#another one to file under:

[writing-for-life]

Morpheus—Bilquis Evely

[nextstopwonderland]

□Single

□Taken

✔Leaving the commentary booth & coming out of retirement on the biggest show of the year because deep down I know my biggest rival is winning the title and this is my one shot to force him to pay attention to me

[sainz100]

Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen | 2016 Malaysian GP

[robo-dino-puppy]

horizon forbidden west | nil 3/?

[chryza]

Ooooohhhh thinking about how alone Saria was, thinking about how she grew up emotionally neglected, thinking about how she loved Kirsten and devoted everything to her changed her own dreams for her and Kirsten loved her but not enough and Saria pushed everyone away and was cruel and unfeeling because it was easier that way to block everything out (if you don’t care you don’t get hurt) and

Ifrit Ifrit Ifrit that terrified, sick little girl that burst through the dam in her heart. She could care about one girl, couldn’t she? And Silence who reminded Saria so much of Kirsten in her idealism and devotion to her research, maybe she could care about her too.

Until it all went to hell and Saria glimpsed for a moment what was behind the curtain and then forcefully drew it shut again (out of sight, out of mind). She could clean up the mess because that’s what she was good at, she could fix it and hold Ifrit and Silence in one part of her heart, and Kirsten and all her (their) sins in another. But Silence saw through it too quickly and said she didn’t want Saria’s help and she was absolutely justified. It didn’t matter if Saria’s heart ached with the loss of a friend and a sick little girl because she had kept the hurt out before and she would do it again. It didn’t matter if she was alone.

No Ifrit, no Silence, no Rhine, no Kirsten, just Saria diligently picking up the pieces of a mess that might have partly been her fault but it didn’t matter anymore because she was doing what she was good at. And of course there was Muelsyse who was the closest thing to a friend she had left. Even if Saria wasn’t sure where her loyalties truly lay. Maybe she didn’t need a friend at all. But the important thing was that Kirsten had gone too far now, and she had to do something about it.

But maybe in a vivarium hovering thousands of meters off the ground she at least wanted Muelsyse to understand why she had to stop Kirsten (from hurting herself, if anything). And Muelsyse said “I can’t hold on to both of you” and chose Kirsten over her which frankly Saria understood because hadn’t she chosen Kirsten over Silence and Ifrit so long ago? So maybe it was all right that if she couldn’t get Kirsten to stop they could both go up in the conflagration of Kirsten’s dreams, though she didn’t count on Kirsten knowing her too well. Maybe her death would be deserved, alone, because she gave up on Kirsten. And wasn’t alone how you always wanted it anyway Saria?

…

But maybe it wasn’t all lost. The fall hurt like hell but at the bottom was forgiveness she didn’t feel like she deserved but was offered nonetheless.

[lush-specimen]

[spotaus]

Flesh Anon again.

So like, the only thing I can imagine now due to the Nightmare and ccino addon is just pantry renovations shortly after Nim fucking dies right?

So it's just ccino taking mental notes like "Okay, this is beef. This is staying... that's... pork, right? Yeah, alright.. and this?" And he just points at human flesh and the cooks and staff have to stutter and stammer out that "Well, that uh... that's... that's uh... human flesh... the late Queen never really, um, cared about the origins, only the price and this was... this was quite expensive so she decided it was fancy.... and elegant..."

And Ccino just stands there

Absolutely motified.

Welcone back Flesh Anon! Good to have ya! And. Ohhh yeah. This is tasty 🙏

They definitely took some time to rework everything, but the kitchens were like top of the priority list because. Well. Night was always a fussy eater and now as an adult... not much has changed! So Ccino takes the time to start reorganizing like you said and they get to that point and the chefs have to explain it and. Ccino is unamused to say the least, mortified to sat the most.

He's still new to the whole managing other people thing, and he's still got that instinct to not accidentally step out of line, so he's a deer in the headlights before processing and going, "The King won't eat that, we should just... throw it out." And. I mean. Ccino's the boss here so they toss it as told. (It isn't until later that Ccino lets himself process that and get queasy about it-)

Nightmare never knows that Nim ate it or considered it a delicacy. When Night was freshly King, info like that would just add to his stressors, and he got to keep a hint of blissful ignorance <3

[zakura-ss]

The eyes are on you

For the version under the cut uhhh eyestrain warning, i was messing around.

[tennessoui]

would it be annoying or fun for y’all if I were to write a “choose your own adventure”/“vote on what happens to the characters next” fic vía tumblr polls?🫣🤔

[chamerionwrites]

Had the worst morning and I was SO brave about it. Did not trip facefirst down an abyss of viciously mean self-talk about ordinary human fuckups. Cleaned up the proverbial spilled milk and then went out and socialized instead of crawling back into bed and writing the day off as a loss.

[mo-ok]

every time my partner grabs two iceypoles at once this is all i can think about

[petitsdieu]

starting and finishing a book in one day, finishing at 5-something in the morning... is a wild, new experience for me. i feel a lil' empty.

[moe-broey]

Reminded of my dream last night where my Mom pulled me aside, the way you just know you're in Deep Shit. Once she had me, she lowered her voice, imposing and threatening with an unmatched level of severity. She said, "Listen to me. These are your options. You're either going to stop being aro/ace or you're going to have to deal with the wolf spiders."

And I was like, damn, "So like, what's the best way to deal with wolf spiders?"

She did not elaborate as that was clearly the incorrect answer.

[venterry]

to absolutely no ones surprise scavengers reign is now in my absolute top pieces of media ever

[cjgladback]

For the first time in a long while, I got to go to a white elephant gift exchange this December! We had a low price ceiling and my practically wins out over any practical joke sensibilities every time, so on the designated shopping day I left my local overstock store with a nice chopstick set, some fancy (not at all mess-free) popcorn, and a dream.

When I was growing up, my mom was an intrepid homeschooling parent who loved event planning, valued cultural exploration, and had married into a Japanese family. Multiple times - sometimes in the setting of a multicultural fair, at least once as a kind of class party (with celebratory takeout at the end) - she faced teaching large groups of children how to use chopsticks quickly and with as little cost and cleanup as possible.

Her answer was popcorn! It's edible, so you get the full motion down, and lightweight but large enough for less coordinated sticks to pinch. It has tons of nubbins to grab and widely varied shapes to experiment with. Specifically, we used air-popped kernels, without oil or toppings, so when it gets overzealously crushed or bounces away and gets missed by a broom, it's basically biodegradable styrofoam.

What I'm saying is, this is my mom's fault. Other than the choice to draw so many hands in one afternoon on the same day as the party, while also baking a snack. That's all me. This primer was delivered in the format of a tiny booklet (if you look up an "eight page zine" that's also a method I learned from my mom, to turn single-sided misprints into notepads), with fewer jokes and tips than I'd have liked because I simply did not have time to transcribe a hashi rest fold or hairstyle. But reformatted (for Mastodon) it looks fairly respectable.

Lengthy image descriptions and full poster format under the cut.

[ID: A title page reads "How to Use Chopsticks" in all caps. The words "without too much mess" are between two straight, orange lines, which start with round points at the left, evoking chopsticks, and end in flared shapes of a silhouetted splash on the right. Below the lower line are the words "by CJ Gladback." All the text is in black, the background is white but appears light orange due to a repeating geometric watermark pattern of CJ's logo in orange overlaid on the whole image; her handle on most sites is included once on each of the following spreads: @cjgladback​

Next is the first spread of four illustrations with their instructions. On the left half of page are two line drawings of a right hand holding one and then two chopsticks, with the text, "The first stick rests on the side of your ring finger's nail and the flesh between your thumb and index finger. Your middle finger's pad holds it securely while it can slide against your thumb as your hand changes posture in use. The second stick is held between the knuckle of your thumb and the middle section of your index finger. This is the one you move to change angles; it may touch but doesn't really rest on the middle finger's tip." In orange, two arrows indicate the rest points for the first stick while small hashes emanate from the points pressed on the middle and ring fingertips and under the thumb's joint holding the top stick. On the right upper quadrant of the page is the text "Hold them close to parallel to scoop." A hand holds two sticks poked into a bowl of rice between the viewer and the palm; a series of parallel orange lines emphasize the space between the sticks. The remaining quadrant's text reads, "Press with your index finger to pinch firmly." This hand is holding an indistinct rounded shape in its chopsticks, with an orange arrow indicating the rotation of the index finger's tip to press the top stick's point toward the bottom's.

Next is the final spread of the pamphlet. The upper right text reads, "Practice with something medium sized and low mess like (air-popped) popcorn." A single piece of popcorn is held in disembodied chopsticks above a full popcorn bowl, with several kernels fallen to the surface below it. Text below reads, "Pick up your dishes to bring close to your mouth to scoop the harder to grab foods." An implied tilted bowl of food (fried rice or porridge with diced pieces) protrudes off the page, covering only the lower left corner. Close-up chopsticks have their points buried in the food and their lines fade out toward the right. The final black text, underlined by two orange chopstick shapes, reads, "but most of all, do what feels comfortable and eat well!" In orange in the lower right corner, the parenthetical "(and maybe knit a scarf)" is followed by a small orange drawing of a steaming bowl of noodles and sliced egg with a noodle line trailing toward two upward angled sticks with loopy hashes indicating knit fabric hanging from them.

The final image is the full booklet in its web format, with the three previous images from this post stacked vertically. Some orange lines have been added between what were pages in the print booklet, to aid reading flow. /end ID]

[hanzajesthanza]

i loveeee being in a fandom where the work of media in question is complete. it's finished. it's done.

we don't have to wait around for the next book or watch as the series gets dragged out and beaten like a dead horse for a neverending amount of cash flow.

the creator had a vision, he stuck to it, he executed it, and now we have "the work"—an established body of canon which we can talk about and discuss, without having to say "unless this gets changed or modified in future installments." there is a set number of short stories, a set number of books. asides from the comments of the author himself said in interviews and opinions remarked upon in essays and other works, there is nothing more we have to be prepared to risk everything on. the story is complete. it has been told. everything we know has already been written down.

i know some, or more likely, most people cannot stand it when there are no new or upcoming additions to the work of a fandom, nothing to "look forward to." but i love it. please don't give me any more, this was more than enough to deal with, i'm still working on this, honestly. rather, what i'm "looking forward to" are interpretations, analysis, and other work from fans from which we can generate—ourselves—ongoing discussions and arguments which will last us forever.

i don't want hype. i want love.