#Three Cups of Tea

[a-god-in-crime-alley]

DPxDC prompt #2

(a lot closer to an actual prompt than #1 was)

De-aged Dan, Danny, and Dani. Somehow Jason gets put in charge of them. Dan is the clear oldest at 9 or 10. Danny is 5-6. With Dani around 2-3.

Jason has been keeping them a secret from the fam. Tim, Cass, and Steph are the only ones that figured it out. (Alfred was Jason first panicked call). Dicks been busy, Damian isn’t paying attention because as long as no one’s actively dying it doesn’t concern him, and Duke is still shy about getting in other peoples business.

Bruce has NO FUCKING CLUE.

Bruce finds out 6 months later, at his Birthday. Jason sends a present ahead because he says he “isn’t sure he’ll make it”.

The present? A black mug. Across it is written “Worlds OKest Grandpa”. Tim, Cass, and Steph grin.

Bruce thinks Jason is just calling him old. But no, with perfect timing, Jason and his 3 half dead children walk into the room and yell “Surprise!”

[tardxsblues]

[beetlethebug]

screaming and crying. my march fic is already at like. 18.5k words. something about this man possessed me. look forward to it i guess?? it's close to being done so at least there's that

[malecacidd]

WHO WAS GOING TO TELL ME THAT MY HERO ACADEMIA IS FUCKING FANTASTIC. WHO WAS GOING TO TELL ME.

[dearmyloveleys]

loneliness of the hurt and those who hurt.

大梦归离 (Fangs of Fortune) 2024 ; Ep 24, 25

(4/?)

[whos-hotter-jjba]

The JoJoStands Matchup

[dizzying-faust]

It's ironic the three most popular tfa ships are the most boring and uninteresting ones to me, and the one I like and ship is...the underrated and more het one.

[sharkneto]

Do I have books in my tbr list? Yes. Do I want more? Also yes. Hit me with anything good you've read recently!

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Mini shikishi board of one of my favorite inner volume covers (volume 19) that also came with a bonus mini A6-size one of Emma 🧡🧡

[astral-express-family]

Wedding fic! the drawing is still in progress but i do have this <3 as usual, fic will be utc

Dividers came from here

Taglist, since i actually remembered this time: @violetsareblue-selfships, @silver-heller, and @aego-philautia

Aslia hasn't gotten much sleep. When she finally gets to sleep, it's nearly two in the morning. And of course, she wakes up at six-thirty am. Lynette's still cuddled against rose, her arms wrapped snugly around Aslia's torso. Aslia just laughs softly trying to let roseself relax. It's hard, though, considering the date. August 17th. Her and Lynette's first anniversary, and also their wedding date.

“Mmm… already awake, firefly?”

The sound of Lynette's voice, admittedly, makes Aslia jump. She replies with a laugh and a warm, “How am I supposed to sleep, knowing today's the day we finally get married?”

Lynette just laughs, warm and affectionate. She says, “Well, the ceremony’s not until three this afternoon. Let's try to get a little more sleep, hm?”

And it works. When she next wakes up, it's to Lynette climbing out of the bed at almost ten o'clock. “What's for breakfast, love?” ro asks as she climbs out of bed herself.

Aslia, unable to argue with this point, just nestled herself back into Lynette's embrace and tries to fall back asleep. 

“Knowing my brother, he probably has made us a full breakfast spread just so we didn't have to do it ourselves on our wedding day,” Lynette replies casually. Aslia laughs, and shakes her head fondly. She replies, “Yeah, sounds like something Lyney would do.”

When they leave the bedroom, hand in hand, they find that's exactly what had happened. Lyney is standing in the kitchen, surrounded by fresh pancakes, sausage, bacon, hash browns, and eggs. When he sees them he greets them with an excited, “Ah, there are the lovebirds! Good morning, and perfect timing! I just finished making you guys breakfast!”

Aslia and Lynette sit down - Aslia’s plate loaded up and Lynette’s plate with a smaller but still substantial amount of food. The two of them sit in the breakfast nook, cuddling up against each other. Lyney cleans up the kitchen then takes his leave, saying, “Well, I’ll see you at the wedding.”

After breakfast, it’s time for them to go. Aslia has to go meet up with Chiori, who had designed rose wedding dress and is in charge of rose makeup.

“About time you showed up, Aslia.” Chiori greets.

Aslia just smiles. Chiori just huffs affectionately, and tuts, “Well, let’s get you in your dress.”

The dress isn’t anything too elaborate, fancy but not overly so. It still takes a few minutes to get into the dress, but it’s so worth it. That’s what Aslia thinks, at least. She thinks it looks beautiful. Chiori did a great job with the design, Lynette will love it, she thinks. Once Aslia’s in the dress Chiori pushes her gently into a chair, and starts or rose makeup. It’s a known fact that Aslia isn’t super fond of makeup, so Chiori keeps it light. A little bit of eye shadow to bring out the color in Aslia’s eyes, some lipstick to highlight her lips, and a little bit of blush to add some color to her cheeks.

“There we go. Your mother should be here soon, to walk you down the aisle.”

Aslia nods, standing up. She gives Chiori a tight hug and says, “Thank you, Chiori. I appreciate you putting in all this work for me.”

Both too soon and not soon enough, it’s time to walk down the aisle.

Chiori again just huffs affectionately, but hugs back.

A few minutes before, she meets up with her mother figure, Ningguang. Ningguang is wearing a nice dress, formal yet simple. Aslia gives her a tight hug, and lightheartedly says, “Mama Beidou’s here, right? And let me guess, she’s still grumbling about feeling old?”

Ningguang laughs. “Right you are, Aslia,” she says fondly, “Beidou is indeed lamenting how your wedding makes her feel old.” Aslia's laughing at that, a smile on her face, “I'm sure Kaz is sick of hearing about it.”

“Indeed. Now, your love and her ‘father’ have probably reached the altar, so let's be off.”

So Aslia, dressed in rose wedding attire, links her arm with Ningguang's. The music swells as Aslia walks through the crowd full of Aslia and Lynette’s closest friends and family. Ro is to avoid scanning the crowd, looking forward instead. Lynette is standing next to her brother, dressed in a fancy suit. Aslia can feel her face getting red.

Because he's her best man, Bennett is also waiting there. When she and Ningguang get to the front, she drops Ningguang’s arm and takes her place at the altar.

The flower girls, Aslia’s adopted daughters, are standing at the front of the crowd in their matching dresses. Diona looks somewhat comfortable and relaxed for once, which makes Aslia smile. Sayu, meanwhile, appears to be falling asleep. Diona nudges her, causing the younger girl to startle awake.

The ceremony passes quickly. The best part, in Aslia’s opinion, is when they finally share their first kiss as a married couple. Bennett and Lyney are cheering from their places next to the happy couple, and most of the audience cheers and claps.

After Aslia takes rose place, the ring bearer comes down the aisle. The ring is being carried by Aslia’s adopted son, Chouji. His suit matches Diona and Sayu’s dresses, and he mostly just looks happy to be included.

Then, it's time for the reception. The catering comes from one of the finest kitchens in Fontaine. Dinner is a fairly simple affair, the guests chattering amongst themselves. Lynette and Aslia, meanwhile, sit at the head table and talk. Aslia takes Lynette’s hand in rose own, holding it tightly.

Then the first dance.

The finest live band possible starts playing, and Aslia walks with Lynette to the dance floor. Neither of the two women are great at dancing, but neither of them mind. They're giggling as they dance, and Aslia feels her heart swell with love. This is her wife now. Her wife!

After the dance floor opens to all guests, the happy couple begin to mill about.

“So, what's it like being married?” Aslia startles at the sound of her older brother’s voice. But then she just casually smiles, saying, “Feels good, Kae. I did marry the love of my life, after all.”

Kaeya laughs fondly, picking Aslia up and spinning rose around. Diluc, Jean, and Barbara are all standing nearby, all smiling. Aslia hugs the other three as well, squeezing them tightly. Then she says to Jean, “Hey, who's in charge of the Knights right now? Given that most of the authorities are here right now, I mean.”

Jean chuckles, and Kaeya outright snickers. “I have a couple of the more trustworthy knights in charge, I'm sure the Knights can survive for a few days without Kaeya, Lisa, Amber, Eula, Albedo, and I.”

“Yeah, they’ll be fine,” Aslia laughs. Her attention is then drawn by the sound of wind. The wind races towards her, before Aslia finds herself with an armful of her youngest child. She holds Sayu tightly and fondly, spinning her daughter slightly. Diona and Chouji are close behind. She greets them, “How are you doing, kids?”

“Lynette had better treat you right, or she’s gonna pay!” Diona proclaims, her hands on her hips as she huffs.

“I promise, I’ll make sure to treat your mother with the utmost care.”

They continue milling about, spending the evening and into the night talking to their loved ones and dancing and eating cake.

Diona jumps when Lynette speaks, and Lynette chuckles fondly. Aslia shifts the way she holds Sayu in her arms, to kiss her wife on the lips.

“I love you, Nettie.”

“I love you too, Little Light.”

[zmediaoutlet]

(1) Hi Liz, happy WW! I have a random thought-thread I’d love your opinion on, and it kind of goes with this weeks WW theme of americana and american gothic!Usually in incestious stories the siblings don't have romantic/sexual relationships outside of their family. Its interesting that both Sam and Dean have had a good amount of "normal" relationships throughout their lives, yet the fandom can still see incest as a plausible endgame. (Even though, a few of these relationships are contested.)

(2) A big theme of the show is both of the boys longing for a normal apple pie/white picket fence life, and that want being contrasted with their fucked up family and deeper desires. The way I see it, their “normal” relationships throughout the show represent the standard American Dream of wife and 2.5 kids. On the flip side, Sam and Dean’s relationship with each other is the mirror-image of that American Dream: it is the dark, american gothic, forbidden ending. (3) So throughout the show, we see two examples of American ideals/lore playing against each other. My question is: Have you ever thought about this dynamic in SPN in comparison with other incest stories/lore? Or about how their past relationships tangled with Wincest paint a bigger picture of the American-ness of the show? (Could it ever REALLY be set in Canada? Haha!) I’d love to hear your musings, I hope this message made sense!

I apologize for not getting to this on WW proper but I have been a flat fuck this week and so I needed a bit of a running start! Thank you in the first place for such a thinky ask! I think I understand what you're getting at, but you'll have to indulge me as I think out loud --

American Gothic: technically literally just that one painting, because the barn had a gothic-style window for some reason. But gothic incest romance has all those flavors of isolation, and when you combine that with American suspicion of poverty and closed communities becomes -- turning inward, backwoods and a family that looks suspiciously at outsiders and gets up to all kinds of shit. The Benders, basically.

American Dream: committed spouse, a home to build a life inside, children as a legacy, being able to support and sustain yourself and be happy and more-or-less free while nevertheless contributing to society as a whole.

Now, whenever we're thinking about something, there are the bare facts and there's the presentation of those facts. Sam and Dean are outsiders to society, raised in a way that could easily make them cult-members, who fail to have successful external relationships and end up turning inward to live alone in a bunker while having a casual relationship to violence. On bare facts, that sounds pretty American Gothic.

...On presentation and feel, though, it really isn't, and that's because the Sam and Dean we meet are not Benders, nor are they the fic-versions of themselves that we meet in various AO3 stories that try to make sense of those bare facts with an entirely different presentation and vibe to the one in the show. Instead Sam and Dean are... really regular guys, 99% of the time. Despite the being-raised-in-motels and despite the violent job and despite walking midnights full of monsters... they have a really easy time with 'strangers', they do have external relationships (brief or not), they move through the world with confidence and ease. They aren't secret serial killers. They aren't deeply possessive and controlling of each other's thoughts and desires and actions (again, despite some AO3 treatments).

Instead, if we return to our two bullet points -- which one do the Winchesters as of approx. s11 (and certainly by the point of the post-15.19 period where the characterization-story ends) really sound like? Hopefully most would agree that they ended up getting that American Dream version they hoped for, even if the bare facts aren't necessarily the stereotypical ones that people name-drop. This is partly because the "wife" and the "picket fence" don't actually mean a female spouse and a literal boring 3br/2ba in the suburbs. What they mean is stability, comfort, safety, contentment. What do Sam and Dean have together at the end of the show? All of those things. Like, 10/10 on the rubric, guys. And they don't have it in a grimdark 'ah I suck your blood out of your balls every morning' kind of way -- it is presented as an unalloyed good thing. They're happy together, just as they are.

Now: that is fucking STRANGE. But it's wonderful in its strangeness. This is a show where the leads, being as basically normal as they are, 'should' have gone the more traditional wife et al route -- but they didn't need to, and the show didn't force them into that box. (By some miracle.) They have 'normal' relationships, as you say, but (just going off purely canonical ones) Jess and Amelia and Cassie and Lisa were never real options, because the show never presented them that way. There were the 'facts' that Sam or Dean was in a more-or-less committed relationship with an external person, but the feel was that these were offscreen, told-not-shown, and they never really mattered. Every one was only possible when the overarching ur-relationship, that of Brothers (because we don't have a better word for what they really mean to each other), wasn't possible at that moment. The show does gesture at how this is strange -- Lisa tells Dean that his fixation on Sam is bizarre; Sam realizes that he has to literally choose between a girlfriend and his brother -- but the return to the central relationship is always treated as the correct choice by the narrative and, this is crucial, presented as morally sound, inside the framework in which the show operates.

You can imagine another text -- a Crimson Peak or a Borgias or a Game of Thrones or a Flowers in the Attic or a Secret History -- allowing for those external-to-internal shifts and treating them as vile, disturbing, strange. Pale violent children who snap at people who try to help them get on the correct path. Normal people staring in at the freaks and saying, what are they? what happened to them? The only character I can think of in all of Supernatural who comes close to that attitude is Henriksen, and he's a 'villain' by the lights of that season, and is brought into the light (again, inside the moral framework of the show) where he realizes, ah, the Winchesters are the good guys, so it's fine.

That might be the everlasting difference between Supernatural and some of the shows where the incestuous couple falls into the gothic 'dark' side vs the American dream side. Sam and Dean are the good guys. They are literally on the side of light. The literal deity of the new framework of the universe is their little buddy and the world was literally designed with their story in mind. Regardless of what you might think about all those things, or wish they were otherwise, or wish the presentation were otherwise -- they're just true, and the presentation of them is positive. Sam and Dean are not evil and so their strange, fucked up, bizarre relationship must come around to being a good thing, or the show just -- doesn't work. Or it's an entirely different show. But Supernatural On The CW (2005-2020) was never going to have their heroes be secretly gnasty Lannisters, and so -- their reward, after all that trial and hardship, is to live the American Dream after all. Not in a dreamlike wife or picket fence but in the things that matter: security, and comfort, and family. And they really only ever needed one other person to be their family.

(P.S. 'What about Sam?' I hear a complainer complaining. To them I say -- he got the American Dream right the first time around. What he promised to Dean was to live and try out the more traditional version, which he might have always wondered if he'd missed out on. And he had that life! Good for him. Note that it passed in the space of a montage -- returning us to presentation and told-not-shown and the feel being that it didn't matter all that much, in the end, because what happens? He shows up on the bridge in the clothes Dean loved him in, with the face Dean remembered best, and he'd been waiting all those years to say -- I imagine, and I'll let this be fic here at the end instead of meta -- I tried it. I did what you asked. Now, here I am, and I'm never doing that again. I think Dean'll be all right with that.)

[ravencromwell]

For the last half year, I've watched @pinkcupboardwitch periodically wax rhapsodic here on the delights of chai tea. Having finally taken the plunge I can report apparently I shall be learning the intricacies of brewing chai because I'm thoroughly hooked. I had a chai latte, rather than the straight tea, but some cursory googling informs me milk is the best complement to the flavors, so fortune smiled in that regard.

Two things surprised me most: what a full sensory experience it was, and just. how well flavors my very American self wouldn't put together naturally gel. The spice aroma almost scared me off: it was strong and I'm not used to teasing out cinnamon and cardamom etc. When my nose smells "strong" I instinctively default to pepper and oh, hell it's going to be _hot rather than flavorful. But once I took that first tiny sip--think kid inching their toe into water and you'll have a good idea--and the flavor burst, not exactly sweet but bright and rich across my tongue, I started prolonging the experience. Inhaling the spice became aslow prelude, sweetening the anticipation of the flavors bursting across my pallet again.

I like wine, but I'll be honest. About all I can smell when I try to "discern its bouquet" is sharp and acid, to the point I have to work actively not to inhale because I know I'll enjoy the flavor once it's on my tongue if the aroma doesn't put me off entirely first. But this was strong, bracing and made me want to go sniff cardamom and ginger etc. to se if I can untangle the individual notes.

And erm. ginger is actually quite good in certain combinations, apparently? My (again very American. very southern.) take on ginger was too sharp, too _bitter in all the dishes I'd had it in except gingerbread but well. we Southern folks put so much sugar in gingerbread, I figured it could cover up *anything*. I couldn't imagine how vanilla would clash with what I expected to be a bitter ginger note. So I was delighted to learn that ginger, in small quantities, actually seems to contribute to the brighter notes, cutting through some of the sweet richness of the milk and (maybe) cardamom and vanilla along with the cinnamon.

When I've had coffee, I'm the kind of person who has to spice it up: yeah, I'm drinking coffee, I'll say as I drink something decadent with peppermint and white chocolate and a coffee base--it's less about the coffee than the frills, downplaying coffee's strength rather than complementing it. (My subsequent google made me cackle, because apparently a lot of coffee people actually really love black tea, and I couldn't find them more different. Mom was a coffee person, so I tried a fair bit of it and without an infusion of something, it was always so _bitter to me. But the dregs of the cup--which I figure come closest to the original tea flavor just tasted a little nutty, but so _fresh. Just such a different flavor profile, at least for me.)

[cbk1000]

One thing I hate about taking iron supplements is having to plan what I eat/drink around it, because certain food and drinks will block iron absorption. Mr. Jenn makes me some scrambled eggs for breakfast? No cheese because it's too close to my next supplement, and dairy blocks iron absorption. No morning tea that I love to start off with because the tannins in it will block iron absorption. I want that shit injected directly into my veins and to be free.

[supercantaloupe]

had a lovely afternoon out

[katyspersonal]

What does Dark Souls fandom ship.....?

Okay so... me and @val-of-the-north arrived to an unhappy conclusion that Dark Souls trilogy doesn't have 'legit' yuri ships?

Like I know that any yuri ship is valid because in Soulsborne we hardly get any lore so it DOES lay on our imagination, but hear me out; in Bloodborne and Elden Ring fandoms we have many "staple" ships such as Mariadeline, Finlenia, Yurimposter, Nephelika, Rom x Ebrietas, Rom x Yurie, Rennala x Marika (canon too), Henriett x Amelia, those two Nox women that put the first puppet experiment on themselves. Even Eileen x Doll, Ariadella, Maria x Doll, Annalise x Maria or Imposter x Iosefka @ all those Ranni x Melina tier ER ships when you go to the dark side. Even rareships like Maria x (female) Izzy, Maria x Eileen, Rom x (female) Caryll, Gratia x Maria, Kos x Flora or Wet Nurse x Queen Yharnam don't really make you question! And new ships keep popping up!

But with Dark Souls trilogy it's like.. *cicada noises*

It is either a crossover ship with another Soulsborne game (Maria x Friede is THE example), or a very random ship that doesn't have any substance/justification besides literally put two women together and Thats It (either porn addict reasons or spite FOR those porn addict reasons). I am not really sure, either 1) actually Dark Souls trilogy fandom has genuine yuri ships that are neither crossover or random but I am unaware and need to socialise with DS fans more ( @heraldofcrow let me know as the only member of Lore Council who isn't ridiculously asocial),

or 2) Dark Souls simply IS crafted like this with timeline and contexts so that one can't instantly deduce a genuine yuri ship, in WHICH case there is only ONE thing I can do to improve the situation:

[seoulmatez]

started the fontaine quest in genshin 2dayyyyyy :3