#and everyone outside is like 'actually you have to do things all the time even when you dont want to'

[elodieunderglass]

Rotating the Horse Boys in my brain and thought: What if they swapped places? IE: Charlie stuck around to do Horse Stuff and Killie fucked off to Be Happy? What would that look like, given that they'd still be who they are?

(The Horse Boys) Oh my GOD your MIND?!

hi. i don't know. how to feel about this.

press keep reading to continue

Charlie, who is personally committed to aging like milk as a carelessly freckly ginger in his own universe, is... a very different-looking person if he remains in the Horse Universe! Spending more time outside has made him all sunbleached and sundamaged, and this AU has put different lines on his face; not all mean, but different.

A core part of Charlie's character is that he isn't naturally an especially nice person; he makes the conscious choice to be kind, but he's a lot colder and more ruthless than Killie, so it's a choice he has to make CONSTANTLY, and would quite like a gold star for, actually! (Does anyone ever NOTICE the MASSIVE EFFORTS that Charlie makes to be a good, kind, patient person?? NO?? DO YOU NOT REALISE IT IS ALL AN ACT? ARGH.)

This Charlie doesn't worry about that at all. This Charlie is a snide, funny, fast-moving little fuck with a clearer physical resemblance to his father Bill, but an equally clear strain of no-fucks-given political-scheming catty little face from his mother Helena. He remains based at the family training yard in County Meath, being an absolute menace, but a massive change from Killie's circumstances is that Charlie domineers the whole family. Some things remain fixed (Bill is still disabled in a riding accident; Ciara still gets divorced) but in general Charlie has shoved, manoeuvred, manipulated and generally girlbossed his parents, siblings, and a significant portion of the extended family under his thumb, despite not being half the jockey Killie was. Then I realised that Charlie would have realised that too, clawed his way through vet school, instantly annexed Colm for his veterinary assistant/lackey, swung round to claim Uncle Bren and Aunty Blaw's loyalty, got the grandfather on side, and just completely cut Bill's legs from under him, leveraging Killie's exile and his status as The Family Vet in a total takeover bid to become head of the family and chief exec of most of the businesses. Why? Is he planning to take over the training yard? Nope! he just wanted to run all of their lives. He rides, but it's all local stuff - point-to-point and local chases - and probably, lacking Killie's sensitivity, goes hunting💀 Remains unmarried and unattached, knows perfectly well that he's bi, but manages to keep his assignations of all genders neatly hidden; all hookups in Dublin one county over; no kids, didn't even date Pippa. Pent-up, bitter, unhappy, mean: but scattering his energy so successfully in controlling 17 uncontrollable people and 2 stressful careers - essentially Patriarching the Dynasty, despite resolutely not fathering another generation for it - that he manages not to notice for DAYS at a time. Half the reason why Charlie made a calculated multidimensional bid for power was that he reckoned if he did ever get a different-gender partner, he'd have the social capital to carry it off, and everyone will have to deal, because this is Charlie's nation now. (The other half is that he's holding space for Killie to come home, ditto.)

But without his sincerity and warmth and joyful heart, he doesn't seem to be attracting the kind of people that Charlie's still-essential Charlieness would want to settle down with... and he remains enough of himself to realise that, if only subconsciously. So his birth family's all better off around him... at the expense of him not having his own spouses and kids :( oh that's so sad. Charlie loves his kids.

i don't know who this twink is omg

I can see Charlie so clearly but this guy... I don't know him. I mean, Killie's a Sunscreen User, but still. If you remove all the jock from Killie, what remains is almost unrecognisable?? This is Cillian Worthington; he's a very different animal, and I don't know that he's happy, and this is a STRANGER. Unsettling.

When Charlie went into Exile in his home universe, he made some fairly brilliant strategic decisions to avoid the usual fates of homeless queer kids, as well as the private investigators his family hired to get him back. He bolted for England and the evil posh Worthington family, alienated by their rotten daughter Helena for being rancid; they're awful and impossible to live with, but Charlie just wanted a landing pad. Consolidating his plans, buying breathing space, and changing his name, Charlie then springboarded into uni, supporting himself with bartending and music. If Killie did the same... the Worthingtons would welcome him out of spite for Helena, and then more genuinely. But he wouldn't have quite the same savviness and independence, and would find them soul-crushing. Regardless, once he adopted their name, they'd put him in uni and pay all his bills, and he would do weirdly well there - as long as he "kept his nose clean." With fewer temptations to bite, Killie would dutifully keep his nose clean indeed. From there - god! He could actually be an academic. Charlie didn't manage it but jesus CHRIST. Killie probably could.

Dr Cillian Worthington, pretending he isn't constantly fighting his demons, not setting foot in the countryside or looking at animals because it will remind him of his Horselessness. He wouldn't be able to deal with the Horselessness, and he would not be able to get enough capital to get any horses at all, and if he can't have them there's no point breaking his heart wanting them. A clean break is better. Put all horsiness into a box and punt it into the sun.

There would be a scene where Killie just snapped and stole a horse and it ALL CAME BACK OUT.

And another scene where they were reunited, and Killie could break Charlie down completely by just saying calmly, "You used to love music."

[ronearoundblindly]

Hii! Idk if requests are open and it's okay if there not 🥰

but when I read this: "Also, Ari strikes me as a man who would enjoy road head or pull over to go down on you if he's horny or bored or just because. I don't have a reason for that, but it's true. The end."

It's making me feel like we need a full smutty fic of them going on vacation somewhere snowing and this happens because he's bored + horny 👀✋🏼

*ngl, I like the gif. idgaf. Warnings for smut (oral, m & f receiving), obviously. Based on this Who Would. WC 1280

You both absolutely suck at planning trips or time to yourselves--other than spending the night in after work--so, of course, you two over extend before your first legitimate weekend getaway.

Nobody packed!

It took until the wee hours to gather the things you'd need and prepare the home to be left unattended. There was no time for fooling around.

Ari passed out on the couch because clothes were all over the bed for you to visualize 'outfits,' and so he may not strictly be sleepy, just tired and antsy. His free foot won't stop bouncing on the cushioned floor mat.

He isn't subtle in his thoughts.

"How big of a bed did we get?" "Do you think the walls are thick or...?" "How busy is it this time of year? Could we have the hot tub to ourselves?" "Exactly how many layers will you need outside? Is that a lengthy process to take off?"

The traffic thins as you leave the city, but then an accident brings everyone to a dead stop. Even the sky is blocked by the towering trucks on all sides which...can't possibly be why Ari is so irate.

"Come on," he gripes, smacking the butt of his hand on the steering wheel. "Let's just get there."

You have to laugh at such a tiny tantrum from a very big man. It'll be at least an hour and a half (at speed).

"I swear, honey, I thought we'd be..." he mumbles something, scraping through his beard before holding your hand "...by now."

"What was that?" Though you know where this is going, it's worth it to make Ari say it. "What were we supposed to be doing?"

You rub your thumb along his knuckles pointedly.

"Well," he starts, voice low and rich, "I would definitely be buried inside you the very second we were behind closed doors, that's for sure." He adjusts himself in the seat, pawing at his jeans where they grow uncomfortably snug. "If you could only fit in my lap..."

He trails off again, sighing at the mere idea.

click THUD.

You drop his hand to open and shut your side of the cab, a wicked smile curling on your lips.

"One mississippi."

He doesn't take your meaning right away.

"These qualify as 'closed doors' and we are behind them," you simmer. "I can think of at least one way to be buried inside me right here if you're...interested."

Ari freely stares at you and rakes his eyes up and down your body, squinting like the specifics of the offer elude him, but he is all over it anyway.

"Fuck, yes," he growls. "Please." His head swivels around to check all the mirrors before quickly unzipping his pants and pulling his semi-hard cock out.

You tap the gearshift to remind him of his lead foot. Ari gets twitchy when this horny, and there was that one incident.

He throws that sucker into park so fast the metal and plastic actually whine.

Tucking your legs under you, you shimmy to a good angle before replacing his hand with yours, leaning towards his lips only to drop when he moves in, licking the length of him several times, lubing him up to take in your mouth.

Ari's head drops, satisfied though you've barely begun. He's wound tight from all the rushed preparations and can't help but melt into your ministrations. He tugs at his jeans to give you more and more access. The man does appreciate thorough attention.

If there's one thing you can count on, it's that he'll be putty in your hands the sloppier you are, so slowly building up that slick saliva until it drips beneath your fingers at his base blows his mind, every time, without fail.

"Holy shit," he moans, letting one hand rest on the back of your head and the other spread out over your clothed ass. Oh so gently, both knead without pattern or control while his eyes stay slits to watch the road.

They don't really see the road, and he glances down to ration his fill of the naughty scene.

Ari, again, is not subtle in his thoughts.

"You're so hot. Gorgeous. So fucking sexy--right there--uhhnn yeah, sounds like you're enjoying this as much as I am. You wet?" He shoves his hand into your pants to check. "Oh fuck, you are. Careful. You keep doing that--" he doesn't need a lot of fanfare, just focus on the cockhead and coax him with steady strokes "--and I'm gonna blow, sweetheart."

His voice grows hoarse in all his panting.

"Holy shit, are you--so, so close--you swallowing? You're perfect. You're so fucking hot."

Ari's careful not to grip at your head when he comes, leaky and thick, with a roar of relief, but that doesn't stop his finger inside you from plunging deeper and holding you there.

You know exactly the combination to this lock; he knows the combination to your body as well.

He teases you while he comes down, too, absently spreading your arousal back and forth from your clit to your crack. Then Ari chuckles, giddy, a bit light headed, letting his thighs stop their shaking before releasing you.

"Okay...so...are we there yet?"

Only one of the surrounding trucks has begun to roll forward a few car lengths.

Ari hurries to right his jeans and shift into drive, turn signal ticking as soon as possible.

Though it takes a slow and sexually excruciating mile to find a turn off for a 'scenic outlook,' he keeps you on the edge with dirty promises. The parking lot--if one can call a single row of spots barely separated from the highway by a grassy strip a 'lot'--is empty because it's chilly with dense fog, and Ari backs into the very farthest place, ordering you to climb into the truck bed.

It's polite with an edge of desperation, but the phrase "your juicy ass" is used.

Heedless of the cold, he rips his jacket off toned, flexed arms, laying it down for you so that you're not naked against freezing metal. You'd be self-conscious if the entire area weren't obscured by weather and the general incline of the hilly road.

Ari's words have devolved into a series of grunts, groans and moans as he manhandles you into a good position. The way he wraps his arms around your spread legs keeps away almost all of the chill, thankfully, but the fervor with which he dives into your heat is really where the warmth comes from. His tongue and breath are pleasant before escalating to pleasurable. HIs beard roughs up your tender skin in all the right places before the sting is eased by his plush lips.

In no uncertain terms, he absolutely sucks the life out of you, kneading your leg slung over his shoulder and curling his touch into the right spot when you finally chase climax and hump his face. Ari loves Needy-you, Controlling-you, Happy-you, and there's no better way for him to see it than down the length of your body, staring with bright, sparkling, hungry eyes.

He keeps you warm beneath him until you're fit to move, helping to yank your pants back up inch by inch.

Jumping out to offer you a hand down, Ari gets the giggles again, pressing a kiss to your smiling lips. He lingers long enough that you have to slap at his chest.

"We'll never get there if you don't stop," you laugh.

"New rule," he huffs, shrugging his coat back on and running his fingers through his tangled hair, "no roadtrips anywhere over an hour away."

[Main Masterlist; Ari Levinson Masterlist; Ko-Fi]

[ofeliaxoxo]

A prompt for you: Charlos, jealousy

Yesss jealousy trope of all TIME unironically my favourite scenario

Hope you enjoy this! Wrote it a bit on the fly because I’m sick in bed ignoring responsibilities

He’s not even gracious in victory. The usual post-win glow is absent, no movie star smile pulled back to reveal his perfect teeth. The nice way his eyes crinkle up, so you can believe in it, the whole idea, how lovely he is.

Charles, Carlos could say, give me a smile. You’re so beautiful, you’re so talented. You beat us all today. Why do you look so angry?

“Congratulations,” he actually says, keeps the jealousy out of his voice although only the stupidest idiot could imagine it not to exist. “That was a great drive, mate.”

“Thank you. You too, you have done well.”

Oh?

“You were very happy, no? I saw you celebrate it with Alex.”

God. Like being told, no come on, you did a good job too, upset with himself as a child about second place. And he was, no, he is happy. They managed P4 and P5, a ridiculous result, practically a win, leagues ahead of where he thought he’d be this year. James nearly cried, hugged Carlos close and said I can’t believe it and then shook his head, taking it back, insisting that he knew they would succeed.

So he is happy, even though here Charles is, sodden with champagne, the actual winner of everything.

Maybe he’d seen when they’d gotten out of their cars and Carlos, without thinking about it, had pulled Alex in, squeezed him, thumping him on the back, trying to impart some of what he was feeling into his teammate. Alex swayed pleasingly when Carlos thwacked him, giggling, whole face scrunched up in delighted amusement the way it does.

Carlos likes him, the way he laughs so easily, gets stuck on his words and then enjoys it when Carlos leads them back into the path charted out for them by the cue cards.

And then a photo with the team, their names in big letters, Carlos and Alex, P4 and P5, all the mechanics with their fists raised in the air, cheering in victory although really there was no victory. But Carlos is happy, isn’t going to lose the feeling.

And now Charles, red and obvious against all the Williams blue.

Alex hasn’t left, has just stepped into his own garage instead of outside where everyone is milling around, where Carlos had been gathering himself.

“Yes, a good result for me and Alex, for the team. We are happy.”

Interview mode. Charles won’t notice, anyway.

“You and Alex work together well.”

“Do you want me to go and get him? I think he is not busy.”

Charles has got his podium cap in his hand. He always makes these things into a huge show, much bigger than anyone else, every time, curtsying and waving and simpering at the crowd like an actress being given a present.

“No, I - no. I am going. I wanted to invite you, to come tonight.”

Sitting at Charles’s table, partying for Charles’s win. He doesn’t have to, anymore, no one could ever expect him to. The galling thing, the disgusting little twist, is that he wants to. Would be happy there, in the circle. Carlos can see himself, sitting next to him, close close close, the nearness of Charles’s face, the thickness of his eyelashes, the smell of his cologne, how fun he is when he’s in a good mood. How Carlos could drape an arm across his shoulders, let it fall heavy on the hard muscle there.

“Sorry, we are flying this evening. And I think there will be dinner with the team, first.”

James’s obvious delight to look forward to. Carlos and Alex are turning the team around.

“You are flying together?”

He must’ve had too much champagne on the podium. Or the rocky battle with Max in lap fifty has scrambled his brain. He’s seriously not acting right for someone who should be floating, shouldn’t even be listening to what Carlos is saying.

“Yes. Are you ok, Charles?”

“Charlie! Come to show us what a real winner looks like, I assume,” Alex is here again, with a reassuringly cheerful grin. He comes up to stand by Carlos, unworrying in his personal space.

Finally, the pretty laugh, for Alex, the glance down and then back up. Does he know he does it?

“I will see you later, mate,” he announces, claps hands with Alex, turns to leave, makes sure to remind Charles he is the best, to see if that will lift his inexplicable mood, “enjoy your party, eh, Charles, don’t go too crazy!”

[brw]

Man, how do you even tell if something is "in character" for a comic book character? Especially the really old ones. There's been so many authors and artists not only building off each other but contradicting one another. Do you just pick out the runs you like? What if the run you dislike is important? What a mess

I mean, yeah. When dealing with characters like ones from very long running comic book series' that involve many different writers, artists, other creators, with various different politics, backgrounds, expectations and opinions to show through their writing through the medium of a shared universe in comic books, conversations around characterisation become very murky. But to me, that's part of the appeal. I think if you're getting into an old, established shared universe like Marvel Comics or DC with the expectation that everything will be canon all the time, or that characterisations of characters who have been in consistent publication for years, decades, and in some cases, coming up to centuries are going to stay static is one that is going to set you up for failure, in which case company-owned shared universe comics as a medium may not be for you. And that's okay! They don't work for everyone!

Something I think about a lot is that everyone has their own sense of canonicity, of which events do and do not matter, and that extends to writers too and it's important to sometimes approach things from the perspective of where they might be drawing certain things from. Comic book writers and creators aren't just like, people who have been living and breathing comics since birth (although some, like Jim Shooter, are). Taking for instance, Sabertooth. Did Victor LaValle write the most canon Sabertooth ever to exist? Probably not! But LaValle as a horror writer, as a very politically conscious and acclaimed novelist, has other things to say about Sabertooth than following every single comic published before him, and we have an incredibly fascinating and beautiful story for it. The opportunity to have interesting artistic and novel ideas explored just as much as the people who are clearly more based in the actual lore and history of comics like an Al Ewing is what makes this genre so wonderful to me. Each can have their own space, and sometimes even within the same character and the same team.

And yeah, there is an element of picking and choosing, but I also don't think it's right to like, dismiss anything outright. If you have to dismiss a lot, after a certain point you don't actually like the character you're reading, just the idea of them, which I think is where problems arise and where maybe more singular visions in books or creator-owned comics might suit someone better.

It's difficult with comics because you aren't ever dealing with comics in a vacuum, either–the biases of comic creators and their politics always colour their writing. I've been talking a lot about Charles Xavier for example, and he's a good example of this, because he serves equally as a mouthpiece for tolerance and acceptance for writers, and as a scapegoat for their political or personal frustrations. He is often a representation of a writers' disability politics and perspective on wheelchair users, regardless of if that's something they knowingly engage with or not. And you can't really disentangle Charles' character from ableism, because so much of his character has depended on tropes surrounding the disabled body. So trying to engage with Charles outside of this context, ignoring the ableist tropes inherent in his writing or erasing his disability outright, by both people who love him and people who hate him, leaves so much out that after a certain point you're not engaging with this character at all, you're just looking at a very vague representation of him built from your own expectations and opinions and not what the reality of his character looks like.

It's a difficult topic, and I don't really have a straight answer for you. Because on one hand, I do, as I said, think it's wrong to dismiss textual history outright, or to make blanket statements over certain eras or periods. Like, I've talked before about Claremont's racism and Zionism, which has infected the entire X-Men because of how much contributions he made to them as a franchise, but Claremont X-Men is still like, Good. It's Zionist, and racist, and incredibly fetishising towards Asian people and black women, and those are inherent to it, but there's a reason why that run is as acclaimed as it is, because even with that baggage it is still a story people love and people come to and people want to talk about. Things don't become massively popular across generations without having some artistic merit, something that speaks to people.

But, equally, striving for more tolerance, and making a safer, more open, more critical space in comic book communities is necessary, and a very important step in that process is acknowledging the sordid past of a lot of our favourite comics. Enough time has passed that people are willing to acknowledge that while the contributions made to comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are impossible to overstate, and that those comics are artistic and beautiful and strange and have a very important place in the history of pop culture and American culture as a whole, they also are deeply misogynistic! They have very flawed opinions and perceptions of black people, and there's a host of anti-communist rhetoric that spins into active sinophobia. And we're having those conversations more and more, which is good, and necessary to start reappraising these comics and creating a better environment moving forward, but it's important to keep up that momentum for the likes of a Chris Claremont or a Grant Morrison.

There's not really a clear answer I can offer you, ultimately. To a point, it is a choose your own adventure story, but to another, comic book history is a complicated, ever changing and ever fluid thing, and dismissing parts of it to preserve your opinions on characters that are ultimately fictional takes away from what makes this kind of comic book interesting to me, and what makes it a unique creative medium.

[notmorbid]

we could be rats.

dialogue prompts from we could be rats by emily r. austin.

that's the most insensitive thing you could have said.

i never say the right thing.

i wasn't the type of kid who wanted to be a teenager.

there were times i thought i hated you.

maybe if we'd met as adults, things would have been different.

i was the kind of kid who believed toys had hearts and souls.

nothing is ever purely good, is it? there's always a rotten piece.

i'm not depressed. i feel great.

i'm not the same person you knew.

did you feel like you knew me, the last couple of years?

i don't think i've ever been described as 'smart' before.

would it help to hear a joke?

why didn't the skeleton go to the party? because they had no body to go with.

am i getting too morbid?

i have you listed as my next of kin.

do you think i'm being insensitive and gruesome?

just bury me in a garbage bag.

i never really honed being well-mannered, did i?

i think i've accidentally made up white lies that were ruder than the truth.

creeps like us have to stay alive.

we haven't put a label on it.

i think your definition of 'creep' might be different than mine.

say i was abducted by aliens, or something.

are you mad at me? it's okay, if you are.

is my tone making you madder? i bet it is.

i don't plan to haunt you.

____ is like a comic book villain. like a caricature of a bad guy.

listen to people who have different experiences than you do.

you're being an asshole.

we're supposed to examine what's wrong, or it festers.

i used to think i could do anything.

what happened? are you hurt?

do i look normal to you?

the actual experience is never quite what's promised, is it?

it feels like i'm not the target audience for a lot of life.

tell people to fuck off more. take what you want. stir shit up.

everybody knows you.

i feel like i'm still a kid here.

i always cared about you.

everything will be fine. we'll find our way.

it didn't occur to me that not panicking was an option.

i feel sort of reborn.

it's hard to balance being both happy and considerate.

it's kinder to lie sometimes, right?

i'd rather be a pig than a cop. pigs are adorable.

being grown up feels like playing a board game with no instructions.

masks meld onto your face.

let's egg their car.

remember swinging, when you were a kid?

'to thine own self be true', or whatever.

people judge others by their own standards.

i don't remember how i got here.

i feel like i was cast as a character i'm not able to play.

i wouldn't want to live forever. would you?

i'm not sure there's a way to be alive without upsetting people.

inaction is an action.

dying is less scary than growing up.

is this actually happening? am i dreaming?

the trick to lying is to convince yourself.

i don't want you to feel sorry for me.

i feel like i don't know the things i'm supposed to. i feel like i'm pretending.

revolution is about creation, not destruction.

sometimes it's kinder to let people believe they're helping you, even when they're not.

i'd like to see where you grew up.

it sounds like a lot of people want to help you.

do you have people who want to help you?

did you egg my house?

there's no way the moon is a dude. she's got a soulful face. she's gorgeous.

we don't actually get much choice in life, do we?

i think i'm gay.

thinking about _____ sort of knocks the wind out of me.

if i hadn't met you, i'd be a totally different person.

i know i'm unbearable, but what else can i be?

i have a history of bad judgment.

what the hell did you just call me?

i'm not interested in small talk with people who offend or insult me.

i used to believe everyone was good.

i thought everyone felt that way.

did you hear it was on the news?

deep down, we're all who we were when we were kids.

being an adult is about re-finding who you were when you were eight years old.

i don't want to be someone who hurts people. i don't think i was meant to be that.

have you been outside today?

[pheoblitz]

Picks up old character and makes them a new

I have kinda been lacking on some pokemon lore recently. So my apologies if any of these names are already ones used or if it's simmilar to something in the show or games. I kinda just wanted to have fun with what I thought is a kinda basic concept.

This is Alpine and Lauren. They live outside of a very remote town on a frigid volcanic island acting as ecology research and rescuers. Helping out the towns folk with education, learning about the environment and the natural and invasive life in the area and it's interaction with the volcano, and saving lost travelers or sick pokemon in their green house and medical room.

Alpine and Lauren however are not what they seem. They are Ex members of an evil team I have yet to decide the details on. Alpine was an unregistered, unregulated, and self educated scientist who messed with things he should not have. Lauren was his human lab assistant who was a trainer who got caught up with the evil team by accident.

In an accident, Alpine and Lauren both got effected by one of their current experiments. Leading Alpine to become a Lycanroc Midday form during the day and Lauren to become a Lurantis like one of her pokemon.

In the wake of the experiment, they left and hid in the remote town where everyone assumed Alpine was simply a professor and Lauren was his partner pokemon. They decided to run with it and have been fulfilling the general role of a professor in the town, going as far as teaching the youths about pokemon and even gathering starters for them to choose from. Due to the towns isolation, his soft and kind attitude, and seeming wealth of accurate knowledge, no one has questioned his education or credentials and other governments have looked over the town.

Their goals are now simply to live a quiet life, doing what they can to make up for their past mistakes by being the best people they can manage to be and helping out where they both can. As a human, Alpine spends all his time working and helping others around town with their issues. During the daytime however, he braves the snowy mountain to act as a search and rescue dog. Pulling both lost trainers and hurt pokemon to safety for Lauren and his crew to treat and send back to the town safely.

Also yes, At night when he is human, his outfit is themed after the midnight form of Lycanroc. It wasn't supposed to be, but arctic research coats are usually red. So I had to do what I had to do. It was just too perfect to pass up. To balance it out, I made his relaxed inside wear based on the dusk form. I also like to think his eye colour changes as the day goes along and part of the reason he has snowgoogles is to hide that or hide when they glow a bit.

I called him Alpine for a few reasons.

1. Alpine is relating to mountains, like where he now lives.

2. Alpine plants are what you can all plants that grow in that area, which is what he studies now.

3. It was taken from Alpine Juniper, a type of Evergreen conifer. They grow in simmilar environments in our real world, so it is reasonable to think they are a plant he would encounter where he lives.

4. However more importantly, Junipers are usually shrubs and can sometimes grow tall be trees. Alluding to the fact that he is not an actual professor but has been growing into and matching the role.

Lauren was simply named after what I named my first Lurantis that I carry from me from game to game now that I have her.

[docholligay]

I have this post in my mind--a response to an ask, actually, but I'm not sure if tumblr is the venue for it. I don't think it's the AUDIENCE for it, maybe. Don't read this if you have even one single solitary thought about eating and also I'm annoying in the way I phrase some of this so at your peril. (Which is why this is not rebloggable)

It's about something I was having a pretty animated conversation about today, with a couple people: When your sport (endurance/long distance) is about discipline, and about being tougher than yourself, about telling yourself "Pain, tiredness--these are just messages I am free to ignore" that primes us, to quote this sports RD I follow, "We are a very vulnerable and overrepresented population" for doing insane shit with our diets. The difficulty is the point.

It's like one time Jetty and I were talking about how I might have dodged a bullet with my parents not being able to afford gymnastics, because I am, I think it's fair to say, an intense person, and she joked, "Oh yeah, you'd have been hanging over a toilet throwing up for sure," and my immediate retort was, "We both know I would be anorexic, you take that back," to which she replied, 'Oh shit, you're right, you're right."

It's a joke, BUT IT IS ALSO A LITTLE TRUE. I have a will of TITANIUM, especially about denial, and while it's a great thing in many respects, it's also sometimes very bad and I get hurt. And this is not UNUSUAL in the athletic circles in which I quite literally run. We're talking about a world where I'm a medium to a LARGE.

But like, no one on tumblr is going to give a good goddamn about athletes, specifically intense athletes, other than to be like, "This is why no one should work out and everyone should stay in the house and play DnD. By the way you're all secret fascists. " and that is absolutely fucking not what I'm saying. Nor am i saying that this world is inherently toxic. Some of the most politically and socially active and positive people I've met are from this group, because intense people are drawn to it, and also i have noticed, disasters with what i would maybe call "classic" or "icky boy-style uncute" ADHD, and so theres a lot of.motivation there. Maybe this is an in group-out group thing, where what I actually need to do is only have this conversation with other endurance/distance/extreme athletes. IT wouldn't be the first topic I don't want to talk about with people outside the community.

But anyway, RUNNING SHIT LIKE 100 MILERS WITHOUT FUELING IS A MINOR TREND NOW, and at a certain point I'm like, "OKay, I know the extreme ability to push through is very very sexy, and girl, the minute I heard about this I DID want to try it, but I think we all need to cool it a little bit."

(Some of this is that I have been training myself out of training unfueled. It has been difficult to overcome the idea that I will run better if I'm adapted to running empty. I hit my PR for this half and 5k, I have proven the point. I have beat my times by training fueled. I came to this by reading the research, and it was STILL hard. We, like, human beings in general, have a tendency to believe what we WANT to be true, and resist even researched shit, and I wanted running fasted to be more helpful than I think it actually is. It's tough to logic your way out of something you emotioned your way into)

And we as ATHLETES have to be having these conversations, because a lot of times these things come from outside. And there's that whole "i don't take advice from someone whose results i don't want" which i do often keep to. So it mattered more that people who DO value athleticism and toughness were like, "i think running 7 miles on empty sounds like a great way to cause injury" versus your general couch type going, "it sounds like you're not honoring your hunger with yummy numnums:(" But we have trouble within ourselves telling when something is tough but fine versus maybe unwell or dangerous. It's like asking video game people to help each other with screen addition. Totally possible, but an audience that sometimes has difficulty parsing their own vulnerability.

Anyway! This is neither an answer to said ask nor structured in any way! Just written over the course of three runs ahaha. (That I ate before!)

[fantasystrangers]

❛he does? i like it, too. it always comforts me watching it, even if i’m feeling awful. and if i’m happy, it makes me even happier. i don’t know why.❜ without realising, anton mirrored russel’s smile. ❛i probably saw it with my parents the first time, but since then i’ve seen it at least a couple more times. kids are very clever, but if you go back to films to rewatch them some years later, or to books to read them again, you can find new details you’ve never noticed before. a gift that keeps on giving.❜ then he nodded.

❛that’s also very important, yeah. life is black and white, and no one thing is only bad or only good. and people, too. i’ve met people i did not end up enjoying being around,❜ anton shrugged, ❛and then there are my friends, and then you. but you don’t have to click with everyone and be friends. sometimes things can even fall apart with a bang. but as long as that makes you learn what to do and what not to do next time, and that falling apart hasn’t been too awful...❜

he rubbed his cheek, as if to rub away the awkwardness that crept over his skin, and caught himself watching the people walking outside the window as well. in a few seconds his attention was back to russell.

❛that’s a part of why i probably seem much more... positive, or cheerful, about things. it’s the hope. the hope that keeps you fixing the roof instead of leaving the house. i’d like to keep this house, this planet, fixed, as much as possible. but i would also like to try and find other houses. see how they work. if we found another planet that isn’t habitable, i would be just as excited.❜

anton leaned his head on his hands, listening, a dreamy, thoughtful expression on his face. just like it had been once upon a time, back in school. the quiet kid in the back, the dreamer. the guy who had a band and liked to sing. some things had not changed, even all those years ago.

❛no man’s sky, nice. i like that one.❜ then he chuckled at the thought, ❛trucks in space, that sounds like something i should try sometime. i like the elder scrolls games, especially skyrim. my parents really like fantasy, they started all of that,❜ anton joked with another soft laugh. ❛and assassin’s creed, too, dad would sometimes play the first and the second game, and showed them to me. i used to be a bit scared of space... it’s infinite, and i’m just a tiny human out there.❜ he sighed, hugging himself, falling quiet for a minute or two.

❛when you talk about it, you make me curious, though, so i don’t mind. actually you remind me of a science teacher i used to have. i’m bad with names, but she was also very excited about space.❜ remembering brought a smile on anton’s face.

❛exactly. you get what i mean.❜ anton nodded. ❛i’d rather have genuine sadness of my own, knowing it’ll pass, than someone else’s happiness.❜ he gave a shrug. ❛like that movie said, life is a bag of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.❜ he gave a sigh. ❛i really liked it. and, honestly, i’m grateful for all the flavours.❜ he laughed quietly. ❛oh absolutely. i still hate getting into fights, but they’re not an inherently bad thing.❜

no, no, no, the last thing he needed now was to start overthinking it. for one, that had been a situation from the past, meant to stay in the past, too; if anton brought it up to his friend now - they had moved past being enemies, though they did still disagree on some things - sigge would just shake his head and tell him to let it go. and he would be right.

where russell looked up, anton tilted his head to the side, not looking at anything in particular, his gaze wandering to something in the distance, listening, letting himself take in all the sounds surrounding them. the cafe was not on a very busy street, yet it was still lively in that way that reminded him he was never fully alone. anton preferred to stick to his own most of the time... but being on streets like this helped him not feel lonely even when he was alone.

❛if there were only good things out there, something would be missing, you know?... at least that’s how i feel. i wouldn’t have gotten into music if i wasn’t as lonely as i was - i did it to occupy my time so i don’t feel it. i wouldn’t have met you if i’d never lost my earring.❜ he felt himself smiling. ❛even if you had only noticed it was missing, you would have helped me snap back to reality. you would still have got me talking with you. and i am enjoying it. if i had not left my previous band, i would never realise how much music matters to me exactly. there are more than enough good things worth saving here. i agree.❜

as he said those words, anton realised just how much he truly believed in them. and russell agrees, too!...

he gave a thoughtful hum. ❛no, i understand what you mean. i would hate having to leave earth. my entire life’s here, after all. it’s the only life i have.❜ anton was silent for a little longer. ❛what i meant to say was... imagine if different planets were like different countries or continents to us. that would make travelling far harder... but i used to wonder what it would be like if we could visit space humans on another planet close to us. or even aliens!❜ for a few seconds, he seemed amazed by his own thought, his eyebrows raised, his hands mindlessly rolling his half-empty glass between them. ❛i bet someone has already made a movie or a book with a plot like that.❜ he laughed.

[soggy-fishsticks]

guys ive been drawing so much lately I've been starting to actually hate it 🙁

[snekdood]

men are inherently traumatized under the patriarchy bc they're pressured or forced to conform to the standards of manhood, which to put very simply, is to never express of feel emotions, which makes them bad at socializing, thus rendering them eternally isolated.

[nintendont2502]

spending more than a few days around your family and no one else truly does cause a certain type of madness. and baby they call me the joker

[here-there-were-dragons]

as a general rule, on average, if americans consistently complain about a food being conceptually weird, gross, and scary, then it probably tastes amazing. or at least inoffensive.

this is because in my experience americans for the most part (give or take a few exceptions by region) think eating literally anything other than beef, chicken, bread, eggs, peanut butter jelly sandwitches, ketchup, and disgusting cloyingly artificial brown sludge soda is insurmountably weird, gross, and scary.

[todayisafridaynight]

I’ve noticed a pretty sizable portion of this fandom can’t understand symbolism or basic writing techniques sometimes. Sometimes, it seems to be born from not being used to Japanese media but even then…

Also Demyx is the Master of Master because he’s my mom

i can't even seriously respond to this ask after reading 'demyx is my mom' im crying

[bravevolunteer]

the only high school teacher michael ever got along with was his art teacher

[rowanhoney]

.

[candiedcolloquium]

"ai is making it so everyone can make art" Everyone can make art dipshit it came free with your fucking humanity