#anyways the question was WHY DO THESE SHIPS hit the same for me

[i-am-countess-olivia]

This isn't some novel thought, but for me Fitzier begins in ep2, when Silna's father is brought onto Erebus

(a long-ish, GIF-heavy scene breakdown follows)

I won't cover the violations of Silna's beliefs, feelings and bodily autonomy which happen in these moments - they are of course terrible and very important. Instead, I want to focus on how the scene kicks off a new dynamic between Francis and James, how it lays a foundation for their subsequent closeness and how it changes our view of who James might be as a person.

Let’s begin.

Sir John and James arrive in the sick bay to join Stanley and Goodsir. Stanley says: "nope, not touching this one". Goodsir asks for leave to save the shaman's life. Franklin, already looking deeply disturbed by what's happening, hesitantly agrees.

Francis arrives. The operating table divides him from Franklin, Stanley and James — he is literally not on their side. All three men glare up at him as one: How is this maudlin MF going to make this horrible situation worse for us?

But while the three of them just stand there, Francis puts himself in charge. With a bit of help from McDonald, he takes hold of a distraught Silna and tries to explain what is happening, who they are, that they're not trying to do harm. It is in this moment that James becomes the only one on the opposite side of the table to step forward (to help Francis control the situation or at least to do something). He looks compelled to action but cannot act.

Okay... so here we see that maybe this guy isn't just Franklin's poodle (we saw a bit of that earlier in the episode - more on that later).

Meanwhile Franklin, as soon as Francis takes control, BUGGERS OFF. Of course this can be justified by him already having given his orders and no longer needing to be involved, but we know that a) he sneaks off when the situation is clearly fraught and Francis is clearly better suited to handle it, knowing Inuktitut among other things and b) he actually ends up hiding out in his cabin, freaking out while listening to the howls of the dying man. This is too strange, too awful for him. Not to mention: oh god, I'm stuck in the ice, I've just lost a lieutenant, I keep losing men, what are they going to think of me?

While Sir John is off having a lil meltdown.... James' eyes are firmly on Francis.

We don't even see him acknowledge his captain's departure.

But why is James there? The obvious answer is: to report back to Sir John, to make sure things don't get weird and that Francis doesn't do anything stupid on THEIR ship. After all, let's remember the last scene before this one where James is focused on Francis:

Here he was describing Francis as if he's got him pegged: he's a disappointed man, Sir John, he was no one's first choice etc etc.

I know what he is. Do you now, James?

(interesting framing the above scene, btw - James standing, active, Sir John focused on his creature comfort, the pipe, and questioning himself. James speaking in firm tones to his commander: "I will not allow..." — James is literally being reframed as a leader.)

Anyway, back to where we were.

While Goodsir sets about trying to remove the shot, we get a little glimpse of James: he looks frozen, uneasy, swaying in to stare at the wound (Oh Tobias, the actor that you are). Can we say flashbacks to the Chinese sniper? This must be seriously triggering for him. Something is shifting.

(Another aside: James is standing next to Stanley, the man who dug out the shot when he was hit by the sniper. That same man is now refusing to help. Hm.)

Next, Goodsir says: I can't save this man. Here something important happens: James and Francis share a look.

This is Francis, for the first time, acknowledging not just James still being in the bay at all — but that the two of them are in this moment together! Francis' eyes saying to James: I'm about to tell this woman her father is going to die and James acknowledging in return how awful that is. He presses his mouth, drops his eyes.

The little flash of connection doesn't last. When Silna starts to plead with her dying father, James once again reaches out across the table to Francis: what is she saying? But it's maybe too pushy, too "I need to be told what's going on" so Francis ignores him and it's McDonald who answers.

Next, Silna launches herself at her dying father. Here, once again, James tries to take an active role, to "help" by following Francis' cues on what to do.

James has been watching, learning, asking questions and now looks desperate to be part of the solution to this awful situation: to be in this with Francis. Look how similar their gestures are, how James looks to Francis for direction.

---

STOP - DOOM HAMMER TIME

The VERY first scene in which Francis and James become partners, take action together to keep something from happening, they effectively set in motion one of the biggest causes of their doom: Silna's father doesn't die as he should, Tuunbaq is not bound to anyone. Oh man. That's a whole other essay.

---

(Back to the scene....)

While they're wrestling with Silna, James, clearly emotional and upset by what is taking place, reaches out again, perhaps this time more sincerely: Look at me, Francis, I'm trying to help, at least tell me what's happening? This time Francis acknowledges him — actually SPEAKS to him for the first time.

In response, James looks particularly vulnerable and distraught.

Silna's father dies. We see how different James' reaction is to Francis'. Poor James. Maybe he wants a little bit more from Francis in that moment, one more shared look. Francis doesn't give it to him.

Aaaaaand here we are, it's almost over. Franklin swans in, the really bad, bloody stuff having already been dealt with. He re-asserts his command by giving an order to James to escort Silna off the ship. James… doesn't exactly spring into action. In fact, he doesn't even acknowledge the order verbally, unlike Stanley. What's going on in his head? What does he think about Francis in that moment?

Anyway, let's wrap up.

So much of this scene is about the shift in James’ perception of Francis. He suddenly sees a man who is hands-on, who can take charge, who doesn't walk away from a terrible and unusual situation, even when it's clear there's no good outcome. And of course he knows Sir John skipped off at first opportunity.

Francis, meanwhile, only briefly appears to acknowledge James —but only as far as we can see. Francis of course knows that James was there, that he stayed behind, that he tried to help, that he tried to understand.

This knowledge and this changed dynamic become apparent immediately, in the very next scene.

LOOK HOW THEY ARE FRAMED!!!

Sir John is already receding into the background. James and Francis sit — still opposite sides of a table but in essentially the same pose. They are partners, mirrors, leaning into each other. The few glances here, small as they are, are NOT at Sir John, but between James and Francis.

Anyway, here you go, that's me done. I fucking love this show.

[mscribbles]

i've connected the dots (hasn't connected shit)

[benevolenterrancy]

("Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope. I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. I will love you as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this." -- paraphrased from The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket)

[sleepymarimo]

I have this head cannon that I’ve been thinking of for awhile and just had to share with you.

Imagine y/n growing up with zoro in the village and she’s a couple years younger than him and called him zoozoo once, but he kinda liked it so he let her keep calling him that.

Fast forward to them running into each other at a random market while he’s out shopping with sanji and sanji hears her call him zoozoo. Once they leave, sanji makes fun of him by calling him zoozoo and Zoro just pulls one of his swords and looks him dead in there while saying, “call me that again and I’ll cut your tongue off. Only one person can ever call me that and it’s not you.”

𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬.

summary: read above! pairing: zoro x fem!reader cw: none! mostly fluff, perhaps a bit bittersweet an: hi anon!! i just had to write this bc it was too cute :) also pris try not to write something under 1k words challenge go!! ugh i need to tone it down fr... anyway, enjoy some fluff and thank the anon for their sweet hc.. also im going for a new theme soooo... wc: 2k

you were like a little fly, always buzzing around him.

technically, it was kuina that you clung to, but it might as well have been him, too.

every duel and training session, you were there. you'd clap your hands and cheer on kuina, the girl you'd come to see as an older sister of sorts. "get him kookoo!" came your chant, a toothy grin on your face as you watched the green-haired boy lose his temper once again. "y'can't beat kookoo, zoro!"

even as he barks at you to shut up, you can't help but grin. you know that you'll be scrambling to get him bandages later and you know that he'll refuse your help, all while kuina laughed in the background. this was the dynamic, the camaraderie you had all shared. kuina, zoro and you.

then it all came to an abrupt halt.

kuina's death hit everyone hard. you were inconsolable, missing her so dearly that it made your heart hurt. not knowing what else to do, you turn to the green haired boy who was the closest thing you had to her.

the two of you stand at her grave, one of your tiny hands balled into the fabric of his shirt as if he'd disappear at any moment. your free hand rubs at your tender cheeks, red and swollen from the tears you'd been shedding. "i-i miss-s her, zoozoo."

he fights back the tears in his own eyes as he keeps his gaze locked on the stone slab in front of him. this whole body is still as he utilizes as much of his willpower as possible. he's enraged. he's in mourning. he doesn't quite know how to cope in any way that isn't fighting.

your new nickname for him doesn't go unnoticed- a play on the same one you used to call kuina. he takes it with pride, not bothering to correct you.

he grabs your hand and roughly tugs you along to the training area. there was no way in hell that he'd give up, so he was going to drag you with him.

years later.

same scene, different atmosphere.

the two of you are in front of her grave, paying her respect. zoro is leaving yo- the island. he's leaving the island to fulfill his promise, to make a name for himself and become the greatest swordsman. of course you're wishing him the best, hell, you know that he's going to do it, but still, it stings a tad.

first your beloved kookoo, and now...

"zoozoo..." your arms cross and you sigh, trying to remain cheery and playful but unable to hide the concern in your tone. "y'feeling ready?"

he isn't fazed by the nickname, not when you've been calling him that for years. raising a brow and giving you an almost incredulous expression, he answers your question. "doesn't matter if i'm ready or not, i ain't gonna be the greatest swordsman if i stay here."

the two of you start the walk to the docks, a small ship ready for him. you're side by side, shoulders brushing against one another every now and then. he doesn't put any distance between the two of you. why would he? at that point in time, though he'd never admit it, you were probably the person he'd trusted most.

the silence isn't uncomfortable by any means, but there is a tension of sorts that you try your best to ignore.

when you get to the boat, you take a breath to keep cool and calm. but you're so, so bad at it. maybe a few years ago you could've gotten away with it, but zoro had grown so damn perceptive that it wasn't even funny.

"b-bye zoozoo." you nod with a shaky smile, struggling and failing to keep a straight tone as tears prick your eyes. your hands are behind your back and zoro has no doubt that they're clasped together in a bid to prevent yourself from grabbing him.

he rolls his eyes and clicks his tongue in exasperation. "y'such a pain in the ass." one of his arms slings around your shoulders and begrudgingly brings you into his chest. of course he made sure no one else was around as he did so, opting to look off toward the sea instead of down at your teary face. "i'll be fine. grow up, will ya?"

your hands unclasp and you cling to his shirt, small laughs mixing with your sniffles. "shut-t up, zoozoo."

he doesn't say anything, but if you'd quit being a crybaby for two seconds you'd notice how his grip tightened on his wado ichimonji, his knuckles whitening. the swordsman is determined to do this, but hell, even he'd be lying if he said that this didn't... well, suck.

soon after, the two of you say your final goodbyes.

he catches sight of your smile as the waves took him away, and he has to turn around. his focus is on the horizon, ending the chapter of his life that had you in it.

you're damn persistent though, like a little fly. he can't help but smirk at your words, yelled and carried by the wind.

"you're gonna be the best damn swordsman ever, zoozoo!"

such memories only come to the swordsman when he's had enough booze. when he looks at the moon and the ship is quiet except for the sound of creaking wood and crashing waves.

the thousand sunny had been docked on this island for around a day. it was a nice place, lively and sporting a plethora of shops with goods ranging from tropical fruits to exotic spices.

zoro curses when he swears he passes by the same stall for the hundredth time. "damn cook, always gettin' lost..." he grumbles, not acknowledging his notorious tendency to lose his way.

before he could take another step, he freezes at the sound of a voice that he'd only heard when he was dreaming or completely shit-faced.

"zoozoo?"

the way he turns around is almost mechanical. at this stage of his life, things like this didn't really pull a reaction from him. hell, he hadn't felt this way since he'd ran into that marine in loguetown. it was like seeing a ghost, but you're not one by any means.

he says your name, the sound almost foreign on his lips.

then he straightens up, his rational self catching up to him. you. here. in the new world?

one of his large hands makes a grab at your wrist, pulling you to an alleyway where the two of you could have some more privacy.

he has too many questions, too many thoughts and he'd be damned if he said it, but too many feelings, too. his tone is unintentionally gruff when he speaks, presenting as irritated to mask the protective urges simmering beneath the surface. "what the hell are you doin' here, huh?" you're still like a damn fly...

you take a moment to assess him, his new scars and his physique and everything. it's not like you hadn't seen him... but you're not going to admit to him that a few of his wanted posters are very much in your possession.

he still seems to be as brash as ever. headstrong and bull-headed and caring, in his own blunt way. it's not like you expected him to change much, but still, it's a relief to hear him speak to you as if you hadn't seen him in years. "well i wasn't gonna stay there either!" you defend, stubbornly crossing your arms.

that sparks a conversation about what you've been up to. he's always been alright with just letting you chatter away, but he makes sure to pay extra attention to what you tell him. your goals, your plans and where you'll be going. damn you, making this harder for him by not staying at shimotsuki village.

he's proud though, he really is.

as you continue to speak, he finds his focus directed on your expression and body language. now that the shock has worn off, he gets a closer look at you. your fingers twitch lightly, your arms snuggly crossed over your chest as if you were holding yourself together.

he remembers you being rather comfortable and relaxed around him, only growing restless when you were struggling to hold down the torrents of emotion that you were prone to feeling.

the last time he saw you like this was when he left, when you were too prideful to reach out and...

something about your little mannerisms is comforting in itself, like you haven't changed. a small wave of nostalgia crashes into the stone walls he's constructed around his heart these past few years.

you're still that teary eyed kid clinging to him like a remora, and he's damn sure that that won't ever change. you can hide it all you want, but unfortunately, he knows you.

you're good, but he's better.

"oi, c'mere, you damn crybaby." he huffs, expertly masking his satisfaction as he slings an arm around your shoulders and pulls you into his chest. a smirk tugs at his lips as he looks down on you, hell, he even wraps his other arm around you too. "thought i told ya to grow up, dumbass."

your arms wrap around him and you hide your sniffle with a scoff. "yeah, and i think i told you to shut up, zoozoo." you instinctively hold him a bit tighter. "bet you didn't miss all this crybaby stuff."

oh, if you knew how wrong you were.

the moment is cut short when an exasperated yell fills the air. "oi, marimo, what the hell are you doing with a gorgeous woman!"

zoro's grip tightens on you for a split second before he releases you with a growl, his expression morphing into one of annoyance. he turns around to face the blond, hand reaching for his blade. "mind your damn business, cook! i'll cut you up like a-"

they bicker for a few minutes while you watch on in confusion, before the cook tells him that there are marines on the island. the blond, not wanting the swordsman to get lost again, firmly grips his arm and tugs him along.

zoro's gaze flickers back to yours, hardened and glinting with determination. yet, beneath that, you can see the underlying emotion.

it makes you smile, and even as he's being tugged away, you give him a big grin letting him know that you'll be okay. a smile that says you believe in him and that you know he'll be the greatest swordsman this world has ever seen. most importantly, it tells him that you'll be there waiting for him when it's all done.

your lips part and you yell out. "bye, zoozoo!"

it's a while later when zoro and sanji finally quit their running, the thousand sunny go just up ahead in the distance.

"tch, can't believe a beautiful woman like her would want anything to do with a brute like you." sanji huffs, clearly envious and annoyed as he pulls out a cigarette and lighter.

zoro's scowl deepens, not quite up for discussing any sort of feelings with the cook. "shut the hell up, curly brows." he says, his eye subtly sneaking a final glance at the town. "it's not like that."

sanji breathes out a large puff of smoke, his form relaxing somewhat. "yeah, yeah... sure. whatever you say, zoozoo."

the air changes, going almost still as sanji finds himself looking down at a blade being held to his neck. zoro holds his sword up to the cook, glaring at him with a murderous intent.

they've had their fair share of fights, never actually meaning to harm one another, but zoro makes it clear that this subject is not up for debate. “call me that again and i’ll cut your tongue off." he growls, inching the blade a little closer. "only one person can ever call me that, and it’s not you.”

[elodieunderglass]

🎀

Fanfic ask game: https://www.tumblr.com/elodieunderglass/769295248269705216?source=share

“🎀 how do you decide when something is done?”

That’s such a good question, thank you! I know where I’m going with my (recent) fics because they’re all mechanisms.

They’re like a little clockwork item that I hand to you, and when you wind it up, it Does Something. It opens up to show you something inside, or it unfolds to be something else. Or it’s a puzzle box with something exciting. Sometimes it mostly just shows you how it’s made. Sometimes it’s a jack-in-the-box and the surprise is just that it goes “pop” and makes you laugh.

It’s important that the construction be witty. In addition to the overall mechanism working properly, it’s important to me that it be done in a stylish way. Even if I don’t pull this off, I know it’s done if it’s managed to meet the goal of the mechanism and also be a bit collectible and stylish.

This is how the jokes are supposed to go off in your brain:

Anyway, I know they’re done when the mechanism works!

Sharpe’s Daemon is a very quick character study set up so the last line hits like a punch: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58673878 It’s supposed to be satisfying and funny and make you go OH NO. I knew it was done because it does this! All the writing before the punchline is there to make the punchline happen. It was written with the ending in mind: once the ending was achieved, the fic was done, and ready to be served!

The absurdly ambitious Strange Pilgrims (Good Omens) is many things, but one of them is “two interlocking spirals, one black and one white. It is about how the universe, the depicted ship, and all the small things are also in this shape - the love between the characters being the same geometry as the underpinning physics of the galaxy etc etc etc” https://archiveofourown.org/works/19368694/chapters/46082842 so it SLIGHTLY bothers me that the earlier-written chapters are weaker and unbalanced it! Also, when they announced there was going to be a Good Omens season 2, I was so disgusted that I had to scramble madly to finish the damned thing early ( it initially had a shape that could support the development of a sequel. They would have been very pretty next to each other but MY 123k baby is a Pratchett love letter, not advertisement for some other guy.) that’s why it has the absolutely unhinged Choose Your Own Adventure multiple-ending mechanism, where you select a glitchy tarot card to get “your” ending, and you can choose to stop there or interlock it further. I have not seen that done before and I CAN SEE WHY PEOPLE DONT DO IT.

His Delicious Materials (Dungeon Meshi) https://archiveofourown.org/works/56658973/chapters/144024799 is a work in progress and actually has me puzzled because the intention of the mechanism may have changed! It was scoped as a gift, but - I am so touched by this - other people like it too, and I may have to do one route for the original recipient and another for the other readers. Like the person it’s for would enjoy a cuckoo clock, but the people reading it are going “oh this is a GREAT music box” and I’m like oh dang, it WOULD be a very effective music box.

Weasel Heart in Defiance (Dungeon Meshi but as an argument with Tolkien) https://archiveofourown.org/works/60074548/chapters/153284221 is going to be 125k in order to set up an ending scene in which - having spent 125k with these idiots in their silly world - you cry. And you go THANK YOU ELODIE I GET IT. And it sets off a Halfling Revolution in your heart. That scene’s already written, and the rest of it is just colouring in. That one is already done, basically.

[alexa-yukiyu]

Hey! Hey! Heyyy! Missed me 😝 jk

Anyways sorry if I haven't send any request I had a crazy month

So uh are you gonna make a part 2 of this? Because I'm REALLY wanna see reader going ape shit lmao

Unrooted (Shanks x daughter!reader)

Part 1

A/N I was so close to deleting this one too because I was stuck :/ I can’t tell you how many drafts I deleted to start over. I still don’t like how it turned out but I feel like I owe it to you Cosmo to atleast try

Reader here is replaced by Dokucha which stands for reader in japanese for the enjoyment of reader and oc character readers alike!

Dividers by @/firefly-graphics

"What the hell are you doing here?" Dokucha called with a frown as she unsheathed her dual swords and threw herself forward to engage the man

The years had definetly been kind on her father as the man beofre her look no different from the man she had left behind years before. She wondered if perhaps he thought something along the same lines for her, or maybe he saw how different she had been from the last time he had set eyes on her as she was no longer that tween who followed him around like a lost duckling

"You have gotten stronger," he called as he, unsurprisingly, managed to parry her hit and threw one of his own that she held back by holding both of her swords up, holding up in an x formation. A scowl was on her face as she struggled to keep the position, eventually failing as he overpowered her, forcing her to jump back.

"Dokucha!" Thatch called as he ran towards the teen to attempt to break up the fight, only to be stopped by his father

"Pops?"

"Leave it be. She needs this," he grumbled. Ignoring the desperate look, the chef shot him at his words as he turned back to look at the young girl and the intruding Yonko.

"No thanks to you." she simply quipped as she once again shot forward this time jumping into the air and aiming for a high hit that he once again met with his own sword.

"We need to talk," he called as he took a step back from the teen

"I have nothing to say to you, and I think I had left that very clear." She called, sheathing her swords in a single move. She crossed her arms petulantly, looking away from her father in one last act of defiance to show her displeasure at his unexpected visit.

"I see you are not going to come willingly then? I am sorry for this then." he spoke as he mirrored her move and sheathed his own sword

"Wh-

Her words never had time to left her mouth as before she could realize what had happened; her father had pushed his way to her, taken a hold of her legs, and thrown her on his shoulder, ignoring the squeal she let as he did, jumping off the Moby dick and into the Red force where he put her down, stepping back before she could nick him with her blades.

"What is wrong with you?!" She questions, turning to him

"I mean seriously! Who in the right mind goes into the ship of a Yonko and kidnaps a child from it? Do you not see how insane this is?!

"I'm sorry honey, but there was no other way you would have come talked to me," he said as he walked past her angered form, taking a sit on a lone table that made it's home on the Red force's deck, an even lonelier cup of sake sitting on top of it before shanks took a hold of it

"Maybe there is a reason for that, Shanks." She spit out, feeling a small satisfaction as she noticed how his eyebrows furrowed at the name.

"Dokucha, I understand you're mad." he started, only to be interrupted by her once again

"I really don't think you do, I don't think you understand at all how I felt or feel" She called as she hugged herself to try to calm herself and the plethora of feelings that filled her being.

"You're right. I don't. I see how you feel; I understand I did something wrong," he corrected as he put down the drink

"It's been years. Why now?" she mumbled

"I do want you to know that although it's true, I never approached you in those years; I never lost tabs on you. I.... just thought you needed some space, but perhaps that was not the best judgment."

"You think? Five years Shanks five, you didn't fucking contact me in five years; is the fact that you kept tabs on me supposed to make me feel better? You don't care enough to see me but care enough to stalk me. Thank you. Want a prize?" she snarled

"Alright, I deserved that," he sighed out

"But I want to make it right...no, there is no way I can make this right since I can't go back, but let me try to make this relationship work,"

"How?"

"By, for once, giving you the choice as I should have back then; do you want me to try, or do you want me to leave?"

Uou know why that ending seems incomplete BECAUSE IT IS. Because I am gonna be honest I don’t think there is any way Shanks could fix this so… 🫵🏼 get to decide how he does

Taglist:

@Imaginarydreams

@amethystviolin

@h0n3y-l3m0n05

@hannahbarberra162

@epochal-oracle

[goldfades]

I was just thinking of how much a troll the manager is on twitter. I'm gonna delve into how the manager is with managing social media for the girls later, cuz girly does a LOT and is TIRED, she runs all departments.

But no she really is a troll frl. She's not really active on twitter as far as doom scrolling but she'll comment here and there. I can totally see her roasting people who say anything flavorful about any of her girls, or even the few friends she's made with other basketball players.

Some examples:

"Womp Womp" (YOU CAN'T TELL ME SHE DOESN'T USE THIS)

"Your teachers handed your tests back to you upside down, huh?"

"You look drop shipped."

"Your entire value has an expiration date."

"You look easy to draw."

"I bet you eat fried chicken with a fork."

Also with the condescendiiing

"Baby, Imma hold your hand when I say this."

"My love, milk expires before it hits your stomach, you have longer things to worry about than some girls playing ball."

"Oooo so close! If she were to have ate shit (aka you) the worlds average IQ would've increased. Hope this helps!

--

User9: You just always look like a bitch huh?

Manager: Why yes! Just like you hide your face so you don't get charged with public indecency. Glad we're on the same page! xoxo

---

She let's loose a bit on twitter, but she totally strikes me as someone who will roast you, professionally......sometimes. We know she roasts the girls on a day to day basis so nobody should be suprised.

I also lowkey see her going back and forth with Angel, playfully of course, but damn it's something that you just had to be there for.

Manager joining instagram/tiktok lives with other basketball players and the Uconn team being in the live comments like "??? and what do you think you're doing here?"

---

Also imagine this: Manager is at a basketball game right, not a Uconn one, just enjoying herself right?

An interviewer walks up to her (girly is popularrrrr) and starts asking her a few question, and the manager doesn't mind answering some cuz yk, the games over anyways so.

All of a sudden the interviewer goes, "So, what do you think about Kate?" & the manager just goes "Uh...which one?"

"Kate Martin? I mean who else?" whilst laughing

Now one thing out of the many things that we've discussed here is the the manager has a what? attitude. She's also very sarcastic, so obviously, she responded accordingly.

"Oh?," she laughs out "I wasn't aware that she was the only Kate to exist within the community, my apologies..." and then went on to answer LMFAO

There was edits using clips from that interview after.

---

Manager: I'm resigning from my position at uconn

Posted: April 1

paigebueckers1: that just gave me a heart attack

>manager: i'm the only one that could get your heart racing like that

kkarold: girly....

>manager: yes pookie?🥺

MuhlNika: As if we'd let you

>manager:....what do you mean by that?

>paigebueckers1: you really think you could get away from us that easily?🤣

>MuhlNika: Twin let her find out

>manager: what is this behavior...🧌

>kkarnold: together forever bookie🤞

>manager: I need an adult😀

-🐹

HELPPPP YES😭😭😭 and geno gets mad at her and is like "why would you.... just why???" and manager would just be like smirking cause they can't get in THAT much trouble yk

paigebueckers1: that just gave me a heart attack

>manager: i'm the only one that could get your heart racing like that

^^^ this whole thing set the whole manager x paige people on FIREEE like yes, this is proof 💕

[kidcharlemagnex6]

Why Kyle Broflovski Shouldn't Be in a Relationship Just Yet.

During one my occasional musings about South Park, one question I asked myself was: why hasn't Kyle gotten a long-term relationship arc like Stan has? But then I thought about it and realized that one potential reason is that, when you really think about it, Kyle has some toxic personality traits that show he isn't actually relationship material. My explanation will be framed in the form of my opinions on three Kyle-based shippings that frequently crop up in the South Park fandom that wouldn't really work when you think about it. Those three shippings are Style, Kyndy, and Kybe.

First, I want to talk about the shipping between Kyle and Stan. My opinion on it is pretty much the same as others I've seen on here. First off, just because two people are best friends doesn't mean that they're relationship material with each other. Second, even if the two did have romantic feelings for each other, they probably wouldn't be very compatible with each other. Stan is well-meaning but reserved, preferring to listen and only provide his input when he's explicitly allowed. Kyle, on the other hand, is more extroverted but doesn't always express it in a healthy way. When you pay attention to some of Kyle's scenes, such as when he's talking about an "important" issue, he expresses his opinions so forcefully and, to be honest, condescending, that it feels like he's more interested in simply forcing his opinions onto anyone who tries to listen than actually having meaningful discussions. Not to mention, when Stan was going through his first major depressive spell, he was pretty quick to abandon his efforts to make him feel better because he "couldn't handle the negativity," which makes me feel that some toxic positivity might be included.

There also seems to be a small contingent of fans who want Wendy to leave Stan for Kyle. While it's true that they have some similarities, such as their intelligence and morality, those differences are surface level when you really examine them. As mentioned earlier, Stan is more of a listener than a conversationalist and that seems to be all Wendy is looking for. She really wants to be heard and taken seriously, and Stan is more than happy to indulge her if that's all she wants. Kyle, on the other hand, might start acting overbearing toward Wendy and refuse to take her seriously, especially if she disagrees with him on something, not to mention that if things get really heated between them, Kyle might even stoop to hitting Wendy while Stan would never do such a thing. Kyle might also get possessive of Wendy, especially when he thinks she might leave him for a different boy. Take for example the whole business with Brydon: Stan calmly told Wendy that he wouldn't stand in her way if she wanted to pursue a relationship with him, instead. Possessive? To an extent, but the way he went about it is a clear indicator that he genuinely cares about Wendy and just wants her to be happy. Kyle, on the other hand, might have become selfishly jealous and outright demanded that Wendy not talk to Brydon, which would just drive her away, anyway.

The last potential suitor of Kyle's that I want to talk about is Bebe. Ever since the episode, "Clubhouses," Bebe hasn't even expressed a passing interest in Kyle and went straight for Clyde. The way Bebe expressed her interest in Kyle, however, strongly implied to me that Bebe really only cared about the image of being in a relationship rather than the person she's dating. But if you pay attention to some of Bebe's later episodes, you'll notice some signs that Bebe wouldn't have been a good girlfriend to Kyle, anyway. The whole incident with the shoe store, in my opinion at least, is a pretty clear indicator of what Bebe's real priorities are regardless of her claims that she wants to be either a lawyer or marine biologist. Material possessions seem to be one of her primary concerns and the fact that she was willing to manipulate her "boyfriend" Clyde to get what she wanted shows that hurting other people's feelings isn't too big of a concern for her. Therefore, there's the very real possibility that if Kyle became Bebe's boyfriend, she would immediately start molding him into her little fashion accessory who only exists to give her gifts. Not to mention, the fears I expressed about Kyle's potential treatment of Wendy would also apply.

So now you might be asking, "Then who do you think Kyle would be a good match for?" To be honest, I don't think he should jump right into that. As you might have gathered from this post, Kyle, for all of his good qualities, still has too many toxic traits that will get in the way of forming a loving, committed relationship with someone. He might be smart and morally upstanding, but what he needs to work on is being respectful of other people's opinions and choices, not giving up so easily, and understanding that just because he can do something doesn't necessarily mean that he should. Once he does get those figured out, he should absolutely get his own long-term romance arc just like Stan and Wendy have.

'Nuff said.

[md-confessions]

Oh boy, someone made another stupid take on CodeGold and me, being the only vocal sane CodeGold "fan" has to talk about it.

Just gonna say right now, Juzi and CodeGold are completely different. Don't compare the two. That's really all I had to say about that confession, it just riled me up so I'm gonna ramble here a bunch.

So, question here, am I a horrible person for shipping CodeGold in an AU where J isn't abusive to N. Not even a major personality shift, maybe one or two little things changed but plenty of people have done that to plenty of characters. And J herself doesn't exactly have much of one anyways due to her limited screen time so you have to fill in the gaps either way.

Am I a proshipper, because I enjoy a ship that's normally a proship in a non proship situation? If I condemn the fics where N is like "step on me mommy" to J, or condemn fics where J hits him and he continues to love her?

And I know someone will say "Making an entire AU for it doesn't justify it." Then what about personality swap AUs? One where N gets V's personality, V gets J's, and J gets N's. Then it'd basically be Envy, right? What's wrong with it then? If there's elements outside the CodeGold, is it justified?

And then that's the next question, why is CodeGold condemned while Envy isn't? V is still quite abusive to N, even if not as harshly and with better intentions. And the answer to this is probably "V has shown she's changing for the better" But J hasn't had a chance to show that. Outside ep 1, her only actual character moments were in ep 6 and 7 and she only insults N once with a pretty tame insult all things considered. Now I know, in the pilot J says she'd kill N. And to be honest, I don't blame anyone for using that one line as justification for shipping Envy and not CodeGold. Still, I'd like people to understand that V hurt N a lot too. And this is coming from someone who enjoys Nuziv and the occasional standalone Envy content.

Next thing up, why should me making slight changes to J's character to make shipping her with N not a proship be made invalid? Plenty of fics make small changes to the characters in order to tell the story they want to tell. Why should it be any different in this case? And I know people out there will say "Just make an OC." Right, so I should make an OC that looks exactly like J, acts like J 95% of the time, and take J's place in the story, rather than just change J ever so slightly. Makes sense to me, honestly not sure why I didn't think about doing that. I say that sarcastically but that's only because it's something that genuinely irks me. I apologize if I offend anyone by doing that.

The reason I bring this up is because while I wouldn't really label myself a CodeGold shipper nor fan, I still enjoy the occasional cute art or well written fic of it. But the only reason I like that art or the fics is because J isn't some abusive asshole and does actually like N. And often times, J is pretty well exactly like her canon counterpart, aside not saying she'd kill N. But I could never say that because the moment I do, I'm lumped in with all the Cyncest redditors, the Khan x Uzi people, and god forbid the idiots who think Nuzi is a proship and enjoy it because of that. All of those disgust me, and I feel me shipping CodeGold in a way in which it's not a proship should not condemn me to that fate.

I'm not saying CodeGold isn't a proship. If you just ship it directly with how canon is, it is a proship. No doubts about it. And there are some disgusting people out there who enjoy that dynamic, and I. Am. Not. One. Of. Those. People.

Generally things like this don't disgust me, but non-con and abusive relationships just...do not sit right with me. Incest is disgusting too, but it just doesn't affect me nearly in the same way. So being lumped in with those people despite how I ship CodeGold just...makes me feel dirty.

And the biggest thing, CodeGold is hardly part of who I am. I know most of you will probably know me from my J confessions and CodeGold confessions, but neither are even a particularly big part of my attachment to Murder Drones, ESPECIALLY CodeGold.

I like J, don't get me wrong. I think she's an endlessly fascinating character. But Uzi, N, V, Lizzy, Thad, Sam, and Emily are all characters I engage with as a fan far more than I do with J. And two of them are the camp kids from ep 4 that die.

Just please, don't throw people like me into the pits of Hell because of how other disgusting people ship something like this. This isn't like Cyn x N where it's a proship no matter how you do it. CodeGold is a proship due to the history between N and J, and history is something that can be changed. I mean, technically I guess you could make Cyn and N not related in an AU, but that feels a whole lot different than making some minor tweaks to J's character and her history with N. Maybe that sounds hypocritical, that's just what if feels like to me.

I have friends who also enjoy CodeGold, but have told me about CodeGold stuff they dislike. They dislike the "mommy step on me" stuff like I do, they dislike fics where N is abused by J but it's still CodeGold. They're good people. I know that's a rare thing from CodeGold shippers, many of them are idiots and terrible people. Like a certain someone who said Nuzi is toxic and yet ships CodeGold of all things. I'm sure you know who I'm talking about.

I'm not one of those idiots. I sometimes say questionable stuff, or do questionable things. But I'm not an idiot and I wouldn't consider myself a bad person. And I don't think I should be defined as such because I like CodeGold stuff where it's not abusive and thus not a proship, when I have so many other things that define me. I really should show that more by making confessions not related to J or CodeGold but the whole point behind me using anonymous and having a signature was because I knew talking about this stuff would get me lynched. Understandable though with my first confession because I was just plain fucking wrong with some of the shit I said. J isn't an abuser my ass, seriously. What was I thinking saying that?

and one last thing. You can still dislike CodeGold after this. That is perfectly reasonable. I just ask that we could be friends still if we met, or at the very least you don't just immediately block me and see me as a horrible person.

With that all said, I leave you all once again by wishing you all a good day, evening, or night. (also sorry for making you read through all that, admin. I hope it doesn't cause you too much stress)

-- TSM

⠀

[the-catmans-offical-2]

I wanna ramble about Ed/Wrath (Wrathfull) so much so I'm gonna.

A lotta people I've met have been seeing Wrath as related to the Elric brothers bc of his relationship to Sloth - but I gotta say that I personally don't agree with this.

Yes, Wrath does later state in episode 47 (before killing Lust) that he's going to take everything Edward loves (even though he doesn't want Al, he doesn't want Winry, he doesn't want anything - except Ed's limbs/body and a maternal figure.) Yes, Wrath clings to Sloth, calls her mommy/mama and sees her as his genuine mother.

But you HAVE TO realize it's not reciprocated, and even then - a clear point shown with the homunculi - she's *not* Trisha. She is, but she isn't; She once was, but is no longer her. Just like how Lust is no longer that Ishbalan woman that Scar's older brother once loved, just like how Wrath is no longer that infant Izumi miscarried. The homunculi were ONCE human, ONCE those those people - but they aren't anymore. Anyway, back onto the topic at hand, Sloth doesn't feel any maternal love, she doesn't allow herself to express it nor feel it; A huge part of her character is being apathetic, is changing herself and not allowing herself to chase the frivolous dream of being who she once was - which was a loving mother.

Sure, she let's Wrath hang off her and depend on her - but that's probably to help keep him in check so he'll listen better to Dante and whatnot, because she can easily ACT maternal, but not express it.

So yeah, that's my clarification. Ed and Wrath (And Wrath and Al) aren't related in anyway (even if Wrath did say "she was your mama too", in ep 48 after Sloth was killed and Al was kidnapped).

Also, as an additional clarification - yes, as I've posted before, I do genuinely think that Wrath ages. So in CoS he'd of been 17-18, and in the end of 03 he'd be 14-15. (Ed is 18 in CoS, and 15-16 at the end of 03.)

NOW, with all of that out of the way, here's why I ship this ship; And why I think I may be one of the only people that ship it.

THEIR FUCKING RIVALRY IS AMAZING; This may honestly be one of the only ships I ship that involves them being straight up rivals. They hate each other (or so they think?) - Wrath wants to deprive Ed of his limbs, while Ed just wants his limbs back and deprive Wrath of his (temporarily.)

They're two sides of the same coin, their goals are similar - to regain or gain human body parts in order to complete their individual goals; They both yearn for maternal love, they both are just kids.

But unlike Ed, Wrath is playful and childish - Ed had to grow up fast in order to survive and take care of his brother.

But unlike Wrath, Ed isn't as carefree and trusting to the world.

I dunno, they're just so UGH they make me sick.

Ed clearly is unsure of how he feels about Wrath - at first he's jumping on him and fighting him for answers, being aggressive and trying to kill him, and then he seems to just give up on that; He let's Wrath throw him around, punch him and strangle him. He let's Wrath scream and yell, and cry. He even catches Wrath and gives him a look over after Envy kicks him in the warehouse!! AND on top of that, his reaction to Wrath's death in CoS hits me HARD.

In this scene, I'll maybe get the specific translation later, Ed remarks about how he's surprised that Al got out of the underground city - and Al replies that Wrath showed him the way out, to which Edward questions by saying Wrath's name and Alphonse simply says that he used Wrath to open the Gate on his side. LOOK AT THE DESPAIR HE HAS; And yes, this could be just at the fact Al had to take a life - something Ed never wanted Al to have to do - but I see it as both. ESPECIALLY WHEN ED BRINGS UP WRATH LATER.

Meanwhile, Wrath seemed fearful of Ed at first - likely due to how he'd attack him at first and question him so aggressively - and then calm around him; Before reciprocating Ed's violent behavior. That violent behavior then turning to grief and despair, before Wrath seemed to become an ally for Ed a bit too late - hell, he was fucking SHOCKED when Ed died.

In this scene he only said "he's.. Dead" in the English dub - and he sounded so sad :( Then in CoS, as we all know, he tells Alphonse that he doesn't want to see him sacrifice his life for Ed's again - and very likely doesn't ever want to see the reverse again! I don't think Wrath was solely upset about Sloth during the whole four/three years before CoS took place - especially since he begins to miss Izumi - I think he was absolutely fucked up about Ed. ESPECIALLY SINCE he and Rosé were the last to see Ed alive, they didn't try to stop him, Wrath couldn't bc he was down two limbs and Rosé had to get her baby out of there and Wrath - it must of broken their hearts :(

But yeah! I ship them, and I have never seen any fanart of Ed and Wrath being shipped together, never seen any fanfics - and this really, really surprised me ngl.

If anyone ever does see ship content of them please lmk!! It'd be very much appreciated, I will go insane.

Uhh, that's all I gotta say ngl. If anyone has any questions just ask, my ask box is always open.

[blondesillyboylover]

Rant against "Oumota is toxic" below

MENTIONS OF ABUSE!!

I'm no professional so take everything I say with a grain of salt

Right of the bat, stolen art as the thumbnail without credit, even insulting it!! I will try to find the creator later, I've seen their content somewhere here.

Edit: the art is by bossubeats!!

Collective laughter is heard as we all observe their clearly biased + completely inaccurate slander that contradicts everything in the game and some of what they've said on their own channel

I'm not usually one to make rant posts especially not towards certain people but wtf dude:

"oumota is a toxic, disgusting ship and anyone who likes it romanticises irl abuse and is mentally ill" it's giving the komahina hater all over again

Btw, this is not at all satire, the post. I used to like their art before they began posting... questionable things, and I can say with 101% certainty this is genuinely what they believed.

"Kaito and Kokichi hate each other!!!!!" we all blink slowly. not even a whisper of applause or praise is heard. A tumbleweed passes by. Jhon coughs.

They don't 'hate' each other. They had different views about truth and lies, got into a few arguments, etc. etc. but not once did they outright "despise" each other like the poster said. Kaito praises Kokichi's dedication to the plan after the 5th trial, not to mention fully dedicates himself to it. When Kokichi is dosed with strike 9 poison, Kaito withholds his usual aggressiveness and hears him out. If this is someone you despised so much, someone you'd go to the ends of the world just to see suffer, why in your right mind would you do all this?

They mentioned that oumota is "oooh abusiveeee because, because they HIT each other!!!!" okay. First of all, under most circumstances where Kaito instigated the violence, Kokichi was clearly egging him on, encouraging it, leading him to snap. A hot-headed person such as Kaito is bound to react like that when the other mocks the death of their recently deceased classmates. And in the case of Kokichi's violence, it was self defence. Excessive all the same, but still self defence.

Also, they mention how toxic and awful the 'enemies to lovers' trope is? I don't think I really need to expand on how silly that sounds. First, they're not enemies, second, enemies to lovers can be a perfectly healthy and wholesome type of relationship?

The cherry on top of the cake. It's clear they've never once touched a playthrough or the game, or even a simple run-through, because they claim "Kaito called Kokichi a slur!!".

Everyone falls into deathly silence. It's so overwhelming it *would* drown out the sound of a pin dropping to the floor. Awkward shuffles of limbs can be seen, but they don't produce noise. Everyone's faces are collectivley flushed by how embarrassing the situation is.

... That's kiyo. Not Kokichi. If you're going to make a rant, know your facts. At least play, like, key parts of the trials.

Anyways, I'm not even the biggest Oumota fan and I know this is absolute childish, uneducated bullshit from someone who hasn't bothered to put more than one half-baked thought into what they're discussing. They see one show of violence between the two and suddenly everyone who supports the romantic or even platonic pairing between the two is suddenly Satan themselves. Alright, person who has openly discussed liking saiou v0r3 and toxic kagebon on a channel that encourages children to engage. You're totally making sense!! (ofc, you can like that stuff if you want, it's the fact they're being such a hypocrite that is the concern)

Anyways, rant over. This just really irritated me tbh. Again, I'm not a v3 expert or properly educated on abuse, so I may have got bits of this wrong.

[theeeveetamer]

On Loving Thy Neighbor: A long term fan’s perspective

Recent discussion in the tags has gotten me thinking about love, life, and the dynamic of human interaction. And it all brings me back to the same conclusion: fandom, like all things in life, requires a deft touch and an appreciation of nuance.

While it would be easy, even wonderful, if we could all just be kind to each other and have that kindness returned, anyone who has been part of fandom—a part of life in general—knows that it is often not that simple.

Bringing kindness to someone who seeks only to inflict pain on you is not only ineffective, it’s completely masochistic. We understand this when it applies to other areas of life. The solution to queerphobia isn’t “be nicer to the queerphobes” and the solution to sexism isn’t “be nicer to the sexists”. The solution is to tell them to get bent, because they aren’t welcome in the vibrant, beautiful, kind communities we hope to build if they are going to meet us with vitriol and hate. Attempting to placate a queerphobe while building a queer-positive society is like arguing that it’s fine if you just leave just one house in the neighborhood constantly on fire.

Fire does not care about your boundaries. It will spread to the other houses eventually whether you like it or not—whether you intend to let it or not—because that is the nature of fire.

Why, then, do we protect toxic actors in fandom? Why do we wave off a handful of death threats as the same thing as a handful of character or ship opinions? Why do we continue allowing people to wave that kind of behavior off? Why do we think it’s okay to keep the fire?

Simply put, it’s because it takes much less effort to assume "everyone was bad". Figuring out the nuance of a situation is hard; telling everyone to be nicer is easy.

And there the problem lies. There are many situations in which being a little kinder to each other could help. I'm not discounting that. There are also situations where doing so is masochistic and enabling toxicity. Enabled toxicity will never disappear, or quiet. It will only grow. Like fire, there is nothing you can offer it that will stop it from spreading. Pleading with it and offering it sticks to placate it won't stop it from gobbling up your house eventually.

Knowing the difference is where the solution lies. But some people don’t want to do the work to pick apart the nuance of a situation, so they tell you (no matter the context), to just shut up and be nicer. Got death threats against you? Well you said something negative about their favorite character, and you pointing out that they sent you death threats makes them feel bad. See, you both feel bad! So clearly you both must have done something wrong! So maybe you should have just been nicer.

It doesn't matter if your opinions were properly tagged, or if you censored the character's name, or if it was on a blog hidden from searches, or if it was something you sent in a DM one time that got spread around without your knowledge, or if the person who sent you the threats is someone you blocked months ago who shouldn't have been able to see it anyway. You should have anticipated that someone, somewhere in the world, might see it and get mad enough to send you death threats. Take responsibility. Be nicer next time.

If the fire spreads to your house? Well, you shouldn’t have built it so close. You knew the fire was there. It’s your problem. You deal with it.

It rings hollow. “If you were just nicer to your abuser, maybe they wouldn’t have to keep hitting you. Maybe we would all be getting along if you would just shut up about it already.”

No one ever stops to question why the fire is there in the first place, or why people are so desperate to cling to it, or what purpose it could possibly serve when all it ever does is burn down houses.

A harasser, like a fire, is not satisfied with bullying one person, or burning down one house. They will consume everything until nothing is left or they have been put out (sanctioned and excommunicated).

When you claim to take no sides in a situation like this, or you claim both sides are equally bad, you are siding with the toxic actor. You are feeding your fellow fans to the fire in the hopes that you won't be next. You will always be next.

And if there's only a handful of people in your community willing to pick up a bucket and try to fight the fire, while everyone else shrugs and says "just don't build your house too close"? The firefighters will leave, because they know they can't fight it alone, and they know it won't stop, and who wants to live in a house constantly at risk of going up like a tinderbox?

And then, one day, everyone who shrugged and stayed will turn around and wonder why their town is nothing but ashes and cinders. And they will have no one to blame but themselves.

The world only works off of "be kinder" logic if you assume everyone's goal is to get along. The sad truth is, there are always some fires, and their definition of "getting along" includes destruction and pain incompatible with kindness.

I think the only people who truly believe the core of the problem is that everyone "isn't kind enough" are so used to sitting in a burning house that they can no longer smell the smoke.

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  fragilecapric0rn! @fragilecapric0rnn has written 22 fics in the Stranger Things fandom and 21 of them are in the Steddie tag!

@cheatghost recommends the following works by @fragilecapric0rnn:

It Might Be Worth It For Once

clown music at the disco

you can take the heart from your chest to use as a compass when you are lost

Catch Me (I'm Falling)

Anyway, It's About Old Friends

"Sen's body of work is like a truly love letter to the characters. No matter the universe, Steve and Eddie always feel authentic to themselves. Sen's love for classic rom-coms influences a lot of her writing and makes for really romantic, touching stories. It's an absolute delight to dive into a world crafted by this author!" -- @cheatghost

Below the cut, @fragilecapric0rnn answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

I think in May of 2022 I was bit by the same bug as everyone else. Before I started writing Steddie, I was on a 4-year fic writing hiatus, and it was like seeing those two interact on screen zapped my brain awake. The chemistry, the potential, the fact that one half of the ship got ripped away from us too soon. All of those components really did something to my brain and I decided I had to write them and I haven’t looked back since!

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

I love a idiots to lovers! These two really have the potential to fit that trope so well!

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

Second-chance at romance! If you’ve seen any of my fics, you know that I love and will take any chance to write 90s older steddie, haven’t spoken or seen each other in years, who re-meet and fall in love. It is so them, it is my favorite version of them. It’s the version of them that lives in my head!

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

There are so many good ones to choose from, but I think I have to go with Show Me the Place Where He Inserted the Blade by the incomparable, the magnificently talented and outstanding Cheatghost. Lou, who I am very proud to call a friend, is one of the most talented people I know and I feel very lucky to have had them brought into my life via the Steddie brainrot.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

Is it lame if I say no? LOL. Honestly, I have written almost everything I have felt the need to explore with this pairing. A lot of my ideas moving forward are expansions/continuations of ideas that I already started or have posted before. 

What is your writing process like?

Right now it’s at its most unstructured because I am rawdogging life without my ADHD meds for the first time in 7 years, which has been a whirlwind but I am managing. However, it usually depends on the fic I’m writing! For a lot of my longfic, I have a physical notebook that has an outline and major plot points I want to hit at certain times in my stories. Other times, for the shorter fics/one-shots, I just write them all in one go. It starts with a (usually silly) idea, and then I get possessed by the writing demons, and suddenly, I haven’t moved from my chair in 2 hours and I have four thousand words on my screen. I contain multitudes!

Do you have any writing quirks?

I am a victim of the: One word. One phrase. Lin breaks for emphasis. And I will be doing it until someone who is being paid real money to publish one of my original works tells me to knock it off!

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

Again, asking if it’s bad if I say neither? When I first started posting fic again, I was very much writing it all and then posting it over the course of a few days. But now, I tend to write sporadically and post even more sporadically. And I prefer the latter! Fanfiction, and fandom in general, is a collaborative experience in its heart and soul. One of my favorite things about longfic is posting a chapter and seeing what people take away from it, because 9/10 it’ll be different then what the writer thinks they’re going to take away! And the chance to change and rework and let yourself be influenced by other fans of the ship is taken away when you write it all at once and post it all at once.

Which fic are you most proud of?

Anyway, It’s About Old Friends. Even in its unfinished form, it is my magnum opus. My white whale. I have done some of my best writing in it (chapter 2 MY BELOVED) and the fact that its so close to the end is both exciting and terrifying. It is a fic I wrote and continue to write for me, and the fact that other people are reading and enjoying it is a win!

How did you get the idea for It Might Be Worth It For Once?

HA! So, I was chatting with my friend Emily (JudasofSuburbia) about a potential Pornstar!Steve AU offhandedly back in the fall. Then, I got paired with them for a little fic exchange between friends, and it felt natural to take that one off little conversation and turn it into a fic for her. It was one of those fics that started out as a silly idea and then suddenly it’s been six hours and I wrote the whole thing in one go! After some polishing and editing, it became a Pornstar!AU with not as much smut as I expected. It was so fun to write, made even more fun as it was for a dear friend.

When writing Anyway, It's About Old Friends, what was something you didn’t expect?

I didn’t expect it to change and mold and morph in the way that it did. There is a version of this fic where they do hook-up earlier, there’s a version where they re-meet at gay club and not a wedding, there’s a version where Steve marries a Evie and Eddie is Raul. But, this version feels the most right. It’s a story about heartbreak, about finding love (in all it forms) in unexpected places, and it’s about found family most of all. All of that was stumbled on accidentally! My only intention was to write a Steddie-fied When Harry Met Sally fic, and accidentally flashed my heart and soul. Whoops!

What inspired clown music at the disco?

I used to be an opener at a coffee shop and there is something so disorienting and mind altering about having disco music blasting on the speakers at 4am. But, it was in one of those moments, where I was so tired I was nauseous, that the fic idea came to me! I had already been thinking of writing as my first fic, Steve and Eddie accidentally have a Devil’s Sacrament moment at the gay bar, but the line “But it’s Disco Night”, came to me at the ungodly hour of 4 in the morning. What a time!

What was your favorite part to write from you can take the heart from your chest to use as a compass when you are lost?

The Never Have I Ever Scene! It was the first time I wrote the entire party in one scene and it’s chaotic and a little messy but it was one of my favorite parts of the fic. It also made me realize how much I love writing ensemble scenes! Just everyone trying to talk over each other, chaos in its best form.

How do/did you feel writing Catch Me (I'm Falling)?

I wrote this fic in the span of like almost 3 weeks? I was sick and burnt out for most of the time I was writing it, but it was almost a compulsion. I had the idea and I just HAD to write it. No outline, just vibes and Steve Harrington in a cheerleading uniform! I took it down for a while because I was turning it into something else, but then had a change of heart and put it back up. And part of me is glad that I took it down for a moment because people love to be weird about the feminizing Steve’s character, and even though I was writing him as a cheerleader, I tried really hard to keep him earnestly himself, and in character.

What was the most difficult part of writing Anyway, It's About Old Friends?

Writing about San Francisco while being the most homesick I have ever been in my life. Also writing Eddie in those first few chapters as an asshole but not unlikable. I didn’t want him to be “fine” (because no one is fine in this universe, especially not in the beginning) but I also didn’t want him to do or say anything too bad. I think I got a handle on it pretty well.

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

In Faces Freedom With A Little Fear, the first scene in the hospital with Steve’s sister. She storms in, threatens federal agents, all for her brother. JJ Harrington you will always be famous!

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

Just my current WIPs! Anyway It’s About Old Friends; the When Harry Met Sally AU of my dreams. Hand on My Stupid Heart; the modern AU, where the UD exists but everyone has iPhones and Steve deals with his bisexuality!

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

Shout out to my boys! Kkpwnall, judasofsuburbia, figthefruitfaeth, gideoncharov, cheatghost, fastcardotmp3, snowangeldotmp3 you guys rule and they’re all so talented!!!! Thank you to whoever nominated me! I feel the love and give it back to you tenfold!!!!!!

Thank you to our author, @fragilecapric0rnn, and our nominator, @cheatghost! See more of fragilecapric0rn's works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[eijiroukiriot]

Maya did you hear? That last fanart you reblogged makes references to some panels of the chapter 431 of mha. Apparently bkg and kiri are still good friends in the future, seeing him having shotgun and eating in bkg's car?(He is so pretty too <3 my baby's face card and big lashes never declained hell yeah) they are besties :') knew they were hanging out and doing their thing "behind cameras" im so happy for that that's all i wanted at this point.

Gonna miss the kids man mid ass shounen manga but the characters are so dear to me still, hope things are going good for you take care.

HELLO!!! i'm back from months of silence on this blog!!! thank you for the message, i hope you're doing well! i live in shock and awe that krbk's deep, inexplicable friendship was confirmed all the way up to the end of the end!!

i somehow managed to delete twitter JUST before leaks hit but was still using other social media for another day or so, which is how i reblogged that art not knowing it was based in canon at all!! i even remember thinking "aw i'm happy pa/unchsalazar comes back to krbk every now and again". back in august i was underwhelmed w how cramped the original/"true" ending was, so i was really enthusiastic abt an epilogue that could give the characters (especially izuku) a little more time to speak. however in noooooooo way did i expect any sort of krbk interactions, let aloooone to the extent that we got!!

my own personal krbk anniversary (january 15th!!) came around this year for the 7th time - i have always been mega mega deep into krbk but this chapter really threw me for a loop. hopefully this stays in my krbk tumblr containment chamber but i think realistically this is the most krbk ending we could've gotten so in my heart i kind of see them as supported by canon. and if that sounds far fetched then let's get into the question of what is krbk anyways? an anime ship? a "bond between equals"? a strong friendship between two boys that, no matter how far their stories converge, always gets circled back to? i think honestly the gray area of them having a really admirable friendship that also makes you think "if they're just friends then what the fuck is going on" has always been part of why i like them so much and what is more "what the fuck is going on" than bakugou using the kanji from kirishima's hero name in his own hero title, despite all language norms and for no feasible reason. their weird friendship grew up with them. i love them.

i agree that lol i am going to miss the distinct lovable flavor of mid that bnha provided - that really hit me in the chapter where deku finds uraraka on the cliff and calls her his hero, then the entire class finds and joins them. it's equally odd and pleasant imo that bnha has been winding down as i've been preparing to leave japan. i feel really lucky to have been here for most of the wind down and to have gotten to buy its very last chapter in jump and visited a lot of the victory-lap events - on that note here's a picture of when i got to take krbk to the tokyo tower collab:

(the tokyo tower collab is the source of this character art and alongside lots of merch and collab drinks the main event was a "mystery game" where you solve a packed of puzzles using clues on the character standees scattered around the tower. i found it totally delightful and also really challenging at times - i partnered up with another foreigner girl and we muscled through the final stage together and still needed the help of a verrrry kind staff woman to complete it)

...and i'm going to try to make it to as many events as i can before my time is through!! next weekend i'm attending my first doujinshi market!! and a lot of krbk artists i've known for a long time are gonna be there!! in that same weekend i also want to check off the tokyo skytree collab. it's funny because i was never interested at all in going to tokyo tower or skytree but then randomly because of bnha i'll be knocking them both out in the span of 2 months. lol. i'm also really excited to go to the final art exhibition and will report back on if bakugou "gets too shy to talk about kirishima" in the audio narration this time around

that ended up mostly being about me and my life but seriously thank you for the message!! i hope you're doing so well!! i really love this revived era of krbk the epilogue has thrown us into and i wish a very prosperous february of krbk to all of y'all with all the art and fics people have so lovingly been posting. as of this afternoon i'm done with my grad school apps so now i can tackle the wips i've had sitting in my drive since this summer!! and hopefully be back to talk to y'all soon!!! if anyone is still reading i'd love to know what you've been up to and what krbks thoughts have been on your mind. and other than that i really do hope you have a nice day!

[thesaintofpatience]

🔥!!

🔥- Name a crackship, now convince me why it would work!

In all honesty the problem (?) with TLT and this question is that it's so easy to find justifications for nearly all ships. As Archimedes never said, 'give me a situation big enough and I'll make those blorbos kiss'

I mean, whatever it is, it can't be one of the Lyctors - God's duplicitous sluts will get it on with anyone, in any permutation, given enough time and 10,000 years of emotional fuckery to draw from. There's some absolutely killer fics out there pairing various lyctors with Palamedes, and they all slap.

So, leaving out the Lyctors (much as I adore them) gives us this rather darling random selector as below, non-exhaustive but I think I hit the main beats:

Putting in a break here because this gets long:

Spin 1 gave me Ianthe and Alecto which would seem to be ill-fated given that (1) Alecto's out to kill God, which Ianthe doesn't want (yet) and (2) Their first meeting was a literal slap in the face to Ianthe, which may not be a deal-breaker but certainly wouldn't help

But if we wind canon back a tad and give ourselves a world in which John didn't imprison Alecto on the Ninth, the Mithraeum set-up looks a little different. Here's Ianthe confronted with the same power dynamics we see in HtN, albeit with the addiiton of one extra who:

Is God's undisputed favourite

Scares the shit out of the other Lyctors (what a power play!)

Exists as a very literal manifestation of Resurrection magic, Ianthe's chosen topic of interest.

Ianthe can't lie to Alecto - nobody can - and she's not going to win her over with kindness and good graces, but she's not above using vulnerability to her own ends and Alecto (six foot, blonde, quite possibly bears more than a passing resemblance to Coronabeth) might find herself confronted with somebody who very honestly and earnestly wants to spend time with her and get to know more about her, even if she isn't necessarily being honest about why that is. Meanwhile, Alecto - who has spent the last 10,000 years on a spaceship with only John and the other Lyctors for company - is lonely. And here's somebody new, and bizarre, and potentially interesting. At the very least they might chat. Alecto 'this is how meat loves meat' the First might find herself quite comforted by someone who's all too willing to lean into brutality and take everything at face value if that's what's required of her.

(Where's Harrow in this AU? Good question - not only does Gideon not exist in an AU where Dios Apate never occurred, it's quite possible that neither does the Ninth House; we know it was never supposed to, and whatever it is, it doesn't have the theological weight of the Tomb behind it, which diminishes its already-shaky claim to status. Either Harrow doesn't exist at all, or she does, but she wasn't invited as a scion to Canaan House with the rest)

I'm just saying, I could see it.

Anyway, just to labour the point further:

Spin 2 gave me Palamedes and Wake which I grant you is significantly more tricky but let me give it the old college try:

Okay, so first we have to concoct a situation in which Palamedes and Wake would ever get to meet, which is somewhat hampered by the fact that she died when he was two years old. But we don't let a little thing like death stop us in the necromancy books, do we? There are options with regard to revenants (e.g Palamedes Ascends to Lyctorhood and meets Wake-in-Cytherea - what a confusing interaction that would be for the poor fellow) but I'll constrain myself to actual living Wake for the thought exercise.

Option 1: Taking the above AU for sheer convenience, if the Tomb is never sealed and Dios Apate never occurs, Wake doesn't die on the Ninth. She's alive (wahey!) and therefore free to meet the Master Warden at a later date.

Option 2: Wake does crash on the Ninth but survives and makes good her escape, living to fight another day

Option 3: Wake does crash on the Ninth, survives and is taken prisoner, kept on Ninth for a brief period before being presumably picked up and taken away by the Cohort (from where she can escape, be murdered by them, hostage exchange, indoctrination, all manner of options)

In either options 1 or 2 we have the option of introducing Wake at Canaan House as one of the BOE operatives working with Cytherea intending to pick over the rubble of the various dead Lyctors, only slightly inconvenienced by the fact that (1) Wake wants Palamedes dead and (2) even if she didn't, he rather unhelpfully kills himself

So instead, let's do a necro-cav roleswap because frankly I love them and examine cavalier Palamedes Sextus. Still immensely smart, still writing letters to Dulcinea, still inseparable from Camilla Hect. Could Camilla Hect be the Master Warden? Arguably. Could Palamedes Sextus be a cavalier primary? Alas, I doubt it - I can imagine a world in which he doesn't have necromantic aptitude, but not one in which he has physical coordination. In this AU he probably ends up on Sixth forever (in data) except that he's still writing to Dulcinea, concertedly studying non-medical necromancy and writing increasingly impassioned papers about how 'necromancy for everything makes one lazy' and shouldn't we all be thinking a little less about animaphilia and a little more about basic curative practices (and can we please stop stabbing ourselves with implements that haven't been appropriately sterilised, how we haven't all died of sepsis by now is God's own mystery) -

And he starts to make a name for himself, and draw a reputation, because if Palamedes Sextus is anything it's chronically unable to shut up. Which is to say, you've been headhunted and it's off to the Cohort with you, chum. Non-necromantic medics are a rarity, but very useful for thanergetically-depleted environments where it's inconvenient to start killing off the population just to heal your cav's broken ribs. Now we have a Cohort Palamedes (under significant duress), separated from Camilla (heartbreaking, sorry) and Dulcinea (likewise) operating in the field primarily in environments which are inhospitable to necromancers - thalergenic planets, the outskirts of Empire - and therefore able to potentially run into BOE. Now we're talking!

From here, options. Hostage situation? Palamedes gets captured by BOE and talked around to the evils of empire as we see in As Yet Unsent. More likely, operating as a Cohort medic out on the fringes and in the thick of the action, I think we might start to see Palamedes doing this of his own volition - and in a situation in which he finds himself with a room full of people who need healing, he's not going to give much of a fuck who is Cohort and who is BOE, he's far more concerned with who is dead and who is instead merely dying and therefore somebody he can help.

Anyway, one engineers a meeting between Palamedes (cocky, jaded, I think significantly spikier from a) not being a necromancer b) separated from his loved ones c) generally fucked off by the crushing reality of imperialism and war) and Wake (landmine person, takes no shit). Necromancer Palamedes and Wake are a non-starter, but as a cavalier - and a medic, no less - he's a useful tool for her. They'd fight like cats in a bag but I think he'd be impressed by her, and she might be amused by him. He bickers and argues and generally makes himself a nuisance. She's a firebrand leader with an absolute singleminded focus. I can definitely see charged moments over wounds and bandages, that's all I'm saying.

Look, am I saying that I'm going to start shipping Ianthe/Alecto or Wake/Palamedes anytime soon - probably not. But !! Every time I see a 'crackship' or something totally new where someone's figured out a way to get different bozos into the same get-along t-shirt, an angel gets its wings. Absolutely no offence to all the people out there writing modern (frequently college) AU griddlehark but nothing thrills me more than seeing a ship tag and having to do a double take because ??? who put them in the same room?

I don't know if that answered your question at all actually but thank you for asking it ilu aust <3

[spaceorphan18]

14 years since Never Been Kissed aired. Did you watch it live? Where were you? Did you think it would be the start of something major - one of your favorite ever ships?

Ohh, interesting question!

It's kind of funny to try to remember details of something that did happen nearly fifteen years ago. the tl:dr version of how I started watching Glee was that I wasn't in a great place in Mar of 2010, and a friend of mine had given me the DVD of Glee S1 Part 1 (because that's a thing that happened back then.

And I watched it and I was, meh, it was fine. I mean, DSB gave me literal chills. But I didn't really connect with any of the characters (and omg did I find Terri and Ken annoying). And it's funny, Kurt I had a hard time with -- not at all because of the gay thing, but because his crush on Finn hit a little too close to home and I was still a little sensitive about how I was during high school.

Anyway, the same friend said we should start watching the show together - so I started going over to watch it with her. We watched the rest of Season 1 together. And maybe the first half of Season 2? I definitely watched the first four-ish episodes with her. I think (?) I must have watched NBK with her.

The ONLY thing I remember from my first time watching was the forced kiss between Kurt and Karofsky. It was THAT shocking. Like, WHOA what is happening???

The only real thing I remember about Blaine was that my friend had told me that Kurt was supposed to be getting a boyfriend, and we all wondered if it was going to be Sam (because Duets did give that tiny-ish set-up). And when Blaine showed up, it was one of those - oh, is it this dude? type things.

I did not like Season 2 when it was first airing, Nonny. I'll be honest with you about it. The thing I've since learned about RM and his shows, he often fills them with a lot of unlikable characters who are often ridiculously dramatic. And it just wasn't my thing. But also remember, the show focused hard on Rachel, Finn, Quinn, Puck, Sue, and Will (and Emma). Like -- not my favorite characters. At all.

It's one reason I appreciate the later seasons, because characters I like got more focus, and it just became super weird and super queer and that's just more to my taste.

But anyway -- I kind of only watched sporadically after the first few weeks. I caught Silly Love Songs - because I remember thinking after Kurt and Blaine have their When Harry Met Sally convo, oh yeah, they'll get these two together.

I have zero memory of watching Original Song for the first time. Which I just have, because I knew Klaine was together after that point. But I did miss most of the second half of Season 2.

No, I had zero idea I'd love Klaine as hard as I did (do). I can tell you I remember the exact moment I fell in love with Klaine, though. I decided to catch up on Season 3 because I missed the first half (and hilariously - I was actually enjoying Season 3 more than Season 2 at the time, wild right?) and it was The First Time, and it was the auditorium scene, and it was this moment.

And really, just Kurt saying -- I'm just a silly romantic, and Blaine saying it wasn't silly, and just kissing him. And, my god nonny, it made my cold, dead heart come alive. It took my breath away.

And then, I mean, I rewatched the full series again, and really got into the Klaine of it, and got into fandom, and as much as fandom was a headache -- and my god it was a headache -- I think that's why I stayed with Glee for so long? It was something to have fun with and explore and write about and talk to people about and there was the insanity of week to week, and it was wild - I mean really wild, but it's what made the show fun. Because, I mean, I love the show - but it's a mess.

And I'm constantly amazed new people come in for it, because sometimes it feels like there's a -- you had to be there -- to get it, lol.

But, I mean, did I think I'd be here, fifteen years later, still talking about how it impacted me? Not even a little bit. :)