#and thought the posts that hosted the images were cool and interesting

[weeaboo-kei]

"why are you posting old lolita stuff from mid 2000s?" idk why not, it's fun

[destinationtoast]

1/3 - Hi there! Three (I think) part ask incoming. You're the main person I know of who compiles tons of interesting fandom stats, so I wanted to ask you about it if you have the time to answer. :) I think a lot about how AO3 works great as a fan*fic* archive, but for other fanworks, like images, audio, video, etc., it's only as good as wherever the media is being hosted. With the way hosting sites come and go, or change their TOS to nuke nsfw or queer content, etc., it makes me wonder

how many broken image links litter AO3 at this point. I know it's not considered the primary place to find fanart, but a lot of folks do post images there—for events like Big Bangs, as standalone art, and even as decorative section breaks, etc. My question is: do you think there's a way to look at, say, works tagged with #fanart (of which there are 99,504 atm) and determine what percentage of those are broken links? From what little I understand, one would have to (perhaps with the use of a simple bot?) try to open any link bordered by the <img src> html, and see what portion of those return an error versus what ones actually load? I suppose it could even be something like looking at fanart posted in 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2022 to compare how many older links are broken versus newer links. Anyway, this may be completely unfeasible, but I figured I'd ask about your thoughts! Thanks!

Ooh, thanks for the great question! I took a while to answer because I wasn't initially sure what to recommend and ended up gathering some data to investigate. (If anyone else also has relevant data, please share in the notes!)

I liked your idea of looking at samples different years going back, and I decided to look through 100 AO3 works tagged "Fanart" (or a subtag) that were posted 10 years ago -- as a very fast starting point, I didn't even take a random sample of works, I instead looked at the first 100 multimedia fanworks posted in July 2014. (And August, when necessary; see more notes on methodology at the end.) Please keep in mind that this sample that may not be very representative of AO3 more broadly; to get better estimates, more sampling would be needed. Based on this initial data gathering (and the fact that most fanworks on AO3 were posted within the past 10 years), I would tentatively guess that that most fanart, fanvids, and podfic on AO3 still have accessible multimedia.

Given how many broken links and embeds there are on older webpages, I assumed that a ton of the links from 10 years ago would be broken. But I was pleasantly surprised by the results:

Wow -- 10 years on roughly 90% of the multimedia still works! I was honestly floored; I'd been originally planning to also look at 5 years ago to see how much better that was, but if ~90% are still working 10 years on, 5 years ago doesn't have room to be dramatically better. (However, I'd love to see more follow up sampling across different years to find out.)

There were a lot of AO3 users in this sample who posted multiple works -- some posted as many as a dozen multimedia works in July 2014. I didn't want the results to be overly skewed by any one fanwork creator, so I also redid the analysis with just one work from each unique creator:

Okay, cool, those results are pretty similar. I also did some further breakdowns on this smaller set of works to look at which hosts creators were using, and how many of the hosts were still working:

The most common fanart host used in this sample was Tumblr, then wixmp -- which I think from some very quick googling might be because Deviantart switched to using Wix for image hosting at some point? (i.e., I think most of those artists may have posted their art on Deviantart, then linked to/embedded the image on AO3, and the image's direct URL was was wixmp.) There were a few other hosts at the time that were used by 5+ different artists in the sample, and then there were a whole lot of hosts were used by just one or a few artists.

Most of the 10-year-old fanart is still up for all of these hosting categories! Photobucket is the least reliable of the most commonly used hosts. In the Other category, 25% of the links are broken, but that's still better than I expected (see full host list here).

This is getting long, so I'm moving the breakdowns for fanvids and podfic beneath the cut:

Fanvids were almost all hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, or both (the above categories are not mutually exclusive). All the Vimeo links still worked, whether they required a password to view or not. Most YouTube links were working, and the few missing ones had almost all been taken down by YouTube for copyright reasons (according to the errors I got -- I'm not rendering judgment about whether they were actually fair use), rather than by the vidder who posted it. And almost a third of vidders also linked to other hosts besides the big two, but many of those links were broken; 59% still worked. (see full host list here)

For podfic, mediafire was a popular solution 10 years ago, though many podficcers used it as a backup rather than the main link that they shared. A lot of podficcers made use of a fandom hosting site that specialized in podfic -- either parakaproductions.com or audiofic.jinjurly.com. Four podficcers used soundcloud (often as a backup). And once again there were a lot of less-frequently used hosts, often used as backup links; 69% of those still worked. (see full host list here)

Some methodology notes and further thoughts:

For fanvids and podfic (but mostly not from fanart), the fanwork creators tended to provide multiple links, and in those cases, I counted the multimedia as working if at least one of the links was still working.

I counted embedded media and links to other sites that host the media all the same way.

I counted the media as broken if I got a 404 when I tried to visit it, or if a site like YouTube had taken it down due to copyright issues, or if I got an Access Denied message for a site like Google Drive.

I counted the media as working if it required a password that was given on the page (common with Vimeo), or if an embed was broken but there were working links to other sites.

How representative is this data? Well, these samples contained most/all of the multimedia fanworks posted in July 2014; that month, there were 70 fanvids, 135 podfic, and 186 pieces of fanart posted that haven't been deleted since. So it's pretty representative of July 2014 specifically. :) But there could have been, say, a fanwork challenge going on in July 2014 that caused unusual uploading patterns then.

The above data gathering and analysis took me several hours over several days. If you want to follow up, you could do more data gathering similar to what I did (I'm happy to elaborate on my process as needed). Or you could write a bot to do something similar; you could have it fetch more AO3 fanworks and try following the links within each work. However, that would be slightly tricky; I ran across more kinds of errors and complicated situations than I expected (e.g., if a YouTube video has been taken down due to copyright, it still has a working YouTube page; sometimes an embed is broken, but if you open the link within the embed in a separate window, it still works fine; many Vimeo links require a password to test, and it could be hard for the bot to reliably find the password in the surrounding text). So you'd have to program your bot to be able to handle a bunch of different special cases.

Regardless of which path you are considering, if you or anyone else does any follow up work here, I encourage you to start by looking through a bunch of fanworks yourself and deciding which scenarios you want count as "working" vs. "not working," and any other things you want to pay attention to.

Hope that helps, and please feel free to DM me with follow up questions. And if you follow up, please share anything else you figure out in this space!

[stvrlight-nyx]

My interpretation of Murder Drones episode 7(a lot about N and Uzi) EPISODE 7 SPOILERS‼️‼️

N is the most caring drone ever, he cares so much about V (friendship) that first thing he can think about is trying to move the rocks to get back to her. After all the shit she put him through, he still thinks of her as one of his closest friends besides his old crush on her. HES JUST SUCH AN ANGEL OMG.

N’s direct-ness towards Tessa is very interesting, because you can see his character wants to really help “Tessa” (who we now know was never actually Tessa), but obviously cares and loves Uzi a lot whether that be platonic or romantic. He clearly emphasises his point by putting a full stop at the end, making it clear to Tessa that he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to Uzi. Taking it back to my point about N having to choose between Tessa and his family from back in Manor House, or Uzi this “little bot” that in my opinion he’s poured his heart out to (coming from a Nuzi shipper and no it’s not pro ship). Well we now know that after the whole absolute solver using Cyn as a host and Tessa as a skin suit that he is 100% on Uzi’s side.

YOU ARE TELLING ME THIS MAN DIDN’T KNOW IF HE WAS GONNA LIVE OR NOT AND THE FIRST PERSON HE CALLED OUT TO WAS UZI LIKE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Anyway yea so uh, you can see here that N’s first thought and in past episodes too, his first thought is Uzi. Clearly showing he cares for her and loves her a lot. Usually you brain or in their case their programming should probably make you think about yourself but, he often thinks about Uzi first and then himself like N just confess istg.

I don’t really wanna go through it now maybe in another post but it has to be here so…

J oh deary me J. J is the kinda of character who clearly has always been jealous of N, and how fond Tessa was of him compared to her. Obviously, because you can clearly even as the audience see that Tessa doesn’t really care too much about J, she clearly has to receive the approval from someone else. And that’s where the company comes in, in my opinion I think the company is just feeding her ego so she begins to do more for them. The company had control over V and N previously but because of their exploration and independence they now know the truth but, because of J’s hunger for approval she is turning a blind eye towards her curiosity.

The idea that this isn’t even “The real Tessa” is wild to me, you’re telling me the solver literally an eldritch entity can adapt to humane environments, features, and characteristics that easily. If I were Uzi I’d be wetting myself right now. For me what I would really like to see is the solver disinfecting everyone(or like collecting itself) and somehow disconnecting itself from Cyn and Tessa cus I don’t think it will be able to operate without a host and skinsuit.

DOLL A LITRAL ICON AND GIRLBOSS. Her ideas of the absolute solver while also trying to use it to her advantage is really interesting, it’s crazy that she knew everything but didn’t tell Uzi. Some may argue with me and say ‘oh but doll did it to avoid Uzi ratting her out’ which is correct but, do you think it would alter the storyline if she did? I think it would. Some more question I would’ve asked doll are things like

Do you expect to defeat the solver alone? After defeating the solver what are your theories for a cure? And why do you look good doing everything?(shes so cool)

I am not really talking heavily about Nori right now cuz she deserves her own post but, the notes behind her are really cool to me. Like did she know about the absolute solver and the involvement with the disassembly drones and JcJ? But that’s kinda it

AGAIN N THINKING ABOUT UZI BEFORE HIMSELF AND OTHERS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Apparently can only add ten images so I’ll do a part 2

Reblogs>>>>likes

[angelasscribbles]

Bad Parenting Chapter 3: Settling In

Series: Bad Parenting

Fandom: The Royal Romance

Pairings for series: (Riley x Liam x Max) + Riley x Drake

Featuring: Leo, Oliva, M!OC Hudson Rys and F!OC Lilith Nevrakis

Rating: G

Warnings for this chapter: None

Word Count: 1,622

A/N: Wow. I posted chapter 2 almost two years ago! 🙃I had thought this was more or less abandoned at this point but.... well, here we are.

My other stuff: Master List.

Original series this spun off from: Bad Romance. More specifically Bad Romance Disney Adventure.

After the events in Disney Adventure, Leo finds himself in possession of his thirteen-year-old son Hudson for the summer. Unfortunately for him, Hudson isn’t that impressed with Leo’s newfound desire to be a father.

Hudson reluctantly agreed to let Leo show him around the palace. His sulkiness gradually gave way to awe as his errant father regaled him with not only tales of Cordonian history but his childhood growing up in the palace.

“Ok, you and Uncle Liam I get. Why did the other kids live here?”

“Oh, well,” Leo grew serious. “They lost their parents. Well, Liv lost both of hers. Drake and his sister Savannah lost their father, then their mother kind of…. Left them here and went back to the U.S.”

Hudson’s face hardened. “So, they had a mother like mine?”

Leo’s heart went out to the kid. Genevieve had rather abandoned him to pursue her own interests. Guilt sliced through him as he wondered if being in his son’s life sooner would have made a difference. “Bianca had her reasons. The ranch her father left behind really did need her, and she was sunk in her own grief. I’m not saying it was right, but her kids were given a choice, and they wanted to stay here.”

“Must be nice to be given a choice.” Hudson slotted his hands into his pockets and turned his head away. His usual surliness had been replaced with sadness.

Leo wasn’t good with emotions…. Or words…. But he was good with adventure. “Hey, want me to show you the secret passageways?”

“What?” Hudson’s head jerked up and his eyes widened. Curiosity sparked through him. “Honest to God secret passageways?”

“Oh yeah. Some of them are used by the guard, but there a few that only the royal family know about.”

Won over by the thought of being let in on an exclusive secret, Hudson felt excitement stir in his chest. “Yeah, that sounds cool!”

After a morning of exploring the palace, they met Regina for lunch.

“I thought the dining room would be bigger.” Hudson glanced around the elegant, but perfectly normal sized dining room.”

“This is the smallest one actually,” Leo informed him, “For the exclusive use of the royal family. We host guests in one of the larger dining rooms.”

“How many dining rooms does this place have?”

“Eight,” Regina answered as she crossed the room to greet them. “Four small, private dining rooms, three larger banquet rooms and of course, the grand dining hall for state events. Leo, how lovely to see you. It’s been far too long.” She hugged her stepson tightly and then turned to eye the carbon copy that had followed him in. “And you must be Hudson. I’m so happy to finally meet you! I’m Regina.”

Hudson executed an awkward bow. “Nice to meet you too, Your… majesty?”

“No need for that, young man. You can call me Regina, or Grandmother, if you like. Can I hug you?”

“Sure….”

She embraced him, then held him at arm’s length as her eyes ran over his face. “You look so much like your father did at this age!”

“I do?” Hudson sounded surprised. He wasn’t sure he believed it. His eyes slide sidewise to take in the man that had fathered him. Leo was objectively good looking. The very image of a fairy-tale prince. He didn’t look like that, did he?

“You do! Now, come, sit. I’ve had the kitchen prepare cheeseburgers for lunch. I was told you like those, is that true?”

The boy perked up at the mention of his favorite food. “Oh, yes!”

They sat at a long table. Hudson counted ten seats. Food was deposited in front of him, in addition to the cheeseburger, there were French fries, tater tots, and onion rings. Regina assured him that their chef had thoroughly researched American cuisine. There was also salad but only Regina had any.

Regina seemed nice, and he warmed up to her quickly. It wasn’t her fault that his father was a deadbeat.

Halfway through the meal, Leo’s phone buzzed. He glanced down, his face lit up. “Oh! It’s Bert! Max must have told him I’m in town!”

“It’s okay,” Hudson told him, “Take it. I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’m inside a fortified palace with my grandmother.”

“Right.” Leo felt a pang of disappointment that the kid was fine without his attention, followed by a sliver of relief at getting a break from the constant crushing disappointment that fatherhood had so far turned out to be. “I’ll be right back.”

Regina hadn’t ruled by Constantine’s side all those years without learning to pick up on subtext and body language. “How are things going with your father?”

Hudson snorted. “He’s not much of a father, is he?”

“I’m not excusing Leo’s behavior,” Regina said carefully, “but I think he finds it hard to connect with people because of his trauma, so he tends to keep them at arm’s length. Again, I’m not excusing him for not being in your life up until now, but there’s a good chance he stayed away because he thought he was doing you a favor.”

“Doing me a favor, how?”

Regina sighed as she wiped the grease from her fingers on a monogrammed linen napkin. “I know it’s hard to tell from his blustery manner and constant sarcasm and jokes, but Leo struggles with feelings of self-worth. He was abandoned by his birth mother, that has a lasting effect on a child.”

Hudson felt that like a gut punch to the stomach. “Yeah, well, then he should have known better than to abandon his own child.”

Regina gazed at him appraisingly for a long moment. It wasn’t her intention to sew division between the child and his mother, but she did want to defend the man she thought of as her son. “Are you aware that he didn’t know you existed until you were ten?”

He paused with a french fry halfway to his mouth. “What?”

“You were eight years old when the paternity claim was filed. You were nine by the time we had the results. The crown receives at least twenty paternity claims a year against one member of the family or another. The men in question never see most of them. They get vetted through our legal department. If there’s enough evidence that the mother is telling the truth, a paternity test is conducted. You were nine by the time it was determined that Leo was your father. Child support, including retroactive support, was approved by your Uncle Liam. Unfortunately, Leo was out of the country, and by the time he was located and advised of your existence, you were ten.”

“Still…. That’s two and a half years….”

“As I said, I’m not excusing anything. But it’s not like he knew from the beginning.”

Hudson hesitated, his eyes darted to the doorway, then back to his grandmother. “You said he experienced trauma?”

She nodded.

“What kind of trauma?”

“His mother left. His first stepmother was murdered. He was the victim of an assassination attempt, and then his brother was injured in an attack that was aimed at him. He carries that guilt. He carries the guilt of abdicating and dropping all this on Liam. And his father was not emotionally present. He had no role model for this.”

“I mean… his brother seems like a good dad. He could have tried.”

“He’s trying now. Maybe that could count for something?”

Hudson made a noncommittal hum as he returned his attention to the chocolate milkshake the kitchen had made especially for him.

Despite his disdain for his father, he couldn’t deny that the entire palace had rolled out the red carpet to welcome him.

A kid could get used to this.

They spent the afternoon swimming. The palace pool was impressive, but it didn’t take long before he was complaining of boredom.

“How could you get bored in this pool?” Leo gaped at him. He brought him to the largest of the palace’s three pools. The one with water slides, waterfalls, fountains, bubblers, a lazy river, a volleyball net, three basketball hoops, and four hot tubs.

“I mean…. It’s great, but it would be better with more people.”

“People that aren’t me, you mean?”

Hudson shrugged. “Just…. Kids I mean.”

“I could call Max and get Ellie and Xander—”

“I mean kids my age!”

He liked his new cousins just fine, but they were much younger than he was.

Leo grinned. His son finally wanted something he was good at. “We could throw a pool party. Invite all the noble families that have teenagers. We could even include the kids of the palace staff, make sure there’s a lot of people. It’ll be a real banger!”

“Really?” It was the first time Hudson had responded to one of his ideas positively.

“Oh yeah. We’ll hire a live band or a DJ, or hell, both! We’ll serve a lot of food, maybe have door prizes or something. Whatever you want.”

“But I don’t know any of those people…”

“You will. This can be your introduction to Cordonian society. A welcome party.” He leaned in with a twinkle in his eye. “You’re a prince. Everyone is going to be clamoring to get to know you. Trust me on this.”

“Right, a prince.” That still didn’t seem like a real thing. He had grown up in a middle-class suburb in California. Until recently, he had attended public school. He had been raised by a single mother. Nothing in any of that screamed privilege, much less royalty.

But here he was, spending the summer in a palace, having the kitchen cater to his likes, and being told he could throw a massive party like the ones he’d only ever seen on TV.

Yeah, a kid could definitely get used to this.

Maybe the summer wasn’t completely ruined after all.

[skippyv20]

Angels Wept

Wed AM 2nd try…I sent this in yesterday but understand you are very busy with Ellie recovering etc.  Just thought it may have been lost in the wash…LOL

Hi Skippy & Friends-Well well welllllll…It is now being reported that the Paris Olympic organizers actually did title the tacky disrespectful part of the show “La Cene Sur Un Scene Sur La Seine ” The Last Supper on a Stage on the Seine.“ Another said the meaning of that translates to “A holy communion on a stage on the Seine”. Sooo, the Ivory Tower soulless elites can cry a river claiming we are ignorant about Greek history of Gods, but they cannot tap dance fast enough covering their humongous error of judgement, sliming the Olympics on opening night. They cannot say this is acceptable entertainment in the enlightened City of Lights and home of Notre Dame. They cannot shame us into thinking we are not cool enough to enjoy their idea of chic, night life shows. In reality, they could not help themselves from their own perversions on that tempting global stage, putting on a drag fashion show with gyrating “models” in offensive costumes in front of a sick representation of the Last Supper.

As a viewer mildly interested in what the French would produce for their opening extravaganza, which historically are outstanding, I decided to watch the NBC show, on mute most of the time, as I can’t tolerate the hosts talking nonsense. At first, my eyes were trying to keep up with the ever-changing images switching from hundreds of cameras faster than a speeding bullet. I could barely focus on vintage photos from historic Olympics when, like a slide show out of control, bam back to the boats…way out in the Seine, then, bam, zoom in to the players waving their flags frantically so they could be seen…then bam, back to the stage…what is that blue thing…yikes. Why is there a fat lady at the Olympics? I hope we don’t have to wait until she sings. With all this motion I was getting little seasick just like Serena!

As the images were flying by, my building excitement began to fizzle in the drizzle. Out of the gloaming came an ominous, hooded, lone rider on a galloping silver, robotic horse, skimming the water like Pegasus without the wings, carrying the Olympic flag to the grand finale. The sight sent a shiver down my spine as if this was one of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” bearing a dire message instead. The lone flame bearer became a gaggle of elders in white outfits shuffling towards a caldron on their last gasp. As a soaked real white horse clopped along, head down with a skeleton faced rider, this was not the beginning of international celebration of human physical excellence I was expecting. I wanted to give the French organizers who spent an insane amount of money on the show, credit trying to showcase Paris as a stage. I even tried to shrug off their idea of proper entertainment, but as a viewer, I just felt like a cat left out in the rain. Sadly, there was no warmth from a real Olympic flame as the balloon lite by lights, lifted off into the night.

Over and out from Cape Cod. Pilgrim-who does appreciate the efforts of the inspiring athletes.Referring to an article by Leslie Eastman in Legal Insurrection, “Olympics Back-tracks on offensive Drag Queen Opening Ceremonies Mocking Christians.”

Thank you so much.  The Olympics have turned into a joke.  I am so sorry this happened.  All those athletes have worked so hard to get there, and this whole production was disgusting.  I have a special place in my heart for Olympians.  Christians are getting kicked at these days.  This can’t be allowed to continue.  God will NOT be mocked!  Great post dear Pilgrim!  Thank you for sharing…🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[fairygodpiggy]

As winter's wilds send us fleeing for shelter,

My thoughts turn toward the kiss of Costa's sun.

I think of Westerly winds and sandy shores,

And I know that, soon, the dawn will come.

Ride again, early June.

Q: What is this??

A: Well, this is the first time I've been back on tumblr while this event has been held!

This is a teaser promo for Ride the Tide 2024!

Q: What is Ride the Tide?

A: RTT is a virtual summer/beach festival that is put on in XIV in Costa del Sol. It's planned, sponsored, and held by a XIV discord community I helped to found, The Aetheryte Plaza.

We gather RP venues from all over the NA data centers and together, we run various booths for games, refreshments, and hangouts - including a main stage where well known bards will play to get you into the festival mood!

We try to hold it well out of range of the game's official Moonfire Faire, but before Pride events really start kicking off so we don't detract from them.

This will be Aetheryte Plaza's 5th year hosting the festival, and my 4th year helping with its planning!

Q: What caused AP to start hosting a summer festival?

A: The festival was first conceived by a couple of good friends of mine in 2020, just after shutdowns really started happening. And since vacation plans were out the window for a lot of people, they decided to create a virtual festival...and it was a WILD success.

I was only attending as a venue worker for one of the booths, but I got to see it all at the forefront:

We hit the zone cap!

We got the S rank to spawn in the middle of it!

We had mentors mad at us because they couldn't get their little sprouts through Titan, meanwhile said sprouts were running around with stars in their eyes because it was a FESTIVAL and this was the most players they'd seen outside of the main cities!!

People were posting all their screenshots of their WoLs hanging out together!

It was so cool to see how many people came because...in the middle of the pandemic when we couldn't physically leave, we all needed this.

Q: Is this strictly an RP event?

A: Well...the short answer is no, it's RP-lite.

The long answer is: originally it was going to be during its 1st year, but because of its nature, we got a mixed bag of RPers, casual players, streamers, and people who were just there to vibe...so RP kinda got tossed to the side unless we encountered fellow RPers.

If you're an RPer and you want to RP with the people working the booths, go for it!! They'll happily RP with those who want to.

Q: What's your role in planning?

A: If you've come this far, dear reader, I thank you because if you came here because of the image at the top of this post...then you have half of your answer!

I'm in charge of the media aspect - making teasers and posters, etc ❤️

I'm also in charge of the RTT website and the festival's interactive map. That was my addition when I joined the planning team in 2021. No more need to guess where booths are and what they offer!

However, this...is going to be my last year being on the planning team only because I stress myself way out in the late phases of the event planning, and my best friends are putting their feet down 😅

Thank you again if you read through all of this. If this has piqued anyone's interest, then keep up with me! I'll be including tumblr this year as I share RTT posters in a few months!

[whumpinggrounds]

Hi! Thanks so much for writing your post on creating Deaf characters! I hope this isn’t weird, but I was hoping to ask your input on a character I want to draw for this upcoming Mermay (drawing challenge where you draw mermaids all month).

This is really, really weirdly specific but the prompt for day 7 is “parasite” and I thought it would be cute to anthropomorphize a parasite called a tongue-eating isopod (sorry, I want to warn the google image results are pretty gross, if you want to look them up!). My concept was that the isopod’s “host” would be a much larger merman instead of a normal fish, and the isopod is his interpreter that lives in his mouth for safety in exchange for helping translate and other things (no tongue eating required.) But while I was thinking it over I started to get worried that it might be creepy/offensive instead of cute. I attached a little sketch to show you what I mean. I tried to draw the ASL sign for “thank you”, but I don’t know if I got it totally right. I thought it’d be interesting to draw something sweet/cute since you’d expect a prompt like “parasite” to be scary/gross instead. I also liked the idea that merpeople if they were real would have the benefit of human intelligence so they could find ways to turn normally parasitic relationships in their animal counterparts into mutually beneficial ones instead.

What do you think? Is this weird/“inaccurate”? What do you think I could do to change it if so?

Thanks so much!

Ah I forgot to respond to this! Tbh, I love this idea. I don't think it's offensive at all - interpreters in magical worlds makes sense to me, and I think subverting the parasitic relationship is super interesting. The only advice I would give is to be aware of appropriate and inappropriate interpreter etiquette, and be aware which you're writing. You can write bad interpreter etiquette, just make sure you know you're doing it. This is a super cool, super cute idea, and I'd love to be tagged in the final product! Happy writing/drawing!

[charlotteswebbbbb]

What's the vibe #60

-Nara Lee

News

First of all...does anyone have any money? I feel like...things aren't selling out as fast as they should....

Kering offering a warning of between 40-45% drop for Q1 profits because of the lack of success of Gucci and weak demand in China - but also mentioning that Sabato's collection is not fully in stores yet (via Lauren Sherman)

"Wines & Spirits business group saw a revenue decline (-12% organic) in the first quarter of 2024. Champagne was down, reflecting the normalization of post-Covid demand." - LVMH. Does this reflect non-alcoholic change or more health focused population??

NTS (and I love you, NTS) had their first Rush party at Ministry of Sound on Saturday and it was not as full as it should have been (1/3 cap filled?). Maybe wrong club, could have been done at Venue MOT over 2 days... I see what they were doing though as London lacks venues that are comfortable for potential 1k people.

Ministry is the only club where you can buy shots from two hosts with a contactless holder and another holding a LED tray full of shots, and also the women's bathroom has hair straighteners.

What it means to have a house now:

At Salone di Milano this year, IKEA are presenting "1st" which is an interactive maze that explores the feelings of moving into your 1st home.

Alongside this, they created a zine in collaboration with Dazed, and other creators around the concept of home.

The concept of home is such an interesting one considering the statistics of today where landlords demand that the house must be in their image of white walls and no marks left and that for some stable housing is out of reach (...at least for a while)

"The Resolution Foundation think tank recently said that the most common living arrangement for an adult aged between 18 and 34 in 1997 was being in a couple with children, but now it was living with your parents." - from "First-time buyers face toughest test for 70 years" on BBC.

What does is mean if you are forced to delay this quite important life stage because of money? How does one manifest other ways of self definition within the self if you're not able to customise your shelter or showcase parts of yourself to the extremes that you want? Does the body become a place of extremities or site of customisation as a way to claw back autonomy over one's life... slightly exaggerated but maybe? But this delay means that when people do finally get stable housing they are forging their own way and own style, which loops back into the idea of prioritising your personal style in a genuine way.

CHIBUIKEM CHIMBO_ by Taiba

Went to a trend forum last week about beauty and here are my three related thoughts:

People are using hyperspecific ways of categorising self as a way of expressing loss of subculture - ie "get ready with me as I pretend I'm the girlfriend of a Italian rockstar". There's a massive fear of vulnerability or - the theme of the forum was "Fantasy" so you can bring this back to the idea of the internet being a place of fantasy for people especially people who suffer from discrimination IRL - (Black, POC, LGBTQIA+, disabled etc). Real life is unpredictable, messy. Also cities/urban landscapes being hard to penetrate socially.

Unrelated but being authentically cool is unattainable so I will be cool by copying you :) >>> the search for authentic artists right now

from @ cinnagal on insta

Lack of subculture > cycling through identities > sustainability issues > encouraging a build a bear personality > sense of self > spirituality

Best Coachella set design:

I would say, Lana Del Rey + Tyler The Creator are the two standouts.

How to age well!

Age is just a number!

"Branded HUN80 beer, energy drinks, water, and mezcal shots in commemorative glasses—“hun” is the nickname Rick has for Michèle—kept the vibe up. Just after 1 AM the food truck serving scrambled eggs and caviar sandwiches turned up to quell the crowd’s urges. At around 3 AM, after ringleading the posing and vamping from the stage, the artist Gena Marvin assumed her position on a go-go platform, her body twisting and thrashing so glamorously and sensually some of the audience just stood in awe."

Relating this back to British Food culture - a few years ago I went to this talk that Eater London put on at the Ace Hotel Shoreditch where the panellists and editors were seeking to define modern British food (in the context of restaurants). They mostly came to the conclusion that is was "the use of high quality British produce". (Alongside the question of how does this country democratise this and work with farmers to make affordable? Over the next few decades as probably the most health conscious generations grow up (Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z and Alpha), British food and exercise culture will redefine itself as we see the effects of lack of gym culture (really as an extension of body negativity), lack of knowledge and food skill and diet manifest in older generations.

Or possibly you can teach an old dog new tricks?

This relates to new life stages: This year the London Marathon has had a record of over 50k people participating and finishing. Even billionaire Jim Radcliffe who is 71 ran, finishing after 4h30m then going on to Wembley to watch the FA Cup Finals with his team Man U.

Could we see a major mindset change regarding older age in this country? Young people being less embarrassed that their mum did something like dye their hair; or an extension of the middle age where people treat it as a stage for optimisation, for producing the best work rather than when you're young and exciting (and a little naive).

People want to feel accomplished even if they haven't reached traditional markers of being married or having a house or having a baby. Their social life could technically be a mess and there can be a cost of living crisis but they can still run and achieve something, or improve their fitness.

[citrusella-flugpucker]

https://www.tumblr.com/can-i-make-image-descriptions/704588725997404160/general-guide-for-image-descriptions?source=share

Hi! Thanks for sending this, and I imagine I can figure out how you decided to send it to my blog! (Specifically (this parenthetical is for my followers' benefit, not yours, since I know where you found me), I replied to someone on a post calling out some users' behavior in requesting image descriptions (can link the post if needed but am avoiding at present for de-escalatory reasons), explaining why I thought someone who writes image descriptions themselves would still advocate for others to write them (and why not everyone who doesn't ALWAYS provide them is necessarily ableist--they can be, of course, but there are myriad reasons someone might not). Other people in the post's replies reported also getting sent this link, so this anon is probably monitoring the replies of that post and contacting everyone who gives it a note of any type.)

I know all of the guidance the post you've linked here shares, so I thought I'd elaborate more on my personal philosophy regarding image descriptions.

...I love creating accessibility where I can manage to do so! I was a longtime contributor to community captions on YouTube before the feature was shuttered, and I do my best caption or transcript my own content or to provide alt text where my posts contain images (I know there have been a handful of times I've forgotten to do so, though, especially on the alt side of things). Heck, I'm thinking of creating a zine (as in a physical one, to distribute locally) and trying to figure out how to offer it in braille and described!

I actually recently attended a panel hosted by the Longmore Institute on Disability at SFSU where blind/low-vision/partially-sighted people (and the attendees) were given three different audio descriptions of a comic produced with different description philosophies (one described like a movie's video description track, one the artist's extremely detailed sort of description intended for editors, and one a hypothetical narrative-like (i.e. written like book prose) description). The panel was a discussion and Q&A regarding what they liked best, some thoughts on best practices, and some ideas specific to art and comics. One thing I found striking was one of the panelists thought it'd be an interesting idea if it were possible to have multiple granularities of description available to choose between, kind of like how sighted users can zoom in on something or look closer at the detail. (This is only tangentially related to your ask, but I just think it was a really cool panel so I decided to take the opportunity to gush about it. Hope that's okay. XD)

Here's what happens when an image or video is not mine, is undescribed and/or untranscripted, and it crosses my dash:

I give the first reblog I see of it, by the person I've followed, a like. That was my introduction to the post in question, after all!

I open the notes and start looking for an existing description of the image(s) in the post (or transcript, if it's a video) that I deem satisfactory. If I find one, I reblog that version. Sometimes a description exists in the notes and I deliberately avoid it because I think it's so bad as to be about as useful as not providing one. Usually in such a case there is more than one description I can choose from, thankfully. (This was not the case a few years ago, when image description was... like... less cool or something.)

If I don't find one and I'm up for doing it myself, I do it myself. (I am more likely to be up for doing it myself right now if an adequate description would be fairly simple/short. More on that later.)

If I'm not up for doing it myself and it's a video with open captions, I may be likely to still reblog it. (I do understand that this can still present inaccessible content for deafblind people especially (and also hearing blind people as well, but to a lesser extent).)

If I'm not up for doing it myself and it's a video without captions or an undescribed image, I consider whether or not I want to reblog it. Sometimes I still do. (I understand that this is bad for visual accessibility.)

Those last two bullet points sound TERRIBLE! I'm deliberately choosing inaccessibility when I led with saying I love it?! Hypocrisy!

But here's the thing: I do things this way because in the past those last two bullet points used to be "I don't reblog it until I am up for doing it myself". Yeah, I made a full-on resolution that I was going to make sure all my posts were fully accessible! Great!

...But then it started to actively be a problem, because my workflow went like this:

See post

No description on post or in notes

Draft post to describe later instead of reblogging immediately

Forget draft (my disability makes this distressingly easy to do in Tumblr's last few layouts, more on that in a sec, but you should know I currently have 3292 drafts for all sorts of reasons (mostly not description, I'd imagine), that date back to before I graduated college eight years ago)

Never reblog post

Repeat

Mutuals wonder why I never reblog things anymore

...Which started to actively make my life worse because it was basically like I wasn't on Tumblr anymore.

Which in some ways I'm sure to some sounds like the "I can excuse racism" meme:

...But, like, I mean it was actively interfering with my mental health to a degree, because one axis of my online social life had basically been reduced to nothing. And it wasn't making anything more accessible, when I was completely forgetting to follow through like that.

So I stopped doing that and started letting myself reblog things again, so that I can have some connection to others on this site. XP

There are myriad reasons that someone might not be able to consistently provide image descriptions, but for me, writing an image description requires me to interact with a post in a very specific way, which is a way shared with the following activities:

Writing and timing closed captions

Writing transcripts

Actively monitoring edits and performing admin functions on the handful of wikis I admin (particularly ones without other active admins)

Probably other stuff, IDK, but it's a really weird analytical approach that I don't use for too awful much else

All of these are presently being affected by the fact I've been in disability-related burnout since February of 2020.

I don't provide image descriptions (or transcripts) as often as I used to.

I uploaded a minute-long video to YouTube last week and, as I always do with my content, manually created a caption file for it to avoid CRAPtions; even with YouTube's automatic speech to text and timing, I took twice as long to correct and accurately time the video as I used to take to do a full video of that length back when I was community contributing captions in 2019/2020.

I mostly only wiki admin in the sense that I'm not letting the wikis burn down. A few times for an especially important edit that required admin functions (or AWB to do a lot of little edits faster) I've put together the time and energy to try to get it done.

I cannot get my brain to do it. This is even though I can spend the same amount of time doing something else that I might have used to image describe, because whatever that something else is usually doesn't require the same headspace/skill I need to use to describe.

I'm not going to branch out to the other ways this burnout is affecting me (for instance, at my actual literal paid job), but the fact I've been in it for four years now should... say something. XP I'm slowly digging out, but I'm not there yet.

I'm not going to be like some others I've seen and stamp my foot and refuse to provide descriptions for anyone now because you did this. That would just make things bad for other people. I'd love to provide them more! But I'm not currently in a place where I can do that.

I do understand that by not providing one when one does not exist, I am not doing anything to make the post more accessible, and that I might be presenting some of my followers with content they are unable to access. However, my own current access needs regarding trying to nurse myself out of disability burnout are in direct conflict with being able to regularly provide them. I'd love for that to be over, so that I'm at least describing more often, even if I still occasionally don't describe things.

But in the meantime: If you care about access needs, I'd hope you care about mine, too.

Lastly:

If you meant this link to be for actual information, I regret to inform you (again) that I already know all of the information in it. I've been trying to look at more advanced resources, talk/listen to blind people discuss the topic, attend things about image description (like that panel I mentioned), because useful and understandable image description is very important to me even if it's very difficult for me to do right now, and I'd like to learn all I can. At this point, I need more advanced resources than what you've provided.

If you meant this to be some sort of "own" for the people who gave a note to the post you probably were monitoring to see my reply: [Velma voice] You stop that. Sending it to everyone, regardless of what they said on the post, gives off an air of "look, it's so easy, you're just not trying hard enough!" and makes it seem like you didn't actually read what they said in some cases (like mine, where I shared a very short version of this explanation in the replies where I basically said "image describing good, more people should do it, brain making it hard right now").

For people who agree with the cause of spreading the act of describing images so it's not all on a handful of people, that might not result in anything bad happening (though you might be preaching to the choir, i.e. telling them something they already know). But if someone's less wholeheartedly on the description train, the fact you're sending this to everyone unprompted might come off a bit condescending, and might actually backfire into having them decide not to image describe. (Which is not a course of action I agree with. I think it's silly to purposely choose inaccessibility because a few people were condescending, weird, or jerky about it to you. But it is a possibility, you may or may not be aware.)

TL;DR: Thanks for the link but it's too surface-level for me. I love providing descriptions but some things are making it hard for me right now. I want those things to get better but until they do I'm probably going to be at a lower describing rate than usual. Sorry!

EDIT: Mutual dared me to add a jokey longpost tag I was originally considering tagging this post with so it's now the first tag on the post, lol

[roscoebarnes3]

Bosworth’s ‘Christ the Healer’ found in Maya Angelou’s personal library

Photo shared by Bishop Paul Francis Lanier

By Roscoe Barnes III, PhD Author, F.F. Bosworth: The Man Behind “Christ the Healer” Copyright © 2023 #FFBosworth #BosworthMatters

Like millions of people before her, Maya Angelou was probably a reader of F.F. Bosworth. According to a 2015 post on Facebook, his book, “Christ the Healer,” was found in her personal library following her death on May 28, 2014, in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Bishop Paul Francis Lanier of  Hope Community Church, Winston-Salem, shared this news on Sept. 9, 2015. He wrote:

“Following service a precious member of many years and dear friend presented me an amazing gift …. It was a copy of F.F. Bosworth’s “Christ the Healer.” Of course, I love this book. Even more special, when I opened it I discovered that it came from the personal library of Maya Angelou. Many of Dr. Angelou’s things were sold recently at an auction. I just think it is the coolest thing that she had Brother Bosworth’s book, and that someone thought of me when they saw it. So blessed. So very blessed.”

Lanier graciously shared images of the book, including one with a yellow sticker attached (inside the front cover) with the words: “This Book is from the Library of Maya Angelou.”

Friends of Lanier quickly responded with congratulatory comments. “Wow .. doubly cool,” replied Donna Schambach. One friend shared, “What a treasure to your heart.” Another wrote: “My copy stays on my desk. I refer to it often. No words can explain the Power of God that was present with F.F. Bosworth as it was written!”

“I have that great book!,” posted one friend. “Surprised that Maya Angelou also had it!”

While we don’t know if Angelou actually read the book, we are certain that it was inside her home. Given her love of books and her voracious appetite for reading, there’s a good chance that she did indeed read Bosworth’s book. Even so, it would be interesting to know how she acquired the book and what she thought of it.

Just over a year after her death, Laster’s Fine Art & Antiques hosted an estate sale at her house in Winston-Salem. Through that sale, people acquired her furniture, artworks, and books, among other things.

See more here: https://ffbosworth.mystrikingly.com/blog/bosworth-s-christ-the-healer-found-in-maya-angelou-s-personal-library

[polhclever]

Free heart simple divider

Free heart simple divider full#

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Free heart simple divider free#

You can use them for your own 2019/2020 Daily Planner ( which you can get absolutely free here!) or you can use these for your kids. Today, I have a beautiful set of free binder printables for your paper planner. New, fun, and exciting printables all the time.

Free heart simple divider professional#

So, I created these professional school binder covers and I been creating a lot of printables for her (and you guys of course!) 🙂 because I want her to STAY liking school, stay loving these things. Point is, if you find an ANGLE, you CAN get your kids interested in school. She’s already just about as tall as me! Course, I’m short at 5’3. I’m not gonna say it’s her favorite place to be, at her age right now (13), I’m beyond blessed her favorite place to be is still with me (though I’m sure that’ll change very, very soon!) She just had a dance at school and it was her first one with me and gosh, kids just grow so fast. I just really pumped up the “school supplies” factor. I gave her like $30 for Claire’s that day, I think it was, just to spend on school supplies, whatever she wanted, the CUTE stuff. So, I took her to Claire’s for the first time ever. Would she start to feel differently about school if she had cool stuff? What IF…I thought to myself…I get HER hooked on school supplies TOO?! Every chance I’d get, I was at the mall at those Hello Kitty and Claire’s stores! 🙂 Monthly binder dividers, cute binder covers and rulers. Rainbows and unicorns, bright colors, holograms, mixed with black color too, instead of the normal white. There was this Hello Kitty store in California, where I grew up, and I just adored that store. Not the random, boring stuff, but things that REALLY were super cute. When I was in school, one of MY favorite parts was all the school supplies. Monthly Free Printable Binder Covers / Dividers Lemme share with you what it is in this free printable binder covers post! So for me, I just couldn’t understand why someone didn’t like school.īut I found a key trick that literally CHANGED…EVERYTHING! My mom was a monster and it was a simple way to get away from her, and as an only child, be around other kids. It hurt my heart because, as a kid, I personally adored school. She was pulling stunts like pretending to be sick and you know…all that jazz. She’d come home every single day, just so upset she had to go.

Free heart simple divider download#

To download these vintage floral tab dividers with spring colors, click here or on the image below.My daughter was struggling in school. To download these pretty, summery tabs, click here or on the image below. Free divider Tabs Summer Checks and Berries These are large files hosted on a separate site and they might take a minute or two to open! Click on the link for the style you like best. All you have to do is get your printer ready and load the sticker paper. That’s it! I’m pretty sure you have scissors already.

Free heart simple divider full#

full sheet sticker paper (I like this kind which never jams in my printer!).

The divider tabs also work perfectly for recipe binders, which is how I personally use them. If you have a homemaking binder, this can help you get things sorted and organized a little better. These printable tags are sure to come in handy for all of us paper lovers! You can attach them them to pages in a binder to help you organize it, or you can attach them to a file folder to make the tab just a little prettier! As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified purchases. This article contains affiliate links, meaning that if you purchase after clicking on one, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Free digital files that allow you to print and cut pretty printable binder divider tabs.

[mikkaeus]

게이PC방 “gay PC room” podcast recommendation - for intermediate/advanced korean learners looking for queer content 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

Highly recommend this podcast! This is the first time in my life I’ve ever truly enjoyed and looked forward to a podcast (including English ones).

They have four hosts, all of which are gay men in Korea, and they talk about a really wide range of topics with various guests. In season 3 they’ve been focussing on the “ordinary queer” life (some brief episode synopses at the end of the post), but in the previous seasons (which I’ve not listened to yet) it sounds like they talked about more activist stuff.

Their audio quality is excellent + they speak slowly and clearly (compared to other native podcasts lol). Minimal talking over each other. And their voices are nice to listen to! (No seriously the audio quality is amazing for an amateur podcast because they actually use a recording studio.)

The PC is a pun on the regular definition of PC방 lol, initially I thought they were going to be like… talking about computers? But in a gay way? 😂 but it actually stands for politically correct lmao i.e. they’re going to talk about things with as much sensitivity & respect as they can.

Overall, it’s super interesting, funny, and really just struck a chord with me, esp knowing how Korea is… hm… not very progressive 😬

Their main platform is 팟빵, but they’re also on google podcasts & Apple podcasts. Google podcasts is more user friendly but if you enjoy their content pls go support them on 팟빵 as well! (Also if anyone listens to it and wants to chat about it feel free to PM me! I’m dying to talk to find people to talk to about it. I can probably help you out if you don’t understand sth as well although my comprehension isn’t 100% yet)

~ some episode synopses under the cut ~

ep 52 was about korean bear culture (iirc one of the guests was a bear and the other one was a “stan” (i.e. “standard” guy) who likes bears. good discussions abt body image and stuff

ep 47 was a bit of a catching up w/each other type episode and covered things like attending uni during covid, funerals, korean and french holiday customs, something about christian organisations installing christmas trees in public areas and being bullied away last year(?) bc of people making civil complaints? the kdrama D.P. and korean military service in general, Q-Force

ep 46 talked a lot about kpop and the korean wave because the guest was a french dude who's doing a masters or something in korean culture (he mentioned that - idk if in this one or 47 - that he's looking into the differences between how intl and kr fans perceive homoeroticism in kpop, which i thought was cool)

ep 44 was them interviewing an openly gay korean artist http://yangseungwook.com/ (and going off on wild tangents lol)

ep 40 “queer in Taiwan”. Guest was a korean dude who’d been a tour guide in Taiwan for several years, talking about his experience. There was a good helping of politics as well. If you’re so inclined I recommend getting verified on 팟빵 (super quick, just need to email them a photo of your ID) so you can access the 19+ episode because it was hilarious.

ep 39 the guest was a korean currently living in America who’d gotten married last year. they talked about his life (how he met his husband, how the wedding went etc) in part 1 and then more on the broader issue of gay marriage in part 2.

[bluerose5]

The Bigger Picture

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 3,023

Relationships: Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote, Past Eddie Brock/Original Male Character(s)

Additional Tags: Romance, Trans Eddie Brock, Bisexual Eddie Brock, Pansexual Eddie Brock, Venom Symbiote Loves Eddie Brock, Eddie Brock Loves Venom Symbiote, Past Relationship(s), Fluff, Mentions of Top surgery, Possessive Venom Symbiote (Marvel), slight jealousy, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Scars, Gender-Neutral Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Sexual Content, nothing graphic, Soft Eddie Brock, Body Worship, Body Positivity, One Shot, Post-Canon

Summary: Ever since they talked about the others, V seems to be fixated on the scars underneath Eddie's pecs, so Eddie figured that now is as good a time as any to tell his Other about them.

[A companion piece to Scarred (ao3 link) based on this Tumblr ask.] [Tumblr link to Scarred.]

An interesting fact that Venom learned about humans was that their scars —both mental and physical— told their stories.

Eddie, for example, was a human who embraced his scars, rather than shy away from them. To him, they were pieces of a puzzle, the components that made up an entire picture.

Without one, it would be impossible to understand him as a whole. The story would be incomplete. Like tearing a page out of a book.

Safe to say, that’s part of the reason why his Other kept revisiting the ones on his chest. Eddie didn’t mind. He let them explore as they saw fit, even though it was clear that they were hesitant to broach the subject.

V didn’t want to overstep, which was a challenge in and of itself.

When two partners shared a single mind, memories and thoughts were bound to slip through, intentional or otherwise. V was aware of why Eddie had the scars, but only on a superficial level. They didn’t dare pry any deeper without his permission.

It wasn’t their story to uncover. It was something personal to Eddie, a part of his journey that he would share when he was ready.

V just didn’t expect him to be ready that morning.

They were in Guatemala at the time. After their fight with Carnage, they were trying to lay low for a while until things cooled off back in the States. They would return home eventually, but for now they were enjoying their time together, hopping from country to country, beach to beach.

And when they found people in need, they helped them, simple as that.

All things considered, that probably didn’t help matters back at home. Despite their best efforts, they now lived in an age of technology. Even when they were careful, someone somewhere ended up having a phone in hand, and soon enough the Lethal Protector was spreading throughout the media. In some circles, their image was becoming a symbol for good, as they intended.

In others, they were gaining more notoriety than anything, but even bad press was good press.

They learned that one from Eddie!

As their host stumbled through his morning routine, they surfaced from underneath his skin. They hummed idly, tendrils clinging as their black mass crept up the shape of his legs.

Eddie, they crooned in delight. Good morning, Eddie!

Their host yawned in response.

“Good morning, V,” he mumbled, voice thick with sleep. Rubbing his fist against his eyes, he dug in and tried to blink past his exhaustion, bleary-eyed as he took in the sight of them. “Whatcha doin'?”

Exploring, they said.

“As always,” Eddie chuckled.

He stretched out the stiffness from his muscles. That sweet release of tension echoed through his Other, sending a shiver throughout their dark tendrils.

“Easy there,” Eddie whispered. He combed his fingers through their mass. They clung eagerly to his hand when he pulled it away, only to scratch low at his stomach. “Want to go get some breakfast?”

They released his hand in favor of slithering along the contours of his stomach, admiring the soft roundness there compared to when they first met. Coarse hair brushed along their body, and they once again found themselves tracing along those scars underneath his pecs.

When they didn’t immediately answer, Eddie stopped in front of the bathroom mirror to watch their movement.

“V?” he asked, but all he received in response was a deep, rumbling purr. “Okay, scrambled eggs it is then.”

After Eddie took a piss and washed his hands, he started to brush his teeth. Not once did his Other stop in their tracks, circling around his back before they continued their path along his chest.

Eddie paused after a minute or two to spit into the sink, then quickly rinsed out his mouth.

Since V showed no sign of stopping anytime soon, he decided to ask, “Want me to tell you about them?”

His symbiote hesitated then. A sharp spike of panic tore through them, followed instantly by embarrassment.

You don’t have to, they replied, shrinking away. Part of them started to disappear beneath his skin, but Eddie coaxed them out, stroking his fingers gently over them. I don’t want to—

“I want to tell you, though.” At that, they fell uncharacteristically silent, yet Eddie’s smile remained intact. “You already know everything else about me, love. What’s one more thing?”

They remained silent, but even Eddie could feel the excitement surging through them.

They were curious, no doubt about that.

Reaching into the shower, Eddie twisted the faucet handle to turn the water on. Once it was adjusted to a warmer setting, he let his boxers drop to the floor and stepped out of them. Cool air caressed his skin, and goosebumps soon spread like a wildfire.

Shivering, Eddie barely let the shower's spray get warm before he jumped inside. Lukewarm water trailed down his frame, droplets clinging to his hair.

“It was a while back,” Eddie explained. “Years ago, before I even met Anne. You remember that ex that I told you about?”

Jamie Andrews. Venom plucked the name from his memories with a grumble. The ‘bad boy.’

“My high school sweetheart,” Eddie said, feigning a dramatic, heartfelt sigh.

Of course, that made Venom get all prickly, both inside and out.

You know, I can be pretty bad too, they huffed. If that’s what you’re into.

Eddie chuckled.

“Jealous,” he said in a sing-song voice.

Am not!

“You definitely are.”

Eddie!

“Alright, alright.” Eddie decided to get back to the tale before V got too worked up. He wanted to poke fun at them a little, not actually upset them. “Anyways, after high school, he ended up scoring his dream job at a tattoo parlor while I pursued my degree in journalism. Our relationship eventually turned into one of those on-again, off-again types, but we were always supportive of each other, even when we weren’t dating.”

If nothing else, Eddie could truly say that they remained the best of friends.

“It was inevitable that we eventually went our separate ways, but we were two stubborn bastards who didn’t know when to let go.”

But you loved that about each other, Venom noted.

Eddie rubbed his hands down his face, then dragged his fingers through his wet hair, shoving it out of his eyes.

“Yeah, I guess we did.” He pursed his lips. “When I started to transition, he was always there for me, no matter what. If I needed someone to spot me some cash for my T, he knew that I was good for it. If I needed a ride to an appointment, he was there to pick me up on that damn bike of his.”

Eddie's heart warmed with fondness at the memories.

“And when I needed someone to sit there and hold my hand while the surgeons spewed a whole bunch of medical jargon at me, he was there, listening with the most intense look on his face. Bastard would act like he was on his phone at times, but I later found out that he was taking notes. Would send me all of his research in the middle of the night.”

V shared in his amusement at the flash of memories.

I might not be the most knowledgeable when it comes to your human genders. I’m still learning, but I’m glad that you had someone to support you during that time, and they genuinely meant that.

Eddie grabbed the shampoo while he spoke, but V enlisted more of their tendrils for help. One by one, they emerged from Eddie’s body, carefully taking the bottle from him to squirt a generous portion into his hair.

His Other lathered it in, scrubbing lightly along his scalp.

Eddie sighed in contentment, especially once more of their tendrils wrapped around his body like a warm embrace.

And when he felt that slick, liquidy mass start to undulate against him, he sank his teeth into his bottom lip.

Keep going. Their voice whispered directly into his mind, sounding more like a plea than an order.

Eddie swallowed thickly past the lump in his throat, but found it impossible to deny them anything, even if he couldn’t think straight if his life depended on it.

“I, uh— Right. Well, when I finally did have the surgery, I was scared shitless.” He gave a nervous laugh. “I mean, I wasn’t exactly heavy up top before, but it was enough where it got on my nerves like a motherfucker. Binding was probably cheaper for the moment, but even that adds up over time.”

He shrugged.

“So I saved up, decided to invest in myself. Of course, I had my doubts. Not that I was uncertain about what I wanted, but I was more so worried about how I would feel after the fact.” He stroked along the tendrils that clung to his scars. “Jamie would stay up with me, looking at before and after photos, vetting which surgeon to go to. Which ones had more first time successes with less revisions. Which ones had higher satisfaction rates post-op. That kinda thing.”

Sounds like a lot.

“Oh, it was. Even thinking back on it now, I still get jittery.”

But you made it through it.

Feeling the water start to cool, Eddie took that as his sign to hurry up.

“Yeah, I guess I did.”

Quickly, he rinsed his hair and washed off the rest of his body, just managing to escape before the water got icy cold.

Once again, he stood before the mirror. Only this time, he was completely naked, all except for the inky black symbiote that threatened to consume him.

A darkness that he was powerless to resist.

What do you remember of the surgery?

“Hmm…” Eddie hummed, trailing off in contemplation. “I remember them counting down as they put me to sleep. I was nowhere near zero by the time the anesthesia kicked in.”

Eddie snorted.

“The recovery period sucked ass. Some people act like they bounce back from it without breaking a sweat. They have their emotional reveals where they’re all cheerful, but not me! I woke up. Everything was numb yet painful at the same time. Jamie was recording me, and I started bawling like a baby because I felt like I got hit by a car.  Had the blotchy tear-stained face, snot dripping from my nose, just very attractive in general.”

I’m sure you didn’t look that bad, Eddie.

“Uh-huh…”

Since they could only use burner phones at the moment, Eddie had to rely on his memory alone. He recalled the pics and videos that Jamie took, V honing in on them instantly.

I stand corrected, Venom joked.

“Ass,” Eddie growled, flicking at a stray tendril.

He could practically hear them pouting in his mind. How that was even possible? Eddie couldn’t rightfully say.

“But yeah, I didn’t get to really appreciate my results for a while. Between the drains and the pain, I was more focused on adjusting those first few weeks post-op. Jamie stuck around to do any heavy lifting for me, and he always tried to lift my spirits. Mind you, I wasn’t upset, just tired as fuck.”

And once you adjusted?

“Oh, I love how they turned out. I don’t regret a thing.” Eddie’s grin turned coy. “Although, what do you think, V? You seem to like the scars a lot.”

I do, they purred, and I’m glad you shared that story with me.

Without warning, they yanked Eddie’s legs forward, one in front of the other. They guided him to the bed like a puppet on its strings.

“Whoa, whoa! V, love, what are you doi— Fuck!” Eddie toppled over, having little choice but to brace himself on the mattress. When he felt them wrap around his thighs, he released a deep, shuddering breath. “So, uh, no breakfast then, I take it?”

What do you mean? His Other teased. Taking shape behind him, they dragged their tongue along the bare skin of his back. His cheeks heated up in shock, nails biting into the sheets. “You look good enough to eat.”

“Right, it’s just, you know—” Eddie laughed, suddenly lightheaded. “Didn’t expect you to get all hot and bothered because of my scars, babe.”

In the blink of an eye, Eddie was flipped over onto his back. V loomed over him with a gentle roll of their hips.

Everywhere their skin touched, Eddie marveled at their connection.

“I am not ‘hot and bothered’ just because of the scars, Eddie.”

“Is that so?”

Venom nodded, leaning in to press their forehead against Eddie’s. Even now, they idly traced his scars —both the ones on his chest and all of the others that he has collected over the years— with delicate claws.

“I want you because, despite everything we have been through, you are the perfect host for me. You are beautiful, and you are mine.”

“Aw, shucks, V.” Despite Eddie’s joking tone, his heart was damn near beating out of his chest. The large, black mass wrapped around his thighs sharply parted them, which only caused Eddie’s flushed face to burn brighter when V slotted their hips against his. “You sure do know how to flatter a guy.”

“I try my best,” they hummed, “but I want to show you how much it means to me that you trusted me enough with sharing this part of yourself.”

They nipped at his collarbone, leaving sloppy, wet kisses along the length of his neck. Eddie could already feel the heat and pressure building, arching his neck out on display as his brain turned to mush.

“Kiss me,” he panted, clinging onto them as if his very life depended on it, as if V was the only thing keeping him grounded. Which, truth be told, felt like the case most days. “C'mon, love. Please?”

“Eddie,” they crooned, dark and loving. “Eddie. My Eddie.”

He would never understand how his Other made something as simple as his name seem like a prayer and a term of endearment all at once, but Eddie couldn’t really complain. Hearing them say it was an experience all on its own.

“Open your mind to me, V.”

They released a trill of delight. Their frame wavered around the edges as they complied.

Together, their minds melded into one, and Eddie felt as if he had surfaced from the deep, dark depths of the ocean, finally able to relax and breathe.

When they were like this, they shared everything. Mind, body, and soul all laid bare for each other. There was no one place that an outsider could pinpoint where the host began and the symbiote ended. They were one. They were whole.

They were Venom.

Eddie expected the kiss the second before it happened. His Other grew eager, restless. They closed the distance, and he parted his lips, their tongues exploring each other’s mouths without restraint. It was messy, sloppy, but perfect for them. They made it work.

Before long, several thick threads of black matter had Eddie’s wrists pinned to the mattress above. He allowed it for now, especially once V pulled away with a parting kiss, only to explore the dips and curves of Eddie’s chest.

They used his mind as a roadmap of sorts, finding the spots that drove him wild and ignoring the ones that don’t.

Eddie gasped when they traced his nipple with their tongue, circling the other with their fingers. While his weren’t the most sensitive, he still got a bit flustered to say the least. The act alone was enough to drive him crazy, arching his back off the bed.

He wanted to be closer, always closer when it came to his Other.

When they ventured lower, pausing to admire and caress his softer abdomen, his entire body felt like it was lit aflame.

Reaching out, Eddie's tugged free of his bonds in order to dig his nails into their back. The black mass parted and gave way under the pressure, simply consuming his fingers in darkness, rather than leave any marks behind.

“Say it,” Eddie hissed, their voice seeping over into his. “Now.”

A shiver went through V's frame, barely holding it together now.

“Bossy!” they huffed, but their eagerness betrayed them, pulsing through their bond like a beacon. They lowered their voice, each word rumbling through their chest, cloyingly sweet on their tongue. “I love you, Eddie Brock.”

Eddie whimpered, low in the back of his throat.

He tugged at them until they crawled back up his body.

“Again,” he said. Fire licked through his veins. Every nerve ending lit up like a fireworks display.

His Other was more than happy to comply. Where once, their kind looked down on forming such strong attachments with a host, V realized that they couldn’t find it in themselves to care anymore.

Eddie was theirs, and no one would change that if his Other had anything to say about it.

“I love you,” V breathed, elated every time they said it. It felt exhilarating. They felt a sort of freedom in being able to say it out loud, no longer expected to hold back.

Eddie stared at them, tightening his grip on their body.

“And I love you,” Eddie whispered.

V dragged him into another kiss. Eddie’s pleasure echoed through them, creating a feedback loop that left them both hungry and desperate for more.

As if either of them would ever get enough of each other.

Their hands roamed tirelessly, and V let Eddie take them however he wanted. Sometimes, he was in the mood to have them take control. Other times, he wouldn’t rest until he had the symbiote melting into a formless puddle beneath him.

So far as they were concerned, they were his to use as he saw fit, his pleasure feeding them a rush of endorphins that in turn gave them pleasure. They loved the exchange almost as much as they loved the act itself, which typically ended with a lot of damage expenses.

So much for getting an early start, but neither of them would have it any other way.

[ellstersmash]

Not to Keep

Fandom: Mass Effect (Original Trilogy) Pairing: Kaidan x f!Shepard Rating: T for Teen (cw for alcohol use) Words: 2.7k [Read on Ao3]

shep and kaidan go undercover, set early in me1. this was originally a prompt for "fake relationship" from Leather & Lace Romance Week, but then I waited 3.5 years to finish it 🥀

-

It all seemed so simple. Infiltrate a wedding, extract intel on Benezia, use that to find Saren.

Easy-peasy.

Until Shepard shows up in the shuttle bay looking like that. They've only been working together for a couple of months, and Kaidan has seen her covered in blood spatter, dripping sweat post-PT—hell, even bare naked in a hotel room. But it’s safe to say he never thought he'd see her like this. Full makeup, soft curls, a long red dress that shouldn't fit anyone that perfectly, and, dangling from two fingers, a pair of classy black heels.

Kaidan swallows hard and gives her a curt nod. “Ma’am.”

“Alenko.” He shifts on his feet as her eyes travel the length of his body and back up, her cool stare giving nothing away. “You clean up nice.”

“Ah, thanks. And you look—”

“Oh, I'm dressed to kill.” Lips the same shade as her dress curve into a grin. “Figuratively, for once.”

Kaidan chokes and laughs, caught off guard in a mixture of nerves and surprise. “Was that a joke, Commander?”

Her expression narrows into a pinched, self-deprecating smirk. “If you have to ask, then no. And I definitely haven't been thinking about it since Williams zipped this damn thing up.”

The thought of his CO, this formidable woman, giggling to herself over a stupid joke for an hour is... well, it’s uncharacteristically cute. Kaidan rolls it around in his head for an indulgent minute, trying on the fit before letting the image go.

Just one more thing to jam into that Never Gonna Happen file.

“Right,” she says, back to business. “Let’s get this over with.”

They board the shuttle for the short trip to the venue, and go over the mission brief one final time: intel extraction remains their highest priority—one of their hosts, Polona T’Shan, was rumored to have a close business connection with the matriarch; protecting their cover is important, but heavy security is not expected; their false identity profiles should be enough to get them in the door, and from there the two of them will be responsible for avoiding unwanted attention by appearing as a couple.

Kaidan knows his own limits. He’s a soldier, not an actor. This pretending to be someone else, this lie, it isn't part of his training and it sure as hell isn't part of who he is. But if Shepard’s as nervous as he is, she isn't showing it.

She’s looking at him again, in that intense all-in way she sometimes does. Before her, he had never met someone who was aware of—and pursued—what they wanted with such confidence, such dogged determination, and to have that kind of focus set on him even for just a moment is… terrifying. In a good way, he thinks. It makes him feel warm and cold at the same time. It also makes him want to stare right back, but that way lies only trouble, and none of them need another helping. Not right now.

Kaidan leans back and rests his head on the cool, if slightly unsteady, inner shuttle wall as Shepard drums a rhythmless pattern into the space between their seats.

---

Kyra drains her glass.

As it turns out, Asari weddings aren't all that different from the few human ones she’s attended. Though this reception is a far more extravagant affair than she’s used to: four days of mingling and games and dancing and drinking and food. Really not her cup of tea.

And apparently not Alenko’s, either.

He’d made a beeline for the bar as soon as they’d entered, and returned with an easier stride and a glass full of some bubbling neon sugary shit for her. She’d have preferred something stronger, of course, but they do have a mission to complete. If they can manage to get Polona alone for a moment.

She slips her hand into the crook of his elbow and feels him stiffen, then relax. Quick and conscious. He’s nervous, out of place, on edge, and then completely calm and collected.

No doubt in her mind he was the right pick for this one.

The thought settles her stomach, and just in time. Two asari approach, their hands extended in enthusiastic welcome.

“Greetings!” one of them says, with a voice smooth and sweet as wildflower honey. “Oh, what a lovely pair you two make. Right out of the vids, could be. This one’s even better looking up close, don’t you think so, Liria?” The asari takes Alenko’s hand, sensual and deliberate, then turns her attention to Kyra. “And goddess, that dress is stunning; really, sweetie, it fits you like a glove. You”—she drags one finger down Alenko’s lapel—“are a lucky man, I hope you know.”

Eyes wide, he clears his throat and coughs, then regains his composure with a brief glance in Kyra’s direction.

The second asari offers an apologetic look to each of them in turn. “Rialla, darling, slow down or you’ll scare them off.”

“They certainly look sturdy enough.”

“I am so sorry. She’s had quite a bit to drink, I’m afraid. Never could pace herself at a wedding.” She laughs. “My name is Liria, and my companion’s name is Rialla, and ever since we saw you walk in, we have just been itching to get to know you.”

Kyra plasters what she hopes is a warm smile on her face, mentally pulling up her cover identity as reference. “Emily, and I’m delighted to meet you both. This is John, my um—”

“Her very lucky partner.”

The two matriarchs titter and tease him, both in turn, and once again he’s in control. Kyra can’t help but be impressed by how effortlessly he charms them. And she’s far from immune. It’s her mission, yet she is all too prepared to be led around the room by that firm hand at the small of her back.

Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko: respected Alliance Marine, powerful L2 biotic, all-around stand-up guy, and—apparently—a smooth son-of-a-bitch. It’s an unexpected feature for someone so soft-spoken and unpretentious. Like he has a hidden switch somewhere.

Or a button.

Press For Instant Charisma.

She briefly entertains the idea of hunting for it, then aborts the thought with a twist of her lips and tunes back in to the conversation.

---

The lie is getting easier. Shepard is tucked under Kaidan’s arm, and he’s almost comfortable.

Their new friends are exactly the right sort. Nosy, talkative, well into their cups, and connected. Old friends of their mark, both of them, and Liria has history with Benezia herself. Shepard spins her tale about a chance meeting with the missing matriarch at a charity benefit and their tapering correspondence, followed by a rumor igniting hope for reconnection. And they eat it right up.

All he has to do is act natural and help Shepard keep them talking.

“Well, you know Polona wasn’t only Benezia’s lawyer.” Liria leans in close, her voice not quite as hushed as she probably intended. “They were involved, some centuries back. Quite the scandal at the time, but then Benezia always had... selfish tendencies. Now, I’m not sure why they parted ways, or how serious it was, but—”

Not to be outdone, Rialla’s hands flutter for attention as she pipes in. “It must be more than a passing fling from two hundred years ago, though, because I heard that her Turian lover—or, well, husband now—almost called off this very wedding!”

“Really?” Shepard asks. What’s supposed to be idle curiosity is bordering on serious interest, her voice taking on a firm, interrogative quality to match her narrowed gaze, but a brush of his thumb on her shoulder and she reigns it in. Loosens up with a tilt of her head and a hand to his thigh that has him tensing up instead.

“Oh, yes,” Rialla says. “It was all very tenuous there for a while. And to think, then the four of us would never have met!”

Kaidan raises his glass with a smile as genuine as he can muster. “A tragic loss for us, to be sure.”

With a deep, warm smile, Rialla fans her face and leans in close to Shepard, but speaks for the whole table to hear. “Do let me know when you're finished with him, would you, dear? I think I may be quite in love.”

He's fine until Shepard smirks, then he's far too warm. Suffocating.

He tugs at his collar. “You think their, uh, conflict had something to do with Polona and Benezia’s involvement?”

“I seriously doubt it,” Liria says with a dismissive wave of her hand. “That was ages ago, not yesterday. Beni’s still pining after Aeth—”

Rialla laughs. “Oh, it’s Beni, now? I had no idea you were such intimate friends!”

“I’m 800 years old, my dear.” Liria scoffs. “I have quite a few friends you don’t know about.”

“Is that supposed to make me jealous?”

“Of course not, don’t be silly!”

“Silly? Goddess, must you always be so patronizing?”

“Must you always twist my words?”

“Oh, here we go!”

The situation spirals into chaos before either he or Shepard can recover it, and she stands up from the table, pulling at his elbow.

“I love this song,” she mutters pointedly, and leads him to the dance floor. It’s a slow number, thank god. He’s not nearly drunk enough to dance to something with a beat.

They sway slowly, and she presses close, his neck prickling underneath her palm. His own hands settle on her waist, then more naturally to her hips.

“Damn,” she whispers. “Damn.”

“I know. But hey, we’ve got the rest of the night. And tomorrow night. And the next night. And—”

“The next night, I know.” She groans and drops her head to his shoulder.

Kaidan smiles into her hair.

---

The night is officially over. The band is still playing, but most of the guests are gone, and despite making a number of connections, they’ve learned nothing more about Benezia's whereabouts.

They have, however, made decent use of the open bar.

Kyra downs the last of her champagne and orders a cocktail, dealer's choice. It arrives glowing and smoking and she takes the skyward trajectory of Alenko’s brows as a personal challenge not to hesitate.

A potent combination of peppermint and blueberries and battery acid hits the back of her throat and makes her head swim on contact.

Next to her, Alenko is nursing his third.

“How’s your drink?” he asks.

“Surprising.”

“In a good way or a bad way?”

“Um… Yes.” She clinks her fingernail against his glass. “How’s your whiskey?”

He frowns and takes a sip. “This is not whiskey.”

“Didn’t realize you were such a connoisseur.”

“No, I mean it is literally not whiskey. Didn’t have it, I guess.” He drinks again. “It’s weird, right? Walk into any bar on Earth and they’ll have a dozen to pick from, but soon as you take off…”

“Yeah.” She sighs. “No burgers. No guac. No ice cream.”

The low chuckle he gives is a sound she’d like to hear again. And again, and again, and—

“When you put it like that, this spacer life is a real sorry existence.”

Kyra nods and wonders what he misses most from home. Or who. But that is none of her business, so she empties her glass and tips the bartender in preparation to leave.

“Sorry tonight was a bust, Shepard.”

“It wasn’t a total loss. Decent food, free booze.” She rests her chin on one closed fist. “Good company.”

“By that, I assume you mean our new asari friends.”

“Sure.”

Holding his gaze is harder than it should be. He cradles his nearly-empty glass and taps his fingers in sequence. Up and down, like a zipper.

At last, he looks away. “I was going to say ‘beautiful,’ by the way.”

“Hmm?”

“Earlier, before we left. I was going to tell you how incredible you looked, but then you interrupted me, and I never really got the chance to say it so I figured I might as well say it now.”

Warmth rises in her belly and she rides it like a wave, unscathed and unchanged on the other side. She turns to face him, wriggling in the seat in preparation like he’s about to try and upend her. “All right, Alenko. Hit me. I’m ready.”

He gives a huff of nervous laughter, one hand going straight to the back of his neck. “Well, uh... that was pretty much it.”

“That’s it? You waited all night to tell me that you were going to tell me I looked beautiful, but didn’t?”

His lips roll together, and he cedes the point with a tilt of his head, then meets her eyes again before his take a slow, uncertain wander around the rest of her features.

“Shepard,” he says when he makes it back, and it’s a name so overused it may as well be a title—but not spoken like that. Low and drawn out and a little bit reverent, it becomes almost intimate for the first time in years and she can't help but wonder how her first might sound.

“You look really beautiful tonight.”

Oh. Oh no. Kyra knows she should say thank you, and tell him to finish his drink so they can get out of here, but this next wave won’t subside and the air won’t reach her lungs and all she can do is stare at him.

“I mean, not just tonight, but especially—” he continues, visibly flustered by her silence. “You know, the dress and the lips—ah, make-up! And, and the hair and everything, it’s just very, um, tasteful, and… Um.” He clears his throat and pushes his drink away by inches, folding his hands tight together. "Feel free to stop me anytime.”

Ah. There. That’s the Alenko she knows and can handle.

“Now why would I do a thing like that?” she says, sending a silent prayer of thanks to whichever god kept her voice from breaking.

The smile they exchange is soft and charged and it smooths him over. His eyes are brown. Kyra knew that already, but clinically. On paper. Hair: black. Eyes: brown. Year of birth: 2151.

She didn’t know it like this, tangibly, all wrapped up and swept away in a simple fact.

This time she’s the one to give in. “You know, you should really keep that button pressed, Alenko.”

“What?”

“The charisma button.” She jerks her head toward the door, grabs his hand for the sake of anyone who might still be awake and sober enough to notice, and leads him out. “Push it. More.”

“I— what?”

Kyra chuckles to herself and steps into the elevator. “Forget it.”

The doors close once she chooses a floor and she regrets taking his hand because now she has to let go.

Kiss me. Come on, Alenko. Quick, before we go back. She can’t think it any louder, can’t make it any clearer without crossing a line. Be better if he does it, but he won’t. She knows he wants to just like she knows he never will, because he’s a good soldier and a good soldier doesn’t fuck with the chain of command. Not without a compelling reason, at least, and she can’t give him one.

Their floor lights up and reality pours in. He follows her across the dock, at a distance now that no one who would care might be watching.

Kyra takes a sharp, deep breath. Three more nights of this—unless they can get their intel sooner. Three more nights of flirting and dancing and soft touches all for show and not to keep. Maybe she should have brought Williams after all. Or Garrus. Or anyone else.

Distracted, she nearly trips getting into the shuttle, and somehow he’s right there, a broad hand on her waist to steady her.

A nod and he detaches. Steps back. “Ma’am.”

Ma’am. But he is a terrible liar, and she’s never been good at a long con.

[captain-aralias]

18, 26, F, % for the fic reader/writer asks 😉

thank you, my dear! here are some answers for you/here are some answers that will let me put off writing my CORB fic for a bit longer -

18. Favorite kinds of comments?

ALL COMMENTS. but the very best comments are ones that talk a lot about what you've written and (for me, particularly) ask questions or make observations that make me think 'ah, excellent - i'll put that in a later chapter'. we've got a very nice commenting culture going on at the moment, lots of people - particularly writers but not just writers - leaving really detailed and interesting comments on lots of CO fics, you're one of them <3

also, obviously, anything that's like 'here, i made this in response'.

but also also, i cannot stress how addicted i am to comments. i write to get comments of any kind. thank you for your comments.

26. Last sentence you've written

pretty sure i'm going to delete this - but for now this is the last full sentence i wrote last night. and then i stopped in the middle of a WORD out of disgust 😂

I’m apparently more than gay enough; now we just need to sort out the rest.) 

“Hello Bunce,” Baz says, so c

(the word was 'cool')

F) Favorite trope(s)

faaaaaake relationship :D super excited to write some for CORB and work with an amazing artist while i do it. i've honestly been waiting for a good idea to justify this trope for years and then @asticou gave me one.

other than that it would be accurate to say i love all tropes, but particularly things like... 'magic made them do it' or anything that forces people who 'don't like each other' to deal with their feelings early. it's part of why i like fake relationship so much, even though the CORB is going to be friends-to-lovers, so a bit different.

i also love AU-canon divergence so much it's barely a trope anymore, and i guess i've been doing a lot recently with 'second chances'.

these were reader tropes, i've just realised, but the same is absolutely true of me as a reader. as a reader i like to read things that make me angry that i didn't write them.

%) A feature you wish ao3 had

great question!!! shockingly (not that shockingly) i have thought about this, so here's four - from most plausible to implement to least plausible.

move profile onto the dashboard - not even a new feature. no one uses it right now. maybe against the spirit of the archive, but i like encouraging people to engage with me as a human elsewhere as well.

a way to message people without commenting on their fic, don't need an instant message function just some sort of button that allows you to email them

arguably this goes against the premise of AO3 as an archive, but i feel like some sort of community hub would be invaluable, now it's so hard to find fandoms. i'm thinking something simple like a permanently pinned 'fic' at the top of every fandom tag, and then people could post 'comments' linking to things like the discord, facebook groups, tumblr, instagram, etc.

hosting for podfics and/or images. or they could team up with audiofic, which is gradually coming back online. here's my reader page (although it wrongly assigns a teen wolf fic to me as the first entry, so don't be surprised i sound different on that one. it's not me!)

otherwise, AO3 is generally great and i love it. i also enjoyed answering these questions, thank you!

==

from this ask list

[fluffyglass]

WELCOME TO DILLYDALE! (UPDATED!)

The updated cast is finally here!

Y'know how I mentioned my sister and I were working on a project? Yeah, this is that.

Welcome to Dillydale! is a fanmade Reboot of The Mr. Men Show, thought up by two teenagers who have absolutely nothing better to do.

With a much more story-focused narrative aimed at slightly older kids, Welcome to Dillydale! features numerous small story arcs starring all your favorite little misses and mr. men!

Full Cast + Extra Info below the cut

Mr. Tickle - You know him, you love (or don't love) him, he's the absolute classic.

Mr. Greedy - Your friendly neighborhood chef, taste-tester and gourmet all in one!

Mr. Happy - Dillydale's favorite constantly-smiling TV host!

Mr. Sneeze - Achoo!

Mr. Bump - The accident-prone little dude himself.

Mr. Small and Mr. Nosey - that one gay couple who everyone knows and yet nobody seems to remember how they met

Mr. Messy - The filthiest resident of Dillydale.

Mr. Fussy - The least filthy resident of Dillydale.

* Mr. Clumsy - While not a resident of Dillydale, he occasionally pops by to visit his cousin, Mr. Fussy!

Mr. Nervous - Dillydale's paranoid jelly man. Don't startle him, or he'll melt into a puddle before your eyes!

Mr. Lazy - Possibly the second-most brilliant inventor in Dillydale - if only he had the motivation to act on his ideas.

Mr. Mean - Probably deserves Mr. Stubborn's catchphrase more than he does.

Mr. Bounce - Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! B

Mr. Strong - If anyone in Dillydale had to be the most fitness-obsessed, it would have to be Mr. Strong. That's like - his thing, y'know?

Mr. Quiet - Can't hear you, next please!

Mr. Grumpy - Getting too old for this entire town's nonsense.

Mr. Skinny - Was incredibly easy to fit in this character list!

Mr. Cool - Whatever he is, he's too cool for you.

Mr. Rude - At this point, he's more tired of everyone's stupidity than actively rude. He's still rude though, don't get me wrong.

Mr. Scatterbrain - Can probably bend reality. If he could/can, he'd use it to make himself a sandwich.

Mr. Stubborn - May or may not be an alien. He's totally an alien.

Mr. Crosspatch - Violence incarnate.

Little Miss Bossy - Karen

Little Miss Naughty - A criminal

Little Miss Sunshine - Dillydale's favorite female constantly-smiling TV host! After all, they can't just pick between her and Mr. Happy!

Little Miss Tiny - Just you wait until she grows up! (She never will)

Little Miss Helpful - She is not helpful. But she sure does try to be.

Little Miss Magic - (⊃｡•́‿•̀｡)⊃━⭑･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡.｡༅:*ﾟ:*:✼✿

Little Miss Shy - Barely anyone knows her, because she barely leaves the house. Poor girl, honestly.

Little Miss Splendid - Can afford to live in a way fancier city, but stays in Dillydale because she knows she can flaunt her wealth better there.

Little Miss Late - Her description was late, it'll be here in a few hours. Or days.

Little Miss/Mr. Twins - Which is which? Why, if they swap their bows, nobody could tell!

Little Miss Chatterbox - Oh, Little Miss Chatterbox is such an interesting character! Y'know, while I was drawing her, I remember thinking to myself "oh, Miss Chatterbox has such an iconic design!" and thus she ended up being one of the characters who's design didn't change at all, oh, speaking of characters who didn't change, I also-

* Little Miss Stubborn - Lives on a farm out in the countryside. Still pissed that an alien stole her identity.

Little Miss Fun - Can't sit still for more than 3 seconds at a time.

Little Miss Somersault - Good at basketball, probably

Little Miss Scary - RAWR!!!

Little Miss Whoops - Probably the clumsiest resident of Dillydale, much to the dismay of her brother, Mr. Bump.

* Little Miss Calamity - Disappeared from Dillydale years ago. Her whereabouts are still unknown.

Little Miss Princess - Wait, wasn't Dillydale's monarchy overthrown?

Little Miss Hug - *Hugs you*

Little Miss Inventor - The actual most brilliant inventor in Dillydale.

* Little Miss Daredevil - She moved to the moon, but visits home often. Why did she move to the moon? She's Miss Daredevil, that's why!

Wow, what a lovely group of characters!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S EXCLUSIVES!

(Aka ocs we put in for funsies)

Little Miss Autistic - Dillydale's resident "if you ask me about this book series I will tell you every fact about it known to man" girl.

Little Miss Gleeful, Little Miss Rampant, and Mr. Witty - Miss Bossy's three little tyrants.

Mr. Fancy - Prettier than you.

Little Miss Perfect - Perfect, perfect, perfect.

Little Miss Purity - The purest diamond around. Or so she'd like you to believe.

I reached the image limit for a tumblr post, so the remainder of the characters shall be in a reblog! See you there!