#at least text is okay bc i get to discuss with a bunch of people the best fiber supplements

[jadehorror]

im p sure i forgot how to actually talk to other people in anything other than a polite, distant conversation lmao

[whomst-art-thou-whomst-whomst]

Texts from The Lost Tomb, part 3

I didn’t mean for this to stray into angst but like the lack of updates with Li Cu in LTR?? I had to do it to em.

Wushanju Crew Chat, 11:05pm

Li Cu: what’s up losers I’m outside

Li Cu: someone come on and open the damn door

Wang Meng: Language:(

Li Cu: fine, someone come on and open the damn door please

Snake Eyes Chat, 7:00am

Wu Xie: hey are you awake? Sorry I missed you coming in:) was finishing up some work. How was the end of your first semester? Did that geology paper go well? Did the food budget work out or do you need some extra money next semester?

Li Cu: yeah about your work

Li Cu: heard a little rumor

Li Cu: about you going through some stuff during ur recent trip

Li Cu: some stuff you maybe forgot to mention

Li Cu: and you told me we gotta check in with stuff, so this is me checking in, okay

Wu Xie: oh? What stuff?

Li Cu: idk just like

Li Cu: THE STUFF WITH YOU ALMOST FUCKING DYING FOR FUCKING MONTHS AND THE WAREHOUSE SHIT AND ERJING AND PEOPLE HURT YOU AND WHAT THE FUCK IS A THUNDER CITY AND NOONE FUCKING CALLED ME ABT THOSE PARTS ONCE

Wu Xie: oh. That stuff.

Li Cu: yeah asshat I’m in the kitchen whenever you’re ready to explain your fucking bullshit. Also you’re out of milk wtf how am I supposed to make breakfast here

Main Chat, 11:14am

Wu Xie: okay so it’s possible I fucked up a little bit.

Wang Pangzi: THERES JUST SO MUCH YOU COULD BE REFERRING TO I DONT KNOW WHERE TO START

Zhang Qiling: What’s wrong?

Honorary Wu Chat, 11:30am

Wang Pangzi: KID IM SO SORRY THAT PUNK IS A TRAINWRECK BUT YOU KNEW THAT

Wang Meng: Welcome home, Li Cu <3 not much has changed, ultimately.

Wang Pangzi: IT DIDNT EVEN OCCUR TO ME THAT HE WOULDNT TELL YOU EVERYTHING ABOUT IT ONCE THE REST OF US FIGURED IT OUT

WAIT HOW DID YOU FIND OUT

Li Cu: it’s okay. not your fault, uncle. Doesn’t matter how I found out. Wait wait hold on what do you mean “the rest of us figured it out” who figured it out

Wang Pangzi: SAY HELLO LIU SANG

Liu Sang: …hello.

Wang Pangzi: SAY MORE THAN THAT.

Liu Sang: uh…so you’re Wu Xie’s protégé, huh?

Li Cu: oh well howdy there homewrecker

Liu Sang: Excuse me??

Zhang Qiling: I think someone on the roof is calling me and I should go find out.

Wang Meng: I would also very much like to be removed from this conversation.

Wang Pangzi: AHAHAHAHA KIDDO IVE MISSED YOU

Li Cu: all I’m saying is aren’t you the little creep who’s obsessed with Xiao Ge

Liu Sang: ???

Zhang Qiling: Li Cu is referring to a brief period of irrational thought on Wu Xie’s part, where he mistakenly believed you to be a threat to our relationship.

Liu Sang: what do you mean a threat??

Wang Pangzi: WHAT DO YOU MEAN TIANZHEN HAD “A BRIEF PERIOD OF IRRATIONAL THOUGHT”

YOUVE MET YOUR HUSBAND RIGHT

Wang Meng: can you please take me off this chat.

Liu Sang: Wait, so Wu Xie told you about me, but…reading between the lines, he didn’t mention the cancer or anything bad that happened? Oh yikes.

Li Cu: don’t change the subject “Liu Sang”

if that is your real name

Like yeah you’re right abt it but still

just saying

heard you got good ears but I’ve got snake powers

kinda

so like no more funny business okay you superhearing harlot

Wang Meng: LANGUAGE, LI CU. IN THIS HOUSE WE SHOW GOOD MANNERS.

Wang Pangzi: LMAO OH DO WE NOW

Zhang Qiling: Li Cu, this is all unnecessary and childish. Please apologize.

Li Cu: you say that now bruh but apparently you weren’t complaining when he was all “idol this” and “idol that”

oh and hey Wang Meng while we’re here can I show you my business class grade report later bc Wu Xie is all “what matters is that you learned and enjoyed the experience” blah blah all eat pray love you know how he gets and I want to actually discuss areas to improve so that when I take over this joint I do better than Wu Xie? Tho that shouldnt be hard lol

Wang Meng: hurtful but accurate. I’ll bring my best red pen:)

Liu Sang: oh my god. I’m too jetlagged to keep up with any of this.

Wang Pangzi: BEST. DAY. EVER. IM SCREENSHOTTING THIS FOR HEI XIAZI.

Not A Homewrecker Chat, 11:52am

Liu Sang: Okay, we started off on the wrong foot.

Li Cu: I agree let’s start over

Start with how your little prank game almost got ppl killed

Liu Sang: And I seriously regret that. But we moved past that.

Wow, he seriously skipped over so much bullshit but didn’t skimp on mine, huh.

Li Cu: AHA so you ADMIT IT

Liu Sang: I’d like to think I’ve grown since then. That I’ve come to see Xiao Ge as a person and mentor, rather than an idol. I count Pangzi and Wu Xie as my close friends. I’m going to be staying here with them right now, I hope you can be okay with that.

Li Cu: see in my head you were going to be a lot less mature about it and I had a bunch of great follow-up insults planned

Liu Sang: I figured. I’d like us to be friends, though. Or at least not enemies.

Li Cu: okay but only bc you don’t know me yet so you won’t judge too much for this and I need to get this out to somebody I’ve been thinking about it for hours and my friends are still in finals and I’m stressing a little bit maybe

Liu Sang: ?

Li Cu: I yelled at dad

*Wu Xie sorry autocorrect

Liu Sang: …uh huh.

Li Cu: I yelled at him earlier. for keeping all that stuff from me. He started crying

Liu Sang: Wu Xie has been pretty emotional since we got back. Not necessarily your fault.

Li Cu: I made him cry right there at the kitchen sink and it felt like maybe the worst thing I’ve ever done

Snake venom and stabbings, no tears

Me saying I wouldn’t have gone to his funeral, all tears

Which I know was shitty to say but I was really mad

Liu Sang: If it’s any consolation, I think Wu Xie can understand the concept of being led by his emotions to make bad decisions…better than most people.

Li Cu: Xiao Ge came in then and looked weird

Like weirder than usual

Like he didn’t know which of us to be more mad at

Liu Sang: A common problem for the iron triangle, I understand.

Li Cu: I just ran out I didn’t have words right then and I feel stupid

but whenever they come back from their walk I’m gonna say sorry and stuff bc i could’ve come home to his funeral and I’m mad about it but also like. I could have come home to his funeral. I can get mean when I’m in a freakout mood. It’s not like I was scared or anything at all I don’t get scared really anymore ever but just like. Freaked out.

Liu Sang: He’s probably going to say sorry, too.

Li Cu: sorry I called you a homewrecker. Didn’t mean to slut-shame either

Liu Sang: I admit that after the initial shock, it was pretty funny. Super hearing harlot, it should be on my business card;)

Li Cu: this situation with Wu Xie is weird but kinda good ya know. And I have these freakouts sometimes that something maybe bad could happen to this situation. So consider this a shovel talk. But like, also not a shovel talk at the same time.

also I appreciate you saving his life and whatnot

Liu Sang: Noted. Now. Coffee?

Li Cu: sounds sick.

Be in the kitchen in 10. You can pick out what we watch for the household tv show tonight. no way is Wu Xie choosing some dry documentary about gravestone rubbings again. Pangzi just watches real housewives reruns and Xiao Ge won’t watch tv after he caught the last half hour of A Walk To Remember. Also i need my phone now to send some $ to Hei Xiazi since I owe him for…providing some intel

Liu Sang: Not even surprised.

[kekoma]

— hanamaki as your boyfriend.

hands belong in pockets, not in your pants unless you’re him. hope you enjoy.

hanamaki hours has now entered the chambers.

such an amazing man. would do many things for him, but you didn’t come here to know that.

you came here to see how life is like dating hiro, yeah? so let’s get into.

how you two ended up dating isn’t munch of a mystery.

makki  had s personality that attracts all kind of people without even trying so it wasn’t a surprise when he had been able to lure you in as well.

as for when he realized that he actually liked you was when mattsun had pointed out how much he spoke you to him. 

and he also picked up the fact that he started flirting with you more than before too yet it no longer had that playful feel around it— hiro was serious about wooing you over.

pretty sure he was the one to make the move on you. he isn’t someone that is shy so when he asked you if you would go to the amusement park with him— that’s when he became a bolder.

“how are you enjoying our date so far?”

“it’s actually amazing~ can we... huh? wait... our date?”

“well yeah. this is our first official date. heh i suppose this is my chance to confess to you now.”

everything went smoothly. he was quite confident that you’ll say yes since makki made time to learn everything about you and paid close attention to any and every small behavior along side gestures you revealed.

not much to really go on about so i’ll hop right into the actual stuff.

i’ve mentioned it before with issei so it’s only right i’ll mention it here too since takahiro gives off the same energy.

you two are DEFINITELY the kind of couple who jokes around about breaking up over the strangest things and it’ll be at random times too.

“my guy... who cuts your hair?”

“huh? what are you talking about cutie?”

“i can’t help but realize that your hair reminds me of an upside skate ramp. who are you paying because baby...”

“so i see you woke up and choose violence today... you know, i didn’t come to get roasted. i came here to love you y/n and this is what i get?”

“hold up! stay right there. i’m gonna go find my tech deck and do a few tricks.”

“i- yeah let’s break up. my lawyers will call yours and i’m taking the kids too. can’t believe i’m bullied right now.”

vv dramatic but it doesn’t bother you since you go along with his ways.

being serious? is considered rare within the relationship.

however, when it does occur then hiro can be deapan.

which i will take the time to discuss arguments with him briefly.

again, it’s something rare since the relationship is mainly playful and uplifting each other.

yet when you two get pretty heated, it can go two (2) ways.

a) he’ll opt for the silent treatment since he could say some really foul things that could possibly hurt you to the max and he doesn’t want to hurt your feelings. may even go as far to put a little more distance between you two so he can calm down and approach you in a better manner.

b) actually voices how he feels about towards the situation at hand and will probably sound extremely venomous when doing so. his main goal when speaking is getting his point across if you dismissed it and/or made it seem like he’s in the wrong.

up to you on how you would like to view his way of approaching arguments though.

but if you want to make it up to him then give makki space for a while before apologizing. also make sure the apology is honest because HE WILL know if you’re lying and if he catches you then it’s back to square one...

with that out the way, let’s return.

DEFINITELY is an supportive boyfriend that likes helping you grow as a person and reach your goals. since you do the same for him, it’s only fair plus he likes seeing the smile on your face once something is accomplished.

although he already has you— makki will still flirt with you. it’s just more cheesier.

“damn babe. is your father a priest because i’m feeling blessed when i’m with you.”

“shut up before i eat your food.”

“ooh~ that’s hot. guess your dad isn’t one. perhaps i’m dancing with the devil because you’re hot as hell.”

“... takahiro. sir please. stop.”

“okay okay but i think you should see this.” proceeds to shove his phone in your face, the front camera on to reveal you on the screen, “this is the prettiest person i’ve ever met.”

“you’re lucky you’re cute and that i love you.”

definitely does the hand in his pants thing in your house and in his (ofc).

even if they have pockets or you call him out for it, it’s just an automatic for him so you gotta accept it.

besides that, if you’re someone that LOVES to bake or occasionally bakes— best believe he’s the first to taste it all.

extra points to you if you make cream puffs.

is most definitely the kind of boyfriend who invest in matching items. clothing, jewelry, phone case, and etc. he finds the concept cute to be honest.

if you’re lucky enough, he’ll let you buy matching hair clips (something cute like Sanrio, fruits, animals or etc.) and lets you put them in his hair.

won’t compain if it seems extremely girly/cutesy. instead makki will take a bunch of pictures and post a few on his sns about how you two are matching.

also loves to make it known he has the most divine girlfriend in the world. dude is proud to be your boyfriend so ofc he’s gonna show off.

nicknames? yeah yeah nicknames real quick.

top ones for you are 🥁🥁 babe/baby, beautiful, cutie and lover girl occasionally makes it’s way around.

something a little extra: hiro will even call you his doll sometimes but its only brought up at random times. 

moving onto pda since it’ll also be a bit brief.

in love with PDA when it comes to you. 

although he tones it down when you two are in public so of course you get the basics, but something he’ll always do is wrap his arm around you or constantly interlock his fingers with both combined hands on his thigh.

as for private, it’s not as filtered. would say he’s a bit more touchy but i must advise... don’t keep your back turned to him for long because makki will use the opportunity to either smack or grab your ass while saying “i like your cut g.”

... can’t convince me he doesn’t do that. rip y/n’s ass.

last but not least— dates!

don’t think hanamaki is picky about what kind of dates you two go on.

but most dates are chaotic in a way. will deadass text you in the middle of the night or show up to your place be like “wanna film dance vids in a parking lot? or like walk around and eat good street food.” and you just gotta go with it.

however, when they aren’t that way or involving outside then some dates consist of staying indoors. probably baking together, watching a bunch of movies, doing his makeup and etc.

overall: 10/10

best relationship with constant fun <3 we love it here.

and that’s where i end this bc makki do be breaking my brain.

© all content belongs to kekoma 2020. do not repost, modify or translate.

[peculiarsasha]

So. About a year ago, I've made a list of my (Possibly Too High) Expectations towards relationships, after being single for the better part of 5years.

Now, I've been in a relationship again for almost half a year, and rediscovered my list - so let's see if I stayed true to myself I guess

"I'm very open & upfront about my asexuality. To even consider going out with someone, I need them to understand what that means.

In my personal case, I'm a sex-averse asexual and sexual interaction is off the table."

-> So. To be fair, my (allo) partner was very much ready to accept that. They respected my personal boundaries without questioning them - which in the end lead to me becoming more of a indifferent ace than an averse one - I still have approximately zero libido, but I have come to enjoy indulging ny partner. Probably because they are not pushy at all, and always accept my no without question if and when it comes up.

"I'm very careful about my phone number as well as meeting people in person. Call me paranoid, but I don't give out my number after chatting once, and I don't meet with strangers unless I've known them for at least a few weeks. If a potential partner decides to get pushy, I feel eveb more justified in my strict boundaries."

-> Hasn't really been an issue, bc I've known my partner for years before we started dating. They were very sweet about asking for my number anyway, and only did quite a while into knowing each other. I apprechiated that a lot.

"I'm demibiromantic, so there's very little chance I'll fall for someone I don't really know well. If a potential partner tries to push for a quick decision on whether or not I want to go steady, the answer will be no."

-> Again, not much of an issue, because we've known each other for years. But either way, when I asked them for more time once we became closer, they were 100% accepting and didn't push.

"I do not want to marry, nor do I want kids. No discussions."

-> Talked about that (casually) early on. 100% agree on the no-kids-thing. My partner accepts that I have no intention to marry, though they'd be open to it if I ever change my mind - which imo is sweet af.

"I have a bunch of weird, odd & unusual hobbies and interests, as well as a tendency to rant, ramble & philosophize about them. Mutual interest would be optimal, or at least the ability to indulge me without judgement. [...]" (Went into detail which isn't necessary here)

-> They don't judge my hobbies & interest, andthey themself share some, and do very much indulge me in discussions about mine (as well as theirs) whenever we feel like it. They may not get everything I'm on about, but they very much try to accept and learn about it (Which again is the sweetest thing imo)

"I need alone time. I enjoy texting and hanging out, but I'm a severe introvert and even people I care for deeply will eventually drain my energy."

-> I have never met anyone as respecting and understanding of this before. Neither of us feels the need to talk everyday. I've recently gone silent for over a week, and while they were sad about it, they respected it without question. Neither of us feels any need to be in constant contact - we trust each other fully.

"While I like going out every once in a while, I don't enjoy parties a lot. [...] I would prefer a partner who has similar views about this [...]"

-> Cut out a lot of unnecessary detail here, because my partner and I are pretty much the same in this regard, and it's perfect. We go out occasionally, but neither of us feels any need to act like an extrovert.

"I have mental health issues. I need a potential partner who doesn't only accept this, but also knows how to support me when things get bad."

-> This one is a little difficult. My partner doesn't have much experience with mental health issues, and they have managed to accidentally trigger me once. But. They try their very best to learn about my issues, be supportive and understanding, and go out of their way to make sure I am okay. I think they'll eventually get there.

"I'm severely awkward, especially with people I don't know well or don't feel comfortable around. It hardly shows through texting because I feel more in control."

-> Related to the previous point, my partner is still figuring out what that includes exactly. But we've known each other for a while, and I'm pretty comfy around them with most things, and they are very supportive whenever they notice I struggle with social interactions.

"If I don't know someone well, I don't want to he touched. If I feel comfortable, I'll become intensely cuddly."

-> Turns out, we're the same in that regard. I love it.

"I am deeply suspicious about random gifts, and I will understand them as an attempt to buy my affection."

-> No random gifts so far (which I'm thankful for), though they do somewhat insist on paying for things - the reason mainly being that they have a higher income than me. I'm okay with it so far, because they have shown no sign of expecting any payback for it.

So, imo, things are going pretty well!

It's a bit of a surprise, after meeting a lot of folks online who couldn't care less about my boundaries, and I thoroughly enjoy my relationship!

Hope it's not just seeing everything through rose-colored glasses, but for now I'm optimistic!

[firelord-frowny]

also i haven’t talked about it on here much just bc the situation was fucking embarrassing for me, but like. 

Basically, I tell this dude straight up that there is 0 chance of me even considering staying even Just Friends with him as long as he’s married, bc he already demonstrated that he’s someone who’s capable of infidelity, and I’m not about to be anywhere near that shit. So, I was basically like: If you find yourself single at some point, feel free to hit me up, but otherwise I’m not touching this shit with a 2.5 million lightyear long pole. 

THEN he texts me a few days later with a bunch of very convenient bullshit about how he ~talked things over~ with his wife and ~she confessed that she has feelings for someone else, too~ and ~we’ve decided to separate and prepare to start the divorce process.~ 

I’m like: Ok, cool, good luck with that. you know how to contact me when that’s all said and done, bye! 

and THEN he’s like, “oh, also, we’ve both agreed it’s okay if we see other people.” 

So i’m like!!! “That’s nice. I’m still not going to have a relationship with you.” 

And like... every time I drew a line, he’d come up with some lie that would conveniently provide a bridge over that line. So I’d replace that line with a NEW line, and here comes ANOTHER lie to try to get around it. At this time I didn’t know they were lies bc I was stoopid enough to believe him, but even though I did think he was telling the truth, I still held my ground that I wasn’t going to discuss a ~relationship~ with someone who’s married, point blank period. 

then MCR announces their world tour, and i bought two tickets. and this lil asshole really assumed that i was going to go with him LMFAOOOOO he’s like ~i can’t wait, we’re gonna have so much fun~ i’m like!!! “who’s we? you’re not invited.” 

and he’s all *surprised pikachu* 

i’m like! if you buy your own ticket and you see me there, feel free to wave at me before going on about your business. 

By this time, most of the ~official~ tickets were sold out, and additional tickets could only be purchased at HELLA higher rates from 2nd party retailers. so he’s like, “well, can i buy your second ticket?” and i’m like! No! You can’t! 

AND THEN literally just hours later, he texts me again like, “oh, we’ve finally started the divorce process, we’re filling out the paperwork.” 

I’m like, good for you, I guess! 

AND THEN HE’S LIKE “so can i buy your ticket now?” 

AND I’M LIKE!!! sure, when you’re fucking single!!! and not a second sooner! now stop asking! 

and then it was a few days after this that i discover that he’d actually had 0 conversations with his wife about aaaAAANY of this, and like??? i’m SO glad i at least had the common sense to refuse to have or even discuss ~relations~ with him even if it had been true that they were both okay with seeing other people. I mean, I see now that it was fucking stupid of me to even communicate with him at all, and that I should have just blocked his number and his social media from the jump, but like. Wow. 

I look back on it and just see these blatant efforts he made to circumvent or bypass my boundaries. All these efforts to tell me whatever he thought I needed to hear that would allow him to get what he wanted out of me. 

And like. Because I’m totally at peace with myself and my singleness, it’s literally Not Possible for me to be heartbroken anymore lmao so like, I was not devastated at all by this situation. I was fucking annoyed, and I was super disappointed and offended that somebody who used to be one of my only genuine friends back in high school would turn around and try to play me (and his fucking wife!!!) like that, but like. I so tremendously hate the fact that he really thought that shit would work on me. Like he really thought he was soooo important to me that I’d compromise my values over him. Ew.

[sugarandspice-games]

I guess this is becoming a trend... I’m popping in before the actual intro to clarify-- if the text is in italic, it is me (Sugar) talking and regular is Spice. Alright? Cool. And so--

So, one night I’m going through youtube and I come upon this one shitposty video about some random anime that I’ve never even heard of. After doing some research, I discover that it’s actually based on a dating sim that I’ve also never heard of. As a joke I was like ��Hey Sugar wanna watch this as a joke, it might be funny” and so we did. And uhm. Well.

Today we’re gonna be reviewing Brothers Conflict, aka Sweet Home Alabama 2: Electric Anime Boogaloo aka the anime that ruined our lives. [Again, disclaimer: neither Sugar nor I condone incest and/or pedophilia, two themes which are uh, very rampant in this anime which is why I cannot recommend it in good faith. It’s not good, don’t get me wrong. I can’t really say that I liked it even if watching it and ragging on it was kind of enjoyable, and I did get attached to some of the characters because that’s the kind of idiot I am. Also, we’re not shirking our duties to write I swear please don’t kill me--] Anyway, an obligatory SPOILER WARNING though this probably isn’t going in the main tag bc I do not want the fans to publicly stone me. Why are we reviewing this? Bc we need to talk about it somewhere. Though I say review lightly bc this... is really more of a critique.

ALSO we only watched the anime, idk if things are different in the game. There is no full english translation for the games and most of the LP channels have been copyright striked, so please don’t come at us for not knowing anything. I also know that otome games and dating sims don’t tend to translate well to anime, and I will be addressing this later.

So, dear god, where do I begin.

Where do we begin indeed? How about the fact that her name is Ema and I had to google to remember the heroine’s name? Also, she is seventeen.

Our plot, or well... what you COULD call a plot, I guess, if you REALLY wanted to give this anime that much credit, focuses on the aforementioned seventeen year old Hinata Ema, who has an absent father who apparently FOUND THE TIME TO FALL IN LOVE AND GET MARRIED BUT NEVER HAS A SECOND TO SPARE FOR HIS ONLY CHILD, RINTARO I SWEAR TO GOD I AM TAKING CUSTODY OF YOUR CHILD. HAND HER OVER-- Anyway. He’s getting married to a woman who has 13 sons (jesus christ ma’am have you ever heard of a condom?) and he decides to move her in with them because... I guess he has less braincells than I have balls, which is to say, zero. Hi, I’m trans.

So, Ema moves in with them... along with her talking grey squirrel, Juli. Juli is... interesting and by interesting, I mean-- ABSOLUTELY PUZZLING. He, apparently, has seen the majority of Ema’s life from babyhood to teenagerhood and can talk but is only understood by Ema (who he calls Chii) and Louis, the eighth son in the Asahina family. It is never explained why, or how Chii came across him or how in an episode, a single episode, he becomes human because why the hell not, I guess??? (Also, he is pretty. YES. I said it. Fight me.) [Quick Spice intervention, this squirrel can talk to people, transform into a human, enter dreams, and live way longer than a squirrel should since the average lifespan of a squirrel is like 6 years in the wild. Juli is apparently a god as none of this is EVER explained.]

And when she meets the Asahina family, it’s pretty much immediately chaos because these heterosexual (I guess? They look like a bunch of twinks to me but there goes anime trying to convince me that straight people are real and not a lie made up by Trump) men have NEVER and I mean NEVER known a woman in their entire lives, since they seem to want to bang their stepsister immediately. And most of them are GROWN ASS ADULTS. Only three of them are actually minors (though Iori is 18 and only one year older so I guess??? It’s okay??? But still weird) and one of them is a 13 year old who looks and acts like he’s 8.

Oh, and did I mention that out of these boys, only the adult triplets and the abusive asshole 16 year old get any kind of characterization AND character development? I mean, Subaru gets an “arc” if you can call it that, but really, they don’t give him much... personality. You could replace him with a cardboard cutout and it’d be the same. I feel bad for him (but not really because dude you are 20 and she is your sister, what the fuck--)

But if there’s anything good about this anime, it is the characters themselves. Several of the boys have redeeming qualities and interesting personalities and quirks, as well as interesting relationships and dynamics with each other. Yes, some of them are lacking in the plotline department while others may have decent plotlines and lack personality, and then some of them are just given absolutely nothing (COUGH Masaomi COUGH Ukyo COUGHCOUGHCOUGH Iori, and by the way, what the fuck is that game plotline bc I read the wiki since I wanted to know more about him. We don’t have time to unpack the mento illness luv. But you’re telling me they had all this meat to work with and they threw it in the trash and gave him nothing? What the hell?) And if anything, I feel as if the characters themselves are crippled by the plotline. If given a different story, perhaps, they may have room to shine, because a lot of them are compelling if not lovable (though some may not be... lovable. COUGHFuuto, at least not for me.) If you want to see our review on the characters, we’ll put out another post.

Iori... Iori has a hell of a plot in the game, according to the Wiki but I can’t blame the writers for not exploring all of it because whoa. It is dark and not in a good way. But back to the subject at hand... I agree with Spice. I do/did like quite a lot of the characters... provided the entire romantic plot is taken away but we will go into more of why the plot is problematic below. All I can really add is: There is a baby in this dumpster and canon has been taken out back to be shot like a lame horse.

This brings me to a point in which I would like to pause the character discussion and bring up a glaring flaw with this anime in general (aside from the... plot. Look, I’m not a huge fan of weird stepsibling stuff but I think that if you want to do something like that, there are ways to do it and ways not to do it. This was the way not to do it, which I’m getting to). The biggest thing that made this anime so uncomfortable was the imbalance of power dynamics. Why is the protagonist 17 when most of the love interests are 18 and older, and I mean much, much older? And she’s not any 17 year old... she’s a lonely, neglected girl who is starved for the love of a family. This makes her easily manipulated by the brothers, who clearly desire her for less than wholesome reasons, and that makes it skeevy. I’m not sure why there’s such a fetishization of nonconsent in media, as if it’s fine for as many men to lust after female protagonists as the writer desires BUT the woman can’t want a single one of them in return. It’s creepy, and quite frankly, I am very much over it. I also get that the age thing is probably a product of the protagonist of a teenager oriented dating sim not translating well to an anime (because really, all otome game MCs are meant to be a neat little pair of shoes for the player to imagine themselves in), but why are we fetishizing a teenager being groomed by adults anyway? Especially adults who have this much power over her to begin with? The power dynamics bring this plot from “Oh, this might be kinda trashy but it could be entertaining” to “This is extremely creepy and rapey and kind of a dumpster fire.”

This is also true. If we were to take age into consideration, Fuuto, Yusuke, and Iori would be the three candidates left for Chii. This is taking out the youngest as well, who is... thirteen, I think? But anyway, (I know I am probably going to get some hate for this but go for it), I am into stories that explore the stepsibling thing and it can make a good narrative-- but before everyone gets uppity: There is a line between FICTION and REALITY and I do not condone real life incest but a story is a story and there are ways to frame it that make it clear that it is not a romantic thing, or acceptable. This anime does not do that in it’s dynamics because some of the brothers do start off in that very firm caregiving, family role and it is a sharp turn into romance that makes you go, “?” or in Fuuto case, a blending that does lean into fetishization.

All in all I think the plot maybe could have been okay? I’m not saying it isn’t problematic, because we all know it is, who are we kidding? But I don’t think it’s wrong per se to explore family dynamics with romance and to understand where the line should be drawn, and maybe exploring the definition of family itself. I have seen fanfictions with similar tropes ask those questions and explore the concept beautifully without romanticizing or fetishizing incest and unhealthy power dynamics. It could have been good, and I get that perhaps I’m barking up the wrong tree by expecting mature themes in an anime based on an otome game, but it also could have been a lot less... creepy (I have used that word so much that it looks wrong now) even if it wasn’t the greatest thing ever. But again, what was I expecting? I watched this whole thing as a joke and ended up attached to the characters like a fool... That tends to be a trend here, and this is why we are so salty all the time. So anyway, stay tuned for our review of the characters! We may not cover all of them since some of them don’t really get anything, but we’ll cover what we found interesting.

[itsstickball]

I saw your prompt post so can u pls give us the father son Wymack and Andrew dynamic we deserve thank you hallelujah

Okay so I know you probably were expecting sth at a younger stage of life (and tbh, I might still write that, bc it’s good shit), but we’re four weeks into 20quarantine and I miss hockey. And you know what they do in hockey? Dad’s Trips.

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

Andrew’s watching some Netflix series about the drama between a bunch of exotic animal owners, alone in the dark of his apartment with an entire tub of ice cream resting on the pillow in his lap when the call comes through. He’s more invested in the ice cream than the drama, which came out the year prior. In fact, he’d avoided the show until now on the principle of annoying his family and was only watchin it now because he was tired of having to decode the references Neil made any time he posted a picture of Sir.  

He doesn’t bother to pause it or move to another room when he hits the “answer” icon on his phone.

“It’s a little late to be getting the mail, isn’t it?” He asked in lieu of a greeting. There was really only one reason for Wymack to be calling him.

“If anything, it’s early. This is yesterday’s mail.” Wymack grunted. “Speaking of which, shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

Andrew looked at the clock, and realized that yeah...that tracked. The red numbers blinked back 3:39am at him and he remembered Neil mentioning that the Foxes had a road game this week. Once he did the math, it was actually a little surprising Wymack hadn’t called an hour earlier.

“You called me.” He reminded the coach rather than comment on the rest of it.

There was a sigh from the other end of the line. “I had a hunch.” Wymack retorted. It was more like he had five years to put up with Andrew’s bullshit and Andrew four years of putting up with Neil and Kevin’s. Night practices made more than one lasting impact, it seemed.

“So you got it.” Andrew prompted, not asked. 

Wymack sighed again and there was the faint sound of shuffling papers.

“Yeah. I don’t have a fucking clue why, though.” 

“It’s pretty self explanatory.” Andrew retorted. “Assuming you can still read.”

“Reading is the only thing I need the glasses for, thank you very fucking much.” 

Andrew would be lying if he said the corner of his mouth didn’t twitch up at Wymack’s easy irritability. But this was his apartment and there was no one there to misunderstand it anyway.

“So what’s the problem?” He asked, taking a bite of ice cream while waiting for Wymack to fill the silence with his trepidations.

“Are you sure you want -”

“I gave them the address.” Andrew cut him off, letting Wymack fill in the space between his words. They both knew that he didn’t do or mean things halfway. Without an address, there wouldn’t have been an invitation at all - just like there hadn’t been the previous two years.

More silence, this time less interesting now that Andrew knew what useless emotions were hiding on the other side.

“Do you have any other plans?” He didn’t. Andrew had checked. Wymack’s grunt confirmed what he already knew. “Then let Wilds take over yelling at the delinquents for a weekend.”

“Okay, but Andrew -.”

“The dinner on friday is black tie. Try not to embarrass yourself.” He reminded his former coach and then promptly hung up before Wymack could so much as shout in indignation. 

Onscreen, a man with a truly horrendous mullet cussed out one of his rival gamekeepers.

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

Once a year, like many professional Exy Teams, the Spokane Sundogs hosted a special weekend trip for their players and their families - or, more specifically, their fathers. Andrew had scorned the idea of it when brought up by his last two teams - and not just because he had no biological guardian to invite.

This year, however, as the team gathered outside the arena, nearly ready to depart, he stood with mild anticipation. 

They were only waiting for one more addition before they boarded, with most of the players and their dad’s already conversing or posing for the team’s PR photographer. Andrew was standing slightly apart from the group, a quirk which thankfully they’d all come to accept about him. This time though, it was with more intention than just preserving his personal space.

“Ah!, finally.” The team’s defensive coach, Elliot Martin said, stepping over to show Andrew the text reading out that their last guest had arrived.

“Took him long enough.” Andrew grunted in reply, thankful that the coach didn’t press or make more noise about the issue. Martin was one of the few people intuitive enough to recognize the difference between Andrew’s silences and attention span. He also didn’t crowd any closer now that their exchange was over.

Just a few minutes later, Wymack’s form strode through the exterior door.

In truth, it was just a chance that his travel plans put him as the last arrival. Andrew felt no ill will or disgruntlement towards the coach for it, but he was undecided on how he felt about the matter as a whole. On the one hand, all of his teammates were currently distracted interacting with each other, but their attention would all be called together now that everyone was here. He doubted any of them expected to see someone standing next to him, and wasn’t looking forward to their speculation.

“Wymack.” He greeted, his voice characteristically monotone.

“Minyard.” The coach nodded and returned it in kind - although Andrew noted he sounded rather tired. That didn’t bode particularly well for someone he was going to have to travel with, but at least they wouldn’t be flying. Wymack didn’t try to step closer than necessary or make any physical greetings with him, which he was grateful for. 

Then, however, it was time to go and his position among the coaching staff - complete with his guest was made obvious. A round of quick murmurs went up from the small crowd, which Andrew ignored in favor of staring at their head coach as he gave their schedule. An assistant handed out paper forms of the itinerary and then they were being ushered onto the bus.

“Your teammates seem nice.” Wymack said, apropos of literally nothing, after they’d handed their luggage off to the equipment team.

Andrew grunted.

“Regret inviting me already?” Wymack tried again, this time with a bit of dry humor in his voice.

Andrew turned to look at him, a tiny spark in his eye. “Not at all.” Wymack’s eyebrows furrowed, so he elaborated. “This way, they can pester you with their questions instead of me.”

He pat Wymack once on the shoulder before disappearing into the bus. When he’d found his seat at the very back and chanced a glance out the window, he found Wymack swamped by other players and their dads just a few feet from the steps. He seemed to be handling the attention alright, but Andrew recognized the slight tension in his movements. It was as close to a deer in headlights as Wymack got.

“I hate you.” He said a few minutes later when the coaches got serious about everyone boarding the bus.

Andrew glanced over at where the older man was slumped into the seat next to him. His grin was feral and sharp. “See, you fit right into the family. You’ve already learned our main vocabulary.”

Wymack scowled at him, but there was no real heat to it. And if Andrew’s smile softened and quirked higher on one side, even as he pressed his lips together and turned to look outside - well, there was only one person alive who would call him on it and he was hundreds of miles away.

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

Forty hours later and they’re in the hotel room, getting ready for the fancy team dinner. Andrew was long resigned to having to share rooms with potentially obnoxious teammates for away games, so the change of pace that comes from sharing with Wymack is welcome. Living with him - even for just a few days, even in a cramped room - is familiar. Andrew spent too many nights quarantined with the man in college for it not to be.

There was no threat to anyone’s safety or sanity - aside from the fallout typically associated with overly friendly teammates, but they knew each other’s quirks. Andrew didn’t comment when Wymack woke up at 5:30 to brew an entire carafe of coffee - despite not having any engagements until 9:00. And Wymack didn’t question why he spent nearly the entirety of their afternoon free/rest time sitting on the desk by the window with a pint of ice cream just staring out at the cityscape below.

Andrew didn’t have to hedge or explain why he needed to shower first when it came time to get ready for the dinner. In fact, they skipped the discussion altogether. Both men simply glanced at the clock after the shitty made-for TV movie they’d been watching rolled to credits and Wymack said. “Let me know when you’re done.”

It was that simple.

Being away from the Foxes, from his family for so long, Andrew actually sat there stunned for a moment before Wymack turned back to look at him, prompting a grunt in reply. Seemingly satisfied, his former coach turned back to whatever he was doing with the charcoal suit he’d hung up in their shared closet space. Andrew allowed himself one more second of stillness before getting up and angrily grabbing his own pants and undershirt and locking himself in the bathroom

Behind him, he heard Wymack let out an amused huff, but no comment.

By the time he finished and they swapped rooms, the frustration of his startling realization had left Andrew. He still waited for Wymack to click the bathroom lock in place behind him before he moved to finish dressing and comb his hair into something acceptable. But then he had nearly half an hour to sit on the bed and think before his teammates and their fathers would fill up the fuzzy parts of his brain. 

He could use the time to analyse how he got to that point - how Wymack had gotten to that point. Andrew enjoyed living on his own, but it clearly wasn’t just Neil's company at PSU that had left a lasting mark on him. Thirty minutes was plenty of time to catalogue each of the things he’d gotten used to in college that he’d lost again as he moved from team to team each year in the pros…

 He flipped on the TV instead.

Wymack opened the door fifteen minutes later to Andrew staring blankly at an infomercial.

“I didn’t take Neil as the type to wear pearls.” He poked, looking bemused from Andrew to the man and woman on stage who were trying to make outdated jewelry seem like the newest fad. 

Andrew slid his gaze sideways, eyes focusing in on the older man. Unlike Andrew, he’d exited the bathroom in only his boxers - which, Andrew was secretly bemused to find, were covered in tiny orange fox paws. He didn’t stay that way for long, of course, turning to retrieve his actual clothes from the closet.

“He likes to feel classy.” He shot back, deadpan and several seconds too late to be anything more than a deflection.

Wymack snorted, and for a moment, Andrew thought he’d let it drop. To Andrew’s downfall, unfortunately, he had the capacity to both dress himself and prod at the blonde’s psyche at the same time. 

Andrew would have to ask Bee to stop spending so much time with him and Abby. It was ruining his “above my paygrade” modus operandi.

“You know I’m shit at this kind of stuff.” He started and Andrew resigned himself to the fact that they were, evidently, going above the paygrade. “But you’re allowed to enjoy nice things.”

Andrew held back his urge to scoff. “Nice things” had never factored into his life unless he was being accused of breaking them. It would be easy to deliberately misconstrue Wymack’s gruff sincerity, to make this about the pearls, pretty but ultimately meaningless objects. He knew, however, that this wasn’t the type of “nice” the older man was talking about. 

How many times had he told Neil that Foxes didn’t get to have nice things? That they came from nothing and so would always have nothing? It turned out, though, that there were a lot of nice things that also came from nothing. Renee’s smiles and unwavering - even if often annoying - encouragement. Kevin’s refusal to let him give up on life, even in the face of his own fear. Neil’s never-ending respect for his boundaries. 

Half an hour of sick sobriety in exchange for a few stopped goals. A bottle of Jack in exchange for a whole game. 

Wymack’s second, third, fourth chances.

He met Wymack’s gaze. “I know.”

Because as intolerably cheesy as Coach’s whole “as many chances as it takes” philosophy sounded, Andrew would either be dead or rotting in a jail cell without it. He would have thrown himself to the wolves in order to keep his family safe, and it would have destroyed him. But Coach gave him the back-up he’d gone his entire childhood without. He only took what Andrew was willing to give, held him accountable, and called him on his bullshit, but never tried to fix him. 

In a world of people preoccupied with making everyone around them perfect, Wymack said “what you are is good enough.”

Andrew didn’t know if he’d ever be able to bring himself to say thank you, but he could show it. He’d thought it funny to spring Wymack on his teammates and vice-versa, sure. But he’d invited him because he fit the bill.

Andrew might not ever say it, but maybe he could show his gratitude, one hectic weekend at a time. 

Wymack seemed to understand.

“Alright.” He said, nodding once, then twice more firmly. “Now how many times can I expect Richard Decker to ask me about fishing?”

Andrew snorted. “Based on his son? It will be the only thing he talks about all dinner.”

Wymack shook his head and gave a little laugh before pocketing his wallet and keycard and gesturing toward the door.

“Well, let’s not keep the man’s sturgeon dreams waiting, then.” He said, earning a dubious expression from the blonde.

He didn’t deign to honor the joking comment with a response, but as they headed towards the elevator, Andrew thought he might have one more nice thing to add to the list.

[incarnateirony]

Lol

Me: i welcome m*gstielers clowning considering the structure going on.

M*gstieler: how dare you not respect people's shipping preferences you think you're so special with your alchemy

Me: uhh no i don't. Thats why i post the source books so anyone can understand it but i said clown away

M*gstieler: people have preferences which you just said they can enjoy but im going to ignore that while shitting on other cultures in this essay i will

Wtf fandom

This is like third grade jealousy bullshit

Calm down

You realize the show is ending and not everyone is going to have their preferred shit happen right

I dont care m*gstiel destiel or whatever else

Literally that's life

Reality check

Wtf

And why is it always one ship. Not even wincest fans sit swiping at this shit. It's literally only them. Deadass have respectful wincesters in my inbox talking alchemy but for some godawful reason everyone that swipes over it is from a 7 year old ship wtf WHY

Multiple times

Me: tired of christian culture supremacy shitting on other practices

Aggro shippers: hold my beer

Sure wincest fandom has its ugly bears but i can at least hold discourse with bunches of them civilly. Any and all problems the last few years comes from aship you would think had kindly shippers following Rachel's pov but all i catch is hostility wtf WHY

You can SHIP WHAT YOU WANT

The show is having actual shit happen regardless of ships and fandom space.

FUCKIN DIVIDE THE TWO, PEOPLE

Is it bc wincest characters are part of the key principles in core play and they wanna explore the nuance they could argue? And older ships being mad at the interplay? Idfk but chill the fuck out

"I have a right to like what i like" ends at you being pissed at other people liking what they like.

You want to paint me like a dick for exploring nonchristian mythos? Okay fine I'll be a dick

Stop trying to make endgame M*gstiel happen. It literally isn't going to happen. I can say it with seventeen flavors of certainty

Inviting you to clown to your hearts content was kinder, wasn't it.

And trust me. I'm still being kind to not list the reasons. Author room reasons. On set leak reasons. Philosophical mytharc reasons. The very scene being clowned over being honestly a terrible sign for them but I'm not out here shitting in that boat.

Sod off.

God i can't get over the willful-

Mention saying nobody would have the audacity to pretend revelations was irrelevant to s4-5 discussion like this fandom treats other shit. Get back "i dont think anyone argues spn is a bible fanfic" holy shit congrats for echoing my point while missing it entirely. And proving it in the same breath. Wtfuxor

Yeah sure. Nonship oriented color coding and key words and direct dogma and symbolism and quotes you can literally predict being spoken from episode titles alone bc of the source text are all accidents christianity is the only obvious shit because nobody has to use a flint of iq.

[carolinesbookworld]

tagged by @kabeswaters and @swellwriting <3

on a scale of 1-10, how excited are you about life right now? 0

describe yourself in a hashtag? very similar to @fortisfiliae #stressedanddepressed

if you could do a love scene with anyone, who would it be? Harrison Osterfield

if your life was a musical, what would the marquee say? prepare for disaster

what’s one thing people don’t know about you? um...idk my boyfriend knows basically everything about me sooooooo

what’s your wake up ritual? wake up, turn off alarm (bc with this at-home learning stuff i’ve been waking up like literally 1 min before my alarm goes off???), text good morning to my bf, snapchat, discord bc moonlit fam talks allll night, tumblr, get out of bed, wash face, get dressed, coffee and breakfast it’s very specific

what’s your go to bed ritual? wash glasses and face bc my skin is soo oily by the end of the day so you best believe my glasses be needing washing everyday, shower, say goodnight to fam, text bf for like 15 mins or until he says goodnight, turn alarm on, plug in phone, go to sleep

what’s your favorite time of day? morning but specifically from 7:30 until 9  

your go to for having a good laugh? FRIENDS as in the show

dream country to visit? Australia bc my dad once got to hold a baby koala there and i wanna do that so bad

what’s the biggest surprise you’ve ever had? so my family moved before my sophomore year so me and my bff started trying to surprise each other whenever one of us came to visit and the weekend of my birthday, she skypes me as she’s walking around what i thought was her house and then i start hearing an echo and next thing i know she’s standing in the doorway of my room and that was pretty much the best surprise ever

heels or flats/sneakers? sneakers converse

vintage or new? new but i love vintage aesthetic i just couldn’t live with it

who do you want to write your obituary? karli @swellwriting bc she is my brain twin and i would be mocking her horrible grammar and spelling from my grave and we would both get a good laugh about it in the afterlife

style icon? the mom i babysit for haha she’s like one of my best friends tho which sounds really weird but it’s true

what are three things you cannot live without? books, dogs, days that are exactly 65 degrees

what’s one ingredient you put in everything? um idk chocolate??

what 3 people living or dead would you want to make dinner for? Sarah J. Maas, Eddie Redmayne, my boyfriend bc i haven’t had dinner with him for 47 days

what’s your biggest fear in life? losing the people i love...and spiders

window or aisle seat? window bc aisle makes me anxious that i’m in people’s way

what’s your current tv obsession? the cw’s nancy drew it’s so good please go watch it

favorite app? instagram, discord, or tumblr, depends on my mood

secret talent? um idk i can draw very realistic portraits of people when i take the time to

most adventurous thing you’ve ever done in your life? okay so technically this wasn’t me who did it but i was part of the adventure. when me and my boyfriend were just “friends” ie. liked each other and knew we liked each other but were too scared to admit it. anyway, we had this elaborate plan to shave our youth group leader’s head if we were able to bring in a certain amount of food for the food drive during vbs week. so yeah we spent like three days planning the whole thing out and then decided to go price shopping at walmart with all of our younger siblings bc we needed supervision or something lol to see how many individual things of food we could buy with $20 each we ended up just getting like 20 huge boxes of ramen and then his sister ended up throwing up so we took her home and then went back to church where my car was parked but instead of turning to get to church my boyfriend decides to go straight through the stop light (it was green okay) and spontaneously drive up into the foothills. well we get to the top of the foothills and we’re at the lake and we all get out to look at the city and my boyfriend claims that we need to document this moment so he takes a selfie with all of us and we somehow ended up right next to each other in it and i only found this out like three months ago (this happened back in june) that he only took the picture because he wanted one of us together in case we didn’t start dating lol so sweet and yeah, that was a very long story but i needed context instead of just saying “yeah we drove up a mountain”

how would you define yourself in three words? loyal, anxious, passionate

favorite piece of clothing you own? this dark coral dress that makes my eyes and hair look really pretty

a must have clothing item that everyone should have? a hoodie

a superpower you would want? i want to be able to project my thoughts into someone else’s mind bc i’m so bad at explaining stuff sometimes especially when it comes to how i feel

what’s inspiring you in life right now? ACOTAR series by Sarah J. Maas, highly recommend

best piece of advice you’ve received? opening up to more than one person is important because if you lose that person then you’ve lost all your support

best advice you’d give your teenage self? the friends who have stuck around this long are the ones you want to hang onto and the ones that you need are the ones you don’t always see

a book everyone should read? The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

what would you like to be remembered for? being a crazy dog mama

how do you define beauty? confidence in yourself and not caring what others think about you

what do you love most about your body? my metabolism

best way to take a rest/decompress? open a window to feel the breeze and listen to Islands by Hey Ocean! which is so calming to me

favorite place to view art? nature or tumblr

if your life was a song, what would the title be? we’re going with a fob/p!atd theme here and calling it “depression screwed me over so i screwed it back and ended up worse off”

if you could master one instrument, what would it be? piano

if you had a tattoo, where would it be? probably on my forearm or by my left hip

dolphins or koalas? koalas did i mention that i want to hold a baby koala

what’s an animal that represents you? great dane puppy ie. very excitable but will also take a four hour nap when tired

best gift you’ve ever received? my best friend made this photo collage for me when i moved that is hanging in my room and it has a bunch of pictures of me and her over the years and i just love it

best gift you’ve given? for christmas i gave my boyfriend a hammock and the bookshelf addition of clue, two things he had no idea i would remember him mentioning and his face was priceless. also i made my mom a cake for her birthday this year and she was so happy and said it made her feel very special <3

what’s your favorite board game? clue or ticket to ride (specifically nordic countries)

what’s your favorite color? currently a pale turquoise

least favorite color? any shade of light brown

diamond or pearls? diamonds

drugstore makeup or designer? drugstore bc i don’t wear makeup enough to validate buying designer, also i don’t really care

pilates or yoga? yoga

coffee or tea? coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee cof-

what’s the weirdest word in the english language? palindrome is wild because it means a word spelled the same way forwards and backwards but it itself is not one such word

dark chocolate or milk chocolate? milk

stairs or elevators? stairs

summer or winter? summer but like, only june

you are stuck on an island, you can pick one food to eat forever without getting tired of it, what would you eat? panera mac n cheese

a dessert you don’t like? red velvet cake which btw is not red-colored chocolate cake as many would have you believe

a skill you’re working on mastering? writing

best thing to happen to you today? i got to put all of my new plants in my windowsill and i named one of them (its name is albert in case you were wondering)

worst thing to happen to you today? idk today’s been pretty good as far as quarantine goes

best compliment you’ve ever received? my boyfriend calls me beautiful all the time and he always reminds me that that is describing looks and personality

favorite smell? coffee or my boyfriend’s sweatshirt for the week after i steal it

hugs or kisses? can i choose both?? depends on my mood mostly but i guess hugs if i just had to pick one

if you made a documentary, would it be about? literally anything relating to the mcu

last piece of content you consumed that made you cry? a court of wings and ruin by sjm

lipstick or lipgloss? lipstick

sweet or savory? sweet

girl crush? literally any female in the teen wolf cast

how do you know you’re in love? hahahaha haha what's love

a song you can listen to on repeat? we fall apart by we as human or uma thurman by fob

if you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be? idk my boyfriend probably, this is something we have discussed in depth

what are you most excited for/about this time in your life? for life to go back to normal

tagging @finnofamerica @woakiees @beskarjedi @outerlacy @swanimagines hahahahaha have funnnnn this took me an hour to answer

[spnfanficpond]

September 2019 Pond LiveChat Recap

We had a great time chatting with @manawhaat today! Thank you so much for joining us, even though you were busy!!

Today, a bunch of us got together and talked about inspiration and writer’s block! We all had good ideas that were discussed! A rundown of the chat, as well as general Pond news, is below the cut!

To start us off, Mana shared a link to this ask that was recently presented to the Pond. The question was that a professor said that there was no such thing as a muse or writer’s block. The answers given by some of our Big Fish are terrific! All seem to agree that the ideas of a muse and writer’s block are valid, no matter what you call them. Digging beneath the surface to ask what is causing the writer’s block or the inspiration can help to get you past what’s stopping you and get you writing, again.

@mrswhozeewhatsis (Michelle)shared a link to a tweet by Robbie Thompson. She had asked him for tips on getting inspired or getting past blocks when the words just don’t want to flow. He responded by saying, “write from emotion: what scares you, angers you, etc. and make writing a habit. sit down once a day, same time if you can & just get to work. got nothing? write until it comes. inspiration is great but not always reliable.”

When looking for ideas from other famously prolific writers, this post from Neil Gaiman came up. In it, Mr. Gaiman says that blaming writer’s block gives you something to blame, but it’s usually a combination of laziness, perfectionism and getting stuck. He goes on to encourage writers to not accept writer’s block as a insurmountable thing and figure out the cause so you can get past it.

@mostly-shawn (Maayan): My professor's take on writer's block is that writer's block doesn't exist because there's no such thing as "not knowing". What we call "writer's block" is simply being distracted by other things like shopping lists and to-do lists and everything else, so in order to overcome "writer's block" you just need to sit and write everything that's in your head and clear out your brain space to allow yourself access to the idea. And in terms of muse, she doesn't believe in muse because no work is perfect on the first draft and because it's not perfect, you can't have had a muse.

If anyone wants to read her book it's called "To Tell The Truth" and it's about how to write creative nonfiction. Obviously, that's not what we're all in the business of, but it's a good read for all genres.

Everyone seemed to agree that this professor has a strange view on muse, but she’s got a point about writer’s block. A muse can be anything that inspires you to write, and nothing anyone ever writes is perfect right out of the gate, so her perfection theory makes no sense to us. Mana disagreed with part of her thoughts on writer’s block, though.

Mana: I think she has a point of clearing your head in order to get into your 'writing groove' but insisting that there isn't such a thing as 'not knowing' sounds ridiculous to me, specifically, a person who has not known what she wanted to do with a certain rpf fic for over 4 years.

@katehuntington mentioned that sometimes she feels like she knows exactly what she wants to write, but when she sits down, the words just won’t come. She can’t get them down. Michelle said her Fibromyalgia sometimes causes similar cognitive difficulties. The words just aren’t there. (If anyone has read Rob Benedict’s chapter in Family Don’t End With Blood, the feeling is described there beautifully.) 

Michelle: Physical and mental issues can definitely affect creativity. When you're struggling to do the basic activities of daily living, creativity is not your body's priority.

Q: So, what do you guys do when you hit a block?

Kate: Accept it. LOL. I take a lot of inspiration out of what I've written already, if that makes sense. I revisit stories, go over what made those work. And I read back on the feedback I had from readers too. Those can be super inspiring.

Maayan: Yeah, I basically just say "alrighty then" and continue on with my life and push the work as far out of my head as possible.

Mana: Write some flaming garbage. (Michelle added, “Crap makes good compost.”) I get through as much as I can, plot wise. if I'm stuck between point b and c, but know where I'm going from point d to e then I just put down anything I might want to happen between point b and c and then move on. There is no rule that says writing needs to happen in a linear form so if I get stuck, I move on.

Michelle: I once heard Robbie Thompson talk about writing at a seminar, and he said that if he's really stuck, he'll take a walk, get outside, get some fresh air, clear his head. Just change his scenery, really. Did you know that when you move from one room to another, your brain kind of ties off the thought you had in the first room and opens up another thread in the second room? It's why so many people arrive in a room and then forget why they're there. (This is why carrying something from one room to the next can help you remember why you're in that second room.) Sometimes, that's what you need. Make your brain jump out of the rut it was in. Write in a different room, on a different medium (paper instead of tablet, tablet instead of computer, etc)

Mana: I haven't tried writing on a different medium, unless you count someone else's computer instead of your own, but the change of scenery does help. listening to different music instead of your usual tunes helps. 

Maayan: I think better when I pace so when if I'm trying to figure out a storyline I pace, but when I have the storyline but I can't make my fingers do the word thing on the magical typing box I'm just stuck for good usually. (A suggestion was made that she could try speech-to-text software to help her get past that!) Mana records voice notes to her phone to be transcribed later.

Kate and Michelle both said that having ideas isn’t the problem for them, most of the time. The problem is usually having the focus to sit down and translate them to paper.

Mana: Watching a movie you know well enough to tune in and out of is a big one for me. Literally any time I NEED to do something in my life, I put on Pride and Prejudice bc I know the film so well and love the score, but it's my ultimate focus movie. I can tune out and write or file taxes or whatever the fuck and tune back in for him to hold her hand helping her in the carriage and then tune back out and repeat this process while the movie plays 6 times in a row.

Michelle: I can't have anything else playing. No music, no TV, no nothing. However, I've discovered that a lava lamp does wonders! When we lived in our apartment in Chicago, I had a great view of the planes coming into O'Hare, and it was an east-facing view, so I saw the sunrise after a long night of writing so many times. My creativity dropped way down when we moved and I no longer had a view to stare at. So, I bought a glitter lava lamp. I love staring into that thing. And then I put up twinkling fairy lights over my desk. Something about that got me going, again. 

Maayan: I use my fish and snail as a lava lamp with the same effect.

Q: What do you do when you’re in the flow, and everything is going great, but you suddenly just stop? You know where you want to go, but you’re suddenly just stuck for no clear reason?

Michelle: I've discovered, and this may not be true for anyone else, but I've discovered that it usually means I've screwed up a little ways back. If I go back to where I last felt like everything was going well, and rethink everything I wrote since then, I've usually made a mistake in that section, and it needs to be rewritten. Whether I've made a character do something that's not in their character, or I've added something (or taken something away) that isn't right, whatever it is, it's in that section. If I just delete it and start writing from the previous good spot, I get going again.

Kate: Yeah. I've read somewhere that when you're stuck, you should go back at least 5 lines and start over. Put those lines away, pick it up again.

Mana: I think that's a big difference between us, Michelle. You can pinpoint a spot where things go awry and back up, cut off what isn't working and restart. I am a stubborn bitch so even if I see that something isn't really working, if I like it even the slightest bit, I refuse to get rid of it or change it. And those are the instances where I 'pick fights' with you and resist your input when you're beta reading for me. Am I the only one that does that? And if so, how are you all able to justify letting go of something that doesn't quite work but you've grown attached to?

Michelle: It’s perfectly okay to set bits aside and use them in other fics! Timestamps. Put it in another fic. Make it a one shot! I cut SO MUCH from Non-Trad, but I loved those parts SO MUCH, and that's how the Timestamps were born. They really didn't fit into the story well. They made it bloated. So I published them separately. Now, finding that I've gone off the rails entirely makes it easier for me to go back and get rid of something.

Q: Tips that we haven’t mentioned, yet?

Kate: Ask for help. Have a beta look it over, or whoever is interested and might be able to add to it.

Michelle: When looking for inspiration, always go back to the source material. It's not lazily, obsessively binge-watching the same show over and over, it's RESEARCH.

Mana: Someone asked what I do to get over it and I said: when I experience writer’s block or when the character I’m trying to write isn’t cooperating with me and I can’t get my brain to function I try to distract myself with something else or another character. Try watching an episode with your character in it, get a refreshed feel of how they move, talk, interact with other characters, draw from the episode or scenarios that you can fill in where the ep didn’t. Or, take ques from other characters, write about someone else for a bit so your mind has a break and time to sort itself out, then go back to what you were working on. 

Another way to get past it is to read other’s work. It may inspire you, make you realize that the story you wanted to tell this way can be told a different way, or give you the kick you need. 

My best answer to this: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

When the block hits and you have zero inspiration or motivation, write about anything and everything. Start reading and watching new things to see if it’ll spark something, check out Tumblr and users you don’t follow to get your eyes on some fresh content, write a dramatic scene of you sitting on the couch to hear the doorbell ring and let the suspense grow until you open it to find a pizza man there when you specifically did not order a pizza. Writing through it may spark something, and if not, my best suggestion would be to read. Read your old stuff and that of others, read a new book, read an article on how to beat writer’s block, read through the writer resources tag at the @spnfanficpond…

Mana also gifted us with these lovely links:

Writer’s block app that won’t let you do anything else until you’ve reached your goal.

A lovely gif beautifully encapsulating exactly how writer’s block feels.

General Pond Updates and Reminders

What we’ve got cooking up next: Not much, at the moment, since everyone is busy, so we’re just trying to keep up with the day-to-day at the moment! Our to do list is still long, though, and will not be neglected forever!

Reminders:

Angel Fish Award nominations are accepted all month long! No need to wait to tell us how much you liked a fellow Fish’s work!  IF YOU HAVE SENT IN A NOMINATION, BUT HAVE NOT RECEIVED A PRIVATE MESSAGE CONFIRMING WE RECEIVED IT, WE DIDN’T GET IT. Be sure to use Submit instead of Ask!

Don’t forget to submit your stories to be posted to the blog! When your stories are on the blog, then they are easier to nominate for Angel Fish Awards!

SPNFanFicPond Season 14 Weekly Episode Challenge - Even though season 15 is just around the corner, these prompts will still always be open for you to use! Remember, there’s no deadline for submissions! Just tag the Pond and @mrswhozeewhatsis in your post!

Say hi to August’s New Members!

Check the Pond CALENDAR to see when Big Fish will be in the Skype chat room/discord general channel and other Pond and SPN events are happening! Know of something that’s not on the calendar, send us an ask or submission with the deets info details!  The calendar offers a lot of features, such as showing you when things are in your own timezone! Since we’re an international group, that’s a definite plus!!

We don’t have a topic or speaker set up for October’s event, yet, so if there’s something you want to talk about, or someone you want to talk to, LET US KNOW!

[bisame]

Itachi doesn’t do relations aside from his tongue to the hokages boot but canon fucks with my head of how the clans work like are they a people group of hundreds, a small family, what are they cause like I remember in canon Obito said Itachi killed his ‘lover’ and it was like well he was 13 what lover for one but I headcanon shisui as mikotos nephew and that’s why he tries to look out for Itachi but I hadn’t thought much about Itachi and Izumi. Is Sasuke inbred?

Did kishi think of all these implications with the clans and how they work when he was writing them? Did he think to himself, yeah the only girl nice to Itachi cause he’s a freak is his ‘lover’ like what does that even mean. That’s not even a pairing it’s a mess.

Okay, so, this is going to be a long ass post because I’m verypassionate about this subject, so be prepared for a wall of text. Let’s see ifthe read more works… ( trigger warning for discussion about incest )

tl;dr: I don’t think Kishi put much thought into the clans besides “The Hyuugashave Byakugan andslavery which has been blessed by the Official Konoha Seal of Approval, while the Uchihasare violently emotional and suffer from their OP eye powers”, and because hedidn’t explain much about the clans’ histories or the clan members’ relations to oneanother, shipping Itachi with either Shisui or Izumi is questionable at best.

I’ve been thinking about the whole clan ordeal for the longest time. Forsome reason it’s super easy for me to believe that, for example, the Hyuugaclan is inbred because they have other nasty things going on but that’s just myheadcanon. Where I base it on is mainly the slavery and keeping their dojutsuwithin the clan. We never see Neji or Hinata’s mothers so I think that a)either Kishi didn’t even bother to think about their moms [wouldn’t surprise meat all] or b) he realized what he would be implying if he gave them motherswith the Byakugan, and didn’t want to put that kind of controversial thing intohis manga. If I remember right, we get to see Hinata’s mom only in the anime,but she has her eyes closed. The Byakugan is only carried by the Hyuuga and bc/they want to protect it from “outsiders”, it wouldn’t surprise me if theynever married anyone outside the clan. BUT I digress.

While I don’t think that marriagesinside the Uchiha clan were unheard of, I think they’d have some regulationsfor it just to keep the gene pool as healthy as possible, e.g. they’d look fromrecorded family history if the couple wishing to be married were too closelyrelated. There’s a difference between marrying your cousin than a person withwhom you share an ancestor from six generations ago.

We see a bunch of Uchiha clan membersfrom Madara’s era and there’s a lot of variety between them. Hair colors gofrom black to red to dirty blonde, and facial bone structure and eye shapesdiffer a lot, too. Though, with majority of the known Uchihas, Kishi used thedark hair/dark eyes combination that can also be considered as a common Uchihatrait (that every major Uchiha from Madara to Sasuke have [and if we considerBort to be canon, this includes Sarada]). The only visible thing that unifiesthem is the Sharingan, and since it can be implanted on people, it wouldn’tsurprise me that if someone who married into the clan could get their eyesswapped (though in that case there should be a donor) and learn the GreatFireball Jutsu.

We don’t know how the Uchiha clan feelsabout the possibility of marrying outside the clan but, considering how theUchiha didn’t seem to have as many strict restrictions as the Hyuuga clan, itmight be more common. It might be that an Uchiha can marry someone outside the clan,but their partner doesn’t inherit the clan name or be eligible to wear thesymbol on their clothes, but their offspring can.

What we also don’t know is how the clanfeels about adopting a child or an adult to the family. Correct me if I’mwrong, but I’ve understood that adoption between ancient Japanese clans wasn’tthat uncommon. For example, samurai Taira no Kagekiyo was originally from theFujiwara clan but was adopted by the Taira. So, I don’t see a reason whyadoption would be so frowned upon in a fictional universe that takes a lot ofits inspiration from ancient Japan and Japanese lore.

Shipping Uchiha clan members that sharethe same surname but haven’t had their relative status clarified is a bit…skeevy at the least. We know that the only confirmed relative Shisui has isKagami, but that’s about it. We don’t know if Kagami is his grandfather orgreat-uncle, nor do we know his relationship with Fugaku and Mikoto. I havealways thought that Shisui is Itachi’s cousin or second cousin, because theylook a lot like each other, and they have a close brotherly bond, so I totallyagree with you. Shisui being Itachi’s cousin from Mikoto’s side would makesense.

Izumi is more or less a filler charactersince she doesn’t appear in the manga. I can’t remember and confirm that Obito usedthe word “lover” in canon, but I believe you. It might be a continuationfuck-up (which, again, wouldn’t surprise me) or maybe Kishi was… I don’t evenknow. How can a 13-year-old have a lover? Lover?? When I was 13, two of my schoolmates“dated” for a week bc/ they were popular and all they did was hold hands andsit next to each other in class. Kids don’t have lovers, that’s just fucked up.They have kiddie crushes, and that’s a totally different thing. Man, I don’tknow… I hope there has been an error in the translation or that it really is abrain fart on Kishi’s behalf, because I can’t find any other good explanationfor it.

BUT if we consider Izumi a canoncharacter, shipping her with Itachi is weird because we don’t know how closelythey are related. At least Izumi’s dad is a non-Uchiha, so she isn’t inbred (we’llget to you later, Fugaku and Mikoto), but there’s a thousand otherpossibilities for her and Itachi to be related, and none of them are worth takingthe risk of sailing an incestuous child ship.

Speaking of inbreeding, Fugaku andMikoto have been a mystery for me from the very beginning. While both look likethey’re Uchihas by blood, they don’t look related. Their bone structure isdifferent and so are their eyes and hair. Mikoto looks more like a Madaradescendant (thought that gay little man didn’t conceive any kids let me tellya) while Fugaku resembles random background Uchiha number 13 from Madara’sflashbacks in the anime. Personally, I think that both are from the Uchiha clan,but they come from different branches of the family tree. There’s this little voiceinside me telling me that I should have at least the tiniest bit of trust in Kishimoto,that he wouldn’t make Itachi and Sasuke’s parents close relatives, but I’malways ready for disappointments.

My second favorite theory is that eitherFugaku was adopted (most likely Fugaku’s adoptive parents’ child(ren) died andthey adopted him, implanted the Sharingan and taught him the Great FireballJutsu) or Mikoto was married into the clan. While it could be argued thatMikoto looks more like an Uchiha than Fugaku, there’s also other charactersthat could pass as Uchihas (I’m thinking of Kurenai, Sai and Shizune), so Mikoto’sappearance isn’t a great  argumentwhether or not she’s an Uchiha by blood or by adoption/marriage.

This has become a 1,200 word essay bynow and while I could continue, I think I’ll just start digressing more. Thanksfor the thought-provoking messages, Anon! ♥

[dansdraw]

Take some time to get over Fuckboi. You use a lot of self-deprecating language when you talk about yourself. If you don't believe you're worth more, you're only going to attract relationships that perpetuate that belief. It sounds like you're moving and starting a new chapter. Try taking this opportunity to ask yourself two things 1) do you want OR do you need to be in a relationship, 2) what kind of relationship do you deserve? Be gentle with yourself, and NO MORE COMPROMISING YOUR WORTH!

Yep on Friday I left the city (I lived there for 2 years bc of uni and he’s born and raised there) and I moved home, about two hundred kilometers away. Which in itself is kinda sad, yay. I get what you’re saying about stop compromising, I *KNOW* it’s a very toxic relationship and I want SO bad to stop thinking about him and move on with my life, but it’s so damn hard? Also because, *new developments*..

So basically we said goodbye after that lunch on Friday and I thought that was it, that i wouldn’t hear from him at least for a while.. But then that very night he sends me an audio message in which he tells me that he had gone out for drinks with P and they discussed this thing that happened involving me. 

**FLASHBACK TO THE THING**

So in late August i started talking through Tinder with this guy but we ended up never going out and stopped talking for no particular reason, which wasn’t an odd thing with people met through a dating app. But then one day in October i was going through Fuckboi’s pictures on Facebook and who do I see in most of his group pics? Tinder guy!! Turns out, he’s one of F’s very good friends!!!! So I connect the dots and realize that I had mentioned to Tinder guy where i was working so I thought FOR SURE he told Fuckboi, which was no good bc he’d always make fun of dating apps saying that people that use them are desperate or whores and so on. So i start thinking that maybe Fuckboi only started showing interest in me in September bc he found out that I was on tinder, thereby making me a slut who’d be down for whatever, yk? 

By that point it was all supposition. Then the Halloween incident happened. That night Fuckboi was wasted/high at a party and he sent me a bunch of drunken audio messages to tell me to go over (which for once i didn’t yay good decision making) where you could hear in the background someone yelling though laughter “ask her if she likes Lost”, which is the one thing that me and Tinder guy bonded over in the beginning. So, not good. 

And in order to let you know how dramatic this realization was for me, picture me, driving my car on November 2nd, narrating all the shit happened with F to my girlfriend. Then her asking me if we could hear one of these drunken audio messages bc they were actually kinda funny if you dont think about the context. Me agreeing to it, and since my phone was connected with the car, picture us hearing his stupid voice at a very high volume all around us and all of a sudden a random voice mentioning Lost. The one thing I had talked about with Tinder guy. I had to pull over bc I was having an anxiety attack :))))  

Uh btw on Halloween night I went out with a bunch of friends and there was this one girl that was an intern in the office where F works and she casually told me how F used with her the same techniques he used to get to me, like opening up about his tragic life, showing he was more than a Fuckboi etc. She said she didn’t fall for it and told me that at the end of the day she thought he wasn’t all that bad, bc the reality was that he had always been clear about what he was interested in. So that left me a bit…shaken? The next day I cried all day :))))

**END OF FLASHBACK, BACK TO LAST FRIDAY*

So in the audio he’s like “P came after me telling me she doesn’t believe that i didn’t know anything about my friend and youu, but i sWEAR i didn’t! why would i caRE!” - to which, i mean, he does in fact not care about me so I believed him straight away, but i texted my friend P to understand her point of view on the thing.

[[  Oh yeah he knew that i knew about him knowing about me and Tinder guy bc a couple of weeks ago, on a “date” which should have been the last time we’d see each other (spoiler, it was not), I finally managed to confront him on THE WHOLE THING, including me crushing on him for mONTHS to which he said he had no idea and was flattered, to which i answered that i *was* into him up until i had the chance to know him a little better and realize he was a just a douchebag and that my crush on him vanished (first half of the sentence true, second half not so much. okay not at all)  ]]

So my friend P sends me an audio where she tells me that they had indeed talked about me and Tinder Guy, but in the context of her being iffy to join the app bc she might come across some of Fuckboi’s friends, and she’d rather not. Then they talked about relationships and F was probably being a total pain about him not being able to find the right one and whatnot and P told him that he’s just a egomaniac piece of trash bc he’s had a good girl right in front of him for moNTHS and he’d never done anything about it (she knows everything but he doesn’t know that she knows, or at least not with certainty). To which he had the most Fuckboi reaction. He was like “who?” (did I mention that P ships us? and that he’s an asshole bc jfc i was the only one who fit description). 

After she revealed me as the mysterious perfect match for him, he said that he’d never tried anything with me because -get this- he knew that i was going to leave the city soon so he didn’t want to risk building something that was destined not to go anywhere. LIKE, ????? STOP. AS IF. I obviously don’t believe any of this, but the nerve to say all this bullshit to my friend only not to appear as the piece of trash that he is? he’s trash. 

Okay i’ll stop here, but he’s clearly still in my brain. I’m still working on erasing him, it’s gonna take a while. Thank you for your message, i don’t deserve people being so nice to me when all i do is keep making the same mistakes :(

[sufferingsapphire-blog]

What did you think of the new bomb? :O

OKAY so tl;dr: much better than sb5. which yeah, is still a pretty low standard, but this bomb had far more interesting elements to it! the first three eps had a season 1 vibe that i really liked, and the last two were pretty engaging as well. that isn’t to say that my sentiments are all praise though. i’ll put an episode-by-episode opinion under the cut!

lion 4: alternate ending: the art and colors were actually really nice in this one! steven and greg were visibly chubby, too, thank god…….and the reappearance of lion. too bad he won’t come back for a while since his voice actor is so expensive :\

this episode would have worked wayyy better as a season one or two episode though. ive heard people say that the point of this episode was to show that you shouldn’t overhype things (i.e., steven overhyping what he was supposed to find given rose’s key only to find out it’s an alternate tape), but it just immediately fell flat when you realized that the tape for “nora” was pretty much a carbon copy of the tape for steven. i felt really sad because it ultimately robbed the emotional value of lion 3′s ending for me. 

lion 3 is the first time we really get to see rose quartz, and she’s shown as this beautiful, all-loving being. and then we get into some darker stuff as the series progresses, learning she kept a bunch of secrets and has done some questionable things. so when we see her again, it would have been really nice to balance that out and have her with some deleted messages for steven, perhaps (like…actual alternate endings)? to sort of show she still genuinely cares about her son instead of making him seem like “just another outcome.”

(annnd this is just me perhaps but GOD that line from greg, “you could be steven or nora or anyone else, you could always change your name” just made my mind scream TRANS GIRL STEVEN but yknow. idk if theyd ever go in that direction but wishful thinking :’) )

doug out: HHHHHHHH i LOVE doug maheswaran so much. what a dork. i kinnnd of felt like the writing in this was…a bit stiff, though. perhaps it was just doug’s va’s delivery?? it felt kind of text-to-speak. but perhaps they were just trying to go for the effect of doug clearly putting on an act to impress connie and steven which i can get! 

only negative things aside from that i can really give for this one is that the art was just…hoo boy. i think you know.

im usually pretty lax on art inconsistencies (which are still valid criticisms since this is an entirely animated show by animation professionals! it’s just not my main beef w/the show), but sweet jesus what the actual fuck i am laughing so hard rn

the good lars: OKAY this is gonna be extremely biased bc i love lars (well, loved his potential, anyhow) and we actually got development from him holy shit. this is probably one of my favorite human-centric episodes of seasons 3 and 4 (it still won’t beat s1/s2 eps like lars and the cool kids andhorror club but it’s definitely a step up from, like…rocknaldo, yknow?

and i’ve known from the start that he was nonwhite (it was confirmed by burnett via tweet back when s2 was still airing), it was nice to have some specification on that! although i really do wish the term “filipino” was actually used in reference to him.

the cool kids were just. they were perfect. and i liked all of the characterization in this episode! steven still felt a little bland personality-wise, but the little things such as lars picking up “bingo bongo” from him and buck thinking it was cool was cute!

are you my dad? + i am my mom: I HATED THAT DRAWING JOKE SO MUCH. garnet just going “uh, i like me” was so ooc. she’s…supposed to be intelligent, right? that was honestly one of the worst garnet lines ive ever heard. and yeah, of course pearl has to be the ultra-talented one who modestly shrugs it off. like god. amethyst was the one who spent time with an artist (vidalia), shouldn’t she be the “artistic one?” it would have been an okay joke (in regards to pearl) if she wasn’t shown having 320840810382110930+ interests and talents prior in the series.

the designs for aquamarine and topaz seemed really bad when we first saw them but i steered clear of that discussion until i actually got a chance to see the two animated and in action. and i was…pleasantly surprised (halfway, at least).

aquamarine’s design was actually really cool in action! and the whole bow turning into a wand thing was cool. topaz still seemed kind of bland to me though. im totally fine with her body type and such but she just…doesnt look visually interesting, you know? like at least lapis had her wings going for her before aqua stole them and owned them better than her

the fight choreographed between aqua + topaz and the cgs was pretty weak, though. it felt like they were just kind of standing there attacking one at a time. and it’s not like the crew isn’t capable of doing better, you know? like the alexandrite vs malachite fight was REALLY good, along with the lapis vs the cgs fight. everyone was fighting simultaneously in the fight in ocean gem which made it so much more interesting! now, theyre just attacking one at a time like what is this?? attack the light or smth?? did garnet’s gauntlet punch use up all of their stars?? idk

BUT GOD I LOVED JAMIE SO MUCH. his lines were gold, esp “no garnet i’ve moved on i swear” that was funny. 

aqua seemed pretty overpowered though. like if you give a gem the ability to move other gems around at their will at least give it limitations, or else the “fight” won’t be interesting at all. or have aqua’s weapon get lost temporarily or something.

i actually thought referencing the “list” given by peridot was pretty clever, but having steven blow it up so much…was a bit too much. like if anything, peridot should have been the one upset over it and i seriously hope we get to see her reaction later on. 

ANYWAYS im actually looking forward to stuck together a LOT! they left lars on the ship for a reason and im interested to see how that’ll pan out. honestly?? thank god they didn’t try to make this bomb another “conflict solved in five episodes” like week of sardonyx.

[roman-winter]

all of the sex+romance headcanons for ELI

holy FUCK that was a lot. HOPE U ENJOY IT BRUV.

🌟 What is my muse’s sexual/romantic orientation?

ANDREW-SEXUAL. but actually pan af.

💦 At what age did my muse lose their virginity?

he lost his virginity in high school sophomore year to one of the guys on the football team when he was a hot ass popular girl. and then he went on to sleep with most of the other guys on the team too, but also the girls on the cheer squad too

😘 Would my muse have sex on the first date?

for sure, and has many times in the past before he met andrew. if he wanted someone, he never really saw any reason to play coy or beat around the bush

😊 Would my muse ever ask someone on a date?

eli is the most straight up person ever, so when he was still dating around, he was almost always the person to do the asking.

👍 Does my muse prefer to be asked on a date, or would they rather do the asking?

he liked both, really, but he never had a problem being the one asking.

😉 What are my muse’s fetishes/kinks?

put a bat up his ass. but actually like there’s a big ass blood kink that emerges after the first murder happens. he loves him some wax play, and he’s also into other kinds of pain play, except for choking as i mentioned b4. he’s into vaguely public sex too, still, even now; mostly just sex in nontraditional places. but like he really just loves doing whatever andrew wants to do, and he’s pretty much open to trying anything at least once before saying he’s not into it

💬 When did my muse go on their first date?

his first date ever in high school he went to the movies with one of the guys on the football team, and it was a double date with another guy on the football team and one of the cheerleaders he was friends with. the date was find and ended well and he had a nice time, but then he ended up sleeping with the cheerleader a few weeks later so they were the real winners in that sitch

💯 What is my muse’s ideal date?

at this point in life, his ideal date probably isn’t even much of a date at all, but more of like chilling with andrew in their lovely beautiful home with melody, making a nice dinner and then taking a bath together with any number of lush bath bombs. he does love going out for a nice dinner with andrew, and he’s also very into cute picnics in the park when it’s nice during the summer, but honestly he’s pretty lowkey especially now after so many years of being together. his ideal date is any date in which he’s around andrew

💗 Has my muse ever been in love?

YUP, HAS BEEN FOR ALMOST 30 YEARS AND STILL GOING STRONG. i think he probs had one or two relationships before andrew where he was in love with the other person, but he wasn’t really good at committing to relationships so they didn’t work out obviously

👠 What was my muse’s last serious relationship like?

you know, just the one that he’s had for nearly 30 years, no biggie.

👰 Would my muse ever get married?

i guess so…..

🌼 Would my muse prefer a big wedding or a small wedding?

the wedding that they had was completely perfect. nothing too big, surrounded by the people that they both loved, a celebration of their love. he wouldn’t have had it any other way tbh and he’s a big sap who still loves looking at the wedding pics and getting a little teary just thinking about how much he still loves andrew

🍬 Is my muse a sub, dom, or switch?

a switch, but he does like being the dom with andrew, espeically since he’s a complete pushover in every day life when it comes to him, so it’s really fun to take charge and boss him around when they’re having sex

🏩 What was my muse’s first time like?

it was a little awkward, like most first times, and it was definitely at like a high school party in someone else’s parents bed. he had fun, though, and learned that he super loved giving head which is always good to know. def didn’t have an orgasm, which was kind of a disappointment to him because he’s def one of those people who had already perfected the art of giving himself an orgasm by that point. they dated for a little while, so things got better, but this is definitely the guy that led him to being like “well maybe i should check out girls” and then he was like THIS IS GREAT

🎆 Is my muse into monogamy?

he is so, so into monogamy, even though he never really thought he would be

💕 Would my muse ever be in a polyamorous relationship?

i think it’s def something he would’ve tried if the opportunity and the right people had come up, but it didn’t happen, and now he doesn’t want anyone but andrew, so probably not something he’s interested in anymore

🔥 Would my muse ever be up for a threesome?

100% yes. he HAS before. idk if it’s something that he would do now, unless it was a thing that was discussed at length with andrew and they were both completely in agreement about what it meant, but i don’t think it’s something he would suggest now, because andrew is more than enough for him

👮 Has my muse ever had sex in public?

YES. MANY TIMES. AND WOULD AGAIN. they luv their dangerous sex. half of the fun is the potential for getting caught, and eli is super super turned on by that possibility. i mean, they have perfected the art of the quickie mostly for public sex purposes

💔 What was my muse’s first heartbreak?

he’s only had one real heartbreak and it was with this girl he was dating senior year of high school. they were bffs before and then started dating right towards the end and it was going to be great and they were going to try to make a long distance open relationship work, but then she got really freaked out over eli moving to chicago for college and not being able to see him or anything and she broke it off like right before graduation. he was heartbroken for like weeks, and it took a while to get over, but now he’s glad it happened since it meant that he was more than ready for andrew when he showed up his sophomore year

💑 What are my muse’s requirements for a potential partner?

literally everything that andrew is. mostly it has to do with supportiveness and willingness to listen, because eli is such an emotional and open person that really needs to be able to talk about things to feel okay. but literally at this point, if you asked him, he’d just say ANDREW

💋 How many people has my muse slept with?

A LOT OF PEOPLE. like definitely more than average, definitely double digits, but idk how many exactly bc i’m really bad at knowing how many is an excessive amount

👀 Is my muse the type to sleep around?

he was the type to sleep around before he met andrew, but then he slowly found himself having less and less desire to sleep with other people so he eventually stopped and just stuck with andrew. but before that he was like the damn queen of sleeping around, doing whatever he wanted when he wanted, and just having a great time doing it

👎 Would my muse ever cheat on their partner?

NEVER. he was all about free love before he met andrew, but now there’s no one he would ever want to sleep with besides him.

😳 What was my muse’s worst romantic/sexual relationship?

that first boyfriend that he had was definitely the worst in both regards, but mostly just because they were both inexperienced high school kids who were dating each other and sleeping with each other because that was what you did in high school and they were both popular so it made sense. it wasn’t horrible, but the sex definitely wasn’t fulfilling for eli, and the guy wasn’t very interesting

💲Would my muse ever date/marry/sleep with someone because they were rich?

nah, his fam is loaded anyway, and he’s way too much of a sap to ever successfully use someone for something like that.

👓 Would my muse ever lie for sex?

maybe he would lie and say he’ll hide all of the lemon bars from andrew if they don’t have a little morning fun, but he doesn’t mean it. he’s a horrible liar, it wouldn’t work.

👿 Would my muse ever blackmail someone into sex?

def not. even before andrew, it was all about doing exactly what you want, when you want. he wouldn’t make someone do something they didn’t want to EVER.

🎥 Who is my muse’s celebrity crush?

timothy olyphant he’s pretty damn obsessed with winona ryder and would probably melt if he ever saw her in person, like he’s been in love with her since the 80s. but also hugh jackman too.

🎀 Who would my muse sleep with if nobody ever had to know?

HE WOULDN’T CHEAT ON ANDREW, SO THE ANSWER IS ANDREW but he wants everyone to know that he’s sleeping with andrew sooooo

💍 Has my muse ever had a one-night stand?

he had a lot of one night stands his first year of college and he had a good time with them. he had a few more sophomore year, but then things changed when andrew came around and he got way less interested in that sort of thing, even if he tried to keep it going for a bit.

💝 Does my muse like Valentine’s Day?

eli fuckin LOVES valentine’s day, because he’s a big sap and loves doing things for andrew. any chance to be overly romantic is his favorite thing ever and so he’s one of those ppl who plans valentine’s day like weeks in advances. it’s not like a surprise thing usually, though, because he wants andrew to enjoy it as much as him, so i feel like it’s very much like a joint effort to decide what they wanna do, but then he throws in a bunch of cute surprises throughout the day, and probably leaves valentine’s on his desk in his classroom, or like has zeke deliver flowers to him and shit

💘 What are the ways my muse says ‘I love you’ without actually saying it?

it’s a lot about the way he says things, how comfortable he feels teasing and joking around with andrew. the fact that he would drop everything to do something for him and do it gladly. being able to sit around with him in silence, no need for any words, just existing together without feeling the need for words. cooking andrew’s favorite things when he’s had a bad day or just seems a little off. buying his favorite lush things as a treat. always texting him when sunny brings in his lemon bars and setting aside a few for him, even though he would never eat them himself. just being completely unselfconscious about his feelings for him, telling other people his favorite things about andrew, and when he’s around his complete inability to keep his hands off of andrew, even just casual touches. HE JUST LOVES ANDREW SO FUCKIN MUCH.

[pinelife3]

What is a labyrinth for?

I've been reading House of Leaves for the last ~7 months. I'm interested, but not engaged: all those months of toil and I'm still only 300 pages in (it is really tempting to just read the Wikipedia summary). The book is about a house which is bigger on the inside than on the outside. People find a mysterious passage which leads to endless hallways, rooms leading to more rooms. An expedition is mounted and the group spend close to two weeks exploring the insides of the house's walls. It takes them four days to descend a staircase. They never find the outside, the house never ends. And as the story goes on the house becomes increasingly hostile and it’s driving people crazy, floors are spontaneously opening up and swallowing unsuspecting alcoholics down into bottomless pits.

Throughout the book (or, really, throughout the bit I've read so far - haha how many book reports have been authored by people who have only read a fraction of the book?) there are lots of references to labyrinths and their purpose. Such a cool word - what's the meaning of 'lab'? Labyrith = misspelt start to labia? That would be interesting. Fingers crossed that that's an upcoming twist in HoL. Okay: the etymology - Online Etymology Dictionary:

c. 1400, laberynthe (late 14c. in Latinate form laborintus) "labyrinth, maze, great building with many corridors and turns,"figuratively "bewildering arguments," from Latin labyrinthus, from Greek labyrinthos "maze, large building with intricate passages," especially the structure built by Daedelus to hold the Minotaur, near Knossos in Crete, a word of unknown origin.

A word of unknown origin... Spooky. They go on:

Apparently from a pre-Greek language; traditionally connected to Lydian labrys "double-edged axe," symbol of royal power, which fits with the theory that the original labyrinth was the royal Minoan palace on Crete. It thus would mean "palace of the double-axe." But Beekes finds this "speculative" and compares laura "narrow street, narrow passage, alley, quarter," also identified as a pre-Greek word. Used in English for "maze" early 15c., and in figurative sense of "confusing state of affairs" (1540s). As the name of a structure of the inner ear, the essential organ of hearing, from 1690s.

This is definitely irrelevant, but in Homer, Odysseus’ stock epithet is ‘cunning’ - the first lines of The Odyssey are: “Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns.” Is this twists and turns because he’s cunning and able to confound people with his ‘figuratively bewildering arguments’ - or is this twists and turns because he’s a terrible navigator and we’re about to hear all about his epic, decade-long journey home from Troy?

Anyway, kind of feels pointless to tell the story of the Minotaur and his labyrinth because you definitely already know it, but just briefly:

Tale as old as time, True as it can be, Blah blah blaaaah  Beauty and the beast

After some funny business between Poseidon and Minos (the king of Crete), the queen (Minos’ wife - and also the daughter of Helios, the sun) falls in love with a bull which was originally given to Minos by Poseidon under the proviso that he (Minos) would sacrifice it to honour Poseidon (sweet deal). Anyway, the queen is totally besotted with this bull and decides she wants to kick things up a gear sexually so she has Daedalus (of wax wings fame) make a hollow fake cow so she can get banged by the bull (what could go wrong?). She winds up pregnant and gives birth to the Minotaur - the queen tries to raise him right but he is savage. Because he’s a monstrosity, he had no natural food source and settles upon humans as his food of choice. 

Minos commissions Daedalus to build a labyrinth (I presume the Cretan royalty had some kind of family discount plan) and they shove the Minotaur in there. Why didn’t Minos just kill the Minotaur? The oracle at Delphi said not to. Plus, I guess it might have upset his wife a bit. Why didn’t Minos just kill Daedalus? That’d be too easy. It seems like at the core of most myths there’s a kernel of morality tale:

For Daedalus: just because you can doesn’t mean you should - be more careful about the stuff you build. And don’t enable bestiality 

For Minos: don’t sass Poseidon

For the queen: typical Greek stuff - all women (even the daughters of the sun god) are depraved liars with bizzareo sexual leanings. Even though it was a curse from Poseidon that gave her those impulses, her shame echoes through eternity (which is weirdly her only cosmic punishment - besides, I guess, being separated from her one true love, the bull... actually, I’m not sure what happened there. One assumes that after the Minotaur thing she decided to hit the brakes on her relationship with the bull but maybe they grew old together, lying in the sun in grassy pastures for the rest of their lives)

If you were hoping that this was the only tale of lady/bull romance from ancient Greece, you are shit out of luck. In another story from Crete, ya boy Zeus takes a fancy to a woman named Europa. Rather than woo her using any of the conventional means, Zeus transforms into a huge white bull and abducts her, taking her to the island of Crete. She becomes Crete’s first queen and has some kids with Zeus - it’s unclear whether this goes down with Zeus in bull or human form. It transpires that one of the kids born from Europa’s affair with Zeus is Minos. So Minos’ mother and wife both had unsavoury relationships with bulls. 

That was a long detour - getting back to the Labyrinth: it was built in Crete to house the Minotaur. The idea was that the Minotaur would never be able to escape, and that anyone who entered the Labyrinth wouldn’t be able to escape either. Why not just lock the Minotaur in a prison? Doesn’t have the same ring to it, I guess. It’s a weird idea though, isn’t it - making a really complicated (but still solvable) puzzle and putting something you never want found or freed in it. Why not just make something actually unsolvable?  

So that’s the first/most famous labyrinth. Herodotus, a Greek historian who was kicking around in the 5th century BC also wrote about one in Egypt. He wrote a book called Histories which Wikipedia bills as the founding work of history in the Western literary canon (I initially misread this sentence and thought that they were saying it was the founding work overall and I was about to be all ‘ah, beaucoup problemo, Wikipedia.’ But a quick reread saves me from from making an embarrassing mistake). ANYWAY, in the second volume of Histories, Herodotus recounts his travels around the far flung and exotic land of Egypt. According to Herodotus:

This I have actually seen, a work beyond words. For if anyone put together the buildings of the Greeks and display of their labours, they would seem lesser in both effort and expense to this labyrinth… Even the pyramids are beyond words, and each was equal to many and mighty works of the Greeks. Yet the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids.

Ancient Origins dot net says:

It was named ‘Labyrinth’ by the Greeks after the complex maze of corridors designed by Daedalus for King Minos of Crete, where the legendary Minotaur dwelt. Yet today, nothing remains of this supposedly grand temple complex – at least not on the surface. The mighty labyrinth became lost to the pages of history.

It was actually a mortuary temple, not a labyrinth in the traditional sense of looking like a maze, but it was sprawling, complex and difficult to navigate.The only other Greek historian to see it was Strabo. He was kicking around ~500 years after Herodotus but also reported that the labyrinth was pretty crazy, calling it a “great palace composed of many palaces.” He said:

[I]n front of the entrances are crypts, as it were, which are long and numerous and have winding passages communicating with one another, so that no stranger can find his way either into any court or out of it without a guide.

Apparently the temple was lost over time - Wikipedia is blaming Ptolemy II (who apparently married his sister so that gives you a sense of his respect for preserving the integrity of things like historical sites and the integrity of blood lines) for its ‘demolition’ but he died in 246 BCE so, if he’d destroyed it, how would Strabo have been able to see it in the 1st century CE? It may not have been completely destroyed - it sounds like they perhaps just removed a bunch of limestone columns and blocks.

Fast forward to 1888: a British archaeologist named Flinders Petrie is excavating the site - of his findings he writes: there was nothing but a “vast field of chipped stone, six feet deep... All over an immense area of dozens of acres, I found evidence of a grand building. From such very scanty remains it is hard to settle anything." Petrie also apparently found a bunch of papyrus scrolls - including some which contain parts of the Illiad!

So there was definitely something there. Imagine this though: people found Herodotus’ writings ages ago and are searching around in the sand based on 2,000+ year old testimony from a man who many of his contemporaries considered at best a gullible exaggerator and at worst a liar. 

There was an expedition in 2008 - they have a website talking up their geophysic surveys of the area but they might not have found much because the results page of their website was never completed.

There’s a really weirdly specific Wikipedia article dealing with the (figurative) presence of the Minotaur in HoL - obviously some HoL superfan wrote this article (and it is interesting) but I don’t know why it warrants its own stand alone article - it’s not unusual to have a separate article discussing the themes and motifs of a major text on Wikipedia, but this is a whole article discussing a single motif. ANYWAY I like the analysis in the article about how if the house is the labyrinth, the Minotaur is the awful thoughts that crowd around you as you explore the endless hallways - obviously these are different for everyone. SO the Cretan labyrinth was built because Minos didn’t want to kill the bull - that was its purpose. What is the purpose of the labyrinth in the house? (That’s really why I’m still reading.)

UPDATE: have given up on House of Leaves - it’s on the bookshelf and never coming off. I am a quitter. Feels amazing.