#ONCE AGAIN i'm sorry i thought this had its own post on the blog but it doesn't

[logansargeantsbabymom]

imgonnagetyouback

(BRIEF) Lance Stroll x Singer!Fem!Reader, Carlos Sainz x Fem!Reader, Grid x Singer!Fem!Reader

warning: douchebag lance, cursing, briefly mentioning the Stroll/Ricciardo accident

summary: Y/N is a world famous singer who's madly in love with her Formula 1 boyfriend Lance Stroll but he doesn't reciprocate her feelings. So what happens they break up and she drops an album about their relationship and the grid blasts her songs especially when Lance is around?

F1 Masterlist

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Watching the screen with my hands covering my mouth, I couldn't believe what just happened. My boyfriend (and Formula 1 driver) Lance Stroll just crashed into Daniel Ricciardo and it looked like Lance wasn't even paying attention.

After Daniel had to retire the car, I felt bad so I made my way to him to apologize on behalf of Lance given that he was still in the race.

"Danny!" I shout as I jog towards him

Hearing his name, Daniel turned around in complete shock seeing me as no one knew I was there beside Lance, Fernando and the rest of the Aston Martin team.

"Hey Ms. Global Pop-star! What're you doing here?" Daniel asks as he pulls me into a hug, the frown once evident on his face now formed into a huge grin.

"I'm here to see Verstappen win, like always" I chuckle as I watch Daniel playfully roll his eyes "I'm taking a quick break from tour, I missed my boyfriend and my best friends" I playfully punched his arm

"I'm really glad to see you. I thought you forgot about us since you just keep adding tour dates. Thought we'd never see you again." Sadness appears in his voice again as he voices his thoughts

"No, never Danny! I can't go too long without seeing my favorite Aussie, please don't tell Oscar." I see in the background Danny's team needing to have a talk with him "Oh, before I let you go back to your team, I wanted to apologize for the accident on behalf on Lance. He's totally in the wrong" a sincere smile plastered on my face as I apologize.

The frown that was one gone from his face reappeared at the mention of the crash.

"Yeah, yeah no it wasn't your fault. Lance should be the one to apologize, but in this sport accidents are bound to happen. But uh listen, I've gotta run my team need me!" Daniel says as he starts jogging away, prompting me to make my way right back to the Aston Martin garage.

-

After the race ended and the drivers were doing interviews, word got out that Lance was blaming Daniel for the crash and oh boy was Daniel not happy, that was evident in the way he walked over to me.

"Hey y/n/n, I don't ask for much but could you please talk to Lance and make him own up to his own mistakes? Blaming me for an accident he could've avoided." Daniel asked, trying to keep his temper at bay no to no avail.

"Yeah, I was just on my way to him. I'm sorry again, he's ridiculous." I pat his shoulder before jogging over to my boyfriend, whom just finished 1 interview and was on his way to the next reporter.

"Hey babe, I heard what you said about the crash. Why are you saying that its Daniels fault?" I ask running my hand through damp hair before taking the hat out of his hands, placing it on his head.

"Because it is?" Lance replied as if it was common knowledge

"But it's not..? We all watched the replays, you weren't paying attention before making that turn. You rammed right into him." I clarify, wiping some sweat from his face with a face towel I pulled out of my little Kate Spade bag Lance bought me 2 months into our relationship.

Me wiping his sweat away didn't last however because Lance swatted my hand away in disgust.

"Don't touch me. Why are you on his side?" My eyebrows knit in confusion.

"Sides? There are no 'sides' when it's evident that YOU crashed into Daniel. Lance why are you being this way?"

If people weren't paying attention from our interaction then, they certainly were now given that both of our voices went up a few octaves.

"I could be asking you the same question! Y'know what? I don't have time to deal with 'Pick Me' bitches as a girlfriend. Life was so much better when I just fantasized about you. We're fucking done Y/N. DONE, I'm breaking up with you!" as that last sentence came spilling out of his mouth, you can audibly hear the gasps from the news reporters, fans and the rest of the grid.

Words escaped me as I just stared at Lance with tears forming in my eyes. I wanted to scream, cry, hit him, throw things but I couldn't physically bring myself to do any of them. I blinked my tears away as I faintly see Oscar and Lily make their way to us, Oscar confronting Lance as well as the rest of the grid once word got out to the ones who weren't within earshot, and Lily brought me to the McLaren garage where the other WAGS were. All of them tried their best to comfort me saying things like "Lance was so out of pocket with that", "You deserve so much better than him" and "You're way out of his league, he should've been grateful that you have him a chance." but that didn't stop the tears from falling and a sob from escaping my lips as I shook from heartache.

-

It had been 3 months since Lance broke up with me and I hadn't had time to grieve the heartache because I had to fly out to Brazil for another tour stop. In the 3 months following the breakup, between traveling and performing, I couldn't stop writing. I was writing song after song after song, and now I was determined to ruin Lance's Reputation .

I thought about randomly dropping a single but my manager and record label advised against it so I haven't. The past 2 and a half hours, I've ben brain storming different ways to release a single but I had to make it in the most Y/N L/N way.

Heavy footsteps and my make-shift studio door opening is what broke me out of my trance, looking up I'm met with the eyes of my manager, Jamie. Jamie randomly barging into my studio Isn't necessarily unusual but the little white envelope in her hand was.

"You, ms Y/N L/N has just been invited to the Canadian Grand Prix, and surprise surprise, Aston Martin wants you to stay in their garage." Jamie says as she waved the white envelope in the air.

A scoff leaves my lips as I roll my eyes "Is it Aston Martin or Lance that wants me in the garage?" I say as I take the envelope from her hands to open it. Shock written all over my face as I stared at the envelope before me as I search Jamies face for answers

I watched a smirk forms on her face "Oh, sorry. That's the Ferrari invite courtesy of Carlos Sainz , I didn't think you'd want the Aston Martin invite. Which in fact was from Lance and that's not even the first invite he's sent." she states matter of factly.

More disgust coats my face "How many has Lance sent?"

"A total of 6 and I have a feeling he's not gonna stop until you're at a Grand Prix."

I should've known that Lance has been sending me invites, that explains why he's always texting me asking where I'm at. Damnit Lance, just look on any social media platform, I'm on tour!

I contemplated throwing away the Aston Martin invite until a thought popped in my head. I looked at Jamie with a smirk forming on my face and by the look on hers, she knew I was up to no good.

"Just by your face I don't like where this is gonna go" Jamie said

"I'm accepting the Ferrari invite," I start as I got up from my place on the couch to leave the studio and into my room, Jamie following suit "I'm gonna start packing, given that the Grand Prix is this weekend. I need you to book me a place to stay and get the jet ready for take off tonight. I'm gonna call Carlos."

-

My phone call with Carlos was brief, I just called to tell him that I was accepting the invite and that I was leaving in a few hours because I wanted to spend the whole race weekend with him. No matter what it was, Free Practice, Quali, Interviews, Race day or dinner. It was all gonna be me and him together.

I was currently in the jet as it was landing at the airport, it hadn't been too long of a flight seeing as I was at my one of my homes in Philadelphia. The jet door opened and the very few people I brought had started making their way out, I was the last passenger out of the jet and I locked eyes with someone I didn't expect to see.

"Hola Mamacita, How was your flight?" Carlos said as he made his way to the bottom of the jet steps before embracing me in a tight hug

"Carlitos! What are you doing here?" I was surprised Carlos was here, we both had made plans to meet at the hotel and then stroll (pun intended) around the surrounding cities before going to the track and letting Carlos do whatever he had to while I waited for him in the Ferrari Garage.

"I thought I'd just pick you up since we're gonna be together this whole weekend." Carlos said as he was putting my suitcases in trunk of his Ferrari as I patiently waited for him to move so I could put my backpack in the trunk as well. After I placed my bag snug in the trunk, I closed it before making my way to the passenger seat, surprised to see already open with Carlos standing there with a smile on his face as he gestured me in.

"Watch out Carlitos, keep doing nice things like this, I might fall in love with you" I said with a smirk on my face as I looked in his eye before stepping in the low sitting Ferrari before muttering a thank you before he closed the door.

I watched as Carlos walked around the car to the drivers seat and I stared at his ass as he sat down, I tried to look away before he caught me but I was unsuccessful.

A few tsks left Carlos' mouth before he confronted me "Princesa, let me take you on a proper date before you start drooling over my ass." something about the nickname made a small blush creep up on my cheeks and I attempted to bury my face in my hands.

I felt a pair of hands on my wrists, pulling them down to unveil my face before I felt a hand on my chin forcing me to look at Carlos in his face. Making eye contact set off more blood rushing to my face as a small shy smile crept onto my face. My eyes flickered to Carlos' lips before going right back up to his eyes.

We stayed like this for what felt like hours, just looking in each others eyes in a comfortable silence. The space between us getting smaller, I couldn't tell who was the one leaning in but none of us made a conscious effort to pull away. The closer we got, the more I felt his breath on my lips. My eyes flickered to his lips once more, I was determined to close this gap but before I could a blaring sound ricocheted off the walls of the Ferrari.

The sound jolted us apart, and a small awkward chuckle left our lips before Carlos answered the call.

"Aye, cabrón, Que? We're on our way! Stuck in traffic, what do you want me to do about it? Aye Cállate cabrón, adios!" with that Carlos hung up and we shared an awkward glance before he drove off.

-

20 minutes later we arrived outside a fancy hotel and Carlos got out and tossed his keys to the valet girl waiting before he jogged to my side and opened my door.

I stepped out and thanked him again before attempting to grab the bags from the trunk before Carlos pulled me away.

"No, that's my job" he told me in a stern voice

"And what's mine?" I ask as a smile forms on my face and I crossed my arms

"To stand there and look pretty. And by the looks of it you're already doing it." he says as he winks in my direction.

As son as the bags were out of the trunk they Valet lady, who's name tag read Susie, took the car away and the people at the front took my luggage and promised to send it up to the room so we didn't have to take it.

Carlos had a hand on the small of my back as he led me to the elevator and pressed the 'up' arrow and I checked my instagram while we waited for the elevator. My mouth fell agape when I saw what was trending

I felt Carlos' stare from over my shoulder and just as I was about to turn around and start profusely apologizing, his phone went off and I looked over at him while he checked his phone.

"I think Lando believes the rumors now." Carlos said with a chuckle as he flips his phone allowing me to read the messages. A chuckle of my own left my lips but the chuckles were short lived seeing as the elevator dinged and opened and an old elderly couple waddled out.

"Oh dear, look at that. Young love, I remember when we were like that" the old lady said as she laid eyes on me and Carlos, I almost corrected the lady but given the way that me and Carlos were standing, it didn't stand a chance.

"Yeah, she's mi vida" Carlos said as he pulled my closer to him before planting a kiss on my temple.

The nice old couple smiled at both of us before walking away. Carlos led me into the elevator, his hand still resting on my back as he turns to face me

"Why didn't you correct her?" I whispered to him as we locked eyes. The gap between us slowly disappearing. I watched as Carlos's eyes flickered down to my lips and stared at them. Getting a little self conscious, I bit my lower lip but quickly felt Carlos' thumb pull my lip from teeth. The hand that once rested on my lips moved to the back of my neck, mine quickly followed suit.

“Have I ever told you that you look beautiful?” his voices soft whisper, like if he spoke any louder that it’d ruin the moment. In reality, nothing could ruin this moment.

“Shut up and kiss me” I said, the eye contact between us burning the atmosphere around us.

“Gladly” the gap between us thinning. We were so close I could see every little speck on his face, the way his eyelashes fluttered with every flick of his eyes, I could see every different shade of brown in his beautiful eyes.

Our eyes closed as our lips barely brushed together, I was getting impatient with him so the hands I had around his neck I was gonna use to pull him closer and finally close the gap for once. The elevator abruptly stopping is what pulled us apart before we could kiss, quickly thinking of a way to pull apart with looking suspicious, I pulled Carlos into a hug, after a second or two I turned around to see the two girls that walked in. Both quickly recognizing us and started asking for pictures.

after we took pictures with the two girls, they started berating us with questions.

“Oh my god!! Are you guys dating??” one girl yelled excitedly. Before we could answer the other asked another question

“Shut up!! Are you staying with Carlos in the Ferrari garage!!??”

“NO STOP!! AHHHHH I LOVE THIS!!”

“I LOVE CARY/N!!”

The look that me and Carlos shared as they kept talking over each other screamed ‘Oh God please open elevator’ we just wanted to get to the hotel room in peace and so far peace was what we weren’t getting.

After what felt like an eternity, the elevator opened and the girls left but not without snapping more pictures of us, that would surely make it on the internet and low and behold, before we actually made it to our hotel room his phone started blowing up.

“Ay, look. They posted” Carlos said showing me his phone so I could see what he saw.

“How are they that fast? Those girls JUST took the photo” I said with a sigh as I pinched the bridge of my nose. Before Carlos could answer me, my phone started blowing up with texts from… Lance.

“Lance keeps blowing up my phone and I knew he won’t stop until I answer him.” I told Carlos because the look he gave me asked ‘who’s that?’

A scoff left my lips as I kept rereading the last sentence Lance sent me. ‘Carlos won’t treat you better than how I treated you. I treated you like a queen’. Yeah right. Maybe for two months after we got together but after? You didn’t really care, I was just something you looked good with.

I was so deep in thought that I hadn’t noticed a tear slip from my eyes that was until I felt a warm hand brush the tears away from my cheek.

“Princesa, what happen?” his tone sincere, when my eyes looked up to meet his I could see something in them. Was it hurt, hate, disgust? I couldn’t tell. Maybe it was all 3, Hurt because I was crying, Hate because of everything Lance had did to me and Disgust seeing as the girls posted private intimate photos on instagram.

-

it had been 15 minutes since my little breakdown in the hallway and Carlos was still comforting me.

“We don’t have to go to this team dinner, I can cancel on behalf of us and we can watch tv” Carlos’ hand rubbing circles on the small of my back. A small smile creeps on my face at the kind gesture.

“No, let’s go. I have to distract myself anyway, plus I miss the other drivers” I said with a small laugh leaving my lips too.

-

By the time we had arrived at the restaurant we’d already been 15 minutes late. Walking in we were greeted with a whole bunch of “Finally” “About time” “I’m starving” along with some applauses.

Carlos sat down right away muttering a few ‘shut up’s before he did while I made my way around the table saying ‘Hi’ to everyone until I got to Lance.

“Hello Lance.” it came out colder than intended but I couldn’t care less. Lance quickly stood up and grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the corner of where the rest of the grid and WAGS were sat.

“Lance, let go of me” I said sternly, I peaked behind him to see Carlos staring in my direction asking me if I was okay with his eyes.

“No. We need to talk, I’m tired of you ignoring me.” A cold icy look lingered in Lance’s eyes before I tugged my wrist back.

The look I gave Carlos told him all he needed to know, ‘save me’ and in about 10 seconds, Carlos was nudging me behind him

“Aye, Cabrón. Leave her alone, I’m asking one time and one time only. Leave. Her. Alone.” those last three words dripped venom as he spoke.

With a scoff and rolling of eyes, Lance reluctantly went back to his seat, complete opposite of mine. The few moments I had standing there before Carlos gestured me to the seat, I had a thought.

I waited until we sat back down and ordered before I pulled out my phone and took to twitter.

The tweet blew up in a matter of seconds and my single shot up to the top 10 of hot 100s in that same amount of time.

Everyone’s phone got a notification that I had posted a tweet and with a few faces casting questionable glances at me

“SHUT UP Y/N! A SINGLE? RIGHT NOW???? AT DINNER???” Lily, Oscar’s girlfriend whisper yelled and a petty smile made its way on my face.

I watched as half the people at the dinner whipped out their phones and went straight to spotify to give my song a listen and as the other half just pulled up the lyrics so give them a quick read.

“SHUT THE FUCK UPPPPPPP!!!!!! THE ASTON MARTIN LINE IS CRAZY” Alex, Charles’ girlfriend screamed as she continuously hit my arm in excitement.

The mention of the Aston Martin line is what got Lance’s attention.

“There’s an Aston Martin line? Play it out loud. I want to hear.” His voice a mixture of hurt and anger, like he was disappointed that I made a song about our breakup. What did he expect breaking up (very publicly might I add) with a singer who is known for writing breakup songs?

The people around the table all gave eachother uncertain glances before I pulled out my phone and let the whole table hear my song.

“Just for clarification, i DONT feel this way anymore.” was all I said before I pressed play. I contemplated not pressing play and just taking the song down because the look in Lance’s eyes but he shouldn’t have broken up with me because I asked him to take accountability for his mistakes and he shouldn’t have done it so publicly and they way he did.

I shook away all the thoughts of regret I was having and pressed play

“I’m an Aston Martin that you steered straight into the ditch, then ran and hid”

My words his Lance like a truck. He looked like a dear in headlights, but he continued listening nonetheless.

Once the song finished, the look in Lance’s wasn’t what I thought it would be. I thought it would be Sad, Mad, Disappointed, I wanted an angry reaction out of him but I got just the opposite. He was smiling.

“You want me back?” A smirk on his face. His reaction got everyone upset with people spewing ‘you don’t listen’ & ‘no she doesn’t’ & ‘oh my god’

“No cabrón, she doesn’t want you back.” Carlos’ accent grew thicker with each word he said.

“And why do you think that” snarky. Lance has always been a douche but right now he was the ultimate D-Bag.

Carlos didn’t respond. Well, he did, just not verbally. Instead what he did was he turned to face me and pulled me into a searing kiss. The kiss was so passionate that I’m pretty sure I felt some tongue action but that didn’t stop us. Instead the only thing the pulled us apart from each other was the slam of fists on the table and stomping feet echoing away from us.

I pulled away and looked in Carlos’ eyes

“You know that’s gonna be on instagram soon” I whispered against his lips before capturing them in another kiss

“I’m counting on it”

And to no one’s surprise, that picture was in fact all over instagram.

taglist

@luckyladycreator2 @itsmiamalfoy @jeffs77 @ilivbullyingjeongin @forevercaffeinated-lee @daemyratwst @gulphulp @callsignwidow @f1wintermoon13 @teenwolf01 @victoriassecret101 @hiireadstuff @formulaal @kazza72584 @zabwlky1999 @dark-night-sky-99

[chubsonthemoon]

Last Binderary book is DONE!!!! This is the incredible Maybe sprout wings, by @moorishflower.

This post is going to be a doozy, so gonna just skip straight to the cut!

INTERIOR

INTRODUCTION

I really wanted to model this bind after my own copy of the Odyssey, (which is all highlighted and bookmarked and annotated to hell from my Great Text courses in undergrad ehe, so this bind was such a fun trip down memory lane!). But beyond just the cover/general aesthetic, I also wanted to give the book a similar feel to these kinds of editions of classics--there's usually an introduction, translation notes, and other supplementary materials, right? Like, a physical manifestation of the work of many, many people, all having conversations with one another across time and space.

So that's what I did! I wrote a short introduction (I will also probably post it to my AO3/my blog as well, in the name of preservation etc. etc.) and began reaching out to folks in the fandom who I knew had created art and meta for the fic. The result? 18k words of analysis, comments, and meta, and nearly twenty pages of art!

And this is what I love most about this bind, I think! This book is the work of several people--truly a collaborative work by the fandom--all of whom I will now be shamelessly calling out below :D

CHAPTER HEADER ART

First and foremost, this book would not be what it is without the gorgeous header art by @fancy-rock-dove! Thank you so much Dove for letting include your work, and for being so supportive and kind these past few weeks about this bind <3 You in particular have contributed so much to this book (which I will be getting more into in the next section ehe), and I'm so psyched I get to hold your art and words, too!

NOTES ON THE TEXT

This section was divided into four parts: Asks and Answers, Meta, Selected Comments, and Chapter Heading Art: Process

For Asks and Answers, I trawled Heather's blog for meta she had written in response to questions and other meta about the fic. Asks came from @fancy-rock-dove, @quillingwords, @kulapti, and myself! (I THINK I got all of them--tumblr's search function is finnicky even on its best days, so so sorry if I missed something T_T) I first got hooked into reading this fic because of one of these asks, so I'm very fond of this section in particular :D

For Meta, I included two wonderful essays written by @pastrypuppy (also known as @kulapti) about Hob as an author figure and the Disrupted Fisher King narrative in MSW. Her analyses were so fascinating and I just had to include them in the book! (And thank you as well for your permission, friend!) (also hello fellow Renegade comrade 🫡)

For Selected Comments, I owe everything to (once again :3) @fancy-rock-dove, whose insights are the epitome of transformative fandom at work. I'd look for their comments after I read every chapter to see what their takes were on this or that element of the story, and every single time I would go "!!!!! I didn't even realize!!!" or "OOOOOOOH I hadn't thought of that!!" It was like being in a lecture hall and always whipping your head around when one of your classmates raised their hand, because you knew they were going to say something fascinating that you hadn't considered before.

Aside from one of my own comments, Dove's comments make up the entirety of this section (for which I owe you my life--your long-form responses to fics are a gift to this world) but GOSH was it also so much fun going through the comments section while typesetting and seeing all the keyboard smashing, yelling, and crying from the other commenters. Communal nature of storytelling and ongoing meaning-making of fanfiction, babey!

And finally for Chapter Heading Art: Process: once again Dove coming in clutch with some wonderful insights into the design of each of the chapter heading art pieces! This kind of stuff is honestly my favorite: meta about art for a fic which is, in turn, a transformation of an existing story (not even to mention that The Sandman is its own kind of fanfiction of existing mythologies and histories)--I just!! Think it's all really, really neat :'D (for more coherent/polished thoughts on this pls see my introduction asjdfkls)

ART

The art gallery!!! A million thanks to @fishfingersandscarves, @honeyseller, @jazzpsych, @doctor-rainbowfoxey, and (HI AGAIN DOVE) @fancy-rock-dove for granting me permission to include all of your beautiful pieces!

As usual for artworks in my binds, I printed each piece out on specialty photo paper to really make the colors pop, then sewed each page separately to the text block! Behold, everyone's beautiful beautiful pieces!

The art gallery also satisfies the certain "oooh shiny" part of my brain that always activates when I see pictures in a book, so am also very fond of this section :3

CONSTRUCTION

And now on to the nitty gritty stuff! I used the German Bradel binding technique again, my second time using it. Even though it's more complicated than the case bind, I really love how it gives you the full board space for the cover designs (~it's free real estate~). Keep it a secret but I kiiiiiiind of made a small goof in the last few steps (I did the turn-ins a step too early and so had to paste an extra sheet of cardstock to secure the spine to the boards, whoopsie), but it's a pretty small difference, aesthetically speaking, so it wasn't the end of the world XD

Edges are once again fake gilded, but this time I tried something new with the colors! I did two layers of acrylic paint--one watered down shade of red for the base, then one metallic gold on top of that. I really like the red/gold effect! I'll have to keep experimenting with this kind of layering:

ALSO. Y'ALL! I think I'm finally getting the hang of endbands!!! Many thanks to the folks at Renegade who hosted all the endband workshops last month--I'm still working through them, but even the few sessions I've seen have been TREMENDOUSLY helpful. I learned that tension is Very Important, as well as thread thickness, so I tried doubling my thread and keeping a Very Close Eye on how I was holding the threads while doing the beads. And behold! I still have a ways to go (and one day I would LOVE to do the fancier designs), but I'm v happy with the progress I've made so far!

And finally the covers!! ARCHIVAL MOD PODGE MY BELOVED. I printed on the same matte presentation paper that I used for the art, then did several coats of archival matte mod podge + a pass of gloss mod podge over the title strip to make it ~shiny~. Then once those had dried and I'd adhered them to the boards, I sprayed two layers of matte clear acrylic sealer (also mod podge!) to finish it off. I had some issues with the paper tearing when I handled it before it was fully dry, but luckily the blemishes were small enough that it was easy to do spot corrections with my black acrylic paint. And now I know to be more patient next time LOL

(some non-photoshoot shots that show the shine a little better!)

FINAL THOUGHTS

I had a lot of thoughts while I was binding this book--about Sandman fandom, about Dreamling fandom, about the Odyssey, about storytelling, about fanbinding, about Binderary, about Renegade, about my friends--but really what came to mind the most was gratitude!

Simply put, I'm so grateful to everyone I've met both in this fandom and throughout the years I've been active online--this is SO fun, y'all. It's so much fun to love stories together--to talk about them, to write them, and of course to bind them! I hope I've adequately conveyed that gratitude.

But of course, this book would not exist without the wonderful words of @moorishflower. Heather, thank you so, SO much for sharing your stories, thoughts, and time with us--it is always a happier, better day when I get an email notif from you and when I see you on my dash. I love your work so much, and I'm so happy I finally get to put it on my shelf! So thank you so much again, for everything <3

and OKAY THAT'S IT FROM ME FOLKS!!!!! Binderary 2023 is officially a wrap! I had SUCH a blast--will probably write up a reflection post on it uhhhh after I take a very long nap ajslkdfjslk _(:3」∠)_

all my love! <3

[tyinghershoe]

hey hey :) i love ur writing sm!! i was just wondering if u could do a small blurb or fluff fic of what its like to wake up with izuku, like i can just imagine his bed head and how cute and soft it would be

ੈ✩‧₊˚ Wishful Dreaming

Waking up next to Izuku was as soft as his morning kisses.

Pairing: Izuku Midoriya x reader

Genre: Fluff

check out my masterlist!

Izukus' blessing from the higher spirits came tangled in between blue-colored sheets. Everything he ever wanted was in the shape of a twin-sized mattress, and everything he ever needed slept on top of it. It was far too early in the morning, but still, the arms that intertwined with his own awakened him with nothing but patience and love. 

He knew that heaven existed between these four walls - that the only thing separating the boy from reality and divinity was the angel sleeping next to him. So he smiled as he kissed you good morning, something that is necessary when lying next to a beauty such as yourself. 

“Wake up.” He whispers as the softness he feels in his heart spilled in between every syllable. “We need to wake up.” 

Unfortunately for him, it was a Saturday, which meant that you’d do everything you can to stay under these covers for just a few more minutes. What’s the point of waking up and getting out of bed? You’d rather stay right here, wrapped up in him as he kissed you every 5 and a half minutes.

With a sigh, he slowly twists and turns so that he could see you at a better angle. If you’re going to be spending the rest of the morning in this nest, he should at least see you perfectly, this wasn’t hard to do though - you were perfect in every angle. 

After lounging around a moment - 11 minutes to be exact, or 2 kisses if you use that measurement -  you opened your eyes. Now it was you who felt lucky. 

A lazy little smile was the first thing you saw, then it was his eyes, then his dark green hair which was always a mystery to you. Green, untamed, and everywhere - That’s how he’d describe his bedhead. His curls stuck out in every which way, some darker than others as the sun made fun of his frizzy state. However, this was merely an illusion, your lover's hair was as soft as his touch (he thanks your strawberry-scented conditioner for that.) 

“Hi. Good morning y/n.” He blurbed lazily, words splattering into each other as his heart clenched at the sight in front of him. Dearest, he thought, You looked so beautiful. 

You replied with a simple hum, deciding that this moment would be better in your silence, his voice had the effect of putting you back to sleep anyways. He chuckled as he saw your eyelids slowly close and then jerk back open, it was clear that you were fighting the urge to get pulled back into your dreamlike state. He wouldn’t mind really, but he was feeling exceptionally selfish today, and he wanted to talk to his lover. 

“‘Zuku..” You began, “Please just 16 and a half more minutes.” - which means 3 more kisses, but he didn’t know about his unconscious habit that was kissing you in rhythm. 

Izuku sat still for a few seconds and then slowly pulled himself closer to you, thanking his twin-sized mattress for once again being the perfect size. “Only because you asked so nicely.” He sighed, and then he kissed your temple, starting the timer.

-

a/n. Hello, it's been a long time since I last visited this blog (half a year!). In all honesty, I didn't know time could move so fast, but I guess this blog is a reminder of that. Sorry everyone, things just caught up to me - but I'm writing again, so I hope to post frequently on this blog.

follow me on ao3! @tyinghershoe

[joels-shitty-puns]

The Key To Your Heart - Track 2

Pairing: Pedro Pascal x Musician!Reader

Series Summary: After writing your feelings for Pedro into a song, it gains a lot more popularity than expected. Ultimately it brings both criticism and support, with new possibilities around the corner.

Series Warnings: 18+ only (MDNI). Potential for puns/dad jokes (name of my blog, and the fic) should give that away. This is my first fic which should be its own warning, lol. Also some cursing. Mentions of masturbation (f) maybe more smut later idk. Sadness, reader is pretty depressed. Poor body image. Rude people. Bullying-ish and just lack of support? Anxiety. Age gap! Reader is in her mid 20's, Pedro is current age (48).

Other stuff: Reader is plus sized. AFAB. Inexperienced. Also has a dog, but you can pretend it is another creature probably. Further, in case it isn't clear, italics almost always are the reader's inner thoughts!

Word Count: 2.8K

Series List: Here!

Miss last chapter? Here!

I had a real rough time figuring out the proper voice for Pedro's dialogue and I hope I did him justice. Either way, the support I received for part 1 is astounding and completely unexpected! Thank you all for reading and let me know what you think :) I plan to continue until the story wraps up, but I don't know how many parts that will be. I hope to post every couple days, but with my work schedule it may be less speedy. Here we go!

You walk in the door, unclipping Skip's leash, slipping off your shoes, and dropping your keys on the countertop before flopping onto the couch and unlocking your phone. No. Fucking. Way. 

Pedro Pascal (pascalispunk) replied to your message. 

You dissected each letter of the username, assuming it couldn't possibly be THE Pedro Pascal… but it was. It really, really was. You clicked the message, holding your breath.

Pedro Pascal replied to you: "Hey, you don't need to thank me. I didn't say anything that wasn't true. That guy was out of line. You deserve happiness and I'm sorry for the harsh words you've been hearing. I appreciate you sharing your vulnerability with the world and hope that you will continue to be your genuine self and ignore the comments trying to make you be someone else. Don't listen to those people."

You stared in disbelief at his words, once again wondering why he would ever be so kind to someone he doesn't even know. Someone so childish and stupid to write a song about a man she doesn't know. I can't imagine he'd think these things if he knew it was about him…

You: "Thank you Mr. Pascal. I'm a big fan of yours and hearing that you're in my corner has me completely at a loss. I can't imagine why you would risk damaging your image by defending a girl…" No… don't say girl, it makes you sound like a child. You want this guy to like you! You backspace with a slight feeling of ridiculousness over the whole scenario. Ugh it's all wrong… calm down... calm down… it's just a conversation. He doesn't know you. He doesn't like you. Don't make it weird like you always do.

You try again.

You: "Thank you Mr. Pascal. I really admire your work and for you to say such kind things to me… to think that you're in my corner, has me completely at a loss for words. I don't know what I did to deserve this treatment when you don't even know me, especially when coming to my defense could potentially harm your image… but thank you."

He read it almost immediately. Your heart was beating out of your chest and you felt like you could throw up from the anxiety and adrenaline. After a few seconds, those stress-inducing dot-dot-dots appeared to show you he was typing.

He's actually replying to me?? Again? Doesn't he have better things to do? 

Your mind wandered to what he might be doing while he's messaging you. Sitting at his home, relaxing, taking the time to reply to you? Why? Maybe he's on a plane or waiting for something and killing time. Maybe he's- *ping*

Pedro Pascal replied to your message:

"Please, you can call me Pedro.. and as far as defending you, it doesn't matter to me that we don't know each other personally. You seem like a woman with a good heart, and all you did was share your true self. Nobody deserves to be talked poorly about for something harmless that they feel. If something like that hurts my image… then my true self wasn't being represented. I think we all just want to be seen, and I hope that you will feel comfortable to be yourself and show yourself more."

You don't know when you started crying, but you hiccupped with the overwhelming wave of emotions. He sees me.. you had just scrolled to the bottom of the long reply, when you noticed the "..." of typing again. He has more to say?!

Pedro Pascal: "As far as the subject of your song.. whether you choose to reveal that to him, or the world, you deserve love and respect. Being vulnerable and putting yourself out there is a terrifying thing to do, and I myself tend to close myself off from relationships to avoid that potential for getting hurt. But if that's what you want, you've already taken a big step and you should go for it. I hope that whoever he is gives you the respect and love you deserve."

Holy crap…

He doesn't… he doesn't know it's him right?? No. There's no way. He's just being nice… he's too nice. He's too genuine..??

Your thumbs hover over the keyboard, doing a little dance in the air, pondering what to say. How much can I share with this man? Between this crush and his kind words, it's feeling tricky to hold back from spilling too much information.

You: "Thank you Pedro. You're too kind and I can't properly explain how much I really appreciate it. I'm having trouble coming to terms with all the sudden attention, and finding it hard to ground myself. But your words are helping me a lot. I - "

You hesitated over your next words, wondering if you should open up or just leave it. Don't be weird… don't scare him away like you always have with everyone else. As much as you think of disclosing your hesitation and lack of experience with relationships, as well as your reasons for trepidation, you decide to spare him of your self-hatred. Instead, you delete that last letter and hit send. 

Then you send another message, like he did. "And as far as the guy… I know I don't know him personally, we've never met, but I can already tell he would treat me right. I just hope maybe someday he will love me back."

Immediately after sending it you regretted it. That felt way too open and vulnerable. What are you thinking!?! Shit… what if he sees through you!?

You hold your finger down on the message, ready to hit unsend before he sees it. But it's too late. He's already replying.

Pedro: "He would be stupid not to love you back."

What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck

You: "Thank you, Pedro. 🥺" Play it cool… Play it cool…

Pedro: "Of course, sweetheart. Feel free to message me if anyone else gives you trouble or you just want to chat. I enjoyed talking with you."

???!!!!!?????!!!!! SweetheartSweetheartSweetheart

You grabbed your nearest pillow and screamed into it. "SKIPPPPPEERRRRRRR!!!!!! I JUST HAD A CONVERSATION WITH PEDRO AND IT WAS MAGICAL AND AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!" You squealed.

Skipper lifted his head at you and sighed before setting his head back down. He was no stranger to your shenanigans. Napping after a good walk was a better use of his energy than to deal with your drama. He closed his little brown eyes again.

You lay back on the couch, kicking your feet and squeezing your pillow to your body.

Fuck, this is going to hit me like a truck if it goes sour. If he even realizes it's about him, probably. Crap… what am I going to do?

The next day, you woke up and checked your emails before work. Thankfully nobody at your workplace has seemed to place your singing voice to your speaking voice, or pieced together the fact that several people know you have a crush on a certain celebrity and are a musician. Thank goodness. That’s the last thing you need.

You closed your eyes for a few minutes, trying to calm your breathing, your nerves, and your heart rate, before relaxing and shaking out your body. Finally, you decided to get ready for bed and see what tomorrow brings.

Your emails come in, one by one, with one intriguing email at the top, from a well known pop-culture show called The Jazz & Ally-Kat Show. They want to do an interview with you, live, as soon as possible. 

Great. They probably just want to see what I look like or have me spill my guts about my crush. You roll your eyes, and you can’t help but feel like the Mandalorian with his lack of face reveals. If only you had a cute little space baby to accompany you. I guess Skip is my own precious cargo in a way, you think, while looking at your still sleeping pup. You're being silly… Not everything needs to relate back to Pedro, you think with a sigh to yourself. 

Yet despite your anxiety, you agreed to their interview, with the exception that it was done as a podcast style interview, where simply your voices are featured. Surprisingly, they agreed. I guess everyone likes some drama, and what better way to get views than by having a little mystery.

The interview was scheduled for three days from then, and in the meantime you focused on work and your album, which was mostly finished after years of writing songs. All it needed was some editing.

As the days went by, you wanted desperately to message Pedro again. You wanted to tell him your feelings. Have him confess that he loves you too. Ask him about his family, his friends, his favorite things. Meet him, kiss him, fall in love, and finally be happy. But ultimately you knew that was silly. You had one little conversation, and although it was nice, you still didn't know each other. There was no way he loved you back. Yet…? you asked yourself, hopeful, almost asking for permission to let yourself try and earn his love. 

Despite Instagram drawing you in like a magnet, you held back from messaging him. You didn't want to come on too strong. You messaged him first last time. He doesn't know you. Literally… he doesn't even know your real name, or what you look like. But maybe that's a good thing…

_____The day of the interview:_____

You woke up around 9:30 in the morning; nervous, slightly nauseated, restless, and jittery. Why did I agree to this??! 

You decided to pass on the coffee this morning, figuring it would make things worse, and instead decided to take Skipper for a walk. After some fresh air followed by a refreshing shower, you looked at the clock. 11:30 AM. With the interview at 1PM, you still had some time to kill and sat down at the piano, letting your mind wander to Pedro while you plunked chords out with nimble fingers. I wonder if Pedro has ever wanted to learn any instruments… I could teach him, you daydream.

Your hands dance across the piano while he reads through a script in the other room, eyebrows furrowed as he highlights another line. You look up over the grand piano and see his soft brown curls blowing under the fan haphazardly. The sun is shining in through the window, which Skip bathes under, and reflects a golden brown undertone with gray streaks in Pedro's hair. He really is beautiful, you think. His tongue swipes across his lips as he makes notes and erases, before finally feeling your eyes on him. He glances up from the script, giving you a soft smile and a wink; with those chocolate brown eyes that frequently cause you to lose your train of thought. Your eyes drift down to the keys again, feeling a soft blush creep over your cheeks. 

"That music sounds beautiful, baby.." he says softly while padding up to you behind the piano. He places his large hands on your shoulders, sweeping them down over both your arms before settling on your hands, still resting over the black and white keys. You look over your shoulder and he leans in, closing his eyes as he presses a gentle kiss to your lips. Just like that scene in Narcos… you think. Yikes, I really am obsessed… anyway… you think back to your daydream…

He sits down at the chair next to your piano bench, kissing your lips again gently, then the corner of your mouth, your cheek, and your jaw. Your stomach gives a wave of butterflies and you lean in more to kiss him deeper, tugging on his hair while his hands find the small of your back, gently running his palms up your spine. A chill overcomes you and he-

~Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep.~

Fuck. You snap out of your fantasy and turn off the alarm you set to go off ten minutes before the interview. At least I gave myself time to use the restroom and wash my face, you think, hoping to clear your head a bit now that you're slightly frazzled.

Unfortunately the feeling that replaced it was nerves as you sat down at your desk, typing into your keyboard, turning on your mic, and hoping that Skipper doesn't throw a fit over the wind or something while you're on this call.

Jazz: "Hi there listeners! We're joined by the artist of the moment, our favorite lovesick lady, the singer responsible for "Imaginary Love!"

Both women on the other end of the call applaud.

Well… not sure I like being called a lovesick lady but what else did I expect, really?

You: "Thank you guys for having me, I appreciate you wanting to get to know me better."

Despite the rough start, the ladies turned out to be really respectful and fun. You think that if the circumstances were different, you could actually be friends with them. You discuss casual things like your dog, your favorite activities and favorite pop culture topics (careful to avoid mentioning Pedro or any other actor that could be perceived as your lyrical subject), and they even mention celebrity crushes they've had growing up. 

At the mention of their celebrity crushes, you can feel the interview funnel into a dangerous alley with little to no escape. Jazz was the first to broach the subject. "So… we've just discussed our celebrity crushes, and I think I speak for all of us here when I say we're all very curious to know who-"

-an air horn blares-

What the hell is that? You wonder, both thankful for the interruption, yet startled by the disruption.

They both chime in: "Viewers!!! Do you all know what that sound is!?! We have reached 1 million listeners!!!!"

To say you were astounded is an understatement.

You: "You're kidding!? 1 million people are listening to us right now?"

Ally: "You bet they are! And listeners… I don't know about you guys… but I can't help but wonder if our celebrity heartthrob is one of those million?"

They turn their attention to you again. "What do you think? Think he's listening?"

You're thankful for the lack of a camera, because you can't help but blush at the thought. You'd be lying if you hadn't already considered (hoped) that he was listening too. 

Jazz: "So as we were saying… I think we all are in agreement that we want to know who he is. You sound like a nice enough girl, so what's holding you back? You've made it. You can contact him now and he'll probably reply."

I already have… you thought with a smirk.

Jazz continues: "Which brings me to the next point... I know you've had a lot of attention lately. You were signed to a record company, you were contacted by us, you've been mentioned by a few talk shows and celebrities. Pedro Pascal even publicly defended you. The radio has been playing your song nonstop and people can't get enough. What do you think of all this attention?"

You: "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit surprised and maybe a little scared," you answered with a nervous laugh. "But I am so thankful for the kind words that I receive and I love hearing from people who can relate to my music."

Ally: "You've certainly received your fair share of criticism too. It sounds like you received that before your song was ever published as well."

You: "I have, and it's been challenging to try and not let it get me down. But I'm trying my best, and the positives seem to be greatly outweighing the negatives," you state, your mind thinking of Pedro and how his messages were really the only positive you needed to get you through the dark storm of criticism.

Ally: "I guess what I'm wondering is.. among all these people contacting you.. has he?"

You try to play dumb: "Has who?"

Both interviewers laugh before Ally continues. "Nice try. You know who we're trying to find out about. Has he, the man of your dreams and star of your lyrics, contacted you at all? Will we see a romance blooming?"

Your stomach flipped. You were not expecting this question. Should you tell the truth??? It's not like they could know who has contacted you, short of hacking your account. You have had a lot of people contact you, after all.

You take a deep breath before answering. "I uh… I have received a lot of messages, some of them from celebrities."

They reply, and you can practically feel them leaning in. "Yeeeeaaaah?????"

You consider your next move, your heart really working overtime since this whole thing started. Finally you decide your answer.

"Yes. We've talked."

Looking for Track 1? Read it here!

Next chapter: Here!

~Thanks for reading! Stay ~tuned~ for more!

Taglist: Let me know if you want in :)

@pedrotonin @starcrossed02

[fishedeyelenz]

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE BLACK CHRISTMAS FANDOM

Hello everyone who's been following my writing and art and OC's!! Your support has warmed my heart, and got me through some thought times. Thank you very much for sticking by me, commenting, sending me kudos and asks regarding Dilf Billy and my oc-verse I made around him!

However... I have come to realize I have made Billy, at least the older 45-50 year old version of him my own. Very much my own. I think there's a discrepancy between my characterization of him, and how he is portrayed in the movie/novel/commentary. Another thing is that I love him too much. I want to make him my own, not an interpretation of a pre-existing character...

So that's exactly what I am going to do! I'm taking him and making him an OC. Currently I am in the process if changing up his backstory to make him distinct from Billy Lenz, though the Dilf version we see in Rats in the shadows and partially in So give me coffee and tv will stay similar.

My goal is to create a group of ocs consisting of the character formerly known as Billy, Camille, Bean and other side characters who will exist in a story about an ex serial killer father. I'm still early in the rework, but I feel like I don't have change too much.

What this means I will effectively be distancing myself at least partially from the Black Christmas fandom, at least in terms of my content creation though these past few months I have been in a rut given college preoccupying most of my time. I still love Black Christmas, it will remain one of my favorite movies forever. I cherish the friends I made and the experiences I had, but I want to move on to more original creations, uninhibited by primary existing source materials.

I will still interact with fan works in terms of reblogging art and writing , and I will most likely draw more of Billy Lenz and the other characters from the movie in the future. Anything regarding Camille, Bean, "dilf Billy" though, will be something divorced from Black Christmas, entirely its own thing, though obviously inspired by it.

Will I return to writing for Black Christmas? At this point I am uncertain. I have a WIP of a priest!au thing for Dilf Billy, which if I ever get around to finishing I would post under the pretense that it's a Black Christmas fanwork. However, I am not sure if I will finish it, given that I don't really have the time, and at the moment motivation to really work on it. Another story idea exists too, one which would better fit into the Black Christmas ethos with is very dark tone and heavy subject matter (while still remaining a smut work) which I would gladly have exist as a fanwork.... But once again I am lacking the time and want to do it. It would be a very big project, all things considered.

So what now? I will keep all my Billy Lenz/Dilf Billy content up on my blog, my AO3 will stay intact (though I will forward this announcement onto there), and I won't change my tags on Dilf Billy related posts. Moving forward, though, everything created for my oc inspired by Billy Lenz/Dilf Billy Lenz will be tagged as that. I need to come up with a new name for him first...

I will also make a post regarding how the plot of Rits/Sgmcatv would have went if I'd finished them, to give you guys some sort of conclusion. Though the new oc story with Bean, Camille and the new Billy oc in it will very closely follow Rits original storyline. Most of the events of Rits are canon still in regards to Camille's and Bean's backstory, with of course some caveats (no Brahms, Camille and "Billy" meet differently etc.). But the large majority of the plot points and story beats are the same.

I will be happy to answer any further questions, as my inbox is open. I'm sorry to disappoint anyone, but I've felt the need to move on, to elevate this story. I hope I can be forgiven. Now I bid farewell to this part of my life and creative era, and look forward to the new.

[cecils-dragons]

So you prolly don't remember this bc it was back in 2019 but you liked a post by xxdemonic-heartxx with this content:

"An opinion

I get body positivity. But if you weigh close to 350-400lbs from fatty tissue you should get some help. Human bodies cant function as well as they should with that type of stress on the skeleton and joints and its gonna compromise your organs. Body positivity is okay but fat acceptance isnt. I’m not fatphobic. I’m concerned for the longevity you’re losing and the health conditions you’re pulling in. And the dangerous mindset that humans should be and can be fat. Yeah. Some fat is okay. But if you body fat percentage is 32% for women and 26% for men (or higher). Thats obese and very crippling to your health. Take care of yourself. It isnt a crime."

That plus the fact you never drew fat ppl (not like just little pudgy but actually fat) got me to the conclusion you must be fatphobic, so I have had you blocked but you still crossroads my dash sometimes bc tumblr is functional website. So after all these years is once again saw you on my dash so I thought I'd send an ask, it's been years and I was wondering maybe you have changed and you don't hold these views any more.

I know I am a spiteful bitch for remembering this. The op has deleted their blog and all I have is a screenshot I thought just sharing the post content would work since I am not here to make a callout post or want ppl to harass you I just want to make you think about your past and maybe present biases.

Thanks for more information on the ask as it was a bit scary to see after being woken up in the middle of the night by my dog barking.

Okay, you may be getting me mixed up with someone else because I don't follow xxdemonic-heartxx, I recognize them in our community but I don't follow many people because I like a curated dashboard and like even less stuff, so even if I liked it back then, first, I was 19, and second, likely a misclick because I don't like to interact with stuff like that for the sake of my own mental health as I deal with body dysmorphic disorder. I of course can't 100% say what I was thinking or clicking on around that time as I was 19(now 24) and due to trauma I don't really remember much around that time.

For the second part yeah, I was 19 and still getting use to drawing bodyily diverse people and when learning to draw you get taught to draw slim people as a default. I'm getting much better at it now but it was never because of prejudges, just ignorance and staying in my comfort zone. I don't really mind or care being blocked because of that because it's your opinion about me and I can't control that.

At the base, I would not be considering myself to have ever been fatphobic and I am sorry if it has come across that way as it's of course never my intention to make any group of people uncomfortable. I'm of course open to talking more about this if I am missing anything.

[darkcircles4lyfe]

Hii I’ve stumbled across a few of your posts and haven’t even gleaned the tip of the iceberg that is your blog, but I would love to hear a more fleshed version of your Bakugo with AFO post (if you have more that you wanted to share), because that is such a cool concept???

Like, it’s such a nice way to address the symbiotic nature of the two quirks + Bakugo’s relationship with Midoriya at the same time, and there’s also so much to explore in terms of the repercussions of that (not just the symbolism of it, but also the parts you’ve mentioned like what that would mean for people who’ve had their quirks stolen, how they will deal with all the stockpiled quirks, or even on a wider scale of how the media would react if AFO/OFA is leaked/ revealed to the public).

Just imagine the amount of continued exploration in terms of the nature of quirks v nurture of society, because AFO/OFA has so far been (imo) one of the few evidence that quirks carry personality, which is so awesome because it’s like saying a quirk literally holds a part of you through the vestiges while demolishing this idea through basically the entire plot of the manga loll. (To phrase it slightly better, the manga is sort of reaching the conclusion that a quirk is a part of you and you only, without being all of you, and that it’s exactly what the name says it is: a quirk.)

The thing I don’t really like about this conclusion is the blatant disregard for the quirkless community, which was the initial point of discussion and social commentary in bnha. This is why I think Bakugo being given AFO would be great fuel for the debate of should we be allowed to mess with the quirks we are given.

As in, who gets to decide? Who gets to play god? How will it be regulated? Should it even be regulated? How do you do all that without dehumanising Bakugo the same way society dehumanised pro heroes? (Bonus points for linking this to real life because I’m all for social commentary/ reflections in fictional media)

And then on a personal level, what will it take for Bakugo to be able to control AFO’s personality (hello, eye symbolism + name symbolism) within the quirk? How will All Might handle this info? How does this all relate to the conflict of children in war? The development of the league of villains’ character plots (esp Tomura’s)?

I have a lot of questions with very few answers loll, I would love to hear your thoughts on this!!

this post, for reference

Gosh, I am so sorry for taking forever to answer this. But you ask so many good questions! And I think this is actually a pretty good time, after 419.

I guess where I stand with the idea now is still somewhat ambiguous. All for One as a power is too big and interesting to go away--or at least, if it did go away, it would speak volumes. It feels like an almost elemental, fundamental, and even spiritual power, something beyond the man himself. So I'm still wondering about its future.

While a lot of other characters' narratives, including Katsuki's, are about this "nature of quirks vs. nurture," with the original Japanese name for quirks literally meaning "individuality" ("個性" or "kosei"), All for One (the power) oddly represents a lack of individuality. Like a shapeshifter with no form of its own. With that in mind, might we actually compare it to quirklessness? This is worth considering if we're trying to guess who might be a fitting person to inherit it.

I'm at least certain that Tenko shouldn't keep it, since he was literally groomed for it, to be a vessel. For him it represents a lack of individuality in the absolute worst way: a lack of agency, and an identity determined by/in the image of someone else since before even the moment of conception. Actually, as of 419, it seems like if there is any echo of him left after being possessed again, Tenko needs to get rid of the quirk. If he is able to regain control for even a second, the most logical action he can take to save himself and do something of his own free will for once, is to pass the quirk on to someone else.

What I'm a little less certain about is who should get it. On the one hand, Katsuki has a very strong sense of self, especially now. As I said before, this would make him an interesting candidate because he wouldn't want AFO, and thus wouldn't use it for his own gain, on principle. However...

In between now and when I wrote that little post, the future of One for All has also become ambiguous. Does Tenko have it even though All for One does not? (because of Izuku's intent in passing it on?) I've wondered for a long time what would happen if OFA and AFO combined. Would they become more than the sum of their parts, creating something new? Maybe something that can connect with other people and build them up? Perhaps it would develop some aspect of agency that takes away its capacity to exploit people. I'm just speculating...

And I haven't wanted to talk about it, but I'm ambivalent about Izuku becoming quirkiness again. As in, I think Horikoshi could pull it off either way. So this is just an idea:

Izuku could also be a candidate for AFO because he lacks a sense of self, in his own way, as I've gone into before. At best, this means a lack of an ego, the opposite of AFO's personality. In AFO's words, Izuku is the boy born with nothing, who now has less than nothing. There's also a nice symmetry to this idea: Izuku giving OFA to Tenko, then Tenko giving AFO to Izuku. It would be interesting to see what the power would be like in the hands of its antithesis.

But like I said, if you ignore AFO's own selfish interpretation of the power as a tool for domination and a sign of his natural superiority, its essence is a lot more comparable to quirklessness. Just as one's quirk does not encompass one's entire self even though it is unique to them, so too does the quirk have potential beyond its user's point of view. It is potentially ideal for someone who wouldn't make it a part of who they are or use it to enforce their desires, and this applies to both Izuku and Katsuki.

The final thing to mention from your question is the possibility that whoever received AFO would have to deal with overcoming his possession. Maybe this is too much for one person to handle. Maybe Katsuki plays into this either way.

[bapydemonprincess]

I’m 24 and I’ve been in this fandom since like 2010 . So not the entire time it’s been around but I was here for its main surge I feel like. And I won’t lie, when I was 10 and a majority of the fandom did ship sebaciel publicly and people made you feel weird for not shipping it, I definitely did engage with it. It was pushed on me as a 10 year old by a majority of the fandom, and I didn’t see anything wrong because I was younger than ciel/same age and I was like “yeah I think Sebastian is cute and I’m the same age as ciel so—“ BUT you know as I got older I’d say even by 14 I had the realization of how gross it was and how I didn’t actually ship it it was just that they were the two main characters in the fandom and that typically main characters are the ones who get shipped and that at that time in the fandom it was impossible to not be faced with ship stuff. And I was groomed by adults in the fandom on this very website. They knew my age and would send me smut and talk to me about myself and flirt and I honestly feel bad that I ever did engage with the ship. I didn’t know any better. But now as an adult when I do see sebaciel stuff I find myself questioning if they’re just young and if they’re going to grow out of it too and I wonder if maybe they’re also having it pushed on them by older fans like I was. I find it concerning because i know what it did to myself and what kind of situations I was put in because of it. I try to avoid the adult ones because unfortunately I think if they haven’t grown out of it and realized the implications of the ship and how it does affect real life I don’t know that they ever will. I hate that this fandom has such a bad label on it. Every person I mention it to is like— “oh the pedophile demon anime?” And it just sickens me. Idk this is kind of just a rant and I wanted to offer my thoughts as someone who has been in the fandom a long time and as someone who was in the fandom as a child even. I’m sorry if this is weird ask to send but I see you posting content about it sometimes and it made me feel safe to share my thoughts

Well I am not personally good at answering these types of asks but I am glad you felt safe to send this to me, specifically, and get it off your chest, it's all good!! 💖 And glad to know you came to realize how bad the ship was at one point, I'm always happy to see that happen once in a while in kuro, because there are so many folks around my age refusing to accept the truth and doubling down on proshipping, and also I notice very recently too trying to cause problems on purpose for antis in their spaces. 😒 It's getting hard out there since the new anime came out, and a lot of those types have attempted to return.. likely from twitter where they ran off to last time they were booted (some quite literally banned hmm I wonder why) from tumblr.

And the worst WORST part knowing proshippers around my age is knowing.. remembering.. the very beginnings of kuro, seeing the early fics on ao3 by those guys, who really started it all, knowing somewhere they're still out there.. some even maybe with kids of their own WHO KNOWS... Ugh.

And I hope new fans, no matter their age really, make sure to be careful esp on here in the main kuro tag, for these proshippers have been constantly- AND VERY BLATANTLY I MIGHT ADD -trying to advertise their blogs and discords as safe spaces for interacting... CLEARLY trying to start/continue the process of grooming that is so well known in fandoms like kuro at this point.

Overall just use block on tumblr recreationally, it's free real estate ✨, stay safe in general, and again don't be afraid whether on fellow anti blogs like mine send messages or if you feel more comfortable make posts of your own on your own blog expressing how you feel, getting it out of your system.

Hope my response was okay (I say because I'm at work at also health-wise a bit out of it so sorry grbhjfkugu) and hope you, anon are currently doing okay now!! Thank you again for sharing your personal experience!!

[melon-colli]

Yapping about Inscryption

Just 'finished' (that's in quotes cause I'm not convinced that the games not DONE done) Inscryption and overall I really enjoyed it! I stopped live blogging after a certain point so heres a post to get those out.

!Spoilers for the whole game under the cut!

>I wasn't too sure about the art style change in Act 2 at first, and the fact that I was dog water at the new card mechanics didn't help, but it really grew on me and so did the new gameplay!

>The other scrybes were really interesting, there wasn't a single one I found boring. If I had to rank them I'd go Leshy<Grimora/P03<Magnificus. Grim and P03 only occupy the same space because I love them both equally.

LUKE CARDER INTERLUDE

>He's so quirky! Love him! Seriously though he was an endearing main character, truly creepypasta protag material. Seeing him get shot in the end really caught me off guard, and honestly shook me a little. Idk but why I didn't expect him to die, especially like that. Expected like a computer monster birthed from the old disk to get him, not for the GameFuna rep to cap him in the face. Had my chest tight for a second. Anyways rip bro, raising my mantis god to the sky.

>As for Act 3, I liked it! P03 is such a delightful dickhead, who I just know would be so annoying about Pokemon natures. Botopia was less immersive than Leshy's campaign, and I like what that says about P03's character, who cares way more about gameplay. This chapter's talking cards have my heart. Lonely Wizard specifically, but Angler was nice for the 5 minutes I knew him. (I traded him for another card specifically because he said 'choose me'. Sorry man I thought you had a plan)

>Obligatory Goobert Mention. Great guy, glad his pain was lessened by the tubes. Idk why you still want to go back to Magnificus, but I wont tell you what to do.

>The Uber bot bosses were still pretty interesting for a bot who supposedly doesn't care much abt crafting characters. I made my own special hell for the Make-your-own boss. Where for every dead card, another is drawn. P03 tried to stop me multiple times, but I was determined. For phase two I just chose leap bots for every dead card. Silly boss. Golly was also a sweetheart, loved the mole. As for the scribe Uberbot, the file deletion threat didn't get me nearly as bad since I came off of Kinitopet and knew the game couldn't actually do something like that and be on steam, but it still had me a little nervous lol (cause like what if it did?).

I got weirdly giddy at the prospect of finding the pelt man again. Idk why because I despised him in Act 1, Got a few pelts but never actually found him. Got scammed at the mart cause I thought buying the pelt would make him show up lol.

>Falling into the factory and seeing the 3 scribes just standing there scared me a little, thought they were gonna jump me.

>After that part, going back to P03 knowing what's going to happen, I felt a bit bad. At first. Sure P03's a smug jerk, but it just wanted to be free right? The walk back when it's reminiscing about the game amped this feeling up, but I love that the game yanked the rug from under me and went 'yeah no this puter just sucks' once it starts gloating. Lol. lmao. Also I didn't expect Leshy to just rip its head off wtf bro.

>Saying goodbye to everyone at the end was sad. Having one last game with the Scrybes was so bittersweet. Grimora's game was interesting, and its a crime we didn't have time for a boss battle. Leshy. Leshy I love you so much. I like that Magnificus wasn't going gentle into that good night at first, but his insistence to keep going lost him the chance to shake our hand. I was never super into his play style, but his game was really cool looking, even if im not super into that stuff. (I know the arm thing had something to do with Yugi-oh but I know nothing abt it sorry).

>The lead up to unzipping the Old Code was done so well. Grimora may have nuked the game to get rid of it, but Luke's curiosity still doomed him in the end. The totem lady's last words before we found it were quite unsettling. I don't know what was on that zip, but whatever it was clearly messed Luke up.

>I loved the ending of the game. Already talked about it in the Luke section, but it was so abrupt and final. Idk what I expected but I knew it was over when Luke opened the door for the Funa rep. Rip.

Overall, 10/10 game. There's still something called Kaycees mod for me to do, but all in all I really enjoyed it!

[yuraslefttoe]

hey, it's me again! I came to pester you with questions!! *there should be a scary laugh, but it sounds more like mean giggles*

(by the way, I’m thinking about sending you such long texts with questions (because I have a lot of them!!) once one or two weeks, if you don’t mind. . . . . . .you don't mind..??? (god, I hope you don’t get tired of me..!) I'm so sorry, please, I'm just very interested!! *qwq*)

ok, let's start with the sweetest part, prelude. ACTUALLY, I DIDN'T EXPECT THAT YOU REPLY SO QUICKLY, GOD, NOT PASSED A FEW HOURS!!!!!! I THOUGHT YOU HAD TOO MANY QUESTIONS SO I DID NOT EXPECT A SO SOON REPLY!!

I’ll remind you once again how much I adore your work (after all, you deserve it!!), and I’ll also say that I specifically shouldn’t talk about posts tagged with the  adm, because I’ve read your tumblr and twitter in its entirety several times, I even have a separate album in my gallery with answers that particularly interested me, there are several hundred screenshots there and I don’t regret anything! (sorry if my hyperfixation may be intimidating!!)

*=^._.^= ∫*

and now the questions!!!! 

1. my wife doesn’t have a tumblr, but her suggestion interested me and can be seen in the first two screenshots(the translation sounds like: “after the release of “red hour” I have an assumption that andrey is more... athletic than misha. either this is because of ferry’s drawing style, or he really has such wide shoulders")so now we are interested to know about the physique of your characters!! maybe some of them are thin, or vice versa, a little overweight. and what about physical training? did you have any headcanons for this??? ( by the way, when I ask about “characters” I mean not only misha and andrey, but also europe and maya, because they are also worthy of attention <зз) 

2. what about the abbreviation "dyusha" for andrey? in russian it is... not used very often, but still, it sounds very cute. so it would be interesting to know how you would feel about this? 3. I also want to hear about the names of the characters!! how did you choose them? I mean........ how did it happen that from ☺europa☺ you switched to 👹MiKhAiL👹?? (I'M SO SORRY, BUT MISHA'S FULL NAME SOUNDS SOMETHING THREATENING. MY UNCLE'S DOG HAS THE SAME NAME EHE- *ᕕ(ಥ▽ಥ)ᕗ*) 

4. and lastly, let's return to my wife for another moment. she suggested that andrey was now also in a time loop. what do you say about that? and also in enigma, she noticed that misha seemed to be addressing the second person in the lines: "and if you wanted to be anything more than just free" and "you’ve seen a hundred lies I see that all the time". is this second person a viewer? or maybe one of the previously mentioned characters??

the last photo, by the way, is one of the sketches that I found so far in my gallery! ^^ 

initially it was planned to attach two sketches, but andrey turned out TOO bad, I’m ashamed to show him. someday I'll redraw it into something normal.... maybe. but! I really like the pic with misha and the wolf(I hope this is the wolf you were talking about lol. google didn’t show me anything else, and I’ve never been to ikea myself, ehe...) 

(and I don’t want to post all this yet, because running a tumblr was certainly not part of my plans, haha)) I registered here solely to read your blog, and not to maintain my own) 

sorry again for possible illiteracy, and also for the chaotic nature of my thoughts, haha, I don’t know how to adequately express them in english.. and also, I’m really REALLY apologize that the text was too long, next time I’ll try to be shorter...

okay im gonna try and answer everything here in a coherent way so sorry if nothing makes sense

im just fine with lotes of questions :) answering asks and responding to comments is one of my favorite things ever and i brings a verry big smile to my face

on andrei: i consider him to be a skinny little gut but not exactly unathletic, and in addition i think he would have basic combat training and probably be good with firearms. misha is probably a very average bodytype, nothing special, not particularly athletic.

i do not speak russian (though ferry has recently encouraged me to learn so maybe in like four years ill be able to form a sentence) so i dont know anything about the short forms so you can do whatever you want. if you coin it and peoples tart calling him that i will not stop it from happening

i do not name my characters, i usually let me friends name them (i think that the only one i named was europa and his partner). going forward maybe ill try to make it more cohesive

the time loop idea im seeing thrown around alot is really cool and while i havent particularly wrote any of my songs about that in general i see it fitting into the loose narrative i have going on. also in enigma misha is definitely talking to andrei whenever he says the word "you" but it could also be to the listener because the entire theme of enigma is 4th wall breaking and meta shenanigans like that

that sketch is SO CUTE oh my god

[bluberimufim]

Writer Q&A Tag Game

Hello. I got tagged for this by @squarebracket-trick on this post and I thought it sounded super fun. So, here we are!

1. What motivates you to write?

I started out as an artist, but I began writing once I realized that visual art as a medium wasn't enough to tell the stories I wanted to tell - it had no way of codifying lore, defining character traits, or even just easily telling a long story. I think it's still largely that, in a way. I come up with all these stories and I "get them out" through writing because I sure as hell can't keep them inside my brain for eternity.

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 one is pretty recent, from a few chapters ago in DoS, but I'm really proud of it. I just feel like it emphasizes how much Seth's experience with souls connects with the body, which is the Goddess of Time's domain. A lot of metaphors in this story centre around bodies and physicality because of this. Here's the snippet:

And yet, there was Theo, with her soul so unwound there was no fixing it anymore. The most she could do was keep healing and healing, covering the cracks of the bowl with her own hands in the hope that they'd go back to normal. Keep filling the ocean so that, no matter how many holes lined its bed, it would never be empty. [...] She held her so tight she thought her hands would fuse to her skin. As if she could cover the cracks of her soul with her own body.

Idk, I just vibe with it.

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

(what happened to 3 and 4? where did they go?)

I'd say back-and-forth banter, probably because of my time in theatre, but also horror description. It creeps up on me. I keep writing horror on accident. And I always really like it. Just something about describing something weird and spooky.

6. What do you enjoy most about the Writeblr community?

Mostly the fact that there's all these other writers who have cool stuff and also wanna see my cool stuff. I already loved writing on my own, but knowing that there are people Out There who also care about my stories just feels amazing.

And also, the casual friendship between people. You interact with someone's blog, they interact with yours, and you suddenly feel like you're friends, kinda. I can only compare it to making quick friends with someone on the playground as a kid. I like it <3

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

I am a very ✨analogue✨ person, so my best writing advice in this scenario is always: put that shit on paper.

Feel unsure about a scene? Put that shit on paper. It's like a 0.5th (hehe "halfth") draft that you will copy onto your document and you will always improve it with that second look.

Worried about perfectionism? Put that shit on paper. Even pencil, at least to me, feels hard to erase. It's mostly about living with the stuff you've written and not looking back - erasing is such a pain in the ass that you might as well just keep going forward.

Wanna write secretly during class/lectures/whatever where you're not allowed to have a device? Wadda ya know, the answer is also paper.

Wanna edit? Printing stuff out helps you get some distance from your own writing and it also makes you see it more as a book than as just something you've made.

It also generally makes you feel less bad about changing stuff later in the document, because you have a solid, physical record of what you've written before.

Put that shit on paper. It works well.

(sorry for the rant sbdhagjk)

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)

I once made a post about the art movements in the world of the dystopia WIP (yes, seriously) but I can't find it anymore. I'm not gonna explain it again, it was stupidly long the first time around.

I guess, outside the dystopia WIP, I'm pretty proud of the whole Three Sister Goddesses thing from DoS. I have drawn designs, but I'll make another post sometime. I'm also proud of the relationship between the Goddesses tho.

They're at war with each other, but they're just doing it for entertainment. They kiiiinda hate each other but not as much as their desire to have fun. Like, they will send their daughters to decimate each other's armies, but they'll also hang out together in the Plane of the Gods. The war is kind of like a decades-long game of Monopoly they're having at the family function. And I just think it's cool. Goes into that whole thing about mortals being like ants to uncaring gods that I like.

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

Kinda cliché, but I'd say this: it happens to everyone, dude (gender neutral). Everyone has periods of time when they feel bad and can't write. Or where they feel like their writing is terrible. Doesn't make you less of a writer.

Even if you're not as productive as other people: who cares, honestly? As long as you're having a good time and doing something you love, it doesn't matter how much time you need or don't need to finish something. Even if you never finish anything. And if you feel like you're not as good as other people: who cares either, you know? Everybody starts somewhere. And everybody has different strengths. You'll get better. You always do.

At the end of the day, we're all just doing this because we love it. Don't force yourself. The time will pass anyway.

Ooooookay that last one was a bit more serious than the rest. Anyway, I wanna tag, no pressure, @fleurtygurl @stesierra @cheeto-flavoured-pasta and @sarandipitywrites

[mrs-weasley-reid]

KER!!!!

Hi Ker. Its me, again. Don’t you worry about accidentally deleting my ask I did read your fic also at like… 3am LOL. I’m going to bullet point what I asked before I forget so sorry if this feels a bit rushed and kind of rude

- say don’t go (taylor swift reference? If it is I SEE YOU SWIFTIE! (Maybe swiftie? Idk if ur a swiftie but i see the ref regardless)

- this was me begging for a part 2 if you’re down to write a part 2 because i desperately wanted to know what happens next

- i was also wondering if what you did was perhaps intentional, though. The angst leaving us all on a cliffhanger. Did you leave it open ended on purpose?

- because in that case i get it but still humbly request a part 2… on my knees

- does she wake up and survive the surgery? Where do they go from there if she does?

- does she NOT survive the surgery? Where does Spencer go from there??

- but once again i don’t want you to feel pressured by any means to write a part 2. If it comes to you it comes to you, if it doesn’t that’s ok! You already gained a new fan of your writing and your work 💕

- oh i also wanted to tell u idk if i said this in my comment but I LEGIT THOUGHT that when she was standing in the doorway and he was standing there in his suit and tie that she bought him- THAT SHE DIED AND WAS A GHOST. LIKE STRAIGHT UP. I WAS LIKE DAMN SHE DEAD? But she wasn’t dead- her heart was just broken and crumpled up on the floor and what lay in the space between them

Anyway I think I’m rambling again. These aren’t really bullet notes 🤣

OK BYE YOU’LL BE SEEING ME IN YOUR COMMENTS REAL SOON 🫡😗

OMG you are such an angel for doing this😭😭😭 and don't worry, it's not rude at all!

First and foremost, yes! I am a swifitie🫶 The entire fic is written while I had the song on repeat and specifically based on these two lines:

And I'm yours, but you're not mine I said, "I love you." You say nothin' back

So, if you want to reread it while listening to the song, it might make the angst angstier (? is that even a word lol)

Now, my favorite part of your ask. I did, in fact, leave it open-ended because I love to leave readers asking themselves what they want the ending to be. One thing I want my readers to know is that I will always leave things on a cliffhanger or open-ended because I myself cannot decide what I want. The reader recovering from the surgery does not mean things will go well with them and Spencer. So, it really is up to everyone whether they want her to go or to stay. I got a request to make a part 2 where the reader dies. It was a pleasant ask (and very tempting, tbh), but I left it for everyone's own interpretation. And I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on that.

But of course, sometimes I do fold and write part 2s and more if I feel like it. Although, I love most of my fics as a stand-alone. Anyway, this might be a bit of an advertisement, but I'll be posting some unfinished drafts that are open-ended because I'm too indecisive. It would really be amazing if I get replies that tell me what they think happened and will happen. I already posted one called Execution Style somewhere around my blog. It's vague. And too short. So might not be as great.

Moving onnnnn lol

The ghost part had me chuckling when I woke up so I truly appreciate you sending the ask again. I kind of wanted the story to seem like it's going back and forth from one scene to another. It's a bit difficult to portray, so I understand why you thought she was a ghost😂😂😂

I officially welcome you to my crazy department and hope that you enjoy your stay

— love lots x

[liskantope]

The webcomic Questionable Content dropped its 5000th comic on Friday, and throughout the weekend and today I binge-reread all of the most recent thousand. I've never had the impression that many of my followers care about QC (not ~8 years ago when I started to blog about it, nor today), but I do have a tradition, after each thousand of its comics, of writing a post reviewing that thousand. Here is where I blogged after the 1000th comic, reblogged after the 2000th comic, and reblogged again after the 3000th comic (this was all during my early months on Tumblr when I was more into reblogging my own posts), and here is my post from 2019 from after the 4000th came out.

When I look back on the pivotal moment clearly scheduled for QC's 500th comic, when it seemed that QC had already been going on quite a while and developed into a really involved storyline that had built and built to this moment when Faye would finally reveal her traumatic backstory, it's astounding to take in the fact that QC has now reached ten times that milestone.

I'm not sure I have a ton to say that isn't essentially a (perhaps more refined) regurgitation of some of the things I've said in the previous reviews, but I do feel like the webcomic has evolved somewhat significantly in its last thousand comics (though perhaps less so than in the previous thousands), and I have a few thoughts/feelings/opinions.

[Note: all of this post is substantially edited since a few people reblogged the original version.]

I would say that this is the first thousand-strip period where my enjoyment of the comic actually went downhill. (Although I would say my feeling is more positive when skimming back over the most recent thousand comics at once; it is still overall fantastic and there's a reason I've stayed so dedicated to reading it.)

It's hard to entirely pin down why I feel this way. I think it has a lot to do with the continued introduction of new characters, at a pace which has never shown any signs of slowing despite the massive accumulated cast the comic already has. While this means that some old characters are more or less abandoned or kind of shoved to the margins (which in some cases I'm quite sorry to see), by and large the comic has stretched out to make room to be shared by an ever-growing cast. At the 4000th strip, I was still doing fine with this, but by the 5000th, I'm starting to feel a little fatigued and past my capacity for keeping track of who's who (and also who knows whom; I have to give the artist credit for keeping careful track of this in the storyline and bringing it up in the dialog when long-already-established characters meet each other for the first time). Many more of them are AIs now, and I guess it may one day be judged as something-ist on my part that I find them more difficult to recognize and distinguish in my memory. Too many of the personalities are somewhat interchangeable too, which is something I should try to expand on just below.

I continue to describe the QC universe to myself using the term "utopia", even though I know this has to be somewhat of a misuse: as I've pointed out before, the characters in that universe are very aware that the broader society they live in is unjust in many ways, and some story arcs (though thankfully not most) are focused on rather futile battles against that injustice. But within the (quite large) social bubble that makes up the immediate QC universe, I have a hard time coming up with a better descriptive word than "utopia" -- maybe this could be modified to "social micro-utopia" or something? (I'm reliably terrible at coming up with terminology.) As I've been reading Peanuts steadily starting from its debut throughout much of the same period I've been reading QC, I actually see a likeness in these "social micro-utopias" and have been meaning forever to write an effortpost delving into this, but as it happens the 5000th-comic milestone has arrived first and that other post will have to wait for another time.

The attractions of indulging in the dynamics of a fictional social bubble which is this idyllic are that it provides a sort of pleasant escapism and that it's inspiring in a way that might enable someone to enact some of the practices and values seen in QC in their own IRL social lives. QC is a feel-good comic; it never tries or pretends to be anything other than a feel-good comic; and (at the risk of sounding trite and cliche) we all need more feel-good things in our lives, and I clearly continue to enjoy it after 8 years of keeping up through 5000 installments. At the same time, some of this... constant and slightly implausible pleasantness... has just gone a bit overboard for me by this point. Maybe a lot of this has to do with the fact that what little I have of a social life feels a very, very long way from satisfying (and I see that I remarked this in my post after comic #4000, with some language reflecting some optimism related to the fact that I was preparing at the time to move back to the US, and it's a reminder of how things really haven't improved for me to any significant degree. To state the obvious: completely unexpected earth-shaking pandemics really don't help. Neither does continuing to get only temporary jobs.) But back during the first half of the 2010's when I had a happily thriving social life, there was no lack of serious drama, tension, real struggles to tolerate one another's eccentricities, and undercurrents of discord. I keep waiting for the social dynamics between the QC characters to get a little more gritty somehow, to feel a little more real. I know this is an unfair expectation, since as observed above, QC never purports to be genuinely gritty.

One thing that has become a symbol for me of the seemingly incessant cheerfulness that characterizes around half the personalities in the comic is... I don't know if there's a term for this that cartoonists use, but you know the technique of drawing closed eyes so that they're concave down, meaning that it's the lower lids that are showing? Maybe this could be called "upturned closed eyes" or something? In cartoons they signal cheerfulness and easy-goingness. And sometimes it feels like half the QC characters go around showing this on their faces all the time, to the point that it's gotten monotonous and maybe a little sappy for my tastes. (This is part of what I meant above about personalities being interchangeable.) It's a constant reminder of how all the characters are pretty much automatically and immediately in lockstep on Major Social Values / Preferences, which I find pretty unrealistic for a hodgepodge of young-ish people who all gradually met kind of randomly. I honestly feel bad that this bothers me quite as much as it does, but it does kind of bother me. There could actually be some dissonance between the characters in terms of their beliefs, values, and ideas of a good time (example: a few, leaving aside Faye who is a recovering alcoholic, could view getting really drunk in social situations as kind of immature, unhealthy, and un-classy behavior -- even some 20-something people do see it that way!).

(Of course, as always, there are occasional characters who everyone has serious problems with, but they are either complete villains who get dealt with and then written out, people who are pushed to the periphery of the social circle but are visibly Trying To Be Better (actually, Sven seems to be the only one in this category), or once-somewhat-hostile characters that the cartoonist obviously wanted to keep around so had to immediately and pointedly mellow and humanize, like Yay a.k.a. Spookybot and probably like five others.)

The comic continues to follow tropes that I call Everyone Is Hot (and half of them are openly attracted to each other), Everyone's Parents Are Remarkably Cool (by the standards of young, socially progressive culture), Everyone Is Woke (in both an ideological and a "young and with-it" sense), and Most People Are LGBT+. I find the first two slightly irritating from time to time and don't mind the last two, but find all of it somewhat unrealistic.

While there is much less dramatic development regarding Faye and Bubbles, I'm glad that Faye remains sober, and that their relationship is still going strong. The profound and powerful love between them is exhibited by the most exquisite writing that the artist has done in all of his work on QC, I would say. Other relationships are going strong, too, and I'm glad. I seem to be asking for more social drama above, but I don't actually care to see loving relationships fall apart. The deep friendship between Faye and Marten is still visible although very much sidelined compared to the comic's old days. The big new relationship is between Clinton and Elliot, and it is adorable from beginning to end (although, see the Everybody Is LGBT+ trope above; there has IMO been a rather unrealistic proportion people convinced they were straight but conveniently discovering they weren't).

And now... there has been a really long story arc about Claire getting offered a job at Cubetown and visiting there with Marten, and all the while, through the very real possibility that Claire would take the job and she and Marten would move away, I have found myself steadfastly rooting against this happening. Because while I complain about there not being enough drama and dissonant changes and it being unrealistic, etc., I don't want that much of a change. The lack of turnover among the social group is absolutely unrealistic in my experience (perhaps partly because I'm a young academic who tends to know other young academics), but I guess it's a part of the escapism that I unreservedly love. Despite my criticisms (and as I've said, it's always easier to expand on criticisms than positive things in reviews!), I've obviously come to care deeply about these characters and their wonderful (if sometimes sappily and implausibly peaceful) dynamic, and I can't imagine the comic being the same with the initial main character and his girlfriend out of the main scene. Plus, their visit to Cubetown has already introduced us to a raft of new characters and... ugh, this comic's world is just getting too big for the comic to hold up.

And (spoiler), as of just the most recent five comics out of the 5000, it looks like Claire is taking the job and this move -- the most drastic change in the QC universe -- is really going to happen. I wonder if the cartoonist draw out the interim period of Marten and Claire preparing to move, have Dora and Tai's wedding as the last major event with them all together, and then retire the comic altogether. (He is certainly not retirement age yet but may have been planning to bring it to a close one of these years.) We'll see, but I can't say I'm thrilled at this very, very recent development. It's hard to imagine what kind of (questionable) content I'll be commenting on if/when the comic reaches its 6000th installment.

[EDIT: I just saw an announcement by the cartoonist that he does not intend to wind QC down, that he initially wanted to get Marten and Claire riding off into the sunset, but now he feels investigated in following both the original setting and the new Cubetown setting. The groaning-under-its-own-weight situation is about to get much worse... *sigh*]

Anyway, here are a few stray observations to finish things off:

The very slight drama that transpired when Clinton and Elliot were trying to feel each other out and there was sort of a romantic interest triangle -ish with Brun is another example of a subcultural norm that has always been baldly present in QC (and that I'm pretty sure I've aimed at describing before), and that I've come to realize is common in poly and queer groups, where people are much more open than I'd be inclined to be about their romantic/sexual interests in each other. Not only that, but it's the way they treat it as something rather matter-of-fact, not in the sense that they don't get worked up over it (they obviously do), but in the sense that it's dealt with sort of... practically? Where everyone is able and expected to just get over their feelings once they find out the party they're interested in isn't reciprocating, because it's not rationally helpful or constructive to hang onto those feelings? I don't know, I'm probably not expressing this well, and I can't judge that norm (it seems like for the most part it would be really nice actually and make for healthy social groups and I'm all for the people who can pull it off), but it's another one of those things that doesn't reflect the way the world really works for me. And I think I bear a grudge against it because it's in line with the fantasies of the anti- Nice Guy activists of a decade ago, who would go around saying, "And he should just get over it and want to still be friends even if I'm not interested in anything else! Otherwise he was just objectifying me the whole time. I'm entitled to the guy who I just spurned to feel like still being friends with me anyway!"

Every single thing about Aurelia as her Mommymilkers avatar is hilarious, the most I've laughed out loud over the last thousand comics. Sure, she's an implausibly "cool" parent, but she's a really enjoyable character.

Bemused nitpicky comment: the cartoonist Jeph Jacques makes a point of making all his characters very much "in the know" about what is "woke"/PC these days (e.g. Renee gently admonishes Brun from using the word "crazy" to describe someone) but appears to have a blind spot with the word "janitor", which I thought had been replaced by "custodian" in socially conscientious circles quite a few years ago.

The term "goblin" comes up a lot. A lot. (Half the time relating to Marigold somehow, but also in a bunch of other contexts.) I didn't entirely notice this until the past few days when I was doing my binge-reread. I'm not sure why Jeph Jacques is so amused by the word "goblin" that he is this fond of using it to refer to characters.

[ellecdc]

ik my last ask was a lil more serious (and suuuper long, although this one probably wont be much better, sorry 😬) but now i'm here for the goofs n catching up. sorry its been another bit of time again, i had to recover from the fact that YOU! missed little old me?!?! immidiate bedrest as i come to terms with that fact. i figured id answer the questions i asked you (and respond to ur responses) bc i can't help myself!

34) i get not being up to people watching anymore, i'm there too, although i used to be quite the people watcher. there are definitely an influx of people in cities where just having to be in their presence without observing them is tiring (i live by a famous one, boy do i know this fact. one time a guy came up to me on the transit and just started telling me jokes. i didn't even respond, but that didn't matter to him lol. honestly some of the jokes were pretty good.) it's like they do all the people watching work for you.

69) as someone who has unfortunately had to both wash my hair with soap and body with shampoo (don't ask, they were both emergency instances lol) i can confirm that the shampoo option is indeed better by a long shot.

83) oh no sorry for putting you into a tough spot! your song choices are so fun tho, like i just feel happier listening to them, makes me wanna dance (also completely forgot how much chumbawumba's album art fucks me up lol). i got this answer mostly down pat and its like the complete opposite vibe to ur choices lol. my all time favorite song is going to california by led zeppelin so that's my choice, i am forever a slut for it's layered guitar parts and finger picking (and zeppelin in general). a close second is lover, you should've come over by jeff buckley. "broken down and hungry for your love with no way to feed it"?! "my kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder"?! "all my blood for the sweetness of her laughter"?! like stfu jeff this is too good for us mortals.

lastly, in my like 10 years of reading fanfic i have never once been inclined to write my own until now, and that's all thanks to you! idk if they will ever get done -one's a honker and it's maybe halfway written, the other is a smut fic which,,, idk man we'll see- much less posted, but you never know 🤷 maybe one day i'll be off anon and have a writing blog. but i want to say thanks for the inspiration to rediscover my love for writing!

hope ur having a wonderful day lovebug 🩷🩷🩷

-ʕ⁠·⁠ᴥ⁠·⁠ʔ

OMG SOMEONE ANSWERED THR WURSTIONS BACK IM SO EXCITED

People watching -> okay you’re so right though, people watching IS tiring. I don’t want to be perceived OR perceive!!

Body wash/shampoo -> Nooooo omg okay well I’m glad to know my answer was sound and should I ever find myself in a debacle I will choose wisely [thoughts and prayers to your hair]

Fave songs -> shut up did you actually look up the songs I listed?? That is so cool you’re so cool, what a cutie. Oof but your second song would be such good fic titles or prompts (hint hint you should do it)

And congratulations on your writing! I dont want to take credit at all though, I think you’re just a cool kid(tm) and are gonna do cool kid shit (i.e., writing fanfics) [no but fr, i think writing is so cathartic and good for the soul, it’s self care! I wrote for yeeeaaarrrrrssss before i ever thought to post anything, so even just writing for yourself is fucking tops, you rock it babes]

[honeyglz]

"Catch me if you can"

A/N - Hi! So sorry for the lack of post, Ive been having a hard time finding inspo and time but I will try better !! Anyways I just had the most juicy little thought so here yall go. Also the Readers Alias is 'Dove'. If ykyk ;) Reader - No Specs Anatomy, You/Your/Yours (Reader is called pretty tho so idk ??)

Pairing - Pro Hero ! Kirishima x Rouge (Anti)Hero ! Reader

Disclaimer - I do not own any of these characters aside from my depiction of Y/N / the reader

Warnings - Tension????, Blood, Reader having rizz /hj. Pls Lmk I missed any!! Also this was not proof read at all lol

-♡-

Your feet hit the stone rooftop below, never once stopping as you ran, the famed hero Red Riot hot on your trail. Your heart raced along with you, blood dripping from your mouth as you manoeuvred through the city skyline. This wasn't the first time you had found yourself running from the familiar red head. In fact you highly doubted it would be the last. It was a like a dance you both knew you wanted wanted more then anything. Even if one of you would never admit it.

You continued running, jumping down into an alley in hopes of catching your breath. Your hand held you up against the coarse brick wall as you panted. A thud caught your attention as Kirishima's heavy boots hit the pavement in front of you, only a few steps from you. You eye'd the hero, smirk tugging at your lips as you pushed yourself off the wall. "We really have to stop meeting this way Red."

The nickname rolled off your tongue like syrup as you wiped the remaining blood from your lips, eyes never once leaving Kirishima's hardened gaze. He only as he got in a fighting stance, causing you to chuckle much to his dismay. You pulled your eyes from his as you spoke. "Y'know, usually people take me on a couple dates before we get physical." You said quite confidently as you watched the hero reddened at the insinuation. Much to your surprise he dropped his fists instead returning your own stares. Eyes shifting over your form slowly as he indulged in your shocked state. "What? You wouldn't call our little outings dates?" Now it was his turn to watch you stumble on your words, though it wasn't for long as you seemed to find your own ground to stand on. "As much as I enjoy your outfit Red-" You said gesturing to the straps across his exposed chest "- I generally don't wear heavy armoury to dates."

He smiled, flashing his famous grin at you, sharp teeth shinning despite the dark lighting.

"Oh is that so?" he asked humour rising in his tone as he leaned against the wall, arms crossing comfortably as his eyes trailed you once again. "Seems like I'm a lucky guy huh? Only one who gets to see this pretty little piece then"

"Just for you Red" you stated, twirling abit, laughing as he whistled before you turned back to him smile threatening to creep up on his face yet again. "God you make this harder then it needs to be don't you, Dove? " He sighed hand running through his thick red hair, before activating his quirk. Jagged rock like texture returning to his skin as he stepped forward. "So tell me darling, are we going to have a problem or are you going to come without issue. I might even visit you in prison if you ask nicely."

"Cmon Red" You said faking a pout as you took another step forward. "We both know theres no chance I'm goin without a fight."

He sighed though the shine in his eye said otherwise "Thought you'd say that, how about I give you a 10 second head start then"

-♡-

A/N - Sorry its short I am working on other works atm, if you want any kinda of influence on my work follow my blog for updates on my blog, I really do take comments into thought when Im working !!

[sisterdivinium]

Hi I'm AvMila anon. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! ❤️ AAAAAaaaaahhhhhhh sorry for screaming. But you inaugurating the Ava/Camila tag on ao3 with your own piece is just... It's top 5 one of the sweetest things someone has done for me. You truly looked at my crackship and said why not and went ahead and created the very first entry, and probably the only one lol, but that's so considerate. Thank you truly. I enjoyed it, and I loved DocSuperion's cameo. Jillian finding them cuddling and surely thinking to herself "well, aren't all of us at this house a little (a lot) fruity"

I read your elaboration on the "spam" thing. I get it now, I didn't understand what the issue was at first, but you explained it well. I have had something similar happen in other fandoms, I wasn't much into the main pairing and my ship was also just sort of floating around them as accessories to them. And yeah it's disappointing. It would be good and also kind of authors to mention, hey my main focus will be this ship or these 2 characters, all other tags point to support roles so they won't get much spotlight or development. Thank you again, you're very kind :) I loved what you wrote for my little crazy ship

Hello again!

Oh, I'm very, very happy to know that ficlet was to your liking <3 You're very much welcome.

I'm not exactly popular but hey, who knows, maybe someone else will look at it and get a little idea for a story to tell about Ava and Camila as well -- and perhaps give the tag a little push forward in the process. I hope so!

And, you know, I'd consider something like JC/Miguel more of a crackship than Ava/Cam. To me, only one out of those two pairings could have an internal logic with the correct build-up (although I wouldn't censor anyone willing to make JC/Miguel a thing, LOL. To each their own, but THAT's something I wouldn't touch!) I'm sure the avatrice diehards might disagree with me (and, to be fair, as a Jillian/Suzanne diehard, I'm myself irrationally protective of my OTP and wouldn't be caught near any other pairing that involved either Jillian or Superion -- I, too, have my childish shipping faults :)), but I can see something in there for Ava and Camila, it does makes sense. Even if just for a small little scene like the one I wrote -- why not, you know?

I sometimes wonder if people don't get a bit too attached to longfic. I imagine it has its charms, but as someone who prefers to write smaller but "tighter" stories, fooling around with other ships comes a lot easier. I'm not bound to a leviathan ninety-eight chapter story and can just play with different concepts in each little fic that comes to mind. And it's fun, what can I say? I had a blast writing Ava/Cam for you that day. It's not the greatest thing ever written in the history of English Literature, granted, but then it doesn't have to be which is a good reminder for myself as I struggle with my current doctor superion project... Ahem.

As for the "spam" deal, yeah, I thought it had just been miscommunication and you'd know what I meant if I just explained it a little better, so I'm glad that got cleared up as well. I don't think certain corners of the fandom will ever come across this series of posts that took place on my blog this week, so I'm not hopeful that the conversation will reach those it should reach as concerns tagging, but who knows. Fandoms were more organised once, perhaps they might again find it in their hearts to remember we don't all like the same things and that it would be a welcome courtesy to take us into consideration when tagging for alternative ships.

Anyway. Thanks for stopping by again! And let me reiterate how happy I am to know that you enjoyed my humble offering to your ship! <3