#I'm so glad they found one another

[twig-tea]

Fire and Dynamite Can Sit With Me

There have been a couple of really excellent posts about Fy and Dy on my dash this evening, and I wanted to yes, and them but am making my own post because things were getting long. First, if you haven't read this post by @waitmyturtles or this one by @lurkingshan or this one by @bengiyo do that first!

In addition to the moments all of these brilliant people have pointed out, I wanted to highlight a couple of other things.

First, like Ben mentioned, we find out later in the series that Dynamite first fell for Fire because he beat up bullies for him. The important thing this informs about how Dynamite interacts with Fire in the early episodes is that he sees Fire's fierceness as safety. This is important because Fire is RUDE, and it alienates other people from him. It also means that he knows Fire is a straightforward person who is not afraid to punch people he's genuinely mad at. Dy knows what Fire looks like when he's genuinely mad.

Second, one of the things that Dynamite picks up about Fire is how much attention Fire actually pays him. He says himself, if you weren't interested in me and you were interested in Jane, you wouldn't notice or care about my presence.

Third, Dy did not move in with Sansee in order to stalk Fire. It was a series of coincidences that led to them both being in that condo building. And when he says it's fate thanks to a goddess granting his wish, Fire doesn't disagree, he just curses out the goddess for granting Dy's wish.

Fourth, Dy is excellent at reading people and situations. You have to be when you have been bullied for your attitude in the past. He's constantly correctly reading Ten and his reactions to Prem, and he takes encouragement from how Fire reacts to him up until Fire legitimately wavers, and as mentioned by Shan in the previous linked post, that's when he backs off. Dy is not ever pushing when he can tell he's really unwanted, and he doesn't stand in Fire's way. He encouraged Fire to speak to Jane; he even got Fire Jane's contact info. He continues to flirt in front of Jane but he can tell she doesn't mind--we see him look at her and clock her reactions in those scenes. And he steps in immediately with Fire's mom to take the heat for Jane being in Fire's condo, without even talking about it, because he knows how damaging it can be to be cut off by a family member for being a disappointment.

So much about consent is body language and nuance. I'm not saying "no means yes" or whatever nonsense, but pushing when someone is genuinely uncomfortable even if they're not saying no is so much worse than sticking around even when someone tells you to go away because you can tell they're relaxed and not actually upset. The contrast in power dynamics, reading of body language, and consent vs non-consent is strong between Fire and Chef Changma, and Changma heartily loses that competition.

Despite clocking Fire as closeted from jump, Dy does not push Fire to come out. As Ben mentioned, he puts his own friend group--friends who at this point are functioning as his found family replacing the family that abandoned him, like so many of us have had to do--at risk to respect Fire's right to come out at his own pace.

Fire at first defaults to staying in the closet. But when he sees the toll that this has on Dynamite he decides to push himself to come out anyway, even though Dy is not making any demands.

As Turtles mentioned in their linked post, when Fire stops fighting himself with his whole being, he's soft. And this is how he is used to expressing love, it's how he expresses his love to his mother too.

In short (lol), I LOVE THEM YOUR HONOUR.

[canisalbus]

I had a scrap piece of paper and drew the little freakish dog 👍 I have been silently enjoying your art for like a couple months now? I found it randomly on uploaded Pinterest and was like “oh huh that’s rad” and yeah he’s such a lovely sad little beast

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[imerian]

✧ Celestino Vietti inspired necklace ✧

[schnaf]

day 23 aka THE COUNTDOWN IS OVER - jungsu's past birthday brrrr ppoppos

[theirloveisgross]

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[starvinginbelair]

kickin' it reunion 2024

[the-eyes-of-andyserkis]

One year ago I had been itching for somewhere to spread some appreciation for - and maybe get a little thirsty about - Andy Serkis, and having been reminded that Tumblr was a thing I decided to give it a shot! I had created this account almost ten years before but never used it, and I wasn't really sure how things would go since it's a bit different from the usual social media sites (aka: actually social!).

Almost immediately after my first post I got a few followers, and when I recogized some of the amazing fic writers I had come across I was so surprised and excited! Right away I felt welcome and I was so happy to know there were others out there also losing their mind over this man. 😂 Whether it's being unwell about his chest hair or melting over his smile, I love to see the solidarity!

Now it's a year later and I can't believe how much has happened! I met Andy twice and finally got to tell him how much I admire him, which already feels insane, but then the second time I also got to meet some of my beautiful moots, after traveling to Dallas and flying on my own for the first time!

On top of that, I started writing fanfiction again after close to two decades (which seems like it might actually be pretty good) and my posted word count just cracked 50,000 words at the very end of 2023. (What?? 😳). And I can absolutely say that that's only because of the wonderful, kind, thoughtful and incredibly talented people who've encouraged me, even (or especially when) I was having hard days.

So it might seem silly to say, but everyone who has liked, commented or reblogged my posts (your tags give me *life*), along with the wonderful people I've met through this little fan blog that I started on a whim, really have made my days so much brighter. 💕

Here's to another year of getting weird about that old man!

P.S. Give us the sparring scenes, Matthew 😏

P.P.S. I couldn't leave you without some Andy tax 😘

[deviousdiesel]

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[mirchloe]

new b-movie either tomorrow or wednesday because i finished my main edits, but my fingers are numb!! it ended up being just over 24k words. the next chapter focuses solely on the archetypes, so it shouldn't be as long - probably around half that length! (MONKEY PAW CURLS) whoa did you guys see that what just happened

[hide-your-bugs-away]

I OWN BOTH ISSUES OF RAVE WITH ERIC BURDON ON THE COVER NOW!!!!!!!! 🐾✨️

(April 1965 and March 1966)

[thestarlightsymphony]

I cant choose between 39, 36 and 32 so I'll let you decide! (from the soft prompts)

39. There should be a word for a threat that is also a promise.  Because that is what I want you to hold me down and do. (I love you)

“If I were to leave one of these days, without telling you, what would you do?”

“Mmm... what?”

It wasn’t a fair question, and it doubly wasn’t an appropriate moment to ask it, but Faye didn’t care. This question always haunted her too late in the night, when her eyes should be heavy but she was wide awake, restless in her own head.

She wasn’t trying to test him. She used to want to, given their natures, as if she actually needed some greater proof of his love or loyalty. That was years ago, when they were younger and more foolish. More reckless.

Now? She was just curious. Scared, but willing to accept whatever answer he gave.

Because she thought about it sometimes. When she got tired and restless, itching for some new thing, any new thing, she thought about picking up where she left off and running away. It wasn’t like there was nothing for her here, it’s just here was too comfortable sometimes.

She loved comfort, but she could feel some piece of herself slipping away, sharp edges of her identity jabbing and aching as they left without her.

“If I left, Spike... what would you do?”

There was no good answer. No right way to make her feel better or worse. If he said nothing, he’d be damned. If he opened his mouth, she might cry.

Spike thought quietly in the darkness, his arm wrapped around her comforting and suffocating.

“I would miss you, but I wouldn’t stop you.”

His breath on her forehead felt like home. Her last home was currently a pile of ash and rubble.

“Whatever you need to do for yourself is your choice to make. I’m not going to stop you leaving, if that’s what you need. If I see you again, I can’t promise what kind of person I’ll be, either, but I won’t hate you for it.”

Spike’s arm retreated and he moved back slightly, just enough to take her face in his hands and wipe the tears from her cheeks. “I’m not going to ask if you’re leaving. I won’t ask you to stay, either. I don’t know what this is about, but if you need to go, there’s no stopping you. There’s never been a person in the whole universe who could stop you if you wanted something.”

Faye hiccuped, trying to blink away more tears. “I think about it sometimes,” she confessed. “What if there was? What if I need to be stopped?”

Spike smiled, a warm and firm smile. “I trust you too much to stop you.”

After a moment, he kissed her forehead. “If you asked me to chase you, I would. In a heartbeat, I would. But don’t ask me to stop you.”

Faye buried her face in his chest, allowing herself to be re-enveloped in his arms. “I don’t want to be stopped.���

“I know.”

“Would you really chase me?”

“In a heartbeat. But you would have to ask. I’m not a mind-reader, Faye; if you leave without a word, I won’t follow you. I trust you to do what you need to do. If you want to be followed, you have to give me something to know.”

“... Would you really not follow me if I didn’t say anything?”

“... No. But trust me, you don’t need to know that.”

Faye smiled to herself, the pressure finally easing from her chest.

Trust... it almost feels like like a threat, more than a promise. But this threat has no knives. Only heartbeats that are free.

[kaluawoo]

"They would not fucking say that" but it's "They would not fucking see each other as family"

[theheadlessgroom]

@beatingheart-bride

"Maybe..." Randall murmured, still perplexed by Renfield's reaction-all the time he'd known the little guy, he'd been friendly to everyone, even people who didn't like him. Minnie constantly scooted him and the other strays away, but Renfield adamantly rubbed up against her legs when she was out on the sidewalk, undeterred by her dislike for him. So for him to just randomly get all worked up about someone he'd never met before was just...odd.

Still, he tried to brush it off-he also didn't miss the way Emily put on a smile and tried to laugh it off, a part of his heart sensing she was a little hurt by this response. Hoping to make her feel better about it, he said, "I'm sure he's just having an off day; don't take it too personally. I've had cats crawl all over me one day and want nothing to do with me the next, it's just how they are. Renny will probably be back later-maybe he'll be in a better mood by then."

"Since when did you get two lunchbreaks, Randy?"

"Just having a little something extra, Dave," Randall groaned, pausing to grab a napkin as he finished his sandwich, just as one of his coworkers had come downstairs for a smoke break-Dave was one of the more irritating coworkers he had to put up with on a daily basis; he insisted he was just an easy-going guy who liked a good joke, but his jokes were often hurtful and very seldom funny. Considering his idea of comedy was calling Randall "Randy" (which he had never gone by, even as a boy, and couldn't hardly stand as a nickname), it told him a lot about Dave's sense of humor (or lack thereof).

"And can I help you find anything, beautiful?" Dave asked, having noticed Emily and put on a smile, leaning up against the counter, his cigarette tucked behind his ear. "Maybe a date for Friday night? Pretty flower like you shouldn't have to hang out with a real weed like ol' Randy here."

[tjerra14]

This week never hid the fact it was going to one of Those Weeks™ from the start and yet it somehow still managed to get worse with each consecutive day

[insert-funny-url-here]

Just the other day I was chatting with an older woman about this exact thing. She's retired so she enjoys going on almost-daily walks around her neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods. Well she told me that it was really weird that in the newer constructions where the younger families live, EVERYONE has their blinds closed all the time. In fact she can tell a younger family lives in a house based on the simple fact of whether or not their blinds are closed in the middle of a sunny day. It's to the point where she can't even tell if they're even HOME and available for a visit to welcome them to the neighborhood!

When she said that, I realized that I do that too when I live in a more publicly visible apartment. I told her that I think it's because of the internet. Younger people feel like we're constantly being watched, observed, and JUDGED for merely existing. So when we're home, we just want to be alone, unbothered, and unobserved because it's the one place we can control that. She was very surprised to hear that I felt like that and she was VERY concerned for us young folk (and to be honest after talking with her I became pretty concerned too...)

People from her generation will have their blinds open all day, hang out on their front porch, and randomly visit/enjoy random visits from neighbors and strangers. If a stranger knocks on my door it's scary and if they want to stay and chat? It's a huge inconvenience and it feels super awkward and weird and I'm stuck wondering why exactly they're talking to me, when just a few decades ago welcoming someone new to the neighborhood was just what you did! In fact to not do so was rude!

It made me really worried that as the Panopticon sinks its teeth deeper into our psyches, we are losing the very essence of what makes us human and got us this far as a species: community. I find that being on the internet for hours a day tends to almost trick my brain into thinking "I've been social all day, my social need is full" when in reality I've only talked to one, maybe two people I know from my real life all day, and only for short bursts, not REAL conversation.

I find it hard to have the energy to invite friends to hang out, and when I want to I feel like I'm a big inconvenience for asking them to take a break from their busy lives for me (not that they would ever say that's the case, but it's this nagging feeling internally). I feel like while we used to be a series of large islands of local community, our islands splintered apart and started drifting away from each other. Now your island is just you, your immediate family, and maybe a couple close friends. Those living physically closest to you feel like they're miles away and unreachable, to the point where you might as well not even bother.

I guess I just have one question for you: Do you know the names of your next door neighbors?