#anyhow op of that post is not the first people to come up with 'people like richard too much now and it is Bad and Uncritical'

[shredsandpatches]

tfw you're an intensive class at manuscript camp and you see takes about richard ii that are based on the assumption that he is meant to be a Villain Protagonist

[yuseirra]

I've been exploring the idea that the star IS the god of the series (in that case, the name "hoshino" implies that the members of the household must be all gods..!)

And I thought the there would be a god who's responsible for the black star and the white star, one each..

But it does also occur to me, what message would THAT have if the story is only swayed by the gods? That's just as much as convenient and shallow as having one mastermind be responsible for every bad thing in the story.

So here's another idea, remember how in the first season's op(anime ver), a white star floats in the bg and it glitches out into being the black one? Maybe it's just one god who's responsible for both.

I think the "star" would be the "god of entertainment"(ame-no-uzume) and she's the one who originally really loves people and loves spreading love, thus blessing those in the entertainment industry and helps them rise to bigger heights.

However, the entertainment industry ended up having many dark sides to it, making her become corrupt and form another, irrational and destructive side of her, thus the "black star". Whenever someone falls deep and gets consumed by the malice of it, she tries to protect them through her powers but it works like a monkey's paw because she herself is tainted.

Maybe the two protagonists are assigned to bring back order and bring her back to her true nature. Ruby heads into the light(the white star), the bright side of the industry while Aqua may have to get rid of? Fix? Purify?; the corrupt sides of the industry SOMEHOW(black star). This is just a passing thought but I have a feeling that it could have been the people who've corrupted the gods in the first place if they've been causing mishap. The black and the white could be two sides of the same thing and the brighter the light, the stronger the shadow becomes.

Anyhow, the way how everyone's wishes that they made in Amenouzume's shrine became granted but in twisted ways.. Seem to imply that the god IS unstable right now. (Or that her husband is. That shrine actually worships both her and her husband.) Then, in that case, making the industry healthier may help that god return to her original loving self. She could be both the god who loves people & the one that is absurd and irrational.

Just throwing this out here too because theorizing doesn't hurt!

+ADDING ON:

Aqua's reaction towards the name "Amenouzume" was interesting(ch 74). I've said this once but he seems to have many thoughts about her.

I feel like the "role" or "mission" he was assigned by the gods he has could be related to that particular god. And if Ai IS amenouzume, the way Aqua is so keen about "making her real wishes come true" (end of ch 109, end of ch 130, how he says he only has one mission to tsukuyomi in ch 118)(making the movie, saving kamiki) and vowing he would do it for her is not only just because Ai is his precious person. It's what he HAS been assigned to do.

I believe that could be why he's been thinking about how he should "save his father" in respect to his mother's wishes because he's figured out that if that's what she wanted, it's something he needs to follow through regardless of what he wants.

However, if their dad is a "corrupted god" in reality that's already gone too far down the wrong path(refer to this post: I feel Kamiki IS a god who's forgotten he's a god too), thus is someone beyond saving, he can't go through with his mission. Then he'd rather keep everyone who loves safe, away from his influence, and take him down.

I think that's what's going on there... doesn't it all work nicely together?

[jazzhandsmcleg]

how to deal with door-to-door canvassers during political campaign season (and any other time of year)

hello, fellow USAmericans. as you may know (mild sarcasm), the presidential election is now slightly over one month away. political canvassers of all stripes began ramping up their campaigns last month, and this month things will get even more hectic.

I worked as a door-to-door canvasser for a political nonprofit for a few weeks last month! while that certainly doesn't make me an expert, I haven't seen anyone more knowledgeable about how canvassing works make a post like this, so...I'm here to do what I can.

bear in mind that this is mostly geared toward nonprofit and political door-to-door canvassing in the USA, but some of it applies to general canvassers and probably to some other countries too.

before we get into it: for those who just want to know the fastest way to get rid of a canvasser at your door without going into a readmore: it's either a) don't answer your door (even if we can see you through your window! you are under no obligation) or b) say "no thank you" and then close your door. we don't consider it rude and will in fact thank you for saving us both time and energy. that being said, please be polite!

and now, the full guide, beginning with:

the walkup.

first of all, be aware that canvassing can happen across a wide range of days and times. where I live, canvassing is allowed until 9pm if you can believe that. we only went til 8pm, but that's still very late in this part of the country. usually we were a M-F enterprise, but weekends are now on the table as the election nears, and of course religious canvassers and business canvassers will have their own models for when they come to your place.

canvassers will assess your house for loose dogs in the yard, "no trespassing" signs, "no soliciting" signs, locked gates, and the like.

generally canvassers will open simple latches. canvassers generally-to-always will NOT remove locks even if they are not fastened.

non-profit, political, and religious canvassers are allowed to ignore "no soliciting" signs because they are not asking for your money (assuming the political canvassers aren't fundraising, anyhow); people who want you to pay them to trim your trees or mow your lawn or whatever are not allowed to ignore these.

"no trespassing" signs are a little tougher. I made another post about it here.

that post also covers more ornate signs that say things like "no charities, no religion, no sales, no nothing. go away, my dog hates you and so do I", though those are a bit more of a grey area. suffice to say the more of them there are, the less likely we are to knock on your door.

however, the bottom line is that all of this varies slightly by jurisdiction so be sure to check your local bylaws. canvassers must go by the letter of the law so make sure that what you're putting on your front door will get you the intended effect. yes, this sometimes means ignoring your two dozen "no soliciting" signs.

the knock/the ring.

most canvassers only try a door twice. that can be one doorbell ring and one knock, two knocks, whatever. some try it three times. no one I worked with wanted to waste their time any more than that. we have quotas to hit and if you're not answering, you're not answering.

that being said, sometimes the same canvasser or a different canvasser from the same organization will come back around a few hours or even days later. if we come back on the same day, it's probably because our numbers are low or we finished early and we want to keep trying. if we come back on a different day, it might be a follow-up to the original visit or it might be a completely new topic they want to talk to you about. we always appreciate it a lot when people are willing to entertain repeat visits.

remember that you are under no obligation to answer the door. in fact, if you're just going to be nasty to us because we ignored your "no soliciting" sign, we prefer that you don't open the door. it saves all of us time and energy.

this includes if we made eye contact through the window, if you were actually in your garage or yard or car and you saw us as we walked up, anything like that. some canvassers are going to be more proactive than others in trying to engage with you in these cases. walk deeper into the house; close the garage door; pretend you don't see or hear us; whatever. canvassers don't care and won't hold it against you even if they are one of the more proactive types!

the contact: part 1 (intro).

often canvassers have a little mini speech they have to get through to introduce themselves and what they're doing on your doorstep before they'll actually get around to asking you their questions/offering to sell you whatever/handing you a pamphlet.

we try to keep this as short as possible because we know no one wants to be stuck on a doorstep forever, feel free to ask us to get to the chase if you're busy or what have you. we will usually oblige.

similarly, we try to keep it short because we know that other people from other organizations might have been here recently to ask you the exact same things and you're tired of it. if this is the case, we appreciate your patience and willingness to engage with us even if you've already done this rigmarole three times this week.

don't be surprised if people know your name and some of your information. for example, because they were a nonprofit, the canvassing company I worked for had access to the voter rolls. also don't be surprised if they have the information for the previous resident, especially if you live in an apartment. our information was often out of date by a couple of years.

the contact: part 2 (the sell).

if you don't want to answer the questionnaire, talk religion, or have your gutters cleaned, a polite "no thank you" and the immediate closing of your door will get rid of all but the sleaziest of canvassers.

you don't owe us anything more than that, and we will thank you for not wasting our time!

when I was canvassing, I was instructed to keep talking until I hear three hard "no"s or until I hear the click of a latch, so closing the door on us really is the fastest and easiest way to get rid of us. otherwise we will take your objections seriously (i.e. we will assume you are not lying to us to try and get away) and do our best to overcome them, thus wasting your time and ours.

whether or not you want to engage with the canvasser and whatever they're talking about, please bear in mind that a lot of us have quotas to hit if we want to keep our jobs. your taking two minutes out of your day to answer three questions or hear our our sales pitch or whatever will help us with that, and we appreciate it even if you're brusque or in a hurry or we don't personally agree with your opinions. we're really not there to judge you or throw your day out of whack. we're just there to do our jobs and get paid.

if you really want to go above and beyond for the canvasser and their job, we may have bonuses attached to optional-but-preferred things like signing up a newsletter or what have you. giving out your email address, even if it's a fake one or you unsubscribe immediately upon receiving your first letter, can be very helpful.

granted, there's less at stake for volunteer (some political and most religious) canvassers, but there's not always an easy way to tell those apart. do what you gotta do, really, but be aware that it may matter quite a bit to us.

and that's it! I understand that there can be a lot of distrust for door-to-door salespeople and canvassers, and I also definitely understand why, but it really doesn't have to be painful. again, even if you absolutely hate whatever it is they're trying to get you to do, a simple "no thank you" and closing your door will solve the problem 95% of the time. (2.5% of the rest of the time it may be a predatory canvasser who will continue to bother you, and 2.5% of the time it's a targeted campaign and the canvasser has to confirm your identity before they'll take no as an answer, so they'll be back to try again later.)

other do's and don't's:

do consider offering canvassers something to drink or a snack if you have any to spare, or the use of your bathroom if you really hit it off with someone. canvassing is often hot and sweaty/cold and damp work with unpleasant hours, and individual canvassers aren't always well looked-after (especially if they're volunteers)!

similarly, do consider offering to let a canvasser wait out a storm on your porch.

do remember that canvassers are people just like you, and that you live in a society that requires you to put up with behavior from other people that you don't like from time to time.

if you have a barking dog, do consider stepping outside of your house to speak with us. it'll be faster and easier.

don't ask us to touch or interact with your mailbox for any reason. it's a federal offense.

don't be an ass!

Thanks for reading. :)

[damnghouligans]

Rewatching GF may have saved my brain from complete annihilation….. but I miss the rush :(

I offer post-series headcannons as consolation:

- the Stans had a GREAT time having to explain to the family wtf happened with Ford…… they basically said they were in witness protection and Stan broke the rules. If you say it with enough conviction, people believe you.

- the Pines return to gravity falls in the summers throughout Mabel and Dipper’s high school years to spend time together…. Things change, however:

- Wendy finally did move to Portland! She left for college and stayed, but she comes and visits her family often.

- we have little sooslets running around!! Stanley, Laura, and Lucia. They’re all girls. :)

- Pacífica eventually opens her own restaurant and cuts her family out… mostly. Their relationship is complicated

- all the kids all have frequent communication via social and text and video calls… which is great because eventually everyone leaves or changes or has different schedules. Yall know what it is. Time is fleeting and all that jazz.

- the Stans take the kids with them on their adventures when the kids are adults. The whole Paranormal TV show thing??? Takes WAY off. The Pines are world famous. Sort of like a weirder crocodile hunter situation

- McGucket’s hut is pretty much entirely honkified!! Fiddleford throws a big hootenanny cookout every summer for the town, and uses pretty much the entire mansion as a lab/playground.

- He and Tate run McGucket Labs Enterprises together. They’re pretty much what Musk and Jobs wish they were …. But way more fun

- mcgucket is pretty billy gibbons coded now. Still as fun and unassuming as before but with better teeth and nicer overalls. And occasional shoes. But only well worn ranchers boots. He’ll be damned if he’s gotta wear them fancy foot prisons.

- When Fiddleford’s not making the world a better place through his inventions, he’s basically the worlds best OP artificer to the Stans

- Ford was kinda….. weird when seeing Fiddleford again for the first time after the Stans sailed off. Because they were back in town to ask for something and Fiddleford was all too happy to oblige. Which is great…. But ford still feels bad about all of the hurt he caused.

- Stan pressed him on it and Ford talks out loud with no real point… just talks about college and their time in the lab together. The gloves Ford’s kept all these years. The globe. Frilliam. All of it. How the guilt absolutely kills him inside. How excited he is to see his friend anyway. He nervously talks about the gifts he’s bought Fiddleford across the globe in hopes of somehow making it up to him. In hopes of ….. idk, salvaging a glimmer of what was somehow….

- Stan clocks Ford’s crush immediately. Fishing out the backstory was to figure out how that crush came to be, and now….. well it sounds like the feelings are mutual. Or at least WERE once upon a time. McMillionare’s rich now, and he’s actually really nice from what Stan knows of him. Beats the shit out of the triangle, anyhow …. Fuck it. He’s playing matchmaker now. 12 year old Mabel would have been proud.

- yes this is ABSOLUTELY a fiddauthor fic idea. They’re end game and you won’t tell me otherwise.

[nhi-theuserof-this]

COMBINING MY TWO BEST THINGS RN ONE PIECE + PUNKNOIR *not a crossover

ok so I’m in love with gear 5 but punknoir is my number one so what if I— *spits this out*

Mild OP spoilers excluding the crazy ass(exaggeration) Gear 5 stuff and some fun and deranged thought process coming from a place of love up ahead, although all this is centric on hobie and noir interacting with OP the media not actually a crossover

Also this is probably so niche in general just bear with me lmao

-Hobie would be showing noir around and introducing him to other spider people that are willing or able to help with the different time period whiplash which would then lead to eventually meeting someone that would want to update them on media like shows and books and such

-It obviously branches off into media from not america and when you mention manga or anime you have to bring up the big three, hence one piece, doesn’t really sound interesting to either of them at surface level

-noir wants to have something modern to talk about with new people though, so he briefly researches themes of books and shows he’s heard about and rabbit holes across one piece themes of freedom and the part where (haha) luffy is like legally a terrorist or something so now he *has* to check out one piece

-He reads the manga first because he likes reading at his own pace but watches any particularly interesting parts in the anime after reading it in the manga

-noir brings up one piece to hobie pretty soon and since hobie is from like early 2000s? Or a little before?(messy ahh timeline sorry guys) one piece is probably still relatively new in his universe(if it exists in his universe)

-Hobie checks it out himself via video and or written analysis people post online about it as well as checking out the first few chapters

-I’m not very good at getting hobie as a writer but he comes off to me that he would appreciate the story one piece is trying to tell combined with its lighter tone that keeps it from going on like a ‘dark tone’ the way more current / popular anime does

-Hobie starts to occasionally read one piece since it’s not as long as it is in the universe noir picks volumes up from so he slightly might not know the commitment he’s gotten into

-He still has plenty to say about it anyhow, and Noir loves to discuss with him about their own perceptions on the ideas as well was the story itself

-Noir is fucking enraptured by one piece

(Gear 5 content ahead!)

-Noir eventually catches up to one piece and starts reading each chapter as it comes out, and imagine how fucking wild he would go when he reads the gear 5 reveal?

-Noir is from a generally dark and quite gloomy universe, and I feel that this plays a large role in how much he’d care about something so ridiculous to his own universe

-freedom freedom freedom that is like such a big theme and noir would absolutely latch onto it right?

-Noir would absolutely be bothered by plenty of things in one piece due to again, timeline differences, so the sun god nika part would likely bother him simply because of his own silly spider god scenario—I can absolutely see himself relating to luffy with the coming back from the verge of or actual death without their own say-so via their powers/granter of power

-He’d probably try to compare his own attitude and world view to luffy’s in a combination of trying to better himself as well as it’s fun to relate to a character that deeply

-from that general point onwards noir would totally try to get hobie onto one piece by watching the show together

-at this point it’s like a special thing for them two to just enjoy one piece

-when gear 5 is animated and they watch it together noir has to pause the episode a couple of times because he is so happy with how it was animated and hobie is laughing his ass off at the smear frames they land on whenever it’s paused

-they both immediately rewatch the episode like three more times and keep noticing new things, it’s a blast

Ok ran out of things to say🔔🔔🔔🔔🛎️

Sorry my silly ass couldn’t handle the pressure of not combining these two things when I just had the power to make my sillies like my other little guy that I’ve been braining over for the past week

I’ll maybe make some art!!

[fictionissocialinquiry]

A big thank you to @laadychat for the tag! Loved the Ladybug + Chat noir origin story!

1. Why did you chose your url?

Short answer: I'm a word nerd.

(Slightly) Long(er) answer: My degree is in communications and social studies (specifically social inquiry) and you'd be amazed at how useless hard data is in that field without its qualitative counterpart; wordier, more subjective data was always more interesting to me anyhow and fiction tells us a lot about ourselves ;)

2. Any side blogs?

This is the side blog! My main is my original writing blog @whymanwrites where I hope to one day announce that a publisher has actually agreed to put my name on a book!

3. How long have you been on Tumblr?

Since 2015/16 I think. I had always lurked rather than actively participated in fandom but once I started posting fics, this Tumblr just kinda happened.

4. Do you have a queue tag?

I do not.

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

Initially, it was my original fiction blog and it was to practice marketing myself on social media as publishers like you to have some experience with that (getting published is hard enough without having to learn that on the fly)! I guess the same motivation applies to this fandom account: I trial different types of posts, see what people like, and learn how to better communicate my stories to people who might enjoy them :)

6. Why did you choose your icon?

It's just a Canva image that looks close enough to me, haha! Pasty red head was all my visual arts creativity could come up with.

7. Why did you choose your header?

I honestly had to go check what my header is, I completely forgot! I chose it because it's a photo I took for an incredible human who passed away around the time I was setting up my blog. It reminds me of him and the inspiring way he saw the world <3

8. What’s your post with the most notes?

"Give me your best Fire Lady Katara meta!" apparently!

9. How many mutuals do you have?

If there is a way to check this, I don't know it 😂.

10. How many followers do you have?

587

11. How many people are you following?

270

12. Have you ever made a shitpost?

I can't think of any specific ones off the top of my head but very likely, yes...

13. How often do you use Tumblr each day?

Hard to say?? I'll check it for notifs a few times a day but not a whole lot really. I'm not a huge fan of social media, its distracting and it doesn't feel good a lot of the time.

14. Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once?

Oh, man, I am too pacifist for this... It takes a lot to get me to actively fight with someone.

15. How do you feel about “You need to reblog this” posts?

I'm not on the newsfeed enough to be exposed to many of them but generally they have the opposite effect to what the OP intends.

16. Do you like tag games?

Depends on the game really! I don't usually take the time to play them but this has been fun.

17. Do you like ask games?

Definitely!

18. Which of your Tumblr mutuals do you think is famous?

How in the heck do you see who you're mutuals with on Tumblr?? I am Old and Don't Know the Things. Fame isn't an important trait for me in a friend, though... Some of the people I follow are friends and I think they're spectacular people though if that counts for anything!

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual?

I'm a physical person, haha, if I haven't met you/seen you, I probably can't crush on you!

I'm tagging @formerlygoldilocks, @hayleynfoster, and @gemgirl28 (no pressure at all, people, feel free to ignore if its not your thing!)

[kbstories]

What are some of your favorite one piece moments and why?

WHOO BOY thanks for asking and buckle up ‘cause this is gonna be a long one

(A note before I start: I read OP up to volume 63 in German and the rest in English, so I apologize if I get some pre-ts names wrong! Also these are in somewhat of a chronological order and based solely on the manga.)

Luffy giving the dog (Shushu?) the last box of food: This is the moment that made me love Luffy, it’s such a simple but effective way of showing his core philosophy that people’s treasures and dreams have inherent value and that everyone deserves to have someone by their side who will fight for them when they can’t do it themselves.

Bellmere: Just. Everything about her and that flashback. “They are my kids”, just... It made me emo back then, still makes me emo today. Love it, love her, love her design and what she’s all about. Yes.

Luffy going “I’m nothing without my crew!” in Arlong Park: Bear with me here ‘cause I was like 12 when I read this arc the first time, and back then I didn’t get why Nami wouldn’t just ask for help (so the “Help me!” moment only became a tear-jerker during my many, many re-reads). Something that did make immediate sense to me was Luffy straight-up admitting his skillset is limited to punching things very good, and I was like hell yeah go Luffy because I was 12. (I also love that this sentiment was echoed by Luffy going “I can’t be Pirate King without you” in Whole Cake Island two years later, so that’s another favorite right there.)

Skipping ahead otherwise we’ll be here all day but Luffy carrying Sanji and Nami in Drumm. Seeing him climb up that mountain with his bare hands and feet fucked me up even as a kid, the way Oda paced it really made you feel what an absolutely harrowing experience that must’ve been and I still think about it a lot.

Zoro fighting Mr. 1 in Alabasta: That fight was just mindblowingly cool and I love Zoro. That panel of him kneeling in his own blood after winning the fight hrgghhgh and oh hey THE STRAWHATS SHOWING THE X ON THEIR ARMS FOR VIVI 🥺🥺🥺  how are those not permanent tattoos Oda FIGHT ME

The entirety of Noland & Kargara, how they died without seeing each other and fully mending the argument they had and how Luffy ringing the bell hundreds of years later redeemed it all. Oda went incredibly hard on Skypia’s backstory and I’m not entirely sure what possessed him to tell a story that tragic but I, for one, am grateful. (Fun fact I was extremely late to this whole shipping thing and thus One Piece is very much about the platonic nakamaship of it all for me but even as a clueless baby fan I shipped THE FUCK out of Noland & Kargara oh my)

“I want to live!” + Sogeking shooting the WG flag + Usopp’s speech to Luffy + Luffy almost fighting to the death to keep his crew safe + MERRY’S GOODBYE: I bawl my eyes out every time I read Water 7, it’s my favorite arc to this very day because it’s just so complex and nuanced and the crew’s limits being tested in every way is just a very rewarding (if incredibly emotional) thing to witness. It put both Robin and Usopp on the map as two of my absolute favs and I’m so grateful for that.

The Strawhats teaming up against Oz (?) was something I didn’t know I needed until I saw it and I’ve been gunning for another Strawhat group fight ever since. The team work, the absolute trust, just everything about it was a delight and made all the stuff that followed (Zoro & Sanji laying down their lives for their captain, the entirety of Sabaody) so much more painful. Also Bink’s Sake because Brook deserves to have friends to sing it with him every single day of his life!!!

Luffy refusing to ask if the One Piece is real or not on Sabaody: I just adore that moment. Rayleigh was so soft and indulgent with these baby pirates carrying along the legacy of Roger’s old hat... My heart...

Mr. 2/Bon Curry (?) in Impel Down. ‘Nuff said.

Ace saying “Thank you” after you-know-what but let’s not linger on that because I was reading One Piece weekly back then and it traumatized me to the point I didn’t keep up with it for 10 years haha!

The post-timeskip era is a bit of a blur to me because I binged it all just a few months ago and my memory is McFreaking Terrible but I’ll start with Law being warned on two separate occasions that he might not like an alliance with Luffy, making the alliance anyways and proceeding to burn in “Strawhat-ya is a fucking moron” purgatory ever since. I don’t care if it’s overdone, every year Law loses to Luffy’s idiocy is one added to my lifespan. Godspeed, king of emo pirates. You dug your grave now lie in it.

Sabo coming back: I know there’s discourse about that doing bad things to the plot and the stakes of character deaths in One Piece, bla bla bla, I truly do not care. Luffy getting one (1) big brother back and Sabo stepping up to Ace’s legacy was so monumental when it happened that it briefly brought me back from my One Piece hiatus and I immediately bought volume 75 when it came out in German. (Now if Oda will only let him live and let Luffy actually hang out with his brother I would very much appreciate that, huff huff.)

USOPP UNLOCKING OBSERVATION HAKI AND SAVING LUFFY AAAAAAAAAA

Corazon holding onto life until Law was safe + Corazon’s smile: Corazon in general, actually. Law harboring that little bit of kindness he was shown as a kid and plastering it all over his ship and his crew and his own fucking skin. Mmmm love me a big sip from that good ol’ heartbreak.

Still in Dressrosa, Zoro going “I wonder what he’s dreaming about” when Luffy smiles in his sleep. It’s this little line and kinda insignificant because they’re talking to Sabo in that moment (and that’s clearly like woah), but it’s so fucking soft and it made my heart grow three sizes so there.

Jack getting one-shotted by Zunesha: Get rekt you insufferable asshole oh my god

Whole Cake Island is practically 78 chapters of favorite moments but Nami saying goodbye to Sanji + Luffy almost ripping his arms out to warn Sanji about Pudding + Sanji making a Strawhat lunchbox by accident + “That’s just how you are” + Luffy muffling his pain in front of the mirror so his crew doesn’t worry (Oda turn on your location I just want to talk) + Sanji carrying Luffy back to the ship + “I’m your captain now! Don’t die even if it kills you!” so yeah, the entire thing. Also Katakuri??? What a loser I love him

[Spoilers for Wano]

And if I went into all the things I like about Wano we’d truly be here all day. Gun to my head I’d probably pick Zoro & Luffy reuniting, Kidd & Killer in Udon (of course) and “At sea you fight pirates!” as my favorite moments so far. Also Jinbei joining the crew after a million years holy shit FINALLY and Luffy getting angry over spilled bean soup and KIDD BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF APOO FUCK YES and don’t get me started on the new characters especially Kiku and Yamato and---

[End of Wano spoilers]

Anyhow. My answer to “What’s your favorite One Piece moment?” is basically “YES” to all of it, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[spiritmaiden23]

CHARACTER SHEET FOR ZELDA!! 

This is a headcanon sheet that will go deep into the depths of Sky Zel, namely for fantasy verse because I do have another post to dissect Zel’s character as a whole coming up! Fantasy verse I feel needs more info than what I have for her character sheet this way more people can understand her and hopefully play around in that verse because hunny witch zel is an excellent concept I refuse to go to waste. I’d love to rp with more people in this verse because it’s refreshing as well. Anyhow! Bear was kind enough to provide the sheet and now here I am taking advantage of it! Be warned fellas, it’s gonna be a long. Like very long, this took like an hour or two to complete. With all dat juicy details. Feel free to copy and paste this if you want, it’s good for main characters or OCs. But it is long as hell! Let’s jump into it! 

Character’s Name: Zelda Lockewood  Character’s nicknames: Zel, Zellie, Zeldy, witch of the woods, Hylia’s apprentice Gender: Female  Righty or Lefty: Righty  Age: 19-20  Height: 5′3 around 161 cm  Weight: 104 lbs  Eye Color: Light blue, similar to the skies. They twinkle with mischief intent yet benevolence is within her gaze. Hair color: Golden blonde, often tied with ribbons and in a very low ponytail  Distinguishing marks: She has a scar on her chest below the collarbone and at the end of her ribcage where the scar has a slight turn to it towards the left, right above her heart. After a summoning spell gone wrong, she was stabbed there by the creature, thankfully miss OP Hylia was there to save her from dying.  Describe physical traits in one passage: Whew, ok I sound like a broken record but here we go. She often has red cheeks that tend to grow redder when angry or embarrassed or shy or when she has the dokis. Very long ears that also can grow red towards the tips, as such people have mistaken her for an elf which is why she wears the witch’s hat in the first place. She likes to tie her hair in a low ponytail in order to work without it getting in the way but out of her hair is super long to the waist. She has blunt bangs or hime cut as I like to call it! And is petite but don’t let that fool you, she does have monster strength much like main verse.  FAMILY/ RELIGION  Parents: Hylia is her biological mother within this verse, she’s unaware of the fact and believes her mother to be dead. She lives with her adoptive father, Gaepora.  Siblings: An only child  Significant Other: None thus far! But I’m open to shipping here ;v;  Children: Again, none but it’s something she’d want in the future!  Other relatives: Gaepora keeps his family at an arms length, though jolly and wise he tends to be a bit of an introvert at times as such Zelda doesn’t really get to meet with her family too much or get to know them.  Pets: Her familiar, the Loftwing Indigo! Black cats seem to like her as they surround her though! Friends: Tons! But well in case future RPers are interested I can’t really fill it out.  Enemies: Sorceresses are typical enemies to a witch, she tends to avoid other witches too due to their cold-hearted nature.  Relationships (other): It’s tough to put Wylan in a category so this might be best. Though he is an annoyance and she finds him a bit of a troll slowly she’s starting to get to know him bit by bit.  Ethnicity: A witch! With connection to the gods thanks to her mother being the Goddess of Witches who goes by the name Circe to mortal realm and witches, her true name is Hylia though so don’t be confused by this. She comes from a nation called Lanayru, so prehaps Lanayruen if you wanna call her that! Religion: Most witches tend to follow something akin to Wiccan belief, Zelda follows that! Superstitions: When making a potion, she often likes to pray to the Goddess of Witches and sing a small tune while making sad potions as a means to break the silence. She doesn’t look at mirrors in the dark or but two mirrors opposite of each other as it’s believe it could make a portal of sorts for demons and other evil beings, as such she often covers her mirrors and doesn’t look at them too much aside from when she has to get ready. It’s silly, she knows, but it’s trauma from opening the portal when summoning a being far beyond her skill.  Diction, Accent, ETC.: So, she has a light accent that’s typical for those coming from Lanayru. Certain words, you can hear it spilling out. It’s best to describe it as a sing-songy accent where certain vowel sounds are stretched out. She’s learned to shorten the vowels though, trying to fit in with the nation she lives in now! Which is Hyrule a land far more bigger than her humble homelands with advancements in magic and certain technology. They have a more... I wanna say North american accent that can range from Canadian to the typical eastern accent for USA to southern accent from again, USA.  SCHOOL/ WORK / HOME  Education (Highest): Hmm, college equivalent of fantasy world? She was a fast learner and skipped a few grades which is why she graduated so early (it helps being the daughter of the Goddess of Witches too, demi god to be exact haha) she and had a natural affinity for magic, also she was studious as well and often aced tests.  Degrees: Oh damn... well she doesn’t have the title Hylia’s Golden Apprentice for nothing. So let’s consider that a degree, or maybe a degree in magic pft! Vocation/Occupation: A potions seller! Employment History: Let’s explain how she has experience in this! She worked with a brewing master, who owned a shop that was full of wares and while some cursed and forbidden, as well as the owner being sketchy, she learned about how the potions business works while working for him from 14 to 18. Four short years! Nice! Upon moving to Hyrule, she kept her potions making a bit lowkey. Selling her wares in the small town near the lost woods known as Tarrey Town. Under the guise as a merchant, it was soon discovered that she was a witch and while certain residents tend to avoid her due to low reputation of witches as a whole, many are attracted by her refreshingly friendly nature and excellent quality in potions. Rumors begin to spread out and she does tend to travel to the big city, Castle Town, from time to time to sell her wares. Though she’s still learning the ropes, and though her business isn’t really that big, she’s doing not too bad. Salary: Potions aren’t cheap, she’s her own boss as well. So, let’s put it that way. HWEOH  Status and money: Despite how well her business is doing, she’s not exactly rich but she’s not too worried about her money situation either. Resourceful, she tends to save her money by collecting her own ingredients in the Lost Woods, though if she has to she will go out to get the ones she couldn’t find within the forest and while some are expensive, she tends to barging with cheapening the price somewhat.  Own or Rent: OWN! She made her little hut deep within the woods through magic of course, it’s hard to find unless you know how to navigate within the ever changing nature of the Lost Woods. It’s a bit like OOT in that regard, ALTTP with the mysterious fog you can get lost in, and well... I’m also taking small inspiration from Paper Mario 64 with the spooky forest in one level since the Lost Woods here is a bit... well, spooky!  Living Space: It’s a small, humble sized cottage crafted with grey bricks for the chimney and front entrance sticking out with some tudor elements to the building where the house is half-timbered walls! The outside has a white little gate with a plant arch full of roses, and there is a garden full of flowers and herbs, with ivy crawling up the building towards the back of the house along with a weeping willow within her large yard, a lake is nearby and there is a lovely waterfall but beware of the creatures lurking within! The window in the kitchen is the biggest window in the house, almost like a bay window of sorts but you can’t exactly open that window yet there is a another on the lower floor where you can, while her bedroom has a slightly smaller window where they are opened outwards and always opened in the daytime, there is a large window seat, large enough to sleep on it with comforting pink cushion as well as little pillows she’s knitted herself. There are drawers underneath where she stores extra stuff. Now, as for the inside, aside from the kitchen and her bedroom along with the bathroom, it’s a big mess! The small space is cluttered with tons of books and tomes, some on the millions of shelves (along with tons and tons of potion battles) she has and some on the floor with pages scattered throughout the wood flowering. She has plants like wisteria hanging on the walls and several others like witch’s herb among other examples hanging from the celling. There’s a small sitting area with a wooden desk and stool and that’s where she often works with her research. It’s pretty much well lived in and is the result of working too much to notice the mess. It’s two stories, with a small attic being the second floor. Her bedroom is located on the first floor and despite the window seat, she has a nice slightly small queen sized sleigh bed in the center and up against the wall, it looks super comfy, like you can sink into it and well it’s possible! Along with a vanity mirror with brushes for light makeup she wears for special events, and a small bottle filled with flowers, her knitting area with a small basket full of yarn balls and a wooden wardrobe to keep her clothing in. There is a cute rug on the floor to bring the room together. Along with book shelves. It’s a cute yet ery simple style.  Work Space: As described above, it’s a wooden desk within the main hub area of the house. It’s in the corner of the room, near a window as a means to get sunlight and fresh air! Her cauldron is not too far from the desk and once again, she has tons of flowers. There’s always her research papers and books on it, a quill with a feather, annnnd a small candle stand in case she’s working late in the night! Main Mode of Transportation: Either her “broom” which is an enchanted feather from her Loftwing or her Loftwing himself! She thinks it’s silly to ride on a broom and wanted to be more creative! PSYCHOLOGY  Fears: Well when you face near death and actually saw the reaper’s scythe coming at you hot, you tend to not fear much. She doesn’t really like to summon things though due to that accident, so there’s nervousness whenever she absolutely has to. Mirrors there’s a slight fear due to how they can act as portals into the other realm. And losing loved ones, failing to protect them. Perhaps knowing the truth about her birth is also a fear, as she will deny being a demi god let along to the Goddess of Witches. There’s this feeling she has where she knows she’s not an ordinary witch but out of fear she does not investigate too much with a slight hint of curiosity.  Secrets: Much like main verse she can hear the gods and spirits of the realm, something she denies and keeps to herself. While she can do wandless magic, a feat only known to Hylia, it’s a bit hard and her spells tend to go wild so it’s why she likes to stick to tomes as it better handles her powers. Whenever mana blockage happens, she tends to get embarrassed and will only reveal it if she has to.  IQ: VERY HIGH as expected of someone with a lot of wisdom despite her age. That is all for this one... Eating Habits: NOT VERY GOOD!!! She just throws together anything that’s edible enough and eats it, while it doesn’t taste good she’s always in a rush to get back to work because she’s a bit of a workaholic in this verse! Sometimes, she’ll take elixirs to suppress her hunger if she’s working very hard on something like research or recipe hunting, at times she doesn’t always get the potion right so she tends to try again and again until she does. Neglecting her need to eat. Pretty much, it’s like putting fried rice, egg, and leftovers in a blender and eating that disgusting mess. And though she can cook mainly simple enough dishes, she tends to not do it too much. Someone get this girl some food.  Sleeping Habits: AGAIN NOT VERY GOOD THIS POOR BABY!! When cramming in the night, she gets so focused she tends to stay up until four o’ clock by drinking lots and lots of coffee... and that’s when the sleepiness tends to hit her once that caffeine is all gone, you’ll most likely see her asleep at her desk. Being an early bird though means she won’t get much sleep so ;v; That said when not cramming, she tends to get sleepy once the sun’s down so she does get normal hours of sleep mostly. She loves the morning and always wakes up to the sun greeting her as she tends to leave the curtains open, not at all afraid to do that since like... no one goes deep into Lost Woods aside from Wylan pft.  Book Preferences: She loves reading research and recipe books! It’s always fun for her to learn new things and as such she always has her head buried in a book that discusses tons and tons of research. When not learning and sitting back to relax, she likes tales of adventures and will sometimes read romance novels as well.  Music Preferences: Harp and lyre along with other string instruments! She tends to love folklore as there is a history behind it and she does find that super interesting. Though she can somewhat play the harp/lyre she’s not as talented as say the bard Kina! Groups or Alone: While good enough in a group as she does like teamwork, she’d rather do things on her own. Blame being responsible to a fault for that one alongside slight hero complex for more dangerous things she has to face HJKA! Leader or Follower: Are you kidding? Leader all the freaking way! She has a natural charm about her and is ambitious in a sense, she would make a good leader because she’s wise enough to make good decisions when in a pinch. That said she can be a little bossy when worry wart tendencies pops up and will def assume that you need her help. She’s just trying to be a good friend who believes in you and your potential, don’t mind her. Just... her supportive attitude is pretty strong haha!  Planned Out or Spontaneous: With her carefree nature, you’d think she’d be spontaneous and while she can be at times because adventure is fun, she tends to plan a lot of things out... of course, her plans never work out. But again, she’s resourceful enough to work around the issue she may come across.  Journal Entires (Do they keep one?) YES OF COURSE MY GIRL LOVES TO WRITE!! She actually has a few, four in total. One for researching plants and other things, another to keep track of her inventory, one for folklore and ghosts/monsters findings perhaps, and one for her personal feelings. If you find the last one, she will end your life.  Hobbies, Recreation: Girl loves to knit! It’s very relaxing and she’s really good at it along with sewing her own clothing! She loves flying, and collecting plants in case that wasn’t obvious already. She also loves monster hunting despite how dangerous it can be, but due to how unique the monsters are in Hyrule she just can’t help it! Catch her taking pictures whenever she comes across one while a friend grabs her and runs for dear life. Jam making is a fun things she enjoys and gardening. Overall, really good hobbies she has! How Do They Relax: A nice bath filled with floral oils that’s meant to relax you and certain flowers as well. It’s how she’s got that flowery scent after all. She tends to read in the bath, and well reading in general along with writing is how she unwinds! She loves knitting and gardening and jam making is relaxing from time to time. Drinking tea while sitting underneath the weeping willow. She does love practicing her magic and hexes too!    What Excites Them?: MONSTERS DESPITE HOW DANGEROUS THEY ARE AND SNAPPING PHOTOS TO RECORD THEM, finding new spells, new tomes and other books! Seeing friends will make her super happy, flowers, wild plant life never seen before. Whenever other people from distant cities learn about her potions shop, new cauldrons, successfully making a new potion, exploring new cities and towns, traveling, flying, learning new things because she’s a nerd with a thirst for knowledge... pretty much she’s very excited over tons of things, it doesn’t take much to excite her, actually haha! Pet Peeves: Wylan breaking into her house, she has tons of charms in the place so it’s a bit worrying and annoying to find him in there doing whatever, messing up with a spell or burning potions, hunger pains when she’s deep at work along with her natural sleepiness once it’s dark out, prideful hero types mayhaps where they’re all talk and no action more like (she does value bravery though), bullying since strong sense of justice, and finally gossip and judgement.  Prejudices: She... doesn’t really have one? Aside from not liking bullies and again prideful hero types who are all talk and no action... liars too? And creeps who flirt with her. Flirting is fun but not when it’s unwanted. Yeah... that’s about it I think! Attitudes: Very determined and ready to face the day and is a hard worker! She’s a cheery girl through and through and very kind but don’t let her kindness fool you as she’s not afraid to put her foot down and call you out. She’s charming and a playful girl who has a love for learning. And is very supportive but can be a busybody if she worries for you. And though somewhat scared about the truth of her origins, once the time comes she’s ready to face those fears. She tends to get either angry or embarrassed (it’s ambiguous really) whenever Wylan is around doing... Wylan things actually haha! Stressors: I guess failure or deadlines that she can’t make if the recipe for the potion is too hard. As well as vague customers too because what sorta potion do you want from her she can’t read minds? Tarot cards and palm reading, while she knows how to do these things as it’s natural for all witches, knowing the future is scary and she’d rather live in the now while looking forward to the what the future has in store without knowing of her fate. Also, dark magic. She tends to stay away from it, corruption is a thing that can happen causing her to become a mindless yet very OP being known as sorceress.  Obsessions: WORK. Very much a hard worker to a fault actually due to her high sense of responsibilities playing into that. It’d be cash money if someone could help with relaxing her.  Addictions: Book collecting, along with flower collecting too and finally she has a super bad sweet tooth. That’s about it.  Ambitions: Right now, she wants to become a bigger name in order to help out people as she loves helping others, and well, the extra money doesn’t hurt either. She wishes to become a bit more powerful as she already is, up to the Grand Witch Hylia levels and wishes to increase her mana, not that it’s low but just in case! As Seen by Others: A cutie pie! Who’s kind though sometimes people do avoid her since Witch.  As Seen by Self: She’s cute and she knows it haha! Aside from that she doesn’t see herself as kind but someone who wants to do the right thing, there’s no reason behind this aside from it’s natural for her to be this way. That said she wants to work harder than she already is someone stop her. ASTROLOGY/PHISIOLOGY (hoo boi i know shit about that but let’s go) Birth Date: March 20 Time of Birth: 3:07 AM, right during witching hours with the magic number seven in it, that’s why Hylia went “oh crap she’s gonna be powerful like me and make poor life decisions if she sticks with me time to yeet this baby outta here” Western Astrological Sign: Pisces  Traits Associated with Western Sign: I’m lifting this from a sight but strengths are Compassion, artistic, intuitive, gentle, wise, musical. While weakness is fearful (not really she’s pretty brave but does have some fears) overly trusting, sad, desire to escape reality, can be a victim or a martyr. Some traits don’t really fit her, I guess you can say she’s the odd man out with typical pisces haha!  Chinese Zodiac Sign: That’s a little difficult since it goes by year rather than date but I’ll try! Year of the Monkey! It fits her best I feel! Traits Associated with Chinese Zodiac: according to this site monkeys are fast learners and crafty, they tend to have many interests, they are clever and creative and love to accept challenges. They tend to have magnetic personalities are witty and intelligent but can be naughty aka playful. I feel this fits her better than Pisces... or maybe a mixture of both haha! Handwriting: DOCTOR’S WRITING!! SHE... HAS SLOPPY CURSIVE THAT ONLY SHE CAN READ HWEOH but she can write neat cursive it’s just she’s always in a rush to get her thoughts out there.  Sexual History: Girl was too focused in her studies she did not date anyone. She’s not one for ahem “hooking up either” So... no history there I guess pft.   General Health: Healthy as can be! Medical History: Aside from that one time where she almost died, her medical history is really not that interesting. She does get mana blockage from time to time and they hurt hard and makes it harder to use magic. Her spells going haywire.  Allergies: Hmm... I don’t think she has any. Chronic Illnesses: Nope again! Handicaps: And again no on that either.  OBJECTS Purse / Bag: She has a leather bag around her waist, it’s charmed to be a hammer space of sorts so like... tons of things. Books, tomes, scrolls, diary for ingredients gathering, another journal for folklore and monster tracking, pictograph/camera athame knife just in case because you never know, wallet and plenty of others stuff Wallet: Well, it’s a pouch that’s full of money, a lot just in case. That is also a hammer space of sorts! Fridge: NOT A DAMN THING she’s better at storing bird food for her loftwing and cat food for any stray cats hanging around her area but her fridge is like... leftovers from the little meals she makes from time to time, jam, potions that need to be stored in cold place, veggies, and one battle of water that’s it.  Medicine Cabinet: While she knows some healing spells it doesn’t hurt to have bandages just in case! Along with medical brews that’ll help with things such as colds and other illnesses. Tooth brush and paste of course... and uh the little makeup she has because this girl a goddess and doesn’t wear it too much.  Glove Compartment: CARS DON’T EXIST BUT ACCORDING TO BOTW MOTORCYCLES DO, that said she doesn’t have a motorcycle so like... nothing! Junk Drawer: Utensils, knives for food... for one draw. As for the other real junk drawer full of papers, dried and pressed flowers, journals, and extra quills alongside some cute jewelry! Kitchen Cabinets: Plates, bowls, and glasses of course with spices in another and any food to help with cooking!  Bedroom Hiding Place: Underneath her bed is where the personal journal is... for the most part. Closets: Clothing, it’s a small closet along side other junk like her old wand, and anything relating to her school memories such as supplies.  Backback: Isn’t that the same thing as purse/bag? Either way, read above! Locker: None Desk: WEEPS DO I HAVE TO REPEAT MYSELF ON THIS? Read above with living situation.  Clothes pocket: Mostly letters for her father... a pocket watch, and sometimes she’ll have the athame knife in there too. There’s not much she can store with her dress apron! 

OTHER (bitch we almost done!!)  Halloween Costumes: SHEET GHOST!! She won’t go as a witch since well she is one, sheet ghost is probably meant for laughs really. Also she’d make her own black cat costume due to her affinity with them. A black dress, with cat ears and whiskers drawn on... yeah that seems good! Tricks: Little things like charming you to float! Or having giant rabbits chase after you before they cuddle you! Spiders crawling out from your ears! Bats following you. See? Nothing harmful but something funny to witches yet not so much to mortals or other supernatural beings for that matter.  Talents: Magic, she’s insanely talented but it helps having a Goddess mother who created magic and witches/mages in the first place! She’s good at knitting as we established and sewing, very good at brewing all sorts of potions as they’re always high quality, very good at researching stuff. ETC ETC.  Politics: Hmm well,,, Hyrule is absolute monarchy where the king and royal family lie about being descendants of gods so... yeah! Not much to say there since she’s not one who’s tied to mortal virtues.  Flaws: Worrywart which turns to her assuming things and taking the wheel so to speak she’s trying her best to support friends but well being nosy and like this isn’t always the best, sometimes while good with words and advice to comfort someone she doesn’t always say the right thing to comfort said person, she works too hard and is responsible to a fault, she often likes to give others the benefit of the doubt despite being screwed over. And perhaps... she doesn’t worry about herself so much as she worries about others. Not only does she think she can handle most things but also it’s a bit of a hero complex or something similar to that where she always sacrifices herself for others. Because, it’s the right thing to do. She tends to get embarrassed easily and has a bit of a nasty temper at times but it doesn’t take long for her to get overall as she’s not one to hold grudges.  Strengths: Very joyful and charming, many find themselves drawn to her as the result of this. Kind as well to everyone, aside from mentioned above in prejudice section and dislikes, she likes to treat everyone equally as best as she can. Reasonability is her middle name and tends to always get things done. She’s also very wise for her age and someone who encourages you to do your very best because she believes in you and sees this great light in you that gives you great potential for the bright future. She can be a little flirty towards someone she likes once she gets over her initial shyness upon discovering her feelings but well romance is new to her so sometimes she’ll miss certain romantic intentions. And playful girl who’s a bit witty too. She has talents for magic and is a fast learner for the most part. Also love learning too and is a nerd. She has a creative side to her! Drugs/Alcohol: Nope! Passwords: Probably her birthday for like things that require numbers such as safes and the like! Email Address, Home Page, Blogs, etc.: Well none pft Time and place: Very vague middle ages that takes inspiration from the Magic Technology BOTW has along with other games too such as TP and SS.  Special Places: The sky... does that count? And the Haunted Grove deep within the Lost Woods.  Special Memories: Meeting her familiar for the first time, any time spent with her dad as he was loving and kind, getting accepted to become a student for Hylia despite her wanting to keep a distance but takes her under her wing just in case. 

[darkestwolfx]

Rigged for Disaster - Re-Review #50

So, ‘Inferno’ has been posted about fifteen minutes ago, and this should now be posted like I have scheduled! Due to CITV changing the episode air times, again, the Re-Review Series will be returning to it’s original 6:30pm upload time. Except today, there are two. Inferno was like a bonus, and this is the actual episode that aired.

Unfortunately, as I’m still working, I didn’t really have the time to write two for you today, but I’ve managed to do it by making this one a little shorter (and possibly rushed), so if things are missing, I apologise (but you did get two, so forgiveness?) and I may well come back and edit at a later point.

So, first off, I adore the fish in the opening shot! But I couldn’t find a decent picture of him :(

Secondly, anyone else getting TOS ‘Atlantic Inferno’ vibes?

“The crew’s worried about that storm, boss!”

“They should be more worried about their jobs! Tell them to get back to work.”

Well, this guy can be added to the Hall of Shame set up in my last review.

“Flying car?”

Yep. She’ll teach you a lesson mate.

“Ready Parker?”

“Ready, M’Lady.”

These two, are always ready.

“Rig Supervisor Malloy, I assume.”

Malloy, from ‘Brink of Death’ (TOS)...

“She’s no hordinary do-gooder, mate. ‘ere’s the contract to prove hit.”

“What my driver means to say, is I’ve just become the owner of this oil rig.”

“Is she for real?”

“Yes. I am. And my first order of business is to decommission oil production on this dreadful rig. It’s a disaster just waiting to happen. And hazardous for everyone on board.”

Well, since you’ve said it Lady Penelope, shall we just dive in?

“Oooh-wah! *Rig breaks apart and guy falls to the floor (is the eye patch coincidence or do we think he’s lost an eye on this rig?* I’m ok!”

Point proven. Disaster #1 (although a minute one)

“That’s the overboard alarm system.”

I’m honestly surprised - with the state of this rig - that they have one, and even more so that it works!

“Someone’s gone over the edge!”

“Help!

Disaster #2. Look at her, hanging on and screaming for dear life. That’s obviously what you get for siding with the “New Boss” when your old boss is a little like a pirate criminal.

“Parker, have you driven one of those before.”

“hI can drive hanything, Miss.”

“Take it down. Ahh! Parker!”

“Sorry. ‘ard to get the knack for this hone.”

Thought you said you could drive anything, Parker? I had complete and utter faith in you, as well.

Speaking of Kayo as well, why is she there? She just turned up out of the Shadows. Makes sense I suppose.

Anyhow, onto Disaster #3. Fire!

“Steady Sherbet.”

“Woah Parker!”

“Sorry, M’Lady! This his heaven ‘arder than the last hone.”

Yeah, maybe next time we should say almost anything. To be strictly correct.

“hIs hit supposed to sound like that?”

“No! Get to the other side now!”

Sherbet! Did you see Parker’s face at the little paws scrabbling for purchase.

“hUp we go!”

“Parker, you saved Sherbet!”

“We’ve hall make mistakes, M’Lady. Get hoff!”

You can tell the level of affection has changed though. Parker doesn’t really mean that anymore.

And that was Disaster #4.

“International Rescue, we have a situation.”

“That looks more like a disaster than a situation.”

Thank you, Virgil.

“You’ve got to evacuate before the whole thing goes under.”

“The submerged platform is damaging the pipe.”

“We’re talking thousands of barrels worth of oil spilling into the ocean.”

Disaster #5 in the making.

“I’m going to remain on board and keep the pipe safe. As they say, the owner always goes down with the rig.”

“I don’t think anyone says that.”

“Well they should.”

“Parker, fire up FAB One.”

“Right haway, M’Lady.”

“So, he’s good to drive?”

“This one’s a little more his style.”

A lot more his style, thank you. And I think Parker probably could drive most things. Just not things you find on an oil rig.

“It worked! The platform has stopped sinking.”

“Something’s popping hup hon the hinfrared sensor. Crikey! There’s people inside.”

And here comes Disaster #6.

Where’s Virgil? We could really do with him right about now.

“But Mr Gordon’s the honly hone with that sort of diving equipment.”

The look on her face was enough to say that Parker was wrong. I wonder why Brains was making her a diving suit... Hmm?

So, we’ve got Doyle using the crane, and Kayo assisting with Thunderbird Shadow, whilst Parker is dog-sitting and Lady Penelope is going for swim. I think that covers it in like the three minutes-ish I have left to type all of this.

“M’Lady, hI’ve got hevery faith hin you, but that new heva suit ‘asn’t been tested.”

“And I can’t think of a better time to try it. Who knew Brains had such an eye for fashion.”

It does look kinda fashionable. Look at Sherbet! He always looks fashionable too. 

*Bark Bark*

“hOh no! M’Lady, something is coming this way! Something big!”

“Well that is rather distressing.”

My advice - as someone who cannot swim and really doesn’t big bodies of water - get back in the car. Fast.

Or just ignore me and hang on for dear life. That works.

“Don’t worry, Sherbet, she’ll be hokay. hI ‘ope.”

She always is. In fact, all of you are. You’re a pretty good team. Although the upset when they think they’ve lost her and then the hand on the window. Love this scene.

“hAwww, she’s making me blush.”

Thunderbird Shadow really can do a bit of heavy lifting. A bit. I mean, the crane struggled and Shadow’s engines struggled and the platform tumbled.

“I can’t hold it any longer. It’s pulling me down.”

It was nice to see TAG try and write a rescue for Kayo though, although they definitely wrote her ship more for bad guy chasing, not even dual purpose.

“Without the crane there’s nothing we can do!”

“Anyone need a lift?”

So Virgil arrives to save the day by doing some heavy lifting - and dissing of Kayo’s ship.

“It can barely fly, let alone lift anything.”

It’s a true observation based on previous efforts, but the idea to use Shadow as  grip does actually work. I will admit I was skeptical.

“It worked!”

It did! Magically all of the above Disaster’s were fixed or averted! How grand is that!

Honestly, I’m sorry I couldn’t write anymore (or all of this in a better way), but my fingers are tired from trying to type quickly without making any typos so this is what it is.

See you all tomorrow!

[neighbourskid]

The Thing About Zachary Levi 2.0

(original date: 22 July 2017)

Two years ago, in July 2015, I wrote a blog post about Zac with this title. After watching half of that years panels and spending the rest of the weekend working at a teenager weekend of our church, I wrote this post. It had struck me again just how different Zac is from most "celebrities".

One year later, the message of that post was still full of truth. My thoughts on Zac hadn't changed one bit. They only got better. After only one day at SDCC, I tweeted out that blog post again, because it became more relevant than ever, since I finally made it to San Diego and had just met Zac for the first time ever. So I tweeted it out again, and two days later, on Saturday, I found myself standing in line for something I wasn't sure about, which then turned out to be a photo-op with Zac. I wasn't gonna say no to another opportunity to get a picture with my role model. Keep in mind, it was Saturday. Zac had already hosted a shit ton of panels, danced his ass off at the Dance Party on Thursday and probably on Friday as well with his more famous friends than us. His voice was gone. So I walked up to the space, stood next to him, and basically lost my shit, internally. He once again proved just how wonderful he is. Standing there he told me that he had seen my tweet with the post and read it. That alone basically knocked me out of my shoes. But then he went on and said that what I wrote, meant a lot to him. We then took the picture and I am to this day still surprised that I smile in it and am not tearing up. Which I did right after. I went to the restroom and cried. Just imagine what that does to you. The guy you most admire in the world, the guy who is your role model in faith, work and life in general, that guy telling you that words YOU wrote meant a lot to him? That fucking knocks you out of the park. Like, I was floored. Knowing that this post touched him? It means everything. Knowing that my words reached him means that whatever the hell I end up doing in life, will mean something to someone. And that's all I ever wanted. Everything that I strive for professionally, is being able to give back. He showed me that I can, that I am already giving back.

After a lot of back and forth with myself (and my bank account) I finally booked my flight and hotel for San Diego last February. I knew it was not gonna be easy, and honestly looking at it now, financially, I shouldn't have done it. But after everything that I experienced last year, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go again. I promised myself that first day of NerdHQ last year that, if anyhow possible, I would never miss NerdHQ ever again, if I could help it. So now I'm here. And it has been the best three days so far. Again, one of the big reasons —beside my incredible nerd family that I have finally had the good fortune of meeting this week— is Zachary Levi. The Dance Party on Thursday was so amazing and it really felt like NerdHQ was still happening. It was an incredible night, I had a fucking blast, and I love every memory I have about it. Tonight, Zac one-upped it once again. The taping of SYFY Live from Comic-Con was amazing and great fun (even if my feet died like three times during it). After that, we headed over to the Hyatt for the auction. Honestly, it felt like coming home. It felt just like making my first steps into NerdHQ the year before. It felt so right. From the volunteers wearing the blue shirts, to Papa D hanging out in the background, to Dave Coleman being his awesome self, to Shekinah being the Queen Bee of Auction Items, to Zac. It was perfect. It really felt like NerdHQ. So much generosity was shown tonight. So much money came together for Op Smile. Nerding at its best.

Once again, Zac was just amazing. I lined up for a picture with him, because really, would I ever miss out on a picture with him? Hell no. Give me all the pictures. But, as usual, there's more to that picture than just a picture. In 2015, I discovered The Giving Keys through Zac. Naturally, I immediately bought one. A) because I love keys and necklaces and b) because I need reminders like crazy. That year, I got a key that said 'pray'. I had decided on that word because it was the one reminder that I needed the most at the time. I prayed from time to time, but I still always wanted go fight on my own. I was bad at asking God for help in difficult situations. Really bad. So I got this key, and everytime I ran into difficult situations, I felt that small weight around my neck and was reminded that all I had to do was pray. Every time my friends were having a hard time and I was frustrated that I couldn't do more to help them, I would look down at myself and see that word, and I would pray. I started subconsciously touching it or taking it in my hands in situations where I needed prayer or God's help. I started holding onto it while praying. The key did its job wonderfully and after a bit more than a year, I started feeling like I should give it to someone else. But I wanted it to be right. I wanted it to go to someone who would understand the meaning of it and appreciate it the way I did. Someone who would get it. I had a few moments where I thought yes maybe this person, but I was never convinced. I started wanting to get another key with a new reminder, but I was SO determined to give my first key away before I bought a new one. It didn't work out. At the beginning of May I finally caved and ordered my second key. It arrived on May 8th. On May 12th, FOUR DAYS LATER, NerdHQ put up the announcement video that the event would not be happening this year. I watched Zac struggle through that message, and then it clicked. It finally clicked. I knew with all my heart that Zac was the one person who would understand the meaning behind this key, the one person who could appreciate it the way I did, the one person who this key was meant for. The next day I sat down and wrote a letter and I wanted to send it to him immediately. Anxiety that the key would get lost in the whole madness that is overseas travel and post offices, stopped me. I decided that I would take it with me to San Diego and, should the opportunity arise, give him the key personally. If not, I printed the letter out and would just put it in the mail here.

I am so eternally glad that I made this decision to take it with me, because now it is in the hands —or better around the neck— of the person it rightfully belongs to. After we took the pictures (the silly one is perfect and I love you so much for it, Zac), I told him that I had something to give him, but it came with a backstory. He was okay with me telling it right now, so I did. I missed out on a lot of details that I mentioned now, because I was really nervous for some reason and I felt like all I did was stutter. But I got the gist across and handed him the key. And I really think that it will remind him whenever he needs it.

But it wasn't just the key thing that made this experience amazing. It was Zac's sweetness, his heart on his sleeve. Him demanding we need a silly picture, him calling me Spirit Animal, him reminding me that he sees me on twitter. Him just being his wonderful self.

Zac, brother, I love you so damn much. You are everything I ever hoped you would be and so much more. Thanks to you, I got to meet all these amazing people I can call my friends and family. Thanks to you, I got to talk to someone from Music Makes Life Better tonight and just have a great time. Thanks to you, I get to dance my ass off like I never would anywhere else. Thanks to you, I have a charity to give money to, a charity whose message and work I can believe in.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, a thousand times THANK YOU.

You are a rare gem in the crazy acting world. You make a difference. I thank God every day for your journey and your mission. You are a wonderful human being and I really hope you will never not see that you are loved. You are loved SO SO MUCH.

I love you, God bless you, and see you tomorrow at the Dance Party.

Thank you. For everything.

[minecraftoworymode]

bob the old builders

#OK I KNOW WANDA PAINTED THIS I JUST KNOW SHE DID #WHY DID THEY CUT THIS THUIS SO FUNNY #MCSM #also the steve placeholder.. bro im telling u.. they keep confirming my lore #it keeps Happening #Many Thoughts Head Full. #ok but the fact its Just Fred raises many questions like binta knew about xara and rom but they arent considered on the same level as fred #even though the three of them created the universe together... so is it just like the three divided communities rewriting their own religio #steve here is very likely just a placeholder like hes been in concept art before but like... i have no doubt in my mind soren would be here #i stand by my fucking lore to the grave that the first ever steve avatars were the first builders and soren was a part of them #and thats THAT. on THAT. period.

@b0x​ TO BORROW A PHRASE, YOUR THIRD EYE IS NOT ONLY OPEN BUT SHOOTING DEADLY LASERS (I HOPE ITS OK TO TAG YOU/SHOW YOUR TAGS AHHGHHDFHGDFHGK) I’D LOVE TO HEAR MORE ABOUT YOUR LORE?!?!? N AS AN OFFERING I WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND MY OWN THOTS ON THESE FUNKY LITTLE CUBES

(related to my ideas on classes and worlds)

SO steve n alex do factor in to my mcsm au but they weren’t the first humans (or humans at all for that matter but. thats another post)- those would indeed be the old builders (tho i also like to call them ‘moderators/mods’ bc, ha ha admins and mods... n i kind of like the idea of referring to them collectively as the moderation bc none of them have ANY impulse control except maybe soren and otto once every century or so.)

i think the admins took on (at the very least) three “proteges” among them and we meet most in game. i’ll be naming the groups by the time-honoured convention of ‘shared flawed mindset that bites them in the tushie’.

“WHO NEEDS HEALTHY COPING MECHANISMS WHEN YOU HAVE GODLIKE POWERS? IF I’M HAVING FUN EVERYONE ELSE SHOULD BE TOO!”: mevia, hadrian, cassie rose, with romeo’s favourite probably being hadrian. all obsessed with being extra, getting what they want, and being generally choleric. i mean you couldn’t just sit down and talk things out like a reasonable adult, you had to build a death mansion murder mystery complete with scooby doo style killersona? you couldn’t just keep your games fun and balanced, you HAD to turn it into a minecraft hunger games where no one is there by choice just so you can be amused by the struggles of people you dont see as people? you couldn’t just offer a good enough reward to entice jesse to come to your icy palace of doom willingly, you had to trash their town and then threaten their entire world?? guys, please go to therapy. please.

"I KNOW THIS SITUATION ISN’T RIGHT BUT I NEED WAIT UNTIL I CAN BE SURE I’M MAKING THE BEST AND FAIREST DECISION I- OOPS THERE GOES MY WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY TO ACT. WELP, TIME TO TRIP AND SPILL ALL MY TICTACS”: otto, soren, (binta?? i have no canon justification for this one but making it make sense is,,, another post ghklfHGLKD). as it seems that the old builders all have (or had until it got stolen/destroyed) an enchanted flint and steel, soren having had one would explain his books being in almost every other world the gang visits (including, notably, fred’s keep in the underneath..). though it doesn’t explain why soren’s ended up in a random loot chest. (at least, canon doesn’t- i have som hcs about why soren wouldn’t want to draw the admin’s attention to himself, n using a flint and steel would definitely do that- so in this case it was probably ivor’s crowbrain going “ooo, shiny artifact! might as well steal that too for when i’m done with this whole command block stuff.”)

“I’M ABOUT TO GO ABSOLUTELY OFF THE SHITS AND YOU CAN’T STOP ME. MAY MY PATRON SAINT MUMBO JUMBO BE WITH ME TODAY, BECAUSE THIS MAY OR MAY NOT GO HORRIBLY WRONG. FOR SCIENCE!!!”: harper, isa, (yeah i dont really know who could be the third one in canon- idt ellegaard was an old builder- so this ones a big ole ???), with harper being xara’s favourite. admittedly i’m not sure about isa, she’s only really here because of the eversource- but considering the only others who mention those are the old builders, well... wrt isa’s lack of old builder powers, i think that xara’s old builders liked to try doing things that had never been done before (or any visionary-aligned individuals, really,, hence the name ghklfdhglkd). for harper that was building pokemon red in minecraft pama, and for isa that was renouncing her old builder powers so as to live amongst her people like one of them (tho this was more of a social experiment).

finally, the purpose of the old builders (DELVING STRAIGHT INTO HC TERRITORY HERE)- in addition to having beings to interact with other than the villagers- were to be sort of microcosms of what romeo is/was to the mcsm universe as operator/op, but for individual worlds (bc the admins aren’t going to be in all of them at once, even if they can inhabit multiple bodies). the role of the operator is to be the creator and catalyst, to keep the universe/server running, to introduce new factors into it so that it can grow and become something better than it was before. (this also means that romeo literally cannot die/be killed, bc the universe is dependent on his existence.)

it’s not that worlds can’t take care of themselves, but in the event of potentially catastrophic threats emerging, it’d be good to have someone with admin powers lite to step in and stop things before things escalated n potentially spread to other worlds- tho only as a very very very last resort, bc otherwise how are u gonna farm champions?

anyhow this post is getting. pretty loNG so, on a last note- my stance on canon lore (esp mcsm lore, or what little of it there is) is that they’re more guidelines than actual rules so i’ll admit some of my au (new game +) does just yeet canon, tho i tried to keep the absolute wildest shit out of this post. again, i’d be SUPER interested in hearing more about your own takes on the lore/plot/literally any aspect of this game?!?!?! my hyperfixation level has been at 418% for the past few months and it hasnt gone down and i am. s o thirsty for content... i hoPE IT WASN’T PRESUMPTUOUS OF ME TO MAKE THIS POST N ALSO THAT UR HAVING A GOOD DAY/NIGHT/PERIOD OF THE 24-HOUR CYCLE WE BASE OUR LIVES UPON AAAAAAA

[wildefiction]

Hunger: One

PAIRING: Jared x Reader

WORD COUNT: 4,558

CHAPTER(S): 1/?

SUMMARY: When reader isn't attending a Supernatural Convention, she's preparing for the next one. Staying busy is the only thing that keeps her sane. While it's difficult for some people to understand her motives, one person will show her that he knows exactly what she's going through. Will Jared be able to make the reader believe she deserves to be loved or is she too far gone already?

SERIES WARNINGS: While this first chapter has little in the way of warnings, future chapters may contain content difficult for some readers. Each chapter will be tagged appropriately but may contain topics such as: Mental health, severe depression, trust-issues, and abnormal psychology along with eventual forms of healing and discussions centered around relationships and support systems. Please heed the warnings for each individual chapter.

A/N: This is the first chapter of what I’m guessing will be a fairly long series. Originally I was going to try to tie this up in a neat little one-shot, but it’s just not going to happen. This was completed for @saxxxology‘s Plus Size Reader Challenge

“It’s called Alexithymia.” “Yeah, I don’t know - I’m just glad I’m not actually a sociopath.” “What? No I--fuck!” “Fuck these fucking pants!” The sleek metal phone slipped from its precarious position against your shoulder and fell to the floor with an ominous clatter. Closing your eyes in frustration, you filled your lungs with several deep breaths - in through your nose, out through your mouth. 

In-out, in...out. 

Rolling sideways from the mattress onto the floor and reaching a cautious hand towards the new device, you prayed to whatever God would listen that the screen was still intact. Opening one eye a fraction of an inch, a deep sigh of relief flooded your body as the smooth, black screen flashed once; the tinny voice echoing from the speakers prattling on as if nothing had gone awry. 

Standing from the walnut floorboards, you turned to face the floor length mirror. While it had taken almost a decade, the wide, curving hips reflected in the glass had become the favorite part of your body. Only problem was, finding jeans that fit well was nearly impossible. “I need new pants.” Whining into the receiver, the woman on the other end of the phone simply snorted in amusement. 

“Well if you’d spend more than twenty-dollars on your clothes, you’d have a helluva lot easier time finding ones that you liked.” “I’ve offered to take you shopping how many times?” Your best friend had a point. Focusing again on the phone call, you relented - one outfit couldn’t possibly cost that much, could it?

Two hours later, your arms rested atop a cool wooden counter; a scowl painted across your features while numbly holding out a metallic blue credit card. The woman behind the desk smiled brightly, faltering a bit when she had to wrestle the card from your grasp. Walking from the store with what felt like an entirely too-small-bag-for-the-amount-of-money-you-spent outfit, you joked about what else you could’ve done with that money. 

Shaking her head in exasperation, your friend tried again to argue her point. “These clothes will last you a long time - the photo ops you so voluntarily throw your money at last all of - what? Ten seconds?!” Pushing one hand through the hair covering your eyes, you tried again to explain why you paid large sums of money for those ten-second interactions. Violet’s expression let you know that she still didn’t understand. Funny thing was, she’d been the one to introduce you to Supernatural in the first place. “Well this weekend you’ll be at the boys’ beck and call, so I think you spending the money here is worth it. Don’t they give you a free photo op for working anyhow? While far from glamorous, you’d been thrilled when the company hosting the event had accepted you as a volunteer. Rolling your eyes, you assured her (and, okay, yourself) that you likely wouldn’t even see any of the cast. Only seasoned help got to be handlers. 

The rest of the week flew by, and Thursday afternoon found you trying (unsuccessfully) to clear the sting of sweat from your eyes while simultaneously carrying an arm full of poles and light posts. They’d put you on stage duty for the first day. Afterwards, you were pretty sure if you ever saw another velvet-backed chair again, it would be too soon. Two-thousand of them sat in neat rows filling the main theater room. “Alright [Y/F/N], could you please take these and label the seats?” Suddenly conscious of the slight tick in your right eye, you nodded silently - sliding the heavy rolls of numbered stickers over your wrists before walking to the end of the front row to begin your new assignment. 

You don’t recall falling into bed Thursday night. The melodic voices of Rob and the boys from Louden Swain cut through your dreamless sleep far too early Friday morning. “Is it cool if I come over…” 

Excitement warred with irritability while dressing in the new jeans you'd purchased the day before. The dark denim clung to your hips, the waistband taut once the button was fastened. “Woah! What. Is. This?!” Turning to the left and then the right, your mouth fell open in a soft “oh” - there was no gap! You'd never been able to find pants that fit both your hips and waist simultaneously. It was a miracle. Still - you weren't about to complain. Pulling the basic black volunteer tank top over your head, you slipped on the trusty pair of Chucks that had followed you to every convention over the last decade. Some people cherished a hat or a cozy flannel, for you - these shoes filled that spot.

“WHAT!?!” “What do you mean she’s not here today? How..what am I supposed to do?!” You’d been about to duck behind the heavy black drapes dressing the stage to report for your morning assignments when a familiar voice made you stop short. Derek, a fifty-something event planner was pacing just the other side of the divide, his simple brown loafers kicking up small torrents of dust with his agitation. Startled as the man threw open the curtains and stomped across the stage, you decided it was probably a better bet to find someone else to talk to about how you could help for the day. Turning, you were nearly through the opening and had started to descend the rickety metal staircase leading to the volunteer break-room when a heavy hand landed on your shoulder. 

“ ‘Scuse me. You’re working here...yes?” Unexpected tension lanced through your body at the sudden contact and some part of you froze. As if he could feel it, Derek removed his hand rather quickly, absentmindedly shoving his ring-adorned fingers into the pocket of his slacks; the other hand busily scrolling through his phone; artificial light illuminating his tired, pale blue eyes. In your silent contemplation of the man, you’d failed to answer his question. “Ms…[Y/L/N] - right?” “Have you been assigned yet today?” With a slow shake of your head, his hand shot out of his pocket as he threw an arm around your shoulders - laughing heartily at something you’d missed. The mans face was jovial, faint creases of forehead wrinkles and crows’ feet framing his watery irises allowed you focus on what he was saying, rather than the pressure of his proximity. 

“You’re savin’ mah bacon Miss [Y/L/N] - I tell ya what.” 

The shrill screaming of his phone was sudden and briefly you felt bad for Derek. Raising the device to his ear, his body language calmed significantly; assuring the person on the other end that he’d found a replacement. A replacement for who, you still didn't know. Not that it was really any of your business. Nodding once, Derek turned back to you, sliding the small device into the clip on his belt. 

Fishing into the pinstriped fabric of his pocket, he pulled a cluster of keys out. “Okay, take my car to this address” -- procuring a pen from his jacket, the man scribbled some notes onto a slip of paper; the handwriting sharp and messy -- “Have you got a phone?” Tentatively reaching into your back pocket, you slipped the oversized Samsung into your fingers. “Good! When you get there, call this number..” --more scribbling-- and bring everyone here.” “Let me know when you’re back.” Glancing at the unfamiliar handwriting, you squinted, trying to make out the address. 

“Ms. [Y/L/N]..?” The impatient snapping of his fingers focused your attention on the man before you. “Please hurry - lots to do...lots to do!” With that he turned on his heel and hurried back through the curtained wall.

Although it was still well before noon, the parking lot held hundreds of vehicles, including two beautifully restored impalas. Sunlight glinted across the deep onyx paint as you walked by. The only clue to what car you searched for was a familiar gold emblem embossed on the black key fob clutched in your hands. Anxiety prickled along the base of your neck. You should've asked where Derek had parked. As your mind filled with every possible worse-case scenario, continually jamming your thumb to the unlock button prevailed when a flash of golden light several cars down caught your eye.

The engine roared to life with the press of the ignition, the lumbering bear of a Tahoe easing from it's reserved parking space as you wondered why anyone needed this large of a vehicle. Twenty minutes later, the truck settled into a quiet hum in front of a downtown hotel. Derek hadn't bothered to write a name on the paper he’d hastily scribbled upon, and you really had no idea who you were supposed to be collecting. 

Craning your neck to see through the windshield, the immense hotel tower rose impossibly high before you; the steady ticking of scarlett hazard lights keeping time with the ringing as you waited for someone to answer.

The tall, revolving glass door caught your attention, several people clambering into the contraption at once made you smile; a generic voicemail message kicking on after the fourth ring. The group spilled from the door in a mess of laughter and a tangle of bodies. 

Why you felt the need to duck behind the steering wheel upon recognizing them, you'll never know. 

Rob, Rich, Briana, Kim and Billy were still laughing amongst themselves. Inside, you were happy the windows were tinted, as you were fairly certain you sat there with your mouth hanging open while you watched the group of friends wander over to talk to a street performer. Eyes darting to the clock on the dash, you quickly realized it'd been nearly an hour since Derek had sent you on this assignment. 

Without looking away from the group, you tried the number again. The phone clicked and a cheerful voice answered with a giggly hello. Immediately you refocused on the task at hand, “Uh, hi. I think I'm supposed to be picking you up?” The mean bitch in your head snickered at how uncool you sounded. 

“Scuse me, what was that?” A blush crept across your cheeks when you realized who you were talking to. Looking from your lap to the window, Rob stood halfway between his group of friends and where you were. Twisting and looking back over his shoulder, he must’ve put two and two together because he waved before beckoning the others to follow. 

You weren’t prepared for this - you’d volunteered with the direct understanding that behind-the-scenes was where volunteers stayed. Occasionally one would bring the cast bottles of water or coffee, but picking them up at their hotel? Didn’t they have drivers for that? Your thoughts were cut short as three doors opened almost simultaneously and bodies began to climb in around you. 

That had been the start to a whirlwind weekend. The Creation staff kept you on your toes constantly, although somehow Derek continued assigning tasks more cast-centered than had been expected. It started with picking up the Friday guests, sure - but since then you’d done everything from coffee runs to walking the ladies’ to the bathroom and photo-op room, to helping with the sound check for the concert currently taking place on stage. 

Now in the green room, crouched in front of the mini-fridge, your mind wandered while removing water bottles from their thick plastic casing, stocking the shelves for the guests. 

A faint beeping and the murmur of voices caught your attention as the door opened across from you. Osric, Clif, Jensen and Jared sauntered in, lost in their own conversation. A familiar prickling sensation that often assaulted you in new situations made your shoulders tense. Luckily, the repeated exposure to the guests this weekend had given you plenty of practice to collect your emotions quickly; stuffing them into the deepest recesses of your mind. 

A few breaths later, you stood from the position on the floor, a large smile plastered across your features as you approached the small group. 

“Hey guys, anyone need a drink?” Osric smiled widely and accepted one of the chilled bottles. The others followed suit, Jared’s eyebrows furrowing slightly in concern as his fingers closed over yours. 

“Hey, thanks…” “What’s your name?” Your eyes darted between his brilliant hazel irises and the long fingers wrapped around the drink; beads of condensation wetting your skin as his hand rested on yours. 

Hurriedly pulling away, you scrubbed a palm against the denim of your jeans before extending it and introducing yourself. 

“Hey, I’m [Y/F/N].” The others said their hellos as well, your gaze shifting between them while they chatted animatedly for a few moments. Occupied as you were, you failed to notice that Jared didn’t take his eyes off of you for even a moment. 

She was nervous. Not that he wasn’t used to the look. But this one was different, Jared decided. He recognized the determination to hide her anxiety as something he’d gone through as well. He could see she was excited to meet them, and yet, she held back; likely protecting a small part of who she really was as she presented the version of herself she wanted everyone to see. While genuinely happy to interact with all of his fans, Jared felt intrigued by [Y/F/N]. He wanted to know more about her. About the discomfort she tried her best to disguise as nerves. Something was off. 

Crossing her arms over her chest while making small talk with the others, Jared noticed how proficient she was at distributing her attention to each of them equally, pausing for only a moment before looking to the next person. 

Releasing a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, Jared turned his attention to the door, having opened for a second time; watching as Rich strode in, beckoning to Jensen. 

“C’mon man, your public awaits.” He bowed dramatically, waffling his hand in the space before him. Jensen huffed, shaking his head as he clasped Rich’s shoulder, following him from the room. [Y/F/N] trailed along behind them and Jared allowed himself to take a longer look at the woman. The tank top she wore clung to her body, the curve of her full breasts and thick waist led his eyes to her hips. 

“Damn.” 

The word of admiration was muttered under his breath, but as he focused on her face again, the pink in her cheeks made it clear she’d heard him. 

“You coming Jared?” She’d stopped, holding the door open for him. Nodding, he quickened his stride and disappeared into the darkened hallway as he headed for the holding area backstage.

If Saturday had been busy, Sunday was borderline chaotic. 

Attendance surged for the final day of the convention. Awake earlier, you were due to report in by 6:30 even though the first panel wasn’t due to begin until noon.

Shuffling through the abandoned corridors of the hotel, you could only hope there’d be caffeine waiting at the check-in station. 

“Good morning Ms. [Y/L/N].” Blinking several times in rapid succession, you focused on Derek as he sat behind the assignment table. The quiet murmur of his voice as he looked over the sheaf of papers laid out before him only partially registered in your mind. 

The concert the night before had been amazing, and you’d been up until the early hours of the morning from the level of energy you’d absorbed. It didn’t help that a certain phrase kept replaying in your mind. You’d definitely heard Jared last night and you liked to imagine he’d been talking about you. The thought brought a smile to your face, regardless of how absurd the notion was. While pretty sure he likely had some gorgeous girlfriend waiting for him back home, you were content with the small amount of time you did get to spend around Jared. Silent pining was more your style anyhow. 

“...order.” “Ms. [Y/L/N]?” Snapping out of your daydream, you worked harder to listen to the man in front of you. 

“I’m sorry...what was that?” The middle-aged man smiled kindly. 

“I know it’s early Ms. [Y/L/N], but we really need you to be completely present at these briefings. Otherwise, the chaos about to descend on this place will be ten-times worse.” Shifting oversized reading glasses from where they’d fallen down the bridge of his nose, the man cleared his throat, consulting the Sunday schedule. Finished with his admonishment, Derek held a slip of paper out to you. 

“As I was saying, please grab the coffee order for the cast. It’ll be ready precisely at 9:50. That should give you enough time to get back upstairs so everyone can get their daily dose of caffeine.” “Until then, make sure the green room has plenty of breakfast items and if the cast need anything, it’s on you to make them happy.” 

Derek’s last sentence drew your attention from the list you’d been perusing. Outwardly, you nodded so he’d know you were paying attention, even though you still struggled with the personal Hell that came with sleep deprivation.

Later that morning, as you stood in line at the bustling Starbucks just outside the hotel, your mind once again turned to thoughts of the cast. Although you were tired, you wouldn’t change these experiences for the world. 

As silly as it seemed, these conventions had gone a long way to helping prevent you from falling into your depression. In-between event weekends you often busied yourself with planning the next one and it got you through each day. It was refreshing to see mental health being addressed more by the media. When you’d been diagnosed several years prior, only your doctor had believed it was a real thing. 

Walking up to the waist-high counter and pulling the folded paper from your back pocket, you began to list the order scribbled upon it. At one point, squinting your eyes in an attempt to read Derek’s handwriting you gave up and handed the barista the list, hoping she’d be able to help discern it. 

“Maybe I can help?” Clutching the paper, you raised your eyes to the woman in front of you. She stilled as a hand reached over your shoulder and gently took the list from your grasp. Breathing deep, you turned to find Jared standing behind you, long strands of auburn hair falling across his face while he perused the handwriting. 

Shifting to stand next to Jared’s tall frame, you took a moment to point at the line you were having trouble with. His body was like a heater, the intoxicating scent of his cologne made all the more apparent by the warmth of his skin. 

Jared brought the paper closer to his face, squinting at a particular cluster of letters. 

“I..think that says...skinny?” Glancing at the rest of the scribbled letters, he was able to make out the order for a non-fat soy latte. “Huh, I didn’t know Mark was here today.” Shrugging, his eyes flicked up to yours; an easy smile replacing the serious expression he’d worn moments before. “Did you get everything okay?” Nodding, the young woman behind the register added up the total while you handed her your credit card. 

Moving to the end of the counter to await the several drinks, you turned to the man behind you. “My hero.” The smirk on your face was genuine, even if your tone erred on the side of sarcasm. 

“Hey, no problem [Y/F/N].” God, the way he said your name… Clearing your throat as you settled against the far wall, you did your best to continue the conversation.  

“Why are you up so early?” “Figured you’d be sleeping while you could.” Jared shrugged his massive shoulders before answering.

 “Went for a run. Couldn’t sleep.” You wanted to ask why. You wanted to ask a lot of things, but instead you kept to yourself. He likely had his reasons, and you’d be willing to bet - if he was anything like you, that he wasn’t keen on sharing the details of his life with a relative stranger. Nodding in understanding, you turned back to the counter, gathering the three drink trays and rearranging the cups so each carrier held the same size. Stacking the grandes atop the venti order, you slid the coffees into one hand, grabbing the third tray with your free arm. 

“I can carry one if you want..” Jared was at your side again, talking to you as if he wasn’t a gorgeous, successful actor with his own security detail. Speaking of which, where was Clif? 

“Uh, nah..I’m okay.” Scoffing, the man saw right through your feeble attempt to decline. Removing the top tray from where it rested under your chin and taking the second one as well, he simply smiled. “Lead the way [Y/F/N].” 

There was something about her that occupied Jared’s thoughts. She was strong, sure of herself (or so it seemed) and gracious. He wanted to know more. “So, [Y/F/N] where are you from?” 

The chill bite of a fall day in the Pacific Northwest swirled around your body when the two of you stepped from the relatively warm coffee shop. Breath fogging in the early morning air, the small-talk you made with Jared as you crossed the street to the hotel gave you a small look inside the finer points of Austin, his hobbies and the show. Back in the green room, you passed out drinks to their respective owners, everyone murmuring their appreciation to you for your efforts. Pulling the phone from your back pocket and realizing it was nearly time for the Sunday morning gold panel, you ushered Jared and Jensen out the door as politely as you could. 

Grabbing two mics from the table set-up behind the stage curtains, you handed one to each of the boys and turned to leave. Jared’s hand on your shoulder made you freeze momentarily, more out of habit than anything. Apparently it didn’t matter who it was, the discomfort of being touched still prevailed.

“Thanks for the chat [Y/F/N], we’ll talk more later?” Searching his face for any hint of what was going through his mind, you nodded numbly. A wide smile spread across his face as he squeezed your shoulder before turning and taking the stairs two at a time. Wild cheers assaulted your ears as the gold members screamed for their first panel of the day. 

The voices of Rob and Rich joking with Jensen buzzed in Jared’s ear, but his thoughts were still on [Y/F/N]. She’d flinched when he had touched her shoulder. Whatever made her react that way, he hoped it was something she’d be willing to talk to him about. For the hundreds of people who thanked him on a daily basis for noticing their struggles and standing in solidarity with them, he knew there were many others who couldn’t bring themselves to share.

Before you realized it, the afternoon autograph sessions were scheduled to start. Walking through the main theater hall, your most recent task was simple enough: Provide each of the guests with a handful of colorful sharpies at their table. The headphones connected to the phone in your pocket piped Swain music into your ears and you danced happily while completing the mundane task. You’d do this job full-time if you could. 

“Oh, there you are!” Turning abruptly, you pulled the cords from your ears, effectively silencing the indie rock as Derek strode up to you. 

“Ms. [Y/L/N], did you receive my text message? You’re wanted in Adam’s office as soon as possible!” His blue eyes searched yours frantically, even while you became acutely aware of your quickening heartbeat. 

“Oh, uhm..do you know why?” The man shook his head as he hurried away, staring intently at the clipboard clutched in his hands. A million scenarios chased themselves through your mind; the least of which involved the numerous bottles of tums you were sure Derek consumed regularly. Walking through the side doors and turning down the long hallway where the convention offices were set up, you busied yourself with the pattern beneath your feet. There were fifty-two blue diamonds set into the grey carpet between the main theater and Adam’s office. After several deep breaths, you squared your shoulders and rose your fist to knock on the oak door. The sound of a chair tracking across the floor echoed from behind the barrier and when the door opened, you were surprised to see the man still sitting. 

“Ah, Ms. [Y/L/N], do come in.” Following him inside, you paused to close the door at Adam’s insistence. 

“Ms. [Y/L/N], it appears we need to have a chat.” Shifting uneasily just inside the door, you tried to still the worried thoughts still cavorting in your subconscious. 

“Is something wrong sir?” Adam barked out a laugh and you were disappointed when you jumped at his tone. 

“Quite, the opposite actually.” The man still sat in the office chair, his head thrown back as it swirled in lazy circles. “We’ve had a request to add you to our permanent staff.” He said it as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Furrowing your brows, you tried to think of a reason why, or, for that matter who’d sent such a request. Sure, you had thought about talking to Adam about the possibility, but you hadn’t made any solid plans to do so. 

“Can I ask by who?” Maybe Derek? I mean, he’s really the only staff member I’ve interacted with on a regular basis this weekend. Stephanie perhaps? Adam chuckled to himself and shook his head, his eyes bright. 

“Mr. Padalecki has asked for you personally.” Of all the people you thought might’ve suggested it, Jared certainly hadn’t even come close to making the list. You were quiet as you absorbed the information. Looking up at Adam as his chair lazily swayed behind the card-table turned makeshift desk, you cleared your throat. 

“Did he...did he say...why?” The little conversation you’d had with Jared this weekend had been pleasant enough, but you couldn’t think of a single reason why he’d make such a request. 

“We discussed it.” “Suffice it to say he is impressed with your dedication to the job.” “This opportunity doesn’t present itself often Ms. [Y/F/N], strictly because exactly zero personal requests have occurred. Like, ever. I’ve been doing this a long, long time...and this is a first.” “Usually we staff the more experienced volunteers as handlers, it just so happened that our senior team member bowed out with the flu this weekend and you were the first person Derek saw upon finding out.” “Simply a ‘right place at the right time’ kind of scenario.” “Jared came to me earlier today after his gold panel and asked about you.” Shrugging, the black suit jacket he’d pulled on over his  grey t-shirt bunched at the seams. “That’s all I know.”  “Think about it Ms. [Y/L/N].” Nodding slowly, you turned, grabbing the overly shiny brass door handle to let yourself out. 

“Oh, and [Y/F/N]?” Looking back over your shoulder at Adam as he started gathering papers together, you paused; “Jared’s about to start his autographing sessions, I suggest you make haste.” 

CHAPTER TWO

TAGS: @jaredsunflowergoddess @arses21434 @wings-of-a-raven @jamielea81

[werevulvi]

These pics are just to show my dented ribs, cause like... suffer with me? Also cause I feel strangely alright with what my chest looks like in these pics. But anyhow. On left pic I'm pointing at the centre where it goes in and then pops out again on both sides of the sternum/breastbone. And yes, that's my bone bending like that, not just fat or muscles. Likely from having pushed my breasts towards the centre in binders and sports bras. On the right pic I'm pointing at the big dent on the lower left side of my ribcage, which is right where the sports bra elastic goes. My lowest ribs then curve out much farther than they do on the other side. Putting pressure on either of those dented areas hurts a bit.

(The bump above my nipple on the right pic is literally just my pec muscle, so no need to worry about that one.) And yes I'm sucking in my stomach here only so that you can see my ribs better, I don’t normally do for photos. I've sure gotten hairy again since I stopped shaving my body, and I like the soft fluff! It’s dark brown, almost black, irl. Which is quite a contrast to my ivory skin. And yes my happy trail does connect with my chest hair, which almost connects with my beard but not quite. Those little tufts just above the scars on my chest are my actual nipple hairs, or used to be before the nips were relocated during top surgery. They're weirdly misplaced little hairs now, but that's why they're there. And yeah, 5 years post-op but the scars never became white. But let's get onto the topic. I've come across a new doubt about my wish to have breast reconstruction, which I'm already looking into and not brushing under any carpets. I do want to make as sure as I possibly can that I make the right decision about my chest this time, so I'm tackling every doubt I get about it. And that new doubts keep popping up from time to time, worries me too. Even though I sorted through all the previous ones. So what's it this time? Since I've started going flat in public a couple weeks ago or something (I think the last time I went out with boobs on was June 6th or around that date) I've noticed I seem to be less likely to be assumed to be a trans woman, and instead seen as just a gnc man. And strangely that actually feels better, mentally. It's still very far from ideal, but I feel it's the slightly better of the two evils.

What would be ideal? In a perfect (and highly unrealistic) world: I'd love it if people would just know I'm a female who's taken testosterone and/or see I'm a masculinised woman even if they can't figure out, or know, how. And without me having to change my body at all. But that is not how reality works and I know that people won't perceive me that way just because I want for them to.

So, without changing my body again I'm basically stuck having to choose between being perceived as either a "cis" man or a trans woman, depending on my presentation and style. (Cause apparently we are assuming "gender identity" and not just bio sex, these days.) Of course I don't have 100% control over which one of those I'll be read as, but I've come to notice that people do seem to be much more likely to "trans me" when I'm wearing my breast forms cause that is adding a female (not just feminine) trait to my otherwise male appearance... and they seem to be much more likely to think I'm simply a man (albeit gnc) when I go flat but still keep a feminine style. However, some still read me as a gnc man with boobs and some still read me as a trans woman without them.

Exactly why I seem to prefer being read as a whole ass man rather than as a trans woman, is complicated and not entirely nice, but basically this: Both trans women and "cis" men are bio male, and it's the assumption that I'm bio male that rubs me backwards, at the core of it.

However, being assumed to be a trans woman adds another layer to it. It makes me feel like people shove the gender ideology down my throat that is hard to wiggle myself out of, and it makes me feel like I'm perceived as a "fake" woman and a "fake" lesbian. A fraud, to be brutally honest. Whereas when I'm assumed to be simply a gnc man, the gender ideology is not being shoved down my throat, people don't comment on my assumed genitals, etc. But above all I'm more likely to be treated with respect, which feels hugely relieving.

But mostly what truly whacks my mind about being assumed to be MtF is that it makes me feel like I'm an imposter of an imposter. Double wrong. While when seen as a man, I merely feel like I'm simply an imposter. Plain wrong. And that, is exactly why I feel like "gnc man" is a better wrongful assumption than "trans woman" is. Cause two wrongs really don't make a right.

But regardlessly, I am not and will never be an actual man. I am an imposter, a male impersonator of modern times. But at the same time I believe I'm more authentic like this than I would be if I tried to force myself into acquiring a stereotypical "womanly" appearance. That would be a charade just as much, if not more. That was a long ramble about how I'm perceived again, but it's highly relevant to my doubt about getting breast reconstruction, just hear me out. Cause that, what I'm read as based on what's going on on my chest, was was made the doubt creep out from its shadows, just a few days ago. It has gotten me suddenly worrying I might not like it how I'd be perceived if I have permanent boobs on my chest that I wouldn't be able to hide. Cause no more binding, ever. I've fucked my ribs over enough for a lifetime. And of course, how fucking moot and dumb it would be to bind after breast reconstruction! The thing, however, is that if I actually prefer to be seen as a gnc man over being seen as a trans woman, and boobs being the tipping point between those two perceptions... that creates a thorn in my side, a doubt, a conflict even, about if breast reconstruction really is the right choice for me then.

Ever since I left my boobs at home those weeks ago, people have left me alone about my gender/sex. Out of all the 5 or 6 strangers that have come up and talked to me since then, zero have confronted me about my gender, sex or even my style. It is a relief to just be left alone about my body like that.

I'm also feeling slightly (possibly even increasingly) okay with my chest as it is. I do still regret my top surgery and I still miss having boobs, and it's definitely possible that I'm just disassociating from my chest being flat now, but... Yesterday I was even walking around in my neighbourhood wearing literally just a skirt, fem slippers, my lesbian necklace, red lipstick, and an open, flimsy tunic/cardigan. The wind grabbing it quite a lot means most of my chest showed, including nipples, and my neighbours could see it as I walked back and forth to the laundry house to clean my dirty clothes.

Is it weird? Well, I highly doubt I'd be reported for indecent exposure cause I'm at least 99% sure everyone in my neighbourhood thinks I'm male. Cause they certainly looked shocked at me when I first started going fem in my early detransition a year ago. I've only lived in this area since mid-transition, so no one here knows my history with that. Basically I can't imagine my neighbours think I'm somehow bio female, without slipping into the territory of wishful thinking. But it has gotten me thinking: when I don't shave anywhere, and don't wear boobs, knowing I can only pass as male that way... am I not technically "presenting male" then, despite being female and also so feminine in my style? I mean, up until the point I introduce myself as "Laura" that is. Also, last night I took a shower, and for the first time in... I dunno how many years, if ever... I actually enjoyed soaping and touching my chest in gentle, massaging and caressing ways. For but a glimpse of a moment, I could connect to it for probably the first time since top surgery, or ever, in a non-sexual way. It is indeed a breakthrough. It is also a hint of its possible true potential. That I could maybe at some point come to peace with it. Why do I feel so bad for regretting my transition? Cause even though I achieved a 100% passability, here I am, still dysphoric and miserable, missing the womanhood I traded away. Oh, what a fool I was. This irrevokable fate that seems like an impossible dream for the dysphoric, and I'm just pissing on it. I'm sorry, but I cannot appreciate having been transformed into a highly believable illusion of something I can never actually become and no longer want to be. I never thought it could hurt. I never knew it could hurt like this. Was I sold a lie? But back to my chest. I know getting new tits won't make me any more or less female, and it wouldn't make me pass as female either. What I'd want them for is personal comfort in the private, in both non-sexual and in sexual contexts, and vaguely also cause it would help me relate better and more positively to other women. I'm jealous of every pair of boobs I ever see, clothed or uncovered, and that hurts. But what makes me now hesitate, perhaps for real, is this new, gnawing inkling of a feeling that what if I'd miss having a flat chest? Sometimes I like the look of it, in the sense that it kinda goes with my otherwise male appearance and who doesn't/wouldn't like the feeling of a soothing breeze on their bare chest during a hot summer day? Cause it sure does feel good. Oh god, I wish I could just have the cake and eat it at the same time!

It's been 5 years since I had my top surgery, but did I ever truly try to make amends with it, before my detransition? No, I didn't. What I did was trying to force myself to like the result of it, and that's not a successful approach. Just like I didn't exactly manage to like being a woman when I during my teens tried to force myself to become fine with my female body after I had figured out I was likely a trans guy at age 15, and up until the point I said "fuck it" and began my social (and eventually medical) transition at age 19. During those 4 years my dysphoria only worsened, and I think my rabid attempt to force myself to like being female was part of why it only got worse. Forcing self-love is not the way to achieve it. It won't work. Just like you can't beat depression out of yourself, or any other issue, you can't beat dysphoria out of yourself either. That kind of force is actually more likely to make it worse instead, I believe. Cause it'll just strengthen your belief that it won't work. However, to gently and with compassion for yourself and your struggle try out different things, over a longer time and with lots of patience, to slowly accept and come to terms with it can lead to the dysphoria disappearing. To not punish yourself for still being dysphoric or for not "succeeding", but rather reward yourself for even just trying and for every little thing that may improve on the way. At least that's how I managed to accept and embrace being female in my late 20's despite having failed so miserably at it during my teens, because this time I didn't force it. I killed that dysphoria with kindness, quite literally.

Likewise, I think there is a chance I could come to accept and embrace my flat chest if I just stopped forcing myself to, and tried it with gentle self-care and curiosity, without pressure to achieve anything. If only I just want to and can be prepared to give myself that kind of care and patience, one more fucking time. Cause I've only got one body and I'm so fucking painfully aware of it now. I can't fuck it up again. Detransitioning requires so much more soul-searching and scrambling around in my brain for answers, self-care and patience, etc, than transitioning ever did. Well... that's why I ended up detransitioning, I think. Cause I didn't do a good job at truly looking into myself the first time around. Would I still have wanted to go on T if I had known everything I know now, though? Oh absolutely, but that's not the topic of today.

But whether I'll in the long run wanna live as a male-presenting woman incognito or later on down the road change my body in some way, I can't know for sure at this point. Perhaps I'm just not mentally ready yet to take that kind of leap. Or perhaps I don't ever want to present fully female again and may end up loving this look and contradiction as I grow more secure within myself and more confident. But either which way, I will have to follow this new doubt carefully and see where it takes me. Keep going flat for a while and see how it goes, and see if how I'm perceived really changes based on that and if that really feels better in the long run to be perceived as a man. To take advantage of this very hot summer to be shirtless also in public to test my comfort level with that, and if I'd miss that. To explore my flatness gently and with careful patience to see if it really is so bad. To ask my brain: what is this lingering doubt trying to tell me? I'll start with giving it this summer, then more time if needed. I'll still go to the surgery consultation that could happen anytime now. It's not like I'd have to get the surgery by just going to that consultation, cause I'll need to go through my trauma therapy first, and even if it's expected I'd go through with surgery after consultation, I can always cancel at any point. Also, being informed of what a surgeon can do for me and my specific chest, as well as getting my questions about the surgery answered, would surely be helpful in my decision-making as well. I mean, that's what surgery consultations are for. Because I still lean towards wanting it more than I lean towards maybe not wanting it, I think cautiously proceeding with my thumb close to the cancel button is not a bad idea.

[walkerismychoice]

Drake Moments: TRR Book 3, Chapter 2

Caught up to present time just in time for Tomorrow/Today’s chapter depending on where you are. 

You have been back at the palace for several days, and it is the day of the Five Kingdoms Festival. Liam invited you to a security briefing and you are glad to attend. Bastien feels very defeated and responsible for what happened but you are forgiving (because I feel bad for him):

Bastien thanks you for “saving drake’s life” with your alcohol swabs and gauze but you remind Bastien Drake saved your life first. Bastien reveals a list of 3 suspects behid the attacks, one of which is the Nevrakis family:

Neither you nor Liam think Olivia could possibly be involved. - The way they have things laid out, it wouldn’t make sense for it to be Olivia (if it was actually her, I think they would save it for a shocking twist, and she legitimately seems o love Liam to much to try and kill him), but the fact that they brought it up makes me think it could be her aunt unbeknownst to Olivia.

You then announce that you and Drake are getting married and are going to try and use the wedding to boost morale in Cordonia. Constantine is surprised, but Bastien is not. I had to search through almost every chapter to find this, but I just knew Bastien had to know about you and Drake if he was any good at his job and I was right: Here is what I said in my Book 2, Chapter 6 post:

You notice that Drake is free to come and go as he pleases, unlike Liam who always has security. He says Bastien trusts him to take care of himself…and you. That little “…and you” and makes me wonder about things. I know the actual story doesn’t get that deep into it, but you would think if you are playing with Drake as your LI, Bastien would know something is going on between you and Drake. Even if Drake hasn’t told him anything , I’m sure he has seen things.

So I was very excited to learn here that Bastien knew about Drake’s feelings for you, and he is almost as happy as you are that Drake finally admitted them:

Constantine thinks it is a good idea if it works, but isn’t sure it will. You propose a unity tour to personally invite all the nobles to the wedding and to get them believing in Cordonia again.

On your way back to Cordonia, an attacker jumps out at you, but it turns out to be your new bodyguard Mara testing you:

Drake walks up and Mara has heard stories about him from Bastien. Drake isn’t sure what to make of that, but you tell him she is your bodyguard. When you say that he rubs his shoulder. I’m guessing he is thinking here that he wishes he could be the one to protect you, but he’s not in the shape to do so now with his wounded shoulder. Knowing Drake, this is probably killing him. Drake tells you the reason he came to find you was to invite you to an engagement photo shoot:

You are surprised that Drake is doing this willingly and he says that you know he would do anything for you and he blushes (aww you can still make him blush). You tell him he has plenty of time to get used to you calling him your fiance, which is pretty funny because your wedding is only one month away. One month is not plenty of time!

Drake pulls out some gifts for you and aside from your engagement ring, this is the first time he has gotten you anything. He gives you Calla lilies and a Dress that he admits Savannah helped pick out:

You are still a bit shocked by this side of Drake and how it doesn’t seem like him. It is outside of his comfort zone, but he did it for you, because he loves you and though it is what you would want. He really will do anything for you:

He isn’t thrilled with Ana de Luca as the photographer because of the tabloid stories she ran about you but I guess its a good way to get your wedding announcement to the public. She wants a palatial backdrop but it just isn’t fitting for you and Drake, so you suggest the apple orchard and Drake is pleased. - This little bit gives me hope that there will be ways to make the wedding fit you and Drake as this book goes along:

You say “I can just imagine the bad prom picture pose she would’ve had us in” which is hilarious because the engagement picture with Maxwell looks exactly like a bad prom picture. Either this was coincidental, or the writers are resentful for having to make Maxwell a LI and not taking his part seriously.

Drake is uncomfortable posing for the pictures and is a little stiff, so you kiss him to get him to loosen up:

It works and you and Drake get really cute picture. - I’m probably biased but it is my favorite of all the engagement photos. You and Drake get really sappy with him saying he would give you the world and you replying “You already have. You’re my world.”- Even though it is over the top sappy and sweet, I still love it.- You try and get more 1-on-1 time with Drake, but he is the responsible one again and says you probably need to get going:

He pulls you in and kisses you, and you still can’t help yourself and would strip his clothes off right there, so he basically has to say calm down Bennett.

You get back to the palace and Betrand is still determined to manage your public image so he takes you to the Boutique to get ready to face the press conference at the festival:

Drake loves the outfit Bertrand picked out because it is basically a requirement in these books that your LI is blown away by every outfit that costs diamonds.

You arrive at the festival and run into Mara and the others:

Hana is being very Type A about the festival and that is not Drake’s idea of fun. Olivia is back and you are happy to see her. She is sticking around for a few days to support Liam, but will go home after:

Liam decides Hana can pick the first activity much to Drake’s dismay. She picks archery, which Drake shouldn’t be doing at all given his wounded shoulder, and he doesn’t do well. Not sure what Drake’s deal with Hana is today, but maybe he just feels a bit inferior with her being perfect at everything:

Drake picks the next activity which is fittingly drink tasting. On the way Mara mistakes a festival-goer for an attacker. Drake spouts off his knowledge Skullcracker Ale history, and again is convinced he’s the only one with good taste when it comes to drinks:

You ask Drake about his shoulder and tell him that Cordonia owes both him and his family a lot. He’s very humble about it because he didn’t do it for recognition. You say he is worth more than any noble there. He isn’t sure he believes that, but all that matters to him is that you think so.

Next, Maxwell selects bobbing for apples for the groups:

Maxwell is actually acting very responsible and thinks the activity would make a good photo op. You get an apple on the first try. Liam declines to try:

You and Liam then address the press. Your engagement is announced and it is going well with the press:

You continue to handle questions like a pro, until a video notification goes out to people’s phones from the assassins:

You try to control the crowd but they are shaken. Ana asks if Liam is going to step down as the assassins have requested, but he says he won’t give into their demands. You and Liam convince the press that the assassins will be found and dealt with.

Afterwards, Drake finds you outside of your room (why are you surprised that your finance came to find you?). He wanted to see how you were doing and to invite you to take a relaxing bath I’m not going to focus too much on the dialogue here after finding out it is nearly the same for all love interests:

You kiss and undress each other and then both get into the tub:

Drake offers to shampoo your hair. - When the chapter came out, I reblogged the Charles Boyle meme about preparing food for your lover being the most intimate gift behind washing their hair because it is funny, but it is also so true (when you are naked with your significant other at least, I don’t feel that way about my hair stylist). I also like how Riley is like “Oh.” when Drake slides around behind here. Like oh, I feel you back there, lol:

I didn’t look at all of the other LI diamond scenes to see how exactly the same they are, but I think the mention of callouses could be unique to Drake. This is at least the third time it is mentioned that you can feel his callouses, so I’m guesses they are insinuating that he does a lot of manual labor (or lifts weights all the time, probably both). You tell Drake to kiss you and then to keep going, but he wasn’t planning on stopping anyhow: 

You have sex until the water gets cold and head back to your room alone (why don’t we get to sleep in the same room as our fiances?) In the morning, Bertrand wakes you and drops the bomb that not only will you be heading to Fydelia, but that he has convinced Madeleine to be your press secretary!

I am curious to see how this next chapter goes. I know some are not happy with the direction the book is going, but I think the dynamic between MC and Madeleine can make things interesting and I want to see how this plays out.

Click here for previous chapters

[astroellipse]

I am currently doing something tedious... and a little bit stupid but that’s ok. I can write about nonsense to pass the time :)

Idk if I’ve voiced this in one of these before, but I wonder if anyone even opens these, even for a cursory glance. I’m not gonna like, ask you to call yourself out for it, I’m just curious... These are definitely more for me, anyhow. Just feels nice to get my thoughts down somewhere that’s not a formal text editor.

Anyhow. Currently, I’m chain queue-ing guildhests bc i want that title. I think it’d be funny. My funny little purple guy w “The Last Resort” would be really good I think. Entirely too edgy. Currently doing all this as gunbreaker too, while dressed like what I now realize is an eboy. Just a purple eboy with a musket. Wearing a nice little white and lavender shirt showing his chest and the shorts and sandals and earrings, dark purple hair w light bangs. And again a grizzly looking musket with all too realistic textures strapped to his back. The juxtaposition is already there but it’ll still work for dragoon and bard, dragoon being kinda just casual wear and bard being overdesigned flashy nonsense but still looking really well put together, and still in lavender. I really oughta mark down a picture of them eventually.

Oh, something really funny happened earlier, around when I started this long process. I’d been going around doing triple triad matches to get more cards, so that I could ALSO get the title “Deck Hoarder”, and eventually came back to the king guy in the gold saucer. I’ve been trying at this guy for a couple days now while in queue, but no matter how many times I beat him he just wouldn’t give up Bahamut. Well, I started a match with him and got maybe halfway through when my queue pops, and whatever, that happens like half of the time anyhow. I get into the guildhest, and we just blaze through it. So fast that for the first time ever I’m plopped right back into the match once the guildhest ends! Apparently when your timer on your turn runs out, the game picks a card for you, and I come in just in time to put down the last card myself, winning the match and finally netting me Bahamut. It was ridiculous!

At least I have it now. Don’t have the title though. Just 3 more cards. Unfortunately I am either A. still not very good at this or B. my cards are trash because I just can’t find another NPC I can beat consistently. To be fair some of them have busted decks, and my deck DOES kinda suck. I have exactly zero cards with a 7 on top for one of my 3 stars rn and it hurts. I also don’t have any of those snazzy op crossover cards yet.

This has all turned into one hell of a detour. Originally I picked up gunbreaker to soak some of the exp from all this post-HW content, which took longer than expected, then I got caught up in triple triad, and then suddenly got the itch to get a shiny new title, as fun as it is to stick with “Skysinger” especially on dragoon when everyone and their mothers slap on the eponymous “Azure Dragoon” the second they get it.

What else... I saw an Haurchefant look-alike earlier today, with the appropriate title and hair and face. But the name was wrong, and he was a samurai. And a few hours later I see him again, and this time he has a completely different hairstyle and color and it was so so weird. He kept the title too. Like my guy make up your mind. On that note I’m determined this time around to keep my wind-up Haurchefant minion with me for the entire game. I abandoned him too soon last time in the name of aesthetic, but this time is different. I have a purple music man that dresses exclusively in lavender and who made a point of giving Haurchefant headpats every time he saw him. The moment I obtained and summoned him for the first time I gave the minion a little headpat, and a catgirl came over and blew him a little kiss...... it was very cute. Haurchefant like-ers are good.

Hmmmm. I am going to Zone Out instead of whatever I was doing here until I fall asleep doing guildhests.

EDIT: I forgot a big one!!! There’s a second look-alike I saw recently, in some trial or other... it was Inquisitor Guillaime. The jackass fake inquisitor you meet in the Coerthas post-ARR quests. I was gonna mention him before but forgot. Well. I didn’t even know he was on this server specifically but there he is standing off to the side, here in Ishgard in queue for something. I’m gonna combust this is hilarious. WHY would you choose to dress up as him????? To get this exact reaction from people, I suppose.

[craigrcannon]

Employee #1: Reddit

Employee #1 is a series of interviews focused on sharing the often untold stories of early employees at tech companies.

Chris Slowe was the first employee at Reddit. He worked at Reddit for five years, then Hipmunk for five years, and now he’s back at Reddit, writing code.

Discussed: YC’s First Batch, Meeting The Founders, Finishing a PhD While Working at a Startup, Keyser Söze, Reddit as Vocation, Maintaining a Life Outside a Startup, and Returning to Reddit.

Craig : You’re back at Reddit now. What’s your role at this point?

Chris : It’s kinda two things. I started off working on some front page redesign stuff that we’ve got planned. I’m also working on a new version of our algorithm. Our current version is about eight years old. I also wrote that algorithm.

Craig : [Laughter]

Chris : Practically speaking, we’re probably a hundred times bigger than we were when we wrote that, so that was my initial task. I’m also forging one of our new engineering teams, which we internally call “Anti-Evil.” We’re anti-spam, anti-abuse, and sort of anti-cheating. I guess we’re anti-everything. Pro-freedom!

Craig : Right on. And prior to re-joining Reddit you were at Hipmunk. How was it working there?

Chris : I really enjoyed it. I think the thing we learned most of all there was that breaking into travel is really hard. There are a lot of big players and most travel companies aren’t technology companies. I can’t tell you how many times I was on a call and the other person on the phone was referring to their engineering staff as “IT.”

Craig : [Laughter]

Chris : It was like, “Oh, we’re having one of those calls.”

Craig : “Let me get the nerds in here and they’ll figure it out.”

Chris : Yeah!

Craig : That’s hilarious. Ok, so could you give me the rundown of how you ended up at Reddit?

Chris : Sure. I was in Y Combinator’s first batch, along with Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. I was working at a different startup and we were doing desktop search. This was at a time before desktop search was a thing. What kind of killed us that summer was Apple coming out with Spotlight, then Google Desktop came out so we had a hard problem with so many players in the field.

At the end of that summer, my cofounder decided to go to grad school. This was the first YC batch so it was totally different. It was sort of a three month trial to build a product and see what happens. We were at the first demo day, which was actually kind of fun. Something like 20 people showed up.

Craig : Wow. So how did you connect with Steve and Alexis?

Chris : By the end of the summer I had two free bedrooms in my apartment. I was good friends with both of them at that point. I think they originally planned to move back to Virginia but I believe Paul Graham talked them out of it. So they had basically given up on their flat and now needed a place to stay. My cofounder from YC, Zak Stone, was like, “Want to stay with Chris?”. And they were like, “Okay, great.”

Craig : And at what point did you start working on Reddit?

Chris : I want to say like three months later. I was in grad school at the time and I had much more grown-up hours, where I would wake up at 7 or 8 in the morning, go to work, and come back then work on projects at night. Steve and Alexis would sleep in then work until like 4 in the morning.

Because I was up early I’d check Reddit and when it was down I’d knock on Steve’s door and be like, “Hey, site’s down.” After the third time that happened, he just showed me how to log in and start it back up.

Craig : That’s great.

Chris : So I guess my first job at Reddit was in ops. But yeah, at that point it was still Steve writing code and Alexis doing everything else. We were friends and he asked me if I wanted to join, and I did. That was probably six months after Reddit started.

Craig : You were still in grad school studying physics, right?

Chris : Yeah. That’s when I was in my fifth year of grad school.

Craig : And did you have to pause everything to make that happen?

Chris : No. So I’d go to lab and work from 8 to 6 then come home, eat dinner, and join them in the living room to hack for a while. The nice thing is, I was given work that was sort of independent of what everyone else was working on so I wasn’t a blocker.

I think the first thing I worked on was traffic monitoring. This was at a time before Google Analytics. It was like processing access logs and generating summaries and trying to figure out how to do this at scale. I must have rebuilt that damn thing eight times in the first four years.

The thing about that time was we were all learning how to program web apps while we were building them and there wasn’t really a standard operating procedure or anything.

Craig : So you were essentially working part-time?

Chris : Part-time in startup hours but it was like a full-time job. I would normally work from 6 to 2. Then go to sleep, get back up, and do it again.

You know, your 20s are a magical period of time. I could get by on four or five hours of sleep without any major side effects. Basically it was like that for all of 2006. It was like two full-time jobs. The kicker is I somehow managed to meet my wife during that period.

Craig : That’s amazing. So what happens next?

Chris : Well, the four of us – Steve, Alexis, me, and Aaron Swartz – worked on it until the acquisition, which was around Halloween 2006. And it all happened really fast. We were a 15-month-old startup.

I remember the next night I was making pizza with my girlfriend, now wife, and I called Steve and was like, “Hey, we’re making pizza, Do you want to come over?” And he was like, “I am in California.”

Craig : Whoa.

Chris : Yeah. So I was like, “Oh, well, okay then.”

Craig : [Laughter] And so how long did it take before you moved to California?

Chris : I looked for apartments in January and we moved out early February. Part of the agreement with Condé Nast was that — I think it actually said this in the contract — “Chris gets to finish his PhD.”

So I got to the point where I could leave Cambridge and write my thesis remotely. It was kind of a fun transition, going from a full-time job as a researcher and a second full-time job in a startup to a full-time job at an acquired company where I could spend my nights writing a thesis.

Craig : So let’s step back a little bit. Did you think that you would be interested in working with the Reddit guys when they moved into your apartment? Or were you just buddies?

Chris : Probably a little bit of both. At the time it was just because they were buddies and they needed a place. I had no particular plans at all. I was coming off of the failure of my first startup. We were trying to solve this problem of basically like, “I can’t find anything on my hard drive. I have all these areas I can’t search!” What happened practically is that the problem doesn’t come up any more because there is almost nothing on my hard drive that doesn’t exist in some state online.

Craig : Yeah, exactly. So what about Steve and Alexis compelled you to want to work with them?

Chris : At the time it was actually interesting just to be working as a web dev to be honest. Getting into the web scene was kind of a neat thing. I also liked Reddit.

Here’s a funny story. That summer everyone in the first YC batch was a beta tester for Reddit. This was before comments existed, so it was just a bunch of links.

Eventually it kind of opened up and we got a few people Steve didn’t know personally. But for like four months most of the content on the front page was from one of the alt accounts Steve and Alexis had. They were basically populating it as a way to make it seem like there were more people there. Because nobody wants to walk into an empty room. Right?

Craig : Right.

Chris : So my username on Reddit is KeyserSosa, which is a misspelling of Keyser Söze, which is the Usual Suspects villain.

I remember a day, probably in November, when Steve took a day off. He came back a couple hours later and there was new content on the front page and he hadn’t done anything. It was like this moment of like, “Oh, my God! It’s walking!”

Craig : [Laughter]

Chris : And he’s like, “Great! There are actually people on the site who I don’t know and they are posting all the time. There’s this one guy, KeyserSosa, who’s super active!”

They we’re like, “KeyserSosa? Who is KeyserSosa?”

And I’m like, “Oh, hi guys.”

Craig : [Laughter] That’s so good.

Chris : Anyhow. I achieved my peak on Reddit probably in the first year, in terms of being one of the top posters. And then you know, it was all downhill from there.

Craig : Yeah. I was wondering what your relationship with Reddit is now. Not the company, but the community.

Chris : I’ve definitely become much more of a lurker. My use was definitely a side effect of working on it. When I was originally here for the first five years, at the time there was never more than four or five of us working on the site.

Craig : Oh, wow.

Chris : We were kind of professionally understaffed. At least at that point we were really understaffed and always growing at a really phenomenal rate–like doubling every six months. So we were kind of wearing a lot of hats as engineers. We were engineers, and also the community team, and also infrastructure.

I am an introvert who has become an extrovert via the Internet, or something like that. I feel like lots of talking and thinking in that vein is much more draining than sitting and doing engineering work. That definitely contributed to me leaving.

Craig : Yeah, that makes sense.

Chris : So when I left the first thing I did was go on a six-month Reddit detox. Essentially I was like, “Alright. I just can’t look.” And I didn’t look at it.

The thing is, it was and still is like my baby. And I can say that, I have kids now.

When one thing goes wrong, I take it personally. In 2010 I was basically in charge, so everything was either my fault or something I had to deal with. I think the only way to not feel completely attached to all the things that were happening, or whatever mistakes were being made, or whatever drama was happening, was to step away for a little while. You kinda have to do it.

Craig : So how did your relationship with the founders and the early team change over time?

Chris : I don’t think very much, actually. The team was always small so we were and still are a group of friends. I think there’s no other option than to be like comrades in arms in that case. At the very worst, we were the 300 holding back the hordes.

I think because we got acquired so early we had to really justify our budget and keep the team small. We couldn’t get an infusion of cash to grow because we were already bought and so it sort of stunted growth initially. Another side effect is that the look of the site has kind of been the same for a very long time. There’s a whole bunch we have to kind of rebuild.

The flip side of that is that we got really nimble and good at a bunch of things. But we’re now up to I think 120 people. And we’re independent again.

Craig : So now do you have startup-like growth goals?

Chris : We’re kind of acting like a three-year-old startup with ten years of legacy and some good standard operating procedures, which is nice.

Craig : When you look back and consider the early days, how do you feel about Reddit?

Chris : It’s overall positive. It’s been a lot of fun. I mean, it’s been a lot of stress, but it’s also been a lot of fun. Since I’m back now, it’s almost like it’s not so much a part of my career as it’s become my career. Maybe “vocation” is a better word. I still take a lot of the stuff really personally even though I’ve only been back for about six months.

Our fingerprints are everywhere. I think it is fair to say that the snarky tone that still pervades Reddit is an outcropping of Steve. That’s his personality and he kind of imprints it on the community. I think in the same way a company’s tone and culture is a reflection of the founders, so to is the community it creates.

Craig : You’ve been around so many startups. Do you ever have thoughts of doing your own thing again?

Chris : I am very content to be first employee in all things. I’m close enough to be able to hear about the fundraising, and the acquisitioning, and the business side of things. But I do not get invited to any of those meetings, which is just wonderful as far as I’m concerned. Right now, my job here is as an engineering manager. I have a team of like six and honestly, that is a good size for me. I would rather be an engineer who is a manager, rather than a managing engineer, or an office manager, or C-something. I actually enjoy doing the work.

Craig : Right on. Are there any signs that you would advise someone to look for if they are considering being a first employee?

Chris : I would say the first three to six months is gonna be a slog. It’s gonna be a tough slog. That said, startups have culturally matured in the last ten years and it’s been fun to watch. When the first batch started at YC, there was all this talk like, “Oh, yeah, you should work 16 hours and day and not feel bad.”

What’s really great to see is that all those people who were working 16 hours have now grown into their thirties and realized that, “Oh, sleep is really cool.”

Craig : [Laughter]

Chris : And, “You should probably date.” And, “Do you know what is also awesome? Kids. And do you know what kids don’t let you do? Work.” So there’s been this kind of progression from just working all the time to still working hard while also having a life.

Because there are only a few people around in the beginning you have to be willing to switch hats really quickly. Especially for the startups, traffic is irregular, and you’re not up-scaled, and you have to kinda deal with that stuff live.

You’ll also have a responsibility to set the tone for the company. The same holds true with the founders.

Craig : What about the founders? Do you think there any traits successful founders share?

Chris : It sounds trite but determination. Ideas are important. Luck is important. But follow-through is really important. This is sort of separate from the founders but there’s also timing.

After we started, everyone compared us to Digg for five years before Digg had its problems. But we didn’t even know about Digg when we started.

We were a dime a dozen for a while. It was actually funny. There was us and a bunch of Digg clones, which was amusing.

Craig : Right on. Let’s stop there. Any last words of wisdom?

Chris : The internet has a long memory!