#JB Writes

[jb-nonsense]

💙 drunken kiss / tipsy for Tali/Astarion

send a heart and a ship for a brief snippet!

Summary: Talilah and Astarion have both had too much to drink and find each other in the other's embrace yet again, but is this time different? Word Count: 1,172

Everyone was out. Talilah sat in the camp, twirling the bottle of wine in her hand as she looked at her companions. They’d managed to find a stash of decent make human wine and after having a bit of a rough battle, felt the need to celebrate for the night. Karlach had been quite sure she’d be the last one standing but couldn’t outlast a high elf metabolism. And maybe Talilah had goaded her a little more than the others. But now Talilah was the last one awake and alone.

The only thing that had been missing from the night had been Astarion’s quips. He’d had to leave to find something to eat, after having the tough fight. He’d been a while, and some part of Talilah was concerned. She scoffed to herself, taking a swig from the bottle. So, she’d slept with him twice. It was for…Fun, not serious at all. Just playful banter back and forth, and then a little hot and heavy times. Something he seemed to withdraw from at certain points, requiring her goading, teasing…And attentions to draw him back for a little bit. That did not mean it was anything more. He had an angle and she wanted to figure out what it was, so she was playing his game. Why should she be worried if he was late? Sure, he could pick a lock better than her, he could make her laugh with ease, when he didn’t think she was looking, she could see a glimmer of something else in his eye—

There he was. Stumbling into camp, reminding her of the time he had found a bear to drain. Apparently, he’d fed well that night. She rose to a stand, swaying a bit as she realized how much she’d had to drink. He noticed her, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth and making his way to her. He put his hands on her hips, to steady her or himself, Talilah wasn’t so sure.

“Seems I missed the fun,” he slurred, taking the bottle from her and taking a drink, emptying it and tossing it to the side. Talilah gave a little drunk giggle, wrapping her arms around his neck. Just to steady herself.

“You did,” she said, looking to the rest of camp. “You would’ve enjoyed…Seeing them. Karlach…Karlach thought she could outdo me. And poor Gale, he’s not had a dr…Drinking competition in some time. And Wyll—” Feeling him drawing her closer pulled her gaze back to him. The look in his eyes, even through his inhibited state, spoke of a different kind of hunger, a longing that caused her breath to hitch.

Continue reading on AO3

[ironmaidenhead]

i have no doubt in my heart about kastle because deborah ann woll and jon bernthal seem quite determined to give it to us regardless of what anyone else has to say about it

[chugging-antiseptic-dye]

got7 as supermarket cashiers:

jaebeom: glares at the customers if they distract him while working. is never at the checkout counter cause he has to do the manager's job as well

mark: works at his own pace and time. give discounts to customers if they have a cute pet

jackson: knows the names of all the regular customers. WILL nag them to take better care of themselves

jinyoung: gets pocket money from all the aunties and grandmothers that come to the store. rub's that in everyone's face.

youngjae: has headphones in his ears 24/7. gets nervous when he has to check out a long line

bambam: 'borrows' gum and makeup samples from the store. leaves the cash register open to bother yugyeom

yugyeom: cries once a week when customers (or jinyoung) yell at him for being slow

[ilynpilled]

we dont talk enough about how fucking funny it is that in the show jaime does straight up casually tell qyburn that he saved the population of kings landing to epically own him. thats so fucking funny actually like what the hell do u mean???

[modmad]

How/where can I get a nice/comfy/fun suit as a UK boob-haver?

I tend to luck out of these things in thrift stores and off the rack (haha. rack) bc I've got used to spotting suits that suit me but my major go to is Joe Browns (especially when they have a sale on), they have free returns within the UK and frequently add new stuff/have big warehouse sales which is how I got my last suit which is emerald green moleskin w bootleg pants and I need to wear it more bc it's sick as hell.

The main thing in finding a not-boob-crushing fit is to make sure you can close the jacket and still be able to move your arms around (the 'give yourself a hug' test). You don't want the jacket rucking up at the back either so get a friend to check you from the back and side. Sometimes this means I have to get a jacket that is too long in the arms or fails the shoulder test (pressing your shoulder up against the wall to see if the suit fits to the shoulder or has bags of space), if these issues are very noticeable I do sometimes get it tailored, which doesn't cost nearly as much as people think and is worth it if you are going to keep and wear the clothing for years to come... don't buy something you won't wear because it doesn't fit, just pay the extra and wear it til it burns! most of the time it's not too bad anyway so I just roll with it, best of luck!

[dollypopup]

look, y'all can all gleeful cancel me for this #unpopular opinion if you want, but even IF Nicola wasn't nominated for the comedy section and it was her and Luke head to head in best drama?

I'd still vote for him

because I genuinely and truly think his acting is INCREDIBLE. and I think he's one of the better actors on Bridgerton full stop. I love the nuance he brings to Colin as a character, I love how he so fully embodies him as a character and that Colin has similarities to him, but is fully different at the same time. Colin does not talk like Luke, walk like Luke, even fidget like Luke. He has his own character beats and yes, sometimes parts of Luke bleed into him, such as with the head tilt, but the voice is different, softer, the movements of Colin as a character are distinct to me, he delivers humor well ('you'd already be dead?') and his decisions for Colin as a character are ICONIC (I'm never forgetting that dress adjustment with specific fingers was all him). Colin had a harder go of it than a lot of leads because his story isn't as loud- he doesn't get a lot of big, dramatic moments to have big dramatic acting, and honestly the show didn't give him a lot of screentime in the first place. But when he does have poignant emotional moments? They feel REAL. He isn't given as much time with the audience as other characters are and he doesn't go for the broad strokes with his acting, so sometimes I think he can get lost in some of the louder acting, but that doesn't negate the fact that he's GOOD. He's a good ass actor. He plays Colin like Colin is an actual person.

And for me? For me, that hits home. Even with truncated time on his own season (yeah, I'm still bitter), he delivers every single time. Anger, betrayal, longing, heartache, silly awkward humor, heat- and he does all of those emotions BELIEVABLY. I watched Luke Newton depict Colin falling in love so beautifully and so realistically, I HAVE NO CHOICE but to give him his flowers. Just because he's not as heavy in the hustle as other actors are (please remember this is a neurodivergent actor with anxiety and dyslexia, mental health is important and it's good he took a break ) doesn't mean he's not a fantastic actor. And if you've ever seen his depiction in The Shape of Things? The man is excellent.

I think Bridgerton has a lot of 'big moves' actors. And that's fine. Many people prefer that. But I prefer the nuanced moments and the softer beats of it all, and I think if the camera had allowed us as an audience a longer glimpse into moments with Colin, we'd all be even more floored. I can watch gifs of his scenes over and over and over again and find something new every time.

So y'all can sit there and accuse others of a 'pity vote' but idgaf. Luke Newton is one of the best actors on that show. And I stand by that. Eat me.

[jensonsbuttons]

i'm a grown ass man child

[otomes-and-tears]

it’s meeeeeeeee i’m shiloh enjoyer #3!!!! revolving him around in my brain every day like it’s a microwave 😭😭 i know you’re busy with a lot of other asks at the moment but i’m eagerly awaiting the lizzie post!! and all of your other writing ofc <33 you brighten my day :D

HELLO TO THE MYSTERIOUS SHILOH ENJOYER #3! I think we're all here now haha I'm glad you enjoy my analysis posts! NOW BUCKLE UP, BUCKAROOS! THIS ONE IS GOING TO BE LOWKEY SAD: Elizabeth is perhaps the most complex and defining relationship in Shiloh's life.

First of all, it's one of the few we see glimpses of throughout several steps in his life-- we see how he idolises her as a child, how he acts towards her when they reconnect in his teenage years and glimpses of how the different versions of him act with her in adulthood. It's likely the oldest relationship he maintains that isn't familial, and I think that's incredibly significant when we take into consideration what I believe to be one of the paradoxical cores of Shiloh's character: Connections and relationships are disposable to him, but Shiloh is only Shiloh as long as there’s someone there. He still feels lonely.

I talked a little before about Shiloh's childhood. How the social dynamics he established as a kid ended up influencing his behaviour as a teenager: He sees Lizzie as the obvious leader, since she's older and more assertive than him and MC, and follows her around and obeys her every whim because of it. Whether he genuinely likes her or not is up for debate, but I don’t think it matters to Shiloh. What she means to him is something that can far supersede any simple likes or dislikes that he might feel at that age:

She provides stability and purpose. She’s his anchor against the mean kids, the teasing, the isolation. All he has to do is stay in her favour. Lizzie is his first encounter with a power dynamic he can rely on and emulate as he grows, and therefore she becomes someone he idolises.

Shiloh doesn’t need to be honest, or even be himself, as long as he’s useful and needed. He understands social hierarchies all too well, knowing what happens to people at the bottom. It’s why he insists he isn’t “different” and loses it when Cove calls him “weird.”

He was probably one of the kids who got picked on, so he’s always scrambling to stay just above water and not sink to the bottom with the rest of the “outcasts.” MC doesn’t mean much to him, but in Lizzie’s absence, he sticks to them just as obediently, as they’re the next best thing. Cove, on the other hand, is mostly just a mild annoyance but does give Shiloh a bit of relief because, for once, he’s not the one at the bottom. And it’s not like Cove was ever going to be Lizzie’s favourite anyway.

Whenever Shiloh gets ignored, he panics and tries to wedge himself back into the conversation however he can. And as soon as Lizzie shows up again, he immediately runs back to the safety of their old dynamic.

I think that while most of him admires her at that age, there's a little part of him that resents not being like her. Not being able to be a leader and being relegated to a follower, feeling aimless when she isn't around. As a kid, he's more prone to lashing out when angered, unlike older Shiloh who acts with fake cheeriness and this strange, eery coldness when annoyed. And that's why he pulls her down with him into the water in Step 1.

If he isn't willing to voice these things because he doesn't want to rock the boat and cause issues, he expresses it more subtly.

Shiloh’s just scared—a scared little kid who figured out a way to fit in. And because that method kept working for him, through moving out of state and getting through life without Lizzie, he never really had a reason to change, even if it did a number on his very sense of self.

He got better at these tactics over time, making sure he’d always have a way to fit in, but it cost him a real personality and genuine social skills beyond the manipulation tactics he fine-tuned throughout the years. Eventually, he started taking control in small but crucial ways: He’s the one who walks away from relationships, now. Removing himself from them becomes a choice. It’s not only about leaving when people cease being useful to him but about imposing a sense of control that he felt like he lacked in childhood since he moved schools and states a few times and was likely used to being the “new kid” in different places.

He learned to hide his feelings better, so he wouldn’t blow up the way he did when he was seven. That’s why his relationship with Elizabeth—and the times he had to start fresh somewhere new—were so essential to shaping who he is: Lizzie set the standard for the kinds of relationships he’d chase, and moving around gave him fresh slates and new people to practice on.

That brings us to the serendipity moment in Our life and what we know from him in Xoxo droplets. Now, I know a lot of people haven’t actually played XOD and only have a cursory knowledge of it and the fact that a few characters from it cameo in the Our Life series! But did you know that Liz is mentioned by name in Shiloh’s route?!?

Yes! Back in 2017 we actually had Shiloh mention the events of Serendipity, which I think is a crucial scene to understand Shiloh’s character.

But before we talk about that, Let's talk Serendipity!

After Jeremy brings up “Shiloh’s famous memory” and Liz realizes he lied about not remembering her in the Step 3 prologue, Shiloh actually goes ahead and explains why he is the way he is. His explanation lines up with what we know about him from XOXO Droplets and how he acts in Step 1.

I don’t think he’s lying. Not about all of it, at least. Some of the only concrete information we have on Shiloh’s character and how he functions comes from his childhood, and I think that what he’s saying is a natural progression of that information. He only does things for his own benefit, he’s afraid of being left out and he asserts his sense of control through his relationships with others. But it’s really important to remember that Shiloh doesn’t do things without it benefiting him. While I believe in the core of what he’s saying, the fact that he’s divulging this information at all (how he’s going about it, by putting Liz and her feelings on the matter first, and framing his choices as being mistakes he made out of care for an old friend and by reiterating that they’re too good and putting himself down for pity points) instead of trying to dodge the conversation again, he’s employing a few of his known manipulation tactics: the real me strategy.

Shiloh knows that this new information is hurtful to Liz, and like in Step 1, her opinion is really the one that matters to him. He knows that there’s a limit to how much he can play dumb before they snap, and by Jeremy revealing part of his MO, there isn’t a lot he can do to smooth things over, so the least destructive path is to do exactly what Shiloh does to JB during his route in Xoxo droplets: He feeds Liz little bits of truth because he knows he’ll damage their relationship if he doesn’t. He gives her enough so she feels like she knows him better, like she’s got some new, special insight into the “real” Shiloh that nobody else has, which keeps her around. He pretends to drop his manipulative schtick because by telling her this, she has “figured him out” and there isn’t a point in trying anymore. That itself is a manipulation tactic.

But why bother? He’d be gone again by the end of the afternoon regardless of her forgiveness or not.

It comes back to what I mentioned earlier: Shiloh is the one who exerts control over his relationships. He is the one who decides when they start, and when they end, and by Liz being upset and deciding she doesn’t want to be around him, not only does he lose the control he craves, but Shiloh loses it with the person he based all of his subsequent relationships on.

In the few hours that he spent in Sunset Bird, they all fell back into their old dynamics even though it had been so long since Shiloh stepped foot in that town. He still remembers that she prefers popsicles over ice-cream sandwiches, and even though he’s better at including MC and Cove, Shiloh in a lot of ways fell back into their old routine, looking back to Liz as his leader and following into step as her sidekick. It doesn’t matter if Liz isn’t an active part of his life any longer, what would it mean to him to have those memories tainted? For that perfect template to be ruined?

But Liz stays. 

And because of that choice, we get to see the ultimate consequences of it. Shiloh isn’t a good person. As pitiful and as tragic as he might be, he simply isn’t one. And I think that can be encapsulated perfectly in how he frames his interaction with Liz to his girlfriend in Xoxo Droplets.

He glosses over what he did wrong, he casually exploits that event to garner points with his girlfriend. He ultimately doesn’t care if she takes his and Liz’s relationship the wrong way and frames it as being romantic, even if that’s far from the truth. Even with Elizabeth being miles away and already hurt by him, he still finds ways to use people and spin narratives to his advantage. 

I do believe he holds Liz in higher esteem than most (and arguments can be made that JB, the main character in XOXO droplets and his love interest, and Elizabeth share similarities in both appearance and their strong-willed, confident personalities), since she was his “idol” by his own admittance, but this is a tiny way in which he asserts his control over the situation. It doesn’t matter if Liz believes she holds the reins. If she’s older, admirable and if he still follows her around like an obedient puppy when she’s around.

By choosing to stay, she tipped the scales in his favour. He is the one in control once again, and he's able to continue his interminable cycle of holding people at arm's length while playing the part of a devoted companion.

[thappireths]

not a day goes by that i don't think about

honor thy regard by SigilBroken

[judeaftersickness]

Chip Kidd for The New York Times Magazine’s “When AIDS Ends” cover, 1996 | How I Wrote My Novel: Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life

"One of the ways I’d always described the book (to my editor and to my agent) was as a piece of ombré cloth: something that began on one end as a bright, light bluish-white, and ended as something so dark it was nearly black. [...] The other piece I returned to was Chip Kidd’s 1996 cover for a New York Times Magazine article by Andrew Sullivan about how combination therapies could mean the cessation of widespread death from AIDS in the United States, particularly among gay men. I remember being fascinated by the article, of course, but also by the cover, which remains one of my all-time-favorite pieces of editorial art: In it, the type starts out as “sick” — blurry, clotty, barely decipherable — and then, as it moves down the page, gets healthier, crisper, brighter, more legible. I wanted A Little Life to do the reverse: to begin healthy (or appear so), and end sick — both the main character, Jude, and the plot itself."

[astrangetorpedo]

my eternal gratitude goes to @lettertoanoldpoet for the screencap. another relic from their joint show in portland in 2016. “if you’re really really lucky” i’m eating drywall, thanks

[beigetiger]

The existence of Primary Red, Primary Blue, and Primary Yellow as three separate, implied-to-be-godlike entities implies the existence of a Secondary Green, who is a probably weaker godlike entity. Since we can see that this is in fact true if we go back and check episode 1, this in turn implies the existence of Secondary Purple and Orange.

On an unrelated note, Disco Head's colour scheme is cyan, magenta, yellow, and white, whereas Agent K is, well...black. Together, they're CMYK 😁

[jb-nonsense]

The Matter of Sleep

Summary: After Spite tries to go through the eluvian with Lucanis's body, Ogden has a suggestion, if Lucanis agrees to it. Characters: Lucanis Dellamorte, Ogden Thorne (Rook), Spite Ship: Rookanis Word Count: 1,138 AO3 Tags: Comfort, Early Flirtations, Mutual Pining, Idiots in Love, they're both stupid and I love them a lot

[greasydumbfuck]

usually i only block ppl for forcing me to look at frank ships but i just saw someone fantasize about frank cheating on his wife WITH Y/N TOO as if things werent bad enough already and thats a blockable offence too

[fictionalsillies]

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵

I’m currently in one of my “everything I create is terrible” phases … those kind of thoughts just happen to overwhelm me sometimes , but thankfully imagining to have Jaw Bone here with me helps quite a lot :) ❤️

Since he’s definitely not afraid to speak his mind , I can see him straight up grab me by the shoulders and say something like this : 

“That’s … literally the most insane s**t I heard today . Seriously , you think that just cause you don’t make a masterpiece every single time you do something that means it sucks and you got no value as a person ? That ain’t true !  You gotta stop being so hard on yourself , starfire … please do that for me , okay ?”

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵

[saxandviolins77]

It is actually so cool and funny that you'll be like, "In a Transformers show the Constructicons should be evil class traitors and it would be fine to just feature one of them and also why not genderswap some of them?" but also like, "But in my fan continuity I like them as the full team and gay men who have faced some oppression." IDK I just appreciate how you are keeping things real, hard to explain

LMAO. I'm just pragmatic.

(uuuh cut because I talked my mouth off here. Oops.)

Honestly, characters, especially characters from franchises, are malleable and shouldn't be forbidden from getting reinvented to tell a specific story. Characters are not monoliths; they are not people; they serve to tell a story and present its themes in the most interesting/entertaining/objective way a writer sees fit. (No, this doesn't mean they should be painfully two-dimensional, as this would hinder the story -> It depends; I'm thinking about the regular action cartoon structure.)

I believe in killing, torturing, and incinerating your darlings. There's nothing more annoying than when you're reading/watching/listening to something and you can only think, "They could've cut this part out, but you can tell they absolutely think the audience will love it because THEY do." Or when a specific character overstays their welcome because you can tell the writer(s) get a kick out of writing them (COUGH COUGH THE DEEP FROM THE BOYS COUGH COUGH).

Now... About my very serious Transformers take. I'm not a writer, so that was just what I think would be more interesting for a traditional "good versus evil" story about killing fascists and maaaaaybe class struggle (since that's the direction the franchise has been going for a few years).

There are other directions you can take them, like make them victims of the Decepticon ideology, brainwash them, make them secretly good guys, kill one of them and replace the dead one with a far more popular character that'll completely eclipse them into mere salad dressing in the eyes of the fanbase...

At the end of the day, my hypothetical vision is just something I would be interested in saying, using them as a vehicle.

NOW. My fan continuity is just pure self-indulgent stuff that makes me laugh. Nothing deeper.