#and we're trying our best and clarifying things and asking questions

[trlvsn]

i hate this fucking university istg. ugh anyway look at the silly panel i'm drawing

[siriuslysapphicmoony]

lovebirds — word count: 832

@wolfstarmicrofic

“Hello, we know it's last minute, but we were wondering if perhaps you had a room available—”

“Say no more,” the sweet old lady says eagerly, smile so wide Remus wonders if it hurts. “I have just the perfect room for two lovebirds like you.”

“I— No, we—” Remus stutters, aghast.

Sirius, who usually does all the talking in situations like this, is being weirdly quiet.

Remus elbows him on the side. He has to say something, he's the smooth one of the two, the one always comfortable talking to people. Remus is awkward, especially when someone has assumed he and his best friend are dating. The same best friend he's been yearning for for the past five years.

Sirius clears his throat. “We’re not together. I mean, we're together. Just not… together together.”

Why is Sirius being so awkward? That's a first.

The old lady looks pensive.

“We’re friends,” Sirius manages to say eventually. “Just friends.”

The lady hums. “Uhm, I see,” she says, nodding knowingly. “Sadly, the only room available is our suite,” she adds and winks conspiratorially in their direction.

Remus notices something quite unique is happening. Sirius is violently blushing.

“It’s— it's not— are there not twin beds?” Remus asks.

“Oh, don't be ridiculous.” The lady shoos away the question. “We’re not like that here. We welcome all types of couples.”

“That’s great, but—” Sirius starts.

“Here’s your key, dears,” she cuts him short.

Remus sighs. “Why does everybody think we're dating?” he says under his breath as they walk away and follow directions for their room.

“Would it be such a bad thing if we were?”

Remus has to stop in his tracks. The words have come out so softly, so quietly, that he has to wonder if he has misheard. But it's unmistakable. In the way Sirius has stopped as well. In the way he seems to be holding his breath.

“What did you just say?” he breathes out.

“Nothing. Sorry. Shouldn't have said that,” he mutters and walks again, faster than before. Remus hurries his steps and, when he reaches him, he grabs his wrist.

“Sirius, stop,” he heaves. “Why did you say that? I need to know why you'd say that.”

Sirius scoffs but doesn't look him in the eye as he speaks. “You always act like that. Like people assuming we're dating is such a bad thing. I get it, you don't want me, but sometimes it would be easier to just go along with it. Is it that embarrassing for you to have random strangers think we're together?”

“I— What? No, it's not—”

Sirius exhales heavily and shakes his head. “Just— leave it. I'm knackered. I can take the sofa if there's a sofa in that suite.”

Remus is left behind, looking at Sirius as he hastily walks towards their room and fumbles with the key to open it. He's struggling. Remus reaches him and rests a hand on his to stop him. He takes the key and helps him with the door. He's never seen him so agitated before.

“What is this about, Padfoot? You can talk to me—”

“Don’t act like you don't know,” Sirius mutters, still lingering there, freeing his wrist of Remus' hold, still not making eye contact. “You’ve made it clear time and time again. You're not interested in dating me. And that's okay, it's not like you can control how you feel about someone, but— well, sometimes rejection sucks. That's all. I'll get over it, though. Don't worry.”

Remus is utterly confused. What the hell it's going on?

“Rejection?” he blinks.

Sirius rolls his eyes. “Stop acting like you don't know. Every time this happens you panic and try super hard to clarify that we're not dating. As if it'd be such a bad thing if people thought you're dating me. It's not great for my self-esteem, you know?”

“I— what!? How is that rejection?”

Sirius sighs, as if irritated. “Everybody knows I've had the most embarrassing crush on you for years, Moony. You are cruel about it sometimes.”

Remus blinks a few times. In utter shock. How is this the first time he's ever heard about this?

“You have a crush on me?” he whispers.

Sirius deflates and frowns. “You didn't know?”

“How was I supposed to know?”

“Well, I— I’ve been told I'm not subtle about it.”

Remus lets out a nervous laugh. “Looks to me like you've been subtle enough. I didn't know.”

“Does it change anything now that you do?”

“It changes everything.”

“It doesn't need to make things awkward between us, you can just ignore it— I'll get over it eventually—”

“I’d rather you didn't,” Remus boldly says.

Everything stops. There's a moment between them. They look at each other and see in each other’s eyes all the yearning they hadn't been aware of.

Remus takes the first step. He surges forward, cups Sirius face with trembling fingers and kisses him.

They do end up putting the suite to good use.

[syscultureis]

Welcome to our System culture blog!

Every other plural culture blog we've seen has always been pro endo, tulpa, and other non-traumagenic systems.

We are not, while our views from alter to alter vary, we consider ourselves as a whole anti-nontraumagenic

We use plural because we've used it to describe ourselves since before we even knew what a system was. It is not us "reclaiming" or "stealing" the term, it's us using a term we have always, and will always, use. Stop sending asks about it (please)

About us and our blog!

Submit asks about how being plural affects you! We'll post it either with a response to it, or just on its own.

Non-traumagenic and their supporters are not welcome here. Mixed orgins systems included with that. (Being neutral on endos is fine, just be aware that we are anti endo here)

Don't be worried to submit the more negative stuff, we'll try to add trigger warning best we can

We're bodily 20 and a system of about 40 known alters.

This blog is for any kind of traumagenic system. OSDD, DID, P-DID, Polyfragmented, etc. If you want to start your ask with your specific type of system go for it!

We don't want to be a syscourse blog, but we can't promise there won't be any. We will tag it as syscourse though

Singlets (non-systems) are welcome to follow and interact (politely) and if you have questions you can ask! We may not have all the answers but we'll answer what we can

This blog is to share experiences with our community, the good and the bad

Swearing is okay, but please try to keep slurs out of asks. You can censor them if they need to be used.

We are bodily disabled, so don't be mean about physical disabilities

Go ahead and send in things about comoridity as well! Example: "Plural autistic culture is..."

This system uses neo pronouns!! And supports xenogenders!!

This blog supports people with all disorders, and we will do our best to avoid posting asks that use terms like "narcissistic abuse" as we believe it adds stigma to disorders such as NPD

Please don't use the term "Core" in our asks when referring to the first host. It's an outdated term that basically means "first and original alter" which isn't really a thing, and we don't like promoting misinformation like that, especially when it very often promotes the idea that one alter is more real and important than the others

Feel free to spam the ask box as much as you want

We are not an informational blog, lots of this stuff is light hearted and humorous. We joke about things the same way people do with any other disorder. Do not take everything at face value, if you're going to clarify or correct information just be nice or we're going to block you regardless of if we agree or not

Please also note that depending on who's fronting our views may vary, one alter does not speak for our entire system. Not even if they claim to, there is almost nothing we all agree on wholeheartedly. If an issue arises we will do our best to control and adress it.

Brief summary for those that can't read long things:

- xeno genders welcome

- cluster b disorders supported

- non-traumagenic and supporters not welcomed

- not every post has to be positive

- singlets welcome

- try to avoid syscourse

- self diagnosis is valid

- We are not an informational blog, most of this these

posts are joking or having fun

Link to our discord servers (let us know if it doesn't work):

[gofancyninjaworld]

No one is born knowing how to communicate

A: And that's okay...

Dr Kuseno made it look so easy. He just swanned into Saitama's apartment, proferred him a gift of beef and the hero's hostility melted away.

Fubuki felt positively foolish, and yet encouraged.

Since then, however, she's found that the only thing meat bribes pull in are dogs. Literal dogs:

And even dogs need more than meat to be loyal.

What gives? Well, it's obvious that Fubuki mistook Dr Kuseno's gift for a bribe: more on that later. Probably. And yeah, it's funny, but it's more interesting than that.

Learning how to communicate is complex. There are a ludicrous number of unspoken conventions and rules in every human society, so much so that we don't fully learn how to smile socially until we're in our forties. Dr Kuseno carefully judged his gift: he had a legitimate reason to offer Saitama a gift in the first place, out of gratitude for Saitama going out of his way to mentor Genos. Then he chose a gift Saitama would be sure to appreciate and presented it at a time when Saitama would be thinking about dinner. The worst that could have happened is that Saitama took the gift but insisted on the doctor going home (and taking Genos with him) -- it would still have left the desired positive impression. And things went really well. Kuseno made it look effortless.

Fubuki is only in her early twenties and her experience to date has been far from typical. She's learned that either she can intimidate people or she can flatter them into doing what she wants. With Saitama (and later Bang, Bomb, and Kuseno), she has to learn how to talk to more powerful people whom she cannot overpower, over whom she has no leverage, and who are unimpressed by her looks, simpering, or flattery.

Fortunately, Fubuki is nothing if not astute. She's worked out that she needs to develop complementary skills if she's to make herself useful to the S-Class heroes she wants to hang with. How to talk to them to get the help and cooperation she desires? Ah, that's a work in progress.

B: ...Unless it's not

Let's move onto another miscommunication.

Something that I hadn't before was that, unlike the webcomic version where Saitama only thinks to himself that Genos seems depressed, in the manga, Saitama out and out asks him if this is the case. He wants to know.

It mirrors King asking Saitama that very same question and getting Saitama to open up and be vulnerable for the first time (ever, in any version of the story). So it is very appropriate to see Saitama trying to do the same for Genos, particularly as he is openly fond of the guy.

However, it goes wrong. Saitama feels himself under pressure to say something wise to make it better. So he puts on his best 'confident' face and inadvertently makes everything much worse. Oh dear. What makes this particularly painful in the manga is that Saitama is much more invested in trying to reach Genos, and it's made Genos think that Saitama saying that he doesn't see what he's doing must mean that earlier times when he's praised him must have been just Saitama being nice. For sure, Genos could have pushed back and made Saitama clarify what he meant, but he's even worse at communicating: and Saitama's glib remark about being bright struck him square in the insecurities.

I'm going to come to something that I only realised once I started typing this up. Even though I've pointed out their abilities to communicate, neither King nor Kuseno have the perfect words to say. Kuseno started out by first committing a faux pas in bringing his great big outside boots into Saitama's flat, then nearly boring Saitama to death with a long-winded explanation. King started out by trying to guess what was bothering Saitama. Both, however, did the most important thing about effective communication: they picked up on their going wrong and changed tack.

It's not about saying the right thing: it's about responding to the person you're talking to.

The thing that King did that Saitama was trying to do for Genos was to ask Saitama open questions, and shut up in the interim, letting Saitama talk to fill in the silence. He'd only speak to ask more open questions when Saitama ran out of things to say, and through that, gently started to challenge Saitama's thinking.

But doing so means being comfortable with several seconds of silence. And that is excruciating. It is almost irresistible to jump in and say something, anything. And it would have been a longish wait, for Genos to slowly sit down and decide to start speaking, which might well have started being about something only tangentially related to his worry. King did that for Saitama: Saitama started out talking about what was bothering him on the surface -- being too strong -- before eventually coming to what was really bothering him, feeling lonely and profoundly isolated from everyone around him. Saitama does not yet know how to wait a person out.

It's a problem in this case because it's introduced a big barrier between those two, not an insurmountable one for sure, but one that could easily compound later.

Ah well, no one is born a communicator. We just have to wait and see if they work out a way to open up and be honest with each other. So it goes! There's more ways to introduce conflicts than to have a monster trample Tokyo, after all!

And so help me, the struggle to learn how to communicate is 1000% worthwhile.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not telling my ex-best friend that she's not invited to my wedding? (🚫👰‍♂️ for reference)

Light context, I (20s X) used to be very close with this girl we'll call F (20s F) for close to 15 years. We had a few falling outs in high-school but maintained a casual friendship afterwards as we went into college and beyond. From a really young age, we both made the promise to each other that we'd be each other's maid of honor at our respective weddings, and that promise would be occasionally referenced during our friendship (yknow, typical bff things).

To make a very long story short, the last chunk of our friendship I started acknowledging that she really wasn't the best influence on me and really worked to make everyone around us believe her narrative about our friendship (things like lying for years about how we became friends and refusing to acknowledge the correct story, or inserting herself into my family, including during a really traumatic time and she got upset when people weren't asking her about how much she was upset, things like that ect.). I had given up even trying to argue against it so I'd agree with her on a lot of it.

She was engaged a few years ago and ended up asking me to be her MOH, which I accepted at the time. What ended up happening was that the wedding was canceled, and I never got my dress I had pulled money from my savings to pay for, nor the money back.

I made the conscious decision at that point to start to distance myself from her, both in person and on the phone, but would still losely message her if I knew she was the best person to talk to about something. When I first started dating my fiancé, F was one of the main people I talked to about our budding relationship.

It's been several years now, and I have basically stopped interacting with F on all accounts. I found out from an old high-school friend that apparently she still tells people we're really close and hang out all the time, which I was quick to clarify wasn't true.

Here's where I feel like I could be TA: in all these years of me slowly backing away, I've avoided ever actually telling F that I wasn't comfortable with us interacting anymore, and I wasn't even sure I wanted to have her at the wedding. This is because she's been known to do some pretty drastic things in the past and cause scenes, and I really didn't want to deal with possible fallout, and now it's gotten so late that it feels harder and harder to do.

We had our first conversation in like 8 months recently with a few snaps where she showed off her new engagement ring and then asked about how wedding planning was going and when she was going to get asked and invited to it. I kinda let the question flop and never really responded, but now I know it's still on her mind.

The whole wedding party has already been chosen, as has our guest list, and F and her fiancé aren't on it. I feel like I should try to tell F at this point that I don't feel comfortable inviting her, but I really just want the whole situation to die out and would rather somehow miraculously get married without F even hearing about it until it's already done (which is basically impossible since F is still social media friends with my mom). At this point, I still have no plans to tell F that she's not part of the wedding, nor is she invited. I am genuinely worried she'd crash it if she found out where it was happening, but I'd rather take that risk and not mention it at all, despite it being a childhood promise when we were actually friends.

So, AITA for not telling her that I've been uncomfortable with our friendship and don't want her at all in or at my wedding?

What are these acronyms?

[yellowhollyhock]

how to NOT use dialogue tags?

Use dialogue tags

Pretty please

Your writing will flow better when you show love and respect for the little helper words. Trying to avoid useful words will just lead you to phrasing things in confusing ways.

I say this because it's a mistake I've made! Trying to avoid 'said' and 'asked' is advice I took seriously and I saw my writing suffer for it.

Some tips with dialogue:

"You can start a new paragraph to show a new person talking," she explained.

"Ah, yes, of course--if both characters have been established the paragraph breaks and quotation marks will be enough for readers to easily follow the conversation," Anon flapped their hands gleefully.

"Precisely. After we've both spoken, we can go back and forth for any length of time. We only need clarify if a third person joins."

"Wait a minute. You said to use dialogue tags, but you've replaced them with descriptive verbs. And in that second one you narrated my actions while I spoke. Aren't you avoiding dialogue tags?"

"It may look that way," she admitted with a shrug, "But the point was never to avoid those words. The point is that on some occasions, explain is the word to use, and on others, said is not only sufficient but preferable. It's about using the most accurate word, not the most impressive one."

"Oh, I see--if our goal is to not use dialogue tags, our writing will suffer. But if our goal is to use our words to paint a picture, it will be easier to decide when we should use bold strokes like 'declared' or 'inquired' and when 'said' or 'asked' will blend more nicely into the background."

"What a lovely metaphor, Anon!"

"Hey," a third person, unfamiliar to either of them, poked their head around the corner. "You wrote that metaphor. Stop being pretentious! All this pish posh about when to use dialogue tags and when not to use dialogue tags--it's exhausting! Can't you make up your mind?"

"It's not that we haven't made up our minds," said Anon, "We're quite decided that different words are good for different reasons, and agreeing how silly it would be to try to avoid a whole section of words when they might sometimes be the very tool you need."

"An unobtrusive dialogue tag works wonderfully when you want to keep the focus on the dialogue itself, or when you want the conversation to be fast-paced," she said.

Anon crossed their arms with a triumphant smirk. "I won't be taking any old advice about writing anymore. Certainly not advice that reads like fad diets, asking for such extreme avoidance of some things and gross reliance on others. If I need to know whether something reads naturally, I'll read it out loud. That trick will work best."

"That's a lovely idea," she dipped her head, "And it's good to keep in mind that there are even time you might want to sound unnatural! As the artist, the question you want to ask yourself is what effect your work will have on readers. Your first priority is to be clear, your second is to be interesting. If you do those two things you really can't go wrong."

"No," the stranger moaned sadly, melting back into the wall. "I came all this way to destroy your confidence. I will have you both! You haven't seen the last of me!"

They watched together, bewildered and a little sad. They were starting to remember the stranger's voice now, and it was one that had often tried to help.

Yet it had done so much lasting harm, and promised more even as it faded into nothing.

"Well," said Anon, "I don't know that I've gotten very far past where I started."

"Perhaps not," she said softly, "But perhaps that is the point. Where you've started is not so far back as you may have believed."

[hurtmemoreplease]

any advice for people who want to dm you and say hi, but are really shy?

Hi! This is a great question, and I'm gonna be indulgent and take my time answering it. I do this sometimes - you'll simply have to put up with me rambling. My answer is gonna be in two parts; general guidelines for how to message an internet stranger or interact with people in this context, and then I'll do my best to narrow the focus down to me.

You've probably heard this part before, and that's because it is the most critical of everything. I'm just another person. Don't put an internet blogger up on a pedestal. We're all here on the clown website.

Okay, now for the actual advice. When messaging an internet stranger, the general assumption is that you know them better than they know you. You've seen them post about their hobbies, their favorite media, maybe even their partners or their general life situation. You might not KNOW these things anymore, but it generates a sense of familiarity that is NOT reciprocated. If you do know that stuff, then there's this information gap, right? You might think "oh we both love Ryunosuke Fujinami from Urusei Yatsura," or "we both struggle with feeling alienated from our families," but that's one sided! They don't know that about you. Try to imagine if a complete stranger messaged you - it would be REALLY hard to hold a conversation, especially if they just say "hi!" or hit you with some generic pleasantries. The fix to this is have some prepared conversation topics - with actual insightful things to say! You might not end up using them, but it's better than realizing you have nothing to say and stalling out.

Another part of the general advice is to try to know why you're messaging someone, and to make sure your... attitude? Demeanor? Is right for that. I'll try to clarify what I mean! If you think they're cool, and want to be friends, then come in with an understanding that you're both just people, who might have common interests, and express that! If you want advice on something, then you should probably ask if its okay first, but don't beat around the bush about it. If you want them to have sex with you, probably don't message them! Or I mean. At least have some tact about it - make sure its not your ONLY reason. All I'm really trying to get across here is that its worth making sure you know your goals going into ANY situation.

I think.... there's more I could say, honestly. But it comes down to a lot of individual circumstances and who you are as a person. I think those points cover the bulk of it; know who you are and what you want, and be ready and able to communicate it.

Now onto the hard part (for me.) Advice on... how to talk... to me. Jeez. Um... I don't think there's a lot to say about me that is unique. I like engaging on my hobbies and media. I get very insecure a lot, and worry that I'm being difficult to talk to, or being a burden. It's hard for me to believe compliments or admiration are deserved or sincere. I love my girlfriend more than anything. I'm probably gonna struggle to engage with you if you come out of the gate swinging and being flirtatious, but I'm pretty weak to getting flirted with once I'm a little more comfortable with someone. I can promise you I will give you a fair shake and do my best to engage with you! Sorry if that's not helpful!!

[carnivore-voyeur]

We aren't trying to "cancel" Per because he's awkward or because we don't approve of his girlfriend.

We don't like him because a fan asked him an inappropriate question and instead of being normal about it, he came up with "i have a Jewish/black friends" card.

Friends are not diversity cards. Using your ethnic friend's identity *is* in the best case ignorant, and in the worst case racist.

Having two proud zionists in his recent dating history (yes, ash), isn't helping his reputation either. But he said it himself, he doesn't care about politics, which is a privilege only people like him can benefit from, so of course he's ignorant and insensitive.

Per dates whoever he wants and says whatever he wants, but if the consequence of that is non-white fans not wanting to hear about him anymore, then that's only fair. This fanbase has an insane racist problem and we're tired of it.

You have no right to tell others what is offensive to them. If non-white fans see an issue with what he said, you have no right to tell them they're making a big deal out of nothing.

For the tweets about Chris, just know we're most likely joking. I'm sure people how a business works. Maybe work on your reading comprehension instead of criticizing ours next time?

I don't care about "canceling" as a concept one way or another. I believe everyone is allowed to like or dislike someone for whatever reason, and support or withhold support for whatever reason. I just don't think the majority of Ghost Twitter is acting in good faith based on multiple incidents where things Per has said were taken out of context or manipulated to say something else.

Per clarified that he doesn't support anything horrible in the world. Within the past month, people have accused Per of being a Nazi. They've accused him of not caring about genocide. All based on misinformation and manipulated clips.

Re: Per's comments in a recent live - Per was referring to the fact that people were calling him a NAZI specifically, which is something Ghost Twitter fans accused him of last month. They did this based on an old photo that they misinterpreted, which I've already discussed.

You're allowed to criticize him. You're allowed to be upset by things he's said or done, just as you would any person. However, this should be based in fact and not misquotes, misinterpretations, rumors, or straight up lies. Furthermore, it shouldn't involve saying horrible things about him.

He never said that he can't be racist because he has jewish and black friends which is what people are accusing him of saying. Do I think it's clumsy to bring up your friends to disprove that you're a bigot? Yes, but he was talking about being accused of being a NAZI. That's not something he should've had to defend himself against.

Even if he did say "I can't be racist because of x, y, and z", that's something we could have had an open conversation about. You could try to educate him on it, but that's not what you all do.

No.

(I'm going to use "You" here to refer to Ghost Twitter and anyone associating themselves with them.)

You constantly accuse him of things he didn't say nor do. You constantly misquote him. You constantly harass him. You constantly mock him - appearance, mannerisms, etc. He doesn't respond to any of you because no dialogue can be had with any of you.

That is not fair criticism. It is wrong.

You're also just repeating each other's talking points without doing any research and it shows.

Saying Per has dated "two proud Zionists" serves no other rhetorical purpose than to make people think Per purposely dates Zionists and empathizes with their views. This is absurd.

He "dated" Paris Dylan briefly and that was well over a year ago. Her political views don't represent him, and even so I haven't personally seen her proudly support Israel, though I don't follow her career. I haven't seen Ash do so either.

Ash performed a song with the singer of Disturbed who is a Zionist, which I've already discussed. I take issue with that as well, and we can discuss why that's an issue but that requires you all to confront the fact that a lot of your favorite artists in the industry still associate with Zionists - not just Ash. Disturbed is still ridiculously popular, and no one questions David Draiman's involvement in the scene.

I'm not telling you what is or isn't offensive. I'm telling you that a lot of the things Ghost Twitter has been posting about him are wrong and/or taken out of context. If you're upset because of something you misinterpreted or misunderstood, then it's not the fault of the accused. That's your own fault.

"Per dates whoever he wants and says whatever he wants" - correct, because he's an adult with free will. You don't get to decide who he dates. You don't have to like who he dates. You don't have to like what he says, but criticizing him for either should be based on facts and not assumptions.

Being "apolotical" is a privilege, I agree, but you can't force someone to adopt your political ideology through shame and guilt and insults. Criticism of someone doesn't necessitate mocking their appearance and mannerisms, but a multitude of fans on Twitter have done just that.

[hopetune]

#HOPETUNE: an affiliated robin rp blog, harmonizing with mik (20, they/them, gmt +8). singing about hope and fledgling wings. rules and portrayal notes may be found under the cut!

RULES

ON AFFILIATION: this blog is affiliated with gnostic hymns. as such, personal blogs and rp blogs not affiliated with gh will be softblocked or blocked.

ON OOC: i make a lot of jokes ooc, as well as post shitposts (tagged appropriately on this blog) please don't take them seriously!!! none of what i say ooc is canon here in gh. i try to be very clear about what i include in-character. that said, i understand that the line can get quite blurry at times, so don't be afraid to ask me to clarify stuff or to tell me to stop doing a bit. i'll also be doing the same.

ON SHIPPING: i have my personal preferences but i'm generally open to shipping with those i'm familiar with ooc + dynamics with good chemistry. especially with regards to romance, i would prefer to plot everything out just so we're clear on everything. do also note that i headcanon robin as a lesbian, so i won't do anything romantic with male-identifying muses, but anyone is free to feel what they feel about robin regardless of gender, she's just not going to reciprocate everyone's feelings. 

ON HEADCANONS: i have certain headcanons that do indirectly affect muses around robin. specifically, i headcanon her resonance to evoke a certain sensation within those affected. i'll go into further detaili won't force you to accept this if it's something you don't want to write, but i hope it's something that can be considered when it comes up in our writing. though i would like to reiterate that it's ultimately your choice whether or not to include it in your replies/interactions!!!

ON FORMATTING: i use small text with icons in my writing. if you have any issues with readability or would like me to change my format, please let me know! as for my personal preference: i would prefer it if my partners could use small text in their replies so i can read it more easily <3

ON CONTACT: as tumblr's IMs have been acting up recently (for me at least) i prefer discord dms. my username is emblian! i am part of gh's discord server so you may also ping me there.

ON REPLIES: my schedule has gotten considerably less free since i'm starting my semester so expect me to take anywhere from a week to a month to reply. i'll do my best to avoid having my partners wait for too long, of course, but i just want to be clear just in case you think i might be ghosting you or forgetting our thread. though that's not out of the question—i'm also a pretty forgetful person, so feel free to ping me if you feel that may be the case!

ON TRIGGER WARNINGS: i will use general trigger warnings for things such as gore, extreme violence, suicide, and other topics that i deem sensitive enough to warrant it. i will be using "tw // (word)" as a tag. if you have any triggers you'd like me to tag, please feel free to let me know through a dm. i also tag spoilers under "hsr spoilers"

ON HYV GAMES: i am not as familiar with genshin or honkai impact 3rd as i am with honkai star rail. i will defer to my partners for information but please be patient with me if i have lapses in the lore! i would also appreciate it if you could gently correct me on whatever i may get wrong. 

PORTRAYAL NOTES (SPOILER FREE)

robin is renown throughout the cosmos, so it's perfectly fine to assume any hsr muse knows her/knows of her regardless of whether or not they've interacted with her in canon.

robin will often disguise herself when appearing in public, especially in places where she knows she has many fans, so it depends on the situation whether or not your muse will recognize her. if your muse is a stranger to her, she will likely not blow her own cover.

related to the point above: she will probably not disguise herself when going to places in teyvat or remote planets like jarilo-iv, as no one would probably recognize her there.

as of right now, robin is on a journey for self-discovery. she has no tours, no concerts, no schedules, no nothing. encounters with her won't be within the context of her as a performer, but rather, her as a person. people who don't already know her as a songstress will likely see her as someone very ordinary.

[finallydelight]

Who Knows? | Ming Chapter

December 18, 2022

''You're asking us for advice?'' Soobin and Taehyun seemed perplexed by Yeonjun's request, shocked that their hyung wanted advice from them, especially if it pertained to girls.

Yeonjun nodded his head, a bit embarrassed by their reaction. ''Yes, is that so weird?''

At his words, Soobin and Taehyun shared a look with each other. This glance practically answered Yeonjun's question. ''Yes, yes, it is weird.''

He rolled his eyes at the two of them, taking a seat on the couch. Yeonjun let out a deep sigh, garnering sympathy from the two younger members.

''We can't promise anything, but we'll do our best, hyung.'' Taehyun tried comforting him, placing his hand on his knee. Soobin nodded. ''Yeah, we'll try.''

Yeonjun held his head up and gave them an appreciative smile. ''Thanks,'' he scratched his voice, ''I just want to know about what girls like, you know? Things that make them flustered?'' His cheeks had reddened as the questions left his lips.

Both Soobin and Taehyun thought about it for a few seconds, neither of them having much experience in the dating department. ''Pff, I don't really know.''

''Flowers. Girls like flowers, right?'' Soobin suggested, seemingly quite proud of himself for coming up with an answer.

Yeonjun shook his head. ''Yeah, but I think she gets enough of those already.'' He thought to himself, thinking about a certain someone.

''Chocolates''

''A handwritten letter''

''Are we thinking about someone specific or just in general?'' Taehyun asked him, already having a hint of what the answer was. The man in question gulped. ''Just in general.''

The two guys next to him couldn't help but let out a grin on their faces, knowing exactly who he wanted to impress. ''Sure, hyung.''

''Okay, back to my original question.'' Yeonjun reminded them, not in the mood to be teased by his younger brothers.

They got back to thinking and it was Soobin who got the winning answer. ''A song.''

''What do you mean?''

''Don't people love it when someone sends them a song and tells them they remind them of said song?'' He clarified.

Yeonjun's eyes widened, immediately knowing what to do. ''Yeah, yeah, that's genius! Thank you so much, Soobinie.'' Yeonjun padded Soobin's shoulder a few times, before getting up from the couch and walking to his room.

Once he closed the door, he pulled out his phone.

Healing Yeonjun: hey, I thought you might like this song :)

There was a link attached to the song 'City of Stars' from the 'La La Land' movie. For some reason that was the song that popped into his head when Soobin made the suggestion. He contemplated sending her another message, telling her it reminded him of her, but opted not to do it.

''Did Ming-nim like the song?'' Kai asked him while the five members were eating their dinner in the dorm.

Before he could actually think about the question, Yeonjun nodded his head. ''Yeah, she said she was gonna add it to her playlist.''

The rest of the members smirked, content they got their older brother to unconsciously confess that he liked the female singer. ''I thought you just meant in general when you asked them for advice?'' Beomgyu seemed to have never been happier than he was in that moment, overjoyed to have something new to tease the oldest member about.

Yeonjun looked like a deer caught in headlights, but quickly redeemed himself. ''I never said it was for someone I liked.''

''We never said you liked her.''

Realising he wasn't gonna get out of the situation, he got up from his seat. ''I need to use the bathroom.''

''He's getting old, so he needs to go to the toilet way more than us youngsters.''

''Beomgyu, you punk!''

A soft smile graced Ming's face as the song played from her phone, attentively listening to the lyrics.

''I felt it from the first embrace I shared with you~'' ''It's love. Yes, all we're looking for is love from someone else~'' ''You never shined so brightly~''

''That's a nice song.'' Minghao had heard the song while passing by her room, her door not being fully closed.

Ming paused the song and smiled at him. ''Yes, uh, Yeonjun send it to me.'' Minghao seemed surprised, tilting his head. ''Ah, he did?'' She simply nodded at him, taking notice of the confusion in his voice.

''That's very sweet of him.'' Minghao took the space next to her on Ming's bed, not taking his eyes off of her.

''Yeah, it is.''

He scratched his voice, not sure whether to continue the conversation. ''I know it's not my business, but, uh, what's going on between you and Yeonjun?'' Minghao tried his hardest to not sound accusing or judgemental, knowing it wouldn't get an answer out of her.

''He's a good friend of mine, you know that.''

Her answer didn't satisfy him, because he knew there was more to their friendship than she was letting on. He had known her for almost 10 years, and Minghao could read her like a book.

His silence must have given her the indication that he wasn't fully content with her reply. ''Maybe more, I don't know.'' She confessed, too shy to make eye-contact with the person she considered her older brother.

''You like him?''

Do I like him? Do I like him? Do I like him? The question rang through her head like your favourite song would.

''I think I do.''

''You think you do?''

''You're judging me, Myungho.''

He laughed at her hopeless facial expression, realising his question indeed came out of a place of judgement. ''I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that.''

''It's just that… I thought you liked Mark.'' Minghao addressed the elephant in the room, wondering about the boy who had clouded his younger sister's mind, and maybe even heart.

At the mention of the rapper, she let out a sigh. ''I do like Mark, it's just so… so…''

''Complicated?'' He finished her sentence for her.

Ming nodded, a guilty feeling creeping up on her. ''I'm such a bitch.''

''Why? Because you like two guys who treat you very well and seem to like you just as much? Yeah, you really are a bitch, Yerimie.'' Minghao said, the sarcasm making her chuckle.

She groaned, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. ''What do I do, oppa?'' The frustrations in her voice not escaping him.

''Follow your heart, I know it's cliché,'' he laughed, ''but I know you'll do the right thing, whatever that may be.'' He patted her back.

''Just keep in mind that you're a public figure and things have consequences, be careful with what you do.''

Taglist: @mystic-luv @cosmicwintr @mythicalamphitrite @billboard-singer @stopeatread @still-astray @sakuurra @multiplums @giverosespls @seongwhaffels @kimhyejin3108 @smoooore

[faeriekit]

Hi! I love your DCDP posts.

I'm going to volunteer at my local library(which I love with all my heart) soon as a teen. Is there anything you think that i should be aware of or should do? Thanks!

Hey there, hi there, howdy!

Honestly? Do what they tell you! Every library has different jobs they need help with, with different standards and steps; the thing that unites them all, however, is that they really need you to stick to the steps as instructed, or else it all falls flat. A lot of our teenage volunteers think they can approximate things and still get the job done, when...no, we really did need it to be done that certain way, there were explicit reasons for that-- either hygiene reasons, functional reasons, or organizational reasons. It can't be half-assed.

That being said, unless your librarian is somehow super crabby and evil, we love it when volunteers ask clarifying questions as to their tasks. It means you care enough to worry about getting it wrong and want to do it right. If you're uncertain, or need a repeat, ask questions! Otherwise, try to do your best to complete whatever your volunteer task is as intended. Needing help or getting the job done slowly is better than us having to redo the volunteer task all over again, because now we're behind 😅

That being said, it'll give you some more volunteer hours, give you some working skills, and let you spend more time in the library! I hope you have some fun, and get a chance to check out a few more interesting books while you're at it!

[nomoreusername]

Who Are You? (Pt 3)

Paring: Aris x female reader

Summary: You finally escaped the Glade. Everything seems to be going your way. However, that is quickly disrupted when a random boy takes Teresa's place.

It had been days without food, and we were all absolutely drained. We spent a lot of time lying on the floor, a bed, the couch, or anywhere else we could. We had been surviving off of the tapwater Aris despised. That quickly became everyone's best friend.

"I don't even want to play my harmonica,"I mumbled, turning it over. Obviously, nobody knows where it came from. To be honest I don't even know. It just so happened to be in my pocket. The letters AJ were engraved into it. I have no clue why or what it meant. I just know this seemingly useless piece of metal means a lot to me.

Have you thought of anything?

I winced at how loud his voice was. In fact, it almost seemed like he was yelling in my ear.

"Aris, we're already suffering. Please don't give anyone a headache on top of it,"I begged, gaining enough energy to glare at him. To my surprise he seemed absolutely horrified.

"Nobody's yelling,"Minho mumbled.

"Oh. I guess I'm hallucinating then,"I shrugged, confused but too tired to question it.

Y/N?

"What do you want Greenie?"I sighed, now rubbing my head. "Y/N, I think you're about to snap. Do girl's just lose their minds quicker or something?"Frypan asked. "No. Maybe you guys are just going deaf,"I said, putting a pillow over my face. If I tried hard enough I might be able to make myself pass out because I'm sick of this.

"I thought of something. Can you two come help me?"Thomas asked, clear pain and exhaustion in his voice. "Nobody wants to do anything,"I pointed out, my voice muffled through the pillow.

Just come with us.

"Fine,"I groaned, following him and Aris out of the room. To my surprise they walked completely past everyone in the living room until we were all in a tiny corner.

"I don't think this is a good time to jump me,"I joked. Really, I didn't care what actually happened. I just wanted to go to sleep.

"We're going to do something, and you can't panic,"Thomas whispered. "That's reassuring."

"Just trust us,"Aris urged. I slid down the wall and waited for whatever they were about to do.

Can you hear us?

"Of course I can hear you,"I said, looking at the ground. "Look at our faces."

"This is getting weir-"

"Just do it,"Aris pushed. I begrudgingly looked at them.

Do you know which one of us is speaking right now?

"Thomas. How are you doing that?"I asked. He was clearly talking, but his mouth wasn't moving. In fact, his entire face remained the same.

Can you hear my voice too?

"Aris? What is happening?"I questioned, my mind looking for any rational reason for what was going on. So far I was coming up blank.

"This is going to sound a little bit insane,"Thomas warned. I gave him a look that said 'everything going on is insane'.

"No. I mean insane. So you remember how Teresa came up in a coma?"

"Yeah. I pulled her out of the box,"I reminded him. "Okay. Well, she spoke to me while in her coma. Telepathically. The thing is it disappeared when she did. Now he's the one I can talk to telepathically,"He explained.

"So you two are speaking, or thinking, or I don't know what to call it. Just, you two are having conversations with each other inside your heads?"I clarified, trying to wrap my mind around this. So far I wasn't doing a good job. In my defense you wouldn't either.

"Yeah, and for some reason you can hear us,"Aris shrugged. "How great. I was dying to know what interesting conversations you guys would have when you're alone,"I deadpanned. "Do you think you could be able to talk to us?"Thomas asked.

I looked at him like he was an idiot. "Why would I care about that? I'm focused on getting out alive and rescuing Teresa on the way. I don't have time for this stupid sidequest,"I snapped. Partly because I was irritable from going so long without food and partly because it was actually a stupid question.

"If you can hear us it has to be for a reason,"He pushed. "Yeah, and it's one I don't care about. You two can just be all cuddled up now because I don't want any part in whatever this is. For all we know it could be something meant to hurt us. With that being said don't get me caught up in something I don't need to be in. Especially, something that hurts my head."

I finished my rant and went to leave.

Subject A9, Y/N, The Partners Accomplice

"Can you stop that?"I asked, glaring at Aris. "Your name has to mean something. The fact that we randomly matched and now you being involved in the telepathy can't be a coincidence,"He pointed out.

I hate the fact that he had a good point. At the same time I don't know what to believe anymore. I don't know what's real and what isn't. If I'm being honest the thing that scared me most wasn't the tags, or the not having food, or even being stuck here. It was the thought that this place wasn't a physical place. The thought that I may be going insane was worse than anything else.

"Fine. Give me an idea of what's happening,"I responded, accepting defeat. Nobody said anything for a minute. Then, Aris seemed to gain a brilliant idea. At least, it was probably brilliant to him.

"We should see if it works for all of us. Like a three way,"Aris suggested. "Please don't ever say that again,"I encouraged, cringing at the sound. He seemed to realize how weird that sentence was as well because he looked extremely embarrassed to even be alive.

"But fine. We may as well see how much I can truly do with all this.

---

Can you still hear us?

"Yes, and I'm already telling you I don't know how to respond,"I groaned, seconds away from slamming my head against the wall. I just pulled out my harmonica and started tossing it up in the air before catching it.

"Where'd you get that?"Aris asked. "My pocket,"I said defensively. "No. Where did you get it in the first place?"

"None of your business."

"Why?"

"Because it's none of your business."

"I know, but"

It's none of your business!

We all froze. I had actually just done that. It wasn't even on purpose.

"I guess I'm caught up in this mess,"I sighed. So much for not getting involved.

[12thperigeeball]

Hi! I'm so sorry to bring this up but I have some questions/concerns about this year's voting process. I know that this is the first time we have tried this out in two brackets and the first time tumblr has had polls but I have 3 things to bring up.

1. We (currently) have 3 very clear leaders and no one even close to their votes in each category, why not let that stand if it remains like that until voting closes?

2. I'm worried not enough people will remember/see the second poll since they voted already and many aren't used to having two poles. I personally almost didn't even see that there were going to be two rounds until a while after I voted and won't be around much the rest of the weekend since the ball is over. I never would have know. (Also many don't know characters by name only so will there be accompanying pictures?)

3. If we are lengthening the voting can we maybe lengthen the Yule Ball itself to the whole weekend? That way it gives people more time to join in, especially weekend workers. Nominations can still end Sat at midnight, but maybe we could even have voting occur on the theoretical Sunday as an actualy event in the ball that people can react to.

Hi anon! No worries, we're happy to help clarify things.

So first and foremost, I do want to clarify that the voting process this year is a cumulation of different decisions that all three of us have discussed and agreed upon, based off of last year's voting concerns of the community and our experience with the ball theme voting process this year.

One major issue that I know concerned people last year was cheating - and our Google forms runs on an honor system. Doing a no sign in required voting form with no results showing has been the way the ball has worked for ten+ years now, but we can tell when the times have changed and the community asks for more accountability.

Secondly, one concern we heard from the ball them voting from earlier was the amount of options and the votes being more spread out. If you have 200+ votes but the 'winning' option only has 50, then that's an issue, isn't it? And when you toss in the option to see results without having to vote for a nominee, well, that skews things as well. A trade off for accountability, but one we can work with. We did feel like the second round of voting went much smoother than expected and still got an incredible amount of engagement from our user base! We were pretty worried it wouldn't, but it proved otherwise.

So, to answer your questions directly: 1) It has been two hours since voting began (from the time of receiving this ask + writing it. It is now 12 hours since receiving the ask as of posting). In previous years we've seen nominees come out strong out the gate and then fall behind as the process went ahead (in the past 10~ hours we can see that starting to happen now). Making a call about letting votes stand at this time would be putting the horse before the carriage, without factoring in our desire to reduce cheating as mentioned before. Our attempts to reduce vote fixing is our main priority. Also, as of 12PM 12/17/2023, our current queen and couturier winners are 'see votes', lol. Not logging names/emails and showing results have to have a trade off somewhere, and the trade off will require a round 2 of votes.

2) This was also a concern of ours, but our previous ball theme voting rounds and the amount of participants on tumblr itself has assuaged our fears of it being missed. I know having two polls isn't the norm, but we feel confident that we will still get a great turnout as we did before. We try our best to spread the poll around by reblogging it multiple times so people can see it during different times of the day. As for the not knowing characters by name - that was one of my biggest concerns with tumblr polls too! I believe we should be able to attach pictures to poll posts above or below the poll to help as a visual guide, howeverrrr it will stretch the post out significantly. It's something we're still considering the best possible way to show this without clogging dashes from constant reblogging.

3) This is a pretty good idea and one I have already been considering recently! The two day format has been a holdover from the Taima days and while none of us have ever stopped people from continuing to post or rp past the ball dates and never require people to role play out the nominations, the dances, or any other aspect, it still does limit how much time people have. The logistics of it may mean some more thought of course, because we try very hard to be considerate of the holiday by having the ball happen the weekend before Christmas, so we may have to adjust the ball happening earlier in the month to give users a larger cushion to enjoy themselves. You know, convention logic for four days instead of two! We'll keep you guys updated on this for next year, so feel free to let us know how you guys feel about this idea.

[luimagines]

*walks on in casually, this time much more put together and wearing a soaked raincoat, offers you tea, sips coffee, leaves this without elaborating and walks off into a storm*

{Granite Imagine/Origin Short}

----------------------------

"(Lustrous)?"

"Mhm?", Hummed the being, turning to Sky, sitting down behind Wild, the being with glittering, (Gemstone Type) hair so bright that it could scare away a Redead pointedly giving the wild man a look and sitting him back down when he tried to get up, drawing a soft snort from the other members of the Chain, they were determined to put a brush through his hair and properly neaten it up before the next shift or get shattered trying it seems, though the look on the Hero of Sky's face brought them pause, a shine of recognition passing through their mismatched eyes, "Ah, this is about what I said to Hyrule, isn't it? About Legend not being wrong but not being right either?"

"You did promise you'd clarify once we were fully still you know?" Pointed Legend out, arms crossed and giving them a narrow eyed look, "As generous as what you did was, I'd rather not suddenly know that we basically sold human hair, or that the Smithy basically used your hair and flesh to finally make something Wild doesn't break in one hit."

A small look of discomfort passed Wild's face, pointedly masking a wince and twitch as golden and pale hands passed through his hair, removing tangles and twigs slowly, "... Granted it wouldn't be the weirdest thing we've seen or did and it's still one of the best gifts I've ever got, but it wouldn't make us any better than those people you said hunt your kin right?"

"You're all being dramatic." Sighs their companion, giving Wild an unimpressed look and locking a leg around his back when he shifted away, silently daring him to try and move the gold encrusted stone limb or break it to escape and help Twilight with the food, "It's not like it was a leg or that you all held me at sword point and threathened to shatter me or anything. I did it out of my own free will because I wanted to help and will not hear otherwise- Wild stay still for the love of Adamant or I'll have Wolfie sit on you!" They ground out, a sound vaguely like something cracking ringing out, before they move on, unimpressed, "Honestly! Even Aquamarine was more agreeable on a good day. On top of that it doesn't work like that, losing a bit of gold is nothing to me, and it's not like the hair holds inclusions so no memories lost either."

"Still!"

"Settle down now." Time cut in, "We're getting out of track, clearly they're not going to budge on this."

"Thank you Time, in any case, this is what I know, Kunzite was the one who really researched this stuff with the Admirabillis, but, well..." They trail off, a bit distant, "She's not around anymore, and I haven't been to the sea of slugs in a while..." They shake their head, moving on, "According to their legends, six great calamities once struck the earth one after another, apparently the humans, those who came before that is, had a mean of foreseeing or preventing them but it failed, and so the world ended. You can see the many cities and homes on the ocean floor as evidence to that, to survive, the remains of humanity split and evolved into three, the Admirabillis, the flesh of humanity, went to the sea, they're similar to your Zora's albeit not quite, they're mortal and grown and reproduce, us-", they point to themselves, "The Lustrous, gems, are said to come from the Bone, we've made a contract and rose from the sea, shedding our mortality. To wander eternal in the single isle left, we do not age, but if we break we lose our memories if we don't have all our pieces. It's... A questionable trade off, if you ask me." They laugh slightly, smiling a bit, "It's probably silly, but I think I envy the fact you all don't have to deal with that, gems aren't nearly as kind or adaptable as you all are due to our circumstances. And for the last one..." They trail off, looking up at the moon, for a moment, they saw the same look Time would get on his face looking up at it, conflicted, angry, grieving, "... The Lunarians are the restless rage, remains who couldn't accept the end. The malice of humanity left behind, eternal as us gems but discontent, they hunt the bone and the flesh indiscriminately to bring about a so called revival." They purse their lips, if you look closely, you can spot a crack above their face, "... The things that happen on the moon to the Admirabillis is a fate worse than death, and they use the broken and ground pieces of my kin as decorations, smiling and dancing over our corpses, so if you ask me that's wildly innacurate..." They shake their head, moving on, "Personally, I think there's something they want. They looked within the Admirabillis and didn't find it, so they went for us gems instead. Their king came down personally for both Aquamarine, Kunzite, Labradorite and Citrine now, I wouldn't call that a coincidence. And he certainly was furious when I got in his way, the rest is story." They shrug nonchantly, "Again, Legend isn't wrong, it's not human hair, or flesh, just mineral, but if you want to get technical, it once was. Don't worry about it, again it's not as if it's an eye or anything. I can always find a way to replace the hair, maybe I'll mold the gold into it, wouldn't be the first time." They make a face, clearly exasperated, "Bortz could get... Too rough, it drove Aquamarine up the wall when they'd get too near me or Kunzite, I guess he would at least comfort himself with the fact I'm not as easy to break anymore were he here, so I'm used to it really."

----------------------

Not pictured:

Lustrous Reader, meeting the blind child, gently picks them up and weaves gold in their hair from their arms: I've only had this little pebble for a day and a half, but if anything happened to them I'd murder everyone in the room and then shatter myself.

Also not pictured: Lustrous Reader being casual about the technical body horror on one end, while Citrine is anything but casual about it back home and following in their siblings footsteps (saving that for another ask).

-Signed, Just an Anon on A Stroll.

WELL GOOD MORNING ONE AND ALL

WE HAVE LORE AND STORY

HOLY COW

I totally forgot I had this. It got burried DX

But here it is! A start!

My goodness, I love it. This is phenominal. Fantastic work.

[dreamscape-popstar]

No offense but you were kinda rude to that anon I hate it when blogs are not appreciative of asks they get that’s my pet peeve.. using that person as an example is kinda mean who knows what they are going through and maybe your head cannons made their day. you should appreciate what your followers give you some of us would love to have asks.. 

Huh? Rude??

I'm sorry if I did come across as rude, it's truly never my intention but my tone in text is a bit more terse and blunt, compared to Karina's. With that being said though, I'm not asking for too much for requesting people not sent repetitive asks because it is genuinely like a troubling thing for us, repetition actively harms us and sends us into a stressful spiral which is why we're as open as we can be about it

I understand you (yes, I'm pretty sure you were the previous anon, you both type "head cannons" the same way, you can be open about if it was you or not, we value honesty here in the Dreamscape) love our headcanons, and Karina and I are super grateful for that, but there should come a point where we can't provide any more due to being out of ideas, which is why I asked for specific questions. If you want more headcanons from us, I'd much appreciate you asking ultra specific questions instead to get us thinking rather than asking us "thoughts?" and putting us in the spotlight trying to gather any semblance of "unique and original" ideas that not only haven't been shared before by anyone else in the community or were just ours reiterated.

I'm sorry if you were having a bad day/week/month/whatever have you, anon. We're also not going through the easiest time. But despite that, we move on and make the best of a shitty situation.

But I do think you should feel a little less entitled when it comes to this stuff, we're people too, we have lives and things to do, and we're not always in the best of moods. We have mental illnesses that impacts us, a whole entire disorder we have only developed to make life more easy for us and even then it can do the opposite. I'm not trying to write a sobstory here but we struggle too just like you, and instead of pitting that against us, find solidarity and understanding.

And like, y'know, we wouldn't mind if you wanted to reach out directly through DMs or something and just talked with us or weren't hiding behind anon a lot. Form a bond with us, be a friend, we're not against forming friendships. We're not on Tumblr to form an audience so much as to just like. Make friends with people who like the same stuff we do and like when we create our own stuff.

A whole bunch of words to say; I'm sorry if I was rude, but don't feel entitled to some person that you don't know as well's time and energy, especially when they've clarified that things aren't always perfect and just ask for patience whenever possible. I'm not mad, and I have no intentions of being rude here, but I should be allowed to state boundaries when possible. Otherwise we'd run ourselves ragged trying to make people we don't know happy while ignoring our own needs, and if you wouldn't do that, then why would we, y'know?

[windowlessatmosphere]

And We're Live

Summary: Kim's manager is insistent that he needs to do another Live to promote his new album, since the last one went off the rails. All he has to do is play a few songs, answer some questions, and promote the album. Without mentioning Chay. That should be easy enough, right?

“Despite your never-ending campaign to destroy me and watch my career go down in flames—”

“Mae!” Kim interrupted. “I said I was sorry. It was an accident, it won’t happen again.”

“I’m counting that as a verbal contract,” she informed him. “So, despite your crusade to—”

“Mae!”

“Fine, fine,” she sighed. “Despite your…past actions, we still need to look to the future. The last Live was supposed to be about the new album—”

“How many times do you want me to apologize?” he asked, frustrated.

“Many, many more,” she replied, without skipping a beat. “We need to do another Live focused on the new album, since the last one got…off-topic.”

“Okay,” Kim agreed. “That makes sense.”

“This’ll be the first Live you’ve done since you announced Chay,” she started.

“I didn’t announce—” Kim began heatedly.

“Inadvertently or otherwise,” she spoke over him, pretending she couldn’t hear him. He slumped back against her couch, grouchy at the deserved reprimand. “It’s likely that people will want to hear about him,” she explained.

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to talk about him?”

“You’re not,” Mae emphasized. “Do not mention him. In any capacity.”

Kim nodded in response. “No problem.”

“I certainly hope not,” Mae replied, eyeing him in a way that suggested she might do him bodily harm otherwise. “It’ll just feed into things even more. So. Light chit-chat is fine, mentioning a few personal things is fine. Play a couple songs, answer some questions. No boyfriend talk.”

“Okay,” Kim affirmed, nodding.

“You will mention the album at the beginning. You will mention the album in the middle. You will mention the album at the end.” Mae was glaring at him as though she could control his actions by sheer force of will. Which, honestly, was pretty much half her job. “When you take questions, take them at the end. You get too distracted when you’re in between songs.” Kim nodded again, and she continued, “And be sure to choose questions that are mostly about the album. Do not. Choose questions. About Chay,” she stressed, leaning in.

“I get it,” Kim fired back, scowling. “I got it the first time.”

“Hmm,” she sat back, considering. “I can’t imagine why I feel the need to hammer it home.”

“Okay,” he sighed, giving up.

“Kim,” she spoke again, in a much more genuine tone. “This Live is important. We need to lay the groundwork now so the album can be as successful as possible. Please do your best,” she finished, still serious. Kim was taken aback for a second, generally used to Mae just sniping at him while he responded in kind.

“I will,” he told her, after a beat. She fixed him with an evaluating look, staring him down for a few seconds before sighing despairingly. 

“No one can say I didn’t try my best.”

“P’Kim!” Chay barreled into his arms the second after he stepped into his apartment. He buried a grin in Chay’s hair and tried to memorize the feeling of holding him. “How was your meeting?” Chay asked.

“Weird,” Kim snorted, shaking his head. Chay took a step back to give him an inquisitive look, and he fought the urge to pull him right back in.

“Weird how?” Chay prompted, heading over to the couch and assuming Kim would follow. He did.

“Most of it was normal,” Kim clarified. “But at the end, she said she wants me to do another Live. Since the last one didn’t really go as planned.”

“That makes sense,” Chay agreed. A small smile was playing on the corner of his lips, but he was fighting it back, which Kim appreciated.

“She just told me not to talk about you,” Kim complained, “like, a million times. Clearly, she doesn’t have faith in me,” he snorted.

“I can’t imagine why,” Chay deadpanned.

“Babe!”

“What?” Chay asked innocently, eyes wide. Kim pouted at him aggressively until he gave in. “Okay, okay,” he laughed, pushing lightly at Kim’s shoulder. “I believe in you,” he said, laughing a little.

“It doesn't count if you’re laughing,” Kim pointed out.

“Okay,” Chay repeated, schooling his face into a more neutral expression. “You can do it, babe, I believe in you,” he intoned the entire sentence without pausing, expression unchanging.

“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” he delivered flatly. Chay started laughing again, and Kim gave it up as a lost cause. “It’s tomorrow. Are you gonna be around?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Chay tilted his head, thinking. “Why?”

“I can do it at the studio if you are. I don’t wanna bother you.”

“It’s fine,” Chay waved him off. “I’ll just hang out in a different room. And then we can get takeout after. Deal?”

“Deal.”