#and i know that both games are revolutionary and gorgeous

[punkinspice]

ok maybe I'm crazy but am I the only one that feels like botw and totk, are making the things that made LoZ as a series special just... aren't special anymore?

[hotchfiles]

hotch "representing the bau" hotchner x activist!reader who won't stand for bullshit

not like actual conflict cause we know hotch is a very principled guy

more like

"shit i can't shitpost about overthrowing the government anymore cause my boyfriend is the government" vibes

you have no idea how deeply i feel about this i've actually posted about this because i'm very much against all cops and he's a literal fed ! but

You met in the most conventional of ways, which makes the whole thing even funnier to the outside person. A bar. You noticed him the moment he walked in, too downright gorgeous to be ignored, you stare at him completely shamelessly and get a few shy awkward smiles in return while he sips on his first drink and talks to his companion, who you later learned was Rossi.

He will find it later on that you're not really up for games, but it takes him by surprise when you approach him, card in hand with your phone number and the red stain of your red lips on the other side. He's immediately smitten, being flirted with so openly at his age does wonders for his ego and he makes sure to text you as soon as he gets back to his apartment.

The texting back and forth goes for hours, a lot of flirting, you're much more outspoken than he is, but still you find him hilarious, you will be telling your friends he's the funny one between you two (none of them will believe you, but you like having this only to yourself as well).

You talk movies, plays, music, favorite drinks and by 2AM he asks you on a date. It’s perfect from the get go. He's flattering, compliments your choice of clothes, says he likes the lipstick (the same you used on the card he is keeping safe on his wallet), takes you to a nice restaurant.

You tell him since you made the very first move, he would have to be the one to kiss you, he argues he sent you the first text so you should be the one to do it, in the end none of you know who took the first move, you're just sure you were the one to unlock your apartment door, stumbling along with him as you two passionately kissed.

It's not common for this to happen for him, he's too much of a gentleman, sleeping with someone on the first date isn't the gentlemanly thing to do, you're not attached to those norms so even if he tried to argue, your lips glued to his neck as you worked on his belt took his mind off of it.

It's not until the next morning that he really notices your place: The types of books you had, some revolutionary art pieces and it's then he realizes he has no idea what you do for a living. Neither did he tell you he was a FBI agent. You two talked long hours and career wasn't even a topic (that may be why you caught his heart so fast).

You were a journalist, a writer, quite proficient and known for your progressive ideals and less than civil protests, so when you both realize the differences and the conflict it might bring, the first instinct was to pull away. Forget the whole thing. It was only one date after all.

It's a matter of days for the realization that being apart won't happen, your thoughts are filled with him and his voice and the way he touched you and Aaron can possibly detail every curve of your body and the way you smelled as if he was still in bed with you.

There's a mutual agreement of public discretion, you can't have your readers knowing you're falling for a fed, nor does the media needs any more reasons to write about the FBI.

His team knows though, and so does Strauss, she had to be warned of the possibility of your name popping up in some lists. She reads half of your writings after that, highlighting stuff you should not be writing about (you won't listen to her on it) and the compromise you make is to keep all of your opposition material completely professional, no tweets, no tiktoks, nothing of the sort with jokes about overthrowing the government.

"Did you... Did you just cite and use one of Stalin's books as a resource here?" He asks, he's in your bed, blue boxer shorts and white t-shirt on, completely comfortable with you already, his reading glasses sit on top of his nose like an old man and he furrows his brows, looking up at you. Aaron's interested in what you write, he truly reads whatever you hand him just to learn more about you, he's not the one to try to censure any of it.

"Well yeah... His writings are the easiest to comprehend on the topic." You shrug, not understanding the tone of his question at first.

"Honey... You can't just... Do you know how many... Forget it. Your editor will love it." His poor attempts to talk you down failing each time he looked over and saw your expectant eyes as his opinion is important to you. You smile at his defeat, taking the papers from his hand and throwing somewhere else in the room, his glasses go to the bedside table and soon you're kissing any of his worries away.

[plethoraworldatlas]

New Smiling Critters fansong Recommendation!

From the genius writer of another tragically underrated song "Not Smiling Inside" KryFuZe, comes another masterpiece, "Falling Apart".

Quick "like this, try that recommendation" version, if you loved CG5's sleep well or the also tragically underrated Euphoric Dreams Brasma, or if you're a Bendy fan and cried listening to Tender Memory by DHeusta, this emotional song will hit just as hard and stay with you in more ways than one.

First off, the emotional tone and feel; If you heard my synopsis for Euphoric Dreams, you know I described it as a worship poem written by CatNap himself. KryFuZe's Not Smiling Inside is similar in that regard, feeling like CatNap's hymn. "Falling Apart" also captures the worship, yet instead it goes in a direction I've never seen before in the Fandom despite how obvious it seems in retrospect; Falling Apart is a child's hand drawn, crayon prayer book written by the mini critters.

The song is the story of the mini critters, and right from the first lines it tells you it what it is; "Beautiful Melody/ Terrible Tragedy/ We are still alive". Beautiful, terrible, and living despite everything. Without lingering on the gory details, the song captures the heartbreaking pain of the orphan children who were twisted and turned into the mini critters. At nearly the exact same time, though, it captures their resilience and zealous faith in the cult of the Prototype and especially their Prophet CatNap; In how despite their horrid fate they have come to thrive by refusing the rule of the scientists who tortured them.

Not only does it allude to the terrible experiments, nor the horror of the Hour of Joy, but both those AND the terrible degraded state the mini critters and the factory as a whole have come to after the Hour of Joy. Many fansongs focus on the experiments or the Hour of Joy, few do both; Here, Falling Apart makes itself even more revolutionary by hitting on all three of these tragedies and terrors.

Despite the dark subjects, it is still a emotional song about the mini critters misplaced faith and resilience. The minis address the player, the Angel, and the scientists as one; "You are why we suffer, why we hurt, you come to kill us, but things have changed, we have won your cruel games and now you will suffer".

Pivoting for a moment, but I can't go another second without mentioning the breathtaking video. While good songs stand on their own and do not need visuals, and Falling Apart is no exception, Falling Apart is one of those Great Songs that is only enhanced by its gorgeous music video. From the Red lighting mixing perfectly with the smoke machine, to the perfect use of props and camera angles, every part of the video is breathtaking.

Yet no detail moreso than the in video subtitles, done in heartbreaking crayon contributing to the wistful tone of innocent children suffering. The metaphor I used of a child's crayon drawn first prayer book fits perfectly. Even as the messaging is threatening towards their tormentors, the innocence of the crayon art and words mixes so tragically beautifully with their praises of CatNap and the Prototype. If you told me it was canon that one of the children used in the experiments that created the minis wrote a little prayer book to worship the Prototype in crayon and told me that was what the song was about, not only would I believe you I would say it fits perfectly into the established world and builds upon it.

I can gush for hours, but I don't want to spoil anymore for you. So please, please, PLEASE! Go watch this criminally underrated masterpiece, whether you are a Poppy Playtime or Smiling Critters fan or not, whether you like fansongs or mascot horror or not. Trust me, you'll feel the soul put into this work of art

[thenhlteaissuperhot]

not disagreeing with you, just want to know how exactly is the bruins cabin the healthiest or what has chara done so revolutionary

Chara has banned the word "rookie" from the locker room because he believes that everyone on the roster is a part of the team in the same exact way, no matter whether someone has played hundreds of games with the Bruins and is going to be a hall of Famer with a retired jersey or is yet to experience his debut in the league and the team. Because of that, they have also banned the rookie lap tradition.

He has also made all the European guys, who don't have English as their first language, talk in English in both the locker room and on the ice so everyone would understand each other and there wouldn't be any language barrier or fragmentation among the guys, saying that they can talk in their native languages with their countrymen when hanging out with each other, but not when it comes to matters that involve the entire team - mind you, Chara himself comes from Europe, he is Slovakian, so this wasn't a case of an American being annoyed by the guys speaking Swedish, Czech, and so on around him.

To make the foreign guys feel welcome, he has also learned how to greet each player individually in their native language - a small gesture, but one that definitely is heart-warming in your eyes if you come to the NHL without confidence in your English language skills and homesick, hundreds of miles away from where you come from.

Back in 2021, Bergeron made the entire team sit down and watch the 25-minute TSN interview with Kyle Beach, saying that while it was hard for everyone, it was crucial to go through it together as a team to showcase that there is a safe space in Boston to come out with this sort of stuff and ask for help or counseling if anything similar happens to anyone of the team.

Brad Marchand has come forward on numerous occasions, standing up for and supporting the LGBT community:

"I want to stand up for what I believe in, and I don't think it's right when people say things or bash people because of their sexual orientation. I have friends who are in gay relationships, and I don't think it's right for people to be against that. Everyone is allowed to find love whatever way that is."

When he was asked if the Bruins would accept a player that has come out, he responded:

"Guys would accept that, no question. We're a team in the [dressing] room and a family. It doesn't matter what different beliefs guys have, or where they come from, or whatever the case may be. Guys would accept it. Again, in the room, we're a family."

Charlie McAvoy has also been vocally supporting the matter, even attending the Pride Parades in Boston, despite all the backlash many fans sent his way after seeing the photos.

You can hate Boston for how they sometimes act on the ice and how their fans act on social media, I don't deny that Brad is a bloody rat more than often, whom I would have detested wholeheartedly if he wasn't on my team, but you have to admit that Bruins have the healthiest environment in the cabin and the most mature and considerate core in the league.

Plus they play good hockey too and Boston as a city is gorgeous, so if I found myself being a professional hockey player in another life, the Bruins would definitely be my dream destination.

[mhedusard]

Five Reason why YOU🫵 should play fly forever Loving you 2

First of all what's Fly forever Loving you 2 ?

Fly is an indie otome game where your character will enter in 11th grade at the Hummingbird Highschool and where you'll eventualy find love and discover some hidden secret along the way.

It's a sequel of another game of the creator who found that the first lacked of constancy. You Can play the 2 without having to play the First since the important plot point are reminded (but I personally recomend you to try the first since it's still very enjoyable and you'll understand the story better).

Reason number one: custom your character

You Can chose your,apparence, pronouns and customize your character.

Reason number 2: Choose your best Friend

A recent update grant you the possibility to chose who is your best Friend between two character:Rachelle and Nabil.

Rachelle is your default best Friend since Fly 1 she's a Sunny girl who is determined to help you find love

Nabil is a funny and layback Guy with a baffling Bad Luck.

Reason number 3: Awesomes love interest

In this game you have 8 love interest.

(I'm going to présent them from left to right for first Line and same sens for the second.)

-Evan is a shy and reserved but nice guy passioned of litterature.However he seems to have some family trouble lately.He's Rachelle's best Friend.

-Josh is the guitarist of Nuggets on the run a group that he created with his brother Ben and Friend Beatrice. He's an Honest Guy who don't like drama.

-Juliette is the pianist of Nuggets on the run and an artist to the core.She's a very sensible girl who has been bullying last year partly because of the fact she's lesbian. (It's one of the main story Line of Fly 1).

-Kanan is an activist whose everyday life turn around making the World better in term of ecologie and politics. This made him gain the Title of kill joy by some of his peers.

Kanan and Juliette are both exclusive love interest: if you Choose the girl apparence you Can date Juliette and if you Choose the boy one you Can date Kanan.

-Clement is Rachelle's and Evan's best Friend. He's a flirty Guy with a hight self-esteem. He's still a lovely and comic person.

-Thomas a Guy who likes to act all mysterious and with who you share the custody of a cat named Java.He work at the Highschool despite being only 19/18.

-Mélanie is your local Mean girl who's a lot more tolerable than last year.She still likes to throw uncalled mockeries at you.

-Dahn is an ex star player of the Best basketball Highschool team of France who decided to change School and to go to Hummingbird.He's a sociable Guy who seems to blend in easely.

-Laurène is a very strong girl and Juliette's best Friend.She's serious and much more mature than most of adults.You Can have truth her without any worry.

Reason number 4: a beautiful story with gorgeous illustrations

While the setting of the story is not revolutionary some episodes genuetly made me gasp especialy for the episode 8 who spoke about revenge porn.The characters feel very humans(for the better and worst).

Reason number 5: HER

This is Candice Mc's best Friend until they move out and I love her so much. Part of it because of a side story that made me relate to her.

If this post convince you to give this game a try you should keep two things mind:

-This game is 100% french and there is not translation from what I know.

-Ajeb the creator of the game do all the sprites, illustrations,coding and writing alone so the update of episodes are slow but there is some special épisode who are disponible !

Side note: you Can download this for free on your computer/laptop and phone (it's not disponible for IOS thought)

[crimeronan]

is 11 for the ask game your three favorite fics you've written, or your favorite three as a reader? well, do whichever one you like! or both. or neither. i'm not the boss of you.

from this ask game!

i'll do both!

for ones i've written:

breathe on the ashes - 106k heart project about the homestuck ancestors. it's about fighting fate and failing and being doomed and dying. also revolutionary martyrs and eldritch gods. i completed it 5 years ago now and would do some things differently today, but there are parts of it that are still.... some of my best writing. like, ever.

we never were good at doing what we're told - 113k heart project that's a soulmate AU written by someone who fucking hates soulmate AUs. mainly about the three narrators navigating their "soulmates as horror" lots in life with polyamory in the background. tons of vicious relationship fights, ugliness, snuggles, and face touching. it's also perhaps the most personal fic about suicide, bipolar disorder, psychosis that i've ever written.

why did love put a gun in my hand - the luz POV princess fic. i've worked harder on wwaitsoatl and my writing in that fic is better, but this one edges it out for my favorite. there's a lot of horror and characterization stuff in here that i'm really pleased with, even moreso than the character stuff i've explored in more canon compliant fic.

-

for ones i've read:

you're a far cry from an empire at peace - yes i know i rec this one Every Time but for good reason. a fic set in the toh princess AU that's about willow as eda's weed-smoking burnout apprentice. she is fucking perfect and the political stuff in here is SOOO GOOOOODDDD

meet hennessy - a gorgeous, evocative, breathtaking character study of hennessy from call down the hawk. it's ugly and raw and really really really fucking good. also worth noting that as far as i remember, this was the first piece of hennessy fanfiction published to ao3 that i didn't write myself. and it DELIVEREDDDDD.

and these are the days that make a forever - ADORABLE raven cycle ot6 polyamory fic about ronan navigating how to come out as gay and polyamorous to his shithead older brother. it is fucking hilarious and always good for a bad day.

bonus because i couldn't decide between ^ that one and:

Spirit and Tongue - another raven cycle fic, this one for the rarepairs of adam/henry and adam/gansey/henry. an AU where adam and henry are fae from opposing courts, and both are fighting for gansey's attention. gansey is a fae-touched human who's clever and sweet and is gonna earn these guys' affection if it kills him. So Fucking Good.

[youwillfindilluminating]

Eight shows to get to know me!  - I was tagged by @pizzaqueen . Thanks for the tag!

This is going to be a really random mix because I know I’m forgetting a TON of good stuff... but off the top of my head, here they are:

30 Rock - An iconic, joke-a-second, half-hour comedy filled with absurdist, bonkers humor.

Happy Endings - Ditto, but much less well known. It was canceled too early but there are still 3 seasons. Also has a canon bi character (Jane) and a gay character (Max) who are both very non-stereotypical. 

Game of Thrones - Yes, the show had some issues. But it’s pretty rare for a great fantasy series to be SO popular. And I’m here for HBO being able to go all out with the crazy shit. Maybe the best watercooler show of our generation?

Schmigadoon - I fucking love musicals. And comedies. And the second season is coming out and it’s going to be more like Chicago-style musical stuff!

White Lotus - Rich white people being insane in luxury locations? Yes, please.

Revolutionary Girl Utena - I felt like I should include an anime to rep my teen/young adult years... This one has gorgeous art and also lesbians! Some of the eps can get repetitive, but certain ones, especially towards the end are fantastic.

Hawaii Five-0 - McDanno! “The show that changed my life~” sounds very cheesy, but true. Many adventures were had because of this show.

Stranger Things - For the Steddie of it all. And the 80s nostalgia and sci-fi/supernatural themes.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Happy Pride Month! What are some good and queer feminist-friendly(preferably shoujo and josei) yuri anime that you can recommend?

You'll have better luck with manga than anime when it comes to yuri. Anime-wise, Bloom in You got a good adaptation of most of it's manga, but you'd have to go to manga to finish the story. The Kase-san and the Morning Glories OVA is also very sweet and cute.

Sweet Blue Flowers also has a good adaptation (gets a little heavy and the main relationship is unresolved though. You can read the end in the manga, but honestly the manga itself is kind of middling due to Shimura's pacing issues and how abruptly it ends.)

And there's of course the old standby of Revolutionary Girl Utena and...yup, that's it.

(Dear Brother is very important in shoujo, yuri and anime history, but it full on wants to backpedal the gay stuff at the end and is steeped in tragedy so it's not going to be for everyone. And Yuri Kuma Arashi is definitely EXTREMELY mixed.)

Hoping Yuri is my Job gets a good adaptation when that comes out! And the Young Ladies Fighting Games one (though I haven't read enough of that series to know if it goes beyond subtext)!

For manga, my favorite completed yuri include Bloom into You and Goodbye, My Rose Garden. There's also some oneshots that had a pretty strong impact when I was younger, particularly Pieta by Nanae Haruno, which goes into issues of abuse and suicide. Yuri-adjacent, but Sex Ed 120% is a worthwhile little series with both lesbian and bisexual main characters in relationships that covers a lot of general sex ed stuff but also talks about LGBTQ history.

(Also, for general content across the LGBTQ spectrum I emphatically recommend Our Dreams At Dusk, which explores the queer community in general with gorgeous art- it's extremely heavy though, dealing with suicidal ideation, homophobia, transphobia and so on).

Ongoing yuri I'm enjoying include How Do We Relationship?, (adult romance and EXTREMELY messy) Doughnuts under the Crescent Moon (adult romance too, sweet so far) Yuri is My Job, the Kase-san And... series (it's starting to drag a bit, but I do appreciate that it followed them into college) and though there's only one volume out, Catch These Hands is about a romance between former delinquent girls who are all grown up now and I love that shit. I super recommend the Otherside Picnic light novels for those who want some fantasy-sci-fi-horror with their yuri. The manga for it is good too, but the English release is excruciatingly slow.

Light novel wise, A Lily Blooms in Another World is a decent one shot and I'm in Love with the Villainess is my problematic fave.

I honestly don't keep up with demographics as much as I used to. Bloom Into You was published in a shonen mag, but the author is a woman and its a manga that really takes care with the queer experience- since it's been well documented that women are more than half the audience for a lot of shonen mags, I feel like the lines are starting to blur with less mainstream titles.

You can see my yuri tag for more stuff!

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Revolutionary Girl Utena Is Too Much, That's Why It's Great

  Once upon a time, there was a girl named Utena who wanted to be a prince. At Ohtori Academy, she met another girl named Anthy, who is engaged to a cruel member of the student council. There is a secret ritual at Ohtori in which the student council duels each other for the right to possess her. Utena refuses to allow this to go on any longer and wins Anthy’s hand after school in an arena deep in the woods under the shadow of a fairy tale castle. With this decision, Utena stakes her claim to the nobility of the prince who inspired her. But what does it mean to be noble, anyway?

  So begins Revolutionary Girl Utena, an anime series assembled by former Sailor Moon staffers under the Be-Papas label. But Utena is far more than just that. It’s a festival of gorgeous imagery, teen melodrama, and operatic prog rock. It has a skewed sense of humor that encompasses surfing elephants and pooping monkeys, but is at times one of the scariest and most unnerving anime ever produced. The show’s staff list includes Academy Award-nominated directors like Mamoru Hosada, as well as anime luminaries like MUSHI-SHI’s Hiroshi Nagahama and art director Chieko Nakamura. It’s one of the best anime of the ‘90s and might be my all-time favorite depending on how I feel that day.

    Revolutionary Girl Utena is overflowing with stuff. There’s the classic moments that have spread through popular culture, like Utena doing a flip in the dueling arena or the Sword of Dios erupting from Anthy’s chest. Then there’s the symbolism: multi-colored roses, fine art, and weird goofy animals. There’s are countless references to other things: fans mention Demian and Twin Peaks as clear inspirations, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized the debt the show owes Keiko Takemiya’s seminal boys’ love comic Kaze to Ki no Uta (Song of the Wind and Trees). Series director Kunihiko Ikuhara has earned a reputation over the years as an uncompromising auteur, but in hindsight, I think his talent isn’t so much originality as it is his capacity as a remixer: taking different styles and motifs — for instance, Sailor Moon and avant-garde ‘70s Shuji Terayama plays — and combining them in unexpected ways. The result is a frightening Katamari ball of repurposed pop culture united under a singular visual aesthetic.

  The show’s breadth grants the creators the time and space to indulge in some truly weird ideas. One of the most iconic parts of the series are the shadow girl sequences, which appear like clockwork before an episode’s duel and are either a key for its themes or a joke at the viewer’s expense — or both. Then there are the Nanami episodes, which delight in finding new and hilarious ways to torture the show’s resident mean girl. An entire third of the show is devoted to the Black Rose Arc, which puts Utena and Anthy’s story on hold to flesh out the side cast and crank up the horror imagery. Despite its lack of relevance to the show’s “main plot,” the Black Rose Arc alone is a favorite of several folks I know and foreshadows all of Ikuhara’s later work.  I can’t imagine the show without it.

    Plenty of anime has since come along bearing Utena’s influence. Some of them were created by Utena staff members, like 2019’s Sarazanmai. Others are disciples of later Ikuhara-directed projects; for instance, Shouko Nakamura led a crew of Penguindrum alumni to create the charming film Classmates, while the visually stunning Revue Starlight anime franchise is led by Yuri Bear Storm director Tomohiro Furukawa and his team. Across the seas, Steven Universe bears Utena’s print. Even the massively popular phone game Fate/GO has some Utena DNA through its writers' shared interest in the series. Some of these works have managed to approach Utena’s substance, while others have equaled or even exceeded its style. Yet I’d say that none of these series have managed to fully encompass what Utena was at its best. Even my pick for the best of the lot, fellow Sailor Moon alumni Ikuko Itoh's marvelous Princess Tutu, lacks just a bit of Utena’s spice by comparison.

  Utena has plenty of style and substance, but I wouldn’t say either of those elements is the show’s true secret sauce. One potential answer is its cruelty. Utena allows its cast to be genuinely mean to each other in ways that contemporaries like Revue Starlight never allow. At the same time, the show tackles themes that child-friendly series like Steven Universe and Princess Tutu could or would not touch: rape, incest, abuse. That is not to say that Utena does so perfectly. While rewatching the series this year with friends, I found myself questioning exactly what the creators were trying to do with certain scenes (especially in the show’s final arc), or wondering if they were being too knowing or flippant with such loaded material. I wouldn’t begrudge people who find it to be too much for them, or prefer work that takes a less aggressive approach. Personally, though, I appreciate Utena’s willingness to delve into messy and conflicted feelings. I think the show’s heart is in the right place even if it can be mean to its audience.

    That said, rather than cruelty, I think the true answer is the show’s size. At 39 episodes, Revolutionary Girl Utena sprawls, replete with weird little cul de sacs and dead ends. These indulgences are inseparable from the show’s character. When I first watched the show as a teenager, I thought it was perfect. With the benefit of hindsight, I see that the series isn’t a pristine monument, but a tangled bird’s nest. Yet that’s exactly what makes the show as a whole so enduring. No other anime of its kind is as shocking, hilarious, dramatic or even boring for so much time. Utena is not any weaker for being overstuffed.  Utena is great because it is overstuffed.

  That great uncompromising size and density has drawn writers to the show over the years like moths to a flame. Enterprising readers looking for an episodic guide to the series might turn to Vrai Kaiser’s Consulting Analyst or Dee Hogan’s Utena Watch Party. Those seeking to understand Utena’s influence on Japanese anime at large should turn to the classic blog post Ikuhara School Directors & Utena's Legacy. If that still isn’t enough, the annals of the fansite Empty Movement will keep you busy until the End of the World. I believe that these writers are drawn to Utena not because it is intimidating or pretentious but for its generosity. It’s not so much that the answers to Utena are in doubt, as that there are so many answers you could continue to write about the series for years and still never cover them all. Like Revolutionary Girl Utena itself, their collective efforts are an act of love. As Be-Papas honored what they loved in their work, we honor them. Meanwhile, Utena endures: a gorgeous, funny, scary, frustrating, outrageous, weird, and always surprising masterpiece.

  Are you a Revolutionary Girl Utena fan? What is your favorite Nanami episode? Do you ever find yourself singing "Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku" while walking up staircases? Let us know in the comments!

      Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. When he isn't rewatching the Utena movie every New Year's Eve, he sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? You can find him on Twitter at: @wendeego

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a feature, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Adam Wescott

[potentialproblem01]

Minor Acts- a Jan/male reader fic

For @thesunflowersutra You wanted some fic, I have delivered. A week late but who’s counting.

Also posted on my AO3 if you prefer to read it there, mark for later, etc, whatever. 

Minor Acts- 1.6k E-rated pwp smut

Jan looks at you over the cherry of his burning smoke. You'd been planning this for a while now, pouring out papers and schematics across the floor of his room. The work was finally coming to fruition. 

Tension had been growing since you’d levered yourself off the floor earlier that day, nearly slipping on a stray paper before hauling Jan up too, ending up pulling him into your space. There'd been the hum of tension and anticipation as you packed bags and gathered supplies. 

The plan was solid and it worked. The two of you watched the bomb go off from across the bay hidden by the night and old ocean-swept trees and distance. Coffee in one hand, cigarette in the other behind matching smiles watching the flames catch, shockwaves echoing across the water. The collapse of the human anaesthetic of TV. 

You turn to him, euphoria of a well executed plan simmering and transforming into something a little more wild and further untamed; less satisfaction and more hunger. The discipline of the fight slinking out of you as you catch his eye, trailing over his nose and his scruff. 

He sees you looking and like always, it’s a battle of who gives in first. You chuck your cigarette aside.

You’re never really sure who wins or loses these games but you lean in first, catching his bottom lip. The night stretches unlimited by possibility as you push him over on the blanket, climbing on top and sitting across his hips as you feel his interest start to grow. He can feel yours assuredly as you press him down, ribcages preventing you from getting closer. 

The wind had died down from the day and the peace of starlight and calm water tempers the flare of need you have despite the carnage across the bay. You go slow, enjoying his taste; nicotine and the sweet remnants of the joint from earlier, cheap wine from lunch, the salt and freedom of the sea. 

He gets his hand under your shirt, trailing over your abs and toying with the band of your jeans. His eyes glitter in the dark, full of mischief with the promise of indecent misconduct. His hands move back up, across the thin lower ribs and brushing against your nipples as they push up, encouraging you to lift your arms and discard your t-shirt. The worn out cotton lands in the grass and you move your hands back down to him, getting one hand in the longer hair on top of his head and a forearm to the side to keep from smothering him. His arms come around your middle, digging into the soft muscles of your back. 

You give him another kiss before peppering his face with them: cupid's bow, tip of his nose before dropping them across his beard line. He lets out a soft sigh and grinds up against your ass, using his grip around you to lift himself into you, being his usual needy self. You press down with your hips, angles of your bones clicking with his, your arousal trapped between you. He still struggles with trying to create some friction but you don’t let him. 

You latch onto his neck, nibbling and sucking to bruise, pulling his head back to give you space to work. Torturing him when he so clearly needs you. You pull on his hair a little more, not to hurt but to tell him to behave. 

You sit back and pull him up a little, letting go to get his shirt off too. His rough skin tastes like the sea as you lick at him. Down over the soft swell of his pec to lavish his nipple in reward for a job well done today. He mewls so pretty, soft chest fuzz sliding against your afternoon coarseness. 

You nose along his skin before crossing over to the other side, giving the same reward to the other nipple. He moves his hands to your hair, dragging fingers across the shorn velvet part at the base of your skull before tugging on the longer strands. You resist his insistence to hurry as you back down his body, savoring his impatience as you kiss down his linea alba, playing with the hair there. 

You hook your fingers into his waistband, sliding them around to undo the button and pull them down and off. You stand up to shuck your own jeans off too, reaching for the backpack. He props himself up, watching you halo orange in the firelight. The night air is cooling you faster than the draining remnants of danger. 

You packed the lube in the side pouch. 

You settle back between his legs popping the cap and squeezing the cool liquid across your fingers. Tracing down the seam, pressing the soft skin before skipping down and pressing gently into his hole. He’s still a little open from the morning and your finger sinks in so easy. He’s wiggling, begging for another and you oblige; he did so good today, he’s earned it. 

You dip in a second finger, pushing at the heat of his ring before hooking up and pressing gently at his prostate. He lets out a soft shout, not prepared for you to get to him so quickly. You usually take your time, but you have no patience for that tonight as your work burns behind you. There’s something driving you to skip the foreplay and get right to being close, like a final closure to the plan. Like spending the stolen cash. Like hanging the stolen art.

The papers in the morning will speculate about an accident but the evening editions will display the note he left about TV being the opiate of the masses on the front page. 

You dip in a third finger, pulling at his ring teasing and lilting. Feathery touches to his thighs and the cut of his hip bones. He’s a squirming mess beneath you, so beautiful in the dark and smelling like the remnants of plastic explosives. 

You withdraw your fingers and pull him in by the hips, grabbing the lube again and drizzling some over your cock before spreading it over yourself. You grab his hips to line yourself up before pulling him up your thighs to get close enough. You angle his hips with one hand and guide yourself to his hole with the other before pushing in, the resistance light as you enter him. 

His face makes the most exquisite scrunch as you stretch him open again. You fit yourself in and let go of his hips to drag a slick hand up his stomach, lube sticking to his happy trail. You tweak a nipple before leaning in to steal a kiss. He kisses back with a whimper, chasing your lips as you pull away and grip his waist. 

You thrust slow and sure, his heat incredible in the night air and you want this to last. 

His skin is warm against you, sticky with the ambient salt, his hair stiff with it. When you run your hand through the strands, they stick out in every direction, softening him in your eyes. Here, under you, he’s hardly just a hard-eyed revolutionary, he’s one of the most beautiful people and minds you’ve ever met. You’re pretty sure the image of him spread on your cock as a satellite station burns behind you casting long orange shadows across the salted bay will stay with you forever. 

You keep thrusting in with easy and slow strokes until he looks so fragile he might cry. You like when he cries but now is hardly the place to put him back together after. You pick up the pace, changing the angle by getting further under him. 

He soon starts to shake, tightening around you. You’re not near enough to the edge to come at the same time but you think you’ll have plenty of chances to synchronize in other aftermaths. With another drag across his prostate, he’s coming, ropes painting his stomach and reaching up his chest. Some hitting you. In his blissed out state, you fuck into him with abandon, seeking your own release until you find it burning through your core and burying deep inside him.

You stay there, buried in him, panting. He’s starting to come down to earth himself, looking at you with hazy brown eyes. Your breaths eventually even and a calm settles over your little beachy cliff. The stars are obscured now by the smoke and light of the flames but you can feel them up there, twinkling away because everything is as it should be. 

You pull out of him, cock soft and wet with lube and come. You back away to wipe off with the edge of a blanket and lean in to look as your come dribbles out of his ass. It’s one of your favorite sights. You plant a kiss on both his thighs, licking up some of his cooling come before wiping the rest away with the blanket too. 

He lets out this beautiful sigh and you know he’s about to pass out. You’re safe for now. Content. Something bordering happiness crawling up the base of your brain stem. You hate to think it’s love but if the bomb detonates...

He falls asleep after he comes like he usually does, exactly in the position you left him in. His arms are splayed on the blanket, legs pushed out from his hips where you cleaned him off. 

You let him sleep for a while. The sirens have only just started blaring, red and blue lights not yet flashing across the water. He’s gorgeous when he sleeps, looking much less angry with the world. He’ll have another idea when he wakes but for now you bask in the heat of the flames and his love. Tomorrow will be another plan.

After all, what’s a minor act of terrorism between lovers?

[f1bbe3]

Thank God You’re not a Pervert!

In a world full of soulmates, Asahi felt some sort of relief, just a little. On one hand he won’t have to court someone, the universe already did it for him! On the other, he had to meet them. And oh how he dreaded that day. During his time off from volleyball, the poor boy did nothing but worry. Less sports meant less distraction, which meant more time looking at his inner forearm where the words “Oh! Sorry!” were permanently stamped in his soulmates handwriting. 

His whole life, Asahi has felt bad about his mark, even to the point where he started hiding it in middle school. He used everything: gauze wrap, bandaids, long sleeves, always holding a book to his chest, keeping his arm to his side at all times—everything! That plan worked out well until he met Suga in his first year at Karasuno. The team was in the club room, getting dressed before a big game. Asahi is a very careful man, he was able to hide it for months, but every strand of caution tape ends eventually. 

An upperclassman, one that Asahi never talked to much outside of practice, was always bothered by the mystery of his mark. We all have them. I mean, how bad could it be? So what else could a senpai do but help, right? And who else to help conspire but Suga?

It was a mediocre plan, really; one made on the way to the club room. It's a surprise it even worked. As soon as Asahi raised his hands behind his head, reaching for the collar of his shirt to remove it, they struck. Upperclassmen grabbed his torso so he wouldn’t run, and suga went to work with the bandages. After a slight struggle, the dark ink was out in all its glory. 

Asahi hung his head, waiting for the laughing that he convinced himself would follow, but it never came. Instead of gawking and trying to cover their sneers, his teammates...smiled. The third year that he thought would give him hell for sure, was pushing down his sock to show the “Ewwwww!” on his ankle. Two second years showed their “But, why?” and “I didn’t mean it like that!” marks. The game played after that marked the first day he felt relieved to show his mark; like he wasn't so odd after all.

That’s not to say he didn’t have his doubts sometimes. There was the occasional “What did I say? Did I hurt them? Oh God are they gonna hate me!?” to which Daichi reassured with the logic that they wouldn’t be his soulmate if they couldn’t handle him. That idea always soothed Asahi, even today, at the training camp barbecue. Teams from nearby schools gather to compete and practice. He should’ve been focused on Suga trying to steal bits off his plate, but the tall man couldn’t help but be caught up with all the strangers around him. What if one was the one? He subconsciously straightened his back and relaxed his shoulders, trying to make a good first impression on someone who probably wasn’t even there.

━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━

Entering a club your last year of high school probably wasn’t a good move on your part, especially if you’re managing the rowdiest boys in the entire Tokyo prefecture. They all deserted you to fend for yourself in this mess of teenage athletes and your only saving grace was Kuroo. You internally thanked him for seeing your obvious unfamiliarity with this sort of event. 

He led you through the crowd, stopping periodically to yell at Lev, tell Kenma to eat, or brag talk about you and introduce you to his friends. You know you should be paying attention to names and faces, but you can't help but drift off just a little. Thinking about your unfortunate soulmark—to say the least—your brain musters up the possibility of your fated lover being here among you. That tiny bit of hope is enough to give you a shred of a confidence boost. You look around at the sea of jerseys and testosterone, trying to find someone who looks gross enough to match your mark. 

Switching your cup from hand to hand, your eyes dash around the area before clashing with another pair sitting at a table with his team. A dark, deep brown; the kindest eyes a human could have. A flush of butterflies quickly takes over your stomach and throat, but you turn away just as fast. He's the most gorgeous man you’ve ever seen, yes, and that feeling is definitely new, but he just doesn't match your mark. He looks too sweet; not douchebagish enough to match your mark. 

Seemingly reading your mind and ignoring it, Kuroo says goodbye to his friend (Bokura, or maybe it was Bokuto?) and guides you to the table. You make eye contact with the brown eyed boy again, you hold it until he looks away just as the other table members see you coming. 

Kuroo introduces you to the table, who you now know as the third years of Karasuno. You try to ignore the gaze on you from the boy, Asahi, as you take your seat in the middle of him and Daichi. The conversation glides from your first year managing, to Yaku's surprisingly strong grip, to the similarities between Yamamoto, Tanaka, and Noya, who joined the table once they saw you. 

Between the not-so-subtle glances at Asahi, you get caught up in Kuroo’s story of how he and Kenma met and realized they were soulmates. You get so caught up that you reach for your cup without checking that it’s yours. A hand reaches out from beside you and lightly pushes your wrist from bringing the drink any closer to your mouth. 

━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━

“This is mine.” It comes out more apologetic than Asahi wanted it to, but doesn’t correct himself when you turn to look at him and quickly reply.

“Oh! Sorry!” You say it faster than your brain can process what he said, and when it clicks you both freeze. 

It takes a total of three seconds of eye contact for Kuroo to realize what he just saw. He stops mid sentence, motionless, waiting for either of you to say anything. His shocked expression brings the table’s attention to you and Asahi. Lev’s cut short laugh signals the next table to look and eventually the entire camp is at the edge of their seats. 

But a revolutionary moment can’t last forever and Asahi’s team can’t wait to meet their ace’s soulmate. Tanaka, Noya, and Hinata immediately bombard you with questions as Suga tries his best to control them. As the three wrestle to get closer to you, Noya yells out, asking where your soul mark is. It’s enough to snap you out of your surprise and you stand up from the table. 

The whole camp watches as you stand behind your seat and begin to unbutton your jeans—

“OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH OF THAT (Y/N) JUST SHOW US YOUR ARM OR WHATEVER AND GET IT OVER WITH!” Kuroo yelled, trying his damn best to block Lev’s view. You only roll your eyes and glance at Asahi, who looks like he’s about to die from embarrassment, but he doesn't look away. As you start to push down the hem of your pants, you can hear his breath hitch, and you move your hands away to show your mark. Every boys’ (and Yachi’s) face goes red as they read the “This is mine.” printed on your pubic bone in Asahi’s handwriting. 

‘DAMN ASAHI YOU GOT LUCKY!” Tanaka howled, initiating a roar of laughter across the yard. You fix your jeans and sit back down next to Asahi, who is too sheepish to look at you. After the laughing dies down and you get your fair share of congratulations, your soulmate leans into you and apologizes for your mark being so promiscuous. You laugh and turn towards him fully.

“I always thought my soulmate was gonna be gross, thank God you’re not a pervert!”

[mostlysignssomeportents]

All the books I reviewed in 2020

I know it's a little late for Xmas shipping, but I'm FINALLY getting around to publishing a roundup of all the books I reviewed in 2019!

Part 1: FICTION FOR ADULTS

I. AGENCY by William Gibson: A sequel to The Peripheral for the Trump years, about seductive bitterness of imagined alternate timelines, filled with cyberpunk cool and action.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-01-24/agency-william-gibson

II. RIOT BABY by Tochi Onyebuchi: An incandescent Afrofuturist novella that connects the Rodney King uprising with contemporary struggle, pitting supernatural powers against dire politics.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/23/riot-baby/#Tochi-Onyebuchi

III. OR WHAT YOU WILL by Jo Walton: A metafiction about the desperate attempt of a character to pull his writer into a fictional world to save the both from human mortality.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/07/little-bro-with-snowden/#metafiction

IV. A BEAUTIFULLY FOOLISH ENDEAVOR by Hank Green: Sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing - a madcap and sometimes brutal tale of social media influencers, alien invaders, disinformation, and runaway capitalism.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/08/absolutely-remarkable-thing/#carls

V. FAILED STATE by Christopher Brown: A legal eco-thriller that imagines the end of capitalism without imagining the end of the world - cyberpunk meets ecotopianism, with anarchist jurisdictions, show-trials, and rewilding.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/12/failed-state/#chris-brown

VI. AFTERLAND by Lauren Beukes: Eerily well-timed road-trip novel set after a prostate-cancer plague wipes out nearly every man on Earth, except for the protagonist's teenaged son, who is now being hunted by the (all-female) US government.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/28/afterland/#XY

VII. BALLISTIC KISS by Richard Kadrey: Sandman Slim confronts the worst demons of all - his own trauma and self-doubt.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/25/anxietypunk/#bk

VIII. SQUEEZE ME by Carl Hiaasen: Hiaasen was writing comedic whodunnits about improbable Florida Man types decades before the memes, and his Mar-a-Lago gator plague novel is a hectic and hilarious tale for our times.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/05/florida-man/#disappearing-act

VIII. The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson: KSR says it's his last novel and I say it's the book he's been training to write all his life. If you like your climate fiction wrenching but still uplifting enough to move you to tears...

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/03/ministry-for-the-future/#ksr

IX. SET MY HEART TO FIVE by Simon Stephenson: An absurdist robot-romp in the mold of Kurt Vonnegut about a robot who catches the disease of emotions and tries to treat it by moving to Hollywood to write screenplays about robots.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/01/cant-pay-wont-pay/#robot-rights

Part 2: NONFICTION FOR ADULTS

I. A PUBLIC SERVICE by Tim Schwartz: An incredibly practical, detailed guide for would-be whistleblowers (and journalists who work with them) to staying safe while spilling the beans.

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/08/a-public-service-a-comprehensive-comprehensible-guide-to-leaking-documents-to-journalists-and-public-service-groups-without-getting-caught/

II. THE MONSTERS KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING by Keith Ammann: A sourcebook for RPG game-masters explaining how different kinds of monsters can use a variety of combat tactics that add depth, texture (and challenge) to your games.

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/10/the-monsters-know-what-theyre-doing-an-rpg-sourcebook-for-dms-who-want-to-imbue-monsters-with-deep-smart-tactics/

III. SNOWDEN'S BOX by Jessica Bruder and Dale Maharidge: The incredible, true tale of how trust among friends allowed Snowden's leaks to safely transit from his home in Hawai'i to the hands of Laura Poitras and the journalists who reported the story.

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/03/31/snowdens-box-the-incredible-illuminating-story-of-the-journey-of-snowdens-hard-drive/

III. ABOLISH SILICON VALLEY by Wendy Liu: A personal journey from a fully bought-in believer in Silicon Valley's meritocracy to a ferocious critic who demands tech to serve humanity, not a human race in service to the tech industry.

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/04/14/abolish-silicon-valley-memoir-of-a-driven-startup-founder-who-became-an-anti-capitalist-activist/

IV. THE CASE FOR A JOB GUARANTEE by Pavlina Tcherneva: A fierce little book setting out an economic program to rescue the nation and the planet from a system that insists we can't even hope for a better world.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/22/jobs-guarantee/#job-guarantee

VII. SUBPRIME ATTENTION CRISIS by Tim Hwang: What's worse than having our lies destroyed by surveillance to manipulate us with ads? Having our lives destroyed by surveillance in order to fuel a fraudulent market in ad-based manipulation.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/05/florida-man/#wannamakers-ghost

VIII. MONOPOLIES SUCK by Sally Hubbard: There are plenty of *great* books about monopolies and the resurgence in antitrust, but Hubbard's is the most practical, providing the reader with excellent advice for actually *doing something* about monopolism.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/27/peads-r-us/#sally-hubbard

IX. BREAK 'EM UP by Zephyr Teachout: The most lucid, readable, infuriating, energizing book on the rise of monopolies. Teachout never loses sight of the systemic nature of the problem, even as she uses individual stories to tell the tale.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/29/break-em-up/#break-em-up

X. BOUNDLESS REALM by Fox Nolte: There has never been a better book about the Haunted Mansion (indeed, this is one of the best books ever written about environmental design in general). Nolte goes *way* beyond trite wisdom about "storytelling."

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/09/boundless-realm/#fuxxfur

PART 3: GRAPHIC NOVELS

I. YEAR OF THE RABBIT by Tean Viasna: A graphic memoir of Viasna's harrowing boyhood during the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. It's a tale we've rarely seen through the eyes of a child, and brilliantly realized.

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/22/year-of-the-rabbit-a-graphic-novel-memoir-of-one-familys-life-under-the-khmer-rouge/

II. FEMALE FURIES by @misscecil​: Castellucci uses an obscure and anachronistic all-woman cast of DC Universe b-characters to tell an incredible, smart, pitiless story about #MeToo, comics, solidarity and betrayal.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/29/female-furies/#apokolips-now

III. LONELINESS OF THE LONG-DISTANCE CARTOONIST by Adrian Tomine: A memoir of intensely felt impostor syndrome, a forceful reminder that comparison is the thief of joy - and that the traits that keep an artist going at first go toxic over time.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/21/the-thief-of-joy/#tomine

IV. CONSTITUTION ILLUSTRATED by R Sikoryak: The Trump years were an unhappy crash-course in Constitutional law, but Sikoryak's genius adaptation of the Constitution in the style of dozens of cartoonists is a pure delight.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/27/ip/#r-sikoryak

PART 4: KIDS AND YA

I. SEND PICS by Lauren McLaughlin: A YA novel that's a thrilling revenge-play about "revenge porn," a cyber-heist novel that's also a sneaky and forceful book about teen girls' sexuality.

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/04/21/send-pics-ripping-brutal-amazing-novel-about-teens-sextortion-revenge-and-justice/

II. IMPOSSIBLE MUSIC by Sean Williams: A YA novel about a music-obsessed kid who loses his hearing is the frame for a book about ability, adaptation, music theory, family, Deafness and what dreams are really for.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/30/deafhood/#impossible-music

III. HARD WIRED by Len Vlahos: A 15 year old discovers the truth behind bizarre dysfunction of the world around him: he's an AI in a sim, and the guy he thinks of as his long-dead father is actually the research scientists who created him.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/31/ai-rights-now/#len-vlahos

IV. ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL, by Daniel Pinkwater: Like every Pinkwater novel, it defies description, it is brilliant, and it is his best to date. Ghosts, Revolutionary War fleshbots, papaya juice, and supernatural beings from the Catskills!

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/25/dwergish-girl/#you-are-a-pickle

V. WITCH by Finbar Hawkins: A beautiful debut novel about a pair of 17th century sisters who avenge themselves against the witchfinders that murdered their mother. A superbly told historical.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/01/the-years-of-repair/#witch

FINALLY: I published *four* books in 2020!

I. POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER: My debut picture book, about a little girl who turns her toys into weapons and torments her parents by hunting monsters all night, with wonderful art by Matt Rockefeller:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627

II. LITTLE BROTHER/HOMELAND: My multibestselling YA novels were reissued last summer in a gorgeous package with a (fantastic) new introduction by Snowden.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583

III. ATTACK SURFACE: A standalone, adult sequel to Little Brother and Homeland. The New York Times called it "vocal and unflinching" and "ultimately optimistic"; the Washington Post called it a "riveting techno-thriller."

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

IV. HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM: A long pamphlet/short book that makes the case that Big Tech manipulates us and spies on us because they have monopolies - not because they've developed devastating, data-driven mind-control.

https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

[palmett-hoes]

Imagine Neil and Katelyn bonding over their love for their boyfriends' chub (not in like a weird fetish way but like "wow this person is gorgeous, every last bit of them, how can they not see that??")

HELL YEA BUDDY!!!!! LOVE THAT!!!

now i wanna start with katelyn bc while i don’t think that ppl should be praised for being with a “hard to love” partner bc that’s very shitty, i also think it’s fair to talk about the fact that katelyn probably got a lot of shit for being with aaron. he’s short and he’s fat and he’s a former addict and no getting around it, people are just,, really incredibly impossibly shitty about all three of those things. and of course it’s aaron who suffers the most harassment and judgement for these things but it’s also true that katelyn probably gets a lot of shit for being with him, especially as a cheerleader. for a lot of people that kind of pressure can break a relationship and for that it’s so good and so important to see that katelyn loves aaron including his body, including the way he looks, and wants people to know that. she doesn’t care what anyone says or thinks

idk there are more revolutionary things but that makes me happy bc i love my trash garbage son aaron and he deserves to be loved and seen and shown off in the way he so clearly wants to be but is afraid of

i like to think that katelyn is a cheer base, meaning she’s the one throwing ppl into the air, meaning she’s Big and Strong, and she and aaron are kind of on equal footing. the can both be the legs in the game of chicken, if yknow what i mean. katelyn’s incredibly proud of her strength and her height and sometimes she likes to hold that above aaron’s head a little bit literally lol and pick him up and carry him around just bc she can and it makes him kinda Grumpy But In A Cute Way, but also she likes that he can pick her up and spin her around just as easily. they’re balanced

and then neil

it’s so interesting for me to try and get into neil’s headspace about attraction because i’m allo and he’s demi so we don’t,, operate the same but i find it very fascinating trying to understand approaching attraction from a different starting point

so for neil, bodies are very neutral to him. he’s not attracted to them, he’s not repulsed by them. usually his only thoughts on them are what he can read from them: language, history, physical ability, threat level. that’s all a body is to him. “nice tits” or “great ass” or “hot abs” is all pretty meaningless to him because he doesn’t have that intrinsic gut reaction to these things 

neil’s attraction to andrew comes first from a mental and emotional place and his physical attraction is very much derived from that. he would be attracted to andrew physically regardless of what he looks like, and similarly he would not be attracted to someone who looked like andrew but was not him

from this i like to think that neil’s attraction was built up bit by bit from being allowed to look at and touch andrew. andrew’s arms are hot because they’re andrew’s, his stomach is sexy because it’s andrew’s. for neil those words were amorphous and essentially meaningless before, he builds his understanding of what they mean off of the way he feels about andrew’s body

i could talk about this in circles forever and never feel like i’m explaining it right but just like,, neil is so in love with andrew that whole parts of his vocabularly are formed from and centered around him because andrew makes him  experience entirely new feelings

[artificialqueens]

Tree House Kisses, Chapter 41 (Adorney) - Scorpio and Veronica

A/N: Hi everyone! Okay so, in this chapter, they begin working on a new musical, and I URGE you to check it out if you haven’t: The Scarlet Pimpernel. Also! I made a playlist with every song we’ve used as chapter titles, including the upcoming ones pretty much through the end of the story. Click here for previous chapters or here if you’d rather read on AO3. And thank you SO MUCH to wonderful betas: @saiphl, @sillylittlecandycane!!! XOXOXO

Chapter Summary: New semester, new school musical: and Courtney’s star is finally on the rise.

Chapter 41: You Are My Home

It was weird having Roy back home for the holidays, Adore thought, watching him tell a story to Bob, Jamin, and Thorgy, commanding all the attention as usual, sipping from a solo cup and gesturing wildly. It was even weirder to see him getting sloppy-drunk as the night wore on--Adore supposed that college was a bigger challenge than he’d planned for, and maybe he needed to blow off some steam. Still, seeing him grope Courtney as he bent her over Thorgy’s pool table was certainly...something different.

It was over a month since the night of her break-up with Tati, that near miss where she’d come so scarily close to a confession. Once in a while, late at night, she’d have a brief twinge of regret for not being honest. Most of the time though, she felt like she’d absolutely made the right call--their friendship was stronger than it had ever been. So Roy’s dumbass horndog behavior tonight was actually making her laugh.

Maybe it was Courtney’s eye rolls as he rubbed against her, but Adore didn’t find Roy nearly as annoying as she used to. He was no longer a looming, oppressive reminder of her hopeless crush. He was just a guy who came back from college to awkwardly hang out with his high school friends over winter break. A guy who was currently grinding pathetically against his girlfriend, trying (and failing) to get some affection.

“I thought you were gonna teach me Vanessa’s tricks,” Courtney said, pushing him away gently as she lined up her cue.

“I’m trying, but I need to get close,” Roy said, pulling her ass back against him. He leaned forward and murmured something into her hair, something which made her burst out laughing.

“Ummm...no offense, babe, but I don’t really feel like you’d be on your A game tonight,” Courtney said, still giggling.

“Rude,” he pouted.

Courtney looked up, catching Adore’s eye and sending her another exaggerated eye roll. Adore smiled back at her, shaking her head.

“Do you want to sleep over tonight?” Courtney asked.

“Yes,” Roy said, moving her hair aside to kiss her neck.

“Not you!” Courtney said, swatting him on the shoulder before giving Adore an exasperated look. “I meant Dory.”

Adore knew that it was petty, but she couldn’t help the slight thrill that Courtney was choosing her over Roy. It didn’t mean anything--they’d gotten back into their old habit of Adore staying with her every time Bonnie worked a night shift, and she knew that’s all it was. And anyway, it probably wasn’t going to happen, given the way Roy was now pouting and whining.

“Why her? She gets to see you all the time!” Roy argued, indignant. When Courtney didn’t immediately cave, he tried a softer tactic. “Please, baby, I miss you so much…”

“Fine. You can have the floor,” Courtney said, taking Adore by such surprise that she didn’t have time to cover her mouth before a loud cackle of laughter escaped.

“You are the meanest girlfriend in the entire world,” Roy said.

“I know.” Courtney leaned forward and kissed him gently on the cheek.

-

PEARL: How was your sleepover?

ADORE: So weird

PEARL: Did all three of you pile into Courtney’s bed?

ADORE: Ew, not that weird. No, Roy slept on the floor in a sleeping bag and Courtney and I slept in her bed. So like...just awkward as fuck.

PEARL: What’s wrong, you don’t like spooning her while her boyfriend is 2 feet away?

ADORE: Ugh

PEARL: Wanna come over today? Trin’s gonna be here in like an hour

ADORE: I can’t. I told Court I’d go ice skating with her and Roy.

PEARL: Well well well, how cosy

ADORE: Shut up

PEARL: The three musketeers

ADORE: SHUT UP

Adore sighed. She supposed it was probably strange that she’d been spending her whole break hanging out with Courtney and Roy, but it wasn’t her fault. Courtney invited her everywhere and Roy was just...always there. Besides, when it really came down to it, she liked Roy. And she liked how happy Courtney was when all three of them were together. And to her relief, they’d chilled out a lot on the PDA, now more like an old married couple who teased each other constantly and bickered playfully, using Adore to settle every disagreement.

So, if they had to be the Three Musketeers for another week, Adore was actually fine with that.

-

The musical for their senior year was The Scarlet Pimpernel, and Courtney was absolutely beside herself with glee when she landed the lead. All weekend, she listened to the soundtrack on repeat, falling in love with the music and story and her character, a French actress named Marguerite who was embroiled in a complicated love triangle with her British aristocrat husband and her French revolutionary ex-lover. She sang the songs over and over until she knew them by heart, and drove everyone in the household bonkers with her attempt at a French accent.

They had their first cast reading on a Monday evening in mid-January, and as usual, Mrs. Maguire had them sing through their songs as best they could. Courtney was especially excited when it came time to sing her duet with Adore, who was cast as her brother. It was a gorgeous, sappy ballad and one of her favorites in the show, always making her tear up.

Adore began a bit tentatively, since she hadn’t spent nearly as much time listening to the soundtrack as Courtney, but after a few bars, she got into it too, the drama of clinging to her “sister” as they waited in jail, facing the guillotine together.

“You are my home You make me strong And in this world of strangers, I belong to someone You are all I have You’re all I have; I need you so…”

Courtney, of course, had already memorized every word, and she sang directly into Adore’s eyes, arms wrapped around her neck.

Later, in her office, Mrs. Maguire was sitting pensively, brow furrowed in concern when Thorgy came in to let her know that the crew was finished cleaning up.

“Thor...let me ask you a question. I need a...second opinion.”

“Sure.”

“Do you think it was a mistake casting Courtney and Adore as siblings?”

“How so?” he asked carefully.

She cleared her throat. “Well...do you think they have too much of a...how should I put this...romantic vibe?”

Thorgy burst out laughing.

“Mrs. Maguire...girl…you don’t know the half of it.”

“So, I didn’t imagine that?”

“No. They’ve always been like that,” he told her.

“I mean, I knew they were close friends, but...isn’t Courtney still dating Roy?”

“Yeah...yeah. But…well, you saw it.” Thorgy chuckled again.

“Oy.” Mrs. Maguire picked up a cast list. “I may need to change some things around.”

The next day, a solution fell into her lap when Willam came to see her during the fourth period, looking more distraught than she’d ever seen him. Apparently, he was committed to the show choir for the Spring, and there were a bunch of scheduling conflicts with rehearsals, making it damn near impossible for him to play the title role he’d gotten. It was unsettling to see a kid who was normally as cool as a cucumber so upset.

“I don’t want to quit, I love doing the plays so much,” he said tearfully, and she jumped up to give him a hug.

“Of course you don’t want to quit. Listen, honey, it’s your senior year. We can definitely figure out a way for you to do both, okay? I might have to shuffle some casting, but it’ll all work out. I promise.” She hugged him again, patting him on the back.

“If you tell anyone I cried, I’ll key your car,” came his muffled voice, and she laughed, promising to keep his shameful secret.

Once he left, she sat back down, a relieved sigh leaving her. This could work out perfectly.

She spoke to all the kids individually about their new casting. Bob was over the moon when he found out he’d be taking over Willam’s title role: the wealthy aristocratic Percy, Courtney’s new husband, who uses his foppish clothing obsession as a cover in order to go into France and rescue his friends from the guillotine. And Willam was thrilled that not only did he still have a part, but a good one--taking over Adore’s role as Courtney’s brother, Armand. Adore was also delighted--she now had Bob’s role, a radical and sexy French revolutionary and compelling villain. After reading the script closely a few times, she asked Mrs. Maguire if it was necessary to play her new character, Chauvelin, as a man.

“Can’t I be a radical leftist woman instead?” she asked, during that first week of rehearsals.

“I don’t see why not,” Mrs. Maguire answered, tossing out a casual, “Courtney, Chauvelin is now your ex-girlfriend, not your ex-boyfriend.”

Courtney looked up with wide eyes before smiling and nodding, giving Adore a sassy wink. This show was certainly going to be interesting.

-

As a gentle knock sounded, Courtney rolled over slightly, whimpering. She was achy and feverish and felt absolutely awful. And to make matters worse, she’d missed two whole days of rehearsal with no telling when she’d feel better. At this rate, Mrs. Maguire would probably be giving her part away to her understudy, a freshman who’d never even been in a play before.

“Come in,” she said weakly, tears collecting in her eyes as she thought about how unfair it all was. She’d worked so hard, taken ensemble roles and been an understudy herself and helped with ticket sales and sold ads for every program and never complained, and now she was probably going to lose her one chance to be the lead in a musical.

Adore pushed the door open, offering a sympathetic, “Hey, babe, how ya doin’?”

Courtney tried to lift her head, even that small movement making her wince in pain, hot tears trickling down her cheeks.

“Don’t get up!” Adore rushed to her side, placing a few books on her nightstand. “I just came by to bring your homework.”

“Thanks,” Courtney said, sniffling.

“What’s the matter?” Adore pressed a cool hand to her cheek, lips turned down in a frown as a tear slipped down Courtney’s face.

“I’m just worried that Mrs. Maguire’s gonna give my part away,” Courtney admitted.

“Don’t worry about that. It took all of today’s rehearsal to get through half of ‘The Creation of Man.’ We have plenty of shit to work on without you. Besides, no one but you could do that part justice, anyway.”

Courtney blinked back her tears, gazing up at Adore with a grateful expression.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I promise!” Adore laughed, climbing into her bed to sit beside her. “Stop worrying, okay?”

“Aren’t you afraid you’ll get sick too?” Courtney said, pulling her blankets tighter around her shoulders.

“Nahh. You know Bonnie makes me do that dumb FluMist vaccine every year. I’m invincible.”

“I don’t think that’s actually true,” Courtney said, covering her mouth with her elbow to cough.

“Well, whatever. It’s worth it to hang out with my best friend.” Adore smiled down at her, and Courtney felt like she might cry all over again.

“Thanks, baby,” she murmured softly.

“Omigod, also...the craziest shit happened today at lunch, I have to tell you about it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, okay so first of all...did you know that Violet applied to Columbia early-decision and got in?”

“Wow.”

“Wow is right!” Adore exclaimed. “I mean, I know she’s smart, but she doesn’t give a shit about school. But apparently she got like, practically a perfect score on her SATs. And then everyone else started talking about what school they want to go to and they have all these plans and backup plans and I just...I had no idea our friends were like...so school motivated. It’s fucking weird.”

It surprised Courtney too...maybe not as much as Adore, because she’d figured that Trinity would have ambitious school plans, and Fame as well. And Pearl, well Pearl wasn’t very scholarly, but she assumed that she’d want to go to an art school or something.

“And I guess you’re probably planning to go to UCLA and move in with Roy or something,” Adore mumbled.

Courtney let out a rueful laugh, shaking her head. “I don’t have the grades for that.”

“What?” Adore looked confused. “Your grades are fine.”

“They’re okay. I could probably get into a Cal State. But Ms. Patterson told me in the fall that any UC is a pipe dream. So I’m probably gonna just do two years at a community college and then transfer.”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah,” Courtney said, a deep sigh leaving her. “It’s for the best. We’ll save a bunch of money. My dad said he’d pay for my room and board, so I can still move out, thank god.”

“Move out where? Are you staying in the area?”

“No...but I dunno exactly. People say that Santa Barbara City College is good. Or Santa Monica college. It would be so great to be by the beach.”

“Ugh, I’d love to live near the beach. What I really want is to just move to LA, get some shitty retail job or whatever, and work on my music. I’m like, so close to convincing Bonnie what a good idea it is.”

“Adore! Omigod!” Suddenly, the aching in Courtney’s exhausted body didn’t matter, as she hoisted herself into a seated position to look directly into Adore’s hazel eyes. “We should be roommates!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! It would be perfect! Don’t you think?!” A smile lit up Courtney’s eyes, so big she thought it might split her face in two.

“Well...yeah, maybe...that could be cool.”

“I know, right?! Omigod, we’d have so much fun, and we could totally save money!” Courtney exclaimed, reaching forward to pull Adore in for a hug, her ecstatic joy pushing aside any thoughts of giving the flu to her friend.

Adore hugged her back, a light giggle slipping from her lips as she said, “I guess now we have a plan, too.”

-

Courtney was bone-tired. By the time she got over the flu, she’d missed a full week. Between catching up on her classes, the extra rehearsals, and struggling to memorize her lines, not to mention playing referee to Karen and Muriel’s latest argument over whether it was appropriate for Karen to have overnight guests, she felt like she could sleep for a week.

But she’d already agreed to this Saturday rehearsal, and she knew she needed it anyway, so she dragged herself out of bed and showed up at the theatre with an extra-large frappuccino that didn’t seem to help her exhaustion, but did make her jittery and off-balance.

That’s probably why she missed her cue, while working on her scene with Adore. At least, that’s what she would claim if anyone asked.

It was the scene in Act One where Adore’s character, Chauvelin, was trying to convince her to leave England and come back with her to Paris. She’d been zoning out a bit while Mrs. Maguire talked to Adore about the scene, explaining that her character needed to be angrier. Courtney really wasn’t paying attention like she should, but it was something about how Adore was supposed to be extra angry because not only did Marguerite abandon the French Revolution to marry a British aristocrat, but she’d also abandoned her.

Anyway, she wasn’t prepared when they started up the scene again, for the intensity with which Adore spoke her next line: “You do not belong in this cold land, with no one to understand you...to touch you.”

Adore let her fingers graze Courtney’s cheek before grabbing her waist and pulling her in roughly. A small gasp left Courtney’s lips, staring into Adore’s burning hazel eyes.

“The girl I knew could not bear this another moment,” Adore said, in a hoarse stage whisper.

As Adore inched closer, mouth softly parted, Courtney’s heart raced, fingers digging into Adore’s shoulders, eyes wide...

“Uh, Courtney?”

Courtney’s head snapped up, towards Mrs. Maguire’s voice. “Yes?”

“You’re supposed to push her away.”

“I know,” Courtney said, cheeks burning. “I was just trying to, um...act conflicted about it.”

“Wow, good work. We really believed you,” Mrs. Maguire said, and Courtney shoved Adore backwards, making her stumble slightly, nearly tripping over her feet.

“Oh god, are you okay?” Courtney reached for her hand to steady her.

“Yeah, sorry, I, uh…”

“Why don’t we take this section again, from Marguerite’s line ‘What do you know of it?’” Mrs. Maguire said, disguising her amused chuckle as a cough.

“Yeah, sure, okay.” Courtney brushed off her hands, hoping that the burning in her cheeks wasn’t obvious to everyone watching.

-

“So, Karen’s into Palm Reading now, huh?”

“Uh huh,” Courtney laughed. They were sitting around the tree in their usual lunch spot, Courtney sharing her mother’s latest passion by attempting to read Adore’s palm.

“So is that shitty broken one my lifeline?”

“No, this one is your lifeline…” Courtney said, finger trailing across Adore’s palm, making her giggle.

“And? What do you think?”

“You’re gonna live a long time.” Courtney grinned at her, eyes shining.

“Fuck,” Adore pouted. “You sure? Can I change that?”

Willam let out a braying laugh.

“Yeah, I know what you mean, lesbian. Personally I want to die young and beautiful.”

“One out of two isn’t bad,” Violet shrugged, earning a punch on the shoulder. “Ow!”

“Good one,” Trinity giggled.

“Watch it, cuz. I could punch you, too,” warned Willam.

“You just fucking try it. I dare you.”

“Guys, please calm down,” Fame interjected. As always, the voice of reason.

Still holding Adore’s hand, Courtney touched her palm again, shivers traveling up her arm.

“Stop it,” Adore said, biting her lip, but making no move to pull her hand away.

“A long, long life…” Courtney continued, flashing her winning smile.

Adore smiled back, but then off Violet’s intentionally loud scoff, she cleared her throat and finally snatched her hand back, just as Bob approached the group.

“Hey, uh...I need to speak to my wife,” Bob said, and Courtney laughed, getting up and following him a little ways away from the group.

“Is everything okay? Do you need-”

“What’s going on with you and Adore?” he asked quickly, head tilted down at her, brow slightly furrowed.

“What do you mean?” Courtney’s thoughts started racing, her heart beating quickly.

“Don’t play dumb with me, I’ve known you since we were 4.”

“I’m not playing!” Courtney said. “Maybe I’m just dumb?”

Bob put his hands on his hips, glaring at her. After a moment, he narrowed his eyes and said, “He really loves you--”

Courtney sighed. “I know, Bob. Okay? You don’t think I know that? And I love him-”

“--More than you deserve.”

Courtney looked at him for a long moment, a sarcastic comeback on the tip of her tongue, which she swallowed down, defeated, shifting her gaze to the ground.

“I know.” Her voice broke on the last word, a lump rising in her throat.

Bob’s voice seemed to soften a little, saying, “Look...I’m just trying to-”

“I know, you’re looking out for your friend,” Courtney said tiredly, still avoiding his knowing brown eyes. Tears stung in her own eyes. “I get it.”

“No. I’m looking out for my friends.”

At that, Courtney looked up at him, surprised.

“You’re my friend too,” he continued. “And Adore’s my friend. And I just don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Courtney bit her lip, nodding. “Me neither,” she managed to whisper, before a single tear began to burn its way down her cheek. Bob pulled her in for a hug.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“I know.” Courtney sniffled against his shoulder. “You’re a good husband.”

“Oh yeah? Then why aren’t you in the kitchen making me some pie?”

Courtney laughed, parting from him with a good-natured shove.

“You okay?”

She nodded. “I really do love him, you know.”

“Yeah. Okay.” He smiled ruefully. “Things can’t ever be easy, huh?”

“No, I guess not.”

He pressed one last fatherly kiss to her forehead before leaving to join his own lunch group. Courtney took a moment more to collect herself, then walked back to the tree.

“What was that all about?” Pearl asked. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, just some stuff about the play.”

“I’m so excited to see this play, it’s all you guys talk about,” Tati said.

“Yeah, better live up to the hype,” Trinity warned.

“Oh, it will,” Adore promised her with a charming grin. “We’re fucking amazing.”

“Damn right it will. Although, let’s be honest, I would have been a much better Percy than Bob,” said Willam.

“Ehhh…” Courtney grimaced.

“Fuck you, cheerleader!” Willam exclaimed, chucking an orange slice at her face.

“No I mean, you’d have been great in the campy parts, but the sincere romantic stuff? Not so much.”

“Yeah, remember last year? You two were the least believable teen romance ever,” Adore laughed, and Courtney joined in, nodding.

“Exactly.”

“Are you saying I can’t play it straight?” Willam looked deeply offended.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what we’re saying,” Adore told him.

“Oh yeah? Well, watch this…Come here, Virginia.” He grabbed Tati, who immediately squirmed away.

“Don’t touch me,” she said, pushing him onto the grass.

“Sorry.”

“See? A straight guy wouldn’t have listened,” Violet commented drily, making all of them crack up.

[be-papas]

tag game time uwu thank you @joannace love is stored in the bfish family 🥺

favorite anime: revolutionary girl utena. hands down. i could type an essay why, but if you follow me you already know lmao.

least favorite anime: guilty crown. so i only remembered this show existed when i made an anilist account recently, and it triggered a deep seated rage. i usually drop and forget shows i dont like, but this i saw all the way through for some godforsaken reason. i have no clue if anyone else saw or remembers this. it's probably in all honesty just a mediocre dystopian romance, i saw it when i was like 15, but i fucking hated this cliche show. it did not deserve its banging soundtrack.

honorable mention goes to carole and tuesday for despite the hype being 1) extremely mediocre for a slice of life 2) wildly transphobic and homophobic. if u want a gay slice of life about a band i am BEGGING you to watch given. just watch given.

last anime i watched: im currently keeping up w the weekly airings of jujutsu kaisen and wonder egg priority, both of which are phenomenal.

favorite anime movie: perfect blue. (do y'all see a pattern of Gender Surrealism from the late 90s....lmao.) i recently watched tokyo godfathers and loved that too, so i really need to finish satoshi kon's filmography. def one of my top directors.

comfort anime: rgu again lmao. im currently on my 4th watch of it dont @ me.

favorite anime character: literally impossible question, who do you take me for. i do have a fondness for the gay bastard problem children (nanami rgu, rika wonder egg, killua hxh, enta sarazanmai, ed fma).

shoujo or shonen: so given my incapability of shutting up about utena, you may be surprised to hear that, on the whole, i go with shonen. but it's my bread and butter. while rgu is the goat, the rest of my favorites will be titles like hxh, fma, mp100, and jjk. i do honestly consume a p eclectic mix of shonen, seinen, and shoujo tho.

if i could shift into an anime world, which would it be: idk it would definitely bite me in the ass but im down to be a wonder egg magical girl. its such a gorgeous world and i could use the symbolic magic therapy.

tagging @kurapikalesbian @astralplague @malewifekentonanami @miriio and anyone else who wants to do this!

[sugar-petals]

Please do a tarot reading on bts personality? Thank you

if we’re talking personality, it’s time for the big guns. i promised i’d use this deck to an anon, today we’re doing a shaman soul reading. 

Jungkook: THE RAINBOW

A sign that the end of the storm is near. This card is truly blessed and imbued with great innocence because that’s exactly what Jungkook is. It’s the “everything is alright” signal: The rainbow symbolizes completion of the soul in the Himalayan region where shamans consider rainbows a bridge to the afterlife. Believe it or not: What we see as JK is the last incarnation of his line. His journey is basically complete (!), it is whole. He’s found what we will all find and the end which is a state of profound happiness. There’s a reason why he brings so much ease, fun, and talent everywhere he goes. That sense of lightness and positivity is deeply embedded in him. Brightness, bubbliness, fleeting moods but always optimistic. His personality is all about joy and the feeling of soaring high. It’s not a farce we see on camera, he really is like that. What I noticed is. Since we see a colorful bird dashing forward on a ray of light, I believe JK is headed somewhere blissful, and he’s headed there fast. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, pretty much. Not just the shamans in Nepal consider the rainbow as an arch, Norse ones do, too. The Bifröst bridge connects Midgard to the Æsir. Jungkook has a sort of divine connection going on. That’s why his personality is dignified. Bifröst is translated to ‘shimmering path’, that he got famous was destined from the beginning.

Hoseok: THE SWEAT LODGE

Hey, Mama. I am not surprised that this card is all about a connection to mother earth and all things maternal. The hut — and the ritual that is behind it — is essentially an image for the womb. Hoseok is looking for that warm and cozy feeling in his life. That tells you a whole lot about the personality we rarely see on stage, it’s a much calmer state. The act of sweating disperses old habits and bad thoughts, this is precisely what he seeks. That blissful, protected place/state of being attracts him, or rather, draws him back into his past. His character is so youthful and cheery because he longs for a space like the sweat lodge that leaves you relaxed, drained from the weight of the world, and without sorrows. What he longs for is purity. He’s let go of demons and phases in his life he’s grown out of. His goal is to feel renewed and being without baggage. Note also that the sweat lodge is a community place. He is deeply social, it’s not an act. Hoseok aspires to be a nurturing figure in the future, and peace is very important to him.

Jin: TAMING THE WIND

Think about it: Something as dynamic as air representing Jin makes a lot of sense. He might be a fire sign, but air is nonetheless strong in him. He is a person who is self-directed and cannot be grasped at any time. Air does what it wants, and few other forces can stop it. On top of that, wind is malleable. It can be completely still, gently blowing, come on strong, or be a flat out hurricane. The different levels of intensity are all present in Jin’s character. As in, he can be the introvert of all introverts only to turn into extroversion embodied. The card tells us about just how versatile he can be. That he will achieve more consistency in the future is represented by the act of taming: Yes, he will settle. Visually, the feather is the most important part of this card. It symbolizes a holy dedication to life and distributes smoke during shaman rituals. It can also be interpreted as a pointer when you’re in alignment. So, I’d describe Jin’s character as something that dispels the old to bring about harmony. Thus, he is wild and tame alike. Very interesting duality.

Namjoon: THUNDER

Next to Jimin’s card, this is the most powerful one I pulled. If you’re familiar with The Tower in tarot, THUNDER is similar. Especially in its spiritual weight. Thunder always hails of new things coming. Namjoon is that kind of vanguard. Even his voice booms like thunder man, that’s no coincidence. That he’s the leader of one of the most famous boy groups on this planet means something dramatic and big coming our way. At his core, he is revolutionary. Namjoon is Namjoon because of his message that’s loud, terrifying to great many a hater, and a call to awakening. I am certain he is on his way to enlightenment, I’m not kidding. Because think about, thunder comes first, then: lightning. It describes his personality progression well: Namjoon did a full 180° in the last years. He did all of his shadow work. This card always says a person is about to fulfill their purpose, so he’s currently at the very brink. He is scared to the core but knows that he’s destined for great things. Like buffalos storming ahead, he is unstoppable just like that. It’s because of him that the game changes 😊

Yoongi: THE PRESENT

Beside the literal interpretation of Yoongi being a present to this world which truly is the case, this card also means unconditional offering in a general sense. You’d think it’s his wonderful music that he has gifted us. The meaning of the card says otherwise, things go deeper, it’s about something that is not material in nature. Only true love and true feelings can fully belong to a person and they can give them as a present. I think this is what Yoongi’s personality at its deepest level is about. He is a generous man. Who is more giving than someone so dedicated and full of tender emotions. The card is also a signifier of gratitude, and I think Yoongi truly is thankful. The winged woman shown on the card lifts up the sun, which tells me Yoongi wants to uphold joy and that he was sent to us as an angelic, radiant being. Lil’ cherub he is. The card is colored in such a bright yellow and orange way, I think he could be a kind of light worker, even, if you’re familiar with this concept. What Yoongi’s aim is at its most basic level is to gain access to the happiness of life. And he wishes so dearly we experience it, too. I need a moment.

Jimin: THE INCA CROSS

Ooof. Oh shit. This card is a massive fucking deal. I’m stunned every time I see it. It has a huge wtf factor. A simple but overarching symbol. To shamans, the Inca Cross symbolizes all directions and dimensions coming together. It even connects the Underworld with the Gods themselves. It also has a hole in the middle, allowing us to travel to a different perspective. It tells me Jimin is the one holding everything around him together with his personality. He is that cross, a compass basically. He has access to greater wisdom. The Inca Cross is a big leap, this is what Jimin essentially is. What he exudes propels us forward and unites us. He can make people change their mind and direction in life. He is only halfway aware of that skill. I wouldn’t mess with him either way, he is the true axis of Bangtan. The crucial (=cross-like!) one, even Namjoon said that. Now what’s also important is not just the cross itself but also the color. It is made of solid gold, a very warm tone. His charm and soothing character is innate to Jimin, and that is a regal feat. It’s very important that he knows his worth, that is the crux —cross— of the matter. Now this is where it gets really metaphysical: That the Inca Cross bridges the lower, middle (Human), and upper realm to shamans in Peru is no coincidence. It tells us Jimin was sent from a place that is not this, aka the middle world. I think even people who are not into spirituality can feel that. He is either a saved soul from the Underworld so this is his first incarnation after a long time or he was sent from the Gods. Because the cross connects all worlds, it could even be both at the same time. And since the Inca Cross allows dimension and time travel (!)… maybe he can do even that. This card is telling me the wildest shit.

Taehyung: HEART OF SKY

During the last tarot readings I drew The Empress for him several times, the energy is no different here. This card has Queen of the Night type of imagery. It’s a very dreamy, whimsical woman immersed in melancholy, dressed in lavish garments. It’s not hard to see the parallel to Taehyung’s character. He is just as nostalgic and concerned with all things that bring more beauty to this planet. That is his purpose. I repeat: Taehyung is here to spread the fine things in life to bring us sophistication and wholesomeness. The Heart of Sky is quite possibly the card most connected to creativity and love. It encourages the one receiving it to paint. We know he’s already an artist at heart, the shaman cards know it, too. Heart of Sky means to pour out your emotions. And to show all your talents in a gorgeous way. The card is just… spot on. Nighttime plays an important role in this illustration, Tae is more Moon than Sun in personality. He’s in tune not just with his divine masculine, but also feminine. Perfect balance. The Heart of Sky carries with it a strong ethical component also, that means Taehyung is figuring out his intent very often. He’s a benevolent person, a creator. A good person, a benevolent heart. He wants the best for everyone, you and me, anybody.

Bangtan: THE SUN 

I also pulled a card for the personality of the group as a sum. THE SUN is pretty straightforward: BTS are luminaries, a figurative giant. A super-star. Shamans connect the sun to male energy so the allegory fits, there’s a bright and positive masculine quality in their work. BTS are a hot topic and the energy is high. Sometimes even overpowered because their solar pizzazz is so ardent — burning out is the #1 danger here. That’s why the members connected to the moon and night (Joon, Tae, Yoongi, to some extent Jimin) are so important to balance everything. Passion, humor, creativity, playfulness are always around when BTS is near. The sun is at the center or the universe and widely seen, the group indeed takes that center spot right now. Many other life forms depend on the sun, revolve around it, BTS and their light are needed. If they fall, a system collapses. The card tells us they are currently at their zenith, truly radiant now, soaring like the winged spirit on the card. Also, to state the obvious: Come on, who’s the sun of BTS? Hobi’s personality sticks out the most, reflects back to the group dynamic. This is his card and time to shine. He makes or breaks the deal and the cards know it. He sets the tone.

bighit: THE JAGUAR

I wanted to see what the personality of bighit as a whole is, too. Unsurprisingly — what came out is an animal who’s a roaring force to be reckoned with. The energy is a lot more competitive and serious compared to The Sun. I find it convincing and see why these cards came out: Lighthearted group, big business company. Now, the Jaguar has a dark side as well as extreme advantages. He sure doesn’t look like the scariest animal ever, but being on top of the food chain allows him to do whatever he pleases: He’ll never be prey. On the other hand, he is protected because he’s so strong. Bighit does have that quality of being untouchable. Much like the jaguar, it’s an undertaking that operated in the shadows for long. We know that Bang PD claims to have the secret success formula and isn’t as public as say Lee Soo Man and JYP. There is a component of mystery, and the other companies are careful because of it. On the light side, BTS certainly have powerful and rational guidance. To give an analogy from the jungle book: Bighit is like Bagheera, the voice of reason, infusing BTS with strength and knowledge.

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