#anyway!! this was so much fun!! i checked and it's about 2000 words which is crazy to me?

[the-eclectic-wonderer]

is there anything golden girls you have Lots of Thoughts on that you haven't got to talk about fully or been asked about yet? consider this a free space to share those thoughts.

Anon, this question is essentially a declaration of love to me. You couldn't have made me happier. I am kissing you on the lips (or going to buy the best cheesecake in the world for you, your pick).

After some deliberation, I ended up choosing a subject I've been thinking about (and mentioning on here) ever since my first watch-through of the series, i.e. why a queer reading of Dorothy, Blanche and Rose doesn't only make sense because of their interactions with each other, but is actually in line with their journey as characters, the challenges they face, and the overall tune of the show. It seems like I ended up writing a short essay about it, so I'm putting it all under a cut. Hope you enjoy!

Ok, so, I'd like to make a little premise first. I love the platonic view of the show. I'm always always fond of stories that celebrate the importance of platonic bonds. If anything I'm sort of annoyed that they sometimes use familial language (they're ‘sisters’, Sophia loves them 'as her own') to symbolize their love for one another, but I understand why they chose to use it -- it's a quick way to communicate profound affection to the audience, and especially to the audience at the time.

That being said, I feel like a queer romantic view of the bond between Dorothy, Rose, and Blanche is equally poignant -- and of course it's especially dear to me, as a queer woman. For one thing, it’s still in tune with the core message of the show: whatever kind of affection they feel for one another, they’re still an unusual unit by societal standards, and yet there's no doubt that they’re the most important people in each other’s life (in fact, one could argue that they are, in canon, what today we'd call a QPR, but I digress). They love each other, they're committed to each other, they share their lives, in a way that doesn't conform to societal standards.

Dorothy sums it up very well in her speech in S7E4 That’s For Me To Know: they’re not a conventional family, but theirs is a real, honest love. This is a message that feels very in tune with the queer experience: how many of us have been told that our loves, our identities, our relationships and our (chosen) families aren’t real? Not to mention some of the problems they face: how many queer people have been kept apart from their loved ones in the hospital because they weren't related? How many have gone through the anxiety of an HIV test? I'm not surprised the show resonated so much with queer people in the 80s/90s, and I'm not surprised it still does.

Dorothy

What about the characters themselves? Let's start with Dorothy, since I've already spoken a bit about her in the past. Dorothy's character journey is, in essence, a journey towards self-discovery, self-acceptance, and self-love. She begins the show as a recently divorced woman who has been with the same horrid man for her entire adult life, a man she married in a hurry because he got her pregnant at 17; her self-esteem is on the floor. She doesn't know what being loved in a romantic sense means. Through living with the Girls she learns how to take back what she's lost; how to feel secure in her sexuality and attractiveness, how to love herself more, and (as a consequence of this self-love) how to open herself up to the world and other people. She even states so in the series finale:

We've all learned a lot from each other. I mean, Ma taught me life does not end because you've reached a certain age. And I've become much more comfortable with my sexuality because of Blanche. And Rose has taught me… Rose has taught me... [...] Anyway, because of them I feel that I'm ready to love you. (S7E25 One Flew Out Of The Cuckoo's Nest)

This is a queer-aligned narrative already!! Years and years of sacrifice and repression followed by a journey towards self-discovery thanks to love, support, and a sense of community? That's queer, baby! I particularly like the interpretation of Dorothy as a repressed lesbian because I feel like it fits very well with her character traits, but honestly, any queer reading of her fits as well. Having her realize that she is queer and eventually choose to act on it would have been a great way to reinforce her character journey.

It also would have added some amazing layers to her whole backstory, both as pertains to her marriage (doesn't it all feel more tragic, if you think of her as a repressed lesbian?) and, for example, to her friendship with Jean (how would she have felt seeing her friend be openly gay while she denied the same truth about herself?). I just think there's lots and lots that could be explored when we consider Dorothy in this lens.

Blanche

On to Blanche. A lot of Blanche's character traits (her vanity, her self-centeredness, her need to be the center of attention in a positive way) stem, I feel, from the way she was treated in her childhood and from two pivotal episodes in her life: the 'disappearance' of her Mammy and George's death. Her stories about her childhood (especially the ones she tells when her sisters are involved in an episode) make it seem as if her parents, while affectionate (Big Daddy especially), weren't exactly involved; she had to fight for their attention in constant competition with her siblings, particularly her sisters. There were only two people in her life whose love didn't feel dependent on her performance, her Mammy and George, and they both disappeared from her life abruptly and without any warning.

What does this teach a person? That they have to be the most attractive version of themselves at all times; that they need to be very careful with how they present themselves in society, so that they may always appear as the best within the bunch; that even the people who seem to love them unconditionally can leave them at any minute. The end result is Blanche, the woman in the mask. She seems very open in her attitude, especially towards the sexual sphere of life, but she's open in the same way the titular character of Fleabag is open:

Yeah, I think she’s using a certain type of honesty as a weapon of distraction. She talks very openly and honestly about sex so you feel like she’s being open with you when, actually, she’s completely hiding by doing that. She’s distracting you from a completely different side of her, which is the side that’s traumatized and in pain. (from this interview to Phoebe Waller-Bridge)

In truth, she's always very attentive to the way she presents herself to others, because she's afraid that people will turn away from her if she steps out of her persona. Look at what she says to her Mammy in S6E5 Wham, Bam, Thank You, Mammy:

You didn't even say goodbye. I woke up one morning, and you were gone. I loved you. I spent the next few years wondering what I'd done, what I'd said to make you leave me.

She's convinced (until this episode, at least) that she was abandoned by someone she loved so dearly because of something she'd done. And, well, George's death is a bit of a different thing, but also... do you think she hasn't spent long, sleepless nights wondering what would have happened if she'd convinced him not to go wherever he was going? If she'd gone with him? If she'd made different choices, if she'd said different things, if she'd been better?

What does all this have to do with queerness? Well... we know that some of Blanche's issues manifest in her constant concern with how society perceives her. This ranges from her search for rich and sophisticated men to parade around to her struggle to accept Rebecca's decision to undergo artificial insemination -- not to mention how she reacts to Clayton's coming out and especially to his decision to marry Doug. If that was how she reacted to a member of her family proudly coming out as gay, how would she react to the realization that she might also be queer in some way?

I figure the steps would be her usual ones -- denial denial denial, fear of judgement, bargaining with herself, eventual acceptance and even pride -- but with the added complexity of having to deal with something that concerns her and her desires. Not her daughter, not her brother, her. If she comes out and/or acts on her attraction, any eventual consequence from a societal standpoint would be due to her actions, not a reflection of someone close to her, and I feel like that would be interesting to explore. We already know she can get over her fear and prejudices when it comes to the people she loves; can she do the same for herself? I like to think she would, eventually, overcome her need for societal approval, just like she (sort of) does in the show, and the journey there would be fascinating from a character standpoint.

Rose

What about Rose? There's a minor thread in her character journey that's about fear of intimacy due to Charlie's death, but it gets resolved pretty early on (apart from an episode in S7, but I feel like that's more of a momentary setback than anything major). Apart from this, I think her character growth is about becoming bolder: more sure of herself, better at advocating for herself and her loved ones, better at asking people to respect her needs and wants.

This is a very minor spoiler for The Golden Palace, so thread with a pinch of caution, but -- in it, Dorothy is shocked that Rose became strong, and while I understand her surprise, I don't think that's necessarily the right word to use. Rose is meek, and gentle, and she certainly wasn't at her best at the beginning of the show (S1E9 Break In and S1E22 Job Hunting are proof enough), but I think we forget that she's overcome a lot throughout her life. It takes a strong person to recognize that her home is too filled with grief to keep living there, and uproot her whole life (leaving behind her whole community and support system) to begin to heal:

The winters are rough, here in Minnesota, and this place is too filled with memories to let me get on with my life. I need to start over without you, Charlie, and I think this is the best way. (from S2E25 A Piece Of Cake)

I think she's always been a tough cookie, and remarkably in touch with her emotions, even if her grief for Charlie momentarily weakened her. Living with the Girls helps her get her conviction back and gain the newfound boldness she needs to know she has a spine of steel and use it when the moment calls for it.

Realizing that she might be queer would encourage her in this journey towards boldness, I feel. I don't think she'd have any internal hang-ups like Dorothy and Blanche would (her sort of reticence towards homosexuality in the show seems like it comes from a place of ignorance, rather than repression), but we know she can be sensitive to societal perception, even if not at Blanche's level (see S1E13 A Little Romance), and a queer relationship is the sort of thing that, unfortunately, invites a lot of societal scrutiny. The need to be there and ensure the safety and happiness of her partner(s) would embolden her to show her strength and aid her journey as a character.

Sophia

As an addendum: what would a coming out from any of her three Girls (Dorothy especially) mean for Sophia? In the show she's always supportive of homosexuality:

Jean is a nice person; she just likes girls instead of guys. Some people like cats instead of dogs. Frankly, I'd rather live with a lesbian than a cat. Unless a lesbian sheds, that I don't know. I'll tell you the truth, Dorothy. If one of my kids was gay, I wouldn't love him one bit less. I would wish him all the happiness in the world. (S2E5 Isn't It Romantic?)

That's what Doug and Clayton want, too. Everyone wants someone to grow old with. And shouldn't everyone have that chance? (S6E14 Sisters Of The Bride)

However, she's also shown to have some hang-ups when it comes to this sort of thing. Her issues with Phil's cross-dressing are the best example, but I'd count her attitude towards Rose while they're waiting for her AIDS test results in the mix, too. I wonder if a coming out from (one of) her Girls would prove more difficult to handle? I have no doubts that she'd come around in the end, of course -- I just wonder if she might have to work at it a bit first (and if her reaction to Dorothy coming out would be any different from her reaction to Blanche and/or Rose coming out).

Sophia's journey in the show is subtle, and the one I find harder to pinpoint. My personal opinion is that she gradually becomes softer around the edges, more open and openly vulnerable with the Girls; she gets more playful, more relaxed, more in her element as the show progresses. I think it's possible that a coming out from (one of) her Girls would encourage this progression towards openness; having her loved ones confide in her about something so personal would invite more confidence from her part too.

Whew, that was a long answer! It's a mess and I'm sure there's lots more that could be explored -- these are just some of my thoughts finally put on paper. If anyone has anything to add (or any contrasting opinion too!!) I'd love to read what you think!! In the meantime, anon, thank you so much for this ask. You seriously made my week!

[penguinsfly]

I unfortunately saw something I didn't want to see and that was my last straw. I'm fucking doing this.

Let's establish this first. Alastor is stated in the show to be asexual that is not up to discussion. He is also very heavily implied in the same conversation to be aromatic. 'An Ace in the hole' being used in context of him being with Charlie is also implying his aromanticism.

VIDEO

If that's not enough then here is Viv speaking about his romantic orientation. It's pretty clear despite the fact that afterwards she said it's okay to headcanon whatever (it's not but I will get o that later) that he is written purely as an aro ace character.

On top of that going by Alastor's interaction with Angel from the pilot and the first episode it is clear that he is sex repulsed. Not only that but on the fandom website he is stated to be touch averse with two sources which you can check out on the website.

Hazbin hotel wiki, Alastor page

Now we established that Alastor is canonically Asexual, Aromantic, Sex Repulsed and Touch Averse

As I also am all of the above I'll try to explain everything to the best of my ability as simply as I can.

Aromanticism and Asexuality.

I'm probably targeting the audience that knows those terms but regardless I will explain it anyway.

Aromantic - people that experience little to no romantic attraction towards any gender

Asexual - people that experience little to no sexual attraction towards any gender.

Little to no

Asexuality and aromanticism are spectrums in which people can feel certain attractions towards people but those attractions are less occurring or are defined by personal connection.

Diagram from AVEN website

However some people are at the end of the spectrum, they never felt attraction and that's valid. Alastor was stated to be aroace he wasn't written as demi or as gray he was written as aroace as in the end of the spectrum. His repulsion and not giving shit about romance or sex speaks for itself.

Representation

I do understand that everyone wants to be represented but it's so important to understand that aroace people are one of the most underrepresented queer groups in the media.

And I'm not here to scream about how I want my fav character to be just like me I don't care for it I'm way too confident in my orientation to rely on that however I'm tired of explaining to people what asexuality and aromanticism is just to receive 'are you sure' or 'you'll change your mind' or 'its not real' or the community favourite 'you'll find the right person' no I won't I'm not looking thank you very much (I just smile and nod to be polite and I'm sick of it).

'Harmless' buts like: 'He might be on the spectrum', 'AroAce people can still feel attraction' hurt the final outcome for all the people on the spectrum not only strictly aroaces because it allows people to write one shots with 'Demi Alastor' that falls in love in 2000 words because he is 'demi' (spoiler alert: they don't understand what that label means). It's just a cover, an opening, sneaky way to disregard his orientation, feel good about themselves and move on. Newsflash there is no moving on for aroace people it's our life.

Shipping

Shipping is just harmless fun right? Usually yes but not in this case. In the same way its not okay to ship gay characters with genders they are not attracted to.

It's erasure and since there is much less people identifying on aro/ace spectrums then there is gay or bi people our voices are being silenced. Not to mention that gay people received support from entire LGBTQIA+ community over the years in contrast to aro/ace specs who to this day are told that we are 'not queer enough' or 'not oppressed enough' often by other queer people.

And finally... FINALLY we get cannon Aro/Ace character that is clearly not interested in romance and sex. Character that beats stereotypes of boring and timid aro/ace people and what's the first people do? They ship him. Alastor's storyline provides so many points to be explored like 'what is his backstory', ' what's about his deal', ' how does he fit in in the found family trope' , 'does he care about hotel guests' yet people choose to write about the only thing that he is not interested in. As a heavily repulsed person that used to be horrified about the fact that I'll have to fall in love with somebody at some point before I found out what aro/ace is I find it repulsive and trust me he would too.

But Viv said it's okay!

Its the same point once again. What if Viv said that it's okay to ship gay Angel with woman. She doesn't have authority to say shit like that.

Queerplatonic relationships

I can't tell you not to do it I don't think he would be necessary interested in it but for fuck sake do your research and try to understand what queerplatonic means before you use it as a cover to shamelessly ship him. Respect the fact that he is sex repulsed and touch averse and you're fine.

Why can't you just avoid it?

First of all I shouldn't have to. Alastor's orientation should be respected in the fandom like any other orientation is. Second of all I've tried. I tried to only look up AroAce Alastor tag I've blocked over 80 people on tumblr alone (I just counted) to avoid to see anything that could trigger me and I'm not talking about slightly shippy posts or fanarts I'm talking about full blown disregard towards his orientation. Guess what it didn't work!

Archive of our own where do I start. I've used this website for over a decade and I could probably count days I didn't go there on my fingers. I'm fluent in AO3 I know which tags I should block. I know how to skim thorough the summary and tags to see if I'm interested. I've seen shit I'm a shipper I've been on ao3 for ten years but never had to mentally prepare myself to face queerphobia as I click on the tab.

Just use aro/ace Alastor tag.

I do and let me tell you people can't tag for shit or they just pretend to be clueless at this point. Besides see this?

there is more ff with Alastor/reader (disgusting) than there is Alastor with his canon orientation and to play the devils advocate for arophobic people there is more Angel/Alastor then his stated in the show sexuality. I understand that fandom goes back before the show was aired but Viv confirmed his orientation back then too.

Summary

I could go on and on bout different issues and maybe I will in the future but I'm not wasting anymore of this weekend on it. I'm ready to answer any questions as long as they are respectful.

I'm aware that he is a fictional character, it doesn't affect him in any way whatsoever but it does affect aromantic and asexual people keep it in mind.

If there are any mistakes grammar related I'm not sorry I'm fluent in English (not my first language) but I took 3h nap in between and I'm sleep deprived.

Have a nice day.

[persesphonestears]

Another tattoo

(Gif not mine :>)

A/N: So I have to make this a more than one part series because I wrote like way too much and I’m gonna die if I don’t post this already. Also so sorry it’s only Ghost in this post, but promise the second part will have the others!! I actually had so much fun writing this like omfg, I don’t have any piercings or tats for myself thanks to money problems atm but like actually I don’t know where I was going with that- uh anyway enjoy! I’m very tired. (looking at the amount now seems rlly small so sorry :/) ALSO I FUCKIN HATE THE NAME TOO LEAVE ME ALONE.

CW: He/they pronouns used for reader(? I might have ended up just using they/them), Reader has tattoos and piercings, I DONT THINK I USED Y/N LES GOO, I call ghost Simon when he isn't at work, Probably incorrect tattoo health procedures, Reader may be a little bland when first meeting Ghost(?), small mentions of gods(?)

Word count: 1342

Simon was finally let off for a break, given it’s only because Price knew he wasn’t keeping himself healthy or sleeping, so being the ‘dad’ boss he is, Simon was forced to take time off. While Simon wasn’t even close to being happy about having to not stay at base and having to make himself food and all the other human necessities, he’d been wanting a new tattoo for some time now. While maybe some of the privates would simply tattoo each other with pen ink, he’d rather die on the field than die from an infection from a more than likely shitty tattoo.

Walking through the somewhat dodgy looking part of his hometown, looking for a seemingly decent tattoo shop. While walking his eye was caught by the small little tattoo shop that looked clean and not all that dodgy. A small bell as the door opened rang as Simon stepped through, looking around at the walls he was impressed with the artwork that was displayed. He could hear faint 2000s rock music in the background of the shop, standing awkwardly waiting to see if anyone was actually here.

Turning around to walk out, he heard a small crash and a string of curses that followed.

Simon stopped and turned to see a short tattooed and pierced person walking out from the back of the shop. “Hi, sorry I was uh..” their talking trailed off as he looked down to see a fresh and unfinished tattoo on their leg. Unknown to Simon, the person in front of him was just very very happy that they weren’t able to be seen from the back, preferring not to be caught staring at the huge 6’4 man in their shop. 

“Uh anyway, I’m guessing you don’t have an appointment cause I don’t have any till later tonight, but I take walk in’s, both for tats and piercings'' They rambled off as they walked around to the front desk checking through their computer, Simon watched them, surprised by the feeling of fluttering in his stomach. Pushing it away he cleared his throat “Uh yeah walk in, are you able to tat up my other forearm?” he was wearing a t-shirt under his hoodie, happy he wasn’t going to be taking his shirt off. “Mhm sure, I just need to ask a few questions and then get you to sign some consent forms, that cool?” He asked walking back around and sitting on one of the couch chairs at the front, taking a seat after them, Simon sat and agreed to the others' request.

“Cool, alright so first is which arm you want it on obviously and if you have any tattoos on your forearm already?” Simon answered with short and gruff answers “My right arm and no, my left is already tattooed(I think I can’t remember which arm of his is tatted).” “Right cool okay so I’m not gonna bother asking if you're of age because it's pretty obvious because holy shit you are probably the biggest and hottest man I’ve ever seen, but just read through these quick and sign ‘em” Thanking whatever gods there were for people not being able to read minds. Handing the forms to Simon he grabbed them and the pen from your hands, giving a quick read through signing where he had to. Putting them back on the desk, you grabbed them right back and skimmed through them, “Okay Simon, well what do you want?”.

—tiny time skip–

After setting everything up and placing the stencil of the sketch that you drew up (That Simon wouldn’t admit but absolutely adored) onto the gruff military man that was sitting in your chair. “Okay, you ready?” A simple nod was what you received in response. Instead of pushing you continued to go ahead and start his tattoo, not once deciding to ask about some of the many scars that graced his arms. Them seemingly adding onto your attraction for the stranger in your shop as he sat still and silent. Becoming; as you do when tattooing, engrossed in the soft buzzing, the hushed music of your playlist and the ink going into skin at your hand.

“How many do you ‘got?” The gruff voice from above me spoke as I continued to stab his skin. “Tats or piercings?” Responding with another question as I kept my focus on the shading, trying to not let the fact that this absolute 10/10 was asking you about yourself. Sure it was most likely to just make conversation but you could dream. “Both?” The voice behind the black surgical mask didn’t sound overly confident but even when peeking up at the man he was still only looking forward. “I stopped counting how many tats I got a while ago. As for my piercings uh..” cutting myself off to count in my head. “I’d say about 9, not counting my ears.” Feeling a cold gaze turn towards me I stiffen slightly. 

“You only have 6 on your face.” (I chose to give reader a vertical labret, septum, both sides of the nose(like so you could use a chain), bridge, eyebrow :D) His voice replies, stifling my laugh “yeah I know I just don’t normally let people see my chest or just randomly show my stomach.” Giggling, I look up to see his ears turning a slight pink. “R-right sorry.” Trying not to laugh at a client, we continued to talk for a bit more before I suggested to put a movie on more to make it less uncomfortable for me with the awkward conversation. After picking a movie, he seemed to relax just a tad more, getting myself comfortable. I continued to finish up the art piece I was adding to someone's skin.

—another time skip because Ghost would get something edgy and big and I can’t keep writing silly awkwardness—

By the time you had finished and made sure to add some disinfectant and soothing cream to the skin before wrapping it up. You pat his shoulder smiling softly “you’re all done big guy”. Rising from the seat, he walked somehow (even though this man is huge) silently towards the front desk. Scanning his card and giving him the papers that explained how to look after his tattoo. “Thank you. You’re uhm. Very handsome- or uh pretty? I don’t know, can I just get your number?” Stumbling over his words brought a smile to your face. “Sure, I’d uh I’d actually really like it if you took my number” you ramble as you grab some scrap paper, quickly writing your personal number you hand it to him.

Seeing his eyes scrunch slightly, let you know he was smiling at you, and god almighty if the fact that this huge, scary, masked, stoic, man giving you a smile, that you couldn’t even see, wouldn’t make you swoon. Giving you a quick nod he walked out, the small bell above your door ringing in your ears as you watched him leave. 

Giggling to yourself as you stupidly fist pumped the air and twirled around happily, not registering the sound of the bell being rung, indicating the opening of a door. What you did register was the once again gruff voice, clearing their throat as you turned back to look at the man who just left back in your shop. “Forgot ma’ cap.” Swiftly grabbing his hat back with what you could only assume was the smuggest look ever he turned back around. This time leaving you with a curt “Bye now, doll”

Leaving you red faced, in the middle of your own shop. Snapping out of it you groaned loudly before retreating to the floor, hidden by the desk. Cursing yourself for your stupid victory jig you did before even making sure that he wouldn’t come back for a bit. A buzz in your pocket distracted you from your internal dread, pulling out your phone and opening it to see a message from an unknown number. “That lil’ dance was very cute btw”.

A/N: *twerks cutely* ANYWAY

[syoish-aot]

HOLY SHIT IT'S DONE!!

I was having some intense posting paralysis all morning (I think I reread the last scene like 15x just to make sure it was worded exactly right).

*he terrifying fear when you write something you really love and you're scared no one else will like it as much as you do*

ANYWAY -

Thank you so much to everyone that's been regularly reading slash commenting on I Found You! It was my first time posting fic to tumblr and I had a lot of fun doing it!

I always have SO MANY ideas for fics, but I get overwhelmed by the idea of seriously perusing them. A lot of this comes from the fear that no one will read them and I'll have spent all of my time writing for absolutely nothing. BUT I've been trying to humble myself lately and recognize the joy in the writing process itself and the satisfaction of getting my ideas fully fleshed out on paper aka google docs regardless of the attention they get.

Despite that, anyone who writes fic understands how shitty it feels when you work for DAYS on something and get crickets in the comments. It sucks. And that's sort of how I've been feeling with my fics on Ao3 lately- which kicks my motivation right in the ass.

In writing I Found You, I think I got some of that motivation back. Not JUST because I was getting regular commenters (again, thank you so much) but also because I was able to slip fully into my self indulgence and finally write out one of the verses that's been existing in my mind palace for MONTHS!

So, all of this rambling is to say this -

I really liked sharing this story with you guys on tumblr, and I'm for sure going to be doing more of this style in the future.

I'll be posting I Found You to Ao3 as well, but I want to edit it a bit (and possibly add a few more scenes) before doing that.

Basically the version I posted here is more of a rough draft, and then the final version will be the one on Ao3.

If you like my writing, consider checking out my Reader/Eren long fic "Ten Seconds" (100k, complete on Ao3) or the post-canon Jean/OC fic I'm working on "The Letters She Wrote"

If you read all of this, then here's your reward - a sneak peak at the VERY LONG isekai/time travel fic that I'm going to be working on next...

Chapter 1 - "You, 2000 years in the future"

Shiganshina High - 2024

You’d taken Ancient History as an elective to fill your schedule because no other class fit in the period. 

Also to piss off your dad about not taking AP calculus.

(But mostly it was the schedule thing.)

It wasn’t that you disliked Ancient History, you just found it painfully boring and mind numbing. It was the class right after lunch and every assignment was another boring paper that sounded the exact same over and over and over again.

(Although it did leave you wondering how many times you could start a paper with “the oxford dictionary defines discovery as…” before Mr. Arlert, the ancient old man who taught the class, caught on.)

Thankfully, you didn’t have to put too much effort into the class to get a good grade and because of that the class was an easy A that you could use to maintain your honor roll. Mr. Arlert was retiring at the end of the year, so he was pretty much entirely checked out. You had a feeling he didn’t actually read any of your papers and gave your grades out based on how well he assumed you did the assignment. Which, again, meant you got an A on every one. So Mr. Arlert had a habit of putting on documentaries instead of actually teaching anything. 

And you weren’t about to complain about that.

Armin was sitting next to you furiously taking notes on the documentary that Mr. Arlert, his grandpa and teacher, had put on. You understood his struggle to impress his grandpa in the class he taught on a personal level. You used to be like that when it came to math, but now you normally felt yourself doing the opposite. “The opposite”, meaning:

Not taking AP calculus.

Writing the wrong answer on a quiz, even after doing the work to prove the correct one.

Asking pointless questions in class just to see him get that constipated I-can’t-treat-you-like-my-daughter-right-now-because-you’re-my-student-but-god-do-I-wish-I-could-ground-you look.

You smiled at the memory, feeling quite pleased with yourself, until the monotone voice of the documentary playing at the front of the class pulled  you back into the present:

“The ancient people of Paradis elected large walls, presumably to protect themselves from invaders during this time.” You looked back at the projector. There was a poorly done animation of what historians suspect the three large walls may have looked like, back when they still stood almost 2000 years ago. 

The documentary, just like every documentary Mr. Arlert put on, seemed pretty pointless to show to a class of eleventh graders who were already very aware of the mysterious history of Paradis. 

You’d all grown up here and had been taught about this stuff since grade school. Paradis was a major hub for ancient history. There were dozens of museums throughout the island, all holding different ancient artifacts and pieces of your country’s history. Pieces that’s functions had been lost to time, leaving archeologists only able to guess the true history of your people and what these items were for.

“...purpose of them is still unknown, some archaeologists theorize they were used for early agriculture, although others argue they may have been used for religious reasons…”

On the screen was one of the most mysterious relics of ancient Paradis. Two metal cylinders, attached to some sort of strap. Normally, they were found with a large box of metal that was meant to hold something, along with canisters of unknown contents. The were rare, but a few dozen of them had been uncovered in the last hundred years and have only continued to add to the mystery of ancient Paradis. 

Of course, you were curious what their origins may be too, but not curious enough to look into it further than this class and the occasional trip you make to the Paradis Museum. 

“...these large man-eating monsters were an important part of Paradis folklore, some argue they were likely worshiped as go-”

The bell rang, finally saving you from your mind numbing documentary focused torture.

“Ah!” Mr. Arlert jerked awake at his desk. “Yes, well- I hope you all learned something important today!” He quickly said as he stood. “Don’t forget, your final papers are due on Monday morning. Despite it, I hope you’re able to enjoy your weekend!”

You hoped so too.

God, did you hope so...

[whumpy-wyrms]

Ok sure. Does Tllr have an average word count? I'm always curious about how long people's chapters are when not provided word count. Like with the story I'm currently doing I get about 2000 words a chapter bc It's really just for fun. Meanwhile my passionate projects are around 3000-5000 words, sometimes even more. So yeah I'm just curious how long tllr tends to be. Hope you're doing okay ♡

--- @whumping-valentine

i don’t feel like calculating the actual average but i typically aim for and end up with around 4k-6k words per chapter, usually around 5k. this is like definitely kinda hard to deal with though and i’ve outlined future chapters a bit differently to try to keep them shorter (which increases the amount of chapters) so i can get them done more frequently and so pacing is good and stuff. i also just checked and all the chapters combined (plus a lot of future ones i’ve written a bit of) add up to over 133,500 words in the whole series so far!! woah!!!!

anyway thanks so much, i hope you’re doing okay too 🫂🫂🫂

[batsplat]

Hello Bat!! I love love love reading your thoughts on things, from motogp to terrible 2000s tv shows. You mentionned great Smallville Lex/Clark fic in a recent post, and I was wondering: could you please share? I literally just finished rereading the Astolat's and still hunger for more.

yeah sure!! I'm kinda coasting off my ao3 history here (apparently I spent the entirety of 30/10/22 Having A Moment) so it's like,, a very imperfect list

okay, I'm gonna start with a bunch of seperis fics but I'd genuinely check out... all their stuff. it's just a fun read of the characters!! also there's so much of it and it's a good time to work your way through

A Handful Of Dust 47k words

At the end of the world, Lex can't stop running.

quite a dark and sad fic but I think about it a lot and it really works for me. it's basically a post-apocalyptic fic where the apocalypse is caused by clark being pushed over the edge and succumbing to his god complex. he's hunting down his former friends and allies, including lex. I think this kind of premise can easily be like... edgelord central 'ooh what if the hero were actually the villain', but this one feels true to the characters and their relationship + is very engaging

Advanced Masochism 8.6k words

In which Lex is curious as to why he's become a proxy stalker.

a small series that consists of lex trying to make the whole clark/lana situation work while doing his best to suppress his attraction to clark. lex's internal monologue in this is fun and punchy - though a lot of it is about his age gap to clark, which never like... feels THAT extreme in the show because tom welling *gestures*. but if that element makes you uncomfortable, I'd give this one a skip!

My Usual Lie 4.1k words

He wants to be so much more than that.

ice skating!! kinda melancholic but also idk a little sweet. it's clark spending time with lex after he's already grown up and they've already grown apart and clark misses the way it used to be between the two of them... again also ABOUT the age gap. lex is such a fun kinda slippery presence here, funny and kind but also a little detached

Frantic 9.1k words

In which Clark does not get dinner. And then everything goes downhill.

oh yeah I really enjoy re-reading this one. clark finally is forced to reveal his powers to lex at an inopportune moment, when evil goo is attempting to kill them both. no angst, just bickering

Resident Alien 2.7k words

It's tax season in the Luthor household.

just short and sweet and fun! established relationship, does what it says on the tin, lex is very into taxes. he's also very into clark

Closer to Breathing 8.6k words

Christmas parties at Luthor Manor. Boys sharing thoughts with brandy. And other things.

really lovely read, tender and fun and just kinda... nails a version of lex who is so very good at what he does, who might be loathed but can charm the small town people anyway, and a clark who stands at crossroads between being part of the small town and not liking the feeling of seeing lex play people like HIM (but not him). gets into a lot of the inherent tensions of that relationship!! love lex the outsider

Vix Te Agnovi 36.8k words

Clark gets a late-night call and interesting things happen.

again, age gap-centric warning!! lex asks clark to pick him up from a sex party. very much about the tension between the worldly metropolitan lex and the country boy hick clark, and both of them kinda entering into each other's worlds... lex reckoning how he's changed, clark curious and awkward and frustrated at being treated like a child (which. he very much is)

A Life More Ordinary 4.1k words

It wasn't sudden, and Lex didn't know it was happening until it had. And then he did.

aggressively not ABOUT superman, it's just about lex and clark. about lex and clark being flatmates. soft and gentle and intimate

Two Paths 21.8k words

Everything decided in one breath.

man I WISH there were more of the series. the basic premise is the whole smallville lie falls apart and lex is trusted to like... get clark out of there and hide him. so basically clark becomes his ward!! they live together!! lex needs to be an Adult who Takes Care of clark, but again. conflicted. this is just fun like it's such a funky dynamic that feels like an absolute perfect nightmare for lex specifically

and fics by other authors:

The Olive Branch by tasabian, 3.9k words

It's the holidays...which means Lex Luthor is keeping Superman very busy. But what is Lex's hidden agenda?

lex does crimes to get clark's attention. they're cute idc

When a Strawberry Is Pushed into a Mountain by Thamiris, 33.1k words

Away at college, Clark learns to read between the lines and finds his future there.

college!clark!! a few misunderstandings and tricky emotions that serve as a backdrop for the care clark and lex show for each other... I quite like it when fic doesn't like,, cut out their terrible parents

The Butterfly Effect by The Spike, 11.6k words

Lex can't let this Cassandra thing go.

remember that old prophecy lady from s1? well, what if lex injected himself with something that gave himself the power to see the future too, and was horrified and traumatised by what he saw? feat. clark taking care of him and papa kent playing the role of the homophobic dog

Going Home by mskatej, 5.5k words

Lex has amnesia.

amnesia future fic! clark comes to the rescue a little too late and takes care of lex. warning: the amnesia creates some issues of consent

where the colors are by museaway, 10.3k words

After Clark rescues Lex from Belle Reve, they flee to Canada to start a new life. Although his age and the need for discretion limit his options, Clark does his best to support them. But despite Clark's loyalty, Lex continues to have nightmares of his time in the asylum and worries that one day, Clark will leave him—or that the rescue was entirely in his head.

this scratches a very straightforward itch: the one where clark successfully saves lex in season three and chooses him. kinda nice and comforting even in its melancholy of not being able to return home again... y'know, sometimes you want something exactly like this

light the torch and pass it on by ang3lba3, 19.8k words

Clark starts behaving erratically, and it's up to Lois and Lex to figure out how to fix him. Thankfully, the paper cuts off there. Clark is faint, sweating. He thinks he’s hard. He checks. Yes. Yes, he is. He flips the paper over. In a deep purple ink, almost black, is an unsigned note. I think we can come to a mutually satisfactory conclusion on this matter. “Oh my god,” Clark whispers, thrilled. “He’s blackmailing me.”

lex/clark/lois. clark is having like... a weird alien hormone situation and it means he's weird towards both lex and lois. lex knows clark is superman but they're still very much enemies here, so this is the push that gets them to change their relationship. this one's just fun! sweet, good banter between lex/lois, it's obvious beneath it all how much they care for clark and clark does for them

The Milk and Cookies War by Punk, 6.2k words

Lex Luthor's Penthouse for Wayward Boys.

college!clark shows up at lex's place and makes himself at home. my favourite scene in this one is a brief interlude where lex is bitchy to his father

m2m by rivkat, 2k words

For thefourthvine, prompt: Craigslist. Clark gets curious about all those superhero kink offers.

what it says on the tin. I think you can probably guess who's demanding a superman lookalike. this fic made me laugh

Risk Management by tasabian, 7.3k words

A bad day for Metropolis reunites Clark and Lex.

future fic where lex almost dying sparks the reconciliation. ... I'd also just rec checking out all their fics tbh

The Grope of Destiny by suzvoy, 19.7k words

Clark had no idea how he was going to explain *this* one.

clark and lex are physically stuck together, and it's what prompts the reveal. always satisfying!!

Candy Cane Hearts by tasabian, 4.6k words

A new brand of candy makes Clark unusually mellow; Lex finds it all very confusing. Written for the Under Mistletoe challenge.

another christmas-y fic, another fic where clark acts weird! basically whenever you remove clark's inhibitions, he whisks lex off. just sweet and charming

No Choice by mskatej, 4.3k words

Clark is in heat.

okay. listen. you need to un-repress them, right. again, this is taking license of some weird alien biology. lex's blend of caring about clark so much and also needing him and also feeling weird about it and also being very into the whole alien thing but also kinda freaked by it... the classic dynamic

The Hinge Moment by tasabian, 14.8k words

Superman has a bad day; Lex just happens to be there.

clark kidnaps lex! but like, in a nice way. a lot of these fics don't REALLY engage with canon all that closely, but this is a future fic that definitely does. gives them the chance to actually have some conversations, y'know. some days I don't actually want them to forgive each other easily, but sometimes it's nice to scratch the itch of having slightly older and more mature versions of them figuring out their issues. really well written

I might add some more at some point but I only had the energy to go through a few right now lol and well I imagine you'd rather like them now than in like. three months. also psa: pLEASE feel free to send in smallville fic recs to this account, I'm always happy to receive them

[ivyial]

hii, how are you? I stumbled upon your page and I started to check it out, upon doing that I came across one of your eagleone posts, and how you view the ship or how you view people who dislike the shop entirely for no reason at all. and to be honest I couldn't agree more. your choice of words and how you describe just makes my heart feel hope again. hope that there's actual human beings that are using a gift called a brain for once.

it honestly drives me crazy to see people literally sending death threats and literal racism to those who ship a ship that isn't quite popular. another account just a few days ago that speaks alot about eagleone and analyses their scenes and dialogues, got literal death threats that would me a grown adult puke from how disgusting to know such human beings exist.

( didn't realize to be that long LMAO )

anyway I just wanted to say that I absolutely love all your eagleone content literally makes my day <3

i- 🥺🥺❤❤ omg thank you so much anon

i've never been one for ship wars. what bothers me the most about the eagleone discourse (and the current cleon discourse on twitter as well) is how likening characters to siblings (eagleone) or saying one views the other as a kid (cleon - insane take but anyway) eventually becomes "these characters are LITERALLY siblings, they are so sibling coded to me that it essentially makes them actual siblings" and creates a breeding ground for harassment and accusations of proshipping.

shipping has always been a matter of personal taste, and it's one of those few things in fandoms where there's no need to debate about conflicting ships. in the end, you can just agree to disagree. i like X for those reasons and you like Y for those. that's it. ships are usually better enjoyed with fellow shippers. it only risks becoming an echochamber when people start to take it so seriously that their group of shippers decides to hate on everyone else, and eventually, to harass them.

which is unfortunately what is happening right now. i'm very aware of the death threats and everything else, and it's sad and infuriating to realise that fandoms will never change. idk how old you are anon, or if you were around on tumblr when it happened, but a few years ago, the voltron fandom was a big thing around here (i apologise in advance to everyone who had to live through that lmfao). klance was arguably the biggest ship in the fandom (keith x lance), so the shippers were actively campaigning for it to become canon. it got to the point where klance shippers sent the show creators cupcakes filled with glass shards to convince them to canonise the ship. I WISH I WAS FUCKING KIDDING

this stuff's not new, bullying fellow fans isn't new unfortunately, and bullying actors or producers isn't either. if i remember correctly, when supernatural s4-5 (i guess) were airing back in the 2000s, dean's love interest jo was removed from the show supposedly because fangirls lost their shit and sent hate mail to producers. but that's all speculation, i can't find a reliable source for that.

i wish people would stop taking everything so seriously and get this nasty over fiction. however, it's unlikely that it will happen, because fandoms are filled with kids who don't know any better, are sometimes fully raised by the internet and then turn into immature adults. it's rare to find spaces in fandoms were you can genuinely have fun and create content without being policed by 12 year olds, but when you can, it makes the fandom experience a lot better.

i don't put much content out there, but i'm glad to see that the few posts i write are appreciated!! i'm working on an eagleone fic rn so it definitely makes me want to keep working on it regularly and create more content 😭

[marcholasmoth]

OSRR: 3089

i'm gonna have so much to catch up i when i finally watch for the future.

in the meantime, i went to work today! it was nice to be out and doing something. plus i got to see my work friends and socialize a little.

but first, i stopped at starbucks to pick up sustenance. then i went to work and waited and just was chillin for a while. kendall showed up a little late but we got to work on prob and stats for a while, and immediately after that i was whisked away by two friends to go to lunch. we went to blake's because they're closing on saturday, which is really sad, but it's been a long time coming. a local establishment and icon, blake's restaurant in manchester looks like the 70s refurbished the 50s, right down to the restroom sign. thankfully, they'll continue to make and sell their ice cream, but the restaurant location, the last brick-and-mortar store, will close for good on saturday. it's sad, but it's expected. the location in milford closed years ago, which was where i had a lot of memories from my childhood which can never be recreated or relived. (i feel like i kind of went essay mode for a little bit there. but that's how i usually write papers and stuff, that's the tone i use.)

i'm sad about it. oh boy. grief coming out of the recesses of my mind to give me grief. great.

anyway, after lunch we went back to work with enough time for me to pack my things up and leave to go work with the kiddos. i ended up waiting for a little while, so i pulled out my sweatshirt and closed my eyes as i leaned on it against the window. i must've been asleep for ten minutes but i woke up at the exact moment nancy and the kids pulled in the driveway.

i ended up mostly working on things with nancy and creating invoices that look official and shit, but i'm definitely gonna need to change the spacing of some of it. but they're official looking. enough for my tastes, anyway.

i also helped one of the kids with clocks because she's learning analog clocks and those are hard. they took me a long time to get. like, until high school. i could never see them right. now that i think about it, it might've been my eyesight or the untreated adhd that prevented me from reading it clearly. it could've been a lot of things. but i understand where she's coming from. she just needs practice. gotta pay attention to the details and practice. on a related note, i'm fairly certain she's got adhd and her sister is dyslexic. they're doing great, but that's because i know how to help them. i'd do anything for those kids.

after that i came back to joel's and took a goddamn nap. i deserved it. i texted joel saying i was gonna nap for an hour and that i'd set an alarm, and after that text i spent maybe two minutes awake and then i was out like a light, despite talking and light. i needed it badly. earlier in the day before checking how much i slept i could've sworn i'd gotten six or seven hours of sleep and that i only woke up once or twice.

nope.

3 hours 48 minutes. i counted 18 times i woke up.

no wonder i was so fucking exhausted.

anyway, we had our twilight: 2000 game tonight, which is always really fun. i was half paying attention, but my character, named callum cross (after callum from the dragon prince and cross because it was an alliteration) was digging a well. that's what he did. he dug a hole for a couple days. i checked the weather in poland for august of 2000, which is when we are in the game, and the weather was rather temperate but humid as fuck. i don't know if you've ever dug a hole in heat and humidity, but that shit is prime for heatstroke and heat exhaustion. been there, done that. it was a bad time.

anyway, i also bought a few cones of chenille yarn so i have materials for a project i wanna do. i'd like to make a blanket that's miraculous ladybug themed but pastel. i got the colors for it, so that's good, and i got them on sale. that'll be fun.

i also got word today that my diploma will be coming in relatively soon! i'm very excited.

and i decided "why not" to opening my hours for the semester a day early, and within the hour someone had booked an appointment with me for tomorrow around 1pm. i have a doctors appointment for my hand first thing, so i figured i might as well have my day open tomorrow to work, which is why i opened it up early.

anyway, all that being said, i couldn't stop making puns during game tonight and joel was having none of it. it's hilarious how much he hates puns, but then he'll go and make some himself. but only when i'm around. i'm grateful my influence has been this. if getting people to make puns is the only thing i'll ever do, it's been a life-well lived.

so far, so good. it's time for bed now because that appointment is early as fuck.

[husky-and-starch]

This is really interesting for me because while I did the same initially with Miami Vice and came to similar conclusions I also watched Hawai’i 5-0 (the 2000s one) which added additional information to my graph.

If we’re to say Starsky and Sonny are red characters, Hutch and Tubbs are blue character, and yet Sonny is more of a Hutch than a Starsky and Tubbs is more of a Starsky than a Hutch I think throwing Steve McGarett and Danny Williams in the mix (as I did while watching H50) you get an interesting z-axis almost? Idk it become more complex basically.

Danny is most certainly a Red character. He’s hot headed and impulsive and Steve is certainly a Blue character but more aligned with Tubbs than Hutch. He does really stupid impulsive things really calmly. Additionally Danny is similar to Sonny, you could say in some ways they’re the same character (both have plot points about their kids and getting back with their wives and having girlfriends and they’re living in really shitty conditions and they’re both very intense) but unlike Sonny, Danny is certainly more of a Starsky. Much of what he does is reminiscent of the things Starsky does, he’s a bit naive and has lines about reading something and believing it without fact checking (remember that one time Starsky bought a “chinchilla”?). I think if you put Danny back in New Jersey he’d have a slew of restaurants where he in, some x-degrees of Kevin Bacon style string of names and people, knows the owner. (I haven’t finished H50 so I can’t confirm if this ever happens but those are the vibes he gives)

Steve is an outlier though. He’s insane he’s not like Starsky or Hutch because he’s not exactly a cop. He’s a Navy SEAL. He acts like a Navy SEAL. If I HAD to assign him one or the other I’d say Hutch exclusively because of their shared love for the ocean. (Hutch would never be a Navy SEAL tho let’s get that straight)

Honestly I don’t think there’s any way to scientifically graph this information cause it’s not really *science* it’s just like vibes? Ig? If you boil it down to various different aspects they’re grouped in different ways and give you different information.

Examples:

Interestingly this one also shows who grew up in the New England area. (Also idk if Tubbs specifically likes or dislikes the ocean)

Maybe divorce is what makes a Hutch tick…?

This is just because I think everyone should know that Sonny brings up gay sex *specifically* far more than is really necessary. I think maybe Starsky and Hutch brought up gay sex once but Sonny brings it up nearly every episode fr.

Anyway I feel like I’ve been fucking around with this concept procrastinating cause I don’t wanna edit stuff but I don’t think I have anything else to say.

It’s fun to think about the similarities between characters but honestly it boils down to vibes something that cannot be analyzed scientifically and in the words of OB from Loki “It was a fiction problem!” *dies*

When I first started watching Miami Vice - over six months ago now - it was with Starsky and Hutch in mind. See, I'm a huge fan of Starsky and Hutch, and so I thought, "Miami Vice, a show about a pair of cops in the 80's? It's basically 80's Starsky and Hutch, right? That's right up my alley!"

So here's the thing: I was totally wrong about it being 80's S&H, for multiple reasons, but I was right that it was up my alley. Of course, I had no idea what I was dipping my toes into at the time, but that's exactly why I've written this post. Going into Miami Vice and watching it through the lens of S&H gave me some interesting insights, and I want to share one with y'all now.

Now on tvtropes.org there's a trope for when one character of a pair is more passionate or hot-headed, and the other character is calmer and cool-headed. The trope is flexible, and is referred to as Red Oni and Blue Oni. The trope can be more nuanced than that (or less) but that's the general idea.

It's usually pretty easy to tell which is which, and if you're struggling to tell them apart, then the trope probably doesn't apply.

For example: in Starsky and Hutch, Starsky is Red (easily excited and usually full of energy - also not as book-smart as his partner, and less likely to stop and think things through)

and Hutch is Blue (more reclusive, book-smart, overthinks things).

In Miami Vice, Sonny is Red (very inclined to react emotionally, and based on a lot of his habits is pretty impulsive)

and Rico is Blue (also impulsive, but more often with forethought)

Now here's where it gets interesting - at least to me. When I saw that Sonny was Red, my mind grouped him together with Starsky automatically. Same with Rico and Hutch. I thought I understood the characters.

Boy was I wrong.

Right at the beginning of MV, it really feels like the show wants me to believe that Sonny is a good ol', live 'n let live boy. It wants me to think that Rico is some kind of high-strung city slicker with a short fuse. I was totally fooled, too. That's not dissimilar to the vibe of S&H's relationship, and so I wasn't thinking all that much about it.

So for a little bit I really did think that Sonny was laid back and that Tubbs was pretty uptight, and wow, that is not true at freaking all. Yo, Tubbs is chill af (unless you’ve messed with someone he loves/his car), and Sonny is … so high-strung. Dude, I think he gives Hutch a run for his money.

And that’s the thing. When I first watched it, I was like Sonny is like the Starsky, and Tubbs is like the Hutch of the duo. Nope. Veerrry nope. Tubbs is the blue half of his duo - for sure - but he is definitely the Starsky. Just like Sonny is the red boi, hands down, but he is definitely the Hutch.

Sonny, like Hutch, feels too much, and they both struggle to bounce back from those feelings. They struggle to move on/move forward, and they tend to wallow in their emotions. You can see the way that their circumstances and mistakes weigh them down, and that even though they keep getting up to fight, they do so with less and less enthusiasm each time.

Starsky and Tubbs – on the other hand – are both street-raised New Yorkers that tend to be optimists. They look on the bright side of things, more willing to find silver-linings and more willing to move forward/move on. They still obviously care, but they are just ... I guess they're literally just more emotionally healthy?

Anyway, I realize that this is long, and now that I'm reaching my conclusion, it sounds sort of lame, but I found this so interesting, since I had to change the categorization in my head. I was only putting them on a scale of Red to Blue, and completely neglected what was essentially the y axis in my little mental graph: which I guess was optimism vs pessimism?

So Sonny and Rico are on the opposite extremes. Sonny is a moody red boi, and Rico is a cool blue boi. Meanwhile Starsky and Hutch are in the middle, Starsky being a cool red boi and Hutch being a moody blue boi.

This sounds really underwhelming now, but I'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts on this. Do you guys think that the y axis should be optimism vs pessimism? Are there any other things that stood out to you?

[amive2567]

Ingredients: Kenma Kozume x !GN Reader

Contains: streamer Kenma, OOC Kenma, insecure Kenma, bad cooking, not proof read, reverse comfort,

Words: 958

Type of order: hot chocolate (fluff), small pumpkin-spice late (cofort), Cupcake (Oneshot)

Note: 255465 yen are about 2000 Euros/US-Dollar

Masterlist

It was actually a joke when he said that for a 255465 yen donation, he would do a cooking stream. Never had he thought anyone would spend so much money on it. When the donation came in, Kenma could only stare at the screen.

"A cooking stream sounds nice. I hope you won't burn down the kitchen Omegalol" read the google voice out loud. He wanted to smack his head against a wall. "Why do you have so much money?" he asked the anonymous donator rhetorically. His heart pounded against his chest as he double-checked the donation, not that a troll would make fun of him. Unfortunately, it was true. "To be honest it was a joke, my s/o will kill me if I ruin their kitchen. I will pay it back, but thank you very much anon."

Fan13: "Nah, you said this, and you have to do it."

MiyaTwinsAreHot: "´There is no way back now."

FurryFan: "Welp, you brought yourself into this situation. Now you have to take action."

He sighed but gave in to the chat and the incredible donation. "Alright, but you have to wait until tomorrow. I have to install the setup in the kitchen first and then we can cook. Any special wishes?" The chat exploded with ideas and food recommendations. It happened so fast that Kenma had to put the chat into subscriber-only mode. "Woa, ok guys. I guess I have enough recommendations. Thanks." he said and read through the chat.

Taking notes on what to cook on a sticky note you left on his desk a few days ago, telling him to drink enough water. "Should we continue after this incredible donation? Once again thank you. I still can't believe that someone would spend so much money on some lousy cooking stream." He went back to his game and proceeded as normal, but the thought about cooking in front of millions of people made him nervous.

On the next day, he stood in the kitchen, waiting for the people to join his stream. "Hello, everyone. So as promised, we are having a cooking stream today. I picked out a three-course menu to make it more embarrassing for me. We will start with cold soba with a wasabi dip, a recommendation by @shotolover123. After that, we will have Katsudon with rice. A recommendation by @leafygreen. And last but not least we will have an apple pie, which got recommended pretty often. I am grateful for that, but to be honest, I would have picked it anyway." He giggled a bit, and the chat, or rather only the fangirls went wild.

Kudzukenlover2013: His giggle is so cute, his partner is so lucky.

KenIsMine: I want to cuddle him so bad.

KenKenismyjoy: He is so adorable. You should grin more often Ken-Ken.

He tried to ignore the fangirls, and focus on his cooking but then a special name popped up in the stream and he smiled even more.

Catma: He should smile more often. His smile is as rare as he drinks water.

"Well catma, if it satisfies you, I drank a bottle of water today." His cheeks turned a bit pink as his smile grew wider. "Well we should start, don't you think?" With that, he started to get the ingredients out of the cupboard and the fridge.

Catma: Don't burn down the kitchen.

"I hope I won`t." he nervously chuckled.

A few hours later and he found himself struggling. "I didn't sign up for this to be this bad." he half laughed and cried. He managed to somehow burn his Katsudon. Kenmas fans could see his struggles, some tried to give him tips, but others just laughed at him.

The front door opened, and you stepped into your medium-sized flat. "I'm home," you shouted and took off your shoes. "Welcome home, dove." You smelled the burned food and wrinkled your nose. "What are you doing? It kinda smells," you asked while you put your key and bag away. "Err, well I'm cooking." You're eyes widened. Kenma and cooking are two things you never believed you would hear in one sentence. You loved him dearly, but Kenma was the worst at cooking. Your eyes widened surprised. "How is it going?" "Quiet bad, I somehow burned everything. Sorry 'bout that." You needed to suppress a chuckle. He locked so hopelessly, so small in this big kitchen. "It's alright, I will carry you." You put on an apron and started fixing this mess.

The meal was finished after hours of cooking, failing, nearly crying, and swearing. "I think you did great at the end." "Y/N you did almost everything. I only caused a mess." He looked to the ground avoiding your graze, and the camera. A reassuring smile spread across your face, as you hugged him. "Love, you don'T have to be good at everything. I think the people out there liked it. There are no perfect people in the world, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. You may suck at cooking but you're great at gaming, at quick thinking, being attentive, and you're the most amazing boyfriend ever." You kissed his forehead , his head turned beet red. He tried to hide his face in the crook of your neck. While you two were in your own little world the chat exploded with emotes, and messages.

JojoTiger: "Tbh, I needed to hear those words too. Could I rent you s/o for a day, so they can tell me such things?

Ken-Ken-Lover: This is soo sweet. I love (Insert your ship name)

ForReal78: "I mean yeah it's cute, but have you seen the dirty dishes. Man, I'm so glad I don't have to clean this up."

Everyone: @ForReal78 You destroyed the moment

[transgenderer]

Think you've made this post before, but what would you recommend for someone who wants to know why you like TMG so much? (Have listened to basically nothing by them)

this is a subtly different question than the usual "what should i check out from them". and its interesting! so to me there's a "classic trio" of mountain goats albums: all hail west texas, tallahassee, and the sunset tree. they tend to be more direct, and therefore more immediately achieve their goal, which is "make you feel something intensely, something youre not used to feeling, or which you dont have the words for". like...there's an *emotion* to no children, a specific and intense emotion, for which the language is lacking. theres this one tweet abt tMG that really clicked with me, that people who like tMG a lot are often distant from their emotions, and jd is really good at tunneling through your emotional walls and letting the dam out

so anyway thats the main thing, they make you FEEL a lot, with the words, and especially with the way john darnielle sings, which is not traditionally good but imo has an unusually large amount of emotion in it. but another major aspect is that a lot of his songs, especially the pre-2000 stuff, are telling a weird ambiguous interesting story. a lot of his early songs are these weird cryptic little poems, which i find very compelling. here's one, its called love hymn to aphrodite:

The sunset gets a little longer every night And it's no good but I feel alright The sky turns orange and the colors start swirling You float downstairs, your body spinning in perfect circles It's the 18th of July What what are you doing

part of what makes this work is the trust i have in JD as an author. i dont know what he meant, but i believe he meant *something*, and something that was at least interesting to 90s-JD. which makes these songs fun impossible puzzles

ANYWAY so thats one thing. and then his modern stuff, the appeal there is like...so he used to do a lot of love songs, right? i mean thats sort of what he made his name in. but he hasnt made a love song in nearly 15 years, i think the last one was on heretic pride in 2008. his songs are are about rarely discussed events, emotions. hell make an album about professional wrestling, or goths, or the fall of paganism in the roman empire, and it feels silly when you say it but its not silly, theyre like...actually affecting! and part of this is that theyre often metaphors for more down to earth stuff but sometimes theyre not. sometimes its just a song about the band gene loves jezebel, and its a good song. anyway. theres a lot of novelty

but the CORE the core of all of it, is the lyrics are just...really really good. you mentioned earlier, that most song lyrics sound bad when you just write them out with no music. and this is true! but its not true of tMG, at least not imo. imo their lyrics stand up to a remarkable amount of scrutiny, their lyrics *make sense*, theyre talking about something, something specific, theres no...platitudes, no vague generalities. theyre telling stories! which is weirdly rare! when i was like 13 i was briefly really into fandom music (like, fan music for some property) for this trait, of music that means something specific. but yeah. the lyrics are good and jd makes them shine with the emotion in his voice

oh i spent most of the time explaining. i guess it depends a lot on what style you like. he had a period like 2001-2012 or so when he was doing a lot of stuff in a more like traditional "rock" ish style to varying degrees, the stuff before 2000 is mostly super lo fi which i love but you may not, post 2012 his stuff has often been like...idk, almost jazzy? not like jazzy jazzy. soft rock? i dont know music words. anyway. uh. yeah. i would rec listening to sunset tree, tallahassee, and all hail west texas, then try a song or two from other albums and see if theres any whose sound you like

[tyonfs]

dress up.

❝ i was trying on something. could you tell me if you like it? ❞

PAIRING ▸ mark lee x reader

WARNINGS ▸ dirty talk, raw sex (pls use protection), overstimulation

WORD COUNT ▸ 2000 words

AUTHOR’S NOTE ▸ this was a request from anon for a frat boy!mark smut! i sort of ran with it, but i love mark lee so it was fun to write ♡

IN RETROSPECT, MARK WAS A BIT OF A CLICHE.

Being a frat boy, athlete, and unfortunately, a bit of a heartbreaker, it was inevitable that he would be classified as bad news. Add you to the equation and he was the physical manifestation of a typical rom-com trope. He figured it was supposed to be you chasing after him, but the fact that it was the other way around took a slight blow to his confidence.

But that didn’t stop him from pursuing you.

And here he was, anticipating your presence on a Friday night at a frat party. He hung onto some false sense of hope that kept him from consuming any alcohol, despite Taeyong and Johnny’s attempts to get him to drink. You and Mark had been flirting for a while now, but neither of you had made a move on each other. Mark was hoping that would change tonight.

“C’mon, Ma-ark,” his friend, Na Jaemin, slurred. “You gotta let loose. Take a shot with me.”

“Jaemin, you’re sloshed, dude. Also, I won’t until—”

A notification flashed across his phone screen, the banner name displaying your name. Mark’s cheeks heated up, his mouth going dry as he stared at his phone for a moment. He turned it off and then on again, checking to make sure the notification was real. He sank back into the couch to make sure only he had eyes on his phone screen.

you: mark

you: you up?

mark: of course. what’s up?

you: i was trying on something

you: could you tell me if you like it?

mark: oh fuck

mark: yeah, go ahead

A few minutes passed by and Mark’s heart was racing. He stared at the texts again, wondering if this was really happening, then cringing at the realization that he had actually sent an “oh fuck” when it was supposed to be confined to his thoughts. Without giving Mark any warning or time to brace himself, you sent the picture.

There was something about mirror pictures that drove Mark crazy. Seeing you posing in front of a full-length mirror with black lingerie hugging your curves and a mini pleated skirt that barely covered the swell of your ass was giving him a hard-on. He wasn’t sure he could contain himself and this shocking development between you two was messing with him.

Mark grabbed a pillow from the couch and placed it shamefully on his lap. No one was paying attention to him anyways, but he had to take extra precautions.

mark: fuck are you wearing that rn?

mark: god, you’re driving me crazy

you: if that’s the case then why don’t you come over?

mark: now?

you: you know where my apartment is

you: i’ll be waiting ♡

Mark got up in an instant and made his way to the door. He had to have saved someone in his past life for this sort of luck. He was caught up in disbelief that you, the girl of his dreams, had made a move on him. There were plenty of girls that Mark had gotten caught up with in the past, but none of them had ever made his heart race like you did.

Johnny stopped Mark before he got to the door, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Whoa, where are you running off to?”

“Oh, shit, I forgot to ask.” Mark grinned, insufferably cocky. “Do you have a condom?”

Johnny’s eyes practically sparkled, digging into his pockets upon his best friend’s request. “Attaboy.”

You looked straight out of one of Mark’s fantasies when you opened the door and let him in. It wasn’t even the short skirt or the lingerie peeking through that got to him. What sent him over the edge was Mark’s sweater over your body; it was oversized on you, but Mark knew it looked better on you than it ever could on him. Mark had given it to you a few weeks ago when you were cold, but he never expected to be the one taking it off of you.

“Hey, frat boy,” you teased, then pouted lightly. “I’m sorry for making you wait so long.”

Mark snapped out of his daze and walked in the apartment as you closed the door behind him. “Wait?”

You tugged at the hem of his shirt and Mark took the cue. He grabbed the back of his shirt at the nape, tugging it off and tossing it to some corner of the room, exposing his bare chest and abs. He let out a hiss through gritted teeth as you ran your hands down his chest and to his belt.

“Wait for me,” you explained. “I just wanted to get you so worked up so you could ruin me.”

That was all Mark needed to hear.

He picked you up effortlessly and brought you to your bed, dropping you down on it and crawling on top of you. He caged your frame with his larger one and crashed his lips onto yours. It was messy and rushed, but so full of passion and longing. Mark poured out his emotions and frustration into kissing you, running his hands down your gorgeous body as you arched your back against him.

“God, I’ve been wanting to do this for months,” he growled when he pulled from the kiss, moving his lips down to your neck. When he heard a soft moan escape your lips, he started sucking harsher, blooming dark hickies along the side of your neck. “I’m gonna make you wish you never made me wait.”

You wrapped a leg around his torso, which he appreciated, if a smooth roll of his hips was anything to go by. But you wanted more—more contact and more friction. You curled your fingers in his belt loops and pulled him down on you.

Mark sat up, pulling you up along with him. He adored your beauty for a moment before tugging his sweater up and off of you. A grunt escaped his lips at the sight of your body, lace lingerie still hugging it. He stuttered out a curse before he kissed you again, tugging your skirt down your legs, which you kicked off.

“Leave the lingerie on,” he ordered, a hungry look in his eyes. He slid his finger underneath the strap along your thigh and snapped it, making you wince. “I can’t let all your efforts go to waste after you dressed up for me, doll.”

“Please, Mark,” you begged, wrapping your arms around his neck, “I want you to stuff your cock in me.”

Mark went to take off his pants in less than a second. You watched him strip down, his bulge not doing much to hide the fact that he was huge. You realized that that cockiness of his is completely warranted. You helped him tug his boxers down, a soft gasp escaping your lips when his cock sprung out, slapping against belly.

Mark gazed into your eyes as he slid his hand up your thigh, making his way to the apex of your legs. He tugged your panties to the side, delighted at how it clung to you. He’d truly be a happy man if he could have you underneath him every day for the rest of his life. Mark slid two fingers against your slit, smirking at how wet you were already.

“Is this for me?” he cooed as your hips bucked up into his touch.

You nodded, eager to just have him in you. You were all for foreplay, but your walls were throbbing with how much pent-up sexual frustration you were experiencing. There were so many opportunities after tonight, but right now, you needed Mark.

Mark suspended himself over you, propping himself up with an arm. He hooked his fingers under the elastic of your panties and teased your slit with the head of his cock. A whimper escaped your lips.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked.

You pressed a kiss to the column of his neck. “Of course.”

Mark’s Adam’s apple bobbed; he was nervous. He was about to fuck the girl of his dreams, so how could he possibly be calm? But when you gave him that dazzling smile of yours, his heart thundered in his chest. He needed you.

He slowly entered you, eyes fixed on your face with rapt attention, indulging in the expressions you were making. For someone so sly and teasing, you had become pliant under his grasp, like a handful of clay that Mark could mould into his own liking.

“Mark,” you whined in an almost depraved way.

“Fuck,” he groaned once he was fully inside of you, your walls pulsating around him.

He started at a languid pace so he could adjust to you. To his satisfaction, you were vocal during sex; you moaned, whimpered, and gasped out Mark’s name whenever he thrusted into you. You were also so damn tight that the slightest movement made you tighten around Mark’s cock.

He held your thighs with a bruising grip as you pressed your breasts up against his chest. Your head went fuzzy as Mark pounded into that one spot mercilessly. But god, the way he growled out your name under his breath as your hips slapped against each other each time was sending you over the edge.

Your nails dug into his back, leaving trails of white-hot pain that compelled Mark into thrusting harder into you. He grinned, a little unhinged, and sped up at the encouragement of your moans. The way he looked at you when he thrusted, though, was so fragile; he found you so heartbreakingly gorgeous, and it didn’t help that he was falling deeper and deeper in love with you.

“Mark!” you cried as you were reaching your high.

He could get lost in the way his name tumbled from your lips. He slowed down his thrusts in exchange for deeper ones that brought you closer to your climax. Mark kissed you again, slower and more passionate. It was somewhat out of place given the magnitude of what you two were doing, but it confirmed for you that he didn’t just want you for sex.

You squealed out his name again, the pressure blinding you. You clenched around him as you came undone, shooting stars flashing behind your eyelids. Mark fucked you through your orgasm without any semblance of mercy. You crooned out a few broken moans, eyes half-lidded as you held onto Mark, your release dripping down his cock.

“Look at me,” he ordered, dark eyes clouding over. He could hardly keep his release at bay, but when you looked up at him with those innocent, doe-like eyes, it became impossible. “God, are you even real? You’re so fucking gorgeous.”

Mark gritted his teeth, a strangled groan leaving his throat as he pulled out and released over you. His cum spilled over your thighs, staining the lingerie you had worn just for him. Mark was completely out of breath so he collapsed next to you, rolling over so he could hold you in his arms. You happily complied, cuddling up to his warmth.

“Please don’t let that be a one-time thing,” Mark murmured in your ear, brushing aside strands of your hair.

“Maybe if you let me be your girlfriend,” you said with a smile, making Mark go wide-eyed.

“Really?” He couldn’t conceal the happiness behind his words.

“On one condition, though,” you said, closing your eyes as that feeling of his cum between your thighs. You reached for his pants that he had strewn aside beside you and reached into the pocket, pulling out the condom that Johnny had given him. “Use this next time.”

“Shit,” Mark mumbled.

You giggled at his reaction, but Mark only smiled brighter, embracing you tightly in his arms. He pressed a kiss against your forehead, cheek, and then your lips. He was a pure romantic when it came down to it, especially when it came to you.

“I also have a condition,” he said.

“Yeah?” you mused. “What is it?”

“Dress up for me next time.”

[notbleachtea]

Birthday Night

With my birthday coming up I had some ideas in my head lol.

Word Count: 2000

SFW fluff and angst

Just wanted to post this already so if you like it any want me to continue a not sfw version, let me know!

Legend:

Joseph, Kakyoin, Polnareff, Avdol, Reader, Jotaro

It’s been a couple of weeks now since you’ve started this journey with the others. You were just glad they agreed to let you join them so you could pay back DIO for trying to control you by implanting a flesh bud in your brain. Your 18th birthday was fast approaching, only a few days away, but you really didn’t want to make a big deal of it. There were more important things on the agenda and you didn’t want to waste their time. You thought about telling Jotaro but you didn't want to make things uncomfortable between the two of you. You didn't really know where you stood with him. You talked to him all the time, but it seemed he never made any moves.

Things have been kind of slow this week and you all had some free time on your hands. You just went along with Jotaro wherever he wanted to go and the others all pretended they had other things that they wanted to check out. Once you two were gone…

“So tomorrow is y/n’s birthday.”

“How’d you figure that one out?”

“Well when we first encountered her I asked the SWF to run a background check on her and I noticed her birthday was fast approaching.”

“Oui! We should do something as a thank you!”

“What do you think she would want?”

They all smirk and look at each other.

“Heh, Jotaro.”

“You don’t say?”

“Isn't it obvious she's fallen for him? And I'm damn near certain he's taken a liking to her, I've never heard him talk half as much.”

“So let's set them up on a date! We could trick Jotaro into admitting his feelings for y/n.”

“How do you suppose we do that?”

The gang discusses possible scenarios before deciding what was best. They all went out shopping for presents while you were still out with Jotaro. They went to countless stores to pick out the best outfit they could for you. After much deliberation, they all agreed on the perfect set. They were so excited to shower you with gifts and celebratory smiles. They needed this. The journey has already been so difficult, they just needed a small chance to cheer up.

“Okay everyone, let's rest up here tonight, we've got a big day tomorrow.”

You go along just thinking tomorrow will be another long day of travel. You were ready for some much needed sleep.

Usually you share a room with one of the guys, but for some reason they put you up in your own room for the time being. It was kind of nce to have a little bit of peace and quiet.

The following morning you wake up, a little sad to be honest. It's your big day after all and you have no one to knowingly share it with. Maybe some breakfast with the boys will cheer you up.

Once the six of you all gathered around the table, Joseph stood up to make an announcement.

“It's been a tough journey so far, but who doesn't like to have a little fun?”

“Good grief old man, stop wasting our time already.”

“So as a thank you y/n, we all decided to pick you up a gift for your birthday.”

Jotaro quickly tries to cover his eyes with his hat, but not before you could see the oh shit look he put on.

Polnareff gifts you a pair of gorgeous black heels with gold accessories.

“My oh my y/n these would look so amazing on your already lustrous legs.”

Avdol picked out a matching black and gold crossbody handbag so you can pair the two.

“It’s much easier to keep all the things you need most nearby in this y/n”

Kakyoin was excited to give you his gift next, which was a small bottle of strawberry perfume and a tube of lipgloss in the matching flavor.

Joseph was last to pick up a box. He handed it to you with such a mischievous smile, he could hardly wait for you to open it.

“It’s gorgeous Mr. Joestar! I really don’t deserve this.”

“It was no trouble at all y/n! You fight so hard and you only turn 18 once. I really insist.”

You can see that there are no other boxes left around the table with just Jotaro left sitting in silence.

After a little bit of small talk it seems like everyone is ready to go back to their rooms for the day and get ready.

“Why don't you try on all that new stuff for us y/n? I'm sure that'd cheer everyone up a bit.”

Only moments after getting back to your room you heard a knock on your door. You walk over and look out the peephole, you only see a tall broad chest, but you'd recognize it anywhere. You open the door up for Jotaro.

“Hey, don’t be all sad or whatever because I didn't get you anything.”

“It's okay Jotaro, I really wasn't expecting anything today.”

“It's not that I forgot, I just didn't know it was your birthday.”

“I didn't tell anyone, so I don't know how they fou-”

“So I'm taking you out tonight.”

“You’re what?” your heart jumps and your eyebrows raise in question.

“I'm taking you out to dinner tonight, on me, so you have something to do in your new clothes.”

It didn't matter the circumstances to you. You were just happy he was agreeing to do something alone with you.

You took the next few hours for yourself to really get ready. You took a nice bath, gave your legs a fresh shave, and wrapped your hair up so it would fall into perfect curls when it dried.

You threw on your new gown. It felt so soft against your freshly cleaned body. You were kind of amazed at how perfect it fit you too. You never really dabbled too much into makeup, so for tonight you just put on some mascara, cleaned up your brows and sported the new lipgloss gifted to you by Kakyoin. All that was left was your heels and a spritz of perfume.

Jotaro shows up at your door exactly at the exact time he said he would pick you up. He hides his blushing face underneath his hat,

“Looks like you're ready to go on time for once.”

You grab your new purse and chase after him, already halfway down the hallway.

You couldn't make it out of the lobby without the others catching you first, exactly what Jotaro was trying to avoid.

“Mon cheri! What did I say about those legs! You look like a true vision of beauty mon amor.”

“You smell just like fresh strawberries y/n. I wonder if your lip gloss tastes just as good as you smell, even though I would much rather prefer cherries.”

Jotaro notices you starting to blush and the whole room can sense the brooding scowl he's just put out towards the two.

Avdol and Joseph compliment you on how you look in your new dress and insist on taking a photo of the two of you like they’re proud parents.

“Good grief just get it over with,” Jotaro snaps, knowing he has every intention of getting that photo for himself later.

While out on the town, Jotaro insists you hold his arm. He says he doesn't want anyone getting the wrong idea about you from your clothes and try to touch you.

As scary as he made it sound, you were just as happy to hold his large arm.

With you being this close to him, he couldn't help but breath in your intoxicating perfume. He made it clear to Kakyoin in the past that he prefers strawberries, especially over cherries, so he was sure they were all up to something from the start.

Jotaro takes you to a nice looking place. There's no way it doesn't cost a fortune to eat here.

“Dont worry about it, I can handle it,” he says,picking up on how nervous you already were.

“All right, this way for the young couple.”

“We're not together,” Jotaro snaps.

“My apologies, my good sir.”

While it was true you were not together, it still hurt your feelings for him to say that, especially so quickly.

It kind of sets your mood for the rest of the night. You were thrilled he took you out, but it just didn't feel good knowing you wanted more than him, thinking this was just a pity dinner.

After your meal arrived you tried to start up some small talk. Usually your conversations are so deep and easy, but this felt like pulling teeth.

You set your cutlery down in a sophisticated huff.

“You know what Jotaro, I'm just going to go back to my room. I appreciate you trying to take me out for my birthday, but it's clear you don't want to be here.”

You began to stand up and he grabbed your wrists and sits you back down.

“Y/n, I wanted to take you out.”

“You're not even looking at me when I talk to you Jotaro, just take me back.”

You start walking back to the hotel at a quick pace and trip over yourself on the brick paved streets. You're not used to walking in heels after all. You pick yourself up and try to continue walking on, but it appears you've sprained your ankle. You're too stubborn to admit that though and keep on.

Jotaro scoops you up with no hesitation and with such ease. You're still mad at him, but thankful to not have to walk back at the moment.

“Y/n, please calm down, let's take you back and get some ice for your ankle.”

You didn't say anything the whole way back. You didn't need to. The message was loud and clear by the expression you wore on your face.

It was starting to get too much for him to handle. He was already embarrassed having to carry you like this through the city, keeping his hands close to your rear so you wouldn't flash everyone in your short dress. He couldn't escape the sweet smell of you either, only further clouding his judgement.

Jotaro takes you up to your hotel room and sits you down on your bed. At this point you're over the night.

“I'm going to get ice. Don't move.”

You just sat there in a mixture of silence yet excitement by the strict demand he just spit at you.

Jotaro came back, kneeling on the floor before you, delicately lifting up your ankle and setting an ice pack atop it. He looked up into your sad eyes, he had to know what that lip gloss tasted like. It's only fair. You'd been pursing your lips out at him all day anyway.

“I'm looking at you now.”

“What?”

“I said, I'm looking at you now y/n, and I have been looking at you all night.”

Jotaro, still kneeling on the floor in front of you,

“I can't take my eyes off of you, it's not fair. How am I supposed to act normal in public when you go and dress like this?”

He stands up to steal a long awaited kiss from your lips. You didn't have time to think about it, you just naturally kissed him right back with as much want.

Breaking from the kiss,

“Jotaro I-,”

“I've wanted to do that for so long, y/n.”

“Do it again.”

Without a second thought, Jotaro plants another kiss on your shining lips. He places one hand on the back of your neck and the other on your hip, guiding you to lay backwards on the bed, never breaking the kiss, his large body now towering over you. You don't want to stop and you don't want him to stop.

“Y/n, let me show you how I really feel this time.”

[tinacentury]

20 Questions Writer’s Edition

Thanks, @kasienda! You know I’m a sucker for these types of games, and this was a good escape during what has been kind of a crappy week :).

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

13, although it’s more like 9 since four of those are in one collection before I knew how to organize stuff on Ao3.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

69,932.

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Just the one, Sailor Moon from 2018 until now. I also wrote Sailor Moon fic in the early 2000s, but thankfully none of that is connected to my current accounts.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

I don’t super duper like looking at kudos as a measure of success (possibly because mine are relatively low, but here it is):

1. Familial Eyes (this surprised me a bit)

2. Belonging (this did not surprise me at all)

3. Contrition (yes, this checks out)

4. My Own Little Stage: A Collection of Prompts (super proud to see this one here)

5. Lemonade Stand (yes people like smut)

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

On Ao3, yes, I try to (ff is a very different and clunky story). I do it for a few reasons: I made my first fandom friends that way, and, as much as I don’t have a ton of time at the moment, I do still think forming relationships, even small ones, with people across the world based on a niche shared interest is cool. Second, I know that it can sometimes feel like you’re taking a risk when you put yourself out there and get met by radio silence. I don’t think responses to comments are owed because I’m very big on everyone setting their own boundaries for participation in fandom, but I think they’re nice, so I try to do it when I can.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

It’s probably a tie between

-Contrition

-Day 3/Memory from usamamo week 2019

-“I thought you knew” from My Own Little Stage

7. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Probably Belonging. I was going for fluff with a happy ending, and it’s got probably the most traditional plot arc of anything I’ve written.

8. Do you write crossovers? If yes, what’s the craziest thing you’ve written?

Lol absolutely not.

9. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nothing terrible, but occasionally something like “this is boring.” Which, ok? Don’t read it, then. I did get some meaner stuff on my old fics back in the day, which I probably why I, to this day, deflect by saying how bad those were up front. However, Kasienda once pointed out that I should probably be nicer to middle school me who was writing full-length stories in her spare time. Anyway, I’ve wondered before how I would react to hate on a fic. I did once get Tumblr hate about my family, and that really fucked with me for a few days where I withdrew and just didn’t engage in internet life. So, would I react that way? I’d like to think no, that I would definitely be upset, but not to that extent. I suspect that my initial response would be to snarkily straight-up feed the troll, which could possibly backfire but also be a fair amount of fun until it did. TBH I might also be so preoccupied with other stuff that I’d be like “Ok, mean internet stranger. Fuck off; I have more important things to worry about.” It probably helps that, given how I’ve seen the fandom respond to other hate, I think they’d have my back.

10. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I don’t write a lot of it, but yes, occasionally. Lemonade Stand is my most explicit work, but there’s some light stuff in What Wasn’t Said and My Own Little Stage. I’m technically “working” on another smut piece right now, but it’s not a huge priority while I’m working to finish my dissertation.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t think so! 

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Lol oh god, no. Control issues. Fic not being a priority, etc. I’d like to say that I’m not opposed, but I think it would be a recipe for a whole lot of extra unnecessary stress for this hobby.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Usagi and Mamoru, Sailor Moon

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Ha! I almost answered 5 Years out of habit, but then I remembered I actually did finish that one. Given my style, I don’t actually have any unfinished WIPs. Whether I write a Contrition sequel one day is a little touch and go, but I do still want to.

16. What’s your writing strengths?

I’d like to think describing emotions and dialogue, but you tell me?

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

I’m sure others would say something like dedication here, but meh, hobby, so I’m not going to categorize that as a weakness. But here are some others:

-a compulsive need for reassurance. I swear part of my writing process used to be sending almost everyone I talked to in the fandom an “omg I’m so bad at this, I’m never going to write as well as XYZ big name author” message, but I think it was me crossing the line between “I’m venting to a friend” and “validate me because I’ve attached my self-worth to this”. This is an issue in my life, too, and I’ve noticed that, as I’ve worked through it there (team weekly therapy!), it’s been less of an issue here. I think it’s ok and probably still necessary to want reassurance sometimes, and definitely to talk about your writing with your friends and get advice when it’s needed, but there’s a line between that and what I feel is kind of a toxic pattern I was in that was doing me more harm in the long run. I will admit that I’ll still fall into this a little bit when I think about number of reviews/attention in the fandom. I’ve had multiple people mention before that I get fewer reviews or broadly less acclaim (that seems like a strong and arrogant word lol) than others in the fandom, and the explanations of “you don’t write as much” and “you don’t write enough multi-chapters” don’t always fully check out, so my brain will naturally go to “because you’re not as good at it as they are.” But when I’m feeling ok about myself, I can respond to that with something like “I am objectively somewhat confident in my ability to write, and if my style isn’t to someone’s taste, that’s not necessarily a knock on my skill.” I read a lot outside of the fandom, and thinking about things in that context helps, too — seeing it as a preference thing rather than a judgement of talent thing. There are a lot of popular, published authors that aren’t my taste, but that’s not me disparaging their skill/some of my favorite authors aren’t for everyone, and that’s ok, too.

-I sometimes struggle with connecting between scenes. Like I’ll have these two separate scenes in my head or even written, but it’s hard to connect them without them feeling clunky

-plot. There’s a reason a lot of my work is relatively short. I get a bit overwhelmed by multi-chapter planning and plotting. I wonder if part of it is a mental block because the one long multi chapter I wrote in middle school literally took me a few years (I think from 2000-2002 maybe?), and the idea of something like that hanging over my head stresses me out. It would probably be helpful to think about multi chapters like Belonging, which took maybe 2 months. But 1) one of those months was March 2020, so I’m not sure how valid any takeaways from that are and 2) I’m not entirely sure I like that story 😅

18. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in fic?

I’m ok with it when used sparingly and intentionally in a way that is relevant to the plot, tone, or conversation. I think, especially in the early 2000s, there was a lot of “let me show you how many random Japanese words I know” thrown around Sailor Moon fic, but that, thankfully, is less of a thing now. I do think now stuff can sometimes fall into “let me show you how much detail I know about Japanese culture”, which I have mixed feelings about. Like absolutely, I want to see and learn about Japanese culture from fic, and yes, putting things in the proper cultural context is critical. But, to be blunt, I’m just wary of white people being ambassadors/mouthpieces for other cultures without realizing how their own cultural biases seep into their work. At the same time, I certainly don’t want people to feel like they shouldn’t write and shouldn’t include elements of culture because they haven’t done a whole thesis on Japanese culture. Personally, my solution has been to work cultural aspects in where I can and especially where not doing so would be particularly egregious, but I’m certainly not going to pretend my work is the place to go to learn about Japanese culture or that my Western cultural perspective doesn’t color everything I do. I’m about to be an ambassador for my former career (as a study abroad advisor) here, but I love when an author who has studied/worked/lived in Japan seamlessly has elements or culture in their work. I can’t speak for them, but I suspect that it would be harder not to, having actually lived the culture. Anyway I digress. I like Japanese language in fic when used intentionally to enhance the story rather than to show off, and you can pry honorifics from my cold, dead hands because I’m a sucker for when those change between Usagi and Mamoru.

19. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I’ve only ever written for Sailor Moon, and mostly only read for that, too (except for one side quest into a reading a Mandalorian fic because Pedro Pascal)

20. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

This is difficult. I’m really proud of some of the prompts in My Own Little Stage that I wrote this summer. Domino and Contrition are up there as favorites, too.

I tag @queenrisa14, @idesofnovember, @daikon1, @floraone, @moonlightusa, @angelmoongirl, @ninjettetwitch, @allyunabridged, and anyone else who wants to play :)

[fakecrfan]

bloop, I find many of our TMA characters very lovable. Tortureable. I mean, lovable. Definitely that one. What do you think would happen if the eye fell in love with some other people?

Oooooh yes I also find every single character in TMA amusing to torture worthy of love, so I greatly appreciate this ask! In fact I wrote 2000 whole words of this ask, holy crap. It was long enough that I posted on AO3 here, if you prefer to read over there.

Otherwise, have 5 different humans the Eye could have fallen in love with in a funny way, and One in a serious way. :)

---

Jon is tiredly washing his face in the Archives bathroom when it happens.

Nothing immediately concerning, like waking up from a coma or feeling the pull to traumatize random strangers on the street. It’s just--when he looks in the mirror, there is a little buzzing at the back of his head, similar to what he feels when he gets a burst of knowledge or compels someone. Then, like an intrusive thought, words appear.

  HELLO THERE, HANDSOME.

Jon stares at the mirror for a split second.

“What the fuck.”

Melanie gets to overhear Jon’s hysterical phone call to Elias’s prison later.

“No, no! I refuse!” he says, pacing as his voice gets increasingly shrill. “I’ve been kidnapped, blown to smithereens, resurrected, and had my free will toyed with. I’m drawing the line here. I am not  having a-a possession-induced sexuality crisis in my thirties! That’s too much! No!”

“Well, Jon, I’m afraid you can’t simply switch off whatever feelings our master channels through you.’

“Go fuck yourself.”

“Considering our predicament, it would actually be much better if you  --”

Jon throws the phone at the wall.

---

Elias is tiredly washing his face when it happens.

He looks up into the mirror and feels a buzzing at the back of his head, similar to what he feels when he gets a burst of Knowledge, or when he compels an answer from someone. And then, like an intrusive thought, words appear in his head.

  HELLO THERE, HANDSOME.

This is what Elias always thinks when he looks at himself in the mirror, so he pays it no mind.

---

“We don’t think like they do,” Arthur Nolan says.

Gertrude scoffs. “I’m not convinced they think at all.”

Before the statement can go further, the door to the Archives bursts open, revealing a flushed, disgruntled looking Elias.

“Well, how do we know that  you  think?” he snaps, his cadence distinctly un-Elias-like. Un-Wright-like, for that matter. “I mean, philosophically--you can’t know if anyone is thinking besides yourself! Various human philosophers came to that conclusion you know! If you can’t be certain of whether humans think, then why doubt whether powerful eldritch beings can?”

Gertrude squints. “Elias--”

“The Eye is definitely smart. Super smart,” Elias says, still red and jittering like a teenager stumbling for a comeback. “You’re just--you’re mean! Anyway, the Eye knows sooooo many things! So many more than  you,  Gertrude. Maybe from the Eye’s perspective  you  don’t think because your brain is sooo tiny and your thoughts are so small. Ha, ha! Bet you didn’t think of that!”  

Gertrude pinches the bridge of her nose. “I was taking a statement, Elias,” she tells him curtly. “Also, I didn’t mentioned the Eye spec--”

“The Eye is also very sexy and dateable too” Definitely-Not-Elias-Or-Even-Magnus says, bowling over her. “I hear the Eye has an eight-pack. That the Eye is cosmically shredded--”

---

Melanie expected her mental breakdown would be the end of her career. It had been awful. She’d woken up every day utterly miserable over the fact that one of her worst, most vulnerable moments had gone viral and was being watched and laughed at by millions of people over the internet.

And then, unexpectedly, her patreon earnings tripled overnight. Hundreds and hundreds of new accounts signed up and started donating. Suddenly every single video she’d made was one of the most popular on YouTube of all time, due to a sudden influx of likes from new accounts.

That’s also when the weird comments started up. Thousands upon thousands swarming the comment section of every video on her channel.

HEY HEY HEY THIS IS VERY FUNNY VERY GOOD MELANIE KING IS GOOD I LOVE HER

THE DOG GHOST JOKE IS FUNNY VERY FUNNY I LOVE MELANIE KING YES

MELANIE IS THE BEST VERY GOOD YES MORE MELANIE PLEASE

Melanie assumed it was some kind of mockery, but none of it was outwardly hostile enough to report. The thing that made them disturbing was just the sheer volume of comments and likes, from so many accounts all writing in the same style.

“This is--uh,” one of her more computer savvy friends told her. “I mean, I thought someone wrote a program to write all of these when you described them at first but… most of them are from different IP addresses. Um, it seems like the most likely explanation from a technical perspective is… multiple people collaborating to send all of these to you?”

The second disturbing thing was that the comments started to respond to things Melanie did not share on the internet… or even speak out loud.

NO MELANIE NO BREAKS POST MORE VIDEOS PLZ

MELANIE YOUR NOT BAD IT WAS VERY SEXY WHEN YOU PUNCHED THAT MAN

MELANIE YOU ARE LOVED HOPE THE ANNIVERSARY OF DADS DEATH WAS NOT TOO BAD WE LOVE YOU

And then, of course, was the third disturbing thing. That in addition to implying to have incredibly private knowledge about her, the comments started to… suggest things. Or rather, one thing in particular.

DO A MAGNUS INSTITUTE EPISODE MELANIE WILL BE FUN YES

MAGNUS INSTITUTE TAKES STATEMENTS THEY WILL BELIEVE YOUR STORY MELANIE DO AN INTERVIEW THERE

Melanie looked up the place. The Magnus Institute. Known for taking stories of spooky shit. Latest Archivist had disappeared mysteriously. Apparently the police gave the place a wide berth.

Melanie took a swig of whiskey, and decided she didn’t have much of a self-preservation instinct anyway.

---

Joshua had dealt with enough creepypasta shit during the coffin ordeal to be able to figure there was something supernatural about the Harry Potter style flurry of letters that swarmed his apartment, the ones with eyes painted all over their envelopes. He ignores them at first, which was his preferred way of dealing with this kind of nonsense, but that leads to the whole thing escalating. Now there are more letters, several boxes of chocolate on his doorstep, and… the wall has a bunch of new security cameras. The lenses seem to have silhouettes of hearts in them.

Huh.

He opens the door, uncertain about what to do with all the packages. That's when he notices his cell phone was buzzing up a storm. He checks and finds notifications peppered with eye emojis and hearts and x’s and o’s.

Well. Might as well see what the sender wants from him?

He taps the notification to see an impossibly long stream of letters.

  Dearest Joshua, my love~

He stares. The texts come in as he does so.

458 new messages.

498 new messages.

He shoves the boxes of chocolates back out, and texts back.

---

Basira is tiredly washing her face when it happens.

It’s just one thing to add to the pile of obsessive paranormal weirdness that’s been happening around her lately. She looks up into the mirror and feels a tingle at the back of her head. Her face looks… well. Not different, exactly. Her features are all the same, but she can feel that thing at the back of her head tingling, appropriating her own eyes to size her up in an intrusive, alien way, noting the softness of her skin and the angles of her cheekbones. It’s not a way Basira sizes herself up--not on her own, at least.

  BEAUTIFUL.

Basira knows, deeply, that she is not beautiful. Beautiful is a label that was always applied to other girls, ones who ran around in frilly short skirts, or put on makeup or wore sparkling things. Basira’s labels were different:  smart, practical, sensible  and most importantly  useful.

Basira doesn’t like to look at herself in the mirror much these days. Still, of all that oppressive… interest… that she’s been saddled with, the appropriation of her own eyes on occasion might be the least of her problems.

Melanie watches her, whenever Basira takes to reading openly in the Archives. Melanie’s eyes are wild these days, and she’s always muttering and pacing and snarling as her eyes dart around as though looking for threats--except for when Basira is there. Then she gets still, watching, eyes unblinking.

“Stop that,” Basira says, when she catches her. “I’ve told you I want to read alone.”

Melanie looks utterly wounded for a second, then she flips.

“Fuck you!” she snarls. “I saved you, that fucking meat man would have skewered you without me! How dare you act like I’m some wild animal?”

“That doesn’t mean you get to--”

But Melanie isn’t good about listening to reason these days. When Basira tries to get her to stop, Melanie kicks furniture and throws things. Staplers. Scissors. Usually Basira doesn’t get hit. Usually. But even when she does, Basira keeps her voice level and her feet on the floor.

(Just like Basira isn’t beautiful, she’s not someone who shakes or cries when people throw things at her.)

Jon is worse than Melanie, though. Not violent. Not irrational. Just  concerned. He tries to bring her coffee when she wants it but hasn’t asked, gives her Advil when she has a headache and hasn’t mentioned it. He blinks even less than Melanie these days, even if his eyes are softer.

What makes him worse are the questions--and the fact that Basira can’t stop herself from answering them.

“What happened?” he asks.

“Melanie. Scissors nicked me. She didn’t mean to, I think. Just was angry and didn’t think. Looked more hurt than I did when they actually hit.” Then, Basira got control of her tongue again. “Stop that.”

No reply to that last bit. Just an unblinking, soft gaze pinning her down like she’s an insect on a board. “How are you feeling?”

“Awful. I miss how she was before,” Basira can only barely keep her voice steady. “I’m mostly okay about the violence. I’ve dealt with worse. It’s just it all adds up, having everyone act so weird around me all the time. Jon--”

“You’ll feel better when you talk about it,” he says. Like he’s doing her a favor, instead of just satisfying that sick curiosity that this place runs on. “Basira, you said you’ve dealt with worse. Do you mean in your past job, or has anyone ever-?”

The second she’s done answering that one she bolts and locks herself in the safe room, pressing a pillow over her ears. She can hear Jon knocking outside, sounding so sorrowful. Saying he’s sorry and he just wants her to feel better and she needs to talk to someone.  

She’s furious with him. If she’d caught him pressing anyone else for info like that, she’d have called him a monster. She’d have threatened to murder him in his sleep. She can’t manage any of that now. Instead she curls up on the cot, shaking in a way Melanie hadn’t managed to get her to.

(It’s not really Jon. Just like the violence isn’t really Melanie.)

(Is there a “Jon”, anymore? Or is what’s left just a hollowed out vessel for--?)

Her phone buzzes. Martin, the screen says. Martin, who refuses to be in the same room with any of them, or respond to any of their texts. Except Basira.

    Are you alright?  

    Do you need anything?  

Basira puts her phone down, unsure how to respond. The timing of the text means that Martin probably  saw something, either through cameras or spooky Eye powers. That he’s just as compromised as Jon, or Melanie, or Basira’s own eyes in the mirror.

They can probably see her now, she realizes. One or another of them watching every single little twitch and lip wobble right now. The thought makes her suck in a deep breath, and school her expression into perfect stillness.

  I wish Daisy were here.  

The thought almost cracks through her calm and sends her into a spiral.

  I was always safe with Daisy.

Outside Jon stops knocking and jiggling the doorknob. Quiet. As though he’s had an idea.

[miralia]

Speculation on the Historical Influences on the Kyoshi Warriors of Avatar

(Disclaimer: I know there are multiple influences. This is just something I found that I thought was really interesting. And we’re not going to get into how ATLA appropriated, appreciated, and cherry-picked Asian cultures. This is just a fun thing I found out. It might just be a coincidence. If you wanted an essay on “how terrible Bryke is”, go under the “anti bryke” tag and laugh at the toxicity. This is about history.)

I don’t know if this has been done already, but I was really excited when I found out, so I had to share!

So, I’m not quite sure how I found this out, but I think I was both off-and-on researching premodern combat weapons of different cultures (link here if you want to spend a few hours ogling swords and daggers) and trying to figure out what kinds of cultural things influenced the Kyoshi Warriors. I figured out (at least I’m pretty sure I did, sword experts feel free to correct me) that they do, in fact, wield the Japanese katana (I don’t know which period. Not trying to lump anything together, just thought it was best to refer to it as a collective for fear of being wrong). This was kind of odd to me, as the Earth Kingdom appeared to have *mainly* Tang and Qing dynasty influences. So I decided to dig a little deeper on this subject.

(SECOND Disclaimer: People more well-versed in the different parts of Asian culture I will be referencing can tell me I’m wrong in the comments and I’ll edit this. I really and truly am not trying to be offensive or say my opinion is correct blindly, but at the same time, I did do my research and that has to count for something.)

Introduction

I’m an ATLA nut, as well as an Asian women’s dress nut. I’ve made connections between real clothing and ATLA clothing before, but then realized that other people had already done it, and done it much better. 

But I haven’t seen anyone really talk about the inspiration behind the Kyoshi Warriors yet, besides a few mentions, so here I am with my two cents!

The First Thing (Swords)

The first thing I noticed that started me on this quest was realizing that the Kyoshi Warriors wield katanas (also called nihonto), as opposed to a Chinese weapon that would be more fitting for their position in the Earth kingdom (like we see with Jet’s hook swords). 

For clarification, I figured this out by using still frames of Suki from the show, then measuring the rough length of her sword to her height, approximating the length to see if it would be correct (it was). Then I watched the video of the Kyoshi Warriors’ fight with Team Azula, which is (if I’m not mistaken) the only time we actually see them use their swords as well as their fans. 

In a few frames, we can see Suki’s sword has the characteristic tsuka ito (cord wrap) around the hilt of her sword, a gold-colored habaki (blade collar), as well as a golden kashira (butt cap/pommel), paired with a golden fuchi (a band at the end of the handle before the tsuba (guard)) to make a fuchigashira. From what I can gather, these are usually intricately decorated, but we can blame early 2000s animation for exempting that detail.

But anyway, the presence of the katana got me thinking. What other Japanese influences are displayed in the Kyoshi Warriors?

(Actually, scratch that. The first thing that got me clued in to the presence of Japanese influence was the red and white makeup that the Warriors wear. It seemed similar to that of the geisha, but I disregarded this as it wasn’t similar enough to warrant real research on my part. Just google ‘geisha makeup’ and you’ll see what I mean.)

And the answer was: a good few. Something Mina Le (a fashion youtuber) already touched on in her video on Avatar. But the question is, what exactly influenced them?

So, back to katanas. Once I figured out that they wielded katanas, it was a simple conclusion that they drew inspiration from the samurai of feudal Japan.

War Fans (Tessen)

Another similarity that ties them into samurai are their characteristic fans.

I actually learned about the art of Japanese war fans (tessenjutsu) before I even watched Avatar. The fans called tessen are made out of iron, but the other types of war fans, gunsen and gunbai, don’t seem to fit the bill for what the Kyoshi Warriors use them for. So, instead of being made of iron, their fans are made out of a golden metal, probably to fit their gold-and-green aesthetic.

An illustration of a warrior using a tessen.

The way they use these tessen to fight is debatably accurate. I have never studied tessenjutsu, nor do I really trust modern videos of tessenjutsu, so I have no basis. But it is said that wielders would use one to attack and one to parry, and that does seem to be somewhat what they do? Not sure if their forms or usage or that one time that one girl threw both her fans at Azula like some sort of razor-sharp Frisbee is accurate. Tessenjutsu practitioners, feel free to correct me!

But all this talk about fans and swords isn’t coming to the real core of my speculation. There is one crucial fact: samurai are men. But the Kyoshi Warriors are girls. Were there any female samurai?

The Onna-Bugeisha

Yes, there were! They were called onna-bugeisha, literally meaning “female martial artist.” You can read more about the onna-bugeisha on their Wikipedia page.

Let’s start with the similarities between the Kyoshi Warriors and the onna-bugeisha. 

Clothing/Armor

The first, and most obvious, is their clothing. The onna-bugeisha appear to wear both the traditional kimono or large, loose pants in illustrations. This really does seem to differ a lot based on source material, and I’m not knowledgeable enough to really affirmatively say why. But they do appear wearing the pants when riding horses, and the kimono when they’re standing or looking super regal in the illustrations.

Empress Jingū, a mythological example of onna-bugeisha. She became empress after her husband, the fourteenth emperor Chūai, was slain in battle. She is said to have led an expedition to Korea around 200 AD, and was the first woman on a Japanese banknote. This illustration is probably not accurate, as it was made by a European man, but it does illustrate one of the earliest known cases of onna-bugeisha in Japanese culture.

Hangaku Gozen, a famous general of the Genpei War (allied with the Taira clan).

The Kyoshi Warriors!

Bryke/the animators chose the dress route for making the Kyoshi Warriors, dressing them in split-front dresses colored in shades of green, with a dark green layered underdress under a lighter green overdress crossed left over right at the collar (like many, many different kinds of traditional Asian women’s dress). The coloration appears to be more to signify “Earth Kingdom” than to be historically accurate to the onna-bugeisha, something that was probably a good idea. Remember, this was made to be a kids’ adventure show, and they had already established the color-coding based on country. 

The sleeves are voluminous, which is definitely a characteristic of the onna-bugeisha. They are cinched at the wrists with dark cuffs, which isn’t a characteristic of all the different illustrations/photographs, but is certainly present in some. These cuffs are paired with two-toned gloves, which are always a good idea in any kind of weapon battle, but aren’t present in many, if any, photographs, but at least in some illustrations.

Partially covering the dresses is the thing that most tipped me off: the armor. It seems to be of black plating, which bears a striking resemblance to the plating/ridging on the onna-bugeisha’s armor. The chestplate itself bears a really, really close resemblance (if it isn’t an exact copy) to the chestplates of the onna-bugeisha, though the color isn’t the striking red that seems to appear a lot of the time. The rectangular shoulder/upper arm plating that is present in nearly all depictions is severely lacking, however, though this seems to be a choice to make the Warriors seem less bulky and more dynamic. Plus, it would be easier to animate. (They do have slimmer shoulder plates that attach, though.)

But the (for lack of a better word) skirt plates of the armor remain really, really similar to the onna-bugeishas’ armor. It really just looks like a scaled-down, black instead of red version. And I think that’s super cool, and one of the best pieces of evidence that backs my theory.

Topping off the “Kyoshi look” are gold-and-green headpieces that are different depending on the warrior, and a hairstyle that differs depending on the warrior. I’ll probably go more in-depth about the headpieces and hairstyles on a different post, but the gist is that yes, the presence of headpieces is historically accurate, at least in some photos/illustrations (which appears to be the norm. Can I ever get something concrete here?). 

Examples of onna-bugeisha wearing headpieces.

All of them wore helmets (obviously), but some seem to have some sort of decorative aspect (again, tell me if I’m wrong and the pieces have a meaning or purpose). 

Edit: One commenter, @atla-headcanons​, said that their Japanese grandmother once said that warriors’ headdresses were status symbols, as well as ways to tell allies from enemies. This would be supported by the fact that Suki, as the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, would have a headpiece similar to Kyoshi’s, and the rest of the Warriors would have different ones. I was unable to fact-check this at the time (may return to it later), but it seems likely, and it would be really cool if it was intentional on the characters’ designs!

Avatar Kyoshi 

The second thing that made me speculate whether the Kyoshi Warriors were connected to the onna-bugeisha was actually Kyoshi herself.

We all know about badass Avatar Kyoshi. She’s amazing. A definite certified badass. But there might actually have been a real-world counterpart to her. Nakano Takeko, a famous onna-bugeisha of the Aizu Domain who fought and died in the Boshin War, could have been possible inspiration for her.

Statue of Nakano Takeko. I don’t trust that the pictures on Pinterest are actually her.

Not only is Nakano a certified badass, taking down five to six men with her naginata in the Battle of Aizu, she also taught women and children to fight with the naginata for a time. Sound familiar? It might just be a coincidence, but I’m sticking to my theory here. You can read more about her here, but I’ll give a rundown of the highlights that make her a Kyoshi-Level Badass™:

- Taught naginata to the lord of Niwase’s wife

- Taught naginata to women and children in Aizuwakamatsu castle

An onna-bugeisha wielding a naginata. They’re pretty awesome!

-  Worked in defense of the shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu

- Fought in the Battle of Aizu using a Japanese weapon (naginata) against a white weapon (guns)

- Created and headed an ad-hoc group of female warriors in the Battle of Aizu, retroactively called the Jōshitai (Girls’ Army). She did this without permission, as the senior Aizu retainers didn’t want them to fight and wouldn’t let them fight as an official part of the domain’s army

- When she was taken down by a rifle shot to her chest, she asked her sister Yūko to behead her so that the enemy couldn’t take it as a trophy. Her sister employed the help of Ueno Yoshisaburō, and did as she was asked

- With the reforms of the Meiji Era (samurai class abolished, western-style army established), Nakano Takeko was one of the last samurai in history.

Conclusion

That concludes my essay! Remember, this is all speculation. If you have your own take, please tell me! I love hearing all the cultural influences in Avatar.

Now, if Bryke meant to make the Kyoshi Warriors to be inspired by the onna-bugeisha, then there is something more that I would have liked to see. It would have been really cool to see them use naginata in the show, as it was actually originally a weapon for females to use, its length compensating for the smaller body size and comparatively lesser brute strength of women warriors.

(Also, I just want Suki utterly destroying Sokka with a naginata in that episode where she kicks his butt to prove a point. Hey, I’m a simple girl with simple tastes.) 

Sources:

Basically all Wikipedia. I’m sorry I couldn’t reference, like, ebooks on this subject. But I did look at the reference lists for the Wikipedia articles I used, and they all seemed to be credible ones. So, don’t come at me, please! I did the best I could!

I really appreciate whoever read this far. It takes stamina! 

Thanks for reading!