#and they get cheaper if you book them early

[aretrothing]

i do not get this culture of flying comparably short distances. yes it might be more convenient or whatever but you're ruining the environment and a much more fun and sustainable option is staring you right in the face

[personapeters]

✰ 𝐛𝐟!𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐱 𝐩𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞!𝐠𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬

— rich boyfriend rafe and his whole heartedly pogue girlfriend

rating: sfw — cw: none

— boyfriend!rafe who… actually gets annoyed when you spend your money instead of his: “look, baby, i know you can but why when i’m literally throwing my card at you?” he questioned. “i’m not taking it, rafe,” you rebutted. “yeah? okay, don’t,” he mumbled, casually dropping a banded stack of cash onto your lap.

— boyfriend!rafe who… absolutely judged a book by it’s cover when you first met, knowing you were from a side of town he didn’t favor, but your beauty was something he couldn’t ignore. though, his outlook barely shifted; technically, not all pogues were trash, but he considered you to be the one and only exception.

— boyfriend!rafe who… is used to getting what he wants, so he was highly taken aback when you declined his first offer to go out. it was new and completely foreign, but it only made him want you even more — he’s always had a desire to obtain the ‘unobtainable���

— boyfriend!rafe who… caught so much shit from topper and kelce when they found out about his relationship with a pogue; so much so that rafe almost fought them over it, telling them to ‘get the fuck over it’ and to never speak on you again.

— boyfriend!rafe who… on occasion would reluctantly let your pogue friends go out on his yacht with the two of you for the day, which ultimately would end with him dropping them off an hour (or four) early. he wants them miles away from his pristine boat but loves how happy you look when you were all together.

— boyfriend!rafe who… hears you mention liking something once and makes sure it’s in your hands before the following day ends. they were always simple things like a cute t-shirt or sunglasses, which, to him, were so cheap and mundane that he found it rather adorable when you’d cherish them like literal gold.

— boyfriend!rafe who… isn’t too fond of where you live — your house being small, somewhat falling apart, and overall something far below rafe’s standards. he wishes you’d take him up on his offer to simply get you an apartment on his side of town: “okay, but it’d be so much better for you… and you’d be closer to me,” he mumbled, a small smile pulling at the corners of his pink lips.

— boyfriend!rafe who… takes you riding on his dirt bike to go sightseeing across figure eight, often taking the long way home just to feel your arms wrapped around his waist for just a little longer. you once asked if you could drive it, which would have been your first time, to which he immediately said, “fuck no, what — you tryin’ to break your neck? no.”

— boyfriend!rafe who… tried his first ever boxed mac and cheese with you, as random as it was, after you insisted it’s the greatest inexpensive food on earth; him beforehand saying, “what? y/n, that’s fucking powder…” but after he tried a bite of yours, he reluctantly said, “it’s not that bad… i might see the appeal.”

— boyfriend!rafe who… gives you ‘ultimatums’ when buying you clothes (although, you always insist you don’t need them), saying he’ll get you whatever you want as long as you try on some of his picks first. he would have gotten whatever you wanted regardless, he just liked seeing you model for him, which, secretly, you knew.

— boyfriend!rafe who… buys you extremely expensive jewelry and lies about the price, saying it’s a hundred times cheaper than it is to avoid you trying to give it back. he enjoys watching the dainty bracelet on your wrist or gold studs in your ears glint in the sunlight, knowing that you’re clueless on that fact that they’re the nicest money could buy — he needs only the best for his girl.

— boyfriend!rafe who… truly hated physical touch until you showed him it could be gentle — that it could be sweet, and warm, and kind, and didn’t have to leave him bloody or sore. he loves when you run your nails gingerly across his scalp or hold his hand in your lap, twisting absentmindedly at the rings adorning his long fingers; a type of touch (and love) he’d never felt before

— boyfriend!rafe who… craves your validation, no matter how big or small. he just needs to hear that he did something right, something good, something you’re proud of. he wants to hear you tell him he did a great job at making you dinner or picking out a dress for your spontaneous outings — your approval means so much more to him than you’d ever know.

— boyfriend!rafe who… uses his high status to (begrudgingly) help your pogue friends get out of whatever trouble they land themselves into, knowing it means alot to you and takes a weight off your shoulders: “m’doing this for you, alright? not them, you.”

— boyfriend!rafe who… is pretty heavy on pda. he doesn’t care whose watching when he lazily drapes a possessive arm around your shoulders, or when he kisses you messily with full force; whether it be a kook or pogue witnessing his shameless affections, he didn’t care — who’d dare to say something about it?

 personapeters 2024 — all rights reserved • masterlist

[moiraimyths]

The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) | Official Trailer

The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) is a lore-rich and choice-driven historical fantasy visual novel inspired by Irish mythology and Celtic folklore. Play as a tenant farmer from mid-19th century Ireland, whose path becomes inexplicably entwined in fairy affairs after getting robbed by the roadside and lured into the mythic and war-torn world of Tír na nÓg: A once unified land, now divided into the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Will you escape and return home with your stolen belongings? Or does fate have something else in mind?

🍃 STEAM 🍂 ITCH.IO 🍃PATREON 🍂DISCORD 🍃

Eager to play? Certain route content is available NOW in early access on Steam and Itch.io! For more information, click below👇

Meet the Cast

Facts & Questions: The Game

🍃 The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) is a Kickstarter-funded project currently in development. Due to the scope of the story, we will be releasing it serially over several years to Steam and Itch.io, and discounting it while in early access. The earlier it's bought, the cheaper it will be overall, and you'll only need to buy the game once!

🍂 Not all routes are currently available! As of Nov. 1, 2024, you can play half of Shae and Maeve's routes; both approximately 50k words. If you're not sure about paying for an unfinished game, feel free to check out our free demo first. It consists of Vol. 1, Book of the Traveller (the pre-route content). Differences between the demo's Vol. 1 and the paid game's Vol. 1 are marginal following our August 1, 2024 re-release of the demo.

🍃 The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) has a recommended reading order (Vol. 1, then 2, then 3, etc.), which will correspond to the release order of the routes. For more information on our reasoning behind this, click here.

🍂 Due to its setting, The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) will occasionally feature instances of characters speaking in Gaeilge, i.e. the Irish language. All instances of Gaeilge are linked to an internal translation tool, which is voiced by Nigel McKeon, a Gaeilgeoir.

🍃 The main character is yours to shape. At minimum, you must choose a nickname, pronouns, and one of four default appearances, the last of which can be your own artwork (instructions are included in the game's files). You may also choose to discard the True Name…

🍂 All routes, both current and upcoming, will have both romantic and platonic choice options. If you're uninterested in romance, feel free to make friends instead! No matter the nature of your relationship, you will still be able to reach the good end. (Want to learn more? Refer to this post!)

🍃 Our cast consists of two men, two women, and two non-binary characters. All are romancable no matter the MC, but some characters are asexual or on the aromantic spectrum, which may impact aspects of their romances.

🍂 If you are a Mac user and are having issues launching the game via the Itch direct download, refer to this guide for troubleshooting before sending us an ask. We strongly recommend purchasing the game through Steam instead of Itch if you are a Mac user; it is the best way to avoid issues with launching the game.

🍃 NDM is very intentionally set just prior to the onset of the Great Famine, which is both thematically and textually relevant to the leftist, anti-imperialist story we're aiming to tell. If you would like more insight into this, refer to this post.

🐎 There are secrets to be found in this game, with more yet to come. Prepare yourself for a lot of horse related shenanigans. 🐎

Facts & Questions: The Company

🧵 Moirai Myths is a five-person company based out of Canada. The core devs/founders go by Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. All writing and programming are done by this collective, i.e. the Fates.

🪡 Moirai Myths has a two person in-house artist team consisting of Kazane, our Character/UI Designer, and Melinoe, our Environmental Designer. In addition to them, though, we have had a number of guest artists assist us with the creation of sprites, CGs, and an assortment of other materials. If you'd like to meet them, check out our about page on our website!

✂️ Moirai Myths stands with the people of Palestine 🇵🇸

Disclaimer: This description will be updated periodically. If you're reading this in a reblog, you may want to check our current pinned post for potential changes.

[oneinathousand]

I recently got the 1995 book Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and Horror Cinema by Mark A. Miller and decided to put together some of my favorite quotes. I bought the first edition because it was cheaper, but the second edition had some revisions and expansions, what exactly was different I don't know (I'm sure it addressed Lee's big explosion in popularity in the early 2000's among other things), but there's still lots and lots of interesting material in here; plus, to my surprise the copy I got was signed by the author himself back in 1995, so that's pretty cool.

Anyway, here's some quotes for ya:

These first two quotes are Vincent Price talking about Lee and Cushing which I thought were absolutely darling. Here's the one about Lee:

Everybody told me that he was rather stiff and unbending and not very funny. Well, we screamed with laughter from the minute we shook hands until now. We get along just like mad... write each other rude notes and funny letters and telegrams and postcards and, you know, anything we can find that we know will tickle one another. He's one of the few actors in my life that I have stayed in touch with, strangely enough. If you get him on a subject that he likes, he's very warm and vibrant. I think he's got a wonderful sense of humor, but I don't think everybody knows how to get at it. For some reason or other we strike each other as funny, and it's wonderful fun to be with him.

Here's him about Cushing:

He's nothing like Christopher Lee because Peter's a very wiry, little fellow. But Peter is one of the strongest men I ever knew in my life. I had to do several fight scenes with him [in Madhouse]. My God! He can throw you! He doesn't fake it at all. Nobody warned me about this, and I was sort of battered and bruised. He's a very realistic and very serious-minded actor. I like Peter very much, and I hear from him always at Christmas. On our birthdays we send each other the funniest cards we can find too. He's a very gentle, sweet man. I am very, very fond of him.

Cushing was, in fact, not a little man, but of course Price would have seen him as one from his perspective lol... The part about Cushing apparently being incredibly strong is pretty wild considering Price was referring to him during the making of Madhouse, when he had spent the last 2-ish years losing a lot of weight, smoked like a chimney (the book mentions at one point that he could smoke up to 50-60 cigarettes a day before he quit), was a vegetarian, and was in his early 60's. If he was strong enough to toss Price's tall ass around like a rag doll then (which is a very funny mental image), how strong was he during his prime???

Here's a description of the Lee family cheering up Cushing for the holidays during the making of Horror Express:

He faced his first Christmas without Helen and in a country that was not even his own. Luckily he found solace on Christmas Day in the warm family gathering of the Lees in their Madrid hotel. Gitte and Christina had flown over for the holiday, and they invited Peter to spend the day with them. This was the fourteenth film in which they had both acted since The Curse of Frankenstein fifteen years before, and one that offered them many great scenes together. But their best scene together was the one in that Madrid hotel on Christmas in which Peter Cushing received the emotional support he needed so desperately. The next morning Cushing was back at the studio, cheerfully ready for work.

So sweet... For anyone wondering, this book did not mention anything about Lee supposedly comforting Cushing with his presence in case the latter ever had any night terrors while making Horror Express. I'm starting to think that story might be made up! Maybe it was mentioned in the second edition, or maybe it was mentioned in one of the interviews or whatever that Miller used for researching this book. My search for a primary or secondary source continues.

Here's actress Lorna Heilbron about Cushing and Lee during the making of The Creeping Flesh:

Peter Cushing is a brilliant actor I think. I was, of course, playing his daughter, and Peter had quite recently lost his wife Helen and was grieving for her and was very open about this. He related to me as a father and was tremendously caring and supportive, especially as he felt that I resembled Helen, so we had a rather intense relationship where I felt he really "lived" his part in the film. He came the first day on the set with his script covered, literally covered, with notes he had written about what he felt his character would do or be feeling at any particular time. He also knew down to the last detail what props he would require and had obviously chosen his costumes with immense care. Within all this careful forethought he was very flexible so that if an actor gave him something unexpected, he would respond to this and was willing to go with what was happening "now". He was charming, courteous, and clever and was dearly liked and admired by everyone. At that time he was, as I said, feeling very sad and so was clearly very vulnerable. He would take himself on his own to have a bit of a wander and, I suspect, a jolly good cry. I adored him. I didn't get to know Christopher Lee so well, mostly because I didn't actually have many scenes with him and partly because he kept "himself to himself" as we say over here. I remember he had a most wonderful singing voice, of which he was justly proud, and which would go ringing round the corridors of Shepperton. The crew called him "Rabbity Lee" because he loved to talk, which he did very amusingly and at some length. I have often felt he was a much better actor than some of his material. He and Peter seemed close and distant at the same time. They probably didn't have that much in common apart from a very strong symbiotic working relationship.

Rabbity Lee… 🥲

Next is Price, Lee, and Cushing's opinions on House of the Long Shadows, which I feel each perfectly encapsulate their personalities.

Vincent Price spoke bitterly about the film in 1991: "A disaster - because the man, whoever - I can't even remember his name; psychosomatically I've forgotten it - the guy who directed it and the [editor] who cut it... they just cut all the comedy out of it... I hated it. Desi Arnaz, who was very good in it - they just turned it all over to him so that you never had the four people you wanted to see ever doing anything at all. That was that stupid director." When asked in 1992 if he agreed with Price that the film constituted a missed opportunity for the all-star team-up, Christopher Lee quickly responded: "I do, without a doubt. He was absolutely right. It's the old, old story: get it on film, finish it in time and on budget, and if it's in focus, we can sell it." Asked also of his memories of Pete Walker directing him, Lee replied simply, "He didn't." Peter Cushing's only complaint is that he suffered from bronchitis while making the film in a cold, damp, seventeenth-century manor house in Hampshire that had no heat. Because he found working with Lee, Price, and Carradine to be "a joy," Cushing summed up the film as "lovely to do."

Speaking of House of the Long Shadows, I wanted to bring up one particular criticism Mark A. Miller had of the movie to be very ironic if you've been in the fandom for this era of horror whatsoever on Tumblr. Miller absolutely hated the iconic "bitch" line from Price, saying of it:

Instead of the good-natured, funny lines that work so well in horror send-ups like The Raven, A Comedy of Terrors, and Young Frankenstein, in this film we only hear Price's character call Lee's a "bitch" - the embarrassing epitome of the script's nasty, witless spirit. After Price's line, the film seems more like a cruel practical joke on the venerable cast than an amusing parody of their images.

I agree with many of Miller's takes throughout the book, but definitely not all of them, and this is a case of that. That line's the best part of the movie! It's Vincent Price saying "bitch" in cursive, it's so delicious! Did Miller hate fun? I can't ask him because he's dead. What if the line was an ad-lib from Price, huh? If Miller knew how popular that moment is on this website, he'd probably be baffled, lol.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

what book purchase platform gives you the biggest cut i hate corps and love artists

will also do recommendations & word of mouth, know it's more helpful. but. please tell me how to give Corporation smallest amount of money when accessing your art

I make the most from ebooks purchased through Smashwords or my ko-fi. After that, the ebooks purchased anywhere else.

I make the least amount from physical sales, and my cut on those is about the same no matter where you buy them. The smallest amount goes to corporations if you buy my books from the ko-fi, because the books are cheaper, but the shipping is also a lot less reliable and probably takes longer, so that's really a cost vs. security question.

On the whole I don't make a lot per sale, so nickel-and-diming my cut is less important than whatever's most convenient for you to buy from. My primary income is via my ko-fi and patreon supporters, who give me the financial security to keep writing instead of going out and getting a real job, and get early access to chapters of my ongoing stories for their trouble.

[awoogayanderes]

CHAPTER TWO : YOUR FIRST NIGHT

➪ sypnosis : your first night in your room is bland until the clock strikes midnight

➪ warnings : mentions of old self harm scars

➪ other notes : in next chapter, YOU’LL GET TO MEET 7TH FLOOR I PROMISE, also not edited sorryyy

➪ prologue | chapter one | chapter two

you start to analyze your room a bit closer, you could see multiple cameras just watching you, it felt invasive. there’s a huge chute on the side of the room with what looked like a bar above it with a bright red zero. there was a wall phone on the side of it, and a large window at the end of the room ?

no, not a window, just a screen, you observed. you could see your fingers trail on what you now realized was a screen. what was the point of just installing a random screen, seems like a waste of money. you then made your way over to the chute before it opened, startling you.

inside was a set of white clothes, a book named “RULE” and a pair of white shoes. you immediately reached for the book, it looked like a menu that a fancy restaurant would provide you. “please hand in all your clothes, accessories, and all other personal items you may possess. then we request that you please change into the uniform we have provided,” you grimaced before turning to a camera.

“do i have to do in front of cameras ?” you ask, not exactly expecting a reply. you continued reading, not wanting to strip yet. “you can keep an eye on the accumulated prize money by checking the scoreboard,” your eyes flickered to the bar above you with the zero, guessing that it was the scoreboard.

“food and shelter will be provided for free. you can access the intercom to buy anything else you may need." well at least now you knew what the phone was for. “however, the price of any purchased items will be deducted from your individual prize money at a special rate." maybe the items here were cheaper or more expensive than they are in the real world.

"items that you intend to use outside your room can be purchased in the square,” in the square ? you thought before realizing it meant the common area. that meant that anything you purchase in your room can’t be taken out, otherwise why buy from the square ?

“all participants are required to remain in their rooms from midnight until 8:00 a.m. you are not allowed to block the cameras. violating any rule will deduct half of the individual's prize money.“ your eyes slightly widened at the consequences. they were strict on their rules, but they should be easy to follow.

“and the show begins at midnight,” you reach for your phone. it was barely 9:51 p.m. you couldn’t help but get annoyed at how early it was. sighing, you grab the clothes and pair of shoes provided from the chute. you lay them down on the floor, neatly.

the clothes looked funky, almost cartoonish. there was a suit jacket, a long sleeve shirt, and dress pants, nor the jacket or pants had any pockets, only drawn on ones. it was definitely a fashion statement, if you could call it that, thankfully there were undergarments, the least they could provide.

looking around a few moments, you gave in with a frown, beginning to take off your sweater and slipping off your shoes in the process. you hesitantly took off your shirt next. you tried your best to not see any of the old scars you had created on your torso.

next were your pants, sliding them off with ease. even with your underwear still on, you felt very exposed. in less than a minute, you managed to switch your undergarments to the ones provided. you put on the white clothes, looking like an asylum patient.

you fold your clothes and toss them into the open chute. that’s when you notice that you still have your bandaids around some of your fingers on both hands. you think before turning to a random camera.

“i’m not giving you my bandaids…i stole them so they’re technically not even mine,” you say, awkwardly coughing. after you speak to no one in particular, you sit down, leaning against the wall, facing the chute.

well, there was nothing else for you to do, besides go to sleep. you slowly slide to your side and close your eyes. it had already been a long day, it was time to rest. you quickly drift off until you realize something.

how are you going to go to the bathroom ? you open your eyes again, looking around the room again as if a toilet would magically appear. but you close your eyes again, believing that the common area will have some sort of bathroom.

you wake up when you hear whirring, it sounded like a projector turning on. you sit up, startled before you see the words “the show begins now,” on the wall, it must he midnight already, you think to yourself. still keeping yourself alert, you wait.

there was a countdown from 10 to 0, once it finished, the chute with your clothes closed, but nothing else happened. it was definitely anticlimactic. 60 seconds go by and you hear a small click, it’s very faint. you turn, to your scoreboard. 130,000.

you freeze. you swore that it was at 0 just a minute ago. maybe you were mistaken ? but regardless, you wait, 60 seconds go by again. 260,000. you were getting 130,000 won per minute. what in the fuck is happening ?

[introspectivememories]

shanks and buggy denden au where:

the crew kinda splits up in the 2 year gap before roger's death and in an effort to make sure their sons cabin boys are alright, rayleigh puts them on the ship denden plan

so their little apt in loguetown has two dendens, one in the living room and one in their bedroom

they use it all the time. to call oden and toki, to call spencer. even to call roger, hoping that he'll pick up. (he never does)

phone calls are nice but nothing beats talking face to face and visual dendens are on the market they're just super fuckin expensive and both shanks and buggy are saving up for one. it'll be nice to see momo amd hiyori again.

anyway the execution happens and then the loguetown breakup and they pack up their apt in complete silence, each of them taking one denden.

(it'll be a decade and a half before they see each other again.)

they both expect the phone plan to just get cancelled but one day the mail seagull comes to them with a denden bill. turns out, the pirates denden company just grandfathered them into the old plan.

and you know what? it's not like they have any money and this plan is cheaper than all the other plans the company offers so they keep it. they get two separate numbers for the both of them and they dont think about it.

they decided to alternate the months they paid after one very terse call. or that was the plan but shanks is sooo forgetful all the fucking time and he never pays his denden bill on time. it ends up being buggy paying 8 months out of the year and shanks paying the other 4

(benn ends up setting up auto pay 5 years into traveling with shanks. what? it's not like they're broke.)

anyway buggy ends up becoming the terror of the east blue and shanks goes onto become an emperor and still neither of them change their numbers. they don't have the heart to.

and it's not something they consciously think about but sometimes when buggy gets drunk enough, he'll pull out his old ass denden book and trace his fingers over shanks' number. and if shanks is drunk enough he'll get halfway through dialing buggy's number before his brain catches up to what he's doing and stopping

anyway skip to marineford, and shanks is giving buggy a ride back to his ship. when they finally arrive at the island buggy's ship was docked on, both crews decide to throw a "im so fucking glad we lived through that/ captain buggy's the greatest!" party

buggy desperately tries to avoid shanks and shanks is literally holding himself back from looking for buggy but the party goes on and they get drunker and eventually they gravitate towards each other.

bc of course they do. they were shanksandbuggy, buggyandshanks, long before they were part of their respective crews. so they both sneak away from the party and they end up in shanks' room, with shanks sitting on the bed and buggy on his lap, curled around each other.

it feels just like their apt all those years ago. all those quiet nights on their fourth-hand couch, that they spent curled together -- buggy reading a book and shanks quietly talking his ear off.

(it was easier then. those two years where they had an apt together and the air was still heavy with the scent of hope. it was smth to look forward to -- 2 years and then captain will come back and there will be new adventures!

shanks got a job at the docks and buggy tried at least 17 different jobs before settling at a bookstore. and he'd go to work early in the morning and come back late at night to buggy in his hoodie, making dinner, ranting about rude customers.

and on weekends they'd both sleep in and cook breakfast together. or well buggy would cook breakfast, shanks would sit on the countertops and make buggy laugh. and then they'd spend the day inside or go out to eat. and it was good. better than good even. shanks could almost see why people stayed on land.

and then the execution happens and their father's blood stains the cobblestones crimson red and they seperate and then just as quickly as it started, it ends.)

that's when buggy notices the denden.

🤡: you still have that thing? 🍶: yes of course 🤡: and your number is still the same? 🍶: ....yeah. you? 🤡: yeah, never changed it. 🍶: why'd you keep it all these years?

and buggy may be drunk and his inhibitions may be lowered but he's still buggy at heart so he gives some bullshit answer

🤡 looking away: it was cheaper

and shanks knows he's fucking lying bc it may have been years since he last saw buggy but who knows buggy better than he does? who knows shanks better than buggy does?

🍶: c'mon bugs, tell me the truth. why'd ya keep it all these years? 🤡 unwilling to give in first: why'd you keep it all these years? 🍶: because i kept hoping that you'd be on the other end.

and buggy is floored.

🤡: .... what? 🍶: i kept hoping that if i kept my number the same, you'd call one day. 🍶: i can't tell you how many times i've picked up the denden, hoping it was you on the other end. 🍶, laughing sadly: i kept it all these years because of you. and you never called, not once. 🍶, cupping 🤡 face with his hand: why'd you never call bugs?

shanks is tearing up and buggy has already started the waterworks

🤡, sniffling: you knew where i was. why didn't you ever come and see me? 🍶: can you honestly say that you would've seen me? you probably would've told me to leave. so i stayed away. 🤡 hitting 🍶on the chest: idiot! i probably would've called at some point if you had came to me. but you never did and i just took it as a sign that anything we had was done and over. 🍶, grabbing 🤡 hands and staring into his eyes: how could you ever think we'd be done and over? it's only ever been you for me. only you. 🤡, full on crying by this point: idiot, idiot, idiot!

they're both curled over each other sobbing into each other's shoulder bc they could've had this the entire time but they were too fucking stupid

🍶: why'd you keep the denden, bugs? 🤡: haven't you figured it out by now? it was the only thing i had left of you. 🍶: you're such a fuckin sap, bugs. 🤡, blushing: shut up

[alphagodith]

what do we do now?

go get all your vaccines updated asap. they are likely about to be banned.

download all your favorite fanfics from ao3, and any 'adult' content anywhere, as these are likely also about to be banned.

delete period-tracking apps if you have them, get an iud and/or stock up on any other preg-prevent drugs you can, even if you don't CURRENTLY need them. men, get vasectomies. they are reversible and whether you want kids or not, pregnancies can now result in your partner's death far more easily than they should.

if you rely on commissions from online communities, make sure you have many different ways of being reached. diversify.

see if you can get prescription-strength toothpaste prescribed and filled by your dentist. flouride is likely getting removed from water and dental health can directly impact your cardiovascular health as well.

it is now more important than ever to save your money and invest if you can, as social security and other such benefits you may come to rely on in old age are likely going to get canceled. pay off debts early to avoid interest, buy refurbished outdated tech instead of new (it is way cheaper and works just as good if not better than new), don't buy a car that gets less than 45 mpg (priuses do not need to be charged and are lovely), buy used (they work just as well as new, they just don't have useless prestige), buy frozen meals from the grocery store instead of fast food (just as fast to prepare and much cheaper), etc

with public education being abolished, if you have or want kids, i recommend finding and stocking up on educational books and games. you can likely find a lot of them at discount stores like goodwill. even old or slightly outdated texts are better than nothing at all.

get a vpn (i use proton cuz it's free) and switch from google to duckduckgo so you can find life-saving information and help without being tracked by people who want you dead.

[umbramatic]

I Bought An Alarmo So You Don't Have To: A Post

I Bought An Alarmo So You Don't Have To: A Thread/Post

So Nintendo revealed its Alarmo alarm clock a while back, and like. Nintendo could have EASILY contracted a third party to make a normal alarm clock, slap some Nintendo branding on it, and sell it for much cheaper, because that's what any other big media company would have done, but no, they had to be extra. And reactions ranged from "i want one" to "what the fuck, this isn't the switch 2, this is so weird and stupid". 

I was initially in the latter camp. But there was always a twinge of. Morbid curiosity to it. And a desire to fix something about myself. 

See, I am AWFUL at getting up in the morning. I'm not a morning person. Most alarms on my phone and such I just hit snooze or stop endlessly even when I set a billion of them. But Alamo is different. Alarmo bugs you to get out of bed if you try to lie back down. So since I had extra money from my job, I was like, "maybe it's worth a shot I GUESS" and despite my reservations bought one. 

It arrived in a package a few days later. I was surprised by how small it was.

I knew it needed to be right next to my bed, so I moved a dog crate next to it and stacked a bunh of books on top for the Alarmo to sit on. 

I got it all set up...

And went to bed relatively soon after because I needed w to get up early the next morning. 

And you know what? The thing works. 

...Mostly.

I was awakened to loud Salmon Run noises, which were what I chose the night prior. (I later switched to other noises, especially Pikmin noises, I felt were even more intense.) They did in fact stop when I got out of bed. The motion sensors do their job very well. Sometimes too well. 

The box mentioned pets can throw it off and my dog DOES sleep with me but she's small and sleeps away from the sensor and gets out of bed when I do so she doesn't mess with it much. 

(Okay, not entirely true, she DOES mess with it sometimes...)

You know what potentially messes with it? The body pillow I sleep with. Maybe. Possibly.I toss it out of the bed to make sure but also it's kinda inconsistent if it triggers it or not.

 So maybe I should probably add a disclaimer about body pillows? Maybe not? Unsure.

I also kinda threw it off sitting on the edge of the bed putting new clothes on - that made it think I was still in bed. 

But the thing is it is actually succeeding at getting me out of bed. The fact it just goes off again if you lie back down is really helpful for me specifically. There was one time where I set it really early to get up for work and I fell back asleep on the couch to thwart the alarm and had to be woken up by my staff but the next day I set the alarm for slightly later and woke up for work fine. 

Even with the regular mode there IS a button to forcibly turn the alarm off which is dangerous for me specifically because that's my entire problem with normal alarms. But I gotta work on the discipline to not use it and find good timing so I'm less tempted to. 

Also! There are bedtime noises!But they're always the same volume as the alarm so mine ended up a bit loud to be sleepy bedtime music. 

Oh! And a summary of the alarms I've tried: 

-The rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrandomizer -The aforementioned Salmon Run noises

-The rousing noises of Pikmin night expeditions -GROOVY LONGLEGS DISCO

-Pikmin just straight up drowning -Zelda telling me to wake the fuck up

-Barking chain chomps to go with my barking doggo

So like. It's definitely still kind of a novelty item and I still rather not have paid 100 bucks for it. But the specific features it has are helpful for someone like me who is ass at getting up in the morning, so it's worth a shot if you fall into that specific category. Now if you'll excuse me I'm setting it to Pikmin drowning again because I'm a sick freak.

[ninyard]

The Scriptures aka towning according to nin. (subject to change)

can’t do this without acknowledging the descriptions of them by @rekikiri which are just perfect plus some more stuff on them here and this wonderful background by @tara-the-star

(I owe everyone like a million socmed posts just for putting up with my shit re: this. enjoy!)

austin michael browning

- southern boy. has a soft southern accent. i was thinking something like southern georgia, but his parents have a stronger accent than he does. he didn't want to be known as the sweet darlin' southern boy when he moved to virginia for his FBI training, so he tried his best to speak a bit more neutral

- it didn't last long

- 6’2, soft brown hair, beautiful brown eyes. he’s covered in freckles and has the most gorgeous warm skin with some terrible tan lines. when he tans, he tans.

- he’s quite built but you can only tell when he takes off his suit jacket or he’s wearing just a shirt/t-shirt. if he could’ve gotten an a+ on the fbi fitness test he would’ve. he’s incredibly strong and goes to the gym most mornings (at like 6am. he’s a real early bird)

- has a bachelors degree in law/criminal justice

- was a detective for two years in georgia until he went to quantico. worked on criminal intelligence cases, but occasionally worked on juvenile crime cases. he had one particularly difficult case involving both departments (organised crime involving a minor) which inspired him to work for the FBI.

- has four siblings. he's the middle child with two older sisters and two younger sisters.

- he’s a somalier without being a somalier. literally knows anything and everything about wine. always has the right bottle of wine for any occasion or meal. recommending wines and opening his favourite wines is his love language.

- his family live by strict traditional values - two of his sisters were married by the time they were 22, and the other two followed suit at 21 and 23. he has a couple of nieces and nephews that he doesn’t get to see too often but he’s their fun uncle. he had a lot of pressure to find a nice girl and settle down, and always brushed off the girlfriend question (he even made up a fake girlfriend when he was in college, just to get his parents off his back) ((they didn’t “date” for very long))

- his dad worked on a farm his whole life and his momma has always been a housewife. his sisters were the only ones his mom taught to cook and clean. he had to teach himself a lot of life skills in college. he still occasionally ruins his clothes by washing them wrong but he’s learned to get his work suits dry cleaned. it’s much cheaper to do that than have to get new ones when he inevitably shrinks them.

- his mom never teaches him how to cook/bake, but she gives him a handwritten book of recipes when he moves to maryland for work. it sits on a shelf in the kitchen of his apartment but he’s never used it

- (until towns visits his apartment for the first time and tells him that he has to make him some of his ‘momma’s recipes’ someday. browning falls in love, naturally, and tries a couple dishes and treats)

- he didn’t really know or acknowledge that he was gay until he was in college. he’d had a few “girlfriends” here and there in highschool but he always felt like he was forcing himself into liking them. he kissed a boy for the first time when he was 19, and everything made sense for him, but even still he buried it down quite deep and focused on his studies instead of relationships.

- his family are not accepting at all. He grew up around a lot of homophobia and slurs and disrespect of lgbt+ people, and so that made it really hard for him to come to terms with his sexuality. he started to distance himself from them when he went to college, and the weekly phone calls with his mom turned to once a fortnight, into once or twice a month, into whenever she eventually didn’t take no for an answer and kept calling until he picked up.

- the only person who knew that he was gay was his oldest sister, who he came out to when he was in the third year of his degree. she was honest and told him that their mom and dad wouldn’t be supportive of him, but she wasn’t going to tell them either.

- she always changed the topic when the “girlfriend” conversation came up when he would go home for thanksgiving or Christmas or some other occasion. he appreciated that a lot

- started smoking cigarettes in college and struggled to give it up. he barely smokes anymore but every now and again on a tough case he finds himself reaching for a packet of cigarettes (towns hates it)

samuel arthur towns

- new york new yooorkkk. he was born somewhere in new york that i haven't figured out yet.

- 5’11, mixed with a white dad and a black mom. he wears glasses. he’s not as big or strong as austin is, but he’s in really good shape. he has gorgeous dark brown eyes and spends way too much time on his hair.

- has a tattoo on his thigh.

- he’s an only child to his absolutely amazing mother and father. they’re SO supportive of him and have always trusted him to make good choices in life - he tells his mom everything. he calls her almost every other day and visits home as often as possible.

- has a double bachelors degree in psychology and law from Columbia

- was a backliner on his high school exy team but never had any intentions of becoming an athlete/going pro. he was a TOTAL jock back then

- when he graduated college he pretty quickly knew he wanted to do something good that wasn’t necessarily becoming a cop. he waited until he turned 23 and on the day he finished his two years of working in an attorney’s office, he applied for a job with the fbi

- came out as gay pretty young. his parents have always been fairly liberal (his mom was a hippie back in the day) so he came out as a teenager and they’ve always been cool with it

- right when he was in the middle of his FBI training in quantico, he was dumped by the man he’d been dating for like two years. he had to put it to the back of his mind to focus on the academy, but it was one of the things that made him and austin first start speaking

- he’s kept journals since he was a kid. he has a full shelf of journals and sketchbooks from the age he was 10 or 11 until the present. he always carries a little black notebook with him and writes down his thoughts and little sketches. (its full of doodles of browning)

- his parents also have books and boxes full of photos of him from birth. it’s like an INSANE number of photos. their attic is just full of boxes and boxes of pictures. (austin’s favourite is one they have on the wall in the living room of sammy as a teenager in his exy gear)

- in turn he’s really into photography too and always takes photos. he shoots on film, so he has loads of boxes full of photos too. his dream is to have a dark room in his home.

- his mom really is his best friend. she’s his biggest fan, and the reason he studied psychology. she’s a holistic therapist, and gives the BEST advice. his dad is a food critic.

- when he was younger a friend of his was killed after because he became involved with the wrong people and ended up in a gang. it totally changed a lot for him, and seeing the way the case was handled really inspired him to get into law/want to go into the fbi. he saw all these young black boys from underfunded and underprivileged backgrounds finding themselves caught up in gangs and when things would happen to them - it was clear the effort to stop the feuds and the violence was not as important as if a young white man had been killed, or indoctrinated because he had no choice.

- his mom was worried when he told her that he’d applied to be in the fbi. they had a very long conversation about the realities of what he would see working with the fbi, why he wanted to do it, what it would mean for his future, and the things he couldn’t do. he knew all of it already, having researched it all as soon as he realised it was the career path he wanted to go down, but she really wanted to be sure he knew what he was getting himself into. it scared him, for a little bit, but he knew it was the right choice for him.

- he has a license, but doesn’t drive that much. he didn’t really need to drive much living in new york, and 90% of the time, in maryland, austin drives him around.

- he’s partially deaf in one ear from a crash that happened during a car chase a few years into working with the fbi.

- the hardest part about working where he does was learning how to shoot a gun. he hates it. like he’s good at it and smart with it but he hates having a gun. the first time he shot a real person he held it together until he got home later and was practically in shock. (he wasn’t sure if telling his mom broke confidentiality or not, so because he was on the case with austin, he invited him over and he ended up staying the night just to keep him company)

- austin and sam only lived in seperate apartments for about six months when they moved to maryland until they decided to move in together. austin was already renting a two bedroom apartment, whereas sam was in a studio, and it just made more financial sense for them to move in together. ("financial")

- he started crushing on austin so early on in their friendship, but he had no idea that austin was pretty much the same.

- austin and sam met when they both started their training in quantico together. they were roommates at the academy but didn’t really interact too much. they only really started talking after one of the first weekends they were allowed to leave the campus - towns went home to visit his boyfriend on the Friday and came back trying to hide the fact he was a wreck on Sunday. he tried not to talk about it, because they’re judging their emotional maturity in the academy, but when browning asked if he was okay, he spilled a little too much.

- even after that, they weren’t really friends. they talked, of course, about their classes and the academy itself, but that was mostly it. towns didn’t know browning was gay, because he never mentioned it, even when towns told him he was gay. most evenings austin would sit at his desk with headphones on while studying, and sammy wouldn’t usually interrupt.

- then one time when they’re both at the gym at the same time, austin notices sam working out, and his form isn’t quite right for the work out he’s doing. austin corrects him after telling him he’ll hurt himself working out the way that he is, and he helps him through a couple of other sets that he does himself. they go to the gym together most days after that, spotting each other when they’re doing weights. they start running in the mornings, too.

- during the course of training there’s a couple of occasions where students at the academy are expected to wear business attire. they’re both getting dressed up in their suits, and austin is kind of embarrassed because he doesn’t really know how to properly tie a tie. his dad usually tied them for him, and for some reason even though he swore he knew how to do it, he’s just really struggling. sam offers to help and austin ends up talking a little bit about his family, but not giving away anything about how shitty they really are.

- one of the weekends they’re allowed off campus, later on at their time in training, towns asks browning if he wants to go out for dinner and a drink. it’s not a date, and neither of them think it is, but neither of them were going home for the weekend and they both wanted to do something. austin ends up picking a restaurant based off their wine list, and they talk about their lives outside of quantico for a little bit. they can’t exactly go out and get drunk - or they’re both afraid to do so in case they get kicked out of the academy - but they sit and talk and share a bottle of wine.

- they get closer, and when they graduate, towns’ mom and dad show up, and browning’s family doesn’t. they take pictures together (one of towns’ favourite photos ever) and sam introduces austin to his mom and dad. they’re going out for a celebratory meal, and sam’s dad invites austin along so he’s not celebrating by himself. he refuses, but when they insist, he comes along.

- oh and it’s SUCH a nice evening. he fills any rare awkward silence by explaining his wine choice to sammy’s dad, while sam’s mom nudges her son and raises her eyebrows like oh, he’s cute.

- they exchange phone numbers before they both head home to wait for their offers.

- (austin spent most of those 18 weeks smiling because of how close him and sam got. sam spent about half of that time thinking damn. am I falling for another straight guy?)

- austin calls sam first the day they find out where they’re being stationed. they tell each other on 3 that they’ve both been stationed in maryland and oh my god. Austin didn’t even know he was going to feel so relieved but he’s like holy shit. I didn’t even realise i was secretly really hoping that we were going to work together.

(there’s more but. I have to stop myself. The brain rot is setting in deeper and deeper)

[lesssial]

Trying to figure out the year in Bram's/Fyodor's Backstory

So what I'm looking at is Vlad the impaler's timeline along with a few hints in the manga. But not much Dracula because I haven’t read the book, and also because the book takes place about 400 years later.

So the castle that Bram lived in, for people who don't know, is an actual castle in Transylvania Romania named Bran.

Basic info

-Bran castle was built between 1377 and 1388. (Vlad the impaler never set foot in it but Dracula lived there.)

-Vlad III ruled Wallachia

-Vlad the impaler / Vlad III lived from 1431-1476 (He was defeated by the ottomans not Romans and his head was shipped to Constantinople/Istanbul)

-Vlad III’s reigns; 1448 (For a few months), 1456-62, and 1476-77.

It is a bit hard to truly connect to two while they ruled two different regions (Transylvania & Wallachia)

The knights

In this panel, we can get a look of the types of armor these knights wore.

The majority of the helmets resemble a barbute helmet which was used in the 15th century

The rectangular shields (scutum) mostly disappeared by the end of the 3rd century

Mainly spears and Halberds (The spear ax things) with an occasional sword in the crowd of knights. (Spears were cheaper at the time)

The full body armor became popular between 1400-1500s.

Byzantine empire fell in 1453 while the holy roman empire fell in the 1800s.

What nation are the knights from?

This is the main question. Are these knights from the Holy Roman empire? The Byzantine empire before it fell? Most likely not the ottoman empire due to the amount of christian symbolism. It can’t be the Byzantine empire because they rarely if at all used Halberts. Also the Byzantine empire fell pretty early so it's unlikely they were associated with Bram’s defeat. It seems like the Holy Roman empire however they did not use rectangular shields, favoring a kite or heater shield instead. Then who else?

I couldn't find any good maps

Fyodor mentioned the North (Idk why Bram started blabbering about the west). Do you know what was north of Transylvania? The Kingdom of Hungary who also had a skilled army known as the black army that used rectangular shields and was big on spears and Halberd.

The Hungarian Black army (1458-1494)

From the evidence gathered so far, it must be 1458-76.

King Matthias & the Sultan

Here, Bram asks Fyodor who he serves, either King Matthias (The king of Hungary) or the Sultan (Leader of the Ottomans). Bram was suspicious of the Sultan for the reason that they started eyeing Europe once the Byzantine Empire fell, along with his history with them (Held hostage as a boy). The tension between King Matthias and Vlad III started when Matthias received a letter from the saxons allegedly written by Vlad III in which he offered support to the Ottomans. This was enough to convince Matthias of Vlad III’s treachery so he imprisoned him from 1463 to 1475. Vlad III was intercepted and captured by Matthias after he had escaped Ottoman capture and sought Matthias for assistance. This could be when Bram was defeated in the manga(?) So I guess the year may have been 1462-1463?

Some bonus info that I noticed is that Matthias signed a peace treaty with the Holy Roman empire in 1463. Maybe Bram was defeated after they signed the treaty so they could form some sort of coalition against him (This could explain why the knights all had religious imagery on their helmets).

Another thing is that Bram was impaled(?) alongside two other women. In the Dracula book, I believe it was mentioned there were three female vampires that the protagonist had to defeat before killing Dracula in the castle. This could hint towards the fact that Bram was in the castle when he was attacked and defeated.

(I'm having trouble mixing history and fiction. Fyodor definitely had a hand in this. No way he just came to warn Bram for no reason)

None of these images are mine (I'm sure you know, but just in case)

Yeah that’s all I got, please comment to correct me and/or let me know if you know anything. (Might edit later idk)

[pvffinsdaisies]

Norway Headcanons

Bc I’m inspired ✨

Norway is a very active and outdoorsy person, he loves skiings (which, he’s mastered), hiking, sailing/rowing and figure skating.

Norway is a firm believer that there is no bad weather, only bad clothes. It could be a literal blizzard outside and he’ll still shrug his shoulders and go out to try and ski anyway. He hates being inside on a weekend, and if he doesn’t get out he’ll feel guilty about it or even claustrophobic.

Norway has always felt an incredibly deep connection with the sea, and just water in general, to be honest. There’s something so peaceful and therapeutic about it. He often finds himself longing to be in, on or surrounding by water.

Nor is an adventurer and an explorer at heart!! He loves travelling and seeing the natural beauty of so many different parts of the of the world ✨ he doesn’t really tell people when he’s going on these holidays. If you haven’t heard from nor in a while, it’s entirely likely that he could be at the top of Ben Nevis, or hiking through the Amazon rainforest, or swimming in a random beach in Australia.

that being said, he is a completely different during the winter months. Seasonal depression hits him like a brick, and he’ll spend most days cuddled under blankets, knitting and watching some nature documentary. He tries to get outside for the 2-3 hours of sunlight he gets in the middle of the day, just for the sake of getting outside and not feeling trapped.

Norway never gets enough sleep. Managing to be both a night owl and an early bird. He always goes to sleep far too late and he always wakes up far too early. Coffee is his clutch during the day, and he often finds himself napping on the sofa more than he’d like.

speaking of getting up early, he always likes to get a little read in of his book before he starts his day. The reason he gets up so early is so that he has time to read.

Norway is a huge booknerd, he loves reading. And he’s found reading to be really helpful when he experiences homesickness on his travels. He always likes to bring a book that’s set in Norway, so he can map out the different locations in his mind and truly feel momentarily transported home.

every single time he’s in the UK, he always buys far too many books than he should, but he gets so caught up in how much cheaper they are over here than in Norway. Scotland officially has his own little book shelf for all the books Norway’s bought that he couldn’t fit in his suitcase on the way back home.

he has massive bookshelves back home, and every few months he likes to dedicate a day solely to reorganising them completely. It takes him hours, but he loves it, he finds it weirdly very relaxing.

in terms of things that Norway finds relaxing, he actually does yoga. It’s a great way to clear his head and feel calm. It also helps out with his flexibility. Norway is far more flexible than any man should be.

on paper, Norway lives a very healthy lifestyle. He doesn’t drink that much fizzy pop, he eats a lot of fruit and vegetables, he gets a lot of protein from the sheer amount of fish he eats, and sweet treats and snacks are reserved for weekends.

Norway is very jealousy prone, especially in regard to Denmark & Sweden. Often feeling forgotten about or even under-valued in comparison to them. He hates having too much attention on himself, but if Sweden or Denmark is mentioned he will feel an intense need to prove himself as equal or even better than them.

this also results in him being extremely competitive against Denmark & Sweden.

Norway is actually really good at woodwork, but his skills are always overshadowed by Sweden, who is admittedly far better than him.

however, Norway is the best nordic at knitting! He loves it, and he takes great pride in the things he knits. He actually loves to knit jumpers with Norwegian patterns on for his friends to wear in the winter time. And he basically lives in his many different marius gensers he’s knit for himself.

Norway is a formidable gift giver, he always somehow finds the best present to gift someone for their birthday or for Christmas. He actually prefers to give them hand made gifts too. He will rarely get someone something that’s store bought.

he loves cats and he has two Norwegian forest cats of his own, they’re called Oskar and Mons. His babies 🥰

Norway is extremely non-committal. At least, in terms of relationships. He values his freedoms and his independence far too highly, and he’s absolutely prettified of actually falling in love. He finds it far easier to just have meaningless hook ups that neither part acknowledges in the morning. And if he does date someone, he often runs away before things get serious.

Norway is actually scared of fire, at least really big ones. Small ones are fine. But his cities have burnt down so many times throughout history, and I actually think Norway was a victim of the witch trials too. So a huge bonfire is absolutely a no-go for Norway.

norway has a flat in oslo, entirely for work purposes, a house in Trondheim, which is farrr more homely and he much prefers, as well as a cabin up in Lofoten. The highest honour you could achieve as Norway’s friend is to be invited to his cabin. It’s his private little space to escape to during the summer. No electronics or wifi, just nature.

Norway has dimples, but because he rarely smiles not many people know of them.

of course, we know Norway feels deeply connected to the magic and the folk lore of his home. But he also loves learning about the folklore from other countries in the world too. He always tried to find a book of folktales in every single country he visits.

Norway is a formidable story teller, which is quite good, because he loves passing on his mythology to everyone who cares to listen.

Norway actually has a little nisse friend who lives in his house in Trondheim. He’s an absolute menace sometimes, but nor still loves him. But he’s also developed a habit of blaming this little nisse every single time something goes missing, even if he’s not in Trondheim.

he loves music. He is a formidable singer, and he plays the violin, the electric violin, and the hardanger fiddle.

Norway is great at navigating the sea and mountains, but absolutely dreadful at navigating cities. If he’s going to an unfamiliar city, he will need someone to show him around or he will get horribly lost.

[mecachrome]

probably very out of context, but how do you get into the nhl fandom? before i got interested in f1 i was looking for what sport to watch (other than football) and i wanted to go there because a few years ago it became a popular topic in m/m romance books (which i read a lot at the time, now i mostly read fics xd) and i found… nothing, i mean, on twt there didn't seem to be a community, i didn't see people interacting about the players, and there weren't high numbers in the posts either, i found a bit of the same thing here on tumblr and other apps, probably it's more popular on tiktok which is what is used the most? the thing is, in the end i couldn't get interested because i didn't understand anything and i ended up watching formula 1 thanks to the noise made by the stans of other fandoms that migrated there lmao

LOL anon a lot of the things you mention here that you considered to be barriers of entry are honestly a great overview of why user-restriction is more commonly practiced in the hockey archives...!

anyway i actually did some sports fandom analysis last year and i really think a large part of it is >nhl fandom is much more accessible to people in na and >football fandom is a lot more accessible to people in europe... for me personally, i've spent Most of my life in places with local hockey teams + part of my family is from a classic market so getting into hockey as a sport was like a pretty natural thing, and i loooveee going to hockey games and actually watching the sport—plus it's way cheaper, if you're in a shitty market with a shitty team you can go to one game and see the players all up close during warmies for like $20 vs. $1283749492347 to go to an f1 race. that being said though, there are definitely people from all over the world who are into the nhl and i do think it's really easy to get into! i've actually seen a lot of f1 fans migrate to hockey recently and i'd argue that it's a lot more public/mimics f1 fandom culture on twitter now (for better or worse haha) if you ever want to get back into it... i'd also say that there's lots of fic to read as well, but admittedly if you were only trying to consume hockey during the height of its like booktok surge, it probably wasn't the same landscape i was working with when i first started reading hockey fic 11 years ago. the thing is that BACK_IN_THE_DAY, hockey WAS the top-producing sports fandom on ao3, so it was super easy to invest in current narratives without feeling like you were part of some tiny grassroots community (ok exaggerated on my part but i'll get to this in a bit lol)... honestly if you just sort by kudos on ao3 while logged in there's plenty of old classics that are fun to read even if you don't understand everything! see an old graph i made below:

anyway 1) i truly think hockey is the best sport ever like as an actual sport in terms of Sportish Entertainment (forgetting the rpf for a second) and you can learn it pretty easily just by watching with a good commentator! hockey isn't like f1 where you watch a race with everyone on the grid, so that's why as an overall fandom it's more quiet and it helps to pick One (1) team you're interested in getting into and just watching their games and not worrying about the rest of the league for the moment.

for ex i'm primarily a dallas stars fan, and my main hockey blog 39oa is entirely meant for them, and they're the only team i watch All 82 Games For. i also have montembeault for other teams i like (mainly habs/nux) but i don't really update it that much anymore...

2) hockey rpf has definitely had phases with strong formative ships and the problem with it currently is that there's kind of a dearth of like active, marketable material to work with... at its peak and during the early ao3 days there was sidgeno, ship i won't name, bennguin (in some ways we still have 2 of these but it's not like at the same level of course), nickovi, i mean i could go on... tragic kings yaoi... and then the 2015 draft class revitalized things majorly (this is when i got into hockey rpf properly lol i peddled mcstromarner when they were still in juniors so hard... not many people know this) and a lot of rpf for the following years depended on them, and then of course we had the Summer of tknp which is what REALLY got things going again..... but that ship is functionally over and there's also a really prominent rivalry ship that has much less pull now that they're not actually on rival teams lol and then another ship that had rookie and_they_were_roommates narratives got separated so now it's like WHAT IS THERE TO SHIP!!! and i mean hockey is SO spread out truly, i actually have another old stats post about degrees of separation in hockey shipping but anyway... nowadays there is actually a Hawt New yaoi ship that kind of models jdtz (rookie rommates) that many people are into! so that's a fun place to start if you want to try somewhere trendy. i'm 100% sure if you sought out sharks fans on twitter in like a fandomy environment you could do so pretty easily...

3) i think part of it as you said is that hockey is a much smaller community, especially when you're interacting in the subfandoms for each individual team. some teams have HUGE markets on an IRL fandom level (canadian teams like toronto and montreal for example), but my team's being from dallas where the primary sport is american football means it has an absolutely tragic amount of news coverage and no one really cares about them much. the #southernbias in hockey is so strong 💔 and then on top of that even teams with big irl fandoms might not really have the equivalent attention on tumblr because it also depends on whether they have compelling yaoi to keep the fujos interested......... but to ME that's also beautiful because even if your team's fandom is just 10 people liveblogging and making gifsets with 40 notes, it's a special sense of community and the wank/drama levels are like insanely lower, and there's more of a sense of We're in this watching sports together than like We're all going to be really mad at everything and argue about team orders all day even though the race ended 5 months ago 🥲 yes the fic outputs will be much slower than you might like but that's what i mean by the grassroots feel haha like there's really a sense of support for the fandom creativity!!! f1 can kind of feel lonely sometimes because there's so many people but they're all silent lurkers/likers :'(

also playoffs hockey will change your life. so you gotta stick around until april!!!!!!!! that's all i've got...

[alpaca-clouds]

A neat historical detail in Castlevania

As I just finished reading the somewhat older David Graeber book "Dept: The First 5000 Years" and this book kinda had me constantly thinking about this one scene from Castlevania S03E01.

Now, mind you. The first four Castlevania seasons really are not that point on when it comes to history. Generally speaking the scenes that have Isaac tend to be a bit more historically accurate, but both in terms of general history, and historic clothing this show is often quite far away from the reality.

And here comes this lady in, who in Lindenfeld sells a bit of produce. First: This lady has fairly accurate clothing for the time. Sure, there is a bit of an issue as she is wearing no jacket or anything, while it is clearly early winter. (But that is a general issue in the entire show. I wrote about this before: I am fairly sure that Castlevania takes place between Late-September 1476 and Late-December '76 or Early-January '77. And winters around this time were darn cold - especially in this area. And the folks at Powerhouse clearly underestimated the weather xD)

All of this makes me so delighted that this one specific scene is actually pretty spot on.

What happens in this scene? Well, St. Germain wants to buy two apples, and this lady, who clearly cannot stand him. So, she overcharges him, asking double the price of the day before. He is a traveler who came through several other places before, and he has a silver coin (a groschen) of a higher value on him. Meanwhile she is like: "Eh, I don't care. This is one silver coin, it counts as one silver coin."

Now, to be fair: The price is a bit too high historically speaking (generally speaking a silver coin at the time was usually worth between 25 and 50 English pounds in today's money). While we surprisingly have no written down prices for apples, we know that generally apples were sold by weight and not per unit, and were considerably cheaper.

However, other things in this scene check out.

See, here is a thing that people do not realize about the middle ages - and specifically the late 15th century.

Most people did not in fact use coin money, but just a system of credit and debt.

In the late 15th century, coinage was super, super unreliable as the value was constantly changing, due to the political instability of Europe.

About the first part of this: If you ever heard people talk about how folks bartered. Yeah, that mainly is bullshit. Yes, at times this happened during the middle ages, but it mainly happened for the following reason: Until the Roman Empire came around people in Europe mainly just went about exchanging goods under the thinking of "I do you a solid, you will do me a solid". People basically had "dept" with people from their village. Then the Roman Empire came and introduced money, so after the empire fell and the money was gone (because no new money was minted) and people still had about the money value of the goods in mind, and would go "well an apple was about worth as much as 4 eggs, so give me 4 eggs in return". But this also declined during the middle ages.

While yes, at the point the show takes place there were once more people minting money, the royals that controlled the currency constantly changed the value of the money around to adjust the dept and taxes through it. Which was especially going on a lot in the late 15th century, because of the wars going on.

So, most people went back to just the old dept system. Aka: "You do me a solid, I will do you a solid in the future." However, there was a group of people, who could not partake in this form of exchange. And that was travelers, who obviously did not stay around along in one place to get to do "a solid" in return, were to foreign and hence distrusted, and as such had to use coinage to trade. Because at least whoever sold something from them had something that they could trust on in return. Hence, St. Germain, who is a traveler and clearly has the aura of a fraudster, would have to use coins to trade. And again, the value of the money was actually super instabable. While the well-dressed market-lady would probably not really know the current value of coins, she is totally not off to say: "Duh, prices rise," and who is there to check on her.

Hence, I have only the highest respect for this queen, who miraculously has actually gotten a voice actor. xD

[lenaboskow]

well @911countdowntochristmas was harder than expected but here’s an unnamed piece for the wrapping paper prompt (day six?)

once i finish the one for the au i’m still posting it because 👀

read below (1k words)

Buck had stayed the night at the Diaz house enough times to be used to being woken up early by a small hand (not so gently) shaking his foot, begging for pancakes or French toast or some other breakfast food that Eddie claimed he could never get right. What he wasn’t used to, however, was much larger hands ripping the blanket away from him, throwing him back to several years prior, when he was mad at the world and would do anything to avoid getting out of bed.

“Come on, man, really? You didn’t have to do that.”

“We’ve been trying to wake you up for thirty minutes, Buck. I think we did.” Buck looked up to where Eddie was hovering over him, still in his pajamas, and felt all the fight leave his body. He could never be mad at him for long. Especially not on Christmas.

“What is it with you and stealing my covers,” Buck mumbled, pushing himself to a sitting position. The only inclination that Eddie heard him was the soft smile he had before he turned his back on Buck, heading back into the kitchen.

“Come on, you’re making breakfast. Chris wants French toast, and apparently, mine isn’t good enough for him.”

“That’s ‘cause you don’t measure anything and just guess,” Buck mumbled, standing up and making his way to the kitchen. Eddie had busied himself making coffee (the one thing he was better at than Buck), and Christopher was sitting at the table, reading the last Percy Jackson book. How he didn’t get tired of reading the same series over and over again was beyond him.

Breakfast was as peaceful as it was familiar. It was also over quickly, as Chris was adamant that they don’t waste a second more in opening presents and all but dragged them to the living room. Buck watched with an amused smile as the teenager grabbed the few presents that were a different wrapping paper and set them aside on the coffee table, before beginning to unwrap what was left under the tree.

“I don’t think one wrapping paper is better than the other, Chris,” Buck laughed, taking his seat on the couch to watch. The kid just gave him a confused look, but Eddie laughed with him.

“What are you talking about, Buck? That’s how we tell whose presents are whose.”

“Oh. Well, I guess that’s smart.”

As if sensing his confusion, Eddie continued, “It started when my sisters were younger. I didn’t get a lot of presents, just a few bigger things, but they got a lot of stuff because it was cheaper. Instead of having to hand out the presents one by one, my mom would just wrap each of our presents in a different wrapping paper and tell us which one was hers. When Chris was born, and my sisters still lived at home, it stuck. Our first Christmas here, I wasn’t going to do it, but then Shannon came back… the year after that we did Christmas at Pepa’s the day after with all the cousins so we were kinda forced to. After that… I just didn’t see a point in stopping, even if it meant I had to rewrap the presents our family gave me and save it for the day of. It makes Chris happy, so it’s a small price to pay.”

“Oh. That’s— I like that. But what about the gifts from Santa?”

“Well, obviously Chris is a little old for that now, but it used to be we would just leave it unwrapped under their stocking.”

“Makes sense. Santa wouldn’t have time to wrap millions of presents.”

“Exactly.”

“Good thing Santa isn’t real, then,” Christopher said, looking up from the gift he was currently unwrapping. Buck recognized it as the lego set he’d gotten him, and watched as Chris stood up, making his way to hug him. “Thank you, Buck.”

“Oh, so Buck still gets thank you hugs but I don’t?” Eddie asked, only half joking.

“I haven’t even opened yours yet, Dad. And you get one big hug at the end. Call it my Christmas gift to you.”

“I know he’s joking because Pepa took him shopping last week,” Eddie stage whispered to Buck, causing him to laugh.

“How did you even know I was the one who got you that?” Buck asked.

“Dad wrote the names of who it’s from in jumbo Sharpie,” Chris shrugged, moving back to the tree. “Are you two going to open your own presents now?”

“Oh, I—”

“You didn’t think you were going to spend Christmas here and not have presents to open, did you?” Eddie asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Which, yeah, he did, but that wasn’t the point. He’d been more than content to sit and watch his Diaz boys open theirs, and then make them Christmas dinner. He didn’t need anything else. “Well, too bad, because I got your presents from everyone while I was getting mine. I know you usually wait until our holiday party at Bobby and Athena’s, but there was no way I was going to let you sit here doing nothing. You didn’t think these were all for Christopher, did you?”

“Hey, it’s Christmas, the kid deserves to be spoiled,” Buck said, blinking away the tears that suddenly appeared.

“I think Buck should spend every Christmas with us,” Chris said, and Eddie rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah,” Eddie said, rolling his eyes. He turned to Buck, handing him one of the presents off the coffee table. “Here, the ones with the little Santa dogs are yours. I think the only one that hasn’t come in yet is Abuela’s because FedEx delayed it along with mine and Chris’.”

“Abuela… sent me a Christmas present?”

“Of course she did, you’re family.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. Now are you going to open them or not? Because I happen to have a teenager who likes to make a mess of things, and I’m sure—”

“Fine, fine, I’ll open them,” Buck shoved at Eddie to get him to stop talking, but he was sure the grin growing on his face was giving him away. “But… thank you. Really, I— I didn’t get this growing up, so it means a lot.”

“Of course. I meant what I said, Buck; you’re family. And in this family, that means you get your own wrapping paper.”

[saintsenara]

Is Halloween an American thing? I thought wizards celebrated as well?

so this is an interesting historical context thing. halloween is celebrated now - with all the same trappings as it is in the states - across britain and ireland, but it's included in the books as it is because - in the nineties - the main familiarity the vast, vast majority of british and irish children would have with these sort of lavish, extravagant halloween traditions [rather than local versions, which are generally much cheaper, weirder, and less aesthetically pleasing...] would be from american films and tv shows. it's a piece of worldbuilding which makes the magical world feel like a fantasy land, not only magic but "movie magic", separate from the reader's ordinary life.

i'm in my early thirties. the first time i had a trick-or-treater call on me was about five years ago. i never went trick-or-treating as a child - and nor did anyone else i know, and nobody [or maybe one person] would have had sweets in either. even now, there are still plenty of people who won't. you could buy pumpkins during october when i was little, but you'd have been hard-pressed to find other halloween-themed decorations without having to find a specialist party shop. i started going to "halloween parties" as a teenager... but these were mostly an excuse to get drunk with a bit of face paint on. my siblings who have kids complain about all the rigmarole now expected around halloween because what is now considered standard are things which would have been considered ludicrously over-the-top - to such an extent that they might have wandered off a film set - when we were children. they're a wholesale import of american consumer culture. throwing a sheet over your child and saying they're a ghost, the one house on the street which would indulge trick-or-treaters giving them a clementine, and then everyone going home for apple-bobbing doesn't cut it anymore...

[voldemort's complaints in deathly hallows, on the other hand, seem to be because nobody's spending allhallowtide in church... which is his business, i suppose... but isn't a normal opinion for anyone to have...]