game didn't reach an audience. How the industry and market has changed in the time span of the development. How covid would've thrown many spanners into the works. How, despite being in a heavily gaming focused community, we both somehow never heard of the game until news of it flunking. How what advertising there was, was focused around consoles. How we still don't know how many played it on console.

But at the end of the day, there was a video game.

A video game of rich lore, a lot of promise, interesting and fleshed out cutscenes with personalities which shone through - bold and bright with each character showing their own personality and interactions. An in-game world of lore that could take hours of reading, with extensive world, galaxy and history played into it. Impressive art and character design, woven into it all.

Gameplay itself - while I can't compare to other games of the type - was enjoyable, no one character felt impossible to play, no one character felt too powerful. I kept going back to playing it despite knowing of its demise.

I've read a lot of people giving it critique, trying to guess or state the reason it failed was X or Y. But ultimately, we may never know unless a dev speaks out about their time. Would I want to know? Yeah. This whole situation is unprecedented, when the scale of Sony is considered, but all this speculation is going in circles.

But at the end of the day, I am just a bit sad. There was a good game in there. An enjoyable time. Really cool characters and so much thoughts and consideration put into the world building.

I feel sorry for the devs would put their time into it, to see the harsh speculation from the wider community. I feel sorry for those who may be disheartened or choose to follow a different path in the aftermath.

Ultimately though.. I hope I can once again experience the world Concord offered.

And I hope, if given the ability, others would also.

[mariocki]

Death Weekend (The House by the Lake, 1976)

"They'll go away."

"They won't go away! Can't you see that? They're not gonna go away. For God's sake, can't you guess what they're gonna do next?"

[coquelicoq]

wild to me how the english translation of natsume is just. largely out of print i guess?? like half of the volumes you can't get ANYWHERE for love nor money, not even on amazon (unhallowed be its name)! i've found like five sites that sell print volumes and they've all got the same selection (vols 1, 2, 17, 19, 27-29, sometimes 24-26) and if you want any others you are SOL. though what's interesting is i'm pretty sure last time i looked it up a few months ago, you couldn't get volume 17 anywhere either. did they do a print run just of that volume?? total mystery.

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

everything wilts

[coffinsister]

Okay we are officially done with the cutting arc for now

[atopvisenyashill]

some recs of my favorite fics

book canon fics

Goodbye Means Going Away (And Going Away Means Forgetting) by vixleonard

the original jonsa fic, if you haven’t read it yet you should. it’s from rickon’s pov, where his memories of ned and cat bleed into his memories of jon and sansa, who care for him now.

i’m the dog that ate your birthday cake by dwellingondreams

au where tyrion is the first born so joanna lives for a while. it’s a really interesting exploration of who joanna might have been, as well as what her impact could have been on tyrion.

you're my king and i'm your lionheart by plantagenet

jeyne & robb’s relationship from jeyne’s pov. it’s a great take on jeyne bc it gives her a spine without leaning too hard into the “quirky nurse” route that the show took. heartbreaking of course.

Four Women Who Were Jon Snow's Mother by Baamon5evr

bunch of short drabbles on "what if" situations where various women wind up mothering jon snow - lyanna, cat, elia, ashara. they're interesting character studies & tbh “what if jon snow was raised slightly differently” aus are my weakness

Agony by bubblewrapstargirl

au where theon is brought back to life with all his memories, right when he’s taken away from pike as a hostage. i fucking love this fic because it has so much throbb, theonsa, and theonjon and those are my weaknesesssas but it was abandoned so beware. it's worth the heart break though!!

game of thrones/house of the dragon canon fics

The King's Desire by exax3

the series but throbb are fucking. mostly show canon bc of the ages. made me want to kms but in a good way.

The Black Widow by Its_Rhaenin_Time

ongoing. kind of a tragicomic take on the dance, an au where alicent convinces the small council to put aegon aside as heir, wed aemond to rhaenyra, and install aemond as king as a way of protecting rhaenyra from being killed. it’s excellent and hilarious. technically more pro blacks, but it's not really anti anyone on team green except criston and the lannisters (the rhaenyra/aegon dynamic is sublime). focuses a lot on gender, sex, and cultural dynamics. currently my favorite fic actually, i'm obsessed with it.

The fire of our blood by katbux

ongoing. au where aegon ii reincarnates just as he’s crowned to try to redo the dance. surprised me by going the aegon/aemond/helaena route romance wise (which is the best route), and i like all the politicking in it. less “pro green” than it is “pro aegon, helaena, aemond, and daeron getting extensive therapy” & it’s kind of a mix between show & book canon. really delves into the "can they actually avoid the dance" question.

Breakbones and the Dragonrider by beneathawesternsky

romantic fic that started as an exploration of the rhaenyra/harwin relationship and morphed into an au where they wind up married. very cute, very romantic, love the supporting characters in it, and the way house strong is characterized as a northern house pre-harrenhal and all the “aegon’s vision” stuff in it.

[doodlingwren]

Hiatus

I am going on hiatus for a bit more. I really really hoped the stuff that have been going on lately were already "sorted out" but, uhm... they aren't. I need to take a bit more time offline once again, and try to work things out.

Thank you for your patience ❤

Wren

[windrunner]

udul ch. 183 spoilers

i would have never expected a manga which started out the way undead unluck did to give us a sweet throuple wedding scene but okay??? go off Yoshifumi Tozuka

[homeless202]

Eunyung and stealing

HJ | Parallels | Details

Eunyung had never stolen anything before the first time he was accused of it, after running away the first time. He didn't steal those headphones, yet still got beaten up for it.

His dad didn't even let him explain himself before starting to hit him. Only afterwards did EY get the chance to say he didn't do it so his dad could hear, who ofc didn't care enough to believe him. Instead of trusting him or at least listening to him, he asked EY to apologize for sth he didn’t do and just get the whole thing over with.

^^ Here, EY was caught off guard by his dad's "gentleness" (<- not hitting him) when he leaned down and whispered to him (hence the small blush above). To me, it seems like he had a sliver of hope that his dad would be nice to him for once. But the gentleness vanished quickly as his dad then proceeded shaming and guilt-tripping him into apologizing (hence the blush below).

That tactic didn't work bc EY knows how unfair the thing he's being asked to do is. He knows he's innocent bc he really didn't steal anything. When he refused and insisted he really didn't do it, his dad pulled the "I'm so disappointed in you. You never change"-card.

Now, that tactic worked. In the end he just gave in and apologized as told in order to avoid more conflict and finally get out of that uncomfortable situation -> Something like resignation

(^^ This also ties into why EY was so upset with HJ's words during Thanksgiving's arc -> he hates the idea that he can't change and will stay like this forever. That's also a reason why he apologized despite being innocent -> EY wanted to prove his dad wrong: He can change. He can be something other than a disappointment not worth anyone's time.)

The guy who actually did it got away with it and EY got made fun of for being stupid enough to take the blame. He sought out the guy to take revenge bc he knew there'd be no other type of justice for someone like him.

His dad’s actions that day (wrongly accusing and forcing EY to take the blame) is what pushed him to try stealing -> If he was going to suffer the consequences anyway, he should at least benefit from it somehow by actually stealing sth and profit from whatever he stole. That way the accusation would at least be valid.

That day, EY learned to seek justice by himself because no one else would; and he learned to steal. He started stealing in his first year of middle school, one month after running away from home for the first time. All because of his dad. EY never had a father, he had the opposite of a role model -> he knew what he did not want to be.