#We've been saying that this whole time

[lurkinginnernarrator]

au where SQQ does undergo the 'qi-deviation' and is 'changed' but in reality the twin of Shen Jiu, Shen Yuan made a comment one day about how all Shen Jiu did was bitch about his martial siblings. Never one to turn down a golden opportunity,

Shen Jiu: bet

And so the twins decided to switch lives!

The qi-deviation is just so they can explain away any differences of temperament and so sj can hightail away easier.

Shen Yuan: this is going to be so easy

(spoiler. it wasn't)

Between useless sect meetings that could've been not even an email but a text message, reading fifteen different preteens attempts to sneak in dick jokes into their poetry assignments, the head cook alerting him to the fact that they've somehow run out of rice??? They're the greatest cultivation sect??? How does that happen???

Anyway, two of his Hall masters eloping together and taking an extended honeymoon (he's happy for them, but. Who's going to teach those classes now??? Him. Apparently.), sect politics and his 'martial siblings' barely even attempting a farce of civility or courtesy AND his guqin strings needing to be replaced and restrung ?

Shen Yuan is sorry 🙏🙏please come back🙏🙏🙏

Cue the allotted period of switching ending and Shen Yuan dramatically throwing the fan on the ground as Shen Jiu rolls up and goes "thanks for the vacation didi"

[tempests-bards-and-birds]

please god make the "three time winner of the best bard of mondstadt" one of the earliest pieces of evidence we got for the samsara without us knowing it at the time because it would be so fucking funny

[andromeda3116]

planning to make a move tonight with this guy and deeply terrified even though i know he's interested, he's made it very clear that he's interested but putting the ball in my court to decide what, if anything, i want and i've made up my mind to pursue this but like. i've been single since the obama administration because there's not, like, a person-shaped hole in my life, i don't need to be with someone to feel whole, and i have to make room in my life for another person and idk how to do this and i hate feeling vulnerable or exposed or out of control and giving someone else the power to hurt me and having to just. trust that they won't. but i kind of... accidentally already gave him that power without realizing it. i kind of... feel like this is just acknowledging something that's already started.

i am. so nervous.

like, a little giddy, a little eager, a lot anxious for no reason other than how terrified i am of major changes even when i feel like they're good ones and. and. and.

[kyouka-supremacy]

(╥﹏╥)

[ratatatastic]

lmaoooo maffhew wanting the knot immediately and having to wait for sasha to catch up with that is so deeply funny like. this omega is not subtle and you’re not a stupid alpha babe! can only imagine what benny has to say to maffhew about it once he catches on and stops banging his head against a wall

idiots to lovers is always great but especially when its two people who would be hitched with 10 kids by now if they stopped being dumb for a single second like its that easy and yet...

to me they very much fall around the same time (infatuation at first scent if you will) just that sasha takes some time to get there not because he's dumb (okay he's a little dumb) but in the sense that its like "this person is very interested in me, i can see and recognise that but theres so much cognitive dissonance in my brain right now between knowing that intrinsically and finding that hard to believe so i unintentionally play dumb because obviously i'm reading too much into things it cant be me they're interested in haha that'd crazy but they're being awfully touchy and flirty with me wow"

but also it takes two to tango and we have to acknowledge that and this is when i would love to bring up the ways in which this man decides is the best way to go about that because he is a catholic school girlie... there's so much hilarity to be had here especially because his flirting is very uh how you say... a little ass backwards if you will especially considering dynamics

"I make it a point to keep the door closed when we're alone in a room together! That's basically a clear invitation that I'm down to fuck!!! Im basically asking to be ragdolled on his knot!!!"

and Benny just pinches the bridge of his nose like "I don't know how to explain to you in a way you'll understand that not everyone went to Catholic school."

But saying that Sasha does side-eye the door knob heavily when Maffhew goes over to close it the first time and he starts sweating like he just got dragged into a game of 7 Minutes in Heaven he did not sign up for and he's 13 again and oh god he got paired with a really cute girl, and he hasn't even had his first real kiss yet and-

And then absolutely nothing happens because Maffhew is just waiting with a polite expectant smile (because his work here is done, he did the heavy lifting know it's Sasha's turn) and this is when Sasha's dynamic classes training kicks in and he basically scolds himself for even assuming in the first place because this is clearly a show of trust (correct) not an invitation for extra circular activities (incorrect buzzer noise) and it basically becomes "This Omega really trusts me, I'm honoured especially as Pack Leader that I'm able to be so accepted into such a private space with the inherent knowledge that I will not encroach their boundaries whatsoever because consent is verbal, this is not in any way an invitation to take advantage of them this is deep platonic trust I will guard with my life :]"

and if you listen closely you can hear the lovely sounds of Maffhew bashing his head into a wall about how much of a gentleman Sasha is but also COME ONNNNNN... you know... once Maffhew realises what's happening which (looks at my watch) is not due for another few months really

Battle of wills: unstoppable force (maffhews catholic school understanding of dynamic interactions) vs immovable object (overseas alpha cotillion classes)

And if you think it's an Oh! An overseas dynamic thing! It's not. The Euros are watching the horrible car crash in front of them and doing absolutely nothing about it because it's none of their business, but they will stare at it... maybe judge it a bit but definitely are observing from the tall grass.

and I'm also not saying that luosty lundy forsy and bobby have a current running bet of how long it'll take for maffhew to break sasha in but i'm also not not saying that... luosty goaded lundy in the midst of a gossip session ("It has to be 3 months, right?) forsy happened to be around so lundy turned to him for advice ("7 months.") and maybeeee bobby overheard from all the way over from his stall and puts in his two cents for what it's worth ("6. Captain nice but not that nice. Very impatient." "So 3!" "No. Impatience makes him double the time, and wait longer. 6 months.") (lundy finally settles on a good 5 months because he's indecisive)

And Sasha does eventually pick up everything maffhew is throwing down... eventually... and when he does it becomes more so I want to court this omega the way they deserve I will take this slow and romance them sweetly :) *smash cut to maffhew caterwauling like a cat in heat*

but also once again its not like maffhew is helping sasha in any way this is idiot4idiot and benny would like to enjoy the car crash with the euros but unfortunately that's his soulmate, thats his bestie, his littermate from birth who has been weaned on the same teat as they climbed over each other to get to it, the first girl you kissed in your childhood bedroom because somehow you started play fighting on the bed because she was like i could totally pin you down easy and then she does and you always noticed how beautiful she was but shes even more gorgeous when she's pinning your wrists to your hannnah montana duvet you promised yourself youd changed out before she came over but you forget and well she teased you about it and you cant help but giggle about how perfect this all is and it seems that the natural conclusion to this is to taste the strawberry lipgloss of her lips because whats a kiss between besties huh its tacky and sticky and it tastes like summer and just other apt metaphors to put here about the inherent -isms of their relationship that i nearly cant put to words properly other than girls having fun (they are fucking)

and well anyways benny is watching and he has a lot of things to say about how its been proceeding so far

"You should really use your words."

"I am!"

"Right because smelling like a fucking perfume shop in the middle of October is using your words."

"This usually works with most Alphas okay!"

"Sasha isn't most Alphas."

"Tell me about it." Matthew grouses before he peeks over to Sam, looking up from beneath his eyelashes—the exact way he knows both endears him to Sam but also absolutely miffs him all the same, "Worked on you, didn't it?"

"Oh, is that what we're doing right now? We're calling getting a lapful of a preening O in preheat in the middle of a roadie a normal way to go about these things."

"It worked didn't it?" Matthew reiterates.

"It would work better if you use—"

"Okay! Alright!! I get it!!!" He does not.

like benny here is unfortunately an active listening participant in the going ons of the fuckery if not because hes involved by proxy because of maffhew because who else will hold his hair back as he calls him a dumb bitch you know

[primus-why]

I really love the headcanon that, to tfa warbuilds, challenging an authority figure can also be seen as flirting.

I especially love to imagine Optimus' crew having to temporarily team up with Megatron to take down a threat, and as the leaders continue to butt heads over tactics/protocol, all the 'Bots are like "omg so scary poor Optimus 😣" while the 'Cons are like "omg get a room already 🙄"

[penny-hartzs]

Harry Styles and Taylor Swift's relationship feels like a Taylor Jenkins Reed novel and yet they're real and i feel some type of way about it today I'm SORRY

[nowmemoriees]

I'm here just to remind you that this was said years ago.

[invinciblerodent]

I'm sure this has been said already, but while I quite enjoy that every* companion's story in Veilguard seems to end in a binary choice (in which neither outcome is necessarily better or worse than the other), it feels a bit... weird, how Taash is not an exception to that.

Throughout the game, the Rivaini/Qunari conflict in their identity seems to walk in lockstep with the narrative's exploration of their gender. And, though the crucial part of that can be resolved for them fairly early in the game (and honestly I like how that also happens off-screen, it feels good that Rook is not a part of that conversation beyond the "hey maybe you should talk to someone" advice)(unless it's different for a nonbinary Rook, I personally played a cis woman so I don't know if that affects things), it continues to be referenced in banter and dialogue throughout the game via the characters commenting and adjusting, and the resolution of the conflict with their mother ties into the final quest itself- so it feels a little bit out of place in the end there, to have the former still come down to choosing one over the other.

Sure, one can argue that this "binary" choice is less like, say, Neve's choice (which, to my understanding right now, sort of results in largely the same actions, just with a different approach) or Bellara's (if she chooses to keep the Nadas Dirthalen, it can still always be destroyed later, if it proves dangerous), and it's more similar to Davrin's (in that it feels to me more like it's about a choice between honoring tradition vs. welcoming change) or Emmrich's (in that it's choosing between two equally important, sort of mutually exclusive parts of a character's identity that still nevertheless exist within them, and come into conflict).

I get how maybe they didn't want them to stand out from the lineup even more (7 is kind of an odd number of companions to have, and they're the only qunari, AND only nonbinary person in addition to 3 women and 3 men), I feel like having a third option, one that's maybe more of a commitment to their faction and puts being a Lord of Fortune ahead of both the Qunari and the Rivaini identities (and thus blends the two), would have been ideal, and more in-line with the tone of the entire character arc.

You know, you don't have to choose between being a man or a woman, Rivaini or Qunari, you can just be... yourself. Something different, the precise meaning of which you choose for yourself.

It would have really driven the message home, I think. I feel a little bit like it dropped me off just one block early like this.

*(I don't yet know if Lucanis' is gonna end like that too, I'm procrastinating on that bit right now lol, but 6/7 do, so I hazard a guess that either it was the choice he made automatically because he's hardened, or it'll come down to one in the main quest.)

[your-turn-to-role]

also an interesting choice to flip keyleth and vax's arguments here from what they were in the campaign

[a-star-that-burns-brightly]

I really want to make a DRDT Confessions account after CH2 is over because I love hearing other people's thoughts and opinions even if I personally disagree with them, I think it would be fun to see what people submit, and I think having spaces like confession accounts is very important when it comes to fandom. but at the same time confession accounts from what I've seen tend to get very out-of-hand (>_>||)

[slutforpringles]

Daniel Ricciardo was the fall guy despite McLaren’s all around struggles

Daniel Ricciardo’s struggles behind the wheel of the McLaren made him the perfect fall guy for the struggling Formula 1 team.

The 33-year-old Aussie endured a tumultuous two-year stint with the Woking-based outfit as he struggled to emulate his Red Bull days.

As we all know those lofty heights of seven race victories didn’t come to fruition, the Perth native did however claim McLaren’s first Grand Prix victory in some time as he edged out teammate Lando Norris.

As the two seasons dragged out, the team’s struggles only went from bad to worse but it was Ricciardo who was constantly in the spotlight and being thrown under the bus.

McLaren finished third in the constructors standings in 2020, behind only Mercedes and Red Bull. The signs from that season were evident and it’s why hopes were high when Ricciardo made the switch from Renault.

But in Ricciardo’s first season the team fell down to fourth in the standings as Ferrari leapt above them.

Last season they fell another spot as they were overtaken by Alpine.

And yet it was the Aussie who had the finger pointed at him for struggling to deliver, despite the car simply not being up to scratch to deliver the results the team were dreaming of.

McLaren boss Zak Brown, who became public enemy number one among Aussie F1 fans, said Ricciardo often stole the headlines despite other struggles plaguing the team.

“We started [2022] with some challenges in testing with the brake ducts. The car was okay,” said Brown as per RacingNews365.com.

“Then we had our driver-related issues that we were working through which took the attention, the headline.

“Meanwhile, underneath the surface, I wasn’t happy with the pace of the development of the racing car. That was the second half of last year – if you look at the pace of development with some of the other teams where they started and where they ended, versus where we started and where we ended.”

Those remarks however from Brown, whether he meant to or not, continue to place the blame on Ricciardo.

Yes the normally smiling assassin struggled to make an impact, with only seven finishes inside the top 10 during the 2022 season.

But his teammate Norris remained in the clear despite going backwards on what he’d achieved the season before.

Norris has long been touted as a potential Formula 1 world champion, but even he couldn’t come close to the level many believe he’s capable of.

The 23-year-old only managed to secure on podium finish after spraying the champagne four times in 2021.

In 2023 with Norris and Aussie rookie Oscar Piastri, the McLaren struggles have been laid bare with the team fifth in the constructors standings.

All 12 of their total points came during a chaotic Australian Grand Prix. Both drivers finished well outside the points during the opening two races of the season.

With Daniel Ricciardo no longer in the garage, Brown is going to have to find a new fall guy to blame the team’s struggles on.

(x) 

[anothermonikan]

everything about me is about my general disconnect with the world around me, except being Objectum which is about being Alive.

[mantisgodsdomain]

Gives u four hours of prep time

Ah fuck we didn't actually prepare a topic for this. We may have underestimated the necessary amount of prep time. Uhh if we go over All Of Sexuality In Writing And Media it'll be really compressed and probably cut out a lot of context, and also we are physically incapable of watching most forms of video which would cause some issues because films contribute a lot to the general media landscape and experience they just aren't our area of expertise and we would probably sound like a clown trying to cover them to people who are capable of watching movies. Give us a bit. Let's narrow down the subject. We've got immediate ideas for that one shitty fic and not a lot else.

If we pull up a specific Hollow Knight omegaverse fic and a handful of other either platonic or NSFW omegaverse works we can compare and contrast the ways in which they do or do not work to our fic in question, and pay particular attention to why the sex or lack of sex does or does not work. We can think of at least one Batman fic that goes into asexual omegas and figuring out how to get around having sex when on a heat cycle immediately off the top of our head and it's not unique in that sphere. If you give us a day or two to chase things down we can probably find a good dozen fics with this exact premise of "unexpectedly going into heat" with interesting points of tension with the subject but it'll probably need us to sift through a few hundred thousand words of fic first.

Do you want to hear about age dynamics and the fears of the societal or relationship-based norms associated with "growing up" that frequently come with this genre. We think there are a lot of potentially productive points you can take with their treatment of Bonnie in a fic genre that tends to overlap with coming-of-age and the way that them not allowing Bonnie to even be aware of the fact that heat, a basic part of a third of the population's bodily cycles, overlaps with both the base game's treatment of them and general statements to be made about lack of sex education in real life and treatment of children. We think there's a lot of ground to be covered about how frequently presentation and similar tropes can use wording similar to our world's handling of puberty and we think that late presentation and issues with secondary-gender-linked characteristics can genuinely be really interesting to explore. Hello.

[ratatatastic]

[mad-hunts]

alright, i have come here to discuss something tonight and that topic is: barton still killing every single police officer that bothers him at the docks (except for jim, but i swear that's just for plot purposes. okay... nah 🫠 it's not lmao BUT moving on) and hating law enforcement in general + vigilantes, BUT with the new added context that he has a partner who he found out is a vigilante? well... i'm just here to say that it makes me think that doing mental gymnastics is just a daily practice for barton at this point LOL

but that's okay, because his vigilante partner is genuinely slay in his eyes + worth it. and thus, anyone who dares try to call him a hypocrite for being with her will be smacked halfway to tuesday so ❤️ (the heart essentially means don't do it JSJSJ ☠️ not to say that i would expect that anyone here would do it OFC though y'all know what i mean (,,: and oh, the mun who portrays the vigilante character that i'm talking about knows who they are tehe MUAH ilyyy)