#and the reason it was universally panned and forgotten

[imp-furiosa]

If I were to venture a guess (and I’m about to), the attempts to standardize and catalogue Goncharov will kill it. Doing that begins to close it off. Trying to say this or that idea is accepted “canon” makes it feel less like a space you can play in and make stuff up. Maybe I’m wrong on that, but it certainly sours me on the thing to see people iterating the same ideas and not spinning so many new scenes and things that just obviously couldn’t all fit into a single film.

And like it may not die as a meme and the big stuff will still get out to a wider audience, but it’s less inviting for new people to come in because rather than just looking at a poster and thinking “what would I want to see in a 1970 gangster flick?” and making something up that fits that, there’s this feeling, this obligation, that you’ve gotta work with the “canon.”

So this is your call to buck the observation that we’ve collectively made a movie that reduced its homoeroticism to subtext. The meme’s like 5 days old. My favorite scene was the car sex scene that woulda fit in the Titanic except it’s Pacino and De Niro steaming up the windows and Scorsese shows Al jerking of Rob until he cums on their fancy suits.

[sykestarot]

what is your destiny?

1-2-3 (left to right)

I DO NOT OWN THESE IMAGES

Hi everyone, welcome to this weeks reading! I was called to do a destiny reading this week! Lmk if it resonates! Also I wanna credit the artist for these pictures that I used! They are Gawki here on tumblr and Instagram I just really loved the style of these unicorns. Anyways enjoy and thanks for stopping by!

Pile 1

"force my eyes into the pictures" (6 of swords; 4 of wands (rx); ace of pentacles; 7 of cups (rx); 8 of pentacles; The Hermit) Hi pile 1! I hope you guys are doing well! For you guys I see that you have a hard time either accepting your destiny or you don’t believe that destiny is at play. In terms of you believing that you make everything happen in your life. However I see that you’ve been trying to start new journeys for yourself and they haven’t exactly been panning out or been as lucrative as you thought they would be. That’s because your destiny in this lifetime is to learn flow and let things come to you. For example maybe you really wanted a promotion and you worked extra hard all of the time for it but someone else got the promotion you wanted without even trying because they were in a state of receiving. I’m not sure if this is making sense because the universe doesn’t not want you to work hard, it’s more like take a break and see what comes to you during that break. If you are constantly manifesting then there is no room to reap the benefits of your manifestations. I hope that makes sense, however in this reading I do feel underlying notes of you feeling like you're destined to be married to your work and be alone romantically, maybe even in terms of friends. This is another example of you not having space for other people because you put your work so far ahead of everything else including yourself. Are you a Capricorn? LOL. But I feel like you’ve lived many lives like this so in this life it’s time to put less value on monetary possessions and material things. Nurture your emotional self and you will be paid back more than you could ever imagine. Stop fighting against the grain and go with it. Work with the universe and yourself, not just the societal norms that you think you should be doing. I see you have a beautiful big house but it’s empty and you don't feel fulfilled because you don’t have anyone to enjoy it with you know? I believe in you though Pile 1! You can totally do it! Signs: youthful; cars; f1; soft grass; ponies; daisies; cameras; photography; 777; calabasas; office building; new york flat; city lights; bustling streets

Pile 2

"is it wrong of me to want this?" (queen of pentacles; ace of pentacles; 2 of swords; 10 of wands (rx); two of cups; 9 of wands (rx)) Hello pile 2!! Your energy is so fun and fresh. I’ve been cheesing the whole time I was channeling. Anyways about your destiny, did you just meet a romantic prospect recently? Or maybe you have a new coworker or friend in your circle?? I know you can feel the tension between the two of you. This is a heavily destined connection for you in this life, I feel like you and this have felt each other's energy for a long time but now you are in physical proximity to each other and you can just cut the tension with a knife. Now I don’t want you to feel any type of pressure to feel you have to be with this person in case you or them aren’t ready for anything but you guys are meant to cross paths now for a reason. There’s not much I can say on the way the relationship will play out and be in the future for you but I can say that this person will teach you how to let down your walls and trust again. Maybe you’ve been alone for a long time, or had a really bad break up that changed how you function sexually, or emotionally. This person is here to show you a softness that you’ve forgotten. I also feel like this person wants to worship the ground you walk on because they just can sense the divine energy you carry. I also feel the need to tell you that you do deserve a person who worships all that you do because you have done so much work in this life, whether for yourself or for others. You deserve to be the center of someone else’s universe just like how you make other people the center of yours. Also I do feel like this person watches you on social media and just adores everything that you do. I’m not getting creepy energy and this definitely feels reciprocal for both of you. This person wants to give you the world on a silver platter. They also want you to be able to feel safe enough to be vulnerable and they will go at your pace and match you where you are. They feel that you’ve been hurt before and just want to kiss it better. But also they wanna do so many 18+ things with you. Like genuinely they find you to be irresistible, but I feel like they just love everything you do pile 2! Signs: red energy; sexual tension; love; musical theater; red lipstick; opera; singers?; dark rooms; red wine; femme fatale; high heels; soft touches; stolen glances

Pile 3

"ooh i care i care i care" (2 of swords (rx); king of cups (rx); 7 of wands; 8 of wands; ace of swords (rx); Death (rx)) Hi Pile 3! So this one’s a bit of a harder message so please take a moment before you read and check on yourself if you are ready to receive this message. No hard feelings if you can’t! Always put your mental health first. Now I’ll hop into the message at hand. I see for you guys your destiny is to accept the changes in your life. However I see that for most of the changes in your life you have refused to accept them and then blamed the universe for hating you. You actively choose not to change and wonder why there is no growth in your life. I feel like you are tired of how monotonous your life is but you choose to not add any color to it. I can feel your want to go and change things but you are frozen in fear of change for whatever reason. Change overall is a very scary prospect, especially if you are most comfortable in patterns and are very direct in the way that you function. However I feel you guys being frustrated and feeling like everyone else is getting things that you wanted or that they are ahead of you in life, but instead of making an active change in your life you sit and throw yourself a pity party. Then instead of taking the blame and accepting the fact that you aren’t trying to reach your goals you blame the universe, and it’s just a very vicious cycle. I think there’s a small part of you that acknowledges it but not enough to work on the shadow. I think all in all your destiny is to face the change, want the change, and make the change. I feel you want to do all these things, it’s in your soul. Facing a rebirth of the self is always challenging and scary. If you feel like the change will make you lose yourself, maybe that’s exactly what you need? I also want to stress that if you’re not ready for something then it won’t happen, but if the universe decides you are it will be much harder of a rebirth than if you chose it for yourself. I feel that you have lots to think about in terms of how to rebirth yourself. I also feel like you overextend too much for people who don’t care about you in the same way. For this pile I feel like the destined path is to choose to grow out of a place you have been in too long. Such as a friend group, small town, relationship, or family. I believe in you pile 3, change is scary but you have so much time to truly bloom, let yourself have that. Signs: purple; snakes; ribbons; coquette fashion; ocean breeze; violin; pink; smiles; meadows; bunnies; ethereal vibes; angels; church; small town; trailers; dirt roads

[sunlightandsuffering]

Still enjoying my halloweenery !

Mikasa accidentally puts Eren under a love potion

“You’re sure?” Sasha hisses at her over Facetime and Mikasa almost growls, “Of course, I’m fucking sure, do you think I’d be telling you this if I wasn’t completely fucking sure Sasha?” 

Her best friend throws her hands up in defeat and Mikasa groans, “Sorry, I’m just stressed.” “You accidentally fed Eren a love potion, I can understand if you’re a little upset. But please remind me again exactly how you gave it to him?” Mikasa sighs, “I made cookies, and you know how he loves cookies and I left one out because I laced it with a love potion you know, I wanted to practice low dosing myself for class and well,” Mikasa shrugs in embarrassment, “You know what they say about masturbating on love potions, it’s kinda crazy, and I thought I’d try.” Sasha fucking cackles, a truly evil little witch cackle and Mikasa glares in return, before pointedly returning to the discussion at hand, “Anyway, so he came over, out of the blue because he has a key and I came out of the shower, and he’d fucking eaten it, and now I don’t know what to do because I was the first person he saw.” 

“So in that case the spell is definitely going to be about you, fuck,” Sasha curses on the other end of the line and Mikasa bites her lip nervously.

“So where is he now?” Sasha asks, her face coming closer to the webcam as the spirited brunette attempts to see through the FaceTime camera and into Mikasa’s cozy university apartment. “Well, I knocked him out with a frying pan and locked him in my room.” “You what?!” Sasha yelps, “What the fuck is this the plot of tangled?” “No!” Mikasa protests, “It was the first thing I grabbed and his eyes were just so,” Mikasa gestures wildly, “Green! And he was looking at me like he wanted to eat me up, and so I just knocked him out.” 

Mikasa bemoans her situation, glancing nervously back at her bedroom door, where she’s locked her other best friend/ex-boyfriend inside after knocking him out, he’ll wake up soon, any minute she’s sure of it and she still has no fucking plan. Sasha winces on the other end of the line, and the look on her friend’s face gives Mikasa no hope for her night, “Well, maybe he won’t wake up?” “I’m not that lucky.” As if on cue, she hears a groan from her bedroom and Sasha’s eyes widen, “Oh no–” Mikasa hangs up before she can hear any more, slamming her laptop shut and spinning her bar stool around to face her bedroom door. It feels like a horror movie, like some sort of wretched monster man is going to come out instead of a very hot warlock under a love spell. 

“Mikasa,” Eren’s voice groans, a deep baritone that sends shivers right down her spine, has her shutting her eyes to let it play over her skin, envision him saying it in an entirely different, very naughty context. “What the fuck did you do to me, and why the fuck,” His voice is a growl now, and the handle of her bedroom door shakes, “Is the door locked?” It takes seconds, two quick breaths, and he’s muttering a spell under his breath that unlocks the door with ease. The wards she’d placed had done absolutely nothing. 

There is a reason she’d wanted to take a love spell cookie tonight, and it’s a very specific, Eren-shaped reason. She’d wanted to get high out of her mind on a love potion, fuck herself silly on a vibrator and think of him. 

Eren Yeager, her very powerful, very hot warlock best friend, and oh right the cherry on top, her ex-lover. 

And he’s standing in the doorway of her bedroom like an avenging fucking angel, biceps bulging out of his black t-shirt, and jeans fitted a little too well to his legs, and looking all too much like he wants to fuck her. His hair is a mess, the knot of his bun loose, allowing his bangs to fall forward to frame his face, and he’s rubbing the very bright red mark on his head.

“Am I remembering correctly, you knocked me out with a frying pan?”

Shit, how could she forget. 

Mikasa chooses to grab the forgotten frying pan from the counter, holding it up threateningly to ward him off.

“I’ll do it again,” She promises him and Eren just stares, taking her in and fuck that cookie must be hitting him good because the beautiful green of his eyes has darkened, lustful. See, here’s the thing about love potions, especially when applied to people who already love one another: they get absolutely fucked. 

Cocaine, ecstasy, pixie dust, mermaid scales, nothing, not a single drug in the world could compare to the euphoria brought on by a love potion applied to someone already in love. 

That’s what Mikasa had been counting on when she had planned to take the cookie, she’d planned to curl up in her bed, get fucked out of her mind and go through her locked photo album to revisit every naught memory of Eren she’d ever had. 

Because it was a year to the day he’d broken up with her, and she’d been feeling a little heartbroken, who was he to begrudge her a little heartbreak. After all, they hadn’t exactly parted under positive circumstances, it was entirely due to the strength of the coven and Eren’s tentative political position within it. So they’d broken up and Mikasa had remained hopelessly in love. Looking at Eren now, and the absolute feral look in his eyes, the way his hands are twitching with the need to touch her, she thinks that just maybe Eren had remained the same way too. 

This isn’t really how she’d wanted to find out her ex was still obsessed with her. 

She slips off the barstool, frying pan in hand and Eren groans as he watches her, “What did you give me?” “You ate my cookie!” Mikasa snaps, her irritation pushing past her fear of the consequences, “Who the fuck just comes into someone’s house and eats their fucking cookie?” “What was in it?” Eren asks blithely, teeth gritted, “Because Mikasa, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, I have never wanted to fuck you more in my entire life, and that’s saying a lot because we went through puberty together, and I fucking remember when you grew boobs.” “It was a love potion.” “Figured,” Eren grits out, large hands balling into fists, “Why exactly were you planning to take a love potion tonight?” Mikasa pouts, looking away and Eren grunts, taking a step towards her, like he can’t help it and yeah, he probably can’t. 

She takes another step back behind her counter, keeping a barrier between them. 

Mikasa might love him, but she doesn't trust feral love potion Eren. 

She also has no interest in telling him the very embarrassing reason she’d created such a love potion, so she lies through her teeth, 

“I have a guy coming over, so if you’d be so kind as to,” she gestures animatedly towards the door with her frying pan. 

Eren actually fucking laughs, a dark chuckle that promises seductive things, “Still too in love with me Mika, have to trick yourself to fuck anyone new? Pretend it's me who’s fucking you raw.”

Mikasa resists the urge to hurl the frying pan at him, even more so at the way her heart races at his words.

“No,” Mikasa insists, “It has nothing to do with you!”

“Liar,” Eren doesn’t even pause, doesn’t believe her for a second, and it pisses her off.

“Excuse you Eren, but I have a vampire on the way, and we’re going to have hot crazy sex on my kitchen counter,” She pauses for effect, enjoying the look of possessive rage overtaking his face, “So get the fuck out.”

“Try again, Mikasa,” Eren tells her arrogantly, completely secure in the knowledge that she didn't make her love potion for anyone else, “Who’s it for baby?” 

This time, Mikasa really does hurl the frying pan at him. 

He catches it mid-air after casting a freezing spell, and Mikasa ducks down to grab another one, but he’s already on her. Two strong, purposeful strides have him next to her in seconds, her wrists clasped in one of his hands high above her head and her back pressed against the cabinetry.

“Gotcha,” He taunts, that smug smile painting his face, all teeth and dripping with self-satisfaction. 

“Tell me who it’s for, Miki?”

She turns her head away, and love-crazed Eren is having none of it, his hand gripping her chin and forcing her to look up, “Don’t play with me right now baby, whatever you gave me is fucking strong Mika.”

He presses his erection against her as if to prove her point and shit, yeah her potion is strong, the thick length of him completely unyielding against her thighs and god Mikasa wishes she got to her cookie before him. 

What she wouldn’t give to be blissed out on a love potion right now, safe and taken care of by her ex-boyfriend there’s no way he could have resisted her. 

“Mikasa,” He rumbles, leaning down to nip at her neck, “What did you make it for?” Mikasa fumes, glaring up at him, “Because I haven’t had sex in close to a year and I want to get high out of my mind and pretend we’re still together.”

This seems to shock him, “Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh’ asshole, why do you even still have my spare key?”

“Because it's mine,” he tells her firmly before skipping back to the last juicy little tidbit she mentioned, “But wait the last time you had sex was…” Eren trails off and Mikasa nods in embarrassment, the last time was six months ago when they’d both had a little too much to drink at the coven ritual party. 

“Fuck, that's hot,” he whispers and Mikasa blushes, looking away from him awkwardly as he presses closer, “Eren we’re broken up, you should just go.” It’s easier said than done when his every brain cell is probably begging him to fuck her. 

“You have any more love potion?” “What?” Mikasa wheezes, looking up at him in shock, her eyes comically large, there’s no way he’s saying what she thinks he’s saying. “Do you have any more?” Eren demands and Mikasa swallows nervously before answering, “Yeah.” “Take it.” “Why?” 

A dumb question, in hindsight, he probably wants to bend her over the counter right now. “Because we’re both going to get super fucking high, and I’m going to fuck your brains out, and it’s gonna feel so good, Mikasa.” 

Logically, she knows it’s a bad idea, logically she knows this is exactly the kind of situation she’d been afraid of. But also… she’s just a girl, and she really wishes she had been the one to take the love potion, her legs could be wrapped around his hips right now, impaled on his cock. She sighs in delight at just the thought and that wicked smirk on his face, oh god he knows exactly what’s going through her head. He bumps his nose against her cheek, nuzzling in to trail kisses down her throat, “C’mon Mika, just for tonight?” 

She doesn’t need to be told twice. 

The next morning when Sasha calls, nervously asking if she’s okay, Mikasa replies honestly, “I don’t think I can walk, ever again.”

[my-pjo-stuff]

For the Great PJO Ask Analysis event: (ask no. 3)

You've got a topic in PJO you'd like for me to analyze?

The way demigods inherit their godly parents powers. Percy has a long list of abilities compared to Annabeth/Clarisse/Beckendorf, etc.

Want to share YOUR analysis of stuff with me and my followers?

Grover Underwood is an incredibly complex character who tends to get forgotten both by the fandom and the author. As satyr, he's got different aging to demigods and while Annabeth and Percy know him well, they don't seem to completely know. He doesn't talk about his family, his relationship with Juniper and is generally used as comic relief. His status as Pan's legacy holder seems underdeveloped as well. Thoughts?

Want to hear my take or shares yours of different characters and aspects of the PJO universe?

The exploration into the realms of Greek mythology is interesting. The Underworld is relatively easy for the trio to get into and for them to escape which seems to contradict the Underworld being a terrifying place with Tartarus, etc.

Nico and Bianca Di Angelo's storyline seems rather complicated and doesn't really explore them as characters. Opinion?

The way demigods inherit their godly parents powers. Percy has a long list of abilities compared to Annabeth/Clarisse/Beckendorf, etc.

Now I'm going to be honest and say that in my opinion there isn't much to analyze? Like, at the start of the series it seemed pretty obvious to me that powers are rather rare to be inherited from godly parents. Instead, it was more like talents that were passed down (Apollo kids being good at archery, Athena kids being smart etc.) For Percy's powers I honestly just assumed it was because he was the MC, and thus obviously had special or cool stuff to make the story interesting. In universe I chalked it up to just being a genetic lottery like irl in which actual powers were like a super recessive gene.

There's always a chance you'll inherit it and it'll show, it's just VERY small. Then as the book went on and more and bigger threats got introduced, as well as more characters being thrown into the mix a classic case of power creep set in. 'Cause you need the new characters to be interesting for the reader to get invested, while also needing to up the stakes from time to time to keep it interesting. Yet at the same time the characters also need to be able to reasonably defeat the enemies. So the most logical way to solve all that is to introduce new powers.

And I honestly there's not much more you can really analyze or explain. It's not really a coincidence that most characters introduced in the first five books didn't have any powers or only relatively weak ones, while those later introduced tend to have them or have them more powerfully.

Grover Underwood is an incredibly complex character who tends to get forgotten both by the fandom and the author (....) Thoughts?

I think Grover is one of the many wasted characters in the PJO books, he specifically having suffered from being treated like a side character despite having the setup of a main one. You already pointed out that Grover is very interesting as a character and has a lot going on- which, in my opinion, would have been better explored for a character if they had been a demigod.

Grover is in this sort of weird position where while yes, his themes are very cool and even relatable, they are not relatable enough. Because who do you think would children (aka, the books target audience) rather read about? The cool human demigods their age who look pretty and do cool stuff? Or the satyr guy who doesn't fit conventional beauty standards and isn't human? Fact is that Grover just isn't really as "attractive" as a character compared to others- he always seemed to take more of a background role supporting other characters. Which yeah, is most definitely a HUGE waste (which I honestly don't think I need to elaborate on further). And I honestly blame the fact that he just isn't pretty enough. Is he ugly? No, but he certainly isn't pretty or very fandomizable. He doesn't really have popular ship options and already gets pushed into the background of the books to make room for Percy and Annabeth. The fact that thus the fandom largely ignores him and he seems to lose importance as the story goes on doesn't seem suprising to me.

The exploration into the realms of Greek mythology is interesting. The Underworld is relatively easy for the trio to get into and for them to escape which seems to contradict the Underworld being a terrifying place with Tartarus, etc.

Again I'll just have to go meta and say, I think it's just the fact that they are in a children's book. It would get pretty boring to just always stay in America/the "human" world with a setting that could offer locations such as the Underworld, Tartarus, Olympus etc. so logically Rick searched for ways and reasons to get characters down there to use them. PJO and HOO being a kids' book series of course meant that he couldn't truly portray places like that as horrifying and dark as they should be, so he had to tone it down to keep it child-friendly. Same goes for the escapes from Tartarus and the Underworld- Rick can't just have his characters die, so he has them come out relatively unscathed. That's personally one of the reasons why I think that PJO would have been much more interesting had it been a young adult or teen series, since it would have allowed darker themes to be explored more thoroughly than they were. 8Some examples being locations like the Underworld, the true dystopia that a world would be where demigods just straight up have no human rights, the systematic issues with CHB ect.) Nico and Bianca Di Angelo's storyline seems rather complicated and doesn't really explore them as characters. Opinion?

I mean Bianca's only major character trait was just "Nico's sister". She was as flat as a piece of paper, died a few chapters after her introduction and really just served as a plot device for Nico's storyline. So I honestly don't think I have to say and go over the exact same talking points as everyone has gone over with her before. Nico on the other hand had some very cool set up where we could explore HIM growing angry with the gods. I mean, Zeus was the one who killed his mother, no? His father (even with good intentions) just straight up erased his and Bianca's memory completely. Bianca ended up dying not only for a god (Artemis) but also indirectly because of the gods (the scrapyard they have and the robot thingy). And Hades just also straight up attempted to semi-kidnap him and train him up to be the Child of Prophecy for what I can only assume to be his own gain. Not to mention the disrespect children of Hades got at camp. Nico is, as much as I see it, one of the characters with the most reasons to be hostile towards the gods. Right up there with Luke and Ethan for what I see. Unfortunately though that was never explored, purely because Rick either A) didn't have the time or B) couldn't have the antagonist look too good. I'm not yet finished with all the books, so there is a chance that the part about the story being overcomplicated could refer to something else- but as of now I gotta assume it's the "he's from ww2, actually!" thing. Which, honestly? To me, it is much less overcomplicated and more underdeveloped. Nico's "time travel" is, when it boils down to it, just a loose excuse for Rick to have another kid of the Big Three there without anyone breaking their vow. We could have had a cool exploration of how demigod life changed over the decades or an interesting arc of feeling displaced in time. Instead, we got none of it because, frankly said- for Nico as a character right now that backstory just frankly isn't important. Nothing would really change for him as a character if we just push away that time travel thing. All we'd need to say is that he and Bianca got their amnesia in an accident and then BOOM. Nothing would change for their characters at all really. We could easily say that Maria was killed by Zeus together with her unborn child to get Hades to curse the oracle and keep the time line in check. So yeah, to me their backstory is more of an excuse to have them here and is severely underutilized and unexplored- and Bianca is just a dumpster fire overall.

[noodyl-blasstal]

Pretty huge Doughnuts

The word count's droppin', but I'm not stoppin' - @taznovembercelebration day 15. Prompt "baby"

Read below or on Ao3. Missed yesterday's catch it here.

-

“You’re doing what now?”

“Planning Lup a baby shower.”

“Lup’s pregnant?” Barry’s voice is doing something high pitched and weird and Taako’s unsure exactly what the fuck is going on, but someone’s forgotten they have like 8 PhDs.

“Wanna think that through, Barold? Do you think that maybe she might have told you if she’d cracked that one.”

Barry looks less panicked. “Yeah… fair. Uh.”

“Anyway.” Taako ploughs on valiantly, he’ll pull this one out at a later date, once Barold thinks he’s forgotten. “I’m planning a baby shower for her.”

“If she’s not pregnant…” Barry starts.

“Which she isn’t.” Taako adds, helpfully.

“Yeah. Uh. Which she isn’t.” Barry looks pale still, poor, sweet idiot. “... then why are you throwing her a baby shower?”

“It took her more than nine months to birth the thesis” Taako says, he shrugs because it’s obvious, obviously. He doesn't know why literally no one so far has understood. They're definitely the problem.

Barry’s still scrunkling his face up like Taako's being irrational. The joke's on him because Taako's never irrational.

“She’s had a tonne of appointments.”

“Uh huh.”

"She brought new life into the world."

"The necromancy thing isn't part of the main thesis after, you know, the legal issues."

“I meant the concepts, not the zombie. Anyway the university are cowards for not embracing him." Before they get into the ethics of free education after reanimation Taako diverts Barry again. "She had to do that scan.”

“What scan? Wait, Taako, do you mean the MRIs she did for the data collection?”

“Now you get it.”

“I…”

“Cha’boy found this banner.” Taako unfurls it dramatically and holds it up, it’s gold and spangly and far too much, which is, of course, the perfect amount.

“Congratulations, it’s a…” Reads Barry.

“PhD!” Taako replies. “I’m gonna write it in and add flames. It’ll be great.”

“She’ll love the flames.” Says Barry, probably trying to tactfully dissuade Taako from the rest. Optimistic fool.

“I made a game for us where we have to guess the circumference of her thesis. There's prizes.”

“Is the thesis measurement bound or unbound?” Asks Barry far too fast. Oooooh, Taako has him on board now. Suddenly he loves BaPhD showers.

“No can do, Bluejeans, you wouldn’t want to cheat, would you? Wouldn’t want to ruin Lup’s special day by making it all about winning?”

“No.” Says Barry, unconvincingly.

“No cheating, Barold!”

Barry doesn’t say anything. Taako never should have taken Bluejeans under his wing, he’s created a monster.

“What’s a baby snack?”

"Mush?"

"No, like, for this."

“Are you asking what a baby thesis would eat?” Barry sounds more delighted by the concept than he should be.

“Baby researchers, I assume.” Chews them up, spits them out, not that Taako’s bitter. He’s fine. He can come back any time. Any time the police get round to officially clearing him. Not that it’s a problem, he’s not bothered about his degree anyway. He’s peachy. It’s not weird to see Lup get her doctorate before him when they were supposed to do it together.

Barry seems to realise he’s triggered some kind of horror even though Taako's definitely doing an incredibly normal face. He's going to try sand be nice about it.

“What are PhD snacks?” He asks before Barry can say anything kind.

“Pretty huge doughnuts.” Barry replies without hesitation. Taako knew there was a reason he kept him around.

Taako makes a note in his phone. Giant doughnuts mean giant frying, mean big oil, mean big pan.

“Why’re we making big doughnuts?” Kravitz asks, cracking the door to his room.

Of course it was food discussion that summoned him from his regimented work schedule (ignoring what he needed to do because he got distracted by other things and then panic typing up everything for his deadline.) It bodes well for Taako’s ongoing wooing, the stuff about hearts and stomachs was true probably, but Taako was also hoping to make his way to Kravitz’s di…

“Taako’s throwing Lup a surprise baby shower.” Barry cuts through Taako’s wandering thoughts. “We’re planning the menu.”

“Oh.” Says Kravitz. “For her PhD? Neat!”

-

Hey, hey, enjoyed that? Find the next prompt here!

[pearlywritings]

Let us take this pain and shed it away

synopsis: The text you recieve from your husband makes you restless, worried of what could possibly happen for the man to be so terse in his message and who that ‘fourth person’ he is talking about can possibly be. As it turns out it is someone very dear to both of you, someone who is in a desperate need of comfort.

pairing and characters: Zhongli x fem!reader, Xiao (the Rex-Lapis family), Hu Tao.

tw: hurt/comfort, modern AU, University AU, established relationship

word count: 5.4k+ words

a/n: was listening to Continued Story by Hitomi Kuroishi while writing. The fitting song in my opinion.

Also a part of my University modern AU with history professor Zhongli

Just one more hour you thought, straightening in your chair and flexing your shoulders, just one more hour and you could go home.

Work was quite slow today and you weren't even that tired, eyes scanning through another document as you gave your body some light exercising. A pain in the neck and back was honestly such a pain in another place, and while you did love Zhongli's strong fingers massaging your tense muscles after a couple of long days at work, you didn't want to abuse his kindness too often, so you were really pondering over the question: should you ask him for one today or not.

Speaking of Zhongli… This husband of yours had been exceptionally quiet today - you knew he had his phone with him (oh his tendency to leave it at home sometimes, forgetting to get it from recharging) and usually he'd message you something on his bigger breaks - but today your phone buzzed just once - when you both arrived to work and notified each other about doing so safely.

Well, he was a very busy professor, it honestly could be anything: a meeting, extra time taken from breaks to explain some more if students asked for it and so on… maybe even all at once!

Suppressing a rising groan you reached for the phone to make a work-related call, when the device vibrated suddenly. The name of your beloved appeared on the screen along with a picture of him with Xiao and Ganyu from the last time she came to visit during the University break of hers.

But a message from him, finally!

You didn't wait long to unlock your screen and tap the chat with him. At first your face lit up with joy. Though upon reading just the beginning of his message it changed to confusion, until you reached the end of it and pure concern overtook your features.

"I'll be home later. I know it's my turn, but please, be so kind as to get Xiao from his evening classes and cook dinner for four people. I'll explain everything once we arrive.

Love you."

Now that was strange. You reread the message a few more times, even waited a couple of minutes, hoping to get one more message, that'd bring the light upon the situation at least a little bit. But nothing.

Wrecking your brain back and forth in attempts to predict the possible reason behind the message you, nevertheless, typed back an "of course, dear. Be safe, see you later. Love you too", before putting the phone back on your working table. Then picking it up back again, almost having forgotten there were calls to make. You wouldn't question your husband and think about all of it much until he came home and explained everything. After all, you trusted him and something told you patience was the best you could do at the moment.

Two and a half hours later you were standing in the kitchen, stirring the vegetables in a pan and glancing at your phone occasionally, only to see no new messages every time you checked. Four people, four people… No, your daughter couldn't be the one, you knew your husband, if it was a surprise there'd be some sort of slip because of Zhongli's excitement, but there was clearly none. Not to mention it is the middle of her semester. Oh, but what if something bad happened and that's why she arrived?? Oof…

"Mom?" Suddenly a voice brought you back from a worrying brooding that overtook your mind, so engrossed in thoughts that you almost burnt the vegetables. Turning off the stove and then around you spotted your eight-year old son in the doorway.

"Yes, dear?" You hummed, moving the pan to another hob. The boy walked into the kitchen, ember eyes trained on your hands and, only when you reached for the towel to wipe them clean, moved his gaze to your face.

"I did my homework. Where is dad? He was supposed to come home an hour ago."

Oh yes, you'd like to know the answer to that question yourself. Glancing at the phone again gave you nothing and you sighed. You had no idea when Zhongli was going to arrive home, and honestly the uncertainty started to slowly kill you, but you didn't want it to put the same pressure on Xiao. So you opted for gently petting his hair to praise him for finishing his tasks so fast.

"Dad is going to be soon, baby. But if you are hungry, I can feed you now, I have everything almost ready."

Your son lowered his gaze for a moment thinking, but the loud rumbling of his stomach the next moment was a dead give away.

"Go wash your hands, I'll serve you your portion."

You didn't miss the small embarrassed pout on the boy's face before he scurried away to the bathroom. Oh baby, you smiled softly, turning to the cabinet to grab some plates, there was nothing wrong with that.

Ten minutes later the boy was stuffing his cheeks with dinner, swinging his legs and telling you about his day at school. Everything felt normal, and you almost convinced yourself there was no piece missing, despite an empty chair at the table. Xiao's soft voice, muffled by food, enveloped your senses like a small blanket, and you put your chin on a fist, a fond look not leaving your eyes, watching your son, who resembled his father so much with soft brown locks and liquid gold eyes, that curiously stared back at you.

"Mom, why aren't you eating?"

"Huh?" You snapped out of the daze and dropped your gaze to your plate that, indeed, was barely touched and slowly getting cold.

"Just spaced out a little, sorry, baby. You were saying?" You offered a smile, encouraging him to resume the retelling of today's event. Though you could clearly tell there was doubt written all over his face - he was always a sensitive baby - he did not comment anyhow on your strange behavior and just carried on.

This time you stayed more focused and Xiao's words even managed to pull your attention from the ever silent device, resting on the table just mere inches away from you. There was even an occasional giggle passing your lips whenever your boy mentioned something hilarious, or your eyes widened a little in wonder if he spoke of something new he learnt.Yes, everything finally became quite peaceful. Until it wasn’t.

You heard the doorbell ring and the sound echoed off the walls in a suddenly silent kitchen, and just like that all worries came back at you. The pace of the heart quickened, pumping blood with intensity, though you tried to keep yourself under control. You almost missed Xiao calling for you and asking if you were alright.

No you weren't. Not until you knew what was going on and the anticipation was gnawing at your mind at the moment.

"I am fine, baby," of course you couldn't admit it to him, standing up and giving the boy your best smile. "I'll go check if it's daddy. Go on with your food."

You saw how his arm flinched in a clear attempt to move to follow you, but yet stopping himself before his whole body was set in motion. A frown on his face though was evident now and molten gold in eyes turned sharp; he could clearly tell that something got you worked up and the nature of it wasn't necessarily good.

Before he changed his mind about staying in his seat, you bent down to place a quick peck to his cheek and just as fast you were out of the kitchen.

Behind the front door there was almost no sound, which made your stomach flip. Hesitant to peak in a peephole, you opted to take a deep breath and ask, as calmly as you could.

"Who's there?” 

A beat of silence and the heart drumming in your ears was deafening, beating against the ribcage like a crazy, freedom-thirsty bird. Another second ticked, and it became unbearable, nerve-wrecking, you chewed on your lips, fingers twitching, a thought of just yanking the door open flicking in your brain.

God, say something-

"It’s me, darling." 

Everything stopped. The sounds, the movements, the thoughts. The only thing registering was a smooth and so dearly familiar voice of your husband that made your whole body slump in relief, as if a huge weight was taken from your shoulders. 

“But I must warn you I have a guest here with m-”

Not giving him a chance to finish, you swiftly unlock the door and swing it open, letting the light from the hall illuminate two figures - one bigger and one smaller. Zhongli pursed his lips shut, when he saw a worried expression on your face, that soon became puzzled, as you finally realized who the fourth person the man was talking about was.

Hu Tao.

A vivacious girl in her early twenties, whom you treated like a dear niece ever since Zhongli first introduced her to you as the daughter of his old friends. She occasionally came by to hang out with Ganyu, even though the two sometimes finished their playdate with whining and complaining, because Ganyu was tired and wanted to nap and Hu Tao had way too much energy and mischief in her body to rest. She became an even more special guest after her parents passed away in a car accident around the time both her and your daughter were finishing middle and starting high school. Zhongli volunteered to help her grandpa look after her instantly and you supported that decision with all your might, always happy to see the girl in your house and providing her with comfort whenever she needed.

And by the look of it, today was just the case.

Brightly colored eyes didn’t hold the same gleam they usually did, and the way she was holding onto your husband’s coat draped around her shoulders told you of the stress she was under.

Yet nevertheless she tried to force a smile upon meeting your gaze.

"Hey, Mrs Rex-Lapis," her voice sounded so small, but she even gave you her usual wave of a hand, though it came out so meekly, your heart clenched in pain.

"Sweety,” softly you stepped forward and gently enveloped her in a hug, it felt crucial to do so, “It’s just Y/N or auntie for you. We've talked about it so many times, no need to be so formal with me, alright?”

All she did was nodding against your shoulder. Zhongli carefully guided you two inside, not wanting to break this embrace just yet, and slowly closed and locked the door behind. Just as carefully he peeled his coat off of her trembling frame - how didn’t you notice that? - and hung it in a wardrobe, along with his scarf and hat.

Then his palm found its place on her back, soothingly rubbing up and down, comforting her for something you weren’t aware of. He didn’t forget to kiss your cheek, murmuring a small “hello” against your skin, redirecting his eyes to the girl almost immediately. 

“Why don’t you go and wash your hands, dear? We’ll have some food heated for you, okay?”

Just like the first time she didn’t utter a word, only nodding, and the action seemed so lifeless to you, lacking the usual spark, a quick jerk of her chin she used to communicate ‘positive’. 

Now everything felt like slow motion. She drew herself from you reluctantly, lowering her eyes. Not even bending she used her feet to kick the shoes off and then quite literally dragged them to where your bathroom was down the hall. Only when she closed the door and water started running, you turned to Zhongli, staring at him and pointing your finger to the direction Hu Tao disappeared in with a raised brow.

“Well?”

“Love, I know I worried you and I am sorry,” sighing he bent to put the shoes neatly on the carpet, adding his own a second after, “but the moment I got the news I was just as worried as you are. Her grandfather was hospitalized.”

Your eyes widened and a hand flew to your mouth to muffle a horrified gasp, the scolding you had for him just at the tip of your tongue long forgotten and nonexistent.

“No… No, please, don’t tell me-”

“Nothing life-threatening yet, but they said he’d be in the hospital for a couple of weeks, so they could monitor his condition,” you let out a relieved exhale at that, taking a hold of Zhongli's hand when he reached to comfort you. “But Hu Tao didn’t want to leave the hospital either, so they had to call her emergency contact - me - and ask to convince her to go home. I even let my students go earlier, so I didn’t get in a traffic jam on my way there, I had to be there fast. I managed to persuade her to go with me and stay with us for these two weeks. I couldn’t let her go home, alone, in a state like that, I just couldn’t.”

“You did an absolutely right thing Zhongli,” you quickly reassured him, taking his second hand in yours, squeezing both. “Of course she can stay as long as she needs. I promise to do my best to take care of her.”

“I know you will, love,” the corners of his mouth lifted and adoration swirled in the gold of his eyes. “I count on your help. Words can’t describe how grateful I am for you always being here for her just as much as you are for our kids.”

“Don’t mention it, she is important to me after all. But speaking of our kids - go and greet Xiao, he’s been dying to finally see you today.”

“But Hu Tao-”

“Will be looked after. I am on it. Now go before our boy comes here himself.”

The man finally gave you a full smile and a proper kiss on your lips, squeezing your hands back, before letting go of them and hurrying to the kitchen.

You, on the other hand, approached the bathroom. Back pressed to the wall, you patiently waited, listening to the water running and the girl shuffling around, until all sounds came to a stop.

"Um… What towel can I use?" It seemed she heard you coming and knew you were standing outside.

"Yellow one, sweety," some more shuffling before the lock clicked open and Hu Tao emerged from the bathroom, having her knitted cardigan hanging off of her arm. Bare slumped shoulders only made the misery of her state more prominent. Caramel red eyes glanced at you briefly, before staring at the floor intently, as if she wanted to burn a hole in your parquet. In general she looked like she didn't know what to do with herself, so you decided to take the matter in your own hands.

"Hey, butterfly," you said softly, carefully placing just the tips of your fingers on her shoulder, to make sure she wouldn't flinch, "how about we go and get you some dinner? I bet you are hungry. How does it sound?"

"Sounds good," she quietly murmurs, sniffling and bringing a hand to rub at her eye, metal bracelets clinking melodically on her wrist. "Is Xiao there?"

"He is, but he won't ask questions, I promise," and you hoped your husband had warned him no to.

"Okay… okay," she nodded, more to herself, than to you, and allowed you to gently lead her to the kitchen with a full palm resting on her shoulder. Passing the hall, Hu Tao quickly glanced at the key hooks and stopped briefly to hang the cardigan on a free one. Then she paused in hesitation, sleeve caught between her fingers, as if contemplating should she really leave it there or she’d better take it to cover herself. The moment of doubt was short though, and she quickly let go of the browny red article of clothing. You saw everything, but didn’t comment anyhow, smiling at her, when she returned to your side and resumed your way.

When you stepped into the kitchen two pairs of golden eyes darted in your direction - one concerned and the other silently empathetic. This was enough to know Xiao was aware your guest wasn't in the right state to answer questions. Nevertheless he waved at her in greeting to which she did the same, mustering a small smile for the boy that was gone the moment she turned her head to look at Zhongli, who, instead of going to change, was busy with heating up food for Hu Tao and himself. You set the girl at the table and sat next to her, positioning your chair closely to hers. 

You observed how she straightened in her seat, squaring her shoulders and keeping her head high and gaze directed forward. Maybe this display, put out more for Xiao than for anyone else, could play out as convincing, but you weren’t fooled, not with the way her slim fingers, adorned with many rings, were tightly clasped under the table, turning white immediately from the intensity of her grip. Wordlessly, you reached to them, enveloping this lock of hands with your warm palm and keeping it there, as Zhongli put down the plates for himself and your guest, excusing himself just for a moment to finally change, and Xiao hopped off of his chair and started moving it closer to the sink, volunteering to wash the dishes.

Only when the man returned did Hu Tao bring her hands back to view and took the chopsticks.

With plates and mugs dried and placed in the cupboard, you closed the doors and placed the chair in its original place. Next step was to grab your wallet and give your son some shiny jingling reward for helping with chores, which you quickly proceeded to do. Your little wonder’s eyes twinkled happily and he scurried to his room to add it to his personal savings.

Zhongli watched you with a half-finished cup of tea in his hand, leaning to the countertop. He didn’t want to leave Hu Tao’s side at the time like that, but he also understood his duty as a father and, honestly, he missed Xiao the whole day. His face expression was screaming controversy, and you caught his gaze, upon coming back to the kitchen from putting the wallet away.

“You've done a lot already bringing her here, darling. Go spend some time with Xiao. You can join us later, I got it,” you pulled the cup from his grip and put it in the sink - the tea was cold at that point anyway. “We’ll be in the living room cuddling, text me if Xiao would want to join us too, alright?”

“Alright,” he nodded, pressing a short peck to your lips, pouring his gratitude through the small gesture. Then he once again looked at the girl, who seemed to be deep in thought, hardly hearing your interaction.

“Promise me she’ll be fine,” he whispered and you sighed. Of course you’d make everything to assure it. With years going by you grew to love and care for Hu Tao just as much as you did for your older daughter. Your heart ached just as much seeing sadness overtaking her features, and it pained the same way it did whenever you saw the expression on Ganyu’s face, no matter what the cause was. Even if both were almost grown up women, you still couldn't worry for them any less.

And you knew that the girl had a special place in your husband's kind heart.

“She will,” you said firmly, determination radiating from your eyes and Zhongli for a second almost lost himself to falling in love with you over again. You had to push him a little in the doorway direction, to remind him he was needed somewhere else at the moment.

With your husband gone from the kitchen, you hummed softly, drawing Hu Tao’s attention.

“Hey, butterfly,” gaze filled with melancholy shifted to you, “let’s get you to the living room.”

A silent question and confusion flashed behind her eyes, to which you offered her a smile, and then an extended hand.

“To cuddle, my dear.”

“To cuddle…” She repeated like a parrot, absentmindedly sliding her palm into yours and forcing her body to cooperate and stand up. She was putting her trust into you while showing no resistance, and you were sure not to fail her.

“Mhm, there you go,” encouragement poured from your lips, washing over her in calming waves, making the girl take a deep breath. She grimaced a little, as the take proved to be too much for her lungs in an almost painful way, so she hurried to exhale. Your heart clenched again. If only some of this pain could be taken away, if only you could take and shed it away.

But you were no deity and could only do as much as bringing her to the couch, gently setting her there and brushing her bangs away.

“Let’s untie these,” you didn’t wait for her response, carefully twisting the hair tie off of one of her ponytails and letting her long brown locks cascade down her face. Soon the twin tail was released as well, and you busied yourself with running fingers near the roots, to soothe her and brush the tangles a little bit. You didn’t see the girl’s face, but her back against your legs became more relaxed.

"Now ready to cuddle?" 

Hu Tao thought of how amazing you were, sounding cheerful, despite being so obviously worried for her, touching her gently and delicately, helping her further on the couch and into your warm embrace with a duvet being dragged over your bodies. How precise you were in your movements, bringing her close, yet giving all the freedom to get into a comfortable position, which the girl didn't hesitate to choose. One arm tightly wrapped around your middle and the other fisting the material of her own shirt, with head tilted down and long hair obscuring half of the face.

"Is this okay?" You were so considerate and kind it almost hurt, but in a good, most joy-bringing way.

Her eyes stung and she quietly sniffled, hoping you didn't notice. Even if you did - you did not seem to show, letting her have her moment of trying to not start the waterworks. She knew she could be vulnerable with you and Zhongli and she had washed her makeup before dinner, but it wasn't that.

No. She just knew, if she let herself go now…

...the dam would be broken and no human would fix it for hours.

Yet, she desperately wanted for those painful intrusive thoughts to go away, mind and body exhausted, worn out with worry and the feeling of hopelessness. Images of white still dancing before her eyes - white walls, white coats of nurses and doctors, whose words she couldn’t decipher with all that white noise filling her ears after hearing the news… And the pale, almost white face of her grandpa.

No, no, she must not think of it.

You shivered when suddenly she curled even more into your body, fingers letting go of her shirt and then clinging to yours, crumpling it.

"...is this okay with you?" Your heart sank in your stomach. Did that shiver make her think you were uncomfortable? Of course, you weren’t, it’s just that her voice sounded so quiet and broken… almost shattering your own resolve.

"Sure it is, butterfly, I love cuddling with you, it is totally okay," you hurried to reassure, wrapping your arms around her frame to prove your words. So secure, Hu Tao felt so protected by a simple touch, by you... She barely managed to force the emotional choke back down her throat, tightening the hold on the front of your shirt.

"No, that's… not what I was asking about…" murmuring she turned her face to the side, muffling the words against the sofa cushions, yet you heard them.

"Want to talk about it?" Your hand is back in her hair, delicately cupping the back of her head, fingertips gently scratching the scalp. A shaky sigh and a quiet cough - exhaling into a solid object wasn't the best idea. The girl was silent, barely showing her face, so you leaned forward, putting your chin on top of her head, holding her impossibly close.

“Just don’t suffocate yourself, dear,” you reminded her and in a second felt her head turning, facing your collarbones and properly breathing. “Good, good… We can just stay like this, it’s okay if you don’t want to talk, I got you.”

You heard a tiny sniffle and a ragged breath. Comfortingly you started humming, rocking your tangled bodies as much as the lying position allowed.

Hu Tao’s eyes stung more unbearably than before, so she squeezed them shut tightly, pressing her forehead to your collarbones. A full sob wrecked her throat, but she still was trying to hold on what crumbs were still left of her self-control, but gods was that hard. Not when she felt so safe next to you, not when your voice, so sweet and soothing, plucked at the strings of her soul, not when you were so willing to be here for her, when you had absolutely no obligation to be there for her…

Just like her loving grandpa.

…

Oh no.

The tears welled in her eyes, escaping and running down her rosy cheeks, facade ruined completely. Wailing cries muffled against her fist, still holding onto your shirt, didn’t sound less heart-wrenching. The dam was broken.

The headache was killing her. Her throat burnt and eyes felt like they were going to roll out of her sockets. Everything felt slightly painful, with body having been stuck in one position for so long - she didn’t think she’d be able to move even a muscle.

There were still arms tightly wrapped around her, cradling her head in a warm palm, and she still heard the same soft and loving voice, now talking to another, equally dear one.

“She is worn out… we need to take her to bed.”

“Ganyu room?”

“Yeah… She’d need privacy.”

“Agreed.”

“She looks really tired… You think you could carry her?”

“Of course, let me just-” Hu Tao heard the footsteps of a person coming to the other side of the sofa - her side. Your arms carefully unwrapped from around her and rolled her body to lay on the back. Then two other arms - much stronger ones - slide under her knees and shoulder blades, effortlessly lifting her from the couch. “Here we go.”

Only then did she open her eyes. Everything was blurry and it was hard to see with lights dimmed, but even so the liquid gold staring down at her was unmistakable. She blinked a few times, sighing and cringing a little from how raspy it sounded. Palm fisted and came to rub at her eyes, ears picking on the sound of shuffling - of you getting yourself off of the piece of furniture where the whole outburst happened and where you spent two hours holding her close and comforting the poor girl the best ways you could. The memory of what happened was a saddening one, but Hu Tao was actually glad for taking all of it out of her system. She didn’t want to think what it would be like, if she was all alone.

“Dear,” but the smooth deep voice of the man who vowed to be her guardian instead of her deceased parents reminded her that she was not indeed alone, “I’ll get you to the bathroom so you can wash your face, and then to rest for the night, okay?”

“Okay, sounds like a plan” your face lit up when she did not simply nod, but voiced her answer, exhaling in relief. You watched as she carefully wrapped her arms around Zhongli’s neck to make holding her more comfortable for him, and thought that she’d be alright.

“While you two are at it, I’ll go and put the new sheets and stuff.”

Hu Tao turned in your direction, just as you were ready to head out, and cleared her throat.

“Thank you.”

Halting in your steps, you faced her and, seeing the gratitude reflecting in her eyes - the eyes where a small spark was flickering once again, smiled.

“Always, butterfly.”

She watched you disappear in the hallway and her heart swelled with unspoken emotion. She was so damn lucky to find a family in you two. Was that what Ganyu felt when you adopted her, and she started living a proper life as the daughter of the Rex-Lapis couple? Probably it was.

She kept silent and to herself all the way to the bathroom, where Zhongli put her down on the tiled floor carefully. Assured she was firmly standing on her feet, he let her do her thing, promising to come back with slippers for her - something he had forgotten to give at her arrival.

Rings and bracelets clinked against the edge of the bathtub, where she placed them to not be in a way, leaving just one spare hairtie she always had on her. Rolling it further up her wrist, she reached for the faucet. 

Cool water helped to clear her mind and wash the dried tear trails from her cheeks, and a moment later a very tired, but not as miserable as it used to be, face appeared in the mirror above the sink. Already red eyes were bloodshot, but, she supposed, it wasn’t that bad, it’s not like she was going to a beauty contest in ten minutes. The small joke even made her chuckle softly, rubbing at her cheek and then bending down to blow her nose.

Zhongli was back in ten minutes and knocked politely, just as she was half-done with twisting the strands of her long hair in one braid.

“Almost done, uncle Li. Come in,” the doorknob turned and the door opened slightly, just enough to squeeze the slippers inside and leave them there.

“No, no, take your time. I’ll wait outside.”

And wait he did. When Hu Tao stepped out of the bathroom, tapping the hilarious spider-like big slippers, the man was there, switching the lights off the moment the girl closed the door. Now let me tell about those slippers - you once bought them for your husband as a joke for Halloween, which, upon seeing during one of her visits, the girl fell in love with and always asked to wear when being over. It’s not like Zhongli had something against it, in all honesty, they were hideous to him. He loved you with his whole heart, but they were hideous and uncomfortable. 

However he had to admit, his gaze softened when she lifted one of her feet and jerked it, making the spider legs jump up and down. Oh, she really loved them.

“Here’s a box you can store your accessories in,” he offered her a small plastic container with a lid - simple, but quite enough to have all her rings and bracelets stored. She literally dumped those inside, and Zhongli closed the lid, handing it to her.

“Thanks, Uncle Li,” the first smile after the crying fit grazed her lips, and Zhongli mentally kissed all over your face, for being there for her.

“Uncle Li?” oh, speak of the devil. You joined them with a pile of bedding you took off the bed in your arms. “What happened to “Lincle”?”

“My love…” your husband’s brows shot up at the mention of the nickname Hu Tao once came up with. Cause combining “Li” and “Uncle” this way was faster and easier to pronounce.

“Come on, dear, that was cute,” you giggled and glanced at Hu Tao. “He thought it was cute too.”

“Did not.”

“Sure did.”

“Y/n-”

Listening to your meaningless, soon-to-be-turned affectionate bickering and seeing how a barely noticeable blush crept onto the esteemed University’s professor’s cheeks, Hu Tao shook her head with a soft smile. She was definitely in good hands.

And she vowed to herself that she wouldn’t let depressing thoughts corrupt her mind anymore, she would show gratitude to this family by doing so, since that’s what made them so worried. She’d have so many great stories to tell her grandpa when he got better, and he would. 

She was sure of that.

[cf56]

My thoughts on episode 4

SPOILERS for season 3, episode 4 of the Animaniacs reboot

This review will have less substance than the last one because I just don't have as much to say. You can skip the next paragraph if you just want to hear my thoughts on the episode.

It's only been four days, and I've already gone insane. It's killing me to be separated from the fandom. I see the snippets of discussions and the filtered posts I can't view and I just desperately want to be a part of it all. Participate in the discussion, share in the same emotions. If that wasn't a factor, I'd have absolutely no regrets about watching one episode a day. Especially after typing up my reviews, I find that one day is the perfect amount of time to thoroughly digest each episode and prepare myself to watch the next one. I don't feel myself chomping at the bit to watch two or three episodes a day. I don't even think I have the time to do that and also keep doing these reviews. The only reason I want to go faster is so that I can return to the fandom sooner. There's six more days and six more episodes. The emotions are super mixed, though, because while I desperately want to exit my self-imposed prison, every day that passes is also another day closer to the end of Animaniacs for me. Do I go faster and get back to the fandom, but risk less thoroughly enjoying the last season of Animaniacs? Or do I keep watching slowly but risk missing the most active period this fandom will likely ever have again? THIS is why shows need to be released weekly. It's a dilemma I can't solve, and it leaves me feeling anxious and detached all day, thinking about absolutely nothing else than all of this.

What? The episode? Oh, it was decent.

Here's a closer look at the three abominations:

Could these be the animals the Warners are based on? I think a gold earring suits Yakko well.

"Do they watch us when we go to the bathroom?"

Only once, Wakko.

I loved Yakko's expressions and animation here.

I found it cute to see Dot looking at her spider with such love. An underrated, consistent part of her character through the original and the reboot is her fascination with keeping creepy little horrors as pets.

POOR BABY! Can't you see he needs his chicken tendies?!

I just got this joke. There were actually three spiders, Dot already lost one, and Andrew Garfield was forgotten.

Sad to see how far seniority gets you in this field, because lord knows Dr. Scratchansniff has never helped a single patient.

Like I said about the previews, Yakko is super cute in this segment!

The ambulance driver said they were going to make another stop, and Wakko's daily activity was never followed up with like Yakko's and Dot's. Is this implying Wakko ate so much at the hot dog eating contest that he had to get an ambulance?

It was a pretty funny segment that felt like the classic Scratchansniff-Warner cartoons you'd see in the first half of the original series.

It still confuses me, though, how they said they were listening to fan feedback for season 3, but they still didn't bother to make Scratchy more fatherly like literally every single fan wanted. We went from Scratchansniff willingly taking the Warners in his car on trips to being upset that they happened to join him in an Uber because he chose the wrong option in the app. At least give us a few moments that show he has some care for the Warners- like when Wakko starts to cry, have him feel bad and willingly give in to going back to the restaurant instead of the Uber driver doing it. During the best parts of their relationships in the original series, he was considerate towards the Warners' feelings and asked about their hobbies. Have him show some interest in Dot's pets or Yakko's passion for yodeling. The segment doesn't have to go any differently overall. Just a few caring moments would make all the difference. The decision to revert Scratchansniff to being a typical cartoon antagonist for the Warners was universally panned in the original and it baffles me that they still carry it forward to this day. No one wants to see that.

The Pinky and the Brain segment was good but nothing special. I'm getting a little sick of the same old formula for the reboot. Why not start a couple episodes off with Pinky and the Brain and end with the Warners? Or any other combination of segment order you could do. The formula in the reboot has always been either Warners-PATB-Warners or Warners-(sometimes some other segment)-PATB.

I find it interesting that this is their normal cruising attire:

I thought this part was an interesting symbolism for the two conflicting human ideas on climate change. Do we stick around and try to salvage what's left of our original home, or do we just try to bail Earth and start over in the stars?

My favorite part of this segment was how it all instantly devolved into total nonsensical chaos in about one second.

Poor guy will never get his revenge :(

It was a decently funny segment. Not much more to say about it.

The episode was good. It didn't stand up to the last one, but I didn't have any major complaints that ruined the whole thing for me. There wasn't really a major musical number in the entire episode. I think they've been too light on the music so far this season. The Warners have only had two songs in six segments, and only one of them was super great in my opinion. Take advantage of these characters and legendary voices while you have them.

This episode was definitely worse than episode 3, but it's hard for me to decide between this one and episode 2. Episode 2 had a better PATB segment but a Warner segment that didn't do much for me like this one did. By virtue of me being a Warner fan first and this episode having some very cute moments with them, I think I have to put episode 4 above episode 2. Despite the lack at even an attempt at a song.

My current ranking of season 3 episodes:

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 2

Episode 1

I encourage you to participate in the discussion on this post if you have anything to say about episode 4 or those that came before it, but don't say anything about the episodes that come after. Pretend like you haven't even seen them. I have to thank my friends in the replies who humor me every day and discuss each episode without spoilers. You two are the only reason I'm still semi-sane. Without you, I'd feel completely isolated.

I don't know if I'll cave and start doing multiple episodes per day. This takes a lot of willpower, but for now I'm still tentatively planning to tough it out.

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[all-the-things-2020]

Continuing the Way - Chapter One

Summary: Mariana and Din Djarin have left Thantos Prime behind. Mariana is busy working and studying at the university on Chandrilla, while Din is happy taking care of their sons. But someone from Din’s past brings an opportunity that Din may not be able to turn down, and Mariana faces a challenge that could impact her career.

Rating: PG

Din made sure his sons were safely occupied with their building set before he started prepping dinner. It was always dangerous to leave two toddlers unsupervised for even a short length of time, but he’d learned that if he gave them the building set he could have a good fifteen minutes before they started squabbling. Ad’ika knew better, but he got frustrated with Cabur’s selfishness, and since he was only marginally more socially developed than his brother, it never ended well. Right now, Din quickly assembled a pan of meat and vegetables, popping it into the oven to roast just as he heard Cabur’s shrill, “Mine!!!” Din sighed. They don’t call it the Terrible Twos for nothing, he mused as he wiped his hands and headed into the living room to referee the argument.

Ad’ika was floating a carved wooden tauntaun over his head, using his Force-sensitive powers to tease his brother. The tauntaun, which for some reason was painted a hideous bright pink color, was a prized possession of both boys. “Daddy!” Cabur complained. “Mine! ‘Dika mean!”

Din plucked the tauntaun from the air and squatted down between the two children. Cabur was glaring at his older brother, who flattened his green fuzzy ears when he realized that Daddy was not amused by his trick.

“Ad’ika, I’ve told you, it’s not fair to use your powers,” Din said carefully.

“Cabur bigger,” Ad’ika said. It was true that the younger brother was now quite a bit taller and stronger than the elder, but since they were two different species, that was only to be expected.

“I know,” Din said, stroking Ad’ika’s head, “but he’s much younger than you. You need to be the big brother. Show him how to share and be nice.” He ruffled Cabur’s dark hair. “And you … you need to work on sharing, and taking turns. You know this.”

Both boys mumbled, “Sorry, Daddy,” or something close to it, and Din laid the tauntaun down on the floor before pulling both children into his lap. As frustrating as the boys could be, he loved them dearly and always tried to be gentle when reprimanding them.

They were still cuddling together when Mariana arrived home, her hair falling out of its braid as usual at the end of a long, hectic day. She dropped her satchel on the table inside the apartment door just as the boys launched themselves out of Din’s lap.

“Mama!,” they cried.

She crouched down and pulled them into a hug. “My boys,” she said, planting a kiss on each of their foreheads. “I missed you all day. Did you miss me?”

They nodded and kissed her cheeks. “And were you good boys for Daddy?” They gave each other a sideways look that spoke volumes.

“They were as good as can be expected,” Din said. “It’s hard to be two, isn’t it, Cabur? And hard to be 53, huh, Ad’ika?”

Mariana laughed, stood up and gave Din a nice, sloppy kiss that promised much more after the boys were asleep. “Mmm,” he said. “Can you watch them while I check on dinner?” He tapped the toy tauntaun with his shoe. “And maybe give Pinky a time out until they’ve forgotten about him?”

“You’ve got it,” she said, deftly bending down and slipping the offending toy into her pocket. She then turned to the boys and said, “Who can build me the tallest tower?”

They scrambled to impress their mother, and Din stepped into the kitchen. The food was roasting nicely and by the time he had sliced some bread, and cut up some fruit for dessert, it would be ready to eat. He pulled clean plates out of the cupboard, humming quietly to himself as he set the table for his family. He knew Cara and Greef would razz him mercilessly about his new domestic role as stay at home father, but after so many years of living amongst the worst the galaxy had to offer, he found he was quite content to putter around the apartment, taking care of his sons and his wife.

He heard their chatter and laughter, punctuated by the occasional clatter of falling building blocks, while he finished preparing dinner. He knew Mariana was tired after her day, and playing with the boys always helped energize her a bit, so he didn’t mind not having her help.

Soon enough, dinner was ready and he called them to the table. Cabur and Ad’ika raced to see who could reach him first; the winner got put into his seat by Daddy, while the loser got put into his seat by Mommy, so it didn’t really matter who won, since either way the boys were happy.

Today Cabur won the race, as he did more and more often now that he was taller and steadier on his feet. Still, Ad’ika had his own advantages, sometimes moving faster than seemed physically possible, and Din suspected he often let his younger brother win so that he got to spend a few extra moments with Mommy.

“This looks delicious,” Mariana said, after she’d settled Ad’ika into his seat. Din smiled shyly. He always felt uncomfortable when she complimented his cooking; it was not a skill he’d ever thought he’d be praised for.

“Thanks, cyar’ika,” he replied, dishing up food for the boys first and then preparing a plate for her. Ad’ika’s plate was heavier on meat, while Cabur’s was heavier on veggies and bread. The younger boy was reluctant to eat his vegetables but could be persuaded most days by the addition of his favorite food — and the promise of dessert.

Din and Mariana chatted quietly while they ate, pausing now and then to keep the boys on task. When it was clear that the children were finished, Din removed their plates and brought them bowls of fruit. Cabur was clearly disappointed that dessert wasn’t a cake or pastry tonight, but Ad’ika dug in readily. By the time Cabur was finished with his fruit, Mariana was ready for her own dessert, and Din brought it to her before wiping the boys’ mouths and helping them down so they could go back to playing.

He watched them race their toy spaceships around the room while Mariana finished her dessert and cleared the table. “I’ll take over,” she said, sitting next to him on the couch and giving him a fruit-flavored kiss. He retired to the kitchen to nibble on his own dessert while he washed the dishes and tidied up.

Soon the kitchen was cleaned up and he was on the couch snuggling with Mariana while the boys continued playing. “Busy day?,” he asked her, blocking a flying stuffed bantha that threatened to hit her in the head. Apparently the game had shifted from Space Battle to Flying Animals.

“Of course,” she said. “Three classes, two hours of research for Professor Ti’lik, and a staff meeting.” Din winced. He’d been to his share of staff meetings at the Academy back on Thantos Prime, but apparently university staff meetings were exponentially worse.

“Term’s almost over, right?”

Mariana nodded. “Yes, I’ll have exams in three weeks, so I’m not going to be much help around here for the next month.” She laid her head on his shoulder. “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” Din replied. “I’ll survive. I survived last term and the one before that.”

“I know,” she said, “I just feel guilty for taking advantage of you.”

“You can always take advantage of me, cyar’ika,” he whispered in her ear, which made her giggle and slide her hand under the hem of his shirt to trace patterns on his stomach. This led to a kiss and then another, until a loud “Ewww!,” from Cabur brought them up short.

Ad’ika was unperturbed by their actions, but Cabur had started reacting to their amorous moments with his new favorite word, which he’d learned at the park when some of the children in their playgroup saw Ad’ika eat a frog.

“Okay, ad,” Din said. “We’ll stop embarrassing you.”

Cabur shook his head. “Yucky!,” he said. He’d just recently decided that while hugs were fine, kisses were gross and to be avoided at all costs, except for goodnight kisses from Mommy, which were grudgingly tolerated.

Mariana sat up and pushed away from Din. “I should get some studying done anyway,” she said. She crossed the room and fetched her data pad from her satchel. Din slid onto the floor to play with the boys; it would keep them from bothering her and let her focus on her work.

After an hour of building hangars and racing Banthas and playing catch, it was bath time. Mariana put down her pad and stretched. “Who wants a bath?,” she sang out.

Ad’ika immediately dropped his toy and raced across the room. He had discovered the joys of bath time on Thantos Prime and it was one of his favorite parts of the day. Cabur put up a bit of a fuss, but allowed himself to be herded into the ‘fresher. Mariana ran the bath water into the tub while Din undressed the boys and soon they were splashing in the water, pouring cups of water over each other’s heads and floating little plastisteel boats on the waves. Din and Mariana each took charge of a child and soaped and scrubbed as best they could in between naval attacks. When both boys were clean, they scooped them out, rubbed them dry with fuzzy towels and wrangled them into their pajamas.

“Mama story!,” Cabur demanded.

Ad’ika agreed, tugging at Mariana’s hand.“Buir, gehat'ik gedet'ye.” Mother, story please.

Din helped her tuck them into their beds, then retired to the living room while she told them one of the stories from her childhood. Din didn’t remember any stories except those the Mandalorians had told him, and the boys preferred Mariana’s stories, which were more varied and had happier endings. Far too many Mando’a stories ended in glorious sacrifice and death on the battlefield.

By the time he’d picked up all the scattered toys and swept up the crumbs that inevitably ended up on the floor (Ad’ika was extremely skilled at sneaking snacks out of the cupboards despite Din’s best efforts to keep them safe from little claws), Mariana had returned. “They’re both asleep,” she said, picking up her data pad. He joined her on the couch, leaning back against the cushions. This was his favorite part of the day, when the boys were asleep and he could completely relax.

Mariana returned to her studying, head resting on his shoulder as she read. Din stroked her hair, content to simply be near her as she worked.

[mlobsters]

supernatural s8e12 as time goes by (w. adam glass)

now that i'm totally bummed out with all the john talk, cain and abel bloodline, etc etc... you better not be making this a rehabbing john winchester episode :p

DEAN Yeah, right. Seriously? Dudes time-travelling through motel-room closets? That's what we've come to?

uh huh

DEAN Yeah, well, either way, Dad hated the son of a bitch. SAM And Dad made up for that how? By being father of the year?

haha, louder for the people in the back!!

DEAN Look, Dad had his issues, okay, but he was always there for us.

EXCUSE ME. dean, no, we know better than this. he was literally, canonically, very often NOT THERE FOR YOU. as kids, as adults. oh my god. haha whisper yelling at dean through the screen.

a) the only reason i know the name abaddon is from the book abaddon's gate by james sa corey, which the series it's in got turned into an excellent show that's one of my favorites as well, the expanse. so, learn something new every day, didn't know it was a angel/demon/bible/pit thing

b) i have forgotten after reading the abaddon wiki article. oh right, men of letters, this is funny. i'm well familiar loosely with them, the bunker, etc via fic. but just set dressing. had no idea the backstory

ay this cheesy rousing music while henry waxes poetic about the glory that is the men of letters and their family legacy. cannot

he went on a little face journey here that was like flirty appreciative, to a little surprised and sadconcerned? haha i could project thoughts all over that, wonder what that was about

oh oh john got traumatized by his father abandoning him which was actually a demon's, a knight of hell specifically, fault. the rehabilitation :P

HENRY John was a legacy. I was supposed to teach him the ways of the Letters. DEAN Well, he learned things a little differently. HENRY How? DEAN The hard way. Surviving a lonely childhood, a stinking war... only to get married and have his wife taken by a demon... and later killed by one himself. That man got a bum rap around every turn. But you know what? He kept going. And in the end, he did a hell of a lot more good than he did bad.

he did good in the world. and he neglected and traumatized his children. it's hard for me to go macro when the results of the micro are splashing around the pool of their trauma daily in front of my face. i know dean is feeling defensive and protective and etc etc.

the mismatch of the outside of the motel and the downright fancy inside is weird. this whole thing is kinda weird. don't be weird, time traveling grandpa

same, dean, same.

i think a lot of what kills the production value in the newer seasons is how evenly and boringly lit so much of it is. yeah the first seasons were often too dark, but at least they used shadows to their full effect. it was interesting! look at the lighting in the this random scene in a motel in s1e4 phantom traveler

and the slow pan with the exposed leg lol different universe. anyway i scrubbed through literally e1-4 to find that damned scene. desaturated grainy deliciousness. so much more atmosphere

DEAN Listen, I understand that this is not your idea of a happy ending, okay, and that – that you're disappointed that me and Sam are mouth-breathing hunters. But you know what? We stopped the Apocalypse.

there you go, tell him! y'all did some shit and without the resources or education availed to him

DEAN (on phone) Sammy? ABADDON (on phone) No. Much sexier. Try again. DEAN (on phone) Abaddon. ABADDON (on phone) Good boy. Now listen up – I want to make a good, old-fashioned horse trade. Henry and the key for your brother. Or he dies. Am I clear?

the makeup/fake tan on jackles is just so sad and distracting

DEAN Henry, you need to understand something. When my dad died, I couldn't save him… no matter how bad I wanted to. I never want that to happen to Sam… ever. If there's a chance that I can save him, I'm gonna do it. He's my brother. He's the only family I got.

ps we've both died a bunch and i have personally resurrected him before sooo

i'm sorry dude but this is just a lot

SAM I get it now. DEAN Hmm? SAM What Cupid said about heaven busting ass to get Mom and Dad together. The Winchesters and the Campbells – the brains and the brawn. DEAN Well, I'm glad you see it. All I see in our family tree is a whole lot of dead.

mmmk. the whole thing feels very.. tacked on. like they just introduced this whole chunk of magic users wholecloth and wedged it in with a very flimsy excuse as to why it was nonexistent prior to this

SAM You think it would have made a difference? DEAN What? SAM Dad. If he'd had his own father around. DEAN What, in how he raised us? Sammy, he did the best he could. SAM I know that. I – I do. They all did.

sometimes the best you can do is recognize that you don't have the means to raise these kids and maybe someone else in the family would be better suited and willing. like hey. bobby perhaps. blargh. gets my parenting hackles up. and like i've said before, they can feel what they wanna feel and it's good if they're at peace with it, but don't try to sell me on john being a good dad, actually :p

my tolerance for bad plot shit is high, i am a fan of teen wolf (and the killing s2 i'm looking at you) after all. but it is still a bummer

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball GT 07

✨GT Stands for Giru Truss✨

So there’s heat on Giru because he ate some of the electronics on the ship.  Pan ties him up to punish him in the kinkiest way possible, while Goku defends Giru by pointing out that he’s just hungry.  Trunks says that they’ll have to recharge Giru on the next planet.  What I don’t understand is why Giru has to eat electronics for power.  Can’t they just plug him into a USB port or something and send the electricity directly into his body?

Anyway, they get to the next planet and for some reason they take their sweet time going down a hill, even though they can all fly, and the Earth is going to explode unless they find all seven Dragon Balls.  Yeah, it’ll take a year for that to happen, but I’m pretty sure they have to find all seven balls and return to Earth in order to prevent the explosion.  For all they know, the seventh ball is stuck way out there, and it’ll take them six months to make the return trip.

They find their next Dragon Ball in a village.  Specifically, it’s part of an ornament on the end of this lady’s hair.  Her name is Leine, and she’s pretty sad, because her village is being terrorized by a horrible monster named Zonooma. 

See, Zonooma has the power to cause earthquakes, and he’s been making visits to the village, and demanding food and other tribute.  If he’s displeased, he just wiggles the whiskers on his face, and an earthquake starts.  It was bad enough before, but he’s been coming around a lot more often lately, and now he wants a bride.  Regrettably, the villagers will have to sacrifice Leine to appease this terrible creature, or--

✨Good Ideas, Poorly Executed.✨

Yeah, this is just the fucking Oolong Episode from the original Dragon Ball.

I don’t know what the ratings were like for Dragon Ball GT, or what was going through the collective minds of the audience watching at home, but on some spiritual level, I feel like this had to be the moment when people started to give up on this show.

Pan’s “idea” to defeat Zonooma is the same thing Bulma came up with forty years earlier: dress Goku up like a girl and send her out in place of the designated sacrifice.  Except Zonooma isn’t after child brides like Oolong, so Goku isn’t big enough to fit in Leine’s dress.  So they get Trunks to wear the wedding gown instead. 

Oh, and instead of having Trunks beat up Zonooma, Pan’s plan is for Trunks to get him drunk on sake, and then they can cut off his whiskers with a giant pair of scissors to put a stop to his earthquake powers.  Otherwise, it’s just the same old story.  At least Pan and Trunks have an excuse, since Dragon Ball Episode 4 happened long before they were born.

And you might say “Oh, you’re being too hard on this episode.   The Oolong story aired in 1986, so the fans watching in 1996 probably don’t even remember it!  You’re just nitpicking!”

Even if I bought into that, the thing you have to understand is that Toei isn’t just ripping off the Oolong story once.  No.  This is their second go-round.

Remember DBZ Movie 10?  The one where the villagers thought Broly was a mountain god who demanded sacrifices?  And Videl took the place of the girl who was going to be sacrificed, but Goten and Trunks kept swiping food from the offering platform?

Yeah, same business.  Goku tries to take some food that they’re cooking for the ceremony or whatever, and he gets hit and scolded just like Goten did in that movie.  Pan even expresses outrage over the “sacrifice” just like her mother did in the movie. 

But look, forget Oolong.  Forget Movie 10.  I’m sure a lot of viewers in 1996 had already forgotten them, and a lot of viewers may not have seen them in the first place.  Or hell, maybe they liked the concept so much that they were pleased to see it repeated.  I don’t know.

The point is that Toei invented this whole new show, about “ultimate Dragon Balls” that scatter across the universe and destroy planets, all so the heroes would have to travel through space and brave unknown dangers, and THIS WAS THE BEST THEY COULD COME UP WITH.  They could have done this hokey bit on Earth.  I know they could, because they already did it on Earth.  TWICE.

Okay, let’s just get this over with.  So Zonooma shows up to claim his bride, and Trunks steps out to meet him, and Zonooma wants a closer look.  Uh-oh, I guess we’re going to find out how well Trunks can keep up this disguise, wait, no we’re not, because the episode ends on this moment.  That’s right, this is a TWO-PARTER.  They ripped off the Oolong debut story and made it longer and dumber.

✨Is It Worse than “The Roaming Lake”?✨

You bet your sweet ass it’s worse than “The Roaming Lake.” Fuck this episode.

✨Positivity Page✨

Trunks does look quite fetching in the bridal dress. 

All right, let’s just end this nonsense.

✨The Blade Braxton Memorial Haiku*✨

Petticoating Trunks?

Robot bondage? Whisker cutting?

Pan needs therapy.

[linklethehistorian]

Good evening linklethehistorian!!!!

Sorry for inactivity but Im back with a revised list and officially off anon!!!

This new list will include the members before, as well as some ive forgotten to add when i brought up this experiment the first time. As per your suggestion we will name this experiment "Evil Box ft Linklethehistorian" and the new list is as follows;

Solas fen'harel (dragon age inquisition)

The Architect (dragon age origins)

Gendou Ikari (shinjis dad) ((neon genesis evangaleon ))

Daniel "Danny" Dickens (Angels of Death)

Professor N (stormbringer)

Faun "Pan" Faunnus (stormbringer)

Emperor "Phillip" Whittibane Belos (the owl house)

il dottorre (genshin impact)

father (mad father)

victor Frankenstein (Frankenstein)

Rodion Raskolnikov (crime and punishment )

brain drain (skullgirls )

ogai mori (bungou stray dogs)

linkle "hyrule" historian (linkle cinematic universe/ real life)

nikolai gogol (bungou stray dogs)

danarius (dragon age 2)

pear "that paul verlaine ate and was so cruel as to not share any with professor n evern tho it was kinda deserved" (stormbringer )

hyouga (dr stone)

senku (dr stone ((hes behind the evil box))

ive included a poorly designed diagram for your viewing pleasure and as a breakdown of the categories included

Oh!!! Hello there! No worries at all! I’m quite happy to have you back in either case, and welcome to Tumblr officially! 🥺💖 It’s nice to meet a fan and a new potential friend!

Wow! That’s quite a list (and a lot of people to look up in the future lol)! 😮 Well, I’m sure that will be a rather interesting experiment. In light of that…well, let’s see. Day 1, I think my first immediate reaction if I’m to survive this experiment at all would be to run to Mori. He may not be the kindest person in the history of ever, but he is logical and methodical about basically of all his decisions, so maybe if I were to rush over and explain my plight, I can reason with him before I’m captured, killed, or tortured by the others, and convince him that the most logical and optimal course of action would be for all of us to band together and rise up against Senku to escape, instead of harming each other. And maybe he could then convince the others. Or I’ll just be dead/tortured/experimented on cause they won’t listen to reason even if the suggestion is coming from Mori. 😭 Ig we’ll see.

Oh!! And btw, regarding your previous asks, if you were looking to pursue my Discord, I’d be happy to get to know you for awhile (either through a good few interactions here or in my DMs which are also open) and if I think we click, I’d be happy to share that with you in the future. 💖💖💖

Thanks for the ask and have a great day until we speak again! 💖

[something-ignites]

Putting an idea out there that I'm 100% down to be wrong about but...does "sexuality" as an axis of identity even exist in the world of Baldur's Gate 3?

(Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with the forgotten realms, so I'm just speaking to what's presented in BG3 as a stand-alone piece of media here.)

In our current "real world" society, we see "sexuality" as an axis of identity: one can be queer, straight, gay, lesbian, bi, pan, etc. These identity labels help us understand who we are, and help speak to who someone is. And the reason we - in our contemporary society - have sexuality as an axis of identity is due to a specific set of sociocultural/historical circumstances. But that same sociocultural/historical context does not exist in BG3, which means that the world of BG3 does not need to have the same sorts of social constructs we do.

And in my 300+ hours of playing this game, I have come across zero in-game content (text or dialogue) that suggests the people in the BG3 universe understand themselves through the lens of "sexuality." There are no references made to sexual identity labels, and we don't meet any characters who define themselves through the lens of sexuality. We see characters taking their race and class as axis of identity (Lae'zel taking significant pride in her Githyanki heritage; druids and clerics building communities for themselves, etc), but never do we hear characters define themselves in accordance to their attractions.

While there certainly are preferences (Haarlep asking about which body type the player character prefers), the way those preferences are discussed seem akin to the real world equivalent of having aesthetic preferences (eg, preferring brunettes over blondes). Those body type preferences might impact what types of activities someone might engage in - and with whom - but they don't appear to define who a person is.

Furthermore, being attracted to a wide variety of body types seems to be completely normalized. (Which also makes sense, considering the amount of interspecies fucking going on, and the different forms of genitalia and pleasure zones that exist in different bodies of different species...)

Which is to say: I don't think any of the characters in Baldur's Gate are gay. Or straight. Or bi, or pan. Because those identities don't seem to exist in that universe. Characters are just attracted to the people they're attracted to without ascribing labels to their attraction.

(Disclaimer, the second: What I am attempting is an in-text analysis of the world presented by the game. I am not trying to invalidate anyone's head-canon or need for representation, or whatever. I make no value judgements here; I am just adding my analysis into the void that is BG3 meta.)

Nothing annoys me more than people “jokingly” calling Astarion gay or Karlach a lesbian. Like… ya’ll consider yourselves to be the “progressive” demographic, and yet you still cannot understand basic queer stereotypes and how they are evidently rooted in hetero-normativity and not “queer culture”.

“The tall muscular woman must be a lesbian for no reason other than her physical appearance and the over-dramatic pretty man must be gay because how could he be frivolous and also like women? Only big strong stoic men can be attracted to women.”

Y’all hear how that sounds, right?

[obey-me-headquarters]

Yall I am not done talking about the pet au. Piggybacking off my last post, who else do you think gets extremely stressed when they realize they messed up/aren't doing their Best? My money is on Lucifer and Barbatos.

Lucifer takes such pride in what he does as a companion type, especially when you praise him for his work. So when he accidental sleeps in too late and realizes he doesn't have time to do all his chores before you come home, he instantly panics. He begins rushing throughout the house, desperately cleaning/cooking/organizing things. All seems to be going well until he grabs the hot pan from the oven without putting mitts on and drops it. The glass pan shatters into a million pieces and Lucifer heart sinks. He just stands there, barely able to comprehend what just happened. Lucifer never broke anything of his owners before, he takes pride in being not one of *those* pets. Who break and cause messes.

It isn't until he hears the jingle of keys and a door being opened does he snap out of it. He dives for the broken pieces. You're met with a demon whose normally very prideful and a bit stuck up, kneeling on the ground picking up broken glasses with his bare hands.

It takes a bit of convincing, but you get Lucifer to put down the glass and tell you what happened. Even when you reinsure that it's OK, you're not mad, everyone sleeps in some times. You wouldn't have been angry even if he did none of the chores. Lucifer still feels guilty, especially when you seem so concerned about his burnt hands. He tries to convince you not to treat them, that they're a punishment to himself to be more careful, but you don't let him have that.

----

Barbatos has been a companion type for a very, very long time. Which means he basically mastered the craft. He knows how to be quiet and listen for commands. He knows how to stay in one spot for hours. He knows how to brew tea perfectly. And he even knows how to make polite conversation if he owner desires that.

So suffice to say, Barbatos isn't that used to fucking up. He knows how to take punishment, how to set there and not beg for mercy. But actually earning it? No way.

So that's why this is so anxiety inducing. He never fucked up making tea before, but for some reason he decided that this moment is the prefect time to let his mind wander. He doesn't even realize he burnt the tea. He usually watches over the tea diligently to make sure it's the prefect blend, but this time didn't notice until the tea is a deep black. He could remake the tea? Better to have it be a bit late than bitter and undrinkable.

But sparing a glance at the tea box, he notices that this is the last of the tea. The tea you were excited to show to your friends because Barbatos makes it so well. A heavy weight settles over his chest, a weight he almost forgotten.

Anxiety.

It's been a long time since he got punished, before you taken him in. You were so nice, and he was so obedient that you never had a reason to punish him before. But this? This is definitely something he should be punished before. It's a bit ironic, Barbatos isn't afraid about the punishment as much as disappointing you. You praised him so well in front of his friends, it will sting for you to punish him infront of them.

Pouring the tea into a glass, he could at least explain himself. It would be better than to pretend that nothing is wrong and serve you and your guests brunt tea. At least it shows he know he fucked up and is usually better than this.

But apparently the universe is out to get him today, because before he can even open his mouth to apologize he trips and spills the glass all over you.

Barbatos doesn't move for a single moment when he hit the ground. Just to let the terror and knowledge that yup, you're getting rid of him, to course through his body. When he looks up and sees the tea staining your outfit - your new outfit that you brought to show off to your friends, Barbatos doesn't have it in him to feel anymore afraid.

He doesn't bother standing up, knowing that you'll force him to knees in an instant. Crawling over to your chair to kneel infront of it.

"I'm sorry owner. I can only offer my deepest apologies to you. I know you must punish me now. Whatever you decide to do I will obey, just say the word."

Barbatos can barely finish his speech before you tackle him in a hug. Wrapping your arms around him you tell him over and over again that it's ok! The tea wasn't even hot! It was a mistake! You're not angry and you're not going to punish him!

Barbatos tries to gently agure back, citing your guests and saying that he disrespected you infront of them, but you wave him off. Taking his hand you lead him back to your room and have him sit on your bed while you change your outfit. All the while telling him that it's OK, you know things were different in his old homes, but it's not like that here. You tell him to lay down and relax as you can tell he's feeling a bit anxious and that you'll come and check up on him later. He didn't even notice that he was shaking.

Afterwards Barbatos will try and punish himself since you wouldn't. He'll make himself less food at meal times, and he'll give himself extra chores. But you notice quick and gently scold him for it. Barbatos doesn't understand you, scolding him for not taking care of himself, but being completely OK with him disrespecting you and spilling tea on you. But, since you seem so keen on keeping him, he's willing to learn.

[radiosandrecordings]

I would love to try and take a stock of the types of diegesis used in audio fiction and how it’s changed over time. It feels in more recent stuff like it’s fallen out of trend to have an in-universe reasoning for the story like “It’s a radio station you’re listening to” or “It’s old recordings you found!” just because that was such a saturated market towards the start of the AD boom that I feel like if you do that now people are going to presume you’re just trying to ride on the coat tails of one of them now (To the point where Night Vale and King Falls AM crew got in a twitter spat about similar themes). I think another reason it’s often passed over these days is just how much it confines your story, to the point where classic AD’s that had schtick’s for How We’re Hearing This like The Bright Sessions or Wolf 359 just gave up halfway through because it became too much of an inconvenience to justify the diegetic formula while still maintaining a good story and not having to shoehorn recording devices in, and this is something newer ones have learned from. 

Giving an in-universe explanation really shapes your story for that reason if you commit to it. Night Vale always stuck to it to my knowledge in some form or another, wheras TMA made the tapes not just a fun layer of meta but crucial to the plot itself. Wheras you might have Zoo or Jar of Rebuke be tape recordings but the reasoning for them seems to be to justify the narrative style of having the main character sharing their inner thoughts diary-style, which creates engagement that you wouldn’t get if they weren’t airing their thoughts to something rather than just having us observe them living their life. 

This can also play into sound design because if you have A Device That Is Recording, your whole soundscape is gonna be based around that. How close are people standing to it. Do they move closer or further away? Does the recording device itself move? Can you use panning here? Does the recording device itself emit a noise? 

BUT these things do also come into play in something without an in-universe recording device, where often one character will be chosen as the POV and audio will be centred around them. This can be especially cool in something like Juno Steel or Kane & Feels where they lean into the noir genre and have a character monologuing for reasons that aren’t actually explained, you’re just expected to run with the non-naturalism because it allows you an insight into the character’s mindset. This can even involve panning and stuff such as the opening of Kane & Feels episode 2 where one character is monologuing to the listener and the other cuts in, interrupting their train of thought because, and they’ve recorded further away from the mic than the close up of the one monologuing because the character is on the other side of the room from the first, giving a sense of spatial proximity and immersion by letting us experience things how the POV character does. 

Then you have things that sort of straddle the line of diegesis because they won’t have a reason they’re being recorded, but they’ll often have fourth-wall breaking elements like The Silt Verses being primarily read as if it’s a story being told to the listener by the character, even if there isn’t an explanation for this, it just is how the story is structured. It leans into being first person and supplements it with actual scenes scattered between. Or Paired, where it’s never stated but from the fact that we move with the character, and you hear bits of static and glitching when needed you’re lead to assume you’re hearing whatever is picked up by the recording device that is the character, but weirdly that’s never a confirmed thing because despite some scenes that mess with the formula and go for second person adressal to whoever is listening, it’s still a bit unexplained and not directly To An Audience 

But of course these are just my personal insights from the AD’s I’ve consumed so I’d love to map it all out and see what the trends are for these sort of things, if creators give specifics reasonings for why they chose a justification or not. Because it’s not something that’s common in film or TV? At least to the extent of prevalence that it is/was in podcasts, and it’s not even really a holdover from radio dramas so I want to know what caused this surge when it came to podcasting. Was it just a case of looking at what everyone else was doing and copying a trend? Found footage was by no means a new genre when podcasts were starting to get big (Using 2012, Night Vale’s start date for lack of a better timeframe) but it did seem to have an uptick in popularity in 2013 in film according to wikipedia. It seems to be a technique almost always used for horror so the fact that a lot of AD is horror could contribute to it, but I think it might share a reason with why movies started to be made like that around the time, and it’s that it was cheap. It was a low budget way to frame things because it excused other production values. Your camera could be shaky, and your sound could be shoddy, and it was fine because you were supposed to believe it was recorded on a handheld camera or phone, it was all part of the framing. Most AD’s started recorded in someone’s bedroom on a tiny budget so they were gonna be poor quality, if you say “well it’s supposed to be, the character could only afford a £10 recording device (I could only afford a £10 recording device)”, or better yet you slap a tape whurring or radio static filter over it to mask the background fuzzy from an uninsulated room and you’re good to go. 

.... Oh, what you thought there was going to be a summary or conclusion for this? Yeah so did I when I started writing it but genuinely I went down so many research rabbit holes I’ve forgotten what it was, so now it’s just an infodump <3

[coalitiongirl]

Fic Recs (under 300 edition)

So I wanted to get back to reading Swan Queen fic regularly, and I asked people to rec longfic that they'd read (not written) and loved that had fewer than 300 kudos! I haven’t read most of these, but I’ve collected them here so y’all can go through the list and discover some new fics with me! Please try to kudos and review every fic that you read! It means the world to the writers and will keep em writing, and then we all win. 😁

Atonement by SgtMac (M): With Regina's magical heart failing thanks to years of previous evil, Emma and Regina and Henry (and Granny!) set out to save her life by traveling to the Enchanted Forest and requesting help from ancient magical beings known as the Guardians. Given a mission as simple as it is impossible - to achieve atonement by creating peace - the ladies find themselves joining a rebellion and fighting for the very soul of the Enchanted Forest all while trying to help Regina to understand that the self-loathing and guilt which have driven most of her actions don't have to doom her chance for a new beginning or even, a chance to live and love again. A S4(ish) SQ love story set against the turmoil of war and the chaotic savagery of the old world.

Blood and Sand by cheshire6845 (E): A/U The Savior is a slave forced into the role of fighting as a gladiator for the House of Hearts. The odds are against her survival as she will have to win in the arena, navigate Cora's schemes, outlast a general's vengeance, and not be killed out of spite by the current House of Hearts Champion - Regina the Undefeated. This story follows the major plot points of Starz Spartacus with some twists along the way.

But what if there was no time by KizuRai (M): When she wakes up, it's dark. She can't move, she can't see, she can't feel and she can't hear. Where am I? She feels a forceful oppression, pressing her down, draining her of her energy and she's powerless to stop it. How did I get here? The question of here is relative, she's not even sure where here is. What happened? There must be some reason for being stuck here but her memory is fuzzy, like all her thoughts are being sifted through a filter. Who am I? She's not sure if she actually exists or she suddenly became sentient in the darkness.She hears a voice reverberating in the distance, it's distorted and quiet but she hears it all the same. It breaks the monotony of the silence. Someone's coming for her, they will get her out. She's just not sure she wants them to as the price might be too great.

Finding Home by evl_rgl (T): “I wanted to remember you so badly that I pulled back your cursed town just so that the memories would make sense. I needed you so badly that even when I had no memory of you, I still tried to find you.” Regina gave Emma and Henry memories of a happy life together before they fled Pan’s curse, leaving them with no memories of their lives in Storybrooke. However, when the memory spell shows signs of failing, threatening to rip apart the minds of both Emma and Henry, Regina makes a drastic choice to go back and fix it, understanding that it will mean living alone in a world where her son doesn’t know her. Was the spell really faulty, though? (swanqueen)

Five Flames by MariaComet (U): In the past, Emma Nolan disconnected from her peers in high school, preferring to keep to herself. In her sophomore year of high school, she decided to try and join the boy’s wrestling team because she was bored. She didn’t expect herself to become the champion of the most bullied kid in school or the secret best friend of the school queen. She also didn’t expect to join a club that would change her life. In the present, Emma is trying to cope with a humiliating loss in her martial arts career. She claims to be “training” but is stuck in limbo between wanting to retire and try again. She is isolated from her former best friend, Regina Mills, a local celebrity chef and the rest of her old friends. When one of them calls her with an idea to honor their deceased teacher, she is confronted with unresolved feelings and questions about how powerful love truly is.

A Glamour of Truth by PrincessCharming (T): After 2x10, Regina uses magic to show Emma the obvious truth. A tentative trust forms between them amid hilarious bickering. With Emma's help, Regina struggles to regain a place in her son's life... until Cora arrives, wanting her daughter back. Pieces of Regina's past emerge showing that the board was set long before the game started. The final battle begins soon.

His Dark Materials 'verse by MoonlitMidnight (M): A modern Alternate Universe in which Dæmons (the external physical manifestation of a person's 'inner self' that takes the form of an animal) are present. In which Emma and Regina have led slightly different lives and they make slightly different choices.

How Many Miles to Avalon? (WIP) by RavenOutlander (E): Regina would do anything to save Emma from the darkness and bring her back home safe and sound. Even put up with the two idiots, Captain Guyliner and a bunch of dwarves she decidedly wanted to drop off at the nearest exit. But in their search for Emma, they find that she might not need that much saving after all. Caught up in a search for the infamous Philosopher Stone, an all out war between DunBroch and Camelot, and ghosts from the past to haunt her every waking moment, Regina finds herself scrambling to keep her and her family's happy endings from falling apart.

The Hyperion by FrankenSpine (M): After wishing upon what she believes is a shooting star, Emma Swan finds herself aboard the Hyperion, the royal starship of an alien Queen from a faraway galaxy. She quickly learns of the tensions between the Queen's people and her own, but the Queen takes an interest in her and agrees to take her away from Earth forever. Adventure awaits. *(Loosely based on Guardians of the Galaxy with just a hint of Farscape)*

If Wishes Came True (It Would've Been You) by Angeii_K (M): After Regina films a guest appearance on her friend Neal’s popular show, he invites her to spend the weekend with him and his girlfriend. What she never expected was to actually like the woman. Sparks fly between the two, which results in them questioning everything and making choices they will later regret. 4 years later, they meet again in the most unexpected of ways. Now co-stars on the same show, they are forced to work through the emotions from their last encounter. What will happen next? Only time will tell.

The King Doesn’t Have To Know (WIP) by highheelsandchocolate (M): The White Knight had never seen anyone like her before: the Queen was nothing short of mesmerizing. Her possessive yet neglectful husband, however, was another thing entirely.

The Lich by Dangereaux (M): Gay disaster Emma, exasperated Regina, and a monster. A Halloween special.

Maybe if We Close Our Eyes we Can Reach the Stars by wellthizizdeprezzing (T): Emma is a lonely astronaut. Regina is an adventuring alien. Their paths cross leading them onto a journey of new discovery. Between galaxies and many miles of cold black space, despite not speaking the same language, they manage to fall for each other. An out of this world love story.

A prisoner long forgotten by sugarsweet_19 (M): ‘I wish I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood and as black as the wood of the window-frame. Soon after she had a little girl, who was as white as snow, with lips as red as blood and with her hair as black as the ebony of the window-frame. She was therefore called Snow-white.” This is how our story starts but how will it end?The evil queen as been locked up in a tower and forgotten that is until princess Emma looks for a place to hid from her parents after they tell her she has to marry Neal the son of the dark one.

Revenge of the Three Little Pigs by mskyo (M): Regina and Emma find themselves alone and looking for the rest of their party. The Evil Queen must face the consequences of her past actions. Will Emma come to her aid, or understand that justice must be served... *Some chapters have fairly graphic sex, and violence*

Things I Almost Remember by cheshire6845 (T): A/U Despite an oncoming war between the Dark and the Light, Emma and Regina are best friends growing up in the Enchanted Forest. When war does come, they find themselves on opposite sides. Regina will have to defy her mother to save Emma. Will Emma be able to save Regina when Cora curses her daughter to live in the Land without Magic?

What We Make (WIP) by DiazTuna (M): “My mother.” He says calmly. He’d known all along, she’s aware. But he’d known that today would be the day that would get this going. She wants to ask what it was like, to have woken up this morning, laced up his boots and walked into hell just knowing. “It’s programmed the cyborg to kill her. Before I have a chance to be born.” -In which the leader of the future sends his best soldier back to the past to save his mother from a killer cyborg. Terminator AU.

The Wrong Way by pcworth (M): Takes place right after Zelena steals Regina's heart. Zelena offers Regina a chance to go back in time with her and change both of their lives for the better. But what will be the price of that decision. Slow-burn to SwanQueen

zombie trash by 13pens (T): Zelena could have her brain and eat it, too. Fic operates on three premises 1. this takes place in any universe where zelena is a reformed asshole 2. zombies are a thing and exist iZombie style 3. i have NO chill

[thebooktopus]

Day Four: Friends to Lovers

(needed to read some soft fics today)

A Natural Conclusion by @meshkol E // 51K // Drarry

💘just a good old fashioned falling in love story. no case to solve, no major angst. blended families, modern interpretations of sexuality and what it means to love: "'Sometimes love comes from weird fucking places, and we sure as hell can’t predict or explain it. It just happens, and when it does, we have to grab it with both hands and hold it ‘til it’s gone. Otherwise, what’s the point of it all? We’re just sacks of meat with no purpose if we don’t shrug off the labels we give ourselves and take a chance sometimes, even if it’s not what we would’ve ever expected.' Harry sighs, and adds, 'Besides, there’s a reason why Mysteries has a whole bloody department dedicated to research on love. It’s messy and complicated and doesn’t follow the rules of physics and nobody can ever truly understand it. We just gotta live a little and learn to live outside the boxes we’re placed in when a door opens, y’know?'"

Old Haunts (Are For Forgotten Ghosts) by @queerofthedagger M // 40K // Regulus/Harry

🕰🛠 fix-it, Harry returns to Marauders era to try and rewrite history, told from Regulus' POV: "As he falls asleep that night, he finally understands how it had been so very easy for Sirius to turn his back on the things their parents tried to instil in them. They might hold up in the secluded walls of Grimmauld Place or Slytherin, but met with a stubborn Potter and a whole lot of new knowledge, it never stood a chance."

The Colour of Magic by @aneiria-writes M // 4K // Theo//Neville/Pansy (panevilleo?)

🐍🦁🐍 this was the first fic I've ever read of this triad and it WORKS. soft, lovely interactions as these three navigate their individual relationships and their eventual coming together (see what I did there?): "Neville laughed as he accepted the glass. ‘I don’t know if you’ve heard, Pans,’ he said with a conspiratorial smile. ‘But I’m kind of a war hero. It takes more than a clever, beautiful woman to scare me away.’"

Is This Love? by @phd-mama E // 3K // Drarry

🛁 yet another suds fic I'm regretting not reading earlier. this is THE fic for Draco taking care of Harry: "Draco wouldn’t call himself a tender man. He fights the forces of evil for a living, trying his best to pay penance for the evil he’s done. He’s fought and killed in the name of duty, and when he’s not on duty, he tends either to play hard or retreat alone. He doesn’t lean on anyone, and he knows he’s not the first person anyone goes to when they need care. Comfort. But at this moment, here with Potter in the tub, soft and naked, reaching out to him, Draco aches to give him… well. Everything."

When the Fallout Comes by @maesterchill E // 7K // Drarry

👋 the hand kink fic you didn't know you needed. but you do. trust me: "It all started, I suppose, in Hogwarts. At first I tried to brush it off. Well, they're just hands, for Merlin’s sake. That’s what I kept telling myself. Although, if I’m honest, it never worked. If I’m really honest, they made my pulse quicken from the very start. I can still recall how sturdily his hands gripped the broomstick as he chased me down, how they closed neatly around that Remembrall like I hadn’t put all my fucking weight behind the throw. And not forgetting the many fights we managed to get ourselves into, Potter’s hands grappling me to the ground, fingers closing around my neck. Those were the worst, in the best way. I remember still feeling their imprint on my skin days later, and it didn't take a great leap of the imagination to imagine the warm pressure of the handshake I’d been denied."

For more info on my New Year's Rec-olutions for January, check out this post. Tomorrow's tag will be "Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops and Cafés."